To break the long absence from our blog (and what better way could I), it is time for my annual summary of the match up between Texas Tech and Texas A&M in college football. As you may recall, this "personal" rivalry between Anne and I never meant anything to me until I started dating Anne in 2003. She went to TTU and me to A&M - so one Saturday a year since 2003, when we started dating, the game is closely watched and tallied for future reference. Not that we need any further competition in our marriage, though this one is a little safer than the card games at home.
Here are the results since Anne and I started dating.......
2003 - TTU (first game ever with Anne - A&M killed in Lubbock)
2004 - A&M (overtime victory at Kyle Field)
2005 - TTU (A&M killed again in Lubbock)
2006 - TTU (they stole the game on the rode in College Station)
2007 - TTU (A&M killed again in Lubbock - do you see the trend)
2008 - TTU (4 yrs in a row....oh man!)
2009 - A&M (CG is the good luck charm - Gig'em!!)
2010 - A&M (in Hong Kong, Aggies win while I sleep)
2011 - A&M (BK in HKG, Anne in TX with the Aggie good luck charm CG)
We are unsure what the future holds for this game moving forward, especially with A&M ruining it with a move to the SEC. Chances are it will be years until it played again but when it is played you can count us in for watching it and for this scoreboard to be updated. For now TTU holds the one game lead, but CG and myself are happy with her perfect record at 3-0. She truly is Daddy's Little Girl!!!
Love to both my wife and daughter as they spend time with family in the US! A maroon dress from Momma K seems to be in order this year.
Showing posts with label Guest Post. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guest Post. Show all posts
October 9, 2011
April 30, 2011
Just 1 Inch {Guest Post by Brendan}
There are many things that can be measured with precision and many others that can not. We all take the size of certain things for granted (say a Subway sandwich) and then with other things you settle with..."oh just a little"...like when getting your haircut. All haircuts start off the same exact way - you sit in the chair, they ask you how you doing, they cover you up with a robe of some sort and then position you directly in front of the mirror and say....."so what would you like me to do". You have thought about what you want before you show up and try to come up with an eloquent way of explaining it to them. Some people bring pictures or other details, but it really comes down to the fact that you are there to get your hair CUT.
Well today was one of those days, not for me, but rather Charlotte Grace. If you have seen pictures of her recently you know that she has a good amount of blond hair. Anne has been perfecting some little girl hairdos - pigtails, parts with hairclips and bows as well as a number of other ways to twist, turn and pull Charlotte's hair. Charlotte is not overly fond of this, always looking to use her favorite two words before you are even near completed with the styling...."all done"! She will move her head, squirm off in one direction or any other tactic that she learns in her close monitoring of other 'small people' that she is with. Regardless of this behavior, Anne has worked very hard to learn a thing or two and as Charlotte's hair keeps growing...it seemed more and more things could be done.
If I had not been with Anne, there is no way that I would believe that she only told the stylist to take off "just 1 inch". Granted this conversation was in English and not the lady's first language, but still Anne said 1 and she clearly understood that word. So 1 what....inch? That could be confusing for the lady as we are in a culture that uses the metric system and as such she may not know what the exact measurement of an inch is - but she did repeat the word after Anne and did not hesitate or ask for clarification. This led us to believe our desires would be followed and Little Girl would have a nice trim to even out her hair for further growth.
From the 'Before' and 'After' photos below, we will let you wager on how many inches were taken - but from my estimate it is close to 3 inches....2 more than expected when it all started. Anne is sadden by this result, but is recovering nicely during an afternoon nap and confident statement of....."it will grow back"!
Well today was one of those days, not for me, but rather Charlotte Grace. If you have seen pictures of her recently you know that she has a good amount of blond hair. Anne has been perfecting some little girl hairdos - pigtails, parts with hairclips and bows as well as a number of other ways to twist, turn and pull Charlotte's hair. Charlotte is not overly fond of this, always looking to use her favorite two words before you are even near completed with the styling...."all done"! She will move her head, squirm off in one direction or any other tactic that she learns in her close monitoring of other 'small people' that she is with. Regardless of this behavior, Anne has worked very hard to learn a thing or two and as Charlotte's hair keeps growing...it seemed more and more things could be done.
If I had not been with Anne, there is no way that I would believe that she only told the stylist to take off "just 1 inch". Granted this conversation was in English and not the lady's first language, but still Anne said 1 and she clearly understood that word. So 1 what....inch? That could be confusing for the lady as we are in a culture that uses the metric system and as such she may not know what the exact measurement of an inch is - but she did repeat the word after Anne and did not hesitate or ask for clarification. This led us to believe our desires would be followed and Little Girl would have a nice trim to even out her hair for further growth.
From the 'Before' and 'After' photos below, we will let you wager on how many inches were taken - but from my estimate it is close to 3 inches....2 more than expected when it all started. Anne is sadden by this result, but is recovering nicely during an afternoon nap and confident statement of....."it will grow back"!
