My bumper sticker will say...

McCain-Palin 08!Yes, I know my husband beat me to the punch on posting something about politics (suprise, suprise!), but I wanted to add a little on Sarah Palin. If you come across this blog entry and haven't seen anything about her yet, here are some factoids:

-She's the governor of Alaska and beat out the former Republican governor in the primary and beat the Democratic nominee also.

-She is pro-life.

-She is Roman Catholic.

-She has 5 children, the youngest of whom has Downs Syndrome and one son who is in the Army and is being deployed to Iraq on 9/11.

-Her nickname is Barracuda, for her aggressive play on the state championship basketball team.

-She hunts.

-She is a pilot.

-She is a lifetime member of the NRA.

-She plays the flute.

-She was runner-up for Miss Alaska and won Miss Congeniality.

I am excited about the prospect of a female VP. I am worried about her amount of experience, because that is a chief complaint with Obama, but she's also not running for president. I am excited to hear more from her and about her!

If Hillary Were a Woman

...and a republican. Obama, here is your change:

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More importantly, I need to send out a prayer request for our family friend Jim Patterson. He recently was diagnosed with Kidney cancer and needs your prayer and support. We love the Patterson family very much will continue to keep them in our prayers.

The Only Winning Move is Not to Play

Football season kicked off tonight! There were no good games on, but its always nice to get the ball rolling with some Lou Holtz virtual flying spit and some USC/SEC ESPN love fest. Apparently ESPN just signed a $20 trillion contract to air all SEC games in the future. Shouldn't they learn from NBC's contract with Notre Dame? Speaking of failure:







Did you know that I got a traffic ticket yesterday? Me either, until i got to my car. As it turns out, you have to park at least 30 ft from a stop sign. Since when? The car behind me wasn't 15 ft from it (yes, that means i was like 1 ft from it) and it didn't get a ticket. My response? I took a picture of the non-ticketed car and I plan to send a letter to the city alleging discrimination. The Vegas odds are 27-1 that I'm going to pay the ticket. The good news is that my Dad will not get any notices on this one because he is no longer on our titles. You're welcome, Tony!


Sidebar: I understand that some of you may not understand what 'War Games' was. So I will educate you in this space:




Happy early labor daying. Here is hoping that me and my office compadre Brandon don't have to work Monday. Memories of memorial days past don't paint a pretty picture for us...

Jeremy

Change of Course

If you read my entry on the DNC, you are in dire need of a laugh. So I present to you, a picture of the Fighting Texas Aggies top secret game plan fo this upcoming season...

No Chearleader, YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

Rocky Mountain High

Since Meg is out of town of town on business, I decided that I would take this opportunity to hijak the blog and speak my piece regarding the election and be done with it for quite some time (barring John Edwards knocking up a Lewinski).

Let me give you a disclaimer of my political ideaology. I am a Republican. I am both a social and economic conservative. I do break from the party on items like gun control, but you can pretty much figure out where I'd vote on topics from there.

I have no issue with Obama as a man. I think his wife is a self absorbed heaping bag of crazy, but he has done nothing to irritate me outside of standing on the opposite of several key issues. Neat guy, but not for me.

Without further ado, here is my stream of consciousness thoughts on the DNC as it happens:

Obama is not Abe Lincoln. Seriously. Drop it. I think wrinkle free pants are nice, can we say he is a lot like that too?

Economics classes for everyone at the convention, on me! Topics - taxes, supply and demand, and the 'free hand' of the market. Added history section on socialism.

I know you don't want more of the same, but what do you want? Seriously? Its just like the Kerry campaign 'Anyone but Bush'. What are your concrete ideas? You're unhappy but what are you going to do that is so different from what everyone else is trying to do? Marinate on it, let me know.

Oil dependency goes back to supply and demand. I'm tired of hearing about it. George Bush doesn't put a gun to your head and make you consume oil. Do we need to be less dependent, yes, but you can't claim to have invented that idea. Yes, oil is subsidized because of the amount they spend on exploration and the fact that regardless of percent, they still are some of the largest contributers to the country's coffers. The idea was offered that after 9/11 Bush should have called upon us to ween ourselves off of oil instead of war. Yes, b/c we're having so much success with that same argument now. My car runs on gas and that hasn't changed.

