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Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Currently Listening
The Very Best of Peter, Paul & Mary
By Peter Paul & Mary
Puff, the Magic Dragon
see related
I changed my background...

...does that count as an update?? :)

This is for all of you devoted peeps who keep checking my site, hoping against hope that I have added another riveting update.

*cough*

Well, okay, so you're actually checking to see if they have closed down my Xanga from lack of use, right? I thought so. Morbid peeps.

So, since I have no new pictures of the house to post (even though I *should*...), how about a deep, thought-provoking question for you? Something that you can ponder in the night hours when you're awake from too many cups of coffee? Something you can debate until your teeth fall out?

Well, okay, they might shut down my Xanga before that happens. But here's the question anyway:

Is "Puff, the Magic Dragon" a druggie song?

There, I told you. Deep, thought-provoking and even *gasp* controversial. (hehe) I'll let you know what I think once I've seen what you have written...I'm just good that way.

:)

Friday, January 11, 2008

Currently Reading
Aunt Dimity's Good Deed (Aunt Dimity Mystery)
By Nancy Atherton
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Yes, a Real Update!

Gosh, it sure has been a long time since I have updated! And I thought that life would be slow and boring after I got married. Maybe I married the wrong guy for that to be the case! :)

Oh, my, where to begin? It seems like so much has happened since I wrote last, and yet I can't remember what I have or haven't written about! Let's see...

We continue to live in our little trailer (or maybe I should say "trailers", as we have several *nod to Mr. Collins*). It's 28-feet long and very cozy, especially since we have an older one right behind us in which to store various and sundry items. Living in the trailer has been great for me, especially, since I have to stay on top of organization and cleanliness all the time...it's clean one minute and a disaster the next! That's the joy of living in a place where two socks and a shirt on the floor make it look like a disaster area. :)

But we're building our house! Praise the Lord! It may seem like a really long time that we've been working towards this, but it doesn't seem that like long now that we've started. We were originally approved for our loan in May, by Frost Bank (which is our "regular" bank), but they ran into a little trouble with our property. Apparently, when Wesley's parents had refinanced 5 years ago, they had specified that they wanted the majority of the property to be free of a lien and they instead put a lien on their house and 5 acres. I guess someone at the mortgage company didn't understand, since they lien remained on the whole property undetected until we started the loan process. Then the lady at the bank called Wes up and said, "Well, you're good to go once you clear up that lien on your property."

Excuse me? Lien???? It was the first we'd heard of it! So, we scrambled around to find out which mortgage company had the documents (you know how it goes...one gets bought out by another that gets bought out by another...) and when we found them, they were on their way to a document storage facility in Arizona!! Wes called and practically begged them find the documents, which they agreed to, but it took several weeks to even locate them, let alone the time it took for them to send them to us. We were a little nervous, because the we only had until August 7th to close on the loan and the documents weren't here.

They arrived on August 8th. Hrm.

But by that time we were really grateful, because we had discovered that we did NOT want to work with Frost Bank. The lady there took her time about everything and was really not very helpful. We switched to another bank that Wesley works with in real estate and they got us closed in about 2 months! We signed documents and paid the largest sum of money we've ever paid on November 7 to begin work on the house. It's been a wild ride since, but loads of fun! :)

To see pictures of the house process, check out my Facebook: http://nhmccd.facebook.com/profile.php?id=199301713

Amongst all of this, we've still be attending church at the fabulous Heritage Covenant Church in Weatherford and loving every minute of it! It's wonderful to grow with people and truly feel as though they are your family. We have been through our ups and downs together, but the Lord is so faithful to His people. I praise Him for His constant watch-care of us!

I am still teaching piano, but only to a few students. It's hard to teach when you don't have a place of your own to teach in, but that will be remedied soon. :) I plan to try and find some local students once the house is complete and they can start coming to me, rather than the other way around.

The sewing is still coming along well, although I'm taking many fewer orders until the house is finished. My sewing stuff is set up in the apartment that my in-laws have behind their house, so it's a bit of a jog up there for me to work. But it was wonderful to have in the summer--it had an a/c, which my "second" trailer didn't have! I did two weddings in 3 months and that was exhausting. I'm grateful to have some time off!

Wesley is still working at the real estate office in Benbrook and doing fabulously! He's such a great Realtor. :) All of his clients and his boss love him, and I can totally understand why. The Lord has blessed me with an incredible husband and I love him more and more everyday. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him.

Oh, and I can't forget to mention the other part of our little family: Nickel! He's my cat, in case you forgot. (How could you???) He's my constant companion and the sweetest little guy that ever there was. I wuvs him.

