Russell's Ramblings

12/11/11

2011-12-15T16:57:00.004-06:00

To be quite honest. I'm posting this so that I can remember it. But if you find it beneficial - that's great too. :) If you attend Grace then you probably heard the message.

This past Sunday we had a visiting pastor, Dr. James G. Samra. He spoke about the Scriptures.
How they are:
God breathed
Inerrant
Authoritative
Sufficient
Living

You can find the sermon here if you want to watch or read it.

It was very refreshing as I often forget and become complacent with my life and take His Word for granted. I don't spend enough time reading my bible as I should. During the sermon he showed a video portraying the Kimyal tribe and their reaction to finally getting the New Testament. They were so joyful and thankful.

Pastor Samra shared in his sermon about a theologian Karl Barth and how he was asked "You have a lot of stuff you have written. You are an expert in all of these things. Could you boil it all down for us? If you were going to tell us what is the essence of the Christian message in just one sentence, all this stuff you have written, what is it all about? So this very, very bright man thought for a moment and said: It is easy. This is what I would say. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."

He loves me. He loves you too.
Merry Christmas!

First Semester at ACC

2011-11-20T22:22:00.000-06:00

Well my first semester at ACC is coming to an end. It has been a weird one. From the get go I jumped in over my head into Pre-Calculus without having a math class in over 15 years (really..that long?). That professor was bad news from the get go. His withdrawl rate on Myedu.com was over 60%. Only gives about 10% of his remaining students A's so he is rather difficult to take.

The Into to C++ class has been fairly easy up to this point, but last week I waited until the last minute to get the homework and lab done and was up to 2am on Friday and had a 4 hour class at 8:30am on Saturday. It's been a long time since I done a late night of homework.

So far the plan is this (all plans subject to change of course), continue to take classes at ACC until I can get my associates degree in computer programming (13 classes, 7 of which count towards the computer science certificate at Texas State), then complete the remaining requirements (9 classes) at Texas State for the Computer Science Certificate (to qualify to grad school), then if I still have any drive, motivation, time, or money left I'll try to take the 12 remaining classes for a Master's Degree in Computer Science. For now I am hoping just to learn new things and hopefully help me in my current career at work.

Next semester I am supposed to take Intro to Computing, but I am really surprised my previous class at Tech didn't qualify for this. I have the opportunity to test out of this class in a few weeks. I really hope I can do it. I purchased the book and have read the first 5 chapters so far and it is really easy, but I know things can be made to be more difficult than what it actually is.

I am also supposed to take C++ programming and Fundamentals of Networking. If cannot test out of Intro to Computing I will have to drop the Networking class. I think that 9 hours is a bit much while working full time. I was kicking it around, but I think I really shouldn't do it.

The other non-shocker was my out of district tuition. We knew that would happen, but neither of us knew it would be as much as it was. It quadrupled the price of tuition. That is really sad. I am thinking of starting the Pflugerville to join ACC Fan page on Facebook. 9 hours in district is $575. 9 hours out of district is $2100. All I can say is ouch!

Weekly verse

2011-11-20T12:08:00.001-06:00

John 15:16-17 New International Version (NIV)

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

Nice Sunset

2011-10-24T21:50:00.001-05:00

From 2011-10-31-October Photos

The Oasis

2011-10-22T20:16:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we were a little spontaneous and decided to drive out to the Oasis. It's a restaurant on lake Travis and you can see some awesome sunsets. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I thought it would be a smaller restaurant like at Gruene,Texas. Instead it is more like a mall. There were two weddings going on at the same time. It was a nice weekend getaway. Sorry for the double post, but my phone Blogger app distorts the pictures somehow.

Lake Travis and a view of the "Sometimes Islands"

From 2011-10-31-October Photos

Sunset clouds

From 2011-10-31-October Photos

New Blogger Format

2011-09-28T22:30:00.000-05:00

Check out the new blogger format. It's kinda fun to play with.

Pre-Calculus ekkk.

2011-09-01T13:10:00.000-05:00

That pretty much kicked me in the hind quarters by the second week. So on to something else. Intermediate Algebra mabye??

The Office Preview

2011-08-26T20:12:00.001-05:00

Just a preview of the newly painted office. This is also my first post from my Blogger App.

Going Back To School

2011-08-22T21:07:00.002-05:00

With a lot of thought and encouragement, I have decided to head back to school part time and work towards a Masters Degree in Computer Science/Software Engineering. It was not a decision I came to lightly. Leave to me to do things the hard way. First I pick a degree in Landscape Architecture that is a 5 year degree (150+ Hours) instead of a typical 4 year degree, and now I pick a totally unrelated field in which I need many articulation or prerequisite classes that it should be it's own degree (54 hours I believe). Do you think Landscape Architecture has many prerequisites for Computer Science or Software Engineering? I will help you answer....NO!!

So now I started classes at Austin Community College (ACC) hoping to transfer to Texas State University (or SMU which I discovered has a totally online degree last week). Basically I have about two years of ACC classes to take before I can transfer and complete about a years worth at Texas State to recieve a Computer Science Certificate (better than nothing for 54 hours). That certificate would pretty much mean I could enter any graduate level Computer Science/Engineering school in Texas (providing that I get good grades). Then I would have just 36 more hours to go for the Masters Degree. Told ya it was the hard way. I started Pre-Calculus on Monday and it has been 10+ years since I have had a math class. Needless to say, I have been a little slow out of the gate, and he professor isn't exactly a shining star either. I went to him for a little guidance about getting started in this course, and I would have been better off asking my pencil what it thought. That's OK, I have done the self taught classes before and I will do it again. People in high school can learn Pre-Calculus and so can I.

I start Intro to C++ Programming on Saturday and I am hoping this will be a fun class. It is what I really want to know about anyway. Keep me and Becky in your prayers as we learn how to deal with a new schedule, lack of free time, homework, and projects. It is just a new balancing act.

Irrigation System

2011-08-12T08:55:00.002-05:00

With all this heat we decided to purchase an irrigation system. Finding a price that was right was not an easy task because no contractor would budge on the price due to the face we are in a drought and they are as busy as can be. We got bids from about 5 or 6 different companies and were all about the same price which was a)shocking they they were all within $200 of each other and b) was extremely expensive. They were all about a $1000 more than what I thought it should cost and that leads me back to the first statement about being busy.

We finally called the people that put in the irrigation systems for KB Homes. They were pretty accommodating and was about the price that I thought it would be ("gulp"). We proceeded with it and I think "we" meaning "I" am pretty happy about getting 8 hours of my life back a week. That is how long I would spend moving the sprinklers around trying to keep everything that was newly planted alive during this drought. I think it was a good investment and the responsible thing to do, but I sure would have liked a trip to Jamaica. Now, I just have to let my yard heal over from the scars of construction.


	From 2011 August Pictures

Gunday, Gunday, Gunday!!

2011-07-24T21:14:00.005-05:00

Hope you like the play on words. Michael (a member of our Bible Study) invited the guys out to his dad's ranch to have some fun and shoot some guns. It was a pretty fun day, but also pretty darn hot. From the pictures you can tell it was pretty crispy out. I can't remember all the guns we got to shoot, but here it goes. 1.) Barrel over Barrel shotgun, 2.) 3 Shot 16 gauge shotgun (one of my favorites), 3.) 44 Magnum, 4.) Berretta, 5) two really small 9mm, 6.) and an AR15 (shown below). Of the handguns I liked the smaller 9mm the best. I was definately a lot more accurate. It was a great time, so thanks Michael.

I think this says it all.

Mike was aiming at the apple on my head

Michael shooting some skeet

Michael firing his gun

Tom taking his shot. See the shell?

Donkeys wondering what going on.

Mike shooting some skeet

Plenty of ammo

Take that you target.

Tom got a great grouping on the upper left.

Shiner was drooling all over Mike and the seat.

Russell Stanford the "Turtle Hunter"

2011-06-11T22:08:00.000-05:00

Tonight while watering the yard. The neighbors starting making a lot of noise and I looked over and Becky said, "There is a turtle behind their car." We walked over and our neighbors were pointing at it while it was under the car. They "suggested" that we should move the turtle, and I said, "Really?" They were such city girls, "If I touch that thing I will faint, literally faint!". Well since we can't have any fainting going on, I walked over to our garage and got my gloves and a bucket and picked up the turtle and gave him a little ride down to the pond. We took him out of the bucket and placed him/her on the ground. The head poked up and looked around then in an instant he jumped in the water and took off. We were glad he wasn't run over.

While we were watching for it's head to pop up out of the water, we noticed some animals coming in and out of the water onto the island in the middle of pond. Trying to figure out what they were, squinting and staring at them we noticed they had really big tails. I do believe the pond behind in our neighborhood had beavers in it. We saw at least two of them and possibly a third. I can't believe we have beavers in Pflugerville!! Then I found this article from February in the American Statesman. We will have to keep an eye on our trees! No pictures as of yet because the battery was being charged today. Wish I had gotten some shots.

30ish Group Reunion

2011-05-24T23:24:00.000-05:00

Our 30"ish" group had a reunion. It seemed like it was a long time ago when we were all in the singles group and were a little too old for the college crowd, so we formed the 30ish group. We were meeting at the Henager's house and we all had some fond memories and some great studies there. Now we are a little more mature (well some of us), own some bigger toys, and are doing a lot of different things. The biggest difference was this:

****** KIDS ******

The Henager's look a little overwhelmed, don't you think

The 30"ish" group

It was great to see everyone again to catch up. Here are some other pictures.



	From May Pictures

The Backyard Landscaping Project

2011-04-22T13:13:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we decided that our backyard looked way too bare and desolate. So we hatched a plan to plant some trees in the back to get them started. This plan was started a few weeks earlier with some drawings and research. The major problem with our backyard is that we have 6" of good soil and then caleche and limestone rock all the way to China. We found this out after buying and planting our first tree.

We purchased (4) Texas Mountain Laurels, (5) Cherry Laurels 'Bright N Tight", (1) Crape Myrtle 'Natchez White', and (1) Big Tooth Maple tree. Digging the holes was the biggest problem and I didn't think it would be. The hole process led to the purchase of a pick axe, rental of a two person auger, borrowing a pry bar, and a wheel barrow. The digging process reminds me of our pastor's statement about his yardwork experience, "God clearly did not want a tree there because he put a rock directly where we wanted to put that tree!". I got a kick out of that because we have decided that CALECHE IS NOT OUR FRIEND!!!! What we most amazed about was the amount of "ugly dirt" we had to have hauled off. Overall the project turned out well and things are starting to take off. We have to look forward to the crape myrtle blooming this summer.

From Mar 26, 2011 - Backyard Improvements

TBG Afflerbach Classic

2011-04-08T22:31:00.007-05:00

Every year TBG has a golf tournament, and this was the first one that I participated in. It was a last minute thing for me, because that night I was taking Becky out for her birthday and I wasn't planning on going, but I got talked into it a few days before. It really is a fun event because everyone dresses up and every few holes has a particular challenge. I made two of the challenges, but did not stick around for the awards. One award was the "weirdest shot" on the second shot of the tournament and I shanked the ball off to the right and it bounced into the brush. A bunch of pigeons flew out, but one did not. I killed the pigeon and everyone immediately took pictures and texted (is that a word) the entire group. I was an instant legend. It was a fun time and enjoyed playing golf.

Susan, Kyle, and Mindy

Tom Afflerbach

The shotgun start

The man, the myth, the legend Earl Broussard

From May Pictures

Our Weekend Getaway

2011-03-26T00:23:00.000-05:00

I am finally able to blog about our long weekend to Log Country Cove. We had been busy for a while now with classes, home projects, work projects, and out Bible study; and we felt like it was time for a little get away. We couldn't go on a long trip or anything so we decided to head on over to Burnet, Tx, Kingsland, Tx, and Marble Falls area. We had a great time.

