I like it better in person than in the photos. Then again, I just hate photos of myself.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Mother's Day
Ok, so I'm not a mother, but I so appreciate all you mother's out there. In saying that, you must know I have the greatest husband ever. Just because I am not a mother, that didn't stop him from making the day special for me.
I have been working nights and worked both Saturday and Sunday from 2 p.m. to 12 a.m. Saturday night, Jon came out and had dinner with me at work. At about 1 a.m. Sunday morning, when I got home, Jon surprised me with Mother's Day. He had cleaned up all of our part of the house for me and had gotten me beautiful red roses.
He's the best!
Flooding
April 28th, Jon and I were woken up at 3 am by the rain. It was storming outside... lightning, thundering, heavy rain. We wound up dozing every now and then until 5 am, but for the most part we wound up just cuddling and listening to the storm. Jon went ahead into work while I watched the news seeing if anywhere was flooded, especially with the little bmw I am driving right now! Turns out that a storm system had practically stalled over Houston over night and dumped up to 11 inches of rain over a few hours. Jon called me from the car and said I wouldn't be able to get out from Philippine because of the water. He had been fine though in the Expedition.
A little while later, when Mom had gotten up, I jumped into her car and went to check out the two exits from our part of the neighborhood and found that we were flooded in. I didn't push the car too deeply into it, but I knew my car would never make it. The news was saying that if you could stay home until the middle of the day, to do so. It would hopefully give the system time to drain properly. The bayou in our neighborhood breached the banks, which caused most of the flooding down the streets...
Jon was sent home and called me from the middle of the neighborhood. He had driven through some of the water and was afraid to go further in it. He had pulled into someone's drive way and talked to them to see if he could leave the car there. He also helped her move her cars up further in the driveway and then he walked home. I went out part way to meet him at the bayou. It had certainly been over its banks earlier and was starting to go down at that moment. By the time Jon got to me, he was soaked up to the top of his thighs.
When walked to get the car later, we realized that if you had walked in the middle of some of the streets that the water would have been up to your waist easily. We just skirted through peoples yards where we had to walk to get in less water. Jon and I rested in the middle of the day and by 9 or 10 apparently the water had gone down enough that Senate and Lakeview/Philippine were no longer flooded. At about 3 pm, Jon and I decided that since the water had receded and neither of us were at work, that we would take a ride to the Woodlands to Fat Ogre Comics and maybe get the next two booster decks for Killer Bunnies.
Well... That was not so hot of an idea we found out. The ride was simple enough until we hit 45 north just before the Woodlands. I-45 had flooded over and was not draining. There was only one lane open to go through the flooded section. It wound up taking us a lot longer to get through to the games store and then to get home. We actually went a back way home to avoid the water on 45 south. We were glad that the store was open after all of that though, and wound up buying 5 of the booster packs and two sets of the blank cards so we could make our own. We now only need two more decks to complete the game. We may also get the Kinder Bunnies to add to it as well.
A little while later, when Mom had gotten up, I jumped into her car and went to check out the two exits from our part of the neighborhood and found that we were flooded in. I didn't push the car too deeply into it, but I knew my car would never make it. The news was saying that if you could stay home until the middle of the day, to do so. It would hopefully give the system time to drain properly. The bayou in our neighborhood breached the banks, which caused most of the flooding down the streets...
Jon was sent home and called me from the middle of the neighborhood. He had driven through some of the water and was afraid to go further in it. He had pulled into someone's drive way and talked to them to see if he could leave the car there. He also helped her move her cars up further in the driveway and then he walked home. I went out part way to meet him at the bayou. It had certainly been over its banks earlier and was starting to go down at that moment. By the time Jon got to me, he was soaked up to the top of his thighs.
When walked to get the car later, we realized that if you had walked in the middle of some of the streets that the water would have been up to your waist easily. We just skirted through peoples yards where we had to walk to get in less water. Jon and I rested in the middle of the day and by 9 or 10 apparently the water had gone down enough that Senate and Lakeview/Philippine were no longer flooded. At about 3 pm, Jon and I decided that since the water had receded and neither of us were at work, that we would take a ride to the Woodlands to Fat Ogre Comics and maybe get the next two booster decks for Killer Bunnies.
Well... That was not so hot of an idea we found out. The ride was simple enough until we hit 45 north just before the Woodlands. I-45 had flooded over and was not draining. There was only one lane open to go through the flooded section. It wound up taking us a lot longer to get through to the games store and then to get home. We actually went a back way home to avoid the water on 45 south. We were glad that the store was open after all of that though, and wound up buying 5 of the booster packs and two sets of the blank cards so we could make our own. We now only need two more decks to complete the game. We may also get the Kinder Bunnies to add to it as well.
