October 12 - Spooky Time Incoming

Fall break time! Jillian and I spent Friday at Altitude with her friend Guinevere and the girls had fun bouncing and playing on all the trampolines for hours. On Saturday, Ella came over and the girls played MineCraft. Yesterday, we spent the whole afternoon at Kemah Boardwalk with Avery. Jillian slept over at Avery's last night and tonight is muscial theatre. Tomorrow, the Girl Scouts are coming over to work on our first ever haunted house, scheduled for the 24th. It's been a fun long weekend so far!

Jillian and Guinevere

Reptiles at Kemah

Blondies take on Kemah

September 30 - ZTM

Zuko-the cutest little dude when he is sleeping (when he;s awake he is a total little turd muffin..he is definitely a ZTM!)

September 27 - Catch the Wave, the TIMBERWOLF Wave!

Yesterday was Jillian's first cheer clinic at Westbrook Intermediate. Ms. Florez, one of the fourth grade teachers at Jillian's school is the cheer coach and she didn't want to miss out. She went with Adelyn's older sister, Audrey. The girls learned several cheers and my personal favorite was the Wave but they were all fun!

Westbrook Wave Cheer:

Catch. The. Wave.

The Timberwolf Wave.

Oh Oh Get It Get It. 

Oh Oh Get It Get It.

Catch. The. Wave. 

T-Wolf Pride

Westbrook from Side to Side

T-Wolf! Pride!

Westbrook from side to side

T-Wolf! Pride!

Westbrook Rumble

Everybody do the Westbrook Rumble

Everybody the Westbrook Rumble

EVERYBODY

DO THE RUMBLE!

Everybody do the Westbrook Rumble

Everybody the Westbrook Rumble

EVERYBODY

DO THE RUMBLE!

September 20 - Go Tritans

8min from her dorm!

Julia has officially moved into her dorm and is a UCSD Tritan!

JD, Julia and I left early Wednesday morning to start our journey west. Jillian slept at Tammy's Tuesday night (she was SUPER excited for a sleepover) while we dropped Luke off at swim practice and then were on our way. In typical Yamo fashion, we drove from Houston to Las Cruces, NM with just one stop for gas and lunch. We hit some traffic leaving Houston, otherwise sooth sailing. 

On Thursday, we drove from Las Cruces to La Jolla. We had to go through three border control checkpoints on the drive, which was not something we were expecting. Checkpoint 1: the BPD officer ask if we were US Citizens and waved us through when we said yes. Checkpoint 2: unmanned so we just drove through. Checkpoint 3: the BPD officer verified we were a family traveling and looked in the car to verify..I suppose that we had another person in there, and then waved us through. We arrived at our hotel in La Jolla and after JD walked in to check-in, walked back to the car declaring "We're moving here. This weather is incredible." LOL! 

Northstar (aka Toaster)

After dropping off our stuff, we headed to the Torry Pines Gliderport, which is about 1/2 mile from campus. The views were incredible-we were literally on a cliff over the pacific while paragliders were flying around. We then walked to campus to see where Juila's dorm was located (about an 8min walk from the cliffs) and then walked around campus. UCSD is comprised of 8 different colleges (Hogwarts style) and she in Seventh College, which is at one end of campus. Seventh College is closest to the cliffs/water and everyone has a full apartment but the students have a farther walk to the academic buildings. However, after walking around the campus it's really not that big compared to UF or TAMU. 

So funny story here. It is a running joke in our family that I know someone everywhere I go. Other than JD and Julia, the only people I knew in San Diego were two other Houston mom's with kids also going to UCSD as incoming freshman. After we finished walking around campus on Thursday, we were standing in front of the pool (kind of at the very edge of one part of campus) and a car drives by and we hear a woman shouting "Christine!" It was one of the Houston moms. "Unbelievable" - JD. Hahahaha, what a small world. 

Friday was move-in day! She signed up for the earliest slot at 8.30am and this proved to be a great decision. We parked right in front of her dorm and unloaded the car quickly. She went to officially check-in and get her student ID and a moving cart, while JD moved the car to a garage. We were able to load everything into the cart and immediately hopped in an elevator to her floor (7th floor of 15 story tower). Everything was unloaded and set up in about 1.5h. We did a Target run off-campus and went out of for lunch and when we came back, it was VERY busy with people moving in, looking for parking spots etc. Glad we did it early! 

