Ridiculous

I realize that it's been absolutely ridiculous that I haven't blogged for almost 3 months! So, I'm sorry for that, I didn't mean to miss most of autumn! The weather is finally starting to cool off here, it actually got into the 40s last night! Cooler weather means windows open and nights underneath the warming blanket--I love it!!! Of course, cooler weather also means that we'll finally get to use our new (well, new to us) fireplace...once we get it fixed. *sigh* everything has a price. Autumn also means it's Fair time!! Techincally, the Fair ended last weekend (with perfect weather!), but I'm going to be lazy and copy a comment onto my blog that I hope you'll enjoy. I was commenting on another blog (Homesick Texan) who was maing corny dogs and since we were going to the Fair that very same day, I felt compelled to comment. Plus, if you know me even in the slightest, you know my feelings about the Fair. Without further ado:

"First of all, I'll admit it: I'm not a native Texan. I grew up in St. Louis but I met my husband at TCU right before freshman year began, we married 5 years after we met and I've considered myself a Texan since then (2003). Thing is, I had NO idea what a state fair really was until I went to TCU. I think my husband-to-be (Michael) and I went almost every year we were in school. After we got married, we moved to Austin so he could go to UT Law but we still managed to make the drive and come to the Fair once a year. Now we live in Dallas and we buy season passes for the Fair at Kroger (it pays for itself if you go 2 times, plus you get a free AMC movie ticket AND a ticket to Holiday in the Park--that's when our Six Flags is open during our not-too-cool "winters"). We're actually going today for the last time this year, as the Fair closes again tomorrow. This year I've had the CFB (chicken friend bacon) which made me nauseous when I first heard about it but didn't taste too bad, fried grilled cheese (delicious!) and a Fletcher's corny dog smothered in mustard. Today I think I'll have some or all of the following: fried pickles with spicy ranch dipping sauce (can only be found over by the Cotton Bowl, alllll the way over on the right side, next to the entrance to the CB on the Midway side--look for Ruth's Tamales and keep heading back), fried s'mores, fried truffles, funnel cake and another ubiquitous corny dog. Don't worry, I'll be sharing with my husband. When August rolls around, I go to www.bigtex.com to see how many days are left on the countdown! Then my sister-in-law (who also lives in Dallas) and I squeal with delight and get excited that another Fair adventure is right around the corner.

I should also mention that the Fair holds a special place in my heart: it's where Michael asked my dad for permission to marry me. In the car pavillion. We still tease him about it to this day. He claims it was the only time he had to get my dad alone to ask him. And it was my parent's first trip to the Fair. How much more of a Fair lover could I be?"

P.S. I have to add to this that we did NOT end up eating all those foods! We had: corny dogs (regular for me, jalapeno/cheese for Michael, both smothered in mustard), fried s'mores (delicious!!), fried pickles with spicy ranch and fried waffle balls (which, in essence, is a fried chocolate covered strawbery). And then we had some caramel-nut covered apple wedges. You know, to break up the monotony of the fried stuff. :)

P.P.S. AND The Killdares were at the Fair this year!!! We discovered them at the Fair many, many moons ago but, sadly, they've been absent from the Fair these past few years (which is a shame and I expressed my disapproval to the State Fair higher ups via a letter). Thank goodness they're back! The Killdares are a Dallas based celtic rock group and they're amazing! Michael, Steph and I saw them at a St. Patrick's Day concert this year and we all had so much fun! If you live in the Dallas are and get a chance to hear them, take it!

P.P.P.S. I swear, this is my last postscript of the night: we're leaving for vacation on Sunday! We're going on a (much needed) week-long Caribbean cruise and I probably won't be blogging during that time period. The lovely Stephanie will be staying at our house, taking care of things and watching all the sweet puppies (both hers and ours). Hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween!

Books, Books, BOOKS!!!

