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”

On the Road (or Air) Again

To ask what is going on in our lives, is somewhat of a boring story, unless you are us. I have been on a series of job interviews this week. I am excited about some of the possibilities, not so much about others. It is odd to think about leaving the comforts of what you know with this job and look outside the company. Many of you who read this will understand exactly what I am thinking about.

We are flying to Amarillo this afternoon. We have a family weekend planned. We will eat dinner with an Aunt and Uncle who have moved to Amarillo tonight, then Holly’s parents will pick us up in Amarillo and whisk us off to the nice flat plains of the panhandle. It is always so nice to get away and visit them. Tomorrow we have a family birthday party bash planned. We are excited to get to see all of the extended family. Sunday will be church and back to Dallas.

Next weekend we are looking forward to our annual anniversary trip. Holly and I have made it a tradition to go somewhere for our anniversary. Last year we spent a long weekend camping on Padre Island on the Texas gulf. It was a great trip. This year we have rented a cabin in the Ozark Mountains in northern Arkansas. We are heading up Saturday morning and coming back on Tuesday. Good times!

There is the update from Dallas!

Febreze Monkey? 

Am I a good friend or what?

http://www.hapaculture.com/life/kids/raishapa/mnky.html

Mission POSSIBLE, if you have the cash.

Pay it forward?

I love kids. I hope to have some soon. What is amazing about kids is their ability to infect you with off the wall viruses that you never even knew they had, all while smiling and laughing. Such is the case with Holly and I this week.

We truly enjoyed our time with our nephews, Tyler and Jared. We laughed till we hurt and played till we were tired. Up comes the sun on Tuesday, two days after our fun weekend. Holly wakes up with a sore throat. That afternoon she is running a fever and not feeling well at all. I wake up on Wednesday with a sore throat and a headache. Wednesday afternoon I get a fever and my headache is greatly debiliating. I stayed home from work yesterday with so much pain and aching in my head and chest, you can't imagine. Holly toughed it out by nursing herself through with medicine and warm liquids. We are basically useless and doped up.

Who knew you could have so much fun and pay so dearly for it just a few days later? Oh well the truth be known, we would do it all over again just to see the kiddos.

3 AM, a Boy, a Snake and Counseling

For those of us who have had the honor and privilege to serve on a Twin Arrows staff, you understand that given enough time you will experience some of the most amusing things. Pardon a few inside jokes, but I can only think of ‘cobbler’ as a perfect example. Well I honestly thought I had experienced just about anything and everything one could until I was Scoutmaster. This story is entitled “3 AM, a Boy, a Snake and Counseling”.

After two hefty days of course prep, I was already running low on sleep. Tonight was the first night with participants in camp. My tent mate and I went to bed sometime around one AM. I laid there looking up into the night sky that is wonderfully dark inside a canvas wall tent and thought ‘man that is in focus’. Yep, I forgot to take my contacts out. Couple that with the fact that I left my contact case inside the lodge, and I decided just to sleep with them in and deal with them in the morning. It was also a nice muggy night, so I asked my tent mate if he cared if I slept with my tent flap tied back. He agreed so we were all set.

Those of you who know me know that I am an astronomically light sleeper. Simple noises wake me throughout the night. So I laid there and suddenly wake up. The first thing that goes through my mind is what time is it? So I look up at my watch, hit the light and see 2:58 am. The next thought is truly odd. I think, what is that noise? It sounds like someone talking.

You know that split second when someone is trying to wake you up, and you think that you are coherent, but you aren’t? I was there. There was a whinny, youthful voice talking to me asking me if he could sleep in his tent. Sleep in his tent? Where was he sleeping, now? Then he is talking about snakes. SNAKES? That woke me up.

I then realized something. A youthful voice was talking to me and I was sleeping on top of my sleeping bag in my underwear. Those of you not current in your Boy Scouts of America policies will not know, but there is a huge push and major effort underway to comply with the very strict principles of the ‘Youth Protection’ policies. I quickly realize that a conversation with a youth at 3 AM in my BVDs is not Youth Protection compliant. I asked the young man his name and patrol. I will withhold that information for his protection, but I swear he told me his name was Jonathan Ramsey. I asked Mr. Ramsey to kindly step to the side of my tent and I would be with him shortly.

My tent mate did offer to assist me, but being 3 am, I let him sleep. This is what the Scoutmaster is paid for right?

I got dressed and started walking the young man back to his patrol site. In doing so I was told the following story in the most amazing whinny voice: “I have been awake since midnight. Each time the wind blows I hear something in the leaves. I think it is a snake so I get up with my flash light and look for it. Can I set up my personal dome tent and sleep in there tonight. I am scared. When I was at Sid Richardson for summer camp I woke up at a snake was three feet from my tent.”

It is 3am and this boy is scared of a snake crawling inside his tent, up a pallet, up a cot that is three feet off the ground to get him. Are you kidding me? He wants to set up a dome tent that is on the ground to protect him from the snake that is on the ground. I was very confused.

