San Antonio

Wow! What an amazing weekend! We started early with dinner on Thursday night at this great little restaurant in Dallas called Bread Winners Cafe. It's a casual environment with outstanding food that one would expect in a fine dining restaurant. On Thursday nights they have live jazz music, so we got a real treat. Our friend Lesli took us there, and we all had a great time together. After dinner we went to the Cheesecake Factory - did I mention that we don't adhere to the SB diet on vacation weekends?! Delicious!

Friday, we headed down to San Antonio, fighting traffic the whole way, but we had fun listening to the radio. While we were driving the Dukes of Hazzard theme song came on, which was oh so appropriate since we were driving a 2007 Dodge Charger. (No, we didn't get a new car, it's a rental which is a whole other story...) We finally arrived around 6:30. Joe had made reservations at the Riverwalk Vista as a special get-away for our anniversary. It was absolutely amazing, and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting San Antonio. Here's a picture of the front of the building.

It's a renovated warehouse building turned into an inn. The owners have done a marvelous job at keeping the integrity of the building, and yet making it classically luxurious. There's always 1930s and 40s music floating through the hallways, and it just takes you back in time. The interior of the building still has the brick walls, original wooden floors, and a large wide staircase. There are groupings of leather furniture in various corners begging you to sit and enjoy the view out the large 8 foot windows. The walls are decorated with antique quilts, and hooked rugs. There's a large common area on the third floor where they serve a hot breakfast in the morning, warm cookies in the afternoon, and wine in the evening.

Our room was so relaxing, with a great view of the riverwalk. The bathroom had a beautiful slate shower, and the most wonderful towels. (I know, towels... but they were so awesome!) We couldn't decide if we wanted to just stay in the room all weekend, or go out and see what the city had to offer.

Friday night we walked down the Riverwalk area, to a great little restaurant Joseph had picked out called Jim Cullum's Landing. (that man of mine sure did his research) This "little" place had a marvelous jazz band, and it turns out they have a national radio show, which has been broadcasting since 1989. While we were there, three members of the band were playing piano, saxophone, and drums. And not one of the band members was under 55. It was great! They were playing all the old classics. We had a light dinner, and the most delicious cocktail, called a Yank Lawson. I'm not normally one to rave about cocktails, but this drink was outstanding. It's Tito's Vodka, Cointreau, and fresh lime juice, served in a chilled brandy snifter. It's so light and refreshing, and the aroma is just heavenly.

Saturday we headed over to the Alamo. This was my first time to the Alamo, and the funny thing about it is that it's located right in the middle of downtown. I always kinda figured from watching movies/TV that it's outside of town somewhere. The chapel itself is about what I expected for a historic landmark. The part that really impressed me was the gardens surrounding the Alamo. They're such a beautiful example of southwest gardening, with lots of shade-giving live oak trees. It reminded me of Angel Oak in South Carolina (see picture at bottom of page). There was a beautiful old fountain in one of the courtyards underneath the large oak tree.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the downtown area exploring various shops. Joe found a black felt cowboy hat so he's almost completely Texan now... just waiting on the belt buckle! He surprised me even further on Saturday afternoon by giving me a beautiful silver bracelet with an interlocking heart clasp from James Avery for our 2nd wedding anniversary. He's such a great husband, and keeps taking my breath away.

We left on Sunday morning to head back to Lubbock, but stopped in Fredericksburg on the way for lunch. I think it's kinda funny that there's a Fredericksburg, TX after growing up in Amish country. However, Fredericksburg, TX is definitely a classier place to visit. In fact, it would really be a nice place to live too. It's a German settlement, in case you couldn't tell by the name, and has tons of great little German restaurants and antique shops, as well as lots of little bed and breakfasts. They even boast "authentic, old-order Amish furniture". Guess there's no escaping it...

The drive home was beautiful, and we passed miles of country side covered in wildflowers. I'm not sure yet what the names of all of them are, but I recognized lavender, prickly pear cactus, and bluebonnets. There was also some really interesting red flowers, and scores of a bright yellow flowers. I had my doubts about this Texas landscape when we left Ohio, but I'm finding that it has a real beauty to it, and I'm beginning to understand why people love living here so much. It's a really amazing feeling to drive across miles of land that is still undeveloped and wild, with sweeping views of the horizon uninterrupted by a progressive society. It really confirms that feeling of being on the greatest adventure of my life. I'm loving every minute of it.

Here comes summer!

