Sunday, October 21, 2007

Our 4th anniversary...

The day before we left for our trip (Sept. 27th) was our four year anniversary. Tom had been talking about wanting to get a piano for a really long time and I had started contemplating the idea of surprising him with one and having it sitting in our home when he got back from work. So, while my mom was here we went to a piano store that was having a huge closing sale and I found this older piano for a lot less than I was planning on spending. I arranged to have it delivered the morning of our anniversary while he was at work and it was so fun to get it all ready for him to come home and find it.

Tom's anniversary surprise...

I set up our video camera to capture Tom's expression when he came home from work to find a piano. He was really shocked and excited, but it's a little hard to tell on this video. It was fun gift to surprise him with and it is so great getting to hear him play it.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

The rest of our trip (part one)...

Well, we had a great trip but it was so long! Two weeks and 5 days and we spent 5 days traveling. We had a lot of fun though. The second weekend we got to spend together in Dallas. On the Friday night (Oct. 5th) Tom's training group was taken to the Texas State Fair and his trainer invited Taylor and I to come along. So we drove to Tom's hotel that afternoon and we got on a big charter bus with all of Tom's fellow trainees and some of the other trainers and their families. It was fun to meet all the people he had been working with all week. They were all so nice. His main trainer Eric passed out tickets and coupons (they use coupons at this fair for rides and to buy food with) and he gave Tom an extra ticket for me and gave us 40 or 50 dollars in coupons. I like the Boy Scouts! Anyway, we had so much fun and it was great to be with Tom again after being apart for almost a week. That weekend we stayed at a hotel close to Tom's training and enjoyed having a relaxing weekend being together. Then on Sunday we drove a couple hours north of Dallas to meet my mom and Taylor and I rode back with her to Benton, Arkansas and Tom went back to his training.

It was nice to spend time at my parents. They (my parents and little sister) all adored Taylor and gave her tons of attention which she loved. Taylor and I went on lots of walks and my mom and I spent a lot of time together. I got to do some shopping without Taylor (which is nice to be able to focus a little better) and I got my hair done. It's a little shorter and darker. And my mom and I went fabric shopping to get material to make Taylor some curtains. (Tom just put them up tonight and they look great mom! We'll have to see how well they work to keep the sun out!) Then on Friday Tom's training got out at 3:00 which I thought was crazy b/c traffic gets bad in Dallas around 3:30 and is even worse on a Friday, but around 3:30 Tom was calling to tell me he had just met our friend Bruce to give him back all the clothes he had to borrow from him (refer to bottom post--thanks again Bruce!) While we were talking I put the phone close to Taylor and Tom started saying "Taylor can you hear me?" and the second time he said it I heard his voice in real life not through the phone and looked all around the room we were in and there was Tom standing at the back window! I was so excited!!! I was hoping he'd gotten to leave early, but he'd said he didn't get to so I thought we wouldn't see him until around 9:00 that night. It was the best surprise! It was great to spend the rest of the day together and we let my parents babysit and went out to dinner that night. Okay, this is getting long so I'll finish it tomorrow and add some pictures...well, hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow!

Thursday, October 4, 2007

little update...

We left for our trip last Friday afternoon and drove 6 hours to Amarillo, TX on one tank of gas! We love our little 4 cylinder car! We stayed the night in Amarillo and then drove another 6 hours the next day to my friends here in McKinney, TX. It was a great drive. We listened to 1/2 (we have 1/2 left for our way home) of a John Grisham suspense novel...I can't wait to find out who the murderer is! Is was fun b/c the story takes place in a small town in Oklahoma and we spent all of our trip driving through small towns. We stopped midway through and found a great little authentic BBQ restaurant and had BBQ beef, ribs, potato salad and baked beans. I loved the whole "small town" experience. Taylor was really great on the trip. She probably slept for about 4 of the 12 hours we drove, but the last couple hours she was content b/c I let her eat nerds (the candy...if anyone needs clarification :-) that I put in her cupholder. She loved it and was great!

We came straight to my friends Bruce and Misti and stayed here with them that night and went to church with them and then Tom got ready for his training...Oh yeah, we did run into a minor inconvenience...On Friday night around midnight Tom realized he had forgotten all of his clothes for his training like his suit, dress shirts, boy scout uniform and they had to bring this special "dress uniform" which consisted of gray slacks, white shirt and a navy blazer. He had everything all ready to go but we both forgot it! So, thankfully Bruce and Tom wear the same pant size and Bruce is a scout leader so he and Misti stepped in and saved the day and let Tom borrow a ton of much needed clothes!

So, I've been staying here with Bruce and Misti ( hendrens.blogspot.com ) and their two cute kids and it's been so great to see them and hang out with Misti so much. They've been so kind and hospitable to Taylor and I. We are here until tomorrow afternoon and then Taylor and I are going to Tom's hotel to meet up with him and spend the weekend together. On Sunday we are going to meet my mom about a couple hours away and Taylor and I will go with her back to little Rock while Tom finishes his training. Well, that's that! Taylor just woke up so I better go. Have a great day!