VACATION!

So it's Friday and we are going to Mexico tonight! THANK GOODNESS - this has been a very trying week for Curt and I but we got the house immaculately clean and ready to show to anyone who wants to see it this week! We should be listed on MLS by tonight, so here we go on this rollercoaster ride that is selling a house! Just so everyone knows, we are staying FIRM on our house price as it's the lowest we wanted to go, but our realtor advised us that it's better to have higher traffic and not play games with the negotiation so we'll see... he's supposed to be one of the best in the biz so cross your fingers for us!

Our flight is later on late afternoon, so I'm just working from my parent's house while Curt is out taking care of the boat and other business (storage, etc) so we will be ready to start our vacation when we get on that plane! We didn't roll into Houston last night until 2:45 a.m. - holy smokes were we tired!!!! It took us longer b/c we were trailering the boat - ugh it was slow goings (or not slow, just not 80 like I would have liked to be going)! So Curt is officially a resident of Houston from here on out, so we'll see how long it takes for me to follow... I'll miss him! I already got the pooper scooper service in line - cracked me up b/c I called the guy up (the service is called "Scooper Man" - so cute) and I didn't know his name so I asked, "Is this Scooper Man?" just like on the old timey movies the way they say "Superman" with the inflection of their voice - sometimes I just tickle myself! haha

So... hopefully we'll have safe and uneventful travels for tonight - we'll have to call our hostel when we get there, and hopefully get to sleep at a decent hour so we can wake up to go diving tomorrow morning! We booked our dive package through Tank Ha in Playa as we read some good reviews, and told them via the website that we HAD to go to the Tortuga dive site (the cenotes are built into the package) so hopefully all will work out and we'll have awesome pictures to post when we get back!

Wouldn't it be insane if someone wanted our house this weekend??? Would be bizarre... it does look AWESOME by the way - it made me so sad to think that it won't be our true home anymore... sigh...

Ok, more work and then Mexico - talk to y'all soon!

xx

Hump day fun...

Sorry it’s been awhile, but things have been nuts!

We are officially putting the house up for sale on Thursday, so it’s a do-or-die deadline which I think we will be dead by the time it comes around (chanting mantra: “if we can just make it to Thursday night, if we can just make it to Thursday night”)… so here’s what’s been going since I last wrote:

So Friday night we got on the road to Austin so we could look at the boat. We got there at about 8:30 p.m. and had all the dogs with us in the truck. We checked out the boat, loved it and said we would like to buy it, and went on our way (of course there was lots in between but not important). We went on to Giddings and spent the night at Curt’s Dad’s place, slept in – thank the Lord – had DELICIOUS breakfast tacos that Giddings is famous for, went to the ranch to get the trailer and had fun there for awhile – I let the dogs out and we went on a mini walk… Maverick is still unsure of the huge cows that Curt’s Dad runs, and it’s hilarious for both the cows and Maverick to size each other up… the calves were hilarious and being rather bold in how close they were coming! The girls of course could care less and were happy to trot along beside me… Curt in the meantime was working on the trailer getting it hitched, and then we were on our way to good ol’ Wal-Mart so Curt could rig the lights so we wouldn’t get a million tickets. Then we went home, got showered up and ready for Nonnie and PaPa’s big party – their 50th wedding anniversary!! It was adorable – Curt’s aunt, Heidi, really did an amazing job getting the venue ready and it was like a wedding almost, except everyone there was mostly older but it was so cute – there was a “anniversary cake” that could have been a great wedding cake for anyone, the original bridal party (minus PaPa’s brother George who passed on this past year – so sad) was there for pictures and toasting, and it was really cool – it made me excited for the next 49 years and 4 months with my Curt. And my family came in, and of course Curt’s family was there, and we danced and ate and had a wonderful time visiting with everyone!! Then we got on the road to College Station where we were staying at wonderful Townplace for the evening – I just love it there! So spent some time with fam, went to bed, and got up early the next morning with everyone to get on the road to home.

