It's Official...

...I suck at blogging. Like really, really bad at this! In order to catch up, I am going to do the reader's digest version of what should have been the next post and then catch you up with our first week in Texas. (I started this post a few days ago)

To recap my last 6 weeks:

• Babysat a 3 year old
• Went to Richmond for friend's birthday/bridal shower
• Went to Waco to find somewhere to live
• Girls beach weekend in Topsail
• Paul and I got engaged
• Packed for a cross country move
• Paul finished his research, thesis, and presentation to complete his MS
• Took a 3 day drive and moved to Texas

We finally arrived at our apartment on Monday. As I was picking up our keys, I noticed they didn't give me a mail box key.  When I asked about it, the realtor said that we have to go through the post office to get a PO Box....? What? There is not a mailbox? So where is all my forwarding mail going?? On the other hand, we were pleasantly surprised to find out our moving company was going to be delivering our stuff the following day. We honestly did not expect them to deliver so soon! As great as that was, they only accepted cash or postal money order upon delivery. Since we were now in a different state, Waco did not have either one of our banks locally. Immediately we have to hunt down a post office.  Once we found the post office and got our money order, the lady told us that yes, there were mailboxes at our condo's, we just need to request a key for them from the PO. Apparently, it's up to the tenants to let the PO know that the locks need to be changed... this was something new and different to me, but I was just happy we were able to figure it out - even if it meant it would be a week before we could get our mail!

Next, we were on to find a Target! I don't know about most people, but there are certain things you don't bother packing when you move - you just toss out and will buy it new later.  Well, for us, one of those things was a shower curtain.  We make to Target and go up and down the aisles  looking for things that we may need.  Once we get back and unload our cars, blow up the air bed for the night and relax, we realize that the condo/apartment (I still am struggling on the proper term for our location...what's the difference? anybody know?) does not come with a shower bar AND we decided that we should go ahead and buy some thermal curtains for the big balcony window to help keep it cooler, since our AC seems to really struggle with battling out the heat.  We decide to go BACK to Target for a shower rod, curtain rod, and curtains. Upon our return, we remember that we not only don't have our screwdriver to install the curtains, we don't even know where it would be packed when the movers DO come with our stuff!

Tuesday:  TWC comes to set up cable, internet, and phone; except we don't yet have our tv or a phone to connect. As the TWC guy is pulling out, the movers pull in.  There were two men, one older gentleman that Paul was worried we might kill with a heart attack or heat stroke.  They happen to come during the hottest part of the day, we live on the 2nd floor, and Paul has a lot of books. I mean A LOT of books. We made sure they had as much bottled water as they needed, and they (and Paul) had everything unloaded within 2 hours

Wednesday:  Paul and I begin to unpack

Thursday - Day 4:  I wake up not feeling very well. I decided to go to Target and get a humidifier since I am in a drier climate than I am use to. I also finally make it to the grocery store. I could do a whole post on the grocery store here! They only have one grocery store here, but it is amazing!  It's HUGE! It has a bigger variety than Harris Teeter but at Food Lion prices. I can get a loaf of bread for $.88!! Love it! By an unfortunate coincidence though, I happen to go around 5:00, on Thursday. Turns out, Thursday is their triple point day for their customer loyalty program! So I was already overwhelmed at being in a new and massive grocery store. Now add tons and tons of people.
My goals were to:
1. Get home out without having an anxiety attack from sensory overload
2. Get home without yelling at anyone
3. Get home without ramming my cart into any small children. This one was a tough one. After a while you really begin to rationalize this. "Nobody knows me here...I can just bump him just a little." "I am really doing a community service. If I go ahead a bump him, then he would stay out of other people's way as well..."

As tough as it was, I did make it home without yelling at anybody, bumping any small children with my car, and not a cripping anxiety attack.  Success!! :)

Once I got home, I did what anybody would do after doing a large amount of grocery shopping around dinner time... go out to eat! We have really loved exploring all the wonderful food places Waco has to offer. There are surprising more than I had originally thought!

