Road Trip to Dallas

Our lease ended on our townhouse so it was time to move on again.  I found a house with a pool but it wasn't available for almost a week, so we packed up everything and headed to Aunt Stacey's house.

It's amazing how much we accumulated in two months!

It was SO good to see the cousins and have some time together with family that wasn't high risk!  Hugs all around!  Their neighborhood pool was by reservation only so we were happy to get some normal activities with distance from other families.

We went to a little creek in Sherman, TX where fossilized shark teeth have been deposited and had a fantastic morning exploring and sifting for teeth.

The kids spent time searching and then spent the rest of the morning swimming and climbing.

Ben was excited to introduce Carter to his Nascar game and Carter was all too happy to drive into all the other cars.

On July 3rd, we enjoyed their gorgeous neighborhood lagoon and went early enough to avoid any crowds.  (Alex was having a great time but hated the sun in his eyes) 

The neighborhood had held all their activities the weekend before, which was fine with us because we didn't need to be around other people.  We grilled burgers and played with water balloons and watched fireworks from upstairs in the air-conditioning.

Every day is a party when you get these four together!

So Long, Wisdom Teeth

We were very surprised when the dentist told us that Ben's wisdom teeth need to be removed.  They were actually keeping his 12-year molars from fully erupting because there wasn't enough room for everything.  We visited the orthodontist that same day and he agreed the removal as soon as possible was a good plan because he can't get his second round of braces until his molars are all in place.  To add complication to everything, our lease was ending in two weeks and we were going to be on the move for most of July.

Thankfully, we were able to get a consultation that same week with a reputable oral surgeon in the Woodlands and Ben was up bright and early the following week to have all four wisdom teeth removed at 7:30am.  He was nervous but thankful to just get it over with.

Everything went well and I got two of his trophies while he was in recovery.  The other two had to be removed in pieces.  I remembered how much I hated the entire process when I was in high school and I was dreading the next few days for him.

No funny videos of this guy on the way home because he was so sad!  The nurse told me some people react that way to anesthesia.  Ben was despondent that he couldn't talk for days and really upset that I was having trouble understanding him with all the gauze in his mouth.  It didn't help when I giggled at some of his words and called him an angry chewbacca!  He gave me all the details that he'd discussed with the doctor and asked me three times if I'd gotten his prescription mouthwash yet.  The 6-mile drive home was pretty entertaining.

I got him all settled on the couch, changed the gauze every hour for the rest of the day, and made him plenty of ensure milk shakes.  He did great.

Day 2 was rough.  He wanted ice on his cheeks all day so we kept rotating ice packs through the freezer to keep him comfortable and his was miserable since he couldn't chew anything.  My poor baby!  My heart was hurting for him.

Day 3 was much better and he continued to improve every day after that.  We had some smiles and got to see his new chipmunk cheeks.

He also learned that he could eat IndoMie noodles so I just kept them coming!  I didn't miss the irony that I had to find an Asian grocery store to stock up on an Indonesian staple that we always have on hand in Jakarta.

Solid food helped a lot but he had to get through more swelling before it got better.  Ben watched every season of Scrubs and camped out on the couch for a week but thankfully everything went really well and he had no complications.

June Adventures

Sadly, Matt had to return to Jakarta after a few days in Houston.  I made sure he didn't go home emptyhanded!! (but sadly, our deep freeze there died a few weeks later and we lost all the sausage and bacon...an absolute expat tragedy)

The kids each did an online computer camp and we found other activities to keep us entertained.  Biking to Dairy Queen for blizzards was always worth it! The drive thru is not just for cars anymore.

Ben worked on his soldering skills and started building a radio.

We took advantage of the weeks with lovely weather and low covid cases to have some fun outdoors. Texas Treeventures was pretty amazing - three levels of a pretty intense ropes course.

I was actually a little nervous when I found out I had to do it as well because I'd never attempted anything like it, but it was terrific fun and only terrifying in a few places.

We got daily visits from our buddy, Baldy.

The kids discovered they love Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

We had lots of doctor, dentist, and orthodontist appointments.  There was plenty of brotherly love in the car going to and from all the offices.

We stopped by our old neighborhood so the kids could see some old friends (no pictures allowed from mom) and enjoyed seeing our old house looking nice.

After weeks of trying, Earl the squirrel finally made it onto the window feeder but I didn't see how he got there and no one ever made it again! 

We still had dinner/breakfast with Matt every day and he virtually helped Alex set up the new computer he got a little early for his birthday.

Alabama

We had two weeks to enjoy being together at the farm in Alabama and we enjoyed every minute.  Four-wheeling was an important part of most days.

We had some rainy afternoons which gave us beautiful rainbows...

...and some amazing sunsets.

Alex took some turns behind the wheel of the blue truck and his skills improved greatly in two weeks.

We can appreciate the wide open spaces so much more now after living for years in crowded Jakarta.

We did LOTS of fishing.  All catch and release but still lots of fun to reel in some nice bass.

The boys still like to fight over the same chair, even though Alex doesn't even want to sit there.

We picked gallons of delicious fresh blueberries and lots of dewberries as well.

We borrowed kayaks and got a different view of the pond and finally got to fish some areas that are normally inaccessible.

We tried to find some fish in our pond in Nanafalia for the first time, but sadly found none.  The next day we did some catch-relocate-release, so hopefully we have some happy bass making homes there now.

We did plenty of target practice and some skeet as well.

We caught a few sunsets from our front porch.  Matt and I may not own a home at the moment but we do have a porch!

We had several fires and enjoyed a colorful one after finding some old smoke bombs in a closet.

More fishing on a friend's pond in Thomaston.  Some of us caught big ones...

...and some of us did not!

We played games and finished puzzles together.

I nearly had a heart attack after almost walking into this guy on the road.  We're so careful in the woods and I wasn't paying any attention on the pavement.

Finally, just before we drove out, we joined the overseas zoom for Ben's 8th grade moving on ceremony.  We had missed the local one at midnight our time. Our internet was sketchy at best so we didn't get to see it all or join with video, but Ben still got to participate and see some of his friends' faces.  The teachers still did a great job with a virtual ceremony.

Hard to believe we have a high schooler!  Didn't he just start middle school?