TASA Convention

I spent the last few days in Austin for the TASA (Texas Association of School Administrators) Convention, also known as Midwinter. You're probably thinking why. Well, in case you didn't know this, my firm specializes in public education (K-12), so being at these conventions is a must. If not for anything else than to see your clients.

So this was our booth..

Steve is on the left talking with a guy from one of the companies we like to use for gym flooring, and on the right are Tim and Richard. I want you to notice something though...

This was our booth at TASB back in September:

And here's our booth now...

There are a few things that were new for this convention that I was able to be in charge of! We got new carpet, new counter tops, new chairs (because the old ones were beat up) and a TV. Before the TV we had a small projector screen with the projector inside playing a slide show from the computer. Now, we have the TV playing a movie that I made off of an AppleTV. If you've never seen one, they're pretty sweet.

Here's a better view of our new carpet:

Isn't it so fun?

I was so excited when I found out that Tim would be joining us again for the convention. Tim is one of our consultants and owns Yaggi (like Aggie with a-Y) Engineering out of Arlington. He and I got to know each other in Houston at TASB and I like to say he's my BFF so I had to get a picture with him!

Then Theresa stopped by...

Theresa and I have known each other for some time now. She works for one of the Construction Management groups we've worked with a lot recently and she is so fun! This is the look she gave Steve when he picked up the camera to take a picture of us.. she was also saying "oh geeze!"

The second day at the convention, I noticed something across the way...

See that guy in the yellow? Well, I didn't take a picture the first day, but he was sporting a bright red coat and an awful tie. When I saw him at first, I thought it was part of their booth... then I noticed the other people he worked with dressed normally, so I had to sneak a few pictures.

You can't see the tie very well, but the tie the second day was just as bad as the first. Please notice the other two guys he is talking to, they all work together.

We were joking that he looked like a used car salesman, or someone out of the movie Anchorman.

So that was TASA. It is so fun to see all of our clients and visit with them. Every person I have worked with since I've been with this company is just so great, and I love getting to know them through these various things!

Erika & Kanyon's Wedding

Saturday evening was Erika and Kanyon's wedding. Erika and Kanyon are (well, were) two YoungLife leaders with me and I'm so happy for them. It is always great to see such God-fearing couples come together in marriage. They will do great things for His Kingdom.

Their wedding was so sweet and so perfect for them. They had the ceremony at the Chapel on the Hill at ACU.

If you haven't ever been to ACU, the Chapel on the Hill is so pretty. There is stained glass on two sides and the colors are just brilliant. My favorite memories of Chapel on the Hill are from the days of Sing Song. Before each show, we (Siggies) would always meet and worship together in there. The acoustics in that room are incredible especially when you put 110 beautiful women's voices in harmony worshiping together. It will bring tears to your eyes.

Enough on that, back to the wedding.

Erika wore her mother's wedding dress that was re-built/designed for her and it fit her perfectly!

Here's the front (well, I guess side)

and here's the back.

If you don't know Kanyon, you don't know that he's a true, full-blooded, country boy. It is rare to see him without his cowboys hat. In honor of this, Erika wore some white cowboy boots and they were perfect!

And here's the groom.. there was no chance I would get a pic of the two of them together unless I followed them around, so you'll just have to get over it!

We also ran into some old friends!! Hi Sawyer!

thanks Bryan!

I love this man!

and last, but not least!

I could have taken this precious thing home! He was the ring bearer and his tux with boots and cowboy hat combo were nearly too much to handle, then he started dancing!

Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Brown! We're so happy for you!

I spent all day in the convention hall here in Austin and things have gone great! I'm headed out now to take about 30 clients to dinner! More pics to come on that later!

A Day in the Oilfield..

(Over a Year Ago)
So, I was flipping through the nearly 180 pictures on my phone the other day and I found so many that I had forgotten about. That's where this post originated. Last January, I was busy making last minute changes to what I wanted my hair to look like for the wedding, going to showers, and getting ready for my bridal portrait session--I can't believe that was a year ago! While I was busy planning our wedding, B was busy working at a fairly new job.

He worked in Snyder, TX for a year as an accountant at a big publicly traded drilling company where he learned that corporate America was not his cup of tea, neither was sitting behind a desk with the same schedule and tasks every month. But it was a learning experience for him, one that he had to go through on his own and ultimately one that would benefit him in the future.

So a year ago in November, B started a new job with a crude oil marketing company here in town (Thank God I didn't have to move to Snyder) where he became their lease manager and the operations manager for the energy company that company also owned. This job has been a blessing to us in SO many ways. B and I were talking the other day about one of his friends (Wes) from the company he worked for in Snyder, who B still keeps up with and splits a deer lease with. Wes has a wife and a 3-year old and has been working for this company for years. Over the past 6 months, poor Wes has had to work 60, 70, even 80 hour weeks traveling (from Snyder) to Dallas--sometimes driving, sometimes on the company jet--and then working to make up all of the things he missed of his regular duties back in Snyder on the weekends.

