Christmas at our House!!

A few pictures of our house all decorated for Christmas!

Had to put everything up in mid-November so that we could enjoy it for more than 2 weeks with all our our holiday traveling!  We were in Indiana for Thanksgiving, I fly to Purdue for 3 days next week, then we leave for Christmas in Colorado on the 19th!

"The Man Tree" (aka, the "non-pretty ornaments")

My attempt at being creative...

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM DAN & STACEY!!!!

Where We Work...

For your Thanksgiving entertainment, we thought we would show you where we work...

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-KINGSVILLE (Stacey)

Stacey's office

Stacey's office from the doorway

McLEOD CREATIVE (Dan)

Dan's office - from the entrance looking up.  The windows there are the owner's office (aka, Dan's boss)

Again from the entrance looking up to Dan's desk (the office in the previous picture is to the left of here).

Dan's desk/workspace!  He's in the loft area shown in the pictures above.

Looking down from Dan's desk/loft.

Still looking down from Dan's desk...

Hope you are doing well - Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I got a job!!!

Dan here...Stacey's finally letting me have a say in what goes on here!

I just wanted to let everyone know that just about an hour ago I was offered (and I accepted) a job at McLeod Creative  a PR and visual design firm in Corpus Christi! (www.mcleodcreative.com). Usually I would have taken more time to make a decision, but this was the only job that I really got excited about in all of the interviews I've had.  Starting next Wednesday, I will be the assistant manager for the company.  

Just to tell you a little bit more about the company...the owner/manager (Monica) is the person I will be working most closely with has worked for larger firms and had a very impressive client list including Coca-Cola, IBM, and the Atlanta Braves (she was even involved in designing the Braves logo).  She and her husband wanted to start a business somewhere that was on the verge of exploding.  A few years later (2001) McLeod Creative was started in downtown Corpus Christi.  They've had a lot of growing business in the area that has elevated them to one of the top 3 PR firms in the area.  Just recently (in August) they were named the Best Business in Corpus Christi.  Monica has been named a "Top 40 Under 40" in Corpus Christi the last two years.  So it's been receiving some high accolades of late.  And the people there are awesome!

From the business has also spawned a non-profit called PATCH, the mission of which is to preserve and restore the arts in Corpus Christi.  Their first endeavor was the restoration of an 80-year old historical theatre downtown, which they just completed.  They have also started a bridal magazine called "The One," which just hit shelves recently.  They are also expecting to have another big business opportunity come along soon, but I've been asked to keep that on the hush, hush (I know you guys aren't going to hear about it up there, but I told her I wouldn't say anything to anyone!).

My job as Assistant Manager will essentially be managing the office and controlling the work flow and relationships with vendors and some of the larger corporate clients.  The job also has a commission element working with some of the bigger businesses in the area.  And because of my non-profit experience, I will probably be involved in some event planning and management of PATCH.  

This is all a God thing for a number of reasons.  For one I found out about the company from a member of our Bible Study group.  I had just met the guy and he mentioned that the company was hiring.  He passed my info along - I get a phone call - then two interviews - and bam, a job!  For the past 3 months+ I have been grinding things out with nothing to show.  Then all of this happens in the span of a few weeks!  If I had not met this guy (Eric), and God had not put it on his heart to share this opportunity with me, then I'd still be searching.  We've also been praying for God to provide financially with me not having a job and he has in big ways each time.  Things were getting pretty tight for us.  Not only has God provided, but he has done so amazingly.  He's not only given me a job, but one that I can really grow into and enjoy.  It's the perfect fit, and why should I expect anything different with God orchestrating things!  Glory be to God!

Thank you guys for your thoughts, prayers, and encouragement.  And thanks be to God!

Stacey now...Thank you all so much for your prayers and support!  We are in awe at how God continues to provide for and support us.  This little drop of Heaven couldn't have come at a more perfect time for me to be reminded that He has us here for a purpose.  There have been a number of things shifting at TAMUK this week - and most of it has not been good.  My department chair, who is a big reason I was drawn to this job, is relinquishing his position in August, 2009.  I'll reserve full details and comments on here since we're in public - but those of you who know me, know I have an opinion about it and I'd be happy to share more details in a less public forum! :-)  Please be in prayer for me - that I can be a light shining in the midst of this "crisis" for our department.  And for our department - I'll just leave it at that.  Dan's news couldn't have come at a better time to remind me that we are right where God wants us!!

Who signed us up for this?!

