Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Global Link-Up: Our glimpse of Texas, USA!


We recently participated in a wonderful summer reading program put on by Jamie Martin and promoted by Sarah Mackenzie from Read Aloud Revival, based upon Jamie's book, "Give Your Child the World: Raising Globally Minded kids One Book at A Time."  
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We loved our experience reading through so many of her suggested books as we studied a new continent with all sorts of countries each week in the summer months! It was so fun being able to learn about the world and pull out a map and dive in deep to learning about some of these places we may have never been to, but could catch a glimpse of life there even for those fun special summer reading moments! They brought many fun cultural learning treasures we will cherish as a family forever, especially the name of the child from Japan named, "tiki tiki tembo no sa rembo chari bari ruchi pip peri pembo!" haha! My kids and their cousins loved our experience reading together! So, as part of the summer reading challenge, the last week of the summer, we were invited to participate in a Global Link Up of families submitting their thoughts and experiences of life from their home cities and countries! So, we wanted to join in on the fun and complete our summer reading experience by sharing what life in our little corner of the world is like for us! :)  Here we go!

 Questions:

– Tell us about your family.


We are a family of six! My husband is originally from Washington state, while I am from Utah and spent many years growing up in California too. We met while we were attending college at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and were married within in a year later.  We started our adventures as a family in Utah, and have since lived in Washington, California, and have more recently moved to the Dallas, Texas area about 2 1/2 years ago.  Our oldest is our determined and energetic Katelyn, who is 7 years old, followed by Nathan, our speed racer-man, who is 5 years old, then our sweet calming love-bug Gracie, 3 years old, and lastly, our peaceful, but ever curious explorer and new standing-enthusiast Joshua, almost 11 months old!








As a family, we sure loved our time in California and Washington, so many different terrains and incredibly beautiful surroundings with all sorts of family attractions ranging from camping in the redwoods or along the Pacific Northwest coast, along with mountain hikes, rocky tide pool shores and sandy beach play, to fascinating museums, zoos, and delicious fresh produce grown not far from our own backyard.  We loved the people and friends we made in those places, but are super excited for the Texan adventure we have set out on and the new journey of life for us out here in the Midwestern frontier!!


 – Tell us about where you live and how long you’ve lived there.

 We live in an area slightly North of Dallas, Texas and have lived here for almost 3 years.  From our experience, what sets Texas apart from the other places we have lived is that the land here is very very FLAT!! Haha…Compared to the Rocky Mountains in Utah or the rolling hills and extending down into the central coastal region of California from the Sierra Nevadas, we sure can see so much more of the wide-expansive blue sky spread out before us here! It is actually quite breathtakingly beautiful to see how massive the sky stretches onward, seemingly forever, as one views a full measure of the billowing clouds and azure blue above with majestically beautiful sunsets in the prettiest pink, purple and oranges that fill the entire sky.  J

In addition to the flat ground, it is SUPER SUPER hot here.  We basically have two seasons, hot hot humid summer (from about June through November) with sweltering heat, or icy, windy winters (generally from about December through March), with an occasional snow that lasts only about a week or two.  We do have a pleasant spring time, although it seems short where everything has started to warm up a bit, and with tornado season in this time period, we get some pretty strong winds, and lots of rain (including lots of flash flood warnings because the soil here is just like clay and does not drain off well or sink in and so there can be lots of water pooling on roads, or in the gutters and overloading the drainage systems.)  Springtime also brings some pretty intense and captivating lightning and thunder episodes (sometimes even nightly for several weeks at a time) that light up the entire sky! Lightning “storms” or displays can be so beautiful and fascinating to see (except when they are carrying on through the night and the flashes of light all but make for a dark, easy, restful night’s sleep. Haha. But they sure are awesome to watch in wonder and amazement. ;)) 

 


Beyond the flatness and heat, we have really grown to love it here! There is so much more space, literally wide open spaces, cow pastures, corn, cotton and sorghum fields (a grain similar to wheat or corn), lakes, and undeveloped land out here, (including lots of water towers, which I wasn’t used to—because water reserves are a precious commodity in the desert!)…it just feels like we’re going back into the days of the Wild West just driving to the grocery store.  We love that there is so much more affordable space for our kiddos to explore and play in the backyard or at the nearby parks or lakes close to our house.  Thankfully, even though we have to drive about 20-25 minutes to get to most stores, we are not too far from the rest of civilization and we enjoy going to local science museums, aquariums, lakes with man-made beaches (we love these!) and splash parks (splashy because they need to have water for the kids to play in…it just gets way too hot in the summers- typically in the 100s, but with the humidity, it is sweltering!).

