Moving day has finally arrived!

School is out and we are getting ready to make the move to Kansas.  It seems like we have been planning this move forever (we have been talking about it since fall of last year), but at the same time I can't believe we are leaving.  I feel like we have lived in Houston a lot longer then we have which is probably due to the friends that we have made here.

Before we even moved to Texas, I Google-ed "Moms-groups" and found a local group here in our suburb.  Within the first week of our arrival I went to a Moms meet-up and met people who would become a huge part of my life.  These ladies and their families became fast friends for both me and my children and were always eager to provide information (where to find the best pizza or who is the best pediatric group in town), provide advice (how do I get rid of all these fire ants?) childcare (thank you for watching my kids so I could get a decent haircut and color) and of course tons of hours talking and laughing (and sometimes commiserating) about this crazy thing we call "Motherhood".

At first I was a little leery about joining a "Moms-group" because as kid and teenager I found it much easier to get along with guys.  Having girl-friends usually meant drama and competition and gossip....all things I tried to avoid.  In college and in work it was much easier to have girl-friends, but in college everyone is at a time in their life when meeting people and making friends is what you do.  Since college I had worked at several different places, but seeing the same people five or more days per week really creates friendships, especially in healthcare where I work.  Any career specialty in healthcare is stressful and has very unique stresses that create opportunities for people to make very deep and lasting friendships.  Maybe it is because those outside of healthcare do not understand our humor or our lingo (code brown anyone?).  I don't know, but some of the people I have worked with are now family even if we haven't worked together in years.

I was lucky enough to make and keep many friends who I met through work and even luckier that when I was pregnant with my oldest child; most of my friends either just had a child within the last 12 months or were going to have one in the coming 12 months.  How cool is that?  Instant play group with people I loved to spend time with and thought were pretty fun and at the same time, instant friends for my kid.  (Who cares if my kid didn't like any of the friends I picked for him?  I certainly didn't because I had my own friends to hang out with!)

Moving a thousand miles from all my friends and family created this necessity to meet friends for me and my children.  I can talk to anyone about almost anything, but I was nervous about making friends.  How do I make friends with total strangers when the only thing I have in common with them is that we both have kids?  What if I don't like their kids?  What if I yell at my kids at a play date and they think I'm nuts?  What if our kids like each other and I can't stand the adults?  The list goes on and on.  I read an article/blog not to long ago that described meeting people and making friends as a adult (mom) and it summed it up perfectly.  Here is the link:  http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/dating-other-mothers/

I decided I just needed to keep doing what I had been since we decided on this whole crazy adventure and just jump in and get involved.  So we went to play dates.  We hosted play dates.  I went to mom's night out. I watched people's kids.  I let people watch my kids.  And you know what?  I loved it!!  This group was fan-freakin-tastic!  These moms always offered to lend a hand or watch my kids or make me dinner when my husband was out of town, but more importantly these moms became my lifeline to sanity.  When I was in the middle of a two week stint alone with the kids and at my wits end I could just send a shout out via Facebook to the group and get many responses to let me know that they all had my back.  I cannot begin to tell you how much their love and support helped me to make Texas my home and not just some place that I was living in.

I am so lucky to call these women my friends and yes some I am closer to than others, but I would trust every mom in the group to watch my children and I hope they would say the same about me.  I am so sad to leave this wonderful group and miss out on watching our kids grow up together.  You Moms will always be in my heart no matter where this crazy adventure takes me.

And to the new Moms-group in Kansas:  you have a lot to live up to.   I can't believe I am doing this all over again.

Thanks for reading!
Bluebonnet Yankee

Goodbye Bluebonnets! Hello Sunflowers!

Let the count down begin...

In less than 3 weeks this Yankee is moving to Kansas, apparently the state flower is the sunflower.  I am not sure if Kansans are considered Yankees or not.  I guess I will find out.  After living in Texas for 20 months (14 of which the kids and I were pretty much on our own while the hubby worked out of state) we are moving to the Kansas City area for his job.  I am a little sad and a little excited at the same time.

I am sad because I have met people who are so nice and caring that my family and I learned the true meaning of "Southern Hospitality".  Within days of moving into our house here in Texas we met six of our neighbors and within a month were invited to brunch in the front yard of one them on nice fall Sunday morning.  These neighbors became my "go to" people for area advice and occasional help.  Like the time my husband was out of town and I had a foot long pencil thin snake in my family room.  I nearly stepped on this little guy on my way to the kitchen and had to stifle a scream so not to wake the dog who would have tried to eat it.  My first thought was he was a baby snake and I was paranoid his mama was somewhere in my house and would come looking for her little runaway.

