Starting a family!

I am sure that you may have heard by now...WE ARE HAVING A BABY! TJ and I found out on the same day that Casey, TJ's sister, had her son - April 1st. He was born a little after 3:30 that morning, and we had all only had a few hours of sleep. So naturally, I thought that me feeling tired was a result to the lack of sleep, and from the hours spent at the office from the end of the month.
However, that evening, I had the inclination to make sure...and the test was positive!!! I screamed for TJ and made sure that I was reading the test correctly - it was digital and said "YES+," so there was not much room for error, lol.
TJ and I were headed to my mother's house, so I wrapped the test and handed it to her. She did not have her glasses on, so she immediately thought it was a candy bar, and tried to open it. TJ and I flew out of our chairs and stopped her. We shouted that we are pregnant, and she started crying because she was so happy! We were a bit disappointed, because my father was getting home late that evening from work. We were able to tell him the next day, and he was excited, too!
We told TJ's family that Sunday. We waited a bit, because we wanted his sister to get settled in. We just could not wait any longer. We are extremely happy to be 'in the family way,' as TJ's Papa would say. :)


Casey & Shane with our beautiful new nephew. He was definitely worth waiting up for!!!


At my mother's house, after finding out. Some April Fool's!! Ha!


This is how I confirmed to TJ that the test was positive with a second test. Since the first was positive, and it was 'April Fool's Day,' I wanted to confirm it, fearing that the supersticion traveled all the way to digital technology.

Catching up...

Okay, so I have let my blog go a bit, however, with the new changes in our lives, I hope to pick this up again! Here are a few pictures from the last few months to get you caught up on our lives:


Texas Snow:

2-12-2010


...making a snow man


Michelle making snow angels


Halley walking through the snow


12-24-2009








Hardwood Floors:


TJ and Shane (our brother-in-law) installed the new floors in our house.
Thank you, again, Shane!!





Our new living room!

Christmas 2009:


Casey and Ella

Heather and TJ competing in Rock Band

...opening presents

Boo at the Zoo 2009:

Ella and her Supermen

Labor Day Weekend

I love this picture!

Stuck in the mud!

It is almost deer hunting season, and my husband, his brother-in-law, and a good friend of their's have all been going down to the deer lease to setup and get the land ready for hunting. A few weeks ago they went to setup deer stands that they had built, but they were not able to completely finished - for some reason they are NEVER finished, there is ALWAYS something else to do! Nonetheless, they went up to the land again last weekend. With the high and steady rainfall, they were forced to work in the barn and carry everything out to set it up. On Saturday, TJ called me and informed me that they were coming home - this was about 12 hours earlier than we were expecting. However, our truck was stuck in the mud. He drove on the land to the furthest point to setup one of the deer stands. This just so happened to be next to a pond on the land, and on the day of record breaking rainfall for the month of September in the state of Texas! Great plan!! lol

The next day, they all went out to get the truck and bring it home. Six hours later, the truck was out of the mud, but was stuck in 4 wheel drive low - as I have learned, you can not drive faster than 10 MPH. They waited 2 hours to let it cool down, hoping that it would still not release from 4 wheel drive. They left the truck over night, again, and got home at 3 am that morning - this was Monday. Knowing how upset that I was about the truck having been driven on the land, in the first place, and then, getting stuck in the mud, TJ arranged for me to drive the car all day. Since he drives so much, he takes the car to work, and I take the truck on a normal basis - NOT THIS WEEK! Monday night, they were all supposed to go out there again; however, at this point, TJ and has brother-in-law, have been riding on 4 hours of sleep a night for the last 4 days, and my father-in-law, likewise, for the last two nights. We all decided that them getting rest would be more beneficial than going back out to get the truck. This meant that I and my sister-in-law would finally get some sleep, now, too. Neither one of us can sleep without the guys there!

Wednesday night came around, and the all went back out to get the truck and BRING IT HOME! We were praying really hard about it, because we were afraid of it remaining in 4 wheel drive low, and that we were going to have to put it in the shop. At about 10 pm that night, TJ called me and said, that they were on there way back and he figured out what went wrong. It was operator error, he did not realize that he had to manually disengage the 4 wheel drive. A lot of trucks will have the 4 wheel drive that you have to engage, but once the truck feels like the 4 wheel drive is no longer needed, it takes it back of; similar to the drifting feature on vehicles. So, I asked him, "What did we learn here?" And he said, "I learned that I don't have the 4 wheel drive that I thought I did!"

I was so tired, that I just let that one go.

My new shotgun!

