Little Birds

Well on our back porch in the corner, we watched two little birds work very hard to build a nest. The tried to build it on the back patio in the roof corner, but it blew down. They then started building it in the corner underneath the back porch on a plant hook. We didn't think it could be done since it was in such an awkward place and well, there's nothing underneath it besides a hook. After a few weeks, poof, there was a mud nest. The mom and dad bird would sleep in it and do their thing. A couple weeks ago, we started to see little eggshells on the ground and we were worried that something had happened to the baby birds. Then one day, we started to see their little heads popping up over the nest. We haven't really heard too many tweets or singing thank goodness, but we do get to see them pop their heads up and sleep on the ledge of the nest when we go outside. The mom sleeps on the ledge next to the nest and the mom and dad bird will hop up on the nest to feed the birds. All around, it's a cute little family on our back porch.

Memorial Day, Kyle's 22nd, and More

Well these pics are a little late, but they're finally on here. During Memorial Day, I took off work Sunday and Monday so Mike and I could head down to Kingwood to spend some time with the family and celebrate Kyle's 22nd birthday. We were going to head down on my days off Tues, Wed, and Thurs, but Mike started his job Wednesday so we had to move the dates up a bit. When we went down on Sunday, we showed up a little late in the afternoon and went to my Aunt Liz's for a crawfish boil. It was soo much fun!! There was swimming, food, drinks, and family time!! We had an absolute blast and hung out outside the whole time until it started raining and we headed in to continue the fun. When we headed home, the guys went outside to hang out with the dogs and smoke their cigars and my mom and I hung out inside. On Monday, my mom and I went back to Aunt Liz's house to swim and tan in the pool, Mike and my dad took the dogs for a walk and a swim in the park by the lake, and Kyle went to work out. That night, the family came over, along with one of Kyle's best friends (Kyle Garza; he's in the Coast Guard so it's been a while since they've been able to hang out!), so it was a lot of fun! We had Sobrett hot dogs (the best hot dogs ever!) with Snuggles hot dog buns and other cook out food. For dessert, we actually kind of skimped. We only had cookies and coconut creme pie, which was weird for us, but still good. Mike and I had to head back Tueday afternoon and got him ready for his first day on the job.
Mike's working at Razor-360 in Addison as an account specialist. He's figuring out all the books for the company as a paid intern and is having a stressful, but good time. The drive isn't all that great, but he's been trying to figure out the hours that are best for traffic. We don't really get to see each other at all on Mondays or Fridays since we have completely opposite schedules, but we try to at least see each other in the driveway as he's pulling in and I'm heading out to work. Today I drove out to meet Mike for lunch, which was a lot of fun, so we're going to try to do it every Wednesday. He had his first day of Graduate school last night and it's going to be a tough semester, but we're praying everything will work out and hopefully not cause too much stress.
Me on the other hand, we're having a department wide sign up at the end of this month. I'm still going to stay on midnights so we can have the day and dinner together on Saturdays and Sundays, but I'm hoping I can at least get at least one weekend day off. If I can't get Sat, Sun, Mon off, I'll go for Sun, Mon, Tues. I'm also looking into getting my teaching certificate if the schedule conflict gets to be too much of a pain. I'll try to get a teaching job in the elementary school level in either Burleson, Crowley, or south Fort Worth. But in the midst of all this stress, belly dancing is an absolute blast with the girls!!!! Oh and poison ivy sucks!! I got it from work so that's been fun.

Jerks in the Business World

Well my mom found out the other day that the Athletic Club she's a manager at is closing on June 30th. The owner of the Kingwood Athletic Club decided back in February that he was going to work on a deal with the Kingwood Christian School to sell them the building, but decided to not tell any of his employees or club members. He signed the papers one night and the next day he decided to tell his employees (giving them 30 days) that he was selling the building and property to the Kingwood Christian School and that the club will be officially closed on June 30th. He also decided that he's not going to give any severance pay or pay them for the vacation time they didn't use. In other words, he's being a bonafide douchebag. Since my mom opens the club during the week, he decided to have her tell the members that the Kingwood Athletic Club (a club most people have been members at for 20 years or more) was closing. Most of the members did not take it to well, which was hard on them and my mom. Also, most of the members there have been members for many years and there are also a lot of elderly people who work out there because it is such a friendly, well kept, easy to get around club. There is one member in particular who is in his 80's and he's blind, Mr. Petricarlo. If they move the equipment around, they make sure they take him to walk through so he doesn't get hurt running into any of it. All together, this has been really hard on my mom and it kills me that she's having to go through this. My mom has put her heart and soul into the Kingwood Athletic Club and into the members as well. This was a great job for her because she truly cared about what she was doing and she enjoyed it. It was also great because it was so flexible with letting her adjust her hours if Kyle and I came home or if her and my dad went somewhere.

Mike and I are going to be heading down to Kingwood Sunday-Tues so we can spend some time with her and my dad. Also, Kyle will be down for his 22nd birthday so we'll be able to celebrate that together as well. Family is the best!

