September 4, 1996

WARNING:  Mushiness ahead!

September 4 might just be a normal day to most people, but to us it has a very special meaning.

That's the day we met each other.  In a Prodigy chatroom on the internet.  We actually were in a singles chat room.  I was in there for no particular reason, except that I had just gotten the computer a few days earlier and was checking things out.

I have no idea why he was in there.  Well maybe I do, but that's his story to tell.

The very first night I was ever in this particular chat room and I got a private message.  It was from someone named Gazillionair.  I really hadn't been paying much attention to him in the regular room, but once I got the private chat......it started a conversation. 

A conversation that eventually led to the most wonderful relationship I could ever imagine.

Yesterday, marked 17 years from that first meeting.  And our first meeting in person came one month later in Houston.

From the moment we met, we knew this was the person that we were supposed to be with.  Wow.....I sure looked skinny back in those days :-)

So today, we took a moment and just talked about all the wonderful things that have happened since we first met.  Last night my husband walked in with the BIGGEST HUGEST GIGANTIC flower bouquet that I have ever received.  I was totally surprised!

But just so you don't think that I didn't do something special on my own......when he came home last night he was able to feast on eggplant parmesan and one of my special salads.

 

I could never express how much I love this man and how much he has changed my life. 

Thank you Paul........you are truly the one person I have waited for all of my life!  I love you!

We're still strolling down memory lane

Yay!  We've made it to May.

Here's just another bunch of random photos. 

We enjoyed one night at the ballfield enjoying our little Pizza Zone sponsored team.  What a laugh that was.  But they sure did look cute with their little Pizza Zone logos on their shirts :-)

Mother's Day took us to New Mexico to visit Aaron.  We had a great trip and saw lots of beautiful New Mexico scenery.....even the inside of a couple of casinos!  But since that has already been a subject of a blog or two......we'll just show a couple of pictures to remind you of the fun!

We ate more green chiles while we were there (more than we should have) and one of our favorites was the green chiles on the pizza.

This picture was taken from our table at the High Finance restaurant.  This was the top of Sandia Peak and we enjoyed a nice dinner and a spectacular view and sunset.  Even caught pictures of us in the reflection.

While searching for some piece of important paperwork, I found this letter in my lockbox.  I continually hold this over my sister's head that she needs to take my children.  She's not having it.

Can't believe I still have this paper in safekeeping.

I guess this is what you have to do when you don't want to forget something.  Found these keys sitting inside the dispenser on the refrigerator one day.  Won't tell you who they belong to.....but they're not mine.

May also got me experimenting with making fresh salsas.  I've become such a salsa snob and don't like any that we buy in the store.....I like them fresh.  So I got some tomatillos and made two different kinds.  I just have to say............they were both SO GOOD!

 

 

Now I just need to master the fine art of making red salsa with fire roasted tomatoes. 

But that's another task for another day!

More glimpses into my wonderful life

We are now back to going through that huge stack of photos I've been accumulating for months.

There isn't even a topic on this random collection of photos.

Just a lot of good times and a lot of good memories.

April got us a brand new sink and a brand new faucet in the Kitchen.  Too bad we don't have brand new counter tops, new floors, and new cabinets......but hey -- we're just doing things one day at a time.  Ok?  By the way.......I LOVE my new sink and faucet.

April also saw the debut of Zoney Pepperoni at the Moore Carnival.  I think the kids really enjoyed it.  Actually, I think I really enjoyed it too!  Thanks to my photographer, Paul, who really got some amazing shots that day!

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, cooking is a really big deal around this house.  Seldom do we get to enjoy a homecooked meal.....but when we do, we try and go all out.  This time we were enjoying our creation of spinach, cilantro, and jalapeno cream gravy on chicken and potatoes.  Mmmmmmmm.......

 

 

We also celebrated a special musician friend's birthday by making him his very own guitar pizza.  We have to thank master chef Paul for the very creative design!

