I blog when I'm busy

This is the first time since the wedding that I have felt BUSY. That excites me! I have lots of stuff for work to do, mainly in the next week or so, then we have two & a half weeks before we move - AHHHH! So much packing to do! & I've never moved an entire residence by myself (well, I have Josh, but I'll be doing most of the packing) so I don't really know how long packing takes. I'm thinking I should start soon...?

I think today is a good day for "San Antonio Lessons." A lot of people know Dallas & Houston fairly well, but many have either only been to SA a few times or not at all. Therefore I feel the need to educate the uninformed. ENJOY!

1. San Antonio is the home of the HEB corporate headquarters. No other grocery store exists here that I know of, except I've seen one Sun Market something or other. Here people are often clustered into groups based on which HEB they go to.

2. I-35 & I-10 run through SA; the loops are called 410 (inner) & 1604 (outer); & highway 281 goes straight up & through SA (becomes highway 37 south of downtown).

3. San Antonio-ites have no idea how to pronounce words. Seriously. Bexar (County) pronounced "Baher." Blanco (Road) pronounced "Blank-o." Huebner (Road) pronounced "Heebner." Boerne pronounced "Bernie." You will be mocked by other San Antonio-ites if you pronounce these names wrong.

4. San Antonio is the 7th largest city in the nation, & one of the fastest growing cities in the nation (I have heard its THE fasting growing, but I can't find evidence of that). It is larger than Austin & Dallas, making it the second largest city in the state.

5. The Spurs, San Antonio's pro basketball team, won the 2007 NBA championship.
Oh, you knew that already? Okay, moving on. ;-)

6. There is LOTS to do here. Riverwalk, Alamo, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Sea World, Schlitterbahn, outlet malls in San Marcos, Fredericksburg, Gruene Hall, float the river in New Braunfels or Boerne, & LOTS more.

7. San Antonio is a really fun place to live & you should move here. (Seriously, everyone graduates & moves to Dallas or Houston. I've probably tried to convince you to move here as well. & you should.)

That concludes everything I can think of at this very moment that you need to know about San Antonio. Wasn't that fun??

This weekend we're going to my parent's new house because they close Friday, then Saturday we're going to pick out our puppy!!! (We won't pick it up until after Thanksgiving tho.) Then Sunday we have lots of church stuff, including the vision/membership class that I plan as part of my job. PHEW! I love being busy!!

C

It's so pretty outside!

Sorry I've been a slight loser & haven't posted in over a week. I thought about it several times, if that makes it any better!

This weekend Josh & I went to College Station again, our second planned trip for the semester. He got to spend lots of time with Zac & see many BCA guys at the reunion, & I got to spend time with Paige & Kristin & have breakfast with my covenant group girls. Oh how I miss those relationships being in the same town. I wish everyone would move to SA. That would make me a really happy person.

I have been bitten by the photography bug. Josh & I want a nice SLR camera for Christmas & I have been researching them & getting really excited about learning about photography & slowly becoming good at it & being able to take pictures of our family & on vacations that can hang on our walls to not only represent memories but be really beautiful too! Plus it will be great to finally have a hobby since Josh has about 23 of them. & of course the blog will be a great place to post my pictures! Stay tuned!

For those of you that don't know yet, my parents are moving to Austin! My dad has been planning on quitting his job for a while, & finally the time came, & they decided to try something new - like living in a pretty town! They decided on a house over a month ago & will move in in the next couple of weeks. & they will be only an hour & a half away! We're excited.

There is a lot to be excited about these days!

C

We got a house!

Yay! Last week we put a contract on a house & the inspection went well, so looks like everything is good to go! We close in November! We're so excited to have a house & everything that comes with it - lots of painting, bits & pieces of remodeling (not too much, the house is in great shape), having lots of people over all the time, living in a neighborhood, getting a DOG! It's going to be fun. Basically we're just excited. :-)

Okay there are two commercials that I just love these days! The first one is the Jeep commercial with the guy & the singing squirrel, birds & wolf. So cute! I wish I had a squirrel to ride around in the car with me. The other one is the car commercial with the girl running down the street & she runs into the car & they advertise for a "car to notice" or whatever, then another commercial plays, then they come back to this girl getting off the ground then running into it again. Hilarious!

You know what I realized soon after we started talking about moving? I have to start packing. Oh boy!

WHOA! I knew it was supposed to get cool tomorrow, but the high is FIFTY EIGHT!!!!! Goodness!! That's jacket weather!! It's supposed to be in the 70's after that. Brrrr!!!

Okay bye!

C

A glimpse of fall!

It is beautiful today! It was rainy this morning & has been cloudy all day, which I don't mind clouds, & it is currently 69 degrees outside - wonderful!! Of course it is supposed to bump back up to the 90s tomorrow. But for TODAY, I have been driving around with my windows open, blaring Anberlin... oh so great.

I forgot to tell you people something very important - we now have a Panera Bread!!! AHH! It opened a couple of weeks ago & I went twice in a span of three days. I was totally bummed that my strawberry salad is no longer there... but oh my... the cinnamon crunch bagels... yummmmm! I'm super excited about this. :-)

I did some work today at one of the coffee shops the church staff frequents (free wireless!), & listened to some http://www.kvrk.com/ mostamazingchristianrockever, & it was great. With great weather. YA!

So great. (Ring any bells Bailey? "sooooo GREAT!")

