Here comes the last weekend

I'm very sorry that my posts have been erratic lately.  The combination of moving and craziness at work have kept me away.  Steph and  Linda helped us move almost all of the rest of the stuff left in my apartment last night.  We really owe them something nice, I offered to cook them a nice dinner.  Matt and I will get the last few boxen tonight and clean up tomorrow.  I would really like to turn in the keys tomorrow so I don't have to take time off on Monday to do it since the office isn't open on Sundays.  It all depends on how tired we are.  Going full out for a week and a half straight has a way of tiring a body out.  Back in June I won tickets to the first home football game of the season when I gave blood.  I also won a autographed UNC football from Butch Davis.  I called his office last week but they hadn't gotten the tickets yet and I'm hoping that with the game tomorrow they might have my tickets now.  On a kind of down note, I'm having a rough time at work right now.  I feel like I'm floundering.  I had a talk with Mark the other day and he says I need to start working a crazy amount of hours and on the weekends so that we can get this paper done.  I know I'm up to the effort (and so does he) but the implications are that I'm not going to have any down time for many months.  It makes me sad.

Sick and tired

It is nearly a week since my last post and as I look around the new apartment from our almost-too-big-to-get-into-the-apartment couch, I am glad that is almost over.  Matt and I moved him out of his place, no help in two evenings.  My place, not so easy.  Luckily we have a bunch of super awesome friends.  Steph and Linda came over to my place on Saturday to come help pack.  They are a powerhouse moving team.  I think we moved about 75% of my stuff before the four of us lost nearly all ability to move.  There was enough time to take a quick and much needed nap before showing and heading off to Jess and Jacob's.  They were having a get together that consisted of playing Rock Band and watching The Explorers and Flight of the Navigator.  There was a ton of amazing food including Jacob's Mexican thing that had beans and sour cream and doritios, the wonderful blue cheese that Dan brought, and the lovely caprese salad that Jess made with buffalo mozzarella.  mmmm, cheese... Sadly we only made it through the first movie before Matt and I were ready to pass out.  Sunday morning we took a quick jaunt to pick up the U-Haul.  We had originally planned to hire movers to get all of my incredibly heavy furniture out and in our new place but Dave, the post doc that I work with convinced me that him and a couple of other guys could handle it no problem.  So true to his word Dave showed up on Sunday along with Jacob, and Matt's brother Dan.  If you have ever seen all of my furniture you will understand that it was no small feat but the four guys managed to get it all into the U-Haul and into our new place in a matter of hours.  Not everything has made its way out of my apartment, largely due to the fact that I caught a rather nasty cold on Sunday that finally got me down enough that I had to take a down day.  I think it should be down by Thursday, I think.  Then we can get around to unpacking and making our new place feel like home.

It has begun...

It has officially started, Matt and I moved a good three quarters of his apartment last night after work. Steph and Linda came over for a while to help us figure out where all the furniture is going to go. They had several great ideas for our stuff, now we just have to get the furniture into the apartment. Matt was pretty impressed with my ability to keep it all together yesterday with only minimal food and asthma breaks. I was like a woman possessed. I'm just really excited about having this whole moving business over with. Tonight we finish moving Matt's stuff and cleaning up the apartment which shouldn't really take that long since he's only been there for eight months. I was a little peeved because they didn't give us new carpet like they said they were going to and there was no mantle. The carpet is fine except for the half dollar sized hole in the middle of the living room. I was thinking of getting an accent carpet for the living room anyways so its not a huge deal but still. Luckily I'm doing mostly fly work this week so maybe I can knock off half an hour early so we can finish moving/cleaning Matt's place today.

Its been so long

Sorry it has been so long since my last post. The wedding was a ton of fun as if you couldn't tell by the pictures. I love my family and miss them a ton so it was great being able to see them for a while. I think I ended up spending much of my time at Marc and Elisa's table. Except, of course, when I was strutting my stuff on the dance floor. Matt impressed several members of my family with his dancing skills. Every time he started to dance the flash bulbs went off. I'm trying to start a renewed effort to keep in touch better with my family. Hopefully, I will have the strength to keep it up.
The move begins today! As soon as work is over today Matt and I will begin to move into the new place. I'm super excited and slightly exhausted thinking about the move. Our goal is to try and get all of Matt's things moved before the weekend. I think it is an attainable goal. After that we are going to try and get all of my non-big furniture items (think books, clothes, chairs and whatnot). We're going to have to get a U-haul to move some of my furniture. It is quite lovely having real adult furniture until you have to move it. Luckily we have many helpful friends that have offered to help move us, including Dave who offered to leave work to do it *gasp!*

Wedding pics until I can actually post about it

Time flies, and so do we!

