Air Conditioning and Drywall

Well we went ALL day without air conditioning in the apartment. Thankfully today was Paige's lesson day so we spent all morning at the barn and I was then able to spend the afternoon working at Nana's house.

It was already so hot in here this morning we both woke up, got ready and got out the door as quickly as possible. We even ate breakfast on the front porch because it was actually cooler outside than in!


The a/c is finally fixed though -- and although it's still warm, the temperature is slowly going down. Looking forward to a comfortable night's sleep :)

We were also excited to find that they have begun putting drywall in our house! Steve said after drywall comes texture, then cabinets then trim work. After that they'll do all the finishes like the flooring, counter tops, paint, etc. We can't WAIT!!

Really, I hate this apartment.

I try to be positive about living in this apartment. Really, I do.

I try to overlook that the carpet smells like dog pee no matter how many times I use the carpet cleaner on it, that I can't do laundry or dishes while I'm working because the washer, dryer and dishwasher all make my computer screen shake, that when we get in bed at night we have to listen to our nocturnal upstairs neighbor bang around his apartment all night and that it seems like anytime anyone in the whole building turns on any water the shower gets either burning hot or freezing cold.

Really, I try to overlook it.

But today is not one of those days. I give up.

Today our a/c decided to go out (after the office closed, of course) and it is currently 85 degrees in here.

So today I give myself this right to post this one very negative entry:

I really HATE this apartment. I cannot WAIT to get into our new house. And I promise to be more positive tomorrow... IF they fix the air conditioning :)

Ice Cream for Everyone!!

A couple of days ago Nana and Paige came by to pick me up and go for ice cream. Of course, I had to take Fugitive April with me, so she got to enjoy an afternoon snack too! She was SO excited when they gave us a puppy cone JUST for her -- she loved it, and I'm sure can't wait to go back and get some more :)

Paint = Done!!

Haircuts and Treats

Life would be SO boring without our sweet puppies :) Honestly, I just don't understand how people aren't "animal people"... that's definitely NOT us!

So much of our life revolves around our animals -- they're probably in for a rude awakening when when have "real" babies... but they have a few years left before having to worry about that :)

Yesterday I took Api and Precious to the groomers -- my thought was if I took them at the same time, April wouldn't be so traumatized.

I guess I should have been more specific on what I wanted for her haircut, though.

They gave her a lion cut (as requested) but for some reason cut almost all the hair off her head and completely shaved her neck!! I about had a heart attack when I saw her... she just didn't look like my little Api anymore!

As the hours have passed though I guess I don't hate it THAT much! She looks cute, it was just a bit shocking at first.

Rob felt so bad for her that he decided to bring home treats for everyone that night. They LOVED their bones, and were occupied with them for several hours. Api is too small to eat one on her own, so snatched a piece of Plato's that he bit off for her to have.

That didn't keep her from trying to steal his later, though :)

I feel so sorry for them in this heat, having to live out in this tiny patio. It's like a little oven out there!! I can't wait to load them up in the car, take them to our new home and watch them run all over the yard :)

JAB Fest!!

We had SO much fun this past weekend at JAB Fest -- a 7-band Texas Country concert out at the Lonestar Ampitheater!

I love Texas Country music festivals, but have always hated that there were never any good ones in Lubbock. The closest one each year is Crude Fest in Midland, but that's still 2 hours away and it's a two day festival so you have to camp or get a hotel.

The biggest one in the area is Larry Joe Taylor, but that's about 4 1/2 hours away and is a 4 days long so we've never been able to attend it either. So of course I was SO excited when we heard that Josh Abbott Band was hosting a music festival here in Lubbock and that they plan on making it an annual thing!

The weather ended up being perfect, and we had lots of friends there who we hadn't seen in a while which made it so much fun!

Here are a few of the pictures we took:

New House = New Furniture!

