YAY!!!

Just a quick post...


OWEN GOT ADOPTED TODAY!! Yay!!!


The story about Owen here.

It was a really nice couple that adopted him! Not only that, but they adopted a kitten that is just a little younger than Max!

I am so so excited and happy for Owen and his new parents!

We miss him, but we are so happy he found his forever home!

Through this I learned even more that it's okay to get attached, love even if somethings not going to be in your life forever or be permanent.

Honestly I was worried/scared for a while that I would grow so attached, that when the adoption day came, that I'd be so sad to see him go or not be able to give him up.

I am a little sad to see him go, but my happiness, joy and excitement defiantly outweighs any sadness!

So that's been my day!

I helped the nice couple pick out their new kitty essentials, since they asked for my help. As they were about to leave with their new critters, they both thanked me and the wife hugged me and told me "We'll take care of your baby" :)

It's been a good day! Hope your's is going great too!

2012

I seriously can't believe that 2012 is over! It's so weird how fast time goes by!!

Let's have a recap of 2012!


January-

• I took a long term substitute position job at the school that I student taught in. That job lasted until May!!
• It was a special education job listing, I had no idea at the time I took it, but I am so glad I did!
• I got to see my best friend get married! :)
• We added Lucius to our family! He has been such a blessing! Such a sweet boy!

March- 

• I got a new car! My first ever, brand new car! It's a Honda Civic! My gas millage in my Ford Explorer was less than good and with me working 30 minutes away at the time...we decided to get a car! I am SO happy with it! It's safe, 4 door (my Explorer was 2) and the gas usage is awesome! 32 MPG...We've seen 40MPG

• Joey's cousin got married! It was a beautiful outdoor wedding in Georgetown, Tx

May-

• I got hooked on comic books! We went to see The Avengers twice, and then that Saturday was Free Comic Book Day! I was hooked!

June-

• I turned 24! It's weird since I don't feel that old!
• For my birthday, I just wanted to have a relaxing night. We ordered Vietnamese food and watched The Guild
• We had my dad and my step-mom over to celebrate my birthday. It's always great having them! Lots of laughs! :)

July-

•  Joey's birthday! 
•  Camp 360- We are on staff and do this every year! It's always a blessing to be able to do that and especially when the other staff members are like family!

August-

• I took another "vacancy" position at a school near Joey's work. That ended up lasting until December!! Such a BIG blessing!
• It ended up being for Special Education, this time 3rd-5th grade resource room.
• This ultimately is what made me decide to pursue my Special Education certification. I felt like there was a reason why I kept being put in Special Education classrooms. 

October-

• We adopted Max! He was so little( he's growing so fast)! He is such a snuggle baby!
• We found Owen, almost exactly a week later! Instead of taking him to a shelter, we decided to foster him until we can get him adopted to a good home! He was/is defiantly a surprise visitor, but I know God is using this opportunity to teach me something!

December- 

• Joey and I celebrated 10 years of being together!!!! :D
• Oh my gosh, does he spoil me! That day, I felt like a princess!
• It started after I got off work...he made a video for me, using photos from the past 10 years and songs from our wedding! The first song always makes me tear up, because I walked down the aisle to it! The second was when was played when we walked back down, as husband and wife!
• Here is what he wrote on Facebook (I post this so I'll always have it):

Today, Rachel and I celebrate ten years together. Ten years ago, we were both shy high school kids who went from not knowing each other at all to best friends to boyfriend/girlfriend in the span of 6 months. I had been invited to work with Matt, Phil and Rachel's dad as a sound engineer for their band. Through that awesome experience, I met Rachel when I cut myself at her house one day and she was the one who helped me. Being the shy person she was, Rachel only said, "All I have are Winnie-the-Pooh band-aids." Likewise, being the shy person I was, I said "That's ok, thanks!" took the band-aid and rushed out the door. We would later get to know each other more in school and realized our backgrounds were very similar. We hung out as much as possible at school to the point where our friends would ask us weekly if we were dating yet.

