Anniversary #6

It seems like so much was different six years ago. 

I was working third shift at East Alabama Medical Center in the lab and Buddy had been working for Auburn's transit for a few months. 

Our wedding party consisted of people we barely speak to now. One is on purpose because she is an idiot, some are due to me being a hermit (I'll explain eventually), and the others are due to life I guess. 

That day flew by so fast. I am so glad for pictures because it feels like I just blinked and it was gone. 

We have been through a lot these six years: from loss of jobs, loss of family members and friends alike, to me going back to school an getting my bachelors, new friends, moving three times (once with my in-laws), new jobs, car troubles, new (to us) cars, family drama, loss of furbabies and anything in between. 

My husband is my rock, my solid ground. I tease him occasionally by saying he doesn't get excited about things (which he doesn't), but I believe it's this trait that keeps me grounded when I think everything is spinning out of control. Occasionally it is frustrating when I try to surprise him with something I think he might like. But we all have our little quirks that our significant others finds frustrating, right? 

We spent our day lounging around, watching football, and eating not so healthy queso, like we wanted to. He loves my queso and I don't make it often. Our teams lost both yesterday (Alabama) and today (Texans). I think it's cause it's the first year our anniversary fell on a game day since the day we were married. That day we were blessed with a narrow win over Kentucky (I was wearing team colors, which I don't do any more) and an Auburn loss to Vandy. So in 6 more years when our day is on another game day, it should be better again. I know, I'm superstitious....but this I only football. 

To celebrate our anniversary, here are some of my favorite pictures from that day six years ago and one from this mornings walk with Luna. I hope you all have a great and blessed week! Get outside and enjoy fall!!!

We were up before the morning glories. 

Things I don't like about East Texas

This blog post is coming to you live from my office! I'm being a big fat procrastinator right now, mostly because I've had my ass kicked by stats all day. So I've taken a few (read 2) hours to make some blog changes and now to make my post.

So keeping with my previous post, here are 5 things I do not like about East Texas in no particular order.

1. Humidity

I just took this screen shot and it says the temperature outside is only 91 degrees (F). Feels like 100 degrees (F) with only 55% humidity??? Yep, it pretty much feels like a sauna out there. We have had a few days of fall like weather and there were amazing! But, then we had this. I can't wear my hair in anything but a bun with this crap out there. It's just plain redonkulous.











2. Conceal carry laws

yelp.com; google image search

Alabama is an open carry state, Texas is not. To get a conceal handgun licence (CHL) you must take a class which can not exceed 8 hours. In this class you will have a written exam and a range test. Buddy and I had our class this past Saturday and neither were hard. I was not pleased with my targeting at all, but I passed.

The sign to the left is one that is posted outside of businesses and other public grounds in which you can not conceal carry. Back home they were posting signs prohibiting open carry, here it's conceal carry. Coming from an open carry state, this makes no sense. I can understand federal buildings, public buildings where voting is taking place, bars, and to some extent schools and maybe even hospitals. But shopping centers and grocery stores? Also, if you have a CHL and get busted carrying in a place that has a 30.06 sign, you will be penalized more heavily than someone with out a CHL because you should know better.

3. No one understands SEC football

Yes, Texas A&M are now in the SEC and College Station is only about an hour away, but no one REALLY understands what that means. The loyalty, the brutality, the trash-talk on Saturday but love you every other day-ness.... They just don't get it.

4. Distance measurements

This isn't so much a complaint, but a musing. We are ~2 hours from Shreveport, LA; ~2 hours from Houston; ~3 hours from Dallas and Galveston, and ~4 hours from Austin. Here distance is measured in how many hours it takes to get somewhere. If the speed limits were not as fast then they would be exceedingly high. I knew Texas was a large state, but it didn't really hit me until I was here. It's quite weird. 

5. Where's my Waffle House? or Zaxbys?

The closest Waffle House (WH) is in Tyler which is about an hour away. If I were FROM Texas this wouldn't be so bad (see #4). However, I'm not FROM Texas and an hour seems an excessive drive for food. And Zaxby's? My wonderful yummy favorite food? Not here. I think there might be one in Louisiana, but I'm not sure. 

I haven't really taken any pictures this week except this one. 

This was at the Gayla Mize Gardens and I let Luna go off leash for our walk. I was so proud! When I would call her to come she would and when I would tell her to wait because I couldn't see her she would! I guess now I can trust her to be a good trail dog.

Well, that's all I have for today. I've arranged for Buddy to come pick me up in a few so I need to get my stuff together I guess. I hope you have enjoyed and let me know what you think in the comments! Have a blessed weekend!

Things I love about Texas

I had a running list of things I wanted to blog about, but my phone ate it...twice. I know this topic was among the few I had jotted down, so I'm winging it folks; bear with me.

