I'm Free As a Bird

2010-11-03T17:15:00.000-07:00

I don't have kids yet but I love this video. I think we can all relate to those people who are always trying to one-up you...

California Love?

2010-03-27T16:56:00.000-07:00

We have been thinking about moving to Southern California. Good idea? Bad idea? We don't want to live in Texas anymore. We just feel like moving. So far we have talked about Seattle, AZ and California. We like the California idea. It's kind of scary to think about moving and starting over again though! Ahhh !

Our Nation's Capitol

2010-03-27T16:38:00.000-07:00

Here are a few picks from our trip to Washington DC in January!

President George Wasington's Tomb at his home @ Mount Vernon

Ships at Jamestown, VA

The whole gang

Me and Momma

Washington Monument

Air and Space Museum

Speer women in front of the Capitol Buidling

A portrait of Max's favorite President, Andrew Jackson!

at the Ronald Reagan Airport

Dr. Pepper, the White House, and Baklava

2010-03-13T10:36:00.000-08:00

So not that anyone reads this, but I decided to write today after a 7 month hiatus. Basically, I'm not a great blogger because I don't have much of interest to share. Anyway, life is pretty sweet right now. I love my sweet husband a lot. We are so happy together! We miss each other when we are away all day. I'm excited for babies but it's not time yet.

I also really like my job right now. Since last August, I have been working for Ryder Logistics. This job is a great fit for me! I work on the Dr. Pepper account and I coordinate shipments of Dr. Pepper finished goods to get from the plants where they are made to other locations. Basically I'm emailing and on the phone all day with carriers and Dr. Pepper people. It requires a lot of patience and customer service skills and tedius, detail-oriented tasks. But luckily I can do that stuff all DAY, and I do lately. This weekend I am even working some on Saturday and Sunday. Which means, HELLA over time! Yes, I still work on an hourly basis. I am actually still a temp through an employment agency. I have heard that they are "working on something" for me so that I can get hired on as a full-time Ryder employee soon. That means more money, health benefits and paid vacation days. Yay! Hopefully it won't take another 7 months to make that happen.

In more interesting news, Max and I went on a vacation to Washington DC and Williamsburg VA a few weeks ago!! We had an AWESOME time. We went with my Mom, my Aunt, my Aunt's granddaughter, and my cousin. We had a good ol' Speerneck time. For me the trip's top make- fun -of-my-mother worthy moment was when we were moving inching down the road slowly on a crowded bus, and at a stop where several people were getting off, Mom got all nervous and practically shouted and the person next to her "should we get off this bus???" HAHA as if they would know if we should get of the bus or where we were going, etc. Mom really makes me laugh. She goes out of her way to ask people questions, without ever taking 2 seconds to try to figure something out for herself.

Another memorable moment in the trip was when we arrived for our White House tour and OD had brought her camera, even though it was clearly stated in our paperwork that there were NO CAMERAS in the White House. Well Lynda decided that she would find someplace to stash the camera and ran off. After the tour we found out that she had gone the the Willard Hotel (very fancy and historical hotel) and asked them to keep if for her. When they said no she stuffed the camera between some seat cushions, along with 2 donuts she had in a plastic bag. Ironically when she came back to retreieve the items, the camera was still there but the donuts were gone. HA! Crazy Speer ladies.

Since I'm somewhat of a foodie I suppose, I had fun EATING on the trip. The best was this Lebanese restaurant we ate at. Ahhh hummus, shawarma, and flatbread, plus the best piece of baklava I've ever eaten, among other things. Another favorite was a Persian restaurant, also delicious. Good kabob.

I'll have to post some pics later. Basically it was really really cool. Very affordable too!

That is a little snapshot of my life at the moment. All is well in Texas!

2009-08-06T17:21:00.000-07:00

I am still looking for a job. But I am waiting to hear back from a job, they said they will let me know tomorrow. It's an administrative assistant position at a High School in Denton, TX. If they accept me, I will get an in to the school system, they hopefully it will be easy for me to get a teaching job (after I get my Texas Teaching Certificate, probably sometime within the next year). ! ! !!!! !!!

