Garage Door

We went to the house this morning before the workers got there and there are a few new additions! First, and most noticeable, we have a garage door! They also have texturized all the walls in the house (oh yeah...all the dry wall was put up last week) and all the interior doors are in the house, but not installed yet. The fence line in the back has been started and is actually about 12 feet further back than we thought it was going to be, which gives us a huge chunk of extra land!!!! We figure the next couple things will be installation of the interior doors, painting inside and more work on the fence! We'll take more pictures soon!

Sweeney Todd

I generally keep the movie reviews up to my brother (I even copied the image from his blog), but I had to comment on this one. Dave and I both wanted to see Sweeney Todd, but I knew very little about it and wanted to see it mainly because of the hype and my own curiosity. I am glad I did! It was probably the "darkest" movies I have ever seen, both in actual color and in content. However, it was highly entertaining, suspenseful and unpredictable (at least for me since I never saw the play). The movie was very bloody, but in a different sort of way...the graphics were not realistic, instead I would just simply call them artistic. You can interpret that how you want to, but I think you will understand once you've seen the movie. I was hooked right from the beginning and did not mind at all that it was a musical, which I sometimes get incredibly annoyed at! I think my favorite part (stop reading if you haven't seen it) may have actually been the less than happy ending. Every movie nowadays ends perfect...they break up and then get back together...the good guys overcome the evil...blah, blah, blah. This is one I think we will add to our collection! Another words...go see it as soon as you can!

Mario Kart

So, I've always enjoyed video games, but it seems that Dave has truly changed me to a video game nerd! I think the fact that I am blogging about it proves my point. Thanks sweetie. Anyway, we have another new addition to our Wii system!!! Over the weekend Dave and I purchased Mario Kart! We've played it throughout the weekend and have had a blast! It comes with cordless steering wheels that are actually the controllers for the game! It makes the game much more interactive and a lot like arcade racing games, however, if you are afraid to try a new controller, you can use a GameCube controller, the Classic Wii controller or the Wii remote and nunchuk! The game includes both old and new races! One of the coolest things you can do (which we have yet to try) is play against your friends that have a Wii while they are at their own house! We'll report back when we try that!

In other news...we visited our house yesterday and all the insulation has been completed! I'm pretty sure drywall is next! It's getting more and more exciting by the day! Hotel Koch will be booking up fast, so all of you better make your reservations! We expect to see ya'll in Houston real soon!

Walk Through

We had the walk through with the construction manager yesterday and it went really well! One mistake was caught and will be taken care of, but other than that, everything was perfect! They will be starting the drywall next week and after that it is only 6 weeks til closing!!! It appears that we will be moving in earlier than the expected late July. He thinks the house may be done as early as late June!!!!
The latest progress is that the driveway and front walk have been poured! But, of course, we will be visiting tonight to see any other progress!

Cinco De Mayo

My birthday was wonderful this year! Dave surprised me with a party!!! I honestly had no idea that he was planning anything. In fact, he made me think we were having a couple friends over the next day and that's all I thought we were doing. I was quite wrong! I went to the mall with a friend (which was a trick) and when I came home all my friends were here and the whole apartment was decorated with birthday and Cinco De Mayo decorations! Dave made some wonderful fajitas...we had a pinata...margaritas...and I even got a special Cinco De Mayo t-shirt and a sombrero! It was a great time!!! He also surprised me with tickets to the Brewers/Astros game the next day as well as tickets to see our favorite band (Less Than Jake) in July!!!
Thanks so much honey! I love you!

Additions

We went to the house yesterday and we're excited to see that in the last few days most of the electrical work has been done along with the concrete slab behind the house. We tried to carve our names and press Fenway's paw into the concrete, but it was too dry already! :( All we did is give it a good imperfection with our attempts! Oh well.

