POS

by Justin

Some people have an acronym for POS, which we won’t use here in my blog. Southwest Airlines, my great employer, uses the acronym POS to stand for positively outrageous service. So here is to continuing the theme of customer service on these blogs.

Not that myself or others in the company do not slip up, but I think we are way better than average. For instance just the other day it was actually raining here in Dallas. I know, I know amazing. While snowing in Chicago it was raining in Dallas. We dang near declared a statewide holiday. I was running late for a Twin Arrows meeting and decided to run through Jack in the Box for a quick lunch. I approached the speaker for the drive thru and rolled down my window. I waited for a good 15 seconds with no reply. So I started rolling up my window a little more and more to keep out most of the rain. A full two minutes later the lady comes over the speaker to get my order. While ticked, I remained calm.

When I got to the window to get my food I waited till I had all the food and decided to let the teenager manning the drive thru know that we were getting wet waiting on her. I very politely told her that while waiting for the intercom, people were getting wet. She snapped and said well we are short staffed and I am running both inside and out so deal. SO DEAL?

I was now furious and speed away. POS, POS…she might be a P….oh why waist the words.

To top it all off I didn’t get what I ordered.

Passing of a Scouter

Mr. Bill Wies passed away this morning. He was a long time supporter of Troop 37, a life long Scout and a great man. Mr. Wies died from complications with cancer. His battle had been a long one. He died with his loving and caring wife at his side. His funeral is planned for Friday near Corsicanna, Texas.

May God bless him and keep him.

A Weekend in Charlotte

by Holly

We spent this weekend (actually Friday through Monday) in Charlotte, North Carolina with some long-lost friends, or at least it feels that way. We miss you Clint and Erin! We hadn't seen them since June of last year and had some catching up to do.

Friday we got to experience Pike's and their famous milkshakes- me: Peanut Butter, Justin: Strawberry. Wonderful! That evening we were treated to true North Carolina barbecue at Smithfield's Chicken and Barbecue, which is anything but! We enjoyed it, but I'm still not sure how they decided to call it barbecue. For anyone not familiar with the delicacy, it is shredded pork with a vinegar/red pepper sauce. We did actually bring a bottle of the sauce home with us for the times we really miss Erin the most- I'll even make sweet tea to go with it Erin!

We stayed up late talking and then of course had to sleep in Saturday. We got a late start and then indulged in Clint's yummy French Toast and bacon. Yes, he spoiled us! That afternoon was spent at the Renaissance Festival in the drizzly, cold weather. We had a good time, with the highlight being our photo taken in Renaissance costumes! That was followed by supper at RiRa, an Irish pub in downtown Charlotte. We had traditional meals- me: Shepherd's Pie Boxty, Justin: Bangers and Mash. (Use your imagination.) We then headed to the mall for Cold Stone ice cream and a fabulous time at the Halloween costume store.

Another night of late-night chatting followed by another morning of sleeping in. We took it easy on Sunday, as it rained most of the day and we were being lazy. Clint cooked breakfast again, and our entertainment for the afternoon was walking to the model homes in their neighborhood to look at how they were decorated. Yes, we are a cheap date. We grilled burgers and fried fries that evening and made ourselves get to bed at a reasonable time.

We had to get up at 4:30 (Texas time) to get to the airport on time and so they could get back to work on time. It was a sad goodbye, but all good things must come to an end. Thank you so much for your hospitality guys! We love you and wish we could see you more often.

Drum Roll Please

This month's star blogger of the month is...

NOBODY

That's right, no one. It is my not so private protest over a lack of blogging and commenting. If we could award it in to the same person two months in a row, which we decided we wouldn't, then Aimee would have blown us all away. Sadly we will have to try again next month.

-Justin

Random Quote

"Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘nice doggie’ until you find a rock. "
- Will Rogers

I ran across this the other day and loved it. Just my random quote of the moment.

Justin

Why I Love My Husband

by Holly

I've been inspired by Aimee's lists (if you've missed them, check them out- good stuff!), so I've decided to do my own.

Top 28 (because that's how old I am) Things I Love About Justin:

1. His unwavering love for me.
2. His laugh, especially when he gets so tickled he cries.
3. His devotion to his family.
4. His desire to center our marriage around God.
5. His effort to better himself through reading, Bible studies, prayer...
6. His love for Trigger.
7. His eye for design and color choices.
8. His fascination with the Discovery Channel.
9. His willingness to take care of me when I'm sick.
10. His acceptance and love for my family.
11. His appreciation for real country.
12. His humble spirit.
13. His bum in the new jeans we bought!
14. His encouragement to have my own friends and hobbies.
15. His responsibility with our finances.
16. His leadership abilities and use of them in...
17. His mentoring young men in Boy Scouts.
18. His determination to further his career in looking long-term.
19. His impulsive purchases for others (flowers for me, his mom...)
20. His beautiful eyes.
21. His knowlege and willingness to learn new things.
22. His political stances.
23. His sense of humor.
24. His love of all things vanilla!
25. His appreciation for the things I do for him.
26. His willingness to do the things I ask of him.
27. His seriousness in being the spiritual leader in our marriage.
28. His tender spirit.

I could go on and on, and these are in no particular order.

I love you Justin!

National "Whatever" Day

By Holly

At least once a week on the radio, I hear that that day is proclaimed National [insert your favorite culture/animal/laundry soap/you get my point] Day and we are to celebrate. I don’t know who comes up with these or why, but if they make me laugh or appreciate something in my life, I try to participate. Well, yesterday as I was driving to work I heard that it was National Pancake Day. Seriously?

I don’t normally buy breakfast in our cafeteria, but yesterday I was running late and actually had some cash on me, so I did. What did I order? Pancakes, of course. I was met however in true Seinfeld fashion with, “No pancake today! Come back tomorrow!” What? Did they not get the memo? What good is National Power-of-Persuasion day if its not publicized? So, I defaulted to my usual: two scrambled eggs (which is essentially two ice cream scoops of eggs) and two pieces of wheat toast, no butter. I could have done that myself, Radio People!

It gets better though. This morning I was again running late and still had a couple of bucks, so I indulged in cafeteria breakfast again. As luck would have it, I got the same lady. She remembered that I ordered a pancake yesterday and asked if I wanted one today. I appreciate the sentiment, however the moment has passed. To celebrate my triumph over said persuasion though, I changed up my order. I’ll have one egg, one sausage patty and one biscuit, thank you!

Now I declare this National Hug Your Fish Day!
Have a good one!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AIMEE!

It's Aimee's birthday today! Just in case you missed it on her blog (if you did, you should catch up on her week!) and on Abbey's blog too. I absolutely love my birthday and appreciate all of the celebrating that you've done this week A! Hope you have a fantastic weekend at home with your family and that you get a chance to hang out with Abbey too!

Holly

A Little Rest in the Schedule

Justin has posted about our crazy fall schedule, which is really just a continuation of our crazy summer schedule, but since the seasons are changing, so will our terminology. But I digress. I've been feeling weighed down, like I'm dragging myself through each day, just making checkmarks on the calendar of never-ending activities. I can honestly say that about 98% of the things on our calendar are things I really enjoy, but too much of a good thing can run you down too. So, I've been praying that God would give me rest in the midst of the insanity.

Here's His answer, which I did not expect at all, but are we ever really able to anticipate His actions? No, I think not. I had been invited to a new Bible study by my friend Abbey at church and was debating between quality time with her and another commitment. But I said yes and then things started happening! Our group was too big, which is always a good problem to have when you're studying God's word, so we split into two groups and the second moved to meeting at my house. This opened the door for a few more people, so I was able to invite my other Abbey (who blogs with us) and another friend, Erin. Our first official meeting was Tuesday night and I was blown away with the content of our study (strengthening your marriage) and how well everyone got along. There's five of us meeting in our group and we laughed, got teary and seemed to just click. I felt like I had been given a renewed spirit and genuinely felt rested, although I was still tired. There is a difference there, just hard to explain!

So, I hope that you all have as much fulfillment in your life as I do, and the support of a spouse that means the world to you as it does to me. Thanks for your encouragement Justin, and for your prayers. (And for wandering the streets of Allen without a wallet so we can have girl time, but that's another story!)

Holly

Rain delay

by Justin

Man I am tired today. A very fun weekend ended on a pretty long note. It is like holding the fermata till you run out of breath and then one more beat. That was for you Trey and Viki! For the rest of you, well let me just tell the story.

Holly and I jumped ship a little early on Friday and hopped on the plane to Amarillo. We were greeted, with much surprise, at the airport by Holly’s parents and our nephews Jared and Tyler. We weren’t expecting them, so we had a lot of fun playing in the back of the car on our way back to Friona.

