1st Year of Marriage | The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

We're live.

We're live.

Welcome to the Howdy Podcast, everybody. Today it's going to look a little bit different than normal. I have my wonderful wife.

Hey guys.

Katie Grace Pacheco on the show. How you doing, Katie?

Fantastic. We just ate some Vega Bond— Vagabond.

Yeah, shout out Vagabond Pizza.

We never say it right. So if you see this, it's the best pizza in Abilene. Vega or Vaga?

Possibly in Texas.

I honestly— one of my faves.

It was like in the top 3. I want to say it was number 1 in Texas on some Twitter post.

Wow. Yeah, we just ate lunch there. It was fantastic.

Great stuff. So if I have something in my teeth, let me see.

You're good.

Probably pizza. Anyways, we just wanted to kind of come on here and talk. Y'all, we had a bunch of y'all ask a bunch of questions on social media and It's gonna be cool. How are you feeling right now? Are you nervous?

I've never been on a podcast, and my husband's so cool, he started one, so I'm a little antsy. I don't know, I don't know what to do with my hands.

You just, you just do that. That's exactly what you do, just like that. Well, glad to have you on.

Yeah, look at this space.

Such an honor.

You did it.

Honor. I did it.

We're here.

You've seen all the behind the scenes. Yeah.

Um, y'all kicked butt.

What do you think? Do you think my vision is complete?

Do y'all know the vision? Do y'all know? What camera am I looking at?

There's two.

I look at this one. Um, Darren's vision for this place came like this, and he woke up one morning and literally was like, honey, I think we should open a podcast studio. And I was like, okay, what? Like, honestly was like, only people on YouTube do that. Like, we're not YouTubers, we're not influencers. What's this podcast studio for? And from that day, like, everything just lined out so well. And was it like the next day you found a studio?

The next day, yeah, it was that morning. I don't remember, it was February, early February, and did a little bit of a devo, and then I was like kind of researching some stuff for the next steps of where I could take Flights Inside Media.

Meanwhile, I just kind of giggled and went to work.

She went to work and she gets home and I'm like, hey, I think the Lord is wanting us to do this.

Yeah.

And I was like, but it's gonna be kind of crazy and unknown territory for us.

Yeah, I was like, we had no money saved up for a podcast studio.

No money saved up in general.

Darren had a cool plan and vision for the whole space. So I pulled up my little Canva account and started immediately. I came in here, started taking pictures of it, and I just kind of pieced the room together.

So yeah, when she got home, I told her the idea. The next day we wake up, she goes to work, comes back home again, and I'm like, hey, so I signed a 2-year lease.

Yeah.

And I've maxed out 5 credit cards.

Hi. Okay, new knowledge.

No, I mean, It's not new.

No, but it was a huge leap of faith. She's like, okay, yeah, Darren is very much like a visionary. Like, he's like, okay, God gave me this vision, or, um, this is just a big dream in my heart. And he's like, and we got this and we can do this. And I'm very like logistical, and I'm like, how are we going to do this? Like, we have no money saved up.

Yeah, like, you just—

and it has, like, he's prepared a way through the whole entire thing, and it's been so dope.

It's been—

it's been so dope.

Dope. And now we're here, and this is actually our Howdy Podcast. What is it, 8th or 9th episode? I don't know, 7th or 8th episode of the Howdy Podcast.

They've been great, by the way. If you haven't watched the other episodes, they're all a little different.

I'm still trying to figure out which direction I want to go, but yeah, lots of friends.

Have you done family? Am I the first family member?

Yep. Yeah, I know lots of cool people. And it's fun to help them get out there and expose their either business or brand or church or whatever it is. Bands. I've had artists on here. Shut up, Mubs.

Mubs. He put on a great show at Hardin-Simmons.

He did.

That was fun to go to.

He did. We've had Espresso Oak on here. We've talked about Espresso Oak in literally everything that we do.

Harley. If I want a latte in Abilene, It is first and foremost from Carly, second from Monks. The rest I'll just drink Plexus.

Shout out Plexus. I love Plexus.

Me too. It's been a great—

I drink the Active and the Hydrate pretty much every day. Yeah, sometimes I don't, or most times I don't drink coffee because I'm like, I don't need a coffee.

Yeah, it's a great healthy alternative. But when we do espresso, go all the way. And Monks is fire too. So they've kind of been our OG. That's where we went on our first date, right? When we were walking downtown.

Monks, I guess. That's where we hung out first.

Okay, yeah, I wouldn't say first.

I would say our first date, Upland Dance Hall.

Yeah, with friends, a different couple. Yep, who aren't together.

So here's what happened. Here's how our first date happened. We were in like a friend group, obviously, and Everybody went to Hardin-Simmons.

