A Trip to Houston

Today I played hooky from school and went to Houston.  Ok, I actually took a personal day with my principal’s permission, but I still took the day off.  I left around 8:30 this morning but had to stop at the bank first and fill up my tank with gas.  I got to Houston shortly before noon.  I was meeting Josh downtown in order to hear one of his pieces being performed.  He was selected earlier in the year to compose a piece for a special music project and received a commission for writing it.  His piece was performed four different times during the year and the last performance was today.  So I met him downtown to hear it.  Of course I thought it was amazing and by far the best piece.  (But, yes, I’m totally biased.)  I just thought his piece sounded more “time oriented” which was kind of the theme of the project with the performance taking place at a clock tower.  One of Matt’s friends that we have stayed with in Houston also came to hear it.  Matt didn’t go with me so I thought it was nice for Kristie to come.  She and her husband have been very hospitable to us. 

After the concert (6 pieces were performed), Josh and I went to the mall for lunch and shopping.  He bought me lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and then he went clothes shopping.  He found some shirts, pants, and shoes.  I found two pairs of pants since I typically wear the same 4 every week (and jeans on Fridays).  I headed back at 5:00 which was not a great time in Houston traffic, but it wasn’t too bad.  It was slow for a while, but it kept moving at least.  I got in a little after 8:00. 

Matt and I got a surprise yesterday.  Matt’s mom sent him a card that said “Congratulations and best wishes to the two of you.”  Maybe all the prayers and intercessions we’ve been sending up are working.  I don’t know if this means she approves of me, the marriage or will even come to the wedding, but I guess we’ll take it as a hopeful sign.  That’s all we can do. 

Matt has been sick for a few days with the flu.  He went to the doctor on Thursday and got some medicine, but still tried to go back to work.  He ended up coming home after lunch and going to bed.  He did go in to work today although he probably should have stayed home.  You know he is sick if he is in bed before 10:00 – which is where he is at the moment. 

I’ll be headed there soon.  I’ve been playing the word games on Lumosity and I finally topped some of Matt’s scores.  I decided to quit while I was ahead.  I hadn’t blogged in a while so I figured I could tell you about my quick trip today.  Tomorrow I need to create a flyer for our upcoming Fiesta Concert.  I’m looking forward to sleeping in though. 

Lumosity + Grilling = Burnt Food

I got Matt a subscription to Lumosity for Valentine’s Day.  I actually got a family subscription so we’ve both been “working out” a little over a month now.  There’s a word game on there that he has become obsessed with.  It is compounded by the fact that I’ve surpassed his highest score.  He definitely has a bigger word knowledge, but I’m an extremely fast typist.  He’s slowed down because he doesn’t use the “enter” key, but uses the “click” button on his laptop.  In spite of that, he’s pretty fast.  So tonight he lit the grill and then put some hotdogs on it.  While waiting, he played his game.  And played it.  And burned the hotdogs to a crisp.  So now I’ve told him that he can’t grill and play Lumosity at the same time. 

It was a really busy day for me today.  I had to leave right after lunch to go to a meeting.  Matt and I ate at a hole-in-the wall Mexican restaurant before the meeting.  After the meeting I had to run back to the school to set up a screen and projector for a meeting after school.  I then had to head up to a training session north of downtown.  Once I got home, I had to call Microsoft to resolve an issue with the Office program I installed almost a month ago.  I was able to purchase Office 2013 for only $10 through a deal with my school district, but once I installed the program, it wouldn’t let me activate it.  I finally called customer service.  It took about 30 minutes and they had to remotely uninstall and reinstall it.  It is working fine now at least. 

There’s not much else to report here.  I haven’t gotten much wedding planning done lately.  Matt and I have kept the house clean for a week now.  We have company coming in two weeks.  We went to see Divergent this weekend.  Next weekend we will probably see Bad Words.  It looks like it would be very funny. 

Where did the break go?

I can’t believe that spring break is almost over.  I haven’t accomplished everything that I planned to do, but it has been somewhat productive.  I’ve continued the cleaning binge I started on Thursday.  Yesterday I scrubbed all the toilets and cleaned bathrooms.  I also did about five loads of laundry.  I discovered a leak under the kitchen sink yesterday so I had to pull all the stuff out from there and now have a bucket until I can have it looked at.  Today my focus will be the downstairs – especially the kitchen.  Matt finally started going through all of his stuff in boxes upstairs.  I told him that we needed it sorted by the end of the weekend. 

I didn’t work on any school work.  I will try to get to some of that tomorrow if the house is clean by then.  I’m hoping that we will be able to keep it clean for at least a few weeks until we have company that comes to stay for a week.  I also have some band stuff that I have to get done.  I still have to order my wedding dress, but I need a few more measurements. 