Killer Bunnies
Killer Bunnies - a card game packed full of fun. Our friends, Neva and Robert, have introduced us to this game and we love it. The bunnies are spin offs, the other cards are spin offs of all kinds of things. They are funny. Basically, the whole game revolves around getting bunnies for yourself, keeping them alive, killing other peoples bunnies, and getting carrots. The carrots are mocks of actors, famous people. Weapon cards and bunny cards are spin offs as well - spin offs of actual weapons, things gone wrong, general fun. Check it out www.killerbunnies.com There is also a 'nicer' deck if you will called kinderbunnies. Anyway, we recommend. Its good fun.
Released!
Yay! I should not be so excited, but I am totally relieved to be released from my calling as Primary Teacher. I stressed every week about this little Sunbeam class. It is so hard to find good stuff to keep them entertained. My little class especially. They didn't like singing, dancing, pretending to be Noah's ark animals. I finally just started to get them to pray in class. I have not yet ever had a calling that was so difficult for me. Everyone thought I was great with them, and to be honest once I was in class, it was ok and I could fake the cheeriness much better. But before hand, I dreaded it.
I promise one of the little girls has never liked me and gives me the evil eye even to this day. She hated coming to class, always threw fits, though once she was in class she was usually ok at least if the the other little girl was there.
The other girl was adorable and chatty and sometimes shy, but once you talked about princesses and ponies, she pepped right up. There were two boys in the class as well. One who is new and just adorable. He is totally shy and doesn't talk much, but does all the activities for the most part. The other boy has some developmental problems and was probably the biggest challenge because of that.
Anyway, I am glad to be able to now go to Sunday School and Relief Society. I love that!
I promise one of the little girls has never liked me and gives me the evil eye even to this day. She hated coming to class, always threw fits, though once she was in class she was usually ok at least if the the other little girl was there.
The other girl was adorable and chatty and sometimes shy, but once you talked about princesses and ponies, she pepped right up. There were two boys in the class as well. One who is new and just adorable. He is totally shy and doesn't talk much, but does all the activities for the most part. The other boy has some developmental problems and was probably the biggest challenge because of that.
Anyway, I am glad to be able to now go to Sunday School and Relief Society. I love that!
WORK!
Jon and I finally have work! In fact, the lack of blogs lately are partially a result of having said work.
Jon is working for an internal construction company and is enjoying it for the most part. He works early and gets home fairly early, which is a nice schedule (I think). Though we both hate early morning starts. We are certainly more night people. He is a little irritated with how quickly they expect him to be perfect, but that may just be the one who is training him. Anyway, he can post more later about his work if he wants.
I have started working at a new hotel. Well not new as in brand new property, but new for me. It is for a company I have worked for before and so far I am enjoying it. The hours are certainly not grand. I am mostly working PM shifts which means Jon and I cross paths and see each other much less often now, but we have figured out ways to work around that. This should be my last required PM shift type job if I stay in the hotel industry. In a year or so I should be able to become Front Office Manager or something along those lines.
In the mean time, I have finally finished training. I think I have the respect of most of the managers by now and still have some ways to go with some of the associates under me. Part of that challenge though is because their last manager didn't know as much and they had to carry him more than he supported them. Some of my agents are worried that I will be the same. I think in time, that will be overcome. I am working with a few friends from the industry before. They seem to think I will be able to work miracles. I guess I better cross my fingers on that one. We have a long way to go before we where we should be. I do enjoy the challenge though.
The one current downside to this job (aside from the late nights) is that my co-manager's wife is about to have a baby. That is certainly not the downside, but as a result, he will be taking off 4-6 weeks and that is going to leave me and the Front Office Manager with a lot to cover. We also had some lay offs in well all departments, but we are now short staffed. I will probably be working 6 day weeks at least. I will find out soon enough....
Jon is working for an internal construction company and is enjoying it for the most part. He works early and gets home fairly early, which is a nice schedule (I think). Though we both hate early morning starts. We are certainly more night people. He is a little irritated with how quickly they expect him to be perfect, but that may just be the one who is training him. Anyway, he can post more later about his work if he wants.
I have started working at a new hotel. Well not new as in brand new property, but new for me. It is for a company I have worked for before and so far I am enjoying it. The hours are certainly not grand. I am mostly working PM shifts which means Jon and I cross paths and see each other much less often now, but we have figured out ways to work around that. This should be my last required PM shift type job if I stay in the hotel industry. In a year or so I should be able to become Front Office Manager or something along those lines.
In the mean time, I have finally finished training. I think I have the respect of most of the managers by now and still have some ways to go with some of the associates under me. Part of that challenge though is because their last manager didn't know as much and they had to carry him more than he supported them. Some of my agents are worried that I will be the same. I think in time, that will be overcome. I am working with a few friends from the industry before. They seem to think I will be able to work miracles. I guess I better cross my fingers on that one. We have a long way to go before we where we should be. I do enjoy the challenge though.
