Rockin' Texas Teaching Cats

Cat Box

2009-10-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

Apparently, my blogging career is over as well. It's funny because of all the things I have had to blog about over the last months - a trip to Yellowstone, Meowfish's surgeries, selling the boat, starting school - I pick something as ridiculous as the cat box we built to get excited about. Well, it's really two things I'm excited enough about to actually take time to make a post . First of all, Jared finished his thesis! He's defending it next Thursday and will start working full time at Marathon in only two weeks.

Next, we have had this nasty problem over the past two years with our sweet cats. They go to the bathroom, you see. I wish they would stop but as that is not a reasonable option, we have had their litterbox in our spare bathroom and have let it stink up the room and make a mess. Well, we both got tired of that. So we tried an automatic litter box. It smelled worse (I know - hard to believe and another $170 bucks down the drain...) So the inevitable conversation of the cat porch came up. Jared has been talking for a couple of years about making our covered porch an enclosed potty room for the cats. I LOVE our covered porch - it was a real selling point for buying this house, so I was reluctant to let that happen. Not to mention it would have cost us thousands of dollars. Then I suggested we put a cat door in the garage and let the cats use that. But when I got out there - I was even more selfish. It would mean parking the cars outside and being extra careful (our cat, Meowfish, has a problem with eating items not meant for consumption as we have found out this summer 3 surgeries too late). I told Jared we needed to come up with a little enclosed area where the cats could do their business and go back inside. So I pointed to a general area and Jared made it happen. He was kind enough to give me credit for the idea. But he built it. And it's fabulous. At least I think it is. No bad smells, no litter mess.

Cat Door

How it looks completely finished

You can see how it is set up here - it doesn't take very much of the garage.

Inside the Cat Box

All we had to do was train the cats to use the thing. But putting all "my useless psychology degree" behavior plans into place, they were trained in no time. I have actually found that while the degree itself was useless, most of the principles I have learned are extremely helpful. At least for me as a teacher. I can't tell you how many times I have thought back to my behavior training to extinguish and promote behaviors in my classroom.

Okay, I'm done. If you want to see other stuff we have been doing - I put pictures in. I'll probably throw in some from Yellowstone, Meowfish's surgery, Jared's new bike and golf clubs (both great grad presents from his mom), and other random things we have been up to(beach trips and the like).

Click below to see the pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/redbecks07/Oct192009?authkey=Gv1sRgCJqH87ubp5HjUA&feat=directlink

My Dancing Career is Over

2009-06-15T19:10:00.001-07:00

I was dancing in the office today - I've been known to do that on ocassion, when all the sudden I felt this incredible pain and my legs sliding out from underneath me. I looked down to realize that my leg had gone one direction and my kneecap the other. I'm still not sure quite how it happened. All I know is that I was on the floor in two seconds popping that thing back into place. My kneecap didn't look quite right there sitting on the left side of my leg. Of course, I fake bravery now, but really there wasn't that much thought involved except, this hurts...this hurts...and I know how to fix it. Jared had the unfortunate problem of constantly having his shoulder pulled out of socket and actually had to have surgery for it. So I knew right away the only thing to do was push it back in. I was prepared for that hurting. What I didn't realize is how much it would hurt afterwards. I tried to be brave, put on ice pack on and just wait it out. Surely the muscles were just sore around the kneecap. But after a while, I knew it was more than that. It hurt too much to walk. More than that though - I just felt that something was wrong.

So around 4 pm (this happened this morning), I got up enough gumption to get to a hopsital. The doctor told me from the looks of it a ligament is either extremely stretched or torn. He didn't have the equipment to make an exact diagnosis, so now I have to go see an orthepedic surgeon. Correct me if I'm wrong - but the words orthopedic surgeon sound like it's going to cost a fortune. If it's torn, I'm in big trouble, because its surgery. If not, it will probably just take a long time to heal. They kindly handed me a pair of crutches and an huge knee brace and told me not to walk on it. Lovely. Luckily it was my left knee so I can still drive the car (albeit, I have to make the seat go back and it is a PAIN to get in and out). Of course, everything is a pain on crutches. I whined to the nurse that the only other time I had crutches I used them for about 3 days because I am clumsy on the best of days. She probably didn't need proof of this due to the way that I was injured. But with crutches, I'm like an accident waiting to happen. Probably took longer for me to heal the first time- but my frustration level couldn't handle it. I told her I would be better this time though. Let's see how long that sticks.

So this is a warning. Those who like dancing along without a care may want to take a second thought. I certainly will. Of course, I think it is just me. The doctor even looked at me like he didn't believe me. I'm not sure I believe me either except for the constant ache in my knee.

Hurray!

2009-06-08T18:05:00.001-07:00

School is out!!! What can I say? I made it. As Jared has lovingly taken the camera with him to Montana, there will be precious few pictures to add in the next few weeks. But I figured I would let you know I somehow survived. This week I am doing a district training learning how to teach Gifted/Talented kids. It has already been really interesting, and I am now coming to terms with what a nerd I am. I was dreading going this morning and was pleasantly surprised when I completely enjoyed sitting there for 7.5 hours learning. I always say I don't miss going to school. But I was sitting there realizing that maybe I prefer to learn rather than to teach. There are less behavior problems that way. Of course, I have also learned to actually give my opinion. When I was at BYU, I think I can count on two hands the number of times I made a comment in any of my classes. Graduate school must have changed that for me, because now I don't shut up.

As to what Jared is up to these days, he is somewhere up in the north freezing to death. At least that is what I have gleaned from my five minute conversations with him everyday. They went on their first death march today. He has class after the hikes way into the evening. But he did tell me that he attended a pig race this weekend. That must be about all of the excitement there is up there. Of course, I don't have all that much excitement down here unless you count my cats nipping at my fingers.

In other good news, my brother and sister are coming to visit in just a couple of short (ok - long) weeks and hopefully I can get one of them to bring a camera so I can get pictures of all that.

Finally Some Luck

2009-05-31T14:55:00.001-07:00

What did I tell you? Jared just left this morning and already I am so bored that I am blogging. But we finally caught some fish! No, it's not a joke. We have photographed evidence. Jared and I took the boat out once again on Memorial Day and caught not one, but six fish. I actually caught a bass, which is something I wasn't even aiming for. We also tried swimming in the lake which was fine. The problem was getting back into the boat. Jared had a hard time getting up himself and had to literally haul me into the boat and I still almost didn't make it back up. I have a great video of this, but I will spare you as Jared was in his undies for the occasion (he didn't bother wearing a swimsuit). Here are some of the elusive fish.

Me with crazy boat hair. I can't get a lot more pasty white than that. I prefer the terms porcelain or fair. I'm staying that way though. Gone are the days of tanning. I am a redhead - it's time to embrace it.

Pretty good-sized catfish - "regulation" as Jared kept saying.

Unfortunately, as we were going back to shore - the boat died suddenly and for no apparent reason. The shop still doesn't know what is wrong with it.

That's boats for you. So this week when we had visitors (Mike had a job over here and brought along Ben Judd and Kelly), there was no boat to show off. Instead they went ocean fishing, and had quite a bit of success with that as well. I didn't get to go (work - unfortunately) but I hear stories about Ben catching a prize shark (pictured below). Jared also got his finger mutilated by a rather angry fish. Now Jared wants an ocean boat. I told him in a good five years - maybe.

That fish looks blood thirsty. I mean, have you ever seen an angrier fish?

Judd's prize-winning shark. I better throw another one in. This one doesn't have a great angle.

You can tell he's an actual shark in this one.

