What Do a Caveman and I Have in Common?

I should be writing my Christmas letter right now, but our photo cards haven't even arrived in the mail yet, so I thought blogging would be a good way to procrastinate. Here's one version of the cards I made... Obviously, this was NOT the winner. :D


Close-up of middle picture (lol)... (For those of you who don't know, Lee had an appendectomy in May, hence the photo. He's FINE now, so no worries.)


Plus, I can't write my Christmas letter right now. I made fire today - a blog-worthy feat. I even split the wood for kindling myself!


I am now certain I could survive in the wilderness if I was given a hatchet...and probably some matches. And some food to start off with.

Alright, so I would probably die, but look: my first piece!


Soon, I had split 4 logs. (It took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to do it the right way, since Lee never taught me before, even though I asked...grr. Then I was flying through it.)


Then I had to start the fire. There's something so satisfying about starting a fire from scratch... I wouldn't know, since I used a lighter, but I can attest to the gratifying feeling I felt even with my not-from-scratch fire. I didn't know which picture was more impressive, so here's both.

Stunning, I know.

~Hooks

DEFINITELY Blog-Worthy...

Sooooo, I kind of lied. My last blog did not bring you all the way to December because on November 29th...

We went to see Hillsong live in concert!!! For all of you who know how obsessed I am with Hillsong, you know that this is worthy of its own post. The concert was great - if you can even call it a concert. More like a worship experience extraordinaire!

Lee and I were both tired that night (go figure), almost hoping it would be a sit-down, chill kind of show... But by the 2nd song, we were on our feet, jumping up and down, worshiping our Almighty Creator with all that we had! What an awesome example of God showing up and recharging you when you're giving everything over to Him.

Darlene Zschech wasn't there (sad face), but I guess that just means I still have an excuse to go to Australia (happy face!!!)...

And it wasn't only special because of Hillsong. My dad was also born on this day 50-something years ago. Right, Dad? I didn't get to talk to him though, because my mom dragged him to see "The Help" - for his birthday. (Tell me how that works?) ;)

~Hooks

P.S. For you sorry souls out there who don't know who/what Hillsong is...check out this link: Hosanna. This song always makes me tear up thinking/praying about my students, especially the bridge. By the way, that's my Darlene on the 2nd verse. ;)

Why Hello, Blog

Let me dust you off a bit, my dear old friend... Sorry I haven't given you any lovin' in 2 months! And sorry to all my readers (you're still out there right?) who probably thought I had fallen off the edge of the earth by now. See, here's the problem: any time I actually have the energy to blog, I'm at work, and I'm guessing that's probably frowned upon by my employer. By the time I get home, it's late...I still have work to do...I may or may not choose to do said work...I may pass out at 8 o'clock from sheer exhaustion... And that's pretty much my night, every night. No time for my poor ol' blog. :(

But now I am here! I'm going to [try to] catch you up on the past 2 months with a super condensed version that starts...right.... NOW.

When I last left you, we were on Day 2 of the State Fair. (Wow that seems so long ago!) Luckily, Day 2 was pretty boring (read "awesome"), and thus, easy to blog about now. Lee and I were going to go to the fair again, but since we were so tired and it was so expensive, we decided to just stay at the hotel on Sunday. We slept in, rested up from the fair, and basically watched tv/movies all day. Maybe not your idea of a good day, but we NEEDED it. I can honestly say it was the first time since school started on August 22nd that we had a day where we just did nothing. Glorious nothing. We didn't bring any work with us either, because we knew if we had any down time we would be tempted to do it. It was weird...I kind of felt guilty - my brain kept reminding me of all these things I could have or should have been doing, until I finally just told it to SHUT UP! (Ok, not literally. I am not schizo.) It turned out to be a rainy day anyway, so not going to the fair didn't seem like such a loss.

We did venture out for lunch at Joe's Crab Shack - a first for both of us. It was so good! (We've been there one time since as well.) They have these awesome utensils they call "zippers" that make it so easy to get the crab meat out of the legs. They say "Stolen from Joe's Crab Shack" on them as a joke, so I asked our waiter if we could buy them. Yes, they're that good. He totally gave us a fresh pair and told us to keep them! I was not expecting that: sa-weet! P.S. I tried the same scheme when we went a couple weeks ago, and it worked again. So now we have a set of 4...just a tip in case you ever go. :) Oh and by the way, Lee had his first whole lobster here (see 2nd pic).


That is a solid piece of claw meat, courtesy of my husband. Yum!

On a random but blog-worthy note, this is the biggest mirror I've ever seen.


On the way back to Houston that Monday, we stopped at a glorified gas station called Buc-ee's (like Bucky). Buc-ee is a beaver, and he's on almost everything they sell. The place is seriously huge, with everything from homemade fudge and jerky to a full blown deli and gift shops.