We got back to Fort Worth at about lunchtime on Sunday and spent the rest of the day packing and loading the trailer, went to Bible Study with our friends, and then did some more work when we got home – sigh – Monday was eventful as well… more fun moving! So Curt isn’t working this week, and Monday was his first day “off” though he has been working like crazy to get the house ready while I’m at work – so he got up at 7 a.m. to get on the road to Houston to load our stuff in our new storage unit there, then got on the road to Giddings to drop off the trailer, and to go back to Austin to pick up the boat! (We couldn’t pick it up this weekend b/c the money hadn’t come through yet)! So Curt’s tour of Texas took him all day – he didn’t get home with it until 12:30 a.m.! Meanwhile my Monday was spent at work, then I rushed home to meet with the maids to get an estimate for a complete overhaul and then met with a realtor to do all of that, and then gabbed with Sylvia while I was getting work done around the house, so that was a fun spot in the midst of everything! Then we went to bed super late, and had to start all over Tuesday…

So Tuesday Curt worked a ton again, I worked a ton at work, and then when I got home we agreed to take the boat out for an hour (so really we were on the water for a total of 15 minutes by the time we did everything – haha)! But we had a great time, the boat is great – I think her name is Toby, haven’t decided for sure yet – and we are excited for when things settle down and we can make that a regular occurrence! Then we met Mary and Jason for dinner – my New York plane friend – yea! So that was a ton of fun, then more work when we got home, and then bed again really late – sigh – SO… today is another busy day at work, Curt is at home with the maids and meeting our last realtor around lunchtime, and getting more done around the house so we can put our house ON THE MARKET TOMORROW – absolutely insane… Can we be in Mexico already? We’re really going to need it this weekend… whew!

Hope everyone else is doing well – speak soon.

xx

Yea for Friday!

Wow - so glad that it is Friday, and very excited for the weekend!

It's been a super busy week with me getting back from vacation on Tuesday night, and packing up the house and working really hard to get it where it needs to be to put on the market next week!

Wednesday night we packed, last night we packed and also celebrated our 8-month anniversary as well as Curt's last day of work, which is today! We are very excited, and I'm so excited for him, so here we go into this new adventure!

For Curt's last day today I got him a cake to take into work that says "Thanks for everything - I'll miss y'all" so that's super cute and hopefully it will be a really positive ending to a big chapter in his/our life. I think he said they're taking him out to lunch as well, but my *favorite* thing about this day for him took place this morning... he jumps out of the shower and I'm straightening my hair, and he goes "I know what shirt I'm going to wear today," and I was thinking through his wardrobe and couldn't imagine what he would choose so I asked, and he came out of the closet with this black t-shirt that I'm pretty sure he's only worn once or twice since I've known him, but is absolutely perfect for the theme of the day - it's black with smallish white writing in the center of the shirt and it says, "What is the Hokey Pokey is really what it's all about?" - how classic is that?! I died laughing and he looks adorable in it - I don't know why he doesn't wear it more! :-) So that's his day...

We're going to try and breakaway a little early today as we may have a couple appointments with realtors that are coming to the house, but for sure a little early at least so we can get on the road to Austin before 5 p.m. if possible to avoid traffic tonight on our way out - we're going to check out the boat and we told the guy we'd shoot to be there at 8 p.m. so hopefully we won't be late! If all goes well and it checks out, then we may have a boat by tonight! That's crazy, but Curt is really excited about it and he deserves it so that may be our summer love if it works out! Then we'll go to Giddings and stay the night, pick up the trailer, go to The Woodlands Saturday morning to drop off the dogs and the load we pack up of stuff we've already packed, then back to Ledbetter for the big 50th wedding anniversary party for Nonnie and PaPa! This should be so fun, we are so excited for them - check back in 49 years and 2 months for Curt and I's party details! ;-)

Sunday we will go home, pack up the trailer with even more stuff and on Monday Curt will go back down to Houston and start filling our storage unit! So hopefully we will be on track to put the house up on Thursday before the July 4th weekend if all goes well - cross your fingers, folks, it's going to be a push!

We did get our camera housing in the mail yesterday, which is super sweet and will pay for itself hopefully this trip with all of our amazing pictures of the marine life in Playa! Ugh - so excited for this I can't even tell you! Turns out we're missing my Aunt, Uncle and cousins from Maryland in the airport by a few hours as they'll be coming as we're going - crazy! Too bad there is no overlap, huh? So I think that's about it... hopefully will see the sis this weekend, but am excited to at least see Mam, Mom, and Dad, and of course Curt's family as well!

Everyone have a great Friday and weekend!

xx

My GREAT trip!

Sigh…

So back at work and back in the real world... it’s amazing to me that even if you’re only out of it for a few days that you kind of forget that you have a full time job and what your life is really like at home! There were a few times when I was with family and friends that I was like – shoot – I have to go back to work on Wednesday – what is that? Haha!