Who made democrats the green kings? Before the energy crisis, where were you? Again, you can't claim to invent these ideas. Do you know what is fostering the boom? Not democrats, its demand! suprise! If there was no money in green, it would be a dead idea.

McCain has seven homes. He has money, real estate is a sound investment. What is the issue? If you wanna talk houses, lets talk about your inconvenient golden boy Al.

The mortgage crisis is definately the republicans fault. It has nothing to do with market risk and volatility. Obviously there has never been a crisis in the past. Life is full of risks. It doesn't mean you should get a handout every time things don't go your way. Hand outs are not a solution. Hard work and accountability are.

Joe Biden is from Scranton??? How did I not know that? He'll win my vote without a doubt if wears a 'Dunder Mifflin' hat to the convention.

FYI - Bush isn't on the ticket, I'm suprised how many people don't know that at the convention.

Some 80 yr old woman just used her stage time to discuss women's suffrage and equal pay? Seriously? I don't think anyone is contesting that. It was pretty well wrapped up in 1963. Any fact checkers want to verify that?

Global warming is still not conclusive, and not exclusively a republican issue. I'm on your side team. I think environmental responsibility should always be exercised, but it should not be replaced with environmental alarmism.

Ace Hardware commercial. Nice.

"Every kid will be trained in jobs of the 21st century"....and you wonder why people think liberalism is the new communism.

Hillary doesn't want her image used in McCain ads? You said that stuff, not us. Own what you said, at least we can respect you...well for that.

Okay, I'm even tired of my commentary. Obama is going to get up and say a bunch of stuff like 'Change', 'Different', 'More of the same', and 'I am the next great hope'. I'll leave you with that. Until one candidate shows me something worth taking notice, i'll be thinking...

Quick Prayer Request!

Not to overshadow Jeremy's fantabulous post below, but just found out my sweet BFF Becky has been in the hospital since Thursday having emergency appendectomy surgery that evolved into a more complicated surgery and a much longer recovery time. She's about 4 days out now, I guess, and the first 2 was drugged up on pain meds and the next 2 was nauseous from the pain meds. Now she's up and walking around some and hopes to be released on Wednesday. She was supposed to start teaching today in Richardson ISD, but hopes to maybe get back in the classroom next Tuesday...if everyone could just shout out a little prayer for her healing and for her transition back into teaching kiddos, we'd appreciate it! I love my Becks and am so glad she's okay and that her family is close enough to nurse her back to health!

"When the Weather Outside Is Weather"

So - chiming in for the first time I'm sure this is going to feel a lot more like 'Hollywood Minute' with David Spade than a typical blog entry. If you don't know what 'Hollywood Minute' is, I probably don't like you or your are too young to remember, which also means I probably don't like you because you're the reason I can't turn on my radio in the car without hearing Nickleback or the pepsi version of Nickleback.

Olymipcs - It sucks being out of school when i can't watch round the clock coverage. Phelps was pretty sweet, but winning gets old after a while. I know, b/c I went to UT. We got tired of that around 2006.

Obama - Ummm, what are the experience qualifications for being President? None? Okay, where do I sign up? If we're going to vote in a rock star to run the country, can we get some love for Meatloaf? It doesn't matter, we're all screwed regardless. McCain is as much republican as I am an 'of age' member of the chinese gymnastics squad. Did you see what I did there? Topical. Get used to it.

Madonna thinks John McCain is like Hitler. Madonna has a fake British accent and wears cone shaped bra's. I think Madonna is a lot like things I don't care about, like Hugh Jackman or cats.

I bought a truck a year ago, and I sold it. Now we have an Audi...and I have a purple 4Runner.

We have a new dog, his name is McLovin'. He has the worst breath in the world, but he would probably not be alive if we didn't rescue him from the pound. Sometimes i wonder if we made the right choice....

