Busy week.

I need to get better at updating this thing. It is already Tuesday already and I am just now getting around to it! It's been a busy week around here for us, though -- Nathan turned 26 last Tuesday. Happy Birthday, babe. I sent him some birthday Cookies by Design (just a 3-cookie bouquet) at work, we left a little early, went out to eat, bought some new movies...it was a successful day. Yesterday I went and finally got my name changed on my driver's license. Next stop is Social Security...and I think Nathan and I are going to try and switch over to joint checking at his bank later this week. We have been working on a budget for ourselves, the 3 main points of which are paying off some debts as we can (his student loans and truck); saving plenty (for a house, emergencies, etc.); and getting by while each of us getting a nice "allowance" to spend on whatever we want. We worked hard to work it out in a way that we are saving a good bit without getting too stringent with ourselves. We want to be able to get a bite to eat on Fridays, or buy a new toy every now and then. :)

Last weekend was nice because my parents finally came home from Colorado. I missed them pretty badly. I got to see them the day after the wedding, before we left on the honeymoon, and then they were gone for several weeks. It was a little weird being thrust into being married, living in a new place, still adjusting to my new job, etcetera. It was fine, great actually, but I missed having them around!

Nathan and I got a new fish, too. We have a gold fantail named Beauregard, aka Bo, as in from the Dukes of Hazzard. We decided to get a Luke to be his brother. He is a black moor, the kind with the eyeballs outside of their head! They get along pretty well. Bo sort of hogs the food, likes to swim around Luke really fast, and Luke likes to chill in the corner, behind the plant. (If they didn't have the fantails and black moors in the same tank together at the Petsmart I would be worried -- but they apparently do just fine together.) I read up online about black moors a little bit, and they are just kind of like that...laid back little suckers. He has the biggest fishy lips! And apparently they can get pretty big. Oh well. If we can't have dogs and we don't plan on babies yet, these little boogers are going to be our entertainment. :) We literally feed them and then watch them eat for 10 minutes, talking about how cool and smart our fish are.

Anyway, now that I've written a huge paragraph about our pet fish...

Work for me has been pretty busy late last week and this week. My group (multimedia) is working up our big new tradeshow booth. Yesterday we built it for the first time at this warehouse to do a test-run. It is really pretty amazing - I've never done anything like it before, and it is so cool to see it come to life. I can't wait to build it for the real deal. This booth is for the Space and Missile Defense Conference in mid-August. We get to design and build an even bigger one that is coming up in November, at our new office location in Orlando. I may even get to go - so excited!

Other than that, just trying to settle into the house a tiny bit at a time. Yesterday I got a lot of books onto the bookshelf, and last week we moved a cabinet of Nathan's into a nook in the living room. I also hung a few small things on the walls around the house. One step at a time, I guess! It is just so hard with work and commitments. We have a very busy few weeks coming up. This Saturday we are going to Chattanooga for a college friend's wedding. It is in the afternoon, so I think we want to make a whole day trip out of it and spend some time around the city. Maybe go antiquing a little bit.

I still need to post some pictures of our house. Ugh -- soon...I promise! My computer is a little bit on the fritz right now, so it is difficult to use, and I get so frustrated I just give up. It needs a little TLC and then pictures should be back into commission...in the meantime, I suddenly have a little bit of freelance design work that came up for the folks I worked for at the Center for Mental Health and Aging in the spring down at Alabama. It won't be much cash, but every little bit helps, and I am excited to do it for them. It is the kind of work I'd love to get into doing on the side -- for non-profits and small business types. My first real out-of-college commission!

Anyway, my mom is coming over this afternoon to see our house for the first time in a few weeks. It is definitely not all put-together yet, but it is a lot different thanthe last time she saw it. I can't wait!

Well, until soon...

Shannon