Three Pipers Piping

Today Sarah and I got a private concert from some world-renowned bagpipe players.

Well, only one of them was world-renowned, but that's close enough.

On our way to lunch I heard a weird scream from the park, and on our way back home from lunch we realized that it was only bagpipe music, not some kid screaming. Sarah looked around to see where it was coming from, and there were three guys standing in the middle of the park playing bagpipes. Since we both like bagpipe music, we decided to stop and listen for a while.

Despite my mom's assertion that there is only one bagpipe song, we heard several songs: Amazing Grace, Scotland the Brave, and...some other songs.

It was nice.

Our First Christmas Tree

Sarah and I have our first Christmas tree!

Yesterday we went to Cloudcroft with Jeff and Sara to cut down our tree. After a long hunt we found one that looked really good, so we cut it down and planned to head home.

Unfortunately, as soon as the tree was felled, we noticed that it was not as good as it had looked earlier. In fact, it was only half of a tree. It looked great while it was standing because there was another tree next to it, that made it look really full. On to the next tree....

The next great tree we found looked perhaps better than the first, so I began to chop it down. Halfway through, however, I noticed that the crown had fallen off and it was no longer tall enough for our house. We're still not sure how this happened.

Finally, we successfully chopped down a tree that looked good, loaded it onto the truck, and headed into town for lunch. It was bitter cold outside, but we found a nice warm cafe, and shared a thoroughly enjoyable lunch.

We spent a lazy winter evening decorating the tree, which as you can see here turned out magnificently. There are 500 lights on it, which Sarah says is enough. Maybe next year we can fit all 900 on our tree.

Wiiiii!!!

Our auction ended today as Sarah and I watched with some friends with bated breath, and both of our Wiis sold for $380. After our various fees, shipping expenses, etc. we are going to make about $200 profit from the venture. Not the $500 we once hoped for, but definitely not bad for something that we had a fun time doing.

Last night Sarah and I went over to our friends' house for Thanksgiving dinner:

where we learned that Nintendo Wiis were in very short supply, but our local Gamestop would be receiving a shipment of them on Friday morning. Both of us thought very little of this at the time.

The idea bounced around my head for a while, and upon arriving home, I hesitantly mentioned to Sarah that while it seemed silly, we could probably make a good bit of money for just a little bit of work if we were willing to get up early on our day off. We had plans to set aside money for Christmas gifts, but it could be much easier if we had, say, an extra $500 laying around.

At this point Sarah admitted that she had been thinking about the same thing, so we proceeded to look Wiis up on ebay and saw that they were going for up to $500. With a retail price of $249, it sounded like a great idea to both of us...

which led to this:

...which led to this:

If you can't tell what that is, that is sitting and standing in front of a game store for 3 hours while it was snowing. We took some board games and plenty of warm tea, and tried to keep ourselves awake and entertained for the duration. We succeeded.

After watching the employee go in 45 minutes before us and stand in the warm building just playing video games, we finally got in 3 minutes before the store opened, and at 7AM walked out with our 2 new Nintendo Wiis.

...which, after a long nap and several hours online, led directly to this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140182826673&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

Another first!

Tonight we got to experience another first as a couple. Two, actually. It was our first time to go over to the house of some friends from church, and it was our first time getting robbed!

We walked out of our friends' house after Bible study, and as I went to open Sarah's door, I noticed that there were some things on the front seat. At first I thought nothing of it, because I had left some things on the seat in my car. As I thought about it though, I realized that this was Sarah's car, and besides, if Sarah sat in that seat on the way over, how is there stuff on the seat now.

At about this time I realized that everything I saw on the seat had been in the glove compartment two hours earlier, and I was even more confused, until Sarah said, "Somebody broke into the car!" To that, my response was, "oh."

We don't keep anything too important in the car, so we didn't think they had stolen anything, but we decided to call the cops anyways, if only to give them one more piece of evidence. As it turned out, they had stolen Sarah's sun-visor CD case full of CDs.

Fortunately, they didn't do any further damage to the car. The officer who responded said that there has been a rash of theft from cars, and they often key the vehicle or slash the tires.

So, that is the end of our unlocked car days. It would seem to be a small price to pay for some extra security, but it's really not. It's an exorbitant price to pay for crime, and sad that we have to accept that. But accept it we do, and we're glad that we suffered no greater loss than we did. In fact, this was the one time ever that we can remember that Sarah left her purse at home and not in the car.

home and home

Last week was a lot of fun. I got to take some time off to go to NC State and speak to my brother's ROTC class about being a test engineer (which is, of course, what I do). It was a lot of work to put together a 10 minute presentation, but it came together pretty well in the end.

I also very much enjoyed seeing my brother and the place he lives and goes to school. We went to Cookout for dinner, which was excellent.

