Sine You've been gone

I know my posts seem to be few and far between but life is just not as excitng without Micah here. He is doing great and has done some amazing measurements of our apartment for me and of course has taken lots of pictures. He posted some on facebook so if you are friends with him you can see them there. 

Since Micah has been gone I have been keeping myself very busy...maybe too busy.  For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to get started on some of the house stuff to get it ready to be sold.  Job 1 was painting the upstairs game room which started out orange and black.  Let me just tell you, painting over orange and black is NOT an easy task.  On Monday I did 2 coats of primer working from 4:00pm-8:45 straight. Then on Wednesday I did 2 coats of paint.  I chose white because I wanted it to be very neutral.  I am finally finished. Here are the before and after pictures.

* I couldn't find any pictures of the before on this computer so I had to upload one from my facebook

Once I was done with the finishing touches on Thursday afternoon I was able to relax a little.  My friends have been taking good care of me and inviting me over for dinner and out to movies.  I am very thankful for my friends and don't know if I would have survived without them. 

Today I finally decided to give Gizmo a hair cut.  His hair was SO long.   I can't even remember the last time I gave him a hair cut....I'm thinking it may have been Thanksgiving.  Well, as with most things, when you procrastinate it takes you a lot longer.  Gizmo's hair cuts usually take me 2 hours but today it took me at least 3!  He looks so much better though and he is all ready for Spring.  Look at how much hair I cut off of him!

   

I had to switch to orange for this part but I am sad to see that blogger doesn't have an appropriate OSU orange.  I watched the OSU basketball game today against the #1 ranked Kansas and all I have to say about that is GO COWBOYS!

Be My Valentine

I made it through my first weekend with Micah gone.  He is safe and sound in Saudi and even getting to stay in our future apartment. It's nice to have insider information to help with the packing.  I have been able to talk to him every day and he is very busy with people on the compound.  

For my first weekend I headed north to the DFW area.  On Friday night I went to my lovely friend Anna's house near the Fort Worth area.  We went out to dinner at the delicious Babes Chicken and spent the rest of the night hanging out.  A freak snow storm had blown threw on Thursday so there was snow everywhere.  Gizmo did not really know what to think of it.

Saturday morning I headed a little further north to Denton, TX for my beautiful neices' birthday party.  Bailey turned 8 years old!  I can't believe she is already 8.   Her birthday party was at a pottery painting place where each kid was able to paint their own piece of pottery.  I decided to join in the fun and painted some myself but I wasn't very good.  Bailey was a great party host and was the most spoiled birthday girl I have ever seen. I gave her the "awesome" peace sign hat, I'm not sure if she really liked it but she humored me.

 

 I was also able to see my adorable nephew Coleton walking and running around.  He has the cutest PJ's I've ever seen.  The back says "New Sheriff in Town"....Check'em out:

On Sunday (Valentines Day) I headed back south to my home.  It was sad to spend Valentines Day without my Valentine but I made it through. Micah was a great husband who did give me my Valentine card and present before he left so I reread my card.  I hope you all had a great weekend and were able to spend Valentines day with the ones you love!

When the boys are away....

Just so everyone knows, Micah is there and safe.  He is in our future housing getting it organized and measured for me. Tonight was my second night with Micah away.  So far I'm doing pretty good but that is probably because I have had plenty of things to keep me occupied and because it is very early in the 4 weeks.  In order to keep my spirits up I was thinking of the Pros of some alone time.  Now, I just want to say that in NO way would I rather be alone and I would VERY MUCH rather have Micah here but you may as well think positive. So here it goes:

1. I was able to hang out with Anna tonight!

2.  I can get lots of stuff done at home

3. My house will stay clean

4. I will see lots of girly movies & have quality girl time

5. No worrying about cooking

6. When the boys are away the girls will play

7. ........ I'm already out of things

*The Cons out weigh the Pros 1000000/1

Christmas in January

Well, Micah and I had Christmas in November, December, and now January.  The Stucky family (Micah's mom's side) does a Christmas party every year.  This year it was snowed out and was delayed until January.  Micah and I, at the last minute, decided to drive up to Oklahoma for the party.  It has been a very long time since we have seen the extended Stucky family so it was a great (fast) trip.  During the car ride we were able to spend some quality time with Andy, Jackie, and Kate.  Kate will be 1 next weekend! I can't believe it has already been 1 year.  