Once in Friona we headed over to the Homecoming game. There is nothing like high school football in Texas, or so they say, and I would agree. We rooted on the team, talked with friends in the packed stadium and participated in the band cheers. When we left in the third quarter the score was like 42-0, Go Chieftains!

Saturday was a fun packed day of celebrating Friona’s 100 year anniversary. The annual Maize Days parade was extra long; with one man saying he couldn’t remember a parade ever as long as this one. I have many opinions about the Maize Days parade, but it is all about love and loving the small town Texas lifestyle. All my comments are taken bad, but really it is envy and longing to live back in the small town life.

Sunday rolled along with church. We attended our first Sunday school class with Holly’s mom teaching. She is a great teacher and a great lover of the Lord. We followed the main service with a good Baptist pot-luck lunch. Something about those pot-luck lunches that are just hard to beat.

Next came the delay.

We headed to Amarillo in plenty of time to get on our plane. While Holly insisted we had time to stop and eat a quick bite, I was eager to make sure we made our flight. As we entered the gate to check our bags I noticed that our flight and the following two flights were all listed as delayed. This is never a good sign. I quickly handed my phone to Holly and told her to call her parents, we might have time for dinner. Sure enough it was showing the plane to depart at 7:30 instead of 6:55. We went through the process to get our passes (it is different for employees) and we were told that Dallas Love Field had been closed for 2 hours for weather and our plane diverted to Oklahoma City. Never a good sign, either. The new depart time was 9 o’clock.

We went to dinner and went grocery shopping with Holly’s parents. We returned to the terminal to find our 6:55 flight had been delayed to 9:45. We landed at Love Field at 10:45. After running a quick errand on our way home, we pulled into the garage at midnight. Showers and a quick unpacking found us in bed at 1am.

What a way to start the week…

Music City USA

By Justin

So it was time to get out of town. Mom’s birthday was on Friday and she said she wanted to leave town. One of the extended benefits of my employment at Southwest Airlines is that my parents can fly for free as well. Flying free is not as simple as it sounds and there are plenty of risks of being stranded, so it is not for the faint of heart. Thankfully Holly and I have done it enough to be quasi experts, so it was time to explain the ropes to my parents.

I knew that my Mom had a fear of flying, but it had not clicked in my head that my Dad has only been on one round trip flight in his life. I had forgotten that fact, so it was fun to watch him rediscover the flying public in a post 9-11 world all over again. We had decided to hit the open skys to Nashville, Music City USA.

We left Love Field at 5 and connected through Houston, (freakin Wright Amendment). We landed in Nashville about 10 and jumped in our rent car and headed to the Holiday Inn. Good thing I got a discount on our rooms, because they weren’t worth what they were asking.

We got up early the next morning and headed to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. It was good food. We then jumped over to tour the OpryLand Hotel. It is a pretty amazing building. We then tried to find our way to a plantation home. On our very prolonged route we stumbled across a botanical garden that we had wanted to see, so we stopped. It was a very nice place, we were just out of season. We never found that Plantation

Afterwards we stopped at Subway for lunch and went downtown to see the Country Music Hall of Fame. I enjoyed our brief time there, if for nothing else the building is amazing. We ran to the hotel to clean up and headed to dinner before the 9:30 opry. For dinner we ate at a restaurant called Aquarium. It has this huge aquarium in the middle with sharks, stingrays, and a bunch of fish in it. It is a very cool environment, a very not so cool price.

I have to admit here that the Grand Ole Opry is probably my favorite thing to do in Nashville. It is well worth the $34 for two and half hours of entertainment for me. It is just plain old fun in my opinion. No big names were at the opry that night, but I didn’t care.

We got to the hotel around 1am. We woke up the next morning and headed back to downtown to visit the Ryman Auditorium. It is the original home of the Grand Ole Opry. An amazing building as well, we spent as much time as we could there till we had to head to the airport.

We got home to Dallas Love Field around 6. It was time enough to say our goodbyes and go our separate ways to our far off homes. We had a great time with my Mom and Dad, and hope this is the start of many more flights to far off places with the fam.

Are you serious?

Justin will be posting sometime soon about our Nashville trip, but I had to throw out a couple of items for you to ponder in the meantime.

First, we went to the grocery store a few weeks ago and there were no bananas. Seriously, not a single one, overripe, green, on the floor under the display, not a one. I could hear Dr. Seuss in my head as we looked and looked and could not find a banana anywhere. Before we made this discovery though, I was bagging a couple of tomatoes and sent Justin to pick out our bananas. When I caught up to him, he was holding an empty produce bag, pretending to place his invisible bananas in the bag. I laughed hysterically! People were staring, but it was late Sunday evening so our audience wasn't too large. (The time of day and that it was Sunday is probably the reason for this blatant omittance of my favorite fruit, but it was unacceptable nonetheless.)

Secondly, and this may be too much info for some of you, but bear with me for the humor in it. I started my monthly week of hell this morning and had to run to CVS on my break to purchase the necessary products, as I had none in my purse or desk. At the checkout, the cashier handed me my receipt, smiled and said, "Enjoy your purchase!" Are you kidding me?! Did you not just see what you sold me? Enjoy. Now that's a word I've never used to describe this occurrence.

So there you go. Just something to think about. (Trey, I have to give the cashier a couple of points for being pleasant, despite her ridiculous comment.)

Have a good day!
Holly

The Social Calendar

By Justin

Holly maintains an impeccable social calendar for the family. I work to keep the family budget in check, she works to keep us socially balanced. Both tasks are exhausting work. Over the next few weeks and months we have an extensive schedule to keep.

First up is a weekend trip with the Noble FAM. Tomorrow is my Mom’s Birthday. Happy Birthday Mom, even though she doesn’t read this. Hey Dad show Mom please! Sorry I digress. For Mom’s birthday, Holly, Dad, Mom and myself are hitchin’ a ride on the best airline in the world and headed to Nashville. Ahh Nashville… It’s the heart and soul of country music. It’s the home of the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame. Does it get better? Well Yes, of course. Texas is always better. Come on people, we’ve been through this.

After Nashville we are headed back to West Texas for Holly’s hometown homecoming and Maize Days. Now Maize Days deserve its own blog, so I will hold off on that. I foresee a he said/she said type of blog here. It is all about perspective.

Next up we head to North Carolina to visit our GREAT friends from the South. I have been promised Carolina Bar-B-Q, and I am looking forward to it. Not long after that trip we are going camping with our Sunday school class. Fun times camping and bonding are for sure here.

So that is just a snap shot of the thousand and one things on the social calendar for the weekends. Throw in bible studies, women’s retreat, and general friend outings during the week and we are running from non-stop. Man it is fun!

Now Booking for 2007!

Expanding Horizons

We would like to welcome another good friend to the Blogger World. Amanda is a life long friend of Holly's, who lives in San Angelo Texas! Holly and Amanda were friends throughout high school and like Abbey have crazy girl tales that should be told!

Welcome Aboard Amanda and good recruiting Holly!

Star Blogger

Drum Roll Please..

The star blogger of the month is Aimee!

For her timeless posts on her son's first day of school and her consistency!

Congratulations Aimee!

Wording

By Justin

Why are things worded the way they are? I have a knack for noticing word choices that are just insanely unnecessary. Like just the other night, we were enjoying a lovely meal with our friends Joel and Abbey in McKinney. I looked over Abbey’s shoulder and noticed the sign said: “If you have special needs notify your Server or the Manager on Duty.” My question is when do you notify the Manager NOT on Duty? At what point are you allowed to ask for the home or cell phone number of the Manager NOT on Duty to complain about a special need? Is there etiquette on this? Will Hints from Heloise know this one?

I also find the names of business and churches funny, especially churches. We have a church close by that is Greater New Birth Baptist. Is there a Lesser New Birth or a Greater Old Birth or is it Lesser Old Birth Baptist? We have also passed a Primitive Baptist Church that didn’t look so primitive. In Levelland (near Lubbock, TX) there is a big sign on the highway that says Primitive Baptist church with an arrow pointing to an open field, now that is primitive and hence the name makes sense.

I could go on, but I won’t. Let’s just say that my other pet peeve is names of cities. My parents live in Cottondale. There isn’t cotton within a hundred miles of there. Come on people work with me here.

Can you ever go back?

Holly says....

Is there ever a time when you can go back and relive something from your childhood and it be as good as you remembered it? I ask this because there is a commercial on the radio right now that uses Speak 'N Spell to spell out words. I don't remember what it's advertising, it doesn't really matter. Anyway, I loved my Speak 'N Spell and actually wore it out, causing my mom to buy me another one to get me to leave her alone. (The math one didn't do much for me.)

Anyway, I suspect that if I were to buy one now that it would be slow and silly and not give me that feeling of triumph I had as a kid when I spelled a word correctly and heard, "That is correct. Next, spell ____." So I think I probably won't try because I don't want to ruin a good memory.

