Biography -- Brian & Jewelie's Website

About Brian

Hi, my name is Brian, and I live in the southwestern desert city of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

I graduated from Las Cruces High School in May of 2000 with a 3.7 GPA. I was in AEP (Advanced Education Program) since the 4th grade, and was in accelerated Math, Science, and English classes.

I received the NM Scholar's Scholarship in 2000 to attend New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. After six years, I graduated in May 2006 with a Bachelor's of Science in Engineering Technology, completing both the Mechanical and Civil Programs. I now work for EMI Technologies, Inc. as a Mechanical Engineer, helping to build instrumentation and control vans. Find out more about EMI here.

About Jewelie

I've been with my b-e-a-utiful wife, Jewelie, for four years now. I love being with her, spending my time with her, ballooning with her, and enjoying her hobby, football. We got married in May 2007, with a big wedding in Las Cruces. To access our wedding webpage, please click here: Our Wedding. We plan to be together for the rest of our lives!

Our Families

Our wonderful Families:

- Brian's Family -
Brian's mother, Joan, is a nurse. Brian's father, Lance, is a mechanical engineer. Brian's brother, Steven, is also a nurse, intermediate-level EMT, and flies single-engine airplanes. They help us fly our balloons, and we try to take them up as much as possible.

- Jewelie's Family -
Jewelie's mother, Glenda, is an elementary teacher. Jewelie's father, Lon, is also an elementary school teacher. Jewelie's sister, Joy, is a teacher as well, working on her master's degree in education. She will be married to her fiance David in July 2007, uniting their family with their son, Jasai.

Musical Ability

I also completed a Minor in Music. I have played the piano for 17 years and have composed five original songs.
I have also taught piano lessons at Studio A-440, a piano, voice, violin, and guitar music studio in Las Cruces.
I continue to play the string bass, having played for 12 years, most recently performing with the NMSU String Ensemble.

Sports

I enjoy playing soccer (was on Las Cruces High School JV teams), basketball, tennis, ping pong, billiards, and bowling (have my own soccer bowling ball).

Hot Air Ballooning

I am a certificated hot air balloon pilot, receiving my license on April 13, 2003. I currently have over 140 flying hours, and continue to practice almost every weekend in our Chimera and co-owned Spirit balloons, taking family and friends into the beautiful New Mexico sky, and travelling all over the state, flying in rallies.

In 2003 we went in with Harold Connell and Dan Erhard to buy the cloud-hopper balloon, Spirit. It is a blast to be able to float around sitting in a harness, viewing the world below, through your feet, as there is typically no basket in a cloud-hopper. You can view our three balloons below (clicking on any of the pictures will take you to my balloon page.