A little on life

Don't worry -- this isn't going to be profound by any means....just a little recap of life these days since I haven't posted in over a month.

Had a wonderful weekend with my husband. We got to really enjoy the weekend with nothing that we HAD to go and do besides Church on Sunday and sleeping in on Saturday (that was my contribution to the weekend!).

On Friday evening after dinner with some friends at Texas Tradition, R and I played Wii for a few hours (yes hours) but it wasn't Mario Bros this time, it was Wii Sports Resort. We ended up playing every 2+ person game and laughed and laughed! It was so nice to just relax, although a friendly compeition was going on during the games, and not THINK about anything!!! And it was just he and I and that's always a bonus.

Saturday he started tackling the garage and WOW he did GREAT!!!! He built himself a workbench from wood that was left in the home when it was built. So our cost was $0. MAGIC! It looks great and REALLY helps with storing his tools and all that. I was going to get the camera and snap some pics, but opted to just watch him and help out as I could. That evening we were back at Texas Tradition! ha! It's so YUM!

Sunday was Church and I'm so glad we went. I haven't been in quite awhile to a regular Sunday mass, it felt so good. Afterwards it was back home to tackle the garage again and we really put a dent in it! We'll probably get a few more shelves for the back wall and then it'll be really good to go! That evening after a long HOT HOT HOT day of work, we went 'into town' to hang out with his BF Mitch and his wife, son, brother and brother's gal. We swam for awhile, ate pizza and managed to get home around 10:30. I was EXHAUSTED and slept the 30 minute drive back to Katy. Thanks BABE for driving me home.

This morning was tough one to wake up to. In one week I'll be boarding a plane BACK to Egypt for 26 days. I'm SO not looking forward to it. :-( I know I'm truly blessed to see these places, but 3.5 weeks is a long time to be away from those you love, in a remote place, in a hotel, without fresh foods that you can eat without worrying about getting sick or how sick you'll get, without being stared at cause you're a Westerner or whatever. But, I'm trying to see if either Robert can come over on my miles I've earned OR see if I can get down to Luxor, in the lower Nile Valley to REALLY see some AWESOME ruins. Wish me luck.

This week I don't have stained glass class, but really am proud of the work I've done. I do have pictures of my Texas flag which I'll post as soon as I download them. Can't wait to get started on my BIG project for the bedroom. Guess that'll come in September!!!!

Have a great, blessed and prosperous week!

Wiiiiiiiiiiii!!

So Matt decided to use all his birthday money to buy a Wii for our household. We went and got it a few weeks ago and it hasn't been played all THAT much, but when the boys are at the house (and aren't grounded, in trouble, whatever) LOL, they are sure to be on the Wii.

I got us Super Mario Brothers for the Wii and it's sooooo much fun. Played it for the first time over Christmas with Jill and Thomas....and we played for HOURS and supposedly Nick and I were the game hogs, but I think everyone was just jealous at our mad skills! LOL

We have 4 controllers at our house and on Sunday night it was a Wii - Super Mario night! Robert, Jenny, Nick and I played for 4.5 hours and we LAUGHED and LAUGHED and had so much fun trying to get past a level!!! It was NOT easy with FOUR players - Mario, Luigi and 2 mushroom-heads! Of course Jenny and I were showing our skills this time'round (we were good back in the day)....and Nick and Robert kept foiling our plans! LOL I think I went to bed at 1:15 a.m. and had to get up at 5:15 for work. Holy cow...I"ll be suffering all week for that, but it was worth it.

I cant wait to play again!!! Hopefully me and my 3 boys can have a game night one day this week while we have them with us!

Thanks Jill + Tom for introducing us to our new addiction! :)




Happy Wii'ing y'all!

Pioneer Woman????

Ok, isn't it funny sometimes how you can NEVER hear of something and then within 15 minutes hear of it 2 or 3 times?

That's my case today, with Pioneer Woman.

So I was wishing Shylo a happy birthday when I saw some new pics of Miss Karli and was perusing then saw a "Pioneer Woman" book signing. I thought, hum, wonder what that is. Must be good if someone's willing to wait HOURS in a line to have the author sign the book.

Oh well, I went along with my business.

