Thanksgiving

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

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

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?????

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

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...

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'

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. :)