Last Week of Classes

This is my last week of classes here at good ol' ETBU. I still have student teaching to do next semester, but as far as classes go, I am through after this week! WOOHOO!!! *Doin' the happy dance* Haha, now all I have is the summer ahead of me, which is something in and of itself.

We are heading out to Cancun, Mexico next Monday for our honeymoon, a year later than what it is supposed to be, but so good all the same. I am excited about going to an all inclusive and just getting to relax after a stressful year in school and to celebrate life this past year. I have to say I was slightly nervous that we never would get to go on a honeymoon if we didn't go right after the wedding, but it actually is happening, and I am sssooo excited!! I know there is a swine flu epidemic in Mexico right now, that would be our luck, but hopefully it is far away from Cancun!!!

Well this past week was a doozy of sorts! I was sick the entire week with sinus stuff. We are talking nose running, throat itching, achy feeling, just nast! I think Lee Ann and I caught it at the same time, because she was starting to feel it too when I went to help her pick out an outfit to wear for her job interview at Marshall, which went extremely well!!! I am soo excited for her and for all my friends for graduating and finding their places in the world! It is crazy that we are finally in that stage. I was talking to a couple of people the other day and was like "I honestly don't feel a day over 18, even though I am 21, it just doesn't feel like it."

Anywho, this week marks the week of finals, of which I only have 3 so I am thankful! Yay for school being out for the summer. All I want to know is, what am I supposed to do for internet if I am not at work haha?

internet and tv-less

I am currently at my parents house tonight using the wonderful internet, and watching a little bit of tv!! Since we have moved to Harleton we are currently without internet and tv, which has been quite interesting. It has actually been sorta fun trying to think of things to do instead of going straight to our defaults for time wasting. However, good ideas are running slim around the Clifton house, even with the new addition of Ellie (which definitely has helped a ton!!) it has gotten a little tough. I was asking Mark and Adam to go and get a movie from Noni's or something, and Adam said "Go borrow from Bro. Scott." My first thought was "I cannot just waltzed down there, knock on the door, and say 'hey I'm bored can ya help a sister out?'" However, luck was upon me when I looked out the kitchen window and saw him and Suggie standing outside talking! I grabbed Ellie and begin the walk down the road.

Both Suggie and Bro. Scott laughed at my poor, pitiful, and sad circumstances of boredom, and then gave me three choice to help, which they did. I received two Tim Hawkins DVDs and Night and the Museum. We watched a Tim Hawkins DVD and laughed so hard! For those who don't know Tim Hawkins is a Christian comedian who is HILARIOUS, seriously everyone should go and youtube him or something. Anyways, I was temporarily relieved of boredom with the generous help from my pastor haha.

Tonight Mark and the Cliftones are practicing so I am stuck waiting on them to get home. I did however get most of an art lesson that usually takes a good hour and half to do during the week, so the night was actually beneficial. One other thing I am also trying to do besides school is put together a website for the girls in our youth group. Right now I have made a site at www.faraboverubies.weebly.com where I hope to update information regularly. The homepage is kinda like a newsletter, where things are kept up with and talked about, a fun random fact, and an application section. Then there is a Coffee Shop Talk page, which is like a forum discussion place for the girls to interact with me and each other discussing various topics. I am really hoping the girls like this and that I can keep it up for them. I am enjoying it so far, but if anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them.

Well I guess that is all of the random babbling for tonight.

Pictures

I tried to upload a pic for the end of the post at work and it wouldn't work with me, so here are some!

Mark and Ellie


Ellie Girl


Me and Ellie

A Busy, New, and Wonderful Weekend

Wow, what a weekend it has been in the Clifton house! It was a crazy, busy, and oh so much fun type of weekend, but I guess I will start from the beginning which in this story happens to be on Wednesday night. The conversation went something like this. . .

