2016-2020 [Cliff's Notes]

Well, five years ago, life got busier. Ha ha. I will try and go back and fill in some of the gaps over time. 

In 2016...

• The kids and I finished our year with Acton Academy and went back to homeschooling. We learned some great stuff through Acton, but we were glad to be back to just us.
• In the summer, we took a trip up to South Dakota and saw Keystone, the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, and so much more! We then drove over to Estes Park and spent a week there in the Rockies with my family. It was a great trip!
• In the fall, we piggybacked on to a business trip Aaron was taking to Arizona, and we did Phoenix, Las Vegas (just for a night), then Zion National Park (ask about the big fight someday), and the Grand Canyon! We still haven't really seen the Grand Canyon as a family because it started snowing big time about 10 minutes after we showed up!
• We became very close friends with the Drumm family (who also homeschooled) and they were such a gift to us for a couple of years. We had dinners together every week, and went camping (in below freezing temperatures) at Mo Ranch in December. It was crazy cold, but so fun!

In 2017...

• It was a great year of homeschooling! The kids were at such fun ages, and we had a great time!
• In the Spring, we went to Big Bend National Park with the Drumms and camped for several days. It was beautiful there!
• We went to Mexico in September and explored the Yucatan Peninsula! We started in Cancun, went to Merida, then circled back to Cancun by way of Tulum and many other beautiful places. There were ruins, cenotes, great food, and more. Coming back from Cancun, we scheduled an overnight layover in Mexico City, which we loved. And then--within a few hours of arriving--we were in an 7.1 earthquake. It was a very eventful last couple days of the trip, so that will need to be it's own post as well.
• Abby turned 13 and made a new best friend, Danielle. They had such fun together!

In 2018...

• We took a trip to New York City on a whim and had a great time! That should also get it's own post one of these days.
• We finally decided to take the leap and sell our house on Sierra Trail to move out toward Bandera/Pipe Creek. It was all a bit of an ordeal that included backing out of a house we'd planned to buy, moving out of our house in tons of rain and mud, and living with our best friends, the Sizemore's for 3 1/2 weeks. Additionally, it included falling in love with a house we couldn't afford, and then over a month or so the price dropping until we kinda sorta felt comfortable and put an offer on it. They accepted our offer, but then... everything went wrong over the course of the deal and it looked like it might fall through on multiple occasions. However... finally, we got the house (and at a price we felt 100% comfortable with because of our negotiations after all the issues)! We couldn't be happier with our little piece of heaven out here in the Hill Country. I'll make it its own post sometime.
• At the same time, the kids decided to go back to public school and started in the fall of 2018 at Bandera ISD. Carson was starting 7th grade and Abby was a freshman in high school.

In 2019...

• We went to Boston + Portland in the dead of winter because we had some travel vouchers and the airfare was cheap. It was one of the best trips, and we all had such a good time over the four days we were there!
• In June, our friends Shannon + Ana (Shelby's brother and now sis-in-law) asked us to come to Oregon with them so they could get married there! Aaron officiated, I photographed, and Shelby played the music. That was it! It was just the five of us at this remote waterfall we had to hike to (and nearly died). It was such an amazing four days (except for the danger hike), and I'll never forget it!
• In the summer, we took our longest road trip to date and explored the Midwest. Aaron had business in Indiana, so the kids and I drove up to meet him in Fort Wayne and then we all travelled from there. We did Detroit, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Nashville. We were gone 2 1/2 weeks! We had some good times, but it was a bit of a moody and stressful trip too. Lots of fun memories though.

In 2020...

• We took a Spring Break trip to Atlanta (Abby's request) and had a really fun week there! We saw Stranger Things sites and then stumbled upon two real life shoots! (We were really geeking out.) Also went to Coca Cola, the ballpark, and lots of other fun stuff. Then on the way back...
• We started hearing people talk about this Coronavirus thing. We were so confused. People were starting to freak out. There was talk of the kids school closing the following week. WHAT?! It all sounded crazy. We were coming back on Saturday, so we decided to stop at the store on our way through Mississippi to get hand sanitizer for the church and they were ALL OUT. We stopped at multiple stores across several states. No sanitizer or cleaning products anywhere. Then it is confirmed that, yes, the kids school will be closed the week after spring break.
• We got home in time for the kids and I to drive to Dallas to visit Nanny who wasn't doing well, and she sadly passed away on Monday. Abby was the sweetest and was there with her all Sunday night and all day Monday, and it was a truly beautiful thing. More on that later too. We didn't really get to have a funeral due to COVID, just a small graveside service where none of us could really hug or stand close and it was all very strange and sad, especially because we are such a close family.
• To unpack the rest of 2020 up until now with COVID and politics and racial tensions would really take a whole lot more space than this, but until I write that down, the history books will well document this season.

To be continued...

Spring Break Beach Day

Spring Break hasn't been anything special this year. Aaron and I have still had to work. The kids have been mostly home, with Bella and Abby having a fair number of sleepovers here or there. So when Abby asked if I'd take them to the beach, I thought it sounded fun!

We left early on Friday so that we could maximize our time at the coast, and we drove to Port Aransas, our favorite little Texas beach town! We swam (a little at least--the water was COLD!), built our drip sand castles, ate and lounged. Carson begged me for a kite so I left to get one for him. He had the BEST time with it--until it flew away 20 minutes later! But we watched it for ages as it drifted far far away, and we found even that to be entertaining. 