 We have met so many great people here too, and we have really enjoyed the exceptionally kind southern hospitality we have felt here among our neighbors.  Since our town is small, there is a “Sweet Home Alabama” type feel here, where lots of families know each other and are close, and everyone goes to the high school football games each week, almost second in importance to their religions.  Haha.  Which, there are lots of churches here too! Almost every couple of blocks!! It is similar but in a different way to Utah! We enjoy learning about others’ faiths too and we love that the people are God-fearing, family-oriented, and usually uphold strong moral values too.  It is also a great perk that we live close to family so our kiddos enjoy playing with their cousins all the time and the fun adventures we get to experience together!

– What do you think is unique and special about living where you do?

 The most special thing about living here is probably the quality of life we can have here.  Our family lives close to family members and we get to spend meaningful time with cousins as well as experience lots of cool adventures in our small town life together too! We can afford much more than we could with the incredibly expensive housing market in California, which means we have more space to play inside and outside, and there are definitely fun activities we can enjoy together including swimming in nearby neighborhood pools, camping (although it’s definitely not much compared to camping in Utah or Washington…because it’s soo incredibly hot- even in May lol!! We have to bring a generator to keep a fan going or plan to not even use sleeping bags or sheets lol…way too hoottttt), but super fun museums and aquariums, playgrounds & parks, lakes with beaches, and the beautiful Dallas Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints too! :) We've been to some cool exhibits nearby too, including this lego one at the mall where they showcased all kinds of American landmarks including the liberty bell, statue of America, white house, pentagon, Washington monument, Lincoln memorial building and more! It was so amazing and impressive! We also have loved going to the zoo and seeing some amazing animals and lego creations there too!

A few experiences we will never forget will include finding all kinds of creations including a baby Texas rat snake in our garage sticky trapper pad, a crawfish on our front lawn, a turtle visiting up in our driveway which we had to return to the nearby creek, a tarantula, rabbits in our backyard, a ton of grasshoppers, wasps, fire ants galore, and bugs bugs bugs everywhere in the summer (which have completely devoured our garden crops!! lame huh!!), june-bugs splatting against our back door, and little lizards which have ran in and lost their tails trying to scurry away! Crazy encounters with animal life here, but we will never forget them!



Here are a fun sampling of pictures:




 






The first time we had seen a real fire-fly ever in our lives! It's abdomen really did light up in the night! So cool!
Racing a T-rex, cheetah and local athletes at our museum nearby.  So super fun for the kiddos!
Soccer nights at the local parks!
Butterfly made of legos at the zoo!

Park fun!


In addition, traditional festivals our little town has been putting on for decades, has greatly added to the unique experiences out family has experienced here with a flavor of Texas! The local community not only has spring and fall farmers markets, a super fun 4th of July firework extravaganza show with a live band and inflatable activities, a hot air balloon festival in September with inflatables and food trucks, face painting and ride attractions, but they celebrate Cinco de Mayo with dancing groups and festivities to commemorate the Mexican heritage of so many in our town, along with even a Cajun Crawfish Boiling Feast Festival too! We have also greatly enjoyed our small town Halloween Night hay rides, bouncy houses and free food gatherings, along with movie nights on the square (including Star Wars night with free pool noodle light savers!) as well as a wonderful Christmas On The Square Celebration with mini-train rides and puppet shows, bounce houses, Christ-centered ornament making, cookie decorating, and yummy hot chocolate! We just absolutely love the family-oriented community and the country life we can experience together! J


– What languages are spoken there? If it’s different from English, can you help us learn a few common phrases?


The language spoken here is primarily English, but the local public schools do offer some Spanish immersion classes or ESL classes too. 


– What are some traditional foods there?


Meat with a side of meat with a side of meat!! Texans love their barbequed meat! And it makes sense because Texas is the number one leading producer of beef and livestock in the nation! Texans love beef brisket, pulled pork, any meat smoked, and ANYTHING….I mean anything fried! We went to the Texas State Fair last year (one of if not the largest and best attended state fairs in the nation) and they had everything from deep-fried oreos, twinkies, and smores to deep fried pork ribs, deep-fried cheesecake, PB&J sandwiches, and deep-fried butter! Haha! Unhealthiness at its finest! Hehe.  The new foods introduced in 2008 were deep-fried chicken fried bacon and fried banana splits! I guess you have to hand it to the deep-frier for making the inside of the food nice and soft with a delicious crunch on the outside.  We even tried a deep-fried turkey for Thanksgiving this past year too…a Texas must-have…and it was actually very juicy, flavorful and delicious.  ;) Texans also love their decadent gourmet creamy and most fabulous desserts too…which sort of sets us apart from the crowds, with our California-instilled-green-thumb interest in more healthful and wholesome eating…but our preference for less decadent and alternatively more healthful nutritive foods and desserts sure serves to make us all the more unique! ;) 


– Tell us about the climate where you live.

