Things are Different in the South...

Ive been to different parts of the country and the south is unique! Even different from Houston...im still seeing things ive never seen before! Here's a few...

-Super luscious, green, and mossy plants and grass everywhere...they have to try to cut down the grass but in Az we spend tons of money just to make it grow and keep it green!

-It is super humid...after 10 seconds of being outside my feet feel sticky! And its killing my hair do's! I naturally have straight hair but in Louisiana I have wavy/mildly frizzy hair!

-Every city/town has a large water tower with their name on it! Just in case you ever forget where your at :)

-Since Texas pumps their own oil you might run into one of these randomly in the middle of a shopping  center parking lot...

-The houses are SO different! There's a lot of brink buildings and the styles are completely different from Az houses...theyre all different! (unlike the many cookie cutter neighborhoods in Az)

Also the driving through a neighborhood feels kind of like searching for an animal in the middle of the jungle! There's plants and huge trees everywhere! It makes the drive very pretty and shady cause the roads have tree over hangings! 

Oh! And they have perfectly green and flowering yards....lucky!

-The popularity is mostly African-Americans...im not used to that!

-Their buildings are old and some are falling apart!

-Their roads are old, small and some of the drive ways into shopping centers and restaurants are just curbs! So you have to drive careful and slow

-The accent...everyone says sir and ma'am with a southern accent...unless their black cause I have a hard time understanding them!

-The weather...tornado warnings and preparing for hurricanes are my fears and enemies

-The shopping....eh not so good! Lots of these small towns dont have much! Their malls arent like malls in Az

Alexandria Zoo & our First Sunday

Saturday we went to the Alexandria Zoo thats only about 7 mins from our hotel! It was a pretty good zoo for being a small town! Kirsten bought us all a train ticket so we rode the little train that went all around the zoo! The weather wasnt too bad...just humid!

Julian, Kirsten, me, Hannah, Everette, Ariana & Tammi

This bear was the best! He actually got up and was playing around! He got into the water and started playing with things and trying to eat the leaves and flowers in the water! While people were watching and taking pics he started looking up at them! I couldve stayed there all day and watched him!

This tiger was just staring at something...i think it was the white tiger in the cage next to him! He was totally in a trance! 

An Albino Peacock! 

These little orange monkeys were so cute and had lots of energy! This one was just hanging out in a hammock with a baby on its back! 

While we were looking at another animal we kept hearing "hello"..."hello" and I looked around to find this bird just looking at us through the fence saying hello to everyone! haha

Tammi's little girl Ariana kept pointing at the animals and saying "Its so cute" haha

Sunday morning we slept in, got up, got ready and went to church! It was nice to have time to sleep and get ready cause church started at 11 instead of 8am like back home! The ward was really small...not even all the benches had people in them! As we were waiting for sacrament to start I looked up and in walked the missionaries....and one of them was a friend of mine from high school, Jake Bawden! I totally forgot he was serving around this area! When it ended I walked up to him and he was so surprised to see me! He said "what the heck! what are you doing here?" haha I introduced him to Kirk and talked to him a little about his mission! 

We went to class then Relief Society and Priesthood! Relief Society was so small...only like 10 plus the sister missionaries! Afterwards I talked to the sister missionaries, they were asking about Jake, then Kirk and I went home! 

One of Kirk's favorite things to do on Sunday's is nap! So, of course, we took a little nap! 

I love Kirk so much! 

First Week of the Summer!

We finally made it to our hotel in Longview, Texas which is really close to the border of Louisiana! We hung out there a bit and met up with some of the other guys! I went to their first meeting just to see how things were going and they went out knocking a few times! It was kind of rainy and cloudy most of the time! On Wednesday night I was laying in bed looking at the weather report on my phone and it said there were some storms! So we turned on the weather channel and it was reporting a tornado watch on the west side of Dallas...a few tornados had hit in Gransbury, Tx. Longview is on the east side of Dallas and the storm was headed our way!

 It was warning of thunderstorms and it wouldnt be clearing up til morning! Kirk was pretty calm about the news, one of his buddies driving here was going thru Dallas and said the tornado sirens were going off! After hearing all this news I pretty much had a panic attack! Ive never been very close to a tornado (and granted I was at least 2 hours away) but I did NOT like the fact that we were in tornado alley! It's a big fear of mine! So I sat on the bed hyperventilating, shaking, eventually crying and Kirk just looked at me like I was crazy! He fell asleep and I stayed awake watching tv and checking the weather channel every 20/30 mins until 4am! Then I fell asleep once they said we were in the clear!

