I am back!

With the busyness of the holidays and the build up of work while I was on vacation I might have taken a short hiatus from blogging, but now I AM BACK!  Lets see where to begin, there was so much that happened I dont even know where to start.

December 22nd I head back to good ol El Paso to see the family for Christmas.  It was a great week long vacation with lots of food, family, fun, and laughter.  I truly enjoy going home because our family knows how to have a good time.  It was great getting to see everyone especially those who made the trip south.  This year we were able to celebrate a white Christmas which was nice. 

SNOW!

Love seeing snow on cactus!

Christy raked in on the gifts.

The Family

Family Take 2

I was slated to head back to Houston on the 29th so the family decided to celebrate my birthday early.  Being born on NYE can reek some havoc on your birthday, but this year I celebrated twice so I cant complain.  Thursday when I got back to Houston Chris picked me up from the airport and then we headed out to meet some friends up for dinner and drinks.  Friday I was running around trying to get everything ready for our NYE party, I got decorations and lots of goodies to eat.  Saturday Tommy arrived in H-town and we headed down to Reliant stadium to watch the Aggies win their bowl game!  Even though I was sick of my Aggies losing, I am really glad Tommy got me the tickets for the game, it was a good game and I enjoyed watching them WIN!

Birthday!

 

 

 

And the ags win!

NYE and Birthday Celebration

For NYE I decided to have some friends over for dinner before we headed out to the NYE party.  Chris and I made burgers, ham pinwheels, bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos, chili con queso, and cake to celebrate our birthdays!  It was quite a full house, but we had a good time.  After dinner we hopped in some cabs and headed to the NYE party to meet up with other friends.  It was a fun night ringing in the New Year.  

 

These last two weeks at work have been extremely hectic and I haven't had a chance to breath.  Judging by the start of the new year its going to be another busy year for Plains.  Even though that means more work, I really enjoy it so no complaints from my department.   Just this last week I made a quick trip to Oklahoma to visit a training school for our operators.  It was a fast one day trip, but still very productive.  I hope you all enjoy the weekend!

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/around-world-6-237-pictures-235906523.html
I wanted to share this link because it is incredible, one day I hope to be able to make a video from my travels around the world.  

Until next time...

Vegas Baby

I hope everyone had a wonderful week/weekend tis Monday again.  Thankfully this is a short week as I will be leaving Thursday night for home, YAY for Christmas Vacation. This last week was busy, but uneventful. I don't remember much of what I did, just running around on last minute errands.  I did have to get a meningitis shot since I will be taking a business finance class at U of H this spring.  I miss school and I am eager to get my MBA started.  I would like to have that completed before I am 30, which is totally doable.  Until then I will be taking a few courses to get a better understanding of Accounting and Finance. 

This weekend was quite an epic one with my girls trip to Vegas! A good college friend of mine is getting married so we decided to have her bachlorette party in Vegas. Friday after work I sprinted to the airport and headed to Vegas. Once I got there I checked in and decorated the room.  Since the girls didn't get there until later I decided to try my hand at some gambling.  Now I am not a gambler because I feel like there are so many other things I can do than give my money to a casino..heck I haven't even bought a lotto ticket.  I prefer poker or black jack because you're not playing against a machine, but since I have never played I decided to hit the roulette table.  Being that I am not a gambler I don't make outrageous bets, so after about an hour I was up 70.00 dollars and decided to walk away.  It was fun, but I get too bored sitting there so its not really my cup of tea.

Soon after I finished the girls arrived and it was time to get the party started.  We all were pretty hungry so we headed to Kahunaville the bar/restaurant in our hotel.  After dinner it was time for some dancing, we decided to walk across the street to Tao, an night club in the Venetian hotel.  Now normally there is a long line and a 30-50 dollar cover charge to get into these night clubs.  Some how since we were a group of girls we were ushered to the VIP area so no cover charge, no waiting in lines, and free drinks.  We had a blast dancing the night away.  Around 2:30 we decided to head back to the hotel and crash out for the night and the better part of the next day!

VIP at TAO!

The girls!