Yeah, and still in that friend group.

They're great people, great people. Um, except for this night, I guess they kind of— I mean, it was great, it ended up being great, obviously. Now we're married. Yeah, but they were all like, hey, we should go to Opala Dance Hall Friday. Yeah, we're like, okay, well, no, no, no, there was like 7 or 8 of them originally. Oh yeah, and then they were like Like right before we were leaving, everybody was like, nope, can't make it, sorry. Other than me and Katie.

And Jackson.

And Jackson and one of his other dates. And so it was just us and I was like, okay. I mean, we'd been talking for like 6 months.

That was one of the most like movie-like first dates I had ever had in my entire life. We went, if you've never been to Opeland Dance Hall, it is a really cool old gymnasium and they have all these like rainbow Christmas lights and everything hanging. Kind of gives Stranger Things vibes. And then they have this man sitting on the stage where in this auditorium gym and he was DJing and we danced for hours and they had jugs of lemonade and cookies. It's not a bar scene. It's just fun.

And I'm surprised you didn't break things off at that moment because I did not know how to dance.

It's okay. We had so much fun. And you taught me some of the Denver City dance moves.

Yeah, we did the—

what do you call that hop? It's like a—

I don't even know. I'm not even going to attempt it. Okay, I'm not even gonna—

he showed me some Dipper City dance moves that I had never seen before.

I mean, dancing to like some Tejano music. Yeah, yeah.

Anyway, that was a great date.

That was our first date, and then we— the next day, next day went on another date.

We were kind of obsessed with each other, and that's the beginning.

And it's been almost 5 years we've been together. We've been married for a little over a year. Yeah. At the date of this episode.

Yeah. Darren, we met at Hardin-Simmons where we both went to college. Abilene, for people that don't know, friends, newbies, whatever. Went to Hardin-Simmons. Darren, I definitely was interested in Darren, I think, before he was interested in me. I mean, yeah, I guess.

No. Yeah. I saw you from afar.

Okay, okay. I approached quickly and we bonded. We played music together all in college with all of our friends and really bonded over that. So that's how we kind of met. Some people were asking that earlier. How'd y'all meet? At school.

At school?

Yeah, at Hardin-Simmons. It was awesome.

And now we're here. Now you're working. Where do you work?

I work for a nonprofit here in Abilene called Communities in Schools. It's a child advocacy nonprofit. So we're working with children Children and Families. I work at Clyde Intermediate School. I love working out there. I love the community and all the awesome employees that I get to work with, and I provide services to students and families.

That's awesome.

Yeah, I've genuinely loved this job. When I graduated from Hardin-Simmons, I graduated with my bachelor's in education, got certified through the state to teach, taught 1 year, and was praying for change. It was very specific prayer, like, Lord, I love Clyde Intermediate School. I was working at 2 different campuses. And I said, I'd really love a full-time job at Clyde Intermediate School, just not teaching. Is that not so specific? And literally, I got an offer, or like, I got an interview with this nonprofit, and it's been incredible. So God's been working through that whole thing.

It's what you were made to do.

Yeah, for sure. We talk about that all the time. We're like, if I'm not staying at home with our future kiddos, like, or helping with this business, like, That's what I want to do. I love it. I'm passionate about it.

Yep. And that's one of our goals too, as of right now, is whenever we start having kids, which we don't know when that's going to be, the Lord has a plan. But whenever that happens, we want to be in a spot where we can have Katie staying home at least until they're in school.

Attempting to make sourdough and doing the things.

Becoming a homestead crunchy mom.

I do. Darren, what's my dream?

Are you going to be crunchy?

I'm kind of working my way towards Crunch. I'm not even gonna lie. I was like Taco Bell diehard, anything to get me through life kind of food and drink vibes. And now I'm like, I have new standards for myself.

Good.

I feel like we have new standards for our family.

We do. Yeah, even though we're broke because of it, because meat is expensive.

It is, but also—

but it's investing in your body, investing in your health. That's the most important.

Yeah, that could be a whole nother podcast.

We'll talk about that in the next podcast. Anyways, but it's a good time. Well, earlier we had some questions from you guys on Instagram, and we've been getting texts with a lot of questions. So let's just— do you want to talk about anything else before we go into that?

Yeah, um, we were talking about like family and dreams and all that stuff. What would you say is our like dream for like our family, where we want to live? Because I get, I get questions all the time of like, are y'all gonna stay in Abilene forever? Is that your home?

Yeah.

Where do you feel like we are at with all that stuff?

As of right now, until the Lord tells us that we need to move, we're in Abilene. That's what I'm— how I'm gonna answer that.

