Snow Day!

I believe that was in April of 2007 when it snowed here on Easter Sunday. Unfortunately, that day we had church and brunch plans etc. and by the time we got back from our activities that afternoon (or evening, I can't remember), it was too late to let Gabe go out to play in the slush.

And he NEVER let me live it down.

Yesterday, made up for it. I'm sure about that.

The local kids were let out of school early and after lunch, and a nap for little Sarah, we walked on over to our friend's house.

Gabe and Gabriel had fun tossing snowballs at one another...

Sarah and Victoria had their own fun. Poor Sarah did the best she could at balling up the snow with her makeshift mittens (I used a pair of Gabe's socks to cover her hands, and G wore my Wellies to keep his feet dry).


After playing with Gabriel and Victoria for a while, and after a nice snack of hot chocolate to warm up inside of the Bickford house, we decided it was time to hit our own yard for just a little more fun.

Sarah had a tough time at walking in the snow.


Sarah loves to "Weeeee" a.k.a. slide, but I told her that it wasn't a good idea at the moment.


Gabe's snow angel.


Aggghhhhh! Don't hit ME!

Austin Star Map

I bought an Austin Star Map about a year or so ago, because I admit that I take guilty pleasure in stalking people. Nah! I kid you (kinda). But I am curious about certain things, and I know that Austin has it's fair share of celebrities that live in or visit the city quite a bit.

This past Sunday was a beautiful day for a drive (though it started out quite dreary), and so since we are leaving Texas soon, I figured that it was a great day to scratch this item off of my to-do list.

Here's what we saw (click on the picture to get a much larger view of it and click on the orange words for a link to see what's what):

This is Dixie Chick Natalie Maine's house. She literally lives in Robert Rodriquez's back yard. She's also ashamed to be from Texas, because "Dubya" is from here too.

The above couple of pictures are the home of movie director Robert Rodriquez, and it's landmark sign. He had the ugliest primer-black BMW in his driveway (just FYI).

This is the home of UT football head coach, Mack Brown. Someone in the house drives a really cool black Mercedes (again, just thought ya should know).

Remember when Matthew McConaughey got arrested in 1999 for playing the bongo drums naked in his front yard? Yep, this is the house.

And do you remember when Harry M. Whittington got shot in the face on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney? He lives here.

Tennis star Andy Roddick and Mr. Human Machine, Lance Armstrong, are supposed to live in this gated community off of Mt. Bonnell road.

Did you see Robert Rodriquez's film Grindhouse? The diner scenes were filmed here.

The frog scene in How to Eat Fried Worms was filmed here at the Austin Diner on Lamar Street.

And Renee Zellweger worked here at Sugar's Uptown Cabaret (as a waitress) while she was in college.

There's plenty more that we could have seen that day, but the kids were really starting to get bored and to think that I was just plain nuts, so we found lunch at this really cool mediterranean deli on Lamar Street (Sarah's, in fact), and then went on to the State of Texas museum so that we could stretch our legs.

But you can be assured that when I get more time, I'll go searching and picture snappin' again.

In an effort...

...to play catch-up with the posting and informing, like I said I would; and to show you how it goes with shoes and Sarah, here is a picture taken yesterday after I heard her banging and digging in my closet.

I must admit that she does a way better job walking in those things than I do!

Bullets and news...

Hello there!

Oooookay. Here we go.

I got a little put off on the whole blogging thing when I came to certain realizations; one being that it was too easy for some to come by and see what was up with us, and then they never bothered to use the phone for that human to human contact, and then there were the ones that complained that they didn't know much about us, but again were too busy to take a few seconds of their day to check the blog or...call. And there were other reasons, but....you're damned if ya do, you're damned if ya don't.

I realize that my attitude toward blogging lately is only hurting me, since as I've mentioned before, I use this as a journal for our family. I took a trip down memory lane yesterday, and I thoroughly enjoyed the pictures and videos, etc. Our family is constantly changing and growing, and what better way to document it than this blog? I should have been keeping up with things; there is so much missing from the past months.

And by the Grace of God, lots of great things have been happening to us lately. I need to get busy on this little project! I also mean to document our travels up to Alaska when the time comes, and so again, what better way to do it?

So in the next few posts, I plan to take things back a bit.

For now, here's a little of what's going on in our lives:

• Did your hear that the Saints won the SUPERBOWL?!
• Phillip is at the Maintenance Test Pilot's course right now until the end of April. I'm so very happy for him that he is doing something that he really enjoys. He's a great husband and father, and By Golly, he deserves this!
  
• Though we miss him (his leaving a few weeks ago hit us really hard, but we survived and are pulling through), we are able to meet him halfway in Lafayette when we get the chance...
• we saw him last weekend for Mardi Gras (it was our first Mardi Gras since we left Louisiana in 2001 and it was so fun to see Gabe experience his first; Sarah stayed home with Pa-Paw and Ya-Ya while we enjoyed the festivities...she's not ready yet).
• We'll travel to Fort Rucker, Alabama on our Spring Break to spend the week with Phillip. I can't wait to see how things have changed, visit with some friends, and show Gabe the very first home that he lived in.
  
