Baby Scarlett Arrives

The day after Charity flew out i got THE call at 2:20 am. Jessica Brough was officially in labor and I was the middle-of-the-night contact. I raced over to their house to watch Ezra as they zoomed to the hospital. She arrived 5 days late but it was a quick labor. The next morning Ezra and I played trains, had breakfast, and blew bubbles. Then we went to the hospital to see Chris, Jessica, and brand new sister Scarlett. She is beautiful! Thank you for letting me be part of it all, Brough Family. Love you guys!!!

Charity visits Austin

Charity is my best friend from college. She flew in right after Dave and the girls flew out to Utah. I had to stay in Austin to oversee the septic clean up mess at the new house and Charity's kids were at their Dad's, so the stars aligned and she got to come for a visit! We stayed up late, talked, went running, went boot shopping, visited the uber-posh Gold Class Cinemas (where your seat reclines and they serve you food - too fun!), and caught up on years of each others lives. What a fabulous 5 days. Love you Charity!!!

Christmas 2010

Presents, lights, food, giddy excitement, too little sleep... Aaaah, Christmas!

Madison's last Preschool Christmas Pageant

Canyon Creek Preschool does a really cute Christmas pageant with the kids each year. This will be Madison's last one since she starts kindergarten next year. She's in the back row, fifth from the right. She is good little singer and enjoyed all the hand movements along with the song. Such a sweet, fun age.

ICE, ICE, Baby

We booked a hotel in Grapevine, Texas, talked our friends the Andertons into coming with us and took off for our northern adventure. Between Fort Worth and Dallas is a little town called Grapevine. The town is very fond of Christmas and goes all out. It also happens to have a resort called the Gaylord Texan where Christmas is taken to new heights. We all went to see the ICE show there - a Charlie Brown Christmas this year. It was beautiful - and COLD!!!

Big Trouble with New House

The last day of our Thanksgiving/Birthday blowout we discovered a huge sewer backup that flooded the new house from both sides of the first floor. It. was. disgusting. It started a huge ordeal of emergency clean-up crews, mold-testing and Standard Pacific's head of warranty dept overseeing everthing. It was a big, messy deal. They had to rip out all the carpet, tile, and some of the wood, baseboards, doors, moldings. They cleaned and then tested the house 3 times before it got a green light from the mold guy for the rebuild. Fortunately for us, they let us re-do the master bath at the same time. It was the only ugly part of the house when we bought it. Apparently every dark cloud has a silver lining.

Double Big Birthdays and Thanksgiving

I realized that my Dad, Tim Jernigan, and brother, Wade were turning 70 and 40 on December 3rd and 5th of this year. So, I hatched a plan to get everyone out to Austin to celebrate Thanksgiving and the big birthdays. Luckily we closed on the new house on November 20th, just a few days before everyone arrived, so we had some extra rooms to share. Wade, Stacy, and the boys flew out, Mom and Steve drove down, Dad and Teddy flew out, and Wendy flew out with her boyfriend, Mike Ezelle who we were all going to meet for the first time. No pressure, Mike. We had a huge Thanksgiving meal, a kid's interpretational First Thanksgiving play, Black Friday shopping, a huge birthday party, a scavenger hunt, did the Austin Duck Tour, had a big-kids night out, played Bingo, and ate ourselves silly. It was my most favorite Thanksgiving ever. Scavenger hunting... Down the greenbelt... Cooking and eating... Duck touring... Proof we all actually were in one place at one time!

Halloween Fun

A week of Halloween parties: the special dance class dress-up day, Canyon Creek's Halloween parade and party, the church trunk-or-treat, and finally, the actual day and trick or treating with Meredith. Halloween is a big production around here!

New Job. New House?

On October 18, I started my new job as an intern at Rudd and Wisdom. I met Nadia Binkley and Ray finally and got a personal tour as Dani took me around the building. I was excited to meet everyone. I am processing pension benefits for our clients - it is very complicated and the rules are different for each client. Definitely not mindless! A week later we were driving through a nearby neighborhood looking at the new houses when Dave noticed one that had previously had a sold sign that now said 'available'. It had a gorgeous Rocky mountain-looking exterior and dark wood floors througout the downstairs. It has a private backyard backing up the a greenbelt, an outdoor kitchen, and 2 levels of decks in the backyard. Perfect yard for a pool! I fell in love with it almost instantly. Dave took a little longer. After looking at houses for 7 years, I felt it was the perfect one. I am ready for a new start and want to land where we are going to be. We put an offer on the house and are going to close in November! Super excited!!!