The one current downside to this job (aside from the late nights) is that my co-manager's wife is about to have a baby. That is certainly not the downside, but as a result, he will be taking off 4-6 weeks and that is going to leave me and the Front Office Manager with a lot to cover. We also had some lay offs in well all departments, but we are now short staffed. I will probably be working 6 day weeks at least. I will find out soon enough....
High School Reunion
Can I just tell you how much I can not believe that High School was 11 years ago? I really do not feel like I am that much older. Time flies when you are having fun or growing up and working. It was so weird going to a reunion. I mean if you go to a small school, you have the opportunity to get to know pretty much every student and I would think your high school reunion, you would know most everyone. My school... well lets just say our senior class alone was around 500-700 students. The freshman class that year was over 1000.
It was fun though to go and see people I hadn't really talked to in probably those 10 years. Lets be honest, some of them I didn't even recall very well. I mean we didn't hang out all the time. The best part though was catching up with those that I was good friends with. There weren't that many of us though. It was fun to hear what people have been up to, where they are working now, whether they have families, whether they traveled, etc. I felt pretty good about myself to since I have traveled, I have a good job, and I married a wonderful man from another country.
I wonder how many of us are where we thought we would be in ten years from high school. I bet most aren't. Some married their high school sweethearts. Some got pregnant at the end of high school and we never knew about it until after. Some moved away. Some came back. And many just didn't show for this reunion. Out of 500-700, there were probably 50-100 maybe at the reunion.
Jon and I still enjoyed ourselves though. No pictures. Sorry! Dixon and Debbie, send me some if you have the chance! It was great to see you both! Jarvis, you too, if you took any.
Side note: The reunion was supposed to be at the 10 year mark last year, but due to our wonderful hurricane season, Hurricane Ike proved to be a set back. It worked for me though, because I would not have been able to make it last year when it was originally scheduled. I was still overseas in New Zealand.
It was fun though to go and see people I hadn't really talked to in probably those 10 years. Lets be honest, some of them I didn't even recall very well. I mean we didn't hang out all the time. The best part though was catching up with those that I was good friends with. There weren't that many of us though. It was fun to hear what people have been up to, where they are working now, whether they have families, whether they traveled, etc. I felt pretty good about myself to since I have traveled, I have a good job, and I married a wonderful man from another country.
I wonder how many of us are where we thought we would be in ten years from high school. I bet most aren't. Some married their high school sweethearts. Some got pregnant at the end of high school and we never knew about it until after. Some moved away. Some came back. And many just didn't show for this reunion. Out of 500-700, there were probably 50-100 maybe at the reunion.
Jon and I still enjoyed ourselves though. No pictures. Sorry! Dixon and Debbie, send me some if you have the chance! It was great to see you both! Jarvis, you too, if you took any.
Side note: The reunion was supposed to be at the 10 year mark last year, but due to our wonderful hurricane season, Hurricane Ike proved to be a set back. It worked for me though, because I would not have been able to make it last year when it was originally scheduled. I was still overseas in New Zealand.
New Orleans Reception
Finally! The parties for the Wedding are over. Not that it wasn't fun having 3 parties/receptions OR fun getting 3 sets of gifts OR fun spreading the whole thing out for a year after the actual wedding. But seriously, there has to be an end sometime.
We certainly did go out with a smash though. Family and a few friends gathered for our One Year Anniversary/Reception in New Orleans. My best friend (outside my husband) came out and played the part of our celebrant. Jon and I exchanged vows again - well not so much vow vows, but words of promise and love. Dad and I finally had our Daddy-Daughter dance for our wedding to I Loved Her First by Heartland (Love that song). I got to dress up in my pretty pretty wedding dress again. Toasts were had.
The family was happy to finally be able to play a part in our wedding and marriage and we were happy to do so. The planning was a bit stressful, as this party was certainly NOT as smoothly and easily planned, but it turned out wonderful. I certainly was closer to a Bridezilla at times (sorry for any of you who were in contact with me at that point) but in the end Dad was happy, so I was happy. To me, mostly, that was what this night was about.
Thanks to everyone who helped out!
St Paddy's Day
Another Paddy's Day, another party....
You know, we have all the decorations and all and everyone thinks I'm obsessed with Ireland and Saint Patrick's Day... So I certainly would not want to disappoint anyone... Standard party fun. Dessert haven, games, mingling...
We started the fun with an old fashioned lucky coin toss, progressed to a common Irish pub quiz about Saint Patrick's Day, and otherwise just had some fun.
Decorations
Party People, well some, totally forgot to take pictures during the party - after will have to do!
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