I hope you won't mind if I share more old photos today. Outdoor Wednesday is a great opportunity to have another 'blast from the past' :-)
When we first moved to Texas about 6 years ago, we built a custom home in a beautiful gated community. These pictures were taken the year before we moved here on our first trip to Austin to check out home sites. This was the site we finally chose to build our house. The views were awesome, the sunsets amazing. Kristen was just over 2 1/2 years old :-)
She's holding her precious Pooh Blankey... or as she would call him 'Pooh Bang-ky'!
Here are some of the views from the site our house would be built on. The smallest lots in this neighborhood were 1 acre. Our house sat on 3 acres but most of it was hillside full of cedar trees.
I loved these pink clouds.
For my new bloggy friends I would add that we sold the house we built 3 years later when we had plans to move to Denver for Jason's job. We changed our plans and are still in Texas but we weren't sad that we'd sold the house. We soon realized after moving in that the taxes here were so high they were crippling us! We now love our 'suburban home' in our great little cul-de-sac :-) Don't forget to head over to Susan's blog and visit the other participants of Outdoor Wednesday.
16 comments:
The house you built was lovely and Austin is a nice place to live. But the highlight of your blog is that precious little girl. Simply adorable.
Such amazing views and adorable photos of Kristen. I'm sure you love where you're at now, but you must have enjoyed that home, too. It was in a beautiful environment.
Denise, I love those Texas pictures! We are Texans living in Oklahoma. In fact, as of yesterday we have been here 21 years!! One of these days...
Beautiful pictures!! The sunsets could have been the deciding factor!! Love the picture with your little princess holding her banky!!
xoxo
Jane
Beautiful moments to treasure!'
Raccoon State Park
Hi Denise! That photo with Kiki and the view and sunset with pink clouds is so perfect it almost looks unreal! I hope you have that enlarged and framed somewhere! :) I remember when you were in that house.
As far as retiring, you are eligible to retire after 20 years on the job but most people wait because you only get 50% of your salary as retirement income. After 30, it's 80% and that doesn't count all your deferred comp so it's a pretty good deal. He went into the "drop program" 5 years ago so at the end of that you must retire. In the drop program, you get both your regular salary and your retirement income goes into an account so it's like double pay. That's why they get 10,000 applicant for a handful of jobs in the LAFD. (((Hugz)))
Love the pictures. Perfect for outdoor Wednesday. Are you seeing any broccoli yet? Carla
Awesome pics!!!
Hi Denise,
Love your photos and the sunset with pink clouds so beautiful!
Hope your day is good.
Hugs
Kristen's looks so cute and I love the views! wow:)
Kristen is precious!
That must have been exciting to custom build. That is my dream one day. Your home now is beautiful too.
Love the views and especially your little cutie! She is beautiful!
ooh, the lasagne you showed in the previous post looks lovely. I am terrible when I make it (the simple way, with jars of sauce!) because once cooked, I can't wait for it to go cold so I can scoff it. I'm one of those people who loves cold food!!!
I love your 'old' photos. It's nice to look back and remember things.
Hope you are having a good week xx
Happy Thursday, Denise! Do you ever watch Glee? It's on Tuesday right after Idol- same channel. Really cute show with lots of singing but it's pretty quirky and has a wicked sense of humor. (((Hugz)))
Hi Denise,
Happy weekend!! Hope it is good.
Blessings.
Wow. . . I hadn't thought about the fact that the sunsets would be really amazing out there! I'm such a tree lover--I love being surrounded by lots and lots of trees--but I guess sometimes they obstruct the view!
I'm so proud of you for taking a good view of how things turned out for your house. It would be easy for you to feel defeated and sad that you "lost" your custom home. Instead you're looking at it in a good way. That's a great example!
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