Herm's House Podcast - Jet Lag, Corn Dogs & Graduation Tears

🎙️ After an unexpected break, Herm and Kristin are finally back behind the mic — and they’ve got a LOT to catch everyone up on.

From flying across the world to Paris with almost no sleep… to surviving Disneyland Paris corn dogs, graduation emotions, travel softball tournaments, career changes, and the reality of sending their oldest daughter off to college — this episode feels like sitting in the living room catching up with family.

There’s laughter, chaos, emotional moments, travel stories, Disney disappointments, proud parent moments, and the usual Herm’s House banter that somehow turns every life event into a comedy special.

⚡ One minute they’re discussing French museums and international food tours… the next they’re arguing about washing machines, periods, and whether Herm’s voice needs medical attention.

And honestly? That’s exactly what Herm’s House is supposed to be.

⸻

💡 In This Episode

• Why the podcast disappeared for a while
• The behind-the-scenes frustrations with trying to “grow” the show
• Herm & Kristin’s chaotic Paris adventure
• Disneyland Paris vs California Disney
• The “worst corn dog disappointment” of all time
• Travel anxiety, exhaustion, and culture shock
• Layla graduating high school & heading to Texas State University
• Emotional parenting moments nobody prepares you for
• Travel softball tournament life
• Herm starting a brand-new career with Waste Management
• Why Herm’s voice still sounds like “puberty part 2”

⸻

⚡ Episode Highlights

“We finally realized… we’ll just do it ourselves again.”

“I need two weeks in Paris. Two days just to sleep.”

“They messed up the corn dogs too.”

“This is where my life begins.”

“We back, baby.”

⸻

🎙️ Episode Chapters

00:00 – Welcome Back to Herm’s House
02:10 – Why the Podcast Took a Break
05:30 – Flying to Paris & Surviving the Jet Lag
11:15 – The Louvre & Seeing the Mona Lisa
15:40 – Food Tours, Macaroons & French Adventures
18:10 – Disneyland Paris & Phantom Manor
24:30 – The Great Corn Dog Disappointment
28:00 – Coming Home & Feeling Exhausted
31:40 – Travel Softball Tournament Life
35:00 – Mother’s Day & Watching the Michael Jackson Movie
37:20 – Layla’s Graduation & Emotional Parenting Moments
42:30 – Herm’s New Career Journey
44:30 – Wrapping Up & Returning to the Podcast

⸻

🔑 Keywords

Herm’s House Podcast, Paris trip, Disneyland Paris, parenting podcast, graduation emotions, family podcast, married couple podcast, travel stories, Texas State University, motherhood, fatherhood, veteran family, funny marriage podcast, Disney adults, softball tournaments, life updates

⸻

🤝 THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

ANCHOR FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS GROUP, LLC
🌐 www.anchorfinancialsolutionsgroup.com
📍 2544 E 10th Street, Tucson, AZ 85716
📞 520.620.5320

BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY MARKETING COLLECTIVE
🌐 https://beautifulsundaymc.wixsite.com/beautiful-sunday-mar
📞 520-405-3298
📧 createabeautifulsunday@gmail.com

Your support helps us keep these conversations going and expand our veteran and family outreach.

⸻

📌 Support the Show

⭐ Like
💬 Comment
🔔 Subscribe

Your engagement helps us grow, reach more families, and continue meaningful in-studio conversations.

Interested in sponsoring an episode or supporting our outreach efforts?
📩 hermshousepodcast@gmail.com
📱 @HermsHousePodcas

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Hello, boys and girls, and welcome back finally to another episode of Herm's House Podcast. How are you doing? I'm your host, Herm, and this is my beautiful, lovely wife and co-host, Miss Christine. Hi, babe. Hi. How do you do?

SPEAKER_04 0:44

I don't know if everybody's noticed, but David's had a voice change.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

No, I didn't. Surgery. I was getting well, wow, surgery. Wow. I'm transitioning into a man finally. And to a voice, a new voice. And I have been, forgive me.

SPEAKER_04 1:00

Yeah, let's avoid doing that clearing of the throats.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Yeah, I will do my best. But my voice is You're gonna drive the listeners crazy. Obviously, I know. We need like a cough mute button. Um, yeah, I got sick or something, and then it just kind of hasn't gone away. So I maybe should go to the doctor.

SPEAKER_04 1:22

You think I've been trying to tell you.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

I don't know. It's been like a month since you've been like stuff to do. With that said, we have taken quite the break. Um, just a quick explanation as to what all happened. Uh basically, we were trying to do some uh bigger things with the podcast, and um we entrusted a few people that I was just saying uh didn't deliver on some promises that they had um and kind of left us waiting and waiting and waiting, and then finally we're like, never mind, um, we'll just do it ourselves again. So here we are to the original format. I think we'll be uh keeping it this way uh from now on, at least for the foreseeable future.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Um for now. For now, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

But with that said, uh, let's do a quick recap as to everything that has happened in the past couple of months, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 2:16

I know.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

I'm trying to think like thing would be that we went to Paris. We flew 10 10 plus hours to London. I didn't get put more than half an hour of sleep on the plight, and it was it was a it was a red eye, so it was you know middle of the night, and oh yeah, you went right to sleep. You threw on that little hoodie Instagram that we bought, and which I knew and I was worried that was gonna happen because you got me one too, which is super dope. Um, because it has a little eye mask on the hoodie. Um, but I knew I was gonna get instantly hot, and that's what happened. So I was like, okay, well, I can't use it. I was thinking about like throwing it on my back.

SPEAKER_04 3:00

So let's just like you're jumping around a lot here.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

We're on the plane.

