Little Bo Peep Performance

The first grade classes at Grace Community School put on their annual performances of “Little Bo Peep” yesterday.  Ashley was Peter Peter the Pumpkin Eater’s wife – she got to run around on stage while her husband chased her.  It is a small part but she was adorable, got some laughs from the crowd, and had a lot of fun.

Ashley and her “husband”

With her new Grace classmates

 

Ashley and Mrs. Crawford

Ashley and Mother Goose

Mamaw and Poppie came to the show and Ashley sure was glad to see them there

Jason and I enjoyed the show too (twice)

The message of the performance is that God is always with us, he never leaves us, and he gives us His spirit to live within us and direct and guide us.  What a wonderful reminder to us all.  I am so thankful she can attend a school where these scriptural lessons are taught.  What a blessing!

Settling in…

The move is not complete, nor is every box unpacked, nor is every picture hung, but it is starting to look like home and we LOVE it!  We had our first visitors this weekend - Jason’s parents, Kit and Betty, came in from Salado and we had Cole and Connor staying with us as well.   We were at the ball field most of the weekend but I was able to snap a few pictures of some of the “finished” rooms.

Progress on new house.  Still working on counter stools for the kitchen and furniture for my bedroom but these rooms were looking pretty good for less than two weeks in the house.

Kids enjoying a marshmallow roast in the fire pit in the backyard while the guys hung my new TV on the back patio.  Paired with my new propane heater, it made for a cool place to hang out and watch one of our favorite shows, Diners, Drive Ins and Dives.

                

Kit must have been “tipped off” that I needed a little help around the house because he came with a drill, tool box, level, stud finder, extension cords, etc. to hang the TV and some other things around the house.  Thanks to the Yearty’s for being our first guests and being so helpful around the house.  Thanks to Cole & Connor for putting up with Ashley all weekend.  She loved having them here and asked their Mom on Sunday at the ball field if they could come back and stay “just one more night.”  She told Ashley she could “borrow” them anytime.  That made my girl really happy!

Half Marathon #10 (Austin Livestrong)

On Sunday, 2/19, I ran my 10th half marathon!  When this fun hobby began back in October of 2009, I would have never dreamed it would have caught on like it did.  And we still enjoy it – at least most of the time!  This race was eerily similar to last year’s Big D when I was battling a really bad chest cough and thought I had coughed so hard I had broken a rib or two.  I ran this year’s half in Austin with a sinus infection that was on the mend.  This was mine and Jane E’s 8th together (our 3rd year in a row to run this one in Austin – although 2010 was the full marathon) and Jason also joined us for his 2nd year in a row.  He ran with his Dad last year, and Kit said he was not jealous at all that we ran without him this year.

Jason and I arrived late Friday night and spent the day Saturday with Jane E and Hutch at the Expo, shopping and lunch at Central Market, and a lazy, rainy day at the house hydrating and relaxing.  We ordered some delicious Rudino’s pizza for our pre-race carb-loading on Saturday night and finally got to visit with Les after he spent a wet and exhausting day on the golf course.

Showing off our awesome “finisher” shirts at the Expo.

Map of the hilly, crazy course we ran through Austin.  We ran every single hill without stopping and I was so proud of us.  These are no ordinary hills!

On Saturday, we woke up way too early to head downtown to torture ourselves for hours!  Jason and I came in around 2:23 and Jane E came in a little under 2:22, after leaving me at the last water station to kick that last mile’s butt!  She could have run harder and faster and had a much better finishing time, but she stuck with slow, sickly me through most of the race.  Jason was dealing with sinus and Achilles issues, so he didn’t break any records during this race either.  However, we finished.  We got the same medal as the first place winners, and I am glad to have another race behind me, especially considering the lack of training I put into this one. 

The multi-half-marathoners about to run another one!

After the race, we couldn’t wait to get home and shower, hydrate, and rest before heading to lunch with the Yeartys at Z’Tejas.  The best way to get over a race is to eat some good food and drink a yummy marg.  Right?  As always, thanks to Casa Campbell for hosting us.  We enjoy our time in Cedar Park immensely and appreciate the wonderful hospitality.  I will host the next one in Tyler on March 24th for the Azalea 10k.  After that, who knows what we will run.  I am considering the Tyler Rose Marathon. Yes, the full one. We will see!

Trip to EPC’s Fabrication Shop

We celebrated 20 years in business with our shop employees today at Engineering, Procurement & Construction, Inc.’s White Oak location.  This is where the design and engineering work, that is done in Whitehouse, takes shape before we ship it to the job sites.  It is pretty amazing to think that these start out as empty skids and then are built into skids full of equipment that are shipped to and installed at gas processing plants all over the United States.  I thought I would share some of the pictures of the facility and the jobs that are currently underway.  This is a glimpse into my new life in the hydrocarbon industry and it is pretty darn cool.

                            

No Place Like Home

I am the proud owner of a new home in Texas!  Dorothy was right – there is really no place like home.  After closing the morning of 2/13, we went straight to the house and began unloading the big 24 foot Budget Truck.  It was sure easier and faster to unload and unpack than it was to pack and load over the past several weeks.  Although there are still many boxes to attack, I am so glad to have all of my “stuff” in one place again. 

Here are some of the “during” pictures of the move.

