Priesthood Session

Chris invited the men of our ward and their sons to watch the Priesthood session of General Conference at our home on Saturday evening.

Garden

I love my little garden area and am excited to get vegetables planted.  I am trying not to think too hard about all the work it will be.  We had the landscapers put in our garden area last summer with a fence, gate, and wire buried deep enough (hopefully) that the critters around here stay out.

The arbor at the entrance blew over in a mighty wind storm last fall.  Instead of righting it, we left it until last week when Chris would have some time to secure it to the gate posts.  We also weeded the garden beds, dug up the capped off sprinklers to get them ready for each bed, and made plans for more work this next weekend.  We listened to the Saturday morning session of General Conference over the loud speakers on the deck while we worked.

I want to get garden soil that is a mix of peat moss, vermiculite, and compost.  Chris is not so thrilled.  I have spent many hours this week researching the vegetables, companion plants, plants to avoid putting together in a box, and when to plant each vegetable.  It will definitely be a project all summer long.

Last year

This year

Cousin Scavenger Hunt

Kristen spent hours creating a scavenger hunt for her cousins.  We visited Texas during Spring Break, leaving Kristen a few days longer to stay and hang out.  She made a pinata with Grandma while the kids were at school on Thursday. 

The cousins were out of school on Friday, so Kristen set up her scavenger hunt then.  They started before lunch and it took over an hour to complete but they had a lot of fun.

I tell Kristen that she should be a wedding planner with all of the planning and creating she loves to do.

Floating Misha

I happened to snap this shot of Misha at just the right moment as she ran through a field of Bluebonnets in Texas.  We had a fun family chat on Messages when I shared it.

Jolayne Kline: Misha floating in a field of bluebonnets.
Misha Kline: I can fly!
Amy Kline: Mary Poppins
Jolayne Kline: Or maybe Donkey from Shrek! You said exactly what he did Misha.

Kristen Kline:
  

Jolayne Kline: That too
Amy Kline: What did she say?
Jolayne Kline: I can fly!

Kristen Kline:


Chris Kline: lol
Jolayne Kline: Lol Kristen
Amy Kline: Nice kk

Spring Break 2018 - Day 6

We had planned to leave for the airport at 7 am, but Chris received a text around 6:15 am that our flight was delayed FIVE hours! Crazy. I climbed the stairs up to Misha’s room and told her the news so that she could go back to sleep. We said a quick goodbye to Kevin who was leaving for work at 6:30 am and then Chris and I went back to bed. Kristen came in shortly after 7 am to say goodbye, found us still in bed, and thought we had slept through our alarms. We told her about the delay and she went back to bed too. Our flight delay improved an hour in our favor, but still we had a lot of time to kill.

Kristen was up and we helped her get settled in the guest room so that she wasn’t getting woken up in the morning with kids getting off to school. Plus she liked the idea of sleeping in the “guest” room. Something special about that for her.

We dropped Kristen off to spend the day with Grandma as Candace had two kids to take to orthodontist appointments. Last we heard Grandma and Kristen were shopping, so Kristen was having a right fine day.

Not so much us. We got to the airport and our flight was still delayed. Our plane had mechanical issues. But there was also a huge storm cell moving in over Houston. The mechanical delay over three hours garnered us travel vouchers for future trips. Still we had lots of time to wait.

After asking one of the workers the location of Chick-fil-A, we walked to the international wing and sat for lunch. We finally boarded at 1:40 (we were originally scheduled to leave at 9:45 am) only to have two more hours of waiting on the plane. Apparently runways were closed due to the storm and there was a long line of planes waiting to use the few runways that were open. Not fun. And lots of not so happy babies and kids on our plane. Even after we were in the air for a couple of hours, the plane had to divert outside of Denver because of weather. What should have been a flight arriving in Denver around noon, was a flight that finally landed after 7 pm.

And the sad news? It was snowing.

Spring Break 2018 - Day 5

Chris asked us to help Grandma on Tuesday morning. She had a garage full of stuff after downsizing and moving from Washington State and needed help moving some of the food storage items to Kevin and Candace’s Texas "basement" and organizing the rest of the boxes. We spent the morning working with her, photographing some of the items she still needed to sell, and getting boxes set aside to get rid of. It was hot and muggy but helped Grandma tremendously to have so many extra hands moving boxes.  After she sells some furniture pieces and gets rid of the boxes, she should be able to park her Miata in the garage.

We headed back to Candace’s for a quick lunch of leftovers and to take a shower. Our plan was to meet Kevin at the new Exxon campus for a quick tour. One of the “rules” at Exxon is that all people must hold on to handrails going up and down stairs. I do my darnedest not to touch hand rails at the best of times being somewhat of a germaphobe, so I just made it look as though I was holding the rail.  Exxon has an awesome campus.

Candace signed Ashley out of school early to come for the tour and then she joined us as we went shopping at the Woodlands Mall. It was raining off and on, so an inside activity was a good option.

Kevin joined us for dinner at Sweet Tomatoes (next to the mall), though Jonathon was busy teaching piano lessons and Candace was at a Relief Society activity.