So now you're all caught up on my life! My days now are spent cleaning, cooking and making boatloads of decisions about the house. I have my double wall oven and cook-top (thanks to a scratch and dent sale--they're awesome!) and my bathroom (complete from Craigslist at a REALLY great price!), so now I get to choose paint colors, floor color, windows, doors, trim, faucets, ETC!! It's a little overwhelming, but I'm enjoying the process. And I still find time to read a lot, knit, take walks and hang out with my adorable husband and his family. Life is good.

I'd love to share pictures here, but I already uploaded them to facebook. So, look there! :) If you aren't a friend, I'll be sure to remedy that situation. And if you don't have facebook...poor you. :)
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Monday, May 07, 2007

Currently Reading
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel
By Susanna Clarke
see related
I have a totally awesome husband!

But you already knew that, didn't you? I thought so. ;)

My darling, incredible, smart and handsome husband figured out how to get internet connection in our trailer!! Isn't that cool? I can actually be a part of your lives now! I can be an internet junky! I can waste time by the bucketload, if I feel like it! (And I confess, I do sometimes. ;) Awesome, dude.

So what's new? A few things...

First of all, we got approved the for the construction loan for our house! It feels like we've been trying to make this happen for months (which is true...ahem) and now it's hard to believe that it's actually done! The lady with the bank was soooooo slow and took forever to get back to us about lots of things. But she's pretty nice and finally made the loan happen, so I harbor no ill feelings. :) We should close on the loan this week and can get started as soon as our house plans get back from the architect! I am so excited. I have been reading house building books and critiquing nearly every structure I enter, so I have some good ideas of what I want and what I don't want. Just think! I could have my own home by Christmas! Hurrah!

Wes and I have been taking dancing lessons for about a month and a half and it's tons of fun! There is a ballroom dance teacher who lives about 5 minutes away from us, so the whole family has been taking lessons. We're learning the two-step (definitely my least favorite of the dances--it's rather boring!), the waltz (ballroom waltz is HARD), the foxtrot (this one is really fun!), swing (which we're getting pretty good at, if I may say so myself) and, just last week, salsa. It's been great! Our teacher is an older man, but he's really good at what he does and fairly patient with all of us and our left feet. I don't know how much longer we'll take from him, but we're definitely learning a lot.

We're also in charge of leading a Dave Ramsey "Financial Peace University" for our church and that seems to be going pretty well. This will be our second week and, despite the terrible mud we had last week (and consequently the late-night rental of a carpet-cleaning machine to return the building to it's original state), it was great! I'm looking forward to seeing what Dave says about finances...I've heard that he's got some good advice.

We do commercial cleaning twice a week, one building on Wednesday evening and three on Saturday afternoon/evening. That keeps us really busy and feeling like our weekends are about three seconds long, but it's all good. The extra cash is quite lovely, I assure you.

On a totally different note (pun intended), I love this new Norah Jones album! Hannah loaned me her CD to make a copy of and it's wonderful. I listen to it at least once a day, always assuming I can get iTunes to work. :)

Well, I had better scoot and fold my laundry. The laundromat is quite a blessing--4 loads of laundry done in an hour. PLUS, you get to see some of the most interesting people! Today it was mostly old ladies (one of which asked to borrow my cell phone to make a call...fun), but sometimes you get some real characters. It's my people-watching time for the week. :)

(There, Dad, is that better? ;)
Currently Reading
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel
By Susanna Clarke
see related
I have a totally awesome husband!

But you already knew that, didn't you? I thought so. ;)

My darling, incredible, smart and handsome husband figured out how to get internet connection in our trailer!! Isn't that cool? I can actually be a part of your lives now! I can be an internet junky! I can waste time by the bucketload, if I feel like it! (And I confess, I do sometimes. ;) Awesome, dude.

So what's new? A few things...

First of all, we got approved the for the construction loan for our house! It feels like we've been trying to make this happen for months (which is true...ahem) and now it's hard to believe that it's actually done! The lady with the bank was soooooo slow and took forever to get back to us about lots of things. But she's pretty nice and finally made the loan happen, so I harbor no ill feelings. :) We should close on the loan this week and can get started as soon as our house plans get back from the architect! I am so excited. I have been reading house building books and critiquing nearly every structure I enter, so I have some good ideas of what I want and what I don't want. Just think! I could have my own home by Christmas! Hurrah!

