Life Is A Highway

As usual, we have something crazy happen, but this time it was to my computer. It got wiped out and put back to its factory settings, and being as computer illiterate as I am, I couldn't figure out how to put my antivirus back on since it wouldn't run with the update. Thank goodness we go to church with Andrew and he was able to get my computer back up and running.

We kicked the week off with a little excitement! Justin called me on his way home from work to let me know that we had plans for the evening. He bought us tickets to an Astros' game. Due to the awesome discount he can get through the Chick-fil-A market we got second row seats in the outfield for very cheap. It was a great game! Astros won 6-0! Not a bad way to start the week.

The next day was much more relaxed, but we did go out for dinner and treat ourselves to dessert. We had ice cream at Amy's Ice cream. It's a quaint local ice cream shop where they throw your ice cream into the air and catch it in your ice cream cup.

Thursday evening, we decided to take advantage of the hot weather and spend the evening out by the pool. We grilled burgers, jalapeño poppers, and fresh corn on the cob. After dinner we swam. You can't believe how warm the pool water was from the sun!

Friday, I left with my parents to go visit our family in Alabama. Our seven hour trip took us ten hours due to several wrecks and heavy traffic. Nevertheless, we made it there safely. Our mornings always started off with Pawpaw's fresh baked biscuits and all the fixings. We spent the days visiting with everyone. We even got to make a short day trip to visit my great aunt and great uncle.

Justin had to stay home and work. Fortunately, he loves his job! He was able to spend the night with his sister and her family on Saturday night. His brother and sister-in-law were also in town Sunday, so they all got to go out to dinner as a family.

Thanks to the amazing Chick-fil-A Houston Market and The Houston Astros, we went with our families and CFA friend Holly to the Astros game. On the way into the game, I was telling Holly that the year before I had worn my favorite pair of flip-flops to the game and had some how tripped over a rock in the parking lot and ripped the piece of the flip-flop out that goes in between my toes. No sooner had I finished telling Holly that story, did I trip on the crack in the side walk and break another pair of sandals. I looked ridiculous as I drug my foot, causing the most obnoxious scraping sound, but thanks to my very resourceful mother and mother-in-law, they temporarily fixed my shoe so I could walk normally around the ball park.

Thursday night, some of my girl friends and I, went to the Miller Outdoor Theatre, to see The Honky Tonk Angels. It was fun and the weather was perfect for a night outdoors.

On that Friday, we dined at Morton's Steakhouse with my parents and our preacher, Mike, and his wife Liz. We are all Landry's Members and we could not pass up the three course meal deal that was going on. Everyone us love to eat and save money, so we were all excited to go. Needless to say, the food and company were excellent! I am pretty sure we all waddled to the car due to our full bellies.

Well, two days prior to the 15th day of the month, Justin received the IM assignment e-mail, informing him  that we would be moving to Sacramento, California the next week. The next week, we got another e-mail pushing our trip back due to some of the construction set backs in Sacramento. We were definitely glad to have an extra week with our friends and family to say goodbye. We squeezed in a few extra lunches and hangouts. A few days before we left, he got another e-mail informing us we would be headed out for the east coast. Now we are here in Baltimore, Maryland.

Justin could not be more excited than to be in the home town of the Ravens football team. Every time we go out into public he does a double take every time we walk past someone in their purple and black attire. I was afraid he was going to get whiplash from turning his head so rapidly. (Haha!) The first thing on Justin's priority list, other than his job of course, was to find his way to a ravens game. We went our very first Sunday to M&T Bank Stadium to watch the Ravens play the Raiders. It was a close game, the Ravens just weren't able to pull off a W.

The next week we were able to meet up with Justin's grandmother, uncles, aunt, and cousins for dinner. It was so fun to get to visit with everyone after so long. After dinner, we went back to his aunt and uncle's house to visit, look at old family pictures, and let Justin drool over all of the Ravens gear.

That weekend, we loaded up in the car for a quick three hour drive to New York City. Our hotel was located perfectly near Times Square. As soon as we unloaded our luggage we headed straight for McClaren's aka in real life McGee's. If you are a How I Met Your Mother fan, this is the bar that the whole show was based on. It just so happened to begin to rain on our way through the city, so naturally we began to hunt down a YELLOW umbrella. It took us three stores, and the sacrifice of my well fixed hair, but we found one! When we arrived to the bar it looked very similar to the show on the outside. The inside did not look like what we expected, but they had posters and signatures of all the actors from the show. We got the photos we wanted and splashed our way back down the city streets.

We made our way down to John's of Time Square, where we enjoyed hand-tossed brick oven pizza. It was so delicious!

The next morning, we took the Metro to Greenwich Village and dropped the puppies off at doggie daycare. It was by a beautiful park and NYU. It is crazy to think that kids go to school right in the middle of New York City! We had Justin's favorite breakfast, McDonald's and then hopped the Metro for the Statue of Liberty. We had almost made it to the boat when the rain started. Of course every kiosk sold ponchos for $15. Being as frugal or stubborn as we are, depending on how you look at it, we refused to pay for a poncho until we found a better deal. In the gift shop for the Statue of Liberty we found ponchos for $4. Not only were they a good deal, but they could not have been purchased a minute sooner. The sprinkle that we had been walking through turned into a downpour while we rode the ferry to the statue. We viewed the statue and headed over to Ellis Island. We both took the interactive citizenship test and both passed! Sorry America, you are stuck with us. After confirming our citizenship, we headed back to the main land.

The September 11th Memorial Museum was on our to do list in New York, but there was no way to anticipate the affect it had on our emotions. The museum was designed to give you the facts and show you the structure of the buildings. Once you understood the framework of the building, you were introduced one by one to each person who was murdered. You saw their portraits, heard about their job description, and then someone who loved them told what they meant to them. After you met the people, you entered a new section of the building where you saw the destruction from start to finish. It began with a video of the planes crashing into the towers and followed in chronological order of the events. As you looked at photographs and artifacts, your ears were accompanied with corresponding audio recordings of what was taking place during that moment. You heard first respondents conversations, the building crumbling to the ground, screaming and crying, but the most bone chilling audio recording, was that of a man, who left a voicemail on his wife's phone telling her "Don't worry. I am fine. I am in the second tower. See you tonight." Goosebumps literally ran the full surface area of my body as I heard those words. We finished our time at the museum watching a video of Giuliani and Bush speak about the events. It is worth a trip to New York just for this museum.

This week proceeded as normal. Justin hired a new girl, and I got to put my teaching skills to good use and train her for her position in the CFA team. Justin continued the audits, inventory checklists, and all of his other paperwork that must happen during the first month of transition.

Stay tuned to her more about our life that is a highway!