I know, I know...

...it's been a month. I hope I haven't kept you waiting! A ton has happened or as Cody would say, "a Washing-ton"!

First, we went into the Houston area to go to a surprise birthday party for one of Cody's fraternity brothers. He turned 30! (Cody's is coming up in March). It was a great time. We were able to hang out with the Ellers again as they put us up for the night.  Lots of fun there!

Then, we had a great Thanksgiving. We got to see lots of people from both sides of the family. So that meant that we did a whole bunch more traveling.  We were supposed to go to Abilene, but my mom wasn't feeling well, so we decided to make a trip to Conroe and The Woodlands.  It was a good thing that we decided to go at the last minute.  We were able to visit with Cody's grandpa.  We had lunch with him, his grandma and his parents.  It was fun!  We were worried about his grandpa still, but he was cracking jokes and telling stories.  Luckily we have those good memories because his grandpa passed away that night.  He was 92.  We sure are going to miss him.  They had a viewing for him later that week.  Cody says it was his grandmother's way of getting his grandfather to do something he didn't want to do, even after he died!  So funny!

My company had it's annual Christmas party.  This year it was at The Gary Keller  of Keller Williams' house.  We had a good time mingling with people.  Ask Cody about the fireplaces and he'll be happy to share!

This past weekend we went to Abilene- finally!  We got to hang out with my little sister, Amber as well as Mom & John.  We had fun Christmas shopping for a family with 3 kids that live at the Salvation Army in Abilene.  While the ladies were combing Wal-Mart for great deals so the kids could have some cool clothes and fun toys, the guys were at Lowes shopping for flooring for my parent's house.  I think Cody had a good time telling John all that he knows about floors/flooring and he got to help pick out what they will get in the future.  I foresee another trip to Abilene in our future so we can help them install it!

pictures, pictures!

Do it, ROCKAPELLA!

With our niece and older sister in Tucson.

After the NKOTB concert with Lindsey.  Somehow saw my cousin there.  She has great tastes in shirts, too!

After the Del Castillo concert, with the band and some Keller Wiliams staff.

Finishing my first 5k in 44.04 minutes!

Halloween.  You can figure this one out ;)

Halloween, still - but walking up to the party!

Quick update

So Cody has been gone for a couple weeks this fall. Apparently the power plants need him! It has been great having him home for a couple days so far. He is heading out again on Sunday - not sure what time yet or for how long.

In other news, the mini reunion was great! It was so fun to see some of my closest friends from high school! The two that I hadn't seen in a very long time both are doing great, look great and have great kids! I'm so excited to get to see them again this Friday at our high school's homecoming game. We're going to Chili's before hand just like old times, except this time we're bringing the husbands (and they're getting babysitters!) If you're interested in seeing before/after photos, you should check out Kari's blog. We age well ;)

An update on the guest bath: We just recently purchased a countertop and sink to replace the "pretty" blue one. I can't wait to install it! We also bought some dark bronzy cabinet pulls to put in the bathroom. We'll have to drill holes because there aren't any on the doors right now. It is going to make such a huge difference! As you can tell, Home Depot had an amazing clearance sale. I mean amazing! 40 - 60 % off everything! Go us! After this is done, it's on to a new shower, complete with new tub and tile! Who says home renovation isn't fun?

I will post a few Halloween pictures - it was a blast! I will also just post some random pictures,too. Can someone tell me how to create a photo album for this? I'd really appreciate it!

Maybe Something Better Will Come Around

I have tons of interesting things to talk about, but at this moment, I just want to complain about my job again.

I thought that when I left my job at the vet clinic, I'd be getting away from people (a certain individual) who was never really around where we were supposed to be. That I wouldn't have to wait on others to get back from lunch so that I could go eat mine. That I wouldn't have to let someone know when I was going to the bathroom so they wouldn't go searching for me. That I wouldn't get the stink eye the day after calling in sick to work because I was actually not feeling well. That I wouldn't have to work my drs. appointments around other people's schedules in order for my job to be covered while I'm away.

This is so frustrating. I know that this is just a stepping stone kind of job that is good enough for now to pay bills and wait until I either go back to school or get a different position elsewhere. Heck, I'm even thinking about teaching again! This is a great company and I really enjoy the people I work with, but this current position...ugh - not for me!

