i spent the day today at a customer briefing day with Dell.  The day is ending at the Dell corporate suite at NRG Stadium watching two of the NCAA March Madness tournament.  The first game is UCLA vs Gonzaga; the second game being Duke vs Utah.

Some of us were here at the stadium at the rodeo a couple of weeks back.  It’s quite amazing the difference from the large dirt span back then to the court now.

   

 

This summer we underwent the adventure of buying a home in Houston. By our realtor’s count, we looked at a total of 54 homes (starting back in April if I remember correctly). The following are some of the pictures from the har.com website, so if you’ve looked at the house there these will be familiar to you. We closed on the house purchase in late July and get possession in mid August (less than a week’s time). Please bear in mind that these pictures were taken prior to the sale, so the possessions shown are not ours.

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The house that we are renting is in a community called “Coles Crossing”. Each of the communities down here has an HOA (Home Owners Association) that provides services to the community, and each homeowner pays HOA fees annually (or maybe monthly). The HOA fees cover community maintenance and upkeep, garbage pickup (twice a week!), and community facilities.

One of those facilities that we have available to us is the outdoor community swimming pool. Although the pool is at the other end of the community (i.e. not within walking distance), it is pretty fun. There is one large area that is shallow water – with a number of different channels and pool areas to play in.

There is also a fairly deep pool that it connects to. Following are some pictures that Lori took on our first trip (and as a bonus, since Lori had the camera, you are seeing pictures of Ben, which doesn’t happen often). I tried “enhancing” the pictures, but I’m still as chubby as ever, sorry about that.

picture of the amazing Ben
Ben in the mushroom waterfall

 

Brock the swimming man
Brock, Ben, and Davison hanging on to the edge of the deep pool

 

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Ben hanging out in the really shallow wading pool

picture of Brock at the swimming poolBrock on one of the fountains.

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The other day, we were gathering all our dirty clothes and linens to take to the laundromat.

Brock, with a contemplative look on his face, came and found me and asked, “Are we taking our laundry to the laundromat?”

“Yes, we are Sweetie,” I answered, “since we don’t have a washer and dryer, yet.”

He looked even more contemplative. “Are we taking our clothes to Calgary?”

This was a surprising question, as the only times we go to a laundromat are when we are on vacation, which is not usually in Calgary. ;)

But, I said, “Well, no, Honey. We’re going to a laundromat in Houston.”

Brock considered this last bit of news for a moment.

Then he looked up at me with a “light bulb” look in his eyes. “So there’s s laundromat in Calgary AND Houston?!”

I tried to reflect in my face the solemnity of the discovery.

“There’s a laundromat in EVERY city,” I informed him.

He looked at me a moment more, and then ran off to play.

Homeschooling in July. In Houston.

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Heidi in contemplation

“I enjoyed the lift-off, pop, and snacks. I would have preferred a whole can of pop, rather than just a little bit in a glass.”

“The swimming pool in our area is pretty big and fun. But I didn’t like it when the lifeguards blew their whistles and said, “Don’t swim (She realized later that they said, “Adult swim!”)!” All the kids had to get out for 10 minutes. That was just annoying.” ;)

“I like the little green lizards here, our big empty house, and air conditioning.”

20130713-081239.jpgBen found our first cockroach this morning…on the floor in front of the fridge.

I have read in several articles that one of the best ways to repel the little nasties is to use bay leaves scattered everywhere, and to make a bay leaf tea to spray In cupboards, pantries and drawers. Most of these writers say that when they use this method regularly, they have no sign of cockroaches visiting their homes.

Ben says, “Maybe all the spraying you’ve been doing chased him out of the cupboard.”

Well, I’d rather have one out in plain sight than scrabbling around in our pantry.

The cockroach is gone, if you’re wondering; Ben was a hero.

And I thought a picture of our fridge would be more pleasant than a picture of a disgusting cockroach.

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Mom: “What did you like about our trip down to Houston?”

Davison: “Everything!”

Mom: “Well, tell me something specific you liked.”

Davison: “The flight.”

OK, then.

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Here are some of Brock’s trip recollections when interviewed today by Lori.

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the Brockster

Liked:

“When you could see the top of the clouds.”

“I liked when the guys put the soup-cases in the box and they went down the factory thing.”

“I liked when we were going fast and landing. I liked to put my hands up in the air when it was bumpy.”

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a never before seen form of making a funny face

During some turbulence, Brock put his hands up in the air as if he were on a roller coaster, and commanded, “Davison! Put your hands up in the air!”

When we were taking off from Dallas, Brock shouted, “Put your seatbelts on, everyone!”

When we were taxiing in to the Houston airport, The plane seemed to be revving noisily at one point. Brock loudly queried, “Are we taking off again?!”

Happily, he and Davison had no fear, just trust and enjoyment.

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looks like Brock is hitting his head on the ceiling, but he is not

The home in Houston that we are renting is approximately 10 years old.  Imagine my surprise and delight to find that they had installed an iPad holder in the commode room (toilet chamber, water closet, sort of endless possibilities here) of the master bathroom:

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Bathroom iPad holder

Given that the iPad came out in early 2010, the builder of this house was 7 years ahead of his (hers?) time. Now that is being a visionary.