*Engagements pictures by Hailey Erickson
Friday, February 18, 2011
Annapolis, MD
This past Sunday, we decided to take a quick trip down the road to Annapolis, MD. We spent most of our time walking around the waterfront near the Naval Academy and the historic downtown area. It was a small, quaint area with a serene, calming effect {despite too many tourist shops displaying Navy sweatshirts and shot glass with dancing crabs} . We enjoyed just sitting by the water as we did actually exploring the town. We will definitely be going back when the weather warms up a bit and the sun is shining more.
Fredericksburg, VA
On a cold, overcast MLK holiday, Chris and I drove the 45 miles down I-95 to Fredericksburg, VA. Our expectations of the small, historic town were set a little too high {maybe part of it was that the dreary, blustery day did not lend quaintness and charm to the town} ; nevertheless, the afternoon road trip had its worthwhile moments.
While walking around downtown, we came upon a church graveyard with headstones dating back to the 1700s. Many of the stones were so weathered that the names and dates were not even decipherable.
After half an hour of walking {and a quick stop into a local wine shop which resulted in us lugging out 4 bottles of wine}, we had seen most of downtown and were too frozen to continue exploring the rest by foot. We ate lunch at a local bar & grill, ducked in a local coffee shop for mochas, and proceeded to the battleground.
The battleground was located about 1 mile outside of the historic downtown area. Over the course of several days in late 1862, Union forces {futile} assaults against a Confederate stronghold proved that the South was able to hold ground in the war. Sections of the stone wall that Confederate forces shielded themselves behind as Union soldiers attempted frontal attacks were still in place.
It was somewhat eerie to think that at one time the land that was now spotted with gas stations and doctors offices was once littered with 15,000+ bodies of dead and wounded. In the cemetery, over 15,000 Union soldiers, mostly unknown, are buried, marked by a simple row/plot number. There are other various Civil War-era structures standing, such as house that was converted into a hospital during the war; it is now the house of the President of Mary Washington University.
While walking around downtown, we came upon a church graveyard with headstones dating back to the 1700s. Many of the stones were so weathered that the names and dates were not even decipherable.
After half an hour of walking {and a quick stop into a local wine shop which resulted in us lugging out 4 bottles of wine}, we had seen most of downtown and were too frozen to continue exploring the rest by foot. We ate lunch at a local bar & grill, ducked in a local coffee shop for mochas, and proceeded to the battleground.
The battleground was located about 1 mile outside of the historic downtown area. Over the course of several days in late 1862, Union forces {futile} assaults against a Confederate stronghold proved that the South was able to hold ground in the war. Sections of the stone wall that Confederate forces shielded themselves behind as Union soldiers attempted frontal attacks were still in place.
It was somewhat eerie to think that at one time the land that was now spotted with gas stations and doctors offices was once littered with 15,000+ bodies of dead and wounded. In the cemetery, over 15,000 Union soldiers, mostly unknown, are buried, marked by a simple row/plot number. There are other various Civil War-era structures standing, such as house that was converted into a hospital during the war; it is now the house of the President of Mary Washington University.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Tumultuous Times Indeed
Recently, Lyndsey and I survived the first true test of our relationship. I believe marriage is forever, and am now condfident that I have chosen wisely (I knew it the whole time!). My wife passed the test with flying colors.
The test I speak of is football season. I might not have been the best football player growing up, but like most Texans, a deep love of football runs deep in my veins. Many women fail to understand the emotion, excitement, and outright suspense that no other sport seems to provide, complete with super star catches/throws and monster hits! With the Cowboys done (put a fork in them), and college football officially over after last night, I can safely say that the season is done for all intensive purposes (with the exception of playoffs and Super Bowl).
At my rehearsal dinner for the wedding, I had a cake of an Aggie bonfire and explained to our closest friends and family that I had missed (then) three of the past four football seasons due to deployments. Because of this, this season in particular was destined to be particularly painful for Lyndsey, as describing me as an addict to both college and NFL would be an understatement (at least I wasn't in a fantasy league this year; then it would have been Lyndsey's gauntlet of pure hell!). This season had meaning because I have been waiting for years for renewed hope in the Aggies as I get scores 3 days late via email since there was no way to listen to or watch the game. Alas, this season is over.
What does this mean for Lyndsey? It means I will no longer be sustaining myself with chicken strips, beer, burned sweet potato fries, and tostados every Saturday and Sunday. We might even have time to go on a date every now an then (we did before, only on Fridays :). It means she doesn't have to listen to me talking to guys at church about football, or suffer through embarrassing arguments that inevitably happen living in DC between Redskin's fans and a born and raised Dallas, Texan. And finally, it means the endless "simulations" using the most high tech equipment currently available to me will end (by that I mean X-Box NCAA 2011 and Madden). The equipment isn't perfect though, as it predicted a score of 77-13 in the A&M vs. LSU game on the top difficulty, with A&M coming out on top. At some point though, I have to start working on season 2011; for now though, I'll consider slowing down.
