A mini-update

Here are some little updates ... not much has happened but these bullets mostly summarize a lot of what's happened.

• I got a new job! It's still through the temp agency, but its a job. The probationary period is 3 months and then we'll see what happens. But as of right now, it looks very promising. I'm an office clerk/payroll manager at a scrap metal shredding company. It's a pretty dirty environment, but the job is good and I really like it. I came in just after their office manager quit.  The office was a mess and we spent most of October straightening everything out! Now everything seems to be moving a lot more smoothly. Now we have a new office manager, and I'm still working here :) It's all good.

Some scrap metal finds:
Carousel Horse and a tricycle.

• Danny and I decided to renew our lease in our current apartment. We tried looking for a new place to live, but after several unsucessful attempts at finding anything new, we just threw in the towel and didn't want to stress it anymore. So we're renewing for another year. It's not permanent, it's not forever. And it's a pretty good apartment so its all good.
• Smokey is doing great! He's definitely gained some weight since moving inside. He's really funny, especially when I get home from work. He likes to sunbathe inbetween the blinds and the window. And he likes to look at my reflection rather than me, even though I can be staring right at him.
• I haven't been putting much thought into my cooking/baking. We're more on a day by day basis when it comes to dinner these days. Although I am always sure to cook enough for an extra plate so I can take it for lunch at work. 

Day after Thanksgiving Means ...

Well besides black Friday shopping, time to put up Christmas decorations!!

We went nuts at Hobby Lobby yesterday! Not completely, but we bought a lot of stuff! But for now, I'm just going to showcase the wreath that we bought. Hanging it on the door was one of the first things that we did when we got back to Brownsville.

Please forgive the dark picture .. it was after 10 o'clock at night! lol.

Turkey Day [Desserts]

This Thanksgiving I only baked 3 things :( It was a little something to adjust to, since in years past I've made more than a handful of things for dessert. I still slept the same amount of hours the night before Thanksgiving. But alas, I only baked:

A lemon meringue pie

A Pumpkin Pie and a double layered carrot cake.

All were delicious! Even my not-completely thickened cream cheese frosting I used on the cake. It still tasted great! And afterall, isn't that all that matters?? hahaha. ;-)

We had Thanksgiving lunch with Danny's family and boy was it delicious! His dad has these famous biscuits that he makes, melt in your mouth biscuits!! Better than Cracker Barrel biscuits!  True story ;) They always go all out for Turkey Day. Everything was delicious. I was so full! I didn't even bother to leave room for when we would meet up with my family later that day. But then again, my family doesn't do Thanksgiving like Danny's does. 

Overall it was a good day :)

I hope everybody had a great day spent with family and friends!

Getting back into the swing of things - "US"

So I've been a bad blogger haven't I?

All for good reason though! I'll have to do an update another day, very soon I hope. Just a lot going on - all good, thanks to God!

So in effort to get back into blogging regularly I thought I'd do this post that I'd seen on other blogs.


1. What are your middle names? Wentworth (lol, yeah I know!) and Renee

2. How long have you been together? Together for 7+ years … Married for 7 months

3. How long did you know each other before you started dating? A couple years ... he was a grade higher than me in school - we knew eachother, but we didn't know eachother. Make sense? We were both in band.   LOL.

4. Who asked who out? He asked me out during a Mariachi trip to Dallas.

5. How old are each of you? He turns 24 in 10 days! I'm 22.

 

6. Did you go to the same school? Same middle school, same high school. Different Universities.

7. Are you from the same home town? Yes, sort of. We're both from the Rio Grande Valley.


8. Who is the smartest? .... Me. lol. JK. We are both smarter than the other in some areas than others. Don't ask me anything about TV's or electronics. Don't ask Danny about payrolls and cooking/baking. hahaha :)

9. Who majored in what? I majored in Accounting. He's going to school for Music Education.

10. Who is the most sensitive? Defnitely me.

11. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Florida - DisneyWorld.

12. Who has the worst temper? I get mad more quickly than he does. But when he gets mad, he's mad.

13. How many children do you want? I want 4-5 right now. Ask me again in a year or two, I may have a different answer.


14. Who does the cooking? I do most of the cooking. Danny has been dabbling with BBQ, so far so good!



15. Who is more social? Defnitely Danny. I'm way more antisocial, but I'm coming out of it - the new job is helping with that!

