Almost Monday already?

Well, we had a great time yesterday in Gruene. It's kinda wierd, becuase you're driving along and all the sudden it's like you're transported to "back in the day"...except there's still lots of SUVs and Motorcycles and H3s. So anyway, we spent the afternoon walking around, hanging out, checking out the town, and even antiquing! :) (You can still call it that even if you didn't buy anything, right?) The weather was *perfect* and we had dinner at a place called Gristmill where we sat on the patio overlooking the river. It was awesome.
We got back into town at around 8:00 and then went to A&M's to watch the Mav's game (TiVo'd). For anyone who missed it, they were trailing most of the game. Dirk sunk a 3-pointer at the last second taking them into overtime, and they ended up beating the Grizzlies 103 to 93. It was all very exciting, but mostly I just tried to stay awake! :)
We went to that Church with A&M today, but we won't be going back. We haven't straight up told them that yet, but we're praying it won't make anything awkward at all. It was much too charismatic for us. And instead of the normal pastor preaching, we watched this DVD of a speaker from some conference he had recently attended. Not only was the syle of worship extremely distracting, but we were both struck by the fact that they *rarely* referenced any Bible passages or even verses during the speaking. They implied that topics and ideas were from Jesus, but never proved it through His Word. Anyway, your prayers are appreciated because although we know this isn't the church for us, we don't know which church is right for us. We're probably going to start looking around more. Any suggestions?
Well, J should be home from Sport Clips soon and I think we're going for another bike ride. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

A good week

Sunday: We bought bikes. Bicycles, that is. I still can't seem to get over the stupid shin splints. We thought biking might be a good alternative to running until my leg feels better. We set out on our first ride and about 3 miles into it I ran over a thorn and got a flat tire. My sweet husband didn't want me to have to walk my bike, so he had me ride his back home and then drive back and pick him up.
Monday: J replaced my tire and we thought we'd ride over to Government Canyon Recreation Area and ride on some trails. We got there and found out that during this time of year, it's only open to the public on weekends. Oh well, it was still a good ride.
Tuesday/Wednesday: I felt like I was getting sick, so we hung out at home and watched American Idol.
Thursday: A&M came over. (That's my abbreviation for our new friends. Their names start with A and M, but they also graduation from A&M. Clever, huh?) :) A works at a new Starbucks, which happened to have it's grand opening that night with free drinks for friends and family. Later we came back here, ordered pizza and watched Scary Movie 3.
Friday: I went out with some chicks from work. There's a country club/hotel/resort near work so we went to the little restaurant. It was pretty fun, but I don't think I'll be hanging out with them much.
Today: We got up kinda early (for a Saturday) so we could take another bike ride. There was a crazy storm last night so it was pretty wet this morning and only about 63°. We had a really nice ride. This afternoon we are going with A&M up to a little town called Gruene. I don't know much about it, but I'm excited anyway!

"Seems to me, I'm exactly where I dreamt I would be"
If I Fall - Aqualung


"I'd rather fall myself than let you drag me on down"
Another Lonely Day - Ben Harper


"I could stay with you forever and never realize the time"
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go - Madeleine Peyroux

Teal Stripe

When I was in Redding a few weeks ago, I told Marla I'd post some pictures of the house once it started looking better.
I'm not as good at decorating as she has proven to be. For that matter, I don't think I'm as good as her at anything artistic. Nonetheless, I am making small attemps at turning our house into more of a "home". We bought this bedroom furniture about 4 months ago and up until yesterday couldn't find any bedding we really loved. (Well, actually we found this at Target several weeks ago, but they didn't have king size in stock until yesterday.) Now it finally looks cute enough to post pictures. These show the bed, one nightstand and the dresser. As you can see, the walls are still glaringly white and bare. We have hopes to use a "ski cabin" theme whenever we finally decorate. Now I just need some creativity and extra money! :)

I don't have the time.

My watch battery died the first week I started my job and I decided I'd rather buy a new watch than replace it. So far I haven't found one I really liked. But I haven't looked much, either. Tomorrow we're going up to San Marcos to the outlet malls and I'm hoping I can find a cool one at Fossil.
Even more exciting than that, I think we finally have friends. These even have potential to become very close friends. Tuesday we went over to their place to watch American Idol and ended up staying for over 3 hours, just hanging out, talking and watching hilarious videos on the internet. They're pretty new to SA and are looking for a church as well. They went to one last week that they really liked and I think we're gonna go with them Sunday. I'm not sure how we'll like it, I guess it's more charismatic than what we're used to, but we'll try it out anyway.
Oh, and make sure you're sitting down for this one:
I actually enjoyed some mexican food!! It didn't taste mexican-y to me, though. I heard that she was making enchiladas and was less than thrilled. But when I found out they were chicken and spinach enchiladas, I agreed to try one. Now, I wouldn't go so far as to say I'd want to *make* this dish, but...still...this is a huge step for me!