Mike's Graduation and Party

Here are a bunch of pictures from Mike's graduation and the party at our house afterwards. It was soo much fun!! We woke up at a decent hour, got ready in time, and headed to the graduation. My mom stayed at home to get the house ready and go pick up the sandwich food trays and the cookie cake with Aunt Liz and Nanny. My dad, Mike, Kyle, and I got to UTA about 15 minutes early and found a good parking spot along with a long line to get into Texas Hall. We took that first picture underneath the tent they had set up before Mike headed in. Kyle, my dad, and I found good seats to the left of the right of the stage towards the front so we could see everything. Right when we sat down Rich called and there as an emergency. Rich said that he forgot him, Jan, and Hunter's tickets at the house so we had to figure out a way to get them in. I went to the head lady running the graduation and I explained the situation and that we weren't trying to get more people in the ceremony. She then printed out three tickets for us and I waited in the lobby so I could hand off the tickets. Jim called and said he was on his way and to my surprise, Hunter wasn't there, but Matt was!! It was a great surprise! So I handed off the tickets and went to sit back down. The next picture is of Mike walking across the stage getting his fake diploma. He had a big smile on his face and we were all yelling for him :) When it was all let out, we found each other outside and took some more pictures in his cap and gown and without. The shirt, tie, and pants Mike is wearing were his gradation from me. I figured since he's going into the business world, he needed a nice new suit. My dad, Kyle, and I loaded up in our truck and Mike was able to ride with Matt and Jim to the house. Once we got there, we set everything up and changed into more comfortable clothes. The rest of the pictures are of the family and friends who showed up to celebrate! It was a great time and there was tonz of food and dessert so that was definitely nice. There were tonz of leftovers so Mike had lunch and dinner for a few days in a row haha.
Mike's signed up for graduate school to start on June 7th and today he went to a job interview for a paid internship! The company is called Razor-360 and Uncle Guy is the CFO. Mike went in for the interview this morning and he got the job! He'll be working Mon, Wed, Fri and going to school Tues and Thurs. My work is going to be changing. The Chief wants us to go to a team schedule and get rid of B Shift (10am-8pm) and disperse all of those officers to different shifts. So we're having a department sign up next month, which means every officer in the city is going to sign up for what days off they want, what shift, and what side of town. I have a decent ID so we'll see if I can get some better days off. I'm probably not going to stay in Adam district, but I'll be staying on midnights. All together, things are going well and we have God to thank for that!!

Official News!

Well we have good news!! Mike found out yesterday that he got into UTA's graduate school!! We're soo psyched!! The summer semester starts in June so he's going to be finishing up with finals next week, graduating on the 16th, and then has some time off!! The first time he's ever had time off while he's been in school!! We probably won't do anything too exciting, but you never know with us haha. Mike also got a phone call from his National Guard recruiter and his paperwork has gone through so he'll be going to MEPS the week after next! It's in San Antonio so he'll get to take a road trip with his recruiter during the week. We also received an email today from our Ford person and our credit was approved with an awesome rate! So we just need to send in a check and our car is ordered! We also talked with Ashley Furniture today and laid down the law with them taking forever on our bedroom set and it's now going to get here in two weeks with a rush on it. So that'll be nice. We're hoping it'll get here before Mike's graduation weekend, but there's a slim chance. Mike and I are just so incredibly grateful and God has answered our prays with the big life decisions we've been facing so it's amazing! Love you guys!

The Latest

Here are the most recent pictures we've taken. The top is what I got to wake up to the other morning when Mike was at school and I worked the night before. They cuddle up next to me on the bed when Mike leaves and keep me warm :) It always makes me feel nice and cozy. The next one is of Mike, Blaze, and me after Mike's ring ceremony at UTA. Mike is posing with his UTA ring making the UTA official hand sign along with Blaze, the official UTA mascot, and I'm making my TCU Horned Frogs official hand sign. The next one is Mike receiving his ring from the UTA President! It was soo exciting! After he received the ring, he went to sign the official book and then went back to sit down. The funny part was no one was allowed to open their ring box and peek until everyone had received their ring. Mike was patient (better than I was at my ceremony) and waited to open the box and put it on! The UTA on the top of the ring is facing Mike now, but come May 16th, it'll be facing everyone out in the world to show he's a graduate!! We're soo psyched about his graduation coming up!! The bottom picture if of Mike and I at our good friends' Angela and JB's wedding reception. Mike couldn't make the wedding because he was taking the GMAT and I couldn't go because I got off work at 0730 that morning. We met up at the reception though and it was a blast!
In other news, we finally bought our california king master bedroom set!! It's the Martini Suite with storage from Ashley furniture. We went into the store to get some prices and they had an awesome sale going on called Beat the Clock. The furniture was 49% off until close, which we showed up 17 minutes before close! So we checked the prices of all the furniture in the set and decided we couldn't pass up that good of a sale! It was great! We then decided on our comforter set, Ombre Leaves from Bed, Bath, and Beyond; our mattress, Kingsdown Latex California King from Mattress Giant; and we're trying to decide on a TV stand. It's been soooo exciting figuring all of it out! We can't wait to get in the actual bedroom set since everything else has come in!
Mike is still working with the National Guard to complete all the paperwork and physical stuff so he can get in as an officer and we're awaiting the official word from UTA about graduate school. He's also been applying to some jobs, so that's exciting as well! I've been working a bunch of overtime and part times so we can have some good money for a down payment for the 2010 Expedition EL. So far it's going really well. We can't wait to order it soon!! We've also been doing yard work, which has been tiring, but fun. We pulled up some bushes and a little bit of monkey grass to make room for some pretty plants I found at Walmart so I could plant the bulbs.
Oh and FYI, Mike's graduation is May 16th at 1pm at UTA. We could only get a small amount of tickets for the actual graduation, BUT we're going to have a party afterwards at the house!! So of course all he family is invited!! We're waiting on the graduation announcements to get here so we can mail them out to everyone! It's taking forever! So just in case we run out or they get here super late, everyone who reads this is welcome to come to the house after the graduation for the party!!

