There Are Places I Remember...

The house I grew up in

It's been a while since I posted, I've been super busy so my blogs are back-logged. Back-logged blogs... say that five times fast... Anyway, on September 13 my oldest and dearest friend Ashley sent me a text telling me to pack my bags because we were going on a surprise trip down memory lane for my birthday! I grew up in Victoria, Texas, which is (for most people) a pit stop on highway 59 between Houston and Corpus Christi. It's too large to be considered a small town, when I was living there the population was around 40,000. However, since it's pretty far removed from other cities it functions very much like a small town and has that small town siren call that keeps natives coming back.

My sister Katie holds our cat Abe

It may not seem like a fun trip to most people, even to Ashley because she lived there much longer than I did, but she knew that I would really like to go there, and she even arranged a meeting with our 4th grade teacher, Ms. Prince, in whose class we met in October of 1993!

I was born in the Calhoun County hospital in Port LaVaca because my parents had been living in Point Comfort until right before I was born and my mom's Obstetrician was there. I lived in Victoria at 504 Joplin Street from birth until just before my 13th birthday. To this day Victoria holds the record for my longest residency in any Texas city, although I suspect it will soon be outstripped by Austin in a couple of years.

My family moved to Victoria because my dad got a job at the Brown and Root plant there, and none of the rest of our family lived there, so when we moved away in the Fall of 1996 there wasn't much reason to visit. We did go back and forth periodically for the next three years because it took us that long to sell our house, and I went back every once in a while throughout high school and in to college to visit Ashley and her family, but now that they've moved to the Austin area, it has been at least six years since I went back.

Some of my old class mates (5th grade) play on a piece of
playground equipment that has since been removed

Ashley took me to visit my old landmarks, we went to Vickers Elementary School, and checked out my old house, which is three blocks away. I used to walk to and from school until I was old enough to ride my bike. We visited the Victoria Mall which is basically the only thing to do in town most days. We visited my old home church, Trinity Episcopal, where I also attended school for second grade, by a stroke of good fortune the organist was there and he let us in and we roamed around, breathing in my past. It was really odd because they have never moved around the class rooms, and the second grade class room is in exactly the same spot it was in when I was there. However, there is now a portable building where there used to be a small playground, and they turned the old library into a computer lab. C'est la vie.

Ashley and I climbed an old jungle gym - this was silver
when we were in school

I have never had the courage to go up to my old house and knock on the door and ask to come inside. I know it would be completely different if I did, new furniture, new smells... That's why I was so happy to be able to go back into my old church where not much has changed. I had Miranda Lambert's "The House That Built Me" stuck in my head all weekend though.

My 5th grade class

Ms. Prince was my 4th grade teacher at the beginning of the year, and due to large class sizes they had to hire a new teacher half way through the year and I was moved to her class. Her name was Mrs. Miller. Mrs. Miller and Ms. Prince were my favorite teachers from elementary school. Mrs. Miller moved from Vickers to Howell Middle School in 1995 but I didn't have her in sixth grade. At some point in time she must have moved away from Victoria, but Ms. Prince is still teaching 4th grade at Vickers, she's in her 37th year of teaching!

We thought this was the same slide, it's in roughly the same
place, but I'm not sure it is, you can tell the top is
different in the two pictures.

The kickball field!

The interior of the sanctuary, from my family's
usual pew, on the same side as the pulpit
of course

Trinity Episcopal Church front

My dad stands in the parking lot looking very Episcopalian

Me in second grade as a private school kid

This is probably 4th grade... hard to tell...
I look like Ashley's mom I'm so much taller. I still kinda do.

This is what I wrote in the margins of my year
book next to Ms. Prince's name, "The most cool,
sweet, Christian woman I've ever known" other
than my mom, obviously!

Ashley, Ms. Prince and I reunite at IHOP! She looks
exactly the same as she did twenty years ago!

Mrs. Miller - probably my favorite teacher. I had her for
5th grade as well as the second half of 4th grade.

Texas, Our Texas

Austin Skyline viewed from Lady Bird Lake

This weekend my home state seemed even more beautiful than normal. Eric's mom took Bella for the weekend, so Saturday morning we got up early with the baby and went running at Lady Bird Lake (formerly known as Town Lake). The sunrise was absolutely glorious. For the first time I saw a train pass over the bridge across from the Palmer Events Center, so of course I had to snap a picture. The beauty continued all weekend. On Sunday the skies were promising rain, and washing the scenery in a beautiful blue-gray that somehow caused the grass to look greener and made everything look sharper. On the way to get Bella from Eric's mom's house, we passed through several small farming communities. Usually it's nothing but corn as far as the eye can see, but this weekend it was cotton. A field of cotton that is almost ready to be harvested looks like a field of fluffy snow. The plant turns a dark brownish-grey color and the leaves die, it sounds ugly but I find it bewitching. I couldn't help myself, I made Eric stop several times to take pictures, like a tourist.

It's a Train!

I love my home state, but more than that, I love my country. There is amazing beauty in every state I've been to (admittedly I haven't seen them all yet). Eric's mom's family is from Pennsylvania, and if you have never been there, put it on your bucket list. Pennsylvania has some of the most idyllic farmland I've ever seen. It is full of rolling hills covered in lime green grass and pastoral red barns. It has old, small towns filled with churches, schools and homes built hundreds of years before Texas was even a part of the United States, and that kind of history is impressive to me. I also love the mountains in Virginia. Driving through the Appalachians during a rainstorm in Virginia one summer, I saw steam rising from the hills, and it made them appear as if they were alive and breathing. The Pacific Northwest holds incredible natural splendor as well. From enormous waterfalls hidden in vast pine forests, to lush volcanoes and long, rocky beaches, you can really start to feel close to God out there.

