Happy New Year...almost!

Hello all! It is almost 2008. And then we start all over again....I can't wait to see what God has in store for us this year.....you just never know.....

I'm not sure if I'll make it until midnight tonight but we'll see....

Count your blessings and thank the Lord for all that He has done!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope everyone is having a good day!!! We are enjoying the newest member of our family, Sippi!! She is an adorable cockapoo!! We are trying to get her adjusted to our house and being with us.

Alto wins again...

Back to back state championships! They won today 22-0. They haven't lost a single game in 2 seasons. (This is the school I have taught at before moving to DFW). Go Jackets! My sister Shelley still teaches there and my niece and nephew go there.

On a different note, Stephen and I are looking forward to being couch potatoes!! We didn't leave the house today until 5:30. We wouldn't have left then, but we desperately needed some stuff so we could continue hanging curtains. By the way, Stephen is getting really good at hanging curtains. He is for hire!!! :)

Will the dust settle?

Ah, it's been a little over three weeks and we are finally getting settled into the house. Not to say we haven't had our share of little adventures, but still sifting and sorting through our stuff. As the poet once said, the best laid plans of mice and men...so, that's where we are now. Admittedly, we had quite a lot of our belongings that went upstairs, but some of it never made it up there during the move. Thus, we've spent the better part of the week cleaning out the garage and the study, trying to figure out what still belonged in those areas and what should have made the journey upstairs prior to now.

If you've seen Stacey's flickr site, you get an idea of what else we've been up to, decorating for Christmas. Two Christmas trees, the outdoor decorations, and of course, the interior as well.

On Monday, we had a slight problem. We woke up and had allowed the house to get too cold. Thus, I turned on the heat for about 20 minutes to warm the house up while we were getting ready for work. When we came home, it was almost 100 degrees in the house. Apparently, the HVAC guys wired the house for a gas heat pump instead of an electric one causing our heat to not shut off properly. Thus, the repair man got to spend a good portion of Monday evening with us.

As for other adventures, both of us have had our share of traffic adventures. We both have had to deal with hour plus commutes this week due to accidents. Not exactly my idea of fun, but I'm thankful I have a reason to make that commute.

Interesting start to my day!!

Well, every now and again, I think the Lord tries to make things really bad to show us that things are not so bad after all....if that makes sense!! :)

Today I left the house a few minutes later than normal. I get several miles down the road and realize I have forgotten my laptop at home. That is my only computer in my classroom that I can use, so I must go back and get it. I already know that the traffic is bad the way I'm going. So, basically, instead of leaving about 6:35 like usual, I end up finally leaving the house at 7:00. Traffic is horrendous. I get to work exactly on time, 7:45. I get to my classroom, the lock is stuck. No one can get in with their key. Meanwhile, here come my kiddos, bright-eyed and bushy tailed!! Can't get in the classroom....someone (not mentioning names but an adult that works at school) said, do you need a key??? Duh!! They had to call the emergency maintenance person!! He finally got my door open at 8:45. Yeah!!

I hope tomorrow is less eventful!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow! It sure doesn't seem like it should already be time for another Thanksgiving! Where has the year gone?

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! We will be leaving tonight for Alabama. I am truly thankful for many things this year. Above all, I am thankful that I serve a God that loves me and provides for me unconditionally. I am thankful for Stephen. He is the best husband I could ever ask for. He loves me for who I am. God hand-picked him just for me. I am thankful for my family. I couldn't ask for a more loving family. They love me too. That was very evident when they all traveled to Dallas this past weekend just to help us move. I am thankful for Stephen's parents. They are like my second set of parents. Some people are not lucky enough to have 1 set of parents that love them, I have 2! God has truly blessed Stephen and me this year. We have been through some really hard times these past 2 years but we were faithful to Him, and he has blessed us for it. I am thankful for my job, even though it is very tough. It allows me to be with Stephen, which I am truly grateful for! And....I am thankful for my house!! God provides!!! This has been our dream since we married and now our dream came true.

We're in....

I can't post much right now because I am at school but we should be back in business w/ our internet today so we'll post more. There are MANY interesting things that happened this weekend so we'll be sure to fill everyone in! :) I am at school right now resting!! This weekend wore everyone out!! We realized we have too much stuff!!

The house is wonderful and it is still weird! As of today, we are finally out of the apartment. Thank goodness!!

We're Homeowners!!!

From now until December 1, 2037, we're on the hook for a mortgage payment, or as my mom reminded me, we've joined the club. I'm glad it's over, and it's been a very nerve racking day. People were generally helpful, we just wanted and waited to see if there were any surprises - which there were none.

If you know what all we've been through the last 2.5 years, you'd say there's no doubt about it, we have been blessed and God deserves the glory for that house. I stood in the garage today praying a prayer of thanks for this opportunity, and afterward, remembered that 2.5 years ago I sat at a red light looking at what I considered a dream home in Muscle Shoals, AL almost heartbroken and apologizing profusely to Stacey that we couldn't have this back home. Strange how the Lord works, I looked online at those houses and realized that we have a much better situation than what we would have had there.

