Ode to my car

Tomorrow I will be selling my long time friend to Carmax.  I went to get a quote from them last week and Micah and I have decided to sell it to them as the "hassle free" option.  As I was walking to my car after getting my quote I started.....crying!  Now, I haven't been that emotional about anything that pertains to moving yet and I'm pretty sure there is something wrong with me if the first thing that makes me cry is my car.  However, the more I thought about the more it made sense.  


This wonderful car was given to me when I left home for college.  I am so blessed to have parents that not only gave me a car but gave me a Firebird.  It was the fun, fast, cool car.  My friends and I have many great memories in that car.  We used to drive around campus with the T-tops off and try to find people to yell at. I love driving with the wind in my hair and sometimes would take the tops off and drive just to drive.  This beloved car also got my pulled over 12 times!  That is no exaggeration.   I have actually been pulled over 14 times but 2 of them were in other cars.  Who doesn't love to pull over a young girl in a Firebird with out-of-state tags?  Although it was frustrating, it does make for some good cop stories.  The Firebird drove Holly Fasold Jackson, Christina Wiemers, Kendra Anderson, and myself to Louisiana to surprise Anna Dobbins Jamison for our Fall break. On our way home we should have ran out of gas on the Interstate but somehow, the car made it to a gas station.  Going on a girl trip in the Firebird became tradition. The next year it drove the same people to Houston.  Why my friends agreed to ride on 11 hour and 8 hour car trips in the back of a Firebird, I will never know.


I understand now that saying goodbye to my car is not just about moving across the world.  It is about saying goodbye to a period of life. Saying goodbye to the fun, care free days. Saying goodbye to cool cars and hello to Mom cars.   So long dear friend.  I hope someone has as much fun with you as I did!

Going Away Party

This past weekend was our going away party.  We had a huge crawfish boil at my parents house in North Houston thanks to my sister and her fiance.   It's very nice having Cajuns in the family that are able to cook some amazing food.  I need to start out by saying thank you to my parents for more things than I can count, Selena for the food, Micah's parents for the beverages, and Chad & Traci for brining all the tables, chairs and table cloths.  On top of all that everyone helped so much with getting everything ready.  


The weekend started on Friday with everyone (our family, micah's parents, Selena's family, and Chad's family) all staying at my parents house.  It was a blast.   We sat outside to the early hours sitting around the fire pit just talking.  I love family time like that and know we will greatly miss it.  


Saturday morning we started with the preparations.  Instead of describing I will just post some pictures. 

         

As the final touch my friend Lindsey once again made me an amazing cake. This time I "ordered" it from her.  She does such an amazing job.  The left side is a desert scene and the right is a crawfish pot with edible crawfish coming out.  

Micah and Adam were in charge of the cooking.  Micah cooked the Jambalya before the party and Adam cooked the crawfish before/during.  We had a good time looking at all the live crawfish before they were cooked.  My nephews had a great time picking them up by their antenna and I think Bailey may have even picked one up herself but I'm not sure about that.  

We had a bunch of great friends show up and tons of family.  It was a great party and we felt so blessed to have so many people join us at our party.  Love you guys!

Spoiled birthday girl

Yep, that's me. The most spoiled birthday girl ever. My birthday was this past Saturday but I need to start a little farther back to get the true effect. When Micah went to Saudi I used his iPhone. Needless to say I had a hard time giving it back. I kinda threw a fit like one of my kindergartens would but it didn't seem to work. Then one miraculous day while I was out shopping,  Micah went and bought me one! I was super excited and very happy thinking this was my birthday present.


On the morning of my actual birthday Micah took me to the mall. I was very confused as to what we could be doing at the mall. As we were walking through i saw this line :

And the next thing i knew, Micah was getting in it! At the moment i still didn't understand. He had to slowly explain to me that my real birthday present was an iPad. Even after being told, I was in so much shock I wasn't really understanding.  Now, I will admit i didn't even know that I wanted an iPad but i had told him i wanted an e-reader. So, being the researcher that he is, he decided an iPad was the best decision. I LOVE IT! Ive already downloaded several books, games, tv shows, and am even typing our blog on it right now.

On top of all that, we had dinner with our friends Brooks, Lindsey, & Gavin. Lindsey made me my very own cake! I think she knows that my favorite color is purple.

Then Micah and i had some yummy cheese and chocolate at The Melting Pot.

 

What a great birthday! 

Doctors

Today Micah and I had our physicals for moving to Saudi.  They started at 10:00am and we didn't finish until 3:00pm.  We had a short snack break in the middle but no real lunch break.  I have never felt so poked and examined in my life.  Just so that you can fully appreciate what I mean and so that my friends who get to do this in the future will be prepared, heres the run down of my day:

1. Physical- weighing, looking at ears, nose, throat, etc.  All the normal physical things

2. Woman Exam- thats all I have to say about that

3. Chest X-Ray- not really sure what that was about but it was pretty painless

4. 4 Viles of blood drawn- I'm not a fan of this so I had to look away and tell myself to keep breathing

5. Pee in a cup- pretty self explanatory

6. EKG- they hooked up a ton of electrical things, I kinda felt like a car.  FYI to friends, I was wearing a loose necked shirt and so I didn't have to take my shirt completely off so I would suggest you do the same

7. Hearing test- you sit in this little room with some headphones on. I did very well ;)

8. Vision Test- I passed with 20/20 but just barely.  I was straining to read the last line

9. SHOTS-  This ended up being the worst part.  I got SIX (6) shots! Micah received 5.  My arm is very sore from my tetanus.  