It is super super hot most from especially July through September.  It cools off a lot and may even be a little icy with biting-cold winds in the winter from December through February, to be followed by a warmer, but rainy and windy springtime! It is quite humid here which makes it feel like you have a light blanket covering you whenever you step outdoors, but the nice windy breezes that start picking up in the Fall when it is still warm but temps are cooling off make it so much more enjoyable and nice!


– What does school look like for the majority of kids where you live?

The public school in our community has an elementary from K-2nd grade, then an intermediate school from 3-4th, followed by middle school from 5-6th, then junior high from 7-8th grade, and finally high school from 9th-12th grades.  Although we did experience one year in the public school here, we opted to homeschool our children the past two years because we felt it was the right choice for our family.  J


– What does school look like for your family?

The wonderful expanse of our home, supplemented by local museums, farm field trips, aquariums, and the local libraries where we bring home hundreds of books every other week! (Literally…lol…one confession I have is that I usually max out our library card every two weeks we go…to about 70-100 library books and a few dvds and audio books!! Crazy I know! But, we love it and it provides a nice challenge for us all to read through them all or have the kids “look” through them before we return the load! This is one of their favorite activities…looking at and reading books together! We love it!) We also have various math, language arts, and reading material and we add to our history, science and geography resources with books from the library as we study our planned out units and topics each week!!


Additionally, we have done all sorts of fun, interactive learning activities together including re-enacting the Battle of Lexington and Concord with plastic balls and pool noodle muskets, making the planets in our solar system out of clay, painting them and hanging them on our walls, studying magnets with stop and magnetically push magnet cars, learning the phases of the moon with oreos, planting a garden and crafting out some neat painted flowers, baking yummy creations of muffins, rolls, bread or trail mix concoctions in the kitchen, making our own biomes for favorite animals to live, learning about chemical reactions with gummy worms and baking soda reactions, and creating our very own Indian animal hide pictogram drawings as well as Inca/Aztec/Mayan paintings and coded messages.  We enhanced our learning experience by studying a new artist each week too and reproducing our own original works patterned after theirs too! It has been a fun homeschool journey over the past year! We have really enjoyed learning together. J









– Are there any special festivals or traditions you’d like to tell us about related to where you live?

Cinco de Mayo (as mentioned above), Cajun Fest (complete with boiled crawdad feasts too! This probably is a tradition shared by local Louisianan’s transported here!), 4th of July Festivals, Halloween Nights on the Square, as well as Community Movie Nights, Christmas on the Square and football games the whole town raves over each season too!


One of the greatest attractions most Texans try to attend is the Texas State Fair.  We attended last year and got to see all sorts of cool things including a cow being milked, and dog races, to horse round-ups to gather up cattle, a more exotic petting zoo with goats, llamas, and sheep, but also one of the state’s largest PIGs (Mario Lopez was even there with a news team live covering the monumental pig!!), giraffes, camels, emus, zebras, porquipines, yaks and bison too! Perhaps the coolest animal we saw was the Texas longhorn cow! WOWWWEEEE!!! Those horns are sure long and this award-winning one was quite an impressive sight! So was that cute little baby cow only a few days old too underneath its mom.  So cool to see and experience this all together!



– If you ever had to move away from where you live, what do you think you’d miss most?

We would probably miss the small town country feel and good family-oriented friendly people and the great quality of life with so many wide open spaces and room for our family to grow, enjoy a more country, slower-paced life with fun adventures and activities together! AND THE BEAUTIFUL expansive sunsets that fill the entire sky with glory and wonder at God's beautiful creations! :)



-Do you have a favorite book that takes place in your region/country?

The Cotton Candy Catastrophe at the Texas State Fair by Dotti Enderle



“L Is for Lone Star: A Texas Alphabet (Alphabet Series)” by Alan Stacy


“Every Cowgirl Loves a Rodeo” by Rebecca Janni


And The Little House on the Prairie Series too!