16. Who is the neat freak? Oooh me. No doubt. I like things put in their place.

17. Who is the most stubborn? We are both very stubborn.

18. Who wakes up earlier? Most days I get up earlier to get ready for work.

19. Where was your first date? ... I can't remember! I know it was in Dallas though. FAIL! I know :(

20. Who has the bigger family? He does. I think we tie with the extended family though.


** What happened to #21?! lol.


22. How do you spend the holidays? In the years before - lunch with his parents, dinner with mine. ... Now it's lunch with his Dad, dinner with mine. Mom's will get worked in there somewhere.

23. Who is more jealous? I don't know. Neither .. ?? lol.

24. How long did it take to get serious? A few weeks.

 

25. Who eats more? HAHA Danny. :)

 

26. What do you do for a living? Right now I'm an office clerk at a scrap metal shredding yard. And I'm in charge of Payroll.

27. Who does the laundry? Sometimes we do laundry together, but then there are a lot of times where Danny will do it.

28. Who's better with the computer? We tie. ;)

29. Who drives when you are together? Danny, he says I'm a careless driver sometimes.

 

30. What is your song? LAME! haha jk. I don't think we have a song. Our first dance song was "Its Your Love - Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.

That was fun!

Potty Training Smokey

I'm a pet lover, and I'm fairly confident in my potty training skills. Now I know I'm no miracle worker, but I have the patience and it turns out right now I have the time! So after weeks of keeping our pets at my dad's house, I talked Danny into letting me bring Smokey to the apartment :)

Smokey has been an inside/outside cat since we found him. Yes, he was initially a stray. But after I saw him, I thought he was too pretty to stay a stray. So I claimed him and dubbed him "Smokey". Clever huh? lol. That was about 4 years ago, and he was already full grown - so that makes him about 6 years old now.

But like I said, he's been inside/outside for his whole life - until now! I knew going into this we'd have a couple of accidents on the carpet to start because he's not used to the litter box. So after the first night (2 accidents) he hadn't had an accident all day and I was getting worried. So I go over to the litter box and start moving the litter around with the pooper scooper and he gets all curious and jumps right in. He sniffed around for a bit before he used it! I was so proud of him! lol. Am I completely lame?

He used it again this morning. I'm a proud mama! lol. Now he's just chilling on the carpet under our bed. He loves the carpet. I thought he'd be a pain and want to go outside all the time. Lucky for us, no whining and he seems to be liking that he's the only pet in this apartment. So far, so good. I hope he keeps up this good behavior.

Here's Smokey in the car on the way to the apartment

Happy Birthday Jack!

Today marks the day that my first nephew came into this world! lol. Man is he a character! I love and miss him so much and I hope to go up and see my sister, brother-in-law and this special little guy to celebrate his birthday in less than 2 weeks!

Happy 8th Birthday Jack! 

Us in Amarillo last year where he was 6 & 3/4's.

Jack and I at his 7th Birthday Party

Jack - 7 years old

A week and counting!

It's been exactly 7 days since I've been "under the weather". And while some days have been better than others, this cold is being persistent in lingering around.

I think the biggest problem, is that I haven't taken anything for the infection. I've just been fighting off the symtpoms with DayQuil/Nyquil and cough drops. Danny's going to look into getting me some penicillin soon though, that should do the trick. The most uncomfortable thing I'm dealing with is the lack of taste and smell. We had 2 freshly baked peach pies in the car yesterday, and I couldn't smell a thing! I also could barely taste my food, but that didn't stop me from stuffing my face - I was starving come dinner time.

The peach pies that I made yesterday came out ok, better than what I thought they would. I was struggling with rolling out the pastry dough when it came out, and it always seems to give me trouble when I made the 2 crust recipe v. the 1 crust. Yesterday the dough was too stiff and kinda dry. It kept breaking apart. I think I'm just going to look for a new recipe. The one I use calls for shortening, and I've seen a handful of recipes where they use butter in place of the shortening. It just might be that time to look for a newer one.

Today is going to be a quiet Sunday. I'm still resting up and taking it easy. But come tomorrow, the job-hunt will go back into play. I've decided to just find something, anything. My degreee hasn't helped any, so much for that. Most of it is the location and demand. If we were say in San Antonio or Austin, I don't think it would be this difficult to find a job. So for now, for the time being - I'm just going to try to find something to get through this time being here. We don't plan on staying here more than a year anyway. Here's hoping!

Back to Blogging!

Ok I think my hiatus has been long enough. It's been a challenge to say the least, so much has happened in the past month - I don't even know that I want to relieve it on here. Nothing too bad, just work related.

