Everything is Bigger in TX

I'm sorry folks, this post is going to begin as a post about bugs. Please continue to read though, I promise it's not all about bugs, and I hope this makes you thankful that you are living where you are living. I have some job news announced at the bottom ;)

Random picture of Dulce: she just loves a good stretch.

When everybody says that everything in Texas is better, they definitely mean that everything is bigger, which is not always a good thing. One thing that Rick and I have not been able to get used to since we moved here was the size of the bugs. These bugs are so large, they are the size of small pets in MA! I know that we have been living here for over a year now, but I am posting this now because we have had a very eventful week. This past weekend I jinxed us by saying that we have never had a scorpion in our house. Well maybe two days later we had caught a scorpion on our CatchMaster. Iww! We stick these wicked sticky papers behind the toilets because that is where we tend to see cockroaches. One of the creepiest parts about this was that we figured it was dead and we left the sticky paper there for a few days until we could get more. Well, three days later while I was getting out of the shower it started moving again! Ughh!

And to think that Rick had a pet scorpion named Steve while he was at prep school in California. Gross.

Speaking of cockroaches, we have had quite a few this year and they are the grossest, quickest, nastiest bugs ever. So, this week we actually found a total of 3 cockroaches on our patio that my official bug killer, aka my hubby, had to kill. I'm normally not too concerned about bugs if they are outside of our house, but when it comes to cockroaches on the patio, it's just a little too close for comfort.

I didn't have a picture of any cockroaches, so here's a picture of Rick washing some crawfish from H.E.B. for a crawfish boil.

Speaking of killing bugs even if they are outside, check out this bad Larry. We found this guy in our carport a few months ago and he had to go. For those of you who don't know, a carport is an open roof enclosure for your car which basically just protects your car from the sun and rain (if it comes straight down and doesn't flood).

Gahh! That is a standard size brick!

In other news, I was just dumping about a million photos from my camera so I figured I'd do a bit of a photo dump here. Check out some (old) fun photos:

Here is Rick looking studly in his flight suit.

June and Bill came to visit us and we visited Judge Roy Bean's court room! So fun!

Here we are at the Seminole Canyons.

Look at that face!

Here comes Leche!

It's ok that I'm posting so many pictures of my dogs, it's national dog day!

Leche can be very impatient and while she is waiting she prefers to be sprawled out on the floor.

While Rick and I were celebrating our 1 year anniversary, I found some of the product that our company makes in an antique shop. Health care product to wrapping paper, go figure!

Here is Rick enjoying our anniversary tier!

Yum!

Happy 1 Year, love!

We stayed at the Hangar Hotel in Fredericksburg for our anniversary, which is really cool because it's an active private runway.

Here is Rick finding out he will fly the T-1.

T-funs!

We're going to the lake!

It's not sand, but we'll take it!

Dulce likes to swim until she gets tired and latches on to Rick.

There is nothing better than a nice waterlogged stick!

My friend Anne married her college sweetheart Noah up in Maine!

We made sure to decorate their getaway car!

Streamers!

Maggie, Gabby, and Brandon were putting on the finishing touches on the cake that Maggie made.

Beautiful and delicious!

The happy couple on their first dance!

Feeding each other the cake.

Oh my goodness, they're the cutest!

Anybody want Mexican food? Good, because that's the only option down here!

I made my favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe for Rick's squadron since they had to go to school on a Sunday.

So on Saturday night my hubby and I went with some friends to a roller derby  (click on roller derby to learn the rules) to watch the Hell Rio Rollers skate. Really quick, a roller derby is a game on roller skates where each team has a "jammer" or the team member who scores the points, and a bunch of blockers. The skaters skate around a rink and every opposing team member that the jammer passes earns her team a point. There is a bunch of hip checking, booty checking, blocking, and fishnets so it's pretty entertaining! We were so happy that they won! These girls were intense!

Roller derby at the civic center.

Here they come!

So much fun!

And finally, my job news is that you can just call me Mrs. Mundy! I am the newest high school math teacher at Del Rio High School! I will be teaching Algebra 2 and TAX prep (similar to MCAS) this year! During this time I will be earning my teaching certificate and at the end of the year I will be a certified teacher. I wish that I could have continued to use my engineering degree, but given the area we are in I know there is no shot of me getting another engineering job while we are in Del Rio. I figured it would be worth my while to get another portable degree that I can take with me wherever we go in our future. I am excited for the opportunity to try something new and hopefully help these kids learn to love math (or at least learn it). I will have more to tell shortly, but until then I will be getting ready to start teaching on September 9. The school year officially started today, but I had to give my two weeks' notice at my current job.