Yeah, we have had such a dope community come. I don't want to say out of nowhere, and it wasn't coincidental, but it's just formed in So many opportunities have opened for us here where it just makes sense. Like, like you said, until God calls us elsewhere or something happens, like, this is home.

Yeah, we try not to worry too much about what tomorrow is going to bring. At least that's one of my goals for, like, especially this year. It's like, you can do all the planning you want for the next few years, but like, ultimately, if you look 3 years prior to today this was not even close to anything I had planned.

We were—

so 3 years from now, who the heck knows?

Yeah, but we do have like— I have a vision for what like I think would be a really cool home to raise a family in. And I always joke around with Darren and I'm like, I want dwarf goats, I want some Highland cows, and I want chickens, and I want to have a little bit of land and have a Wait, barn dominion?

Yeah.

Yeah. So bad. Oh, that's like my dream. And being able to— I grew up in the country and with animals and all that, and it was so good for me.

And Abilene's a good spot. Yeah. To do that.

Yeah. There's a lot of people in our life too that like successfully homestead. I feel like, like they grow their own food and that's been cool to learn from too, because I wasn't really raised around a lot of people that did that.

What's different? Like, it's not very common, honestly.

No.

Like, most people just—

it shocked me last year. We had this really cool, like, 4-H ag program that came into the schools, and when we asked the kids— these are 3rd through 5th graders, mind you— where does your food come from? Almost every single one of them was like, Walmart, McDonald's. And you're like, how did it get to Walmart?

And they're like, if you saw before McDonald's, you probably wouldn't eat it.

Yeah.

And it's probably in a lab.

Thank God for cowboys, cattle, and homesteads. I'm not a cowboy, but no, but they're working those cows and we're getting to eat them. Good beef.

I love it. You can't live without beef. No, I don't care who you are.

We've gone through a half cow in a couple—

well, a few months.

Yeah, a few months. We've dang near gone through the whole—

and I learned the other day it's called half a beef.

Oh, not half cow.

Yeah, but it is a beef.

Beef.

Okay, it is beef, but you call it half a beef.

Half a beef, not half a cow.

Anyways, but yeah, we're planning on being in Abilene for a while until—

it's a good place. Until if you don't live here and you're looking for somewhere to live, Abilene's a safe, great place to grow.

Yeah, until we franchise out of Abilene. Mm. Flights and Sights, hopefully Flights and Sights Lubbock, Flights and Sights Abilene. Flights and Sights Weatherford, Flights and Sights—

wow—

Fort Worth.

See, he's already dreaming.

I want to cover I-20.

Whoa, whoa.

Maybe even more, hopefully one day. Oh my goodness, it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of very talented people to make that happen.

We got a good start because I cannot do it on my own. We've got a great team.

Yeah, we do, we do. All right, well, let's go ahead and get into some questions.

Do you want to like do all The ones on your phone first?

We'll alternate. Okay, let's go. I'll start and then—

sounds like a deal. I'm excited. We posted this this morning and we're like, hey, if you have questions about anything like marriage— we're new to marriage, but a lot of people have asked about marriage, like related questions.

Yep. And this one has nothing to do with marriage.

Okay, let's go.

But to start us off, we got from Papa G60: What is the difference between a taco and a burrito? I think it's regional. It all depends on where you're at in the world, because if you go north, taco— you order a taco and you get a burrito.

Really?

Yep.

Okay, I must be a little out of the loop on that one, but I don't know. I just—

but here, here, what is a burrito?

Hopefully my burrito is full of beans and cheese.

I know, but how do you make— like, how do you make it?

A tortilla, like, like all the fillings, roll that thing up and roll it up.

You roll it up.

And a taco, you fold it up.

Taco, you fold it up. I was totally supposed to be on a call with Naomi right now. Oops. Can you text her? Sorry, Naomi.

Okay, somebody asked Who's the messiest?

Um, I don't know.

You can answer honestly.

I feel like we're equal.

I feel like we have our own— like, it's kind of weird. Y'all may relate to this, but it's like we like to be clean, but sometimes things get cluttered and messy, and then it both— it sends us into like, oh my gosh, we got to be OCD, we got to clean it all. Yeah, so like clean to a point.

We clean. We're clean. Yeah, for the most part.

I wish I had a little bit more of like that.

It's just hard whenever you're gone so much.

Yeah, we have been.

We travel really at home as much to clean. Yeah, fun times.

It's—

yeah, having a full-time job and— all right, next question. Let's see. Coming in from—

that was from Luke, by the way. Spritberry.

Okay, okay, we love— thanks, Luke.

Um, curious who's the messiest.

This one comes from their relationship. Oh, Hattie Day.

Oh, Hattie. Oh, Hattie Day. Um, love Hattie.

