Bloggy Awards!

I've gotten a couple blog awards over the last few weeks that I've been procrastinating passing along. I know most of you would rather read about my first week of work, but the words aren't flowing right now, so you'll have to settle for this instead. :)

First off, I got the Kreativ Blogger award from Hannah at That [Officer's] Wife. Thank you so much, my dear! (Be sure to leave a comment so I can email you back - I need to [finally] get your address!)

Of course, it comes with rules:

1. Thank the person who gave this to you!
2. Copy the logo and place it in your blog!
3. Link the person who nominated you!
4. Name 7 things about yourself that no one would really know.
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them!

So, 7 things about myself:

One: I don't ever plan on living in my hometown again.

Two: Sometimes I regret my college education. Mostly because there is SO much we could be doing with the money we're spending on loans every month.

Three: I'm shy. If you know me, you know this, but if you just read my blog, well, it might not be so obvious.

Four: I am a die-hard Yankees fan. (I'm watching World Series Game 2 right now!) I am also a die-hard fan of my high school's football team. I went to almost every game while Brian was gone and have made it to 2 this season. Most people find this odd.

Five: I don't shower every day. Generally it's every other day.

Six: I don't eat vegetables, but wish I did.

Seven: I hate paying shipping costs for online purchases.

I've been seeing this award floating around on blogs for years it seems like so I am going to cop out and not tag anyone. Plus, it took me longer to think of those 7 things than I anticipated and I don't feel like looking for links to people. If you're one of my few loyal readers, please consider yourself tagged! Love you guys!

Now, I was tagged by both Marsie at Quite Contrary and BSS at My Life, From {Army} Brat to Wife for the Your Blog is Fabulous award. Thank you ladies! I'm glad you keep coming around! :)

The rules require me to share 5 things I am obsessed with and pass it along to 5 fab ladies. I'll probably skip on the tagging again because this may take me awhile.

1. The Yankees. I've always been a fan and they're having a good year this year. I love watching them play in October!

2. House, NCIS, The Office and (sadly) The Vampire Diaries. I've been catching up on all the back episodes of NCIS and The Office over the last year and finally caught up recently. The Vampire Diaries is a new thing. It was kinda dragging through the first few episodes but the last new episode (before tonight) blew me away. I'm officially hooked. House is simply amazing - every single week.

3. Our sheets from BB&B. I bought them after the wedding since no one bought them for us off the registry. They are quite possibly the softest sheets I've ever felt. Love love love them!

4. My dog. Enough said.

5. Burt's Bees chapstick. I have one in my purse and one by my bed. I also love the cuticle cream.

Again, thank you so much ladies. I appreciate you reading and thinking of me. I want to recap my week soon - hopefully tomorrow or this weekend. Everyone have a fab Friday, ok? :)

Still Sick

Day 2 of being sick is (thankfully) ending.

My doctor appointment is behind me. Not a good appointment, but not a bad one either.

I went by the school for a little while and I'm more nervous now than ever. I feel a little bit overwhelmed and out of my element. I don't have a real grasp on exactly what I'll be doing so I can't run through various scenarios in my head to make myself feel more prepared. All I know is that I have 6 teachers to keep happy tomorrow and 3 hours to survive. And then I do it all again with 6 different teachers on Thursday. I just told my mom that my goal is to simply survive this week. I'll worry about having my crap together and impressing the teachers next week.

As far as my illness goes...my nose is raw and I don't feel like doing much of anything. After a week of being home in TX, I don't feel in the swing of things here yet. I need to get on top of cleaning and such, but I just...can't. I'm basically dreaming about sleeping in on Wednesday. And I have no idea what we're eating all week. Just thinking about all the stuff to throw away and/or clean in the refrigerator gives me a headache.

So, basically, life for me is a little hectic right now. I know that it's just temporary. Alot of crap is jammed into this week. Sure, I would have loved to have a cold during any of the last 10 months that I was living here and not working, but I'll go with it. As soon as a box of Kleenex isn't attached to my hip I'll get started on my to-do list.

I think some DayQuil may be in order for tomorrow. :(

Back with a Cold

So, I'm back in Louisiana.

And I'm sick.

Mom gave me her cold. I slept like crap last night and woke up with a scratchy throat.

