May Madness

So May 26th is my birthday and Elizabeth's family from Lubbock decided to come down this past birthday weekend. Aside from it being my 29th birthday celebration I'm also forced to share the Memorial Day holiday each year with my special day. I've never been known to be a selfish person, but come on! Well, looking at the bright side of things I suppose having that holiday from work attached to my birthday isn't too bad. It did allow for our family to stay another day with us.

We had a total of 10 people including me and Liz staying at our house since Thursday night through Monday afternoon. Elizabeth and I gave up our comfy room to her parents since they are usually the first ones to get up and use the shower. I didn't mind sacrificing my cozy room for them, that is until I had to share my old queen size bed with Liz and Starbucks, needless to say my rest was limited. That didn't matter to me though because I had a blast with everyone being there and sharing many laughs and last memories.

On Friday I took the day off and we took the family to Six Flags Fiesta Texas. It was the perfect day to be there imho. It was cloudy and breezy with signs of imminent rain the entire day and very few people were at the park. It never did rain and we were allowed to ride all of the roller coasters without having to wait in line. We were even allowed to try out the new Tony Hawk Big Thrill Ride!!! Alas, it was somewhat disappointing as the ride was short and it deserved a mediocre title of "Short Thrill" instead. Nonetheless we were one of the first peeps to ride it and we still had fun. By the end of the afternoon we were all pretty tired from the walking and laughing we did this day and decided to have dinner and go home and relax.

Saturday we spent celebrating my 29th with more family and a giant barbque. If you aren't a native Texan, then it may not make a whole lot sense to celebrate a birthday with a barbque. But here in the Lone Star State, its customary to celebrate every family event with ribs, sausage, burgers, and hot dogs! Partly because its cheap to do so and because who doesn't like a grilled burger with yummy ranch style beans and potatoe salad? The food and company was great, but what really made this day special was having my brother and his family come down from Fort Worth and make a surprise visit. Its not often that I get to see my nephews and having my sister in law and my brother in the same room is always a riot. I ended up getting several nice gifts from my family and a beautiful 15" LCD TV from my wife and mother. I've been shopping around for LCD TV's for my upstairs office for several months and just never committed to buying them because of their prices. My ladies took care of me though and hooked me up with an impressive HDTV 15" Insigna LCD that looks amazing in my office. Thanks honey, you just managed to add another reason for me to never leave that room.
Saturday ended with a bunch of barbque stuffed peeps and I stayed up late with cousin Kevin playing Zelda on our Wii until 1 am the next morning. Back in my younger days I would have been able to stay up much later. How depressing...

Sunday, we all got up early to attend Church. Elizabeth's parent and her Aunt & Uncle attended the Spanish class while I and the rest of the younger gang attended a college class. The kids of course went off to play with kiddos in their own room. Afterwards we attended the main service and took up a whole pew by our selves. Sitting next to cousin Kevin and making WoW references to the Leviticus sermon is always fun!
After Church we decided to have Chinese and then head home to relax.

Monday, we spent the morning packing and organizing everything for the return trip. After running a few errands and having breakfast together Elizabeth's family left town around 1:30 in the afternoon. Later that evening Elizabeth's friend Ernest from Dallas arrived and he will be staying with us for the next few days. We also are expecting Mario (Elizabeth's cousin) to arrive this Tuesday evening so to further extend our Motel Perez occupation.

Its funny how being married changes everything. Aside from the expected changes in day to day stuff and our relationship; you never really expect to marry the entire family but its definitely part of the package. I imagine in some cases its not the greatest thing in the world, but for me it's a blessing. Prior to being married my family consisted of a circle of close gaming friends and my mother. My father lived in another state (or country) and my brother was married and living in a different state as well. I enjoyed my life then and I enjoy my life now. Its just interesting to me looking back how much life changes after you marry a new family. It feels like the bonds between my immediate family and extended family have grown closer and doubled in size. The drawback to this is that I don't have as much time to hang out with all my old buddies from 6 or 7 years ago. Thankfully the Internet has helped bridge that communicate gap between us, but even then its hard to keep in contact with them all. Recently I spoke to a close buddy of mine "Tyler" and we're hoping to get together soon. Due to our conflicting schedules its been a challenge arranging anything, but I'm sure we'll put something together soon. Tyler, if you read this I hope all went well with your Water Survival stuff. I also hope you took my advice and laughed at the interrogators and told them you'll PK them if they don't release you.

Well, once again I need to refocus my attention to other matters and close this blog. In this case, I need to focus on getting some work done in the office. I've been neglecting to update this blogspot so I hope I've made all my fans happy this day. I hope you guys liked my recent picture I posted in my last blog.