Home Improvements, Stage 1

We decided to start our Home Improvement plan on our new house by tackling the small projects first. The first order of business was changing all the outside locks and door handles and replacing the outdoor light fixtures with sensor lights. Cam was able to accomplish all this in two Saturdays.

We then moved on to painting. It's been 10+ years of renting WHITE, WHITE, WHITE apartments/houses and we were more than ready to add a little color to our lives! We decided to start on the smallest room and selected a sage green paint for our upstairs "guest" bath. It turned out a really nice shade (even though the pictures look "minty" it is really a light sage tone!) and matches our IKEA art perfectly!

Cam painting test spots

Kristy priming over the test spots

Finished!

Finished!

Finished!
(Note the curved hotel shower rod, Mom L!)

P.S. On a slightly mushy tangent, note the t-shirt that Cam is wearing. When I questioned his fashion choice for the evening, he stated that this is his "painting" shirt. The last time I saw this shirt was when he helped me paint my bedroom at home in Vancouver ... when we were Juniors in High School! All those years ago, I helped him get his painting shirt a little dirty by adding the smiley face!

New Addition

EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it! The Smiths have a New Addition!!!

OK, much to the chagrin of our mothers, it is not the bouncing baby variety, but a brand new puppy! Her name is Athena and she's settling in nicely to her big back yard and snug little crate.

Yesterday we visited the Animal Rescue League of El Paso and were almost immediately approved for adoption. We picked out a cute little black lab mix and got to bring her home today. After a rough ride home (She puked 3 times, but at least it was all on the tarp we had laid down!), she spent an hour in her new backyard learning to play fetch with Kristy and "Auntie" Charla!


We compromised on the name Athena. Cam wanted to pick something tough and/or Air Defense-related (i.e. Trigger, SCUD, etc.). Kristy wanted something cute and feminine. We had narrowed the field to Nike (Greek Goddess of Victory and also the name of an early ADA missile) or Athena (Greek Goddess of War and Wisdom). We decided on Athena so as not to lead strangers into believing we were the type of blathering idiots to name their dog after a shoe.

Sitting Pretty (w/ some help)

All tuckered out

Cam installing mesh over the gates to the backyard

Holiday Highlights

Here are a few random highlights from the Smith's Christmas/New Years season:

#1: Graduate from BOLC III with honors:
During the BOLC III Graduation Ceremony, Cam was awarded the BG Mellnik Leadership Award, as voted on by his classmates and approved by the Cadre, and the Army Communication Skills Award for his superior grades on his Cultural Awareness Paper, Battle Analysis and Operation Order. As the leadership award recipient, he also led his classmates in the Soldier's Creed during the graduation ceremony.


#2: Drive non-stop north through the western US states:
After the graduation ceremony, we packed up the truck and headed out for a 24+ hour trip north through New Mexico, Arizona, and California to Washington and Oregon to spend time with our families. We spent 4 days in the Vancouver/Portland area visiting with Cam's parents, siblings, nieces, nephew, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins... We even squeezed in some time to visit with some of Kristy's family friends while we were in town. On Christmas Eve, we headed to Eastern Washington to spend a few days with Kristy's parents, brothers and grandma.

The Smith/Anderson/Dunphy gang

With Dad Smith and his girlfriend

Twins? Uncle Cam and his nephew

The Smiths, The Lebers and Grandma

#3: Pray for no snow on our drive home:
We took a different route home through Idaho, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. We were blessed enough to only find a little snow just as we were leaving Utah and saw the most beautiful sunrise in New Mexico.

#4: Finish unpacking and organizing our NEW house:
After arriving home safely after a 20+ hour drive, we set to work unpacking our remaining boxes and organizing everything! We ended up with a HUGE garage sale pile (We'll drag it all to our friends' house on Post for the Spring Post-Wide Garage sale) and more space than we know what to do with. On the bright side, both cars fit in the garage with space to spare for our bikes and a work bench for Cam!

#5: Attend the 2009 Sun Bowl:
Our house-inspection guy noticed that we were big football fans (How could he not when we were sporting Coug gear from head to toe when we met him?) and offered us free tickets to watch our Pac-10 brethren Stanford take on the University of Oklahoma. We figured that we'd be safe with either teams' fans if we proudly wore our WSU crimson. While our adopted team didn't win, we had a GREAT time and got to see the Army Knights parachute team deliver the game ball.



#6: Start a new job:
After all the hullabaloo of the holidays, Cam was ready to start his new job with his new command. He is currently a platoon leader for the A-4 THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) Battery. He is currently spending most days "out in the field" learning the system and meeting his team.

As a final note, we wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to all of our family and friends we visited over the Christmas break!!! You guys went above and beyond for us and we feel so lucky and loved! Until we can visit again, our door is always open and we now have a super comfy Guest Room! :)

Welcome to 2010!

Just a quick note to wish all our family and friends a very Happy and Healthy New Year!

It's been a VERY busy month of December for us. We packed up our dinky apartment on the west side and moved to our NEW home in Northeastern El Paso. We also drove to and from Washington to visit family for the holidays. As soon as we're a little more settled (and can find the camera cord to connect to the computer), we'll get a proper post up.

Until then:
For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne,

We'll take a cup of kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.

Winter Wonderland ... in El Paso!

The weathermen threatened and promised, but no one took them seriously. Yet they were right!

A cold front moved into the area Saturday and it had been a blustery, rainy, freezing (for El Paso) couple of days. The storm finally dumped its snow payload on us yesterday morning. It wasn't sticking at our house, but from the video below, you can see that it was really coming down.



By the time Cam came home from work, there were a few inches on the ground on post (the other side of the mountain from our apartment) and the freeways were a mess. Still nothing was sticking on our side of the mountain ... even by bedtime.

Surprise! Surprise! We awoke to a winter wonderland this morning with about 2 inches on the ground, but the parking lot and sidewalks were mostly clear. Cam got to delay his arrival on post to let the roads clear up and all of the snow should be gone by this afternoon do to the temperatures rising to the mid-40s. At least it was fun while it lasted!

For the record, that's TWO (2) snowfalls we've seen here! Guess the desert really does experience a WIDE range of temperatures...