First Fruits/Job Hunt Update

Our garden is really starting to take off! Here's the first of the zucchini and the tomatoes. (They are supposed to be yellow, but they taste the same as regular cherry tomatoes.) We are going to have tomatoes up to the ceiling judging from how many green ones are on the vines. We got a grand total of four strawberries, but I think that the freeze we had the weekend right after we put in the plants did them in pretty well and I'm amazed we got any at all. Our cantaloupe vines look like we're going to get some cantaloupe, but nothing yet! The weeding has been insane; we can't keep up. Next year will be better. I'm going to try a method I read about in Momma's Guide to Growing Your Own Groceries, which involves covering the garden with newspapers and putting a special black tarp for plants over it.



I am still applying for jobs, but have yet to hear from anyone yet. I'm applying for technical writing positions (not many are out there so far), administrative assistant type jobs, and college level teaching jobs. I've also been looking for editing jobs, but the only one I've seen has not called me back yet, and it was so long ago that I applied, I doubt that they will. Oh well.

Pinky Pig Picture

You lookin' at me?

Libby's Wedding: A Picture Entry

We just got back from Libby and Chris's wedding in Hereford, TX. It was really fun, and we enjoyed staying at the Bed and Breakfast in Amarillo! I'll be doing B&B pictures in another entry- here's some of the wedding ones!

I thought that this was a good picture of Dad and Melanie!

Some of the decorations
Melanie and her finance, Ben.
The cake was pretty- and yummy too!
Kirk and I

Coming Soon: The Bathroom Makeover!

We're in the process of taking down the lovely frog wallpaper the previous owners of our home put up. Let me say this: I will never, EVER put up wallpaper of any kind. It's pretty, but it is way to big of a pain in the butt to take down!

Other news: Cathy is looking for jobs again and has a job interview on Tuesday. It's not a job she's terribly excited about (it's at another bank- eh) but it is the first job interview she's gotten since interviewing with Molly Maids, where they balked at the college degrees. If this bank job pays well enough, I may take it just to get out of the house and earn a bit of money while I keep applying for better jobs. It pays a lot more than teaching college classes part time, that's for sure. I've also applied for a few editing and technical writing jobs, but have yet to hear from those people yet.

Lastest Yard Sale Find: Plant Stand

I have been waiting for a plant stand to dress up the front porch. I also found the wooden plant boxes at a yard sale awhile back, and had been trying to grow some flowers in them from seed. It was not working so well, so when I saw the flat of flowers for ten bucks sale at a local nursery, I bought them and set up the front porch with tons of petunias.

The Long Awaited Wedding Post

I (Cathy) spent last weekend in Maryland at the wedding of her friends from grad school. James and I shared an office when we taught at the University of Northern Colorado, and Carrie had the office down the hall.

I got there on Thursday, and would have made it to the rehearsal if I had not gotten off on the wrong exit and spent the next hour touring Baltimore. I think I'm meant to be lost in Baltimore, as the last time I was there (July 1999) I got horribly lost with Justin. At least this time I had a car with me, and it was not raining.

Anyway, I finally got to my hotel and made it to the very end of the rehearsal dinner at Carrie's parent's house. (Carrie lives in Alabama now where James is working on his Ph.D at Auburn.) It is one of the most beautiful houses I've seen- right out of Country Living or something. Very pretty!

On Friday we went to Washington, DC. I drove the group to College Park, MD where we hopped on the Metro to DC. I love subways. If I lived in a place with more reliable public transportation, I would take it everywhere. It was nice to not have to deal with parking (they had a park and ride lot at the station in College Park) and it ran every few minutes. It was also very inexpensive! Once in DC, we went to the National Zoo, and we were going to go hang out on the mall, but the zoo took to long. We met Carrie's college roommate at a really yummy pizza restaurant called Matchbox.

Here are some of the zoo pictures:

Carrie petting a statue of some lizard thing.

They had pandas!

This is the tallest escalator in the US. You can't really tell how very, very tall it is.

Everything else after Friday was getting ready for the wedding. On Saturday we all had our nails done, and Carrie did a practice run on her hair. The salon does wedding stuff on Saturdays, and it was fun! It included bagels and champagne. Also, we were forced to wear veils and be photographed.



It was a pretty busy day, and I did not sleep well that night, because my hotel caught on fire. It was about 2 AM, and I was dreaming that my house was on fire and nobody was doing anything about it. In my dream, the fire alarm went off. I woke up, and realized that it was not my dream...it was my alarm clock! After a few moments of batting at my alarm clock and trying to turn it off, I realized that it was the real fire alarm! I got up, put on my PJ pants and the easiest pair of shoes to deal with, which happened to be my wedding shoes. I got my purse and cell phone, and even remembered my key to the room, and left. I was not worried. This hotel had a kitchen and I figured that somebody had burned some microwave popcorn or something. That was often the culprit for fire alarms in college. After a few minutes of hanging around on the lawn and watching the fire trucks screech up, I started to think it might be more than popcorn. First of all, I could smell smoke! Second, there was a bloody guy with his shirt wrapped around his head. He had jumped out his second story window! Later I found out that the fire was on the third floor, so I have no idea why he did that. The EMT's took him off pretty quick.

I realized that I had my purse, keys, cell phone...but I had left my bridesmaid dress upstairs. About this time, the sprinklers went off in the hotel. We could see the windows getting wet on the third floor. My heart just about stopped. I had a vision of telling Carrie I could not be in her wedding because my gown got ruined by water and smoke damage! We stood on the lawn for about an hour and a half, and were finally let back in...except third floor guests. The third floor was wrecked because of the sprinklers. Luckily I was on the second floor, so my dress was saved. I was very tired and had to be up early the next day for my hair appointment, but at least my stuff (and I was) okay.

The wedding was on Sunday at one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Because of my bridesmaid duties, I did not get very many pictures, but here are a few of them:

Carrie's dress from behind. I love the colored sash! If you look to the left, the girl in the yellow dress is one of the other bridesmaids. The dress was really cute.

Carrie and James were really good at dancing!
Carrie and James


A terribly unflattering picture of me, but it's the only one I have. I wish my hair were more in the picture- it was really cute. It only required 32 bobby pins and about a gallon of hairspray!

Beautiful (and YUMMY!) cake.

James and Carrie trying their wedding cake.

It was a lot of fun, but it is good to be home!