The Aquarium

I went to an aquarium in downtown Houston, 

and I left with a picture of me and a tiger.  

I'm a little bit frightened that the crazy part of this picture isn't the fact 

that The Downtown Aquarium feels it appropriate to include tigers in their fish exhibit

 but rather me--I AM THE CRAZY PART. 

Despite the whole lot of cray-cray oozing from above photo, I super enjoyed the Aquariam. 

• I touched a few sting-rays: 
• they are some smart and scary creatures. They'd flap their 'wings' at us if they thought we had food. And they'd come close and I'd touch them and scream a little. I just kept thinking about the Steve Irwin, and so I was a little hesitant. But I conquered that fear and touched those nasty slimy things. It may have been a first and last!
• Road the ferris wheel - which was a significantly more pleasant experience than the Park County Fair - much less rickety. 
• Observed some fish. Good times!
• And checked one more thing off my Houston Bucket List!

Throwback Thursday - 1 Year Later!

One Year Ago

My Family looked like this:

My mom was still rocking the Stay at Home Mom title. My dad had JUST left IME. Toni and Sage only had two beautiful daughters. Dawn and Bryan only had Camilla with an un-named baby on the way. Bryan still worked at Goldman Sach's.  Ty was a lowly Junior at BYU. Todd still lived in America. And I had no real future.

Today: 

My Family looks like this:

CONGRATS TY!!! I'M A VERY PROUD SISTER!!! YOU'RE SO SMART!!! AND HANDSOME!

My mom is the newest and BEST Support Specialist for the Powell area Institute. Pops has not only rocked Granite Engineering - he's now on his way to REAL ESTATE MOGAL. #baller  Toni is now the pregnant sister and un-named baby boy is coming REAL soon! Ty's a graduate and has a JOB!

 Dawn and Bryan dropped out of the Goldman life and living as college students in Pittsburgh - and Henry is a human being.   

Todd is sharing the Gospel in Africa! 

And I have a career and a life in Houston.

Another person who was a huge part of my graduation day/life:

Last year Sweet Stacey was hugging me and wasn't officially dating anyone - yet!

This year:

Sweet Stacey is graduating and has her arms around the man of her dreams (who only has eyes for her) and is going to marry him in less than 2 months!

It's amazing the difference a year makes!

Anecdotes From A Pleasant Week

• A client at work made me a mixed tape that he put together himself. He told me I was his favorite lady, and he laughed at all my jokes! NICE!
• As I was listening to the mix tape on the way home from work - it was mostly Johnny Cash - I had two windows down and I was loving my life. As I pulled up to a stop light, with my windows down, a man in the lane next to mine was shouting at me. I finally figured out that it was me he was talking to and I turned down my music - "I grew up in Dubois - where are you from?" - startled I shouted back "Powell!" One of best reasons to register my car in Powell once more - the chance to keep having these wonderful encounters! 
• As I was pulling up to another stoplight on another day - I started to un-peel an orange - it's a long light. But... it just happens I stopped right next to a homeless man - with my windows down and the music up. AWKWARD. I turned down my music and then after 10 seconds I looked over apologetically to the homeless man (H.M.) - 
• K: "I -" 
• H.M."You don't have to give me anything. Don't feel bad."
• K "I have an orange. Would you like an orange?"
• H.M. "Sure if you want to give it to me."
• K hands H.M. orange.
• H.M. "I'll eat it right now." (begins to unpeel it)
• Silence
• H.M. "Do you know Spanish?"
• K Um... trying to figure out if I look like I know Spanish for some reason.. "No, I don't."
• H.M. "I'm know f-ing Spanish" (he didn't censor)
• I raised my eyebrows in surprise - but his face was down so he couldn't tell.
• H.M. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to say (pause - trying to figure out how to apologize for cussing without saying it again) that word."
• He then went on to tell me about how on the streets you have to learn Spanish and that he's pretty fluent - until the light turned green. Then mid-sentence, as the light-turned green - he held up his hand and said "Bye."
• I was at another stoplight (I only have a 20 minute commute - even though it sounds like I'm ALWAYS driving) on another day and saw across the way a Wyoming-ite from county 10 or 16 - my eyes are going bad, don't judge! I hardly EVER see any cars not from Texas and yet that is second siting of a Wyomin'-ite! Love it!
• At salsa dance class this week, I moved from super beginner to regular beginner because I finally reached FLOW status! I really felt the dance - instead of just doing the steps. My favorite dance partner told me I finally got it because I added a little bounce to my step - which was true because I finally found the beat! YEAH!!!!!!! Now I just have to find places to dance that aren't totally sleazy.
• At Wal-Mart yesterday, I was walking in and a middle-aged man from behind me says - you have something on you and he points downish. I looked at my bag which was on the backside of my leg and didn't see anything. He kept pointing and then was like - someone else is going to have to get it off for you. My roommate looked at booty and saw a sticker from her car on my skirt and pulled it off. I was left feeling really weird that a man would be telling there was something down there. Was it weird or kind that he mentioned it?

