Whirlwind

I realize I'm like a broken record, but I have been, yet again, ridiculously busy, so I haven't taken the time to blog. Here is a kind of brief (as brief as I can be!) recap of the last month and a half:

House - I moved into my house! Maradee moved in, too. We've had fun trying to organize things. I heart my house. It is so fun. Yesterday I realized that I still don't feel like I live here. I do really enjoy coming home to it and fixing it up and having people over. But it still feels like I'm giving tours of someone else's house. Oh well, I guess that will come with time.

Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo!!! I went to six Rodeo concerts this year...Alan Jackson, Martina McBride, Sugarland, Rascal Flatts, Clay Walker, and Brad Paisley. Alan Jackson was the best (mostly because I knew all his music and he didn't waste any time talking between songs!). Sugarland and Rascal Flatts were very entertaining, but I didn't know their music as well and they were on a Monday and Tuesday night, so I was worried about being out too late. Clay Walker was the most like a real "cowboy" (he rode in on a horse) and Brad Paisley really likes to play guitar...I think he played on over 10 of them during an hour and fifteen minute concert! Mandy went to every concert with me and Kristin was there for four of the six. We were very exhausted by the end of it all, but it was some good memories. We even got to ride some of the rides at the fair part of the Rodeo...I loved those!

Easter and Spring Break - I went home to Alexandria for Easter and had a great weekend with my family, as usual. I don't remember doing anything particularly special, just a lot of hanging out. We did Easter a little early (Friday) with Mia. She loved all the attention and egg hunts and presents. Dad and I started building a set of bookshelves for my house. We didn't get to finish before the weekend was over. I'm really looking forward to getting them finished! For Spring Break, Missy, Laury, and I went on a road trip to the Texas Hill Country. We seemed to mostly shop, eat, walk around, and watch Lost on DVD (Missy is catching up...she hasn't watched since Season One). It was beautiful (as it tends to be in the Hill Country) and relaxing.

Decorating - My grandmother (Maw) and two cousins came to visit for a few days to shop and fix up my house. Maw is a decorator, so she was very helpful. Here are some of the things I bought: bed, mattress, box springs, 2 tables, end tables, lamps, curtains, bookcases, pillows, paintings, CD towers, rolling drawer organizer...the list goes on and on. I am very happy with the results, but still have a list that is a page long of things left to do and buy!

Church - I joined a different church. It is University Baptist in the Clear Lake area. I really like the church. It's mission-focused and has a great Young Adults ministry. I already knew almost everyone in my Sunday school class before I started going there, which made it easy to go to.

Work - Getting busy, busy, busy, in preparation for our upcoming project installation. I also have been doing performance reviews the past couple of weeks. These are almost physically painful for me. I hate having to confront people with their weaknesses, which are called "areas for improvement" which we soften even more and call "development opportunities." I'm done with the slightly painful part (and got a compliment from someone I really respect on how I handled them!) and now on to the really painful part...rating and ranking. There's not much else I can say about it except it sucks, but it's a part of my job. That's what they pay me for : ) !

Big news - My baby sister is having a baby!!! She's not very far along, so I'm probably not supposed to broadcast it, but it is so surreal...I remember the day she was born and now she's going to have a baby. I don't know what she'll be like as a mom...she'll be a great one, there's no question about that. I just can't picture her with a baby. I guess it will seem more real when I see her pregnant.

This weekend - Mom and Dad came to visit to see all that I'd done in the house. It happened to be the same weekend as the annual community garage sale in my neighborhood, so I had a garage sale on Saturday. It was very successful...I made a little $$, but more importantly I got rid of tons of stuff. Michelle and I had fun setting things up and making faces about the people that came. Ours was the bargain basement garage sale. There were really only about 10 items over $4 in the whole garage sale (and 3 of them didn't sell)!!! What we didn't sell went straight to the Goodwill. I was very relieved to have gotten it all out of my "world"! Mom and I went to The Container Store while Daddy went to a woodworking store. I found a few other things for the house, then I came home and crashed.

Today the ladies in my Sunday school class are going to the Chocolate Bar for lunch...yum!