Happy Valentine's Day!

Considering that I changed my blog background just for the holiday, I feel that I should atleast write something today.

We have had a great weekend, and Robert was able to get in some relaxation and productivity, leading to all around satisfaction. (Read his blog HERE. Not near as long-winded as me.)

On Saturday we got up bright and early to get to the DMV when it opened at 8. We tried to go last Saturday, but didn't get there 'till 10 and it was packed FULL of people - we took one look around and decided it wasn't worth it. This Saturday we got there at 8:04 and there were already like twenty people in line. I think it serves like 3 counties or something. hmph. However, it was way worth it, because we brought all the right paper work: driver's license, SS card, birth certifcate (me) or passport (Robert), and proof of residency - Rockwell ID card (Robert) and apartment lease (me). Needless to say the first desk that we came to was very pleased with us. After taking our pictures, they printed the driver's license RIGHT THERE! We walked away at 8:45 with new driver's licenses. Not just a scrap of paper and the promise of delivery within the next 6 weeks - give or take a month - like Texas. After a similarly wonderful experience when we got my car registered and titled in Iowa, we are very impressed with Iowa's "system." Sorry dear Texas, you fail at timeliness.

Downside: They wouldn't let me keep my Texas license! I told her she could cut in half or something, and she told me all I could do was keep the picture if I wanted. I decided to just let it go, but I mumbled something about stealing my birthright and secretly teared up a bit.

As for Valentine's day, I made "surprise" chocolate covered strawberries for dessert on Saturday night. I say "surprise" because we go grocery shopping together, and it's kind of hard to hide the delicious smell of chocolate from escaping the kitchen - even if you do ban your husband from the room.

Then, this morning, Robert made French toast for breakfast and used the remaining strawberries to make a heart on my plate. Way cute. I wish I'd thought to take a picture.

Then again, I think our camera is dead, so I don't feel so bad. ;)

Lastly, I'm really proud of my Facebook Graffiti valentine. A wonderful holiday had by all.

ps. I just re-read my first line to this blog entry, and I'm rather embarrassed. Why do I ever doubt my ability to ramble incessantly for paragraphs on end?

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

My goodness! It has been snowing since we got out of church on Sunday. Sunday! Just since Robert got home from work yesterday, there was an inch? or more of snow on the car this morning (on top of other snow). Still, it has been snowing since Sunday. All day.

I had trouble finding information online about how much it has snowed just in the last 3 days. The best I could find said that it snowed 3 inches in my county. (I live in Linn County.) I think it's been more than that though. Then again, it seems like more to me because there was already snow on the ground, so 3 inches of fresh powder on top has made it rather deep.

Since I have lived here for 3 weeks, it is high time for me to produce some pictures for my family! So, without further ado.................. my apartment.

Please bear with me for being repetitive if you're NOT my family. They want to see it. ;)

(Captions are below each picture.)

I am standing in the parking lot closest to our apartment.

My building is the one on the right.

Here is my actual apartment building, Building 1615.

The three windows on the bottom right are ours. (living room, office, bedroom)

Note that the sidewalk WAS completely snow free and dry a few days ago.

This is the view FROM the door of my building.

This is where we take the dogs out to do their business.

This is the path I take to the mailboxes (around the corner) and the trash compactor/dumpster (next parking lot).

The building on the left is the main office, gym, pool (haven't used yet), community room, etc.

Notice on the right that there are some bricks showing. That is the top of a low (knee height) brick wall. Everything on top of that is just snow. (Not all in the last 3 days, but all winter)

zoomed in

So there you go! This is my winter wonderland!

twenty-one

I'm twenty-one! Ha! What is the world coming to?

Let me just say, that I did not dare miss any chance to live it up on my twenty-first birthday. Clubbing, dancing, jello shots.... just kidding.

On Thursday night, I made fried chicken, rice & gravy (my favorite) and we bought a delicious cake from the grocery store (Have any of you ever heard of HyVee before? I hadn't. It's a grocery store.)

Robert managed to SURPRISE me with flowers even though I KNEW he was going to get some on the way home from work. He told me so. But when he walked in with no flowers, I was a little sad and figured it was because I told him he wasn't supposed to tell me. Silly me - now I didn't get any flowers. I waited a few hours, and finally called to him in the other room while I was cooking, and said, "So you really didn't get me any flowers?" At that moment he walked in with a bouquet of roses! I was so confused. I said, "but you didn't have any flowers -- where did they come from?" Apparently he had put them on the windowsill outside (the same one we moved all the furniture through), then come inside with no flowers just to be tricky, then went to the bedroom real fast to get the flowers through the window and hide them. Sneaky sneaky. Only Robert would be able to tell someone flat out that he was buying them flowers, then still surprise me when he did.

