Fire Alarm, Shrimp Boil and a Hail Storm

This weekend we went to Austin to spend time with John's family for Memorial Day Weekend. We left Friday morning so we could drop the dogs off with my parents and do some Landlord business like fixing the internet. We arrived in Austin on Friday evening and got to spend some time with our niece and nephew and John's mom.

FIRE ALARM 

We usually stay with John's family when we go down there but this time everyone's schedules were crazy so we stayed in a hotel. We finally found one that wasn't booked, since it was Memorial Day Weekend, that was hosting 4 different high school bands. There were kids everywhere but we needed a place to stay. Our room was down at the end of a hall so it wasn't so bad...until at 3 a.m. the fire alarm is going off.  It's pretty sad when your first reaction isn't to evacuate the building immediately, but rather check the hall to see if everyone else is evacuating. Here's how our reaction went...

(alarm sounds)
John: What is that?! Turn the alarm off!
Me: (pushing snooze button multiple times to make it stop!-clearly not working)
Me: Is that a real fire alarm? Or is it a drill? (Yes Brooke it's a drill at 3 a.m)
Me: (gets up and checks the hallway to make sure people are leaving building)

So we finally get some common sense and evacuate the building with all the other hotel residences. My first thought was "One of these darn kids went out the emergency exit or something" But it turns out the elevator was actually smoking. Needless to say we took the stairs from then on. So at 3 a.m. we were sitting on the curb waiting for a firetruck to come and let us know when it was safe to enter the building. Have you ever had to evacuate a hotel in the middle of the night? It was definitely a first for both John and I.

SHRIMP BOIL

On Saturday we spent the day and John's grandparent's house. John and my nieces Bella and Sophie and our nephew, Noah all went swimming in their pool. We all hung out by the pool and John's grandparents prepared a Shrimp boil with huge shrimp, potatoes, corn and carrots. It was delicious!! I forgot to get a picture of the shrimp but here are some pics from Saturday.

Our nephew Noah

John

Noah and John's Mom's dog, Ralphie

John's grandmother made this awesome fruit basket

John's Mom and our niece Sophie

Our niece Bella being a mermaid

Bella, Noah and Sophie

Sophie feeding me chips

HAIL STORM

On Monday we headed back to Abilene and grilled out with my family. After dinner is started storming and the power went out so we waited to head home to Colorado City. The storm finally died in Abilene so we headed home. But when we reached Sweetwater it started pouring and hailing on us. I was driving my car and John was following me in his truck because we had to bring it to get Sage home. Anyways, I was already sleepy cause it was 10 p.m. when we headed home and then I couldn't see the road while I was driving so I was really terrified. It was scary. Apparently Colorado City had some golf ball size hail while we were in Abilene. Crazy.


On a side note: This weekend Jade hurt her back again and her back legs currently do not work at all. I'll keep you updated on her status. Hopefully we can get the swelling down so she can use her legs again.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend. I'm thankful for all the men and women who have served our country and are serving our country everyday. Our prayers are with those who are are still overseas.

Essentials for Ireland

For those of you who don't know, I'm going to Ireland 2 weeks from tomorrow. Kind of random, I know but I'm going with my mom, my aunt Jan, and my cousin Katie for a girls trip! We will be there for a whole week! This little trip is going to be very interesting and I'm sure will produce many stories - thanks to my mom and aunt's inability to be serious and not think everything is so hilarious. We will have a rental car to use all week, only one problem...it's not only a standard, but a standard on the wrong side of the road. Pray for our safety and that we won't be permanently banned from Ireland!

I'm getting so excited though and was super excited today when my Ireland Essentials came in the mail today!!

Ireland Essentials include:

Digital Camera - check!
Moleskin Watercolor Sketchbook - check!

Who needs all that other stuff, I'm set! :)

I just love getting these boxes in the mail!

ACU Graduation(s), Doctor Appointments, Observation Hours

ACU GRADUATION(S)


Last Saturday we ventured to Abilene once again for a weekend of events. We went to not one but both graduation ceremonies for ACU. Talk about exciting! My cousin Katie graduated in the morning and my cousin Michael in the afternoon! By the second ceremony, John and I were not only confident we could do sign language but sign the entire motivational speech given by one of the professors. We pretty much had that memorized too, which ended like this..."...so go out and die!" Yep, that's how his speech ended, both times! There you go new college grads, now you know your purpose in life. Anyways, it made for a long day but I'm so proud of my cousins!


