Be Prepared

So the way I see it, we shouldn’t be caught with our pants down, EVER. With that in mind I propose the following Posse, just in case we need it.

Ethan: Since you have access to the bat phone that actually reaches California, you will initiate the posse. The last I checked the bat signal wasn’t bright enough to reach across four states, so you will start the phone chain by calling Armand. After calling Armand, grab some food and head to NAS Fort Worth.

Armand: As chief pilot, you will fuel the plane, log the flight plan, arrange for refueling in route (because that would be cool to see) and prepare to teach the posse how to sky dive in route. Next call Trey then go pick him up.

Trey: I ain’t jumping out of a plane sober. You are to run to Binny’s. Pick up a bottle of something hard and then a glass of wine. Every good posse starts with an appropriate gentleman like toast, but I will need more alcohol in my system prior to jumping. Next call Justin. Finally, head to the closest airfield for Armand to pick you up.

Justin: I will get to NAS Fort Worth for pick up by Armand and Trey. Along the way I will grab the extra underwear I will need once I jump out of the plane as well as the Google maps satellite picture of California and Scotts house. I will meet Ethan at NAS.

Finally: Armand will do his in flight “How to Sky Dive in One Easy Lesson” and fly the plane at the same time. Our respective wives will huddle and pray for our sanity. We will jump when the red light goes green (that is how it works in the movies). Armand will land the plane, avoid being arrested by the MPs for breaking some pretty serious rules and head over to Scotts house.

We will arm ourselves with imaginary swords and take to the streets of California looking for Scott. He is near a Target somewhere, I promise.

There now you can’t say we aren’t PREPARED.

Speaking of a Posse search party, anyone heard from the President?

Is California Still Alive?

Has anyone talked to Scott in the past month? He hasn't blogged in a long time. I called him over the weekend, with no answer. I am starting to get worried. Do we need to send out a search party? Lets assemble a posse, just in case...

Race for the Cure

by Justin

Let me start by saying this: “I am in no way trying to be hurtful with my commentary on this subject.” Let’s get that over with.

If you read Holly’s previous post, and I hope you did, you know that she walked the 5k Susan G Komen Race for the Cure on Saturday. I opted to sleep in on one of the precious few Saturdays we are at home. I also had a silent reason to stay at home as well.

I hate big name fundraisers. I know the the Jerry Lewis MD telethon has raised ‘awareness’ and millions if not billions for research. I am sure the Susan G. Komen foundation has done amazing things, but I can’t get over the meer cost of running these outfits. Don’t think that I stop there. I refuse to participate in ‘Friends of Scouting’ activities as well. Why support the council or national council with money when very little of it, in my opinion, does more than go towards raising more money?

While I disagree with the ‘Wal-Mart’ approach to fundraising I will say that I can see how an event like ‘Race for the Cure’ is healing and helping. Holly came home with amazing stories of survivors, family and friends and those with no direct associations and the emotional healing of seeing 18,000+ people gather to support the cause. She talked of people wearing shirts with ‘In Memory of my Wife or Mom or Sister’ on the back. She was pulled to tears as her work friend talked of losing her Mom and now her Aunt being diagnosed. It was great to hear and see the effect of these stories from the outing.

While I still disagree with the conglomerate concept, I have a much deeper appreciation of the overall effect of the event.

Blessings

By Holly

I haven’t posted in a while because I haven’t felt like I really had anything of importance to share, but it’s a blog, so I can write anything, right? So here are some random happenings in my world these days.

I went on a Ladies Retreat with our church last weekend to Lake Texoma. The topic was Thankful for the Thorns, which is misleading, but it was an amazing experience. Our speaker is a DTS (Dallas Theological Seminary) professor in the Women’s Ministry department, Joye Baker. She shared so much from her own life and how those hard times were necessary for God’s sovereign plan in her life. She made it clear that we don’t have to be thankful for the bad stuff, but to be thankful that God is with us through the bad stuff and that He has a perfect plan for each of us. What made this so powerful is that I was with my friend Abbey M, who is pregnant with her second child who has a cleft lip and palate. She’s of course having difficulty with this on so many levels. But we came away from the weekend with a renewed sense of hope and thankfulness. What a blessing!

Tomorrow I am doing the 5K Race for the Cure Walk in Dallas with a friend from work, whose mom died of breast cancer 2 years ago and whose aunt is going through chemo now. We’re excited to be doing something, but also a little emotional too. Pray for us as we do that together.

Justin and I have realized that the last few months have been the best yet. While we’ve been busy and overcommitted, we also have enjoyed our marriage and friendship more than we ever have before. It makes each day brighter knowing you are waking up next to your best friend and coming home to them every afternoon. I love you Justin!

Okay, so this has been a serious, mushy-gushy post, but thanks for getting through it.

Hope you all are enjoying life and appreciate all of God’s blessings around you!

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.