the lone star state

so things here in texas are interesting. it hasn't been easy, but i shan't complain...for now. i am sure i have been doing enough of that these days. i haven't really had to deal with any deep emotional turmoil regarding leaving my friends, family, or favorite town in the world. i think it is for the same reason i didn't intensely/emotionally miss wade during the five months we lived apart: there is just too much practically to deal with being in such a small space with three toddlers. you just keep your head down and try to survive, knowing there is always more oil coming out of the jar; Christ is ever-sufficient.

lord willing, we will be closing on two houses in the next eleven days. it is such over-my-head adult stuff that i feel like i can't even figure it all out. if i were a millionaire, i would definitely have a Sven. have you seen the commercial? i really love it. or at least i would have a lawyer and wouldn't get out of bed without having a briefing with him first.

texas has some great benefits, but i have been finding that norman (i already knew it, i guess) is a special place. especially if you have young children. for example: there are seven libraries in arlington and not one of them has a space for children to play. they all have beautiful and large children book areas and great storytimes (actually the storytime itself is the best i have seen; mr. bob is awesome, sorry, miss susan whom i dearly love) but before and after storytime children can only look at books or computers; no play stations or gerbils. this doesn't work very well with three toddlers, especially when the only reading one can only read basic words like fun, run, sun, bat, at, sat...you get the idea. so, the before and after time is pretty stressful b/c whit wants to play on the computers but nc and knox are just looking for trouble. also, the mall park in arlington is babyish, which caters well to knox, but not so much the other two. kara tells me that in fort worth one of these will be remedied, i think they have a cool mall park. i don't know what i would be doing if we couldn't hang out with the simonsons. my children's favorite activity is going to miss kara's house. they can't get enough of her grilled cheese and kind hospitality. we are hoping to go to the zoo on thursday with the tots and canton (benefit of texas) on saturday, sans children! if you don't know canton is like the biggest flea market in the nation. it takes all day.

i have enjoyed reading a book called ireland. i forgot who wrote it, but i highly recommend it. it was like reading about the history of ireland in a storyteller's words. essentially it is about a nine year old boy who was profoundly impacted by a visiting storyteller and spends his youth seeking this man and his stories. some great plot twists and wonderful learning about ireland if you are so inclined as i am. i want to read all of this guy's books. they all have to do with the little island. i am irish on my father's side, actually they are irish catholic, my late uncle was even a priest. it is interesting to read about catholicism and ireland. i really had no idea about so much of the protestant/catholic tensions in ireland, not surprisingly since i don't know a lot of history. this book is one of my top ten, i really loved it. it was beautiful to read aloud some of the stories to whit.

if you are looking for some hard labor on thursday, april 10th, we will be packing up our home in norman, i think into a uhaul. we would welcome any help!