You better believe I'm hittin' the hay as soon as the Yankees game is over.

Tomorrow is a busy day for me. I have a doctor appointment bright and early and then I need to go by the school to get acquainted with what I am going to be doing with the little kindergartners starting Tuesday. If I let myself think about it, I get nervous, but right now I'm too preoccupied with the Yanks and my throat to care. I know I'm capable of tutoring 5-year-olds and I know I'm capable of doing it well. It helps that I bought some good work clothes this weekend! :)

It is weird that I still don't know how much they're paying me? I don't really care - as long as there is a paycheck with my name on it every so often!

Here's to hoping that I get over this cold quickly and don't catch anything worse from the germ-y kindergartners this week!

Texas in October: Day 5

My last day here is quickly coming to a close.

I got to Old Navy this morning and scored some good stuff. All their clearance is an additional 50% off right now so I got a few things for dirt cheap! I even found a pair of jeans I liked. My main goal was to beef up my work-appropriate wardrobe so I made sure to pick up some good, comfy long sleeved shirts. I love good shopping trips where I can find a bunch of stuff at good prices.

I swung by Petsmart as well to get Tiny a few xmas presents. I'm planning to replace all his horrendous toys at xmas. So far he's getting a moo-ing cow, a cute chicken and a tiger wearing a santa hat. I'll keep collecting them over the next couple months.

The family and I spent the afternoon together eating chinese food and ice cream. We planned on watching the Yankees tonight, but it's rain delayed until tomorrow - bummer!

It's now almost 10pm and I still have to pack and get organized for tomorrow. I'm not leaving quite as early as I normally would, but 7am will still come really quickly.

I've had alot of fun this week. It always sucks when my time here is over, but I know I'll be back in a month for T-giving and a month after that for Christmas. I really can't believe how quickly this year is coming to a close!

Coming to you next from the (not so) great state of Louisiana!

Texas in October: Day 4

Mom and I shopped today. And I still have more to do tomorrow.

All I got for myself was some underwear at VS with a giftcard.

The other stuff I got was a bunch of Bath & Body Works stuff for gifts. I have my MIL taken care of for xmas and my SIL taken care of for her bday in December. I had really good coupons and took advantage of their sales. Love it!

Pet peeve of the day: When only "select" merchandise is on sale, but they don't tell you which things so when I pick up a pumpkin from next to the sign that says "35% off", it rings up full price. I'm sorry. The pumpkin wasn't work $10 to me. It was only worth $6.50. Grr!

Tomorrow I want to hit up Old Navy with the remains of my birthday money to get some clothes. Hopefully they have stuff I like that that looks good on me.

Tonight culminated in a big high school football game. My parents have season tickets to my high school's football games. The whole family went tonight. It was a big game that would put the winner on the path to district champs. The game against this team last year was ugly. We didn't know what to expect. Luckily, my alma mater pulled it off in wonderful dramatic fashion (21-18). It was truly fantastic and so much fun to watch with my family. If only it were a tad bit warmer!

So, now it's late and I'm tired! Tomorrow is my last day here. I'm kinda sad about this - mostly because there is ALOT waiting for me back in LA. I have a doctor's appointment and I start my job on Monday. Eek! I know it'll be here before I know it.

Goodnight ya'll! :)

Texas in October: Day 3

I've done nothing today. I had hoped to have lunch with a friend, but I never heard back from her. I thought about doing some shopping, but I don't want to spend money. So, instead I stayed home, watched TV and enjoyed some "vacation" time.

Mom and I have to go to a Mary Kay facial tonight. We don't want to go. We don't want Mary Kay products. The MK consultant was my 1st grade teacher and came to my wedding. Mom feels like we need to go. She also feels that this woman won't stop bugging her until we go. So, we'll go. I'm just annoyed that I'm going to miss at least 2 hrs of the Yankee game. Ugh.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. Mom is taking the day off from work and we have a rather extensive list of places to do some shopping. I have a few gift cards to use, some coupons to utilize and birthday money still left to spend. It'll be fun mother-daughter bonding time.

Also, I've been very easily annoyed with people lately. I wonder if I'm more sensitive than I normally am or it's that people are more annoying than they normally are. Hmm...

