Christmas Morning, New Year, and the reason for crickets...

So back to Christmas morning...we had an amazing breakfast of our traditional Eggs Benedict. It was fantastic as always. If this is someday my job, I definitely have big shoes to fill. My grandmother makes it for 10 people and does it in stride. I kinda feel like that sauce is so delicate...one wrong move and WHAM..you have to start over. I need to start practicing!

I must have been a good girl because I was spoiled over and over and received some much coveted boots! I gave over control to Daniel once I figured out that Rebecca could go with him to make the actual purchase! LOL! I say this with pure love - He has a history..and.if.you.know.it...you would not blame me! Daniel, you know I love you to the moon and back! They were both armed with styles and actually hit the nail on the head with the exact ones I wanted Oh SO BaDlY! I may have worn them almost every day since Christmas! :) Thank you to Ben and Ann as well..I love them! I am one stylin' girl between the jewelry, clothes, and boots! :)Thank you again everyone we were certainly spoiled and incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful family!

Though Wyatt cried in Santa's lap, he was on the nice list! He got a neat-o tricycle, lots of puzzles, and trucks, books, blocks, clothes, and so much fun stuff! He and Connor were so cute playing with all the fun stuff Santa brought!

During/Before After...

While we were opening presents it began to snow (a White Christmas..Neat!) Daniel and I were pretty excited. I hoped it meant that Daniel could stay that night but when we looked at the map, it wasn't far enough south. We were able to take Wyatt out to play before Daddy left that evening. Daniel and I decided that since my parents were in town Wyatt and I would stay for a few extra days. It worked out perfectly that they could take us back before we had to head to Austin to celebrate the holidays with Daniel's side. Daniel was able to get ahead on school work and we got some family time. It also meant that we got to see some of my grandmothers friends, shop, play, and relax.

My parents and I drove over to meet Daniel on Friday and had dinner at the favorite local spot "The Sale Barn." It lived up the to hype and they enjoyed dinner. Daniel and I headed to Austin early and left my parents antiquing on the way to Austin. They enjoyed spending a leisurely day seeing the area. We arrived at Daniel's parents to everyone waiting on us. That is pretty normal. We are the ones that travel so we are the ones always walking in at the last minute. When they say noon..they really mean 11:45. We haven't learned this and never will because with my parents that actually means 12:15..or later! :)

Anyway, we had a nice time visiting with family and exchanging gifts. The kids had fun playing with new games and toys. We actually all piled on the living room floor and played a game about brands or logos and it was pretty hard. We enjoyed watching all the kids play and visiting with family.

As we were packing up to head back, Wyatt woke up from a late nap with a 102 temp. We were supposed to stop over at my brothers house to see the family one more time (since we weren't sure if we were moving) but ended up in the emergency room as it was Sunday at 5pm. I couldn't leave for small town east TX knowing that a doctor was at least an hour away and that a holiday was the next day. I needed piece of mind and the what ifs about Daniel's job, insurance, etc. They decided he just had a virus..regardless I was happy to know everything was fine. New Year Eve was a completely uneventful evening as we both fell asleep and I happened to wake up 5 min before midnight. We woke up long enough to watch the ball drop. Big Night!! HA!

It is obvious the holidays of 2012 were fantastic however in our minds, Daniel and I were stressed with the unknown of our future. Our fears happened and on his final day of the current assignment we were faced without a contract. We decided to stay put so that we could leave at a moments notice when an assignment opened. It caused major crickets...we were stalled! :)

We tried to make the best of our impromptu "vacation" and site-see around the area when it wasn't raining or to cold for Wyatt to be out. We were able to see several things including Old Fort Parker and other local sites. It was our attempt to try and decrease the stress of not knowing....

"On May 19th 1836, a band of Indians came to Parker's Fort asking for beef, water and a place to camp. When greeted by the Parkers the Indians attacked, taking five captives! The most famous these was 9 year old Cynthia Ann Parker. She was adopted by a Comanche family, grew up to marry Chief Peta Nocona and later gave birth to the last great Warrior Chief of the Comanches, Quanah Parker." Per Website

Limestone County

After a few weeks of talking continuously with Daniel's recruiter, the future of a traveling job did not seem any closer. Though we really were not "ready" to stop traveling, we were facing a reality over the past several assignments that the new healthcare laws were affecting the market of traveling positions. IE They were few and far between. We had made a plan that after the first of the year and another traveling assignment we might be pushing our luck. We decided that during that assignment depending upon our gut feeling, we were going to begin looking for more permanent work. Long story short after many weeks of uncertainty Daniel was offered a permanent position as a Rehabilitation Director in far southeast Texas. I am so proud of him and know we are incredibly lucky to have a job with benefits. Ultimately our timeline was moved up and though we had no control over the situation, this is what he has been working towards in school. In the end, Daniel's recruiter looked for an assignment for 9 weeks without any lucky, so to say we feel grateful for this opportunity is an understatement! It is hard for both of us to believe that we hit our 5 year mark on the road almost to the day!! Where did time go?

Last Day before we moved. Park Fun!

Once he accepted the job we still had another week before he started work. We decided to head to Austin to attempt to have some fun on his "vacation." We stayed with the S family and as always completely welcomed us with open arms. We could not have been more thankful to be around civilization as well as, have space to move. We had been couped up for several weeks in the rain and cold waiting, waiting and waiting.

All hooked up to the vehicles, slides in, and ready to roll out.

Travel to Austin was uneventful only stopping to check tire pressure. While in town we were able to see Ben and family as well as, Daniel's mom and sister Melissa. Going to Austin turned out to be a good decision as Daniel had a lot of paperwork, doctors appointments, etc to do before everything (insurance) changed for the new job. I went to mug night with Terri and had a great time. It was nice to have an evening just the ladies! :) We spent one day unloading our 5th wheel and cargo trailer with things we knew we would not need into storage (snowboarding and cold weather gear, the random stuff we never use, some kitchen items, clothing, etc) and had some fun! We also did a lot of work on the 5th wheel (well I did a little it was mainly Daniel and Shelbi) and this little guy had some much fun entertaining himself in the leaves!

We celebrated Wyatt's one a half year birthday (18 months) with ice cream. He loved it!

Quickly the week was over and it was time to head to our new location. We loaded up early and hit the road. This move felt different even with the two legs of the trip. I think it was more because we knew we wouldn't be leaving in a few months.


Happy Traveler!

Luckily, this leg was uneventful as well even with the navigation of leaving Austin and going through Houston. We arrived mid afternoon and were able to find a park rather easily. It is nothing special but has a lot of acreage for the dogs to run, for us to explore, and for Wyatt to toddle about. The weather has been gorgeous and we have spent a lot of time outside!