Reflections on a "Old" Couple

Today I was reading a blog from a friend.  She is an amazing woman who I absolutely admire and adore.  She is funny, strong and spiritual, and so stinkn' photogenic it burns me up inside!  She was talking about all the thing she loves about her husband.  She was making sure that she would never forget and appreciate all the wonderful things about her new husband.  And she had a quote "Human nature dictates that I will eventually come to expect this sort of behavior and I will become less easy to impress". 

I started thinking about my own life and my relationship with Matt.  Do I always acknowledge the wonderful things that I love about my own husband? Have I come to expect a certain type of behavior and am less impressed?  After some reflection I realized that I do appreciate & acknowledge him and how fantastic he is.  Time has changed us, but as we have grown together we see new things that we love about each other and are still grateful for our marriage, friendship and relationship.  Granted, Matt is amazing and we have always had it easy.  I was a bride when I was 18, and I can honestly say I made the right choice.  Matt and I are so lucky that we had a chance to grow up together, sometimes people are "set in their ways" and find it difficult to adjust to life with other person.  For us we have always experienced our life with each other and tackled every problem as a team.  I know marriage is supposed to be work, but it's never been for us. Not because we don't work at it, but because we enjoy being with each other, working together, using all that we have to succeed.  I can only compare it to service.  It's like getting caught up in service and you know you are working, but you are having fun as you do it.  So to my friend, it is possible to keep those feelings alive, keep working at it, but believe me it's not really work in the end! There are great people out there, I am lucky enough to have one.

A Night at the Symphony

Being a super-dork has it's perks, like... getting advanced email about super-dorky things. Like, The Legend of Zelda Symphony.  A conversation like this happened in my head "We have to go.  But who got to go? Matt and I yes, but would we bring our boys? To the Symphony? Wow, these tickets are expensive (and there are no kids tickets).  Okay let's do it.  What a great opportunity to experience the Symphony at a young age."

We were Literally at an amusement park in Orlando when I got this email. I was able to purchase tickets right there in Florida for my whole family (thank you modern technology).  Spending a boat loads of money for symphony tickets while on vacation is a little bit nuts and very scary. But the idea of tickets selling out and missing this was enough for me to do it.

So we decided to make a night out of it.  We dined at one of our favorite restaurants in Houston, Pronto!

We headed to Jones Hall, which is a great venue.  Matt and I have been to the Symphony before and it is wonderful.

What do you wear to the Zelda Symphony?  As it turns out, anything.  There were people in jeans and t-shirts.  There were people in formal wear.  And yes, there were plenty of people in costume!  I could have worn my Zelda costume and been a total celebrity, as it turns out I enjoyed the anonymity.  We did have a little hint of Zelda to make us feel special.  Our dress ended up being "Zelda Classy" or "Sheik Chic" (that's a little Zelda humor for the nerds out there).  The boys wore their Tri-force ties that I made. 

I wore my Hylian Crest earrings.  I was asked a number of times where I bought them.  I impressed all by simply saying they were key chains that I turned into earrings.  Yes, I'm a brilliant. I heard people talking about the ties too, it was very cool. 

The Symphony was breathtakingly amazing. You left feeling like a hero! We got to live each and every Zelda game with Link. The music is so iconic and is a soundtrack for our home. The visuals were just what you wanted to see to bring the feeling of the game to life.  The musicians were fantastic, I enjoyed watching the percussion section work so hard running back and forth to different instruments. Just when you thought the night had ended, they threw another encore at you! 

 I was worried about how the boys would behave.  We talked to them about what proper behavior at the symphony was, they knew they needed to be good.  But I didn't have to worry, they were so entranced by the music, the instruments and the visuals they could have sat there for 2 more hours.  There were not many children so it made me proud that Jason and Ian were so well behaved. It was such an wonderful night, I don't really have words for it.  I am so glad I have my memories and my family.  In case you were wondering, it was worth every penny.