SPEAKER_04 3:04

I know, but you're like, and then there was this hoodie, and you know, and so before the plane ride, I bought us the Instagram famous. If you haven't seen them, what are they called? Comfort. It's called Comfort, but it's FRT. Yeah. And they're hoodies, they got me. I was like, we're gonna go on this long plane ride. I need to these these hoodies would be perfect because they have like the your automatic sleep mask and the hood, and they look so cozy, and they have a bunch of pockets that I don't think I even use, but besides the point, lots of pockets for lots of activities if you wanted to use them. Anyways, that's where I got them, and I got us both hoodies to wear for the plane ride, because it's a 10-hour plane ride, and obviously, like David said, didn't last that long. Mine got hot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

So I put it on, and then um, once I got hot, I took it off. I was like, okay, can't do this. And my shirt, which I had to buy a new shirt by the way, because I ruined the shirt that I was wearing the day of flight. Like I always have like a travel shirt, which is just a like a thin, you know, nothing fancy. We ended up going and getting wings or something. And yeah, I like a child, never fails. I got stuff on my shirt, so I was like, I don't want to fly like this. So we were right next to the outlet mall, so we went and got me a new shirt. And then I throw on this hoodie when we get to the airport, and I go take it off because it's solid black. And I go to take it off, and there's black lint on my entire shirt. And I'm just like, this is such a great start. This is gonna be dope. Yeah, um, I watched like three movies on the way there.

SPEAKER_04 4:50

Well, so the thing about it too is before we were leaving, I told him to take some melatonin. I'm like, let's take melatonin, it'll help us sleep the trip, and we'll be good to go.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

And I didn't.

SPEAKER_04 5:04

And you didn't take it.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Well, I don't do well with melatonin. It's not my favorite. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

SPEAKER_04 5:11

But you didn't even try.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

I did when we got there.

SPEAKER_04 5:14

Yes, but you didn't even try on the plane.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Right.

SPEAKER_04 5:17

So I slept the whole way.

SPEAKER_06 5:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:19

I I messed up though. I missed the first meal because I took it right when we got there, and they're like, and we're gonna be serving our first in-flight uh what is it, supper or whatever? And I was like, oh man. And I could I didn't even make it to the supper. I don't know how fast it got there from the time they announced it to the time they actually got to our store.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Which was great for me.

SPEAKER_04 5:38

I was out.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Because they were have apparently on a 10 10-hour flight from um Phoenix to London, they give free alcohol. So I was like, well, I'll have a beer. Uh she'll also have a beer. I'll have another beer, and she will also have she's just passed out with her hoodie mask on. So she's gonna get up, she's gonna have them in a little bit, she's gonna be so thankful. And I'm just crushing because they're not picking up any of the trash. That was one thing that I noticed. They never walked by and was like, trash, trash. And then even when they did, like speedy Gonzalez just running through and it's like, goodness gracious. Um, but they kept giving me beer. And then the um the flight attendant was super cool because then she walked by and then she's kind of dropped two more off for me and Chris and was like, boom, here you go. We went with our friends, Chris and Serena, and they're worldwide travelers. They go everywhere, all the time. I think they're somewhere right now, like in Italy or something. Um, but they basically told us, hey, we have an extra room because they had like a town home that they rented. So if you guys want to come, all you gotta do is pay for your flights and you know, whatever we're doing there, and that's it. So it's like that that alone on a trip to France would have, I mean, for the what we were there for like five days, five nights, I guess, would have been I I would imagine at least $1,500, if not $2,000.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

Was it five nights? I thought it was just like three nights.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

Well, we'd get there technically Thursday, Friday, Saturday, yeah, four nights. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 7:07

I was like, it wasn't not five nights, it was like four. Felt like three.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

But it was uh I mean, I was exhausted. And then I highly recommend if you're gonna fly to um another country that isn't connected to our continent, you should probably have uh a little bit more time to get used to the jet lag.

SPEAKER_04 7:29

Acclimated.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Acclimate to the time zone is nine hours difference, I think, for us. And yeah, it was it was a rough one. But we got up. We went to the Louvre. For those of you who are not familiar, it is uh, I believe the biggest art museum on the planet. Um is it? Yeah, you can Google that one, but I think so. It's very famous, for sure, one of the most famous, if not the most famous.

SPEAKER_04 7:55

Well, I mean, we talked about it in one of these episodes.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

One of which episodes? About the Louvre?

SPEAKER_04 7:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

The Louvre gotta say it with your you gotta roll your R with the back of your tongue. Louvre. Yay.

SPEAKER_04 8:09

Yes, the Louvre is the largest museum in the world by exhibition space.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Welcome to another episode of Herm's Fun Facts. The Louvre is the largest.

SPEAKER_04 8:17

Did you know that before you said it?

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Yeah, yeah. I I took French in the I took French in high school, and that's why I was, you know, anyway. Um I obviously didn't know how massive this place was. It was unbelievable. I don't know. Did we see the whole thing?

SPEAKER_04 8:33

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

I feel like we honestly still had like a second half, but everybody was exhausted.

SPEAKER_04 8:39

No, but I think we did. I feel like we went through all those areas.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

No, because when we walked out and we went to the French.

SPEAKER_04 8:45

But we went around.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

No, but we went to the French, but like we saw the Napoleon and all that stuff. There was a whole opposite side that we could have gone and looked at and done all that. So we should have made like a big oval, and we did not. Um, yeah, we stopped at the restrooms and we're like, heck, I was I was falling asleep with my head up against the wall while I'm waiting for you guys to go to the bathroom. I'm like, well, I'm gonna get robbed. Um, so that was that was crazy. It was so um like pretty. All the art, all the paintings, and all the stuff. When you see them in person, like I've always seen them in like my art books or history books or whatever, and it's like they look cool, but it's just a picture and a little thing. But you actually get to see it, it almost looks exactly like what they have. A little picture, and it's like, well, some of those paintings were as big as a wall. Like they were just so big. And then we got to see the Mona Lisa, and I think because everybody, all the reviews or whatever that I've seen about the Mona Lisa, they're like, it's tiny, it's tiny. So you get there, and I'm expecting like a postcard.

