Lucy's Big Announcement!

Lucy is extremely excited to announce that she is going to be a big sister! Little sister is expected to arrive at the beginning of October. Yes... that means she will be born in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia! We are thrilled to having another girl and so thankful that Mama's pregnancy has been mostly easy so far. We have a name picked out, but are still open to suggestions!

I can't make this announcement without acknowledging that this news might be painful for some of you. We have been on the infertility and loss side of family planning and wouldn't wish those experiences on anyone. To those of you who have confided your struggles in us, please know we are continually praying for you. If you are dealing with this but haven't told us yet, we would love to be a listening ear or voice in prayer for you.

Thank you all for your love and support! We're looking forward to introducing the newest little Rogers in a few months :)

Things I will miss about Houston

As we are preparing to pack up and leave the city and the people that have become our "Houston Family", I get all nostalgic driving around. I pass places with a lot of memories, delicious food, and what was essentially our livelihood for the last 7 years (holy cow has it really been that long???). Here is a list of the things I'm pretty sure I will think about on a regular basis. I'd also highly recommend checking out any of these places if you happen to find yourself in this great city!

Niko Niko's--Great greek food. If you need further proof it was featured on Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives. This is also the first restaurant we went to with Travis' dad, and he took a liking to it and wants to visit every time he comes. I suspect this is mostly because he knows how to get there without asking for directions.

Luigi's Pizzeria--I think I've only eaten the Caprese, but there is no need to order a different pizza ever. It's amazing. After dinner there is a delicious selection of gelato to choose from. We also like coming here because they have a great little patio next to a bocce court. Lucy has recently taken a liking to walking up and down the court and picking up and throwing the bocce balls. She was VERY disappointed the last time we went and the court was flooded!

Torchy's Tacos--I just ate at this place for the first time on Sunday. But man was it delicious! I'm sure if we weren't leaving I would eat here a lot.

The Original Ninfa's on Navigation--You can't leave this place without feeling overabundantly satisfied! I especially love the sangria.

Ruggles Green--When I was pregnant with Lucy there was nothing I wanted more than the chicken curry salad from Ruggles Green. I also love that they have a great variety of gluten free menu options. While I'm not restricted to a gluten free diet I appreciate they are considerate of those who are.

BRC--I was completely opposed to this restaurant when it opened down the street because the acronym is too foul for this prude. But then my arm was twisted to go for happy hour and they served me sangria. Travis likes it because they have a great beer list and they put bacon on a lot of things. Lucy likes it because they have good french fries. You win this time, Big Red Chicken.

The many other amazing restaurants--there are too many good ones to list. Unfortunately since we do try to live by somewhat of a budget, and now we have a toddler who won't sit still, we don't get to go to the really good ones as often as we would like. Some of the specific ones that come to mind are Mark's (where we celebrated our first anniversary!), Pappas Steakhouse, Pappas Seafood, Pappasitos, Corner Table, Ouisie's, America's, Carrabba's, Pollo Campero,  Benjy's, Shade (don't remember which anniversary we celebrated here, but I will NEVER forget the mocha creme brûlée with orange liqueur sauce we had for dessert!), etc. The list is endless.

Ok so now it appears that all I really care about in Houston is the food. I can't deny that I really love the food. But there are other things I love too!

Rice Village--I love coming here to eat lunch, drink coffee, and go shopping. There's a good mix of local stores and restaurants as well as the typical chains. Not to mention it's fairly walkable and stroller-friendly (for Houston), so if you come to eat it's easy to stay and shop.

Memorial Park and the Arboretum--I have recently started taking Lucy to the Arboretum's "Tyke Hike" program on Monday. It's pretty adorable to see 30 toddlers examining leaves, bugs and gravel on the trails. Memorial Park is also where I did the bulk of my training for my three half marathons. I felt like I knew every tree along the three mile trail! At the park we also like the driving range and the ADA-friendly playground.

Lucy with a prized pinecone she found on our walk Monday morning!

CWCC--My OB's office is amazing. I credit them with literally saving my life a few years ago and every doctor and nurse in the practice is incredibly kind and compassionate. Not to mention that it's just plain pretty! I wish my house was decorated half this well! Seriously folks--the bathroom is prettier than any room in my house.

Erika--The best hair stylist in Houston. No question! She always squeezes me in right before I have scheduled pictures or a party, realized that it's been 5 months since I've had my hair cut, and saves the day. Not to mention that she is also a beautiful woman of Christ who has counseled me through all sorts of life events the past 4 years or so. If you are looking for a stylist in Houston please visit her for a consult!

Driving down Rice Blvd under the beautiful canopy of Live Oaks, or driving down Memorial Drive along the Bayou. The trees and landscape are so peaceful and refreshing for a big city.

