New Beginnings

I have had a request to update the blog.  So, this is for you, Minnette!

After spending two weeks in Austin, crashing at the houses of our friends and family, Kyle and I have finally settled into our new place in Lubbock.  Thank you Cale, Alli, Chris, and Sharisa for letting Kyle, Turbo, and I stay in your extra bedrooms : )  We enjoyed our time in Austin and especially enjoyed getting to know little Kent better.  He is such a cutie. Here are some pictures of Kent and Turbo that I stole from Sharisa's Facebook:

Turbo and Kent reading a book together...

Kent's new pony...(Turbo's attention is being held by some tasty shredded cheese)

Moving...always so much fun to do.  Of course, it woudn't be ANY fun at all if a few things didn't go wrong.  We were supposed to move into our new house on Sept 16, but the new wood floors were not ready, so we had to postpone the move until a week later.  Thankfully, we had no problems changing the flight, hotel, and moving truck reservations we had already made. 

The day before we headed to College Station to get all of our things out of storage, both me, Chris, & Sharisa (who we were staying with) came down with some kind of stomach bug.  UGHH!.  Somehow, Kyle was lucky and didn't end up getting it, but I was very nausous for several days and everything, including saltine crackers, gave me indigestion. 

Getting all of our stuff out of storage went smoothly, and my dad, Kyle, and I headed out of College Station on the road to Lubbock, all in seperate vehicles...the GTI, Lightning, and rental truck.  To add to the moving excitement, I get a call when I am about 30 miles outside of College Station from Kyle saying that the Lightening has died.  Now, this truck and I don't have a very good relationship, but I told myself I would keep my mouth shut.  And I did.  The truck was towed back to College Station.  On the up side, I enjoyed only having to drive part of the way to Lubbock since I wasn't feeling so great.  And, we enjoyed a great book on cd during the drive,  The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky.  Kyle doesn't really like books on tape, but with the truck mishap I don't think he felt like he should complain.

We were very lucky to have my dad and Kyle's dad, Chuckles, help us move.  It only took a couple of hours on a nice, cool morning in Lubbock to unload the rental truck.  We still don't have everything unpacked, so pictures of the inside of the house will have to come later, but here it is from the outside.

The Friday after we moved in, Kyle ended up flying to Austin to borrow our friend Nathan's car.  In the hopes that I would quickly be able to find a job, we weren't sure if we would be able to make it with just one vehicle.  Alas, still no job...

On the other hand, Kyle seems to be having a good first week at his new job.  His title is "Rangeland Management Specialist", and I think he will be working with local farmers at developing management plans for their land.  I'm sure there's more to it than that, but that's about all I know.  He seems to really like the guys that is working with, too.  Tonight, he is going dove hunting with one of the other men.  Also, it turns out that a couple of the guys also live in Lubbock, so Kyle will be carpooling with them to Tahoka (~ 30 mile drive) every day.  This is really great in that it will save us some gas money, especially when Kyle gets the gaz-guzzling Lightening back up and running.

One great thing about the new house is that is has a big kitchen (but lacking a dishwasher).  One thing I missed while living in the pop-up camper was cooking.  So, Kyle and I have enjoyed some nice meals this week.  To celebrate Kyle's first day at his new job, I made him a Jamaican-spiced roasted chicken, along with roasted sweet potatoes, corn, onions, and mushrooms.  My mom gave me these pretty plates for my birthday, and I enjoyed gettting to use them for the first time. 

I have also baked two loaves of beer bread this week. Beer bread is really good and simple to make. The first loaf was flavored with dill and cheddar cheese and was quite tasty. In the second loaf, pictured here, I used oregano, basil, fresh garlic, and a blend of Italian cheeses.  We haven't tried it yet, but is smells really good.  Should go well with spaghetti tomorrow night! 

I have been wanting to make a spicy Indian dahl (lentil soup), so I thought tonight would be good night to experiment since Kyle is not home.  I added some of the left over chicken to the soup and it turned out really good.  I also had a tasty summer salad with a homemade balsamic glaze, strawberries, and walnuts.

