The water is cool , the neighbors are warm and Julia’s diving is hot.

Here’s what I’ve learned at our neighborhood pool:

10. You can learn to dance by going barefoot on the walk to the car.

9.  If you want a dry book, read at the library.

8.  A Sonic Route 44 Diet Cherry Limeade tastes best with a dash of chlorine.

7.  C-sections really did used to be vertical, didn’t they?

6.  Nothing says “roll down the windows” like a forgotten, wet, lotion-greased towel baked in the car overnight.

5.   A splashed pizza box and napkins dumped in the trash can is my favorite way to do Friday night dishes.

4.  When the middle school boys arrive – it’s time to go.

3.  “Woe to she who adjusteth my goggles strap.”  1st Rebecca 6:5

2.  I wish everything in my life could smell like Dreamsicle-y  Ocean Potion 30.

And the #1 thing I’ve learned:

1.  The extra-warm baby pool is to be avoided.

When I was told we had to move after having dodged the relo bullet for years, I cried every night for weeks.  Literally.

Lois and Hannah – Christmas 1999 in Houston.  12″ plastic tree on the coffee table; presents on the couch; stocks hung on the mini-blinds.  We let the girls unwrap their gifts Christmas morning – but no un-packaging.  As soon as they unwrapped an item, I placed in it a moving box.  Mean, mean Mom.  Our unpacking in San Antonio on January 13 was quite festive with the new toys, clothes, dolls, etc.

I sobbed when my dear friend Shelley – who had moved to San Antonio years before – called me.  Shelley laughed at me (she’s done that a lot over 33 years) and said, “Dry your ears, dearie.  You’re going to LOVE San Antonio!”

But I.  Did  Not.  Want  To.  Move.  Period.

And yet Keith and I had long cussed, discussed and prayed about our school situation.  We had managed to claw our way into a good elementary school for Rachel and – by legacy – Lois.  But there were no good public middle schools in HISD, and only one good high school, which we had no hope of attending.  What to do?  Should we move to the sticks and endure the commute?  One of us get an evening/weekend job to pay for private school?  Home schooling was certainly “out,” with our being pro-life.

So instead – we moved.  And I am so thankful.  When I think about all the time I spent crying, I laugh at myself.  What an idiot.

In honor of year 2010…and our 10th anniversary in Ole San Antone….here’s my personal “Top 10 Things I Love About San Antonio” list.   If you see this list later in a Chamber of Commerce brochure, remember – you read it here first.

#10  I Love the History

I’ve read that every real Texan’s home is San Antonio.  And why not, with the Alamo, its other missions and rich history?  Teddy Roosevelt gathered the Rough Riders at the Menger Hotel here  in 1898.   LBJ and Lady Bird (newest high school named for her) were married at St. Mark’s in 1934.    My first trip to San Antonio was to visit HemisFair in 1968, with its famous needle tower.

The city features tons of historical markers (or “hysterical markers,” as Keith calls them), fascinating street names (highly recommend this book) and engrossing cemeteries.

Hannah, Rachel and Lois at the Alamo, Christmas 2000.  “Remember the Woodworths!”

#9  I  Have Loved Watching Our Neighborhood Grow

When we moved to our neighborhood, the closest 24-hour pharmacy was seven miles away.  Ditto the closest Target – and it was small.  Not all the streets went through, and there were construction sites everywhere (handy for dead-of-night rock dumps when building a pond….if you know what I mean….)

It’s just been fun to watch everything grow – the shopping, more schools, four 24-hour pharmacies within two miles and yes – two nearby Super Targets.

The girls spent hours playing “fort” at the houses built on our street – like this one, behind us.  Keith and I walked those houses often, getting ideas.

#8  I Love the Buses – All of Them

We had no school bus service in Houston.  Here – bus service is provided if you live more than two miles from the school.  It’s been a godsend for elementary and middle school.

Keith and I have been riding the Express bus downtown to work since November, 2005 – we were its original riders.   It’s saved us a fortune, plus gives me to time to read in the morning, and nap in the afternoon. Everyone at home is happier if I get my nap, I assure you.

Julia and Hannah on the bus August 14, 2006 – the district’s first day of school, plus Julia’s first day of American school ever.

#7  I Love the Military Presence

Standing behind a full bird colonel buying a quart of milk in HEB….sitting next to parents in camo at a school play….attending moving-back-to-Germany parties at the end of every school year….watching the doctor from Ft. Sam hook his bicycle on the front of our downtown bus….that’s what we do, because San Antonio is a military town with Ft. Sam Houston, Brooks AFB, Lackland AFB and Randolph AFB.