Messiah Lutheran Evangelical Childcare Center and First Friends Parent's Day Out Program: Lucy attended daycare at MLECC for 3 months before I quit working and now goes to the part time program at First Friends. I'm so appreciative of the care and love she has received at both places.

The Houston Auto Show--Believe it or not I'm a bit of a car nut. Clarification--new car nut. Even though I've never personally owned a brand new car (and likely never will, I'm far too frugal to buy new!) I still love new cars. I have not made it to the show every year we've lived here, but it's close! I love sitting in all the brand new cars, seeing the new technology, and having my eyes opened to brands and models I would never have considered otherwise.

Mommy picked out an Aston Martin convertible, but Lucy had more fun in the big trucks. I guess she really is a Texan!

FCC Houston--We visited FCC our third Sunday in Houston. We had visited two other DOC congregations, really liked both of them, but neither had 'hooked' us yet. At FCC we found not one, not two, but no less than THREE couples our age and they all seemed like nice people. They had a vibrant Sunday school class, they invited us to lunch after church the next week, and then the Thompson's invited us into their home for dinner. Not only had we found nice young people in a strange city but they actually invited us to their house. Woah. After that we couldn't NOT go to this church! We have truly loved our time at FCC and have grown as Christians in ways we didn't know possible. We are so thankful for the spiritual guidance we have received by some amazing members of this church. The music director, our dear friend Jeremy, also pushed us to share our musical talents and we will be forever grateful for this opportunity to share in musical ministry!

Our 'Houston Family': You know who you are :-) These people have truly made Houston home for us. We love you all so much. I love that our children are each other's first best friends. I hope when we come back to visit (and maybe to live in a few years?) you will still want to hang out with us!

I have loved living in this city but our experience would not have been half of what it was without our "Houston Family". These are the people that we share meals, holidays, and life with. The restaurants and places listed above wouldn't be nearly as meaningful or fun without our dear friends beside us.

Things I won't miss? The traffic, the lack of nature (the arboretum tries, but there's only so much nature you can pack into a square mile in the middle of Houston), and a three story house. The stairs were cool until I had a kid whose stuff was always on a different level.

In August check in again for the post "What I actually miss about Houston". I'm sure once we move and I come to realize what life in Saudi is really like my thoughts on this subject will change :)

18 Months Old! How did that happen?

Dear Lucy,

I can't believe you are 18 months old today. The past year and a half has gone faster than I ever thought possible! Especially the last 6 months. I hear that time will only keep going faster from here on out so I guess I better hold on tight, because you'll be driving a real car before we know it.

You have changed so much in the last month. Just in the last two weeks your vocabulary has quadrupled! I think when you were 17 months old you were only saying Apple, Dada (or Daddy), Bubble, Up, and Hi. Now in addition to that you also say Nana (for Banana), Bye, Elmo, Help Please (your first two word phrase! although it comes out more like 'hep peas'), Car, Cool, Go, Dog, Cookie, Cracker (Ca-ca), Tomato (Toe), and my personal favorite, Momma! Tonight you also repeated the word "happy" clear as a bell. It's a little hard to keep up with what words you know versus what you just repeat, because now you are actually repeating a lot of what we say! Another fun thing you do is animal sounds. You are really good at Duck (you make a great "Ack!" sound), Cow ("oom"--it's ok that you say moo backwards), Elephant (you kind of buzz your lips), Kitty Cat (you make the most adorable high squeaky noise you can muster), Lion (rrrrrr) and Sheep (Ba!)

You are THRIVING in your Mother's Day Out program at First Friends. The first two months were a little rough and it has taken you awhile to get adjusted. Now I can *almost* drop you off without tears, but I think you still don't like being away from Momma even though I know you have lots of fun at school. At school you've learned to jump, spin and put your arms in the air. So much fun! I think school has also helped you to have more fun with your friends and be more independent. However this independence is also making things a little more difficult for Momma! Like when you want to walk into the street without holding my hand or run amok at a restaurant. You have also decided you really like Elmo. I'm not really sure how that happened since we've only turned on Sesame Street maybe 10 times in your life. I love this picture of you totally engrossed in whatever Elmo is doing:

Your favorite foods come and go in phases. Of course anything really delicious like goldfish or cookies  (Guh-gie!) is always welcomed in your palette. You especially love eating grapefruit for breakfast and you are usually unhappy when you've finished an entire half and there's nothing left. For awhile you were really into grapes and strawberries, but those seem to have given way to your current love for tomatoes (Toe!). You ask for a banana on a regular basis but rarely seem to actually want to eat it. You also enjoy eating apples whole. Slices won't do for this big girl. However, your absolute FAVORITE food is peas. Anytime I offer peas you get excited. Sometimes I make more than I intend but you never cease to amaze me with your ability to eat every pea on your plate (minus the few that don't make it when you're shoveling whole handfuls in your mouth). Peas seem to be a pretty healthy food to love so I don't mind indulging you in this habit. You also enjoy spaghetti with meatballs and mac and cheese. In fact you ate three whole servings of spaghetti for dinner last night! You're generally pretty easy going about food and if you're hungry you'll eat what we serve you. If you aren't too hungry then it better be something you really enjoy like goldfish and ritz crackers. And yes it must be Ritz, saltines or townhouse just will not do.