On the way from Raleigh to Charlotte, Sarah and I rode a Greyhound bus. That doesn't sound too exciting, but since we're still newlyweds everything is still our first, so it was our first bus trip together. It wasn't so bad, especially because the bus driver was really funny.

We also had a great time at home, although it was far too short. We had a Thanksgiving dinner at Sarah's house with both of our families on Thursday, and everything was delicious.

The highlight of the trip was my mom's surprise 50th birthday party. She was completely surprised, probably due to how great we all are at keeping secrets. Certainly it had nothing to do with the fact that her birthday had been 2 months earlier. A lot of family and friends were able to make it, so we all had a good time.

Putting on the party was a lot of work, and my dad did a great job of setting everything up. Sarah took our moms and sisters to breakfast to get her out of the house, and my dad began cooking 40 chicken-halves. Later in the day we also went to take some family pictures as a distraction and as a birthday present for my mom.


Unfortunately, on Sunday I had to come back to Alamogordo (to save vacation days) but it was cheaper for Sarah to fly back on Wednesday. This was our first time apart, and it was not nearly as exciting as our first bus ride.

To make the most of my time while I was at home by myself, I decided to rebuild my closet. Our bedroom has two closets, and I have the smaller of the two. It had one shelf overhead, and one bar, and that was it. Since I don't have very many hangy clothes, I needed more shelves, and I decided to build some.

It turned out very nicely, and while I need to put in probably 2 more shelves, that will be easy now that I've built everything. Here's a picture:

airshow

Well, the Holloman airshow has come and gone.

The airshow was last weekend, and while it was pretty cool, it showed me the incredible amount of work that it takes to put on an airshow. I did a fair amount of work for it, and it left me exhausted.

Sarah and I worked at a food booth on Friday for the education day, and the experience was truly horrible. I can't say that we won't ever do it again, but it wasn't much fun this time. On Saturday we just sat out on the ramp for 6 hours, which wasn't difficult, just mildly draining being in the sun for so long. Sunday we just relaxed and tried to recover from working so hard and so long, but we were not entirely successful.

Between the short week and some busier times at work, this week was incredibly long; I need a vacation more now than at any time since we got married. Fortunately, we're going to NC on Tuesday for a week. The timing could not be better.

After the busy weeks and weekend, followed by a failed remote control halloween costume and a fun halloween party on Friday, this weekend has been especially wonderful. Sarah and I made plans to not make any plans for the weekend, and we were completely successful. Yesterday we went into the mountains with a blanket, some hot chocolate, and Pente and just enjoyed ourselves. On the way back we stopped to enjoy an (arguably) beautiful sunset, and then bought a strawberry-rhubarb pie from the world-famous piery that is the Cloudcroft grocery store.

If you have never played Pente, you are missing out on a great classic game.

Surprise!

...sigh

I got a Halloween surprise today. More specifically, I got a traffic ticket. I was on my way to work this morning, and about 2 minutes away from my house I noticed an envelope on my windshield. A very official looking envelope.

I knew it was a parking ticket, so I stopped at the next red light to get it, expecting to "learn my lesson" for $10 or $15. Oh no, much to my surprise, it was a $45 ticket. For parking on the wrong side of the road. That's not even a law in North Carolina. Or at least not one they teach in driver's ed.

Stupid small-town traffic laws...

Sarah and I went to a corn maze in Las Cruces with our squadron last night. It was a lot of fun, although much less idylic than the pictures online made it seem. Somehow, I saw that coming. There were thousands of screaming children running around underfoot in the entrance area. There were also two small goat pens with goat stairs and a catwalk (goatwalk?) in between them. Of course, there were more screaming children poking the goats with corn stalks. They didn't seem to mind too much though.

Fortunately, things calmed down considerably once we got into the maze. We wandered around for a good hour and had a great time.

Also, Sarah's slippers fit inside of mine.

hiking in Cloudcroft

Today we went hiking in Cloudcroft with the Johnsons again, and this time the Fulsons came along. This time, we decided to tackle the Trestle trail. I had heard that it was 7 miles each way, and I planned on only doing part of it. Fortunately when we got there we realized how incredibly wrong I had been; It was only a couple of miles altogether.







Just like last week, it seemed to be a day made just for hiking that trail. The leaves were turning
and the air was just starting to be crisp. Instead of an earthy smell, this trail had the smell of pine. It took us a while to get to the bottom, passing some beautiful scenery, and we enjoyed ourselves for a while once we were at the trestle. The way back up was a bit more difficult.

Afterwards we stopped in Cloudcroft for a bite to eat and some ice cream. We also walked into the world-famous (at least in Alamogordo) pie store, and even though it was not a very busy part of the day for them, it smelled absolutely delicious.