Texas in October: Day 2

It's cloudy and wet here today. Ordinarily I would wear my hair curly on a day like today, but I have things to do and didn't want to try the curly look for the first time on my new haircut when I have people to see.

So, the haircut. I did pretty much exactly what I said I was thinking about doing. She cut a good couple inches off the length and trimmed up the layers a little bit. Since she cut the length, the layers are more at the bottom of my hair now instead of the middle. Hopefully this will look better when the LA humidity makes my hair do crazy frizzy things. She also cut my bangs more like bangs. If I brush them down, they come to the middle of my eyes, but I sweep them to the side. I didn't know she was going to cut them this short and had a minor panic attack at first, but I love it now.

I had to cart around the 2 huge albums of my wedding pictures yesterday so everyone I came in contact with could look at them. My hair lady looked at them all. My dentist's wife looked at them all. It was nice (and funny) to see what people's reactions are to them. My hair dresser was horrified at how many times she made it in the album. My dentist's wife gave me some juicy tidbits about things she noticed at the wedding. I guess I thought that after the wedding was over, well, it would be over. It's been nice to be here and have people dote over my big day some more. It's like this after-wedding glow or something. It's nice. While it lasts anyway.

Today is a pretty boring day. I ran this morning in the rain (hardcore, right?) and got lunch with my mom and brother. They're hilarious company. If you're ever out to eat and there's some table laughing uncontrollably - that could be us. Now I'm back at the house hanging out with the dog for a bit before I go to get coffee with my good friend Leslie. She's been having a hard time of it lately so I'm looking forward to catching up with her.

Tonight the fam and I are planning on gorging ourselves on pizza. There's a pizza place in town (and across Texas & Oklahoma) called DoubleDaves that I love! They have a buffet a few nights a week so we're going to hit that up tonight. If you live near one or ever visit some place that has one - go! So good!

Kinda boring post today - sorry! I guess nothing funny has happened today.

P.S. The Yanks went up 3-1 in the ALCS last night! :)

Texas in October: Day 1

Today I get my teeth cleaned at noon and my hair cut at 2.

I might be the only person who looks forward to a teeth cleaning because I get to see the sweetest lady in the world who happens to be my dentist's wife and office manager. She requested I bring wedding pictures...all of them. Yeah, she's a saint.

Ah, the hair cut. The months leading up the wedding, I swore I'd cut my hair off after it was over. I think that was stress talking. No, but really, I'm ready for a change, just not a major change. I'm thinking cutting a couple inches off, barely trimming the layers so they'll grow out a smidge (the LA humidity HATES my layers!) and do something with my bangs/face fringe. We'll see what she can do. At least I don't have to get my hair dyed anymore! Growing the color out - with help of low-lights, of course - was the best decision I ever made. (I began that process two whole years ago and the tips are still slightly lighter than the rest of my hair. My hair grows sloooowly.)

I also need to call all my friends and set up our dates for the week. I miss my friends when I'm in LA.

I have to decide where we are going for dinner tonight. There are just so many choices in this mid-size Texas town. Any suggestions? Hmm...I guess I'll think on it while I'm getting teeth cleaned and hair chopped.

P.S. It's WINDY here. Like crazy windy. I forgot about the wind.

Texas & Stupid People

I drove home today. To my Texas home, that is. I'll be here until Sunday. While here I need to make time to see 3 friends, get my teeth cleaned & my hair cut, possibly take Tiny to the vet, go to a football game on Friday and spend as much time with the fam as possible.

I always notice things or come across curious sights on my 7 1/2 hour drive from LA to TX. Today the two notable things were an 18-wheeler that said this on the back:

<==Passing Side Suicide==>

I tried to take a picture, but my camera's battery is dead. I guess I take my life in my hands every time I pass some jerk 18-wheeler who chooses to chill in the left lane. Oh wait, I'm pretty sure I take my life in my hands any time I pass an 18-wheeler, no matter the side.

I also saw a crappy old truck with wooden pallets stacked in two piles about 20 pallets high. Thankfully he was in the right lane. Hopefully he made it to his destination.

