A Merry Christmas

We enjoyed having both sets of parents here for Christmas. My parents came on Tuesday and then Wade's parents arrived on Christmas Eve. We played lots of games...Train, UNO Attack (Wade's Christmas present), Phase 10, and Singapore Rummy. It was nice spending Christmas with both sets of parents for the first time in our 8 years of marriage. We hope we will be able to do this more now that everyone's closer. Wade's parents will actually be moving to Springfield, MO in March for a new job for Wade's dad, so they will even be closer!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas with friends and family and wish you a joyous 2009!

Visitors

Natchitoches is known as the City of Lights and over the month of December, the city expects to have thousands of visitors. Most of them came the first weekend of December, along with my parents and our nephew, Myles, for the Christmas Festival. The festivities began Friday night with a lighted boat parade. This was a little of a disappointment because there were only 6 boats in the parade, and sitting beside the water in frigid temperatures was almost unbearable! But, the lights across the river were nice. Saturday we staked out spots for the Christmas parade. We all decided it was the biggest Christmas parade we had ever attended. The parade lasted almost 2 hours! We got there about an hour before it started and were lucky to get a second row spot. We all took turns holding Myles so he could see, but he spent lots of time on the ground picking up candy! Myles got a sack full of candy and beads (it's always Mardi Gras here!) After a late lunch, we staked out a place to watch the fireworks. We decided it was like Disney, with all of the people, but unlike Disney, because we encountered a lot of rude people. The fireworks show was quite impressive...about 20 minutes of beautiful lights! The city does this fireworks display every Saturday in December. So, if you're looking for something to do in December, come visit us in Natchitoches! We'd love to show you our town and enjoy your company!

Visits

With the Thanksgiving week off, Wade and I headed off to Texas to spend time with family and friends. Monday we met Brad in College Station for lunch. Brad and Wade met in seminary, and Brad actually married us. It was good seeing him again. We also drove through the Texas A&M campus while there so Wade could add to his collection of mugs. For those of you who don't know, Wade collects mugs from colleges, but his rule is he has to be on campus in order to have that school's mug.


On Tuesday, we went to Temple and met up with Susan. She was a church member when Wade was on staff at the church in Temple and actually introduced us. Susan and I taught 6th grade together in Academy, my first job. She's no longer in the classroom and was able to sneak away for a late lunch. We were very happy and surprised that Garland was able to meet us for lunch, too. And, we also were reminded that Andrew, their youngest, who was our ring bearer, is now a sophomore in high school. Where does the time go?

After driving around Temple and noticing all of the changes, we met Jill, my friend from college, and Carly for dinner in Salado. We were sad Kyle couldn't make it down, but work called. The plan was to meet at The Salado Mansion, a great restaurant in an old house that served a lot of different food, I think, but we always went there for the fajitas and fire roasted tomato salsa. To our great dissappointment, the Mansion was not only closed but had a huge for sale sign on it. So, we met at the Stagecoach Inn, which I'm sure is good, at least that's what everyone always says, but the disappointment of no Mansion didn't make the Inn very impressive! We were, however, happy to see Jill again after all of these years and meet Carly for the first time. She and Wade share a birthday, and she will be 3 in just a few short weeks.

Wednesday morning we got up and drove to Waco. We drove through the Baylor campus, noticing all of the new building and then met Jeff and Laura and their kids Mallory, Will and baby Charlie for lunch at Magic China. Jeff and Wade were also in seminary together, and Jeff was best man in our wedding. When Wade was in seminary, the guy that owned and operated Magic China was also his landlord, so Wade found his restaurant and went there all of the time. When I came along, we made lots of trips there too. Well, to our disappointment, not only was the owner not there, we were told he had retired. And, after having in our mind how great the food was going to be for so long, we were a little disappointed. Jeff gave us the heads up prior, but it was still disappointing. However, the company once again was not. How nice it was to drive all around Central Texas visiting with friends we haven't seen in about 4 years and picking right up where we left off. We certainly hope our next visit with our Texas friends won't be that long, though.

And, after driving all over Central Texas, it was nice to not get in the car on Thanksgiving! My brother, BL, Rene and Myles came over to my parents for lunch. And then we saw Myles and BL again that night to watch the Longhorns play the "boos" (that's Myles for Aggies! All of my family are BIG Longhorn fans so I'm sure yesterday's BCS rankings made no one there happy.) We never got a picture of everyone together, but here's a picture of Myles showing his basketball skills. My parents will be bringing him Friday to Natchitoches for the Christmas festival. I'll have a new post of that next week.

Potpourri

Has it really been over a month since my last post? Here's a rundown of what's been going on...

