This Week

So not a whole lot going on around here but I thought I would update you guys on our lives.

New Client

So I have a new client at work.... Heilman's!! I hope that they are going to be one of my super complaining customers :) I am so exicted though. It is a long overdue project for my parents and it should be fun for me to work on something to close to home too.

School

Ben is doing well at school. He is staying really busy by keeping his kids busy :) He has been working on a midterm for them. And hopefully that they don't all fail it. He also picked a topic for his master's thesis and will hopefully be able to work with Wolverine on it.

Fall
So it seems like Fall at home we know, and while it is still in the 90's here everyday it does not seem like fall. So we had to make a bit of an adjustment to the apartment so it would feel like fall to us. The new centerpiece for our table! I made the cloth :)


See the pretty leaves!

A New Addition
This is also our new addition to the apartment, a pantry! We had to do something, one little cupboard was not big enough and needless to say not able to be organized very well. So Target had them on sale and we got one. And yes, we could stay in the apartment for month and not ever get groceries!




Vacation
I got my vacation time approved at work! So we are coming home Monday (late) Decemeber 22nd, and will fly back here on Saturday, January 3rd. So almost two whole weeks home! yay!!
Ben and I are so exicted. We can't believe that we have been here 6 weeks already and that we have been married 4 months already. Wow, time flies. Which is a good thing we will be seeing you all (or y'all) very soon!

A Life Update

My Job

My job is going very well. The first day (a week ago now) was very rough and it was too much information to process all at once. I actually came home and told Ben that I couldn't do it and was going to quit. While he was supportive, I think he knew better. And the second was MUCH better, so I am staying there. Each day gets easier and easier to understand and the more I work with their software the more I get it too. And it is nice to have my own space there too now. Ben actually help me put my desk and shelves (in my office at work) together, Thursday and then I finished setting it up on Friday. Today I got my nice new flat screen 22" monitor. So I feel as though I am at home now.

Houston

Ben and I went to Houston for the weekend. We were able to spend time with his aunt and uncle, eat lots of good food, watch some football, and play lots of games of Apples to Apples (we had to play until Uncle Doug won one... that was on game 10). But we also got to see a lot of the damage of Houston. It is absolutely heart-breaking. There are so many people who had their lives turned upside down by Ike and we were just looking at Houston and not Galveston. We saw many, many houses and garages with trees through them, lots of power lines down, streets you couldn't even drive down because of all the debris and this is a week after Ike.

School

Ben is doing really good at school. He has a focus for his Master's thesis, which is huge progress and he feels like he has a purpose now. His students continue to amaze us but that is a different story. He is working on their mid-term now and is trying to find a way to make it so that half the class doesn't fail, like they do on his quizzes which are not very hard at all! But alas, a teacher's struggle :) He may be able to take a trip to Yucatan Pennisula (Mexico) in May for free with the geology department. He is working out the details so we will see.

Misc.

Ben is sick right now. So pray for him to get better and that I don't get it. We are keeping him heavily drugged in hopes that I don't get it.

Ben and I are going to be home Dec. 22/23 through Jan.3/4 (we aren't for sure on the dates yet, we will know exactly after we book our tickets).


And... that is about it for us in Bryan. We hope that you are all doing well and miss you tons!

Hurricane Ike

The Hurricane Ike update that you were all looking forward to...

Friday, Ben and I spent most of the day watching the weather channel and preparing the things around our apartment for a power outage. We played LOTS of cards, and watched the radar constantly. I slept from 10pm-1am and Ben slept 2am-3am. We were anticipating the hit of the hurricane at anytime so we just stayed up. About 3:15 am the wind had picked up and it began to rain lightly. At 4am, it was raining very hard and Ben and I went to bed knowing it was going to be hours before the storm got to us.

Saturday, we got up around 9am to very hard rain and strong wind. The entire day was spent watching the Weather Channel (a bit sad, I know), playing cards, and looking out the window. By the evening it was done raining, and the only remnants of Hurricane Ike were the small twigs scattered around. The apartment across from us was missing a few shingles after it was all said and done but minor compared to Galveston and Houston. We got 25-40mph winds and lots of rain but that is about all we got. Ben was utterly disappointed with the hurricane.

Since it was disappointing we were able to make light of the situation and have a Hurricane Ike Party. (as shown in the picture above)

We had Hurricane's to drink, Mike & IKE candy, and were listening to the Scorpions "Rock you like a Hurricane." :)

I start my new job tomorrow! Please pray that it goes well.

Much Love from the Hurricane Survivors!

Just a quick post...

Hurricane Ike is on it's way, and we are prepared for it. We have stocked up on water, food, and have the lantern and candles ready for lighting. We went to Wal-mart tonight to get some groceries and I have never seen shelves so empty. It was very slim pickings when it came to food and there were skids and skids of water sitting everywhere around the store. Ben and I got lucky and found a guy with "D" batteries otherwise we wouldn't have gotten any, and we got the last pack of matches in the whole store. It was crazy. We had to go to 4 different gas stations just to fill up the car, all the gas stations are running of out of gas. So it should be an interesting weekend. We would like you all to pray for us, pray that the storm isn't too bad and that we are smart in our decisions.

On a brighter note, I had a second interview for job at a web-design company and I got the offer today! I have to go in tomorrow and find out the details of the financial package and to sign the papers. It would come with full medical health insurance including vision and dental, as well as a gym membership and season tickets to the baseball team. I plan on taking it but it is not for sure yet.

