It’s been some time since I’ve posted on this blog, but I wanted to give my take on “paternity week.” For the month of October, we really enjoyed having our mothers help take care of the house, cooking, and children. After slowly being eased in to parenthood, it was time to go it alone. We actually didn’t make the full leap since the Relief Society sisters brought us dinner for the first two weeks of November, which was fantastic.

After we said goodbye to my mother on the last Friday of October, we actually started the paternity week festivities by having our good friend, Dana, over. Having grown up with her since high school, it was great to catch up and see what her family has been up to lately. Anyway, she was only in town for 24 hours, so we said our hellos and goodbyes and then got the children ready for the zoo on Saturday morning.

Work sponsored a trip to the Houston Zoo during their Zoo Boo, which is held every year. I’d never heard of the event, but children dress up in the costumes and go around the zoo trick-or-treating and playing at the various booths that are set up. We made it in time for lunch and were able to catch up with a lot of friends who also happen to work with me.

After a successful outing at the zoo, we decided that we wanted to go out on our Saturday evening rather than sitting at home (which seems to be the trend these days). We ventured over to the Galleria and enjoyed our walk around the shops. It was our first outing where we used our baby carriers and it worked like a charm. Lucy and Evan both slept the whole time!

Unfortunately, as the start of the week began (Monday), we had a tough time with these two little kiddos. I remember Monday being especially challenging as they tag teamed us for hours on end. I quickly learned that holding a full-time job is a million times easier than being a stay-at-home mom.

Fortunately, after a difficult Monday, we were rewarded with a slightly better Tuesday. Since HMNS is free on Tuesday afternoons, we decided to head to the museum for our daily walk. The children behaved themselves for a while, but once they started getting rowdy, we knew we had to get the heck out of Dodge.

By midweek, I was having my doubts on how Diane was going to be able to manage parenting newborn twins by herself with me at work. So, that’s when we broke down and bought the Mamaroo. Initially, Lucy loved it and she would calm down immediately. Evan didn’t care for it so much, but it’s now growing on him.

On Thursday, we hit up Katy Mills because Lucy desperately needed some girl clothes. One thing I learned is that shopping at the mall on a Thursday afternoon is great because nobody is there except for a few moms — most of whom were sporting sweats/PJs.

Overall, paternity week was a lot of fun. I’m lucky to have been able to spend it with Diane and the children.

The other day, we picked up some heart molds from Crate & Barrel. This morning, Diane made me some delicious buttermilk pancakes in these molds…and we ate them on out heart shaped placemats. Expect a repeat tomorrow morning.

Yum!

Fresh fruit would go great with this

A while back, I heard about this place called the Forbidden Gardens. It’s located in Katy, TX and has been around for nearly two decades. Well, the other week, I was reading Swamplot and noticed that the gardens were shutting down to make way to for the Grand Parkway expansion (this will become the 3rd loop around the greater Houston area connecting Katy to The Woodlands on over to Baytown and back). I told Diane that we should go see it before it was gone forever. Overall, it was a semi interesting visit — a little past its prime, though. I’m sure if it was a little bit warmer (it was a cold Saturday morning when we went), we would have enjoyed it more –especially if it were during spring.

Terracotta Warriors

Lots of them

Detailed replicas of those found in China

Lots of horses too

These seemed a little weathered…

Diane strutting her stuff

I like to read pamphlets, signs, etc.

A village near the Forbidden City

Your guess is as good as mine

The “Venice” of China

Forbidden City model

Sneak preview of the real deal

While in California, Diane and I were strolling through the Shops at Mission Viejo when I stumbled upon this art exhibit in the middle of the mall. Since having a home, I have been more interested in purchasing artwork. However, I am one who shies away from poster-style prints that are put into frames. Rather, I am interested in purchasing canvas–or something that can be put in a really awesome frame. Well, Copia sells stretched canvas triptych artwork. It didn’t take long for me to find a piece or two that I wanted. The first piece is entitled “Game of Chess.” It so happens that I love chess as well as the rich, dark colors. The only problem was that it was a little too masculine and we don’t have a separate game room for it. So, Diane and I agreed upon something a little more suiting for our family room. It happens to go well with our color scheme.

