Strong Enough to Be My Man

I just want to tell you about how wonderful my husband is (in case you didn't know already). I am so blessed to have him in my life, and I just don't know how I would survive without him. More so than ever, I thank God every single day that I have him to care for me, to help me, to be patient and understanding, and to love me unconditionally. He's had to put up with a lot from me lately - my drug-induced craziness which thankfully has subsided, my issues with various aspects of my life, etc. Although my stress level sometimes rubs off on him and even though occasionally when he is sleepy he is grumpy, I love him more than anything, and he is my rock that helps me get through. I can talk to him about my frustrations and get advice, or sometimes I can just go to him and he will hold me when I don't want to talk.

I love you, Austin, and thank you so much for being strong enough to be my man (like the Sheryl Crow song). :)

It's Nice to Feel Appreciated

Today is Administrative Professional's Day. Last year, we convinced our boss to let us all go to lunch with the secretaries instead of forcing them to go alone and since we weren't recognized on legal assistant day. The year before that, we got nothing. This year was different. All week long they have been giving away two $25 gift certificates to various places (Brinker restaurants, Starbucks, Dillard's, etc.) and this morning they gave away a half-day paid vacation. We had a breakfast buffet this morning and are having pizza on Friday and more gift certificates on Thursday and Friday. Plus, we each had this cool little collapsible music cooler in our chairs this morning when we came in. It's this soft sided little cooler that you can collapse and make smaller to store and that holds like 6 soda cans and it has a radio built in to it. It will be perfect for when we go to the beach in Port Aransas in July. :)

Well, I guess that is it for now - just wanted to brag about how nice it is to feel appreciated! Hope that all the rest of you administrative professionals are having a great day too!

Sleepytime!

Last night was great!!! Except for the fact that it was a super late night especially for a Monday. But we had great seats at the Mavs game, and even though they lost, it was a ton of fun! There is nothing like a good game live - my favorite is basketball, followed by football, then hockey, then baseball. It was a really good game since they were so close the whole time unlike Saturday when they were behind the entire time!!! Needless to say with traffic and a long game, we didn't get home and in bed until almost 1 am, and I am very sleepy because of it. But it was worth it and it's not something we do every night so it's manageable. Hopefully I can catch up on some sleep tonight after watching American Idol and Scrubs! :)

Other than that, I had a doctor's appointment this morning to go over some options about what to do now that I'm not taking my medicine. It's a lot to think about, a lot of weighing options, but at least I'm feeling better now and not taking the other medication!!!

I have another hour here because of coming in late this morning for the doctor's appointment so I'm trying to coast by until I can sneak out of here. I had to park way down in the depths of the parking garage (it's underground), so I'll be trudging down into the depths of emptyness around 6:15 to retrieve my car and get home!!! Hope you all have a good evening! :)

An Interesting Weekend

This weekend was definitely an interesting weekend for me. Austin and I had a lot to discuss, important matters regarding my health and well-being. So while we had many deep conversations, we had one of the best weekends that have occurred in a long time. I decided to stop taking some medication which was making me crazy, literally, and I have not felt this good and normal in a long time!!! It is great - I missed me! :) Haha! Needless to say, hopefully a more positive attitude will be showing through my posts and beyond. I also posted a new doll to represent my springtime weekend look. I wish I could borrow some of the clothes available on that dollmaker - it would be fun if you could go into your closet, put together and outfit on the screen like that, and it would automatically pop out and dress you! LOL!

Anyways, enough of that craziness and oversharing.....here's my weekend recap! Friday, I got off work and we zipped over to 7 Salsas for a beautiful dinner on the patio. It was such NICE weather on Friday afternoon/evening. From there, we went over the AMC theater to meet up with Austin's cousin and his wife to see "The Intepreter." I thought it was really good although I expected it to be because of the good reviews. I'm not a huge fan of Sean Penn, but I like Nicole Kidman, and I have to say the movie was done very well.