Plywood:  $120

Screws:  $20

Extension Ladder:  $100

Sawhorses:  $40

Getting to paint "GO BRONCOS" on the side of your house:  Priceless

Yes, yes...we are preparing for Ike!  So many of you have been wanting to see some pictures of our house - so here you go! :-)...Not what you had in mind, yeah - us either! :-)  We really are hoping to post a "video tour" of our home here soon.  In the meantime, here are some pictures of our preparations for Ike:

It took us about 3 1/2 hours to figure out how to board up our house - fortunately the previous owners left boards for most of the windows so we only had a few we needed to improvise on.  Dan spent most of his day running from Home Depot to HEB (the grocery store here) to the bank while I was at work.  TAMUK closed as of 5pm today - so I got home and we got to work.  You can see on the back door in the fuzzy picture above (I didn't give the camera enough time to get used to the humidity outside...) - anyway, you can see our ghetto makeshift board for that door.  In between this and the next hurricane, we are hoping to get a board cut for that door and our front door, as well as some of the clips that our hurricane savvy neighbors have that help put the boards up much quicker and with no screws.  Eventually I think we will get hurricane shutters (as seen on the top window in the top picture here) on all of the upstairs windows - they close up with the turn of a knob inside the house.  The last picture above is our dining room...aka - the storage room for the patio furniture and grill.  I guess it's a good thing we haven't bought a kitchen table yet!

As for our plans - we are currently planning to stay in Corpus Christi.  We are going to watch to see what our friend Ike does over tonight and tomorrow morning.  Right now, it looks like the storm is turning very slightly to the north - which would put us on the "good" side of the hurricane.  If that continues to be the case, we will wait it out here.  If it looks like we will take either a direct hit or be on the right front quadrant of the storm (i.e., the worst side) - we will evacuate.  Dan has some friends from Purdue who live in San Antonio - and have graciously offered us a place to evacuate to.  After seeing that the storm was heading straight up Texas (i.e., to San Antonio) after making landfall - a colleague from school and I tried to book us a room in Laredo (west of here) and thought we were successful.  Until we went to print off a map and realized we booked rooms in Mexico.  Oops.  

We will do our best to at least post a quick note here to let you know if we do evacuate tomorrow.  In the meantime - please pray that we will discern the Spirit's leading should He tell us to evacuate.  Also pray for all who will be affected by this storm - even if we do not have a direct hit, someone will - and we are praying that somehow God would be glorified through His people in the aftermath of the landfall.

Blessings!

The First Few Weeks

I know...I know...it's terrible of me to leave you hanging with 'Dan has 2 interviews' - then not taking the time to update you on how they went!  Here's the latest on each of those prospects:

Texas A&M-Kingsville (my school) over the last month or so has posted for two positions in their Athletic department, one for a sports information director, and one for a marketing position working mostly with the Javelina club.  The first interview that Dan went on there was formally for the SID position, and informally for the marketing one (as the marketing one hadn't been posted yet).  Dan definitely felt like he was more qualified for the marketing one, so he wasn't too distraught when the SID position was filled.  The Athletic Director at Kingsville was not able to be at his first interview, so Dan scheduled a meeting with him to talk more about the department and the marketing position - this was essentially another informal interview with just the AD for the marketing position.  They have since posted and have clearance to being interviewing for that position - so we hope to hear that he is a finalist there within the next couple of weeks.  They will be looking to hire a track coach first, but I believe are wanting everyone in place before the first football game (September 13th).  So please be praying that he will be called in for a formal interview for this position, and that the AD will move quickly!

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (boo!) is hiring for an Athletic Director for external advancement - a position quite similar to the TAMUK marketing position.  Dan interviewed for that position the week after we arrived here and felt that it went well.  The hold up here is that the day after Dan interviewed, the Athletic Director was fired over allegations of NCAA violations...needless to say, they are going through some changes - but Dan is still in the mix for that position.

Bank of America in Corpus Christi is hiring for a financial advisor position...he's not real sure! :-)  This is definitely a 'back up' kind of job for him - but a job nonetheless!  He will be interviewing for this position on Monday (August 18th).

