Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!!

On September 5, 1964, my parents, Austin & Walter, pledged to live their lives loving each other.



Where: St. Marks Episcopal Church , San Antonio, TX

45 Years..... Really. Really?? Yes, REALLY.

Let’s see - what has transpired over 45 years?? Well, honestly, I have no idea. That would take my parents sitting down and recalling from their perspective the events of the last 45 years!! My lil ‘ol perspective will appear below. I’m hoping that this will inspire my parents to do some fill in the blanks once they read it because if they don’t, this is all that we will have in the book of knowledge. It’s possible my sisters can do some adding to this list from their own perspectives, but seriously.... fill it in folks.

1964 Wedding of the Year in San Antonio Texas

1964 Living in Austin, Texas in a cool duplex (there are pictures) with a beautiful little dog named Laddie (I think)

1966 Move to Ponca City, Oklahoma (don’t know where or on what street, as I was not quite born yet)

1967 Birth of their first (and most wonderful - I can say that, I’m the one writing) daughter - Mary Austin

1968 Move to Houston, Texas - Prism Lane

1969 Birth of their second daughter - Perry

1972 Birth of their third daughter - Stacey

1976 Move to new house in Houston, Texas - Thornwick Lane
Mary Austin goes to camp for 6 weeks in New Mexico and her family moves to a different HOME without telling her. Came home to new house on Thornwick in West Houston. :-) (I’m certain there is a whole different story there, but that’s how my brain remembers it, and it, of course, is all about me.)

1977 - 1985 Still living in Houston, TX - Endured Mary Austin’s terrible junior high years, followed by the wonderful high school years. :-) (You have to admit, they were better than junior high). Survived going to Stacey’s soccer games and all the band commitments for all of us for many years! Survived health scare with Perry at Texas Children’s. Survived back issues and kidney stones on occasion. Survived many, many, many (how many “many”’s is too many?) long days and nights of homework and projects. Survived cooking meals for 6:30 dinners each and every night. Survived shopping, buying, carting and moving large screen projected TV’s on the NCAA Basketball Championship night because “DAD” just had to have it (even though he didn’t know about it). Survived boyfriends you hated and boyfriends you liked. Even boy friends who liked to come over and play games with the parents. Survived teenagers driving by themselves without tooooooo much damage to physical bodies (either theirs, anyone elses or the cars). Dad changed jobs once or twice in this period (don’t know when, don’t remember where - see the blanks that need to be filled in??). Survived all the changing fashion statements and thank the Lord, got away from dressing all three of us alike!! :-) Didn’t lose the big giant glasses though for awhile. Survived 40th Birthday parties (don’t think policemen really act like that in real life) and graveyards popping up in the front yard. Not one of us EVER went to jail or even came close (unless there’s something I haven’t been told..... is possible.) Survived many of our teenager friends dropping by on Sundays at 5:30 pm in HOPES of being asked to stay for Dad’s fabulous fajitas he served before they became popular in any restaurants. Endured one of us (was that me?) bringing home one cat (Kitty) who ended having another cat (Callie) and both living MUCH longer than anyone would have ever, ever thought. Long after we were all out of the house and gone.

1985 Move to San Antonio, Texas La Casa Blanca on Seidel
Beautiful, unique house. MA went off to college in Austin so while she wasn’t there living life with you in person, you felt it in the pocketbook. :-) (Thank you!) Perry & Stacey still living at home. Became very involved with church at this point. Another opportunity to add facts as I was otherwise preoccupied at this point in life with college at UT.

1990 - Present (yes, that’s 20 years, I know... but breaking it down isn’t real easy as I can’t remember any of the actual years, at this point.)

So.... Mom & Dad move to Corpus Christi, then to Houston, then to the Hill Country in Boerne where they live today.

Daughters - 2 Weddings (financed by Mom & Dad) , 2 Divorces and 1 Second Wedding during this time.

