Aurevoir Texas

I'm a bit behind on publishing my farewell to TX (and to this blog for a while) as I have been busy keeping up with our new blog www.jmartlux.blogspot.com.

After our stay in Corpus Christi, we spent one final night in The Woodlands where we met up with Jeremy for our flight to Luxembourg.  Saying goodbye is tough, so I mostly avoided that as I'm gonna see you all again next summer!  I think I'll mostly blame my tears on Kristi and Bailey Horton and having to watch Colden and Cooper say goodbye.  The latter involved a lot of wrestling in the grass on their way to the car 😊

Josh & Kristi, thanks for a nice dinner and for picking up Jeremy from the airport!  What a fun evening together!  I don't have the pictures to post here... yet.

One final swim in our pool with some of our favorite neighbors!

 

Thanks girls... I hope we can be neighbors again in a few years!



The Woodlands Overnight

We made our first official visit back in The Woodlands after having moved out 3 1/2 weeks prior.  It was a packed 24 hour stop for a visit to the hair salon (I dread having to start over again) and fun time with friends.

Lindsay cooked yummy tacos for us and the Rudy's and we got all caught up on the time we missed.  Colden and Cooper had a great time being back together for the evening along with Ellie, Blakely, baby Kate and Henry. We sure are going to miss you sweet friends (we already do)!

Then off to the Stagg's home for our "sleepover".  Melissa and Stuart were so gracious as I piled all of our stuff into their house for our one-night stay :)  The next morning we met the Branch family at the pool and had a really great time all together.

I spent a lot of time with these two girls over the past year!  I'm so thankful that our boys became such great buddies at school and all the time we spent together out of school!

Next Stop: Corpus Christi.

Happy 4th of July

My sisters, Stephanie, Renée and their families came together at the last minute for a 4th of July party at the Lake House!  It was especially sweet of the Westcott's to drive 5 hours from Midland, but it was so worth it!!  The kids had a blast swimming and tubing and the big kids (my brother-in-laws and myself) took turns skiing.

 

Baby Matheson  was an angel and got lots of love from his Aunts and cousins!

I couldn't have had a nicer holiday... Thanks sisters for all coming out to the lake house!  Dan is the best brother too... Thanks for taking care of the boat!

Back in Texas

After a great visit in New York with th Longs and also a fun day spent with Laurel ( of course we have no pictures to prove it!).  We headed  south to meet Jeremy in Dallas.  After a little wrestling time with dad, we packed up the truck and headed to Midland. 

The boys haven't stopped talking about the slides at The Midland Country Club pool!  I was impressed by the dust storm that rolled in on Saturday and the piles of dirt on the inside sills of Renee's windows that get cleaned every week.  Wow!  I was less impressed by the hours of rain on Monday morning, but thats just because I'm not from Midland!

A little fun at the museum while it rained...

We stayed an extra day in Midland because we were having so much fun!  Then back to Dallas to visit the Martin Family one last time before heading overseas.

Homeless

Yes, that is right.  We have moved out of our beautiful home with a dreamy swimming pool, the most wonderful friends and neighbors and all the sunshine we could want!  We are trading up for a cute 3 story row house in the most wonderful area of Luxembourg city surrounded by parks and walkable to everything.  We have high hopes for wonderful friendships and will pray for sun, but the pool is out!

While homeless, we are making the best of our time traveling to see family and friends!

Our first stop was in Dallas to see Baby Matheson, my newest nephew.  My sister Stephanie and her husband, Jon, are such sweet new parents!  I held the baby the whole time and never got single picture on my camera!

We celebrated Father's Day with Jeremy's family (while he was in Luxembourg missing us) and also had some fun with our cousin, Sloan, at the Perot Museum in Dallas.

Next Stop: Lewiston, NY to visit my sister Christina and her family!  Never thought I would take my kids to Fantasy Island on Grand Island, but we did and it was quite a big hit with the whole bunch of cousins!

We enjoyed seeing Niagara Falls and riding the Maid of the Mist! 

Josh tried to keep us from strawberry picking by getting sick (he pulled this on us 4 years ago!) but we managed to pick some sweet berries later that afternoon anyway.

Most of our visit here was spent running around in the yard and playing toys in the basement with cousins.  What a fun treat for us!  Now if we can only get some reliable flights, we will make this part of our summer tour next year as well!  Thanks Christina and Brett for taking such great care of us here!

New Blog

It's only fitting to start a fresh new blog for this new chapter of our life... if any of you out there still check on us from time to time... here is my new blog address and a little intro!

http://jmartlux.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-new-beginning.html

Nana Visits

My parents typically make their annual visit in September, but Dad couldn't this year. When I told the kids that Nana was coming, they were thrilled. We shopped a lot. More shopping than I've done probably since her last long visit! It was fun.
The weather (common theme in my blogs this year) was supposed to stay nice (70's) during her stay, but every time I checked the forecast it was downgraded to cooler temps, rain and lots of clouds. I thought this was the year that we realy deserved an indain summer--God has a different plan. Well, the funny part about this is that my mom NEVER packs warm enough clothes. I keep a couple warm sweaters for her, but its never enough. She did, however, pack berry picking attire consisting of my dad's brush pants for hunting and an old denim shirt. It was slightly embarassing when she walked out the front door, but worth it when she came home with huge bowls of wild blackberries! She canned 3 big batches of jam and took almost every jar with her. We even made a lower-sugar version for the first time and it was great.