Trim Up the Tree

Not shockingly, this story is already a couple of weeks old before being shared. Every year, Matt and I battle it out over what kind of christmas tree to get. Matt is always advocating for the tallest tree he can find, and I am always trying to find a chunky little tree short enough that I could put the star on top of. This battle always leads to us talking about "Little Buddy," the perfect tree we had our first Texas Christmas.

This year a compromise was reached and a new tradition was started! We bought a tall tree (although apparently next year's will be even taller!) and then the week before Christmas we had an official trim the tree celebration! We took off all the decorations, all the lights, hauled it out to the garage and cut about 18 inches off the bottom! Then we hauled it back inside for some redecorating.

Truthfully, I thought it would be cooler. I have since decided that it was not made spectacle enough. So next year, be looking out for your invitation to the 2nd Annual Trimming of the Tree!

Big Kids and The Little House that Could

The last couple of months have been absolutely crazy in the best possible way! Early this spring I made a decision that no matter what this next year had in store for me, it was going to be the best year yet. As far as teaching goes, there have been a lot of lemons, and it is time to make some lemonade. Well, I firmly believe that good energy when put out eventually comes back to you, and it did! In a whirlwind affair, I got a new job in Mansfield at Danny Jones Middle School… which happens to share a parking lot with the school where Matt teaches! Before I've even started (or met the principal for that matter!) this new job is already making our lives glorious. It came at just the right moment for us, and with some not so subtle pokes and prods from family, we are buying a house!

FYI: House hunting sounds like more fun that it is going to be. You look at house after house, getting excited and then depressed over and over again. I feel like we saw every house in Mansfield. I exaggerate… but not by much!

Well, after all that looking, our realtor (and my mom) encouraged us to go check out a neighborhood that might have some inventory on the ground. We walked into the model house and it just felt like us! It was flooded with so much natural light, and I could just see us living there. I think at the same time we both knew as long as the floor plan wasn’t awful, we were done.

So, we are the proud almost-owners of a house! Right now it doesn’t look like much. I feel like the proud parent of a kid who is only kind of cute. I want to whip out the pictures every chance I get, but it’s truthfully not much to look at.

So, we are going to dedicate our blog to the progress of our up and coming love nest! We have so many important people that can’t be there for all the fun little steps, but we want to include you the best we can – friends and family make a house a home! Also... there are three bedrooms besides ours, so we expect you to go ahead and start making travel plans! No guest suites are available before Halloween though if you would like a bed.

Pictures are on the way!

Missing Arizona

I used to drive people crazy when I lived in Arizona with my sometimes overwhelming love of Texas. By my sophomore year, Harout had even lovingly named me "Texas Jenni". Moving out of the Promised Land triggered some unknown gene in my system that caused me to preach Texas to every stranger I came across. It was uncontrollable. And true. I always knew that I was going to need to come home if I ever wanted to be whole again, and while I am so glad to be back in the great state of Texas and have the opportunity to recite the Texas pledge every morning, there are some things that I really miss about Arizona. 

I realized in the past couple of weeks, especially while I was at TMEA, that I really miss college. While my fond memories are made up entirely of ASU, and not of the New American University, I do miss the idea of just waking up in the morning and going to learn something. I guess I also miss waking up in the morning and deciding not to learn something. Or deciding to learn something, driving to campus, and then deciding that a bagel is better than learning. 

I miss having friends. Some of the best friends I've ever had came from my Arizona years, and it sucks to live so far away from them. I miss the altered state that pulling an all-nighter with a friend could cause (if you ever lived on campus without walking down to Hungry Howies at 2am or sported a side-ponytail while studying for music history, you never truly lived).  It was fun having couple friends that we could adventure with, co-workers to commiserate with, and old college friends to catch up with. We haven't quite found that special group of people here, so we miss you all the more!

I also miss being able to just sit out on our patio for dinner. I think having a patio the size of a luxurious prison cell is one of the best things that ever happened to us. We had so many nice candlelight dinners and early morning cups of hot chocolate out there when we got married that when we moved, it was really sad to lose that. Good times.

The moral of the story is that we miss Arizona, we miss our Arizona people, and we can't wait to come visit for Spring Break.

Holy Hotness Batman, It's Snowing!

Matt saw it snow on Tuesday for the first time since he was five. I can't imagine that his reaction was too different. He was like a kid in a candy store. He was out on the balcony with the camera in a flash! He was amazed at how snow could actually stay on the ground in snow form instead of being incinerated by the blazing Phoenix earth. To his amazement, when he got up the next morning, the snow was still there! It rode with him to school on the hood of his car and everything. Watching Matt reminded me of a time when Desiree and I were RAs and it started hailing. You could pick out the Arizonans instantly. They were hovering for cover in the doorways yelling, "What is that?!" Anything made of cold was obviously foreign to them.  We're crossing our fingers for a chance to build a snowman soon! PS. Today it was almost 80. Welcome to Texas.