Nov 27, 2007

food, friends, family, and a foot rub or two...or six

So it's been about two weeks since my last entry. Happy late Thanksgiving everyone! We've had an eventful holiday season already. Nate has made the car trip to San Antonio/Austin five times in the last week and a half so we're going to take it easy for the next couple of weeks so he can spend some time not in the car.

Rachel came down to visit for the first part of her Thanksgiving break. I'll post a picture when I get them from her. It didn't seem like five months since we'd seen each other. We just picked right back up where we left off. It was really nice to have my best friend around again. The weather wasn't perfect, but it was pretty nice. We slept a lot...A LOT. It was pretty relaxing, although we each took turns being sick which was kind of a bummer. We decided that we must be getting old since we can't party like we used to. I guess we'll have to give it another try when we're back in IA for Christmas.

Nate's sister, Jamie, came down while she was on break too. Her and Rachel hung out while Nate and I were at work. They found a couple of new places in town for Nate and I to check out. She got to spend Thanksgiving with us at my co-worker Sergio's house. I'm pretty glad we got to have a home-cooked turkey dinner. It was really delicious and pretty fun to have a substitute family. I've never been away from my own for the holidays. After dinner we spent a couple of hours playing pictionary (Midwest vs Dirty South) with his family and friends. This year I'm adding co-workers and my excellent job to my list of things to be thankful for.

Also on my list is my Grandma Jones' health! She was in the ICU right before Thanksgiving. Pretty scary stuff. Glad you're feeling better Grandma! Keep resting and makin' them red blood cells.

We left Corpus the day after Thanksgiving to head up to Austin...Nate's 4th car trip of the week... to meet my mom, grandma, sister, and Grace at the Lake Austin Spa and Resort (pictures to come soon). It had been since July since I'd seen any of them so I was pretty glad to see some family. We spent the weekend getting totally pampered in celebration of my grandma's 70th birthday! You'd never know she's 70. She had at least 5 people on the trip say things like "when you reach 60" or "I thought you were in your late 50's." She is one classy lady....and apparently looks only slightly over twice my age. The spa was the best thing ever though. I learned a lot about how to take care of my muscles and joints so that my constant computer use doesn't cause permanent damage...and hopefully I can avoid some of the shoulder and neck pain I get. Grace, my sister, and I also tried some Eastern treatments. I wasn't as brave as Emily, who tried a full acupuncture treatment, but I did end up with a couple needles in my neck and some HUGE hickey looking things on my back from a cupping treatment. We also did some Thai massage, which was really awesome. I could go for one of those a couple times a week.

We left yesterday, and Nate and I came back to Corpus. Izzy was so hyper when I finally got home. She didn't leave my side all night. But she did throw up on Nate's neck while he was sleeping. Welcome home I guess.

Tonight we photographed the "Lighting of Lamar Park" at the Lamar Park shopping center for the website Nate designed. Hopefully we got some good pictures of what they needed. It was pretty dark...and cold. We finally got out our sweaters.

The new McLeod Creative website is up. Check it out. www.mcleodcreative.com. Oh, and I added one more day to my Christmas vacation. We will officially be on vacation from December 14 (at 5pm) - January 6th. I think we'll plan on leaving Iowa on Saturday Jan. 5th unless the weather is looking bad enough for us to leave earlier. See y'all in 2 and a half weeks!!



One of Nate's shots.


One of Nate's pictures from Lamar Park.


Some ballerina soldiers...Nate's photo.


One of the children's choirs.


I think they were selling Nutcracker tickets...maybe.


Local band, Latin Talk.


New picture of Beanie! She's 6 and a half weeks old now.


Pretty cute. The breeder says she really funny. I hope she has as sweet of a personality as Izzy does.

Nov 14, 2007

so, what color is your dot dabber?

None of us won at BINGO. Big surprise, I know. Although Nate did get pretty close on a couple of the blackout boards that were worth $700. Most of the people there were older Hispanic ladies, but it was super fun, and Nate and I both played all night for six dollars total. Pretty awesome. We'll probably go back again sometime. I kept my dot dabber.