SPEAKER_04 9:46

But you get there, it's like an 8x11, like yeah, that's a decent portrait size.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

It it was good. I mean, I saw that's that's pretty cool. It was wild how um protected it was because just I I I want to say like a week or two before we went there, a dude ran up on it and threw was dressed as a pregnant lady.

SPEAKER_04 10:09

No, an old lady.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

An old lady?

SPEAKER_04 10:10

An old lady and had cake.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Had a cake chucked cake at the at the painting. It's behind bulletproof glass and all kinds of stuff, but like it didn't get on the actual picture because it was covered, but but they had like a I would say probably an eight-foot barrier in front of it, and then a bunch of security guards just standing in front of it like it was crazy. But we got a two-picture, um, yeah, pictures galore, and then we went and did a uh uh food tour, like a hidden food tour, a local food tour, which was pretty awesome. Our um French Mexican uh tour guide, Marcel was pretty awesome. Um he let us know that he was literally French and Mexican because his French father um met his Mexican mother in Mexico City on a culinary trip that he took, and she was an artist, and and you know, he shot his shot after several days of being there, and lo and behold, that worked out. So, um, so yeah, it was pretty cool. He spoke Spanish as well. I speak Spanish, and it was it was neat to be able to like you know relate like that. And then we went and saw um just walking around and see the what was it, the basilica that matches the where where they shot uh John Wick, the yeah, that was before or you're talking about on the food tour? Yeah, it was the show, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:40

It was like yeah, you you it's a little tour of the little city right there.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

I don't remember what the the it was a village, right?

SPEAKER_04 11:47

Monte.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Right.

SPEAKER_04 11:50

Monte something monte.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Yep, it was something like that.

SPEAKER_04 11:56

Wherever the basilica is, that town.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

It was that town. I can probably look it up. A lot of little shops and and things like that, but we went stop, had macaroons. I don't like macaroons. Uh I've had them before. And we went, that was one of the first stops he was gonna give us like a little piece of chocolate and um macarons.

SPEAKER_04 12:15

Uh wasn't the basilica. Just put the basilicas in Rome, Italy.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Oh, wow, we weren't even close.

SPEAKER_04 12:22

Vatican City. Let's be let's just you said basilica.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

I said I wasn't even close.

SPEAKER_04 12:28

I'm gonna say what church?

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Yeah, John Wick Church. Just put that. Anyways, they gave us these macaroons while she's searching, and I was ready to be like, pass, you guys can have them, but I was like, well, I'll just give a shot. But it was the best thing I ever had. It was so good. I don't even like chocolate, and they gave us these little chocolates because they were like they made them there at the store, and apparently, like this is a local um one-of-a-kind um award-winning chocolatier slash macaroon. So it was right.

SPEAKER_04 12:57

Sacre corer.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Sacre corer? Sacre corre. That's how you would pronounce it if you were in the case.

SPEAKER_04 13:06

Oh, Mont Marte.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Montemart. Marte. He told us what it meant too, and I forget.

SPEAKER_04 13:15

Yeah. That's where it was. That town.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Yeah, it was it was pretty neat. But that church, he explained to us, was supposed to be kind of like what the Eiffel Tower is for Paris for that town.

SPEAKER_04 13:28

It's what's supposed to be what Paris was known for.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Yes, that was supposed to be the monument. But due to, you know, I think it was wars and then um the funding and all this stuff, they had the opportunity to build.

SPEAKER_04 13:40

It just took them forever to build it. And then the Eiffel Tower was built first.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

So after they finished the church, they planted a ton of uh trees in the eye view to where if you were standing at the tallest part of the stairs, you should be able to see the Eiffel Tower. But because of all the trees, that was that level of petty that they were like, Yeah, we're good. We're not, you can't even see it.

SPEAKER_04 14:05

Yeah, so they made it, they were petty and they made it so that way there were no views of the Eiffel Tower from the top of that church. Because the church, if you ever see it, or if you saw John Wick, you'll see that's on like this mountain. That's what the Monte is some kind of mountain, right? Monte. And so it's on this mountain. And so normally, if you're up there, you'd have a really pretty view of the Eiffel Tower. But because of how petty they were about yes, about the Eiffel Tower getting built first, they planted a bunch of trees in place. So there you there's absolutely no view of the Eiffel Tower from that church.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Yeah, it was hilarious. Hilarious. Uh, afterwards, we then went to the Eiffel Tower. Um, we drove by the Arc de Triumph. Um, famous for those of you who do not know what the Arc de Triumph is, is a um a giant monument as well.

SPEAKER_04 15:05

It's not nearly the size of It's the big rectangle thing with like the giant door.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

What was it?

SPEAKER_04 15:12

Rectangle or thing? Uh yeah. Well, because like a half oval Yeah, like the big circle around it. It's a big uh roundabout that goes around it. If you've seen it in movies or pictures, you're trying to h explain it historically. And I'm like, you know that thing, it's like a big building, but like not in the middle, and there's like a big people driving around it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Um that was where after the US liberated uh the France um from the Nazis, we had a big parade and marched right through it and and you know, basically told them Nazis to go kick rocks. Um that's what it's most famous for, at least two Americans. Um we got to check out the Eiffel Tower, took some pictures, it was pretty neat. Um I got a free little tiny affle tower because one of the I would say like gypsy salesmen. I don't I don't really know. Gypsy? I don't know. That's what they told us there was a bunch of gypsies around, so I just assumed that's what it was.

