Our Weekend in Dallas

I decided not to write a long post about what we did. Instead, I made a quick video of a lot of the stuff we did in Dallas this past weekend.

But a quick summary:

Friday we went out with Katherine, a friend of Jamie's from Americorps. She's awesome and showed us this great burger place called Twisted Root. Then she took us to Tuckers' Blues, a Blues bar that was hidden away behind Twisted Root. To get to it you walk around the back of Twisted Root and BAM! out of nowhere there is a door with a Blue neon light (it makes you feel like you know about a secret blues bar). I (Jared) loved it. They played blues and told stories about different classic blues artists before each song. Watch the video below to see what Jamie does during the show! Saturday we stayed at a hotel called, Aloft. The hotel was really retro and cool. We also went to eat at the House of Blues before going to our concert there. The concert was for Bad Fish, a Sublime cover band. We had a great weekend as you can see below. Last but not least we finished it off by Running with the Bulls (sorta).

Catching Up, Thanksgiving to January 17th

WOW! We got busy and haven't updated this in months! I want to write a quick recap from Thanksgiving to now. For the most part everyone knows Michelle and Justin visited us for Thanksgiving. That was awesome. It is extremely surreal whenever someone comes to visit because it can be tough to believe they are really here! We took Justin and Michelle all around San Angelo (the same tour we gave our parents). We had an amazing time with Justin and Michelle.

After Michelle and Justin left we waited for December 23rd, the day we would fly home for Christmas. But until then I (Jared) had an interview with At&t here in San Angelo. The position

was for a new store that will be opening in early March (until then we will be operating out of a kiosk in a the terrible mall of San Angelo). I received a job offer and accepted it.

The position I received is Sales Consultant and I started January 11th. I have three weeks of training.

But more about that later. Jamie was finishing a lot of work up in December because she was going to be really busy when January and February came around.

We had an awesome Christmas. Ten days of family and we couldn't get enough. It was so great to get to see everyone. It was extremely busy though (get ready for a run-on sentence like you've never seen before). We had my family Christmas on Christmas Eve, my mom's side on Christmas day, a Christmas day dinner in Bondurant, my dad's side in Denver, IA on the 26th, Jamie's big family Christmas on the 27th,

went to Denison to have Christmas the 28th, 29th, came back for my mom's birthday on the 30th, went to Webster City for Trisha and Brock's annual ridiculously awesome New Year's Eve party, spent the 1st with our individual families, watched home videos of Jamie and her crazy antics during the day on the 2nd and FINALLY finished the trip with some friends at my place that night.

But like I said even after all of that we still hadn't had enough of our friends and family. It was a great Christmas. (I don't have access to Jamie's pics so these couple will have to do until then).

When we got back to San Angelo we took it really slow for a couple of days. I get to go to Dallas three weekends in a row for training with At&t, and Jamie came with me the first time. At&t rented us a Hyundai Santa Fe with XM radio (awesome) and put us in an amazing room at La Quinta Inn with a living room, french doors to the bedroom and a cool executive style desk. Jamie spent the whole next day shopping at a huge mall in Dallas. We went out that night when we got to Dallas at a restaurant called Snuffers (weird). The food was great! Unfortunately Jamie can't come with me next weekend because she'll be on here way back from Lafayette, Louisiana. She left for Louisiana today and will be helping repair a bunch of houses that are still damaged from Hurricane Katrina. I will get her to write up an entry and post pictures when she gets back.

So that is a summary of what we have been up to lately. We will try to maintain the blog a little better in the future but we are getting busy now so who knows. Thanks for reading!

Jamie's 3rd Interview

Here is Jamie's 3rd Interview. Michelle was in the studio with her during it! We are having a great time with them down here and will post some pictures of their visit soon.

November Update

Sorry it has been so long since the last update. There hasn't been a ton going on down here but I'll try to give everyone a quick update about the few things that have changed. As many of you know I(Jared) have been working part-time at Best Buy. Surprisingly enough I love working there. It's a lot of fun and I work with some great people. Currently the position is season and will end on January 1st but who know, it might turn into something. Jamie has been busy working a lot lately. She has been running a booth at a number of events over the past month.

