I got a job! I got a job! I got a job! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!!

So, it really is all about who you know! My friend Jessy and I have been having/trying to have weekly dinners for roughly the past year. Well at our last dinner, Jessy mentioned that her job might be looking for someone new for an accounts receivable, entry level position, and I mentioned that I would be very interested. The next day, she verified with her boss that they were hiring and told me to send her my resume....which I did (on a Friday). I got a text message from Jessy at 9am Monday morning asking if I could come in for an interview that afternoon! The interview went VERY VERY well. The woman interviewing me, Jenise, even mentioned the possibility of me writing policies and procedures for them once I know them! I'll get to use my degree!! At the end of the interview, Jenise told me that if her boss approved of the payment offer, then she would call me that afternoon, at the latest tomorrow (Tuesday). I got the call Tuesday afternoon!! I HAVE A JOB!! I start on the 14th...put my notice in at Michael's about 30 minutes ago :) I will have holidays off and will not have to work Black Friday (Take THAT Brent! That's what you get for laughing about me working black friday) I will have a consistent work schedule...Full Time, 9 hour days M-Th and half days (out at 11:30) on Fridays...I'm STOKED!!!

In other news, Brent may be going to see P. Sherman at 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney AUSTRALIA at the beginning of next year. Softlayer has this program called "Go Live" which is where they send guys all over the world to open Data Centers in other countries. Currently they have people in Singapore and Amsterdam and after Australia they are going to Brasil. If Brent goes to Sydney, I will be taking a week vacation to go visit him...and I'll have a job that pays me real money (not in Trident Layers) so I'll be able to afford it! He's going to decide on going to Brasil based on what city Softlayer is sending them to. The only reason I'm agreeing to this trip is because he will be working 10+ hour days, 6 days a week on a regular paycheck and getting a per dium for every day he's there, given to him as a giant lump sum when he gets back. We will be OUT of the credit card hole 100%. And we'll still have money left over to put towards our wedding, which will hopefully be happening at the end of next year, if all this financial stuff plays out the way its looking like it will.

Since it's the beginning of November, I'm going to tell some stories that I'm especially thankful for.

Monday, I took the boys trick-or-treating...forgot how slow they walk! but we were out for about an hour and a half so they got some exercise....to get some candy....:) I love my boys! Every time its time for me to leave and I go to tell them goodbye, they are always genuinely disappointed..Neil's most common response: "Oh, sorry Emma. You're not going home. You're staying here" :) I love that they want me around all the time! I'm so glad we have such an awesome relationship!

Last week was the World Series, and the Rangers were there for the second year in a row! I got to watch games 4, 5, and 6 with dad. Feels like our relationship is almost back to normal after last year and I am extremely thankful for that.

Ever since Brent and I moved out of Joshua's, he texts me random Saturday mornings and asks if we want to get breakfast, or lunch...depending on how long Josh slept. I can still remember the days when Josh and I would go to any lengths to get each other in trouble. I remember that we genuinely did NOT like each other. I love the changes in our relationship and that my big brother is one of my friends that I hang out with instead of someone I can't stand.

Yesterday, I got a call from my big sister, just to catch up. I miss her, and wish that she lived closer, so we could hang out and play guitar hero or something together. But I love that even though we are forever apart, we're still friends and can talk on the phone with each other for 45 min to an hour and still have stuff to say.

Its only November 2nd so I'm going to save more for later in the month. Now I'm off to spend the day with Brent's sister, who treats me like a sister :) yet another thing I'm grateful for - being a part of his family and being treated like part of his family. On facebook, Melody is listed as my sister-in-law and his mom listed me as her daughter-in-law :) I love that my family is so huge!!

The next person to get engaged is no longer my friend...

So! News News News!