So right now, I've already applied to the best extent that I've found - for jobs that are even a bit accounting related. And now I'm just waiting to hear back on any of those. In the meantime I'm just trying to enjoy my unemployment time, because I know it won't last forever. Financially, we are ok and we'll be ok for a good while.

Now I'm seriously thinking about looking for a job as a cook or a prep chef or something food related. The only problem is that it's so limited here. There isn't much of a diversity available as far as food, maybe only a handful of restuarants and then it's all authentic Mexican restaurants. I'll probably look more into that early next week.

Tomorrow I'm gonna bake 2 peach pies to take to our little mini-trip to the beach. I hope it doesn't get rained out on.

Recipe clipping!

So remember, I'm a professional bum! More on that later.

All I've really been up to besides sleeping in, watching tv, cooking and eating ... is clipping recipes. I have this stack of "Food & Family" magazines that I brought from my dads house. They were just sitting in the cupboards collecting dust, begging to be packed and included in the move :) lol. Well I brought them, and I didn't even count, but there's gotta be at least 40+.

So I'm going through them and clipping all the recipes that have a chance of being cooked and tried out. And I'm going to be honest here, I'm pretty sure the ratio is 75% Desserts and 25% food. lol. Ok, ok maybe I'm exaggerating just a bit. But really, I've found so many delicious dessert recipes to try out! I'm so excited!!

Right now, I'm not even half-way through the stack and I just realized that I'm going to have to go back through them and organize them to throw them into my binder of print out recipes. Yes, even with the 6+ cookbooks I have, I also have a binder.

I don't know what else to say, I love food!

Just thinking about finishing up through the rest of the stack is making me hungry!

Here's to Happy Clipping! :)

Interview #1, Part 2.

So after the first interview I had with the children's rehab clinic, I got a call back later that day for a 2nd interview! I was super excited to have gotten a quick response. I was really nervous during my first interview, remember?!

The 2nd interview was with the Operations Manager [I think]. He is what would be the office managers boss. He was also really nice and helpful in explaining the duties and responsibilities in much greater detail. I have to admit, I was a little overwhelmed when he was explaining it all. So much at one point that I even thought to myself "what the heck am I getting myself into?!" But that quickly passed.

At the end of it all he didn't offer me the job. Rather, he said sometimes they call for a 3rd interview with the Administrative Director, the head hauncho of the place. So either way if they call back it will be to offer me the job or to get me in for the 3rd interview.

Right now, I don't know that I would want to work my brains out like that. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with me being "on vacation" right now or if that job is just to much for me.

I knew finding a job was going to prove to be a challenge. And so far it's been just that. But now, it's not just about finding a job. It's about finding the right job.

Marley & Me

So I've pretty much been a bum lately. But that's gonna change on Monday, I'm throwing in the towel and going to apply at a call center - at least while I wait for a phone call for another interview.

Yesterday, I finally saw Marley & Me - it came out on HBO.

I'd never seen it before but I'd heard that it was sad.

It wasn't an out of the ordinary special dog with super powers or talking abilities. Marley was your typical dog, that happened to be a little out of control at times, but it was to be expected he was a huge dog!

So many years went by and life happened, then with about 20 minutes left in the movie I was dripping tears. I tried to hold it in because Danny was in the living room also, not really watching the movie but still in the room and I knew he wouldn't let up about me crying. I couldn't help it. At that point I stopped seeing Marley, but instead saw Bonnie and Chula. Chach.

In my family, we grew up as dog lovers. Yes, we have our cat, but dogs will always be the favorite. It just really hit close to home for me.

I'm not sure Danny really understood why I was crying, I'm sure he just saw it as me crying for a silly movie.

And now, I really miss Bella.

Interview #1

So I went to my first official interview this morning. I really wasn't sure what I was interviewing for as the paper reference only indicated the title as "Office Clerk/Auditor". But as I went in and began the interview I quickly learned that it was for an Office Manager position and that person is basically in charge of overseeing the clinic and the employees. There are so many duties and responsibilities, which will clearly be a challenge, but I'm more than up for it. I just have to keep praying and hoping that the lady that interviewed me was impressed.

The vibe was definitely good and she was so nice.

Now I just have to wait for a phone call for a second interview. That's the hardest part :-/ but I'm going to do my best to have faith and pray that it works out.

I'm on the hunt down after you!

So to bring everyone up to speed, we've moved into our apartment in our new city and finally feeling settled in. We miss all our family in the mid-valley! Especially you Yum-Yum! And also, we've been lucky to have a neighbor with a router that is not password protected! Thank you mystery neighbor, whomever you are :)

Our car is all nice and fixed! I'm so relieved and so grateful! Even  more so because our mechanic is allowing us to make payments instead of having had to pay it all up front for the labor and parts. Which is great because I'm unemployed.