Thursday morning we woke up and drove to Louisiana! Its very green, luscious and humid! Kirk's manager, Mark Hall, asked me to help out with some licensing so I made some calls during the 3 hour drive to Alexandria! We finally made it to the Candlewood Suites extended stay hotel! Its pretty nice! It feels like a mini apartment! Kirk has his goals up on the wall so he can see them and stay motivated! He also reads sales books before work...he's such a good salesman!

The next few days the guys drove to Texas and Mississippi to knock some doors! The girls just stayed in our rooms and hung out!
Its definitely different than last year with all the people and wives...this year theres about 6 other guys, 4 other wives (2 are pregnant) and 3 little kids! We met up on Friday afternoon to plan some fun things to do while our husbands work! We still spend a lot of time cooped up in our rooms!

On the Road Again/Frontiers of Flight

Once Kirk finished his finals we packed up and headed back out for another summer of selling home security! After some change up and switching we ended up with the company Point! First it was Elite, then Protection 1, now Point! I was busy working til Friday afternoon then packed and cleaned the house! First we met up with Kirk's long time friend Andrew and his new fiance! They drove down from Utah so we had breakfast with them and met her at Ihop! It was good for him and Kirk to catch up!

Then we hit the road! We drove 11 hours to Odessa, Texas! We got a hotel room for the night...although I didnt get enough sleep! Im too much of a worrier! They were random people walking around smoking all night, kids running around, some redneck woman yelling at some man then driving away and the first room we got smelled like smoke! We switched rooms and had to squeeze onto a full sized bed! haha Anyways we woke up and left right away, stopped and got some breakfast food at Walmart then hit the road again! 

We drove 7 hours to Dallas and took a break at a Frontiers of Flight Museum! It had aspects of WW2 which Kirk loved!

Each booth of the warehouse had different decades of flight times...from the beginnings til recent times! They had some cool one of a kind things! Everyone kept asking "is this your first time?" and a few of the old men volunteers were so excited to show us around and tell us everything they knew! One of them knew this man that flew 97 missions in WW2 with the Tuskegee airmen...they had a display set up for him because he had just passed away on Tuesday morning. We learned a lot! 

The Flying Pancake was just a model and was never actually flown in battle...they built 1 or 2 of them just to do it! The military was looking for a plane that could take off and land in small distances so the company Vought built this! It could take off in 50 feet and land in 150 which was pretty impressive at the time! They made it just to show they could...they were hoping to fit many of these on one ship but unfortunately the design never made it past this stage! This is the one and only and is on loan to the Flight of Frontiers exhibit for 10 years!   

 The actual Apollo 7 that went into space! We got to touch the underneath that burned up during its entry into the Earth's atmosphere! It was all burned up! It was tiny inside and 4 men spent 11 days in space! It was pretty cool!

Rock Climbing

Kirk and I decided to go rock climbing for a date on Friday night! We went to the Gilbert Rec. center and climbed around on their rock wall for a while! It was fun! I was having a hard time getting to the top (ya know, cause of my fear of heights) so Kirk made a bet with me that if I raced him and made it to the top first he would buy me this purse I wanted! So I went for it and I...didnt make it!! My fears got the best of me! I was bummed!

A few days later we went to the Red Mountain Rec. center and climbed their rock wall too! We were leaving for Texas the next morning so I shouldve been packing! It was a little different cause we had 2 employees that had to belay us! Their wall was a little taller but I made it all the way to the top!! I was pretty excited and once I finally made it I was brave enough to make it to the top on all the levels! Kirk and I even raced to the top and he barely won!

Catering Desert Ridge High School's Student Council Dinner

My parents had promised Desert Ridge's high school student council they would cater dinner at their meeting with their families! Well they ended up in Hawaii that week so they recruited us to do it for them! We got instructions and went for it! All day my grandma and I cooked and prepared then Kirk came and got things ready for the pulled pork! We got there, set up and waited! People started showing up and we served after it started! Right after dinner we brought out our peach cobbler dessert and everyone loved it! Not bad for our first time alone and my first time making cobbler! We cleaned up, watched Alyn give her little speech then headed home! I was stressed by the end but it all went smoothly! Just call us the catering family!

Little accident while preparing! Jeffery broke the knife in the watermelon! Let's just say we saved that watermelon for back up!

Isnt Kirk a handsome cook? :)