Elias is officially a Tween!

The house situation is still completely unresolved so I'm going to blog about something normal.

Yesterday was Elias' 11th Birthday! Caleb's out of town this week so we celebrated it on Sunday. His big gift this year is Caleb taking him on a wild hog hunt in the fall. He got several hunting type gifts to help prepare him for the big hunt. I can't believe we have a tweener now. In a lot of ways it's obvious and in others he's still a little boy. I'm gonna hang on to the little boy part for as long as possible. He's a great kid who always notices when I need help and volunteers readily. He's so tolerant and helpful with Silas (who can be a major pill). He's so easy going and can adapt and go with the flow without effort. He loves sports and playing family games. He brings so much joy to our family. We love you Elias! Thanks for choosing us as your family!

The new New House

This is the house we're going to make an offer on. It's on a wooded acre lot. 20 min. to Caleb's office and 20 min. to the airport. 15 min. to The Woodlands mall...everything we need!

Farewell Colorado

By this time tomorrow night, we should be out of Colorado and on our way to Houston. We have lived in Colorado for 5 years which is the longest we have ever lived anywhere our entire married life. I have to say that this is our toughest move.

Elias had to say goodbye to all of this friends at baseball tonight. They have been playing football, basketball and baseball together for quite a few years and they are a great group of kids. Isaac is sad too. It is really nice to have your best friend live right across the street. I think they played together almost everyday and always had a great time.

The neighbors are going to be excited to see Silas go. He usually terrorizes everyone and everything around him. I'm sure it won't take too long to make a name for himself in Texas.

I'm not too worried about Jude because he is in a world of his own and won't ever really notice that we made a change.

It is going to be hard to say goodbye to all of the great friends that we have made here in Colorado. We knew the day would eventually come because Houston is the center of the universe for the energy industry. We just didn't know it would be now.

If you are ever in Houston, look us up. Who knows we may even have a house by then!!!

Update

Things have changed quite a bit since I last blogged about our move. The house we were planning to buy with the sweet pool was broken in to and after a very scary week we were able to get out of the contract with them. Not without them threatening to sue us first. They ended up keeping our earnest money but finally agreed to release us from the contract. Last Friday our house here in Colorado officially went under contract too. The offer wasn't great but to be able to sell our house in a down market is a blessing. As I speak the movers are packing up our belongings and about shut me down on my computer. We have another house in mind and as is consistent with our history, it's a repo and the bank hasn't let us know if they've accepted our offer. It usually takes a while for them to get back to you so we know not to be too impatient yet. Patience is NOT one of my greatest qualities so we'll see how we sweat this one out. We'll be staying in a condo on Lake Conroe until we find our home so at least we should have fun while we're "homeless".

"Driving Distance" is Relative

Five years ago when we moved to Denver from Houston Caleb was so excited to be within "driving distance" of Idaho where both our parents live. I bought into that line for the first trip. After sixteen hours of driving I soon realized I'd been duped! So, since we've lived here we've driven to ID 1-2 times a year. I HATE road trips. I don't care about the scenery. I get soars on my arms from reaching into the back of the car to "handle" the kids. Quick stop food makes me feel cruddy. We often drive at night to ease the burden on the children. I'm the first to admit that Caleb usually drives 14 of the 16 hours but when it's my turn to relieve him it's usually in the middle of the night. I get double vision while driving at night. Yes, on several occasions I've convinced Caleb to let us fly. Once I flew with Silas while he drove the boys up. The trip is torture. I am so HAPPY to say that our move back to Houston officially puts us OUT of driving distance!!! From here on out we're frequent flyers!

MJ Part II

To clear the air, I haven't LOVED MJ for quite some time. Yes, I bought BAD on RECORD (yes that was back when I only had a record player). It was the first album I ever bought with my hard earned paper route money. The above photo was a poster on my bedroom wall that I drooled over. That was the Michael that I loved. Seriously, I can probably sing every one of his songs, chorus and VERSES! I know he's been really weird, messed up and freakish these last 10 yrs. or so but I do have to say that I Tami Zimmerman, am a Micheal Jackson Junky. As with all Iconic deaths, I'm going to suspect that MJ's just in hiding and not really pushing daisies.

Tami's Childhood Hero

Yes, it was Michael Jackson. She even did some of his dance moves last night in his memory. I can't believe Tami hasn't already blogged about this but she must be too upset. When we found out that he was doing concerts in London, Tami really wanted to fly over and go to one of the concerts. Let's just say that I wasn't going with her. I never have been a fan of Michael Jackson but if you take a look at our CD's (so outdated) every single one of his songs are in there. I'm sure Tami will add to this in some way but I thought I would get my comments in first. For the record, we are on opposite ends of the spectrum on Michael Jackson!!!