Stroll Down Memory Lane

Katie playing in the sandbox at Willie's.
Collin at Willie's.

Matt and me at our favorite restaurant in Houston - Willie's. We are sitting outside near the sandbox. That should explain the sweat. Almost every Friday night of our 3 years in Houston we went to Willie's. We met friends there, took family members here...we loved Willie's! Now we wanted to bring our kids here to play in the sandbox. Now back in 1996-1999 after dinner we would go across the parking lot to the $ movie, see what was playing and then head over to 1/2 Price Books to look around until our movie started. Yep, that was almost every Friday night for us before kids.

Bammel Church of Christ and Northland Christian Elementary School, Houston, TX - where we went to church for 3 years and I taught 2nd grade science for 3 years AND (gasp) was a cheerleading coach for 1 year!

Vineyard Trace Apartments - rented a 1 bedroom, 530 square feet for $385/month! In this apartment Matt killed his first mouse in our pantry, we thought someone was breaking in the night 2 cats got into a fight on our balcony and I began the search for a little roomier apartment.

Second apartment - this one in Spring, TX, a suburb of Houston. We rented a 1 bedroom with office alcove, 789 square feet for $510/month! Loved this aparment! It had vaulted ceilings and the laundry room was in the bathroom. We had a LARGE closet and a cute little balcony with storage outside. In this apartment we were first connected to the internet. We signed up for hotmail and I thought I was so cool when the computer told me, "You've Got Mail!" just like the movie! On a side note, I only checked my email 1 time a week, something I continued doing up until Collin was 1 year old!

Northland Secondary campus - where Matt taught 8th and 9th grade history and psychology. His second year here he decided to work on the Master's degree at SHSU. He also won us a bedroom TV and tickets to the Houston Rockets at Northland's basketball games by making some terrific 1/2 court shots during halftime. During volleyball season he kept the scoreboard and I ran the concession stand. He also led singing a lot in chapel and wrote one of his first solo silly songs called, "Let's All Quit and Work on our PhD" (AKA Love in the first degree) and sang it for the faculty at the end of year dinner. Actually there might have been a few before that one, "To All the Girls in Building 4" (AKA To all the girls I've loved before) and "Mrs. Eatherly" (AKA Mr. Jones and Me).

Now you probably know WAY too much about the first few years of us. We both cannot believe that it's been 11 years since we lived there and had all these fun times!