The fun begins with MOVING...we had our apartment flood just as we were loading the truck, just another mess with that apartment. Fortunately, there were a lot of people from Stacey's family came from East Texas to help us move the majority of the stuff on Saturday and that was a blessing. Then, on Sunday afternoon, we had to make our first warranty call as the washing machine had a back-up of our sewage into the yard and I had to stay at home all day yesterday while waiting on that to be fixed. It was great for getting stuff unpacked, but hated to lose a day of vacation at work. Thanks to a major glitch with moving our AT&T service, we did not get our phone and DSL hooked up on Friday as we first thought, so that has impeded our communicating. So, now it's the 20th, we've briefly returned to cyber-civilization before embarking on a trip to Alabama for Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow's the day...

Tomorrow is the day we have been looking forward to since July 22nd, which is when we put a contract on our new house. I am very excited about being in the house but Stephen and I are both a little uneasy (ok, down right nervous!) about the closing so please keep us in your prayers at 2:00. :)

I can't wait to walk in and know that I am in OUR house!!! We have always lived in an apartment and it will be awesome to not hear dogs above me, water trickling down from their washer/dishwasher/toilet!! Plus, I'll have my OWN parking spot....every time!!! No one else will park in my spot!! :) Living in an apartment, you're never guaranteed a spot!! Plus, I want to have neighbors....nice ones!! People in our apartment are just down right snooty!! You speak, they just look at you like you're dumb!!

I am avoiding packing by being on the computer, so I better go and get busy!! I am off from work until Monday. Yeah!!

Packing....

It should be against the law to own so much stuff!! It's no fun having to pack it...There's just not enough time to pack it all!! :)

By the way, Stephen has been a happy boy since Saturday!! His beloved dawgs defeated Alabama. I have never been so tired of hearing, "Who Let the Dogs Out"!!

Woo-hoo!!

With just a few exceptions, our home is complete!!! We close on the 15th and then begin moving in. I can't wait to get moved in and settled in!!

Light at the end of the tunnel....

Here is our house. Next Thursday (the 15th) we will be homeowners...for the first time in our married life...well, for the first time in our lives to be exact!! It's a pretty good feeling. The Lord has blessed us so very much!

As of last Saturday, there were just a few things to be done. Gutters, specialty paint, backsplash, and appliances.....I'm sure most of that is done by now. We have the official walk-through this Thursday. That will give them a week to perfect anything that needs some TLC.

We have begun the dreaded packing. For all who know the vast amount of "stuff" we have, you will understand why it is dreaded!! My sister picks on Stephen when she tells him that we have a Mississippi State gift shop. It's pretty true!! Thankfully, we are going from a 1000 sq. ft apartment to a 3100 sq. ft house!!

Have a good week and think about us next weekend when you are relaxing and enjoying your weekend and we are ......packing......

House Update 10/28

With Homecoming at Stephen F. Austin this weekend, we had two opportunities to visit the house - once Friday, and again today. The house is beginning to come together a little more each week. We're finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel (See the picture from the game room).

We actually started seeing trim work and finishing touches starting to show up on both the interior and exterior of the house. Countertops, baseboards, sinks/faucets, ceiling fans, light fixtures and outlets were installed. Sod was sitting in the front and the landscapers were finishing up the sprinkler system when we were there on Friday. The exterior of the house was painted on Saturday. Our backyard fence has been started as well.

House Update 10/21

Not one, but two trips to the house this weekend. Stacey and I went on Saturday morning to do our usual Saturday look while meeting Stacey's mom and sister out at the house. When we arrived, we encountered a problem, but not a bad problem. We weren't able to enter the house because the workers were installing (and grouting) the tiles in our downstairs area. So, we made another trip today to see the somewhat finished result. The downstairs is tiled except for the backsplash and it appears that the upstairs is completely tiled. Thus, once the countertops are installed on the cabinets (which were present), then they can complete the tile work. Trim and molding is underway as well as painting. Now it's time to start looking to see how the details are going together and start looking to ensure nothing has gone wrong. And yes, you can't spell analytical without anal.

So, now that we are less than a month from being in the home, our excitement is definitely rising. We also ordered our new sectional, breakfast and formal dining tables, and china cabinet this weekend. Praise the Lord we were able to get some deals.

House 10~13~07

coming right along!! We are so ready to move in!!

Back to normal.....maybe??