Finally, on December 11, 2002, I asked Rachel out. I was so shy I couldn't even say it. I drew the question with my finger and she drew her response. Neither of us expected the relationship to last very long. However, as the days turned into months and months into years we became even more inseparable. Through the greatest times in our lives and worst, we've been there for each other. To say that I am humbled by the gift God has given me in her would be the understatement of my life. I am beyond blessed.

We usually are not so public about the details of our relationship, but I felt that this occasion warrants a little publicity. I made the video posted below as a gift to Rachel and to remind us of some of the amazing memories we've had over the years. To all that we've had the pleasure and honor of knowing the past 10 years (and longer), thank you for your friendship and support.

• Here's the link to the video he posted with it (I tried to embedd it...didn't work): https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Pd_VykyO4BU
• Oh my gosh! I cried, a so joyful and happy cry!
• That night just got better and better! I can't believe how much I have been blessed with having Joey as my husband!

• I took my Special Education test on the 15th. It took me 2.5 hours to take it. I took my time so that I would do the best I could do on it!
• That next Tuesday, Joey found out my scores for me, since I was working. I PASSED!!!
• Joey figured out that I only missed 17 questions out of the 132. 
• Wow!! I can not believe it still! God is good! I felt like I was being led that way, figured if I wasn't meant to be in Special Education, I would not pass or do well. I think this is God's way of letting me know where he wants me!

• My best friend called me one night (the same one who got married in Jan.) and told me that she and her husband are expecting!!!! I am so so happy for them! She's due in June. They are keeping the gender a secret, so I am super excited to see if it's a boy or girl!

• We celebrated Christmas with our families. All 4 of them! Joey's mom first, then my mom, then Joey's dad in Austin, and this Saturday is with my dad! 

2012 was an amazing year! 

I honestly had trouble remembering what went on this year, it seems like all I did was work! However, I am so thankful to have had  substitute jobs all the way through the year! I had 2 sub jobs that lasted 4 months each! 

2012 was a year of working for me, however it was also a year of remembering and seeing what God has done in our lives!

God really has blessed us with so much and I am so thankful! 

I give Him all the glory!

To Do:

Lately, I have been really slacking. Slacking in cooking, housework and blogging!

I've been so busy with my long-term substitute job and when that ended the other sub jobs I took.

I've also been studying for the Special Education certification exam.

Since, today I have no sub job and I have already taken my exam(last Saturday). I have a free day!!

Oh and by the way...I PASSED MY EXAM!!

Out of the possible 300 points, I made a 273!

What a tremendous blessing!

So all that needs to be done is the paperwork to go through officially and I'll be Special Education Early Childhood-12th grade certified!

YAY!

I'm using today and possibly tomorrow, to get things done around the house.

Why am I posting it here...to get me motivated and keep me accountable!


To Do: 

Cleaning:

-Wash clothes
-Wash towels
-Wash rug

- Vacuum rugs and couches
- Sweep living room floor
- Vacuum kitchen
- Possibly steam clean it
- Pick up ornaments off of floor (thanks kitties!) and put up
- Sweep bedroom

- Clean master bath: shower, tub, toilet, counter
- Clean toilet in guest bath

- Organize and put away things

Fun:
- Make apple pie- for Saturday
- Make brownie bites (got a cool new brownie maker from my grandma)
- Wrap presents- for Saturday
- Put together gingerbread house
- Play with kitties with their beloved feather stick - kinda hectic with 4 jumping at it, but they love it!

Necessary:
- Take Max to the vet, for his neutering
- Get the few gifts I have left to buy for Christmas


That's it! That's enough on my plate for today and tomorrow! Of course catching up on some TV is thrown in there too!

Have a great Thursday!

Max and Owen

A lot of critter happenings have been going on at our house since I wrote last.


It all started one afternoon when Joey went to Petco to get turtle supplies. He had dropped me off at Target to get a few groceries. When he picked me up, he told me that they were having adoption days and there was a really cute kitten there!

Once he told me that the kitty reminded him of Burney, I had to go see it.

