Woo-hoo!!

Only 10 more school days left!!! Can we say hallelujah!!! :) I wanted to give an update on the job search on my behalf. I have applied at TONS of schools in this area. I haven't really heard any feedback yet but my principal told me the other day that one of the schools contacted her for a reference. So we'll see. I'll give you updates as I get them. If all else fails, I still have a job next year and I'll keep traveling on the weekends. At least I have the new car......

Happy Mother's Day!!!

To all of you mothers out there....Happy Mother's day!! You have the hardest job in the world and you are appreciated!! I want to especially wish a Happy Mother's Day to my 2 moms: Lynette and Pat!! You two are the greatest in the world!! I wouldn't make it without you!! You are appreciated!!!

Dear Mom, guess what I saw today...

In honor of mother's day and remembering a recurring theme from my days at MSU, here's a anecdote of yesterday's events.

For the first weekend since moving to Texas, we actually had free time to not have to spend on moving/storing/unpacking activities. So, we struck out on an adventure to see other parts of the metroplex. Armed with map in hand, we headed out to drive down to portions of Dallas.

First, we go to a shopping complex with a large costume jewelry and handbag store anchoring it. Let's just say it was enough to make any sane male to want five testosterone injections after dealing with the suped up estrogen levels in the store and the parking lot. Next, we took off to downtown Dallas to see how the downtown area was and we had originally thought about going to the Book Depository where President Kennedy was assassinated, but passed on it due to poor directions. Since neither of us had been to downtown Fort Worth (or in recent years), we go through the downtown area and start venturing to Fort Worth. On the way, Stacey mentions something about going to a wax museum she visited while growing up. I don't really want to go, but I relent since it's near my new job and I figure the area is safe.

When we arrived at the wax museum, we noticed something; we didn't fit in with the rest of the patrons. Most people either have children or fit into the freak, geek, or redneck category. We had a couple of toothless wonders taking pictures of every statue of a president you could find. There were some of those folks you find with the bermuda shorts, high knee socks, thick glasses, mop hair do, and fanny pouch types as well. Then we had two poor fellas without any social skills following behind us in the latter part of the museum. You almost had to feel sorry for them being so socially inept. One of the first statues in the museum was Forrest Gump, and that was about as fitting as it could get. "Hi, muah nahme iz Forrest Gump, they call me may Forrest Gump!" It's one of those places it's okay to see it once, but it's definitely a tourist trap.

From there we ventured to Fort Worth and then on to Arlington. Needless to say, the trip to the mall in Arlington was awful. That's another story about rude and careless drivers we'll save for another entry.

Well, it's official...

the three scariest words I can speak are now true. "I'm a Texan."

This afternoon, I went to the Denton County Tax Assessors Annex and bought car tags, registered to vote, and surrendered my Alabama driver's license to the Department of Public safety. When it was sad to let go of something of home, I sense the Lord making me realize it is not the time to look back.

I will say that it was almost a carnival style atmosphere at the assessor's and DPS offices. You wouldn't believe me even if I tried to tell you. Maybe I'll save that one for another message.

New ride...2nd pic

Our new ride....

Well, we finally did it. We bought our first new car together. I have to tell you it was a little scary!!! It is a 2006 Saturn Vue. We absolutely love it!!

This falls under the "I don't believe it " category. I was driving home from work today and an 18-wheeler threw a HUGE rock up and it hit my windshield and hood. I have a pretty big chip and crack in the windshield and 2 dents/dings on the hood. This was only the 2nd day to be driving this new car. I was sick!!

Did I do that...

he he he, snort, snort, snort (ala Steve Urkel).

Well, we'll have a surprise for you in a couple of days...Pictures to come...

Only in Texas

this one has to take the cake. This morning on the KLTY morning show, they were telling a story about a new website run by Texas PBS stations that featured longhorn cattle for people who have never seen barnyard animals/cattle. It even has a 24 hour webcam so people can watch the cows. It's called mootube.com, and I can't imagine being that bored. Only in Texas...

More heat, less heat...

Well, looks like we have a reprieve from the heat. It was 101 yesterday followed by a struggle to reach 80 today. Looks like we have two days of bad weather before the weekend which should keep the temps near normal (whatever that means)...