Post 100

It's post 100! I am like 300 posts behind my brother, but I thought I'd mention it anyway! :) The house is moving along at a steady pace. The roof is completely done, the siding totally finished, bathtubs are in and filled with water to ensure that the floor can hold them (so far so good), plumbing has been started, air ducts are in, back door is installed and the floor is labeled everywhere for color, flooring, phone jacks, cable hook-ups, etc. We were a little disappointed when we saw the color of the roof, "heather blend", which is a type of brown. We were darn sure that the color scheme we chose for the exterior of the house was a very light gray with black and white trim and a black roof. However, when we looked at the paperwork, we did indeed choose a color scheme with beige siding, white and dark navy blue (almost black) accents and a brown roof. We called the studio to get a couple addresses of other people who had the same color scheme and looked at them before we really started freaking out! It turns out they look really nice, so we're ok with it now. We don't necessarily think they made a mistake, we just looked at soooo many color schemes (they have 24 very similar choices) that we couldn't accurately remember what we decided on. And anyway, the brown roof will soak up less of the horribly hot Texas sun!
So, I had to also include pictures of our adorable Fenway!!! He has gotten so big from when we first got him! We think he is pretty much full grown at this point...a respectable 15 pounds! Everyday he crawls deeper into our hearts! He is absolutely part of the family! He is a very well behaved dog (except when people come over...he jumps on them for awhile before he calms down). We are working him off the leash outside and he is doing so good! He is great at recall! We can't wait until he can run around our backyard!


So, today is my first day at the Lake Jackson store. I will be working the 3-10 closing shift (yeah...welcome back to retail)! :( Apparently, there are some employees who applied for the position and did not get it, so I'm told they may have issues with me right off the bat. I'm interested to see how that goes and excited to finally get into the store I will be working at once I finish training. My training is half done. I have 2 more weeks (mon-thurs). So far, I've passed all my tests with flying colors...100% on the reptile test...99% on small animal test...and 96% on Pet Authority test! I have 2 more tests to go...avian and aquatics. Well, I will let everyone know how today goes!

Another Update

Well, things are moving along quite nicely! Yesterday they were almost done with the siding and today we went by and they had the siding completely done, the roof started and the windows all installed (last picture)! It's such a cool surprise everyday to see how far they've gotten! The picture with no house in it is the back yard. I'm standing at the far corner of the yard while Dave takes the picture from the back door. I also included a picture of the great view of downtown from our bedroom window! Hopefully the port 'o' potty won't be there when we move in! :)

Starting to look like a house

The framing of our house started yesterday!!! We were amazed that when Dave drove by after work and they hadn't started yet and when I drove by 50 minutes later they were almost done with the first floor and starting on the second. We went back later that night for a more thorough look!



















Today when I stopped by after work they had gotten quite far on the second floor! It's so cool to see how it's starting to really look like a house! It's easier to see now how big our backyard really is and where our driveway will be, etc. It's just such an exciting process to go through! Hopefully, most of the stressful part is over Nd we can just enjoy watching our house grow into exactly what we wanted!

Concrete!

We have concrete! Yah! Things are moving slowly, but surely! We have a current closing date of July 28th. Hopefully, it'll be sooner...or at least on time! :)

Sedation

The DeBrazza's sedation I told you about yesterday went very well! Both monkeys did the trained behaviors we asked them to, which in turn, allowed us to inject them with ketamine. The female, Amelia, went down very quickly. The male, Albert, fought the drug and was wobbly at best. He was "my" monkey, so of course I was starting to worry that maybe I didn't get all the drug in him, but we later found out that the vet miscalculated the amount of drug he would need (he grew a lot bigger from the weight they had on file). It took more dugs and 3 more injections before he went down! And even then, he was only sedated lightly. I hand restrained him for the entire procedure as an extra precaution. I was so proud of my little monkey! I can't believe he came back to me to receive more injections! Most primates hold a grudge for weeks after being injected only once!!! Anyway, Diane and I were very pleased with the results!!!