This subject came about as I was lying in bed last night, wide awake, staring at the ceiling. What's nice about our ceiling is that I have an alarm clock that shines the time up above you. Justin bought it for me for Christmas 3 years ago and I can honestly say it is one of the best gifts I can remember (of my adult life anyway.) What's so great about it is that my grandparents had one in their bedroom when I was a little girl. If I had a bad dream I would run in their room and climb into bed with them, on Mom's side, and watch the time change on the ceiling. The only difference is that theirs shone orange and mine is red. I think this may be one of the few things that is just as good as the original memory.

So I guess the answer is yes, you can really go back and its worth it sometimes. But don't expect every attempt to be as fulfilling as my alarm clock. Thanks Justin.

Open Invite to Ethan:

In response to the most gracious invitation, I humbly accept your invitation to have a meal together. I suggest we make plans for an afternoon or evening during this up coming Labor Day weekend. I am open any day but Saturday. If anybody else will be in town for the weekend and would like to join the cool kids, please let us me know. Now booking for Labor Day!

J

Messages from Armand

In all my life, I have never received so many phone calls and garbled messages from someone, yet never actually talked to them. Three times now, yes three, I have checked my phone to see ‘Missed Call’ proudly displayed on my screen. Most times than not these are from my father. In fact ‘Dad Cell’ is on my list so much that when I want to call him I simply enter into the Missed Call List and press send. Not that I am complaining. I am glad my dad and I talk as often as we do. I do wish he had better ESP and didn’t call while Holly and I are watching Big Brother on TIVO. I digress. Three times I see ‘Missed Call’. I check to see who it is and it is Armand! Cool, I don’t get to talk to Armand very often.

After I clear the missed call, I get excited to see ‘1 New Msg’! I love messages. I love messages so much that I go to great lengths to leave people messages in hopes that I get one in return. I love messages so much that if I leave you one and you don’t return it, I get ticked. I quickly hit the send button to hear the messages.

The first message was pretty clear. Armand was eating at some sort of fast food restaurant talking about Superman. I never really got the full gist, as it is hard to understand everything from the inside of a pocket. The second message was a little less clear. I think he was discussing home decorating. The final message was pure pocket.

So if you ever miss me, follow Armand’s lead. Stick your cell phone or Bluetooth headset in your pocket and dial me up! I love messages, remember?

Secret Stairwells

by Justin

Yesterday at work, around the 3 o’clock hour, the sirens went off and the lights started flashing. A very computerized voice came over the emergency system stating the following: “May I have your attention please? An emergency has been declared in the building. Please proceed to the nearest marked stairwell and exit the building.” To me these statements are absolutely hilarious.

First off it asks for your attention. What if I say no? Am I then able to not respond? What if I am on the phone, will it wait till I can give it my full attention?

Second it declares an emergency, but does not tell you what it is. Is it a fire? Is it a tornado? Is it a bomb threat? Has the executive office run out of cigarettes? It could be many things. Holly said maybe the cafeteria simply ran out of hotdogs. Could that be the emergency?

Lastly, you are to proceed to the nearest marked stairwell. That implies that there are unmarked stairwells. This intrigues me, secret stairwells in the building? Where do they go? How do you become an insider into these passages? If they don’t exit the building, why exactly have we built them? I am now on a new quest for secret stairwells.

All of this and it was 103 outside. We were told it wasn’t a drill, and it sure didn’t last long enough to be one. I for one think they sounded the alarm on being out of hotdogs a little prematurely. Wal-mart is around the corner, you know!

Mystery Date & Parent’s Weekend

One of the amazing benefits of working for an airline is at the last minute you can jump on any plane, so long as a seat is available. Holly and I have been taking advantage of this as much as humanly possible. Holly is also on summer hours, meaning she works longer days Monday thru Thursday and gets to take Friday afternoons off. So I took the afternoon off and we scheduled a much needed date afternoon.

Now I am neither the most spontaneous of persons, nor the most creative when it comes to ideas for dates. There is just something around familiar and regular that I like, thankfully my lovely bride believes so as well. But this was the exception. I actually kept our mystery date a secret right up to the turn into the airport.

Holly picked me up from work, I do work at the airport so that made sense. I then instructed her turn by turn towards the airport. Even after she realized that we were flying for our date, I didn’t let her know where until we were in the terminal. Once in the terminal she successfully guess that we were headed to the San Antonio Riverwalk for the afternoon.

On the Riverwalk we ate lunch at County Line BBQ, saw a 3D IMAX film on wild African animals, went into local shops, bought some Christmas gifts, then ate dinner at Rio Rio. We went back to the airport, caught the last flight to Dallas Love Field and were home around 10. What a good afternoon.

Saturday I planned a ‘Day In Paradise.’ My parents live in Paradise, TX well not really then live in Old Draco or closer to Cottondale, but alas their mailing address is Paradise, so we say they live in Paradise. Not really Paradise if you ask me, but that is another post. I hadn’t seen my parents since Mother’s day and a lot of birthdays and Father’s day have occurred since then.

I actually managed to round up my entire family and grandmother for this event. That is quite an achievement for our family. I hadn’t seen my brother since Father’s Day 2005 at the Ballpark In Arlington. Not even at Christmas or Thanksgiving last year. In that time he has gotten engaged, so I met my future Sister-In-Law for the first time.

My mom made hamburgers; dad cooked them on charcoal. My grandmother made her famous fried potatoes; Holly provided the homemade ice cream. I lost the first game of Yahtzee, but won the second!

Oddly church was a much needed ‘normal’ weekend event for us. After church our Sunday school group went out to lunch at this yummo Italian restaurant that is actually run by Italians.

We took a nap and enjoyed the evening relaxing.

What a great weekend.

Mysteries Outside the Household

I know that I am quite particular and stringently abide by most rules and laws (except for speed limits), however it never ceases to amaze me when people just blatantly disregard common courtesy because it somehow doesn't apply to them. Trey, this may tie into your entry on the anything-but-courteous-customer.

One of my biggest pet peeves is people leaving their shopping carts wherever they see fit in parking lots. This seems to be the worst at Wal-Mart, but does happen at other stores too. My first example was the lady last week that left it on the other side of the barrier. I assume she thought that by having her cart touch the cart return, she at least got partial credit. She didn't. When I came out of the store, it was rolling toward another car and I had to run to catch it. I had a few choice words for her, but alas, she was already gone.

My second example happened yesterday. Mind you, I shop at a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market across the street from our house, so it is small, but still has numerous cart returns. When I came out of the store, there was a cart parked about two feet behind my car. Now, if this isn't bad enough, its one that has the carseat bolted to it, so it didn't fit into my cart. Therefore, I had to push one with each hand to the cart return with the added help of a wheel that wouldn't turn. I'm sure people thought I was crazy as I proclaimed quite loudly, "Of course I don't mind you being lazy and leaving your cart behind my car. I would love to put that up for you!"

I was fuming when I got home. I think I scared both Justin and Trigger. What is it that exempts people from having to think about others? Don't you think they would be upset if a stray cart had scratched their car? Wouldn't they be put out if they had to move a stray cart before they could even back their car out? Please help me understand!

H

Household Mysteries

I'm sure you've all had experience with the disappearing sock in the washer and/or dryer, but has anyone heard of this...

Although I'm not the most thrifty of persons (I find clipping coupons a hassle and don't see the overall reward), I do try to stretch some household items a little longer than they may have originally lasted. Take the bar of soap in the shower, for example. Sure, it may be annoying to try to get a few suds out of a paper thin bar, but it can be done. I got in the shower the other day to find, that's right, no soap! Now, I know when I took a shower the day before, the bar was getting small, but it had a good two to three days left. I was truly puzzled. So, I washed with the shower gel and then later quizzed my husband as to this curious disappearance of the soap.

Any guesses? Yes, he had stuffed the soap down the drain to make a point that he will not use paper-flake soap and that we can in fact afford a new bar. Now, if I try to stretch the bar a little longer, he says, "I'll put it down the drain. You know I will."

So I ask you all, where does this rank when compared with not replacing the toilet paper roll? Is there some grand master list out there of household sins?

H

Here's to New Friends!

Happy Monday everyone! I wanted to take the opportunity to tell everyone how much I've enjoyed blogging with you all, even though I drug my feet at first and thought you were wasting time. :)

I hope that you all will take a moment to note that we have redone our buddies list, splitting it into Justin's Buddies and Holly's Buddies. The two ladies listed under my name our fabulous girls I have known since third grade, fellow Friona folks! Aimee and Abbey are excited to be on blogspot and Aimee has already commented that you guys are all funny. I know its different when you don't know everyone you're blogging with, but just wanted to give you a little background if you see their names on our comments.

