T is for Turkey

I'm still catching up on my blogs, so I guess better do this one before Christmas is here :)

We did Thanksgiving at our house again... I think it's like the 5th year or so. We started having T-day at our home when we bought the last house (hm, that means this is probably the 6th). And it went fabulously at the new place.

I make the turkey and the stuffing usually, and others bring the rest. This year I kinda made everything but dessert. I tried out a new dressing recipe this year... in the Crock Pot! It was delicious if I do say so myself :) And it saved a ton of room in the oven. Room needed for potatoes (sweet and regular), green bean casserole, rolls and the bird. We also had a salad with dried cranberries, walnuts and mandarin oranges. It was WAY too much food, but we managed it ok :)

My parents, my sister, Jason's mom and aunt, and his grandparents all came. We watched our traditional TV shows, the dog show and football. Then that afternoon Emily and Mom helped me decorate the Christmas tree. I didn't get to go to any Black Friday sales this year due to having to work, but Jason made it.

On Friday evening, Emily, Eileen, Jason and I went out to Austin's Long Center to see Cirque Dreams: A Jungle Fantasy. If you've ever seen a Cirque de Soile show this is Broadway's version. It was awesome and we had great seats in the 4th row, actually almost too close. These people are amazing what they can do. My favorite parts were the contortionists and the aerialists. Also these guys who balanced together on a board atop a cylinder... atop 4 other cylinders going opposite ways. One girl swung around by her hair... don't know about that one, ouch.

I'm still catching up... so expect to see some more back dated blogs :)

"It has been my observation that people are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be." - Abraham Lincoln

Home Improvements Fall Edition

So far this fall we didn't do much as far as home improvements on our new house, but we hadn't really planned on it, and really haven't had time.


The focus has been the dinnnig room. There is a large wall in there that we are going to have black and white photos on, so for paint color, I wanted to have a grey or silvery. As we all know, the piant never quite looks the same on the wall as it does on the chip. Once it got up there and dried it turned out to be more blue then silver.


I really like the color, but I had bought burnt orange curtains, and there's no way orange and grey-blue go together. So I had to completely scrap that idea. Instead I'm going to stick with the black and white accents. I've got new curtains, but we'll have to wait until the Christmas tree is moved to put them up.



We also finished out the attic floor and now we have tons more storage! I love having an attic handy in the house. Our last home had a 2 foot square in the garage for attic access and once you were up there were too many beams to move around. I have too much stuff, I'm aware of this, but I'm not getting rid of the holiday decorations any time soon, so they have to go somewhere...



I'm hoping the spring provides us with more time to work on the house some more, because the winter is already busy. Check back then :)






I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins into all the loactions that I've traveled to. But first, I'm gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won't fall down. -Mitch Hedberg

Touring Houston

I know, I know, it's been awhile... again. I'm not so good at this lately, I don't know why. We've been busy though, so it may take a few entries to let everyone know what we've been up to.

The weekend before last, Jason and I went to visit my aunt and uncle in the big metropolis of Magnolia, TX. They are big enough now to have two 5A schools, big times :) We visit almost every fall, usually to go to the Renfest. This year we wanted to try something different and ventured into downtown Houston to do the tourist thing and visited the Natural Science Museum and the Houston Zoo. Lesson learned: don't try and do both in the same day, you miss things.


The Science Museum is pretty cool. They have a great butterfly garden, a bunch of dinosaur skeletons and lots of other great things. My favorite part was the rock/mineral and gem exhibit. The large samples of rocks and minerals are set up beautifully in glass cases around the room. As you meander through the cases you come to the best part, the vault. In here are some gorgeous gems, singular and set in jewelry. That exhibit really made the trip. Don't worry, I was sure to point out to Jason which ones he's getting me for Christmas.


BUT if you ever go to the museum, I have to warn you against using the elevators. On our way from the first to the third floor, I got stuck in an elevator for the first time in my life. Not fun. Luckily it only last about a minute or two and we had good cell reception, so if it had lasted longer, I would have been calling.


The zoo is fabulous. I haven't been to the Houston Zoo since I was a kid, and they have done a great job reinventing the place. At that time the zoo was free to get into, so they didn't have a lot to make the place habitable for the animals. I remember it being one cage after another along the sidewalk. So much better now, and they are still working on it. The monkeys have quite the set up in the trees. You enter onto a bridge that takes you from one type of monkey to the next. My favorite was the giraffe, who was reaching over the fence and snacking on the landscaping in front of the cage.


We were there as they were closing and on our way out we past them setting up a dance floor and tables near a beautiful reflecting pond. Apparently you can get married at the zoo! How cool is that. I can just imagine saying 'I do' and then a lion roars in the distance. haha


I was so tired, I slept most of the way back to the house. The next day we did a little shopping in The Woodlands before driving home to Kyle. It gets dark so early now, it was night before we even started back. Luckily for me I had the next two days off :) well, one day off and then Veterans Day...I love bank holidays.


And thanks to our wonderful friends for taking care of our kids while we were gone!

Butterfly landed on Jason's head!!

"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us." - Henry David Thoreau

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Welcome to the world, Everett

Everett James was born early, early this morning to our good friends Krista and Jason! He's 7 lbs 11 oz and 21 inches long. Both Mom and baby are doing great! I'm going by there today and I'm sure I'll have pictures to upload soon.

