City Dog goes to the Country

Sometimes you strike up a friendship with the most unlikely of people. Nancy is my friend that I met when I moved into the condo with Neal. She has a bassett hound named Henry and we met while out walking our dogs. Henry is like Mack's big brother. She says he still whines when he passes our old door at the condo. Nancy is a horse person and she invited Mack and I out to check on one of her horses. This particular horse happens to be named Fergi. She even calls her Fergalicious sometimes which I think is cute.
At first Mack was thrilled to be able to run around with Henry and explore the ranch. That is until he heard one of the horses snort. He darted back to where the car was and wouldn't move. Nancy opened the door to get something and he jumped in the car. She had to pick him up and carry him out of the car.
He started to come around a little and pretty much hung by Henry's side. Fergi really is a beautiful animal. My slight fear of horses is still there though. I was kind of glad Mack didn't like them so I didn't have to worry about him getting stepped on or kicked.

Until another horse snorted. Mack took off and found retreat under this trailer. Lovingly, Nancy said she was going to start calling him Paris Hilton because he was being such a sissy in the country.
I mean, I can't imagine why anyone would ever think that our fur baby is spoiled.

This and That

Last night we met the Conrads for dinner and a little libations. I chose to cash in my WW flex points and indulge in a big plate of cheesy enchiladas, my most favoritist meal ever. Oh was it good! After dinner, we walked down to The Tasting Room for some wine and live music. Always a good time with those guys.

Neal had to take care of some handyman work around the house today. He was working on both of our toilets. Still not exactly sure what was wrong with them, but alas they're fixed!

Since I had ate really badly last night, today I had to make sure I didn't go over my point allowance. I also ran 45 minutes at Memorial Park this morning. For dinner, I had one of my most favorite salads ever. Grilled chicken, avocado, and strawberries. Light and summery.

Whose dog is that?

I've heard that your kids will often do things in public that royally embarass you. I guess God is preparing us for this because our nice little Mack peed in the public water bowl at the park tonight. After walking for a while I stopped to give him a drink a water. He took a drink and then lifted his leg and whizzed right in the bowl. Seriously dog!

Lemons and Lemonade

Sometimes life hands you lemons. Usually, 84 degrees is a pretty pleasant temperature. Not so much when you come home to find your thermostat reading 84 degrees. AC issues are not something you welcome in July, or really any month for that matter. It actually wasn't too bad in the house last night with the windows open. We called the home warranty service first thing this morning. All day long we were contemplating how much a new AC might cost. Ours is about 20 years old so it's got to be close to seeing the light. Luckily, the repairman came and it was an electrical part that was easy to fix and only cost us the $60 service fee.

Neal's truck also went in the shop this week. One of the engine lights came on while we were driving to Corpus over the weekend. Unfortunately, this expense was way more than the AC but that's what emergency funds are for.

I weighed in at WW today and only lost .2 lbs for the week. I knew it wouldn't be a whole lot since I lost 5 last week, but I was expecting more than that.

With these life lemons lately, it would be real easy to complain about how bad I have it which in fact I have it really good. There's lots I have to be thankful and you better believe I prayed a lot about the issues this week. I do love me some lemonade, especially Chick-fil-a's diet lemonade.

Here's somehting that I read several times a day. Proverbs 3: 5-6

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all things acknowledge Him and He will show you the right path."

One more thing....today marks 4 months of wedded bliss. I'm not really counting our "monthly" anniversaries, however it does make me feel all tingly inside when I realize its the 26th of a month and I think back to our wedding.