Saturday morning, we got up and drove to the dealership to take my Mustang in for its first checkup. There were a few little things I wanted them to check for me while it was there, so we got a rental car for me for the week (the dealership is about an hour from our apartment but since Austin's cousin owns it and they give us good deals and free rental cars, it's worth the drive!). So I am driving a red Escape for the week. I think I might get one of those in a few years when my lease is up, and I need a more practical car. They are fun and cute and small but big enough for hauling groceries and people! We came back to the apartment, had some lunch, and headed for the Mavs game. I had gotten Austin tickets to the game as part of his birthday present. We had a lot of fun even though they lost (so much fun that we decided to snag some tickets on Ebay for tonight's game!). We went to Rockfish for dinner after the game and headed home for some R&R.

Sunday morning, we got up early (as usual) and I went with Austin to mow the shop yard. I read my book in the truck with the dog while he mowed. I don't like him going over there alone on Sundays because there isn't anyone around and it's not the best area of town. I'm a great security guard you know - I had my cell phone in hand and ready to dial 911 if needed! ;) We came home, I went and got my nails done, we lounged around the apartment for a bit, and then went and met some friends at Hooters for dinner. We went grocery shopping on the way home, spent half the evening searching for Mavs tickets for tonight's game, and then headed to bed. It was a good weekend even though I'm sure it sounds quite boring! ;)

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend too and I'll keep on posting!!! I'll be sleepy tomorrow because of the game but I have a doctor's appointment in the morning so I get to sleep a little later than usual at least! :) Talk to you later alligator!

Look Out World, Here I Come!

Yesterday was a very trying day for me. I'm not sure what was going on - I have called my doctor because I think part of my problem is that my hormones are way out of whack. My body apparently does not enjoy the added pill I take each day after getting married. First it tried to make me nauseous, now it's trying to make me crazy! Hopefully that will be resolved soon.

I feel extremely lucky and loved. My loving husband, knowing I had a bad day and even though he had to deal with the brunt of my emotions, had a bouquet of 18 bright pink roses that were so beautiful I wanted to cry waiting for me when I got home from work. I wish I could have brought them to work with me so I could stare at them all day and smile! They are such a bright and vivid pink, and the arrangement has these other cute little pink flowers sticking out here and there too. It's so great!

Lastly, I just wanted to let everyone know that from here on out, I'm on a mission to be happy. No matter what it takes! ;) Life is too short to be miserable about silly little things, and I'm going to try to relax more and make the best of situations and just keep trying for something new and great! And I'm warning everyone reading this in a MegaMillions state, I am going to WIN the $205 million jackpot tonight so don't even bother trying or if you do, just know that you will be losing to me (haha, I wish!). At least the money goes to education which is always a plus! Hope that you all have a wonderful weekend and talk to you soon! :)

It's Been Awhile.....

So, I know everyone has been super sad because I haven't posted on my blog since Monday. Frankly, there are two reasons for this: 1) I haven't felt like I've had much to say and 2) I felt like anything I might have to say would be too boring or trivial to read. In case you didn't know, I'm a huge perfectionist and to have a so-so blog is just not allowed. Now, I'm not going to pretend that some of my blog entries aren't boring to some because I like to do my weekend updates and other things to keep people update on my life. But I don't want my entire blog to consist of boring updates on my life!!! So here's a topic up for discussion today:

How do you figure out when you are ready to settle down? Now, don't get scared - things are going WONDERFUL with Austin and me and I couldn't be happier with our marriage. That seems to be the one and ONLY part of settling down that I have mastered or at least have made a good attempt at! :) But the rest of it: job, place to live, having kids, that whole future aspect of my life is still up in the air.

I like my new job, but I still ask myself if this is really what I can see myself settling into for the rest of my working career. Do I, Mel S, plan on working as a paralegal for the next 40 years? There are other professions I might enjoy, but they won't pay enough or I don't have enough experience or other factors that make them less appealing. There is the option of staying home with the kids once we have them, but I don't know if I would be happy doing that either or if we will be blessed enough to survive on one income with extra mouths to feed. These are all questions that have no answers and being the perfectionist that I am, they are hard for me to deal with because I LOVE to plan and prepare and know what is coming along. I can deal with the bumps and bruises along the way, but the MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS are what really scare me!