Another beautiful day.

Canadian Thanksgiving

Today was Canadian Thanksgiving, and the Air Force was kind enough to give me the day off. Actually, it's Columbus Day too, which is an excellent day to give somebody an antique compass.

But, because we had the day off Sarah and I went hiking in Cloudcroft with Sara and Jeff. We took a nice hike on the OSHA trail, and decided that today was the penultimate day to go hiking in Cloudcroft. The leaves were the perfect shades, halfway fallen on the trail. The weather was a perfect blend of crisp and comfortable. The earthy smell and tree-canopied trail reminded me of Narnia. Even the gopher holes in the clearing seemed to take on a mythical beauty.




We also decided to cook a turkey and have some people over in celebration of Thanksgiving, so we roasted our first turkey and whipped together a Thanksgiving dinner in record time. It was delicious. Sarah worked incredibly hard, but it was worth it because we had so much good food and fun. We tried a spice-rubbed turkey with cranberry barbecue sauce. Mmm-mmmm.



Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Time Keeps on Rollin'

Lots has happened in the last 2 weeks. Jordan had a birthday for one... 24!?! That's so old. I can remember when he turned 18 and I was scared to go to his birthday party haha. We had a little get together for Jordan's 24th at our house. I decorated our living room with balloons, streamers, and Transformers birthday essentials (i.e. paper plates, tablecloth, etc.). Several of our friends came and we played lawn games and Taboo. We all had a great time. I made a carrot cake that was delicious!

Last week was mostly uneventful. Jordan and I try to go swimming on Wednesday and Friday mornings and it has worked out twice. We really enjoy swimming together in the mornings so we'll definitely continue that.

Friday night we went to the Fulson's house for a fondue birthday party for Mary Lou. We had a great time with the fondue and.. you guessed it Taboo again. Saturday morning Jordan, Marc, Mary Lou and I went to Cracker Barrel in Las Cruces. We tried to go to a corn maze afterwards but it was $8 a person!! A tiny bit ridiculous if you ask me. So instead of running around crazy in the stiffling heat, we went around and looked at some nice houses next to the mountains. Later when we got home we watched Maverick and this morning we went to church and then to Brown Bag Deli (<-- the best sandwich shop EVER) with Sara and Jeff Johnson. Today was Sara's birthday (yes yet ANOTHER September birthday) so we had a great time with them. Then today, just in case we hadn't seen enough of them, we went back to the Fulsons house and played Dominos for nearly 4 hours.

There are some new pictures in our photo album of our bathroom with phase 1 completely finished. Phase 2 will include a new vanity/sink and new light fixtures... that won't be for a while though.

So things have been going great. Jordan is so patient and loving. I don't know what I'd do without him. We feel so blessed with all the God has provided for us since we've been here.

birfday

Today was my 21st Birthday. We had a really good time at church, Hastings, and Ryan Bird's house for lunch. Jordan and I took a nap afterwards and then went to Applebee's with some friends. We had a great time. The only bad part about Applebee's was that the Maple Butter Nut Blondie which was the reason for going to Applebee's for dinner was burned!! So... we got a refund and a free appetizer. I guess we'll go sometime soon and get the appetizer and try the Blondie again.

Jordan is so great. He was so loving and kind today. My best birthday present was having a whole day to spend with him. I'm glad that my birthday was on a Sunday.

yay!

Today we finally installed our RO system!

Our water in Alamogordo is really bad, so we had to put in a water softener, which makes it undrinkable (it's salty). So for 3+ months now we have had to walk or drive down the street (okay, it's only 2 blocks, but still) to get drinking water. Not a huge problem, but when you run out at 11PM, it's not the most exciting thing in the world.

Today though, we finally installed our reverse osmosis system. It took nearly all day, and we haven't actually had any of it yet, but it's going to be so nice to have such easily available water.

With that successful (albeit longer than expected) adventure and a near crippling thumb injury derived from checking the tire on our motorcycle, it's been a full day.

And...tomorrow is Sarah's birthday! She can finally go unescorted into the alcohol section of Wal-Mart!

trip to CO

Sarah and I went to Colorado this weekend to enjoy a bit of a vacation and to visit friends. We drove up there with Marc and Mary Lou, which was a lot of fun.

While we were there we tried to go to the balloon festival, but it was cancelled. We did get to rock climbing with Dave though. Also, I finally got to deliver the key rack key to the BSU house, after only a year and a half of working on it. Doesn't it look great?

We had a great and relaxing weekend, and now it's going to be extra hard to go back to work in the morning. It was much-needed time off though.

end of August

Not much news to report. Today I got home from work a bit early and we took a nice long nap together. Last night we had the Fulsons and the Johnsons over for a wonderful dinner and we played Clue and looked at wedding pictures. This weekend we're going to Colorado Springs with the Fulsons to visit the Barthas.