So, what does the dorm look like? Well, UCSD has a variety of dorms and they vary wildly depending on which college you are in. Julia's dorm is a 15-story tower built in 2011. The building itself looks like a giant toaster (in my opinion..) and people on the west side have an ocean view. Julia is on the east side but a decent view. Her floor theme is "Skylanders" which she was not thrilled about (floor below her is 'Glee') but I said become an RA and you can pick a good theme next year! She has a kitchen with a stove, microwave and full-sized fridge with decent storage. The living room has a couch, chair as well as a kitchen table and chairs.

I wanted to get a throw blanket and decorative pillows for the living room and she told me 'no' lol. There are 2 toilets, 2 sinks and 1 shower and 2 bedrooms with 3 girls each. The rooms have 1 set of bunk beds and the people assigned to those beds get a wardrobe and desk (it's really just a rectangular table). The 3rd person has a lofted bed with a wardrobe underneath and desk-the 3rd person really gets the short end of the stick in my opinion as their wardrobe and desk are smaller than the other two. Julia was assigned the lofted bed (so the smaller desk/wardrobe) but she packed accordingly and made everything fit. 

What about her roommates? One of her roommates, Catherine, moved in at the same time as Julia and she is very nice and very, very quiet. She's a physics major from San Jose, CA. The 3rd roommate is from Taiwan and she moved in yesterday, we didn't get to meet her. In the other room, there is Emily from Orange County (very quiet), Megan from I think the Bay area (very outgoing, plans to cook all meals in the dorm) and Rosy, from China, very quiet. I think all of the other girls are math and/or physics majors. She is at orientation today and there is an "un-Olympics" house competition Monday through Wednesday, hopefully she has a blast and meets lots of new people. And then classes start on Thursday! 

Congrats Julia on your new adventure! And in a surprise to no one, we can home and found Jillian already wearing Julia's clothes LOL. 

Torry Pines

Room View

Welcome Skylanders (seriously has anyone even heard of this?)

UCSD (sorry, I only took a few pics)

Dorm Tour

September 14 - Hoco

Hoco 2026! The week started with Luke inviting Arielle (volleyball player) to homecoming with a "hoco poster." I'm not sure when this became a thing but..well, let's be honest here, I made the poster LOL. Luke's friend Danielle set them up and prior to this poster invite, Luke met her briefly at a volleyball game. Arielle is a freshman volleyball player on JV (which means she is GOOD) and seemed like a sweet girl from my brief interactions with her. 

Wednesday was the homecoming parade and pep rally. Lake Aquatics had a boat, fire truck and a few truck beds for the kids. Seniors are supposed to be on the boat but Luke somehow ended up there as well due to lack of space on the fire truck. The various clubs and sports team throw candy to kids and families lined up against the road and it was a nice evening. It was not as hot as last year and I was thrilled with that!

Saturday was the homecoming dance. Luke was in a large group and we met at a local golf course for pictures and then the kids all went to dinner at Whiskey Cake. After dinner, they went to Danielle's house for an after-party. To my utter surprise, Luke stayed at the after-party until past midnight! The kids swam, hung out in the hot tub and ate. It was a great weekend!

Proposal

Parade

Hoco 2026!

September 12 - Double Digits!

Age: 10

Grade: 4

Favorite Class: PE

Current Style: heels, fancy nails

Current Activities: Girl Scouts, Musical Theater (auditioning for Moana in 2 days), HEAT swim team, Spirit Squad (NPE), Choir (NPE), VEX Robotics (NPE) and Student Leadership(NPE)

Current Interests: That Girl Lay Lay, Katseye, hair, makeup, nails, squishies

Favorite Food: stovetop mac and cheese, pasta

Best Friends: Adelyn, Leeya, Guinevere, Ella, Dallas, Catalina, Leilani

Dream Job: Olympic swimmer

Place you really want to travel to: Paris

Fun Facts: Happy Birthday Jillian! We had a family party on Thursday (your actual birthday with mac and cheese and peas plus chocolate cake. We celebrated with your friends yesterday evening with a waterslide party with pizza and cookie cake. Happy birthday to our little munchkin!!

Love you!

September 9 - College Countdown

Things are getting real! 

Dorm Assignment: 4th floor of a 15 store tower. 

Biggest Pro? Laundry is in her buiding.

Biggest Con? Her bedroom is TINY and she doesn't have a closet. She has a very small wardrobe and small desk. 