Tahiti and Our Tenth Anniversary

Dave and I got married on October 14, 2000. We went to Tahiti for our honeymoon, staying in hotels in Papeete, Moorea, and Bora Bora. So 10 years later we decided there was no better place to celebrate than in Tahiti, again. We decided on a cruise this time (which was way less expensive) and would give us a chance to see more of the islands. Besides, nothing could top the first visit, so why try? Chris and Jessica Brough watched the girls for us. They are the best! Thank you Broughs!!! We flew to Papeete from LA and landed around 10 pm. We had a day in Papeete before the boat sailed, so we rented a car and re-visited the places we loved the most: the Lagoonarium, the waterfall and the blowhole. We had to search hard for the Lagoonarium this time. The roads had changed a lot in Papeete since we were there 10 years ago. So here's a picture of us 10 years later - in Jaws' mouth! Here we are at one of the island stops. The boat is in the background. Our itinerary included Papeete, Raiatea, Huahine, Rangiroa, Bora Bora, and Moorea. We saw Noni plants in Raiatea, and had a picnic in the water on Huahine. It was absolutely beautiful everywhere we went. Remind you of the Titanic steps? It did to me. Us on the Tahitian Princess during formal night. Our dinnermates were 3 couples: one English couple in their seventies, one couple in their early-fifties from LA, and one couple from Germany in their eighties. They were all spry and interesting. We learned the guy from LA was retired LAPD, and the German couple had been missionaries almost their whole lives and were sent on the cruise by their children for their 60th wedding anniversary. Both couples from Europe had lived through the second world war. Fascinating people! On October 13th our boat landed in Bora Bora - our most highly-anticipated destination. We rented a private outrigger boat charter for a trip around the island and got to see all the changes 10 years can make. Several resorts had closed - too much hurricane damage from one storm or another - and other nice resorts had opened. Our Sofitel Motu overwater bungalows looked a little worn down. Apparently the storms quickly tear down buildings around here. I guess that's why the islanders live under blue tarps. No reason to rebuild when the weather keeps knocking things down. We snorkled near our honeymoon hotel and then drove out to feed stingrays and sharks. The sharks came really close to us and I got a little freaked out. Next our boat driver took us to the deep part of the lagoon where the huge stingrays swim. We didn't see any 10 years ago when we went scuba diving so we weren't too optimistic BUT... our driver had us put on our masks and snorkels and hang on the outrigger blade. He slowly drove through the water and BAM! Huge stingrays jumped out of the water 20 yeards from us! We watched underwater as they swam towards us swooping up and down in the water. One kept coming closer and closer to us, swimming upwards. I freaked out and launched my whole body onto the outrigger blade, closed my eyes and held on for dear life. Dave watched and said it came up to 5 feet beneath me and then swam down again. It was amazingly exciting!!! I couldn't help but feel like this was a gift to us - and that's why we didn't see any 10 years ago. God withholds some good things so we can experience them later and appreciate them even more. After snorkeling, our driver dropped us at the St. Regis Bora Bora where we had just booked one night's stay from Dave's laptop on the cruise ship the day before. Technology is cool! St. Regis is where they filmed 'Couples Retreat' - one of our favorite movies (if you've seen it, you'll recognize some of the shots below). The view on the walk to our room. We had an amazing room with windows in the bathroom and living room floors. A group of eagle rays liked to coast in the currents just under our bungalow - amazing! The one night we were there the hotel had a Polynesian dinner buffet with dancers. Since Dave used to DJ with a Polynesian dance group in high school, he knew all the moves. They were impressed. Pictures of the beach area where we went kayaking. Here I am doing yoga on the same platform they used in the movie - with Otemanu in the background. "Regard me!" Us just outside the spa area. Our lunch at the bar before we checked out and took the hotel water taxi back to the boat. We did SO much over our 2 day visit. We explored our bungalow (it was bigger than I thought it would be!), watched "Couples Retreat" which was looping on one of the tv channels, went to the Polynesian dinner buffet, snorkeled around our bungalow, enjoyed the breakfast buffet, kayaked on the lagoon, swam in the pool, snorkeled in the lagoonarium and saw puffers and sea snakes, checked out the spa, stretched on the yoga platform, shopped in the hotel store (expensive snacks!!!), relaxed in the awesome huge tub in the room, swam in the second pool with divided couples areas, and enjoyed every second of the amazing views. It was an incredible 2 days. Here we are back on the boat saying good bye to Moorea. Our trip was amazing. Happy Ten Years! Here's to the next ten!