Last Week

My last week at the zoo is certainly going by fast! It's been filled with tying up loose ends, saying good-bye to animals (and people) and letting my creativity flow. I'll explain...several months ago I decided to paint the walls of the animals cages for enrichment. Apparently, my boss thought that I had some amazing talent at painting trees and wanted me to paint our brand new cart. Although I wasn't sure how much talent I really had, I took her up on the challenge and just finished the cart today. It looks pretty good, if I do say so myself! :) It's just one of the many things I had to finish before I leave.
I also went to Natural Encounters today and said good-bye to some of my old animals. I may not have worked with them for a year now, but I built a stronger history and relationship with them than the ones I work with now. It was sad to say good-bye, but fun to see that many of them still recognize me!
Tomorrow is a long awaited sedation on our 2 DeBrazza's Guenons. Diane and I have been working on training them to accept an injection and I believe they are finally ready. Ready or not, it had to be scheduled before I left! I'm fairly confidant, but still slightly nervous, because if they don't cooperate then they have to be netted or darted which is highly stressful on them. They can only be as good as their trainers, so hopefully I'll be on the ball tomorrow. This is what they look like:The staff is throwing me a luncheon tomorrow afternoon and we're all going out for drinks and fun after work on friday! I can't believe it's almost my last day! Well, I'm sure they'll be way more to come about the end (at least for now) of my zookeeping career and the beginning of management at Petco. As for now, I am just thankful that I've made so many great friends at the zoo! Life-long friends.

Wii's first road trip

This weekend we packed up our Wii and drove to a friend's house for some drinks and video games! We are quickly realizing that the Wii was definitely a good purchase! All our friends created their characters, which are stored on our system. Anytime they play, they can pick their character and it will keep track of all their scores, fitness level and more! We played well into the night and had a blast. I can't wait until we can get some old school games like Mario and Duck Hunt!!! So far, I have found that that I am better at bowling than I thought I was and enjoy virtual bowling, much more than real bowling! Last night, while Dave and I were playing, I beat my personal best at one particular bowling game! I hold the highest score among Dave and our friends in a game where you bowl ten times and the amount of pins double each time! In the end, there are 91 pins on the alley! Out of 500 pins, my score was 461! Anyway, it's one of the many fun "training" games on the Wii! I'm sure we will play more tonight!

Wii Would Like To Play

Yes, we are playing a new game in our household. Today I was lucky enough to find 1 of about 7 Wii's in the entire country. We had a friend come over this weekend, and he brought his system. It was the first time Laura and I had a chance to play. It was the most fun we've had in a long time, and it was something that we could have fun together doing. Sure we have fun playing things like Guitar Hero, but we only have one guitar, so the other person is sitting and watching. Star Wars Lego's works, but you can only shoot each other so many times. So we decided to get active and get something that actually makes us move around. It is everything we remembered playing the other night, and then some. It'll be interesting once we get some more games. It did come with Wii Sports, which has boxing, baseball, tennis, golf and bowling. What a fun system this is. Only had it one night, and it has already paid for itself!

Big News

I have 2 big updates for everyone! The first is that we found out today that are permits have been in for 2 weeks (more bad communication with our builder) and the slab start day is today!!!! We are now talking to the "higher ups" within KB about the problems in communication with our sales associate. I wonder how long it would have been before they contacted us! Anyway, we are happy things have begun and are hoping that communication will improve from here on out! Immediately after I got off the phone with this gentleman I jumped in the car and drove to our plot and sure enough, there was a frame for the concrete pour with a huge pile of dirt in the middle. When I was there taking pictures a worker came on a tractor of sorts and began leveling the dirt! At this point things should start to go much faster! We'll probably drive by everyday now so we can keep up with what's going on! We will obviously keep all of you updated!

The second piece of news is that I got a new job! There are no opportunities for moving up at the zoo right now and I was having health problems too. In addition, they pay zookeepers so little that it was hard to justify staying when we are building a house and hope to start a family soon. Of course I love the zookeeping field and am going to have a real hard time leaving, but I know it's the right thing to do right now for us! I will be starting my new position as Communications Manager (basically an assistant manager) at Petco on the 14th!

Update...

I don't have much of an update, just some randomness I thought I would share.

We still don't have the permit for the house, but there are 11 coming in this week. We should be one of them! If that's the case, we'll have a meeting with the construction manager next week and things can get started. I've talked to a lot of people who say that they are not surprised that it is taking so long. "It's the city"... is the most common response I get.

