Saturday night Renée and I went to church (our first Saturday night service) with Tim and Jeni, and it was a good time, save for some white-rapping (hehe). Since it was the first Saturday night service, there wasn’t a ton of people there, and unfortunately, some of our good friends that we really wanted Tim and Jeni to meet were not there. Oh well, maybe next time.

Afterwards, we went over to the state fair (I mean, ahem, EXPO 2004) and walked around for a while. We realized that if it wasn’t for the rides, the state fair really wouldn’t be all that exciting. And maybe the food, except it’s so stinkin’ expensive. Renée and I split a turkey leg (a $7 turkey leg, mind you!) and while it was tasty, we couldn’t finish it. But there were other enticing food items, like the green-chile corn dog (which we drooled over but settled for the turkey leg).

So we walked around and found a barn with a lot of animals. We also found another warehouse with all kinds of goats and sheep (stinking to high heaven) and then eventually found ourselves staring at a model railroad. That was my doing, by the way. I love model railroads. But I digress.

Tim and Jeni got some ice cream while Renée and I walked around the Manuel Lujan building, chock full of exhibits of digital cable, stronger-than-steel drill bits, foot massagers, and everything else imaginable. It was like walking through the Home Shopping Network.

The best part of the night was after we came out of the exhibit hall and just sat and talked with Tim and Jeni for almost an hour, occasionally watching the passers-by. We enjoy spending time with them so much and God blessed us with great conversation.

Thank God for good friends!

This weekend Renée and I helped our friends Tim and Jeni move from down near the university to farther north and east, around Juan Tabo and Menaul. They are going to be managing some apartments up there. When they moved here at the end of May, they moved in with Tim’s parents for the summer until the apartment complex management was ready to transition. Well, that time has arrived.

So Saturday morning, bright and early, we went over to Tim’s grandma’s house, where some of their furniture was being stored: an entertainment center, a bed, and a horrible hide-a-bed couch. Three door pins and four guys later, we were able to get it out of the house.

Then we moved on to Tim’s parents’ neighbor’s house, where the rest of their furniture and boxes were stored. Things to remember: try not to lift a huge armoir that could easily flatten you with only one other guy. Good thing I’ve been working out.

Anyway, we moved them up to the second floor of their apartment, which proved to be quite interesting and exhausting at the same time. Thankfully, no one got hurt, and everything is where it is supposed to be.

What made this trip fun was a little tidbit of information that we got from Jeni. She said that she was pulled over for speeding on her way to school the other day (she is, after all, an elementary school teacher). The funny thing was, it was in the school zone, and you know what that means: big fines.

But what took the cake is that the cop let her go with only a warning, because he was so guffawed at the fact that she was late to her class to teach! Let that be a lesson to you, Jeni!

Although it seems like an eternity ago, TJ and Cammy have started their marriage together. Renée and I had a great time traveling to and from good ol’ Sacramento, NM, to a Methodist camp where Cammy and her siblings grew up. It was great to see those two tie the knot and begin a life of glorifying God as one flesh.

My favorite part had to be when TJ invited Cammy to dance with him for their first dance. He subtly put the music on and then motioned to her to join him, ever so smoothly. (Of course, I can’t remember the song, so just pretend like it was really romantic, because it was.) They danced tenderly and enjoyed themselves for several moments, when TJ then motioned to Cammy’s father to take over and have the “father-daughter” dance, which was also quite sweet.

But the best part was when TJ decided that Cammy’s father’s turn was over–he stepped over to him, tapped him on the shoulder, and cut back in, to finish off the first dance with a romantic dip and a lovely kiss. Of course, the tapping was scripted, so it all worked out just fine.

This was probably the most scheduled wedding that I’ve been to. Since it started at 1:00pm and ended promptly at 4:30pm, I knew exactly what time we had to be there, and around New Mexico. On the way home, we encountered some pretty nasty weather, which isn’t a lot of fun to drive through especially when you going through tight, winding, steep mountain passes, but God’s grace protected us just fine.

Pictures now available!

Scott, this is for you.

On Saturday, Renée and I took our good friend Laquie out to lunch and to ice cream as a little going-away gift. You see, Laquie has been with us out to Florida and back and also was a fellow church-goer with us. We have had a lot of fun times during the last four years, and now the time has come for Laquie to move on to bigger and better things in Virginia Beach: graduate school.

So after we had parted and cried our last tears (haha), Renée and I hopped in the ol’ Camry and headed back home on I-25.

As we were merging into the right lane to exit onto westbound I-40, I saw this bird just kind of hovering (car-level, mind you) above the freeway. It looked kind of confused but not totally unnatural. The funny thing was that I was heading right for it at a blazing 65mph.

We kept getting closer and closer and my scream-level quickly increased, as did Renée’s. I tried swerving, but I didn’t want to cause an accident, and so…

another one bites the dust.

I hit the bird with the left headlight and heard a loud cross between a boom and a smack, and then saw the bird go “flying” far to the left of the car and land on the side of the freeway.

It was really scary. And really funny.

Both Renée laughed our heads off because we had just finished talking with Laquie about Laquie’s little “run-in” with a bird in Santa Fe about two years ago, with feathers flying all over the place. It was quite hilarious for me being behind Laquie, but she was quite shaken up about it.

But the best is yet to come.

Sunday afternoon, I get a voicemail from Laquie saying that she has a funny story for me. I called her back and she told me that Sunday afternoon while heading home, she also hit a bird on I-25! She hit it with her passenger-side headlight, however, and she actually drew blood from her bird.

I guess the moral of the story is watch out for the suicidal birds over the freeways of New Mexico.

