Looking Back at 2011

For all practical purposes, 2011 was a very good year. It was incredibly busy and went by like the the speed of light. Mom always said, "as you get older, time will go by faster and faster." Once again, she was right!

2011 Recap

Ed's sister Sue passed away on December 26, 2010, from an Aneurysm. We traveled to St. Louis for the funeral and Ed met his niece, Heather Mueller, and nephew Jessie, for the first time. Heather married a really nice guy, Joshua LeBaube, later in the year.

Beth, Jessie, Heather, and Ed
December 28, 2010

Ed's sister Ellen Kavanagh McCarthy (Ellie) passed away on April 26, 2011, from a seizure. Ellie lived in Florida with her husband, Ray, at the time of her death. Ed didn't attend her funeral but did visit Ellie in the hospital for several days prior to her leaving us. Ellie had been brain-dead for about three weeks prior to her death. Very very sad!

Ed and Ellie
December 2009

June 8th was a very special day for me! I can't write about it now but I will one day. This was a day ordained by God himself. More to come on this very exciting story!!!

Barry came to visit on June 17th and stayed a few nights with us. We had a great time with Barry and his timing was perfect! He helped Ed finish staining the brand new fence that Danny and Tyler Rinehart built, AND he helped Ed start putting together the outside storage unit that we now have. Seriously, we really did enjoy Barry's company. He's a fun guy to hang out with.

Ed & Barry

Ed and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary on July 3rd. This year...we just stayed home and watched a movie. Both of us were quite content as we had been busy every weekend with some sort of house project.

Fun time!

Nanette was next! She was attending a Beauty Control seminar in Dallas and was able to squeeze in a night with us (July 30th). Nanette is also a lot of fun! She was the wild child of the Thomas family!!! ;) On this Saturday night, two of Ed's sisters, Nanette Thomas and Beth Butler, along with Beth's son Blake and daughter Jaklyn, and Ed's son Will, were all able to have dinner with us at our house. A great time was had by everyone!

Jaklyn, Blake, Beth, Ed, Lisa, Will, and Nanette

Ed and I finally got in a little get-a-way! For Labor Day, we went down to Fredericksburg, Texas with our friends Dave & Bev Swatzell. Dave and Bev have some ex-IT friends, Claude and Lisa Sanders, who own and run a very nice little Bed and Breakfast, the 'Magnolia House.' Oh my gosh, can Claude and Lisa cook!!! They served the most decadent breakfast that I think we've ever had. Ed and I did however get in lots and lots of walking while we were there.

Ed, Lisa, Bev & Dave

Lisa in her Cowgirl hat

Ed in his Cowboy hat

Ed, Dave, Lisa, and Bev in Luckenbach, Texas

Lisa, Ed, Bev, Dave, Lisa, and Claude

Speaking of walking, that's one thing that Ed and I have really started doing a lot of, along with some running -- well, really slow jogging! :) We have a park directly across the street from our house called "Green Valley Park," and boy do we use that park. During the summer we were out there all the time. We love it!!!! And by the way, North Texas broke the 1980 record of 69 days of triple-digit temperatures, "DFW Weather: 71 days and we have a new record for triple-digit temperatures."

In October, I think we finally got the last house project done on THIS list. We moved the last bit of our stuff from the Public Storage to our new outside storage building that Ed, Barry and yes, Will also! built. We FINALLY have all of Ed's and my thing's in one house!!!

So now that we have some extra time because our list is complete, Ed and I took a little trip up to Eagleville, MO to spend some time with Grandma. Of course, we had a great time with her. Ed did a lot of work at Country Kitchen, which has wireless, and Grandma and I spent a lot of time chatting at her kitchen table - until the electricity went out for 5 hours due to an electric pole falling. We ended up meeting Ed at Country Kitchen for dinner - while the wireless service was good, the food was not.

Ed and Grandma @ Country Kitchen

Lisa and Grandma

Ed, Grandma, and Lisa

Grandma

We had Thanksgiving in our new house this year. Gosh, was that a project but we enjoyed it. I think we only had 9 people for dinner but were originally planning for 15, so 9 was easy! :)


Katie came down for a few days over Thanksgiving, and then back again for 2 weeks during the Christmas holidays. She spent most of her time with her mom over Christmas, since her mom recently divorced, but Katie did spend a few nights with us. Ed was able to get some real quality time with both her and Will during this trip. Yeah!

Mandi has had a busy year! First she gets engaged to Derek Whisenand - their wedding is planned for March 18, 2012 - and then on December 15th, she graduated from UNT with her Political Science degree. I'm of course, very proud of her!!!