Speaking of China, the DNC is tonight. Michelle Obama will resume her quest to prove that she is not crazy and a bunch of rich hypocrites will be telling us that the money we make actually belongs to someone else, and that should inspire us to work harder and innovate more. I find harry potter or human caused global warming a bit more realistic. Sigh, I miss Hillary.

The Longhorns start up again this weekend. Mark it, its going to be a ROUGH season, but we'll find a way to pull out 10 wins.

My brother got married in Arkansas. Its beautiful country, if you actually get to get out to see it. Our rental car was a PT Cruiser. No offense to PT Cruiser fans, but I should have hired a mule to drag that thing to and from Tulsa.

My company got bought, but we all keep our jobs. The company is Duff & Phelps. They are getting us Blackberries. Things are looking up. My iphone is jealous, and it should be. My iphone is a piece of junk most days, and awesome other days. Its about to be my cool mini touch ipod.

Questions, comments, concerns?

Putting out an APB for...'War Games' on TBS? It used to come on every saturday at like 3am. Can someone please help me locate? I have a need for Global Thermal Nuclear War.

Yard Work, Hard Work

So besides painting when we moved in, we have done almost nothing to update our house. Not that it needs much (cosmetically, anyway), but we had been getting lazy about doing anything! After complaining about the outside to my in-laws at dinner last week, they so graciously volunteered their time, landscaping knowledge, and their bodies to help us on Saturday. Here's a picture of our front yard when we bought the house...

No, no, it doesn't look awful or anything. Trust me, much worse exists in our old neighborhood with no HOA or enforcement of deed restrictions (I'm talking lawns never mowed, limos parked on front lawns, you know - eclectic like the Heights without the charm!). But it was pretty jungle-y and not to our taste. The bush in the left corner is really just a weed that was never tamed and on the right were the huge elephant ear plants that blocked a lot of light. Right after we moved in, we took down the palm tree in front of the front door because it blocked the view to the door and then we lost the 2 left pine trees to a lightning strike a few months ago (sniff, sniff).

Yesterday, with the help of Tony and Judy, we tore everything out of the beds, including some small trees that Jeremy went all Paul Bunyan on with an ax! It felt so good! Tony put chicken wire up on the left rought-iron fence so McLovin couldn't squeeze through and Judy and I planted all new stuff! Here are the during & after pictures:

Demo!

Jeremy probably about to hack away at roots.

I'm taking a break! The humidity was truly killer.

The new plants are in!

Finished! Wow, you can see the window!

Center & right side beds

Cute little bed on the left fence

Yay us!

Me with the Hamblen Yard Crew! :)

We planted azaleas on the left side, which I am SO excited about. My mom always had azaleas in her yards so it seemed like I needed some at my own house! We planted a cute red flowering plant in the brick planter and gorgeous lantanas on the right side. A little hummingbird started coming around while we were working to the red flowers and lantanas, so I hope he approves of the new plants and keeps coming by! I have officially named him Oliver, but he goes by Ollie, too. My next goal is to snap a picture of him! In the little bed on the left we planted pretty yellow and red-yellow flowering plants, but I have no idea what they're called unfortunately (update - according to Google, I think they're Jungle Geraniums). We were lucky enough to get all the plants 1/2 off at Houston Garden Center (you know, because no one in their right mind re-landscapes in late August!), so now hopefully we can keep then watered, happy and alive!! We'll probably add more little plants in front of the azaleas but want to see how the beds fill in first. It was miserably hot and we all sweated like crazy, but we stayed hydrated, took lots of breaks and suprisingly weren't too sore today. We'll see how tomorrow goes... :)

Just found all the flowers online and what they should look like...

My Autumn sweetheart azaleas!

Plants in the far left bed by the fence - Jungle geraniums or Ixora coccinea, I think.

Ollie the Hummingbird's favorite - Texas Scarlet or Centranthus ruber, again I think.

Irene Lantana

Don't-know-the-official-name Lantana

Sonrise Lantana (Yes, it's spelled s-o-n-rise.)