Why doesn't anyone want to hire me? I am totally awesome. I would blame it on the economy, but I'm kind of tired of that. I think it's me--I need to take a different approach. Maybe start "pounding the pavement." What's great (but kind of annoying) is that Max spent like 2 days looking for a job, and found one. Geeez. Well, I'm glad he's better at getting jobs than I am. Because before long my job will be having babies. YES

IN OTHER NEWS:
I'm going out of town "on business" this weekend. Yes I will be going to Oklahoma City to babysit for a special event. Why someone would hire babysitters from a Dallas agency to work in Oklahoma is beyond me. But, it will be worth it I think.

I have a whole list of things I want to do/buy once we have jobs, such as
-Get a GYM membership. YUCK I am grossly out of shape
-Go to some museums in Fort Worth and Dallas
-Buy some protein power. Just can't justify it right now. But my body is needing it!
-Eat at this awesome chinese restaurant that has free delivery
-Go to Zara. Duh.

Here are some photos of this summer:

Visiting The Alamo in San Antonio-
The 'Venice of America' haha that's
a strech.

Photo op with the sassy Watson girls at
Courtney's wedding

Good ol' Sam Houston

I caught a delicious bass in Oklahoma (not an actual bass)

TOOL

2009-07-26T20:42:00.000-07:00

OK. Me, Max, and Max's friend Chip went to see TOOL last night. Can I say, I am so happy we were able to by those tickets when we weren't jobless and broke because it was AMAZING.

We were SO CLOSE TO THE STAGE. Like 10 feet away from as close as you could be, about 20 feet away from guitarist (and claymation artist, interestingly enough) Adam Jones. They played a really awesome set. I would have to say that the best was Lateralus (from Lateralus). It was intense, moving, inspiring, energetic, and the 2 person drum duet (sounds funny. Drum duet.) with drummer Danny Carey plus a guest random shirtless drummer sporting an rad Indian headress was NUTS. In the most sensational way.

Afterwards was not to bad either, going to Max's aunt&uncle's place and jamming in their recording studio. Well, I mostly watched everyone else jam, but also sang some vocals on High and Dry (Radiohead) which was a lot of fun.

I must say, it was pretty refreshing to actually get out and have fun instead of sitting at home and being poor as dirt. (Hey though, we're a lot better off than a lot of people because we ARE dirt poor, but we are DEBT FREE which is actually quite awesome.)

One more exciting tidbit: Max spotted a new photo on the TOOL fanclub website (on the homepage)taken at the concert last night, and even though we can't quite prove it because it's dark, we are pretty darn sure we are IN it! Whooo!!! In the bottom left-hand corner. We refrenced it to the heights of people who were standing around us and uh, YES I am pretty sure we were captured in this amazing moment. I can't get the photo off the fanclub website to post but you can see it here: http://www.toolarmy.com/home/

YAY for CONCERTS!!!

SEEKING EMPLOYMENT

2009-07-11T17:12:00.000-07:00

I lost my job over two weeks ago. DAHHH! They hired me in the hopes of getting a bunch of new business after the launch of a new website, but it didn't really happen, so they couldn't justify extra help anymore. Some kind of FAMILY BUSINESS. Didn't even give me any warning.

Now I have to start all over with THE JOB SEARCH

For now I am back to watching babies for cash money. Otherwise known as "babysitting." I thought about doing the nannying thing again full time, but I just can't. I just don't want to. I JUST DON'T WANT TO DO IT. If I am going to be watching Max's babies at home for most of my years I just wanna do something else in before those years come. Somehow I have not been worried about finding a job. And we have been really blessed out of nowhere, just like we are supposed to be, because we pay our tithing. Like, my old work randomly put some more money in my account the other day. Crazy. Maybe it's guilt money for firing me. I'm taking it, whatever the reason is.