Friday-Sundayish:  Paul and I were officially out of commission. Friday was when I really started to feel bad, Paul was a day behind me.  We had been in Waco for less than a week and were already sick!  Unpacking and settling in officially were on hold.  To add insult to injury, we still don't have a couch. We (I) had decided that the couches we had in Wilmington, were NOT coming with us to Texas. So we were laying on a palat we had made on the living room floor with blankets, pillows, and the feather bed. I am sure you are wondering "why didn't you just stay in bed?" You see my friends, we finally have digital cable after nearly 4 years of only having the basic, local channels.  We may, or may not, have discovered HBO on Demand and found the Game of Thrones. We watched the first 2 seasons during the weekend.  At times we tried to get out of the condo. We found a park and walked around and between the heat our colds...we didn't last long.

Well.... I am sure there are some fun details I am missing, but again, I am writing a reader's digest version just so that I can give a basic update. Hopefully I will do better at posting in the future!! I leave you with a few pictures! :)

My engagement ring with my grandmother's diamond 

Terra's comfy ride to Texas

A picture from the park in Waco when we attempted to get out of the house

Girls weekend in Topsail!

Life is a highway...pt.1

I realize it has been a long while since I blogged - I did start a post one night though...does that count? :)  To say that the month of July has been busy is an understatement! I am going to do my best to catch up everything as efficiently as possible!

After my wonderful week with Van, I dropped him back off with his parents on my way to a friend's "Dirty 30" birthday/work weekend Bowling Green, VA.  She is getting married on the family farm up there this September and there was still a lot of work to do to get the place ready. Being the campy person that she is, she decided to celebrate her 30th birthday, by having people come and help them on the farm. HOT, HOT, HOT!! With the heat index being well over 100, we cleaned Friday night and Saturday morning, then threw in the towel before the heat was able to peak.  On Sunday, her sisters threw her a fabulous "My Fair Lady" themed bridal shower! There were tea sandwiches, truffles, scones (all homemade), with beautiful decorations to accompany it! Made me with I had seen the movie 

Once I made it back home and recovered from everything, it was time for us to fly to Waco to try to find somewhere to live! I picked up Paul from school on Thursday afternoon, drove to Myrtle Beach, flew from Myrtle to Chicago, then from Chicago to Dallas. By the time we finally landed, picked-up our luggage, picked-up a rental car and found the hotel; it was well after 1:00am (2:00am Eastern). We absolutely crashed! The next morning we checked-out and drove down to Waco.  Waco is bigger than we were expecting. Apparently for Texas standards it is a "small town", but it is very comparable to Wilmington, if not a little larger.  We were fortunate enough to find a nice, quiet condo on the outskirts of town. Knowing we now have somewhere to live was a huge relief! I had been worried about that for months. Once that was taken care of, we headed over to Baylor so Paul could drop off some forms, then just explored Baylor and Waco the rest of the time.  Baylor has an absolutely beautiful campus!! Thankfully, they also have lots of trees around to help provide some reprieve from the intense heat.  Navigating the roads will take a little adjustment. Little things from, horizontal stoplights, to U-Turn only lanes when exiting off the interstate. It's amazing I didn't get a moving violation ticket while trying to get around!  On Saturday, we headed back to Dallas since we had an early morning flight. We stopped to eat at an amazing restaurant called The Ranch. Most of all their food comes from ranches in Texas.  It was amazing!  I did, however, learn the hard way what a fresno pepper is. They came on my sausage and goat cheese flatbread. Being a flatbread, and seeing slices of red things on it, I assumed they were tomatoes. They.Were.NOT! On my second bite, I ate an entire slice and thought I was going to be sick it was so hot!! Even hours later, after my mouth had stopped burning, my skin still had a reddish/tan tint to it from the pepper!  This is a mistake I will not make again! I will always know what a Fresno Pepper is now!

Baylor Bears - with two live bears on campus! (In a bear habitat of course)

Beautiful trees on Baylor Campus!!

Us, on campus, in the heat!

This gets us through the 1st half of July!  I will try to post the rest later today or tomorrow! :)

Terra & Van

Sorry about the delay in this post! I was out of town this past weekend at a fabulous "My Far Lady" bridal shower/ Dirty 30 weekend (literally dirt - lots of it!).  But I wanted to share about Terra (our 5 year old Puggle) and Van.

