Make it happen

It's been well over a year since the last post. I just haven't gotten around to posting, mostly because there's not a whole lot that was going on in our lives.

DO NOT get me wrong. Being pregnant with our first child, giving birth in March 2011 was amazing. Watching our son grow is our world, there isn't a dull moment with our little boy. However, as much as we enjoy seeing the same goofy face he makes for the 100th time, or still get a kick out of him babbling, I know most people outside of our little household would get sick reading the same thing, just a different day of the week. A combination of that, and just couldn't find much time to collect thoughts for a blog.

But, things are different now. If you don't do anything, well, then nothing is new to share in your life. Don and I had a chat last week, and we put together a list. A "House Wish List", things to buy or do for our house to "complete" it for our home. We've been here 3 years, and we've painted 3 rooms. That's about it. We won't be in the market to leave this house for a few more years, maybe even 5 or so. There's a lot we'd like to happen for this house.

We also are going to make more of an effort to get out on weekends, stop being hermits. We renewed our Texas State Parks pass, so we're going to attempt more day trips, and try to go camping at least 1 weekend a month, possibly starting in April. Hopefully we'll get a membership to a museum or 2, and the zoo. Just in general, we want to start going out and about as a family.

I have some personal goals I'd like to accomplish this year, along with the house and getting out goals. I want to aim for at least 1 5k run a month. My first one is February 25th. I'm excited. I also have a certain goal to hit weight-wise. Aside from the health and fitness area, I want to sew at least one thing, and finish my cross-stitch I started while pregnant. One other goal I can think of right now, is read at least 2 books a month. I received a Kindle for Christmas, and it's more attached to me than my phone now! So far, I finished 4 books since Christmas. But to be fair, 3 were Harry Potter, so it was a fairly easy read, and I was already so into the books, I forfeited some sleep to get those read.

So, I'm going to try and make the point of this blog to document checking off things on our lists and anything exciting that comes about from doing so.

Now that's established, here's what's going on now:

Currently in progress-
Reading: Plains of Passage by Jean Auel (#4 in the Earth's Children series)
Prepping: our garden area that hasn't been used for anything more than a food scrap compost garden the last 2 and a half years. I tilled up the area last weekend, and will probably do it 1-2 more times before planting at the end of this month.
Planning: my indoor herb garden. I'll be looking for pots in the next week. I have a good idea of what I want to grow
Training: for the first 5k of 2012. My time today was 35:55. My goal by the actual run (not a race, more a fun run) is to be under 34 minutes. When I did my first one ever July 4th, 2010, my time was 34:52. I'd like to beat that. I've been seriously training since 1/2/12. I didn't focus much on running at the gym before the New Year. And prior to 2 years ago, I HATED running. With a passion. It's now pretty enjoyable for me. Daisy pup enjoys it too when I run her around the neighborhood.

That's it for now. Hopefully we actually get on the ball with our lists, and then I'll have a reason to update.

Til next time!

Update! A lot has happened!

First, since the last post, I started a job. I started March 22, and still there. Not the most challenging job, but it's something.

April 4, Don and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary. We did a nice trip celebration a couple weeks later by going to SoCal and Vegas. We had such a great time and saw beautiful scenery. It was a blast. I'm so glad we were able to go.

Then a little bit of life went by, and on July 8, found out I was pregnant! I was pretty sick since about a week and a half after finding out, til now. The morning (all day) sickness subsided a bit in the last week, but at the moment am battling a cough and cold. It's no fun. But I'm 12 weeks 2 days at the moment. We went to the doctor yesterday, and heart the strong and loud heartbeat.

We are so thrilled. It's so exciting. I think I'm still in a bit of a shock. This was planned and wanted, but it's still so shocking to me that it's actually happening.

So, the countdown until March 2011 begins!

Finally! Something happens in our life!

I haven't updated in a while, well, because there was nothing to update. I was starting to hide away, since I had nothing going on.

Well finally, some new things are going on!

First, (now this is a little overdue) but we have a new family member. February 8, I was home and so was my brother-in-law. He went out to his car, then came back in saying there was a dog running around and tried going up to him. I looked out my window and saw this skinny, skinny dog running confused from house to house. I went outside to get a better look at her, check to see if she had tags since I saw a collar on her. I whistled and she came over to me, laid on her side and was very jittery. She had no tags, so I tried to coax her in my backyard and she ran off. I figured, ok, well I'll try if she comes back.

Let me take a moment to say here, that I often see dogs running loose in my neighborhood. Most of them have collars/tags, but they all seem to "know" what they're doing. Kind of like they belong somewhere in the neighborhood, but are just making their rounds for the day, and seem to be well fed anyways, which is why I don't bother them. But this one was different, she was obviously lost, confused and scared, so I felt compelled to get involved.

I saw her circle back around so I went outside with some dog treats. I was able to take her back into my yard and immediately took a picture of her to post on Lost and Found on Craigslist. I gave her some water and food while I waited for just a bit to see if anyone responded. After she got a chance to drink some fresh water and munch a little bit on food, I took her to my vet to get scanned for a microchip. She did have one, and they looked up her info to try and give her owner a call. The number went straight to voicemail, so they passed on her info to me to try at a different time.