I better throw this one in too. I went to my first major league baseball game (Astros vs. Rangers). This is something I never intended or thought I would do. But they go a lot faster while you are watching them in life (thank goodness - they crawl on TV). So, it was really quite fun. The funniest part was when I was getting a soda at the snack bar I felt something rubbing my hair that didn't feel the least bit like a human hand. I thought Jared had followed me out and was messing with me. Of course, I only had seconds to identify this and find the culprit. I turned quickly and saw the Rangers mascot (a horse) striding off in the direction I had just come from. I started laughing and everybody looked at me like I was insane. It reminded me of a story my mom had told me. When she was in Okinawa (my grandpa was in the military) all the kids would always rub her hair because red hair is supposed to be good luck (at least in their culture). Of course, most other redheaded myths (including the witch one) are not as postitive, so I've always liked that particular one. It probably had nothing to do with why the mascot decided to rough me up a bit, but it was certainly amusing.

I don't know what's up with the blue captions. But at any rate, this is us in the stands pre-horse roughing up.

2009-05-15T16:10:00.001-07:00

Make Up Your Mind!

2009-05-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

So, it's been a while. A few things have happened since I last wrote. I was moved to 3rd grade- without my knowledge. The school is trying to keep everybody employed despite the fact that there needs to be less teachers next year due to a decrease in students (somehow, though the numbers don't add up to me). When they moved me down to third, I thought - no way. That wasn't where I wanted to be. I have been talking about wanting to move up to higher grades and now they were moving me down. So I took and passed a test that would ensure that I could teach middle/junior high students and put in transfer papers. Not four days later, the principal told me I was going to be teaching 4th grade after all. So not only is the school having a hard time deciding what to do to do with me, I am as well. I guess I will just leave the option open. I really think I would like to teach middle or junior high anyway.

Either way, school will be officially out in 3 weeks. The last week I don't even really count because it is so full of cleaning/games/activities there really is no teaching time. Some would claim there is no teaching time now with the way the kids are behaving. They are already on summer vacation in their minds. So am I. Which is why I put up my lovely Sims 3 counter over there. That is sure to be a big part of my summer plans. Also, our boat and probably many sunburns will factor in.

Jared is leaving to field camp again this year for 4 weeks (so my blogging may get a little less sparse with all the free time). He claims it's for monetary purposes, but I think he just wants to go to field camp again. Notice the lovely beard. That is a tradition which, try as I may, I can't break. I do hope it's a good time though. He gets to go up near the Yellowstone area (concidentally, it just so happens my whole family was planning to take a trip up there this summer anyway, so we are going to go get him when he's done).

He wouldn't look up from his work so I was forced to take this shot. Notice the sweat - gorgeous Houston weather we are having these days.:)

Anyway, to the point of writing this blog - two reasons really. (a) I needed a May blog, and (b) to display pictures of the boat. Now we will have this boat to play in all summer for years with any luck. It goes really quite fast and surprisingly I do like it. Any of you are welcome to come down and give it a try. We just need some water skiis. If you like fishing, you can try that too. I'm afraid we're still no good at it though, so we won't be much help.

Anyway, I am super excited for summer and a chance to get a break and just relax. I'll try and be better about sharing some of my summer adventures.

A Change of Scenery

2009-04-02T15:55:00.000-07:00

And by that I mean the blog. Yes, it has finally changed away from the gray bathroom. I'm sure the reason I haven't written is for that reason - it's soul-sucking gray. What do you expect? We just haven't that much motivation for anything due to its constant presence. So... some things that have happened in the past few months include (but are not limited to):

(1) My first TAKS (the writing variety - for those of you not residents of Texas - it is the test which is the sole determinant of whether I am a good teacher or not apparently) is out of the way and over. Thank goodness. Only one more at the end of this month to go.

(2) The baconator. It's bacon rolled up in sausage topped by what? Yes, more bacon. Jared took a ridiculously large amount of photos of every step of the process of which I will only display two. If you are interested in having a heart attack instantly, I will be happy to give you the pictures and recipe.

Without the BBQ and smoked wood chips.

It almost makes your cholesterol level higher just by looking at it.

(3) Mustache March. Clearly not my idea. Jared's entire department decided to sport a stylish mustache through March. Suspiciously, we didn't end up getting a picture of that. But Jared decided I needed to participate - so we did get one of me. What Mustache March ended up being was shave your-beard-once-then-grow-your-beard-back-out-so-your-mustache-is-only-slightly darker than-your-beard month. (That is ridiculously long!) But the first few days of last month were not Jared's most flattering.

I think the look I am trying to attempt is tough. I think Jared's "tough" look might actually be better.

(4) April Fool's. Along with having been harrassed on this particular day by my students for 6 hours (April Fool's is arguably one of the worst days for a teacher followed closely by the day before Christmas break and the last day of school, oh gosh except for the AWFUL TAKS DAYS), Jared decides to play a trick on me. It was clever because its something I always feared he would do one day. He calls me to tell me he found an orange tom cat on campus and is bringing it home as a pet. I was relieved this wasn't the case, but I only dodged a bullet for a moment. That probably will actually happen.

(5) Jared and I ran in our first 5K. It was for his professor who had a brain tumor last year. Luckily, he had it removed and is now doing great. The race was called Run for the Rose. I'd like to say I ran the whole thing, but I lost motivation once I lost sight of Jared. Turns out we don't have the same stride at all. I did run most of it though. Next time, I'll do the whole thing. It was actually quite fun though. I was surprised by that.

(6) Visiting my family during spring break. First I was to Colorado (Denver to be exact) to visit my brother Sam, his wife Jenn, and my nephew Cameron. They were moving into their brand new house, and I was supposedly there to help but more just to get in the way and hold Cameron constantly. Jared didn't go with me because his spring break was the previous week and he went to the Big Bend area to help lead a field trip for the undergraduate young'ins. But if you notice he is missing in the pictures - that is the reason. There's probably a fat chance that he will blog about it since I noticed when I was leaving he didn't even take the camera.

Smiles from Cameron. I'm looking a little bit like Joker yet again - but I posted it for the greater good (Cameron is so cute in it).

Look at those cheeks!

I love Cameron - what an adorable baby. I loved how sensitive he was and he just loved staring at me. The feeling was mutual on that account.

One of my favorite things about Denver (and I didn't even know this before I went) is the prarie dogs. They are just adorable but apparently seen as nuisances to anybody who has lived there for any amount of time.

This is kind of like Where's Waldo. There are FIVE of them (unless that stick looking thing in the right corner is one - in that case it's six). Have fun looking.

After a weekend in Colorado, I made my way to Utah to see the rest of my family. It was a great visit even though it snowed most of the time (I didn't get to go to the zoo with Harmony, my neice). But I had the chance to see her a few times. She has grown up so much since the last time I saw her. Not so much physically - though she's finally sprouted some hair. She is so small and petite like her mommy. But she is grabbing things, scooting around, and trying her hardest to walk already. She is so full of energy it's hard to keep up with her. I adored her, soo cute. She gives these hugs that are just the sweetest thing. She was already warming up to me by the end of the week.

Harmony with one of her new toys at Grandma's house. My brother, Matthew, is in the background in case anybody was wondering. He is single and in Provo if anybody has a friend in those parts to set him up with (I say this mainly to horrify him).

I told a really good joke so we're having a good laugh.

Todd wasn't so sure how to feel about that, but Harmony knew how she felt. She wanted a good chunk of fur in her hand.

Giving one of her patented hugs.

As you can see, the pictures I have of the trip are a little baby heavy. But I figure that adults really don't change all that much. And when we do it's just to add wrinkles. Nobody enjoys that. Anyway, it was a good trip. I am always glad when I go. It was just the break I needed.

I am sure that I am forgetting something. Oh yeah, Jared bought a boat. Yes, another one. It's a real one this time I am told (I haven't actually seen it). But on with that another day. When you blog only once every few months these things are tiring. I'll have him write about it once we actually get it in a week or so (to show pictures of course). As for the other things I am forgetting, I'm fairly sure nobody will miss them. If I think you will, I'll add them in another month when I blog again. :)

Lots of work for nothing

2009-01-28T02:24:00.000-08:00

I (Jared) finally found the perfect time to blog. 4:30 am when you cant sleep because you ate 20 very hot wings the previous day. There is absolutely nothing else to do, even the internet shuts down at this hour. As Becky said we have been painting lately and last weekend was the bathroom. We picked a color known as "Soul Sucking Grey" because we thought it would go with the bedroom.

