packing up, headed out

So, I haven't posted in a long time. It's been a pretty stressful time around here. Long complicated story mad uber short: John Paul got transferred to a job in OKC. He found out a week before he was supposed to be there, so he packed for a week, and I'm packing this week.

This is a blessing we've been praying for for a while. We thought we were city people, but we aren't there's no where you can go to get away from people, without driving for hours, and we miss friends at home. Though, we have made some friends here!

So, I guess my 10 minute break from boxes has ended (I was reading stuff first) So packing here I come.

Knitting fun!

Here's what I've been doing lately. I'd been working on knitting the quilt since about March, and told myself I needed to get it finished before Christmas knitting. I'm making the sock monkey for my niece. This is one outfit, and I've started a dress. I have the patterns for a set of pants, another shirt and dress, and 2 cardigans. So, we will see how much wardrobe there is actually finished by December! I'm also knitting some koozies for friends, and a set of cool desk accessories that will make her cube feel like a tropical isle! If I have time, I also got some knittable market bags, but those are on the bottom of the list since I'm not sure who I'd give them to.

Pistol Pete

I miss him. I've never been one for school spirit, but man college was awesome. I miss the oceans of orange and seeing this scruffy guy on everyone's tee shirt.

I've actually been following football! I never went to a game while at school, because I thought it was just a buncha guys wearing big shoulder pads and tight pants. Now I realize what I missed out on. To be a part of a group cheering for the same end. I did go to a basketball game though.

Sorry Jen, I know you'd probably rather see that silly schooner, but I've been jonesing for some Pistol Pete. So I had to share his cute mug!

This Month

So, I've made 2 cakes lately. One for a going away party for a co-worker and the other (which I didn't post a picture of) for a bachelorette party. That cake turned out awesome, but I didn't think it was quite appropriate to post lol. I've been to 2 bachelorette parties, and one wedding for those pretty ladies. I'm not so good at taking pictures, so only one bachelorette is pictured, and I didn't think of the camera at the wedding. So, of our Houston friends, 2 sets got married on consecutive weekends. We only went to one wedding as the other was in Colorado. Love is so wonderful isn't it?

Love makes us do things like the front hair poof, which I'm trying to hide in the picture with John Paul. He saw some girl with the hairdo and asked me to try it. I did, and felt ridiculous. O well, the picture was taken at an Astros Baseball game. We had really awesome seats just behind home plate right below the press boxes. A foul ball hit on the stairs 2 rows below us and ricocheted down below. It was fun, but that was the most notable adventure of the evening.

The pictures below are from the Forbidden Garden, which is a replica of the tomb where the terra cotta warriors were discovered, and a replica of the forbidden city. It was an interesting day. Lots of Chinese history done up really small :)

Other noteworthy things, well highlights really on the trip to the wedding we ate at Braum's twice and I'm working on loosing weight. Over the last 3 weeks I've lost 8 pounds. I weighed the most I've ever weighed and decided I wanted my close to actually fit me again. So here's to keep trying!

Visit home

So, last week I had the opportunity to have several days off, and I took it! I went home to visit. John Paul didn't have the time off, so he hung out here. He told me it was nice to be alone, but he was glad when I came back. He's pretty sweet when he wants to be.

The trip home was great (no I didn't take pictures, I don't know why). I got to eat at Braum's. No one makes milkshakes, french fries, or burgers like Braum's!! I visited lots of lovely family and friends. I got to listen to good radio, drive on 2 lane highways, randomly bump into people I knew, have a conversation while blocking both lanes of a dirt road, and be encouraged by lots of people that love me!

It was so good to meet up with everyone I'd been missing so long. It's funny, I think talking about being happy with what's going on in the here and now came up with everybody. Going home was nice, and I didn't want to come back to Houston, but I feel so much better about being here in Houston. I may not run into someone who knows my name while I'm out and about, or get hugs from anyone but John Paul, but I can live here and be ok. Which is such a blessing, because for such a long time I thought I would scream if we couldn't move somewhere nicer, smaller, closer to people we know and 100 other things that Houston isn't. We have lovely friends here, which I'm so thankful for. That helps most of all with being ok.