Around noon we got up, grabed some lunch and head out to check out the strip.  We walked around and looked at all the sights and sounds.  For dinner that night we headed to Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffets restaurant.  Its a pretty ornate restaurant with a working volcano in the middle, lots of boats as seating area and tons of other entertainment going on.  After dinner we walked over to the Bank nightclub in the Belligao.  It was another fun evening of dancing and meeting new people.  We met a fun group of Canadians and Australians!  Now I want to go visit Australia...I see a trip next year, better save my pennies.  That evening we got home around 3:30 a.m.  Needless to say we were all exhausted, unfortunately a bunch of the girls had to leave early so most of us were up at 7:00 a.m.  My flight wasn't until 4:00 so I rested until lunch, had some Pho, did a little shopping and then headed to the airport.  I got home around 9:30 and was ready for bed.  Pretty soon I will be back on a plane to El Paso!

Enjoying a tasty beverage at the Bank.

Surprise look who we ran into in Vegas!

Just a few shots from around Vegas.

The Forum shops

Until next time...
 

Counting down the days until Christmas!

Only 13 days until Christmas!!  Are you all excited yet?  I know I am, I will be heading back to good ol West Texas in approximately 9 days to enjoy the festivities.  The last few weeks have been busy, fun, and exciting so I will try to fill you in on all the details.

  Work has been crazy I spent the last few weeks putting the final touches on the 4th quarter employee meeting for my boss.  The quarterly employee meetings are where all of the Houston employees come to hear how Plains is doing in the business.  Most of the presentations are created by the CEO, CFO and higher ups, this meeting the employees requested to hear from Operations.  That's how I got involved in the project, we decided to create a video and power point presentation on "A day in the life of a field operator."  I helped my boss put this together and she and two our our field guys from Louisiana gave the presentation.  Thankfully it turned out great and the employees really enjoyed it.  In fact it was liked so much they have asked us to do a series of other presentations.       

   Enough of work on to the good stuff; that Friday we met up with some friends for dinner at a local Tex-Mex restaurant, after dinner we went back to the casa to relax and hang out.  The next morning I was up bright and early to start preparing for the Christmas party I was hosting that evening.  For dinner I made brisket, spiral honey ham, beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, cookies, puppy chow, and rolls.  All of the food turned out well, it was just a tedious process getting there.  I spent most of my day watching football and cooking.  Everyone started arriving around 7 and we had a good turn out,  after dinner we watched the OU vs OSU game and played some Kinect games. 

Sunday turned into the most epic relaxing, lazy day I have had in a while.  After church Chris, Caleb, and I ate some left overs and watched movies all day.  It was rainy and miserable so it was a perfect day to stay inside and be lazy.  This last week was another busy week at work, catching up on all the stuff we missed while preparing for the meeting.  Thankfully I got everything caught up and ready for the Christmas parties that were to ensue that weekend.

Thursday night was our Operations Christmas party.  It was held at a New Orleans style jazz club downtown.  It turned out to be a great party, we rented out the top floor of the club and had a catered dinner.  It was a great setting to be able to talk to all the guys in the field that you don't see very often.  Friday my boss gave us the day off so I was able to run a bunch of errands that I needed to finish up.  That night was our work Christmas Party, this is where all the Houston employees get together and celebrate.  Its a large function with lots of food, dancing, music, and casino activities.  After the party ended we met some friends up in Midtown for some drinks.

The live Jazz band at the Ops Christmas Party

Chris and I before the Christmas party

Saturday I was up early getting ready for my girls to come into town.  We normally try to have a girls weekend once a month, but with everyone's busy schedules its been impossible to do.  We were final able to set a date when everyone could make it.  The girls each arrived at different times and we just hung out at the house, ate, talked and played games.  For dinner we went down the street to get some pizza and wine.  That evening we stayed up playing dance central on the kinect and taboo.  Its been a while since I have laughed that hard, needless to say it was a much needed an awesome girls weekend.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week....and remember its only a few more weeks until Christmas!

A few of the girls Liz, Darleen, Ashleigh

Myself and Mrs Ashton!

Until next time...