Aimee is living in Edmond, OK with her husband Seth and two boys, Rhett and Noah. She is an avid scrapbooker and the coolest mom ever! Abbey lives in McKinney, just a few minutes from us, with her husband Joel and their dog Woody. Abbey is a Deaf Education teacher and is quite crafty herself. I love you guys!

Welcome to blogspot Ladies!

Holly

New Years 2007

So Holly and I have been wracking our brains over New Years plans. The joys of being married always include the inevitable switching of holidays between parents homes. Unfortunately for us our parental units live some 8 hours apart, still in the same state mind you! This causes us to spend Christmas with one set of parents and New Years with the other. With our limited time off, I just do not see any way that we will ever be able to avoid this.

Alas, I have a suggestion. It seems that getting everyone together on New Years is becoming difficult. Could we entertain a change of dates? What if we met the weekend after New Years, January 5-7th in Omaha?

Any thoughts?

The Mysteries of Self Consciousness

I am not an overly fit or attractive person. My wife thinks I am hot, and that is all that really matters. I try to keep balance between overly obsessed with looks and not caring at all. I believe this balance has been lost in our society.

There is nothing like working at a large company headquarters to see all the different realms of self consciousness play out. You have what my Team lead terms ‘over-groomers’ and you have those who you are pretty sure wore those same clothes yesterday. You have the perfume bomber in the elevator and stink bomb in the bathroom. You have the skinny mini and the not so skinny mini.

Now let me start by saying; “I am a true believer in being you.” I believe people should take care of themselves but understand that may be different than how I choose to take care of myself. All I really ask is that your style, or lack there of, shows that you care.

I do however have one piece of advice. If by chance you have inherited, or have acquired either by default or on purpose, the body style in which your rear end has expanded beyond you shoulders, please do NOT place a tied up jacket across it to cover it up.

It doesn’t work.

Today while walking around the building I was just in a mood of people watching. I was completing my normal analysis of people’s choice of personal appearance and noticed four ladies who choose to tie a jacket around their waste with the body of the jacket dangling over their rear end. Now I know not the reason, but if it is to hide this body part, it doesn’t work. It in fact draws attention to the area by the flipping and flopping of the hood. It accentuates your round middle part by creating a circular band around the section with the arms tied. It looks even worse if your can just barely tie the arms together in the front, making you look even larger than you are trying to hide.

My advice: “Be Yourself.” Get over the fact of things you can do little if nothing about. Choose clothes that do not require you to hide your body, but focus attention on your positive features. Please do NOT attempt to cover anything up, choose to focus on the positive. And if by chance you choose to wear the jacket in case you get cold, just throw it over your shoulder, it is a better option, promise.

Stacy and Clinton would be proud, right Holly?

Star Blogger

How to win Star Blogger for next month. Just a suggestion.

RFD-TV

Rural America's Most Important Network

Enough said:

Go Big Joe
http://www.rfdtv.com/shows/bigjoe.asp

Updated Links

Introducing the new reward program from the Urban Adventure Blog...

I have decided the in addition to keeping us on track by calling out failed participation in the blog world, I should also point out our star blogger. A positive for a negative is always effective, despite what the military teaches. Push-ups anyone?

Our first Star Blogger of the Month is Viki! She wins based on her outstanding participation, consistent comments on other's blogs, and hilarious out takes from train life. Thanks Viki for keeping the rest of us entertained.

All right, Scott and Ethan you have some catching up to do, so you better get bloggin'.

Fully Restored

Thanks friends. All persons have been fully restored to the actively posted friends list. Let's keep it that, less we return to passive aggressive tendencies.

Rules to Enter Texas

Rules to Enter Texas: Applies to each person as they enter Texas. Learn & remember: East Coast and California-types pay particular attention!

1. Pull your droopy pants up. You look like an idiot.

2. Let's get this straight; it's called a "gravel road." I drive a pickup truck because I want to. No matter how slow you drive, you're going to get dust on your Lexus. Drive it or get out of the way.

3. They are cattle & oil wells. That's what they smell like to you. They smell like money to us. Get over it. Don't like it? I-20 and I-10 go east and west, I-35 goes north and south. Pick one.

4. So you have a $60,000 car. We're impressed. We have $250,000 cotton strippers that are driven only 3 weeks a year.

5. So every person in every pickup waves. It's called being friendly. Try to understand the concept.

6. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of doves are coming in, we WILL shoot it out of your hand. You better hope you don't have it up to your ear at the time.

7. Yeah, we eat catfish & crawfish. You really want sushi & caviar? It's available at the corner bait shop.

8. The "Opener" refers to the first day of deer season. It's a religious holiday held the closest Saturday to the first of November.

9. We open doors for women. That is applied to all women, regardless of age.

10. No, there's no "vegetarian special" on the menu. Order steak. Or you can order the Chef's Salad and pick off the 2 pounds of ham & turkey.

11. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats, vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: salt, pepper, and Picante Sauce! ; Oh, yeah.... We don't care what you folks in Cincinnati call that stuff you eat... It AIN'T REAL CHILI!! Chili was born and bred in San
Antonio....and real chili never met a tomato, or beans for that matter! Get them beans outta here!

12. You bring "coke" into my house, it better be brown, wet, and served over ice. You bring "Mary Jane" into my house, she better be cute, know how to shoot, drive a truck, and have long hair.

13. College and High School Football is as important here as the Lakers and the Knicks, and a dang site more fun to watch.

14. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don't hit the water hazards -- it spooks the fish.

15. Colleges? Try Texas Tech, Texas A&M or University of Texas. They come outta there with an education plus a love for God and country, and they still wave at passing pickups when they come for the holidays.

16. We have more folks in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, than any other state, so "Don't Mess with Texas," If you do, you will get whipped by the best.

17. Always remember what our great governor Sam Houston once said: "Texas can make it without the United States, but the United States can't make it without Texas!"

Texas is the greatest state ever!! If you are from Texas, you are one bad hombre!!!

Parental Motivation

Although I consider myself to be a clean, organized and generally motivated housekeeper, I find myself in a tornado of anxiety and list- making when my parents come to visit. Let me clarify that- when my mom comes to visit.

My mom is probably the best housekeeper this side of the Mississippi... well, perhaps in the whole country. She panics if there is an inkling of dust or my dad tracks one tiny clod of mud into the house. And don't even get her started on the bathrooms. I'm definitely not saying that this is bad; I've always appreciated her cleanliness and being able to find things in our house.

Needless to say, I've inherited some of her habits and compulsions. Justin would call them obsessions. Since marrying him, I have actually been known to leave a pair of shoes in the living room overnight, and perhaps even a dish or two in the sink for more than 10 minutes. I'm making a concerted effort not to drive my husband to the looney bin.

Well... my parents are coming to visit this weekend. Some of you may know that we painted our bathroom in FEBRUARY. Guess what I've had Justin doing after work the past couple of evenings? That's right- finishing the paint touch-ups around the ceiling. I could just hear my mom saying, "You mean to tell me you let people see your bathroom without the paint being finished?" Well, I'm not giving her the chance. Our to-do list before Friday afternoon also includes such things as: buying new pillows for the guest room (remember a few postings back about the Guest Room!), pulling grass around the trees in the front yard and deep cleaning the laundry room/Trigger's pooper area. Sure, these things have needed attention before now, but there's nothing like hearing your mom's voice filled with disappointment. Perhaps we will have a little energy left to actually enjoy the weekend with them.

We won't tell her that I had Justin research Betty Crocker's Cookbook to learn how to boil an egg! That's a whole different ballgame!

So, here's to clean houses and happy mothers!
H

Rain Rain, Go Away…oh wait

Having never received rain, I am moving on. When it does happen you can be sure I will post it here.

Holly and I have had a great weekend. I had original plans to make a marathon trip to West Texas to pick up a dining table we purchased in Amarillo. It turned out to be a bad idea and so the day off I had planed for Friday fell through. Well Holly is on ‘Summer Hours’ and works longer days to get half a day off on Fridays. I decided that it would be fun for us to spend the afternoon together and I also took Friday afternoon off.

It has been a really long time since we have been to the movies. First off they are freakin’ too expensive. Who wants to pay $8-$9 bucks a piece for a movie? NOT ME. I am too cheap. So friends of ours have been telling us about a cheap, but good, movie theater close to our house. Turns out it is $2.75 a piece before 6pm for first run movies. SCORE!

We went to see Cars. Well I screwed up the start time and we missed the beginning by ten minutes. So we opted to see You, Me and Dupree. It was a pretty cute movie, albeit predictable. On our way out the door to the car Holly looked at me and said, you know it is only 30 minutes until Cars starts again. So we stayed for a double feature. We loved Cars. It was a very fun and adult oriented movie.