I'm no longer working at DHS Literary. David was unable to find room in his budget to hire me on as a paid employee and Dad and Marina needed someone to watch the boys, for multiple reasons, so I'm hanging out with Neil and Nivio for the rest of their summer. This was the first week we hung out and we went swimming EVERY day except Friday...I even think they went on Saturday with the whole fam. And, I taught Nivio how to play The Game of Life and Clue, and we put together a 3-d Castle Puzzle..totally wicked! He's now addicted to both Life and Clue...[I just got back from Dad's where Marina, Nivio and I played 2 rounds of clue (I won the first round, Marina the second b/c Nivio gives SO many clues about his cards), an hour and a half long game of Uno (which Nivio won...he learned how to do a poker face pretty good) and a game of spades.] Neil LOVES to go swimming..he bobs around in and out of the water blowing bubbles and sliding around the edge of the pool, though he does spend some time actually swimming. He has also taken to making lists on his iTouch and making you read them out loud such as:

1. spongebobs bc

2. spongebobs home

3. spongebobs color patties

4. patrick's mom & dad

5. planktons

Not sure if I have the list completely correct, but thats the gist....I think I missed a couple. Tuesday will be his last day of summer school, so while he's at school I'm going to bake cupcakes for Marina's birthday and when he gets home, we will decorate them!! I'm bringing over white vanilla, red vanilla, and, of course, chocolate icing to put on her triple fudge chocolate cupcakes. I'm also bringing a bunch of my cake decorating stuff, like sugar spray paint and sprinkles and fondant/royal icing flowers, marshmallows, and chocolate chips for them to use in decorating. I think it will be totally awesome. Dad also gave me some money to take them to Walmart to pick out presents and cards for Marina, since he'll be in Odessa. I'm pretty sure Mamae will cry :)

Next on the list: Jennifer and Timothy got engaged...I know I already kind of told you this, but here's the full story. They met back in high school when he and I "dated" (if you can really call it that since we did nothing different from when we were friends except hold hands...dad called him gay b/c he'd never kissed me...lol) Then they were reintroduced in October at my Halloween party...Jen was helping me host it and Timothy was invited to come, and did. Her reaction when he left was "When did Timothy get so hot??" Silly girl. So I figured, since they were both complaining to me constantly about their single-ness, that I would get them together more often and encourage a NICMO partnership (thanks for the use of your word Meag). However, knowing both of them, I knew they'd agree to it, but not be able to use each other like that and it blossomed into a relationship. I did not expect for it to progress so quickly though. They started dating in March? and Jen decided to get baptized at the beginning of June. Then he proposed the day before her birthday (July 23). Their wedding date is now set for Oct. 7th. She and I did wedding errands yesterday - Took her rings to be resized, bought his band, went dress shopping and got her wedding gown, got the alterations started, picked out MOH and bridesmaid dresses and bought mine (I'll be wearing red with a brown ribbon and the bridesmaids will be wearing brown with red ribbon) then we went to the venue she'd picked out for the reception and took a look and her parents put a deposit down. Now I'm just waiting on addresses so I can send out bridal shower invitations for Aug 18th. Busy Busy Busy (PS> I sent that same picture of me wearing Jen's ring to dad and when I said I was jk he said "Ah man!"....:) )

Next:I know you don't care, but this morning, Brent and I were looking up catering and rental costs for our wedding (tentatively set for Aug 24, 2012 to give us a goal to save towards)...mostly b/c so far Jen's wedding is getting close to $10k and she's not done with preparations...so we're looking at how much we need to save. Granted, our venue will be free, not $6k, but I will definitely not be able to visit you in Utah any time soon. Sorry!

Finally, Brent's sister Melody will be induced at 7am tomorrow!! BABY LIAM!! I'm so stoked to have another baby to play with! I've been playing with Piper's baby brother Beckett (ADORABLE! They even sleep in the same positions!) so I'm definitely getting my baby fix! Now I just need a puppy!!

T-Minus 4 Days!

SO excited!! We are finally moving on Friday. Not that I don't love Josh and Sarah, they're awesome. BUT I do not love living with them. AND Jennifer will be moving in two buildings down in July!

