Here it is, the beginning of
another year. This was our 10th
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
