NKOTB won't be seein me

so, you know how I wanted to see NKOTB and was on their email list when tickets go on sale. Well, they went on sale and you'll never guess how much they are. They range from $110 per seat for the aweful seats to $910 for the 3rd row. I was thinking, "I'll pay $60 and get a good seat for this excellent experience."

Milli Vanilli, Salt N Peppa, C&C Music Factory, MCHammer, Vanilla Ice...ya'll need to learn from NKOTB and get your old butt back on the floor for that kinda retirement mula.

see my dog...

I got a dog....click here to be transported to rossandvanessa

why do I love PEOPLE?

Because I found out NKOTB is making a comeback!!!! I was in the dentist the other day and got my people magazine fill...along with the best news I have heard in a long time. I so have already signed up to recieve the email when tickets go on sale. You better believe I'm going to dress totally 80's and dance it up at the concert. Anyone want to join me?

Click here to watch their announcement on the Today show.

Cowgirl....I don't think so.

The Wonder Years

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_jmhNzbSvM

Ross and I watched this episode from The Wonder Years last week and I forgot just how great this show is. At minute 4, Kevin says what I often think..."I just wanted to shake her..why did she have to be so weird? Why couldn't she be more normal." It was like relief that someone verbalized my thoughts.

Emmylou I love you!

This is miss Emmylou. She is about the tiniest thing I have ever seen and she has won my heart completely! I feel like we have this special bond b/c she has the same nasel issues as her Aunt Vanessa. Here, I caught her with the world's largest 9 month old snot bubble. She just smiled at me with this snotbubble...no big deal. Here's another picture of her without a snot bubble, so you can see how cute she is normally.

Grease?

At the supermarket the other day, I was buying Olive Oil. The lady at the checkout said, "I see a lot of people buy this. Do you use it in place of grease?" Well...I hope I have never knowingly cooked with grease... so, I'm not sure how to answer that question.

Gunfire

Last week I woke up by the sound of gunfire at 12:15am. This has never happened in all of my days so I was really scared and crept around the house looking out the blinds to see if something major went down. Ross wouldn't wake up so I had to tell him the next morning. We found out it was a neighbor just waiting for his burn pile to go out.

good huntin out here

The other day our neighbor was telling us how much venison he had in his freezer and told us we would have to come over for it sometime. Then he said, "Yeah, our son in law hit one on our street a few weeks ago. And then right after that, his friend hit one on the highway. We just loaded them in our car and brought them home. You know that is legal in Texas."

Happy Valentine's Day!

I just love this google picture to celebrate the day!

MIA in Hicksville, I mean Huntsville :)

Well, we got to Texas a while ago now...we are officially loving the redneck life. Here are a few of my favorite stories so far.

1. Ross has been trying to clean up some maintenance areas at camp so he posted an add on Craigslist for free scrap metal. You wouldn't believe how many calls came in within the hour...it was so many that he had to take the posting off after that long! Rhoda, DEwayne and others were among those who phoned. My mom was over and it was so funny b/c ross seriously got call after call...who knew there was such a market for scrap metal. We thought for sure there was going to be an all out brawl at the camp for the scrap metal.
2. We attended our community dinner and meeting this last week. We were the only people under the age of 60. Everyone was so nice and we got to meet a bunch of our neighbors. They tried very persistantly to get Ross to join the volunteer fire department. Ross thought he could commit to it until the fire cheif got up and said, "well, it was big month with 5 calls!" It was hilarious b/c the sheriff got up to talk about the recent burgluries in the area (this is huntsville, so this subject is ok to talk about) and he said, "You know down there were they make that Crack Cocaine?" Everyone shook their heads! Ummmm. Anyways, he said, "Now, mostly what these guys are after are GUNS!" "One time this guy was coming out of the house with a whole handfull of guns when the owner came home! That theif dun run off and we caught him within 15 minutes." (Ok, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but it was funny!)

3. Our sweet neighbors are: Sweetpea, Boatramp Ron & Rock

4. Ross had his International Truck shipped to Texas and when the guys dropped it off, he said, "I got like 6 more trucks in pasture if you me to bring them out here and park em in your yard."

Hmmmm...what else. That is good for now!

The Most fun PARTY of the YEAR

For those of you that don't live in College Station, you missed a truly wonderful thing. With the collaboration of a couple of friends...we managed to have quite possibly the most fun party of the year. One of the greatest parts was that the crowd was pretty diverse...although next time we are hoping for an even more diverse crowd. The party was complete with dancing, a band, a salsa lesson, a DJ, pinatas, yummy food and door prizes...truly, what more could you ask for?

P.S. Mike, the dude in the red suit was awesome and made some MEAN grilled corn!!!

Everyone meet Luke

Here's a picture of the newest member of the Hoov clan. They are so wonderful!!!

You only THOUGHT you knew what crowded meant

Why do you have a staple in your nose?

This is Justin, my new best friend at work. His mom is the bookeeper, and until he is back in school, he chills with us every day. Today during our lunch break we played Wii together (my first time ever)...let me just say he kicked my tail...and he's 5! So, we were taking these silly pictures together today and he looked at me real serious and said..."Why do you have a staple in your nose?" (that would be my little nose ring)...then after that he asked..."Does is hurt when you put those earrings in your ears?" Then..."I knew a first grader once that had earrings...and he way a BOY!"...then he told me I was the "most hilarious times infinity person ever". Now you see why Justin is my new best friend.

