It's that time of year again!

Luke and I hosted our annual Pumpkin Carving and Caramel Fondue party last night and it was a great success! Everyone's pumpkins looked great and the caramel didn't burn...always a plus. ;)

Heather finishing up the pumpkin -- with her cheering section looking on:
Cute Mindy:

Enjoying the caramel:

Our creative collaboration:

Luke's menacing pumpkin:

Halloween is going to be tough this year...

Who dunnit?

Friday evening, the Williams' and the Baugh's planned a Murder Mystery evening. It was a Texas theme and we all were assigned characters, aka "suspects", in the Murder Mystery. No one knew who was the murderer -- not even the one that actually turned out to be the killer -- and as the dinner progressed, we "revealed" clues and information about ourselves and our situation. We each had "playbooks" and, bit by bit, we got more information from everyone. It was so much fun! We tried our best to stay in character, and it was so much fun to witness everyone's "acting" skills. In the end, no one guessed the true killer, but I got the most votes as the most likely. ;)

Luke, also known as "Rowdy Lawless", a convicted felon, showing off his tough guy pose (notice the teardrop tattoo...):


Discussing the latest revelation in the thickening plot:

Spontaneity

As many of you know, my parents are on a cross-country adventure on my dad's motorcycle. They left a few weeks ago and have been making their way across the more scenic parts of the northern U.S. states and southern Canadian provinces.
Tuesday morning my mom called to check in and said they were in Michigan on their way to my Aunt's house in Ann Arbor. I suddenly had a crazy idea. The Dow jet flies up to Midland, MI and if there are seats available, Dow employees fly up there for free. Well, I called Luke and explained my idea and he checked for some flights Thursday evening or Friday morning and returning Monday morning. To my disappointment, there were no seats available for the Monday flight. I suggested we just stay for another week, but Luke wasn't onboard. ;) So, we bagged that idea.
Wednesday morning, I called Luke and asked him to check the flights one more time, and this time there were two seats available Monday morning!
So, we packed up and headed to Michigan for a long weekend with my parents and my Aunt and Uncle. We had a great time. Ann Arbor is absolutely a college town, but it is really nice. The weather was a little rainy when we first arrived, but it brightened up for most of the time.

Playing Bocce Ball in my Aunt's amazing backyard:


Check out that form:


The crew:

Cowboy Up

I'm on the activities committee in our ward, and we recently had a fun activity. We did a Chili Cookoff. We had families in the ward enter their killer chili recipes and we had a great time sampling each. We have some great cooks in the ward! Another part of the activity was to have everyone dress up in their best "Cowboy Attire". If you know Luke and I, you know we don't really have that type of attire in our wardrobes, so for FHE the week before, we made a quick stop at Goodwill and had some fun.

This is Luke showing off his belt buckle -- the one thing we did have. He got this as a souvenir on his mission and was so excited to finally have a chance to wear it!


My get-up:


As Melanie would say: "Cowboy Up!"

Food Blog

Luke and I have decided to begin our own recipe blog. We often try new recipes and we think this will be a great way to share good food and to also organize our new recipes. I'll try to include a picture of each dish, a brief description, the recipe and also a grade.
Hope you like it! (Keep in mind that we just barely started, so there won't be many recipes yet, but we'll try our best to add to it often.)

http://experimentalchefs.blogspot.com/

Also, if you would like to submit a recipe, let me know!

We finally have power!!!!!

It is amazing how many things in our lives we take for granted...Like flipping a light switch and having a light come on, or having an oven or microwave, or being able to charge a cellphone. We've become quite accustomed to these luxuries. Luke and I and many others in this area have been humbled and have now pledged to be more appreciative of the little things. You don't realize how much you depend on something, until it's taken away for a little while.

When the power finally came on, we definitely knew it because every room in our whole house had the light switch flicked on. (It took a while for us to stop flipping the switch every time we walked into the room and realizing that it wasn't going to turn on.)

Hooray for power!!! We've missed you.