Six (6) Grandchildren born over this timeframe - Rachel (93), Macie (96), Stephen (97), Holley (99), Scott (99), and Allie (03)

Many chickens and miniature horses are raised and cared for.

Many gardens are grown.

Many tough decisions are made.

Finally.... (ok... so that was the abbreviated speed version....)

PRESENT DAY -



45 years later.... living in Boerne, Texas surrounded by friends, family and loved ones!! Retired and enjoying life as much as they can.

Love you both!!

Happy Anniversary!!

MA

Sunday, August 30

So ... we are just living life and I've not been a very good blogger these days. It was an ultra busy week with everything starting again last week.

Days are really long with schedules such that we are up at 5:00 am every morning and a couple of us out of the house by 5:30 am. Not winding things down at night until 10 or 10:30 pm makes for some very, very tired adults & kids by the end of the week. Rachel's day on Friday was absolutely crazy actually ... at school for band practice by 6:00 am and I was picking her up at school at 9:00 pm after the high school scrimmage game where she had to work in her trainer capacity. Craziness... craziness...... she claimed she wasn't tired but she fell asleep within 1 hour of coming home and sitting on the couch. :-)

So tired that we really didn't do a blessed thing this weekend. The only thing we accomplished this weekend was figuring out how to connect the computer to the TV so we could watch the Dallas Cowboys game that was blacked out here in Houston last night.

New week coming up right now.... parent night at the new school... band... baseball... etc. Good times!!

Will come up with something fun to write about soon.

MA

Bring on the Homework!!!

Oh.. we're back.  We're really back into the thick of things now.  School has started yet again in the cycle of life.  

John has gone back to work.  Not very thrilled.  Heck, I wish I had had 2.5 months off work.  Geez... and not have 12 Million emails waiting for me when I got back.  It's like a fresh slate.  I go for two weeks and have 1200 emails to wade through.  Somehow.. it's just not the same.

Rachel  - first day at Friendswood High School as a sophomore!!  10th Grader!!  Truly... I can't really have a 10th grader do I??  Hard to believe.  I don't have any pictures of her first day because the sophomores, juniors and seniors didn't have to go to school until almost noon because they held the freshman orientation this morning.  So... she wasn't up and dressed when it was time to take Stephen to school.  However.. I'll get one sometime this week.

Stephen - different story.  He started last week actually, but here are some pictures of his first day of 7th grade at Lutheran South Academy.  New school.. new faces.. new experiences.  All very good so far!  He's running cross - country this fall for sports at school.  Fall Baseball begins tomorrow evening with the first practice!! 

Note his "spiky" hair.  LSA is all uniform too so he looks quite sharp!!  He's got his middle school coolness going now (deodorant, gel in the hair and everything!) . 

So... we're off on the school races!!!  On to Day 2!!

MA

Tuesday, August 18

Getting ready for school around here.  School supply shopping. Clothes shopping.  Various Registrations.  Picking up of Books, instruments, etc.  You name it... we're probably doing it!

Today the kids have their annual checkups and any random vaccinations.  I think Stephen may have to have one (I haven't told him yet) and hoping Rachel doesn't.  Otherwise, we have to go through that whole fainting thing with her.  Perhaps they'll believe me at the pedi's office since she's done it a couple of times there.

Stephen starts his new school tomorrow.  He's very excited.  Went over there yesterday for Book Day.  You don't actually get your Books... but you go through and sign up for all the things you need and then you pay for your books at the end along with everything else... i.e. PE clothes, bible, etc. etc. Expensive days right now let me tell you.  

Rachel's registration is tomorrow.  How very delightful!  

Off to work now for a little bit then take them to the doctor... then work some more... then go to a Band Booster club meeting tonight.

Have a great Tuesday!

MA

We're still here....

Just catching up with life right now.

Registration for Band happened on Saturday and I've had a lot of work inputting all the names etc. into the accounting system.  Takes quite awhile.