I had such awesome ideas of how I was going to convey the awesome mental refreshing that I had visiting OK, but somehow it was so much more awesome in my head on the long drive home. O well.

clearing out the camera

I don't know why I always take a buncha pictures, and rarely put them on the computer. But, I emptied the camera out and am sharing a few!

We've went to several pool parties at a friend's house, so I got a poolside shot of JP.

We went down to the Battleship Texas with my parents, so there's a few shots of that. John Paul was trying to decide how to get that big shell home with no one noticing... don't worry, it's still there ;)

John Paul's employer has a group for new people to the company called Endeavor. They get together for social networking and this year celebrated the 3rd birthday of the group, so that meant a party! We had a blast at Dave and Busters!! I thought John Paul looked like he was having fun blowing that stupid favor in my face!

Gentle nudge

So, I was told I haven't been blogging. Which I realized was true when I looked and my last post was about my kidney stone. I've sat down many times to put my thoughts out there, but they always seem too radical, too whiney, too personal too boring or any other number of things, not to mention would people even care? Since I've gotten a couple of comments, I'll see what I can do about catching you up. (This might be long, but I'm going with you asked for it? lol)

So, since June, I've recovered from my stone completely, but have had a few apts with the urologist. I'm going to say I got really lucky with finding a great doc. He listens, and he doesn't want me to have any more stones! They did a few tests, and I got the results last week. I'm watching what I eat to prevent stones. We will do another test in a few months to see if changing my diet is enough, or if I need medicines to prevent stones. I'm having a hard time keeping up with all the things I can't eat. I'm supposed to cut back on sodium, calcium, and fat, Yet I'm supposed to not eat a lot of veggies because they contain a lot of Oxalate, which is a component of my stones. I'm drinking at least 3 liters of water, and working in fresh lemonade.

We have had quite a few visitors. John Paul's parents came down around Father's day. I was pretty sick at the time, but it was nice to see them. It was nice to spend a little time with my father-in-law before he got deployed to Afghanistan. Then John Paul's little brother came by with a few friends. They had went to Mississippi to pick up a new car, and Houston is way on the way back to OK so they stopped by :). They were only here a little over 24 hours, but it was nice to have people in the house. My parents came down as well. We did a Texas history weekend, visiting 2 state parks that were focused on the founding of Texas. It was great to have people in the house, even though the house seems a lot more hollow after people leave, and there's a little bit of homesickness that flares up when they leave too.

I helped plan a trip to AZ, which I posted pictures of here on Facebook. I've sat down, and wrote several posts about this trip, but didn't post. So, here I'm just going to say that I support AZ's new immigration law because if our federal govt doesn't enforce laws which makes citizens unsafe, I think a state has a right to protect it's citizens. The trip was a hoot, and I really enjoyed meeting lots of other conservatives and seeing AZ from top to bottom! A group from AZ posted a movie they made about our trip here. The video is like 9 minutes long, so no pressure to watch.

The other exciting thing going on is FRIENDS! It's been really cruddy moving here not really knowing anyone. But one of John Paul's co-workers has had people over to his house several of times over the past year (yea, we've been here a year, crazy) And we've recently been really hanging out with several of his co-workers. There's 2 couples getting married in Sept, so we are kind of in the same stage of life, and it's so great to have some people to spend time with. We did a bowling league for 6 weeks. I stank mostly, but got better. I increased my avg, and bowled over 100 once! One co-worker hosted my birthday party, and that was the first time that I really felt like we were finally getting friends. I've went wedding dress shopping, and we are planning a bachelorette party too!

I've been making cakes for, well years, but I've been making several lately. I've got a couple of orders too. I'm really excited about it! Who knows where it will lead!