I just got news from Kyle that he is coming home with some dove....looks like we will be experimenting with some more new recipes : ) 

Believe it or not, cooking is not the only thing that I have been doing the past couple of days.  Besides getting stuff done at the house (like painting our dresser in our bedroom to match our bed) I spent several hours yesterday and today at the best little coffee shop, Daybreak, applying for jobs, agonizing over whether I am going to get an interview for medical school, trying to find some volunteer opportunites in Lubbock, and getting a little work done for some colleagues back at A&M.  I spent so much time at this coffee shop when I was an undergrad at Tech, and I am enjoying being back : )  So far I haven't had any luck on the job front.  I have applied for several medical lab tech positions at the Health Science Center and for a surgical tech position at UMC.  I've also applied to be a substitute teacher at LISD and Lubbock Cooper, but those interviews are not until Oct. 8 and Oct. 16.  As far as volunteer opportunites, Kyle and I are looking into becoming a Big Couple (with the Big Brother, Big Sister program)....I think that would be a lot of fun and would be very rewarding!   

That's enough for now...I must go pick up Kyle from his dove-hunting endeavor.  If you're keeping up with us through the blog, please leave a comment to let me know you're reading it!

California Road Trip!

Kyle and I got back to the Spring Mountains last night at about 2 am after our 6 day road trip thru California....we had planned on coming back Sunday or Monday, but there was just so much to see!  Here is a quick run thru of our trip...we had so much fun!  California is such a beautiful state : )

We left last Friday and drove thru Death Valley...it was REALLY hot...

This was where we laid our heads the 1st night...somewhere in the Sequoia National Forest (for free!).

Our first stop the next morning was Kernville, CA, where we found breakfast.  It just so happened that they were having their annual Rubber Ducky Races that day in the river that runs thru town. 

Then, we headed to the Trail of 100 Giants, to see the Giant Sequoias.  SO AMAZING!  If you look closely, you can see me sitting in the trees.

Next, we decided to head towards HWY 1.  This wasn't in the orignal plans, but since we don't know when we'll get to go back to California, we decided we should just go ahead and do it!  We enjoyed the drive across the agricultural lands of Central California.  Once we got to the coast, we couldn't find a camping spot (they were all full!), so we had to stay in a motel in Morro Bay (where we enjoyed our only shower the entire trip).  I think we got the only room left in town that allowed dogs.  Here are some images from the Morro Bay area...notice the sea lions in the picture with the boats!

The next day, we drove the scenic Highway 1 to Big Sur...

Notice the waterfall!

That night, we camped in Big Sur.  Our campsite was surrounded by huge coastal redwoods...Turbo got to play in the stream that ran thru the campground.

The next morning, we made the short drive towards Monterey and enjoyed some lunch at the Old Fisherman's Wharf (which was, surprisingly, very dog-friendly...wish all places were like that!).

The next stop, was Yosemite.  We camped outside of the West side of the park the 1st night and then enjoyed some of the views on this side of the park.  Thankfully, views were not too obstructed from the fire burning ouside of the park this day (not so true the next day...).  We were able to see the part of the forest that was burning and watch the helicopters as they picked up water from the river and dropped it on the fire.

Because of the fire, the only road that goes all the way thru the park to the east side was closed, so we had to drive up and and all the way around to get to the east side.  We made it partly around the park by nightfall and camped here for the night.

When we finally made it to the east side of the park the next day, we were disappointed to find views obstructed from all of the smoke from the fire.  But, we still enjoyed ourselves.  Today was our 2 year anniversery! 

After leaving the east side of Yosemite, we drove to Mammoth Lakes and had dinner.  This is an awesome little ski resort town...Kyle and I have decided we will live here someday : )

It was almost dark when we headed back to Vegas.  After a very long 6 hour drive, we were back at the camper in the Spring Mountains!

We are heading back to Texas tomorrow.  We plan on stopping in Lubbock for a few days to hopefully find a place to live....then probably on to Austin.
 

It's been such an amazing summer!