The Stars at Night Are Big and Bright...

(clap, clap, clap, clap) Deep in the heart of Texas!

Well, we have finally made our move.

At the beginning of June, we set out from Las Vegas and headed for the Lonestar State.
Right before we left, though, we stayed the night one last time at Blake and Lori's.
The next morning, we had breakfast with our dear friends, Suzi and Bobby Banto.
They have known me since before I was born. In fact, she and my mother have a picture of
me and my sister in the tub with her son as babies. Let's hope it doesn't fall into the wrong
hands. From there, we headed for the open road.

Our first stop was Kent's sister Lynette's house in Mesa, Arizona. By the time we got there,
we were more than ready for a dip in their gorgeous saline pool. I have already decided that
when I grow up, I want a pool just like that one.

The next day, we drove to Tucson and had lunch with some friends of mine, Kendra and Sean and their
two beautiful children, Fiona and Colin. The last time I saw them, Colin was just a baby! We
all dined at Rick's Cafe and had a great time catching up on each other's lives.

We made it to El Paso that night. Our plan was to take a bit of a detour and visit
Carlsbad Caverns. None of us had ever been, and it seemed like the right time to make
the trip. I am so glad we did. It was awe-inspiring. I had never imagined that such
grandeur existed below the earth's surface. We took the natural entrance in and rented
audio tour guides for the kids, both on Kendra and Sean's recommendation. As a result,
not only did we have a fantastic day, but we also learned a lot about the formations all the
way in as we hiked.

That night we stayed in Pecos, TX. After staying there one frightful, cockroach-infested
night, I cannot recommend it. At least not the Roper's Inn, anyway. Next time, I am
sticking with Priceline.

The last leg into San Antonio was pretty uneventful. The kids were anxious to get there
by this time, so we didn't take too long at our stops. When we finally arrived at our
destination, though, we found out that the Air Force Inn did not hold our credit-card-
guaranteed, booked-a-month-in-advance room. So we ended up at the Residence Inn up by
the Airport. Well, at least they had a pool, right? We would bounce around for a month
while we looked for a house and then waited to close.

Now that we are somewhat settled, life is getting back to normal. Kent is working hard at
the hospital and doing a lot of reading in the evenings. My job is to unpack boxes while
keeping the kids fed and occupied. We have a really nice community pool, which we have
tried to make a point to visit everyday.

Oh--here is our new contact info: 11503 Elijah Stapp, San Antonio, TX, 78253, (210) 637-9766.
We are five minutes from Sea World and pretty close to Six Flags, so if you ever come this way,
you have a place to stay :)

We do miss a lot of things about Las Vegas. It was very fun living there and we made a lot of
great friends. Of course, before we left, we had to make sure that our house there was
taken care of first. It turns out that advertising at military websites works very well.
Our renters are a very nice couple with five young children...from San Antonio! Pretty funny, huh?

Featured Recipe

While we were on the road and in various temporary housing locations, all I had with me in the way
of cooking apparatus besides the in-room microwave was a crockpot and an electric griddle. You
would be amazed at some of the combinations we came up with. On one particular day, we
were planning to be gone all day at Six Flags. So, using our leftover taco meat (yes, I browned
the meat in the griddle), we made the following soup. Arriving tired at our room that night, we
were greeted by the spicy aroma of it cooking. It was extremely satisfying, even to Olivia, who
still raves about it. Feel free to leave out the leftover taco meat (not in the original recipe)
for the following vegetarian version:

Tortilla Soup

1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs chili powder (unless you are using taco meat)
1 tsp ground cumin (ditto for this and the oregano below)
1 tsp dried oregano
2 cans chicken broth
2 cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can refried beans
1 bay leaf
1 can of corn, drained
1/2 green bell pepper, diced

Place all ingredients in slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 hours. Ladle into bowls; top with crushed
tortilla chips. We added a dollop of sour cream and some fresh, cubed avocado. Delicious.

I forgot to mention that we used our new real estate benefit when purchasing our home. As a result,
we got a very nice sized rebate on the real estate commission paid to our buyer's agent's broker.
I thought it would be around $1300, which would have paid for window coverings for our new house.
However, the rebate came in at over $2100!

Because it has been a while since I sent out an update, I missed sending a link to Montana's Spring
band concert. So, here it is. I don't know who the loud lady is at the end of the clip cheering
for her kid ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC-m4bS7Ijg

Can you believe how high the gas prices are? I have actually found a guy who shows people how to convert their cars and trucks into water hybrids. At first, Kent thought I was crazy. But now, the idea is growing on him. He volunteered to try it out on his Toyota Tacoma first, since it is more of a gas guzzler than the Odyssey. We still have yet to purchase the e-book from www.fuel-of-the-future.com but when we do, we will let you know how it goes.

Well, that's it for now. Thank you for being such an important part of our lives.