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My scrapbooking desk that John made was featured on Unclutterer today!



Unclutterer is one of the home/organizational sites that I check out regularly so it was a great compliment to have them include my desk. It's a compliment to John's carpentry skills too - he did a wonderful job on my desk & I love it.

Still no photo updates because we're moving out of our rent house (have to be out by this weekend) but the trailer doesn't have electricity yet. So most of our furniture is going in the trailer, we're moving into John's folks' new house and some things are being stored at my mom's. Insane. And did I mention that the newlyweds' house isn't finished yet so they are also living with John's folks. Hopefully the electricity will be hooked up soon but if Gustav hits anywhere near Tx or Louisiana, it could be months. So we'll be in a limbo state for a while. But we won't have a rent payment next month and I'll be sending out my last permanent address in an email soon.

Joss Whedon & Dr. Horrible

OK, so most of you weren't the big Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans that I was. But the creator of the show, Joss Whedon, has come out with something new that's a lot of fun. Dr. Horrible's Sing A Long blog has come out with the first two acts of a three act show and it's awesome! Each act is approx. 13 minutes long and is in musical format. It's about an evil genius, Dr. Horrible, (played by Doogie Howser) his attempts to take over the world & win the heart of a girl, both of which are thwarted by his nemisis, Captain Hammer. But it's not as straight forward as it sounds. Anyway, I love it & I appreciate what Joss was trying to do in showing Hollywood that there are quality stories to be told without spending mega-millions. The videos will only be available through this Sunday.

VBS and other happenings

I've been catching some flack about the need for a posting (some from people who don't even have blogs). I don't have any photos for you because 1) my external hard drive ran out of room so no more editting until my new one arrives and 2) I've been spending my evenings helping with & preparing for VBS at North St. The theme this summer is Jesus loves you SNOW much! John & I (with Mom filling in for John on Monday & Tuesday) have had the 8, 9, & 10 yr olds. We only have to come up with a lesson to fill 15 minutes, then accompany the class to crafts, drama, games & dinner. It's our first year actually teaching and after a rough start, we've really enjoyed it. There are some great kids in our class and I'm crossing my fingers that some of the lessons have actually stuck. In lieu of photos, I'm posting my memory verse take-home items that I made using my Klic-N-Kut & software becuase. My mom, who team-taught 1st grade Sunday school for a number of years, said "You have to have something with the memory verse on it!". So here's what I came up with:



This was printed out 4 to an letter-size cardstock, then we punched holes at the bottom & hung them around the kids neck. Holes at the bottom means that when the kids look down, they can read their cards. On the back their 'homework' was to bring a friend.



This one is a little tough to see but was a paper doll cutout that we attempted to fasten around the kids' arms with tape. Not one of my more successful ideas but this has been a real trial & error learning process for me. I designed the paper doll with my KNK also but didn't have time to use the machine to cut it out so we cut them out by hand.



This was a simple design I made with Publisher. Printed on cardstock 8 per page, then put a magnet strip on the back.

I don't have a photo of last night's take home but I welded the word PRAY in large letters with my KNK & cut it out of Bazzil cardstock in red & green using the machine. Then I wrote the verse from Matthew 6:6 on the PRAY. Kind of a bookmark, bulliten board thing. The kids seemed to like it.



This is my last one, designed last night using the KNK software. No time for a print & cut using the machine so it will just be printed on cardstock, then cut using a paper trimmer.

Another thing that worked well for me was borrowing a white board from the Sunshine school so my class can play Bible Pictionary or Hangman. These kids are fast & it's nice to have something to do in those last few minutes before we switch stations.

Tonight's the last night for VBS, then I'm twisting John's arm to go to the movies with me - either Wanted or WallE.

Soon to come - a recap of the May Savannah trip, more photos of Jansen, and Pops & Mom Woods new house. Move in for them is tentatively scheduled for next week, then John & I begin the process of getting our place ready. Whoop!

