A St. George Kind of Christmas

After enjoying some snow in Utah for a few days, we headed down to St. George Christmas afternoon to spend time with the Rogers. Everyone had gotten together and we had a great time with them. We really enjoyed meeting Jeremy-the next one to join the Rogers clan. We are super excited for he and Heather to get married in May! It was a lot of fun to spend time with the Olsens and see how much Natalya and Maddox are growing.

While in St. George we all went to Zion's National Park to enjoy some time in the beautiful mountain scenery. Anna and McKay were in Hurricane with the Butler clan and were able to come join us, so that was a lot of fun. Needless to say, the highest elevation points in Houston being the freeway overpasses just simply don't do justice to the beauty of Utah. It was great to spend so much time outside, and it was even better to be spending it with family!

Brandon especially enjoyed spending some time at the playground with Dad Rogers, Maddox, and Natalya. Maddox had turned the playground into a pretty incredible bus and we all got to go on fun rides around town! Natalya loved going down the slide. She would slide down, I would push her halfway back up until Brandon could hold on to her and help her crawl the rest of the way up, and then she would go down again. She loved it. I couldn't tell who was laughing more-Natalya or Brandon. We also really loved how the static from the slide styled her hair :)

We have found that there are quite a few frisbee golf courses in the Houston region, and so it has become a fun past-time with Mom and Dad Rogers. There was a great frisbee golf course near where we were staying and so we had a lot of fun going to play with them, Heather, and Jeremy. More great time with family!

Christmas Surprise

For 2013 Brandon and I had decided that we wanted to go somewhere warm for Christmas, and so that is what we told our families-that they shouldn't expect us for Christmas because we were going to do our own thing for our first Christmas as a married couple. Then, we started looking at airline tickets. After awhile though, we decided that going to Utah was going to be cheaper in the long run, and that we would get to spend it with family which is always a great thing. We booked our Utah flights a couple months before Christmas. The great thing about that though, is that we didn't tell anyone in JaLeen's family that our plans had changed. We decided to surprise them! It turns out that the Farrell's have had plenty of surprises in their lives and enjoy them a fair bit. Christmas with the Rogers requires more planning and surprises are less than ideal, so they knew of the Utah plans in advance (the Rogers family all going to flew in from their various locations to celebrate Christmas in St. George, UT).

Brandon had arranged with his Aunt Betty and cousin Michelle to pick us up from the airport in Salt Lake City. We went out to lunch with them and then headed to Mom and Dad Farrell's house. Michelle was our lovely photographer of the event. Brandon and I walked up to the door, range the doorbell, and thoroughly enjoyed Mom's surprised/shocked/disbelieving face when she opened the door and realized who we were standing there. She was not expecting it at all! We went in and sat down and were visiting with Mom, Betty, and Michelle when Dad walked in. He had noticed the unfamiliar car in the driveway and wondered who was there. When he came in he noticed Betty and Michelle and that he didn't recognize them, glanced over Brandon and I before looking back to see if he knew who Betty and Michelle were, and then did a super quick second take as he realized Brandon and I were sitting on the couch. Yes. We were quite pleased with how well we surprised everyone. We enjoyed surprising siblings, grandparents, and the Provo Bays over the next 24 hours (yeah, Mom was so excited to share the news about our trip that she made sure we didn't hesitate in letting people know).

While in Utah, we enjoyed getting together with some of Brandon's friends to go snow shoeing. This whole cold and snow thing was great for a visit-and we LOVED being back in the mountains-but we were also very glad to get back to our warm Houston weather.

Dad kept poking me over the next few days and asking, "Are you really here?!"

With Rich, Erica, and cute baby McKay

snowshoeing with Mom and Dad

The snowman we made while snow shoeing the day before-it had since melted a bit and lost it's face :(

A Season for Celebrating

This week has been filled with celebration. Brandon started getting credit card applications in the mail for the first time in his life (celebrate the first one, and then rue the day it came for all the ones that are yet to come throughout his lifetime). That and all the paperwork being completely submitted for my degree were reason enough for us to celebrate (yeah, it doesn't take a lot for us to find a reason to pull out the Martinellis and dip strawberries in nutella)! To top it all off, we finally got the approval for our mortgage loan and are back into the house hunting game. Finding and closing on a house will be a celebratory blog post to look forward to in the future :)

Celebratory food. I finally got around to cooking a real dinner for Brandon (chicken curry with naan bread and cilantro infused rice) which was followed with some delicious dessert courtesy of Brandon.