Trip day! Matt and I are all packed and are ready to get outta town. Our flight leaves at 6:19pm and we get to LA at 10:35 (LA time). It shouldn't be so bad since I have Matt there with me. I'm not sure what we'll do about eating. I probably can't wait until we get to Houston. I did bring lots of snacks with me and crafting stuff and lots of papers to read and summarize. Its going to be a blast. I can almost taste the In-N-Out, Jack in the Box, and super awesome Mexican food now.

Mark is on vacation for two weeks so we decided it was time for a lab lunch. I decided for everyone that we would go to Buns, a new burger place just off of Franklin. OMG!! I know that makes me sound like a teenager on myspace but it was Fantastic. They have three kinds of burgers including an in house made veggie burger. Then you have your selection of toppings where you can choose brie or gruyere cheese. MMMMMMM, I think I drooled a little bit. I do love cheese. It was great. Keiko is coming to visit next weekend and I promised/threatened that we were going.

One more quick thing before I run off to finish tidying up before I'm gone for a few days. Matt and I got to see our new apartment yesterday. Its kinda dirty right now but they are going to paint and put in new carpet and they should have it done in about a week. I'm very excited!

Sort of short week

UPDATE!! I posted the pictures. I'm sorry that the first hair picture looks like a myspace picture but the others Matt took made me look funny.

The weekend is over and even though it was quite busy I am sad to see it go. I haven't yet found a dress for Maureen's wedding and I'm not really sure when I can fit that in this week. I guess there is always Friday which is sad because I just wanted family time. Oh well. Derek's party was lovely, his house is so beautiful I could almost cry. Very yummy tasty snacks as well. I made s'mores brownies as per his request. I think it might be one of the best recipes I have. Then again I'm a bit of a sucker for s'mores. Steph has had really bad allergies this weekend so after helping us pick out a lovely new mirror, picture frame, and coasters she was not up to going to the party. :(

Matt and I spent the day at Kure Beach yesterday. It was so lovely and peaceful. Thankfully the water wasn't nearly as warm as I was told it would be. That would have been awful. It was just like I'm used to a little chilly at first but perfect after a couple of minutes. The part that I couldn't understand was the sand, it is so different from the beaches on the Pacific. Or at the least all the ones I've been to. The sand is more like very tiny, flat pebbles that stick to your body. UGH!!! I'm used to sandbox type sand. Fine, little...sand, you know. Sure sand usually gets everywhere but after you dry it is supposed to just brush right off. I ended up having to scrub the sand off me when we go home last night.Matt's favorite picture, you have to look closely at the sign to see why

I'm leaving work early (don't worry I got here very early today, I beat everyone else by nearly two hours!) I'm getting my haircut and goodness knows that always takes about four hours. If it goes well I'll post a picture later of my new 'do. I'll try and post some pics from the beach too. Check back later!

Another busy weekend

We have another busy bee weekend planned. It is the annual tax free weekend. I'm not really sure we'll be taking advantage of it since it really has to do with back to school items. We do have some shopping planned, or at least window shopping. Kirkland is having a 40% off sale this weekend as well. When Matt and I were looking for his apartment back in December one of the office ladies told us that was where they got all the things they used to decorate their model apartments and that they were super cheap. Steph and Linda expressed interest in joining us in that adventure which looks like might be happening tomorrow. Matt and I both need haircuts but while his is going to get done tomorrow mine will not be until at least Monday. One of our friends, Derek, is having a house warming parties tomorrow night. Boy Saturday will be busy. It will mostly be the Peifer and Rogers labs attending with some of his and Ryan's other friends. Which means time with the Heroscapin' crew. Matt and I have been planning to visit the beach for nearly two summers now and Matt proposed that we just break down and do it this weekend. So it looks like weather permitting we will be taking a stroll down to the beach on Sunday. w00t!! I'm very excited. We also have to go dress shopping since Maureen's wedding is in a week, not so exciting.

On a side note, we joined Nathan, Willow, Steph, and Linda in watching Momma Mia the movie last night. Debbie had taken me to see the musical when I still lived in Vegas and I really loved it. I thought the movie version was pretty hilarious but I have a feeling that it might have been more of a girl thing because Matt didn't really like it. Usually the girly movies we see hold some interest for him too but I think this might have gone too far into girl minds what with the silly singing and dancing and ridiculous love triangles (trapezoids?). He said he just didn't really get it but that he didn't mind going. Yay, Matt is awesome!