My new 'do

I cut my hair about a month ago and was too lazy to get pictures up right away. So here they are, even though I bet my readership has dwindled to 2 readers on a good day.

The moment I've been waiting for...

Danielle is in labor! We're headed to the hospital shortly to meet our new nephew. Apparently we got the call last night, but had crashed early due to getting up early yesterday for a boxer fund raiser. Good thing she's not supposed to give birth until this afternoon/evening... I would have been really sad if we'd missed it.

Logan Thomas Fitzgerald, come meet Aunt K.C.!

Update 11:51pm - what a beautiful baby boy. He's going to be so spoiled rotten!

A new challenge

Yesterday, we picked up our new foster boy, Boo, from the Lewisville shelter. We are excited to have another dog to help, and look forward to helping this cute face find a forever home.

This time, though, things will be a little different. The white Boxer we picked up yesterday is deaf! Believe me, we have yelled and screamed and clapped our hands behind his head. No dice. So what's neat about this situation is that Jason and I will be learning doggie sign language and teaching it to him so we can communicate to each other.

Oh, just because he can't hear doesn't mean he can't speak! Deaf dogs don't actually lose their hearing until about 6 weeks old, so in his first month and a half of life he definitely learned to bark and whine to get things/attention. It's a funny bark, halfway between a laugh and laryngitis.

The first night went better than expected. We put his crate in the middle of the living room so he could see Buffy and Sabrina while they slept, and maybe be less scared. Though he did paw and chew at the crate, and bark intermittently through the night, we were actually able to get more sleep than the first night we had Jenna!

He's a good sleeper once he's out though. Because he couldn't hear the garage open or the door slam when we came home last night, we actually had to stomp our feet so he could feel the vibration in the floor.

This looks to be an interesting experience, and we are ready to accept the challenge!

Meet Boo. White Boxer puppy. 6 months old. Needs a neuter and a vet eval to see if he needs any other treatment. He's full of life, and loves to play ball :)

Life and such

Still looking for a job. Mine seems to get more annoying by the day. Maybe it's the people. Maybe it's the rude customers and their "Southlake mentality." Either way, I need more money, and more paid time off!

Jingles got adopted this weekend to a wonderful family in Weatherford who has a huge yard for him to play in. So glad he's home. In a way I want to jump right into the next one since I know there are so many who need help. But in a (selfish) way I want to take a few weeks off and just enjoy being a family of 5 - me, Jason, Buffy, Brina and Rocky. Guilt may get the best of me, though it will be hard to make sitting/boarding arrangements for the 3 weekends we are planning on being out of town between now and the end of September. Probably best to wait it out, and that's what I think we'll aim for - unless we're the last resort...

Can't wait to see my family next month!

Dear Jason,

Tonight we had a discussion about kids and families. About how some people we know are getting married but have no plans to conceive. About how we'd love to start a family in a few years. While I don't want to wish away our years "alone together" (and I'm so surprised how quickly our first year of marriage has flown) I really do look forward to that time when we're financially and emotionally ready to begin trying in earnest. I'm also very grateful that God gave both of us good heads on our shoulders to realize that now is not the time.

This weekend as we threw a baby shower for your sister, it got me thinking about babies (or maybe it was the babies in this house that made me think about it) and how I've known pretty much my whole life that I wanted to be a mom some day. Knowing that you too want kids makes me so delighted.

I see the way you love on our dogs, and how well you do with other children in our families. And I look forward to having your children, because I know you'll be an excellent father.

I'm not ready for our adventures as a couple to be over, and there are a million things I still want to do together with you, but the imagining, in the meantime, makes me giddy with anticipation of what's to come. I can't wait!

Love,
K.C.

[I would like to revive this blog at least somewhat. Don't know how long it will last. Here's to a good running start.]

Grateful

Lately I've been in kind of a funk about some things. Namely, my lack of a real job and therefore, the lack of funds in our bank account. No, we are not broke. Yes, we can pay our mortgage and other bills just fine. No, we're not reduced to eating scrambled eggs at every meal. I guess I am specifically lamenting our lack of disposable income. Which is ironic, since we aren't on a budget and just dropped $60 for a new DVD player.