Saturday, with no rain in sight, we slept in and had plans to have friends over that we hadn’t seen in some time. We ate Holly’s famous Enchilada Casserole and had a fiesta. We played a round of Settler’s of Catan (a very fun and long game) and we lost again. Freakin’ Kolb’s always win, Seth you readin’ this?

The Kolb’s left so the rest of us could have a chance and the Seabourns stuck around for a game of Hand and Foot. It was girls vs. guys and the guys were ahead by 700 points going into the final round. Now if you know Hand and Foot (and if you do you earn bonus points) then you know that 700 points is nothing. The girls won the final hand and beat the guys by less than 300 points. That is nothing more than going out first in this game. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday was church, cleaning and napping. It was a good long nap too! Much needed, if you ask us.

Now for the rest of the week…I think there is rain in the forcast.

A Misguided Isolated Thunderstorm

That is our only chance of rain for the rest of the week, or at least that is how my favorite talk radio meteorologist called it this morning. We went from a 40% chance to the possibility of a misguided isolated thunderstorm. We need a job where we can be wrong by 40%.

Just imagine if I was 40% off in my analysis of our passenger revenue. What’s $100,000,000 between friends? What if you were 40% off on hooking up with that refueling arm of the aircraft? What if you were 40% off your note while singing in the play or 40% off in your assessment of how much that high dollar bottle of scotch cost? Seriously now…

Do you realize that you do not even have to have a meteorological degree to call yourself a meteorologist? So from your Blogspot Weather center, this is Meteorologist Justin Noble, we’ll see you in the morning.

P.S. There is a chance of rain, somewhere around 40% no matter where you are…

Rain in the Forecast

I am not complaining about the possibility of rain. I promise. I whole heartedly welcome any and all precipitation. In fact I welcome the mere chance of rain. However the first CHANCE of rain in our forecast in a long time has come across the news like a typhoon warning.

It is true that we are in a historic drought here in North Central Texas. Some places are 30 inches below normal. Lakes are drying up. In fact the lake that provides my water is 11 feet below normal causing sever watering use restrictions. But people please it is rain.

For a brief time this morning the Dallas Morning New website’s leading story was the CHANCE of rain. On my way to work I was listening to Talk radio to get the traffic reports and they spent a full seven minutes talking about the POSSIBILITY of rain. Last night on the evening news they showed an animation sequence that was explaining how we MIGHT get some rain, then spent the rest of the cast hedging against it in case they are wrong.

So pray for rain, but please do it quietly. I am sick of hearing about the rain before it even rains or even if it does.

Next on News 8: “The Rain That Never Was” and here is Troy Duncan in the weather center to show us an animation on what went wrong.

Class Reunion

Some of you may not understand this if you didn't go to a small school, but some of you may be nodding and smiling (or grimacing) as memories come flooding back to you.

Well, Justin and I attended my 10 year high school reunion yesterday in Amarillo. I was looking forward to it for months and was even a little nervous at the prospect of being back around those people who hold the power of making you a part of the in-crowd or an outsider. We spent the afternoon in a park, chatting and getting over that awkward phase of knowing each other, but somehow not knowing each other at all.

We went back to the hotel to regroup, change clothes and hang out for a little while in the breakfast area, looking at scrapbooks, pictures and reminiscing. Then we headed to a local restaurant where we had a party room. Now the "fun" begins. The classmates who always thought they were cool for drinking haven't changed and haven't developed the ability to know their limits either. I'm not ashamed to say I was liked in school, but never got the seal of approval from the athletes. So here we go. My personal rival bought a shot for me and two of my friends, the 3 people who were band geeks. Now, would you take it personally if someone you can barely stand to look at bought you a shot called Death Fart? Needless to say, I didn't take it. Justin passed it down the table and it wasn't wasted. Rival calls me out saying, "where's your shot? When someone buys you a drink, you drink it." I responded with "I don't take shots and I'm not starting now." They laughed at me and quickly forgot about it, as they were already drunk. Anyway.

A group of 8 of us ate, paid our bills and headed to another place for dessert and wine. Relief! We were able to have intelligent conversation, remember the good times, and also get to know each others' spouses (4 classmates/4 spouses). Trey and Viki, Justin and I had a bottle of Forest Fire from California. Fabulous!!!!

We then went back to the hotel and stayed up till 3 just because we didn't want the night to end. Breakfast this morning was also enjoyable because only the responsible people were able to get up at a reasonable time. One of the highlights is that I was reaquainted with my friend who I had lived with in college and let circumstances come between us. We apologized to each other, agreed to leave it in the past and have promised to get back to where we once were. I love you Aimee!

The moral of the story is that some people will never grow up and those of us that have are the ones who really are the "cool kids." And you know, I came away from this experience with a new appreciation and love for my husband. He loves me more and treats me better than I ever imagined possible. Thank you Justin, and I'm proud to be married to a fellow band geek!

The Spare Bedroom

Sunday night Holly decided that it was time for her to clean the bedroom sheets. We do this on a pretty consistent basis, well lets just say that it is a lot more consistent than when I was single. I am not sure, but I think the square pattern design was still on my sheets from when I bought them and move into the dorm, when I moved out (three years later).

Now the sheets were going to be dry in time for bedtime, but I had a bright idea. We have a guest bedroom and it hardly ever gets used. Why don’t we just sleep in there, and not worry about the sheets. Holly is game and we pretend it is a stay at home slumber party.

We eagerly bounce into the room and snuggle up, well wait not exactly true. I am my father’s son, so in a effort to save money in a room we don’t use I had closed the vent off. So first we un-snuggled, as to not sweat, and opened the vent. Then we tried to adjust to sleeping on a double bed when we are used to sleeping on a queen. Then our cat decided that since he never gets to go in this room it was a perfect night to explore and root around. Then every time Holly or I turned over the bed was a little extra bouncy and woke the other one up. Then we realized that the bed squeaked at every breath. Then… Then… Then…

We didn’t sleep much that night, and the slumber party was a bust. So this is my formal apology to everyone we have ever made sleep on that bed. We promise that a new guest ‘experience’ is on the radar for the future.

Executive Office Lunch

Today it was 102 degrees in Dallas. That is one hot mother, if you ask me. It also felt like 102 in training rooms A thru D at Southwest Airlines Corporate Headquarters. You see today was my first experience with the quarterly Executive Office Luncheons.

The Executive Office Lunches are a great idea. Once a quarter the president of the company invites all the persons directly reporting to her and their respective employees to a catered lunch. At this event she gives updates on the company, the CEO and Chairman of the board attend and give updates and all vice presidents give reports on activities in their areas. For instance, at this meeting I was given an inside look at Wright amendment negotiations, saw the ads that will go out in the coming weeks, as well as other insider treatments!

It is great to feel incorporated and informed about the company and its business. Now don’t get the wrong impression here, in true Southwest Spirit this was a completely informal event. The president, Colleen, was in a pant suit and sat at her front table smoking. The CEO, sat at a random table wearing his Hawaiian shirt, while the Chairman sat at the smoker’s table in his button down shirt and blue jeans making jokes the whole way through.

Another tradition of the Executive Office Lunch is that each new person must step to a mic and introduce themselves. For Internal Audit we had four new people since the last lunch. In another shining example of Southwest Spirit is often that Colleen will ask you a question, request you sing a song or other antic. We were forewarned of this and we offered to put together a song to introduce ourselves.

Our time to perform came at the very last minute of the meeting. We four approached the front of the room filled with 250 prying eyes. I lead off by getting the room to do the stomp-stomp-clap of ‘We Will Rock You’. Yes we parodied ‘We Will Rock You’ as ‘We Will Audit You’. We each had a verse to intro ourselves. We had practiced many, many times before and all had worked to memorize our four short lines. Not a one of us got through our four lines with stumbling under the pressure. We had the whole room rolling.

At the conclusion of the great performance we received a 1/3 of the room standing ovation. Colleen praised us for our performance as well. We were a mess and sweating under the amazing embarrassment.

Just another day at SWA!

Phoenix has Mountains?

I spent the weekend in Phoenix, Arizona with a college friend and his wife. Holly had plans for the weekend, so I took the opportunity to spread my new wings with Southwest Airlines and explore my Freedom to Fly!

As I approached Phoenix from the great vacuum that is New Mexico, I noticed some mountains. Mountains in Arizona? I didn’t know they had those here. My friend had mentioned going hiking north of town in the mountains, but I thought certainly that he was just exaggerating. Nope! They have beautiful mountains there.

I had a great, albeit quick, weekend of hiking, socializing and feasting on good food and great scenery. If you ever get a chance, go to Phoenix and head north for a great time!

My Private Protest

I have updated my links on the right to show those persons who have failed to keep their end of the bargain in this whole blog world. I will be happy to update you, as a regular link, as soon as you let me know you have posted. I have stopped looking at your blogs. Please let me know when you have posted!