Oh and on a total side note: Brian and I got snubbed this weekend. Everyone he works with got invited to this guys' house for his birthday and we weren't invited. We don't like this guy and his wife anyway, but we're friendly with at least one other couple that was there. I guess they don't like us as much as we don't like them.

I think we didn't get invited so they could all bitch about Brian getting put in charge of a bunch of them now. You can't really complain about someone if they're at the party. Whatever. I've survived this long there without friends or weekend plans.

Weird

I'm in a weird mood today.

Perhaps it started when I woke up promptly at 8 even though I wanted to sleep in while I still can.

Or maybe it's the suddenly-fall weather outside for which I am unsure how to dress.

I think it may be the beginning of stress over packing and driving home on Monday.

Who knows...but I'm going to attempt to run it off.

And by run I mean jog very slowly.

Our Wedding: The Ceremony

I have 774 pictures from our photography of our wedding.

No one (outside of family) really needs - or wants - to see all 774 pictures.

I thought maybe, though, my faithful readers would want some highlights of our big day.

I've decided to break it up into installments: the ceremony, the reception, and getting ready. I might do one of the details as well - we'll see.

I'm not going to caption these. I'll let them speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Laundry

I do laundry every Wednesday.

Every Wednesday I have one nice full load of darks to wash.

So explain to me why I had two loads of darks to wash this morning.

Who in this house was changing clothes more than normal?

I totally blame the man in the house.

After all, he had three pairs of jeans in there.

Who else hates folding clothes? Give me a pile of towels or socks any day!

At least I already dusted, washed dishes and windexed windows this morning.

Awkward FB Chat

My mother-in-law's mother was from England.

Some family member of my MIL befriended me on facebook some time ago. I'm not sure why or how they are related.

She just facebook chatted me. The conversation so far is riveting. She seems to think I know (and care) who she is.

She also seems to think that I talk to my MIL on a regular basis and know details about her recent trip to England to visit this relative.

Generally I enjoy facebook. Right now? Not so much.

And just like that she is gone. So very odd.

It's Official

I'm not unemployed anymore!

Not that I was really complaining about being unemployed.

I had my "interview" yesterday with the school district here. I use the term "interview" loosely since all I did was fill out paperwork and I still don't know how much I'm getting paid.

Starting the week of the 26th I will be tutoring kindergartners 6 hours a week. There are 12 kindergarten classrooms on post with 23-24 children per class. A whole lotta kids, right? I will be in each classroom for 30 minutes a week re-teaching any children who are having even small problems with kindergarten-level tasks. I'm not 100% sure exactly what I will be doing, but at the moment it seems like it will be alot like speech-pathology lessons. Luckily I have a fair amount of material left over from college.

For at least a couple weeks I want to do the tutoring by itself, but the plan is to add substitute teaching the other 3 days of the week eventually. (The tutoring is 3 hours a day, 2 days a week.)

This is perfect for me. The most I'll be working is 3 full days and 2 half days. I really didn't want to work full time. I like my free time to take care of the house and run errands. Hopefully this schedule will work out beautifully for me. I'm a tad bit worried about leaving Tiny home alone all day tho!

So, that's my big news for the week. It's depressingly gray outside today, Brian is in the field until Friday and I have some serious cleaning to do. We'll see how productive I can be today.

Fair Night

We had an interesting night last night.

The (big, bad) fair is in town! Military got in free, so we figured we could swing by for something to do. We left the house around 6:15 and swung by the barracks to pick up one of Brian's friends. Good thing we all get along well and can talk for hours because we surely got stuck in a traffic jam heading to the fair for TWO hours. Yes, in small-town Louisiana, there was a traffic jam. Because the entire town wanted to go to the fair at the same time.

Once we actually got to the fair grounds, we quickly realized that parking was horrendous. There is a huge field that is probably usually used for some sort of organized parking, but alot of it was a mud pit thanks to the constant rain on Friday. We snagged a decent spot in the field and headed in to a rather depressing and disappointing fair (thankfully it was free!). The fair didn't make a single dollar off any of us. We walked around for maybe 20 minutes (by now it's almost 9 o'clock) and decided to grab dinner somewhere else. Did I mention it was misting the entire time as well?