               

Here are some of the “almost after” pictures with just furniture and bedding in Ashley’s room and my guest room (currently my room until my new mattress set comes in).  I still haven’t picked out bedroom furniture and my mattress set will be delivered next Tuesday so I better get busy!

              

Here is Ashley’s first look at her new room (she was so excited!)

I can’t wait to post after pictures of the entire house.  It may be a few weeks since I am exhausted, sick with a cold and have been doing some traveling, but I will get it done!  Thanks again to all my helpers, especially Jason who has gone above and beyond.

Happy 8th Birthday Neely!

We got to help Neely celebrate her birthday this year and it was so much fun.  She picked the Oasis on Lake Travis as her birthday lunch location and so after our girls day out on Saturday, we stuck around for an early lunch on Sunday with the Jasper, Campbell and Cohen gangs.  We had time to visit and catch up, hang out by the warm fire on a cold and dreary day, eat good food, and watch Neely open presents and enjoy cake.  It seems that she had a great birthday celebration, and the “icing on the cake” was that it sleeted/snowed as we were leaving and was still precipitating when we arrived back at the house in Cedar Park.  Jane E informed us that Neely prays for snow every night during her prayer time, so I guess God blessed Neely with a little snow on her party day!

Thanks again to the Campbell clan for hosting our girls’ weekend and for treating us to lunch on Sunday.  As always, we had too much fun and ate too much, but it was another great weekend with lots of memories.

See y’all next weekend for the Livestrong Austin Half Marathon weekend!

Wicked Weekend

As part of our Christmas this year, Mama also bought Jane E, Courtney and I tickets to see the musical, Wicked, at Bass Hall on the campus of UT in Austin.  Julie is in Maui (poor girl) so she couldn’t make the showing with the rest of the Jasper girls, but I am sure she is having plenty of fun in paradise.  Well, this was the weekend and although the timing couldn’t have been worse for me with all my house closings and busy-ness at work, it was a much needed weekend to enjoy time with some of my favorite girls (who happen to also be my family which is super cool).  We still have a lot of weekend to go, but I had to go ahead and post about the show (and beat Jane E before she blogs first).  What an amazing and moving show, fabulous time with the girls, delicious food at Casa Campbell, and free babysitting from wonderful Uncle Les.

             

Thanks Mama for another unique Christmas gift and perfect excuse for all of us to get together this weekend.

“Home-less”

I am less a home after yesterday’s closing on my house in Haughton, LA.  Jason and I picked up the truck, which was an incredible hassle and frustration (and not the way I wanted to start my day), in Tyler and headed to Louisiana.  I had to be at the closing in Minden at 11, so I left him at the house waiting on Cody.  Those two worked incredibly hard and by the time I got back from closing and picking up lunch, they had already loaded all of the heavy stuff and had made a big dent in some of the smaller things.  After lunch, and much rearranging in the truck, we were able to get almost everything into my Acadia and the 24’ Budget truck.  I had no idea I had so much stuff.  I thought I had downsized a year and a half ago and it appears that my “stuff” may have multiplied while in the new house.  We could not have fit another box on that truck!

        

After a day that started for me and Jason at 8 a.m., we unloaded the last of stuff from my car at his house at about 8 p.m.  We were both exhausted and celebrated with a Bruno’s pizza (see a pattern here?  hard work = pizza) and I heard later that Cody was getting a leg massage from his sweet wife. 

Thanks guys for the hard work and dedication in getting that truck loaded.  You are the best!  I have help on the other end Jason, so you won’t be going it alone!  Rest up over the next several days babe so we can do this all again on Monday!  Unlike vacation, I think unpacking will be much more fun than packing was since it means I am getting close to being settled in my own house again.  Ashley and I have enjoyed our time in Whitehouse with Mama and Daddy and the dogs and we can’t thank them enough for providing a free place to stay.  However, we didn’t want to wear out our welcome!  I am sure we will be coming back for plenty of visits in the near future. 

Last Weekend in Louisiana

Jason and I went back one last time to finish packing, organizing, breaking down beds, undoing electronic equipment (and hoping we can figure out how to get it all back together again), and preparing for my Wednesday move day.  My original closing date was to be Friday, but the bank and title company moved it up by two days so we adapted.  Since we had done so much work the previous two weekends, we got to have a lot of play time this weekend while in Louisiana.  First, we went by the apartment to check out the new furniture and décor. It was all just adorable and they are so happy being married.

After a quick visit at the apartment, we took Cody and Courtney to Wiley College in Marshall where Jason was officiating basketball.  We enjoyed catching up on jobs, school, families, house stuff, and so much more and enjoyed some concession stand nachos and jalapenos.  It was so good to have some time with my big kiddos.  We got to see a pretty good basketball game and almost got to see a fight afterwards.  We were glad when we were safely on the road heading back to Shreveport.

The nachos didn’t do much to fill us up, so we headed straight to Superior Grill for margaritas, fajitas, and chips with salsa and queso. Superior Grill has been one of our favorite places to hang out in Louisiana, so it was only right to spend our last weekend there together.  Cody, Courtney, Jason and I have had several celebrations there, including Cody’s 21st birthday last year, so it is special to all of us.

Thanks for a great last weekend in Louisiana guys.  We sure miss y’all and hope you will come visit us in Texas as soon as I get moved in to my new place.  We will find us a new special place soon.  However, I have learned that wherever we are and whatever we do, it is special because we have so much fun.  Love you all!