Thanksgiving

Hello out there!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their respective family and friends.  I cant seem to express my love for the holidays enough, I think its mainly due to being able to spend time with the ones you love.  Sunday morning bright and early Chris, Caleb, and I drove back from yet another disappointing Aggie game.  Once we got back into Houston I headed to the airport to pick up my parents, for our Thanksgiving week! Since we were all starving we headed to Goode BBQ Company and had some delicious food.  Since the weather was so nice we sat outside and enjoyed our food.  After lunch we ran a few errands and checked out a few open houses (just to show the rents what is available in the Houston area).  After a little rest we all headed to the grocery store to get my weekly groceries.  For dinner that evening I made a Chili recipe out of the Abs diet book and some Pumpkin bread (not in the abs diet book).  Unfortunately I did not have the week off so while I was at work my wonderful parents finished hanging stuff up and decorating my new place, they are so handy to have around.  

That week at work was extremely busy preparing for the 4th quarter employee meeting, so I was exhausted when I got home and we didn't get to do very many fun things.  Monday night Chris and I grilled Steaks and baked potatoes for dinner, they turned out pretty delicious and we all ate way too much.  Tuesday night we went to our favorite Italian spot, its a little restaurant in the heights area that makes authentic delicious food.  The place is byow (bring your own wine) so we took a bottle with us and enjoyed some Italian food as a family!  Wednesday was a short day at work so after lunch the rents and I packed up our stuff and head up to A&M to spend the rest of the week with Christy and Tommy.  Its been a while since the whole family has been together so it was good weekend. 

Wednesday night Christy, mom, and myself made a pecan, pumpkin, and chocolate pie for Thanksgiving.  The next morning we were up early watching the parades and cooking Thanksgiving lunch.  Since the Aggie game was that day we had our traditional meal at lunch.  We had tons of food and everything was extra delicious.  Our menu consisted of Turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, sweet potatoes, cranberries, gravy, rolls, and pies galore!  After dinner Christy, Tommy, his girlfriend, Justin, my cousin James and I headed to the traditional A&M vs Texas game.  Sadly it was another disappointing loss for the Ag's, the good news is we will be moving to a different conference the SEC and we will be getting a new head coach.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Most important part of dinner!

Friday I got up and did a little holiday shopping, since everything was on sale I wanted to get lots of Christmas decorations!  I went to Michael's and bought lots of stuff to make wreaths and Garland for the handrail of the staircase.  Thankfully no one was at the stores I went to so I got in and our in a matter of an hour.  Friday we didn't do much just hung out as a family, relaxed, and ate more food.   Saturday morning we were up early to head back to Houston to get the rents on a plane back to El Paso.  Thankfully everything went smoothly and they made it home safe.  That afternoon I cleaned the house, made and put up lots of decorations, and did some reading.

My first baby tree!

Garland for the stairs.

The wreath I made for the door...I think I need a few more.

Sunday morning I was up early so I hit the gym for a pre-church work out.  After my work out and church I headed to home depot to pick up a Christmas tree!!!  I miss our old family tradition of picking a tree, coming home decorating it, and eating Unlce James famous toasted cheese.  I was able to get it up and decorated so now the house looks like Christmas!   Well I have tons planned for this weekend so its time to "hurry every chance I get" Have a wonderful weekend!

Until next time...

One Busy Week

After a busy week I like to think that, "Oh maybe the next one wont be so busy."   Unfortunately that never seems to be the case...don't get me wrong, I love to be busy, but you need to relax every once in a while. Monday started out tame, but around 8 o'clock  I received a phone call from a very good friend of mine, her dad had passed away the night before.  I know God has perfect timing, but you start to question his timing when things like this happen.  Her dad was very young with all three of his children in college.  He was a great father and husband and will be missed by many.  Since I have a close-nit group of college friends we decided to head to Mission to be with our friend in her time of need.  Tuesday night around 9 p.m. we headed to Mission, it was a long drive, but worth it.  We got in town around 2:00 a.m. and checked into our hotel.  The next morning we headed to the funeral home for the viewing, we spent most of the day with her family, but due to work constraints we had to head back to houston Wednesday night.  We made it back safe and sound around 11:30.  Needless to say the rest of the week was tough to get through, I do not function well on no sleep. 

