Sneak Peek!

I thought I would entice you with a sneak peek of the possible future "Casa de Campbell." It is 3400 Sq. ft and 4 bed/3.5 bath. Today, we are now on contract for this lovely home and pending on the seller's lender approval, it will be ours! We have negotiated the price, been pre-approved for our loan and have that paperwork started, and are currently checking pricing of various inspectors in the area. The property is currently in a "short sale" situation, which makes matters even more confusing than normal. This is Mike and my first time to purchase a house, which comes with many questions as it is, but even more so when you are dealing with a bank on the other side. One of these issues is time frame. We were hoping to close by the end of May, but because the banks typically take a while to run all of their numbers and prioritize our sale, (due to all the foreclosures and short sales out there now) we may not close on the house until sometime in June. In the meantime, Mike will be working from San Antonio until we find out and I will continue the job hunt. I have an interview next week with Study Island in Dallas, so I will remain in Fort Worth through the weekend and the first part of next week. After that, we will be home in San Antonio until either job or house "stuff" brings us back to the metroplex.

This week has been pretty busy so far. I have helped my mother remove all the old wallpaper and popcorn ceiling from my old bathroom. We thoroughly made a mess and are exhausted, but it was entertaining and a workout to say the least. Next comes texturing and painting... we may get some help with the texturing. I enjoyed joining my parents for their Bible study on Monday night, Carino's wine dinner with Mimi, Mom and Dad last night, lunch @ Mi Cocina today with Vivian, and a TCU baseball game scheduled for tomorrow! Mike has been in San Antonio this week because of work and I've been missing him and looking forward to his return on Friday! During your prayers the next few weeks please think of Mike and me during this house buying phase. We certainly appreciate all your love and support! :) Until next time...

~Emily

HE IS RISEN.... HE IS RISEN INDEED!

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Easter! I realize I am a bit behind on my Easter post, but I have been waiting on getting some of our cute Easter pictures from my mother. I now have the pictures so here is the post!

The Saturday before Easter we spent house hunting in Grand Prairie with the Campbells and Roberts and actually made an offer on a house. Unfortunately, the seller did not want to meet us in the middle as far as pricing is concerned, so we decided to continue looking. Easter Sunday we went to Wedgwood Baptist for a wonderful service, followed by lunch @ Uncle Walt & Aunt Karen's with the extended Smith side of the family (Dad's Mom's side). Sunday evening Mike headed back to San Antonio while I stayed behind for a job interview during the week. The interview was for a position in the mid-cities with Merck doing the job I have been doing the past 3 years, but with the New Commercial Model. While I was not selected for the position, I was appreciative to have the opportunity to interview and thankful to past managers and colleagues for their wonderful words of recommendation to the hiring manager. I believe I made a positive impression which can only be good for the future.

Thursday of last week Mimi, Mom and I drove to San Antonio after stopping to shop at the outlet malls in San Marcos. It was Mimi's first trip down to see our house, which we found rather funny since we are about to leave. We met Michael and his Dad, who was in town for business, at Pericos for dinner. On Friday, the ladies headed to Fredericksburg for some more shopping via the Willow City Loop aka "bluebonnet loop." We were disappointed to find that due to a fire and late-blooming there were hardly any bluebonnets on this previously "famous" loop. The view was wonderful of the cliffs and we saw lots of wildlife; deer, sheep, cattle. We actually saw more bluebonnets on the trip home on the main freeway. Saturday Mom and Mimi headed back to Fort Worth and I stayed here with Mike.

On the strike front- no news yet. Seems the union may not be choosing to strike, but simply work while they are negotiating the contract. In my opinion this is probably a good idea since AT&T could probably find enough people without jobs in this economy that would happily take over their jobs. It has also come to my attention that the workers lose their medical/life insurance while striking and it would be rather pricey for them to get on their own or pay for COBRA. Hopefully they will reach a compromise soon and we won't have to continue wondering when we might be hitting the road back to Fort Worth.

Monday of this week Bob (Dad-in-law) came back to San Antonio for business and stayed with us. We enjoyed a tasty dinner at The Olive Garden and an action-packed episode of 24.

