Benavides Family

Dirty Dirty Water

2011-05-10T10:01:00.004-04:00

Last night The Hubs and I were tackling some small house projects.

Side Note: He set a deadline to have all these little tasks done by my birthday (which is on Friday, YIPPEE!!!!) so we have been hard at work for a few months now.

The Hubs was stripping the caulk out of the master shower since the old caulk was icky and moldy and falling off. While he was doing that I was in the guest bathroom cleaning the floor, baseboards and wainscoting we had installed by our handy dandy contractor neighbor a few months ago so we could caulk around the floor so water doesn't get behind the baseboards and mold. Once I finished up I went downstairs to grab his shopvac so I could suck up the old caulk he was removing.

I carried the shopvac up 3 flights of stairs amid hyper scrambling dogs thinking I was playing a game of moving obstacle course with them. I'm amazed I didn't trip or fall once. And if you know me and how big a klutz I am you should be amazed too since I slip or fall down/up stairs all the time when I'm walking alone completely undistracted.

I made it ~~past the finish line, according to the dogs~~ into the bedroom and put the vac down to wheel into the bathroom and get to work. The Hubs switched locations with me and went to work in the guest bathroom laying the caulk down. I proceeded to vacuum up the old icky caulk into the shopvac and was actually enjoying using the vac (I totally see why men love these things now, they suck up ANYTHING). For the briefest moment, or what seemed like a brief moment I accidentally let the hose sucking thingy sit over the drain in the shower.

OH!

MY!

GOODNESS!

DO NOT EVER LET THIS HAPPEN DO-IT-YOURSELFERS!!! EVER.

It's as if time froze, or suddenly went into slow motion like it does in the cheesy 80s movies we all love and hold dear to our hearts. I pulled the hose away from the drain and with it came some of the most horrible, icky, nasty, dirty, foulest smelling, grody water ever. It sprayed my face, arms, clothes, hair, and some of the shower.

I sat there stunned. Not by the horrendous water on my body and clothes, but by the stench that quickly followed. It was AWFUL! I almost gaged but didn't thankfully. I shut off the vac, quickly washed my face and arms and then left the bathroom because it really smelled rank.

I went to check on The Hubs and see how he was doing with the caulk and he was doing a great job, easy as pie. Until he reached the point behind the toilet where his big manly body was having a hard time contorting to get the caulk in the right places. So I offered my services seeing as I'm smaller. :) As soon as I bent over to help him out his face contorted, he blew air out of his nose, leaned away from me and said "Why do you smell like THAT?!"

I told him what happened, he let me finish the caulking and then made me take a shower. Immediately. Ha!

This is the best picture I could find online to show you what came out of our drain last night.

New Ambulance Coming To A Town Near You

2011-02-03T08:12:00.002-05:00

Button Up or Button Down?

2011-01-24T09:36:00.002-05:00

So, do you call men's and women's shirts that button all the way from top to bottom button up's or button down's? I call them, and have always called them, button up's. Recently, it's been brought to my attention a time or two when I say button up and the person I'm speaking to has a momentarily confused look on their face which then passes into understanding.

(I've suddenly got the urge to sing "The peace that passes understanding down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart! Where? Down in my heart, to staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!").

I digress.

Because of this I have been obsessing lately about which way is the correct way to describe those kinds of shirts.

Am I the only one on the planet that says button up?! I've asked several co-workers and they tell me I'm wrong. So I figured it must be a Texas thing, naturally. I then asked a few of my Tejas friends who all informed me they say button down....even The Hubs!! So, either I'm wrong or the rest of you are, and if we are going to go by statistics then it's clear as day who is wrong.

The rest of you.

Hmmm....

2011-01-21T13:06:00.000-05:00

So many different things have happened since my last post...forever and a day ago. I'm sorry I've been MIA lately, I will do better. I love blogging and I especially love reading other people's blogs. I have a ton of photographs to edit, send out to family/friends, and post on here. I hope I'll be able to do that this weekend since I'm planning on hibernating all weekend because of the arctic temperatures. I have dinner plans tonight with some sweet girlfriends, I know we will have a great time together talking and catching up. So, in order to tide yall (the imaginary "yall" I've created who I think actually read this, which is more like no one other than my sweet mother) over until I get this updated for reals, here are some things that have been going on in the Benavides' abode (my friends from way back, you know as in middle school and high school, will appreciate that abode reference).

We had new floors installed on the ground floor and second floor

Laminate on the ground floor
Fancy carpet on the second floor

We went home for Christmas and saw both our families for FAR too short of a time

We've since decided that we will be driving back to Tejas next year with our ~~monster beasts~~ dear pooches in tow (any suggestions on where to stop?)

We have received ZERO snow this winter (I'm hoping that by writing about the lack of snow, we are then pelted with some significant snow accumulations)
I'm planning to paint our second floor a color that goes with chocolate brown and sky blue....any suggestions?
I need help decorating our walls....it needs to feel more homey and I have no idea how to do it...I need a shopping buddy (any volunteers? Buhler? Buhler? Buhler?)
Our awesome contractor neighbor finished our guest bathroom for us (YAY) and it looks completely AMAZING!
The Hubs is taking two graduate school courses this semester (prayers for encouragement and endurance are appreciated....for both of us)
My oldest seester and I have booked a NASCAR adventure to DRIVE stock cars around the Richmond International Raceway this summer (AND WE ARE BOTH TOTALLY PSYCHED ABOUT DOING SO)
The Hubs and I both have a pair of Five Fingers
I'm running out of things, but I know there is much more...
Stay tuned to more from your favorite Misplaced Texans

But, I Wanna!!!

2010-12-07T08:17:00.003-05:00

The Hubs and I were talking the other day about things children do in public that adults are not allowed to do. We were a little jealous that the kiddos get all the fun....so we made a list.

Things Children Do In Public That Is Socially Unacceptable For Adults

Cry
Spill food all over themselves
Scream at the top of their lungs for no good reason other than to hear their voice
Fall asleep
The minute they are done eating they are allowed to run off and go play
Wear mis-matched clothing and shoes
Stare at weird looking people
Point
Say something completely inappropriate, but everyone laughs and finds is cute
Blow bubbles in their milk
Yell when they get mad
Vomit
Have dirty fingernails and cheeks
Run everywhere
Dance around like a fool and it's considered cute

What other things have you seen kids doing and secretly wished you could do the same thing?

GET YOUR ANTLERS UP, Y'ALL

2010-10-13T09:06:00.004-04:00

RANGERS WIN! RANGERS WIN! RANGERS WIN!

I was so excited to wake up this morning and discover that the Texas Rangers WON the series against the Rays!!! WOOO HOOO!!

There is a great story HERE and HERE about our win and how the players are actually a family.

On to Friday when we beat the nasty New York Yankees!

I'm Back In The Saddle Again...

2010-10-07T09:26:00.003-04:00

We are still here and alive! So sorry to all our readers (all two of you) who've been lost without our biting wit and humor. We are back and better than ever! Starting tomorrow. :)

Stick around, you might enjoy it.

HELP US WIN!!!

2010-07-01T07:52:00.002-04:00

Hey yall check out my dear friends, Brandon and Crystal Barnett, blog and the blog about the book (links below) and help them win the Pepsi Refresh grant for $25,000. They will use 100% of the grant (yep, all $25,000) to manufacture, ship, and distribute the books.

The book, authored by Brandon, this is a great children's book and is THE ONLY CHILDREN'S BOOK ABOUT THE MARINE CORPS!

Barnett Family News

A Salute to Our Heroes

VOTE PEOPLE! VOTE!!!

SUMMERRRRRRRRRRRR

2010-06-02T10:14:00.003-04:00

WOOOOHOOOO!!

SUMMER IS HERE!!!

Flip flops with everything

too-short shorts

tank tops

suntan lines

summer dresses

ponytails

sunscreen

deodorant

picnics

sand in crevices you didn't know you had

aloe vera

outdoor movies

lawn chairs

lightning bugs

camping

windows rolled down at night

squeals as you jump into the lake for the first time

spur of the moment road trips

vacation

margaritas

outdoor dining

walking in grass with your shoes off

grilling

long days

These are just a few of my favorite things about summer...what are yours?

NOT ME MONDAY!!!!

2010-05-17T21:14:00.005-04:00

This past week it was certainly NOT me picking my toenails while at work. That is totally disgusting and not something anyone should even be thinking about while at work. I had FAR to much work to be working on to be picking at my toenails.

It was also NOT me eating pickle spears, two spoonfuls of cookie dough ice cream, chips and salsa, peanut butter filled M&Ms and a sprite for breakfast last Saturday while The Hubs was in the shower. I eat normal breakfast foods at breakfast time and would NEVER be caught dead eating junk food for a meal, especially for the most important meal of the day.

It was also NOT me complaining of a terrible tummy ache a few hours after eating junk food for breakfast. I know that if I eat something unhealthy then I durn well better not complain about it later on.

I did NOT hover over The Hubs while he was working on a project I asked him to do making sure he does it exactly to a T the way I asked him to. I know he's an adult and can make his own decisions on the best way to complete a project and does NOT need me hovering around like a Hover Board from Back to the Future II.

We had our carpets cleaned this weekend and I am NOT resenting the fact that the carpet on the ground floor of our home is still damp. I am just happy that the carpets are cleaned and looking mostly new again. I'm NOT dwelling on the moist carpet on the ground floor and I did NOT spend the commute in this morning telling my trapped carpool mate about the carpet cleaning, even though he appeared to be completely enthralled in my damp carpet saga.

I did NOT stare in awe as electric company men strung high wire cables. I live in the 21st century and of course I've seen high wire cables being strung. Who hasn't?!

There are MANY other things I was NOT caught doing this past week but as fate would have it I can't remember them all. So...what were you NOT doing this past week???

hmmm

2010-03-18T09:30:00.002-04:00

Well, not much is going on here in the Benavides' home. We are almost finished updating our guest bathroom. I'd post pictures, but that might prevent any of you from actually coming up here to visit, so you'll just have to come up and see for yourselves. :)

It's BEAUTIFUL here this week, mid to upper 60s, and I'm thinking about breaking out my flip flops this weekend. Pretty crazy I know. WOW!

I just found out my sisters are coming up for a visit in June. I'm already counting the days (83) until they get here hoping it flies by. However, I'd like to enjoy our Wedding Anniversary in April and my Birthday in May first. I can't WAIT to have them here, I've missed them desperately. I was reading an article in the paper the other weekend about a woman who was visiting family and sitting around late one night chatting with her sisters into the wee hours of the morning and I suddenly started crying. I've never done that before. Clearly I really miss my sisters and my entire family TONS.

The Hubs and I are tossing around ideas of places we can visit this summer over weekends and on holidays. So far we've suggested Philly, Boston, NYC, Rehoboth Beach (Delaware), Hershey, Gettysburg, Atlanta, Savannah, and Charleston. Who knows if we'll actually be able to get out to all these places, but one can dream....right?

That's really all I've got for now. I haven't updated in a while, so I figured a random post is better than no post.

Nicknames

2010-02-25T12:47:00.004-05:00

I've only had a few partial nicknames in my life, and none of them stuck. I've been called Mitchel by my sisters when they were mad at me as a child. I was called Meechelle (me-shell) from one of my soccer coaches because another girl was on the team named Erin so he called me by my middle name, sorta.

In middle school I was called by my last name, as most athletes were called by their coaches. Then in high school I was called Air Head by my dear friend I called Mudd Face, but that was only for a semester since we had class together. During college I was called Grace, because I am lacking any amount of graceful abilities by being a huge klutz.

Now that I'm married The Hubs has several sweet names he calls me, but I would not consider any of them my nickname. He, on the other hand, has plenty of nicknames. Kendailia and Sir Kent to just name a few.

I was silly enough to mention this to some work friends one day over lunch. We were discussing nicknames and one guy was telling a funny story about how some children thought his real name was Meat Stew (his nickname is Stew Meat). I casually mentioned I didn't have a nickname and never had, and thought that was the end of it, silly me. They came back several days later and informed me that my nickname is Rooster.

They tried to tell me the reason my new nickname was Rooster is because I wake up before roosters. See, The Hubs and I wake up during the week at 4 AM. Yes, that's right, 4 AM. Typically the sun isn't out yet and the ~~beasts~~ dogs have been up for two hours already. The ~~beasts~~ dogs must think it's fun coming into our bedroom, ~~throw their bodies into our bed~~ stand next to our bed and cry. I'm not talking just quiet whining people, I'm talking full on crying with mouths open and voices quivering. Needless to say, it's annoying and cute at the same time. They do this every.single.morning.at.the.same.time. including weekends. NOT COOL. So, we get up, take the dogs out to go potty, get dressed and ready for the day, have breakfast, feed the ~~beasts~~ dogs, let them out again, put them in their cages for the day and head out to work. I participate in a carpool so every third week I drive, the other weeks I'm a passenger trying not to scream (or have a heart attack) when the other drivers in my carpool ~~miss painting us onto the car in front of them by inches~~ brake at the last minute. I get into work early and am also able to leave work early so I'm home early. I'd rather do that than get to work at 8 or 9 and not get home until 7 or 8 because of traffic.

All that to explain how my work friends came up with my nickname. I don't like it.

Snowmageddon 2010

2010-02-15T19:51:00.030-05:00

Here are some pictures we took over the last two weeks, affectionately known out here as "Snowmageddon."

This is from the first snow we had in the new year, a wet snow where everything stuck to the trees just beautifully! That's the moon to the right of the tree.

Our deck after just a "light" dusting of 2 or 3 inches.

The back yard after the first few hours of snowfall.

Looking out from our kitchen onto our street the night the snow began to fall. I believe that was Friday, Feb.5th

The tree that I think looks like a crab with it's front pincher's hanging over our fence trying in vain to get our pooches. (Saturday morning the 6th)

This is looking out to our front "yard" and driveway. Yes, that is my car to the left, covered in about a foot to a foot and a half of snow. Saturday morning after it snowed all night.

Looking out from our kitchen again onto our neighborhood. LOTS more snow now!

A new item we purchased JUST before snowmageddon hit. Just in time for the Super Bowl, and the picture was amazing!

Our deck again, with quite a bit more snow now. You can't even see the logo on Kenny's grill cover!!

I brought Kenny a mug of snow while he was still in bed, I thought it was a cute idea, instead of a mug of coffee. We fed the snow to the pooches and they loved eating the snow!

I love this picture because the lamp has a snow "feather" on top like marching bands wear! HaHa!

Um, yeah. This is our front "yard" again...I think we have about two feet at that point. You can't even see my tires!!

Kenny showing off our driveway we just shoveled clear. MAN! Shoveling snow is serious business, it's not for the faint of heart that's for sure.

Me. Leaning on the pile of snow we shoveled off of our driveway and onto our neighbor's "yard" but don't worry, that's how it's done here. You share your yard with your neighbors to dump snow on. This is only part of the snow that was on the driveway, the rest is in the street and on our front "yard." The snow here was piled up taller than me!

Our backyard on Sunday, after the first round of snowmageddon. Another round was coming two days later...

Yes, that's me in our backyard with snow UP TO MY THIGHS!!

We took the pooches out on a walk on Sunday because by that point we were all a little stir crazy after being locked indoors since Thursday night! This picture is in our neighborhood.

My snow/rain boots, they are purple and super fun!

I just LOVE this picture of Kenny and the pooches! The sky is a brilliant blue and they all look fantastic! I LOVE IT!! Kenny and the pooches climbed up on a big pile of snow/ice and it was great for this picture.

Little bird prints in the snow, I thought this was pretty cool.

