A little Princess Nap

We have 5 beds in this house and Steve found it necessary to whole up in this bed. Tender, I must say. Everyone needs a good Princess nap from time to time.

Mother of Pearl

So for Steve's birthday me and the kids got him a gift card to a place in the mall that whitens your teeth. I really wanted to see if this place was a hoax or what! But I also knew that Steve wanted to get his laser whitened and would never fork out the money to do it on his own.

So off he went. He was a little concerned that he would be sitting at some booth in the middle of the mall for everyone to view, but he put his big boy pants on and did it anyways. I think that it worked fine, for $100, but I think that laser it better. Happy day for you!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

We Found It!

So Steve has broken out in some "mistery" rash 3 times since we have lived in this house, 2 of them in the past month. This time he got these blistering rashes around his wasteline, behind his ears, on his neck, and arms. It was just nasty! The weather cleared up enough for us to search the yard yesterday for poison ivy, and hold the phone - we found it!Very clear that no one in this house has his Eagle Scout! There are all sorts of poison ivy, but this one looked exactly like the picture on the internet. Not the typical "3 leafed" plant that I always keep my eye out for! So after being on steroids 3 times, it is good to know that you haven't lost your mind! There is something causing this. Question is now, how do we get rid of it? It is in our flower beds!

Steves Favorite Toy

I can't do a whole blog on myself, the house, and the kids. So I thought of Steve's interests. And currently the only thing that I could really come up with, other than us, is his car and working out. Since I don't think that he is going to pose for any muscle pics anytime soon, I thought that I would post his car on here. Plus its great because when we have no money, it will already be posted to sell!We bought this car and the sales manager told me that this was a wolf in sheeps clothing. I had no idea what he meant, and really didn't care. I just wanted to get the crap outta there. Since then, I have figured out what he was talking about. This is a sports car in a sedan. I have never been in a car that has the speed this does. It is totally fun to drive. It is a Mercedes Benz E-500 and has 469-hp, 5.4 liter, V-8 engine. Crazy stuff. Hopefully Steve stays "speed ticket free". So far so good...And for you Utah folks reading ~ this is not a super glamorous thing here. I promise. 1/2 of Austin population drives a benz or a BMW. It is just the way it is. They are like hondas here. SMILE BIG!

Raintree

Steve worked here as an assistant for a few months for Dawn Sandberg. We still get Christmas cards from her every year. She taught Steve what he needed to know to manage, and he learned very quickly. He only did this for about 6 months before he was promoted to manager. He later moved to Riverbend and managed that community for a while before we took off to San Antonio.

The Waters at Northern Hills

Oh this place was a beaut! I am tellin ya. TOTAL DIVE. Not Archstones finest moment. Located on a lake, this property was a colaberation of 3 communities all bought out by Archstone. They all surrounded the lake, and the "humping" ducks that lived there. There were ducks mating all over the place. And the POO! Wow.


Steve took a demotion to be an assistant manager of this property. We were living in Utah when we heard news that Archstone was going to sell all their properties there. Steve was fresh in the business and scared that he would be the first to go. So not knowing what else to do, we took another job near his family in San Antonio. Right after we got to Texas, you wouldn't believe what happened! The manager at Waters quit! It was a shoe in. WRONG. Steve didn't get the promotion. We found out later the the operations manager at the time took a vote on who she should hire. Talk about not having leadership qualities. Of course they chose an asst. manager that they already knew to take the position. We moved into Camino Real Townhomes for a few months, then in with his parents. We lived there while we were saving for our house. We finally bought our first home there and while we were literally unloading the truck, Houston called. They had a position that was available for him there. I wanted to buy a bullet and rent a gun. I didn't know who to shoot, but it was someone. I don't know, myself perhaps. So we didn't even get to enjoy our house for a week. We had to list and sell right away. Off we were to Houston. Our stay in San Antonio didn't even equal a year.

Westchase

So we lived at Westchase while we were looking for our house. This is by far the nicest apartment that I have ever lived in. And they should be! The are very expensive. This is an A property and when we moved to Houston, was Steve's "dream job" to manage. He wanted to be there so badly. We also loved Katy TX which was down the street and an affordable place to live. But his boss told him that he would never get to manage Westchase and not to move to Katy. So 2 weeks after we closed on our house in Kingwood, guess where Steve was transferred? You got it, Westchase. Archstone is a great company to work for, they are just not very predictable. Steve had a 50 mile commute while managing Westchase. He did that for 2 years. Fun, fun, fun. It makes us really appreciate the 6 mile commute he has now!

Braeswood

We lived in Houston for 3 years. This is where we had Addison and bought our second house in beautiful Kingwood, TX. We still have great friends that live there. We didn't want to move, believe that. But we have been very happy here in Austin and Steve's career has developed like crazy. During our stay in Houston, Steve was the "fixer upper man". He managed Braeswood for the first little while. This community was built in the 30's and had been completely renovated. But as you might imagine, it did come with problems being so old. The foundation was bad throughout and Archstone decided to sell it to another company. They have since turned this great property into luxury townhomes.

Monterey Ranch

Well, I know a lot of people want to know about Steve's work and why exactly we have moved all over the place to work for this company. Here are a few of the properties that he has managed over the last few years.

He is currently running Archstone Monterey Ranch here in Austin (shown above). This property is the largest garden-style property that Archstone owns with a whopping 1100 apartment homes. He has been at this property for a little over 2 years. Most of you know that he won the bragging rights to "manager of the year" for 2006. This is not for the state of Texas, this is for the whole flippin' country. His family is very proud of him. What did he get in return? Well, a sweet trip to Colorado and this great poster of himself, surely to be treasured for years to come. Don't forget the oscar too.

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