Letters

I am so excited Friday we finally received a letter from Stephen that said that he had begun to receive our letters to him :) He said that they really boosted him up and that could not make me any more happy. He also mentioned a website for church where supposedly they had posted a picture of him, but I didn't see him or anyone that I thought could be him, but it did have an e-mail address that we can write to and they will print it out for him. I hope they got the e-mail I sent Friday. I can only imagine how happy he must have been to receive it today :)

Update 2/9- They took a picture of him yesterday at church and posted it. I thought I would check again today and there he was in 3 different pictures. What a happy day!!!

Typical Texas Temperatures

Winter in Texas is very interesting. It does get cold here but not much more than a day at a time. Wednesday was one of our winter weather days. Tuesday night an ice storm hit and we probably had about a qtr inch of ice accumulate. I stole a pict from a friend's blog that I will postwhen I get home. I hope you don't mind me stealing your pict Patti.

Schools were closed and most people missed or went in late to work. Alex and I went in a little late. We left the house about 10 till 7. Traffic was light so it really was not bad. I think we drive decently in poor weather, but unfortunately you can't control how the person next to, behind or in front of you drives.

3 days later was Saturday. What a beautiful day! While Alex was out front washing the cars from the dirty winter roads I kept saying how beautiful it was outside. Just as he finished washing the cars, one of our friends called an invited us to go to the golf range with them. Thanks for the invite. I don't know when the last time was that I took out my clubs, but I had a great time. I did have to get a few pointers from Alex since I seldom swing, but I got a few good hits in. Last night I had to ask Alex why my arm was sore...duh...swinging my clubs. About an hour after we got back from the range another friend of ours invited us to go on a hike with them. We went to Cedar Ridge Preserve where we had been once before but this time we took another trail. I realized while we were on the trail why we had not taken it before with the 10 kids we had in our group that time. It really was a hike...up and down...up and down...and pretty steep too. What a workout. If we had known I don't think we would have taken that trail, but now that we have and we know we can do it I think we will take it again.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHEN!

Today is my brother Stephen's 21st b-day. This is my brother who I was not very supportive of joining the Marines. He began boot camp at the beginning of the year so he has been gone for just about a month now and has about 2 months left. He will be home on his 10-day leave over Easter and needless to say we will be down in Houston visiting family that weekend :) You would think as efficient, organized and quick to respond the military is that the mail from them would be quick too, but we have only received 2 letters so far (we better get one today) The last letter he wrote on the 16th and we received it on the 23rd. Seriously 8 days from San Diego to Houston. Is it 1909?

I have gotten a lot better about supporting his decision. I think he is doing really well, but it has been tough. The 1st letter he sent home he said that he was already sick and the 2nd letter he said that they pulled out his wisdom teeth. So hopefully the 3rd letter will be free of illness and surgery.

Happy Birthday Stephen! Love you and miss you.

New Schedule

Monday the 12th I started my new schedule at work. Some may think I am crazy for picking the hours I did, but here they are. I work 6-3:30 Monday - Thursday. Every other Friday I work 6-2:30 and every other, other Friday I have the day off. TODAY is my first Friday off :)

6 is a little early to start the day, but I love being home by 4. I never deal with traffic...although at 7 I didn't either. I do miss seeing Alex in the morning though. He leaves at 6:30 so I used to wait until he was out of the shower to jump in, but now I am gone before he even crawls out of bed. I pretty much just wake him up to say our morning prayers and he sleeps for another 20 minutes before he gets up.

Since I get home at 4 I have time to workout before Alex even gets home. Speaking of working out on the 2nd we went over to our friends Doug & Cassie's house and had our first wii fit session. I must say I really enjoyed it...I am not big on video games, but I am very tempted to buy one of these...although you can't find them anywhere and to buy the system and the wii fit would cost ~$350. Anyways, my reason for bringing this up is to say that we went over last night and played again. It had been 3 weeks since we had done it, so the fit test pretty much measured how much we had lost from eating a little better and using the treadmill. We both lost some weight. I lost just over 5 lbs and Alex almost 4. YEA! I have spent more time on the treadmill than he has. He keeps pretty busy with class during the week.

So for our first Friday of together we have both already done our workouts and I think we are going to work on some more projects at home. We are currently working on the garden and putting some shelves in the pantry.

2008 Family Pictures

Here are our family pictures for my side of the family on Thanksgiving 2008

This is the whole gang...Mom & Dad...6 kids...2 married into the family kids...1 almost married into the family kid...and 2 grand kids. I can't even imagine how big he family is going to get.

Daughters only

Mom & Dad

And here is our family picture from Alex's side of the family on Christmas 2008

This is the whole gang too...Mom & Dad...2 sons...2 married into the family daughters...3 grandsons...and grandma to us, but great grandma to others :)

Last but not least here is our little family

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I can't believe it has been over a month (practically a month and a half) since I posted anything. I guess since Alex was not in classes I haven't been on the computer much at home...and I have been keeping pretty busy with the holidays and 2009 plans. I will have to back post some Christmas stuff.

We are off to a good start this year. I jokingly told Alex on New Years that it was my favorite holiday since it is all about planning...but it was nice to have his attention and get some input from him on some plans for this year. We are planning to go snowboarding in March, so we decided to "try" and get into a little better shape before we get there. We have both been spending some time on the treadmill and paying a little more attention to what we are eating...but I hope to NEVER have to go on a diet because I LOVE FOOD!

This weekend we did a little project at home. We finally made some art work with some of the canvases I bought back in the summer.

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I hope you did as well. We had family start showing up on Tuesday evening and the last of them left Sunday after sacrament meeting at church. Each time I make a list of things to remember for the next year...like this year we made the green beans on Wednesday, but forgot to take them out of the PACKED fridge on Thursday. That won't happen again. Next time I will have a second fridge as well...and a second oven would be nice, but I don't have room for that one :)


Here is what our Thanksgiving looked like:






















I think next time I will try and get some centerpieces done...the tables look pretty bare, but I don't think it bothered anyone. The food was delicious...I ate myself sick...I don't think I have ever done that before...I am still eating deserts...not all of them are pictured, just most of them.

We also took some family pictures...I will add them soon.