A Light at the End of a Frozen Tunnel

If you haven’t heard about the weather in Texas then you clearly don’t watch the news. An estimated 4 million households were without power or involved in rolling blackouts that began early Monday morning. And in our area, the temperatures dropped to about -6 °F with a windchill that felt about -10 °F. And y’all, it wasn’t a fun time. The forecast kept pushing the winter storm back and it said the lows would be between 3 °F to 0 °F. The forecasted numbers fluctuated every day too! By the time the numbers switched into the negatives in our area for Sunday-Tuesday night, we had maybe a full day to try and prepare. Do you know how hard it is to find everything you need in a 24-hour window? Not to mention how many OTHER people are out there trying to prepare for the same thing. And in all honesty, the majority of our homes are not built to withstand those temperatures.

Wordless Wednesday

Dreaming of a Snowy Christmas

It’s been a pretty warm December for us here in Texas. The temperature usually only gets to be about 35 at the lowest and that’s usually overnight. When we’re all snuggled up in bed. We walk out in the morning with sweaters, but by the time noon hits we’re taking them off and wishing for flip flops. The other day some of my coworkers and I were talking about how it’s changed so much since we were little. I remember waking up on Christmas day to fresh snow. I remember having ice storms in January. Then the other day we were going through old pictures and it looks like Emery was about two years old the last time we had snow that stuck around for a few days. Temperatures staying around 45 during the whole day. And you know, I actually miss that. I miss being able to experience all of four seasons.

It doesn’t look like this will be a snowy year either. Fingers crossed that in a year or two things will shift. I’d say we’re about due for it, don’t you? In the meantime, I force my friends who live in places that get snow to send me pictures. Videos are preferable, but pictures will do. And this year I’ve gotten some pretty great stuff sent my way. So, for all of you in states that are “suffering” through another warm winter, here are some pictures to enjoy. And if you live somewhere that gets snow...well…😝

📷: A friend in Utah

Wordless Wednesday

Go Away Winter

Lately, I've been having this TINY little thought in the back of my mind about jumpstarting this space again. I've been looking at updating the design, and making some changes. A lot has been going on in my little corner, and I've missed the ability to have those few moments to just sit and write about it. That said, it's also been a very crazy busy time around here. As some of you know I work full time, have a family, and I go to school. Clearly it's proving rather difficult to fit all of that in, plus household chores, work outs, and homework. Anytime I feel like sitting down to type up a post I get distracted by something else I need to do or finish up. But this doesn't mean that I won't try to get things back in running order soon. Fingers crossed. Until then, here's a little update for y'all. Warning: This will be really random. :) 

I am over winter. I am really over this wet winter. I am really really over this back and forth bull that Texas is seeing this year. Last Friday we had a wonderful sunny 76 degree day and we were in tank tops. This week we've had an ice storm and snow with the temperature never going above 30 degrees (with the exception of today because randomly it decided to reach 50 before plummeting again). Yup, really over this stuff. I'm ready for shorts and flip flops. So so so ready.

My husband ended up not taking that other job in the oilfield. He wanted it, but as soon as we made the decision to get things in motion in order to accept it, the market went down. Hundreds of people have been laid off since then. Then the person who had originally offered it to him retracted the offer, and so we were kind of left out to dry. It was a bit frustrating because promises were made, and things were really talked up to us. We were pitched a wonderful opportunity that wasn't all there. So, we were excited for this change, and once it fell through we were kind of heartbroken over it. My husband more so than I. Thankfully, my husband hadn't put in his two weeks notice. So he's still working and for that we are really grateful. 

Over Christmas we added a new fur-member to our family. As some of you know we had a string of bad luck with two of our previous dogs which left us really heartbroken, Then Draco entered our lives and we were so excited to be able to give that love we had for our former dogs to a new member. But just like we get baby fever I got doggy fever. We looked into adopting some young, grown dogs, but it turned out that Draco was just...too much. He would get really excited and hyper around them which would only annoy the other dogs. This eventually just lead to one or the other snapping, and becoming territorial. So after many tries we were told that we'd have to crate and rotate for anywhere along the lines of a few months to a lifetime if we were to adopt an older dog. That's when someone told us that our best bet was to get a puppy. Mind you, I swore off puppies because of the hassle. I was really really hesitant about it, because I hadn't forgotten about what a pain in the ass it was to house train a dog. I had told my husband before that I did not want to go through that again. But then...someone found her and sent me the link. And we fell completely in love. We set up a time to go see her (just to see), and that same day she came home with us. Two days later we settled on a name: Maven (in honor of my love for "Whip It"). She looks a lot like our first dog, Sampson. And there were a lot of emotions in regards to him when we got her. I didn't want to say anything about her until we passed a certain point in her age because of how susceptible pitbull's are to parvo. Now that we're here I'm glad I can finally share her!  