I immediately placed an upside down glass food container over the snake and tried to slide a magazine under it so I could release him in the backyard.  I was praying (and sweating) that this was not a poisonous snake, but I had heard so many people talk about all the poisonous snakes down here I didn't know. I debated leaving him where he was until my husband arrived at midnight that night and immediately opened a bottle of wine.  Then of course I took to Facebook with a shout out to my new mom-friends about what to do.  Immediately, 3 responded they would gladly send their husbands across town to help me with the snake, but I felt bad about making anyone drive late at night.

I finished my glass of wine and decided I was a brave Midwestern girl and could handle a little pesky snake so I tried to carry the snake, container and magazine as a cover to the back door.  As I was walking the snake in the container to the back door, the little bugger jumped out (yes, I swear the snake jumped) and started wiggling across the floor again.  At nine at night I called and my neighbor came and picked it up and flung it out the back door, like he was chucking an tennis ball.  He said these snakes are harmless and not poisonous and nothing to worry about.  He is now known in this house as the "snake wrangler" and I baked him a banana bread in gratitude a few days later.  I am sure he and his family at a good laugh at my expense, but we had only been here for a few months and I was worried the dog would come out and find him and try to eat him and get sick or possibly die if it was a poisonous.

When my neighbor left, I poured more wine and cursed my husband for bringing me to a part of the country where I had to worry about things like alligators, fire ants, palmetto bugs (I don't care what you call them, they are giant roaches) and of course poisonous snakes!!  By the time my husband arrived home I had mellowed (thanks to the wine) and funny posts from my new friends.  We still laugh about that one (and I'm sure my neighbors do too).  Here is a picture of the bugger in his prison.

Anyway, that is enough for today.  More another day why I am sad to leave a state I've only lived in for less then 2 years.  

Enjoy!

Bluebonnet Yankee

So it's been awhile...

Sorry,
I know it has been a few months of nothing from me, but since so far I have no comments I figure no one would miss me and my misadventures in Texas.
Anyway, the past few months have been crazy, thus the no blogging.  Where did the time go?
As is typical, the end of any year goes by extremely fast with all the holidays, especially with kids and trying to wrangle them to holiday events, school, sports and of course the ever popular holiday pictures.

The end of October brought us warm weather for trick-or-treating and we had some friends from our play group over here for that.  It was a lot of fun, but the mosquitoes were out in full force.  Call me crazy, but I would much rather trick-or-treat in the snow than with bug bites.

November was crazy with school for the 5 year-old and his soccer games.  Did I mention we have all day kindergarten and I love it?!  For Thanksgiving we ran the local Turkey trot, I pushed the kiddos in a stroller for the 5K, hubby ran the 10K with his brother who was visiting and they also ran the 1 mile fun run with C.  I was so proud of him because he ran the whole mile.  Must not be my kid though...he loves running and I don't.  For Thanksgiving dinner we thought we would go Southern and cooked a turkey wrapped in bacon on the grill.  It was awesome, but then again, anything with bacon always is.

Of course December brought Christmas and this year we traveled to PA to visit family.  I travel with the kids alone all the time, but told my husband he had to travel with us and not meet us there because the airport would be a madhouse and I was right.  Weather is always a factor when traveling up north in the winter, but we did well.  It did snow twice while we were there and of course I fell in it on the way to a holiday party!  The boys loved it though and my older son really misses it.  S had his second ear infection just in time to fly home, but thankfully we were able to start him on antibiotics.

January was back to the grind for school for my older son and for me.  Then S had his third ear infection so in early February he had tubes placed and he's been better ever since.  I didn't realize how much he wasn't talking until the tubes were in and he could finally hear!  What a bad mom I am.  He had some words, but certainly not as many as big brother and I just figured they were different kids and he was on par whenever we went to the peds doc and they asked the "milestone" questions.  Wow!  Apparently, I have two talkers for kids, because he talks all the time. (Wonder where they get it from?)  I still don't understand everything he says the first time he says it, but it is getting better and his yelling and screaming has calmed down.  I was so worried about choosing to give him surgery, but now I am so glad we did.

That is all for now.  More to come though as I am taking a hiatus from school.

Take care Y'all!
Bluebonnet Yankee

Addressing Adults: Done differently in the South

It is almost Halloween and still it is hot, so therefore I sweat.  We did have a reprieve the other week, but it didn't last.  I long for the day that I can turn off the air conditioner.  Enough about the weather.