• We plan to be out of Texas by May 14, so that means that Gabe will be checking out of school a few weeks early with the approval of his Principal and the school board. Whether he leaves 2nd grade with promotional status to the 3rd grade is up to him...
• but I really don't think we need to worry, because he has been an A/B Honor Roll kid all year...
  
• it's his chattiness, among other things, that get him into trouble conduct-wise.
• Oh, and we plan to be out of Texas by mid-May because we plan to drive up to Fairbanks. There are a couple of different ways to get up there, at least, and we are trying to decide now on just how we'll do it....take the ferry or not take the ferry.
  
• Sarah's 2nd birthday was on February 2nd. (I just realized that it's her lucky year!)....
• she has this thing about shoes, and will change her shoes at least 3-4 times an hour. So if you're looking for gift ideas, shoes it is!
• Her vocabulary is expanding by a couple of words a day. She amazes me with her ability to communicate, if she doesn't know the words. She amazes me, period.
  
• The house went up for sale a few weeks ago. We've had some really great showings and are anxiously anticipating an offer. I love my little home, and I sure do hope that the next person who moves into it will respect it and love it like we have.

That's it for now, Ya'll. I'll get back to postin' and bloggin' soon.

In the meantime, Have a great day!

There is...

...a very faint pulse on here.

Thanks to some friends of ours that have their own blog and have just arrived at Fort Wainwright (I just checked out the AWESOME pictures and blog entries about their trip to Fairbanks), I decided to stop in for a visit on here.

Hmmmmm.....will I post again soon? Don't know.

Because we've been so darn busy with getting the house listed for sale. We listed last week. Photos still need to be taken for the MLS website, but we've held that off to buy time...to clean, and organize, etc. etc. etc. We start "showing" soon. And preparing for all this has been a royal pain in the arse! But the profit that we make from the actual sale should be nice. Real nice, in my opinion.

Phillip leaves this weekend for the MTP course at Fort Rucker, Alabama, but not before he signs himself out of 4 ID. If you listen really close, you just might hear the cannons of joy when that happens...

Later Ya'll!

Quittin' Time...

For now. For a while, at least.

I just don't feel like keeping this up right now.

Maybe when we get to Alaska, I'll start back up again so that you can get a feel for our new life, but in the meantime....I quit.

But I won't delete this blog entirely, because there are a lot of great posts on here that I don't want to lose. I've mentioned before that I keep this blog as a diary and one day, I want to get it printed.

Take care, guys! And thanks for reading. If you want me, you know where to find me. I'm just a phone call away.

Where in the world is Janet?

Hello!

Bet you've been biting your nails, wondering where in the heck I've been...and if I'm still feeling the vibes from my last post.

Well, I'm much better these days.

Phillip came home from his second tour in Iraq in the early days of June. It is safe to say that we are all so much happier. The kids and I LOVE having Daddy home again. I'm not nearly as exhausted as I was, mentally or physically, and I feel WHOLE again. Sarah is Daddy's Little Girl, and Gabe is just glowing.

We just came off of a two week vacation to Disney World and Gulf Shores/Orange Beach, Alabama. Oh, the fun we had! I will put pictures up on the photo collection from that, as well as pics from the rest of the summer, whenever I get the chance.

We all needed the rest, and we are preparing for school to start tomorrow with refreshed minds. I admit that I have mixed feelings about tomorrow. I'm happy that the summer is over, and that we are starting yet another chapter in life of  Us. But, I'm also sad and a little anxious that our baby boy is starting the second grade. Where does the time go?

Sarah will be in a Mother's Day Out type of thinga-mu-jig on Wednesday's so that I can have the day to do pretty much whatever I want without having to stop for nap times, etc. I have so much to do, as far as working on CME credits for my Surgical Tech certification, tons of pictures to go through and catalog into photo albums (scrap booking is not my thing), home organizing, etc. etc. It'll be nice to vacumm the floor without the worry of an 18-month old thief trying to take over the Dyson!

Phil got the news that he will be going into the Maintenance Test Pilot's course in the spring of next year. I'm not exactly looking forward to him leaving for about 3 months, but I'm extremely happy for him that his career is taking the path that he wants. He'll be training at Fort Rucker, Alabama, so he won't be too far away. At least it's not thousands of miles, right? And hopefully, we will find out soon when and where we will be moving to next. Though we all love Texas, we agree it's time for a change.

I don't know when I'll post next. I admit that since I got a Facebook account, and I update my status on it almost everyday, I feel uninspired to write on this blog. I must remind myself that I'm using this as a journal of our life.

Until next time, guys...

Janet

Chain Link (Part One)

A few weeks ago, I decided that I needed to show Gabe and myself that we really didn't have much time left to this deployment. I purposely forget to take a link off on some days, so that I can show Gabe that time is passing without us realizing it.

To be continued...