SPEAKER_04 16:06

Who said there was a bunch of gypsies around?

SPEAKER_01 16:08

I think it was probably Jacob. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 16:10

Um no one said, Yeah, yeah, for sure. I never heard anybody say there's a bunch of gypsies.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Yeah, Google that. Google that one. Google is there gypsies around the icon tower selling stuff. And then um, but he he was like uh he said something in French, and I was like, uh I answered in in French. Um I know 11 French words, and it one of them is like, what's up? It's it's salah. And I said that to him, he's like, Oh, you speak French, and I was like, actually, nope, that's about as far as it goes. Um, and then he kept talking to me, but I kept responding, and I kind of feel like it was because I didn't tell him to go kick rocks. That he was like, Come here, man, I got something for you. And he gave me like a little tiny Eiffel Tower keychain thing.

SPEAKER_04 16:54

Gypsies are women, just so you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

They are? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:58

Oh gypsies are women. That was like a it's like a Roma, Roma or gypsy women.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Roma?

SPEAKER_04 17:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Interesting. Anyway, there was there was there's all these like Eiffel Tower, you know, little figurines and whatnot. Um we didn't get to see it all lit up, apparently, and only do it like once an hour.

SPEAKER_04 17:21

Because I was watching it from the car.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Yeah, but not there.

SPEAKER_04 17:26

Yeah. We just there was it was a lot to do in a short amount of time.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Right. And not enough time to like experience it.

SPEAKER_04 17:36

Not enough time to experience it, and not enough time to catch up, like in sleep, sleep-wise, or um, like I need sleep. I definitely, if I don't sleep, then I am grumpy, or I get migraines, or like just my body does not feel right, and I'm not having a good time. And I was feeling that a lot while we were there. Yeah, and it was rough. Yeah, I was really rough and trying to get around. I was super anxious, like I'm just overly anxious all the time. But I think being in a different country, away from the kids, everything's new, not quite sure like what's happening, and then like people are like, Oh, be careful because people pitpocket, like just like all the things, and then like with the the current events happening around the world. Um, I just it made me a little nervous overall, and my anxiety, well, then lack of sleep, my anxiety gets the best of me. So yeah, it was it was rough.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

And then the next day, we go to Disneyland Paris, which was I was I was excited. I was like, okay, cool, you know, it's another Disneyland different location. Let's see what they got. We get there because you you you always want to do the rope drop, which again for me, rope drop is like okay, sure, whatever. And um, for her, it's like a big deal. She enjoys it, it's exciting for her.

SPEAKER_04 19:09

And well, the rope drop is at the like the beginning, the opening of a park.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Park opens.

SPEAKER_04 19:15

So, and it's basically like they start letting people in, but only to a certain point, and they have a rope there. And then once the park opens, they have this, they play this music and all this stuff happens, and then the rope they drop the rope, and then you go to whatever first ride. And it's it's cool because if you're there at that time, usually the first ride that you get to, there's not really a line. So you try to hit the you try to hit up the rides that like have the longest line throughout the day. Yeah, because the faster you get there, the faster you can ride.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Yeah. And we get there, and every every ride is supposed to be open when the park opens. Well, that one wasn't. What do we do? It's not, it wasn't called Haunted Mansion.

SPEAKER_04 19:54

Phantom Manor.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Phantom Manor.

SPEAKER_04 19:56

The Haunted Mansion is called the Phantom Manor.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Right. Very similar to the Haunted Mansion. Haunted Mansion. I was about to say the Phantom Mansion.

SPEAKER_04 20:05

Um Haunted Mansion is what is in California traditional, also in Disney World.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Disney World.

SPEAKER_04 20:12

In Paris, it's called the Phantom Manor.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Yeah. And so we're waiting and we're waiting, and we're like, what is happening? I think it was probably like 15 minutes before they finally opened it.

SPEAKER_04 20:22

They finally actually opened the ride.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

The ride.

SPEAKER_04 20:24

Like, imagine you Disney people, like you couldn't even get in the line yet. Like the line was closed.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

The line to the door.

SPEAKER_04 20:31

The line to the door. The line, yeah, the gate to the line was closed. And it took them forever to open up.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

And it was cold.

SPEAKER_04 20:38

It was cold.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

For like 40 degrees. And it was it was very chilly. Um, and then we get there, and they're they're not, I didn't feel like they were like in character when they opened the door.

SPEAKER_04 20:48

They were just kind of like, you're used to the uh you're used to the Disney magic of California.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

That's why I was I was disappointed.

SPEAKER_04 20:55

And I've gotten you spoiled by the Disney magic of California.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Right. And I figured, I don't know, it's pairs, they're fancy. It's gonna be, you know, it was not. And we did the ride. The ride was cool because it was like actually almost kind of scary. I was like, oh dang.

SPEAKER_04 21:11

It was scary. Like I it was really scary compared to like the Haunted Mansion. I wouldn't, I mean, I was scared as a child with the Haunted Mansion.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

I think Gordy would have been like legit.

SPEAKER_04 21:21

Oh, what have freaked out. I was scared right now as an adult going through that ride. I was like, ooh, like there's some crazy looking like animatronics, things were like creepy. So then like you were we it's like a spirit Halloween level of creepy, I felt like.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

I mean, uh I'll give you a level down from spirit, but yeah, it was it was up there. And we go to do that um the the food experience thing. What was the restaurant?