Anyway, many, many thanks to Tony and Judy for all their wonderful help and knowledge this weekend! It was hot but I had a ton of fun and am so excited to see our garden grow, literally! :)

"The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring."

-Isaiah 58:11 (New Living Translation)

I'm bored...

And unfortunately any readers will have to deal with the consequences! I try to resist posting nonsense, but today I can't help myself. I have a HUGE stack of reports to type and other work issues to deal with, but I'm going to pretend like they don't exist right now and blog!

First, I watched Oprah yesterday (it was a re-run, but new to me) and it was all about this book, The Gift of Fear. Basically this guy wants us to know if we have a "weird" feeling, that's our intuition telling us something is wrong and we should listen to it. And seriously, how often have we pushed those thoughts back for the sake of "being polite"? He made a good point - if you're waiting for the elevator and it opens and a creepy guy is in it, we usually get it in anyway because it's so rude to let the door close, etc. He said we're the only animal that would get into a soundproof, locked (essentially), steel box with someone who gave us a bad feeling. True! It was kind of interesting to hear people's stories about ignoring their intuition and then what happened. One woman found video evidence of her caregiver beating her elderly father, which was horrible to watch a man in a diaper getting beaten. Another girl noticed stuff in her apartment would sometimes be out of place and got scared enough to install a Nanny-cam, with which she found some old creeper (I don't remember if it was her landlord or someone else) entering her apartment, trying on her lingerie and probably doing even grosser things. I remembered hearing that story a while back...and to feel so unsafe in your own home or apartment, how awful! Anyway, Oprah usually delivers on boring evenings, so thanks for the show!

I have decided because the list seems SO long of stuff we need to do to our house, we need to set smaller goals for each month or every few weeks to make it more manageable. Sunday I spent most of the day organizing all our mail and papers, creating files, and even putting together 2 file cabinets from Target. I was so productive! So the goal to get our study organized has been met! Yay for me! I think our list goes like this:
-Landscaping front & back yard
I know this is a rather large goal, but I don't even know where to start yet! I think my sweet in-laws are coming over this weekend to help us come up with a plan. Basically it involves tearing down an old shed in the back & the stone pathway, laying sod in the back, removing a ton of crap from the back and front, taking a couple small trees down, replacing the back fence due to rot...eventually we'll get to the fun stuff like planting! I LOVE having a backyard for the dogs, but honestly, I don't know how people do it and sometimes townhomes look pretty appealing!
-Repainting the kitchen, bedroom, hall, bathrooom and guest room the same neutral color
-Flooring? Our hardwoods are terrible, so we'd like to investigate refinishing vs. laying new vs. laying tile.
-New cabinet hardware (Jeremy staunchly opposes this, for whatever reason, but it will happen!)
-Possibly refinish the kitchen and bathroom cabinets to be white
-Update bathroom (new lighting, sinks, counter, etc.)
-New windows...not sure if it's worth the investment, but we can check on it.
End goal: Sell the house in another year, or like it enough to keep living there! :)

I guess this will be the last bit of my post for today...it's time for lunch anyway...I saw this in entertainment news and Jeremy will be happy!
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20220297,00.html
Jeremy is a HUGE Julianne fan (of course I am too!) from Dancing with the Stars, so he'll probably be happy she at least is not engaged anymore. She was too young! Yay for Julianne!

We're such big Julianne fans we even named a recipe after her. It's this fabulous old recipe of my mom's she got from growing up in Wharton, TX and she calls it Hot Chicken Salad. Right after we got married, I made it every Monday night DWTS came on, so we re-named it Chicken Julianne.

Top 100

Yes, Sarah, I am copying you! I said reading blogs gets me through slow works days, so now posting on my own will help also! Here are 100 things you might not know about me (Meagan, not Jeremy!):

1. I hated my middle name Worthing so much growing up I told people the W was for Wendy.
2. I love it now, but still can't decide if I want to keep Worthing or Beck as my middle name (though legally I am MeaganWorthing Hamblen).

