Texas

Well the Dietrich family have been official Texas residents for over three weeks now. We have already seen the nice benefit of getting to keep more of our own money. There is no state income tax here, which is something unusual for us since we have been Iowa residents our whole lives. The kids love the new house and more space. They also enjoy having cows, or more specifically longhorn cattle, almost in our backyard. The town we live in was once only about 3,000 people or so. But has grown significantly, due to housing developments sprouting up all over the place. I think the official population is something like 15 or 20 thousand now. But it is all housing developments sprinkled throughout cattle pastures. So we feel like we live in the country.

We've noticed a few things unique to Texas so far. It is very true that Texans love being Texans. They definitely take pride in their state, which is evident wherever you go. I can't go to the bathroom in a gas station without being reminded that I'm in Texas. They have pictures of their state everywhere down here. Along with sayings like "God Bless Texas", "Don't Mess with Texas", "Never Surrender", and "Freedom Don't Come Free".

We have also noticed almost every other car on the road is a truck, SUV, or Hummer. I didn't think people still bought Hummers, but apparently there are thriving Hummer dealerships down here. Cowboy hats are everywhere as well as signs for rodeos, bull riding, and BBQ's. The Texas twang is rich here and people are almost as friendly as Iowans! We have also noticed a growing dislike for Obama down here. We have a NOOBAMA bumper sticker on our van and have gotten honks with thumbs up from people passing us by. A few days ago after exiting the interstate a guy honked at me and signed to roll down my window. I was a little taken aback, but I smiled and rolled down my window. He smiled at me and said "I got to get one of those No Obama bumper stickers. Where can I find one?" Hopefully this is happening in more states than Texas, but I have definitely seen a lot of Stop Obama bumper stickers down here.

We are headed for a dude ranch and the cowboy capital of the world this weekend. I'm really excited for this even though I won't be able to ride a horse, but the bed and breakfast type ranch we are staying at is promising a huge cowboy breakfast in the morning.

The pictures above are of Dad and Madeline at the Enchanted Springs Ranch near San Antonio. George Strait films a lot of music videos there. A great movie was even shot there that Dad and Mom love! The other photo is of Madeline in her gymnastics outfit as today was her first day of gymnastics class. She had a lot of fun, but got two stamps on her hand instead of one (one stamp is good, two not good) because she wanted to jump off the vault too many times. Got to work on the listening concept a little more with her.

That's all for now!

1st Day of School at St. Joe's

Getting dressed in the morning is great!! Lee also started his 1st day as a professor at U of Toledo law school.

Justin's Birthday & Camping

Camping in backyard!

So, Lee and the kids went camping for the first time..in our backyard last weekend! The kids had a blast, but Lee got no sleep. It also rained and the kids thought a tornado was coming!

Then on Tuesday, Justin's 8th birthday, we had friends from Ann Arbor over for a barbeque, firepit fun, fireworks etc. It was a great evening for us all...

Romantic Night of Painting. Not.

So, I told Lee I wanted to paint the kitchen a nice light blue and he said it would fun if we put the kids to bed, played our "Christ the King" music CD, had some nice adult conversations, and drank some good wine while painting. So that seemed like a romantic way to spend a Friday night and we were looking forward to it. We had the image from the Lowe's commercial in our minds. You know the one....husband and wife move into new home and decide to paint. They are happy, laughing, sipping on wine, goofing around putting paint on each other's cheeks!

Well......we succeeded in putting 4 of our 5 children to bed by 8pm. Greta, on the other hand, would not fall asleep. So, she sat in her chair and watched us...whinned a little.....started crying a lot. I tried putting her to sleep again and it failed. It's now 9:30pm and though Lee has been painting since 8pm, he has no desire to open the wine he bought for us. I let Greta sit in her chair again as I went back to painting, but she just whinned. So, we were both frustrated and were in no mood to even talk! I finally got Greta to sleep around 10:30pm--after deciding to give her some baby Tylenol. So, I go to the kitchen and Lee had opened the wine and drank most of it already without me!

By now, it is way past Lee's bedtime and he is in no mood for conversation. So, we quickly finish up applying the primer and call it quits. Lee says, "That was no fun at all. It was suppose to be a romantic night." Maybe when the kids are all grown up we can re-paint!

Iowa Floods '08

Limbaugh on the Floods

Limbaugh: 'I want to know. I look at Iowa , I look at Illinois -I want to seethe murders. I want to see the looting. I want to see all the stuff thathappened in New Orleans . I see devastation in Iowa and Illinois thatdwarfs what happened in New Orleans .

I see people working together.I see people trying to save their property...I don't see a bunch of people running around waving guns at helicopters, I don't see a bunch of people running shooting cops. I don't see a bunch of people raping people on the street. I don't see a bunch of people ...whining and moaning-where's FEMA, where's BUSH. I see the heartland of America . When I look at Iowa and when I look atIllinois , I see the backbone of America .'

Alex Talks Politics

Alex with his baby cow at Poppy & Nana's farm.

So, I guess the kids are listening when I talk about Obama! I often talk about how he just wants to take mommy & daddy's money away from us, so we want McCain to be the next President. Well, yesterday out of the blue....Alex asks, "Mom, if Obama takes your money away... can you tell the policeman?"

I just laughed and told him I wished it was that easy! (I'm happy to hear we're raising politically in-correct children though! We're all about using the word MAN at our house!)

Glasses!

Well, Felicity just got "reading glasses", but wishes she had to wear them all the time!