We had our first real tornado scare this week. Nothing severe happened tous but we did have some fun times sitting in the bathtub waiting for the storm to pass. The tornados did cause a lot of damage in the Dallas area, but where unscathed. Thanks to all our friends and family who checked on us, we appreciate it.

Starting a new job usually means there will be some down time as you learn what's expected and what projects take priority... usually.  Since starting my new job it has been non stop running from day 1.  Now don't get me wrong, I am not complaining, I love my new job.  I have completed several smaller projects and am about to start a really large one.  One of the completed projects is http://www.onlinecommunitycolleges.org.  This site is designed to help students who are looking for a specific area of study to find a community college that will best suit their needs.  There have been other projects, but the one that I'm ecstatic about is our courseware.  Apple announced the release of the iBooks Author application which would allow anyone to quickly publish an interactive eTextbook.  My boss came to me and asked me to play with it and see what I thought.  We already have entire courses lined up, so I decided to play with our Biology course and it took off like wild fire.  I entered the text, found some stunning graphics and then added some HTML5 (interactive) items.  Needless to say, it was the talk of the office, so we are making this a priority.  I'm excited about working on this project, and really hope to grow in my skills over the next year.

As for my time outside of the office, my family keeps me busy.  When I do find some free time to play with the kids, we have a lot of fun.  We have been going to the park, the mall, and the movies and really enjoying Texas.  Alison is getting familiar with our surroundings and enjoying having everything near the house.  I started a tumblr site to post pictures often, if you're interested in viewing them.

The move to Texas wasn't nearly as difficult of a drive as I had anticipated.  We rented a 16 foot Penske truck, loaded it, and hit the road.  We left Bakersfield with a tear in our eyes (some of us more than one tear) on Tuesday afternoon.  Our destination for the first day was Flagstaff, AZ.  I took Patrick in the truck with me and Elena went with Alison in the packed car.  Equipped with iPads and activity books the kids were occupied pretty much the entire first day.  We arrived in Flagstaff in the evening, had some dinner, and checked in to our hotel.  We felt the frigid air that night and quickly unloaded the kids and suitcases to get some rest.  The next morning, what seemed to be cold the night before was nothing compared to the 3 degree weather we felt.  After showering and getting ready mentally to take on 12 hours of driving we opened our hotel room door and watched as a cloud formed from our doorway as the heat released from our room.  Alison went out and quickly came back in only to find that her glasses all but froze over, limiting her visibility.  We bundled up, loaded the car, had some breakfast and hit the very bright, very white road East.

Patrick started right off asking how long we had until we were in Texas and I tried to explain to him it would be all day that day driving and most of the day the following day.  He continued to ask me why we couldn't just drive to Grandpa Suess' house that night, thinking it was just easier to drive through the night.  I tried to explain to him that it was dangerous for me to drive 17 hours straight, he said he could take a nap and I could do it.  Needless to say we drove all day through the frozen freeway of the I-40 until we reached our second and last hotel in Amarillo, TX.  Though it was a little cold, it was nothing compared to what we had felt that morning in Flagstaff.

The next morning we woke up, prepared, packed and headed downstairs for our continental breakfast.  There wasn't much of a selection but the fresh made waffles in the shape of Texas put a smile on our faces.  Elena had a bit of a cold so we stopped at Wal-Mart for some medicine and while we were there we decided to buy the kids snow boots.  The small gesture of the snow boots kept the kids happy as we traveled across the state and finally made it to my parent's house.  We know it's a big change for our families and we will miss our friends, but we honestly believe this will be the best for us.

Today is my last day at KCSOS and I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't miss it.  I am excited about my new adventure in Dallas, but I will miss all the people and stories from the last five years.  I did receive some awesome going away parties and appreciate the good wishes and pink slippers.  I will continue to code the C3 program in my spare time and look forward to hearing about it's growth.

For the Thanksgiving holiday this year we decided to go to St. George UT to my mother in laws house.  The kids weren't too fond of the drive, but once we got there, they loved playing with their cousins and exploring the foot hills.  We had a great time visiting with family, going to the local recreation center for some indoor swimming, and taking some family pictures.  We found a place not too far from the house that had some beautiful fall trees.  We climbed the fence and Sara set up her tripod for pictures.  Between pictures I was able to take Patrick for a short walk and we found a car half buried next to a creek. He thought it was pretty cool and I had to agree.  I took a picture of it with my iPhone and ran it through the Luminance app.  We ended the trip with the new Muppets movie on Saturday morning.  It's great to see the Jim Henson legacy live on and continue to inspire.  I'm not gonna lie, I got a little nostalgic during parts of the movie.  I also think that I may have laughed way more than Alison or the kids, but thats ok with me.