Sunday we went over to my boss and her husband's house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was really delicious. She made the best baked brie and cream cheese appetizer ever. I'll have to make it for everyone at Christmas time while I'm back in Iowa. I really am thankful for my job and the people that I work with. It's been such a great environment to go to everyday, and the work is pretty great too. Maybe at the end of the year I'll post an entry of projects I've worked on in the last six months...some of the web stuff should be up by then.

Izzy was back at the vet today (that dog is trying to bleed my bank account dry). She's gotten better, but she's not back to normal yet. The vet ran a couple more test and put her on an allergy free food. She also got a couple new medicines. One should balance out the bacteria in her digestive system and the other will take care of any parasites that may not have shown up in the tests. She feels a ton better, and acts normal, so hopefully this solves it. Otherwise we'll have to go back for blood tests next week. I just hope she gets better soon. We don't like seeing her sick. Poor baby.

Bean is growing up to be quite a cutie! We got new pictures from the breeder today. She's just about five weeks old now. We're so excited to get her!!

Rachel and Jamie get here soon. Rachel gets here in just about 36 hours! I took the day off on Friday so Nate and I can go pick her up from the airport and hang out. Yea! We rented a carpet cleaner tonight and got the apartment all cleaned up. With Izzy being sick a couple weeks ago the carpet had taken a bit of a beating. It's a lot better now.

We got our latest electric bill this week. It's half what it has been! Yea! It definitely helps to not have 90 degree weather all the time. Although today, in the middle of November, it was 86 degrees. We ate lunch in the park and actually sat in the shade because we were too hot in the sun. What a change from November in Iowa. We love it! I hope it stays warm for when our guests are here. I know Rachel wants to get a tan.



Nate with one of his losing BINGO games.


Lily Bean at 5 weeks old. Look at how cute she is!!


Nate and Izzy playing tug.


An odd picture of the three of us.

Nov 10, 2007

gimme some beads!

Once again the week flew by. It was pretty uneventful around here. We've been trying to save up for when our friends and family come down so we can have fun while they're here. Less than a week now! Hopefully the weather will be nice and sunny. It looks like it should be.

I've been invited to be on the committee for the 'Corpus Christi Mardi Gras on the Marina.' I'm really excited about it. It should be a lot of fun and a good way to meet people and get involved in the community. It's right at the beginning of February, but besides that, I know very little about the actual event. I'll learn more about it when the meetings start next week.

This Friday after work we had a "McLeod Creative Happy Hour." Monica planned it and brought some snacks and drinks. We all just hung around for a couple hours chatting about the city and meeting new people. We also got some tips on good places to eat!

Of course this morning we went to Elva's for the hugest, cheapest, best breakfast ever. We go every Saturday. I should really take a picture of how huge these breakfast tacos are. It's awesome. We eat them around 10 in the morning and aren't hungry again until dinner. Mmm. Most of the rest of today was spent "simplifying" our apartment and driving around town exploring new areas. Tonight we're going to meet some friends to play some BINGO. Oh yeah, BINGO. Pretty excited about it. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Lily Bean is about four weeks old now. Here's the latest picture of her from the breeder. She is so cute! We can't wait to get her!! Less than five weeks!

Nov 5, 2007

she's lucky she's so cute

Well, Izzy's got an irritated infection in her tummy. The vet said that she probably ate something and it just irritated her stomach more and more until it became the stinkiest, most rotten insides you've ever smelt in your life (not his exact words). But seriously, she's a stinky, sick, pup. He gave her a shot and we have a couple medicines to give her over the next few days. It turns out they do have something similar to Imodium for dogs. She's also on an antibiotic. He said if it doesn't get better basically by tomorrow night that we need to bring her back in and they'll need to run more tests. I hope this works and she gets better because 1. she is so sore and sad and 2. because she cost us $120 today ($170 if you count the flea stuff for the next 3 months). Yep, bummer. They should make health insurance for dachshunds. It's always something...


She's lucky our world revolves around her sweet little face.

