Travis Needs...

Here is what Travis needs:

1) another beer
2) a two month
3) to find out something about the the local underworld and their methods
4) to Get a Customized Wii
5) serious help
6) more practice with his spelling
7) a very special home
8) to be with your family!!!
9) diamonds to finish the project
10) a double lung transplant
11) to spend a little quiet time for uncivil behavior.
12) someone to nurture the three young orphans
13) a sanity check
14) to grow up and stop with his whinning and move on
15) a family with a lot of love and time to give

The Weekend...

This week ended up a very productive and good week. Travis was out of town for the week (for work) and so I got a little done around the house. I mostly spent time with Nikki though. I think we were both needing our Travis back.

Since Travis and I started taking a walk every morning together with Nikki, she has been nosing her leash almost constantly, begging to go out for a walk. I think she likes it out there! She had a hard time staying in her kennel last night across the room, by herself, so I moved her bed over beside me on the floor. She was able to sleep there all night and didn't move from her bed. I, however, tossed and turned all night long! Oh well...motherhood! :)

Dax and Christina (friends of ours) are going to Costa Rica for the week. They are leaving tomorrow morning and Travis and I are taking them to the airport. Their flight leaves at 7:00 am so we will have to pick them up no later than 5:00 am.

Then we are headed to Arlington for the Pleasant Ridge Homecoming. I am excited about seeing people from the youth group that I haven't seen in years. Travis is excited to see some old friends from Sooner Youth Camp too.

After the Homecoming, we are headed back to Austin and we will be dog-sitting for Christina. She has two dogs. One is a big black lab (Guinness) and one is a small mix of some kind (Sarah). I was told at one time what kind of mix Sarah is, but I can't remember. She is so cute and cuddly! I love her!

It will be interesting to see how Travis and I cope with having more than one dog around here. We have put the idea of getting a second dog out there, but I don't think it is the best idea right now. We realized that adding another dog to the picture made traveling a lot more difficult, and expensive. I don't know...maybe I can convince him to just start having kids instead! :) Just kidding!!! I want time with my husband first.

I have several pictures that I have wanted to put on here for awhile now, but somehow we have lost the cord to the camera. Okay...I say "somehow" because my wonderful, handsome, brilliant, kind (and much more) husband is not so good with cords. He loses them. He can't help it. He just does. He goes on business trips and without fail forgets his power cord for his laptop or phone. So, he goes and buys another one. We have five billion cords just laying around this house. It is hilarious! So, as soon as we come back into contact with technology (after the honeymoon)...he loses the first cord he lays his hands on. The camera cord is gone. I love my husband!

Jana Needs:

1) Your help.
2) psychotropic medications (I'm sure there are many who would agree...)
3) to get her butt in here! (Can I bring the rest of me too? ...)
4) an agent
5) to be locked away for a long, long time. (Do you see a trend here?)
6) shoes badly
7) them by Monday, August 27.
8) to post some stuff on here
9) 150 x 12 = 1800
10) help with some questions
11) to get the stick out of her @$$, and visit.
12) ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT
13) to find that peace and soften her anger towards her Father (WHAT?! Are you kidding me?)
14) to get over it, and either come up with something original to write about or quit writing. ...
15) to reveal why she is so wierd

This was soo fun...just google "your name needs". Thanks Juli!

No. We have not found out the name of the weird fish we found on the honeymoon. If anyone has any clue...please let us know!! :)

This week has been full of family! Slade (Dava Lynn's husband) was down here in Austin for the day on Thursday for some meetings. So, he stopped by my office on his way back to Abilene. It was great to see him! It is always fun to be able to spend time with my brothers-in-law away from their families and away from Mom and Dad's house. They are usually taking care of kids or the sisters are catching and I don't really get a lot of opportunity to just hang out with my brothers. So, it is nice whenever I get the chance.

The on Friday, Kari Ann (sister #1) and her oldest, Bailey came into town. Bailey is a member of the Future Problem Solvers of America and her team won first place in their local division. They were here in Austin for the awards ceremony and to find out who would be going to Fort Collins, CO for the international competition. Bailey was so cute up there getting her medal. Today, Travis and I met them (and the rest of the team) to go to the Bob Bullock Museum, the Spirit of Texas theatre and the IMAX where we watched a show on Mummies. It was very interesting. It was great to spend time with them too, as I rarely get any of my sisters on their own except Juli Beth.

