Birthday Weekend!

So, this past Saturday I turned 27. And yes, I realize that now puts me one step closer to 30. I am not happy about it. However, I was able to spend the weekend with the old gang from A&M, so it was definitely worth it. We stayed at Tyler's condo on Sam Rayburn Lake, which is near Jasper, Tx. I never knew places like this existed in the middle of East Texas, but apparently they do. There was a beach, and some nice wakeboarding spots. Very fun. Here are a few pictures:

Molly and I chillin' on the beach.

Chris taking the opportunity to eat, drink, and PEE all at the same time.

The group at the beach, preparing to do a birthday shotgun.

And....SHOTGUN!

Chris & Tehina on the Jetski

Willie wakeboarding. He was decent and got a little air.

Molly spent much of the day tearing around on the jetski.

Like I said, it was a fun weekend with sun, boat, friends and beer. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday. Compounding the celebration were two other major accomplishments for me, all in a couple weeks time.

1st off, I will be graduating from my MBA form the University of Houston on May 14. 2 1/2 years and 48 credit hours completed. Lots of work and time, but I am hoping it will pay off. So glad to be done!

Secondly, I got a raise at work and a new position. When I first joined my company, I came into the Accounting department even though I had never done accounting. I did so to help my new boss, former co-worker, to set up a new department at the company. She knew I didn't like accounting, but promised that if I helped her with this opening, she would help get me to a better position in the company later. And it happened. I was actually offered 2 jobs last week. One in Forecasting and One with the Corporate Development (Acquisitions) group. Anyone who has seen my MBA coursework, or has heard me talk about what I want to do, knows this was an easy decision. I am now the newest, and ONLY manager in the Corporate Development department. I am excited because I'll be involved with buying businesses, deal negotiations, business strategy and tons of other really interesting parts of business and finance.

So, needless to say, it has been a most excellent couple of weeks for me. With our China trip coming up at the end of May, it's looking like May will turn out to be an absolutely incredible month. Here's hoping things continue to look up for The Vega's!

Sigh, we are getting so old...

So, this weekend is the first time that Molly has felt like she is truly turning into an adult. On Saturday, we "slept in" until about 8:30 Am, and then decided to start doing things. Molly went to go work out, and I watched day 3 of the NFL Draft. After Molly got back and got cleaned up, we decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings to use the gift card I won in my office Superbowl Pool (I Was the ONLY one who picked the Saints to win!!).Yeah, we didn't eat that much, but we did have a lot of food. 2 Dozen wings, and order of Pulled Pork Slider and Molly's Salad....I was VERY bloated after that.

On our way back, we decided to stop by World Market. We browsed, but nothing jumped out at us, not even in the wine section! Since we have now been to wine tours in both Napa Valley and in Washington, we've become something of a set of wine snobs. We are constantly looking for a certain type of wine that we both fell in love with: Cabernet Franc.
See, there are plenty of places that carry Cabernet Sauvignon, but very few places that carry Cab Franc, so we are always on the lookout.

On Sunday, we decided to finally find a Church in our area. Since Molly is Episcopalian and I am Catholic, we've decided to alternate between hers and mine each week. Since this week was week 1, I decided we would go to her church. We tried out St. Dunstan's near Spring. It was nice, but Molly is looking for a Church with a young community that I do not know if we'll find. Not many church's are stocked with 20 & 30-somethings...
Then we went to PetCo for dog food, and we were at HEB for grocery shopping before 10:30 Am. We were there so early that we couldn't even buy wine yet, since Texas has the Blue Law that states you cannot buy alcohol before noon on Sundays. How sad is that? We were there too early to buy wine...

Then we cleaned house, did the dishes and hung out around the house the rest of the day. Molly made a Paella! But still, THIS was the normal weekend for OLD PEOPLE! We didn't see friends or go out anywhere exciting. We just had a relaxing weekend.

We are getting so old....

UnBelizeable

I waited WAY too long to make this blog update. Sorry about that.

Let me tell you about our recent trip to Belize.
Belize, for those who do not know, is a small country just South of Mexico, and just East of Guatemala. It has an ancient history in the Mayan culture and parts of it were once major ports for the Mayan civilization.

When we first got to Belize, we flew into Belize City and stayed one night on the mainland. After that, we took a boat to the resort island of Ambergris Caye. Everything was very laid back on the island. There were cars, but most people drove golf carts around. In fact, one of the first people we met on a golf cart was a guy from Michigan.

