Thank you! It’s Just What We Wanted!! — December 2, 2009

We received the greatest of news yesterday.  We’ve been waiting a long time to be able to say this: 

 David got a new job!!!

 We’ve wanted him to find something new for a long, long time now.  We know that we’ve been lucky to even have the opportunity for both of us to maintain all our jobs, since some people haven’t been as lucky, but at the same time, he’s wanted something different for awhile.  Teaching is a good career choice, but both of us have decided that we are happier doing other things if we have the opportunity to do so. 

 So, about a year ago, he started getting serious about interviewing.  He started looking around at what was available, and really started networking.  (and he has been able to meet multitudes of people at Wal-Mart – which has helped immensely!)

 He had an interview about six months ago with for a parole officer position.  At the time, he didn’t know that there wasn’t an opening – they just interview as they go to get impressions of the applicants.  We were let down, somewhat. And so..time went on…he continued teaching, and waiting, and FINALLY, he got the call! 

 David accepted the position as a parole officer here in Marshall.  His office will be directly across the street from my good old Marshall Cinema.  He’ll only be about a mile away from where we live!  (Woohoo for us and our close proximity to our jobs!)

 He called me to tell me, and when he finally got home, we met in the kitchen and both jumped up and down for joy!  We couldn’t help ourselves. 

 And, one of the perks: now that we are no longer tied down to the school schedule, we can take vacations in the off season!  YAY!  No more of being tied down to only taking vacations during the summer and such when everyone is off and every place is over run with children.  That alone really excites me. 

 Hopefully we will know his start date by the end of this week.  We already know that his schedule is going to be totally different from everything it was before.  I am ready for this new adventure!  Congratulations sweetie!  I am really proud of you and you completely deserve what you’ve worked so hard for.

(haha, hope you weren’t thinking we were about to make some kind of baby announcement……! nopenopenope)

Finally!!! — November 29, 2009

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe I have waited this long to talk about the greatest event ever.    I had to wait on pictures though.  I knew they would be fabulous and I just couldn’t ramble along without some type of pictorial accompaniment.

My little worlds merged, somehow, and Tim and Shane and I spent last Sunday touring Longview.  It took a zillion emails worth of planning to get there, and it was totally worth it!  Tim came to Marshall on Saturday night.  Of course, I was working, as was Shane, so Tim decided to come to CVS and help out so we could hurry up and get out of there!  He helped sign this endcap, which pleased him greatly. 

He should totally come work with us.  I know the commute from Houston to Marshall wouldn’t be THAT bad…..

(For some reason, they are telling me that I forgot to clock out on Saturday night when I left there.  I kind of wanted to deny that, haha, but you know, I was pretty distracted and very ready to go, so…..)  

We had a very full itinerary planned for Sunday.    Since we had over a month to plan, everything  just kept growing and growing.   Shane straightened my hair for me again!  I was very excited about that.  He suggested trying a new strategy this time, and I really think it worked!  I also love that it’s a little longer now than it was the first time, which was cool.  I really love the way it looks straightened, but there’s no way I would do that myself.  I kind of wanted to never wash it so it would just stay un-fluffy for a little longer.

This was right before we left. I also want everyone to notice the beautiful paint job in the background.  hehehe.  No scuff marks!  I’m getting so much joy out of my clean looking walls right now. 

Obviously, as with any good plan, we decided to eat first.  Yum, McAlister’s Deli!  Tim had never been, but Shane and I both love the place.  I was also super excited because Tim put himself in charge of both driving AND taking pictures.  I felt nearly royal because both of those duties are always relegated to me.  Woohoo!

I kind of like the weird colors.  It was sunny in there, but it still doesn’t explain why this turned out the way it did.

After we had already started planning our day, it dawned on me that we were going to be meeting right in the middle of “New Moon” weekend.  I really do know better than to try to go to a uber-popular movie during its first weekend, but I just had to throw caution to the wind in this case.  How often would I ever get this opportunity again! 

Of course, my cinema-running days did teach me one thing:  If you’re going to go to a popular movie on opening weekend, go to the first showing on Sunday mornings.  Everyone else is either sleeping or just getting out of church, so even your biggest sellout movies have a chance of being calm early on Sundays.  We were lucky – this was just the case.   

