A Little of This, Some More of That

After we ran all over Japan and finally got back to Austin, it felt like we were still running. Heck even after Christmas it still feels like we have running to do.

So here is a brief recap of all of our adventures in the last few months!

Japan was awesome! We saw so much but felt like we could have stayed longer in every city we visited. We saw shrines galore, tons of beautiful leaves, awesome mountains, and we saw Paul converse in Japanese. We started off in smaller towns, so Paul was able to use his Japanese more frequently. As we got to the larger cities like Kyoto and Tokyo, people would speak to us in English. Not exactly what Paul wanted! By the end of the trip I was ready to come home. I missed my bed, and I missed having more then 3 changes of clothes. I know Paul would have stayed longer if he could have.

When we got back from Japan we both had to catch up on work, and normal life. Somewhere in there we found out that we will be having two BOYS in April!! Prior to finding out, we said we couldn't see us having two girls, and two boys just plain scared us. Heavenly Father knows what is best for us I guess! Paul and I are so excited for our boys to join our family!

With the ups also come the downs. My grandmother at the age of 86 passed away in early December. She was buried next to my grandfather in Abilene, TX. Even though it was sad that we were gathered under those circumstances, it was great to see family. There was a lot of reminiscing and laughing. All that talking about family history made some of us think a little more about genealogy. Nothing but good can come from that.

The rest of December was nothing but happiness. My little sister Megan married Sam on the 19th of December. They are so happy together and it was great to have all all of the siblings there for their day. We had the whole family crammed in my parents house which meant we had 9 kids running all over. It was fun, but definitely loud! We were also able to celebrate my niece's baptism/birthday as well which made it that much better. Gotta love family!

After our travels to CO, we headed to WY. We were able to spend Christmas with Paul's family and were able to be there for Melissa and Josh's little baby Kolter's blessing. Paul's mom also threw me a baby shower while we were there, making the boy's arrival in April seem much much more real.

It turned out the whole month of December was pretty much about the circle of life. Babies, Birthdays, Baptisms, Weddings, and Funerals. You could say it put some perspective on what really matters in life.

What's next for us? Trying to get ready for our family expansion. We have a lot to do to be ready for our boys!!!

Happy New year everyone!

For most people a new house would be enough...

Right before Thanksgiving I received calls for three job interviews.

Back in September I had turned in 6 applications to the Texas Department of Public Safety for emergency management positions, and had only received 1 rejection letter. When I had word that I had three interviews, I felt like one of them had to pan out.

The first interview was for a grants coordinator position. It had been posted for a couple weeks and they kept pushing back the application deadline (I can only assume it was because they didn't have enough applications). I had been on the lookout for EMA jobs and I kept passing on this particular job because I wanted to do something different like work with disasters. In the end I sent in my application as "why not" gesture.

The other two jobs were right down my alley. They were in the disaster recovery section of EMA and they would be dealing with individuals needing assistance and local governments after a disaster. Lots of mucking around in the disaster field and even helicopter rides to boot. According to my interview board, Texas leads the nation in the number of disasters declared, making these two jobs very appealing.

Fast forward two weeks. I get job offers for all three positions! If I had only been offered one position it would have been easier since any EMA job was better than my date stamping mail mediocre job. But to have to decide multiple offers was a challenge. I am truly humbled that I even had this opportunity to pick between all three, and I have faith that I picked the right one.

As I was interviewing for the disaster jobs, the panel asked how I felt about traveling. I told them I was fine with that because I understood that disasters didn't just happen weekdays 9-5 in Austin, TX. They then asked how I felt about extended travel for months at a time. I guess even after the hurricanes here in Texas last year the Texas operations center is still open. Right now the OC is located in Austin, but with other disasters across the state, that might not always be the case. My heart immediately sank. I think I knew right then that I couldn't accept the disaster jobs if they were extended to me.

In the end I accepted the Grants Coordinator position. At first I was put off by the grant thing, but the more I looked at it the more I realized that I did have a lot of satisfaction with my grant work in Laramie (come to think of it, I was also put off of going to the University of Wyoming 10 years ago, and look how that turned out). I know this is where Heavenly Father wants me to be, and I am glad He gave me the opportunity to choose. Besides, I kinda like Paul and I kinda like all the time we get to spend together.

So starting January 5th, I began my position at the State Administrative Agency of the Governor's Division of Emergency Management, as a Grants Coordinator (Luckily for me I don't have to answer the phone like that!). Wish me luck!