So, Houston isn't as bad as it was a few months ago. We still haven't found a church home, we're just going to church. It's pretty hard to not have a church family, but God has a plan for that.
I'm still working at Staples as a cashier, but I've been looking for something else, but there's just not a lot. We are praying for God's leading in that area, and are waiting to hear from Him on the issue.

My Kidneys

So, last week I had surgery to have my big honkin stone broken up. That was Tuesday. I asked, and they said I could go back to work after the anesthesia fully wore off, which was 24 hours. So, next day I was still in just as much pain as before, got meds, took them and was ok. I just laid around the house. I didn't have to take the meds unless I was being pretty active, getting out or something.

So, I went back to work today. I almost died. I had been taking the pain meds right when the pain started to escalate, but I couldn't at work since I'd have to drive home. Needless to say, I'm very interested in what the doctor will have to say at the 1 week follow-up. Last year when I had the same procedure I didn't hurt this long or this bad. *deep breaths* one day at time I guess.

Life's like that

So, John Paul and I had been having big adventures and enjoying life here a little. I've lost several pounds, and as a treat we went to Galveston to Moody Gardens. There's 3 big pyramids there, an aquarium, planetarium, and a rain forest! I'd been to the aquarium when my friend Ellen was down, so we did the Rain Forest tour. It was so awesome. All the pretty plants and there were even a few animals. John Paul was so patient as I rattled off all the names, and stood as I got in close and examined all the plants. I was intrigued with the way they used annuals just shoved into cracks of rocks in moss. It was really neat. We explored the island a little bit, and headed home.

We had a big Memorial Day weekend. Saturday morning we took a drive out of town to explore a little town we had driven through on the visits home. Calvert, TX. we explored all sorts of shops in their downtown. One guy had made a movie theater into a shop. It was really neat to see the stage, and how he filled it to the brim with all sorts of antiques. We made the trip home an adventure too. We took the business loops instead of the highway to see the downtowns of Bryan, College Station, and Navasota. Found some neat gun shops, and then a neat state park. We ended up at a museum about the founding of Texas as a country. That state park was so neat we ended up making the over an hour drive again on Monday to explore the rest of it. Toured a neato farm with reinactors. we had a nice chat with a lady about her spinning wheel. I think it would be neat to spin my own yarn.

That weekend we also bought blackberries on the side of the road and made homemade ice cream with them. Awesome! I gave John Paul my first at home haircut. It's not perfect, but considering I've never even really seen his hair being cut before, it's pretty darn good. Next time I'll do better around his ears.

The latest development was last Thursday I was working away, and had a pain in my side. I often get a little pain, and I freak out about it being a kidney stone. Most of the time I get busy and forget about it, but as the day wore on the pain got worse. I left early, and was able to drive my truck to John Paul's job, and he drove me on to the ER. Indeed, it was a kidney stone. 6mm. That may not sound very big, but trust me, it is. That's the probably too big to pass size, so Friday I went to see a urologist and everyone agreed I should have the booger broken up. The first day they were doing surgeries is tomorrow, so I'll be at the hospital bright and early.

New hair

So, this is my hair before and after. I've been wanting to do something different for AGES! But, I just haven't went and did anything. I was driving by the hair place today, and just pulled in. I knew I wanted real short, John Paul didn't want it cut at all, so this is what I ended up with. It's the same hair cut I've had many times in the past, but this time instead of feeling cool and chic, I feel like I look a lot older. O well.

I've been feeling really really blue lately, lots of reasons I'm trying not to dwell on. But, I think I was thinking a big change might make things better, but they just made things worse. John Paul's trying to be nice about it, but he's sad I got it cut. I'm trying to be happy about it but it just doesn't feel like I wanted. I wanted the fun crazy Dana back. I used to be so cool, and now I'm just blah. I used to have fun style, now I'm wearing blah clothes. I used to have such a flair for life, and lately I feel like I'm just checking off day by day. I'm just present, not changing. Why cry today, because I can't stop myself.

