Just a little fun

This survey was sent to me by two of my girlfriends in California... and I since I took the time to fill it out, I thought I'd post it here for a bit of fun. I'd love to see your answers to these questions, if you're so inclined to post them on your blog or send them to me in an e-mail. So, tag you're it!


1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Not really after anyone - although my Mother fell in love with the name after hearing a woman named Janelle sing at their church in Alaska, about 8 years before I came along. At least I think that's how the story goes...

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Tuesday night – this whole thing of adjusting to a new place again can be rough

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING I like my handwriting pretty well (when I’m not rushing), but I’m not fond of my printing.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? 2 sweet little people who remind me daily what it really means to live (and a loving puppy that I can’t imagine life without either)

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I’d like to think so… I hope so.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A Lot? When the conversation especially calls for it… mostly with Collin.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS Yes, yes I do. (And my adenoids and wisdom teeth and appendix, and all those random things Doctors like to take out - if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!)

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Before kids, yes – now I’m not so sure.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Healthy – Basic 4 (although I just bought Kashi strawberry fields to try); Non-healthy – Ohs! (because I have fond memories of my Grandfather putting a layer of marshmallows beneath this cereal as a ‘surprise’ every morning we were visiting!)

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Untie? That must be something you do to shoes that aren’t flip flops!

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Definitely more than I was a year ago this month!

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Hmm… I love Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food *nom nom*, but I have a special place in my heart for the classic Mint Chocolate Chip too!

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Their face… usually eyes, followed by mouth/teeth

15. RED OR PINK? Pink. (I love Red, but I just can’t pull it off!)

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOU? My weight (and irrational emotional state during certain times of the month)

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? The family & friends we left behind in Texas (and elsewhere too)

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Sure, but only if it makes them happy to do so

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Grey & pink pants, with bare footsies

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE Coffee (with hazelnut biscotti creamer – yum!) if that counts… otherwise, Papa John’s pizza for dinner last night.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW The kids watching Spongebob Squarepants on TV

22. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Red, because if I were a crayon I could probably pull it off!

23. FAVORITE SMELLS? Warm, cozy Fall smells like cloves and cinnamon; freshly bathed babies; rosemary

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My Mother-In-Law, who is coming to visit us today (which means I should probably stop doing this and start cleaning!)

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Well, I got this from both Janessa and Diane, whom I miss very much, and wish I could be in California stamping with right now!

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Regularly, NBA Basketball (GO SPURS GO!) – but Collin & I love the Summer Olympics, especially Gymnastics, Swimming and Beach Volleyball, so we’re gearing up for that right now!

27. HAIR COLOR? Mousey brown

28. EYE COLOR? Yellowish with some green flecks (I was once told by a 5th grade boy that my eyes were the color of urine… nice, huh?)

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Yes, unless I’m wearing my glasses or sleeping. Otherwise you really don’t want me driving… or walking, or doing much of anything for that matter!

30. FAVORITE FOOD? Hmm – I’m with Janessa, that I don’t discriminate. But, if I have to, it’d be Greek (the whole of the Mediterranean knows how to cook) – I started eating table food on Greek Dolmas!

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy Endings… there’s enough scary stuff in the world already.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? HA! – Spiderwick, how’s that for irony? But, it was Ian’s pick, so I couldn’t turn him down. Collin and I saw Semi-Pro before that (which really wasn’t great).

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING A neutral, oatmeal colored tank… real flattering! (oh, there’s that sarcasm after all)

34. FAVORITE SEASON? Autumn would have to be the winner for me, but I’m oh so thankful for all 4 – otherwise they all wouldn’t be so special.

35. HUGS OR KISSES? Big, squishy, reunion hugs are my favorite… but kisses are the best when initiated by my hubby!

36. FAVORITE DESSERT? Gosh… anything with chocolate. How does one pick?

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Maybe Dara or Erica?

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Whoever has better time-management skills than I do

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Why Do Catholics Do That? by Kevin Orlin Johnson (thanks Dara!); Haddassah: One Night With The King by Tommy Tenney; and I’m about to reread Ben Amittai by Bruce Judisch (my Daddy) in anticipation of the next book in the series!

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? I’m using our laptop, but typically Mickey (that’d be Collin’s influence!)