Speaking of which - I woke up this morning having mixed feelings about finding work. I think I like this not being obligated thing. But at the same time I'm disliking the fact that our checking account isn't getting nice big deposits anymore. Since I've been over here in Brownsville, I've filled out I don't know how many applications and left equal amounts of resumes.

So now we wait.

*** While typing this post, I got a phone call about a resume I'd submitted! I got a call back for an interview! I'm really excited and hope it goes well. I don't know much about the company, but I'm more than willing to learn.

Last Manic Monday! - for now.

So today was my last Monday at my current job. It wasn't bad at all, but man did it (kind of) fly on by!

I spent pretty much the entire day "coding". Yep ;-) at least I was while my little sister was failing me all day! Yeah you know who you are! So yeah, I forsee that I'll be "coding" at least through Thursday. I think I can make it last that long. There isn't much going on at the office anyway. Payroll reports have been completed and sent off.... maybe a payroll to do by Friday and then that's it!

During my oh so tedious day, I couldn't help but get excited [just a little bit] about the move. I think I'm more excited about using all of our stuff rather than the move itself. I'm comfortable where we are right now, but it's not ours and who knows what new and hopefully amazing things await for us. That's the exciting part I guess ... the not knowing. But now that we're moving we kinda wish we'd gotten the 2 bedroom place ... oh well. It's only for 6 months. Hopefully we can find something equally afforable, only bigger .. with a fence... and a big kitchen ... is that too much to ask for?? 

Today I started packing up the china cabinet. We're going to take it and all my grandma's china. She gave it to my dad and well it's my dad so he said I could have it :) In the cabinet I was storing all our wedding shtuff: toasting glasses, cake toppers, cake knife .. etc. And well I actually have most of  the toasting glasses still, about 14. We'll only be taking 8 though. They're only for decoration! 6 seemed to be too few so 8 seemed good enough.

Next is kitchen items that have been in use, i.e. cookie sheets, pastry blender, mixing bowls ... etc. I hope we get it all done by Friday night.

Packing has been fun. .... Not. lol. It's been bittersweet.

A good work-out idea ... not!

So my car died. The engine is shot and its needs a new one. Since last payday we've been pretty stretched thin so we knew we were going to have to wait another 2 weeks till our next one to get it replaced. It's been a week and a half and it's been difficult and managable to say the least.

But anyway, my dad thought it'd be a good idea to get the car to the mechanic so he could start taking the old engine out and get it all ready for the new engine to be put in. Makes sense, yes? Yes. In order to accomplish this the car would need to be towed over to the mechanics. A simple feat, yeah in my mind! lol.

We needed to push the car onto the dolly and secure it down. So the hubby was at work and I was the only one at home to help my dad try to get the car mounted on. The whole thing sounded so much easier in my head. lol. I am a weakling!

The car was in neutral and we had to push, get a running start and hope it would make it over the ledge of the dolly and keep. But everytime we tried, the car would get as far as "almost, but not quite", so we'd try again. I think we attempted 6-7 times, and by the last time my legs were already numb! I'd built up a sweat and everything! That's all I've gotta do? Push a car onto a dolly? Neh. No thank you! lol.

This is what we were dealing with:

^^ See that ledge??

Yeah, it only looks easy!

5 Question Friday!

Wow, its been awhile since I participated in one of these! Here we go!




[1] What were your school colors??

• Elementary #1: red and white
• Elementary #2: maroon and gold

• Middle school: maroon and gold

• High school: maroon and gold

• University #1: navy blue and orange
• University #2: orange and white
• University #3: green, orange, and white

Yes, you read that right. I went to 3 different universities. Lol. I was, and still kinda am, very indecisive.

[2] What is the best compliment you've ever received?

I think the ones that mean the most to me are about something I've created, and I'm talking about food! I love to bake and I love to cook. I'm still deciding which I prefer over the other. But as of right now I'm at a cross roads. Please don't make me choose! lol. Anyway, like I mentioned - hearing compliments about something I've spent time and effort on only reaffirms my feelings about a possible career change .. somewhere down the road. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But eventually. Hopefully. And God willing :)


3. Do you buy cheap or expensive toilet paper?

LOL! I rarely want to buy cheap anything! I put up a bit of a debate when my dad tried switching to the cheap stuff. TP I just can't negotiate with. And I especially love it when there's a coupon for Charmin!