So actually, I had a job interview today. To be a teacher of English at an international language school in Dallas! I can't believe they let me even interview with them! I basically have no experience teaching, besides tutoring. And I don't even have a Texas teaching certificate, just a regular old TESOL certificate [TESOL stands for 'Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages]. So, I will have to wait another week or so to find out if they want to hire me. CROSS YOUR FINGERS and PRAY FOR ME! Because I would LOVE to teach!!! I would love to teach English! I would love to teach English to Koreans (and a handful of others from a few other countries) how to distinguish r's from l's!!!! PLEASE, HIRE ME!

Oh and one other blessing, I got hired to work part time as a tutor for Studypoint. They pay is good, flexible schedule, and if the Elite Language Institute decides to hire me, I will be able to tutor between teaching classes!!!

I think I am going to get my teaching degree. Here in Texas you just need a Bachelor's Degree in anything and then you can basically get a certificate online in as early as 6 weeks. AWESOME plus teachers in Texas make good money starting out, like $44K the first year or something like that. I would love to teach ESL!!! Maybe for the 2010/11 school year???

Ok, Max and I have been watching episodes of this show lately called Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job. hahaha. It is bizarre, raucous, and slightly innappropriate at times, but I must say it is hilarious. They basically just make up the most random of fake infomercials, songs, newscasts, all kinds of arbitrary junk really and make it into a show. Here are a few videos for your enjoyment,

love this Josh Groban one, it's especially funny when you've seen the weirdo "casey" sing these ridiculous songs before

And this one has to be my favorite: HOBBY HOLES

It get's a lot stranger. These are some of the milder videos.

ENJOY

-HOOLIE

2009-06-18T22:28:00.000-07:00

I can't wait to see my family.

In 6 days I get to fly to California and see all 28 of my immediate family members/their spouses and offspring. PLUS all the aunts uncles and cousins on my Mom's side of the family.

I can't wait. I got a little spoiled having so many of my family members in Utah and seeing them all the time. I have my husband's family all over the place down here, but it miss mine !!!

Trinity Lake is one of my places to be. We have a tiny little house there. It makes me so happy.

My beautiful niece Kyrie at Trinity Lake.

Have I mentioned I can't wait?

2009-03-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

I recently had a conversation with my husband about how I would probably never have a blog. And who knows, perhaps this will be my first and only post! But as Max always says, girls don't know what they want, and they want what they can't have.

So I think I'm starting a blog

My life has changed drastically over the past several months.

#1 I GOT MARRIED.

Falling in love was the last thing I expected to happen last summer. And yes, I became engaged to Max a mere 3 months after we had know each other. I know, IT SOUNDS NUTS TO ME TOO. I always felt pity for those silly girls who just wanted to get married to have constant attention or whathaveyou. But, Max is not like other guys! He is my dreamlover. He's the sweetest, funniest computer geek ever

#2 I MOVED TO TEXAS.

I am a resident of Keller, TX, which borders Fort Worth. A google search for an image of Keller revealed the most common thing to be houses looking about like this:

Yep. Basically it's a growing middle-class suburb of Fort Worth and all the houses look about the same.

I abscolutely never saw myself ending up in Tejas 'neither. . . it is so different from my native Northern California Coast and obviously from Utah. I am staying open-minded about it though. It is starting to get warmer, greener, and little buds on the trees are beginning to bloom. This pleases me! But, I am looking for culture here. Interestingly enough there is a cool-looking Buddhist Wat (temple), right here in Keller! In fact, it is the Buddhist temple with the largest Buddha statue in the US. Go figure! I want to check it out soon.

#STARTED WORKING FULL-TIME

So my "real job" after graduation has turned out to be working in a furniture store in the Lease department. BUT I do speak Spanish daily which does exercise skills I learned in college. But after a 4 month journey of working as:

a)student exchange rep

b) translator

c) babysitter

d) nanny

I think I have finally found something that will stick. At least for now....haha. But let's just say that I am so grateful to have a steady job in this unsettling economic situation! Yay! Count your blessings!