New York

Nate and I are going to NY with HFBC for the next week as part of a mission trip. I am really excited and just a little nervous. I am kinda out of it right now, but I just wanted to ask ya'll to pray for us and our team that God would present opportunities for us to witness and that we wouldn't hesitate to take them.

NY quote for the day....

"New York, New York; the city so nice, they named it twice.... Manhattan is the other name."
~ Michael Scott from the Office

Do I get to yell "CUT!!" ?

Nate and I graduated from the Newlywed class this last weekend which was sad but we were ready to move on. The class holds a graduation Sunday, I believe, because it is the most effective way to remind people to GET OUT! The lessons are on a 12 month rotating schedule, so some people stay another semester or year, but after two you've really heard it all before.

Anyhoo, Eric Reed is spearheading the campaign to start a new young marrieds class from our group of graduates and guess what? Nate and I are the directors! The opportunity presented itself a week ago and we feel truly blessed to have it. The director position is more or less perfect for where our strengths lie and we are really pumped about getting in on the ground floor on the new class.

We will be in NY this coming Sunday, but starting the week after that we will be having vision planning meetings with other couples. We already know that it is going to be non-topical (aka, actually going through a book of the bible) and that Eric and ourselves desire for something other than a lecture format. Nate and I have been thinking round table type setup if the room allows. My big desire for the class is that it be tight knit and have as many opportunities for fellowship as we can pull off. Anyway, just wanted to give ya'll a glimpse in :) Please be praying for us as we establish a vision for this new class and begin seeking God's will for it's direction. (Also be praying that we can think of a good, non-corny name for it ;-)

Singing in the Rain

Yesterday, Nate and I were walking at the church when we started to hear something.... thunder. Uh-oh. We looked out at the courtyard as we passed in on lap 8 and yep, it was pouring. This presented a slight problem in that when Nate and I go walking at the church, we walk there since we live across the parking lot. We monitored the progress of the rain for the next half hour and it continued to get stronger and stronger. And then we made a decision.... we didn't care!

We walked home in the pouring rain as calmly or coolly as though we were being showered with a dusting of light snow and not huge rain drops. It has been way too long since I have been out in the rain and not cared that I was getting wet. We didn't have any books or anything with us, we had on work out clothes which can get wet no prob, and I wasn't in heels as I have been when we've been coming back from church in the rain before. My tennis shoes may never dry out, but I really don't care.... it felt fabulous. :) It was the perfect situation for us to get caught in the rain and I gotta say, I loved it :)

Kimbo's Wedding

So here is the low down on Kim's weekend.... It was beautiful, it was fun, and the food was absolutely fabulous the entire time. I got to see all of my college roomies which was so much fun... they are basically crazy, so any time with them is a good time. Nate finally got his chance to get to know them more, which he loved. It was a great weekend for me, but maybe the worst weekend ever for someone else.... Anna.

Anna was a bridesmaid in the wedding who knew Kim from San Antonio where they roomed together. She set off from San Antonio to come to Houston Friday and she got on I-10.....going west. Ummmmm..... hmmmmm. After 3 HOURS going west, she called Kim to ask her where she was because she had no idea at which point Kim told her that in fact, Houston is east of San Antonio. Yikes, 3 more hours (and no a/c in the car) later and she is at the SA airport waiting to fly to Houston. Just for kicks, her flight gets delayed. She gets to the church at the end of the rehearsal and all seems to be well.

They give her suitcase to one of Kim's relatives who offers to put it in the back of Kim's car and we head off to dinner. Fabulous food (of course :). We then head back to the hotel to hang out and they notice something... Anna's bag is missing. Her dress is there, but no suitcase. They spent all night calling to get people to check the church parking lot to see if it never actually made it into the car, or trying to find out if someone at the church had it. Long story short, they never found it and we assume that someone stole it out of Kim's car and left everything else that was in there. Anyway, now Anna has no shoes. The wedding is at 12 and stores open at 10. All the girls get to the church and Anna dashes off to buy some shoes and actually succeeds pretty darn fast. Anyway, nothing else happened to her (that I know of), but it was still about Anna's worst weekend ever :P

And now, the pics....