What is something y'all do together that's routine?

That's tough. Because our routines are like polar opposites.

Okay, something that we consistently do though is we do pretty decent in—

Date nights?

Date nights.

Is that where you were going?

Yeah. Doing date nights. We'll go watch a movie, we'll watch a movie at the house, we'll go to dinner.

We enjoy movies. We love watching a good movie together, but we also love just going and eating and talking. Yeah. Do that a lot, which is great.

Just go hang out, no phones.

Sometimes like that's the only time where I feel like we have like a schedule that aligns is when we get home after work, because like from the morning to then it's not—

yeah, it's like we see each other in the morning, it's like, okay, hi, bye. Yeah, we're gone for the next 10 hours, sometimes 12 hours. We don't see each other until we get home. So whenever we do have a night free, we make sure to do to prioritize. Yeah, make sure to go on a date or do something, like go on a walk together. Yeah, we live in a cool spot where you can walk around, around a pond.

And yeah.

All right, what's your next question?

Um, this is a really great question. Um, this is from my friend Katie, and she said, what is the importance of being plugged in slash involved with a church, basically?

I would say it's probably the most important thing that you can do aside from spending time with your family and your spouse. Yeah, because it's ultimately putting yourself around people who believe in the same things, who oftentimes are able to teach you things and have more wisdom than you. And it's people that you can safely go to advice, you can mentor each other. It's just a good community to continually grow, and it just gives you a sense of like— whenever you have community, you feel like purpose, like you're part of something.

Yeah.

And so that's one of the ways is church. That's how we find our community, and some of our closest and best friends that we've ever had are because of church.

Absolutely.

And so Yeah, you can't grow on your own.

Mm-mm.

You've got to have other people who are—

I think church too provides like healthy accountability. It brings a space, like a safe place for you to bring, like Darren was saying, just like yearning for more wisdom from other people. Like you're always learning from people and like they've probably been in a season similar to yours. Like I think I'm in a small Bible study with some women at our church, which is like, incredible community, but it blows my mind how just with those like 7 or 8 women, like we've walked through similar seasons of life and we can speak into those. And so, yeah, like Darren, like community, community, community. It really brings that like, man, when life gets tough, like here's a circle and it's like not a wimpy circle, like strong, unified people that are there for you. And I think that's been really crucial. Being married. Yeah, is being plugged in and having, um, whether it's like our pastors or pastors from other campuses, not even pastors, but— oh, Mike, it's okay, bud. Um, but not just like only pastors, but just other couples in the church that have been there and supported us and guided us.

Especially whenever you get married, because your friends You still have the same friends, but the relationship changes. Yeah. So like, they may not be married. One thing that we've had to navigate is finding advice from other married couples.

Yeah.

And so, and it's oftentimes easier to like go out and hang out with another married couple than it is with a single person. Yeah. Which it's not on purpose. Like we wanna hang out with everybody, but it's just like, is it comfortable?

Yeah.

Because we live together because we do basically everything together. Yeah, we're unified and we're one in the eyes of Christ. Like, our flesh is one. It's just a little bit different after you get married.

Yeah. And I think as individuals too, we do a good job though of like those friends that maybe it's not a married couple or even our friends that are married, like going and spending time with them like individually and not everything is like double date-ish. Yeah, it's super great too. It's healthy.

Yeah, finding a balance of like hanging out as a married couple and hanging out with your own friends on your own. You don't get to hang out like the same.

No, it's different ways. It's like the same time seasons that we're in now. We went straight from like college, like kind of working, kind of doing this, to like boom, life, married, all the things. And so I feel like we felt a big difference.

Yeah, like we don't just have as much free time together and Yeah, which is okay. It's like, if you love what you're doing, yeah, you'll, you'll be fulfilled.

Married folk or soon-to-be married folk or dating folk that want to get married, I highly like— Katie, that was such a great question. Like, being plugged in with a community is going to help you so much, especially early out in your marriage. Like, there's things that it's just tough, and like, having people to walk through that with is so important.

Um, You want to talk about our first year of marriage?

Yeah, I'll let you start.

This is hot water I'm getting in. I, I don't know if I should go first.

It's okay, it's okay. Our first year, how would you summarize it in one word? No wrong answers.

Difficult.

Stressful.

Stressful. So you also had a very stressful job.

Yeah.

Which didn't help anything.

No, but it was hard. We didn't live together pre-marriage, um, and we both kind of were doing our own thing.

Like, we were dating, we were pursuing each other, and we hung out all the time. But as soon as you move in, like, yeah, and we start— we combined the same restroom every single day at the same time.

That was a learning process. Um, but also like things like we decided to go joint financially, like come together financially. I'm very independent. Darren's like, we work as a team. And I'm like, I've never done this before with anybody.