So things are about to get crazy, but before I get into that I’m going to talk about my vacation! It was jam-packed, so hang with me!

So I flew out on Wednesday night, arriving into North Carolina late and hanging out with my aunt, uncle, cousin and her new beau until about midnight-thirty and then hit the hay! The next morning I got up early to meet Tiffany in Charlotte – my aunt was very gracious in offering my cousin’s driving services so she and her friend drove me to the meeting point where Tiffany met us and we exchanged me! We had Bojangles for breakfast which was pretty yummy for a fast-food place that I had never heard of! So we met Tiffany with no events to speak of, and then she, her mom and myself had some snacks at TGI Friday’s and got on our way to Greenville! We got to her place and caught up, got ready and went downtown with her fiancé, Joe, and had great sushi as well as fried cheesecake (another first) for dessert (we shared)! Downtown Greenville is super adorable – we went walking around and took pictures by the footbridge, river, and falls and it’s just so cute… we also were hunting for the bronze mice that litter the main street – not litter really but there are 9 of them and we found 3! When we got home we watched some TV and crashed…

Friday we headed out to the Biltmore Mansion, which was INCREDIBLE!!! We took the dogs, Yoshi and Fancy who are Tiffany and Joe’s respectively, and left them in the car while we toured the inside of the “house” which is really 250 rooms and the largest “house” in America. It’s more like a small castle, people! It was so cool – built in the 1870’s I think by the Vanderbilt family and has so many gardens and rooms it’s unreal. The view alone was amazing… see corresponding pictures! So we spent all morning and a good bit of the afternoon here touring the house and then the gardens, topping off with our wine tasting where I bought my souvenir wines! Yum! Then we got on the road home as we had a bridal show to get to for her and Joe which was also awesome, and had dinner at a great little burger place and went home and watched The Island which we really liked! The next morning we got up and held a meeting which was awesome, then I got packed and we got on the road to go meet my aunt and fam at the Great Dane Gathering in Charlotte which was so cool! There were no female fawns to market Mav to, which is fine, but there were a ton of great danes there and it was so fun to see all the of differences in all colors, shapes and sizes!

That night we were pretty tuckered out, but Shannon called us as we were pulling into home and said we HAD to go check out the tallest cow ever, SO we dropped Uncle Randy off and Kelli and I headed out to see this freak of nature cow... she was right, it was enormous, but what was funnier is that we were in such a small town that some of Kelli's friends saw us (and in their head were wondering if I had ever seen a cow in Texas as I was on the side of the road taking pictures - lol - but for Uncle Randy) and turned around to come and chat... and THEN Brenda's Dad also stopped by and he's gotta be in his 70's or 80's, and he was a trip so we were having a party on the side of the road! So Brenda and Mike invited us to see the Lake House so we went home, got slightly cleaned up and headed back on out! I personally really enjoyed it, though it's probably a true chick flick! Then it was late, so off to bed from another packed day!!

So Sunday was time to exchange me with Katie, so Aunt Kelli drove me to the halfway point and we met Katie at a gas station late in the morning (thanks Aunt Kelli)! We hung out at her place after the very scenic and beautiful drive up to Blacksburg and then went to a cookout at her friends' house and spent the whole afternoon there! The group was majority vet students at VT so of course there were lots of dogs present and they were all having an awesome time playing while we were having an awesome time eating, chatting, drinking, etc. Met a lot of really great people and got a great glimpse into Dave and Katie's down time activities (when they have any)! At about 9 p.m. we headed out to Cabo Fish Taco for dinner where I had a yummy burrito and Dave, Katie, and I had good food and fun and then we went home and called it an early night (still 11:30 p.m. by the time I got to sleep)! Forrest (Dave's very cool beagle) decided it would be just fine to sleep with me, and I really enjoyed having him as my bed companion as he was so snuggly!!

