American Idol Favorite!

Okay, at the risk of sounding like a total teeny bopper I am posting this video of David Archuleta's performance on American Idol. I was flipping through the channels the other night and caught the last part of the show and saw him sing this song. I was so impressed - the kid is only seventeen! I guess the show's theme of the week was '70s music, and he chose to sing "Imagine" by John Lennon. I absolutely love the original version of the song and thought he did an amazing job with it! So, for those of you who are not quite as entranced with tween culture as I am, and didn't happen to catch the show, have a listen. . . . And if you are wondering, no, I did not call in and vote after the show - although he is my favorite pick to win it! :)

8's List

I'll give in to the peer pressure since apparently this is what all the cool bloggers are doing.

8 things I am passionate about:
1. Wife, friends, family
2. A&M football
3. Motorcycling, shooting (gotta lump ‘em together, 8 items isn’t much)
4. Doing anything outside, especially with the wife and/or dog
5. Pick-up games of any type (tennis, kickball, football, basketball)
6. Work
7. Learning
8. Seeing new places, living different experiences with my wife

8 things I want to do before I die:
1. Get my knee fixed
2. Run a marathon
3. Have/ Raise kids
4. Buy acreage, and a baby grand piano for my wife
5. Ride our own horses with my wife
6. Get my knee down on a motorcycle (but this time – purposely; I’ve done it the other way enough already)
7. Ski Europe with my wife
8. Retire, and go to an auto mechanic school.

8 things I never get tired of listening to:
1. My wife’s laugh
2. Classic Rock3. Classic Country
4. Motorcycles
5. A working rig
6. Gunfire
7. The sound a Frisbee Disk makes when it lands in the basket
8. “And the Texas A&M Aggies have beaten the University of Texas Longhorns!!”

8 things that attract me to my friends:
1. Sense of humor
2. Integrity
3. Composure
4. Honesty
5. Intelligence
6. Conversational skill and willingness
7. Loyalty
8. Genuine self-confidence

8 things I learned in 2007-2008:
1. Painting really is a lot of work, but worth it.
2. Without integrity, it doesn’t matter what else a person may have going for them – that person is unrespectable.
3. Never assume that just because it’s not being taken out of your W-2, that you don’t have to pay the taxes.
4. If the right thing to do were the easy thing to do, then they would just call it “The Easy Thing.”
5. “That guy seems pretty bright,” and “That guy sure talks a lot,” are not phrases that commonly go together.
6. There is an inverse relationship between the simplification of a concept, and the true reality of that concept – and it’s difficult to resist the appeal of a simple concept.
7. Anybody in America has a 90% probability of being better-off than 90% of the people anywhere else… but it’s still OK to complain sometimes.
8. My wife is even cooler than I thought.

8 things I say often:
1. What the…
2. Seriously, am I (we) the last intelligent person (people) on the planet?
3. What’re we eating?... That sounds good.
4. No, really, I’ll drive.
5. Is it outside? Count me in.
6. I can do that.
7. Beats the hell out of a real job.
8. It costs how much?!?

8 shows I watch often:
1. Law & Order (when my wife lets me)
2. House
3. College Football
4. NFL Football
5. Sky News (it’s the only decent English news channel at work)
6. Food Network (by proxy)
7. …
8. … I don’t watch much TV