Turns out that the only thing it compliments is the mold in the shower. Even the cats hate it. Actually they have mixed feelings about our home improvement projects in general. Once faction (Meowfish) feels that our original high-minded goals have been abandoned for a quick profit. The other (B-Kleez) feels that we have become cold and distant. Either way there is dissent among the crew. I think I could fix it if I follow Big J's advice and paint the trim black and cover the window in tin foil so no light makes it through.

In other important news I've been playing some Mike Tyson's Punch Out lately. I can't seem to defeat my nemesis Bald Bull (above) even though my physique has become similar to King Hippo (below).

It's ummm...bright

2009-01-25T09:07:00.000-08:00

That was my response when Jared first showed me the color we were going to paint our room. After months of indecision, we rashly decided just to go with this color. Jared was not in the least bit hesitant to paint it this bright teal color. And I do have to say, I really like the way it turned out. It's quite the contrast to how he feels about the bathroom.

We chose to do a more subtle color (between light/medium gray) for the bathroom since the room color was so strong. I like it fine but we forgot to take into account the color of the cupboards and tile. The whole time we were painting we thought the color seemed off and actually looked a bit purple (don't worry - it definitely looks gray now). But we decided afterwards that we actually hate the color of the cupboards and tile, not so much the paint color. But there's nothing for it (as said in the noble words of Sam Wise on the last LOTR movie). It would be ridiculously expensive to redo the tile, backsplash, and the cupboards. We could just paint it a different color. But the problem with making rash decisions is you don't think about the long term effects such as - what color will you paint the bathroom to go with the bedroom? And then you start realizing that there actually isn't a color that would fix the situation. I mean, what were these people thinking putting in that color of wood floor with that color of cupboard? Maybe we are just overanalyzing it and it looks fine.

Trust me, Jared and I have stewed on this for the past couple of days. Although, if you have any suggestions - please feel free to lend your expertise. I can't guarantee we will follow it. We are pretty darn sick of painting (at least I am).

Jared and I getting close to finishing the first coat.

The room finally done (I shouldn't say finally, its not like we worked on it for months)- it took a total of 2 1/2 days, two trips to IKEA, and about 4 to Home Depot.

Jared (also the cats - you should see the cat hair on that seat already) favorite part, the sitting area.

I'll post our bathroom probably tomorrow or so when we have it cleaned up with all the new towels and toweltries in place, then I guess maybe I'll post a poll and you guys can tell me how ugly you think it is on a scale from 1-10. (The most hideous thing you've ever seen being a 1)

Where to start...

2009-01-21T14:48:00.000-08:00

I knew it would be awhile until I blogged again, but this has just gotten ridiculous. Now I don't even know where to start. I will entirely skip the month of December except for our Christmas trip where we visited a ton of family and traveled around the state of Arizona (as well as through Texas and New Mexico of course). I made tamales with my grandma, played in the snow, and ate all of my mother-in-law's delicious food. I even got to see my neice again a couple of times. Pictures of that are suspiciously missing, but she was just as cute. This time she played and talked to me for a good ten minutes. Add to that Jared's tally another trip to New Mexico and Colorado to gather samples for his thesis and ski with his friend, Craig. Here are some of the few pictures we do have.

The other Hamilton boys (Shane and Stoney) checking out Stoney's new phone.

Abakles loved chilling in the presents - her and Meowfish were constantly under the tree.

Meowfish's playing with his Christmas presents.

Mike checking out his watch.

Jared's mom bought him a record player and he has really enjoyed it already. He's been collecting albums for a long time without anywhere to play them. We took all these pictures with our new camera so a lot of them that I did take didn't turn out well because I was still getting used to it. But I'm getting better at it and its pretty nice.

Janelle (Mike's daughter) before taking a tumble down the mountain.

The reason I never buy expensive sunglasses.

Jared and I's snowball fight escalated until at one point my face was being smashed into the snow and I came up looking like this.

Mike and Janelle AFTER the tumble down the mountain.

Well, this will have to do for now. Last week, we decorated our room (painting walls, bought bedspreads and the like). Jared decided we couldn't do that without finishing our bathroom too. So, that's what we are doing this weekend. And apparently he needs me back for the second coat. I'll post pictures of both of those soon. (By soon, I don't mean a month and a half from now - at least I hope I am not that lazy - sure would fit with the current trend).

Lessons from Waterfowl

2008-12-09T13:59:00.000-08:00

So you have seen what Becky did over Thanksgiving, and as much as I enjoy chilling on the couch, I would prefer that couch to be in a duck blind or on a fishing boat. Unfortunately, I checked out those locations during the holiday and there were so such furnishings to be found.

The airboat that got us in and out of the blinds, I think everyone will be using these once global warming gets on with its business

Mike (Longmire) decided this year that the company needed a morale boost. He discovered this after hearing that the employees had divided themselves into two factions; one felt the original high-minded goals of the company had been abandoned for quick profit, the other believed that he had become cold and distant. Nevermind the reasons, he took 10 of the best shooters he could find, and then immediately told most of them their services would not be needed, and took whoever wanted to waste some gunpowder on a hunting and fishing expedition to Seadrift, Texas. (I cannot find a pic of everyone together so you will have to image but it would include Mike Longmire, Ben and Mike Judd, Big and Lil' John Sanchez, Nick Travassosossos, Jared Kimzey, my brothers Shane and Stoney and me.)

Stoney, Nick and Kimzey in a blind

While there we hunted with Capt. Kelley and his guides and stayed at their wonderful accomodations. We were told the hunting and fishing were quite slow, but apparently these guys dont know what slow really means. I've had a dry spell of about 4 fishing trips without a fish, with these guys a slow spell was 15 minutes.

Big J with a keeper redfish

On the first two days Mike decided to take some crackshots with him in his blind, so me and Judd went along. He quickly realized this was a poor decision. The first day we managed to get 6 ducks between us, but not for a lack of trying because we went through 90 shells and scared the hell out of a lot of birds. The second day was much of the same, we even had a flock of suicidal tree ducks that came straight to us at the pace of a sloth and we only managed to get 1 of them even though we had time to reload.

So day 3 rolled around and Judd and I got booted from the bosses blind. So I went with my brothers and Nick, who I figured would be at least as bad shots as I was. I was wrong, we mowed down ducks with reckless abandon, getting our limit within a couple of hours and having to watch dozens of ducks fly around us within a stones throw after that.

The fishing was pretty good, although I didn't get to go on the boat named "Junk" which always managed to bring in the most fish (and stingrays for that matter) but I caught some redfish, catfish, sea trout and hardheads.

Me posing with a blue cat that I wish I would have caught

Me posing with a few of the fish I did catch but was too late to get a before picture with

We had a great time everyday and got to come back to the lodge with massive and delicious meals ready for us prepared by Capt. Kelley's wife (Wendy is her name I think, or maybe I'm thinking of that girl that sells square hamburgers... either way).

Thanksgiving

2008-11-29T11:37:00.001-08:00

Well, my Thanksgiving week is over. The one I have looked forward to for months. It always leaves you with a little bit of a hollow feeling to realize something you have been thinking about for months is over. But it was a wonderful time and I got my fair share of holding babies.

Harmony and I doing one of her favorite pasttimes (walking around the room).

Beebers (Stephen to the lay-person) and I lounging around.

(Top) Cousins meeting for the first time.

(Bottom) Harmony so comfortable she's drooling.

If you are noticing there is a lot of brown couch in these pictures, its because that's where I spend most my time when I am home. We did go out shooting (I shot my first black powder rifle) to try out Steve's new .22 Walther, and various shopping excursions. But our living room is my favorite place. We mostly sit and talk, laugh, and have discussions for hours in that room. Once and a while, we'll pull out a board game or head down to the media room (they have a projector and a huge big screen) to watch a movie or try out Wii Fit.