There was one thing that made the graduations a little better...

You also have to understand that my family is pretty crazy and we always seem to attract attention to ourselves in some way! When we were congregating outside after graduation #2. I kept smelling dog poo but we couldn't figure out where it was coming from so we all migrated to another spot outside and yet the smell was still there. We were all checking our shoes but there was no evidence of the monstrosity. Then my aunt was like, "What is on my shoe?" And in an instant the herd of us scattered like cockroaches screaming "Ew!" Needless to say every eye was on our wonderful family! Never a dull moment with the fam!




DOCTOR APPOINTMENTS


My precious husband is falling apart.

Thankfully he has me to remind him that he hasn't even reached 30 yet.

The poor guy has to have his wisdom teeth removed, then he found out his pinky toe is crooked so it rubs the other toe causing it to callous, so he needs surgery on his toe to permanently fix the problem. He also had a lump develop on his chest a couple of weeks ago, which we were extremely worried about but it turns out it is just an enlarged gland, nothing serious, thank goodness! But the poor guy spent all last week in the doctors office. We are blessed that these doctor visits aren't because of anything serious and thankful for that.



OBSERVATION HOURS

So for my teacher certification I am required to have 30 hours of observation which can be fulfilled by either actual classroom observation or watch 60 videos and write reflections for each one. The latter sounds horrifying if you ask me but I was going to do what I had to for credit. My friend Christie Andrews, who has an awesome blog which you should check out, is an art teacher at the high school here in C-City. So she let me come observe in her classroom this week. Thank goodness! 60 videos and reflections, really? But anyways, I had fun observing her 4 art classes, 2 electronic media classes, and 1 photography class. The kids are absolutely hilarious. I'm sure it gets old after a while, but to me some of the stuff they would say or just blurt out would be pretty funny. In her art classes the students were making Art History Kites. Each group of 3 or 4 students had to construct a kite out of dowel rods and paper and then they would pick an artist and paint one of the artists' pieces on their kite. When their kites were complete they had to try and fly them. They really turned out great and the kids did a great job on them. I'm so glad I could observe in an actual classroom because I have completely forgotten what it is like to be in school.

Did all that really just happen?

Ok WOW! It has been a really long time since my last post! Even after I promised myself this would never happen again, but I do feel I kind of have an excuse as to why it's been so long. So here's a full update on all that's happened in the last 3.5 months...


First in January, John was offered an Environmental Safety Manager position for a company out of Big Spring, Texas. Not exactly what I had in mind when I said I wanted to move but you do what you gotta do. So we began to search the West Texas dessert for a place to live. Since the oil field is booming right now, there weren't many choices in Big Spring and the ones that were available were completely out of our price range for renting. But we were fortunate to find a nice little place in the the big city of Colorado City, Texas. Where is that you ask? My thoughts exactly!!! In the middle of nowhere! The only reason I knew about this town was because my friend Christie lives here. So we began renting a place in Colorado City, Tx beginning in February.

February is when the choas began. My last day of working was February 17 and then on the 18th we began the process of moving and of course the only rain in February came on the 18th. What fun that was and thank goodness Abilene is only an hour away because we took a lot of trips moving all of our stuff. You never realize how much stuff you have until you have to move it. If we move again someday, I'm thinking that selling everything and starting over is sounding pretty good.

In March we went back and forth about either selling our house in Abilene or leasing it. We finally decided to lease it but that wouldn't begin until May. So for the past several months we have been paying bills and everything for two places. It's been crazy but we are excited about being landlords. (We'll see....) March also brought with it my 25th birthday. 25!!!! I'm too young to be 25! That's half way to 50! But it is what it is and I will always have John to make me feel young. (Since he is really close to 30).

