mmmm.....what's going on.

I haven't blogged in awhile. We've been really busy this week. Our good friend (who was also Steve's best man in our wedding) AJ has been here visiting from Texas so we've been spending lots of time with him. I love seeing how happy Steve is when AJ is around and I so wish he lived closer to us.


Steve & AJ at our wedding
Anyway, so that's been fun. I also haven't blogged much because I'm actually working at job now where I actually have work to do so I can't just sit and surf the net and blog all day long and let me just say that I LOVE it! I definately am a work horse and I get so bored if I don't have anything do to so this job has been good for me. So far I like it - I can't say that I can see myself working for this company for the rest of my life or anything but it's a good job for now. The people are all really great there and I think that's what makes me enjoy it so much. I also really love having a 8-4:30 schedule every day and not having to worry about having to show houses on the nights of weekends.

So....that's the brief (and boring) update. Sorry I don't got more for ya folks.

Hablas Espanol?

Steve & I started learning spanish last night. I've always wanted to learn I actually took spanish for 3 years in high school, but you know how high school is - the majority of the stuff you learn you never remember anyway. At least for me that's been the case.
I've found that I was actually right in high school when I used to tell my mom "this class is so stupid, I'll never actually need this stuff in life anyway!" Maybe I was just a teenager but here I am 10 years later and most of it I really have never needed in life. It's funny that i never applied myself in high school because I was too busy having fun. Most would think I would live to regret that someday but I actually don't! I had a blast spending most of my time with friends rather than digging my nose into a book. I feel like I turned out "ok" at least.

Back to Spanish though....Spanish is one of the few things I wish that I would have really worked at more and retained what I learned in high school.
So now, I'm taking it upon myself to learn. Steve's parents are both fluent and often times speak in Spanish at home if they don't want me to know what they're saying. I'm fortunate that they constantly make it known to me and everyone else how much they adore me because otherwise I would probably be inclined to be suspicious of what that they're saying about me. Some day I just wanna shock them and join in on the conversation though.
Steve says he doesn't really know much spanish but the reality is that although he may have a hard time speaking it he can completely understand it.
I wouldn't say he's fluent but he definately knows a whole lot more than he gives himself credit for.

Anyway, so last night we began our first lesson with some spanish CD set we somehow aquired and I was overwhelmed with how difficult it is. Suposedly it's actually supposed to be one of the EASIEST languages to learn as well. I just get so confused with the way the words in a sentence are placed. Then there's the whole femine and masculine things. Add that in with a few different weird pronouns and you've got one confused girl here!
Besides all that though I really want to learn simply because its a good language to know. I remember when I was in Brazil it seemed so easy to pick up portuguese (which is pretty similar to spanish) simply because I had no choice to but to try and learn it because that's the only way I could communicate with anyone. Too bad I can't just go live in Madrid for awhile eh?

Anyway....so that's the end of my spanish rambling. I hope everyone has a great weekend! I know I'm planning on it! We're gonna down to see Javier Mendoza perform under the arch tonight at the Live On The Levee series and then tomorrow night I'm going out with some girlfriends to get our nails done and have some dinner at PF Changs - YUM!

Drinkin & Driving

Last night we went with Dale & Missy to the Missouri Botanical Gardens to listen to some live music and have a little picnic.
It was pretty packed out.
Anyway....what was interesting is when we were walking in we saw a young shirtless guy roll up on his bike. Instead of grabbing some water from the water bottle holder that was attached to his bike he reached down and pulled out a Colt 45 instead!

Talk about drinking and driving.....better yet drinking BAD and driving! :)

New Job!

