our newest nephew!

OU's newest Sooner fan!

Kate, Corban, Mommy, Kai, Daddy
Aunt Mindy and baby Corban

Daddy & Corban (Matt Wallace)

Grandma & Mom

Meg: "He has Wallace feet!"

Grandpa & Grandma

Congrats Meg & Matt!

Corban Michael Wallace, our newest nephew, was born last Thursday, June 18th. He is Mindy's sister's 3rd baby. Meg and Matt Wallace, big sister Kate (3yr) and 'lil brother Kai (1yr) are doing very well! Mindy went back to Albuquerque before Corban's birth to help welcome him. Meg was expecting to be induced at 7am that morning. The day before, Meg took all the girls out for mani-pedis, but Corban just wanted to come a little early. He was born at 1:30am weighing 7lbs 15 ounces...19 inches long. The next day, he was at the Albuquerque Zoo concert! Corban will soon become a world traveler too. Next month he wil be flying to Cancun, Mexico for his Uncle Matt's wedding!

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p.s. Thank you for all your prayers for Mindy's mom. This spring she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Last week, she went through surgery for stage 0 cancer. The doctors had to run tests, but just before Corban's birthday they called.... the doctors believe they got it all! Mom may need to undergo some form of radiation later this summer, but for now, we've got lots of celebrating to do! God is good.

new home pictures coming.....

This week we signed a contract for our 1st home! It's a cute 3BR, 2Bath home in Edmond....just north of OKC. It's a white brick, 1 story home with 1944 sqf and a nice sized backyard. It comes with an enclosed patio and a wooden playset (complete with swing and slide for our niece and nephew!)

It's about a :05 drive to Lake Arcadia, :13 to Aunt Di's, :15 to Mindy's parents and :08 to Travis' tv station. It's in a good neighborhood with an excellent school district. We've had a lot of requests for pictures, but we're going to wait until we officially close next month to post them online. We'd hate for the deal to fall through!

Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement! We are scheduled to close on Thurs., July 30th!

p.s. Travis is really enjoying his new job! He's only on Day 7 today, so it's still relatively new, but he's excited and is happy he took the position. He's responsible for helping to revamp the station's sports department. By this summer, his department will become the largest sports department in the nation (for local stations!)

Detour to.....Hawaii!!!

On the golfcourse behind Mindy's parents' timeshare
Hiking to black sand beach (never made it....)

Goofing off with the old man statue at Bubba Gumps

Snapped the picture a split second before this wave drenched mom/dad!

"Hanging Loose" Hawaiian style....except Travis' right hand is Longhorn style

"date night"

Bubba Gumps!

Travis got new golf shoes!

Mindy's first time playing 18 holes!

Mindy's mom didn't play...being a 'lady of leisure' was much more her thing!

Touring the Macadamia Nut plantation.....now which one is the nut again?

Listening to the hawaiian singers at Bongo Ben's!

Hiking inside a lava tube

touring the Kona island waterfalls

The week before Travis started his new job in Oklahoma City, we decided to make a last-minute trip to Hawaii to join Mindy's parents who were already there for a month-long vacation. They had a spare fold-out bed at their timeshare and invited us to join them if we could make it!

We packed up our small 1-bedroom apartment and storage shed into a giant POD. Then we left Annapolis and drove our 2 cars to Charlottesville, VA....to Nashville, TN....to Little Rock, AR, ...to Dallas, TX....and then flew to Kona, Hawaii! We were able to stay 5 days before Travis had to be in OKC to start work, but we managed to squeeze in swimming, hiking, sightseeing, etc.

We're Moving to Oklahoma!

Today Travis officially accepted a job offer to be the new Exective SPORTS Producer at KWTV (CBS) CH.9 in Oklahoma City! He will be covering sports throughout Oklahoma and helping the station expand its sports department. Travis LOVES sports so this is a natural fit for him and he's excited to get started!