Loved the movie!  It kind of made me feel slightly melancholy, but that particular book in the series was so angsty and depressed that I guess my emotion was appropriate.  I think they did a good job condensing the book down.  I really should be re-reading the entire series because there are always moments when I question whether that was exactly how it played out in the pages of the book.  I kind of think that “Twilight” will be my favorite overall because that was the book I liked the best in the series.  That remains to be seen.  I do hope to get to see “New Moon” again before it leaves theatres though!  I hope!

Anyway, we had a few minutes before the movie, and also some time afterwards to take some pictures.  Longview Mall is right beside the cinema where we were, so we took some pictures there before the movie:

    

 

 (I don’t know why you would even bother to go in.  I think you could just pretty much conduct your own eye exam out here.)

After the movie, we went to downtown Longview.  We headed back to the place where Tim and David and I took pics when Tim was here a few months ago.  David and I really hardly ever go to downtown Longview, but somehow we randomly ended up passing through there a little while back and I kind of did a double take because something looked different.  Our art area had changed!  I thought maybe I had just missed something, but the art sculpture area where the huge chair was last time was completely different!  Do they rotate their art around?  I missed the chair!  That chair was fun.  It was replaced with these pillar things and some other random designs. 

We took a few pictures in that area, and then walked around.  One of them, (I think it was Shane) started calling my pics with Tim our engagement pictures.  I can never view these without that association now.  It’s an accurate description of the poses, but of course we’re not celebrating that particular event, hehehe. 

         

                                       

As we walked around, we were actually right by the Regions Bank where that mysterious round room was.  Woohoo!  I had been wanting to see that again, especially now that I know the “truth” about the room.  (In case you missed out, the round room used to be the valet parking station from when they offered valet parking back in the day.)   Well, guess what?  The room was locked this time!  How weird.  I wonder if the phone call and the questions made about that room made the bank people suspicious of my motives, hehe.  I think that room would be the perfect place to put Santa at Christmas time.  It’s right in downtown and just across from their courthouse. 

This is in front of an old bank downtown.  Tim called it my “Senior Picture.”  Oh, I wish I had a copy of my actual senior pic to go along with this one.  They are very strikingly similar!  The pose is basically identical, anyway.  Oh.  To think, during my senior year I was wearing glasses and was just a few months away from giving them up for a contact (and later LASIK.)  And now, here I am, like twelve years later, back in glasses.  What goes around, goes around, goes around, goes around, comes back around, yeah.  (So says Justin Timberlake.) 

Tim’s senior pic:  (So tall!  He’s all scrunched up and I could almost stretch completely out.)

Anyway, after all that, we tried out a new church, and then went to Jalapeno Tree!  YUM forever to the green sauce and the glorious cheese nachos.  The only bad thing about Jalapeno Tree is that I eat it once, and then I start craving it incessantly for like a week.  If I don’t go there, I can do okay, but once I go, I might as well just keep going until I knock out the craving.  I wish I knew how that worked. 

It was such a relaxing day.  It was over waaay too quickly!  We must do it all again. 

 

 

Try a Little Something New… — November 13, 2009

I surprised myself this week! 

 When we had our small flood and got our new carpet, the people who took up the old carpet and helped move our furniture also scratched up the paint on our walls pretty badly.  We mentioned it to our landlord in hopes that he’d be willing to touch up the paint for us, but he seemed he didn’t care, so I decided to take care of it myself!  The entire place has needed touching up for awhile now anyway, and it was getting on my nerves even before the carpet incident.   I hate waiting on other people to do stuff for me!  I was just scared because I had never done anything like that before and figured it would be a huge difficult hassle.

 But, push came to shove, and it was time for me to learn.  I went to Sherwin Williams for my paint since it is so close to our apartment that I figured I could easily  run over there and they could redo the color if need be.  Walking out of the store with the can of paint gave me some trepidation….I was locked into the project now! 

 So, I got started on Tuesday evening.  I was just going to experiment a little bit and see what I was getting myself into.  I surprised myself!  I liked it!  It was actually very soothing.  I turned on my “Glee” soundtrack, turned it up as much as I thought the neighbors would tolerate, and sat back and enjoyed the paint fumes, hehehe.  Hours passed before I really even knew it. 