Also, I started an internship with DHS Literary last Tuesday, and it could not be more perfect for me! I'm surrounded by books every day, even if they aren't genres I usually read, and get to communicate with publishers and authors! My boss even gave me a manuscript to read and make notes on. Finished it...it wasn't that good, but its awesome because he genuinely thinks my comments and suggestions are not only valid, but really good! Hopefully this will lead to a paid position sooner than later, but who knows..fingers crossed eh?

Anyway, thats all thats new with me though...love you Meag!

RIP My Sweet Boy

So in a month of really crappy days, today was, by far, the worst. I had to have my sweet sweet Hudson put down this morning because for the last two weeks the leukemia he had from birth decided to attack his bone marrow. This prevented his body from producing enough red blood cells to provide oxygen to his organs, so he was anemic and starting to have trouble breathing. He also contracted lymphoma, which is a cancer that attacks the white blood cells and it manifested on his skin. The vet said that he may have always had the lymphoma b/c he was always obsessively grooming himself, which is one of the most commonly overlooked symptoms.

In exactly 1 week he went from 8.5lbs to 7.1lbs because he stopped eating and became extremely lethargic, sitting on top of the fridge for hours on end. By this morning, he was no longer my Hudson. He used to run to me as soon as he heard my voice and as he got sicker, he started to just meow to let me know where he was. The last two-three days, he didn't even look up when I walked up to him.

I'm so grateful he's not suffering any longer, but I already

miss him so much. I miss him jumping in the shower with me or playing in the water while I'm doing the dishes. I miss wrapping him in a towel and cuddling with him for hours. I miss him jumping in the fridge and the dishwasher or sitting on the entertainment center and watching TV. I miss him following me around everywhere I go. I miss the 10:00 wrestling matches he had with Juno every night like clockwork. I miss him attacking my feet under the covers when I get in bed.

I miss my baby :(

Maybe my degree was worth getting after all...

Mom was able to be here for my graduation, Christmas, New Year's AND my 23rd birthday! AND in about 6 months or so, she will be moving from the cold and dreary, but beautiful Alaska to the great and wonderful, though unbearably hot at times, Texas! Couldn't be more excited! While she was here, we learned that Juno and Hudson are not fond of dogs, especially a 6 month old wookie puppy who thinks that Hudson's growls are an invitation to play.

Speaking of Juno and Hudson, they will be going to live with Brent's mom for a couple months because we are moving in with Joshua to save up some money and get ourselves out of this hole that me not having a job has put us in. Can't believe how amazing Brent has been with all of this crap. I'm so lucky! I have felt like the biggest loser failure because I hardly contribute even a little money to our bills/rent/even my own car and he is constantly reassuring me that everything will be fine and my not working as much to focus on school was worth it. How lucky am I that I was able to do that and he encouraged me in it? even if it did put us about 10 feet under.

I'm also so thankful my relationship with Josh has changed so drastically! At one point, we had trouble staying under the same roof and now he has, very generously, opened up his home to us. Should be interesting with him and Sarah and their 4 dogs and 3 cats. I would bring Hudson and Juno with us, but they don't take kindly to other animals. Even if they did, their Leukemia is contagious. Even a vaccinated cat has a 20% chance of catching it if they so much as share the same litter box. LAME.

Now I can't wait to move, not only to save some money, but to get out of this god awful apartment. The problems started with 3+ gallons of water falling from our upstairs bathroom ceiling when the AC leaked. Then the apartment started shifting so bad we have a place upstairs that LITERALLY drops an inch when stepped on and it feels like we are walking down a hill to go to the closet or downstairs bathroom. THEN the stovetop stopped working because of faulty wiring. THEN they tried to evict us for non payment because their system screwed something up. Then, the cherry on top, a couple days ago, our downstairs toilet FLOODED the bathroom and the lower half of the living room (due to the terrible foundation problems, the water stayed up against the wall). The bathroom had over 2 inches of water because some pipe plugged up while our neighbor was taking a shower. UGH!!! Now our whole downstairs smells like mildew and the bathroom floor is completely bubbled. Good thing we didn't have to pay a deposit on the apartment, and the pet deposit was Hannah's money anyway for taking the cat for her.

