Category Archives: Family

Vacation is Here!

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Every year I use vacation days to take off a large chunk of time in the second half of October. In 2005 we went to Seattle and Vancouver. In 2006 we took a cruise to the southern Caribbean. Last year we spent a week at Disney World. This year our situation is obviously much different, with a new member of the family, new Bible studies, and a new role as a CARES team. So I’m still off duty for the next 10 days or so starting Monday morning, but we’ve altered our plans compared to previous years.

First, we have our normal Monday night men’s/women’s Bible studies and our every-other-Tuesday home group at our place. On one of those days we plan to vote early for the Nov election. Wednesday morning we plan to drop Brenden and the dog off at Grammy’s house and go on an overnight adventure. The location and itinerary are a surprise for Jenny, but I’m very excited and think we’ll have a great time. All I’ve told her is that we’re driving, staying at a bed and breakfast, and spending some time outside. Email me if you want the details.

Thursday is my birthday, my 30th. I’ll address that issue in another post. =) We plan to meet at Crystal’s Pizza in Irving at 7:00 to celebrate like 10-year-olds in case you’d like to join us. Friday night is our CARES Fall Festival, a fun carnival for all the CARES teams, families, and apartment managers. Saturday is our monthly CARES breakfast. Sunday morning Lisa and Phillip are dedicating Reagan at church. So we’ll be plenty busy as usual, but at least I’ll have some time off work to relax and play.

Fair Day

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Jenny, Brenden, and I went to the State Fair on Tuesday. I hadn’t been to the fair since high school. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of fairs. Like Canton, they have too many visitors to wade through and too many vendors trying to sell you stuff you don’t need. But Jenny really enjoys the fair, so we spent the afternoon there before our small group gathering. The weather was BEAUTIFUL, not a cloud in the sky, comfortable temp, and a nice breeze. We saw the dog show, tried a few different foods and wines, checked out some cars, and wandered around the exhibits. Brenden enjoyed most of our excursion, getting a little fussy here and there but enjoying the outdoors, especially when Jenny wore him in the sling. In case you’re going, here are my recommendations:

Try:

  • fried smores (expensive for the amount you get but fabulous!)
  • fried cookie dough ice cream
  • automotive building (to see the 09 Dodge Viper up close)
  • Killdares (Irish rock band that I didn’t get to hear, but my friend Joanne says they are awesome)

Avoid:

  • fried banana split (they left off the banana and ice cream and replaced them with honey and peanut butter – huh?)
  • keeping your coupons in different places (you’ll forget some of them until you get to the car to drive home – d’oh!)
  • weekends/school Fair Days/weekends with major sporting events at the Cotton Bowl such as this coming weekend (it was even crowded on Tuesday, when demand is so low that they let you in for $3 with a can of Dr Pepper)
  • Scientology booth near the Centennial building (it’s black and yellow, and the outside says something about a free stress test)

Roller Skating Date Night

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Friday night, thanks to Grammy and Grampy, Jenny and I had our longest post-Brenden date night yet! We started by going roller skating at Interskate in Lewisville, which is the best deal I’ve seen for roller skating in the Irving area. On Friday it was $5 each plus $3 each for skate rental before 6, and the rink was open all day instead of just a few hours like some rinks. We both tried inline skates, which we quickly decided were fun but less stable than the “quads” of our youth. Most of the customers at 5:00pm on Friday were under 10, and they did NOT play a slow song for couples skating. The only people anywhere near our age were watching children. For the races, there were two boys’ brackets: 6 and under or 7 and above. I chose to sit this one out, which is good because I would have gotten smoked by a teenager who worked for the rink. We still had a blast! Jenny took a picture with her phone of me skating and sent it to our vacationing friend Alexis, who is thinking about having a skating party for her birthday. She sent us back a picture of her at Epcot, where she and her husband were enjoying the Food and Wine Festival. Technology amazes me.

After our feet and legs grew tired, we had dinner at Romano’s. This is a big deal because it’s the first time we’ve done a multi-part date (i.e. a meal AND and activity) apart from Brenden. Dinner was excellent as usual, and we got to use a couple of gift certificates. Finally we stopped at the Super Target to get some wine (see previous post on alcohol sales in Irving) and returned home to find two very happy grandparents.

Once they went home and we put B to bed, we opened some cheap bubbly and watched the original Ghostbusters, which I don’t think I’d ever seen before. Good times, good times. Dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!

More Random Facts

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Here are 10 more random facts about me:

  1. I started at Southwest about 2 1/2 months before September 11. With no fulltime work experience, practically no seniority, and a job (tech writer) that many in the IT business don’t value highly, I probably would have been out the door at any other airline in the country. But Southwest chose not to lay anyone off, earning my lifelong loyalty with that one action.
  2. So far I’ve visited 10 different foreign countries: Barbados, Belize, Canada, Cayman Islands, France, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Netherland Antilles (St. Martin/St. Maarten), and the UK.
  3. If you and I are grabbing a quick meal together, there’s a good chance I’ll suggest Chipotle. Try the chicken burrito with chili-corn salsa. Mmm…
  4. I think I am addicted to sugar. I crave it. Jenny got me a 1lb bag of M&Ms earlier this week. It’s already gone.
  5. I enjoy horror movies, even though I know they are terrible and I shouldn’t like them because they are so bloody and violent. Being scared is fun every now and then. Generally I have to watch them alone because they don’t work well for Date Night.
  6. When I find out someone smokes, I instantly lose a significant amount of respect for them. I wish the government would impose a nationwide ban on smoking within public buildings and triple the cigarette tax. Then they could use the tax revenue to help people quit.
  7. If I couldn’t be a dispatcher anymore, I would want to work in Schedule Planning, the department that hammers out Southwest’s flight schedule.
  8. The way our contract is set up in terms of pay and seniority, the longer I stay in Dispatch, the less likely I am to leave. Some call this the “golden handcuffs”.
  9. I constantly debate with myself whether to save, spend, or give away our disposable income.
  10. My sister and I used to catch jellyfish in sand buckets and bury them on the beach. I don’t know why that seemed like a good idea, but it was fun.