We have arrived!

we finally made it. we are officially here in college station! we absolutely love it here. despite the packing, loading of he u-haul, UN-loading of the u-haul and unpacking. it was all worth it. after we unloaded the truck, we went to eat at Texas roadhouse. it was so great not having people rush up to touch our kids heads or eyes. we almost didn't know how to act. was something wrong with our kids? yeah right, something wrong with our kids? i don't think so. after dinner we went to target. they had the most awesome sopping carts i had ever seen! very futuristic.
Sunday morning we were on our way to church. our friend Andrew wouldn't answer his phone so we has no idea what exit to take to get to church. Aaron and i both thought we had to take different exits. typical us. we got off on one exit and that wasn't it so we tried the other exit (which was the one that Aaron remembered) and it was the right one. given all the driving around we did, we still made it to church on time. wow!! that was awesome! everything here is so close together. it is a small town with a big city feel. that same night some members of the church had us over for dinner. it was so nice. there are so many kids there for Kendra and Logan to play with. that is something we didn't have at home, well in the valley.
Monday morning we took the moving truck back and Aaron took off back to the valley to pick up some odd and ends that i left there and also to fix up the house a little bit. we really are praying that the house sells soon. we left his car down there so he took my car. the kids and i have been hanging out at poolside. Monday, we went twice. the best thing about restaurants here is they deliver!! i ordered from the potato shack. not great but considering i had no car and little groceries in the fridge, i wasn't going to complain.
Tuesday i had to do something other than hang at the pool with a bunch of 18-20 something-year-olds in their little bikinis. so what did we do you ask? we went to the local dogie park. yep, that's right. and it was awesome! there was a running trail and the actually "canine station' was gated so there weren't,we finally made it. we are officially here in college station! we absolutely love it here. despite the packing, loading of he u-haul, UN-loading of the u-haul and unpacking. it was all worth it. after we unloaded the truck, we went to eat at Texas roadhouse. it was so great not having people rush up to touch our kids heads or eyes. we almost didn't know how to act. was something wrong with our kids? yeah right, something wrong with our kids? i don't think so. after dinner we went to target. they had the most awesome sopping carts i had ever seen! very futuristic.
Sunday morning we were on our way to church. our friend Andrew wouldn't answer his phone so we has no idea what exit to take to get to church. Aaron and i both thought we had to take different exits. typical us. we got off on one exit and that wasn't it so we tried the other exit (which was the one that Aaron remembered) and it was the right one. given all the driving around we did, we still made it to church on time. wow!! that was awesome! everything here is so close together. it is a small town with a big city feel. that same night some members of the church had us over for dinner. it was so nice. there are so many kids there for Kendra and Logan to play with. that is something we didn't have at home, well in the valley.
Monday morning we took the moving truck back and Aaron took off back to the valley to pick up some odd and ends that i left there and also to fix up the house a little bit. we really are praying that the house sells soon. we left his car down there so he took my car. the kids and i have been hanging out at poolside. Monday, we went twice. the best thing about restaurants here is they deliver!! i ordered from the potato shack. not great but considering i had no car and little groceries in the fridge, i wasn't going to complain.
Tuesday i had to do something other than hang at the pool with a bunch of 18-20 something-year-olds in their little bikinis. so what did we do you ask? we went to the local dogie park. yep, that's right. and it was awesome! there was a running trail and the actually "canine station' was gated so there weren't animals running around all over the place. there was also a very nice and very clean COVERED playground there. a covered playground?! i was in heaven. there was some kids there that were around Kendra and Logan's age. we were there for about 2 hours then headed home. later that afternoon, we went swimming yet again. i didn't want to eat delivery again so i made dinner and the kids and I ate dinner while watching a movie in the living room on the floor. it was great. Kendra said we were camping out. so i ran with it and we got our pillows and blankets and crashed on the floor while watching sleeping beauty.
Wednesday morning has not been so great. well, that is bad to say. it started off great. the kids and i planned to walked to another park down the road. i got a call from Aaron saying the power steering in the car had gone out. thank the lord he was in Harlingen and he knew where to take it to get fixed. while he was doing that, the kids and i took off for the park. we got there and there was a nice "splash pad" for the kids to play on. i had no idea what a splash pad was but i soon found out that it is just a play area that has some equipment that shoots water at the kids. best part,...it was FREE! that right. FREE! the kids were having an awesome time playing until Logan and another little boy ran into each other head on and Logan went flying and landed on the back of his head. he let out this awful scream but there was no blood. i kept checking his eyes to make sure he was concussed. i had to get him home. so Kendra had to stop plying and we started back for the apartment. by the time we got home he was asleep. i woke him up to put a diaper on him and he started crying. i don't have any Tylenol here so i couldn't give him anything for pain. i tried to keep him awake but he kept acting like he wanted to sleep. so to i didn't try to fight him, i let him go to sleep. I've been checking on him pretty regularly in hopes that nothing is wrong. i cant wait until Aaron gets back with my car just in case i have to take him to the hospital.
we were suppose to be going over to Jill and Andrew's house for pizza before church tonight but i don't think that is going to happen.
so in a nut shell, my first few days in college station have been, well....surreal. i still thinking I'm dreaming and that I'm going to wake up soon. i just keep telling myself that its only Wednesday.