                                                   

I thought all these shots laid out looked very scary so I asked for permission to take a picture.  I can say that all our nurses and doctors were very nice.  Micah and I were able to see each other in passing and ended the day with a bonding experience of having our shots together. Good luck to all my friends who have to do this physical soon!

March Madness

March Madness is in full swing in the basketball world and in the Sperling home.  Unlike our poor Cowboys we are not anywhere near the end of our madness and unlike all college basketball in general our madness will not be over after April 5.  So what is all this madness about?  MOVING!   It seems as though once things get rolling they pick up speed fast.  We had our first meeting with a realtor on Monday then a meeting with a different realtor Wednesday and the first one came back today to take pictures.  Now we have a meeting Saturday morning with the second realtor.  Then we have to pick one of them and our house will be on the market within 5 days!   This means some different living choices for Micah and I.  Our house stays clean 24/7.  I have removed most stuff from my countertops and put my straightener away every day.  Micah so far has been very helpful so far with keeping his messes cleaned up....we will see how long that lasts.   


I have never been the type of person to carry around a day planner or keep a detailed calendar but now I am that person.   Everyday it seems I get a call for a new appointment or something else to take care of and there is no way I would keep it all straight.   I have a notebook (that I stole from my Mom..shhh) with a calendar that I stapled to the front cover.   Leaving home without it is no longer an option.  


Now, Anna is almost here at my house and then we are leaving to pick up Holly from the airport for a fun filled weekend.  I am so excited to have some time with them.  I will post more on that next time.  

Things Micah learned

Micah going to Saudi for an early visit was hard and long for me but in the end it has turned out to be a very good thing for many reasons.  He was able to get an idea of life on the compound, our apartment, and Saudi in general.  Before his trip, we had debated over several household items that I wanted to bring but he did not such as our couch.  After being in our actual apartment for 4 weeks he has agreed that we need to bring our couch and after sleeping (or not sleeping) on our bed he has agreed we need to bring our mattress.  It's funny to me because in my mind these things were going no matter what but at least now it is not an argument waiting to happen.  


Another great aspect is that Micah was able to measure EVERYTHING.  He actually designed me a detailed floor plan.  I know what you are thinking because I thought it too...."what a nerd".   But even though I made fun of him, I am very grateful to have it.  Now I can figure out curtain sizes and lengths and other random decorating issues.  The compound does actually supply curtains and bedspreads but the tend to look like this:

Needless to say, I am not so interested in that so they will be changed.  

Finally, and probably most importantly, Micah was thoughtful enough to measure the inside of our closet/wardrobe type things.  There are no actual closets in our apartment.  Not only did Micah measure our closetish thing but he even researched and found some awesome drawer/organizer things that will fit perfectly inside.  Isn't he so thoughtful!  Not only did he think of it but it was his idea to go buy them and let me just say they are not cheap.  But look how cool:

These are "Elfa" drawers and we bought them at the Container Store.  We bought 2 of this size and 2 smaller that should fit perfectly in one half of our master closet.  I also bought a really cool under-the-bed plastic thing that is a drawer so that I can put it at the edge of the bed and have daily usable space.  I probably should have bought more than one of those....

Anyways, thats the news on our current preparation.  The house should be going on the market soon so that should make for some interesting posts.  Just fyi here is a picture of our closetish thing:

Micah's Birthday Weekend

Typically Micah's family comes to visit for his birthday.  This was scheduled this year as well but then he ended up being sent to Saudi so plans changed.  Micah's family came this past weekend for his birthday celebration even though his birthday is actually February 25.  We had a great time celebrating and seeing family.  


We spent Friday just hanging out at our house and enjoying some time together.  Micah cooked us some delicious Gumbo while Marvetta and Jackie made great birthday cake for desert. Saturday we headed out to the Houston Livestock show.  We weren't sure how much Kate (our niece) would enjoy this but she had a great time (I think).  She would get upset at us when we would take her away from the animals.  I got to show her the rabbits but she didn't understand why we wouldn't let her touch all the animals.   Kate also had her first taste of fair food....sausage on a stick. 

Sunday we were all able to go to church together and then to T-Bone Tom's for lunch.  We had a large group of our friends from church there which was a lot of fun.  It ended up being a little warmer than we had expected and Micah even ended up with a sunburn, but we got some cute pictures out of it. 

After lunch we headed to Galveston for some water fun.  We brought the dogs, Max and Gizmo and I think they enjoyed it more than anyone else.  Unfortunately Kate was a little tired and at the time did not enjoy the sand but we are hoping that will change by their beach trip in May.  The water was still freezing cold and Gizmo was still not too interested in getting in it as usual. We spent a couple of hours hanging out on the beach.  

Thanks to our amazing family for a great weekend.  We love you!