For dinner & dessert, we cuddled up to watch "A Walk in the Clouds" and tried not to laugh too much at Keanu Reeves inability to act. Poor guy. Sweet movie though. I don't know how they managed to make "A Walk in the Clouds" look steamy in the poster. It's incredibly modest.

Below: our tasty cake.

FYI: Robert had wine and I had Sparkling Red Grape Juice. Alcohol is gross. Whatever acceptable amount of mental fuzziness people are shooting for, it's just not worth the effort of covering up the wretched taste ...that can't really be covered up anyway. I honestly don't see the point. Please don't try to make it sound worth it either. Happy Twenty-First Birthday to me. ;)

Happy Birthday to Me!

"It's Grand Chawhee's birthday!"

- All Dogs Go to Heaven

Typical to all birthdays, I don't FEEL twenty-one, but I am twenty-one. Weird.

I've been debating for a couple weeks what I wanted to do for my birthday, and had settled on dinner and a movie tomorrow night. (I tell Robert he doesn't have to come up with creative dates 9 times out of 10, because I'm always happy with dinner and a movie.) However, doused in an I-don't-feel-like-cooking mood, I decided that I would have a marathon birthday. So, last night Robert and I went to Chili's. Tonight we will stay home and have birthday cake and snuggle up for a chick flick. Tomorrow night, we will stay home, then go out for the movie. Nice, right? I figure if you would ordinarily do that all on one night - dinner, cake, movie - why not stretch it out a little? Then again - we don't have kids - so I could see the necessity to get it all out in one night, because I certainly can't afford a babysitter for 2-3 nights.

So as the beginning to a birthday blog marathon - here are a few pictures from last night!

Us at Chilis - Note my new favorite shirt I got from Mom for my birthday!

January

Once upon a time I promised somebody that I would blog "more often" when I moved away, "no matter how mundane." I even aspired to blogging once a week. Ha.

The problem is, our first week here I had lots to do (and possibly lots to say) but not much time. Now, Robert works all day, and I have all the time in the world - okay more like 8 hours - but not a single thing of note to say about it. Other than things like, "I have decided the most efficient route to the laundry room on the second (and a half) floor" or "Did you know that poop (dog's) steams when it's below freezing outside?" Not really the stuff of blog history.

So, thanks to one of my favorite blogs to follow (my sister's mother-in-law actually) I'll try to scrape together a recap of things I did in January. I'll even try my best to remember all the way back to January before the move.

Books I Read:

New Moon & Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer (the 2nd & 3rd books in the Twilight Trilogy): lots of fun to read, very unhealthy relationships, very teenaged

Financial Peace Revisited by Dave Ramsey: not done with this one, but we've read quite a bit of it for class "homework," definitely recommended, but the jokes are funnier Live

Movies/Shows I've Seen:

Alien v. Predator: very scary and gory, good thing I'm not prone to nightmares

Outlander - Space guy crashes his ship on Earth during Viking times, because he's hunting a "dragon" (space monster), and they all have to fight it off. : Surprisingly very well done given the far-fetched story. Recommended. (if you like SciFi)

Lost, Season 1: very good, full of suspense and character development (pretty much the whole show)

Julie and Julia: surprisingly very cute after I got mixed reviews. good characters, funny, it's based on a true story, and the marriages are solid. Definitely recommended.

Twilight: Teen craze= Fun movie; book's better.

Notable Events:

hmmmm this one's SOOO hard... ;)

New Year's with the Whitings

going away dinners with Dunlaps, Waxlers, Martins, and Cavin :)

Cassidy and Mitch left for Uganda and are now working at the orphanage

we MOVED out of Texas

we MOVED into Iowa

started Financial Peace University

Robert started work at Rockwell

finally found a Bisquick cook book/magazine :D

Blessings:

Besides the very long list at the end of my moving blog,

We have visited 2 churches - New Life Community Church & New Covenant Bible Church, both great

Robert has lots of LeTU friends that work at Rockwell

Robert has a great manager and "sponsor" (mentor) at work

I have mastered the Cesar Milan zen of walking 2 dogs at the same time and being in control!

Phew! Look at that! That's quite a blog! (Thanks Barbara!)

Moving to Iowa

I will try to upload pictures soon, here or on Facebook.

Some of my favorite quotes from the last several days:

Becca: "Oklahoma is boring. That's why we make fun of them."

Robert: (in Kansas) "Earlier we went over a hill, and you could see for miles. I almost woke you up to see, but it was miles and miles of nothing. I couldn't wake you up to look at nothing."

