blessed

It's taken me several years to recover fully from friendship blunders of my past. I know I still have a ton of apprehension when meeting new people and when Joel and I start to get to know them. I know that I also now have hope that is kindled, even amidst all of my apprehension. Short way of putting it is that I am learning to overcome my trust issues and trust people once again.

I have really great family. I love my family. I love every single one of them. Despite personality differences, upbringings, and ideas, I love them and I will always love them, and I will basically do anything for them if they are in need. They would do the same for me, and have. I am blessed. (This definitely counts towards my new family that I have through my husband. Not only am I blessed to have such a great family on my side, but Joel has brought me into his family and extended family in such a smooth way that I can hardly think that it's normal. They are great people)

I have really great friends. Who else will cook you dinner for no reason except they know you might want something different, or to hangout and watch tv? Friends will. Like every couple throughout history, Joel and I graduated from UNT last december and neither of us had jobs. We all know what not having a job means. God used our friends in such a loving and perfectly timed way that eased the stress of not having a job. While God was making a way for us to be financially stable, he provided for us through our friends (and family) within the body of Christ. All of you who bought us dinner, hung out with us, let us watch your TV, listened to me whine. Thank you. We love you and cherish all of your friendships very much.

That's all for now.
Joel and I have been learning to be dog owners and we're getting to be somewhat OK at it :)
Jack is growing so fast that I can hardly remember how small he was when we got him just a few weeks ago.

We've been cleaning and prepping our new apartment/house space for us to move into the last few weeks and it's really starting to shine. Right now it smells heavily of Johnson's Paste wood floor wax and 409. Hopefully in a week or so it will smell a little of fresh paint and clean laundry or something nice like that :)
I'll post pictures of the new space once I can actually charge my camera and upload pictures off of it. (I know that I am a horrible camera charger-picture poster updater blogger)

Joey

Never gonna "gif" you up.

This brings tears of joy to my eyes y'all.

[via - Senor Gif ]

1. Ikea run! I need several things for the new aparment that we don't have a need for at our current apartment. like: Extension Cords, Paper Lanterns, Space fans (ideally those vertical ones) and I need two of those.
2. Paper towels for cleaning the apartment, i almost went through one entire roll last night.
3. gardening gloves, because shockingly, i don't have any
4. change all of our addresses from sycamore to oak (Denton loves it's tree-streets)
5. buy socks (my never ending phenomena of disappearing socks strikes again)
6. Get Jack a larger Crate
7. Buy enough paint to paint the entire apartment (1 neutral for entire place and about 4 colors to offset)
8. Buy one of those giant buckets of killz. (the 5gallon bukkit will do)

Jackamo!

Welp, Jack is pretty awesome.

He's pretty awesome at testing my patience too! He's a stubborn little puppy dog, but it's all fine since he's training really well and submitting pretty well (except when he's tired, so we're still learning those golden clues).

He's made quite a few friends in the last week or so. His best friend forever is Annabelle the longhaired Dachshund but he's also made friends with a mammoth-sized German Shepherd named Max, and a sweet Golden Retriever named Rio. He loves to run and run and run and carry around sticks and chew on his leash. But his most fun is when he gets to play with Annabelle.

Hi Annabelle!

They will run until the sun goes down and we call them to come back inside. Annabelle has taught Jack how to use the doggy door on our friend's back door. They will wrestle, growl, snarl, spit, fight, scrap, run, chase, yelp, and chew on toys until its time to go to bed, and all the while with their little tails wagging like crazy! There doesn't seem to be any clear dominant dog over the other as of yet. But we'll see how this trend continues as Jack keeps getting larger.

Right now, he and Annabelle are about the same size, but she is at her full adult size and Jack is still just a puppy. This will be amusing to watch. :)

I love how his ears flop in the wind!

I love how he gives me kisses when I wake him up in the morning!

He's super cute!

~

j

Minotaurs Vs. Centaurs.

http://www.ugo.com/movies/minotaur-vs-centaur/?cur=dungeons-dragons

A friend just asked me if I could be either a Minotaur or a Centaur, which would I choose and why?

My Answer:

Minotaur ( Is this sad that I didn't even take a second to think about it? ) Because they are way scarier and stronger ; centaurs are pansies.

What's your take?

Image: DiceMonkey

May Update

Joel and I are moving into a house-apartment in the next few weeks and I've been making a mental checklist for my expectations I have for the two of us (and our new puppy) for when we live there.

1. If it doesn't fit, donate it/throw it away
2. If it is always dirty (on the floor, stacked on the table, on the floor like a college student's mess...) find a way to organize it. If you can't organize it and store it away properly, get rid of it.
3. Clutter-free. Simple = better life.

Okay. That's my mini post on my life at the moment.

Jack-News
Jack has learned in the last week how to sit, lay down, roll over, and fetch (new as of 3 hours ago!)
He has made a lifetime friend in our friend's long haired dachshund Anabelle and i will post pictures soon of their romps through the backyard. It's adorable and super cute!

Art-News
-I completed Vicki's Painting and have given it to her, and it was a huge success! She loved it!
-Now i'm working on a crocheted baby blanket for my friend Hope's new baby boy.

I'm using a Bernat pattern as the main guide, and then i'm going to do my own edging, and probably tweak the pattern a bit, maybe add a few granny squares. Who knows?
-Lastly, I have a potential illustration job for a band based out of Austin. More on that later :)

Meet Jack

Bauer. Jack Baur (McDaniel).

(!)
I'm so excited, my sweet-sweet husband has gotten me the best present ever for our 1st anniversary!
He has gotten me this sweet little muffin of a beagle. Isn't he the cutest thing?
Jack comes into DFW airport all the way from Missouri to live with us.
*le sigh* I'm going to love those little nugget legs and kiss those little paws.

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So folks, i've been sick with the crud this last week which is why I didn't post sooner. And then before that, it was the busiest time of the school year for Printing Services here at the University, so, that is why I didn't post then either. I was too tired once I got home to do anything other than have my feet propped up on my pillow in bed and sleepily read the intarwebs.

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Weekend before last Joel and took our weekend down to Huffman, Texas where we burned things (dead trees) went to the dog races, and spent some really good time with our families and their babies (!) My sweet little neice Jillien was finally sitting up on her own and she was toothing her first tooth complete with wrist rolls and cankles! *heart*

Jillien!

Joel's nephew David was just the smiliest baby the entire weekend, nothing can upset him or make him look un-cute! 

Davey!

That's all for now :)

joey