2017 New Year's Letter

Welcome to 2017!  After a busy 2016, we are hoping for a more moderate year.

2016 was definitely interesting.  It was the “Year of Plagues” for Mary.  She discovered a black widow in the back of the van after buckling the children into their car seats.  With a sandal in each hand, she wailed away at the sucker, while squealing and half-vocalizing profane words, until it was dead.  Later in the year, we had a few weeks of ants in the house – hundred of ants that kept changing their entry points.  Then, there were some maggots in the garage.  In September and the beginning of October, we had mice in the house.  One night, Andy was cleaning out the pantry, and it turned into a game of Whack-a-Mole but with mice.  Over a few weeks, there were about 15 mice caught and killed.  And to top it all off, two weeks later, while the kids were playing in the living room, Addie screamed, ran, and jumped in a chair because there was a snake on the floor.  You read that right, a SNAKE!  We are guessing that it was an 18” rat snake but don’t know for sure because Andy was not able to find it after rushing home from work.  Mary did not deal well with this situation!  So, we now have cats, 2 of them.  Their names are Jagger and Callie, and we all love having them.

It has been a banner year for Andy’s career.  He presented a paper at the International SAWE conference in Denver that was based on his Master’s thesis.  He was awarded the Best Technical Paper award.  He then worked this into a weight estimation class that he taught at a regional conference in Arlington.  He was asked to expand the class so that it can be taught at the International SAWE conference in Montreal in 2017.  Then, he was asked by Lee Nicolai (prominent Aerospace Engineering Professor) to contribute 2 chapters on weight estimation to his next textbook.  Andy has also been working intense hours of overtime for about half of the year.  And in November, he found out that he had earned a promotion and pay raise.

Because Andy has been so busy with work, we haven’t had lots of time for fun and projects as a family.  The only project we did ourselves was building and installing a new screen door.  We paid for a new roof and a swale (concrete culvert) so that we were prepared for any major storms this winter (our rainy season).  And Andy got a riding lawn mower to help save time keeping up the property.  Our regularly scheduled fun has been Salsa classes at the YMCA.  We love that there is childcare available there while we dance! 

Mary and the kids went to Texas for 2 weeks in March and April to attend a family funeral.  We spent time with family in both San Antonio and North Texas.  The kids had a great time playing at the park and riding horses.  Mary got lots of great pictures to document the trip.

We took our first trip to Disneyland in September of 2016.  Some of Mary’s family was in town for a conference and invited us to join them.  It was great to go with people who had spent a bit of time there and knew the best places to go.  Then 2 weeks later, Andy’s parents and sister’s family came out to California to attend Andy’s aunt’s wedding.  We took the opportunity to spend a day at Disneyland and a day at California Adventure Park before the wedding.  Both of our trips were great because we had extra adults and several cousins for the kids to play with.

Addie turned 4 this year.  She has taken swim and ballet classes this year at the YMCA, and loves to sing.  She expanded her repertoire greatly this year.  We especially enjoy her renditions of “A Bushel and a Peck” from “Guys and Dolls” and the Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson favorite, “Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys”.

Samuel is definitely in demolition mode.  At 18 months, he loves to move stools, chairs, tubs, etc. so that he can climb on tables, reach counters, take things off the fridge, etc.  He loves to throw everything; we are working on appropriate times and items to throw…  We are so thankful that FINALLY at 16 months, he started sleeping though the night.  He, like Addie, is going to be a late talker; he says “Mama” to most things, “Guh-Guh” means cat, and an “Ah” sound means Addie or “another/more”.

We refinanced both of our houses to better interest rates that allowed us to cut 5 years off of the remaining mortgage terms, and kept our payments the same. Along with Andy’s overtime and some hard work, this helped us get our act together financially, and we hope to continue our progress during 2017.