I can't wait to meet you Everett! You're going to do some great things in this world and you have some of the best parents ever!

The Syndrome

I've hesitated to post about this. Its very personal, slightly depressing for me, and not something I want to necessarily be asked about much... and I'm not entirely sure who all reads this thing. But I've talked it over with Jason and I've decided to go ahead. This blog is about me, what my interests are and what's going on in my life. And this is definitely a 'going on in my life' one might say.

Fair warning, this is a long entry and I'm going to talk about womanly problems. Don't be squeamish now.

Some of you know that Jason and I have been trying to get pregnant since last Dec - with no luck, just a lot of tears. For a few years now I haven't been exactly normal as far as monthly cycles go, I just kinda considered it normal for me.

Last year in the summer (2007, before we started trying) it got ... well, gonna skip the details on that one... and I went to get checked out and ended up having surgery to remove endometrial polyps. That was a first for me - surgery. And it was surgery in rather sensitive area for a woman-maybe more mentally than physically, but ... well, no woman of 27 wants to have surgery on her uterus. It turned out not to be a horrifying experience after all. And I thought 'All right, we've fixed whatever problems have been going on, let's get on with the baby making.'

That was not the case however... and after another year of strangeness- and the previously mentioned tears- I headed back to the doc last month. Turns out the polyps - totally unrelated - where hiding another issue. There was some blood taking and a sonogram involved, and I have been diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).

PCOS is not rare, around 5% of all women have it and it's the leading cause of infertility. There is tons of literature out there for it, even support groups. I may have this all my life, but it's treatable with meds.

Basically I'm not ovulating every month - only 3 or 4 time a year. We may have been able to eventually get pregnant on our own. But sometimes the ovaries just hang onto the egg, because they're not being told to let it go. One of the hormones needed to kick off this very important part of the process is missing a few of it's scheduled appointments. Now there is a build up of follicles causing all kinds of nasty symptoms - the follicles increase estrogen levels that the body then turns into testosterone because it doesn't need it. If you check out the Wikipedia page, there is a sonogram picture of an ovary, the black spots are the follicles- mine looks just like it. I don't have all the symptoms yet and may never have gotten some of them (acne is one thing but lets try to avoid the hair loss please). But we're going to get control now and possibly get rid of the problem altogether.

To get me back on course, the doctor has put me on Metformin and Clomid. While I am not diabetic (another symptom of PCOS), Metformin will help with insulin resistance and also help the second med to work better. And Clomid will make the ovulation cycle start on time.

When you read about this stuff online, it sounds a lot scarier than the doctors make it sound. I have a syndrome. While it bothers me on some levels, I think I'm OK for the most part. I feel like I finally have a reason for some things - things that are wrong with me, that I felt uncomfortable and depressed about maybe. Ah, something to blame my issues on.

Sorry if I'm dramatic - I just really wanted everyone to know. What better way than blog about it - let everyone know at once.

If we never have a baby, it will be OK. Maybe God doesn't have that plan for us. But I'm not giving up on it yet, not without a fight.

Welcome to the world, Lucy!

Please send up big prayers for Lucy and her parents, our good friends Tammy and Jake. Earlier this week, Tammy's had some problems with pre-eclampsia. Not good. The only way to fix it is giving birth, so the baby's entrance to the world was moved up a few days. Lucy Jane was born at 6:20 pm on Oct 8th. She's 18inch long and 6.1 lbs. And she has so many people that love her already!

A few weeks ago in an ultrasound they found Lucy has enlarged ventricles in her brain that may be Hydrocephalus. Now that she's born they will be doing tests to determine if she needs brian surgery to relieve the fluid, and she will be having this surgery in the next couple days. I know with a whole lot of prayer and faith that she -and Mommy - are going to come out of this fine and do great and wonderful things in this world.

Congrats Tammy and Jake! I can't wait to meet your little blessing!

Update on me

Oh yeah... that's right... it's now been a month since I blogged... hmmm, guess you're wondering what I've been up to. Let's see...

I'm still working on the house, which is a never ending project for any home owner. I painted the guest room and got it all set up - as in the bed is made and there are things hanging on the walls and books are on the shelf. I'll try to get pics up of that. We have window blinds and curtains on a few windows. I have extricated all teal from the living room, soooo much better.

I’ve gotten to show off my home a lot lately too. We had a two-year old birthday party (cutie-pie Korbin) and a couple of baby showers (Krista and Tammy). LOTS of fun, food and kids. All were great and everything survived, haha. I have to say, the kids did less to my house than drunken adults have done to it in past parties… what does that say??

Also, as of this month, Jason and I have our own Connection Group (a small group from our church) in our home every week. It’s really part of the group we’ve been in for the past 3 years that has been growing like crazy and got to the point it needed to split. So about half the group meets every Wed night at our place and it’s been great so far. We’ve met such fabulous people through our group, made such wonder friends, we’re so blessed. We’ve been here for 5 years now and Kyle has gradually felt more and more like our hometown. The friends were have surrounding us now have made that feeling more real.

And I must say, I think my husband is pretty good at leading the discussion – it’s probably those great teaching stills he has J

So now I’m off to visit my sister for the weekend and go to the State Fair of Texas. I’ve lived in TX my whole life and never been – apparently the food is the best part.

"Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won't be dissatisfied, you won't be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else's things. On the contrary, you'll be overwhelmed with what comes back." - Morrie Schwartz

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!

Today is my fabulous sister's birthday! She's smart, pretty, sweet and fun - one couldn't ask for a better sister :) Happy 26th Em, hope it's a great one.

....er... i still haven't shipped your present... so you might be celebrating again Sept haha

U-S-A!!

So I didn't really do anything around the house this weekend like I had planned. But I did cheer on my country's men and women a-plenty. I'm all wrapped up in the Olympics again this year - starting from the opening ceremonies... well... 30 minutes in to them when I remembered they had started already :) It was awesome, what a beautiful show. Jason and I even hit rewind a couple of times and rewatched some of the best parts. And I Love the Bird's Nest -so unique.

My favs of the summer Olympics are probably gymnastics, swimming, diving and my recent addition is beach volleyball. I also like to watch weightlifting, rowing, basketball, softball, and tennis... and if I'm really honest with myself I like synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics(even if I think they're kinda cheesy). You may notice, soccer is not one of these, I'm sorry, I don't like soccer, I can't get into it, it's boring. Sorry, babe.

This time difference thing has got me going crazy. Everything is happening in the middle of the night- because, you know, China is on the other side of the world and what-not. I fell asleep during the men's swimming relay last night and missed the big finish argh. It's a good thing they've disabled videos on my work computer or I'm pretty sure I've have watched every one of them on NBC's website today.

I'm seeing my evenings this week taken up by more TV watching. We've got 6 different channels showing difference sports at different times. This is not good for my home improvement schedule. Hope everyone out there is tuning in and rooting for our peoples. :) Go USA!!

WIP

I'm finally getting around to sharing what we've been working on. This last weekend we continued in making our new house 'ours'. For a while now I've been feeling like we've been living in some one else's house that just happened to have some of our furniture in it. There are boxes and junk stacked in places, the walls in the living room are this crazy sea foam/teal color, the window blinds match and the garage seemed to catch all the random things in towering piles but goodness knows where things have been stuck if you need them. Even the plants in the flower bed don't seem like 'mine'.

We started the multi-weekend conversion by doing some planting, cleaning the garage and painting the living room. The planting was really to replace what had died while we were in WI - the former owner put potted plants throughout the flower bed and almost everything in the pots died in the 100 degree heat and no water for a week. Jason mowed the yard - it didn't look like there was a lot of grass but it really made a difference. Then he started to organize the garage while I painted the living room - with the fabulous help of Ellen. I've got some before and after pictures below - though it's far from finished and the color came out littler in the pic. Some friends from church came over Wed night and helped me decide were the living room furniture should go. Us women made the guys rearrange the room about 5 times, it was fun :)

This weekend is more of the same. I really want to get some things hung on the walls, it's looking so bare still to me. But I'm definitely starting to see 'My' house coming through. One of the biggest differences will be when we finally get rid of the teal window blinds - I keep them open as much as possible so I don't have to see all that blue/green.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

"You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true. You may have to work for it, however." - Richard Bach

Love Story

Love is so uniquely amazing, and a real life story like this makes me excited for people in love all over the world and our ability to connect with each other.

I just found out about these two last week. What a beautiful story. Rosie and Aaron met on Flickr and fell in love through photography. He's from North Carolina and she lives in England. I've been checking in every day for the latest post. These two are amazingly talented.

Love and the Internet are powerful things. Some may not know that Jason and I met over the Internet. Not nearly as exciting or colorful as their story, but it's our own.

Wisconsin '08: Green Bay

On our way from Door County to Madison, we drove right through Green Bay. So of course, my football loving husband wanted to stop for a tour around Lambeau Field - home of the Green Bay Packers. I think it was one of the biggest highlights of the trip for him :)

Even at 10 in the morning on a Friday there were lots of people there. They have tours at 10, 10:30 and every 15 minutes starting at 11. The first two were already sold out when we arrived at 10. We got to see a little of the behind-the-scenes, but mostly they took us to the expensive private boxes and out to the field sidelines. We learned how much they've done to the field fairly recently, adding a lot more sets and all the private boxes around the stadium - which started at $30K a game and went up from there!

After the tour we had lunch at the pub above the Atrium. It was actually reasonably priced for an attraction like this - and it was really good.

Here's some more pictures from around the stadium - it was very impressive, I'm glad we stopped.

Heart of the City

Wisconsin '08: Door County

The first two nights we spent in Fish Creek, WI in Door County. Door County is a big vacation destination for WI - what a beautiful place! The peninsula has many small towns and islands along its shore. In these towns there's lots of shopping and parks and restaurants and light houses. We saw so little of it, really you'd need a whole week to really enjoy.

We staid at a hotel right at the edge of a state park and spent most of our time in the towns of Fish Creek and Ephriam. On the first night, we went to the Old Post Office Restaurant in Ephriam for a traditional Door County fish boil. They boil white fish with potatoes and onions in a big pot outside and serve it with their famous cherry pie for desert. After dinner, we caught the double feature at the drive in movie theater - the only movie theater on the peninsula.

