Welcome to TEXAS!

It's my day!  There is a great site called Blog Trotting and today it's my turn for them to stop by my little corner of the world and visit.  You really need to head on over there and check them out if you don't know about them.



Welcome to our little corner in this big state called TEXAS!  As you can see from the title of my blog we are Misplaced Midwesterners.  My husband and I grew up in Kansas and Missouri.  After we were married we lived in two places in Joplin, MO; moved to Nashville, TN; then to Eau Claire, WI; to Lisle, IL (right outside of Chicago); back to Nashville, TN (lived two places there); back to Springfield MO (where home really is and lived in two places there); down to Bossier City, LA; to Arlington, TX, and yes, we are in our second home here.  We moved here on Labor Day weekend (September) 2007.  Please go ahead and read all about our move or should I say our pilgramage here from Louisiana (where we only lived 9 months) here.  I'm sure you will find it quite humorous as we do now looking back on it.  Even though our address is in Arlington, TX, we feel as though we really do live in Mansfield, TX.  If you look at the map below towards the bottom you'll see the city of Mansfield.  We live less than a mile from the city line of Mansfield.  Our son goes to Mansfield schools, we shop in Mansfield and we go to a wonderful church in Mansfield.



As you can see from these maps TEXAS is big and we live in one of the biggest metroplexes in the state.  We are the 5th largest metroplex in the United States. It really is a great thing.  We have the feel of a smaller city (Mansfield is just a little more than 50,000) but we have all the benenfits of living near/in a big city.  I know that 50,000 may not be small to some but when you put it in perspective with the fact that the DFW area is over 5 million you can see why we feel like this little corner is small.  Arlington itself is right around 1/2 million!  So either way where we live it seems much smaller. We live equal distance from Fort Worth and Dallas.  In fact we live the exact number of miles away from the Fort Worth Zoo and the Dallas Zoo.  I love that we have 2 great zoos right here.  We've only been to the Fort Worth Zoo so far and it was great the times we went.  Here is one of my favorite pictures:



Arlington, TX, is now the home to the Dallas Cowboys.  Yes, they are called the "Dallas" Cowboys but their new stadium is here in Arlington.



Not to mention that right down the street from this new stadium we have the baseball team the Texas Rangers:



Go down the street a little bit further and you have Six Flags Over Texas!



Now imagine that all three are open at the same time.  Yes, it does happen.  When it does happen it's not fun trying to find a place to park.  That is when we stay completely away from that area of Arlington.


A little bit about us:  My husband, Andy, and I have been married for 18 1/2 years and he truly is my best friend.  We adopted our son, Sam, when we lived in Nashville, TN, and he was only 4 months old.  He is the light of our lives.  He is in Cub Scouts, a book club at school, the drum club at school, a running club at school, not to mention the activities at church.  I have quite a few hobbies myself but one of my favorites that I like to feature here on my blog is my love for photography. I also love to read and in fact coming up very shortly I'll be doing some review on some pretty awesome books and with most of them there will be a giveaway.  So you know that you'll want to put me in your blogroll/fan me/follow me so that you'll know when those are.  I also do some products and have some of those coming up too.  In the meantime here is just a small handful of my favorite photos:









There really is so much to see and do in this little corner of TEXAS that I can't even begin to put it all in one post.  So, please take a few minutes and peruse around this little blog of mine and get to know me a bit better.  I thank all of you Blog Trotters (and anyone else as I love all of my visitors) for stopping by and I'll be by your place really soon!

P.S.  And yes, we've been down to Waco and have visited the Shrine!

I'm Melting!

It's not only hot but it's hotter than hot right now with not much relief in sight. According to the local news last night we have had 11 out of the last 12 days above 100! The next few days will be record setting. If you click on the picture you will see that by Monday we will have a high temperature of 106 degrees Fahrenheit! That's not even what the feels like is. Right now it's 98 degrees with a feels like of 104 degrees so you can only imagine what we will be feeling like on Monday. I think that we may be melting.