Well, the hardest part for somebody as unskilled as me was the hanging of the 3 frames. Getting them to be perfectly level and spaced out did not seem like an easy task. In addition, perfectly lining up all the holes was a major pain — I was off by 1/8″ on some, which prevented the pictures from hanging properly. It wasn’t until my friend (who happens to be an interior designer) told me to lay out the pictures on the ground and take a long piece of wax paper to use as a template. I poked holes in the paper and then used a laser level and was finally able to get them installed.

Game of Chess – Maybe for a game room or the office?

Gondolas of Venice

A friend of ours from Church announced that his friend was starting a mobile cupcake service. Imagine a taco truck–only selling cupcakes rather than authentic, Mexican tacos. I finally got around to stalking the truck on Facebook, so I decided to drive over and pick some up.

The Mobile Cupcake Shop

It only stays in one spot for up to 2 hours

Carrot Cake — probably our favorite of the four

Snickerdoodle, Red Velvet, and Strawberry

In the end, carrot cake was our favorite followed by red velvet. Both were very moist and delicious. Snickerdoodle was a little dry and strawberry was OK–still moist, but not our preferred flavor. At $2.50/cupcake, it comes in 75 cents less per cupcake than Crave.

The only downfall to MMM Cupcake is that you might have to pay for parking to go buy one. I did, but that’s because the street parking attendant was right in front of me as I pulled up. Anyway, you’ll generally find the truck downtown or in the Village.

So, if you’re in the mood for a cupcake, give them a try. They’re pretty tastey.

Need I say more?

(Pardon the dusty dash, it has been cleaned since I took this pic.)

Every now and then, I get sent off on an adventure to some far away land. Recently, my adventures took me to Cameroon–West Africa for those who don’t know where this is. I flew international business class–which I love–and took some pictures to show others how wonderful it is. Sure, you might think it’s silly of me to be so excited about traveling, but I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth, so I still look forward to the perks of int’l business class.

Not a lay-flat seat, but I still managed to sleep well

(Frequent travel sometimes complain about the downward incline)

Built-in back massage was nice during the long flight

Air France’s smaller lounge, but it still had a shower

The accommodations in Douala were not as nice as Nigeria. It’s not that they were terrible, but I didn’t enjoy sharing an apartment with 3 random strangers. There was one communal shower, a kitchen, dining room, and living area. I was mostly displeased with the fact that there was no Internet (it was turned off for visitor apartments) and no phone. In Eket, Nigeria, I at least had WiFi (which I could use for Skype) and a private room.

I was a bit naive and didn’t realize I’d be sleeping in an apartment that required mosquito nets

View from COTCO HQ

My daily  walk down the street to “home”

Lots of slums around town

African Market

Market when it wasn’t raining (as much)

Reasonably good traffic, but when it gets bad, people *create* lanes as needed

Wood carvings at a hotel in the countryside

I like my shrimp with Cajun seasoning…none to be found, though

The people of Cameroon are very nice and pleasant to be around. I enjoyed walking around the neighborhood and eating out at local restaurants (all pretty good). Across the street from the company apartments is a delicious bakery and small grocery store. I had my share of chocolate croissants and other goodies.

I spent the 2nd week on August in a small village called Dompta. Technically, I never saw was in the village from the ground–just from the air. I stayed at our pump station. It’s a relatively small processing area where crude flows through, gets sorted out into various products and then put back into the pipeline.

Me at one of the airstrips

Somewhere near Dompta

If you look closely, you’ll see some traditional African huts that people continue to live in

Sanaga River goes spans the whole country, all the way down to the hotel where I had shrimp

After about two weeks, I was ready to return home. However, I had one last stop in Charles De Gaulle where I enjoyed endless quantities of chocolate croissants and cookies among other things.

One of my staples

Cookies at 6:00 AM? Yes, please!

So good!

It has taken me one year, but I finally decided to tackle my first handyman project around the house: the built-in home theater system. For a few months, I have been thinking about doing this. I even called a local A/V company to come over and give me a quote on how much it would cost. While it was not astronomical by any means, I wondered if it was really worth $600 to pay somebody to do what I considered a relatively easy job. After doing some research online, I finally decided to tackle the project. Did I mention that I started this a few days before leaving for Nigeria? Anyway, I learned a few things along the way.

Look out for studs. Otherwise, you end up cutting a second hole.

Learned that wall plates are nailed to studs. I initially thought that they were *magically* suspended, so I drew a circle around the wall plate rather than on one side of the wall plate.