3. My husband and I call each other Schmoopy, after the Seinfeld episode.
4. Nothing beats a cold beer and chips and queso on a Friday evening after a long week!
5. Cheese is probably my favorite food.
6. I love love love waking up to the smell of coffee in the morning.
7. I really wish I could be blonde for a while.
8. I was the first cousin to get married on both my mom and dad's sides.
9. I am 5 years older than my sister and 13 years older than my brother.
10. I want 2 kids (only) and no surprises after the 2.

11. My sister has become one of my very best friends.

12. My favorite weekend activity is cuddling my husband on the couch while watching a movie.

13. I am part of the Fab 5 and I could not live without these ladies as friends!

14. I only lived outside of Houston when I went to school in Austin. I will probably live here the rest of my life!

15. I think Houston is a really cool, fun city and gets a bad rap!

16. I get insanely excited/proud when someone from Texas, Houston or UT does something noteworthy!

17. My husband is the same way and that's why we're perfect.

18. I think Texas is the coolest state ever and I love Texas history.

19. I love Diet Root Beer.

20. I am currently praying for Sarah because she's having a phone interview for a job in Austin right now.

21. I majored in Geography and realized I have always loved Geography growing up.

22. I was a History major and an Education major for a semester each.

23. I wish I was smart enough to have majored in Engineering.

24. I failed a total of 7 college courses and stil got a BA and a good job. :)

25. I hate cleaning bathrooms with a passion.

26. I enjoy cooking when it's a recipe I know very well.

27. I love baking!

28. My favorite channel is HGTV...

29. Though I have found as a new homeowner I suck a decorating.

30. I absolutely LOVE my in-laws and LOVE being a Hamblen!

31. I do miss being a Beck, though.

32. I am still a daddy's girl.

33. Sometimes I really wish I was a teacher and/or realtor.

34. Sometimes I really want to live outside of Houston or Texas or the country, just to see what it would be like.

35. I am a Southern belle at heart and think I should have been born in New Orleans or Savannah.

36. Facebook-stalking in my evening routine before bed.

37. I hate MySpace.

38. I love reading.

39. My favorite book right now is A Thousand Splendid Suns.

40. I love going to church!

41. I prefer Pastor Ben Young to his father, Pastor Ed Young, at Second Baptist.

42. My husband feels just the opposite!

43. I am a Christian.

44. I went to Camp Balcones Springs for 5 or 6 summers and loved every second of it.

45. Two summers I hiked in the backcountry of Colorado for 2 weeks each.

46. I pretty much hate the outdoors now.

47. I played tennis competitively for 2 summers in junior high.

48. I was not good at any sports growing up!

49. I was on my high school dance team for 3 years and have the best memories from it.

50. I am going to force my daughter (if I have one) to do gymnastics after watching the Olympics this summer!

51. My whole family cried like babies when our dog, Banner, got put to sleep.

52. I get teary if I think about my 2 doggies having to be put down, even though they're only 3 and 5 years old!

53. The Liberty Mutual commercials where it shows everyone doing something nice because they saw someone else do something nice make me cry.

54. I love blogging and reading blogs while at work.

55. I hate having to use a computer at home because I sit in front of one for 9 hours.

56. I love my iPhone.

57. My biggest pet peeve is when people leave their blinker on for no reason.

58. I LOVE UT football but hate going to the games! (It's so hot & tiring!)

59. Online shopping is a huge problem of mine!

60. My favorite stores are Banana Republic and Anthropologie.

61. I'm afraid I won't be a good mom, but know my husband will be an amazing dad.

62. I have a bad temper. :)

63. Sleeping in is my favorite thing in the world to do, especially with my husband!

64. I was Chaplain for my high school dance team and my sorority.

65. I love planning parties!

66. I have never been a bridesmaid...yet!

67. My wedding was the most fun night I've ever had in my life.

68. I went to St. Thomas for our honeymoon.

69. I hate fish in the ocean or lake.

70. I hate bugs.

71. I think my husband kind of hates killing them for me!

72. My favorite gift ever was a Lladro figurine my mother-in-law gave me for our engagement.

73. I am addicted to HAR.com and look up new houses for us daily.

74. I think the oil & gas industry is absolutely amazing and I love learning more about it.

75. I think I am creative and artistic and I try really hard to be.

76. I lived at SRD in the summer & fall of 2002 and again in the fall of 2006, but never lived there for a spring semester.