The next day we went on a trolley tour around Fish Creek and Peninsula State Park. The tour stopped at some of the beaches and lookouts along bluffs. Everything is so green there. And it's hard to believe that you are standing at the edge of a lake - there are sandy beaches, sea gulls and water as far as you can see. The wonderful weather that morning didn't hold out for us, and that afternoon we did a little shopping in the pouring rain.

I hope to go back someday and stay in some of the other towns towards the north and see some of the islands. It's an easy drive from Green Bay to get there and not too bad from Milwaukee, took us 4 hours and we went the long way to see some more of the lake shore. Pictures.

Think of all the beauty sill left around you and be happy. -Anne Frank

Wisconsin '08

We've been back for a couple days now and I have just now gotten around to getting to my blog. We had such a fabulous time and did so much while we were there. It was great to see the boys, they've changed so much in two years it's been since we saw them last and I still can't believe it's been that long.

The family lives in a small town West of Madison. We arrived to their house on Friday afternoon and spent 4 nights with them. The first night was so nice outside, we sat around watching the fireflies come out and made smores. The boys set off fireworks too, I got some great pictures of them with the smoke bombs.

Jerry showed us around downtown Madison on Sat. Every Sat in the summer they have a big farmer's market around the capital building. It was awesome- huge veggies, beautiful flowers, cheese, and crafts. We walked around the market and over to the Olin Terrace (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright) and in the capital building.

Also going on that weekend was a Huge sidewalk sale on State Street. Vendors from all over town brought things to sell - some really discounted. Everything from electronics, to accessories, to clothes and shoes, to books.

At the end of State St was the University of Wisconsin. The old buildings on campus are awesome and they are built right next to the lake.

On Sunday we drove up to Devil's Lake State Park with the whole family. We picnicked and hiked a small portion of their many trails there. There are some spectacular lookouts along one of the cliffs, were we spent most of our time. Though the temp was in the 80s, it was so humid, the lake looked very inviting.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our time with the family. I'll be blogging again soon on our other adventures in WI.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." - Albert Einstein

One for the road

I've been horrible at blogging lately. But I feel like I have an excuse- work has been busy, home has been busy, family has been busy, life .... well I've been busy.

That's not really changing any... now Jason and I are going to leave for a week long vacation to Wisconsin. Jason's brother and his family live there -near Madison. I'm really looking forward to getting away for a while and seeing the family. We've been married almost 6 years and this is the first chance we've gotten to go visit them. AND the highs are in the 80s ;)

We're going to tour a bit of the Eastern part of the state for the first couple of days - visiting Door County and driving around Milwaukee and Green Bay. Then stay with Jerry and Co for the rest of the trip. I want to see the House on the Rock while we're there and see everything in Madison.

But mostly I'm excited about spending time with these guys below, our nephews. We haven't seen them in over two years (since this picture was taken).

You can be sure there will be plenty of new pictures up when I get back... our good digital camera just got back from being fixed :)

"Love is like a butterfly. It goes where it pleases and it pleases where it goes." - Unknown

Uncle Danny

Very early yesterday morning, my uncle, Daniel Schwencke, passed away at 54 years old. Far too soon to leave us. We will miss you Uncle Danny.

Please keep our family in your prayers. Thank you.

Update...

Moved this weekend.
Still living with boxes.
Cleaning former residence tonight.
New owners take over tomorrow.
I like my new home :)
Will post pics as soon as camera is unpacked.
Quarter end at work was crazy insane.
Worked 10 hours yesterday then unpacked more boxes last night.
Brain dead and tired.

Thanks to everyone who helped!!

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." - Carl Sagan

The Weirdness...

Our intranet at work has News of the Weird linked to it's little trivia section. They update it about twice a month with the random weirdness and bone-head stories of 'lives interestingly lived.' I liked reading these when I used to get the paper , and now, like everything else, they're online. I don't know if it makes me feel less a fool or it's interesting to see just how stupid our society can be. Here's some examples:

The Continuing Crisis...Police in Fort Myers, Fla., were called to Royal Palm Exceptional School in April and wound up arresting an 8-year-old boy named Deshawn for punching his female teacher in the face, leaving several bruises. Said Deshawn's grandmother, Dorothy Williams, when interviewed by WBBH-TV: "He gets very upset, and he loves to hit," but "If he was overpowering her that much, I feel like she shouldn't be in that line of work."


America In Decline...One of the Internet's successful Web sites (10 million page views a month, with $500,000 in ads from companies including Verizon, McDonald's and General Motors) is a site that merely reports on what celebrities' babies are wearing, in that so many mothers are apparently obsessed with mimicking those clothing choices for their own tots. A May Wall Street Journal feature said sometimes the site's posting a photo of a celebrity baby incites a nationwide run on what it's wearing.


First Things First...A supervisor at the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services told a Billings Gazette reporter in March that some of his employees were complaining that new computers delivered to the office lacked games like solitaire, hearts and Minesweeper, and that it wasn't fair that employees with older computers still had the games.





"Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped." - Elbert Hubbard

HB to AE

I didn't get to this yesterday... HAPPY BIRTHDAY EILEEN!!



It was the birthday of one of the nicest, most fun women I know yesterday. She was a second mom to me growing up and one of my best friends now. Some say she might have spoiled me and my sister a bit, but I don't think she would agree ;) I love you Aunt Eileen!!



