We're Still Here!!!

I know it's been forever since there has been an update, but they're not nearly as much fun when it's just "Everybody is busy doing their own thing." But, we have managed to do a few things in the OVER A YEAR since I last updated. It really is all on me. I've had a lot of people try to get me off of lazy and update here. Sooooo, here goes:

Wyatt is still busy with school. He's finishing up his junior year right now.

Abigail is still working as a flight attendant and enjoying it.

Kirsten has come to work with Dax and I. We'll make an accountant of her yet. Her resistance is futile!

Addison is still working in a preschool and enjoying the kids.

Wyatt drug invited us to a symphony performance on campus.

 

I think Dax and I get invited so that we'll pay for the tickets. I don't have any solid proof, but I'm pretty sure I'm onto something here.

Addison bought her first car last summer. After much looking around and test driving, she settled on a Volkswagen Tiguan. She's happy with her choice.

After all of the excitement (read: stress) of car shopping, Dax and I got away for a long weekend in New Orleans. We visited some neat places in the Quarter and found some great places to eat. But, really, how can you not in New Orleans.

Dax found this pearl in some oysters he was eating. Should have made him keep eating until I had enough for a bracelet. Ha!

We had our annual trip to the Texas Renaissance Festival. It's always a good time and makes for some great people watching.

 

Then, just like that and with no warning at all, the kids turned 21 in November. TWENTY ONE!! 

We took them out to dinner on their actual birthday. 

Those 'first' drinks at 21 probably cost more than the meal. LOL It was all good and we had a great evening together. It gets more and more difficult to get everyone together as they get older and have their own things going on.

But, dinner out for their birthday wasn't enough celebrating of 21. So when Dax and I were out in Las Vegas for our annual conference, we had the kids come out over the weekend to celebrate. I think a good time was had by all.

 

A good time and food. Lots and lots of food. These are from my favorite place while we're out there. Hash House A Go Go. Do yourself a favor and eat there if you are near one. You can thank me later.

 

 Oh, and you'll probably want to share. The servings are huge. Just the pancakes are 14 inches.

 

We felt like we barely got back home, before Christmas was already upon us. We had a good time with everyone and had our annual gingerbread house decorating contest.

 I have to say, we're getting better at it.

We didn't even have time to recover from Thanksgiving, birthdays in Vegas, and right into Christmas before we headed up to Dallas to the hockey Winter Classic.

It was crowded and cold, but it was fun. And the Dallas Stars won, which made it even better.

So now Dax and I are back into tax season and it may actually feel like rest after the busy holiday season.

So that's pretty much the fun stuff we've been up to. We've had all of the not fun stuff to deal with, too. One of our dogs has signs of dimentia and has lost his hearing. We hate to touch him when he's sleeping because it scares him, but that's the only way to get his attention.

In October, another one of our dogs had a stroke. She's been slow to recover, but still gets better every day. She started out not being able to do anything but blink her eyes, but she's recovered all the way back to her back legs. She still can't stand up, but is trying and continues to get more movement in her legs. We've gotten her a doggie wheel chair, but that takes a whole lot of work on its own.

.........and on it goes.

I know I say it every time, but I'll try not to go quite so long without at least some kind of update.

Update time!

I know. I know. Once again it's long overdue. I feel like I have less time now than when the kids were little. How is that even possible? It's crazy!

We celebrated Easter, but I seriously can't believe the Easter Bunny is still stopping at our house. But, hey, it's always good to have our family together.

 

Addison changed jobs and is now working at a preschool. She spent the first month or so being sick from all of the germs the kids bring with them. I'm thinking she likes the old people better.

We welcomed a new nephew, Zane.  It took a couple of months for us to finally be able to go see him. Like I said, Addison was for a long time. I finally made her go to the doctor and it looks like she got there just shy of pneumonia. Well, Dax caught what she had and spent some time being sick himself. Then I had shingles so couldn't be around the baby either. But, finally, we got well and got to meet Zane. It was wonderful!

 

After tax season (grateful that we survived) Dax and I took a few days off and spent a long weekend in San Antonio. This time we stayed right on the Riverwalk and had a wonderful and relaxing time. Every day should be like that.

Abigail has been off at school, training to be a flight attendant. She was sick when we dropped her at the airport and for her first week or two of training (see Addison was sick and sharing above). But, she managed to make it through and has done really well. She will be graduating as Valedictorian of her class. We are so proud of her. 

She will be based out of Houston so will be crashing at her grandparents' houses. I think she'll bounce back and forth between the two sets of grandparents so that she doesn't wear out her welcome.

Wyatt finished his first year of college. Since he's thinking law school, he'll be spending some time this summer interning for an attorney here in town. He's pretty excited about that.

Kirsten is still working with graphic designs. She has a number of items for sale in her online shop at The Messy Bun. Go check out her stuff. I have a couple of clothing items and get lots of compliments on them.

We can't figure out why none of them want to go into accounting. I'm sure it has nothing to do with their Dad sleeping at the office during tax season.....

So, I think that gets us caught up on the big things. I'm sure I've left out a whole host of little things, but they always come to me later.

Some weeks are hard

This was a hard week to get through.

Started off having to make car repairs on Sunday. Not fun, but Avery worked on it and got everything working like it should.

He went back home on Tuesday. I always feel so bad for him and/or Abigail when they travel, because there is no quick route between the two towns.

Abigail came down with a stomach virus. I took her to the doctor on Thursday. Unfortunately there wasn't anything they could do. Abigail just had to wait for it to run its course. She has stopped running a fever now and is feeling better, thankfully.

Dax and I have had to attend two funerals this week. That's a bit tough.