Friday's Feast...Texas Style

The Chef at the usual place for Fridays Feast is having some technical difficulties, so Texas Tanya decided that she'd come up with her own "Texas Style" menu of questions for this week. Since I now live in Texas I thought...hmmmm...I'll give it a whirl!

Appetizer: When was the last time you had some bar-b-que?

Two days ago! I made some bbq pulled chicken sandwiches! YUM!

Soup: How many pairs of cowboy boots do you own?

Sad to say....none. I would love to have a pair but just haven't found ones that are comfortable enough without spending a fortune. But I do have a nice pair of riding style boots!

Salad: Finish this sentence: Mommas, don't let your babies __________.

Mommas, don't let your babies grow up without having a chance to be a kid. I say this because so many other kids around us have parents that are making them grow up so fast and they don't have a chance to stop and be a kid.

Main Course: Name a song that makes you think of Texas.

To be truthful I don't know that many but the first one that came to mind is "Deep In The Heart of Texas".

Dessert: Cowboy hats - Black or White?

Either! Love cowboy hats. Had a few growing up but don't own any now.

Our Adventurous Move

So...you want to know about our move....here it is:


Before we get started on the actual move I need to start on the evening before (Tuesday) we were scheduled to have our truck loaded. I would say at that point we were 98% done packing. We had put Sam to bed and wanted to relax before we finished up some final boxes. Before sitting down with Andy I wanted to do one final load of laundry before moving. I've moved before with dirty clothes and I didn't want to do it this time. During the spin cycle I hear water sounds and not the normal water sounds. I went running to our laundry room and there on the floor was an inch of water covering the entire room. Not only was the floor flooded but the sink in that room was also backed up. Here it was 9:00 at night and I had a flooded room. We had already packed up all the towels and only had one mop and a bucket to bail us out. Next we discovered that the room where the hot water heater is (which was out in another room off of the garage) was flooded and had gone into the garage where we had staged a bunch of boxes. Now not only did we have to clean up the room inside the house but that room along with moving boxes. Finally around 10:30 we had it all cleaned up and were headed to bed. Forget packing those last boxes as they would have to wait until morning. Not what I had planned!


The next morning (Wednesday) after we get Sam off to school we start packing those last boxes that we had wanted to do the night before while we were waiting for our loaders to show up. They didn't show up and didn't show up. Finally we called and found out that they had forgotten about us. So luckily he had 2 guys standing around waiting for work and sent them over. We had originally scheduled 3 guys for this so we were happy to at least get 2. They got there around 11:00 in the morning and started to work. They were not the greatest loaders but they were not the worst either so that was a plus to our day. They finished around 2:30 and Sam was due to arrive home from school around 3:00. At this point we realized that we had packed everything so differently this time around that we needed to get a trailer to attach to our truck. Great. So back to U-Haul yet again to see what we could get. Once we had the trailer and truck back at the house we realized how hungry we were and also remembered that we told Sam that he would be able to swim at the hotel we were staying at that night. So we did a little bit of last minute cleaning and then headed out to run some last errands and to get dinner. Once at the hotel Sam did get to swim for a while which was good for him as he got some energy out. We ran back to the house one last time to check on the animals and to also get our truck with trailer turned around. But wait...it doesn't work. The trailer keeps jack-knifing so luckily we have a neighbor that drives a truck and trailer all the time. He was wonderful and got it backed up for us. It made us feel better we he told us that he had a hard time with it too. Now back to the hotel for some much needed sleep as we had the drive ahead of us the next day. If only we knew what was coming up next.


Thursday was the actual moving day for us and we had no idea that we would not be having dinner until 10:00 that night. Left the hotel in the morning and went back over to the house to finish cleaning the house and load the trailer. Our intentions were to leave by 10:00 that morning but needless to say we ran into more interruptions along the way. Once the trailer was finally loaded we had last minute errands to run. It was getting so late that we ended up eating lunch there and it was already 11:00. Once back home we realized that there were two more errands that had to be run. One of them being returning the cable boxes which takes awhile because they have to check each item in. Back to the house to make sure we have everything and then to load up the car with the animals. Once everything is loaded and we have done a final, final cleaning of the house we are ready to hit the road. Pulled out of the driveway at 2:40 in the afternoon. Not even close to our target time. Oh well, it's only a 3 1/2 hour drive from there to here. But wait...there's more!