We stayed at the Log Country Cove in Kingsland, Tx on lake LBJ. I would highly recommend it. It was a great family place with lots of playgrounds, horse shoes, jet skis, fishing, volleyball, and just great scenery. Our place was a duplex right on the lake. Our front porch overlooked the lake and had a fire pit, hammock and rocking chairs. The weather was a perfect 75 degrees and it couldn't be more relaxing. We even made a friend, Dillon the camp Chihuahua. He seems to take a liking to me and would just walk up and jump in my lap while I was sitting in the rocking chair in the mornings. He was a really nice dog, but I have this sneaking suspicion that he was really wanting some food handouts. The only really disappointing things was to find that the coffee mugs were super small, so I had to improvise. We did end up buying an Inks Lake State Park mug a little later.

While we were there we did rent a jet ski for an hour. I mean come on, it was spring break and almost no one was on the lake. We had to give it a try. Well all I can say is that I want one now. It was a lot fun.

Pictures of Log Country Cove


			From 2011 Log Country Cove

While we were there in Kingsland, we decided to visit Inks Lake State Park which was right down the street about 8 miles or so. While we were there, we decided to get a State Park Pass which means I can take up to 14 people in my car or vehicle to any Texas State Park and costs about $60. We figure it's a good way to get out of the house and get back to nature and exercise. Inks Lake was a great state park, because nearly all the campsites are right on the water. The park has about 11 miles of trails and we hiked about 5.5 to 6 miles of it. It's kinda funny, because we both thought the route we were taking was about 2.5 to 3 miles. The map was a little confusing because the mile markers had no beginning and no ending just a number. Most of it was an easy hike, but the last 2-2.5 miles was a little rocky and hot. We hit that park on a Friday before the spring break crowd and we didn't see anyone on the trail all day. We were just glad to be back in the cabin at the end of the day.

Pictures of Inks Lake State Park


			From 2011 Log Country Cove

The next day we decided to drive to the Longhorn Cavern State Park and tour the cavern. Sadly our state park pass did not work at this location...puzzling. It did get us a discount on the tour tickets. I liked the tour and was surprised how large the cavern was. I would say if you want to take pictures ... bring a tripod though. I tried to salvage some of the pictures, but most were blurry.

Pictures of Longhorn State Park


			From 2011 Log Country Cove

It's Been a Busy Few Weeks

2011-03-16T20:20:00.000-05:00

I finally have an evening to put together some posts. The last 6 weeks I have been taking a class at Austin Community College. The class is another drafting program called REVIT. It has been on Monday and Wednesday's from 6-10pm. Needless to say it has been a whirlwind. On Thursday nights we host a small group Bible study at our house. Life has been pretty busy at the Stanford house. I now have a week off from class and I will have three more weeks of classes. I will be glad when they are over and maybe I can start posting again soon.

The Blueman Group

2011-02-22T19:37:00.001-06:00

Feb 22nd, my office purchased Blue Man Group tickets for us. We decided to take advantage of it, and we were not disappointed. We were pleasantly surprised that it was funny as well as, entertaining. It had been a while since we were in the Long Center (I think Yo-Yo Ma was the last time).

To start the evening off we thought we had scored big time on a free parking space. I think the key word would be "thought". We got out of the car and headed to the center and sure enough, the entire area was fenced off for construction...That's why it was empty :-|.

We got in the auditorium and they started off with humor and it didn't stop the whole night. It was really funny, and I think we had our own favorite parts. I tried to get a few pictures without being totally annoying, but I think the videos were the best way to be covert in the auditorium.

Here is a video of the drum sequence.
Here is a video of the finale (in the background they were coming up with all sorts of names to shake your behind.).


			From Blueman Group

Bastrop State Park

2011-02-20T15:38:00.000-06:00

Saturday morning we got up, packed, and headed out to Bastrop State Park. It was a great day for it because there was a nice breeze all day, wasn't too hot, and just a little cloudy. The park is about an hour from the house and on the way out we stopped at Subway to get a couple of sandwiches to eat at the park. After getting in the park and having some lunch we headed out on the trail for the rest of the day. The hike, for the most part, was really quiet and peaceful. The only time it wasn't was when a group of teenagers were passing through time to time. It was so nice getting back out in the woods, I REALLY REALLY needed that break. I found myself thinking anytime there is a nice day when I think there is nothing to do, this is where I will be. We are hoping to get back there soon for an overnight camping trip and a hike around the 8.5 mile trail for the day. We hiked around 3-4 miles on Saturday, and Becky is unsure about doing that much, but we will just have to see. Below are some of my favorite photos of the trip or click here to see all of them with captions.


	From State Park - Bastrop

Lockhart BBQ Trip #1

2011-02-05T22:20:00.000-06:00

This weekend Jason, Matt, and I went to Lockhart,TX in search of some good BBQ. We didn't have to look far because there seems to be a BBQ joint about every 1/4 mile. Today we hit Blacks BBQ and Kruez BBQ. That's right we went to two places and probably would have been three if we hadn't hit so much traffic. Don't worry, no vegetables were harmed in the process of this trip. We went to Blacks first and by far it was the winner today. The brisket was AWESOME and the sauce was great. Anything we ate to compare with it would lose to this brand of BBQ. Kruez was next on on the hit list, but it didn't have a chance. I wouldn't say it was bad, it just wasn't what I was expecting. It is a whole different philosophy when it comes to BBQ. First off they do not offer BBQ sauce, the meat must stand on it's own. Second, they do not offer utensils to eat with except a knife.

Overall we had a good trip and needless to say we are full tonight (Well maybe Jason isn't). We might head out there in another few weeks and try some others. Can you smell the BBQ in these pictures?

That rib was good

That is a 2lb beef rib!

That's right, 8 days a week.


	From Lockhart BBQ

Winter in Austin

2011-02-04T14:48:00.000-06:00

We got a surprise this morning. We had about 1" of snow. This doesn't happen often or hardly at all. I think there hasn't been actual snow on the ground since Becky was a little girl. Here are some pictures.



			From Winter 2011

Computer Marathon

2011-02-04T14:36:00.000-06:00

Our office has been upgrading computers over the last month and it has been an ordeal. In geek speak, we are going from 32bit machines to 64bit machines. It's good thing and it needed to be done, but there are several programs that will not work on 64bit machines and the printers do not react well having both 32bit and 64bit machines on the same network.So finding replacements and workarounds has been challenging. Needless to say it is a lot of work!

We hit Dallas with 10 machines on the 2nd day of January and we were there for a week. We just got finished with Houston which was 16 computers in one week. The Houston machines went a lot faster than Dallas now that we have a system.

We did run into a problem while in Houston that was not computer related. We had rolling blackouts in Austin. This affected the entire company, because no one could get email. Not only was the email server in Austin but the blackouts affected printing because the print tracking software is in Austin. It was sort of a nightmare, because most people could get to work and needed to work, but the rolling back outs affected everything.

Overall it was a good trip, but it was very exhausting. We at least got all the work we needed to get done...done! Next up is Austin but that shouldn't be as difficult (famous last words).

Below is out SUV that was loaded up with computers.



	From Feb 2011 Houston Trip

Nature Walk

2011-01-26T23:09:00.000-06:00

During lunchtime at work, I sometimes like to walk down to the park via the trail behind our office. Today was a nice day for it, so I took along my new camera to give it a test spin. You will probably need to view the blog if you get this via email to see the slide show below.

Paperwork

2011-01-26T23:04:00.000-06:00

Since we have gotten married I have been on a mission to get our paperwork organized. I have made a dent in it the last few weeks. I had tax returns all the way back to 1988, Becky had paper work all the way back to 1993 as far as I can tell. I thought I had most of it done when Becky states, "Oh yeah there is another Rubbermaid container full of stuff in the bedroom. Looks like I have a another weekend of going through stuff. I should probably put some oil in that shredder before I get to that and the taxes.

From This and That

My Uncle Skips Accident

2011-01-22T15:06:00.000-06:00

On Monday I got a call from my mother about Skip. The message said, "This is an emergency, it's Skip!" I called her back to find out that Skip had fallen off the roof while cleaning the gutters. They asked if I would come down and take Kathy to San Antonio because she was in no condition to drive. My mother was going to watch the Bed and Breakfast and my Grandmother while we were gone.

Kathy and my mom went out to see what happened and found him lying on the flagstone patio. The ambulance came and picked him up and took him to the Fredericksburg Hospital. When he arrived they became concerned with spinal injuries and wanted to transport him to University Medical Center of San Antonio because they have the proper equipment and personnel to handle those types of injuries.

Skip then took a Care Flight from Fredericksburg to San Antonio. During that time I had headed home and packed a bag and headed down to Fredericksburg. By the time I got to Fredericksburg and picked up my Aunt and took her to San Antonio it was about 10pm or so. Getting to the hospital was no small feat. There are about four hospitals all in the same place. We pulled up to the wrong hospital first because it had an emergency sign in front of it. It was kinda hard to find because there were so many and the specific one we were looking for was under construction and none of the important signs were visible. During this whole time we had no idea of Skip's condition because the county hospital he was in would not release information about him to friends and family. Mom and Kathy were terrified that Skip was paralyzed, because of the Fredericksburg hospital and the care flight.

Once Kathy had checked in and gotten up to see him, she was able to give me an update. He had broken his right arm an a couple of places and had some large contusions on his left elbow. We were so thankful that there was no permanent damage done.

I began to send everyone updates and she went up one last time be visiting hours were over. We then headed back to Fredericksburg for the evening and I was going to wake up and head in to work a little late the next day. We woke up the next morning had some breakfast and Kathy called Skip to see how he was doing. Since they do not contact family members, we found out through Skip that they were planning surgury that afternoon. Kathy quickly got dressed and packed and we headed back to the hospital in San Antonio.

From that point I went back to Austin and Kathy had some how arranged to get Skip discharged from the hospital and my mom picked them up later that day and now he is saftly back in Fredericksburg.

Needless to say it was a crazy few days and my mom and Kathy have their work cut out for them for a little while until Skip heals up. I believe Skip has an appointment to see a doctor about the rehab of his arm this Monday.

We are really thankful that the situation was not worse and Skip will have the opportunity heal up and get on with things.

Lance Armstrong Video

2011-01-20T11:41:00.000-06:00

This video always inspires me. I know there's a lot of questionable things about Lance, but I do like this commercial. See Below (if you are getting this by email you will need to check the blog to view more than likely.)

Ye Olde Adventure Story

2011-01-12T13:21:00.000-06:00

It was a cold dark night just before midnight, the wind was blowing fiercely outside, while the cold draft crept into the study through the picture window. Becky was working away making a cake for her labor companions and I was applying the monthly wages to the appropriate collectors. While deep in thought with a furrowed brow, a deep moan traveled through the house. Becky had run out of whipped toppings for her confection. Sadness filled the house. I raised from my chair ever so quickly to assess the situation. I asked, "Becky, what can I do to correct the situation at hand. She replied, "I ran out of whipped topping and I need some right away." I quickly got dressed and headed out the door to brave many a peril between our house and the market known as H.E.B.. I crossed shallow waters, bumpy terrain, and dark unexplored areas as I sped to the market. Once I found my way through the maze at the market and found her whipped topping, I quickly sped home through the treacherous landscape. Once home, there was much rejoicing in the Stanford home. The confection was completed and day was saved.

I woke early this morn to earn my wages, and picked up the lunch that was prepared for me, and headed out for the day. When I had lunch this afternoon, I found this surprise.

Thank You Becky!!!!

From Cakes

Chirstmas and New Year's

2011-01-02T20:59:00.041-06:00

This Christmas and New Years was a little different than most. That being said, it was still a very good holiday season. It was a special Christmas because it was the first Christmas we spent in our new home. We were glad we had the energy to get the decorations up and at least be able to find all of them.