We stopped at Grandma and Grandpa’s apartment on the way home so Chris could finish hanging a rod in the laundry closet. He then helped to fix the tv. It took awhile, and Ashley was ready for bed long before we got her back to her house just before 10:00 pm.

Spring Break 2018 - Day 4

Today was Waco day. Kristen chose to stay with Candace for the day who had to take Jeremy to the doctor for an x-ray on his arm. Remember he fell while we were eating lunch on Saturday at the gas station outside the alligator park? Found out that he broke his left arm.

Grandma, Misha, Chris, and I drove a round-about path to get to Waco, but it allowed us to stop in Brenham to visit the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory. We were most pleased with the $1 ice cream treats. Delicious ice cream, I might add.

Waco was about three hours from Spring, Texas. We left around 9 am and with the stop at the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory and then another quick stop at a field of blue bell wild flowers, we arrived in Waco around 1 pm.

The wild flowers were in a beautiful setting off the side of the road, a stop for many people—some who had come for some professional photos. The flowers had been matted down in spots so that it looked as though a band of gorillas had nested overnight. The flowers smelled delightful.

A girl and her dad.

Misha trying to do a cartwheel.

Grandma

Misha floating in a field of blue bells.

We drove in to Waco, finding our way to The Silos. We passed parking lots charging $10 per vehicle and were glad to have kept on going as the parking lot adjacent to The Silos was free. There was a placard saying the lot was full, but it was obvious that there were plenty of spots available.

It was a pretty dusty lot though and a rather windy day. Our first stop was the bathrooms. The ladies, as usual, had a long line so Grandma, Misha, and I chose to use the port-a-potties just a short distance away. Even on a Monday, the courtyard and lunch spots were packed with people. We found lunch at the lunch trucks and easily found a spot with the turnover of people. It was hot and windy. I’m just not a fan of the humidity. Chris' grilled sandwich took forever to make, but the crepes that the rest of us ordered were ready in no time.

I was excited to visit the Magnolia store, but my goodness, it was packed with people and very spendy. We had fun looking around and Misha and I bought a shirt to share.

The bakery had a line clear around the corner. We opted not to stand in line.

We did hop on the trolley and took a tour of town as they pointed out some of the major sites. The ALICO building that you see highlighted in the Fixer Upper show is the Amicable Life Insurance Company building. Used to be the tallest building west of the Mississippi.

We made a stop at Spice Village, a shopping center of small boutiques. Probably not Christopher’s favorite place or even day, but he was a good sport.  This sign in the bathroom stall along with the bottle of poo pourri was pretty funny.

We checked out the suspension bridge and then walked back to The Silos after deciding not to wait for the trolley any longer.

Our travels for the day took us by Baylor University in Waco and Texas A&M in College Station. Our last stop of the day was for dinner at Cielito Lindo in Waller, Texas. Long day of driving.

Spring Break 2018 - Day 3

8:30 am church. I suppose it was better than Ball's 2:30 pm time slot last year. Their building had four wards meeting in it. But, we made it with a minute to spare. Unfortunately not early enough to get a soft seat. It was a beautiful meeting though with music and only one speaker. Kevin, who is the 1st counselor in the Bishopric, said that it was his idea when he was called as a counselor to suggest a musical Sacrament Meeting on Easter Sunday and the Sunday before Christmas. I liked the idea.

We attended Sunday School with Candace and then returned to the chapel to attend Sacrament Meeting with Linda (Grandpa was still sick). She had a very noisy ward but had scored a comfy seat. Lots of young children, but also lots that should have been taken out of the meeting when they were being noisy.

We drove around Kevin’s neighborhood after church looking at the beautiful houses. We happened to drive to South Lazy Meadow Way. Misha said, “I would love to live on Lazy Street. Do you think they have a North Lazy Meadow Way or Lazy Way?” Chris answered, “Yeah, probably, but they just couldn’t be bothered to put up the sign.

Candace set out leftovers for lunch—a little bit everythig.

Ashley and Kristen were quick to set up their life-size CLUE game in the background. They had set it up last night right at dusk and we suggested that they should wait until this afternoon to play. They weren’t too happy having to remove everything from the back lawn (the sprinklers would come on in the middle of the night) but did it anyway. Those two don’t like to have their plans changed.

Kevin and kids were most pleased with the book Chris found for them in Galveston. Candace? Not quite as much.

Chris enjoyed a nap in the afternoon. I thought it funny that he put a conference session on to fall asleep to. As I moved his iPad, he said, “I’m still listening to that.” He had been snoring.

We drove over to Grandma's place to check out her new apartment. Grandpa was beginning to feel better. Misha and Grandpa rode the scooter-thingies back over to Kevin's house.

As we walked to the park, Misha and Grandma pulled up beside us. Their little jaunt took about 20 minutes. Misha was all smiles. The rest of the kids were happy to see that Grandma had brought the scooters over. Kristen even got over her fear of the scooters. She crashed on one two years ago in to a bunch of stinging nettle. Not fun.

We enjoyed a nice bbqed chicken dinner in the evening and just time spent chatting with family.