You are becoming proficient with a fork! 

 You really like to charm people by telling them "Hi!" and waving. Clearly you know what you're doing here because everyone pays attention to you when you say it :) You are also good at giving hugs and kisses and blowing kisses when we say goodbye to someone. I'm afraid now that you're saying 'Bye' you won't blow kisses as much and that makes me a little sad.

Being silly in a box

I think that about sums you up! You still really dislike being put down for naps or bedtime but that's not any fun to talk about. Hopefully you'll grow out of hating it soon.

Lucy thought the Children's Sermon needed an interpretive dance

We love you, sweet Lucy!

It's official, we're moving to the Kingdom!

After nearly 6 months of waiting, wondering, and anticipation, we are officially moving to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia! Travis received his visa today and will (probably) be leaving tomorrow for a 3 week stint to get his Iqama (residency permit or something like that), which will allow us to start the visa process for Lucy and me when he returns. And maybe this is totally inaccurate but that's how I understand the process to be :)

We did not expect the process to take nearly this long, but one advantage is that it has given us a lot of time to think about and plan our upcoming move. I've also been blessed with the opportunity to ask a LOT of questions to some nice people that already live there and this has greatly eased our minds regarding the move. I'm sure there will still be some culture shock once we actually arrive for good!

We have been thinking about an international opportunity for awhile, and especially now that I'm a SAHM to a toddler this seemed like a good time. Saudi was definitely NOT on our radar as a place to go, but Travis had an opportunity to visit during a business trip in August 2012. His supervisor (who lived there for several years) was clearly trying to plant some seeds when he said "Be sure to visit Murjan Village, where the expat families live!" Once Travis saw that the compound the families live in actually looked like a nice place to live we began to consider Saudi as a place to look for an international opportunity. As these things go, a job opened within two months. We had been praying for guidance but were not quite ready for what God had planned!

Travis applied for a job in October, interviewed in December and was told they would make a decision by the end of the year or end of January at the latest. Finally in MARCH he received an offer letter. It was a nerve-wracking 6 months not knowing what was in our future! Travis' plant in Houston has a turnaround in June, so we will not officially be moving until July.

In the meantime, I'm constantly making lists in my head about what to take, what to send in our air shipment, what to send in our sea shipment, what to store, and what to sell! Not to mention all I need to do to get our house in 'show ready' condition to sell. Needless to say it's keeping me very busy. Lucy is in a great Mother's Day Out program two days a week and I'm very thankful for the free time I have while she's there to get things done.

Keep your fingers crossed Travis makes it on a plane tomorrow so he can get there and home again to help me with my lists :) Don't worry too much about him while he's there, he gets to fly business class and the good cooks at BRC put extra bacon on his meal tonight!

I hope to use this blog to chronicle our adventures in moving to Saudi. I'm not normally good at finishing things I start so hopefully I can keep up with this! Keep me honest, folks!

Lucy's First Birthday!

Lucy, I can't believe you are a whole year old! We had a lot of fun planning and celebrating this milestone with you.

I have been thinking about your party for months now. I had ordered your dress in late September, scoped out Arne's for party supplies in early October, and had been thinking about pinwheel related food since August. I decided on the pinwheel theme when I saw how fascinated you were with a pinwheel Grandpa brought to the Trussell family reunion in June. Seemed like it would be the perfect theme for an outdoor party with lots of kids! Unfortunately no one sells pinwheels around here in October, but that's ok because your Aunt Jessica is so very crafty and she was able to come a few days early to help me make them. Here are a few pictures of you and Aunt Jess:

We went shopping at Arne's for party supplies and you got reeeeeeeally comfortable!

 Jessica was supposed to feed you lunch and put you down for a nap while I ran some errands. You fell asleep before she could take you upstairs!

Friday night Grandma and Grandpa Trussell, Babka and Popco, and Nate arrived. You had already gone to bed so there are no pictures of their arrival (since apparently we now only take pictures that you can be in!) The next morning we were busy getting ready for the party! Unfortunately we didn't realize that you had decided you only needed one nap, so we spent two hours trying to get you to go to sleep. Eventually you did take a nap, and we were able to go on with party prep.