(Mark and I are in bed about to go to sleep, discussing plans for the rest of the week)

Mark: So yeah, I'm off for good Friday. . . It's going to be a long weekend.
Me: Oh that will be good, we get a holiday together!
Mark: Yeah I am so ready to move and get out there to Harleton.
Me: I know this place is a wreck, but I can't do anything about it because we are sorta in this limbo stage!
Mark: Well when are we gonna move?
Me: I dunno. . . we should just move this weekend! (I am totally kidding here)
Mark: That is not a bad idea, becuase when would we have another chance or free weekend? (This leads to an intense discussion of dates before the end of April, which brings us to the conclusion, there really isn't a better time than this weekend)
Me: It is just going to stink, because I am going to have to be the one that gets up early and drives! Plus there is no cable or internet out there!
Mark: But it will be so worth it!
Me: I will only do it if I get to get a puppy.
Mark: Fine, we will get you a puppy!
Me: So this weekend huh? We really are gonna move?
Mark: Yep this weekend. We will need to get a truck, the trailer, everything packed. . . (trails off as he goes to sleep)

So yeah that is how we decided we were moving on this weekend (actually on Friday), in bed Wednesday night! Needless to say there was a lot of work that needed to happen between now and then. Sadly nothing really did get accomplished haha! I didn't get a chance to do any packing at all before Friday came, but I have good reason and here it is. . .

Thursday night I had class and actually got out of it early for a change (ususally she keeps us the whole three hours). I had already decided beforehand that I was going to go and get an easter dress that night, and had seen one online at Target for cheap! So I caught up with Anna who was also going to go by herself, and decided we would meet up in L-view after she got off work. Well with me getting out around three that left roughly 2 hours or so of downtime for me. I had been looking for a long time online at petfinder.com to find a puppy, but it is so hard to do when you don't really know if they are there or not. So I decided with my extra time I would drive to the Humane society and check out what they had.

I ended up finally making it there (it is way on the backside of downtown)and am excited about what I might find. Mark and I decided we wanted a medium size puppy we could train and make our own, and have it end up the way we wanted it to, so I go in and look at the puppy room first. This is filled with tiny puppies, and one very yippy chihuahua dog that is barking and making every other dog in there bark too! I didn't see any that I just fell in love with. I mean they were cute, but they weren't the breeds I like or we were looking for. So I go out and look at the adult dogs. There were plenty out there, all different kinds for all different families, but one in particular caught my eye. There was this one little black and white dog, that in the midst of all this barking was just laying there looking at me. I was drawn to her immediately. The lady there warned me she was shy and that could potentially be not good for a youth ministers house, but I asked to see her anyway. She went and got a leash to go in for the dog, who shied away from her and made me think "oh no she was right". The dog also didn't walk out, but had to be dragged out of the cage until she got to me. However, once she was at my feet it all changed. She allowed me to pet her and also to walk her into this little visitation room where I could let her off leash and talk with her. She was just so sweet and melted my heart, I wanted to take her home right then but Mark wanted to meet her, so I just filled out paper work on her that said I wanted to adopt her and would come back! I then went to petsmart while I was waiting on Anna to get there and dreamed about having a dog of my own while walking aimlessly down the aisles! I also found my easter dress and accessories which made me feel good!

I returned back in the middle of storm, which made out lights go out in the new house! We spent sometime over at my grandparents with my aunt and cousin that had come in! I also told Holly I would watch Emilie (the cousin) while she and Ballou went to a funeral and she could help us pack and move.

Whew hope you're still with me! This brings us to Friday, moving day! As I said we didn't have anything packed and or ready, so it was an early morning trying to get it all together! Adam came down to help with the big stuff and we got the trailer and truck both loaded down with all the big things (couch, bed, tv, bookshelf, nightstands, dressers, boxes, etc) and got it all moved to Harleton! I went and got Emilie who helped us by crumpling newspapers for extra padding! She did so good and worked so hard. We get out to Harleton and Ballou and Holly come over and help us get everything situated and moved in! We then spend the rest of the day getting everything in its place, Mark, Emilie, and I head back to Marshall to get another load while Mom, Noni, and Ballou stay and clean like they have been all day! It was a team effort and couldn't have been done without the efforts from everyone! We ended up eating pizza that night with everyone, and Emilie stayed over and watched Alvin and the Chipmonks before going to bed with us!

