Fun Fact Day

I have seen on a lot of blogs lately that people will write out a lot of some fun facts about themselves. I thought it looked so fun, so I thought I would try it. :)

I absolutely love Tums. The antacid. Not because I ever need it for physical ailments, but because I think they are delicious. I usually eat a couple a day, just because I can. Jeff and I call them our "candies".

I have watched every season of "The Office" at least 5 times. It STILL makes me laugh.

Once I start reading, I cannot stop. It is some weird, psycho obsession in my mind. I HAVE to finish the book as quickly as possible, and I can't do anything else until I do. This includes dishes, exercise, making food, geez, just walking to the living room. I can't be one of those people who reads a chapter or two of a book before bed at night. I get too invested in the characters and usually finish a 300-400 page books within 6-8 hours. (Jeff and I have both agreed it is just best to get it over with as quickly as possible. haha)

My biggest fear is experiencing the incredible pain of child birth someday.

I have recently become terrified of sun spots. It sounds so funny when I say it "out loud"! haha I use pretty much every preventative method possible to avoid getting these bad boys both now and in the future.

I absolutely love to vacuum. It is the best chore ever invented! I vacuum probably every other day, just to see the lines in the carpet again.

Kickboxing is my absolute favorite way to work out.

I love to read fashion blogs. I am one of those creepy people who follows bloggers I don't even know so I can see the outfits they post. The interesting thing is I don't really like any of their styles or blogs! But I read and follow them anyway.

UFC fighting, or any fighting for that matter, makes me cry.

Introducing myself to new people is terrifying. It takes a huge amount of courage to put myself out there like that, and I find its easier to just sink into my own turtle shell instead.

I am completely fine being alone by myself all day.

That being said, I desperately need friendship!!!! There is nothing better than being social. It makes me feel complete and satisfied.

My dream is to someday weigh 128 pounds. *Sigh*. I am 2-3 pounds away, but I just can't seem to reach it. :)

Jeff and I love to have pet fish, specifically beta fish, and we always give them the same name. It is easier that way!

I would wear white pants every single day if it were socially acceptable.

Jillian Michaels is the bomb dot com. I really don't think there is any other way to say it. :)

Sudoku may be the best puzzle game in the world. My fastest time solving one is 1:53. Tetris is probably a close second.

I have to eat my BLT sandwiches with toasted bread. I don't like anything soggy. :)

Anyway, there are a few fun things about me!

Butterflies and Mummies

One of our favorite adventures from this summer was visiting the Museum of Natural Science and the Butterfly Exhibit. Some of the exhibits included paleontology, gems, sea life, energy sources, African wildlife, Egypt, and South America. I think I will just post a bunch of pictures from the trip instead of writing about it. Also, don't mind my CRAZY, frizzy hair in these pictures. The humidity here kills me! I walk out of the house with nice curls, and ten seconds later its a fluff ball. (Sigh.)


 This butterfly landed on Jeff's head just minutes after entering the room. I couldn't believe it!

  

Check out that blue butterfly! It was gorgeous! About the size of my hand, and so quick. It was impossible to get a good picture.

I think I sat on this bench for 1/2 hour waiting for a butterfly to land on me. It never happened, but one landed on Jeff after 2 minutes!

Some kind of special gem. Its a vibrant red, spiky thing.

This mummy is especially special because he has a beard. Apparently it was incredibly weird for anyone to have facial hair, especially when being prepared for mummification. He is incredibly preserved.

This head was carved into a metallic sandstone. 

We went to Dallas this weekend, so more updates to come!

Wicked!

You guys.

I went with Jeff and his co-workers to see Wicked last night. In my mind I'm still like, "Whaaaaaatt??" I had seriously been wanting to see it since I was in high school in 2006. And although I am definitely behind the times, it was fantastic to finally see it. I am still reeling inside.

 The musical was incredibly clever and well written, and had the best references to The Wizard of Oz. I thought it was a fantastic way to think of the "real" Wicked Witch. Also, all the songs I've been hearing in talent shows, and what not, make so much more sense in the context of the play. I appreciate the music more now than I have in the past.

This was the only picture we were able to take, as photos were not allowed during the performance. :( But you can kind of see the stage here! And we had great seats in orchestra seating! WHOO!

Pardon the dark pictures. Lighting was rough in there! haha The picture below includes some of the group that went to the show. Jeff, Mack and Michele, Jessie, and Marybeth. Mack, Jessie, and Marybeth are interns with Jeff at work.

It was a fantastic night! Afterward, I told Jeff that I would love to go to more musicals/plays in the future. I must admit, he looked a little afraid. :)

4th of July

The 4th has always been one of my favorite holidays. I love the fireworks, the barbecues, the family, the parades. It is such a festive and fun holiday! But it was weird for me to be in Houston to celebrate alone with Jeff this year. I didn't realize how differently the states would celebrate. For example, they do not have parades in Texas! What in the world?! NO parades?? That is the best part! Needless to say, we had to make some of our own fun. :)

We started our morning by making festive chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream, strawberries, and blueberries for breakfast.

