A visitor from afar!

What a wonderful time we had last week - and also the reason for the delay in my postings. We had our DEAR friend Jessica here from Tuesday of last week to Saturday. We spent most of our time visiting...but we were able to spend an evening down on the San Antonio Riverwalk where we ate at Casa Rio and enjoyed the riverboat ride and also a day at the San Antonio Zoo. I will post some pictures from that in another day or two - I was afraid that if I didn't sit down RIGHT now and begin to write...I would miss my opportunity for yet another day.

Jess was here for a GREAT happening in our household - WE GOT A COUCH - AND it hasn't broken...YET! I am almost to the point of believing that it isn't going to break. Dare I say it out loud? ha! Yes, finally, we have a couch upstairs - but I did go down from the sleeper to just the regular sofa. I decided that God was telling me that I didn't NEED a sleeper sofa upstairs and He was just going to keep breaking them until I came to that conclusion too. (j/k - sort of!) NOW - our goal is to get a couch for downstairs and at that time I think ALL of the MAJOR furniture purchases will be completed! That will be a GOOD feeling.

The first day of school was today!

Kyla started the 3rd grade w/Mrs. Lanham. She is in a portable building, but says that Mrs. Lanham leaves the A/C on so it is nice and cool for them. Mrs. Lanham has nicknamed her class the Longhorns and she has t.u. stuff (that is university of texas for all of you Alabama readers) ALL over the place. Our goal this year is for Kyla to get through the school year w/o a desire to wear burnt orange for the rest of her life. She has already been drawing longhorns on every sheet of paper and seeing them in everything - for instance, her ketchup tonight - it may be a long year for her Aggie mom and dad!!

Summer LOVES her teacher - Miss Briggs - and if Miss Briggs puts half as much time and attention into her kids as she did her classroom then it will be an AMAZING year! There was actually a little girl that Summer knew from Vacation Bible School in her class - Lauren - and that was ALL she needed to be totally excited about this new school year. We already have an "All About Me" project that is due Friday, however, Summer was ready to complete it TODAY! and had all of her forms out for me to sign as soon as we got home. I don't think that procastination will be in her vocabulary.

Oh - and Luke - I thought that he might really miss his sisters, however, he was in a GREAT mood today. I actually think he enjoys his mommy one-on-one time. But don't get me wrong - he was DEFINATELY excited to see them when we picked them up. It was wonderful picking them up because for the first time EVER - Granny got to be there to hear all about their day. That is something Kyle's mom has always wanted to do and never has had the chance...UNTIL NOW. Even though I still miss my Alabama family terribly, moments like today help because we get to experience our Texas family in ways that we couldn't before.

Just know that we are torn - we miss Alabama and we are happy to be back in Texas.

Love to all of "ya'll!"

We've been staying busy!

My posts seem to be farther and farther apart as we approach the end of summer and the start of the new school year. I find myself shopping for school supplies, tennis shoes, back-to-school clothes, etc. - but as far as I can tell I can quit spending the $$...the lists are complete and now we wait. School doesn't start here until August 27th but we will have a meet the teacher day next Thursday (the 23rd?) and the girls are VERY excited for that day to come! I think there is a bit of "fear of the unknown" as they must brave a new school w/new kids and teachers. That is one thing I will REALLY miss about Alabama....if we had stayed at West Limestone the kids wouldn't have EVER had to change schools. They would have started at West in kindergarten and graduated there as Seniors. It was nice because it was small enough that the teachers knew most of the kids and there was a real sense of community. Now we must start from scratch...however, unlike West, this is a community that is accustomed to new students/families and I think they will do a good job in welcoming my girls. I have been praying for their teachers and I know they will get EXACTLY the person that God wants them to have. The important thing to remember is that the person will be EXACTLY who God puts in their lives...whether we agree with Him or not. ha!



Kyle took a day off this week and we had one last "hoorah" at the Schlitterbahn water park in New Braunfels, TX. If any of you plan a trip out here in the summertime we HAVE to go there. It is one of the BEST water parks in the WORLD! We spent most of our time on the tube rides. Part of the park uses water from the nearby Comal river...by bringing it into the park and then recycling it back to the river. The fact that it is a spring fed river makes it nice and cold on a hot summer day! Some of the rides even take you down to the river, however, with all of the recent rains that south Texas has had the river was still moving too quickly and they had those parts of the park closed off to tubers. There was a whole side of the park we didn't even venture to...maybe next time. You might notice that one of us is missing in the picture and that is because Granny watched Luke while the 4 of us played in the water. I was amazed at the number of small children who were at the park, but I was very GRATEFUL that ours wasn't one of them!