C

Monday, Monday....

Sorry for the lack of updating! We have been busy bees these days. Normal life things, of course, plus house hunting & poor Toby has been sick. (Note: If you hate cats please skip to the next paragraph.) Toby, our kitty, began getting wheezy & sneezy & sounding congested, & turns out he has a horrible bacterial infection (this same bacteria, if in the wound of a human, say, in the leg, means the leg must, often times, be amputated). He had to get sedated & have the gunk cleared out then was put on antibiotics. At his follow-up, we had to get more meds, & were told he might have to come get cleared out again if he continues to get congested. Unfortunately the meds have trouble getting to the infection in the nasal cavity so we're not sure that he's getting better, & we can't afford to continue taking him to the vet every two weeks. We're not sure what's going to happen. So if you don't think praying for cats is stupid, please pray that we will be able to keep Toby & that he will get healthy!

I am really enjoying work. I take my laptop, basically whenever I want, to a coffeeshop, grab an iced latte or a tea, & do my thing! Sometimes I meet with my "boss" or other people that explain things I'll be doing, but it's basically the most flexible, most casual, purposeful job! I just get excited to do it, & that is a great thing. Waiting on the Lord is good! :-)

I'm not sure if I ever updated y'all on this, but Josh re-dyed the parts of my hair that didn't turn out so well, & it looks a lot better! It has faded a bit so it's not as drastic as I had hoped, but I like it being darker. My hair stylist friend Brittany explained to Josh the best way to dye my hair... everyone here thinks it's hilarious that Josh dyes my hair, AND that he's good at it! Seriously, how many women have a husband with a secret talent for hair coloring??

I just love sitting in my apartment, sipping my coffee, smelling yummy candles burning, watching Toby nap... oh then realizing I have some laundry & cleaning to do! Yuck.

Hopefully I will update sooner next time!!

C

I eat Bugs

So I really like peaches. I like the fruit, I like peach flavored things, I like the smell of peaches. Peachy peach peach. Every time I go to the grocery store I buy two or three peaches & they are eaten in a couple days. Every time.

I was just eating my peach, happy me, when I bit down to the seed, &

a

worm

crawled

out.

I want to throw up. I want to throw peaches as far as I can hurl them.

Where did this worm even come from?! Was it born in the peach? Did it make a hole from the outside of the peach that I somehow missed? Even worse...

How many worms have I eaten without knowing it???????????????

I'm so terribly grossed out right now.

I like October

Something about the word "October" invokes thoughts of crisp cool air, leaves crunching under my feet, driving with the sunroof open & opening the balcony door at home - the beginning of fall. I think perhaps fall is my favorite season. I'm really looking forward to it being cool enough that I can run outside in the mornings instead of go to the gym.

Unfortunately there is no sign of the weather getting below 90 degrees in the next week. Poo.

I dyed my hair. I thought it looked great. I loved the color. Then Josh got home & informed me that the hair in the back of my head didn't all get colored. So I have splotches of my light brown hair from behind. I tried washing it to get it to fade so now I don't like the color either & you can still see the splotches. I happen to have a friend that is a hair stylist & I have high hopes for her being able to help me. Needless to say, you won't be seeing a picture!

I'm reading through a chronological Bible & I'm currently reading about Moses talking to the Israelites & yesterday I read a verse that sums up what God is teaching me & what I am watching & waiting for Him to do in this time -

"To you it was shown that you might know that the Lord, He is God; there is no other besides Him." (Deuteronomy 4:35)

I think I've mentioned how Josh & I have been challenged at our church in ways that we had not been in the past two churches we have been part of. One way is that I have seen that God wants to do cool & supernatural things in our lives - just to show how cool HE is! He wants to do things that make us stand in awe of Him & praise Him because He gives good things to those who love Him! He wants to lead you to pray for something, then give it to you, just to prove that He is faithful. He wants to give you a vision of something, then bring it to pass, to show that He keeps His promises. He wants us to think about how COOL He is! I now pray for specific things that I feel led to pray for because I can then watch for God to work & recognize that He really is orchestrating the things I hand to Him (which should be everything, I remind myself). For example, we will soon be looking at houses & seeking the Lord on where He wants us in that regard. I am praying that God is already working in the hearts of the owners of our future house, to plan on moving on the exact date they need to so we can move in when God wants us to, that we will walk into our future home & know that it is ours, that we will know His immediate confidence & peace at that moment. God is not a god of confusion! I'm looking forward to the home-buying experience because I know God has it all laid out, all we have to do is walk in it (figuratively speaking, but it works literally too :-) )!

I think everything I've just written probably is something I have heard before, but it is now real in my life because I've seen Him work & make this truth real in my heart. God just really does cool things when we let Him, & when we open our eyes enough to see!

Josh & I are really enjoying learning about new characteristics of our God that He is choosing to reveal to us in this time of our lives. :-)

I made a macaroni bake yesterday that I got off the Campbell's recipe website. You should check it out if you never have; there are some good & easy recipes there, & what I fixed yesterday was pretty yummy - Josh asked if I could make about a hundred times more of it next time because he could eat it for several days.

Oh, this past weekend we visited College Station, & it was a lot of fun. We got to see some of our close friends & visit Living Hope. A weekend isn't long enough, so I'm looking forward to next time too. :-)

Today feels like Friday. It's not though. (I've had this thought at least three times today.)

C