Getting Ready to Go!

I can't believe it is almost time for our cruise! We started planning this thing in April/May of 2005 and we leave on Friday for Galveston. I think I said this before, but if not, I'm saying it again. There are 18 of us going, all Michaels mom's side of the family. It will be Michaels "Nana" , her 4 kids, and their whole families. We always have so much fun when we all get together that I know that the week will be a blast. I am going to be packing our stuff tomorrow and we leave for Galveston first thing Friday Morning. I'm gonna need everyone to send us some "No Hurricane Vibes" !! I'll take lots of pictures, but I won't be posting anything while we are away.

Water Conservation

About 2 months ago Allen was put on a stict watering schedule. We can only water once a week during certain hours, and the same goes for a lot of the DFW area. Needless to say, everyones yards look like crap, dead and brown. Which is good because all of a sudden our yard doesn't look to bad. Ok, so there are a couple houses in the area that look outstanding still and here is why... This is going on in not only our neighborhood, but we have both heard different people talking about this other places. Ok, water conservation...save water. Some people are watering nonstop from midnight till 6am and then again from 7pm till midnight. How does that save water?? It doesn't. Why are there people out there that just follow the letter of the law and not the intention?? So whats the point? oh well, thats my gripe for the day.

Finally a Cold Front!

What parallel universe am I in right now where a cold front is coming through and it will put us at 96 degrees?? It's been sooooo hot here lately, just as it has been all over the country. It has been so miserable. I'm trying to keep myself hydrated with lots of water, but I keep forgetting to drink it! Oops. So our little "cold front" will last about 3 days, then we are back up over 100. Now, I'm use to 100 degree weather, after all this is Texas, but it is just not fun when it is everyday for so many days. It will be nice to escape to Mexico where the highs are in the upper 80's. That's an odd statement "I'm going to Mexico to escape the heat".

Is There REALLY Nothing Worth Posting About?

No, not really. Guess I'll just have to make small talk!
We haven't been doing ANYTHING exciting.

We got approved for our apartment.. YEA! We move in the 19th of August. We have about 10 days in both places to get everything moved over. Should be plenty of time. Like I said before, we love this house, and enjoy it, but its sooooo far from everything else. We will be moving right on the city line of Allen and Plano, but we will be on the Plano side. So I guess we are moving cities too. It is right across the street from the TI in Plano so Michael can either catch a TI shuttle to the Dart Station (train) or I can still take him but it will be about 10 minutes of a shorter drive. Which will be LOVELY! The TI across the street is also the TI that we work out at and I take Tai Chi at so that will be even nicer. We will be able to walk to the gym and back home again (The street we have to cross is not a big busy one). That will be very nice too.

We are getting ready to go on our cruise. We leave for Galveston a week from Friday. We are both really starting to get excited. I also have started a "Master Packing List" for us, because everytime we pack up, which is often if you count not only big trips, but the times we go to Austin, Lubbock and El Paso too, we go through a list outloud just trying to remember everything we need. We'll I got tired of that, thought we have a lot more traveling to do in our little lives so thought this would be a good idea. Then when we are packed, I can print out one of my lists, and we can check off all the things we have already packed... Ya, I guess I have too much time on my hands.. I call it "Organization"

What else what else... Ah, Tai Chi. I'm still doing classes. Its been 7 months now and I love it more and more everytime I do it. I have been in Private Lessons for about 3 months and enjoy those as well. I've already noticed changes in the short 7 months I have been doing it. The biggest one I think is it has brought awareness to my posture. I wouldn't say I had bad posture before, but if there are times that I am slouching or bend over, I can immediatly tell and I have to fix it because it just feels more comfortable. I could preach about Tai Chi for a while and how great I think it is, but I'll get off my soapbox and leave that for a later post.