The sofa saga continues. A third couch came to our house yesterday and a third couch came to our house BROKEN. I couldn't believe it! I have decided that God is telling us we DON'T need a sleeper sofa upstairs and I am going to try to order the "regular" sofa and see what happens. The only problem with that is that I must go back to the store and place a new order...they couldn't just do it over the phone....very frustrating! Everyone at Rooms to Go is very sympathetic when I talk to them, however, that doesn't get us a couch here in one piece!

The day wasn't a total loss...my shutters for the dining room, Summer's room, and the gameroom were installed and I LOVE them. Kyle is already wanting them in the bedroom because they block out soooo much more light than the blinds. I am thankful that we went to the expense of getting them...even when we couldn't do the whole house at one time. I just felt that if we didn't start w/them now, we might never decide to spend the $$ on them...and now that we have them in some of the rooms, I think we will eventually add them to all of them.


The girls and I (and Luke :-D) baked a pizza and watched High School Musical 2 tonight. It was REALLY cute...too bad we weren't around some of ya'll in AL...our girls could have gotten together for a "viewing party." Kyle missed out on the fun because he is working the second shift...that is until next week when he starts the night shift. That is bound to throw our schedules into a tail spin. One of these days we will be back on schedule...I keep saying that I am going to get the kids to bed early in order to get us back to the school schedule, but w/o school I don't have alot of incentive. That incentive will be here soon enough and like it...or NOT...we WILL be back on schedule.


I'll try to take some pics this weekend of the rooms w/the shutters and post them...first, I'll have to clean up around them. ha! Have a great weekend!

Soaking up the summer sun...

We just got back in town after soaking up some of the summer sun. Some of us (Kyla) had a little bit more sun than we needed, but the sunburns are healing nicely...hopefully they won't peel! The whole Morgenroth clan went to Port Aransas - I'm talking Granny, PopPop, Uncle Dustin, Aunt Lisa, cousin Taylor (5 months old), cousin Caitlin (almost 3 yrs), and the 5 of us. It was a WONDERFUL time...we just relaxed on the beach...visted with each other...watched the kids play, etc. I wish we had about 1 more day there -- however, with the sunburns we probably couldn't have stood it. One more awesome thing about being here -- we are only about 150 miles from the coast at Corpus Christi/Port Aransas. OK - so isn't the white sand beaches of Florida and Gulf Shores, AL...but it is the beach.





It was Luke's first trip to the ocean and I am thankful that he really loved it. The sand in Texas is very different from that in Florida. It seems wetter - it stays together easier - it makes great sandcastles - but mostly it is easier for a baby to walk on. Luke would walk back and forth between the canopies we had set up and the water - he probably walked a couple of miles! He also loved to watch the girls play in the sand. He studied the sand and loved to squish it between his fingers. I think he only had to "taste" it a few times before he stopped. Just remembering the sound of the grit in his teeth can still make my hair stand on end. I think that is something that every baby feels the need to try - one of my favorite pictures of Kyla when she is 1 year old, is her at the beach w/sand all around her mouth because she was tasting it. ha!



The only "adventure" that we had in the water was when Kyla and I were bit by some teeny tiny water somethings. We have no idea what they were...they looked transparent almost and were so small that you wouldn't notice them if they weren't biting you! We were out in the water...playing in the waves...when suddenly both of us started itching. It wasn't long before we were hurting and we took off back up to the beach. Once we were there, we had to pull the little buggers off of us...you couldn't even rinse them off. However, once they were off the "bites" quit hurting/itching and they didn't even leave a mark. No telling what they were -- but I didn't want to get too far off into the water after that.




We all look forward to traveling back to the coast next summer...especially cousin Caitlin who told everyone just how much she LOVED her new house...she was talking about the hotel room! ha!



Now that the vacation is over, we are beginning to think about school...I even bought a few school supplies yesterday. School doesn't start here until Aug. 27th...luckily we have a few more weeks to worry about it. Next week, Kyle is going to take off one day and we are going to the Schlitterbahn water park in New Braunfels, TX (only about 15 miles away). It seems that the rain has stopped around here and temps have begun to climb....I thought we might have to pay for all of that mild weather and it turns out I was right. But, that also means we had sunny days at the beach and should have a sunny day at the water park. I can't complain about that!



