FOOTBALL!

This weekend we went to Burleson to watch Abilene High dominate.. Here's some pictures from the game!

Some of the girls talking to the police man about standing up to cheer..

Cheerleaders getting ready to run!

Football Team about to run out

This picture was pretty funny.. All of these guys play on offense together and they are all good friends. We just thought it was funny that Kirk is the white kid with strawberry blonde hair.. haha!

Some of the girls watching the game -- Seated (remember that cop?)

a few more

Then the Volleyball Team showed up just before half time.. excuse the shadow of the rail across their faces..

That's a little better

Ellen wanted to take a picture cause she like my outfit.. I wouldn't stand up for her because I was at the very bottom of the bleachers in front of everyone, so this is all she got..

Then I helped Abby text a boy in spanish

Bryan came! they both got tired of me taking pictures!

about to sing the school song

Kirk not paying attention.. like always.

My only little brother!

Brandon and Kirk

Family photo

the Jameson's came!

and Abby is losing all of her teeth!

friends! It's funny, when you have a good camera, everyone asks you to take a picture of them! I love it though!

These two have literally been friends since they were in diapers

sweet little couple

And that's about it! I hope you got to watch a little football this weekend!

One of the Most Rewarding Things

One of the most rewarding things for me is walking into a building under construction and seeing something I've drawn up come to life.

Take this one for instance, this is the West Texas Rehab's Board Room. Not much right now, I know but give it 2 months (because it has to be done before Thanksgiving) and it will be completed and my drawings will no longer be drawings, but rather a permanent (until they change it again) representation of the long hours put into the design and drafting.

Just last week, those drawings were just drawings.

And now look at it!

When I was there, I noticed some original paint on the walls from when the building was a pharmacy, doctor's offices, and...

A Soda Fountain! I wonder if my Grandmother ever went in this building when it still served that purpose. Did you Grandma? Does it look familiar? It's on the South Side of town.

Anyways, back to my topic. There is just something about designing a space, drawing it up, and seeing it in real life. That is probably the best thing about it because I get to say it's mine, I did that. When I was in school I got to design all kinds of things from hair salons, to grocery stores, to homes, even handicapped accessible homes, but this is different, this is real. It always makes me stop and think, they really trust me to do this enough to spend the money.. WOW!

This is another example. Yesterday I went up to Sweetwater to check on a number of projects we have going up there. While I was there, I stopped in to the Elementary School to take a look at the progress.
This is one of the classrooms. The colors fade out to white the further in you get from the door, and you can see the wall tile in the hallway was not left out!

This is the library and most definitely my favorite part. Once all of the construction is finished, I will be sure to have better pictures taken, but I wanted to give you a teaser.

I hope this feeling never goes away, as long as I'm doing Interior Design. I hope I always arrive at a job and say "WOW! I did that!"

FYI - This Isn't The Bash-Mobile

This weekend I ended up going to Dallas to go over some things for some space planning I'm doing for my mom's office. It was great to see my mom and visit for a while!

When she had to be at work, I was glad that two of my favorite people came to join me! Kevan and Katie are my best friends. I have known both of them since Freshman year of college and I just love them so much! They were married in May and I was happy to be in the wedding.

So Saturday morning I got up early and headed out of town. I met my mom at her office and we hung out and worked on the space planning. Later, Kevan and Katie made it into town and we met them at the North Park Mall for some much needed shopping.

After spending some time there, we headed over to my Aunt and Uncle's house to drop off a car before more shopping and dinner.

We were on our way to Irving to go to a specific Dillard's our navigator Kevan was not very clear so we took away his duties. Thank God for iPhones!

I promise this is totally safe..

Meet Katie. She's amazing and I love her.

Meet Kevan. This is Katie's husband and my friend. He's silly.

And look who else came! This is Baron, he's a friend too and was one of Kevan's roommates in college. Baron lives in Dallas now so we thought we'd spend some time with him too!

We had a good dinner at Saltgrass and then headed over to see Baron's new apartment. Later we all ended up back at my Aunt and Uncle's house to hang out.