This brings us to Saturday, which was the day of the community wide Easter Egg hunt that our church puts on. Mark gets up early and goes to get everything prepared because he is doing the music for it, and I had a booth to run! It was a blast and lots of people showed up! After it was all said and done I decided to hold Mark to his promise and convince him to go and get the puppy I saw on Thursday after the egg hunt. I give him enough time to eat and all, but then we are headed out, him apprehensive because of all the changes (he likes to have time to take it all in while I am like Why not today?). We get to the pound and talk a little bit before going in (which comes into play later). We go in and get what I think is the dog I saw, but with much shorter hair. I count it up as they gave her a haircut and we get to see it and Mark gets to visit with it which was good. Even though it is more hyper than I remember we decide to get it! I finish the paper work and they are putting it in, and I say "I hope this is the same dog, let me check" and I pull out my phone where I took a picutre of her on Thursday and it isn't the same one! Yikes! We were filling out the correct information, but they had accidentally sent the dog to Kilgore for an adoption day type thing! They were bringing her back on the truck then so we had to wait on her.

While we are waiting though, we have to pick up bbq to take back to our house where everyone in the family (including Mark's parents) are coming in to eat. Mark decides it would be better to go and get the meat while we are waiting and proceeds to look for his keys, which he can't find until he checks the locked car! By this time, the weekend is too much, and he hates doing stupid stuff like that, so he is not so happy! It takes another 20 mins, a hanger, hammer, and screwdriver later, and we are in, pulling away with our new dog, the right dog, Fluffy, who we change her name to Ellie! We make a mad dash into Target and Petsmart to get essentials like collar, leash, food and water bowls, and a brush for her shedding coat, and rush home! We make it there in time to brush out Ellie and greet his parents! We have a nice supper and Ellie is loved by everyone!!

Sunday is Easter and comes in stormy! We go to church and have a great Easter service and then come back and get Ellie before heading out to eat at my Aunt Lori's house! She is loved by everyone again, and makes and great first impression!! After leaving there it is finally down time! Mark, Ellie, and I spend the afternoon on the couch with a movie in and being lazy!

So there you have it! Our long and crazy weekend! I applaud you if you have made it to the end!

Forever!!

Wow it has been a while! And I never posted pics!! I am such a horrible person I know!!! Oh well. . . I will post some when we are all officially moved in! hehe!!

Mark has been at the new job for about 3 weeks now and he is LOVING LOVING LOVING it as am I!!! We are ssoo where God wants us right now and it has just been wonderful!! He is actually "staff" here, which means he gets salary and A DAY OFF!!! That has meant more than you can even imagine!! Since he technically "works" on Sunday he is given a day off during the week, sorta like to make it a weekend. Since he was part of the secretary staff at Macedonia he had to be there mon-fri, and work all day Sunday too! It wasn't bad, this just frees us up to do "weekend" type things (fri and sat) without losing hours. We do really miss all of our friends at Macedonia and hope they are all doing well and we can catch up with them sometime soon!!
He is doing such a good job getting to know the kids and settling into life in Harleton, he is even more ready to move out there than I am ! He works so hard and is enjoying getting to be mentored by the pastor Bro. Scott, its just been great!

Anyways, so more news is there is now a dishwasher installed in my new house!!! I CANNOT begin to describe to you how ecstatic and happy this makes me! I went over there last night just to see it and run it (without dishes but who cares) and just grin at it!! The men who worked on the house have done AMAZING! It looks like a TOTALLY different place!! I am so excited to move into there!!! Sadly though we are puppiless at the moment, our dog had an accident when he slept under Poppy's tire and sadly passed away :-(. Mark has promised me another puppy as soon as we move though, so I have been searching for the perfect one!

Well I better go and pack now! I am taking our girls to SAGE a girls conference in Tyler and Mark is with the boys playing and youth ministering at Dude camp! Then there is SNAC after church on Sunday with an easter egg hunt for the youth, so it should be a busy weekend ahead!! I cannot wait!