We are back from Alabama. We had a good time. We got to see Stephen's doggies play Saturday and they won..thank goodness. I told Stephen's mom and dad I sure was glad because with a 3 hour trip back to Cullman, it sure would have been miserable had they lost!! We got to play with the dog, Buster. He sure is pretty! We came home Monday, got in a holding pattern in the plane and circled DFW for a while. Then we landed and waited on the runway for about 30 minutes due to being backed up from the airport closing for an hour. NO fun! I went back to school yesterday for a staff development day and then finally the kids came back today. I could get used to these kind of weeks!! I don't think parents would go for that though. Have a good week, for what's left of it!

R & R

Everybody needs a little r & r every now and again!! I have a 3 day weekend due to the state fair, so Alabama here we come! We fly out tomorrow evening and return Monday evening. We are both really excited! We will travel over to Starkville Saturday morning to catch some football by Stephen's beloved alma mater. We just hope we have better plane rides than the last time we flew and I swore off of flying forever when I thought I was going to die....literally!! There's turbulence.....and then there's TURBULENCE!! You know what I mean...

Have a good weekend. Check out a few more pics of the house on my flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sfaalum2000/
There's not much to see, the work seems to have slowed quite a bit...too much if you ask us!! We don't quite see how we will be closing in 1 month, but crazier things have happened!

House Update 09/28

Sorry, no pictures this week!

While on our way to East Texas, we visited the site on Friday evening, and visually, there really wasn't much to see from the exterior of the house. We did run into the insulation contractors and they were still working on installing the insulation on the walls of the house. It appears that the remainder of the wiring was finished and "roughed in" as our builder calls it. It does appear that the house passed another milestone in getting past a preliminary electrical and HVAC inspection. Yet, in disappointing fashion, the sheet rock was sitting in the same locations as it had during the previous visit and the vandalized window hadn't been repaired.

Yet, to be positive, we had our hole in our backyard fence repaired, and there had been a large delivery of Mountain Red bricks placed in our yard, about 6-8 loads. At least we could take solace in the approaching of the house being bricked. We also were given a bracket of dates for home owner's orientation with the closing date in mid-November. So now, we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

please pray

http://www.ethanpowell.com/Encrypted.cfm?id=121
This is the same little boy I asked to you pray for before. He is the one with leukemia. He had gotten better but now the leukemia is back. It is very critical that we pray for the daddy's blood cells to attack the leukemia cells.

Ok, so we went out to the house today as we usually do on Saturdays. This time we took my sister Missy. We are walking up to the house and Missy asked if there was someone in there. She heard a loud crash. I didn't think anything of it. We get into the "kitchen" in the back and notice children in our backyard. (You can see them in the picture). They proceed to walking into our back door. The look on their faces when they saw me standing there was priceless!! I said, "Guys, what's up?" They started stammering. They said they were looking for their slingshot. I said what are you doing with a slingshot in my house? They gave some stupid answer and started going out the back door. I asked them where they lived and they told me. We went upstairs to find that their slingshot had hit our bathroom window and it was still cracking and falling. Thankfully it was a double pane window. At that time we saw the boy's mother looking up and then they split. She knew exactly what they had done and did not do a thing about it. How rude!! We went to the builder and reported it and she said she'd take care of it. We went back to the house and evidently the boys had come back when we left to check their "damage". So we'll see what comes of this.

Who Let the Dawg(s) Out?

Finally, I get out of the house and I'm feeling a little better. With excitement, Stacey and I headed out for the house instead of staying home to watch the Miss. State game. Nice surprise, they got ahead of schedule on the house. They were only supposed to be done with the framing, but started on the trim. So that was good news. We found a new BBQ place called Baker's Ribs and they had the best pulled pork I've had since I've come to Texas - Bulldog Slapping Good, as they would say back home. Oh yes, to continue with the Bulldog theme, MSU Defeats Auburn 19-14.

Too much fun, not!

Ever since I've returned to the south, I've suffered with some type of allergy in the fall of the year. Tuesday evening, I started coming down with something, thinking it was the run of the mill allergy problems. Suddenly, my throat starts hurting and I start running a fever - it turns into strep throat. Meanwhile, Stacey's been sick since Sunday. We both take off work on Wednesday and find out she has bronchitis. After another sleepless night, I stayed home again hoping to rest and get my fever to go down. Had Stacey not had a "meet the teacher day" today, she probably would have stayed home with me. Let's hope we get better by the weekend, we want to see if the framing has started, but haven't had the energy to do anything!

CEMENT!!!

I have never been so happy to see cement in all of my days!! We now have foundation!! We are scheduled to close on our house mid November!! Yeah!!

As for school.....keep me in your prayers. I pray every day that each day will be better. I know the Lord always puts us where He needs us. I pray that I can see that every day. It has been rough. BUT............. It's Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Wrighteous Disco..

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!thanks to our friend Sara... :)

Latest Ramblings: School, too.

School went back into session yesterday. Even as I write this post, Stacey is sound asleep on the couch. I think the nerves of a new school and the start of the school year has just worn her out. I'm sure once she settles in, she'll be updating you about it.