Most of April was spent making numerous trips to Abilene to get our house ready for the renters. All the things I wanted to do to my house were finally being done and it made me sad. But despite all that, during this month I decided staying home was not that exciting, nice but kind of boring so I decided to get my teaching certification online to teach High School Art. So that is my current pursuit but we will see how that works out for me...

It's been a crazy past several months for us and I know that this isn't the most exciting blog post but at least you know what's been going on thus far. Hopefully, I will keep up the blogging now and there will be more exciting blogs in the future.

There is one thing I've been wanting to blog for a while now and it kind of makes no since to blog it but I'm going to do it anyway. I've been meaning to blog the before and after pics of our house in Abilene. I know we don't live there anymore but it was our first home and were proud of what we accomplished during the 2 years we lived there. So stay tuned for that...

Mystery Box

Seeing a box sitting on my porch was a fantastic surprise when I got home yesterday! I don't know about y'all but I love getting boxes in the mail. I get super excited and turn into a 5 year old when I see a box on the porch, even when I know what's inside because I ordered it!! But yesterday I got an unexpected gift in the mail from John's aunt and uncle in Alabama, Mark and Daney! (Shout out to Mark and Dana Griffin - Y'all are the Best!!) A Mystery Box! Those don't come my way too often so you know my Giddy-level was rocketing!

Now I know that I promised in my last post that I would not talk about hunting again for a while.

Well...I lied. But only because my awesome gift has something to do with hunting. So when I opened this mystery box here's what was inside...

That's right! My very own camo binoculars! Be jealous (John was...and he even was talking about how he was going to borrow them for next time he goes hunting...All I gotta say is "Good luck findin' 'em Johnny Boy")! :) Let's just say these things are awesome and work really well! So don't tell our neighbors I was breaking them in by spying on their houses. We'll just say it was part of the "Neighborhood Watch Program." Anyways, the best part of this gift was the card that Daney made. It had my rifle picture on the front and inside was this fantastic poem she wrote. She is so talented when it comes to writing poems, so I'm honored to be a part of the handful of people she has written one for. Here it is...Enjoy!

Happy Hunting

by Dana Griffin

Oh deer!

I know what you are thinking! "Enough with the Deer/Hunting posts already!" I promise I'll quit soon...or at least until next deer season.

Anyways, my recent experience of deer hunting has left me thinking about deer. (Just to clarify...deer in a "make a piece of artwork where deer is the subject matter kind of way" not the "bestiality kind of way." Moving right along...)

So I was looking at my "A*R*T" board on Pinterest for inspiration and came across this fantastic drawing (well it was actually a tattoo) of this very geometric wolf by David Hale. I've never heard of him before but he does really awesome tattoos and artwork. You can check out his website here. His drawings/tattoos inspired me to do a drawing of a deer in a similar way. So here's the inspiration and what I came up with. Enjoy!

Inspiration from David Hale

In Honor of not killing a deer...I drew one!

The Hunter's Wife

Being the wife of a hunter you not only get your very own gun for Christmas (as seen in the previous post), or have the reassuring knowledge that if there were ever a natural disaster you could survive for at least a year on the supply of venison in the freezer, but you also get to go out and experience the "thrill" of the hunt! That's exactly what I got to do this past weekend!

Now I've been Dove hunting with John before but it went a little something like this...
John: Ok here hold this shot gun and if you see any birds then shoot them.
Brooke: Ok got it!
(ENTER mass flock of dove)
John: Give me that gun!! (Bang, Bang, Bang,etc...)
(EXIT mass flock of dove)
John: Ok here you can have the gun back!
Brooke: Oh wow really?! I hope I can hit that one lonely dove that can't keep up with the rest since I've never even shot a gun before! You're the Best!

So since then I've never really had a desire to go hunting. But lately I've been wanting to go hunting with John. Maybe because I want to play a role in that part of his life or maybe because we actually have somewhere to go with an awesome deer blind that John built. What ever the reason, all I know is that one day I woke up with a strange desire to go hunting. I know that it seems completely out of character for me but it makes complete sense to me...I love John and John is a hunter and when we got married I became a Hunter's Wife.