Summer Part 4: 4th of July

We started off the 4th with a visit to the Health Museum.  It really should have been called the "broken exhibit museum" Nothing was working.  We could tell that other family's were visiting the other museums in the area, this one was a like a ghost town.  That suited us though, we don't like crowds, but when you are the only people in the place it felt a little weird.  The boys did have a fun time, and we learned some cool stuff. We could see how awesome this place would have been if the stuff worked.

One of our favorite parts was the Sound Proof Booth that measured the sound you could make.  Here are the kids screaming at the top of their lungs, just trying to see how many decibels they could reach! Matt was the loudest.  But I think our mild mannered kids had fun letting go a bit. They were trying so hard, I'm surprised their eyeball didn't pop out.

The second part of the day, Blowing up stuff! You know how most kids up to a certain age hate loud fireworks, well we are over that age.  These kids were full blown pyro junkies!  We started off with smoke bombs, but quickly moved on to M60's and the joy of blowing stuff up!

I was not a fan of the loud fire Crackers.  Yes, everyone made fun of my ear plugs!

I also was a little worried about what a physicist and two kids would do for their blowing up entertainment.  Thankfully we made it through the night with all our fingers.  If you thought the fireworks were loud you should have heard their laughter!

Some sparkler Fun!

Some battling wizards!

Those are the "Good" Fireworks.  While I'm not a huge fan of Firecrackers, I do love fireworks.  I mean those amazing displays that shoot up into the sky.  Growing up in the southwest meant that most fireworks were banned or very few lame ones were allowed. (Emily and I once put out a fire in that was started by a smoke bomb!) This year we had tons of rain and anything was legal! Who-hoo, I went a little crazy at the firework stand getting the "fun stuff."

We had some neighbors come out and enjoy the show... along with a million mosquitos!

Summer Part 3: Visitor

Well, I got my kids back... and they brought back a visitor, Grandma Joani came to stay with us.

We took Joani out to celebrate her wedding anniversary, I'm sure she would rather have been with Mike, but we made the most out of it.  Eating one of Mike's Favorite foods... ICE CREAM.  Jason was at cub scout day camp and missed the fun... or maybe we missed the fun he was having?

 We stared working on getting the boys into a summer routine.  Routines work well in this house, they make everyone happier.  First thing we needed to do, Piano Lessons!  Both boys started, and they are amazing.  Jason is very technical and he is a quick learner.  Ian has an amazing ear, and natural ability, that makes up for being younger. He is keeping up with Jason.  We had to stagger their lessons, because Ian was hear what Jason was playing and could figure it out without looking at the music or notes (so he was cheating).  Once I figured out what was happening, I was able to fix it.  These boys will out grown their piano teach very soon!

We celebrated Fathers day! The boys and I made him a photo book of all the things we love about him.  Yep, he loves it too!

 We took Grandma to get her stitches removed... Warning please be careful when using a utility knife to open ice cream sandwiches. The boys had different opinions about getting the stitches out.  Ian was fascinated, Jason was NOT! Any chaces that Jason was going to be MD are pretty much out of the questions, I guess I'll just hope that he has a PhD.

We celebrated our Families Birthday, 14 years ago Matt and I got Married.  Yep, it's pretty much the worst picture EVER, but we still had a blast taking the kids to Chuck E Cheeses.

We have spent lots of time at the pool. Ian gets very pruny in the water, or maybe that's because we have been there all day.

Went to the natural science museum.  Oh, how I love chrionoids! We went to the Planetarium and saw something (I think it was called the super spiny dizzy vertigo star show, or that's how Joani felt!)

Grandma Joani needed lots of down time to relax, the boys loved reading her stories, and everybody enjoyed that time together.

Summer Part 2: Kid Free!

When the mice are away the cats will play? (That's not quite right, but it's how we felt)

While our little mice were in New Mexico (doing what, I don't know, and I didn't really care). Matt and I very much enjoyed our time with each other. 

Okay, I will admit it.  I cried when they left, and that was a total shock to me, I thought I would be running through the streets cheering.  The melancholy didn't last long.  Matt and I started right away doing stuff that is just more fun without kids.  We spent hours at guitar center.  We ate at our favorite restaurants and nobody complained. 

