NEW BEGINNINGS...!

WE MOVED!

Well, first I will say I can't believe how long it's taken me to finally update my blog. I knew this would happen, with the hussle and bussle of moving, celebrating our 3 year anniversary, and Kyle starting his internship, I KNEW time would get away from me. I have to many stories to write about on here I don't know where to start!!

Ok- so I'll begin with moving day. It came and WENT. We were up bright and early- luckily the night before we were able to pick up the UHAUL van (17' long lol) for no extra charge; so we started loading stuff up with Chelsea's help Thursday night! When Friday morning (aka moving day) came along, our good friends Kyle and Melissa were there to rescue us- SERIOUSLY, we could not have moved without their help. GUYS- you wouldn't even BELIEVE how much stuff we had crammed in 650 sq ft (okay, maybe you could if you saw how cluttered our house was haha) but SERIOUSLY- we filled up a 17' UHAUL van, and BOTH the Kyles' trucks- FULL. We couldn't even fit an 8' tailgating table in the back of the truck to go 2 miles to my sisters house and drop it off. FULL. Before my story moves on, I MUST describe the happenings of moving my precious upright piano. Once again, without Kyle & Melissa (and inevitably 2 other neighbors) we couldn't have done it. Kyle and Kyle were able to get the 504lb piano on two floor dolly's fairly easily; I held my breath as they rolled it out the door, but all in all we got it to the bottom of the UHAUL ramp just fine. Then we all stared up...how were we going to get it IN the van? With two small girls and two strapping men? I had full faith in the Kyles', but honestly, my heart was POUNDING. In my mind I saw us getting halfway up the UHUAL ramp only to lose our grip and have the piano come crashing down into millions of wooden pieces. haha THANKFULLY that didnt happen...but it came close. I sought our wonderful neighbor (older male) to help us- he called his neighbor (apparently they'd both moved pianos before- whew!) and together the 6 of us stood at the bottom of the UHAUL truck trying to come up with a plan. Can you picture this now?

At one point I was REALLY regretting not hiring the piano movers to come to CS- they were meeting us in houston to bring the piano up the flight of stairs (thank goodness) but wanted an extra $500 just to drive to CS...anyway - back to the situation. As we all bounced ideas off of eachother (none of mine really being worth much since I mainly sat there cringing as my baby was sitting in the hot sun and about to risk her life (bahaha yeah I'm dramatic). Anyway, I hear the men count to three, I close my eyes and the first half of the UHUAL ramp was accomplished. See, that's where I got nervous- at one point we literally had to take the dolly's OFF of the piano as it was going up the ramp b/c they were hindering it's being able to make it over the ledge IN to the van-- that was fun. Lots of shouting and "omg take the dolly off!"'s occured, but WE DID IT!! Needless to say, we were VERY happy the piano movers were meeting us in Houston. VERY HAPPY.

Mmk, well at this point we were all complete sweatballs - we make the 1.5 hr drive to houston. OH- I forgot to mention -Thursday night before we moved I got a call from my landlord saying that our neighbor called her to tell her my front door was wide open...AND PROBABLY HAD BEEN SINCE THE PREVIOUS WKND WHEN I WAS THERE. Kyle and I were SO upset- we still havent gotten our electric bill yet, but we'll see what happens. We thought about driving to houston that night and turning around to come back (only to move for real the next day) but we decided against it -we would be there in 6 hours anyway so might as well finish packing up the house. Right? Well YOU try going to sleep at night knowing your front door is WIDE OPEN! what a night.

So back to the move. We pull up in to our new complex (I'm super excited to show Kyle and Melissa our place) and Kyle opens the garage to go in the house first...two seconds later he comes running out - he picks up his phone to call 911 and tells me we've been burlarized. "BUGLARIZED?!" He gets our amazing shot gun out of the moving van and offers to let me peek inside- plus we had our 72lb black dog with us, she'd eat anyone that threatened us :-D...anyway, I looked inside to see that someone had kicked down our front door (inside door frame was all over the floor). . . WHAT A WELCOME HOME PARTY. The cops told us they'd be at our house in 9 minutes, 1.5 hours later they finally showed up. We'd gone in by this time, the piano movers were there waiting with us -- NOTHING was stolen, really unbelievable, they didn't even open any of our boxes? We didn't have anything of real value in the home yet so I'm assuming they ran in, scanned the place for a TV and ran out.