USAA Insurance – one of the three biggest employers (USAA, AT&T, federal government) – preferentially hires veterans, like Keith’s brother Byron.

We’ve loved sharing Thanksgiving with airmen trainees from Lackland Air Force Base.  Those are our good friends John and Linda on the left, with whom we always co-host the holiday.  And those are our good friends Shelley and John on the right, who helped us unpack in 2000 – what a thankless job.  I remember Shelley sloughing her way through a sea of my Rubbermaid.

#6  I Loved Learning To Be New?

In gynormous Houston, you carve your niche.  My niche was bordered by Stella Link, Gessner, S. Main and 59.   If I went anywhere in that several square miles, I was bound to see a friend.  And I loved it.  It was sooo hard to be “new” in San Antonio.  I h-a-t-e-d it.  And yet – had we not been “new” – I never would have learned its loneliness.   And I never would have made some of the good friends we’ve made, because I wouldn’t have thought to encourage the girls to ask the “new kid” over to play, or seek the visitor at church.  I never would have thought of what to write down for a new neighbor – the trash pick-up days, when the pool opens, the closest 24-hour pharmacy, the nearest churches of their denomination.  It’s a lesson I needed to learn, but one I never would have pursued voluntarily.

After we moved, I was always encouraging the girls to invite friends over, particularly new-to-the-neighborhood or new-to-school-or-church friends. Being new stinks.

#5   I Love the 20-Minute Town

On our house-hunting weekend in 1999, we ran into my friend Bud at the airport who said, “You’ll love this place.  It’s a 20-minute town.”  Meaning you can get anywhere in 20 minutes.  At rush hour, that’s not quite true now – but still, San Antonio’s size, population (1.3M) and expanse is very manageable.

Keith describes San Antonio as “a small town of a million people.”   We quickly noticed one of the first questions locals asked was, “Where did you go to high school?”  Obituaries almost always list the high school, even if the deceased completed more advanced education.  San Antonio also uses street banners to advertise events.  Its freeway entrance/exit system is very small-town with a distinct lack of interchanges – the one thing I would change with my magic wand, if I had one.

I like the smaller-town “feel.”  I’ve long hated driving, and if everything I needed were within five miles of me, that’d be even better.

One of the best ways to get around (down)town:  The River Walk.  We go every Christmas to enjoy the lights, music and food.  It meanders behind the office buildings where we work.

#4  I Love Fiesta Texas

We have Sea World, Schlitterbahn and Fiesta Texas here – but Fiesta Texas is our favorite.  Sometimes in the summer, we go to just swim – it has a kickin’ water park, and it’s too hot to do anything else outside.   We renew our passes at spring break; go often in the summer; go once for Fright Fest, and once for Holiday in the Park.

Her first summer home, Julia would come to me and wave her crooked hand like a fish, asking “Bomp, bomp, bomp, bomp?” with an expectant smile.  That meant, “Hey, Mom – let’s go to Fiesta Texas and do some rides!”  Every summer, she races to check the height requirements for the bigger coasters.  When she grows tall enough for the Superman (54″) – listen for the shout.

We took Julia when she’d been home less than two weeks.  Our sainted social worker – Jennifer – thought we were stone cold crazy until she met Julia and got a feel for her personality.  We did not have to cocoon our post-institutionalized child as so many adoptive families have had to do.

#3  I Love the Patriotism

You may think #7 – Military Presence – and Patriotism are the same thing.  But they’re not.   Military towns are not necessarily patriotic towns.  And San Antonio is patriotic.

Fiesta Texas plays the national anthem before opening the park each day.  One day last summer – as we waited, hands over our hearts – a group of foreign-sounding high school students rudely talked and laughed and jostled.  I glared, then finally stepped over and said, “Excuse me.  That’s our national anthem.”  A girl answered, “I do not care.  I am French.”  I said, “You are a guest in our country.   I would hope you would show respect for your host.”  They did quiet themselves.  An older-than-me Hispanic woman walked over after the anthem to say, “I’m glad you said something.  I was going over to slap them.”

The first year we hosted airmen trainees for Thanksgiving (2002), I parked my eight-year-old Ford mini-van between a tricked-out Lexus and a beat-up Chevy yard truck filled with lawn equipment.   The families hosting airmen tend to visit, and it’s so much fun hearing how long they’ve been doing it, what they’re serving, etc.    Nobody talks about their their heirloom china, or the square footage of their dining room, or any “things.”  They talk about how happy it makes them to host trainees for dinner, and maybe their own military service away from home on a holiday.