At the end of August we went to Shreveport, because that's where you go if you want something besides what Wal-Mart has to offer, and I went into a shoe store looking for Teva sandals. I was introduced to them in Florida and they are the only shoe I can stand in all day without aching feet. So, I wanted to add to my collection and asked the sales person where they might be. Her answer....Florida. That's right. She said they had had to ship them all to Florida to make room for their 3 aisles of winter boots. HUH? Wade actually thought she was kidding b/c we both had on Gator shirts, but she was serious! So, I decided I'd just order some online. First, I went to the Teva website, but I also saw a site when I googled Tevas that advertised free shipping. After perusing the Teva website, I thought I'd try this other site and see what they had to offer. They are my new favorite site! Endless.com. They have loads and loads of shoes...all the name brands...and the best part, besides the free shipping, is that they arrive the next day...even in rural Natchez, LA! Check it out!

Wade had Fall Break Oct 6 & 7, so I took the 6th off too. We went to Monroe to visit his grandparents and extended family on Sunday. First, though we had to stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch! We only thought not having chains and instead all of these local food joints would be great. Since they all serve seafood, it's expensive, but mostly, it's nice having food you are used to. Oh, that Cracker Barrel comfort food was so yummy. On the way to his grandparents we also had to stop at the mall to drop his camera off to get it cleaned...the closest store is in Monroe. Wade mistakenly parked at JCPenney and told me to look around while he found the store and dropped his camera off. When he called to let me know where the store was, I was in the dressing room! :)

On Monday, we went to Shreveport so we could both do some shopping. It was a nice day and we came home up with a fire pit for my birthday. It's put together and hope to put it to use this weekend.

Wade's folks were in town last weekend. We went to the Natchitoches Meat Pie Festival Saturday. 30 minutes later we were on to the next thing. Apparently, Festivals are what all of these little towns do around here in the fall. However, what we've seen hasn't been very impressive! A couple weekends ago we went to the Robeline Heritage Festival in Robeline, LA, about 20 minutes away. It took us longer to get there then it did to see what all of the hoopla was about. These definitely aren't the Gainesville Arts Festival! :) So back to the visit, it was nice and a pretty lazy weekend. We played several games of Bocce Sunday in our backyard which was fun. We bought that when we lived in Gainesville, but it wasn't much fun playing on sand...much better on our yard of grass! :) We decided we need to get a croquet set now too.

It has gotten cold. The high today was 64 and it's supposed to be in the 40s for the next couple of nights. We've searched the grocery store and Walmart for firewood for the fire pit to no avail. We picked up a handful of branches off the side of our road on our walk back home last night. We will have to do that again tomorrow so we can sit out at the fire with our margaritas this weekend! We wish you all were close so you could enjoy our margaritas and fire with us!

We miss you!
jessica

Multi-Tasking

The last few months seem like a whirlwind! We have been going full-steam since we got back from Alaska at the beginning of July. First, the push to get everything packed, then the move, and then of course settling into our new home. Maybe that settled feeling will be here someday. Last weekend was the 1st weekend we didn't do manual labor all weekend...thanks Hurricane Ike! We needed a break. Ike did remind us how badly we need gutters, so there's our next project!

But, back to multi-tasking....Since Ike visited last weekend, I couldn't mow the yard and yesterday was the first day it had dried out enough to mow, so I mowed the yard....while vaccuming the house! :) Yep, you read right! I mowed and vaccumed at the same time.

While visiting Jenn and Tim before we moved, they showed us their newest gadget for cleaning. And, when Jenn talks about cleaning, we listen. A few years ago she introduced us to the Swiffer which we loved and used all the time. But in July, she showed us the Roomba! Now, that's a cleaner. I was a little skeptical, so I made them show us how it worked and made Tim show me what it had picked up because I didn't see anything on their floor....Well, it had found the dirt and animal hair and I was convinced. That was my housewarming gift to myself as soon as we landed in Louisiana and we could get to a Bed, Bath and Beyond! So, last night I put it in the center of the living room and went outside to mow. When I came in, the Roomba was finishing up the living room and docking itself back in its charger! That's what I call multi-tasking!

Those of you starting your Christmas list in September should definitely check the Roomba out and add it to your list!

Hurricanes and Lovebugs: Did We Really Leave Florida?

Thanks for all of your concern for us during our first hurricane in Louisiana. You can see our damage from the picture above. One of our new trees couldn't stand up to the strong winds and all of that water, but we've replanted and restaked. We have decided it was definitely the best hurricane we've ever been through (if you want to classify any hurricane as best!). We lost power about 10:3o Monday night, while watching the Tenessee game, and were without for a little less than 24 hours. There was also a nice cool breeze the whole time, so even though we were without AC, the breeze blowing through the house, made it feel quite nice. We were both out of school through Wednesday, it was a nice short week at school! :)

Now, for the lovebugs! What are lovebugs doing in Louisiana? They were beginning to make themselves known last week, but we were pretty much covered with them today. We really don't feel so lonely for Florida that you guys had to send them our way!

