short stories

I am feeling a little nostalgic after my fun weekend with the girls. Here are a few old pictures from our Harding days. I have alot more, but it took longer to scan these in than I expected. Volume two maybe coming in the near future.

This could possibly be the worst picture of me ever, but it brings back good memories. Jessica and I "borrowed" this chair from the study lounge. We asked for permission of course and I think the dorm mom thought we were crazy. I don't remember why we wanted it in the first place. Jess covered it with her stuffed animals and it was a great conversation piece. We stayed up so late every night acting goofy. I don't know how I made it through all my classes without falling asleep. Now I am in bed by ten nearly every night.

At Sarah's lingerie shower - minus Jessica. I think she was working that day. :(

Sarah's wedding - minus Sarah

Jess and me visiting Kim in Cincinnati

I had the best weekend in Dallas with my friends from college. These girls are some of my best friends, even after four years of being apart. Jessica and I were roommates all through college. Robin and Kim were roommates and lived down the hall every year and Sarah was their suitemate. Sarah was nice enough to invite us all to stay at her house. Some highlights of the weekend included eating cupcakes at Sprinkles (very yummy), outlet shopping, looking at old pictures from college, and of course lots of talking and laughing. We didn't turn on the t.v. or radio at all, because we all had so much to talk about. Next year I am hoping we have our reunion at Robin's house. She lives in Orlando. How fun would that be? Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

I made it through my first week of work! I know it's only Thursday, but I am off tomorrow. My new job, like any, has been a little overwhelming. It's always hard to learn a completely new system of doing things. This week I was able to follow some other therapists to daycares. I did go out by myself a couple of times. Next week I will be totally on my own. I think the hardest part about this job for me is the travel between daycares since I am not very familar with the roads here yet. Even with our GPS, I have managed to get lost several times.

Tomorrow I am going to Dallas to hang out with some of my best friends from college. We've had this trip planned for months and I cannot wait!

We have had a fun,but relaxing weekend. We had the chance to have dinner with and hang out with several different people from our new church. Yesterday, I did some more shopping. I found some capris at Old Navy for $8.49 (another great purchase)! I have also been trying to get into couponing-not just using a few coupons, but combining them with store specials and getting really cheap stuff. I did manage to get two free packages of pens, dishwasher tabs for around 50 cents, and a few other good buys. I really want to make the effort to keep this up, even when I am working and don't have as much spare time. Check out "One Frugal Chick" on my blog list. She really knows how to find good deals and has helped me as I've researching the art of couponing.

Marcus decided against the whole posting on Tuesdays and Fridays idea. I kept asking (or maybe nagging) him about it, and he said he'll post again when he has a good topic.

As much as I have complained about not having a job for the past month or so, it has been pretty nice. I am not looking forward to getting up early tomorrow, but I am looking forward to "therapizing" (as Marcus says) some kids and getting a paycheck!

Ok, I guess I can officially be considered a hermit. My car has been in the shop this week, so on top of not going to work, I haven't really been able to go anywhere during the day- at least while Marcus is at work. Yesterday I decided I HAD to get out. I went to read by the pool at our apartment and only stayed out for about45 minutes. Last night I noticed a lovely little sunburn on my shoulders and legs and on one arm. It isn't a bad burn, but I think it's pretty pitiful that I burned in such a short time. Luckily, I've made a daily habit of putting sunscreen on my face and it was spared from the burn. I have never been this pale in the middle of the summer. Macus and I went on anniversary trip back in March and I had a nice spring tan. Now it's long gone and I look like I have never been outside in my life! I tried using some self tanning lotion, but it just made me sparkly - not tan. It might be because I bought the palest kind, but I was afraid anything else would make me orange. Another thing, I didn't go to our apartment's pool to socialize, but I was annoyed that I was the only person there who spoke English. More on that another day.

Marcus is planning another exciting entry. He has talked about posting every Tuesday and Friday.

I have been looking for pants or capris that are not jeans to wear for my new job (which I start a week from today!). We have to wear shirts with the company logo everyday and can wear jeans on Fridays. We can wear any shoes except the really cheap rubber flip flops. I think the company shirts are a great idea. It will be so easy to get ready in the morning. Anyway, I saw that Old Navy had some cute pants and capris for under$20, but before I made it there I went to my favorite place ever, Target. I ended up finding a pair of pale blue-gray pants AND a pair of capris for $18.96 total on the clearance rack (not including tax). The capris were $13.98 and the pants were only $4.98. The capris even came with a cute little scarf belt. Finding bargains like that makes me so happy. I absolutely love to shop for clothes and do so pretty often, but I hardly ever buy anything over $25 unless it's jeans or it's something that I just love. It's funny to me how now that I actually have a real job, I spend way less on clothes than I did when I was in school.

This afternoon I decided to do a little art project. Last summer, Marcus and I used mod podge glue and tissue paper on a canvas to make an inexpensive piece of art for our living room. He did most of it, but I helped. I have to admit, he is a pretty crafty guy. I did the same thing today with scrapbook paper and 8x10 canvases. I just put mod podge under and on top of the paper and wrapped it around the canvas like I was wrapping a gift. The glue was dry in about an hour. I think they turned out pretty well. On other blogs, I have seen similar art with letters or pictures glued over the background that looked really cute.

