We made it to Houston!

We arrived in Houston last night after a long day of driving. We met up with ours friends and went out to eat last night. We spent most of today downtown exploring the city. It is miserably hot here. Some interesting facts about Houston: they do not have zoning laws, they have way too many bridges, they have an underground tunnel system so people can avoid the heat, the JP Morgan Chase building, housed in Houston, is the 3rd largest in the US, it is the cheapest place to live with over 2 million people, and there is quite a bit to do for free.

Here are some Houston pictures.....Kids playing in the water because the heat is ridiculous

Police giving the car in front of us a ticket for being on his cell phone

View from the JP Morgan Chase 60th floor

The tunnel system....we were freaked out at first
Us in the tunnel...looks like it is from a scary/zombie movie

City Hall
Another view from above

JP Morgan Chase building

More Vacation Pictures!

We had a blast on vacation and wanted to share some more of the pictures. Greg ended up being able to come for the last few days and we were very excited to get to spend time with him!

The Whole Crew

Mimi & Poppy

Davis being a baby

Where he proposed Nolan wanted some too

Us

Mom & her girls

A Much Needed Vacation!

Vacations are much different with twins! I never really thought about it before coming to the beach, but babies definitely change the vacation plans. I am sooo glad that we were able to take this vacation with the twins as we will not be able to see them much over the next few years while living miles apart :( I am already looking forward to their visit in November to see how much they have grown and changed. We are missing Greg a lot! We hate that he was unable to come, but are lucky to have him tell us to go without him.









Jonas and Nolan getting into all Aunt CinCin's things!















Me and Dave being silly!












It is our last week to spend with everyone so we are trying our hardest to see everyone. Dad and Barb took us to "supper" (<~just for dad) last Thursday and it was delicious. We were also able to go see memaw. She told us all kinds of stories and she got to look at all of our wedding pictures. I have been able to see mamaw a lot these past weeks as she has been a big help with Juanita. I have also been able to spend some time with Juanita. All in all I think we have been very productive in packing, spending time with family & friends, and getting everything else done that needed to be done. Yay Cindy and Dave!

I want everyone to know that we will miss you greatly and we love each and every one of you!

Beach Time!!

It is approximately T minus 4 hours until we start driving for the beach! Well, we as in Cindy and Sandra with myself riding the whole way. Apparently Greg doesn't trust me driving because of my falling asleep problem! Oh well, I hate driving anyways, so it works perfectly.

Speaking of Greg, he is not going to be going to the beach this vacation. Juanita (his mother) is not doing very well at all. She is getting worse everyday, and I think most of us will be surprised if she is able to make it until we get back. So, according to how things pan out with her over the next few days, our vacation plans might slightly change.


Cindy and I now have the Camry fully packed and ready for our trip to Seattle. We plan on returning from Myrtle Beach late Friday evening, so that only gives us until Saturday to finish up anything here. We decided that basically everything needed to be done before we left on vacation and we did succeed at that. Sandra's basement actually looks like a normal basement again with a bar, card table and pool table again.

Well, its bed time for me. Later.

Wish Lists have been initiated!

Hah. As I stated below, Cindy and I will be creating online wish lists for everyone to buy our gifts from from now on. Tonight I set up a simple wish list with just a few items that came to my mind rather quickly. I will definitely keep adding items to the list as I think of them. If I may say so myself, I think this is a great idea.

If you check out the links on the right side of the page, you will notice that we have added two new sections to the blog. One is where the links to our wish lists will be kept. Right now, mine is the only wish list linked to. Cindy started working on her wish list tonight but did not want to put up a link to hers until hers was more complete.

The second addition to the blog was the inclusion of links to websites of our family and friends that some of you might know and want to check out every now and then. If there are any family or friends out there reading our blog and that has a blog or website of their own that they would like us to link to, we would be more than happy to add it. Just let us know in the comments section and we will add you.

Speaking of: We LOVE comments. So please, if you're reading our posts, leave us a comment. That allows us to know that someone out there is actually reading this stuff and we are not just doing it for ourselves!!

Anyways, its late and Cindy and I have lots to do tomorrow so we need to rest up. Thanks for reading!

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY GERALD SMITH!!!!!!!!1!!!111

Daddy's Bday!

Dad's 60th birthday is Monday! Since it is a BIG birthday, Mandy and I planned a surprise party for him. We held the party at his house on the lake and invited somewhere around 30 people. The party was a 50's theme and we served coke floats for dessert! It was a wonderful time and most everyone was able to join us. He didn't expect it at all which was awesome because he usually knows everything (or at least he thinks he does)! The only sad part about the night was that in the rush of getting to his house to setup this morning, I forgot my camera which is very unusual. I am disappointed that I do not have any pictures. I was able to lie to my father (I have no idea where I received this trait?) telling him that I was having car problems to get him to come home for the party. Luckily he loves me enough to be right there whenever I need him!

Happy Birthday Dad! We love you!

Life Changes & Lifestyle Changes

Hey everyone! Welcome to the blog Cindy created for us to keep you all informed on our lives after our move to Seattle.

This is our first post on our new blog and I wanted to go over some things that Cindy and I have already noticed about ourselves (and people in general) from this move. Right now we are moving our of our two bedroom Knoxville apartment that is around 800 sq. ft. to our new apartment in Seattle that is one bedroom and only 465 sq. ft. Simply moving all of our belongings out of the apartment and into Sandra and Greg's house to organize, we have realized just how much crap we have accumulated.

Here are a few pictures of just some of our stuff:





So now Cindy and I are in the long, tedious process of narrowing down just what stuff is important enough to make it to Seattle with us. Since we are only taking the Camry to Seattle, the amount of stuff we can carry is very limited. After the necessities of clothes, bathroom stuff, and kitchen things, we really don't have that much room for other things. And looking around this basement as I type this, we have lots of other things. Therefore, we are having to either throw away, sell, or give away basically everything we own. We have already sold a lot on Ebay and Craigslist, but we have a lot more to sell.

So, that kind of leads me into the lifestyle changes that I mentioned in the post's title. There are two major changes that Cindy and I have initiated for ourselves: we no longer accept presents and our closets now have a one-in/one-out policy.

Now, before you take offense to us no longer accepting your gifts, let me clarify what I mean and explain why Cindy and I decided to implement this. First off, the why: As mentioned above, we have both realized over the course of this past week just how much stuff we have and just how little of that is actually necessary. And no, not everything that we have that we don't use were gifts, but gifts definitely add to the collection of stuff. Therefore, from now on we are only accepting gifts of money or gifts purchased directly off of our online wish lists. As soon as we get to Seattle, Cindy and I are creating 3 separate online wish lists: one for her, one for myself, and one combined list. Then, if it ever comes a time for gift giving (ie, Christmas, birthdays, etc.) everyone can simply buy us something directly from what we have picked online, or they can give us money for us to put towards one of those gifts. Doing this helps us keep from filling our tiny apartment with stuff we don't necessarily need.

The one-in/one-out policy is my personal favorite though. From now on, when either Cindy or I get a new article of clothing, we have to get rid of a similar article of clothing. This makes sure that our closets don't overflow with clothes we no longer wear and maybe it will make us think twice about buying that new shirt if I know I have to get rid of another one that I like at home.

So, those are two changes that Cindy and I will be beginning in Seattle. Its really a whole new beginning for us and we are both really excited about the future. Keep checking in for more updates!