We had a low key Christmas as a cold made its way through the house.  It is lingering just a bit as we start the new year so we are hoping soon to all be healthy, wealthy, and wise.  As we said earlier, we also hope that 2017 is more moderate…no plagues (especially no snakes or black widows in the house or vehicles) and more family time for the second half of the year.  Andy already knows the first half will be busy with overtime, preparing to teach the course in Montreal, and writing 2 textbook chapters.  Mary hopes to keep things functioning at home in his absence and be more patient with the kids.  We don’t know yet if Addie will go to start pre-school or pre-k in the fall or if we will wait until kindergarten in 2018.  We do hope to fit a trip to Texas in July, August, or December.  We also hope to get pregnant with baby #3 this year; we’ll see when Andy is around for that ;)

Until next year, may you also be healthy, wealthy, and wise!

Andy, Mary, Addie (4), & Samuel (1.5) Walker

2016 New Year's Letter

Here it is, the beginning of another year.  This was our 10^th year of marriage… and one of our major goals for 2015 was to “survive”.  As the year progressed, it changed to “survive, despite all odds” and spend a lot of money as we had a few unexpected blips happen.  Is there ever a year that doesn’t have a bunch of unexpected things happen?!

We checked off several projects and left a bunch undone.  The exterior of the house was painted in January and February.  It ended up taking about 5 weeks once we added a bunch of trim and tore up some concrete slabs.  We also finished putting in baseboards downstairs and built in some bookcases in the living room throughout the spring.  In May, we had a garden wall built just off of the front patio so that we could put up a large swing set with woodchips underneath.  We also replaced a bunch of older appliances – refrigerator, dishwasher, and washing machine.  We even bought a minivan.

We were anticipating the baby being born on June 25, but as June began, Mary started thinking the baby needed to come a little early because Andy had just agreed to do a temporary duty assignment for his company starting in July.  As Mary grew larger and larger, she decided we for real needed to have this baby early. 

Tuesday morning when we woke up, Mary told Andy that we were going to the hospital that day.  He was tasked with packing bags and loading the dishwasher; we eventually left the house about 3pm.  Samuel Bennett Walker was born on June 16 at 10:10pm weighing about 9 lbs even though he was more than a week early.  Andy decided that if we have any more babies, he better move faster when Mary says we need to go to the hospital that day. 

The names Samuel and Bennett have significance for both of our families.  Mary’s grandfather was James Samuel.  Andy’s great-grandfather, Samuel Newton Gaines, was the founding chair of the Physics Department at Texas Christian University known as the singing cowboy professor (Andy comes by his various interests honestly).  Bennett was Mary’s grandmother’s maiden name.  Andy’s grandmother was an avid fan of Jane Austen, especially Pride and Prejudice; in the later stages of Parkinson’s Disease, she watched it daily.  The main character was Elizabeth Bennet; I don’t think that we will have a Darcy in family – unless Mary can persuade Andy to get another kitty cat, because Darcy would be an awesome cat’s name!

Addie absolutely loves Samuel and is a wonderful helper with him.  One of her favorite jobs has been to burp him after he nurses.  She also likes to help get him out of bed when he wakes up.  For a long time, when we would hear him on the baby monitor, she would start up the stairs calling to him, “Don’t worry Samuel; we’re coming to get you.”

Andy’s job started out this year like it has the past 9 years.  But in July he took a temporary project manager position within his company at a different location to gain some leadership experience that lasted the remainder of the year. It was difficult, working away from home all week, usually 10-12 hours a day, and then losing another half-day both ways while traveling.  He would leave Sunday about 5 pm and return home Thursday night about 11 pm.  But the experience was worth it.  Hopefully more full-time opportunities will pop up in the future. 

Mary spent lots of time out of the house while Andy was gone so that she could interact with other adults and because everyone’s behavior improved when spending time with friends or at the store.  When Andy was home, we tried to get as much done around the house as possible and to squeeze in time with friends or go out dancing.  For one weekend, we even managed to host a small Dance Lesson/Party at our house.  We hope to have more this year.