Wednesday we enjoyed our first and possibly last FIESTA event. For those of you who are not familiar with FIESTA, it is a huge celebration that happens each year in San Antonio and lasts about a week and a half. We have always wanted to go to a few of the events, but never seem to make it. So, this year we attended "A Taste of the Northside" which is the only official event that is held up in our area of town. Basically, all of the area restaurants come in and provide food tastings such as small entrees, appetizers, or desserts from their restaurants. You also have wine or beer tastings. We received a book with our ticket for 10 food tastings each and 12 1oz wine or 3oz beer tastings. There were 3 live bands and it all took place at the Club at Sonterra which is a nice golf course in Stone Oak. We ran into some of my old Merck colleagues and ran around with a TCU alumni group. We had such a great time! We actually got so full that we didn't even use all of our food tickets. Some of our favorites were Pericos- tacos, Kona's- sushi, La Hacienda- quesadillas, Kirby's-steak and espresso dessert, Melting Pot- chocolate fondue, Chuy's-nachos, Sea Island-coconut shrimp, Maggiano's-custard dessert, and BJ's-pizza. There were many others there as well, but these were just some I remember. The location was packed and after awhile you spent quite a bit of time in the beer and wine lines. This is definitely an event I would love to come back to San Antonio for. We got several coupons from the restaurants and hope to visit a few of them that we hadn't been to before we leave for the Dallas area.

Lastly, this morning I had a phone interview for an Inside Sales position with a company called Study Island in Dallas, TX. They are a quickly growing educational publisher and are responsible for many of the programs that teachers use to help prepare their students for the TAKS exams. (State standardized testing) While this job would be quite different from what I've been doing the past 3 years, I feel pretty confident about the opportunities that I could have there and believe that the work environment would be very fun and uplifting to have supportive people working around you everyday. Also, a great friend Mara works there and we would work on the same floor! :) I have been invited to an "in person" interview the week of May 4th and hope to learn more about the work environment then. I will keep you updated!

That's it for now, sorry it was so long- I had 2 weeks to catch up on. Here are the pictures! :)

Love, Emily

Michael and me in our Easter outfits

3 of the 4 Roberts ladies after church- Maggie, Mom, & Me

My wonderful parents after the kiddos' Easter egg hunt

Waiting for the word... GO!

We have officially entered the time of waiting for a simple text from AT&T telling Mike when he has to report for his strike duty. On Saturday at midnight, a large AT&T Union contract expired and they are currently in negotiations. Until the time that a compromise is reached the union workers over 100K could go on strike at any time. If this happens, then Mike will be working from Fort Worth in a call center responsible for making payments towards accounts/closing accounts/etc. Luckily, we plan to be in Fort Worth next weekend for Easter anyways, but are hopeful to have at least 24 hours notice to get packed up and head that way. Today I am doing some cleaning and laundry in order to hopefully be ready. It is always possible that it could be another week or two before they strike, but rumors have it that they may leave in the middle of a shift which would be more disruptive for AT&T's business.

Brother & Sis-in Law visit- We thoroughly enjoyed our weekend with Matt & Vivian. Some things we enjoyed: Texas Pride BBQ (made famous by Triple D- Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives), La Paloma Blanca- good Mexican food and tasty margaritas, church Sunday @ Crossbridge, relaxing poolside at San Antonio Country Club, & enjoying some beautiful sun and fun conversation over drinks in our backyard. In all, I think it was a great visit. We were so happy they were able to come down before we leave San Antonio. On the trip back to DFW, we stopped at the outlets in Round Rock for about an hour and a half and did our part to try to boost the economy. ;) I picked a cute Easter outfit- skirt and blouse, and a dress for Fall/Winter from Ann Taylor.

On the house front- Last week I spent several days going through houses in the Grand Prairie area with my Mom and our realtor, Melinda. I found two that I really like and could be happy living in. However, one of them is currently receiving an offer so that one may be out of the picture. If the second home doesn't work out then we will be very hopeful for something else to come on the market soon. Our lease is up on our home here in San Antonio May 31st, so we hope to be moving that week before, but only the Lord knows if that will happen. Mike is set to start in Dallas June 1st, but it could be postponed depending on the house situation. Mike plans to see the houses this upcoming weekend when we travel for Easter and after we know how he feels about them, we will either make an offer or continue looking. I will wait to post any pictures until we are more solid in our decision. The anticipation of our fellow blog-readers will be unbearable I am sure. ;)

Job hunt- Well, no news regarding the job search at this time. I have applied for an opening with Merck in Bedford, Texas which would be an easy transition. I have also applied for a Sales Rep position with Study Island in Dallas, Texas, which is where one of my best friends, Mara, works. I am still praying something comes out of one of these positions, but once again if it's not meant to be I'm sure something else will present itself when the time is right. I suppose that's all for now. Hope everyone has a blessed week!