Here we are at the Texas Ren Fest - we always have a great time together, what ever we're doing.

The best parents in the world...

Dad - Happy Father's Day!

Mom - Happy Birthday!

THANK YOU for love, for support, for lessons, for acceptance, for intelligence, for hard work, for dreams, for security, for foolishness and for being the best parents a girl could ever have in this world. I love you.

"The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness."- Honore' de Balzac

Got to move it

Looks like we're moving sooner than originally planned. The new owners of our home are not going to finance the home now, mommy and daddy are paying for it (were can I get parents like these ;) ). And now they're asking that we move the closing date up. The closing on our new home on June 26 and closing on the sale of our current home now on July 2. So rather than having 2 1/2 weeks, with 3 whole weekends, to move out of one house and into another, we've got 6 days.

I know, I know, that's still pretty good and do-able. But I thought I still had a month to pack so I haven't started yet, now I have 2 weeks. And we were counting on painting the sea-foam-green walls in the living room of the new place before we moved. That color really doesn't go well with my red couches.

So, if any one is free the weekend of June 28 & 29, we have an exciting painting/moving weekend planned and we'd love for you to join us :) Food, drinks and a great time will be provided! haha

Those suckers are even more sea-foam in person...

Pain in the Butt

The continued drama in the life of Ginny The Destroyer... this one's a bit gross, just a warning.

Last night Jason and I had a fun adventure rushing out to a 24 hour emergency vet clinic. We were in the backyard last night, playing Frisbee with our dogs - well, with Ginny anyways, Allie doesn't quite get it. Ginny won't quit when it comes to Frisbee, you can run her for hours and completely wear her down and she'll get up for more. She won't stop long enough to really do anything, like drink water if she's thirsty or lay down for a minute if she's tired. When I decided she had enough we went in the house and she followed me around the kitchen. I looked down from cleaning the counter to notice everywhere my poor little dog sat she left a red mark on the floor. Red, wet, smudges all over the kitchen. It took me a second to realize exactly what was going on, but I'm hoping you are following where this story is leading.

Jason and I had the same thought 'This is bad. What did she eat? Something has got to be ripping her up from the inside out.' We loaded her in the car (with lots of towels) and set off to Austin at 9 at night to the closest 24 hour vet we could find on the internet. Unfortunately, as anyone who drives 35 in Kyle right now knows, construction crews had the highway north bound shut down. We got creative, drove out into the country a bit and finally got to the vet much later than necessary.

And how was Ginny during this adventure you ask? She was fine. Other than she hates riding in the car, especially without Allie, she was acting completely normal. Once we got to the vet that changed a bit. I think she would have been mostly ok but a dog in another room started squealing in pain for a couple minutes.

Ginny's Pain-in-the-Butt tale gets rather anticlimactic from here. The vet came in and examined her rump and said everything from the inside looked fine. It was the outside that seemed to be scratched up and swollen... and still bleeding a little. After thinking through her activities that evening, we decided that she probably landed her rear on a rock or something when coming down from catching the Frisbee - the girl can get some air when she goes for that thing. We got some meds to help with the swelling and were on our way home.

The Frisbee is sidelined for a few days, until Ginny's butt heals. I'm guess I'm going to have to throw it closer to the ground from now on - she loves it way too much to give it up. Thank God it wasn't worse. That dog is going to cost me some serious vet bills one day, it's only a matter of time. It's a good thing I love her.

My poor, stupid dog.

"Perfection has one grave defect; it is apt to be dull." - W. Somerset Maugham

Big Sigh of Relief

We have an offer... well 3 actually.

Our house has been showing like crazy. It officially appeared on the market Tues morning last week and we had at least one showing a day, sometimes two. Then on Sat our realtor had an open house. There wasn't very much traffic, but those that came by were serious buyers and were all very interested. At the end of that day we had one offer with the promise of three more the next day! We met with her Sunday evening and she showed us the 3 offers she had received on our home! Two were acceptable but not great, the third was our asking price with no extra demands. Of course that's the one we chose and accepted. As long as all goes well with inspections and financing for the buyers, the closing is scheduled for July 14 - over 2 weeks after the close on our new home.

All the waiting to finally do this was worth it, God certainly knows what He's doing. Things are working out amazingly well. Thank you everyone for your prayers, we couldn't have done so well without them.

"guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." Psalm 25:5

Baby Boy Ruff

For those that know them, Jason and Krista are having a baby boy!!! I'm so excited I couldn't keep it to myself :P

Congrats you two and I can't wait to meet him :)

A very, very unbirthday to me

The big 28. yahoo. It feels the farthest thing from my birthday, and I don't really care. Is that a sign of getting old? My big plans for tonight are cleaning the house and working on the yard... again. That's what our days consist of at the moment, because...

Jason and I put our house on the market this week. The signs went up in the yard on Monday and I saw our MLS listing for the first time last night. AND we've already had one couple come see the home. Monday evening a guy came and knocked on the door and asked a couple questions. Then he and his wife and their realtor came last night to take a look. Not bad for the second day huh? I'm not holding my breath on this being it, but I take it as a decent sign. Besides the for sale sign, our realtor stuck a little sign that says 'I'm Gorgeous Inside!' I think it's hilarious. Jason's probably getting sick of me walking around the house saying 'Look, we're gorgeous!' haha.

