That's Stephen

The other day, I got home from work and there was a notice on my door that UPS took a package to the office. I hadn't ordered anything and the notice was left to the name "Magee". The office was already close, so I decided to just wait until the morning to get it settled. Clearly it had been delivered to the wrong address. So the next morning, I head in to figure this out and show them the slip tellng them my name is not Magee and I'm not expecting anything. She pulls the package out and sure enough it has my apartment number on it. I said, "well what's the name on the package?" She looked at the package and looked at me with a somewhat perplexed look on her face. Studdered a minute and then said, "Fatty Magee". Okay, if any of you know my brother, you know his affinity for nicknames. I think he has the most nicknames for me. Fatty Magee being one of them. So I die out laughing and say yeah that's me. Its from my brother. The office lady just laughs hysterically apologizing for calling me Fatty! Oh my brother. I called and told mom what happened. Her response: That's Stephen!

 

A Lesson in Energy

These are wind generators. And they are EVERYWHERE when you get over in West Texas. I think that people can make money by allowing them to be built on their land. They are HUGE! These pictures do not do them justice. Each arm is about as long as the bed of two tractor trailer trucks. There is an elevator on the inside of the tower that you can take up to the top to adjust the controls. The arms can be adjusted to catch the wind just enough to turn the right speed--not too slow, not too fast. The whole head can also be rotated to catch the wind. Very Interesting.

 

 

 

 

Highlight of the Weekend...

See that Little plane there...

 

Yes...that one...I flew it! See...

 

A few ariel shots just to prove we were actually in the air:

 

Alyson's dad has a plane and uses it mostly for business. He was kind enough to not only take us up for a little bit on Saturday but also to let me actually FLY the plane! How cool is that! It was amazingly comfortable. Before we went up, I was freaking out on the inside but trying to appear calm on the outside. Once we started takig off I was thinking, this isn't so bad...its kinda fun! We got up in the air, and he explained how the "steering wheel" worked. You pull towards you to go up, push away to point the nose down, left to turn left, and right to turn right. The plane doesn't move back to center when you move the "wheel" so you have to over correct a bit after a turn. I did it though! I flew the plane! Its kinda difficult with the wind blowing you to keep it steady. He said to think of the wind like bumps in the road! Right. Only there is how many thousand feet between me and the ground? Anyways, After I flew a bit, he flew us over Alyson's house and made us both "plane sick" circling to try to see her mother in the yard. I seriously thought I was going to toss my cookies, but again I'm trying to keep my cool (and my cookies). After he gets a few shots of their church (which you can see in the above pictures) we headed to the next town to stop and get some gas and settle our stomachs. When we got ready to go back up, he let me take off! Holy Cow! Fun stuff. So I had to wait until this little meter got to 180 (I think) and then I was supposed to pull the nose up. You could feel the plane trying to take off by itself! But I pulled up when I was supposed to and up up up and away we went! AWESOME! That is something I will never forget!

My Domestic Skills

Alyson is trying her best to domesticate me a little bit, so over the weekend we baked a cake...from scratch. Like we got out the Betty Crocker cook book and followed a recipe and baked a cake! It was very good if I say so myself. And YES I helped for those of you asking in your little heads. I was in charge of stirring and did a marvelous job!

Alyson's mother is an interior decorator. So her house as well as Alyson's is just perfectly decorated. Anyways, Mrs. Lorraine had just made some new pillows for the couch (the ones with the pattern) and decided she needed a couple of new ones to match them and add a little more color. Alas, guess who finds those perfect pillows in Ross Dress for Less? ME!!! Ha! I was so proud of my find. Don't they look fabulous? Her dad wasn't so impressed...he said he'd only known me for a day and already I was spending his money! oh well...

 

 

Meet Zoe!

I guess that's how you spell her name! This is Alyson and Jonathan's new baby! She is a precious little beagle. She is quite feisty though! Espcially when its time for her ear drops! Anyways, she accompanied us on our journey to Lubbock. Since Michael and I decided not to get a dog right now, I try to live vicariously through Alyson's. We were shopping Saturday and ran across this precious little pink shirt for Zoe! Doesn't she look precious! (We all agreed that Beagles just aren't your dress up kind of dog!) She was so cooperative though--didn't mind a bit! The bigger beagle is Bandit, Alyson's brother Michael's dog.

My Michael told me that "he taught me better and I should know better than to put a shirt on a dog!" Oh well...

 

Lubbock: The Journey Continued

So, no luck on the pictures. This is the only one I can get to load other than those already posted. I have discovered that all the vertical pictures will load and edit fine. The pictures taken horizontally will not function. When I double click to open them in iPhoto, instead of my picture, I get a big black exclamation point! Anyhow, you sorta get the idea with this picture. Anyways, what I wanted to tell you about the journey is that we were just trucking along, talking away, and all of a sudden Alyson stops talking in mid story. I look up and it is white everywhere. The wind was blowing so hard in conjunction with it snowing fairly heavily that everything just turned white. she had to slow down and really focus on the road! That's as close as I would ever like to get to a white out! Anyways, the other pictures that I can't get to load are those from the white out time. Sorry. :)

 

Practicum Results

Several weeks ago I asked for you to pray for me as I had my Practicum Interview. I appreciate your prayers and received news today that I was accepted to begin Practicum this Summer! It will be here before I know it! I'm excited to get started!

Parental Visit: 6th Floor Museum Round 2

Michael's parents visited over the first weekend of Spring Break. We took them over to Dallas to tour the 6th Floor Museum. No photography allowed in the museum, but below you'll find some of the buildings surrounding the area where JFK was assassinated. The shots of the road are where his car was when the shots were first fired. The monument with white columns is in his honor. The older man looking at pictures is showing what the men on the street use to explain what happened and talk about all the conspiracies. The shot looking at the building through the trees is looking up at the School Textbook Depository where the museum is located and the shots were fired from. That tall building with a ball on top is a fancy restaraunt that Michael is going to take me to before we move home. Enjoy!