SPEAKER_04 21:52

Oh, uh, because you can do a Disney dining. So we ate at the Walt Disney The Walt Disney American Eating subject. It was Walt Disney. American cuisine or something like that. So we go, but the cool thing is the where it's at is it's on Main Street, if you know Disney, which is like the main entrance of Disney in all Disneylands, right? So it's on the that second floor there, but then the parade was happening right outside the window. So it was a really good area to be at, really good view.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

It was cool. That was really cool to see because of course the floats are very tall, and the people are there, and then even like because the people you're almost on iView with, because it's like on a second story.

SPEAKER_05 22:38

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

And you're like on iView, and you're sitting there seeing them, they see us through the window and they wave at you, and you're like, oh, they looked at me. Let's go.

SPEAKER_04 22:47

It was also fun to watch like people watch and see all the people all excited on the street to see the parade and everything like that.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

We get to ordering, and you know, order uh they have a menu, it's like a set menu, but you get to pick from the set menu, and you get to open open with like an appetizer thing. One of the appetizers was a chicken pot pie. Cool. That sounds good. I went with that. Then the next two options was like a chicken, right? Like a I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 23:15

I don't, I honestly don't remember, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Right. And the other one was Barbecue Chicken. Barbecue chicken. The other one was chile con carne. Chile con carne in the United States, which we were in American cuisine restaurant, right? But in the United States, it's literal chile, which is you know, like like um, I would say like peppers that you boil and you put them in, they make a sauce, and then you put the meat in there, and then you got chile con carne, right? That's what it's supposed to be. Well, we get there, they bring them to my plate, and it is basically a bowl of chili, like a bowl of chili, and some meat on a bed of rice. And I was like, boy, they for real gave me chili com carne. Chili with meat is what that was. It was, I mean, it was fine, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 24:09

Like chili beans, like chili beans, yeah, chili beans, wolf chili, and then like sh was it ground beef on the rice?

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Uh uh, no, it was like uh chopstick. Okay, but not not in any way, chili cancotame. Uh you can imagine my disappointment. I was very like, uh Okay. That's my bad. Y'all would be a very literal. I was expecting what we eat, and we didn't get that.

SPEAKER_04 24:39

No.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

And then for dessert, um, I don't remember what they brought out for dessert and something. It was just underwhelming, I would say. Um, and we but at least we got to spend a ton of money for it. I'm gonna say for the two of us, it was like 150 bucks. Um, and yeah, it was like a lunch-ish type of thing. Um it starts to rain while we're there. Luckily, I brought ponchos. Good job, me. Um, so we throw on, everybody throws on the ponchos and we're just kind of hanging out. And it's towards the end of the day, and we were saying, like, what would make this at least a little bit better? Let's go get corndogs. It's Disneyland. You have to get corn dogs. Anybody who goes to Disneyland, you know that the corndogs are superior corndogs, they're great, and plus the experience and and you know, whatever. When we go and they have corn dogs, it's one little stand, it's got corndogs. We finally find it. We all get the corndog, and it comes with like chips and a soda or something. Everybody takes a bite, and everybody's like, Oh my god, y'all messed up the corndogs, too. Oh my word. These all terry bean.

SPEAKER_04 25:53

I think what like I forgot to like remember, and what you wouldn't know is like the food isn't the same overseas. Like the food is different, it's made different. All of their food is different.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

You don't figure they're shipping in corn dogs, though. No, they make them there.

SPEAKER_04 26:09

No, they make them there. Like, that's if they were shipping to be different.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Somebody give me Walt Disney on the phone right now.

SPEAKER_04 26:14

Think about it, like there's different food quality stuff there and here, and the way they make things there and here, right? So the food's different. You eat overseas, it's not going to be the same as you eating here. Like, everything's just different. Yep. And I forgot, I forgot.

SPEAKER_05 26:32

It's still exactly.

SPEAKER_04 26:33

So when, but as I'm there, I'm like, yeah, that's it, this makes sense. Like this stuff isn't. But what I was what I noticed too, like you see, things are different, right? My stomach didn't hurt, like it hurts here with certain foods.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Again, I think because that was one of the go back the day before where we did the food tour, a lot of cheese. And she was freaking out. She doesn't do well with cheese. She gets a little fartsy. And she tried them, nothing. She was fine. A lot of it, I think, was like goat cheese, right? It wasn't honestly.

SPEAKER_04 27:05

I mean, I don't know. All I know is that my stomach wasn't hurting.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

I I'm I'm almost talking to Marcel, I'm almost certain that he said a lot of these were goat cheeses. And I never had goat cheese. It just sounds weird. Because it's from a goat. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 27:23

I don't know. I mean, I didn't eat all the cheeses though either, but I did eat a lot of the cheese that I did like. So it was good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

But but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:32

But I mean, even but all the rest of the food, too. Like my stomach didn't hurt like it normally hurts when I just eat regular food.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Yeah. And that's, you know, we probably allow a lot more preservatives.

SPEAKER_04 27:44

And that's what I'm saying, is that's why it tastes different. That's why it's not the same.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

It's like it's hard to mess up cornbreading, though, and they they did it.

SPEAKER_04 27:54

They but it's funny because you say mess up, but they it's not that necessarily that like that's what they're used to over there.

SPEAKER_01 28:00

I feel like it was stale. It wasn't even really the flavor, it was the it was stale.

SPEAKER_04 28:04

It was like crumbly that's just made differently, not just have the preservatives in it to hold it all together.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Give me my preservatives, bro. Give me my preservatives, and let me have it. I'm going back. No, I just want to go back to Disneyland to like redeem to like wash out my wash out my mouth.

SPEAKER_04 28:20

You know what? Let's do it. Let's go to Disneyland. Let's take you there. It's hey, you know what? First your idea.

