second home

I never in a million years thought that I would say it, but I have to admit that Bakersfield will always be my second home.  It is so nice to come back and pick up right where I left off with all the great friends that I made during my four years here :)  I cannot believe it's already been almost 5 months since I left.  Dear time, STOP flying!

I started the week off by having lunch with one of the best mommas around on Monday. Christine and her husband, Tyler, moved to Bakersfield about 3 years ago and I don't think they were quite prepared for the fact that I already considered them family. During my summer internship in Bakersfield I lived with Tyler's younger brother's girlfriend (now wife) plus they are both Texas Tech Alums, so we are practically related, right? Makes total sense in my head.  Whether they liked it or not, they agreed and took me in as family.  They are proud parents to the most adorable 18-month old little boy, Curt, and as of last Tuesday a sweet baby girl, Rosalie.  So if you're doing the math, Christine at 39-weeks pregnant came and picked me up for a lunch date less than 24-hours before she was scheduled for her C-section.  I'm telling you, that woman is amazing! I closed out my week spending a few hours with the new family of four AND getting to meet my friend Katie's baby girl, Bailey.   Here are a few of my favorite pictures of those sweet baby girls!

Rosalie cuddled up in a blanket from Aunt Alli!

Just showing off her long skinny legs

I gave her a pep talk to be prepared for everyone to make fun of her long skinny toes...

She's smiling, I swear!

Little Bailey after she fell asleep in my arms

I had to wake her up before I left, sorry Mom!

I spent the rest of the week covering Chad's house in pink paraphenelia to get ready for Carrie's baby shower. I felt like a true housewife just spending the day crafting waiting for my boy to get home for dinner.  On Thursday night I even got to be Chad's date to the 2013 Oil and Gas Awards for the West Coast region.  He came away a winner representing his company as Engineering Company of the year…more info click HERE!  We are awful at taking pictures together, but I did snap one of his interview after the ceremony…

After months of planning with my partner in crime, Rachel, (and help from Braidon), I think Carrie and Cody's baby shower was a success! I still can't believe that it is almost time for Baby Grant's arrival.  Her due date is December 10th, but after seeing Carrie's belly my guess is around December 3rd.  As usual, Carrie has not slowed down one bit.  In fact, at 7+ months pregnant, Carrie made the time to finish a t-shirt quilt that I started 4 years ago that she volunteered to finish when she saw that after 3.5 years I had made very little progress. Needless to say, there is no doubt in my mind that Carrie is going to make one AMAZING mother!

Pumpkin babies!  

Note:  Disregard Carrie's outfit, she was putting on t-shirts to prove that she could still fit into a size Medium :)

Clearly, we still can't believe it...

Diaper Cake 

My pumpkin babies

LOVE my t-shirt quilt...proof that Carrie is amazing!

All in all my week in Bakersfield has been wonderful! I'll be enjoying a few more days here before I head back to Houston on Wednesday morning.  Although I'll be sad, yet again, to leave my friends and sweet boy, I'm excited to spend my last week in the states in Houston. I'm looking forward to a week full of family, friends and lots of love as we celebrate my cousin Kristopher and his sweet fiancé, Julie's, engagement!

Until next time, xoxo!

home: naps, parties, and football

Whoops - I missed a week!  I feel like I have been in a time warp since I landed in America a week and a half ago - Cabinda to Luanda to Houston to Las Vegas to Bakersfield to San Diego to Houston and today back to Bakersfield!  It's hard to believe that just two weeks ago I was sitting on the beach in Cabinda with my amazing co-workers.  Here are a few photos from my escape from camp the Sunday before I left...

belissimo!

Chef David and his friends

Just your average Italian meal...more bottles of wine than people

bon appitite!

Stroll on the beach after lunch soaking up the sun!

"Alli, enough with the pictures!"

I can say whole heartedly that America is the best country in the world.  Last Friday morning when I touched down in Houston all I could think about was how blessed we are to live in such an amazing country - minus the whole government shutdown nonsense.  My sweet brother knows how much I love being greeted at the airport by a familiar face, so he picked me up from the airport at 6am.  He also knows that I would have griped at him endlessly if he hadn't been there since I have made more than enough trips to pick him up, most memorably at 3am.  First thing I did was take the most wonderful shower, sans shower shoes which is a requirement in my shared Malongo shower.  I jumped back in the car [freedom] and had a delicious breakfast of about 6 breakfast tacos at the Taco Cabana up the street, followed by a nap because I can do that now :)  Then it was time to head to Vegas…

I met 3 of my favorite Bakersfield girls for a little Vegas get away.  I can't say much about the weekend because as they say - what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, so here are a few pictures collages made by the Rolow's instead…

Night #1

Night #2

We got up early and booked it out of Vegas to avoid all the Vegas to California traffic that typically turns a 4 hour drive into a 6+ hour drive.  I also just really wanted to get to Bakersfield to see my boy!  Needless to say, I was 100% worthless for the two days that I was in Bako.  My activities included napping, catching up on TV shows, getting a massage, and watching Chad cook dinner.