Jason's grandparents, parents, aunt and uncle are all leaving on Wednesday to go to Europe for 10 days. The primary reason for the trip is the wedding of a distant cousin of the family, but aside from that event they will also be quite the tourists, country-hopping, sightseeing, shopping, gorging on amazing cuisine.

Jason and I are not going on this trip. Instead, we get the privilege of house and dog sitting. Watering plants. Taking in mail and newspapers. I'm happy to do it, since I know that some day we will ask for the favor to be returned. But yesterday when we went to the grandparents' house to learn the alarm system and where everything is kept, we got to talking about all the trips that Jason's grandparents have taken in their 60 years of marriage. And the more we talked, the more I could feel myself turning Hulk-green. I'm sure the jealousy was leaking out of my pores and into a puddle around my feet. Bahamas, Switzerland, Hawaii, and tons of other places I'd love to go.

Couple those emotions with watching The Bucket List last night (where they climb the pyramids in Cairo, see Mount Everest, dine in France, etc.) and it put me in quite a slump.

I know that in less than a year of marriage, and less than two years out of college, Jason and I aren't supposed to be rich. We are supposed to be "barely making it," held together by our love in a tiny one-bedroom apartment on the wrong side of town. And we are way ahead of that curve. We bought a house for goodness sake! We pay all our bills on time, with money left over, and we are not hurting for food or fun. But somehow, that's still not enough for me.

I want to travel with my husband. See all sorts of things together and share new experiences. The one thing my dad keeps stressing is that we need to see the world before we have kids (which is not happening any time soon, God willing.) But how can we do that if I'm making less than 20k? I'd love to go on a trip for our first anniversary, and it's something I started looking into a few months ago, looking for deals, exploring our options. But after spending almost as much on a new air conditioner as we did on our honeymoon, it seems that our anniversary will be spent in the appliance section of Home Depot, picking out our new range. No tropical drinks and gorgeous sunsets in our forecast.

I'm trying very hard to keep in mind all of the wonderful things we do have, all the blessings in our lives. I'm also trying hard not to "wish away" these first years of building our life together. I know that in time, things will improve - I'll find a better-paying job (a whole 'nother topic altogether) and we will keep paying our debts until we pay off our credit cards. Some day, we will take exciting family vacations. We'll leave the kids with their grandparents and take a romantic retreat somewhere breathtaking. But for now, I'll just have to settle for daydreaming.

Ugh

Dropping $1300 for a new air conditioner is not conducive to taking a trip for our anniversary...

Milestone

Today we paid off the remaining balance of the Kay credit card that had our wedding rings on it! Who wants to go shopping ;)

What's new in the Williams household? Well... an actual household!! Jason and I are currently in full swing of the house buying process. I'm still in shock myself, waiting for the panic attack I'm sure to have any moment now, but here's the story (the more I tell it, the more real it becomes.)

Last year when we moved to Fort Worth, we signed a lease at our apartment complex for three months. We figured it would give us (ok, me) time to find a job and then we could focus on finding a house. Only I never really found a job. Nevertheless, we went with our realtor (a longtime family friend of Jason's parents) to look at a dozen or so houses. We found one or two that would have been nice I'm sure, but nothing that made us drool, or want to go into major debt for. So we decided that we would sign another lease with our apartment complex, and try again in another year. We wound up moving to a bigger apartment across the property, and here we've been for 10 months now.

The new year rolled around and we knew that we wanted to try, try again to find a house. So off we went with Jarod the trusty realtor on our second installment of drive-bys and walk-throughs. This time, I had a better job (though still not a career) and so we went a little higher in price range. And we were shocked to find even less than we did this time last year! Every house we looked at had something wrong - missing appliances, foundation issues, washing machine hookups in the kitchen, etc. We didn't even make it inside one of the houses because the neighbor was feeding his 10 foot long python a big fluffy white rabbit - ON THE FRONT PORCH. So we quickly moved on.

Just when we had resigned ourselves to signing yet another lease (at an increased rate thanks to the bastards running our complex) Jason spoke with his dad about a house that he was renting out. Turns out the tenants' lease had ended and they were paying on a month-to-month basis. A lot of phone calls and a visit to a mortgage company later, and it looked like we might be able to buy the house from Jason's dad.