As for me, I'm enjoying not having to hear about being able to sleep late and getting up whenever, so the tables are turned, at least for the moment. Yet, it will surely reverse once we move into the new house and the longer commute through downtown Dallas ensues. My job has been riding a different wave as of late, our unit manager left and now we are adjusting to a different reporting scheme.

We went to the house this past weekend, they have started, but haven't done much. Basically, they had forms in place and started connecting to the underground utilities. My excitement is beginning to turn to impatience, especially after all the rain and crazy weather we've seen since the first of the year. Maybe I'm jaded, but after the experience we had with the construction of the duplex in Alabama, I'm not in the mood to have plenty of good weather days (like we have been seeing) pass us by. I'm really ready to see concrete, hammers/nails and wood, if you know what I mean, instead of dirt and pipe.

I will survive!

Whew! I made it through my first official week of school! Yeah! I do have to say, I haven't been this tired in a while! I feel like I could go to sleep now and sleep for 24 hours!! ( Just kidding!)

I do have to say, working for a huge school district is so nice, already! There are plenty of perks that go along with the job. They have fed us every day for lunch. We got our laptops today. Pretty nice.

Now I will go and rest!

update, etc.....

Well, I just found out that my younger sister, Missy, just landed in Managua, Nicaragua. She will come back next Saturday, just in time to start school. Please keep her in your prayers this week.

Stephen and I just got back from E. Texas. I got a call Friday afternoon that my dad had been in a car accident. Praise the Lord, he is ok! He was leaving work about 12:30 Fri afternoon and a young kid ran a red light and hit his county truck that he was driving. The kid was probably doing about 70 miles per hour and never even tried to stop! There were no skid marks. He claimed his brakes failed but the police officer got in the car and said the brakes were working fine. Dad's truck faired pretty good but the poor kid's car didn't fair so good! He was really sore and went to the hospital to get everything checked out. Today he was doing much better.

God is good!

Fun, fun, fun....

I have started working on my classroom. It is very hot for the moment!! They won't turn the air on until right before school starts. It must be something all the big schools do here. My sister is in Frisco and it is the same way there. There is still so much to do but I'm taking it one step at a time. As the old saying goes, you can eat an elephant, one bite at a time!! :) Next week, mom, my other sister and my niece and nephew are coming and they will help me.

Not this Saturday but next, my younger sister, Missy, will be going on a mission trip to Nicaragua. Please keep her in your prayers. From what I understand, it is a medical mission trip. In order to receive free medical care and dental care, they must attend a worship service. While the parents are in worship service, the kids will have like a children's church, which is where Missy comes in. I believe that is what she'll do. She has had to take so many vaccinations. It is a little scary going into a 3rd world country!! But, the Lord sent her on this trip and He'll protect her too! He has made every way for her to go.

Stephen is getting the true meaning of the words teacher's husband!! Never since we have been married has he had to live with me while I'm teaching full time. This could be interesting!! He told me yesterday that he wouldn't mind if I just stayed about 30 min after school to get my stuff done so that I wouldn't have to bring it home!!!!!! HA!!! I didn't break it to him that I might still have to do some work beyond 3:30, but he'll soon learn!! :)

here we go!

We got the approval for the loan so here we go! I'm very excited!

we finally pull the trigger....

After being married 4 years and finally feel settled, we have pulled the trigger today to be homeowners. Pretty scary!! We signed a contract today to build a house!! Yikes!! But, it will definitely be worth it and we are to close on the house sometime around Thanksgiving. Now the fun begins with picking out colors etc. The waiting will be the worst part I believe! But, we are extremely excited!!

They say we will be doing 2 of life's biggest things all at the same time. I will be starting a new job and we will be building a house.

By the way, Stephen is very excited because the study will also be the "Mississippi State" room. Also, the gameroom will be the "sports" room!! Don't think I got left off....one of the bedrooms will be my craft/scrapbook room!! I do believe there might be purple walls (Go Jacks!). :-)

It's really official now!!

I can breathe a sigh of relief! I signed my contract today with Richardson ISD! I had my little orientation and learned tons of new stuff. I was so eager this morning that I left 1 1/2 hours before it was to begin and I got there and I was the only one in the parking lot. So, I went to eat breakfast. (it only took me 30 minutes to get there! :) )

Now I can't wait to get into my classroom and get busy!

ethanpowell.com

Most of you probably have never heard about this little boy. I don't even know him, but one day I ran across this (I can't even remember how!) and I would like for you to visit this site (click here)
and pray for this little boy. I believe he just received a bone marrow transplant from his daddy and he is in a medically induced coma so that his little body can take this cells into his body. If you want to see someone with faith, just read some of the daddy's updates. It is awesome! The way the updates are posted, the most recent are at the top, so to get a good feel for what they have been through, start at the bottom. Through all of their trials and triumphs, this family BELIEVES in prayer and you will see that all throughout the updates. God is good!! This little boy needs His healing hands!

