Moving On

Ok I'm going to make an effort to start blogging more consistently.  I realized even if no one else is interested in what we're up to it's kind-of fun to look back at.

So since I last blogged about a billion little things have happened- Here are the highlights

* Todd received a great job offer from Apache Corp.

* I quit my job and have taken on the official role of housewife

* We celebrated our 10th anniversary

* Todd finished his Masters and will never have to go back to school again

* Joseph turned 3 

* We moved to Midland, TX and are getting into the swing of things

Todd is loving his job so far and we actually don't even mind living in Midland...... yet.  We already knew the layout of the town and had an idea what there is to do in the area since we had lived here last summer while Todd did an internship.

We'll live in this area for 3-5 years and then the company will give Todd options of places to move us.  We've moved enough now that I've realized even though the actual move is a pain, overall I love moving.  

 I love being home with Joe and I love having time to work out, clean, cook dinner, ext.  I just need to keep myself in check, no one is perfect and trying to chase that illusion will only drive me crazy.  And I'd have to say one of the best things about Joe being out of daycare is that he hasn't been sick in months, whereas before it seemed like he was always sick.

I'm doing my best to keep Joe socialized and learning so he doesn't miss out on the benefits of daycare/ preschool.  Every week we go to Storytime at the library, try to visit a park, and once or twice go swimming.  I also recently joined a mommies group and this week we went to the bounce house.  We even got him signed up to play soccer next month.  

Even though he's old enough to do preschool I'm not ready to put him in.  I've looked into the basic preschool lessons and feel like I can keep him on track if I focus on a little each day.  I even bought him a little work book last week and he's started practicing writing letters/ numbers- I honestly didn't expect much from him yet but he's already getting the idea and loves it!

Mom came up to watch Joe so we could celebrate our 10th anniversary

For fathers day we went camping to Llano, TX

Our haul.  Todd had a blow out in the Uhaul about 30 minutes away from our destination

Little hail storm while fishing up Fairview Canyon

Waking Up

Every once in a great while I get this feeling like I'm mentally waking up.  You know what I mean like the majority of the time your just doing your day to day functions, not necessarily a bad thing just mindless.  I know that part of this was brought about from my birthday. Every birthday seems to snap something in me.
This year was a great birthday, nothing exceptional had happened at the time but there is so much to look forward to in the coming years and I know the harder times have helped me appreciate things I could have never recognized without them.
Part of my present this year was getting a whole day of Todds time.  He is in his last stretch of school, final semester, and finishing up his thesis.  We are so excited that after 7 years of full time school, not counting my schooling, we can officially get on with life!!! 

Here are some pics of our day out at the Gila Cliff Dwellings

He informed me that he didn't need gloves because he could put his hands in his pockets.

One of the Rangers warned us that it was muddy and I might get my "nice white tennis shoes dirty".  I wasn't worried about it but Todd went and grabbed our hiking boots anyway.  Of course the mud was Joe's favorite part of the whole trip.

If you ask Joe will strike a pose for you

We had brought the backpack to carry Joe in but he was happy to hike the entire 1.25 miles

A day in Midland

I had a few free minutes so I thought I'd post an update.  As of the last entry we were waiting to hear if Todd got his internship.  He did!  We're living in Midland right now as a matter of fact.  He started a few weeks ago and is loving it.  The people here are incredibly nice and the company he's working for seems great.  We're just having trouble finding things to do when he's not working.  It's really hot here in Midland and it's not a large town so it seems like we have to drive a couple of hours to find family entertainment.
We still had a lease to fulfill in NM so we left most of our belongings there and just moved the minimum needed.  I'm able to use internet at the clubhouse and we didn't hook up cable.  I had this crazy idea that it would be fun in a kind-of romantic way to go without as much as possible, kind-of like a very long vacation.  Unfortunately it just feels like living inconviently.
Overall though it's been nice to have Todd around more and to be able to play house mommy for the summer.  We can't wait for the next year to go by so we can get back to living like adults- not students.

Quick update

Just thought I'd give those of you who don't use FaceBook a quick update.
Todd had one last interview for a summer internship a couple of weeks ago.  He did great and earlier this week they made him an offer.  We are so excited, I actually started screaming.  I am so proud of him, his hard work is starting to pay off already!
The internship will be in Midland, Texas with Mewbourne Oil.  It seems like a great company, they're a small independent company that's been around since the mid 60's. 

The interview was in Oklahoma so we made a little road trip out of it.  
Also, this week we moved Joseph into the bigboy bed.  When the mattress was delivered we realized the crib made into a full size bed not a twin.

These last couple I took earlier today.  They were so cute I had to post them!

December in New Mexico 2010

Todd and I have a tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree every year.  It hasn't always worked out quite as planned, luckily this years traditional went down without a hitch.

While we were waiting for Santa to finish feeding the reindeer we went through the museum.  They even have a Gila monster.

Todd assembling Josephs toys

The tree turned out pretty nice

Christmas morning

Thanksgiving 2010

My version of Christmas enchiladas (green sauce inside,  red out).

And both red and green homemade salsas!

My first attempt at Grandma Bee Rolls- not perfect but pretty good

My pumpkin roll was perfect though!

Thanksgiving dinner

Grandma Parr making a gingerbread train with Joseph

 We were lucky to have Belva and Randy visit for Thanksgiving! 

We took our visitors to see some of the sights they didn't have a chance to see when they helped us move, we didn't get to everything but this was a good start.

Todd attempting to sled on the sand using a sign- it didn't work, we'll bring snow sleds next time.

Farmers Market

We had been looking for a chair for Joseph since his birthday and finally found a good one on a Black Friday Sale.

 Sorry I've been so bad about keeping this up to date I'd like to say I'll be better, but that would just be lying.  Working full time and the holidays have really thrown me through a loop as far as keeping up with everything.  Now things are settling back in I think we're just about as adjusted as we're going to get.

The University has an amazing geologic museum.  Joseph and Belva are checking out some petrified wood.

Hueco Tanks

Halloween 2010

Joseph had a full on Halloween this year.  Along with the normal carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating (well trunk-or-treating) we took him to a costume party and the daycare put on a full week of celebrations.  We didn't get to do quite everything we wanted to though thanks to all of us getting sick.  I really hoped we could have made it to the Dia de los Muertos celebration in Mesilla, hopefully we are able to go next year.

The idea was suppose to be "Tarzan, Jane and their monkey"... may be Todd will dress up next year.

Next year I'm going to have to do a better job decorating the trunk.

He does this cute teethy grin whenever you ask to see his teeth.

We let him paint his pumpkin since he obviously can't carve, or even draw a face on it yet.

 The daycare had a different theme each day this week.  One day was pajama day, another crazy hair day, ext.

Today we went for a ride and found this crazy cactus.  It feels odd to be wearing shorts and t-shirts still, it's kind-of throwing off my sense of time.