I love that I get to spend so much time with Juli Beth when I go into Arlington, but it never quite seems enough. When you live with someone for years, growing up, you take for granted that your best friend lives right there with you and is always around. I miss getting to do everything with my sister, but I appreciate the time that we do have so much more now.

Life now is good. I am enjoying married life oh so much! It has been so fun to set up house and get little projects done around the house. In fact, Travis is at Home Depot right now getting more supplies to clean up the garage! Woohoo!! :)

On that note, I should go. I have some house cleaning to do and if I don't get started...I may never get it done!

Love, JK

So, I'm really bad about keeping up with this thing! I know I promised a day by day of the Honeymoon, but I just don't think that is going to happen. I am going to attempt, however, to give you as much detail as I can right now. :) Here is the link to our pictures so that once you read this you can match the pictures with the stories: picasaweb.google.com/travismcham.

Here is our Honeymoon in Costa Rica (Travis would tell me day by day what we were doing. I didn't know from each day what was in store for me. He kept it a great surprise!):

March 18th - Travis and I woke up at our hotel in Ft. Worth (we slept in), met the family for lunch at Tony's Pizza and then Mom and Dad drove us out to the airport. We caught our 4 hour flight to Costa Rica at 4:20 pm and landed in CR at 7:30 pm their time. It was a nice flight, not too long, not too short (I love plane rides). We landed in San Jose and stayed at a hotel there for the night.

March 19th - Travis and I got up and had a wonderful fresh fruit breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then met our taxi that was going to take us on a 2 and 1/2 hour drive to Playa Herradura (Playa = Beach). We stayed at the awesome Marriott resort Los Suenos, which is a huge place for sport fishing. The beach wasn't much to speak of. It was very rocky and you could tell that people didn't come there for the relaxing beach, but for the resort. They had a marina there that had some beautiful plants and flowers. When we got there we just settled into our rooms and got our swimsuits on. We went down to the maze of a pool! I'm not kidding...just wait til you see the pictures. There were walkways that crossed over this pool because it was so big. One of the dead ends wrapped around the restaurant and one ended up at a poolside bar. You could actually get food there too, it wasn't just a bar. Where the pool ended there was a grassy area that had chairs, tables, and hammocks. Just beyond the grassy area...was the beach!

March 20th - Another day of relaxing at Los Suenos. Travis and I got a massage and just relaxed all day long. We walked down to the marina and explored a bit and then when swimming some more. It was so calm and relaxing...there just really isn't much more to say about it!! It was just what we needed after a hectic and wonderful wedding! :)

March 21st - After a great relaxing stay at Los Suenos, we got up on the second day and met our private car that was ready to take us to Arenal. This is a live and ACTIVE volcano! It was absolutely beautiful!!! There is a constant lava flow, so not much chance for an eruption. The last eruption was Jan. 1st of 2000. When we got to Arenal we got settled in and discovered that our bed had a great view! Framed in the wall size window in front of our bed, was Arenal. It was awesome! We went exploring around the area that night and Travis wrestled a crocodile! :) You'll see the picture!

March 22nd - Travis surprised me with White Water Rafting!!! We both had never been and we were so excited! Travis doesn't do well in water (but he jumps out of planes without a problem) and I love the water. Every activity and surprise of this trip made it so apparent that Travis planned this trip with me in mind. I have the best husband ever!! Anyway, white water rafting was a blast and we met some great people! The two people in our raft (other than the guide) were a married couple, Gaby and Bernard, from Mexico City. They were there celebrating their 8th wedding anniversary! After white water rafting, Travis and I headed into town for some souvenir shopping. Now, Arenal is in the smack dab middle of the rain forest. The only time we saw a rain storm...or even a drop of rain for that matter...was when we decided to go into town. It was quite funny!

