So, here's some bullet points of what's goin' down with the Houston's the past month or so...
- The House: Still working on it. There are times I actually wonder if we bought The Money Pit. You remember that movie with Tom Hanks and the chick from Cheers? "Two weeks!" I hear it over and over and over again except two weeks has turned into months and months and still I have no closet or kitchen floor (well, I have a kitchen floor, but the new floor is sitting in the family room) and there is foil foam boards over my large windows because putting in the french doors is just not in the budget this year cause everything else came up and we have to deal with those issues first. And were busy. Like...reeeeeallly busy. I just want to finish all the other projects we started so we can take a break for awhile. I completely realize we have our entire lives to "finish" things...but I like things to be done and checked off a list. I don't even feel like I want people to come over because it's still in construction phase. I can't wait to at least get our room stuff done, then maybe I can post before and afters of those small things.
- The Kids: We just celebrated Emmy's 9th birthday, and we celebrated Mae's 5th a few months ago. I can't even believe this. Faith will be 12 on the 12th of August in the year 2012 so we of course will be planning a fun party for that. This summer is flying by. We went camping a month or so ago, and it was...not a vacation but still fun. Russ took on a racoon in the middle of the night, and we did get to do a little swimming in Lake Michigan, but it was kind of chilly and we didn't get to swim much. Isn't it gorgeous there? Why do we drive 14 hours to Panama City Beach, Florida every year? Geesh.....
They will all be in school this August. Everyone asks "What will you do?" and my honest answer is....I have no idea. I really don't. I'll discuss this more in the "job/career" section.
- Jobs: Photography is something that I love, but right now, I just don't like it very much. It's become a job, but people still treat me like it's my hobby. And it makes me zero money. Raise your prices you say? Well I did, but then I get complaints that "Your getting pricey....I have to think about it" or my favorite "I'm gonna just get an 8x10 and I'll order more later and later never comes. That's not a problem, except that I spend an awful lot of time per session (maybe a solid 25-30 hours from shutter click to upload) and when its all said and done, a $12 order just kills me. It's frustrating. And I'm not sure if your aware of it, but EVERYONE is a photographer now. DSLR cameras are affordable to most these days, and it's just one of those things people don't want to pay you to do it when they can "take just as good a picture myself" *sigh and typed with a hint of sarcasm* I've applied to several places, and we'll see what happens. I have no plans to get a job til the kids actually start school, and I'm just praying that God will just intervene and the right situation (if getting a job outside the home is the right situation) will present itself. We're fortunate in that Russ has a great job and the hours will enable us to not have to worry about childcare except maybe 1-2 days a week, and maybe only for an hour. Faith is getting to the age where she can babysit, so....we'll see. I don't know. I take each season of my life in stride and with a grain of salt. Is this the end of my season at home with the kids, or not? Ok...that just choked me up a little....
- Russ and I: We just celebrated (well....I guess we didn't "celebrate" because he was at work and again, I was chained to my desk) 15 years from the day we met. Ah...that fateful day. A coworker wanted to introduce us. He described Russ as a "not too tall, kind of 'stocky', country music loving, blonde hair, brown-eyed country boy" who was "perfect for me". IF you knew me back in the day (well..and today even) you would know that was in fact NOT my idea of a perfect guy. I walked in expecting to see a short, dumpy hick with a cowboy hat and spurs and I see this clean cut, muscley, perfectly dimpled smiled hottie and actually said the words "dang...if it doesn't work out with the fat guy, I will take him". Thank God that fat guy never showed up, and the rest is history:)
- Health: Well....I'm frustrated. I have dizziness pretty much frequently. Again, I can mask it well. If you are talking to me, you'll notice I'm leaning on something typically. I've gained about 30 pounds since last December and nothing fits (thanks stressful house renovation) so were trying to excersize more, but it hard to even get through a workout. I try to get up and walk the dog, but it's dang hot. And he doesn't do heat well. IIIII don't do heat well. So it's a bad combo. I've ben dieting and excersizing for about 2 weeks and have lost zero...read....0.none.nada.zilch.nothing pounds. And THAT REALLLLY makes me mad. I feel like I need to make a blanket apology to the world: Dear World. I'm sorry, I'm off the sugar. Which means Cake. Which means you get to deal with a seriously witchy (read slightly psychotic) me for the next...oh....3 months. Maybe that's another reason I threatened to "cut" my daughter.
- Beasts: We almost got another giant. Like....put money down on him and it was t-minus one week and counting til the day we were gonna meet and bring him home. Moses momma went and got herself knocked up again (those two crazy pups can't keep their paws off each other! :) and looooong story short, the largest pup became quickly available due to a mixup with the original guy who was gonna get him. For some reason, we thought...yeah, lets do it. I mean...Moses is awesome. He was a fairly easy guy to train. He's lazy and sweet and loves our kids. I do want another, and it's the same parents, so lets just do it. So we did, put a deposit on him and waited. Some friends and neighbors to my mom put a deposit on another in the litter and this would be their first. Their first pup together, their "Baby Brinks". Then that week before they were due to come home, Little "Brinks" developed some stones in his boy parts and had to be put to sleep. Can you even imagine having to make the decision to have your little sweet puppy put to sleep before you even had him in your arms? UG. When it didn't look good for him, Russ and I just looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and said "yeah" with that knowing look. I let her know if she wanted to take ours, they were welcome to him. We still have our puppy, he's just north of 110 pounds. I knew God's hand was in it because we didn't tell a soul (except a few family members). We couldn't even think of a name for that little guy, and it was all, I'm convinced because he was never meant to be ours. We were just meant to "hold" him for them so that when this situation arose, they wouldn't have empty arms. So now they have little "Brinkley" in honor of his brother "Brinks" and in a few months Moses will have a playmate that he can actually play with on his level:) Speaking of Moses...I'm just gonna say this: I wouldn't advise anyone...ESPECIALLY a male to just "show" up at the house. He's taken on this role of "protector" and he very well might eat your face;) He's pretty protective of us. Were working on it, but I do have to remember...this is what he was breed for. Back during the Wars, these dogs were breed to stay home and protect the women and children, so they just gravitate towards that. It's in his DNA. If you wanted to meet him...its a process. He's not a dog you just go up to and start petting and getting in his face (you shouldn't do that with ANY dog fyi), that makes him nervous. I say all this and he just graduated puppy class with flying colors;) He's not aggressive, but when that hundred-something-pound beast starts charging down the road at you, lips flying and teeth showing (only cause his lips are flying...he rarely shows his teeth) he can be pretty intimidating:) I must say...I feel pretty safe walking around with him. I rest pretty assured knowing nothing will try and mess with us! All that being said, don't you just wanna get up in that face? ug:)
I think that pretty well covers most of whats going on. I know I've missed something. I don't really even care if anyone reads this, sometimes it's just therapeutic to actually type it all out. I have to go and do about 1000 things today before we get to go and sweat our booties off for cookouts and fireworks. Happy Independence Day!
