July = Craziness

I guess I should update everyone on what's going on. Where should I start...

Brett is the Grocery Manager at the Rock Prairie Kroger. He is liking it, but it is harder than he thought. He also got a truck. It's a 2007 Dodge Ram 1500. It's gorgeous. We couldn't sell the Civic so when we realized that Brett and I needed another vehicle we got a truck. Brett started going to a chiropractor ever since we talked to Patrick who is in school (my brother's brother-in-law). Brett is feeling so much better and has convinced me to go. I feel a lot better two and was recommended to go once a month for an adjustment and a deep tissue massage and my insurance pays for it ALL (minus the copay). WHOOP!!!

My parents had a bad couple of weeks with medical stuff. Mom had minor surgery that turned into major surgery a week later and ended up staying in the hospital for 5 days. Dad had major surgery the day after mom got home and was in the hospital for 3 days. Thankfully I have such a wonderful job with paid leave that I was able to go up to Dallas for a week to help out. My brother Todd & his family also came up for a week. That was the most exhausting physically and emotionally week ever. But everyone is doing great!! I just hope they don't do that again.

Yesterday, there was a a chemical fire in Bryan that started around 11:45AM. The wind was blowing SSE and so several homes & business were evacuated. The line stopped right on University Rd and north, so campus was not evacuated but it did close around 4:15pm. The east boundary of evacuation was hwy 6 and so our place was not in mandatory evac. Brett happened to be on campus with the missionaries at the time I left the office. So we met up and went home in the truck. We picked up my car when Brett had to leave for work around 10:45pm.

Basically, the month of July was just one big exhausting month. We did get to float the Comal River and visit the Blue Bell Factory, however. Those were fun days.

Wedding and Birthday

We had a busy weekend. Friday Brett and I had the wonderful opportunity to witness the sealing of our two new friends Marvin and Erin. We met this wonderful couple at the beginning of the Spring semester and Brett was able to hire Marvin at Kroger. We got to see Erin only on the weekends (when she wasn't playing Army, she's in the Army Reserves) because she is still going to school at Sam Houston and lived in Huntsville. When there was time we hung out and had them over for dinner several times. Marvin and Brett are the ones who really became close friends. Marvin asked Brett about a week before the wedding to be one of his groom's men b/c his cousin had some unfortunate events and could not come. Brett was honored. It was a fun filled day, with a little drama, but in the end it was a wonderful wedding and we were both grateful to be apart of it.

Saturday we went to Waco where we celebrated the birthday of our niece Sydnee, who turned 3 on June 8. We had so much fun seeing the family and celebrating with Sydnee. She got some fun presents and the best was a slip-n-slide from Grandma (Grams) & Grandpa (PopPop) Blackhurst. This slide has a huge shark in which you slide through his mouth and it even has 3D goggles which make the teeth even scarier or cooler (however you look at it). The box was very scary looking and Sydnee just stared it for a while after opening and then finally said that she didn't like it. Her face was so precious and Grams felt so bad, but the family got a huge laugh out of it. Well, Syndee's older sister Ava asked Uncle Scott to set it up anyways and while he was Syndee was looking at the shark that he was blowing up and said "That's not a real shark!" and she was the first to slide through the mouth. She even wore the 3D goggles!

Even though it was a lot of driving this weekend it was so much fun. I don't have any pictures of any of it because I left my camera at my parents house, which I did get back from mom at the birthday party, but after all the festivities and right before we went home. I did take my film camera with me, but couldn't get it to work. Oh well.

What's new

Not much going on in the Jones family, expect that Steph just got a raise and Brett will probably be the official night grocery manager at the Rock Prairie Kroger within the next two weeks or so, thus another pay raise. WHOOP!! We are both loving our jobs and are so grateful that we decided to stay in Aggieland.

Well, the month of June is a busy one. We have birthdays, weddings, baby blessings, and service every weekend. Our house is feeling the pains of no one being home on the weekends to clean it. Our car is getting a workout too with all the traveling to Houston and Waco, but it is all for the people we love. We need our camera back (left it in Dallas) for all the fun stuff we are doing, plus I really need to update pictures.

My youngest niece on the Blackhurst side just turned 3 yesterday. She is such a love and growing up so fast. I am constantly amazed on how smart she is and her big sister.

We are praying for my mom and dad. They are having some health problems lately and we ask for your prayers as well. We also ask that mom's professor will lighten up so mom can graduate soon!!!

One year ago

I wanted to do this post on the exact date of a year ago, but couldn't remember the day (horrible memory). I found pictures and now know the date and the same even is a week later than it was last year so that threw me off. Oh well.

One year ago on May 10 I graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology. Time has flown by so fast. So where am I now after a year. Well, I'm a Business Associate at Texas A&M University in the Department of Mathematics. I only use my degree as the office meteorologist. Every time there is a storm near by they ask me to keep them posted, or they ask me what the weather will be like over the weekend or following week. I had my performance review yesterday and I past with flying colors and expect a raise within the next couple of weeks.

I am still married to most wonderful man in the world. We hit our one year mark in March and when we looked over that year we think that it was a really good year and not one of those horror stories that you hear from married couples about the first year of marriage. We still have no kids, but we still have Rutile (a.k.a. Ruti). She is such a love and likes to see if she can get away with things she knows she is not allowed to do. So she acts like a child sometimes.

Overall, I am one happy person. I'm happily married. I defeated college and graduated. I have a full-time job that I absolutely love. And I have my family, faith, and love of God!

Changes at work

My department finally hired a new person and her name is Codi. It has been really nice to have less stress with the amount of work I had to do. Now I don't have to worry about monthly payroll and the little accounting payments we have to do. I do feel like all I've been doing is just sitting and watching, but that's ok with me at the moment. However, she was at training all day yesterday so I was able to do a lot more and really cleaned off my desk. I even was able to pass on my inventory paperwork to be signed off, which means my part is done. WHOOP!!! Inventory is not fun.

For those of you who don't know what I do for a living, I'm a Business Associate I in the Mathematics Dept at A&M. I deal with Accounts payable, Travel, Payroll (now just bi-weekly), HR, and Inventory. My supervisor, Sharon, is the Business Coordinator. Codi and I do the same stuff thus with the same title. The university works with two research companies, if you will, called Research Foundation (RF) and Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES). RF uses the same accounting system as A&M, which is helpful if we need to do something with them, but our faculty should deal with them directly for payments and stuff. TEES is another story and I am the only person in the office who knows how to process payments, which is kind of cool and kind of not. I'm the only one, but it adds more work. Oh well. I truly love my job and I think it is an absolute blessing that I am here.

New job??

So Brett had a job interview with Kroger last week in Houston. They were interviewing 12 current employees trying to see who is ready to be promoted to Grocery Manager, which is still nights. The ordered the interviewees from 1-12 with 1 being the most ready. The Store Manager at Brett's current location talked to the guy that was interviewing and found out that Brett is at the top of the list, but didn't know the exact number. They are very impressed with Brett and are working on getting him promoted sometime in the near future. The only catch might be is that he might be sent to another store in the B/CS area or even Houston. So we are hoping and praying that he will be given a promotion, but also sent to the right store in which he can still go to school at Blinn and/or A&M.

Hmmmm

So I've been trying to figure out this whole blog thing and it is driving me crazy. I need to learn Html, that might help.