A Boxing Day to Remember

This October Jen Borden and I started dating. We’ve been great friends for about four years or so, but we had just never given dating a chance.

Things went really well, and by the end of October I knew that she was the woman destined to be my wife. I started praying a lot more, having conversations with LOTS of people, dreaming, and hoping for good things in the near future.

I bought a ring, talked to her dad, and made some plans for the engagement night. Here is that story…

The ring! But not on her finger.

If you know Jen you know she doesn’t necessarily love a big surprise. I’m pretty sure she was the kid growing up that liked to find her Christmas presents and peek before Christmas morning. I on the other hand, was the kid that didn’t look for my presents, and would wait patiently on December 25th for my parents to give the ‘all clear’ signal before running into the living room to check out my bounty of gifts. With this in mind I started talking with Jen about marriage pretty early on. I wanted her to catch up to the same line of thinking that I was experiencing, for her and for me (you don’t propose unless you know the answer is going to be “YES!”).

I liked the idea of a Boxing Day proposal because I had never celebrated Boxing Day before, and who doesn’t love a new holiday to add to the calendar year? Plus, we wouldn’t get to do Christmas with each other, and this was a great excuse to take her out to a nice dinner without arrousing any real suspicions. It was with this excuse that I told her I’d pick her up at 5 on Dec. 26th, and we’d go out to a nice dinner…oh, and I wanted her to dress up.

I showed up at her house a few minutes earlier than she had anticipated, and I asked her to put on some shorts and a tshirt and come talk to me really quick, I wanted to show her something. When she came downstairs I gave her a giftcard to Anthropologie (her favorite store) for ‘One Dress of Her Choice.’ I knew she’d love this gift, and it took away some of the surprise, but I still got to have fun with her reaction. Off we went to the store, and she started shopping.

It wasn’t too long before I was planted on a plush couch in the store reading a book about Luck, when she emerged looking more beautiful than ever. She picked out a black dress with stitched in flowers around the bust. She was cute, fun, and gorgeous. I was so excited! I offered to buy her some earrings and a necklace to go along with the new dress, and she took me up on the earrings, but turned down the offer for the necklace. Strange, I know.

We left from the store and went to the restaraunt for dinner. The Grove is a nice place at Discovery Green in downtown Houston, a park where we had our first date. We had an amazing dinner, and talked for a long time. After dinner I let her know that I had a surprise for desert and that I needed to run to the car to grab the desert. I ran out to the car, grabbed the ring, a letter I had written her, and a cooler containing a piece of pecan pie from Goode Co. BBQ and a bottle of champagne.

It was then, on the chilly December night that we set up a blanket overlooking downtown Houston and enjoyed a piece of super sweet pie. We talked, laughed and I broke out the letter containing exactly what I would say. Long story short, I asked, and she said yes!!! Wow, what a great feeling!

My amazing friend Cabe came out and took pictures for us right after I popped the question, capturing the excitement, fun, and overwhelming butterflies we were both feeling.

Following the photoshoot, we met family, friends and friends to be at a wine bar in Houston for drinks and laughs.

Thank you Jen, for this night and for making me so very happy. Pictures from the night below:

The Faith Required

Good Lord people. I know I haven’t updated my blog in a long time. I know I told you I would, and then didn’t. It’s been hard to motivate myself to get on this thing. Other stuff has been on my plate, and sadly the blog suffers in those times.

I’m at home still from a bit of a Thanksgiving day break. I shot the game Thursday night, and realized I had been on national TV when after a 5 yard TD run by Christine Michael, I got a flurry of text messages saying things like, “DUDE! You were just on TV!!” Thanks to all of you who let me know. Sadly, Jen and my family both missed that magical moment, my 15 minutes if you will, but I’m glad some of my adoring public was able to see it happen.

Coming home brings back lots of memories. Things like Thanksgivings past, old habits, and relationships that have taken a backseat in recent times. Though, it is good coming back. Realizing that to some people you’ll always be that 17 year old with a car who thinks they know everything. This is likely to be the case the rest of my life, and I’m not entirely convinced this is a bad thing.

It feels really good to have someone on your side. I know, I live in a wonderful community with wonderful people who I know really do care for me. There is just something to having a history with someone. A shared experience that lets you know everything is going to be fine. I like being able to dream with people I’ve known for years. They have a sense of where I’ve come from, and often have a wonderful way of looking at the things that might come.

No one ever told me that my mid-20’s would be a time of change. You set yourself up for change in high school (though, most of that change really sucks, and you don’t like it at the time, and if you’re like me, you don’t really like it int he rearview mirror either), college allows you to find an identity that you choose–one that isn’t determined by your parents, your friends when you were 5 years old, or the place you grew up–one that can be more of who you really are, but post college…well that’s a world I still don’t understand. It’s exciting though. This feels like the first time in my life where the rubber is starting to meet the road. Where the things I’ve become, and the people I’m starting to do these things with more and more, are really what I like seeing in myself.

