Construction is Going... But not fast enough

The past few weeks have been rough.  A lot of driving, being away from the kids, sleeping wherever we can impost upon the kindness of others.  You might think I have taken up a new job as a cross-country truck driver or something like that, but it is much worse -- The Texas Batemans are homeless.

Since closing on our house May 30th, we have been house-hopping in an effort to survive until our house is completed... on July 18th.  So that is 7 weeks that we needed to figure out a place to live.  No problem, we originally thought.  Get a cheap apartment for 2 months, then we'll have plenty of time to move in/out.  Little did we know 3 months is the shortest lease any apartment seemed willing to do.  Not only was rent anywhere near what we expected, they also tack on an extra $150 or so per month since it is short term.  This was starting to get unpleasant.  What happened to being able to rent an entire house for $850 like I did in college?  Adios 214 Ira, those rent prices are long gone.

So what to do now?  Extended stay hotels?  Not too bad.  I've stayed in similar type joints when traveling for work and they are livable... without children!  As we continued to complain about our predicament, the weeks began to fill themselves in.  We remembered that one of the weeks we'll be on vacation in Destin & DisneyWorld!  Then people started generously noting that they would be out of town certain weeks and we could housesit for them.  Before we knew it, we had filled in all of our "gaps" with specific help from Mamo and Pampo in San Antonio.  They would let the kids stay with them and let us call San Antonio home base between houses.

And now here we are -- traveling to Katy/Houston each week to work and then back to San Antonio to be with the kids and the rest of Angel's family.  It ain't Ozzie and Harriet, but it will sure make it that much sweeter when we finally get to move into our new place.  In addition to a tremendous THANK YOU to the Beals, we would also like to thank the Gryparis, Spier, and Ertan families for helping us to keep a roof over our heads.  We'll have to say that it hasn't exactly been roughing it in 3+ bedroom houses :)

To the right you would be able see the first part of a time-lapse series I am putting together to show our house being built.  There is quite a bit more progress on the house today, but apparently the addition of "Saturday In The Park" by Chicago as an audio backdrop was enough to make this video a copyright violation according to Microsoft - go figure.

The good news...

Being away from the kids has made us realize the importance of weekends as a time to do fun stuff and get out and see what is out there.  To that end, we have been making the most of our weekends recently.  Last weekend it was Brazos Bend State Park for a day of learning and gator watching.  We saw 2 in just a brief 20-30 minute walk!  One was a mama guarding a nest (didn't get too close to her :)) and the other was staring at us from the water below the boardwalk.  It couldn't have been more than 5 feet away and 1 foot below us.  I thought is was a bit odd, but everyone seemed to think it wasn't too dangerous and we still have all of our kids so I guess it wasn't that bad.  We've also stepped up the moviegoing with Kung Fu Panda and Wall-E under our belts this June.

This weekend it was a hill country excursion to learn about the many wonders of the Texas hill country.  We started at Aquarena Springs - the source of 100% of San Antonio's drinking water. 

 

While the glass-bottom boat tours were awesome we were sad that Ralph the swimming pig has retired.  Jackson is becoming quite the photographer - here are 2 pictures he took on the trip:

Next it was on to Wonderworld which is a tourist trap plopped down on top of a pretty awesome cave.  This dry-formed cave was less stuffy than most because you can touch anything and everything in the cave including some 35 million year old sea clam fossils. 

The tour also included a ride to the top of a tower, a trip through the anti-gravity room, and the animal train to feed the deer our of our hands (the clear favorite among the kids). 

 

 

Emily said the goat above looked like me which is why he made the album.  If you want a good laugh, just check out these adorable videos of the kids feeding the deer!

 

Although the fun is plentiful, tomorrow it will be back to Houston for a short week.  Very excited though, because it is only 4 more days of work and then we are Florida bound!  WooHoo!

2008 Ocean B-Day Party Cruise

The 2nd year of the combined birthday party weekend went extremely well.  As you may know, Jackson and Emily share the same birthday: May 23rd.  So for Emily's 2nd and Jackson's 4th birthdays this year we wanted to do another dual party.  Last year it was Jackson on Saturday and Emily on Sunday, but this year we combined the entire set of festivities into one awesome boat ride out into the Gulf of Mexico.  Partly this was because the themes complimented each other (Jackson wanted a pirate birthday and Emily wanted a mermaid birthday - that works, right).  The other major reason was that every day in late May was precious as we had to be out of our Spur Branch house on May 30th!

We met at the Endeavor Marina early Saturday morning to shove off for our voyage.  Don't believe anyone who tells you I was late.  It was 9:26 when I pulled in, 4 minutes early -- long story :(. 

Anyhew, we were really grateful that so many of our friends and family were able to make the trip as the Marina is up to an hour from many people's homes.  The boat tour took us past the Kemah Boardwalk, and just barely out into Galveston Bay. 