Ahhh! Rest for the moment.

Funny how life works this way, but sometimes it seems like life imitates art (or in my case, song). For the last month or so, it's pretty much been like Stacey's previous post, "On the Road Again", and I almost ended up doing that again.

Yet, considering I had to been gone four consecutive weekends, I had finally decided to stay put. OTOH, my lovely bride took off for East Texas again. I guess you have that kind of energy when you have three months off, but I don't. I guess next weekend will be full of the honey-do list of things that I didn't even attempt to get done this weekend. I think I'll enjoy the rest while I can...next weekend may be a doozy!

our family vacation

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sfaalum2000/

Our family took a vacation together over the 4th of July holidays. We had a blast!! Here are some pics! We rented a cabin in Arkansas on the lake.

Rain!

I'm not sure if it will ever stop raining here. We have had our fair share. If it keeps it up, we'll have to build an ark!

On the road again....

This time we're DRIVING!! :) We are headed out of town this weekend to see some friends. No, we never really do stay home! :)

Not too much other than traveling is going on here. I have my new teacher orientation coming up in July, as well as a family vacation with my parents, sisters, niece and nephew. We are going to Arkansas. Later in July, Stephen's parents are coming to TX for a visit. We are excited about that.

Stephen is having severe allergy problems. We have had so much rain.

Our Alabama Trip...

This weekend we went to visit Stephen's mom and dad in Alabama. We flew in Friday night and returned home today. We had a good visit and of course our time was too short. Of course I got to hear Stephen grumble about the Bulldogs' quick exit at the College World Series.

We were able to see Stephen's friends, Chris and Katy. It was really good to be able to see them. Plus, we ate some good ol' Alabama BBQ at the famous Big Bob Gibson's.

The fun part came today on our flight home. You know it's going to be a bad flight when the pilot comes over the speakers after take-off and tells the flight attendants to stay seated and not begin beverage service. We didn't know how bad it would really get. At one point I closed my eyes and started to sing "Lord I'm Coming Home". That was the worst turbulence I have ever experienced. The whole plane was shaking really bad and we dropped so much altitude. I almost vomited. I never get sick on planes but today was definitely an exception.

Alabama is praying for rain and we're praying for no more rain. There were some really bad floods today, which is really sad. Several people lost their lives. Everyone in Alabama wanted us to bring rain with us. We would have gladly obliged them if we could have!!

Have a good week. This day has worn me out, time to retire and get some sleep!! :)

It's Official!!

I am going to be teaching 3rd Grade at Richardson ISD! I was offered the job Monday and I accepted. I am very excited! I am happy to be back home with Stephen! We won't know what to think....we will both be working full time and live in the same house. In our 4 years of being married, this will be a first. We celebrate our 4th anniversary next Thursday, June 14th.

It's Sunday...

and I don't have to leave home to go to Nac.! :) What an awesome feeling. It is good to be back home. We are still trying to get all of my "stuff" settled in here. It is amazing how much stuff you accumulate!! We have officially filled up 2 5'x10' storage units. That is so sad!!

We were able to attend Prestonwood Baptist Church today. It is so awesome every time we get to go there!! The worship experience is indescribable!!

I am waiting to hear from an interview I had Thursday. It went really well so we'll see. It's all in God's hands right now. I am having to learn to be patience and have faith which is something I struggle with daily. I want everything done in my timing and God has taught me so many lessons about that. I just pray that He gives me the desires of my heart. Please keep me in your prayers until that happens. Thank you so much!!

Whew!!!

Hello everyone! It's been a while since I have posted. I have been so busy! Things finally seem to be settling down for once. My last week of school was something else!! Awards ceremony, field day, LUAU! Wow! That was a lot of fun! We didn't roast a pig but I felt like I was roasted! :) We had limbo, games, food, music....and fun! I had to say goodbye to the kids and I was sad. But, I am glad to be back home.

Still waiting to hear from a job. I'll let you know as soon as I hear something.

Aloha, Alto!

As of 1PM, Friday May 25th, Stacey will complete her classroom duties at Alto Elementary. It is an exciting, yet stressful, time for us. While there is a degree of sadness for Stacey leaving behind a class she loved and the friends she has known for years, there is a nervous anticipation of what the future holds. Today, she held a luau for her class as a way for everyone to say goodbye. I'm sure once she gets settled back into the metroplex, she may even share stories of it. Through the ups and downs of it, I'm glad Alto offered Stacey the chance to get back into teaching after the two years of not being able to get a job in Alabama and allowed her to do something she enjoys.

This weekend will be the second straight weekend of me going to E. Texas to bring a car load of supplies home (okay, storage unit). So far, our second 5X10 storage unit is not ready to burst, but that'll probably change after the weekend.

While we continue to receive inquiries from interested schools, none have yet to make an offer for the 2007-08 school year. We are praying that we will hear something soon, but we are fully aware that we will wait on God's timing. Yet, it is time to enjoy the holiday and hopefully, be back on the trail come Tuesday.

