Since it Worked...

Here now for your viewing enjoyment is a pitcure of Rusty enjoying himself down by the river.

A year and 3 months in the making

I really hope this works...cross your fingers! Now I just feel stupid...I could have been putting all of these wonderful memories on here a loooong time ago.

50 Things About Me

I am a Christian.

I have been struggling to go to church regularly for the past few years.

I’ve been married to Jamie since 2004.

His sister came to my 8th birthday party and I still have the present she gave me.

When I was in third grade I knew Jamie as the “blonde haired boy who handed out bulletins during Sunday night church”. We then parted ways for about 10 years.

When I was 18, I met him again while he was working and left him my phone number.

Now he and I work together.

I love sweets.

I have a beautiful dog, a blonde German Shepherd, he’s our baby.

I have never been out of the country, but I would love to live in the French and Italian countryside and learn how to cook delicious meals.

I have lived in Texas my entire life.

I may be moving soon.

I love reading anything and everything I can get my hands on.

I haven’t read a book in over 3 months!

I have been working my entire life.

My first real job was being a hostess at the Black Eyed Pea, and I have moved on to much better things.

I like the sappy, make you cry type of movies.

One of my favorite sappy movies from last year is “Finding Neverland”

I’m not a fan of newer music, I like almost everything from 2000 prior.

I was in choir for 10 years, but I never learned to read music.

My mom told me I could sing and hum tunes to commercials before I could even talk.

I learned to type when I was in 7th grade. Hated it, but now I would say that I like it, and I’m pretty darn good too.

I was home schooled until I went to high school.

My mom used to make us keep journals and I hated it, but it was always hilarious to go back to when I was about 7 or 8 and see what kind of drama was consuming my life.

I have now kept journals because I liked it since I was 13, but those are more boring because they are just high school drama and such.

I don’t have a car right now and it hasn’t made a difference.

I didn’t learn to drive until I was almost 18- by choice.

I hate green peas with a passion. Always have, always will.

I used to hate country music but now it’s almost all I listen to.

I can’t stand talking on the phone, I would rather do anything else.

I didn’t do 100 things about me because I’m not at all that interesting.
I love reading other peoples blogs.

I love reading advice columns.

My favorite color is blue. Every different shade.

When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up to be a baker and own my own bakery.
I would still like to do that sometime later on in my life.

I used to collect stamps when I was a kid. Sort of. I would take them off of envelopes and put them in a scrapbook of mine.

When I was in 5th grade I had to get glasses, but by the time I was in 8th grade I didn’t need them anymore. Now I need glasses again, but I’m hoping my eyesight will get better on its own again…ha ha, probably not.

I have never had my wisdom teeth taken out even though I already have one of them in!

All the way! It’s my goal to have all of them removed by the end of the year.

The wicked witch of the west from the Wizard of Oz still scares me even though I know I could probably take her.

I am looking forward to being a mom when that happens sometime in the future.

I love naps and I would take one ever single day if I could.

I would like to think that I am a positive person. I have a tendency to be very pessimistic, but Jamie has helped me not to be so negative.

I don’t have any really embarrassing stories, but that’s because I have never put myself out there. Now that I do, I’m sure that my moments will come!

Right now Jamie and I are fixing up my dad’s house to sell it.

I love watching Grey’s Anatomy, Mad TV and 24.

I haven’t seen a great movie in a very long time.

I am slowly learning to love coffee via Starbucks.

I like cats and small dogs.

I have never seen more than 3 inches of snow in my life, and that was 16 years ago!

Cleverness or the LACK thereof

My beautiful friend Rebekah’s engagement party was last night. She and I have been friends since the beginning of high school. Long story very short…we met the first day of 9th grade as both of us were registering for school. She and her fiancé will be getting married later this year. I cried when I heard the news because I was just so happy for her. I was sitting there painting away at the wall talking to her on the phone when she told me, and then I couldn’t stop crying and had Jamie take the phone so he could talk to her (he had no idea what was going on) while I put down the paintbrush while gathering myself. I also cried because I am selfish and am glad that we will have another young married couple to hang out with. We lost our other young married couple when my sister moved away to Washington. Friends of the together forever sort are few and far between (and hard to find these days because work consumes all!) because it is rare that our friends would be like us and be this young and married (I still don’t like getting the weird looks from some folks who think its strange to just give up a single life so early on). It’s just not the same when hanging out with the non coupley single friends. The single ones are always fun, and much needed, but not the same because they don’t understand the day to day life that goes on a little bit differently for us, and it is different.

Seeing the finish line

Here is something I am going to try…since I am so terrible at keeping those stinking New Years resolutions, I am going to just set one very attainable goal a month that I will be able to achieve if I set aside the time to do something for myself. For April I will go out on a limb and set TWO goals for myself.

1st: Lose 10 Lbs.
2nd: Find something else fun to do besides only work and more work!

You see here is what has always been my problem, I am great at finding new projects to do and getting started with them with mucho gusto. No, that’s not the problem. The problem lies in sticking with my newfound project and seeing it all the way through! I can think of a half-dozen ventures I started as a kid and never finished: the quilt I started for my dolls, the recorder I never learned to play, the embossing equipment that I got at a craft fair but never used ONCE, writing in journals (I have no problem now), I wanted to quit the track team my second year in (but didn’t because I couldn’t), and even the music lessons that I wanted so badly just seemed to taper off until the were gone. Man, I sound like a loser. The time is now to change my ways…

Today is my older brother’s birthday…Happy Birthday to him! I’ll send him a picture of a cake since the real one wouldn’t be so pretty after being shipped in the mail. My favorite is strawberry , or the lemon one while it is still hot without the icing, now that sounds good.

Last night Jamie and I set the living room up in the house…the hardest part is getting the junk out and leaving the bare minimum around to get the house sold. Rusty (the dog) kept following us every time we moved the furniture around, because his hiding spaces were way too open, and he is also terrified of the vacuum and will never be in the same room as it. We are getting so close to being finished with all of the repairs and changes that need to be made. I would say that maybe a weeks worth of work is left to do. So very exciting to hear!

You know...a post

It’s so weird being an adult now. Well, at least I consider myself an adult. I am married, both of us have steady jobs along with steady responsibilities, and we are even thinking about buying a house. Pretty cool eh? I think so. It’s a scary thought too. Actually, not as much scary, as it is overwhelming. We are still in the process of just figuring out what type of house we want and what type of price range to look at. Ooooh, it makes me nervous with excitement. Next thing you know I’ll be talking about babies and all that jazz! I am really enjoying this part of my life and I love being able to share it with my best friend…yes Jamie, that’s you!

On Saturday we drove up to Longview to see Jamie’s sister get married. I’m very proud of his sister…they let us know last week that they were getting married and on Saturday they had the whole thing come together very nicely. Family was there, there was cake, and two people exchanged vows for a lifetime. That’s the same way Jamie and I got married minus the cake and the people. One day he called me up at work and TOLD me that we should get married the next week, and that I should think about it before saying no. That night we picked out the rings and a week later we were legally wed. Ah yes, young love. It’s so fun and difficult. I’ll give the long version of the story some other time.

V-Day

Happy Valentine’s Day internet…Hershey’s Hugs and Kisses to all. Would you like me to take you on a trip? Yes?! Well then allow me to take you back for a peek into my Valentine past…

My favorite Valentine memories was the day that Jamie showed up at my door (unexpected) with flowers and a cookie cake just for us. At the time we weren’t together and I had mentioned to my younger sister that all I wanted for Valentines was a cookie cake—even though it didn’t look like anything was in my future at all. It’s like he read my mind, or called my sister or something! “A man who cares should say it with food,” that’s what I say…sometimes, when I’m hungry. I’m not exactly the “over the top, looking for 4 dozen roses and a diamond bracelet” type of girl as you might be able to tell.

As a kid we would have our own special Valentines dinner. Candle lit, hot dogs on red paper plates, and a special dessert every year until after I graduated from high school. Loved it. It was something that I looked forward to every year as a kid. I thank my mother for making that special for us. Yes, there seems to be a pattern here and no, I don’t feel ashamed. Some people just have different love languages and food seems to be one of mine.

That’s about the extent of it. I haven’t shared this day with anyone else other than my family and Jamie (and of course of my friends during the single days) and I’m very thankful for that. It’s not like I’ve ever made a big deal about this day, I used to boycott it and wear black! But, that’s only because deep down inside I felt so left out. Anyways, I think that’s enough of the love for now.

I love you Jamie each and every day...

I've heard its winter in some places

So, Christmas, Anniversary, and New Year’s were all fantastic. I would have to say that I now have a lot of good memories to look back on. I can already tell that this year is going to be so much different from the rest—even though I have only had 21 so far! I have made a decision that I am going to live fully for God, look on the brighter side of things and not get stuck on the gloomy skeletons in my closet.

Most of my days are spent with work or family (like most people) and I enjoy every minute of it. We spend a lot of time over at Jamie’s parent’s house with his younger brothers and sisters. He has three younger sisters who are still at home and we always have a lot of fun together. Last night his mom, 13yr old sister and I went to the mall looking for a dress for her to wear for a dance. I haven’t done anything like that since high school! Its funny how she wants us to help her out but at the same time acts as if she doesn’t even care…hahaha...I miss being like that. I also miss the excitement of picking out something beautiful and new to wear to a dance. I hope I never forget what it feels like to be 13. She was so embarrassed when her mom was being pushy with the sales lady. I remember that feeling…the one where you want to just be swallowed whole by the floor and never be seen again because it’s just too much to take. I just thought it was funny but I know if this had been 7 years earlier I would have done the same thing.

My older sister and her husband moved up to Seattle. We were ready to pick up and take off within the same week but that was just moving a little too fast. It just seems like this would be the perfect time to go up there. She needs company, we don’t have much tying us down here and I’ve never lived outside of Texas before, its perfect, but mainly my only reason is that I want to go so that I can see some mountains. Woo hoo. Seriously, all I’ve had to look at is flat land (birthed in Lubbock, raised in Houston) so there’s not much going on here. It’ll happen…someday soon I hope. I will want to come back though (I think) but we’ll get there once we actually get out of the state.