In the meantime - he has been doing a lot of writing, and enjoying some restful weeks before he's back to work!  He has been quite helpful around the house now that I am at work during the days.  It's a bit of a role-reversal for us after he's been working while I was in school since we've been married.  I think one of the highlights was his lawn mowing experience shortly after Dolly came through.  The mosquitos were insane - so in 100 degree weather he was out with 2 long sleeve shirts, pants, and snow gloves to ward off the mosquitos...unfortunately I was at work and don't have a picture to share with all of you!  Speaking of work - I absolutely LOVE my new job!  Every day I feel like this job was created just for me!  I am learning that things down here move much more slowly than at Purdue - but I'm learning to like it!  I still do not have internet access, and we start orientations on Monday - classes on Thursday.  I guess you can't get unreasonable requests from students when you don't have an email address to give them! :-)

My Mom was here to visit for 5 days at the beginning of August.  We so enjoyed having her here - not just for the extra hands in removing wallpaper and painting!  We saw an amazing Michael W. Smith concert, went to the beach, and she got her own taste of hurricane troubles as Edouard was roaring through Houston as she was trying to get back to Denver through Houston.  We're looking forward to seeing all of my family when we travel out for a Broncos game in October!

Perhaps the most exciting development over the past few weeks is that we have found a church home here!  We actually saw it when we were out here in May looking for a house - and thought it was a warehouse of some sort, but upon closer look realized it was a church.  We looked at their website before we moved (www.bayareafellowship.org) and were praying about if that was where God would want us.  We have to admit, we were a little bit skeptical because it's a very large church - but after attending the first weekend we were here - we were confident we were where God wanted us.  Pastor Bil is a student of the Word - and preaches the Word shamelessly.  It is a church grounded in prayer who is reaching many lost souls for the Kingdom - it's very exciting.  Praise God that we so effortlessly found His place for us here!  We attended a small group from the church last night, and are considering hosting one of our own.  You can be praying that we will discern His will in that situation!

Time after time over these past few weeks, we have been amazed at God's financial provision for us during this time that Dan is looking for work.  We just praise Him for being El Shaddai, our provider and thank you all for your prayers during this time!  We are excited to see what God will do during these next few weeks as He unfolds His plan for Dan's employment.  Thank you for your continued prayer and support!!

Now...back to the Olympics....

Dolly: The Texas Welcome Wagon

Well, we've arrived in Texas - and it's been a crazy first week here to say the least! I'm sure you have heard that Hurricane Dolly provided us with a hectic welcome to our new state - when they said everything is bigger in Texas, they weren't kidding! We've had quite an eventful trip down and first few days here, I'll try my best to chronicle the journey for you...it's OK to laugh, that's the only way we've gotten through a lot of this! :-)

DAY 1 (Saturday): With the help of some amazing friends and family, we packed up the trailer last Saturday in a little under 5 hours - not bad for 24' of trailer space (I never ever thought we would need that much!). Thanks to all of you for your help packing, cleaning, and watching kiddos! So far so good in unpacking...the only minor injury sustained is the deep freeze top got a little smashed in! And that mattress cover still fits like a glove! :-) After packing up the trailer, we took quick showers and hit the road for Texas! We made it to Little Rock that night, after a bit of a wild ride through southern Illinois. We ran into a driver who was clearly intoxicated and was all over the road - almost side-swiping a number of cars. I had my first call into 911 ever (not counting the fake ones from the days of drills for lifeguarding)! No idea what happened to the guy - we just kept our distance.

DAY 2 (Sunday): Not alot happened this day - other than driving through Texas...I was a little disappointed that they didn't have a "Welcome to Texas" sign on our route...I had no idea that they had Dolly lined up as our welcome in the coming days. We made the trip from Indianapolis to Corpus Christi in 20 hours and 12 minutes (official driving time). In the picture, you can see my view of Dan for the entire trip...our cars were packed to the roofs!

DAY 3 (Monday): We woke up this morning to hear that Tropical Storm Dolly was passing over Mexico, back in the gulf and headed toward Texas. When we saw the "projected path" on the news, we both just looked at each other like, "Did that just say it was coming toward Corpus Christi...for real?" Yes, for real! Our insurance agent called as we were packing up the cars to go for our final walk through before closing on the house - she wanted us to come in that day and sign our flood insurance because it had to be filed by a certain time to be in effect for the storm. Thank you, God, for leading us to this agent who would care enough to call us! We found out at closing that there were tons of people scrambling to get insured and getting denied because the storm had passed the mystical mark where insurance no longer issues policies. We also found out that we were one of the only homes our title agency was closing this week because of the storm/insurance issue. Again, thank God that He orchestrated everything so perfectly! We also ventured out to the grocery store to get some food for our new house - moving tip: don't go to the grocery store or the gas station when a hurricane is coming! Yowsa! It reminded me of when snowstorms come through Colorado/Indiana - and you walk in WalMart and right in the front there are shovels, ice melt, and sleds...only here it was water, emergency radios, and batteries! We also went to pick up our new TV at Best Buy - it was supposed to be delivered on Wednesday, the day the hurricane would be at it's worst. Only, it was about 2 inches too long for the back of Dan's Escape...so I rode in the back with the TV and it's stand for the 20 minute drive home. As we pulled around the corner, our neighbors were (of course) out in their yard and got to witness the entire debacle - including when Dan couldn't get the door open because my rear end had lodged the lock - and when it finally opened the "panic" horn started sounding because he had locked the car. Hello neighbors!!

