Halloween 2010

Enjoy these pictures of Sara and Cami on Halloween.  They had a lot of fun going trick-or-treat.

Camryn's First Wedding

On October 23, Jason's best friend got married.  Jason and Ryan have known each other since they were five years old.  Jason was best man at the wedding, and Camryn was one of the flower girls.  She looked so adorable all dressed up, so I thought I would share some pictures.

She didn't walk up the aisle like she was supposed to, but did go up a couple of times to stand by her Uncle Jason and then went back up the aisle to sit and play with the flowers in her basket.

It was a beautiful wedding and reminded us of how the kids are growing up.

Camryn and Uncle Jason

 

Ryan, the groom, and Jason

My three 'kids'; don't they look great?

Camryn during the wedding

Camryn with Rocko, the ring bearer

Camryn's Birthday

It has come to my attention that no pictures from Cami's third birthday had been posted yet.  We had a bunch of friends over for swimming and then burgers, brats and hot dogs on the grill.  As you can see, she had fun opening presents and eating her birthday cake.  I still find it hard to believe that she is already three.  Time definitely flies when there are young kids involved!

Turn The Heat Off!!

Okay, I like warm weather as much as the next person, but this is getting tiring.  Yesterday was our 17th day in the triple digits, and the forecast for the next seven days calls for more of the same.  At this point, all anyone wants to do is go from the air conditioned building to the air conditioned car and back again.  Of course, it is not as bad as the summer of 1980 when there were 42 days of triple digit temperatures.  I know that Rich will say that this is something he deals with every summer, but as he tells it, Vegas is a "dry" heat.  Let me tell you, Texas is not a dry heat!


You would think that John and I, and the kids, could get some relief from the pool.  Unfortunately, the pool is not very big or very deep, so the water can feel as warm as bath water.  Not very refreshing when it is 102 outside.  Oh well, hopefully this will only last for a couple more weeks and we'll be back into the 90's.

Good for a Laugh (or at least a chuckle)!

If you haven't seen this, it is hilarious!!  This was passed on by one of my co-workers who was laughing so hard she was crying.

http://m.jezebel.com/5582562/clueless-secretary-makes-for-hilarious-office-email-thread

Enjoy!

Deep Thoughts

Have you ever had a period of time when you start evaluating your friendships?  I've run myself down a little, and when I do that, I get very introspective.  I start thinking about where I am in life and the people that I've surrounded myself with.  Usually I will turn the radio up on my way to and from work and sing along as loud as I can.  Recently, though, I have spent the drive just thinking about things, especially the people in my life.  We all have different types of people in our lives - spouses, family, friends we talk to all the time and friends that come in and out of our lives.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the friends in my life and how difficult it can be to keep in touch with everyone.  I try to touch base with all every once in a while whether by phone, email or Facebook.  Most I don't really expect a reply from, I just want to let them know that I am thinking about them.  What has gotten me down recently are those friends that I consider to be really close.  I call and email constantly and don't hear anything back. I try to arrange get togethers and there always seems to be a reason why they can't make it.  Am I being too sensitive?  Do I just put it down to busy lives?  I still love these friends and will always be there for them in time of need, but how long do I still make an effort?  When do you stop trying so hard and let them take the initiative of arranging time together?

I have read articles in the past that suggest you really look at the friends in your life and consider whether the emotional drain of always giving in the friendship is worth keeping those needy friends in your intimate circle.  I don't think it is that easy to put friendships on the 'back burner', or ease friends out of your life, but I do think there is a point where you need to withdraw a little.  If these people are truly friends that care about and love you, will they sense that something is wrong and start giving a little back?

As you can see, I've really been doing a little bit of thinking.  Luckily, I have a little bit of down time coming up to be able to recharge myself.  Maybe at that point, I can re-evaluate how all the people in my life fit in.   

Travel Adventures

Those of you that know me know that I love to travel.  And for the most part, traveling has not been a problem.  Well, that did change a little bit last week; but I still love to travel.

I had flown into Atlanta on Thursday with three co-workers, including my manager, for a meeting on Friday.  The flight into Atlanta was uneventful and we even arrived about 10 minutes ahead of schedule.  We had heard that there were some storms headed to Dallas, but didn't really think about it because rain is rain.