Like, yeah, I hadn't either.

Yeah.

And so I just felt like that's what we were supposed to do.

Yeah, for sure. Which is great.

I think it helps you be transparent.

Yes.

Like you can't be sneaking things around, like hiding things from each other.

Yeah.

And just builds that other level of trust. Absolutely. But there was— that was one of the hardest things was finance stuff. Because we both have very different mindsets about money.

Yes.

I have a finance degree. I have always been very frugal when it comes to everything.

Yeah.

Other than the business, because there's business expenses involved in tax savings.

And I grew up making money, like my own money, however I made it. And I got to spend it however I wanted.

Shopping.

I paid for my living expenses and stuff like that and made sure all that was covered. But anything left over was free game. I didn't care about saving.

I didn't— Spend to zero. Yeah.

Like, for real. So I really didn't have credit cards at that point. I was just like living off of every dime.

Going to ever want to stop working, we're not going to be able to go to zero like that.

And I was like, dude, we're 20-something, why are you thinking of retirement?

So we can retire earlier.

So anyways, it was— yeah, that was a big growing thing. And also learning how to communicate, like, you're no longer my boyfriend, like, you're no longer— not that like feelings change or anything, but you're my husband. And like, there's this different level of like respect and honor like that you develop for each other. Because yeah, they're your best friend, whatever, but it's your partner for life. Like, you make all the decisions together. You like, when something comes up, like hopefully your first response is like, okay, I need to like get Darren and we need to get together and pray about this, or like And that was a big adjustment because it was kind of like, yeah, we've been dating, but I've had to make a lot of decisions on my own. Yeah, we're dating, but like, this choice, I don't have to get somebody else's input. Like, yeah.

So yeah, and there was one day where she looked at me and she was like— I told her something about like, hey, we need to like maybe cut back on shopping this month or something.

And she— me? Never.

She was like, Me, never. You're not my dad.

Yeah, I called you my dad. I just saw you calling your mom my dad. You never like my dad. No, there was no relation with that.

I guess it just made you feel like I was trying to control you.

Yeah, like my decisions. And that was our first fight. And how did we handle that fight?

We just stressed for a while.

I'm saying like fight, like as in we both went to bed like extremely frustrated. And that whole like figure it out before you go to bed thing. No.

Doesn't always happen.

We were really frustrated. What did we do when we got home?

We went to the opposite sides of the house and just started cleaning. Deep cleaning. The entire house was clean.

Sparkling.

Like in 30 minutes.

Darren and I had never really cleaned like that. But I mean, I was using Fabulosa. I was throwing things away. We were both cleaning as violently as we could. I heard things slamming. I was so bad. But, and then we really didn't talk until the next day.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She, I went back into the bedroom and she was asleep already. I was like, okay, I'm going to sleep. I didn't sleep on the couch.

And scene. Yep.

Anyways.

No.

It gets better.

First year of marriage. Okay, wait, before you move on. Were there any positives? Absolutely, because that sounded so bad. Friends that are getting married, absolutely, it's awesome.

It's the best thing in the world.

Like, having a built-in partner for life, like, you don't even really think twice about it. You're like, hey, we're going like to New Braunfels together, or like, hey, our friend's wedding's coming up. You don't ask around like, which friend? Oh, there's a concert coming up. Like, they're just— you're, you're glued together.

Like Yeah, it's the best thing.

So fun.

It's not easy. No, I mean, it's easy. It's kind of like in order to get like a really good wine, it has to age.

Oh, we learned that in Fredericksburg.

The longer it ages, the better it gets.

Yeah, absolutely.

So I think with time it just gets better and better.

Yeah. And we, we both like towards the beginning of this year, like, so we got married in March of '23, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. Um, so it was like the beginning of this year and we both like genuinely looked at each other and we're like, this is the happiest I've felt since, like, would you say dating? Or like, honestly, it was like the happiest we both have felt, um, which is crazy because so much changed. But like, our jobs, both of our jobs really picked up. Yeah, you know, they look different, um, but we just learned to like draw near to each other, and I don't know, it was awesome.

Yeah, so if you're waiting to get married Yeah, just do it. Yes, you know, they're the person, just do it.

Absolutely. I've never, never had the thought, which like, I don't know why you would, but I've never had the thought of like, why did I do this? Like, it's always been awesome.

Same.

It's been great.

Same. Yeah. Okay, well, let's, let's marry that boy.

That was a good question, Katie. We were on it for 10 minutes.

Um, Do y'all have a plan of action for handling relationship conflict?

Whoo!

From Ronnie, like Ronnie.

Okay, could you repeat that one more time?