The story is that apparently the National Endowment for the Arts estimates that the average adult has only read six of these books. Here are the markup guidelines:

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Mark in red the books you LOVE. I marked in PINK--red doesn't show up too well on my blog!
4) Reprint this list in your blog

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (1-4, then I lost interest)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. The Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (I have it but I've never read it!)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (part of it)
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan (part of it)
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel (I have it)
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (I think I have it)
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (part of it)
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Wow, so I've read 43 on this list!!! Then again, I did major in English (and History) so this isn't too surprising! Interestingly enough, this list made me realize how many of these books I own but have never read (or have only read part of them and then got distracted, probably by life)--I need to get cracking!

A Picture Extravaganza!

We Did It!!!

Our House

Getting Ready to Paint Color for the First Time Together!

Pretty Yellow! (Sorry, "Honey Moth")

Formal Living Room

Den and Kitchen

Den

Fireplace in Den

1/2 Bath off Kitchen

My Beautiful Kitchen!

So, Michael finally hooked up the printer which means I get to post new pics of the house! These are the beautiful, newly-painted house and newly-shorn gigantic bushes in the backyard (they're completely gone now but I haven't taken pictures of those yet...I guess I'll have to later!)! The pics at the bottom are of Michael and our newest purchase, the kinda cute lawn mower (and thank goodness, our lawn desperately needed to be cut!)!! I never thought I'd get so excited about a lawnmower. Enjoy!

Interesting....

I stole this from a friend of a friend...the 100 words I use most on here. Enjoy!

P.S. New house pics coming soon, as soon as Michael gets his office set up. Cross your fingers!

Ever Have One Of Those Days?

I sure did today. Today was awful, just awful. I had my whole day planned out and it was going to be a productive one and then...WHAMMO! I got sucked into my own personal blackhole that is work. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my job: I love the clients, love my vet, love the people but I detest being at work when I'm not supposed to be and I REALLY hate it when someone leaves 4 hours before they're supposed to b/c they have to get their car recall taken care of (which could, and should, be done on their day off!) and everything else is secondary to their spoiled, selfish ways. And so, instead of doing my very tardy computer training and packing today, I was at work for 7 hours. Plus, it was one of those days where we were insanely busy and 2 receptionists were truly needed--I'm only one person and I can only check in and out so many people at one time, while 3 phone lines are ringing and I'm taking payments and filling meds. Oh, and did I mention today was a Wellness Hours day? Yeah, that's when we open up our clinic for 2 hours in the afternoon and anyone who wants (usually new clients with new pets) to come in, can. And that means more paperwork and longer checking-in times. At one point, Dr. P ordered me to sit down and eat while he answered the phones for me! 10 min. for lunch for me and I was still doing work the whole time. Woo hoo. The silver lining was that when I talked to Dr. P at the end of the day, he thanked me for coming in and helping out. I wanted to cry. What a day.

HOUSE PICS!!!!

So Much To Say....

So much has happened since my last post that I don't even know where to begin....

After much house hunting, time, tears, stress and loads of support from our friends and family, we finally found a house!!! It's in a great area of Dallas, much closer to work for Michael but not so much closer for me....soooo....I'm transferring to a different Banfield! I'm a little nervous, just because it's a new hospital with new nurses, new CSCs, new doctors (they'll have 2 about the time I start), new clients and new pets. The good news is that it's only 4-5 min. from the house, the bad news is that it's only 4-5 min. from the house so I won't have an excuse to bring Max to work with me anymore. :( I'm really sad to be leaving my Banfield, I've made such great friends and I love my coworkers, Dr. P, clients and pets--I've been telling my favorite clients that I'm going to be leaving and pretty much all of them have said the same thing, "No! You can't leave!" It makes me feel loved and today even Dr. P told me that I'm welcome to come back and work there anytime, it was really sweet of him to say that and it meant a lot to me. I think I'm going to keep Sam and Max there, mostly because I don't know if I could ever find a vet that I like and trust as much as him. So, next Sat. will be my last scheduled day and then I'll go the following week off and on to work on my training stuff on the computer.