From Christmas and New Years 2010

We were able to spend Christmas Day at Becky's parents house in the morning and afternoon. And then Gabriel and Christina's house for dinner. It was a great time and I got some pictures.

From Christmas and New Years 2010

New Years my brother Ryan; his wife Amanda; my niece Evie; and my mom came into town and stayed with us a few days. It was a great time to catch up and eat a lot of food. Evie was the star of the weekend. You just can't take enough pictures of that girl. We loved seeing everyone and it was the first time we could actually put everyone up for a few nights.


From Christmas and New Years 2010

And we found out that Evie doesn't like lemons!!

It's Been A While

2010-12-31T13:25:00.001-06:00

Yes, I know it's been a while, but the last few months have been a whirlwind of activity. I feel like we are in a movie with someone hitting the fast forward button. This year has truly been a huge blessing for us. Let me count some of the ways.

We celebrated our first anniversary.
We went on a an amazing trip to Alaska!
While on said trip we finalized the sale of our condo. (That was crazy!)
Sale of that condo was less than 30 days in the worst economy we have seen in my lifetime.
Sale of the condo was almost the asking price and we didn't have pay closing costs for the buyer.
We decided to buy the home in time to qualify for the home-buyers tax credit (yet to submit for, but doing that today because we found all the paperwork needed.
House got built in time enough for us to close in time for the home-buyers tax credit (Whew by 12 days)
Got a great interest rate on our home.
They demoed and re-poured the foundation of the house
We found an apartment that was willing to do a 4 month lease (at a reasonable price)
We have been blessed enough to get just enough things to get settled in.
We had a wonderful house warming party
So many of our friends have been blessed with children this year, and it has been great to watch their progress.
I have a new niece.
My brother Tres has done a 180 in his life and is now following Jesus with all his heart and helping others with their addictions at U-Turn for Chirst.
God has kept us safe from several disasters that could have been a lot worse.
God has helped find things a lot cheaper than they normally are and helped us find the deals to help us save money.
The holidays have been great. They have have been different, but in a good way.
Becky's family has been a big help in getting us settled. Thank you!
We are thankful for the friends and family that we get to share our lives with.
We have seen answered prayer after answered prayer and may we continue to pray according to his will and with a rightly motivated heart this next year.

As you can tell God has truly blessed us this year and may his hand continue to be on us, our friends and our family. Have a Blessed New Year!
Russell and Becky.

Numbers 6:24-26

Housewarming Party

2010-12-05T00:20:00.000-06:00

Today was our housewarming party. It has been a whirlwind the last few months. Packing, unpacking, projects, new routines, new places, and new traffic. It has been an adjustment to say the least, but that's a good thing.

We had two party's this week. The first party was for Becky's friend Ashley and Brock. they had a Scentsy party to raise money for adopting a child. It was successful and we helped them get a little closer to their goal. Please keep them in your prayers. I know that this can be an up and down process. Then we had our party today and about 35 people showed up. It was great!!

We had hot dogs, chips, drinks, brownies, and wings. We enjoyed having people over and showing them the house and showing off some of our projects. The biggest part of this weekend was the fact the house finally feels like it is ours. We hung a few pictures and got about 90% of the boxes put up.

We are so thankful for our family, friends, and neighbors who showed up and made this feel like a home.

I will try to get some pictures of the house posted soon.

Butler Fountain Park.

2010-11-16T19:02:00.005-06:00

This was one of our nights out. We went downtown to take a walk around the Palmer Center and took this video of the Butler Fountain at night. It is one of the few times I have been down there to look at it, but a bonus was the lack of people at the time. It is a very popular place when it gets hot.

Moving In and Projects.

2010-11-07T20:28:00.006-06:00

It's been a while. We have been bus....y buddy. We have moved into the house and have been doing all kinds of projects. Last week we painted the fence and this weekend we put together IKEA furniture. Really I am so tired after putting this stuff together, I was just lucky to get this posting up. I will try to post more later. However below is a picture of our new entertainment center.

1 Week Til Moving Day

2010-10-01T14:01:00.000-05:00

Needless to say it has been a crazy few months. Building a house was an experience that had it's "ups" and "downs" for sure. The more "downs" we had, the more it required us to keep a more watchful eye on construction. We developed a routine over the last few months of coming home, eating dinner, going out to the house, coming home and emailing the construction manager, and speding time on the phone the following morning fixing those problems. Needless to say we will be glad when we can move in and ditch that routine!

On the flip side the "ups" allowed us to what the house go up, see things get fixed, understand how things were built, and watch it become ours. Next Friday will be moving day. We will be out of the apartment and into the new house. We will be glad to move back into a house that will be ours. I am sure that we will always have a lot of projects going, but the last few weeks have been just getting the house ready to move in. Becky and Rosa have been lining the shelves with paper, I sprayed for bugs, had a garage door opener installed, had blinds installed, Roberto and I hung 6 ceiling ffans, and tomorrow we are painting the garage floor with an epoxy paint. Now we have the little things to take care of like, getting cable, changing addresses, getting utilites, and packing our apartment up.

A Picture I Meant To Post

2010-09-17T10:00:00.005-05:00

During the "Move-In" process I took a picture with my phone that I totally forgot about. The day of the move I walked out of the garage and took this picture. It will always remind me of the day we moved into our new home.

From General

The Austin Hot Sauce Fesitval

2010-09-02T00:05:00.012-05:00

Last Sunday Tom, Laura, Becky, and I went to the Austin Hot Sauce Festival at Waterloo park in Austin and I have to admit, I didn't think it was going to be as big of an event as it was. That place was packed!! It was a pretty nice day, but it was stinkin' hot. It was about 100+ degrees and walking around with a lot of people made it feel even hotter.

How it worked was like this... There was one big tent that was shaped like a rectangle. The long end of tent had about 20 lines and each line was a different kind of sauce. We made it through 2 lines. They were the Red Commercial hot sauce and the Green Sauces commercial. Once in the tent, you get a tray full of chips and you spoon some sauce out of the jar and place it on the chip. I wanted to go through some more of the lines, but we were so hot. After we went through the first line, we had to get some good $4 snow cones to cool off. It was worth it!

If there were sauces you liked, each vendor had tents set up so you could buy some of the sauces you liked. We did end up getting some T-shirts instead. I would go again, but earlier!!!

These are the lines at the tent.

All the chips and sauce for the tasting.

Been there and got the shirt.

Tom and Laura eat'n some sauce. Laura brought her own chips...Smart.

From Austin Hot Sauce Festival

Our Trip to San Angelo

2010-08-22T23:13:00.000-05:00

Friday after work we left for San Angelo, Tx to visit my brother Tres at U-Turn for Christ. He just graduated from the 2 month program and is sticking around for the 6 month program as an Assistant there. It has been an exciting time of transformation for him. He was baptized last week and we have seen a real transformation in his life. We were really exicited to see him and his fellow friends there. We had a small worship service in the park and afterward we played some volleyball and had some snow cones. We took Tres out for some dinner to catch up and then we took him back out to the ranch. We are really proud of him.

From 2010-08-20 San Angelo Trip

We headed back to our Bed and Breakfast there in San Angelo where we have a few things to say about it (as a little background, the reason we stayed here instead of a hotel was because nearly every hotel in town was booked for the first week of school). It was called the Music Garden Mansion. It looked like a nice enough place online and had some decent reviews, but I beg to differ on some of those opinions. First of all, have you ever just wished that Hobby Lobby would double their inventory and let you sleep there? Well if this is your dream this is place for you. There was so much stuff in that place you couldn't even put your bag without hitting something. The bed had sooooo many pillows that we had a stack taller than Becky sitting in the chair next to the bed. Second, There was no shower, only a bathtub with jacuzzi. I say sell some of the "stuff" and get a stinking shower installed. Third, our room was right next to the highway. You could hear traffic all night long, you just gotta love those big rig air brakes at 3am. Fourth, they had a foam matress pad on the bed (please refer to Becky's Hosptial stay post). To solve this problem we put one of the MANY quilts hanging in the room on top of the mattress. Fifth, there were no non-dairy options for breakfast, not even dry cereal or oatmeal. She brought out quiche, sausage balls, and fruit in yogurt. Sixth, it was way too $$$ for what we got. None of it was horrible, but it was a little mini adventure for the weekend and we are glad to be home.




	From 2010-08-20 San Angelo Trip

House Progress

2010-08-19T21:42:00.000-05:00

This week there was a lot of action. Starting off the week the drywall was up and the crews just went to town. They textured the whole house in one day. The next day the cabinets came in and they were installed on Tuesday. On Wednesday they painted, put up the attic door, put the trim up, the window sills, graded the yard, put fence posts in. Thursday they took the plastic off of everything and we got to see the cabinets for the first time. I think we are getting the garage painted tomorrow. I talked to the guy that was texturing the walls and asked if they could paint the walls. He said yes for $50. He asked if I wanted it textured too and I said yes. He said $100. I am thinking OK this is a good deal.

A couple of days later he calls and said, you still want me to texture? I said yes. He asks, do you have someone to paint? I said no, you told me $50 to paint the garage. He said OK, You don't worry about it. It will be great! What color do you want. I said the color of the inside of the house. He Ok it will be great. I guess we will find out tomorrow. Surprise Friday!

New Cabinets

Drywall has been painted and textured

The Attic door and insulation has been blown in today.

Things Are Shaping Up

2010-08-13T08:45:00.000-05:00

Today KB has poured the driveway and walk, drywalled, taped and floated, the whole house, and just about finished the stonework. They are REALLY moving!! I think the middle of next week they should be finished with the texturing, painting, and trim work. It is looking really nice now. The drive was was fixed. A normal driveway was 16' wide, this driveway is 18'6" at the top near the garage opening and 19'6" at the bottom. I like the wider driveway because it leaves you room to get in and out of your car. They did away with the extreme curve that would have left an area of lawn to drive over if you weren't careful and a really hard corner to turn if you came from the other direction. We are very thankful it was fixed.

Stonework and new walk

Driveway width has been fixed and poured

The garage area where we put the flooring in the attic

The drywall in the living room and kitchen.

Attic Flooring

2010-08-08T22:42:00.000-05:00

Today after church, Becky, Rosa, Roberto, and I went out to the new house to put up some plywood flooring in the attic before they seal it up with drywall. We now have about a 6'x10' area up in the attic for storage and a nice place for some shelves in the future. We didn't want to add too much stuff up there, because of the span of the 2x4 truss. It's a very long span, and don't really want to add too much more weight on it.

It was very hot today, about 101. We had lots of water out there and didn't spend any more time than we had to out there. It's a nice addition to the house. Glad we did it now and not later.

Our Driveway Issue

2010-08-07T13:25:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday we went out to put some pipes (or sleeves) to put under the sidewalks and driveway before it was poured. They were going to form up the driveway and pour it on Monday. I went out there Monday at lunch to make sure they buried them under the the corresponding locations.

I went out there to find that we had a curved driveway. That was quite a surprise considering it was supposed to be straight.


Our driveway was curved because of the storm drain.	This is straight and what we were expecting.
	From Our Home Construction Photos

So we talked to them and because our project manager was on vacation he was going to hold off pouring the driveway until he got back on Tuesday. We talked Tuesday evening and decided to meet out there at lunch on Wednesday. We met out there to find out that the storm drain was not in the right place and that the lip of the storm drain has a larger "lip" in the curb gutter the closer you get to the storm drain opening. So there is only so far we move the driveway over. They cut it according to code, but we could still get away with moving the opening 30" to the right leaving the opening on the left to stay where it was. However that meant that the driveway was going to be larger at the bottom than the top. We both agreed that moving the edges of the driveway to the center of the wall on either side of the garage. That way it is centered and the same width at the bottom and the top.

