Hello, Goodbye, Etc

I've gotten a little behind on my blog exposes, so this post will be a my take on a conglomerate of events (I know, you're SO excited).

First, let it be known that Kregg (Eric's brother) got his mission call to Sao Paulo, Brazil. He'll be speaking Portuguese, so none of the Teichert boys will be able to tell secrets about anyone in their second languages. :)

Eric - Russian (Ukraine)
Jeff - Chinese (Taiwan)
Phil - English (Austrailia)

This is right after Kregg read his call, the look of pride in Eric's eyes is classic. I should send this into the Ensign to use in building up future missionaries (I was going to use the word "propaganda" but I'm pretty sure Germany ruined that word for everyone).
Kregg leaves November 11th and no one is quite sure how we'll get along without him (he just yelled at me at the pool and told me to go to work) :( But we really will miss him... he's a funny kid and completely irreplaceable in the family.


A week or so later, Eric and I went on a little road trip to see the rest of Texas' finest. We did a circle and hit Austin, San Antonio, and Houston (all in 48 hours... 12 of which were driving... through the desert... with no sign of life...).

This is yours truly in front of the massive Texas state capitol... it's second in size only to our nation's capitol in DC... typical, right?

Oh look here, it's me at Mellow Johnny's (Armstrong's bike shop in Austin)! We bought Jason a shirt for his birthday because he is a huge cycling enthusiast. Oliver maybe not so much though cuz he promptly destroyed Jason's souvenir with a little chlorine from the pool. Jason said he almost cried. :*( I would have understood if he did... gifts from me are priceless (probably only cuz they're so rare. with this level of self absorption, you can only focus on someone else for moments at a time)

Oh look, it's me, again, but this time at the Alamo! We remembered it for about 10 seconds before we decided it was too bloody hot to do anymore tourism and headed down to the Riverwalk to get some grub... Eric put his hand on my back to lead me into the restaurant and was completely appalled that I had sweated through all my layers and left his hand moist... he hasn't touched me since.

Anyway, the trip was a success. Oh, do you think I went alone? Does it appear as though I made up Eric's entire existence? The only proof I have of Eric's company is from when we found his best friend, Delilah, on the road with us:

The next week Eric and I headed back to California to help mom watch Oliver while Jason & Gin were vacationing in Alaska. Oliver was so happy to see us he was just beside himself with joy.

Eric tried especially hard to get Oliver to like him:

Eventually, Oliver did warm up and one day while I was playing with him he actually, out of his own free will & choice, got up, came over to me, and gave me a hug... complete with an open mouth gooing across my cheek, which I guess was a kiss. :/

Unfortunately, his change of heart came just before we returned him to the parents:
From then on, he just looked at me like this:
Jason works at Apple and he took us on "campus" for lunch where we actually saw Steve Jobs! Jason has the best/coolest job in the world. I easily convinced Eric I HAD to work there so now I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get hired on (change majors, register as a liberal, go green, start wearing Costco tapered jeans, etc.).

Our last adventure in Texas consisted of the Mesquite Rodeo! We went with some of Eric's friends, including Ammon, who I LOVE.

It was seriously such a good show, except I had anxiety the whole time from fear the cowboys were going to get killed right before my very eyes. I decided most of a rodeo (aside from the actual bull riding) is just for grown men to show how they can outsmart and out muscle small animals...

Well, I'm not here to judge.