Hurricane Ike!

We stayed through the hurricane, and taped up our windows and stuck the kid in the walk-in closet the night of the storm. We heard the wind all night and then it suddenly stopped, I thought the storm was over...no that was the eye, because it came back even stronger. We were hit with 60 mph wind and 90 mph gusts. Here are a couple pics of what I saw the next morning.

These are trees around my apartment, big trees like this came down everywhere, what a mess.

But after a day and half without power we called it quits and drove out to Austin to visit my sis and her new baby until the power came back. We got power on Wed., but my parents' hood is still without power. A power guy on the news this morning said, "The name says it all, take Kingwood...there is king-size wood on the powerlines!" I think he's saying my parents aren't getting power for awhile. 

Jimmy has had work cancelled all week, he thinks hurricanes are great now.  Yeah great if those trees didn't end up in your house.

Dress Up

Darren as Batman.

Darren with Mr. Potato Head glasses.

He's gonna LOVE me for this one...

Shelly's Surprise 40th B-Day

I have 7 sisters and 3 sister-in-laws and when my oldest sister turned the big 4-0 everyone came to town to surprise her and celebrate. Here's a little video of our trip with our memories of why Shelly is the best! Sorry the video is so pixelated it's hard to upload a good quality one with your limited memory space on youtube.

Little Friends

Here are a couple of pictures of Darren with his little friends. 

Darren and Landon were born just two weeks apart, Jimmy would say these two are going to "get chicks"! They might have to lose the pacifiers first. 

Darren and Avery were born just one week apart. Look he's already "getting chicks", holding hands and all. 

The Team

Well it always fun to have my wife's family in town because I get to do fun things i.e make a cool new movie. So we were all playing around and we decided to shoot a short film. What do you think young boys are into these days? You got it guns, explosions, and fighting so here is my crack at making a short action sequence for the opening of our little film project. The Team. Enjoy!

Here's my latest video featuring Daddy Max, enjoy!

Video Contest

You can call us the new Joe Simpson because we're pawning our kid for cash. Happyslip.com is having a video contest where you have to download this song and make a video to it. The top five videos with the most votes win a new video camera. So this is how you can help.

1. You will probably need to get a youtube account and it's very simple

2. Watch our video here and leave a comment like, "Man jsanti3 video is the best, I will vote for him." 

3. Voting starts May 18th I'll update you on how to vote when it's all set up on Happy slip's webpage.

Jimmy's Nerdy Side

Okay, so Carol has handed off to me the next blog post. So I decided to blog about some of my nerdy things I am interested in doing or currently doing. I was always into sci-fi and fantasy. However, when I was younger, I heard about kids playing Dungeons and Dragons and was interested. I never got to play because if you did then boy...that would be the end of your junior high/high school career. Not playing just made my interest get bigger.

I am about 30 years old. I feel pretty secure about myself. I am married and really have my friends set. So what does that all mean? Well, I have finally decided to whip out the D&D and try it for the first time. Thankfully, I have cool brothers in law and a nephew who don't mind getting "sweaty" ( By sweaty I am referring to the guys who hang out at those obscure game stores and wear black trench coats, are fairly large, and sweat profusely....oh yeah and they tend to talk about the weirdest things like Dungeons and Dragons)

I know this is the nerdiest thing anyone can do but I also can say after the experience I have played Dungeons and Dragons. Be sure to see updates of my adventures as I create my level 1 barbarian and see how my bro-in laws decide to play their level 1 half elf ranger, cleric, and paladin. I plan on recording these adventures on tape so this is going to be pretty awesome! Maybe if we get into it, then all you guys will want to start playing right?

Practical Jokes

Yesterday I was enjoying a quiet Sunday evening at home when all the sudden I heard something hit our front door. I opened the door to discover some kids had egged my door! Jimmy and I just laughed at the situation and I remembered all the great practical jokes I played. Jimmy said we probably have it coming back to us. Here's some of the practical jokes I remember.

