We gave thanks, then stuffed our faces!

Our first thanksgiving as married people! It was nice and casual. Our turkey had no legs, but that's ok. Someone somewhere is enjoying some turkey legs without a body.

We know a cute thing when we see it.

And peanut is a cute thing!


She knows how to be a pest though. She loves to bite things, soft things, like our hands and faces. And she jumps (flies) up on the couch with no regard for which of our body parts she lands on. And she uses her claws on our faces and arms to tell us things. Oh, but she's a cute puppy. And she's cured me of wanting babies for a while.

We Voted in our Hearts.

Despite all my efforts and punctual preparedness, when I got to the polls they had no record of my registration. I couldn't technically vote! But I tried. I tried! The person I was going to vote for won, so in a way, I feel as if my ballot was counted, in spirit.

Tyler however, was registered (even though I mailed our forms out on the same day—huh) but decided to voice his opinion by not voting for either candidate, a very clear and decisive declaration of his distaste for personal qualities in one man, and policy issues with the other. Tyler is smart, and I am proud of him for exercising his own freedom of speech. I think he has the right idea though. Where is this country going? I don't think anyone really knows, and I don't think either of the candidates are going to do a perfect job of handling the unforeseen problems that lie ahead for this country. One things for sure, I'm more interested politics and the general direction of America than ever before. This good, responsible adult thing is all new to me.

We love Peanut, yes we do!

So we finally found and acquired our new puppy, and we named her Peanut. She is a 3 month old Rat Terrier (sort of like a jack russel or a fox terrier). She is cute. She is also a handful. And, man, she loves her rope!

Peanut would like to say something:

h;pxxxcdexeeeeeeeee
";;;l;k ccd vxkl

Thanks Peanut. She's still working on the whole typing thing.

We sheltered in place, Pt. 2

We sheltered in place.

We lost power Friday evening. We were in the dark. We lit candles and waited for Ike to come.

We slept in the closet. We couldn't really hear the storm very much in there.


We listened to our crank radio and ate cold baked beans. I ate uncooked ramen noodles, but Tyler refused. He has limits.


We drove around on saturday to assess the situation.

We noticed much of the city doesn't have power either. We quickly get frustrated at all the stoplights which were turned into 4-way stops. No stores are open. We went home. We got bored. We read a lot. We played games like stratego.

We took Queen-esque pictures of ourselves.

Sunday. Still no power. No church either. All the missionaries are sleeping in the church. No power there either. We went to help clean up some poeple's yards on Monday with the Church group. It was rewarding, both in our hearts, and becuase when we got home, our power was back on. We were overwhelmed. We cooked food! We went to help people again on Tuesday. We tarped the roofs of people who were much worse off then us. We again felt rewarded in our hearts.

We love this season.

Hurricane season! Ike is coming straight for us, and he should hit the coast tomorrow sometime. Since we've been here, it's been non-stop hurricanes. Like, we just did this last week. Sheesh! But this one is different. It's no Edouard. It's big, and mean, and it's coming for Houston. We're not close enough to the coast to have to evacuate or anything, but still, we're gonna get pounded!

How are we dealing with it all? Pool time!

But, seriously we bought plenty of water and food, and our gas tanks are filled. We're not completely irresponsible.

We try to revisit our childhood.

A crazy movie we watched last night. Turns out it was a little more whacked out the Tyler had remembered it.

We saw Gustav come, and we saw Gustav go.

But all we got was a little rain on Monday. And by a little rain, I mean one of these ridiculous episodes where one second the sky is gently misting and then the next second baseball sized-raindrops are falling in sheets, and then a second later is sunny and clear. And a disturbing amount of water is gushing out of your drainpipe. This is all very common around here though.




But our hearts go out to those who actually got hit hard by the storm, like in poor Louisiana. Come on, Hurricanes. Let's give it a break, yeah? Or how about Cuba? Sucks to live there sometimes.




So I know this is lame, but I heard this song in my car and thought of the evacuees who came here to Houston, and also those who stayed home and waited out the storm. Just let it touch your heart like it touched mine. (Ignore the video, it means nothing.)

We became Texans.

Ya'll. It's true, we moved to Houston last week. We've been living in provo for so long, it's a little strange to all of a sudden be in a new place. But, we're still in America, so things aren't too different. Still have a Target. Still have the world wide web. The water still runs counter-clockwise down the drain. So I guess we'll be ok.

This is us on our final flight to Houston...No turning back now. I know, I asked the stewardess.


This is our new home. You'll notice how lush and green it is. Not like dry, pukey Utah. Just kidding...Go Cougs!




Also note the big texas sky.


This is pretty much our own personal pool. If we wanted to take a few extra steps, there is also a bigger pool, hot tub, fitness center, and billiards table in the building behind ours. Not to shabby.



Who ever thought we'd end up in Texas? It's an odd notion, but we're embracing it. Plus Houston isn't like REAL Texas. It's the California of Texas. So I guess we ended up in California after all. Bonus.

We blog now.

Hello bloggers in blogland. Cool, so this is the blog for the Panian family. Welcome. I broke down and started this blog to blog about our lives and keep our family and friends in the know. I will blog about all of our wild and bloggable family adventures. They happen every day, so stay tuned. Blog.