We went out there to find the driveway had the new curb cut 30" to the right like we wanted, but the driveway was not in the middle of the wall. It was 6" from the wall on the left and 9" from the wall on the right. It wasn't even centered on the garage and the middle expansion joint was not centered on the driveway. (I was was about to blow a gasket!) I mean seriously how hard is it?

From Our Home Construction Photos

We sent a text message to our project manager and he said he was on it and the driveway was getting fixed that morning. Becky and I go out there later that evening to find the driveway was now at least centered on the garage about 9" on each side not (not to the center of the wall as we discussed) and that the middle expansion joint was still not centered. It was about 6" off center at the bottom.

From Our Home Construction Photos

I was pretty darn close to taking a hammer out there myself and fixing the problem. I am trying to trust them to do the right thing, but being that they weren't even going to tell us I feel like I have to manage the project myself sometimes. It's just a little frustrating. It will get built and it will be fine, but this communication issue is about to drive me insane!!

Annie At The Zilker Hillside Theater

2010-08-01T22:13:00.016-05:00

Sunday we went to see the musical "Annie" at the Zilker Hillside Theater. It's a free event during the summertime. It has lots of sponsors that keep the thing running and up to date. They have recently done a lot of renovations to the theater.

By any means it is a great thing to take advantage of living in Austin. Just grab some food, flashlight, sunblock, insect repellant, and camera (Ok we took a lot of stuff) and you are ready to have a good time.

Also, my brother Ryan had his birthday on Sunday. Happy Birthday Ryan!!

Having a good time at the ZHT and keeping the sun off my head.

Beck getting the scoop on all the actors.

It's a packed house.

Zilker Hillside Theater

From Zilker Hillside Theater - Annie

House Update

2010-07-29T21:00:00.001-05:00

Man do these guys move or what? Today we pulled up to the house to look at what had been done, and initially thought they didn't do too much. We were wrong. Come to find out they.

1. Put the door in.
2. Did the plumbing in the house
3. put the roofing paper up.

I like construction and watching the house go up. It's my new hobby for now. ;-)

We did have sort of had conflict about construction philosophies concerning one of our added features, the "Tyvek" moisture barrier. We paid extra for it, but before we added it I did some research to find out if it was something we really needed or not. I thought it would be a great idea to keep moisture and drafty air out of the house, because it works exactly like a windbreaker. It is a great product!! However, it needs to be installed correctly for that system to work, and this builder hasn't really installed it too much to know the in's and out's of it. To be quite honest I don't think they know what it does. They seem to think that it is a water barrier only that works like shingles on a roof or siding on a house, in that if you just overlap it the water will not get into the house (True mostly). That does not stop humidity or condensation from entering underneath (the technical term is "capillary action"). That is why you have to tape the overlapping seams with their special Tyvek tape. They do not want to do this, because they think that just overlapping the sheets will do the trick. So, our task tonight will be to go out there tonight and tape the seams from the inside of the house. This is not as good as outside, but it will have to do because that is better than no tape at all. I don't know why they are so resistant to do this, it's not like the tape is really expensive or that it takes hours upon hours to do. It is just how you are supposed to install it. See by clicking here.

If you look at Number 5 in the document it says to tape the seams where one overlaps the other. We will attempt to tape it from inside tonight.

You can also tell they didn't install it right because the front window is already installed and has no Tyvek on the wall. The Tyvek is supposed to come before installing the windows. Picture 3 shows the front window that is in already with no Tyvek and the instructions clearly indicate that the Tyvek is supposed to happen first.

Contractors .... what can you say really?

Moving Right Along

2010-07-28T22:22:00.000-05:00

Tonight we met with Tom and Laura (our small group bible study) out at the house. We were stunned to see so much work done on the house. They had the windows in already, some of the siding up, and the vapor barrier up. We were really surprised because it rained most of the day today. That didn't seem to stop them from going into warp speed on the house. They are projecting to have it built by mid September. I am holding them to that.

Let The Framing Begin

2010-07-26T23:54:00.000-05:00

Today we went out to the house to see what happened today. They pulled the forms off the foundation, pulled the post tension cables, and started framing the house. I think the rain stopped them from going as far as they could have. They had the roof trusses on top ready to go and then the rain came. We have rain in the forcast for the next two days. I am hoping it is not as bad as they are predicting. Although the rain is an inconvience, it isn't bad on the foundation this time, it's actually good. It helps the concrete cure a little slower making it stronger. All I can say is "God Is Good" and we are finally moving forward. It's nice to see something other than just a slab out there. We carved a little blessing in the door frame that says "God Bless This Home".

Cooper's BBQ

2010-07-24T16:39:00.000-05:00

Today me and some friends loaded up the car and headed out to Llano, Tx to Cooper's BBQ. The gang included Jason, Matt, Chris, Caroline, Braden, and myself. Becky had to work today and the other girls just couldn't make it out today. So, it was the four of us and two babies.

The kids were quiet for most of the trip. They even napped all the way back. It's like they were good for 3 hours and then they power down and recharge.

The BBQ was awesome. They don't weigh it or anything, but you kind of point and say "that's enough" you feel like that is all you can eat. It was a good day trip to get out of town. Here are some pictures.


Good BBQ	Caroline is eying Jason's meal and Braden is checking out the chick that just walked by. :-)

Those are some big ribs	Now that's some BBQ

The Foundation Was Was Poured Today

2010-07-23T22:18:00.000-05:00

Round Two - House Progress

2010-07-22T21:04:00.000-05:00

Well ... after a three week delay, we are finally starting over on our house. We are really excited about the building of our house. They are re-pouring the foundation tomorrow (which is awesome!). We will be praying that there is no rain this time! They already have the framing piled up behind the house and should be starting that on Monday.

Megan and Tim's Wedding

2010-07-21T13:35:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was our friend Megan's wedding. She has been our friend for a long time and we are very happy for her and her engagement to Tim. He is a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force and they both seem really happy together. We first met Tim at our wedding and we were more than happy to return the favor.

The wedding was at Riverbend Church in their wedding chapel. The reception was held at Maggiano's where the food was served family style..... I was stuffed. It was a great time, and we met so many of our old friends there. It's funny though, they all have such different lives compared to two years ago. It was really good to see everyone. They did have one of the coolest things I have seen at a wedding, a carnival style photo booth (photo shown below). It took funny pictures, and they printed off an extra copy to post in a scrap book. I am sure that will be fun to look at later.

Congratulations Megan and Tim! We wish you the best!

So The Demo Begins!

2010-07-14T23:07:00.000-05:00

This evening we went out to see how the demo was going. They spent the day using a wet saw to cut up the foundation into a checkerboard pattern. They will then rip it out with the tractors in chunks. They told us they hope to have it re-formed, plumbed, and poured by the end of next week. Weather permitting of course. They did take out most of the garage area and the front bedroom.

From Our Home Construction Photos

New House Progress?

2010-07-12T22:51:00.000-05:00

Last Tuesday they poured the foundation for our home. We were really excited and couldn't wait to get out there and see how it looked afterward. Maybe even write our names in the concrete. However, about 4 hours after pouring the concrete we had about 2-3" of rain. It wasn't a gentle rain either, it came down in buckets. Oddly enough it was sunny by the end of the day. They weren't expecting that much rain or they wouldn't have poured the concrete. But it did and now this is where we are.

We went out to the site later that day and looked it over and it was not very encouraging. The rain had washed away about the top 1/4" of the foundation just leaving the sand mixture and exposed aggregate. It also left some low areas on the foundation. I was a little concerned about the integrity and look of the concrete. I really wanted the smooth garage concrete like all the other homes and was worried about how it was all going to come together.

The next, day they put a concrete topping on the slab before it had all dried. They did a pretty sloppy job to say the least. I know they were trying to get the cement to adhere to the slab before it dried and make it look better. The more I thought about it though the more I didn't like what just happened and, of course, the construction manager went on vacation (Doh!). I just pictured having all kinds of problems a little later on because that topping didn't adhere on the outer edges of the slab.

From Our Home Construction Photos

By Saturday I got pretty upset about the whole thing and called the head honcho and had him meet me out there. He was a really nice guy and wanted to fix the problem. He even offered to reimburse me for getting my own structural engineer to look at it. I did and we found places that the topping did not adhere to the surface of the slab. You could pry it up with a screwdriver because there was too much sand to adhere to the concrete surface. So I had some pretty serious concerns about tile adhering to that and having free floating tile in the house. I had pictures in my head of cracks, broken tile, and not being able to replace it because they don't make it any more (or something along those lines).

To fix the problem they were having to scrape all the loose topping material off and repair all the areas that were brittle. I was feeling pretty good about the progress, but still had some doubts about the long term effects. There were even some weak spots that came off pretty easy like at the garage apron.

From Our Home Construction Photos

After some thought and evaluation of the situation and possible alternatives for fixing the foundation, they came to the conclusion that it needed to be removed, bull dozed, and re-poured. We are so thankful for that decision and we are so glad that they have been understanding and apologetic about the whole situation. We are also glad that we are getting it re-poured because we would always be wondering if something goes wrong if it would be a side effect of how the foundation was put together. Overall, I think we will be set back about 2-3 weeks. I have faith in them that they will recover the time. Man....they are FAST! They are very on top of things, and do not like to sit around. There are no hard feelings and I understand that things happen during construction, and they have done a good job of listening to me, talking to me, and trying to figure out the best solution for both of us. They don't want a lot of warranty calls and I don't want to have to call them to have to come out and fix things. So it works out for both of us. I think the bulldozing will start either tomorrow or Wednesday. They had to wait until the ground dried enough so that the bulldozer didn't get stuck from the rain this weekend.

Anyway that's all for now.

Thank you Lord for hearing and answering our prayer in a way we did not expect!!

Psalm 88:13

We Got Our Fridge

2010-07-10T13:38:00.000-05:00

Now I guess we will have to get a house to put it in. :-) We had it delivered to our storage unit today. It will be great when we get that sucker in the new house.

Our Visit with Mom and Tres

2010-07-08T08:28:00.001-05:00

Mom came to visit us last weekend to ride over to San Angelo, TX and vist my brother Tres. It was a good visit and it was nice to see her. The drive wasn't really bad, because it didn't rain like it was supposed to and we were thankful for that. It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive out there. I have never been out there, but it sure felt a lot like driving to Lubbock. The farms, windmills, long stretches of road, and even the endless amount of telephone poles along the road. Even the town had a similar feel too of no landscaping and the buildings come right up to the road. It just felt like a small west Texas town.

It was really good to see Tres. He is doing so well in San Angelo and we are really proud of him. We surprised him, by meeting him at church. He was surprised to see us there because he didn't know we were planning on coming. The church was was Calvary Chapel of San Angelo and it was a very small church was very glad to have visitors. We had so many people come up to us and welcome us to the church that we definately don't remember any names. We had lunch with the church and the U-Turn for Christ group after the service where we had some delicious BBQ. While we were there, we spent some time catching up and Tres was explaining how things work at U-Turn for Christ.

She has just gotten back from Scotland to visit my brother Ryan, Amanda, and Little Evelyn. These were some of her pictures from her trip.

Mom's Scottland Trip

Getting Settled

2010-06-27T23:05:00.000-05:00

We have been getting settled into our apartment for a short stay while our home is getting built.
Click HERE to see some of the progress on our home. Right now they have the forms up with the rebar and tension cables in. They should be pouring the foundation on Monday. The projected closing date is about the end of August or mid September.