Anyway- after the piano was moved up the stairs (seemingly weightless -- the movers were amazing), Kyle and Melissa helped us move every single box and every single bag in to this house. 3 flights of stairs PEOPLE! Melissa and I would collapse every once in a while on a random floor in b/w trips lol It would've taken us DAYS to do this alone. We were so wiped out at the end of the night- not to mention we had to return the UHAUL, make a trip to lowes so kyle could rebuild our door frame (yes, he rebuilt it that night- completely. took him hours...but we really wanted to be able to lock ourselves in!!)...we took a hot bath and went to BED!

Needless to say we have a security system now- and nothing remotely scary has happened since we moved in. . We were told this was the 1st buglary ever reported in this complex (lucky us!)-- even our neighbors who've been here for 3 years were shocked anything like this happened. Hopefully it'll never happen again! You should see the signs in our front walkway- "beware of dog" "protected by guns, we don't call 911" and "ADT SECURITY"...hahaha you've gotta have some major cajones to break in this house! XD



3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

So, on a whim, Kyle and I decided to plan a trip to Las Vegas for our 3 year wedding anniversary (still can't believe it's been 3 years). We were SO excited, and after the craziness from the move we were ready for a vacation. We splurged on a junior corner suite at our favorite downtown hotel (Golden Nugget)- it was BEAUTIFUL. Biggest suite we've stayed in since our wedding night. :) We stayed up way too late, gambled, saw some shows, laughed til our sides split, and enjoyed ourselves to the brim. A TRIP TO REMEMBER...we celebrated finishing our masters (haven't even gone there, i'll save you the details- it was an amazing journey and we're happy to be finished!) and being in love. <3


BACK HOME

Well, we are finally back home. Kyle started his internship two days after we got back from Vegas; he is thoroughly enjoying himself and has first authors rights on a scientific article he will be writing for a dental journal by the end of the summer! This is "just-in" news as of today- we celebrated tonight. It's a big deal!! He still can't believe he'll be considered an "author" this year...! I'm so proud of him! :) I keep telling him, having to write all those papers in our masters program PAID OFF!

Today was actually the first full day I have had to unpack our house- it took me all morning just to try and organize our closet :-P Oh well, it'll all happen eventually!!


UNTIL NEXT TIME...

Well this turned out to be way too long, and I probably bored whoever is reading this with way too many details- so until next time! <3

ALMOST THROUGH!

So I felt the need to tell the world that I just attended my LAST graduate school lecture! The next two weeks are finals, so I can honestly say I see the light at the end of the tunnel!! :)  My countdown includes a final paper w/ a presentation, two take home exams and an online final. TOTALLY DOABLE! 

Last night I began packing the house...two large boxes down and you couldn't tell I did a darn thing! haha We're getting the keys to our new place and dropping off a huge rent check (6 mo worth up front LOL yes we're crazy) this Saturday so we want to try and bring a big load with us so the 21st isn't as stressful. I found SO much more stuff I could've sold at the garage sale last night if I would've had time to go through more of my house beforehand...oh well. lol Found some cute things Kyla might want so I'll save them for her.

That's about all I have for today- God has blessed Kyle and I so much in our lives; Kyle's very excited about his new endeavor at the Dental Branch (first day: May 31st)-- apparently he's got a large office! He's going to know the building better than I do by the time dental school starts.:-P

Until next time!

Not all that ready to leave Aggieland...

GARAGE SALE = SUCCESS!!