**Warning don't let your little ones read this they will only get their minds filled with some great ideas.**

* I tp'd my share of houses but I remember when breading became popular. You would pick up old bread from behind the grocery store and then spread the bread all over the front lawn of the person.

* We would drive around with shoe polish, stop next to random cars and leave some funny comment on their car window.

* We made a copy of a friends key and moved his car, he thought it was stolen...whoops. He then left live lobsters swimming in our bathtub as payback.

* We snuck into some friends' apartment when they were sleeping and tied a rope between the bedroom doors so they wouldn't be able to get out when they woke up. Too bad we didn't have good knot tying skills because they easily got out.

* My car got filled to the brim with shredded paper. It was the worst thing to clean, I still found bits of paper in my car a year after it happened.

I asked Jimmy if he played any pranks and he couldn't think of any. I don't know why I have a plethora of them.

Santiago's Visit

The Santiago's came to town to visit for the weekend and attend the baby blessing. Here are some pics. 

 

Just Chilling

I thought these pictures of DJ were pretty funny so I decided to post them. Enjoy!





(Thanks for the lil' board shorts Jamie.)

Stupid Human Tricks

I first discovered I could lift one eyebrow at a time in the 5th grade when I replied to a comment with this face and my classmate asked, "How did you do that?".

Jimmy has double-jointed thumbs, he knew there wasn't something right about his thumb popping out like that.

Some stupid human tricks are learned. I picked up the three loops with your tongue from my friend Holly.

Darren is an escape artist, and can escape his arms out of his swaddle in a minute flat!

Do you have any stupid tricks?

Easter Pictures

Husband Tag

Jamie tagged me for this husband tag. I don't know the blog law and don't want to face any reprimands for not completing my tag so here I go. 

What is your husband's name?James goes by Jimmy and "professionally" Jim

How long have you been together? How long did you date? 5 1/2 years, dated for 9 months
Who eats more? Jimmy hands down

Who said I love you first? Jimmy said it after we saw the movie "Behind Enemy Lines", I know such a romantic movie. It was a week before our first Valentine's Day so maybe he felt the pressure to be my valentine.

Who is taller? Jimmy, let's ask the question who isn't taller than me that might be a harder question to answer
Who has more speeding tickets? me, Jimmy doesn't have any from speeding
Who is smarter? me :0), except when it comes to entertainment and church doctrine, so in the end I guess he'll win
Who is more sensitive? of course I am, especially around that time of month
Who does the laundry? Jimmy, he actually thinks I don't do it right because I don't let things soak first.
Who does the dishes? Both whoever didn't cook has dish duty
Who sleeps on the right? Jimmy, I'm stuck on the left because that's where the baby's cradle is
Who pays the bills? About half and half I pay the online bills and he handles the snail mail ones
Who mows the lawn? No one we live in an apartment
Who cooks dinner? Lately Jimmy has been cooking a lot, he likes to experiment with new recipes. I just like to cook anything that takes under 30 minutes which he calls cafeteria food. What can I say everything my mom cooked was to feed the masses.
Who drives when you are together? Jimmy always does I hate driving
Who is more stubborn? If I have to pick it wouldn't be me
Who is the first to admit when they're wrong? Jimmy because he's the one who is usually wrong
Whose parents do you see more often? We see my parents the most because they only live 15 minutes away. We don't get to see Mangie and Nards that often they live in Alpine, UT.
Who has more siblings? Me, I'm number eight of eleven kids. Jimmy only has one sister and one brother.
Who wears the pants in the family? Equally we each have a leg, but I think it would be a pair of cargo shorts Jimmy never wears pants.  Gotta love the warm winters in Texas. 
Who eats more sweets? I do
Guilty pleasures? Sonic's cherry limeade slush
How did you meet? We met at a hot chocolate get together after my roommate Katie's jazz concert

Who asked who out first? Jimmy asked me out to a Jet Li martial arts movie, because I pretended I was totally interested in it and wanted to see it. So it was more of a getting him to ask me out first.

