A Breathe of Fresh Air...

I was thinking about some of the things I miss about California, the obvious of course, is my family and friends, however there is something else I had not even thought about.

Since the weather in Texas is typically hot and humid, you usually run the air conditioning 24/7 and rarely open windows, if at all. So, what do I miss?

Being able to open the windows when the temperature finally cools down and you can let the breeze blow through the house and have fresh air circulating through instead of "recycled" air.

For those of you in So Cal experiencing the hot weather, take heart that by evening when the temperature drops some, you can breathe in the fresh air. While your doing that, remember us in Texas- the temperature is now 75 degrees, it's finally cooled off but the a/c is still running.

The Greatest Thing...

If you are anything like me, I DO NOT LIKE mopping floors, so I avoid it at all costs. When we lived in CA I never mopped the floor in the kitchen, just swept or vacuumed them (O.K. I know what you're thinking, but please, if you knew what kind of flooring I had in that kitchen, you'd say forget it too.)

However, in my new home I have this nice tile floor and although it gets swept several times a week, I knew I needed to mop it. So, I found this great new invention. It's called the Shark Steam Mop. I used it on Saturday and it was great! It really did a good job of getting scuffs and such off the floor, and the best thing, is it doesn't leave it wet, just a little warm for about 30 seconds. Barry and I thought it looked so much better afterwards and CLEAN! So, if you need a new way to mop your floors, I highly recommend this product.

Happy Mopping!

A play date and swim lessons...

Yesterday we had a play date with a gal from our Sunday school class. They have two girls, 4 and 2. The best part is they live in Gleannloch, in the section where we were going to buy the first home. All the girls had a great time and Lara and I talked non-stop. We left there and headed home (5 minute drive, yeah!) to have dinner with the rest of the Calvert's. Jerry's family left this morning to fly back to California, it was so fun to have them here and Emma loves playing with Nick and Maddy.

Today, after the thunder and pouring rain moved through, Emma had her first swim lesson of the summer season. We have her enrolled at FINS, and her teacher is Miss Mimi. Emma did so good. We've started her out slow, even though this is her 3 summer of lessons, she really detests putting her face in the water, and with all the changes this year I don't want to overwhelm her. However, I think we'll continue her year round so we don't lose ground. I really want her to have a good experience with swimming and enjoy it.

One thing led to another...

Yesterday I had to vacuum out Emma's closet...her cousin had given her fairy wings and a wand that had A LOT of glitter on it. Well, that glitter was falling off in chunks and it was all over her floor. So, I pulled everything out to vacuum and while I did that, decided to purge the things she did not play with any more or wear. Then, I decided to re-arrange her closet.

Her closet has the Elfa system in it from The Container Store that was already installed by the previous owners. So being the non-mechanical person that I am and not knowing how this system works I had some trouble. I ended having to call the store and have them walk me through how to take the shelves off and then put them back on. This whole project took the entire afternoon!

Emma seems to like it, but when she woke up this morning, she said in a grumpy voice, "Put my room back the way it was." Wow, I guess we woke up on the wrong side of the bed...she's not really a morning person. Then, after getting up and dressed, she said, "Mommy, I like the way my room is." Girls.

Blueberry Picking...

On Saturday we decided to have a little family fun and experience something new. So, we headed off to a blueberry farm. Thankfully we went in the morning, even though it was still HOT. Poor Emma, all she did was complain about how hot and hungry she was (we tried getting her to put shorts on, but wanted nothing to do with them).

It really was hot and sticky and to get some good berries you need to reach into the trees, which mean bugs, bees, yuck! I let Barry do most of this. It was fun in the sense of how many times in your life can you say you went blueberry picking, especially when your originally from Orange County California! Well, we ended up with a little over a pound of blueberries. They told us we could also eat them right off the tree, which we did. One thing that surprised us was how many people were there, and the buckets of blueberries people were carrying out.

Afternoon Project...

On Thursday afternoon we set up in the garage and made a stepping stone from a kit we bought at Joann's Fabric. Emma had a great time decorating her stone and watching it dry. Next time we might try it with buttons and other colored beads.