Of course one of the most exciting things about getting a new house is finding all the new furniture to put in it!! Thankfully I've acquired lots of great hand-me-downs over the past few years (my family has EXCELLENT taste), so we really didn't need THAT much, but there were a few things on our wishlist :)

One of those things was new bedroom furniture.



My parents' bought me a nice set of furniture when we moved to our house in the country about 12 years ago -- it's still in excellent shape, but we wanted to use it in the guest room and get all new stuff for our room.



We started talking about what we wanted in a master bedroom last August when we started registering for the wedding. The look we decided on was a "spa" look -- not really a theme, but we wanted to get that relaxing feeling when we walked into our bedroom.





(Okay... maybe we watch too much HGTV)

I'm really bad about wanting something "different" as far as decorating goes and then chickening out at the last minute and going with something in my comfort zone. I bet we looked at over 50 comforter sets, trying to find that "look" we wanted, and we FINALLY found it at Bed Bath and Beyond.



We planned our WHOLE room around this comforter -- it ended up being one of the gifts we received at our shower (from my Uncle Ricky), and "Santa Clause" got us a king sized bed for Christmas.



It didn't take me long to find the PERFECT furniture to go with our "spa" look -- it's called Key Town, and just fits in perfectly with our vision for the room! We waited and waited to make the purchase, and I'm really glad we did -- by the time the Memorial Day sale came along we had the measurements for our new bedroom and were able to cash in on a 28% off sale!






We had been on the lookout for a chair to go in our room as well -- we walked into Ashley Furniture on Memorial Day weekend and there it was... right by the entrance. As soon as we saw it Rob and I both pointed and said "Wow! Look at that chair!!" It matches our comforter and other decor perfectly! It sold itself to us as soon as we sat in it... it's SO comfy and a total impluse buy but hey, we WERE wanting one anyway, right? :)






So all the furniture has been ordered, and now we are just waiting on it to arrive and for our home to be ready. Both places we ordered from will hold our furniture until we're ready, and will deliver it for us on move-in day! I'm SO excited!! Wonder if they would swing by the storage room on their way and deliver all that stuff for us too?? Hmm, probably not :)

We also ordered two new recliners (couldn't find a picture...), and have picked out a set of barstools we love! (we're getting them in RED)

I LOVE all the new things we have picked out, and absolutely cannot wait to get them all put together in our new home! We have somewhere around 6 weeks left before move-in day... The count-down is definitely on!!

Las Cruces Trip

Unfortunately, Robert's cousin Eric passed away 2 weeks ago. We left on that next Tuesday to drive to Las Cruces, NM for the funeral... and even though the occasion was a sad one, Rob and I both enjoyed the 13 hours we had to hang out during the drive.


The changes in the landscape from Lubbock to Las Cruces was amazing to me -- we went from cotton fields, to plains, to desert, to mountains, back to desert and back to mountains again!

About halfway through the trip we drove through the Lincoln National Forest -- it was closed to campers and hikers because the drought has made the risk of forest fires so high. SO MUCH of the forest has burned, and it was horrible to see all the black everywhere. The parts that weren't burned though, were very pretty!

When we arrived in Las Cruces late Tuesday night we checked into our hotel, Hotel Encanto (Enchanted), and then walked across the street to have dinner at Farley's. We had margaritas and beer and managed to catch the end of the Mavs game, then headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.

We left immediately after the funeral the next day... so it was a very quick trip. It was sad to see all of his family members hurting so much, and I hope the next time we see them all it is for better circumstances.

House Progress!!

Yay! We were so excited to walk into our house yesterday and see so much progress being made -- it seems like the inside has been somewhat at a stand-still for a while, but when we walked in yesterday there were all kinds of fun suprises waiting for us:

#1 -- Wired for Electricity!!

#2 -- Fireplace Installed!!

#3 -- Bricks Delivered!!

and also, we noticed on the outside, the primer is DONE and the next step is paint!

Shopping Day!!