I was nervous that adding a new kitty would mess up the great, peacefulness we had in our house since we got rid of Daisy. (She went to live with my in-laws.) Nemo and Lucius were finally able to relax without having the diva/grumpy girl cat around.

We got to Petco and he was so little! We stayed about an hour and after holding him, I decided that he was too adorable and he had to come with us.

We adopted Max on October 13th! :)

On the car ride home

Nemo and Lucius meeting their little brother! 

We didn't have my mom's nice crate, so we improvised!

Nemo hissed at him for a few days. I guess he didn't know any different since when he (Nemo) came to our house, Daisy hissed at him. Lucius loved Max right away! Nemo got over being scared of Max and they now wrestle and snuggle!

Max is a snuggle bug! Sometimes a little too much, but he's a perfect addition to our family. 

Right now, his favorite thing to do is to wake us up early in the morning with snuggles and kisses to our face.

His personality is like Nemo's and how Yao was. He's very curious, adventurous and out-going.  

Our kitty count went up to 3. A perfect trio! :)

Then a week passed...

October 20th

As I was going to the store one day, I noticed a young cat walking near our house. It was by a house with two young boys. I called Joey and told him to check and see if the cat was still out in 10 minutes...to make sure it wasn't that family's cat. 

Well...10 minutes later he calls me. "I have the cat, now what?" Me: "Um....well...I figured it belonged to that family." Nope. 

We decided to keep him in our guest bathroom and put up "Lost Cat" signs to see if anyone called. 

No one. One lady, but her cat was older and calico. 

Joey and I decided to try to find this little guy a home. I didn't want to have him for too long, since I was afraid I would get attached to him and want to keep him. We can not have 4 cats. That's too much work. 

We posted on Facebook and looked into local shelters. I found one, by God's will, one random afternoon. I went into Petco and there was SPOT. They are all about finding strays homes. Perfect! I contacted them, and they have so nicely allowed us to foster this kitty.

We named him Owen since he is also the carbon copy of Nemo. Except his eyes are amber and Owen has short hair. We wanted to name him Omen, but I figured a cat with that name wouldn't get adopted. So Owen it was! :)

So each Saturday (for 2 weeks now) we take little Owen to our local Petco (which is a few minutes away) in hopes that he'll get his forever home. I am so very grateful that SPOT is allowing us to take him. They are so awesome, they have a cage, litter box and toys all ready for him when we get there. Owen's first adoption event he was very timid. It was some place new, with dogs barking and strange people. He sat in his clean litter box and slept. The second time was better. 

I am so glad we decided to foster him, I didn't want to just take him to a shelter to wait to have a home. We are able to foster, and he can be with friends and be comfortable.  However, our ultimate goal is to get Owen his forever home :)

After his neutering surgery. 

He looked so handsome in the scarf!

The sunlight made his eye color really pop in this picture.

We found out that he is between 6-8 months old, between Nemo and Max's age. 

Owen is such a sweetie. His personality is like Lucius' and how Burney was - quiet, calm and laid back. He does like to play with Max a lot. I think he's a little intimidated by Nemo, since Nemo looks big due to his fluffy fur. It took him a couple of days to warm up to us, but now he comes and snuggles with us and the other kitties. 

There you have it. 4 kitties in our house! It's a little crazy at times. Like meal time. The horde of cats come to meet me at the laundry room, where their food is. Lol! I believe God has brought Owen into our life for a reason. I trust Him that we'll find him a home!

Front to back: 

Nemo, Lucius, Owen, Max

Have a great weekend!

September Happenings

Wow...I posted at the beginning of September, and now October is half over! Time goes by so fast!

We had lots of things to do in September on the weekends.

The weekend after I posted about wanting a record player we went to our first auction.

I've never been to one, my only experiences are ones for church functions and Auction Kings on TV. I'm sure you can already guess this, but auctions are not as fast paced as on TV.

My cousin and aunt like going to auctions and always seem to find the neatest things. So that Saturday I asked Joey if he wanted to go. He said sure, there was a cool jukebox he wanted to see.