This is one of the ponds in our neighborhood. I really like this picture because of the sun in the top right corner and the contrast of the glistening snow with the shadows.

One of the ginormous ice sickles hanging off our neighbor's roof line. I think some of this fell in our driveway last night. Thankfully I parked my car closer to the road than the house because if I'd parked closer to the hose this would have hit my brand new car and either busted the windshield or damaged the hood.

Our neighborhood after the snow plows came through after snowmageddon 1...

Aaaaand, this is our neighborhood during snowmageddon 2.

Kenny shoveling snow off our deck. Yes, he is standing inside our living room.

~~Ninja~~ Kenny holding a block of ice from our deck. Our deck had over 3 feet of snow on it so we had to shovel some off so it didn't collapse under the weight!

Daisy chowing down on some snow. Every time she goes outside she eats as much snow as she can possibly get into her mouth, it's really pretty hilarious to watch.

I'm pretty sure Daisy is thinking, "HEY! That's MY snow you are eating!!!"

Finally, this is after it had stopped snowing, but the winds were HORRIBLE! You can kind of see the snow being blown around just above the railing.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and are probably really thankful you don't live up here. It's really beautiful, but seriously I'm ready for some Texas heat. COME ON SUMMER!! (I'll probably be regretting that statement in a few months)

NOT Me! Monday

2010-02-01T12:16:00.002-05:00

This is a blog carnival set up by MckMama. Check her blog out and see what she did NOT do this week, as well as other readers.

I was NOT a completely horrible person this weekend. I was sweet, and loving and nice and caring all weekend, as I am every day. I certainly did NOT turn into a hyper-sensitive, over-reacting idiot. That is just simply NOT me.

I did NOT have the urge to yank on the beautiful, long brown hair of a woman standing in line in front of me today...for absolutely no reason. I did ~~distract~~ restrain myself and leave her beautiful hair alone.

I was NOT annoying in the car on Sunday with The Hubs by making noises with my mouth, just because I could. I'm much more of a refined adult than to act like a 2 year old child.

I did NOT silently resent the fact that I spent about 2 hours scrubbing our shower and inhaling the toxic fumes the cleaner produced on Sunday. I am always joyful when doing housework. Always.

I am NOT sad that we don't live closer to home so I could help my sister and parents clean out my parents garage this weekend. I am completely content missing out on small and big events with my family. :-(

So what do you say? Would you like to share what you have not been up to lately?

Who do you follow?

2010-01-20T12:07:00.005-05:00

A few Sunday's ago the church we've been attending, but have not joined yet, began the transformation from the original Senior Pastor to a new Senior Pastor. Pastor Arlie (the original) is retiring and his son, Pastor Charlie (funny, I know) will become the new Senior Pastor. I'm excited about this as it's a new chapter in the church's life, and I look forward to the sermons and guidance from Pastor Charlie.

Instead of a typical sermon, they had more of a discussion. Pastor's Arlie and Charlie sat down and answered a few questions the congregation had emailed them the week before. Most of the questions were for Pastor Arlie on why he was retiring and what he would be doing with his time and if he was "going anywhere" after he retires. He assured the congregation that he was not "going anywhere" and that he was still going to be active in the church, just not at the Senior Pastor capacity. Some of the questions were directed to Pastor Charlie about what he was going to change and how he was going to help the church grow. In one of his responses he asked the question "Who do you follow?" He went on to say he followed the Lord and was obeying His direction on becoming the Senior Pastor, even though he was a little nervous about the new role (he was previously an Associate Pastor, so he wasn't coming in to the job blind). It was a rhetorical question for the congregation, but it really struck a chord with me.

"Who do you follow?" My immediate answer was "God." Plain and simple. I follow God; I do not follow Muhammad, or the Dali Lama, or Satan, or any other man created leader. He is my salvation, my protector, my rock, my refuge, my everything. Nothing comes before my God. Then, over the next few days I began to really think about that simple question and how I've been living my life recently. To be completely honest (even though I don't want to and it's kind of scary) I've been following Erin. Myself. Me. It's embarrassing to admit, and makes me sad too, but it's the honest truth. I have not been following God as He commands me to. I've also not been the wife I'm commanded to be either.

By not following God and living as He asks me to, I've let God, Kenny and myself down. This is not something I'm proud of at all, in fact I'm really upset. I'm better than that. It's not easy to follow God, but I can do that and, more importantly, I should be doing that. He never said it would be easy, but it is something I need to do. Not for myself, but for God and Kenny. When we do have children I want to set a good example for them of how Christians and husband and wife should treat one another. Also, on how as Christians, we are not better than any other humans and we should show ALL people (regardless of race, economic status, religion, country of origin, etc) exactly the same. As loved and adored children of God. Regardless of if they believe that or not, because we are all loved and adored children of God. Like it or not, it's simply true.

So, my goal in life is to be the daughter of Christ that He commands me to be and in turn become the wife I'm commanded to be as well. I know it's not going to be easy, but I also know that "This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.' " Zechariah 13:9.

My question to you is...

'Who do you follow?'

"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:12-14

Facebook a.k.a. My Addiction

2010-01-08T08:04:00.003-05:00

I updated my Facebook app yesterday and now for some reason, I'm not able to update my status on Facebook...and it's DRIVING ME INSANE! I'm beginning to realize that I may have a bit of an addiction to Facebook, and any kind addiction is never good. I'm able to make comments on friends and "friends" status' but I can't seem to make my own status update.

Are the Facebook overlords trying to teach me a lesson?

Do they not like me for some reason?

Did I make someone angry?

Why did I update my Facebook app, that was stupid?

Why do I care?

These are just a few of the questions that have run through my head in the last 24 hours (or at least the hours that I was awake). So, I'm going to let it be for now, and if it stays that way, then so be it but if it corrects then YAY! I do need to cut back on my Facebook usage, it's really cutting into my life (both personally and professionally). I do really enjoy seeing the comings and goings of friends and "friends" lives. Engagements, new jobs, heartbreak, prayer requests, pregnancies, births, adorable babies and kids, etc. However, my life before Facebook was just fine. I did miss out on some friends life changes and various other events, but I didn't have this addiction.

On that note, I'm going to try and limit my usage of Facebook and see how things change in my life.

What are you addicted to or need to change in your life for the better?

Not Me! Monday

2010-01-04T14:22:00.002-05:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did NOT leap out of bed on Saturday morning in a panic because I thought one of our sweet potty trained dogs messed on the floor... again. Thankfully she did control herself and our floor was dry.

I did NOT freak out and grab The Hub's hand on our flight home when the airplane almost flipped over b/c of the freakishly strong winds. I am perfectly calm on flights and truly love flying. I am not Meg Ryan's character from French Kiss sitting in her chair singing "I hate Paris in the spring time. I hate Paris in the fall."

I did NOT cry just a little saying goodbye to my family this weekend after spending Christmas with them...I am always fully composed and I never cry in public.

I also did NOT stand in the shower shivering until the lukewarm water turned hot before I began shampooing my hair.

I did NOT become embarrassed when The Hubs started talking to me in the parking lot when he was actually yelling, not talking, b/c his ears were covered up with ear warmers b/c we now live in Antarctica and not DC.

It was NOT easy for me to get out of bed today at 4AM because I went to bed at 9PM last night. I would never go to bed that early, I am NOT a loser.

What about you? What did you NOT do this past week?

Photography Giveaway!!!

2009-12-18T11:27:00.004-05:00

So, if you are a professional photographer, or even remotely interested in photography, check out MckMama's Blog and The Grammie Diaries to enter for multiple chances to win Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 AND Adobe Photoshop Elements 8!!! You have until Sunday, December 20th to enter for a chance to win these awesome photography tools.

Good Luck everyone!!

WHERE have we been and WHAT have we been doing?!

2009-12-17T08:04:00.002-05:00

No. We did NOT fall into a black hole and disappear into the oblivion. Obviously. We have just been busy with life changes and getting caught up in the hustle and bustle that we all call "The Holidays."

With that being said, a re-cap of our last few months is in order, so here we go.

Kenny:
In November Kenny changed jobs and is no longer working for BAE Systems. He is now a government employee and is spending eight hours a day ~~surfing the web reading up on Tech and anything Texas~~ working very diligently. He has a bit of a longer commute, but thankfully it is a reverse commute (meaning he travels the opposite direction from the rest of traffic). Things are going fantastically (is this even a word?) and he is really enjoying his new job and all the people he works with now. Ask him for work stories, he has a ton of very interesting and hilarious ones to share. Also, in January 2010 Kenny will be starting Graduate School at Virginia Tech University (in Alexandria, VA)! He should wrap up with grad school sometime in 2012 if everything goes as planned. He is beyond excited and looking forward to getting back into school ~~studying until all hours of the night with bloodshot eyes and drinking way too much coffee~~ and expanding is already enormous vocabulary and knowledge of all things.

Erin:
In early November Erin left PricewaterhouseCoopers and is now working for PotomacWave Consulting. She had two weeks of time off before starting her new job and spent every day doing something important (shopping, cleaning, sleeping, watching movies, cooking, etc). She loves her new job and is so thankful for the opportunity she was given! Currently Erin is working at the United States Coast Guard, and even though her commute is ~~a nightmare~~ long, she loves being back at USCG in DC.

The Benavides':
We recently took an ah-mazing trip to New York City over Thanksgiving and LOVED every minute we were there! The city is fantastically chaotic, mesmerizing, frustrating, energized, and beautiful. All at once. I do not understand how all those mix together so well, but they do and that is NYC. We spent all of our time in mid-town (Times Square area) and below, down to the bottom tip of Manhattan. Times Square is crazy, and you really see some rather interesting (read: weird) people down there. We ate at Serendipity 3 (featured in the motion picture Serendipity) a few times and if it were up to me we would have enjoyed dessert there every day. For every meal. We went to the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Tower), walked around Rockefeller Center, watched people ~~make fools of themselves~~ ice skate on the rink at Rockefeller Center, witnessed a brave man get down on one knee and propose to his girlfriend (of SEVEN YEARS) in the center of the rink and then enjoy dinner (talk on their cell phones) at the table right behind us afterwards.

She said yes.

We rode the Staten Island Ferry which took us right past The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (without the crazy fee or lines). We stood on the top deck of the ferry, appropriately named the Hurricane Deck.

Having never been in a hurricane I can only imagine that the winds we experienced were just like a hurricane, only much more cold. I'll post a picture of what I looked like after leaving the hurricane deck soon. But I digress.

We walked around the Financial District, took pictures at Wall Street, in front of a statue of George Washington, walked around and through Trinity Church, and tried to absorb Ground Zero.

Being at Ground Zero was heart wrenching. The buildings which surround Ground Zero are unbelievably tall, and I tried to imagine what it looked like before 9/11. The Twin Towers literally towered over all the other sky scrapers down there. It was very somber, but yet very much alive and moving. Traffic was bustling with horns honking and people yelling, pedestrians milling about, and then the tourists. It was very easy to spot tourists at Ground Zero, they were the only ones standing still. Some with tears, most with cameras, but all trying to absorb what occurred down there eight years ago. It is hard to believe that 9/11 was eight years ago, but it was. So much has happened between now and then, yet Ground Zero looks virtually untouched. It seems there is a "battle" on how the area should be re-built between the owners of the Twin Towers, the land, the local government and the people of NYC.

We also walked around a tiny Episcopal Church, St. Paul's Chapel, which is directly across the street from Ground Zero. In what can only be explained as the hand of God, somehow this tiny chapel escaped completely untouched from the falling buildings. The only damage this chapel experienced was ash and soot blowing into the foyer. St. Paul's was a resting area for all the workers, firemen, police officers and volunteers to come and find a place to worship, be still, be loved on, fed, and comforted. The entire chapel has mementos from 9/11 around it for people to read notes, see pictures, read about personal experiences from those horrific days following 9/11. They also sell an amazing children's book, The Little Chapel that Stood, which explains the events of 9/11 in a wonderful poem that is appropriate for kids.

We took a horse drawn carriage ride through Central Park one night (our driver was an immigrant from Cyprus) who told us about some of the buildings around Central Park and areas within the park. We returned to Central Park on our last day there and walked around reading about some of the monuments erected there and enjoying the people watching.

The highlight of the trip was the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Our hotel, The Millennium Broadway Hotel, was half a block away from Broadway so we had a great location to watch the parade. We woke up early and headed out to claim our parade watching spot with the rest of the city. Luckily we were able to get a great spot right on a corner on Broadway and ended up standing next to three other Texans! Clearly we know good people when we see them. The parade was fun, the police were great, the participants were fantastic. It was so fun to see in person what we have seen on television our whole lives. We highly recommend doing this with your children at some point if you can, it's fantastic.

After our six days in NYC we headed back home and back into the hustle and bustle of daily life. We will post pictures of our trip very soon, I promise.

Pray for Stellan

2009-10-28T10:39:00.002-04:00

Please read this blog post from MckMama about her sweet little boy, Stellan. He's in PICU right now and not doing well at all. I don't know them personally, but follow her blog regularly. Please pray!

"not me" Monday

2009-10-19T18:50:00.003-04:00

So this if my first "not me" Monday post, inspired by McMama and her weekly posts, as well as the other bloggers out there (so far 291 other people have posted a "not me" Monday). This is a chance to tell the world what you have not done this past week. So, here we goooooo!
It was not me who shook my head and laughed at The Hubs when he told me he watered our new plants with THREE full nalgene bottles each and then had to mop up the overflowing water with the baster we use to baste our food; and then proceed to use said baster to suck up some additional water from the plants. It was not me who used our outdoor broom to sweep the entryway to our house because I'd forgotten the indoor broom upstairs and didn't want to expend my precious energy to go upstairs and get the indoor broom, especially since the outdoor broom was just on the other side of the wall. I would never do that since that is terribly disgusting and not at all clean.It was not me who had a moment of personal joy when I purposefully trapped myself (and our pooches) on the first floor after mopping so I could get online and update our loooooooooooooong overdue blog. It certainly was not me who stripped in the laundry room so that every single last piece of clothing I owned would be clean. That is just a silly thing to do, everyone knows that you can never have every bit of laundry done.And finally, I did not decide this was the best time to start participating in "not me" Monday because McMama was giving away a prize to someone who posted to her blog on their own "not me" Monday.
Now, join in on the fun and freedom of sharing your "not me's" with the world!

COMING HOOOOOOOME

2009-09-06T08:20:00.003-04:00

I just found out that The Hubs is coming home TOMORROW!!!!! His flight was changed and he's now headed out and will be back in my arms at 7:40PM!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! I am so STINKIN' excited!!!

PRAISE GOD!!

Please pray for safe flights to Frankfurt and then here.

YAAAAAAAAY!

I LOVE HIM! I GET TO KISS HIM TOMORROW!

Alarm + Dog Not in Cage = BAD NEWS

2009-08-27T18:51:00.013-04:00

I received a phone call at work today from our alarm company informing me that the burglar alarm had been activated. GREEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAT! I asked them to NOT call the police because we have a dog walker who comes over and walks the pooches. Thinking she might have either forgotten to put the dogs (or one dog) up, or accidentally set the alarm off when she came inside.

I proceeded to call the dog walker and ask if she had any trouble or anything, and to tell her the alarm had gone off. She said everything was fine (riiiiiiiiiight) when she had left and that she did put both dogs back in their cages. I quickly pack up my belongings at work, inform my temporary supervisor that I needed to leave, and haul arse home. My plan was to ring the door bell, or knock on the door to see if a dog comes running up to the door and if the door was unlocked (or forced entry was visible) to immediately turn around, get in my car, drive away, and call 911.