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LASTNIGHT? So You Think You Can Dance (…dance… dance… dance)

42. FAVORITE SOUND? The giggling of my kiddos when their Daddy is on the floor wrestling, tickling and generally loving on them!

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Geez... where is home again? I guess my family’s military tours in England, Greece and Germany when I was a child.

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Does completely obsessing (eating, sleeping and breathing) over whatever thing has captured my attention most recently count?! (i.e. knitting, stamping, house hunting, and most recently decorating/remodeling in my head the house we haven’t even closed on yet!) No? I didn’t think so….

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Harrogate, County of North Yorkshire, England… as it says on my birth certificate. (Yes, I’m a limey Brit [sorta] as Collin likes to call me with frequency)

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK? Everyone of course!

Well, I hope you enjoyed that wee bit of a waste of time. Thanks for caring! I promise I'll have something of more substance in my next post...

4th of July Weekend

We had a wonderful visit in Florida with our friends Stephen & Dara over the holiday weekend! On the 4th, they grilled tasty kabobs for dinner and we went to Destin to sit on the beach and watch the fireworks that night. "Uncle" Stephen and Daddy got sparklers and fountains for the kids to do at the house afterward, so we all had fun watching their wide-eyed wonder!

The wonder...

...and the wide-eyed!

Moira enjoying the show from the comfort of "Aunt" Dara's lap

The guys hangin' on the beach

Moira imitating the firework display back at home

A brave Ian with his sparkler (at arm's length)

On Saturday, we all went to eat at Panera bread in Destin for lunch, and then the girls split up and went to Old Time Pottery (kinda like a Garden Ridge, for you Texans) and the boys went to Best Buy. I got a great deal on some beachy decorations for our new screened in patio area, and Dara and I had lots of fun looking around together. We all enjoyed our gender specific activities and bonding time before we met up again, and checked out some local stores for patio furniture ideas. We headed to the Mellow Mushroom for a yummy and unique pizza dinner, which we all enjoyed, and went back home to get the kids off to bed, and the adults ended the night with the movie Cars on Blue Ray.

This fun & quirky restaurant had a bunch of murals all over the walls and lots to look at

We had so much fun with our hosts and best friends - and look forward to many more visits like this over the coming years!

Putting down roots

I'm happy to say, after 4 full days of looking for the perfect house, we've found it! We put an offer in on a great 4 bed/2 bath brick ranch-style home last night, and just barely got it signed as there was another offer on the table for the same house! So, it's ours, as long as both the VA and other home inspection goes well, which we fully expect them to. We're so excited - we think it's going to be a wonderful home for our little family.

The front of our soon-to-be home (obviously the basketball hoop and truck won't convey!)

The way it's decorated currently is a wee bit quirky, but we were really able to see it with our things inside and our own little touches added to it, and we think it's going to be great. It has so much charm, and really cool touches and amenities that we weren't expecting to get in a home, and definitely wouldn't have if we'd bought a new home like we were thinking we might. Really the only things we'll have to do are decorative, like some painting to fit our colors better (or to get rid of wallpaper in bath #2), and maybe changing out the bathroom faucets, etc. Otherwise, the house has a privacy fenced backyard with great landscaping, a 14x20 screened in porch with a 10x10 patio area just outside of the porch, an extra bedroom for guests, an office and formal dining area, tons of countertop and cabinet space in the kitchen with a beautiful terracotta colored backsplash with added aged copper light plates and an island with a huge skylight above, a jetted garden tub in the master "glamour bath," tile and hardwood laminate throughout the entire house, and with 2,224 sq ft we'll have plenty of room to grow over the years! The neighborhood is the very desirable Park Meadow subdivision in the heart of Madison (which is like a suburb of Huntsville), zoned for excellent schools and it's only 6.2 miles from Collin's office - and all for a really good price! God has truly blessed us in our efforts to find a great house to make our family a home. We should be closing on July 26th, which is four weeks from today (barring no delays), and we plan to move in that afternoon.

***

If you're interested in taking a virtual tour of our soon-to-be house, you can follow this link: http://www.visualtour.com/shownp.asp?t=1551246&prt=61. I'm not sure how long this link will be active, now that there's an accepted offer on the table, but it should at least be viewable through this weekend, if not for another week or so. We hope all of you will come visit and see us in our new home for yourselves - our doors are always open to friends and loved ones!