Our 45 minute drive to the Texas line was uneventful. Once in Texas we stopped at the "Welcome to Texas" road stop for our first bathroom break. Found out that Sam was already hungry and thirsty for a snack. Okay, I could do that too but of course there was nothing there. So we go down one more exit and get our snacks. Back on the road again. We stopped a few more times before getting into the Dallas area only to find out that there is a truck that was hit by high winds from a storm that we had just driven through. He is leaning on the guard rail that is over the highway that we are on. They shut down said highway and diverted 5 lanes of traffic onto another highway. We sat there for 2 hours! During this 2 hour wait/crawl Andy tells me that the truck is now sitting on empty! Great! Now I'm hoping that it doesn't run out of gas and we are the ones that would cause another traffic jam as we waited for gas. But lo and behold we got through it. Once we were on the other highway we got turned around and ended up pulling over to finally get the much needed gas for the truck along with getting directions. Finally get to the house and unload the car so that the animals can spend the night in the house. We go to the hotel, get checked in and then finally, finally head out for dinner. It was 9:30 at night when we got there and around 10:00 when our food arrived. That meal couldn't have tasted any better! Took the leftovers and our very tired child back to the hotel room for the night. Andy did run back to the house to check on the animals one more time and to get a lock for our trailer.


Friday morning and it is the first day in our new house. We have the guys to unloaded the truck scheduled to be at the house at 8:30 that morning and they were there exactly at 8:30. I thought that this was a great sign to the day. Nope. Found out after watering some plants and the animals that our kitchen sink is backed up along with a garbage disposal that doesn't work. Call to the property manager and the plumbers come on out. They call us and schedule to come on over at 2:00 in the afternoon to work on it. This will work great because we need to be at the house between 1:45 and 5:00 to get the cable installed. We also had a handyman show up to look at our garage. Why you ask? Ends up that the previous person to lease this house was evicted but came back through the back door and stole the garage door opener and the springs to the garage door. Now we have to prop our garage door open. This particular handyman told our property manager that he couldn't do the job so now she is trying to find someone to fix it for us. At this point I decided to take Sam back to the hotel so that he could swim and then we could pack up and check out. Get there around 10:00 and get him changed. Go out to the pool only to find out that they just put chemicals into the pool and it wouldn't be ready to swim in for another 2 hours. Oh well, back upstairs to the room to get a very disappointed Sam changed again and to get packed up so that we can check out. While we were back up in the room packing my cell phone rings. By 11:45 the truck was unloaded and handymen were all finished. This made us happy because we could go get some lunch before the plumbers and cable guy were to be at the house. Get back to the house at 1:45 to find the plumbers waiting. Great. One down and only one more to go. Once the plumbers look at the sink they determine that we need a new garbage disposal because the one that was in there was so clogged up with gunk that even the plumbers said that it was gross. While they were there we had them look at the master bathroom toilet because we had noticed that it was constantly running and ended up with all new works inside of it! Plumbers did their work and were out of the house by 3:00 or so. Sam was outside playing and riding his bike getting to know the neighborhood and all the kids while we waited for the cable guys. By 4:50 we still hadn't seen them and Andy called the cable company. To make a very long story short we ended up getting our cable installed by the technician supervisor and two others at 10:00 that night.