Thankfully forced entry or an unlocked door were found, and when I rang the doorbell guess who came running up barking her little pooch lungs out?!

Daisy?

Lexie?

Well, if you guessed Daisy you would be correct! I walked up to the door and rang the bell and RUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNING up barking is Daisy. I could hear Lexie barking like crazy in the background too. Unlocking the door I greeted Daisy, re-engaged the alarm (since it had been activated) and let Lexie out of her cage since she was going bazirk.

I walked around the first floor and didn't see too anything to cause concern except a tear in one of the red couch cushions and each dog's cage hand only ONE of the two latches engaged. Thankfully the tear/slit is only about one inch in length, so maybe I can slip it off and try to stitch it up. I inspected Daisy's cage and surmised that she probably forced herself out of her cage since only the top latch was engaged and ran wild around the house. Setting off the motion sensors and activating the alarm.

I called the dog walker and explained to her what I discovered and she said she thought she engaged both latches, but perhaps she didn't. I then walked upstairs and inspected both floors for burglars and pee/poop that I just knew Daisy had left in her panicked state, while on the phone with a friend should I have been attacked. The second floor was fine, as was most of the third floor.

We have both dog beds in the hallway at the top of the stairs next to the banister, where they are mostly out of the way. Right where the beds are I saw some teeny tiny teeth marks and raw wood. awesome. I think Daisy chewed that wood either during the night when she's SUPPOSED to be sleeping, or when she had free reign over the house for about an hour today.

I had the "pleasure" of informing The Hubs of the incident and the "damage"...but have yet to hear back from him. eeeeeee! I'm nervous! Thankfully the dog walker has offered to pay to repair the cushion, but I don't think we are going to let that happen since I have no idea when the tear/slit occurred. It's just not right to have her pay for that when we cannot pinpoint the exact moment it was actually damaged.

Lessons Learned? Well, the dog walker and I will BOTH be double and triple checking the latches to each cage to ensure each pooch is securely locked inside with no way of escape.

Any tips on how to keep a dog from chewing things she shouldn't be chewing....and for that matter how to get her to STOP going potty inside?!

Random Thoughts

2009-08-26T09:19:00.004-04:00

I cannot sing the Star Spangled Banner in its entirety without getting choked up and then eventually crying...before the song is even over.

I know I used to be able to sing through the entire National Anthem before, but not anymore. I can pretty much pinpoint the moment when I was unable to sing through the entire National Anthem. It's when The Hubs joined the United States Army. Of course back then (I say back then as if it was eons ago, when in reality it was only six years ago) we were not Mr. & Mrs., we were Mr. & Miss, but I loved him so very much. I knew he was the man I wanted to marry, but didn't dare tell him that because I didn't know his thoughts on that subject. Turns out he felt the same way, but I digress.

It wasn't at the exact moment he signed five years of his life over to the Army, but probably sometime after we learned he would be deployed for five months to The Big A. He had not left yet, but the harsh reality that he was going away to fight in a war and could possibly never come home with air in his lungs was almost overwhelming. Up until this point the word "war" was something I read in history books or learned about by watching television. My Dad's dad, Pops, fought in World War II with the Corps of Engineers, my Dad's uncle (Kermit) was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese bombed us, my father was in the Army during Vietnam and was sent over to Germany, and I did not know anyone who fought in the Gulf War. So for me, war was not something I experienced first hand.

Together, The Hubs and I, spent five years with the Army and unlike most military families we were never relocated. We spend the entire time at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, however I did not live on base. The Hubs did not want me living on base for many reasons, so I lived in Chapel Hill and worked at UNC. During those five years The Hubs was sent overseas three times for five months, ten months, and thirteen months. Between his second and third deployments we were married and up until the day he left the Army we had only lived together, or near one another, for a collective total of about one year....out of five. Like all military spouses I lived with the reality that my husband might never make it home because he was sacrificing his life, dreams, hopes, wishes, family, everything to serve his country at any and all costs. It was by no means easy, but we made it through those years, and every year after because of GOD. He sustained us, provided for us, comforted us, protected us, loved us, and never let harm come our way.

Thankfully, we are no longer in the Army and are civilians living our life together in the DC area. The years in the Army helped us develop a strong foundation of faith, trust, support, love, respect and admiration for one another. It also taught us to not take anything for granted. The Hubs could have gone home to our Savior at any moment, and so could I. We are taking those lessons we learned while in the military with us to help throughout our marriage. It was a very difficult time, but by no means could either of us made it through without our faith in Christ, our amazing families, and our friends.

I share this with you because I'm not sure if anyone else has the same emotions I do when hearing and singing the National Anthem. I am fiercely proud of the fact that I'm an American, I am the spouse of an unbelievable man who served his country, I am the daughter and granddaughter of men who also served their country, and I try to not take all that for granted. Without men and women who volunteer to serve our country with no regard for themselves, America would not be America.

It is those men and women in uniform whom we are singing about in the National Anthem. It is those men and women for which we owe eternal gratitude.

It is those men and women, above any other, who deserve our RESPECT and admiration.

Can you sing the National Anthem without choking up?

Meet Daisy

2009-08-15T12:08:00.010-04:00

We adopted a new dog which we have named Daisy. She's just as cute as can be and I'll stop writing so you can see for yourself. :)

She's in our backyard on the very first day we had her checking everything out and making sure it's OK.

Clearly feeling a little relaxed on day 1.

Hanging out with her big sister, Lexie.

Lexie and Daisy sharing a bed...even though we have 2 beds for them. (snickering)

Daisy and Lexie (2 dogs on the right) making friends at the dog park I took them to today. They really didn't run around and play too much, I guess they were still trying to get used to one another.

You can hardly see them, but they are both in the far background of this picture in the center by the fence. They spent 90% of the time at the dog park wandering around alone or together but not playing with any other dogs. :) All in due time though....right?

In my car on the way home from the dog park...I think they were pretty worn out since Lexie freaks out in cars and was happy to just lay down. Daisy does great in the car, so hopefully she'll be a good influence on Lexie (and not the other way around since Lexie is establishing herself as the alpha female).

God's Country

2009-07-27T13:00:00.013-04:00

I know these pictures are about one month late, but here are just a few pictures from my trip back home to God's Country (Texas, for those of you who don't know any better).

A few days after I arrived home my dear friend Della was having a couples bridal shower at her Aunt and Uncle's home in Dallas. I was lucky enough to be in town for the shower and headed over there with my girlfriends from A&M. Della and I met while we were at A&M and have been friends since. The shower was great fun, we laughed a lot, teased each other through out the evening, had some yummy dinner, and even enjoyed a few tasty drinks. Here's a picture from the end of the evening with the girls. Expert photographer Tommy was taking the picture with his lovely assistant Brandon close by.

From L-R: Me, Audry, Allison, Della, Karen, Cayla, Ciearra

Since summer's in Texas are blistering it is imperative to spend as much time as possible in the water. We tried to swim at the neighborhood pool where my sister lives, however it was closed for 3 days. Our second option was to pull out the slip-n-slide, kiddie pool, water guns, water table, sprinkler, and water ball launcher thingy. The boys had so much fun playing together and with their Mommy and me. I played on the slip-n-slide and in the sprinkler and really enjoyed being silly with the boys. Below is a picture of the boys on the slip-n-slide with Hunter as the base supporting his brothers, Bryce and Austin.

Top - Bottom: Austin, Bryce, Hunter (SO STRONG!!)

A few days later I flew down to San Antonio and drove with Alaina over to Gonzales to see my Grandma's house before the family puts it on the market to sell. Before we left San Antonio we had lunch with my cousins (minus Cathy) and Aunt since I've not seen them in a really long time. It was so wonderful to get together and break bread with them, however it was far too short. My cousin Sam and Stephanie are expecting a baby boy this winter (YAY) so it was fun seeing Stephanie's growing bump. Beth was able to take off from work for a little bit during lunch, and it was wonderful seeing her since the last time we saw one another was Christmas!! Sheila was there too and she took the picture below. We have other pictures with our sun glasses off, but we are all squinting or have our eyes closed.

L-R: Stephanie, Sam, Beth, me, Alaina (with Cathy and Heather there in spirit)

These next few pictures are from Independence Day. The boys and I made signs to hang on the garage door of their home that read "Happy 4th of July Yall." Normally, I refuse to say "happy 4th of July" since we aren't celebrating the date, but rather our nation's independence from the British. We don't celebrate December 25, we celebrate Christmas. We don't celebrate November 26, we celebrate Thanksgiving. So in that same spirit, we don't celebrate July 4th, we celebrate INDEPENDENCE DAY. I hope yall had a great Independence Day and were able to spend it with family and/or friends, but also remembered to say a prayer for our men and women defending this independence we all take for granted.

Hunter, Bryce and Austin under the American Flag at their home with their patriotic themed Mohawks, each standing on a rock. :)

Dad "resting his eyes" before the fireworks show began at Vista Ridge.

Mom and Bonnie enjoying a chat while waiting for the show to begin.

Austin, Rian and Bryce watching the fireworks. Usually Bryce has his ears covered and is not enjoying the fireworks, but Daddy always makes things better and less scary.

Alaina, Heather and Hunter talking about something. Yes, that is my route 44, unsweet, raspberry iced tea with extra ice and lemon drink sitting there thankyouverymuch. :)

Here is one last sweet picture of the boys on their "wheels" playing out front of their house. Hunter and Bryce were racing around the cul-de-sac to see who could get back to the driveway first. To make it fair Hunter was on a scooter thing (aka racer) and Bryce was on his bike. Austin, like all youngest children, was not going to be left out. He's on his Thomas the Train toy driving around the sidewalk. I love this picture because all three boys are smiling and having a great time playing together! They are my favorites. :)

Hunter, Bryce and Austin having fun in the sun.

I can't wait to get back to Texas for our next visit!

Livestrong Challenge

2009-07-16T14:07:00.003-04:00

Allison, Cayla and Newbie (who's real name is Jessica, but we don't call her that) are participating in the 2009 Livestrong Challenge in Austin, TX in October. They are participating in this in loving memory of Jessica Gage Bonesio who went home to our Father on June 4, 2009. They are hoping to raise $1500 before the race, so please make a donation (of any size) if you can. I know this is a very difficult time for everyone financially, so any amount would be amazing.

Please check out Allison's blog ('If You Aren't Laughing; You Aren't Living' listed to the left) and these two pages below for more information.

TRI For A Cure team page
Allison's Personal Livestrong page

43 Questions...

2009-07-07T15:14:00.004-04:00

Since I'm bored at work, and have a lot to do at work but am not doing my work, I figured I'd please two of my blogging friends and answer this survey. Even though one suggested that if I did I was a bigger loser than her. Whatever. Here it goes!

1. Do you like blue cheese? sure, as long as it's not too strong. I like buffalo wings with blue cheese dressing.

2. Have you ever smoked? Yes, but don't tell mom. shh! Thankfully that nasty habit never stuck with me, I just did it socially like most people in college.

3. Do you own a gun? no, but would like to get one and fulfill all the Texan stereotypes that my Yankee friends have. (I really do want one, but haven't bought one yet)

4. What flavor of Kool-Aid was your favorite? Any of the red ones.

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointment? not usually, except for the doctor who looks at my lady parts, no matter how many times you go it doesn't become more comfortable.

6. What do you think of hot dogs? YUMMY!

7. Favorite Holiday Movie? It's a Wonderful Life. The. Best. Movie. Ever. End of discussion.

8. Favorite thing to drink in the morning? water, or Chai Tea Latte (thanks for getting me addicted Crystal) or hot tea.

9. Can you do push ups? yes

10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? I lurve jewelry. My three favs are (in order of preference) are: my wedding ring, my Aggie ring, the add-a-pearl necklace my Grandma gave me that she added to until she passed away.

11. What's your favorite hobby? photography, cooking, eating :)

12. Do you have A.D.D? yes, but not with everything, just occasionally.

13. What trait do you hate about yourself? I loose interest quickly unless I'm fully engaged.

14. Middle Name? Michelle

15. Name 3 thoughts this exact moment:
1. My tummy is being funny and I wish it would stop.
2. My hands are dry and I need lotion.
3. Is it too early to leave work for the day?

16. What do you read in the bathroom? Whatever is in there. The tags on the towels, shampoo bottles, magazines, etc. I don't care. I don't spend too much time in the water closet.

17. Current Worry? That The Hubs comes home safely and soon.

18. Current hate right now? Being so stinkin' far away from family and friends. It seriously sucks.

19. Favorite place to be? In Texas with the Hubs and our families.

20. How did you bring in the New Year? I don't remember, and not because I was drunk, I just don't remember.

21. Where would you like to go? Home.

22 . Name three people who will complete this? No idea, probably none of my friends b/c they have far better things to be doing.

23. Do you own slippers? Yes sir, black Ugg slippers that are just heavenly after wearing heels all day at work.

24. What shirt are you wearing? A white, Navy Blue and lellow (as my 2 year old nephew says) top.

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? I'm going with Allison on this one. Never have and it seems kind of pornish.

26. Can you whistle? Yes, and I drive the people around me at football games nuts! :)

27. Favorite color? Pink, I guess, and really any color that isn't ugly.

28. Would you be a pirate? Only for Halloween if I was making fun of Mike Leach (he's such a weirdo).

29. What songs do you sing in the shower? Whatever I hear on the radio.

30. What is your favorite name? Waaaaaaaay too many to name, seriously I have a running list on my iPhone.

31. Favorite boy's name? Kenny's fav is Kiernan.

32. What's in your pocket right now? Nothing. Girl pockets are too small to stash stuff. (I totally agree Christy)

33. Last thing that made you laugh? Me, no really, I crack myself up.

34. What vehicle do you drive? 1999 Nissan Altima

35. Worst injury you've ever had? Well, I'm so accident prone it's really a toss up. I guess I'd have to say breaking my arm in second grade and having to be rushed to the ER and then having to go into surgery.

36. How many TVs are in your house? 2

WHAT HAPPENED TO 37?!!

38. What is the best memory as a child? All of the ones that included family.

39. Do you have any pets? Lexie, the bestest doggie ever!

40. Does someone have a crush on you? Yep, the Hubs. :)

41. Your favorite books? A Tale of Two Cities and Lord of the Flies.

42. Do you collect anything? Wind Chimes.

43. Favorite sports team? Aggies and America's Team (The Dallas Cowboys for all you folks who don't know any better)!!

44. What song do you want played at your funeral? Celebratory Christian songs.

TAGGED: Crystal, Jess, Christy, Allison, Lyndsay, Haley, Alisia, Melanie, Joanna, Valerie

The Most Productive Weekend EVER

2009-06-19T09:33:00.004-04:00

Last weekend was probably the most productive weekend I've ever had in my entire 28 years, 4 weeks and 3 days of living.

Saturday:

Saturday morning I got out of bed, put on my jogging gear (socks, shorts, sports bra, heart rate monitor chest strap, shirt, heart rate monitor watch, shoes and hair tie) and headed out with my jogging companion Lexie. Lexie is SUPER eager to sprint when we start our run, and usually walking behind me when we finish. I try my hardest to keep her right next to me the entire run, and I usually do a really good job (holding her leash short helps), except when a random bird, leaf, other dog or animal we may come across catches her eye. Then I have to fight with her to keep her focused on jogging with me and not running off to chase said object. Last Saturday was a different day for us, and not in a good way. I was halfway through my jog when I became sick...on the street...in front of not one, but TWO police officers chatting in their cars. Lexie is walking circles around me wondering why we are stopped, why I'm bent over, and why she can't go chase that bird that is taunting her from the tree. I tried to run afterwards, but I just couldn't do it! I was mentally pepping myself up "Come on Erin, you can do it!" "All those other runners, in the movies and on TV, keep running after getting sick." "Don't be such a wimp!" but nothing worked. So I power walked back hoping to try and get in SOME kind of exercise that morning.