Since I hadnt seen Chris in a while we had a nice date night on Thursday.  For dinner we walked down to a local pub and had steak and a bake potatoe, for dessert we walked across the street to Russo's New York Pizzaria and had different types of cheesecake.  Since we had eaten all that food, we decided to walk it off by heading over to the Specs in the middle of Midtown.  It was a beautiful evening and the weather was perfect, at Specs we picked up a bottle of wine and head back to the casa to watch a movie.     

Friday was a short, but busy day at work, after work I ran a bunch of errands to get ready for the weekend.  There was another Aggie game so I had to get ready to go to CS.  One of Chris' friends was dunking his Aggie ring that night, so Chris, our friend Caleb and I packed up and head to CS.  Once we got there we met up with Chris' friends for dinner and the ring dunk.  The next morning I was up early for the A&M game, the game was great considering we won 63-7, but a little bit boring.  I know you cant ever satisfy this Ag not happy when we lose and bored if we win by a large margin.  This week we will be playing our final game with our long standing rival the University of Texas.  I am hoping for a good game and win by the Ags, keep your fingers crossed! 

We ended up staying Saturday night in CS to see friends and headed back early Sunday morning to pick up my parents from the airport.  I was very excited to see them, its great having them in town!  I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, and dont forget to cherish the time you spend with loved ones.  

Until next time...

Time flys when you're having fun

Another weekend has come and gone, where does the time go?  Do you realize it is less than two weeks until Thanksgiving and only one week until my parents get in town.  I cant describe how excited I am!  I have a whole list of things they get to do when they get here so they wont get board.
 
1) Clean the house
2) Wash and wax the car
3) Hang my paintings
4) And cook lots of food

I am not asking too much?  Just kidding Mom and Dad you all can kick up you feet and relax!  Its going to be a wonderful time with the whole family.

This last week was a busy week at work, even with all the work I was doing the days seemed to drag on.  I think I am so excited about the holidays coming up, its hard to focus on work.  You can tell when its getting close because everyone in the office starts getting antsy.

As most of you know last Sunday we went through the yearly ritual of changing our clocks back.  I really despise doing this because it gets dark before I get home.  This is the first year that I have noticed it really affected my sleep pattern, by six I am ready for bed.  Thankfully I remembered to change all the clocks so I didn't have any major issues.  There were only two funny incidents that occurred,  when I got in my car to go to work I thought I was an hour late.  That same day I almost left work a hour early because my coworkers clock had not been set back.  Other than that no major mishaps. 

The week was dragging and I started getting stir crazy, by Thursday night I had to get out of the house.  Since I live in walking distance of Midtown, Chris and I decided to walk down to the new Tapas place and give it a try.  The happy hour specials were great, half of Tapas and Sangria.  We each got two different plates and shared them, everything was really delicious and just the right size.  After dinner we walked around Midtown and hit a few different spots.  We normally meet up with some friends of ours for wings on Thursday so they picked us up and we all went to Buffalo Wild Wings and watched the U of H Cougars play Tulane.  It was great evening and just what I needed.

Friday was a busy day at work, but I got everything wrapped up that needed to be finished that week.  After work I ran a bunch of errands to get the supplies I need to make Christmas gifts.  That evening after a quick work out Chris and I watched the History Channels documentary on the Vietnam war and cooked some dinner. The documentary was excellent and I truly regret not asking my grandpas about their war experiences.  I know for many it is a very difficult thing to discuss, but if the younger generations do not hear about these things, they become the unappreciative spoiled brats that are running around today.  I am very thankful to all the Vets and current military men and women that served, or are serving today to protect our country.  If you have a chance check out the History channels Vietnam in HD, its an eye opener for those that weren't directly involved.