It's time to update the Netflix cue. With all this free time, Lyndsey will want me to listen to her (not that I didn't before, but the commentary from the experts on ESPN and FoxSports is pretty important!). Texags.com will no longer see me hit their site multiple times each day (probably only once or twice a week to keep up with offseason recruiting), and bleacherreporter.com will probably not even automatically load when I start typing the web address into the browser. Our fridge's beer supply will start to dwindle or skunk, as my only real excuse to consume 2-3 in one sitting is no longer around. Life is about to change to something it was always intended to be.... in the offseason.
Until late August, this is my life. I will be going to Michael's and Bed, Bath, and Beyond on the weekends, cutting coupons for the grocery, and going through the piles of crap that have accumulated on our bar since I brought Lyndsey back here in September. Basketball and hockey are just okay, but baseball and football are king.
If anyone needs me, call the cell phone; I'll probably need a break from carrying bags in Macy's and Nordstrom's....
The test I speak of is football season. I might not have been the best football player growing up, but like most Texans, a deep love of football runs deep in my veins. Many women fail to understand the emotion, excitement, and outright suspense that no other sport seems to provide, complete with super star catches/throws and monster hits! With the Cowboys done (put a fork in them), and college football officially over after last night, I can safely say that the season is done for all intensive purposes (with the exception of playoffs and Super Bowl).
At my rehearsal dinner for the wedding, I had a cake of an Aggie bonfire and explained to our closest friends and family that I had missed (then) three of the past four football seasons due to deployments. Because of this, this season in particular was destined to be particularly painful for Lyndsey, as describing me as an addict to both college and NFL would be an understatement (at least I wasn't in a fantasy league this year; then it would have been Lyndsey's gauntlet of pure hell!). This season had meaning because I have been waiting for years for renewed hope in the Aggies as I get scores 3 days late via email since there was no way to listen to or watch the game. Alas, this season is over.
What does this mean for Lyndsey? It means I will no longer be sustaining myself with chicken strips, beer, burned sweet potato fries, and tostados every Saturday and Sunday. We might even have time to go on a date every now an then (we did before, only on Fridays :). It means she doesn't have to listen to me talking to guys at church about football, or suffer through embarrassing arguments that inevitably happen living in DC between Redskin's fans and a born and raised Dallas, Texan. And finally, it means the endless "simulations" using the most high tech equipment currently available to me will end (by that I mean X-Box NCAA 2011 and Madden). The equipment isn't perfect though, as it predicted a score of 77-13 in the A&M vs. LSU game on the top difficulty, with A&M coming out on top. At some point though, I have to start working on season 2011; for now though, I'll consider slowing down.
It's time to update the Netflix cue. With all this free time, Lyndsey will want me to listen to her (not that I didn't before, but the commentary from the experts on ESPN and FoxSports is pretty important!). Texags.com will no longer see me hit their site multiple times each day (probably only once or twice a week to keep up with offseason recruiting), and bleacherreporter.com will probably not even automatically load when I start typing the web address into the browser. Our fridge's beer supply will start to dwindle or skunk, as my only real excuse to consume 2-3 in one sitting is no longer around. Life is about to change to something it was always intended to be.... in the offseason.
Until late August, this is my life. I will be going to Michael's and Bed, Bath, and Beyond on the weekends, cutting coupons for the grocery, and going through the piles of crap that have accumulated on our bar since I brought Lyndsey back here in September. Basketball and hockey are just okay, but baseball and football are king.
If anyone needs me, call the cell phone; I'll probably need a break from carrying bags in Macy's and Nordstrom's....
Friday, December 31, 2010
2010
This year Lyndsey experienced a record snowstorm in Texas; Lyndsey received her 3rd year bar card and participated in court hearings; Chris came home from his second deployment; we celebrated with friends; Lyndsey graduated from law school; we made lots of wedding planning and had lots of showers; Lyndsey took and passed the Texas bar; Chris bought a new car and a few days later traveled cross country; Chris started a new position within the Army; we got married!!; we honeymooned in Costa Rica; Chris made a second cross country road trip in four months; we settled into our new home in Virginia as a married couple; Lyndsey got a new job; we had several visitors and took a few roadtrips; Chris ran the Army 10-Miler; we explored our new neighborhood; we participated in our best friends' wedding; we had our first Christmas together, just the two of us. Here's a few glimpses into all of that, in no particular order.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Reflections of a Year (from my workstation on a slow day)
This year has flown by. I think everyone I have spoken to has said something similar. It seems the end of the year always creeps up on you, like you never have enough time to finish all you set out to accomplish that year. But reflecting back, I realize this year has been yet another year of great transition, opportunity, and hope, and see just how far I, and as of 21 August "we", have come.
Last year at this time, I was sitting at Al Rasheed two miles south of Sadr City on the outskirts of downtown Baghdad, with the putrid smell of the Diyala River to keep me awake when the coffee wouldn't. My New Year's meal was nothing special (I'm alive at least), and no football games were shown because our satellite was down and the Iraqi stations don't show American football. I'm pretty sure I talked to my new fiancee, Lyndsey, that day on the phone (the wedding seemed light years away) before going off to inhale room fulls of toxic second hand smoke from cheap cigarettes and guzzle more cups of that loathsome Iraqi sugar chai. We were planning a large operation that at the time was still a big secret (both to the people in Iraq and my family and friends at home), since the elections were less than three months away, where we would be gone for about 2 weeks and search countless homes for bombs and weapons, arrest dozens of very bad people, and take those perilous roads yet again on high alert to and from various places as we "advised and assisted" our Iraqi, ahem, friends with securing their own country.
