The [many] Blessings of 2012 {a look back}

 We started out the New Year together in the valley on La Muneca Ranch with great friends.

 

 

 February brought us to the place we first me, the San Antonio Rodeo.  As you might imagine, this place holds a huge place in our hearts [even though it does smell like animal poo]. 

Franco's birthday tradition has become participating in the Mercedes Ranch Rodeo.  He loves this stuff and it scares the poo out of me.  I love watching him compete and kissing his dirt filled face when they are finished.  This year, they brought home a little bit of dough!  

 

Mama and I ventured out on a little vacation, just the 2 of us, in April.  We jumped on board Carnival's Freedom out of Fort Lauderdale, FL and cruised to the Turks & Caicos, Dominican Republic, Curacao, and Aruba!  We spent most nights at the bar and made a lot of very good friends.

In May, our baby girl Ava, turned ONE!  

 

We also baptized her!

 

 For Father's day, I took daddy and mama deep sea fishing.  

We caught LOTS of Red Snapper and Atlantic Shark.

 

Thanks to the East's for allowing us to spend a long weekend in South Padre in their condo.  The Flores' joined us, it rained, and I drank WAY too much!

Since the river rules changed this year, we headed up to Fredericksburg to celebrate my 28th birthday.  

We spent the day at the winery's, the afternoon at the horse races, and listening to Aaron Watson  at the Gillespie County Fair. 

In September, we went out to Lajitas for Labor Day Weekend.  Pate & Bethany joined us and we had a great time.

 October was my 10 year High School Reunion that I planned.  We went to the football game, headed to Roper's afterwards, and then on Saturday, we went to the White House Cafe.  

December, December, December!  This has been the most memorable December on file!  First, we got engaged!  In Vegas!  Went to NFR for the first time, EVER!  

We stayed at Paris and gambled at Bill's Casino.  

AND as of TODAY, we bought a house together!  

Sometimes, it's easy to overlook all the blessings that occur in my life.  I know I've got my health, a wonderful family, and very special friends - I never take that for granted.  But, as I look back on all the things that are included in this blog, I realize that I've got a lot more than most people and I should be happy, proud, and honored.  God is [always] good!

Engaged!

I'm engaged!

To the love of my life!

To the man who knows me better than most of my friends do.

To someone who is my best friend.

He's seen me cry and makes me laugh.

He's been through my up's and comforts me through my downs.

He thinks I'm his princess and treats me as one.

He opens doors for me and kisses me goodnight.

He's always finding ways to help.

To the man who is a real life cowboy, but cleans up very nicely when it's date night.

The man who'll eat anything fried and then blame me for his few extra pounds.

Takes me dancing and is the holder of "my shit."

To the man who is a true romantic and knows it's the little things that matter most.

He cuddles up to me on cold nights and holds my hand while we sleep.

He loves my family and has a nickname for each of them.

Calls my best friend Prim, my sister "sister", my mama, "mama", and my dad, "big c."

He's never met a stranger and shows true class in all situations.

To the man that kisses me on the forehead and will make a zillion trips to the store with me.

I take him to Hobby Lobby, he takes me to Tandy's Leather.

I'm engaged to the man that God made for me and I'm incredibly blessed to be his wife!

Here's to us and our wonderful life together.  

Life is GOOD!

 

Last {we'll see} Travel Week 2012

This {last} travel week of the year was spent in Tampa, Homosassa, Naples, Ft Myers, and Cape Coral.

Some take-aways from this week:

Asked the question, "Can anyone tell me what the 2 most commonly used words, by media, to describe the stock market are?" at a shareholder meeting on Tuesday night.  For the first time EVER, I had an older man reply with, "BULL......SHIT!"  I couldn't keep my composure and laugh very hard right along with everyone else.

Just because you're old, doesn't mean you can't have fun.  I've learned that old, retired people are some of the heaviest drinkers, most foul mouthed, and generally happiest people I've met.  They know how to have a good time and aren't even opposed to hanging out at the Blue Martini until it closes.

Lastly, life is always being put into perspective.  I've been through many, MANY airports throughout my career and I've always noticed the on-site Airport Fire Department.  Maybe I'm blonde, naive, or just not that smart, but I assumed it was there in case a plane ever caught on fire.  What I witnessed today in the Fort Myers Airport at gate C3, put my life into perspective.  As I approached the gate, all of the patrons were gathering their stuff and changing gates.  It was because there was an elderly man lying on the floor while the Airport Fire Rescue team administered chest compressions on him for at least 15 minutes.  One day there could be a fire one a plane and I'm sure the Fire Department will be there to help extinguish it, but I now will think of the poor man, who was traveling alone, laying on the floor when I see the onsite Fire Department.

*God, I know you're watching over that man.  Please place a healing hand over him so that he may pull through..  I pray that his family is comforted in knowing that he was being taken good care of and that even though he was alone, there were people like me praying for him.  Amen.