Thanks for reading!

Love,
The Mundys

Mundy Monday Updates: Times, they are a changing!

Heart of the Air Force painting from Canvas and Cocktails class at the Firehouse.

With military life, and any life in general, it seems like nothing can ever stay the same. You would think that the hubby and I were settled a few months back when I last posted (has it really been that long? geez). I mean, we are only expecting to live in Del Rio for about 2 years total so how could it change much more than it had stabilized to a few months ago. Clearly that wasn't the case. For those of you who follow Rick and me on facebook you probably realized that we have experienced a few changes. For example, Rick finished flying T-6's and tracked T-1's. What this means is that he is now done flying this plane:

T-6A Texan II

And will start flying this plane:

T-1A Jayhawk

"Track" marks that you are halfway through the undergraduate pilot training program, and depending on the plane you track determines the type of plane he will ultimately fly. Because he tracked the T-1 he is looking forward to flying a cargo or tanker plane. We won't find out what that plane is until the end of January though when we also hear what our next base will be.

Rick and I at the rodeo.

Rick hasn't actually started flying that plane yet though, he has quite a few weeks of classroom training that he has to get through first. He is definitely getting antsy to start flying again though.

Nice bum, where you from?

Another big change we have encountered is that we adopted another dog! My fellow Air Force spouse and good friend Bekah has always said that having two dogs is easier than having just one. Whenever she would say this, I would think "yeah, right". Dulce can be a bit of a terror when she wants to be, so having two Dulces sounded like a nightmare. Anway, our friend Mindy had recommended that we should check out this Mexican restaurant (shocker, a Mexican restaurant in Del Rio). I am a firm believer that you should not eat at a restaurant unless there are other people eating there already so we were giving this a restaurant a drive-by first. While we were searching for the restaurant by the prison (I live in a classy place) we ran into a terrible looking, little, white dog.

Nice dreadlocks!

I asked Rick to stop the car and we called to the little dog from the car. Please keep in mind that we were in the Corvette which is the loudest, scariest car ever. Surprisingly enough, the dog came to us even though the car was rumbling and growling away. At that point I knew we had to save this dog! So we figured we would drop this dog off at "A Pets Wish" which is a wonderful volunteer agency that rescues cats and dogs throughout the town, cleans them up, gets them healthy, and hosts adoption events. When we got there, we found out that they were already overladen with dogs and they couldn't take our little dog. We agreed (maybe just I agreed) to clean up the dog and host her at our place for a few days until there was room at A Pets Wish. Luckily for me, my neighbor was volunteering there at the time and she said she would come over and help us clean her up. She was such a life saver! We ended up having to shave the little dog down and give her a flea and tick bath because she was covered (yuck). Well, long story short we kept her and named her Leche! I guess Rick and I have a thing for adopting the most pathetic dogs we can find. Now Dulce and Leche are the best of friends and I have my sweet, little lap dog!

Here is Leche after a few flea and tick baths, and a good shave.

It was love at first sight!

Such a sweetie! The perfect lap dog!

Oh yes, I dress her up!

Dulce con Leche, a match made in heaven!

On the way for her first professional haircut. (Apparently our haircut was a bit choppy)

Womp womp, Leche came into her womanhood and got spayed in the same week. It's not easy getting older.

We celebrated Dulce's first birthday with homemade biscuits!

Such a sweetie!

As far as news concerning my job, it seems that the squeaky wheel really does get the grease. I approached my boss about wanting to work from the Del Rio office for the next phase of the project we are working on, and he agreed! There have been many delays in our project and it became very apparent that I wouldn't be able to complete the project during my time here so I will continue to work from the Del Rio office until my position is filled or something else changes. There are some things that we all take for granted, and I now realize what a blessing it is to live and work in the U.S., the best country in the world.

An American Flag, and a Welcome to the United States sign. The best welcome in the world!

Hopefully I will post again soon with more updates, but I just wanted to get our friends all caught up on some of the biggest changes we have experienced recently. I am not going to give myself any time limits as to when I will post again because I don't want to be disappointing again. So for now, I will post again when I post again. Love you all!

Love,
The Mundys