So Jordan is officially back up in the air, and I am sitting here nervously waiting for a text or phone call to let me know that he is safely back on solid ground! I've passed the time with errands, cleaning, and a mani-pedi...but still no word. So I thought I'd keep my mind distracted and my worries at bay a bit longer by spending my time on another blog post.
I have started to settle in to my new routine with work, although that first 40 hour week was a rude awakening after being a housewife for the past year! However, so far, so good. I am collaborating on two projects with another designer that we started during my training phase: a pediatric dentist office and a beautiful home on the water on Padre Island. Last week, I officially finished my training phase and was allowed to really start. My first project fell in to my hands last Saturday, when I met a couple needing help designing a reception area/meeting room for their church, of all things! It's definitely an interesting contrast from my last job at Room Service, where the style was ultra-modern and my projects included designing miniature furniture for Paris Hilton's dogs to a club at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood and an exhibit at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum at the Venitian hotel in Las Vegas, to now in Texas, dentist offices and churches! However, I am loving being back in my element, learning and growing, and feeling productive again! It is so nice to be settled somewhere for longer than 6 months, so I can finally put down roots (shallow roots, but roots none the less) and bloom!
Speaking of blooming, I recently enlisted the help of my mom and my grandma to help with my garden situation here in Texas. One (of the many) annoying things about renting is that you inherit whatever landscaping, or lack there of, that the previous tenant left for you. And in our case that is a weed infested lawn, or perhaps realistically no lawn at all, just mowed down weeds to make it look like there is some form of grass! These weeds are the ones that produce those spikey stickers that I mentioned in my last blog which make it miserable for Gunnar to play outside or go to the bathroom-which has caused some frustrating accidents lately as the poor little guy tries to hold it as long as possible to avoid going outside in the grass. We literally find these stickers EVERYWHERE, as we appear to track them in on our shoes, pants and on my long dresses. In addition to our weed lawn, we had a very pathetic looking planter upon moving in. So after much research and the expert opinions of my mom and grandma Anna-Lee, I decided on a few heat-friendly plants to fill in the planter and mulched the area to finish it off. Well wouldn't you know it, but a week later we had a torrential rain! It only rained for about 2 hours, but it flooded EVERYTHING! I don't know the exact amount of inches, but our street turned into a river, flooding up the driveways to our front doors! The only way Jordan could drive home was by driving on the sidewalks! Well, that rain washed away all my mulch and drowned half my plants! Here are a few pictures before, after, and then the rain! If a hurricane makes it's way here this season, we are going to be in a world of hurt if this is what only 2 hours of rain produces:
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| Before |
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| Hibisucs Pink Lady |
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| Blue Daze ground cover |
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| Carnation Lantana |
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| And the rain begins... |
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| bye -bye mulch! |
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| Can you tell where the road ends, and the curb and sidewalk begin???? |
Since starting work I've made a point to make better use of my free-time here in Texas. Last Thursday, Jordan and I decided to rent a canoe and explore the bay and all the canals of Padre Island. We packed up a cooler and picnic supplies, loaded up the dog, and set off paddling in to the bay. We set off from the marina on base, and were planning on paddling out to a nearby island for a picnic lunch. Only about 5 minutes in to our trip, I thought I spotted a fin. I wrote it off as a piece of driftwood, thinking that I was most likely paranoid since I am the ultimate worrier. However, a few minutes later, it still
very much resembled a fin. At this point, I did not want to have a full on panic-attack, as having been a worry-wart my entire life, I knew I was probably still imagining the worst, and more than likely I would probably just make a complete fool out of myself freaking out and tip the canoe over, all over a piece of drift wood. So again, I told myself to just relax, and keep on paddling. Well that fin just kept on looking more and more like a fin and less like a piece of driftwood. To top it off, the fin was moving in a steady line towards us, never bobbing up and down under the water. I finally braved the embarassment of looking like a complete dork, and asked Jordan what he thought about that fin-shaped object about 10 ft from our boat. "Jordan, do you see that fin in the distance? Do you think it could be a shark? Should we turn around and paddle back to shore?????" Well Jordan's silence, and overly forced calmness put me in to FULL. PANIC. MODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was convinced...this WAS a shark, and he was going to bite our canoe, sink us, and eat me and my dog ( oh ya, and Jordan too)! Not that we could have paddled back to shore to escape the shark, as we were a very good distance from any sort of land at this point, but we were paddling as fast as we possibly could, thinking our efforts would in some way save us. Well right about the time where I was about to burst in to full on tears and last-chance prayers, we saw the arch of the back, below the fin, as the dolphin decided to bow up and down in the water, FINALLY revealing itself and sparing me from a full on meltdown! And before we knew it, our canoe was surrounded by 2-3 dolphins bobbing up and down in the water, as they tend to like to ride in the wake of ships and boats, not that we producing much of a wake in our little canoe! Well if I hadn't been so traumatized by panic, I would have pulled out my camera and taken a picture of this awesome experience, but I was too flustered to function at this point.We finally did make it to the island, and had a wonderful picnic lunch. We also enjoyed searching for shells, and watching Gunnar run and frolic freely, without the weedy, thorn-infested lawn pricking his paws!