A Week of Painting!!

Well it is the last day of spring break and I can confidently say I only did a small amount of homework :-)But this is NOT because I was being lazy and sitting around all week, no way, I have been painting like a mad woman!

In case anyone doesn't know of I have forgotten to tell what is happening, Mark got the youth minister position at Harleton (yay!!) We are so excited and couldn't be happier! Well along with the many perks of the new job (such as a day off, that was AWESOME, a gas allowance, insurance, and so many more)comes a place to live. Now this is not just any "place to live", this is a 3 bedroom, two bath, massive house (especially when you compare it to the one bedroom apartment we have been staying in at ETBU). We are estatic about living there and all the freedom the church has graciously allowed us to have, one of which was painting.

You see, the house is huge, but is ALL wood panneling, and when I say all, I mean everything, every wall, was wood panneling! Wood panneling is not my favorite thing, and I have been wanting to paint something (make a house my own) since we got married, and the church allowed me to do it! Such a huge gift, I don't think they know how happy it made me. I got to pick all my own colors and everything, decide what I wanted where and was able to get in there and do a lot of it this week that I had off.

Of course paiting doesn't come without its bumps in the road, and this project was no exception. We decided to go with an orange for the office room, and got a color we thought would be great, but it turned out to be WAY to bright. It scared everyone, so after seeing that two coats didn't help the color, we had to go back and get a deeper orange. Luckily that was the only paint change that had to be made. We painted the living room/kitchen area, as well as the hall, a khaki color, that turned out to be way prettier than I thought it was going to be. The master bedroom is a light blue that matches our bedspread and will look great with all the dark furniture we have! By the grace of God we ran into one of the men that has been working on the house at Lowes one morning and he told us to have them tint the primer, which in turn saved us a step of painting. Instead of painting primer and then having to do two coats, the tinted primer took care of the primer and the first coat. It also saved us money which is always good!

All in all we got everything done but the guest bedroom and bathroom!! I couldn't have done it by myself, that is for sure. My family was phenomenal, with everyone coming to pitch in EVERYDAY, spending their spring break working as well! I don't know about you, but not many parents, grandparents, or brothers would do that willingly! I am so grateful to them and ALL THE HARD WORK they put in! It looks amazing and got done in half the time it would have if it had been just Mark and me painting.

I am on my mom's computer right now trying to upload the pics, but it isn't working! I will do it when I get home!

Not Me Monday (thanks Lee Ann)

Well I saw this on Lee Ann's blog and decided it looked too fun and I had to do it. Today is also the first "official day" of Spring Break as well which thus begins our week of painting our house in Harleton (pictures to come soon) Anyways, here this goes, I hope I do this right (Lee Ann will certainly tell me if I don't haha! Love ya girl!!)

Today I did not sleep in until 9:45 while my hubby got up and left at 7:30 for his first day on the new job at Harleton, that would be mean. . . nope totally didn't do that!

I did not up and leave my backpack, with my entire life inside of it (my Bible, laptop, phone charger, makeup, homework) in the hotel room in Oklahoma City on Friday night. Good thing that in-laws where there in case I just so happened to do such a crazy thing and bring it back for me. I would never leave something that needed, nope not me.

Mark and I totally did not come back to our apartment on Sunday to do nothing but chill out for the first Sunday in a LONG time. I mean honestly, if we were cleaning machines that day, not couch potatoes, enjoying a wonderful day of rest. That would not be us at all.

We also didn't sleep through the alarm for two extra hours on Saturday, not when there were two weddings to go to, and a drive to Vivian to make so Mark could be a groomsman, that would be completely irresponsible. Although I think one would understand after having to drive all through the night to get back for these things arriving at 5 in the morning, all to wake up with a jolt at ten realizing we shoulda been up at 8!! Yikes! That wouldn't be us in real life, that would be us in a bad dream. . .

I didn't go out to work on the house and forget the hammer that I had previoulsy said I need to get in order to take out all the nails and stuff in the new house to get it ready, that would be sorta silly and very frustrating.

Well there you have it! NOT ME MONDAY!!