we're in business!!!!

The song keeps playing over and over again..."we're in the money..." just kidding. we really aren't. But, I have news (this is melissa speaking...as if you didn't know that already). Missy, Moon Mippy's owner (the store I work at) said she'd love to sell my cards whenever I was ready. So, I emailed her and told her I was ready and that ever since I have moved to Texas I've been working on them basically every night and most mornings before work. So, I made up a catalog and she placed her first order last week. I delivered those cards Monday, and they put them out on display Tuesday, and a few have sold! Get glad. We are. (the picture is a sample of one of them...i just hadn't clipped the thread yet...oops).

You wanna know why I am even gladder about my life? Well, my mom just left (and I have to say, I cried so much, it was like we were moving all over again)---oh! that is NOT the reason I am glad! I am glad that we accomplished SOOOO much while she was here!!!! Let's talk about how incredible we were. As our old Playstation game "NBA JAM" used to say, (we're) "on fire!" Yes, we rocked.

These are some shots from our front room/family room. We did valences for the windows out of black fabric and then we used the leftover brown raw silk from our wedding for some awsome pillow forms we found at the Crate and Barrell outlet (super cheap too and feather squishy too!). Then we used some of my favorite fabrics and used those with brown and black fabric to tie it all together for the small pillows. I love them! And, even better, it makes sitting/laying on the futon a wonderful experience. I used to always hit my head on the wooden handles and now...well, let's just say I fell asleep last night on the futon. Aaron had to wake me up to go to sleep in our real bed. ...now how is that for comfy comfort? yeah.

These are some shots from our newly designed bedroom. We made drapes and pillow...and found a curtain rod with these neat little clear do-dads at the end. Exciting, eh? Oh, there used to be a third little Chinese lantern in the corner, but it fell off on Aaron's head. ha! That was funny. But, we still haven't put it back up. Sheesh. We stink.

Here is some photos from our new kitchen! This is the only window in the whole house that we don't have blinds put up...and haven't for the last oh...8-9 months. I hate the idea of people being able to see in and we can't see out at night. SO, finally we have some awsome curtains up! I sewed button holes at the top and we got little ring binder clips on there to hang it up, so it slides like a dream! We're loving it! and it is so much brighter!

oh, that cactus aaron and I bought one of our first weekends down here. It was itty-bitty when we bought it for a dollar at the Boerne Market Days. This is the first plant we've ever had that has stayed alive for longer than two weeks. Oh, yeah...that is why we love cactus's ??? you don't have to water them.

Here is the big curtain we got for our huge glass sliding doors. We bought a quilted shower curtain and then added this fun bright fabric to the bottom to make it long enough, and then to the top...because we could. Be proud. It looks so great in real life. Taking pictures at night isn't the best...I have been meaning to take them in the day, but alas...here we are.

oh, and this is a curtain we found at the Pottery Barn outlet...$3...yes...before it had 2 hearts embroidered at the top, but my mom covered it with our fun stripes to make it WONDERFULLY wonderful. It looks pretty cute hanging in our kitchen.

Now...get excited for the grand finale'.

I know I am.

Now, this part...maybe I am the most excited about...it is my craft/sewing/awesome room. It is insane. Just look at the pictures and you'll know why. I had no idea how big this room was! It was a mess before...I had to tip toe around becuase I had so much all around the room and on the floor.

Can you believe how wonderfully nice it is? Mom, don't look at the stack on the little white rubbermaid dresser thing...no, I still haven't "dealt with that pile" yet. :) You love me. Remember that, you love me. Now for the close up.

If that site isn't incredible, I don't know what is. I have a spot for EVERYTHING now!!!! We found that wooden cardstock divider holder at Office Max and it was mis-marked in the back of the store, so it was supposed to be a lot more than what we paid for it, but because it was mis-marked and there weren't any of the cheaper ones available, they gave it to us for the cheaper price. Way to go Office Max. And, way to go bargain hunters. Truly, one of the many things I have learned from mi madre is how to find a deal. Sigh. Love that.