Update....

No roachy holocaust yet......

I wanted to write about Kim's wedding this weekend (and there are a few things to say) but I am way too tired, so I am afraid you are going to have to wait... sorry!

Bait Me

As mentioned in previous posts, I have seen several roaches around my office in the last couple of weeks including sightings in the kitchen, elevator, and my own trash can. Anyhoo, our secretary called for someone to come spray for the little bits of nastiness so that I could fore go the pleasure of discovering them in every corner of the office. The guy comes out yesterday and Norma shows him to my area so that I may direct him to the sighting spots. He starts with my desk and begins to squeeze out this putty type stuff underneath my desk.

"What are you putting out?" I asked, "Bait" he answered. Ummmm, bait? So we're going to attract them to my desk? Am I allowed to object to this little plan? Unfortunately I chickened out and let him turn my desk into roach bait. One thing about me... I have a very vivid imagination. I have to admit that I was worried about coming back and finding a proliferation of roaches on my hands. My fantasies ranged from a live army chasing me down the hall, banners raised high, to a sort of roachy holocaust that I had already decided one of the guys I work with would be cleaning up. I arrived today braced for the worst and.... nothing. No bugs. Hmmmm, this is almost worse, now I have to wonder where they are all hiding.... :P

Look, but don't touch

Note to Self; When cooking with Cayenne Pepper, make sure to thoroughly check fingers (yes, even after washing them) for residual flakes before using said finger to rub your eye. (OUCH!)

Double Vision

When I showed up for work yesterday, I knew something was different. Well, I mean I could claim to have a sixth sense, but it wasn't difficult to notice that I now had two screens instead of one. That's right... I have reached the pinnacle for a young engineer, the Mecca of Nerd-dom... Dual monitors. I never really got why everyone was so excited about them before (oh young and stupid Abby) but now I get it. No more flipping back and forth between Excel and Cadd. No more wrestling with trying to reduce windows so you can see 2 or 3 at a time.... NO MORE!

This is a time to emphasize to you how important it is to be nice to your IT person. I like Sally (our IT girl) and basically because I have always been nice and respectful to her, I not only got my new computer before most of the office, I also got one set of only two dual monitors available from this return. Now I'm riding in style and there's no turning back.

Side Note~ My monitors are the same idea as those shown above except they are Dell, the stands are cooler, and they are in color (fancy... I know :)

I found myself whistling "If I only had a brain" from the Wizard of Oz subconsciously the other day. Do you think I am trying to tell myself something? :)

Playing Catch up

I had SO MUCH FUN this weekend! Nate and I have been out of town or at weddings for what seems like every weekend this year. It's fun, but get's old, ya know? This weekend was our only weekend in August that was sans wedding and our last weekend open until September 22nd, so we decided to take full advantage. We got to spend the whole weekend hanging out with fabulous friends and catching up on their lives.

Friday night was our triple date with Branden, Liz, Greg, and Jana. We ate at California Pizza Kitchen, went bowling, and finished the evening at the Chocolate Bar..... so fun :) Saturday morning, Leslie and I went to the mall for breakfast and some pre-crowd shopping while Nate went running with Aaron. Then Nate and I met up with Aaron and Jill for lunch at Lupe's (I just discovered the beef fajitas....mmmmm :). We then went home and did some cleaning before Dustin and Megan came over for some fondue and a movie (Drop Dead Gorgeous, because their sense of humor is just as weird as mine). Yesterday, I went to church with Laura, a roommate from college who just moved to Houston last week. In the process of walking her back to her car, I ran into several people who I hadn't seen in FOREVER.

It was such an amazing weekend and it stressed to me just how much God has blessed me and Nate with faithful, amazing friends who are just a joy to be around. If you are reading this thinking, "Hey, where was my invite?!", we may not have gotten to you this weekend, but are you free on September 22nd? ;-)

long time

Sometimes you forget what it was like being a kid or the way things were long ago. The things that had been new to you are old news. In a very realistic, totally unplanned, experience yesterday, I did something that I haven't done in a really long time..... the potty dance.

Let there be light!