Love, Emily

The Twilight Saga...

I can't believe it has been a week already since our last post (nice job sweetie!), but I thought I would start by dedicating this blog to the new book series I am reading...and LOVE! So, I finally finished Friday Night Knitting Club last Friday, which I've been half-heartedly reading since November due to all the other crazy things going on in my life. Then on Saturday decided to start reading Twilight a new book that Mara & Tyler got me for Christmas. I had given Mara a very hard time about getting so enthralled with some book that I had heard was about "vampires"... sounded stupid. Ha ha, so she bought it for me anyways. ;) So, I started the book and could hardly put it down it was SO good. So, by Wednesday morning I was finished. Mara and my sister, Lauren, had both volunteered the rest of the series to me to borrow, but since I won't be in Fort Worth until Monday, I decided I just couldn't wait.

On Wednesday evening I went to the grocery store before picking Mike up from work and there it was... taunting me New Moon AND 25% off! (I also love HEB) So, I of course justified picking up the book and decided it would keep me busy probably until Monday since we are having company in town and I won't really spend much time reading this weekend. Wrong again. Thursday we had horrible thunderstorms in San Antonio, so I spent almost the entire day cuddled on the couch with Toby reading the book. By dinner time there were probably 5 chapters left in the book. I think I read 400 pages just yesterday. (Not normal for me) As you can imagine, I had to finish the book today, which I did at about 10:30 this morning. Now I just have to wait until I get to Fort Worth to start on number 3- Eclipse then Breaking Dawn.

So, until then my day is filled with laundry, dusting, and other cleaning measures as we prepare for my brother and sister-in-law to come stay with us this weekend. We are very excited about their visit. I will be sure to post next week about what all we did since we're still not too sure just yet. Also, this week I went up to Austin, TX on Tuesday to visit my friend Meg and see her cute town home on the north side of Austin. We got to pick up her wedding dress (which she looked BEAUTIFUL in) and got caught up on regular girl-chat time. We don't get to spend enough time together, so it was good to spend even just a few hours hanging out like good old times and talking about her wedding planning. :)

Also, PRAISE THE LORD (PTL) Mike got his go-ahead from HR at AT&T about his move to Dallas and he is set to start June 1st up there. Therefore, on Monday I will be headed back to FW with Matt and Vivian and will be doing some house hunting with my Mom and our realtor. I am also hoping to catch up with a few friends since I will be in town for a week. Also, on the job front- Merck posted an opening this week in South Dallas and I am hoping to get an interview and be considered for the position. I'm not sure if I got the job when they would want me to start up there, so that could be stressful, but I am hopeful that God has a plan! I also have some good leads on openings in Plano and Garland, TX which of course are the North side of Dallas, with Novartis and UCB Pharma respectively. This could potentially change our house search area, but we will wait till after next week to make that decision. Until next time, I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! Hooray for Friday :) I still love those even when I'm not working. :)

