Seattle Vacation-Day 1

Today we traveled from Texarkana, TX to Seattle, WA for our first ever true vacation. No races, no crashing with family or friends, just Patrick and I doing everything we want to do.  It's about 65 degrees here, we saw Mt. Hood (see below) on the flight in. I'm in love. Both with Patrick and the region. This vacation is going to be awesome!

The blissfully happy couple headed out for their much needed vacation.

Mt. Hood

FaceBook Detox and Memorial Day

For personal reasons I'm taking a hiatus from Facebook.  It's been about three weeks since I resolved to not view or post anything on Facebook and while I'm enjoying the break and getting the rest I need from this site, I do miss the silly and funny photos on Facebook and I miss having a place to post my own funny experiences and photos.   

To remedy this, I will try to post more here. I know there are very few people who read this blog, but that's fine by me.

To begin this new alternative platform for updates, I wanted to say something about Memorial Day.  This day is often taken for granted and many Americans see it as a day off work to barbeque, go to the pool and in general lounge around. While these are great activities, we should always remember why we can do those things.  It is because selfless men and women and their families have made tremendous sacrifices for us.  In many cases, our soldiers have given the greatest sacrifice of all--they have given their lives for our freedom.  They willingly live a life of hardship and separation from their families so that we don't have to, so that we can live in a peaceful and prosperous nation, and so that we don't have to fight terrorism on a personal level.  Thank you to all the men and women who give so freely of their time, talents, and lives for our great nation. You're sacrifice does not go unnoticed or unappreciated.  I always like to thank my brother for his service in the military and count myself lucky I have someone close in my family I can thank.

      

Some much needed family time

The first two weekends in May I spent some much needed time with my family.  First was Patrick and Lori's wedding on May 10, 2014.  My Patrick and I drove in that morning to attend the wedding.  It was on outdoor ceremony and was beautiful.  Patrick looked so happy and I'm so happy for him.  The following day Patrick I., Lori, Lori's mom, me, and Patrick's and my mom went to Scarborough Fair.  It was so wonderful to spend Mother's day with my mom.  That hasn't happened for years.  I was also very glad to spend the day with my brother; we rarely see each other and it was a treat to go back to the Fair together as a family.  We did this when we were younger and it was nice to come together as adults with our mom to spend the day together doing something we all love. 

Pat and Lori Cutting the cake at their wedding in Argyle on May 10, 2014.  It was very special for me to be there for him that day because he was serving in Afghanistan when I got married.  We were together for his wedding and that meant the world to me.

Patrick and Lori at the alter.  They wrote their own vows which I thought was sweet. Both vows were beautifully written. 

Kevin Moore, my second oldest nephew graduated from Parsons High School on May 18th.  I'm very proud of him.

Left to Right: Don Harris, Kyle Aguilera, Kori Burke, Amy Harris, Kameron Burke.  My sister, her kids and dad.  It was great to see them all at Kevin's graduation.

Left to Right: Don Harris, Kevin Moore, Laura Moore.  Again it was so wonderful to see everyone and be there for Kevin's big day. 

Kevin has really grown into a great young man. He has such a clever and witty since of humor. I love this guy.

Me, Laura and Amy.  Sisters together.  I miss them but was so happy to see them and spend time with the family. 

The Second Wife

Last Thursday was like most of my days lately. I teach at 8am and again at 4pm. You'd think I could get my Friday class prep done in between but there is always something else that takes precedent. So I usually end up wrapping up my prep for my Friday class Thursday night. Don't judge. This is the way lots of professors end up planning classes they're teaching for the first time.  But my evening prep time was shortened because I was invited to a faculty dinner with a medical program rep. This isn't the kind of invitation you turn down as a new faculty member. And don't get me wrong, I had a great time and really enjoyed dinner, my company, and the conversation.  But I had to text Patrick and tell him whenever I got home from dinner I'd have to go to work in the office. 

Needless to say, I've been feeling really guilty about the long hours I put in, sacrificing time with Patrick on evenings and weekends. And last Thursday night really epitomized this feeling.  So you can imaging my relief when I walked through the door 10 hours after I left that morning, and I saw that the second wife had arrived. Football season started last Thursday night. I don't feel so bad about my long hours, now Patrick has the comforting companionship of his second wife, the NFL. Very few wives will probably agree with me on this, but the football season arrived just in time. 

More Perks

I knew coming into this new job I'd be working a lot, but despite not being surprised, it can be draining to work a full day only to come home and put in 2-3 more hours. This is just the way it is. I'm not a workaholic, I've just chosen a profession that's time demanding in the beginning. I'm expecting this to last at least through the first two semesters.  But my workload isn't the focus of tis post. Nope, hang on tight. I'm about to relate additional perks of working and living and Texarkana, and being a professor at a small east Texas university:

1.) FREE iPad. A colleague had an extra one left over from a grant and guess who benefitted from that. Yours truly (and Patrick by default).