After we were home and I had finished sitting at the kitchen table eating some toast and drinking water I decided to mow the yard. Now this is not a huge undertaking when you consider the size of our yard. However, the delightful hill that is our backyard and what I have to push the mower down and up to get from the front to the back of the house is not so fun. I mowed the front "yard" in 6 passes. I call it a yard, but it's really a miserable attempt at a yard since it is MAYBE 4 feet by 5 feet. Then, I push the ridiculous contraption that is the lawn mower left to us by the previous owners (it's a LawnBoy mower that you have to MIX the oil and gas TOGETHER) around to the backyard. To do this I must go down the sidewalk, into the grass, down the hill into a nasty muddy/grassy pathway to my back gate and then up my backyard hill. Now, going to the back is OK, aside from the muddy/grassy area. It's coming back to the front that really sucks. I mow the backyard with Lexie sadly watching me from the game room sliding door. Recently I've had trouble getting the mower to start after I've mowed one area (either the back or front) and moved to the other area. I got so angry once that I kicked the stupid mower and walked inside. :) This weekend, thankfully, I had no problems getting it started.

Back patio BEFORE...

I finish the yard, push the mower through the muddy/grassy area, up the hill and into the garage. I then grab the only shovel we have (which is more flat than curved) and my work gloves and go back into the backyard. We had this icky mat the previous owners left outside to step onto from the game room into the backyard. This area is under our deck (which is on the 2nd floor) and doesn't get much sun so the grass doesn't grow very well. The icky mat was sitting in the mud, and not serving much purpose in preventing us from tracking mud into the house. Also, at the gate into our backyard was a lovely cesspool of slimy mud that had not drained out of our yard into the previously mentioned muddy/grassy area behind our yard. Being the "do it yourselfer" that I am (for better or worse) I took the icky mat and put it by the gate and began to shovel the cesspool of slimy mud onto the mat. My goal was to clear out the mud that was preventing the water from draining under our gate into the muddy/grassy area by creating a somewhat smooth slope. An added benefit would be allowing our gate to open and close easier. Let me tell you, shoveling mud is NOT an easy task. Thankfully I finished and was completely drenched in sweat (it was dripping off my face like it does on real athletes during televised sporting events). I also took the more flat that curved shovel and beat the ground until I was satisfied that it was smooth enough. Mind you I have about 4 or 5 neighbors who can see everything I'm doing and were probably really enjoying watching me shovel mud and beat the ground to a pulp. I then drag the mat holding the mud I just dug up around to the front of the house, having to stop 4 or 5 times to rest because I had so much mud on the mat. I looked like an idiot, I know, but I didn't care I had a mission and by golly I was going to complete it if it killed me!! I finally get to the front of the house and transfer the mud from the mat into two trash bags and put those into the garbage. I know you must be thinking "who throws away mud?" but I do, apparently. I was delirious from working so hard that my mind wasn't all there, so leave me alone. I clean off the shovel (my old man taught me right to clean yard tools off so they don't rust) and put everything away and go inside to collapse.

I then shower and get ready for a couples wedding shower for a good friend of mine from work. I head out, a good two hours before the shower is supposed to begin, to purchase a gift. You would think finding a recipe box and recipe cards would be an easy task, but let me tell you it is not. I drove all over creation searching for the darn things and finally had to settle on a recipe box that is very nice, but not exactly what I was looking for, and index cards for the recipe cards. I went to Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Staples, Walmart, everywhere and couldn't find the stupid cards! I finally make it to the party, an entire HOUR after it started and had a great time meeting the bride and groom's friends and family and enjoying a good hamburger. I left around 7:30 and went home to watch a movie and go to bed completely exhausted from the day.

I thought this was pretty, the silver lining of the clouds...just beautiful!

SUNDAY:
Sunday I wake up and decide that I'm going to be a heathen and not go to church but rather run errands that I really need to get done. I get dressed, eat breakfast and head out to run my errands...

Home Depot for 20 cement pavers to replace the icky mat by the sliding door
Home Goods for sheets
Target for target stuff
Grocery store
Dog food place for Lexie's food
and Best Buy for an arm band for my iPhone

I get to Home Depot and start loading the 20 cement pavers onto a flatbed cart thingy. Initially I'm doing OK thinking this isn't so bad, but after moving 4 of the pavers two delightful young men from HD come over and load the rest for me. Keep in mind these pavers "claim" to weigh only 20 lbs. but actually probably weigh more like 30 lbs. The young men pull the cart over to the register for me and then load all 20 into the trunk of my car. When they are done I look at the back end of my car and notice that I only have a finger's width of space between my tires and my back fender. Awesome. I carefully drive the 2 miles home with my hazards on, play car shuffle with our cars, back mine into the garage and begin unloading each paver one at a time. I carry each one through the house into the backyard and begin placing them where they need to go. I realize carrying them through the house might not have been the ideal choice because of dirt and bug and whatnot, but I didn't care. I was more concerned with carrying them the shortest distance possible, and that was through the house my friends.

Back Patio AFTER...

I finish that, rest and cool off a few minutes and head back out to run the rest of my errands (it's 11:30AM by now). I hit up all the other stores and discover that if you want an arm band for your iPhone do NOT go to Best Buy. They sell only one for the iPhone 3G and it's fugly. Go online and buy one from Amazon, much better selection! I head home with all my loot in tow and unload it all put everything away. It's about 3PM at this point. I then start my house work. Our home had been pretty icky, but I've just been too lazy to do anything about it until now. I sort the laundry and get that started, take something out for dinner to defrost, clean our bathroom, clean the guest bathroom and the other two powder rooms, clean our room, clean the kitchen, the living room and the game room. Vacuum the stairs and all the other carpeted surfaces, sweep all the hard floors and intermittently change the loads of laundry, fold and put them away. Cook dinner, sit down and eat dinner, wash the dishes, shower and go to bed. The only time all day on Sunday that I sat down was when I was eating dinner. I woke up on Monday morning in the same spot and position that I was in when I fell asleep on Sunday night.

I'm not doing all that this weekend, I'm resting up for my trip home to TEJAS on Thursday night!!

Jessica Bonesio

2009-06-04T14:55:00.005-04:00

This morning Christ welcomed home one of His beloved children, Jessica Bonesio (formerly Gage). She fought an amazing battle against brain cancer for 2 1/2 years with such poise, strength, FAITH and love. She is home now, dancing with the Lord, celebrating her life. Please take a moment and say a prayer for her husband, Bo, her parents, Ronnie and Stephanie, her sister, Julie, her brother, James, and her countless friends that love her and miss her dearly.

http://www.jessicagage.com/

Scared Little Puppy

2009-06-04T09:43:00.004-04:00

Last night we were hit with some wicked thunderstorms. On the weather map the area over our home was a lovely shade of deep red which means STRONG STORMS. If you know anything about me you know that I LOVE watching thunderstorms. This is because when I was growing up my Dad and I would stand out on the front porch and watch God's show. I find them truly amazing and such a fantastic display of God's power. They are mesmerizing.

Lexie on the other hand was not so excited. She came out on the front porch with me and was happy as could be until she realized it was super loud and bright. I was out there for about 5 minutes and she was standing behind me with her head behind my legs. I was only out there for 5 minutes because I couldn't see the lighting very well. We came back in and I promptly moved to the back patio. Our back patio isn't covered, so I stood in the doorway leading outside and watched the show there for about 15 minutes. I'd turn around every so often and spot Lexie cowering between the kitchen and living room. I think she didn't want to be alone, but she didn't want to be where I was either.

Watching the show from the doorway was AWESOME! A bolt of lightening would come down and immediately the thunder would occur. I could actually hear the air rushing back together before the big BOOM! Amazing. Most of the lightening was with several bolts in the sky at one time, not just one or two. The sky was lit up almost the entire time I was watching. Several car alarms went off during the show because of how close it was, Lexie didn't like that either.

Eventually I shut the door and went upstairs to shower, but first I called my parents to see if it was safe to shower in the storm. My Mom said it was, but to be quick. Well, quick I was. I was in and out in less than 5 minutes!

This is how I found Lexie when I finished showering....

Hiding in our closet, in the dark (I had to turn on the light to take the picture).

Laying down relaxed because I'm there now.

Seattle?

2009-05-15T13:36:00.003-04:00

It has rained so much, and so frequently here that I'm beginning to think that we live in Seattle, not Washington, DC. We were in a slight drought coming into late spring, but not anymore! It has rained almost every single day since the middle of April out here. Seriously. The up side to not remembering what that bright, fire ball in the sky is called, is that all the pollen that has turned my silver car and Kenny's black car a lovely shade of pea green is being washed away. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. I almost walked past my car a few days ago because I didn't recognize the thing, thank goodness for remote key less entry.

Could you imagine living in Seattle, the suicide capital of the world (or America)? I could not. I would go InSaNe with all the rain and not seeing that bright, fire ball in the sky and with frizzy hair. Also, you'd pick out a super cute outfit only to cover it up with a trench coat. No bueno. I for one enjoy the sun, with SPF 75 smeared all over my pale skin, and being outdoors on a walk or enjoying a picnic in the park. It's nice, it's relaxing, and it's cheap. Plus I'd be able to use the lovely picnic basket my husband bought me 3 years ago...finally.

Alas, that will all have to wait since this weekend is calling for more rain. It's times like these when I remember the wise words from Little Orphan Annie...

"The sun will come out tomorrow! Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there will be sun! TOMORROW! TOMORROW!"

Toilet Sign

2009-04-29T13:34:00.005-04:00

At the place where I work these signs have been posted in all the women's bathrooms. Not just on one floor of the building, but on every floor, inside every bathroom and inside each stall (for good measure, I'm sure). Initially, I thought "You've got to be kidding me. No adult, in a professional environment, would do any of these things."

HA! JOKES ON ME!

Just the other day I walked into the bathroom and saw one of the toilets filled to the top and even over flowing just slightly with soaking wet paper towels. Now, maybe I could understand if this was done in the men's restroom.....in a dorm. BUT NO! Some disgruntled woman did this. But why?

As you continue to read down the sign you notice that other items on there are rather odd items for someone to flush down a toilet. Say, a maxi pad for instance. That would be like trying to flush a dish rag down the toilet....Again, I ask why. Then, the kicker, for me anyway, is an ICE PACK?!! SERIOUSLY?! WHO WOULD TRY TO FLUSH AN ICE PACK DOWN THE TOILET? Typically those are placed in a trash can, and conveniently enough one is located just outside the stall doors by the sinks. Clearly, too far for these people to walk.

As I think about this note, the reason for these items to be listed on here is probably because at one time or another someone has attempted to flush these items down the toilet. I'm not sure why, they usually all fit nicely inside a trashcan, but to each his own.

This leads to my question for yall. What have you, or your children, tried to flush down the toilet? I can't think of anything for me, but I'm sure there are stories out there, just ask my sisters.

Tax Day Tea Party!!

2009-04-15T08:18:00.004-04:00

The Tax Day Tea Party is a national collaborative grassroots effort organized by Smart Girl Politics, Top Conservatives on Twitter, the DontGo Movement and many other online groups/coalitions.

The Tea Party protests, in their current form, began in early 2009 when Rick Santelli, the On Air Editor for CNBC, set out on a rant to expose the bankrupt liberal agenda of the White House Administration and Congress. Specifically, the flawed “Stimulus Bill” and pork filled budget.
During Rick’s rant (see video below), he called for a “Chicago tea Party” where advocates of the free-market system could join in a protest against out of control government spending.
A few days later, grassroots activists and average Joe Americans began organizing what would soon become the Nationwide Chicago Tea Party effort.

On February 27th, an estimated 30,000 Americans took to the street in 40+ cities across the country in the first nationwide “Tea Party” protest.

Organizers of the February 27th events pledged to continue on with an even bigger and better protest to follow the first. With April 15th being “Tax Day”, it was decided to schedule the second round of Tea Party protests to ride alongside the tax deadline.

And with that, the “Tax Day Tea Party”, the second round of the Nationwide Tea Party protests, moved into reality.

Check out this link on FoxNews for a great article... http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/15/anti-tax-tea-party-protests-expected/

HaPpY 3Rd AnNiVeRsArY

2009-04-08T11:46:00.002-04:00

I can't believe how quickly three years of marriage have come and gone already. It has been an amazing and crazy ride so far, and I am looking forward to the next 100 years together. God is amazing and always knows what is best for us and I'm so thankful He is an integral part of our life. I love you Kenny for always and forever. Happy Anniversary!!!

Pictures of Our Home

2009-04-05T16:07:00.035-04:00

Here are the long awaited pictures of our new home. The pictures are shown as if you are being given a tour starting at our front door. Enjoy!

I'm pretty irritated that this picture did not show up in the proper view, I had it rotated, but for some reason it didn't cooperate. Anyways, this is the view standing at our front door looking up the stairs at our guard dog, and down the hallway to the "man cave" as Kenny calls it. :)

Kenny's "Man Cave" with a half bathroom to your left (no picture of this).

More of the "Man Cave."

Our old furniture in the "Man Cave" to make it more cozy.

This is looking back towards the front door from inside the "Man Cave."

Our miniature back yard.

The living room from the top of the stairs.

The whole living room with our *NEW* furniture!

The view of the stairs and kitchen from in the living room.

Our living room, again.

The kitchen, standing at the top of the stairs with your back to the living room.

Our kitchen looking towards the living room. It took about 4 coats of red paint before we finished painting the kitchen, not including the primer.

Standing a the pantry/fridge/front patio looking towards the half bathroom and the stairs to the third floor.

The half bathroom off of the kitchen that is the same color as the kitchen and took just as many coats of paint.

Our kitchen again.

The stairs heading up to the third floor standing in the half bathroom off the kitchen.

Our bedroom!

Our bed and night stands.

Our dresser.

View of the hallway and other rooms standing by the dresser and window in our bedroom.

The door on your left is the laundry room, the door past that is the guest bathroom. The yellow room is the third bedroom that is being used as our "We have no idea where this stuff will go" room.

Guest bathroom.

Doors leading into the guest room and the "We have no idea where this stuff will go" room.

Guest room.

The "We have no idea where this stuff will go" room. Yes, it's yellow, not a nasty green color, and no we did not paint it this color.

The monster sitting on two steps, she likes doing this as she's guarding the front door at night.

100 Books

2009-03-30T12:13:00.002-04:00

I have decided to take on the challenge, put forth by PBS or the BBC (can't remember which), to read all of these books. This is a list of the 100 best books ever written. Some of the books I've already read, but most of them I have not. The books highlighted in red are the ones I have already read, and those still in black are the ones I have not yet read. My absolute most favorite book is Lord of the Flies. What's yours?

If you'd like to join me in reading these books I welcome the company, then we can talk about what we've read and share our thoughts. :) I haven't decided what book #1 is yet, but once I do I'll be sure to share that with the world. Or feel free to send me your suggestions and I'll go from there.