Dad, Seaweed (Sarah), and I once again on the couch (just to prove my point :)

There is also a lot of watching babies now that we have them to watch. Harmony is 3 months old and so she is quite fun to watch. She laughs, smile, and "talks" constantly. It is absolutely adorable. Little Cameron is one of the sweetest little guys in existence. He's just a couple weeks old right now. I can't believe a baby can be so good-natured. He rarely cries and when he does it is so quiet he had to be in the same room with us or we couldn't even hear him.

Dad and I fighting over who gets to hold Cameron (something that was quite a common occurence).

And, of course, there was Thanksgiving dinner which was delicious . Last year, the pumpkin pie I tried to make was a little umm...inedible. This year, everybody agreed the pumpkin pie I made was tasty (Dad helped - he didn't want to risk it) . Turns out, sugar is a key ingredient. Who would have thought? :)

There is no way I can post all of the pictures that I have. Maybe I'll talk Ben into teaching me how to make a link to all the pictures I have. In the meantime, here is one of the entire motley crew (except for Jared, of course, darn him and his duck hunt).

On the top nearly breaking the couch in half is Jonathan, Sarah, Stephen, Matthew, and me.

Jenn is in front on the arm cushion by Sam and Cameron. Mom and Dad are in the middle and then the other little family Ben, Tara, and Harmony are on the right.

Whew - that's a lot of people. And getting bigger with time I am sure. I remember back in the good 'ol days every time my mom said she was having a baby, I was delighted. I loved taking care of them and every single one seemed to add something to the family we didn't have before; good and bad, but mostly good. I feel the same way now as it keeps growing. The old cliche is true - the more, the merrier.

My Turn

2008-11-08T15:23:00.001-08:00

First of all, my first nephew, Cameron Joseph (Sam & Jenn's baby), was born yesterday at a whoppin' 8 lbs. 6 oz. We were happy to get him here well and screaming his head off. I'll probably be posting some pics of him soon as I will be going to see him and my neice in a couple of weeks. I am, of course, more than excited about that. In the meantime, I haven't posted in a long time, so here I go.

Before I go any further - due to popular request - here is a video of my favorite duck, Alfredo. I know I've done a real nice job of posting it a month late. I'm sure the two of you who requested it have been checking every hour, on the hour, for it. :)

Next up, Halloween. We neglected to get pictures of our annual pumpkin carving contest, and the 4 minute video of Jared making corny jokes and taping me carving (but not surprisingly, is actually mostly footage of the cats) is a poor replacement. But I did a skeleton pirate (my school theme this year), and surprise, surprise - Jared did a cat.

You may have noticed a theme for the year. It mind as well be the year of the cat because it certainly is for Jared. He actually got me the collar, ears, and tail for my costume and told me to be a cat. Not my idea. As for what he was, that is still widely speculated about. What he was telling people is that it is what he'll look like in 20 years after living in Texas. So, I can see the camo, the fat belly, and the grimace. But the mohawk? I think most Texans would agree that is a bad idea, maybe a mustache instead. The very next day Jared had me cut it off with this unbelievably horrible pair of scissors. I told him to go to a hair cut joint, but he said it was a waste of money. He's funny like that sometimes.

But onto the new stuff, speaking of spending money. Here is our new bedroom set. We ordered it about a month ago, and it has finally come in. We are pretty excited about it. We are going to change the bedspread because there is far too much brown in the room. We are thinking white/navy bed now with gray walls. But probably not for a while. As you can probably tell from all the posts, we have been spending quite a bit of money recently - computers, entertainment systems, Wii's, Nintendo DS's, finishing decorating the office. So the month of November has been deemed "save as much as we can month" because next month is the most spending we do all year long.

Bedframe, nighstands, and ottoman (the one Meowfish is sleeping on).

As you can see, the cats are big fans of our new bedroom set. They have been doing nothing but sleeping in there (the office used to be their favorite - which is the only fully decorated room in the house). I think it just shows they have good taste. They're classy.

Our new dresser

Halloween

2008-11-01T08:55:00.000-07:00

So we dressed up for Halloween for the first time in a long time. Ben and Catherine were having a costume party and you weren't allowed in without a costume so this is what we came up with. We were going for cheap and easy. As you can see I (Jared) look nearly the same as in the last blog. I just stuffed my waders with some pillows to add a few pounds and then for kicks cut my hair into a mohawk (which suprisingly is still there this morning I figured it would just wash off with everything else).

Becky is a cat in case you cant tail (she does have a tail but you cant see it in the pic). We didnt get any good pics from the rest of the night, just some blurry shots of Kellen's Hooters uniform being stretched to its limits and since he is still in the job market we wont post those. So enjoy these pics until I can catch some more fish and spice up this blog.

I'm over here...or am I over here?????

2008-10-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

Due to the massive amount of requests for more fishing/hunting related posts on this blog, I (Jared) have to do some posting of my own. First off fishing. Since consulting with my fishing coach (John Sanchez) and discussing baits (chicken livers) and tactics (cast and wait), I have become the reigning catfish champion of our subdivision. There is no official tournament, but I am sure that I have caught the biggest cat in the pond.

Lake record holder.

Unfortunately I do not hold the record for most turtles caught in an afternoon (one) which is currently held by Kellen, and I'm not going to even try to tackle the Bluegill record Becky set. I'm not sure where this fishing section of the blog is going so I'll

end it there.

I have no pics of Kellen's turtle so here is one of his fish.

Next on the agenda, hunting. This Thanksgiving while Becky goes to her parents to sit around and eat a fat store bought bird that is surely chock full of steroids (and butter if they know what is good for them and follow Big J's secret recipe (which will not be divulged here)) I will be out with the rest of the Longmire Well Service crew on a duck hunt/bay fishing trip in San Antonio Bay (which is not very close to San Antonio). As such I have been getting ready for the trip with some sporting clay shooting on Sunday with Jason and Eric (geologists from UH) and more recently with a trip to Bass Pro to get some supplies. So I bought a bunch of stuff and each piece of clothing seems to have a different style of camouflage, so I will be either super invisible or stand out like a horse in a cathouse. (If you can spot me in the picture below then the answer is probably the latter).

Ok I think I wore out the parentheses key so I better finish up. Later

(Update!!!: It has been brought to my attention that the lake record for Bluegill is being challenged by the 10 year old neighbor kid who taught Becky how to catch fish, he has amassed a much larger tally, but has been filing them under "regular fish". We'll give you more information as the story develops.)

Cleavage and Killer Ducks

2008-10-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

Now that I've got your attention...we'll start with the killer duck. If you're interested in 1 min and 25 seconds of watching a duck snap at my hand, go ahead and let me know, and I'll include the video in my next post. Otherwise, here is my friend Alfredo; we're friends with benefits actually. He gets bread from me, I get to pet him. I named him Alfredo because he looks Italian and is clearly part of the mafia. Or would be if there was a duck mafia. Actually, him and Dark Wing Duck are close associates. Anyway, Alfredo followed me around, nearly snapping off my fingers and refusing to leave me alone. I can't say it's the first time I've been attacked by a duck, Alfredo has had predecessors, but so far he is the best. They can be ferocious. Perhaps that why Jared is going duck hunting next month (which I still think is a little harsh).

As for the cleavage, Jared and I went to the Renaissance festival this past weekend. I knew it would be fun. I've been wanting to go for years - this time I just got the tickets and told Jared several months in advance there was no choice about the matter. He accepted reluctantly knowing all the things I do but don't want to. When we were walking up, I noticed massive amount of cleavage and belly fat spewing out of tight wench and gypsy outfits. So I knew it would be great, and Jared and I were laughing before we even got into the gates. Actually, Jared was already pretty horrified and kept commenting on the crazy people. But I love crazy people. It's one reason I chose psychology as a major, so I was delighted. I already starting to look at costumes that I want to wear next year.