Spring Update

In keeping with the babies everywhere theme that's prevalent in the blog-world, I'm doing my part by showing photos of my sweet great-nephew, Jansen. Here he is at Christmas in a five generations photo with my grandmother, mother, sister & nephew. My grandmother turned 91 this past week so we're going to visit her this weekend to celebrate. Jansen was 3 1/2 months old in this photo.



Here are some more recent photos taken this past weekend. He is just the cutest thing with huge blue eyes and a really expressive face. The Aggie outfit was his Christmas gift from John & I - he's just now really fitting into it. I can't wait to teach him to Gig 'Em!






In other news, Johns parents are building a long awaited house. Here it is as of mid-February. It's looking really great now - bricks and everything. I'm so excited for them, espcially John's mom as she has dreamed of this for a long time. We're all looking forward to family gatherings over there, espcially for the annual 4th of July & New Years parties. John's extended family is large so it'll be great to have all that room. John & I are also excited becuase when they're moved in, we'll be moving their trailer house to our property and constructing a large shop. We're excited to finally be moving to the actual location of Graywood Farm and no longer be renters. We're meeting with the electric company next week and putting up stakes this weekend.

More photoshop fun

A photo from last year's relay for life in a free photoshop template.

Photography

I love photography, even though I'll never go beyond amateur status. I love the beautiful images and the idea of capturing a moment.

The Library of Congress just put a ton of images from their archives up on Flickr. It's amazing to see the photos from the 20th century - most are gorgeous, without the aid of tools such as photoshop. Here are a few of my favs from a search for "Texas":





I am excited about Photoshop personally though. I recently tried a couple of tutorials and here are the results:

Original photograph with slight edits from software that came with camera


Here it is with some tweaking


Another tweaked version with no color & more blur


I'm very excited to learn more about Photoshop and I'll get to attend two classes on this in Feburary.

Merry Fish-mas!

Was the title I wanted for our 'fun' Christmas card. Last year we did 2 photo cards - one traditional posed shot at the Systems Building at A&M and one at an Aggie football game (the only one we've ever gone to as a couple). I'm still editing the photos from our official holiday photo shoot downtown but I thought I'd whip up a fun card from what I had. Since John thinks that 20 of this card is too many, here it is for our blog Christmas card:



It features John with a large catfish that he & Jared got while bowfishing. The smaller photo is of us picking out a Christmas tree last year.

Since we don't have kiddos to take fun photos with Santa yet, like my friend Jennifer, I thought a little holiday fun was in order. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel has a Scared of Santa gallery where people have sent in quite a few photos. You can look through this years, then hit the previous buttons to scroll back into prior years' galleries. I love the vintage photos - here are a few examples:





There are background stories with some of the photos too. I don't think its funny that the kids are scared but they are so sweet.

If a picture is worth 1,000 words...

and I have none ready to post, then does that mean I have to make up for all those 'missed' words? For your sakes and the sake of my fingers, I'm going with no. As soon as I get a chance to play around with Photoshop, there will be photos of the girls trip to Nachitoches, a shopping trip to Austin and water gap fixin' in East Texas.

Recent events also included getting to spend some quality time with my great-nephew (after missing most of month 2 due to a pesky cold). I keep telling his Mimi, my sister, that she needs to babysit so I can get in another photo session. Also, John's little brother got engaged to his sweetheart, Jamie - the wedding is set for August; and John's cousin, Brandy, is expecting a baby in July. I realize it's mostly because we're 'that age' but the past few years have been chock full of weddings & babies. In our families alone:
2003 - John's cousin, Brandy married Jerry; John's cousin Tony married Tara; my sister, Val finally got her house built
2004 - John & I were married
2005 - Chad graduated high school; John's cousin, Kim married Mitch
2006 - John's cousin, Justin got married a different Brandi
2007 - John's cousin Kim had a baby girl; John's cousin, Matt married Kelli; John's cousin, Candi married David; my sister, Brina married Michael; my nephew, Kyle had Jansen; John's parents finally were able to start construction on their new house (oh, and John & I moved back to East Texas in the middle of all that)
So 2008's already shaping up with at least one baby & one wedding - who know's what else is in store?