1 Pride and Prejudice

2 The Lord of the Rings

3 Jane Eyre

4 Harry Potter series

5 To Kill a Mockingbird

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights

8 Nineteen Eighty Four

9 His Dark Materials

10 Great Expectations

11 Little Women

12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles

13 Catch 22

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca

16 The Hobbit

17 Birdsong

18 Catcher in the Rye

19 The Time Traveller's Wife

20 Middlemarch

21 Gone With The Wind

22 The Great Gatsby

23 Bleak House

24 War and Peace

25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

26 Brideshead Revisited

27 Crime and Punishment

28 Grapes of Wrath

29 Alice in Wonderland

30 The Wind in the Willows

31 Anna Karenina

32 David Copperfield

33 Chronicles of Narnia

34 Emma

35 Persuasion

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

37 The Kite Runner

38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin

39 Memoirs of a Geisha

40 Winnie the Pooh

41 Animal Farm

42 The Da Vinci Code

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude

44 A Prayer for Owen Meany

45 The Woman in White

46 Anne of Green Gables

47 Far From The Madding Crowd

48 The Handmaid's Tale

49 Lord of the Flies

50 Atonement

51 Life of Pi

52 Dune

53 Cold Comfort Farm

54 Sense and Sensibility

55 A Suitable Boy

56 The Shadow of the Wind

57 A Tale Of Two Cities

58 Brave New World

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera

61 Of Mice and Men

62 Lolita

63 The Secret History

64 The Lovely Bones

65 Count of Monte Cristo

66 On The Road

67 Jude the Obscure

68 Bridget Jones's Diary

69 Midnight's Children

70 Moby Dick

71 Oliver Twist

72 Dracula

73 The Secret Garden

74 Notes From A Small Island

75 Ulysses

76 The Inferno

77 Swallows and Amazons

78 Germinal

79 Vanity Fair

80 Possession

81 A Christmas Carol

82 Cloud Atlas

83 The Color Purple

84 The Remains of the Day

85 Madame Bovary

86 A Fine Balance

87 Charlotte's Web

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

90 The Faraway Tree Collection

91 Heart of Darkness

92 The Little Prince

93 The Wasp Factory

94 Watership Down

95 A Confederacy of Dunces

96 A Town Like Alice

97 The Three Musketeers

98 Hamlet

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

100 Les Miserables

February Update in Pictures

2009-03-02T20:28:00.026-05:00

I know it's been over a month since we've updated our blog, but we've been super duper busy. We bought a house, moved in, bought a grill, played in the snow, and are still unpacking!! Here are just a few pictures from February to show you what we've been up to. Also, we bought some new furniture for our living room, but it doesn't arrive until mid-March. Once it gets here I'll be taking pictures of the inside of the house to post on the blog. It needs to get all setup before I post anything. Thanks for being patient, and I promise not to take this long between posts ever again.

Home Sweet Home!! The day we closed it was 23 degrees outside and snowing...thankfully the day we moved in it was almost 60 degrees outside!

Here is the living room, standing at the top of the stairs by the kitchen.

Here is the view of our kitchen standing in our living room. We painted the kitchen red, so it's not this same sagey green color anymore.

Checkin' out our NEW bedroom before we close on the house.

So many pieces!!

Lexie, keeping an eye on Kenny. Making sure he puts all the right pieces in the right spots.

YIPPEE!! Kenny's grill is done and we can enjoy some mmm,mmm good food!

Kenny, the GRILL MASTER!!! (insert evil laugh here)

Such a pretty monster!

Kenny and the monster enjoying the snow together. You see, if we took her off her leash she would run away...and go squirrel hunting.

ME! Making a snow angel...you ARE supposed to do this every time it snows more than 2 inches people.

Our new home, with several inches of snow on the ground.

Kenny shoveling our sidewalk and driveway. It snowed about 6 inches at our place on Monday!!

The monster playing in the snow on Monday with her winter coat and pawtectors on.

CrAzY jAnUaRy

2009-01-28T10:26:00.002-05:00

January was a crazy month for the Benavides family (Kenny, Lexie & I)! We BOUGHT A HOUSE, moved in, painted our kitchen and experienced our first snow here in DC! I'll upload some pictures soon of the new abode and of our expert painting job in our kitchen, but until then I'll just share with you what we've been doing since our last post.

We bought a town home out in the suburbs of DC in Virginia and moved in on the 23rd of this month. Our new place has all the bells and whistles a home should (carpet, tile, sinks, tubs, counters, appliances, walls, etc) and even a few bonuses. Now these bonuses are not REAL bonuses, just bonuses for us since we didn't have this in our apartment. We now have a garage to call our very own, a fenced in backyard, and a beautiful deck for Kenny to be the Grill Master that he was in college. Our new home is three stories tall and you enter on the ground floor into a entry way that leads either up stairs to the main living area or down a hallway into our office/game room/man cave that also has a sliding door out to the backyard and a half bathroom. Once up the stairs to the main level you have our living room with two french doors leading out to the deck, kitchen and another half bathroom and stairs leading up to the bedrooms. On the third floor at the top of the stairs is the master bedroom and bathroom, to the right is the laundry room, guest full bath, guest room and another bedroom. The master bedroom is on the back side of the house looking out onto the back yard and deck and the guest room and other room are on the front side of the house looking out onto the street. Our kitchen and half bathroom also look out onto the front of the house and street.

We got all moved in last Friday and now our place looks like a disaster zone. WALK THROUGH AT YOUR OWN RISK! We finished up with the painting of the kitchen on Saturday night, actually Kenny finished that up because I got a migraine and could not function. We are slowly getting things put away in our kitchen, but the rest of the house has really not been touched. Hopefully this weekend we can knock the rest of it out and finally get settled!

Yesterday, Tuesday, we were hit with a lovely snow storm that left 2-6 inches of snow on the ground. It was beautiful and reminded me of an Ansel Adams photograph with the beautiful white snow on the ground and the brown leafless trees covered in snow...so peaceful! Unfortunately, when we woke up this morning our cars were COVERED in about 2 inches of ice. Awesome. So we joined our neighbors in scraping off ice from the windows that did not want to budge and salting our driveway and sidewalk. We do not have a shovel to remove the snow from our driveway and sidewalk that our HOA requires us to do at least 24 hours after a snowfall, but maybe they will give us a break since we just moved in. Fingers crossed.

Other than that we are doing great and FULLY enjoying our new place and getting settled. Lexie is probably having the most fun though. She is running up and down both flights of stairs, slipping on the tile at the base of each set as much as she can. It's hilarious, I swear she has a smile on her face too!

It's great to finally join the rest of America and finally have a lifetime of debt...I mean become home owners. Now, yall just have to do your part......

COME VISIT!!!

Mantyhose...yep that's right, MANtyhose!!

2009-01-11T10:00:00.005-05:00

I'm not sure many people even know about Mantyhose, I just learned about them this week when I read an article about the on MSNBC. Honestly I can't believe any news agency is wasting time writing about mantyhose when they could be writing about the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, and a plethora of other news worthy stories, but whatever I'm not the editor in chief. So, here's what I learned about mantyhose the other day.

Men are wearing them for support, just like ladies
Many men were wearing their wife or girlfriends pantyhose
Construction workers have been wearing them while working outside for warmth
Apparently they are selling fairly well, which is VERY shocking!!

Here is a lovely picture for your viewing pleasure to see what Mantyhose actually are....I dare you to NOT laugh! If you'd like to read the article please just click on the word 'mantyhose' anywhere in this blog for the fascinating article.

MERRY CHRISTMAS YALL!

2008-12-27T21:13:00.025-05:00

I don't know about yall, but for us Christmas came WAY to fast for our liking. It seemed like only yesterday we were sitting down to Thanksgiving Dinner! Of course we were able to slow down this week and enjoy Christmas and the true meaning of Christmas. Here are a few pictures of us on Christmas Day opening presents and taking pictures in front of our tree.

WOOOHOOO! A Banana Republic gift card for clothes! :)

Ann Taylor Loft MONEY from Mom and Dad!! YIPPEE!!!!

A gift card to R.E.I. from my parents. That store for men is like Target is for women.

A pretty top from The Roberts Family...I already love it!

A meat thermometer...I melted the last one we had so I don't get to use this one.

Alaina got me the plaque I really really wanted...it says "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." - Joshua 24:15

Kenny with the Altis, I mean Atlas, he asked for this Christmas. :)

Pretty tops! Pretty tops! Thanks Alaina!!!

Lexie enjoying her Christmas present...a doggie treat. Seriously, she WENT TO TOWN on that treat!

Awww!

Lexie is DONE and ready for bed after a looooong day.

Mr. & Mrs. White

2008-12-27T20:38:00.027-05:00

December 21, 2008 marked the wedding of Jamie and Laura in Georgetown, SC. I had the wonderful pleasure of being in Laura's House Party for her wedding to the delightfully wonderful Jamie White. Here are just a few pictures from their BEAUTIFUL wedding last weekend!

Karen and Meghan, Jamie's precious sister that we all fell in love with and adopted.

The wedding rehearsal...don't you LOVE Laura's sexy hot red shoes?!

Jamie's cake at the Rehearsal Dinner. Apparently in the South the grooms cake is either not done at all, or done only at the rehearsal dinner.

Just about my most FAVORITE picture of the whole weekend!

Laura's lingerie...on the floor...where it belongs.

All the lovely ladies getting dolled up for the wedding. Make sure to notice Karen's "pose".

The future Mrs. Jamie White checkin' herself out in the mirror.

Singing the Aggie War Hymn, what wedding would be complete with out singing this?

MR. & MRS. WHITE!!!!

The Fourth Photo Challenge

2008-12-27T11:57:00.006-05:00

The 4th Photo Challenge:

1. Go to the place where you store all your pictures on your computer and open the 4th folder

2. Open the 4th picture

3. Post the picture and give an explanation

4. Tag 4 people

a) Barnett Family

b) Benavides Family

c) Hawkins Family

d) Boecking Family

This is a terrible photo of the Lee House at Arlington Cemetery. During the Civil War Robert E. Lee and his family lived here, until the war got a little too close. They left the home in the care of their slaves. The Union solders took control of the home and decided to bury their dead Union solders in the yard of Robert E. Lee, in order to prevent him from ever returning. This is how we now have Arlington National Cemetery.

Christmas Tree OH Christmas Tree

2008-12-18T07:01:00.031-05:00

Kenny and I went all out this year for Christmas...sorta. We went out to Middleberg, VA to cut down our own tree. We took Lexie with us because dogs were allowed and we thought she'd have fun being out in a huge field of trees in the mountains of VA. She had a great time once we got there and then once we left, but getting there was a little touch and go for a while (she gets car sick).

Me being silly in front of our tree before we chop it down.

Kenny cutting the tree!

Me attempting to cut down the tree.

Lexie in front of her tree. (no we did not buy her a tree)

Kenny putting the star on top of our FIRST Christmas tree together.

The same week we got our tree we went to see The Nutcracker at the Kennedy Center here in DC. IT WAS AMAZING!!!! We made the performance by the skin of our teeth, but we made it and enjoyed every moment. Here is the one picture from our evening.

Don't we look pretty? :)

The very next night we ventured out to hear "Joy of Christmas" at the National Cathedral. OH MY GOSH!!! It too was amazing!! The songs were beautiful, mostly traditional Christmas songs, and the cathedral was perfect. Here are some pictures Kenny and I took that day.

This is the FIRST thing you see when you come up the steps from the parking garage....breath taking.

The front of the cathedral is to the right of this shot, this is of the side.

A closer shot of the cathedral from the side.

The plaque below this piece reads "Ornamented First Century stone fragment from along the Appian Way (Queen of Roads) leading into Rome."

I am standing in the Northex, or Narthax, of the cathedral. From where I'm standing to the high alter the Washington Monument can lay on it's side and fit in that area. The high alter is the next picture.

The high alter is the white looking stone behind the wooden arches seen here in this picture.

The center circle of this rose window is where a six foot tall man can stand!!! Can you imagine how HUGE this window is?!

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T18:58:00.010-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year Kenny and I spent Thanksgiving together in Alexandria at our place. This was our first FULL year of living together without any deployments or military to get in the way. It has been an amazing year, we have both learned more about one another in this year than in the previous years of dating, being engaged, and our first year of marriage. One of the biggest things I am thankful for is that Kenny has been here for the entire year. One of the things Kenny is thankful for is not being in the military and having a good job.

There are numerous things that we are both thankful for but above all we are thankful for our faith in God, love from our families, and support from our friends. Without all of those neither of us would be who we are today or what we will be tomorrow. We love all our family members and our friends (family we get to pick).

Today started out nice and relaxing. I got up before Kenny and made him a pot of coffee and started in on cooking breakfast (chocolate chip pancakes). We had a nice relaxing breakfast watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was pretty cool to see a high school band from Austin, TX in the parade, they represented well.

After the parade it was time to get crack-a-lackin' on the cooking. Kenny was responsible for our turkey and he did a GREAT job tending to the bird. He concocted a brine and soaked the turkey in that overnight. Then he rinsed it off and seasoned the birdy and put her into the oven to bake. I was responsible for making the cornbread dressing (my Grandmother Diener's recipe from scratch), broccoli-rice-cheese casserole, gravy (Grandma Diener's recipe) and the cranberries. Everything came out marvelously, especially the turkey. Kenny also made nastified sweet potatoes (they really aren't nasty I just hate sweet potatoes so that's what I call them).

We had a fantastic meal and were both passed out within a few hours. Right now it's great to see our Dallas Cowboys beating up on the Seattle Seahawks. We just hope my Fightin' Texas Aggies will do the same to those dang t-sips down in Austin tonight.

Kenny's family was all in San Antonio (except his Uncle Victor, Aunt Melea, cousin Davin and Alisia and their kiddos Hudson and Naomi in Georgia) enjoying a nice Thanksgiving together. We hope they had as nice a Thanksgiving as we did and were able to enjoy great conversation and laughter with everyone.

My family was all together at my middle sister and brother-in-law's home in Argyle, TX. Rian was brave and decided to try frying their turkey this year. After speaking to everyone it appears that he and my Dad are working out a schedule for the turkey fryer and who gets to use it when for Christmas. I'm betting they don't have many leftovers of turkey this year since Rian did such an awesome job with the turkey. I'm just sorry Kenny and I weren't there to be the taste testers. Next time we are in town Rian will have to fry us a turkey.

Kenny and I would like to send out a very special THANK YOU to ALL our troops (Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force and all their reservists) currently deployed overseas. Without all of you, and your families, we would not be the great nation that we are now. Thank you for sacrificing everything for our country. You are all appreciated and prayed for every day. We love you!

We hope everyone had a GREAT Thanksgiving holiday and is getting rested for the awesomeness that is Black Friday shopping!! WOOOHOOO!

Kenny's 30th Birthday

2008-11-24T13:27:00.017-05:00

I was trying to delay my writing of this post in hopes that my husband would blog about his 30th birthday, but he's a little too busy right now so I'm blogging for him.

Friday, November 14th I took Kenny to Baltimore to eat dinner for his birthday at a restaurant called Tio Pepe's. Kenny's real birthday is November 22. I told Kenny we had to go that day because all the reservations for his actual birthday were already booked. So up to Baltimore we drove for a good Spanish dinner. We shared the Paella, which Kenny enjoyed much more than I did even though I was the one who wanted us to share that dish. Then as dinner was winding down I gave Kenny a birthday card and on the envelope of the card I had written 'I Lied'. Naturally Kenny was a little confused, but he continued on and opened the card. Inside he found 4 tickets to the Cowboys and Redskins game for that Sunday night. Kenny's face had the biggest smile and confused look I've ever seen on his face before...it was PERFECT! He asked me why there were 4 tickets, but I asked him to keep reading the card. I had written in the card that we had to come up to Baltimore to pick up 2 mystery guests at the airport at 11:45PM (not b/c there were no reservations on his birthday) and that he would have to wait until the guests arrived at the airport and find them himself because I was not going to tell him who the guests were.