OH WELL. We will be moving soon enough. for now though, I need to get back to cleaning up some stuff...want to start packing SO badly...because Jennifer is coming over to help me study this Chicago stuff.

Love you Meag!

Punctuation Saves Lives: "Lets eat Grandma" / "Lets eat, Grandma"

So there are only 5 weeks left of my college career. cannot flipping wait for december 18th at 7:00pm!!! I bought my cap and gown last week - its black and i have yellow honors cords...b/c my curriculum gpa is above 3.7 :). this semester is surprisingly not as difficult as i had first anticipated.

my senior seminar is a mega interesting class because its about food, literature, and culture and i'm a total nerd and absolutely LOVE food and find the study of food and literature/culture immensely interesting. which is why i attended all of the lectures of the uta english department hermanns lecture series this year, as well as being selected to be part of a special undergraduate course with rick bayless, a famous mexican chef. my favorite part of that class was that he's not just some chef who loves to cook; he went to mexico originally to write his dissertation for an anthropology master's degree and fell in love with the food. he says that his first cookbook authentic mexican (the one i actually have) is his dissertation. it's amazing. i've never read a cookbook like it before. he includes the cultural background to he dish as well as different ways you can prepare the ingredients. i made his tortilla soup a couple weeks ago and its AMAZING! anyway, all we do in that class is read and then discuss the readings...the most common conversation gravitates around cannibalism...which is a very highly debated topic...ask if you want more info on that :). currently we are reading a book called the omnivore's dilemma which is all about food production in america...its very interesting and kind of makes me not want to eat anything i didn't grow ever again...

my young adult literature class is ridiculously remedial. it is a 4000 level course, which means it should be challenging and should have prereq courses; however, apparently they let anyone in. the professor teaches the class like a sophomore level course and if this wasn't my last semester, or if i was just wanting to graduate and get it over with and didn't actually want to learn something then i wouldn't be so disappointed. as it is though, i tend to like being intellectually stimulated and i can literally feel my brain turn to mush in that class. all we do is read a book, take a plot quiz, do character analysis on EVERY character in the book, and then discuss surface level questions about the books. all in one day so there's not even the possibility of going any deeper into possible theory on the texts. no wonder young adult lit has no theory or canon...no one studies one book long enough to develop any real ideas! to give you some sense of the class, i will give you an example. as you know, all young adult novels are "coming of age" novels. one day in class, while discussing a separate peace, one of my classmates, who is a communications major and thinks that means she needs to narrate the class, randomly said, as if she was having an epiphany: "OHH so this is a coming of age novel??" no duh. AND the professor reviews for class by watching the movies and its sooo obvious by the stuff she brings up in class about plot summary...either it didn't happen in the book or it happened totally different!

my two history classes are good though: World Civilization and Ancient Greece, both taught by the same professor. he's one of my fav's cause he's very entertaining. he's a funny old man who parts his hair in the middle. the only thing i dont enjoy about those classes is that each of them has a guy that won't leave me alone. they both sit behind me (one in each class) and ask me stupid questions or for my notes or just jabber about nothing at all. whatever.

i have decided that "things" is a lot more fun to play with people you know. we played it at the halloween party last weekend and no one really knew each other that well, so it took forever. BUT we played it last night at timothy's and we all knew each other or at least knew the type of person that every one was...so it was a lot of fun...i almost died laughing.

i have also decided to start knitting. trying to learn more than just the basic knit stitch, but its rather difficult and i think everything i make for christmas will just be a boring solid thing. once i get that down perfectly perhaps i will attempt again to try a design. i actually ruined a good 30-40 rows that i had finished because i wanted to try a pattern and totally screwed it up. oh well...just gotta start over i guess.

i'm sooo excited for the rest of this year!!! a TON of really good looking movies are coming out this month including flipping HARRY POTTER!!!! could not be more excited, unless of course my sisters were here to go to the midnight showing with me like we did last year. but it will be awesome anyway. and i just realized i get to see it before meaghan!!! wooohooo!!! yay for different time zones :) .

