TOMORROW!

ONE DAY MORE! ONE MORE DAY!

I will be humming that song from Les Miserables all day now...

That's right, friends, tomorrow is the day. Tomorrow we get keys. Tomorrow we start planting our stuff. Tomorrow we find ourselves officially stacked with responsibility like we have never known.

::gulp::

Thank you, all, for your prayers. We couldn't have gotten here without God's blessings.

I promise I will upload pictures, as soon as their are pictures worth showing off. I have several of random empty rooms, but that is no fun. Once things are arranged, unpacked, decorated and DIYed within an inch of their non-lives, I will share. Wish us luck!

Another Amazing Giveaway from the Pioneer Woman!

To celebrate her cookbook being "in stock" to order, she is giving away two of the anniversary-edition candy apple red KitchenAid stand mixers. As badly as I want this, I have to share the wealth and possibility! Best of luck everyone! Click on the link above to enter.

Menacing Muggles

Funny video of me and Grags being the BIGGEST dorks around.

Sidebar: I HATE the way I look on video in basically every scenario ever. Either I'm simply not photogenic, or I have a completely unrealistic view of myself in real life.
Here we continue our nerd-journey:



I know, I know, I'm a huge nerd. But you're my friends, so what does that make you?

FOUR MORE DAYS!!

One-Mon, Two-Tues, Three-Wed, Four-Thurs, HAPPY DANCE!

Only four more days until we have the keys to our very own home. And not a moment too soon. I am ready to have personal space again! And a proper tub; the folks tub is not exactly the kind you look forward to soaking in. But the beautiful bathtub in our master bath is perfect. One of my first 'decorating tasks' will be turning that into my personal oasis. Just you wait, 'Enry 'Iggins. Pictures will follow.

Oh yes, pictures will follow...

I'm a Loser, and I LOVE it

I have always thought it was strange that I adored music and theatre, but when I tried to combine them, I often fell short. Well, I should say singing and acting together is an odd weakness of mine (for a theatre major who has been singing since birth). The combination of story and song is one of my favorite mediums. I am one of those people that desperately wishes she could live in a world where people randomly burst into song, and everyone around you knew the choreography and the harmony.


And this is why I adore watching Glee.


When you combine a show like this with a person like me, you will often get... unnecessary reactions. Like tears. Now, stop your judgemental smirk; I am just easily moved by the emotions of others. And great singers know how to speak directly to their audience, member by member. So I have now listened to "Keep Holding On" for the third time in a row, and I have been misty eyed every time. Which, by the way, I hate because it is an Avril Lavigne song, and therefore should not affect me on an emotional level. But with this amazing crew of singers, and with the oh-so-visible emotions of the central girl, Quinn (that I cannot help but picture when I hear this), I feel deeply shifted with every play.



I know, I'm a sappy sad-sack. But it gives me such an unshaking feeling of glee (I can't help it), that I don't even care. I won't wipe this smile off for a while.

10 Days to go!!!

I am counting down until we sign our life away. In 10 days, we will officially buy our first home! I have reserved trucks for moving, set up utilities, and we are slooooowly packing up the remnants in the house. The majority of our stuff was never unpacked from our last move, so that helps. We have to pack up clothes, books, glassware, anything we use on a semi-regular basis. But we have a week and a half for that!

I will post some pictures once we have them, but I probably won't post anything until we are unpacked and things have been decorated. Which will be the most wonderful-stressful task!

Please pray for us as we gear up to start a new life in our own house!

Sad Sight

This morning as I was walking out to my car, I saw a skittish movement in the grass. When I looked down, it was a butterfly; a truly beautiful butterfly, who couldn't quite get off the ground. You see the bottom half of his right wing was missing, and the top half had several small holes in it. The sight of it was so jarring; this beautiful, crippled creature could hardly hop, much less fly. At one point, he made it as high as my knees before crashing back down.

I had to leave to get to work, but I haven't been able to get that picture out of my head. I whispered "Good luck" as I past it, and I went on my way.

