Living Happily Ever After

Volume 5 - December 1998

CFY-SLP

Caroline officially joined the ranks of FSU alumni on August 8, 1998 when she graduated with her M.S. in Speech-Language Pathology. She and Liston are also life members of the alumni association. This date was the culmination of what turned out to be a fabulous educational experience at the Florida State University. Part of Caroline's graduate program was practicum experiences at a Skilled Nursing Facility and seeing clients in the FSU L.L. Schendel Speech and Hearing Clinic. The final practicum experience was an Internship at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. It was a fast paced atmosphere that involved working with people ages birth to 106 years in both inpatient and outpatient atmospheres. She also had the opportunity to learn to perform Modified Barium Swallow Studies. This experience really pulled the classroom information together and confirmed that Caroline will enjoy working as a Speech-Language Pathologist.

While at FSU this year, we continued to be very active in attending sporting events and fine art performances. Go Noles!

Caroline has just started looking for a great CFY-SLP opportunity in the Dallas area. She is hoping to find something that will offer a high paced varied experience in a hospital setting. If you happen to know anyone in Dallas who is a SLP or knows of such openings, please let us know.

Returning to the Wild West

Liston greatly enjoyed his FAMU-FSU College of Engineering job as a System Administrator for almost 2 years when an awesome opportunity came knocking at the door. A popular nation-wide company was knocking and they made an offer Liston could not refuse. After getting everything in writing, Liston resigned his position at COE and headed to Dallas to find a place to live. En Route to Dallas, the company decided to change their offer twice. It was still a good offer, but Liston was having serious doubts about working for a company that would do such a thing. As a result of this, Liston & Caroline spent their househunting trip job searching and interviewing. Fortunately, Liston's skills are in high demand right now in the Dallas area and he quickly found several great opportunities to consider. He eventually accepted a position at Fidelity Investments where he does Unix System Administration for the Dallas Development group that is working out well.

They come in threes??? Ughhh

This year .... three deaths. Granny Bell in South Africa died in the spring. Grandpa Art died this summer. Then Caroline's Mom died. Our Fall was very hectic. Caroline had worked a few days at a new job when we got word that Mom was being rushed to the emergency room. We immediately went to St. Petersburg to be with Mom. Between friends, Gillian, and us, we stayed with her the whole time she was in. We really thought things were looking up and that she was going to get her temporary remission but her body just couldn't kick the infection she got during her last round of CHOP. Two and a half weeks after being admitted, Mom died on October 6th. What a gift all of our friends, Mom's friends, and our family members have been. We have received an outpouring of support and love.

Unable to Stay Put .....Do you know what our address is?

If you answered yes to this.... Congratulations, you are keeping up better than we are. We started out this year moving into a gorgeous 2-bedroom townhome that we had been eyeing for over a year. When fate had our previous lease ending when the townhome became available, we moved right in. 7 months later, the owners of the townhome decided they wanted to sell sell sell. Since we were not in the market for buying, we were forced to pack our bags and find a new residence. Mere days before our lease was up we found a brand new townhome just minutes from Liston's work... it sure beat the 40 minute commute he was making. A couple months later and, you guessed it, we were packing up again for a move to Texas. Our current address is in Las Colinas (part of Irving) which is right next to Dallas & minutes from the DFW Airport. The address is 2908 W. Royal Ln. Apt 1035, Irving, TX 75063. The apartment is great. It is 2 miles from Liston's work :-))) and the apartment overlooks the pool where there is a beautiful fountain. Lots of windows and space are nice too. We are paying two rents right now which kinda stinks, but we are hoping our landlord in Tally will find a renter soon. Do you know anyone looking for a place in Tallahassee? First month free!

Oh, how we can travel

Even though we always manage to get our little vacations in here and there, we really outdid ourselves this year with all the trips.

The big trip of the year (and only real trip planned in January) was a spring break vacation to Pagosa Springs, Colorado where we met up with some Oklahoma State friends to ski and enjoy the weather. We also boiled in the lobster pot which is a natural hot spring with a temperature of 108 degrees. On our way to Colorado, we also spent some time in El Paso looking for tumbleweed, Albuquerque eating awesome BarBQ, Durango enjoying the sites and staying at a hotel with an ancient elevator, and a day trip to Mesa Verde to see cliff dwellings and plenty of snow.

After the spring break trip, we were supposed to be done travelling for the year but that definitely was not the case. Our next trip of the year was a weekend escape to Bermuda in May where we got to see and swim in beautiful (and chilly) water. For anyone planning to visit Bermuda, we strongly suggest you price shop for hotels and get a bus pass as quickly as you can (paying as you go is much more expensive).

An unplanned trip was called for when Grandpa Art passed away this past summer in Indiana. We immediately flew to be with family in Indiana. The trip was nice even though the circumstances were not.

June and July vacations sandwiched around Oracle training that Liston was attending in Orlando and Miami. The first mini-vacation was a visit to family & friends in Orlando. The next was a trip to St. Augustine where we saw the Oldest School House, Fountain of Youth (yucky water), and more. The final trip of this sequence was a visit to Ft. Lauderdale where we got to spent QT (quality time) with Grandpa Charlie & Ann. We also sneaked a weekend trip to Atlanta for Gearge Strait & others concert in July.

By August, we were due for a "real" vacation (all those mini-trips wore us out). This time we decided to see what life was like in the Northwest. Following Caroline's graduation, we hopped on a plane to Seattle, Washington where we immediately (after 2 1/2 hour delay) boarded an overnight Amtrak sleeper car bound for Whitefish, Montana and Glacier National Park. In Montana we climbed Big Mountain, hiked, braved the white waters in a raft, and hiked some more. We then boarded the train (with another delay) back to Seattle where we visited for a couple of days. Seattle was a fun combination of riding the trolley, shopping, going on the ferry, and dining in the space needle... Oh, what a view!

The next trip was a much needed break. Yes, with all these trips we still need breaks. We packed up our pup tent and headed for the mountains of North Carolina. This was a totally unplanned trip where we camped wherever we saw a pretty spot, sat up watching the stars, and just chilled. The weather was perfect.

Since we had such a streak going of consecutive months with a vacation, we decided to continue the streak into October when we returned to Oklahoma State University's Homecoming for the first time since leaving on that snowy day almost three years ago. We managed to see old friends, observe the development, view the spectacularly decorated greek houses during the annual walk-around, and meet some of the many people who are active brothers of the fraternity we played a big role in rechartering.

Can you guess where we went for Thanksgiving? After about 10 seconds of intense deliberation, it was unamimous that we would stay at our new home in Texas. We (actually Caroline) cooked turkey with some of the fixins. It was delicious. And the four day weekend... That was great too. We ALMOST got all of our boxes unpacked. Naturally, we were traveling in December when our plans had us spending a lot of time with family & friends. Caroline spent most of the month in Florida, visiting and taking care of business from Tallahassee to Ft. Lauderdale and in between.

We will begin 1999 by heading to Arizona to watch the Seminoles play for a National Championship in football at the Fiesta Bowl. We are now looking forward to Logan being born (Gillian's first baby) so that we can go visit him.

To contact us by e-mail, send a message to careb@pobox.com or bias@pobox.com. You can view homepages at http://www.bias.org. Our current phone number is (972) 831-0622.

Pictures Included in Newsletter (click on pictures for larger image):

OOPS! These are sub-par scans. They will be improved someday. Apologize for the quality or lack there of. :-)

Caroline shows off her grown at graduation.

Caroline and Liston enjoy view of seattle during dinner

Anybody can ski?

Date Posted: 01/09/99
bias@pobox.com