SPEAKER_01 28:25

Go yeah, I'm going straight to the corndog guy. Give me a corndog. Now I'm gonna have it for breakfast.

SPEAKER_04 28:33

Breakfast, corn dog. Actually, it probably has breakfast corn dog be good. Like a couple of things. Breakfast corn dogs. That's not the same thing. Sausage.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

Pancake with sausage, and then sometimes they got the little blueberries in it. Anyways, um, but then it it just wasn't it the best. And then we finally go back. It was cold. It was so cold and rainy.

SPEAKER_04 28:53

Like everything, like we were just, it was we're trying to very gloomy.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Gloomy.

SPEAKER_04 28:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

And then we ended up going um afterwards. Did we even go get dinner?

SPEAKER_04 29:07

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

I didn't think we went, yeah. It was just one of those days, it was a downer. And then the worst part is we get back and there's no like convenience stores or anything. So they had a little market, and the market closed like right as we got there every night. And it's just like we went to the we went to the hotel's dinner. That's what we did that evening.

SPEAKER_06 29:30

We went to the hotel's dinner.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

But you know, that was fine. Um, the drinks were good. They they made some good drinks there at the the bar, and the food was was pretty good. Um, but yeah, afterwards we just all went back to the room, and then you turn on the TV and everything's in French. You're in France, duh, like silly. But you would imagine that we would be able to stream like mirror your phone, and it wasn't a smart TV. And it was like okay, so I have my phone trying to watch a little bit of something.

SPEAKER_04 30:09

Um just uh didn't enjoy the non-American stuff.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Technology is I don't think is American, but okay. I feel like everybody has screen memory except for that one hotel. Which whatever.

SPEAKER_04 30:24

I guess you don't know because you've only experienced that one.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

That's fair. I guess we'll find out. Whatever. Anyways, we left Paris. It was we I definitely want to go back. I'm gonna need two weeks. I'm gonna need two weeks. Day one and two, we're just chilling, maybe we'll get some food, sleeping, sleep, and then afterwards, then you can start planning stuff to where you have to wake up a little bit early and do all that stuff. That's fine. We got back from Paris. Let's see, we're looking at our calendar and just um we got we got to go see our goddaughter Bella. We went to one of her tournaments, which we haven't been to in forever. She lives in El Paso, and we got to go hang out with our friends. Um, that was my first travel tournament because I coached softball and football and baseball and all stuff. But our kid, my biological children were never in travel, anything. Now, I don't know that I could do it every weekend, like some of these parents are doing, like they're going every weekend and they're having to stay at like hotels. And this one was uh quote unquote locals, 45 minutes away, so you didn't have to get a hotel. Um, but it was uh it was pretty cool. And hanging out with the team, uh, we made some new friends. Um, you know, we were we're all hanging out and cashed the tournament. It's one of those you don't want your team to lose, obviously. But you know, you're okay if they do. Because they're lost the first one. If they lose a little early, we get that set, we get our Saturday night back. Let's go ahead and get out of here. Um, but no, the girls kept winning. And they lost the first game, but they just kept winning, kept winning, kept winning, and then they get their Sunday morning and get destroyed. They didn't wake up, and it was the parents are like they do this all the time. They were so upset. And it was it was funny. It was fun to see. And um, I really liked I really liked the environment. I think, you know, you kind of growing up in it. I mean, that was really you guys did that all the time, right? But you I'd never done it as a parent.

SPEAKER_04 32:26

No.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

I think that that was definitely but it was funny because you're watching you're watching and you're seeing the girls be you and your teammates, you know, 20 years ago, which by the way was probably actually more than 20 years ago. But yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:44

No, that's probably about the time I started waiting high school ball. How old am I?

unknown 32:50

You're 35.

SPEAKER_04 32:51

Okay, more than 20.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

But, anyways, that was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_04 32:57

It was just yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

And then yeah, right, right. And then um we went Mother's Day. Mother's Day was um a couple weekends ago. And I mean, I feel like we had a good Mother's Day, but obviously that would be your story.

SPEAKER_04 33:13

I'm like, my brain is not recalling what we did for Mother's Day? I blame the concussion. I always find the concussion. My brain is like not you're saying all these things, right, that we're doing, and my brain's like, I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01 33:25

Oh wow. Seriously, I'm making up all these stories.

SPEAKER_04 33:28

These are I'm like, why is my brain doing this right now? And maybe it's the exhaustion because we've been nonstop since Paris. We have like back to back to back of just things that we're doing. Like, oh, my brain hurts.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

Just Mother's Day.

SPEAKER_04 33:42

Yes, I remember now. We said Mother's Day. Or maybe I don't.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

Okay, maybe not.

SPEAKER_04 33:47

What did we do on Saturday?

SPEAKER_01 33:49

Saturday of Mother's Day?

SPEAKER_04 33:51

Yeah, that week. Like that weekend we have stuff going on. It was Doodle's birthday.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Duh, we did Doodle's birthday thing. Went to Dave and Buster's. Um he turned 15. You know that, right?

SPEAKER_04 34:06

My brain is Yeah, so that Friday we did a little birthday thing for him. Or was it Saturday? Oh, Saturday. We did something on Friday. What do we do on Friday?

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Yeah, I don't recall.

SPEAKER_04 34:19

Yeah, because we did something on Friday. And then Saturday, because we had to do something early on Saturday.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

Um, Friday, we didn't do anything because I'm looking at our calendar and it says pick up doodle. And that's all we did. Um, Saturday morning, we had Gordy's end of season baseball program.

SPEAKER_04 34:40

Ah, see, that's what it was.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Well, the Friday we went and Gordy had football, like tri or not. There you go. We had conditioning. Yeah, we're doing conditioning.