 

 

 Well all good things must come to an end.  So this short trip down memory lane will have to be postponed until another day.  Trust me........there is still LOTS and LOTS of photos to share.

Cravings

I've been craving meatloaf and mashed potatoes for 2 weeks now.

Imagine my surprise when I looked around the pantry yesterday and found all the necessary ingredients to make meatloaf......without having to run to the store.

We decided against the mashed potatoes since we were going to be eating dinner so late......but we completed the meal with peas!  Did you know that peas are a delicious side dish when eating meatloaf.

So finally.......my craving for meatloaf is gone.  I even have enough for lunch today!

The only thing I wonder about is........why do I use so many ingredients when I make meatloaf?

Paul and Debbie's Excellent Adventures

Still going through that BIG batch of photos that were on my phone.  Can't believe how many photos one person can take.  Can't believe how many STUPID photos one person can take.  Well it does make for good humor when you go back and see all those crazy shots.  Puts a smile on my face remembering the memory of what we were doing when that picture was taken.  So that in itself......makes every single picture worth it.

Todays collection of photos is just a hodge podge of photos that were all taken in February and March.  Maybe some of them might bring a smile to you face too.

Early February took us to Alvin, Texas to browse around the antique shops.  Lunch was Texas BBQ at the very famous Joe's Bar-B-Q.  The shopping was fun and the lunch was delicious.  Of course, the company was awesome!

Of course, going out and seeing live music is a usual once a week thing.  This was us listening to one of our favorites......the Fab 5.

In March, we were able to celebrate our anniversary with a trip to D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia.  And of course music was on our itinerary.  We saw Garbage live in Silver Springs, Maryland.  Since, I did a nice job journalizing our fun trip previously......I am only including some photos that might not have been seen yet and make me smile remembering what fun we had.

Even sightseeing in the snow was so much fun and what a surprise it was.  We have never been on vacation in snowy weather before.  But just another adventure that was added to our trip.

 

There was even the surprise of a casino we found......and I was in slot machine heaven when I saw how many Wheel of Fortune machines they had.  There was close to a 100 of them!

 

 

This next picture needs a little explanation.  After having lunch in Philadelphia, I went into the bathroom to find this tiny tiny bathroom.  It was so small that the sink and the toilet could not be side by side.  The toilet was stuck up under the sink and it was extremely difficult to try and flush it when the handle was back under the sink.

 

 

This is why I take pictures............aren't they fun to look at?

More exciting recaps

Okay......we're on a roll!  Sneaking in a little "creative" time in between all the "boring" time.  Working on payroll right now and I can only take so much of all these numbers.  So taking a small break and getting some more of these pictures posted.

This recap will go back in time and detail the fabulous road trip that I got to make to Albuquerque in January 2013. 

Aaron got a promotion!  How exciting that was.  The bad news.......he was moving 1300 miles away to Los Lunas, New Mexico.  Where is that you ask?  Well it's about 15-20 minutes south of Albuquerque.

Lucky for me, he couldn't get anyone else to make the journey with him to his new hometown.....so I got invited to ride along.  I am so glad that I got to go.  It not only postponed having to say good-bye to him......but I got to see where he was going to live and work.  As a mother, it was reassuring to see where he was going to be living.

The day started at 7am with the final details of loading up the U-haul.  That included getting the car on the trailer.  That part wasn't fun and thank goodness we had the help of an employee.

Our first destination was to take a little bypass and go through Dallas to have lunch with a special friend.  This was us heading into Dallas.

 

This was a retard shot of my feet taken by me.  I am assuming that I was either reaching for the camera to take an awesome shot or I was putting it back.  Either case.......it just goes to show you that I am not the professional photographer you all thought I was.

 

 

I seriously have no idea where this was.  I think it was a really cool Coors billboard with a running stream on it......but the camera was a little slow in snapping it. 