There's only one between Dallas and Houston too, so all along the way, there were hilarious billboards like:

• Eat Here. Get Gas.
• Smoke 'em if u got 'em. We did. Smoked meats and jerky.
  
• Hey Buses: 49 Toilets!
• Ever Had Beaver Nuggets?
  
• Bathrooms Moms Approve Of
• Stop Staring. It's a Beaver.
• Only 93 miles to Buc-ee's. You can hold it.

And the best one...

We got some of that fudge while we were there and we both agreed that it was the BEST we'd EVER had!

Fast forward a few weeks, and we were on our way to New York for my baby sister's wedding. It was a whirlwind of a weekend, and I didn't have my camera out with me a lot because we were busy, but pics are on Facebook if you want to see them. This is the only one I have of the whole trip:


Thaaaat's right. It's a picture of an old lady sleeping on the airplane. Let me put it this way, we were traveling after getting up at 5 am, working all day, and to top it all off, I was sitting next to my cousin. I think Lee even threatened to split us up once because we were being too "off the wall." It was dark on the plane and the flash woke the lady up. Totally worth it. :P

Do not take my lack of pictures to mean that I didn't enjoy the weekend. It was great seeing my family, church family, and Lee's siblings too... And Rachel was gorgeous. Seriously, you should go check it out on her FB page if you haven't done so already. I stole this one...


Let's see, what else? Oh, my dad and one of GT's worship leaders came down to Dallas for a conference. They surprised me with an overnight visit (which I had asked for and was told NO)...so nice it actually worked out. Then one of our friends was staying with us the next night for about 5 days while he was waiting for his apartment to open up so he could move in. THEN Lee's parents came down for a visit around Veteran's Day. They stayed for a long weekend, 4 days I think? Straight company for about a week and a half! That was a lot of changing sheets/towels/cleaning bathrooms! I was tired, but it was a lot of fun and SO good to see family. We bought a new "chair" and ottoman with our Christmas money from Lee's parents and grandparents. Love it - sitting in it now.


Then, hardly a week after Lee's parents left, my brother and his girlfriend came down to visit for a week. Again, tiring but fun! I got sick midway through the week with a stomach thing - puking and just generally yucky feeling - and that lasted through Thanksgiving. Not cool. I had about a teaspoon of mashed potatoes, turkey, and stuffing. Of course, I was well again in time to go back to work...yippee.

And that pretty much brings us to December. Sorry if I forgot any big events. I'm sure I'll remember sometime. Now, I must say goodnight. I got up at 6:00 for no reason (on a Sunday?!) and couldn't go back to sleep, so I did a much-needed cleaning of my apartment. Becca can attest to that fact. ;)

Hopefully, I will catch you up on the rest of our life sometime this week. We have 1.5 more days of "real school" then finals start. Half-days Wednesday - Friday. YES. Should be a good week...for the teachers at least. :) We're headed to New York again for Christmas very very soon. I'm SOOOOOOOOOOO excited. I can't wait to see my family again! :D Love you all, goodnight!

~Hooks

I am busy...

...and tired. And ache-y. And stressed. And tired. And more tired. Blog will have to wait. :(

~Hooks

Proud to be an American

I forgot that I had taken these pictures when I posted last night. Here is the setting sun as we headed out for Dallas, and our GPS to show us the way...


And before I really begin, first, a shout-out to my parents.


Mom, please don't be one of those grandma's who has a horrible haircut and wears t-shirts like this...

By the time we got to the fair, the parking lots were all full, so we parked at a church who was selling spots for $10 (actually cheaper than the fair). We were the first ones in this section of the "parking lot," all the way in the corner by the trees.

It was a good mile away from the fairgrounds, but we knew we were getting close when we started seeing these signs.


Once we bought our tickets, we were on our way! Lee wore Texas Longhorn's orange, like a million other people that day.


Now, I would like to say that Big Tex was there to welcome us, but that would be a lie. We actually didn't find him until about half way through the day. I know what you're thinking... Shouldn't it be easier to find a 52-ft talking statue? Yes, yes it should. But the fair is also HUGE, so that explains it.


Some of the booths had "Texas" written all over them. Boots, spurs, saddles, hides, and beef byproducts covered the tables. Chelsea and Sienna would have been in heaven with these 1.5-ft beef bones!


And of course, no Texas fair would have been complete without fried... everything! We saw tons of fried foods. Among them,

• fried oreos
• fried peanut butter and jelly
• fried catfish
• fried pepperoni pizza
• fried cheesecake
• fried onions
• fried chicken
• fried pineapple
• fried pumpkin pie
• fried cookie dough
• fried ice cream
• fried beer
• fried moon pies
• fried frozen margaritas (someone please explain this to me...?)
• fried cheese sticks
• fried dough
• fried cheese curd
• fried guacamole
• and my personal favorite...
  

Yes, fried butter, ladies and gentlemen.