 I didn’t really get finished until Wednesday morning – I got most of it done on Tuesday, and then got up early on Wednesday to finish it.  The whole project took a lot longer than I had anticipated, but I am very pleased with the results.  We don’t have scratches and marks all over the walls anymore!  That’s pretty exciting since I’ve been staring at some of those marks (with my ”angry eyes”) for years.  hehe!  It’s certainly not professional grade, but the apartment wasn’t painted that perfectly to begin with.  Even better, now that I know how easy this is, I’ll just run around touching up various spots all the time!  This is going to be great. 

 In other news, David and I tried out a new restaurant last night.  We went out to celebrate our dating anniversary that passed us up this week.  (We try to celebrate everything we possibly can!)  We went to Longview and tried Newk’s Express Cafe.  It’s only been open for a few months at most, and I’ve been really curious to try it out.  I know it’s a chain, but I’m not sure how widespread they are.  The only other one I’ve ever seen is in Shreveport. 

 I had read somewhere that the owners of Newk’s were the original owners of McAlister’s Deli. Once they got McAlister’s up and running, they sold that business and then decided to start Newk’s.  That got me pretty excited.  I love McAlister’s!  They have all kinds of good stuff.  It also got me excited about Newk’s sweet tea, since McAlister’s has made themselves famous (according to them) for their tea. 

So, basically, Newk’s is a fancier version of McAlister’s.  They have the same type of food – salads, soups, sandwiches, etc…but with a fancy “twist” to everything.  David got a bowl of soup and a roast beef sandwich that he liked.  I had a toasted pimiento cheese sandwich.  WOW, it was good.  It was homemade pimiento cheese with tomatoes, and then toasted so it was warm and the cheese was melty.  The cheese was a really sharp flavor too. I liked it!  The only real disappointment was the tea.  It was just a little sad, especially considering my expectations.  I should get water next time!

 But here’s the thing: my goodness it was dark in there!  The ordering area was fine, but the seating area was like sitting in the dark.  There were some spots over by the drink area where it was nearly too dark to read the labels on the fountain drink machine.  I kept looking up at the bulb over our table, and the sad little filament just barely had the slightest glow to it.  Earlier this week, Shane and I went to Olive Garden, and it was dark in there too!  I was sitting in kind of a corner, and my area was so dimly lit!  It was weird.

 So, that made me scared to say anything to David.  That was two nights in a row in restaurants that just seemed dark.  Now, I’m all about embracing my oldness, but I want to embrace it on my terms!  I want to already know that I’m being old before I mention something and then find out that I’m the only one with the problem.  hehehe.  Am I getting too old to adjust to dim lighting?  hehehehe.  I finally got up the nerve to ask him and he said that it was dark in there to him too. WHEW!  Of course, the fact that he’s 10 years older than I am doesn’t lend much credibility to assuaging my oldness.  hehehe. 

 Then I started talking to him about how Olive Garden was the same way. His answer? “Don’t you have a flashlight on your keychain?  You could have used that to read the menu.”

 OH NO.  no no no no no.  I am not ready for that!  I am not going to be the little old lady in the corner with the flashlight!  “Hey sonny, I can’t read this menu!  When did you start making those words so tiny?”  hehehe.  Maybe we’ve uncovered one of the reasons old people like to eat early.  You can hold your menus up to the windows to see!!

 There are so many good things going on right now! 

 -Shane and I went walking this week and did hills!  We went to a pretty neighborhood here in town that is full of hills and we walked several of them.  That was fun, and I was very happy with the way I felt the next day.  We will definitely do that again.

 -The “O” magazine with Ellen on the cover came out this week!  Everyone needs to get it.  The episode of Oprah where she interviewed Ellen was great too.

-David and I think we have finally made up our minds on our new furniture purchases (replacements from the small flood.)  I am excited.  Shopping for that was moderately fun and moderately stressful.  Now we just have to figure out good timing where we can disrupt our lives again for as short a time as possible.

 -We finally got our couch cushions redone!  We had new foam put in them.  Wow, it is amazing.  The couch is like brand new.  I can’t believe how tall it is now.  We should have done that a long time ago.

 -The “Glee” soundtrack is wonderful!  I love the fact that Kristin Chenoweth is on it.  I also love that “Defying Gravity” is on there too.

 -Next weekend:  Tim comes to Marshall!  He and Shane and I have a full slate of activities planned, including seeing “New Moon.”  It’s going to be an amazing time!

