Very feminine

Yesterday my fingernails were as long as I think they've ever been, not gross long, but pretty long. One always breaks so I end up cutting them all short, but they were doing really well so I wanted to see what it would be like to have long fingernails... it's kind of annoying. So I cut them. But I felt pretty despite the irritation. I always felt like there were two prerequisites to being a wife - you must have pretty cursive writing & long pretty fingernails. I hadn't written in cursive since elementary school, but thanks to weeks of addressing wedding invitations then writing thank you notes, I write in cursive again. But the fingernails... well, I did it once, that should be enough!

I am dog-sitting for my parents' dog Riley. She's a bichon, which Sage is half of (other half scottie). It's funny looking at them both & seeing similarities they have. Like how they sleep.

Since they are from the same breeder, we like to think they are related, so they call each other "Cousin Sage" & "Cousin Riley," naturally.

I think I shall go start a new book!

Messiness

I'm SO SORRY for being such a blogspot loser. I went almost a month without blogging! Hopefully I did not lose my loyal fans... well, I know my mom will still read. :-)

I really have had a lot I've wanted to write about, but we've been so busy with the house & potty training a puppy & the holidays that I just never got around to it. So here's a fast update:

*The living room is painted as of last night! I had help from Becca & Kristin & FINALLY those yellow walls are gone. I love the color. I will post pictures eventually, I need to get everything in there situated, & things on the walls, etc. (If you want to see pictures of the outside of the house, let me know & I will email them to you, but I'm definitely not putting them on here for all the world to see :-) ) I'm thinking I'll start painting the kitchen tomorrow, to get rid of the Fiesta Green we've got going on in there. When that room is done, I will be just ecstatic! Those are the two rooms I wanted done quickly.

*Sage is a mess. She's very cute, but less cute to me since I'm the one that picks up her poop! The potty training is going slowly. Toby serves as a pretty good babysitter; they chase each other around & he smacks her silly sometimes (literally... it's funny). Here they are together...

*About a month ago we went on a retreat where God spoke a lot to us. He refined us in several ways, showing us how much our world affects us & how weak our flesh really is. As a result, we stopped watching most TV shows, stopped listening to top 40 stations, & will not be watching movies with even one, "not that bad" sexual scene (which means getting rid of some movies such as "How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days"). I hate that those things were even part of our lives. It's not about more rules for us to follow... Josh & I just realized how we look too much like people that don't know the Lord, & what He has for us is so much better than that, & I have seen God bless our lives in several ways since cutting those things out. We want to look more like Jesus!

*It's been amazing what God has wanted for us since moving here. With all that happened with my job, getting so involved in our church so quickly, we are amazed at what He had planned for us. & we continue to be amazed, b/c He has more. It's scary tho. I feel inadequate, & it's going to be a challenge, pushing me outside of what I am comfortable with. But every time I feel that way, & am obedient anyways, the Lord shows up in a HUGE way. More details to come....

*At the retreat mentioned above, the speaker showed us a way that he spends time with the Lord & gets to know Him more, & I have been doing it & loving it! Basically, you create your own list of who God is. I'm reading through the Bible chronologically right now, so after I do my reading, I just flip through the Word & read wherever I land, & search for descriptions of my God. (I'm a goober & I have two lists going - one of nouns & one of adjectives.) Here is an example-

Pardoner of iniquity - Micah 7:18
Husband - Isa. 54:5, Hosea 2:16
My avenger - Rom. 12:9

Incomparable - Isa. 40:18
Perfect in timing - Hab. 2:3
Alluring & tender - Hosea 2:14

Look those verses up - they are good! Anyways, this has been an exciting way to get into the Word, & I know that I'm always going to find more to describe the Lord that I am betrothed to. I recommend doing it. :-)

I just realized I meant to explain the title for this post, so here you go - messy house, messy dog, messy me. & working on all of them!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Yay... I love Christmas!

C

We're in!

Sorry for the lack of updating! Last week was just crazy. Every day all I did was pack, load my car, drive to the house, unload, & back again. My goal was to get everything but the furniture over to the house so Saturday all we had to move was furniture. I succeeded for the most part, & Saturday we had 6 guys & 1 girl (yay Alexis!) come help us move. So we're finally in the house! However, I have no motivation at all to unpack & put things where they belong. Partly because a lot of things, like wall decor, will have to be taken down when I get around to painting. (I have six rooms I want to paint soon - not much will stay the same). Soooo our house will be a mess for a while. Oh well. We are still excited to entertain & have people over, regardless of half-painted walls.

& we get Sage a week from today! YAY!

That's all I got for you for now... I'm not feeling that great so this is short. But I wanted to update you all. More to come!