To then be reading Jocelyn's latest blog and she had a hyperlink to Pioneer Woman's website. Ok -- now it's getting too freaky. I HAD to check it out.

and now I've spent the best part of an hour engulfed in her Marlboro Man story and how she's gone from city slicker to ranchhand, all be cause of Marlboro Man. I've made it through about 10 of her stories and am going to have to start the "From High Heels to Tractor Wheels" bit. There's about 30 entries to that! It's REEEEEEEALLY good! A true to life love story.

check it out: http://thepioneerwoman.com/blog/category/black_heelstractor_wheels/the_night_i_met_marlboro_man/

It's an addicting, worth-while, love story. Being a country girl gone to the city, I can see how she was smitten with a cowboy from the second she laid eyes on him!!!!

AND....the book signing I think was for her cookbook....which hold some pretty tasty-looking recipes.

So thanks ladies, for my newfound addiction!

xx - jamie

Happy 4th of July -- God Bless America

May you have a WONDERFUL fourth of July.....remembering what it stands for and who gave us our freedoms over the past 200+ years!May the fireworks brighten your night .... and delicious BBQ decorate your table!

Hee Hee Happy 4th folks!!! See ya in SHINER!

So much has happened in 3 months!

Wow!!! I truly cannot believe I have not blogged since the day after we bought the house! SOOO much has happened. Maybe it's time for a quick recap???

Love love love our new home. Movers came on April 2nd and we're now all moved in!!! We put in woodfloors (Robert did the job, I assisted) in the dining and study and they look AWESOME!!!!! Love love love them!

April 11th - my wonderful nephew became my godson. We baptised Brody in Wharton and celebrated Jenny's birthday!

April 17th - married my best friend, so now I have a new last name. Married life is AWESOME! Didn't know I could love him more than I did before....but I do! It was THE most PERFECT day of our lives! And a total party!!!

April 18th - 24th - Honeymoon in Costa Rica! AMAZING!!!

Last week of April Robert left me for work in California and I finished up moving the old house junk to the new house. Cleaned it from top to bottom and was HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY when that was all done!

Returned to work May 3rd, flights booked May 5th and departed for a 3-week trip to Cairo May 10th. :( Soooooo did not like being away so soon!

Back on Memorial Day weekend and we finished the dining room floors and just hung out.

June 5th married my sister Jill off. Mom and Dad can have a break for a little bit on wedding bills. It was a great wedding!!!

June 22nd - 27th - Girls Trip to Belize. Oh so much fun!!! Even survived as Tropical Storm Alex came right through our island!!!

This brings us to 4th of July weekend....with all good luck I'll be at Splashway on Friday and in Shiner for the BBQ cookoff Saturday, and back home on Sunday.

Supposedly I'm heading back to Cairo in August - early September....so that should be interesting.

I will try to be a better blogger, friends!

Our First Home

We are so excited!!!! Right now it's just a house...but as soon as we start moving into it, it will quickly become HOME! And we cannot wait!

Robert and I and the boys will be quite happy here, I'm certain! It met all of our criteria and if it was on 20 acres of land in Shiner, it'd be considered our Dream Home!! :)

So yesterday, we signed a bunch of papers and are now owners of our own place!

We'll reside in this 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 3-car garage house in Katy at least for the next 10 years. After that....it's wherever the wind blows us!!!

We're the corner house of the cul de sac.

The front door entry way

The entry way -- it's really pretty

Wide view of the entry. The master bedroom is off to the left and the study is to the right.

A kitchen to be proud of !!!!

The Den

The master bedroom

We are very happy with our purchase and cant wait to start moving in!!!!! As you can tell from the pics below:

Popping the top!

Our first things to move in!!

The very soon to be.....Mr. & Mrs.

And my trusty Shiner Beer Box....:)

Tomorrow is

my 33rd birthday.

I'm a little uneasy about it ... but only a little. I just keep thinking -- 33 is closer to 35 which is closer to 40! And I can't round DOWN anymore! :)

It'll be fine. Heading to Shiner for pretty much about 32 hours, if that, then back to Houston for Rodeo on Sunday. Only 3 more shows for me to go to work!! YEA!!!!

Hopefully the weather is good and that'll make me the happiest -- not to mention I'll be with my family and best friend!!! Now THAT's a birthday worth smiling about!