Swine Flu

So, when we left to go home John Paul was sick enough I had to drive. This is a big deal, in our relationship he's the driver I'm the navigator, and it's just better that way. We are both gifted at those jobs, and it tends to be not as pleasant if we try to switch.

He coughed the whole time we were home, and couldn't really breath to sleep, so he didn't much. On the trip home(which he felt better enough to drive )I realized my throat hurt, and it turned out his mom got sick too. His dad was sick for like a day but was soon better.

After a week of being home together, not talking because it would make us cough, his dad calls and says we have the swine flu. A lot of people in Chickasha are coming to his office with it. It's been a bummer to cough a lot, but we haven't really had much of a fever. We've went on walks and enjoyed time together. It's really the best sick ever, minus we can't talk or we will cough.

So, we are a part of the pandemic oh no!

Visit home

Last week John Paul and I took a trip home to see a friend get married. It was great to see our high school friends again, and had a fun time at her reception.

I also had fun shooting with John Paul and a friend of his. I did awesome at shooting whatever we could find, which ended up being beer cans and plaster from the falling down house on the property. Well, let me tell you, that plaster had no chance lol!

I spent time shopping with mom. We had a lot of fun looking at crazy expensive jewelery and buying the wedding gift at William Sonoma.

I also got to visit with some friends from church who are pretty much like family. I went over and visited their twins who will be turning 4 soon, and their little sister just turned 2. Super cute sweet family. Mr. Clift, who taught math a the high school, in case you had his class... Any way, that was fun.

We also went to MEERS and had great burgers and BBQ.

John Paul was sick the whole time, and on the way home I started feeling crappy too. I've not went to work this week, because I'm afraid it's contagious, and I can barely talk from the coughing. His parents got it too. We all love him, but right now are bummed he got us sick!!

Knitted Handbags

So, Facebook has targeted advertisements as you know. Sometimes they think they target me, and they don't. Any way, I was going along and the were advertising KNITTED FRUIT AND VEGGIE HANDBAGS!! How could I say no to this??? So, I've made the kiwi, pea pod, and lettuce so far. Working on the beet currently. I haven't had so much fun in a long time. (yes, that's how awful Houston is)

Beach!

So, I know I haven't posted in a long time. I'm sick at home so I though I'd catch you up, if you cared.

The end of March, a dear friend from college came down to visit on her spring break. We headed down to Galveston, hoping to miss the rain, but the front followed us down the highway. She didn't come all the way from New York to not go to the beach. So we splashed around collecting shells in the rain. We also ate great food, went to a huge aquarium and had a little sun on the beach the next morning. She's great, and I really miss her! Oh, and she got pooped on by a sea gull. Really, the picture in the hat was just hilarious because she had really gotten pooped on already! Also, she ate 2 lbs of crawfish.

Rodeo!

So the Houston Rodeo and Livestock show is a BIG deal around here. We are talking a whole month of rodeo every night, huge livestock show, big name concerts and a big midway which means fair food!!

I went to see the first show of the last tour of Brooks and Dunn. A great friend from high school and her mom took me. We had a blast. We didn't get there in time to see much of the rodeo. We got stopped in the midway for dinner. Goo, did we do dinner.

First to be clear 3 people shared all of this, a lot of these things I just had a few bites! We had these items, all battered and fried: moon pie, oreos, snickers, nutter butters, avacado (with great herbs in the crust) chicken fried bacon (It was so bad for us, but tasted great) and topped it off with chili cheese fries and a corn dog. I will say the moon pie and avacado were my faves!

We got seated right as the mutton busting was done, an event where parents enter their 3-8 year old children up to cling on the back of a sheep. It's like bull riding, except there is no hardware to upset the sheep. It was pretty cute.

The concert was great. They sang a song called Only In America. They had soldiers who marched out and stood at attention for the song. almost all the crowd got to their feet and cheered for those brave guys. There was a big blow out of streamers, and it was great to see the guys walk out of the arena, dragging long streamers behind them. What a great country!

what's up?