Today was one of my favorite kind of days... shopping with Nana and Paige! My Mom was gracious enough to give Paige and I each some cash to go get some new summer clothes... on the condition that she would not have to go do the actual shopping herself <> -- Nana was more than happy to go, and we had a lot of fun traipsing around the mall finding all kinds of cute stuff!

It seems like almost all of my friends are either getting married or having babies in the next few months, so I got a couple of cute summer dresses that will be great for a wedding or a shower. Also got some good basics... shirts and shorts for the summer.

Paige made a great haul too -- and we actually talked her into going somewhere OTHER than Justice :) Of course, 80% of what she got was still from there... but it's all super cute so that's all that matters.

Where's April?

So last night I MIGHT have accidently picked April up from my parents' house and forgot to tell them.

And that MIGHT have resulted in the 4 of them running around Vintage like the village idiots for 20 minutes looking for her because they were too afraid to call me.

And when Mom finally did call me I MIGHT have pretended to not know what she was talking about and acted like I hadn't picked Api up.

Maybe. :)

I'm not admitting to anything... but either way Grammy was not very happy with me, which resulted in Fugitive Api having to stay home today to work with me. In her honor, I have deemed it National "Take Your Fugitive to Work" Day --

T-minus 49 Days and COUNTING!

Today was exciting... I was able to make the mark the calendar that officially put us into the 40s on the Move-In Day Countdown!!

Lazy Sunday :)

Today is one of those boring posts... and one of the reasons I don't go out of my way to share the link with everyone. Really, who would be interested in reading this but us??

Rob had to work yesterday, so we had a lot of fun being lazy around the apartment today!

I woke up early to go feed the horses and make a trip to the grocery store, then headed back home where we parked ourselves on the couch for a couple of hours to relax and hang out with the puppies.

Of course, we were watching HGTV (one of our favorites) which inspired us to get up and get ready for an afternoon trip to the Parade of Homes!!

We very rarely have to get ready for the day at the same time, and since our bathroom counter is rather small I usually let Rob do his thing and then do my hair and makeup after he's gone to work each morning.

We had a lot of fun today... elbowing each other while he was putting in his contacts and I was putting on my mascara :)

Plato enjoyed himself too... I don't know what it is about this apartment that makes him feel like he is suddenly entitled to get on the bed (which has NEVER been allowed) but Rob told him to "go lay down" and up he went onto the bed. Crazy dog!! I took a quick picture before making him go to HIS bed :P

The Parade is one of our favorite local events each year... we just LOVE going around to all the big new houses, looking at all the fancy decor and getting "dreaming" ideas for later. It was particularly fun this year since we're building -- there were a lot of "OH we should do that" and "Oh my gosh, whatever you do, don't do that!" comments as we walked around to each of the homes :)

There are 3 neighborhoods participating this year... and we only made it to one today -- The Trails at Regal Park. It looks like they're kind of trying to copy the "neighborhood feel" of Vintage... but if you ask me they've definitely fallen short! The homes were gorgeous though, no denying that!

After traipsing around in and out of the 102 degree afternoon for a couple of hours, and with our home decor itch satisfied, we came back home for more puppy cuddling and, you guessed it, more HGTV :)

The puppies always make me laugh... no matter how much room they have to lay (like an ENTIRE empty loveseat) they always insist on being right on top of us.

Rain!... Kind of.

West Texas is currently in the middle of the worst drought on record. The last time was had any significant rainfall was back in October... but hopefully that will change soon!

Last night we had rain all over the area... although we didn't get much in Lubbock, there were several places that got near an inch.

One thing we DID get here though was a big dirt storm blowing in off the back of a cloud that was further south. We had a few minutes of 60-70mph winds and a LOT of blowing dust! I was out the barn meeting the hay delivery guy right before it hit, and snapped this great picture --

Nana has told us a story about how when my great-grandmother was little, they would run to the cellar anytime they saw a cloud like this one blowing in! If you didn't know what it was, it would look really scary.

