Wow it has been a while since I posted on here. I have lots of stuff to talk about now. Ryan's mom, dad and sister all were up here this past weeekend. I had to work all day on Sunday so I really didn't get to spend time with Randy since he left Monday morning, but the girls had some fun together. Alli, Quala and I all went to Palo Duro Canyon. I had no idea what we were going to do there, so I got dressed like usual. Silly me. There were hiking trails and sites to see, only problem was, the bugs loved me! You all probably know that I don't like bugs on me though! :) That made it a rough day for me, but it was still beautiful and a lot of fun. I told Ryan the next time we go I am not taking a shower for at least two days so I don't smell sweet!

Tuesday Quala and Alli had New Student Orientation and I had to work all day. Ryan spent part of the afternoon with Quala cleaning the townhouse. I am sure she was thrilled to do that with him! It helped us out a whole lot! We turned in the keys yesterday, so we officially are finished with it. Now we just wait and see about all of our deposits.

My car is in the shop!!! Woo Hoo! Hopefully it will be done by Tuesday and we will have it for our long trip home. Still no word on the person who hit my car though.

Today I am booking a hotel room for my friend's wedding and trying to plan her a bachelorette party too. The other bridesmaid is out of town so it is making it realy hard for me right now. We have to do it quick though since the bride will be leaving town and I will be leaving town!

Here are some pictures of the things we have been up to.

Ok, so I got smart and just took some pictures with the camera now at home! :)

First Time for Everything...Even if You Don't Want the Experience

There are lots of "first-times" I share with Ryan...first time riding/driving a 4 wheeler, first time driving a standard all by myself....first dog from Ryan and his family...first time driving across Texas just to see him...But I never saw this first time coming. Tonight we drove out to get some wine and I was a victim of a hit and run accident. This is the FIRST TIME I have had any major damage done to my poor Betty(my car). The guy hit my car pretty hard and made a very nice dent right above my driver side tire and popped out my blinker...not the headlight, just the blinker. It makes me so mad because we saw the guy who hit it-he opened the door for me to the store! I didn't actually see him hit my car, but I know the guy and his truck. Since we were at a liquor store, we thought maybe he was already drunk and didn't want to be arrested so he fled the scene. All I know right now is that I am very irate that we were only in the store for 10 minutes, walked out and my car was smashed. I have pictures on my phone that I would like to share, but I can't figure out how to get them off of it! Any ideas??

Other than that whole story, things are good. Ryan and I only have a couple of things at the townhouse that have to be moved and we are pretty settled in the new house. Raider and Star both got haircuts and baths today too. I was planning on cleaning my car top to bottom today and I am really glad that I didn't! Mostly, my day off was spent putting away things, cleaning our kitchen, and washing clothes.

Wow! Is it the end of the day already? Ryan and I have done so much today. It started out with a quick trip for coffee turning into a two and a half run to the townhouse to load stuff. Then, unloading and I decided I wanted to cut the grass in the backyard. They are supposed to do it for us, but since it was raining the guy couldn't get back there and we had a jungle! Well, we I went looking for the extension cord, it was at the other house, so another long trip to the townhouse. Finally got home and settled, cut the grass, raked, and sprayed the yard for fleas(Star actually had one on her the other night) and right as I finish, the guy comes around to mow our yard!! He really didn't need to mow over what I did, but he did and now I need to rake again so the stray grass isn't carried in on Star's fur. Mission accomplished on my part though! I also planted some flowers yesterday for our front porch. I have three pots sitting under our front window. We will have to see how long they last.

I did have to tear Ryan away from his motorcycle today though. He was tweeking the bolts on it and making eveything line up just right. When I got back with my second load from the house, I asked him to help unload. Eventually I had to ask him again since he was so involved with perfecting all the bolts on the bike. I am happy that he found another hobby that will keep his stress down. Now I just need to find a new one for me to keep the stress down!

Ryan and I are puppy-sitting this weekend too. Lauren, the friend of mine who took are "flip that dog" was going to college graduations and asked us to take care of Addie. She is fun to have around for a couple of days....she keeps Raider running. Maybe he could actually lose some of his weight. Stay plays with Addie too-tug-of-war, chase and all kinds of things. Right now Star has a bone that she is not willing to give up and is snapping at Addie for trying to get it. I guess the princess side of her is coming out.