We had our meeting on Friday, then headed over to one of our offices in Atlanta to meet the staff and get a tour.  While we were meeting with one of the managers in the office, we all started getting travel updates on our cell phones.  You know the kind - flight delayed, then flight delayed again.  Within about an hour, my manager (who happens to have Gold Platinum status) received a text that the flight was cancelled.  Normally this would not cause me any panic, but John and I were scheduled to fly to Albuquerque early Saturday afternoon to attend a memorial service for the younger sister of his good friend Roy.  For those of you who don't know, Roy and John went to high school and played football together.  John and I have enjoyed Roy and Tracy's hospitality during spring training for the last three years.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the storm in Dallas was more severe than predicted and they ended up closing the airport for about four hours causing numerous delays and cancellations.  We desperately tried to find a flight out later Friday evening, but were unsuccessful, so we ended up having to stay another night in Atlanta.

As I said earlier, this normally would not have caused an issue, but I only had clothes and other necessities for a one night trip.  As soon as Sara got home from work, she and I were on the phone so that she could pack what I needed for the trip to Albuquerque.  The plan was that she would pack for me and John would bring it to the airport and meet me at the gate.  The plan worked pretty darn good.  My flight from Atlanta got into Dallas Saturday morning with plenty of time to spare, John met me at the gate for our flight, and off we went to Albuquerque.

We landed in Albuquerque, got our rental car and headed to the hotel.  Once we got checked in, I started unpacking our things so that they could be hung up.  I got to the bottom of the suitcase and still had not seen the shoes to wear with my dress for the service.  I called Sara and asked if she had remembered to pack them, which she had.  It seems that John had decided to consolidate our things into one suitcase (not a bad idea at all), but left my shoes sitting in the bedroom.  Oh well, since we had some time, off we went to go shoe shopping.  Hard to do when one of the people shopping doesn't enjoy it.  :)

Luckily I was able to find some fairly quickly and we were able to enjoy the rest of the weekend.  We visited with Roy's family, who are great people, and attended the memorial service.  We also had a chance to visit Old Town Albuquerque and take a trip on the Tram up Sandia Peak.  It was a beautiful site.  Then up really early Monday morning (3:30am MT) to catch a flight back to Dallas and off to work for the day.

We were both a little tired Monday evening, but were really glad that we made the effort to go.  And I still love to travel.  In fact, I am scheduled to go to Florida next week, then Vegas in June and off to Michigan in July to visit with Cindy.  I know - I have a rough life!

Easter Flowers

Hope everyone had a very Happy Easter!  We had the pleasure of seeing John's oldest brother Jack during the weekend, and had a wonderful time visiting.  As a combined birthday present for Sara and Easter present for all of us, he bought a bunch (and I mean a bunch) of flowers to plant in the front.  And, as you can see from the first picture, we had lots of help with the work.  Of course, we did feed all of those boys afterward.  Enjoy the pictures, and hope to see comments from everyone.

Can you say "Attitude"?

Had to tell her little girls shouldn't show their panties.

Let It Snow??

Okay, I moved to Texas for the warm, sunny weather.  That pretty much disappeared last week.  It started snowing about 3am Thursday and didn't stop until about 3am Friday - 24 hours of straight snowfall for Texas.  We had a record 12.5 inches of snow.  It was beautiful and a little bit fun.  Some of us from work actually had a couple of snowball fights.  I had forgotten how much fun those could be.  The snow was a perfect heavy, wet snow that just begs for making snowballs.  I even saw a couple of snow forts.

Here are a couple of pictures taken that show you our 'winter wonderland'. We did end up losing three brances off one of the trees in our front yard, but I guess it could have been worse.

  

 

Time Goes By

Where does the time go? I can hardly believe that it is already February. Seems like I was just cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Work has been so busy and it doesn't look like there is any breathing space anytime soon. John is working just as hard. In case, everyone didn't hear, he was promoted to District Manager in November and he has been cleaning up his area ever since. This is something that he has worked very hard towards for a long time, and I am very proud of him.

Sara is back in school for the semester and working at the dry cleaners. We see Jason about every other week on Sunday for dinner. He likes living on his own, but it does get a little too quiet for him and he misses his Cami.

The Munchkin continues to grow. She is potty training now and doing a great job. This last week, she went all day except for a couple of accidents. Even stayed dry during nap time. She still needs the diaper at night, but I don't think it will be too long before those are a thing of the past. She is more stubborn and headstrong than her mom was, so that continues to be a challenge. I can't imagine our home without her. She keeps us young and on our toes.

I'm with Dad. We need to start doing a better job of posting again. I don't get on Facebook much because I can't access it at work, and by the time I get home and the family settles down, I really don't feel like getting on the computer.