First thing, I notice when we walk in the building a box of comics up for auction. I had just read about someone's awesome score on comics from a garage sale. So I told Joey I would love to have them. Most of the comics were older and really cool looking.

We kept the comics in mind and kept looking around. Then BAM...there was a record player! Not only that, but 2 boxes full of records up for auction as well! Score! We decided to try for both.

The comics were one of the first things up to bid, since it was for St. Jude hospital. It was a medium sized box full of comics. Sold to us for $30!

It wasn't until about half way through they got to the records. We bid on those and got those for $30. The guy we were bidding against came up to me and wanted to buy one record album from the box. We didn't know anything about it and it wasn't valuable to us. It was more valuable to him. He offered $5 for it. Sold! So we really paid $25 for the records!

About 2 items later the record player went up to bid. The auctioneer started at $100...went down to $50....went down to $25. No one was bidding! He asked for any opening bid. Joey said $5! We went back and forth with one other guy. I was getting nervous! We had all these records, we needed a player! Joey bid $25, that was the other guy's stopping point! We won it too!!

We had the perfect spot for it. It's one of the first things you see as you walk into our house!

1950's record player

It looks so neat!

It works well too!

The starter to get it to spin, doesn't work, 

but give it a jump start spin and it works awesomely!

Speakers work great!

The 116 records (front box and the back red box)

There is all types of stuff in there!

Michael Jackson "Thriller"

Beach Boys "Endless Summer"

Carpenters

Ac/Dc

Janet Jackson

Diana Ross- I think

I can't remember all, but there's some good stuff. 

There's 2 Halloween "Spooky Sounds" records that I plan on using this year :)

The comics are in the middle. There is an old Porky Pig in there and lots of other neat ones.

I love adding to these to my collection!

I thought, and still think, it was such a blessing to find a great deal on a record player. 

Especially since I had just expressed wanting to get one. 

Another weekend in September we started working on the turtle tank.  The filter we had starting leaking. So Joey started researching online to get a replacement filter. As he was researching, he discovered that our 75 gallon tank was actually not adequate for our turtles. 

Red ears are supposed to have 10 gallons per inch of their shell. Well, we have 2 and our biggest (Nibbler- female) was was 7.5 inches long. Meaning she needed 75 gallon just for her! Yikes!

So he researched more on what we could get and found a fantastic idea!!

A stock tank. Like one for water for cows and horses. Yep...you read that right! 

We headed to our nearest Tractor Supply store. Got a stock tank we liked and could hold the amount we needed. Loaded it and moved the old stuff out!

Before:

Please ignore the flying shark! Lol

Wooden thing- a turtle tank we built in 2010...started leaking :(

On top was the tank we replaced. 

After:

Ta-Da!!

The light is supported by a stand that is under the tank, so it'll never tip over.

I love it!

 It takes up a little more length room, but it's not as wide.

Since this picture:

- We  Joey made a dock from plexi-glass, tile squares, and PVC pipe.

(The turtles love it and it looks nice!)

- We added another heater (can't really see it)

We were pretty busy the rest of September! I'll post soon about what's been happening this month. 

I hope your having a great weekend!

Our Geek Room

I hope you all had a great weekend!

I've been wanting to post about this, I just had to take some pictures first!

About a month or two ago Joey and I decided to move the futon out of the guest bedroom.  I wanted more seating in the living room and our guest bedroom was underutilized. We've only had one person stay at our house the 3 years we've lived here...Joey's sister. There was no reason to have a whole room that was empty most of the time.

So we started thinking...or should I say Joey started thinking. "Why don't we move the arcades into that bedroom?" Then I knew I wanted an area that would house my comic books and hang the ones I bought at Comicpalooza on the wall!

My husband has great ideas! Even better is, he follows through with them...unlike me. :)

So we moved the arcades into the room. I got the bookshelf we replaced with the cabinet in the living room. Here's how it turned out!!

My framed X-Men vs. Avengers from 1987!

I got these for $6 at Comicpalooza.