So I got home yesterday and... no power. Ok, wasn't expecting that to still be out, but it's ok. We go and talk to the guard and get a time frame of "tonight" for when it is going to come back on. Hmmm, ok. This presents a problem. Nate and I are not addicted to very many shows, maybe two. But the top one? So you think you can dance. Guess what was on last night? That's right, part one fo the season finale. AHHHHH!!! I frantically called Jen only to hear that she was in bible study that night so I called Stephanie and pleaded with her to let us totally mooch off of her. Well, luckily for me, Steph is awesome and welcomed us immediately and even had popcorn waiting for us!

We had a meeting right before the show then we rushed over and watched it until 9. We went back home hoping against hope that the power was on (when we left at 5, there were 4 electric company trucks there and they had dug up a couple of parking spaces so we were less than optimistic) but sure enough, we had nothing. We got an incredibly sweet offer from some friends who lived nearby and had heard about the power for us to stay with them. If I hadn't just taken my shower when they called, then I would have jumped all over it :) Anyhoo, we had an estimated power time of midnight so we laid down with all of our light switches on so that we would wake up when the power came back on so we could turn on the a/c.

At 10:45 the power did come back on.... for 15 seconds. Bummer. Luckily they got it all up and running by 11:15ish so we are not too totally wasted today. It's interesting to me how dependant we have become on "modern" things like power. I suppose in the days without power they had more than one thing around the house to light it as opposed to our one flashlight (he served us well) This is a long post. And with that, I'm done :)

Me vs. the rain.... round 2

If you live in BW or anywhere near there then you know exactly what I am talking about. At precisely 4:20 this morning, the complex was brutally attacked by weather. Now God controls the weather, so if you think about it that way then we were brutally attacked by God and it's pretty amazing that I am here to write this :) Anyhoo, we experienced perhaps the most intense thunder I have ever heard and my best guess is that we got at least 4 large direct strikes (based on the lack of time btwn thunder and lightning).

So I was lying there silently cursing the rain for waking me up an hour early and it started..... the first car alarm set off by the hits. It went for a couple of minutes and then shut off. Then another hit... two car alarms. They get shut off in a few minutes. Give it another minute and, yeah, another hit and another alarm. I assume all of these people are up at this point, but this last person must have had trouble finding the keys. Why, you ask? Well, our power was taken out by strike number 2 or so, so I'm guess searching for the keys began with searching for the flashlight. They get the car shut off and then another hit sets it off again. This time the keys are in their hands since it only gets in two honks before it is silenced. The same car repeats this with the next two strikes and I am thankful for the neighbor who kept the keys in their hand ready to turn it off.

This brought me to a realization..... no power....no light....hmmmm, interesting getting ready for work scenario. Nate located our large flashlight and I used that to pick out clothes and do my hair (no straightener) and I gotta say, I think I prefer how I look in the flashlight light in the morning as opposed to our keeps-no-secrets bathroom light. Anyhoo, I was extremely relieved to not have to drive to work in the rain and here I am sitting under florescent lights, that not only keep no secrets, but often gossip about you and point fingers, "ready" for another day of work. That's all she wrote.

Yuck

I hate seeing roaches at work..... I spend the rest of the day (and the couple of days following) doing under-the-desk checks every 20 minutes an imagining something crawling on me every time I have a sensation on my legs (even if I just accidentally touched my foot with my other foot... that one was freaky :P)

Watermelon and Flowers

This weekend we got to witness the marriage of Tim Pieplow and Kim Washburn and it was an altogether beautiful thing :) They are one of those supremely great couples that it feels like an honor to see get married. Enough of the serious stuff though, and on to what made it especially fun....

~Having a "certain guy" agree to being set up with a "certain girl" (woo hoo!)

~Betting on the length of the ceremony with 8 different people and realizing after it's over that nobody was timing it.

~Creating different animal dances with Nate, Jana, Greg, and Philip.

~One word..... DUCKS

~Catching up with.... well.... everybody :)

~Watching your reflection (or Beth's) in the glass ceiling as you danced

~Having the bride's parents drop off a vase of gorgeous flowers and a massive watermelon from Kim and Tim the next day.