He owned a restaurant on the island called Sunset Grill. As we were trying to make the long walk from out hotel to the "downtown" area, he offered to give us a ride into town on his golf cart. Being the trusting folks we are, we accepted. As he took us into town, he gave us a tour and told us a little about the history of the town and how he had found himself living here after so long in the US. The tour ended, of course, at his restaurant. We had lunch here, mostly as a courtesy to him, but also because it was lunch time. One of the neat things about the restaurant is the location. It was right on the water. Not only that, but the place had a group of Tarpon that basically hung out around the restaurant and waited to get fed. BY HAND!

Molly and I both tried it out.
But the owner was much more comfortable feeding and grabbing the fish right out the water. Very cool!
The next day we took a LONG boat ride back to the mainland, and up a river to the Mayan ruins at Lamanai. This place was on the river, and was a major trading port for the Mayans to trade jade and other goods. It consisted of a bunch of temples (Jaguar Temple, Mask Temple, High Temple) and also a ball court, courtyard and other ruins. The cool thing is that most of the site had not even been excavated yet. There were still lots of ruins which were covered by trees and earth. So in 20 years, we could go back and get to see, basically, a whole new set of ruins.

The next day it was back out on the boat to go snorkeling. I can't do scuba diving, so snorkeling is our only option to explore the sea. We saw lots of fish, some nurse sharks and even a sea turtle. My 1st time seeing a sea turtle! (Thanks to Cap'n Ron over at Reef Adventures for setting up our excursions)

All in all we had a great time. We love traveling to new countries and experiencing new cultures. We picked up a great Habanero Hot Sauce that we've been putting on everything called Marie Sharps. For under $1200 (2 round-trip flights, hotel & excursions) in total, the trip was easily one of the cheapest we have been on, and was well worth the money.

Here are some other photos from our trip:

My 1st Belikin Beer (The Beer of Belize!)

Molly enjoying a fruity island beverage.

The Jaguar Temple at the Lamanai Ruins.

Me on the steps of the Jaguar Temple.

The steps up/down the High Temple.

Molly and I at the top of the High Temple.

A ball court at the ruins. (Sometimes they would kill the winners as a sacrifice to the Gods. Other times, they would kill the losers. Not my kind of game).

Molly outside our hotel (Banana Beach Resort in San Pedro)

Just Us.

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Real American Hero

It's too rare these days that we see our real hero's rewarded for their service and valor. Too often we find ourselves so preoccupied with pop culture and reality television to notice the amazing sacrifices that are being made for our right to freedom and liberty. I know I have made this mistake numerous times. Chron.com has a wonderful story today about a marine who made a great sacrifice for his country, and who was rewarded for protecting our freedom.

Gates hands Marine keys to new house

“We're really low-key people, so this is kind of crazy,” said the 29-year-old Texas A&M graduate. She turned to her husband and fellow Aggie, Marine Corps Capt. Daniel Moran, with a stunned grin of her face. “This is, like, ridiculous.”

The couple — and the crowd lining the streets of their Cypress neighborhood — were awaiting the arrival of U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who came to the Houston area Monday to present Capt. Moran with the keys to his new home.

The four-bedroom brick house was custom built for Moran by Helping A Hero, a nonprofit that has constructed 14 homes for local disabled veterans since 2006.

Moran, 28, medically retired from the Marine Corps last month after being seriously injured during his second tour of duty in Iraq three years ago. Monday's event marked the fourth time he'd met Gates, who was president of A&M when Moran and his wife were students there.

As Gates recounted, he first shook hands with Moran when he handed the young man his diploma upon graduation from A&M. The second time, Gates was visiting injured service members at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where Moran was a patient.

“He asked me to personalize a graduation-day photo of us,” Gates recalled. “I was honored but, after meeting Daniel, I came away thinking I should be the one seeking an autograph.”

The third time was at half time of a Texas A&M football game in 2007, when the secretary of defense presented Moran with a Navy Commendation Medal with Valor in front of 80,000 screaming fans.

On Oct. 9, 2006, Moran suffered a concussion from the explosion of a homemade bomb in Ramadi, Iraq. Despite his injury, Moran urged doctors to let him return to his platoon. Less than two weeks later, another improvised explosive device killed three of his Marines and wounded Moran, who sustained third-degree burns over 50 percent of his body. The blast also seared the inside of his lungs.

Moran's new home has special air filters to protect his vulnerable immune system.

I urge everyone to go to the Helping a Hero website at the link below, and if it is within your means, make a donation to this wonderful organization today.

HelpingaHero.org