I feel like I react that way to far too many problems. I see, I'm moved, I "send happy thoughts", and then I go on about my day. Am I ever going to escape this chrysalis of indifference? When am I going to act? I don't know; the whole thing just left me feeling... insufficient. Which, I suppose, can be a good thing. No matter how much we do, there is always more to be done, so we should never feel like "good deeds" can be scratched off of the To-Do list. It has to always be there, which means in some measure, always feeling like our gifts are insufficient.

I know that seems morbid; the whole post seems morbid this morning. But I actually mean it to be somewhat encouraging... even if I could not eloquently express that...

Mid-October morning

This morning is not unlike other mornings, or at least it hasnt been so far. I didn't sleep particularly well, but I used my extra time this morning to do some stretching. Now I feel energized, as if I had rested peacefully through the night, instead of kicking and tossing and waking.

I'm sitting at my desk with my yummy cider, and Im trying to make my brain go three different directions. This, unfortunately, is very much like every other morning. I am trying to focus on work, to accomplish the urgent tasks set forth by the foreign overlords. I am also obsessing (as per usual) over our budget; when to pay which bills, how much to save, what events have we got planned, etc. Thirdly, I am plotting, in every imaginable detail, our new home.

Brad and I are buying a house. We are so excited, and often terrified, and I have trouble focusing on much else for long periods of time. I am decorating the living room, or I am shopping for furniture, or I am making a drying rack, or I am arranging closets - all of this in my head. In real life, all I can do is obsess over paper work and schedule, and plan ahead to rental trucks and utilities. Not as much fun, but just as exciting. For me, anyways.

This weekend, weather and wallet permitting, I intend to start on the drying rack. It is a handy little DIY I picked up from Centsational Girl, my fave new blog to follow. I am falling in lurve with so many blogs as of late, mostly involving home decor or event planning (Hostess with the Mostess is like party planning on crack... in a good way...) After the drying rack, I intend to tackle my hideous dining room chairs. Lacy said she would recover them as our wedding present, so I may drag her in to help if she is in town.

All in all, it has been a productive week and an exciting month. We are on pins and needles a bit, thanks to the closing date being pushed to October 30th, but the anitci.............pation is fun as well as frustrating. Wish us all the best, and keep our safety and sanity in your prayers as we move.

Good Morning

As I sit at my desk, slowly sipping and sniffing my spiced apple cider, I feel like spreading a modicum of cheer. Really, though, it is a tiny one.

For those of you in the Cypress or Copperfield area (or Houston, and willign to drive a bit), the Studio Movie Grill in Copperfield (and possibly other locations) are having $5 movies all day, Monday through Thursday!

We are seeing RENT tongiht (go, Crystyl!), but tomorrow night we may treat ourselves to Zombieland, or maybe The Invention of Lying.

Have a lovely day!

Precious and Brilliant - Yes, please!

Do you remember my post about the Made With Molecules site on Etsy? Well, they have an entire website, and I did some meandering the other day. I found the most amazing and nerdriffic gift for new baby or expecting parents. And yes, when I have children, I completely intend to put my kids in these!

Behold, the Oxytocin onesie!

It is the chemical equivalent of cuddling!! How. Freakin. CUTE!?!

Amazing Giveaway

For those of you who do not yet know, Brad and I are buying a house!! And thanks to that hefty fact, I have had little other than decorating and designing on my mind lately. Grags and I have entertained ourselves with DIY blogs, lately, and I fell in loooove with this amazing blog, Centsational Girl. She has divine taste, though not always matching my own, and her Do-It-Yourself ideas are fun and come across as easy-to-follow. I am truly excited to get to work on her No Sew Swag Valance, as well as the aorable Drying Rack for the laundry room.

The main reason I am mentioning her today is because her blog is having a giveaway from Price Pfister, which means you could win a GORGEOUS new faucet for your kitchen or bathroom. All you have to do to qualify is specificy which one you want (Hanover pull down, please!!), and leave a comment explaining where you would put it. So simple! Go on over and check it out:
http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2009/10/fabulous-faucet-giveaway/

Best of luck!!