I managed to get out of the barn just as the dirt wall arrived -- I had only had the car door shut for a few seconds before everything was completely surrounded by dirt. You could hardly see anything!

I managed to get in front of it a bit while driving home... here's a picture of it blowing in behind me:

Where Rob Works :)

I was so excited the other day to FINALLY see where my sweet husband works all day :) He doesn't talk about his work much because he thinks it would only bore me, but I am so proud of him!!

He took over a failing company and for the past two years has given it everything he has and is really doing well with it. I know how stressful it is for him, and the 1 1/2 hour daily commute really stinks, but he does it anyway and provides so well for the two of us :)

I followed him out to the field the other day to help him drop off a truck to one of his employees, and was able to get the "grand tour" of the area he works in each day -- most of the work his company does is for Apache Oil, and I was able to see the field office he goes to each week as well as all the hundreds of oil wells he works around each day!



He thinks it's silly that I was so excited to see "the middle of nowhere" -- but I am glad I finally have a picture to put with the things he talks about.

I love you, babe and I am SO proud of you!! Thanks for taking such great care of us!!

Osama Has Been Located!!

Poor April... I mentioned in a previous post that we call her our "Osama Dog" because the apartment does not know she lives here.

Well, after 39 days in hiding, "Osama" has been found!

A letter on our door today ordered her immediate removal from the premises or they would call the pound on her. Thankfully, my Mom offered to let her live with them for the next two months until our house is ready, but I'm hoping it won't come to that.

I plan to go to the office in the morning and beg for them to let her stay. I mean really... how are we supposed to survive 2 months apart? Fingers are crossed... and we'll see how it goes!

Our House on June 7, 2011

Apartment Living

I'll be the first to admit, that when we moved into our apartment on May 1st I had less than a positive attitude about the whole thing. I was SO frustrated with packing up our 3 bedroom house and squeezing everything into such a small space.

I've never lived in an apartment before, so the whole experience took some getting used to. Over the past few weeks though I have really grown to like it.

When we packed up our house our belongings all fit into 1 of 4 categories:

A) Can't live without it so it's going to the apartment
B) Can live without it so it's going to storage
C) Can live without it but won't fit in storage
and
D) Can live without it but might get ruined in storage

SO... as a result of these categories we have quite an odd assortment of stuff here with us. Basically we have all the daily accessories along with a ton of pictures and plants. We managed to keep most of the clutter out of sight -- just don't open any closets or drawers!

In lieu of a dining room table (can live without it so it's going to storage) we opted to place my desk (can't live without it so it's going to the apartment) in our dining room. Not something I would want to have forever, but so far it's been working out great!

The kitchen is the worst part. I've done my best to be positive about it, but I'm just not sure it's possible. The appliances are disgusting and the sink smells horrible anytime you pour something down the drain. One GREAT thing though is that the apartment has indoor washer/dryer connections and the space was large enough that our own set fits in just perfectly.

Granted, the floor is very uneven so everytime I do a load of laundry my desk shakes... but it sure beats having to go to a laundry mat!

The bedroom is a great size, and fits all of our furniture (which is good... because it definitely would NOT have fit in the storage unit) -- the bathroom is small, but more than enough room for Rob and me... and we haven't argued over the sink once! :)

My FAVORITE thing about the apartment though is definitely the fenced in patio. They call it a yard but basically it's a wooden porch with a 2ft strip of dirt around it. We bought some sod at the nursery and, though it took them a few days to adjust, the dogs have all settled in very well.

Really, we are so blessed to have found an apartment that works so well for our little family! When we checked for subleases on craigslist there were over 100 postings and this was the ONLY one that had a yard and the time frame happened to be exactly what we were looking for.

We're getting so used to the 5 of us always being in the same room that when we get into our new house here in a couple of months, we probably won't know what to do with ourselves :)