It took a while, but even Jared starting enjoying himself; mostly due to this massive turkey leg. And then he did an ax throw - poorly, I have to say. He didn't even get one in the wood. Followed by more food. I was feeling pretty sick by the end of the day due to the funnel cakes, rootbeer floats (Black Cow), and sausage on a stick. But I did like how everytime I bought something they said, "Thank ye, m'lady." That almost made the outrageous prices worth it.

I don't know why he think this face looks tough, but its the one he makes when that's what he's trying to indicate.

We also went to several shows - belly dancers, jousting competitions, falconer's exhibition, and a mud show where this guy actually ate a handful of mud. It was horribly disgusting, but the show was funny.

The jousting competition - there was some nasty splintered wood after the brawl.

But I have to say the best part for me is pictured below. I knew I would have a good time, but I had no idea my life long dream was about to come true. I've loved elephants as long as I can remember, and that day - I got to touch and ride on one! When I saw the opportunity, I just looked at Jared and said, "I don't care how much it costs - I'm doing it." Here I am paying no attention to anything but the elephant. I couldn't get over how he felt.

The coolest elephant ever.

The point here is that it was a good time. Next year, there will be pictures of me in a renaissance style dress to look forward to. :)

Turning 26...

2008-10-04T16:09:00.000-07:00

Not the greatest. I've never been one to get depressed on a birthday before. But being closer to 30 than 20 was slap in the face. Jared tried really hard to make it fun for me - he took me to a really nice restaurant - Masraff's (apparently a favorite of the elderly Bush's), and bought me my favorite dessert - an ENTIRE Godiva chocolate cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. The natural consequence of that fateful decision, all but a tiny portion of that has been consumed this week, mostly by me. I also was spoiled with this particular item which I have been wanting for a year.

He did cheer me up immensely, I was laughing and having a good time by the end of the evening. But I better get to updates - Jared is having a great time with school. A little too good - I tell him. I hassle him about the progress on his thesis nearly every day. But I think he prefers his bowling league to writing papers. Go figure. :) His friend, Kellen, came back from his field work in Switzerland and they lovingly decorated his office beforehand.

I'm sure Kellen appreciated posters of Hannah Montana and Zac Affron (what a dream boat :)

Let's see, we still go fishing on a regular basis (last night, I almost caught a catfish so huge he broke my line before I could reel him in) and I'm getting back into school. It was a hard week, but I'm enjoying it more now. I think I'm finally starting to understand why people can stay in teaching for more than 2 years. Some of it is really fun and then other parts are really challenging. But I love a good challenge - so I appreciate that too, a lot of the time. It feels different teaching this year than it did last year. The stress is still there, but nothing is as hard.

Okay, enough. To end this thing, I'll throw in a picture of me wearing Michele's birthday present (my apron). She wasn't sure I'd like the pink - but actually I love it. Pink and purple used to be my favorite colors after all...

Gone Fishin'

2008-09-23T08:05:00.001-07:00

We've had several people say that they didn't believe that we've caught catfish given our past experiences with fishing. Well get ready for the proof. I told you we went fishing in our pond and I finally took some pics.

This was my first catch of the evening - I caught him after about 30 seconds of fishing. Bluegill are like that. We were told by the neighborhood boy that he had caught 6 regular fish and 2 catfish. Jared and I were rather amused because when we asked him what type of fish were regular he said, "I don't know. Regular." So I'm guessing that's the bluegill variety. I have to admit though, these little suckers might be harder to catch than catfish. They are tricky little buggers. They will snatch your bait more than you will snatch them. One in particular really ticked me off and stole my bait a half dozen times - I never did catch him.

This is my last catch of the day - as you can see quite a bit bigger than the first. He was harder to reel in but he was a hungry fellow so it didn't take long for him to bite.

And here's some of Jareds. He made off pretty good as well. I think he caught something like six catfish in one evening. Three of them were tiny tykes, and the others were pretty good sized.

Here is Jared posing with one. Undoubtedly, it flopped to the ground and escaped his hands while he was attempting to pose like this. They always did, especially the little ones. They had some tough back fins.

Down below is probably one of his bigger ones. Don't let the looks deceive you, it was probably close to the size of mine if not bigger. The camera angle is just not the best. Anyway, for those of you who are bored with this fish talk - not to worry. I'm not going to turn this into one of those blogs that tells wild fish stories and posts only pictures of fish. No matter how much Jared would love that. Sorry, Jared. :)

Post-Ike

2008-09-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

When we heard that there was a mandatory evacuation, I jumped at the chance to go to Arizona. So we took the 14 hour trek to Arizona once again, this time with both cats (I took one alone in December when Meowfish was still a little tyke and we didn't have Abakles). I was more than happy to make the trip, I was incredibly sorry I hadn't gone in the summer to see all my friends back there. People there seemed to think I was crazy for wanting to do it. Apparently, I could of stayed MUCH longer since I still don't have school. But Jared is back in school already, so I get to blog about it instead.

Meowfish (Abakles in the carrier) enjoying a nap on the way to AZ. I don't know what is up with that cat, but he always has the weirdest sleeping positions. He probably actually enjoyed being so smushed.

Funnily enough, this one and bunch of others with Meowfish in weird positions on the way home are the only pictures we took of the trip. But it was really great, I was lucky enough to see quite a few of my friends, and even my Grandma Layton. In fact, Jared's mom threw us barbecue and we had quite a few of Jared's friends (and their families) come over.

When we got home, my stomach was churning as I looked at the neighborhoods around us and saw the roof, window, fence, and plant damage. Not to mention the electric poles lying on the ground - we already had guessed we wouldn't have electricity. But we we got home, much to our surprise and happiness, we hardly had any damage. Of course, the electricity was out - but nothing we couldn't handle.

Jared posing with some of the damage - as you can see he is smiling because it was not bad at all. It did pummel the gate he had worked so hard on though.

For the next couple days, I had a lot of time to ponder how lucky I am. With the electricity out, I found myself actually liking to browse Walmart (one of the stores with electricity) - something I had previously despised. I sat in front of each food I bought and thought about how long it would last or if I could eat it all now, skipping the frozen foods section entirely. Ice was limited. Gas was limited, we had to (still have to) think about our usage of gas constantly. But going to bed early and the heat was the hardest part. I liked not having the TV or DVD player. It was kind of nice to talk to Jared and do shadow puppets on the wall. It was also hard not knowing what was going on unless we happened to be in the car listening to the radio. Luckily, Jared's school had electricity so we could charge our phones and check on email on occasion. And we went fishing at our little community pond A LOT. Only yesterday, did I finally take some pictures though. That's a whole other story though, one I'll save for a later time since this blog is already getting ridiculously long.

And I figured out what I forgot in the last blog - the best news of all. I'm an AUNT! I have the most adorable niece ever. Look for pictures on Ben and Tara's blog. There are a ton - she's a cutie. Here's just one.

I love this one because you can really see her chubby cheeks and her eyes are open.

Pre-Ike

2008-09-21T20:13:00.000-07:00

Before the last blog, it had been a month since I blogged. I was under an uncomfortable amount of stress thanks to the first weeks of teaching, so I let it slide. But there is a lot to catch up on, so I decided to split the time periods that I've missed into pre-Ike and post-Ike, Ike being the reason that I even have a chance to be writing this right now. But before I do that, I've noticed that pictures of the cats have been mysteriously absent in all my posts. So here you go.

This is one of our personal favorites. In fact, it is our wallpaper. If you're wondering why he's behaving that way - look below.

My friend Kristin had come back from Norway (my teaching partner last year) for a couple of weeks, and she brought her chocolate lab over. As you can see, Meowfish did not take kindly to it. Also, we celebrated Meowfish's 1st birthday on September 1st. We had to take a rough guess as he was found on the street when he was about 4 weeks. I took some boring video but no pictures. But we sang to him, gave him some fancy cat food, and a few presents. It's really quite ridiculous.

Also, we went to the zoo sometime early in September. Here are some lovely pictures of me by a huge elephant's butt. We look remarkably similiar (for those of you who don't know elephants have always been my favorite). I was pretty impressed by the zoo, it was pretty large. It seems like I'm skipping something before Ike, if I ever figure it out I'll let you know.