Well, it's official, we had our first garage sale with Kyle and Melissa and we did really well! We sold so much stuff one lady ended up buying the table it was sitting on!! HAHA! It was really fun- luckily it didn't rain like the weather man said it would (go figure lol), we had beautiful sunshining day the entire morning. We saw some pretty interesting folks and at the end of the day we dropped the last few items off at Twin City Mission. WE WERE EXAUHSTED. Ended the night with Ninfa's, some margaritas, and bowling!

BEGINNING OF THE END...

As our house is completely disheveled, it has become quite apparent to me and Kyle that we are beginning the end of our life together in this cute little doll house... it's bittersweet really, a lovely new couple will be occupying our "first home" as we venture towards the BIG CITY. There are boxes around, things out of place, etc., and as I turn to try and find where to put anything (since we sold my desk, and other furniture) I can't help but get excited for the new journey we have ahead. I'm going to miss College Station... not that we won't be back for tailgating and visiting friends, but just the day-to-day comaraderie with fellow aggies and quick access to everything (not to mention the cheap student prices)! We're ready to move, but I can't say I'm ready to leave Aggieland...

UPDATES

Well, it's official, Kyle will be interning at the University of Texas Dental Branch this summer- beginning June 1st. He'll be working on a project focusing on eldery abuse/neglect, his deliverables will include two "publishable" papers by the end of the summer...he is VERY excited! Some portion of his internship may involve some policy writing; with the connections he's got from the TAMU School of Rural Public Health, he feels that he may really be able to be involved with something BIG.

As far as me? Well, I'm trying to scrape together the last bit of motivation, ammunition rather, to get through the last few weeks of school...it really is down to the wire! This will be the last week of regular classes, followed by a week and a half of finals. Ours aren't too terrible this year-AND I WILL be off work/school on my birthday since it's a Friday! This might be the first time that's happened...however, I will still need to study since I have finals the week after my birthday. We'll celebrate my birthday/ our anniversary in one probably, AFTER we move... we'd like to take a trip to vegas but not sure that we can make that happen right now... WE'LL SEE!

PARTING THOUGHTS

My grandfather will be guest lecturing in my motivation/leadership class tomorrow night... it's really neat for him to be able to come in and inspire some of my fellow classmates. :) 5PM tomorrow if you can make it... I'll let you know how it goes.

For now, I'm so exauhsted. . . I'm heading to the grocery store and relaxing for the rest of the day! BYE BYE!!

Stressful Times

Garage Sale/ Moving!

Okay, so the next few weeks are going to be an absolute whirlwind...Kyle and I are trying our best to stay sane, school is not helping! We're having a huge garage sale this weekend with Melissa and Kyle- we cant wait... the problem is, we're selling the majority of our furniture, OF WHICH WE ARE STILL USING! bahaha! I'm not sure what Kyle's going to use as a dresser, being that we're going to sell his...it's CRAMMED with clothes right now, so he might be living out of a suit case that following 2 weeks LOL Hopefully we'll sell everything we want to and can put that money towards new bedroom furniture! We walked around furniture row yesterday, found some really nice house stuff we'd like to get... we'll see!

Our official move-date is May 21st... thankfully, Melissa and Kyle are going to help us!! We have a piano mover meeting us in houston to get the piano up the stairs, but the rest of it we're doing ourselves with a UHaul truck. This is our first big move, so we're really hoping everything goes smoothly!!

SCHOOL

So, I have 2 weeks left of class lectures and 1.5 weeks of finals. During these last few weeks, I have a Epi quiz & final, a leadership/mgmt final, a program evaluation final and presentation, and a health law final. I THOUGHT THAT LIST WAS WAY SHORTER UNTIL I TYPED IT! AHH!! lol I, once again, will be studying for finals on my birthday (May 7), but I think Kyle and I will do some sort of combined birthday/anniversary once we get moved in to our new house and settled. There's too much going on right now to try and fit a vacation in! MAYBE towards the end of may we'll do a weekend trip to Las Vegas? :) I hope I hope!!