We appreciate your prayers while we await the next direction we go.

The countdown continues...

If you talk to Stacey, you'll know that the end of school countdown has begun. Not that she is looking forward to saying goodbye to her class, because she is not, but she is looking forward to being home for the summer. Likewise, it is the same for me. After spending a large part of the last 2 years splitting time between our respective job locations, I'm getting excited over the prospects of having her home everyday. Stacey's class did well on the TAKS with both sections scoring in the 80th and 90th percentile. I guess I had better enjoy this weekend since it'll be my last one in Lewisville until the month of June due to the arduous task of bringing in all Stacey's school supplies and having them removed from the school by the 26th of May.

Meanwhile, we continue to get lots of storms. Two sleepless nights this week interrupted by overnight thunderstorms with intense lightning displays. We managed to see the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays play between storms over the past weekend and that was a good time with pleasant weather. As for me, work has been really busy and stressful trying to nail down a solution to a longstanding problem. I have been visiting grad school programs at TCU and UT-Arlington checking out MBA options and have started reading a riveting book by John MacArthur called Hard to Believe.

Not a lot to report on the job front for Stacey, but she has had some interviews that seem fairly positive. Regardless, it's in God's hands now. Once again, His mercy came to us today when we were trying to stretch my paycheck over three weekends and we received a dividend check from our insurance company. He's provided for us all along, I have no reason to doubt Him now.

I think I'll call in sick tomorrow....

Nah, just kidding. Although today, would you like fries with that sounded awfully appealing!! It has been one of those weeks!!

Here is a synopsis:
Monday: School goes into lockdown...long story which I won't bore you with!
Tuesday: My sister becomes really ill at school which I get to deal with...
Wednesday: Parent (school) being irrational over something I have no control over...
Thursday: Another parent being irrational....

Spring fever has become an epidemic in my class......need I say more???

Not to mention...the job search is still going on in full force, still with no luck, which is becoming very aggravating......

Pray for me!! I need it!!

Take Cover!

Ahh! Once again, we got hit with bad weather. Tuesday made the third time in less than 2 weeks that we've seen storms, hail and tornadoes. We had a weak tornado go through the adjacent suburb of Flower Mound about 10PM last night, fortunately no one was injured and another went through the town to the north, Denton. Fortunately, we only had to deal with a lot of rain, about 5-8" around here, but the lakes are so low that it's welcome.

The Texas Tornado...

This was the tornado that hit Haltom City yesterday, which is fairly close to where we live. We were eating dinner with Missy and Ryan and never realized it got this bad until we got home.

photo courtesy of Dallas Morning News

Congratulations!!

Congratulations Justin and Sara, our friends from Lansing. They are new parents to Miss Ellie! Welcome Ellie!! We can't wait to meet you!!

Yes, this is East Texas!!

My brother-in-law decided to take his little canoe trip that he usually takes on Easter weekend. This is a 32 mile trip by river. Let's just say his trip was cut short due to the "blizzard". This is what it looked like when he got ready to leave. I have never seen weather like this in East Texas in April!!! Let's just say he was glad to be back home in the warm house!!! This will be a family joke around our house for quite some time needless to say!!

Ailments, Aberrations, and Astros = Adventure

After being with various ailments from allergies to some type of strep throat illness, I finally headed out to Nacogdoches to spend time with Stacey's family over the Easter Holiday. I didn't even feel up to talking or eating until Thursday evening with all the fun I was having with my tonsils being swollen together.

Once I got to East Texas, the weather was changing. Friday's weather was okay and in the upper 60's, so I really didn't think much about it. The Weather Channel was saying that it would be 70 degrees in Houston, so I didn't bother packing warmly to head to the Bayou City. Somehow, I knew I was in trouble when I started recalling a conversation Stacey and I held earlier in the week when I said, "I know it's impractical, but I'd really like one of those Astros sweatshirts." Thus, we head to Houston, it's 42 degrees in Nacogdoches, but remember, the Weather Channel says it's going to be 70 down there. We get about 2/3rds of the way to Houston when Stacey's sister calls and says that it is snowing in Nacogdoches. Ahh, whoopty-do, did they see one snowflake and panic like every other East Texan? - I thought. So, we keep going to Houston and stop off at a couple of sporting goods stores and there is that Astros hooded sweatshirt, almost on cue. Then again, I'm thinking, okay Minute Maid park is a retractble roof stadium and has A/C, so surely they'll turn the heat on, right? So, I bypass the $50 sweatshirt and head to the stadium. We get there and it's raining and 43 degrees on the outside and not much warmer on the inside. Yet, we proceed to enter the stadium with the Astros T-shirts and the medium weight jackets we have. That's right, this sucker ain't heated and we're freezing our booties off. To add to our misery, we are hearing stories that it's still snowing in the Nacogdoches area and Richard's canoeing trip ended early (see below). Still, I'm not totally sold on this idea of it really being that bad in the Piney Woods.