I like the area that we live in and our apartment and everything else. But I sometimes really miss warmer weather year round or water. This area is so land-locked, it's depressing sometimes! Is this the area of the country where I want to settle down, live in permanently, raise a family? Austin's family lives here which is nice, but might we be happier somewhere like Austin that has a mixed environment of city and countryside with hills and lakes and where we can have our own life, not the life that I started in college and never left and the life that he's lived his entire life. It's definitely something to consider and probably should be done soon since we probably will be trying for kids in the next few years and want to have a "home" established and jobs and other important aspects of life.

I want to have kids probably in 2-3 more years. But am I ready? Will I be ready then? Will we have enough money, a good enough place for them to go to school, a good enough daycare should we have to use that option? Will we be responsible enough? Will we know the right things to do and say to raise them so wonderfully like we were raised by our parents? Will we be sad that we can't go on trips or to concerts or movies or any of the other things that we like to do now? So many questions! :) But I guess that's part of the beauty of life that you get to see what will happen with your questions and be provided the answers when it is time.

I guess that is enough of my deep thinking for today.....conclusion is there are many questions left unanswered but definitely worth thinking about. Life is such a journey, so many paths you can take, so many choices to be made. Thank God I have a wonderful person to walk along the journey with me, a wonderful family that has raised me to take this journey to the best of my ability, and someone up above to watch over me and help guide me on my way! Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the day, and I'm sure I'll be writing more tomorrow but until then, I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments! :)

Dreary Monday Morning

After over a week of beautiful weather consistently, we are now to have a week of crummy weather with a possibility for rain EVERY DAY this week including the weekend. So it's dreary and cloudy and yucky and makes me want to just stay in bed and curl up with the pets and sleep and watch movies! :) But alas, that isnt' going to happen so I will at least tell you about my weekend.

Friday night, I got home from work and Austin and I went to 7 Salsas for dinner. Yum! Then we watched "Paparazzi" from Netflix which is actually a very good movie, and since we love celebrity gossip, it kind of gives you a perspective on what those people do to get some of their stories which is sad. Saturday morning, we got up and I showered and got ready and drove to Austin's parents' house. His mom likes to do these stamp card things, and she had agreed to be the "host" for one of the parties so she asked if I would come, and I said yes. It was fun although I'm more for creating the looks rather than stamping them on, but if you had a lot of extra money to buy the stamps and things, you could make some really neat cards. After the "party," we went out to lunch with another of their family friends whose daughter just got engaged and is getting married in September 2006. So I offered her some advice and we talked about weddings throughout lunch. Then I went and picked up Joey from his parents' house, and we headed back to the apartment to meet up with Austin and his brother. We all went to dinner at Cheddar's and then went to the Ballpark at Arlington to watch the Rangers game. We ended up leaving during the 6th inning because we had gotten really cheap seats anyways and it was kind of boring being up that high and they weren't winning. So we headed back to our apartment, watched some TV, and went to bed.

Sunday morning, we got up and went to breakfast at the Lone Star Diner by our apartment and then took Joey to the airport to go back to Lubbock. Hopefully, he will be moving back here in the next few months! We came back, made our grocery list, went by Sam's and Albertson's and spent the rest of the day relaxing at home. We watched "Elektra" and "The Contender" and "Desperate Housewives." It was a good evening!

So that's kind of how the weekend went....now just got to get through 5 days and back to the weekend again! Haha! Have a good Monday and talk to you soon! :)

It's a Beautiful Day!

The weather here is just perfect. It's my favorite time of the year! This time and at the end of fall when the weather is like it is now. Oh how I wish that I could be outside enjoying it right now! My busy days are over for now, and today is starting off slow. I'm hoping they will fix the database issues we asked about on Wednesday so that I can have something to do today!

Other than that, not too much to report. I totally screwed up my TiVo last night when watching Apprentice after which I proceeded to have a mini temper tantrum! Luckily, they replay it on CNBC tonight so we are recording it and will watch the rest of it tonight. I know who got kicked off now though so it's kind of anti-climactic but oh well. Still interesting to see the boardroom and what happens!