Robert: "If you give a man a fish, he can eat for a day; if you teach a man to fish, he can eat for a lifetime. It's kind of like - If you give a man a fire, you give him warmth for a day; if you set a man on fire you give him warmth for eternity."

"Well we have internet. Now all we need is a bed."

Robert: "I think it's time for your nap."

Becca: "NO NAP!" (including pouty face)

Becca: "If you were stuck on a desert island, and you can only get one thing, would you rather have a fish or a cell phone?"

Robert: "Is it Verizon or AT&T? ... If it's Verizon, I'll take the cell phone to call for help; if it's AT&T, I'll take the cell phone to kill fish!"

Becca: "Will the sun ever win?"

Robert: "Well it failed today, but it will try again tomorrow."

Robert: "My wife likes me to coordinate, so I coordinated with the weather." (wearing a gray turtleneck and his gray coat)

Robert: "Becca? I have something funny to show you... kind of."

(Upon the first use of our dishwasher, it started foaming bubbles onto the floor.)

That's all I've got for now, but we had a wonderful, safe trip! God blessed us abundantly!

- We were able to pack the whole house in 1 week.

- A guy came around the neighborhood looking for yard work to do, and offered to help us move for some money or food. We gave him both, and he and Robert were able to move all the big furniture into the truck before noon.

- Later 4 LeTourneau guys came over, and they packed all the boxes and everything else by three o'clock.

- We got out of the house and on the road at 5 am.

- There was no snow or ice, and Robert drove the Uhaul + car (towed) safely the whole way.

- We live on the first floor, next to the parking lot, so we were able pass everything other than the big furniture through our bedroom window.

- The next day a young couple from our apartment building offered to help us move the big furniture. Jeff and Robert moved in the couch, desk, mattress, and bed parts expertly while Kim & I cheered them on, carried boxes, and brainstormed how to get around the corners....

- We made another friend, Rebecca, in the parking lot at Sam's Club, and she invited us to her church.

- Did I mention that Jeff and Kim are Christians too? and they invited us to their church too?

- Robert and I had good attitudes and lots of energy during all the moving out & moving in. For the most part. ;)

God has been so good to us - providing for us, keeping us safe, and sending us encouragement all around! Thank you all for your prayers!

- One more! We had to have get a money order for our apartment deposit, which was very tricky because you have to have cash to get a money order, but you can only get so much cash out of an ATM without calling your bank. AND I still don't know my pin number, AND our car was still hooked up to the Uhaul, so we walked back and forth to the gas station several times.

All that to say - the lady who worked in the gas station right then, also lives at our apartment complex. She said she and her husband went through the same thing when they moved in, and she was very gracious and helpful!

Hurried Holidays

Well! The holidays have been wonderful, although incredibly hurried!

After Robert's graduation in Longview, and a few days with Corrie there, we all (Robert, me, Corrie, Silas, & Rose, oh my) drove to Austin for Christmas with the Dunlaps.

As far as Austin goes, I'll just hit the highlights of cute nephews and neice.














Youngest is cute little Rosie - she gets TWO pictures. The only girl around younger than me; she just turned 1 in August.

After Rose is her brother Silas (2 and a half) who is a total ham behind his shy facade. Much like his mother, Corrie.

Then there's Peter (2 and a quarter) an absolute cutie pie - and he knows it. Peter is also quite the ham, but he doesn't deny it. Hmmm... also just like his mother....














Oldest is James, who I unfortunately don't have a picture of by himself, but he's lots of fun to play with, caring, and quite articulate. What more could a girl dream of in a 7 year old?

They were a little tire of posing for pictures. James was a trooper though.

After a "Christmas Morning" in Austin, Robert and I flew to Idaho for Christmas with the Whitings!

We didn't even plan to match, but here is a photo of Carolyn, me & Robert, Michael, and Copper (the cockerspaniel) on Christmas morning at the Whitings.


















We have been having lots of fun in Idaho including:

hiking (not on the road - in the rocks),

geocache - ing,
(when you sign up for free to be a geocache-er, you can look up coordinates in your area, read the clues and go find something someone has hidden there. Most of the time you sign your name and what date you found it, then put it back. People do this all over the world!)


and lots of playing in the snow!

(Above)
a snow Pirate Ship

(Right)
Robert carving the castle door

(Below)
A snow man looking in the living room















(Right)
the completed castle.

Look at the picture of Robert for scale!


Our time in Idaho has also included learning a bunch of 19th century folk dances at a dance Carolyn put together. Robert and I can now do
the Spanish Waltz, Cetlic Cross, Virginia Reel, Patty Cake Polka, and Posties! It was sooooo much fun, and such a work out!

Since I'm hitting a new record for longest blog, I better quit. I've had a blast this Holiday though!
AND there's still another party tonight of MKs! Whew!