Saturday morning Chris and I headed up to San Antonio for a friends birthday.  The plan was to spend the afternoon shooting, eating, and watching football.  I was pretty excited about the shooting part, its been a while since I have been able to shoot trap.  We loaded up all our guns, bought out all of Wal-mart's ammo and headed to good ol San Antonio.  It normally isn't a bad drive, but we got stuck behind a motorcycle ride and they were going about 20 miles under the speed limit...ugh it was a long drive.  Once we got there we set everything up and started shooting.  We did a few rounds of trap and then set up some targets for pistol.  We were having a great time until we heard a semi-auto assault rifle let off a couple of rounds and it wasn't us shooting.  The minute we heard the bullets whiz past us we were on the ground.  We have no idea what these people were doing, they had no reason to be shooting in our direction.  After that little incident we decided to move to another area on their property. I am a stickler for gun safety, I have heard of too many accidents that happen when people just aren't paying attention.  Since there were seven of us I made sure everyone was safe, but apparently there is no way to prevent other people from shooting at you!   


The rest of the afternoon was great we set up their trap thrower and shot for about four hours.  I currently have a 20 gauge and have been looking to upgrade to a 12.  Being with a bunch of guys that love to shoot, I was able to try quite an assortment of shotguns.  I really enjoyed a few of them but found a winner that will soon be a gift to myself.  Unfortunately the gun that won is pretty pricey so if any of you fell inclined to donate to the Tory shotgun fund...I am accepting donations! 

Beretta AL391 Teknys Gold Target 12Ga, 30"

Beretta AL391 Teknys Gold Sporting

 After we finished up shooting we went inside to eat burgers and watch some Aggie football. It was another terrible game for the Ags they ended up losing in the 4 OT.  Oh well there is always next year!  We spent the rest of the evening talking around a campfire.  It was a nice weekend, but now its over and time to get ready for the work week, oh the joys of being a grown up!!!  I hope you all have a great week.

Until next time...

Cheers to the Weekend!!

Well Ladies and Gentleman the weekend is upon us, and that is just too wonderful!!  It has been an extremely long and busy week.  Since I haven't written in a while lets get caught up on last weekends festivities. 

Friday night Tommy flew into Houston for the A&M vs. Missouri game.  I picked him up at the airport and we head straight to College Station.  It had been a long week for me with trying to get settled into my new place and keep up with everything at work I was ragged, but it was Halloween weekend so I had to get the gumption up to go out.  That evening I met up with friends, once everyone was dressed in their respective costumes it was time to hit the town.  We went to several house parties and Northgate (the strip of bars in College Station)  It was a fun evening, but old grandma Jones over here was ready for bed before we went out! Being in the working world real changes your internal clock, getting up at 4:30 makes staying out late a difficult task.

Saturday morning I was up at ready for some Fightn Texas Aggie Football.  Since my cousin was taking his PE exam he gave Christy's boyfriend his ticket therefore Christy and Justin both got to sit with me! It was an exciting game in the football world, but a TERRIBLE game for the Aggies.  Oh well you can win them all!

After the devastating game we were tired and hungry, since the weather was absolutely perfect (70's with a cool breeze, jealous?) we decided to grill some steaks.  I ran to the grocery store and got steaks, potatoes, corn, and garden veggies.  It was a delicious meal and we topped it off with some Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting that I made earlier. 

Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes

Sunday morning I got up and made everyone pancakes, bacon, and hashbrowns it was a fun and yummy family breakfast.  After breakfast Christy and Justin had to study so I took Christy's dog on a walk...well let me rephrase Christy's dog took me for a run!  It was another wonderful day so I couldn't pass up being outside basking in the wonderful weather (yes Northerners I am bragging)  :)  That afternoon Tommy and I drove back to Houston to get him on a plane to Midland.  The rest of the evening was spent getting groceries and relaxing. 

This week was a hectic one at work as long as we make it through November we will be good to go!  My evenings were filled with working out and shopping for the dinner party we were having on Thursday.  I spent most of Wednesday evening buying and prepping the food for Thursday.  For dinner I made Chili in garlic cheese bread bowls, with a chips and Queso appetizer, and pumpkin pie for desert.  Thankfully everything turned out really well and there wasn't much food left over. 

Home made Pumpkin Pie!

Getting ready for Fall with some decorations.

Well its the weekend so its time to get out there do something fun!  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend

Until next time...