Finally something cool happened yesterday. I got to talk to my nephew! (ok that sounds silly, but heres why its cool) He is only 3 years younger then me (I was an aunt when I was 3) and he lives in Isreal. We were in high school for a year together. I was a senior and he was a freshman and I loved being able to see him everyday. Anyways, he eventually moved to Isreal and has been there for... 4 years probably?? I hadn't talked to him in like 2 years, so it made my week to talk to him. He was visiting the family in El Paso and I made my brother call me when he saw him so I could chat. It was also nice to know he was in EP with everything going on over there right now.
Wow, so I guess there was stuff to post about, I just needed to talk it all out to find it. So I have slapped my hand and said, "BAD NICHOLE for not posting" and I promised to try to do better. :o)

Another Weekend

We had a nice weekend.

Saturday mary and Jason came over. We haven't spent much time with them at all since about New Years since Mary started working at Starbucks and works a lot on the weekends, so we had them over about noon and they stayed till about 10:00ish. We had a good time and pretty much drank a bunch of wine and played alot of board games. Sunday Michael and I started going through a bunch of boxes of stuff to get rid of. We are trying o size down the amount of stuff we own and so far we are doing a really good job. Even the amount of clothes we own has shrunk increadibly. yea! Last weekend we filled out an application at an Aptarment Complex and are waiting to hear about that.

Things have been pretty slow around here and we have been trying not to be busy and its been nice. we leave in a little less then 3 weeks for our cruise and we are looking forward to that. I've been planning this thing for all 18 of us for over a year now and so I'm anxious for the time to leave to finally come. It should be a ton of fun.

Our Weekend

We had a fun long weekend. Michael had a 4.5 day weekend. He left early on Friday and "worked from home" on Monday. We spent most of the weekend doing absolutly nothing but playing video games. Michael played a new game he got on his game cube, and I played the new mario game for the handheld nintendo DS. We had fun. We had planned to go see the new superman movie, but never got that far. We got lots and lots of sleep and finally feel all caught up and back to normal after our crazy June. For the 4th we made some burgers here at home and at night walked to the end of the street to watch some fireworks. We could see 5 different fireworks shows going on so that was pretty cool. We got so much sleep that last night we both had problems getting tired and didn't fall asleep till about 1am so we are again sleepy this morning. oh well.

St. Louis

St. Louis was soooo much fun. It was a little hectic getting out of here with only 2 days to recover from Japan but we made it and didn't forget anything. We got there on Thursday and had a rental car so headed to one of my cousins places where we were staying. That night was the rehearsal/rehearsal dinner which was a lot of fun. Friday we got to run around taking care of last minute details and our whole side of the family got to put together the programs, which might seem not so fun, but when the wine was flowing and the family was laughing, we had a really fun time with it, and 350 programs were put together in the blink of an eye. We had an assembly line going. Michael punched the holes, I cut the ribbon, some people were stringing the ribbon through the programs and others where tying the ribbon onto the programs. We had bbq for dinner and swam in the pool and had a nice fun evening. The wedding day was busy and fun. The actually wedding was beautiful. They had the big huge Catholic ceremony and didn't drag or seem too long. In fact I thought it was pretty short for the big Catholic ceremony. The bride was stunning and her and the groom were so in love. It was a adorable. The reception was a lot of fun too. Our table was dubbed the "Texas Table" by the DJ. They even played deep in the heart of Texas and made us all get up and dance. It was funny. Sunday before we left we went to an open house at the newlyweds newly purchased house. It was really cute, made Michael and I both miss our little house in Lubbock. We were exhuasted by now, it was a very hectic weekend and it finally caught up to all of us. I took a nap on the plane and we got home and went to bed pretty early. So that was the weekend, very fun, and very quick. I have a ton of pictures which I'll be putting on our website here in the next couple days but here are a few for fun.

My brother Joe, Michael and I after the wedding
(They were both Groomsmen)

Jeff and Jana, the Happy Couple

My normal family and my long lost family that I hadn't met before

Leaving Tokyo

Our last day was Monday. We got up at 6 and since we had so much time to pack the day before we were completely ready to go except for the stuff we needed in the morning. We went down for one last amazing breakfast at the buffet at 7 and left at 8:25 to head to the airport. On the way to the airport we passed a few Tokyo sights that we didn't get to (tokyo tower, rainbow bridge, panasonic building, disneyland!) So that was cool.

