I had already scrapped this page on Tuesday before we got the house offer.  No time for scrappin’ right now!!  We are thick into the preparations for moving- hard to believe we have only two more nights sleeping at this house!  On Saturday we will move our stuff all over into my dad’s house.  Then we’ll come back and clean up the little things we’ve left behind and close on the house on Thursday.

It’s exciting and a little bittersweet at the same time to leave this house!  we brought our girls home from the hospital here, watched them take their first steps here.  Texas is all they’ve ever known as home.  This is a new chapter in our lives is this is just one more step into that phase.   It does make it all seem a LOT more real!  Because at this point, either we are moving to China or we are sleeping at my dad’s house for life.  Hmm, I am voting for China!  I love my dad, very thankful we can live with him for this short time though!

Alrighty, time to get crackin’ on today’s stuff!

We are under contract on our house! Thank you Dad!!! In this housing market, we are just thrilled with the speed of this!

We close– are you ready– the 26th of April! Next Thursday!

Wow! Think of us in all of this, please!  They have waived the option phase, and it looks smooth, but we’d like thoughts for that anyway!

We will be shackin’ up at my (Kimberly’s) dad’s house for the 5 1/2 weeks between then and leaving Texas.

SO HAPPY!!!!!!!

It is sooooooo nice to feel the warm sunshine again!

The girls and I headed out in search of bluebonnets this morning. No bluebonnets that we could find, but we took pics at a park in Mansfield.

We had showing #15 today! We’ve had good feedback, so that’s reassuring!

At the very bottom of our page there is a little ticker countdown- can you believe it is getting SO close?? Okay, maybe it only feels “so” close to us, but it is!

I’ve got a hackin’ cough, fever, chills, the works, so I’ve been hunkering down at the laptop for the day.

Here’s 4 pages…. scrapping can be so therapeutic! Just what the doctor ordered…

(the first two are my sister’s boys)

Isn’t Keith so cute?? I love his hatred of mushrooms— tsk, tsk, such a wonderful little fungus! I don’t know how you can hate them!! It was one of the first words I learned in Chinese so I can ask for lots of mushroomy goodness!

Just wanted to post this comic, in honor of TAKS test week here in Texas. For those of you not from Texas (some Texans are shocked that such people exist) the TAKS test is the big state test given in all public schools for grades 3-12. Student performance on TAKS is how a school, principal, district, teacher, etc. are rated. If your kids do good on TAKS, you’re a good school. If your kids do bad on TAKS, well, you don’t even wanna go there.

I teach third grade, and for all the parents whose 9-year-olds have to take a 5-hour test on Tuesday, I’m so sorry — on behalf of everyone involved in education. I truly am sorry. But “it is what it is.” Oh yeah, here’s the comic, which my mother-in-law sent to me:

And I’ve actually had kids ask me “Uh, Mr. Geswein, is this test the real TAKS test or just another test?”

Happy TAKS week everyone!

Keith

Someone asked me how I get the backgrounds of my pics blurry– I use a low aperture lens opened up all the way to f/1.8. This makes the depth of field (what is in focus) a small area. But the prob is that my lens is 50mm which means I have to be a good 8 feet or so away from them— so I’m always standing in the corner smashing myself against the wall. I love that lens though!

Here’s a few sweet shots of the girls and their daddy. Sorry, I’m a head chopper- I like those up-close shots and end up cutting off heads and stuff- but that’s just my style, sorry!  And with the 50mm, again, I just can’t get back far enough to get more of them in the lens!

My sister Emily turns 29 on Tuesday– and for her birthday I am scrapping 20 pages of her boys. Actually, she reminded me that her blog was her birthday present, but that seems like a long time ago (2 months) that I set it up, so oh well!

Here’s the first 2 of her boys- they’re so sweet!! We will miss the Giovanni boys for sure! Kinda hard to scrap without PINK and lotsa flowers!!

Tomorrow, our club has a fun festival and we’ll be working at that. It is a really great day at the park with lots of neat stuff happening all day! And we’re going to do an egg hunt (a week late) with family on Sunday! Fun times!

Yep.  I officially learned the phrase I’ve been waiting a lifetime to learn in Chinese.

The fat man is on the left, the skinny man is on the right.