Do you have a plan of action for handling relationship conflict?

I wouldn't necessarily say we have a plan.

Nope.

I think we give each other space. I don't think we avoid each other. At all costs. But I think we give each other a healthy amount of space. If there's something that arose, like an argument, a disagreement, it's not that we run away from it. We always come back to it and talk. But like, I know me, if in that moment immediately I react on that conflict or whatever, it's going to blow up. And like, the last thing I want to do is hurt your feelings. So sometimes I go and like, I will, I'll go listen to worship music and do the dishes or something with headphones on. Just like provide some space. And then when we both feel like we've cooled down a little bit and talk about it, most time it ends in apologies.

That's it right there.

Yeah.

Just try to, I don't know, just even though it's hard sometimes, just try to serve each other well and it'll be good. You'll apologize to each other.

Yeah. Have there been nights that we haven't apologized to each other? Absolutely.

Oh yeah. I feel like sometimes it takes a couple of days or even a week. Maybe not a week.

I was trying to think of when that happened, but there, there was times that I went to bed and I was still so frustrated about a situation that happened and somebody gave me a really great piece of advice. And whenever you feel like, you know, really reacting or like letting it out, and you, like, in this instance, you were already asleep. I took a pen and paper, like a journal, and I just wrote my entire, like, everything I felt. Not like dissing anybody, but I just like, I got it out and I felt so relieved, like writing it down. I never shared that with anybody. Like, as far as like, here, read what I wrote last night. Like, it just helped me. It's a healthy way for me to process things sometimes.

Yeah, I don't do that.

I know you go to the gym and listen to Slipknot.

I go lift some weights or something and feel better. Go edit some videos.

So ladies, if you need therapy advice, I got you.

All right, let's answer like 2 more and we'll read it from Jack. Or do you have another one that you want to read? Um, because Jackson sent us like 100 questions.

I don't know, I think this could be an interesting question if I'm being honest. Emily, my friend Emily, asked, what is your favorite and least favorite thing about being married? When she first sent that, I was like, oh, it would be mean to say a least favorite thing.

Favorite thing would be just having a person there that you can go to with everything full-time and trust completely. Full-time, 24/7. You can call them at any time, text them at any time, ask for advice. I've asked Katie for advice on things she probably does not give two cares about, but I try really hard. But she answers honestly, really hard. Okay.

Or sometimes I have to redirect and be like, you need to call somebody that actually knows stuff about that, because I don't know anything about—

should I just go to an S corp in my company? Me like, what do I do?

I graduated with elementary education degree.

But she was helpful and she gave me her best and honest answer. And that's all.

Yeah, that's been my favorite part about marriage for sure, is no matter what the day was like, being able to come home to your person. There's so much peace in that and safety. It's also just fun. Like, if you had a crappy day, sometimes we sit it out together and then, and then eventually once we sit, we're like, okay, we need to go do something. Fun that we enjoy. Like, most time it's just not going out and just watching a movie, coming to the pool, making a good steak. Um, so the flip side of that would be what's been like, we could say, least favorite part of marriage.

It's kind of tough, but, um, I don't know, it's kind of hard. That's a hard one. I know, it might be the flip, being together 24/7.

Oh, okay. Yes, it does, because you like have no personal space, basically.

Yeah, it's the best, but also the my least favorite thing.

Dang, that's good, Darren.

I mean, what can I say? What can I say?

The least favorite thing, I think, for me is conflict. I don't like having conflict with people, and so when we do have conflict, it hurts deeper because it's like, oh my gosh, that's my favorite person in the entire world, and I don't like having this weird tension. So that's been my least favorite part, is when that does arise, like, okay, yeah, that's, that's a tie. Okay, cool beans.

Let's see, this one comes from Jackson, and this will be, this will be the last one. We can wrap it up pretty soon.

So many good ones.

I know, we— they're going to have to wait for the next episode with us.

You're inviting me back?

Maybe. No, it's been great so far. Um, okay, okay. What is my biggest pet peeve? And then I have to answer what your biggest pet peeve is.

What's your biggest pet peeve?

Yeah. Did you even want to do the— you're gonna do one round of that?

Okay. Yeah.

Should we do it right now? I can write down what I think yours is and you write down—

No, let's— can we answer one more? Like, okay, yeah, yeah, one more question and then do that. Um, let's see, your biggest pet peeve. I'm having a brain fart. There's probably a lot of things. When I go shopping.

Yeah, I mean, that's a good one.

Or I bring home another dog or something like that. An impulse decision. Um, what's mine, Darren?

Whenever I trim my facial hair, every now and then there's some that gets left in the sink.

Some, see?

All. And it's hard to get every little hair.

It is.

I know it's not much, but I mean, it gets kind of messy.