To close the day, Ryan took me out to eat at Fridays. While we were waiting we got to talk about wedding plans some and what he wants vs. what I want. Let's just say....we have no idea right now! :) Then we got Sheridan's together and are about to watch a movie. It is so great having time to stop and share little things together.

Moving is going great since I have had time away from work. We just have a couple of things at the townhouse and then we have to clean. Tomorrow our plan is to get the aquarium, which should be fun since it is a 20 gallon tank. Last time we moved it, we emptied all the water, I still almost dropped it and we lost ALL the fish we had. Right now we only have one...I will let you know how tomorrow goes though.

Alright, I am sure by now it seems like I have dropped off of the face of the earth. These past couple of weeks have been really terrible for me just to say it nicely. Classes and finals are over now and there is nothing else I can do about the grades I made, so I am enjoying the free time! First off, we did finish painting and have moved the majority of our stuff into the new duplex. I am soo estatic not to have stairs!! I didn't realize how much of a pain it is do carry laundry up and down stairs!! (Aunt Shirley...I have no idea how you do it!) Unfortunately it doesn't seem like the maintenance here isn't going to be any better than the other place, but at least the rent is cheaper and no stairs. Work has been bad for Ryan and I both. We are both just about to throw in the towels and start somewhere else. For me, the other supervisor is acting like a two year old towards me and making it extremely difficult to work with her. For Ryan, he is bored all the time at work and just learned today that his job is at risk of being cut for a couple of reasons. Either way, there are other jobs out there. Mine might not be as good of experieince as the one I have now though. I haven't even been putting out applications, but it has gotten so bad that Ryan and I have discussed me quitting logically and long.

Other news, you might have heard that I was supposed to be at home this weekend for Sue's graduation. Well, after all the BS at work, gas prices hicking up, finals, moving, and clutter everywhere, I decided staying here and getting moving, unpacking and organizing would de-stress me more and help my mood. So far it has been great! I still realy want to go home too. Tonight I was actually joking with Ryan that he should just quit work tomorrow, we can drive ome tomorrow night and then spend the weekend home. Nope, he didn't go for it. We both hate those short trips. Here are some pictures of what I have accomplished in my past two days off though.

Before:

After:

Yes, that is our bar... and yes, that is a plant growing from somewhere!

This is our Wal-Mart parking lot on Thursday when it rained all day long.

Welcome to Wal Mart!! :)

Summary of our week with pictures

So, I just wanted to let you guys know that I have not been emailing, posting or talking much since we have no internet at the new house, moving has been a disaster and also I have been working a lot. It is a crazy week, but luckily it is the last whole week of classes before finals. Now I just have to start studying for all three of my tests! yeah! As soon as we get internet in the duplex, I will post pictures and wrtie a lot about our experience. Oh and Ryan's head is ok. He busted his forehead open Sunday night on the glass chandler at the new place. He hit it so hard that the bucket in his hand flew across the room, he fell on his butt of and blood splattered on the newly painted wall!! It was easy to fix all of the above though and Ryan didn't have any symtonms of a concusion. Why are we painting you say?? Because when we got the keys to our house on Saturday there were nails still in the wall, patches that had never been painted over and scuffs all over the place. The landlord gave us a gallon of paint and told us we could touch up, but then that paint was the wrong color. We ended up getting a whole new color of paint and painting everything ourselves. That is the shortened version! I gotta go now. Ryan and I are at the townhouse just for a sec to do little things!

Real Quick Before Bed

Ok, so our day was kinda crazy, but I thought I would give you a little info before I head to bed for classes tomorrow. Ryan, Allison, Jordan and I spent all day painting our new house, which we were not suuposed to have to(long story). Also, Ryan ended up with a busted forehead! The house looks great though and we get our new bed tomorrow! Good night!

We survived!

