::santa fe::

Max and I spent almost a week looking at zillions of houses and lots of schools. We saw things like this

and this

and this

and yards/landscapes such as these



My mom came out for a few days, helped to entertain Max and kept me from going insane. It was so nice to have her there. It was a lot of work. I probably looked at 10 or so houses (with only a few turning out to be possibilities) and we went and had visits at three schools.

In the end I got a great lead from somebody at church for a house the size we need in the area (with the right school) that we're interested in. Now we're just working on making that happen. Keep your fingers crossed for us, but so far things look good! When the house is ours for sure I'll post some more pictures maybe.

Finally

Finally, a quest that started this past Christmas--when I got a saltwater fly rod as a gift--was achieved. I caught and landed my first stripped bass on a fly rod. I caught it in the Narrow River using a clouser minnow that I tied this winter. I really like the idea of catching fish using the "flies" that you tie yourself.

Ginna and Max are out of town and I'm entertaining myself by fishing.

This is the strongest fish that I've ever landed on a fly rod and it took me a good while to reel it in. My arms were actually tired afterward.

I told myself that if I caught even one fish this year before we moved, I'd call it a successful foray into saltwater flyfishing. Yippee.

::::

Max and I are heading to NM tomorrow to find ourselves a house and take a look at some schools. We're really excited, but it would be so much more fun if Kris could come along!
At least my mom is going to meet us out there for a few days and keep us company. I'm definitely looking forward to that.
We'll keep you posted.

::what flavor is your car?::

Ours is poppyseed.

The tree over our driveway has been dropping all sorts of weird sticky stuff. It doesn't come off much, even at the carwash. Poor poppyseed car.

Ah well, at least the tree is shady. And the car makes me want some sort of delicious lemon poppyseed cake. Mmmmm.

::lilacs::

I love our next door neighbors. I don't know a thing about them, except that they have this lovely huge lilac bush that hangs over the fence into our yard.

Looks like there's almost more in our yard than theirs, doesn't it? This is a view from the driveway. When I got out of the car for a while I could smell the delicious scent wafting out to me. It was heavenly.

I love the smell and the way the blossoms look. It was so fun to watch the bush blossom last spring and this. I'm just bummed that the flowers are gone now. My photos are from last week.

I'm going to have to have my very own bush someday!!

::mothers day bracelets::

I was inspired by the tutorial on my friend Katy's blog. I just loved the bracelet that she had made out of wool pebbles. I thought one of those would be a fun mother's day gift.
But I'm nothing if I'm not practical--I knew I wouldn't get it done if I tried to make my own pebbles. I'll try it some day, but for this time I ordered some from here. Isn't etsy wonderful?
Once they came (all the way from the UK), I took a bunch of beads from back when I thought I might have a knack at jewelry making, and I put them all together.

I think the pebbles are just so interesting--they've got such a cool texture, and the marbled colors are beautiful. It was fun to pick beads to play against the pebbles.

Kris was concerned they'd look like "dryer lint bracelets." He admitted they were cool once I was done.


I like them. What do you think?
Thanks for the inspiration Katy!!

::my mother's day::

I had such a lovely day yesterday. It was pretty chilly outside but the sun was shining very beautifully. Max and Kris took really good care of me.
The flowers are from Max--he made them at school. I love them! He also brought home a handprint with a little poem in a big envelope he had decorated with hearts. So cute. The cheesy poem even made me cry.

Kris made us a yummy breakfast (including bacon). Kris also taught our primary class at church which was nice. In this ward during the 3rd hour the men take over and the ladies get to go in the gym, have snacks and mingle. It's pretty nice.
I guess the bishopric was in charge of the primary. They brought in cupcakes for the kids to frost as mother's day gifts. Kris said it turned out crazy--lots of little kids covered in frosting (happy mother's day!!), but the kids had fun. And the best part was, the bishopric cleaned up after themselves--the room at least.
Max was quite excited to give me the cupcake.

Look at the copious amounts of candy. And can you see the dirt on time? There's real dirt on there, thanks to the little seed pot from primary that Max was also supposed to give me. Pretty funny, right? I let him eat most of it--for some reason.

Kris and Max cleaned up the kitchen and made lunch.

The kitchen was a big mess after our busy weekend, so it was a big job.
I got some nice presents. We played games. I got to talk to Murphy and the rest of my family on Skype. We had delicous ice cream.

It was a great day. Thanks boys for taking such good care of me. I love you so much!!!

::happy birthday mom::

It's my mom's birthday today. I'm far away, so the blog is standing in for a great big birthday hug.

Thanks for being such a good mom and taking such good care of all of us. Thanks for teaching us so much and encouraging us to learn about anything and everything we were interested in.
Thanks for always supporting us. Thanks for working so hard and never giving up. Thanks for loving us with all your heart.
Thanks for all the zillion things I could never list because there are just to many.

Happy birthday, LOVE YOU!!

::uncle mike::

Yesterday my Uncle Mike (my mom's brother) came into town here for business. We're lucky because this is the second time he's visited us--he got to come to Kansas City a couple of years ago too.
So we got to hang out and chat a little bit in the afternoon, and then when Kris was home from work we headed out to give him a quick peek at some of our favorite sights.
We took him down to Newport.
The sun was setting and the wind was blowing and it was a beautiful evening! Newport is prettymuch always pretty, but it was extra nice last night.



I don't know what Count Rochambeau is pointing at, but he looks cool, so whatever.
The wind was making the waves break like crazy. Ocean Drive was beautiful. It was sad nobody was out flying kites though--I guess people have work and other things to do on tuesday afternoon/evening.

(Imagine how good it smelled. Mmmmmm the salty sea!)

I couldn't resist taking a picture of the blue boat. It's such a pretty color.

After the drive we went to eat at the Barking Crab restaurant. We've driven past it a zillion times and I've always thought it looked yummy but we've never had a chance to go.
Well, it was yummy. Good seafood and nice service (slightly unusual for RI, but it turned out our server was from CA, so it made sense.) The crab cakes were so yummy--though they didn't bark.

It was a really fun night with Uncle Mike. We're already trying to figure out how to make his company send him to where we'll be living next!