Mandi & Derek
UNT graduation

Speaking of proud:

• Cassi will graduate from TCU in May and already has a job with Deloitte and Touche -- with a starting salary of $70k plus a $10k signing bonus - GO GIRL!

Cassi

• Tyler has a part-time job leasing apartments; he is no longer a youth pastor; and he's attending DBU, with all A's and B's in his last semester of 2011. Blanca helped some but that was pretty much all him!!! Wow Tyler!!!

Tyler

• Hannah is in 8th grade and in a new school, since Mike and LeNay moved into their new rental house. She is getting 1:1 attention and now has all A's. First time ever!!! We are all very very proud of Hannah.

Hannah

• Sarah finally has full time hours at Best Buy and is attending UNT. She's engaged and living with her fiance, Chris. Their wedding is planned for October 2012.
  

Chris and Sarah

• Kristin has been promoted to a Sales Rep, which is what she's been working towards at this company since she graduated Texas Tech in 2010. She has the downtown Fort Worth territory, and already has her first sale. She is going to do well! She's currently living with her boyfriend Jake Kemp in a cute little house in Grapevine.

Kristin and Mom

• Will also had a great semester with all A's and one B. He seems very happy with his new major in Archaelogy and History.
  
• Kate is an assistant to a 29 year-old female VP at Legendary Films, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. She is working a ton of hours but seems very happy and it sounds like there is room for advancement there. Katie really wants to be a writer.
  

Sean, Cheryl, Ben, Kevin, and Claire stopped over (Dec. 30th) during their drive home from San Antonio for the holidays. Kate and Will were still with us so we were all able to grab lunch at a really good little Tex Mex restaurant, before everyone went on there way home. It was quick, but a fun time.

Kevin, Claire, Ben, Katie, and Will

Lisa, Cheryl, Sean, and Ed

Not sure if this is good or bad news, but Ed has now traveled 4 million miles on American Airlines. He joined their loyalty club in 1981 and it took 13 years for his 1st million miles, 8 years for his 2nd, 5 years for his 3rd, and only 4 years for his 4th. WOW!!! That's way too much travel. He and I are both very very tired of him being on the road.

Over the summer Ed and I took a marriage class that lasted 8 weeks. Not that anything was wrong but we did this to learn communication tools and how to be a better mate for each other. We loved it and learned so much. In fact, we made a resolution to reread the class book once a year just to remember what we learned --- it's so easy to forget. It's always sooo interesting to see how God works!!! One thing we prayed for during the class was that at the end of the year (2011), Ed and I would begin to start looking at new job opportunities that would allow him to be home more. Well, God did this for us. On Saturday, New Year's Eve, Ed's manager called to tell him that things were changing on the AT&T team. She really didn't provide much information but it looks like things will be different for next year. We're still waiting to hear what's next but we know God is in charge and we did pray for a change. God knows the desire of our hearts, He loves us and is ALWAYS taking care of us -- so not to worry! It will be OK...whatever IT is! ;)

Ed and Lisa

There are not really any major updates with the parents, or LeNay, or Laura.

• Dad and Peg did their normal stockshows, fairs and carnivals. They did get a nice new trailer this year, however, that has 2 slide outs and boy does that make a difference.
  
• Mom is still working in the school cafeteria, although this year they rezoned the schools and now she has 1000 trays to wash. I don't know how she does it...a lady 69 years old bent over washing 1000 food trays in about 5 hours. I know she prayers every day before she gets started and it's apparent that God hears and helps her.

Mom and Ken

• LeNay and Mike moved out from their apartment into a nice rental house, not too terribly far from Ed and me. This allowed Hannah to attend a new school in which she's really excelled. Mike is still at United Rentals and working more now than ever since they've continued to reduce the number of employees at his store. Thank God for his job. LeNay had a little temp job during the year, but unfortunately this didn't turn into a long term position. She continues to look for full time employment.

Mike

Hannah, Mom, and LeNay

• Laura has really gotten involved with Mitch and his business. She's helping to deliver cars and has really dug into the finances. Laura's learning more and more Mitch's business, and is starting to understand what it takes to make it all work.

Mitch and Laura

LeNay, Laura, and Lisa

Mitch, Ed, Ken, Mike, and Chris

I want to thank God for all the blessings He's poured on me and my family this year. He's always sooo good to me and I'm forever grateful. I pray that I will always be open to His ways and listen with ears that hear and eyes that see.


Onto another new and exciting year, 2012!
xoxox