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| NAS Corpus Christi is in the background |
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| Enjoying the day on our own private island |
Another "fun" Texas memory occured yesterday, on our 3rd anniversary. Jordan spent the whole day on Duty at the airport, where he had to log in and outbound planes at the military landing strip for 12 hours, so I had figured I'd just make dinner and we'd celebrate over the weekend, since he also had to study for his first flight the next day. However, after coming home, he told me to stop all dinner productions, and that he had plans. My sweet husband had ordered from Macaroni Grill, and planned an adorable picnic on the beach. After arriving at the beach, we began to set up our blanket and picnic; however, the wind was starting to pick up. Jordan, tapped in to his geography major weather knowledge, and attempted to analyze the wind pattern, the principles of wind and the windspeed and whether it would increase or decrease coming over the dunes, in the hopes he could outsmart mother nature and pick out a better location for our picnic. So we relocated to a spot between two dunes, and positioned our umbrella strategically to block the wind and sand. Well as soon as we set up, the wind decided to change directions on us, so we packed up and we relocated again. The wind gradually started picking up speed, and before we knew it, we found ourselves in the midst of a full on sandstorm. Sand was whipping in to us from every single direction, it was impossible to find any sort of shelter from the dunes or the umbrella. I was so appreciative of Jordan's thoughtful gesture that I didn't want to laugh at the situation or suggest ending the picnic early because of the weather, he was trying so hard to make this work; however, it was becoming evident that this was just an impossible situation. After testing out a few more spots, Gunnar and I were literally curled up in balls, blocking our eyes from the intense sand storm that had developed.
So the end of our anniversary story is, we found a cute little clapboard house that had been turned in to a museum, and used it as a shelter from the wind, and set up picnic there. It was perfect! I couldn't have asked for a more special dinner together! As a third year anniversary gift, we both struggled with ideas, especially because at this point we have spent 9 years of birthdays, christmas, valentine's days and anniversarys together, that we were officially out of gift ideas. After googling the traditional wedding gift for 3 years, we discovered it was leather. So being here in Texas as we are, and sharing our 3rd year anniversary together here, we decided to buy eachother an authentic pair of REAL cowboy boots! Cavenders is our local Texas go-to shop here in Corpus Christi, and boots are no joke, they run 200-1200 dollars, and are adorned with everything from Texas A&M logos to ostrich and gator skin! These Texans are serious about their boots. And although we will defintely be on the lower spending range for our boots, we thought it would be a great way to remember and commerate our 3rd year anniversary here in Texas. I'll have to update YA'LL with pictures when we go to pick them out!
Sooooooo... Jordan has finally returned home ...after nearly 4 hours, and he looks like he has been hit by a bus. He is covered in sweat, his eyes are unfocused, and he looks a little nauseaus. Despite all of that, he said it was "awesome." It was only his first flight, so normally the instructors take the stick and do most of the flying so the guys can just get the feel of the new aircraft and it's speeds. Well, while up in the air, Jordan asked to do rolls, loops and other acrobatics! He pulled nearly 4.5 Gs. He didn't black out or lose his lunch ( as many people do on their first flight-even without the acrobatics and pulling Gs!). So while he may certainly be certifiably crazy, he may have also made a great first impression on his grading instructor!
My handsome hubby in the T-34
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| Looking motivated pre-flight! |
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| Post first flight: a little nauseous and a little bit disoriented. but always loving it and smiling! |
More details on his flight to come on the next blog, for now I need to go catch up with my Marine and take notes on how it went (so I can report to all of you)!