We're Here!

We arrived in Huntsville on Saturday afternoon after a couple days drive and an absolutely crazy two weeks of packing, loading everything into our PODS, and getting out of our rental house in San Antonio. We're getting settled into our furnished apartment that we'll be renting for the next month or so while we're house hunting. We had a chance to drive around a bit today. We went to the mall on the northside of town to get some new brown dress shoes for Collin (no more issued uniforms for us!), and went grocery shopping at the nearest Super Walmart on the southeast part of town, and did a bit of checking out everything in between. It's still really strange to be driving around another city and trying to look at it as home now, but hey... we've done it before in the military, so this should be a somewhat familiar experience of learning a new city, and all that comes with it.

Collin starts his first day of work with L3 tomorrow. He actually says he's feeling pretty confident about it all, and isn't feeling much in the way of nerves, but we'll still appreciate any prayers you want to send up for him! I'm not quite sure how I'll adjust to having him at work all day again - I've been spoiled in having him home all day, every day (mostly) for the last 6 months. I'll be sure to update again soon and let you know how his first day or two went.

This week for me will involve a lot of driving around trying to get my bearings, mixed with some errand running and a bit of house hunting on my own with our realtor and the kids. There's also a pool and playground in our apartment complex that I'd like to take the kids to soon (once Moira can swim after her ear surgery), since they've had to put up with Mommy & Daddy being very busy during the packing and moving stage the last two weeks. I've also seen a walking trail just behind our building that leads into the wooded foothills that our complex backs up against, and I thought that might make a fun adventure for Moira, Ian and Cailin with me.

All in all, we're happy to be here and starting a new chapter in our lives. The hardest thing for us about leaving San Antonio, is all of the family we'll be missing so much again. Here are just a couple of pictures of our last two weeks home.

Grammy & Papa Judisch with all 10 of their grandchildren!

(Top: Papa, Carson, Valie & Grammy; Bottom: Avery holding Cambria, Ian, Aidan, Moira, Evelyn and Madeline holding Lillian)

So many cousin's enjoying Valie's 3rd birthday party together

Grammy & Grandpa Wilhite at the San Antonio Rainforest Cafe with Moira & Ian

Our little clan at the Riverwalk, one last time

The news you've all been waiting to hear...

WE HAVE A JOB!!!

Praise God! Collin accepted a position with L3 Communications today as a BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense) Test Engineer in Huntsville, Alabama. Unfortunately, we'll have to pack up and leave family behind again - but the job, schedule and pay are great, and Huntsville is actually a really neat city, so we're feeling very blessed about it all! He actually had two job offers to choose from this week, and we're so thankful to God for his provision. Now, we have to get ourselves packed up and moved all the way to Alabama in two weeks, as they want Collin to start on June 23rd. Whew! Please pray that the transition will go smoothly for our family, and especially little Moira after her recent ENT surgery.

Thank you all for all of your friendship, loving support, and most of all prayers for us. They've been so helpful and encouraging during this whole time of uncertainty. It just goes to show that God is the Great Provider, and is ever faithful - and we give all the glory to God!

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess,

for He who promised is faithful." -- Hebrews 10:23

Our Trip in Pictures (click on the pictures)

As I had forseen, we were enjoying ourselves way too much to post anymore while on the trip. We arrived back home late last night though, and I have tons of pictures to share! Fortunately, I learned a wonderful way of sharing our photo albums through picasa (thanks Erica and Dara!) instead of posting them all here, so simply click on the pictures below and it'll show you a full album of them all!

Reuniting with dear friends

Abel's Baptism

Dinner at Fudpucker's with the Treats

The only Jungle-themed McDonald's in the world

***

This trip was such a blessing for us all - reuniting with our dear friends after so long and witnessing the baptism of such a precious little guy meant so much to us. We thank God, with hearts full of joy, for this special time and the bonds that it strengthened even more between us.

***

"I thank my God upon every rememberance of you..."

Okaloosa Island

We spent a few hours at the Eglin AFB beach on Okaloosa Island today and plan to head back to Destin for dinner with the Treats before the day is over, but I thought I'd post some pictures of our family enjoying the beach.