In the meantime, I had my introduction to Guitar Hero a few nights ago. I should preface this by saying that outside my Gameboy, with Tetris, Mario Bros & Bugs Bunny, I've never had nor played any gaming system with any regularity. Especially the more recent gaming systems - those first person shooter games just get me all turned around & I end up shooting people on my team. And the arcade dancing games? Requiring me to move my feet to music? In more that one direction? Forget it. Much as I'd love to be all coordinated & limber like Madonna in her Hung Up video, it ain't never gonna happen. So I was suprised when I actually enjoyed Guitar Hero (in the easy mode playing a simple song). No, I'm not great at it either, but I have fun while I'm stinking it up. John has learned not to talk to me or try to instruct me on these matters, since that prevents my complete focus, which is necessary for me to maintain minimal hand-eye coordination. So I didn't do too awfully on the first song. Chad, however, came into the room during my second attempt & actually expected me to hold a conversation, then he didn't understand why I did even worse on the song. The problem is that John & Chad are both gifted in the athletic, coordinated dept. John doesn't understand my lack of ability either, but he's learned now to accept it - ah, the painfully earned wisdom of married men. Good luck, Jamie.

And I just realized that both couples will have the same initials J&C and C&J.

Welcome

My sister Val and her first grandbaby

On Sept 10th, my great-nephew Jansen was welcomed into the world. This past Saturday, I got some photos. Never tried baby photography before - the subject matter is so precious but I don't know how Anne Geddes manages with multiple babies.

Just a few words...

No pics this time (my home computer is getting steadily more sloth-like). But just wanted to let everyone out in blog-land what's been going on.

We returned to Neiderwald last weekend for the annual Redneck Skeet Shoot. An awesome time was had by all. John & I drove to Austin early Saturday morning, picking his boat up from Bryan Marine on the way. Thirsting for an adrenaline rush? Try driving in Austin traffic with an 18ft aluminium boat tagging along. We had to stop by Archiver's in North Austin so I could go on a scrapbook shopping spree. Then we got Chuy's to go and headed down to Neiderwald.

The skeet shoot was fabulous, as always. John & I went through about a case of shells each (I was black & blue the next day). Most of the afternoon & evening is just shooting for fun, then the money rounds started around 8pm. The competition was a lot stiffer this year so I was out of luck. But John did us proud, winning four rounds. He won enough that evening to fund a shopping spree of his own at Gander Mt the next day. I got to see my former-EY friends - Holly & Diana. I hadn't seen Diana in almost 3yrs - way too long! Holly graciously let us crash at her house that night.

On Sunday, we drove back to North Austin & had lunch at the Mongolian Grill with Luke & Melissa. Mel & I were bridesmaids in each other's weddings. Now that I think of it, she's the only one besides my sister who I can say that about. They're little girl is due soon so it was really exciting to get to see them.

John & I decided we're definitely going to have to return to Austin more often. There are too many great people to see, wonderful places to eat & fun things to do. Since I finally get a spring break this year (no more audit or tax seasons), I'm thinking road-trip!

In other news, John started his new job today at a local bank. He's very excited and looking forward to learning all about the industry. We're both excited about the transition from SINK to DINK (thanks, Holly for the acronyms). Now that the state's fiscal year-end is past, I can take a deep breath.

Family photos

On a very hot & steamy morning a couple of weeks ago, we used the Nikon remote (my anniversary gift) to take a few family photos. This is the first time since I can remember that we've done this & I think they turned out pretty good.

Family photo


The girls


John & I

1095 Days

Three years ago we stood before our family and friends to commit our lives to each other, to love and to cherish. Those three years have gone by so quickly and yet so much has happened. God brought us together then and love for Him has kept us together through life's challenges.

