Volume 6 December 1999

We Found a Mortgage!

Who would have thought we would like Dallas enough to make it our permanent residence (at least for now). We bought our first house on June 4th of this year in Rowlett, Texas (a suburb of Dallas). We are thrilled with the house and are learning all about the joys & frustrations of being homeowners. Our house was built in 1992 and backs up to Lake Ray Hubbard. We spend lots of time on our deck cooking out and enjoying the scenery We are fortunate to have lots of Pecan trees, a snag, spiders, and even an owl in our yard. Our neighborhood has turned out to be a terrific one (e.g., very diverse in ages, cultures, races, and economic status). The neighbors have all been very friendly and we have enjoyed chatting with many of them

  

He's HERE!!!!
    More Goodbyes
After much anticipation of his arrival, our nephew, Logan Donovan Brown was born to Gillian Brown on January 21st. Caroline was lucky enough to have timed her trip to Florida perfectly to be there for Logan's birth. We have enjoyed frequent visits to St. Petersburg due to our addiction to this tiny new member of our family. We will be returning to Florida to celebrate Logan's very first birthday. Shortly after Logan's birth, Grandpa Charlie and Ann shared with us the sad news that Ann was dying of cancer. Caroline has great memories of a visit just prior to Christmas 1998 and Gillian immediately took Logan down so that Ann and Charlie could meet their newest Great grandchild. Thankfully, Ann's suffering was relatively short and, sadly, she died at the end of February. We flew to Indiana to support Grandpa Charlie during Ann's funeral. It was amazing to see how many friends they still had in Salem, Indiana even though they have lived in Florida for several decades. After an exhausting weekend, we had breakfast with Grandpa Charlie and all departed out of Louisville airport. When we arrived home in Dallas, we were greeted with a phone call from Caroline's Aunt Lane that Charlie had died on his flight home. We were stunned. Fortunately we were able to attend Charlie's funeral which included full military honors. It has been difficult to deal with all of the deaths we have experience in the past couple of years, but we continue to live each day to the fullest, visit the people we know and love, and cherish the memories of those who have died.

Etcetera......

JOB CORNER

In our spare time, we have enjoyed bowling on a league with Liston's coworkers and are taking a Spanish class one night each week. Bowling is always a fun way to spend the evening. Spanish is sometimes very challenging after a long day at work, but we are forging ahead with it. Both Liston and Caroline started new jobs in 1999. Liston now works for Raytheon Systems Company as a Senior Systems Engineer. Liston works extensively with Enterprise Sun Machines (E10000, E6501, E4500, E3500), Cisco Switches, and even does NT Administration. He has managed to attend lots of training this year and is now Solaris 7 certified. Caroline is working as a Speech-Language Pathologist for the Infant Toddler Intervention Program of North Texas. Caroline has spent much of year doing her Clinical Fellowship Year for National Certification. As of December 10, she has finished all requirements to earn her Certificate of Clinical Competence for her profession.

Texas Welcome Mat

In our wildest imaginations we did not ever dream we would be having out of town visitors so regularly. Our friends Barb and Jim included us in their vacation itinerary. They visited while we were still in our apartment, but we knew which house we were buying, so they got the grand tour complete with the old owners' furniture. We had fun showing them the West End in downtown Dallas and just getting caught up. Then, Gillian and Logan visited us for a week in August. We went to a rodeo with them which was very exciting. Kim came to see us over Labor Day weekend and we shopped and shopped during her visit. Mary and Errol even drove all the way from Beaumont to spend the weekend with us. We certainly hope we will continue to have such exciting visitors.

Escape to Paradise

What a needed vacation our July trip to Hawaii was. To add to the pleasure of the trip, we were able to meet Mom and Dad Bias there along with Kim (Liston's sister) for a good portion of the trip. It was nice to be able to see where the Bias family lived when Liston was little and also to see Mom and Dad Bias' old hangouts. We also enjoyed seeing Dave and Cathy and staying in their lovely home for several nights. They even entertained us for the 4th of July by taking us out on their boat, snorkeling, cooking out, then going to see fireworks. During our visit we went to 4 islands (Molokai, Maui, Oahu, and the Big Island of Hawaii). Our favorite was Molokai because it was so beautiful and almost desoloate. We were lucky enough to go on an amazing tour of the "leper colony" on Molokai and learned a great deal about the disease and the ongoing struggle of the