Last night I had a dream about last week’s post, that it was all of sudden extremely popular all over the Internet. Sites were linking to it, with weird titles and thumbnail images of an image of the dead rodent. And on the actual web post was a very large, graphic picture of this poor creature. But I was so excited to be so popular! You know, me and the Internet go hand-in-hand.

So I quickly realized that it was dream, unfortunately, because it was just so absurd and then woke up with the sound of the alarm, ready to get to the gym.

Later today, Renée’s friend Trisha is coming in from the great land of Texas. She’s visiting for the extended weekend, so we’re all going to go do some recreational stuff. That’ll probably involve a trip up to Santa Fe, as well as something in the way of fireworks.

Any big plans for the 4th? What events are typically going on in Albuquerque, if you live here?

Well, this past weekend Mark and I were little social butterflies. Besides, finishing painting our master bedroom and hanging curtains, we were out quite a bit.

Friday night we went to church and after we got home, we hung out with our neighbors in their backyard until the wee hours of the morning–totally unexpected. Good times–they’re quite friendly and love a good party. We’re looking forward to hanging with them more often. They have three grills in their yard: one for chicken, steak, and hamburgers. Yeah, baby.

Saturday, we went to the Natural History Museum with some friends from Bible Study, Isaac and Alexis. They had a neat film produced by the guy from Stomp! that showcased music from around the world showing in the DynaMax theater. (There was some killer beat-boxing too that I’m sure Andy and TJ would love.) They had a woman Flamenco-dancing in the middle of the museum, and M88 was there too. Unfortunately, the dinosaur exhibit was under [re]construction, and Isaac was very sad. But we cheered up with some Baskin Robbins afterwards, mmm mmm!

That night we hung out with Travis and Julie from church. They have a really cool New Mexico-styled house that was in the 1998 Parade of Homes. It has a great view of the mountain, too. Anyway, we ate dinner outside in their lovely backyard and Mark helped Julie buy a new computer with all the whistles and bells.

On Sunday, Travis and Julie came over and gave us some goodies out of their fish pond for our goldfish pond–water celery, cat tails, and lily pads. They were going to give us fish except they couldn’t catch those fast lil’ buggers in the heat of the day! So our pond looks good and now we’re just waiting for the fish. The little waterfall in our pond sounds so peaceful; it’s great hanging out back there.

Sunday night we had hamburgers on the grill with Mark’s best friend Tim and his wife Jeni. We’re so excited they live here now! Jeni and I have already joined Curves together and so far, I love it! I can’t wait to gain some moosculs! It’s nice being able to rotate to all the machines with no boys gawking at you. Woohoo! As Shrek would say, “Tight, firm buttocks!”

Now you know I wasn’t kidding about being social butterflies! Haha. Come on ovah and see us sometime!

That’s because we’re doing lots of other stuff away from computers.

Like trimming hedges. You know, I thought it was going to be great fun to trim hedges. I didn’t consider the impact a nice 30mph wind has, or the fact that some of our hedges are 10ft. tall (and then some), or that it’s already like 90 degrees outside. So instead of being great fun, it’s just fun. And extremely satisfying! That was the first half of the weekend.

The rest of the weekend was also fun. We bought some paint for our master bedroom, and Renée has been hard at work to make it look perfect (and she is doing a fantastic job–it is going to look awesome). We also hung out with my parents for a lil’ barbequing and some movie-going. Shrek 2, baby, comes highly recommended from the entire Horlbeck household.

This week marks the arrival of my best friend Tim and his wife Jeni back to the lovely brown city of Albuquerque. They packed up their place in Denver and decided to relocate here, after a long eight years away. Both Renée and I are looking forward to lots of double dates with them! Which also prompts me to mention that today marks the 4th anniversary of the wedding of Tim and Jeni. I remember driving up four years ago right before going on summer project to be his best man. We had a great time gallivanting around Denver and Ft. Collins (aye, we drove a long way) for his bachelors’ party. He had to wear a huge sombrero with a teletubby on the front of his shirt and ask for marriage advice. (I can’t repeat some of it!)

Then, the day of the wedding it was so cool to see God join him and Jeni together as one–and it was quite the privilege to witness it. Little did I know that less than 10 days later, I would meet my future wife.

God is so cool.

This weekend we went to Denver for Peter and Alana’s wedding. For those of you who don’t know them, we were on staff together with Campus Crusade for Christ at UNM. Mark and I traveled up there with Jess, Clint, Mike and Rachel. Fun times with walkie talkies!

The ceremony was very nice. Trumpet Voluntary began about three times before the bride was ready to come down the aisle, which was a little shaky but funny too. I guess it’s because we were all so excited to see her! The best part was when Peter and Alana’s parents stood up to pray with them, and then they took their first communion together as man and wife.

Mark and I talked afterwards about how on our wedding day we loved each other with our whole heart, and yet today our love for one another has grown ten-fold! God is amazing in how he blesses his children! Now I know what Pastor Glen meant at our ceremony when he said, “25 years from now, you’ll look back and think, we only thought we loved each other.” Wow.

So that evening we danced the night away and celebrated our friends.

Way to risk, Peter. We stayed with our friends Tim and Jeni, who are moving back to Albuquerque in two weeks (yay!) and headed home the following morning. We stopped to rest at one point and Rachel, Jess and I decided to roll down a hill and do cartwheels. That was really fun! Our husbands thought we were cute and silly, which we are. And while Peter and Alana are relaxing on the beach, we’re back at work. I must have spring fever because I’m ready for a vacation too. Look for the pictures in our gallery of the lovely couple!