SPEAKER_04 34:47

Conditioning on Friday. So we did have something. It was conditioning.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:51

And then we were supposed to go out, didn't happen, thank goodness. And then um, yeah, then it was the party, and then we went to Doodle's golf match, and then we went and celebrated Doodle's 15th birthday, which is insane. That he's 15. 15. Crazy.

SPEAKER_05 35:05

Happy birthday, Doodle.

SPEAKER_04 35:07

And then Mother's Day was the next day, and we went and had brunch at my Nana's house.

SPEAKER_05 35:13

Right.

SPEAKER_04 35:13

And then we went to go watch Michael, which is a good movie, the Michael Jackson movie.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 35:17

Very much so enjoyed that. And then we went to Cheesecake Factory.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

I'll say on a scale of one to five, uh, Michael was a four. Like it was not the best movie I've ever seen, but it was definitely a really good one. It was wild to see. And in one scene, it's not a spoiler, FYI, if you know anything about Michael Jackson, his dad was kind of mean, a little controlling. And in one of the scenes, we took Gordy with us to watch the movie. And one of the scenes, um, Michael's getting whooped with a belt by his dad. He's getting right in front of his brothers and everything, like, just getting whooped with the belt. Um, because I guess he's being disobedient, whatever, right? And Gordy's getting up at the exact same time he's getting up because he had to go potty. It's guaranteed for Gordy. Okay, go potty. Um, and he sees him get whooped and he just stops and stares at the screen like, oh my god. Like, oh, that's getting hit. Oh, I was like, Yeah, boy, keep messing around. I'm gonna turn it to Joe Jackson.

SPEAKER_04 36:12

Yeah, and then he like sat on my lap and put his hand on head on your shoulder.

SPEAKER_01 36:16

I love you, Daddy. Please don't hit me. Maybe you don't beat me. Ah, it was hilarious. Well, then that brings us to this past weekend, the most terrible weekend of a uh, I guess best weekend, whatever. Past week. Father's young daughter's life. She graduated from high school. Our little bubby. She's now 18 years old, and she is now a high school graduate. And yeah, here soon we will be beginning to transition and moving her out to Texas State University. She's gonna be a bobcat. She was already a bobcat. Friday before the graduation, we had um her little party, a little get together.

SPEAKER_04 36:56

Yeah, because the graduation wasn't until 8 p.m.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

on Saturday.

SPEAKER_04 37:00

On Saturday, and there was no way we're gonna have a party or get together after the graduation.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

I wouldn't have even wanted to go. I'm like, no good.

SPEAKER_04 37:07

No.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Um, but it was uh it was a fun, super fun party. Um, you know, god, we stayed up till like 2 30 in the morning with all our friends.

SPEAKER_04 37:15

Um people came in and and uh celebrated.

SPEAKER_01 37:19

Even with this voice, uh, it made me do karaoke and it was yeah, it was rough. But no, it was fun.

SPEAKER_04 37:24

It was good. We got to celebrate Bubby and she got lots of presents.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

I wrote her a poem and I cried reading it to her.

SPEAKER_04 37:29

You should read it now.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

No. It was good though. I need to I'd like to print it out and maybe frame it first so she could take it or something, but you didn't write it like I told you. Like write it out?

SPEAKER_04 37:40

Yeah, with your handwriting.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

Well, I told you I was gonna do that.

SPEAKER_04 37:43

You didn't. You didn't do it. You're gonna forget.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

I was like a child. No, I was like printing it, like I don't know frame.

SPEAKER_04 37:49

No, but I'm telling you, like it means more when it's in your handwriting.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

I'll ask her what she wants. How about that? That way she'll be able to pick.

SPEAKER_04 37:58

And I'm looking out to the openness because I thought you said you were gonna pause the laundry.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

I said dryer. I didn't know that was gonna happen. That's not supposed to happen.

SPEAKER_04 38:09

I don't know if you guys can hear it.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

It's fine.

SPEAKER_04 38:11

Our wall is lined with the colour.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

I've been trying to tell my wife for forever, just buy you a new washer and dryer. We've had these for I want to say 10 years, if not more.

SPEAKER_04 38:21

No, we haven't. We've had these for two, like since we moved into this house.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

No ma'am. We had these in in El Paso. We've had these in El Paso. We bought these, we moved to the White House.

SPEAKER_04 38:34

No.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

Okay. You can't remember what we did on Mother's Day, but you're gonna tell me how long we had them. Okay. Anyways, so she refuses because there's been save, and then we go to Paris. But um, which in fairness, I will always condone going on trips rather than buying stuff because experiences are one thing, and you know, material things or whatever. But yeah, we uh we did the party, we went to the graduation. The graduation, I thought I'm glad that I did let it out for whenever uh, you know, Layla was um at her party because during the graduation I was just like, you know, just happy for her and all that stuff. She had the cutest little cap that she did. It was uh, what did she say? What does it say?

SPEAKER_04 39:16

This is where my life begins.

SPEAKER_01 39:17

This is where my life begins, a quote from uh Tangled from Rapunzel.

SPEAKER_04 39:21

A straight quote. It's kind of the theme. The theme. Her thing is When Will My Life Begin?

SPEAKER_01 39:26

It was part of the song.

SPEAKER_04 39:28

Yeah, that's a song. So not when will my life begin? But she put this is where my life begins.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

Oh, so she's answering it? Yeah. This is when? Yeah. All right, makes sense. Yeah. Oh, well, um, our friends came out from uh Texas. Uh my brother Desmond came all the way down from Washington, DC. Parents came out from Texas. Um, and yeah, it was it was cool. Um a lot of wild emotions, and then here in a couple weeks we're gonna take her for her freshman orientation to uh San Marcos, is where Texas State is at.