Since the Astros had started off 0-4, and were playing the World Series Champion Cardinals, we weren't having real high hopes for a win. Yet, Roy Oswalt took the hill and we knew they had a chance as long as he wasn't pulled for Lidge or let Albert Pujols hit the train with another of his bombs. Oswalt came through with a complete game, Pujols didn't crush anything, Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee homered, and the 'stros won 5-1.

Now, time to go home. Okay, so now it is 37 degrees and raining cats and dogs. By the time we get 40 miles from downtown Houston, the temperature starts dropping and we start seeing sleet. So, maybe they weren't exaggerating about the weather. Go another 20 miles and the temps are hovering around 34 and it's sleeting and snowing. Hey wait a minute, this is East Texas, not Michigan, eh? About half way home and it's coming down so hard that visibility is less than a mile and I'm having flashbacks of driving in the Michigan winters again. Next, we encounter freezing rain and 31-32 degrees nd the road has turned to slush. Stacey starts asking whether this is anything like Michigan since I'm not appearing nervous. We get to Lufkin and now the trees have snow on the branches and the cars are all covered. Thirty minutes later, we make it back to Nacogdoches and it's still snowing. Fortunately, we were blessed to get home safe and sound and no accumulation.

By the way, anyone think I can get that sweatshirt now?

Photos C/O Houston Chronicle

What time is it?

Have you ever felt like you just didn't have a grasp on what time it is? Well, that's what I've been going through the past week. Somehow, the IT department at work failed to upload the daylight savings time patch on my computer and that has me all out of sorts on my appointments. Secondly, not living a full year in Texas means I still don't know when it is supposed to be daylight (or daybreak to some of you), so getting up in the mornings has been a bear. Next, I have been working issues with a client in Singapore, who is 13 hours ahead, meaning that I'm working until 7-8PM on the nights we have teleconferences with them. Finally, Monday morning, I made a rush trip back to Alabama and returned home on the red eye Tuesday meaning I was up at 3:30AM in order to be at the Birmingam airport by 5.

All Aboard the Yard Heathen Express

Ah, it's great to be back in the metroplex again. Stacey and I took a few days of her spring break to venture off to Alabama to see my family. Good time, good BBQ, just not long enough, but we can still see that their Lab, Buster, is still eatin' good in mom and dad's neighborhood.

For those of you who don't know me very well, the term "yard heathen" was introduced in the 2001 time frame and it originally was intended to mean any child under the age of accountability (check your Baptist Theology if you don't know what that means) who tends to be the little kid who plays in the yard and makes mud pies, plays with all the critters that can be found, and comes home with dirt from head toe. This is in contrast to rug rat who stays in the house all the time.

One of those weird things happened to us again, somehow we figure it must be God's way of showing us some humor since we don't have children. First, there was the kids eat free night at Dickey's BBQ and now we were on the Yard Heathen Express. On Saturday afternoon, we flew from Birmingham to Dallas. I knew something was bad when it was a full flight. Then we got onboard and the flight attendants were grousing about some car seats for someone's yard heathen. You can see this is about to turn into a comedy of errors. Well, they had to delay taking off to get some of these child seats onto the plane, then as we're taxing down the taxi-way, we have to stop to move an infant away from the exit row area. BTW, did I mention there were something like 5 of these yard heathens under 5 sitting within 5 rows of us? Nothing like a blood curdling scream from one of these toddlers as the plane is taking off, poor Stacey almost lost it.

I know, one of these days it will be my turn, but hopefully, I'll be blessed with one of those gas guzzling, soccer mom SUV's to drive back and forth to Alabama.

12th and final SEC School

Well, I finally made it to all twelve SEC schools and have visited each campus. While I was growing up and was in school at MSU, I made it to all 11 campuses and SEC Football stadiums (including second home fields like Legion Field and War Memorial), except for one, the University of Arkansas. I don't know nor do I care, but they always seemed to have an aversion to playing MSU in Fayetteville and we ended up in Little Rock. So, being less than 2 miles from Fayetteville town limits, I drove on over to the campus to see the house of horrors disdainly known as UPig or University of Wal-Mart by the MSU faithful. Not a bad place, just very hilly, which is pretty standard for NW Arkansas. Felt bad for the students, they must need thighs and calves like tree trunks to handle all that walking. Have Mercy!

Sooner or Later

I had to go back through Oklahoma again and let me tell you, it was desolate. I'm currently in Springdale, AR attending a class for work and using the hotel computer. 5 1/2 hours through the backwoods of SE Oklahoma and NW Arkansas will give you a new appreciation for the 5 million inhabitants of the metroplex. Needless to say, my co-horts have lots of dueling banjo stories to tell. There's no telling what will happen before the week is up...