All in all, I'd say it was a really nice day--slow and unhurried. Thankful for the time I had with these kids. They're pretty awesome.

 

Snow Days!

Seems like every year at one point or another, the weather man claims that there's a chance of snow. We always get so excited, and then... nothing. So this year, I didn't put a whole lot of stock in the forecast. 

On Sunday, it started icing a bit, but nothing of substance. But that evening, it started snowing HARD (especially for south Texas)! It was beautiful! We stayed up and watched it for quite a while. 

As we were getting ready to go to bed around midnight, we realized our pipes were frozen and we had no idea where. We were out in the snow and in the well house trying to pinpoint where we even needed to thaw, and we had a blow dryer, space heaters, and more! We were so cold, but we finally figured it out. We woke up to a beautiful winter wonderland on Monday morning! School was cancelled of course. For the next couple days, we played in the snow some, relaxed, and Carson and I watched a lot of LOST. (This is all between rolling power outages, but ours were very consistent and reasonable lengths of time, which was not the case for so much of Texas.) Wednesday the snow finally melted for the most part. Abby and Aaron went to SA to stock up on groceries, because we were running low on food. Stores had been packed with lines wrapping around the building in the days previous with shelves being almost completely emptied--complete insanity--so we'd put off going. They managed to get enough to make due.

Then would you believe it? On Thursday, we got another big snow! It snowed all day long--huge, fat flakes. We were just amazed! Aaron and I went for a walk in the snow, and it was just gorgeous. 

All in all, it was a wondrous week. The kids were off of school the whole week long, and we had a great time.

I should acknowledge that we had it pretty lucky. So many (in our area and across the state) were without power for most of the week. Many were required to boil their water (we are on a well so we didn't have to). Many lost income that week. So it was hard. Our church raised almost $4000 in the weekend following to help a handful of Bandera families heavily impacted by the winter storm.

Back posted. Written 5/3/21. 

Scenic Crest

We bought a house! For years, it's been a dream of ours to move out to the Hill Country. We've looked and looked and looked. In July we decided to start looking in earnest and that we wanted to sell our house. We looked at quite a few houses. Even put an offer on one and then--after an eye opening inspection--backed out of that one. 

We came to look at this house, even though it was pretty far out of our price range. (Seems like it was around $265k.) As soon as we stepped up to the porch and saw the views and the house, we knew we were in trouble. After one walk through the house, we desperately wanted it, and left sad because we knew we couldn't get it.

We put the Sierra Trail house on the market. I kept my eye on this house over several weeks. I prayed. The price started dropping. But they weren't accepting offers that were contingent on the sale of our house. Houses like this do not stay on the market long and we just knew it would sell any day. Again, the price dropped more and we talked to Donna, our realtor, and she suggested putting in an offer since it looked like Sierra Trail would sell. So we did! Turns out they had one more offer, so we had to give our highest offer and wait. We offered more than she recommended, but we did not want to lose the house. We won and were THRILLED! 

Meanwhile we closed on Sierra Trail and moved in with the Sizemore's for a few weeks. Everything kept going wrong with the Scenic Crest house because it'd been vacant for quite a while and because it was bank owned and because things kept not working and breaking. It was a nightmare! Donna kept suggesting we back out of the house, but we just couldn't. There were several times it looked like the whole thing was going to fall through. However, at the end of the day, we ended up getting the house for $225,000 (exactly where we wanted to be), and all of the "major issues" turned out to not be such a big deal once we got in and settled.

We love our house, and as we pull into the driveway each day, we are still in wonder--"I can't believe we get to live here!"

Here are the photos from the listing. We've got a lot of work to do, but we are so excited!

Backdated. Written 2021.

Saying Goodbye to Sierra Trail

We moved into our house at 11310 Sierra Trail in the spring of 2010. We bought it for $128,000. We sold it in September of 2018 for $205,000 in five days. While we are excited for the hill country and small town living, we've grown to love this house, and finally had it almost exactly the way we liked it. Ha ha. 

Here are the photos from our listing. (Note that the super green grass is photoshopped. Ha!)

Backdated. Written in 2021.

Spring Break 2016

The up side of being at a year-round school is that we got a two week Spring Break! It came just in time, and we loved every second of it! Here's a little snapshot...

Aaron brought me a card and a cupcake to work to celebrate Spring Break.
Yes, it has been that kind of a year.

Carson learned how to mow the lawn.

Aaron and I got to squeeze in a few dates during the break too.
He's my favorite.

Since we usually do "that church thing" on Easter, that means we typically have to put off our Easter celebrations with my family off a week or two. This year we went up during spring break and got to spend a long weekend with everyone. It was great!

The kids dyed Easter eggs with Mattie.

And we spent Saturday out at Grandma & Grandpa's for our annual

Easter lunch...

...and treasure hunt!

And we spent time with cousins.

We spent Sunday morning at the church where I grew up, FBC Howe.

On our way home, we stopped to spend the afternoon with Nanny,
and we really enjoyed that special time.

We had time to finally make some progress on our master bathroom.

In addition, we spent a lot of time up at church working on projects. Our sweet kids happily came along and played and helped and hung out with us for long, long hours!

And on our last day of spring break, we had an "upside down" dinner,
with dessert (at Gables) first, and then pizza.

Only 7 weeks left and we are done for the year!