Michael in the Hotel Lobby waiting for the shuttle

Hotel Lobby
Entrance to Shinjuku I-land (taken from the bus)
I-land is one of the billion underground malls located everywhere.

Shinjuku station from bus window

On the bus we ended up at Shinjuku station during the time everyone was heading to work
Look at all those people!! The picture doesn't do justice, there were people in every direction as far as the eyes could see.

Tokyo Tower from the bus

The Rainbow Bridge on a foggy day from the bus

Rice fields on the way to the airport

Michael and I on the plane back to Dallas

We really had an amazing time. We were sad the time passed so fast. Generally we are not big city people but we really really loved Tokyo and a few times even said, that it was really a place that we could live and be really happy! Which is odd because if Dallas is too big for us, I'm not sure why the most populated city in the world at 35 million people in a very tight small area is ok for us. We are strange people and don't make much sence. I suppose its the land area that we don't like big and the big population isn't that bad. *Enlightening Moment* We had forgotten how much we enjoyed walking everywhere in Europe and how much we wish we could do that here and it was nice to be able to do that for a short while again. I really wish I could write down every little thing we saw and every opinion and thought I have on Tokyo, but it would take forever. It was interesting being in a place that could be so insane, chaotic, crazy and peaceful calm and charming all at the same time. Hopefully we will make it back again to see more of the country of Japan and not just Tokyo, though I'd like more time in Tokyo as well!!

Going Back to Sunday

Sunday we really didn't do much at all. Our bodies at some point decided they were going to shut down on us. We walked down to the Shinjuku area where there are about a billion dept. stores and other shops. We grabbed a cup of coffee and people watched for a bit and then walked around the stores for a while, grabbed food for lunch and took it back to the hotel and ate and had a couple Japanese beers. It was about 1:00 and we just stayed at the hotel the rest of the day. We were exhuasted, not sleepy at all, just really really tired, so we spent the rest of the day winding down the trip, packing and getting ready to go.

Takashimaya Times Square in Shinjuku
A GIANT department store

Train Tracks from Shinjuku Station

Adorable Japanese Kid

Another adorable Japanese kid who is the size of the umbrella

Michael in the business district of Shinjuku
We passed this just about every day

Lunch- Sandwhiches and a bunch of bread

Michael after stuffing himself with bread

Comin' Back is Always Rough

The worst part of the trip for me is always coming home. Not because of the jetlag and the laundry and that stuff but actually leaving wherever we are. The nice flight attendant was asking us if we were excited to come back home and that she found that she has never been anywhere that she wasn't ready to come home. I just agreed with her because she was super sweet and I didn't have the heart, or energy to tell her otherwise :o) Our flight home was uneventful and shorter then the one over. To get there we were in the air for 13+ hours. On the way back, the flight only took 10+ hours. You could tell it was faster too. We were up for 25.5 hours with just little plane naps in between which don't really count. 30 minute nap here, 20 minute nap there. Needless to say, we were exhuasted when we landed and forced ourselves to stay up. Michael went to work to do a couple things for a project, I came home and decided to go to Tai Chi to get some blood flowing back through my system. Turned out not to be the smartest idea because at the begining of class while we were doing our breathing excersizes I started to get a little vertigo going on and it continued for the rest of the hour. So that was interesting. Michael met me up at the Spring Creek branch of TI (where we go to the gym) right after he left work and made it there right when class was over. We hopped in the car, swung by the grocery store for milk, bananas, bread and deli meat, came home, got ready for bed and crawled under the covers. I think we did pretty good staying up till 5:30. We slept good and woke up this morning at 4:00. Looks like we will get over our jet lag easier here then we did when we got to Tokyo. YEA!! Today and tomorrow we are getting things ready to leave again to head to St. Louis. It's like a big layover where we can do lots of laundry. So we are going to be busy