Oh, and the chicken was really good too :)

Confession-

I have tried numerous times to add a picture to my blog profile and even with the step by step instructions, I can't seem to make it work for me.... I promise I'm not usually technically inept, I save it for special occasions :P

Ha :)

There simply isn't enough highway related humor in the world. Enjoy :) ~

Asleep?

The thing is... I do pretty much everything there is to do in my sleep. I talk, walk, hold conversations, laugh, slap people and do various other things. Being single was like living in blissful ignorance of how much of this I actually do. Sure, I had the occasional thing that would happen while sharing a room on vacation or that a roommate would see in college, but I could always assume that it was something that only happened very rarely. Now Nate witnesses every one of my sleeping episodes and I gotta say, it can be very entertaining.

A few nights ago I sat up randomly and looked at Nate really seriously. Then I started talking incoherently and giggling. This was followed by me reaching for my glass of water and unceremoniously knocking it all over the bed stand with a resounding "Damn". At this point I woke up, because I remember Nate going to clean up the water while I helped put ice back in the cup. However, before Nate could finish cleaning, I had passed out again leaving him with the mess.

As far as my asleep experiences (that I know of) this one is only maybe a 5 on a 10 point scale, but hey, it's tough to post every weekday so sometimes I'm afraid you get what you get :P

Prepare to be chewed out

I don't get sunburned very often anymore because I care and I make the effort to prevent it. I maybe have one bad burn every two years or so. While this is still not great, it's semi ok except for the timing. I have the uncanny knack of getting burned right before I go to see my dermatologist which makes for a really fun check up. Example~

Doc- "You really should be more careful in the sun, you know you are high risk for skin cancer."
Me~ "I know, that's why I come here EVERY year. And I promise, this is the only burn I've had this year!"
Doc- "MMM-hmm. ok. You know, all you have to do is dab on a little sunscreen and this could be prevented."
Me~ "I DID use sunscreen!"
Doc~ "MMM-hmm."

So anyhoo, I'm going to the dermatologist today and I am burned... bad. The only time this year, don't ya know. I spent 10 days in the Caribbean on my honeymoon and came away unscathed, but 4 hours in my parent's pool and I have bought myself a 30 minute ticket to the dermatology shame fest. Oh joy, oh rapture.

Baptist Humor

Just a little quote from Pastor David Self to you....

He was talking about the Pope saying that he recognizes only the Catholic church as the true church.

"It's always been that way, it's just been awhile since anyone has said it so bluntly. At different times the Catholics won't recognize the Episcopalians, or the Episcopalians won't recognize the Catholics. Sometimes Baptists don't even recognize other Baptists.. in the wine section of the grocery store."

hehe :)

I totally stole this from Laurie

Ok, so as the title implies this video was discovered by way of another blog. I figure since our readership is different, that I could get away with recycling it though. Also I just thought it was really funny and I knew that my dad in particular needed to see it. So sit back, relax and enjoy the show :)

Total Cop Out

So, my mom and grandma are currently staying with Ben's family in San Antonio and I am sooooo jealous! Mom called me last night and let me talk to Elena on the phone and it made me miss her so badly. We get to see them in 3 weeks, but it just doesn't seem soon enough anymore. Apparently Laney can now recognize me in pictures and gets all excited and says "Aba!" whenever she sees my picture. Anyhoo, I thought I'd take the easy blog road and just post some new pics of Elena... You can't go wrong with her :)

Campaign Trail

I am starting a new campaign.... it's called "If your car is bigger than my condo, you cannot park here!" Today I pulled up to my regular spot (I get here early enough to have one) and who should be parked next to me but one of the new Tahoes. Remember when the Tahoe was big? I mean, just big and not ginormous? I walked away from my parked sedan thinking that if the Tahoe is hungry anytime today then I could be in trouble.... while the mental picture of that "car" devouring mine was somewhat amusing, it was also disturbing and seemed like a pretty good possibility.

This is what I propose.... I think they should repaint the lines in the upper levels of the parking garage so that people can park their tanks AND be able to actually open the door. Not only that, but I wouldn't have to come back to my car in the afternoon and hold my breath in order to get in if a truck, SUV, or God forbid, a Suburban has parked next to me. :P