In the mean time we have just been doing a lot busy work. For instance getting cable installed. They gave me the 4 hour window of when they could come and install our cable. They came 90 minutes after that. The window was 5pm to 9pm. They got here at 10:30pm. Then, as it turns out, Time Warner sent a contract worker to install it, so they really never showed up. This "kid" that came to install it was driving a beat up Chevy pickup that just said "Cable" on the side. Then he came in and started working on getting it setup and an hour and half later he was finished at midnight. He was having a hard night. Of course the whole process would have been easier if had just plugged the cable into the T.V. (it works better that way). Anyway we have cable now!

My next experience with Time Warner was a little irritating too. I get this phone call that I don't recognize (which I usually don't answer) and answered the phone and I get, "Please hold for an important message from the cable company." I was on hold for a good 7-10 minutes. I am sorry, but that is the worst process I have ever seen. Not only do I not like being on hold, but I do not like being called and placed on hold. Then they asked me why I haven't returned the cable box, and I told him that it was because it was installed last night. Then the guy said "OK" and hung up. That is just plain weird. Then to top it off I get a bill from them when I get home saying I owe them like $700 for not returning the cable box. I have to call them again the next day, get put on hold, and get that fixed.

On a more exciting note, we did get our washer and dryer about a week ago. It's the first font loading washer and dryer I have ever had. It takes a little getting used to, because it doesn't "fill up" with water like I was expecting. It kinda keeps a reservour of water in the bottom and slushes the clothes around in it. Overall we like them, even though they take a little more maintenance than I thought. The washer has a filter that needs to be cleaned out once a month, gotta leave the door open after a wash and clean out the water in the seal to prevent mildew, and have to run a sanitize cycle at least once a month to help with the mildew. This seems to be common on all front loading machines. Our washer and dryers are Samsung units, and they play a lttle song instead of a buzzer when finished.

Last Tuesday and Wednesday I went to Houston for work. When I got back we had a notice that there was going to be a fire inspection in our building. That posed a problem for us because we still had the grill on the patio (which they asked us to remove). So I called Becky's dad to see if we could borrow the suburban to store the grill at their place for a month or two until our place is built. We were so thankful for their help in loading it and making space for it. Granted it's the last thing you want to do when you come home from a work trip, but I am glad we got it taken care of.

Then on Friday night we both noticed that when we got in the tub to take a shower that our feet were leaving black marks in the tub. So I decided on Saturday that I would steam clean the carpret. It was filthy!! In our 550 sq ft. apartment I dumped about 15 two gallon buckets of dirty water down the drain. I went over the whole apartment a least twice if not 3 times in some areas. Now it is all very clean and probably ready for the next person to move in.

During the week we were also invaded by the planet of "Rolly Pollies" or "Doodle Bugs" if you will. It was kind of funny at first but quickly bordered on rediculous. They were everywhere!!! At least 20 in each room. So i tried to track down where they were coming from and I determined that they were coming in from the front door. So to prove my theory I sprayed the front door area with Raid and then put a strip of carpet tape in front of the door to catch them. It worked like a charm. The first day there were at least 20 or so on the tape, even today there were about 16 as I counted. So now I just go and vaccum them right up. No more problem.

That's all for now,

Whew!!!

2010-06-12T10:44:00.001-05:00

Now that's what I call a whirlwind!!

We went on vacation to Alaska a few weeks ago. Two days before we left we received an offer on the condo. The day before we left, she accepted our offer. The good: We sold it. The not so good: The inspection period was up while we were gone and had to make decisions on our vacation. The crazy: The day we came back we had to find an apartment that would let us do a 4 month lease. The celebration: Cerebrating our Anniversary, Mother's Day, Christina's birthday, and my birthday all in one month. The fun (at times challenging): picking out and finalizing the items for the home. The hot: We moved last weekend. The fast: The entire month. The really fast: closing on the condo at 3:30pm downtown and going to North Austin to finalize our new house at 4:30pm. That stuff is ordered and on it's way.

So here it is 6-12-2010 and we just closed on the condo on yesterday (6-11-2010) and sold it on 5-12-2010. I would say we have been pretty busy. We have hurdled one mile stone after another. It was a bittersweet feeling to finally close on the old condo. Granted it's one of those things that should happen, you hope it does happen, nothing goes wrong, and then it is finished and closed. I was a little sentimental about leaving the old place because a lot has happened since I have lived there. A few of the highlights are:

It was my first home purchase
Sold my truck and got a Civic.
Survived several hail storms and one large hail storm that broke windows, blinds, and my truck.
bought my first refrigerator (I found it weird to spend money on a fridge).
2 MS 150 bike tours
Changed careers
Survived several rounds of layoffs (by the Grace of God)
Watched car thieves at work and learned about 311.
Got my birth certificate changed from female to male. :-)
Taken some great trips to Alaska (twice), Washington D.C., Maui, Fort Walton Beach, and Fredericksburg.
Lot's of remodeling including the kitchen, patio, bathroom, landscaping out front, and the closet for Becky.
Met Becky.
Proposed to Becky in the living room.
Spent our first year of marriage there including our first Thanksgiving and Christmas.

As much as we wanted to get a house, we will miss that place. It's been good to us and we pray it will be good to the young lady that's buying it. Here's to new things and new experiences and a place that we can call home.

Psalm 127

Alaska Trip - Videos

2010-05-28T23:54:00.002-05:00

I forgot to include links to the videos for those of you who get this via email. Sorry if you get it twice. Enjoy the videos.

Click here to see the Olympic Mountains at Hurricane ridge at the Olympic National Park.

Click here to see the Solduc falls in Olympic National park.

Click here to see us take off and be startled by the ship's horn.

Click here to view smooth sailing in Alaska.

Click here to view the Humpback whales.

Click here to view the killer whales.

Click here to view Toby the crazy jeep guide.

Click here to view the waterfall at Chillkoot Lake.

Click here to see kayaking in Haines Alaska in Chillkoot Lake.

Click here to see the Sunken Garden at the Butchart Gardens.

Butchart Gardens click here to see inside the sunken garden.

Butchart Garden Fountains click here.

Butchart Garden Frogs click here.

Alaska Trip - Days 8&9 Victoria Canada

2010-05-28T18:08:00.001-05:00

We spend a day at sea after Skagway. It was a good time to relax and enjoy the ship a little. We played a little shuffle board and we tied one game each and thought that was good enough. We had a formal night that night and Becky once again was gorgeous. For desert we had some Baked Alaska and that was just awesome! I was so full after dinner, of course, I had two plates of lobster tails and shrimp.

The next day, we were at sea most of the day. We spent the day packing and getting ready to head home because our luggage had to be outside the door by 10pm that night. Dinner was at 5:30pm and the excursion to the Butchart Gardens wasn't until 7:30pm.

We headed to the gardens and we couldn't believe how much was in bloom. I have never seen some of these flowers before and they do such a good job of keeping it clean and maintained. I think Becky really liked it, and we both wish we had more time to look around. We had about 2 hours to walk around and you would think that is a lot of time, but when you are taking pictures and the sun is setting fast it is no time at all. I think we would like to go here again just for a vacation or make a few days of it if we visit Seattle again. Overall we had a good time here. The bus driver even made a little tour of downtown for us and let us get out and take some pictures.

Click here to see the Picasaweb album with captions and geo-referencing.

Alaska Trip - Day 7 Skagway & Kayaking

2010-05-28T17:55:00.001-05:00

We are in Skagway today. It is sunny and 55 degrees outside and we are getting ready to go on a Kayaking adventure in Haines, Alaska. We took a fast ferry ride for a 45 miute ride to Haines, Alaska from Skagway. It was a little town that started off as a military fort and now it is a little vacation town surrounded by mountains. We then took a tour of the town (5 minutes literally) and headed out to Chilkoot Lake for a little kayaking. It was a beautiful morning and the lake was so smooth you could see the reflection of the mountains in the water. We saw several waterfalls and snow covered areas along the 2+ hour kayak ride. We even saw a "pollen" cloud. We thought it was just a cloud, but it was pollen being blown by the wind.

Another memorable thing that happened was that when we were finished kayaking we got out of the kayak and on to the dock, I forgot I put the camera in the lifevest and when I unzipped it the camera went bounce, bounce, bloooopp right into the lake. It was like a slow motion movie and I could watch the water just envelope it. The guide went above and beyond the call of duty when he took off his shoes and got in the water and pulled out the camera with his bare feet. Unfortunately the camera was ruined but we were able to save all the pictures. We tipped him heavily and were enterally grateful. It wasn't over yet... We got back got he ferry and tried to make sure that the pictures were ok and when I pulled her card out I nearly dropped it on the deck where there was a 1/2" gap between boards that led to about a 50ft drop down to the ocean. Luckily I saved it. Whew!!! Bye Bye Camera, I will miss you in Victoria, Canada.

While leaving Haines, AK, I had 1 bar on my phone (crazy) on some network called Rogers. I got a phone call while getting on the ferry and was trying to negotiate the buyer's amendment to the contact. This is not something I wanted to do on vacation. To make matters worse, I am on the ferry and the volume of my phone is stuck on the lowest volume possible. We got back to Skagway and had to fax some papers to the realtor to finish selling the condo, and that's why we took a picture of the internet cafe in Skagway.

We found a starbucks but they don't sell the Alaska Mugs. Bummer. We also did a little shopping in some of the smaller stores, but just ran out of time and had to head back to the ship for my Birthday dinner.

Click here to see the album in Picasaweb and view them with captioning and geo-referencing.

Alaska Trip - Day 6 Glaciers, Juneau, & Whales

2010-05-28T17:43:00.002-05:00

Today was a busy day. Tracy Arm Glacier, Juneau, Mendenhall Glacier, and Whale watching. You ready for this??

We woke up early to see the glacier, the iceburgs, and the mountains. We got all bundled up to see them, but the ice field was so cluttered with iceburgs that the ship could not manuver through the bay area and we did not get to see the glacier. However, while on deck we hard the glacier ice crack in the distance. It sounded like the crack of thunder and it echoed through the mountains around us. I would have liked to have seen it, but sound was impressive all by itself. The sun also started to come out while we were on deck. The whole area just has a different look when the sun comes out.

Then we did a 180 in the bay, and headed to Juneau and we got there early. This was good because the excursion was going to take up about the entire visit and we wanted to go into town. But right before we were headed out the door We had to spend some of the extra time we wanted to spend in town taking care of the buyers amendments to the condo via cell phone. That was sort of a bummer. Once that was taken care of we headed out to the Mendenhall Glacier to take some pictures and hike around the area.

The glacier was impressive and so deceptively large. We started taking pictures and noticed this large waterfall where everyone was going to. I thought we should go too, but it was a lot further than I thought and ran out of time on the way to it. I had to jog out there to get as close as I could to it. I did get some pictures, but we had to jog back to the bus. We were both really tired, hot, and sweaty after walk/jogging up the hill. I felt like I was dragging Becky behind me like a tin can tied to a car. I was sorry, but I didn't want us to miss the bus. I almost felt that way on every excursion, and I felt they didn't give us enough time for excursions or to run through the towns.

After the glacier ride we went whale watching. I must admit the whale watching experience was better than I had anticipated. I just thought we would see a couple of whales and sea lions, but we got a special treat and got to see some killer whales too. The tour guides said that there is usually about a 5% chance of seeing killer whales on the trip and that this was our lucky day. They were literally about 50 feet from the boat and it was amazing. The weather was absolutely a perfect sunny day with a temperature of about 59 degrees. the water was pretty calm and made spotting them even easier. We saw the male bull (straight dorsal fin) and female (curved dorsal fin) and a baby. Those were so spectacular!!! I would say we saw about at least 10 different killer whales in the area.

We then went to see the humpback whales and they were a sight to see. They were so large the pictures don't do them justice. At first we saw them spouting off in the distance and then we got closer. I would say that we saw at least 12 different humpback whales. The very first couple we saw them dive together showing their fins. The guide said that was rare to see two whales dive at the same time. They usually go one right after the other. We got video and pictures that were just awesome.