4. Have you ever had a surprise party thrown for you? Or have you had one for someone else?

I've never been thrown a surprise party ... [hint, hint family/friends reading this]. lol. I tried throwing one for the hubby back when we were in high school. Friends just started showing up at the house, you know just because. He had no idea! Unfortunately, I had just started working at Michael's and they happened to call me to go in later that afternoon. I had to leave the party early. But from what I can tell and from what I heard, Danny liked it and that's really all that matters.


5. What is one material possession that you "can't live without"?

I cannot live without my cell phone. I would've said my iPhone, but alas I no longer have it! Currently we are with Sprint and I have the HTC Hero. But it's very similar to the iPhone, it's a lot slower [and I mean a lot!] but it works.



TGIF! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Change ... and a small update.

I'm still here. I've been reading all the blogs on my blog reader list. I've just been that though, a reader.

My blog took a turn. A morbid one at that. But that's what I've been dealing with lately.

And so in an effort to turn it back around, I started by changing my layout. I'm not tech savy so I picked a predesigned template and altered it. I really like all the colors in the background picture.

Right now I've just been sending out some applications for jobs, as many as I can, for when we move.

So I'm going to try and blog as much as I can before we leave because we don't have a computer for the apartment. Although I want to get one as soon as we can afford one, we just have some other priorities at the moment.

Tomorrow is my 2nd to last Friday at work. LOL. Yes that means I still have a whole 'nother week of work left. But it'll be my last week. After tomorrow.

Blogging to recommence ... tomorrow :-)

A Letter to My Friend, Carlos Javier, "CJ," De Anda

Dear CJ,

It seems that I'm still coming to terms with what happened. To both of you. I saw you both. I was there when we buried you both. I know it happened. I just can't get my mind to wrap itself around the whole thing. I'm really having a hard time.

I keep thinking you're gonna text me asking if I'm ready for the iPhone 4G upgrade. Even though I'm no longer with AT&T. I know, I don't know what Danny was thinking. I keep thinking, and hoping that you're gonna text me wanting to hang out or something.

CJ, you were an amazing friend. There aren't enough words to describe you. Or Mario. Not enough to do you justice anyway. Tears come to my eyes just thinking that you're no longer here - no longer with us. I think I'm just refusing to accept it, as if you're still in the hospital. I just can't accept it.

I miss you. And I miss Mario. You guys were so different, and were one of a kind. There aren't many like you out in the world. And I think that's why I'm stuck in this frame of mind.

One of the last things you posted was that you were going to the beach that day, and I said "Have fun!" Man do I wish that was it. I wish you guys had had fun and were back safe and sound. And that this last week & 1/2 didn't happen. I know it did. I know better than that. I just keep wanting to deny it.

I saw the pictures from that day, and I keep wanting to think that the last time I literally saw you was a nightmare.

I know you're off in a better place watching over us. I just can't come to terms with it. Not right now. I try and then I start getting anxiety pains. I just can't. I think it's more of a "not wanting to" than a "can't." I don't want to.

What brings me comfort is that you're not in pain. You're not going to suffer in this world.

I'm heartbroken. Losing you two in the same week was truly difficult.

I miss you guys so much.

It's going to be impossible to forget you. There's no way.

Until we meet again my friend.

Your friend,
Jessica R. Hilton

PS: Happy Birthday!!!

^^^ Me and CJ - Oct. 2008

I didn't want to write another one....

Unfortunately, my good friend CJ didn't survive. He was drowning at SPI and my other good friend Mario ran in in attempt to save him.

I am not prepared to write CJ a letter. I'm drawing a blank in my head and my feelings. I'm shocked. I'm sad. I lost 2 really good friends in one week.

CJ was different. He had such a lively spirit. I guess if you didn't know him, you'd just think he had ADD or was super hyper. Just like Mario, he was always there for his friends - even if they were wrong.

My head is spinning right now. I'm really trying to be at peace and remind myself they are in a better place.

I didn't want to go to another funeral. I was really praying he'd make it through.

I'm not sure of his condition upon reaching the hospital on Sunday evening. But what I know is that the doctors had to put him in a medically induced coma that night. On Monday they were going to try and bring him out of it, but while they started he spiked a fever and had to be put under again. A couple of friends of mine were able to visit him in the hospital, and said he was physically looking better as the days went on. The nurses also noticed that his reflexes from the neck down were active. The only thing that was lingering was his brain swelling. They couldn't get it down. They were going to run a test this evening to try to see if they could get it down, but were already talking to his parents about organ donation.