The canvases I used today are so small that I will probably make two more and group them together on a wall. The green paper is made to look distressed and the brown paper has a leathery look to it.

Everyone is talking about "going green". Over the past few months, we have made a few easy changes in our lives to help the environment. I really hope that this isn't just a trend and that I and everyone else will make the effort to stick with it. I am by no means as "green" as alot of people, but I figure every little bit helps. Here are some things that we are doing in order from "super easy" to "takes a little effort":

I love food. I watch the Food Network all the time, love to cook, and eat more than Marcus at most meals. There are so many things I love and I am always wanting to try new things. Since meeting Marcus I have added sushi and Indian food to things I enjoy. My mom started a wonderful tradition of sharing a bite of her food at restaurants when I was little. She would always share a rather large bite with me and my brother without us even asking and we would share our food with her, if her stomach would allow her to eat what we had ordered. My dad usually just stuck to his own food. Aside from my mom's tasty tradition, I usually tend to order healthier or more boring things for myself and then I'm envious of the greasy, cheesy things that others have. Fast forward to college. When my roommate Jessica and I would go out to eat, I would sometimes ask to try some of her food. Don't worry, I never asked to try her food in the Harding cafeteria. I especially remember wanting to try some yummy-looking chicken strips at T.G.I. Fridays one time. I was always willing to share my food in return. She was always nice and shared, but I think she thought it was a little strange. We were roommates for so long that it became less weird over time. Now Marcus has caught on to my taste-testing habit. For some reason, he orders rare steak at most restaurants. If we go to eat sushi, he gets the nigiri (big chunks of fish). These are two of the few things I will not eat. My theory is that he just wants to eat an entire meal without me pestering him for some of it. Last night however, he made a late-night trip to sonic and offered for me to try his banana split blast without me even asking. I did ask if it was good, which is how I ususally lead into trying stuff, but I wasn't even planning to ask to try it. I didn't say anything about his generosity at the time, but I thought it was very sweet. Thanks Marcus!

So here it is my first step into the blogosphere. When Elizabeth told me she wanted to start a blog I was a bit skeptical; I didn’t want to be just another guy with a keyboard and an opinion on subjects on which I was no expert.

Before I put pen to paper (read: fingers to keyboard) I was waiting for something amazing to happen, a truly WOW event- an encounter with a life alerting hobo or inspiring little girl…you know the kind of thing fireside devos are made of. As I waited for the kid with the pig heart and the homeless guy that had it all figured out I looked around and realized my life is pretty amazing and full of interesting characters already.

Take my nephew for example -- he is turning two. In just 730 days he has lived in two countries, and visited a third. He has learned to walk, talk, feed himself, dance like a mad man and the lyrics to most Dan Zanes’ songs. He has also eaten more dirt than any human should. He also made my sister miss my wedding, but after all the laughter and happiness that he’s brought to that house on Shadow I’ll let it slide.

My wife is a pretty cool chick. She puts up with moving twice (progressively farther away from her family) in under two years so that I can make a career out of moving trucks around. She makes me laugh at how much she under estimates herself. When we were getting ready to move she was afraid she wouldn’t find a job. She interviewed for three jobs and got three offers. She has now officially been offered a job for EVERY job she has EVER interviewed for…not a bad track record. What can I say? Her poor judgment of character allowed me to marry way out of my league.

Beth and I have been blessed with a great cast of people playing supporting roles in our life. From the friends at PV who helped us load a truck while Maumelle was under a flash flood warning to the new friends we’ve met a Park Plaza who have accepted us like one of their own. Brittney who got my wife out of the apartment for the week (thanks Britt she was going batty). Mom who is…my mom. My brother in-law Chad who has the biggest heart and the best memory of anyone you’ll ever meet. The drivers at work who have been exceptionally cool through a tough situation. And the list goes on.

Hopefully someday I can add an inspiring transient to the list of the people that make my life grand, until then I guess the cast of my life will have to do.

-MWS

This is the fourth week I have been off work and it is scary how lazy I have become in such a short time. It was nothing for me to run a couple of errands, go to work, go buy food, cook dinner, do a few loads of laundry, and have friends over for dinner all in one day when we lived in Maumelle. Now if I just need to go to the bank or post office, it seems like a really big deal. I can't wait to start working and have a routine again. Right now my routine consists waking up between nine and ten, taking a shower, watching way too much tv, reading, and going to get the mail between four and five. On some days I do laundry or clean (exciting stuff). I have been sleeping later and later too, which is nice, but it's not going to be fun when I have to start getting up at six again. I should use this time to be productive, but I seem to have less and less energy the more I stay home. Since Marcus is gone this week, I don't even get to plan meals and cook. This week has been a little more productive, but still nothing like what it should be. I did a 2 hour online continuing ed. course today, which was pretty exciting. I think I need a hobby. Marcus suggested sewing, but in high school home ec. I always broke the machine. It could be fun to try again, but I don't know what I'd make. I've tried knitting a few times, but can only do it with my grandmother coaching me through it. In my time off I have finished our wedding and honeymoon scrapbooks, but I can't think of anything else to make a scrapbook about. In college, Jessica and I used to decorate boxes with pictures cut from magazines. It would be a good time-consuming activity, but do I really need any decorated shoe boxes? Any ideas for fun, cheap, crafty activities or any good single-serving recipes?