The most challenging part of all of it though, has been trying to keep a positive attitude.

I'm looking forward to a better week this next week.

More late stuff..........

I think somewhere along the way, I managed to never post that we got our final child out of braces in November last year.

I don't know who's happier.........her or us.

Okay, I'm sure it's her, but still.

Anyway, more stuff that I failed to share earlier. We had our first annual gingerbread house building competition. We competed in pairs and it was a lot of fun.

The winning construction:

And from above. (Ignore the headless gingerbread man. His head was used on another more ominous looking house.)

 

The poor winning house fell apart at least five times during the construction process. But then days later when I threw them all away, all that icing had actually cemented it all together and it didn't even chip in the trash can.

There was a two-story house in the development.

 

A little A-frame model with a tree out front.

 

This house looks pleasant enough from this view.

But if you look closely, the gingerbread man's head is at the peak on the front of the house. Although, the tenants are nice enough to try to warn would be trespassers.

 This is the house that Dax and I built. Based on the others, we played it a little too safe.

 

All in all, we had a lot of fun. We could spend time this year practicing our techniques, but where's the fun in actually being good at this? Ha!

Our Time in Vegas

Gotcha! Bet you didn't see this coming again so soon!



As I said in the last post, Dax and I headed off to Las Vegas for our annual continuing education. We are generally there for 11 days.

Yes, you read that correctly. 11 days in Vegas. That's a long time to be there y'all!

Anyway, we rented a car for the first couple of days because we have extra time on our hands. The year we decided to go check out Mt. Charleston. It was great up in the mountains.

This trip was far different from any of the other trips we've made. During one class a man was trimming his toenails, and in another people were taking selfies (with a selfie stick) while the speaker was giving his presentation. What?! Have we abandoned all forms of etiquette and good manners?

Dax found himself catching an elderly woman as she was passing out because she couldn't catch her breath. She clung to him until help arrived. It's so fortunate that we were there to be of help when she needed it. He also helped another woman get help after she had fallen and hurt herself. It was just crazy! I told him that the ladies were really falling for him this trip! Ha!

We met several people while there and made some new friends.

And we even managed to squeeze some learning in there!

Overall, it was a good trip. However, it takes longer for us to recover once we get back home.

A long overdue update

It has gotten to be the new routine around here that I post, apologize for having been so long in between posts, think I'm going to be better, and then don't post in forever.

So here goes................

Sorry it's been so long.

I'll try to do better.

Wyatt has finished his first semester in college. He did quite well, As and Bs. And because of that he received a substantial amount of funds from the Texas State Guard. That makes all of us quite happy. being a part of the State Guard has been a really great thing all the way around. It's been a terrific confidence builder as he learns leadership, a time for Dax and Wyatt to do things together, and has now helped fund his education.

At the end of his first semester, he decided that sports medicine was not going to be the right choice for him. He's now switched his major to History with thoughts of law school later. Truthfully, I think after growing up with three sisters and finding himself outnumbered in most disagreements, he's looking to use all those pent up arguments. What better way to do that than as an attorney? At least that's my theory.

Abigail got her braces removed at the end of November. She's the last one so we are DONE! Now that's cause for celebrating!

At the beginning of December she headed off to spend the holidays in Canada. At the same time Dax and I headed off for our annual continuing education classes in Las Vegas.

After graduation

So, there was no time wasted after graduation. Wyatt will be attending Texas State University to get a degree in athletic training. He will be living at home since the school is local. His orientation was the first week in June! They didn't give me any time at all to adjust to him graduation before I'm forced to deal with the fact that he's starting college. Come. On. People. Work with me here.......this stuff is hard.

Anyway, parents also had a two day slap of reality to attend. It was good to see, though, that the school is ready and excited for Wyatt to be attending. Look at what they did.....

Isn't that nice of them?

Addison cracked us up over it. There was a story in the news of a family in the Houston area that has quads that will also be heading off to college. One of the girls will be attending Texas State University also. Addison was telling Wyatt about it and that he needed to look her up. We asked her for more info about the girl and her response was that she had long dark hair. HA! That should make her easy to find. Only about 75% of the girls we saw on campus at orientation had long dark hair.

Abigail left at the beginning of July for an extended stay in Canada. She left with a one-way ticket, so I'm not sure when she'll be back home. At the moment, we're hoping for September.

Addison got a job at a local assisted living/memory care facility. She's working the 2nd shift, so we don't get to see much of her at all. But, so far, she seems to like it.

With Abigail gone and Addison working, the rest of us headed to the coast to relax a bit. It was much needed......trust me.

Kirsten's boyfriend (Wesley) has now left for basic training in the Coast Guard. We took this picture and sent to him to let him know we were thinking of him, even while we were out having fun. We're thoughtful like that.

Ok, I'll try to be back sooner rather than later with more updates. The summer is rushing right past us.

Playing Catch Up.....Again

I know!!!

I'm behind yet again. It's amazing how quickly time passes.

The kids all got to graduate from high school. Family was able to make it to the ceremony and we were all quite proud of them.

Fast Forward.......Prom

OK. I have no idea what all has happened that I'm leaving out. Maybe I can add it as I remember, but don't anyone hold your breath on that.

So this year was senior prom. After the cost and stress of the dresses, make up, nails, etc., I've told the girls that they need to just head to the court house when they decide to get married. Oh My Word is it crazy!

Abigail and Avery

Addison and Jacob

Kirsten and Wesley

Wyatt's date was running late so she missed getting to take pictures at our house before everyone headed to dinner.

Here's a group shout of our crew.

They clean up pretty good.

This year has just seemed like a whirlwind of activity. It's all gone by too fast.