That past history is fun, and it is important to me to be able to look back at it with fondness. But it’s the future that gets me really excited. The person I’m to become, the person that I’m to do that with, and the ways and means by which that will happen. Who knows what in the world life will be like in five years. I don’t. I think that might take some of the fun away from it…to know exactly what will happen before it happens. I like the not knowing, and the faith that is required to do that.

Hmm… here are a few pics from Thanksgiving night at Kyle Field. The Aggies lost 49-39 but put up a hell of a fight. I love those big games, and hopefully next year we can have a few more big time moments!

Ok, so I’m not dead.

I haven’t blogged in quite a while. It isn’t that I don’t like this blog anymore, it’s just that life as of late hasn’t been full of things to write about. Not that I’ve just been sitting on my butt doing nothing, rather the opposite has been true, I’ve been going and haven’t really stopped to write much of anything.

I’m turning a few things over in my head that should make for better posts in the near future, so I suppose you could say this entry is really just to say that Calves from the Stall isn’t dead, it’s just been on a hiatus. But, this week it comes ROARING BACK!! (Sorry I just e-yelled at you. Rude I know, but I gotsta keep you on your toes… keep ya guessing.)

Until I find the time to pen some real thoughts, here’s a blog I’ve been having a lot of fun with lately:

1001 Rules for My Unborn Son

This guy’s hilarious. I tried to convey some of the same things in a post I made a while back (About Being a Guy), but Lemond takes it to a level I never even dreamed of. Good stuff right there.

Oh, and another site actually used something I wrote a while back from the entry about Texas in a Day. Texas Outdoor Movie Blogs quoted little ole me. Pretty cool.

Alright, check back again in a day or so as I’ll have something to really share with you. Until then…

Football Season is Upon Us

Most of the year is pretty chill around my office. This week though marks the beginning of Aggie Football Practice. Fun, but tiring. Here are a couple of shots I took this morning out at practice.

Unit #3

Haven’t blogged in a while. Not too sure why, just haven’t felt the need to get anything out of my head where this blog is the most appropriate place for that to happen.

I have moved as of late, and some great things are happening as a result. Though I’m going to start off by listing, as I see them, the crappy things about moving:

1. Packing. This is the most outrageously daunting task I undertake each year. Looking at all of the things I’ve accumulated, all the dust that has settled, and all of the things I still insist of clinging too makes me a bit sad. Though finding that one book you’ve been searching for, or having a chance to rummage through old pictures is often a wonderful result of a move. Still not sure that it’s worth it.

2. Cleaning. This sucks. Plain and simple.

3. New places. I don’t consider myself averse to change. I can embrace new surroundings and new people with relative ease, but not when moving. I have a hard time eating when I move to a new house. I have a hard time connecting with friends for the first week or so of living in a new home. I think when I’m comfortable and know what to expect is when I’m often functioning at my most complete, and the move mixed with a new bed, new lighting, new toilet throw me for a loop and it takes some time to adjust.

Living in the place Ian and I do now, Eagle Town homes, has been wonderful thus far. I hear lots of talk from friends of mine wanting to ‘live in community’ or do ‘communal living’ with one another. For a time this seemed like a pipe dream, or something that would be difficult at best to achieve. That to say, I wasn’t ever going to go out of my way to make something like this happen. After all, I own a car, and don’t mind driving 10 minutes to visit someone. The Eagle complex though doesn’t just boast a number of refurbished homes, it also houses 8 close friends. Friends who like coming over a drinking a beer and reading poetry. Friends that like making pancakes in the morning and sharing them with two single guys out of love and a hint of pity. Friends who don’t mind you stopping by to provide comic relief as they feverishly remodel their home while preparing to sell another.

These things are good. Having other believers close by is good. Though at some point this could easily fall apart and become just another dull part of my life if allowed to do so. I want to fight against that feeling. I want to fight for living as a family with these people. The other night Tim said something that’s been rattling around in my head ever since, “Community is something you see in the rear view mirror.” Wait, what? His point was that community shouldn’t be the goal we are shooting for. Community is the overflow of living with people as a family.

I like that. I like living with a family, and them being my community as a result.

So to my new family, welcome to me. Welcome to the things that are both good and bad about who I am, and who I am becoming. To all of you, I say that I can’t wait to get used to your wonderful expressions of love, and your shortfalls while seeking to live true life. This is going to be good. I just know it.

I guess moving isn’t so bad. Once you get all of your crap packed up and transported, all the dust and grime wiped away from the old place, and as soon as waking up in a new room doesn’t kinda freak you out any more, you realize you’re at home with family. That’s reassuring to me. Now if I could only find fresh pancakes every morning this thing would end up working out better than I ever imagined.

