Check out my Slide Show!

Thanksgiving and Update

The first picture is from Veterans Day. It is a picture of our house with the U.S flag in front of it. My favorite Eagle Scout, Jeff, decided to make a donation to the local boy scout troop in exchange for the service of having a flag placed in front of our house on patriotic holidays. We were so excited when we saw it outside on Veterans Day. I love the way the picture turned out too. God bless America and the Boy Scouts!

The rest of the pictures in the slide show are from Thanksgiving. My sister, brother in law, and our beloved Clayton came to Houston the weekend before Thanksgiving. We were able to spend a lot of time together and have a great pre-Thanksgiving meal at Black Eyed Pea. For Thanksgiving Day we went to visit my mom and then took my dad with us to Jeff's sister, Lisa's house in Spring. Jeff's mom and dad, brother, Lisa, her husband Jaime, and Jaime's mom all celebrated with us. They made a TON of yummy food, we watched football and enjoyed visiting. It was a lot of fun! My favorite part of holiday meals with Jeff's family is dessert! They always make several different kinds of dessert and they are all always amazing! I definitely have a long way to go before I catch up with the Albus ladies in the kitchen, but I am trying.

Friday we went to visit my mom again and this time my Aunt Ann was there. She came in from Florida, so we were able to visit with her as well. Beyond that, Jeff and I enjoyed putting up our Christmas decorations and tree, as well as going to the movies. We also got to catch up on some much needed rest. We felt really blessed.

Fiesta Fun!

The weekend before last, we went to Fiesta Fest in San Antonio. The American Coaster Enthusiast put on the event for Roller Coaster lovers. We went with our friends Derek and Roxanne. It was Fright Fest which is always fun. We forgot our camera so there are no pictures, but we had a great time! We rode roller coasters, including the new skate board inspired roller coaster, watched shows, and ate lots of yummy theme park food.

We had a fiesta of another kind this past weekend. We had our COR group from our Sunday School class over for a Fiesta of Fajitas, Friends, and Fellowship. COR group stands for Community, Outreach, and Relationship and it consists of approximately 10 couples. We had a good turn out because there were 7 couples and one really sweet kid in our house. It was our first party in our house since we got married, so that was really fun! Unfortunately Jeff had to work and was the last one to the party, but I got lots of help from our friends in preparing the food. We watched game 3 of the World Series, ate, laughed, and shared our wedding albums and scrapbooks. I have been wanting to have people over for a long time, but have always been worried that things wouldn't be perfect. This showed me that it doesn't have to be and made me want to entertain much more! Here are some pics from that night:

State Fair of Texas and a new job for Jeff

Jeff and I went to Dallas for the State Fair last weekend. We had a LOT of fun! It was UT & OU weekend so the crowd was young and hip! It rained a bit and the Birds of the World show we love got cut short, but other than that it was a blast! We rode the new Sky Way ride that takes you up and over the fair. As the sign said it takes you "from one deep fried side of the fair to the other." We also tried the fried cookie dough. It gets two thumbs up from this sweet lover!

Along with going to the fair, we got to stay with Sarah, Wade, and Clayton. Clayton is at a really fun age and I love that I can understand everything he says now. That kid says some funny stuff! I'm sure he did before too, I just never understood it. He makes everything into the "hook em' horns", which simultaneously irritates Sarah and exhilarates Wade. We love that little guy and it's a joy to be able to visit him as much as we do.

Jeff started a new job on Monday at Live Nation. It has a lot of perks such as free tickets to concerts and it also offers Jeff a more relaxed atmosphere than the more corporate environment he just left. It is probably the coolest accounting job you can find! I am trying to get Jeff to get a new "cool" haircut for it. If he does, I will post a pic.

4 Months of Wedded Bliss

Wednesday we celebrated our four monthiversary. Jeff did a great job!

I came home to flowers in a vase with a card.

It was one of those fun cards that plays a song. It was cute!

Next, we went to dinner at La Griglia. It is in the same chain as the restaurant we had our first formal date and our rehearsal dinner, The Grotto. Anyway, we had a wonderful meal and of course my favorite part, dessert!

We had this creative version of creme bruele. It was yummy! It was a very nice evening and I am so proud of my husband for planning it!