Update with my Nephews

We are having a blast. Well I am anyway. I took the kids to the beach and they had a great time. well at least Ian, Kendra and Logan did. Caleb, not so much. Poor kid. All he did was whine and cry. "Aunt Stacey, I dont like the sand. It's hot. I dont like the sun." Thats pretty much all I heard while I was there. So I finally rented an umbrella and told Caleb to sit in the shade. After about an hour, he warmed up to the fact that we were not leaving and he came out and played in the water for a little while. Once he actually got in the water,he started to enjoy himself. Thank GOD. We played in the water for about another 30 mins and I think that was about all he could handle. We took off and headed back to the house. So you would think after being in direct sunlight for about 2 hours at noon they would sleep like the sweet babies they are. NO. They slept on the way home and decided to wake up as soon as I got home. Yeah :( Later that night, Kendra and I went to a birthday party. We went to Parker Smith's swimming party. Kendra was so excited to see Parker. She also got to see Chip and Caden. She had so much fun. We went home and they all took showers and went to bed. Needless to say they were all out in about 30 mins. That was awesome because Ghost Hunters comes on Wednesday night and I wasnt going to miss it.

Thursday morning we went to a playgroup at my friend Sandy's house. The kids were having fun. I dont think Ian liked the fact that there werent very many boy toys for him to play with. But he adjusted and had a good time. After that we went to Target and got them some new underwear and then off to Burger King for lunch. McDonald's was on the other side of town. That night Aaron took them to a softball game while I went to a Farewell Dinner for us in our MOPS group that were leaving. It has been a great few days. We only have 7 more left. I just pray that everything keeps going smoothly. Did I mention that we had some people come look at the house over this period of time? Yeah, great times.

Day number 2

day number two with my nephews. I would say today was the day for "working out the kinks". we had an issue in the morning. in basically involved one of the boys getting hurt and the other one not apologizing. the one that didnt apologize had to stand in time out. needless to say he wanted to go home at that point. i felt terrible about it. all i wanted was for them to have fun while they were here not make them hate me. so i called their dad and he said he might be tired. sure enough, he had a three hour nap when we got home from the park. when he woke up, and all the kids played in the pool for about an hour. after that, into the shower and bath they went. after dinner, we shot some leftover fireworks. Ian loved them!! I wasnt too sure about caleb but I think he liked them. Much to my surprize, all of them were in bed and asleep before 9 pm. I love it! now I'm catching up with my show-of-the-moment, Kendra. so good night to all and to all a good night.

We are finally back home after what felt like an eternity. We signed a lease on an apartment. I think its cute. It has been awhile since we have lived in an apartment. We had a great time in Fort Worth with all the family. Noah is super sweet. I'm a little concerned though. Jennifer never complains about anything so I don't know if she is really having a hard time or not. But when I asked her how she was feeling, it just seemed like she was trying to avoid the question. Who knows. I got to clean her house for her and that made me feel great. She does so much for everyone else that I wanted to do something nice for her. I hope and think she liked it.

The best part of the weekend was when I got to visit with my oldest and Bestest friend in the whole wide world. Ashely Castleberry. We (me and Jordan) went over to Ashely's mom's new house. I was surreal. I hadn't seen them both since my wedding. It was so nice. Mary made shrimp and her cocktail sauce. I forgot how good her food was. I met her new husband Roger. They seem really happy together although it was weird that Robert wasn't there. We had a blast just have drinks and eating shrimp and talking about the good ole days. I will post pics later.

Aaron and I (and I think Matthew) had a GREAT time. All the kids played wonderfully together and James and Renee served good food. They are such a great couple. We exchanged stories about all the funny things the kids do and we talked about Aaron's new job. James works for the same company just in Weatherford. It is comforting to know that we are surrounded by wonderful Christian people. We are talking about getting together once a month since we will be much closer now.

(I just have to mention, while I'm writing this, my nephew is running around the house saying "I'm Dunder Man!" I don't know who that is but apparently, he is a super hero. I have so much to learn about the "super world" before Logan gets to that age.)

Noah Joiner

Im so excited! Jennifer just had her new baby boy. Noah was born July 5th at 4 am. He weighted 8 lbs. 1 oz. The new mother and baby were able to go home just 4 hrs after the birth. Both are doing well. I heard Phillip even made Jennifer waffles. I didnt even know that Phillip knew where the kitchen was in his own house. I havent seen him yet or even held him. But I will soon enough! We are going up there to get the boys and bring them down here for the next few weeks. That way Jennifer has time with her new addition. Jennifer is a great mom and a wonderful sis-in-law.