Where did Jenn go??

Whoa! I haven’t blogged in forever.

I’m going to quit beating myself up about it and simply tell you about what all Hugh and I have been up to. Hugh and I have gotten moved in and semi-settled. We’re down to one room full of boxes and we’re in no hurry to get them unpacked. We LOVE the new place. The dogs are enjoying all of the extra room to the extent that I have to DRAG them inside every afternoon to cool down for a while and we’ve had to increase their food intake because they were losing weight. One of the best moments we’ve had in the house happened this past Sunday. Hugh and I had gotten up early so we went down to the Heights and got tacos for breakfast. We came back and sat on the back porch and read the paper (ok, I read the ads and comics) while the puppies played in the yard. It was so relaxing and we were both so very happy. :) Of course, the temperature was in the 70’s. That might have helped a little.

I decided last January to do an administrative certification program that didn’t seem too tough or time consuming. The deal was that I would be able to use my technology internship documents for the internship thus making it not a big deal. I mean, who would sign up to write an additional thesis when you’ve already completed one? Well….come to find out there’s a lot more work involved in this last class and I’m semi-drowning in the paperwork. I only have 2 ½ weeks left to get it all done and then I can relax and be home free, but getting there is consuming most of my time. That is essentially what I’ve been up to and why I haven’t been blogging.

Hugh and I hosted our nephew Jackson’s first birthday party last weekend at our new place. It was a great success and I’ll post pictures as soon as I get a chance.

I will also finish blogging about our summer travels. I PROMISE!

Last Monday Hugh and I decided to sign up for the Houston Mud Run sponsored by the National MS Society. This is the same group that does the MS 150 bike ride every year.  It’s a 10k run (6.4 miles) with over 15 muddy obstacles thrown in. I think it’s going to be a ton of fun but there’s a wee small problem with my running ability: I have none. Hugh swears that it’s all mental with me. I can swim miles at a time and yet when you ask me to run a mile it’s as if my legs don’t understand.  So, I did the only think I could think of: I decided to pick up the Couch to 5k program on my iPod starting at week 5. I had been using this back in January when I decided that I wanted to be able to run 3 miles without stopping. I quit using it when I was swimming 5 days a week. Thus far I’m doing fine and I’m having no problems keeping up with the running program. In fact, when I ran yesterday I was able to continue on past the stopping point. Since I only have 4 weeks left my goal is simply to be able to run for 30 minutes at a time without stopping. If I can get to that point I know I’ll be fine. Plus, signing up and paying my money was definitely the best motivation I could give myself. We’ll see! I’ll keep you updated on the progress.

Monday Goals: I decided to give them a try and I have to be honest and say that I seem to suck at them. I write the goals down and then stress about getting them done, and then I give myself a hard time if I wasn’t able to complete them. Since the whole point of goal setting is motivation and focus I feel like I’m missing the whole point. Maybe I just need therapy. Lots of therapy. So, for now I’m going to hold off on them. I might try doing them again in a few weeks when my stress level is a little bit lower, or I might just try something different. We’ll see what happens.

Have a great week!

Moving Update: A really long Saturday!

We move next Saturday. I’m really excited and ready to get into the house. So….a cat happened to live in the house before us. It was a short stay for the cat (I’ll refer to him as Mr. Whiskers even though I’ve never been pleasured to make his acquaintance.) While this normally wouldn’t be an issue I happen to be married to a man that has a serious cat allergy. And by cat allergy I mean: Please pass me the Benadryl pez that I can swish down with my epinephrine martini.

No problem! The house has hardwood floors and ceramic tile in every room but the actual bedrooms. The bedrooms have a nice plush carpet. I called a carpet cleaner and had them come out and clean the carpets. The day before we move in I’m having a cleaning company come out and literally clean the house from top to bottom, including washing the walls. There will be no remaining bits of Mr. Whiskers to bother my poor Hughbear’s delicate nasal passages.

Today we had the majority of our respective families come over and help work. We have one length of the fence in the backyard that we needed to reinforce to make sure that our doggies don’t decide to leave. We worked very hard and got a ton of things accomplished outside. We’re definitely ready to go for next weekend. I am very thankful to all of them that took time from their weekends to help us out. All we could do was pay them with lunch and candy bars, but they all seemed pretty happy. Plus, it gave everyone a chance to see where we’re going to be living. Everybody loved the house, and I’m glad that they’re all so happy for us.

It’s 8:40 and Hugh’s already asleep. He cut his leg right below his knee on a brick today. I think he needs stitches but his comment to me was, “I’m too tired to go get stitches.” It’s quite a deep gash, and even though I put a butterfly bandage on it I don’t think it’s going to stay closed. We’ll see. Maybe tomorrow it will have magically shrunk and closed together. And maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow to a French toast breakfast. Not likely, but it’s always a possibility.

Random Note: I’m currently shedding like a sheepdog. It’s driving me crazy and it’s pretty gross. There’s hair everywhere! I’m taking my thyroid medicine like a good girl so I’m not sure what’s going on. Maybe I should just cut off all my hair and the problem will be solved.

Thank you to the following people for all of your help today! We couldn’t have done it without you:
Renee
Frank
Mac
Theresa
Jordan
Krystal
Chelsey
Eddie
Jackson
Fredi
Jeanne

We love you guys, so very much!