Fast forward 365. I'm home now (or at work at the moment), completely safe, surrounded by luxury that living in this country brings. I am blessed to be a married man now, and have all the things that go along with it that I couldn't have pictured at this time last year, including a pile of "things" to go through, 2 weeks of leftovers in the fridge, "Dear John" in my Netflix queue, and the guarantee that at some point tonight my body will be used as a foot/hand warmer for someone with perpetually cold extremities. We're lucky enough to both have jobs and not have need for anything. We're surrounded by wonderful family and friends that support us in all that we do. We live in a great place with something interesting always going on. We're young and free to do what we want. My job is non-deploying, and I have a lax work schedule compared to this time last year. All in all, life is pretty good.
Fast forward 365. I'm out of the Army, and have accepted a position with a company somewhere in Texas. Lyndsey and I have moved back to Texas where we live in a great place with a little one (we don't know if it will be a boy or a girl, just that it will change our lives completely, be four legged, covered in hair, and allowed by our apartment after the pet deposit; what did you think I was talking about?!). Lyndsey is practicing law at a small non-profit firm that mainly helps immigrants and those less fortunate. We have just returned from visiting friends and family for the Holidays, and are now preparing for our grown-up style New Year's party, complete with hors d'oeuvres and champagne flutes (start finding babysitters now. It's going to be off the hook, with Rock Band, board games, the works!). We went on an awesome trip to celebrate our one year anniversary, and wonder how we got so lucky in this thing called life....
As we start next year, we're filled with hope, both the hope that came in Christ during Christmas last week, and the hope of a new chapter and fresh start this week. Lyndsey and I have no doubt that this year will be better than last, and wish everyone the best in whatever endeavors you begin. Cheers!
"It's difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." - Robert Goddard
New Year's dinnner 2010 at the Al Rasheed Dining Facility
New Year's 2011 at Rustico in DC
New Year's 2012 at the Markos' Gala!
Last year at this time, I was sitting at Al Rasheed two miles south of Sadr City on the outskirts of downtown Baghdad, with the putrid smell of the Diyala River to keep me awake when the coffee wouldn't. My New Year's meal was nothing special (I'm alive at least), and no football games were shown because our satellite was down and the Iraqi stations don't show American football. I'm pretty sure I talked to my new fiancee, Lyndsey, that day on the phone (the wedding seemed light years away) before going off to inhale room fulls of toxic second hand smoke from cheap cigarettes and guzzle more cups of that loathsome Iraqi sugar chai. We were planning a large operation that at the time was still a big secret (both to the people in Iraq and my family and friends at home), since the elections were less than three months away, where we would be gone for about 2 weeks and search countless homes for bombs and weapons, arrest dozens of very bad people, and take those perilous roads yet again on high alert to and from various places as we "advised and assisted" our Iraqi, ahem, friends with securing their own country.
Fast forward 365. I'm home now (or at work at the moment), completely safe, surrounded by luxury that living in this country brings. I am blessed to be a married man now, and have all the things that go along with it that I couldn't have pictured at this time last year, including a pile of "things" to go through, 2 weeks of leftovers in the fridge, "Dear John" in my Netflix queue, and the guarantee that at some point tonight my body will be used as a foot/hand warmer for someone with perpetually cold extremities. We're lucky enough to both have jobs and not have need for anything. We're surrounded by wonderful family and friends that support us in all that we do. We live in a great place with something interesting always going on. We're young and free to do what we want. My job is non-deploying, and I have a lax work schedule compared to this time last year. All in all, life is pretty good.
Fast forward 365. I'm out of the Army, and have accepted a position with a company somewhere in Texas. Lyndsey and I have moved back to Texas where we live in a great place with a little one (we don't know if it will be a boy or a girl, just that it will change our lives completely, be four legged, covered in hair, and allowed by our apartment after the pet deposit; what did you think I was talking about?!). Lyndsey is practicing law at a small non-profit firm that mainly helps immigrants and those less fortunate. We have just returned from visiting friends and family for the Holidays, and are now preparing for our grown-up style New Year's party, complete with hors d'oeuvres and champagne flutes (start finding babysitters now. It's going to be off the hook, with Rock Band, board games, the works!). We went on an awesome trip to celebrate our one year anniversary, and wonder how we got so lucky in this thing called life....
As we start next year, we're filled with hope, both the hope that came in Christ during Christmas last week, and the hope of a new chapter and fresh start this week. Lyndsey and I have no doubt that this year will be better than last, and wish everyone the best in whatever endeavors you begin. Cheers!
"It's difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow." - Robert Goddard
New Year's dinnner 2010 at the Al Rasheed Dining Facility
New Year's 2011 at Rustico in DC
New Year's 2012 at the Markos' Gala!Sunday, December 26, 2010
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