The one who my heart loves


For me I knew I'd found the right man when it felt like coming home. Love is being genuine and authentically me, in a way I am with no one else.





And on an unrelated note (except that it demonstrates my obedience to my husband's request), here is a photo of the enormous 6ft 3inch gar the boys caught during their bowfishing tournament. With it, they won the prize for biggest fish & likely would have won the prize for top five if anyone would have had a scale large enough to weigh it.

April photos

In an effort to make up for the dearth in posting, here are some photos from April:

My little sister, Sabrina, and her new husband, Michael

John, me, Robin & Jared before Ring Dance

A bunch of Seattle photos:

The view from my hotel room - gorgeous!

Absolutely fabulous sushi!

Posting Behind the Pineywood Curtain

Yes, John & I are still alive. But since we're not living in town anymore, our only option for tv or internet is via satellite, which we've decided to forgo until we build a house. So my only internet connection is during lunch at work, meaning that posting is a little more tricky.

I'm enjoying my work at SFA and was recently sent to Seattle for a conference. It was gorgeous up there and we were lucky to have great weather for 3 of the days. Hopefully I can post some of the photos soon. It was my first real trip to the West Coast, since LAX doesn't count.

We found a great little rent house not far from both our folks and are still in the process of unpacking. Yes, I've been in the house for a month already but my little sister's wedding plus the Seattle trip plus Ring Dance have slowed the process. Yes, John & I went to Ring Dance together. John was in the Army during our class's dance so we went with Robin & Jared. It was so much fun!

John has finished classes at A&M but still has one online class to complete, then he's planning to walk in August. Right now he's doing the job search thing.

It's back to work time for me. More posts to follow - hopefully with photos.

Update after day one

Here's the update after day one of the new job. It went pretty well I think (I tend towards cautious optimism on these types of things rather than being overly effusive but I am getting pretty psyched). I'm very fortunate in that I'm being trained by the woman I'm replacing, Debbie, who has a weath of knowledge about this position. She took me on a tour of the Forestry school & introduced me to almost all the professors and staff. Everyone was really nice and the school is really cool. I think the job is definitely what I've had in mind to transition to and I'm really going to enjoy it, but there are just a lot of details to learn. Being back in Nac working was a bit surreal but nice. I was able to stop by and have lunch with my mom, which was great. And once I'm on full time, I hope to start working out during lunch at the school's facilities with my sisters.

Still looking on the housing front. I think we need a weekend where we're not already booked. I was busy this past weekend with my little sis's bridal shower and John was tied up with a fishing-bachelor party for his cousin. We also had to book it back to BCS Saturday night because John had a Sunday morning breakfast to help out with.

We had our first Crown financial class on Sunday evening and I think it's going to be really great. Realizing everything you think you own really belongs to God is difficult sometimes but is also very liberating. After the class was over I had to drive back to Nac to spend the night at my mom's for my first day of work. I thought about it on the drive back to Bryan Monday evening - for the next 3 months (til John graduates in May) I'll be doing that drive at least once per weekend. That's a lot of driving. But at least after May, I probably won't be driving like that for a while unless it's for something fun. :)

Current Events

I was trying to wait til I got the Christmas & New Years photos edited but so much has happened that I’m going to skip right past that and on to current news. For those of you who don’t know, John is scheduled to graduate this May (prayers for his Math 142 & Accounting classes are appreciated). So this spring, we’re moving back to Nacogdoches, our hometown. We’re really excited to be moving back close to our families (we’ll both have been gone approx. 10 yrs). And it certainly seems like this is the direction the Lord is leading us towards.

I recently got a job at SFA in Nac and they’re being really great and letting me work Mondays there until (probably) April. This is a huge blessing as it lets me work 4 days a week in Bryan (so I don’t leave my current firm in a lurch during tax season), and it gives John & I more time to find a place to stay in Nac. Just finding out about the job was certainly divine intervention. The Sunday after Thanksgiving we always buy our Christmas tree from a farm run by my high school yearbook teacher and her husband (a prof at SFA). He’d heard there was an accounting job opening up and thought I might be interested. Otherwise, I’d never have looked into applying for jobs so early. Two of my sisters already work at SFA so that’s pretty cool too.

