Baby pics

We were looking through some of Joni's baby pictures for her up and coming slide show for all the interns' graduation. They are supposed to guess who is who. If you ask me, these three pictures are dead give aways because if you know Joni the slightest little bit, you would know these pictures prove she has the same personality as when she was young.

Seen this face before? Joni gets really excited about new things, maybe thats why she likes me so much, her parents introduced her to large, dome-like bald things from the start.

You could say her dad and her uncles introduced her to cheerleading at a very young age.

Looking through baby pictures is pretty fun, it also gives me hope that our kids might not end up with the huge Moore noggin or extra chin. Have you ever wished you could go back and know someone from childhood? Not necessarily to know them but to watch them grow up...I guess in this day and age it sounds kind of creepy, but I think our relationships with people would change quite a bit. Imagine if you saw your boss poop his pants as a kid, you probably wouldn't be as intimidated around him. It is important to always show respect to other people, but how different would everyone treat each other if we all saw each other grow up. I'm sure some of the nutty people in the world had a reason for being that way, as well as the vertically challenged man who is always angry, or the girl who has everything but doesn't have any true friends. Parenting has to be key in all of that, as well as friends and surroundings. But then again, some people are just mental from the start. Funny how hard it is to kick childhood habits like biting fingernails and picking your nose. I am still working on the picky eating thing, so much of it is mental. I just can't get myself to eat certain veggies, don't know if it is the texture or what.

Joni has a couple more interviews coming up in Waco, and possibly Temple, all random places equidistant from College Station. Yes, Waco is the place where that crazy compound thing happened a few years back. That guy probably grew up playing with Barbies and fireworks...at the same time.

We saw the movie "Bobby" last night, it was pretty good, but then again I love that period of history. Not to bash any current political leaders, but I think we need a fresh start with someone young for a change, or at least someone who is not a "politician". Not sure who that could be but I can't help but get excited for the next presidential election. I see some people running that have potential, and some others who fit the typical mold of past Presidents. Just remember, at one time, every one of them pooped in thier pants.

Nascar Experience

Tilt your head to get the full effect of this picture, Joni's face says it all as she is dressed up in two sweatshirts, a blanket and a pair of oversized gloves while trying to eat kettle corn. She was wearing sandals and ended up putting the gloves on her feet.

Last week my boss gave me two tickets to the O'reilly 300 (nascar race), I probably never would have purchased tickets but I always wanted to experience nascar, since we are in Texas I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get the "real deal". The stadium is ENORMOUS, holding a little over 200,000 people, about the size of 2 nfl football games and three nba basketball games together. As you can imagine parking was rediculous, I laughed because after the first mile that we were walking towards the stadium, there was a porta potty station for people to rest and go to the bathroom. You wouldn't believe the number of motor homes, barbeques, flags, colors, and beer there was as we walked in. The weather had been nice until the night before when we experienced some of the craziest rain and hail I have ever seen, along with tornado warnings and strong winds. It made for some freakishly cold weather at the race that we were not prepared for. The experience itself was very cool, but I would probably not do it again. Walking towards the stadium the cars sounded like a mixture of angry bees and jet fighters. Once inside the stadium, there was a constant drone noise with the occasional "zuff, zuff zuff" of cars passing by and the whole place seemed to shake continuously. We did bring ear plugs which helped a lot, but not as much as we would have hoped. The true Nascar fan has a headset with a microphone, and an extension cord hooked up to both of his buddies next to him so they could talk, forming a chain of headsets and people connected at the head. Good idea, seeing as how I had to jam my nose into Joni's head and scream in her ear to have a conversation, but they looked funnier than we did. As far as the race goes it was very hard to follow. On tv the camera follows the leader, but in the stadium cars are constantly going by and you only have about 2 seconds to recognize the numbers on the cars before they pass at 170 mph. The people weren't as crazy as I thought they would be, could have been the weather, or just that the cars passing along with all of the noise puts everyone in a trance like state of mind. In the end we can say we have been to a Nascar race. Since I got my new driver's license this week too, I guess you could say I am officially a Texan.