Also, I was SO expecting to see fried pickles everywhere, and I was obviously very excited since I love pickles times a billion. But strangely, we didn't see ANY until we were literally walking out of Fair Park. One little stand, and by that time I was too stuffed and tired to even care. :(

Lee took these pictures of the Cotton Bowl, and he wouldn't let me delete the one of the side entrance. I [mistakenly] thought the one of the main entrance was most important, thus rendering the other one unnecessary. However, he was quick to inform me that the other one is a new tunnel they just put in and he wanted it because it shows the "new metal letters." I'm not quite sure why this was my problem since Lee will

1. never print them out
2. never put them on Facebook
3. never blog about them

but I guess it's not my place to judge. So here it is, for you, Lee. Both pictures you took. (Sometimes he's just so gosh-darn cute that you have to just let him be...)


We went to several shows throughout the day, to give us a break from the heat and walking. The first was an acrobatic show featuring these little, strong Chinese dudes (and some girls too).


We also saw Billy Roy, the one-man band. Now, you'd think that this would be kind of lame, but he was actually really good...for a one-man band. At one point in the show, he played 12 instruments at once (see second picture)! Yes, that is a helmet with a tambourine on it.


We also saw a dog show with dobermans that could jump really high and do some tricks. (Lee just made fun of me for writing that sentence, but honestly, that's what they did. I can't dress it up any more than that.) Later on, we saw the Marine Drum and Bugle Corps. They were spectacular, and we were in the shade for this show, so I liked it even more. :)


Animals speckled the fair here and there. I thought it would be more farm/cattle-oriented, since it's...you know...Texas, but I guess not.


Meet Boris. The MASSIVE boar/hog/thing.

In case you can't read that, it says:

"Claim to fame: Champion Big Boar
Weight: 1196 pounds
Family: Registered Hampshire - Lots of brothers and sisters (but he got the biggest end of the trough)
Age: 6 years old
Acrobatic tricks:

• Smile and wave (with his ears) at passing fair goers
• Wag his tail with excitement
• Lie down
• Sleep for long periods of time
• Eat 20 pounds of feed per day
• Oink whenever he feels like it"
  

Speaking of food... (Get it?!) We have seen turkey legs just about everywhere down here (even at our high school football games), but this was our first time trying one. Two words: LARGE and DELICIOUS. I take that back, three words...LARGE, DELICIOUS, and salty.


This is how much we still had left after BOTH of us ate it. Lee picked at the rest of it this morning before we officially considered it eaten.


Besides food and shopping, we also rode 2 rides. One of them was "the swings" but reeeeaaalllllly...high... IT WAS AWESOME! :) It is usually my favorite fair ride anyway, and the fact that we were 50 feet in the air was even better. The second one was this (not sure if the link will work)... Kind of like the Max Air at Cedar Point. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU-VfFy5b-I&NR=1

At the end of the night, we went to a show called "Illumination Sensation." There were fountains, fireworks, strobe lights, and images on giant screens. We were sitting on the wrong side, though, so we couldn't see any of the fountains. Since we were tired and couldn't see anyway, we decided to leave a little early. But as we were walking, I asked Lee to stop for a minute because we were in a spot where we could finally see the whole show. It's a good thing we did, too, because as the last song came on - "Proud to be an American" - 4 jacked college guys jumped up and started yelling "YES!" and pumping their fists in their air. They started singing at the top of their lungs and dancing together. Then they randomly took turns doing push-up's in time to the music while the others cheered them on by pointing at them them and slapping the ground, all the while still shouting "YES!" and singing. One guy probably did 200 push-up's by the time the song was over and the firework finale was shot off. I don't know if they were drunk or just REALLY proud to be an American, but it was hilarious. We couldn't have hoped for a better ending to the night. LOL.

As we were lying on the grass waiting for the show to start, it dawned on me that we live in a beautiful place. I sat up, looked at Lee, and said, "Do you realize that we are sitting here in shorts and t-shirts, lying in the grass at 8:00 at night, and it's October?!" I am love-love-loving the weather now, and I'm sure I will well into November/December. I hope all of you New Yorker's are jealous and decide to move down here. Your little bout of warm weather will be short lived, and we miss all ya'll! ;)

When we got back to our hotel, a shower and sleep never felt so good. We did so much walking it was crazy. Just to give you an idea...it took us half an hour - I kid you not - to walk from the Illumination Sensation show to our car! And that was walking at Lee-speed. :)

Even though today is almost over too, I'm too blogged out to blog any more so today's goings-on will have to wait for another day. (The internet at our hotel is super slow and it took me about 2 hours just to upload the pictures.)

Love and miss you all...until next time...

~Hooks

P.S. Fun fact: Fairs are expensive. We spent $20 in water alone.
P.P.S. Ben, sorry I missed your calls! There was no way I could hear my phone in there, but give me a call sometime "tomorrow" (Monday for me). I don't have school until Tuesday.