I can't imagine B being gone that much.. and working that hard at a job he didn't like. That is just one of the things I'm so grateful for with his new job, and there are plenty more to go around, but I'll get to the pictures...

So last year, B had to run out to one of their leases on a Saturday morning because all of the wells need to be gauged everyday, and his pumper (who usually does this) was sick and in the hospital. Since it was a Saturday, B asked me if I wanted to go out there with him and I jumped at the offer. I mean, I wasn't getting out of the truck... but I thought it would be fun! It was about 18 degrees outside with a 20mph wind, another reason for not getting out of the truck.

So if you're interested in what B does all day, here's a little snippet... (all these photos were taken on my phone with no editing.. get it iPhone!)

Just a couple of tank batteries.. nothing in the oilfield is clean--no kidding, I didn't get out and I still got dirty

here is one of their smallest pump jacks.. just 1 of something like 53.

Here's B gauging one of the wells.. and probably freezing. I made sure to enjoy the heater and seat heater.

and here is that pump jack

Here's the pulling unit (i think).. all this equipment is hard to keep up with.. I do know that this one is named Yarby 1--after the guy who owns it

and here is the only evidence that I actually got out of the truck, but I was bribed with a Dr. Pepper. I took this picture because my mom had been begging me to send her a picture of B's new truck.. this is clean for his truck, you should see it on a regular basis.

So that's what my hubby does on a daily basis, but not really. He does all kinds of things that I couldn't even begin to talk about, because I know nothing about them. The main thing is that he LOVES his job, and he loves that he gets to be out in the field--normally in the country--just being a guy.

I LOVE Fridays!

Well, Hello Blog! It's been a while! This week I've been incredibly busy for many reasons, and all of my spare time (when I usually write a post) has been filled by other things.

Many of you were asking how the interview went.. It went really well. We won't know for a while if we got the job or not, but things are looking pretty good! I really wanted to see the design the other firm came up with, but they weren't there at the same time so I couldn't. That being said, I'll let you know!

**UPDATE!!** We got the job!! We beat out the other firm solely based on our design over theirs! It's a HUGE step for my career here in town and a huge step for the company!!

In other news, things have been crazy for me at work. I have been busy since the end of December getting things squared away for a convention we have coming up in a week in Austin. I have done all kinds of things to get ready for this event including modifications to our booth, setting up dinner reservations with some school superintendents, and tying up loose ends.

On top of that, I spent the bulk of yesterday remaking a power point for an interview we had with another school board last night, and things went well.

Needless to say, I'm so glad it's Friday because I get off at noon!

Outside of work, I've been sick. Then I got better and got my brand new sewing machine (a Christmas gift from my sweet hubby) and went to work! There are no pictures of this because I was having too much fun to stop! I have sewed the welting for the chairs I'm re-upholstering.. don't remind me how long they've been unfinished. and then I practiced making something for my sister when she finds out in 10 weeks if I'm going to have a niece or nephew on some less expensive fabric and it turned out great!! I'm not going to disclose what it is I'm making her.. because she reads this, but it's SO cute!

Tonight I'm going to a special dinner for the West Texas Rehabilitation Center and B is headed out of town for some hunting with some friends. After my dinner some of the girls are coming over for a movie, and I'm so excited! Then tomorrow night B is coming back in town because he and I and the two partners and their spouses are taking some of the school board members from Ballinger ISD out to dinner at Perini's and I'm SO excited!

I'll leave you with this picture from this past Sunday when B took Bridger hunting...

I wish I was feeling better because I would have gone with him and brought my camera for some better photos, but the iPhone will just have to do!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Wish me Luck!

I've been battling a spat of bronchitis for the last week and it's getting old. Waking up at 3:30am from a coughing fit and moving to couch to at least let my husband get a full nights' rest isn't really my idea of fun. Thankfully I'm on antibiotics, but unfortunately I'm not feeling them yet.

I am however feeling the abdominal workout I've been getting lately.

In other news, I've been really busy at work. About a week ago we got a phone call from a development group who had just purchased a building here in Abilene. If you're familiar with Abilene, it's the Chase bank building. After talking with the man for about 5 minutes, I had been told to come up with a proposal on renovating the lobby to present to the owners on Tuesday the 12th.

Unfortunately, the man didn't have any idea what they wanted to do to the lobby.. just that they wanted to change it.

So with no direction, Angela (a girl from my office) and I have been putting our heads together to get something going and with no days to spare, we're right on track.

We present tomorrow at 11:00 and as far as I know, there is only one other firm interviewing.