Egypt - February 2010

Photos from my recent (and on-going) trip to Cairo:

Church in the side of Mokkatam Mountain. These are carvings in the side of the mountain. I cannot get the church pics to upload! :(
St George Church in Coptic Cairo

The Egyptian Museum -- it was AWESOME!

The Great Sphinx at Giza with 1 of the 3 Pyramids behind it.

Me at Giza

Keeping the Pyramids help upright! :)
Felucca (sailboat) cruise along the Nile River. Beautiful and SO relaxing!

2 weeks ago today -- IT's A BOY!!!

Yes, 2 weeks ago today we welcomed Mr. Brody Nicholas Popp into this world!

Jenny had a relatively smooth, natural delievery and what a trooper she was! Nick was so supportive and definitely a proud papa!

Brody is just the sweetest thing!! He's so awesome! We are so happy he's finally here!!!

He has a doting Aunt Jamie! (& Uncle Robert too)!

Lots going on these days

As if my life isn't busy....Feb - June will be exceptionally busy!

This week -- talk about CRAZY!!! First off -- can anyone believe it's February FIRST today? I honestly cannot! It marks about 75 days till the wedding. I'm ready for it to be here!

Tomorrow Jenny should be going into labor. She goes in tonight and tomorrow they are going to start inducing. I am SO excited to see if I'm going to have a niece or a nephew. I'm happy either way -- I just want them BOTH (mom & baby) to come out happy and HEALTHY! The baby is so loved by so many already!

Wednesday is mom & Uncle Allen's 53rd birthday!!! (which means mine follows a short time after!!) I know Mom will be on CLOUD 9 holding the new addition to our family!!! I believe she will be staying with Jenny for the rest of the week, so she'll get her long-awaited birthday present! Plus -- my gift to her is something she's been asking for for months now! EXCITING!

Thursday -- I'll need to get some work done probably, and not to mention Robert might be heading away again.

Friday is my day off so I'll probably go to Wharton to see sis and baby!!!

Saturday is a wedding and a birthday party and then Sunday is superbowl!!! Next week -- SHIT! I may be in Libya or Egypt or likely BOTH! Holy cow! When I get back it'll be the start of Rodeo and we all know how busy that is, then it'll be April 17th and I'll be walking down an aisle.

WOW! I'm tired just thinking about it!!!!!!

I hope everyone is doing well! I went through some of my pictures yesterday and WOW I've got 1,000's to upload! We've been BUSY and I've not been showing it! :) So I promise -- pictures coming soon....

100 days

Yes...in 100 days I'll be walking down the aisle. That scares me a little...only cause there are still many things to do, but excites me a lot cause our dream will finally come true!

Beach on Naxos Island, Greece

One of the beaches we hung out at for several hours, taken from my phone. It was GORGEOUS. The clearest water I've ever seen....

Snow!

Some pics from our SNOW DAY on Friday, December 4, 2009!

First site of swow on the ground. This accumulated around one of the trees that surrounds my office in Downtown.

Look at the Tahoe!!! It's first snow EVER! (and she's 9 yrs old!)

Preeeeety stuff! No sun coming through the sunroof today!
The Tahoe at home....where the trees were getting covered but our front yard didn't due to the oak trees. But that's ok...I drove around and took lots of pics.

Those will come later.....

NASCAR -- oh yes!

I just realized I never posted this!!! I think I wanted to be all cute and stuff and write lots about our trip to NASCAR....but I think I'll just give you the run-down here: It was GREAT!!! Yes, I am attesting that watching NASCAR in PERSON was good fun! Never watch it on TV and won't start...but will be glad to go again next November. (Our wedding is the same weekend as the April race and we're not honeymooning at NASCAR...I didn't like it THAT much!) ha ha ha

Robert and I gave Dawn and Scotty tickets and the whole 9 yards for birthday/Christmas and we had a blast!!!! Ted and Lecia went too and it was good fun!

Enjoy the pics: Here there are: Circle 1 of 300???

Lined up in the Pit:

VERY COOL flyover -- which the Pace Car came out of when it landed!!!!

Dude -- you're #9 flag is backwards!! LOL Redneck!

Watching the race:

One of the youngest drivers (forgot his name) who drives for Home Depot. He's like 18! what a job!

Me and Robert!

Dale Jr's truck -- one of like 4 he had there!