It feels like Christmas

2008-09-19T18:40:00.001-07:00

The electricity is back up. And I haven't been this excited for awhile. I only went without it for 72 hours, since we took a trip to Arizona (I'm so glad we decided to do that), but that was enough. It was actually really fun in some ways, but going to bed at 7 pm, no air conditioning, and no refrigerator, stove, microwave, washer/dryer, etc. is a little rough. If you don't know (which I assume you all probably do), Ike hit Pearland, and hit it relatively hard. Though there wasn't flooding bad enough to ruin homes, it was definitely a lot of rain. Roofs were missing, powerlines were lying on the road, windows knocked out, fences were down, supplies are low (still even - with a few scattered business up and running), and electricity has been absent for the entire week. We were really lucky, with only some partial fence damage. Also, on the bright side, I've caught some of my first fish this week. We have a little neighborhood pond, and on Wednesday I caught a little bluegill. Today, I caught one within a matter of seconds. But nothing else for the rest of the night. The fish were just stealing my bait (I was using bagels). But right as we were about to leave (we heard the electricity was back on), this whopper of a catfish grabbed my bait and tried dragging me into the pond. He fought bravely, but in the end, I won. He ended up being probably a little over 2 lbs, but Jared thinks he's the biggest one he's seen in the pond so far (he's caught quite a few himself). I was surprised how exciting it was. I always thought fishing was a bit boring, but I was sitting out there for 2 hours really enjoying myself. Anyway, there are more adventures and a few pictures of come of the wreckage and talking about the week's experiences to come. But I was so excited about having the internet, I just had to post something tonight.

Our New Mac

2008-08-24T15:56:00.001-07:00

So tomorrow is the first day of school with the kids, so to distract myself from the barfing feeling I'm getting in my stomach, I decided to blog. I hassle Jared about blogging everyday, but he doesn't seem to care very much. Instead I'll post this picture - that should make us even. While my nose looks slightly big, Jared looks like something out of a horror movie - a goblin perhaps. We've been having a lot of fun with the camera on this thing. It has all kinds of crazy effects. And the screen on the computer it is huge.

Now I'm finally starting to get adjusted to the Mac. For the first week I was doing nothing but moaning over it. There are quite a few differences. Like no Ctrl+C. But mostly my moaning was over the fact that we didn't have Microsoft Office on it for the first week or so. And then Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are funky looking. But I'm getting used to it.

Last weekend we went down to the beach with a bunch of Jared's friends and hung out playing on the waves, reading, and playing card games. Besides that, I have been moping around going on about the loss of my summer. In a few weeks that should be out of my system and it will be business as usual. But I have a reason to be mopey this time I think. My brother and his wife, Tara, had their first little baby on Friday. A little girl - my first niece. My first time to be an aunt in fact. So I am miserable about being trapped here now, right when I have some place I want to go so badly. But it's okay - I'm already planning my Thanksgiving trip to soften the blow. I'll be sure to post a picture when I get one.

Oh, and Jared got a job offer from both Marathon and Shell. I'm really proud of him - but not surprised. He is a pretty smart guy after all and certainly a hard worker. But I'll let him tell you about it if I can ever get him this thing.

Shopping Trips and other Scares

2008-08-09T09:22:00.000-07:00

I took a picture, because I told Jared nobody would believe that I went on a 6 hour shopping spree. I know. Me. I hate shopping. But believe it or not, I did it. If there's one thing I pride myself on it's efficiency. So apparently all I need to get shopping is a budget, a list of things I need, and a motive. The motive came from my kids last year who one week said "Mrs. Hamilton, you always wear the same 5 outfits over and over again. And the same earrings everyday. And you never wear your hair down." Leave it to kids to be rude (some would call it honest) without knowing it. Well, they weren't exactly right, but they were close to it, and I realized that I had gotten lazy.

So I decided to go out and get some work clothes before school hit again. I went to an outlet mall (the only way to go when you want the best clothes for the money), but it was nearly an hour away. So I knew I had to hit it hard. At the end of the day (and a couple stops to put stuff in the car) I had 8 tops, 5 pairs of paints, 3 pairs of shoes, hair accessories, a swimsuit, sunglasses, earrings, necklaces, and a new purse and wallet. Right on budget. I bought all of these from 9 stores all over the mall, and I had literally shopped in every store that I thought might have anything resembling work clothes. It was one of my proudest moments. Jared guessed I would give up after hour and come back with maybe a top or two. So he was quite impressed as well.

Okay, so I'm exaggerating a little. But I was tired. As you can see, the cats were more than happy about the shopping trip. They love all shopping trips because of all the bags they get to play in afterwards.

This week was a good one because we had a day off for Tropical Storm Edouard. The news had us all worried, and the grocery store and gas stations were a nightmare the day before. But it turned out to be just some rainy weather with really nice temperatures and no traffic. And, of course, a day off where I got to devour my new book and spend some time with Jared. So it was a good time. I was disappointed though. I thought I was going to see my first real storm, but no such luck. Oh well. There is always next time.

Jared is off on a field trip this weekend, so maybe I'll get him to blog about it when he gets back. He told me when I started this blog that he would do it too, so he better get cracking. Yeah, Jared this is a dare. Your turn to write. The few people that read this are sick of me. :)

The Rest of the Weekend

2008-08-01T11:59:00.001-07:00

So here we are a week later, and I'm finally finishing up with last weekend just as a new one is about to start. But by now, I don't really feel like it. I'd rather go on and on about the books I've been reading. But I won't, since that's not where everybody's interest lies. It is mine though. During the summers especially, I have always devoured a book or two a week (just ask poor Jared - who luckily likes the Wii almost as much as I like books). However, Michele pointed me to this website that apparently tons of people are on called goodreads.com. I like it because I always want to know what to read next, and now I have tons of suggestions from everybody I know. There is a certain book I am quite excited about getting my hands on this weekend. Anybody who is a Stephenie Meyer fan should be running to the store as her 4th book in the whole vampire series is coming out today at midnight - I have it pre-ordered, so I don't need to worry.

Anyway, enough about that. I said I wouldn't go into books. Back to the point. This past weekend we also stayed at the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Now, I've heard that San Antonio and a little north of there has landscape similiar to Italy's. And this riverwalk is on (who would of guessed?) a river. So while we were there, I told Jared I was pretending to be in the Venice, Italy - which is one of my big dreams. But Italy or not, it was still really nice. They had great music playing, good food, and a really cool atmosphere. I hear in December they put up lights everywhere. I bet that is even more beautiful.

If you look really closely, you can see the water behind us at the Riverwalk. And a restaurant to the right.

And, of course, we had to stop by the Alamo. Because what would a vacation to San Antonio be without the Alamo? Jared didn't seem to see why it was so important to go and tried to talk me out of it. But it is sort of the "symbol" for Texas. And if you care nothing for history or the fate of the men who died there, then the least you need to do is glare at it. Since it is the biggest tourist site in the state - San Antonio has a lot more things (Sclitterbahn, Six Flags, the Riverwalk, Sea World, the wax museum) that might have been given to Houston since it's much larger (and closer to the ocean) if the Alamo wasn't so famous. So we went and listened to a speech and looked at it. There was one building we didn't go inside because the line for it wrapped around 2 blocks. But it was still pretty nifty. Everybody says that they are always shocked by how small it is. But I think it just has unfortunate placement - it is smack dab in the middle of the city with huge, tall motels and buildings - really it just seems small by comparison. Because it's really not that small of a building. It seemed to accommodate a LOT of people in fact.

You can almost tell how hot it is.