We have had more rain this fall and winter than we’ve experienced here before.  One such rain event was rather scary.  Andy was away for work that day set to return home that night.  It hailed several times; Mary wasn’t fazed since it was only pea or marble sized.  Then the rain started.  It turned out to be a 1,000-year rain event; there was almost 4 inches of rain in one hour.  The flash-flooding was so bad that 1 ft of mud was left covering our horse arena and the gravel driveway and the side roads had 3-4 ft deep chasms carved out of them.  We rented a large tractor/backhoe one weekend to do repairs to our property.  Anyone who has heard of Andy’s history with tractors is saying “uh-oh” as they read this.  This was a BIG construction-grade tractor/ backhoe, and Andy had a lot of fun.  He did have a few whoopsies.  He knocked a hole in the siding of the garage that is the perfect size for an air vent.  And he had some soil collapse under one wheel of the tractor, which nearly flipped the whole thing over; thankfully, that wheel caught when it touched ground 3 feet below where he was driving and right before he bailed.  The 4-wheel drive allowed him to drive the tractor out of the ditch, right side up.

We made a trip to Texas this year to see family & friends for Christmas and New Years.  We drove without stopping at a hotel: going there was about 27 hours of driving across time zones ahead; returning was about 33 hours of driving.   It was great to visit everyone in San Antonio and North Texas since there were many health issues in the family this year. We even got to see some out of state relatives.  Addie absolutely loved running around with her cousins on the Walker side of the family!  Although Samuel is a bit young for it, the other 4 kids were all over the ranch – riding horses, fishing, feeding cows.  We celebrated our 10-year anniversary a little differently than planned.  We were originally going to a New Year’s Eve Dance, but it was still great to have a dinner without children.  We got to reminisce about the last 10 years and talk about our hopes for the next 10 years

Mary got her Christmas wish to not be pregnant.  But we are open to having more kids; we’ll see if that changes once Samuel is running all around.  He’s crawling now, and is a very happy, active, wiggly 7-month old.   He has no teeth, but chews on everything.  He’s eating solids daily but is picky – hmm, I wonder who he gets that from... He looks like a miniature version of Andy with a full head of hair.

Addie turned 3 this year.  Addie’s hair has grown a lot this year and usually has beautiful curls, which she inherited from Andy (the tangles can be a pain).  She has also become extremely vocal. She can even speak in fairly coherent compound, complex sentences. It especially warms Mary’s heart when Addie uses “further” and “farther” correctly or replies correctly to a question posed negatively.  She has watched WAY too much TV while Andy has been gone.  But she did manage to learn the entire alphabet by watching “Super WHY!” on PBS.  She’ll even say “I love you” when we put her to bed at night.  She’s a speed-demon on her new scooter.  We would be making real headway if we could just get her to consistently wear elbow pads & kneepads.

We warned you it got a little crazy in 2015!  We are so thankful to be all together for 2016 but know that there will be some adjustment now that Andy is home and we are moving out of survival mode.  We hope to make time for some small dates whether at home or on the town as we have not regularly practiced this in the past.  It feels like it has to be more of a priority now that there are two little ones demanding attention.

Cheers to you for a happy and healthy 2016!!!

Andy, Mary, Addie, & Samuel Walker

It's Now June

Have the exterior of the house painted + frame windows + add trim along bottom of house, around garage doors, porch + break up two concrete slabs
Remove Debris Pile
Replace Powder Room Lights
Finish Baseboards Downstairs - install, spackle, caulk, paint, add plinth blocks
Paint 2 downstairs doors? (probably won't happen)
Build in Living Room Bookcases (leave painting of interior until later date)
Install Flooring Transition Pieces (in progress)
Fix Kitchen Tile
Seal Kitchen Countertops
Move Crib & Room Arrangement
Caulk Master Bathroom Shower
Replace Master Bathroom Toilet
Planting - strawberries, tomatoes, herbs
LOTS of Weedeating (in progress - although there will be several rounds)
Turn over Compost (in progress) & Spread Mulch
Install Playground - grind down tree stumps, taller garden wall, level ground, wood chips, put together swing set

Replace light bulbs all over the house; we have about 10 that are burnt out
Send off updated pictures to family member
Deal with life insurance stuff (in progress)
Spring clean
Set up watering system
Fertilize the trees
Get quotes for new roof
Find changing table (make due with table)
Wash baby gear
Update family notebook - bills, restaurants, basic info, etc (in progress)
Try out new babysitter (probably won't happen)
Arrangements for Addie's care when in labor (in progress)
Find a church (probably won't happen)
Organize Office
Move some furniture around
Get vehicles smog tested
Spray for bugs
Touch up wall paint
Blinds/Curtains for Sliding Doors & Random windows upstairs
Fix Sliding Doors' Bolts

The baseboards are DONE!!!