Let's move on to Saturday morning. After a fairly restful first night in our new house we wake up ready to tackle a new day yet again not knowing what laid in store for us. Get up, have breakfast and sit down to watch a bit of Saturday morning TV. Then our power goes out. Come to find out that the power company that we had signed up with had "lost" our order and the previous company came to turn out the power. So here we were in our new house for the first full day with no power. I kept Sam entertained while trying to unpack the kitchen while Andy made phone calls. The power company that we had originally picked said that since things got messed up they would have to consider us a new customer all over again and wouldn't be able to get the power turned back on for 3 business days. Now remember this is Saturday and Monday is Labor Day so that meant that we would be out of power for 6 full days. This was not acceptable. Andy asked to speak to someone else there higher up to see if there was some way to make it happen that day. Nope. They didn't want to work with us. So we called another power company and had it turned on by later that afternoon. In the meantime we went out for lunch and ran some errands. When we came home there was an afternoon thunderstorm that made the power go out for a few minutes. After that happened our cable was acting up. This cable is for our TV, computers and our phone so more phone calls. On the phone we could hear a local AM radio station while we talked. Not fun to hear the other person on the line while you have a radio station in your ear. Again, to make a long story short it took until around 8:00 that night to get it all straightened out....or at least we thought it was.


Sunday morning....what a wonderful morning it was. No, really, I'm being serious. We had found a church online that we wanted to try first and it was just wonderful. Met the choir director and the bell director after church and talked to them for quite some time and can't wait to get started with rehearsals and to attend church next Sunday. Ended up going out for lunch at a pizza buffet and ran into another couple that was in the process of adopting and talked to them for close to an hour and found some friends and a place that we are considering using to adopt another child. Get back home, change clothes and again we find out that there are problems with our cable. Andy gets back on the phone and ends up talking to 10 people and promised phone calls back before he finally gets a manager that stays with us on the phone until every issue is resolved. We now have two different managers direct lines and names should anything happen again with our cable service.


Everything is now fixed except for the garage door but at least we know that is in the works. We are in the wonderful process of unpacking. It was a big deal, at least to me, to finally eat at home and off of real dishes last night. We took Sam to his new school this morning and we are really impressed so far. Andy is out working right now and I am finally getting this chance to sit down and write all of this down. I know that I have probably left somethings out but these were the major glitches that happened to us and believe me when I say that this is the short version.


If you have made it this far you are to be commended as it has taken me a hour and fifteen minutes to get this all down! Please leave me a message and I would love to hear your moving stories.

We're Here

We are here in Texas now! I'll update a bit more later as it is late and I am very tired...and boy do I have a lot to share with all of you!

Friday's Feast Is Served

Friday's Feast

Appetizer: Describe your laundry routine. Do you have a certain day when you do it all, or do you just wash whatever you need for the next day?
I have tried to have a certain day but it never worked for me. So now I just try to keep up with the laundry. Right now I'm doing some every day trying to get ready to move.

Soup: In your opinion, what age will you be when you’ll consider yourself to truly be old?
I don't know if I'll ever consider myself old. I would rather consider myself young at heart.

Salad: What is one of your goals? Is it short-term, long-term, or both?
Long-term: To raise my son to the best of my abilities. Short-term: To be almost ready to move by the end of next weekend. A Personal Goal (which would be long and short-term) : would be that I have always wanted to design my own cross stitch designs. I have several and would love to publish them.

Main Course: Name something unbelievable you’ve seen or read lately.
I've been too busy with packing to see or read anything lately.

Dessert: On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how happy are you today?
8-9. I'm actually very happy about this move that is coming up. We've only been here 9 months so we haven't set down many roots. There are really only a few things that I will miss. Those being the church we found, friends that we have made, the house we are living in along with the yard and trees. I say that because our new house and neighborhood has NO trees. I've always had trees. So as soon as we can I'm going to start planting. But other that those mentioned I can't wait to move! I'm also happy because we are ahead of where we were last time with packing. This last move I was also working along with Andy training for his new job and Sam at school. So we were running around with our heads cut off trying to get everything packed. This time...not so much which is a very good thing.

New House

Last weekend we spent our weekend over in the Arlington, TX, area looking for a house. After spending 3 days there we found one. For all that are interested here is a slide show of the house. I can't make the slide show go any slower so I would suggest that you hit the pause button once you start it so that you can read the descriptions of the rooms.