Okay. For not posting for an entire month, you should all be very proud of me. I know I am. Ha! Happy St. Patty's month.

love day is coming

hi. valentine's day is coming. I couldn't be more thrilled. We saw this setting at Pottery Barn kids...so cute.

well, I am sure I could, but...I think it is really fun to make valentines and enjoy pink and red more. Also, this is one time of the year that making and drawing hearts aren't lame.



love that.

on our excursion yesterday, we went to the northstar mall, as aaron put that cute picture on the blog of the HUGE cowboy boots. It is a super fancy mall. Anyway, we went into Pottery Barn Kids...wow, don't go in there if you are thinking about having kids. :) ha. Aaron was playing with all of these neat block toys that they have, I decided our little boy's room will be in rocket or airplane theme....and I know, we could never really afford all that they had displayed, but it is fun to think about. Aaron, of course, thinks that we will have a bunch of boys and we'll name all of them Aaron. That is sick. He says sometimes, "when we all all of our little aaron's running around..." and I say, "you can dream, buddy, but that is as far as it will go."

Do you know that George Foreman has, in fact, done this? Yeah. Sick. I mean, wow. What is his wife thinking? Allowing the madness to happen? Even his daughters carry his name for example, one of his daughters is Freeda George Foreman. wow. lucky. it won't be happening in our case.

anyway, aaron is at a primary board meeting and I am baking a two layer chocolate cake. They had some amazing desserts at the Cheesecake Factory, but we were wayyy too full, so I decided I would make a cake here this weekend instead.

Get excited. Thanks to Whitney, I have a pan set that she gave us for our wedding, and it has two cute little 9" circle pans. AND! I have a cake stand that I am going to display it on. wow. If it looks good enough, i will post it on this thing. cross your fingers.

i will too.

OH! real quick, i just wanted to tell you that aaron and I went to the stake adult dance last night...wow, who knew that dances with tons of moms and dads could be so fun. It was a ton of fun, and Lyssa Terry Zimmerman went with her husband and we went with Kemy and Chris....it was really fun. I forgot how much I LOVE to dance. Aaron was such a GREAT sport. 10 bonus points for him.

Anyway, I want to plan another dance party soon. It could be kind of lame just at our house, but that might be the only venue available. We'll see. I'll let you know. Oh, and you are all invited. Just swing on over to texas, okay?

good. it's a date.

brothers and sisters of the world

Hi y'all.

Melissa and I had a really great day. We did so much fun stuff. We had a blast. It was great.

We went to Dillard's and returned some pants melissa bought for me around... beginning of december? The store was nice and let us return them. THAt was so fun!

Melissa then went to look for some shoes for work. I think that is her favorite hobby since we moved here. She stands on her feet all day long so our life goal now is to find the most comfortable shoes ever. And they have to pass the "look awesome" test. Plus, they can't be flip-flops because that is not very classy.

We found some awesome Crocs:
and we also found out they can go in water! YEAH! (shoe purchase is awaiting approval from melissa's boss)

then we had a really great time driving to Northstar Mall
Oh, and I also almost forgot... we went to the container store. Man oh man boy howdy. If there is something in the world you can think of... a shoe, basketball, bug, lettuce, cold cereal... this store has thought of a storage solution!

Then we had so much of a good time heading over to The Cheesecake Factory. It was so delicious we couldn't help but have a really good time.

We were sitting next to a guy that was wearing a cowboy hat. I think he was a cowboy. We love texas.

Then we had some more fun driving by the airport (well, i had fun watching the planes and melissa had fun looking at some paper/supply/hangy stuff store that was by the airport).

We tried to get lost again as we drove home. But this time we made it without driving to the southside of town. If you don't know about the southside, last night we tried to go to a spurs game and ended up... well. really lost. We got to the game just as the halftime show was starting (at least we didn't miss the dancers at half time! OUCH... melissa just slapped me belly.)

OK. peace out.

we're iced in...

Well, today work is cancelled and so is the dental school...and everything else.

There are major ice storms today and it is slick slick slick.

So, I just want to say this...I have tried 3 times...count them...3 times, to update the blog. You see, I have two blogs. One for my future "business venture" and one for aaron and me, and I kept posting our new year's stuff on the wrong blog. It was extremely frustrating and I gave up blogging for a while.

But, so all of my efforts won't be in vain, I will give you a link to my other blog and you can see the post I made at the beginning of January. We have a few shots of the Christmas break on there too. So, get excited.

http://melimba.blogspot.com/2007/01/ring-in-new-year_01.html

Yesterday there was no school for aaron because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And now, today no school again. For the past two nights we have partied it up with our friends the Bates and the Neilsens. We watched the 24 season premiere and then conclusion of the premier last night, and then because we found out no one had to go to work or school, we watched S.W.A.T. and ate brownies. It was funny. No, really it was so TENSE. I had the worst headache as we were coming home. I can't handle that much drama in one night.