Cotton in rows

Even though I haven't been to Pike's Peak, it's no wonder to me that Katherine Lee Bates felt inspired to compose the lyrics to "America The Beautiful". You don't need to travel to Colorado to witness the splendor of creation in America, because it's evident in every state. In times as uncertain as these, I find comfort in the constant beauty that surrounds me, it's like a promise from God of good things to come.

Sunbeams from the heavens

Bella loves the wind in her hair!

More snowy cotton

Moo Cows

Taking a Nature Walk on an "I'm bored" Summer Day

Picture source: www.mrjacksfarm.com

It has been miserably hot here since about mid June so we have been staying inside with the blinds closed, the curtains drawn and the lights off, cave man style to save energy. We only have one family car, so Eric takes it to work and it leaves us with few options of how to fill our hours. There's only so much coloring a kid can do before she starts speaking whine-ese and repeating the phrase "I'm bored" like a broken record. She loves movies but I hate having her planted in front of the TV for hours on end so yesterday morning, before the whining could start I decided we would go take a nature walk.

Bella's "yuck" face!

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of us on the walk, because I was having too much fun! We just walked around the lake in our neighborhood and picked "samples" (aka leaves). I would have Bella run up and grab a leaf sample and we would talk about the tree or bush it came from, she would smell it and see if it smelled good and then we would put them in our "sample box" (the compartment in the stroller handle). After we picked a sample from pretty much every tree, bush and interesting piece of grass out there I walked her to the playground and pushed her and Vivienne on the swings, and even let Vivi go down the baby slide!

When we got home we had a snack of apples and water, and Vivi had this Dole "fruit squish 'ems" thing. I can't say precisely what it is about this thing that is so nasty, but it is just absolutely repellent. Eric bought them because we had a coupon for them, and it's essentially baby food so we thought we could take them with us when we went places and give them to Vivi, but they are gross! It might be that they have the color and texture of grainy applesauce and the odd flavor of blueberries, like, extremely potent blueberries. Whatever the issue, none of us liked it. Vivi and Bella made the funniest faces when trying it, so of course I had to try it myself. Yuck. After that I just gave Vivi an apple slice and let her use her two teeth to chomp on it a bit and gum it all up.

Bella's rubbings! I can't identify all of these - there's Juniper,
Crepe Myrtle, Red Oak, and some kind of evergreen, and I
don't know what that cat-tail looking thing is.

After snack we sat down with some paper and crayons and made leaf rubbings! We talked about each plant sample again and how to make a leaf rubbing. I had intended to press each sample and keep it for a scrap book, but Vivi got grumpy and needed to be nursed and put down for a nap and then afterwords I just forgot about them until this morning and they're all dried out! I suppose I could still press them if I had some clear contact paper or laminating sheets but I don't, and it was fun enough that we could do it again and I will save those instead.

The trick about doing something like this in the Texas heat is to do it well before noon. We left the house at 9:00 AM and got back before 11:00, and we were all still sweaty and tired! Thank God for air conditioning!

Visiting My Grandma

A couple weeks ago we drove out to visit my grandma who lives just about 50 miles south of the Oklahoma border in a little town called Seymour, Texas. It's about a six hour drive from Austin and it was the first time she got to meet Vivienne! Vivienne was born in October, and my sister Katheryn was married in December. I was Matron of Honor so I was very involved in throwing her Bachelorette party and her Wedding Shower and, in addition to that, Eric ran a half-marathon in San Antonio in early November, so we were traveling literally every weekend that month except Thanksgiving, and two more weekends into December.

Bella, Vivienne and Great Grandma!

We typically go out to Seymour for Thanksgiving, but this year we just couldn't stand the idea of traveling for six weeks in a row so we stayed home and missed that opportunity. Unfortunately, in December my Grandma broke her hip and then got a compensatory injury in her opposite shoulder, so she was laid up and couldn't really have visitors until about April. Unfortunately, that was the month I quit my job, and things were pretty busy around here, and then Eric had to work pretty much every weekend in May. So we FINALLY made it out to see her this month!

It was kind of neat because Vivi crawled for the first time in my Grandma's living room! We were sitting around talking about how she would get up on all fours, and rock back and forth but just hadn't actually crawled yet, and as we were talking about it, she did it! So it was neat that my Grandma got to see that, and that it happened in the same house where my own mother was raised.

Vivi lets Lexi hold her!

Generally Vivi is a very easy baby and a very easy-going baby. Maybe it was because the drive was so long, or maybe it was because she was off her nap schedule, but she wouldn't let anyone hold her until about Sunday night (after we had been there for over 24 hours). My cousin Lauren sure did give it the old college try though, I'm pretty sure Vivi thought she was being kidnapped by the way she screamed! Poor Lauren, she really is good with babies, but Vivienne just did not want anyone else holding her. Maybe she thought we were going to leave her there, poor baby, she has traveled more in her short life than some people do until they're in their teens.

On Sunday night my Uncle Tommy and Aunt Jeannie threw a barbecue at their house and we all went out there to dine and socialize. Bella had a great time running around with my cousins' kids, Lauren's son Josiah, and Glenn's kids Lexi, Tyler and Leah. Lexi is 13 now (I can't believe it!) and she is the first one Vivienne allowed to hold her! Glenn had to leave early to take his Mom to an appointment, but Jan and the kids were able to stay so it was still fun! It was really good to see my family, they live so far it is rare for us to get together.

I particularly love this picture where no one is looking at the camera except Vivi...

... and this picture, where everyone is looking at the camera except Vivi!
This is Lexi, Jeannie, Lauren, Grandma and Jan, and Tommy, Vivi and Leah