Next stop - University of California San Diego in La Jolla, California just North of San Diego.  For those of you who haven't been to this part of the country, plan a trip ASAP.  It is breathtaking.  Clear skies and 70-something degrees year-round, ranks pretty high on my list of favorites...

Successful Career Fair on the beautiful UCSD campus

Morning hike in SD...absolutely gorgeous.  Anyone please feel free to buy me the house featured in this photo :)

After a long 3 days of recruiting, it was time to head back to Texas and actually sleep in my OWN bed!  First, we had to celebrate one of my favorite couples on their engagement.  Kelly's parents opened their home to celebrate the future Mr & Mrs Kilcrease.  Kelly has basically been a part of the Johnson clan for her whole life, growing up across the street from Laurel and Kristopher.  I feel so blessed to have been able to really get to know both Kelly and Robbie since moving to Houston.  It was a great night with great people, and I can't imagine two people more perfect for each other :)

Adorable Thoreen/Kilcrease family!

"Chad can you please try to take a normal picture???"

Success!

We spent most of Saturday recovering from the long night and watching Texas Tech pull out a win against WVU, which was a little too close for comfort.  I can't even begin to explain how much I have missed college football Saturdays!  

Chad and I are heading back to Bakersfield tonight, and I couldn't be more excited.  I am going to spend the week finishing up planning for my dear friend Carrie Grant's baby shower!  She and her husband, Cody, are getting ready to welcome their baby GIRL this December and I cannot wait to spoil that little thing!  It's just a bonus that I get to plan with my old office-mate and party-planner extraordinaire, Rachel Waggoner - who I miss terribly on a daily basis!  Nothing like going back to my second home :)

Until next time...xoxo

firsts + lasts

I have been counting down all my “lasts” in Malongo these past couple of days. So here’s to my last Sunday, and even more exciting – my FIRST time to leave camp! Everyone who lives here on camp works 7 days a week, and is only allowed to leave for special circumstances that require approval/security/etc. The Italian company I am working with on my project only works 6 days with Sunday as their off day. They live in a compound out in Cabinda city, and don’t hesitate to rub in the fact that they all get to relax at the beach on Sundays. After enough whining, they put together a lunch for this afternoon and invited me to come out and join! One of the folks on my team is Catalonian (region in Spain, below) and will be making lobster paella. When I went to Spain last summer I spent some time in Barcelona, which is part of the Catalonia region. I had my first taste of paella and was blown away, so I’m expecting a delicious lunch today! Don’t worry Mom/Dad/Nana/Papa/Ma/Pa, I got approval and will have a driver and security, plus Tomas and Phil.

Right when I got here, I made all of my team members take the Myers Briggs personality test as a team building activity. The test is just a series of simple questions that are tallied up and the result is a 4-letter combination that focuses on attributes of personalities: Extraversion/Introversion, Sensing/iNtuting, Thinking/Feeling, and Judging/Perceiving. Long story short, every person on my site leadership team of 15 people was either an ESTJ or an ISTJ – except for me. My 4-letter combination is ENFP – Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving. I failed to mention that I was attempting to explain all of this personality jargon to a very diverse group of folks (Italian, Portuguese, Catalonian, and Angolan). So I searched the internet for material to help explain all of this information and found the matrix below that shows one phrase interpreted by each of the 16-letter combination type personalities.

Note: click HERE if you want to read more about the Myers Briggs personality types...

As you can see, ENFP’s are easily distracted which gets me to the point of why I’m explaining all of this anyway….I really get a kick out of all the animals/flowers/views/random stuff there is to look at around here and I don’t have any problem letting everyone know when there is something awesome to look at (this usually includes monkeys). This past week, I had a group of folks come to my office to give me a TON of photos that they had taken over the past few weeks of things around camp so I’ve picked some of my favorites to post!

oh HEY! just hanging out...

I have no idea what this is, but I want it in my backyard.

Caught him eating a banana! (I did not feed the animals)

Birds looking for snacks outside the Tank Farm

African deer in camp

Ok, this next series of photos is AWESOME! There is a banana tree right outside our office, and one of the guys here took a picture of it every day as it began to produce fruit. It's something I've never seen before, and I think it's pretty amazing! I left out some of the days where it didn't change much, but you get the picture...

I’ll be America-bound Thursday afternoon, leaving camp around 13:30 (7:30 Texas time) and I will touch down in Houston around 7 Friday morning – right at 24 hours of travel time. I’d say my first trip exceeded my expectations, solely due to the wonderful people that I have met here in Africa. I could do without the spiders, but I guess I’ll come back :)

31 days down, 4 to go! xoxo

Boa Noite Malongo