This was supposed to be several bunches of smaller balloons... but it was so windy they tangled on the walk to the park!

I loved how all the decorations turned out! We made pinwheels out of scrapbook paper, attached them to straws, then put them in the cupcakes and baby food jars filled with salt (I stole this idea from the internet!)

We made favor bags for all the kids filled with sidewalk chalk, fun sunglasses, bubbles, and a pinwheel that actually spins! This made for some fun party activities and a colorful sidewalk!

The food turned out really yummy: We had spice cake cupcakes, apple nachos, chex mix (Babka's special recipe!) and tortilla/creamcheese pinwheel snacks. And of course, raspberry sherbet punch!

Lucy had fun on the slide with Popco, and then we aren't sure why but she decided to tackle the neighbor, Brandon. She knocked him clear to the ground. The poor kid was just trying to play with the balloons!

Lucy figured out how to drink from a straw a couple days before her party! If she hadn't, she would have missed out on her punch!

I think it's safe to say that Lucy liked her cake! I had to feed her a bite before she understood what it was, and then there was no stopping her!

Two hands are better than one :) I loved the cute kids behind her cheering her on!

Lucy LOVED dancing with Aunt Jessica.

Here are a few pictures of the party guests enjoying themselves. Unfortunately I didn't think to line up all the kids to try to get them all in one picture, but 7 in one shot is pretty good!

 I can't make a post about Lucy's Birthday weekend without congratulating Nate on his new status of "Revokable Membership" in the family. Congrats, Nate!

 After we got back to the house Lucy opened up her presents. She was so excited! She made this face a lot:

There was a little confusion with the ribbon on this package:

Of course the only thing more fun than opening new presents is pushing around the new presents on the kitchen chairs!

 The next morning we all walked to Black Walnut Cafe for breakfast. Lucy was completely tuckered out by the time we got home!

Lucy and Jessica really enjoyed sticking our their tongues at each other!

This was just the beginning. Stay tuned for pictures from Part 2--Lucy's actual birthday!

The Great Kansas Adventure of 2012

Since I'm not publishing this blog yet, I'm going to write a few posts about our fun trips this summer after-the-fact.  We can all pretend they were posted in a timely manner :)

We drove to Kansas to spend two weeks hanging out with family in June. Travis had to fly home to work at the end of the first week, but was able to fly back to help me drive home.

The drive up was relatively easy. We left when Travis got off work and stayed with a friend in Dallas. The hardest part of the drive was definitely the first 30 minutes trying to get out of Houston in the hardest rain we'd had in months! Lucy did great and only fussed when she was hungry (not unlike me or Travis!) We made it to KS in time for bbq Friday afternoon.

My favorite part of the whole two weeks happened right when we arrived at Travis' parents' house. Lucy looked around like it was a whole new world! Then--she saw their miniature schnauzer, Samson. She LOVED Samson! She squealed and laughed and thought he was the funniest thing she'd ever seen. I hate that we didn't get pictures/video of this moment. Here's a picture of them interacting later on in the week:

On Sunday evening we drove to the Chancy farm to kick off the annual Trussell Family Reunion. It was a beautiful evening and the field across from my aunt and uncle's house was being harvested as we arrived! I was so happy we made it in time to see this.

Lucy had fun seeing Grandpa on the farm!

Even though Lucy had met her cousins before, she was only 8 weeks old and we didn't expect her to remember them. She loved meeting cousin Jenny again:

And cousin Milla:

Of course no trip to the farm is complete without a wagon ride:

But don't worry, no one was hurt when the wagon busted apart a few minutes later.

I love that my birthday always falls during the reunion. You can't beat getting to celebrate with cousins, aunts, uncles, and all the kids!

Yes that is a dollop of whipped cream on my nose. It's tradition in the Mexican restaurant in Concordia KS. What? You aren't familiar with this tradition? Sounds like you need to take a trip to Concordia KS for your birthday then! Later that day we had delicious hamburgers, and angel food cake with fresh strawberries for dessert. A perfect birthday!

I love this picture of the Trussell/Chancy ladies:

Jenny made everyone a delicious brie and mushroom quiche for breakfast one morning. We carted it out to "Jenny's Joint" for a lovely breakfast overlooking the pond.

Lucy was a little fussy right before this picture was taken. Grandma said "Give her to me. I've held a lot of babies." Lucy calmed right down!

Step on up for some FRIED CHICKEN!

Lucy enjoyed playing with mashed potatoes for the first time:

We spent our second week in KS cruising around Manhattan and catching up with old friends and new friends, like Sonder and Clara Crane:

We capped off the trip by attending the benefit Trivia game at Auntie Mae's for Shwan Alkhatib. It was a lot of fun and we look forward to going back next year--both for the reunion and the trivia game!