We saw BIG CAT!!!

Last night we were in a restaurant and Ross said, "That's Big Cat." One last famous sighting from our new favorite show October Road!

We did it!

I, Vanessa Houk & my husband, Ross Houk...are officially home owners (or will be in 30 years) of a house we haven't seen! Texas, here we come!

Homesick for China

Well, this will be my first Christmas in 4 years to be in the states. Although I am grateful to be with my family, I am incredibly homesick for my other home in China. I was SO excited when on youtube today I found a performance that I was at last New Year. This is the Mongolian song that made me famous...but with some other girls singing it...enjoy it, it's beautiful!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax8VnsUKhmU&feature=related

Shoot...I'de do that any day!

true story: last night we were at a party and this girl is talking about her interior decorating client stories...she said, "one time I had this lady have a break down b/c she couldn't figure out how to put her son's clothes away in the drawers." Then she said, "Lady, I don't get paid $100 an hour to put your son's underwear away." With a total look of shock on my face, I turned to my friend Dan who also heard the conversation and said, "I'de put underwear away all day for $100 an hour...I might even wipe her son't bootie all day for that price." He strongly agreed. Some people.

Merry Christmas Ya'll!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1157140672

Let's Try this again....Best Wedding Dance Ever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT56YizyR2o

Ross' Surprise HIP HOP DANCE BIRTHDAY!

Ross 28th birthday was on Wednesday night and I planned a surprise HIP HOP birthday party for him. We went out to eat with Stephen & Lisa and then went back to Brian's house for 'cake'. As soon as we walked in the door, the music started playing and all of our crazy friends who were decked out in their hip hop gear came out in a line dancing at the top of the stairs. Ross quickly put on his costume and the party continued...

Here's Lauren & Kevin!

We had an instructional video--but mostly, we just free styled.

Becca & Ed. The wife beater crew.

Here's the whole thug gang.

this random guy who we didn't know showed up with his boom box!

I can only hope my first wedding dance will be like this...

http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=1&realattid=0.1&attid=0.1.0.1&disp=attd&view=att&th=11688f30cd0fe645

My Brother Thinks We're Rednecks!

Shortly after we made our last purchase (see previous post) my brother sends me this picture in a email with the caption "Redneck Guest Bedroom." Who wouldn't want to stay in our new camper when they come visit us in huntsville?

I'm a Sucker...

Just when we got down to 2 cars in the family....

Yesterday we were driving down to Denver to see Ross' mom and Ross turns to me and says, "Can I ask you a question?" (He has never asked me to ask a question before). Then he asks if we can go by the house in Littleton one last time to see his dream 4 door 1966 International Harvestor Pick Up. He had one of these trucks back in high school and ever since he can't stop talking about how badly he wants another one when he's older. Being that we were moving and extremely 'stuff' conscious, I figured it was safe to just look so I said, "sure." We had been by this truck multiple times b/c it's in a neighborhood pretty close to where Ross lived in high school. Ross has had his eye on this thing for over 10 years and had even talked with the old man who is the original owner about 8 years ago. Since then, he has never had the courage to go to the door but yesterday was different.

He went up to the door while I sat in the car and an older lady opened the door. Ross explained that he loves the truck and had talked with her husband about it many years ago. She then told him that her husband had passed away in May and she has been wanting to get rid of the truck but doesn't know where to start b/c it's not worth anything (or so she thought--Ross pretty much looks for these everyday on ebay and they always go for a couple thousand dollars in bad condition). Now, Ross is about the luckiest guy I know...the fact that he finally asks about the truck and the old man had just bit the dust is sad, but very lucky.

Anyways, to make a long story short....Ross ended up dealing with her sons later in the afternoon and offered $400 (Thats 40 $10 bills!)and it was a done deal. Can we go a little further with the 'lucky'? Ross is such a freak, he seriously would have paid like $6000 for his dream truck in perfect condition. Thank God he didn't! Now we have another 'project' and Ross has his dream car so he will never have to buy another one! (cross your fingers). I'm a pretty good wife if you ask me....how could I resist--it's his birthday!

Here's some pictures and some great things about the truck:

-The guy was the original owner, he got every bell and whistle that came on the darn thing, the paint is original, there isn't a rust spot to be seen (ok, maybe a few small spots), it has a wood-grain dash, it has 72,000 original miles....and THEY THREW IN THE CUSTOM CAMPER for free!

HECK OF A DEAL!

Getting our tree

Since there was absolutely no cooking to be done this Turkey Day at the Houks, we went to get our Christmas tree! There hasn't been a lot of snow yet this year, so we hiked instead of our normal snowmobiling. Our friends, Kallie & Steve, went with us. Here's the pictures...
Ross before we killed our tree!

Kallie, Steve & Tucker with their tree.

Hiking out!

Dragin it down the mountain!

Posing for a photo on Meadow Mtn.

Finished Product!

Rocky Mountain National Park

Ross & I went to check out Rocky Mountain National Park last weekend as a last minute "I have to see this before I leave Colorado" type trip. It was really beautiful.

Hairball

Today I was showing Ross Google Images to show him how I come up with images for my blogs....I told him you can find a funny picture for just about anything. So, we went there and I said, "pick any word." He said, "hairball." I typed in hairball and among the first pictures was this one and he said, "Gross, look at that guy pulling a hairball out of his mouth." Ross, "That is Hillary Clinton."

I found this on Facebook..

Can I even tell you why I love and miss this girl?