So, not a lot has been going on here lately. A couple of weeks ago we went to the Battle Ship Texas. That was interesting, but I forgot my camera, so there are no fun pictures of John Paul manning the welded up guns on deck. We've been taking walks around the neighborhood because it's been so nice lately.

I have a friend from college visiting on her spring break next week. I'm really excited about that. We are going to go down to Galveston and check out the beach.

I've been eating a few sweets, but I've not been getting boxes of them and hiding them from John Paul, so Lent has been a very good thing for me. I've lost 2 lbs. I'm kinda sad about that. I figured cutting all those crazy little debbies from my diet would really help me loose weight.

Taking each day one at a time.

Lent

So, living so near to Louisiana I've heard more about Mardi Gras than ever before, and so that got me thinking about Lent.

I'd never given anything up for Lent, cause it never really made sense to me. This year, I'm finding I'm eating LARGE amounts of things I shouldn't, in secret. Whole boxes of Little Debbies, frozen cookie dough among other things.

So, I'm giving up crazy processed sweetness for Lent. My thought is every time I pine for some fudge rounds, I'll just think about Jesus' sacrifice for me. That's the point right? And I need the serious time to pray about this problem. John Paul doesn't get it, nor does he really know just how much food I hide around. I think all my stashes are gone, save one bag of brownies I have frozen. Those are going to work.

So, today I'm kindof suprised how much I already want to just pretend I didn't decide to do this. But, posting it where someone else will (may) read it I'm hoping will add another layer to I NEED to make this change in my life. I know it will help me feel better, and I'm thinking about Jesus more that I have recently, and that's been an awesome needed change too!

Valentines

I didn't get my hopes up. I love my husband, but he's not one to go big on gifts. I was delightfully surprised when I got home from work Friday night that he got me not only a card, but a heart shaped tin full of LINDT truffles AND a big Toblerone that looked like it had long stem roses on it.

Beyond that there wasn't a lot of excitement for Valentines day around here. I was sooooooo happy to have the whole weekend off. We just spent time together, and it was awesome. We enjoyed the nice weather and took a walk, played some very competitive wii, and enjoyed my take on Armadillo eggs.

Last weekend we did have a big busy weekend. Hit up a gun show, Texas independence battle monument, and had the most wonderful creation ever, Armadillo Eggs down by the ocean. At the restaurant they stuffed Jalepenos with chopped bbq brisket battered them, and fried them up.

For Valentines I made John Paul sort of the same thing. Jalapenos stuffed with chopped brisket, but I wrapped them in cresent rolls and baked them. The grease soaked the areas where I didn't get a good seal on the rolls, but man they were awesome. I'm not a big jalapeno fan, so I made a few just bbq pockets, which were AMAZING as well!

Other than that Valentines was spent at church (sitting with people I knew and who asked to do lunch this week!!!!!!) washing the truck, and enjoying the sunshine. I sat in my awesome zero gravity lounge chair, soaked up the sun and read. The weekend was full of bliss, but not much to report lol!

Hope you feel loved this week!

Getting better

I spent some girl time with a friend from high school and her college friends. She went to college on Galveston Island, so we went down there for sushi and socializing. It was so much fun! Her friends were nerds (which was a positive) and really friendly.

Monday, I went out to lunch with a lady from the Nazarene church which was great. I discovered there are Fazoli's in Houston. In college, I ate there all the time, but they closed the one in Stillwater before I graduated. I was so excited for the bread sticks, I think I would have been embarrassed lol!

I talked to the manager at work, and let them know I needed weekends off to be with John Paul. I think that change will be a big help. It is always so hard to leave him all alone on Sundays when I know we could be spending time together doing something, even if it's just sitting around talking.

So, I'm still a little blue, but maybe that's because it's been raining, and will continue to do so for days they say. At least our electricity was only out several hours because of the rain.

thinking...

I was thinking about what it means to be loved, how people show love, and what an impact it made on people.