77. I think I am smarter than my sister but she makes better grades than I did!

78. My dad just got remarried and now has 4 kids at home.

79. I named my maternal grandmother Grandmomo.

80. It irritates me that my younger cousins have re-named her Grandmommy.

81. I still want to please my parents even though I'm 24.

82. I am super girly.

83. But I love Nike shorts, t-shirts and flip flops.

84. I love tanning beds.

85. I have never broken a bone and only sprained my ankle once.

86. My husband has 4 kidneys inside him.

87. My friends are all the smartest, coolest, funniest, most stylish people I know and I wish I could be more like them!

88. I really love being with my family, even though it's different than it used to be.

89. I really want twins.

90. I love pedicures.

91. I grind my teeth really bad at night and my molars look like old lady molars (according to the dentist).

92. I prefer honesty over saying something just to be nice.

93. My first date with Jeremy in Austin was a walk around the Texas State Cemetary.

94. One of my relatives is buried there.

95. I just found about 20 wedding thank you notes that I never sent and I don't know what to do with them.

96. I love planning vacations that we never take.

97. I have no desire ever to visit Africa.

98. I love flamingos.

99. I treat my dogs Dixie & McLovin like children and I don't care.

100. I LOVE JEREMY RYAN HAMBLEN!

Go World!

Can I just say how much I heart the Olympics? I honestly tear up every time they play our national anthem (especially for Nastia last night!!). Jeremy and I literally scream as we watch swimming! And I love seeing the backstories on lots of the atheletes - Nastia was born in Russia, her parents both gymnasts and her dad a gold medalist; Phelps' crazy diet; Kirsty Coventry & how her medal at the last summer games united Zimbabwe for at least a few days! I just had to say how much I've been enjoying watching every night and I'm anxiously awaiting rhythmic gymnastics starting!!

...and I still love you Alicia, I think you're awesome!!

Introduction

Hello, everyone! Meagan here - I broke down & decided to create our very own Blog since reading blogs gets me through slow afternoons at work. I'm sure Jeremy will enjoy posting, too, especially once UT football starts in a few weeks!

I suppose I'll just start with what we've been up to...I graduated from UT in December 2006 with a BA in Geography & married Jeremy 10 days later on December 30 (Jeremy graduated from UT with a BBA in Finance in 2004). We honeymooned in St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands then moved into an apartment in Houston near West University. Jeremy worked at TJ's Ace Hardware with his parents and I took a job in the Regulatory group at Apache Corporation. We were so lucky to move into our first home in Oak Forest near the Heights last September and our prayers were answered when Jeremy was able to take a job downtown with Lumin Expert Group in January. Jeremy makes fun of me for my explanation of what they do, but I think it's accurate and succint - they do financial analysis of intellectual property for patent infringement lawsuits. Jeremy's boss is the expert witness at trial and everyone else does lots of research, modeling, etc. Besides normal complaints with jobs, we both really enjoy what we do and look forward to moving up our respective corporate ladders!

Beyond working, we (try) to do stuff around the house to fix it up, play with our doggies Dixie and McLovin, enjoy the park and disc golf course by our house, play tennis and mostly we like to enjoy lazy weekends together on our couch!

Here are some pictures of our babies...

We just got back from a trip to Bentonville/Bella Vista, Arkansas for Jeremy's brother Josh's wedding to Jamie. It was so fun to see lots of Hamblen & Bobo family members - Kate & Tish (Jeremy's cousin & aunt) drove in from Chicago, Jeremy's great-Aunt Barbara, Uncle John, Aunt Audrey & Uncle Wayne, Jeremy's Aunt & Uncle Vicki & Gary Stone & cousin Jacob, and Jeremy's Aunt Pat, Uncle Dan, cousins Erin, Lucas, Amy, Chris & new baby Katy. There are a ton of pictures, so you can just go here to view them!