My Own Personal Iron Man — November 3, 2009

David and I went shopping at Walmart over the weekend.  We try to go once every two weeks, but it still seems like we end up getting tons of stuff each time.  (We used to only go once a month.  oh.  Those were marathon trips!  Sometimes the entire cart would be so full that you’d either have to re-arrange it all to make it all fit, or else you’d just have to start carrying stuff.  I used to do those trips by myself too!  I felt crazy trying to maneuver that cart around with stuff just launching off of it.  We have gotten a lot more disciplined about not waiting so long, thankfully.)

Anyway, David loves to try to get all the groceries inside the house as fast as possible.  I usually go on and unlock the door, and then I am in charge of opening and closing the door quickly to avoid letting bugs inside. 

This time, I had the door standing wide open because I was standing in the doorway contemplating a little lizard that was on the outside door frame.  We were up close and personal and I was admiring his toes.  I kept hearing David rattling bags in the trunk and I knew he was taking a lot time to bring in all our stuff. 

I had turned to go back in when I heard, “Get the camera!!!!” and “UUUGGGHHHH!!!  ROOOARRRR!!!!” (hehehe)

I turned around and saw this:

Our entire shopping experience came inside in one trip!  heheheehhehe!!  That’s pretty nice!  I don’t know how he did that because we had all manner of heavy stuff too.  (I had to laugh at the lopsidedness of it all, but he didn’t want to squash the grapes.) 

See, this is why I like to go shopping with him!  It makes everything so easy!!!! 

 

Snuggie Update!

Brooke sent me this amazing link this week:  It’s a Snuggie pattern!  Oh!  That is so cool.  I could have a Snuggie with polar bears on it!  I would love that.  There’s even a button on these so you can close them and make them a little more fitted.  I am really lamenting my lack of sewing talent right now. 

Giraffes, Potatoes, and Old Planks — November 1, 2009

This past Wednesday we got to do one of my favorite things:  the Louisiana State Fair!  I think I enjoy going to the fair more than anything to do with the upcoming holiday season.  The Fair is like taking a personal vacation all to ourselves, and I think I like the food better than most Thanksgivings and Christmases, hehe.  Fair food for Thanksgiving!  Now that’s an idea whose time has come!

 We were very lucky to actually get sunshine!  The weather was perfect, and much better than the usual “doom and gloom” weather and rain we’ve had lately. 

 

Our first stop, as usual, was food.  We got to go to our usual “log cabin” stand (I think it’s named ‘Beef and Taters’) where they sell Tater Twisters.  YUM.  We got tons of melted cheese to go with it too.  (And sweet tea, of course!)  Neither of us had really eaten all day (I had only had an apple), so we were ready to chow down.

 ahhhh…..the potatoes that dreams are made of……

 We did a lot of walking around, but spent most of our time in the zoo.  Oh, my giraffes!  My favorites!  We got there at the perfect time too. The giraffe area is usually very crowded, but when we went it wasn’t crowded at all!  We got to have both giraffes to ourselves most of the time we were there!  We usually have to share, so that was lots of fun.  I could have fed them a zillion more carrots.    David even petted them in between their carrot snacks. 

(I think it looks like David and the giraffe are having a conversation here.)

 

We watched the pig races (which we do every year, but they are funny enough that we still enjoy it), we saw African Acrobats (amazing!!!!!) and some of a freestyle Motocross show (that was scary, but neat.)

 We did lots of walking around and sniffing of food.  Next year, I will get that huge strawberry shortcake!  It looked wonderful.  I am surprised we didn’t eat more!  We had already kind of set ourselves on going to Olive Garden after we left the fair though, so I guess we both were trying not to fill up too much.  (Olive Garden is a good antithesis to all the fair food! We’ve gone there after the fair more than once.  One year we went to Cheeburger Cheeburger afterwards, and although it was yummy, it was just a LOT of fried food for one day.) 

 We ended the day with a walk through the carnival section.  We don’t really ride anything, but I love walking through there just to see what all they have.  Yes, I will admit it - I have a darker reason for enjoying our walk through that area.  I love to see them working on the rides, hehhehe!  It just makes me cringe and laugh at the same time when things are being repaired right there in the middle of the fair. 