God bless America.

Children’s Choir Members Rachel and Lois in 2001

#2  I Love Our Church

The third Sunday we visited Shearer Hills, Keith looked at me and asked, “Do you want to get this over with and join?”   We did.    We’ve made most of our friends there – been challenged to serve Jesus there – taught and been taught there.

There’s always something special about the church where your babies are born and if for no other reason, Westbury Baptist in Houston will always be precious to me.  But there’s also something special about the church where your babies are born again, and all four of ours made their professions of faith at Shearer Hills.

A church membership is not a substitute for a relationship with Jesus Christ.  But we are called to be members of the body, and when we don’t see our church family regularly, there’s a vague unease in our family life.    We do try welcome guests, too, as we felt so welcomed.  As Casting Crowns sings, “Jesus paid much too high a price -  For us to pick and choose who should come -
And we are the Body of Christ.”

Hannah’s 2003 Baptism

#1 – I Love Our Schools

We are profoundly thankful for our schools.  Keith knew – from online research – within two square miles where we’d live when we moved, based on the schools.  If we had to move, then we were going to solve our biggest problem, which was sub-standard public education for our girls.

Third-grader Rachel was an outstanding student in HISD.  When we moved into North East ISD in San Antonio – she was behind.  Badly behind.  Her teacher tutored her twice a week to help her catch up.

Other than three small bumps in the road, we have been very happy with Rachel, Lois and Hannah in their schools.  That happiness makes the steep property taxes worth it.

But with Julia – we’ve been more than “happy.”  We’ve been thrilled.  Julia’s English-speaking ability (which was “none”) was evaluated soon after she came home in May, 2006, in preparation for her upcoming kindergarten year.  NEISD brought in a Russian-speaking speech therapist to see if she needed speech therapy, which almost all post-institutionalized children require (she did not.)  Her kinder teacher – who also came to her baptism last year – kept a very watchful eye on her, to ensure she didn’t get lost physically or academically.  The school principal personally looked in on her once a week.  She received extra reading tutoring in first and second grades, and – as an ESL student – is regularly tested for any looming problems.  Her teachers couldn’t have been better if we’d hand-designed them.

We also appreciate the elementary after-school program – not available in Houston.  Because our kids could stay on-campus after school until we could pick them up, they could be in choir, chess club, storytelling club,  Girl Scouts, etc.  Rachel – an education major at UTSA – now works in that program at a nearby elementary school – and loves it.

This picture Julia drew for her kinder teacher at the end of the school year says a lot.

So that’s my X-File…… I’m an ex-Houstonian, and have now lived in San Antonio for X (10) years.   The truth is out there.  And it’s that I love San Antonio.

Come see us sometime!

While you wait – here’s a stroll down a snow-covered, somewhat-twisted Memory Lane.

1984:  My first unique Christmas card, produced with the collaboration of my brilliant niece Sarah, and my brother John David – when I was Becky Hoffman.   We were a great team of “21 Fingers, Inc.”, referencing the 10 fingers each of Sarah and me,  plus David’s one finger.

1986:  Perhaps my very favorite card.  Nothing like Bruce Springsteen’s buns to inspire a little Christmas baking later.  We inserted a small plastic bag with a red rock and a jingle bell in each card, sealed with a music note sticker.  Only one recipient “got it,” a little girl in my Wednesday night bible study class who ran to hug me saying, “A jingle bell and a rock!  Jingle Bell rock!”

1986 Card Cover – By far the most artistic card (black & white, no less), playing on the upcoming 40th anniversary of “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  The 8mm film clip taped to the front of each card showed the three of us holding a poster that read, “And have a Happy New Year, too.”  Several recipients did examine the strip with a magnifying glass, so I was glad David insisted on authenticity.

1987 Card Body:  Sarah was working as a movie usher, so “Jimmy and Donna” snuck in to take the photo.  Truth be told, we snuck into the theaters she was serving many, many times, usually with David hissing at me to “look inconspicuous.”

1989, the year we got married – Our only “non-card,” because we were so busy with wedding preparations.  Too big to  scan, this 11″ x 17″ quad-folded color-me greeting made us “31 Fingers,” as Keith had joined the family.

