So much to be thankful for.....

particularly the good news that Donna's cancer is gone!!!!!!

You betcha! Off-da

I realize that I do not speak with a Texas drawl; however, I have tried to refine my speech (particularly my pronunciation of the word 'Minnesota") to be a little less Midwestern. Then, I make a comment to the realtor about the "pond" in our new front yard and she laughs and says - "Where are you from? We call those tanks." Oh well.....

Fall in Texas

We are moving from The Lake to The Ranch!

Winter preparations

With temperatures starting to dip into the low 70s, it is time to winterize the boat. Maybe it is also time to register this puppy in Texas........

SOLD!

Well, St. Joe did his job (see earlier blog posting)and we sold the house in Tow!

Sad but true...

After two years, we decided not to exercise our option to renew our lease for Patina. A very difficult decision as we loved the store and the people we met along the way. On the other hand, it will be nice to have Saturdays off again!

Catholics have a saint for everything!

Until recently, I had never heard of this custom. My sister informed me that our house would sell if I buried a statue of St. Joseph in the yard (outside front door, facing away from the house, upside down with feet to the sky). So, I found this kit on Amazon and ordered it. Yesterday, St. Joseph went head first into the garden. Stay tuned....

Feet up!

Lost our chef.......

Stefan moved in with us a little over one year ago. As a Minnesota transplant, it gave him a friendly place to crash while he got his feet on the ground as a sous chef at Horsehoe Bay's Marriott. Well, love has come into play now and it looks like our Stefan may be moving out soon. He is taking his new love to Minnesota to meet the parents next week and we should have more details after that!

While I complain about the long drive to work each day - I can't beat the scenery...

Hey Carol!

With our recent travels north, working in Georgetown during the week and in Marble Falls on Saturdays, we haven't been able to connect with our fun neighbors in Tow. This morning we followed Carol to Burnet - Hey neighbor!

When I lived in Minnesota, weather was always a big deal. In the winter, you could measure the precipitation by just looking at the snow in the yard. So, when we finally got rain here, I went straight to the rain gauge only to find out the hole in the bottom let all the water out. Unofficially, we got several inches in Tow!

Doggy daycare

Because our house in Tow is more than an hour drive from our office in Georgetown (and because we do not have a fenced yard), the pups spend the day at Happy Trails in G'town. Ahh, the life of a dog!

Raining at last in Central Texas!

Pups in the car on our road trip!

The Eagle has almost landed

Photo by John Stange

Loon on Lake Chetac

John took this picture from the pontoon boat in Wisconsin last week. Each night, we heard the loons calling on the lake and each day we chased them with our cameras.

Adventures from the road

At the very end of our 3 week road trip, almost back in Tow, we were speared! It is nice to be back in Texas again.

Brothers Stange

One of the highlights from our roadtrip was seeing the Stange brothers. Unfortunately, we did not connect with Kathy and Ken (notice the boys left a spot open for her in the line-up).

Thank you to my children

The only drawback to my new life in Texas is that it is too far away from my children (Monica in Bloomington, Minnesota and Sean in Des Moines, Iowa). I just got back from visiting both of them and I am so proud to be their mother. They have both grown into wonderful adults. I am so blessed.

My favorite hottub!

Great road trip

We are driving through Kansas on our way back to Texas after a great 3 week road trip. It started by throwing the pups in the Escalade and driving to Minneapolis where we were met by our President and CFO. A few business meetings and the first Vikings game with Brett Favre later, we headed to the cabin in Birchwood, Wisconsin. We had a wonderful time at the cabin and visiting Joe and Donna, as well as my sister, Monica and her husband, Bruce. Good eagle watching and lots of loon sightings before we headed to Chicago to visit John's dad. Bob Stange is recuperating after a health scare and he looks fabulous. His sense of humor, as always, is in tact and will help him navigate his way thrugh rehab. We look forward to seeing him at home this Christmas. We also got to meet the newest Stange - Miss Elle from Atlanta is as beautiful as her siblings!

View from dock in Wisconsin

Day 57...........

of 100+ degree days in Texas and no rain!

It pays to have friends with high places...

We sat on this deck with Jeannete and Bob on Saturday evening and enjoyed hamburgers from the grill. They own 25 acres and have cleared the area where the deck sits for a future home. What a view!

Lawn art

We had dinner last evening with our boss, Philip, and his wife Tracy. They have a beautiful home on 15 acres with horses and longhorns.

Sarah is expecting any minute

Feeding out of the 4 wheeler (to keep away from swinging horns)

Lost our camel....

As you may recall, a camel (named Ahab) and a donkey (named Henrietta) resided at "Fuzzy's Corner" near our home in Tow. I am sad to report that Ahab is no longer with us - although someone has carved a very nice replica in memory of him........

Feels a little bit like "playing store"

When I was little, one of my favorite games was to pretend I was working at a store. My mother gave us pads of sales receipts (that she had from her estate sale business) and for awhile we even had a toy cash register. It was really fun.

Now that John and I have returned to our regular "day jobs" in Georgetown, we are only in the store on Saturdays. Kimberley, our interior designer, has taken over the day-to-day operations at Patina and the store has never looked better! She has such a flair for merchandising and she has even faux painted a few walls.

We invited our niece, Kelly, to come stay with us to see if she has any interest in relocating and helping Kimberley run the store. The idea of moving all the way across the country seemed to be less appealing to Kelly than it was to me a year ago. Still hoping she will just come and give it a try......