Who kissed who first? Jimmy kissed me on our first date, after we saw the movie "The One", another great romantic movie. We watch a lot of movies so as you can see in my answers our memories always involve a movie.
Who proposed? Jimmy came down to Texas and tried to surprise me with the ring but I felt it in his pocket when I first saw him. He was afraid he might lose it if he put it in his suitcase.
Best Feature? He has beautiful nails, I know it sounds weird but look at them and you'll agree.

Best personality trait? Jimmy is passionate about anything he does and has a lot of fun and different hobbies/interests i.e. magic, board games, jiu jitsu, warhammer. When he gets into something he goes all out and tries to get everyone else into it with him.

Pet names? I call him Juon, because of this Japanese horror movie called "Juon" the American movie "The Grudge" is based off of it. Jimmy was obsessed with the Japanese version of the movie for a long time, and it's all he would talk about so I started calling him Juon and it stuck.

Where do I see us in 15 years? Here in Texas having fun and enjoying our family and friends.
What is my favorite thing about him? Jimmy can always make me smile and we have such a great time together. I love him.

Battlestar Galactica

As you know I am pretty plugged into what's new and looking for obscure things which are not readily noticed but are gems. I was pretty quick to jump on the Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, Vampire Weekend and other indie band band wagon. The same goes for TV shows. I will give credit to my Bro-in-Law Chris for being the first to get us into 24 and then we spread that show pretty fast in our family. Now it is time to introduce a new show which I think is the best show on TV right now...Battlestar Galactica. I know, I know people are going to think this show appeals to big fat sweaty guys who wear black trenchcoats and roll multisided dice but does it?

The show is almost over with a Season 4 on the horizon and so far it has been the best show we've watched. Carol, who hates sci-fi and fantasy stuff enjoys it a ton. I believe the show approaches really complex human issues without being underscored with the fact that it takes place in space and other planets. My biggest problem with the show is some episodes can be quite racey and steamy.

All the episodes are quite linked to each other and you feel like there is an end in sight unlike Lost where they introduce some new monster, new character, new other. Carol and I hate watching Lost cause at then end we just have more questions. However, Lost is a good show and deserves credit, back to BSG(Battlestar Galactica)

Again BSG is a deep show and approaches all the basic human needs and conflicts we all deal with daily. One episode we recently finished went into people how strap bombs to their chest and commit suicide. Talk about relevant. Guys this show rocks and in my opinion the best show out there now. I could go on and on but you definitely need to check it out.

DJ's Magic Show

Well my mom teaches junior high and so she called me to learn how to perform a magic trick for her kids. I tried to describe one over the phone but I realized I would have to show her. So I made this little video of me acting really silly and trying to be funny so enjoy the show and the magic trick

DJ's Birth Video

So Carol finally completed her first video with DJ. I hope you all enjoy it!

 

Street Fighter II Glory Days

We have had this blogspot for awhile and we never post anything so I decided to chime in. I had a great memory growing up beating people up in the Street...Street Fighter II the game that is. In 7th Grade this awesome game came out and forever changed kids' expectations of video games. After school, my crew and I would roll to our local Round Table Pizza and have tournaments. We usually would line up our quarters on the actual game screen (Who came up with this idea I don't know but it was cool at the time.) From there we would battle and I usually would come out on top. I used Guile and was pretty aggressive with my attack style. I would love to have a tournament today to see how I hold up with people. I probably spent over $200 playing this game just in the arcade. Talk about a waste of time and money...but I must admit it was cool to brag about my feats to my friends and talk about my kills to the ladies since they all loved Street Fighter II back then. After winning the tournament the ladies would wait outside to kiss whoever was champion....if only that were true. Girls back then pretty much thought we were nerds for playing this dumb game where you can hear some character go "Haduken....Sonic boom...Sap Sap Yogurt...and all the funny SFII sounds. Oh well, good thing I didn't tell Carol I played SFII.

 

Carol and Jimmy Retro