 Wednesday was a great example.  There was one ride we walked up to just as people were exiting.  As soon as the last person got off, two maintenance men rushed in!  One was doing something to what looked like one of the main hubs of the ride, and the other was working on what looked like wiring under one of the seating sections.  Everyone standing in line was just watching all this happen like it had no affect on them whatsoever!  hehe!  We got away from that one pretty fast so we could be far away from any flying loose parts when the ride started up again.

 We finished our walk by going through the KiddieLand.  hahah, poor kids.

 Look at this nice innocent little ride! 

 

 

 AND now….look at the base of the ride!

 

 Can’t you just hear the conversation? 

  ”Hey Frank, this thing ain’t stable, no matter what I do.”

 ”Here JimBob, just throw these old board scraps under there.  It’ll be just fine.” 

 

ooooh, what a neat Funhouse with a slide at the end!

 

AHHHHHH!!!!  

 We loved our day! I am already ready for our trip next year! 

Oh! Neat!! — October 28, 2009

I finally heard back from the Nielsen people!  I am excited!

They sent this huge envelope with “TV Viewing Diaries” in it.  We start our diary tomorrow.  There’s a grid for every hour of the day for the whole week starting this Thursday and ending next Thursday.  You have to enter information on what show you watched (and network) and the time you watched it.  It also has a slot for what time you watched something from your dvr.  (Thank goodness that was there — we never watch anything live anymore!)

There is also an essay section in the back of the book where you can make comments about tv in general, or shows you particularly like.  I ran out of room!  I had a lot more to say, but I was writing as small as possible and there still wasn’t enough space.  I only got to mention Ellen and “Glee.”  They need to send me an online form to fill out so I can ramble as long as I need to.

But, here’s the best part!  They sent more cash!  Remember, I got $2 in cash last time just for filling out the initial survey.  I got $30 this time.  This is just great.  I love getting paid for things I would be doing anyway. 

So, we will be spending the next week filling out our little tv diary.  I think they’re going to laugh at us.  “Why does she get up at 4 in the morning just to watch Ellen?”  (treadmill time.)  “My gosh, do they ever sleep?”   

I am wondering now if maybe next week is “Sweeps Week.”  There has to be some sense of timing behind all of this.

I Have Joined the Snuggie Cult! — October 24, 2009

(Tim, I apologize to you in advance….)

My Snuggie has taken over my life!  I am so in love with this thing.  Really, I had no idea it would be as useful as what it is.  hehehe!  CVS is selling them like crazy, so I am sure they are flying off the shelves everywhere else too.  It makes me smile because I spent all last year laughing my head off at the commercials, and then at some point, the Snuggie invaded my brain and it started sounding like a good idea…. 

I bought mine a few weeks ago at CVS.  Since then, I’ve been recommending them to everyone who stops to even look at the display.  One lady bought one last week for her Halloween costume!  Ha, I just love that.  She says she teaches here in Marshall and she’s going to wear that to school on Friday.  She says her students just crack up at even the idea!  I told her that she’s going to really get addicted to it.  She laughed like she didn’t believe me, but just wait.  I will ask her about it the next time I see her, and I know what her answer is going to be. 

Here’s how you know the level of the cult infiltration:  I even dreamed about my Snuggie last night!  I dreamed that I was getting ready to go to work and was just about the head out the door.  David was walking behind me to see me out.  I opened the door, and right there in the yard was a small white tiger and an alligator!  I was scared!  I let David see them and said, “How am I going to get to the car?!  One of them will get me!”  He responded that the tiger and the alligator were probably more interested in attacking each other than they were in attacking me, so not to worry. 

I got up the nerve and started out the door, determined to make a run for it.  The alligator saw me and started towards me.  I was scared!  David ran back into the house to get something to fight off the alligator.  He came out and I looked back to see that he had stuffed my Snuggie into the alligator’s mouth!  Now I was outraged:

“Why did you give the alligator MY Snuggie!” 

“I had to do something to get him away from you!” he yelled back. 

I got to the car and turned back to see the alligator chomping away on my Camel “Designer Series” Snuggie.  I could even see a sleeve hanging out from between its teeth. 

So, my Snuggie has saved my life!  Can you say the same about your favorite blanket? 