Easter visit with my sister, Monica

Zoey

Bear

Spring in Texas

What can I say.............

"Zoey"

"Da Bear"

At last - some rain!

We answer the phone and then we show up!

I saw this marketing logo on the side of a plumbing truck on my way to work today - classic.

February

This month just flew by. John and I both celebrated birthdays, as did my sister, Monica, Bruce, and Taylor.

I still love my job and I have made it back-and-forth every day without a single speeding ticket (just one warning so far). Sean may come to visit over his spring break in March. He still enjoys Drake and the fraternity and he still isn't wild about Iowa. He will stay in Des Moines this summer and is on track to graduate next spring. My Monica had the flu last week. At times like that, I really do miss being close. I hope that she and Caleb can come visit again soon.

We are seeing new businesses open and fewer close in Marble Falls as time goes by. Austin and Georgetown seem unaffected by the economic doom and gloom. Strange times.....

It is really fun having Joe and Donna in Texas for the winter

It was 85 degrees here today - amazing to this Minnesotan. We celebrated John's birthday yesterday with a Papa Murphy's Chicago-style pizza and a 2 hour episode of American Idol. We are hooked on that show!

As you may remember, the "F" was removed from Fuzzy's about the same time the bar was shut down for serving underage drinkers last year. Fuzzy's is probably better known as a directional landmark - everyone refers to the intersection of 1431 and 29 as "Fuzzy's Corner". Well, a new "F" has been posted, so we don't have to call it Uzzy's anymore!

Brother Chuck

Chuck (Stange of Atlanta) was in San Antonio last week on FAA business. He was able to spend a little bit of time with John on Wednesday, but airplane business got in the way of our plans to meet for dinner on Thursday night at Tamale King. Unfortunately, that meant that Michelle did not get tamales on Friday. Sorry Michelle! Michelle is expecting another little Stange at the end of April. Since I missed dinner with Chuck, I didn't get to ask a million baby questions....sex of baby, baby names, potential godparents :), etc. Although John did relay Chuck's proud updates on Anthony, Sarah, Matt and Gigi which was fun to hear. We had the best time with that brood 2 years ago in Birchwood. Hopefully, they will come visit here - the swimming is better in Texas (no weeds and the water is warm).

A sighting at last!

When we moved to Texas, I was on the look-out for the "Texas speed bump" (aka the armadillo). Everyone said that the reason armadillos get hit by cars so often is because they jump up and form a ball when startled (visualize an armadillo noticing a car barreling down on him). A popular postcard here shows a smashed armadillo in the middle of the road and the paint stripe going across the body.

Well, after more than a year, I finally spotted an armadillo. This one was alive and apparently camera shy.

Love is in the air

Yes, it's that time again in Tow, Texas - skunk mating season! It seems that whenever Pepe LePieu is out running around in search of love, he is more likely to be hit by a car. The sad and stinky little buggers are everywhere.

John tells me that he had a pet skunk named Leroy at one time in his life. Apparently, Leroy had his stinker removed before he came to live at the Stange household. Even so, Leroy wore out his welcome and went to live with another family.
There is a lesson in there somewhere.......

The eagles have landed again

Two adult eagles have come back to the nest by our house. Two babies pop their heads up every so often and screech for food. Ah....... the memories that image brings to this empty-nester!

Job update

I'm loving my new job and Kim would be so proud of me - I am finally organizing my emails and draft documents into folders on the same network drive!!

John sold some of his own photography today from the shop (his famous eagle shot). He also wanted me to post a blog for Betsy to let her know that dinner is on the table every night when I get home!

Bird Show

Another weekend trip to Goliad - this time to go to a bird show. I am blogging from the car as we drive back to Tow in time to catch all the football games. Stephan is off work today, so we will pick up some Texas Pride BBQ on our way home for the game.

After two weeks on the job, I officially love it. The people are great and the working conditions are over the top - nice offices, free fruit every day, lunch on Tuesdays and Thursday, breakfast burritos on Fridays, we all have company iphones and wireless laptops....did I mention free fruit every day? My commute is about an hour and a half, but I am always moving and the scenery is beautiful. Almost no traffic to speak of since I avoid Austin and Highway 35W altogether. My experience in on-point so I don't need to reivent myself or learn alot of new tricks. Phew! Seriously, I feel incredibly blessed to have found his job so close to home and in my field in these economic times.

I think we turned the corner on winter (lows of 30 and highs in the 60s)as we are getting back into the 70s again. We still need rain to raise the lake level which remains low.

Who?

Knighting ceremony

We were in Goliad visiting Joe and Donna when Suzi mentioned that her husband, Newton, was being knighted at the Presidio Fort and did we want to attend? (Suzi and Newt own the Soho gallery in Goliad and are new friends through Joe and Donna.) It was a remarkable ceremony - complete with Sam Houston's dress sword, the handpainted fresco in the Church as a backdrop, the Sons of Texas and a cannon.

Best BBQ ever!

We found this joint outside San Antonio on our way to visit Joe and Donna in Goliad. This is definitely the best BBQ place!

New Year

I go back to the corporate world tomorrow. I will be VP of Legal Services for Embree Asset Group in Georgetown, Texas (an hour commute from Tow). I am feeling quite blessed to have found such a great opportunity in these tough economic times. It is even more remarkable to have found a job in my field within driving distance of Tow!