Another noted difference between the south and the Great White North is how children are taught to address adults.  Where I come from in Illinois, children are taught to call neighbors, friends of parents, and parents of friends "Mr. & Mrs. Last Name".  Down here in Texas, or at least around Houston children are taught to call adults "Miss & Mr. First Name".  While at a play date with my Mom's group recently we were discussing this, as a bunch of us are Northerners.  Most of us, including me, like being called "Miss Bluebonnet".  I know I married my husband over 10 years ago and I did for awhile consider not becoming "Mrs. Yankee", but I felt it was important for my kids and I to have the same last name.  (I know this is just a thing of mine and I really respect women who keep their maiden names, I sometimes wish I would have kept mine, "Mrs. Yankee" be damned!)

I still bristle though when I am called by my mother-in-laws name.  I hear "Mrs. Yankee" and I just think it sounds weird, even a decade after it began.  I would rather be called "Miss Bluebonnet" by friend's kids and my kids' friends.  Maybe it is the connotation that "Miss" means I am still young and fun and "Mrs." connotes someone who is old and responsible.  I don't know, but I am much more comfortable with "Miss Bluebonnet".  Maybe I am trying to hold on to being young and fun, because I am, but I think this is one Texas thing we will keep if we ever move.  What do you think?  Do you like being called by your first name or last?  I am curious.

Enjoy the weather!

Bluebonnet Yankee

Well, there are three months until Christmas and it still feels like the middle of summer to me.  Fall has always been my favorite time of year.  I have already put up all my fall/pumpkin decorations around the house in hopes that if will feel like fall to me.  I don't think I will ever get used to the Texas heat.  Last fall I think I was too busy to notice or be annoyed by it, but this year I am so done.  I feel as if I have been sweating constantly since April and I probably have.  I realize that I am and will always be a Midwestern girl.

I have been able to turn off the air conditioning at night and that is a relief, but I still have it on during the day and still am hot just walking my son to school and it is only 2 blocks away!  Will I ever wear a jacket again? I do find it funny that in the morning it is in the 60's and most people are wearing jackets and long pants.  I am sure the teachers at my son's school must think I'm a bad parent since he is still wearing shorts even in the morning.  I am just waiting for a phone call one of these days about the my son's state of dress.  I will let you know if that happens.

Right now I am just dreaming of flannel pajamas and hot cocoa.  Maybe if I turn down the air conditioning enough I can try that tonight.

See Y'all later!

Bluebonnet Yankee

One Year Anniversary

One year ago today my husband and I, our 2 kids and one dog arrived in Texas to start our new adventure (or so we told our 4-year-old).  I thought now would be a good time to try and chronicle this time in our lives even though I am a year late.  I am sure I am going to miss a lot of things that happened in this past year in this blog, but as anyone who has ever moved to a new state can probably tell you, it takes awhile to get the house in order, kids settled and feel like the new house is a home.

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and my husband and I settled there after college to be near family.  My husband hated the winters and I had always wanted to move somewhere new and exciting after college, but life has a way of happening and I wound up married with a kid 2 towns away from where I lived my entire life except for college.  How boring is that?

For years my husband and I talked about moving, but we never pursued it for one reason or another.  Maybe it was a mid-life crisis we both had at the same time or maybe I was just excessively hormonal after having our second kid, but my husband wanted to change jobs and when he asked if I would be willing to move away from Chicago, I said yes.  (I blame the hormones and the horribly snowy winter.) 

An opportunity came up for him to interview in Houston, Texas so with our 4-year-old spending the weekend with an aunt and a 7 week old in tow, my husband and I flew to Texas for his job interview and to look around the surrounding area.  It was April and it was already hot in Texas,.  (Little did I know that 85 degrees is "spring" weather here.)  He liked the job, the people seemed nice and I was tired of our house in Illinois, so we decided to take the plunge and accept the job offer. 

One month later I returned to work from my maternity leave while my husband readied our house to put on the market.  Two weeks later he drove to Texas alone, leaving me with the kids, dog, and a house I had to keep "show ready" for any potential buyers (more on that in another post).  Needless to say, much of summer 2011 is a blur, between sleepless nights with a baby, constantly cleaning the house, work, and taking online college classes I am not sure how we all survived to be able to drive to Texas last September, but we did. 

So here we are one year later.  Am I glad we moved?  Most days yes, some days not so sure.  Are we true Texans yet?  I don't know if we ever will be, though I did use the word fixin' correctly in a sentence the other day.  I still miss my friends and family in the Midwest, but I am happy we are teaching our kids to be adventurous and try new things (now if only my 5-year-old would eat something other than in nugget form).  We have exposed them to a different area of the country with lots of different customs and occasionally a different language (or so the Southern drawl seems to me).

In future posts I will reflect on our move and things we learned about our family and about others and of course there will be calamities to post as well.  So join us!

See Y'all later!
Bluebonnet Yankee

P.S. Bluebonnets are the Texas state flower.