Terra, is one of those dogs with a lot of personality and a very expressive face, which usually means to can tell exactly what she is thinking.  Van and Terra have "met" before, obviously, but it's always been at my brother's house and for small bursts of time.  Last week, they seemed to have a love/hate relationship with each other.

On Van's side, within 2 minutes of us getting to the house he was already yelling at Terra (he knows her name VERY well).  Terra was sniffing his bags and toys that we had brought in and immediately he began yelling "No Terra! Mine Terra!" However being very mercurial at 3 (50 Shades of Grey fans anybody on the vocabulary?), within the next 10 minutes he found her bone and would carry it around telling her to "Get it Terra! Get it Terra! Here Terra!" as he threw it occasionally.  This was much better after I explained that you weren't suppose to throw it AT the dog.  All of this happened off and on throughout the week - yelling at Terra one minute, "No Terra!", "Get Down Terra", to finding her bone and wanting her to get it.  He would also tell us, on his own without asking, when Terra could come with us and when she could not. More-often than not, she was not allowed to come with us, "Terra has to say."

On Terra's side, she is a pretty low maintenance dog. She is use to a quite, semi-calm house. She is a dog who likes to sleep under blankets on the couches.....Van is a child who likes to jump on couches. To say she was a little stressed or anxious throughout the week is a sight understatement. On Monday, she followed me around the apartment everywhere and cried at the door every-time we left the house. Tuesday and Wednesday, she was fighting for attention. If Van was cuddled with me on the couch, she tried to sit between us. When I had her move, she just moved to my lap. She began a very needy puppy! She was dying for attention!  With all of this said... Terra is an extremely food obsessed dog and she KNEW Van was the key to extra food. When he was eating (which was often) she looked at him like he was the leprechaun at the end of the rainbow holding a bottomless gold-bowl of treats in one hand and a genie lamp in the other. If Van was sitting on the floor, Terra would start out staring about a foot away. Then she "stretches out" and every few minutes re-stretches, all the while getting closer and closer until her paw is resting on Van's foot. Smart, sneaky dog.  There were a couple of times where Van was eating on the floor or couch when we needed to rush to the bathroom. Upon our return, Terra was over the food trying to scarf down as much as she could before I forced her away.

Van and Terra in a rare moment

Van had just had a glow-stick bath and fell asleep holding his glow-sticks. Terra was terrified of the fireworks outside.

Week With Van.... Day 2

I am sure you noticed that this post is happening on day 3.... raise your hand if you are surprised that I didn't blog last night. Yep, fell asleep with Van when I was reading him his story :)  With no delay, here is day 2.

We woke up at a much more reasonable 6:30. I knew it was going to be a better day when I walked in and Van said "HI! What are you doing?"  This means the normal, happy Van was back! I think waking up at 4:30 the day before in a panic put us both in a weird mood yesterday. Today ended up being our 4 of July celebration and many of Van's 1st's in Wilmington eateries.

We left the house around 9 to head to the beach (Fort Fisher is typically where we go), but on the way we stopped by the Carolina Beach Boardwalk to pick up Britt's Donuts - a must for anybody visiting Carolina Beach during the summer.  As we get out of the car and walk towards the store, Van paused, awe-struck, and whispered "Beautiful. Beautiful." - all the buildings on the boardwalk are painted a different bright color and he loved it! After a few minute wait for our donuts, we grabbed them and headed for the beach!

Let me tell ya.... this little guy is so much fun to take to the beach!!! He loved jumping the small waves that came at him then later he used his "super powers" against them! He would throw his spider web at them as they approached or karate chop and kick them as they hit him! He LOVED it!!  We stayed a couple of hours before we had to go - that's when the true experience occurred. 

