Just so You Are Up to Speed

Well this past weekend brought many people to the new house. My mom and dad came up to Big D for the weekend. They had not been up to see Alexis and me for about 8 months. It was a good visit. Also, the Bereek and Uncle Mike came in for some grilling. Of course it was raining and we had to grill in the rain. Which means we had to grill in the garage. We made it work though, people seemed to enjoy the food.

Alexis and I planted some plants on the front of the house. We spoke with our next door neighbor the other day and he told us that the neighbors loved us because we were the only people in about 10 years who had done work on the yard, besides mowing. It is starting to look good, the flowers are blooming, and the mulch under the tree (I still have posion ivy, more in fact) looks great and kept up.

This weekend should be good too, Alexis is heading to New Braunfels to float the river with her girl friends, and I am going camping with the guys, Ace is staying at Hotel B'Reek. Check back next week for more info on our exciting lives. We know you will.

Its Been a While

It has been a while since Alexis and I managed to get some new material up for you. It seems like so much has happened since our last blog. Let me think. Here is what's new.



We moved, and not into the house that we were supposed to purchase, but into the house that we found in University Park. Moving out was a pain, not for us, but for the 4 guys we hired to move our stuff down 4 flights of stair and down the block in the rain. Once we were in the house we noticed several 'imperfections' that had developed over the houses 60+ year history. Most notably the roof. It was in sad shape. We made sure that the owners knew this and also we wanted to make sure that they knew we wanted it to be replaced. (the roof was replaced and they finished yesterday, it makes it look like a different house) Now that we have been there for about two weeks we have started to give the lawn a little TLC. We have put weed killer down as well as fertilizer. There is also a big tree in the front yard that had lots and lots of ivy growing on it and on the ground around it. So one afternoon Alexis and I tried to rip out all of the ivy on the ground. This was no small task. We filled up 10 garbage bags with ivy. A small amount of the ivy that we took out was poison ivy. I have a pretty bad case of it, ,but Alexis managed not to get any on her. But our hard work paid off and in a few weeks the lawn will look great.

Keep checking back because we will be getting internet later this week, so for now I am getting back to work.

Alexis Has a Career!

It finally happened...Alexis is a teacher!! She was offered and accepted a job as a Kindergarten Teacher in Richardson ISD. Alexis will be teaching at Northwood Hills Elementary School. She interviewed with them on Monday, and on Tuesday received the offer. Next fall will mark the beginning of her new career. I am very proud of her and I think she will do a wonderful job educating the leaders of tomorrow. Feel free to leave comments of congratulations and encouragement.

Congratulations Diana

I would like to take this time to recognize Diana's new steps in trying to reach what is the pinnacle of cool...being like me. Her decision to reach the ultimate cool is applauded and should be viewed as an example for all others to follow.

May this quote from Diana inspire you, "Just wanted to let you all know that in my quest to be ever more like Brett..." I think those are words we can all live by. Diana is wise beyond her years.

More new house news

So as most of you may have heard, the new house thing feel through. The bank called us the day before closing and told me that they would not be able to fund our mortgage. The logic being that since I am self employed I must have two years of self employment history. I don't have that. As it turns out, this is something they should have told us on the first day, not the day before closing. Oh well. Now Alexis and I have gone through pretty much the entire home buying process without buying a home, we're pros.

Since we didn't get that house, we decided to rent a house. We looked at three houses and the final one we looked at we loved. It is in University Park, thats where SMU is, in fact we are about two blocks from the university. Anyway, it's a two bed, one bath house with a detached two car garage. The house is in great shape and was built the 1930's. Alexis and I are really excited since it is in such a nice part of town. It is still close to Downtown and other fun stuff. Its closer to work for Alexis and it has a yard for Ace. We move at the end of this month, stay tuned for pictures.

Texas Independence Day

I got an e-mail from Larry Watkins the other day inviting one and all out to Love and War in Texas to attend a Texas Independence Day celebration. Love and War in Texas is a county music venue with an outdoor stage and beer garden and a restaurant on the inside. Larry said that the place was pretty kickerish, not exactly our scene, but we figured we would have a good time anyway. Now usually Andrew would be the first person we call to check this out, he would have loved it, but he wasn’t in town so we enlisted Eric to join us, it wasn’t his scene either. We get there around 8 pm after walking about a quarter mile from our car. The place was packed. As we expected it was cowboy country. It seemed like a stereotypical Texas dancehall scene from a movie. Cowboy hats, long wallets that stick out back pockets, Wrangler jeans, boots the whole nine. The band that was playing had a lead singer who looked like he had seen his fair share of full moons. He was old. He was very entertaining, his songs were lively and he had a good range in his voice. Most of his interludes between songs had to do with Jose Cuervo. So we met up with Larry and his wife and some of his old college frat brothers. Eric and I ordered a bucket of beers, and on this chilly March night they never got warm, or rodeo cool as we say in Texas. At one point I ordered a beer that was close to a gallon, I was up to the challenge. Alexis spent most of the evening talking with Larry’s daughter and her friend who were our age. It was a good time had by all. The odd thing is that my old boss, Larry, got there with his wife long before us, and left after us! It was a great way to celebrate Texas Independence Day.