6 Months....time flies!

 Yes yes, i know. Its almost midnight. I have so many other things i could be doing, but somehow i am just not finding the motivation. Joan has been gone since Wednesday morning and doesn't get back til tomorrow. So, i'm blogging. Its a little overdue anyway. I would tell you all about the wedding and the honeymoon which is actually more exciting than this post, but this will have to do for now.

For Christmas we headed down to good old Katy, TX (where Joan is from) and spent the break with her family. It was SO nice to relax and get away from the depressing, cold Utah winter. We went with the family to Fiesta Texas Six Flags in San Antonio. It was awesome! I have a weak stomach though...so i watched as the rest of the siblings and Joan went on all the "throw up" rides. Bleh. I kicked back with my Sour Patch kids and enjoyed watching them get sick while i wasn't getting sick....

For Christmas Eve, we did one of the most fulfilling things i have ever done during Christmas time: SERVICE! Man, what a novel concept. It was pretty cool. We went into downtown Houston and served food to the homeless. I swear, i have never seen that many homeless people in my life. (And that's saying something...I thought i saw a lot in Hungary) They just poured into the Toyota Center (where the Houston Rockets play) for hours and hours. I was in charge of green beans, Joan was in charge of corn. Turns out that homeless people like green beans more.

 You're driving on the freeway in Texas. Suddenly you see a billboard with a huge chipmunk on it that says something like" PEACE   LOVE   BUCEES" If you have never been to Bucees, you have no idea what you are missing. Picture a 7/11 gas station on steroids, made classy, with a whole personal merchandise section. Oh, and they have grills. They have a whole 30 ft. wall of beef jerky. You walk into the bathroom and seriously, its like you've walked into a palace.
So picture this, i'm looking at the anti-nausea drugs (in preparation for Six Flags). As i'm standing there i hear a thick Texan accent behind me say in a half growl," Son, would you look at that! That is bad-ass!". I turn around to see a middle-aged Texan man in a wide brimmed cowboy hat nudging his 3 year old son to look at the stand-up burger grill against the wall. hahahaha. Gotta love this place. Just so you can know about this gloriousness, check out their website: Bucees.com

 This was cool. We got to go to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. I loved it! We got to see the Titanic Exhibit in the planetarium. It was interesting to me that one of the exhibits was all about oil. I wouldn't have been surprised if George Dubbya walked in and gave a personal presentation on it himself. Haha. It was pretty interesting though. In the picture Joan and I are standing next to William and Kat, Joan's younger siblings.

Over the break i had my first real experience with the great Texas vs. Texas A&M rivalry. Joan's twin John is getting a chemical engineering degree at the University of Texas, Joan's sister Becca and her husband Jared are living in College Station, the home of A&M. Jared is working on his PhD in History there. We spent a night at their place over the break. Jared and Bec gave us a tour of the Aggie campus and i was loving it! I used to think BYU had some cool traditions until i was given a brief history lesson via Jared at A&M. Whether it be the unbelievable 12th Man stadium, the century tree, or the bonfire memorial, i was enthralled with the place. The campus is HUGE. Plus, it was kinda cool to see what a REAL college experience might be like. (You know what i mean, BYU is real, but its a private school, which excludes a lot of stuff....good and bad.)
Jared and Becca took us to the Dixie Chicken, also known as "The Chicken". This place is a big deal. Supposedly, this bar serves the most beer per square foot than any other in the U.S. Wow. It helps that College Station is the beer capital of the nation. We played some pool there and enjoyed just hanging out.
Ha, funny story. So i went to go to the bathroom in The Chicken. I looked around trying to find the washroom. Finally i found this little room that seemed to be the bathroom. I walked in and found myself surrounded by a feeding trough full of ice. I looked to my left and saw a stall, but it was occupied. So, i timidly looked around wondering if this trough was the urinal or the ice bin for the beer. Confused i went out to ask Jared who just laughed and said it was the urinal. So i ventured back and had a blast melting ice, but i tell you what, its a good thing i double checked. It would have been real awkward if it wasn't the urinal...

Finally, we topped off the break with some fireworks on New Year's. We had a blast down in Tejas. Can't wait to go back!

Lastly, just want to give a quick update on Joan and I right now. Joan is interviewing with Lockheed Martin down in Dallas for a purchasing job with them. They flew her down there for a couple days. It would be awesome if she got that. But, we'll see. Joan graduated in December with her Supply Chain management B.S.  She currently works for Sun Products Corp. up in SLC. She is a logistics planner for them right now.
Me, i'm almost done with undergrad. It looks like August or December will be my graduation date. I'm taking the MCAT in April and applying to medschool in June. We're excited to be spending the summer here in Utah.
Recently i had my ascending colon taken out...thats a fun story. You'll have to wait til next post for the gruesome and awesome details!