The last decade - 8 years ago

2002 was "monumental" in a couple of ways.  First, my sister got married.  Maybe not so strange in some families, but my sister was the female bachelor of the family.  I am not sure any of us really thought she would do it, but it happened.

The other miracle was finding out that I was pregnant.  Again, normal for some, but new for us.  We were married 10 years when Holley came in December.  I can remember when we told Mike's family - his Grandparents were visiting from Florida so all the aunts and uncles and cousins were there too.  It was harder on my Mom as they had only been living in Texas a few months, so she made me send her preggo pictures! LOL.

Even though it seemed to last forever (especially that last month), the year flew by without much fanfare.

The last decade - 9 years ago

Nine years ago, we had just celebrated our first Christmas in our new home.  The new yard was seeded and there were only two houses in our entire subdivision.

Mom and Dad decided to move from Wichita to San Antonio, with his job.  That was a big change for all of us as we had been very close over the last couple of years.


I was promoted as Staffing Manager at the bank, and Mike had been working for the Goddard PD for several  years. Of course what most people will remember was the tragedy now known as 9/11.  It shook us all to our roots that anyone could have so much hate as to destroy another people with so much malice.

Our nephew, Seth, was born in October.  Becca was in 6th/7th grade - growing up so fast!

The last decade - 10 years ago

A couple of weeks ago our pastor was talking about what has happened over the past 10 years.  This church has grown remakably and the plans for the future are very exciting.

Mike and I started thinking about that too - where were we 10 years ago, what did we think might happen, what plans did we have, etc.  We agreed it would be fun to capture that, so I am going to put it here - 1 year each day.

10 years ago, it was 2000.  The year of "Y2K", which turned out to be not much of anything in the lives of most people.  We bought our first Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 which launched us on a new path of friends.  Rebecca was 12 years old. That same year we started the adventure of building a new home and moved in around Thanksgiving, our 8th wedding anniversary. 

An amazing weekend!

This past weekend I went on a retreat with a group of ladies from my church.

The location was near perfect, the weather was great, and the time was well planned between groups, private time and activities.  Everyone should be so blessed to experience something like what this weekend was for me.

While I was gone, Mike and Holley went to Bass Pro Shops and the Katy Mills mall.  Holley has deemed is "better" than the one close to us.  I haven't quite figured out why, but I think it had something to do with the Rainforest Cafe.  Guess we will be going back soon! 

More pics of the house

Here are a few more photos of our little place.  These were two of the rooms not suitable to photograph earlier, but thanks to a coat of paint, and some creative maneuvering of boxes from room to room, they are livable now.

For ages I have wanted to get matching end tables, so we finally got something we both like.  These are gigantic planters, with a 24" diameter glass top.  Perfect for this room - they are large enough for these oversized lamps (which may be replaced soon), and the color and texture fit in perfectly.  The cost was only about half of what we would have spent on other wood tables, and that includes the glass.  Pretty cool.  (And yes, we have used the fireplace!)

The dining room feels a little cramped with both the china hutch and the piano, but there is room to walk all the way around the table, and those doors open to the kitchen.  The window faces the front yard, and the next upgrade will be the curtains.

I love that she still believes!