Andy and Micah were able to spend some quality brother time playing air hockey (Micah didn't loose one game, sorry everyone).  Everyone did some Dirty Santa playing and we all did plenty of eating.  

Gizmo also had a blast playing with a young pup named Mace.  They played non-stop.  If only we had a  Mace around, Gizmo would never be bored.  He was so worn out that our cousin Hope was able to put his head on a pillow and give him a blanket and cuddle up next to him.  I don't think Gizmo even opened his eyes.  

Overall we had a great weekend.  Heres a slideshow to finish it up!

Getting it together

I feel as though it has taken me a whole week to get my house back in order...and as I say this I realize my house is still not in order.  I have finally cleaned the downstairs which is where we spend 99.9% of our time so I guess that counts as "in order".  This week I have started on some of the stuff for Saudi.  My main concern is Gizmo.  Thats right, my biggest concern about moving to the Middle East is how to get my dog there safely.  I love him way more than any person should probably love a dog but look how cute he is:

So the big debate now is whether or not I can get all the stuff for Gizmo done on my own or if we need to pay one of these expensive pet moving companies.  Right now I'm leaning towards pet movers.  

After getting started on Gizmo I decided to move on to our attic.  This started with sorting and organizing Christmas decorations.  I had three piles: Sea shipment, Storage, and Garage Sale.  It looks as though Micah and I are going to have a rather large garage sale in the near future.  Once I had the Christmas stuff done I bravely ventured into the attic.  I say bravely because I definitely thought several times about spiders and rats, luckily none were seen.  I opened boxes that haven't been opened in 3 years or more, sorted through them, labeled them, and put them on my packing list. Here is my progress so far:

Today was take a break from packing day and we were blessed to get to babysit our best friends little boy.  Gavin is at a very fun age where he is exploring and learning new things.  He was looking out our back door and really wanted to join Gizmo outside so we went out to play for a little bit.  He would chase after Gizmo and when Gizmo would run he would crack up laughing.  It was so cute! 

Gavin was also fascinated with going up and down the step off our deck.  I think he was more interested since I was telling him to be careful.  He wanted to prove to us that he could do it...just like a man ;)

We hope you all had a great weekend!

Christmas

I know the last post was about the new year and 2010 but it makes me sad to just skip past Christmas and I have so many pictures.

Micah and I had a great Christmas this year and it started at Thanksgiving.  Every year we alternate whose family we are going to be with during the actual Christmas holiday so we typically end up doing our Christmas celebration with one family during Thanksgiving week.  This year we spent Thanksgiving with the Sperlings in Oklahoma.  We had a fun relaxing week hanging out with family and playing with our niece Kate. I don't have pictures transferred yet but I will try to get some soon.

We spent the actual Christmas holiday in Houston with my family. The week before Mom had surgery, my parents closed on a house and moved into it the next day.  Needless to say, it was crazy busy, caotic, and very blessed. The results of Mom's surgery were great, my brothers family spent 10 days with us and my sisters family came after Christmas for a few days.  We did lots of eating, unpacking, moving, rearranging, game playing, movie watching (the new house has an 110" screen), and general goofing off.  Despite the bowl game results we had a very blessed Christmas.

2010

Happy 2010 everyone! I’m not really one for making New Years Resolutions so for now my only resolution is to write.  The New Year is definitely going to be a year of major changes in the Sperling household.  Sometime this year we will be making a big move across the pond to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  Most of you reading this now are probably wondering why in the world would they move to Saudi Arabia? 

First and foremost I want to say that this decision did not come without prayer.  We feel very blessed that God has given us this great opportunity.  We both enjoy and seek after adventure and enjoy doing things out of the ordinary.  This is an amazing opportunity for Micah’s career.  He will be gaining experience that most people in his field only dream about.  I cannot wait to meet new people and see new places in the world.  I have already started making my list of places I want to see and it is very difficult to rank them in order of importance.  

So, to sum it up I guess you could say we are very excited.  As of now Micah is set to leave in April and I will follow him as soon as possible.  Until then we have a very long checklist to keep us busy.