Nov 4, 2007

now that we're grown-ups nate can paint for fun

Since we were hanging around the apartment tending to a sick puppy all weekend we decided to do some work around the place. There's still a lot to be done, but this was the first big task we've taken on (besides getting moved in in June), and actually it didn't take us all that long.

We've been wanting to paint in the living room for a while now, so today it finally happened. It's awesome! And very green...it's actually quite calming...but GREEN. We've bought some paint for the kitchen so maybe we'll work on that next weekend, but here are the pictures for now.


It's green. Really green.


Nate painting the tall stuff.


I helped...but mostly the close to the ground stuff.


Izzy was sad. But she wanted to eat the paint...


I'm having so much fun painting this wall!


Yea! We finished it!


So pretty.


Everything put back together. We love it!

Nov 3, 2007

do they make puppy imodium?

I think I jinxed myself yesterday. It is currently 90 degrees in our apartment. We literally slept with an ice pack last night. I guess the cold front is over. Hopefully another one will head in soon. I really like having the windows open instead of using the air. Nonetheless, the AC is back on.

Izzy is a sick pup today. We don't think she got into anything weird, but our apartment did not smell very good when we woke up this (at 7:30 on my Saturday!). It's pretty nasty, but fortunately Nate is a super awesome puppy dad...and husband. Nate just called our favorite vet, his dad, to see if we should be doing anything. He said to keep a close eye on her and make sure she stays hydrated. I think this dog just really wants to see the ER clinic down here. She never causes any trouble during the week when we could go to the regular vet.


Pup pup taking a nap. She's snuggling her bunny.


Nate and Izzy making squinty kissy faces.

Nov 2, 2007

getting my head out of the clouds is not a possibility

Well, the cool weather has kind of lasted. It's back into the low 80's, but I'll take that over 90 any day. At least we're able to keep our air conditioner off still...although, any warmer and it might have to come back on. This week has been pretty uneventful. Halloween was lame this year. We didn't end up doing anything or dressing up. Maybe next year...

It's been kind of a pain driving to work the last couple of days. Corpus Christi is literally in a cloud. When I went out side the first morning it happened my first thought was "holy cow, it snowed," but then I remembered that five months ago I moved to the very Southern edge of the US...so a white sky probably doesn't mean snow. Of course it wasn't snow. Just the thickest fog I've ever seen. Visibility in the mornings is literally less than a block. I got some pictures of it in downtown this morning. I wish I could have gotten some of the really long docks that just disappear. It's pretty eerie, especially since you can't see the ocean at all.

Two weeks from today company (Rachel, Jamie, and some of my family) start arriving! Which means it's only three weeks until I go to the Lake Austin Spa!! Nate and I are pretty excited to have someone else to talk to besides ourselves...and the dog. Although, like I've said before, I do really enjoy it just being us most of the time. Especially since we're in the same career field now. The conversation is always of interest to both of us. Oh, and we've started playing Magic again. I know, super nerdy, but we have a lot of free time without all the homework and socializing that we used to do. Now, if I just had all my old cards we could really get nerdy...but for now we'll just have to play with what we have. Ok, that's enough.

Our friend Courtney that lives in Kingsville, TX (about 45 min away from CC) is having her baby on Monday so Nate and I will be babysitting her two dachshunds. Which means, yes, we will have three hyper pups running around our one bedroom apartment for a week. Nate has already warned me that he may lose his mind. I'm already laughing at the thought of it. The three of them will probably end up sleeping in our bed and shoving us out of it. They're little dogs but they have a way of taking up the whole king bed. We wish Courtney all the best for a quick recovery and healthy baby girl!

We'll be heading home in 42 days! Mom, to get you in the holiday spirit, I posted a picture of Nate from last years Christmas sweater party. I don't think you ever got to see him in your award winning sweater. It's pretty awesome.


This is right outside of the studio i work at. Usually I can see the marina.


There's a really tall building on the corner of the block but you can't even see it. It just disappears into the fog.


This does a pretty good job showing how thick the fog actually is, and why I don't like driving in it.


This is for you mom. Nate at a Christmas sweater party last year. Notice the exquisite beading, and the decorative neckline. Awesome.