A Few Highlights from New York

We are so thankful to have had the opportunity to live in New York state since January of this year. It was truly an experience moving from Texas to a place with three feet of snow on the ground! We were able to see so many things and meet some great friends in the short time we were there.

This is Sarah and Gilli (the horse) at a rally in Vermont. Dusty was able to capture one of my favorite moments of a horse show - I remember all of the times my mom was the designated "Expo Holder" while Dad and I loaded up the trailer. It truly was a family affair that took effort from everyone - including the cheer squad!



Here are Kat and Gilli finishing their first stadium round as a team! Kat is such an awesome girl and Gilli is truly a gem. They are going to become quite the pair. =) Kate and I miss this fun bunch!

This is a photo I took on Mom's first trip up to visit. We stopped along one of the many rivers on her "tour" of the area.

Dusty captured this great shot of my Princess and myself at Cooper's Cave on the Hudson River. This is the place that inspired James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Last of the Mohicans.

Larry and Jamie (Dusty's parents) also came to visit us this summer! We explored around Lake George, NY with the dogs for an afternoon and then stayed in Saratoga Springs, NY for two nights. The weather was perfect and we were able to enjoy ourselves over the Fourth of July weekend.

Myrtle Beach

We were fortunate this spring to be able to take a vacation to Myrtle Beach with two of our best friends, Gared and Shawna. I think this has to have been the first "real" vacation for just the two of us other than our honeymoon. We had such an amazing time I wanted to share a few of the pictures.

It was so nice to have sand between my toes again! I didn't think that I would miss the beach and the water when I left Mississippi, but I can't get over how much it felt like home to hear the waves and smell the salt in the air. It was overcast a couple of the days we were there, but we managed to get some time in the water while the sun was out.

True to our vacation "trends," we made it to play a round of miniature golf. It was even more fun with good company! Of course, it took us twice as long to play through because of all the photo ops we stopped to take advantage of!

For our fancy dinner night we went to Rioz Brazillian Steak House. This was my first experience with this type of place, but oh! was it amazing! We started out at the gigantic salad bar that included all sorts of appetizers and sides, and then they begin the meat "service." They bring around skewers with all sorts of different cuts of meat - prime rib, chicken, lamb, ribs - you name it, they probably had it. It was incredible!

We had a wonderful trip and are very thankful that we were able to share the experience with Gared and Shawna. We can't wait to plan our next vacation and hope even more friends can join us!

New Blog

Hey from the airport. I decided to create an offshoot of this blog that contained thoughts and rants from my travels. Seems like I'm spending more time on the road and it's about time I started writing a few things down. Look for the posts on Dusty's Thoughts The reason for the side blog is that it doesn't go with the family updates, but I still want it to be associated.

In addition to the new blog, things are going well for us. Julie hasn't had a chance to update everyone since she has her hands full with the new house. Also, she is trying to kick her cold while trying to keep up with Kate. Kate is loving school and excels on homework and studies.

I'll finish up here in NY on September 25th and then... I'm not sure. My boss still has not made up his mind on my next destination. I'll keep you posted.

Have a safe rest of the holiday weekend.

Dusty

Almost Settled!

Our New House!!

We finally did it! We were able to close on our house August 7th! It's awesome!! I've unpacked and decorated with everything we had shipped from Texas, now I'm just waiting on Dusty, Bentley, and the rest of our stuff in New York. He is working there until September 25. Once we have all of the painting finished and the rest of our stuff, I'll post pictures of the inside. =)

Kate Started Kindergarten this year! Dusty flew down so he could take her to the first day of school. How cute are they?! So far, she's loving it. Her teacher is awesome, and she's alreay learning so much. I'm so proud of my big girl every morning when she gets out of the truck and walks into school all by herself! I can't wait to pick her up every day to hear what she's done and how many stickers she got on her behavior chart.

We went to Nannie's farm in Alabama while Mom and Dad were here to pick up Grandma Duke's sideboard and dining room table. I'm very excited about being able to use this furniture in our new house! Here are a few shots Dusty took while we were there:

The Old Barn.

Kate looking out the dining room window.

I have lots of pictures that I want to share with everyone from New York, Texas, and everywhere in between. I will post them soon!

Katerade!

photogs & such: katerade!

Here are two more awesome pictures Daniel took at Karen's this past Christmas....complete with KK's glasses, pearls and her new "5 reasons why i'm gonna be an Aggie" shirt.
I just love these!

Awesome Kate Pic

photogs & such

Here is a cute picture of Kate at KK's over the Christmas break. It's even got a bit of Dusty's truck in it. =)

Recipes?

This week I prepared a recipe from scratch! No....really! For whatever reason I decided to make my mom's recipe for No-Bake Cookies and they were delicious! True, one cookie has enough calories to make up 1/3 of a meal, but I was just proud I made them! I sent the cookies to work with Dusty so we wouldn't eat the entire batch - his coworkers were very complimentary.
I've started going through the recipes I received at my "Recipe Shower" and I am making plans to prepare at least two new recipes a week. This is a huge feat for me as Dusty is the resident chef in our household.
Soooooo, I would love to have suggestions for your favorite recipes. Email them to me or send them via snail mail! I need some good pork recipes - and fun (and healthy) chicken dishes - any suggestions?

New Years "Goals"

I've never been good with New Years Resolutions. I either forget about them or fail to come up with anything worthwhile. So this year I decided to make two New Years "Goals"....

