A Girl's Week

This week was an eventful week, but most of the events (at least for us) revolved around me and my activities. It did seem to rain for most of the weekend, but we need rain to stop the drought, so we will take all the rain we can get! Daniel didn't have too many interesting things happen this week. (That we can remember, anyway), but he was productive at work testing his project.

Friday night and Saturday morning was our regional women's conference. We have 3 or 4 stakes worth of women in our Austin building and then several other stakes watched remotely around Central Texas. If you wanted a parking spot or a decent seat, you had to be really early! Anyway, we had Sister. Julie B. Beck come and our main speaker during the event. It was kind of cool because on Friday night she took 6 questions from people in the audience. Saturday she gave us more of her thoughts and impressions. Daniel went in the evening to fold up the chairs that they had set up in the gym behind the chapel.

Sunday we ended up sitting on the stand during sacrament meeting because our ward is so big!  Most weeks people end up standing in the foyer because the few seats that are available are hard to find and they are embarrassed to search for them during the middle of the meeting. So the bishop asked those who could and were able to sit on the stand to allow more seats for family that might otherwise have to stand in the foyer. This week we took him up on his offer. It was kind of weird, but not totally bad. We might do it again next week!

Last night I hosted book club for the first time! We read the Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. (It is about an imaginary bus ride from Hell to Heaven). It is a really great read! (obviously I have to say that because I did pick it out to read for book club!) In a very C.S. Lewis style it is allegorical, but it isn't too long! It makes you think about yourself and the things that you might be choosing that are keeping you from becoming better. Only a few people made it to book club, which is probably good because our apartment is only so big! Anyway, we had a good time!

Two and a Half Years

It's crazy to think that as of yesterday we've been married for 2 1/2 years. It's been amazing! On our first Valentine's Day we realized that our half-year anniversary was the day after, so we figured we'd celebrate our "Halfiversary" instead -- anything we would buy would be a whole lot cheaper. Anyway, this year we decided to take a day off work, and head to the Temple for an endowment session. We did some other fun things too -- like eating out at Olive Garden (it was Elissa's first time there). I think that was really the highlight of the week. Here's a bit about the rest of the week though:

This last weekend I hosted my first candidate for NI (National Instruments). For those of you who aren't familiar, they fly their candidates down for a weekend and have 3 interviews on Friday (so the candidate can show they're worth hiring) and the host shows them around town and answers questions (so NI can show they're worth moving to). Hosting definitely has some perks -- like free dinner, but it is a drain on free time and can be stressful. Sometimes candidates are married and I would get to bring Elissa with me to dinner. Anyway, it was pretty fun. The guy who came down to interview was a BYU student who came from Beijing and is majoring in computer science. Lucky for me he was a nerd, so we had things to talk about.

I don't really know what else to talk about this week, but know that we're alive and happy down here in Texas.

A Good and Busy Weekend.

This weekend was a busy weekend. My parents flew in Thursday evening and I went and picked them up. In fact, this weekend I've done more driving than I have probably they whole time we've lived here. I did get to drive in the day which is a lot easier than driving at night --when I usually drive. So the first thing that happened was that we found out that one of our headlights was out! So Dad and Daniel went to the automotive store to get a new bulb. They come home with a new bulb (already replaced in the car) and some headlight cleaner. It really did make our headlights a lot brighter!

Friday Daniel went to work for a shortened day. (He had extra time from Thursday because he had to wait for me to pick him up.) We got to go see his cubicle and his office during the afternoon. We played some games and had dinner. Saturday we visited Fry's Electronics and went to our favorite Chinese restaurant.

Dad spent most of the weekend trying to figure out Daniel's rubix cube. They now both have a better understand of how to solve the cube than I do. Monday Daniel went to work, and I drove my parents downtown (ish) to see the Lyndon B. Johnson Museum. It was pretty cool, even a second time. It is my first time driving anywhere near down town too. We managed to find the parking lot after doing a quick turn around the block. Tuesday morning I took my parents to the airport. It was a short busy visit!

Parents in Town!

This week has been a pretty slow week for us. We did finally take our pile of things to give away to the Goodwill store. It was good to finally get that pile of stuff out of our extra room and to people who might need it! This event finally came about because we were cleaning up the house in preparation for my parents coming to visit us down in Texas!

Anyway, the flew in yesterday evening, and I went to go pick them up. Unfortunately I got in the wrong lane and had to go back around the airport a couple of times before I got to the pick up spot. They didn't seem too mad that it took me a really long time to finally get around to pick them up. Unfortunately, it seems like the weather is not cooperating because it is supposed to be raining for most of the weekend and cold for the rest. We'll still find a way to have some fun though!

This morning my mom opened up the barber shop/ salon in my kitchen. She cut my dad's hair, and then she gave me a hair cut too. My hair didn't change much; she just cut a few inches off of the bottom. (It was getting really long!) Later this afternoon we are going for a tour of Daniel's work,and that should be a lot of fun!