Hello again

Well hello again internet. It's been a while. Life gets in the way of life sometimes, but I'm always here. So here's a quick update since the last time that I posted:

- House - done! Moved in October, crazy painting ensued the first week we were in, and then just regular moving stuff. To date still have some things in boxes, but who doesn't these days? Latest projects around the house included three new trees planted (two in the back yard, one more to the front), Mo wall has been hung, new tv and new entertainment center, and installed cabinets/countertop/utility sink get-up in the laundry room.

- Sadie - so. much. fun! She's got a vocabulary that is growing exponentially on at a daily rate. Running all over the place. Loves giggling and making any animal sounds that you can name (if she knows it, otherwise you get a blank stare or a monster sound).

- Church - topic of long ago but is now up to date. We've started going to a church that just opened up really close to our house and Thomas has been involved in playing drums with the worship band on an every-other-week basis. Fun stuff. Still feeling it out but feels good to be around a group of people who aren't completely self-centered like the rest of the world seems to be lately.

- Food - no longer vegan. Kind of put that on the back burner when we moved. Things got fairly chaotic and that was just one thing that I thought could be sacrificed. I would love to go back, to have a more conscious decision in what I eat, how I feel, and how I impact the world. I'm just not there yet commitment wise.

Enough for now. I'll probably be keeping these pretty short for sake of time. But it's always good to get your brain empty once in a while from everything the world throws at you, you know?

Oh - and FLORIDA at the end of the week! Woohoo!

Short post

Lame, I know. But better than not posting anything.

House status - the exterior only needs a sprinkler system, sod, and paint. The interior got plumbing finished out the other day so we only have electrical finish out, paint touch up, carpeting, and baseboards. Woohoo! (Of course, minus the few issues here and there that have to be fixed before I sign anything.)

Sadie status - insane. Lovable. Crazy. Sweet and giggly. AND WALKING! Well, you may not count a few steps on her own while chasing a her pink lego dump truck wagon walking, but I do. So nyeh. And she's a master at devouring birthday cupcakes, seeing she's already spoiled by having two birthday parties!

Veganism status - going ok. Not wanting to eat meat for sure. Not really missing cheese, although rather frustrated when certain Mexican restaurants have cheese in every stinking menu item. Even their rice had cheese. A litle overkill I think. On a more positive note, the cupcakes that I made for Sadie's second first birthday party were a hit! They were from a recipe for vegan fluffy white cupcakes (just Google it) and I added vanilla frosting on some, chocolate on others. I found that most frosting is vegan, as long as it isn't the cheesecake, buttercream, or milk chocolate variety. That leaves vanilla, "classic" chocolate, confetti, strawberry, lemon, etc. The list goes on and on. But I found that Duncan Hines had a better selection than Pillsbury or Betty Crocker. Go Duncan! (Probably not intentionally vegan, but I'll take it.)

Me status - pooped from birthday parties, travel, work, building a house and all of the financial finnaggling that's associated with it. And last night the house alarm was going off at 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning for no reason. Then I guess the U-verse went out because the alarm keep beeping the rest of the night. Luckily, Sadie didn't wake up at all - considering that one alarm pad is about 10 feet from her crib.

Too long, so busy

It's been a while - but no time lately to write, or even gather my thoughts. Between work, the new house going up, planning vacations, planning birthday parties (Sadie's almost 1!), being sick, bla bla bla. The list goes on. Unfortunately, I have let myself go a bit lately in the sense of no me time. No time spent enjoying the things that I like to do by myself for myself. Sans hubby. Sans kid. (Love you Sadie!) Sans timeframe. None of this have to be back by three o'clock so I can do the next thing. Just good old time wasting fun. And enjoying it. Nope, not much of that lately. Always go go go. Maybe I just need to find a book and go to some park to truly get away from everything, including myself. Not to mention the lack of energy I have lately, which could be partially due to my super crappy way of eating - still vegan (for the most part, the occassional milk-containing chick'n nugget may find its way onto my plate), but definitely not the healthiest. I think I have been eating WAY too many grains and breads lately and not enough veggies to keep up some particular nutrient that my body is screaming for to regain its energy. Oh, super food, where are you? Why aren't you on my plate right now, first and foremost, right on top of everything else that seems to be on top of my plate lately?

*** speechless ***

I am speechless. Luckily not wordless though, so I can write this blog. We drove by our lot today to see what all has been done to the house since we last went over there (Sunday, a mere three days ago). Low and behold - POOF! There's a house. A house that's more than sticks. In just hasn't even been three whole weeks and they've already poured the foundation, roughed in the plumbing/electric/gas, framed the two story behemoth, have put up sheeting, have put siding, and now have all the windows in but one. If I blink between today and tomorrow, I may miss that they completely finish the house. At this rate, I might start sending out invitations for Sadie's birthday party to be held at the new house!