I'll try to get some pictures posted soon, but the connection from the camera to the computer is acting up. I do believe it is time for a new, updated computer.

Merry Christmas 2009

Another year has gone by and, for the most part, all of our family and friends are doing well. I thank God every day for keeping the ones we love safe. I hope this Christmas brings joy and comfort to all and that the New Year is happy and prosperous. Please know that even when I do not do a good job of keeping in touch, each and every one is thought of often.

Love to all and Merry Christmas!!

Moved and New Furniture

Well, we got everything moved out of the old house into the new. Of course, there is still a bunch of stuff still in the storage unit. Hopefully, we (I) will have some time to weed through it some more and get rid of more. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the new furniture we bought.

This is the new sleeper/sofa that is in the game room upstairs. So in addition to the spare bedroom, we have a queen size sleeper to house plenty of extra guests (hint, hint).

Here is our new family room furniture. Our good friend, Marsha, wants this for her house. :)

This is Cami's new big girl bed. She loves it and has not fallen out yet.

My favorite is our new bedroom furniture. After 25 years (in December) of marriage, my husband and I got ourselves this as an anniversary present.

And, of course, what post would be complete without a picture of the Munchkin! Here she is ready to go to day care on a chilly fall morning. In case you are wondering, that is a bagel in her left hand. She loves having one in the morning. Of course, she can't quite say 'bagel' yet and it comes out 'wagel'.

On a side note, can't wait to see some more posts from the family. I think we have all gotten so busy and are neglecting our posts, although I know a lot of you are doing quite a bit of Facebooking. I only get on it about once every other week or so.

Packing Up

Well, it's official. We close on both houses next week, most likely on Tuesday. We need to be out of our house by midnight on Thursday, so there's a lot of work to be done between now and then. The garage is pretty empty except for the freezer and the extra fridge. I started packing a few boxes ever day last week, but will step it up tonight. If it is up to me, the only things left to pack by next week would be the beds, the TV and the chairs in the living room.

Jason is moving out today and tomorrow into his new apartment. He sounded a little sad last night thinking about it being his last night in his room. We are going to let him have the living room couch and a couple of the bar stools. We are getting a new love seat for the new house, and there is no place for the bar stools.

John and I are really excited about the move, but at the same time it is sad. We have been in our house for 24 1/2 years. Can you believe it? There are a lot of memories that we will be taking with us to the new house. And we get to start making some new memories.

Our new address will be 965 Kingwood Circle, Highland Village, TX 75077. Can't wait to start having visitors!

It's Ours!!!

We have a new house! The bank accepted our offer and the inspection has been done. There were a couple of major things found during the inspection, but they are having those fixed. The current 'schedule' is that we close on our current house October 29. The closing on the new house is not scheduled until November 20, but they are trying to get the loan underwritten quicker than that. Still not sure what we will do, or where we will be, for four weeks. Still have to figure that part out. There is some painting and minor repairs that we will have to do to the new house, but we are excited about the move. Cami already knows which room is her's. We went over to the house on Sunday and told her to go to her room. She ran up the stairs, directly into the room that will be her's and laid down on the floor. Smart girl!!

Our New House?

Well, we finally found a house that we both liked and have put an offer on it. It is a foreclosure, so the bank currently owns it, but they have accepted our offer. We had an inspection done the end of last week, and there were a couple of major things that we have asked to be fixed/corrected. Depending on what the bank says about fixing them will depend on whether we stay with our offer or withdraw it.

A couple of you have asked for some pictures, so here is a sampling. In order, the pictures are the front of the house, looking at the kitchen from the breakfast area (the lady in the picture is our realtor, Julie), the pool in the backyard and the back patio. It is a fairly large house having four bedrooms and three and a half baths. It has a living room, dining room, family room, game room, kitchen and utility/mud room. It should be more than enough space for us. Of course, that means more space to clean also. Hopefully the bank will have an answer for us tomorrow.

Our House

For those of you who haven't been following on Facebook, or we haven't talked to in a few weeks, we finally got the house ready to sell. We have been busting out at the seams and need to get something a little bigger as we figure Cami and Sara will be with us for another three to five years. At least until Sara is able to graduate from college.

The For Sale sign went up on the evening of Wednesday, September 2. That Friday night we received a call from our realtor that we had an offer on the house. Earlier this week, we did sign the contract to accept the offer. If everything goes okay, we should be closing before the end of October. Below are some pictures of how are house looks right now.