In my extreme loneliness, I reached out to the big world out there, and found that there were more than a few people who cared for me. I really am blessed by that fact, and grateful.

I know I'd rather be near all those great people, but I suppose I'll make it knowing that they are sending their love in whatever way they can. It's a comfort to know that I'd have a lot of hugs if I just didn't live so far away.

So, I may be far away, but thanks for not forgetting about me and caring about me.

Oh, and I'm really glad John Paul is here to actually give me a hug. He's been so sweet in my crazy I just want to move away from Houston moments. Neither of us is crazy about this town, but at least we have each other!

love you! *hugs*

feeling sorry for myself

So the last 2 weeks John Paul's been at a training meeting for his company. They put him up in a hotel about 30-45 minutes away so he would be near the meeting center. I've got to see him a little when it worked out with my work schedule.

When I've not been up there or at work I've been lonely. Like pain in my chest just want to be near another person who cares about me hurts so bad sometimes its tough to breath. I feel like a total loser. I know I'm not all alone in the world. I know there are people who care about me, and I'm blessed by that fact. Right now I'm crying because none of those people are even close, and I don't know when I'll get to see most of them again will be. I know we will go home sometime, but not sure when.

I'm glad I have a job, and am helping pay bills, but a little part of me wishes I hadnt' found one yet so I could just go home, and get hugged every day (not that JP doesn't hug me, but I'm going on a big shortage here) I wanna laugh with friends, I wanna have a braums ice cream and share my heart, I want to go to church and visit my church family.

I'm still strugging with not finding a church home here. We've been going, but really haven't connected with anyone, and am finding it hard to figure out how to get plugged in. I don't need to know all 400 people, knowing one and developing a friendship would do my mental health a lot of good. there are nice ladies at the Nazarene church, but that's not where JP wants to go, and I've been working most Sundays anyway. Work is really awesome, and I get saturdays off so I can go to church.

Sorry, you had to hear my pity party. I know it will get better. I'm just in a valley. Gotta have the vally to know the mt top right? It still hurts, but we serve a great God right. I'm sure there's something better just up the hillside. Just gotta make it to the hillside to start climbing!

So good, I had to share

For Christmas, mom got me a pan, that could make little bowls. So, I fired up the oven and made some cornbread bowls, filled them (or overfilled) with taco meat, ranch beans, corn, cheese and salsa. It was so pretty, I couldn't help but take a picture to post. It tasted pretty good too! I'm thinking that little cakes that hold a scoop of ice cream sound too good to resist! I'm going to have cornbread and milk for breakfast. Makes me miss Ganny just thinking of all the times we'd pull warm cornbread from the oven, and pour cold milk over it. Hope they microwave ok!!

Home again....

We had a a great week (sortof) celebrating Christmas!

It started out a little rough with braving a snowstorm, closed roads, and all sorts of winter hindrances to our trip home. Christmas day it took 9 hours to get from South of Ft. Worth to Chickasha. Putting that into perspective it took 8ish hours to get from Chickasha to HOUSTON yesterday.

Exhausted from our trip, we spent time with family opening packages before crashing and burning. Christmas with my family was good, it just seemed to happen with one person at a time. A friend said we were having a Christmas to remember, but it was so sad that it was not family oriented like it used to.

We went skiing for a week with John Paul's family. It was so fun. I ended up only skiing 2 out of 5 days, but really enjoyed the trip. I skied a lot better than last year, and look forward to going next year.

We made it back to Chickasha, minus my bag which was lost at the airport, did a little more Christmas, and slept, just to wake up and head out. It was so hard only being in town for about 36 hours. Mom and dad drove me home from the airport just to spend an hour with me. They were awesome and took me to Braums, because I'd been 6 months without a Braum's Milkshake. Too long, if you were wondering.

We drove the whole way home yesterday, and when we arrived at our house in Houston. When I opened the door I just wanted to cry. It was big, cold and empty. There wasn't a warm hug or hello, and it just felt so empty. We both are a little sad to be back at "home" I hope this gets easier.