Work has been kind of crazy lately because we're moving buildings for a month. It's kind of fun to do something different than usual, but it's going to be very good to get away for a long weekend.

Before the crazy moving started at work though, I got to go drive around in a 5 ton dump truck near Carrizozo (about 60 miles north of here) about half a dozen times. The mountains are beautiful up there. I also saw several oryx.

Finger Fiasco

Today started out like any other day. Nothing out of the ordinary. I went to the gym with Mary Lou and then to lunch with some of the wives from Jordan's squadron and nothing went wrong until dinner time. Jordan and I went to a sporting goods store in order to buy me some goggles and a cap so that we could go swimming tomorrow.... little did we know, we will NOT be swimming tomorrow.

We came home and started getting dinner together. The plan was to have shrimp fettuccine alfredo so I put some water on to boil and got out the butter to start the sauce. I went to cut the butter and cut my finger instead. :-( It was a deep cut so we went to the emergency room and i had to get stitches... It didn't hurt except for the numbing medicine that the doctor had to put in my cut... yikes!!

Jordan took really good care of me. He was so nice and encouraging! I'm so lucky to have a superhero for a husband. After the hospital he took me to Applebee's and then we went to Marc and Mary Lou's for sherbet... so, thanks mainly to Jordan and also to the Fulsons, living through a finger fiasco wasn't so bad.

Visitors

Sarah's family came in for the weekend, and we had a really good time. We got to show them around our little corner of New Mexico. (Beforehand Sarah and I were sitting around trying to come up with activities for their visit, and after about two minutes we looked at each other and realized that there really is not much to do here. We're not ever bored, but we're not quite sure how we avoid it.)

We got to go to White Sands and to the pool a couple of times. We all had a really good time. I was hurting for several minutes at the pool, because I thought I could do a flip and a half off of the 3 meter board, but it didn't turn out so well. I can do a not-so-pretty flip and a quarter though. (Yes, that means a giant belly flop.)

In the process of getting ready for Sarah's family, we converted our third storage room back into a bedroom/TV room. The house looks great. Sarah managed to finish the painting in the family room and in the bathroom, and we made great headway on getting some of my pre-marital mess in order.

Camping

Sarah and I went camping this weekend to take in the Perseid meteor shower. It was a lot of fun. We camped in the middle of a big rock formation, and had the best campsite in the place. Our propane grill was a huge success because there was no wood to gather for a campfire. We should have figured that that would be a problem in a campground called City of Rocks. Sadly, we were unable to toast marshmallows. Some other highlights:

We saw a rattlesnake- Sarah's first. It gave a polite little rattle to let me know that it was there, and I very calmly pointed it out to Sarah.

We saw two super-cool meteors--the kind that you only see in movies. They took up nearly half the sky, and the trails glowed for about 30 seconds.

We drove for several hours through beautiful mountain scenery. On the way up to Gila Cliff Dwellings we saw 19 Porsches, 15 of which were the same classic model.

As you may have guessed, we went up to Gila Cliff Dwellings. They were pretty cool, literally and figuratively, but the neater part was the view on the way up. At one point we were driving along a mountain at the top of a valley, the grandeur of which I cannot begin to describe. It was so magnificent that I didn't even want to take a picture of it because the picture wouldn't do it justice. Sarah thought that that was silly.

On our way back we accidentally spent $50 on dinner. Sometimes I guess it just happens.

For more pictures see our album.

Camping Trip 1

So this weekend Jordan and I decided to go camping because there is going to be a meteor shower! We're really excited to see the shower and also to go on our first ever camping trip. Jordan already had most of what we need, but yesterday we went to Walmart and bought a blow-up mattress. I know it could be considered cheating, but we are going camping where we might be sleeping on a rock.... so I'm alright with cheating this time.

Last night the Fulsons came over and we played Monopoly. It was really fun and I learned that Jordan is very competitive! Don't get caught with him holding the last property of your monopoly!

August begins well

We have finished tiling our shower, and while we're not done with the walls, etc. in the rest of the bathroom, our house is much more usable now.

Caleb came to see us tonight and we had a roaring good time playing bocce and yahtzee.

New Mexico is still beautiful, and Sarah even more so.

Bathroom

Sarah and I have been working on our bathroom a lot lately. We bought a great little house in New Mexico, but the main bathroom had a tub without a shower. To make things nicer for our guests (and ourselves) we decided to fix that, and it has been a lot of work. Now, after two weekends in a row involving nights until 5 AM, we're nearly done. Sarah has been great, and the tile is amazing. To see some pictures of our progress see http://picasaweb.google.com/jaspast.