Freeport and Lake Jackson

I finally had the opportunity to return to work today, and I took the opportunity to look around Freeport and Lake Jackson. Freeport was protected just barely by the towns levee, with was within three feet of being breached, but sustained significant wind damage. It was very similar to what we have seen up in Pearland, but with a few more windows blown in.

Lake Jackson actually looks pretty good now that the tree limbs are mostly out of the roads, but it will take a long time for the town to get back to normal. Overall, I would have to say they fared a little bit better than Pearland.

Had Ike not taken such a sharp turn to the north right at the end, both the Freeport and Lake Jackson levees could have been breached, and that would have shut the area down for weeks or months rather than days or weeks. Apparently the enormous storm surge that the news people showed on Friday night before the storm was enhanced by high tide, so that when the storm surge rose later, the tide was out and the surge actually didn't come in any further than it had before the storm. Very lucky.

Dow also fared well, minimal water damage, and some minor wind damage, it appears that most areas can be started up within the week. My office was not under water as I had feared, and life at work may be semi-normal soon.

Power has still not been restored at home, but Emily had a utility truck sighting while she was out for a run this morning, which is very promising. We may have to bribe the power crews with cookies or Gatorade or something to keep them around and get our power back sooner. But we have high hopes it will happen today.

We will keep y'all updated as stuff happens, but hopefully there won't be any more excitement for a while, other than our power being restored.

Update

We just wanted to let everyone know how things were going here. 

We still don't have power, but I feel that the Lord is blessing this area because it has been unseasonably cool here lately, which has made life without A/C bearable. With the cooler evenings, we've been able to keep the house at a reasonable temperature, which we know is a major blessing.

Luke has been working with other ward members to help repair house damage in our ward. Unfortunately some of the houses in Pearland were really hit hard, with big gaping holes in roofs, windows shattered and water damage throughout some of the houses. One neighborhood within our ward boundaries has been declared a FEMA disaster area and the homes of our friends are nearly uninhabitable right now. 

Luke is reporting to work tomorrow morning and we'll see how extensive the damage is down there in Freeport. It sounds like Dow is calling for "all hands on deck" and it is going to take everyone's help to get the plant up and running. I'll let him post tomorrow about his experience down there.

Thank you all for your prayers -- our area needs them. We assure you that we are doing well and we are very grateful for the blessings that we've seen evident in our life this past week. We love you all and we'll continue to keep you posted.

What can I say, "yIKEs!"

So, we passed up trying to hold back IKE at Surfside beach, and it's a good thing, because Surfside beach may not be there anymore. According to news reports one lonely moron decided to wait out the storm in his beachfront home, and miraculously survived, but for those who may think this was a good idea consider what happened to those that tried it in Galveston, where those that stayed behind were not so lucky. Here are some pictures of what happened to this guy's neighbors in Surfside:

Damage typical of beachfront property in Surfside

A late evacuee decides to use a kayak to get out of Surfside ahead of the storm.

Staying with Tad and Jessica was as fun as it could have been under the circumstances, and we really appreciate them taking us in, but we packed our bags and returned home this morning to see how we fared. I feel we are both very blessed and very lucky. In our area power outages, minor flooding, and roof damage were the main damages caused by Ike. We have no power, but avoided other damages completely, except a destroyed back fence. Not bad for being in the bullseye of a 600 mile wide hurricane. Our neighbor has a generator and has very generously lent us a line so that we can keep the fridge running and have a little light, we are also mooching internet from him, so Tony has been a complete life saver. In the next few days I should be out and about helping to repair property and assess damage with the ward. we will do our best to keep y'all posted, and will share any information we get, especially on Lake Jackson, as there seems to be very little information going in or out of the city.

Strike on Ike

Well, as many of you know, a little friend of ours is coming to visit Texas in the next couple days: Ike.  Though there is no evidence that Ike bears ill-intentions toward the Lone-Star-State, we have decided to boycott his visit and hold a Strike on Ike.  There are picket lines forming already on the beach at Surfside, I believe I heard a plan about locking arms and such.  While I support this effort, Emily and I will be on stike at home, and if Ike grows too angry at the resistance, we will probably leave town.