What do we find when we get back to the truck? We're blocked in. Some dumbass in a car blocked the way we got into the field. I could definitely give you some choice words about that idiot. Our other exit was blocked by a massive mud pit. 3 vehicles (jeep, suburban and trailblazer) were stuck in the mud pit when we got to the truck. Our only hope was that the car parked in front of us would move or the idiot blocking the exit would move. In the meantime we watched some guy with a tractor pull people out of the mud. It was surprisingly entertaining!

Some guy who seemed to be in charge of organizing the tractor guy pulling people out of the mud told us we could make it through the mud pit and I'm sure Brian would have loved to try. He decided to be responsible and not try. After sitting around enjoying the wet fall weather for like 30 minutes, the car in front of our truck suddenly takes off. You better believe I ran over and stood in their space to make sure no one swooped in a blocked us in again!

So, we finally escaped the craptastic fair and got a late dinner at one of the 3 restaurants in town. A cheeseburger and fries never tasted so good!

We watched a few episodes of The Office and crashed after our quality time hicking it up at the fair. Why are fairs always disappointing? And always dirty?

Jim & Pam Get Hitched

I love this:

A Good Day

I miss the days when I was constantly outlining posts in my head, just waiting for the time to put "pen to paper".

The surprising thing is that everything has been going well for me. So why haven't I been writing? I just haven't had any witty words, I guess.

So what's been noteworthy? I'll tell you.

Just today:
1. The temperature finally dropped below 80. I even like the rain.
2. I had a lunch date at McD's with my husband. The food left alot to be desired.
3. I went to the county jail to get fingerprinted for my job. It involved getting buzzed into the jail. I hope my face didn't show how sorta freaked I was.
4. I walked out of Wal-Mart without purchasing a single thing.
5. I successfully system-restored my computer and got rid of the dang virus that was slowly killing it. Now if only I could get it to connect to the internet. Hmm...
6. I watched my Yanks come from behind in dramatic home run fashion. They lead the series 2-0 now.
7. I talked to my mom for hours about everything. My ear still kinda hurts.
8. I made a dang good spaghetti dinner (if I do say so myself...).
9. I made plans to go to the rodeo with the husband tomorrow. I wonder what a rodeo in small-town LA is like.
10. I watched Jim and Pam's wedding with Brian. I laughed. A lot.

Today was a good day. This week was a good week. Things have been falling my way lately, and I'm extremely grateful. I'm excited about the job I should be starting at the end of the month. It's not official, so I don't want to jinx it. Either way, I'll have subbing and I really like the school I'll be subbing/working at. I don't want to catch the swine flu from all the snotty little kids, but the money might just make it worth it.

Who else loves An Officer and a Gentleman? :) A perfect way to end a good day!

Job Hunt

*Computer update: Since I got everything off my computer that is important, I've been ignoring the dang thing. I need to do a system restore to a date before it started dying, but I haven't had the patience yet. Soon, tho, or Brian will ban me from using his computer and then I'll be computer-less! :(*

So, I've been on the job hunt this week. Well, not really a hunt, but I finally made phone calls about substitute teaching. I still have a couple things to do, but I should be working in a couple weeks. Eek! I'm kinda bummed to be giving up my lazy days (and weeks...), but the extra $$ will be nice.

I'm going home in about 10 days so I may have to celebrate my employment with the fam. And I may need to buy some more "work" clothes. Shh...don't tell Brian. Just kidding - hi honey! :)

Today is a lazy day around here. Brian's in the field today so I'm not even sure when I'll be seeing him again. He could walk in at any moment, but I really don't expect him until dinner time. So, today I am staying in my PJ's, watching alot of TV, reading alot of Harry Potter, washing alot of dishes and sheets and NOT leaving the house!

I can't believe it's already Thursday!

I also can't believe that it's October 8th and it's 90 degrees with 97% humidity outside. YUCK!

Poor Computer

My computer is dying a slow, painful death.

I'm coming to you from the hubs' laptop.

I rescued everything that is important today (it took alllll day). Now I just need to try to system restore or something. *fingers crossed*

Already October?

I need a new computer. This one is becoming more frustrating by the day.

I need to get a job. I finally came up with a budget and filled in all the numbers for the last couple months - yeah, not pretty. Getting a job has suddenly become a necessity. Ugh.