So we drive around Baltimore a little, and then head over to the airport to pick up our mystery guests. When Kenny saw Neil and Melanie walking out of the terminal into the baggage claim area he had another huge smile on his face....it was PERFECT! We had never met Melanie, Neil's fiance, and were so glad to finally have the chance to meet her and get to hang out with them over the weekend. So we all pile into the car and head back home to Alexandria (1.5 hours). When we got home we chatted a little bit and then all went to bed exhausted.

Saturday morning we got up and headed out for some outdoor sightseeing, disregarding the continued warnings from the ABC weathermen about the impending rain. We were just outside Arlington Cemetery at the Marine Memorial (aka the Iwo Jima Memorial) and I had just snapped a great picture of Neil and Melaine when the heavens opened up and all the rain in there just poured out onto us. Thankfully we had 2 umbrellas and one rain coat between the 4 of us, but we were all soaked from the waist down because the rain was coming down horizontally. We then decided to walk over to the White House to see that and then get a late lunch. Well, some people were out there protesting something with "H8" on some signs. We were all wondering what House Bill 8 was and why these people were against it, and shouting something about marriage. After about 10 minutes of watching all the protesters march in front of the White House we finally realized what H8 meant and what all these people were protesting. They were protesting the anti-gay marriage ban and the H8 was short for hate. Anyways, it was a sight to see and we got a good laugh about House Bill 8. Later that day, after lunch we walked around and saw the backside of the White House and the Washington Monument.

This is the crazy man.

These are the gay people protesting the gay marriage ban. "Don't H8 our family"

Sunday came and we were all super excited about the game that night, but with the excitement came the frigid blast of winter. It was FREEZING that day. We all got bundled up and headed out to the Washington Mall to see the Lincoln Memorial and go watch the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington Cemetery. We had to walk across the bridge that takes us over the Potomac, and MAN was that wind strong and horribly cold. I think Neil and Melanie had a nice time seeing both those places, but it sure was tough hoofing it up the hills in Arlington Cemetery to make the Changing of the Guard (in 5 minutes that is normally a 15 minute hike). Neil and Kenny were fine but I was sucking air trying to keep up with those two guys and their long legs! :)

We headed back home and rested for a little bit before we changed into our Cowboys gear and headed out for the game. We arrived early, thankfully, and were able to enjoy the taunting of the tailgaters on our long walk into FedEx Field. Our seats were on the third deck, Cowboys side, 20 yard line and 10 rows up. We had a pretty awesome view of the field. It was bitterly cold and extremely windy, but we were all prepared for the weather and we even had a blanket to share. Clearly we were the good luck charm the Cowboys needed as they beat the horrible Redskins. Our seats were near a ton of other Cowboys fans and even a few Texas Tech Red Raiders! The game was awesome and we were all hoarse after yelling at the top of our lungs all game. After the game was over we took a while to get back to our car, partly because we were lost and partly because Melanie and I were tired and walking slow. Once we made it home we all crashed for 3 hours, yes just 3 hours, before we got up at 4AM to drive back up to Baltimore to get Neil and Melanie checked in for their flight back to Texas.

Kenny had the best time that weekend. He got to see his best friend who he's not seen in a really long time, meet his fiance (who's totally awesome by the way), and go to a Cowboys game. What a great way to celebrate your 30th birthday!

Veterans Day

2008-11-11T07:30:00.006-05:00

These are my four of my favorite veterans; my husband, my father, my uncle, and our good friend Brandon. All three of these men served our wonderful country while sacrificing time with their families and friends. Some of these men served, and are currently serving, overseas during a time of war. All of these men left loved ones behind for either a long time or a short time, to go out and defend our country. I believe it is because of these men, and countless other men and women just like them, that all Americans owe a never ending thank you. Without their sacrifice and continued commitment to serve America we would not be a free country. Also, a very big thank you to the families of those who serve in our nations armed forces. Without your support and love the troops would not be able to do what they do so well.

Kenny in DC by the Korean War Memorial. The wall says "Freedom is Not Fee"

My Uncle and my Father with their wonderful wives.

Brandon, serving in Iraq right now with the U.S. Marine Corps.

Thank you Kenny, John, Randy, Lisa (USAF), Lisa's husband Jon, Brandon, Pop's and all the other men and women who served in the past or are serving now.

Election Day

2008-11-09T07:19:00.002-05:00

Election Day was November 4, 2008. Kenny and I woke up at 5AM to go across the street and vote for who we wanted to become President of the United States of America. We got dressed and were standing in line by 5:45AM, thinking we would be some of the first people to vote. HA! We were about 150 - 200 people back from the door. We could not believe how many people were there already! So we stood in line outside the elementary school in the chilly weather that was threatening to rain but thankfully did not. Once 6AM rolled around they opened the school and let people start filing in to get inside. The first lady out, and I'm presuming the first person to vote at our voting location, said she got there to stand in line at 3:45AM!!!!! WHAT?! Seriously, that's a tad ridiculous if you ask me, but whatever blows your hair back. It was pretty awesome to see such a range of ages there. We saw people voting at young as 18 for the very first time and people so old they could not stand in line who probably voted Lincoln into office. :) It was pretty amazing. After standing there for what seemed like forever reading the cute art projects the school's students had posted on the walls outside their classrooms (one kid's favorite animal was a king cobra) we were finally at the front of the line. We went in to our polling booths and each voted. By the time we left the school it was 7:05AM, one hour and 20 minutes since we first got there.

Neither of us watched the news coverage that evening, I just wanted to wait until the next morning. I find that these news anchors don't have anything to report on so they are assuming things, usually things they want to happen. We woke up the next day to find out our new President would be Mr. Obama. The night before I said a prayer to ask God to put into office who he wanted to be there and for that person to be a Godly man who seeks counsel from other Godly men. We will both support our new President and pray for him and the other leaders daily, and we hope you will do the same. God is ultimately the one in control and we need to trust Him.

Happy Halloween!!

2008-10-31T16:10:00.009-04:00

Happy Halloween! Here are a few pictures of our little pumpkin. I love the faces she is making in all the pictures, especially one where she looks mad at me...hehe! She's such a cutie.

Showing off the backside of her costume. Lexie is a pumpkin for Halloween because she's our little pumpkin.

Lexie is mad at us in this picture....she's probably wondering why she's all dressed up in this silly outfit.

Her face in this picture is just hilarious!

She poses so well!

"OK I'm done now, can I please take this thing OFF?!"

Home - October 2008

2008-10-25T13:24:00.019-04:00

On our trip home we had several bar-b-que's, ate way to much food, drank some great margarita's, ate amazing Mexican food, and spent some wonderful quality time with our families. Here are a few pictures of our visit home in date order. I have to get pictures of our time with Kenny's family from our parents because we used their cameras then.

Playing the piano at the Beans' house from left to right are Bryce (4), Austin (23 mo.), Skylar (3) and Hunter (6).

A family photo with all the family members. Sitting on laps you have from left to right Austin, Bryce, Hunter and Skylar. Sitting from left to right are Nancy, John, Sheila and Randy. Standing from left to right are Erin, Kenny, Heather, Rian, Alaina, Beth, Sam, Stephanie and Cathy.

ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY!!

Here is the first family photo. Such a beautiful family!!

Here are the adorable cousins. They all played so well together and had such a good time running around the house and being silly.

Sheila and Nancy being goofy. They are doing a modeling pose....pretty good, huh?

Randy, Sheila (John's sister), Nancy and John. I love these people.

Josh (Kenny's cousin), his wife Roxie and the new baby who is only 3 months old. It was really great to see so many people from Kenny's family and my family together at a bar-b-que at his parents home.

Alma, Steve (Kenny's buddy from high school) and their daughter. Kenny has not seen Steve since college and it was really nice to meet him and his family.

Aggie vs. Tech Football Game

2008-10-25T13:07:00.013-04:00

Here are some pictures from the Aggie/Tech football game on October 18th that Alaina, Heather, Rian, Kenny and I went to. We all had a good time hanging out together and cheering on our teams. Tech won the game, but A&M was winning going into halftime. :)

All 5 of us after the game.

A new tradition for us. Which ever team wins everyone has to do that teams hand sign. Aren't we (the Aggies) enthusiastic?

Immediately after the game, and yes we are still happily married.

Kick Off! Texas A&M received and scored on the opening drive.

Both teams running onto the field before the game.

Us before the game started.

Welcome to Aggieland!!

Former President Bush!!! He was there for the game and Alaina, Heather and I could almost touch him he was so close to us. :)

Going Home

2008-10-16T16:43:00.002-04:00

We are off to Texas tonight!!! We will be in San Antonio the whole weekend and drive to College Station to see the Texas A&M and Texas Tech football game with Alaina, Heather, Rian and us! It should be a fun time for everyone and we can't wait to see all our family!!!

We will be sure to post new pictures upon our return....

Update

2008-10-04T07:29:00.002-04:00

My apologies for the delay in updating our blog, it has been an interesting and very busy month here. So, enough with the small talk I'll get on with the update.

Since I returned from Orlando life here has not slowed down one iota. Kenny, Alaina, Heather, Rian and I are ALL going to the Texas A&M vs. Texas Tech football game in College Station on October 18th!!!!! So, Kenny and I are flying into San Antonio on Thursday night and will be staying with his parents and my family during the weekend, and then flying back up here on Monday afternoon. We are both thrilled to be coming back to Texas, and for our schools football game! It should be fun for everyone. :-)

At work I've been in a "holding pattern" if you will, lately. The project I was working on has been put on hold and because of that I've been looking for work/projects to help on. Well they got my number and had me help on a proposal. Starting last Monday, September September 22nd until Thursday, October 2 I have been working from 7AM until 10PM every night. I even worked on Saturday for a few hours. Needless to say I've been completely exhausted every night that all I do when I get home is put my bags down, change clothes and go to bed. They have been feeding us dinner ever night, which was awesome. So I've been eating from Maggianio's, P.F. Changs, Cheesecake Factory, etc. all week....and subsequently gained some weight too. yippee. Thankfully my long days are over, the proposal has been submitted and we are just waiting to hear back. I have been tasked for a new project, but don't know a start date yet.

A few weeks ago Kenny went to hear Charlie Wilson, the man that the movie Charlie Wilson's War was made about, speak. Kenny said that the first thing Mr. Wilson said to the crowd was that he was guilty of everything that was portrayed in the movie. :-) Mr. Wilson is now 75 years old and seems to be paying for his life of partying and drinking, but still a funny and lively man. Kenny enjoyed the town hall and thinks that living up here is allowing us some pretty awesome opportunities that we might not have if we were living anywhere else. I would agree.

Also, one of my college girlfriends just got engaged a few weeks ago!! Della and Dave are going to be getting hitched next July in College Station. I'm so excited for both of you, have fun planning the wedding and the parties that go along.

Florida

2008-09-17T17:34:00.002-04:00

As part of my continuing training at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC as we call it) I was flown to Orlando, FL for a week of training. The week long event was called AU and all advisory associates and senior associates from across the nation were there, if client responsibilities allowed. I spent the week at the Marriott/Ritz Carlton compound (it was HUGE) in classes learning about various topics related to my career at PwC. Each day started at 7AM with breakfast, 8AM the first session began, we broke at Noon thirty for lunch and also ended the first session. Session two began promptly as lunch ended at around 1:30PM or so and ended at 6:30PM when dinner started. After dinner ever night we had a networking event that lasted until around 11PM. After that you were free to do as you please, go sleep, go to a bar, stay at the hotel bar and order $17 martini's, whatever your heart desired. Once you woke up the next day it all started over again. On one night, instead of the networking event they had karaoke and various games set up all over the dining area. They had air hockey, foosball, ping-pong, pool, Nintendo Wii's, and a bunch of other games you could play. The first dozen brave souls that got up to sing were HORRIBLE!! Most of them were really trying to sing well, but ended up sounding more like William Hung (of American Idol what not to sound like fame). Of course as the night continued and more people had more alcohol the stage really got crazy. It all ended with a man singing on stage with a huge gaggle of girls screaming as if he were Elvis or the Beatles. It was hilarious. The following night PwC had rented Universal Studios out for the entire group for 3 hours. We had dinner there and then were free to see the many shows they offered. I was beyond tired at this point so I ate dinner, saw the Twister show and the Shrek show and went back to my hotel room...at 10PM which was early for me that week. I got the best nights sleep that night, it was awesome. Friday I flew home and Kenny and I went to dinner and then as soon as we got home I went to bed. I think it was 9PM.

This past weekend was great, very relaxing with a lot of football watching. I was glad to see the Cowboy's pull out a win on Monday Night Football against the Philly Eagles, even though the parts I saw we were killing ourselves. This could be the year, but you never know!! HOW 'BOUT THEM COWBOYS?!

Happy Labor Day

2008-09-01T12:49:00.004-04:00

In honor of all the hard working Americans Kenny and I did absolutely nothing this entire weekend. We stayed inside most of the weekend and watched football, Nascar, and movies. The movies we watched were Definitely, Maybe and Untraceable. Definitely, Maybe was really good and a total chick flick, however some guys do like the movie too. Untraceable on the other hand is the exact opposite. It is good, but very demented and sick, so don't watch it unless you have a tough stomach and don't mind watching people get murdered.

As many of you probably know my team, Texas A&M, lost its season opener, so I was pretty sad about that. I do know it is a rebuilding season for our guys and am not expecting greatness this season, however more wins than losses would be nice.

Kenny's team, Texas Tech, won its season opener, but played terrible (this is what Kenny said and not me). They won, and that's good, but they should be playing much better than they did.

This morning Kenny and I took Lexie, our pooch, out to the dog park for some fun. I think we were there for about an hour and the first 30 minutes or so all she did was wander around smelling EVERYTHING. She had no interest in playing with the other dogs or the toys we took out there, she just wanted to smell. Then she got into the spirit and started playing with this super cute 6 month old lab named Jake. They chased each other all around the park and even wore each other out. We think she had a really good time being off her leash and free to run like the wind.

We hope all of you had a great weekend and were able to enjoy the extra day off of work!

6 Things You May Not Know About Me

2008-08-27T10:59:00.002-04:00

I have been tagged by my friend Allison and I'm supposed to tell you six random things about me. Here are the rules: Link to the person who tagged you, mention the rules, tell six quirky, yet boringly unspectacular things about yourself, tag six other bloggers by linking to them, and then go to each person's blog and leave a comment letting them know they've been tagged.

1. Kenny and I both have O+ blood type, wonder what blood type our future young'uns will have.

2. I peed my pants in pre-school in the winter and the only change of clothes my mom gave the teacher was a pair of shorts, so I had to play outside in the winter in shorts. Thankfully it was in Texas and not very cold.

3. I shaved my legs in 6th grade dry with my sisters razor that I was NOT allowed to use (without water, soap, or shaving cream) and thought I was going to die from the itchyness/pain in my legs.

4. I don't "get" many jokes, but I pretend to "get" them so people don't think I'm an idiot. I'm probably not alone in this, but at least I'm willing to admit the truth!!

5. I want a weenie dog for the single reason that I want a small doggie that can sit in my lap and keep me warm. hehe!

6. My sisters had to bribe me to bathe in elementary school after I broke my arm and it was in a cast. They would play with my hair, put makeup on me, anything really to get me to bathe. hahaha, I'm so gross.

The peeps I've tagged are: Allison McClendon, Davin and Alisia Benavides, Crystal and Brandon Barnett, Jessica and Brandon Hawkins, and Clay and Kimberly Lee.

Visitors

2008-08-27T10:06:00.022-04:00

Kenny's Mom and Dad came in town for a visit August 16 - 21. We all had a really fantastic time together and enjoyed seeing all the sights here in DC and the surrounding area. Mark and Jackie were so excited to see where we are living and explore our Nation's Capital for the few days they were here and we were happy to show them around. Here are some pictures of the days they were in town and some of the sights we saw.