NPH Look-Alike Sighting at CVS! — October 21, 2009

There is a Neil Patrick Harris look-alike in Marshall.  This is so exciting! I was at CVS last night changing out the paper in the photo lab (and attempting not to tear up the machine.)  Shane was standing nearby, and all of a sudden I hear, “ATHENE!!Athene!!Athene!!!!!ATHENE!!!”  I looked up and he goes, “LOOK!  It’s Neil!!!!” 

 

The guy looked just like NPH!  He had the same shaped face, nearly exactly. It was amazing.  I think the world went silent there for a second as we both watched him walk out of view.  hehehe.  I turned to Shane and told him that he had to get a picture of the guy.  He didn’t think he could get a good picture without being completely obvious, but I told him that he had to try.  He stood there for a second longer, and then wandered off in the direction of our “Neil.” 

 

I went back to the register and started waiting on customers, but I kept my eyes up just in case NPH came back through.  I saw him on his way out!  He might have been somewhat shorter and his hair was kind of curly, but other than that, he was a perfect Neil. 

 

As Neil walked out the door, Shane came slinking around the corner and back into my view.  He had the most hilarious grin on his face that I just couldn’t help but to giggle, even in the face of the customer in front of me (who clearly had no idea what was going on.)  Alas, he didn’t get a picture.  Next time!!!!! 

 

 

I seem to have developed an odd problem as of late.  Two times in the past week, I’ve had to deal with lecherous old men!  ew!  This has happened at both jobs now, strangely enough. 

What really gets me is their strategy!  It’s always about money.  hehe!  Both of them wanted to go into full details about how they had this surplus of money and how financially stable they were.  That was weird.  I mean, at what point in life do you take stock of your situation and say, “hmmm….my looks could be fading, but you know what?  I’m financially viable!  Yes, that’s the angle I’m going to use with females from now on!!!” 

The problem is that both of these men are people I see fairly frequently. It’s going to be awkward in the future!

 

I was telling David about my mis-adventures.  His response, “Oh, I am sure it’s your bifocals.  They see them and go, ‘ooooh, that girl’s just my speed.’” 

I was laughing too much to even be insulted!  hehehe. 

 

Celebrating the Best of the Worst — October 12, 2009

I am really getting behind on posting stuff. 

 A couple of Fridays ago (the night before our small flood, in fact), David called me on his way home from Walmart. “Hey! Be ready to go when I get home!  I have to show you something hilarious!”

Oh, those are my favorite phone calls.  I love it when we find something funny or neat to show one another.  I found a place on the way to Henderson where they’re digging out coal/lignite.  It’s neato!  I passed by there one day on the loooong way to Lufkin, but we just haven’t had a chance to go see it together.  We need to hurry and go before it starts getting dark early again.  The piles of dirt are huge and it’s the closest thing to mountains we’ll ever see in this area.

 So this night, I was waiting for him right by the door.  I hopped in the car and he told me we were going to go see something in the Walmart parking lot.  We get there, and this is what we see:

 

 

 

Wow.  These people added an actual porch onto their RV.  It had shingles and everything!  They also had murals painted all around it, including these panda bears. It was pretty amazing, hahaha.  I had never seen anything like that before!  David took tons of pictures. I can’t believe the people inside didn’t come out to see what was going on (unless maybe they’re used to it, ha.) 

 We got home only to discover that the pictures didn’t turn out.  It was just too dark.  That was pretty disappointing.  We went back early Saturday morning, but the RV people were already gone. 

 We thought we had missed our chance to get the picture, but then we found greatness in the form of People of Walmart.  Our RV was on there!  Apparently our porch-building friends make a habit of camping out at Walmart stores all over the place.  (Not a huge surprise.)  We loved it AND that website.  David feels like he sees a lot of those people on a daily basis.  The website is not exactly family oriented, but it’s so hilarious that you can’t help but enjoy.

Cake Wrecks Update! — October 7, 2009

Jen from Cake Wrecks got everything posted about her Plano book signing!  It is in today’s posting on her blog.  “The Day the Tour Stood Still.” She went into a lot more detail about everything that’s been going on with her this week.  It’s been pretty crazy!

There are also a lot of great pictures on there from that day.  If you look closely at the first crowd shot, you can see all of us! We were in the second row.    There’s also a great picture of Brooke’s apron too. 

I love today’s post!  I am so glad for them that things have gotten better.  Go read it!