Heat Wave

Yesterday's high: 95
Today's high: 102
Tomorrow's high: 98

It's only April, I shudder to think what August will be like...

Life's little ironies

One of life's little ironies happened the other day. We had to get a storage unit since we downsized our apartment about 150 sq. ft. Since, I had to go to work, I sent Stacey to find a storage unit and she came back with a contract and got us a 5' X 10' unit across the street from our apt. Anyone who has known me for a long time knows that I am almost fanatical in my following of the Dallas Cowboys, but I stay aggravated at the Jones' running of the club and that includes the acquisition of Terrell Owens who stomped the Star at Texas Stadium.

At first, I thought nothing about it, but I went to the unit to drop some stuff off on Friday and noticed the place was called Blue Star Moving and Storage. Then, I went inside the office and noticed everything in there had the star of the Dallas Cowboys and there was high end Cowboys memorabilia in there. When I inquired about where did they get their stuff, the worker said that he didn't know because the owner gave it to them and that the owner was none other than Jerry Jones, owner of the Cowboys.

Long story made short, I guess I'll be paying T.O.'s salary whether I like it or not...

Drive Friendly - The Texas Way

As Stacey previously posted, looks like traffic patterns will have some control over our lives. There have been times which I could make it to and from work in a leisurely 30-35 minutes without any trouble, and then there have been two instances which came in at 50 minutes and one hour fifteen minutes.

Now, to be honest, I can easily tolerate the time, after all I was driving an hour ten minutes one way from Florence to Iuka, but the pace and the aggressiveness is another thing all together. I have to laugh at a sign that I see whenever we enter Texas, it says: "Welcome to Texas" and underneath the Texas flag, it has "Drive Friendly - The Texas Way". I still say that ought to be changed to a simple picture of what a friend of mine describes as the typical North Dallas kamikaze driver: a forty-something uppity redneck (think Ole Miss grad) driving his imported luxury car, talking on his cell phone, flipping off traffic while doing 80mph coming off the LBJ (I-635 for the non-locals).

Happy Easter Y'all!

GREETINGS FROM TEXAS!!!

Since it's my first post from Texas, I had to throw the obligatory "Y'all" in there. So, let's catch up, I survived the move, however hectic it was, and now I'm trying to get settled in. I just got my computer hooked up a couple of hours ago, so now I can start communicating with the outside world again. BTW, can we say H-O-T? Have mercy, it isn't even May and it hit 95 today with tomorrow expected to be 97-99. This ain't right!!!

For me, it's been one of the hardest Easter's to celebrate because I'm still in a whirlwind of trying to get settled in and accustomed to a new home and starting new routines. I have so much to be grateful for: a new job, a promotion, a new home, more opportunities to see Stacey, new places to go and things to do; that it stands to reason why the world forgets what the season is truly about. Yet, I am thankful for a God who takes care of me and let His Son die and rise again which is a better thing that all those things mentioned above.

As for the whirlwind, it has been a busy week. First, we got here and then our relocation group botched our temporary housing reservations which meant we slept on an air mattress in an empty apt. Thankfully, our stuff arrived last Sunday morning a day after the mix-up. Monday, I started my new job. On Wednesday, probably the best thing was that I had my washer and dryer hooked up and did not have to resort to recycling any clothes. On the same day, I had my Direct TV hooked up and now can watch TV with the exception of Fox Sports South or FSN-Detroit, so I'm in a pickle not having SEC baseball or Red Wings or Predators hockey right now. Stacey made it up here on Thursday evening and her family made it here on Friday around lunchtime. We were able to unpack the kitchen and the living room, now it's on to sorting and straightening. We're about 70% unpacked at this time with plenty of runs to the storage unit.

As for work, after going 4 days without a computer, I finally have one. Fortunately, it was a short week due to the holiday. The job is fun, but going to be a challenge since I am no longer doing composites, which I have done for the past 10 years. Next week should be interesting with more opportunities to get thrown into the fire.

More to come...

General Update

Our movers delivered our belongings on Sunday morning. They couldn't believe it when we told them we were going to a SMALLER apartment. They said, "Two words....storage unit!!" And that we did! I went yesterday and rented a 5' x 10' unit. We have too much stuff!! Our living room is so small that we can't even have our coffee table or one of our end tables. I have a 5' by 8' rug and when i put it down, it barely fit and it covers the whole living room!!!