DAY 4 (Tuesday): Today was day 2 of cleaning the house. The previous owners clearly didn't clean much - and the house had been vacated for about 10 months. It pretty much looked like once we went into contract 2 months ago, they never had someone clean or mow the lawn (maybe 2 weeks on the lawn...). They also left a ton of trash and crap in the garage and cupboards. Dan was quite pleased to find a samurai sword in the kitchen cupboard. We held onto it just in case we had to deal with looters as Dolly came through! :-) We spent most of today cleaning, chasing lizards (seriously - in our house), flushing the biggest roach of a bug I have ever seen in my life (well, Dan flushed, I cowered in the corner), and pulling wallpaper off the kitchen walls. In the picture on the left, you can see the first sights of Dolly as she made her way to us.

DAY 5 (Wednesday): Hurricane Dolly arrived through the night. We spent our first hurricane inside, painting the kitchen and living room (I'll post some pictures once we get everything situated!). The best way to explain what it was like is a 2-day long severe thunderstorm. We were woken up by the biggest, loudest thunder we'd ever heard (everything..still bigger in Texas!) and it was just really windy and tons of rain. This picture shows pretty much what the day looked like. Along the beaches in Corpus Christi, there were waves 12 feet high! Dan wouldn't let me go see. We also had wind gusts up to 70 mph, with around 40mph sustained winds through most of Tuesday night and Wednesday. The local news stations were reporting 10+ inches of rain from good 'ol Dolly - our yard definitely needed it after being neglected for the last 2 months! We only lost power for a couple of really brief bouts - nothing too crazy. I think the craziest thing for me was the way the storm swirled around. One hour the wind would be pelting the rain on the south-side of the house, the next hour it's on the north-side. At one point, the branches on our tree in the front yard were swirling around in a circle from the wind! We were under a tornado watch, but never had any around here. Kingsville, where my school is, had some sighted - but no major damage.

DAY 6 (Thursday): Broncos Training Camp opened today!!! Our trailer arrived this morning! We were told yesterday that it wouldn't make it until Friday because of the hurricane - but were woken up by the workers at ABF telling us they were bringing the trailer out! We scurried around and got the air mattresses deflated so we could sleep on our own bed tonight! They dropped it off and couldn't believe we were going to unload it in a hurricane! It was still pretty windy, but the rain had stopped - so we figured, why not? We spent about 2 hours unloading things so we could get to our bed and get it out and set up. It was REALLY humid today - so we were both nice and sweaty from moving around outside. We had movers scheduled to come out at 4pm, so we saved most of the heavy stuff for them. While we were waiting for the movers to come, we put away the boxes that we had unloaded and got our DirectTV (yay - NFL Sunday Ticket - GO BRONCOS!!!) hooked up. Dan pretty much directed the movers, and I stayed inside for most of it to start unpacking and getting things situated.

DAY 7 (Friday/Today): Both of Dan's interviews that were scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday of this week were rescheduled because of Hurricane Dolly. He is on the first of 2 interviews right now! He is out at Texas A&M-Kingsville, where I will be teaching. They are interviewing him for 2 positions out there now - we are praying that he will get one of these so we can be at the same school! He also has an interview at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Monday. Please be praying for him as he goes through these interviews - that God will place him where He can most use him!!

Again - thank you all for your prayers and support through this move! We'll be sure to keep you updated on our lives down here in the Lone Star state! I'm in full unpacking and getting things settled mode, followed by finish painting rooms mode. We'll post some before/after pictures so you can see!

Be blessed!!

T-minus 2 weeks to Texas!!