BEFORE
AFTER
February 20, 2011
Be Blessed (Guest Post by Brendan)
If any of you know me (Brendan) well enough, you know that I struggle with the English language. I attempt to use "big" words when I do not even know the meaning, and that leads to it being out of context for the subject I am speaking of - or even better I may use the word correctly but it doesn't fit into the sentence very well as every other word would not score anything in a Scrabble game. I could blame this on a multitude of things, but I blame it on myself and my loathing of reading. It never really matter the type of book or what the cause was for, I have NEVER liked to read. Pizza Hut read-a-thons when I was a kid - I cheated to get the pizza at the end of the week. Book reports at any level of schooling - tried to rewrite the wording from the inside flap to pass as my own. Spanish class - what a joke - and we paid for that during our time in Spain.
So after traveling half way around the world and being in a location that readily has English available for me to read - my interest has sparked for Chinese. Not speaking it, as I have already learned my lesson with Spanish, but rather in reading it! It has to be one of the most foreign languages to that of English, but I am drawn to it by the numerous symbols that people tell me really do mean something. In my line of work there are a number of Chinese documents that pass through my desk and though I am years and years away from reading at a sufficient level, I still like to scan through to the document and look for the basic characters that I do know - mainly that an upside down Y is "people" and numbers 1,2,3 are horizontal lines that match their respective quantity. A couple other characters I can take a guess out and then after that I attempt to make it up based on what the symbol looks like. There is no alphabet to start with and I would guess that actually taking on the (insert big word here) would be way to much for me, especially because I have already admitted my loathing for reading. The only hope I have is that Chinese is made of pictures (characters) and I love looking at pictures to learn what they are about.
Take the title of this post - Be Blessed. The Chinese word for "blessed" is made up of four characters which describe the original blessedness of man. Wait, the original blessedness of which man - who could that even be referring to? Per the picture inserted below - one man in a garden, with the Divine!
I was shocked to learn the meaning of these characters. How is it possible? Adam was this man, created in the image of God and intended to enjoy an intimate relationship with Him - as a Christian this is an image of true blessedness, but to find it in a Chinese character has interested me greatly.
Through the past two weeks and our first Chinese New Year in Hong Kong, we experienced a lot of Chinese culture. This time of year is very important to them and many of the celebrations are in direct conflict with our beliefs. This new Chinese character that I learned was throughout the city on decorations and being shared amongst the people - though often times not based on the original intention of what it means to be Blessed.
So after traveling half way around the world and being in a location that readily has English available for me to read - my interest has sparked for Chinese. Not speaking it, as I have already learned my lesson with Spanish, but rather in reading it! It has to be one of the most foreign languages to that of English, but I am drawn to it by the numerous symbols that people tell me really do mean something. In my line of work there are a number of Chinese documents that pass through my desk and though I am years and years away from reading at a sufficient level, I still like to scan through to the document and look for the basic characters that I do know - mainly that an upside down Y is "people" and numbers 1,2,3 are horizontal lines that match their respective quantity. A couple other characters I can take a guess out and then after that I attempt to make it up based on what the symbol looks like. There is no alphabet to start with and I would guess that actually taking on the (insert big word here) would be way to much for me, especially because I have already admitted my loathing for reading. The only hope I have is that Chinese is made of pictures (characters) and I love looking at pictures to learn what they are about.
Take the title of this post - Be Blessed. The Chinese word for "blessed" is made up of four characters which describe the original blessedness of man. Wait, the original blessedness of which man - who could that even be referring to? Per the picture inserted below - one man in a garden, with the Divine!
I was shocked to learn the meaning of these characters. How is it possible? Adam was this man, created in the image of God and intended to enjoy an intimate relationship with Him - as a Christian this is an image of true blessedness, but to find it in a Chinese character has interested me greatly.
Through the past two weeks and our first Chinese New Year in Hong Kong, we experienced a lot of Chinese culture. This time of year is very important to them and many of the celebrations are in direct conflict with our beliefs. This new Chinese character that I learned was throughout the city on decorations and being shared amongst the people - though often times not based on the original intention of what it means to be Blessed.
August 15, 2010
The Other Side of the World (Guest Posting by Brendan)
If there is one thing that I vividly remember from my childhood - it is the time I spent 'living on the other side of the world'. I recall bits of details from my time in Texas when I was young, but how does that compare to seeing the Great Pyramids from a cruise ship on the Nile or traveling throughout Europe for sporting events in high school. I have been to London a few times on business since high school and every time I go through a turnstile for the Tube I can picture 5 punk American teenagers jumping over them for one entire day and running before security caught up to us and made us pay for our fare (or possible worse now that I am reflecting). Getting on an airplane bound for X international location has never worried me or made me anxious in any other way than wanting to see what is there when I arrive. I think a lot of this natural adaption comes from my mother's attitude. After all, she did leave New York for Texas at point in time when many New Yorkers would have died from the cultural shock. We can thank the Bush's for enlightening the rest of the country to the lay of the land in the Great State of Texas.