After the cruise we had lunch and opened presents on the boat in the marina.  There was also some swashbuckling mayhem once we gave out the pirate sword party favors.  The girls were much more civilized with their sea animal stamp pads.

It was the first time on a boat for many of these young pirates and mermaids, and we hope it will be a memory that they all carry with them for years to come.  Thanks again to our friends and family that helped make this year's birthday a boatload of fun :)

 

 

To see all pictures from the event, check out our album on SnapFish:

 

For those geographically inclined individuals, here is a virtual earth bird's eye view of the marina.

All aboard from Endeavor marina on Clear Lake

Sale Pending!

After 6 years in our humble abode on Spur Branch Lane, we are moving.  We'll be building our new home in Seven Meadows, which is another subdivision within the Cinco Ranch master planned community in Katy.  We are very excited and have been getting ready for the past month or so.  Our house is now under contract to sale and as long as there are no hiccups in the process we should be out by the end of May.

 

It is kind of sad to part ways with the house where we have raised Jackson and Emily.  Their trees in the backyard are growing better than ever, Emily's Magnolia tree has beautiful big white flowers on it this spring.  However, it is time to move on... we need a media room :)

But there is certainly something special about this house.  I think it shows in the fact that an identical floorplan house exists across the street priced at over 10k less than our listing.  While the other house has been on the market for months, ours sold in just a few weeks.  We're sad to go, but very excited for our new house.  We'll have a park immediately across the street for the kids to play in.

How Cool Is That

I've always loved Smithville, Texas and the surrounding area. The rolling hills of Bastrop and Beuscher state parks are amazing, and the area is pretty close to Austin - one of the great art and music hubs of the country.

So I happened upon the fact that right smack in the middle of this area is Bateman, Texas! Apparently the city is now unincorporated, but pretty neat to know it is there. We'll have to drop in for some BBQ on our next trip to Austin.


The fact that there was an ambitious Bateman back in the day made me wonder - where do all of the Batemans live? How unique are we within Texas? A quick Google search turned up these top 5 "Bateman States"
View the top state pages for Bateman

1. Texas 410 listings
2. Florida 367 listings
3. North Carolina 339 listings
4. California 326 listings
5. Utah 267 listings

Even more than I bargained for, there is a Bateman distribution map of the entire country! It is amazing the useless stuff you can find on the Internet :)

First Time Camping

This past weekend marked the first excursion out into the wild as a family.  Since the Jordans had been on camping trips several times (with an even younger daughter), we were emboldened to join them on a weekend in the East Texas woodlands.  Hunstville State Park is about 1.5 hours from Katy directly north of Houston.  If you know where the gigantic statue of Sam Houston is, it is right there.

          

We left the house in good order (since it is now on the market), and loaded up the Volvo for a long-awaited weekend retreat.  Jackson and Emily had been behaving great to ensure they didn't have to lose any privileges - namely this camping trip.  The excitement had been building all week, and Jackson wasn't quite sure what camping was, but he insisted on asking if we were camping the entire ride up I-45.  Upon arrival, the "Don't fee the gators" sign didn't instill any comfort in me, but the park facilities were great.  Running water at every campsite, and plenty of room for the cars, tents, etc.  It was only a short walk down to the pier where we spent a good part of Saturday fishing.  Jackson is getting pretty good at casting, so soon we might fix it up with a real hook.  For now, it is the plastic fish for practice.  We also had the rocket launcher rod that shoots the lure about 50 feet out into the water - sweet :)

          

Once it got dark the kids were really wound up!  Throwing leaves into the fire was a favorite nighttime activity after a yummy chili dog dinner.   Dinner and breakfast were great - including our improvised coke can eggs.  Anyone know if it is harmful to eat eggs  cooked in an aluminum soda can?  Of course we roasted marshmallows and had s'mores that were a team effort by all campers.

It was pretty cold Sunday morning, but we didn't let that dampen our plans for a bike ride with all of the kids in bike trailers.  Huntsville SP has some decent trails that are wide enough to pull without worrying about hitting trees, etc.  The kids really enjoyed being able to zoom down the hills and through the tress without having to do any of the pedaling!

          

Please enjoy these pictures from our first of what we hope to be many successful journeys into the great outdoors:

http://www.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=186691292

 

Above is the pier we were fishing off from

Shamu! Shamu!

This past weekend we followed Angel's school choir to Sea World in San Antonio to watch them perform and have a fun day at the park.  The kids had a blast, although Jackson was upset he wasn't tall enough to go on the Steel Eel with Daddy :)

   

Jackson and Emily were grinning ear to ear as we went from the penguins, to see the sharks and dolphins.

   

The dolphin pool let the kids get up close and personal with some friendly porpoises.

   

And of course, what Sea World trip would be complete without a Shamu show!

   

No other album from Sea World.  These were most of the good pictures we got so I went ahead and just posted them all up here on the blog.