1. Read a new book each month.

2. Run a 5K some time this year.

Books

Throughout college I discovered numerous books I thought were interesting, helpful, entertaining, educational, etc. but had no extra time to read past the back cover. I have a list started of titles I plan to read and some even sitting on my bookshelf! They range from John and Stasi Eldredge's Captivating to Richard Adam's Watership Down to Robert T. Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I have different reasons for each selection and I welcome any suggestions!

I am very happy to say that I have been successful with this goal!
Last month I read "For Women Only" by Shauti Feldhahn. I really enjoyed reading the information presented in the book about what's really going on in our guy's mind. Her information is based on national surveys and interviews with thousands of men - both Christian and not. Some of the things pointed out I was familiar with but had never thought about it in that particular way, while others I was definitely clueless about. It was fun to read parts of the book to Dusty and to hear his feedback about how "right on" the book is. Any bit of insight into the foreign mind of my husband is welcome. =)



This month I've been reading "Rich Dad, Poor Dad - What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That The Poor And Middle Class Do Not!" by Robert T. Kiyosaki. A good friend of ours gave it to Dusty when he graduated from A&M, but it's been sitting on the shelf until I decided I needed to know what this book was about! The author explains that the way to becoming rich is to have your money work for you - not to work for your money. He has made several solid points - I'm game to try them out. I'm almost finished with the book - I have one more day!


5K

I haven't started running to train for a 5K yet. It's just been too stinking cold! The snow has been melting the past week, though - it was even in the 50's today! When it warms up enough for me to go outside without 4 layers of clothing on, Bentley and I will be running - you can hold me to it! Does anyone want to come and run one with me???

Well, I've made it off to a not-so-great start with my blog. =) Not that I don't think about it almost every day... but the time to sit down and type out a few paragraphs seems to somehow escape me. Anyway, here's what we've been up to:

We were able to switch apartments after having some "issues" with our first one. The downstairs neighbors were a bit noisy late at night and they smoked... a LOT. Our entire apartment smelled so intense of cigarette smoke that it was affecting Kate and Dusty's allergies and making me nauseous. We are actually in a duplex now just around the corner from our first apartment and we love it! We have a basement, a garage for Dusty's car, and a deck that leads out to our side yard. Our neighbors have a 2 year old boy and a 1 week old girl, so it's nice and quiet, especially at night.

Our furniture should arrive on Wednesday and I think all three of us couldn't be more ready. Dusty is looking forward to being able to sleep on a real bed, Kate will appreciate having furniture to bounce on, and I'm ecstatic about getting all of our kitchen "stuff"! The first two weeks we were able to get by with steamed veggies prepared in the microwave among other easily prepared "dishes." The new apartment doesn't have a microwave so we've had to get a little creative with our meals. I have one baking sheet. Needless to say, we've eaten a lot of sandwiches, salads, fruit, and pre-cooked chicken. Dusty took us out to Chilis Saturday night and I don't think I can remember food tasting better!

While driving around yesterday we found a park with a real hill to sled on! We all bundled up and went out to play this afternoon. Here are a few pictures from our adventure.

I think all of us had a blast!

Bentley seemed to enjoy himself as well. He wasn't quite sure what to think of Kate sliding past him down the hill, but figured out that it was lots of fun to chase the sled. =) We had the park to ourselves and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our afternoon.

After sledding we went for a drive, not really knowing where we would end up. We drove northeast towards Vermont and ended up in Glens Falls, NY. There are so many pretty cities and towns I just can't get over it! I'm enjoying the historical aspect of it, too. In an hour we must have seen 20 historical marker signs next to gorgeous old houses and churches. We got a few pictures today, but we ran out of daylight. We plan on going back soon to get more pictures.

I Did It!

Well, here it goes.... I decided that starting a "blog" is probably the best way for me to keep track of all the memories that will be made. I always have the best intentions to journal, send letters and emails, but somehow I never follow through. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone else's blogs. I just hope mine will be half as interesting! (If I can figure out how to do it!)

So we've been in Clifton Park a week today. It took us three days to drive up - I'm sure we could've made it in two, but with Kate and two dogs (Bentley and Zambi) we decided we'd like to keep our sanity. Lori was a sport and endured the 2,000 mile journey with us, as did Dusty's best friend Robert - aka DeOtte.

Here are a couple of pictures from the trip:

It has snowed (gasp!) at least 3 days since we've been here - about 4-6 inches two nights ago. Kate is absolutely THRILLED. For the first 3 days every time she would look out the window or we'd walk outside, she'd exclaim "Look!! There's SNOW!!!!" We assured her it isn't going anywhere for a while. We found a plastic "sled" at Target and she and Dusty have made the piles of snow pushed up to clear the roads their sledding ground. It's pretty cute.

This is Rosie. La La and Kate made her the second day we were here. She is now under about 4" of snow. =)

Dusty has started "class" and Kate and I are trying to figure out what we're supposed to do. We found a playground Tuesday at one of the malls where she made a friend and we're going to take Bentley to Pet Co. tomorrow. Exciting days! I'm going to apply for a few jobs this week. I love being at home, but I'm ready to use my degree that I worked so hard (and owe a lot of money) for.

Thanks for reading my first blog! Hopefully I will update on a regular basis and they won't all be this long. =) We love and miss everyone and can't wait for you all to come visit.