Monday Paul and I had a visitor from the wintery land of Laramie, WY.
My friend and colleague in grants, Sheela, came to Austin for a conference and since she was in town we had to get together! After a weekend of shooting e-mails back and forth, we finally met up Monday evening for dinner. It was sooo good to see her!

Sheela and I had put a lot of time and effort into the first Homeland Security Grants issued to Albany County. Along with actually managing the grants we also had to account for every little thing that was purchased with HS funds and put inventory stickers on them. We had a lot of time to get to know each other!

It was really nice talking to someone who appreciated what I did at my old job and knows what I am capable of. She agreed that I am being underutilized currently at work and gave me some much needed encouragement with my job search!

We have been away from WY for 9 months now, so we wanted to hear all about little Laramie. New restaurants have opened (it's a small town so getting a Chili's is a huge deal), City and County Government continue to have their moments of drama (as usual), and she told us who had retired or is threatening to retire. It was nice to catch up!

We had a great dinner and enjoyed the beautiful weather and great company.

Seeing Sheela again made me just that more excited to fly home to CO and WY to see more familiar faces.

Sorry this post is a week late!

We did it! Six wonderful years!!
To celebrate our day of greatness we took work off on Friday and played all weekend long. And since we are still new to Austin, there are plenty of new things to see and do!

Paul made me breakfast Friday morning and then we headed to Barton Springs for a swim (and yes I did swim). When you walk out in the spring you are touching slimy rocks and cement. This was fun for us because we didn't want to get completely wet due to the cold water, but the slippery rocks were proving it difficult to stand on our own. I finally gave up and got wet first; it then took a while for me to coax Paul to get wet! Brrr! Paul treated me to a back flip from the diving board and and even rescued me from drowning a couple of times (not really drowning but my arms were getting tired). We lucked out that day because Friday was the only day of the year you could get in free! Whoohoo!

For lunch we headed to the Olive Garden. The only problem with the meal was we were completely stuffed so keeping our eyes open for a movie (well at least the previews) proved to be difficult.

Paul had been dying to see the newest Batman movie. I think it was the only movie he really wanted to see all year. We thought it would be cheaper to see a matinee but they only take $1 off the regular ticket price. Sheesh! We did have our pick of the seats though, so I guess that was good.

Later that night we decided to head downtown to see real bats. There is a bridge located off Congress with something like 1.5 million bats underneath. At sunset they all wake up and leave at the same time. We chose to look at them from above as opposed to looking up at them. We hung out on the bridge afterwards and took some pictures of the city all lit up.

To end the perfect Friday we treated ourselves to ice cream. Yum!

Saturday was just as eventful. We worked out and then attended a Bird-Day Party. Bob's parrot, Angel turned 10 years old this month, so Bob threw her a party. He had cookies and punch for people and Angel entertained us by avoiding us and signing a duet with Bob (well kinda a duet). I don't know how much fun Angel had, but it was still nice to get together and visit.

We ran some errands after that and then met up with some friends for dinner and a play. This was the same park we saw our Shakespeare play earlier in the summer, only this time it was Beauty and the Beast. While we were waiting for the play to start a HUGE tree branch fell and landed on someone. The ambulance and police had to show up and a ton of people went running to see what kind of carnage they could capture on their cell phones. Paul made jokes that the play could officially start because someone had already broken their leg.

Well that's about it. Sunday (our actual anniversary) we went to church and hung out around home. It's really hard to believe we have been married for 6 years. Here's to a BA-ZILLION more great years!
I love you Paul!

I knew as soon as we left Wyoming, some kind of disaster would hit! I told Lori and Cindy that the big one was coming since I was leaving. It seemed like every time Paul and I left for a weekend or went on vacation something would happen in Laramie. Freak snow storms, murders, car chases, ice storms, and now TORNADOES!
GRRR! I got a text from my old boss with a picture of a car with its windows busted out from the tornado, and then I got e-mails from my friends in Laramie telling me all about it! Where was it last year, or for that matter 5 years ago!
This has just made me realize that I do indeed love disaster work, and that I really do miss being in the loop with all the exciting stuff that goes on in town.

I guess I should go find the Red Cross here and start volunteering again!

See what I missed!

Here are some pictures of the damage (Sorry about the various sizes in pictures, I am still learning about this software)

And this is what I saw when I looked on line after I heard what was happening:

DANG WEATHER!