Here are Mark and Jackie at Reagan National Airport.

Mark and Jackie with George and Martha Washington and the 2 grandchildren they raised as their own.

The front of Mount Vernon, George and Martha Washington's home in Alexandria, VA.

John F. Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy Onasis and two children's graves in Arlington National Cemetery.

Changing of the Guard at The Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.

Kenny's parents at the Marine's Memorial.

Kenny's parents in front of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Charlottesville.

Kenny and I on the backside of Monticello, also the most photographed side of the home.

A pretty butterfly I tried to photograph with my new camera in flight. The little bugger is so quick and it's hard to see where he's going when I'm zoomed in so close, this is the best shot.

Jefferson's grave in the family cemetery on his land.

My most favorite picture out of all the ones I took.

Mark, Kenny and Jackie reading the Emancipation Proclamation at the Lincoln Memorial.

Mark and Jackie at the base of the Lincoln Memorial with the Reflecting Pool, World War II Memorial, Washington Monument and Capital Building all in the background.

At the WWII Memorial...no explanation needed. :)

The Washington Monument shining in the sun and beautiful blue sky.

Thomas Jefferson at the Jefferson Memorial.

A secret service agent keeping guard atop the White House.

The White House, with the secret service agent on top of the roof.

Mark and Jackie in front of the Capital building.

This man was VERY interesting. He was at the Korean War Memorial just taking it all in by himself. Then, he started talking to people about the symbolism of the memorial. Turns out he is a veteran of the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Also at the Korean War Memorial was a WWII veteran being pushed around in a wheelchair by his son. I thanked both the veterans them for their service and sacrifice to our country and they both said your welcome, very humbly.

Oh What a Day

2008-08-04T19:12:00.002-04:00

Saturday, August 2 turned out to be a rather exciting day for us. We started the day using our new deodorants we bought at Whole Foods. I am using a crystal as my deodorant and Kenny is using Burt's Bees for his deodorant. Clearly they work well as we both smell fresh and rosy after a long day and a spin at the gym.

(I've tried to get the funny pictures we took on here, but since I don't really know how to use our new computer you are going to have to wait a few days for the pictures, sorry!)

I started a whole body cleanse on Saturday. I do not eat any food, I just drink 6-12 glasses of 10oz of water with 2 Tbsp. of fresh squeezed lemon juice, 2 Tbsp. Grade B Maple Syrup, and a dash of Cayenne Pepper. Don't knock it until you try it!! Earlier that day we cleaned house, I got my hair cut and then we headed out to go shopping and grab a bite to eat for Kenny. After Kenny ate a delicious smelling meal in front of me we headed out to check out a store called Filene's Basement (it's popular in NYC, Chicago, DC that has designer clothes on super sale).

On our way to Filene's we saw gas on sale for $3.98 a gallon, and couldn't pass that up. We pulled into the gas station and waited in line for a pump to open up. While waiting Kenny saw a man filling up his Lincoln SUV. First off the man pulled into the wrong pump as his tank was on the other side of the car than the pump was located. So being a genius, clearly, the man pulled the hose across his car and wedged the pump into his tank and began filling it up. He then wandered around his car to watch the TV at the pump when Kenny pointed out his tank was OVERFLOWING with gas. I rolled the window down and yelled to him, across the station, that his tank was overflowing. I had to holler at him at least 4 or 5 times before he even turned around to see what was going on. Once he noticed it was him I was yelling at he looked at his car and saw all the gas running over. He then jumped and ran over to stop the pump, finally. I guess since he wedged the pump into his tank the automatic shutoff lever was wedged and unable to function. By the time the guy got the gas to stop flowing I think he spilled at least 3 gallons. At that point our pump opened up and we decided to risk that the genius man's car might blow up and go ahead and get gas. As Kenny is getting out of the car he tells me to unbuckle my seat belt and get ready to jump out of the car and run to the left if his car catches fire or explodes. Thankfully nothing happened, and the man left without causing more of a problem. However, while Kenny was pumping our car full of gas a random storm blew in from nowhere. It was a pretty intense storm with the wind blowing leaves and twigs everywhere, hail falling from the sky and black clouds rolling in. I turned around to check on Kenny and at that exact moment a bolt of lightening struck the ground VERY close to us and I saw Kenny jump up. It scared us both half to death and Kenny said the hair on the back of his neck was standing up, a sign that the lightening bolt was nearby. We finished up and drove off, laughing and shocked about all that transpired at the gas station. Who would have thought that a gas station would have been so exciting!

After that we decided to head home and skip going to Filene's. We wanted to relax a little bit and set up the NEW COMPUTER we had to buy. My computer, the one we have been using, pooped out and died on Saturday morning. We weren't able to turn it on or boot it up, at all. So we bought an iMac and Kenny thus far has spent every moment we are at home playing around of the computer.

Later that night we went to see Dark Knight at the movie theatre just down the road from our place, in Old Town Alexandria. My company gave me a $20 gift card to the theater chain because we had a company-wide meeting at the one by my office. We had to hold it there to fit the 600+ people that attended. Anyways, we went there and found some good seats and settled in for a great movie. Unfortunately, some thugs in the back row had another idea. All of a sudden about 6 guys started yelling and throwing punches at one guy. Apparently they were fighting over seats. The cops came in and arrested the one guy, and threw out the other guys. After all that excitement and about 5 minutes of chaos, we were able to settle in and watch the movie. If you've not see Dark Knight you need to go, it's excellent!! A warning, it is a little morbid and very dark (hence the title), so just go prepared, but go see it because it's excellent.

That was our ONE DAY this weekend, hard to imagine it was just one day since so many exciting things happened, but it was all on Saturday.

Annapolis, Maryland

2008-07-28T20:44:00.009-04:00

Saturday, July 19 Kenny and I headed out for a day in Annapolis, Maryland. We toured the Naval Academy and wandered around the historic downtown area. Here are some pictures we took at the Naval Academy and around town with descriptions beneath each picture, we hope you enjoy!!

The courtyard is where the plebes arrive for formation at noon every day, and the building here is an academic building.

This is taken standing in the entry way to the building in the picture above. The room at the top of the stairs is a memorial to all the fallen Naval Academy graduates who have died or are missing in action.

This monument is covered in 300 pounds of lard each year and the tradition is that the first plebe (freshman) to hang his hat on the apex is to be the first Admiral from his class.

This is the coffin of John Paul Jones, he is the first naval captain in U.S. history. He died in France after defending them and they loved him so much he was buried in a coffin lined with lead and hay and then filled with bourbon. His grave was lost for more than a century until the U.S. gained permission to look for it, and when they found it and opened the coffin they found his body had not decomposed but only turned black. They shipped him back here to the U.S. and this is his final resting place. He never officially joined the U.S. Navy, but he was by far the best captain of his time.

A view of the state capital from a side street lined with American flags. Harrison Ford drove down this street while filming Patriot Games.

This is the state capital of Maryland, located in Annapolis. Unfortunately the building is under renovation and we could not go inside. But it sure does look pretty from here!

This is my favorite picture from the day of flowers in the yard of a beautiful home across the street from the capital.

Uncle Michael and the New Car

2008-07-28T20:25:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago Kenny's Uncle Michael came to DC for school. He is working on his Ph.D. from Mary Hardin Baylor and they had a trip up here to visit some educational facilities. While Uncle Michael was in town he stopped by for dinner and a visit one Saturday. Kenny picked him up from George Washington's home, Mount Vernon, Saturday afternoon. They walked around Old Town Alexandria and had some really good conversations and bonding. Later that day the two of them came home, I was working and unable to go out and play, and we had a really nice dinner. Kenny fixed fish tacos and his Nanny's Mexican rice, and I made the guacamole. The evening was wonderful and full of great conversations. It was so great to get to know another member of Kenny's family a little better, and show some of our life together out here too. Here's a picture of Kenny and Uncle Michael in our living room, looking snazzy in matching shirts.

Also, we bought a new car!! Kenny now has a black 2008 Honda Accord, and LOVES it! We knew we needed to get a new vehicle because his Explorer turned out to be a rotten egg, but we weren't sure what kind of car to get. One thing was certain, we would be getting a car and not an SUV or truck since gas is so expensive now. Kenny had his mind set on either a Nissan Maxima or Acura TSX. I suggested we test drive the top 2 competitors (Accord and Camry) just to make sure. So we headed out to the Honda dealer and test drove the Accord. We both fell in love with the car, how it handled, the ride, the interior, and best of all the price. We left there and went to the Toyota dealer to drive the Camry. I liked the Camry better because the ride is much more smooth and luxury car like than the Accord, but Kenny had a really bad blind spot with the rear view mirror. So, we then went to Nissan but left right away because the salesman was HORRIBLE. He treated me like a second class citizen and told Kenny he was an idiot for buying a Ford. Not a great way to build rapport with potential clients if you ask me. We decided to sleep on it and not make a decision until the next day about which car to buy. Sunday rolled around and we were up early getting ready to go to Honda and buy the Accord we drove the day before. Thankfully they still had the car and Kenny got everything he asked for in the car. He loves the new Accord, and rightfully so as it was named the best family car for 2008. Below is a picture of the proud owner with his new car!

Stop and Smell the Roses

2008-07-12T10:34:00.005-04:00

These last few weeks have been amazing! I've been able to reconnect with friends I've lost touch with over the years and catch up with what has gone on in their life.

First I talked with Megan Sawyer and found out she is ENGAGED and getting married to her boyfriend Todd Noggle next summer. I'm so thrilled for Megan and Todd and cannot wait for their wedding in MeXiCo. Next I talked with Lindsay Long (formerly McEvoy) and we updated each other with the happenings in our lives with our husbands, her husband Corey is a Physical Therapist. Lindsay told me that a friend of ours from high school had recently contacted her and I asked for her email address so I too could get back in touch with her, so I did. Susie Vest (formerly Kennedy) is now MARRIED to Alex. Susie and Alex were married in MeXiCo on St. Patrick's Day and she said it was wonderful and is loving married life. Then I spoke with Allison McClendon and we were able to catch up after a few months of busy life for both of us. She and her boyfriend Bill Kelly are doing great, aside from their A/C breaking and needing to be replaced...in the middle of the lovely Texas summer. Finally I got a phone call from Laura Morgan who told me she is ENGAGED too! Laura and her finance Jamie White are to be married in late December in South Carolina and I can't wait to see her tie the knot!

So many wonderful things have filled my life these last few months that it is hard to not be happy all the time. I'm very thankful for being blessed with the chance to reconnect with some dear friends that I have wondered about for several months and even years. My challenge to all of you is to reach out and touch someone....no I'm only kidding. Seriously though I do challenge all of you to contact someone you've lost touch with over the months or years. It's a wonderful feeling to talk to a friend or relative that you haven't spoken to in a while, almost like your heart is overflowing with joy.

On a different note I am asking you to please begin an eight month long prayer for my dear friends Brandon, Crystal and their baby Austin Barnett. Brandon is in the Marines and heading over to Iraq in the next few days for 8 months. They moved Crystal and Austin back home to Arlington from San Diego while Brandon is deployed to be closer to both their families. Please pray for Brandon's safety and spirit, Crystal's spirit and emotions as she cares for their baby and misses her husband, and finally for Austin as he continues to grow and change.

New Job

2008-06-25T14:24:00.002-04:00

As most of you know I started working as a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers on Monday, June 16th. I'm thrilled to be working for such a prestigious firm and am looking forward to growing with them over the years.

Monday the 16th was my first day of orientation week, and I met my 10 other newbies from the McLean, VA office that day too. We settled in for a long day of training and getting our laptops and learning as much as we could in 8 hours. The following day, Tuesday, we all flew to Chicago for days 2 and 3 of training with everyone else across the country that started at PwC around the same time I did. Those two days were a lot of fun getting to meet other PwC employees from across the nation and even across the globe. I met several people working on "exchange" in the USA from Norway, China, India, Ireland, etc. On Tuesday afternoon we broke out into teams to build bicycles for a group project. The exercise was to symbolize how it would be working on a team on projects for PwC's clients. All in all the exercise was pretty cool and we were able to assemble 31 bikes for the Chicago Boys and Girls Club. The thing I loved most about this was that on our second day of work we were already being encouraged to volunteer and give back to the community, pretty cool huh? Wednesday was the meat of the two days going over IT, benefits, and all that other newbie stuff. Thursday and Friday I was back here in the McLean, VA office (my home office) with two days to get training done and other administrative stuff. This past Monday, June 23rd, I went to my client site and met the rest of the team there and started working on a project.

I'll keep you updated on how things are going for me at work, but I really wanted to thank those of you who prayed for me to find a job. The Lord answered those prayers far beyond what I was imagining, and I'm just so thankful for all the prayers from all of you.

Hey Big Spender

2008-06-12T19:57:00.006-04:00

So here I am after a LOOOOOONG day of shopping for work clothes for me. I look terrible, I know, but it was totally worth the blood, sweat and tears. I made it home with two pairs of shoes, two and a half suits to make my total now four suits, one pair of slacks and six tops. I think I did pretty good considering I don't really have many "professional" clothes, of course now I can't say that can I?

The next few shots are of our little monster sleeping on the guest bed, sorry it's a little blurry, and no we did not position her that way she just likes a good fluffy pillow to rest her pretty little head on every now and again. Then you will see Lexie hiding under the bed because she doesn't want to get in her cage so we can go shopping. We thought these were funny and wanted to share with yall.

Also, Kenny's best friend Neil just got engaged this past weekend and we wanted to say a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Neil and Melanie!!!

So Many Changes

2008-06-03T18:38:00.018-04:00

It's been a while since we updated our blog, sorry to all you faithful readers for the delay. As you read on you will see what we have been up to lately.

Happy Birthday to Erin!! May 13th was my birthday and I had a wonderful birthday month, yes month. Kenny fixed me a very nice dinner, and I have some pictures here of the gifts I got from my family. Alaina and my parents sent me gift cards to Ann Taylor Loft, and I used those to buy these white pants and light blue top and navy blue halter dress. I LOVE all three of these and can't wait to wear the dress soon. Heather and her family sent me some beautiful necklaces, three to be exact. I've already worn some of them when my parents were here to visit over Memorial Day weekend.

Thank you everyone for my gifts!

White pants and light blue top I bought with my birthday money.

Pretty navy blue halter dress with shells that I bought with my birthday money.

Beautiful necklaces that the Roberts Family gave me for my birthday.

My parents flew up to visit Kenny and I for Memorial Day weekend, they were here from Saturday morning until Tuesday night. The stay was far too short, but entirely wonderful. We were able to experience all the amazing things that DC does best, celebrate our nations history. Everywhere we went were emotional visits, from the Washington Mall to Arlington Cemetery to the Capital Building. All the sites we visited were breath-taking, especially when President Bush and Mrs. Bush drove past us to enter Arlington Cemetery for the wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns. (That was my most memorable moment of the weekend) Below are some pictures of their visit, I hope you enjoy them!

Mom and Dad at Regan National Airport seeing Kenny and I for the first time since Christmas.

Some ladies dressed up in historic costumes in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

President & Mrs. Bush's motorcade. They are in the front car with President Bush on the passenger's side in the back and Mrs. Bush on the driver's side in the back.

This is President Bush's car, he's in there, I promise. We made eye contact. He waved. AND smiled. All to me.

Such an emotional picture, I don't know if you can tell but in the hills in the background are more headstones. They go on and on and on. What an amazing sacrifice these men, women, and their families made for our country. If you've not been to Arlington Cemetery you need to go at some point in your life.