Sea World

2008-07-28T09:11:00.000-07:00

This year for our anniversary, we (well, actually I - and Jared went along with it) decided to go to San Antonio. I really wanted to check out the Sea World here. I've been to the San Diego one a couple of times and loved it. So we went this weekend. For those of you who haven't been - I highly recommend it. There are a lot of cool shows and even roller coasters. It's amazing what they can get the animals to do. Jared's personal favorite was Uncle Max. He is in the show with Clyde. Unfortunately, Clyde himself decided not to participate in the show about halfway through despite prodding. I'm not sure whether he forgot his lines or is just sick of showbiz, but he just jumped in the water and starting swimming around and completely ignored the trainers. More than likely, he was actually sick. Because after the show he did some rather gross things to the pool.

Clyde before he decided to quit for the day.

I really don't know if I'm allowed to show you the video we took of Uncle Max. But he's a pretty humongous walrus. I think Jared thinks he identifies with him because he's been complaining about being a walrus himself. The internship he is in feeds him free (and expensive) meals constantly - and if you know Jared, you know he's not very good at resisting food.

Good old Uncle Max.

I love all of it, but one of the more fun things we did was feed the seals. Here they are - you can tell why the the chunky ones are fat. They fight dirty for their fish. Sometimes they sound like you think a seal should, and then sometimes not.

Anyway, here some more random pictures of various other things we saw.

A shark ready to bite my head off

Jared with a Budweiser Clydesdale

Of course, we also saw dolphins, penguins, otters, the Shamu show (OF COURSE!), etc. but I have a tendency for my blogs to fill up entire pages, so I will leave those out. I have to include a blurb about the western show we saw though. They don't have this at the other Sea World and basically they save animals and train them to be in this show. It's was pretty cute but what Jared and I were really interested is how they trained the cats. Having these guys ourselves (and for anybody who has a cat) training them seems impossible. Though we did notice the cats did seem to have the hardest time sticking to their task in the show (they were so interested in the audience).

A good example is this cat who usually "square dances" but he was looking straight at us and was so distracted by the audience, they couldn't get him to do ANYTHING. However, they were successful with all the other cats (and skunks, pigs, dogs, and geese).

It was definitely a good time though it was so hot and humid and FULL of people. But it's the summer, so I didn't expect anything else. I'll give you an update on the rest of our weekend later.

Call for Fishing Experts

2008-07-20T18:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so we have been fishing twice now. Jared has been three times. And all we've caught so far is a few of these.

Michael Judd with his "catch".

What is sad is I think Jared is starting to get a little envious of the people that are even catching sticks. Last weekend we went to Lake Conroe (which is a much bigger and better lake than Lake Houston). We bought a fishing license for me and even a guide to help us figure out where the fish were. But it didn't help. Of course, we didn't realize Conroe was for people on water skis and huge recreational boats on the weekends. That probably doesn't encourage the fish. But our bait sure didn't either - not even a bite. Right now, I'm thinking our cats may have an easier time with getting the fish.

Even funnier, Jared is now building a gate for a boat trailer he doesn't have. He's become pretty obsessed with this boat thing. It's pretty much all he talks about. One really cute thing he's doing is naming the boat after me - The Berms. Now, I don't know how I feel about an old, scratched up boat with many, many years behind it being named after me, but I'll take the good with the bad. After all, Jared spends 90% of his time thinking about it, so maybe somehow that trickles down to me since its named after me.

Jared building the boat gate. We had to rip up all the plants right there in front to do it. I'm sure two gates (one being a double gate) will help the resale value of our home. ;) Ha.Ha.

Symphony

2008-07-12T08:41:00.000-07:00

So we have now gone to a symphony twice (well, 2 and a half times - one was a Disney thing). For those of you who know Jared well, that is quite a feat in and of itself.The first one we went to was a couple of weeks ago - an outdoor symphony. Houston has these free outdoor symphonies every week where you bring a blanket and sit on the grass and enjoy the music. There were people there with wine, fine cheeses, and sushi. So apparently even outdoor symphonies are classy. Or snobby, whichever way you look at it. One of the good things about living in a big city is there is always something going on (when you find them that is, we stumble on them once and a while, but being new we miss more than we hit). While we were there, I noticed that Jared seemed to pay more attention to the dogs than the music, but I guess that's good enough.
He looks like he's enjoying himself, doesn't he? That's probably because it hadn't started yet.

I look like I'm trying to fit in with my bun and nerd glasses.

Then Sarah, one of our friends, invited us to go to a 1 dollar concert the Houston Symphony does every year. So we went to that too. They did Beethoven 6th symphony and they had this wonderful cellist playing. It was pretty amazing. Some of you may know, but when I was younger I played the violin. Then I moved to Willcox and the nearest violin teacher was in Safford, so I gave it up (my choice - I don't want Mom feeling guilty:) But I certainly do have a respect for those that play so beautifully.

Before the indoor one - apparently you're supposed to be a little more snazzy than with the lawn ones.

Then we also went to a Disney one - outdoor as well. They had singers and dancing this time. The singers didn't do a great job at singing, but I was singing to myself the entire night. Jared told me later he was about to go to the other side of the lawn. I just told him I was doing a better job with the singing and I certainly knew all the lyrics. No, I really wasn't that loud. But the evening did make me realize how much I absolutely LOVE Disney. Especially the music. But pretty much everything about it. I told Jared maybe next year I'll tryout to be a character at Disney World. Wouldn't that be a great summer?

Oh, be sure and check out the 4th of July post because I added some pics.

Our Anniversary

2008-07-09T13:24:00.000-07:00

Married for 4 years today. The award goes to Jared for putting up with a stubborn redheaded wife - it isn't as easy as it looks. In fact, when I was in college, my friends and I made a list of who we thought would get married first. I was last on the list along with the words referring to when I would get married - sometime..maybe...if ever. So it took me by complete surprise when I found somebody I wanted to spend my life with at such a young age. I was somewhat devastated about the whole thing - but also very in love. So I married him - much to the distaste and/or worry of a number of people. We've made a number of mistakes mostly due to being so blasted young, but I'm still in love with him (even more so now)- and I realize it everyday I live. Since I am promptly getting too sappy, I will quit now before my loyal readers throw up over their keyboards (all 3 of you:)

Oh and more to come on the 4th of July, Jared has stolen the camera for the upteenth day in a row (he's on a field trip until late tonight- which is typical behavior for our anniversary - we haven't actually celebrated one anniversary together, but thats another story) , so I still can't post about it - but I have some great butterfly footage for those of you that are into the Discovery Channel. Yeah, I know. Now you can't wait.

4th of July

2008-07-08T20:54:00.001-07:00

What a weekend! I'm just now starting to get some sleep and even have the desire to do a blog about it. Mostly, we ate. And I mean ate - I think I consumed more than a normal person should consume in about a week's time. Barbecue, Mexican, burgers, pizza, ice cream -you name the junk food - I had it. But back to the beginning. This week Jared's family came down (except a missing brother) and spent the weekend with us. On Friday, we went to Galveston and rented a surrey. For any of you that has been lucky enough to ride on one of these bad boys, its quite the experience. Lucky me, it wasn't my first time. One of my close college friends actually OWNED one of these things, so I have many good memories of surreys. With bruised up knees and skirts flying up, we had a good time knocking over people near the beach before deciding to check out the less crowded side of Galveston (dirty alleys, old houses, and such). We even raced around a parking lot where I promptly knocked the chain off somehow and Jared had to get his hands all greasy to put it back on.

Jared being the chauffeur with,Mike, Kelly, and Stoney riding in the back. I have to say that Jared did pretty good, but when we were racing around the parking lot - Stoney beat his time - he knows how to cut the corners.

Then we went to eat and watch the fireworks from the beach. Now, I've seen some great firework displays in my day. Willcox's fireworks were always something to behold...since quite a few of you have been lucky enough see those - I will spare you the details. It's sufficient to say that a 5 minute speech went along with each and every firework describing exactly who donated the funds for that particular firework. What would have taken grand total of 5 minutes, took an hour. So, these Galveston fireworks were quite the event. I couldn't believe some of these things they are capable of doing with fireworks these days. Of course, you can't go to a 4th of July celebration without being grateful to be in America - and what is more - now I'm a Texan which gives me about 150% MORE pride than I already had.

At the beach around dusk - waiting for the fireworks.