What else...we went to Chicago for a few days of vacation, which was great! We were so crazy busy going to all the museums and seeing all the sites but, honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. Plus, I got to see my very best friend, Kristy, whom I haven't seen since her wedding 3 years ago. After Chicago, we drove over to Notre Dame to see my youngest brother, Joe, graduate. We got to see my whole immediate family, which was nice because I haven't seen them since Thanksgiving. After spending 3 days in South Bend, we headed back to Chicago and spent our last few hours of vacation going to the Hancock Observatory, eating deep dish pizza and getting some ice cream at the Ghiradelli shop. By the way, I haven't yet mentioned how COLD it was in Chicago!! We would wake up to about 45 degree weather and it might, just might, hit 60 during the day, if we were lucky--it was a big shock for this Texas girl, let me tell you! And coming back to 90 degree weather was an even bigger shock--I had to cut my hair off!

That's it for now. I'll go and post the new house pics! Bye!

Please Vote For My Dog!

Well, after a few scary days, everything is right in my world! Thanks so much to everyone (especially you, Miss C!) for their loving thoughts and prayers and support--it means the world to me that I have you as my backbone. On another note...

I've entered my oldest rescue dog, Sam, in the Bissell Contest! If you would go and vote for him, I would love you even more than I do now! You can vote at: http://www.bissell.com/Products_by_Lifestyle/Pet_Products/MVP_Pet_Photo_Contest/Vote_on_Photos/Voting_Period_6/Page_id/47076/Default.aspx?ImageUrl=http%3a%2f%2fimages.bissell.com%2fimages%2fIncludeContent%2fMVP2fPeriod6%2f8008.jpg

Or at: http://www.bissell.com/Products_by_Lifestyle/Pet_Products/MVP_Pet_Photo_Contest/Vote_on_Photos.aspx

On the 2nd URL, click the contest that runs Feb. 12th-19th and vote on #8008 (currently he's 5th from the top on the right-hand side). PLEASE vote from now until the 19th!! THANKS!

Love, me

Prayers Needed

To Anyone Who Reads This:

Please pray for my family--we're going through a really, really tough time right now and I could really use some prayers for strength, understanding and compassion. And please don't ask me what this is about, I'm not allowed to talk about it (sorry), just know that any and all prayers are greatly appreciated.

Goodbye to 27

So, it's the day before my birthday and tomorrow I will be 28. It's a typical January day for me: cold, rainy, dreary but I'm excited because tomorrow it's supposed to be sunnier and warmer--hooray for January birthdays in Texas! I've been thinking today about how different my life is at this point in time than I imagined it when I was younger and how much my life has changed in the past year.

When I was younger, I thought I would be married by 26 and have my first baby when I was 27 or 28; I had no thoughts of my living situation or anything pet-wise, since I didn't really grow up with pets (unless you count fish, a bird and a hamster that was my brother's--I count none of the above, really). Let's see: I was married when I was 23, I have no baby (or babies) as of yet but I do have 2 wonderfully amazing dogs and, hopefully, we will be buying a house in the next several months, with, perhaps (!!), a baby on the way afterwards (and notice that I am NOT saying how long afterwards either!).

I left my job at Williams-Sonoma in Oct. and started with Banfield in July, which just sort of happened, but for which I am extremely grateful and blessed--I love pretty much everything about my job. I was able to go to D.C. again in Feb. and then we travelled to Carmel and San Francisco in Aug./Sept., a place I had never been before. (Well, technically that's not true: we dipped our feet in the ocean outside of SF on a family trip once but that was at least 14 years ago and that was the only time "spent" there.) I've lost friends and gained some new ones and my husband has always stayed by my side, loving me, supporting me and giving me flowers for no apparent reason (case in point: 2 days ago I received flowers at work from him because I had been sick for so long and they were to cheer me up--what an amazing husband I have!). And, of course, how could I fail to mention that my fine, furry friend, Max, joined our family in May!

So I'll be 28 tomorrow, so what? I considered myself to be in my late-twenties last year and I'll consider myself in the same category again this year. 28 is just a number, just an age, and hopefully I'll have many more years ahead. It's 30 that freaks me out.