Alley & Kyle’s Adventures in . . .

Dear Kristin,

Today is your birthday.  Today is your special day.  I hope that everything about today makes you feel special because you are special.  To my sweet friend, I miss you and wish you the best of all days today.

Happy Birthday, Kris!

Rocky and Slate found a baby bunny in our yard yesterday.  Fortunately for the baby bunny, I was able to intervene and keep the dogs off of it.  Rocky was mostly playing "Little Bunny Foo-Foo" and bopping it on the head.  Slate, however, well……  I posted a link below that has a pretty good reenactment of Slate with the Baby Bunny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxiv3CBMS4M

I can’t be mad at the dogs because they were just acting on their instincts.  I do hope, however, that the baby bunny has learned its lesson and will no longer wander into our yard.

We sold the Midland house today!  Woo-hoo!  We no longer have two houses! 

Kyle and I just got back from a wild long weekend in Houston.  I arrived last Thursday, and Kyle followed on Saturday, and then we both came back to Midland on Monday night.  Since I arrived first, I rented the car for us so that we could drive around and explore the city and different neighborhoods.  That means…….I had to drive the whole weekend because the rental car was in my name and I forgot to add Kyle as an additional driver.  (plus, it was an added expense…blah blah blah.)  Oh my goodness!  Houston traffic is NUTS!  I couldn’t believe it.  I have been in some big city rush hour traffic, but I was never in "rush hour" while driving around Houston.  Kyle told me that I was not to be out driving between 4:00 - 7:00 in the evenings because the traffic is so horrible.  He didn’t tell me that it was horrible ALL OF THE TIME!    I can’t even imagine what rush hour traffic would be like there.  The good news is that we both survived and the car made it back to the rental company in one piece.

We did spend some time looking at houses and neighborhoods.  Our goal this weekend was to narrow down our "looking" area since Houston is so big.  We want something that has a reasonable commute to downtown, a comfortable house for us, a nice community, and a good set up for our dogs.  We’re still trying to weigh all of our options, but we’re getting a better idea of what we want and where to buy a house.

We saw a lot of great houses.  I am including some pictures below of one of our favorite houses.  We were looking at a four bedroom house, but we couldn’t find the fourth bedroom.  Finally, Kyle pushed on some bookshelves that he thought were built into the wall.  NOPE!  They swung open to reveal the fourth bedroom.  We loved the rest of the house too, but that secret room was just too cool.

Oh, look, those are some nice built-in bookshelves.

Oh, no!  It’s another room!

We are moving to Houston.  Kyle is being transferred to one of the Houston offices with his job, and the official paperwork finally came in today.  We’ve known that we are moving for a while now, and I think that we have let almost everyone who reads this blog know already.  Kyle just wouldn’t let me post anything until it was "official."

Here are the details we know as of today:  Kyle will be working oil production in Nigeria out of one of Chevron’s downtown Houston offices.  His new boss wants him to start as soon as we can get there.  If we can get all of the relocation package stuff moving quickly, we will try to do our house hunting trip in Houston as soon as we can.  Probably, we will get our house hunting trip done before Christmas and set to close at the beginning of the year.  We hope to move by mid-January at the latest.  If at all possible (if everything goes quickly and smoothly!), we would love to be moved before Christmas. 

My last day of work was last week.  We knew that the paperwork would be coming soon and that we would have to get a jump on everything to get this move rolling.  Right now, I am working full time on getting our house ready to be put on the market.  Cleaning, packing, moving things around, fixing little things that the dogs broke, etc.  I think that I am busier now than when I was working full time!  Hopefully, I will be able to get everything done that needs to be done.  My "to do" list just keeps getting longer.

I’ll try to keep this blog updated as we have more details about the move.

Okay, so I have received some complaints recently that I do not update my blog often enough (Kristin!).  We don’t have a whole lot going on right now.  We’re just in one of those routine periods of life.  Sleep, feed dogs, go to work, feed dogs, go to dog park, feed the dogs.  That’s really about it right now.  But, here are some pictures of all of my boys to keep you happy for a while.

I walked into the living room one day this week to find all of my boys asleep in the middle of the floor.  Aren’t they just adorable?

It is football season, and Rocky and Slate are just too excited.  Can’t you tell?  Okay, maybe they are more excited about the treats that I am holding.

Go Boilers!

Go Colts!