We'll keep y'all updated on the upcoming Fight with Ike, that is soon to follow the current movement, Strike on Ike.  Wish us luck, and keep up the grassroots effort to gain support against this formidable foe.

Happy Anniversary!

I can't believe that Luke and I have been married for three years already! Time has just flown by -- I guess the old adage, "time flies when you are having fun" is true in this case. We've had an amazing three years and are looking forward to many, many more.

For our anniversary, we decided to take a real vacation -- our first. We booked a week-long stay in Cancun, Mexico at an all-inclusive resort and were very much looking forward to getting away. Well, about a week before we were supposed to fly out, Hurricane Gustav began reaking havoc in the Caribbean. After a few days of wrestling with what to do -- we decided we'd rather not get stuck in the Mexico City airport or holed up in our hotel the whole week, so we cancelled our trip at the last minute (thank goodness for trip insurance). We were kind of bummed because we'd both been looking forward to this vacation, so we began scouring last minute travel deals and found a pretty good deal for some resorts in Scottsdale, Arizona. My sister-in-law Harley had been to a resort there in June and raved about how fun and relaxing it was -- so we headed off to the Royal Palms Resort in Scottsdale.

It. Was. Amazing!

The resort is Spanish Mediterranean Old-World style and has gardens and fountains and pools all over the grounds and is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. We also were upgraded to one of their top rooms, so our room was incredible. The nicest room I've ever seen! We had our own private patio, which overlooked the gardens and fountains and also had a great view of the "Camelback Mountain".

The view from our room:

Another view of the grounds:


Luke reading by the Library:

The pool is where we spent a great deal of our time -- especially since it was between 103 - 107 degrees while we were there!


We decided to go golfing one morning before it got too hot. It wasn't a great course, but we had a lot of fun.


Luke enjoying some ice cream at a nearby outdoor mall:

On the day of our anniversary, Luke surprised me with reservations to a cool little place just outside of the city. The food was amazing and the atmosphere was great!

We had a great time and it was so nice to celebrate our marriage and our love for each other. Luke is amazing and he is the best husband a girl could dream of. He is so caring and sensitive to my needs, he makes me laugh -- hard, he shares my interest in so many things, but has also introduces me to new things, he is so smart and so great at his job and takes care of me so well. I could go on an on, but I'll tell the rest to him directly. ;)

Anyway, we had a great time and we are excited to see what the next year will bring.

Birthday Wishes

Luke turned 26!

Home

Taking advantage of the few weeks I have before entering back into the job market, I took a trip home to see the fam. I found a decent fare into Jackson Hole this time instead of Salt Lake, and as I flew over the Tetons into the valley, I've never missed mountains so much!

I had a great week and spent as much time as possible enjoying those mountains.

Hiking with Dad, Amy, Matthew and Brian:

A few weeks ago, Dad replaced his Honda ST1100 for a sweet Honda Goldwing. I've always loved motorcycles, so I jumped at the chance to take a mini-trip with Dad. We decided to ride up through Yellowstone National Park and stay in Red Lodge, Montana for a night. We had such a great time and the scenery that we witnessed along the way defies all description.

Entering the Park:

Bison along the road:

The view from the top of Beartooth Pass -- this picture does not do the incredible view justice:

Dad kicking back and enjoying the view:

Mesa Falls:

Da-DAH-Da-Dum-Dum-Dum-Da-Dum...

I just LOVE the Olympics! I've been glued to the T.V. every night watching until waaaay too late, but I can't get enough of the competition. I generally prefer the Winter Olympics just slightly, but this year has been really fun. All the background stories on the athletes are so interesting. It is amazing how hard all the athletes work for just one tiny moment. It is incredible.
And can you believe all the World Records that are being broken in the pool? Apparently those nifty body suits really make a difference. Who would have thought.

I'm done!!!

