Going Home For Christmas

Well, I know it is a little early to be thinking about Christmas, but Chris and I booked our flights home for Christmas and we are so excited! For anyone who knows me, I always seem to book flights at the most horrible time...flights always go down right after I book. This time though, we feel like we got an amazing deal. We had been watching flights on and off for a few weeks and they were a pretty good price when we first started looking, but then they sky rocketed and stayed steady for the next little bit. Then one night we got on and they were back down again and the flight times were perfect so we decided it was time to book them. The very next day the cost of the flights would have cost us almost $200 more and they have continued to go up. I am so glad we finally seemed to book at the right time. We are so excited to come home and spend time with all of our family and friends. Can't wait to see all of you!

Tropical Storm

This weekend, Chris and I had plans to go to the demolition derby at the fairgrounds for the fair, but unfortunately, with Hurricane Ike going on in Houston, our plans got changed. We were not directly affected by the storm, but we did get some of the effects. We survived our first tropical storm. We were without power for most of the afternoon/evening on Saturday and then it came back on, but kept going back off on Sunday. It rained all day on Saturday. We got so much rain and some very high winds. We tried to take some pictures while it was happening, but we couldn't really ever get any could picturew where you could see the rain coming down. This morning, when we went out, we did see a little bit of damage. At our apartment, there were shrubs and tree branches all over the road and one tree that is totally leaning that used to stand up straight. Across the street from our apartments, there is a tree that fell over on top of a local business. All around the city, there were fences down and many trees that had limbs that had fallen on the ground and other trees that fell over completely. It is crazy. I can't imagine how it looks in Houston. I did get a little worried last night because they were saying it was possible for Texarkana to get some tornadoes, but it ended up being all clear, luckily!!! I don't particularly want to go through one of those. It is so crazy when it rains here, it really comes down. Below are just a couple of pictures we took this morning. Looking at the blue skies, you would never know we had a huge storm yesterday.


This is a picture of the tree that used to stand perfectly straight.


Some leftover debris on the road even after some clean up had already been done.

Weekend in Dallas

Chris and I went to Dallas Friday afternoon and spent the night and came back home Saturday evening. We had so much fun. Friday aternoon when we arrived, we stopped and checked in at our hotel and then went shopping at the mall and to dinner. The mall's there are insane. They are crazy big and the mall we went to had an ice skating rink in it. Saturday morning, we woke up and went to breakfast and then went to Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum as well as the Palace of Wax Museum. They were both so fun and interesting. Later that afternoon, we went to a Medieval Times Dinner/Show. We got to watch the knights put on a show full of jousting and sword fighting and we had dinner. We had to eat with our hands, (you are not given any eating utensils). It was so different, but so much fun. We got soup, garlic bread, chicken, ribs, a baked potato, and a pastry dessert. Here are just some of the many pictures we took. Hope you enjoy them.


Chris and I taking off to Dallas


The Museums (Palace of Wax and Ripley's Believe it or Not)


Wax replica of President Bush


Me with Johnny Depp, isn't it crazy how much it looks like him?


Chris and Jay Leno


Wizard of Ozz wax statues


Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King


The Last Supper with Jesus and His twelve disciples


Walt Disney




Check out this picture with the guy with the horn in his head and look real close at the other guy, he has two pupils in his eyes. Gross!


This guy just has some crazy bug eyes!


Me walking across a bed of coals :)


Chris going through a supposed earthquake, it felt just like one


The Medieval Times Castle (above). Below are a bunch of pictures of the show...when you arrive at the show, you are assigned a knight to cheer for; Chris and I cheered for the black and white knight. I was lucky enough to be thrown a flower by him during the show. Chris gave me a bad time about it. :)













Okay, Chris wants me to tell the story of why he gave me a bad time about the flower, so here it goes. The knight through a few flowers to girls that would cheer real loud for him when he would come by. He was coming by with the flowers in his hand and Chris said, "You have to yell real loud for him so he will throw you one"...just then, he came to our section and I smiled at him and he threw the flower right to me and then rode off. Chris said, "Okay, I guess that will work, you can just smile at him and he will throw you a flower." It was kind of funny since it seriously wasn't even a second from the time he said to yell loud from the time I got a flower. :)

And last, but not least, here are some pictures of the cool buildings in Dallas that we took on our way back home.

Shopping in Louisiana

On Saturday, Chris and I decided to go into Shreveport, Louisiana and go shopping at the Boardwalk Outlets. They were huge. It was only about an hour and a half drive and we thought it would be fun to mark another state off of our list. We weren't so lucky in our shopping, but had a good time anyways. Chris did find himself a new watch at the Fossil store. Everytime we go to a Fossil outlet, he thinks he needs a new one :) It makes me smile. We also had dinner in Louisian at a place called SaltGrass Steakhouse. It was really good and a fun atmosphere. Here are a couple pictures of us looking down from the parking terrace at a small portion of the outlets and some of Shreveport city in the background.

Memorabilia

So, when Chris and I found out we were going to be moving around for the next five years, he had this wonderful idea of how we should get something that shows everywhere we have been. So, we decided to get a key chain from every state we go through. We haven't been too many places yet, but I am sure once we move around the next five years we will hit some good spots. Before the move, we both had only ever been to Utah, Nevada, California, and Idaho...and I guess you could count a corner of Arizona, but we didn't ever stop there so we don't count that. Now, we have added Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas. We are about 30 seconds from the Arkansas border and only about 15 minutes from Louisiana so we plan to get some more states in within this next year. So, since we live in Texas and are so close to Arkansas, we haven't picked up those key chains yet...we have been slacking. And can you believe that we never thought of getting a Utah one until after we left? Oh well, we will just have to pick one up when we are back home for Christmas. By the way, there is a Washington DC key chain that is in our pile because that is where Chris had his interview for the job, but I haven't been there. I just tell him he has to take me there some day. The Oklahoma key chain is by far the coolest. Angela would probably say, "for sure, that is where I was grew up." Come on, am I right Ang? :) Wyoming is definitely my least favorite...I think we will try to get another one. The horse with the rider is kind of cool, but I am not a fan of the acrylic key chains. They just remind me of when I was in junior high and tried to have the most loud obnoxious key chains out of everyone. Oh the good old days. Well, I hope you enjoy our little collection.

Pictures of Our Home

As promised, here are the pictures of our home. Still some decorating I need to do, but there are too many people who are waiting to find out what the place looks like. We love it here in our 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment and couldn't ask for a cozier place. We were a little worried going from a house back to an apartment again, but it has been great. The walls have got to be insulated really good because we have never once heard any of our neighbors. It is kind of set up like an 8-plex style I guess you could say. There are two floors, an upstairs and downstairs and 4 apartments on each floor; we are on the top floor.






















My favorite things about our new place are: two walk in closets, a bay window in our bedroom, a porch/balcony out our living room, and our little eating bar in our kitchen/dining room. Chris's favorite things are: the living room, dining room, and kitchen are all open, all of the rooms have ceiling fans (and we have central air), and he also likes the little eating bar. We also have a pool, tennis court, and a fitness center here and we have enjoyed using both the pool and fitness center. We haven't ventured out yet to the tennis court. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.