What does the room loook like? She's in a two-bedroom apartment, 3 girls per room. The apartment has a kitchen with full sized fridge, sink and oven. Living room with a couch and chair. Two toilets, two sinks and one shower. One shower for 6 girls will be interesting but they will figure it out! 

Roommates: She was initially roomming with a track and field athlete and a girl from Taiwan (we believe she's from Taiwan based on her phone number). The athlete was transferred out of the room within 48H of the dorm assignment (she said she wanted to room with another athlete, I think she used her coach to get her into a double LOL) and a new girl was recently assigned. Julia has reached out with no response thus far. 

Suitemates: Julia is in contact with her 3 suitemates (the girls from the other bedroom). They are all from different parts of California and seem nice.

Move-In: JD, Julia and I are driving out a week from today so we will be traveling on Wednesday and Thursday. She moves into her dorm Friday morning and then we fly back Saturday. My friend Tammy is staying at the house with Luke and Jillian while we are gone. 

Last weekend, we had lunch with two other kids from the Houston area also going to UCSD. They will all be in dorms on opposite ends of campus but always good to know a friendly face. 

I'm so excited for Julia and her next adventure! 

August 30 - Julia is an Adult!!

My baby is officially an adult! Happy Birthday Julia!! (a little delayed, bday was the 18th :)

Age: 18

Current Activities: working as a lifeguard at Lifetime; very bored because all of her friends are at college

Current Style: Baggy

Current Interests: music, reading, thrifting, binging Netflix, crafts, girl groups

Favorite Foods: chicken friend rice, tortellini, mac 'n cheese, cheesecake


Best Friends: Mia (currently in boot camp with the Navy), Tanner (currently at College of Sequoais), Kiley (currently at UT Austin), Hannah (currently at UC Berekely), Kendall (currently at Texas A&M), Reese (currently at Texas State), Nat (currenty at Ohio State), Addy (currently at LSU)

Birthday Celebration: dinner with the family and cheesecake at home. 

Next stop: UC San Diego 

Major: Cognitive Neuroscience

We love you Julia, happy birthday and so excited for your next adventure.

August 16 - Third Time's the Charm?

Home Improvement Highlights

2010: home purchased & primary bathroom gutted

2012: shower completed & in use (SHOWER RENOVATION 1)

2015: shower leaking (water spot on ceiling below shower)

2016: hired a contractor with a master plumber to redo the shower (SHOWER RENOVATION 2)

2018: home renovated including AC and roof replacement 

2024: shower leaking again (water spot on ceiling below shower which quickly turned into water dripping downstairs when shower was turned on; tile sunken in where floor met lip of shower entry; spongy floor) ==> shower not in use

2026: hired a new contractor to fix the bathroom (RENOVATION 3)

We pulled the trigger on the bathroom in mid-July. Things we knew:

*the entire shower needed to be ripped out

*a small portion of the subfloor would need to be replaced

*main floor would need to be replaced

We decided to rip out the tub and shower and put in a giant shower. Things we found/learned in this renovation (because it's never as simple as we think, right?):

*2012 renovation: shower pan was installed improperly, causing the initial leak

*2016 renovation: shower pan was installed properly but the contractor screwed it in at the bottom of the pan on all four corners (supposed to be screwed in up on the sides)...resulting in water seeping out of the corners.

*the leak was worse than we thought-the entire subfloor below the shower had to be replaced, as well as half of the water closet and a portion of the general bathroom area

*when the demo'd the wall between the shower and tub, we discovered the 2x4 holding up that wall was also wet and moldy

*Turns out when our roof was replaced in 2016, the flanges were not replaced nor caulked

So..our bathroom remodel became a much bigger project than anticipated but I'm happy to report that we finally have a functioning shower! And I went bold with the new paint color: Vermont Slate. 

August 12 - 10th & 4th

And just like that, another school year commences! 

North Pointe Elementary had their annual Lemonade Social (meet the teacher) on Monday and Jillian was thrilled to get the same teaching team that Luke had in fourth. And most exciting? Almost all of her close friends are in her homeroom class! She plans to do spirit squad and choir again this year and is considering applying for robotics and safety patrol. Today was an extra special first day because Julia was able to walk her to school. 

Luke is a sophomore this year. He has a tough schedule planned with AP chem, AP pre-calc, AP US History, AP Computer Science A as well as honors English, honors German and swim. He starts swim practice next week (welcome back 5.45am mornings!) and is going to be the elementary school robotics mentor again this fall. He's considering being the water polo manager this season too. It's going to be a busy year!

Cheers to a great year!