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