Killing Time

Well, I'm one week into the first full hitch of the new year and the drilling is good - we're at 8260m in 12¼" hole (which means we've got about 2.5 more weeks on this well. The good news is that things are going well - the bad news is that it gets pretty boring when things are going well. Thankfully there's another Exxon guy here for another week or two - a good guy named Jeremy. At any rate, Jeremy and I have got this litttle game going where we've got this little beanbag football - and the objective of the game is to hide and/or sneak up on the other guy and nail 'im with it when they're not expecting it. Our little arms race has excallated to the point where it's spread out of the office area and into the accommodations - and I've become especially adept at this. To emphasize the boredom, we sometimes make up little spoof posters about things that have happened and funny people - this one commemorates my ultimate supremacy in the beanbag football game. It's regretable that it's an Ohio State football (an engineer working here left it a while ago), but it's better than throwing hard erasers at each other like we did for a while (a very short-lived game). In other news, if this bit makes it to the final depth of this section of the well (there are 4 sections, this is the third) it will be another world record for length drilled with one bit - usually either the bit becomes too dull to drill, or the computerized downhole-tools give out. And it'll mean something to do besides drill!!! Other good news is that Tiff's new schedule (working nights) gives me more opportunities to call (before and after she gets out of work) since the time difference makes it easy to do that conducive to my schedule.

Blog you later,

Winter Doldrums!

Okay, I am really done with this midwest winter. I went to Gap and Old Navy today, and they were putting out their spring stuff and it saddened me to think how many more weeks of winter we will endure before we can break out the sundresses and flip-flops. So, I went looking through the pictures I took last spring after the husband and I finished landscaping to cheer me up. Just looking at pics of spring color has cheered me up a bit, and I hope it does the same for anyone else with a small case of S.A.D.!

The 8's!

A friend put these on her blog and "tagged" me to do them to. So, here you go M.S.

8 things I am passionate about:
1. family
2. friends
3. Aggie football!
4. community (neighbors, voting, supporting local business, etc.)
5. faith
6. cooking/baking
7. husband/married life
8. trying/seeing new places and things

8 things I want to do before I die:
1. run a marathon
2. go to the Kentucky Derby
3. watch a Wimbledon or U.S. Open game in person
4. see the Aggies win a National Championship!
5. have kids (no SLH, I am not pregnant)
6. open a bakery or catering store with my mom
7. see George Strait in concert (preferably at the Houston rodeo!)
8. raise happy/healthy children with my husband

8 things I never get tired of listening to:
1. husband's voice on the phone when he's at work
2. our wedding CD
3. movie quotes from Anchorman and The Wedding Crashers
4. any George Strait songs
5. Football (especially Aggie football!)
6. husband singing all the words to every single oldies song ever written!!
7. Christmas music
8. my sister telling ridiculously long stories, especially about work stuff

8 things that attract me to my friends:
1. sense of humor (and can also understand and put up with mine) :)
2. understanding
3. supportive
4. honest
5. mutual respect
6. authenticity (I really liked that one m.s.)
7. compassionate and caring
8. alike enough to share common ground, but different enough that I grow as a person being around them

8 things I learned in 2007-2008:
1. I would be working as a nurse in the NICU!
2. My husband (and myself by proxy) would join a local kickball team (Go S&B!)
3. The lightbulbs I can't reach will always go out (or someone will back into the car) the day the husband leaves for work - never when he's home or about to be home!
4. Painting is a lot of work, but totally worth it in the end.
5. I am ready to be done with school for awhile, grad school can wait!
6. Doing mission work in other countries is a passion I have and something I want to do as often as I can (went to Jamaica with my nursing school & had an amazing and eye-opening experience)
7. Dogs will seek out and eat chocolate even if it has made them violently ill on more than one occassion.
8. My husband is an amazing supporter and constant encourager in anything I do (I knew this before 2007, but he put up with my Type A, OCD personality very well during school this year).

8 things I say often:
1. I feel that. . .
2. How about you never do that again!
3. What would you like me to bake/cook?
4. Basically, . . .
5. I hate winter.
6. Mostly people (this is what I say to the husband when he's taking a pic, he likes "mostly scenery" pics)
7. I love you
8. I miss you

8 shows I watch often:
1. Paula Deen, Ace of Cakes, Everyday Italian (basically anything on Food Network)
2. House
3. Private Practice
4. Grey's Anatomy
5. The Hills (Team L.C.)
6. So You Think You Can Dance (only the re-runs)
7. Any football during the season
8. TLC (Bringing Home Baby, Adoption Stories, Jon & Kate +8, etc.)