On Sunday, Dave had this wonderful idea to plan out the whole day! We started by dropping Fenway off at a friend's house. It was kind of like taking our child to daycare for the first time...it was weird to leave him. Then we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see a temporary exhibit of Leonardo da Vinci! It was amazing! They had prints of his drawings and art and models of tons of his inventions! They were just incredible! All of them were way ahead of his time! It was fascinating! After walking around the rest of the museum we went to lunch at one of our favorite sandwich places, PotBelly Sandwich Works. I'm not sure where they are all located, but if you have one near you, you should definitely try it! Oh and their ice cream is to die for...so save room! After lunch, we went to the theater to see Juno. We've been meaning to see it for awhile. We really loved it! It had a great message, was very entertaining and flowed extremely well. The main actors were wonderful! I loved Ellen Page as the very believable character, Juno! It is an inspirational comedy! I recommend this movie highly! We will be adding it to our collection when it comes out! Following the movie, we went back to our friend's house to hang out for the rest of the night. We watched some tv, played a couple games, consumed some adult beverages and played with the 3 dogs (they have 2). It really was a wonderful day! Thank you honey for planning the whole thing!

Although Dave's birthday isn't for a few months, I wanted to treat him to something special and I have no choice but to give him his present early. I bought us tickets to a new show called, Walking with Dinosaurs. It is a live show at the Toyota Center in downtown Houston next week. I got tickets for the opening night! The show consists of life size dinosaurs and a ringmaster who guides you through the daily lives of dinosaurs, as well as the years of their existence. Dave has always been fascinated by dinosaurs and really enjoyed seeing them at the museum this weekend. I've been thinking about this as an option for his gift, but when I saw him staring up at the models of dinosaurs on Sunday with a look of amazement and this child like fascination, I knew it was the right gift. He chose to not be surprised, so I told him yesterday! Anyway, check it out and we'll let you know how it is after we see it next Wednesday.

Our Dirt is Still Just Dirt

Unfortunately, we have nothing to report on the new home! Why am I blogging about nothing you ask? Because we're incredibly FRUSTRATED!!! We are not doubting anything. We are still very happy with our decision, however, it is hard to stay excited when there is no progress. Let me explain...in mid-January we went to the studio and picked out all our features and upgrades for the house! It was tons of fun! After that was completed we were told that they could apply for the permits and then the building would start. The permit process was only going to take 2-3 weeks. Well, do the math...it is 6 weeks later and we are still waiting on our permits! It's not that they won't be approved, it's just that the city is bogged down with lots of permit requests right now. Or at least that's what we've been told. The builder is doing a better job at keeping us updated since we complained a couple weeks ago and they said that it shouldn't take more than another week or two. We'll see. So, to keep our excitement elevated we have started making some purchases for the house. We have picked our decorating themes for each room and bought several pictures for our new Antique French style bedroom and Naturally Organic living room and kitchen!!! We're pretty happy with how we think it will turn out. So, today we will be looking at paint! We want red for the bedroom and master bath, sage for the living room and kitchen and a very pale yellow for the downstairs powder room. All other rooms will stay white for now.
Well, cross your fingers that we get a permit soon!

Going bald

Boomer, the Siamang, may look innocent, but he has a very bad temper at times. He's a tricky animal to figure out. He's cuddly and lovey dovey one moment and the next he's ripping your hair out...literally! Yes, Boomer grabbed a handful of my hair and ripped it out at the roots! I have a small patch of hair missing right behind my bangs, and let me tell you...it hurt! Luckily, it's not that noticeable. Although, I have to say that I am a little worried about when it grows back and is spiky!!! :( Anyway, Boomer is a great animal and I don't blame him. Someone he doesn't like at all was in the vicinity and everyone figures he just took it out on me. I told him I was mad at him that day, but I've since forgiven him and have gone back to grooming him regularly. Hopefully, this was a one time deal...I will certainly be more cautious of the environment around me when I am near Boomer in the future. Bites, scratches and bruises come with the job...I've even had surgery once due to an animal injury; but this one is a first for me!

Wedding Album

After almost 8 months, we finally have our wedding album! The photographers mailed it earlier this week and I obsessed about tracking the package!!! I was very disappointed when it was running 2 days behind, but nonetheless we got it!!! It's huge and everything I ever dreamed! It's a perfect summary of the day and I can't wait to show all of you!

To Those of you who find it hard to make it through the work week...

http://www.glumbert.com/media/baddayoffice

Enjoy:)