Snow day?!

It has been on the cold side for the past week.  I know, I know, 20s isn't that cold, but for South Texas it is!  I haven't wanted to take Charlotte out in the cold so I've been driving Lily to school instead of walking her.  Yesterday as I was picking her up from school her teacher stuck her head in the van and said. "School's canceled tomorrow.  More information in Lily's backpack"  

I was intrigued to find out why school was canceled, so as soon as we got home I had Lily show me the flier explaining the closure.  I laughed out loud when read that due to the "high chance of snow" for Friday that the school would be closed.  Lily was soooo ecstatic when telling me how school would be closed because of snow.  I couldn't figure out why she was so happy about it until she said, "And mom, we are going to be able to go out and play in the snow and build a snowman like we did in Idaho!"  I tried to explain that IF we got snow it wouldn't be THAT much snow, but because Mrs. Broom had said there would be snow, there was going to be snow!

When Russ rolled out of bed this morning I asked him to peak out the window and see if had snowed.  Nope no snow.  The roads were wet, possibly icy but from what we could see their hadn't been a real reason to close school.  Oh well, we enjoyed our day with Lily home.  It was a bonus for her considering daddy had the day off too!

Big Fatty Bee!

 Outside of our front room window is a gorgeous tree/bush that we brought back to life.  It died during the winter from the cold snap, but it started to shoot out new roots in the summer.  Russ tied them all the new branches up together to make our tree/brush.  Towards the end of summer the tree started to bloom with the most gorgeous purple blossoms.  We've enjoyed the view of it out our window.  

A few weeks ago Lily {who has been trained to be afraid of bees} screamed "A BEE"  After determining that the bee was outside, Russ and I were enthralled watching this bee on our purple tree.  It was the BIGGEST....FATTEST....BEE....WE...HAD...EVER...SEEN!  It is about the size of a quarter!  So huge and fat!!!  Just as Russ was running to get the camera the bee finished collecting its pollen and zoomed away.

Russ was so excited today when he was working outside and saw our friend back....okay, it might not have been the same one, but it was definitely just as big.  This time he was able to capture so pics of it.  I guess the old adage that "everything is bigger in Texas" is true concerning bees!

Eeks!  Look at that stinger!

 

You can't see the bee in this photo, but the photo of the flowers were lovely so I included it :)

Snow

It snowed yesterday.  Yup, good ol' Gulf Coast Texas received snow yesterday.  Russ and I were quite in shock that it was actually snowing.  We thought we wouldn't be dealing with snow anymore.  I guess nothing is for sure anymore.  It snowed on and off the whole day, however the ground was so warm that it didn't really stick.  It also was switching from snow to sleet quite often as well.  I got a good chuckle when I heard that because of this storm schools would be starting later in a lot of areas, in order to allow time for the "dangerous conditions." LOL!  The snow left me missing home quite a bit.

This morning Russ walked the garbage out to the dumpster and can back asking for the camera.  After disappearing for a few minutes he came back and said, "Post this on the blog for proof."  He didn't catch a picture of the snow, but something that would display that OCCASIONALLY we can get cold weather down here too.  He was a little miffed about having to break out the ice scrapper again. 

 

 And this picture just cracks me up.  If you look really closely you can see that the frost only extends as far as the shadow of the apartment does.  When walking over where the shadow ends you discover that the grass is just wet not frozen at all!

Texas weather {and people's reaction to weather} makes me laugh!

7 things I LOVE about Texas

A friend recently asked me how we are doing, and how we like Texas. With that sweet question I realized that I have been quite complainy on her and haven't really expressed too many good things about Texas. To bring a more positive attitude, and to let you know a little about where we live, I give you my list of 7 Things I LOVE About Texas

1. GREEN,GREEN, and MORE GREEN!!! I know Texas is a desert, but since we live near the coast (10 - 20 mins) we get a lot of moisture when storms blow in off the ocean. Therefore we have a lot of vegetation that grows. There is a particular strip of highway between Lake Jackson and Angelton that I really enjoy driving down because the trees over hang the highway. It is beautiful! Around town there are also tons of trees! I've never lived anywhere with so many trees.
   
2. HEAT!!! I grew up in Utah and loved the snow, and I know once December hits I'll really miss it a little. However, I am a STEAMING HOT GAL at heart. I would so much rather be hot than cold. I love the fact that this winter the coldest it will probably get is the 20s - 30s. Maybe. Apparently that is REALLY cold for the area. It brings joy to my heart to know that Lily and Allie will be able to go outside and play during all those months that we used to be cooped up indoors.
   
3. YES MA'M. Where ever I go I am greeted with that phrase. Sometimes it makes me feel old, because MA'M should be referring to my mom not a young whipper snapper like me. But the politeness of the people down here really override my feelings of getting old. In general people are so polite. Random strangers will carry on a conversation with you about laundry detergent and which one is better. (Yes, I had that conversation on Saturday) It is just the slow conversation too, where the people act like they have all day to stand around with you and make sure you get the bottle that will do you best!
4. PARKS. Right now I can think of over ten parks to choose from that are in a 10 mile radius of my house. All of them are excellent in their own little way. Each week I get together with ladies from either my ward or my stake and go to one of these parks for playgroup. Which brings me too...
5. FRIENDS. I have met some of the most amazing people down here. I've always heard about how wards function outside of Utah/Idaho. Where you really depend on each other because that is who you have to. Many ladies in my ward have helped me out when Russ has been gone. Many of them probably don't even know how much they have helped me. Others now how much help I need, and have given it so willingly. Lily as well has made some great lasting friendships. (PS We still love and miss all of our friends in Utah/Idaho that have helped us as well! Don't think we've forgotten you!)
6. FOOD. I love me some good Mexican food. We've found a couple little fun/cheap restaurants that we go to get it. I miss the variety we had in Idaho Falls, but honestly it is probably better that we only have a few favorites so we don't go out and eat more! LOL!
7. FAMILY. For the first time we are lucky enough to be living 1 hr 30 min away from family. Russ's sister and family live in Houston. We have been able to see them once a month since they moved here in July. We hope to keep that up.

Hopefully that gives everyone a small taste of some of the HAPPIER things we have going on down her in the South!