Family Visit!

Mom and her sister at church.

Pics from visit to see mine and the husband's house!

My mom's sister was able to come for a visit this weekend. It was so nice to see her and hear about uncle and cousins that we haven't seen in way too long. I know my mom was really happy to be able to spend time with her sister and catch up. It makes me laugh to hear my mom talk when she's with her sister because she's from Georgia (where my mom also grew up) and it brings out her southern drawl (I can always tell when she is talking to her on the phone too!). Anyway, it was a nice visit and I hope we will be able to see the rest of the family before too long as well.

Eco-Friendly Company

So, recently my husband and I bought (for ourselves and as gifts) reusable shopping bags. We tend to go to the grocery store, Target, Wal-Mart, etc., a lot (sorry Mom, I'm not as good about doing the whole menu planning a week at a time, one trip to the store a week, thing like you are!). We ended up accumulating tons and tons of plastic bags. However useful they may be for picking up and disposing of dog "stuff" in the backyard, their usefulness ends there; not to mention they are not at all eco-friendly. Seeing as how ours cars don't get the best gas-mileage and we've only done small things here and there for the environment (fluourescent light bulbs, washing clothes in cold water, curb-side recycling) we thought buying reusable shopping bags was the least we could do. We love the ones we got from http://www.reusablebags.com/ and they are very reasonably priced. The ones we have clip to the sides of the shopping cart and can fit a TON of groceries. I love them so much and so do both mom's and sister's that got them as gifts! I highly recommend it (and some stores even give you a small discount for bringing your own bags, . . . bonus!!). So, check out the website and I highly recommend the green or blue canvas tote. GO GREEN!!

A break from winter in the Midwest!!

A friend from A&M and I enjoying tapas and Sangria in Rice Village.

Dinner at Pappasito's (my fav Mexican restaurant!) with more friends from A&M. Great food and great company, what more can you ask for!!

A pic of me and the vices I indulge in when I am out of town! Donuts from Shipley's and fries from Whataburger. I'm really lucky I can't get this stuff and home or I'd have a big problem (with the problem being lack of self-control and the big being me!)

Not a great pic, but the message here is: Love Houston weather, Hate Houston traffic!

The husband and I enjoying dinner at his favorite sushi restaurant, Ichibon.

We just got back from a quick trip to Houston. We were only gone Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday but it was nice to leave the snow behind for a few days of 60+ degree weather! The husband took a Diversity class for work while I played for a few days with some college friends. It was nice to see some folks that we don't see nearly enough. The trip was uneventful except for the return flight where we were in the plane, on the runway, ready to take-off and we had to return to the gate due to a brake malfunction/warning light. Got back to the gate and the plane was too heavy for the jack to lift so we all had to de-board. Moved gates, boarded a different plane and just a few short hours late we returned home to snow and 22 degree weather at 1 a.m.! The husband will leave for H-town again next week, I will encourage more picture taking, but no promises!!

Painting - easier said than done. . .

So, we decided to embark on another home improvement adventure this week and paint the kitchen. We were both tired of staring at beige walls. We also thought, it's painting, how hard could it possibly be. Well. . . . . after 6 swatches, 1 coat of primer, 2 coats of paint, many areas of "touching up," and countless trips to the paint store, we have a kitchen that is painted a fine shade of Bahia Grass (lightened 25%). We are pleased with the results and even more pleased that it is finished!!

Celebration time

On Friday night we went out with some friends from nursing school to celebrate our graduation (official graduation date was January 31st, although pinning and graduation ceremonies aren't until May). It was an interesting night of karaoke!! For those of you who haven't heard, I will start my first nursing job on February 11th.

Our Inaugural Blog!!

We are so excited to officially enter the world of blogging! There are many of y'all out there that we don't see nearly as often as we'd like to. We hope that by logging on and reading about our day to day happenings we can be better about keeping everyone up to date! Enjoy.