Matt got me a Bose Soundlink Mini speaker for Christmas and I’ve been using it to listen to music as I clean the house.  It helps keep me going.  It’s better than having the tv on as I’ll get distracted and sit down – kind of like I’m doing now. 

Cleaning Binge

Yesterday I was on a cleaning binge.  Earlier this week Matt and I started to go through his boxes of stuff that have been sitting up stairs since he moved in last October.  I don’t know if the difference in packing is a men vs. women thing or if it’s just Matt, but I shook my head many, many times as I opened boxes.  It was as if he found an empty box and shoved whatever would fit into it and then put a lid on it.  No sorting, no rhyme or reason as to what was in there.  I, on the other hand, at least try to pack similar things in the same box – or at least stuff that goes in the same room in the same box.  I finally have the guest room and the floor of the loft area cleared of all his stuff, though he still has about six boxes of things to go through.  I created several boxes for sorting and a filing system for papers.  I also cleaned up Josh’s room (as much as possible with Matt’s desk still in pieces), the master bedroom and most of the master bathroom.  I still need to clean the toilet, the floor, and my closet.  I’m trying to get myself motivated to get started, but it hasn’t worked yet.

I enjoyed sleeping in this morning until I noticed it was “too” quiet.  Angie didn’t come when I called her so I figured she must be up to more trouble.  (She tore up carpet in Josh’s room earlier this week.)  Sure enough, when I went outside in the back yard, she came running from the side of the house.  I went to investigate and she had started digging underneath the fence.  She hadn’t made her escape yet, but was close.  So now I have her locked inside and will have to go to the hardware store and get more cinderblocks today. 

To answer Summer’s question posed on my facebook page – No, I’m not cleaning the garage.  Half of the garage is fine – my car is parked in there right now.  The other half is a different story.  We have Matt’s love seat, washer and dryer, table and chairs, and a myriad of other boxes from his storage closet.  There are also most of the empty boxes that I used for my own move.  The garage will be a summer project at some point, but not sure if it will be this summer or not.  When I do finally clean it out, I want to paint the walls.  Right now they are a dark green with a yellow stripe at the tope.  Probably former Greenbay Packer fans lived here.  I want it a nice neutral gray.  I also want a large tool box so I can actually put tools away where I can find them when I need them.   Maybe that will be next year’s Christmas present. 

Well, I guess I should try to get motivated to get going.  I have to run to the local library for a book today, then to the store for more laundry detergent (and cinder blocks). 

Spring Break is Here

Yesterday was a pajama day.  I never changed out my pajamas all day.  I slept in until 9:30.  I sat on the couch most of the day.  I gathered and input addresses for all the wedding guests.  The list keeps growing it seems.  I’m going to order my wedding dress this week.  I had a lady from school take my measurements for me.  My plan for spring break is to get some wedding planning done.  I also plan to get all of Matt’s stuff that is in boxes put away.  It’s time to actually use the attic for storage I guess. 

Matt and I decided to try to stop going out to dinner as much as we usually do.  I’m giving up fast food and alcohol for Lent.  Hopefully that will help our budgets and my waist.  I wish I had more exciting things to post, but life is rather dull here.  No exciting spring break plans.  We thought about going to Fiesta Texas, but the weather is going to be cool this week.  It was rainy yesterday.  It was just cool today – only getting up to the 50’s.  It’s supposed to be nice Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Sick of being sick

I went to the doctor last Friday hoping that I could get some medicine to kick whatever infection I had.  They did a strep test that came out negative and said that it was probably a viral infection that would just have to go away on its own.  I should get rest and drink lots of fluids.  Well, Matt and I headed to Dallas Friday evening and spent the weekend there so I didn’t really get any rest.  I did get to meet some of his family (cousins and an uncle) and that was nice.  I still wasn’t feeling great on Monday so I called in sick to work.  The library was going to be closed for testing in the morning and then I was going to be gone for a meeting in the afternoon, so I figured I might as well get some extra rest.  I did, though, I still went to the afternoon meeting.  I took it easy last night, went to bed at a decent hour and felt a little better this morning.  I went to work but found out at the last minute that I would be doing more testing today.  I still had a cough that I quelled with cough drops and water as much as I could.  I just didn’t feel up to par this afternoon so I didn’t do much work.  I mostly read a book.  Since it was a YA novel, I figured it was part of my job.  I had to go to yet another meeting after school today.  I was supposed to go to band rehearsal tonight, but with the coughing, I figured I shouldn’t go.  I just took some cough and cold medicine that I hope works or at least knocks me out soon.  I’m hoping that since I’m sick this week that I’ll be healthy during spring break and be able to get a lot done.  I have a lot of wedding planning and things that I need to work on when I have the time off next week.  I also need to do some deep house cleaning as Matt and I will have a house guest in April.  A fellow Scrabble player and librarian from Austin is going to stay with us during the Texas Library Association Convention.