John & I have some leads on two rent houses that we’re hopefully checking out this coming weekend. We’re trying to find a little house like we’ve got now to be in til we can build. Our current plan is to build what we’re calling the ‘shop-house’ which would be a metal building with a second story apartment. We don’t have the means to build our ‘dream house’ right now so this would be great to live in for 5-10yrs until we’re a little more established plus will give us the storage for tools & equipment we need now & in the future. We’re going to see how that goes.

John’s starting to apply for poultry / agriculture jobs in Nac so we’re prayful about that right now. I don’t want to get too preachy on ya’ll but can I just say that after over a year of struggling with some pretty big issues, wondering how we were gonna make it, it has been a peaceful and freeing experience to just leave it up to God. And He’s provided in ways we couldn’t have imagined. I do still have to remind myself often to chill out & wait for His ways to be revealed but when I remember that, I just relax and it feels awesome!

So this has been a wordy post but there’s a lot of news and more to come. We’ve got a busy semester ahead of us as I’ll be traveling back & forth a lot and learning a new job. John’s cousin Matt is marrying a lovely girl named Kelli on March 3rd and my sister Sabrina is marrying her long-time sweetheart, Michael on April 14th, so we’ve got a whirl of showers & wedding preparations. John has his schoolwork, job search plus he’s starting a bowfishing guide service called, Twilight Bowfishing (I have to take credit for the name - hee). He’s really excited about this new venture.

I’ll try to keep things more current (whether I get my slow old computer to work with my pictures or not) and let ya’ll know when we’re moving, etc.

More Shopping

The antique show at Warrenton is so big that after two Saturdays of heavy duty shopping, I still only saw most of Warrenton, and didn't even stop at Round Top or the surrounding communities. Mom Wood, Aunt Debbie, John, Chad and I returned to the antiques festival. John & Chad had to leave early to do some fishing but I think they enjoyed looking at the antique signs, fishing lures & other guy stuff. :) We girls stayed until we couldn't walk any more but it was a lot of fun. Before they left Sunday, we hit the mall in College Station too.


Western tree topper


Aunt Debbie & Mom Wood looking at antique cookbooks


Pulleys with character


Chad & John looking at pocket watches

Shopping is hard work

John & I discovered that every six months there is a fabulous antiques festival in Round Top & Warrenton, TX and the surrounding communities. We love it and if we were sufficient flush with funds, would probably come back with a truckload of stuff. As it is, its a great place to look & selectively purchase all kinds of things. This time I went both weekends, first with my mom & sister, Val. Then with John's mom & Aunt Debbie. Mom & Val came down for the weekend and we totally wore ourselves out on Saturday in Warrenton. We had a late lunch at the Legal Tender Saloon, which has the Best Chocolate Pie ever! It was an awesome, if tiring day.


Val, Mom & I each went home with some of these great painted gourds - they're a wonderful fall decoration. Most people couldn't handle our kind of shopping - we were there 45minutes trying out different combinations before we finally made up our minds.


Loved these tags for Halloween decorations!


Val loved these water pumps (of course - they're red)


Some vendors had great displays.


Awesome place to eat - but get there fast because they run out of brisket & chicken salad fast!

We had a great time in Warrenton. Then, just to make sure Mom got her workout, we went to the Southern Living Idea House the next day after church. We three went to the HGTV Dream Home last year in Tyler so it was fun to compare the two.


This is a shot of part of the master bath - it was awesome.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention that while Mom & Val hit Dillard's Saturday night, I got to spend some time with my friend Melissa Mezger & her hubbie, Luke. They came into town to see the Aggie game and it was wonderful to talk to them.