The next morning I slept in - Hallelujah!! Forrest and I woke up at a leisurely 10 a.m. and we had a leisurely and yummy breakfast courtesy of Katie's culinary skills (biscuits and cinnamon rolls - double yum) and got on our way to have a fun day of hiking at the Cascades! So we got the dogs and ourselves ready, and Katie and Dave had two great Mule Camelbaks to accompany us to keep us hydrated, and then we got on the road! Forrest again in true form snuggled with me the whole way there, and we proceeded to hike a very nice 4-mile trail to the Cascade waterfalls. The day was overcast and cool in temperature (at least compared to what I am used to) so we were red and a little sweaty by the time we got to the falls, but it was very pleasant though not a super-easy hike so we were getting a great workout! Dave even decided to take a dip in the swimming hole beneath the falls which I'm sure was ridiculously cold, so Katie and I ate apples while we watched him! Then we hiked the 2 miles back, mostly downhill but still working the muscles and had a nice drive back... We got cleaned up and got ready for dinner - a nice night out to the Chinese Buffet where we ate ourselves silly! :-) We headed to Blockbuster afterwards (or maybe before?) and picked out two movies - The Ringer and Firewall - but of course we had to watch these later around Katie's current fave summer show, The Closer, much to Dave's chagrin as Kyra Sedgwick has a very fake southern accent - haha! So we watched most all of The Ringer which was kinda funny and kinda dumb, but watchable, paused it to watch The Closer, finished The Ringer, and then put in Firewall and then bed... So was an AWESOME relaxing night...

Then on to North Carolina the next morning to exchange me again, so Katie and I met Aunt Kelli at the same gast station, and I started to get sad as my trip was coming to a close... So Kelli and I went and said bye to Shae who was working at the vet clinic, went and hung out with her friend Kay and her daughter Kendall for a bit, then we went home for me to get packed up, and then on to the airport!

All in all it was a very quick and great trip... it was so great to see good family and friends, and now it's there turn to come see me! I love that... LOL!

Hope everyone is doing well...

xx

Leaving on a Jet Plane!

Hopping on a plane to North Carolina tonight to see my aunt, cousin and uncle! Should be good times… will also see Katie and Tiff while I’m in which I’m also very excited about – we have a lot packed into the next few days so I’ll probably have lots to share when I get back! AND hopefully a lot of pictures!!

Curt has a softball game tonight that I’m missing, as well as an after birthday party for one of the guys – bummer! But hopefully he’ll get a ton done with the house while I’m gone, b/c time is ticking away quickly and we only have a couple weeks until we said we would put it up! Yikes!

Talk to y’all soon…

xx

Let's try this again....

Ok – here we go one more time…

So this past weekend was really great – Friday we went to a comedy club downtown and saw Cowboy Bill Martin, who by the way is the funniest cowboy I have ever seen… my favorite one liner of his that is SO true is “What is the difference between a redneck and a cowboy” which he supposedly asked his father as a boy growing up b/c people were teasing him about being a redneck, and his father quickly replied back “acreage, which makes you a cowboy” b/c they had some land… We laughed so hard! And then he goes – “Now I know some of you are laughing, but the truth is some of y’all will be going home late tonight, and the only place left to park is next to the dumpster,” which of course sent the audience into roars… very classic! He was a great comedian that is one of those kinds that used human nature to make people laugh so we had a great time… come to think of it, I’ve never gone to a comedy club and NOT had a great time – why don’t we do this more???

Saturday was an exhausting day – woke up at the butt crack of dawn and got ready for the moving sale festivities to begin… Curt and Kendyl started putting signs out at 6:45 a.m. and by 7 a.m. there were people coming by (and interrupting my process of bringing everything outside) and buying stuff! I swear over 100 people came through for the sale, and probably about half of them came through before 8 a.m. when it officially was slated to start! But I’m not complaining, we sold a ton of stuff and made a great profit, and by 2 p.m. we were finished and packing up. In the 11th hour someone wanted to buy the couch set, so we got that sold. It sold for less than I wanted, but the lady was telling me a sob story so I negotiated with her and I am happy with what we got even though it is lower than what we wanted… so now we just have the Gazelle, Oriental Rug, and Aquarium left to find people to buy and that’s it! We’ll be taking a bunch of stuff over to Goodwill as well and Half Price Books and make all of those rounds so that will clear out some more stuff!!

After we finished with the Moving Sale fun, we got cleaned up and got ready for a movie and dinner out with some of my Life Group folks – we saw Da Vinci Code and I liked it, though of course the movie of any book will never be as good! Then we went to Mi Cocina for dinner which was SO YUMMY and one of my favorites – best salad of your life! So it was a great night out with friends and as soon as we got home (11 p.m.ish) we hit the hay b/c we were all so tired from sitting in the hot sun all day from the moving sale!

