Sunday, September 09, 2007
Hellloooo!
So it's been WAY to long since I've written (yea, i know…over a month). After some encouraging from a friend, I made it a point to do this weekend. Since I'm 1 hr, 15 min from this weekend being over…I'm writing.
Many things have happened since I got my car - and btw I still love it (even though Michael thinks it looks like a minivan!). I'll try to catch you up (but I don't promise it'll be in order of occurence.
- I was privileged to be in my friend Care's wedding. She's who I lovingly refer to (for people who have seen my wedding pictures or who attended) as "my bridesmaid with pink hair." And pretty much that's all it takes. She's super fun, totally different than me in so many ways, and yet we're still close. The wedding was as unique as she is and probably the most untraditional wedding I've been involved in. It was great - it showed who Mark and Carrie are together, and it had the fingerprints of my dear friend all over it. Plus, it was in Portland, so I got to take a break from the swealtering heat of Texas to enjoy the mid to upper 70 degree weather. It definitely wasn't a restful trip, but I was able to catch up with old friends who I haven't seen in years, meet sweet little Elena (pronounced eh-leena…something it took me a couple of days to get), and see my friend so happy she couldn't keep her eyes from leaking. It was good.
- That weekend also marked another event. It was the longest that David and I had been apart since we've been married. Although I was sure he would miss me (because he's at home, and being left is MUCH worse), I figured I wouldn't miss him until toward the end of the almost 6 days. I was wrong. It might have had something to do with how sweet Mark and Care were together, and how weddings and the things leading up to them get you all emotional or the anticipation of the length of time that I was going to be gone, or the lack of sleep, or…anyway…I pretty much missed him by Friday (I left Wednesday). Missing him at night doesn't count or I would be even more pitiful. But we made it through, and in the process found out how fun texting pictures of ourselves to the other was. When I got home on Labor day, David had cleaned up our apartment and had 12 yellow roses waiting for me on the dining room table. He fed me Chuy's and let me do nothing for the rest of the day. It was a great homecoming.
- My sister came to visit me for a week! It was SUPER fun, she hasn't come for that long since I've lived here, and we had a great time. I did my best to leave work at a decent time, and she did her best to sleep past noon every day that I worked. She had just coordinated a 3 day conference for almost 4000 people, and as you would imagine, it wore her out. I was glad to be able to give her a haven to rest, and then took a day off to hang out with her. We ended up finding her a great dress for an upcoming wedding and she experienced Ikea for the first time. During our visit there I managed to set my phone down somewhere (yes, it would have to have been me to do that), but miraculously it was found the next day. That's a funny story too, but let's just say that when the only person who knows where my phone is lives in St. Louis, it makes for a difficult recovery.
Thanks Ash! - I finally got all my info for the lady who did our wedding video and sent it off. She returned the video within a couple of days, but hadn't remembered to use one of the songs she already had. Ugh. Jack Johnson's Better Together is perfect for the video…she's going to try to fix it. Because she lives in very Northern Florida, she apparently hasn't gotten to the point of using digital stuff, so I actually had to print out some pictures and mail to her. The positive side of this is that now I have ten awesome pictures from our honeymoon that I made into a collage. Steph finished it off for me - I just love her!
- We're getting ready to move. Yes, again. I know that you must think that I move all the time…and you're right. This will be our first move as a married couple and we did have a garage sale, so hopefully it'll be easier this time (or at least that's what I'm telling myself). Hopefully we'll be in the next place for a good long while. We went apartment/duplex/house looking yesterday. What we found? You can get a lot more space further out, but we still found a little place we're interested in the same general area we live in. We're turning in our application and looking at the place one more time tomorrow. When we are a go, I'll post some pictures. Anyone up for a packing party? I think that will be my social life for the next month. Ah well, hopefully this will be the last time until we buy a place.
- Speaking of social time…it seems like I really haven't had any lately. A lot has to do with the fact that I have greatly increased responsibilities at work and it requires more hours to get it done. Then, when I'm done there…I'm tired. It's the most I can do to get home and figure out what to eat. So, if I have fallen off the face of the earth, I'm sorry. It's not cause I want to - so email me and whine. I am really working hard at keeping a balance, so hopefully it will at least sorta be balanced. Hopefully when this transition time is over, I will be able to either delegate some of the responsibility or have it removed from my plate. Either way, it will be nice to get through and be done with the stress of not knowing. (I know I'm being cryptic, and I'd be happy to talk about it more - so ask me!)
- Oh, that makes me think of one more thing…and then I must head in the direction of a bed. We put ourselves on a budget. We had put together one that kept us within our means (but we weren't really getting ahead) toward the end of the spring, but this one is for real. It has less money to just spend, but it is somehow very freeing. I know how much I have to spend on gifts until Christmas, so I'm able to not feel bad about buying stuff this far out. I know that I have to get my hair cut a different month than I stock up on makeup, but yet I don't feel bad about doing either of those things. Besides, it helps us think long term, and truthfully, we're not farther than a year or so from our first big goal - so that's exciting and very doable. I'll let you know how it goes as we get further into it.
Thanks for reading the entire book I just wrote. Oops.
Love to you all. Let me know how you are doing - do stay in touch.