1990 Card Photo, playing on “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and my mother always telling people, “You’ll have to step over his (artificial) legs” – it was a Texas Chainsaw Christmas, complete with bloodied artificial limbs.  This was the card my mother begged us not to send to “her family,” as though they weren’t “our family,” too.  I was pregnant with Rachel here – which may explain a lot.

1990 Card Insert – We affixed real bandaids to the inside.

1993 – Rachel was the world’s biggest Barney fan.  I had return address labels created displaying “Barney Woodworth” and for years, we got junk mail addressed to him.  I was pregnant with Lois, who was born Thanksgiving weekend….and two months early…..

….so we designed this Christmas card insert as her birth announcement.

1995 – along came Hannah, the biggest baby born at Memorial Southwest Hospital that year.  Twelve years later – cousin James (Sarah’s son) beat her by two ounces.

1996 – Loved this picture, because one-year-old Hannah thrust her hand straight into the “Happy Birthday Jesus” icing, then wiped it on her collar.

1999 – Digging in for Y2K atop one of the huge mounds of dirt piled from repairing under-the-foundation Houston plumbing.  We had two inserts prepared:  One was the norm, one said we were moving to San Antonio.  We held our breath, not knowing which we were sending until after Thanksgiving.  It was San Antonio.

2000 – First Christmas card from San Antonio, in front of the Alamo – “Remember the Woodworths” – certainly an appropriate send to our good friends and family in Houston.  My sister Judy bought the girls that puffy Santa, and he’s been in almost every Christmas card photo since.

2006 – First card with Julia, and everyone in their Old Navy flag tees – all American citizens, but yet the “Worldwide Woodworths.”

Want to see them all?  Cover over some time!   Christmas card photos from 1984 – 2008 are hung in the upstairs hallway.  So many frames – I’ve given up trying to keep them all straight.  But that’s okay.  I’m a little twisted myself.

One of the biggest blessings we’ve had in San Antonio is the opportunity to host airmen trainees from Lackland AFB for Thanksgiving.   We never know their genders, or ages, or hometowns until we’re getting acquainted while driving away from the base.  And we don’t need to.  We know what we need to know.  We’re all Americans.

Disney’s Christmas train – newly-arrived at Sunset Station – opened to the public at 9 a.m.  Keith, Hannah and Julia were among the first in line at 7 a.m., and thus invited to tour with local VIPs including “T-Bone,” the Rampage mascot.   A local news station caught them hobnobbing with the big shots – just watch for a few seconds, and you’ll see Keith, Hannah and Julia saunter by.

Keith sported a Mickey Mouse shirt and Julia a Tinkerbell shirt – that probably didn’t hurt their chances of being included with the mucks.

Computer models with light points to better simulate human movement completely fascinated Julia.    “Mom, they looked like robots.”

Giddy-yap!

Looks like my middle school math teachers

Keith and Julia took pictures of themselves in the mirrored exhibit rooms.  She is my daughter.

“There never was such a goose.”    And this is only kind of goose I’d recommend with 6’5″ Keith, unless you want a fist full’a humbug.

Sounds crazy to be talking “Christmas” in this unrelenting, no-rain, entirely oppressive heat – but Costco already has ribbon out, I noticed.  The holidays will be here before we know it – we’ll hear Christmas bells, movie sound tracks and the cha-ching of cash registers.

God bless us every one.

Keith was one of the 16,000 at the San Antonio Tea Party last night.  I would have loved to have gone, but someone had to manage the home front.

Keith’s video reminded me of when I talked my way into a press pass at 1986 San Jacinto Day festivities because I really wanted to to hear – and be near – Jerry Jeff Walker.

Read my lips:  #41 (to be) was there, too.

But Jerry Jeff was da man of the hour.

That was then.  This is now.  And now it’s time.  Really – it’s time.

Add hot water.  And stir.

Sigh.

Our tree is done in Woodworth. From the lighted Tinkerbell topper (thanks, Sharon!) down to the lovely hand-made tree skirt (thanks, Jean!) – our tree is just us.  Sunday School crafts.  Sciene Fair and volleyball ribbons.  Pictures.  Classroom gifts.  Sparkly package decorations.  A small stocking my grandmother made me.

Hannah, Lois and Rachel are tall enough now that Tinkerbell barely peeks over.

The world’s largest rubberband ball bounced into San Antonio this week.