C

Meet Sage!

A boy or a girl?!

I'm SO STINKIN excited to pick out our puppy tomorrow!!! We're visiting the breeder out at their ranch & I'm hoping she'll let us stick around for a while after we pick him/her out just so we can play with all the adorable puppies!! I just love animals. Especially cute ones. & I'm so excited to get our puppy & name it & get it cute toys & train it (altho I'm not sure how long I will remain excited about housebreaking). We have several couples here in SA & a few elsewhere that are going through the whole get pregnant, deliberate over whether it's a girl or a boy, have emotionally draining conversations over baby names, etc. process, & this whole puppy thing is OUR version of it. Yaaaaaaay! I will post pictures after tomorrow. :-)

This time next week we will officially own a house! & in two weeks we move!

I really like lighting candles with matches. Not lighters. I like the smell of a lit match.

I think I want to throw a Halloween party next year. I was so sad not to get to dress up this year. Dressing up is super fun. & not to mention popcorn balls. YUM. I think this is an idea in the making... only 363 days to go!

As it turns out, my brain seems to be in shallow mode today.

C

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

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'm an.. auburnette?

I dyed my hair! Yep. Cuz I'm crazy spontaneous, of course.

Actually, Josh dyed my hair. In the hotel bathtub. He was like, "So this is what married people do?" I think he had fun doing it. We accidentally dyed a towel in the process (do you get charged for that sort of thing?). It looked kinda nasty.

But really, since the 9th grade, this is the longest I have gone without coloring my hair - two whole years, people. & I got the itch to do it again. So I went the opposite way than before - not blonde, but dyed it a darker shade of brown with hints of red. I personally don't think it's super drastic, but I guess we will see when I see people's reactions!

I have a mission for you people. Travel to your nearest Houston or Dallas, go to Panera Bread, & order the Strawberry Salad (with or without chicken, whatever suits your fancy). It's so good... strawberry poppyseed dressing & lots of strawberries, blueberries, mandarin oranges, pineapple (ok, so I took that part off)... I'm drooling just thinking about it. I can't believe San Antonio doesn't have Panera Bread. I think I might write them a letter & suggest it.

& also eat a cinnamon crunch bagel. You can thank me later.

Which (skipping the two sentences I just wrote, that is) brings me to my next point. I would love to find a salad dressing that is as good as the ones in restaurants. I think strawberry vinegarette is my favorite... we also had it at Drew & Adrienne's rehearsal dinner. I finally found one at HEB but it's not as good. & at Landry's Sunday, we had a honey mustard vinegarette, which sounds nasty, but it was so good. Anyone have any amazing salad dressing recommendations? (Obviously you don't, Kristin, cuz you eat salad dry as dry comes... I told Paige about that & we both think you're crazy :-) )

Toby has a new stretch these days. It's adorable. When he gets up from a mega nap, he always stretches big time, back arched, ears pointed backwards, & now, tongue out. It's so cute!

That's all I've got for today. Now I'm off to read my library book - I need to finish it! TOODLES!

J&C

(We leave Houston tomorrow - WHOOHOO!!)

Life in Houston

Weird again.

I've never lived in a hotel before. It's not so bad I guess, with free breakfast, a workout facility downstairs, & not having to cook dinner. I have already staked out the nearest Starbucks, Target, Sonic, Barnes & Noble, etc., & found some yummy cheap restaurants for us to try out. We were glad to know they have a Chuy's here... that is our new Mexican spot, I think. It's good... especially the FREE nachos between 4-7 on weekdays!! :-)

Today I went to Central Market. I have never been there before, but oh my. I just had the best time! I got to sample fresh mango & several breads (I could live in the bread section, you know). I bought a bit of strawberry granola, dried fruit, a piece of baklava, & a chicken salad sandwich. I think I'll be going back there soon... & definitely leaving with some of those mangoes!!

Toby the cat is also here with us... we couldn't leave him in SA without us, you know. That makes it more fun for me too, having him here in the room while Josh is at work.

God is teaching me a lot these days, & I can see how He is changing me. That is a good thing... but a long process. He is also refining us as a couple & showing us how to be married & how now our relationships with the Lord are to be shared with each other & how to be unified in that. I'm not sure how to explain it. All I know is that we have a lot to learn & I'm excited to see how our marriage looks next year, in 5 years, in 50 years; God willing.

I get excited about this time of the day... it means it's almost Me&Joshie time! :-)

J&C

P.S. I'm still trying to get used to the fact that I can now do things in Josh's name without him there... like depositing his checks or something. It also still weirds me out when people (like bank tellers or the gym girl) call me Mrs. Roberts. I feel old!