 We have now been official residents of Texas for 6 months as of the 28th of August and I felt it was about time to compile a list (because I love lists) about the things I love about this humongous state. Don't worry, there will be a list (sooner or later) about things I don't love, but most of them are pretty obvious.

This picture outlines the different "sections" of Texas. We live in the Piney Woods area close to the n and e of piney. The description is quite accurate and it is quite piney out here. It actually looks a lot like back home to me. There's not much difference. We have driven into the prairies and lakes area, but not far and I went through the gulf coast area almost daily during field season, but I haven't had a chance to really explore like I want to (and I will eventually!).

Let's get to that list, shall we?

1. Speed limits

Texas has the fastest speed limit average of any state in the U.S. This can be both awesome and some what terrifying. I was only terrified at the speeds when it was 4 am and I was driving through the San Angelina State Forest trying to reach my field sites by sunrise. I do not imagine hitting a deer or other wild critter would be anything less than terrifying at those speeds. However, if the speed limits were anything like they are back home, I could have added upwards of an hour to my travel time. So, I'm very thankful for these higher speed limits.

2. Drive Texas Friendly
This one kinda goes along with the previous one, but I feel it should be separate. Plus, this is my list. Where we would have just a strip of shoulder on the side of the road, here in Texas they use it as a part of the road. I like to call it the "turn shoulder". For instance, if I were to turn right into our apartment complex and notice there is traffic behind me, I can get onto the "turn shoulder" to get out of the way before I cause the people behind me to slow down or hit their breaks. Also on highways, if I needed to turn onto the road but there is traffic coming, I can make my turn into the "turn shoulder" wait till the traffic is past to merge into the correct lane. Or if I am going much slower than someone behind me, I can merge into the "turn shoulder" so they can pass me in the lane and not have to pass in the oncoming traffic lane. What an amazing idea! I think this should be implemented everywhere!

3. Beer

When in Rome, right? I have tried the "official" beer of Texas, Lone Star, which you can't buy anywhere other than Texas and I have also tried almost every kind of Shiner made. I can now attest from experience that I am not that big a fan of Lone Star. A bottled 6 pack is about the same price as a PBR 6 pack of tall boys, and we all know I love some PBR. I can also now attest from experience that I really like Shiner Light Blonde, Shiner Premium, and Shiner Bock. I have tried others, but I wouldn't buy them again. They are just not my cup of tea, or bottle of beer as it were.

4. No tax on groceries
What?!? Coming from Alabama, I had only heard rumors of such things. It's real people and it's awesome! Granted, somethings are a little more than they were back home. But then again, a lot of the prices are comparable to back home. Mix that with my new found love of Kroger, their coupons I can load to my rewards card through their mobile app, and their rewards on gas and I'm in freaking savings heaven! This summer they gave double gas rewards for shopping Friday-Sunday and we were saving upwards of 0.60/gallon!

5. History
Texas is a state that is very proud of it's heritage. Just on my little tiny campus I've seen two historical markers. I can't begin to put a number to the amount of signs for historical markers I passed heading to Louisiana during field season. You could spend hours reading historical markers downtown, but then again we are living in the oldest city in Texas.

I'm sure there are more than these five things, but five seems a good number to stop on. I'll limit the 'things I don't love about Texas' post to five as well. If I can manage five other than my friends and family don't live here, that is.

Broke toe update: My toe was most definitely broken. I couldn't wear flip flops for over a week and even now if I do I have to be careful if my toe touches anything other than my shoe. But, the swelling and bruising is gone and it doesn't look too jacked up.

Serenity update: The special prescribed food took a little while to work it's magic, but we had managed days then weeks at a time with no urinating on the floor. However, she has peed on the floor 3 out of the last 4 days. I'm hoping today's was cause I didn't let her in from out on the porch when she needed to. I'm continuing to monitor her though and I even note the days she has went outside of the litter box on a white board.

We have an interesting day coming up Saturday as we will be going to an all day class that is required to have a concealed carry permit in Texas. I know those of you from back home are confused at this, but I will explain more in a later post. For now, here are some pictures I've taken since the last post. Enjoy and blessed be.

Texas doesn't play around with their rain clouds. These were amazingly beautiful.

Morning sun rays on one of mine and Luna's hikes at the Gayla Mize Gardens. This is now one of my most favorite pictures.

Gracie

Gracie was one the many pet names I had growing up. The only difference between it and the others was I came by it honestly. 

Clumsiness runs in my family. Well, at least my female cousins and I are by far the most clumsy of the bunch. I pretty much have scars on almost every part of my body from some accident or another. This includes my face. 