Oh yeah - on the furniture front - they tried to redeliver the sofa for upstairs yesterday and guess what!?! It was broken! I would say, "I can't believe it!" However, with all of the experience we have had with the furniture...I CAN believe it. We will try one more time and then I don't know what we will do. Maybe just settle on another loveseat instead? Who knows! I'll be SURE to keep you updated because I know this is why you choose to read this blog. ha!



Take care everyone! More later.....

I am going to lay hands on the next sofa we purchase and PRAY over it! I can't believe it! Furniture was delivered to our house today...but we are still sofaless. Yes, the sleeper sofa that was to be delivered to our upstairs gameroom was broken when they arrived. We MUST be the unluckiest sofa-purchasers in the history of furniture shopping. I am thankful that one of the delivery guys noticed it just before they were going to force it up the stairs. The sofa going up the stairs was scary on sooo many levels - I don't envy them trying it again. Oh well - at least we have the loveseat, chair and ottoman...that is definately better than NOTHING! Here's a picture to wet your appetite. I'll be sure to let you know what happens next - God must have known that I don't have enough drama in my life. ha! And if I didn't have these things in my life...what on earth would I write about!?! ha! ha!

School registration was today and it was a well oiled machine. There were "stations" throughout the school cafeteria w/the forms and people you needed to talk to. I could tell that they are use to new students coming into the school. Randolf AFB is in this school district (only a couple of miles from us) and many military families live in this neigborhood and in the "older" neighborhood that is next to us. This school (Schertz Elementary) even has a dual language program where they teach in BOTH English and Spanish...however, I know that Kyla won't be able to be in it...you have to be entered in either Kindergarten or 1st grade....and I doubt that Summer will be able to get in - although it would be nice. In this part of Texas it seems that English is the 2nd language. Schertz Elementary is only K-4th...which will be different after attending a K-12. The kindergarteners probably don't eat at 10am in order to have time to serve everyone lunch! ha!


The Supreme Painter of the Universe - that is me - has been able to take a break for the last couple of days. Not that there aren't walls to paint...because there are....but I finally finished Summer's room and I have been working on unpacking her toys and knick knacks. She was VERY happy to have her room finished...she no longer can claim that she isn't loved just as much as Kyla and Luke....at least not about this! ha! The framed pics for her room are in a box somewhere so that isn't done, and we are waiting on the shutters for her windows, but the canopy over her bed is hung so in her eyes it is finished! I thought that I would include these photos so that you could see the product in progress.




This afternoon we are waiting on the furniture for the upstairs gameroom/family room. It was purchased about 3 weeks ago...but was backordered. I think that it will be worth the wait. We still haven't purchased a living room sofa. I was so sold on the one that broke (see the post from July 14th if you wonder what happened) that I haven't really been wanting to go find a new one. I think I know what I want...pretty much my 2nd favorite from when we first shopped. I just haven't made the purchase. Once that purchase is made there shouldn't be anymore BIG home purchases...at least not for a while. What in the world will I write about when my universe is not contained w/in the walls of this house!?! I guess by then school and activities will start and I can share all of that w/ya'll! You just can't wait can you?? :-)



One parting shot of Kyla's room. She has been sooo pleased with it. We are planning a trip to the beach at the first of next week and she hopes to find a few shells to decorate her little Polynesian paradise. She thinks that she will find one of those ginormous (to coin one of Webster's newest words) conch shells on the beach somewhere...I told her our greatest chance of finding one of those on the beach would be at the nearest gift shop. Either way, she wants shells to decorate her room and some picture frames that she has made. The "craft gene" was definately passed on to that one! She has made frames from popsicle/wood craft sticks and she wants to glue shells from the beach to them to give to our family w/pictures in them. She has even given thought as to how she will attach the pictures to the frames....first to a piece of paper and then the paper to the frame...she is so funny! But I love it!


Kyle has started working the second shift now...so our lives are a little upside down. He leaves for work just after lunch and doesn't get home until about midnight...I find myself staying up, however, once school starts that will have to change. He will only be on this schedule for a couple more weeks...then he will swap over to nights for 4 weeks, then to days for 4 weeks, etc., etc. etc. He still really enjoys his job. The change/challenge has been rewarding - although he (we both) miss our friends and former co-workers!


Well, the natives are restless and they want to eat lunch...I'll post again after we get the furniture up in the gameroom. Thank goodness they are delivering it - I would HATE to try and get it up our stairs!