September 2010

Madison started her last year of preschool at Canyon Creek. I got her moved into Ms. Lindsay and Ms. Kirstin's class and she loves them. Ms. Lindsay is goofy just like Madison. Madison started dance class with all her little friends - 8 girls from church this year! Mackenzie is playing soccer at soccer zone and enjoying it (at least better than on CC United teams that play in Milburn Park). I studied my guts out for my Probability exam (my second actuary exam) to take it on the 21st. The night before my test, I got a migraine and felt like the flu was coming on. I was super stressed out and had to go to bed when I needed to be cramming. The material did not come easily to me - I had never taken a probability course, ever. I did not pass. I was devastated but somehow the world kept turning. I called Michael Muth at Rudd & Wisdom and informed him I didn't pass and he said they would still let me be an intern (apparently I am not the first person to ever fail an actuarial exam - imagine that). We kept Ezra Brough the 23rd - 27th while Jessica and Chris went to her friend's wedding in California. He is awesome and we love having him. Here's a picture from outside Rudy's - the kids love that place. Then again, who doesn't?

Mackenzie's First Day of 2nd Grade

Here is Mackenzie waiting for the bus for her first day of second grade. Madison wanted to come with us and watch the big kids get on the bus. Next year it will be her turn! Mackenzie got Ms. McDaniel and Meredith is in her class, too. Her teacher is really nice and we are hoping for a great school year.

The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent Was a Summer in San Francisco

Our lovely and talented babysitter of forever, Jill Robinson, just happened to be in town from college when Dave just happened to need to go to San Francisco. So she watched the girls and I just happened to go along with him. We got engaged there 10 years ago. It was over 100 degrees in Austin and in the 50's in SF. Brrrrrrr. I remember this from living there but it still hits you like a brick. It's 70-something at the airport and drops 20 degrees as you cab it into the city. We saw 'Wicked' just down from the St Francis in Union Square where we stayed. Dave had a massive headache when we arrived. I hate that he has headaches everyday. He powers through them and I am amazed. We drove over to where we got engaged across the bridge and took some pictures with the Golden Gate in the background.

Madison learns to swim

Madison is 4 years old. She likes to be in the pool and I like to make sure I watch her in the pool because drowning is bad. However, this summer Madison has decided to paddle and thrash and work and almost, but not quite, drown in order to learn how to swim. She tells me to go away (which I don't) and has this steely determination to figure it out. I love watching her! She struggled and splashed but finally taught herself how to stay above water and get around the pool. She is a little fish now! It was scary to watch at first, but now I see her paddle across the pool and I am amazed. And proud!

Visit to Grandma Tinkerbell's

School is fast approaching so we, of course, took off for Grandma Tinkerbell's. The girls love the catfish farm and restaurant, Dori's - so we took Dave to show him the place. They have a petting zoo of sorts with horses, donkeys, goats, deer, turtles, and some of the biggest catfish I've ever seen.

Mackenzie was a little scared to feed the goats at first, so Grandma showed her how.

This is us on the bridge where you can feed the catfish. They are huge! Don't let your kids fall in this water, that's for sure!

And of course, we had to stop in to see Camille and the babies on our way home. SO cute!!!

Get a Job

After I passed my exam in May I went to lunch with Khiem Ngo from Rudd & Wisdom (the consulting firm I want to work at). We talked exams and studying. I wasn't really ready to put my resume in for consideration yet but apparently Khiem did it for me because in July I got a call for an interview. I met with Michael Muth and Mitchell Bilbe and it went well. In August I got a call that they would like me to intern for them!!! Yeah! I asked if they could wait until October since I had some previous commitments I need to resolve (like our 10th anniversary trip to Tahiti which I kept to myself) and they agreed. I am so excited. All that work paid off!!!

The Fourth

For the first time in our 6 years of living here, we went to the Cedar Park Fourth of July celebration at Milburn Park (2 minutes away). It was huge: bouncy castles, petting zoo, face painting, shaved ice, food booths, human ball-running (see picture) and at the end, fireworks!