winter vacation

We are 10 weeks away from being in my absolute favorite place in the world. I am not exaggerating, this is literally my favorite place I have ever been. Crested Butte, CO. Thanks to a generous wedding gift from very loving family members, I will be racing down the slopes in exactly 68 days. I can't wait to share this experience with Ben. I have been on a few ski trips in my life, like to Jackson Hole, WY, Crested Butte, and Copper Mountain with Young Life, but Ben has never been skiing. Part of me is just excited to watch him learn (a.k.a. fall), but really, I am excited to share my favorite thing to do with him. If you were ever my roommate in college you would know this, the trail map for Crested Butte has been on my wall for years. So yeah, this is a big deal.

We are starting to get ready for the trip already. Dad let me borrow the skiing bible: "How to Ski the Blues and Blacks (Without Getting Black and Blue)" by Craig McNeil. I've also been looking up exercises to strengthen the muscles you use to ski, because you don't know sore until you wake up the morning after your first day of skiing. So the next step is for me to actually follow through on these exercises. We will see when that happens....

I can't wait to take Ben to some of my favorite restaurants, like the Wooden Nickel and Butte 66. And of course I will be using this trip as an excuse to indulge my always present desire for more t-shirts. Also, we are going on a snowmobiling tour! I have done this before and loved it. What's not to love?? You have beautiful scenery, animal sightings, and a great meal with your group when you get to the top of the mountain! Ben may be even more excited about this part than I am.

Ben and I are not taking this for granted. We would not be going if it wasn't for the love of our VERY generous family, and there is no telling when we will be able to afford a trip like this again. So we are going to live it up. And take an enormous amount of pictures.

http://www.skicb.com/

My wife is hot and Obama's not

Last week Jess created this blog as a way for our family and friends to keep up to date on the happenings of our lives. I think that is a great idea. However, I no longer work for a magazine or newspaper and have no outlet for the ideas that bounce around my head. Therefore, this blog will also be my forum for rants, raves and other random thoughts. If all you care about is what's going on with us, then bare with me because I'm sure Jess will post something informative soon. That being said...

We've been married now for almost two months. I have a great job and, like Jess said, we're having a great time getting to know one another better. Our personal lives are great. BUT... things are going on in the outside world that are so frustrating, it's not even funny. 

First,  all of my favorite sports teams are terrible. And, not only are they terrible, but the teams that I HATE are dominating. I don't understand why the Phillies and Alabama have to be good at the same time. I'm just hoping that Alabama will somehow shoot themselves in the foot like they usually do. That, or the starters will find themselves in jail.

Also, gas prices are lower than they've been in more than a year. Yeah, I know, on the surface that sounds like a good thing. Which, it would be good if OPEC hadn't met last week to cut production by a million and a half barrels a day. It's only a matter of time before prices go back to four dollars a gallon. That's why Obama (if you put a G in front of it, it spells GOBAMA... enough said) should definitely not be the president. Something needs to happen ASAP so that countries like Venezuela and Iran don't keep jacking up the price of gas. Seriously, I read the other day that we have enough natural gas to be considered the Saudi Arabia of the natural gas world. A gallon of natural gas would also only cost about a dollar fifty a gallon too. And, it's the simplest change to our current cars. Seems like a no brainer.

By the way, did you see that reporter from Orlando ask Biden about the difference between Obama and Karl Marx. He flipped out and acted like the question was completely ridiculous, almost like he was thinking, "I can't believe they found out." Did you also hear that he guaranteed Obama will face some sort of terror attack if he is elected as president. I guess it's easy to predict things like that when a terrorist helped jump start your campaign. That would be like Brett Farve telling the Lions what to expect from the Packers.

That's enough politics for now. One last thing, and then I promise I'm done. I've read talk of an actors strike. All I can say is that if 24 gets postponed one more season, I'm going to kill someone.

I could easily keep going on but I don't want to depress you. At the end of the day I have a great wife to come home to and I really couldn't ask for more (except for the Braves to be in the World Series right now.  

It's our turn...

Hey everybody! After you leave college, several things happen that you just learn to accept. One thing is getting used to living more than 5 minutes from all of your best friends. Another thing you have to accept is not having student tickets for all the home football games (that's been painful). It's hard keeping up with everyone! You can start out with the best of intentions, but life gets busy! And that is why I am introducing myself to the blogging world. As much as I like to be entertained by my friend's posts and pictures, it's only fair that I return the favor. Ben is the writer of the family, so hopefully I can get him to to help me out.

Quick update - we've been married for 2 months now! Ben has been working at Compass Bank as a financial sales rep. I just finished a class and took the state board to get a job as a C.N.A. I am so happy I passed the test, so now it's just time to find a job. I will be starting back nursing school in Jan at Calhoun! Until then, I have lots of studying to do to make sure I remember everything from the classes I had already taken a few years ago. We love living in Hampton Falls Apartments! It's nice being able to look out the window and see mountains. It's a good compromise until I can convince Ben to move us out to Colorado (wink wink).

Ok more to come later!