Two weeks from tonight (Monday) - we will officially be in the Lone Star state!! We have rented one of the green/gold/silver trucks many of you have probably seen on the road from ABF, a moving company where we load and unload the truck, but they drive it down for us. They were quite a bit cheaper than a U-Haul, and we didn't have to figure out how to get both cars, and a truck loaded with our things down there! We'll receive our trailer on Wednesday, July 16th (Happy Birthday Chas!) - and will be loading it up on Saturday, July 19th! We would hate for anyone to miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime experience...so if you'd like to help us load - come on over! :-) (we'll feed you!)

Depending on how quickly loading the trailer goes, we will either leave Indiana on Saturday afternoon or early Sunday morning - making our arrival into Corpus Christi on Monday! We are so excited!!! God has just orchestrated everything so perfectly with both houses. We will close on our Indiana house this Wednesday!! Pray that everything with this closing goes well, and that the buyers will pull together everything they need to for a smooth closing! We will likely close on our Texas house on July 21st or 22nd - we'll keep you posted on that one!

Dan's job search has kicked into high gear. He has two interviews scheduled in the next couple of weeks!! The first is at the school I will be teaching at (Texas A&M-Kingsville) and is a sports information director position. The other is at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and is an assistant athletic director position. Both jobs were on the top of his list - and we are confident God is pulling everything together even now! We'll be sure to keep you posted on this - please keep praying that these doors will continue to open up, and that Dan will be sensitive to the Spirit's leading as he begins making decisions!

As always - thank you so much for your prayer and support through this process!

Two Days With No Water...

It's been an interesting week in the Gaines house! On Tuesday, we had a pipe burst in our garage between the well pump and the water pressure tank (who knew a screwdriver smaller than 2 inches could do that?!). I was inside the house working, and Dan and his Dad were doing some electrical work in the garage. All I heard was something thud (the screwdriver), and gushing water. I opened the door to the garage to find my husband dripping wet from getting the valve turned off. So we were without water for 2 days. As you can see from the picture to the left, the pipe looked to be living it's last happy days of holding water. We were so thankful that it happened while Dan and Ted were right there - we have half our garage full of packed boxes, and some furniture that some friends are buying from us - it could have been a huge mess had the pipe burst when we weren't there! It was definately one of those situations that was a huge frustration, but in hindsight it could have been much worse. Thank you God for (again) protecting us! We are still fighting with the home warranty policy we purchased when we listed the house as to who will pay for the repairs, so you can be praying for that to come through! Did I mention that we had our home inspections and appraisal yesterday?! The plumbers finished up yesterday morning, so I spent the afternoon wasting water to get all of the rust and sediment out of the system so we wouldn't have (hopefully) issues on our inspection! I think we are both ready to get this move done! :-)

Thanks for your continued support and prayers that all of these details will fall into place! We are closing on our house here on Thursday - July 3rd! It is just a huge blessing that we will have the proceeds from that sale as we make this move - God has definately provided mightily for us! We will be sure to keep you posted on Dan's job (the job in the Athletics Department at TAMUK was posted this morning...so we are praying that they move quickly - and of course, hire Dan!) :-)

God SOLD our house!!!

The Short Version...

We should be officially under contract today on our Indiana house - they offered us full price (yay!) and the only thing we countered on was closing/possession dates!

The Whole Story...

These buyers were our showing last Friday evening. They spent quite a bit of time at the house, so we were hopeful that they were interested. (We found out later that they almost didn't come to the showing because they had seen 10 houses already that day - Praise God that they came!) On Saturday - we went to the zoo with friends (shout out to Josh & Katie, and Jay & Em!) - and had planned to prepare the house inside and out for the Open House on Sunday when we got back. Change of plans...it was hailing and pouring rain as we got home - there were leaves and branches everywhere, cherries from our cherry tree smashed all over the driveway, the flowers were bashed into the ground, and the yard was flooded in spots. We were a little defeated, but kept telling each other that God wouldn't have let it storm like this if it weren't for a purpose. Enter that purpose... We decided not to go to church on Sunday so that we could clean up the yard and house and make sure it was ready for the Open House. So after spending the whole morning cleaning, yard-working, and even spraying what looked to be dog poo off the roof (see picture below!), we called it quits at 1pm to get showered and out of the house by 2. At about 1:37, Dan realized he had a message on his phone - it was FC Tucker (our real estate agency) saying there would be a showing on the house at 1:30...uh, 7 minutes ago. So we look outside and see people milling around as we are trying to get dressed and out of the house! Their agent was late (thank you Lord!), which is why they were roaming around outside instead of inside the house. When our agent arrived at 1:45, she brought them inside. They had a ton of questions to ask about the house (it was the same couple that looked on Friday) - that our agent probably couldn't have answered - but because Dan was there, they got all of their questions answered. It was just all God that we were there at that time. If it didn't storm so bad on Saturday, we would have gone to church and probably been out of the house by 1:30 that day. So...it was this couple who put in an offer! They offered us our full asking price (another huge praise!) and the only thing we are negotiating on is the dates for closing. On the contract they had us closing on July 22, but we will not leave until July 27. It sounds like they have verbally accepted our counter - and that we will be closing in the next few weeks - with them taking possession on July 28. We are just so thankful that God worked out all of the smallest details and orchestrated all of this!!

