2005 Jul - Dec

July was fairly low-key for us and we needed it!

In August, I accepted a new position. Yes, another new job. I had not planned to look that soon, but this opportunity came along and I couldn’t resist. I didn’t actually start until September though.

In September on Labor Day weekend, we were supposed to travel to Scotland to celebrate Martha’s wedding. She got married in a castle. Wow! Tim was looking forward to seeing and maybe playing a round of golf at St. Andrews. Unfortunately, we had to miss the big event because we were on a house hunting trip in the town of my new position, Seattle, WA. We found a place we both liked in Bothell, WA. Here’s what it looked like when we bought it.

Here I am next to the sign for my new office.


The Microsoft campus is much like a large university campus. It was really interesting working there. One of the guys in my group loved the fact that this particular building was where MS Windows was first developed way back when. Needless to say, that didn't really do much for me.

This same weekend in September, Megan and Ben got married. We had already planned to be in Scotland and knew we were going to miss it. We were a bit closer to them in Seattle, but not close enough to attend.

We traveled back to Fort Worth and helped host a wedding shower for Nancy and Travis. Here we are preparing the necessary items for some of the shower games.


Nancy and Travis turned the tables on us and had a going away party for us after the shower. The patio at 8.0s was wonderful!


As with May, September also brought some sad times. Miss Morgan, my first “child” was well into old age and was becoming senile and dealing with pain. Our vet didn’t think she would survive the move to Seattle. It was the hardest decision of my life, we had to put her down. She is still with us though. We had her cremated and place in a cedar container. It would be well over a year before I could think about getting another Chow Chow.

October found us exploring our new surroundings. We stayed in Redmond, WA until our house was complete. We and Cinco loved the dog park. I loved shopping in Bellevue. Even downtown Redmond was fun. It is truly a great place to live.

Here we are at the Microsoft museum in Redmond. If you are ever in the Seattle area, the museum is worth checking out. The company store was upstairs and Tim was amazed at the employee discount!


November was busy for weddings also. Nancy and Travis got married in west Texas. The same weekend Thu and Hao also got married, but not in west Texas. Since we were already in Seattle, we weren’t able to make it back for the festivities.

Thanksgiving found us in sunny Santa Fe, NM with Tim’s family. It was such a great trip. By this time, we realized how far north Seattle really is. In the winter, the sun comes up around 9 and is set by 4. And it stays fairly overcast. Not much sun. So Santa Fe was perfect!

December actually found us back in Fort Worth. Our new house was going to be complete in January. We used the Christmas break to pack the Texas house and ship everything north. My mom joined us in Texas for Christmas at Tim’s dad’s house. It’s a tradition in my family to get at least one Russell Stover chocolate covered marshmallow Santa Claus in your stocking. Here I am holding mine! Yummy!


To recap the life changing events for 2005:
- marriage
- loss of parent
- new job
- loss of pet
- move to another part of the country

I think the only life changing event we missed was to have a child. We decided to save that little jewel for another year.