On a side note, green bell peppers stuffed with couscous, corn, and diced tomatoes for dinner - perfect!

Ying and yang

Too many things have been irking me lately.... so let's start to name a few.
- Not having access to a full sized computer for a week or two to get on the internet. Meaning to every site that I want that work does not block. Meaning not pocket sized and missing flash content because I'm trying to read it on my phone.
- Not doing a good job, let alone even a crappy job, of balancing time between work, family, Thomas, packing/moving, and myself. Yes, I come last. And sadly work has come first for the past week. Poor Sadie did not have a mom all week.
- Facebook not working properly on my iPhone. It works fine sometimes when I open it through the free app, but then other times nothing works and I have very limited views (like viewing only three entries max on the initial screen). Argh.
- Not being able to log in to Flickr because my SBC Global account is all jacked up because we moved.
- Slightly straying in my veganism, but still staying vegetarian. The occassional item while eating out has butter or cheese in it, but I won't die or go ballistic over it. But haven't asked for meat of any sort on any occassion.

Now for some good news of things that have been going some what well lately.
- Sadie is now 11 months old! 'Nuff said.
- I'm a year older. Damn birthdays. But not much to complain about because everyone tells me that they jokingly hate me... I'm still younger than them.
- Our new house is being built at lightning speeds! Just this week we have had the concrete foundation poured, framing put up, and roof framed out. Go! Go! Go! (chanting rhythmically in the background)
- Planning a few day trip to St. Louis to see the in-law family. Not many people have seen Sadie since she was born unless they have flown in to see us or live near us. Needless to say a visit is much overdue.


More later, but have much to do on the internet now that I do have a full size pc and a full screen!

So stinking busy I can't smell it anymore

I've been SO busy lately. I haven't even had time to check my email using a full sized keyboard. (Stupid iPhone coolness.) Work has been very busy. Thomas's work schedule has been very busy. Sadie has been crazy and awesome and the best ever. She can walk around holding just one of your hands now and either flailing her other hand in the air like she's waving, or just trying oh so hard to reach to get your pants or shorts or the wall or anything to balance her out. And she's so funny when she walks too. Her feet are pointing outwards like a ballerina in second position and her legs are all wobbling. The best part is her butt sticking out the back like she has some J.Lo booty shelf action going on back there. So funny. And her seventh, yes seventh, tooth is now poking out of her gums.

Oh, did I mention the new house? We (meaning the builder) got the permits approved by the city. Woohoo! So Thomas and I (and Sadie in her car seat in the car, if that counts) drove by and checked out our lot to look at it probably one of the last few times it will ever be empty. And the builder had actually started moving dirt! I never knew I would be so excited about moved dirt, but I am. They haven't truly graded the lot or broke ground or started the framework for the concrete slab yet, but they did mow the weeds, move some big rocks out of the way, and dump a truckload or two of dirt to help even out the front yard trench/slope the lot had previously. Awesome.

Another class (and probably a few pounds)

I took part two of my vegan cooking class this past Saturday. Awesome. So full of yummy, easy to make food. And so delicious. After coming home I rifled through my cookbooks some more to can more ideas of things I wanted to try in the next week or so and started putting together my shopping list.

As for our housing situation, we are officially homeless! We closed on our house on Thursday, but we don't have to move just yet because we rented back the house for a month. We also had our pre-construction meeting with our builder. Such a no nonsense, straight shooting type of guy - great for his field of work, and we really like him. So if things go quickly with city permits and paperwork, and no crazy weather gets in the way (too much, at least), we are looking at mid-September for the house to be completely done. Woohoo!

Sorry so short this time around Internet, but my bed is calling. More to come later fo' shizzle.

Woot Woot! June is great so far!

June is great for everything! The weather that just rolled through was great - thunderstorms, high winds, possible tornadoes, woohoo! Seriously, I love drastic gloomy weather like that. So relaxing and washes everything away emotionally and mentally. Ahhhhh......

On another note, we are in the process of closing on our current house, have a meeting tomorrow with our builder for our new house, and I have a meeting with a graduate advisor at UTA because I am considering continuing school to obtain my Masters degree. I also had a phone call advising session this morning with an advisor from another school in Colorado that I can complete my Masters through online courses. I'll let you know how all of those things go.

As for Sadie, well, she's crazy. She is almost walking. Right now we describe her stage of walking as zombie walking, no longer the monkey walk. Monkey walk is where she required her hands in yours up above her head. Now she's at zombie walking - where she feels comfortable enough to walk around with her hands in yours with slight pressure for balancing all forward and in front of her. Awesome. And she's fast too! Her little feet would kick up dust like Pig Pen from Charlie Brown if we had enough dirt on the floors.She can transfer around her crib while standing and even get most of the way around our coffee table in the living room. Crazy. Luckily I have started jogging/walking/working out/jogging/walking after work at the little gym in the building. At first it was for me to get back to being active. Now I think I subconsciously started because I know I'll have to keep up with Sadie tearing through our house soon. Oh wait.... not our house much longer. More like the in-laws for two to three months (Hi Le!), and then our new house in the fall with TONS of space. Our new house will be about 2.5 times the size of our current house.... and we could house a separate family upstairs and only have to share the kitchen as communal living space. Anybody want to visit/stay? We probably wouldn't even notice you there. Sad, but true.