This is a rendering I did today of our proposal for the lobby. This is a small portion of the lobby, but we think it has come together nicely.

Wish me luck!

A very CADCO Christmas

This past Friday was my company's Christmas Party over at our CEO's house. It was fun to get all dressed up again for a party and know that it's not our last one! Tomorrow night we have our final Christmas party with AIA (American Institute of Architects) out at Perini Ranch and I can't wait to eat a steak!

Here's some pictures from the other night!

Angela, Phil, and Chuck (the CEO)

Andrea and her boyfriend Grason

Steve, his wife Joy, Richard's wife Patty, and Richard

and finally Brandon and I! I hate this picture and I wish we had a better one, but this is all we had and I promised my mom I would put one up!

p.s. I dyed my hair... if you hadn't noticed!

Tomorrow I will update about the football game on Saturday! WE WON! WE'RE HEADED TO STATE NEXT WEEKEND IN SAN ANTONIO!

Coming Right Along

I posted before about the project I am working on a West Texas Rehab. This is the first (real) project I have done on my own, meaning if something doesn't pass inspection or doesn't work, it's all on me. Stressful? YES!

So for the past month or so, I have lost a little sleep thinking, "does that clearance meet ADA?" "did I remember to do this?" "what if something doesn't work out?" when I know that everything works--at least on paper. That's the scary thing, what if I measured wrong? See where I'm going? It would all be my fault! The day we got the building permit was HUGE in my book. It took a lot of work to get there and it was like that stress was just lifted. The closer we get to finishing, the heavier the symbolic bag on my shoulders seems to get. I will be able to breathe easy when all construction is finished and the ADA inspector approves it all.

Well, I couldn't have asked for a better client than West Texas Rehab. I have worked with them for over a year now on different projects and I've made some friendships I can fall back on if something doesn't work out. But enough of the nerves talking, everything seems to be going smoothly so far and they are really making some progress!

This was one of the restrooms a few weeks ago, now look at it!

Just waiting on the stall walls to put in the plumbing and ceiling panels!

This is what the main board room used to look like...

and now!

another before...

and another after looking the other direction!

They were putting up the crown molding yesterday and from there, all they need is the wall covering, chair rails, base boards, doors, ceiling panels, carpet and tile.. We are thinking it's only about two and a half weeks now until completion!

I get so excited every time I walk into the room and see the progress. It is my first little baby, and I'm proud of it! I can't wait until the Staff "Thanksgiving Dinner" when I get to see everyone's faces at the changes. It has been a well kept secret about what is going on in the Board room and everyone REALLY wants to know. I can't wait until it makes its debut!

In Honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and if you've never been affected by breast cancer, most likely you haven't really notice the many different companies, sports teams, and events held in support of finding a cure. My dad was diagnosed with breast cancer back at the end of last spring, and ever since, he's become a familiar face down at MD Anderson in Houston. The prognosis is good and he is working one day at a time through chemo. If you want to read further on his story, he is keeping up with a Caring Bridge site you can find here.

Back when I was in Houston on business, I met my dad and brother for dinner. I have been wanting a pink hard hat for quite some time, because #1: I didn't like wearing extra ones from the job sites, gross.. and #2 I thought it would be cute! Even though I wanted one, I wasn't willing to buy one for myself, thankfully I have a wonderful dad who loves me and thought it would be equally funny. Plus, it would give him an opportunity to put some stickers on it after all of the hard times he gave me for having such a 'clean hardhat' and 'looking like a rookie.' I also found it to be perfect that the person who gave me the pink hardhat is battling the cancer we're creating awareness for!

So after dinner we got in the truck and he reached behind the seat to pull out my brand new PINK hard hat!

I took it and had our company logo put on the front, so I'm official! My dad put some stickers on there for me too.

Can't forget the Texas flag!

Have you ever wondered what my office looks like when I'm in the middle of a bunch of projects? Well there you go, be glad you can't see the boxes on the floor full of samples! I had to include the heels, it finished off the package! Sorry this isn't out in the field.. I wanted to get it posted, I was too busy the last time I was out!

So in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, I'm proud to wear my pink hardhat on every job site! Thanks Daddy, I love you!

TASB/TASA Convention

Like I said in the last post, I was in Houston last week for the TASB/TASA Convention. Every year my company has a booth at the convention since we specialize in school Architecture and Interior Design. I am the first full time Interior Designer for the company, so the partners wanted me to go along with them this year seeing as I meet with the clients on a very regular basis. It was funny to me that while I was in Houston, I read my sister's blog and she had just been to a convention and posted pictures of their booth. Christy, I promise I'm not trying to make our booth look more intense.. you should have seen our competition..