The best thing so far of keeping the house clean is I can avoid cooking :) Your home has to be in 'model home' order at all times. As we found out last night, people will call you at the craziest times to see your home. I was putting food together for church group and had grocery bags spread all over the counter when I got a call asking if they could see the house at 6:30 - it was 6:10! I did a mad dash around throwing the food in the bags and wiping down counter tops. I consider myself a clean person (mostly) but keeping things this clean is going to get old fast.

"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams." - John Barrymore

Blue Sage Dr

We did it. Monday we put an offer on a house in Kyle and it's been accepted! It's a one story, 4 bedroom home in the Meadow Woods subdivision. If anyone's available at the begining of July to help move...

Weekend in the Metroplex

We had our annual Girls Weekend during the Memorial Day holiday in Ft Worth this year. Every year Mom, Aunt Eileen, Emily and I get together during Memorial Day weekend for a few days of hanging out and shopping. Usually it's at my place - it's the most centrally located- but this year we all trekked up to Em's. It was a fabulous time. Mostly we just hung out with each other and got to know Brent. Here's some of the highlights:

- On Friday I got off work mid-day and drove up before traffic got too bad. We stayed at Em's friend's Huge, Gorgeous home, which was much more convenient then her one bedroom apt. They were out of town for the weekend and needed some one to dog sit anyways, so I became great friends with Jake their Great Dane. Em cooked us dinner at the house and we met her boyfriend Brent. It was lots of fun except for the Spurs loosing to the Lakers that night, but we didn’t let it get us down. To distract ourselves from the horrible game we played a few games of Sequence and Brent and I whipped up on Mom and Em haha.
- On Sat we slept in a little and didn’t leave the house until almost noon. We went shopping at the mall and had lunch at Carrabba’s. Got to hit the Memorial Day Holiday sales!
- On Sunday Em cooked us and Brent a wonderful brunch. We spent the day hanging out and playing games. I was getting pretty good at Rock Band – though my Karaoke Revolution and Guitar Hero background helped. That evening we went to church and then over to Brent’s for the Spurs game - a much better result on that one.
- I left early on Monday to get back to Kyle – more on the activities of that day soon.

Connecting with his roots

This is too funny not to share...

This is only temporary, I assure you it is.


"Now, it's true I married my wife for her looks...but not the ones she's been givin' me lately." -Jeff Foxworthy

It all started with a chair...

Watched it last night, loved this movie. The dialog is probably the best part. I don't like giving away much on what happens in movies, so I'm just going to say - WATCH THIS! Expect a quirky comedy surrounding the provoking topic of teen pregnancy.

That ain't no Etch A Sketch. This is one doodle that can't be undid, Homeskillet.

The Destroyer at work

The Kyle area had really bad weather yesterday and last night – the weather guys were even worried about hail and tornados. We normally leave the dogs outside all day but whenever there is heavy rain we keep them in the house while we’re gone. There’s no covered area in our back yard where they can keep dry and mud free - and Allie hates the rain.

As Jason was leaving the house yesterday morning, he lets the dogs out quickly to use the ‘facilities’ and when he lets them back in they are already a muddy mess. After a quick bath, he chunks them together in our bathroom to dry off away from my couches. Another reason for locking them up is our youngest, Ginny, aka the Destroyer. You must never, never leave Ginny alone with anything valuable in reach. It doesn’t matter what it is. Clothes, stuffed animals, shoes, pillows, trees, furniture, just about anything made of plastic, the air conditioner, etc. So Jason picks up the things off the floor, throws them in the closet and rushes off to work, already late. He’s also given the girls every dog toy that he could find that hasn’t yet ended up in the trash can in pieces – this amounts to about 4 toys.

If it was just Allie this would have kept her for the entire day. She would probably have slept the day away anyways. Allie is my angel. I think yesterday was an interesting one for her. I wish she could talk to me sometimes, I think her opinion of her little sister would be very enlightening. If anything she could tell me what the hell happened in my bathroom.

I came home to a disaster zone. A full bag of cotton balls was ripped to shreds – I know she had fun with that one. She ate the toilet brush, the brush holder (it’s in small plastic pieces), and the plunger – Gross! She kicked most of the water out of their bowl all over the floor. She made a mess of both of the dog beds. The roll of toilet paper is demolished; I couldn’t actually find all the pieces of the cardboard roll, their probably running through her digestive system at the moment. But the scariest part was the toilet cleaner bottle with the wrapper ripped away and a tooth mark piercing it.

Needless to say I freaked. A short lived case of slight hysteria might be closer. I know my dog is going to kill herself one of these days from eating something- rocks or plastic or a toxic plants, I guess I need to add poisonous household cleaners to the list. Some people are going to think I’m a horrible parent, I think I am too some times. But, she’s a dog and kind of a stupid one. Some day she’s going to kill herself, that’s just the way it is.

Well, luckily yesterday wasn’t it - the bottle was pretty much empty to begin with and still had a little in it. I think she got a lick of the stuff and left it alone. We watched her all evening for any signs that she’s poisoned. She’s acting completely normal even this morning. I just can't remember where the bottle started the day. I'm pretty sure is was on the top of the toilet. Which means her 'reach' is getting better.