I took a night off and visited my Young Women at Girls Camp.  It was a wonderful experience, I am so glad I got to go, and didn't need to worry about finding a sitter. Man I love these girls!

Matt and I went to the Houston Fine Arts Museum.  I think the boys probably would have enjoyed it, but I am sure we would have pushed them to their limit.  We had fun without them. 

Here is Matt's favorite piece... very realistic and modern.

Then we went to Amazon Grill - can you say Yummy!

The kids meals come with cotton candy.... but I like cotton candy, so I asked if I could have some, the answer was yes! Lucky me.

10 days went by too fast and too slow? How is that even possible?

Summer Part 1 : Pre Summer

Labor Day weekend my Cousin Jill got married, we all had a wonderful time celebrating her wedding and partying down at the reception.  And oddly enough, I don't have pictures of the bride and groom, but I did get this cute one of my boys at the reception.  We had a blast catching up with aunts and uncles, but a huge perk was that my Parents came down for it! 

Unfortunately for them their car decided to breakdown just as we arrived at Brazos Bend State Park! We didn't really get to enjoy the weather or scenery but we did get to hang out.  I'm sure my parents didn't want to hang out waiting for a tow truck or our neighbors to come get us.  But at least the car didn't break down somewhere inbetween here and New Mexico.  We all has a bit of panic trying to figure out who to call for help,  then we realized that they had roadside assistance and on-star.  Oh, that's much easier then doing it yourself.

The school year ended and Mom and I got to see the Ian get his awards!  We loved Mrs High! She was the best teacher.

Jason came home with his.

The moment school ended, the boys got in my parents car (in the pouring rain) and headed off to New Mexico.

Carnivals x 2

The boys got to attend 2 carnivals today! We spent 5+ hours in the hot Houston sun.  And we have some sunburns to prove it.

Carnival #1: Schlumberger family Easter carnival.  Thanks to daddy's work it was all Free!

 A trackter pulled them around in barrels (it's like a farmers version of a train!)

Boys were liking riding the horses...or ponies.  I like how majestic Ian looks, he reminds me of his Grandpa Frank.  He was so comfortable on the horse.  Jason wanted to ride the little pony.  I like how the kid pulling the pony is his age. He makes a cute Hobbit!

The boys going separate ways to get Easter eggs.  Jason was so kind, I actually saw him give another kid an egg that they were both going for, he reached it first and then gave it to the other boy.  Then when they were done, Ian said he had 9 eggs but was going to share with Jason if Jason had fewer eggs then him.  Awww!

They have always liked trains and were excited to ride this sweet thing... I think they got a little ride spoiled after Universal Studios, they looked a little bored on it.

Bounce house? Yes Please!

We got to visit Daddy's office! I love going into Matt's office and seeing whiteboards and papers with long equations that have no numbers only letters. Thanks to Schlumberger the boys got goodie bags, saw the Easter bunny, had some fun and best of all they got candy!

 Carnival 2: Hutchison Elementary Spring Carnival! 

The PTA puts on this carnival to raise money for the school.  Since we got a nice free carnival early on, we spend some cold hard cash so the boys could have fun.  They had unlimited passes, so they got around.  We didn't mind them playing the un-winnable games over and over and over again.  Ian should be a Carny, he was amazing, he won the ring toss (we never saw another kid win).   

The Rock wall, was fun.  They each did it a couple of times.  Jason was so happy when he made it to the top.  He kept saying how much he disliked heights, but he really wanted to do it and he did.

Sac races are funny when someone falls.  But not as funny as the boys doing the hula hoop! Let's say that they do NOT take after their mother.  Jason was so bad at all the throwing games, milk bottle, basketball, and football, but if he didn't win, he just kept trying till he did. It was nice to see him so motivated.

The hamster balls were hilarious! I only wish I got to do it!

All in all a super fun day.  I am looking forward to a relaxing Saturday next week, one that just involves yard work and cleaning! I am also trying to upload our vacation blog, but I am still working through a ton of pictures, so it will happen when it happens.