Mom's on Facebook and 4th of July

Chloe

Haley

Richard and I spent the 4th of July with family and friends on Lake Whitney. My mom wanted to have one last big family get together before I headed off to DC and this was it. Most of my cousins and aunts and uncles in the area came down to my parents house for the weekend.

Me and my floppy lake hat, complete with safety string

Friday had a rather small group, so we went swimming for a while, then sat out in the front yard drinking beer and eating pretzels (really a great combo), until dinner was ready. Then after dinner Richard and I shared our vacation pictures with everyone on the big screen, I felt like a movie star, lol. Then, I finally got to see Confessions of a Shopaholic, after an hour long struggle and three DVD players.

Aunt Shirley and Uncle Jerry on the boat

Saturday was the main event, the rest of the family arrived early and we spent the morning chatting around the kitchen table, where we decided my mom needed a facebook account. Two of my other aunts were talking about how they are on facebook and the reasons why, and mom felt left out, so I hooked her up, send her a friend request! Anyways, after the facebooking was finished we headed out on the boat, despite rather windy conditions. We ended up having a really nice day, the wind let up and we were out all day. We enjoyed some frisbee, floats, fishing, a great diving and cannon ball contest (Beth it was a TIE!), a little basketball with a flat ball, and some distant fireworks. Most of all it was just nice to spend time with the family, I will miss you all!

The women apparently having a very intense discussion...I love their expressions

The Frisbee Game

The boys sad attempt at fishing

Therapeutic YESNET

There is a networking group at Raytheon that Richard is a part of...YES net?...Young engineers...blah blah blah...

Whatever, they have an event every month to every other month where they provide extremely cheap, annually they take a trip to main event. How lucky are we that it landed on the Monday after our big move? Especially after I exploded the electricity in our apartment, at least I didn't electrocute myself, because it is my expert medical opinion that 220volts coursing through your body would definitely cause cardiac arrest. (I plug in the dryer cord that wasn't attached to anything, blew the electricity in the entire apartment)

Anyway, for $5 each we got a pizza buffet, unlimited bowling and laser tag, plus we each got a $10 game card...doesn't get much better than this...oh wait they also had $2 beers! After 0800 we totally forgot to worry about the fact that we might not have any electricity when we got home...

Gotta love SkeeBall!

1000pm-No electricity, clearly the apartments emergency line doesn't work, luckily I am experienced in the HAMMER page

1015-4 pages later, no word, and no electricity...I'd like to phone a friend! Matt graciously offered up his extra bedroom, if the situation did not improve...THANKS!!!

1020-A call back!!! The maintenance man is coming out!

1045-Maintenance man arrives, while we are sitting in the car planning our alibi

1050-Power is restored with a flip of a switch (the main breaker located somewhere externally, we are not that stupid, our first reaction was to check the breaker box)

Did I mention while we were moving in another black cat crossed our path? Because he did! We have never been much for superstition, but so far that is 3 black cats in the last month, followed by 3 extremely inconvenient problems (see blog posts from Amalfi and Sardegna). Does anyone know if you walk a black cat across your path backwards does it undo the bad luck? If so does anyone have a black cat? I might need to borrow it in the future if this is going to keep happening.

The Wizard of OZ to the WORST Weekend

I started out my weekend Thursday, when Lisa and I continued enjoying the Christmas gift that keeps on giving. We started our evening with dinner at PD Johnson's deli, where we enjoyed some delicious queso and FREE beer (always great way to start an evening). Then we headed out to Fair Park for the Wizard of Oz at the Dallas Summer Musicals. It was absolutely wonderful, we had great ochestra level seats, and the show had excellent special effects, it was a great start, to an otherwise sucktastic weekend.

Lisa and I in front of the Aisle 3 (orchestra level)

Last weekend we moved out of our beloved house. We spent Friday through Sunday doing absolutely nothing but moving, I don't know who's idea it was to move in the middle of summer in Texas, but it was a bad one. Aside from the heat, the emotions were a little more than I could handle, so I spent the weekend acting as Moving Foreman (a.k.a. heinous bitch). The fact that we were splitting our belongings between four different locations only compounded the problem, by the time it was finished my answer to everything was "Throw it in the Trash".




The only good thing about the moving packed weekend was that we were too busy to realize the extent of the emotional trauma from the move... Until Sunday night that is...