~Emily

I'm taking the wheel

So I thought I would take a shot at this blogging thing, and since my name is in the blog, I feel like this is sanctioned behavior! Emily has been doing a great job keeping everyone (myself included!) up to date on the going ons in our lives these days, but hopefully I can add a little something something to the mix.
So as you probably know by now we are getting closer and closer to making it back to the DFW area. Emily and I are both excited about this prospect, but with that excitement comes some apprehension and uncertainty. Lots to take into account: area we want to live, type of house we want to buy, how much house we want to buy (both size and money) etc etc.
Its not like we haven't been in a similar situation before, just different decisions (and more expensive!) this time around. Everytime we have been in them though God has been right there with us, letting us know that he won't abandon us, or forget about us. And so far, no complaints on our end! So we will try not to sweat too much about all this and know that He has our best interest in mind and that we will be ok.
All that to say, we are excited to move back closer to family and friends! We have had a great time in San Antonio and enjoyed our "isolation" and some great friends that we have met down here, but the timing feels right to go back "home."
Emily and I are going to enjoy a nice quiet weekend at home (first time in what feels like months!) doing errands, and just enjoying the beautiful start to Spring we are having. Sometimes the best weekends are the ones where nothing really exciting happens. I have to mow the lawn, yuck!, Emily will probably tidy up the house a little because my brother and Sister in law are coming next Saturday to stay with us for a few days! Yay! We do like having visitors, and are looking forward to their visit. We are fans of the show Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives on the Food Network so when they come to visit we are going to try a BBQ joint about 35 minutes away that we saw on the show, so that should be fun. They are going to stay till lunchtime on Monday and then they are stealing Emily to take her up to DFW to start house hunting for the week. So Toby and I will hold down the fort here in SA, maybe throw a couple poker games, not shower for days, walk around in our underwear, the list of possibilities is endless.... But then Emily is catching a flight back on the 4th, so at least she isn't gone TOO long, although it will feel like too long I'm sure :)
Alright, well I think I'm done rambling. I'll post it and then I'll let Emily run through it and point out all my typos, run on sentences, punctuation mistakes etc. :)
Have a great weekend! I'll update you again soon (if my name stays on the blog after this!)
Mike

"Everything is Fine" - Josh Turner

Mike and I were excited to join our friends, Kristin & James Hamon, at the Houston Rodeo this past Saturday. We enjoyed a fabulous concert by Josh Turner, hence the title for this blog. His music is really wonderful and I believe he has made it obvious through his music that he is a Christian man. I look forward to buying his CD or getting it through i-Tunes for my iPod to support the work that he is doing. At the rodeo we thoroughly enjoyed "mutton busting"- little kids 4-6 yrs old riding on the back of sheep, barrel racing, and the wagon races. I have to admit the rest of the activities made me rather nervous that someone was going to get seriously injured. Unfortunately, one of the horses broke its leg during a competition which was so sad and horrible to watch. :( In the Stock show section we got to see newborn piglets & sheep in the birthing section which were so cute! We shopped around a little bit and saw some nice jewelry, paintings, and purses. I was good and didn't buy anything even though I was tempted. We did try some wonderful toffee although, I still believe my mother-in-law makes the best toffee, so why buy it from someone else?? Other than that, we went to church on Sunday at Friendswood UMC and out to lunch with James' parents, then headed home for a long drive battling traffic. :( I came home and woke up Monday with a sore throat and the beginnings of a cold, so I have been pretty lazy the past few days taking medicine, drinking lots of water, sucking on chloraseptic lozenges, and trying to catch up on some sleep. I am hoping to get back to my workout routine on Wednesday or Thursday. Toby just hopped up on my lap and so I figure he wants to say hello as well. He has been so glad to have us home for awhile and reminds me what a spoiled little kitty he is. He is so lovable though and enjoys cuddling with his Mommy. Well, that's it from me today. Here are a few pictures from the rodeo:

Love, Emily

Florida Vacation- Mike turns 27

Beautiful Sunset from our Hotel

We had such a wonderful trip to Florida that I wanted to get a few pictures up for everyone to enjoy. We spent time with Mike's grandparents as well as beach time on Fort Myers beach, and Sanibel's Bowman's beach. I wish the trip would've lasted longer, but nonetheless it was great while it lasted. The weather stayed sunny and in the high 80's for the duration of our trip. We were able to visit several of the places where Mike used to go growing up since they spent many summers in Fort Myers with his grandparents. It was neat to see the places he remembered and visit with his sweet grandparents each day. We stayed at Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa and celebrated Mike's birthday with a day at the beach, lunch at the Bubble Room & dinner at The Veranda. On our trip we also visited Lakes Park and saw an alligator while paddle boating around the lake. I tried to steer clear, but Mike wanted to get up close for a good look. Yikes! We also played a little Jungle Golf (basically a Putt Putt). I will also post a picture of the amazing car that we got to drive during our week in Florida. Enjoy! :)

Happy Birthday Mike!! :)


After brunch at Fiddlesticks CC

Relaxing with our feet up at Lakes Park


Our fabulous car for the week- Mercedes SL500

Dinner at Bonefish

Dinner at The Veranda

Our last day on the Pier at the Hotel

Celebrations: Mike's Birthday, Great Vacation in Florida, House Hunting!

Prayer Requests: Our friend Kristy's brother's speedy recovery after serious accident :(