I don't know if you can tell in the pictures, but we have this really awesome beach pop up tent. I think we bought it a couple of years ago when we wanted to begin taking Terra (the dog) with us to the beach more often. It is really cool. It's collapsable so it's easy to carry, it has pockets on the side to weigh it down with sand which makes it really easy to move and adjust the shade throughout the day, and it has an open bottom which means Van can still play in the sand and be in the shade. The thing is...I have never been the one to fold it up. Every time we go the beach Paul and I have a system - he folds it, while I get the case for it ready. Well, it was just me.  I am sure I was entertaining all the patrons of the beach that day as I struggled to get it folded up correctly. After several minutes, I smelled something funny (by funny I mean really really bad!)  Apparently, I had put one of the edged in dog poop when I set it up and since I had been messing with it for  several, several minutes, I had not only spread it on the tent, but also my hands.  At this point, I decided to throw in the towel. I got our bag, cooler, trash, and blanket together; then folded the tent enough to grab it and carry it, very awkwardly, off the beach. (Thank goodness Van was an angel during this time!)  As we are very slowly walking toward the car (an exhausted 3 year old and hot sand makes slow going) I feel something wet on my leg.  I am thinking that all the stuff squeezed against me, must be extra water from my bathing suit....but  a few minutes later it was still coming. I look down at it was white liquid; the milk from our donut earlier was leaking out of the trash bag down my left side. Since I have a tent ready to pop open at any second in my left hand a 3 year old on my right hand, there was nothing to do but keep walking.  Once we got to the car, Van climbed into his seat, I slammed the tent into the trunk, and we finally made it home where Van took a good 2.5 hour nap!!

Since this is already a long post I will quickly run through the rest of the day with pictures :)

Once Paul came home Van found his super powers and began to wrestle and attack him. (It's really the cutest thing! Van would reach into the air, grab his power, pull it to his stomach, make sure it went down to his feet, then hands, and then run and jump on Paul ) :D

Van had his first trip to Flaming Amy's

In order to avoid the craziness that is downtown Wilmington on July 4th, we went to Carolina Beach to enjoy fireworks a day early.  We grab ice cream at Squigley's and sat on their grass to enjoy the firework show! By the way, you have not seen a firework show until you have seen it with Van. This is the happiest, most excited child every. For the first 10-15 minutes of the show he was yelling, clapping, and cheering! He loved to yell out the colors of the fireworks as he saw them. He was the most excited child there by far! :)

I would say Day 2 was a great success!
(Ignoring  a few splinters from where he stepped on a pine-cone the day before) 

Week With Van.... Day 1

So, when I knew that I was going to be off the month of July, I called my sister-in-law to let her know I wanted to steal her son. Naturally, as a mother, she replied "take him!"  Now, I haven't spent a significant amount of time alone with Van and it's always been with experienced back-up not far away, so to say that this week is a learning experience is an understatement! So this week, I am posting my adventures with my wonderful, 3 year old nephew!


So, this morning started at 4:30 AM... that is correct... 4:30 AM! I heard Van talking from the other room and went I went to check on him he was wide awake and asking for mommy and daddy...persistently.  I think he woke-up because he needed to use the bathroom, realized he wasn't at home, panicked, and wet the bed. Not sure. All I know is that I had a very alert 3 year old wide awake very, very early. (500 points Van)

So, Ginger had sent his DVD case of all his DVD's. He wanted to watch Monster's INC.  The disc that was in the case was disc 2 with all the special features, NOT the actual movie (10 points parents).  After, what felt like hours, we finally settled in to The Incredibles.

(Paul is a much better morning personal than I am!)

After that until about 9:30 is a blur. I know we went outside for a while, then came in and watched some PBS I think.  Around 9:30, I was changing him so we could go to the train museum for story time at 10:30. While I was changing this shorts and underwear, I felt something wet on my arm. That's right.... I just got peed on. (10,000 points Van)  Great!

We finally made it to the train museum downtown, which was awesome! Van was not interested in the story, but I can't say I blame him as there was just too many awesome things to look at! They had tons of working model trains set up everywhere! They had green buttons that you would push to get some started, some you could "steer" by pressing the buttons.. just really, really neat place. They also had a play area with lots of toys and train tables set-up. You can see a couple of our pictures below!

After the train museum, we went to grab a cupcake! (By the way, Hot Pink Cupcake Stand sells a box fully of day old cupcakes for $15! Very awesome and something I did not know about until today!) 