For a few months before we were married, TJ had been introducing me to skeet shooting. He would take me out to the Grand Prairie Gun Club (where we are members) and I would pull the clay pigeons for him while he would shoot with his dad and brother-in-law. A few months ago, after a bit of coercion, I decided to finally get behind the gun and give it a try. I really enjoyed it! About a month ago, TJ's dad gave him an extra incentive with work. He told him that if he met his goal he would buy him a hand gun that he has really been wanting. Well, TJ met his goal, and when the time came to purchase his gun, he decided that he would rather surprise me with a shotgun. He came home with it about six weeks ago, and I was floored. I was very touched by the fact that he could have had the gun that he really wanted, and DESERVED, but instead picked something out for me. I have wonderful husband! Surprisingly enough, I was just as excited about this as I was my Coach purse that he bought me a month before...which makes me think - do you think Coach makes bags for shotguns? jk!
In the past month, we have been so busy that I have only shot the gun twice. We were finally able to take pictures today:

Gettaway to San Antonio

We are back from our weekend gettaway to San Antonio and we had a great time!
TJ and I left on Friday morning, and arrived in the great city a little after noon. After stopping in San Marcos to do a little pre-vaca shopping, of course! In case you do not know, TJ and I, both, LOVE to shop. Neither of us stop each other while we are spending money - this is why when we are at home, we avoid going to malls, stores, and outlets all-together!

The first thing that we did once we arrived, was enjoy the great taste of the city. TJ and I stayed in Market Square - our hotel was across the street from some of the greatest restaurants and the shops on the street. After eating lunch, TJ and I visited the Alamo. We still love walking through there, even though we have seen it countless times; you always seem to learn something new. It is just a wonderful part of our State's history that never fails to remain interesting. After that, TJ and I walked down to the River Walk and we went through the entire area; the new addition is beautiful!

That evening we at dinner with my second aunt, and second cousin. I hadn't seen them in three years, so it was really good to catch up.

The next day, we woke up early. I had arranged for us to go on a trail ride at Double B Ranch in Kerr County. The ranch was about 650+ acres, and there were a lot of wild life: white tail and black tail deer, hogs, mule deer, big horn sheep, bison. The trail ride only covered a small portion of the land, but we loved it! After the ride, the foreman asked my husband if we were scared of buffalo. Next thing I know, we are in a truck driving out to feed 1700 lb "cows." I did not move when the herd came up, hoping that if they didn't see me, and make me a target. Of course, when we were leaving, they kept following the vehicle for more food. The guy stopped to let us out, but they had caught up with us again, so we opted to stay in the bed of the truck through the terrain, until they were out of sight. Great fun! (that is sarcasm, in case you are not sure)


After the trail ride, I had talked TJ into going to a couple's massage with me. When we arrived, I was a bit disappointed. I am used to the Terrace Retreat Spa in Southlake anytime I go pamper myself, but this did not quite meet those expectations. When we walked in, my nerves were put to rest after seeing that the ladies there were nice, and the atmosphere was decent.
TJ was very unsure about the massage - this was his first, so he insisted on wearing his basketball shorts the entire time. Since they placed us in the same room, I was able to hear the uncertainty in his voice when the masseuse was talking to him. At one point, she tapped his shoulder and told him to relax!
When it was over, and they left the room, he told me that he didn't mind the rubbing, but the use of the elbows, forearms and the pressure were just too much - he hated all of the good stuff!

On Sunday morning, TJ and I woke up early so that we could back in town without feeling like we lost much time in the day. If you reflect back at the beginning of each day, do you see a common occurrence? "WE WOKE UP EARLY!" Nonetheless, we had a wonderful trip, and fit a lot of activities in. This was one of the best birthdays, to date!

Talk to you soon!

The Dryer

After two years, our lovely and reliable dryer went out. This was part of the front-loader set that I kept from my old apartment and we put them in our new house. A few days ago, it started making a humming noise when we would turn it on, and it would not turn over. TJ thought it may be the motor going out or just the belt off track, so he tried to fix it. He took it apart, and half way through called me and said, "You need to schedule an appointment to come out and look at this." Right away I thought we had a bigger issue than what we started with; those worries were put to rest when I came home and saw that the dryer was still in one piece.
I took off of work, and scheduled an appointment for Monday with the Sears Blue Team. I was kind of worried, because I knew that this could get expensive. Around 10:00 am on Monday, the Sears tech arrived. He walked into our laundry room and turned on the dryer - it worked perfectly!!! My husband had fixed the dryer when he took it apart, but did not know it. After a $65 service fee, the repair man was on his merry way. And I began to chip away at the 5 loads of laundry that had been stacking up.
The good news - had something been wrong, it would have cost us $425 for a new motor and installation. I'll take the service fee!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

The thank you notes are finally finished and mailed out! After the showers, and wedding gifts, I think the final count was 83. We are truly blessed!!! I was able to get a lot of them completed during TJ's wisdom teeth surgery on Friday. :) He is doing well, by the way. He's a little sore, but is not letting that get to him.