Christmas 2010

Carter really got into the Christmas spirit. The other morning, we asked him what he wanted for breakfast. He thought for a moment and then very matter-of-factly said, "Ice cream."

And for those of you with a lot of time on your hands:

Christmas Eve 2010

Merry Christmas! It's Christmas Eve, and, as Carter will tell you, "Santa Claus is coming to town!" We have no idea where he picked that up, but he says it all the time.

Pondering the rain.

With his new Christmas Pajamas.

Two Stories

Story #1:

On our drive through sparsely populated West Texas, our ears started popping as we gained elevation. Carter was whining a little, so Lorein asked him if he wanted a sucker and told him "it will help your ears." He said yes, unwrapped the sucker, and stuck it in his ear. I told him he could eat it, but he looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "No daddy. It's for my ears."

Story #2:

We went to church today. As we pulled into the church parking lot, the first parking spot was taken by a huge truck with a lift kit. It wasn't quite a monster truck, but it would be in a few years if it kept drinking its milk. The truck itself was an ad for a business. Painted on the side was a picture of a woman holding a small boy and a hand gun. To the side was written, in big letters, "Concealed Weapons Training" and "Protect Your Family." Welcome to Texas.

Frenzy

Wow, it's been a crazy few weeks, but we're finally starting to get settled down. I graduated from DCC at Ft. Benning around noon on Wednesday, November 10 (that was one of the happiest moments of my life) and immediately hopped in the truck and headed west. My friend Steve Shim, who was stopping off in CA before heading to Korea, caravanned with me. We spent the night in Lafayette, LA and made it to San Antonio for lunch on Thursday. Thursday evening, I flew into LAX, making it to Temecula at around 2300 -- oh fine, 11:00pm. I spent a great weekend with Lorein and Carter, but had to fly back to San Antonio Sunday afternoon. I reported for duty on Monday, spent the day inprocessing and then searched Craigslist for houses Monday night. I did some more inprocessing Tuesday morning and then spent the afternoon looking at different houses. I put an application in on one and then sat back and waited. And waited. And waited. Multiple phone calls later, I finally learned Thursday afternoon that the owner of the house was returning from the Middle East in a couple of months and so decided to pull the house from the market. I quickly called one of the other houses, got my application and credit info from the first management company, signed a lease, and slept in our house Thursday night. That was good because Friday night, I flew to Vegas for Breezy's wedding.
In Vegas, I gathered up my family, went to the wedding on Saturday (which was very well done), and hit the road Sunday. We spent Sunday night in Tucson, Monday night in Ft. Stockton, TX, and hit San Antonio in time for lunch (there's a trend here) on Tuesday. Wednesday was shopping at the PX and the Commissary. Thursday was Thanksgiving, which we spent with our friends from Rancho Cucamonga who are now at UT-Austin. Black Friday and Charcoal Saturday were spent pretty much buying furniture, and Sunday we rested. Well, and put together Ikea furniture. So not really much rest at all. This past week, I've been at work while Lorein has put together one room at a time. She's really making our house look great, and, like I said, we're finally starting to get settled. In the end, just remember that we now have a guest bedroom (it's a second master!) with an attached master bath, so please, please, please come visit us. Just don't stay too long.

Our house in Universal City, TX

Hanging out with one cool dude in Temecula

Carter preparing for life in TX; maybe Santa will bring him a tractor for Christmas