On the trip we also saw a brown bear (thanks to Becky, with no binoculars I might add) on Admrialty Island where they speculate that there is one bear per square mile. We were late getting back so we couldn't turn around to go and see him unfortunately. We got back to town just in time to make it to the Red Dog saloon, Alaskan Brewing Company, and the Alaskan Fudge Factory and then headed back to the ship. On the way back to the ship we saw a bald eagle sitting on the lamp post and I got some good shots of him. That was a busy day!

The quote of the day, "Those whales are HUGE!!", Becky.

Click here to see the Picasaweb album and see them captioned and geo-referenced.

Alaska Trip - Day 5 Ketchikan

2010-05-28T13:26:00.000-05:00

Today we were in Ketchikan. The weather was mild.

We got to go on a Jeep, Canoe, and Hike excurstion. I felt a lot better today and boy was I glad. I was miserable the night before. On the jeep trip we (or I) lucked out because we got passengers that didn't want to change drivers in the jeep. We drove about 4-5 miles or so on this rugged trail. There were some small to medium sized rocks to go over, some hills, and a mud puddle or two. I have to say it was pretty fun. We rode with a 76 year navy vet named Richard and his daughter. Richard was a talker, and he was pretty funny. After getting to the top of the trail we had a spectacular view that the pictures don't do justice to. There were several small lakes in-between the mountains. We also got up close and personal with the Alaska state bird (the mosquito) and comfortable doing the Alaskan wave (the mosquito swat). They were everywhere. and it was hard to stay still enough to take some pictures. After the jeep tour, we headed to one of those small lakes to canoe across. It was fun, and our tour guide took a liking to Becky. When we got to the other side we had some smoked salmon, clam chowder, crackers, and some mints as a small snack before our nature hike. It was a short hike, but saw some really unique rain forest plants. We won the canoe race back to the dock so we won bragging rights. That's about it.

We wanted to get back into town and do a little shopping, but when we got back it was pouring down cold rain. We only had one hour to get into town and get back to the ship. It was the only town we didn't get visit. It was a little sad, but the excursion was still a lot of fun.

Click here to view the Picasaweb album with captions and geo-referencing.

Alaska Trip - Day 4 Day At Sea

2010-05-28T13:21:00.000-05:00

Woke up and went directly to the infermary to see the doctor. They gave me some antibiotics and a decongestant, but the decongestant made me feel like a balloon head. So I stopped taking it.We were at sea this day and I wanted to rest and get better for the rest of the trip. So there wasn't a whole lot going on. We spent most of the day then exploring the ship and seeing what they had to offer.

It was formal night, and Becky looked stunning in her new dress. What can I say, I married a beautiful woman. We had a wonderful dinner. Unfortuantely, we missed seeing whales and the champagne pyramid because we didn't know it was happening that night. That's when I decided to actually read the little newletter they leave at your door every morning.

Click here to view the Picasaweb album with comments and geo-referencing.

Alaska Trip - Day 3 Day At Sea

2010-05-28T13:07:00.000-05:00

Cruise Day!!!

We got up, had breakfast, checked out, I returned the car, forgot to get gas, got charged $9 a gallon (but I wasn't about to manuver downtown Seattle again), took the mono rail back to the hotel, stopped at Starbucks where I got chastised for ordering De-Caf and wearing my shirt that says "For Instant Human, just add coffee". I also found it humorous that the GPS in the Hertz rental car couldn't get me back to Hertz in Downtown Seattle.

I still wasn't feeling quite 100%. I was very hoarse. We got on the ship and took an hour and half nap, and then had to go through the emergency drill where Becky learned how to put on the lifejacket and jump in the water. Then We went back and took another nap.

For dinner that night we met the couple we would be eating dinner with. They were an answer to prayer because I was very nervous about who we were going to be eating dinner with all week. They were very nice couple from Houston. They weren't over bearing or nosy, they were just a very nice couple. We also found out that smart casual means you can wear jeans to dinner now. It did mean (5 years ago) that you had to wear dress pants and dress shirts to dinner. So, me and Becky were the nicest dressed couples for dinner.

That night my throat hurt so bad that I thought I wasn't going to be able to do anything else on the trip. So after dinner Becky got me some hot salt water for me to gargle, and some hot tea, I went to bed feeling a little better but still in a lot of pain.

Click here to view the Picasaweb album that is captioned and geo-referenced.

Alaska Trip - Day 2 Olympic National Park

2010-05-27T23:31:00.000-05:00

We got up kinda late and went down to have breakfast. Then headed out to the Olympic National Park to Hurricane Ridge and Soleduck (or Sol Duc) waterfall. We had to get there by the Edmond-Kingston ferry. I have to say that was pretty cool. The ferry ride was a smooth and comfortable 20 minute or so ride across the sound.

After the crossing we were well on our way to hurricane ridge. I have to admit it took a lot longer to get there than I thought. I have to quote the nice lady park ranger who was from El Paso, "These aren't Texas highways." She wasn't kidding. It took a few hours what I thought would take about 30 min. I have to learn not to stop at every pull over to take pictures!

We finally made it up the mountain to Hurricane Ridge and it was nothing less that absolutely beautiful. On the way up we saw some deer and on the top we saw a mountain goat. At the top of Hurricane Ridge there is nearly a 270 degree view of the mountains. Pictures just don't do it justice (as most things here). We had lunch up there and Becky made a happy hiking snowman.

We headed down the mountain a little later and I had the added side effect of allergies, not enough sleep, and just plain being worn out. I started getting a sore throat. While I was realizing that I was getting sick, we had a quick drivers test. A deer leaped over the steep portion of the guard rail and right in front of us. We slammed on the brakes and just missed it. Whew!!!

Even though I started not feeling well we decided to press on anyway because, Hey... when do you get back here. So we headed to this well known waterfall. Once again Not...Texas Highways!! We go there late, and there were like 4 cars in the parking lot. The waterfall about about a mile hike into the national forest. It was getting dark, and the entrance to the park had bear and cougar warnings. We made into the woods about 100 feet and couldn't really see the entrance anymore. It was a little Freaky!! We made it through and seeing people made us feel a lot better until we realized that they were leaving and we were pretty much on our own. We made it to the falls. and they were spectacular and loud. It was worth the hike. I can't say that we have ever walked that fast before. We were trying to get back before it got too dark.

We got back to the car and it was dusk and we were the only car in the parking lot. It was just a little earie. We made it back about 12:30pm Seattle time or 2:30am our time. We stopped to get some chicken noodle soup for my throat and went to bed.

Becky's quote of the day was, "Those trees are HUGE!". It was said more than once.

Here are some pictures below or you can click here to view the album and view the locations of some of the photos.

Alaska Trip - Day 1 in Seattle

2010-05-27T19:12:00.000-05:00

Since the trip was long I will break them out into days to make it a little easier to read.

We got up at 4:30am to get to the airport by 5:30am for a 7am flight to seattle. Don't really understand how we got up to do that, but we did. The toll for getting up that early was just being exausted by the time we got to Seattle.

The weather was perfect 57 degrees and partly cloudy. You couldn't ask for better weather. There were people playing music in the park in front of the Space Needle and people laying out trying to get some sun while it was out. After visiting the Space Needle, we took the monorail downtown and from there we mustered the energy to go out on the town and tour Pike's Place Market, Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory, The Aquarium (which was closed) and the Original Starbucks.

We got back late that evening, feet tired, and eyes droopy from all that gone to see and do, we and ordered some Domino's Pizza delivered to the room. (I know original right).

The Hampton Inn downtown was pretty cool. They gave us a full fledged suite equipped with kitchen, fireplace, and dining area.It was only a short 2 block walk to the Space Needle.

Becky's quote of the day while at Pike's Place Market, "Those are some BIG fish!".

Here are some pictures below or you can click here to view the album.

Just A Little Taste Of Our Trip

2010-05-20T22:47:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to give you a little taste of our trip! See you soon.

Sold

2010-05-13T09:48:00.000-05:00

We sold it!!!
God is good! Now comes the fun stuff!

I Have No Idea What To Call This (Redirection?)

2010-05-05T12:33:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I have had any time to really post something. I have really tried to keep up with this blog and I do enjoy it, but we have been so busy with things on our minds and things to do I haven't had time. I hesitate to bore you with how busy we are and play the "I am busier than you game" and the "I have bigger problems than you game" and see who is the winner. It's time to break the cycle. I will stick to things I like to talk about (which may include the above). I want to keep this blog as something I enjoy, and not something I use to rehash how busy I am. Everyone is busy!! Why would anyone want to read about that? That's what status updates are for on Facebook.

So now on with it...

This week, it has been so tempting to fall into the cares of this world and focus all my attention on things that I want for me and things I want for Becky. All the things I think I am entitled to...I am really not. I don't know how these thoughts have creeped into my head ... or on second thought maybe I do. I compare myself to everyone else, where they are in life, am I successful, am I as talanted as others, do we have the things I want instead of having the things I need. It's a tricky balancing act. We learned in Sunday School Class last week that wants are ok and so is dissapointment, but when those wants are things that you feel entitled to, that's what leads to the "dark side" of resentment, bitterness, and revenge. Entitlement leaves no hope of having gratitude, because at best, even if you get what you want emtionally or physically, then that's what you expected should be done at a minimum. Why should I thank you for doing the minimum? Just saying you are thankful and grateful if you aren't doesn't change your attitude, but understanding that we are entitled to nothing and then being thankful and grateful is a response, not a statement to convince yourself or others.

John 16:33

Just Another Post...

2010-04-30T23:09:00.000-05:00

This week we didn't get one call on the condo. Needless to say I was a little dissapointed. My guess is that there will be a slow down this month after the tax credit ended. I am hopeful we will get some calls soon.

The meeting this week went well and my planting program has been working on some test machines this week and we will have a meeting soon to see what needs improvement and/or repaired.

This weekend we are celebrating my birthday. I know it's a little early, but next weekend is mother's day and our first anniversary, then we are in Alaska, and the next weekend is Christina's birthday.

Tonight I was watching TV while Becky was reading only to look over and find this person...

and then a little later, this person...

Watch your skin!

2010-04-26T21:54:00.002-05:00

Becky here!
So today I was looking for a cartoon to spice up a presentation at work and came across this one. It made me chuckle. :) Yum, bacon.

But on a more informative note, there is going to be a free skin cancer screening this weekend if anyone is interested. Click here to see the info.

The American Academy of Dermatology lists some other options too. Click here.

Stuff Going On

2010-04-24T10:59:00.000-05:00

This MLS Listing

I don't think I am a big fan of putting a home on the market. Of course, this is the third time and that is supposed to be the charm right? It's been one week and we have had one visitor. I was expecting to get a little more traffic the first week, especially with the first time buyer credit ending this month (hopefully will be extended). I am a little dissapointed, but it has been only a week. I was hoping for one of those scenario's where we are blessed to have an offer after the first week, but there is always next week. Waiting is a little nerve racking, and all I want to do is move forward.

There are several things going on this week 1. Important meeting at work, 2. Filling out loan applications, 3. picking out options for the new house, and 4. Rolling out my new planting program at work for testing. None of those are probably worth mentioning, but that's what I got going on this week.

The MS150 Ride

2010-04-19T08:49:00.000-05:00

The ride should be ending this afternoon. I ended up doing the MS100, unfortunately. I didn't get to finish in Austin with the rest of the team. I am ok and I was feeling pretty good in light of riding in early morning rain and we had a good pace going. We ended up with at pace of 13.8mph during the first 100 mile day. Some other people however did not fair so well, the first day there were 4 broken collar bones from ride, one of which was on our team. She is in the hospital and doing ok. I rode with the Newland Communities team which was pretty large (probably about close to a 100). They were all very nice, fed us BBQ, had their own showers, and their own restrooms.