Do you hear the angels singing?!  Andy has said that he is so sick of painting.  I have a feeling that I will be doing most of the little bits that are left here and there so that he doesn't have to.

We are looking at a bunch being done over the next few weeks; there better be because that will put us almost to June (aka the month the baby is due....HOLY COW!!)  The work for the playground starts this week.  We will work on several of the less time consuming projects while that is going on outside.  So I hope that the next version of this that gets posted will have a whole bunch of additional things checked off of the list.

Have the exterior of the house painted + frame windows + add trim along bottom of house, around garage doors, porch + break up two concrete slabs
Remove Debris Pile
Replace Powder Room Lights
Finish Baseboards Downstairs - install, spackle, caulk, paint, add plinth blocks
Paint 2 downstairs doors?
Build in Living Room Bookcases (install - in progress)
Install Flooring Transition Pieces
Fix Kitchen Tile
Seal Kitchen Countertops
Move Crib & Room Arrangement
Caulk Master Bathroom Shower
Replace Master Bathroom Toilet
Planting - strawberries, tomatoes, herbs
LOTS of Weedeating (in progress - although there will be several rounds)
Turn over Compost (in progress) & Spread Mulch
Install Playground - grind down tree stumps, taller garden wall, level ground, mulch, put together swingset

Replace light bulbs all over the house; we have about 10 that are burnt out
Send off updated pictures to family member
Deal with life insurance stuff (in progress)
Spring clean - kitchen drawers, cobwebs, fans
Set up watering system
Fertilize the trees
Get quotes for new roof
Find changing table (make due with table)
Wash baby gear
Update family notebook - bills, restaurants, basic info, etc (in progress)
Try out new babysitter
Arrangements for Addie's care when in labor
Find a church
Organize Office
Move some furniture around
Get vehicles smog tested
Spray for bugs
Touch up wall paint
Blinds/Curtains for Sliding Doors & Random windows upstairs
Fix Sliding Doors' Bolts

Will the baseboards ever be done?

YEA!  Andy's done installing the baseboards; now, it is up to me to do the finish work.  The spackle is time consuming because it needs a day after application before I can sand it.  Then, I get to vacuum and wipe down the baseboards before caulking them.  We'll see if he has to do the painting; I might be too big and cumbersome by that time.

UGH!  I feel like we start lots of things, but nothing actually gets finished.  It makes it hard for me to feel motivated to keep going when that happens and the house is in total disorder.

Have the exterior of the house painted + frame windows + add trim along bottom of house, around garage doors, porch + break up two concrete slabs
Remove Debris Pile
Replace Powder Room Lights
Finish Baseboards Downstairs - install, spackle, caulk, paint (might as well do the doors too), add plinth blocks
           Living Room
           Breakfast Nook (spackle - in progress)
           Foyer (spackle - in progress)
           Dining Room (spackle - in progress)
           Sitting Room (spackle - in progress)
Build in Living Room Bookcases (in progress)
Install Flooring Transition Pieces
Fix Kitchen Tile (in progress)
Seal Kitchen Countertops
Move Crib & Room Arrangement
Caulk Master Bathroom Shower
Replace Master Bathroom Toilet
Planting - strawberries, tomatoes, herbs
LOTS of Weedeating (in progress - although there will be several rounds)
Turn over Compost (in progress) & Spread Mulch
Install Playground - grind down tree stumps, taller garden wall, level ground, mulch, put together swingset

Replace light bulbs all over the house; we have about 10 that are burnt out (in progress)
Send off updated pictures to family member
Deal with life insurance stuff (in progress)
Spring clean - kitchen drawers, cobwebs, fans
Set up watering system
Fertilize the trees
Pay off credit card balance during promotional period
Get quotes for new roof (in progress)
Find changing table (make due with table)
Wash baby gear
Update family notebook - bills, restaurants, basic info, etc (in progress)
Try out new babysitter
Arrangements for Addie's care when in labor
Find a church
Organize Office
Move some furniture around
Get vehicles smog tested
Spray for bugs
Touch up wall paint
Blinds/Curtains for Sliding Doors & Random windows upstairs
Fix Sliding Doors' Bolts

Gettin Busy

We are making more progress; most of it gets done on Andy's 3 day weekends (he has every other Friday off). We also had a little help from a stomach bug this past week.  Since he needed to stay home Tuesday and Wednesday, he went ahead and took Thursday off since it was an off Friday.  It made for a bit of a Spring break.  And we are in the third trimester...