The next day we went to the science museum which has some pretty cool stuff. But, I have to say the best part for me was the butterfly exhibit. I hadn't been to it before, and for the first time ever I witnessed a butterfly coming out of its cocoon. Mike, Jared, and Stoney before heading into the museum.

Also, they had a "jungle" with live butterflies flying everywhere. I couldn't remember how much butterflies pooped, because I've had bad experiences with going into these places and coming out with suspiciously nasty white stuff on my head. But I figured my chances were good, there didn't seem to be that many birds. Instead, I got a little footage of me harassing a butterfly who was just minding his own business until I butted in. And then this happened.

Try to ignore how annoying my voice is on video. I have a bad history of being incredibly dingy on film. Some of the first films I'm in have me jumping around and squawking like a chicken for no apparent reason. Literally. Of course I was probably 9 or so at the time, but as you can see, I haven't changed much.

As you can see, while I was messing around, I made a friend on my arm. He stayed with me for quite some time and I was getting quite attached to the little fellow when he finally flew off.

To end the weekend we ate yet more food and went swimming in a little pond. It really was a great weekend and I enjoyed myself immensely. Next time, maybe I won't eat 30 lbs of food.

Meowfish

2008-07-02T18:07:00.000-07:00

The weekend before last we tried to take Meowfish out on a leash. I bought the thing in December, but soon discovered it wasn't going to fly with Meowfish because he about pawed Jared to death when he tried to put it on. But we decided to give it another go, now that he is ever so much more wise and mature.:) Well, he had matured because we were able to get it on him. However, when we tried to leave, this happened.

Jared and Meowfish in a tug-of-war death match (Meowfish is winning).

This was followed by a jump over the head towards the door once we were outside. I took it personally and complained to Jared that we had broken his spirit. He used to be so adventurous. When we first got him he was pouncing in the grass and generally making a nuisance out of himself constantly. And now he's scared to go outside. I comfort myself that he seems happy and he will be much healthier inside. And of course, there is the occasional twitch of the ears, paw punch, and quick nip that shows us that frisky cat is still in there somewhere.

Summer Break

2008-06-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

I mentioned what we do usually, but summer break is a different thing altogether when you are a teacher and a grad student. I didn't mention that Jared is working an internship at Marathon (an oil company) or that I'm tutoring part-time and relaxing part-time. I'm trying to get some much needed school catch up work done and plan next year but finding the motivation is hard. I have to say that when with school out, I've started to realize just how much I like teaching. Because when it is in, sometimes it is hard to tell. The stress is incredible and especially as a first year teacher - everything was just overwhelming. Today I found my flash drive that I thought I lost and found some pictures of my students. A couple of week before school got out all of the 4th grade teachers dressed up as Hannah Montana and lip synced for the Carleston talent show. I had kids asking me all day for my autograph.

All the 4th grade teachers in our Hannah Montana get ups - I'm in the middle in case you don't see me (I know, I look like such a natural blonde :p)

But that is just the beginning, since the beginning of the year I have dressed up as a goose, been in parades, had my kids make fairy tale books to read to kindergarteners, thrown parties, gotten a countless amount of hugs, "flowers" (weeds from the playground), and "your my favorite teacher" poems (these were especially popular when I was teaching them poetry). I have to remember these things for the days when the kids are misbehaving, TAKS days (Texas' infamous state testing), and days when all the politics are making me insane.

My homeroom class and I (if they look like hooligans - it's because they are - and yes, one of them is on my back).

I've decided the reason for summer breaks is mostly for the teachers. I know the kids certainly need it too, but summer breaks give you the chance to start feeling like yourself again enough to want to go back and do it again.

Our New Boat

2008-06-27T06:57:00.000-07:00

A little more than a week ago, Jared and I bought a boat. Jared had been talking about boats nonstop for a few weeks and had always been online looking for good deals. Well, he found one from craiglist, so we bought it. It's just a 12' paddle boat now, but I think he wants to put an engine on it one day. The funny thing is that neither of us knows very much about fishing (which is what we will be using it for). Jared has a little experience but when it comes to the bait to use, when to go, or where to go, we are at a complete loss. Our first attempt was at Houston Lake. We got a bunch of goodies and one of Jared's friends came along. However, the lake was huge and we discovered our boat certainly isn't good for paddling - it took forever. Either that or we are bad paddlers, probably a little of both.

Well, we had been paddling to the middle for about 30 minutes when a lake policeman came and told us we didn't have enough life jackets (had 2 needed 3) and we had to go back and get some. So that took another 40 minutes. Well, by the time we got back out, the sun was scorching and the fish had pretty much called it quits for the day. But the worst part was that at most places in the lake, we could put our oar down and touch solid ground. That made the whole 1 and 1/2 hour round trip that much more ridiculous.

Jared and I packed up and ready to go.

Despite all this, it was pretty fun. The hot and humid sort of fun. We did drink lots of lemonade and we found out our boat doesn't leak. I also learned how to paddle - so despite the lack of fish, it was a pretty big success I would say. However, we did decide our next trip would be in the evening.

View from inside the boat.

Crawfish Party

2008-06-24T16:52:00.000-07:00

As many of you will know, Jared's birthday was this month and what he really wanted was a crawfish party. So we bought 40 lbs of crawfish (which turned out to be way too much) and mercilessly dumped them in a boiling pot full of spices and veggies. Of course, I was squeamish about the whole thing. Especially when he talked about purging them (or basically making them throw up their guts) before kindly ending their misery and throwing them into the pot. We had a few skirmishes between the crawfish - it turns out they don't like each other very much. They turned out pretty good - actually, I am told that - I don't like seafood. But Jared and his pals enjoyed them and blistered up their fingers trying to eat literally dozens of crawfish.

We then went inside a played a little Wii (we recently got this along with the entertainment center). Unfortunately, this is the only part of the party I caught on camera and most of our guests had already left. But I tell you what - playing Wii golf with 4 people takes almost as long as a real golf game.

Jared pigging out on cake/ice cream while Kenny (Marathon/ UH chum) plays Wii

The cap on the evening was that we still had quite a bit of crawfish left. Well, I couldn't stand to see them just sit there and die and certainly didn't want to boil them when we weren't going to eat them, so Jared and I decided to drop them off in our friendly neighborhood pond which just happens to have a sign about not adding wildlife. So it was pretty exciting slipping down there at midnight and throwing those guys in. I won't worry unless I hear about a mysterious crawfish infestation in the neighborhood. I wonder if those crawfish know how lucky they are...

My First Blog

2008-06-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

I've officially jumped onto the blogger bandwagon. Since I am so horrible at keeping in touch with family and friends now that we are in Texas, I thought this would be great way to let everybody know how Jared and I are doing. So here goes nothing. I guess I can give a brief update, but everybody that would be interested in reading this thing probably knows we moved to Texas last year at about this time. Jared is going to school to get his Masters in Geology at the University of Houston and I'm doing something I swore I would never do - teach. Of course, I also swore I would never marry a Willcox boy or live in Texas. Obviously, I have learned my lesson about swearing I would never do something. Fortunately, I love all three. But back to my story - here is our first house.

About 5 months later, we adopted Meowfish. We both thought he was quite the scrapper - there was nothing he liked more than a good fight (mostly with our arms and legs). Within the first month of him living with us, Jared's arms were pretty bloodied and people were starting to worry about what was going on at our house. We asked the vet about this and he said that cats don't know that biting and scratching hurt unless they are socialized. Since we got him when he was really tiny (picture below), we figured this was definitely his problem.

Jared and Meowfish looking "tough".

So in January we adopted our second cat, Abakles, when she was 6 months old. She is a the sweetest cat in existence and has tamed Meowfish down immeasurably (though he is definitely still feisty).

Abakles chilling out.

Anymore of a summary than that will probably bore you to tears and we have to get to the good stuff - like what is going on now. I'll keep the updates coming - and look out for blogs from Jared and the cats (I know they've been talking about what they want to blog about).