The most unfortunate teeth and other adventures...

I have the most unfortunate teeth or I'm really bad at applying lip-gloss...

When I was younger, I thought it was just because I had braces, 

but as time goes on - it still keep happening. 

The lip-gloss invariably ends up on teeth. It's a curse, 

but I don't let it stop me.

 In fact.. I embrace the white-trash nature of my predicament:

5 points for TP, 15 Points for the actual toilet.

The above pics were taken as we were headed out the door for Wings and Latin Dancing.

Wings were fantastic - Latin Dancing left a lot to be desired.

First time eating wings!

 Mostly because I was way out of my element,

and my hips weren't lying - I'm as white as they come. 

But I have a strong desire to get good at dancing - it's always been my dream, 

so I'm going to keep trying.

On Saturday I had to work, and next Saturday I will also work again and the Saturday after that I will also work. I can't wait for the summer when weekend work slows considerably. For now, I remind myself that I'm doing fun things (and getting overtime!) like going to the zoo, learning new skills, like how to paddle in a Dragon Boat competition, and providing the best Easter Egg Hunt our clients have ever had with beeping easter eggs for our kids that are blind and visually impaired.

Shout out to Toddy-boy who I think of every time I go to a zoo!

Florida Georgia Line - Rodeo Houston Part 2

THE CONCERT!

The actual Rodeo ends at around 8:30 and then quickly set up for the concert, which for many is the main draw - or maybe not the main draw, but a way to differentiate between nights at the Rodeo. When people say things like what night are you going? It's usually in reference to who will be performing the night you are at the Rodeo. The Rodeo gets a lot of country bands - Blake Shelton, Reba McIntire -- but also some other genres - Usher, Maroon 5. I went on Florida George Line night!

Hauling the Stage Out After the Rodeo Finished

Very Effective Ford Advertisement - Who wouldn't want the fancy nice truck?

Florida Georgia Line (FGL) has two guys that are the main vocals - although one of the guys (the more hickish of the two) is definitely the lead vocals in that while the other is just kind of a mix of lead and not lead. They came out in jeans (TIGHTER THAN JEGGINGS - it looked so uncomfortable), shirts with the sleeves cut-off, and cowboy boots. The looked the part of backwoods hick all the way down to the hair. 

As the show was starting they set off a bunch of fireworks INSIDE the Stadium! It was so fun and awesome! This was happening as our singers were driven to the center stage in the back of one of the Ford Trucks. 

Fireworks of Anticipation

The concert itself was pretty great. They were very energetic and very good at walking off the stage to go mingle with the fans that are pretty far away from them because of the way the Stadium is set up.  They were also good at getting us all excited about the next song. Lots of Where's my Houston Ladies?! - I screamed with the best of them! 

When the sang one of their hits "Shine On" they asked everyone to get their lighters out. I assumed this would be like they do it in Utah - turn the flashlight app on their smart phone and wave it in the air. While this was what most of the people did I surprised at the fact that people actually had lighters on them - Like real ones!  (It was so strange to me to think about people still smoking - I mean we've established lung cancer is a thing right? I understand people my parents age smoking, but anyone my age?! Seriously - do you ever read the news?!)  The lighter/cellphone glow during shine on was just too pretty, so I took some pictures for you:

Now about the concert. Although these guys are played on country radio - their live performances are much different. The newspaper report on their concert called their genre "hillbilly rap-rock." In high school tennis, we would made up a similar genre we called it Crap - which stands for country-rap. These guys had it down. They had all the head-banging of the Rock genre with the hand gestures of the rap genre all this while still clinging to their country-roots. It was so funny.  In my mind I could see these guys in their garage in high school taking themselves very seriously talking about making it big then being here today with not much changing as far as performance style goes. They definitely seemed to be living their dreams in real life. 

Guitars!!!!!!!

Rodeo Houston (Texas-Sized Post)

I managed to snag some free tickets from work to go to the RODEO last night! I don't know if I explained this before, but the Rodeo is like the Park County Fair on STEROIDS! There is the Rodeo happening in the football stadium, a giant carnival outside the stadium, and a few building full of shops and livestock. There is also food on STEROIDS.

The Food

Sweet Diana and I hit up the food first. When I say on STEROIDS - I mean it. Although here instead of calling it STEROIDS they say "TEXAS SIZED" which after driving 12 hours through Texas to get here - I do know that Texas-Sized is an accurate descriptor of the food I saw!

I personally grabbed a $12.75 TEXAS SIZED turkey leg and dug in. It was great!

Obesity's Genusis

But when you get 1/2 halfway in, you start feel grease dripping (dripping) down your chin, which may or may not be a figment of your imagination, but regardless you feel gross after chowing down. 