The links are listed with the date of your last participation.

P.S. Credit should be given to Armand, he has called me twice while he was driving, however this does not count towards his overall Blog participation score.

JULY 6, 1979

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN!!!!!!

JUNE 28, 1978

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLLY

Beach Bums

Whew, everyone needs to take a little summer vacation. Holly and I spent a good weekend in beautiful Jacksonville, Florida. I spent the week there working at the airport. I have decided that this is a great way to travel. It is like having an advance team, for all you military types out there. I scope out the lay of the land, know some good places to eat, and how to generally navigate the city.

Being that Holly’s birthday is June 28^th and my Birthday is July 6^th, I decided that this would be our little birthday trip. It has become somewhat of a tradition for us. Last year we traveled to North Carolina to visit our great friends (HI Clint and Erin!). Holly arrived at 1pm on Friday afternoon. I decided that we need to really enjoy the Florida sunshine and rented a convertible for the weekend. Something odd about renting a convertible, you have to program in a country station into the presets. ;)

We loaded Holly’s bags and took a long way back to the hotel, to give her the lay of the land. We were staying in downtown Jacksonville, a good central point for all things in the city. We decided that we should catch the local Double-A affiliate of the Dodger’s play a little baseball. So we headed off for the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville (we had to go simple because of the cool name like Ballpark in Arlington). We have this crazy knack of catching baseball games that have fireworks attached, without even knowing it. So we were watching the Jacksonville Suns battle it out with the Montgomery Biscuits (serious the Biscuits?) when we heard the stadium announcer say “Remember fans to stick around after the game for the NAPA auto parts post game fireworks show.” SCORE!

So the mighty Jacksonville Suns won and the fireworks were great. We get up on Saturday and head to St. Augustine, Florida. It is about an hour south and claims to be the oldest city in the USA. It is a cool town that reminded Holly and I of the old European cities you see on TV. It has very narrow streets that are made of rickety stone and brick combo, uneven sidewalks and buildings all smashed together. It would never pass Texas wide-open space planning rules. We toured an old Spanish hospital, an old wooden school house (not really worth it) and an old fort. While at the fort they were demonstration how they would fire cannons and we actually saw them fire one. It was pretty freakin’ loud and very cool. We rounded out our visit to St. Augustine by visiting a lighthouse and climbing 219 steps to the top of the 14 story house. I loved it, but Holly hates heights, so she literally climbed to the top for a single picture and less than 25 seconds of views.

After St. Augustine, we headed north to Jacksonville Beach. We camped out and played in the super fine white sand for a few hours. Having only seen Padre Island and Galveston bay, it was like playing in the Caribbean to us. We then headed back to the hotel and out to a fancy dinner. We went to Benny’s Steak and Seafood and had a scrumptious dinner as we worked our way through a bottle of wine (It was a Riesling Trey and Viki!).

Sunday we slept in and headed back to the airport. After some tense moments trying to get on some flights we were on our way. Take it from us, get out for at least the weekend and enjoy some quality time away from reality!

My Adventures in Mass Transit

by Justin

While spending a week in Chicago for work, we utilized something we do not have in Dallas (or Texas for that matter) a great network of trains for mass transit. From our hotel at Midway airport we took the trains twice, once to Wrigley Field the other to downtown. While the ease and cheapness of the train was great, there are some interesting times to be had on the train.

Our first train ride to Wrigley was a nice crowded affair. We are riding the Orange line into downtown and know we need to get off at Lake to transfer to the Red line to get to Wrigley. So doing what every good tourist does we watch our handy-jim-dandy map and listen to the on-train announcements to ensure we get off at the correct stop for transfer. We know where we are suppose to get off right? Lake! So we come to a stop and the train announces Library & Lake stop. We are confused, but it says Lake so we jump off. We search and search to no avail. We finally ask a worker for the transit authority and he, with NO enthusiasm explains that there is in fact TWO stops for Lake and we need the other one. The thing is that the handy-jim-dandy map doesn’t tell you this important fact. No fear after a twenty minute stop on the red line, we make it to Wrigley in the middle of the second inning, just in time for a rain delay…perfect.

My second train story is one of those Joan Osborne moments. You know the “What if God was one of us? Just a stranger on the bus, trying to make his way home” song. We are sitting on the train headed home from have some mighty tasty brew from a place downtown called Jake M’s when a man sits in front of us. He all of the sudden looks up and says “I don’t want to love you anymore” and gets of the train. We all look around and realize that he is not exactly playing with a full deck of cards. He gets off at the next stop and we think we have just experienced our funkiness for the evening, WRONG.

The same stop this guy gets off a new crazy gets on. This guy strikes up a conversation with us wanting us to go to a block party in three weeks. We try to explain that we are only in town for business and we won’t be here, but he insists we attend. He tries hard to convince us that we need to be there because it is going to be like the ‘Left Behind’ series and we don’t want to miss it. He pulls out a crinkled up piece of paper and shows it to us and indeed it is a ‘Left Behind’ themed block party. He goes on to stress that we should not bring any alcoholic drinks, as all beverages will be provided. He promises that the ‘spirit’ will control us and we will dance all night with their beverages. We were a little scared what those beverages might be. The first thought is like those cult guys who tried to hitch a ride on the comet a few years back with Kool-aid. He finally gets off and we are freaked out.

That’s my experiences with Chicago and mass transit. My thoughts go to those of you who have to put up with this randomness everyday. At least I only have to put up with idiots in their cars! Next week I am off to Jacksonville, Florida. I will give you a beach update soon!

Blessings

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers for my grandad and the rest of our family over the past two weeks. My grandad actually didn't have a heart attack, but a gall bladder attack. When he went to the doctor, tests showed severe heart blockage which led to his actual triple bypass on June 2. He was doing fine from that, but then his gall bladder ruptured, which led to emergency surgery. He was very sick for a couple of days, and the stress from that made his kidneys fail temporarily. He had to have dialysis 4 times, but thankfully today was the last of those. And finally... he got to go home today!!!
It will be a long road of gaining strength, regulating blood sugars and learning to rest a little more. So please feel free to keep sending the prayers our way! :)
Justin and I are ready for a break. He's been travelling so much and we've been to Lubbock the last three weekends. Thankfully, we can stay home this weekend and do a little bit of nothing.
Hope you all have a good weekend and are enjoying your summer so far!
Holly

Prayer Please

To catch you all up on our craziness, here we go. Justin is on his third four-day business trip since starting his job May 1. He came home last Thursday from Ohio, we left Friday for Lubbock for the long weekend, and he left Tuesday morning for Chicago. He gets back tomorrow (Friday) and we leave Saturday to go see my family again... which brings me to my next point.
We had planned to go home this weekend for my grandparents' 60th Anniversary party. However, my grandad had a heart attack today and is in the heart hospital in Lubbock. He will be having a double bypass tomorrow, which is actually their anniversary. So please keep him in your prayers for recovery, my grandma for strength and peace and the rest of my family as well.
Thank you all and hope you're okay.
Holly

Was that Trey and Viki?

By Justin

Well what a week it has been, right? I caught the first flight out of Love Field on my way to a whole day of traveling to get to Columbus, OH. Let me say that this was my first time traveling under the Wright Amendments and we must all rally to SET LOVE FREE. (www.setlovefree.com). It is ridiculous. I took off at 7am CST and flew to Houston. South, mind you, and I want to go North. I then flew to Chicago Midway. I then changed planes again to get to Columbus, OH at 2pm CST, pm their time. It was a full day of travels just to get started. To get home today I flew Columbus, OH to Chicago Midway to Kansas City, MO to Dallas Love Field. Three planes and six hours with my max stop over being one hour. Come on people. Help a man out.

I was excited to get to fly to Midway. I was looking for Viki and Trey the whole way. I thought I spotted Viki at a station waiting on the train, but alas I was to high to tell. Oh well, I will try again next time. Wait, next time is next week. Yes that is right I get to spend Tuesday through Friday in Chicago at Midway. Now I will be putting in a ton of hours, but I would really like to catch up with my friends from hinder lands. What do you guys think? I do not have any contact info on ya'll, so lets get together.

I am going to put this family dispute to an end. Yes I did laugh, because it was funny. No Holly would not have laughed right away, but she would have laughed eventually. Yes I would have laughed at myself. HOWEVER, the fact remains. I didn’t hit my head!