That evening, Billy and Erin came over for dinner. We had club sandwiches, chips, and corn on the cob. It was so much fun! Jeff and Billy have been friends since they were kids, and both Billy and Erin lived in our singles ward before we got married. They are a great couple and we loved catching up with them. :)

After dinner, we frosted 4th of July cupcakes! Jeff just squirted different colors all over the cupcake. He just wanted to eat it. haha Men are so much different than women . . .

That night we watched fireworks downtown with Billy and Erin. Billy works for a law firm in the city, and we were invited to go with them to a party in the skyscraper to watch the fireworks. We were almost exactly level with the fireworks! It was really cool! It gave a whole new perspective to watching fireworks.

The pictures don't quite do it justice. And we were closer than the photos make it look. :)

At the end of the night, we were walking up the stairs to our apartment and stopped to look out over the lake across the street. There were 8 different firework shows we could see on the horizon. It was pretty magical. :)

Beach Day!

One of the cool things about being in Houston is that we are an hour away from the beach! So probably a month ago, we went with Mack and Michele, the other couple here from BYU, to the beach in Galveston. It was a beautiful day! The water was so warm, and at one point it was even warmer in the water than it was outside because it was a bit rainy.

This beach is maybe a mile away from where Jeff proposed to me two years ago. It looks basically the same. :) It was great for us to reminisce about that day and visit the place again, especially since I thought I would never be able to come back.

I am obsessed with this hat. It is the only hat I have ever owned, but for some reason I absolutely love it!

After the beach, we drove back to downtown Houston to watch the USA vs. Ireland rugby game! After watching BYU rugby throughout the past four years, we have learned to love the sport. We ended up losing to Ireland by three, but it was fun to be there! Unfortunately, Jeff's phone died as we arrived so we were unable to get any photos.

Houston has been good to us! We have been loving our adventures.

Thoughts about Texas

We have been living in Texas for three weeks now, and so far it has been great! Well, it has been great for me . . . but I am not the one who has to go to work through an hour of traffic. :) I just get to enjoy the pool every day! haha Although we haven't been here a really long time, I am starting to get an idea about things I like and things I don't like about being here.

Things I like about Texas:

1. The Mexican food! Oooooooh man, I have never had Mexican food like they have here. I am going to be one of those annoying people who is always wishing they were back in Texas when we go out to eat.
2. The flowers and greenery. Everything here is so beautiful! There are palm trees and colorful flowers everywhere, and everything grows.
3. Storms. We have only had a few storms, but the thunder rolls for miles and the rain pours in sheets. It is a really cool thing to watch!
4. All the races and cultures. I was telling my mom that in the first 24 hours I lived here, I saw more races at Walmart than I have in my entire life combined! Our apartment complex is also really diverse. I think there are pretty equal numbers between white, African American, and Indians. It is really cool!
5. The gluten-free selection at Krogers. I was worried about coming to Texas that I would have a hard time finding food to eat, but to my surprise they have all kinds of gluten-free foods! And they are cheaper than in Utah, so that has been a great surprise. :)
6. There are all kinds of things to do in Houston and surrounding cities. We have plans to visit NASA, the zoo, the Museum of Natural History, the beach, Dallas, Austin, and Louisiana to see gators. I'll be sure to post some pictures of the different things we see.

Things I don't like about Texas:

1. The BUGS. Specifically, the cockroaches. The fire ants aren't so great either. I have to watch every step I take when I walk across the lawn.
2. The traffic! It takes forever to get anywhere around here! In a city of four million people, the traffic is always backed up from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. I don't like the stop and go traffic, especially in a stick shift.
3. If you go outside on a walk, your clothes are soaked through with sweat. I don't mind heat, and I don't mind humidity per se, but the sweat drives me crazy!
4. There aren't any mountains. This is a classic complaint, but I realized the other day that everything is so flat. The only elevation change is going over the overpasses on the freeway. :)
5. We, along with the other couple that came from BYU for the same internship, are the only LDS people in our apartment complex. It isn't that I have a problem being in the minority, or that I need LDS people to be happy, it is just really odd. My problem is the ward is HUGE and spread out for miles, so I don't like that it is hard to be in contact with ward members as friends throughout the week.

Cross Country Road Trip Pt. 2

For the third part of our road trip, we stayed a night in San Antonio! We stayed in the El Tropicano hotel on the Riverwalk. We arrived really late at night so we weren't able to see anything in the evening, but we enjoyed the next morning! First, we went to see the Alamo. I was really surprised that it is in downtown San Antonio surrounded by buildings! For some reason I thought it was in the middle of the desert . . . hmm.

After seeing the Alamo, we went to see the Ripley's Believe It, or Not museum across the street. We spent hours in there! There were so many fun things!

 Tallest man in the world!

We ended our stay by eating lunch on the Riverwalk. It was incredible! We ate at the best Mexican food I have had in my life. Holy cow, Texas is the land of Mexican food! And the Riverwalk was stunning. I would love to be able to walk there every day.

Before arriving in Houston, we stopped at Buc-ees gas station. I don't understand it, but in Texas these gas stations are legendary. Jeff said that in his high school, they had a "wear a Buc-ee the Beaver t-shirt day". Anyway, all the Texans at school talked about it, and before we left we were instructed by multiple people to stop at the gas station. So we did! And I will give it credit, I have never seen public bathrooms like that before. ;)