My did I really just eat that? selfie!

All the progress I made before I had to stop.

 All this food made me laugh at sweet Todd in Africa. Here I am surrounded by good eats and fattening desserts and he's eating cow's foot. Poor guy!

Post Meal - Pre Dessert Pic

 Fried Desserts:
   Okay team - I feel the need to report on the urban legend of Fried Twinkies (on the left below). They are not that good.  If you ever get to a place where they sell fried anything - go for the Oreos - they are 10x better than the twinkie and apparently the fried snickers. TRUST ME. Definitely worth your $6.

The Rodeo

The Rodeo part is pretty typical of all Rodeos I've been to - except for the venue. It's so massive. It's a Football Stadium transformed into a Rodeo Grounds. It is awesome. We were lucky enough to get seats on the first level and on the same side as all the action. So bulls still looked huge from where we were. 

The Venue!

 One thing unique to this Rodeo was the calf scramble. All these high school students who are either FFA or 4H(pictured in white below) get the chance to catch a calf and put a halter on it. If they are able to do this - they are awarded different scholarships. The kicker is that there are more kids than calves, so it gets sad when people are trying so hard and not successful. It's a neat idea, but last night it was so violent (which I'm told was a rarity).

Kids were getting stomped on and pulled around. For those of you familiar with the Lewis Branding Event held each spring these calves were noticeably bigger than what we typically brand, but not by a lot. And they were feisty - which I know is not a rare thing - so maybe the violence shouldn't surprise me?

The technique used the night I was there was to grab the calves tail and pull hard. When the calf had kind of given up, you would then jump for it's head with all your might. One girl literally had her legs wrapped around a calves neck while she sorted out the halter. It was psycho and hilarious. But people were crying and fainting, ankles were twisted, hands were seriously rope-burned, and noses were bloodied. One kid got the halter on then his calf started going CRAZY and the kid fell over - still holding the rope and got stepped on like 2 or 3 times - on his HEAD while being dragged around - and still he held on. #realcowboysliveinHouston

The people in black vests help herd the calves towards the kids dressed in white.

After the calf-scamble, they did some mutton-busting (kids 4-6 years holding on to a sheep as it runs to the fold/herd of other sheep (is it a fold or a herd?) until they can't hold on anymore). I kept thinking about sweet Aubrey trying it - I couldn't decide if she'd be game or not. It was so fun to watch, and the little boy that won, by holding all the way to the herd/fold was so cute. They asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up: "A team roper" in his sweet, polite "yes ma'am" way. It was adorable.
And added to the fantastic event that is Rodeo Houston! 

Because this is already TEXAS-SIZED, I'm going to finish my Florida-Georgia Line performance review in the coming days - which happened after the Rodeo Festivities! Check back soon!

What Are You Worth?

Hey team!  Institute was so good that I thought I'd share some of what we said!

The teacher at one point stopped the class and had us ponder on the moment of 3:00 p.m. today. What were we doing? Who were we talking to? What were we thinking or feeling about that person?

Then he had us stop again after sharing with our neighbor that moment. Then he had us answer in our heads the question:

What am I worth?

There's a story about my sister Dawn that I love. The story goes (as I remember it): She did an internship at Goldman Sach's before she worked there full time. At the beginning of the internship, she felt like she wasn't seen as someone to take seriously. People didn't seem to care about what she had to say.  Sweet Dawn said to herself - These people don't understand who I am. Then she spent the rest of the summer making sure that they did. And by the end of the summer, she was a contributing and important part of the team. There is a person that knew her worth!

I love this story because it reminds me that my worth is not stored in the opinions of those that don't know me. I think of that story whenever I show up in a new place and I feel like I'm once again re-discovering who I am and what my worth is. I keep waiting for that to happen here in Houston, but so far - my core being has yet to be challenged. (I think it has something to do with some key things I learned in Wyoming, which I will not bore you with here, but that this blog post helped me to realize.)

Back to Institute after pondering that question on our own the teacher had us turn to Romans 8:16-17  and then to Romans 8:35-39.

If you're not in the mood to click on those links, just know that those scriptures testify that we are joint heirs with the Savior Jesus Christ and nothing can separate us from His and God's love! I know that my worth comes from many things, but most importantly in the knowledge that I am loved and accepted by my Heavenly Father. I hope that when your self-worth takes a hit - you can remember to turn to those scriptures and remember for yourself who you truly are and forever will be: a child of an infinitely loving Heavenly Father!

I like that my teacher didn't stop there with that testimony. He finished with perhaps the most important question of the evening:

How does this knowledge change that moment at 3:00 p.m. today or any other moment of the day? How does knowing and remember that you are child of God change how you act and feel?

I hope to live tomorrow remembering who I am, and I hope you are able to do the same!