As of Late…

- I’ve been working hard at getting better at sports photography.

- I do Crossfit with Danny and Jordan 3 times a week with a bunch of A&M Rugby team players. They are intense, and sometimes do things much better than I do, but I have a lot of fun with them. They push me in ways that I don’t normally get pushed in a workout.

- Life is moving forward. It is strange to look at so many of my close friends being in relationships, when for the majority of our collegiate experience that wasn’t the case. Growing up does happen at some point, I just wasn’t expecting it to happen right now. This feels like one of those things that wasn’t the case one day, and then the next it was very true.

- Saw Rachel Getting Married, not the best movie in the world. Actually, pretty boring. Though, I see why it get’s ‘indie film cred.’

- Ian and I are getting ready to move in the next couple of weeks. I just realized today after lunch that I should probably be getting ready to start the process of packing up my crap to move it the 10 minutes away to our new house. This is not going to be fun.

- Going to Coldplay this coming week for the second time this summer. Lots of people are going to Coldplay this next week. Emily is going to ditch me for a better seat offer, but Beth (my sister) stepped up and is planning to join me on the lawn with the “real fans.” I’m excited for this.

- Went to Schlitterbahn this past Monday only to realize that Schlitterbahn isn’t quite as much fun if you’re not 14. Still had a good time, but not 14-year-old good time.

- I’ve started eating lots of avocados. (I know you don’t care, but I’m running out of stuff to put in here.)

- Finally, I have been hearing rumors for some time now that there was a picture of my in Sports Illustrated from the NCAA tournament in March. Not a picture I took, no a picture that featured yours truly in the frame. I had all but written it off until today at men’s lunch when Ryan Womack brought me the copy of this famed SI. I was pretty excited to say the least. The picture is below, and you can click on it to make it bigger, and see more evidence that it actually was me sitting there on the sideline with my little photo badge not taking a picture. I swear I took lots of pictures at this game, but the score was already way out of hand by the time this shot was taken, and I just didn’t give a crap anymore about shooting their unstoppable offense.

This photo appeared as a full page in Sports Illustrated. I'm the guy sitting down outlined by the red circle. (all circles were added by Andrew Kilzer)

ESPN used my pic!

I found out this morning that there was a chance ESPN.com might use one of my pictures on their College Football Recruiting page. Thinking it was a long shot at best I dismissed the idea and just went about with my day.

I got on and checked though at about 2:30 this afternoon, and sure enough there it was, a picture I had taken being used on the world’s leading sport website. Pretty cool. Here’s a link to the page my picture is on: ESPN College Football.

Because that will inevitably be taken down by the powers at ESPN, I took a screenshot and you can see that right here:

A picture I took being featured on ESPN.com!

(You can click the picture to see it in full sized glory!)

Yes they did a little photoshopping to make it fit their purposes. They extended the fence on the right side, I suppose that’s just what you get when someone like ESPN.com uses your picture and gives you little more than name credit on the page.

Church at night?

(read the above title like you would hear it while watching Braveheart)

I really like visiting small Texas towns. I had been to Independence, TX before but that was during the day time. During the day the town doesn’t boast much of anything really. Sure they were once one of the richest cities in the state. Sure the the original Baylor campus was in their town, and then they housed the Baylor Women’s campus after the men moved to Waco. Other than that though, not too much to be seen in the daytime.

At night however something more interesting comes to life. The lighted church tour through Independence. Six churches in the area, all either Baptist or Lutheran, have been outfitted with architechtural lighting. The lights accentuate the beautiful steeples and gables that welcome worshippers into these houses of the Lord. (Does that sound right? I’m not sure.)

Anyway, here are some of the pictures from the lighted church tour, which was actually just us driving around in the car finding these churches.

St. Matthew Lutheran Church. This church had a strange creature living over the door.

Immanuel Lutheran Church. This had the coolest old cemetary. We found one grave that dated back to the 1820’s.

Bethlehem Lutheran Church with a cool shot of the moon in the background.

Hey Dad, Happy Belated Father’s Day!

I came across this article while reading around the internet this morning. If you aren’t going to read it, I’ll summarize. Basically a career minded dad decides he’s spending too much time at the office, and after an HR survey that asks the question, “Who runs your child’s birthday parties?” begins working from home as a stay at home dad. He throws wonderful parties, and does lots of thankless work sometimes being recognized, sometimes not. In the end he realizes that the happiness of his kids is the most important thing to him.

Dad watching as I shoot, I think he beat me by 1 on the day.

I like this on a lot of levels. I wish I had read something like this on Father’s day, yesterday, so that I could have written about my dad then. But, since I found it now, I’ll mention a few of the wonderful things my dad has done for me both recently, and when I was growing up. My ‘Here’s to you Dad’ list:

- I always remember him coming home from work when Beth and I were small, walking in the front door and embracing the both of us as we ran and literally threw all of our weight into his legs gripping them with the biggest hugs we could muster. Those faded at some point, but I’ll be honest, my dad still gives some of the best hugs of anyone I know.

