A Texas Life: Have I really been gone that long??

I came to blogger to look up pictures of our family to print for the staircase picture wall project and realized just how long I have been gone. I can't believe it: if I am not careful, it will be a year very soon.

Well, lots has happened in that time.

In June, we took a long-awaited summer vacation with my family, and it was wonderful, though at least for me, its expected "epic-ness" was absolutely diminished by the fact that Quijote stayed home to get a good start at this new job. Although it didn't really feel like a family vacation without him, we still got to experience the jaw-dropping landscape and culture of Oaxaca, so it was still epic, and I am glad the rest of us went. More on the actual fun later, though.

Our nephew graduated from high school and started college in Austin, Tx. We sold the house, bought a new one, moved. Our own kids started school at a new school...

.. Quijote got a new job offer, and yup, crazy people that we are, we took it and moved house in just a couple months, and it has been a ton of work. So much so that I have disappeared from Facebook and apparently even Blogger for a few months to paint, clean (goodness, so much cleaning,) organize, pack or donate, and fix things around the house, working every wake moment of the day (except when I threw my arms up in despair and momentarily gave up on everything, before starting up again.) We did it all and we did it twice- first to sell the house in TX, then after buying this new house in KS.

This all might make it seem like I have been stressed and worked to the bone all this time, and this is very true, but it is also true that I believe in this crazy move. I think we really needed this change, and I think Quijote has found a better work situation and a better set of challenges in his career. We also got super lucky and sold the house before its first open house, won a bid on a gorgeous house (it's not perfect at all, there's tons to do, but it's beautiful!) and have been loving the new neighborhood, our new neighbors, and the new school environment. We were pinching ourselves at first- it seemed almost too good to be true!

It hasn't been all work either. Look, my birthday sushi from back in August!

And here are a few pictures from the Fall School Dance, which Fable went to with their new friends (and I volunteered to chaperone.)

Here are a few pictures from their birthday (and I will try to come back with the birthday interview.) I looooved their birthday party this year because it was a DnD game with friends and they had SO MUCH FUN and it was so great to see. Quijote was a great Dungeon Master, I must say.

Oh, the drama of a great game! This is such a great age. So fun!

Did you also notice the art on the walls? I have been working on some murals for the dining room... and tbh I am not done at all, but I'm very happy with it so far :)

I've also painted the kids' bedrooms, the bathroom, and the living room bookshelves, and I fixed the front door. I scrubbed everything. I cleaned all the cabinets, bookshelves, windows, walls, floors, trim, and deep cleaned the carpet floors. I got rid of furniture, bought and built furniture, fixed furniture, Q got the air vents cleaned, the trees trimmed, the chimney half rebuilt...

Work on the kids' bedrooms is still ongoing... And half of Fable's room happened while I had covid!

I was on my own for the rest of the job after that! 😜

We're going for dark academia (El) and DA/whimsical goth decor (Fable)

Quijote has been busy at work, but also found energy to change all our toilets (they were all so gross!) and teach the kids how to do yardwork. Wouldn't it be great if they took care of it on their own some day? We can dream.

I can't find the pictures I had of them working together! I posted them to FB so I know i had them...hmm.. [late edit: I found them and put one of them at the top of the post so the thumbnail will show off the house!] Well, here are pictures of the new toilet (by Quijote), shower (by Eddie's cousin) and my walls and cabinet paint job.

And look how awful these shelves are, for when I finally get around to painting them:

Here is the red oak because I think it is gorgeous

We got Fable a new bike for their birthday, and all the bikes sat there in our porch without issue until it got too cold. It's so safe and quiet around here!

I've actually already moved on from Fall decorations because we'll have family over next week. But we did have our share of Fall family fun as well.

We went to the pumpkin patch

And we went to the Nelson Atkins' and to the Guadalupe Center's Dia de Muertos celebrations

Nelson Atkins:

Q bought me flowers so I could wear them on my hair:

Traditional dancing and traditional wood printing:

Fable has continued to do Orchestra, playing the violin, and El started playing the viola! And Fable was part of the school play and had a lot fun doing that as well.