All I could think of was the Griswolds, enjoying their cross-country drive to Wally World in the old family truckster.  Or as Clark said, “Hey, hey easy kids.  Everybody in the car.  Boat leaves in two minutes….or perhaps you don’t want to see the second largest ball of twine on the face of the earth, which  is only four short hours away?”

Yes, summer vacation is wrapping up.  It’s time to start thinking “school supplies.”  The girls are going shopping next week.

Maybe I’ll have them grab me some Hamburger Helper for Cousin Eddie and Keith to grill.

Bye now.  Enjoy these last weeks of no bedtime and dinner at the pool.

It didn’t take Julia long to realize the billboards, tray liners, TV commercials, etc. were  telling her there were dolphins in San Antonio.  After a local author read his book about Sea World to her school last year – she was hooked.  “Mom, we need to go there.”  She’s asked at least once a week for more than a year to visit Sea World.

Monday, I finally took Hannah and Julia to Sea World.  Seeing her face there reminded me of taking two-year-old Rachel to see Barney at the Natural History Museum in Houston.  The looks were of joy and wonder – I couldn’t help but be happy, too, even with all the “whale spit” on my clothes.

Open mouth.  Clasp hands.  Wait a moment and point excitedly crying, “Look!  Look!”  Shamu is the big draw at the park but the dolphins absolutely captivated her.


We feed the Sea Lions enough fish to make me glad I’d visited the ATM.  Julia and Hannah barked to each other for awhile afterward.  Me?  They’ll tell you I bark all the time.

Afternoons routinely break 100 degrees here.  Yeah for the wave pool!

New dolphin googles, anyone?  “Mom, these are cool.”


The child is fearless.  In addition to all the water stuff, she and I went on Journey to Atlantis, and she did the 15-story drop, 65 mph Steel Eel roller coaster by herself.  As in alone.  As in neither of us wiith her.  I promised God in 1998 that if he would let me off the roller coaster I was on at Fiesta Texas, that I would never ride another.  Promise intact to date.

So this is how an eight-year-old former resident of Children’s Home #47 in St. Pete, Russia, came 6,000 miles to splash the day away with dophins and whales native to seas from the four corners of the globe.

See, world?  You’re getting smaller all the time.

The Q’s were a’firing at the office yesterday

,,,,but I am happy to report we are not moving.  Rachel is now a senior.  I called her at church camp to make sure she and Lois understood before they happened across the story (I’m sure that’s what they’re doing at South Padre – scouring the papers, watching CNN, discussing current events, that sort of thing.)    Her question:  “Well, if we did have to move, you’d just let me live with a friend, right?”  Ummmm.   No.

We like San Antonio.  We love our church family, and our schools and the friends we’ve made.  The Fiesta Texas water park and our neighborhood pool keep the summers bearable, and there’s nothing more beautiful than the River Walk at Christmas.  No, you can’t get fresh sushi 24 x 7 here, but there’s a lot less filth, noise and vulgarity as opposed to bigger cities.  I was the one who fought moving for years, and yet it’s turned out to be such a good move for our family.  I’d move again if we had to – but I sure don’t want to.  And I sure don’t want to move anywhere bigger.


I’ve been with AT&T 28 years and nine months as of today.  It’s been a wild ride, especially 1983 – 1984  with Divestiture (the same time as “Ghostbusters” – hence the shirts – I’m the one on the left), Hurricane Alicia, the three-week strike and Southwestern Bell’s first layoffs ever.  None of the jobs I’ve had since 1997 even existed when I joined the company in 1979.  And U-verse – which Keith and I both work on now – is a whole new bag’o'tricks.   I worked at Remco TV Rental through five years of college (slow learner) , often reading/summarizing books and journals for the owner.  I became convinced that eventually, one telecommunications “thing” would exist in the home.  That’s why I went to work for AT&T instead of Prudential Life, a headhunter, a local book publisher or some oil company whose name I can’t even remember. U-verse is it. Well, the start of it.  It’s in its infancy.  But it’s growing up fast, and I think it will become the new norm for TV/voice/data.  I truly do.

My hope is our next move is to our scaled-down retirement house.  Keith and I love to walk houses under construction, or sign in with phony names at local open houses (so the realtors don’t keep bugging you) just to get ideas.  We want an outdoor fireplace on a good-sized patio.  I want a gynormous closet to store best-quality air mattresses to use when my 28 grandchildren (all named “Rebecca”) come to visit.  I want to be within easy striking distance of a college, because there are serious bible classes in my future.

But we can’t go anywhere now.

After all.

How would we pack the pond?!