Well, I successfully passed my last test yesterday. I picked up my certificate and bid "adios" to the hour-long drive up to North Houston. Yay!!! Now, for the NSCA exam! Yikes! If you haven't heard from me, just assume I'm tucked away with a mountain-load of books studying for this exam! See you in a few weeks! :)

Memories

This idea is from Melanie:
She suggested that people leave memories -- whether happy, sad, embarrassing, whatever -- as a comment. The memory can be about Luke or I, it doesn't matter.

Here is how you play:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Freedom over Texas

Luke and I decided to fight the madness this year. We had been told the the fireworks show in Houston is amazing and that it was supposed to be the 2nd best show in the U.S. behind only Washington D.C. We debated whether it would really be worth it to join 100,000+ people just to see some cool explosions, but we decided that we'd try it out and see.  We decided to get a hotel close to the park, so we could walk there and walk back without having to fight traffic. GREAT IDEA... I can't imagine how long some people waited in traffic that night.

The celebration itself was a lot of fun. They had concerts by some pretty famous country music stars such as Miranda Lambert, Jo Dee Messina and my favorite, Sara Evans. We also got to see a bit of a volleyball championship, which was very entertaining as well.

The fireworks show was amazing! It lasted about 1/2 hour and it really was cool. We didn't bring the camera because the flyer said they weren't allowed, but when we got there, everyone had cameras...so I wished we had just brought it. We could have got some pretty fun pictures.

I'm not sure if we'll go to all the trouble again next year, but we had a great time. An extra plus was that the weather was great! Not even that hot!

The next night we had Heather and Troy come up for dinner and we did a cheese fondue. Luke's favorite way to celebrate a holiday? With cheese!!! We had a good time and Eva showed off her standing skills. I think she's going to be walking here in just a few weeks -- I can't believe she's old enough already!

Deutschland Part Two: Second Week in Leipzig

Windmills on the way to the Schopau Chemical Plant. Germany has many, many windmills

Week 2

During the second week of training at Leipzig there was some intense class room work, I was even more exhausted this week than the first week, but the activities made it fairly exciting.

Rafting

One of the rafting groups, in a little bit of trouble

On Saturday we went white water rafting on a man-made course. I wasn't sure what to expect, because rafting on a real river is pretty awesome. Turns out, this course was perhaps even better, there were level 3 to 5 rapids, and they were in quick succession. This course is used to train Olympic athletes, so the intensity of the course can be varied by adjusting the water level, thus increasing the flow through the course. My group did pretty well, we only lost a few people in the rapids.

The course with the water shut off


And with the water turned up a bit

The crew in the full rafting get up. I think I may wear this outfit to work when I get back . . .


The Germans liked calling us to attention while we went over rapids. Apparently this is the safest way to hold your paddle when you are not paddling.

Trip to Porsche

The mothership has landed, and the view is great! This is the Porsche Leipzig reception center.

Tuesday night we took a trip to the Porsche manufacturing plant in Leipzig. Turns out the plant also has a world famous test track too, which we got to use. When we arrived at Porsche, they had cars on display everywhere, I have never seen so many nice cars all in one place. After a presentation from Porsche they announced that we would all get to ride along with a professional driver on the test track in a Cayenne Turbo, Porsche's off road vehicle. Not only were these guys professional drivers, they were all professional racers, one of which won Tokyo Drift, the biggest competition in the world for "alternative" racing styles. After the test drive, we had dinner in Porsche's sweet reception center and got to see some of their special cars. I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking. . .

Some of my little friends


They wouldn't miss just one . . . would they?


The Porsche Cayenne Turbo, aka. "The Scream Machine"

A little video showing the drivers taking one of the more visible turns on the course. This turn takes your breath away, or scares you spitless.

Dinner at Porsche


Cutaway of a 911 Turbo, I'm glad I wasn't there when they did it


I think I had a matchbox car that looked like this . . .


I would like to take this one to the test track


This is a $250,000 Porsche that I kind of got attached to, but I couldn't get it through customs

Next post, Berlin!