2.) FREE nice dinner. A rep from a medical program came in last week and took all the biology faulty out to dinner (at my favorite restaurant here). 

3.) It's very conservative here, which I appreciate for very few reasons.  But one of the reasons is that at the faculty dinner  not a single drop of alcohol was ordered. This is something new but welcomed to me. Most semi professional/social academic dinners I've attended in the past usually involved my colleagues drinking. We'll see if this occurrence turns into a trend.

4.) Shopping at Wal

Mart in east Texas always provides for some very interesting people watching. In Dallas I avoided Walmart as much as possible, but here choices are very limited, as is my current budget. 

5.) Students at my university are the most polite students I've ever worked with. Everything is yes ma'am, no ma'am. And being a smaller school it seems they mostly all want to be here. Also, smaller classes means I can get to know my students better. I nice change from teaching the masses at UNT. 

6.) At work I'm surrounded by other transplants to Texarkana. Talking with them and musing over the different culture here is a pleasant relief; to know I'm not alone here feeling a little out of place. I've met another professor whose invited Patrick and I into a group who get together for "cultural interventions". The upcoming meeting is "Indian Summer" dinner party.

We're still getting accustomed to our new town, but it's getting better and a little easier. Church last week was much better than the first week. More and more people are introducing themselves and we had great conversations with other members and our bishop. Everyone seems so happy to have us here. This last Sunday I had tears of joy instead of sadness. Little steps. 

Starting a New Chapter in Our Lives

I'm officially resurrecting this blog I started years ago.  I've moved away from my family and friends to start a new chapter of my life, so I'm going to use this blog as a platform to keep my friends and family up to date on my and Patrick's life.

So to catch you all up since my last post, I finished my PhD in environmental science at the University of North Texas (UNT).  I graduated in August of 2012, but started looking for work the January before that.  It took over a year and a half, applying for over 90 jobs, and reading rejection letter after rejection letter, but I finally found the job I always wanted.  I am now the Assistant Professor of Environmental Science at Texas A&M University-Texarkana.  They've hired me to develop environmental science courses, which will eventually lead to me developing a minor and possibly major in environmental science.  I am the ONLY environmental professor here, a fact I take pride in.  They wanted ME.  My university is a small, student and teaching oriented school which is perfect for me.  I'm thrilled to be here with Patrick.  After praying and fasting for so long as to where we were supposed to go and what we were supposed to do, we finally go the answer.

And when the answer came, it really came.  Everything lined up so well with the job, Patrick's work and his potential for coaching triathlon out here, the move, selling/renting our house in Lewisville (3 hours to the west), and the landscape and area we moved to is so fitting for Patrick and I.  It's gorgeous out here.  There's more natural areas and there are tall trees and woods everywhere.  I've always been a bit unsatisfied living on what I called the concrete island which is Dallas.

So we've left Dallas behind, and though I'm happy to be in an area with more trees, less traffic, and more natural areas, we miss some key things about Dallas.  Namely our family and friends.  You know who you are.  I miss you all at different times.  Sunday afternoon I miss my ward family and my best friends Erika and Chad.  Sunday nights I miss my family.  Saturdays and week nights when I'm working I miss my friends from back home, because we would otherwise be hanging out with you.  

But it will be okay.  We'll make new friends, not better friends, just new friends.  And we will always come home to Dallas and to our friends and family there.

Now that that's out of the way.  Here are a few tidbits about our new town you all might find interesting:

• Life operates at a different pace here.  No one is in a rush and sometimes it feels like I'm talking to "Mountain Man" on Duck Dynasty
• And speaking of Duck Dynasty, we are much closer to that culture now..
• For example: Our church ward here has a Elders Quorum event next Saturday. In Dallas we usually had picnics with softball or volleyball.  Here they go skeet shooting
• People here don't like shoes.  I've walked into stores an seen customers and workers without shoes on.
• There are NO sidewalks.  I've found two trails which are less than a quarter of a mile. 
• There are so many cicadas here.  I've never seen this many.

That's all for now.  Stay tuned for more updates on life in the eastern most corner of Texas that is my home now.
     

From the deep

Like the oil welling up from the floor of the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico, I too am trying to surface from the depths of silence on this blog. Life has gotten in the way of many fun past-times of mine and unfortunately this blog is the first to be cut loose. So here is my attempt to resurrect my online thoughts and stimulate yours.

You might have heard that during my trip to St. George for Patrick's Ironman I had my environmentalists' card revoked for not instinctively knowing how to drive/start a Prius. It's not a simple as turning the key (there is no key to turn). So I now am on my long journey to redeem myself as a true green environmentalist. In this light, I'll admit that I have trouble fathoming and understanding the scale of the size of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. So if you're like me here is a nice link to a few maps that have over-layed the spill onto maps of familiar metropolitan areas.

I found that when it's put into perspective like this it's hard to deny or overlook this catastrophe. I don't post this to be the fear-mongering environmentalist, but rather to help everyone have a perspective for this event. Only with understanding will there ever be action on any important matter.