Traveling definitely keeps you on your toes.

By The Numbers...

I travel.  A. LOT.  

Growing up, you're always told, "get a good education, get a good job, and travel on someone else's dime."  

Well, I've taken that to heart....literally. 

So.  Here.  Is.  The.  Recap.  By the {numbers}

52 total weeks in a year.

47 of those weeks I'm expected to work.

22 of them spent on the road.

46% of my time was spent away from my home.[humph]

25% of time away from home is what my job description says. [sigh]

102 nights spent in a Marriott Hotel in Florida

10 additional nights I spent cheating on Marriott with Sheraton's, Omni, and the Drake in Chicago.

350 advisors visited over the year

2 1/2 vacations

and I'm glad to report, just

ONE more week on the road!

The feeling of coming home gets sweeter and sweeter, everytime.

For the record:

Marriott is the BEST hotel chain with the BEST reward program

Southwest is, hands down, the most economical airline, but more importantly, you matter to them and they feed you on their planes!

Hertz treats GOLD members like Kings and Queens

and Window seats will never go out of style!

Chuck & Willis : Do It Tech Style

Franco is a Texas Tech Alum and I.....well, I went to The University of the Incarnate Word.  It just doesn't have the same ring to it.  Our colors were red and black so I've adopted the Red Raiders as my team.  The Raiders made their way to San Marcos to take on Texas Tech and we went to tailgate! 

Before we did that though, we were college kids again.  We hung out on "The Square" in San Marcos and I truly felt old because I kept saying, "there used to be this bar...."   And the response I'd get was, "Jordan, that was 8 years ago, a lot has changed since then."  What hadn't changed was the amount of college kids and the amount of beer.  Wreck 'em Tech!

So after lots of adult beverages, we set our alarms to tailgate.  The last thing I remember, before my head hitting the pillow, was my alarm telling me we had 2 hrs and 6 minutes to sleep.

Here are the pictures from that day...

And in case you're wondering, Tech did Wreck 'Em, to the tune of 58-10!

The Adventures of Chuck and Willis

As many of you probably don't know, Franco and I rarely call each other by our birth names.  Many of them are your common pet names, Babe, Darlin, Muffin (which was narrowed down to Muff after a certain birthday weekend), Pumpkin Butt.... ok, ok, I know I'm making you sick.  Recently though, there have been a lot of Chuck's and Willis' thrown around the house and truck.  

Why you might be wondering?  

Well, Franco was addicted to a YouTube video about a taxidermist named Chuck Testa which you can see here.  And after every negative response to a question, Franco felt is was necessary to say "Chuck Testa."  

Confusing, I know....so for example, I would say :

"Would you like seconds?"  

To which Franco would respond:

 "Nope, ...........Chuck Testa."  

After getting extremely annoyed laughing right along with it, I started saying it which then led to me calling him Chuck.  

Now onto the Willis part... 

I wish there was a super cool "Chuck Testa" story that goes along with it, but it came from Different Strokes and the famous saying, "Watcha talkin bout, Willis."  

Often times Sometimes I ramble, and that's the phrase that he would use with me.  

So there you have it.  We've graduated from the cute, cuddly, lovey-dovey names...to Chuck and Willis.  Now, if you seen an update titled "The Adventures of Chuck and Willis" you'll know that we've gone somewhere or did something fun and I'm going to blog about it.  

Even though it's not part of the Texas Time Travelin' Machine WORK travels, they're still travels and will be documented!  

Stay tuned for next weeks episode....

I Realize I'm Distracted

I am distracted.

I realize, as I type this, that I'm sitting in a pair of pajama shorts and a sports bra that is on inside out.

Distracted.

I realize that I was in the process of cooking bacon in the oven, and the oven has been in "pre-heat" mode for the last hour as the bacon sits on top of the stove.

Distracted.

I realize that I should have put coffee grounds in the coffee pot in order to have more than just hot water this morning.

Distracted.

 I realize that my goodies for 4th of July party I'm supposed to go to aren't being made because I'm typing this.

Distracted.

I realize that even though I'd LOVE to think about something other than my family, our problems, and how I wish I had a simple fix for things that I cannot.

Distracted.

You see, they are the reason that I am...

DISTRACTED.

All I can do is pray!

Amen.

Honoring Daddy on Father's Day

I am fully aware that Father's Day was 3 days ago.  But I'm blogging about it today because we were in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico on Father's Day, fishing, bonding, celebrating the man that is my Daddy.  

  

"You fathers will understand.  

You have a little girl.  

She looks up to you.  

You're her oracle.  

You're her hero."

-Stanley T. Banks,

Father of the Bride

Wait a minute....Surely, you don't think he's the only one that caught fish??  

He had us girls there helping him celebrate his day AND catching fish right alongside him!