Somewhere permanent, maybe?

One of my many jobs at the bank is to change addresses when people have requested them, (or we hunt them down when they move). Summer seems to be a major time that people move, because I'm averaging about 50+ a week--and we only have about 5,700 members all across the globe. So a lot of people are moving quite often.

Today, the thought struck me as I was making my 5th address change of the morning, "I really want a permanent address." I haven't had one in nearly three years, and I can't begin to describe to you how much I want one. I even dreamed the other night that we got a post office box in Collegedale. We were box #3, isn't that great? It's not just the address I want though--it's the security in belonging someplace at least semi-permanent. I know that life can suddenly change, and there is very little security to be had, but having an address would be a nice change for me, for once.

I used to be picky about addresses. I have seen some really scary ones since I've been doing this job in the past year. I used to not want to live on a street unless it sounded poetic or homey, or even quaint. Now I think I could even be quite happy living on something generic like Main St, USA :)

--Amanda of Loblolly Ln., for now.

We thought pink, and it worked!!

I would like to give congratulations on my blog to my cousin Jon & his wife Bekah who just found out that their second child is going to be a girl! You'd have to know my family to understand the true excitement of all this. We had so much fun with Bryden, their first child, that we eagerly look forward to him having a little sister. As I was leaving this morning, he was coming to the house and I told him congratulations that he's going to have a sister. He asked me if I was going to come and see her, and I said that I would, once she was born. Her expected arrival I hear is January 1, so it will be a happy New Year in the Spears clan. :)

Ahh....Sometimes I just need a mental break from work (i.e. before I have a mental breakdown) and so I look for funny sites. I found this one on Kristen's friend Valerie's blog: Cats that Look Like Hitler. It's a really funny site. And similar to that one, a friend showed me another funny cat site: Stuff on my cat. So there you go, something for the cat lovers (and even those who can't have them, like me!)

Charles Graduates--All Celebrate!

As promised, here are a few photos of Charles' Graduation last night--woohoo!!
This is him walking down the aisle...


And getting up to leave gym after grad... (note the happy expression on his face!)


Still leaving the gym..


Us with my grandparents after the ceremony. It was so nice outside (shock!)--probably because it was fixin' to rain, but the wind was blowing and everyone was happy to be outside (for once).

And finally...

The newly graduated, and newly married happy "us". hee hee

Summer fun

I'm really sad--I typed I blog I thought was neat, I think on Wednesday, in between different things going on, but the internet system crashed. What a bum deal.

Anyway, I just talked about how it is so swealtering hot here, and how on Sunday Bryden came over and swam around in his new splashing pool Mo bought him. I was wearing street clothes, but "somehow" ended up completely soaked. But really, I didn't mind it so much because it was so hot outside. We ate watermelon out by the pool, and felt like we were livin' the high life. haha.

Every day this week has been in the mid-upper 90s. There's a weather advisory outside, with something to do about the air quality. They said to not go outside if you could help it. Pretty sad, huh? So it dawned on me that you know it's really hot outside when you start fantasizing about your little cousins splashy pool in the middle of the afternoon. It's that hot now.

Stay tuned to pictures from Charles' graduation last night! I'm so proud of him!

Monsoon--Not Just a Store in the UK

So since I have last blogged, I have noticed that our area has been overtaken by what I call "Monsoon Season". I used to not think that we had that in our hemisphere, but the weather channel has recently proved me wrong. We have already received more rain this month than El Paso gets in a year (I'm probably not exaggerating that much). Nice. Well, Thursday night we had one particularly bad storm. You never know these are coming though, unless you're glued to the weather reports, and that's the sad part. We had to go to town to get groceries and pick up a few things at the mall. When we went to come out of the mall though, there was torrential rain, and a flock of people standing by the door in utter amazement. Most people waited it out, and we did for awhile, but the evening was getting on, so Charles decided to make a break for the car. Needless to say he got soaked. He drove around to pick me up, and even though he got as close as he could, I still had to run fifty feet in the rain. Fortunately, I was wearing the crocs that Jay gave me as a wedding present (isn't he great?), so my feet were well equipped. Unfortunately, I was wearing a white t-shirt. Sad.

Later, while shopping at Walmart, we were getting some bottled water (yes, I've started doing that, because I fear city water is poisoning us all slowly). I heard a noise, and looked up to actually see a STREAM of water coming down from the ceiling. I had visions of the roof collapsing in on us being seen by all on the nightly news. Fortunately that made us shop faster so that was a good thing.

Our watered out evening was nothing compared to my friends Irma & Alba (work ladies). They were walking on the Greenway when the storm began! They had to run to nearby apartments and wait out the storm. Just then, Irma realized she had dropped her keys when they had started to run! Fortunately, the rain started to let up, and she was able to find them when they were running back to their car! Wow.. she is so funny too--she was just laughing about it when she told me (Irma). She's pretty laid back like that, although she did admit to being frightened by the rain.

Since getting married we've been working on compromising with each other. I think we're getting good at it :) For example, he wants to buy a gun. I said, "If you're going to buy a gun, I will get an iPod after that." That works. The other night I wanted to watch a chick flick, he agreed, but I compromised and let him watch "Gunsmoke" first. It worked out well. :) That's what marriage is all about--compromise, oh, and love too, of course.

I have officially dubbed today "Round-to-it" day. Our room has been so messy and disorganized since we got back from our honeymoon (actually, back when it was still "my" room it was a mess, it just got worse after the wedding). I've been cleaning our under the bed, dusting, throwing out trash and organizing stuff. It's looking mucho-better so far. And it's just 1pm! I decided to take a blog break... but now I must go back. Wish me well. :)

Healthy stuff

I feel like being healthy. I have gone back and forth over the years whether or not to be vegan. I just like cheese and ice cream too much. Probably the ice cream even way more than the cheese. Does anyone else agree? They have excellent milk-substitutes that I can easily live with. Even the cheese substitutes are quite good these days. But the ice cream? I just can't be fooled. I know it's soy or rice or whatever non-dairy substitute they can concoct. Oh well. I guess all in moderation, right? If you're interested in a neat blog that features a healthy lifestyle, check out: The Vegan Lunchbox. They have good recipies and other inspirations. I think I'm off to lunch now.. gonna get a healthy VM salad. :)