- He taught me how to enjoy the outdoors. When I was younger he was ALWAYS up for going outside and doing something. That could mean trying out a new hunting ground, walking to the park down the street, or just seeing if we could pick off a squirrel in the front yard with a pellet gun. Because he loves being outside so much, I’ve developed a great sense of what being in nature is like.

- He allowed me to be dangerous. Shooting is my dad’s greatest passion in life (other than his family). He reads about guns in magazines, books, and on the internet pretty much all of the time. If you watch a movie with him he can tell you exactly what kind of gun each hero and bad guy are using. He showed me that it was OK to be dangerous if you did it in a way that was safe. I always remember him saying, “Don’t ever open the gun safe when I’m not at home. If you want to see the guns, or go shoot them just let me know, and we’ll go out and shoot as soon as we can.” And that’s what we did a lot of the time. I’d stay away because dad said so, and because I knew all I had to do was ask and we’d be off to the range shooting a round of skeet, and then grabbing some lunch.

- He loves Beth and I, but treats us like we need to be treated. Beth gets whatever she wants from my dad. He’s a total sucker for my sister. She can demand french toast one minute, and the next is sitting at the kitchen table with a hot piece and warm syrup on the way. I on the other hand didn’t always have it so easy. Dad would show me how to do things a couple of times and then encourage me to do them from then on. It was a wonderful way of allowing me to figure stuff out on my own.

Some of my favorite memories of growing up, are when I was about 5 or 6, sitting on the kitchen counter, making pancakes with the old man. He’d always tell me not to flip them too soon, and it seemed like he had the perfect timing down for a golden circle of deliciousness. Not to mention that he’d always be up for making mini pancakes just because I thought they were so freaking awesome!

- He’s taught me, and is continuing to teach me how to fix things. When your dad is a mechanic you don’t often realize how wonderful that can be. I don’t ever take my car to the shop without first asking him to either take a look, or tell me how much it should cost. He’s never told me no when I ask him to help me with a new set of brakes, or an alternator change.

- He’s been there for all the good stuff. I remember in 9th grade when I was playing defensive tackle for the football team at my high school. Mom was at every game, and dad made it when he could, probably about half the time. Those were the games that I wanted to play especially well. What is it about being around your dad that you just want to show him that you can do a good job? I’m not sure if girls feel this way about being around their moms or not, but I know for a fact that when I’m around my dad I just want him to see that I can do something, and do it well.

So, Dad, even though this is a dad late for father’s day, I’m glad for everything you’ve taught me, and are continuing to teach me. You’ve been a wonderful example of humility and strength, and have shown me things that I will surely imitate and teach my son one day. Happy belated Father’s Day, you deserve it.

Portraits of a Robot Scorned

My inspriation for the day. Constructed out of a PVC 't' piece for the body, a water faucet connector hose for the arms, toilet ball for the head, wine cork eyes, and a funnel for his hat.

My comgroup is full of some of the most creative poeple I know. They do things at the drop of a hat that make me step back and look on with amazement at not only how their brains work, but at the skill and passion with which they are able to express themselves.

For some time now we’ve been throwing around the idea of having a ‘Creative Display Night,’ where everyone creates something and then brings it to the group for everyone to experience and enjoy. I’ve championed this idea for a while now because not only do I love seeing/hearing/experiencing what people create, but I also really love getting to hear the story behind what it is that people have made, and what it was like for them in the process.

I entered a series of photos that I’m choosing to call: Portraits of a Robot Scorned. It started as a silly idea where I was interested in seeing if I could build a robot (defined later) which might allow me to capture some simple emotions from an inanimate object. Think wall-e. I defined robot as: a collection of parts from the hardware store, made to look like some form of life, but that doesn’t actually do anything that we, modern humans, might think of a robot doing. Mark actually informed us all that robot originally comes from the Czech robota, “servitude, forced labor,” from rab, “slave.” Interesting, my robot was serving me in a field in front of my house, and he didn’t really have much say as to whether or not he was used in this manner.

After comgroup I was curious as to how this stuff was received.  I understand that this is fairly strange.  Most people sit down and write a poem, or paint a picture, I build a ‘robot’ and then take pictuers of him emoting around my house.  Admittedly I did this because I saw someone else create a gallery that was similar.  I think I do this 1)because I saw something that inspired me and I was reacting to that sort of emotion, and 2)because I’m pretty good at imitating what other people have done.  I was given the challenge after comgroup though, that I need to find my own voice.  Find my ‘robot’ if you will.  I’m not sure how that’s going to happen, but I’m excited at starting to try.  More to come on this soon!