Tomorrow, Joey is going to come hang out with us, and I think we all will go to the Rangers game. At least that gives us something different to do than the norm. I really don't have much interesting to say so I will save you all the pain of having to read more ramblings. Hope you have a great weekend! :)

Busy as a Bee

Yay, I LOVE to be busy!!! And I'm not saying that sarcastic at all. It's really, really true. At home, I want to do nothing but be lazy and sit on the couch and watch silly television. But at work, I love to be busy, love to get things accomplished, and love how fast the day passes while I'm busy!

It's almost time to go home - yippee! Things are going really well, starting to get more things given to me and showing them that I can handle it. :)

Other than that, not a whole lot to report....Austin's birthday was great on Monday. The presents came on time. He was surprised - it was good stuff! And now it's Wednesday already and nearly the weekend (thank goodness!). We made our airplane reservations for Thanksgiving (yes, you have to plan ahead for these things when going to Florida because tickets are super EXPENSIVE especially with the gas prices rising and therefore the fares rising along with them). We are going to get to go for almost a week because it was the cheapest to fly. We were going to leave the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and stay until Sunday. But for less than the cost of one flight that way, we are both getting to fly. We leave Wednesday evening after work (the day before Thanksgiving) and come back Tuesday afternoon. My dad is on call that weekend so he is going to try to take off Monday so we can have a day after my mom's family leaves to hang out with him and my mom since they don't get to see us much. So that will be fun!

Well, guess I better wrap a few things up around here before I head out! At least I will have stuff to do when I get into work tomorrow! Hope that everyone is having a good week and talk to you all when I can! :)

Happy Birthday Austin!!!

Well, here it is - Monday again! I just can't believe how quickly the weekends go. Hopefully the week will go by quickly as well! Today is Austin's birthday - he is 24 years old! I feel bad for him because he is starting to realize how meaningless birthdays can be after a certain age and how much it takes the fun out of your birthday when you have to work on it. But I tried to make it a birthday weekend for him so that it would be fun all weekend long! :)

Friday night, I got off work a little early (I swear everyone else left at like 3:30 or 4 and didn't tell me - I left at 4:45 because everyone else was already gone!), so I ran by CVS and Target to pick up a few things. I gave Austin a small gift (the OC 4 soundtrack CD), and we went to Mi Cocina's for dinner. We didn't really do much that night except lay in bed and watch TV because Austin was really tired.

Saturday, we got up, and Austin went to mow the shop yard. I lounged around a bit and then fought the madness trying to get playoff tickets for the Mavs. After my Internet connection leaving me once in the midst of the process, I luckily got two seats for the first round home game A, so that should be fun. I gave that present to Austin Sunday morning, and he was really surprised! When he got home, we headed to Old Navy real quick to grab a dog collar for Maddie and a few shirts for Austin. Then we went and picked up Brad & Jocelyn and all headed to downtown Fort Worth for the Main Street Arts Festival. The weather was BEAUTIFUL on Saturday, which made the arts festival VERY crowded! But it was still a really good time. We went to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens after that and just relaxed outside in the beautiful weather, and then went out to eat at Joe's Crab Shack (one of Austin's favorite restaurants). When we got home, we watched "Sideways," which was actually pretty good but I was a little disappointed in the ending and overall it was just one of those movies you see to see but I don't really think I need to watch again.

Sunday morning, we got up and went to this new diner that opened by our apartment and had a yummy breakfast. Then we came back and watched "Spanglish" - I was quite surprised by this movie, I was a little afraid that it would be like "Punch Drunk Love" and be utterly annoying and boring, but we both really liked this movie a lot. We went and picked up Austin's birthday cake from Baskin Robbins (chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream with white cake and Incredibles design!) and headed to his parents' house for the family lunch. We had great baked ziti, Austin got some cool gifts, and then we went to see "Fever Pitch" with his brother at an early matinee. It was SO CUTE - a great romantic comedy! Then we went home, watched "The Contender" and "Desperate Housewives" and headed to bed. It was a great weekend overall!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend as well! I just hope the day goes by quickly so I can head home and surprise Austin with a few last things! :)

Finally Friday!

Even though I've only had to work four days this week, it feels like forever! I'm definitely glad it's Friday and after 3 because that means I'm in the home stretch. And I have some stuff to keep me busy until 5:15 when I get to leave so that's good!