Friends

This weekend we had a wonderful visit from our good friend, Eric Blacka. He brought his girlfriend Jamie down to meet us-- we had such a wonderful time, and on Sunday- Eric proposed! She said yes, and now they're planning a wedding... ah, I love "love". :) Our other good friends Melissa Taylor and Kyle Knight are getting married- and both asked us to be in their wedding party! We are so honored/excited, seems like everyone is getting married nowadays!  

Until next time...

It might be a while until my next post! I hope this has entertained you. Wish us luck at our garage sale this weekend! Oh- and my nephew, Gage, has his last gymnastics meet. :) He's such a champ, and tells me he's going to win big this wknd!!! 

Fun But Stressful Times...

Well Hello!

I'm here to say my mothers first MAJOR art festival was a hands-down SUCCESS! We were visited by many friends and family throughout the weekend, we so appreciate the love and support for my Mom. AND GUESS WHAT?! SHE WON! My Mom was nominated as Houston's Favorite Artist!!! Thank you all so much for the votes...it was a LANDSLIDE...the voting crew told us my mom had almost 900 votes total, with second place only having ~ 220?!? Can you believe it? She was shocked...we weren't, but she was. :) All in all she sold almost 75% of her ENTIRE inventory... she's got a lot of preparation to do for the October festival! Whoo hoo! Her winnings as Houston's Favorite Artist entitled her to be able to SKIP the jury process for next March's Bayou City Arts Festival at Memorial Park. So regardless if she gets in to the October show or not, SHE IS DEFINITELY GOING TO BE THERE NEXT MARCH! :) 

I have to say though, I haven't been so exhausted after a weekend like that in A LONG time...if ever. We had ~ 12 hour days, standing constantly (my back when out Friday evening, doing better now), with no lunch/dinner breaks! Our booth was CONSTANTLY crowded so if someone wanted to eat something they had to sneak behind our tent and scarf down a bite!  :) We're certainly not complaining about how busy we were the whole time, but man, was I happy to sleep in my own bed on Sunday night. I'm still recovering, yesterday I took a nap in the middle of the day - not even making it to my evening class (also b/c I've had a slight reaction to two immunizations I had to get in preparation for Dental school...eh, I'm fine now).

 Moving, Graduation, etc.

So, it's pretty much DAILY now that Kyle and I say "aren't you so ready to move?" . . .  We aren't really sure what we're going to do with ourselves when we have that much space! LOL As the date moves nearer, we feel more and more crammed; I guess that's natural, the anticipation of something bigger ahead, but luckily we're having a big garage sale with the future Mr. & Mrs. Knight on April 24, we wanna get rid of the junk and start fresh! :) 

We graduate May 15, 2010 with our Masters. I COULDNT  be more excited to be done with this portion of my education, LET ME TELL YOU. We had our comprehensive exams about a month ago, turns out the department decided to fail all but 3 of us... HAHA.. 18% pass rate and the STUDENTS are the ones forced to re-do things? Yep. Makes perfect sense to me. Apparently everyone passes the 2nd time (again, baffling.) but the fact that I received good grades in both of the classes I have to "redo", yet wasn't competent enough to pass the exit exam shouldn't be something that reflects ME. Mmk? Luckily I waited a while to post this blog, had I done it yesterday this blog would've looked a MUCH more different.

Moving on...

WELL, until next time... hopefully with more joyful things to read than the school politics many of us are forced to endure! Oh- and before I forget. Apparently the registrars office at my beloved school decided to tell the department of education (i.e., my loan holders) that I am no longer enrolled. BAHA. That makes sense since I've paid, received financial aid, and have been attending classes for almost 3 months. So now they get to have a little piece of my mind and take care of the fact that people I owe payments to think I am an irresponsible human. Time to go to class.

NEW HOME!

Hello everyone! I have fabulous news!