Murphy Oil Corp. had their annual Christmas Party. It took us back to the days of dressing up for high school dances. We had a great time, and it was really nice to meet a lot of the people from work that Brandon talks about frequently. The company had arranged for a photographer to come in and take photos of everyone, so...we'll count that as our incredibly informal Christmas card to our dear family and friends who stumble across the blog. Yay for Murphy making that easier for us ;)

Most importantly though, we are enjoying having a season dedicated to celebrating the birth and life of our Savior Jesus Christ. We have been doing a modified version of the 12 days of Christmas for a less active family that Brandon is assigned to home teach in our apartment complex. We have never met them, but we have really enjoyed dropping off little pieces of a nativity scene with different stories about the significance of each one every night. We hope to meet them at the end of all of this and hope that this really helps them draw closer to Christ this Christmas season. We hope that everyone takes a moment to pause during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season to reflect on how we can better receive the gift of Christ in our lives, and to ponder what gift we can give to Him this coming year.

El Fin!

It is all done. All the hours and hours of work, restless nights, sleeping on campus on a blown up camping pad in the Richards Building, countless numbers of papers written, a couple publications, wondering if I was truly insane, skype conferences with a committee etc etc…it has finally ended and I am done with my Masters Degree in Public Health!!!!!!

Take THAT MPH program requirements-I Beat you!

I had a great week in Utah (minus the fact that I missed Brandon) where I got to do the oral defense for my project and fieldwork, and just spend a lot of time with family. I flew in on Tuesday and was welcomed with about 8 inches of snow. It is beautiful and I enjoyed the snow while there, but I am grateful we don’t have to drive in it, shovel it, freeze in it etc. here in Houston

Welcome to Utah!

Wednesday was a great day. It turns out that I have the most supportive family anyone could hope for. Brandon was with me via phone/text throughout the day wishing me well and keeping me in prayers that everything would go well. Dad and I made sure that we had plenty of treats to “bribe” my committee members with at the defense meeting ;) Anna drove all the way down from Logan to hear me talk about the work I’ve been doing in Houston. Special thanks to everyone who took the time to come to the defense: Dad, Mom, Grandma Bay, Aaron, Anna, and Steve and Nicole. Thanks to everyone who sent me messages wishing me well also. It was all incredibly helpful. And thanks to my committee who patiently helped me get through everything and all my final edits and revisions. They patiently put up with all my racquetball games/absences, marriage, moving to Texas, changing my entire project when unforeseen events occurred with my data from Uganda etc. They were so great! After a two hour defense meeting the verdict was announced: “Pass with revisions.” I made final changes to my report, submitted it, and now get to enjoy throwing out all the papers I have collected as part of this experience.

It. Is. Done.

Sigh of Relief.

I am so grateful for an incredible husband who has been so patient with me through all of this too. He has put up with my frustrations, emotional breakdowns, papers all over the apartment as I sorted through surveys and research, my confusions with figuring how to do what I wanted to in Excel (yes, he is a master of Microsoft Excel and deserves his own Masters degree just for figuring out how to solve all of my problems). I could go on and on with how grateful I am for all of his support in this, but as that would lead to an unreasonably long blog post, I will just summarize…He is the BEST!

The rest of the week was spent just enjoying time with family and making revisions. It was a nice break, but I was sure glad to get back to Brandon at the end of the week. It also worked out well that I left Utah just before a big snowstorm hit and closed down the airport. Phew!

Lovely parents

Had a great evening enjoying the lights at temple square. Yes, this included a stop for warm soup and rolls at the
 Lion House Restaurant mid light viewing to thaw out a bit :)

Now, on to the next exciting adventures life has in store for Brandon and I.