So let's talk about how I went on my first Deer Hunt this weekend. First of all...I had a blast!!! Never in a million years would I thought those words would come out of my mouth but they did! I had so much fun hunting! I had even more fun watching John hunt and how the second we exited the truck his "Stealth Mode" kicked in! Me on the other hand exited the truck like any other time with a good slam of the door only to receive the "look." John's never given me a "look" before...so I learned my lesson quick! (Lesson #1: Once John's in "Stealth Mode"...don't make eye contact and obey all commands!) But here's a play-by-play of how our hunting trip went...

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31:

2:30 a.m. Wake up and get dressed quickly (keyword 'quickly' because "every minute counts and we have to be there several hours before the deer wake up"- 'quickly' is nowhere near 3:30a.m. in my dictionary)

3:00 a.m. Start 20 minute drive to hunt site (while Brooke takes a nap)

3:20 a.m. Unload truck quietly (minus the door slam by Brooke)

3:22 a.m. Start 1/2 mile hike in pitch darkness (since flashlights are also prohibited by StealthMaster3000 a.k.a. John) on unfamiliar terrain to deer blind while carrying my gun, extra pair of jeans and a sweatshirt (in case my coveralls are too hot), a blanket (in case my coveralls are not warm enough) and a backpack with snacks. At this point the possibility of getting attacked by a wild hog = very likely!

3:35 a.m. Reach deer blind without any attacks from a wild hog only to discover that I have to pee (even though I was warned many times by John that I would not be allowed to) Oops... Thankfully I was saved by John's bladder and since he had to go, I was allowed to as well!

3:40 a.m. Get inside deer blind and begin the waiting process. (only with a few naps for Brooke)

6:50 a.m. Sun begins to rise and I'm told this is "Prime Time" for deer to come out, especially a buck, and that I need to be extra quiet. (QUE extra loud noises from Brooke every time she moves) And several more "looks" from John are sent my way! But since it's still too dark for me to see anything I take another nap. 

6:55 a.m. Wake up from nap to see deer...

7:00 a.m. (QUE deer...) (*cricket**cricket*)

8:00 a.m. (QUE deer...) (*cricket**cricket*)

9:00 a.m. (QUE deer...) (*cricket**cricket*)

10:00 a.m. (QUE deer...) (*cricket**cricket*)...this is getting awkward!

10:30 a.m. (QUE deer...) (*cricket**cricket*)

11:00 a.m. After sitting several hours and realizing we will not be seeing any deer we decide to call it quits and go get some lunch. Start hike back to truck, which is much easier with light...(Brooke: "So this is what it looked like when I was walking this morning. Glad to know it was a flat terrain and not the edge of a cliff)

11:20 a.m. Grab lunch and go take nap to re-energize for the next hunt happening in T-minus 3 hours. 

2:30 p.m. Wake up, get ready for evening hunt, and drain my body of any fluids the best I can.

3:00 p.m. Grab everything and start to head out of hotel room, then remember we need hotel key, catch door before it closes, look for key, can't find key so John grabs hotel key that doesn't work but I want to find right key.

3:05 p.m. Get yelled at for wasting 5 minutes of daylight looking for key

3:06 p.m. Still don't have right key but leave anyways

3:07 p.m. Start 20 minute drive to hunting site

3:27 p.m. Hike (in daylight...Yay!) to deer blind

3:40 p.m. Get situated in deer blind and ask John to rate me from 1-10 (10=highest) on my "Stealth Mode"

3:45 p.m. My "Stealth Mode" is a 5 so far...(Oh a 5, huh? We'll see about that!")

3:50 p.m. Start "Dehydration Mode" so I won't have to pee. 

4:00 p.m. Take nap while John looks for deer

4:30 p.m. Wake up from nap...no deer...finish reading Hunger Games

6:00 p.m. Sun begins to set and "Prime Time" kicks in...must be really quiet...or else!

6:01 p.m. (QUE deer...) (*cricket**cricket*)

7:00 p.m. (QUE deer...) (*cricket**cricket*)

7:30 p.m. (QUE RANDOM DUST STORM!!!!!) 

7:35 p.m. Debate whether to stick out the Dust Storm or head back to the truck before it gets dark.

7:40 p.m. Hike back to truck with 50 mph gusts of wind

7:50 p.m. Drive truck back to deer blind to pick up stuff only to discover 3 Deer running across the field

7:51-8:15 p.m. CURSE DEER!!!!