Soaking up the Summertime

This weekend we headed down to Corpus just to get out of town for the weekend.
After we ran Saturday morning, we drove to the beach in hopes that Neal could catch a few waves. I must say the beach is the best thing about Corpus. Unfortunately the waves were a bunch of mush when we arrived. I think our poor Mack dog was a little traumatized by the water. He was not a fan. We've only taken him to the beach a couple of times so he's not used to the water.
He was much more content sunbathing next to us. He's such a good dog and didn't bark at the kids who wanted to come pet him.
Later that night we went back to the Island for dinner and then hung out with old school Corpus. I lasted as long as I could but I am so over the bar scene. We visited a lot with Grandma and Ite while we were there. It was fun looking through all our wedding pictures with them. Somebody was ready to come home. It dawned on me that there's only a couple weeks of summer left. Say it isn't so. I had the thought that this might be the last summer of freedom before we have kids. Crazy to think that we might have a kid this time next summer. Wow!

Happy Birthday Fur Child

In two years, our little Mack has gone from this little ball of fur terror....





to this grown up dog.



Besides his given name of Mack Marty Martinez Heiner Ferguson, here are a few of his other monikers:
~Mac Daddy
~Macaroons
~Mack Brown
~Macaronis
~Mackie Mack
~Mackers
~Mackster
~Senor Macker
~Sir Macksalot

But most of the time we just call him Mack. We love him, especially now that he doesn't pee in the house or try to eat everything. Snaps for the puppy phase being over.

Get in the Truck, Sissy!

Last night, Mom, Jen, Mark, Zach and I went to the Miller Outdoor Theater to see Urban Cowboy on stage. It was so nice to be able to park at Jen's and not have to deal with the crazy Hermann Park traffic. We got to see their cool new townhouse and then walked to a neat little Taco Shop. I'm in love and want to go back there. Some of the best fish tacos I've had! After dinner, we walked over the park and set up camp on the hill. The weather was perfect and didn't feel like a hot summer night at all.


Zach kept us entertained throughout the evening. He was excited to have us come to his house and see his cool jungle bedroom. It was so cool I told him I wanted to come spend the night with him. He's got such a good vocabulary and is a hoot to listen to. Gold star from the Speech Path!

The show was a loose interpretation of the movie. They added a lot of newer music but the old stuff was still there. I love movies set in Houston. My mom said they spent a New Year's Eve at Gilley's in the 70s. I can only imagine the fun that was. No more lookin' for love in all the wrong places....

A New Color

Last year when we moved in to our house, our living room was painted bright orange. Reminded me of Home Depot Orange or Whataburger orange. It was a color that we could no way live with so that was the first room to be painted. After sampling a few colors, I settled for a very, very light neutral color. Anything was better than the orange. Once it was done, I never really liked the color. It was probably my eyes playing tricks on me, but I swear I could see the orange coming through in some spots. Fast forward a year later. I've been throwing around the idea that I might paint the living room this summer since I'm not working. We painted the condo a color called Basketry that I love. Neal was out of town this week so I decided to go for it. I think he had an idea I might do it but I didn't really tell him I was going to. Better to ask forgiveness than permission, right? It's still a neutral color and not like I painted the walls red or bright blue. So I moved the furniture into the center of the room and got busy.

It took him a while but Mack managed to still find "his" chair. He wasn't much help and snoozed through most of the process which was good because I didn't have to worry about him putting his nose in the paint. Neal doesn't mind a new a paint color but painted puppy paws throughout the house might not sit too well.

Mom agreed to come be my partner in crime. If Neal didn't like it, I could always blame her, right? She wasn't coming until Friday afternoon. Thursday afternoon I decided to go ahead and just tape off the room to save time. Then I decided to paint just a little. Then I decided to finish the first coat for the entire room. Friday morning rolled around and I started working again. Time flies when you're having fun. Mom had a few things to do in Beaumont before she headed my way. By the time she arrived after lunch, I was finished painting. I told her to hold the brush and at least pretend like she helped me.

Overall, this was a success and I love it. I'm getting better at home improvement projects. This is the first one that I haven't royally screwed up and had to spend more time and money fixing what I started. Now if we could just get new living room furniture.....

Home Sweet Home

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of us buying our house. We're still in the process of fixing it up but it definitely feels like home. Who cares if our dining room is still empty. One day it wil have a table in it.