Thorugh this week of more final projects being due, making appointments, bad weather and other stuff...Ryan and I have almost made it through! I just turned in my major project for counsleing this morning and Ryan is on his last assignment for his classes. Then he is going to take a two week break before he starts another class to move! Sunday we are signing the lease agreeement and then Monday our new mattress will be delivered and Wednesday movers are going to move our big things like the couches, refrig, washer dryer, etc. Oh and Allison will be here tonight sotaht we can use her SUV to move a lot of our little things. Ryan and I are both really excited about moving into a one story house! We have decided that our house is such a mess because we are tired of carrying laundry up and down the stairs!
We had some more bad weather on Tuesday. I was at work and down in the basement so I had no idea what was going on until I needed someone to drive out to get more ingredients for that night's supper and they said they couldn't. When I ran to the dock to look, it was snowing!! No not really, it was hailing so much so fast that it looked like snow! Ryan was trying to drive to work at this time and was able to wait until the hail stopped, but still almost got into a bad wreck because there was ice balls all over the road. Apparently there wa a tornado right outside of Lubbock and then another one about thiry minutes South of us. I am very happy I knew nothing about allof it at the time because I would have been freaking out!!!
Next week is my last full week of classes!! WOO HOO!! ONe more semester done and only two more to go! Moving home is sounding so good right now! I am tired of the Lubbock drivers, crazy weather and terrible roads. Plus, being around family is going to be a great reward!
Ryan and I took the dogs to the park yestruday. I actually had to tell Ryan that we needed a night to ourselves, without homework or work, to sit and spend some time together. We did! After we took the dogs walking and bathed them, I put a pizza in the oven and we watched a movie we had rented on Staurday and just never had time to watch. It was fantastic! I went to bed early too, wore up early and have gotten a lot of stuff done this morning too! yeah!
Have a great Thursday, Friday and weekend!

Ok, so the stress is over and now I am just recooperating. It has been a crazy and busy week. Now I just have to play catchup for a bunch of projects and homework that is due because classes are winding down. One of my stresses this week was a biochem test on Wednesday, I didn't even study enough for it. Imagine my surprise when I made an 84!!!! Estatic!! So now I am off to work right now, Ryan is already at work. Luckily I have tomorrow off to spend some much needed time with Ryan, catch up with a friend from the dorms and then to do all those projects!! I hope everyone else is having a great weekend! Oh yeah and it still isn't warm here. Last night it was freezing and we had a chance of snow showers, but never got any.

Stressed, Stressed, STRESSED!

I know that after Easter I am supposed to be really happy and cheery, but it is extremely hard to be right now. I had to work allll weekend long, Ryan and I didn't even get to go to church, plus my classes are really pouring it on hard. Oh and not to mentioned the snow was all gloomy and un-springy. For instance, I had to record a counseling session I had for a class and then use the tape to do an assignment and turn in both the tape and assignment. Well, now I can't do wither because my tape sounds like chipmunks. Grrr. Plus I have got a test coming up on Wednesday in Biochem and I am already so exhuasted right now that I am crying and still have to work three more days before I MIGHT get a day off! Sorry to be such a complainer, but I just can't wait for this week to be over with and have a day to myself!!!

Confused Seasons

That's right it is snowing AGAIN!!! On Easter!! The flakes aren't even tiny, they were about dime size right as we woke up, and some silver dollar size. I guess it is good that we didn't throw out our salt for the sidewalks yet!! Apparently it has been going for a while because it is built up a lot, as you can see on the BBQ pit in the next picture. If you look against the maroon houses too in the background, you can see how hard it is coming down too! I hope everyone has a great Easter!

Addie seems to like the snow just like Raider does. They were running around on the balcony for about five minutes kicking up snow. So cute!

Our House = Adoption Agency??

Alright for starters I mean dog adoption and not a permanant stay with us either. It all began about a month ago when Ryan and I were joking that we were going to steal our neighbors dog because she was so cute and they just didn't seem to care about her. She never got a bath, ran around without a collar on and could get out from the courtyard to ran anywhere or have anyone pick her up. Ryan and I had talked about when we moved, just taking her with us so that she would have someone to care for her. Obviously we have not moved yet and we didn't steal the dog either. Tuesday night when Ryan got home from work though Alli, the dog, ran into the garage and started digging in our trash as soon as the door opened. He picked her up to bring her to the owner and then started talking. The owner said they had run out of ideas and that they were taking her to the pound in the morning; her behavioral problems were just too much for them. Ryan mentioned to him that we would be willing to take care of her or try training her for them. They said no, they couldn't ask us to do that. Then, when I got home, Ryan and I talked about it and then went to their house to pick up our new dog!! The owners were very happy that we were willing to take her and train her, although they did not express an interest in getting her back. She is a schnauzer and bichon mix. Adorable! Of course, we made a deal that we would not keep her. Luckily, Lauren, one of my friends wants a schaunzer really bad!! She was so excited when I told her about the puppy we had just "adopted." Needless to say we no longer had a Alli, we had a Addie in our house! Ryan and I both enjoy training dogs and we have a lot more flexible schedules than Lauren and her boyfriend do, so Ryan and I are going to train her for the next two weeks. Lauren is going to puppy proof her apartment, buy puppy necessities and work her way through finals and we get to train her baby! Normally Ryan and I would want her to take the dog right now. But we don't want Lauren to get frustrated with the training part of it all and not take her.