So . . . that means that we have to really start looking for another house. We had found one that we really liked (even though it was really big), but it was a foreclosure and we were not able to make an offer since we don't yet have the down payment (we'll have it when our sale is final). Just this last Thursday, we spent half a day house hunting and we may have found one that we can agree on. Here are a couple of pictures of that house.

What A Busy Weekend!

Oh my goodness, what a busy weekend we had! John and I left home very early Friday morning to head to New Orleans. His oldest brother's son, Michael, was getting married that night. We did not know that we were going to be able to even go to the wedding until one week before, so that week was spent getting what we needed. That included a tuxedo (yes that's right!) for John and an evening dress for me. As you can see from the pictures below, we both looked pretty spiffy even after a fun evening of dancing.

This is a picture of John's cousins from England that had come in for the wedding and a holiday. Theresa is Mom Whitehead's niece. You know John and his Dad in the back row. John's youngest brother, David, is in the yellow (LSU) shirt. In the middle row beside me are Hugh and Theresa. The front row is Olivia and Ursala, Hugh and Theresa's daughters and Mom Whitehead. This was the first time that John had met his cousins, so it was extra special.

Besides the wedding, it was Cami's second birthday. John and I got home about 7pm Sunday night, so we had to have cake and ice cream for the birthday girl. We will be having the party next Sunday at the house. We plan to grill some burgers, hot dogs and brats and let the kids swim in the pool that John bought for Cami. It is ten feet by 30 inches deep. Just right to cool off in!

The first picture is of Cami applauding our rendition of Happy Birthday and the second is her enjoying her cake and ice cream.

I just had to include this video of the Munchkin on a sugar high. Luckily she crashed pretty quickly and was in bed about an hour after eating. Caution - the video could make you dizzy! :)

Where Does Time Go?

Wow! I can't believe it has been over a month since I've posted a blog. There has been so much going on and just not enough time to get it all done. May was a pretty uneventful month. Just keeping busy with work, soccer and keeping up with Cami. She is starting to get into the 'terrible twos'. I'm not so sure that I would call them terrible, but rather 'learning'. She is starting to learn just how far she can push the boundries, and what she can or cannot do on her own. Her vocabulary continues to grow by leaps and bounds and, of course, she repeats everything (and I mean everything) she hears.

June started out with the Alaskan cruise for Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, John was unable to go on the cruise because of work. We had a wonderful time and the weather was perfect (70's and sunny). Alaska is beautiful country and full of history. I have posted some pictures on my Facebook site. Not a week after getting back from the cruise, I headed to Las Vegas for a work conference. I took a 'little' detour through Denver to spend the night with Priscilla, Craig, Melissa and Kajsa. I am so glad that I did as it had been too long since I have seen them. We had an enjoyable time just visiting and catching up. Then off to Vegas for the conference. Rich and Leslie were able to join me for the welcome reception on Sunday night and the larger event on Tuesday night. We had a great time and it was good to see the two of them again.

The rest of June (and what is left of it) was spent on the usual work, soccer and keeping up with Cami. John and I are also looking at houses. It is becoming very apparent that our three bedroom is not large enough for five humans and four animals. We have seen a couple that we really like, but nothing that 'screams' at us. In the meantime, we are starting to do some purging and clearing out of all the things that accumulate over 20 plus years. I do believe that John will have the hardest time purging as he tends to be a pack rat. :)

Jason is still working as a leasing agent for an apartment complex, hanging out with his friends and playing softball. No steady girlfriend yet that we know of. Sara is still working part time for a dry cleaners in town, taking care of Cami and taking a couple of summer classes. She did pass all four of her spring classes and is taking one class right now and then one more when the current class is over.

Well, that's the quick update. Keep posting!!!

Some Upgrades (Finally!)

I was beginning to think that it would never happen, but I've finally been able to get John to agree to some "improvements" around the house. The first step is new counter tops in the kitchen. So long to the 80's counter we had!

Here is the old, 80's counter we had:

And here is my new, updated counter:

The next step is to paint the entire kitchen and attached den/dining room area and then (hopefully) do a tiled backsplash. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't take too long to do either.

One Calm Kitty

Well, Cami has figured out that she can (sort of) pick up Kali. Of course, Kali is weighing in at about 11 lbs right now. She is so patient with Cami and does not try to scratch or bite her. When she has enough, she just runs and hides.