One of the big things going on right now is our building's plumbing! Today something happened and basically everyone lost the ability to flush and shower! It has been interesting but should be up and working tomorrow morning. Probably the worst part of it is that the gym we belong to is doing temporary work on their locker rooms so we can't even use those showers! It's been a bit of a bumpy weekend but we are really excited because everyday Thanksgiving gets closer and that's when we get to see Michelle and Justin. Once they get here we'll update the blog after their visit again. So until then, Jamie will keep saving the world one house at a time and I'll keep selling those houses TVs.

College Station, Here I Come!

Hey Ya'll!
So I get to leave for my very first overnight work trip (solo) to College Station. Hopefully I'll have a lot more luck than Jared did...
I have to go solo though because Jared's working at Best Buy now :) Our timing is a little off...
But I'm pretty excited! Get to stay in my own hotel room and it has a pool and everything! Not too excited about this being alone thing, but I'll take a lot of pictures so hopefully it'll feel like I'm not..
I leave today around noon and am planning on getting there around 5! Still have some packing to do though..I hate packing!
Anyway..then I'm headed over to Austin, Texas after the Forum on Friday night to visit one of my good friends from the Rec in Ames-Merissa!! :) Not sure what we're gunna be doing, but I'll definitely be doing some sightseeing and hopefully get to experience some nightlife! :) Yayy! I think Jared wants me to come back on Saturday...but I may have to stay til Sunday..it is AUSTIN!! :)
I'm not excited about this 5 hour drive AT ALL...but can't wait to get this trip started!! :)

Jared's Bday Trip 2009

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Jared's 24th Birthday

Hi everyone. As many of you know my birthday was last month on Sept. 18th and I got the best present I can remember ever getting for a birthday, my parents showed up and surprised me. We had an awesome time while they were down here and below is a huge slideshow showing everything we did during their stay. Most of the stuff we did with them would be stuff you could do too if you come to visit...hint hint.

To begin, Jamie asked if I wanted to go eat at this Chinese restaurant in the airport (weird I know but our neighbors told us it had the best Chinese in San Angelo. However, the absence of crab ragoon immediately eliminated it from our list of Chinese restaurants.) I got there after Jamie and noticed her sitting at a table for five and immediately was suspicious. But after watching the people get off the flight and not seeing my parents I was disappointed. Jamie spent that time lying to me (all too easily) saying that they weren't coming and that it was an accident we were sitting at the table with so many places. I began getting frustrated because the waitress wouldn't come take our order, so finally I raised my hand (Jamie told the waitress we were waiting on more people and not to come back until they arrived, I looked like a fool). Before I knew it my parents were standing right behind me. It was amazing. Jamie had to go back to work but my parents were here from that Thursday to the following Tuesday morning. We had a lot to show them!

I'm going to summarize this in list form so it doesn't get long winded but also so you can understand what you are seeing in the pictures above.

Thursday: KOA Loop, wine tasting at D'vine wine and hung out together around the apartment

Friday: Jamie got off early and we all went to the mall for a bit (even though it was my birthday!) then for sushi at Sho Gun. Jamie got me some books about English Bulldogs, I love them! That night we stayed home, played pounce and I made margaritas for everyone. (These two days were also peppered with the latest season of Grey's Anatomy because my mom and Jamie get what they want)

Saturday: This day is a blur I can't remember what we did... it might have been a lot of Grey's Anatomy. But that night we went out to Woofers and Tweeters, a great Karaoke bar (even though I don't sing... eh hmm Michelle!) and from there we went to Midnight Rodeo, then home for some Pounce.

Sunday: We got up and took them to eat at McAllister's, it's kind of like Panera Bread, but it might be better! Then we went to the Riverwalk, the Lilly pad garden and Fort Concho. After we did all that we went to Inglorious Basterds (we all liked it).

Monday: We went to In Vino Veritas for a wine tasting and when Jamie got off work we went out for sushi at Dragon sushi. We finished the night playing pounce and of course, with Grey's Anatomy again!

Tuesday: I took my parents to the airport. We had a great time with them (but I think it made Jamie a little homesick getting a taste of home and then having it taken away again).

That was my birthday, it was awesome and I was so happy my parents came. Now we are looking forward to getting to see Ron and Joni in October and Justin and Michelle in November.