Have the exterior of the house painted + frame windows + add trim along bottom of house, around garage doors, porch + break up two concrete slabs
Remove Debris Pile
Replace Powder Room Lights
Finish Baseboards Downstairs - install, spackle, caulk, paint (might as well do the doors too), add plinth blocks
           Living Room
           Breakfast Nook (spackle - in progress)
           Foyer (install - in progress)
           Dining Room (install - in progress)
           Sitting Room (spackle - in progress)
Build in Living Room Bookcases
Install Flooring Transition Pieces
Fix Kitchen Tile (in progress)
Seal Kitchen Countertops
Move Crib & Room Arrangement
Caulk Master Bathroom Shower
Replace Master Bathroom Toilet
Planting - strawberries, tomatoes, herbs
LOTS of Weedeating (in progress - although there will be several rounds)
Turn over Compost (in progress) & Spread Mulch
Install Playground - grind down tree stumps, taller garden wall, level ground, mulch, put together swingset

Naturally, there are several additions to the list.  I really want to add on some rather outrageous things because I am clearly nesting, but painting the fence around the property isn't really feasible by myself right now and adding a patio at the back of the house is a bit out of the budget.  And don't get chickens, goats, cute kitty cats, or sweet puppy dogs; I'm kind of a sucker right now....

Replace light bulbs all over the house; we have about 10 that are burnt out (in progress)
Send off updated pictures to family member
Deal with life insurance stuff (in progress)
Spring clean - kitchen drawers, cobwebs, fans
Set up watering system
Fertilize the trees
Pay off credit card balance during promotional period
Get quotes for new roof (in progress)
Find changing table (make due with table)
Wash baby gear
Update family notebook - bills, restaurants, basic info, etc
Try out new babysitter
Arrangements for Addie's care when in labor
Find a church
Organize Office
Move some furniture around

To-do list after a few weeks of work

We've made a little bit of progress on our list.

Have the exterior of the house painted + frame windows + add trim along bottom of house, around garage doors, porch + break up two concrete slabs
Remove Debris Pile
Replace Powder Room Lights
Finish Baseboards Downstairs - install (in progress), caulk, paint
           Living Room, Breakfast Nook (in progress), Foyer, Dining Room, Sitting Room
Build in Living Room Bookcases
Install Flooring Transition Pieces
Fix Kitchen Tile
Seal Kitchen Countertops
Move Crib & Room Arrangement
Caulk Master Bathroom Shower
Replace Master Bathroom Toilet
Planting - strawberries, tomatoes, herbs
LOTS of Weedeating (in progress - although there will be several rounds)
Turn over Compost (in progress) & Spread Mulch
Install Playground - grind down tree stumps, taller garden wall, level ground, mulch, put together swingset

To-Do List before baby is born

So, we had a short list of goals for our New Year's letter.  I added one or two things for the baby to-do list.  Then, Andy made his list; it feels so much more ambitious than what we had.  Maybe our new list is simply more detailed.  Anyway, this is getting posted here so that Andy can have it for reference.

Have the exterior of the house painted + frame windows + add trim along bottom of house, around garage doors, porch + break up two concrete slabs
Remove Debris Pile
Replace Powder Room Lights
Finish Baseboards Downstairs - install, caulk, paint
Build in Living Room Bookcases
Install Flooring Transition Pieces
Fix Kitchen Tile
Seal Kitchen Countertops
Move Crib & Room Arrangement
Caulk Master Bathroom Shower
Replace Master Bathroom Toilet
Planting - strawberries, tomatoes, herbs
LOTS of Weedeating
Turn over Compost & Spread Mulch
Install Playground - grind down tree stumps, taller garden wall, level ground, mulch, put together swingset

2015 New Year's Letter

 

We are back family and friends!  Sorry we are so late, but house projects, potty training, and pregnancy have kept us busy for the last few weeks.  We hope that you had a good year in 2014 and are looking forward to the rest of 2015. 