Our task for tomorrow is to get our shed put together and our garage cleared out a little. Wade is enjoying playing Dukes of Hazard everyday when he gets in and out of his truck, but I think he will be happier when he can more easily get in and out! :)

Oh, Gustav!

Wade has successfully completed his first week of work. A month ago today we were starting on that geat adventure, moving to Louisiana. Has it really only been a month!? We decided we would mark the month anniversary by not driving today! :)

We did go to Shreveport yesterday, after watching the Gators win handedly over Hawaii...GO GATORS, and the traffic going north was thick. It was even thicker going north on our return trip last night. Guess people have learned from Katrina. It seems Gustav will hit New Orleans and then the eye will pass over Natchitoches. We looked for generators when we were in Shreveport, but there were none to be found at the places we looked. Since we've lost electricity 3 times since we've been here including the first night we were here, we feel like we will lose it again with the high winds. Our neighbor said they were without electricity for awhile after Katrina. I thought we were leaving Florida to get away from hurricanes! We had 13 trees planted last weekend, so Wade spent some time yesterday tieing some of them down.

The governor ordered several parishes to close schools through Wednesday, and ours is one. Glad for that longer weekend, but not looking forward to seeing where they decide to take our days from. The worst thing about sitting through this hurricane with the potential of no electricity is it won't be like those times in Gville. Jenn and Tim always hosted us when hurricanes came through since we didn't trust our mobile home and it was alwyas fun to be roughing it with friends!

Will try to post at the end of the week and let you know how our hurricane experience was. We miss you all and hope to see you soon!

We made it!

We drove straight through Thursday, July 31. We left Orlando about 11 am and had so much trouble with the kayaks as soon as we got on the interstate we thought we were going to have to leave them with friends in Gainesville. We figured it out and after taking 3 hours to get to Gainesville, the rest of our trip we made much better time. We arrived at our home about 3 AM Friday morning. Quite a wakeup call for Wade's folks at their hotel where they had the key, but they were happy to see us. It's great! Wade did GOOD! :) Wade's folks had already been here Thursday cleaning and lining drawers. They brought breakfast Friday morning and we got to work unpacking the truck when it arrived around noon. Thanks to Peggy (Wade's mom) who was unpacking boxes as we were bringing them in, the dining room hutch and kitchen were set up very quickly. Otherwise, I'm sure there'd still be boxes everywhere. My parents came this past weekend and my dad helpd us get a chain link fence around our backyard. We are so thankful for all of our parental help...don't know where we'd be without all of their help getting our house together!

I got a call Saturday, August 2 to set up an interview for that Monday morning. I interviewed and got a 4th grade position. I'll be teaching Reading/LA to my kids and another teacher's kids, and science to my kids. I had inservice and orientation stuff all last week. One more day of meetings today and kids come tomorrow! Again, thanks to Wade and his folks we got everything put into my room and unpacked last Monday afternoon and kinda set up so I didn't have to worry about that last week.

Rural Louisiana dial up is SLOW! :) I wanted to get a post out, and will try later to post a picture or 2. Wade might have to be in charge of picture posts once he gets into his office at school!

It's Gone!

Our stuff was loaded on the ABF truck Thursday afternoon, July 24, by 3 burly boys. I'd definitely recommend paying loaders, our marriage is definitely better for it..a LOT less stress to watch someone else put your stuff on the truck and get it in the amount of space you rented. It took all of the 21 feet we had estimated. Can't imagine how much space it would have been if we would have tried to pack it ourselves.

Thursday was also important because we closed on our new home that day. If you haven't seen the pictures here's the website http://www.collinsandstamey.com/requestinfo.asp?id=873. I still haven't seen it but look forward to getting there Friday.

This weekend we went to Gville. We had lunch with friends Saturday at La Fiesta. We even got comped dessert from the owner's son who said he hadn't seen us in a while. This was our weekly Friday night dinner while we were in Gainesville.

We also went to the stadium aka Gator Mecca...a must everytime you go to Gville. Wade had fun with the newest Gator statue there...

Will post again when we figure out how to get internet service in rural Louisiana...

Bloggging, it's not so hard, right?

After Lesley and Robert's recent trip to Paris and Spain and their great posts along the way AND Jenn's continually funny blogs, I thought I'd try my hand. Actually, I'm just trying to do something besides packing! :)

But speaking of packing, I thought this would be a great way to keep up with all of our friends and family as we move west and thought we could put pictures of us and the house as we make it our own.

So, I thought I'd start by posting a picture of our guest bedroom. Sorry, guys! As you can see, we are no longer taking visitors!