We went back to my house, and I gave her a bath, since she was caked in mud on her belly and legs. I kept trying the owner phone number with no luck. I posted on many sites about this found dog. She settled in and stayed with us for the rest of the week. She took to me immediately, and as much as I tried to resist, I did to her as well.

She seemed to have been scared of the cats at first. Her first look at Rocky was him all puffed up and glaring at her through the back door glass while she was outside. Rocky really was all bent out of shape that this random dog was in the backyard, and he made that known through the window to her. When I brought her in for the bath, she did not want to be near either cat. It made me think she never was around cats before.

Don didn't want to keep her. He just didn't want a dog at this point. We had no luck trying to find her owners, or a new home. But neither of us wanted to drop her at a shelter. Don had given me a deadline to have her somewhere else by that Friday. Well, Friday morning came around and I was bawling my eyes out in the shower thinking about having to drop her at a shelter. I just couldn't do it. Finally, on Valentine's Day, Don agreed to let her stay. I went and bought her a new collar and bowls immediately. A week later, took her back to the vet to get her updated on her shots. She's about 1.5-2 years old. She is spayed, and a lab mix. Through the microchip, we found out her name, which she responds very well to.

As these past few weeks have passed, she's revealed a little more about herself every week. She got used to the cats fast, and now play chases Rocky, and corners Buster to give him lots of kisses. Rocky gets kisses too, but he's too fidgety to get more than one. She's a sweet girl, with great energy and a desire to please me and Don, which results in her listening to us (most of the time, haha). She fetches, catches a frisbee, rolls in the grass and does well as my jogging partner. With almost everyday that passes, I truly believe that I didn't find her, she found me, and Don. She knew what she was doing running around my house ;) She's now a spoiled, well-loved dog who filled a hole I didn't know was in my life.

Here's our newest family member on the day she found us: Daisy



















And here she is "officially" ours, sporting her bandanna and enjoying her tennis ball:

Crafty

In the last week, I completed a couple of craft projects to give as gifts. They were started with the anticipation of welcoming my new nephew November 6th! Cooper Charles was born, and rounded out my niece/nephew list to 6. A long, long time ago, I had bought a few cross-stitch projects, one with the intention of giving to my first nephew... unfortunately I was young, busy with other stuff and just a procrastinator, so it never got done. Finally, I got a chance to complete the cross-stitch bib for little Cooper!

The project I finished before this bib was a latch hook project for Cooper's new big sister, Olivia. She loves butterflies, and I thought this would be a good "yay you're a big sister!" gift. It took a while, because while I started it quick, it was set aside and picked at, until a week and a half ago when I finally just got determined and finished it. I bought the frame which was unfinished at Michael's, then painted it, and added the foam sticky letters. I was really pleased when it was all put together.









I definitely enjoyed doing these, and hope to do a lot more of the kind in the future. I have a few unopened cross-stitch projects in my bag, and I haven't decided which one to do yet. I hope to better my skills and be able to do some cross-stitching freehand.

Computer room painted and Halloween pics

Happy late Halloween! Buster was a dragon, Rocky was the Karate Cat.

Rocky, you must defeat the dragon within you...

And painted computer room. No flash, blinds open...
With flash. It's called "shale gray"
Curtains for our living room will be coming soon! And hopefully I'll hear back from a job interview this week! :::fingers crossed:::

Updates, updates

Well, lost my job. It was expected for about a month or so before, so it wasn't a huge punch in the gut. It relieved me of so much stress and irritation. That was on July 9th. Still nothing yet. I'm getting unemployment, so it's not too bad for now.

July 28th I had surgery on my right foot. A bunionectomy, same surgery I had when I was 13 on my left foot. It was pretty painful the first 36 hours. But 2 days after surgery, I was starting to walk/hobble around on a crutch, and 5 days after surgery, I was walking without any crutches. I got my stitches out this past Tuesday, but for about 4 days before that, my foot was itching and burning pretty bad. I thought this was part of the normal healing process. WRONG! I had a bad allergic reaction to the adhesive on the tape, and my incision blistered over. And even after the tape was taken off, it looked like it was still there, but nope, just the blisters that formed under the pieces of tape. I've been putting hydrocortisone on 3 times a day, like the doctor said to. So far, it doesn't look like an infection will start. Let's hope it stays that way. I'd post a pic of my incision, but it's too gross.

And other news, Don's brother moved in with us, hoping to find work down here. It's been about 3 weeks, and he's had some callbacks. Hopefully, one of those will turn into a job. Once he gets a job, he can start saving for his own place. But for now, it's not the worst thing in the world having him here. Him and his dog are kind of neat to have around right now.

That's a brief update for now.

Long overdue living room paint pictures

The last weekend in May, we painted the living room. The main color is Desert Caravan, the color in the media niche (with the tv), is Spanish Leather.

Excuse the clutter, this was taken not too long after finishing, so we didn't put things away yet.






The next room on our list to paint is the computer room. That may happen this month. I'll try to be better about posting in a timely fashion. Hopefully our lives will get more exciting from now on.