A Little Giant ladder is the way to go

Pre-mess photo

Diane never complained about my mess

My pathetic attempt to keep dust off the furniture

Lived like this for a one or two nights

In the end, I installed 4 speakers in the ceiling, bought a new amp, a new subwoofer, and am still currently borrowing my friend’s center channel speaker. Once I save a little money, I’ll buy a center channel speaker and install additional speakers in the office and master bedroom. This past weekend, we watched LOTR and The Blind Side–both excellent movies.

[This was written while in Nigeria, but I'm finally getting around to posting it.]

If you have been following Diane’s posts recently, you’ll know that I have been away on a business trip for the past week. I’m currently sitting here in my hotel in Lagos trying to keep myself entertained. My company has a very strict policy on employee safety here, so I haven’t had much opportunity to venture anywhere. In fact, I have to travel with security escorts–something which is not exclusive to my company. The security trucks have a unique horn. My co-worker, Greg, and I call it the “get out of my way or I’m gonna shoot you” horn. They don’t stop for anything.

Lagos is huge city and is not somewhere I’d like to drive around, especially during rush hour. That said, its road infrastructure is fairly good according to others who have lived in various parts of West Africa. Like many developing nations, motorcycles are everywhere. I’m not talking a few dozen or even a couple of hundred. I’m talking about thousands of bikes.

My opinion of Lagos is based upon my few drives from the airport to the hotel, so I can’t really say that I’ve truly seen the city. Flying in from Eket, I’ve seen huge groups of home w/ tin roofs and lots of poverty. Victoria Island and nearby areas have larger concentrations of wealth. This will not be my last trip to Nigeria, so I’ll be interested to see how my opinion changes over time. Some of the ex-pats who live here really enjoy the city and their spouses do as well.

One thing that I experience more in Eket than is Lagos is power outages. It’s a way of life. My workshop was held at a “hotel” neighboring the housing compound and it wasn’t uncommon to have the power go out once per hour or so. The housing compound was better–the power only went out a couple of times per day (in the morning/evening) when I was around. Even in this 5-star hotel in Lagos, I’ve experienced a few power outages. Fortunately, these power outages never last more than 30 seconds.

One perk of business class is ice cream sundaes

2nd perk: Chairs that recline much further

Although, I still didn’t get to try a bed-style seat

Life on the compound

Getting parts into Nigeria take months

A welcome respite in Lagos

A nice bathroom to go along with the room

The most amazing coconut rice that I’ve ever had

Salmon. Maybe I just really enjoyed the meal since I hadn’t had a good meal in a week.

Creme Brulee. Looked better than it tasted.

In the distance, you can see a line of shacks along the beach.

Pre-Hip Hop World Awards

Not quite the red carpet…

Hanging around the HHWA by the pool

More prep work. A British friend paid security $10 to get into the actual awards show.

Back during spring break (two weeks ago), yes my blogging this year is few and far between. My brother’s family came and visited from Austin.  They stayed up at Lake Conroe at La Torretta Lake Resort, and we joined them for a day at the pool.

Lake Conroe

That was our first experience at Lake Conroe, and its really pretty! I actually felt like I was no longer in Texas.  The hotel had a fun water park with slides, a play area, and a lazy river.  The boys were nice enough to order their wives pina coladas!

Lazy river

The weather is pretty good here in Houston.  I think Spring is finally here.  I don’t know how the kids could swim in the unheated pools though. Suzette and I covered ourselves in towels to stay warm.  So much for trying to get rid of my shockingly white legs.

Hanging out by the pool hoping to catch some sun

A few days later, we met up with them at the Houston rodeo.  The food at the rodeo is amazing. More specifically, the cowboy burrito, steak on a stick, and roasted corn on the cob!

I was really sad that we couldn’t go to Rascal Flatts the week before, but I was stuck in the hospital, so we didn’t use our tickets.  Keith Urban was performing instead.  Maybe I didn’t enjoy him because I’m not too familiar with his songs, but I hate it when you go to see a concert and the artist lets the audience sing the lyrics.  Seriously, “I came to your concert to hear you sing, not the stupid person sitting next to me.” (no, Fernando I’m not referring to you, or anyone else in my fam).

Next year I will be content with just eating the food, and maybe watch a little mutton bustin.