I got to La Grange and I was feeling pretty good only my (huhumm...) backside was not feeling as good as the rest of the body. I rode about the last 6 miles standing up. I have ridden this ride twice before and have had saddle soreness, but this worse that the two previous times. It could have been several different things, but I think it may have been the adjustment to the seat that we made when I took my bike to get it fit for me. I had not ridden a long ride after that, so this felt a lot different. Or it could just be I didn't put in enough saddle time. Either way we still raised money for the MS Society and they were the real winners.

Although I am sad I didn't get to finish with team because I didn't want to quit, but I also didn't want to hurt myselft and I just knew I wasn't feeling it. I am proud of the guys that finished Trent, Justin, and Tom from our office and some of my other friends from church that were riding Peter, Rick, and Anna. Way to go guys!!!

Anyway I wanted to say thank you for your support it meant a lot to me.

Here We Go

2010-04-16T15:52:00.000-05:00

We are on our way to do the MS150 and the House just went on the market. What a crazy week!! May the Lord grant us great weather on the trip!

When Did I Lose Control???

2010-04-14T23:01:00.000-05:00

I am not really sure when it happened or how it happened, but I feel like I am stuck in high gear in a Toyota with no breaks. I mean it started a few months ago, but it seems like every year has a season or two of not being able to manage everything I feel needs to get done vs. everything I would like to do. Usually it's late spring and early fall when things start ramping up. Eventually these two points of view clash to make a giant mess of my schedule and my health. The kicker is that I know it happens and yet I can't ever seem to stop this rolling locomotive. Things snowball from "I think this is a good idea, lets do it" to "I don't have time to do it all because of the good idea" . I mean take this MS 150 that I signed up for in the fall, who knew then we would plan a trip to Alaska in January for a May trip, who knew we would go looking for a home on Becky's birthday on Easter weekend, who knew that we would end up putting our home on the market the same weekend as the MS150, who knew that Lost, V, Flash Forward, and 24 would take so much time to watch, who knew that we would be leading a bible study this year, who knew my car would cost nearly $800 to repair, and who knew Becky and I would be sick two days before putting our house on the market and riding the MS150. I mean come on, all these good things can pile up with a few unexpected things to be one giant overwhelming thing.

This whole scenario takes me back to school and being completely overwhelmed when the semester started. I would look at the syllabus and freak out about how much I was going to have to learn in a short amount of time. I would strongly consider dropping out everytime because I would not see how I would have time to do it all. Evenutally I learned just to weather the fear of the unknown and it would pass for a while until the next wave of unkown fears would hit. This seems to be the case right now just waiting for the storm to pass. However, I need to learn to ride the waves instead of recoiling at the unexpected. Life is never what I expect it to be, so I guess I am not out of school yet.

Matt 7:24-27

Getting The Condo Ready

2010-04-11T20:29:00.000-05:00

This weekend was a whirlwind.

Hired a realtor
Met with the home stager.
Restained the trellis
Dug up the old plants
Removed the old rusted out fountain base.
Power washed the patio, the font walk, and the door.
Got extra keys made.
Trimmed the vine on the wall.
Washed all the light fixtures.
Fixed the broken lamp over the front door.
Cleaned the ceiling fans.
Cleaned the A/C ducts.
Polished up the copper fountain.
Rented a storage unit
Took down the desk.
Went to the grocery store.
Posted a blog entry stating how busy I am.

That's all for now.
Please be praying for us.

-Russell and Becky

Happy Birthday Becky!

2010-04-09T22:58:00.000-05:00

Sunday April 4th was Becky's birthday! We had great weather for her birthday and we (not just her) had a few surprises.

One was the nice bouquet of flowers from my mother.
Becky says thanks Mom!!

We had a birthday party for Becky at her parents house after Easter Sunday service. Her mom made a mint chocolate chip cake. Need I say it was good?
Click here to view the video

We had a surprise birthday song perfomed by none other than Little Anna. This is one of the cutest things I have ever seen.
Click here to view the video

Oh yeah, I almost forgot Happy Birthday Becky!!
We went looking for a house and we found one! However it will need to be built. The one in the picture is the same model we are wanting to purchase. We putting our condo on the market next week sometime and we are moving forward. Please pray for a quick sale, at the asking price, and a good mortgage rate.

Oh yeah, I think it falls into the category of my upcoming birthday too!
:-)

Look What My Brother Did!

2010-04-03T09:31:00.001-05:00

Evelyn Waverley Stanford
Saturday, April 3, 2010, 4:39 AM GMT, 8 pounds 5 ounces

Congratulations Amanda and Ryan! We are so happy for you guys!!

Thanks for making us Uncle Russell and Aunt Becky.

What We Have Been Up To

2010-03-26T22:57:00.001-05:00

I don't think I have quite recovered from the time change a a couple of weeks ago. I just haven't been adjusting my sleep schedule quite right. I have had trouble sleeping ever since and I wake up tired. I think today was the turning point. I finally woke up feeling well rested.

Tuesday was a TV day. We watched Lost (what is Jacob up to?), watched Texas Tech lose in double OT to Ol' Miss, and the recap of "V" before it starts next Tuesday. I am starting to think I don't have enough time for T.V..

Wednesday, I got my bike adjusted to fit me, because I haven't since I bought the thing 4 years ago. I just measured everything and did it myself after reading about it. As it turns out, I was pretty close too, about 1/2" or 3/4" of an inch off. I was having to stretch out that 1/2" or so to switch grears and was causing me to lock my arms and tilt my neck in a weird way. It's amazing just what a 1/2" or so will do. We also tilted the seat up about 2-3 degrees to help me sit on the back of the seat instead of sitting on the front of the seat in a sprinting position. I went to Jack and Adams bike shop to get this done by Jack himself. I met him helping Becky's brother Jaime, buy a bike. He was VERY helpful and was very honest. So I decided to go back and work with him.

We also met our newly formed small group for dinner at Macaroni Grill for dinner that night. Tom and Laura are always a pleasure to have dinner with.

Thursday, I took the newly adjusted bike out for a spin on the Veloway in South Austin. It's a 3 mile loop made just for things with wheels. No joggers, walkers, or strollers, just bikes, rollerskates, rollerbades, and skateboards. I circled it 4 times for an easy 12 mile ride. I averaged about 16 mph on the 12 mile trip, and that is an improvement from when I started last November (11mph).

From Bike Routes

That's about all.
I have decided to start including a bible verse that has helped me in some way, been brought to my attention, or that applies to the stories in some fashion. In view of the current events this last week with being tired, work piling up and national events, this has stood out to me.
Philippians 2:14

MS 150 Training Ride

2010-03-23T23:13:00.001-05:00

On Monday I did this little loop after work. It was a short ride, but it was a pretty big hill. It was also getting dark so I decided to cut the ride short. I will do it again soon, probably this weekend. I forgot how nice of a view it was from those hills. The south side of Austin is very beautiful. Too bad the traffic is so bad around there or I would consider moving back to the south side. Until then I will just enjoy the bike rides. I also forgot about the cedar along the side of the road, and how that doesn't help with the asthma. Don't worry I bring the inhaler along.

Austin Bike Route Map

2010-03-22T13:02:00.000-05:00

I found this handy 2009 City of Austin bike route map. The "Red" lines usually mean there is no bike lane and you are riding with traffic, the "Purple" usally means there is no bike lane but there is a shoulder or a 4 lane road and one of those lanes is considered a bike lane, and the "Green" means there is a designated bike lane on the pavement.

You can download the PDF version here, or you can down load the .jpg version by clicking on the image below.

From Bike Routes

Austin Kite Festival - 2010

2010-03-18T08:41:00.001-05:00

Last Sunday we went down to Zilker Park to watch the Kite Festival. We decided to head down to the park after church and lunch. The traffic was pretty bad, and it took us a good 2 hours to get to Zilker Park. After the journey, we had about 2 hours left of the festival. It was a good time though even though I didn't get to buy a kite and fly it. There were definately lots of colorful and funny kites.

Click here to visit the picasa web album watch it below.

Click here to view video 1

Click here to view video 2

Training Ride 360 and Bee Caves Road

2010-03-13T18:12:00.000-06:00

Rode 40 miles today. It wasn't quite as hilly as pedal through the pines a few weeks ago, but 360 and Bee Caves road are full of long inclines instead of quick steep hills like last weeks ride.

Remember, if you haven't gotten around to supporting me yet, click here. to support me in the MS150 Ride.

The Wienermobile!!

2010-03-10T20:46:00.000-06:00

Yes...while in Houston the last couple of days I, we ran across the Wienermobile. So we stopped and took some pictures. I mean come on it's the Wienermobile!!

Cake Class

2010-03-10T20:31:00.008-06:00

These were the cakes from the last cake class we took. We made the flowers and the birds about a week or two earlier; then the last week we made a cake to put them on. Becky made a LOT of royal icing. I don't think she is too fond of it. It gets really hard really fast. In class, they taught us how to make the basket weeve pattern and how to make the rope pattern on the top and bottom. I think they came out pretty good. We have decided to hold off taking the next class until a little later when the MS150 ride is over and we have a little more time.

Pictures from the Cakes album

Becky's Cake

Russell's Cake

Pedal Through The Pines Success

2010-03-07T17:49:00.000-06:00

Too Cool!!! If you google "Russell MS 150", it will return my blog post!! That's awesome!!!

Yesterday I biked the "Pedal Through The Pines". It was a pretty tough ride, considering I have not trained on anything with that many hills lately. The ride started off going through Bastrop State Park. It was loaded with rolling hills. I had to walk halfway up the last hill in the park. I sincerely thought after coming out of the park that there was no way I was going to make all 60 miles of it. I had decided to go out trying though. In my head I thought if I did 45-50 miles of it, I would be doing pretty good. I did do all 60 miles after all!! Around the 35 mile mark I had some severe leg cramps, so I had a lot of pickle juice (which really wasn't all that bad) and did some stretching and it turned out OK.
My time was about 5 hours and 30 min at about 13.6 mph.

Here were a few other pictures from the ride. Click here to see them all.

Becky also took this video.

Tomorrow's Pedal Through the Pines

2010-03-05T17:55:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow I will be riding in the "Pedal Through the Pines". There are 16, 27, 50, and 65 mile routes, and I will be doing the 65 mile ride. The hardest part of the ride is at the very beginning as we go through Bastrop State Park (which is also part of the MS150 ride). Below is our route and the graph below is the topography. I think the important part to note about the graph is the starting elevation and how quickly some of the hills elevate. It's not really there. It should be challanging!!

Crazy Week

2010-03-05T15:09:00.000-06:00

MS Training – Check

Cake Show – Check

Dinner and visit the Domain – Check

Church - Check

Tax Preparation – Check

File 6 Months of Paperwork – Check

Finalized Cruise and Hotel for Alaska Trip - Check

MS Letter – Check

Bible Study Prep – Check

Clean House – Check

Bible Study – Check

Bake cakes for class – Check

Attend Cake class – Check

Watch “24” – Check

Watch “Lost” – Check

Fix Sink – Check

……

Nap on Friday – To Do

Please Support Me In The MS 150 Bike Tour

2010-03-01T20:15:00.005-06:00

This weekend!!
I just wanted to say thank you for helping me reach my $400 fundraising goal!!! It is very much appreciated and it's all for a great cause.

Dear Friends and Family,

As most of you know I have taken up cycling as a hobby, and I have previously ridden in the MS150 two other times (in 2004 & 2005). Once again, I've decided to challenge myself and train for this bike tour in the spring. I will be riding with others from our office at TBG on the Newland Communities Team.