Long story short....we have another dog in the house!!!.......for the time being. Here are some pictures of our adopted Addie!

Update on our weather

Does that look like snow at the end of March? Well, it isn't. That is actually hail. Wednesday night there was a tornado spotted north of us, and luckily it was moving north. Although, after that storm, another system developed and rolled through here about eleven at night. Living in Houston, you see some hail and lots of rain, but this storm was a lot different. One minute it was quiet and then the next it was hailing...really crazy! Even though the news kept on saying there was no tornadoes, Ryan and I were still kinda worried. The hail was so loud and there was a constant roll of thunder that to us, since we have never heard a tornado, sounded like one. We had our flashlights out and ready to go if the lights went out, but they never did. The last picture is the following morning. The hail was still hanging around in some spots. Good thing we had a garage to put the cars in! It came down really hard for about 15 minutes and then left as fast as it came. I guess that was just long enough to build up about one inch of hail on the concrete.

I finally found a better way to take a picture of my ring. Playing around one night, I found that it shows the shape better in black and white.

Just a quick list of today

-Woke up
-roaches downstais coming out from all the rain and poisin we put out yesturday
-Literally run out the door to school
-Try not to fall asleep in class
-Take a test
-Go to doctor for alcers in my mouth(Sue!)
-Prescribed "Pink Goddess" to girgle with
-Drive home
-Watch tv
-See that we are under a tornado watch right now
-Currently IS a tornado in North Texas and the strom is coming this way!!

Eventful Sunday

It all started with Ryan and I just driving out. When we came home though everyone was walking down the street and our neighbor was even taking pictures. It tunrns out this is what they were looking at....

Yup, my first tornado spotting in Lubbock. I have to say I was pretty terrified too!! This was no more than five miles from our house. Ryan kept his cool even though later on he said he was really scared. The storm calmed down after two tornado sightings athough the rain, thunder and lightning hasn't diminished. It rained hard for about two hours and the lake down from our house is overflowing. I will take pictures of it tomorrow so that you can see. It is just luck that I didn't have to drive out tonight too! No work, no school...nothing! Instead I just procrastinated all day long. I hope your day was better than this!

Reasons I hate living in Lubbock (by Ryan)

• The people here are small minded (see: liquor laws and arrests of the Chippendales)
• The roads SUCK (ask Robert, he got to experience fine Lubbock construction this past weekend)
• horrible drivers (the kind that use the TURN lane as a "merging" lane, I was almost run into last week because of it)
• did I mention the town is small minded?
• it's illegal to buy liquor within city limits, but for some reason it's ok to buy from stores that are literally 100 yards outside city limits (I guess this goes back to the town being small minded)
• the roads are horrible (I think I said that before, but they're really that horrible)
• there's NO drainage, so every time it rains more than 5 minutes, University Avenue literally turns into University River (at University and the Loop, the water stands about 6 inches deep during most rain storms, we had to use my old roommate's truck just to go grocery shopping when it rained)
• I guess you can't really blame this on Lubbock, but the air is really dry so I literally get shocked every time I turn on a light switch or get out of my car
• on top of everything, the management at our townhomes is terrible... I'm starting my first day of work this afternoon, I have to be there at 4:00. so we get a note THIS MORNING (even though it's dated YESTERDAY) that says "We're sorry but due to repairs, we will be shutting off the water from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm". so I have to shower at 9:00 this morning and hope I don't get sweaty or smelly before I have to go to work. and on top of that, the note says "thank you for being so understanding through all of this", like we have a freakin choice. they've seriously been doing regular water "repairs" like this since the day we moved in. once every two weeks or so, and sometimes every day for an entire week, we won't have water during the day. it would have been fine if they'd passed the notes out yesterday, I could have come up with some sort of contingency plan to show up for work NOT smelling, but when we get the note 8:00 am the morning OF, there's not a whole lot I can do.