We're starting to get things in order. My mom and sister are coming this weekend to help us try to finish it up.

Stephen's first day at work was yesterday. He left at 7:15 with having to be there by 8. Well, it took him 1 hr. 15 min. to get there!!! However, when he left at 7 this morning, he made it in 30 minutes. Traffic patterns will rule our lives!!

I had my interview yesterday. I'm not sure how it went, she wouldn't tell me anything. I didn't come out with a real good feeling, but we'll see. I still have my job at Alto and we are willing for me to commute on the weekends if I have to. We definitely both have to work with living up there. It is very expensive. But so far we love it up there. We have everything you could possibly want or need within 5 minutes from our apartment. I already found out that I didn't get the first job that I interviewed for in Frisco. So we'll see.

We'll keep you posted.

Kids Eat Free.....

Ok, so Sunday night Stephen and I are hungry so we decide to go out to eat. Lots of choices...I wouldn't have to cook for at least 2 months if we wanted to try a different place every night (which we won't!!!). So, we're in Texas now so we decided to find some good Texas BBQ. We decided to go to Dickey's which is REALLY good!! The one closest to us closed at 6 so we decided to go to Flower Mound...only about 10 minutes from home. We get there and there are children EVERYWHERE! and I do mean EVERYWHERE!!! There is literally even one hanging off of me!! ( and you think I'm kidding!) No, this child is literally hanging on to my rear end!!! The mother is totally embarrassed at this point, but I'm used to it! I'm a teacher!! Anyway, we got our food and sat down. We realized something peculiar....we are the ONLY people there without children. Kids screaming, food and napkins on the floor. If you didn't know any better, it would be like at Roadhouse with the peanut shells all over the place, except in this case it would be rolls, beans, and some other unidentifiable items.

THEN........................................ it all came clear to me. There was a sign on the table. Yep, you guessed it....Kids Eat Free Sunday and Wednesday nights....................enough said.................

Well, needless to say, Dickey's is off the list for a while, especially on Wednesdays and Sundays....

Update...

Today was Stephen's official last day at ATK. Tomorrow he will wrap up things in Florence and watch in his rear view mirror as he leaves for good. There are a few things that we will miss there...our church for one. Highland Baptist Church was our life line there. We will also really miss our duplex, with lots of room for really cheap!! It will definitely not be like that where we're moving to!!

We will also really miss being so close to his mom and dad. I got really sad just thinking about leaving them. They were so very excited when we moved to Alabama. Now my parents are really excited that we will live in Texas. If I had it my way, my whole family and Stephen's whole family would just all live in the same town. We can't have it that way I guess.

Stephen starts his new job on Monday. I have my interview on Monday. Please keep us in your prayers.

Our packers came on Wednesday and picked up today. They will deliver our "STUFF" on Sunday. Just in time for Stephen to start work.

We'll keep you posted.

On the road again.....

Ok, so where do I start? This past weekend was our apartment hunting trip to the Metroplex. Stephen left Florence on Thursday and stayed half way in Little Rock. On Friday he was going to go straight there and I would meet him. My car was going crazy on me so he had to come here first to pick me up, then head for Dallas. We had a good time staying with my sister and brother-in-law, ate some good BBQ at Dickey's BBQ!! Saturday morning we met with a rental agent and she showed us SEVERAL apartments. It came down to 2: 1 across the street from walmart and 1 by the mall. We ended up getting the one by the mall. Yippeeee! We will live in Lewisville, which is right by I35. Our apartment is very nice. We will enjoy living there.

We left Frisco Saturday night and drove back to Nac.; got here about 1 a.m. Well, you know how Stephen is with his tummy issues. He got sick about 2 a.m. It has not been pleasant to say the least!! He is finally getting better, thank goodness!

On a different note, please keep my sister's in-law family in your prayers. They are experiencing difficulty. Richard's grandfather passed away on Friday. They believe that he died from the human form of mad cow disease. It was very awful to see what he had to go through. They are not even able to have a normal funeral. They will not do an autopsy or embalm him. They can only have a graveside funeral. Very sad situation......