It’s raining again today. The dogs are going to be getting wet and muddy. Poor Allie.

I've been a very bad girl...

"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards." - Vernor Sanders Law

I've got the sickness

I've been sicker this year than any other … that I can remember. My loving husband thought he was suffering from allergies this weekend. Apparently not. Whatever he had, I got worse. Fever, chills, sore throat, stuffy nose.

Not nearly as bad as Feb in New Mexico – which I refer to as ‘THE WORST VACATION EVER’ but I’m definitely not having fun. I stayed home yesterday from work and now I wish I had stayed home today too. Blah.

I’ll get more creative with some blogging later. But until my brain is functioning better, here’s some fun pics I like. (That’s all I got Em)

Self portrait on the beach in Costa Rica 2007

Yes, that's right, I stood in line for 3 hours to take a damn picture with the damn trophy - but I got some serious ‘Best Wife’ points for that one.

The Shumate family. We're going to see these guys in Wisconsin in July. More blogs about that later I'm sure.

Isn't he sexy... wait, that's not Jason... how'd that get on here...

"If at first you don't succeed...skydiving is not for you." - Author Unknown

It's keeping me up at night

I am draaaaggging this week. And it's all the fault of...

I have always been a huge Mario Kart fan from the days of the Super Nintendo. My sister and I were still playing that and Yoshi's Cookie up to a few years ago - I think Em still has it now. For anyone who's played the game before, you know how when you're in an intense moment and going around a sharp turn the controller kind of drifts in the direction of the curve. Or your jumping a ramp and you lift your hands in the air to kind of help your little cart to make it just a little further to the landing. Well, you get to use that in the new Wii version of this game. You have an actually steering wheel with the Wii controller snapped in the middle of it. And you no longer use the arrow keys to direct Mario through the course, you turn the wheel. When taking those jumps, pulling up will now get your character to do crazy little stunts. Your whole body gets into it, which is one of the things Wii games are famous for. And just like the other games, my arms are feeling it this morning. And, just like the others, Jason and I are staying up WAY to late every night this week playing this game. Starbucks has been my friend these last couple of days. But I LOVE it.

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it. - Mary Wilson Little

Gardens of Glass

I love Dale Chihuly! What that man and his team can do with colored glass is intense. Twists of color and shapes create amazing, whimsical displays… I can stare at them for hours. He’s well known for his use of crazy colors and the sheer size of his designs. And I think he might be a little nuts, the eye patch doesn’t help that perception.

Of course, his chandeliers are incredible, but my favorite are the gardens. The spikes and spheres of color shooting out of the green leaves every so often. Then there will be a towering column of spirals reaching up towards the sky, right in the middle of the small trees and bushes or amongst a tropical jungle of palms.

I went to an exhibit in SA with my parents a few years ago and fell in love. If you've ever been to the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, the ceiling in the lobby was done by him. Maybe one day I'll rich enough to own one of his pieces, just a small one of course...

http://www.chihuly.com/index.html

Useless Trivia #3

There are over 375 organizations around the world devoted to Sherlock Holmes. The largest group is the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club with over 1,200 members.

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely most important. - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Yes, a man CAN hate going to Home Depot

Jason and I planned a home improvement weekend, even took off Friday to begin - ah the joys of being a home owner.

We started by making the list - well, Jason did - and planning our attack. It took up an entire sheet of paper. It involved everything from fixing a door to cleaning out the garage to lawn care to shredding old paperwork. All those little things you say ‘one day we need too…’

But some how every project we planned either took much longer then it should have or more parts and tools than we owned or had to be redone because it just wouldn’t work that way. By the end of Sunday Jason estimated he took 8 trips to Home Depot - only one of which I accompanied him on.

What got done? We fixed the back door, planted some house plants and shrubs, and sold the china cabinet on Craigslist. The list is still sitting on the counter laughing at us with exactly three items out of 30 crossed off.

Next weekend is already booked with multiple evens on both days – only one of which is on the stupid list. I’m tired just thinking about it.

Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance? - Edgar Bergen

Useless Trivia of the Day #2

Giraffes are the only animals born with horns. Both males and females are born with bony knobs on the forehead.

Bonus trivia:
Bats are voracious insect eaters, devouring as many as 600 bugs per hour for 4 to 6 hours a night. They can eat from one-half to three-quarters their weight per evening.

"Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know." - Daniel J. Boorstin

The special someone

This is one of the cutest proposals I've seen.

http://us.i1.yimg.com/videogames.yahoo.com/feature/from-matching-gems-to-the-perfect-match/1204743

Commenting...

I have fixed the comments. It used to require you to have an account to leave me a comment, but no longer :)

"There are times when silence has the loudest voice." - Leroy Brownlow

Warning: Serious Time Waster

I have an addiction, something I’ve been doing for years and I need to confess. It can be pretty severe at times. My addiction is… http://www.jigzone.com/ – oh the horror.

Hello, my name is Sarah and I am a puzzle addict.