Sunday night we had moved everything out except a few boxes and an old bookshelf from when I was a kid, so we "Free Stuffed" the bookshelf on Craigslist in order to get rid of it quick. This prompted one last trip to our house. We stopped at Taco Bell on the way to meet the guy picking up the bookshelf, so we enjoyed our Last Supper in the entry way of our first house.



It has been so hard for me this week as the reality has taken hold. Our house had so many wonderful memories with our friends, family, and each other. We had lived there for almost five years, and we've been together just over 6 years, so for me it was really the place where we became "US". Not to mention the fact that we poured so much of ourselves into making it our home. I spent a good five minutes balling hysterically in the kitchen of an empty echo filled house as my husband tried to console me. Just have to remind myself its all to achieve MY dream.

Our last load...

The VERY Last Box


We closed Monday June 22nd at 9am, and made our last drive down Sleepy Hollow, loaded up the last box, and said goodbye to our beautiful little house. Thank you all who have shared memories with us there, because all the memories of the good times is what truly makes it difficult to leave. I would love it if you all would post a good memory you have shared with us in our home!

The Search is OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got back from Italy June 1st, and today is June 17th. This means I have searched craigslist diligently everyday for the last 17 days, not to mention all the time I spent before our trip, looking for a place to live in DC. I have spent every free moment in the last three weeks looking for places. It was a very difficult decision to make without actually visiting to look, but it is finished.

We will be living at The Prime at Arlington Courthouse in a 1 bedroom, 1 bath 870 sq ft apartment with a small den (for studying), in Arlington, Va at the Courthouse metro stop. This is 2 stops outside DC and should make for a pretty nice commute to school. I am thrilled to find a place in a nice location, pet friendly, updated interiors, with a washer/dryer/dishwasher in the unit.

Thanks Sara for your help, we are looking forward to seeing you guys more!

The ALMOST Birthday Bust

June 13, 2009

If you know me, you know I love any excuse to have a party, or host a get together, especially for your own birthday. Unfortunately, everyone I know was extremely busy this particular weekend this year, so it ended up being me, Lisa, Rich, and my parents. Luckily going out on the lake is wonderful regardless of how many people you have. It was a perfect lake day, minus the beeping malfunction of the boat. For some reason anytime the boat key was turned on the boat made an alarm-clock like sound, extremely loud never ceasing…annoying to the point we spent most of our time swimming and floating in the middle of the lake. After the lake we enjoyed some westerns (I wish you could hear the sarcasm in my voice), while Richard, mom, and Lisa cooked up a feast.

We also entertained ourselves with a a doggy photo-shoot, which seemed more like a three ring circus, complete with wranglers. We had my parents red bone hound, Rebel, and three uncooperative chiuahuas, Angel, Daisy, and Sugar, and Lisa, mom, and I to wrangle and photograph. Here is a little of what we came up with...

Sunday, Lisa headed out to do some moving, and we headed back out on the Lake, for one more day of famiy fun.

My Sweet Angel!

One year away from 25...That is half a century.

June 12th

Today was my 24th birthday…My to do list included:
Cancel electric
Set up new electric
Take pay check stubs to new apartment
Grocery store
Pay back mom
Cancel internet and phone
Setup new internet
Cancel water bill
Renew nursing license
Withdraw from Biochem
Cancel pest service
Drug screen, physical, and TB test reading (got a bonus blood draw and tetanus shot)
Fix tolltag
Forward mail
Go card setup
School email setup
Listen to 13 voicemails from vacation
Cancel gas
Fill and pick up prescriptions

Sounds like fun right?

Not really, but at 8:00 Rich got home from Boston and we met Jess and Matt for dinner at Zenna, where I got my Sushi, and everyone else enjoyed some Thai food. We all enjoyed a bottle of Reisling, a Beer tower, and some good conversation. Followed by a stop at Kroger for some birthday chocolate mouse cake and a giant cookie sandwich!

Not so bad afterall!

The NEXT step

We have two weeks to move out of our house at this point, and as of yesterday had nowhere to go at that point. However, after lots of discussion we decided that the best option for us right now would be to do a short lease on an apartment in the Plano area. In two weeks we will be living in the Villas at Oak Chase in Plano, off Legacy just west of 75.

At this point in August I will temporarily be moving to DC without Richard (unless he gets a job). So he will have a 6 month lease starting in June and ending right before Christmas. If he finds a job between now and then, it won't be extremely costly to end the lease. If he doesn't find a job in that time period we will reevaluate, but I'm leaning towards him quiting his job and moving to DC...but we will see. But please PRAY that he will find a job!!!