Robert racing Scotty to change the tire. I was in the LEAD all day until the last 5 minutes for the women's division!!! WOO HOO!!

church in Libya - always something new

It's always an interesting thing to go to Church here....I've come to find out.
The inside of the church as taken by my phone.

The very first time I came, back in july, Michael invited me. I walked in to the 6pm Thursday night mass and there were only about 20 people in there. He was asked to be the reader.

The second time was last Friday morning at the 10:30 mass. Michael advised to go to this one because it's more of an African mass. So Ben (a colleague) and I went. It was interesting. And a special treat. Talk about a CROWDED HOUSE! And EVERYONE was singing and praying and it was so beautiful. The men were shoutin' to the Lord, of sorts. I loved it! The balcony on both sides of the church was full as was every seat and extra ones. I videoed the entrance cause it was cool! You'll see the choir marching, followed by the priests, followed by the BISHOP! It was the Feast of St Francis of Assisi last week. So an added treat. Church was right at an hour and half.

So last night I went to Thursday mass on my own. I get there right at 6, walk in and sit down. Start my prayers then notice the guy in front of me had a cake, and there were 2 chairs with ribbons and the kneeler in front of the alter, not to mention there were about 30 people there, and music, and a projector and people just buzzing around. And then it was 6:05, 6:10, 6:15...finally it started. Turns out, it was an engagement mass for a couple. They were up at the altar and exchanged rings. Both received a gold band for their right hand. AND the bride got earrings, a bracelet, a necklace and another ring for her left hand. This was all exchanged at the altar.

I wasn't able to stay for the whole thing, but they did proceed with Mass and it was nice. Just ALL in Arabic...so it was tough to even follow.

OH -- and the picture taking at church - at ALL the masses I"ve been is insane and in my opinion, VERY disrespectful. These people hop WHEREVER they want, WHENEVER they want up and around the altar and through the crowd. The icing on the cake was last night when the guy came right up in my face and snapped a picture. I was LAUGHING.....thinking -- WTH?!

By the time I left there were maybe 100 people in there, but I think they were coming for the next Asian mass....who knows!!

Like I said ... Church in Libya - you just never know what you're gonna get! :)

Enjoy the attached: (of course i forget that if I turn my camera up and down, the video stays the same! argh!)

Libya Trip #2

Howdy ya'll. I'm ashamed to say it's been over a month I think since I posted anything! Yes, that is how crazy and silly my life has been.

.....which brings me today, as I sit in the Hess Libya office for the 2nd time in 2 months. I arrived in Tripoli on Sept 22nd and will be here till Oct 13th. After that I"ll head to London for two nights then back home on the 15th (yea! hoorah! yippee!).

AND then....an awesome trip begins for 2 weeks....but more on that another day.

so here's a few random photos from my trip this go-round. I've not done much at all really....due to working long long LONG hours every day. I've tried to get out in the evenings with friends here -- and God Bless them they've been great!!!!

Tripoli by night. That tall building is the Corinthia hotel. To the right further would be our office Tower. (can't see it on here)

What's that??? A curious black bag in my room???? Wonder what's inside....PIVO!!!! and it was quite tasty! The former King's Palace, which then became the Public Library and today, it's nothing. But still beautiful to look at. . .

Pampered Chef Wedding Shower

What a great time! And everything was BEAUTIFUL!!!!

I cannot believe it's been a week, tomorrow, from the really awesome bridal shower hosted by Nikki Nerada & Glo Hagens for me (and Robert).

I tell you -- those two went WAY overboard. The shower was SO GREAT!! They asked me what type of shower I wanted several months back and I couldn't help but ask for a Pampered Chef one and they willingly complied!!! I love to cook and entertain ... so it was a perfect fit.

I've got pictures (courtesy of Jenny -- THANK YOU!!!) but I haven't been able to download them yet. They're on a disk that is from her fancy camera....so I'll work on that next week. Pictures coming soon.

I cannot thank Nik and Glo enough! Ya'll are so sweet and so special and so wonderful for hosting the shower! And what a success!! Thanks to everyone who came -- it was GREAT to catch up! And I (errr WE) made out like a bandit. I now have 10 items left on my Pampered Chef registry! HA HA I don't where I'll store all this stuff yet...but I'll figure it out!! So many goodies to come and so many fun things to use!

Again -- a big thank you from the bottom of my heart to the gracious hostesses, my family and all our friends that came! Love to you all....