So, what is on the docket for today? Probably some Rummikub, Electronic Catch Phrase (two new presents we got for Christmas)...it is really funny to play Catch Phrase with the two of us. We've played it a bunch. So...games? movies? trying to see which neighbors have different seasons of 24 ? Maybe. We shall see.

it's the most wonderful time...

Get excited...we are.

This is our little merry Christmas house. Aaron and I had spent all night driving around trying to figure out what kind of tree to do...fake or real, big or small, expensive or cheap...so many decisions. After, what? five different stores, we gave up and headed home. It had been a long day, and we were in two different cars (I had been working all day and met him at the stores). He got home a minute or two before me, and as I pulled into the driveway this is what I saw. I had been so sad that Christmas trees were so expensive and we had gone to this craft store that had literally sucked the Christmas spirit out of us, and was just exhausted...and then when I saw this sight, I burst into tears! Aaron had put up all the lights that day and kept it all a secret!

Here is our beautiful little Red Oak. Trees here in Texas don't really change to fall colors...but luckily ours did! Just like it's description, it turned RED! Just in time for Christmas * ha * Really, and truly, it just started changing colors and it is, what? december 1st? We'll take it though! Above is a little close up of how beautiful it is with all of the lights! Aaron and I sometimes go outside and just stare at it.

Oh, did I mention this was in our living room too? Just the box, fortunately. * Ha! Aaron and I have always joked that one day we would have a huge front yard FULL of these little...I mean BIG blowup delights. It was on sale for $30 at Walmart. 8 feet full of fun, is what I say. But, we're not going to keep it. That money can buy a really good Christmas gift instead. Oh, and can we take a time out and look at the little girl on the box? Is that creepy to anyone else? I am taking it too far, but it looks like she is a Nazi youth. Can I write that on my sweet Christmas blog? Probably not, but I just did.

It's a good thing we're returning it. *

To bring you into the Christmas cheer, I am going to show you this wonderful website. I happened upon this singer SUFJAN STEVENS...well, Aaron happened upon him, and then I found this site of his Christmas Wonderment---let me prepare you, it is AMAZING. He has 5 CD's FULL of Christmas music (old time favorites AND new goodies). Just, just listen to it! You can listen to all of the cds by clicking on the icons at the bottom. My favorite one is the HARK! cd. You'll see why. I have the webpage marked as a "favorite" and I just click on it and have it playing, well, pretty much ALL of the time. http://www.asthmatickitty.com/suf_xmas/suf_xmas.php

Click on this. You won't regret it.

Here is a little preview into what I have been doing for a few weeks now. Aaron and I don't have too many ornaments, so I decided to make some to match our stockings. I'll post those later. Felt is my new fabric. It is fantastic and I love it. Love love love it. FYI. Well, I am so excited for Christmas, I even pulled out my jingle bell that Sarah gave me years ago, and put it on my necklace. Feeling good. Merry merry merry to you.

thanksgiving...

Lots of pictures to post. Thanksgiving with the Jessop family. Isn't their little boy, Dylan, a doll? He just turned one and is such a cutie. Here's some photos from the day we spent over there. It was fun and relaxing...our favorite kind of holidays. Oh, and we had WAY too much food.

Anyway...there are more pictures coming your way...get excited.

first timer here...

I heard blogging is awesome and so here I am blogging. Ok ok... really I'm just looking for an excuse to be doing something other than schoolwork! And I thought this was a good picture of me.

Well, I'm hoping the whole world starts blogging and we can link to each other's pages and we can see everyone having so much fun and the world will just be a great place. Melissa and I have more fun than anyone should, we are always going out to eat at Rudy's http://rudysbbq.com - It is so finger lickin' good.

Melissa works all the time and brings home the bacon while I go to school and play with wax (building teeth). Hopefully this post was a shorty but a goody for everyone, love you all!

the end of the day...

well, here we are...aaron on his laptop and I'm on his old one...both on the world wide web...both wasting time. (just for a little bit). Aaron is having a hard time finding motivation to study when a new version of Google Earth is available. Apparently our house is now visible and it isn't just a dirt mound now. Really great. (yawn). So, I thought, hey, it would be a good time to update our friends and family. So, this is me...updating.

Aaron only has one more month (exactly 30 days) till the end of his first semester at dental school. Is that strange to anyone else but me? I mean, he is pretty much half way done with his first year. At this rate, the four years are going to fly by. Right? Yes, say right.