Joni is currently looking for a job. There are a lot of openings around the College Station area but none in College Station so far. For now we will just be happy that she can find one close enough to not have to commute an hour each way every day. We might not even be able to live in College Station but we'll see how that goes. She had an interview that went really well in Humble (just north of Houston) this week, but that is still pretty far away. There are a lot of cool little towns in between Houston and College Station that we may end up living in if that is the case. We'll let you know where we end up going, we are a little bit nervous but confident that Joni's internship will land her a good job. The interview in Humble was wierd because the guy told her about the hospital, and then acted as if he was done and Joni said, "Is there anything you would like to know about me?" and he responded, "sure, but I know you are experienced because you are a Baylor intern." I guess a good name goes a long ways here. Cut the small talk, let's get to the nitty gritty.

Fun Easter

Today we drove out towards Fort Worth to have a grown up Easter egg hunt and a tour of the Grapevine fire station with some friends. I felt like I was 8 years old, but it was really fun. Joni has grown really close with some of her intern friends, and it was great for me to get to know some of them a little better too, since she seems to be around them more than me...at least for a couple more months.

One of the interns has a husband who is a firefighter/paramedic, and he took us on a tour of his station. We talked and joked around with some good old Texas fire fighters, and learned quite a bit about what they do. The coolest thing there besides the trucks was a big screen tv with at least 15 lazy boys surrounding it for the firefighters to watch movies. Brandon (picture above with the jaws of life) and I hid all the easter eggs for the girls, and we had a good time talking and stuffing ourselves with junk food. It is so cool to hang around with people who are so similar and yet so different as far as the direction we all plan on going in our lives. It is refreshing to get to know so many people who are genuinely good people, and who can be accepting of each other's differences. I hope to meet more people in my life that come from such different backgrounds, but that immediately click as a friend, it's really hard to explain...it's just really cool. I love that Glen and Kendi hang out with thier neighbors, I want to be that way with all of the people I come in contact with, no matter what they look like, or where they come from. By doing that I feel we can meet some of the most interesting people and make some of the most lasting impressions and friendships ever. One of the things that has kept me feeling positive in my unlikeable job is the daily contact I have with people who are so different from me, telling them embarrassing stories about myself, and laughing until our cheeks hurt. I don't know what got me going on this tangent, I just feel everyone needs to come out of thier shells a little more, because for every bad person there is out there, there are at least two good ones.

blog drought

I swear I have blogged since last time, maybe it was a dream, or maybe I was thinking about something I wanted to blog about and I just didn't get around to it. Since every one else I know has been in a blog drought, it's like time has stood still in blog land, and it has really screwed up my sense of time. We have had some awesome storms here lately. I love Texas weather when it is not blistering hot and muggy. Joni and I played in the rain and sloshed around a bit because it was coming down so hard and we had never seen anything like it. It comes down in sheets, by the time I ran from my truck to the front door I was soaked from head to toe. I always thought it was funny how wet actors can get in movies when they are in the rain, but now I know it can actually happen. I love thunder and lightning storms too, which come here every time it rains.

I think Texas is finally growing on us a bit. I really think attitude has everything to do with how happy you are with where you are in your life, including where you live. I also know if we lived in a good neighborhood and had more time and resources to do more things we wanted, then we would really like it a lot more. I wish we had our bikes here with us, I don't even know where they are. I finally decided to ease up a little bit from my normal financial "tightwad" mentality, and we are going to be doing some fun things in the next couple of months. In April we are going to the Fort Worth Stockyards championship rodeo (we scored front row box seats). In May we are going to see the play "Wicked", and also see Harry Connick Jr in concert. We have been trying to see the Mavs play but tickets are rediculously expensive because of how good they are this year...okay, so I am still a bit of a tight wad. It is so important to take a little time here and there to do things that make you happy, even if it costs a little bit of money. I would like to take our kids (in the future of course) to cultural events. My mom took us to plays and random concerts on a monthly basis, and my dad always took us on cool and exotic trips and baseball games, and I am so thankful for that. I learned a lot more from these experiences that most kids my age never had the opportunity to experience. Some of the experiences were not so great, like Donny Osmond in black leather, "Cats" the musical, and naked old people on nude beaches in the Caribbean. But most of them were awesome like Les Miserables, dinner theatres, the Nylons in concert, donkeys on our front porch, and Dad saying he wanted to "scout out" the "no clothing allowed" beach for better spots than the "clothing optional" beach we were already on. I guess if it comes down to having a really nice house or car, or going on fun trips and going out on the town, I would choose the latter. It seems most of the world has chosen the big house, but they miss out on a lot.

I guess the whole point to my blog is that no matter how busy you are, or how poor you think you are, it is important to take time to do things you enjoy. Work will always be work, and play will always be fun.