The most recent developments have come in the last 48 hours. Jason's dad called the tenants, told them the situation and gave them 45 days to vacate. Then he had Jarod send them a list of other properties for rent in the area. To clarify, Jason and I are not trying to kick them out or anything. We want them to have as much time to find a nice new place. After all, our apartment lease isn't up until the end of March.

Well, the tenants called Joe back today. Apparently they are looking at moving into a rent house right across the street! And what's even more unbelievable is that they are thinking they can be out mid-February. So it looks like the house we were planning on having in April may be ours in the next two weeks!

As for the apartment, Jason's dad is going to pay our last month's rent if we decide to move in Feb/March (it's cheaper for him than having to pay mortgage on a house no one is living in.) Since we get a month's grace period of paying nothing on the house from our mortgage company, we can move in any time starting this Saturday and not have to pay anything on the house until April. On top of all of that, Jason's dad is paying all of our closing costs AND Jason is getting a raise starting this week!

So there's our crazy house story. It happened all of a sudden, and while I'm scared to death, I'm also really excited! Who's up for a housewarming party?!

Vendor review: Focuslight Productions

[Wow, it's been awhile since I wrote last. Partly because I've been enjoying the married life, partly because of the holiday rush, and partly out of sheer laziness. But what better time to pick things up again than the new year? Hopefully I will get back in to the blogging speed I was at a few months ago.]


Hiring a videographer was something that Jason and I went back and forth on several times. All we wanted was a record of the ceremony, plus the important things like first dances, cake cutting, etc. and we couldn't seem to justify shelling out a whole lot of money for something so basic. So we finally decided that if we weren't sure we wanted it, the decision was made for us - no videographer.

During the time when we had contemplated hiring someone, I contacted several people I found online. No one over-the-top professional (read: expensive) but I thought maybe I could get a good deal from someone starting out a business who didn't have much experience. Since we were looking for bare minimum anyway, we figured even an amateur could set up a tripod and film the entire ceremony without too much hassle. We probably would have done this ourselves if a) we had a video camera or b) we had someone to work said camera. But we realized that once the wedding actually started, we wanted our families and guests to have fun - not to be behind a camera the whole night, worrying about if what they were doing was good enough.

In the end, it happened suddenly. I had spoken to Chris Campbell, a student at the Art Institute of Dallas, a few months prior. He showed me some little things he had done for classes, and the work was pretty good, especially considering he was still learning. But then we decided not to hire someone and I put the whole thing out of my mind. Then at the last minute (and I'm talking the Wednesday before the wedding) he emailed me out of the blue to see if I still needed someone. I thought that was very professional of him, and given the fact that our guest count was smaller than we planned for, we had some extra budget to play around with. So I emailed him back and said "sure why not" and two days later, there he was at the rehearsal, with his assistant, getting a feel for the venue and for us. We literally didn't meet him until after we'd hired him.

We just got our DVD in the mail this week, and I have to say I am impressed. There are three components - a highlights chapter, a ceremony chapter, and a reception chapter. The ceremony and reception ones are pretty self-explanatory as to what they encompass. The highlights chapter is only a few minutes long (actually it's as long as me and Jason's first dance song, since that's the music he put this chapter to) and it encompasses everything from pre-ceremony picture taking to ceremony and reception shots.

While the DVD wouldn't pass for something done by Spielberg, it's exactly what we wanted and it's perfect for us. Here is what we got for the $200 check we wrote Chris:

* Both Chris and his assistant came to the rehearsal and were there for the entire length of the wedding day.
* They did all filming and editing of the footage that they took.
* We got the finished product on DVD, and will shortly be receiving all of the files on disc for the purpose of backups. (There was a small typo on our DVD, so he's fixing that for me and sending me another copy. So technically we will have two copies.)

As you can see, we got an amazing deal! If I ever need video in the future, I won't hesitate to call Chris at Focuslight Productions. And I won't be surprised if his rates go up as he gains more experience in the film industry because as it is, he's worth more even now!

Final grade for Chris Campbell and Focuslight Productions: A