another new baby, another niece

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RJ’s sister had her baby, her 4th, and the 3rd girl…

Savannah Grace was born on Monday, June 23rd in the early evening and is 7lbs 9oz and 19 inches. I think she looks a lot like her sister Scarlet, but of course, I haven’t met her in person yet. Here is Scarlet holding her new sister…they look alike, right!?

Savannah up close Scarlet holds Savannah

Gosh they’re cute. Now there are 4 little red heads…

this made me laugh

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back in the air

Filed Under travelin' moon | 1 Comment

Today I am headed out for some more work adventures. I am flying to Chicago this afternoon for the start of another teacher training session…

It looks like Chicago is another place in the country where the humidity is high and the chance of a thunder storm is high! How cool. Or, how hot, actually. Humidity is not my favorite thing, but I do like me a good thunder storm.

Thank goodness for frequent flyer miles that help me stay motivated. I only need 1 more roundtrip after this one to earn my 4th ticket coupon and RJ and I can fly to Hawaii for free!

This fact keeps me going.

back, lazy, calm and thoughtful

Filed Under internal monologue, travelin' moon | 4 Comments

I arrived home from Houston on Monday afternoon and I was so thrilled to be back where everything is familiar, where I recognize the smell of everything and where hot is actually not as *hot* compared to the humidity of a Texas Summer.

While I was away I was not feeling particularly communicative. I couldn’t think straight, actually. And whenever I tried to speak about how I was feeling it was rather hard for me not to cry.

This happens to me, sometimes. Especially if I am away from home.

And then I got in my rental car (which, as usual, smells a little funny; like faint cigarettes and some kind of upholstery cleaner) and took a 3 hour drive to Austin. Not only have I always heard cool things about this city, but my friend Rachael lives there now and her baby girl is now about 1 month old, so it seemed the perfect thing to do to get my mind off what was troubling me.

everything is bigger in Texas On the drive there, I talked to people on the phone as I whizzed past lots of beautiful open land and lush, green trees. And talk about a beautiful sky - the big Texas sky’ll break your heart with beauty.

Rachael, baby Delilah and I went to lunch at Shady Grove, where I ate a huge Chili-dog. It was so wonderful to see Rachael as a Mama. It made my heart sing when Rachael said “I just don’t ever stop thinking about her. I don’t even know what I thought about before…” Delilah is precious and Rachael is simply radiant.

On the drive back to Houston, I took my time to stop and take some pictures along the way. I tried hard to drive with the windows down, and no air conditioning, so that my hair could blow and I could let the good smell of the earth clear my head, except for the sound of hot air blowing and classic rock blaring on the radio. But Texas is a different kind of hot, so every so often I had to roll up the windows and cool off for a few minutes.

Something about that drive quieted my mind. The overwhelming sense of stress was still there, but somehow, it seemed more manageable after allowing myself to “get away” all by myself with only the open road ahead of me.

Click right here to see the photos of my journey.

woooweee!

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My dear friend Amanda got engaged last week! I am very happy and have been waiting anxiously for the full-length story and a photo of the sparkley, but she is now traveling in Europe, so I’m going to have to wait…

That is all the news that’s fit to print here. I am still in Houston through the weekend. It’s hot.

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