The Bottom Line...

PRAISE GOD for His goodness and provision! We are so thrilled with Him right now - He just keeps pulling everything with this move together in His perfect timing!

The Prayer Requests...

• Dan's job search - he has some very promising leads, two at TAMUK where I will be working! One of these is in the athletic department, and looks to be a good fit for him. We are waiting for the position to officially post, but my (Stacey) department chair has put him in contact with the Athletic Director pre-posting. Universities are often good about hiring spouses when they can, so we are hopeful that this will work out! He also has applied for positions at TAMU-Corpus Christi (ah - the rival school!) in their athletic department, and at various philanthropic agencies in the Corpus Christi area (American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, etc.). Pray that the details of his job will be revealed to us soon! We know that God has it all worked out, and are eager to see what His plan is! :-)


• Texas house - we had most of our inspections done last week, and will finish up today with the plumbing. Everything looks to be in really good shape, so we are thankful that the house is "healthy"! The only thing remaining at this point is the appraisal for our lender - this should be happening in the next week or so. Pray that it goes well!


• Indiana house - the buyers will likely be doing their inspections this week or next. Pray that these inspections go well, and that there will be no major defects on the house! Pray also that everything will progress smoothly with their financing. This house will also be appraised shortly, please pray that it will appraise for the price the buyers have offered us! We have made many updates to the house, and are fairly confident it will be fine!

Again - thanks so much for your prayers and support!!
We are so thankful that we serve a MIGHTY GOD!!

New News and Updates!

Some new news, and updates on some old news...and most importantly - ways that you can be praying for us!

• We are officially under contract on our new house in Corpus Christi! We'll be doing inspections (well, we won't - but the professionals will be!) on the home this week. Please pray that these will go well and that we will select the right inspectors for the job!! Our agent is going to be at the house for all of these for us - we are so blessed to have her helping us through this process!

• We have our first showing on our Indiana house tomorrow (Monday)!! It will be between 11am-12pm (EST) - so you can be praying for that! We know that God is bringing everything together in His time - and just have to remind our fleshly worries that HE IS ON THE THRONE and IN CONTROL!!!

• We received some good news this week regarding our home loan. It looks like we will be able to work with my (Stacey) hometown bank - and that the loan will NOT be contingent upon the sale of our Indiana home! Praise God! Of course, we are still praying for the sale of our home here in the hopes of avoiding the financial burden of paying 2 mortgages/home insurances/utilities/etc.

• Dan is still looking for jobs in Corpus Christi - he has applied for various philanthropic, event coordinator, and athletic positions. We appreciate your continued prayer for him to find a job so he doesn't have to be a cabana boy in chapps (please...pray! :-)).

• One last prayer request - please be praying for us to quickly find a new church home in Corpus Christi. We have done some searching online and found some nearby churches when we were out there - but ultimately we want to be where God wants us and where we will be most effective for His Kingdom! So your prayers for us to be lead by the Spirit in this (and all!) avenues of our move are greatly appreciated!

We'll be sure to update you on any new developments - we really appreciate your prayers and support during this relocation!

Seriously - We're Going to Live HERE!

A view of our first day on Corpus Christi beach!

Pictures of Our House!

From the front driveway...his and hers garage doors! The two windows above the left side garage are in the master bedroom, the circle one above the right side garage is in the master closet.
The upper window on the left side is in the bonus room (office), and the lower window is in the kitchen.

Another outside view...
so you can see the trees!

Master bedroom

Below is the master closet...Stacey's side on the left, Dan's side on the right! :-)

Master bathroom - his/hers sinks on the right (closet is to the right as well), tub to the left...