On the day that we brought her home. 12/20/2014

Something else that's been on my mind lately is this need for change. I kind of feel like that's my "word" for the year. I'm wanting to finally start losing the weight I've been talking about for the past year. I'm constantly talking about wanting to go here or visit there. This year I'd like to really put that into motion. I feel like I need to spend more time focusing on what I want to do in the future too. As awesome as everything is for us here...I feel like I'm tired of being still. We always put things off for one reason or another and I find myself saying "NO" a lot. I really want to change that. I also want to start getting our finances back on track. And we'd really really like to take a vacation this year. That means saving a lot though. Not saying it can't be done just that it will be hard. We kind of got screwed on our taxes this year so using that money won't really be an option. But, I'm working on a plan. Hoping it works out for the best. Until next time, I hope everyone is having a wonderful year so far!

Winter, Summer, Fall?

Central Texas has been very finicky this year in respect to it's weather. I keep hearing that we'll be in for a long, cold, hard winter, but all we've seen so far is a bipolar hot and cold effect. Two weeks ago we had our heaters running while enjoying the long awaited sweater weather, and then we went back to air conditioners and shorts. I can honestly say I'm completely over it though. I'm ready for a permanent season cold front. Not because I enjoy it, I don't, but because we keep getting sick with all of this back and forth! 

It's already December first, and just this past week we hit a high of 80° F. Yesterday, we were wearing capri's and short sleeve shirts and today the high is 40° F. The wind knocked down a lot of our Christmas lights, and majority of the trees are now bare. And this happened all over night! I woke up with a sore throat, and Emery with a cough. So yes, I'm ready for steady weather of any kind so long as it's constant until Spring time. 

On the bright side, our Sunday was pretty perfect. We enjoyed an abundance of sunshine, and warm temperatures. We hung up our Christmas lights and outside decorations. I refused to put up the tree until it was actually December so we still have that left to do. We had breakfast at my parents, installed our propane heaters, enjoyed a walk, visited some friends, and finally just relaxed while watching a movie before bed. This four day weekend was really exciting, and had us driving all over. Thanksgiving brought us a lot of wonderful food with a lot of wonderful people. So, having a lazy relaxing day before going back to work and school was exactly what we needed. 

Now it's back to our regular routine. Thankfully, I only have a week left of school before winter break. Oh! And I also get to graduate next spring as long as I pass my classes! This means that I'll get to start on my bachelors degree at the university closer to home! We'll also get to sign up as doggy fosters (that's a post for another time), and maybe...just maybe...consider another baby (another post for another time). Until then, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!

Winterland in Texas

Last Thursday we were told that an "arctic blast" would be moving through the area. By noon, we had snow flurries and freezing rain. I had class that afternoon and after making the long drive, I was turned right back around because they cancelled classes. As awesome as that sounds, it sucks because that means our final exams and course finals will be back to back. Still, I'm grateful for the extra time to finish up homework. Silver lining, right? Well, the weather got worse as the day went by and by 4:30 pm my boss was telling us we could leave a bit early so we could avoid driving in the dark.

On my way home there were already 2 cars in a ditch and an accident on a bridge. Everything was slick and you couldn't really drive over 50 mph. Thankfully we all made it home safely. By that evening around 7 pm the rain, sleet, and snow started to come down all at once. Around 10 pm, we could hear the ice hitting the windows and Emery was so excited to see the ground blanketed in white.

Friday morning we woke up to layers of ice camouflaged by a thin top layer of snow. I may or may not have fallen while walking outside. We attempted to head into work but our vehicles refused to move. No matter how much we shoveled they just wouldn't budge. I called my boss to see if anyone could come pick me up but I was told to not worry about coming in because we were having a "snow day". The roads were bad so we weren't going anywhere for awhile and I decided to take it upon myself to enjoy the day off. And boy did we! There was a lot of reading, and movies watched. Indoor crafts, and hot chocolate. I don't think I could have had a more relaxing weekend before exams. It was really nice.

As awesome as that all sounds I'm ready for things to get back to normal. It's been six days and it's still icy outside. Today is the first day we've had steady sunshine and I'm excited! It was fun being able to cozy up and relax at home all weekend, but I've been itching to drive myself places. My husband has been taking me to work because he's had more experience driving on ice than I have. That and he swears I'll end up in a ditch which I believe is completely ridiculous but whatever.

Emery's been having a blast! No matter how cold it got she requested that we take a walk every afternoon. And so we did. We've picked icicles, visited the horses down the road, and played with the small amount of snow we've received. My husband made this make-shift (ahem...read redneck) sled and he was sliding her around the open field next to the house. She thought that was the best thing ever! So even though we've been freezing our butts off, the past few days have been really laid back.

Wordless Wednesday