warning

speaking of scary movies...

we just got back from the imax. remember, the one i was excited to go see?

yes.

we just got back.

we watched i am legend with will smith.

DO NOT GO SEE THIS MOVIE.

the previews looked great and i'll have to admit that it was a well written movie. however, the previews are very misleading. it is a scary, scary movie.

if you choose to go see it, great. just expect to be scared. i didn't expect to be scared. i expected a sort of light-hearted, impactful movie like will smith usually stars in. not the case.

i spent half of the movie either looking down at my fingernails or squeezing my eyes shut with my head on michael's shoulder and my arm trying to crush his. i did let him and donny (his buddy that is in town) know that i would be happy to leave at any time. of course, you almost have to finish a movie that you start like that.

it really is a good movie. but, had i known the scary factor, i wouldn't have gone. i just feel like i needed to warn my friends.

whew. now my tooth hurts from clenching my jaws, my neck hurts from sitting on the 4th row of the imax (the biggest screen in the universe!!), and my legs hurt from being so tense through the whole movie. i think i'll go pray over my apartment and try and go to sleep

with the light on of course...:)

headaches cause silly thinking

• every year, i procrastinate on christmas shopping. this year...no different. i have one present taken care of and i only have 10 days left.
• i'm a little worried that i need glasses. i think i see everything fine, but i have headaches...a lot. it always hurts behind my eyes and in the front center of my forehead. i'm tired of whining and i know michael is tired of listening. i did test my vision at the hearing/vision screening the nurse gave my kids last week. i wonder how accurate those things are. hmm...
  
• we didn't sign up for vision insurance for next year. the deadline was october. michael wanted to. i said no, we don't need it. it was only like $3.90 a month for the both of us. oops
  
• i traveled again this weekend. but i'm back already. soooo glad tomorrow isn't monday.
• there are five days left until christmas break.
• michael and i are taking our first vacation together (not counting our honeymoon, of course). we're going to vegas for new year's. :)
  
• michael will not tell me, or anyone else for that matter, a single thing he wants for christmas. jerk.
• the apartment is finally coming together. when mom and dad came in friday morning, they were both pretty shocked. mom couldn't believe how much work we'd done! that's gotta tell you how bad it looked when we unloaded the u-haul.
• i've been feeling blog pressure really bad lately.
• i think we're going to the i-max tonight. i'm really excited because we don't get out and do stuff much but, i'm really tired and...you got it...i have a headache.
• i can't wait to watch ellie belle open presents on christmas morning.
• i walked out of the bathroom in jason's deli today and saw a woman at the salad bar that made my breath catch. at first glance she looked exactly like my granna. that is my dad's mom who passed away 11 years ago. whoa, i can't believe it's been that long.
• i'm jealous of sarah's beautiful ornaments hanging in her living room window. well, i'm jealous of all her christmas decorations for that matter. i want christmas decorations!
• i'm sitting on my bed in the bedroom blogging because michael is watching a scary movie about ghosts and stuff (messengers) and i just can't handle stuff like that. seriously scares me. i can't stop thinking about movies like that and then they freak me out in the most inopportune places; like the shower for instance, while i'm washing my face and have soap on my eyes. i sometimes have to make a mad dash for the water so i can open my eyes even though i know there is nothing there. sad, i know. (for the record, he did try and change the channel, but because i was blogging anyway, i left and told him to watch it.)
  