Sunday we had to finish the trip with more good food so we chose none other than Pappasito's. Mmmmm...

I don't think Kevan knew I took this picture of him reading the menu, but it is a much more normal picture of him than the last one.

I love you Katie!

Then I started to kill time while we waited on Baron to meet us so I was taking pictures of everything.

Doesn't that look so good?

Baron finally made it and we had a good time. This is a much more normal picture of the two of them together.

It was so much fun getting to see friends and just hang out. I hope that we get to do it again real soon!

On the way back home, I stopped in Weatherford because I had time, and they had a Ross so I figured they would probably have a different selection than the one in Abilene. After going to Ross, I was waiting at the light to turn onto I-20 when the woman behind me reached for her lipstick and rear-ended me. Not cool. Luckily for me, she had been at a stop so I wasn't jolted hard or anything, but unluckily for her, it's not going to be cheap even though the damage isn't that bad. I called the police to get a police report on file, and I was glad I did because she didn't have her license or a valid insurance card. I want to believe that she is a good person, but with my previous experiences I know you can't trust a stranger, no matter how nice they seem.

We had just finished exchanging information when the police officer pulled up and I was VERY dissappointed with him. He didn't ask to see either of our driver's licenses or insurance (two tickets she would have had) and he told me that he couldn't file a police report because it wouldn't make any difference. Now, I mean c'mon. Isn't that part of the job when called to an accident? At least check to make sure the drivers have valid drivers licenses... They apparently do things a little different in Weatherford.

I got the police officer's information and the "call number" that shows I called it in, so hopefully that will be enough.

I've been battling back and forth with myself on what to do about my bumper. The damage is not that bad. If I had to describe it I would say it was more like deep gouges and scratches, but not dents. My biggest concern is that my parking sensor right there might have been damaged, I doubt it, but I haven't been able to test it because it would require someone putting their hand in front of it while I have it in reverse and I just haven't had the time. I'm not out to make her pay a ton of money. Had is been my old car that I dubbed the "Bash-Mobile" because of the dents it had, I wouldn't have cared, but I've only had the car for 7 months and I haven't done anything to it. The problem is the only way to fix a bumper is to replace it--and that's expensive.


I told you it wasn't bad. Part of me feels like I'm being a little ridiculous, but I know it's there and it's going to drive me crazy. I've come to the conclusion that this is just an example of why we have insurance so I'm going to get it fixed.

In lighter news, as I was getting close to Abilene, I was watching a good sized storm off to my southwest and I started to notice some cool things the with the sun and the clouds so I had to capture it.

I love the way the sun made a hole in the clouds!

Then a few minutes later it got even better!

There was something about those "God Beams" that I had to capture. They are just beautiful! I felt like I was watching a scene from one of those Bible movies where they show God talking but they just show the sky with a deep voice.

All in all it was a good weekend and I'm so glad I was able to see some friends!

A Whole New Game

I've been watching quite a bit of volleyball lately and I have noticed how different the sport is from when I played.. and I'm talking about Junior High. I was the starting setter that was about 4'-11" and 65 pounds that could barely serve it over the net.. underhand.

Growing up I watched a lot of volleyball because my sister played all the way through high school and even a little bit of intramurals at the Naval Academy, so the rules have always been a no brainer for me.

I played some sand volleyball here and there for fun over the summers in high school with a group of friends, but I have learned over the past month or so that my competitive spirit has not left. I get into the games and cheer on the team like I'm sitting on the bench... ok, maybe not that loud, but still.

One thing I had never heard of was the libero. For those of you who don't know, the libero is a designated back row player that wears a contrasting jersey and can sub in and out an unlimited number of times. When she subs, it's not a typical sub, in other words, it's not recorded. She cannot attack but she can basically play the entire game from the back row.

Talk about confusing the first time I saw it! I mean, the last time I played it wasn't rally scoring and you only played 2-3 matches!

Last night, the Eagles did an awesome job against Weatherford and won a tough fight in the last game!

You can see the libero, Danielle in the white jersey... in case you were wondering!