Wes and I have been taking dancing lessons for about a month and a half and it's tons of fun! There is a ballroom dance teacher who lives about 5 minutes away from us, so the whole family has been taking lessons. We're learning the two-step (definitely my least favorite of the dances--it's rather boring!), the waltz (ballroom waltz is HARD), the foxtrot (this one is really fun!), swing (which we're getting pretty good at, if I may say so myself) and, just last week, salsa. It's been great! Our teacher is an older man, but he's really good at what he does and fairly patient with all of us and our left feet. I don't know how much longer we'll take from him, but we're definitely learning a lot.

We're also in charge of leading a Dave Ramsey "Financial Peace University" for our church and that seems to be going pretty well. This will be our second week and, despite the terrible mud we had last week (and consequently the late-night rental of a carpet-cleaning machine to return the building to it's original state), it was great! I'm looking forward to seeing what Dave says about finances...I've heard that he's got some good advice.

We do commercial cleaning twice a week, one building on Wednesday evening and three on Saturday afternoon/evening. That keeps us really busy and feeling like our weekends are about three seconds long, but it's all good. The extra cash is quite lovely, I assure you.

On a totally different note (pun intended), I love this new Norah Jones album! Hannah loaned me her CD to make a copy of and it's wonderful. I listen to it at least once a day, always assuming I can get iTunes to work. :)

Well, I had better scoot and fold my laundry. The laundromat is quite a blessing--4 loads of laundry done in an hour. PLUS, you get to see some of the most interesting people! Today it was mostly old ladies (one of which asked to borrow my cell phone to make a call...fun), but sometimes you get some real characters. It's my people-watching time for the week. :)

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Currently Reading
The Great Hunt (The Wheel of Time, Book 2)
By Robert Jordan
see related
"Just Relax."

If I had a nickel for every time my husband said that to me, I would bea rich woman. "Just relax," he says as I hyperventilate about what"people are going to think" about this or that. "Just relax," he saysas a crazy driver whizzes past us, endangering our lives. "Just relax,"he says to me while I'm in peril of crashing into a VERY large tree onmy first ski slope. And he says it while skiing backwards. Showoff.

Yes,I have joined the ranks of those who ski. Not very well, very long orvery fast, but I CAN do it! :) The whole family (read: the Hurds) tooka ski trip to New Mexico this past weekend and it was such fun. It wasslightly odd, though, going back to the same place where wehoneymooned, bringing 10 other people with us. ;)

Thankfully,Wesley said that he thought I should take the beginners' ski class,rather than just taking me up to the top of the mountain and wishing meluck. :) So I joined a class of 9 other beginners and we took all dayto learn how to put our skis on, get on and off of the lift and notfall on our faces very often.

And I did fine! For the firsthalf of the day. In our class, we just went on little slopes and ourinstructor told us to take it easy. During our lunch break, I met upwith Wes and he wanted to take me on another easy slope to help mepractice. Little did I know that this particular slope had severaldifferent sides, and I ended up on the steep one. On my rear, to beexact. Yes, my first fall was in front of my husband. How horrid. :)

But I kept going. The next day I went on the easy slopes again and then Wes took me down a green run. Wow. Okay, it was only green,but I can't imagine what the blues and blacks must be like! I managedthat run and did it again. The third time my legs simply gave out and Iended up feeling very chummy with a bright orange fence that dividedthe green run from the bunny slopes. So chummy, in fact, that I wantedWes to leave me there. Silly boy, he didn't. He patiently waited untilI had disentangled my legs from the skis and each other and manage toachieve an upright position once more.

My ski outfit was aconglomeration of left-overs and unused pieces in the Hurds'collection, mostly belonging to Monica. I had on flaming red ski pants,a bright orange Gap jacket (quite the spiffiest item in the collection,I assure you, Mons!) and I finished it off with a cashmerered-and-white snowflake scarf (thank you, Sears out-of-season) and abright red knitted hat. Now, I am quite sure that they dressed me thatway so that they wouldn't lose me. Wes said he could spot me anywhere.Especially when I fell.

So, you ask, was it worth it? Mostdefinitely! I had the time of my life. Besides learning to participatein my husband's favorite activity (albeit not very flexibly), we had asplendid time of fellowship and fun. Midnight walks, sleeping in really late one morning, a trip to the various shops in town, TCBY and the long ride home, accompanied by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy(read by the incomparable Stephen Fry) and a whole slew ofcheeseburgers from Burger King. (There were, after all, 10 of ustraveling home...) It was the ski trip of a lifetime, only I hope thatmy next one find me vertical a little more often. ;)