"Somebody's got a case of the Muundaays..."

It's Monday morning. Usually that's not a good thing, but I think today won't be too bad. Since we're still in that crazy tax season time of year, we get to wear jeans to work again!
I ran a couple miles on Thursday and my shin is still feeling okay so I should be able to run a few more tonight. Whoo-Hoo!! Laugh all you want, but to me, it's very exciting.
Today, we are supposed to reach temperatures in the triple digits! Okay, so that may not be a great thing, but it does make me thankful for A/C that works! :)

CHINESE FORTUNE COOKIES

Once upon a time, back in the 1990's, in a land called America, Joe Shmoe sat down for a nice Chinese dinner with one of his friends.
After gorging himself on chow mein, sweet and sour pork, General Tsao's chicken and several eggrolls, Joe sat back and cracked open a fortune cookie. To his delight, the fortune read "you will inherit $1 billion this year". Although Joe couldn't imagine such a thing, he knew it had to be true--after all, he'd read it in a fortune cookie. For the next 12 months, Joe bought every single thing he'd ever wanted, planning to pay off the bills when his money came in.
Unfortunately, the year passed and he never saw the money. In fact, he grew deeper and deeper in debt.
With no money, no job and no hope, Joe decided his only choice was to sue the makers of the fortune cookie.
Since the company had obviously blatantly lied to this poor innocent man, they were required to pay him not only the $1 billion, but also another $975,000 for all the emotional damage he suffered.
To avoid any further lawsuits, fortune cookie makers have all decided to forget about fortunes and use cheesy motivational sayings instead.

*Made up by a friend of mine in an effort to explain to lack of fortunes in fortune cookies.

Finally...a new post!

I had a very nice (but very tiring) trip to California last weekend. I spent the majority of my time there with Elizabeth doing wedding stuff. It was a blast and everything turned out really well. For people like Eisel who love pictures, here is one of us before the wedding. My hair felt similar to a helmet and was held in place with 118 bobby pins as well as **lots** of hairspray. :) Props to the tailor cuz my dress actually fit perfectly!

When I got home, J surprised me with my new 4Runner!! He told me on the phone that it would be here Friday. I took that to mean Friday the 14th, but he was very sneaky, it was actually Friday the 7th. He got the TTLI taken care of yesterday so I can legally drive it now! No pictures yet, but it's everything I hoped it would be.

Tomorrow is a short day at work, I should be getting off at 1:00, so J and I are going to take our 4Runner on a little road trip to Dallas to visit Nanny. We're pretty excited about that. We'll get in Friday night and leave Sunday after church, but at least we'll have all day Saturday to spend with Nanny.

Right now San Antonio is 6 warmer than the forecasted high for the day in Redding. It seems strange to be "going home" to colder weather instead of warmer.
I left my favorite sweatshirt at work Tuesday, so we have to swing by there on the way to the airport this morning...plus I haven't finished packing. I hope I can fall asleep on the plane.
If I don't update for a while, it's probably one of two things:
1) Zachary's lack of computers.
2) I'm too busy with wedding stuff.

See you soon, bro! :)

Last Week's Music:

"you seem so out of context, in this gaudy apartment complex"
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight - The Postal Service


"give me a few hours, I'll have this all sorted out"
Somewhere In Between - Lifehouse


"crazy ideas are runnin' through my head and...crazy to think of what some people have said"
Monkey Cymbals - Robert Wade

getdefensive.com

Well, I am in the middle of taking my defensive driving course online. I'm glad that I can do it here rather than having to sit in class, but Texas has an interesting law I didn't know about until today.
Whether you take the course online or in a classroom, you're required to put in 6 hours. The websites actually time you. Even if I finish reading and answering questions before the time runs out, it will not allow me to move on to the next page. Seriously frustrating.
Anyway, that is what I have been doing for the majority of my Saturday. When J finishes changing the oil in my car, we'll go get groceries. Unfortunately, that's only slightly more exciting than online traffic school. Both are necessary though, so...what're ya gonna do?

March Scores

kayla m richardson - 2
chuck - 2
jay - 1