A few of the LARGE architectural firms from the area were there, and let's just say the cost of their booth could buy about 3 brand new cars. They were huge, came with a "road crew" and were packed into frieght boxes and loaded into an 18-wheeler after the show.

If I would have been feeling better, I may have taken more pictures, but this is what you get!

This was the first morning before the show began, I'm on the left drinking hot chocolate to soothe my throat. Richard (one of the partners) is sipping his coffee in the middle, and the man to the right is Tim Yaggi. Tim is an Electrical Engineer and is one of our consultants. He owns Yaggi Engineering out of Dallas, and he's my new BFF.

The shoulder to the left belongs to Steve (the other partner) and the guy in the middle is David Perry. David is one of our most recent clients, he came by to say hi. To the right is Richard.

Here is a view from the side. Tim is writing something down on a piece of paper, but what he's using as a table is something that CADCO is known for at these conventions. That is a 1/16" scale model of the PK-12 building that is being built in Robert Lee I.S.D. We build the models in the office for some of our clients. This one inparticular is the one I helped with. I did all of the trees, cars, and people (even though you can't see them in this picture). Back behind Tim (on the wall) is another model of a competition gym in Coleman we did a few years back.

This picture is just of the guys talking, but you can see the scoreboard in the background. When the show was about to start the first day, the buzzer on that thing just went off. Those buzzers are SO loud when they aren't mounted on the wall way above your head! I was really afraid that was going to be a reoccuring thing during the show, but thankfully it only went off when the show was closing.

Here is the other side of our booth and another model. This one is Bosqueville Elementary (near Waco) and this one is actually the first job site I had to wear a hard hat on. On top you can see our business cards and someone's bag--the models work out to be the perfect height to stand and rest your hands on, which is what we did a lot of.

Here is one of the side panels of the booth. To the left you can see a blue hard hat, next year I will be replacing it with my new PINK one courtesy of my dad! There will be a picture of that soon too!

Overall the show was a success, we talked with many current and past clients and got some good leads on some upcoming projects for some other school districts!

I think the funniest thing to me was seeing the trailor we pulled all of the stuff in being pulled by the small Honda Pilot we have for a company car. The trailor was nearly twice the length of the car, and since it's front wheel drive, there were times when you started to go uphill and didn't have enough weight in the front for the right amount of traction and it would give all kinds of warning lights. Not safe, I know, but that only happend if we were sitting at a standstill on a hill and had to then go!

Business Trip

Thursday through Sunday I was in Houston for the annual TASB (Texas Association of School Boards)/TASA (Texas Association of School Administrators) Convention. My company specialized in building and remodeling schools all over the state, so this convention is an every year thing.

Everything was great in terms of the convention (I'll post pictures of our booth tomorrow), the only thing that wasn't good was that I got sick while I was there. No worries though, my mom came to the rescue and stayed with me in the hotel. I said to her, "doesn't it feel good to still be needed?" and I think she agreed.

The main thing I missed out on was dinner. Every year my company will take a couple of school boards out to dinner to show them our appreciation for using us as a firm. This year I was responsible for finding the restaurant and setting up all of the reservations. The restaurant I chose was Vic & Anthony's Steakhouse, and from what I hear, that place is perfect. There was nothing bad to be said about the meal, everyone had a great time--so much so that we will be using them again next year! Hopefully I'll be able to make it to the meal then!

Anyways, we stayed at the Hotel Derek across I-610 from the galleria and it was a beautiful hotel, so I thought I would share with you what it's like on a business trip with a couple of architects.

This is the room when you walk in.

This was the bathroom, I didn't feel the need to take a picture of the shower and toilet for you.. that would be a little odd.

On the other side of the room was a window seat that was more like a couch than anything.

and of course, the flat screen

But even better, was the view I had of the William's Tower (formerly Transco Tower). And you see that CVS in the bottom left corner? Yeah, I walked there in the middle of the night to get medicine.. I was just glad it was that close.

One of the benefits of taking a business trip to Houston is getting to spend some time with family. Everyone in my family has an app. on their phone called Loopt where we can run the app. and see where each other is. On the app, there is a feature called Ping where you can send someone a text message to let them know to run their Loopt and see where you are. When we got to downtown on Thursday and started unloading our booth (a 3 hour process) at the George R. Brown Convention Center, I "Pinged" my brother Jason (who is in law school in Houston). He was a little confused to recieve that from me so he looked to see where I was.. we were 0.5 miles from each other! You can imagine how confused he was since he didn't know I was even coming to Houston!

That night, my dad came to pick me up from the hotel and we met Jason for dinner. It was a lot of fun hanging out and talking about anything and everything! Thanks for dinner dad!

Even though I got sick, I was glad I was able to go to the convention. It's such a priveledge for me to be able to go.. seeing as very few from my company have ever had the chance. Plus, I got to spend some time with my family!