Love,

Boxes and boxes and boxes......

Hugh and I are moving!

For the past year and a half Hugh and I have been going back and forth about moving. We would like to live in a different neighborhood but we essentially have no clue WHERE we want to go. We tried to sell our house last year for six months. We were unsuccessful and once the contract with the realtor ended we simply took it off the market. In the past few months we'd tossed around the idea of leasing our house and leasing one for ourselves. It seemed like a good solution since we aren't really sure where we want to live other than we're ready to not live here. Our pseudo plans took a backseat for our Europe trip, so we tabled the discussion until we got back.

A few weeks after we got back a great opportunity came to our attention. An aunt and uncle of mine had purchased a house and then after 3 weeks they changed their mind. They moved back to their old house and were looking to sell/rent their "new" house. Hugh and I went to look at the house and we both really liked it. It's larger than our current house, it's a one-story, the neighborhood is excellent and it's on a half-acre lot. We immediately put our house on the market for sale/lease and now.....two and half weeks later we have renters. We move out in two weeks and there's a TON of stuff to get done. We spent this evening packing up our books and game room. We've hired movers that work by the hour so our plan is to have all of the boxes ready to go in our dining room and only to leave the big stuff upstairs. Hopefully it'll work out to our advantage.

I know this may sound silly but one of the reasons I'm so excited is the size of the backyard. Our dogs aren't going to know what to do with all the room they're going to have. Hugh will be about 15 minutes from work instead of an hour and I know he's going to really enjoy that. Since I'll be the one with the commute to work I'll get my car back full time. Currently we switch vehicles everyday since Hugh carpools. It'll be nice to not have to take everything out of the car or truck each evening. :)

Alright, Hugh's been watching t.v. (he's actually sleeping) for an hour so I think it's time to put him to bed.

Have a great weekend!

Jenn

Procrastination Posting

I’ve been a big procrastinator with blogging about our vacation so I told myself that I couldn’t blog about anything else until I finished that first. Well…nanny nanny boo boo, I’m going to do what I want! So there!!

Wow…can you tell it’s midnight and that I’m a little tired? I couldn’t sleep so I gave up and came downstairs to do some work. Toby decided that he loves me and accompanied me downstairs. Cassie is most likely in the bed. In my spot. On my pillow. Pretending that she’s deaf so she won’t have to move when I get back up there.

I just want to post a little something explaining what all we’ve been up to lately.

Hugh and I came home from Europe and had a bit of hard time adjusting back to normal life. We had such a great time and discovered how much we truly love to travel. I know we could happily make a home somewhere overseas and I’d love to have the opportunity some day. 

Hugh and I have been debating for MONTHS about what we should do with our house. We’re ready to get out of the house that we currently own. Hugh’s commute to work is a minimum of 45 minutes when he’s carpooling to an hour and 15 minutes when he’s by himself. It’s just silly. Anywhere we move would require me to have the longer commute, but the hours I work wouldn’t put me in rush hour traffic. Right after we got home we found a house that we’d like to rent that would put Hugh about 10-15 minutes from work. It would make my commute about 30 minutes. We talked and decided to put our house up for lease and sale at the same time. We’re giving the option of owner-finance, so hopefully that will open up a few more doors. We’d really like to be out by the end of August, so keep your fingers crossed for us! 

One thing about having your house on the market: It has to be 100% clean, all of the time. It’s crazy. Hugh and I are both tidy by nature, but this is a whole new level of crazy clean. The house has to look “staged” perfectly every time we leave, just in case it shows. I don’t think I’ve ever made my bed this much ever. Or, maybe I did but my bed was smaller. Or, maybe I did and just did a craptastic job and my mother looked the other way. Whatever. All I know is that it’s almost like we’re pretending to live here right now.

I took a short little trip up to Dallas with my baby brother Jordan. He’s 22 and 6’3, but I’m still going to call him my baby brother. He really likes it best when I refer to him as “JORDIE”. Just ask him. Anyways, Jordan had a job interview that required an overnight stay so I volunteered to go with him and keep him company. We had a great time even though we only had one meal that included gravy. We stopped at the Russell Stover factory in Corsicana and pretty much embarrassed ourselves with the amount of chocolate we bought. In fact, we actually had to get a bellman’s cart to haul all of it into the hotel room. The hotel we stayed at was nice, but they were hosting several baseball teams that were competing in a local tournament. Let’s just say that Jordan and I both decided that children should not be allowed in hotels. Ever. Jordan looked great in his suit and tie, and I know he did well at his interview. We decided that the area was nice, the traffic sucked, and it wouldn’t be worth it to pay extra for a canal view apartment. 

Ok. I should probably go to sleep so that I don’t feel the need to nap tomorrow. I skipped going to the gym and ran outside today. Apparently I felt the need for a heat stroke with a side of sweat. Mistake noted: back to the gym tomorrow. 

Toby has decided that we need to go to bed. He's currently looking at me with judgement in his eyes.

I thought I'd share this completely random picture of me and my brothers. I'm on the left, looking bug-eyed and possibly crazy. Brandon is in the middle looking either surprised or high (he's neither, just being weird) and Jordan is on the right looking forlorn or perhaps confused. We're highly intelligent and amazingly photogenic.