Last night I had another case of the clumsies when I was walking to my side of the bed from turning off the light. My middle toe hit the leg of the bed and either the bed or my toe make a cracking sound. It hurt so bad, I immediately put my face into the mattress to holler in pain. My hollering eventually turned into hysterical laughter cause that's what we crazy clumsy people do to push through the pain. I swear if I ever have children, everyone in the delivery room is going to be confused. 

I eventually pulled myself into the bed and turned on the flashlight of my phone to look at my toe. It was already swole a little but it didn't look broke. So I tried I curl my toes. If you can move it then it's not broke, right? At least that was what I was taught growing up. I tried some more and eventually it didn't hurt to curl, but hurt like a mother fucker when I straightened them out. (And yes, this kind of pain warrants a mother fucker or two.) 

Taking Luna out to potty this morning proved difficult in flip-flops, but the swelling was about the same and there was only a slight lavender hue to the toe joint. So, I put on my tennis shoes to go to school and even walked across campus to get Panda Express for lunch with some lab mates. We had been planning on Panda Wednesdays for a week now and I was too excited to pass up the first one. One of my lab mates found some ace tape in her desk (from a previous owner) so I taped my toe to the larger neighbor to help stabilize it. Boy did that feel so much better! I even passed my step goal for the day! 

However, come 230 my tennis shoe had to go. Every step hurt. I only put my shoe back on to go to the bathroom (gross) and even left the building for the day with my socks on. Buddy had to cut the tape of my toes cause I couldn't stand the pain of unraveling it myself. Quick aside here: I know this all makes me sound like a pansy, but I seriously have a high pain threshold. Usually I can push on through. But this, this is brutal. Ok, back to what I was saying. Once the tape was off, it was evident that my toe is broken. It's not black and blue yet. Just still this nice dark lavender at my top toe knuckle and down the side of my toe. So I've got a few days of hobbling ahead and it's really quite pitiful. Even for a Gracie like me. 

Serenity update: Ne-Ne finished her meds last week on the 3rd and we had two days of no peeing on the floor afterwards. I was about ready to call the vet again when the urinating started again, but I thought maybe I need to give the special food more time to work. I have now converted the white board on the fridge to a pee chart so I can keep up with pee free days. I've also been cleaning the litter box everyday to keep up with how many times she has peed in a day. So far it's been twice. I don't know if that's good or bad, but the monitoring will continue until it becomes as frequent as it was when we took her to the vet. The food is making her super soft an I don't know if it's related or not, but she's also been super talkative. She even woke me up this morning. 

I don't have many pictures to share from last time I posted, but here they are. Blessed be and have a great week!!

Jungle kitty

This little male ruby-throated hummingbird aggressively defends the two feeders I have on the porch. 

Serenity

For about a week our cat, Serenity, was urinating outside of the litter box at least once a day. Her diet and eating hadn't changed and I had not changed the type of litter used in the box. I tried every thing to figure out what was wrong. A towel under the mat, more litter, less litter, more frequent cleaning, mopping the entire area with lemon cleaner, cleaned the entire box... Nothing helped. I tried catching her in the act, but she's so damn secretive that every time I went in the bathroom (where her box is) she would run out if she wasn't already in the box. The only thing left was there was something medically wrong.

So we took her to the same vet that saw Georgie. They were so nice to us while we were there with her and even sent a condolence card, so they have earned my patronage. Both the techs and the vet started out saying it was most likely behavioral, I should clean the litter box more often, and maybe even get a larger box. 1) she has never done this before this often. Sure, when I was gone for practicum she got mad and peed on the mat. But every day for a week straight and NOTHING in her environment has changed? 2) we have left for several days with no one to clean the box and this hasn't happened. Plus that was with 2-3 cats using the same box. AND I was cleaning it every day for the whole week she was doing this? I don't think that was an issue. 3) a bigger box? She has an extra large box. Again 3 cats would use this one box and be ok. 

To rule out any medical issues, they said they would run an urinalysis. Three and a half hours later my poor xenophobic kitty still had just decided to pee. They found a little blood in her urine and her bladder was swollen, so we were sent home with some medicine she needed to take two times a day and a prescription food. 

After holding her down to force medicine in her mouth, watching her not giving two shits cause she's so stoned, we have had 5 days of no peeing out of the box!! This mama couldn't be happier. I do have to say, I also felt relieved that I wasn't doing something wrong and my baby was actually sick as I thought she was. 

The food costs so much more than we have been spending, but she's not eating it as fast (she is eating it! But won't eat canned food) and if it keeps her healthy I'll be happy. 

Here are some pics from the week. Enjoy and blessed be! 

Only a day later and feeling so much better!

Luna was so glad to have her sister home!

Stoned kitty t-Rex sleeping. 

Wow. I kinda fell off the face of the Earth for a while huh? Let's see, last I posted anything was the 4th of July and here it is nearing the end of August. A little and a lot has happened since then.