I know.

I try to clean it. Sometimes I don't clean all of it. She's like, can you please clean it up? I'm like, oh my goodness.

Okay, those are pretty equal peeves, right?

Peeves.

Peeves. All right, what's our next game? Mike, do you want to ask us the questions for this next game?

Yeah, I have some already lined up.

Oh, you have some lined up already?

ChatGPT.

Oh, I have—

here, let me send you these because we have these handy-dandy whiteboards here for children.

Michael, I don't even have your number.

Are we still like looking good, everything? Okay, sweet.

Okay, if Mike has, um—

we might need some paper towels.

Yeah. This game, I saw a couple that I follow on Instagram do it, and I thought it would be interesting. But you can't look at my answers, and I can't look at your answers.

And— oh, hey, thanks, Mike.

I hope these whiteboards work good. Thanks.

Here you go.

So what is this game, Darren? Do you know about it?

Uh, you just each write down your answer and for each other.

So Mike's gonna ask us a question and like, Mike, what's the first question?

What is your partner's favorite movie?

Gosh, these are gonna be tough. And then you have to write down—

I don't have a favorite movie.

I'm— I got a good guess.

Okay, is that the first one?

Yep, go.

This one's easy.

I feel like I, I feel like I got this one. Are we showing which camera?

Uh, show your camera.

Okay.

All right, 1, 2, 3, go! What's your guess?

Hot Rod.

And I guess Nacho Libre. You got it correct for sure for mine, but I, I would say that is my at least top 2.

Okay, what's your other one?

I don't know. I don't know.

The Office. That's fair. That's not amazing.

If you take all the episodes of The Office and put it together in one video, that would be my favorite.

That race is pretty good. Okay, so 1 for 1. I'm putting 1 point up here at the top.

And I got 1, right?

Yeah.

Okay. Next question.

If a partner can only eat one food for the rest of their life, what would it be?

You wrote a lot.

Okay.

You ready?

Okay, go for it.

Steak.

That is correct. Woo! Salmon patties.

2 for 2. Really?

It's probably not it.

It's not. It's a bean burrito.

That's not nutritious at all.

It's my favorite food.

If you ate that the rest of your life, you'd look like a bean burrito.

It didn't ask my favorite nutritious meal.

Okay, fine. I got it wrong. I got it wrong.

Ugh, Darren. Bean burrito. I literally told you one day, I think, that to me that's not—

it's just a snack. It's not like food in my head.

Oh, it's a meal.

All right, it's not a meal.

Like, it is if you only eat one.

If your partner could have one superpower, what would it be?

Superpower?

What would they choose, bro?

I've never asked you this question.

Yeah, pick wisely.

Super speed. I don't know.

For what?

Run fast. I don't know.

Oh, we can run really fast. That's not a cool superpower.

What's mine?

Mind reading.

I would love that superpower. Dang it. Okay, you got that point. That's fine.

I'd probably say either flying or invisible powers, or, or both of those. Time travel. Travel.

You've said that one before. I'm remembering now. What's next, Michael?

All right, we'll do 2 more.

Who is your partner's celebrity crush?

Oh, um, I know. I don't know her real name, but I'm— oh wait, yes I do.

She won't say it, but I know because she makes comments.

I botched how you spell her name, but Jessica Day from New Girl. Zoe Day.

I don't know, I don't know if that'd be the one.

You're like, I love how quirky she is.

I do, I do.

Okay, who is your real celebrity crush?

I don't know. I really don't know.

For real?

You.

That's so lame.

Marriage 101, boys. Marriage 101.

Not a bad choice, brother. Not a bad choice.

Brandon Lake.

He sings like an angel and he's got hair.

She likes the tight leather pants. What you want to say?

I do not actually like that.

She likes tight leather pants and long curly hair.

It's more of that.

I'm like, I have neither of those things.

Oh my goodness.

All I have is a great voice, consistent job. Oh my God, sometimes.

Oh, let's keep going. Come on. Right now I have 2 points. You haven't been counting your points.

Was that right? You got salmon patties was wrong. Not celebrity was right.

Nacho Libre was right. I don't know. Okay, 2 for 2.

Superpower was right.

3 for 2.

3 to 2. I'm winning.

First one to 5.

Okay, okay, fine. What's the next one?

What is your partner's dream vacation?

This one's easy. Do you know me? Do you even know me? I mean, we've only known each other for 5 years. You don't even care to ask me? Wow. I'm just kidding.

That was intense. Nowhere. Save money.

That's a fair enough response.

Would you give me the point? Yes. What's mine?

In all reality, it'd probably be like Norway.

I've never heard you say that.

Sweden or Norway.

