Our own world was already a little bit in progress. We had been living together in the trailer park in San Antonio for some time now. We were working together and building our lives together, pregnant.

Being young and broke we had no problem jamming to rock n roll and hanging at our little trailer.  Your dad taught me how to cook there.  We grilled a lot.  He also taught me how to balance a checkbook and pay bills.  And then I snuck this cat in.  He said no.  I got to keep the cat. Named him ‘Dallas’ because that’s where I spent time with your Uncle Dave and Aunt Linda.

The black cat below was your dad’s terrible cat.  Once I moved in she went crazy and scratched me up and was mean.  She ran away and never came back.  I felt bad about that, but at least it was safe in the house again.

Uh… her name was ‘Scratch‘. Should’ve been your first clue. And ‘ran away and never came back’… Really?

your cat was a perv…

My cat was cute.  Not mean.

This was our first home.  That’s a black and white TV on top of a VCR, NOT vintage at the time.  Doesn’t look like much, but we sure loved being here.  It was the first time I ever lived with a man.  He taught me how to take fast showers, dump sewage, and deal with an AC leak.

We  eventually had to close the hot rod shop in San Antonio down that your dad and I met and spent the last year working together.

The owner disappeared, the paychecks bounced, and the staff went elsewhere.  It was a successful hot rod shop specializing in fixing up Datsun/Nissan Z cars and people brought their cars from all over to us.

We borrowed our last paycheck and your Granny’s truck to move our travel trailer to Austin.  A move we’d been anticipating and excited to make, because we wanted nothing more than to move to Austin since the day we met.

So, with no idea about where and how we were gonna live in Austin, and 8 months pregnant with Austin, we decided to say fuck it.  We’re doing it.  And we did.

We ended up in a trailer park on William Cannon, in the middle of summer with not one tree for shade.  Makes for a very hot welcoming to our first home.

Trailer life at it’s finest.  Your dad and I spent a lot of time in our trailer.

We spent a lot of time sleeping.  Waking up in the afternoons, eating breakfast, and usually going on cruises around town on five dollars worth of gas was how we spent our weekends.

Your dad took me to all these cool places he grew up going.  He was awesome at spinning us around in his car and burning out.  Something he did a lot.  He is so cool, you have no idea.

We’re unemployed, but are working hard to find a job.  We spend our days trying to cool down in the Texas heat.

Being 8 months preggo with Austin, I have to take four showers a day just to stay cool inside the trailer.  Your dad is spending his days trying to get a job in a city where we know no one and have no idea where anything is.  He’s always been amazing.

Dad spent the first few months doing temp work in Austin till he could find something full time.  He did a lot of different jobs and even did maintenance for the trailer park we were living in. He used to drive his golf cart around and come have lunch with me at the trailer.

I found a temporary job company that hooked me up with Wayne Dresser troubleshooting their manufactured circuit boards with an oscilloscope, soldering iron, and microscope. I was working on PCB’s for the new gas pump technology for card swiping at the pump; I also worked on circuit boards for automating locks on jail cells; and plug in video cards for that local, no name PC company. This led to a manufacturing line job for that small PC company…

He also started a temp job working on the manufacturing line at some little computer company called Dell and was making  about $10/hour.  We felt rich.

He was eventually offered an interview for full time work answering phones in tech support and we couldn’t be happier about that because working temp jobs meant we had no idea how much work we’d have and when.

Then dad went and totally bombed the interview which he felt terrible about.  He just knew they weren’t gonna call him back.

And we’re getting closer to having our first baby – the girl name we picked was ‘Kesley Jenna’. The boy name ‘Austin Gregory’.

Your mom hated maternity clothes

I walk down to H.E.B. everyday to buy my pregnancy craving of chocolate covered donuts.  I ate so many of them while I was pregnant with Austin, it’s probably the reason that you (Austin) almost vomit when you see donuts.  But, I didn’t gain much weight because I also walked a half mile to and from the store in the heat.  It’s how I justified it.

But, they called him back. They wanted a second interview.  He was much better this time around.  Feeling pretty good about getting hired, we decided to start looking for a place in Austin to rent.

We were outgrowing our trailer as the arrival of Austin got closer.  Our place was filling up with tons of baby crap and we really needed more room.  So, spending hours in the hot summer driving around looking for anything, we realized that the back to school time frame in a college town was not the best time to be looking for rentals.  They were all gone.

Frustrated, we started circling the airport to knock on doors looking for affordable houses that were for sale in hopes that they might have been desperate enough to rent to us till they sold.  I thought it was a stupid idea and I told your dad all day as he drove us around in the heat with no AC in the truck.

I was feeling so tired, pregnant, and discouraged that we’d ever find a place.  We didn’t even have a job yet.  Baby is due in a month.  But, your dad…he was focused and just listened to me bitch.  Then at the end of the day, when I was more than ready to go home, and tired of rejections he sees one more house for sale.  Begging me to let him try one more, I stubbornly agreed and acted like an asshole as we drove over.  Telling me he’s only gonna be five minutes, I roll my eyes and wait in the truck.

He knocks.  They answer.  He talks.  They invite him in.  He motions for me to come in, but I act like a dork and hold my ground in the truck.

An hour later, your dad who I’m calling all sorts of names at this point, comes out with the biggest grin he’s ever had.  That stupid plan of his?  It worked.  He offered to rent it from them and they decided to owner finance a four bedroom house to us for $400/month with the deposit money we had as a down payment since they hadn’t been able to sell it over the last year and they were ready to retire to their ranch.

Asking about what kind of work he did, he told them he was just hired at Dell Computers, though he was really just out of his second interview with no idea.

He did get hired.  He was now employed at Dell Computers, a company we had never heard of.  Or many people for that matter.  He did it!  he moved us up here and got us our start in Austin.

We had a closing date on the house. We had a start date on the job. My pregnancy with Austin was overdue…

Then this happened.