I will update more about the week after Ike hits.

September's First Weekend

So, already it is Sunday. We had a busy week, and I am sure the ones to come are going to be just as busy if not busier. But we are doing well, becoming better orientated down here and starting to get a few familiar faces. Anyway to the week....

Thursday, Ben had class in the morning and then came back to the apartment for lunch and just to relax before his afternoon class. I spent the morning picking up and washing some laundry. For some reason the blanket we have on our bed is shedding a ton of little fuzzies all over our sheets and comforter so I had to wash all that including the blanket and hopefully that solves the problem. While Ben was in his afternoon class I dropped off a few more resumes at different business so hopefully I will hear back on something this week. I am getting a little anxious to hear about something. Thursday night Ben and I cleaned out the fridge and ate all the leftovers from the week - so some spectacular cooking on my part :)

Friday, Ben doesn't have class until noon so we slept in and had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Then Ben went to his TA meeting, the help room, then class. While he was gone, I did more laundry, walked to the grocery store (just for a few things) and managed to break the microwave. Ok, not really. I accidentally unplugged it when I put a bowl in the cubboard above it but I did have to go find the maintance guy and then I felt like an idiot :) Friday night, Ben and I went and picked up my diamond (finally I have it back!) and Ben helped me try and find some clothes for interviews and such. We did stop in the Puppy Spot in the mall and saw a mini-Ernie that was so cute :)

Saturday, Since Ben and I were unsuccessful at finding some clothes at the mall I went to Kohl's while Ben did some homework. I should have gone to Kohl's first, I hit the jackpot there! I got 5 shirts, 2 tank tops, a skirt, button up jacket, and a zipper hoodie for $50! I did very welll there. Then we worked on cleaning the office some more and headed to our favorite place, Texas Roadhouse, for dinner. After dinner we went to Bretanti's (a fellow TA of Ben's) to watch the University of Texas (shh! don't tell the Aggies :) ) football game with some other TA's and their significant others.

Today we went to Restoration Church, this little little church that just started in May. We liked it very much, we aren't 100% happy but it is the best we have gone to so far and the people were extremely friendly to us. They wanted to know where we came from, why were here, etc. etc. and talked to me about possible jobs. It was a nice service too, a bit more traditional than the other churches. We are going to go to a couple more on our list and then decide, but definetly the best we have been to so far. Then we had lunch - tip: McCormick makes these new "Crusting" seasoning, they are in the spice aisle, and it is like a flavored breading on meat. Ben and I got the Garlic Lemon Herb and put it on chicken - SO good :) After lunch we went and relaxed by the pool, played some cribbage, swam, napped, and read our books. Now we are just waiting for the pizza to cook and going to watch a movie to end the night.

Oh! and I really need to find a job, in the last two days I have made:

Ranch Dressing/Dip

Caesar Dressing

Chocolate Oreo Cheesecake

Banana Bread

and....

Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream!! :) Check it out....

Here is the link if you want to make it yourself. (you don't need an ice cream maker!)

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1713,149189-225197,00.html

And it looks like we may get some of Hurricane Ike. They are telling the people in Houston and Galveston to start looking for places to go incase it comes. So we should get some rain from it, Ben is super exicted.

Otherwise, not much else going on here. We miss all of you. And are anxious for Christmas!

Much Love!

Just another picture for kicks.... Ben and I at the Texas Welcome Center

Labor Day and on...

We didn't have our usual camping weekend for Labor Day but did enjoy our day off to just to relax around here. We were able to put some more things away and just continue to make the apartment more comfortable and more like home to us. Monday night, Ben's friend, Jonathan Shanks came to visit us. (Ben meet him last summer when he was working on the oil rigs in Texas. Jonathan was also able to make it to our wedding.) Jonathan got evacuated from his rig in LA because of Hurricane Gustav. Speaking of the Hurricane, we didn't get anything from it for those that were wondering. Not even a drop of rain, Ben was a bit disappointed.

Tuesday is Ben's busy day at school. So Jonathan and I spent the day driving around town and stopping in places that looked interesting. We also walked around campus and were able to see Ben's office, and some stuff in the geology department. Then Tuesday night, Jonathan took us out to dinner to Antonio's Pizza right near campus and it was very good. Just a little hole in the wall kind of place that had really good pizza. Then back to the apartment for some card games and a movie.

Wednesday, Ben doesn't have school until 11am so we were able to have a big breakfast and just relax together in the morning. Meanwhile Jon and I tried to find a place for Jon to fax his time sheet in, we finally did at a Kinko's. Then the three of us went to a Mexican Resturant for lunch, which was so good :) After lunch, Ben and Jon made plans to go fishing at a lake just a bit east of here but Jon got the call from work that it was time for him to go back. Ben was pretty bummed about not being able to go fishing. After we said good-bye to Jon, I went out and applied for a couple jobs but both of them had quite a few applications on them so I am not too hopeful to get them. Then Ben and I went to Best Buy and got Ben's birthday present.... a Playstation 3. Ben was able to sell his Playstation 2 and then with the birthday money he got he was able to upgrade and is very happy :)

Otherwise, we just keep going along. Because of the Hurricane we had a bit cooler weather here for the last two days which was very nice to us. And we see that there are three more hurricanes coming yet.

Oh, and yesterday strange thing - we saw a hot pink VW bug with purple neons underneath. It made me smile :)

Hope all is well! Thank you for the calls and the e-mails, we enjoy hearing how things are going at home!

Current Temp: 72