As for my Vegan journey, I attended a cooking class hosted by The Cancer Project with my sister-in-law Kristie this past Saturday. It was awesome. Great food. Great inspiration. Good to know that there are other people out there doing this "vegan thing" for purposes of better nutrition, better health, better environmental responsibility, and being a better person overall. The biggest thing that I have noticed among vegans (not like they are aliens or weird people or anything), but in general their personalities are a lot more pleasant, caring, open-minded, and hospitable/generous with their time. Awesome. (Have I said that word enough lately?)

A much needed break and bacon!

The past few days were a nice break from the usual. My brother flew in from his completed tech school with the Air Force and decided to stay with us for a few days instead of flying directly home. It was great and really good to see him again. And even better, he got to see Sadie again. Last time he saw her was February, and she has changed so much since three months ago. She's crawling, talking, giggling, showing her personality, eating everything in sight, and going crazy for the most part. Awesome.

On a quick side note, my veganism journey is going well.... but there have been many times lately that I begin to think about how much I used to love eating out at Chick-Fil-A. Oh how I miss you chicken! But I've been good and have not folded once. Not even for a quesadilla. (Although I do admit that last weekend I had a slice of veggie lover's pizza at a party that had cheese on it - it was a small skinny piece and there wasn't much else to eat, but I won't die so it's not the end of the world.) I'm still trying to perfect the skill of frying tofu - still unsuccesful to this point - I end up with small crouton like crunchy pieces. Argh. Oh well, keep trying. Also, I had tofu bacon this morning with my pancakes for breakfast - not too bad, but definitely needed syrup to get the right flavor.

As for our house, we're waiting to hear back about the plan changes that we had made and to get a copy of the plans in our hands so we can meet with the builder in the next week or so. After that, things should get rolling quickly - hopefully. I'll be sure to keep you posted. And in terms of selling our current house, we close in 11 days! Holy crap! Such a big feat in life. It'll be interesting.

Much more later, but for now I must attend to the biddings of the Mo!

I'm on a streak

I've been on my vegan streak for exactly one month now. And it hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong - I miss cheese. But not so much missing the meat or milk... although today's meeting over lunch was catered by Red Hot and Blue and their banana pudding was very very tempting, but I resisted. Go me.

Today is also the end of our option period with our potential buyer of our house. We haven't heard anything yet, but we're leaning towards "Woohoo! Sold!" for sure seeing our home inspection the other day went very well. Minor things that didn't necessarily have to be fixed, but we fixed them anyway for less than $25. Yeah the little things.

Sorry so short, but maybe the next one might be a little longer.

Oh - did I mention that Sadie can now pull herself up to stand, can traverse along the couch and her crib while standing, and has her first big front tooth poking out now? Yay!

It's like a drug

It's like a drug. A bad one. A very addicting one. It's the housing itch. So many new houses for sale. That's not even including the new construction homes. Thomas and I have had quite a few talks lately about our lovely but getting little and full and cramped home. It's great for the three of us, but there are a few things that are needing some changes - soon. (1) Get the damn cat box out of the bathroom closet. Argh. (2) It would be nice to not have to put our Guiter Hero drumset in the office everytime we are done playing. If we don't, the cats chew all over it. (3) It would be nice not to leave Sadie's bouncer and jumparoo and blankies and boxes of toys to where you can't walk to the fish tank to turn the lights on. The list goes on and on. Don't get me wrong - I love our house. It's modern. It's comfortable. But with more people comes more stuff.... and unfortunately less room.

So we've been looking. I need a yard. I need a bathroom that I don't have to stradle the toilet or stand on it or stand in the tub in order to close the door. (Which explains why I never both to close the door in our master bath - NO FRICKING ROOM.) I need a laundry room where I can actually move with out hitting one of the four doors that are within elbows reach. I want a bigger kitchen. I love my kitchen now... but I can't fit anything else in there. And it's not very lending to entertaining guests because of the layout. We have found a few to narrow our search down to. Now it's the viewing, weighing all our options stage. Keep in mind this is all contigent upon selling our current home. Yes, home, not house. It's more than that. It's our first home together. We've put hours and hours and hours into this house fixing it up and laughing and watching movies and arguing over PlayStation games and cleaning the closet once every six months (maybe). You get the idea. So that's where we stand - in the middle of looking and trying to sell. Isn't that typical?