Words

I've been realizing how much I miss writing... for a while now I've either been too busy or too tired to put in the effort. All I wanted to do was enjoy life as it was happening. There's nothing wrong with that! And digital photography makes it easy to capture certain memories and faces, so I can enjoy them later without journaling or blogging or whatever.

So I let my camera do all the work during my wedding, honeymoon, summer vacation, house projects, time with friends, etc.

But it's not the same.

This morning I re-read some of my posts from my trip to Hawaii. How awesome to be able to re-live that experience a year later (and 5 years from now... 10...), down to the little details like the cookies on our catamaran. Those are the things you have to write down before you forget! A picture might be worth a thousand words, but what about the words in-between?

So, all that deep contemplation brings me back to the fact that I really want to write again. Whether I pick up my journal or spend more time at the keyboard, I want to have words to go with my pictures.

It's Overrrrr

Spring break, that is. Somehow I made it all the way through break without sitting down to post. So here is a post-spring break update on... everything?

My car is fine. Jason and his dad spent one Saturday taking apart Belinda to reach the alternator and take it to the auto parts shop, only to have it tested and discover it was fine. At a loss, they put my baby back together, and lo and behold, the problem vanished. *_* At least we didn't pay somebody for all that labor.

Hubby and I spent a weekend in Louisiana last month, visiting Jason's relatives and getting a taste of a "family friendly" Mardi Gras.

(I didn't do anything for those beads. I swear. More pictures on Facebook)

Earlier this month we traipsed off to San Antonio (along with our friends from Katy) for a weekend reunion. (Shout out to Naseem, Nicole, Jared, Leigh, and baby Addison!) On the way back Granny and Johnny met us in Flatonia and gave us fudge!!

Drunk on renewed motivation, Jason and I have been tackling quite a few projects that have lain unfinished or not even started around the house. My mom and Nick brought over the sheetrock pieces from their garage so Jason could continue his work on the upstairs half-bath. (One more full sheet will give us completed walls!)

The guest room has become my pet project - this weekend we laid most of the tile we picked out, replacing a shoddily-done (and ugly) laminate floor. I have a few days off this week and plan to knock out most of the painting (and maybe shopping for decor? *dances*).

Most of you know that pictures of these projects (and everything else) usually show up on Facebook. Go there now. NOW.

I'm going to get ready for school.

Bad Car Day

My car done broke and need fixin'.

I'm really thankful I didn't end up stranded at school... leaving class on Tuesday (at 8 o'clock, in a cold, dark parking lot) it took my car a minute to start. I thought I just needed to fill up, and I planned to do so the next morning before work. But poor Belinda wouldn't start at all Wednesday morning. Her battery was fixin' to die, see. Jason came home and gave me jump (I've never been so glad that he only works a mile away!) and off to work I went.

I started Belinda up about an hour before I got off and she coughed a bit, but finally rumbled (or maybe moaned?) to life. Unfortunately she didn't have it in her to start again when it was time to leave. So Kirk gave me a jump and I drove to the hospital.

Jason met me there and we waited with MeeMaw while Stacy, my father-in-law, had knee surgery. Everything went well, and Belinda even got me to my in-laws' house (where we made sure Stacy had some soup and a cheeseburger) and then home.

Yesterday morning we got a new battery and all was fine and dandy until I was almost to school and Belinda kept hiccupping when she tried to shift gears. Eeeeeek! But I made it home safely that night after class and thought maybe we'd get her checked out this weekend.

Anyway, the brand new battery was completely kaput this morning. Suzanne told me not to worry about coming in to work and Jason said he would drive me to school later tonight. Sooooo I'm at home writing thank-you notes (prayers worked, Adrienne!) and getting a head-start on weekend chores.

Jason's going to replace the alternator over the weekend. Hopefully that's all my poor baby needs. Otherwise it might be time to shop for a... replacement. *tear*

Belinda, morosely stranded in the garage.

In other news, last weekend the girls and I hit up the new outlet mall for the first time together. We found some cool hats.

Later we got together with all of our husbands for dinner. Check out the hat I bought. :D

Entry # Whatever

We're back at home doing fine and dandy. All we got out of Ike were:

1: Five inches of leaves (give or take) all over the yard
2: A lower electricity bill for the month
And 3: Messed up syllabi for the rest of the semester

I'm pleased to report progress on behalf of Adrian (the dog). We finally gave in and took her to the vet (for the second time in 4 months). We left with $150 worth of medicine and flea treatments. :P BUT her scratching no longer keeps us up at night, and we've been diligently re-training her that outside is the place to relieve herself. No new tricks yet, but we might try "Stop digging used tissues out of the trash can." Good girl!

I'm learning that becoming a sign language interpreter is one of the most fun, challenging, and rewarding things I could possibly do. Jason and I attended a pre-Thanksgiving feast at a Deaf church in the area and had a great time. A visiting church from Arkansas entertained us with some deaf "singing."









We're finally making progress in our upstairs half bath! The hideous wallpaper and laminate are gone. In their place: beautiful tile and a decent paint color. (You can check out pictures of our home projects here.)

Well I'm off to pack... Jason's coming to work with me for the weekend while the parents are off in Mexico for a wedding. I predict great fun, and if we're lucky: Jason's first diaper change! ;D

Rip it Up

I won't lie - I was expecting another Rita. After Edouard and Gustav and all the other piddly little rainstorms failed to bring us any rain, let alone a hurricane worth preparing for, I figured Ike would probably go chase his tail down the gulf and maybe sneeze in our direction.

No major damage on our part, which I'm very thankful for. (Jason was hoping a tree would crash through our sliding glass door so we could replace it.)

Friday before the storm we decided to come stay with our friends April and Jason in Tomball so that when our power went out, we'd have somebody to be bored with. They're super and will always be welcome to have a sleepover at our house! ;) So we've been here a week - they got power back last Monday and our house is supposed to be back online this coming Monday. Sooo... in the meantime, I think I'll stay here where the refrigerator works!

We've spent a lot of time cooking meat from everybody's freezers and driving around to mooch off various people. April's sister and brother-in-law got power back first so we were all over there over the weekend to watch TV. Matt and Melissa, who live one street over, got power next, so we made Melissa cook pizza for us while we watched movies. (Nah, she's been awesome and voluntarily fed us. I think.)

Everybody went back to work today (except me). So I'm eating Oatmeal Crisp and listening to the new Family Force 5 CD (!!). The end. (Pictures here.)

The Dog

I told Granny I would blog about the dog and why she's been the cause of most of the dissension at our house. ;)

First of all, she's really cute. She's a beagle. She's 3 years old. None of these things are bad. (In fact, I love beagles.)

But Adrian has not been trained very well.

She knows how to:
-sit
-get down

She does not know how to:
-come
-stay
Or
-lay down

We are working on those.

Oh, and she also does not understand that the carpet is not her toilet.
I can't leave her out while I run an errand down the street or take a shower or go to work because there will be a mess to clean up later.

We like Spot Shot at our house!
See Spot Shot work.
See Spot Shot make the pee stains disappear.
See Jess and Jason pick up Adrian's poop.
See Adrian look on in amusement.

Also, just before Jason moved into our house, Adrian developed some sort of skin allergy. And now she has fleas too.
She scratches a lot.
(Jason can't sleep when she scratches.)
We give her baths with special shampoo and try flea treatments.

So these are the troubles we are having with our animal. (I've had many people recommend The Dog Whisperer - does he travel?) It's taking patience on our part but hopefully one day, we will have an itch-and-flea-free, well-behaved, house-trained dog. Maybe.

Just for kicks

Maybe updating now will help establish a habit before school starts. ;)

I've been off all week (only working for a few hours Wednesday afternoon and then this Saturday) so I've been putting the time to good use... catching up on blogs, cleaning up around the house, running errands, relaxing, etc. (You all know very well that relaxing is a good use of time. ;))

Only 3 days of "vacation" left, then it's back to work for a week and then back to school the week after that. Now that I think about it, I don't think I've updated anybody on my school plans recently. (Or anything else, for that matter.) I'm quite excited, actually, which is saying something because I really dislike school. I think it's the homework. And the fact that I demand absolute scholastic perfection from myself.

I graduated with my A.A. this past spring and was planning to take off through the fall (since I missed a transfer application deadline) and transfer to another university in the spring. Long story short, I'll be going BACK to the community college (this will be my 4th year there - eek) to get my certificate as a sign language interpreter. I took an ASL class in the spring and fell in love - I'd been interested in the language for a long time and finally getting a taste of it ignited a desire to know more. Lord willing I'll transfer to that other university within the year and begin taking classes there towards my bachelors.

I think it shall be super duper awesome.

On another note, today is Anti-Valentines Day!! Jason and I politely refused to celebrate on February 14th, and instead scheduled our V-Day for 6 months later. We contemplated wearing all black but it's too hot. We will be watching Corpse Bride later. ;)