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!

I will blame a job that actually makes me work, and our puppy's constant energy from keeping me from posting more on this thing. When I get home I usually play with Tomo, pick up the yard, play with him some more, fix dinner, and then depending on how worn out Tomo is, we go for a walk. Really that dang dog takes up a lot of our time.

So to avoid a dog story, here is an adventure from last weekend. Saturday morning I had to get some blood drawn. This required me to fast, so I decided to get it out of the way early in the morning because our Relief Society was having an activity later that morning (Yummy food was to be expected). After driving around the hospital and seeing that I would have to pay for parking (I think not), I decided to just park in an apartment complex nearby. Not knowing the location of the lab in the hospital, and as Murphy’s Law would have it, I ended up parking on the wrong side of the building.

After I got my blood drawn I decided to be adventurous and walk through the hospital and get to the other side without winding all around the outside of the building. I follow the exit signs believing that they will lead me to a true exit, but I am not that lucky (Again Murphy’s Law). Once I find what appears to be an exit, I notice on the door as I'm walking out the words, “These doors will lock behind you”. My brain tried to tell me to find another exit, but I could see the apartment complex where I parked from the door, and truly believed that the hospital wouldn’t be so cruel as to not provide a real exit.

I was mistaken. I found myself in what appeared to be a courtyard for the maintenance crew. There was no way of getting to the street because a huge wooden fence blocked my escape. The many doors that were leading back inside the hospital were all locked with the same mocking statement "These doors will lock behind you". So there I wandered trying all of the doors still having a smidgen of hope that the hospital knew stupid people like me would need an unlocked door to get back in through.

You know how you hope people aren’t around when you do something stupid like trip up stairs or squirt water out your nose? Well this time I would have gladly had 20 people laughing at me if it meant that one of them would open a stupid door for me!

I had a couple of options: Take a seat on the picnic table, and wait for someone to take a break (seeing as it was only 8 in the morning on a Saturday meant I would have to wait for someone needing a nicotine fix to let me in) or two, I could scale a fence. I am not a coordinated person so sitting and waiting for a door to open did seem to be the preferable option. But then again I was hungry and church functions always have good food, so my stomach won out.

There were two types of fences I could climb. One was your standard chain link fence, easy to climb if it weren’t for, all the pokey tips on top or the high voltage sign nearby. The other option was the wooden fence with very little hand holds to use.

How does one scale a fence and look casual while doing it? There was nothing casual or graceful about me getting to the other side that's for sure. It actually reminded me of a deer or a rabbit getting caught in a fence; there was a lot of thrashing and flailing and then once I was free I ran for my life.

Funny how the actual blood draw proved to be the least painful part of this story.

I love sunset pictures so I was delighted to see that TX does have some stunning sunsets and sunrises. This was on our way to our outdoor play earlier in May. It was also our first taste of Austin not really cooling down in the evenings.

When Paul's friend Nathaniel came to visit, we took him to down town Austin. On the UT campus we found this thing with tubes hanging down ( I can only assume it was a piece of art). I really don't know what the purpose of the tubes were for, but we had a good time walking around in them. We even had a good laugh when we saw a bicyclist ride through and run smack into one of the poles. I hope he didn't mind too much that we were laughing at him.

That same day we stopped to see the botanical gardens of Austin. Notice Paul's scraped knee. Earlier that day he had a bike accident and reopened a soccer wound.

We will have to go back when we have more then half and hour to walk around and we don't have to worry about the staff chasing us out.
And finally the pictures of the San Antonio Temple.

If I had been thinking we would have taken pictures from far away, but it was late and it had already been a long day.
Coming soon pictures of things I thought I would post but never did.

***I have a feeling you are going to get a lot of blog entries from my experiences on the bus.***

All of the buses have a sign saying that certain seats are to be given up for the elderly or handicapped. I am lucky enough to get on before the UT campus stops which means I have a choice of seats throughout out the bus. I do however prefer the ones marked for the elderly because they are facing forward with more leg room. Anyway the bus was filling up fast with the last of the UT students finishing up finals, and most of the seats were taken and two women were left standing. This guy, whom I thought to be a little crazy from earlier in the ride, gave up his seat for one of the girls. The chivalry did not end there though. He looked in the back of the bus and saw that there was a seat empty, just hard to get at, and he asked people to move so the other woman could sit down. How easy it was for the rest of us to close our eyes or look out the window and ignore the people standing in the isle.

What happened to people being courteous to each other? What happened to gentlemen? In a world where everyone is trying to be independent, it has become uncomfortable for people to be considerate or polite to each other.

In other news, it is just Paul and me again. My mommy left last week for a short stay in CO, and then she is off to New Mexico to see more family. She will have managed to see all her kids and grandkids in three months time, as well her own siblings. Pretty good Mom!

Tomorrow is our last soccer game for the season. I don’t know how many soccer seasons there are in Austin, but I have a feeling this isn’t the end. If we win this game, we will be number one in our division. I can’t say I was much help, but at least I was an extra body on the field.

OH! We have these little tiny (smaller then gnats) ants crawling in and around our kitchen sink. I am told they are sugar ants and they just want water. I don’t care who you are, bugs of any sort crawling in my kitchen is disgusting. We are supposed to get our place sprayed this afternoon, so hopefully that will help. I have to laugh at my bug entries. You can totally tell I am not from around here, because I feel the need to blog about bugs! Sigh!

Well I am sorry to be a slacker with my entries. I have been super busy at work, and when I get home, I really feel entitled to veg out and do nothing. That is not a good idea, but it is how I feel none the less.

Happy Friday everyone!

If you would have asked me 10 years ago, if I would willingly ride the bus to and from work, I would have said HECK NO! That was due to the fact that I rode the school bus for 15 years straight. I figured I had done my part in helping the environment by taking mass transit.

Two years ago when Paul and I decided to buy the Honda, we both wanted a manual. They are more fun to drive, and you can get better gas mileage. Plus we were in WY, where there really isn't stop and go traffic, so your leg really wouldn't get tired of shifting all the time.

Until...We moved to Austin, and recently my left leg has started to get bigger then my right leg. The limp was getting noticeable and the doctor said it was something called manualitisism (abnormal muscle growth in the leg, due to excessive gear shifting during stop and go traffic). I kid about the doctor and the malady, but I do not jest about the excessive gear shifting. It only took me three weeks to decide that I needed to bite the bullet, swallow my pride and get back on the bus.

Today was the day. I woke up early, found the bus stop, and climbed on for the shortest am trip downtown I had experienced to date. The only problem I had was finding my place of work after I got off the bus. I am after all new to the area, so finding landmarks was, to say the least, difficult. I walked more then I needed to in every direction but the right one, and finally found my office bldg. I can only hope getting on the bus this after noon will be less eventful!

Oh, and I guess I can be happy that I am helping the environment, by taking the bus. Al Gore would be so proud of me!