A lot has happened the last month!! I just don't have the time to keep everybody updated...here's the Cliff's Notes version of the Baird family...

We finally have an offer on the condo!! We're set to close in a couple days but the condo HOA is being a bit finnacky, so we might have to delay another week. We got waaaay less then we wanted and are ending up taking a loss on the condo, which is hard to accept especially after all our hard work, but it's better than continuing to have 2 mortgages. I hope the new family enjoys that place as much as we did :)

I took my GRE so I can start my grad school application. I had no idea that you can basically take the GRE whenever because it's a computer test (shows you what I know about higher education). All the other tests I've taken (SAT, ACT, Teacher Cert) are only offered once every month or so, so you have to plan ahead. I signed up to take the GRE about a week and a half after I decided I wanted to do it, so that meant no prep time...the only thing I did to get ready was print off a copy of the paper version of the test so I could see the formatting of the questions/essays. I know I did horribly on the essays because I haven't written a paper since high school (that's a decade ago people!!!). I tested out of all my English classes at A&M, so I never had to write a true paper while I was an undergrad. I don't know my scores for the essay, but they give you the verbal and math scores immediately after you finish. Well, no shock I didn't do very well on the verbal; I talk to 11-year-olds all day so my vocabulary isn't what it used to be. I only got a 570 out of 800 on that part. Here's the exciting news though: I got an 800 out of 800 on the Math part...without any prep!! When I saw that my heart started racing and I thought they had made some kind on mistake. I guess I'm as much of a Math nerd as I thought. 1370 total score isn't bad, so I should have no problem getting into U of Houston or A&M for Masters. Who knows when I'll officially go back to college, it may be a few semesters, but I'm starting it out :) Exciting!!!

Allison is still the cutest baby ever!! She does so many things to melt my heart on a day-to-day basis. She says night-night, uh-oh, nana (for banana), up, and most interestingly, poop. I know potty training is still light-years away (which by the way is a distance, not a time...), but I'm trying to get her to know what "poop" is.

Greg is still working hard keeping his company afloat. He works in the water/wastewater portion of land development, so with the slowdown of new housing developments, the rest of the company is struggling to find work. Being an Electrical Engineer in Houston after Hurrican Ike, there are lots and lots of developments and municipalities who are getting generators installed, so he has more work than he knows what to do with!! The Electrical Divison is the only divison to turn a profit, so they owe a lot to Greg and the other EE.

I have 5 weeks left until summer!! I'm definitely looking forward to fun time and projects this summer. I plan to try some gardening (we'll see if I inherited Mom's brown thumb), and we'll probably be spending lots of time at the pool. We have a few big vacations coming up, and I can't wait!!!

Here are some recent pics (all of Allison of course...).

Getting into the china cabinet. Good thing the only thing there are all my leftover wedding candles.

At Mami's house

With cousin Bailey

They look like they're getting arrested :)

Modeling her new dress.

A few pictures I found on my camera that I never posted

Sleeping beauty


Allison eating an egg roll

Easter weekend with the Bell family

We got into Tyler late Thursday night and stayed through late Saturday night. The weather was BEAUTIFUL!!! We couldn't have asked for anything better. It was nice to get to spend some relaxing quiet time with the family, even if there was some scary excitement (see the bottom of the post).

Our cutie pie :)


Allison and Shadow. It's amazing what that cat will put up with...

Coloring Easter Eggs

Mike's kids, Maya and Caleb

Allison coloring eggs for the first time. I'm a bit controlling, so I wouldn't let her do it all by herself :)

The Hunt

Allison had to play on every moving toy that Grandma and Pappy have at the farm

And the most exciting part of the weekend: The Fire

We had finished coloring eggs and had all gone inside to rest and visit. Mike and Jess took their kids and ran to the store, and Allison was down for a nap, so all was quiet at the farm...or so we thought. Mom and Dad had fallen asleep for an afternoon nap and Greg was working on a puzzle, so I thought I'd go outside and clean up the egg coloring mess. I picked up some eggs, then noticed the paper towels had rolled off the porch to the backyard. As I went down to get them, that's when I saw the fire.

Dad had been burning a pile of logs all day with no problem, but at some point it must have sent some embers off or something. I saw black smoke and flames that were about 15-20 feet tall coming from some plastic culverts that Mom had by the burn pile. I ran back inside to my peaceful family and yelled "Dad! Fire! Now!". We all frantically hit the ground running. Mom had to track down where all the garden hoses were (because they still weren't hooked up after the Winter freezes). Mom said she worried most when she saw the flames on the trees; that's when we knew we couldn't do it alone. I ran into the barn and called 911 (for the first time in my life ever), and they said someone was already on the way (a neighbor must've called or something).

None of us took any pictures of the fire since we were a bit preoccupied, so all we really have is the aftermath shot. The firemen said we did a good job getting it out; we had gotten about 1/2 of it down before they got there. The damages: the Weaver's trailer lost all its tires and the wiring got melted, Russ's trailer lost its wheels and the boards are burned from the bottom up, a few pallets that were holding some farm equipment got burned, but I think what Mom will miss most of all is her culverts. She had hunted and hunted for these big plastic "tubes" (about 4 ft in diameter), to use for the Pumpkin Patch so kids can run through and play in them. They didn't come cheap, so they were definitely the biggest loss. Thankfully Dad's new "War Tractor", the 1942 John Deere, was spared. The fire went under and around it, but it didn't get damaged.

The fire went across their property line and almost made it to their neighbors tractor and trailer, so they might get a ticket or have to pay some kind of fine for it. But at least no one was hurt!! Thanks to all the hard work and thinking-on-your-feet of Mom, Dad, Greg, Jess's Dad and myself. How eventful!

Greg helping with the cleanup...Sorry about your trailer Russ