Let me end it by saying that I know why Carrie Underwood wrote a song about not being in Checotah (OK) anymore.

The Dust Bowl

Instead of the Cotton Bowl, Dallas is now home to the "Dust Bowl". This is what we lived in this afternoon. Yuck!!

Up, up, and away

THEMIS took off from the Cape Saturday at 6PM. NASA's most daring attempt at launching a satellite occurred with it releasing five separate probes to study the effects of solar storms on our atmosphere.

Now, with TAKS week here, let's hope Stacey's class has a success like this!

THEMIS Launch

While I won't bore you with the explanation of the acronym, THEMIS, I did want to tell you a story about it.

The pictures show the THEMIS payload as it is about to be encapsulated in the payload fairing and the other photo shows it from the inside so you can see the payload. For those of you who never understood what I was working on in Mississippi, this is probably one of the most practical examples of it to show you. There are two of these shrouds which make up a payload fairing for each mission and they primarily serve as protection while the spacecraft is on the launch pad and while it is ascending past maximum dynamic pressure. While this mission is a NASA mission that studies the affects of solar flares and the aurora borealis (aka Northern Lights), it was one of the first Delta II missions I worked on and one of the more exciting ones.

Launch is set for Friday, Feb. 16 just after 6PM ET from Cape Canaveral, FL.

Even churches are bigger in Texas...

This entry probably should be titled, "Bubba goes to the big church!"

One of my yearnings when I found out we were moving to the metroplex was to visit Prestonwood Baptist Church. For the uninitiated, Prestonwood is a mainline Southern Baptist Church on the outskirts of Plano and Carrollton and has about 25,000 members. The sanctuary is quadruple the size of our church home in Florence. It reminded me of Highland Baptist on steroids. I had watched Dr Jack Graham on TV for some time now (and occasionally listened on the radio) and had read some of his published material which has been biblically sound. No disappointment here, just amazement at watching a church that's part TV broadcast (with it's 200+ member choir, orcehstra, wall- to-wall TV and sound monitors, TV camera and boom, and 10 member praise team) and part on fire and spirit moved church with a baptistry full of folks, joyful worship, and sound message. And by the way, I left there with spirtual hoofprints on my rear end. God works in the big and the small places.

Stacey, can we get an "AMEN!"?

Of course, I temper this by saying, until we finally get planted into the metroplex, who knows where we'll end up, but it is great to know that we can be fed while we await on the direction we head next.

General update

Been a crazy few weeks for us, so apologies for not blogging.

First, I have been sick for about 3 weeks. First was the afformentioned stomach bug in my previous post, then I got a second bout of it a week later. From there, I developed a respiratory infection and am just now getting over it. Luckily, it kept my weight down, but what a price to pay for getting ill.

Stacey has been busy getting her students ready for the TAKS as well as trying to settle some health issues as well. She got one of her two crowns put in last week. Been very long and trying since this was originally to be done in December and there were issues with it coming on time. Next, Stacey's foot really began to bother her again and is back in the walking boot, taking more medication and is doing P/T to curb some of the aggravation on her achilles.

Next, we each have seen examples of God's mercy and provision on the job for which we're thankful and pray this continues. More to come in the future.

7 lbs lighter and 2 days later...

Well, someone once told me that if there was a stomach bug to be had, I would catch it. They were right. Shortly after my trip to East Texas this weekend, I came in on Sunday night feeling a little uneasy.

That uneasy feeling continued until Monday morning and then it turned into a mule kick in the gut. From there, I knew it was all over. Thus, I got two days off from work courtesy the latest incarnation of the stomach bug traversing Texas. At least I can say that it was the kinder version of what I have received in the past, no projectile vomiting or the like. Just general blahs, no desire to see, smell or eat food, and you want to stay in bed - except for those quick U-turns. Yeah me! Any volunteers to be the next in line?

On a positive note, this turned out helpful in my work's weight loss challenge allowing me to lose the most weight for the week - just not the way I wanted to.

Get out of here, Murphy!

I'm sure you get the point that Murphy refers to Murphy's law. The weather here has been awful since last Friday. Starting Friday we had something like 5" of rain. The temperaures proceeded to drop nearly 40 degrees and hasn't been above freezing since Sunday when the rain switched over to freezing rain. Monday, I wasn't able to get to work because of the bridges and overpasses icing over and Stacey could not leave because the remnants of that wave of storms hit E. Texas. If that wasn't bad enough, my computer monitor died Sunday morning, my car battery died Monday night, and our humidifier went on the fritz overnight. I awaken this morning and it snowed in the metroplex and the roads are once again a mess.

Yet, I'm thankful that I haven't been in an accident (knock on wood) and had the means to replace those broken things. So all is not lost, nor do I mind a day off every once in a while.

Hopefully, Murphy will leave town, quickly!

PS Did I mention my cell phone battery, too?