My friend passed away a few hours ago. He was going to celebrate his birthday next Friday. He was 21.

RIP CJ. May you and Mario continue to watch over us until we all meet again. I'll be seeing you!

A Letter To My Friend, Mario Zapata, Jr.

Dear Mario,

I'm still in quite a bit of shock. I went to visit you on Tuesday. I saw you lying there. I was there yesterday when we buried you. Even through all that, it's still hard to believe. What happened was so out of the ordinary and completely unexpected. I don't know all the details, I wasn't there. Only those who were there with you that day know what happened. But when I got that phone call from my sister, I was in such disbelief - I didn't know what to think. And as the afternoon turned to evening, it was confirmed. We'd lost you.

My family and I all sat at the kitchen table in silence and sadness. I cried a little, but Danny was able to hold it together way better. He began telling us about how you guys met and became friends. He started to name some of the great qualities you possessed. The rest of the evening was spent reminiscing about all the great memories we had of you. Mario, we grew up together - throughout elementary to high school, in band and mariachi. You always had a smile on your face, no matter how your day was going or how you were feeling. You were always so optimistic about everything. You were a great listener and an extremely loyal friend. You never did harm to anyone and always stood up for your family and friends. You put others needs before your own, as you clearly demonstrated that on Sunday.

You saw CJ panicking in the water, and I'm more than positive that you did not hesitate a second before running in to help him. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out ok. God took you. What you did isn't unheard of. It's something you read about in a book, or watch in a movie. Mario, you did a brave thing, and it isn't going discredited either. All the articles about the accident say the same thing: Man Drowns Trying to Save Friend! Everyone knows what you did, and we couldn't be more proud of you.

It's extremely sad that you're no longer with us today, but we all know you're in a better place, watching over us and waiting - waiting till we all meet again.

Danny said the city should name a library or a school after you, and I think they should!

Your family and friends all love and miss you very much. I know you'll keep a close eye on everybody, especially Javi & Juan and your parents.

I didn't say good-bye to you yesterday, and I'm not going to right now either. Why? Because this wasn't good-bye; We'll be seeing you Mario. Sometime. Eventually. God willing.

Rest in peace my friend.

Your friend,
Jessica Hilton

A Productive Day!

1. THE ROYERS ARE MOVING BACK TO TEXAS!!! Who are the Royers you ask? Why no one else but these wonderful people:

My Brother In Law Casey, my sister Christina and Mr. Jack!

[That's my mom on the far right, she's not moving back, she's already here! ;) ]

Casey will be the first one back since he is to start work in San Antonio late July!!! But at some point, within a  few months - they'll be nothing but a few hours drive away!!! I'm super excited! Can you tell?! lol.

I've really missed this little guy

2. Yesterday was a little bittersweet. We found out about my sister moving back and also informed about a high school teacher of mine that passed away. Ms. Rodriguez was the head band director at our rival middle school, and also taught flute at the high school. I wasn't as close to her as some of the other girls but I'd had lessons with her throughout my years there. My deepest sympathy and condolences go out to her family, and I pray that they receive the strength and support they'll need through this difficult time.

3. Early this week I asked for the day off since I knew Danny had today off and we thought we'd take advantage of it and head to Brownsville and continue our search for somewhere to live. At this point we'd already given up hope on houses for lease. There just isn't much in inventory there, so today we just focused on apartments. We looked at a total of about 5 complexes, and at the end of the day we picked one. It's a reasonable monthly rent and was quite inclusive. The only downside is that we can't take Bella! They have a weight restriction on the pets, and she's got to be at least 35 lbs - on her skinny days. And their one time non-refundable pet deposit is $400.00. Yeah, that's a little too much for me. Sorry Bella, I did try!

4. Ashley Furniture is having a special tomorrow for select customers, at least that's what they're telling me! I got a letter in the mail saying I was a preferred customer and that I should come in and take advantage of all the special savings. If it's not really for "preferred customers" I'm going to pretend that it is, it makes me feel special :) lol. SO tomorrow after work Danny and I are going by to see what we can find. We're gonna need some new furniture for our new apartment! Yay! Shopping!! I'm looking forward to it!
Back to the grind tomorrow! Oh joy. Lol. JK About 4 more weeks to go at my current job. Guess I better start looking for a new one :)

Miscellany Monday!

I can't believe another Monday has come and gone! Thank Goodness! lol.