A Lone Star Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving in Lake Jackson with Mom and Dad Rogers and Brian! There was a random cold front that swept through Texas, and so we were quite chilly with our 30 degree weather. Yes, we have become wimps when it comes to cold weather after we left Utah. Alas.

The family decided to take a break from Mexican food to celebrate in true Texan style…BBQ! The spare ribs Brandon picked up from Hebert’s Specialty Meats were amazing. Once again, Hebert’s has served us well with our BBQ desires. Add to that rolls, mashed potatoes, and some other amazing sides, we were satisfyingly filled. Of course, no Thanksgiving is complete without pie and ice cream-which also made for a delicious traditional breakfast the day after Thanksgiving ;)

While in Lake Jackson we were able to spend some time outside playing Frisbee with a couple from the Rogers’s ward and their two kids. We had a great time playing Frisbee golf and trying to avoid large, cold puddles of water. It was a lot of fun and we all went home with cold, wet feet-apparently none of us were too successful at avoiding those puddles.

Great form!

A Series of 'Firsts'

As we are coming up on our one year anniversary (Hooray!), we have reflected on many of the ‘firsts’ that we have been able to share with one another. Here are just a few highlights:

•  JaLeen’s first Dunkin’ Donuts experience
•  Brandon’s first time eating honey on his cheerios for breakfast
• Sitting with two funny girls while their parents sang in the choir during Sacrament meeting
• In addition, the first time we had Christmas carolers come visit us as a married couple was from this great family.
• First time going to watch car racing
• First time getting scuba certified (and luckily the last since these certifications last a lifetime)

      All in all, everything has been a first for us as a married couple. All the holidays, cleaning the toilet for the first time as a married person, hosting dinner parties as a married couple, stealing your spouse's blankets in the middle of the night (Brandon is actually an expert at this and deserves an award for how well he can burrito himself into all the blankets. It's quite impressive), going to eat at food trucks for the first time as a married couple, etc, etc, etc. We have enjoyed it all and look forward to many more 'firsts' over the next eternity!

Arriving at the car races!

Twas a windy day at the races.

First turn. We won't inundate you with a lot more pictures, but it was quite the experience :)

The Great South Texas Adventure

When I first started working at Murphy Oil Corporation, I found myself doing a pre-award meeting with Slack and Co (The pre-award meeting is our chance to meet with the contractor before we give them the go-ahead to spend $1 million dollars or so on a construction project). At the conclusion of this meeting, they gave us their company T-shirt. Emblazoned in large letters was the slogan "The Great South Texas Adventure." I wanted ya'll to share with  me in just one day of that adventure.

The start:

Alarm goes off at 5:45am. Have to be dressed, packed and at the Sugarland Airport by 7. Checklist: FRCs, Safety Boots, Hardhat, Safety Glasses, Water, Snacks, Phone Charger and Jacket.

The view over Sugarland is quite amazing in the early morning:

We landed in San Antonio to let two people off. Lisa from HR and Sean from our group, he is doing a prelim walk-through for his pipeline in Karnes. During the flight Sean asks the pilot if they ever take off at full-throttle. "No, it tends to scare the people sitting in the back... are you going to Cotulla?" After we dropped them off the pilots decided we must be game for it. The jet engines roared, my waterbottle leaped out of its holder and into my lap and Meredith and I both jumped, and then started laughing.
Its a short flight over to the Cotulla Airport. This airport has just one runway and a hanger. The shack below is the combination of pilots quarters,air traffic control,airport head quarters and rental car office. Welcome to Cotulla.

The owner/operator of the Cotulla airport brings out our rental car (it's their side business). The car is a Yukon with about 160,000 miles on it. They took their old GMC out of operation when it hit 210,000. It had a funny whine while we drove it around. They don't have a lot of competition in the rental car business out in these parts. We drove out to the job site, first to all of Meredith's projects, then to mine.