Work is busy - went to New Orleans today on business.  Luckily, I caught the earlier plane by an hour because as soon as I got in my car in Houston, the skies opened up with rain, hail, incredible lightning and thunder.  Could not even see in front of me and watched as the lightening took out several transformers right in front of me.  Yikes.... took over an hour to get home from Hobby Airport.  Normally, would have taken me 20 minutes.

Stephen has his Middle School orientation on Friday!!  Very exciting going into 7th Grade and a whole new school with new people to make friends with.   His new school has mandatory uniforms so had to go buy all the goods for him to wear. He's very excited about this year.  Prayers for a good year.  He starts school in a week - on the 19th.

Rachel doesn't start school until the 24th but she might have well have started on August 3 with Band that is noon  - 9 pm most every day.  She also decided she's dropping soccer and has decided to be a part of the Athletic Trainers.  Apparently, they love her in there so she went up and asked on Monday and voila, she's in.  Goes to show how often she's had to go in for ice packs, etc. while in soccer.  Why the change?  Well, she loves to play soccer and she plays pretty decently, but she's not probably going to ever make a varsity team.  She'd be happy to play on a junior varsity team all day long as long she is enjoying the game.   However, the soccer coach up at our high school is really a very mean lady - terrible to the girls, uninspiring, awful in my opinion.  The things she says and does to these kids is appalling to me and I'm not the one having to live through it, just listen to it.  Is it just my kid and this coach don't get a long?  No... after some of my own research, it's not that at all.  She's just that terrible to the kids and shouldn't even be there.  Why is she?  1 guess.... her teams keep winning.   

So, she's decided that she just doesn't want to deal with it any more.  I have to say I don't really blame her.  There isn't a thing she can do to make it better nor can I.  Now, she's just going to make friends with all the other athletes while helping them on the training side.... I'm not even sure what it means except that she has to be up at the school now 2 or 3 days a week in the mornings at 5:30 am to be able to help the football players during practice from 5:30 - 8:30 am.  :-0  Even earlier than band which is 6:00 am when school starts!!  

What's the countdown until she gets a driver's license????   80 days or so..... :-)

MA

Friday, Friday, Friday.....

I can honestly say, I've never before been so happy to see a Friday!!  Wow.. what a week this has been.  

Going on vacation is great .... but really hard when you come back to catch up with your life, both personal and work.  

I came back to just about 1200 emails in my work email inbox.  That is insane.  Not too many of them have I just been able to hit delete and move on!  I've made it through about half of them this week along with all the new requests/questions/etc. coming in this week.  Holy smokes!!

Stephen had his cardiology appointment this week that we had been waiting for since June.  Great news and thank you Jesus, he's just fine.  Normal EKG yesterday.  The doc thinks his fainting may be due to not enough fluids and the fact he may have something similar to his sisters vasal vagal fainting  issues which, while not altogether normal, are not life threatening.    His heart is just fine.   We can start the meds again which is a good thing for him (and us).  However, the tough part is he's grown 2 inches and gained 5 pounds since we last measured him.  Off the meds, he's been eating so much better and his growth is showing it.  Hard to want to put him back on them, but he will need them for school.  It's a conundrum....

If I didn't mention it perhaps in May, I agreed to take on the volunteer position for this year in the Band Booster Club of Treasurer.  I may live to regret it.  We'll see.  This weekend will probably let me know.  This is the big Registration weekend where all 250+ families will come through tomorrow and have to check out with me and a few helpers.  I've had to prepare lots and lots and lots of stuff in order to get ready for this and then will have to enter and account for it all.   

Pray for patience and energy!!

Please pray for John and Rene this weekend.  They are over in Piedras Negras for their annual charity football game.  It's a bit dicey on the border towns right now so please pray for their safety and a good game.

Later!!

MA

We're HOME!!!!

Well... we made it home late today from our fabulous trip!!  I think we've had enough of each other by now so we unpacked the car and we all went to our separate corners for some alone time.  Pretty funny huh!

It's back to reality tomorrow - work for me and band starts for Rachel.

More posts to come!

MA