Today is your birthday...

Today was the girls' 9th birthday and our first day in Houston. We woke up to a gorgeous day and with our tummies rumbling. What's the first thing we did? Why make it to IHOP for birthday pancakes of course!

Here we are on the way...

Making the order...


After birthday pancakes, then I went and got a great deep tissue massage, courtesy of Judy as my birthday gift.

Then, we went home, hung out, played on the jungle gym and enjoyed the great weather. What a great first day!

Houston, the bird has landed

Yeah!!!! After weeks of angst and worry, we are finally in Houston. And, I have to say, all that angst and worry was for nothing...well, almost nothing.

My biggest worry has been that Keira would not handle the trip very well and then I would be experiencing the long trip from hell. But, I have to say that this little one was a trooper. She was well behaved, happy, slept, enjoyed watching "Bolt" on her little TV and basically charmed all the staff.

When we landed in Newark, albeit an hour and half early, which really helped the stres levle, I thought that she was going to start acting grumpy and all, but she was a picture of charm and happiness. We played chase, she had a chocolate milkshake and watched the planes take off. Toward the end of the plane ride from Newark to Houston, she was tired and wanted to be held, but other than that, she was fine.

My sister met us at the airport and by the time we got home, Ms. Keira was enjoying the heck out of being the center of attention with her four little cousins.

The girls and James love being with her and they all fight for the chance to sit next to her, get her attention and push her stroller. What more could a girl ask for! :)

So, all in all, a fine trip and a great start to a two week vacation.

Videos from the weekend

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Getting quite relaxed

If I may say so, myself.

We're at the cabin this weekend. It's about 10:45pm and i' m sitting in front of a waning fire, which was bright and warm only just a half an hour ago, enjoying the last bits of warmth on my chilly feet.

It was a shorter drive last night than normal to the cabin because there wasn't much traffic, but still, it was a long 3.5 hour drive. Ot was cold and dark and we were so tired from the week. We went to bed at midnight and our lovely daughter got up at 5:30am. I was in he'll..let's just leave it at that. I was so tired I thought that I was going to die. It was only big cups of Joe that kept me going.

Although I love this cabin, I don't always relish the thought of coming because the drive is a bit overwhelmingly long, or I'm tired or I feel like we've just got such a long list of chores at home to take care of -wash, groceries, cleaning, cooking, baking,etc. The chores never seem to end and we just get more and more tired. The worst Saturday chore is the grocery shopping. I hate to grocery shop on saturday. Everyone and I mean everyone goes out to do their shopping on a Saturday. The stores are crowded, jam packed with people pushing every which way. It can be summarzed in two words -damn stressful!

We ran our errands out here today in the country. People were nice. There were no crowds. No pushing and shoving and getting run over by baby stroller upon baby stroller. There was even groceries left on the shelves, imagine that!

I never thought that I would say this, but I am getting a bit more relaxed. I don't know if it's the change of the scenery, the lack of city folk, or what, but I admit that I can almost understand why people would leave the hustle and bustle of the city to live in the country. It's good for the soul to get away every once in a while.