Andy has had a good year professionally.  He was promoted at the beginning of the year.  Of course there are some additional responsibilities that accompany the promotion.  Being a little professorial by nature, Andy was a mentor to only 5 engineers at work.  He may teach a class next year. And at the end of the year, he received a special award for work that has been very beneficial to the company.

Addie is all about MORE!  She is doing more, talking more, wanting more, having more opinions…  Basically, she is a typical two year old, but she is still fairly sweet for which we are very thankful.  Who knows though, she might be building to a crescendo for 2015.  At her two-year check-up, she weighed 32 lbs and was 36 inches tall so she is still around the 90^th percentile.  At the end of the year, Mary had to clear out her drawers so that they now have a few 3T items and mostly 4T; the only issue is that 4T pants are long for her.  She was getting too big for lots of diapers, cloth and disposable, so we decided to give potty training another try over Christmas.  Thankfully, it is going fairly well!

This year Andy started teaching Addie to spot while he spins her in her infant/toddler swing.  She has transferred that skill to spinning in place, one of her favorite pastimes, while in the house.  Mary thinks it is amazing because she can’t spot and starts getting dizzy on a second spin.

Addie also enjoys helping do chores (except cleaning up her toys – funny how that works).  She is great at wiping up any spills she makes. Sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, and wiping kitchen cabinets make her fun list, but the most exciting thing of all is to help unload the dishwasher.  If she hears one of us start removing dishes, she comes running.  There have been some close calls, but so far no dishes have been damaged.

Mary was responsible for most of the progress on entertaining more and managing our time and money better.  She has made some new friends this year.  She is trying to make progress on having a cleaner house although keeping a schedule doesn’t seem to work well for her.  It seems like most practices flew out the window with the craziness of the Fall illnesses and pregnancy.  So far, Mary is not feeling as well with this pregnancy as she did with the first.  We are hoping that things will get better with the second trimester.

We were doing pretty well on our 2014 goals with only a few detours along the way.  As Andy was trying to complete his thesis and prepare his defense in the Spring, he repeatedly (eventually almost weekly) was experiencing severe abdominal pain.  After several medications and tests, the doctor determined that he needed to have his gallbladder removed.  So he defended his thesis, graduated (but didn’t walk), and went to have surgery.  The surgeon was amazed at the hundreds of gallstones and resulting issues he found; no wonder rich & greasy foods have been giving Andy problems for the past 15 years.  We got back on track with normal life until the Fall hit and with it came multiple illnesses and first trimester ickiness.  But we did have some fun this year; here are a few highlights.

We were blessed to have lots of people visit us over the summer.  Many family and friends came through the area and stopped over at our house.  Andy’s aunt has even moved from Texas to about an hour away from us.

Both of our sisters moved last year – Meg (Mary’s sister) moved to Germany because of a new leadership position for Greg, and Cici (Andy’s sister) moved to Tennessee to be closer to Logan’s family.

We joined the masses as Costco members.  Addie loves shopping there!  As soon as you say Costco, she says hot dog (all day long); they are synonymous for her.

We got several new “toys” this year.  Here are a few of our favorites.  Andy got a professional-grade weed-eater for his birthday.  It has a carbon-tipped saw blade on the end, which is a good thing because torrential rains watered the weeds very well over the last half of 2014.  This spring and summer are going to have even more growth because of the rain this winter; it is the most we have experienced in our 3.5 years in the LA area.  We bought our first tablet; it was almost like having another computer.  We don’t have to compete for screen time anymore…except with Addie.  She LOVES it!

Well, we’re running out of space in this letter.  If you’d like to chat about more hilarity from our household, mishaps with computers, DIY home-repair failures, and much more, please call us at home.  We’d love to hear from you.

We send you our sincerest blessings for this new year!

Love,

Andy, Mary & Addie Walker