In My Defense

Okay, so Justin laughed his head off when I ran into the light fixture. For all of you husbands/boyfriends... don't ever laugh at your girl when she's in pain. He said I was trying not to laugh. Not so! I was in pain!
Also, what he failed to tell you is that he almost walked right into it the next morning. I said "watch your head!" and he had to duck quickly and said he felt the heat from it on his face. So, who's laughing now?
Besides, I'm just trying to keep things exciting around here. He teases me about living with the same furniture arrangement as long as I live at one address. For those of you who haven't been to his parents' house, don't ever sit down without looking behind you, because the chair you sat in last month is probably not there this time. Now me, I come from a home where you can be gone for 5 years and come home to the same comfortable normalness. Is one better than the other? No, so I'm just trying to see his side of things sometimes.
I can't say that this always works though, because when I do change something up, I usually end up blaming Justin for messing with my stuff. This being because my short term memory is almost non-existent. It's fun around here!

The Light Fixture

Before I dive into my tale, let me update you guys on the happenings of my life. I have been working at Southwest Airlines now for almost a month. In my month I have decorated my cube, worked to get to know some great coworkers and tried to adapt to the Southwest culture. On day one a group of fifteen grown adults sang a song to me to welcome me ‘aboard’. On day five the finance department went through the entire five floors of the company in parade style, dressed in complete Cinco-de-Mayo garb. After the parade (3pm) my boss cracked a beer open and passed out other beers in our office. We walked through the company, carrying open containers, to the huge maintenance hanger for a Cinco-de-Mayo party. At the party there were piñatas hanging from the ceiling lifts that they use to work on the planes, a band, games, free cokes and more alcohol to purchase very cheap. I spent the next week in Kansas City, MO, which was a great learning point for me. This last week was more orientation and getting things organized.

The best part of this is the clothing I can wear. I came from an environment of wearing slacks or Dockers each day and being able to put on a tie if you were going to a meeting. We did wear Polo’s during the warmer months, but only if you didn’t have a meeting. On day one, I wore my normal work attire. Day two was pants and polo. Day three was shorts and a polo. Day four was pants, a polo and flip flops. I adapted very quick to this relaxed atomosphere. The fun thing is that it starts with the CEO and goes down. For the stockholders meeting, which was last Wednesday, I say the Chairman of the board and President both wearing jeans. It is great. During the summer my office has Hawaiian shirt Fridays. So I wore linen pants, an open Hawaiian shirt a green undershirt to match and flip flops. My new coworkers were amazed how quickly I have ‘embraced’ the culture. Me too!

The light fixture story is quite humorous. Holly has wanted to create a little more room around our breakfast table. To do so she decided to put one side of the table against the kitchen bar wall. This left the light fixture hanging over the table low enough to crack your head on it. Currently there is not enough chain and cord to swing the fixture over the new placement. Now she spent a lot of time working this out but I was worried about the light fixture, so I place a bar stool in the middle of the fixture so I wouldn’t hit it. She was ticked I did this and refused to go to dinner on Wednesday, unless I moved it back. I tried to explain, but she didn’t care. We get back from our evening out and I am on the phone with a friend when bam, she hits it. I crack up laughing and she has to fight to keep from laughing, even though her head hurts.

So now we have one of our chairs pulled back to keep us from walking under it. Did I say I told you so?

Living with Justin

So I'm hearing that you want to know what living with Justin is like. That's a very interesting inquiry, as it just seems like normal life to me now. Hmmm... Perhaps a look into Justin doing chores will enlighten you.
Justin has taken it upon himself to clean the litter box once a week. I would love him forever for that alone, but there's more. He dusted, vacuumed, took out the trash/recycling and cleaned the litter box the night before my Tupperware party. I was blown away! Imagine my surprise when I found that he had swept litter under the sheet that the litter box sits on instead of sweeping it up! Now, I started to get upset, but stopped myself and said, "What man would be so willing to clean house so that his wife can spend the evening before her party perusing the Tupperware catalog and making lemon bars?" MINE!
On a serious note, or perhaps you might find it not-so-serious, I had made quite an extensive list of character traits I wanted in a husband while I was in college. Keep in mind I was 19 and hadn't quite developed the maturity that this old 27 yr/11mo lady now has! Anyway, it included rubbish like "looks good in Wranglers" and "has blue eyes" and "likes cats". I shared this list with Justin after we were engaged and we had a good laugh about it. The humbling note here is that God knows our hearts and wants to see His children happy. So, besides Justin living his life for the Lord, being an honest and loving husband, and making me laugh, he also looks GREAT in Wranglers, has blue eyes and likes cats.
Now there's something to think about. Next time he's cleaning the litter box, you know I'll be checking out his Wrangler clad bum.

Day One

I am assuming that we all have just been busy. Updating has been few and far between on some people (not naming names, YET).

I started at Southwest today. It was a good start. Most of the office is out of town on business. It looks like I get my first dose of that next week. My job doesn’t require a lot of travel; I just started right in the middle of the traveling season. I’m looking forward to it.

Nothing much is going on in the Noble household. Holly and I volunteered to be in charge of decorating the sanctuary at our church for Vacation Bible School (VBS). Now this is great fun to me, but it is interesting that we were picked to do the main area of the church when we have never seen a VBS at this church and don’t have any kids. I have sprung into action complete with composite sketches and perspectives. Who said six years of Architecture is going to waste?

Holly hosted a Tupperware party over the weekend. Can you believe they still make that stuff? It is coming back, according to the sales lady. She was pumped as Holly’s party was the highest grossing party she had ever had as a consultant. Holly received something like $180 worth of free stuff of other people purchases. Crazy…

That’s the update from Dallas.

Set Luv Free!

A Blog about Blogs

One month ago today I was persuaded to try this thing called Blogs. I really didn’t see it working. I thought to myself, we will do it for about a week or two and then it will fall off. I thought, “There is no way possible to write something every week that is entertaining enough to read”. Boy was I wrong.

One month and going strong. I have greatly enjoyed blogging. I feel like I am getting to know my long time friends better and keeping our friendship fresh and strong. I can see how blogging is expanding my friendship with the ‘Ab Show’ and Viki and Jelaine. It is good to know about the everyday things, I think it will help when we do see each other and feel like we have been there all along.

So here is to the next month.

So I played Cornhole or ‘Bag-o’ as my friends call it. They are good Midwesterners from Nebraska and Iowa. Last night they drug out their bags and boards and we played guys verses girls. While I am no expert I will say that the guys won all three rounds. I contributed my fair share. At one point it was 20-0 guys!! I don’t understand how a whole league could surround this sport. Three games were good for me! A cross-cultural experience, for sure. Does Bag-o count in the Presidential Challenge?

An Open Letter to the Current President:

Have you ever looked at a map of the world? Look at Texas with me just for a second. That picture, with the Panhandle and the Gulf Coast, and the Red River and the Rio Grande is as much a part of you as anything ever will be. As soon as anyone anywhere in the world looks at it they know what it is. It's Texas.

Pick any kid off the street in Japan and draw him a picture of Texas in the dirt and he'll know what it is. What happens if I show you a picture of any other state? You might get it maybe after a second or two, but who else would? And even if you do, does it ever stir any feelings in you?

In every man, woman and child on this planet, there is a person who wishes just once he could be a real live Texan and get up on a horse or ride off in a pickup. There is some little bit of Texas in everyone.

Did you ever hear anyone in a bar go, "Wow...so you're from Iowa? Cool, tell me about it?" Do you know why? Because there's no place like Texas.

Texas is Sam Houston capturing Santa Ana at San Jacinto.
Texas is "Juneteenth" and Texas Independence Day.
Texas is huge forests of Piney Woods like the Davy Crockett National Forest.
Texas is breathtaking mountains in the Big Bend.
Texas is the unparalleled beauty of bluebonnet fields in the Texas Hill Country.
Texas is the beautiful, warm beaches of the Gulf Coast of South Texas.
Texas is the shiny skyscrapers in Houston and Dallas.
Texas is world record bass from places like Lake Fork.
Texas is Mexican food like nowhere else, not even Mexico.
Texas is the Fort Worth Stockyards, Bass Hall, the Ballpark in Arlington and the Astrodome.
Texas is NASA.
Texas is huge herds of cattle and miles of crops.
Texas is skies blackened with doves, and fields full of deer.

Texas is the Red Raiders with Texas Tech
Texas is the Longhorns with University of Texas
Texas is the Aggies with Texas A&M University

Texas is larger-than-life legends like Michael DeBakey, Denton Cooley, Willie Nelson, Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, Tom Landry, Darrell Royal, ZZ Top, Eric Dickerson, Earl Campbell, Nolan Ryan, Sam Rayburn, George Bush, Lyndon B. Johnson, and George W. Bush.

Texas is ocean beaches, deserts, lakes and rivers, mountains and prairies, and modern cities.

If it isn't in Texas, you probably don't need it.

No one does anything bigger or better than it's done in Texas.

