deep in the heart of texas

i'm here tonight without much cohesion of thought, but more out of necessity. its been too long since i have left a post and i'm trying to get back on the wagon. i can hardly believe its april 9th- with all of the sickness and crappy weather, the days have ticked by so slowly. it was 85 degrees out today and beautiful! your dad took you to genefield school this morning and you rode the big wheel and drove the little red car; everyone had rosy red cheeks and took great naps this afternoon. i'm always surprised in the spring when its time to sport shorts, how incredibly screwed i am in the dna dept and how ghastly white my legs are. i think it gets worse the older i get. additionally, with age, i have decided to start wearing brighter pink lipstick, i think it makes me look a little less post-mortem. this might be how "crazy old lady" syndrome starts, but in my head, it seems like a good idea.

your father and i just returned from a five day trip to texas. we spent an evening in dallas with the redstones and then went on to houston for the final four. hillyard has several tickets to the games every year and have had those tickets for decades; even before anyone cared about college basketball. this year we enjoyed the games with 70, 000 people! randy and i have been together going on 8 years now and this is the first time i have been able to tag along for the trip. when i decided to go last fall i imagined partaking in several cocktails during the weekend, sleeping in and running all over houston with penny park. little did i know that i would be in my 22nd week of pregnancy during this trip. i was exhausted and sober the whole time. i missed you two every day but have to admit it was a nice break from parenting, lifting and carrying you. i napped when i wanted to, which was great since i wake up about four times a night to go to the bathroom. your sibling likes to dance on my bladder while i am trying to sleep. the basketball games were anticlimactic to say the very least but still exciting to be there. penny park went to the games with us and it was great to see her. we also got to hang out with heather and worm, who were in the midst of packing and readying to move to new orleans. they were in panic mode but we managed to squeeze in a lunch and catch up. i wish they all lived closer!

you both had a good time with grandma while we were gone but managed to exhaust her. in fact, you all three were tired and grouchy upon our return. mom complained about how close you were in age and that she would not be watching THREE of you any time soon. she compared you two to uncle tim and i, noting how significant the difference in 4 and a half years versus 23 months. unfortunately, my age is a factor and having you all so close was my only choice. lucky for me as a mother, i know no differently. i am used to the constant chaos, bickering and all together busy-ness the two of you provide. by day five of our trip i was really ready to see your little faces and hear your belly laughs. it was so quiet without you. 

life has been back to normal for everyone the rest of the week- whatever our version of "normal" is. this morning jack got a package in the mail, seems a little bit of texas found its way to our house. 

jack has spent the last month talking about armadillos and penny park thought you should have one of your very own! how many three year olds in northwest missouri have their very own armadillos? i am going to go with not very many! she replaced the beer bottle with a vintage texas soda bottle and you thought it was his "roadie" and that he drank it on his trip from the lone star state. its too good of a story to disagree, so i am going with it. vivian loved it equally as well and ran around the house calling for the "dillo! dillo!" i have a feeling we are going to have a very good time with our new critter. 

its late, or at least it feels late. i'm an old, tired, grouchy, pregnant broad so i am going to hit the hay instead of telling you all of the rest of the wonderfully funny and endearing things you have been up to. i will do my best to log them to memory for the next time i remember or force myself to post. 

my love for you both is bigger than the state of texas. . .