I now understand why some fathers go nuts. There is no rationalizing with a thirteen year old who is scared at 3 AM. So I did what any other Scoutmaster would do, I helped him set up his tent.

The next morning I went to check on the young man. He was in as good as mood as you can expect, until I informed him that he was not allowed to sleep in his tent tonight. With all the amazing transformations of Hudini, he suddenly became homesick, scared and wanted to go home. An hour and a half later of counseling about dormant snakes, irrational fears and a change of tent mates, he was convinced to stick it out.

Those of you who are not familiar with the new syllabus for Twin Arrows will be confused, but the new course has a overnight outpost hike. For that matter, the old course had one but we didn’t do it. As a part of the prep for the overnight the Scoutmaster gives a speech about emergency procedures. Do you know this young man, four nights after this event, asks me what to do if he gets bitten by a snake? It was all I could do to keep from cracking up.

There are several event of special blessing that I see in this. First, I never wear my contacts to bed, and had I not had forgot to take them out I would have been stumbling around since I left my glasses at home. Second, I rarely sleep with tent flaps open. He picked the first tent with flaps open and it just happened to be my tent. Lastly, I learned valuable lessons in counseling youth at irrational times.

And who says Boy Scouts isn’t good for instilling character?

The Lovely Couple 

Strippers and Stripers

Well my fishing for strippers didn't go so well. For that matter neither did my fishing for stripers. I did catch a few sand bass, but only one was a keeper. For the weekend, the whole family was short of catching fish. It seems they were on to us early on Friday and never really bought the whole eat the psychedelic colored fish with a hook story.

We had fun anyway. Holly and I greatly enjoy playing the fun uncle/aunt role. A three year old and a one year old will wear you out quick, that's for sure. Besides being all over the place they never seem to stop eating. Jared (the oldest) is always wanting 'toke' (Coke) or 'suse' (juice). Tyler (the youngest) sees any food in anyone's mouth he thinks it is time for him to eat as well. Besides all that, they are a fun bunch of kiddos to be around. If you don't want sleep, that is, which I desperately wanted.

I did take a nice long six hour nap on Saturday afternoon while my father and brother in law went fishing. It was a greatly needed catch up from a week of sleep deprivation. The women and children played a domino game called 'Chicken Foot'. It seems everyone had a good time.

Now it is back to the grind. Ten days with no work makes it hard to step back into that routine. The traffic this morning was gruling. It is days like this I wish I was back in Lubbock. Ok, so Scott and Laura win the traffic award every day, but I think I deserve a close second place on occasion. Ethan and I can trade it off.

Well that's the news from Justin and Holly's Urban Adventure today. I promise my 3am snake counseling story is forth coming... the anticipation builds.

As We Go Marching....

And the band begins to P-L-A-Y. You can hear them shouting, the Staff of TA's on their way.

Wow, what a week. Their are precious few things I would rather do with my Spring Break than be at Twin Arrows. It stinks that it runs through our wedding anniversary, but I really do love just being apart of TA.

The week started good. The new ranger at Sid Richardson (whom I have termed 'Captain America') actually helped us, instead of hindering us. You see this new guy is ex-military. His whole life has revolved around rules and following rules. Now he is running a Scout camp. He loves to say 'BSA policy states... and you know what the 7th point of the Scout Law is don't you?' obedient for those of you unfamiliar with the Scout Law. Besides that he is one of those people who is always backing up his points with smiles, like that really helps. I choose to appease him then scorn him when he wasn't around. Anyway I digress.

I couldn't have ordered up any better weather than what we had. The first two days were a little warm (80s) but absolutely stunning. A bright full moon made flashlights unnecessary. It then cooled off and we had perfect 70 degree days the rest of the time. TA is notorious for rain and weather shifts, I am glad to say we dodged that stigma.

I had, NO, absolutely, NO discipline problems. One kid went home for medical reasons, but other than that, I didn't have a single problem. That was a great blessing. I had a few minor staff issues, but nothing dramatic. So that was great.

I would be remiss if I didn't say that I was extremely humbled to be apart of history. It seemed all week someone was thanking me for my service, or congratulating me on my honor. Being the first Honor Scout, SPL, SM was a great source of pride for me, but I really worked hard over the past year to not let it get to my head. It is not about the honors or accolades, it is about the kids and teaching and leading them to greater successes. Others felt the need to constantly bring it up.

Scott is dead meat.

Scott showed up under the premise of just visiting my course. I was excited to see him and greatly enjoyed the hour or so we spent catching up. But as any ex-TA staffer knows, the last day isn't for the faint at heart. It wasn't long before he was out of his class A shirt and off to load chuck boxes, tents and the like. He was a work horse, and I was and am grateful.

So now I am enjoying my few hours without kids, Scouts and a wife. I tramp off to Lake Texoma this afternoon. I am excited to see the nephews and play fishing. I do apologize on the stripper comments. We all know that I wouldn't know what to do if I actually caught one, so I will just stick to striper fishing. I know that I can hand those off to Holly's dad and he will cut the head off for me!

Remind me to tell you the story entitled 'A boy, 3am, counseling and snake removal'