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!

2015

I'm a little late with this, I know, BUT it's better late than never I right? Well, 2014 came to an end, and it felt like a huge sigh of relief for me. The good kind. We'd had a lot of ups and downs this past year and it really felt like this chapter was ready to come to a close. Emery has done amazing with all of the changes that come with preschool. I had a wonderful winter break before my last full semester at the community college. My husband, celebrated his one year anniversary at his job, which we were thrilled over. We've worked on our relationship, and even though we still have so much more to go I feel like we're finally headed in the right direction. To me, 2014 was just this rough time that we had to get through in order to start 2015 with a bang! And boy did we.

Emery had a two-week vacation from school, and we are currently filling out the transfer paperwork in order to have her be able to attend a school with kids she knows next fall. We've looked over the data for the schools in our town, and the ones for the surrounding areas. So far, the better school would be in the same town that she currently attends preschool, and she's made a lot of friends there so we're hoping that would help in her transition to kindergarten. They have the best test scores and graduating rates than any of the other schools surrounding us. Currently, she's pretty excited to start school full time, and I'm hoping to lessen the shock by having her in a class with kids she already knows. Fingers are crossed that they accept our request. If they don't, we are prepared to fill out the forms to have her attend the local private school as a last resort. 

As I stated before we celebrated my husband's one year anniversary at his job at the end of the year. They've been good to my husband, and they've allowed him to grow within the company. However, he recently was offered another job, provided that we are able to get his regular license at the end of this week. Or at least start the process going. The position won't be open for another two weeks or so, but he was offered ahead of time. This job is something new, and a little scary for him, It's in a field he knows very little about, and it requires him to be away from home a lot, but the pay is really great. It would help us out tremendously, and finally, allow us to get out from under the remainder of our debt a lot faster. We've discussed the pros and cons, and with the gas prices dropping, we aren't really sure he should jump in without a backup plan. However, this person has assured us that there will be plenty of work for a very long time. This offer doesn't come around every day, so my husband has decided to go ahead and jump right in. Prayers/ good vibes sent our way would be awesome! I've already told him that I'd support any decision he makes and he says that he's wanting to take this chance. So, we'll no more within a week or two.

I was given a wonderful new position at my current place of employment. I'm officially the Customer Service Manager, but I'm also in training to become the Office Manager in order to take over my current boss' position. This place has been such a blessing for me. They've allowed me to grow within the company as well as allowed me to adjust my schedule in order to attend my classes. This week is also my official last semester at college before transferring to our local University. After allowing my GPA to drop dramatically, after hitting some rough spots in our personal life, I've finally got it back up to a 3.0, which allows me to qualify for plenty of scholarships this fall. I finally got my membership to a local gym set up, and I've been working on getting back to a fit lifestyle. I've even signed up to take kickboxing classes which is something I've always wanted to do, but never really found the time to follow through. My husband and I finally came to terms with the fact that this will probably be our permanent residence unless something really drastic happens. So far we both have great jobs, and we're able to chip away at debt. We have a good support system here, and it helps us out a lot. As much as we'd hope to one day move back to California, I've come to realize that I'm more concerned with the stability of our family than the dreams of moving back. Besides, it's not like we can't go back for visits! Or maybe go visit someplace new! Who knows!? Right now though, we are good here. And I'm perfectly happy with that. 

So yes, after the end of 2014, I finally feel like we are moving forward. And it's such a great feeling! I hope everyone else out there has had a wonderful start to the new year! May it bring many blessings to you and your family!

Daddy's Early Christmas Present

A year and a half ago my dad's Boston terrier was stolen. He says he remembers seeing a car that would pass by their home repeatedly. They'd always stop a little ways down their side road and then turn back around. He remembers how after Brinks disappeared he never saw that car again. His blood would still boil just at the thought of someone taking him right from their yard while he was inside getting the dogs treats. Anytime we'd see a Boston, we'd instinctively call out "Brinks-y?! Brinks is that you boy?!" But, it never was. 

Brinks

So recently, I got the bright idea to get my dad another Boston. Of course none out there could ever replace my dad's original buddy, but he really loves Boston terriers. The only thing holding him back was that my MOTHER did not want him spending so much on a dog, and well she's not really an animal person. Like, at all. However, if someone were to gift him the dog, well that would be a different story. So, one day I asked my brother and sister-in-law if they'd want to throw in with me to get my dad another dog, and they agreed! 

The search was on! I started to look into puppies as well as adults. There are definitely pros and cons to each, but ultimately we found two siblings that were right in between. Two males that were six months old, and the lady was willing to hold on to them until we were ready to pick one out/up. The original plan was for us to wait until Christmas before we gave him the dog that we'd chosen. My brother and sister-in-law will be on vacation to Costa Rica which my brother said was perfect timing so he'd get to avoid my mother's wrath. But when we went to go pick one out and give the lady a deposit, my brother had a change of heart. I'm thinking he fell in love with the smushy face, not that he'll ever admit to it. :) 

So, everyone, I'd like you to meet "Chavo". Emery started calling him that, so my dad decided that would be his name. A little background on his name: it's a character that this really famous Mexican actor, who had passed away the night before we got the puppy, played which Emery loves. It's also a show that my dad grew up watching.  And yes, my dad was ecstatic, and a bit emotional when he realized what we'd done. The smile on his face when he walked out and realized what we had for him was priceless. It was to the point that he started to tear up, and his smile was so big! And if you know anything about us, you know that this is very rare because my father and I are known for looking like we're mad 80% of the time. What can I say, we give good "bitch face". And I'm happy to report that this little guy has not left my dads side. Surprisingly, my mother has also been really supportive and open to having this little one INSIDE. And that's even more rare than my father and I smiling. It's been a few days now and Chavo is adapting pretty well. Looking back I don't know why we didn't do this sooner, but I'm really glad that we finally did! It was definitely time for him to get a new sidekick, and it's awesome that we could be a part of that.