Meredith has been expressing to me that at the office, we are kinda like the low man on the totem pole; other people decide what they are going to do, and we have to put in the infrastructure to make it all work, saying 'no' isn't really an option. (I prefer to think of everyone else as people who make problems while we make solutions) In the field, its a different matter entirely. You see, when we are in the field we are in direct contact with all the people who perform the work for our projects. They see us as their next paycheck, and so they are as friendly and as amicable as can be. They make sure you have a bottle of cold water, drive you all around the site and treat you like a visiting dignitary. Everyone is also looking for a few minutes of your time to sell something to you. Our construction supervisors sell how great a job they are doing for us, the contractor's PM or superintendent tell you how great the project is coming along and how they really would like to keep working for us, roll this crew over to the next job, form an alliance, maybe do a unit price contract structure etc. There is nothing like a trip to the field to boost your ego after getting beat up in the office.

The main reason of the trip is to check out the status of your projects.

The manifold is in place and looking pretty good, but still needs permanent supports and paint. It requires 4 frac tanks worth of water to hydrotest the sections of these lines, and even then they had to break it up into 5 test sections. This particular pipeline network is over 15 miles of pipe. When its built out, it will be the backbone for hundreds of wells to flow to the KBS facility. This project represents around $10 million in investment.

Below is the early gas processing facility. Frank and I were brainstorming one day, trying to figure out how to get ahead of the work and make the company some money. We came up with this: a facility whose equipment is trailer mounted. Drive it in, hook it up, start it up. When you're done just break it down and drive it to the next spot. This equipment will allow us to sell $5.7 million of gas while we are installing a permanent facility here. This equipment was located at Combs previously, where it was in service for about 8 months. We're likely to use it here for 7 months and then move it on to a new home. Probably the Teal. We have 5 sets of these facilities. 

Getting in and out of this particular work area is tricky. We have a 5 mile drive down Diamond H road. This road is so bad that there are potholes the size of our car. I didn't believe it when I first heard it... until we almost dropped our car in it. You're looking at 10 mph max as you go down this road, and you are bobbing and weaving the entire time to avoid obstacles. There is always a crew out maintaining it, but it gets chewed up as fast as they repair it.

I included a picture of the only restaurant within 20 miles. Its called Kats in Catarina. Don't eat here. This place literally has holes in the wall where you can see day light peeking in. Bathroom is atrocious. Oh, and the food... I spent the next 24 hours throwing it all back up. Stomach cramps, sweats and delusions are common side affects. Dying of starvation may be preferable to eating at this location. 

We drove back to Cotulla and dropped by a subway for a really late lunch. We headed back to the airport, where the airport owner asked us if we were important in our company. I think he was trying to figure out why a company would fly a 25 year old and a 21 year old around in a jet. Good question. We're not that important, but Murphy has trusted us with millions of dollars in projects for which we are personally accountable. I still am struggling to grasp how much money we actually spend. I try to put it in terms of a house, 'this project costs as much as 6 of the homes JaLeen and I want to buy'... or 'we're supposed to spend 200 houses worth of money in 3 months.' It kinda works, but not really.

The pilots typically offer you a choice of soda, juice, coffee or alcohol when you are on the flight home. I typically choose sleep instead. I fell asleep shortly after take off and didn't wake up again until Sean and Lisa were boarding in San Antonio. Somehow I slept through the landing. We got back in Sugarland as the sun was setting. I'll shoot JaLeen a text and say I'm headed home.

Keep Austin Weird!

We recently took a lovely weekend trip out to Uncle Jim's old stomping grounds...Austin! We had a great time! Conveniently enough, this trip correlated perfectly with our 10 month anniversary (please be advised that this post will contain many pictures

On Friday we had rented some bikes and toured downtown and the River area on bike.

We also biked up to Guero's Tacos for lunch per recommendations by both Jim and Dave Pimentel. Jim had told us that the fish tacos were to die for-Brandon agreed (though luckily he did not die after eating them).

Since we have lived in Houston, we've really missed being able to do a lot of outdoor activities due to either the heat, distance, or lack of things to do out of doors (oh mountains in Utah, how we miss thee). Thus, one of the main objectives for this trip was just to spend as much time outside as possible. We really enjoyed being so close to the Colorado River. We rented paddle boards and had a great time paddling up river, and then just sitting and chatting while we floated back down to where we needed to turn them back in (Brandon's sore arms were a great impetus for this floating decision). The university's rowing team was also out having their practice while we were on the river, and it was fun to see them.