By federal law, Texas is the only state in the U.S. that can fly its flag at the same height as the U.S. flag. Think about that for a second. You fly the Stars and Stripes at 20 feet in Maryland, California, or Maine and your state flag, whatever it is, goes at 17 feet. You fly the Stars and Stripes in front of Pine Tree High in Longview or anyplace else at 20 feet, the Lone Star flies at the same height - 20 feet.

Do you know why? Because it is the only state that was a republic before it became a state.

Also, being a Texan is as high as being an American down here. Our capitol is the only one in the country that is larger than the capitol building in Washington D.C. and we can divide our state into five states at any time if we wanted to! We included these things as part of the deal when we came on. That's the best part, right there.

Texas is the Alamo . Texas is 183 men standing in a church, facing thousands of Mexican nationals, fighting for freedom, who had the chance to walk out and save themselves, but stayed instead to fight and die for the cause of freedom. We send our kids to schools named William B. Travis and James Bowie and Crockett and do you know why? Because those men saw a line in the sand and they decided to cross it and be heroes. John Wayne paid to do the movie himself. That is the Spirit of Texas.

Long Live Texas!

It’s Like Rain on Your Wedding Day

So there are two kinds of drivers in Texas, those who can drive in any weather and those who require perfectly sunny and clear days. Today is not sunny and clear…

Let’s look a little closer.

All Weather Drivers (of which I am one)
We understand a basic concept that road and weather conditions require caution, but not stupidity. We know to increase space between cars and adjust speed closer to the actual speed limit. We understand that rash decisions and breaking is not smart. We understand to look out for the other class of drivers, cause they ain’t looking for you. We understand that it will take longer, but only because the other class of drivers are on the road twenty minutes early so they ‘won’t be late’ in the ‘traffic they cause.’

Sunny and Clear Drivers (of which I am NOT)
These people think that the very mention of rain, and thus water on the roads, induces a sever driving hazard. To compensate for the hazard they must drive 40 in 65 in the left lane. They do this because they feel the road will be slick. They equate water to ice. They equate ice to an immediate trip to Hell. They start braking for turns, lane changes, exits, lights, etc no less than three times the require stopping distance. They get mad at All Weather Drivers because we are ‘unsafe’ and ‘unruly.’

I had one of the most frustrating drives into work this morning. It was a sea of Sunny and Clear Drivers with five All Weather Drivers all trying to help each other through the maze. The lady in front of me was driving 40 in a 65. There was no rain. The road was wet from the overnight rain, but it was not unsafe. She was leaving no less than a football field and a half between her and the car in front of her, while being in the left lane. If a car went around her she hit her brakes to increase the distance between them. It took a while, but I finally started to get around her. As I passed her she looked at me and gave me this look. I looked at her and pointed to her to get out of the left lane. She flipped me off. So I got in front of her and hit my brakes to go 30. She got mad and changed lanes to get around me. I immediately sped up and the whole line behind her passed her, on the left, as it is designed to do.

I love Dallas.

Annual Rite of Passage Into Spring

The one true thing unique to homeownership is mowing the freakin’ lawn. Saturday was ‘lawn day’ in the Noble household. It is an annual rite of passage into spring. You spend the day pulling weeds, performing the first mow, weed-eat, and planting new flowers. We did just that. Friday night, to avoid the crowds, we went to Lowes and purchased new flowers for the beds. Holly prefers to buy annuals each year so we can have different colors and styles. We also purchased a few new perennials and a new bush. So we spent the morning digging and rearranging our current plants to make room for our new plants. While Holly planted the flowers, I mowed and weed-eated the yard. It was quite a daunting task, yet the payoff was nice. We now have flowers of yellow, orange, pink, red and purple. The whole front of the house will be full of color in a couple of weeks as they grow and fill in.

I have to admit that I was a skeptic. Last summer Holly planted 98 of these tiny flowering plants. For weeks I thought we wasted our money, they were small and scrawny. About a month later they took off. Before long they were falling out of the bed and I had to avoid mowing them. They looked great and made the whole front of the house rich. I am a believer now.

One note to the homebuyers among us, two words, sprinkler system. Spend the little extra money and have a sprinkler system put in. Last summer I spent the better part of an hour each day after work and three to four hours on the weekend moving hoses and sprinklers to keep the yard and flowers going. It was a lot of time and energy that I came to hate. So late this winter we had a sprinkler system put in. It has been a great addition, despite the cost. The pain has been to put it in after the sod is laid you have to rip your yard to pieces. We now look like we have an overactive gopher. It will go away, I know, and to not haul hoses is very worth it.

Now the real fun begins. Mowing and yard work become a weekly task. Ahh 100 degree mowing days, can’t wait.

Ding! You are now free to move about the country!

A new job is so much fun, but so much anxiety. I turned in my two week notice yesterday and am officially leaving UT Southwestern Medical Center. How odd to say that. I have truly enjoyed my job here, but somtimes you know it is time to leave.

Where am I going you ask? Well glad you did. I am headed to Southwest Airlines to work in their Internal Audit department. I am excited!

So lets all "Set Love Free" (www.setlovefree.com) so I can move about the country for free easier! Maybe that Cub's game isn't so far fetched now, right Viki?

Comment Moderation 101

My wife and I greatly enjoyed our trip to Eureka Spring, Arkansas. We had limited WI-FI internet, so I decided one afternoon to fire it up and check out our blogs. I thought it would be nice to blog from somewhere other than Texas. It took ten minutes to load my blog, so I gave up on reading anyone else’s. I did look long enough to see no comments had been made on my previous blogs.

I got off the blog and thought to myself, how weird. Why doesn’t anyone want to comment on my blogs? Am I too boring with my philosophical baseball mumbo-jumbo? At least A3 could comment on Febreze, come on.

I get to work today and start looking through blogs. By sheer alphabet, Viki is last for the daily reading. I was startled to find JUSTIN!!! as the subject. Uh Oh. What did I do? Comment blocking thing? What?

So I researched and sure enough, people do like me. I mean

I’m good enough
I’m smart enough
and dog-gone people like me!

Now how in the heck did I get myself into this? Ah, I remember, it was the pop-up debate. Should comments pop-up or be on a new page. Pop-up won by my count, and I must agree. But you see I am a guy, and guys have to figure things out. What is this comment monitoring thing? I don’t know, let’s turn it on and see. Didn’t do anything I can tell.

And that, my friends is how I am got myself into this mess. So the odd thing is that Viki both got me into and out of this mess. Thanks Viki!

News on the home front soon!

Baseball: Six Minutes of Action Crammed Into Two and One Half Hours!

If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base. ~Dave Barry

Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer. ~Ted Williams

I have discovered in twenty years of moving around a ball park, that the knowledge of the game is usually in inverse proportion to the price of the seats. ~Bill Veeck

I have heard it said that life is like baseball. Some people have written poems and articles on this topic. I find it an interesting analogy. I won’t claim to be the biggest baseball fan, although I do love to go to the games, but I will claim to be one of those thought provoking fans.

First, everyone knows that the best place to view the game is at the top of the stadium. Head out to The Ballpark in Arlington (d.b.a Ameriquest Field in Arlington) and take the three escaladers, which are very precariously hanging in mid air, to the top. Find you a good rail seat and really watch the game unfold. Let the rich corporate types watch the game for ten times the cost on the base lines. They are missing the true action.

Isn’t life like this too? Often we are so close to home plate that we miss the action in the outfield. As decisions unfold in life and we are trying to call the shots, the best place to make the decision is at the “top of the stadium” not behind the plate.

Second, how odd is it that the game is built around the defense throwing to the offense? As I transverse corporate America, I quickly see this principle unfold. How often am I left to deal with a project, which I knew nothing about, but am expected to hit out of the park? It is thrown at you, but you don’t know if it is a curve, sinker, fastball, or even if it is going to go into the dirt. You have a split second to decide, swing or not? Swing and it could be the winning run or a pop fly. Don’t and you could be called on a strike or get a freebie walk. Obviously, swinging is more gratify, but much more risky. Everybody like the homerun, but rarely notice the ‘base on balls’ guy who made an equally as smart decision.

Lastly, you have to understand that the game can be won in a multitude of ways. Unlike most other sports, in baseball one person really can win the game. While a team effort surrounds him, one pitch in the bottom of the ninth can mean the difference between a ‘W’ and an ‘L’. That is just the way the game goes. Nine and two thirds innings can be perfect, but one swing can send the home team celebrating. I think life is this way too. A person can be a great person their whole life. Do good, make all the right decisions and be a great friend. Yet in the bottom of the ninth they choose to drink and drive, experiment with risky businesses, invest a fortune of time but neglect their family to find it all gone soon after. A life of good lost in the bottom of the ninth. Thankfully the opposite is true as well.

Well that is my ramblings on baseball and life.

Ranger’s fans will understand this:
“Hello Win Column”