Jeanine Barker Ryder

Well where do I begin...Troy and I lived in Shreveport when we were first married in 1995. Moved back to Deville a year later.
We then moved to Richmond, VA in 1999. Loved it there! Have a lot of great memories and great friends!
It's a wonderful place to live not only because it's close to the mountains AND the beach but because it is so rich with history.
Also my kids got to play in snow A LOT. We lived there for 5 and a half years.
Troy was offered a transfer to Houston and we decided to make a move in order to see our family more often. That was great but everything else didn't quite measure up to Virginia.
The highlights of Houston were getting to see Def Leopard, Aerosmith, Madonna (and Justin Bieber among many others) in concert.
Also Carly was doing tumbling and got involved in competitive cheer. I loved watching her at competitions. WoW!
Then Carly and Sydney started doing Musical Theater and also LOVED watching them perform! We lived there 5 and a half years also and
Troy had an opportunity to be relocated again to Oklahoma City.
Everyone kept saying "watch out for the tornados!" How bad could it be? I thought.
I had already encountered Hurricane Isabelle in Virginia and Hurricane Ike in Houston!

When we flew here to buy a house we were evacuated to the basement of the airport for over 2 hours because of tornadoes! The lady sitting beside me said, " This feels like Katrina all over again!" She had been one of the many that had the pleasure of being "hold up" in the superdome.

Needless to say we moved here this summer. It's quite different than living in even the suburbs of Houston or Richmond, Va but we like it. We actually have a decent sized lot and are not so close to our neighbors house. I told Troy's neice that we can actually say we are going to town now like they do in Deville and her reply was "How long does it take you to get to town 5 minutes?" My response was "no, 10 to 15 minutes, HA!"

Anyway, I think we are going to like it here. People are really nice and its a more laid back environment. Everyone is so in a hurry in the Houston area and the traffic there is one of the worst in the nation. Troy HATED it!! So did I but I didn't have to drive into Houston everyday to work.
Which reminds me, I have been a homemaker for 12 years. I'm ready to get back out in the work force. I was a phlebotomist for 7 years and would like to get a job in that field again but I have sent some resumes out and I think people aren't pleased with the fact that I haven't worked in 12 years.
I'm going to keep trying and if it doesn't work out, maybe I'll pursue a different career all together, go back to school, who knows what's around the corner for me?
Hopefully I'll be on facebook soon so I can keep up with old friends since we move every 5 and a half years. And I will have some updated photos, even some of myself!!

There are so many I don't even know where to begin!
Mr. Hathorn's chemistry class with Aaron, Jarrod, Jr., Stacy, Karri. Was Jeff Jenkins in our class?
Mrs. Lee holding her stop sign while Jennifer Warren was hanging out of my car!
The cheerleading "sleepover" video! made at Wendi's house!
Mrs. Tarpley's class- all the Oprah talk shows!
Joey Naquin ALWAYS having a question or comment for discussion in Mrs. Passmore's class!
Singing "You Shook Me all night long" on the bus on the away football games.
Senior skip days to Indian Creek.
Rolling the football players cars while we were at cheerleading practice! And them getting us back!
Pep rally where the guys dressed like girls. My brother, Kyle was the ugliest woman I've ever seen!