Saturday was a day filled with hiking. Yes, hiking in Texas! We went out to a place called Greenbelt and enjoyed the beauty of it. The day was perfect for this. Brandon missed rock climbing a bit as we passed people who were climbing along the trail, so maybe we'll have to go back and try some of that out.

Aside from enjoying being outside, we just really enjoyed relaxing and giving Brandon and good break from work, eating great food, browsing the thrift stores, and just wandering around Austin.

Chicago Caper

The instructions were simple enough to enter S P Keasy's, the finest speak easy in Chicago in 1929. Simply head to the right spot, knock lightly on the door, pretend to answer a phone call and let slip your name and the password. Once inside, things got a little out of hand.
   We were being held against our will by someone who wanted in. With Hal Cappone's death and the disappearance of $40 million dollars there was a lot at stake, and one of the eight of us was the killer. We had until midnight to unmask the culprit.
      The suspects:
Molly M Awbster: A flapper girl, she gets the money for her lavish spending by bootlegging moonshine in her Packard auto.
S Treighton Harrow: The District Attorney whose plans for 'justice' would place him at the head of Cappone's organization.
 Ernie G Ambler: A millionaire gambler with a sizable wager that Cappone won't make it back to Chicago alive.
Silky M Adam: The owner of a exclusive private establishment for the most influential citizens of Chicago, Silky's history is full of 'disappearing' men.

Anna Maria Carlotta Sassine ("Torchy"): A popular blues singer at the most exclusive of clubs with the Tommy Gun as her weapon of choice.
Billy ("The Kid") Thrower: Star pitcher for the Chicago Sock Kings, his skill with a baseball translates well to pitching explosives through car windows.

 Eddie "Socks" R. Gyle: Golfer by day, proprietor of an exclusive gaming establishment by night, his business is making deals of every type.
Malissa F. Orrhot ("Scoop"): A reporter for Chicago's leading paper, Scoop's relationship with Hal Cappone, while intially amiable, has turned cold.

After several hours of discussion, deviled eggs, pasta y fagioli, salad, Scallopini and breadsticks we had it all worked out. We knew who killed Hal Capone. Our hosts calmly served up Reese's Peanut Butter Pie as the accusations flew. Not a single person correctly identified Cappone's killer or found the $40 million dollars. Would you like to try your luck?

Cougars vs. Cougars

I grew up in a family where we watch football and other sports together at times, and it has been a nice little bonding activity. I recall many times going to my siblings sporting events and cheering them on. It has always been a lot of fun. Thus, I quite enjoyed being at a sporting event with Brandon and Kelsey this weekend!

It turns out that Kelsey has become a pretty great football fan this season, and so she had the great idea to go see BYU play when they came out for a game against the University of Houston. The plan had originally been for she, Debbie, and myself to go (yes, the ladies are the football/sports fans down here) while Brandon and his dad went to do something else. There was a last minute change when Debbie decided to go spend a couple weeks with the grandkids in Oregon instead of going to the football game (can't say that I really blame her though, those are some cute grandkids she has there). Thus, Brandon agreed to come to the game with us! Now...on to the excitement...

Cougars vs. Cougars! That was the first fun part about this game. It turns out though, that the U of H's mascot looks more like a fox/weasel than a cougar. Luckily, Cosmo looks like a cougar mascot actually should. This game was INTENSE!!! The true blue cougs were able to pull off a win at the end, so we walked away happy, but with maybe a few hernias from all they'd put us through with that.


The game was pretty bizarre. BYU had an incredible start, and then U.H. started having some unnatural interceptions and runs. BYU played a solid game though, and won by a solid, single point! Thanks to Kelsey, we had awesome seats on the front row (though this may have actually just added to the herniated conditions of our innards). Oh, and the seats provided us with a moment of ESPN fame. It turns out that we were apparently on your home screen for your viewing pleasure if you weren't lucky enough to be watching the game in the stadium with us!

Well done Cougars!

High Fiving Cosmo and the team for pulling out the win!