Christy,
Your sons are beautiful!!!
I noticed you're in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. I'm a freelance reporter in California, but I'm relocating to McKinney Texas. What can you tell me about the work in your area of the state?

Kelly

Sorry to hijack your "Realtime Chicken" post. Judy does have good questions that I think most reporters ask themselves. But I am very wordy. I apologize.

Fine...no Facebook...I'll hunt you down here ;)

Congratulations on your boys, Christy!

Christy,

Congratulations on your boys!! Boys are the best!

I have four. I about flipped when I saw your boys' names.

My boys are Cade Nolan, Chase Logan, Cole Dylan, and Clay James. (James is a family name.)

I think in my past life I was born and raised in Texas. :)

(Our oldest is a girl, Haylee Rose.)

I wish you a lifetime of joy with your special angels

I don't know if this is where I should post this or not but I had my twins last Wed, the 20th, by emergency C-section. They are just impatient like their momma, I guess.
They weighed 3 lbs and 2 lbs, 14 ounces. They are Logan Reed and Dylan Cade and they are precious. They are tiny, tiny. I go up there twice a day to see them but they'll be in NICU for probably two months. They are breathing on their own and one of them is almost through with the jaundice lights, so now they just need to continuously gain weight and we'll be doing a lot better.

Unless you work for a firm that pays on billout, and there are very few here in Dallas, then you get paid when the reporter gets paid from her client. When mine get over six months old, I start trying to pay them one at a time if I have the extra money because I want that reporter to work for me again. But at the same time, I can't afford to pay my bills and pay the oustanding invoices that my clients are taking forever to pay, so I just try to squeeze them in my budget to make everybody happy.
It's not uncommon at all for it to take six months to get paid on the average job. I don't know why that is but the out-of-town attorneys always pay me immediately but not the ones right here in the metroplex. Very frustrating.

Hey, Christy...
Just curious about how quick the Dallas independent reporters generally pay on overflow jobs. We're just very spoiled down here in Houston and used to getting paid on billout, but I know it works differently up there in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Hi there, Christy! Just wanted to thank you again for contacting me for work. I hope that I will be able to help you next time.

There's always work in Dallas. I think Houston might be better and pay faster as far as the attorneys for some reason, but I wouldn't want to live in Houston. It goes up and down and you never know if you're going to be slammed or slow, but I always have something to work on.

HeY ChriSty---i See YouR in ArLingtoN. YouR noT too too faR froM me.....i attend online ClassEs @ CRID there In Dallas. JuSt wanTEd to Say say hello. HoWs the Outlook on joBs thE areA?

thanks for the info about the olympus tape recorder. When I was at the convention, Anita Paul Johnston recommended a plug-in USB microphone with earbuds for your computer. although it doesn't solve the problem of no audiosync if I don't set up my computer (doctor depo), it saved me from buying the new mira at $4,700+.

Lightspeed is so much cheaper than the mira. it may be the way to go.

If you get the mira wait for a convention price. they had $1000 trade-in for an old machine or 0% financing for 30 months.

congratulations on the twins you're expecting. A mom at our school just had twin girls last week at 7 pounds apiece. I hope yours weigh less. It's much easier to fatten them up later.

Hey, Christy!

Yes, I'm doing some freelancing with other firms trying to stay busy. I'll be glad to help out. Yes, I do realtime too. I didn't like doing RT at first, but once you've done a few, it's no big deal. I'll e-mail you privately my contact info.
How's the pregnancy treating you? Easy, I hope.

Woops! I think I accidentally posted this on my own page -- DUH!

I'm with ya on the Bulldogs. We were first looking at Bull Mastifs, then Bulldogs, ended up with the in-between size "B" -- Boxers! I still can't walk by a Bulldog, though, and not say hello and want to bring it home. We've had ours now for a couple of years, so they're mellowing out some. We fostered a 3-mo-old Boxer puppy earlier this month, and he WORE us out! Our two "middle-aged" Boxers keep us on our toes as it is, and this little guy's energy levels were off the charts! He's off to his new home now, terrorizing their reverse brindle Boxer.

Twins? Congratulations! You really ARE going to have your hands full, no doubt about it!
New babies (times two), stepson, and running a CR biz -- at least you'll have the dogs for some comic relief!

I lived in the "Big D" back in the '80s for a short period, and I'm quite familiar with Arlington. Two really good friends moved from SD to Austin; in-laws in San Antonio, Port Aransas; and my stepson (24) is from College Station. Most of our frequent flyer miles are built up on flights to Texas! I'll be there next month (Austin) to babysit my godsons while their parents go on vacation.

LOVE the new photos! What a complete crack up!
Chat soon!
Until then... happy CR'ing!

Hi, Christy,

This is Melisa Henton-Duncan. Cute family pic. CONGRATULATIONS on your marriage and the twins you're expecting. Hope all is going well. Michelle says hello and sends her best!

Melisa