School is over and summer is officially beginning for us this week. We're headed to Dallas this afternoon, and then on to San Antonio to celebrate our anniversary for the weekend! Can't wait. Joseph's classes and finals are all finished, and he gets to take a small break from studying now.

We found out last Thursday that he has received the Conoco Phillips Spirit scholarship for the coming school year! This is a recurring scholarship based on academic performance, and also includes the opportunity to have priority status when interviewing for Conoco Phillips internships. He was the only underclassmen to receive this scholarship, and I'm so proud of him for working so hard this year. This scholarship in addition to two others he received will nearly cover all of his tuition for this next year, and we are very grateful!

Yesterday, Joseph went to Artesia, NM to interview with a company for a summer internship, and was hired on the spot. He'll be working for Enertech Wireline Services (formerly EM Hobbs) in their Artesia office, starting on Monday the 14th. Artesia is about 3 hours away from here, so he'll be spending the week there, and then coming home on weekends. I'm going to miss him a lot during the week, but I know this is a great opportunity for him. He'll be able to get a lot of experience, and a very well-rounded view of what it takes to drill a well and bring it into production. He was impressed with the people at the office, and is excited to be working with them.

Yesterday we also had rain here in Lubbock - a lot of rain! I decided to take the car to the store over my lunch break, and barely made it out of the neighborhood because of all the flooding in the streets. I'm still not used to living in a town where people stay home because of the rain... but when everything is so flat here, and the ground is 80% clay, flash flooding happens quite often.

2 Full Years

Monday was our 2nd wedding anniversary! We're not really celebrating it until the weekend of May 11th since this is right at the end of Joe's semester and there are finals to be studying for, as well as a busy schedule right now with SPE. However, he still surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers on Monday afternoon. The vase is tall and slender, made of a sea blue bubble glass. He's so thoughtful. I'm so blessed to have a husband who thinks of all the little romantic things that men normally get blamed for forgetting. It's hard to believe it's been 2 years already, but they've been so full. So full of learning, love, trials, and most of all blessings. We've learned so many new things about each other, and I'm excited about the new things we'll continue to learn. I love just being together with Joseph, and I'm so excited about all the adventures left to share. It's been a great trip so far, and one I wouldn't miss for the world. I can't imagine the stories we'll have after 10 and 20 years, not to mention 50. I can't wait!

We spent Monday and Tuesday night at the church being overnight hosts for the Family Promise program. It's a ministry headed by the Lubbock Interfaith Hospitality Network. A network of local churches open their buildings to host homeless families who are in need of shelter and food. During the day, these families are counseled in finding jobs and housing. This is our first hands on experience with the program, normally we just assist in getting the rooms set up. We were very excited to be involved, and really enjoyed getting to know the families we hosted. It's a reminder of how fortunate we are to have shelter, clothing and food to eat. We were able to help a young couple (under 18) get set up in their first apartment after being part of the Family Promise program for several weeks. They have a new 3 week old baby. It was so fun to be able to help with common things that we take for granted like brooms, mops, cleaning supplies, laundry soap, toothpaste, etc. All the stuff that it takes to get started out on your own, but can rack up a bill pretty quickly. There really is an amazing joy in helping others and giving to those with need. It truly is better to give than to receive. It's given us new perspective on what we have, and the ways we've been blessed.

We were really impressed by the concept of the ministry. Using church buildings, which are generally unused for overnight purposes to provide shelter, instead of relying on government programs to build a new building for temporary housing. The Family Promise team provides portable cots that move with the families to the various host churches. Each church provides an overnight host to stay with the families at the church. Each morning the families are moved to a day center where they can do laundry, work on resumes, look for jobs, etc. with the assistance of the program directors. Frankly, I think churches should have more responsibility for the homeless, and orphans in our society the way that it used to be. Somewhere in our "progression" as a society we decided to make this a government responsibility, and then complain when assessed taxes to fund the programs. I also think it's a good way to stay in touch with the reality of the world we live in. It's too easy to stay in a fish bowl protecting yourself from the things or aspects of life that you don't want to see. Christ didn't call us to minister to just the millionaires, or just the clean, safe looking people. If we're to be light in a dark world, then I think it's important to recognize the need around us and see how we can help. Plus it helps keep a little perspective on what's important in life.

We're pretty tired after our two-night stay at the church (been a while since I've slept on an air mattress), and it's been some earlier than usual mornings. But we've come away with a renewed sense of gratitude and purpose. We'll sleep in our own bed tonight with full hearts.