8:15 p.m. End "Dehydration Mode" and chug several small Gatorade

8:30 p.m. Leave with no deer...

After the evening events I leave you with this song (and a video):

"Home, Home in the Blind,

Where the deer don't come out til you leave,

Where seldom is heard but the rustling of Brooke's purse,

And the sky is not cloudy all day, until "Prime Time" for deer to come out and a big dust cloud comes out of nowhere with 50 mph wind so you have to get out of the blind and hike back to the truck in the wind because your life depend on it!"


.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 1, 2012:

12:00 a.m. HAPPY NEW YEAR! (Unfortunately we missed it because we were asleep!)

3:30 a.m. Alarm goes off...Push Snooze

3:40 a.m. Alarm goes off...Push Snooze

3:50 a.m. Alarm goes off...Push Snooze

4:00 a.m. Alarm goes off...Push Snooze

4:15 a.m. Alarm goes off...We get up finally!

4:30 a.m. Get ready much faster and head to hunting site

4:50 a.m. Try to convince John to drive to blind this time but doesn't happen

4:55 a.m. Unload truck and "quietly" shut truck door...success! No "look" :) so we start our hike through the dark to the blind. This time only it's about 32 degrees outside.

5:05 a.m. Reach deer blind and demand John to turn on heaters asap so I can thaw

5:06 a.m. Freaky banging on the outside of blind. Sounds like someone is pounding their fist against the blind.

5:06 a.m. Realize I am now about to pee my pants despite all earlier preparation.

5:06-5:10 a.m. Stand completely still and stare at each other like we are about to die.

5:10 a.m. John realizes that it's a board banging against the side and goes outside to fix it even though I beg him not to because I don't want to die alone.

5:15 a.m. Board fixed, No more reason to be scared, get settled and take a nap 

5:30 a.m. John keeps poking me to wake me up

5:45 a.m. Stomach starts growling

6:00 a.m. Stomach still growling so ask John if I can eat some muffins, He says no because the package is too loud and it's almost "Prime Time" 

6:15 a.m. Stomach still growling...

7:00 a.m. (QUE deer...)

7:15 a.m. Deer come out on Que this time! It's a miracle! Unfortunately they are only doe, but at this point I'll take any kind of deer.

7:15-10:00 a.m. My adrenaline starts going and now my eyes are in search of any type of movement. Spot lots of does but no bucks. Only see one deer that might be a buck but it's too far away!

10:00 a.m. Get out of blind and go find deer...Mission Unsuccessful! But we did get to walk around and look at the land which was fun! And I got to learn how to differentiate between a buck track and a doe track, just something to add to the "Random Knowledge" section of my brain. 

10:30a.m. Make target for me to practice shooting my gun! Shoot gun three times and get pretty close. But it's not good enough so John takes over my gun and tries to "Sight it In" (I think he just really liked shooting my gun)

11:00 a.m. Take nap in truck while John refilled feeders, puts a solar panel on his feeder and sets up game camera

11:30 a.m. Head back to town empty handed. :(

Despite the disappointment, I will definitely be going again. That is if John will let me. Here are his rating for me as a hunting companion:

Brooke's Hunting Results:  Out of 1 to 10 (10 highest) -

Final Stealth Mode Score = 7.5 (Most Improved in this area)

Hunting Companion Score = 9 (I think he felt like he had to give me a high score but 10 would have definitely been a lie, but I'll take it! He also said I was good at spotting deer!)

Take Me Hunting Again Score = 12!!!! (Yay!)

Look-Out Score = FAIL! (Considering my numerous naps)

John's Hunting Results:  Out of 1 to 10 (10 highest) -

Stealth Mode Score = 9 (He unfortunately was stuck sitting in a squeaky chair)

Hunting Companion Score = 10

Take Me Hunting Again Score = 12!!! (Wouldn't want to hunt with any other person!)

Look-Out Score = 12! (He was the best look-out he never once took a nap in the blind)

Protector Score = 100! (He risked his life when I thought we were going to die!)

I leave you with these pictures from the deer blind: