Asleep?

The thing is... I do pretty much everything there is to do in my sleep. I talk, walk, hold conversations, laugh, slap people and do various other things. Being single was like living in blissful ignorance of how much of this I actually do. Sure, I had the occasional thing that would happen while sharing a room on vacation or that a roommate would see in college, but I could always assume that it was something that only happened very rarely. Now Nate witnesses every one of my sleeping episodes and I gotta say, it can be very entertaining.

A few nights ago I sat up randomly and looked at Nate really seriously. Then I started talking incoherently and giggling. This was followed by me reaching for my glass of water and unceremoniously knocking it all over the bed stand with a resounding "Damn". At this point I woke up, because I remember Nate going to clean up the water while I helped put ice back in the cup. However, before Nate could finish cleaning, I had passed out again leaving him with the mess.

As far as my asleep experiences (that I know of) this one is only maybe a 5 on a 10 point scale, but hey, it's tough to post every weekday so sometimes I'm afraid you get what you get :P

Prepare to be chewed out

I don't get sunburned very often anymore because I care and I make the effort to prevent it. I maybe have one bad burn every two years or so. While this is still not great, it's semi ok except for the timing. I have the uncanny knack of getting burned right before I go to see my dermatologist which makes for a really fun check up. Example~

Doc- "You really should be more careful in the sun, you know you are high risk for skin cancer."
Me~ "I know, that's why I come here EVERY year. And I promise, this is the only burn I've had this year!"
Doc- "MMM-hmm. ok. You know, all you have to do is dab on a little sunscreen and this could be prevented."
Me~ "I DID use sunscreen!"
Doc~ "MMM-hmm."

So anyhoo, I'm going to the dermatologist today and I am burned... bad. The only time this year, don't ya know. I spent 10 days in the Caribbean on my honeymoon and came away unscathed, but 4 hours in my parent's pool and I have bought myself a 30 minute ticket to the dermatology shame fest. Oh joy, oh rapture.

Baptist Humor

Just a little quote from Pastor David Self to you....

He was talking about the Pope saying that he recognizes only the Catholic church as the true church.

"It's always been that way, it's just been awhile since anyone has said it so bluntly. At different times the Catholics won't recognize the Episcopalians, or the Episcopalians won't recognize the Catholics. Sometimes Baptists don't even recognize other Baptists.. in the wine section of the grocery store."

hehe :)

I totally stole this from Laurie

Ok, so as the title implies this video was discovered by way of another blog. I figure since our readership is different, that I could get away with recycling it though. Also I just thought it was really funny and I knew that my dad in particular needed to see it. So sit back, relax and enjoy the show :)

Total Cop Out

So, my mom and grandma are currently staying with Ben's family in San Antonio and I am sooooo jealous! Mom called me last night and let me talk to Elena on the phone and it made me miss her so badly. We get to see them in 3 weeks, but it just doesn't seem soon enough anymore. Apparently Laney can now recognize me in pictures and gets all excited and says "Aba!" whenever she sees my picture. Anyhoo, I thought I'd take the easy blog road and just post some new pics of Elena... You can't go wrong with her :)

Campaign Trail

I am starting a new campaign.... it's called "If your car is bigger than my condo, you cannot park here!" Today I pulled up to my regular spot (I get here early enough to have one) and who should be parked next to me but one of the new Tahoes. Remember when the Tahoe was big? I mean, just big and not ginormous? I walked away from my parked sedan thinking that if the Tahoe is hungry anytime today then I could be in trouble.... while the mental picture of that "car" devouring mine was somewhat amusing, it was also disturbing and seemed like a pretty good possibility.

This is what I propose.... I think they should repaint the lines in the upper levels of the parking garage so that people can park their tanks AND be able to actually open the door. Not only that, but I wouldn't have to come back to my car in the afternoon and hold my breath in order to get in if a truck, SUV, or God forbid, a Suburban has parked next to me. :P

Way fun weekend

Things that were fantastic about this weekend~

- hanging out with Ashley and Stephanie.. just like the old times :)
- The Chocolate Bar
- $5 skirts from the Loft
- Music and Lyrics (particularly watching it with the above mentioned girls :)
- Spending time with my parents
- Roy Oswalt Bulldozer Bobblehead
- Seeing the 'Stros pull off another one against the Padres in what I think is the shortest game I've ever been to (2 hours flat)
- Watching "Spellbound" with the rents
- Leslie coming home!!
- Sitting back in the Lighthouse section at church and seeing so many people that I love
- FINALLY getting our bedroom organized and clean (on to the guest bedroom!)

Blah

Ladies and Gentlemen, the forecast for the next 9 days. I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to Aug 2nd when the chance of rain dips crazy low to 30% :P I was watching the news though and I thought I'd give you all a silver lining (sorta) to look for in all the rain. We are getting drenched because the jet stream is hanging extremely low and it is trapping rain directly over us. Once the jet stream moves, the way all of the pressure systems will be will essentially paint a bulls eye on the Gulf of Mexico for hurricanes. They are saying now that the likelihood of an East coast hurricane is dramatically lower than usual and almost non-existent, while weather patterns have been perfected for a line of Gulf-loving hurricanes. Sooooo, as long as the rain stays, the hurricanes stay away. I am personally praying for a very rainy August and September to compliment our June and July although I have to say that this might be the worst summer ever for getting married in Texas... The wedding I went to last week in Dallas involved getting rained on and I can count on one hand the number of times it rained in Dallas in July the whole time I was growing up there.

Caffiene Tales

Every now and then I am really thankful that I don't drink coffee.... like when people realize that they donate $50-$200 a month to Starbucks or when they have one of those days when they drink 7 cups just to keep them conscious. This would be one of those times.

Two days ago, our office coffee machine broke and you would think there had been a death in the family the way people reacted. Well, a guy came out and fixed it yesterday afternoon to many cheers and sighs of relief. I sat down this morning and 3 minutes later it started beeping..... it's not so much fixed. I'm interested to see what kind of mood my coworkers are in when they show up and find out there is still no coffee. I believe I see a mass run to Starbucks in their future :)

Like Riding a Bike...

So it is with living alone :P You know how they say you never forget how to ride a bike? It's true, but only mostly. When you haven't ridden a bike in a long time, you tend to be shaky and uncertain and maybe just a little bit fearful.... and that finds us back at my life :)

Nate is in Russia for the next week and a half (he left Monday and gets back next Thursday) and I really don't like not having him around. I am ok, besides being a little lonely, chilling on my own when I get home from work but when I start my bedtime routine everything goes to you-know-where. It freaks me out to take a shower at night without him in the condo cause, let's face it, when are you the most vulnerable? Hmmm, let's see... no clothes, wet, and can't see anything coming at you from further than 4 ft away (2 ft for me... our shower section of our bathroom is really small :) that's right my friends...the shower. I mean, did Psycho teach us nothing? I've never actually seen the movie because then I would never be able to take another shower regardless of whether Nate is in town. No showers would, I fear, have an adverse reaction on my social life not to mention my self esteem and I also do not desire to start smelling like the guy in the cube across from mine.... (ewww)

Anyhoo, I am improving at getting over the fear that grips me at night (not only in the shower) already with God's help. I am praying for peace and rest and God has been graciously granting it to me. I figure I should have mastered the art of living alone again just in time for Nate's return....when I won't need it anymore :)

Go figure

I Finished Reading Harry Potter Last Night.....

WOW

This is my home

I went back to Dallas for a wedding this weekend (Congrats, Ben and Lynn!!) and as Jen and I drove in, I was struck by how much less it felt like my home than it used to. Jen is still VERY attached to Dallas and while she will go wherever God has her after graduating law school, her strong preference is Dallas. It's understandable with her family there and the fact that she, like myself, grew up there.

As she spoke about the all the things she missed, there were aspects that I agreed with her on, but for the most part I'm just happy to live in Houston. In some strange twist, my loyalties have transferred and I have found my new home in Houston. Dallas will always hold so many memories for me and so many people that I love and cherish still live there, but I now longer mourn it's absence in my life.

Sometimes I wish Houston was prettier, but for the most part I have learned to accept it and appreciate it for the things it does have. The friendships I have made at First are invaluable, I love having my parents close by and the restaurant choices are fantastic. Beyond that there are so many other stupid little reasons why I am glad to call this place home. I know it has always been in fashion for people, particularly young singles/young marrieds, that live here to bash it, complain about it, and constantly talk about moving away as though there could be no place worse you could possibly dwell. Well, I've left that train. God wanted me here, and now I know why and I love the city for it.

Little Pleasures

Confession - I was going to my dentist yesterday (who is out west) and I left a little early from work knowing that there is no ramp btwn the Beltway south and I-10 West and that I would need to take Briarforest to get to her office. I was driving along the Beltway, minding my own business, adjusting my windshield wipers from high to off and everywhere in between with the ever changing Houston rain, and what should I see before me as I approach I-10? People driving, WAAAAAAAY up in the air. Hmmm, but all the ramps are closed, I said to myself. I got a little closer and, yup... definitely coming from my direction and going to the right... could it be? Could I be so lucky? I WAS!!! Not only did this save me time, it made me inexplicably happy! They finished the ramp way ahead of schedule and I got to drive a shiny, new direct connector adorned from side to side with virgin, un-oil-stained, concrete. Woo Hoo!! I grinned like an idiot and laughed the whole time I was on it... I kid you not :) Life must be difficult for people who aren't easily amused :P

Happy Day

Guess what? The new Yellowcard CD came out yesterday!! I loaded it onto my ipod last night and put the cd in my player this morning. Basically I'll be listening to that for the next 1.5-3 months in my car and loving every minute of it :) I thinks that's all she wrote today. I feel as though I need to provide you with some sort of amusing little story as it has been awhile since I have done such a thing. Hmmmmmmmm.....

Um, yeah... I've got nothing. But I am going to Dallas this weekend with Jen and I am thinking that could provide some interesting material :)

I'm Standing Right Here....

I just LOVE it when people talk about me like I'm not there when I am a part of the conversation, it's so fun :P Yesterday my manager and a different department manager were bartering over my time.

"Well, I can lend you Abby for awhile, but I will need her for all of the work we have coming. Oh, and if she gets moved up then she's gonna cost you more...."

I felt like a rental car or something. If I get "upgraded" then I will be out of your price range.... things like that.... Apparently Jeff can't afford the leather, GPS, can park itself version of Abby but the Toyota Camry version is to his liking. Anyways, just one of those feeling-invisible-even-though-you-are-talking-directly-to-me-as-well moments.

p.s.- my blog has refused to publish this post twice now... maybe it knows how lame it is :P

Book Snob?

I went to go see the 5th Harry Potter movie yesterday and I was sooooooo excited! It's always interesting to see how someone else's imagination pictures what they have read in a book. Well, by the end of it when the credits flashed "Based on the novel by JK Rowling", I turned to Nate and muttered, "yeah, loosely based...." Let's count the similarities, shall we? The title is the same, most of the characters are the same, ummmm... well, that's about it.

I have vowed when going to see these movies that I will not be one of those annoying little book snobs (like I was in Runaway Jury). I realize that you can't fit that large of a book into a 2 hour movie and do it justice. In the other Harry Potters, however, the movie seems to give you the general story very accurately and just leaves out a lot of details that there is no time for. In this one I felt the movie failed to capture the true personalities of the characters, the ways they had changed since book 4, the reasons they did the things they did. The movie as a stand alone item is pretty good, although I would argue not as good as some of the previous ones.

As it is, I am now looking forward to book 7 arriving at the end of this week. I have never been disappointed by the books, although JK has admitted that she kills off 2 main characters in this book and I am anxious to find out who (especially if one is Harry). Anyways, on to the next!

Who can be against me?

Just some old school lyrics for your enjoyment :)

"Who can be against me" ~ By the Supertones

It seems like everything I touch just falls to pieces
It seems like everyone I help just falls
And how I need someone to make me feel assured
I don't need anyone if You're on my side, Lord

And I say, hey, who can be against me?,
I say, hey, who can be against me?... NO ONE!

No matter how hard I try I always fail
I'll never be like Christ
I know I'll struggle until the day, the very day I die
And how I need someone to make me feel assured
I don't need anyone if You're on my side, Lord

And I say, hey, who can be against me?
I say, hey, who can be against me?... NO ONE!

God look at me, I'm just a man
But You tell me I'm not just a man
You're so hard to understand, after all I'm just a man
God you tell me not to doubt
But I'm always plagued by doubt
And You always help me out
I'm so ashamed(of my doubt)

Houston Project

For those of you not familiar with Houston Project, it is a VBS program that our church runs in the evening one week out of every July. We go to churches that are in the rougher areas of our city and we put on the VBS for the kids. I think there are 9 or so sites, but don't quote me on that :) We feed them and sing with them, and teach them about the love of Christ. This year has been amazing! Nate and I are the directors for the 9 yr old VBS class and we have two other couples who are in there teaching with us as well. Our class is primarily made up of perfect little angels (seriously) with one or two exceptions every night.

Part of this whole experience is the feltboard. Using a feltboard with felt pieces, we tell the kids the story of creation, the fall, Jesus' death and our salvation every night. Well, we've gotten some interesting questions (and answers) in this process and here are a few of my favorites.

"Miss Cat, where do babies come from?"

Wes- "After God created the light, what did he make next?"
Kid 1- "Michael Jackson!"
Wes- "No, not Michael Jackson."
Kid 2- "LEMONS!!!"

Wes- "After God created all that, what day was it?"
Kid 3- "APRIL!"
Nate- "Uh, no...."
Kid 3- "May?"

An Ode to the Silber Tunnel.

I used to be stranded, one way to get out.

When you opened up, you removed all my doubt.

You said, "Drive on me and I'll take you to places,

I promise you to lessen your paces."

So I hopped aboard and hoped for the best,

and I have to say that you withstood the test.

~

In case you are unfamiliar with the Silber tunnel, let me enlighten you. The lovely Texas Department of Transportation saw fit to add a ramp / tunnel from the service road east of Silber that connects to I-10 East. WELL, they put the entrance in just the right spot so that I could get right on it from the condo even with our proximity to Post Oak and am I ever grateful. As much as I adored the 4 extra long stoplights I used to have to go through to get to 610, I am more than willing to dump them in lieu of an I-10 to 45 route that is, get this, FREE OF STOPLIGHTS!! That's right folks, my drive to work now has exactly zero, that's a big 0, stoplights. Thank you Silber tunnel, thank you :)

Picture Corner

Ok guys, here are some shots from the recent trip to San Francisco as promised :)


A little dewy flower in Golden Gate Park

Alcatraz :)

A lighthouse that we spotted on our drive down the PCH.

A sailboat hanging out just off the coast of Sausalito.

A lovely little, ahem... big, heart shaped crab on Pier 39.

Another PCH shot.

Lombard Street.

The Alcatraz lighthouse. It was super foggy when we went, so I was lucky to get any sort of usable shot.

Le Bridge.

Check out the rest of my pics at http://abbyjoy.shutterfly.com/action/ . To Mom and Dad and Ben.. I took several shots especially for you so see if you can find them! To give you a hint, Ben there are two for you, one of which is also for dad. Mom and Dad, there are quite a few for you so have fun searching!

I left my body clock in San Francisco...

Nate and I got back from SF yesterday morning at 6 (red eye = I'm really the only one on the plane not able to sleep :P) and we had a great time! I highly recommend this location to anyone.... we had a blast, so much to do, great weather... perhaps the most diverse city in the US as the personality changes based on what block you are on. I will be posting pics later (maybe after Houston Project...it's gonna be a busy week!) but I just wanted to let ya'll know that I'm back, tired...although not as tired as I could be, and ready to keep the blog train going :)

SF highlight ~ Walking the Golden Gate bridge, even if I couldn't get any good pics of the whole thing due to the constant light fog while we were there

SF lowlight ~ Having water thrown on us by teenage boys in a passing car as we were waiting to cross the street. We took it better than some of the other people on the corner with us... there is a lot of anger out there :P

So much going on....

First and Foremost... HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!! Not only is my dad cooler than yours, he is also likely younger :) This is his 51st birthday and for someone who had 3 kids, the youngest of which is now 24 (that's me!) and now has a granddaughter at 17 months old and a grandson due in October, he's pretty darn young. I could write an extremely long post about all of the great things that my dad has going on, but let's just say this... I have never been in doubt of the fact that my dad loves me absolutely and he has never allowed me to be in doubt of the fact that my heavenly father loves me absolutely. With all of the other great things he has going on, I think these two say more than the rest about how great he is. I love you, Dad!

Secondly, I am SOOOOOOOOO pumped about San Francisco! Nate and I leave at 6 pm today and I am praying for the speedy passage of this work day :)

Thirdly, I neglected to mention another great aspect of July... Courtney's birthday is on the 18th (great day, right?) Happy Early B-day, my old friend! If my dad runs Boston this year then Nate and I will probably come up with my rents...you are SO on the agenda :)

Lastly, I have posted the video of a song which makes me smile every single time I hear it. The video is, shall we say, sub-par but hey, it was made in 1992.. what do you expect? Just kick back and take a listen... it just might make you smile :)

Why this July is the best month ever!

This July has some negative things about it (like Nate leaving for Russia for two weeks), but the positives are sure to keep me distracted while he is gone. In case you didn't get the memo, here is why this July rocks my socks off, and maybe yours too~

~ My dad's birthday is tomorrow! (Many teenagers in Katy will be setting off assorted fireworks all night in honor of the occasion :)

~Nate and I leave for San Francisco tomorrow! And guess what it's not doing there folks? RAINING! Not only is it not raining, it is forecasted to be sunny with highs in the high 60's.. mmmmm, delicious

~ Houston Project kicks off the day we get back from SF. Nate and I are directing the 9-yr-old VBS class at the Mission Training Center and we are super pumped!

~The Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie comes out July 11th!

~ The new Yellowcard CD comes out July 17th... if you don't listen to YC that's ok, just don't tell me cause I don't wanna know/ feel the need to convert you. This one has been HIGHLY anticipated for me :)

~ Harry Potter book 7 is released at midnight on July 20th! And, yes, I AM debating going to buy it at midnight. Then again, I'm not planning on starting to read it at 12:01 so maybe I should just chill :P

As you can see, this July is among the best if not the absolute best month EVER. The entertainment factor is through the roof!

I love that small moment in time when your bills show up as being paid, but the money hasn't left your bank account yet. Fabulous :)

Sour Charity

So last night Nate, myself and the group of regulars set off for our last musical from our season tickets that we got this year. The musical was Sweet Charity starring none other than Paige Davis from Trading Spaces fame. I was pretty excited.... I have a lot of friends that are big fans of the movie and I knew it had a lot of good dancing in it. Well, it became clear pretty quickly that the musical was on the, well, adult side of things. We're not talking Cabaret bad, but definitely more than most musicals that I have seen.

As the first act was drawing to a close I was really wanting to leave as my desire to get some decent sleep far outweighed my desire to find out what happened to Charity. There was a scene where she is locked in a closet that was fairly amusing, but still. As intermission was looming closer, Charity gets into a situation where she is stuck in an elevator with a claustrophobic man. It was HILARIOUS! The first act ended with that scene and all of us agreed that it totally redeemed the first act for us.

So I was fairly optimistic for the second act. It turned out to be ok, nothing too special, but I wasn't going to be sorry I stayed. And then the very last scene came... and I was sorry I stuck around. I have NEVER seen such a depressing ending to such an upbeat musical. Anyhoo, I do not recommend going to see it unless you don't need the sleep, have extra money lying around, and aren't particular about how entertaining a show has to be :P

But that is over and done with and guess what? IT'S FRIDAY!!!!!

Burned

Nate and I signed up a couple of months ago to go on a mission trip to New York with HFBC in September of this year. Every month the team gets together and talks about the trip and what we'll be doing, what to expect, etc. Well, the first meeting we went to we got an email about and it said that light snacks would be provided. We didn't know what constituted "light snacks" so we ate dinner anyway. We showed up and they were serving New York style pizza. Oh well. The next time it said "light snacks" again. Well, we weren't sure what that would mean this time so we ate again before hand and they had large soft pretzels with all the trimmings. This cycle continued about two more months before we were sure they would provide something suitable for dinner each time.

So yesterday I didn't make anything to eat and Nate and I headed over to the church at 6 pm with our tummies rumbling. We entered the Connection Center and I turned excitedly to see what I'd be eating and...... wait, is that pizza? I can't tell because of how many olives there are on it. Ummm, yeah definitely pizza. Two different ones with different toppings but the gist of it was that they both had a copious amount of olives burrowed under the cheese that you would have to pick at for half an hour to remove. Hmmm, I don't like olives... this puts me in a pickle. I ended up having to wait until I got home to eat... it wasn't too bad, but it figures that the week I finally let go of making dinner myself would be Olive Week. Anyhoo, Nate and I decided afterwards that when you are ordering for 15 different people, there should be at least one pizza that only has meat or only has cheese.... I don't want to know how many olives had to die for our pizza last night :P

Team Building

I can't remember whether I have talked about this before, so I apologize if this is a repeat. Our office leader is forcing the whole office to read a book called "Exceeding Customer Expectations". Every month at our office lunch, people are selected to give presentations on one of the chapters. Guess who has to do it this month :P My enthusiasm level for this task is at about negative 2..... thousand percent. Nate and I have been praying for a positive attitude about it and that everything I do at work, including pointless presentations, is done in a way that reflects Christ. Well, if you think about it on Friday then you can be praying the same thing as I don't quite feel the warm fuzzies about the assignment yet. Anyways, I didn't have much this morning.. sorry it wasn't more fun/interesting/entertaining :P

Chigger Happy

That's right folks, the bug bites are, drum roll please..... Chiggers! Oh Joy, oh rapture. They have somehow managed to all get bigger over the last couple of days and I don't see an end in sight. I counted my right leg bites and they come in at an official 15. 15 annoying, itchy, achy, waking me up in the middle of the night bug bites. See, this is another reason why I live in the city. On the bright side, if you look at the bites from the correct angle, they somewhat resemble the Big Dipper :P

Family.... it itches

This weekend, Nate and I went to Lake Texoma for a reunion of his dad's whole side of the family. We're talking all of his aunts, uncles, cousins and his cousin's kids... the whole enchilada. It was a lot of fun! I enjoy spending time with Nate's immediate family and I also really have a good time in particular with his uncle Don's family and his uncle James' family. We ate ALOT, hung out, played games, ate again.. you know how it is. I did bring an unfortunate souvenir back with me.... bug bites. I figure that something must have been in my bed because I got home yesterday and went to change clothes and discovered no less than 15 dime sized, bright red bug bites on my right leg. My left isn't as bad... the number is closer to 10. Anyways, I'm just sitting here today willing myself not to touch them in the hopes that they will go away more quickly. I don't know what I ever did to that bug, but if he'd just told me then I think we could have worked something out that wouldn't involve quite so much itching :P

Happy thoughts

Jen came over last night :)

I get to leave work at ten today :)

I have three boxes of Tangy Twister Mike and Ike's to get me through the drive :)

I get to hang out with Nate's family this weekend :)

My parents are the coolest and having them nearby rocks :)

This week is almost over so that means my persistent headache should be almost over :)

I made kabobs last night for the first time and they were fantastic :)

The Far Side is fantastic :)

Barnes and Noble is like a grown-up playground :)

I'm getting off track :)

Bad Choices?

I got to work today and stood waiting for an elevator after the guy who walked in in front of me shut the door to the last one before I could make it in... sweet guy. Anyways, it takes awhile but finally they draw straws and the losing lift comes down to get me (as to why 2 elevators are ALWAYS on the top floor, I have no idea). I look around and see which one has come for me and... oh crud.

For the past week and a half, one of the elevators has been stuck on my floor about 6 inches above level with the doors open and the lights off. We're talking a solid 10 days of being broken. Well, apparently it's working now and Tada!! I get to take it. I said a little prayer and hopped in, hoping for the best. Obviously I made it.... slowly, but none-the-less I'm here. I would have gotten another elevator, but I have had bad experiences in almost all of them now including one that dropped an entire floor free fall style and then got stuck forcing me to use the emergency phone. Anyhoo, maybe I'll start taking the stairs, you know... for my health, and safety :P

Rain, Rain... GO AWAY!!

Seriously, I'm beginning to feel a tad bit like a drowned rat with the amount of precipitation that has come from the sky over the past couple of weeks. I know I should take the mom approach and be grateful since there are children starving (or in drought, I suppose) in Africa or wherever, but last night the storms crossed the line in my opinion. "What did they do?" you ask, weeeeellllll, let me tell you. They came rolling in at 4 am like they owned the place and proceeded to wake me up. I don't always wake up for storms, but they knew that and took a different approach. What woke me up was when a particularly close and intense roll of thunder set off a car alarm outside our window. I'm pretty sure that everyone within 3 buildings on either side of the thing woke up.

Now, the owner must have woken up because the alarm went off for a couple of minutes and then was shut off. I began to drift back to sleep, but was the storm satisfied with the interruption it made in my slumber? Noooooooooo, not hardly. It sent another incredibly close and intense roll of thunder that, you guessed it, set of the car alarm again. This time I took solace in the fact that I knew the owner was awake and that the alarm would be shut off in less than 30 minutes time.

Well, I woke up unhappy with the weather and vowing payback (the specifics of revenge upon the weather are still blurry... it is an admirable foe) but I decided to be positive about it. I came up with one good thing.... At least I didn't have to drive to work in it :)

EWWWW!

So yesterday I walk out to the bank of elevators and I casually press the down button and look around and notice..... A roach. A biggin. Chilling out in front of one of the elevators. Hmmm, ok well what are the odds that his elevator will be the one... DING! Oh crud. I look from the light above the elevator that tells me that it's all mine down to the roach with a horrified expression which worsens with what I see.

Apparently the ding awakened something inside said roach and it sprang to life. Not only that, it look a full blown charge at me with the result being that I had no way to get around it to the elevator. With the little bit of nastiness sprinting towards me, I look up desperately and see someone coming out of the elevator. "There's a roach" I say surprisingly calmly. She looks at me strangely and continues to exit and proceeds to walk all around but not actually on the roach. I tell her "It's on your foot!" NOW she gets it and runs off. Luckily this has distracted to roach enough for me to reach the elevator in safety.

When I got to work today and the elevator obligingly let me off on my floor, I looked around everywhere before I stepped out and continued to search my surroundings as I walked. I performed a thorough search of my desk and have declared it to be roach free.... at least it was when I searched it. Anyways, just another day of freaking myself out by thinking I feel something crawling on me... yuck!

Small birds and large celebrations

This was a sort of mega weekend for my family. My mom's birthday and Father's Day were both yesterday and my dad's birthday is not far behind... yes, my parents are only 2.5 weeks apart in age... cute, right? :) Nate and I went to hang out with them at the new casa on Friday and Saturday. Mostly we went in the pool, ate, played pool, ate and listened to the birds chirping. Wait a second, those birds sound a little bit louder than I would expect them to seeing as how we are inside. Unless...... Oh, there they go again. Ummm, does anyone else think the birds are living in the fireplace? Show of hands? Well, after 24 hours of this, we were convinced that the birds had decided to move in with my parents which is sweet but mostly annoying.

On Saturday we decide to light a fire and try to get them to leave. All of you PETA peeps out there, we weren't trying to roast them only to get them to leave..... the fire was only lit for a short period of time. Well, this got them riled up but didn't so much get them to leave. Hmmmm, well, we'll just worry about it later. So later, my mom, Nate and I are all sitting in the den and we hear a flapping of wings... CLOSE. Like, expecting to see the bird in the grate close. We all stare at the fireplace until it happens again. "Ummmm, Dad.... did you close the Floo?" Turns out the after he turned off the fire, the floo did indeed stay open. My dad climbed into the fireplace with a flashlight and proceeded to poke the fluttering bird and he freaked out and flew away. This was after he left his droppings on the fake gas logs, of course :) Fun times.

Woo Hoo

It's Friday and I couldn't be happier! It's been a seriously busy week at work and all I have to do is get through the next 9 hours or so and I am home free.... for two days at least :) Fun side note, Nate and I received our 2nd of 6 wedding invitations for weddings occurring within one single 8 week period. Whew, it's gonna be a crazy wedding summer for us. I know what Jen Cates (or Jen Lewis for that matter) is thinking right now.... Girl, you don't know what a crazy wedding season looks like! But for me it's crazy. Luckily they are all ones that I want to go to so I am super pumped about it instead of dreading it. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many engaged friends of mine who just happened to all pick different weekends (which with them all being in such a tight time frame, I was worried about a double weekend) when I will be in town so that I don't have to miss seeing any of them get married. Ok, I think that's good for today :)

Pro Shuffle

I have the tendency with music to put one cd in my car and let it go on and on and on for 1-2 months before I change it out for something new. This is a fantastic way to get fantastically bored of something and never want to listen to it again.... well for a year or so at least. Not surprisingly, I have abused my ipod in the same way, making playlists that I focus exclusively on til track number 3 (that I used to love) makes me yawn, and track number 7 (that I used to love love) makes me want to toss my cookies. Well, I say no more!! The abuse stops here (well, the ipod abuse at least... not sure if the car thing is changeable, it's genetic... passed on from my mother :)

Lately I have been putting my ipod on shuffle and what a difference it makes!! Sure, I have to skip a few songs here and there (like the ones on that playlist that I used to love :P ) but for the most part I just sit back and get to experience a broad range of music including a lot of songs I either forgot I had or had just neglected to listen to for years. I am being re-emerged into the world of a christian SKA obsession I had circa 1997, for one and that has been fun :) My ipod has gently reintroduced Jars of Clay to my line up alongside old school Goo Goo Dolls. Praise and worship albums from college have been mixed with classical pieces by the great John Williams and classical guitar by Andy McKee. Jack Johnson's voice has soothed me after Linkin Park has woken me up. I am a BIG fan of shuffle. Plus, on stressful work days it makes one less thing I have to worry about... and that, my friends, is priceless.

I am T-I-R-E-D today. It feels like the week should be over already and here it is Wednesday :P

Fun Stuff

I got an email from Ann Taylor Loft yesterday, as I do about once a week, and found out..... drumroll please... that they are starting a line of maternity clothes!! Of course they're really cute and surprisingly the same price or a little cheaper than most Loft clothes. It is now official, even if I get pregnant, I will STILL only have to shop at one store :) I figure this way when the time comes to start having kids, I won't have to put it off solely based on lack of suitable maternity clothes :P

http://www.anntaylorloft.com/catalog/department.jsp?N=1200121&categoryId=619

House Update

Ok, I feel fairly sure it is going to work out this time so here is the post....

My parents are closing on a house on Wednesday!! They are moving in Thursday and are excited about finally getting this aspect of their move over with. My mom in particular is missing her pots, pans and everything else that has either been, a) in storage for the past 2.5 years, or b) on it's way from Paris. They have been living out of their suitcases and are ready to say good bye to that. I would post pics of the house, but it is no longer on the real estate website and I haven't taken any myself, but hopefully after this weekend I should have some although I doubt the house will be very put together by then :)

Empty

My office is typically empty when I get here, but usually there is one other early bird and a couple of slackers that come in around 6:20-6:30. Today I am still alone and the office has a feeling of desertion. I'm thinking the office happy hour last night may have been a little too happy :) The good news is that in a few hours we get to play a rousing round of "Count how many coworkers came to work hungover".... should be interesting as I have no idea what a hangover feels or really looks like. Now, hungover people like for you to talk to them REALLY LOUDLY, right? ;)

Hits close to home, makes me laugh

Does this remind anybody of their boss/office?

Crud Nuggets

I just typed this entry and my computer deleted it prior to spell checking and now I feel stupid typing it again as it was not exactly fine literature. Well, here we go anyway :P

I have been wiped out all week and I am now officially into my second day of proof reading the most boring Geotech report known to man (as opposed to all those wildly exciting Geotech reports with multiple plot twists and such :) Anyhoo, I have noticed that when my life gets mundane then my blog either becomes boring or increasingly more random. I'm going for random here with these two quotes from the Office~


After learning of his promotion-

Dwight~ "My first order of business is to choose my number 2. My ideal choice? Jack Bauer. But he is unavailable, fictional... and overqualified."

Dwight~ "I want you to act as the secret Assistant Regional Manager, however, I will maintain the title publicly."
Pam~ "You are going to be your own assistant?"
Dwight~ "That's right, I need somebody I can trust."

Narcoleptic Co-workers and you; A guide to survival

I believe the title to this little foray into my world about says it all, but then again not so I better elaborate. Yesterday I went down to the City of Houston to pick up our NTP documents for a project that I am working on. My pseudo manager at the moment went with me. For a little background, he is an incessant talker... seriously, never stops. So as we are driving (he is driving, technically) I notice that he is being awfully quiet not to mention that fact that he keeps zoning out. He takes the McKinney exit off of 45 to downtown going about 20 mph, which is unusual, and pulls up to the first light. I look over and his eyes are closed.

At this point I'm thinking, "Ok, he's just relaxing for a second." But then he did the wake up twitch that you do when you've fallen asleep accidentally, while simultaneously letting off the brake and giving me a split-second heart attack. Well, it worried me at least :P He proceeds to do this two more times and this light and 3-4 times at the next light where I have to wake him up and tell him that the light is green. At this point I am really glad that we are almost there so that I can just take over and drive home after we pick up the papers. He proceeds to fall asleep twice at the next light and several times WHILE driving in the parking garage. Turns out that he is on medication that causes drowsiness, but to me he looked either drunk or drugged. He was slurring and mumbling and taking 2 minutes to respond to things I would say. Anyhoo, the moral of the story is, tis better to offer to drive than to die :P

A pick me up

This is what happened from my perspective~

Phone rings (Switchfoot- Dare You to Move... don't cha know) and I see that it is my sister in law
Me- "Hello?"
Other Person- responds with incoherent babbling
Me- "Ahhh, Hi Elena Joy!"
Elena- "HI!!" followed by more incoherent babbling
Me- "How are you doing, sweetheart?"
Elena- excited incoherent babbling followed by, "No!, no no no..."
Me- "No?"
Phone disconnects

I call my sister in law back at this point and got this version~

Me- "Hey Amy, I just had a very interesting conversation with Elena"
Amy- "Yeah, we're trying to figure out how she got my phone.... my purse wasn't anywhere near where she could have grabbed it. We figured out that she had it when she kept telling the dog "no" over and over again. Apparently the dog wanted to eat the phone and Elena wasn't ok with that."

16 month olds calling your relatives, dogs eating your phones... ah, to have a family :)

Without Excedrin Migraine, I think I'd be lost.... or throwing up right now. I took two this morning upon entering my 12th and increasingly more nauseating hour of this week's migraine and right now I am sitting very still and willing the pills to do their magic so that I can get through my work day.... Do you think anyone here would notice if I took a nap?

Abby-sickle

While Nate and I were gone this last weekend, our digital thermostat died on us, perhaps having something to do with the storms. Nate noticed that the display was off when we got back and so we replaced the batteries and all seemed to be going well until.....a minute later part of the display started disappearing and only reappearing (selectively) with a nice whack upside the thermostat.

Well, we found something out. Not only is the display broken, but it can no longer monitor current temperature while it is cooling. For this reason, the past two mornings I have woken up and the temperature in our room has not been it's usual balmy 68 degrees. Oh no, it's MUCH lower. I shiver from the instant my feet hit the ground until I am fully dressed and have completed some warm myself up aerobics. The kicker in all of this is that it is so cold that all of my clothes are very, VERY cold and it takes a lot of body heat just to warm them up. Yesterday I took a blow dryer to my already dry hair just to speed up the process a bit :P

Dresses, the wave of my future...part two

That's right folks, I proved my ability to feel comfortable in my new dress at work so I rewarded myself with another new dress that I am wearing today :) I have to say that I am one who will be very disappointed when the wrap dress goes out of style, cause I look pretty stinkin good in it. To that end, I have decided to buy as many wrap dresses as possible before they are no longer fashionable so that for years to come I can bask in wrapped glory.... and be out of style. I'm thinking of building a bomb shelter-esque extra closet in which I can store said dresses. I may also install a 360 degree mirror so that I can analyze my outfits What not to Wear style and thus save myself the embarrassment of ever actually being nominated for that show (not that $5,000 in new clothes wouldn't be a pretty nice perk :)

When Tuesday is a Monday

I have to say, I REALLY like 3 day weekends. I am sitting here and it's Tuesday and I know that, but really it feels like Monday which means a few things~

~ Wednesday will feel like Tuesday, Thursday like Wednesday and Friday like Thursday at which point I will feel like I am getting off early for the week
~ I will be confused the rest of the week (what else is new)
~ Next week will be my first full week in awhile and it is going to feel excruciatingly long

Anyhoo, a quick Memorial Day update for you... over the holiday, Nate and I drove with my parents to spend the weekend at my brother's in San Antonio. We went to the outlets in San Marcos and just relaxed and hung out. I discovered some things about myself this weekend..

~ I am not very sportsmanlike when it comes to games with an element of subjectivity.
~ I get that from my dad.
~ You can never get too many hugs from your niece.
~ Not all Freebirds are made the same and sometimes your burrito guy and you just don't quite gel.
~ Super Target really is the sum of all things good.

Spaz-a-lot

I went to see "Spamalot" last night at the lovely Hobby Center and I have to say that I'm torn. Not unlike the movie itself, the musical was silly and hilarious while often hovering in or near the realm of being inappropriate. Nate and I took up a vote and decided that we were glad we went, but it wasn't the sort of thing we would take our kids to later in life. All that said, I don't know whether I recommend it to others... it was entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed it but I feel as though my morality was struck a blow by being there. For those of you that are now thinking "Gee, I'd like to go for the entertainment value but I'm not sure I care for the innuendo.", here's a few of my favorite moments....

During a song that explains that you won't succeed on Broadway if you don't have any Jews.... "There is a very small percentile who enjoys a dancing Gentile!"

During the second act, a main character from act 1 comes out and sings a song entitled "What happened to my part?" lamenting her lack of stage time in act 2.

They pulled a real live old lady out of the audience and gave her an Arthur Award after discovering that the holy grail had been under her seat the whole time. The woman looked dumbfounded and a little frightened as the knights took pictures with her.

You know what? Writing these out is something akin to reading a comic strip out loud to someone who can't see it and expecting them to laugh. I apologize for attempting to pass on something so not pass-on-able, but in all honesty I just had to find a way to write "There is a very small percentile who enjoys a dancing Gentile" within some sort of context because it made (makes) me laugh :)

Automatic Reply

Abby will be away from her blog beginning on Wednesday, May 23rd and will return Friday, May 25th. If you need immediate entertainment, please feel free to browse the other blogs that are linked to the right. Thank you for reading Abby's blog. Your readership is important to her and she will supply fresh material whenever possible.

"House" is only two letters away from "Hosed"

I had a fabulous weekend with my whole fam in town! It was a lot of fun even though pretty much nothing went as planned. My brother and sister in law came in with Elena on Thursday and Nate and I went out to Katy to have dinner with the whole group. I left work early on Friday to go hang out with them at the pool and just enjoy being around them. The whole group was on the way to dinner when my parents got a call from the realtor..... I'll come back to that. In summary though, after breakfast on Saturday we spent our afternoon house hunting and our evening watching the Stros break open a convincing win over the Rangers.

Wait, did you say house hunting? For who, I thought your parents had decided on a house? Well, so did they :P I will give you the Cliff notes version, but the whole thing is just to weird not to tell. So, the owner of the house my parents were going to buy has been weird throughout the process. The bidding was weird and all the dealings with him had been weird including him staying in the house while my parent's inspector was there to keep tabs.

Owner is weird #1- Ignoring the previous weirdness mentions, I start now at #1. It was more expensive for the owner to move on Memorial Day weekend and so he asked that he be allowed to stay in the house for a week or so after closing. This is pretty normal... typically the old owner will pay the mortgage/utilities/property taxes of the new owner for the time they stay there after ownership has passed. Well, the owner offered my parents $1 a day since they won't have a mortgage. That is ridiculous! My parents countered with $30 a day (which doesn't come close to covering utilities and property tax.. Also, typically the amount is $100-200 a day) The owner got angry and came back with a penny a day. Well, that was weird. My dad proposed that they sign the papers as planned and just not close until after the owners have moved, and this was accepted. Had the owner been thinking, he would have realized that $30 a day is far cheaper than his mortgage+utilities+tax, but he obviously did make the connection there.

Owner is weird #2- The inspection report listed several items that needed repair on the house. My parents decided to do all the repairs themselves except for one thing they asked thw owner to fix... the upstairs AC. The unit was corroded and as it turns out, the compressor needs to be replaced... an expensive repair. Typically speaking, the owner is responsible for replacing something as basic as an AC unit... the upstairs was super warm when we were there, so we were not surprised with the findings. Well, when the owner found out, he insisted on seeing the full report (a really bad idea as now they have to disclose everything on it to every potential buyer... even nit picky stuff) and proceeded to cut off contact with his realtor.... for almost a week. He did say that he'd made the repairs (when she finally got a hold of him), but he wouldn't sign the standard document that says you've made the repairs and protects my parents from having to make them themselves if he is lying. It gets to the point when there are 7 hours left in my parent's option period and no one can get in contact with the owner and he still hasn't signed. They tell him, "Either you sign or we walk" and...... nothing from the owner.

So, long story short, my parents withdrew their offer and as of last night had an offer on a beautiful home in North Lake. I will hold off posting pictures till after the option period, if you don't mind :)

It's a Boy!!

It's official, in early October of this year I will have a nephew! Yesterday I got to see the video of his sonogram and I can definitely attest to the fact that he's a boy :) Our whole family is super pumped and of course excited for Ben and Amy that with God's grace they will have one of each in just a few short months. Yesterday we learned that his name will be Evan Jesse Elkins... Evan because it means "God is gracious" and Jesse in honor of my oldest brother.

So get excited "Comings and Goings" fans, in just 5 short months I will begin posting with two, count 'em, TWO babies in my pictures.... does life get any better?

Is it Friday yet?

No really, is it? Man alive am I tired :P

Real life... sometimes it ain't pretty

In December of 2005, I was rear-ended hard enough to completely total my car and send my forehead flying into the steering wheel. Ever since then, I have been experiencing things that I never had before.... motion sickness, chronic headaches, and very sensitive hearing. Well I went to see a doctor about the headaches yesterday as they have been getting worse and it is official... I have migraines. Maybe I should write to you about something more whimsical, but this is what is on my mind and sometimes a blog is just a good place to let it all out.

Yesterday I had my second migraine of the week (the first was a sunday/monday special) and it was a doosey. I had a harder time falling asleep, as I usually do when I have a migraine, but then it woke me up in the middle of the night and wouldn't let me get back to sleep. After an hour of this I finally broke down and took some Excedrin migraine and went back to bed waiting for it to work, which it does a decent percent of the time but not always. 15 minutes later, before it kicked in, the nausea became overwhelming and I had the opportunity to revisit my dinner at 2 am... an experience that I could have passed on, thank you very much. The good news is that after 2 hours of lost sleep, the headache allowed me to return to sleep and I woke up headache free. Please pray that I stay headache free at least for today since I really need some rest and this cycle is just taking it out of me.

It's a five pinner.....

I classify vacations now by the number of Hard Rock Cafe pins that I have a potential to collect over the duration of the trip. Honestly, a good trip is one where I have the potential to pick up a pin from a cafe that I don't have one from yet. If I have a two pin potential with one new one then that is also really good. Anything above this is simply phenomenal.

Nate and I just planned our vacation for our first anniversary in December and guess what? It's a FIVE pinner!! Not only that, 4 of them are locations I don't have yet! Yes Sir, we're looking at Miami, Hollywood Fl, Ocho Rios Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel.... can one person contain such happiness? :)

Ode to my mother

Sunday, as you all undoubtedly know from the way the advertising media has been pushing it down your throats for the last month, is mother's day. My family has never been huge on mother's day. We would get cards, but we never really did presents or went out to eat or anything. Well, I would like to take this opportunity to tell you all that I quite possibly have the coolest mother out there and here is why~

~ She puts up with me (major points)
~ She is a prayer warrior and hears God's voice in a way that I've never seen anyone else hear it
~ When I am anxious or freaking out about something, she always knows how to calm me down and speak God's truth to me about the situation
~ She is a really fun person to hang out with. I think my brother helped her develop an even bigger sense of humor... it was a necessity to surviving teenage Ben.
~ She shops at Ann Taylor (Loft) with me
~ She is selfless and generous
~ She is hardworking and intelligent
~ She is kind and patient
~ She is super cool and for some reason thinks I am super cool
And the list goes on.....

Happy Mother's Day mom, God picked a good one for me :) Oh, and I am pleased as punch that you are back in Houston.... why don't we try staying here for awhile, shall we? :P

Courtesy, Shmourtesy

I am a true southern girl. I expect guys to open the door for me if they are nearby and hold the elevator and do such standard things as that. I appreciate when guys do this and show that they respect women. Well, today a guy in the parking garage got to the door before me (way before me) and I quickly looked down so as not to make eye contact. I did this because he was a little too far away and if I was looking at him he might feel the need to.... oh geez, he did it anyway. He held the door. This is really sweet, but now I feel like I have to run so that he isn't stuck holding the door for too long. So I did a little something between a walk, a skip and a run and I hurried myself over there. This story has no point except to say to the guys, keep doing what your doing but if the girl is so far away that you can't distinguish her hair color, just let it go.... let the door go.

Parental update- My rents are in a full blown housing and car hunt and are making me a little jealous that I can't go along with them. We are going to hang out with them tomorrow night, so maybe we can do a drive by of their favorite houses :)

Busy Day :P

Dresses, the wave of my future.

I looked really good yesterday, and felt really good, in my new Ann Taylor Loft dress. It was my first time to wear a dress to work and I gotta tell you, it will not be the last. And yes, the pic is my dress :)

"A" is for Amazing

My parents flew into Houston last night...... but that's not the amazing part. Do you know the amazing part? They aren't going back! My parents officially moved back to Houston yesterday and I couldn't be more thrilled! My parents being who they are (overactive :P) have the following things going on today (mind you, they just landed in Houston from Paris at 4:30 pm yesterday)...

My dad is going back to work ("What else would I do?" He asked me)
My mom is shopping for (most likely buying) a car this morning
They are both going at 1pm to look through a slew of houses with a realtor
I believe they are moving into their temporary apartment sometime in there too

Guilty Pleasure

Over the past 2 years or so, my brother has been singing the praises of the tv show, The Office. I resisted, I told him I didn't like it and I ignored his plea to try it again. Nope, I don't like it. Welllll, I got Ben season 1 for Christmas and watched a few with him. Hmmm, I kinda like this. We went back to their house a few months ago and he pulled out season 2. Hmmm, I really like this. At this point I proceeded to spend way too much money on itunes to purchase season 3 episodes so that I can catch up to where they are now. This all leads me to yesterday, where I find myself staring at the NBC weatherman who is doing one of those special severe weather forecasts and saying not nice things to him about how he better hurry up and I better not have missed any of "my show". This was before I heard him announce that they were broadcasting over commercials, not programming. Maybe I should have been more patient, but the guy was taking FOREVER and repeating himself at least 5 times in the, I kid you not, 5-8 minutes he was telling us that the storm had moved on.

Anyhoo, back to the Office. It has taught me so much about work and interoffice politics.. it's quite amazing actually. The Office has taught me....

~ It's ok to wear your hair the same way every day and only have three sets of work clothes.
~ Make sure you know the person you are messing with. You never know who can't take a joke and will punch out a wall in frustration.
~ Stupid, pointless meetings are a fact of life. The content varies.
~ Upper management tends to have a disconnect from..... well..... everybody else. And reality
~ Never step on an open George Foreman grill... never

Bless you

I have gone through 4, count em FOUR boxes of tissue at work this month alone. A little tidbit for you on a slow day :P

Bag Lady

Confession~ I have completely stopped wearing makeup (what little I did wear) to work. I also have reduced the number of times a week at work that my hair is fixed in anything but a ponytail to 1 time a week... or once every two weeks.. it varies :) I also have stopped pulling together outfits the night before and am now left wearing whatever I throw together at 5:30 am. It nice to keep expectations low... then when you show up at the Christmas party with your hair blow dried and a bit of mascara, they think you went all out :)

Mail Call

This is a two part blog because two blog worthy things happened to me yesterday.... aren't you lucky :)

1) We had our monthly office lunch yesterday. Here is a quote for your amusement~

HR Rep- "I wanted to remind everybody about the comment/ suggestion box in the printer room. We are planning on adding one to the 290 office as well. Please feel free to add your comments and suggestions.... it is still anonymous, you don't have to include your name."

Office Leader- "That's true, although if you don't include your name then it is difficult for us to offer you a response."

HR Rep- "True. Basically if you don't put your name on it then we can't and won't do anything to address it. You don't HAVE to put your name, but you won't get a response and we won't do anything about it if you don't"

Ok, i'm sorry.... which part of this is anonymous?

2) I received a pile of mail yesterday from December/January of this year. Around 10 items in all that had been correctly addressed to me or Nate at our condo and had somehow gotten lost in the mail forwarding pit that is my life. In all fairness, there are three people (Mike, Clay and Dan) who are forwarding from our address and I am forwarding to it. Still, I can't figure out how Nate's mail got held for 4 months. They all came back with yellow labels that said "No Forwarding Found, Return to Sender" Or in this case, return to recipient. We also got a call from Jeff yesterday saying that my Reliant bill had been forwarded to him. Ok, I don't even want to know how that happened :P

p.s.- Grandma, we finally got your check yesterday. Don't worry, I shredded it :)

The bathroom is almost done!

So, Nate and I have been doing home improvements for awhile now and yesterday Nate worked his magic to pull together our bathroom. The only thing not done in there is the towel rod, but it is basically finished! One thing we did yesterday was hang the mirrors we bought. Now, we haven't had a mirror up in our bathroom since we painted the condo.... which was before I moved in. It took me several times yesterday to get used to the fact that I didn't have to open the closet door to use the mirror back there.

At first I was all excited about the mirrors, but now I've decided that I am not entirely happy about having the mirrors. I made this decision when I woke up this morning and accidentally looked at myself at 5:25 in the morning. I decided that nobody should have to look at themselves that early in the morning.... it just ain't pretty. So follow my lead and take a 4 month reprieve from looking at yourself the second after you wake up... it really is a self esteem booster :)

Disclaimer (mostly for Nate)- The mirrors look fantastic and I am happy about them being up... they were just a little mean to me this morning :P

Unusual

Confession~ I want a minivan..... real bad :)

p.s.- I'm totally not kidding

Imitation is the sincerest form...

A few days ago I raised the total of people who attended our wedding and have now decided to get married at the same location to 2 couples. So far Rick and Abby have booked Ashton along with Liz and Branden. I have decided to make a list of reasons why I am happy about this :)

~This shows me that other people really like the location too. Sooooo, it really was pretty and we weren't just imagining it
~ I already know how to get there.
~ We are looking forward to trying the food :) (Other couples beware, the to go basket we were supposed to get never made it into the car. Make sure it does before you pass on food at the reception :P )

Sicky VonSickster

So, I am actually feeling back to almost 100% (minus some lingering congestion) but apparently I was not alone in my illness. A good 50% of my friends/ office are sick, were just sick, or are getting sick. As for me, I have refused to shake hands with anyone for the past week in the hopes of doing something to contain the spread. Which reminds me, I made it to sunday school last week (barely) and tried to isolate myself as much as possible so that I didn't get everyone sick. Our class is NWC- Newlywed or close, meaning engaged couples are welcome.

Anytime there is a wedding, they bring the couple getting married up in front of the class a week before their wedding and pray for them as a future husband and wife. It's pretty stinkin cool actually. Wellllllll, this last week there were three engaged couples all getting married the 28th. They called them up and I realized that I had an engaged girl sitting directly in front of me and directly beside me. I have been super paranoid all week that I got one of them sick. I never touched them or coughed on them or anything, but I just hope they are healthy because I have way too much of a guilt complex to deal with that :P

p.s.- I would love to get back to fun, random posts but I am waiting for inspiration to hit. It seems to go on vacation with you and then take it's sweet time returning. So if you see my inspiration, tell it my blog is suffering and it needs to come back.

Never Trust a Paper Doll

One of Jen Cates' kids sent a Flat Stanley with us on our trip to Holland. We were all excited about bringing him... we thought he'd be a fun, wholesome companion. Boy were we wrong. Above is a picture of Flat Stanley where we found him in the red light district in Madurodam. Madurodam is a park of sorts full of miniature versions of all the important buildings in the Netherland. It's meant for kids. (Yes, they put a miniature red light district in a theme park meant mostly for kids... welcome to Holland) We had adjusted to Stanley's pervy ways, but thought that he'd be ok at Madurodam.... once again, we were sooooo wrong.

Moral of the story is, always run background checks on paper dolls before you bring them to ultra liberal countries :)

Can you speak up?

So full blown day five of my cold and I woke up with a new fun addition.... I lost my voice. Fantastic. I have enough right now for a really quiet whisper with the occasional word that is a little louder, but all in all it's MIA. Losing your voice isn't terrible, but it does make people think you are really rude. The guy in the elevator with me thought that I lacked all manners when I didn't respond to his good morning and didn't offer the appropriate thank you's. Anyhoo, I'm hoping this is the last phase cause it's been a week since the first minor symptoms and it's just kinda getting old. So if you see me today and I seem to blow you off, just remember... I'm a mute, and you can't be mad at a mute :P

Confusion

Last night I woke up around 11:30 thinking it was time to go to work. I got up, went to the bathroom and started my routine. The only thing that tipped me off that it wasn't the morning yet? My hair was too wet. So sad. So now I sit at my desk with dry hair and mourn the sleep that my cold took from me last night. If only I had been raised differently where I wasn't so afraid to take sick days, maybe I'd be home right now in my comfy bed surrounded by tissues and saltine crackers instead of being here counting down the hours. I enjoy being melodramatic when I am sick, it seems to pass the time :)

Hmmmmm

I'm feeling a bit tapped out as far as blog material goes. I'm cautious about skipping a day right now though because I don't want mine to turn into one of those dead blogs where there is a post every4 months but you don't really notice because you've basically stopped checking. So here we are. I think it's time for a thought dump... here's what's going on in my head right now~

- I find out in 4 weeks the sex of Ben and Amy's second baby :)
- I hung out with Jen last night, and that makes me happy
- My head is swimming and my throat hurts, fun stuff
- The list of things I need to do at home is growing with no end in sight and I have been pitifully slow about marking things off the list
- Ummmm, I think I'm out... sorry you had to read this :P The head swimming part made it hard to think.

I'm Back :)

I got back on Sunday night from a trip to Holland, Belgium and France. It was GREAT!! Holland was beautiful! This first pic is a in a place called Kinderdijk that has the largest grouping of old windmills in Holland.... they were everywhere!

Our second day we went to Keukenhof, the world's biggest and best garden. They certainly proved to us that this was true. The grounds were busting with tulips, daffodils, hycinth, cherry trees and more tulips (I had no idea there were so many varieties... I took 80ish pictures there :)

We went to a place called Zuiderzee Museum which is a park of sorts where they have moved historic Dutch houses and buildings from all over Holland. They dress the little kids up in traditional wear... adorable :)

Drempel is their word for speedbump :)

This was taken in a bulb field that we saw from the road. We were there at the height of tulip season and so patches of color exploded from the countryside everywhere we went.

Eiffel Tower... no explination needed.

Notre Dame

Bruges, Belgium.

Bruges is beautiful. I mean the entire place is beautiful... you can't take a bad picture.
Bruges at night

Holland and Belgium and France... oh my!

(A pic my dad took in Holland this time last year)

Tonight, after work, Nate and I are leaving on a jet plane for Paris. I am soooooo excited! We will have 3 days in Holland, 1 in Belgium, 1 in Normandy and 2.5 in Paris. As I sit at my desk contemplating how much will power it will take for me to get any work done today, I have a few things going through my head....

1) It's annoying to me that Holland is just as frequently known as the Netherlands and their language is Dutch. I mean, pick a name and stick with it folks.

2) One of my favorite things about travelling is eating in the airport. The international terminal at IAH has a Pappadeaux in it for crying out loud! I have been looking forward to having my Terminal E meal ever since we got the tickets :)

3) Wicked is awesome! Nothing to do with our trip, but we saw it yesterday and I couldn't not mention it.

4) There is nothing like a low maintenance guy to make a low maintenance girl feel high maintenance. Nate was able to pack for our entire trip in a backpack. All I am packing for him are toiletries and 1 pair of shoes. I can't beat that, and I'm usually a light packer.

5) I haven't gotten a ton of sleep this week between games and plays and whatnot and I have difficulty sleeping on planes, so I have basically accepted the fact that I will be up for at least the next 24 hours and I am already dragging. Oh well, I've done it before :)

6) My parents rock :)

Picture

I was doing a site visit for a project yesterday and I spotted this Japanese Maple. I took a picture cause I had the camera, I really like these trees and so do my parents..... and because blog fodder can run low sometimes :) Enjoy :P

Stros Surprise

Soooo, my boss came up to me yesterday and asked me if I wanted 4 tickets to last night's Astros game. Sure! I said. He went and got the tickets that one of our subconsultants sent over and guess what?? They were in the dugout section!! $50 seats! Anyhoo, that was a nice little surprise even if the Astros themselves played a little less than impressively.

Our view!

The new foul poles :)

Bad picture of us... what can you expect?

Confession ~ I blog for my parents

Sure, I'm happy that other people read my blog and that perhaps it occasionally breaks up a boring work day or a mind-numbing class. When it comes down to it though, I blog for my parents. When I write something, I will usually throw stuff in that I know only they would get or at least, only they would appreciate :) From revelations about my neurotic tendencies to the excitement I get over stupid things like nice paper, they get it. Plus they already know how weird I am so there is no chance of shocking them into not liking me :P So anyhoo, mom and dad, this is a shout out to you. I can't wait to see you in a few days!

Plans for Friday? Thursday?

This is one of those times that blogging makes my life easier, and that's a happy thing :) I am sending out a general cry to anyone who might be off of work on Friday or at least off early. Nate and I need a ride to IAH that can pick us up at 3:30 sharp at Bayou woods. We have a maybe already, but were hoping to find someone who is available to bite the bullet. We will provide cash for the Hardy Toll road to ensure no stressful 45 North-bound experiences and plenty of witty banter for the entirety of the ride. Let me know if this sounds like the way you roll :)

On the other hand, some friends and I have tickets to Wicked this Thursday and one girl has an extra tic ($40). Trust me, this is one of the best musicals you will ever see. If you are interested, let me know and I will see if the ticket is still up for grabs at that moment.