New Car Wishes

The latest purchase Mike and I are working on is the 2010 Ford Expedition EL. The bottom picture is what my 2001 Ford Focus looks like and the top picture is what we're hoping to upgrade to. It's not going to be read though. It's going to be the Eddie Bauer version and it's going to be dark blue pearl metallic. We've been talking with the dealer down in Houston about getting it so we're psyched! We were planning on getting it towards the end of the summer, but our timeline got moved up a bit b/c one of the guys I work with wants to buy my lovely focus (Ole Scooty as Josh calls it) for his 16 yoa son. It's super exciting b/c by selling it we're technically going to get more money for it, which is awesome!! Our tax credit is also mind blowing so that helped out a lot. I've also been working some O/T and Part Times, which is some extra money for a good down payment. We definitely need to move up to a bigger car with our two big dogs and prepare for a family! We're planning on keeping it for at least 8 or 10 years and we want to get used to the payments before we pop a kid out. It's going to be a couple years before we do that, but we'll be prepared financially when the time comes. It'll definitely be nice having room for the two dogs and all of our stuff. And of course if we have to carpool some friends and family around, they'll have room to sit comfortably! Sooo exciting!!
Mike's been preparing hardcore for the GMAT, which he's taking on the 24th! So we've been praying that he does well and gets into UTA's Grad School. He's also going to turn in his application with the National Guard so he can start their OCS next year in March. With my job, I've been thinking about going on loan to gang for a month or so and take a little break from patrol and gain a new experience. It would def be a lot of fun dealing with all of that.

My 25th B-Day

Well I know this post is a little late, but here is a picture outside Texas de Brazil in downtown Fort Worth. Mike and I decided we wanted to splurge and have my bday dinner there with some friends. We invited a few more ppl, but unfortunately they couldn't come :( But the ones that did make it, we all had a blast!! I think the highlight of the night was how obsessed I was with the sausage. It was sooo freaking good!! We all started off with the salad bar and ordered some drinks and then flipped those little cards to green and were ready to go! The servers came by with chicken, lamb, bee, and of course sausage!! We all piled out plates high with delicious meats with all sorts of flavors and it tasted amazing!! After the first go around, half of us were done and the other half went back for more. In the end, I was the last one standing. No one could believe I kept going, but gosh dang it, it's expensive and I'm going to stuff myself! The waitress tried to take my plate twice so I finally told her in a stern voice I was not done and I wanted another sausage to end up the meal. A few minutes later, here comes the sausage server hauling butt across the floor to our table. He comes right around to my plate and puts the sausage on my plate. The best part was when he said, "Wow, that's a big one." I definitely couldn't stop laughing! After the food food, we then moved onto dessert. Wow! Mike and I had the cheesecake and it was pure awesomeness! I honestly can't remember what everyone else had, but our plates were clean b/c it was so delightful!! We then headed out and took this lovely picture. Amy and Reinhardt had to head into work and Meredith had to be at work early the next morning (nurse at JPS). Mike and I headed back to our house and Lindsey went to hers. All and all it was a great night!! Earlier in the day, Jim and Lexi came by and we got to hang out for a few hours before they had to head out and Mike and I had to get ready. We ate some pizza and watched a little bit of Up. It was a good time :) The next day, Jan and Rich stopped by for a quick dinner and some cake and then headed back to Whitney. Mike and I made pot roast and Rich and Jan brought chocolate confetti cake. It was nice visiting with them and hanging out for a bit. All and all it was a great birthday!! Oh and the best part of course....Mike got me an amazing Moo-Moo!!!! It's beautiful...purple and white with a super soft material, come to mid calf, and zips up in the front. I pretty much live in it now so I love it!!!!! Also, the birthday gifts from everyone else were great!! The birthday money is going towards the Expedition EL and all te other personal gifts will be put to good use!! Love you guys soo much!!