What Is The MS 150?
On Saturday and Sunday, April 17th - 18th, 2010, I will be joining over 13,000 other cyclists riding 185 miles from Houston to Austin in the annual BP MS 150 Bike Tour. The terrain will vary from very flat to extremely hilly. The tour is a charity fundraising event supporting the National MS Society's fight against multiple sclerosis.

Why Do I Need Your Support?
I'm writing you to ask if you would be willing to support my efforts by making a pledge to the National MS Society on my behalf. By making a pledge, you would be supporting MS research, programs and education. You would also be helping me achieve my fundraising goal of $400 for the National MS Society. I would appreciate any amount you might be willing to give. It's a great cause and is tax deductible!

How Can You Help?
If you're willing to support me, you can make your pledge quickly and simply at the BP MS 150 site. It's a secure site and your donation will be credited instantly. Just click on the Donate link below to get to my personal page on the BP MS 150 site. From here there will be a link under the thermometer where you will be able to make a donation on my behalf. I will be notified via email as soon as you make a pledge. If you would like to make a donation using a check please let me know and I will get that information to you.

Support me and click here to Donate.
Watch a video about the MS150.
Thank you for your time, consideration, and support.

Russell Stanford

That Takes The Cake Show

2010-03-01T08:32:00.000-06:00

This weekend we went to the "That takes the cake" show in Austin. It was a good time. There were all kinds of categories and all kinds of entries. These were the pictures from the cake show.

Slideshow (to see in picasa click here)

Domain II

2010-02-28T21:25:00.000-06:00

The Domain II opened this week. It's part of a new mall here in North Austin. The Domain is more of an upscale type of mall. It has stores I probably wouldn't shop in too much. The Domain II has few more down to earth stores, like American Eagle, Dillards, Payless Shoe Source, Coffee Shop, Maggiano's, and a high dollar clone of the Alamo Draft house. Instead of sitting at a bar and eating you sit at a table, watch a movie and eat. I bet it's more than double the price of the Alamo. Anyway we decided to go and take a walk through the new complex and these were some of the pictures. It's definately a nice outdoor mall. It has a firepit, interactive fountain, nice seating areas with infinity fountains and great outdoor seating areas.

The Domain Interactive Fountain (to see click here)

Russell's Ramblings Has A New Look

2010-02-28T10:24:00.000-06:00

Just thought it was time for an update. The picture in the header is from our honeymoon in Maui. It was the beach right outside our hotel.

Also, I have found out now that both slideshows and video do not appear in email format. They can only be seen in the blog. If you get this in email format, click on the link below. Sorry about that.

-Russ

Finally..YouTube Success

2010-02-25T12:26:00.005-06:00

The first time I tried to post this video to YouTube it looked like this. It was a little choppy and blurry in spots and it had those letter boxes. The problem I had is that I wanted to post the 720p HD video my Canon SX200is takes and this was the only thing I could post, which was the export to web format. The good side is that is clear enough to read and loads relatively fast.

Now I got it to look like this. It takes a little longer to load, but it should be a nicer picture than the first. If it is choppy, try one of the lower HD versions,or hit play and then pause and wait for the red line to load halfway. You can choose a lower quality version by clicking on the button on the lower right that says 1080p (highest quality) and chose another version.

Granted this post is mostly for myself to help me remember what I did, so if you don't like Tech stuff you can pass right on over this. The trick is that my camera creates .MOV or Quicktime files and it's an apple format. I needed them to be .MP4 files for upload to YouTube. That was a little tricky, although YouTube will convert MOV files they are not the quality I like. So here are my settings for exporting a .MOV file to .MP4 for YouTube in HD. There seems to be a lot out there, but this seemed to work.

1. Open the .MOV with Quicktime Pro 7
2. Goto File->Export
3. Choose the location to save it to.
4. In the Export pulldown choose Move to MPEG-4
5. Click on Options and this will bring up several dialogs. These are my settings for video. I have read several things about all these settings but these are the ones that worked for me. I have read that true HD videos should have a min data rate of 6000 kbits/sec. some others say 2000. Who knows? Also, I haven't tried a Frame Rate of 30. I have it set to 60 now and that worked for me.

6. These are my settings for Audio. Right now I have Output sample rate at 32,000 kHz. The highest is 48,000, but there is a big file size difference between 48,000 and 44,000 and you probably won't be able to tell the difference. The mic on my camera is not great so I lowered it to as low as it will go.

7. This I have no idea about how it affects file size or download speed. I guess some more tests are in order, but this is how it worked for me.

From General

It's Snowing in Austin

2010-02-23T17:33:00.002-06:00

MS150 Training

2010-02-21T14:12:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, I did a pretty rigorous bike ride from by house, down 360, to Mopac and 360, and back again. It was a interesting ride to say the least, it was not boring. On the beginning of my ride on 360 I witnessed a motorcycle cop, chase down a couple of teenagers in a mustang. They were jumping the medians trying to shake the cop then the kids gave up. They were about 100 feet in front of me. The cop had his hand on his gun and yelling at them to get out of the car and put their hands on the top of the car. The driver got out and did that, but the passenger started walking towards the cop. Needless to say the cop did not like this course of action and told him to get back to car and put his hands on the car. After a little yelling he finally did comply. Then the cop handcuffed both of them. I don't know what happend after that. I was finally able to pass him when he was finished. I don't really know how or why he went after them in the first place b/c he was writing a ticket on the other side of the road. The kids ran none the less.

Then while riding I saw what could be a pair of Joe's moose boxers on the side of the road. For those of you who don't know a friend of ours that went on the trip with us to Alaska in 2005 was always wearing moose boxers on the trip. Hopefully he had more than one pair. :-)

I stopped by the church to try to take a closer look at the building that was hit by the plane but the cops didn't want anyone around the premisis taking pictures. I did however manage to get a picture while at church today. You could see the windows blown out on the bottom and the other picture shows the memorial for the ones that didn't make it out. It was as good as I could get with my phone. I didn't get the feeling the cop liked me taking pictures either.

Then while riding on Mesa near the church a dog chased me or ran along side me for about a block. He just wanted me to know that block was his and I should politely leave the area, no two wheeled vehicles allowed. The poor lady with her stroller the next block up was trying to figure out how to get by the dog with her baby. I think she may have taken the long way around.

Needless to say I am very sore today, and last night I had a hard time walking. As you can see from the elevation changes in the graph below, it's a hilly ride to do both ways. I will do it again next week and hopefully a little faster. It took about 2.5 hours and was about 32 miles.

From Bike Routes

Valentines Day 2010

2010-02-21T13:55:00.004-06:00

This was our first Valentines day as a married couple. It was a special time, and it deserved a special treat. I made Ghirardelli chocolate chip brownie cupcakes with vanilla icing, and strawberries on top (some chocolate covered). I tried to find some chocolate hearts to put on top, but I guess I waited too long and all the stores were picked over. So, I just cut strawberries in half to look like hearts. I also bought her roses in this fancy vase that I can't accidentally knock over (I did last time). Some of the brownies I filled with the vanilla icing too. They are VERY good and VERY rich!!

Airplane Crash Pics at the Echelon Building

2010-02-18T11:11:00.002-06:00

Jamie got these pictures.

Rosa's Birthday Party

2010-02-13T11:20:00.002-06:00

Last night we went out to dinner for Rosa's birthday. It was pretty good and I have been craving Chinese food ever since I started the South Beach diet. So last night I splurged had what I wanted and cake too. It was nice birthday party with her family. We went back to their house to have cake, ice cream, and presents. It was a good time. Becky and I made the cake and it was all I thought it could be, being that I haven't had sugar in two and half weeks.

From Rosa Birthday 2010

The best steak I have ever had

2010-02-10T08:51:00.003-06:00

This was definitely one of the best steaks I have had. It was tender on the inside, crispy on the outside and full of flavor. The best thing is that it is on my South Beach diet! It came right out of the book, and was pretty easy to fix. Becky did all the hard work though. It was a cracked peppercorn tenderloin, sautéed in red wine sauce in a pan. The potatoes were the South Beach Surprise Mashed potatoes that look and taste pretty close to mashed potatoes, but they are made with cauliflower. Then the oven roasted veggies were great. We will be fixing this dish more often, maybe with a side of sautéed mushrooms.

Super Bowl Sunday

2010-02-07T20:43:00.005-06:00

We had a leak in roof last week located at the dryer vent, and today I was determined to try to fix it. When the dryer was running it would produce a leak in the roof in the attic. I just happened to get up at night and try to find the noise (which was the sound water dripping on the attic door). This is the picture of the water stain in the attic.

I called the HOA about it and it looks like they had someone come out and fix it up. I say that only because the flashing around the chimney is now fixed and I had asked them to do that too when they come out. They didn't leave a note or anything saying they were there. So I am guessing everything was OK.

I borrowed a ladder from Becky's dad to get up on the roof to look at it and didn't really find anything really wrong, but we did decide to clean out the lint trap because I had Becky turn on the dryer and I couldn't feel a lot of air coming out. The dryer vent exits through the roof about 20' up through the attic. As it turns out I haven't ever cleaned this out (lived here 5 years), and we cleaned out quite a bit from the dryer vent with this handy little tool that Becky gives a thumbs up called the LintEater. (This lint may have been the source of the problem the whole time). We have also unusually high electric bills lately and I think this may be a cause of that too.

Also, we are finally putting up the Christmas stuff. Becky has been working on a super special custom box for all the ornaments. It is quite the engineering feat. I will say that no Christmas ornament will ever get damaged while in this box. They now have a home.

And it looks like the Saints are going to pull off the Super Bowl win against the Colts coming from behind 10-0 in the first half. The final 31-17. It was a pretty good Super Bowl. The Who was a great half time concert and the stage was pretty cool too.

Has Become A Big Fan Of My Plate

2010-02-06T12:33:00.003-06:00

My Plate
This online tool has helped me track what I eat, my weight, and my fitness level. I have been trying to keep my calories at around 1200 a day and have been doing a pretty good job. It's been rough the first few weeks, but I am coming through the first two weeks of the South Beach diet (no sugar and no carbs). The first phase ends Wednesday. One of the nice things about My Plate is when I go walking or cycling, I can punch in my route and based on topography and speed, it will tell me how many calories I have burned. It's pretty cool to use for cycling and walking routes. You can also overlay your calorie intake and compare that to your weight and see how they affect each other. The only down side I can see is that the free version only keeps your records for 45 days. If you wanted longer records then you would have purchase their plan (which I don't know how much that is).

I am off to go and ride my bike for a little while the MS 150 is sneaking up on me.

Bible Study

2010-02-04T11:40:00.002-06:00

Last night was our second Bible study with the Young Married Class at Grace Covenant Church. We had it at our house and Tom and Laura were kind enough to come in the cold and rain. We went over the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians. There was a lot there surprisingly. I am very encouraged by the questions and participation of Laura, Tom, and Becky. I was worried I would be talking the whole time, I am sure nobody needs that.

1 Thessalonians 1

We have been busy the last few weeks

2010-01-30T16:02:00.004-06:00

Yes, the last few weeks have been a whirlwind. With the MS150 training, a Revit class (software training), new bible study, cruise planning, cake decorating, and new diet who has time to relax. I have started the South Beach Diet again, and I am doing pretty well. That was spurred on when I got back from the Men's retreat and I had gained 5 more pounds over the weekend. I felt like I needed to do something. I am proud to say that after 6 days on the diet I have lost 10 lbs. I have one more week (and a day) of not having sugar, bread, or any other type of carb. That was a challange with the cake decorating (I did have one bite of our cake). The training isn't going as well as I would like, but today I spent another hour on the stationary bike at the gym and did a "Hills Plus" workout and managed to keep it around 14mph (that was pretty good). I will be glad when it warms up so I can ride outside again. Today's list includes getting taxes ready, more excursion planning, the store, and putting up Christmas stuff. Anyway I hope everyone is having a nice weekend.