I just wanted to post and let you know that I am still here.  We have had nothing going on with us.  Kyle is in Houston a lot this month for work, and I went with him for a few days last week so that I can see him more than just on the weekend!  I just played around at the mall and watched movies.  Nothing too exciting, but it was nice to relax a bit.  I’m back at work this week, and Kyle is back in Houston this week.  He will be home late Friday night, so until then, it is just the puppies and me.

okay, no more torture.  here are the answers to the final four quotes:

3.   I am the best goddamn dancer in the American Ballet Academy. Who the hell are you? Nobody.  This is that silly ballet movie that Kristin described.  Anyone think of the name yet?     

Center Stage

4.  The British are coming! The British are coming! Well, you made him crack, anyway.  Clue:  He is from Indiana but was visiting England.

Garfield:  A Tail of Two Kitties

10.  Hi, ho. 
      Bye, ho.  Recent movie with Amanda Bynes.  Just came out on DVD in February. 

Sydney White

12.  Tempting but I don’t get out of bed for less than half a million dollars.  Brad Pitt.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith

p.s.  we have decided to name the new puppy "slate."  i couldn’t make up my mind and kept going back and forth between names.  it was driving kyle crazy!  so, we just picked one.

Movie meme

7.  Nice Greek girls who don’t find a husband, work in the family restaurant. So here I am, day after day, year after year, thirty and way past my expiration date.   My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Autumn)

8.  You don’t give a monkey a latte!  Super cute cartoon.  Curious George (Kristin)

9.  So you’re not down with the things he does, but you’re still down with him? That makes perfect sense. I understand.   Save The Last Dance  (Autumn)

10.  Hi, ho. 
      Bye, ho.  Recent movie with Amanda Bynes.  Just came out on DVD in February. 

11.  Some people read because they cannot think for themselves.  Cinderella.  Ever After  (Autumn)

12.  Tempting but I don’t get out of bed for less than half a million dollars.  Brad Pitt.

13.  It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine.  Speaking about a guitar here.  Wayne’s World (Scott)

14.  Woman… woe-man… whoooa-man. She was a thief, you gotta believe, she stole my heart and my cat. Betty, Judy, Josie and those hot Pussycats… they make me horny, Saturday morny… girls of cartoo-ins will leave me in ruins… I want to to be Betty’s Barney. Hey Jane… get me off this crazy thing… called love.   So I Married an Axe Murderer (Kristin)

15.  I’ve been on a diet every day since I was nineteen, which basically means I’ve been hungry for a decade. I’ve had a series of not nice boyfriends, one of whom hit me. Ah, and every time I get my heart broken, the newspapers splash it about as though it’s entertainment. And it’s taken two rather painful operations to get me looking like this.  Notting Hill  (Autumn)

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still here.  I know that I have promised some updates since Christmas.  Seeing as it is almost March…..well, I think that you get the picture, right?

I could say that I have been really busy.  I have been really really busy.  Basically, I can’t remember a night that I have been able to stay awake past 9:00.  I was even in bed and asleep by 7:30 this week.  When that alarm starts going off at 6:00 am, I struggle just to hit snooze and stay in bed a little longer (I can usually make it another hour).  Kyle, however, comes to bed around 10:00 or later, and pops up shortly after the alarm has gone off.  Jerk. 

I don’t even know where to begin an update.  We drove to Indiana for Christmas.  It was 20 hours in the car with a sleeping dog.  The good news is that Rocky did really well in the car and slept most of the trip.  The bad news is that he was REALLY awake and ready to play when we had to stop to sleep.  That just threw off our whole sleeping pattern for the entire trip.  The first night that we returned to Texas, Kyle and I both slept for 12 hours straight.  We just left the doggie door open and let Rocky come in and out as he needed.  It was a good trip to Indiana, but we just came back way too exhausted.

January - I really don’t remember much about that month.  We celebrated Kyle’s 30th birthday.  I was nice to him because I’m not too far behind, and he will remember. 

February - Well, as you know, we celebrated Groundhog Day at the beginning of the month.  It was fun as usual.  Rocky even got into the festivities.  Okay, I jumped around singing "Groundhog Day, Groundhog Day!" and he thought that we were playing the world’s best new game.   Then, we met my parents in Las Vegas for a weekend.  We saw a couple of comedy shows and the Cirque d’ Soleil show "Love."  If you are not familiar with "Love," it is set to all Beatles music.  It was great! 

That’s pretty much the update.  Everything else is work work and more work.  I need to find a better balance.  It is not even March and I am getting burnt out.

I will try to post some pictures soon.