Cornucopeia

1. Alumni Band was fabulous.  It happened several weeks ago at this point.  Before Cody and I worked on the bathroom even!  It is one of my favorite times of the year.  I enjoy being an alumni and doing alumni things.  I love seeing people that I hadn't seen since the previous year and catching up on life.  I found out this year that I really love catching up with people I hadn't seen/heard from/heard about in 7 years!  This brings me to:

2. Jon!  This year's alumni band weekend was awesome because it brought Jon Eller back to us!  I don't know if he realizes the huge imprint he left on the drumline that year that he was in LHB.  I have thought of him several times over the past years because, well - that's what I do.  I like to think about the fun times and he was definitely a part of the fun times.  I am so happy that he has a beautiful, smart and fun wife.  I am excited for their family as they have an adorable daughter.  I think it's worth it to not know what's going on with someone if one day, you finally get to talk to them and see what's been going on in their world.  I can't tell you how I felt when I was "reunited" with Jon at the morning rehearsal that day.  I just couldn't believe that he was there again!  In a related note:

3. The Ellers!  Is it possible to fall in love with a family that is not your own? that you only met a couple weeks prior to their weekend visit?  I sincerely hope that Jon gets into law school at UT.  I loved hanging out with him while he stayed over for Law Day.  I had some conversations with him that I've never really had with anyone else.  He asked a bunch of questions that I never took the time to think about.  He also told me more about his life (very interesting story - we should all read his book).  I also got to hang out with Jocelyn.  We came up with things to do/places to live if Jon goes to school here.  I told her of some friends that would be a great contact for all things baby.  I know that she and I are going to be great friends!  She is so very nice and is a great mom.  It was very sad for me to see their family head back to Houston and I can't wait for their next trip back to Austin!

4.  We had an amazing TX vs. Colorado watching party.  Seriously, if we invite you over, you should come.  We have food, drinks, great company and a great time!

5. Somewhere among these weekends, Cody and I flew to Tucson for a Chi Phi Brother's wedding.  It was a very nice and fun wedding.  Cody and I were able to relax and just enjoy ourselves.  We were able to hang out with the Matthews' while there as well as the new Landry's!  We were also able to see my older sister, her boyfriend and my niece.  They drove down from Phoenix the day before we came back to Austin.  It was great seeing them 'cause it has been 5 years since I've been to Phoenix and seen my sister's bf.  My niece and Cody had the best time playing around in the hotel room while I did some catching up with my sister that we didn't get to do when she was in town for our wedding.

6. Did you hear that Texas beat OU?  Right now we're ranked number 1 thanks to 3 top five teams being defeated by teams with rankings below theirs.  It was an amazing game.  We had a fun tailgate prior to the game.  We saw other kids from band and Chi Phi.  We rode on rides at the State Fair.  We ate turkey legs, we spent too much money on visors because the sun was insatiable, etc.  We had a great time!  After the game we headed back to the Stocks who put us up for the weekend and had an after party at their house full of people I hadn't seen in such a long time.  Again - fun.  It really made me want to move to Dallas so I could be closer to these guys.

Can I take the Ellers with me?

7. New Kids On the Block, UT vs. Mizzou and mini h.s. reunion this weekend!  I have a lot to look forward to!

Guest Bathroom

So we finished it last night. I think it looks pretty good. As I said before, it still needs some work; but after working on it for 4 evenings in a row, we're going to hold off on doing the finishing touches.

So, Michelle, what did you do today?

Funny you should ask!  I actually got up at 4:30 AM to meet with a running/training group at RunTex.  I am a slow runner so I quickly lost the group, but I did about a mile and a half.  Then I was at the office by 7:30 to cover for my co-worker.  Work was a typical day.  There was a new job posted for the office in our production department which I think I would be sooooo perfect for!  The problem is that before I change departments, I would have to be in my current one for at least 6 months.  Boooo!

The office had a fund raising event today.  We had a bbq (home cooked) with minimum donation of $5 (worth every bit), raffle and silent auction to help a lady that works for KW and is battling cancer.  We're trying to raise funds so that her family won't have to worry about the costs of living in Houston while she's undergoing treatment.

An amazing thing happened.  The lady who won the raffle for the most prized prize decided to not keep it and instead she donated it to the silent auction!  They stopped the auction for that prize an hour earlier than the rest of the items because it had an incredibly high bid and no one was really willing to top that.  This person won it and again returned it to the auction!  Finally when the auction ended, there was an ecstatic winner!  

KW donated about 10 Dell computers to the auction with keyboard and monitor.  I won one today for $50!!  It comes with XP and Publisher!  I'm so stoked as Cody and I have been so indecisive on a desktop purchase for a while. I can't wait to find out how much our office raised for this family!

When I got home from all this excitement, I was exhausted and took a nap then got straight to work on finishing the bathroom.  I had a lot of cleaning to do that was left over from the drywall dust and wallpaper glue.  Everything was a mess!  Now, the shower, floor and sink are clean.  The curtain is re-hung.  The rug on the floor.  Towel rods re-installed with pretty towels waiting for use.  The toilet is reassembled, light switches are wired to make sense of their use and there is a new pretty light fixture!  Cody worked really hard on those technical things and I did the detail work.  

There is some touch up painting that needs to be done and the cabinets, baseboards and door all need to be painted.  We also need to caulk the drywall next to the shower.  The counter needs to be different as right now it's Robin's egg blue.  We'll take care of that stuff some other day, though!  It does look really cute.  

I need to find a before picture somewhere from when we bought the house a couple years ago so you can see the difference.  When we get the right light bulbs for the fixture, I'll take a picture and post them.  Now it's quite late, but I knew you wanted to know what we've been up to for the past couple days!