SPEAKER_04 40:02

Yeah, I'm I think like I haven't fully like her and I had a moment the week leading up after we were like not arguing, but kind of arguing, I guess, because you know, she still lives with us and there's still rules and things she has to follow, but kind of working through life like that, and then we were arguing and then crying at the end because she's leaving. And then so that was the that's when I experienced like the sadness, and like I get a little choked up when you were reading the poem and a little choked up, just different times you got choked up when they say certain things, like we were at one of her award ceremonies and they said something, but I know that once we leave her is when I'm gonna lose it.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

Yeah, I I want to say I'll be fine, but you're not.

SPEAKER_04 40:47

That's what you said about Vivo.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

Whatever. And you cried. All right, Pivo. That's my little dog, he's dead, anyway. Um yeah, that that that takes us to um to, I mean, here now, you know. Um we finally are scheduling these again, and we're going to be actively uh doing them.

SPEAKER_04 41:08

But just gonna be like this, yeah. Like what we normally do, just like this. But uh maybe one day we'll have a big old production and everything like that, but not yet.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

We'll see. We'll wait till you know Bobby Bones calls us and says, Hey, we want to buy your podcast. I'm like, let's go.

SPEAKER_04 41:24

That would be a Nashville Network, holler. That would you would cry. Holler. Yeah, now you're gonna talk about crying?

SPEAKER_01 41:28

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 41:29

Um like Bobby Bones is like a network, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 41:31

But for now, we are just going to career, like be career and do what we do because I just got a new job. I'm a grown-up again.

SPEAKER_04 41:40

Yeah, you're working. For those who are watching on YouTube, it's not a football minute because it's not a football minute.

SPEAKER_01 41:49

Do not be confused.

SPEAKER_04 41:50

Do not be confused because he just turned his hat around. It's not a football minute. We're not even going there, we're not even starting yet. We don't have to sit through that yet. He just got a new job, so he's just showing off his hat.

SPEAKER_00 42:01

Two months.

SPEAKER_04 42:01

But um and it says MW. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

I mean my screen, it does.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

I now work for I'm uh uh account manager for WM Waste Management. Um, and I have all of southern Arizona, all of Southern Arizona, central and southern Arizona. And today was my first day. She didn't pack me a lunch or anything, dude. She didn't pack me a lunch. I had I had a that was whack. The boss took us to lunch, but still, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:34

I would have made you a whole ass lunch. You were gonna turn him down to go to lunch. No, you were not.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

No, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_04 42:39

Absolutely not. So I don't want to hear it.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

Of course not.

SPEAKER_04 42:41

I'm also working.

SPEAKER_01 42:42

You had no idea.

SPEAKER_04 42:44

Uh no, I didn't.

SPEAKER_01 42:45

I didn't know we were gonna go to lunch.

SPEAKER_04 42:46

I didn't know what your schedule was, period. Also, I was working, I was in the middle of working.

SPEAKER_01 42:52

Sure, you know, everybody has excuses, and that one's yours. But uh today it was uh first day, it was cool. I met a bunch of new people, and it was fun. I think this is gonna be an exciting career opportunity. So, you know, wish me luck. Everybody's sick over here.

SPEAKER_04 43:16

Like a bug in my throat.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

Ew, it better not be. It's gross. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:23

But anyways, I was sick in between there, so yeah, there was that too.

SPEAKER_01 43:27

Same.

SPEAKER_04 43:28

And my period started.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

No, well, I feel like that happens fairly often.

SPEAKER_04 43:32

Yeah, but not like this. Like, not often. Like my it's irregular. We can go all into this period talk if you'd like. The red light makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 43:41

I'm gonna pass.

SPEAKER_04 43:43

Well, you brought it up. I did not.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

You literally said it. No, I brought it up. You literally said it. I'm good.

SPEAKER_04 43:48

Yeah, you try to mansplain a period to me just now, so it just seems like it happens like that all the time.

SPEAKER_01 43:55

I feel like she's on it right now. Anyways, uh so with all that said.

SPEAKER_04 44:00

Thank you guys for yeah before I murder him.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

Please.

SPEAKER_04 44:02

Actually, so I can murder him.

SPEAKER_01 44:04

Comment?

SPEAKER_04 44:05

Actually, okay, I'm just gonna say it. If he dies and gets killed, it wasn't me.

SPEAKER_01 44:08

Just because I'm saying that.

SPEAKER_04 44:09

Just because I'm saying that right now. First. And then like you're gonna write a Netflix documentary or start people are gonna start looking into me like the other what was the other podcast? Okay, Crime Junkies. Crime Junkies. And they're like, oh, on the on this episode, she said she was gonna murder him. And then he died. No, I'm not. It was a joke. It was a joke.

SPEAKER_01 44:33

That is exactly what a murderer would say. Anyways, thanks for listening. Like, subscribe. Hopefully, next time we record, my voice is a little bit better. No promises. I am. I'm gonna call. I'm gonna call today. I'm gonna get it.

SPEAKER_04 44:46

It's too late. It's already 7 42 pm.

SPEAKER_01 44:49

Tree hours hotline. It's 24-7. So that year trick. Anywho, you ain't gotta go home. Just gotta get that guy here. Because we got stuff to do. Cause we're back, baby. Goodbye. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 45:04

Huge thank you to our sponsors for keeping Herm's House going. Your support helps us continue our mission to uplift veterans, families, and our community.

SPEAKER_03 45:11

If you want to support the show, it's easy. Like, comment, share, and subscribe. And if you're interested in sponsoring an episode or partnering with us, reach out anytime at Herms House Podcast on Instagram or email us at Herms HousePodcast at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

Thanks for visiting Herms House. Y'all come back now here.