Darrell & Sharyn

We have been keeping busy out here in lovely Texas. We have had three snowstorms since the last update. We got one on Christmas eve, one for New Years, and one for Valentines Day Weekend. We are actually getting set to have another one starting on Tuesday. This has been the coldest winter that Texas has experienced since the late 1970’s. They usually only get two snowstorms a year, and none of it sticks. Each snowstorm has dropped anywhere between 3-7”.We didn’t do much for the last couple of Holidays. We stayed home for Christmas and New years and just enjoyed spending time together. It was a little lonesome and we missed hanging out with friends and family, but it was nice not to have to worry about big money issues.

Starting in January, I began to work more at the school. I am now a substitute for the Kitchens and Janitors. I sub more for the kitchen than the janitor, but it gives me more hours which is nice. On the days that I sub for them, I usually work about an 11 hour day. It’s nice for the paycheck, but it hurts the netflix subscription :). 

Darrell got moved upstairs into another department at the beginning of the new year. He is doing really good at his job. Spending lots of time at work and getting things changed around. He’s doing so good that they gave him a BIG raise. We’re both excited about that and he’s excited about getting things done.

We didn’t do much more than work in the Month of January. We bought ourselves a Wii game system and have been playing that, so we are spending a lot of weekend time on that. It has been fun playing games together that we could pause and go do something if needed. We have also been watching a lot of Food Network, so I have started trying different and new recipes. It’s been fun. Darrell really likes it. 

We have had a very busy and roller coaster type of February. Darrell turned 30 and we took a trip to Dallas to go see an IMAX 3D showing of Avatar. We also went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. It was a long day, and it didn’t help that the first theater we went to was sold out of tickets until 10:30 at night and we were there at 11:30 AM. We ended up going to the theater in Colleyville just north of Ft. Worth. We really liked that theater and would probably go there again. You were able to order actual food and have it brought to you in the theater. (By actual food, I mean more than popcorn and candy. Like burgers, huge things of Nachos, and stuff). You were also able to buy a beer and they would let you take the pint glass into the theater. Darrell really enjoyed that part. 

The weekend after his birthday, we were invited up to Whistler for his family vacation and to hang out for Opening weekend of the Olympics. We had a blast once we got there. The gettting there was another matter. We were suppose to fly out early on Friday, but we got the huge snowstorm that dropped 4” here in Abilene, and 11” in Dallas, so our flight from Abilene to Dallas was canceled. We spent lots of time on the phone with airlines figuring things out. We finally ended up driving to Dallas and flying from Dallas out. We had to leave early so that we would beat the cold front making all the melting snow ice. It took us over 4.5 hours to get to Dallas. We saw multiple cars that had spun out and were on the side of the road. But we made it. Our flight left late from Dallas, so we had a long layover in Phoenix, but I got to see Ruth. We finally made it to Whistler 25 hours after we left our apartment. We had a complete blast while we were there and are grateful for the opportunity to go. 

The trip back was a lot less of a hassle except for the massive security screening at the airport. We were thoroughly checked. They made us pull out all electronics (cell’s included), and then they checked everything in our bag by hand, made us put our hands in our pockets and swabbed them, checked our shoes, went through our coat pockets. I felt like it was what I would do to make sure I had everything when leaving for a trip. It took us almost 1.5 hours to get through security. From the time we checked in at the kiosk, to the time we got to the gates. 

Now that we are home and have a couple weeks off before things start up again, we are doing our spring cleaning. The weather has been nice in the 60’s with howling wind. So we are getting things in the apartment clean. Will is coming out to visit in a couple weeks, and then Steve is going to be visiting for a week. Then we have a lot more things to do in the next couple months. Gonna be busy, but it’s good to be busy.Hope y’all are doing great and enjoying the wonders of life!

~The Ross’