Wow, I mean, talk about something I would never in a million years say outloud!!!  BUT I suppose it will be helpful when people are talking about MY fat!  Ni shi hen pang! (You are VERY fat!)   If you’re keeping track- no lessons yet on using le bathroom!   But I can talk about the fat, bald, curly-haired, and dog-carrying people I meet on the way to the bathroom!

Not much to bloggage today- showing #11 is tomorrow!  And I’ve got a scrap page of the girls earlier this week!  Have a good Thursday- stay safe and be sure not to talk about people’s fat or lack thereof!

Okay, first off, I finished unit 2 today. HUGE relief! Not that it “means” anything to finish a unit, other than just “yay, I accomplished something”.

We’ve got a few more “bites” on the house- nothing concrete or major, just some people who may come back for a 2nd showing.

But I absolutely MUST share this conversation Libby & I had this morning. I actually scrapped it right after it happened, because I just couldn’t let her forget this one! We ran over to my dad’s house this morning to see if there was a package on his door. In the van, she’s jabbering away about life and stuff. She informs me that there are RULES for being a girl.

Seriously, can you believe thsoe rules? I was laughing SO hard on the inside. I asked her “Well, what about Miss Susan (her teacher)? She goes to work!” She says “NO, she goes to SCHOOL.” Ohhhh ok.

For her sake & our sake, I hope she does not ever have to do #3. Hopefully she will not be in school anymore when she has her babies! Ay yi yi!

Got the insurance stuff at least partially worked out- they were super nice about it.  That’s always a relief!

Oh & font lovers, that font will be available soon.

Okay, remember how we were told it takes an average of 10 showings to get an offer?  Well today was #10!  Woohoo.  So now I feel like it could be any day now.  Foolish, ridiculous, silly, whatever, but it is how my brain operates!

Not that it um, means anything in “real” life.  LOL.  Just now I get to be even more hopeful that it will sell sometime!  That’s alright, if it sells TOO fast, we’re stuck schleppin’ on my sister’s pull out couch in her living room!  And I think she might go insane with all 4 of us hoggin’ up her bathrooms and such.  Soooo, she’s probably hoping for us to hold out a little longer!

Tomorrow’s job?  Put on my boxing gloves and duke it out with insurance.  They’re denying coverage of my physical.  Because they “don’t cover that illness”.  I said “what illness, it was a physical”.  Insert giggling from insurance-girl.  “By law I can’t tell you what it was billed as, but it was NOT billed as a physical.” “giggle”

Whatever, dude, not so funny when it is my $800+ we’re discussing! Yep, 800 cool buckaroos.  And I would prefer to keep those lining my pockets (okay, my visa card’s pockets) rather than paying that much for the joy of being poked and prodded!  Keith’s was covered, so I’m sure mine will be once it is processed right!

OHHHHHHH!  And tomorrow I plan to finish unit 2!!  Just a partial review lesson left!

The girls learned this little song at preschool and they sing it constantly! I mean, constantly. I wake up to 1, 2, 3…. all.the.time!

Sooo, I thought I would take this time to have some….

You can tell Katie has my attention span there- she gets a little distracted! And yes, by the way, I do comb their hair. Usually.

Exciting news here. Guess who has a box of books in China? That would be us!! Woohoo! Yahoo! Yippee! I can’t believe they got there SO fast!!!! That is just crazy crazy fast! We’re thrilled, of course! Granted, they’ll just y’know, sit there and stuff, for awhile, but that’s so cool!

I have a little personal challenge for myself this week. I am >>this<< close to finishing unit 2 in my Chinese program. I have 1 “real” lesson and a review lesson left. If I finish it by Friday, I am going to treat myself to some black Mary Jane crocs. My black sandals (three years old) are busted. Sooo, this is good incentive- either do my Chinese this week or wear broken shoes. And after all– the family that Crocs together, walks together. <groan>

We are so stoked that it is going to be in the 70’s again tomorrow. We missed the warm weather when it dropped to the 30’s this weekend! What kind of craziness is that? It was actually warmer in Beijing than Dallas? That’s just bizarre!

I have a hard question for today. A thought-provoking question. A challenging, soul-enriching question. Are ya ready? Just how much Immodium AD does a family of 4 need per each year spent in China? I’m just gonna bet that it is more than we think. One suitcase, all Immodium. That’s what I’m talkin’ about. We promise to keep those little details to ourselves when we arrive!

Happy Monday.