More master bath...shower sits to the left of the tub. We'll be getting rid of the pretty wallpaper border... :-)

Laundry room! It's huge and has tons of storage/hanging space! I'm so excited to not have to stand in the hall to do laundry!










Bonus room...
this picture isn't doing it justice!
We'll use it as an office now, and eventually it will be a playroom for the kiddos! (nope, not pregnant...
just in case you were wondering!)

Official Listing of Our New Home!!

The official listing online can be found by following these steps, if you are interested:

1. Go to www.vickycorreasellshomes.com
2. Click on PROPERTY SEARCH
3. Click on RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES
4. In the MLS NUMBER box, type - 74384

And viola! There is the listing for the house we put an offer on! Don't mind the cheesy popcorn bowls...those will be going! :-)

I'll post some actual pictures that we took tomorrow!

Commute to Kingsville Challenge!

Today we dubbed the "Commute to Kingsville Challenge!" day. Knowing that commute was one thing that could make or break one of our favorite houses, we decided to drive it out and see how each looked. We are essentially looking in two areas of Corpus Christi - one is called Calallen, and the other, South Corpus. They are pretty similar in terms of school districts, and neighborhoods.

So we drove from the Calallen house to Kingsville first...33 minutes (on a jaded sample because our new GPS - whom we have lovingly named M.J. - took us through a town instead of hiways).

In Kingsville - I took Dan around campus to show him where I'll be working. But not before having to pull over to let M.J. tell us where to go, after which I proceeded to lodge our car onto a curb! Dan was pleased! :-) All is well - no harm, no foul! We had lunch at a yummy Mexican restaurant (there are lots of those down here!) - then headed to campus. I was excited to see my name on the door which will be my office - and I have a mailbox already! I think that's part of the torture of graduate school...if they make you feel like a slave who deserves nothing - when you get your first job, you celebrate things like your name on a door! Dan got to meet some of the people I'll be working with - and they gave us some good advice on the 2 areas that we were looking at houses.

Picture of the building I will mostly be working in...

On our trip back - we drove to the second house in South Corpus, where we met our realtor to look at the house again (Dan's favorite). As we walked through it again - I fell in love with it. I'm sure it was 90% God changing my heart, and 10% me mixing it up with one of the other 17 houses we looked at the day before! So we put in an offer on it - and are currently negotiating the contract with the seller, and working out our financing. Prayers are definately appreciated as we wander through this abyss known as buying/selling a house!

After the 3 most stressful hours of my life - pulling together the contract - we had dinner at a fabulous seafood restaurant on the waterfront. Another place we'll be sure to take you when you come visit!!

1 Day, 4 Hours of Sleep, and 18 Houses Later...

We finally made it to Corpus Christi this morning!!! We should have been here yesterday evening, but weather in Dallas caused us to spend 8 hours in Denver before making a flight to Dallas. We had the most comfortable bed ever (highly recommend the Sleep Number) - but only got to spend about 4 hours in it because we had to be at the airport by 6am.

So we arrived in Corpus Christi (after another delay!) around 9:30 this morning and promptly met with our realtor down here. She is a HUGE blessing from God - very efficient, organized, and a Christian herself. It was just a little hug from Him that He would orchestrate that she be our realtor!

Here are some highlights of the day:

• I nearly knocked myself out with a shelf that was sticking out of a wall...where, because I hit my head on it, I knocked off some figurines and proceeded to break the head off a doll and a Panama something-or-other. As we toured that house, I saw about 3 million similar figurines so I didn't feel as bad - and the nice man who owned the house didn't seem to mind.
• Dan and I were both highly disappointed in our top choices (as we looked through the listings online before arriving). Mine was a trash-hole - and the people who lived there were still home when we arrived...so as we walked upstairs to look at the bedrooms - Dan walked in on some guy lounging on his bed. Fabulous. Needless to say, we didn't get the full tour of that house, we were happy to leave as we saw 30 years worth of cobwebs hanging from the ceilings! Dan's favorite was a little better - but a classic example of an agent taking some really good pictures of a not so really good house.
• We saw pink countertops, pink tile in the bathroom, carpet that I swear was from my Mom and Dad's living room - 2 carpets ago...and smelled some things I hope to never smell again!

All in all though - we did have about 10 homes that were "livable" (ironically, neither of our internet favorites made that cut!) - and both of our top 2 were the same homes. Unfortunately, my favorite wasn't Dan's favorite - rats! So we spent the evening praying about it, and decided to see what the commute from each house was to Kingsville (where I will work).