Not too much new to report. We have a fun schedule this weekend because it is Austin's birthday. Yesterday was my cat's birthday, Mikah. He is 5 years old! I can't believe it!!! I got him when he was six weeks old. We got him soft cat food, a fancy water fountain thing, and a catnip toy. He was very happy! :) Yes, we spoil our pets, but they are just too cute!

Tonight, I think we are going to go to Joe's Crab Schack and then go to Grapevine Mills real quick to stop in Old Navy. Tomorrow we are going to downtown Fort Worth for the Main Street Art Festival and then out to dinner with one of Austin's friends and his girlfriend. Sunday, we are celebrating Austin's birthday with his family that afternoon and then hopefully catching a late matinee of "Fever Pitch." It should be a fun and relaxing weekend!

I've had a hard time getting up out of bed this week. I'm hoping it's just a temporary adjustment after traveling last weekend and the daylight savings time change. Let's hope so! My cat and dog cuddle with me in the morning after Austin leaves so I don't want to get out of bed!!! :)

Guess that's all for now.....gotta get back to work. Not all of us are as lucky as Jes to be done early and have massages, daquiris, and lunch by the pool - and it's a beautiful day besides! I think tomorrow will be nice too at least so then I won't have to be as bitter! Haha! Have a great weekend! : p

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

Last night while I was watching American Idol and Scrubs, I uploaded the pictures we took on our trip to California. I don't have the picture program at work to upload pictures directly onto my blog plus we took a bunch of pictures so I will just give you the link and those of you that are interested can feel free to take a look!

http://tinyurl.com/5fzub

Other than that, I don't have a whole lot new to report. I'm glad it's Wednesday already. Hopefully I'll stay busy again today - it makes the day go by much faster! Hope you all are well and talk to you soon! :)

California Dreamin'

I'm back, not happy about being back but back none the less! :) We had an amazing weekend - couldn't have asked for a better time or better weather. Just sad that it's already over with. At least we have another trip to look forward to on Memorial Day weekend - going up to Pennsylvania to meet my family and show Austin where my parents grew up, and I spent many summers. We leave in 7 weeks and two days, not that I'm counting or anything! Haha! Here's the weekend recap:

Friday:
Friday morning, I got up and packed (I'm a packing procrastinator, but I do SO MUCH better when I wait until the last minute because it forces me to decide on what to bring quickly rather than thinking about it forever and overpacking). We took the dog to the pet hotel, dropped the car off at the Parking Spot, and were on our way. We decided to get some coffee in the airport to wake up, and we found a yummy spot that used Ghiardelli's syrups! Of course, we are sitting there about 10 minutes before we are to board our plane, and I have a random hand spasm and spill what's left of my coffee all over my lap. Luckily I also had a magazine in my lap so that took the brunt of the spill, but I had nice BROWN (I had gotten a mocha) stains on both of my legs. Lovely. I ran to the bathroom and scrubbed them the best I could (I was wearing khakis of course), and of course there were only paper towels, no air dryers. The one time I could actually use an air dryer!!!! So I walked back out to join Austin with two wet spots now on the front of my pants - nice and embarrassing. I held the magazines in front of me and boarded the plane and luckily during the first flight, my pants dried and I had gotten out most of the stains so you couldn't even tell - hurray! We flew from Dallas to Salt Lake City and then from Salt Lake City into Orange County airport. It took a long time but considering we used frequent flier miles and paid $10 for both of our roundtrip flights, I can't really complain. We got to Orange County around 2 pm their time, grabbed our rental car (a burnt orange Pontiac Sunfire - such an ugly color but a decent car for the price), and headed up the Pacific Coast Highway. We saw Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, and finally got to Manhattan Beach. We checked into our hotel which was really pretty, and we had a beautiful balcony and view of the golf course at the hotel. We then went to expore downtown Manhattan Beach was a quaint little coastal town. Very well-to-do of course! The houses were amazing and in the three million dollar range+ but it was really cool to see the beach and everything. We grabbed some dinner in a local sports bar/restaurant because we were tired and didn't feel like waiting anywhere else for a table. It was yummy! We headed back and went to sleep!