• since the "7 things about me post" i keep thinking of the dumbest things i could put on there. for instance, every time i go to the bathroom in a public place, i never use the first section off the toilet paper roll. i throw it away and go for the next piece. someone's hand touched that. now, every single time i'm in the bathroom, i think about that blog. it's really annoying.
• i had a funny thought last night in the hotel room i shared with my parents. how many couples sleep together on those tiny beds when they get the room with two full/queen beds and it's just the two of them. i just wonder, that's all.

my new sister, mandy lou

i must be the luckiest girl in the whole world. growing up, i had two fantastic brothers and no sisters, although i always wanted one. my brothers have been my best friends forever. a few years ago, i was blessed with my first sister ever, sarahpie. on saturday night, december 8th, my baby brother began the addition of another sister for me.

it will be official sometime early 2008, but it already feels right to me. mandy is such a wonderful girl. she is absolutely beautiful, Godly, sweet, and caring. she makes matt feel like a million bucks and that makes him act like a million bucks! :) they treat each other wonderfully!

they are the sweetest couple and i feel so honored to have mandy join our family. i have always wished for the most wonderful women for my brothers. Jesus has blessed them and our family both.

mandy, i love you so much and i am so excited for you to be my sister. i can't wait to hear about wedding plans and to know you for the rest of our lives. i love you sister!

mandy and matt at picaso's during the engagement celebration dinner matt planned.

my beautiful sisters, mandy lou and sarah pie.

us: the henry (kotze) daughters

matt and his new family

mandy and her new family!

they henry/kotze's

bangers and mash

pronounced: bangas and mash

this is an english dish that michael has eaten forever. the first time i had it was a few months ago, when we stayed on the riverwalk. we ate at an english pub there.

to explain, it's like big pork sausage links (so they taste like breakfast sausage) with mashed potatoes and some gravy. occasionally, chefs also include Dijon mustard across the potatoes and sausage links.

i was totally weirded out the first time michael ordered this. i'm sort of iffy with sausage things. i like my sausage thin or ground and really, really cooked. like, almost black cooked. it just makes me feel better to eat it a tiny bit crispy.

however, it's totally delicious. i love it. it has the best flavor together. if you're ever in a restaurant where bangers and mash is on the menu, you would not go wrong to order it.

tonight, michael made this meal for dinner. as soon as the potatoes were ready to mash, he realized we didn't have any milk. i ran out to get some while he finished dinner. the potatoes ended up a little lumpy and a tiny bit runny, but they had the best flavor (he knows i love pepper so he puts a ton! yummo!). he did an incredible job on dinner...again.

it's funny because a lot of times when he starts cooking i start feeling a little nervous that it's not gonna be good, but it always is. always. i feel really lucky to have a man that can cook.

thank you, Jesus.

on dancer, on prancer

marme just called me on my cell phone during work. being the really great teacher that i am...i answered it. ;) my kids were in the neighbor's room watching a christmas video (see i told you i was a good teacher).

we chatted for a few minutes and then she told me that she had updated her blog. i turned to read it while i was on the phone with her.

i laughed so hard at the "worst Christmas gift" and "santa's reindeer" that i almost peed in my pants.

it was freakin hilarious!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?On Dasher, on Prancer, on Donner, on Blixen. On Comet, on Cupid, on somebody and Dixon and Rudolph. Am I close?

can't you just see her sitting there trying to sing the song and think of the reindeer's names? Blixen? Dixon? what on earth? who the heck are they? it's hilarious! it's even better if you say it in rhythm like the song, especially when you get to the part "on somebody and dixon and rudolph." i crack up every time i look at it.

that was the best about-to-pee-in-your-pants conversation i've had in elevendy million years. it's especially nice to have that conversation with the only other person who would pee in her pants with you, marme. :)

you're the best and i love you.

quitter

no matter how much work i've done unpacking the apartment, it still looks ridiculous. there is stuff everywhere and anyone would be surprised to know that i've done hours, HOURS, of work unpacking. it's hard to tell, that's all.

last night, michael proclaims that "we, (um...excuse me? we?) "should finish unpacking everything tonight."

yeah.

we start on the boxes of our clothes which is the most of what is left and the boxes are just so huge. now, let me just point something out here: because i wake so early in the morning, i have decided that the guest bedroom closet will be mine and i will get ready in that bathroom. that allows michael to sleep and makes it to where i don't have to be so quiet. when we brought all of our clothes here, i told michael that he was going to have to share part of his huge closet with me.

