Happy Birthday INDEED

Craig got a job offer today! Hallelujah - GOD IS GOOD! After nearly 7 months of prayers, wishes, working, looking, searching, interviewings it finally happened! It is in consulting and will require some travel but even THAT is ok. We can finally relax a little - YIPPEEEEEEEEE

Happy Birthday Craig

Just a special post to wish a very happy birthday to my honey.

For those who are wondering, yes he is still job searching (almost 7 months now since he was laid off) but we are trying to stay positive and hope that something will come along soon (so, if you know of something shoot one of us an email).

I will fix him some salmon and wild rice and some broccoli with cheese sauce - one of his favorite meals and I already made him a birthday cake so - it will be as nice a birthday as one can have, considering the circumstances :)

I love you Craig! Here is the best gift I could do :) I know its not in the drive way but hey - you can look at it :)

More Birthday Fun

So Saturday was my ACTUAL birthday - so we went out to dinner with Craig's family - we went to Logan's - I LOVE their food. Afterwards we came back to our house. My mother in law made brownies and we got some vanilla ice cream and had brownies and ice cream -yum!

That day ;however, we were dorm shopping for Travis (he moves in to his dorm on August 19th to prepare for marching band - Go EAGLES!) and then with some of his own hard-earned money he purchased a digital camera - he is so proud of his first major purchase - lets see if he takes better care of it than if it had been OUR money :)

Then Sunday was dog bathing day - we bathed all 3 of our dogs....and now they smell good and look good - once again I was caught camera less - I really better get on the stick :)

When Jerin sends me pictures of his weekend trip to Rome, maybe I can post one or two of those! What a life that kid has :)

A little laugh

Someone sent this to me and it is too funny not to share...its a little long but worth the read if you live in Texas:

Dear Diary,
Just moved to Texas ! Now this is a state that knows how to live!! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. What a place! It is beautiful. I've finally found my home. I love it here.
June 14th:
Really heating up. Got to 100 today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun everyday like this. I'm turning into a sun worshipper.
June 30th:
Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today. Lots of cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing the lawn for me. Another scorcher today, but I love it here.
July 10th:
The temperature hasn't been below 100 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat?
At least, it's kind of windy though. But getting used to the heat is taking longer than I expected.
July 15th:
Fell asleep by the community pool. (Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body). Missed 3 days of work. What a dumb thing to do. I learned my lesson though. Got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.
July 20th:
I missed Lomita (my cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning. By the time I got to the hot car at noon, Lomita had died and swollen up to the size of a shopping bag, then popped like a water balloon. I learned my lesson though. No more pets in this heat. Good ol' Mr. Sun strikes again.
July 25th:
The wind sucks. It feels like a giant blow dryer!! And it's hot as he!!. The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and the AC repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.
July 30th:
Been sleeping outside on the patio for 3 nights now, $225,000 house and I can't even go inside. Lomita is the lucky one. Why did I ever come here?
Aug. 4th:
It's 115 degrees. Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to 85. I hate this stupid state.
Aug. 8th:
If another wise a$$ cracks, 'Hot enough for you today?' I'm going to strangle him. Dang heat. By the time I get to work, the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like baked cat!!
Aug. 9th:
Tried to run some errands after work. Wore shorts, and when I sat on the seats in the car, my a$$ caught fire. My skin melted to the seat. I lost 2 layers of flesh and all the hair on the back of my legs. . . Now my car smells like burnt hair, fried a$$, and baked cat.
Aug 10th:
I’m convinced now that the weather report is a recording. Hot sunny. Hot and sunny. Hot and sunny. It's been too hot to do crap for 2 damn months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Doesn't it ever rain in this damn state? Water rationing will be next, so my $1700 worth of cactus will just dry up and blow over. Even the cactus can't live in this heat.
Aug. 14th:
Welcome to HELL! Temperature got to 115 today. Cactus are dead. Forgot to crack the window and blew the windshield out of the car. The installer came to fix it and guess what he asked me??? "Hot enough for you today?" My sister had to spend $1,500 to bail me out of jail. Freaking Texas . What kind of a sick demented idiot would want to live here??
Will write later to let you know how the trial goes.

RAIN...at last!

Its finally raining - after several 100+ days and lots of heat we are finally getting a respite. Of course the thunder, lighting and losing power is not the MOST fun thing but at least its a good hard rain.

Yesterday we had the JULY birthday celebration at Mom's and it was fun - it was for Craig, Dad, me and Roy......it was a lot of fun but can you imagine that I did not take 1 picture ?

Wild and Crazy Hot

Friday night we attended a gathering of Craig's old high school band members....well, actually it was about 10 years worth of band folks - Craig had a good time...only a handful of the ones from his years were there. It sure is a wild bunch!

Sunday we went to Sandy Lake park in Carrollton and boy was it hot! We were there to hang out with some of the folks from Craig's college fraternity but only 2 or 3 of them showed up. It was mostly the older folks but we met some new people had some hot dogs and about died of heat stroke.

Bass Hall (Review)

Last night we went to the Bass Hall to see Casa Manana presents Little Shop of Horrors. It was so much fun........this was the most well done play I think I have EVER seen....the voices were amazing, the way they handled the plant growing in size, and the puppeteering was spectacular and at intermission ...well I don't want to spoil it for those who might go in the 3 weeks the play is here....I highly recommend it......if you have seen the movie, know that the play is JUST AS GOOD.......what a great time!

And he is off....

Jerin's flight just left for JFK where it will go on to Italy afterwards......its happy and sad all at the same time. Its hard being a military parent, I can't imagine being a military spouse.....they are so far away and gone for a long time and you don't really know what they are enduring but you hope they are healthy and happy - because thats all you can do is hope and pray which I do everyday.

The flip side of that is how many 23 year olds get to spend a few years living in the mediterranean...he just left Greece - where he stayed for a year and now he is off to live on the Amalfi Coast of Italy for 2-3 years. Maybe, I will get to go visit someday :)

God Speed and safe travel Jerin - we love you and miss you already!

Happy Birthday America!

Maybe this day means alot to me because I have son who fights for our freedom everyday. And granted he is not in some of the "hot zones" but he does work for our US Military and to me, that is a huge job. It takes him away from home (far away) and believe me, these guys work hard. So yesterday, while we celebrated the 4th of July, we also celebrated him - because he is headed back overseas on Monday. We love you Jerin and We will miss you....but remember how quickly a year passes :) Jerin and Brett having a big time (Jerin's face will tell you).

The gang out at the pool :) Including my silly sister.

Quote

I read a couple of quotes today - they struck me, so I thought I would share them:

"Nothing in life is unforgivable. Choose to thank the universe for giving you the opportunity to develop your soul by knowing another person."

"Your braver than you know,

Your stronger than you seem,

Your smarter than you think."

Christopher Robin to Pooh

Have a great day, and a great July 4th but please lets remember the reason for the day.

God Bless our military (former and present) - it is thanks to them that we have freedom.