This past weekend was great too! Friday night Jeff grilled steak and made potatoes. We stayed home as has become our tradition now that we wake up at the crack of dawn on Saturdays for the marathon training. Saturday, we woke up at 4:05 to be at the park by 5:05 AM. We walked 9 miles! I can't say like last week that I did not complain. In fact I did, but I am working on it. After that we did our other new tradition, going to Sonic and getting a drink and a grilled chicken wrap. Yes, we eat a grilled chicken wrap at 8 AM. What's wrong with that!? After a short nap, we went to Trinity to see Jeff's parents. They have a "community fair" in their town every year. This is my first time going though. The 4 H and FFA auction the animals they have raised throughout the year, they have a petting zoo, rides, lots of food, and booths of arts and crafts. It was fun! I forgot the camera so we don't have any pictures. :( All in all it was a great weekend!

Thanks for your prayers

Hey friends. I just wanted to take a minute to thank you all for your prayers the last couple of weeks. God has revealed Himself to be so faithful and loving towards us. Jeff has had four interviews so far. The first one wasn't a good fit for him, but the other three have been very promising. It means a great deal to me to see him come home excited about these companies after almost a year and a half of undue stress and drama at his previous job. One of the interviewers actually used to work at Reliant prior to Jeff and he said that he thought the women running the group were crazy! Praise the Lord, I'm not the only one!

Also, tomorrow we will be walking 9 miles for our Marathon Training. We are still injury free, but I have to be honest, I am struggling a bit. Last week I did really well though! 8 miles, and not one complaint! That's pretty good considering we started at 5:15 AM on a Saturday!

Once again, love you guys and thanks for your prayers.

Colorado and Coasterthon

We took a couple days off of work and went to Durango, Colorado for Labor Day. We had a wonderful and relaxing time. We flew into Albuquerque, New Mexico on Friday and drove from there to Durango, Colorado, where we would be spending most of our trip. It was a nice 3 hour drive with beautiful scenery. We stayed at Durango Mountain Resort. During ski season they have lifts and opportunities to ski. In the summer they have some summer activities mostly for kids from what I could tell. Anyway, on Saturday we went on a scenic train ride that goes from Durango to Silverton, Colorado and back. It takes all day because the train goes slow so you can enjoy the view and then gives you two hours in Silverton to eat lunch and shop. It was fun! I have never been to Colorado except for our short layover in Denver on our honeymoon. I loved seeing the mountains and I took a lot of pictures. Jeff enjoyed it too because it is a trip he took when he was in middle school. Saturday night we went into Downtown Durrango for dinner. It is a cute little historic town. Sunday we slept in and then went to the Trimble Hot Springs. It has natural hot springs where you go to relax. We had some issues with rain and lightning, but we were still able to enjoy the hot springs and the view. That night we went to the Chuck D Wagon dinner show. It was fun to see the show and before hand they had little artisan shops open. Monday we left our hotel in Durrango after taking some pictures of the view, and drove on a scenic drive through the mountains. We then went to Mesa Verde National Park to see the cliff dwellings of the Pueblo people. I loved the view and the experience, but I did not love all the stairs and the little ladders you had to climb. I almost decided to live like the Pueblos in the cliff dwelling, but with Jeff's help I climbed out. After we did we saw two beautiful rainbows. You could see them arch all the way across the sky! We went from Mesa Verde to Albuquerque to stay the night and catch our plane Tuesday morning. It was great and I look forward to going back to Colorado!

The next weekend we went to Dallas to go to Coasterthon. We go once a year to this event for roller coaster enthusiast. We met up with Derek, Roxanne, Greg and Mandi for the event. First on Friday night we had dinner with the other Derek, Lauren, Katie and Josh. They were so sweet to wait for us to get in town to go to dinner. We didn't get there until 9 PM. We took some pictures, had great conversation, and enjoyed one another's company. All day Saturday and until noon on Sunday was spent at Six Flags Over Texas. We had a great time riding roller coasters over, and over, and over again! We even did the Dive Bomber, which is similar to bungee jumping, but you are strapped in and are laying face down as you are propelled up high in the air until of course you pull the cord and then you come flying downward. It was FUN! A big adrenaline rush that's for sure! We don't have any pictures of it because our friend Roxanne has them on her camera. When we get them from her we will add them to the blog. We do have a video though. Sunday afternoon we spent with my sister, Wade, and Clayton. We had fun playing with Clayton's toys and seeing their new house and neighborhood. God has been blessing us with a great time of love and fellowship even during this difficult time. We are so grateful for all of your prayers.