  patients. After visiting Molokai, we met up with Mom and Dad Bias on Maui. It was very exciting (and sometimes dizzying) going up and down lots of curvy mountain roads. We tried to go to Hilo, but had to turn back due to road construction. In Oahu, we did all of the fun "tourist" things like seeing the USS Arizona memorial, the Mighty MO, hiking Diamondhead, and shopping. We also went to a Luau on Oahu which was even better than Caroline had imagined. By the time we got to the Big Island, we were exhausted. We enjoyed camping on a beach where an entire class of children were washed away in a tidal wave 50 years ago. It was absolutely beautiful. We also went to a cultural festival where we got to make all sorts of Hawaiian things and hear music.

FAMILY TIES

As ususal, we are racking up the frequent flier miles traveling back and forth to Florida. Caroline went to Florida in January in anticiaption of Logan's arrival and was fortunate to have good timing. We both went in April so that Liston could meet his nephew. Caroline could not resist seeing Gillian and Logan again in June. Then, in September, we went to Florida twice. The first time was for Dad Bias' 60th Birthday/retirement party in Tallahassee. We had fun surprising him and then going to the FSU game. Luckily, we were also able to spend time with lots of family and friends during the weekend. The following weekend we flew to St. Petersburg to scatter Mom Brown's ashes on the night of the Harvest Moon. The weekend was wonderful since some of Mom's good friends came over and helped us pick out clothes to keep and clothes to give away. Our trips to Florida are not quite over for the year since we are planning to spend Christmas in Florida with family and friends.

OSU Homecoming An Experience to Remember
2 years in a row!!! Homecoming doesn't get any better than Oklahoma State University. For those of you who have never been fortunate enough to see it, it is spectacular. All of the fraternity and sorority houses do giant animated decorations outside (think bigger than Christmas). There is a huge pep rally, signs on the library lawn, orange water in the fountains, and then a parade the morning before the game. Also, since Stillwater is pretty small, various university organizations paint OSU homecoming related themes on store windows all over town. The entire thing is very festive! While we were in Stillwater, we got to see some of our dear friends. Of course, we also saw OSU play Kansas State in football. OSU was dominate for the first quarter as they built a 21 point lead, but then Kansas State took over and slaughtered us.
    We have strange luck with snow and Oklahoma. Mom and Dad Bias came to see us in Texas in March. Unfortunately, it was the same week that we had Grandpa Charlie and Ann's funeral, so while we were flying to Indiana and back to attend Grandpa Charlie's funeral on Saturday (thank Delta for being timely), Mom and Dad Bias were driving from Dallas to Oklahoma City. This would have been fine except that sometime that day, it started snowing in Oklahoma. By the time our plane arrived in Oklahoma City, the whole state had been declared to be in a state of emergency. We forged on to Stillwater since we had a hotel room reserved there. Unfortunately, when we arrived, they had given our room away. It was Spring Break, so all of our friends were out of town (not to mention it was about 3am at this point). Everywhere else in town was full including the Red Cross shelters. Luckily, the hotel let us sleep in their lobby. We did not get much rest, but it was better than being in the freezing van. The next day, we built snowmen, made snow angels, and tried to show Mom and Dad Bias around town. A memorable trip to say the least. Might be challenging to ever convince the parents to go back to Stillwater.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

This Christmas, we are planning to spend Christmas Eve and Day with the Bias family. Gillian and Logan will be joining us Christmas afternoon for Christmas dinner, and general holiday fun. The day after Christmas, we are leaving on our "millenium" cruise with Gillian and Logan. We are looking forward to changing from 1999-2000 floating around in the Carribbean somewhere. Of course, no New Year would be complete without getting to watch our beloved FSU Seminoles play for the National Championship. We are disappointed that, unlike last year, our work schedules will not allow us to attend the game this year.

Staying in Touch!

Our permanent address is 8714 Columbia Drive, Rowlett, Texas, 75089. You can reach us by telephone at (972) 463-1496. Our e-mail addresses are bias@pobox.com and careb@pobox.com and you can always check out the family website at www.bias.org.