March 23rd - We got up and met another private car that took us to Lake Arenal. A ferry took us across Lake Arenal and as we banked (no dock, just dirt) there was a little guy crouched down in the grass. As we got off the ferry, the man got up and introduced himself as Reuben...our guide. Reuben took our bags and lead us back into the trees (we were awfully trusting of these people) where 4 horses were tied up. We tied our bags to the pack horse and then all three rode our horses for 4 hours around the lake. At the end of our journey around the lake, we ate at a little Soda (deli) on the side of the road...in the middle of nowhere! That is where the pictures of the psycho parrot come in. It would not get off me and then it decided to eat...my...hair!!! It was crazy! Ok...so after we had the most wonderful meal of the entire trip (arozz con pollo "rice with chicken") we got into another private car that met us there and we drove for an hour and a half to Monte Verde (Green Mountain). This was in the Cloud Forest. They call it the cloud forest because you are literally above the clouds! The hotel there was absolutely unbelievable! Check out the pictures!

March 24th - We woke up to find that we were ABOVE a full rainbow!! It was beautiful!! The adventure for that day was a Zipline tour through the canopy of the cloud forest! Ahhhh!! It was so much fun! We went on 11 ziplines. The tallest (farthest off the ground) was over 600 feet tall. The longest was over 1/2 a mile long. That one we had to go tandem (two people) because no one had the body weight to get them all the way across. Travis and I almost didn't make it!!! We barely cleared the platform. It was awesome!!!! After the zipline we went back to the hotel, got a hot stone massage and just relaxed.

March 25th - This morning greeted us with yet another full rainbow. God showed his beauty to us each day we were there and it was such an awesome experience! We got packed up and ready for our next adventure. We ate breakfast at the restaurant at the hotel and then met our private car that was going to take us to Playa Ocotal. (I did not know where we were going until we arrived.) This was a real beach, not like Playa Herradura!! It was awesome! The sand was a layered mixture of volcanic black sand and white beach sand! Hermit crabs were everywhere and so were little black (regular) crabs. While we were exploring the beach and the rock out-croppings, high tide came in. It came in so fast and so calm that you didn't realize what was happening til it was over! Travis and I went into town that evening and scoped out a diving shop there. That was when he told me that the next day we were going scuba diving (my first ocean dive ever) and going for a sunset sailboat tour!

March 26th - Travis and I woke up this morning soo excited for the day! Right away we got up and got ready for scuba diving. We headed out to sea and did two dives. The first was at a place called Monkey's Head and the second at a place called Turning Point. We were so lucky! Even though visibility was only about 15 feet we still saw 3 sharks (that is right...at the most 15 feet away from us), a seahorse, an octopus, lots of blow fish and a sea snake! We saw a bunch of God's creatures that were just beautiful. Oh yea!! We saw tons of sting rays!! We saw some spotted rays that were about a foot wide and then we saw about 10 to 15 sting rays that were at least 4 to 5 feet wide. When we came around one huge rock we saw, lying on the floor of the ocean, a sting ray that was massive! Travis is 6'1'' and his arm span is the same. Travis laid out, spread eagle, and still did not cover the top of this sting ray. It was soo big! The sharks: one was a baby about 3 feet long under a rock, and then one was about 5 feet long just swimming around some rocks and the 3rd was at least 7 feet long (white tip reef shark) circling inside an alcove. They were so beautiful...I love sharks!!! After our dives we headed back to land. A few hours later Travis and I headed back out to sea on a 49 foot sailboat. We had two guides on the boat and we just sailed around for about 3 and 1/2 hours. We sailed until the sunset was over and headed back to land. Travis' favorite picture of the trip was taken on the boat just at sunset (it is labeled as his favorite)! It was so pretty out there!

March 27th - After our long day out at sea the day before, we got some great rest and were up the next morning packed and ready to go back to San Jose for the last night. We were packed and ready early so we just hung out and enjoyed the beach a little more. About 1:30 we hopped into the car and drove 5 hours to San Jose. We got to San Jose around 6:30, had dinner, got into our swimsuits and spent a good couple of hours in the hot tub. It was so great! The hotel was wonderful and open. There were literally no doors to this hotel except to the rooms. It was just...open! They had a golf course that our room overlooked and had a great view of the city.

March 28th - Bittersweet...we headed for the airport the next morning. It was a great trip and definitely one that I will never forget! My husband did an amazing job of planning the perfect trip. God is such an amazing and wonderful God to have created all that he has and to have blessed me with such an amazing mate for the rest of my life!

Enjoy the pictures and let me know if you have any questions about them.

The link again...picasaweb.google.com/travismcham

Love, JK