Our Big Move!

It has been a crazy few weeks for the Baker family! The end of the school year is always a busy time, but between my new job and moving into a new house, it has been extremely hectic. We started off by packing up and moving my entire classroom from my old school to the garage in our new house (we will move everything to my new school in August). Over the last eight years of teaching I have accumulated a lot and we had to make multiple trips in order to get it all. Once we finally got that job finished, we began packing up our townhome. The movers came the second week in June and after a lot of unpacking and organizing, we are finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We still have a long ways to go, but after the long moving process, we are really enjoying our new home!

Here are some pictures of the outside of the house. I will post pics of the inside once it is decorated! ;)

New Job!

When Jason and I decided to build a house in Atascocita, I knew that it would be a long commute to the school where I currently teach 4th grade. I absolutely LOVE my school so I decided to apply to Humble ISD with the stipulation that I would only accept a job if it was a specialist position. I received my Master's Degree in Language Literacy Education and I have always wanted to be a Reading Specialist however, I knew I had to put in the time as a classroom teacher before I could take the next step into a specialist-type position. After a long and stressful interview process, I was blessed enough to be offered two specialist positions at different schools. Both of the jobs sounded wonderful, but I finally decided to take a position at Fall Creek Elementary, which is a newer elementary school about 10-15 minutes away from our new house. I will be the Reading Specialist for the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade levels and my job will entail working with teachers on their literacy programs and working with at-risk students. I have heard great things about the principal at my new campus and a lot of the faculty members are younger, so I am hoping to make a lot of new friends! Although I am sad to leave the wonderful friends and families from the school that I have worked at for the past five years, I am excited (and nervous!) for this new challenge!

Couple's Weekend!

Jason and I recently enjoyed a relaxing couple's weekend in Fredericksburg with our good friends the Murphy's and the (soon-to-be) Cooks. We stayed at the Road Runner Inn which is a neat bed and breakfast located above two stores right on Main Street. The location was perfect and all of our rooms were really nice. The Inn only consisted of three rooms so we had the whole place to ourselves!

Once we got there, we walked around Main Street and enjoyed catching up over dinner and drinks at a few of the local pubs. The next day we woke up, had an early breakfast and then headed down Highway 290 on a wine tour. We ended up going to four different wineries: Grape Creek, Torre de Pietra Vineyards, Becker Vineyards and Perdernales Cellars. We had a fun time seeing all of the different vineyards and sampling wine at each one. It was a great weekend with wonderful friends!

The three couples enjoying huge beers at a local pub:

Jason and I Debbie and Cary
Sue and Rob
Acting silly while hanging out on Main Street
Sue, Debbie and I at breakfast
Grape Creek Winery was our first stop on the wine tour
The whole group at the Becker Vineyards

New House Pictures

We are officially a month out from closing on our new house! We have set the closing date for May 28th and we will be moving in June. We stop by about once a week to check on the house. It has been so much fun to see all of the progress they have made in such a short amount of time!

Putting up the shingles and the siding

The living room and fireplace

Bricking the house

The stone on the fireplace.

The finished product!

The entryway. To the left is the dining room and upstairs is the game room.

The balcony and gameroom ceiling. The wood on the ceiling was one of Jason's "must haves" for the house!

April

April has been a busy month for us! We started out the month by celebrating Easter with both of our families. We had dinner Saturday night with Jason's mom and Dana, brunch on Sunday morning with my family, and dinner Sunday night with Jason's dad and Sheila. It was a wonderful Easter weekend!

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The next weekend, we drove to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area for my cousin's wedding. Friday night, we started off in Denton where we had dinner and spent the night with my good friend Amy and her husband Josh. The next day, we drove to Dallas to visit Jason's friend John and see his new house. That evening, we drove to Ft. Worth where we met my parents and my brother for my cousin's wedding at the botanical gardens. After the wedding we went out in downtown Ft. Worth with my brother and cousins.

After the wedding with my brother, my cousins Kevin and Kelly and Kelly's girlfriend.

The following Saturday, we were invited to two parties: an afternoon crawfish boil hosted by our friend Roger and a suprise birthday party for our friend Brent. We had a lot of fun enjoying the perfect Spring weather with friends!

Finally, last weekend we had a baby shower for Meredith, one of Jason's good friends from college who is expecting a baby girl in June. While the girls were at the shower, Meredith's husband Ron had a crawfish boil at his house for all of the guys. After the shower, the girls joined the guys at Ron and Meredith's house where we hung out and enjoyed tons of delicious crawfish and shrimp.

Although it has been busy, April has been a really great month!

Moving Right Along...

Thanks to the nice weather we have been having, our new house is moving right along! We have stopped by our lot several times over the past few weeks and each time they have been at a different stage of the building process. Here are some pictures of the progress on our house!

Preparing the lot for the cement slab

The freshly poured slab

Framing the house: The entryway and stairs

The back of the houseAnother view of the back of the house. The master bedroom is to the far left.

The front of the house.

Another view of the front of the house.