Me? I am working, I don't come home as exhausted as I used to, but, I have to say, I am usually wiped out by the end of the day...not a lot of motivation to do things, except for things like creating blogs and new websites. Luckily, I have been able to use the time after work for LOTS of projects for my little company. I have lots of things to now put ON the website, but the problem is creating the website itself. Ha! Details, right? I didn't realize the time involved--I mean, I had an idea, but didn't really know. If you want to check it out, my website is http://melimba.com/test3.html. Hopefully it just created a link to it. I worked on it for the past few days, but it isn't loading correctly. If you just went to it, it probably said something like "website coming soon"...which is true! It is coming soon! Get excited.



Aaron and I took a day and went to Austin a little bit ago. We went for a exhibition of the Gees Bend Quilters http://www.amoa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ex_past that is a link to that show. It was really fun to go play with Aaron. It is great having your best friend ALL of the time. I mean, we have so much fun, even when we are just both sitting at the kitchen table gmail chatting with each other. He's a good one, that boy. I'm glad he's here. No, I'm really glad he's here.

Here is the lovely state capital that aaron and I took a "sort-a-kind-a-tour"...we started with the real tour guide and then decided to leave and discover the capital in our own way. It was fun, a little scary, but fine. I was worried that we weren't supposed to go to certain "wings" and Aaron was charging along, lookin' like he owned the place. It was a good day in our lives.

Anyway, that is all I feel like writing right now. Lots of love to you. Oh, and in case you were curious...I don't think we were breaking any rules going into this press room. The lights were on and the door was open? We are good kids. Law abiding kids who can't vote because I forgot to mail back in our voter registration here. Oops.

remembering...

Oh dear... aaron and I are remembering about the stress of worrying about if we'd be accepted to dental school...or where we would end up...it was all a HUGE QUESTION MARK! AGH! It was awful. The reason I am reminded, is because Michelle's hubby, Marc, is in that same waiting game. Rachy's husband is too! Sheesh! It is awful. For you two, my heart goes out to you!

Well, in a few minutes we are going to head over to some of our new ward friend's house to go eat some REAL Italian food. I visit teach with Christine, who has lived in Italy for the past 25ish years. So, she wanted to show us how to cook pasta and sauce the "right" way. Man, depending on how good it is, we might have to stop buying the premade $1 a can sauce. We love the sauce that we usually have, so, I say, bring on the competition! * ha!

FYI...instead of me making these little smiley faces :) as shown, I will use the star key. As shown above. Just so you know, okay?

FAST FORWARD...a few hours...almost four hours-----zip! Now here we are in the present. We just got back from our friends' house, Kemy and Chris Bates (he is finishing up a Dental residency here in San Antonio, they came here from Boston, where he just finished dental school) and it was SOooooOOOooooOOOooo much fun. I told Aaron that I really liked this Kemy a few weeks ago, and that I knew that he'd like Chris, and tonight we ate over there. Two of her sisters and one of her brothers were in town en route from Philidelphia to Utah. They were so much fun. I haven't laughed that hard for such a long time. It was great.

We're finally starting to settle in here. I am making good friends and feeling like we're kind of a part of life here. It is good. It has taken how many months to get "here"? oh, yeah, almost 5 months--but it is finally coming. I am not super home sick EVERY single day of life anymore, which is probably a positive. * Right? yes.

Anyway, we have full bellies, both of us have a computer in our laps, and I am in the La-z-boy...livin' la vida loca. That is right. Feeling good here in Texas.


oh, i just remembered how much I loved these peonies that I got from Costco last year. Aren't they such a wonderful flower? I think they are my most favorite right now...you know, of all the flowers in the world? these are great.

big planes overhead...

As I live and breathe, there is a plane flying over head or very near by. Yes, in San Antonio, there are many HUGE planes that frequent the area. I am told there are three military bases in this town...who knew?! Not to mention that the regular airport around...not too close to us, but it is around. I thought you might enjoy this picture.

Today I am off of work, so I decided to take this opportunity (before I get going on that mountain of laundry and cluttering of "important" papers) to create a new blog for the viewing pleasure of our friends and family...yes, those ones we hold near and dear, but miss greatly.

The plan of this blog is as follows...we will update it "whenever" and post pictures "whenever" and the authors (aaron and I) will change "whenever" (however, I think, by the way we talk/write, you will easily be able to tell who is who). But, in case you are wondering who we owe credit for this blog...that would be Michelle {Martin} Rasmussen. http://www.marcmichelle.blogspot.com She has inspired me. She is great at updating her blog and I love viewing it, so...alas, here we are.

Get excited for your little preview into our lives. Be prepared, you might get extremely bored.

But, you can't say I didn't warn you.