Oh my goodness. You wanted to go see Conor McGregor's home base.

Ireland?

Yeah.

No, not as much Ireland.

Okay. You always do their accent. Do their accent for all the viewers.

I'm not gonna do that.

It's great.

No, I can't.

Where's my dream vacation?

Hawaii.

Yes! I told Darren actually that whenever, because I'm on this like health weight loss journey, that when I hit my goal weight, I would love to go celebrate in Hawaii. And he said I'm getting too close to it.

Said we're gonna— you're gonna have to lose it slower because you need time to save money.

But yes, you got that right. You got 4.

Yeah, I'm about to win this thing.

Oh my goodness, Mike, what's next?

What is your partner— what is your partner's guilty pleasure TV show?

Yeah, different one.

What is your partner's favorite dessert?

This is hard. I thought I knew you.

It's not that hard.

Anything but probably cheesecake.

Or tiramisu. Oh, I'll count that though.

Okay, cookie cake. That's my favorite dessert.

Do you know how many times you've asked me to get you—

There's only a certain time that I crave cookie cake.

Then that's once a month.

Nope, I'm not counting it.

What? What is it then?

Partly because it's the winning point. Wasn't good enough.

Fine.

Last one, Mike. We're 4 for 4. The stress. I'm sweating. It's kind of hot in the Howdy Podcast.

What would be your partner's go-to karaoke song?

I'm stumped. Can you give me any kind of clue?

Nope, I already got yours.

Your favorite, your go-to karaoke. You don't— you won't get there. Every time we've gone to karaoke, you refuse to go up there.

We have karaoke together. Many times.

Place, time, huh? A place in time.

Riosa and my parents' old house.

In the living room.

Oh wait, in your parents' loft.

Thank you, you just gave me what I needed to know. He's very talented at Slipknot. You literally—

that's not my favorite thing.

Something in my eyes.

Something— it's actually I push my fingers into my eyes. That's crazy. Yeah, okay, I'll give you it. Yes, I'll give you it. It's either that or Queen.

Oh, what's mine?

Anything by Adele.

No, I would definitely do Bohemian Rhapsody.

Okay, fine, you win.

No, no, no, no, no, no, we need one more.

Oh my goodness, ChatGPT is going to run out of questions.

No, it's not. One more. I have sang Adele at a karaoke bar.

Yeah, I know. That's why I picked it.

You weren't there.

Oh yeah, I've been at all the other ones.

What is Parker's favorite board or card game?

Darren doesn't like games.

Sure.

He doesn't like them at all. He's always like, please no, God, no.

Hurry.

Please no.

I don't really like card games now.

You don't like board games either? He falls asleep at family night because he doesn't want to play board games. No, your mom and dad can testify.

No, especially answer the question.

I don't know. What'd you put for mine?

Uno.

I love Uno. All right, Darren wins.

Wow, cue the lights, cue the music. I won.

You are the champion, my friend. I was wondering when you were going to use that. Okay, that was good. I learned more about you honestly in that than I have in a week.

Well, that sums up this podcast.

Yeah. Thanks for having me on, babe.

Thanks for joining. You will be on again, hopefully. Really? The ratings are probably going to be out the roof because—

really?

Yes. Nobody watches this because of me.

That's not true. You've had great guests.

Yes, but nobody watches this because of me. Oh, anyways, because of my guests. Thanks for watching. Where can they find you on social media if they want to follow you?

Uh, Pacheco Katie Grace. And if you don't know how to spell our last name, where's that at? P-A-C-H-E-C-O-K-A-T-I-E-G-R-A-C-E. Pacheco, and then Katie, K-A-T-I-E Grace, is on Instagram. And then Facebook, just a good old Katie Grace Pacheco.

Nice.

That's really it. That's all I use.

Do you have any advice or words of wisdom for the audience before we leave?

Can you—

or brands you want to plug?

What kind of audience you speak to most?

Anybody who watches.

You don't look at the analytics?

I do, but they're everywhere. We have listeners across the world, surprisingly.

This is cheesy, but I'm not even gonna lie, it's like never fails, is keep God first. And before you run and get advice from somebody else, seek first him and then go. Seek counsel from other people.

Amen.

All right, what about you? Do you have advice for you?

I give them advice all the time.

Go follow Flights and Sights.

Go follow Flights and Sights. Yeah, go follow Howdy Podcast. Besides that, um, it'd be probably along the same route, the same, same lines as that.

Ditto.

It's just quit worrying about tomorrow. Let the Lord provide.

Yeah, this is— this whole place is a testimony to that.

Yeah, there's no way I could have done this without the Lord's provision and guidance for this.

So go!

That's all I would say. Yeah. All right guys, well, peace out. We'll see you on the next one.