Mom, Dad and I on the shuttle underneath the Capital building that transfers congressmen, senators, lobbyists, etc. to and from the Capital and their respective offices.

Mom & Dad in front of the White House.

The following weekend after Memorial Day my dear friend Kim who I worked with at UNC stayed with us. We had so much fun hanging out and running around town together. We went into the National Archives and saw the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Talk about surreal. It was so great to see Kim and catch up on all her adventures during the month of May. She traveled to Europe (Germany and Hungary), went to a conference in DC and came to visit us. Here's a picture of us in the rotunda where the above mentioned documents are permanently on display.

It was dark and you aren't allowed to use a flash inside there. The document directly to the left of Kim is the Constitution, pretty cool huh?!

Since Mom and Dad left some new things have occurred in the Benavides household. I GOT A JOB!! I will be working for PricewaterhouseCoopers in McLean, VA and my first day at work is June 16th. I'm very excited to be joining such an amazing corporation, or firm as they call it, and look forward to growing there. Thank you to everyone that prayed for me to find a career. Clearly God had this in mind and I just needed to be patient and wait for his perfect timing. I'll tell yall more about my new career after my first week, I'll have a week of orientation and during that week I'll be sent to either Chicago or Atlanta. Personally I'm hoping for Chicago since I've never been there, but Atlanta would be nice because I could possibly see some of Kenny's family that lives there.

Exciting Weekend

2008-04-27T15:24:00.005-04:00

This weekend began rather slowly, but has ended on a fantastic high note. Friday night Kenny and I played the best selling board game in the WORLD, Monopoly, and fortunately one of us won. We had a nice dinner and then sat down for a friendly game of Monopoly and basketball on the TV. The Mav's won, WOOOHOOO, and then the Spurs won later, so Friday was a good night at the Benavides home. Right now the Monopoly contest score is Erin 1 - Kenny 0. GO ERIN!!

Saturday was rather uneventful, we got up ate some breakfast at Eggspectation and ran a few errands. Then we made sure we were home for the NFL Draft and watched some of that, happy to see Martellus Bennett get picked up by America's Team. A little later on I received a phone call from Crystal's mom to tell us that she had Austin!! Here's the DL as posted on the Barnett Family Blog: "Austin Wilson Barnett decided to enter the world on 7:04 AM today (Saturday, 26 April 2008). He weighed in at 8 lbs 15 oz and measured 21.5 inches long." We are SO happy for Crystal and Brandon and know that they are beyond thrilled to have Austin in the world now. God is Great!!

Sunday then began at 5:22AM with Kenny's alarm sounding a 1920's car horn noise. We got up and dressed and headed out for the 24th Annual George Washington Parkway 5K. Kenny participated in the run while Lexie and I explored the waterfront park initially designed by our first President himself Mr. George Washington. I'm so proud of my husband who finished the race in the first quarter of runners!! We saw some pretty interesting folks out for the run. Someone was dressed as a banana, I saw a pregnant woman running in the race (thought that was discouraged but I guess I'm wrong) and a few middle and high school kids. Kenny did an awesome job and I couldn't be more proud of him!! What a great thing to have accomplished and be proud of yourself. Maybe next year I'll join him, who knows.

That was our weekend, such a wonderful weekend with me winning Monopoly, Crystal & Brandon welcoming Austin, and Kenny running in a 5K.

God is so good!

Happy 2nd Wedding Anniversary!!

2008-04-10T10:03:00.005-04:00

Tuesday, April 8th was our second wedding anniversary! It's hard to believe that we have been married two years already, especially since we've only been together in the same home for eleven of the twenty-four months. During the two years Kenny and I have faced some non-traditional challenges unique to military families. We rejoice in those challenges because we know that the Lord put them in our marriage early on to teach us that with our eyes on Him we can overcome anything. Because of these challenges we would both be hard pressed to find any example of something that we would not be able to overcome as a couple. We also know that we are early on in our marriage and life will throw us some curve balls every now and then. But with our foundation in the Lord, and the unique challenges He's given us already, we can make it through anything that comes our way.

In honor of our anniversary we would like to thank our families and friends for continuous support, encouragement, love and guidance. Without them it would have been far more difficult to make it through the moments Kenny and I were apart from one another and from our families. We love each and every one of you dearly and are excited to see what the Lord has in store for all of us in the coming years.

OK, enough with the mushy stuff, I'll share with you what we did for our anniversary. Kenny made us dinner, and it was delicious! I know I nabbed me a good one because he knows his way around a kitchen and grill. Kenny made gourmet fish tacos with Talipia, his Nanny's famous Mexican rice, and I made some guacamole. We washed it all down with a bottle of white wine we bought on our trip to the Biltmore Estate in August of 2006. For dessert, which we ate the following day because we were both stuffed to the gills (haha) Kenny had Carrot Cake and I had Strawberry Shortcake.

During dinner we played a question game, I got the idea from the TV show Here Come the Newlyweds and from when we first started dating. I'd ask a question that we both needed to answer and then Kenny would do the same thing and it continued on from there. One of my questions was "If we are able to go on a vacation this summer what would you want to do?" Our answers couldn't have been more opposite!! Kenny wants to explore some Civil War battlefields, appropriate since we are in the part of the country that most of those battles took place. Where as I would like to go and sit on a beach under an umbrella and just relax with no plans. I'm not sure how we could combine the two, but we might just try sometime. One of Kenny's questions was "What would your ideal house lot size be?" I said one acre, and Kenny said no more than 3/4 an acre. The evening went on from there and we had a really good time asking each other some questions and hearing our answers and how different/similar they were.

We had a wonderful evening and are excited to see what else comes our way in the future....hopefully a job for me sooner rather than later is in the cards.

Kenny's Treats

2008-04-04T09:16:00.006-04:00

So last night my darling husband decided to put to good use the left over white chocolate I had from Easter and dip some strawberries in the melted goodness. Here are a few pictures of the delicious treats and my camera shy husband. I must tell you that the strawberries were divine and will all be gone before he gets home from work today.

Flooding the kitchen

2008-03-30T16:07:00.004-04:00

Life around here is typically rather uneventful, at least lately it has been. So, on Saturday night after Kenny made us dinner I began to fill the sink with dirty pots and pans to wash. I turned on the water after I added soap, and went into the guest room for a second to grab something. I was watching "Catch Me if You Can" on TV in there while Kenny had control over the living room TV watching the Carolina basketball game. Apparently I got distracted with the movie because the next thing I heard was Kenny yelling "ERIN!!" I knew something was wrong by the tone in his voice, so I came running into the living room to find water pouring over the top of the counter onto the carpet and out of the sink onto the fake wood floors in the kitchen!

I probably left the sink running for 5 or 10 minutes, and thankfully Kenny was in the living room and able to turn off the water and get to it quickly. Kenny quickly cleared off the counter and dried off the things that got wet, while soaking up the water in the carpet with a bathroom towel. I worked in the kitchen wiping off the counters with paper towels and emptying out the cabinet under the sink. The few cardboard boxes under the sink (trash bags, SOS pads, etc.) were damaged but the items inside were still good. Other than that nothing else was damaged, and we were able to get everything dried off and put back in order before bed.

All in all Saturday was a low key day capped off with some water works at the end. We laughed about it later on, but I know we both learned a lesson. Never plug up the sink and then walk away.

Thankfully this was not our home after the sink incident, that would have been very bad!!

Easter Weekend

2008-03-26T11:01:00.013-04:00

The Easter weekend of 2008 was a great weekend! When Kenny came home from work on Friday I surprised him with tickets to the 2008 NCAA Tournament here in DC. Take a look at his face, I'd say he was a little surprised wouldn't you?

So we got up early on Saturday morning and ate breakfast, got dressed, and headed out to China Town where the Verizon Center is located. Here's a picture of a gate we stumbled upon as soon as we left the metro stop. It's pretty cool, not something you see everyday...unless you live down there of course.

We were trying to figure out which direction we needed to go to pick up the tickets. We ended up walking past this gate four times, hence the distressed look on my hubby's face.

So when we finally made it to get the tickets and into the Verizon Center we did what everyone does when at an event such as this, had some strangers take our picture so we could remember this day for all eternity of course. Here is the best of the three pictures we took.

This is about 20 minutes before the Duke/West Virginia game. I thought there would be a ton of Duke fans here since Duke is traditionally a powerhouse when it comes to basketball and the NCAA tournament, but let me tell you I couldn't have been further from the truth. I'd say the Duke fans were out numbered 4 to 1 by the WVU faithful. According to Mr. Benavides WVU fans are very well traveled (meaning they follow their team all across the country in large numbers).

We had such a great time, I cheered out loud much more than my hubby did, but I think he was screaming his head off inside to himself. We were surrounded by WVU fans and they are just a little crazy, so you don't want to tick them off or you could be in trouble. The second game of the day was Xavier/Purdue. In my opinion this game was much better, the game was very close the entire time and you didn't really know what team was going to win. Eventually Xavier won and will play WVU in the Sweet 16 later this week. I was able to take pretty good pictures of each games tip off, I think the Xavier/Purdue one is better, you decide.

The picture on the left is the Duke/WVU tip off, and the picture on the right is the Xavier/Purdue tip off. I was pretty impressed that I was able to get them at the right moment, but I wish the picture was a little closer.

After the games ended we headed out for some grub, and ended up at a tapas restaurant called Jaleo. It was really good, and we will be going back soon to try more of the dishes. We ended up ordering three to share even though the waitress said two people usually end up ordering 5-6 dishes. I know it sounds like a lot, but each dish is only about the size of your hand. We had Quail stuffed with Fois Grois and apples, Very Very famous shrimp that was delish, and chicken with pureed parsley and something else. They were all good, but I didn't really care for the Quail (I couldn't believe how small Quail is, it's TINY) but LOVED the shrimp. I think next time we will get paella and try that out, along with the super good shrimp.

Easter Sunday was great, we are here in our Easter finest, after church. We headed to McLean Bible Church for the 9AM service and then over to some friends for brunch. We had brunch with Scott and Penny at their place, and were treated to mimosas, gourmet waffles, steak, eggs and great conversation. Then it was back home for some relaxing and eating the candy the Easter bunny left us.

We hope everyone had a great Easter with family and friends and were able to reflect on the great meaning of Easter and our Savior. He is great and through Him you can do anything.

God Bless and Happy Easter!!

St. Patrick's Day

2008-03-17T08:39:00.007-04:00

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!! We hope you are all wearing some shade of green today, otherwise tomorrow you will be black and blue from all the pinches you get today. Enjoy a pint of some strange looking green beer, eat some leafy greens, and devour some green eggs and ham for good measure.

Today I have a career fair that I'm attending, but I'm having trouble finding a way to mix something green into my brown suit and peach shirt...nothings come to mind just yet so I might just have to rely on my reliable green eyes to get me by today.

Here's a link to everything interesting about St. Patrick's Day....
http://holidays.kaboose.com/saint-patricks-day/

I'm back from the job fair and let me tell you that I was there a total of, oh I don't know 2 minutes. They had a gate keeper and that person wouldn't let me through to the fair, so I got to turn around and drive back home. What a successful day.

Our NEW Home

2008-03-06T11:54:00.031-05:00

After multiple demands for pictures of our new home I have added them here for all to see. We hope you like the pictures so much that you will all want to come up for a visit in the near future.

This is the view outside our living room.

This is the view standing at our front door looking at the kitchen and then the living room.

This is our living room standing at the end of the kitchen. The second bedroom is behind the recliner and to the left of the bookshelf.

This is the living room and kitchen standing in the corner next to the bookshelf with the windows to the left.

This is the kitchen and dining area standing in the living room behind the couch. Our door is there in the center of the picture with the frame above the door.

Guest bedroom, looking into living room, the guest bathroom is just past the desk on the right.

Guest bedroom standing in doorway.

Guest bathroom picture 1.

Guest bathroom picture 2.

The master bedroom standing in bathroom doorway.

Master bedroom standing at head of bed looking at doorway that leads to dining area, kitchen and living room.

Master bedroom looking at doorway to kitchen, etc, and also bathroom door way.

Master bathroom, closet is to the left and bedroom is to the right.

This is the dining area, living room and kitchen from the hallway that leads to the master bedroom.

Princess

2008-02-06T09:03:00.000-05:00

It's been a few days since we updated the blog, and I figure now is as good a time as any. I'm only stealing internet from someone in the building that is silly enough to not have a secured wireless network for today, tonight we should have our own internet connection. So, before they figure out that someone is stealing their internet I should get this posted. :)

Imagine this if you will....

A man and a woman are getting ready to go to sleep at night in their
bedroom, one on a camping pad that is about 2 inches thick and only about 2-3
feet wide the other on a full size air-mattress that is about 5 inches
thick. One of them says to the other, after carefully examining a
section of the carpet where their pillow will be resting near for the night,

"Have you washed your hands?"
The other responds, "Yes, a little while ago, but not recently.
Why?"
"There are some bug bodies there, would you pick them up for
me?"

As the person, let us call them Bug Catcher, goes quietly into the bathroom
to get some tissue, the other one, who we will call Princess, stands there
surveying the carpet and Bug Catcher, eyes darting between the two. Bug
Catcher comes back and dutifully picks up the bug carcasses inside two tissues
and then throws them into the toilet. Bug Catcher comes back out of the
bathroom and asks with a huge grin on their face,

"Is there anything else Princess?"

The two settle in for a good nights rest just to get up in the morning to
start another day with no furniture.

We will just let you ruminate on that story for a bit and would love to hear your thoughts on who Bug Catcher is and who is Princess.

We did get our furniture on Tuesday, thank goodness! The weather held out for us and did not rain at all, even though it looked like it was going to all day. Now we have an apartment full of boxes that need to be unpacked and put away in their new home.

Movin' on up...

2008-01-29T09:43:00.000-05:00

This week is a HUGE week for Kenny and I. Kenny started his job on Monday (I'm hearing great things from him already), I am leaving UNC Kenan-Flagler after 2 years, and meeting Kenny in DC later this week.

Kenny and Lexie headed up to DC on Saturday with Lexie going a little crazy in his car that was packed to the gills. She had a single seat to lay down in and sleep for the trip, but of course she didn't do that in the beginning. Kenny expertly packed the car full (seriously it was packed all the way to the roof and was done really really well) and as he's driving he looks in the rear view mirror to see Lexie trying to crawl into the cargo area with her head pressed against the ceiling. He quickly commanded her to LAY DOWN, which she did after scooting her way back to her seat! After that the rest of the trip was relatively uneventful, aside from one car sickness spell on the part of poor Lexie. Kenny moved all his belongings in, got the keys and began running around town to get some food and necessary items so he could survive until I arrive. It wasn't until Sunday afternoon that we discovered the gas company did not turn on the gas as they should have. Kenny and Lexie have been staying in a bare apartment with no gas (supplies the heat, hot water, and stove) since Saturday!! Thankfully the apartment is like a high rise apartment building in NYC (but only 5 floors) and the entrance to our apartment is in a hallway, that is temperature controlled, so it hasn't been too chilly there for them. They should have gas today, as the gas company will be coming out sometime today to turn it on, even though they should have done that on Friday, but why split hairs with specifics.

My last day of work is Wednesday and I'm really excited, but also very sad. I'm going to be leaving a job that I really enjoyed and leaving students that I love. My time at UNC has been great and I'm really going to miss the Tar Heels. I am excited about finding a new job, not sure yet what I'm going to do, but I'll make sure you all know once I find something!

Please keep us in your prayers as we begin our new life in DC together. We are both so excited and thrilled to have been given this opportunity, and are so thankful to the Lord for blessing us as only He can.