But Monday's mean:

:-)

[1] I have a 4 day work week this week! I've got Wednesday off to go with the hubby and sister to go house/apartment hunting again. I really hope we find something reasonable ...

[2] So I failed at my WJR! Horrible I know. I'm on a mission to get back into it though. All hope is not lost!

[3] I'm really happy about Danny's work schedule this week - he opens all week so we get to carpool to work and spend out evenings together! I really don't like it when he closes.

[4] I'm super jealous that my little sister is going to Chicago this next Sunday for a whole month! We really wanted to go for the 4th of July weekend, but it doesn't look like we'll be able to. I mean we probably could, but that would interfere with our moving plans. I mean first she takes my iPhone, then she leaves me to babysit her pooches & cat for a month! lol. I'm just kidding Audrey! I hope you have a great time visiting Casey, Tina and Jack!!! :-) We'll miss you!

[5] I've been feeling really tired lately. I should be used to my sleeping routine by now, but for some reason I just haven't figured it out. I've been averaging 6-7 1/2 hours a night for about a month and a half now .. you would've thought I'd be used to it by now ... but no. lol.

[6] I made Chicken Flautas for Father's Day lunch with Danny's family yesterday ... and they were so good we decided to make them again for dinner tonight! [My SIL mentioned it on FB earlier, plus they're super cheap to make] They came out yummy today too!

Fresh limeade - Chicken Flautas with a side of Mexican Rice and lettuce with lime and salt. Jalapeno/Guac sauce for dipping. :-)

Pet's via Kindred Connection!

I saw this from Natalie's blog and thought it'd be fun to blog about my baby's too!

WARNING! PICTURE OVERLOAD! :-)

Questions:
1. What pets currently reside at your house?
(If you don't have any now, tell us what you grew up with)

Well since we're still at my dad's we've got a ton! Bella and Smokey are ours. Then there's my sisters: Pudge, Chiquita and Erin - plus Erin's 3 kittens! And my dad has Daisy!

Bella

Smokey

Pudge & Chiquita

Erin

(L-R) TJ, EJ, and MJ

Daisy

We're a big 'ol happy family! Did you count? That's 9 in total!


2. What is one really strange thing your pet(s) does?

Bella eats lying down.

Smokey likes to hang out outside on top of one of the AC units. That seems to be his favorite one.

3. Now fess up here: give us your nicknames for your pets (we KNOW you have them- and we KNOW they're good)!

Bella: Poochie ... Bella ... Baby ... My Bella ... Chiflada {spanish for spoiled, because lets face it, she is} Cochina {spanish for icky} ... Pooch ...

Smokey: Smokey ... Smokey-pants ... Smokey Okey ... Cat ... Canijo {curious little punk} --- and Danny and my dad like to call him Smokette, because he's fixed. lol. They're mean, I know!

4. Are your pets spoiled or not (grin)?
Yes. I'm not afraid to admit it. I love them to death and I treat them that way.

Bella on the couch with Danny

Smokey laying with me on the couch

5. Insert pet pics here :-)

Ready? lol.

Bella, the day I adopted her.

See. Spoiled.

Bath time!

I think she's trying to tell me something here! lol. That was Chiquita's bed.

Smokey, always wanting attention when I'm busy with something else.

He sleeps A LOT!

Where I'd like to be right now ...

... For at least 2 weeks. At least.

That is all.

Miscellany Monday!

Another Monday has come and gone! And the day is not over yet, which means I have time to participate in another Miscellany Monday with Carissa!

1. Erin - my sister's cat, had 3 kittens. Some days I want to keep them all because they're so gosh darn cute!

Unfortunately I can't, Danny and I already have Bella and Smokey. So right now we've been trying to look for permanent homes for them, until then we'll just continue to foster them for as long as we can.

2. I don't know what's been up with me lately, but I've been screwing up my rice! And by rice, I mean Mexican rice - the orangy, delicious one ;-) But anyway, the past couple of time's I've made it, it's come out ok. Here at my house we like our rice nice and fluffy, and dry. Somewhere in the browning process, I'm doing something wrong - or different. Last week it came out too dry, it was undercooked because I didn't have enough water in there for the rice, so I added more water and it came out fluffed but moist. A little too moist for our liking. And today I made another batch for my dad because he wanted mole leftovers for dinner. And this time I had too much water in there! Something's off ...

