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
