Yes, I’m back from my leave of absence for now! And life is good. I’ll take what I can get.

Since I’ve been gone I took a trip to Tulsa with the college choir. It was… rough. We were all ready to come home. I’ll share pictures of the awesome zoo we went to though, later!

While I was gone, Jason bought drywall for the living room. A while back we tried to paint the uuugglyyyy wood paneling that covered our walls but it was so old it started bubbling and peeling back so we (read: Jason) took a chance and ripped it down. I was pleasantly surprised to find recycled wood underneath! There were all different colors and textures. Sadly, in some places water had taken its toll and it was rotting. In addition there was a layer of a cheesecloth type fabric nailed EVERYWHERE underneath the paneling. We tried as hard as we could to get the leftover strings off the wall to no avail. SO! While I was gone Jason drywalled 3/4 of the living room. IT. LOOKS. AWESOME. It’s actually turning into a room now!

We have a really neat mantel and wooden trim everywhere. We’re going to paint it white and eventually paint the walls a light gray/blue. As of now we only have a futon my in-laws gave us from our wedding registry. Unfortunately, sitting on it for 30 minutes or more will make your bum/legs numb. We plan on using our tax refund for a flippin’ awesome couch and a dishwasher because ours smells like burnt rubber when we run it. Yikes!

just a little picture for you to oogle at. 🙂

In a matter of weeks I graduate with an Associate of Arts degree. (Vocal performance.) THANKFULLY, so many of my friends are going to UT Tyler in the fall, too! (SHOUTOUT! Randa, Preston, Kait, and Austin!!!) I’m so excited for a break from all of this madness. I seem to be so absent-minded lately. I have a concert next Thursday and a huge Theory project due that same day. Wheeeew.

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If you don’t already know, we live in a house owned by the school where Jason works. We don’t pay rent, by the grace of God. But with that awesomeness comes a little suck-ness. i.e.: Since the spring has arrived, our big yard has grown. A lot. We don’t own a mower. Before we got married the maintenance staff mowed it with their tractor because the bus barn/maintenance place is literally in our backyard. However, apparently some of the school board members complained/mentioned to the superintendent that our yard was atrocious and that we needed to mow it. YESTERDAY. Again. We don’t own a mower.

At work today, the super called Jason into his office and basically scolded him and told him the yard needed to be mowed today. This upset me for a number of reasons. 1) They don’t care about the house. They’d abandon it if something terrible happen and we’d have no place to live. 2) Since we don’t pay rent they can basically tell us when to jump and we have to. 3) They were upset because it “makes the school look bad”. Our yard… makes the school look bad…?

So guess who just spent 4 hours mowing the yard? Poor hubby. He begged me to do some indoor work, so being the awesome wife I am, I swept the whole house (work. out!) washed all the dishes, and cleaned up most of the living room mess from the dry wall. There’s still a lot of laundry to be done, but at least there’s not dust everywhere now.

Oh, and who is sick of all these junebugs!? Good thing for Toonces. There are dead ones everywhere.

Until tomorrow…