3. I've come to notice that I'm addicted to Tetris. I have the app on my phone. Not my iPhone, because I don't have that one anymore! :( Another post on that later. I can play that for hours! I started playing the one available on Facebook recently. Back in high school Danny and I had a portable handheld one. Similar to this:

 

4. Today I complete Day 2 of my new WJR [walking.jogging.running] routine that I've just started. lol. I wanna try and keep up with it. Recently I'd been feeling really down because I've gained weight, and I can see it. I can feel it. And I was just moping around about it and not doing a darn thing about it. But now, I feel good. And I almost gave in and didn't go to the park today after work because I was still really sore from yesterday. But it'll get easier. At least I hope it does :) I took Bella with me. That girl has got to learn to pace herself. The first mile she was walking me and the second mile I was dragging her! It was fun though, I'm glad she got to get out of the house for a bit.

Weekend Recap!

Yesterday was fairly busy - we all woke up insanely early for a Saturday. There were a couple of errands we wanted to get done, and some that had to be done morning/mid-morning: like go to the bank.

For breakfast I made the hubby oatmeal while he got ready for work, no big challenge there! lol. And for the first time ever, I poached eggs! I youtube'd it so I could see someone else do it and so that I could get an idea of what I needed to do. It was very easy and was pretty tasty. I had 2 with some wheat toast.

Then we were off!

Errands to accomplish:

1.Close my old bank account.

This didn't take long at all. The line was at the drive-thru banking. While we were waiting an elderly man who came in about 5 minutes after us just began to talk to us. Poor guy, he'd just lost his wife and had gotten a letter in the mail about $5,000 having been deposited into his account. He was there to see if it was true and how it came to be. I think it must've been recent, his wife's death - he was almost in tears talking about her. He said they'd had a great, long ride together. I thought it was so sweet the way he was talking about her.

2. Deliver Glee - Road to Sectionals to my cousin Victoria. 

Yes we have this on DVD already. We're hooked! I love the Acafellas' episode with Josh Groban. He was funny in the season finale too! But not my cousin Victoria finally got into it, she said the Gaga episode got her.  

3. Head to Best Buy to use a gift certificate we earned through their Reward Zone program.

Best Buy gave us Flyleaf's cd :)

4. Go to BB&B to exchange a coffee maker we bought and a pizza pan for some other things.

What I love about BB&B is if you use their 20% off coupon to purchase something, and then later you want to exchange it - they'll give you the full purchase price's worth in store credit! A couple of weeks ago we went to buy a coffee maker and a coffee bean grinder because Danny wanted them and we didn't recieve those as wedding presents .. and we had gift cards .. and coupons that were about to expire.  I'm not a big coffee drinker, I drink coffee occasionally. But anyway, just this past week we got a belated wedding gift from one of my dad's ex-coworkers. It was a really nice coffee maker. It totally kicked our little one's butt! So we kept it :) In exchange I got some kitchen storage containers, for like pasta and flour, etc. A fleece throw, because you just never know. And a nylon whisk :) Exciting stuff huh? lol.

5. LUNCH!

For the first time ever, my sister Audrey and I went to try McAllister's! It was delicious!

^^^ Our panini's :-)

And the sweet tea, AWESOME! lol. I'm pretty picky on the tea. I hate the instant stuff - it's gotta be brewed. And sometimes, someplaces overdo it on the sugar. I mean yeah, "sweet" tea but I don't like for it to taste like sugar. Gosh. lol.

6. Make a pit stop at Pier 1 on the way home.

It was right there on the way home, so how could we not just stop in and take a look around! :) ANd of course, we found lots of things  we wanted to bring home with us. I don't know why we torture ourselves like that ... we were then inspired to suddenly go on the search for a cookie jar. We looked there, but no such luck. So then we went by Hobby Lobby, which was on the opposite side of town ... and didn't buy a cookie jar, but instead I got some more scrapbooking supplies! I was lured in by their annoucement that they had a table with special discontinued pages - 10 for $1.00! How could I not pass that up! So I got some letter stickers, more glue, my special bargained pages, and a package of scraps. A blog on that [scrapbooking] coming soon.

7. Rent a movie!

Redbox is our go-to for this. It's fast, convenient and cheap! My sister and I rented Young Victoria. I really enjoyed it a lot, more than I initially thought I would.

Today is Sunday and I've been up since 6:45 AM! I went to the park with my sister where I walked/jogged/ran 2 miles. I know thats not a lot, but I'm just getting back into it. It was certainly hot enough, but luckily there was a bit of a breeze. I made us some breakfast and then bathed 3/4 of the dogs. Now I'm just gonna relax the rest of the day and enjoy what's left of my weekend.

Meatball hoagies for dinner :-)