We'll keep you posted on the move. It looks like it will happen somewhere around the 8th of April.

Hallelujah...Amen!

FINALLY!!!

I can finally say that it appears the job hunt is over. The latest trip to the Dallas Metroplex has proven fruitful. The interviews on Monday went well and I must say that for a change it was nice to finally feel like I was wanted, and not a back-up plan. I have an offer and have faxed back an acceptance. All that is left is to complete the drug screen, turn in my resignation, and get the ball rolling on getting the movers here to ship my belongings. The clock is ticking, but it appears that I will hit Texas by mid-April.

While it is tough to abandon my childhood dream of being a rocket scientist, I have had to learn some valuable lessons in my career choice and my faith. Sometimes, we have to evaluate our priorities and roll with the circumstances God puts in front of us in order to be in alignment with what He has in store for us. I have no idea where this ultimately will land us, but I remain confident that He will take care of us and bless us with being back under the same roof shortly. Speaking of that, well, it may been soon. Stacey found out that she has an interview at a nearby school next week, so this is coming together quickly.

While we are happy, okay excited, we are sad, too. Leaving the closeness to my parents is a heart wrenching decision. Leaving Highland Baptist Church in Florence will be another sad point because we will miss our friends and the ministries we are involved with.

For each of you out there who prayed for Stacey and me, I want to express my gratitude for keeping us in your prayers. I cannot express what it has meant to have the prayers especially after the rejections, non-responses, or dropped contacts. Our faith has grown and some day I hope I can express it in a way that truly honors God.

here we go again....

Ok, so here is the latest....Stephen has another job interview on Monday in the DFW area. This job is actually in Grand Prairie. It is actually very close to the job he interviewed at in the middle of Feb. He has actually worked for this company before while in Michigan, so we'll see. We are hopeful; yet, we are trying hard not to get too anxious for yet another let-down. We have been on a roller coaster here lately.

Speaking of interviews, I have an interview in that area as well. What do you know, we might actually get to live in the same household again! Yeah!

Friday after school we will meet in Frisco and stay with Missy and Ryan. My mom, sister, niece, and nephew will come also. It will be fun! On Monday after the interview, I will go back to Alabama with Stephen for the week. It is my SPRING BREAK!! Yipppeee! I am SOOOOOOOO ready for a break!!

We will let you know how the interview comes out!

Hoping for a less stressful weekend...

Last weekend, Stacey and I hooked up again in the Rock (that's Little Rock for the outside world), and I felt like Mr. Murphy chased us up and down the Ozarks.

As a child, Stacey had visited and vacationed in Hot Springs, AR on multiple occasions. For months, she has ranted and raved about wanting to go back, so we decided to take a trip over there this past weekend to see it and decide if we wanted to vacation there this summer. Well, let's just say that the old portions wasn't what she remembered and it was so overcrowded that we didn't stick around to find out much more than what was on the main drag and stop at a place called Crazy Cajun's to get some good Cajun food. With that in mind, we headed back to the Rock to go shopping and find other things to do. When we got back that evening, I started feeling queasy and woke up sick Sunday morning.

Well, let's just say that my cold medicine did too good of a job breaking up my respiratory infection into a massive tummy trauma. Even after I paid homage to porcelein deities, we tried to check out of the hotel and go home, but something else arose. Stacey's car would not start... We left, ate lunch and came back, still no luck. Wasted more time and tried again, and the ignition was locked. By then, I'm getting sick again and finally give in and re-check into the hotel. Being Sunday, we try to get help, but to no avail. I get so sick that Stacey feels bad for me and goes to Wal-Mart to pick up some supplies to settle my stomach and some detergent to wash clothes. While there, the town creep follows Stacey through the Wal-Mart parking lot and she has to return to the store to get an escort. While hiding in the vision center, she finds out that this nut who chased her in the parking lot has done this on multiple occasions, yet no one has done anything about it. Great! So I have the town idiot making my already paranoid wife even more paranoid. Can I send you the bill for the prozac?

On Monday, we finally get a wrecker to get Stacey's car to the local dealership and we get the car fixed just before lunch. New starter/ignition cylinder and the car was up and running again. Meanwhile, my stomach settles down long enough to get drive home.

Surely, this weekend will be better...