So....the wait is over! I FINALLY got a new job and I feel so relieved.
It's not the job I was originally wanting (see Interview #2 and Justa Job Interview) but it actually is a job with better pay AND hours. It was kind of weird how it came about actually because I don't really know anything about this company and therefore had obviously never sought employment there. Last week a friend of mine called me up that works there though and said they had an opening they thought I would be perfect for.
I really had my heart set on working at the same company Steve works for and for the last 2 months have not pursued any other jobs as I felt a peace about holding out for this one. They had interviewed me twice, and then they told me they were interested in me working there but that my application was being processed and to call back in 2 weeks....for 2 months they told me this!
Anyway....so when this other opportunity popped up I felt good about pursuing it. I went in for the official interview yesterday even though they had already told me that the position was mine and they weren't even opening it up for other applicants.
So....I feel SO relieved. The job is okay....realistically I would have LOVED the job at Steve's company and had they offered it to me I would have taken it even though it's less pay and worse hours than this one, but I"m just happy to have a job. I don't see myself working for this company for the rest of my life or anything like that but I just feel so relieved that I won't be stressed out 24/7 about where the money for our next bill will be coming from. Over the last 2 months I've pretty much drained our savings account of all the money (which wasn't all that much) we had been saving for the down payment on our next house and it's been stressful for me.

So....all that being said I really am grateful for God's provision. These last 2 months without a job has been difficult but looking back I really see God's hand on the situation. I really think the whole situation with being strung along by the company that Steve works for was really God just preparing me and opening up the position for me at the new job that I'll be taking.
I have also learned SO much in these last 2 months about my character and my attitude. I really see now that God was using this season to teach me so much about His heart and I"m grateful for everything I've learned and I really think it's made me a better person.

So my first day is monday. This week I'll be doing drug tests, waiting for my background check to come in and all that jazz. I am excited!!!!

it's all JUNK!

Can I just say that I LOVE it when our house is clean? Maybe it's so special becuase it's such a rarity.
I'm not sure why it gets messy so quickly....we're really quite neat people....our only downfall is that both Steve & I are packrats. Not so much with stuff we want but more with stuff we think others might need. We're kind of like a free thrift store for our friends. We'll find a great bargain or no longer need something but instead of donating it to goodwill we'll just keep it in our basement. Our thoughts are "sometime REALLY soon we're gonna hear someone talking about how they've always wanted a ____." In our case the blank would be a few rice makers, shower caddy's, dishes, canned food, furniture, bedding, microwave, and any other kind of junk you could imagine.
I'm not sure why it is that we feel the need to keep all of this crap in hopes that we could bless someone with it rather that just send it to goodwill and let them bless someone while in the meantime our basement is empty.
A few months ago we had a good working washing machine sitting in our basement, taking up space and it was driving me crazy! Finally I decided to put in in the free section of craigslist hoping someone could take it off our hands. A nice single mom that lives not to far from us was ecstatic about getting this washer. I decided to take advantage of her zeal and give her a tour of the rest of our basement in case she needed anything else. It was nice because we were able to bless her with a few boxes of canned foods, mac & cheese and other items that Steve's mom is constantly giving us. I'm not sure what was a better feeling.....being able to give stuff away to a nice lady in need or to have a little extra space in our basement.
Regardless.....I am fed up with all this junk. If anyone lives in our area please feel free to let us know of anything you are in need of and we mostly likely will have it in our basement for you. Some of the stuff is even brand new!

I really want that space in my basement! I like having the rest of our house clean and I just want to be able to go downstairs and run on the treadmill without having to look at all of those boxes and feel overwhelmed.
Anyway....so that's my mad rant of that day. I hope ya'll have a great weekend!

Let Freedom Ring!

We had an okay fourth. We went down to the Arch in downtown St. Louis on Tuesdsay night to see Lifehouse and the GooGoo Dolls in concert and our time was pretty unventful. There were lots of people, a bird pooped on me and we ended up getting seperated from our friends when we were trying to leave. Fortunately we had taken two cars so it wasn't a major deal.

We watched the big ol' Dupo firework show over at Dale & Missy's and I don't know what it is about fireworks and kids but I love it! I think I enjoy watching kids watch fireworks more than I like to look at the fireworks myself. Hannah's' at the fun age (27 months) where she's just started talking in sentences so to hear her describe the fireworks is priceless.

Mostly what I enjoyed about the 4th was just having the day off....It was nice to not have to work but it sure did suck waking up this morning. I definately prefer the 4th to come on a friday or monday so that we can have a whole 3 day weekend to celebrate.

That's it from my end for now....