In other related news, Lubbock ranks among the top 3 worst places to live in the state of Texas (my judgment), being beat out only by the 5th ward in Houston (I think it's the 5th ward, whichever one is the most ghetto) and West End in El Campo (the area in town where you can buy any drug you can think of). Maybe it's just me, but the mixture of aweful roads (they're so damn bumpy, I have more rattles in my car than I can count), the small minded people, and the fact that it's so far away from family just really makes me want to move back home as soon as possible (and by "home" I mean the Houston area). I guess I just needed to vent some frustration. I feel better already. I'll let everyone know how my first day of work goes. Wish me luck!

One last thing....

I thought everyone would like to see how my burn is doing. This is my "healing" burn. Notice the nice blood seeping out at this point. I even had a bandage over it all day to protect it so I have no idea how this happened...

Ryan and me on Saturday night when Mom and Dad were here. Ask Mom to post the pics of me blowing out candles. I want to see them as well you as guys.
Oh I was trying to show off my ring in this picture too, but it doesn't show up well. :(

To pick up where I left off...

Alright, I am back. The movie, 300, was actually really good. Now I just have to write a paper over it. Yes, I did go see it with a couple of girls, but we would have picked a chick flick had I not had to write a paper over 300. Anyway, Sunday after the winery Ryan and I picked up some food and then relaxed together. Then we went to play poker withs ome of my friends It wasn't so much fun though for Ryan though since more than half of them had no idea how to play. I actually did feel bad for him just since he is good at the game and my friends didn't pick it up so easily. We had our fun and then came home to get ready for me to return to school Monday morning. It was really rough starting a routine again. Monday was so long! Then at work yesturday I had to stay an hour later because a cooler was reading too high. Lately I have been finding the coolers that are having all the problems. Last Tuesday, one cooler had a broken motor and then the sliding windows were broke and open, letting the cool air out. Then Thursday, the other cooler was out. Out of two motors, both were broken and we could only get one in that day. So, it has been working, but we are still waiting for the back up motor. Than this Tuesday right as I was leaving the other cooler was reading a couple of degrees above temp. I had to call maintenane, the manager and eventually the specific man who works on our coolers. It is all fine and dandy that I got hours and am getting paid for it, but I was soooo tired!!!

Anyhow, today was great. I met with my client for my nutrition counseling class and it was very successful. It was actually pretty easy and calming to have the first appointment out of the way. Of course I am still getting used to the busy school day. It is off to bed for me right now. Night.

Sorry, I know I said I would post after I got my pain meds. Saturday was my planned day to spend updating my blog, but I was surprised by Mom and Dad at ten thirty in the morning! Ok, let me go to the beginning....Yes, I burned by arm that bad with my curling iron. I feel extremely stupid. It fell out of my hands and I caught it on my chest with my forearm. So, that is how it got so bad since that is thin skin plus, the part of my body that I caught it with that was unclothed. Friday night I was supposed to go out with some friends for my brithday, but of course I was hurting too bad to do anything. Plus, they had watned to go dancing and I knew that was not a good idea!! All of the bumping of a crowded clubwould have been terrible! Saturday Ryan told me I had a "surprise" coming at eleven. At ten thirty I was walking around the house in my robe with wet hair when the doorbell rang! Mom and Dad drove up here just for my birthday! It was great. Ryan and I showed Mom our new apartment, while Dad stayed here and slept for several hours. Then, like every trip, we went shopping. Really didn't buy all that much, but anything is a lot to Dad. He was cool though. They made me snakes for supper!! Yummm..a childhood favorite! They sang happy birthday too with a chocolate cake..the smoke detector did not go off. Mom has the pictures of all that though.
They left on Sunday morning. Meanwhile Ryan and I got all dressed up for my birthday. He took me out to eat and then we went to wineries, well winery. The first one was closed. The tour was really interesting and the wine was great! Good experience for the first time to a winery, but it won't be the last.
I need to go now, I am meeting some friends for a movie. I will finish my whole story later on tonight.....I promise!!