did he?

no.

his clothes take up his entire closet. the hangers are all beautifully spaced, just like i dream for them to be. his dress shirts are together, all his pants are together, his jackets are together. it's a beautiful, large walk in closet.

my closet, on the other hand, is one of those slide the doors one way and then the other types. it has three tiny bars. one is the tall one for hanging things like dresses, the other two are on top of each other for shirts and pants. i got rid of a load of clothes and my hangers are basically hanging on top of each other. there isn't even room to push things to one side to hang something better or look through the clothes to see what you want to wear. it's insane!!!!

did we finish unpacking?

no.

as soon as michael was finished with his closet (which, ahem, the bottom of is still very messy-i would do justice to a closet like that), he sat on the couch and watched tv. really, i'm fine with that. but then, as the night wears on into midnight, he keeps telling me to stop unpacking.

hey buddy, if you wanna be a quitter that's fine. but don't try and talk me into it.

i'm no quitter.

(except for today after school. i'll be a quitter. a few nights of staying up until midnight and waking early has be worn out. i'm taking a nap when i get home!)

daddy

i miss you daddy.

thank you for all of your hard work this weekend.

baby girl loves you.

i can't wait to grow up

that's what i thought anyway.

but growing up means being away from your mommy sometimes.

i miss my marme.

it's hard to be away from my marme.

i love you my marme.

moving is hard work

my wonderful family helped me pack up my house in a jiffy this weekend. sarah, ashley, marme and i started packing on saturday after lunch. we packed again on sunday after lunch and i did the last few things on monday morning. michael, daddy, landon and lennon (with some help from me) spent monday morning packing up the trucks.

then, daddy, landon, michael, marme and i drove to san antonio and unpacked everything into storage and into our apartment. michael and i took them to eat for their hard work and sent them on their way. it was 12:30 before they got home. poor guys. we were so stinkin' tired. now, i'm still tired because i've been staying up late trying to unpack stuff and put it away. my apartment looks like a storage building. there are boxes everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

monday night, i had to get my daddy to move a dresser out of the bathroom so i could go in. i nervously picked a box that i thought might contain the sheets to our bed and cut it open. i was right! you could not walk into our tiny kitchen. boxes, blankets and random things blocked the entrance. michael started using my bathroom because of all of the stuff in the floor of his. crazy.

i spent tuesday night putting everything up in the kitchen. i spent last night going through other boxes and finding lamps and such. i also put everything up in my bathroom. i must say, it's nice to have bathroom rugs again. on our balcony, i have two huge boxes. one is for other boxes i take apart when i empty them, the other box is for the paper things are wrapped in. they are both already full.

if you walked into my apartment right now, you wouldn't know that i've done a single thing. it's insane!!!! our plan is to unpack our clothes tonight and that should help make things look a lot better. those boxes are huge!

i'll post before and after picks later...when it's after. those of you that know me will understand how it's been hard for me to live in a place that looks like this.

whew. moving is hard work. reliving the move through a blog is hard work, too.

i think i'm ready for bed again...

packing

we have come back to san angelo this weekend (four hundredth weekend in a row) to pack. we figured we'd get it out of the way.

last night i walked slowly through every room. i sat on the couch and gazed around at my beautiful living room. i stood in the doorway of the kitchen. i laid in bed starring at my bedroom. i memorized every detail.

does it seem weird to be so attached to a building? well, whether it does or not, i am. it was my first home away from my parents. my first home that held things that were only mine, not my beautiful mother's. it was my first home with my husband. it was my first home that was mine. it was mine.

now, it will be someone else's.

i do feel a sense of relief, but also a sadness. this makes the move which happened in august seem so final. it's good i guess. michael and i can get on with life. we can do things which we have wanted to do. being without that extra mortgage payment will make that stuff easier.

with all of the things people are going through right now, being sad over leaving my house seems so unimportant. but, if we cross your minds, just throw up a quick little prayer. i'll really appreciate it.