As I sit here in Hong Kong this evening, after putting Charlotte Grace to bed, I can only imagine what she will remember when she is older. I do not think it will be the hassle of taking her first passport photo, packing her room at age 3 months to move to Madrid or even her time exploring Hong Kong from a comfy ride in a daddy powered stroller or baby carrier. I am sadden by this a little, but so thankful for the Lord's care and love for our family during this time on 'the other side of HIS world'. Charlotte has remained healthy (as far as we can tell from our last Spanglish doctors appointment) and seems to be taking nicely to the loving attention that she receives daily from her wonderful mother. The two of them encounter some of the most interesting situations during their time together and I feel that it will remain something that Anne remembers for the rest of her life; something to the effect of "what am I doing with a baby in X location, when I have no idea what they are asking me".
In making this guest posting today there is one thing that I wanted to get into writing to ensure that we remember it from our time in Hong Kong. I believe it strongly relates to the people that we have encountered while out touring and their love for children - well I will rephrase to say my child. Charlotte is no doubt an adorable baby but the amount of attention that she attracts in Hong Kong is a little ridiculous. We have caught people on numerous occasions taking a quick picture of her or doing a little double take into the baby stroller and talking to her while we pass by. None of this however compares to our experience at Repulse Bay Beach this past Saturday.
People should have been there to enjoy the beach and the surroundings, but instead Charlotte captivated them and their camera lenses the entire time. It started with one or two people taking pictures and shortly turned into a receiving line for everyone at the beach. I am not joking! We had some people ask, others just come up and took pictures and then even more that would sit down on the blanket with Anne and Charlotte while their family took their pictures. Anne and I are undecided on what to think about this, so for now we will just smile and shake it off, hoping that we do not see her on some Chinese website or other in the coming days. After swimming out to a floating dock off the coast a little ways on Saturday and looking back to see 20 people surrounding the umbrella and blanket where I left Anne and Charlotte, there are mixed emotions. I had a moment of panic that was ultimately undone by a moment of laughter when I see people bending down to pose with precious little Charlotte Grace. I am glad that she can bring joy or excitement to their time in Hong Kong - I just hope that is all it is for!
Time will tell what memories she will have, for now Anne and I will hold this one!
As I sit here in Hong Kong this evening, after putting Charlotte Grace to bed, I can only imagine what she will remember when she is older. I do not think it will be the hassle of taking her first passport photo, packing her room at age 3 months to move to Madrid or even her time exploring Hong Kong from a comfy ride in a daddy powered stroller or baby carrier. I am sadden by this a little, but so thankful for the Lord's care and love for our family during this time on 'the other side of HIS world'. Charlotte has remained healthy (as far as we can tell from our last Spanglish doctors appointment) and seems to be taking nicely to the loving attention that she receives daily from her wonderful mother. The two of them encounter some of the most interesting situations during their time together and I feel that it will remain something that Anne remembers for the rest of her life; something to the effect of "what am I doing with a baby in X location, when I have no idea what they are asking me".
In making this guest posting today there is one thing that I wanted to get into writing to ensure that we remember it from our time in Hong Kong. I believe it strongly relates to the people that we have encountered while out touring and their love for children - well I will rephrase to say my child. Charlotte is no doubt an adorable baby but the amount of attention that she attracts in Hong Kong is a little ridiculous. We have caught people on numerous occasions taking a quick picture of her or doing a little double take into the baby stroller and talking to her while we pass by. None of this however compares to our experience at Repulse Bay Beach this past Saturday.
People should have been there to enjoy the beach and the surroundings, but instead Charlotte captivated them and their camera lenses the entire time. It started with one or two people taking pictures and shortly turned into a receiving line for everyone at the beach. I am not joking! We had some people ask, others just come up and took pictures and then even more that would sit down on the blanket with Anne and Charlotte while their family took their pictures. Anne and I are undecided on what to think about this, so for now we will just smile and shake it off, hoping that we do not see her on some Chinese website or other in the coming days. After swimming out to a floating dock off the coast a little ways on Saturday and looking back to see 20 people surrounding the umbrella and blanket where I left Anne and Charlotte, there are mixed emotions. I had a moment of panic that was ultimately undone by a moment of laughter when I see people bending down to pose with precious little Charlotte Grace. I am glad that she can bring joy or excitement to their time in Hong Kong - I just hope that is all it is for!
 |
| One of our own pictures (probably on a few other cameras as well)!!! |
Time will tell what memories she will have, for now Anne and I will hold this one!
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