However, we both have mixed feelings about the move, because we both love living in Annapolis and working in DC. Still we both trust that the Lord has opened this door for a reason! These last few months, we've seen many of our friends lose their jobs due to the economy and despite an intensive job search on the east coast, neither of us have found anything that's full-time. We're extremely grateful that Travis will now have a job...and it's one he'll really enjoy!

A little background---Travis lost his job mid-March when Tribune Broadcasting shut down its DC bureau and laid off the entire staff. Then last month, Mindy lost her freelance reporter position with WBAL (NBC) when the Baltimore station cut its remaining freelance staff. Since then, we have both been freelancing part-time for stations in DC....Travis with CBS News and Mindy at FOX. However, even freelance opportunities are taking a hit with the economy and the work isn't consistent.

We had already been considering moving to Oklahoma prior to our job losses in order to be closer to family. Mindy's family lives in Oklahoma and Travis' is in Dallas. Plus, Mindy's mom and Travis' dad will be going through surgeries for health reasons this summer, and we really wanted to be closer.

In addition, we both intend to go back to school. Considering the economic situation, we believe this is the ideal time!

We are still finalizing plans but it appears that we will be making our big cross country move sometime next week!! We hope to stop and see family/friends along the way, so we hope to reach Oklahoma by the weekend of May 29th.

Mindy will be job hunting in OKC, but in the short-term she has been offered a contract job with the local U.S. Attorneys Office. We both hope to jump right into our new jobs by the beginning of June since we've been 'unemployed' for a few months.

We will be sad to leave the east coast, but we both believe this is a NEW chapter in our lives and we're excited to see where the Lord leads us. We hope to buy a house, start a family and enjoy a more 'normal' work schedule and sleep pattern!

Travis, a die hard Texas fan, says that this move is PROOF that God has a sense of humor!!!Never in his wildest imagination would Travis have ever thought he'd marry a Sooner and then find himself moving to Oklahoma!

48 hrs in ABQ

Matt & Ashten's wedding shower

(new luggage!)
Ashten clobbered the pinata in 1 hit!
(Matt didn't even get a swing in....watch out Matt!)


party hostesses!

Getting ready for Meg's 30th surprise party!
Dad & grandson Kai (just turned 1-yr!)
Meg & Aunt Di
(Meg got a box full of gift cards for her bday!)

Mom & grandson Kai

Meg & daughter Kate (turning 3 years old this June)

Happy early Mother's Day!

Matt, Aunt Di, and Asthen

(at Matt/Ashten's Mexican themed wedding shower)

the girls!

This weekend, we flew to Albuquerque to celebrate 3 big events in 1 weekend (48 hours!). On Saturday night, we threw Meg (mindy's sister) a 30th surprise party! Two of Meg's favorite things are daisies and gift cards so we celebrated by having everything decorated with daisies AND by presenting her with a big box of gift cards from the group. Meg's birthday isn't until May 21st so she was completely surprised! She didn't even know the party was for her until the group started singing 'Happy 30th Birthday to you!'....She said, "ME!? This is for ME?!" (I am still waiting to get more pictures from Aunt Di but I'll post more soon.)

On Sunday, we celebrated an early Mother's Day for mom. She got lots of new pictures of her kids and grandkids, plus a new beach bag for her upcoming trips to Hawaii and Mexico!

That evening, we celebrated our 3rd and final party---Matt & Asthen's wedding shower thrown by Mom's best friends! It was a Mexican theme so we toasted margaritas and the happy couple wore sombreros.

We had to fly out the next morning so we didn't have time to see our ABQ friends or even go out for Mexican food, but it was a great whirlwind weekend regardless!

We'll be back!

Upcoming party dates:

Kai's 1st bday--May 6 (today!)
Meg''s bday---May 21

Asthen's bday-- June 2

Mom/Matt's bday--- June 11

Meg's due date for baby #3 is late June.

Matt/Ashten's wedding is July 25th.