Our friends Brittany and Tia made the long trek from Alabama to spend a few days with us. We were able to show them some of the cool stuff around town, taste some of they yummy food, and use the opportunity to be tourists ourselves. Although we have been here for six months, we really haven't ventured out very much. It was pretty neat to learn some of the history of this little town.

Other than our visitation adventures, it's pretty much been the same 'ol same 'ol 'round here. Most days I feel like I'm running around in circles with my project, but I know I'm doing it to myself. I'll be reading along, making headway and then BAM! I've got to see if there are any other articles about this topic. Next thing I know it's almost 5 and I've managed to download 20 more articles to read. Same thing the next day only it'll be, "what if I did this?" or "maybe I could run a chi-square test on this data" and next thing I know it's almost 5 and I've managed to give myself a huge headache and realize that everything I did was completely unnecessary. This week was, "let's cut birds with a distance greater than blah amount" and "let's do a third cut with a distance greater than this other amount", then "well, now I have to do corrected occupancy sheets for each of those", followed by "well I guess I just can't count so I need to recount the first list so I can correctly count the second and third lists." Hi, my name is Libby and I like to create more work for myself. Oh yea, and I can't count.

On the bright side of this week, Buddy had an interview and had a drug screen. Granted he is not sure how many people this company is looking to hire and there were multiple people interviewed, but we gotta hold on to hope.

This coming week I start my first classes as a grad student! I'm kinda stoked cause I'll get into a better and earlier routine. As the temperatures started getting higher I've been slacking on my walking and I can tell. I don't have as much energy as I did when I got back from field season and my clothes that were starting to get loose on me have now started to "shrink" again. It doesn't help that I pulled something in my back this past Friday (now a week ago) during my stressful tirade around campus trying to figure out why I was not "meeting requirements" for my financial aid that would be coming in the following Monday. I've been trying to take it easy, but that is not easy for me since I don't like to sit still. It's MUCH better than it was during the week! Getting up still hurts, but once I'm up and moving I'm ok. Hopefully with this new schedule (8am classes Tuesday and Thursday) I'll be able to get up earlier on the other days and get back to my hiking routine. I know Luna would be thankful.

I've also got to get back into blogging again. I've got some ideas floating around in my head such as "bird of the week" posts where I blog info about certain birds of interest, or even "animal of the week" with information on animals in the news, or some combination of the two. Also, I'm going to get a little more personal on here. Right now it's pretty black and white and there are a lot of things that I would like to share that weigh on my heart and that other people can relate to.

As per usual, here are some photos from the week...er month between posts. Blessed Be.

"We'll be ok. I do this all the time."

One of the many historical houses in Nacogdoches.
This one is also a B&B

The elusive yellow-billed cuckoo and I have developed a relationship.

Weekends are so hard here

leaf-footed bug in the rain

It only took 3 years, but they are so sweet to each other now!

Maybe because it isn't a "light" beer, but it's decent.

kitty model, Serenity

August sunset in Nacogdoches

Wish you were here

It has now been five months since we made the move from Alabama to Texas and today is the day of the biggest party of the year back home. While we had offers to help us out to get to it, I turned them down. I don't like accepting gifts, especially cash, that I feel like I don't deserve. Call me crazy (I know I am), but that's just how I feel.

So the last couple of days I've been feeling pretty sorry and just down right depressed. I knew we really don't money to splurge right now, but I needed an adventure. Just something to get us both out of the apartment, into the fresh (cooler than normal) air, and do something together. So we played the hand of god driving game until we were still in Nacogdoches after over half an hour. Then we just decided to drive down 59 until we used up a quarter tank of gas and had a drive thru lunch. 

On the way back, Buddy wanted to find lake Nacogdoches. We are looking for signs for where the lake is (we used NO GPS today!) and a memory pops into my head like it was just yesterday. 

"The roads are getting more hilly and twisty. That's a sure sign we are getting close to water." Buddy gives me a "yeah right" look and I explain that's what my grandfather used to tell me when we were headed to lake Martin and I would ask if we were there yet. "Are you sure he didn't just say that to make you shut up and quit asking him questions?" I concede that it was a possiblity, but soon enough there was a sign for the turn for the lake! Boom! Grandaddy for the win! 

I've been thinking of him lately and I'm not sure if it's just because of the 4th (his favorite holiday behind Christmas), or I've been stuck head down in my work, or cause I've been missing everyone from back home. Whatever the case might be, I thought it was neat enough to write about. 

Here's some photos of the week. I hope everyone has a great and safe holiday weekend and drink a beer for me! 

4th of July moon rise. 

4th of July sunset

Random county road the signs told us to go down during our hand of god game today. 

I asked for a small water for Luna, but the sweet people at Whataburger gave us a medium (yes that's a medium!!) and a small dish for her to drink from. This was easier.