december will be AWESOME too! not only do i graduate but my mom is coming to stay for a while. she will get here on the 12th and so far will not be leaving until the 7th of january. she'll be here for graduation, christmas, new years, AND my birthday! :D. i honestly don't remember the last time i spend any of those holidays with my mom. :/ so this year will be extra awesome.

but along with graduation comes the end of school and the end of my current job and the desperate need for an actual job. i interviewed with bank of america this past week, but the other applicant had 15 years experience, which i do not have. but the interview was a good experience and they sent my resume to their communications department so hopefully i'll get a call from them sometime this week *fingers crossed* other than that i will be sending out my resume to anyone who will take it in the hopes that i will get some kind of well paying job.

of course i can't post without an update for my sweet kitten :). currently he's about 6 or so months...dont feel like counting right now. and he's about 2/3 the size of his momma. i think she's gaining weight, but i can't be sure because i'm seeing her compared to Hudson. it has become the popular consensus that both of my cats act like dogs. at the halloween party last weekend there were roughly 10-14 people there and while we were in a circle playing "things" both cats were in the middle of the circle sniffing people out. juno got bored and went to sleep on her tower, but hudson was playing around the whole night. most typical cats would run and hide until all the people were gone, but they both let random strangers hold and pet them no problem...well juno did at least...hudson didn't let anyone hold him, but he let people pet him as he was walking by :). got to get that boy fixed soon though...i'm afraid he might start spraying what he thinks is "his property" in the apartment. speaking of spraying though, juno has only peed outside her litter box when she was pregnant, and i'm pretty sure that was because she didn't make it, or the box was way dirty...its amazing how different she is living here compared to what she was living at my dad's. she couldn't go a week without peeing on a bed or a couch there, and here she's only peed on bathroom rugs twice. oh and the bed once cause we weren't home one night. anyway, the point is, i'm proud of her improvement..i think she's just genuinely happy here...not getting locked in closets or zipped into comforter bags when she's not being ignored.

anyway...lots of exciting things coming up...i will keep you updated :) - love you meaghan :D!

Last semester...last semester...last semester

So today marks the true beginning of my last ever semester of college! While I'm extremely excited to be completing my college career, I can already tell that this semester is not going to be completed with the relative ease as the others. I have realized that any amount of procrastination on my part will result in me becoming dramatically left behind in both of my English courses. I've only been to each class once and already I've had to read a long tediously boring article that put me to sleep three times before I finally finished it, about 100 pages for Wednesday's class (the rest of the book to be finished by Monday), and have to finish a short (190 page) novel by Thursday. That's just for this week and it doesn't slow down until the end. Between my two history classes and my two english classes, I have to have 24 books, only 2 of which I already have. I was telling Joshua today that I'm going to just have to keep telling myself its my "last semester" and hopefully I don't end up in the back of my closet rocking back and forth muttering "last semester...last semester...last semester" under my breath. :)
In other news, Hudson has finally realized that the bed is for sleeping on, not for attacking me at all hours of the night. Another "finally," Juno has been spayed!! She currently has a cone on her head that made Hudson react with quite a bit of hostility when she first came home from the vet. Now, however, he is used to the cone and she has earned a few hours without it every day, so long as she doesn't lick/bite at her stitches. She will get the cone taken off permanently when she has the stitches taken out on Friday. She's already showing signs that she's a new cat (sleeping on the bed, coming as soon as she's called, cuddling every time I'm sitting on the couch, and wanting to be close to either Brent or myself every time we're around). Hudson is a very sweet and adventurous kitten. He only scratches on accident or when he gets carried away while playing. Only cries when he gets himself stuck somewhere and needs help getting out, or just when he wakes up to figure out where everyone is hanging out.
Well, either my life is really boring because it consists of school and two cats, or I'm really tired and can't think of anything else to talk about...I'm hoping it's the second instance. But for now, I'm going to bed. Goodnight Meaghan :)