Kyle and I have FOUND a house! :) I am so excited. This has been such a draining house search- I'm sure it's no where near as bad/long as many people have had to look but after driving all over houston with different realtors, we actually found a for-rent-by-owner (best in our opinion!)!! Being that Kyle and I are VERY familiar with the "Renting" business, we were all on the same page, negotiated well on lease terms and we're signing for 2 years at a great rate! We don't actually plan on moving again until dental school is over, so if all goes well they're going to have very loyal tenants for up to 5 years! :)

About the Townhome

OK! Enough about finding it, more about IT! So, when Kyle and I first pulled up to the Townhome we burst out laughing, they're all very "modern" looking, steel structures (red/blue/silver)... I already had a heads-up on which these were b/c I'd been communicating with the owner, but Kyle didn't! Anyway, we're both cracking up outside the home b/c we're like "What on earth? Do you think the inside will be nice?" When the daughter of the landlord showed up to show us the house (sound familiar? we have the same job! lol) she asked if we'd ever been inside "one of these", obviously we hadn't and she told us we were in for a surprise. AND BOY WERE WE! This place is immaculate. We couldn't have dreamed for more, especially as close as I am to dental school. It's a 3 story, 3bd/2bth; each floor has a different flooring. The bottom floor is a beautifully dark maroon stained concrete, it houses a full bath and two bedrooms- also has our laundry room, 2 car garage access and a small backyard for Bear (yes! we get to keep her!). Once you go upstairs to the second floor, it's real hard wood floors; it has a living room the size of our HOUSE right now and the kitchen (which, I might add, has a dishwasher and TWO pantry's!) -- also has an outside door with a balcony, yes, it overlooks a major highway, but it's a balcony haha! Then the third floor is our master bedroom, nice carpet, large room w/ a built in study (we get to sell our old dirty undergraduate desks!) . . . the master closet could be it's own bedroom (I don't even have enough clothes to fill it, but I promised Kyle I would fix that problem haha) and a beautiful bathroom with his/her sinks.

Anyway, it's a total blessing that we found this place for rent by owner...almost identical units in the complex we're in were going for so much more $$$... way out of our budget- GOD was looking out for us!

Bayou City Arts Festival

SO! As of last Thursday, my Mom was in the lead for Houston's Favorite Artist!! Apparently it was a very close race and they don't tell us the winner until Friday when the festival begins...I am so hoping she kept her lead...but you never know! Just the fact that she was nominated on her first try is enough to be proud about. I will be out at the festival with her the whole weekend; pray for beautiful weather! If you want to check out my mom's new website (in the works) go to www.glasstamer.com

Until next time!

Almost spring break!

Hi Everyone!!  I'm at it again, what can I say. . .

Bayou City Arts Festival
So, something really big rolling around right now is my mom's bead show- it's Mar 26-28 (you should come!!) at Memorial Park in Houston; it's the Bayou City Arts Festival, a very competitive show she was accepted into! She found out back in December that she got in, she was SO excited, then a few weeks ago she called me saying she got a letter in the mail telling her she'd made it in the top 10 finalists for Houston's Favorite Artist! Voting is live now on FaceBook, click this link and please vote for her if you haven't already!!
http://apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/25427/voteable_entries

Spring Break!!
Well, next week is spring break! I'm fortunate enough to have the week off from work and school. I really need the rest and "me" time. Kyle will be working in Brenham a lot on HLF (i.e., his business) and I might spend some time in Houston with family! My nephew Gage will be competing in Muttin' Bustin' at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Mar 14 so I will be down there for that... 2 years ago he got 2nd place, won some chaps, a belt buckle etc! We're so proud of our champion! Back in January Kyle and I got to have Gage & Kyla with us for an entire weekend, it was so special; Kyla would crawl in bed with us every night and they always wanted to play Wii in the morning! :) We can't wait to have them over again...hopefully in our new place (wherever that ends up being) in Houston when we move!

This week I will be working, teaching, and prepping for me time!  As of Friday afternoon I'm not setting my alarm clock! =)

Until next time... <><