3rd Annual Gailan Carve Off

Well it was that time of year again...kickin' butt time! Yes, we have pulled another carving contest out of thin air and it was quite the gathering. We had several families over from the ward and the prizes are as follows: The Gailans won the easiest for the third year in a row! Hard to beat the good old fashioned ghost. Go us! Carrie and Chris won the hardest by far--it was a teeny pirate ship with a flag and everything. They had about twelve utensils out, we used a saw. Marissa and Steve won the best scrapped pumpkin due to Marissa's awesome efforts and the best freehand face by Steve. And finally, Harley and Julie won the safest pumpkin award by carving the Texas star--that things not gonna get smashed. And kudos to Harley for using a large pocket knife for the carving...very Texas style. Here are some fun pictures of our night. Happy Halloween to one and all! Go wild.

He was a eeny meeny itty bitty tiny whiney...squish!

So Texas just got creepier. I kept hearing about the elephant sized cockroaches that rule with an iron hand down here but my first encounter was with a teeny itty bitty guy. He just poked his head out from one of my drawers and we sat there, staring at one another for an eternity. And as I reached for the kleenex box, I noticed that he was kinda cute and tiny and you guys know how I like tiny things (i.e. small useless cheese graters and so forth) so I put the box back down and waited for him to go back in his hole but then....skitter skitter skitter. He skittered across my open desk and my thoughts turned from "well you're not that bad and pretty small and even kinda...." to "ahhhh, smash it, kill it, where's the raid?" and I lost all reason as I often do when confronted with small bugs. So the poor guy died below an ad for some local Chinese place and ten pounds of yellow phone book paper and I had to wipe his little guts off the bottom cause I still need the phone book. Poor little guy. Maybe I'll be nicer to his brothers...doubtful but possible. Ooops I hear skittering....gotta go.

Hi HO Hi HO

Well, now that I know I've made your lives miserable because you'll be whistling that song for the rest of the day, I can blog:) I have been reprimanded for my lack of writing so I offer penance although sins of omission really aren't that bad so... Life in Lubbock is going great. We have a basic schedule set down now that includes sleeping, work, school, and jogging. One of those is my favorite...don't try to hard. Work has become an challenge of sorts but I've learned some new things. I can make coffee for one and that will, of course, be invaluable in my life. I also can now laminate. Yes. Oooh...ahhh. You can laminate just about anything....business cards....paperclips....kleenex. But I have learned to be more assertive and more creative so that's a plus. Dana's great and loving law school and we appreciate all the support we've had. Our new law school buddies are great. We LOVE the Mormon population here and I play tennis with the wives and go to book groups. Gee throw in a kid and I add on about ten years right there. Dana did his first client counseling competition at work and he did great. I got to be a faux client which was funny because the woman was a crazed lunatic and I know nothing about being that:) Well, that's about all. Sorry none of the pictures lately are of the Gailans. I have lost my will to photograph but promise to find it one of these days. We love you all and hope work, life, school, play, kitties, and babies are treating you right. Love from Texas!

P.S. Did anyone see Tech slaughter like every team so far....me too!