Next up was the pool! Van is a water baby! Not only does he love it; he has no fear! As long as his swimmers are on he will jump in the pool then climb out and do it all over again. With each jump and climb he did internally the wicked witch side of me was coming out going "Yees! Yeees!"  We were at the pool at least an hour with him moving and swimming the whole time!! (10 points for the parents who packed spray sunscreen that doesn't spray!)

After a short popsicle break at the apartment, we put in a movie which eventually led to this:

(I must admit, when Paul came home we were both asleep leaning against each other. In fact, this position came after I had tried to wake him up twice which no prevail and just gave up.)

After I finally got him awake so that I could feed him, we went outside one more time before bath, books, and bed.

After my favorite part of the day, major snuggling during bedtime :), I have now prepared fruits, veggies, and sandwiches for our day at the beach tomorrow! 

Day 1 down; Van:298  Karen:10

I need to buy a fiddle....

..because we are moving to TEXAS!  That's right - TEXAS.  In fact, one month from today the moving company is coming! AHH - it is sneaking up so so fast!!


"Texas? Why Texas" you ask? Well, this fall, Paul will become a Baylor Bear and will start his work towards his Ph.D. in Chemistry!! (I'm so freakin proud I don't know what to do :D)   For those who don't know, Baylor University is located Waco, TX..... yes, THAT Waco.  Baylor is know for some amazing things - academically, athletically.... Waco is known for one thing - and that is not for Baylor University (actually, Dr Pepper was invented in Waco and yes, there is a museum)!  But, Waco is actually only 1 to 1.5 hours from both Dallas and Austin! Live music anybody? :)


Here are some facts that I have found about Texas:

• "More wool comes from Texas than any other state in the U.S." - Ironic since I don't see a need to even pack any of my wool clothing to take with me
• "Texas boasts the nation's largest herd of white tail deer" -My poor poor car.... don't worry mom, I will mail you the meat ;)
• "The first suspension bridge in the United States was the Waco Bridge. Built in 1870 and still in use today as a pedestrian crossing of the Brazos River." - very cool actually
• "The armadillo is the official state mammal."  - From what I hear, it tastes delicious!
• "More species of bats live in Texas than in any other part of the United States." - ... do I even need to comment on this?
• Texas gets more tornados than any other state...

But after all - their state tree is the Pecan Tree and their state dance is Square Dance.... I think I can get along just fine :)

This move was my biggest motivations in starting a blog. I really wanted a better way for friends and family to keep up with how we are doing and what is going on with us in..Texas.  The next month is going to be slammed with trying to pack up and figure out all the details of a move like this and on top of that, we are busy every weekend up until we move! We have a busy, busy month! Be sure to stay tuned! :)

Farewell to an amazing job!

So, tomorrow is my last day at my job.  Yesterday we had a program celebration day, celebrating 10+ years of phenomenal work (it was also the last day that I will see my youth staff *sad face). But in keeping with the celebration idea... I wanted to take a moment and acknowledge what an incredible job I have had the privilege of having these past three years!

I have had the opportunity to work with some absolutely exceptional people! Each one has taught me so, so, so, so much! Either about the work that we do, life skills, business skills, and just really how be a good person. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to know all of them as each one has made a lasting impact on my life!

This job has also allowed me to say something that not everybody can say... through this job, I KNOW I have made a difference! Whether in the youth that I have worked directly with, the youth that my youth work with, or through advocacy efforts, I can say without hesitation that I have had the opportunity to make a difference! How freakin' awesome is that?!?

I could go on for days and days about how much this job means to me. It has taught me business skills (note taking? coordinating events across the state? webinars? conference calls? yeah, it's been a lot!), it's taught me what REAL Youth Empowerment is (which was not really taught in any education class I took - not like it needs to be), it's let me grow into a young professional, and let's face it... it's fun. I have had a really FUN job! (Jealous right now aren't you? :D)

I just want to say THANK YOU to everybody I have had the pleasure to work with these past few years and for everything you have done to improve the lives of youth across this state!!

For me, my next steps will be to enjoy the month of July while we are still in Wilmington. Then, The Scientist and I will be moving!!!

Stay tuned to find out where! :)