Sunday Kendyl left in the morning and Curt and I hightailed it to church, then spent the rest of the day fixing up the house and doing things to get it ready to put on the market – this is such a huge job!! Then we went to Life Group and had a great time, and watched Crash (Netflix – whoop!) when we got home – GREAT movie, by the way!!

Yesterday Curt and I worked hard… I got home at around 6:45 p.m. from work, and then we got busy mulching the front and backyard – that stuff was *radiating* heat – not kidding – so not only was it in the high 90’s, but we were kneed deep in that stuff until about 9:15 p.m. and just dripping sweat… but we got it done! So tonight we have a meeting and what not, but maybe we’ll start packing a few boxes to “de-clutter” our house… take down personal pictures of us, and make it look like neat freaks live there! J

Oh! And Curt and I are getting way excited about our mini vacation to Playa del Carmen… Curt bought a camera housing for our digital camera which will save us a lot of money from here on out with diving… (disposable cameras are expensive and not good quality, and renting a camera from a dive shop is ridiculously expensive, not to mention getting the CD and prints of the pics you like), so the housing will probably pay for itself in its first trip if we take a lot of great pictures! Curt also invested and bought us a couple diving knifes and scissors, which will make me feel better about diving in general… always have to have a plan and be prepared!! Here is the housing we bought…
we’re SO excited! We’re hoping to see a ton of sea turtles, and I have a feeling the cenotes will be so amazingly gorgeous… this will be just what we need before we start this new chapter of our lives!

I hope everyone is having a great day – speak soon.

xx

GRRR

I totally just wrote this huge entry that covered the weekend and everything, and it is officially lost in time... I just don't even have the energy to recreate... sorry :-(

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR - there's a nice 20 minutes of my life wasted!

So glad it's Friday!

So this week was full of business, fun, and sometimes not so fun things like work - well I'll take that back, not that work isn't fun but it's not AS fun as hanging out at the pool or something! We had a ton of meetings this week but will have our tasks lined out very soon and get going on the report writing! I did well with working out this week and woke up early on T,W,TR so that was an accomplishment though I'm exhausted with no weekend catching up in sight, so oh well....

Curt had his first softball game this week which was a blast – they won 24-8 and really had a ton of great plays!! He's really excited about his team except for the burnt orange jersey! Don’t worry, I bought some white letters and stuck them on (then Curt ironed them) that says Gig ‘Em Aggies so it was a big hit despite the color!

This weekend we're hitting a comedy club, having a moving sale tomorrow, going to see the Da Vinci Code with some friends, and getting the house ready and other *great* chores! The ball is officially rolling!!

So leaving the office and ready for the weekend, I hope everyone else has a great one! :-)

xx

We have some news!

So... last week Curt got an offer to go work for Baker Hughes in The Woodlands, so we will be making the move to Houston! It was a really sudden happening, but he's had his feelers out for awhile though not actively pursuing. We are so excited about what this move will mean for his career, and it's for an amazing job with an awesome company that we both hold very highly... so he'll be starting there in July, and I'll be staying up here to finish up my project and coming behind him when that happens. In the meantime I'll be trying to get the house ready and keeping it clean while I'm up here so that hopefully it won't take too long to sell. So we'll see - going to be a lot happening here in the next month but it's exciting for us so it will be great! I do get *really* sad when I think about having to leave our house and the area, b/c we really have made so many wonderful friends here and it will be hard to leave this life we've built here behind...

Anyway, thought I should share the news!

We are excited about another new development, too, as a result of this - we are taking a quick vacation over the July 4th weekend! We booked a trip to Playa Del Carmen so we could scuba dive away so that Curt could have a mental break before beginning his new job, so that will be a BLAST and satisfy some of our scuba cravings. We're going to dive the Cenotes and do a night dive as well - I had just better see a turtle, though, because we didn't see ANY in the Bahamas! So we'll let you know! Here's a couple pictures of the Cenotes (not my picture - from the web)... these are like shallow caves and were formed from running water, so there are a series of them. Those of you who know me that I am a little antsy about cave diving, so this is really the best place to start as there is ALWAYS a way out to the surface which is my condition on anything in life, not just diving! :-)

So we are very excited about our upcoming adventures... we're of course pysched for the trip, and we're very proud of our spontaneous booking (though don't worry, we did our research!) and deals that we got for it... now Curt will just have to find out if he can come to Europe with me this fall!

Hope everyone is having a great day -

xx!