I got  frames from Dollar Tree- $4.

I backed and sleeved them, for protection.

Overall cost: $10!

I am SO happy with the results too!

Eventually we are going to frame the current series Avengers vs X-Men and hang them around these!

My comic book area!

The silver table is from the patio- 

it's been too hot to go out, so I brought it inside to keep it from getting weathered. 

-The clock on top came from IKEA. 

It was an "as is" purchase for $2. Sadly, it doesn't work.

-The dragon is from the Collector's Edition box of Skyrim.

It was on sale, for  like $10 more than just the game and we got the dragon, a cool map, art book, and the game!

Middle Shelf

- The black box holds my comics. 

- The green owl is from the dollar spot in Target! It holds my bookmarks :)

- My preserving supplies are there- the sleeves and backboards.

- Then my graphic novels (mostly X-Men) are on that shelf.

Bottom Shelf

- World of Warcraft Collector Edition Art books for Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm

- Skyrim art book

- The brown box houses our playing cards

Joey's keyboard is in here, it fits perfectly in this space.

We had to have a functioning clock, so we used Joey's old one.

Top Shelf

-Our World of Warcraft Trading Cards

- Joey's Magic trading cards

Bottom Shelf

- My old Gameboy with games- lots of memories attached to that. 

I think my dad had as much fun with it as I did!

- Also in the basket, is my Gameboy Advance and games

- In the white flower pot, random World of Warcraft cards that came in our Collector Edition game expansions. 

Last, but not least...our arcades!

As soon as I was about to take a picture, Nemo decided he wanted to get in the picture!

I promptly got him down after this was taken!

The one on the left is being worked on. We re-did it, originally, to sell it. However we liked it better than the first one we re-did (on the right). 

It's nice having both for our youth girls/guys nights.

There you have it! Our geek room! Not for everybody, but it makes sense and fits in our house!

Just in case you were wondering the before, I have a picture! Not to worry! What kind of blogger would I be if I didn't take a before shot!? 

It was ok, but not a commonly used area in our house. 

Now, I love going into the room!

So if you have a room in your house that isn't used too much and you would love change the function of it, go ahead! It's your home, use the rooms in a way that best suits you and your family!

Busy Bee

I've been working more and more around the house. Cleaning, shifting decorations, and getting things organized during my last days of summer!

I hung the beautiful canvas that my father-in-law got us. One more thing off my summer goal list! Yay!

 Before:

I love painting, done by Joey's grandma. 

However it looked tiny...and was off center from when we had the striped couch under it. 

After: 

Notice a chair is also gone?

That huge blue chair was a freebie. 

We never sit in it and it takes up so much room.

So it got moved to the front room, until we can get it a new home!

I am so thankful that he got us that painting! It fits so much nicer over the couch and I love the colors!


Yesterday I organized and cleaned up the office. Got rid of boxes and the random stuff that got placed in there. Took about an hour and a half...not too long and had a big impact. I actually want to spend time in there now! That night, I put the finishing touches on our geek room! Details coming soon!

Today I went to Michael's. We just got one in our town :) They have all their baskets 60% off, plus today and Saturday they have an additional 15% off of sale items coupon. Yay!


I wanted to get a basket for our records. Joey's mom gave us her collection- that I believe were her parents. They weren't stored the best they were in a crate we had (slanted sideways). So off to Michael's I went!

What a nice blessing it was! I found one that would fit all the records. For $8.49!! Regularly 24.99! Yay!

I love Johnny Cash, we were given 2 records of his! Folsom Prison and San Quentin! They are my favorite ones! What a great mother-in-law to think of us when she wanted to get rid of the records! :)

I'm on the lookout now for a vintage stereo cabinet with a working record player! Hopefully, one day, I'll find one for a good price and it'll come home with me!

That's what I've been up to lately! I'll post about our geek room soon! :) I'm excited about it!

This weekend we are planning on going to a local auction tomorrow and possibly the comic book store! Yay! Sunday will be a day of relaxing.

Hope you have a lovely weekend!