I spend entire lunch hours finding patterns and connecting pieces. I even watch TV with the laptop perched in my line of sight to the screen. I’ve solved almost every puzzle in most categories. You can try the same puzzle over and over cut into different shapes, from only a few pieces to hundreds. They even let you upload your own photos. I find myself looking at random pictures thinking ‘hm, that would make a great puzzle picture’. The site also times you and compares that to others.

It’s an addiction I feel compelled to share with you. If you dare to try the site, be warned: You will find hours fly by with little done. Your eyes will be watering from staring at the screen but you can not stop. You will dream of patterns and puzzle pieces.

You may strong enough to resist the puzzle addiction, but if you don’t think you are… be wary.

"The greatest of all faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none." - Thomas Carlyle

One might call this an obsession

Millie Seaton Doll Museum - I lived in San Marcos for 5 years and never knew this was here.

I went to a baby shower this past weekend in San Marcos. The hostesses rented a historical home just south of the square known as the Doll House. It's a beautiful 3 story Victorian style home. It's also the creepiest and yet captivating places I've been for a baby shower. Everywhere you looked, in every room, in every corner of every room there are dolls. Every kind of doll ever made from antique to Raggedy Ann to Betty Boop to Cabbage Patch to Barbie. Dolls from the 19th century, dolls from foreign countries, dolls that looked like celebrities, dolls that I had as a kid. It was amazingly eerie walking around being stared at by thousands of eyes. They approximate about 5,000 dolls reside at the Doll House, all owned by one woman I'm told. I can just imagine the amount of money that went into this place and it's occupants. They don't have a website and I don't believe they are open to the public everyday, but they give tours. Next time I go, I HAVE to remember my camera.

"Good friendships are fragile things and require as much care as any other fragile and precious thing."- Randolph Bourne

Useless Trivia of the Day #1

The World's Largest Catsup Bottle stands proudly next to Route 159, just south of downtown Collinsville, Illinois. This unique, 170-foot-tall water tower was built in 1949 by W.E. Caldwell Company for the G.S. Suppiger catsup bottling plant. In 1995, due largely to the efforts of the Catsup Bottle Preservation Group, this piece of local history was saved from demolition and beautifully restored to its original appearance.


"It is better of course to know useless things than to know nothing." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Shhhhhh

I love this picture. This is my youngest child Ginger - better known as Ginny. My sister took this shot when we were camping recently. You don't get too many shots of Ginny like this, she doesn't sit still for long.

"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of."- Ogden Nash

Going home again

I went back home for Easter, as I do every year. And may I say, things have changed a bit... just as they do every year. The drive in is different, the country side is different, even my parents home is different.

I grew up on the West side of San Antonio outside the city. Friends called it the boondocks though some might disagree - it's not like we lived OUT in the country, so you had to drive 20 minutes to get to the grocery store. The 30 it took to get to the mall was a little rough in the teenage years. Oh how things change. Now there is a Wal-mart with in 2 miles. Just across the street is a huge HEB. This weekend I went shopping at Kohls - who shares a parking lot with the grocery store. Back in my day, we were excited about the Sonic and Bill Millers that opened when I was in high school. Now there's a Taco Cabana, Starbucks, Burger King, Double Dave's, Panda Express and a Pei Wei.

When growing up I don't remember appreciating the city or really feeling anything significant towards living there. I'm not sure I even thought much on where I would end up some day, though I did know I wanted to live in Texas. What I do remember is loving the feeling of being home at my parents house. That comforted feeling of being surrounded by the comfort and love and contentment and - oh the list goes on. Even the house has changed though. Where there was carpet now is wood floors. The backyard is unrecognizable with a rock paved patio and hot tub - I would have really like having that during high school :) There is a dog that sleeps in my parents bed - that soooo wouldn't have happened 10 years ago. My room isn't mine anymore with a shiny bedspread and antique furniture.

Now that I've lived away for awhile and experienced the differences from one Texas town to the next, I analyze the qualities of San Antonio. Things I like and things I don't. Though things are a-changing on the West side of SA, the city keeps itself somehow the same. My parent's home is so different from what it was then, yet it still feels like home and comfort. I don't know that I'll ever reside in that city again, but I like that I live close enough to visit often.



"No one can go back and make a brand new start, my friend, but anyone can start from here and make a brand new end." - Anonymous

The First One

Here it is. The 1st blog. And what's the first blog always about... um, well this one's about the blogger. If you've found this site then you probably already know me, so we'll skip some of the basics.

Other things, hmm...

I love magnolia flowers, spring in the Texas hillcountry, black ink pens, scrapbook paper, singing with the band at my church, my neurotic black cat, books (all of them), pepperoni and pineapple pizza, cold coca-cola in a can, the thesaurus on the computer, old church buildings, when my husband kisses my forehead, and coming home from a fun vacation.

I do not like scrubbing the bathtub, Austin traffic, spelling, macaroni and cheese, when people use the phrases 'the ball's in your court' or 'works like a champ' in a business meeting, and feeling unappreciated.

Things that scare me: scorpions, driving between an 18 wheeler and the cement barrier on the highway, going blind, and the depth of the ocean.

It's almost the end of March: the year is almost a quarter over, quarter end is coming up a work and I will probably be working long hours, I'm only a couple months away from being 28 and from my 10 year high school reunion - yikes

Well, that may or may not tell you a little more about me.

"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes." - Sir Winston Churchill