 

 

After a stressful navigation of a giant Uhaul truck towing a car in downtown Dallas trying to find the restaurant.......we finally found a nice Mexican restaurant to sit and have lunch with Aaron, Katy, and I.  We enjoyed our lunch but knew it was time to hit the highway.  We still had a long drive ahead of us.

 

Most of the drive took us through the dark of night, but we were so happy to see this sign about 1:30 in the morning!

 

 

Our goal had been to drive straight through, but around 2:30 we were both feeling tired and just couldn't go any farther.  We pulled into the crappiest motel in the world and laid our weary heads down for 4 hours and got some sleep. 

I'm not joking about crappy either.  We could not get a key to the room so the guy had to let us in.  In the morning the shower would not put out any hot water.....so we had to skip it.  It's freezing cold outside and there's snow on the ground.  That hot shower would have been awesome!

Okay.....anyways.....it was better getting back on the road in the daytime so that we could actually see what was all around us.  This is what we found:

 

 

 

 There was snow on the ground!

We had about 2 hours left to go on our journey, but it was much more enjoyable getting to see all the snow in the desert!

After arriving in Los Lunas we finally got to see where Aaron was going to live.  What a surprise that was!  But we loved it.

 

 

 

How many people get to live on the backside of a Green Chile Market? 

My two days there were spent helping him get things for his new house, unloading, and in general just trying to get him ready for his first day of work as the "boss".

We got up the next morning and he made me a wonderful breakfast. These are the moments when a mother just feels proud.

But the inevitable was soon upon us.  The time when I had to go to the airport and head back home and leave him to start his new journey.  We had a delicious dinner of steak, beer, and broccoli and then it was time for me to leave.

I did leave knowing that he was going to do an awesome job and that he was just starting a new life.  I am incredibly proud of him.

Despite the sadness of leaving him......we had an amazing journey to get there.  When you spend 18 hours in a truck driving down the freeway it gives you the opportunity to open your hearts and talk about your life, your dreams, and a bunch of general stuff.  What a tremendous blessing I had to be able to spend all that time with him.  I really do cherish that road trip.

Recapping

I take so many pictures with the intent of putting them in this journal of my life.

However, too many other things to do and I never seem to get around to doing it.  Well recently, my older son installed an app on my phone that automatically sends any picture I take on my phone directly to my computer. 

How awesome is that?

So now I have ALL the photos from my phone and it is so much easier to throw them over into this blog.  Unfortunately, I still have a ton of photos on my old phone that I still need to get off.

But anyways.......I have a little free time right now before my husband gets home for our date night to the movies.  Was supposed to be a dinner and date night, but someone is not coming in to work tonight....so he had to go cover the shift for awhile.  So now it's turned into just movie night.  And I do have stuff I should be doing, but wanted to do something fun instead.  So here I am.

Now for your viewing pleasure.....recapping a little of what has happened to us so far this year.

Enjoy!

Here are a few pics from our night at the ballet in December.  I was so excited to finally be going and seeing The Nutcracker. 

It was fun to get dressed up all fancy!

 

The stage was so magical and the ballet was awesome!

 

 

Here's a selfie we took of ourselves and then a picture of my amazing husband.

 

For my birthday, we decided to take a family trip to Lake Charles.  Christmas Day found 3 of us at the movies to watch The Hobbitt in 3D.  Of course, no day would be complete without pictures of the event!

 

 

 

Paul elected to spend his time before the movie started to play a little Ms. PacMan.  He really was getting into this game :-)

Later that evening after enjoying a buffet of crab (seriously, what a dinner....all the crab we could eat), we hit the casino to try and win our fortunes.  This was the best I hit all day, but proceeded to give it back to the casino a little bit at a time.  But what a great time we had.

 

Well there are many, many, many more pictures to share and stories to tell......but I don't want to share it all in one sitting.  You're just going to have to come back and see the rest......we're only in December of last year.

But because I'm in such a sharing mood right now, I will give you a little glimpse of the tales to follow.