Laboring

My Labor Day weekend labors:

Finally decorating the guest bathroom. It may have been the first functional room in the house, but it has been the slowest to feel really decorated. I decided to go with flow blue accents, hopefully in a hip-chick way as opposed to the grandma's-house-with-doilly-accents way. Ross also labored on this...more than he intended due to my incompetence with shelf hanging.

No hubby for dinner tonight so it was my very first at-home shrimp cooking! Scampi over angel hair pasta; well-cooked as far as the shrimp goes but not too flavorful. Ended up adding alfredo sauce.

 

And to promote another kind of labor, business cards to get my freelance writing going a little more. I ordered them a decade ago it feels like but they finally arrived this weekend.

Oh yes, and Ross is doing the old-fashioned kind of labor: at his job. First 24-hour shift at GFD. I can't wait to hear all about it tomorrow!

Ross in the News

An email from the chief told us this picture will be used in an upcoming article about the new class of probational firefighters. We're not sure which publication it will be in (my guess is the Williamson County Sun) but if we do figure out which one, we'll let you know.

at GFD training

Start at 3

Ross is the absolute baby in his family. No cousins to speak of (some estranged but nobody close like my 13), no younger siblings, nothing. Thus he has always had a sort of fear of kids.

We've always been very clear: we will have our own children. That doesn't mean kids don't freak him out though. They totally do. He hasn't the faintest idea what to do with them. Hold a baby? No way. Change a diaper? Only with an SCBA mask. Play with them? How??

Yesterday we party-hopped for football games and he headed to round 2 before me. I called for directions and out of nowhere he says "Hey, I like kids."

HUH? What?? What do kids have to do with which street light I turn at?

Turns out round 2, which was his closer group of friends (round 1 was mine) ended up including more kiddos than ever this weekend. I never really think of this bunch as having kids but I suppose that's wrong. Two of the guys have their little girls every other weekend, and one of those (Nick) has a new baby (Blake) with is wife (Kristi), another couple has a three year old but who is usually with grandma-babysitter for parties and another couple who I don't know as well apparently has two with one on the way. And all these kids were at yesterday's football festivities.

Usually this would make Ross run for the hills. He just doesn't know what to do, poor guy. But there was no running for the hills this week! The two first grade girls apparently leached onto him when he arrived. And the three year old followed suit like a good younger child. Apparently at one point he had a child in each arm and one attached to his leg. Like everyone's favorite uncle. I wish I had pictures!

And you know what - he liked it. He said it was fun. And he was head over heels for little Madison (the three year old). Late in the night he even tried to put her in bed to a movie...she told him no and being inexperienced with kids, he didn't have a reubttal so she won. God help us if we have a daughter as cute as her. Ross will be a goner!

Right now he's hoping we can have kids who just start at three years old. (I don't know who he thinks will birth him this three year old.)

To go from being scared of kids to liking them at ages 3+ is a big step. I mean we may be on the road to him even liking newborns by the time we get around to having our own. Kiddos 1, Ross 0.

My Baby's a B

This is once in my life where I am so glad he got a B and not an A. SO GLAD.

And obviously I mean B shift. Yup, today finished up his four weeks of training and he was assigned his shift at GFD. He begins in B shift starting Monday. This is excellent because it means for 2010 he is off on our anniversary, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Eve.

Initially I was going to immediately book a night in Horseshoe Bay for our anniversary but when I went online to do such today, they had increased their rates. It was already the very top of our price range, especially since we've renewed our commitment to visit Gramma in Tennessee this year, so a rate hike just put it over the top.

If you remember, Horseshoe Bay was going to be 2010 vaca #2 but like I mentioned now we are committed to Tennessee thus that is vaca #2. Our anniversary is back to the more traditional and initially expected plan of things in Austin. We're thinking massages and a surf-n-turf dinner out, maybe on the lake. But no matter what, the good news is Ross is off for our first wedding anniversary! Hurray!

(Note: It was only recently that the idea of him having to work on that day even came to me. I must admit, I spent a few days really praying that would not be the case. In all the sacrifices I figured I would have to make as a firefighter's wife - Christmas, birthdays, Thanksgivings, general MIAness - never did being alone on our first wedding anniversary cross my mind. I am REALLY happy I'll be able to spend it with him.)

Now the plan this week is to inquire about PTO for a November trip to Tennessee, pick a weekend to go to Houston to see Kevin before he leaves for boot camp and draw straws for which holiday we'll do in Houston and which we'll do in Austin. What a happy, busy fall!

S'more Money Please

School in and around Austin started the middle of last week. Thus everyone is back in town now and they've finished the first day of school madness. Everyone...including prospective sponsors.

This week alone S'more Soiree brought in $5,750. Actually in less than a week, in just Tuesday-Thursday. What a week!

All those big bucks also meant a personal milestone for me. I have now brought in more than my annual salary in donations and grants. That's a big deal since it really proves I am worth my weight in gold...and happened during the notoriously slow summer fundraising months.

I'm pretty pleased with our revenue right now and I expect it to only grow. After all, everyone is home from vacation and back into the real world. The next 8-9 months ought to be very busy and full of funding for Central Texas' best girl leadership programs. I'll keep you updated. Or better yet, why don't you update me through an old-fashioned donation.

Side Note
For the second day in a row a whole slew of neighborhood kids stopped by the house just now to take Lexi on a walk. They are so fun and energetic! Lexi loves the extra attention. And yesterday, haha I laugh just thinking about it, one of them, who I hadn't met before said "you're young" and I thought she was talking about Lexi so I said "yeah she's about two and a half." The girl looks at me and says "No. YOU'RE young." The funny little kid caught me off guard...and of course Ross wanted to know why nobody said he was young. Just call him Old Man Black he said. Hehe.

Blog-plosion

Like Anna, I've become increasingly "into" blog reading. And I have to say, my amigas are doing a great job at feeding the need. All in the past week new blogs have exploded out into the blog-o-sphere. Here they are...

Bloggers & Bridesmaids,
Val & Brittany

• Challenging Mind & Body by Val is her adventure in exercise of the physical and law school kinds. And it all happens in Seattle, which is my fav part.
• The Beauty Nut by Brittany chronicles her never-ending hunt for the perfect beauty products, techniques and inspiration. If you eye eyeshadow or lust for lipstick, this is for you.
• Red River Romance by Brittney, a Romeo and Juliette anaology. Brittney's UT loyalty is to Chad's OU loyalty as the Montagues are to the Capulets. Oh yeah, and she's moved from H-town to Little Rock to be with the enemy.
• Pflugerville Pflag is...oh you can probaby guess, is shameless promotion by yours truly to follow the maiden voyage of my career in journalism.

Happy blogging!