Had dinner at Joe Cotten's - a legendary BBQ joint just outside of Corpus Christi...you can bet that we'll be taking you there if you come to visit - very yummy!!

The Javelina - A One of a Kind Mascot!

FOR ALL OF YOU WONDERING - WHAT THE HECK IS A JAVELINA?!...read on...

The Texas A&M-Kingsville athletic mascot is the javelina, and the school is the only college or university in the nation with this mascot.

Any time the Javelina athletic teams venture outside Texas, one of the first questions asked has been, “What is a javelina?”

Texas A&M-Kingsville has had the javelina as a mascot since opening its doors in 1925. An article in an early edition of the South Texan campus newspaper explained the picking of the name and a description of the animal.

“Last summer (1925), the pioneer students of this college voted to accept the javelina as our college mascot...after hearing some almost unbelievable but highly interesting tales of the fighting spirit of Mr. Javelina, they elected him mascot by a large majority.


“Wherever the javelina is known, his reputation as an intrepid and relentless fighter also is known. The word javelina (pronounced hah-vuh-lee-nah, with the accent on the third syllable) is the Spanish name for the peccary, a species of wild hog indigenous of the New World and ranging from Texas to Pantagonia.

“They are small animals, seldom attaining 40 inches in length and more than 20 inches in height. Biologically, they are related to swine, though their teeth are different and their stomachs are in some respects characteristic of a ruminant.

“They also vary from swine in that the young are born in pairs. They usually range in pairs, although it is not uncommon to find them in flocks of eight to ten.

“Their greatest enemy is the Mexican jaguar, but when attacked they stand their ground with a ferocious determination that often sends the jaguar scurrying to the safety of a high limb.

“There is nothing unusual in their style of fighting. Its main characteristic is vicious intrepidity. When attacked, they boldly face their enemy and begin crowding in on him with a short, driving rush and with their jaws snapping with the suddenness of steel traps, and the animal is in a sorrowful plight that fails to keep his carcass out of range of their knife-like teeth.

“Another characteristic of the javelina is that one flock, if aware that another flock is being attacked, will rush to its assistance, and when once attacked, flight is unthought of.

“They will stay in the fight until the last pig is dead or until the enemy is either killed or driven off.

“The javelina is not easily domesticated and tamed, and they do not make very trustworthy pets. They never forget how to bite if the least bit provoked.”

The species, from Texas to Central America, is known as the collared peccary because of its white stripe running down each shoulder from the withers to around the throat.

Javelina mascots have been frequent at Texas A&M-Kingsville and the present mascot has appeared at all home games since 1969. Today, the animals are caged. At one time the mascots were allowed to run loose on campus.

In September, 1929, Dr. R.B. Cousins, the first president of the school, was attacked by one of the two mascots kept on campus. It was found to be rabid, and Cousins underwent the Pasteur treatment for rabies.

Yee Haw - We're Moving to Texas!!

We wanted to let everyone know that Stacey has been offered, and has accepted, a position in the Health & Kinesiology department at Texas A&M-Kingsville! Of all of the places that she interviewed, this was not only her favorite department (great people with a focus on teaching) - but also the interview and process that we both had the most peace about. We will be moving to Texas and joining the Javelina family in July!

Kingsville is about 30 minutes southwest of Corpus Christi - which has some good potential job opportunities for Dan - we we will likely be living in Corpus Christi, which is a fabulous vacation spot we're heard - beaches, warm weather, resorts! (Just so you know in case you want to stop by for a visit!)

Dan has his heart set on becoming a cabana boy in chaps if nothing else turns up...so we appreciate all prayers for Dan to find the perfect position down there! We appreciate your prayers for all of the other fun details of relocating (selling our home here quickly, finding a home - with guest rooms! - there, etc.). Stacey is working to finish as much of her dissertation as possible before we leave, but fortunately, she has support from her new department chair there to start ABD (all but dissertation....), which is a huge blessing for the transition should she not get finished before we leave! Her proposal date has been set for Friday, May 23rd - so you can keep her in your prayers that day!

If you happen to know someone that is in or connected to the Corpus Christi area, we would of course appreciate any assistance in job possibilities for Dan, etc. You just never know who knows someone who knows someone!

We are sad to be leaving Indy...especially if we aren't going back to Colorado!...but we are very excited for this next opportunity in our lives!!

We apprecaite your continued prayers and support as we make this transition!!