It's been a busy last 10 days...I use the word busy to actually mean “worked a lot” in the last 10 days.  So much, I hit the 80 hour mark at around 1:45 on Sunday morning.  80 hours in 7 days...that's a record, but I'd rather not try to top it.  The short story is that we had a really tight solid deadline that we had to hit, and I'm happy to say that we hit it yesterday afternoon.  Now, I can breathe...hooray!

While I was working last week, Jan's brother and sister-in-law came down from Denver to stay with us.  When I got to hang out with them, we had a blast.  We ate at Chuy's for Kevin's birthday...happy 30th Beedis!  On Saturday night, we ate at Hoover's which I highly recommend for those visiting looking for good soul / home cookin'.  Sunday topped it off when we tubing down the Guadalupe River in New Braunsfels.  This is something that Jan and I would like to make an annual tradition.  So, if you come visit us in the summer months, we will tube and you will like it...immensely...seriously...just bring the sunblock and the cold ones. 

Tubular.

Well, Brandon has not been blogging lately.  I was bugging him about it the other day and he said I could be his guest writer.  So, that means that this is not Brandon...it's Mrs. B-Dub (Jan).  Anyway, a lot has occurred since his last entry.  Not sure that I can cover it all, but I'll give you some highlights.

Mrs. Wilson’s Retirement - We celebrated Brandon's mom's retirement on June 1st.  She retired after 31 years of teaching.  We had the Texas flag flown over the capital building in honor of her for a day.  She will get to keep the actual flag as her own.  Pretty cool way to honor someone in my opinion.  We took her to eat at East Side Café for dinner.  For those of you who like unique and nice places to eat in Austin, you should try this out.  The restaurant is on the on the East side of I-35 in an old house as many are around here.  The house is surrounded by a huge garden in which they grow a lot their own vegetables supposedly. 

Vacation - Brandon and I got back from another vacation last week.  We went to Ruidoso, NM with our friends Chance and Laura.  We stayed up late, slept in and enjoyed the easy life.  Hiking in the mountains was probably the highlight of the trip.  We did so many fun things, but there is something about the mountains that captivates me and all my senses every time I am in or around them.  It makes me the love the Lord and His creation more and more!  I am sure Brandon will post some pictures of our trip for you to see so I'll save the rest of the trip details for him to share another time.

Furniture – We ordered some new furniture on Memorial Day.  It will be another few weeks until we receive it, but we are excited to have a new couch that doesn’t creak when you sit on the right side of it and that doesn’t have a slip cover you have to fix every time you get up.   We’ve been blessed to have these hand-me-down furniture pieces from our families; however, we’re ready to start living like we are out of college.  For our guests, this means you can look forward to a new couch plus a chair and half with an ottoman. 

Barry White Voice – Brandon is sick right now and has a really deep voice.  Not only does he love to talk Barry White style to me on any given day, but also he really enjoys playing up the deep scratchy voice he has right now.   So, I leave you with one of Brandon’s favorite Barry White sayings.  “Baby, you know I love you... and you KNOW what tonight is...”

It's been two weeks since my last post and I admit that I have fallen behind in the blogging department.  The main occupier of my...that word doesn't look right...anyway, I've been working a ton of overtime the last three weeks.  The first couple of weeks weren't bad but this week is proving to be a long and exhausting one.  We are just trying to make up some time in the project schedule so we are putting in the extra hours.  I think after this week we will be close to being caught up and all will return to normal in Brandon's world.  Jan too has been working a lot mainly because she's got some proposals that are due in the next few weeks. 

I went to Hill's Cafe tonight to meet up with my dad.  I surprised by showing up because I had told him I had to work.  Well, I decided to stop by after work to see him anyway and to see Ricky Trevino perform live.  Now, I am pretty picky with the kind of country music I like, and I have to say that I definitely enjoy his music.  He plays a lot of stuff that sounds like the Mavericks, Marty Robbins, and a bit of Tex-Mex flavor to it.  He had 10 people on stage with him and they all combined to make some really good music.  He had a sax, trumpet, steel guitar, accordian, drums, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, piano, and a bass somewhere in there.  Sounds crowded don't it?  Check him out if you ever get a chance.  I know a lot of you aren't big country fans but he's really a good musician.

Easter last Sunday was a lot of fun and a first for Jan and me.  We hosted my whole family for Easter dinner and it turned out to be a great success.  I slaved over a spiral sliced ham from HEB and everyone else brought the sides.  I'm telling you - pot luck is the way to go.  It was great to see my grandmother whose birthday we celebrated.  Jan made an incredible carrot cake with her mother's recipe.  Dang, baby, that thing was goo-ood!! 

On Friday, Jan and I went to see The Passion - on Good Friday.  It was definitely well-done, but outside of critiquing it I was really moved by a few of the scenes.  It truly is a movie that we all need to watch periodically if not more frequently to remind us of what Christ did for us.  It doesn't even come close to what actually occurred only because we weren't there, but it is the closest thing we have and I am thankful that Mel Gibson and his crew made the movie. 

Well, I'm off to bed.  I hope to blog more often and will try to keep it interesting.  I gotsta keep the peepul comin back for mo'.