I finally put a curtain on the kitchen window and a few things in the window sill. I've also gotten around to hanging a picture or two.



Oh this table. Neal had this table in the condo and it had a yucky natural pine finish. I had this idea to paint it. Back in September was when I started. I primed it and put 2 coats of the green on the table. All it lacked was just a few touch ups in a few spots. Fast forward to July. The table was still sitting in the garage collecting junk. I don't really know why it took me so long to take the 10 minutes to finish this project, but it finally was completed.

I love this house as much as I did the day we bought it. It just seems to fit us. Here's to 1 year down on the mortgage and 29 more to go!

No Talent Needed

Tonight I went to Pinot's Palette with the VTXW girls. The painting was called Whimsical Fall. I learned that I'm definitely a novice painter. On more than one occasion, the artist came up behind me and said, "may i make a suggestion?" I welcomed her help. I think its interesting how everyone's painting has their own touch to it. Man, my trees sure are skinny!

Here we go again...

This is a road I've been down before. The minute I stop working out and not watching what I'm eating, I blow up like a balloon. Guess its true when they say you gain weight when you first get married. Well, I've let myself get a little too comfortable. Hello Weight Watchers, again. I went to a WW meeting this morning to weigh in and face the music. Yup, I've gained about 20 lbs in the last 5 months. Wowza! My main motivation is to get my weight under control before we start trying to have a baby. So here I go again. Back to counting points. Back to working out like a mad woman. Back to healthy. Maybe it'll be "for real" this time.

Bang Bang

Tonight was my Introduction to Defensive Pistol class. The instructor was great and the class was small with a group of 10 women. It was a 2 hour class and it was perfect for someone like me who has never shot a gun in her life. After the classroom lecture section of the class and we were familiar with our guns, it was time to enter the shooting range. Wow! I think I should have worn my heart rate monitor because I could feel my heart jumping out of my chest after my first round of shots. As you can see, I need some more practice with hitting my target. My shots were kind of all over the place.

We got to shoot 50 rounds and I mastered the art of loading the pistol. I'm really interested in taking more lessons and becoming better at it. I hope to God that I never have to defend myself with a pistol, but I want to be able to if needed.

It All Works Out

Let me start by saying that we actually went out 2 nights in a row this weekend. Tommy drove into town Friday night and we went to Watson's to sit on the patio and hear random live music. Good times and I could still picture everyone on the patio having a good time after our wedding.

Last night, Travis & Jessica invited us to go country dancing. It was fun catching up with them and watching all the people in the bar. It's hard to believe that my friends and I used to hang out in these places several times a week. I definetely had a moment where I thought, "thank God I'm not single anymore." No longer is it fun for me to be around a bunch of drunk people. What's sad is, I know I used to be that annoying person. I guess life has a way of working out like that. We were thrilled when our friends announced that they had to leave at 11:30 to get home to relieve their babysitter. Check please!

This morning we went to church and it felt great to be back there. We haven't been in a while because of traveling and what not. They're offering a newcomer's class in the fall that we're interested in doing.

A bit of randomness. We watched the Harry Potter marathon all day yesterday and it's raining outside right now. God is good!

Canton~4th of July

Last weekend, Mom and I drove to Karen's for the 4th of July weekend. We've been wanting to go to Canton, but we haven't been able to find a good month to go for like the past 2 years. We decided to take our chances and brave the July heat. It wasn't too bad because a lot of it is covered, but we were definetely ready to come home after several hours.

Neal and I aren't really ready to buy a dining room table yet, but this booth caught my eye. It's a guy out of Longview that custom makes these beautiful tables. For the quality you get, they're reasonably priced too. Whenever we're ready, I hope we can go visit this man and have him build our dream dining room table.

Mom and I came home the morning of the 4th. We debated on whether or not to venture out into the crowds to see the fireworks. For the 2nd year in a row, we watched the downtown fireworks on TV from the comfort of our living room. No crowds, no sweating, no mosquitos, and no traffic.