Saturday:
We woke up at 5 am California time. Yes that's right!!! Austin and I never really sleep in much on the weekends because we both get up relatively early during the week so that was normal for us (7 am our time). We lounged around the hotel room for a bit, and then decided to try to find a good place for breakfast. We drove and walked around on the pier and took some pictures first. We found a cute little place in Manhattan Beach and had great omelets and pancakes! Then we headed up to Venice Beach. We walked around there FOREVER! I saw some of the weirdest people I've ever seen in my life, but it was also really cool to see Muscle Beach and the basketball courts where they play pick-up games on the weekends. Lots of interesting things to look at, and we got A LOT of exercise walking up and down the beach. Then we went into Hollywood. We met my friend, Sean, for lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, overlooking the Hollywood sign and at the edge of the Kodak Theater. Took some pictures, saw the Groman's Chinese Theater, took pictures of the foot/handprints in the sidewalk and the stars in the sidewalk. Jumped in the car and drove around a bit more in Hollywood, but it was pretty crowded and so touristy. But I just had to see it! We headed into Beverly Hills, walked down Rodeo Drive, and looked around. Jumped back in the car and headed back to the hotel where we went down the pool briefly and then headed to our dinner reservations. We made reservations at this place called Cafe Pierre. It was a California restaurant with French influences and it was SO GOOD. Since it was our anniversary (6 months married!), we went all out and enjoyed great food and had a great time. We headed back to the hotel that night and relaxed.

Sunday:
Slept in a little bit longer (also helped that we lost an hour because of Daylight Savings) and headed to the bagel shop for a quick breakfast. We walked down Manhattan Beach for awhile, thought we saw Austin's cousin but turned out it wasn't him, and then headed up the coast. We went to Santa Monica, walked around the famous pier, walked down the shopping area called the Third Street Promenade, and then headed up to Malibu. Drove around Malibu a lot but found no celebrities! ;) We headed up Sunset and saw all the cool comedy clubs and music clubs where bands play and start out. We had In N' Out Burger for lunch (yum!), and then drove into Beverly Hills again because I wanted to see the pink hotel (Beverly Hills Hotel) and see if I could find Brad Pitt. Haha! I drove into the hotel area to take some pictures and zoomed past the lobby part, drove up Rodeo one last time, and then headed back to the hotel. We went back to the pool for a bit, but it was cooler on Sunday so we couldn't take much. Got ready and went to this really cute cafe in Manhattan Beach and watched the sunset and ate outside. It was really nice. The funny thing is that we were bummed that we saw no celebrities the whole time (we saw some lady walking her babies in Beverly Hills and she had to have been a celebrity of some sort but we didn't know who - guess we'll see her picture in US Weekly next week and find out!). Well, we are sitting out at this cafe eating and this guy and his family walk up to the edge and it was J.D. Roth. I know him from watching the Endurance Challenge on Discovery Kids on NBC on Saturday mornings. He also is an executive producer for The Biggest Loser and For Love or Money, so that's kind of fun. They ate in the restaurant and as we were leaving, his kid kept banging on the window at me. It was funny! We watched TV in the room that night and got some sleep.

Monday:
We had to wake up at 5:45 am California time in order to get everything ready, and get to the airport in time for our first flight. We went by the bagel store again for one last look at the water, and then down the 405. There was a lot of traffic once we got close to the airport, but we hopped in the carpool lane and made it in perfect time. Dropped off the rental car, checked in and off we went. We didn't get in until 4:45 pm Dallas time (yuck!) and by the time we got our bags, got the truck, went to pick up the dog in traffic, grabbed some Chili's to go and got home it was like 6:30. Watched some TV and headed to sleep and that brings me to present time. :)

Pretty busy finally at work so I really should go, but I wanted to update those of you that care with my fun weekend. It was a blast!!!! I am so lucky to have such a wonderful and loving husband. He also surprised me with tickets to Kelly Clarkson in May (yes I'm a dork), so I was really excited because I secretly wanted to go! Yippee! So have to work 3.5 more days and then the weekend again and it will be fun because it's Austin's birthday next Monday so we will be doing fun stuff this weekend to celebrate! Talk to you all soon! :)