the east has been good to us

Eli and I have been back east for 63 days and it's been a whirlwind. We've seen friends and family galore. And now we've seen snow. Lots of it. And like any good mother, I made sure to take the obligatory kid-who-can-barely-move-inside-his-snow-suit pictures. We couldn't get any smiles out of him, but I assure you the giggles returned once he thawed inside.

If I was still in Texas and had missed all this winter wonderland fun, I would have cried. Because I. Love. Weather. For the 29 hours that it took us to get our 24 inches, I was a constant on weather.com. I love me some satellite trackers. The whole thing brought back high school memories, bugging the neighbor next door who just happen to be the superintendent of the school system to beg him to cancel school for the week.

As the first snowflake fell, my mom and I hit up the two stores that every girl needs when stocking up for a snow-in: Safeway and JoAnns. Along with everyone else. It seems we weren't the only ones looking for milk and some crafty entertainment for the weekend.

Eli didn't seem phased by the excitement too much. Which is too bad, really. Had he been a year or two older, this would have been his winter to remember. He may never see snow like this again.

Of course, we could always get stationed in Alaska...

the circus has come to town

I won't have much to say today because the Circus is in town! My brother's family, all 5 of them, have taken over El Paso and Fort Bliss and we're having a ball. So I would suggest popping over to Crystal's blog to get the daily play-by-play of their visit here. Already their son is infatuated with the Army-ness surrounding us. I've enjoyed an impromtu picnic in our backyard with their other daughter. And their youngest was the picture of absolute cuteness just now cuddling with mom after her nap.

Often I wish Maryland wasn't so darn far from Texas. I could eat these kids up.


Tomorrow we're going to White Sands National Monument to go sledding. Yup, in shorts and t-shirts, we'll be sledding on sand. It's quite the thing to do around here. And since I don't like to post without including a picture, I've heisted one off of someone's website so that you can envy us all tomorrow.

I hope you can enjoy your weekend as much as I will. Never a dull moment here at the Grubes.

a week in el paso

No, I didn't fall into the giant abyss that is Texas. You might have thought so given my absence. But I've just been busy... I guess?

The week hasn't been half bad. Lots of adjusting, but I'm making it work. This would be crazy long post if I told you all of it, so I'll recap. It'll just be sorta long. But I promise pictures at the end...

Recap #1
Thursday we ventured off post to see what this whole El Paso thing was all about. After about 20 minutes of driving on the highway, overlooking the sprawling city, seeing Mexico in the distance, feeling overwhelmed, feeling lonely....

I cried.

I cried and told Jim "I don't want to be here" and he lovingly held my hand and told me I cried when we got to Fort Campbell, too. I think he was lying and just saying that to make me feel better. But he does have a better memory than I do, like by a ton. So I believed him and it did make me feel better. I loved Fort Campbell and would go back to in a second. Perhaps Fort Bliss would surprise me.

Recap #2
Friday Jim met his "sponsor" who toted him around post to show him the place. I stayed back and walked Roxy to a mysterious coffee shop I thought I'd seen on post. It's fabulous! It doesn't look like much from the outside, but it's frappuccinos are maybe better than Starbucks. Maybe. And with the long walk home, I felt very justified in my calories, thank you very much.

So, coffee shop on post. I might be able to handle this.

Recap #3
Saturday Jim and I decided to be adventurous and find a hole-in-the-wall Mexican place to eat that looked like it had passed inspection. (We've heard rumors.) So we found Viva Burrito and it was horrible. We ended up at Taco Bell. I'm not making that up.

Recap #4
On Sunday we made friends! Jim's sponsor Brandon ended up being a pretty cool guy with a pretty cool wife! And they like hiking. And she likes crafting. So for three hours we talked up a storm and watched our 3 dogs become rock climbing buddies as we hiked the Franklin Mountains. We made it to a cool Aztec cave (pictures below) and scrambled down what I think wasn't a path, but was still super fun. We even got an invite for Thanksgiving dinner. Our other option was turkey sandwiches in the hotel room. No kidding.

It was such a great day and we slept really well. Especially Roxy.

And I have my first friend.

Oh, and I saw my first tarantula! My first thought was to be scared. But don't worry, my second thought was to grab my camera. But then Brandon told me they could jump. So I quickly walked away. Then he said, "Sometimes up to 6 feet." So I ran. But I still saw one so I think I should totally get cool points for that.

Recap #5
Housing. I've been kinda moot on this point because things have been very up in the air as to where we're going to live. We really, really, really want to live on post. To do that, you have to get your name on the waiting list, and we've been on it since August. Our number has gone down from high, to 34, which is still high.

On Monday the "nice" lady behind the desk didn't give us much hope. She reminded us that 34 is really high.

So Plan B. This is a God Is Awesome! story. As it turns out, through a connection with the post chaplain, there's a girl with a home in the same neighborhood we'll hopefully someday be in who sorta needs a house sitter. Did you follow that? For 6 weeks we'll be borrowing someone else's home on post. And she thinks we're doing her a favor!

The house is huge and has a fence in the backyard for Roxy. We just got the key today and I couldn't be more pumped. We'll move in Saturday.

And for the next few months I'll visit the "nice" lady at Housing every week and maybe even bring her cookies.

Recap #6
Jim and I enjoyed our hiking trip so much that that we went back again today. We enjoyed a picnic lunch under the nicest side-of-the-road-picnic-table I've ever enjoyed. Then we found another set of caves and hiked away! Roxy is quite the rock-climbing dog - far more so than we anticipated. She thinks Texas is heaven. We never thought we'd be "those people", but we definitely have more pictures of her than of us. Lame, I know.

_________________________________
So that's our first almost-week in El Paso. The other day I told Jim that I think I might end up liking it here. Somehow, when you meet people and find things to do, it doesn't feel so big.

Here are all the pictures I promised. It's a collection I call:

"What Karen does when she's stuck in Texas,
and then doesn't feel quite so stuck"

On our first hike with our new friends, the Ebels. (A picture does exist with all of us together, but sadly it wasn't taken on my camera.)

Karen and Roxy near the Aztec caves

Wednesday's side of the road picnic

Our picnic view

Roxy and Jim

Roxy our mountain dog

weekend notes: german food and rope swings

So Jim and I decided to wait until Saturday morning to drive up to WV to see our good friends the Smiths. That made for an impromptu German night on the in-laws new back porch, complete with bratwurst and homemade spaetzle. It was delicious and the sunset was beautiful. We continued the "perfect evening" theme with some more low-key time on the porch. Jim smoked his cigar and surfed the computer, while I crocheted and drank my wine. It couldn't have been more lovely or relaxing. Ahhh.

Saturday we drove up to WV. Sunday we drove back.
In between we:
kayaked on the Potomac River
swung on a perfectly placed rope swing
got bumps and bruises climbing to rope swing
swam for 2 hours
ate overpriced but tasty German food here
slept for over 10 hours Saturday night
crocheted a ridiculous number of hexagons

Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I won't bore you with too much type and I'll leave you to see the absolute blast that was this weekend.

Can you see Jim? Swinging like a graceful monkey?

I, however, got no style points that day. Mid-air flip was actually more of a survival mechanism. Rocks are closer than they appear.

I did have some better runs, really, but somehow the camera was never near by. Then I tried to do some fancy stuff and suffered for it the next morning with sore and aching bones. Seriously, Tarzan had way more upper-body strength than I ever game him credit for.