WE HAVE INTERNET...FINALLY!!!!!

After feeling fairly isolated from the rest of the world, we now have internet! To celebrate, I am giving all my friends and family out there a virtual tour of our new home. I regret that we don't have a good picture of the master bedroom yet, but it doesn't look very different from what it looked like in Abilene. Only now it has two huge closets, a connecting bathroom, and tons of space. Come on in!

Obviously, this is the front of the house. Boring, I know. But I just couldn't start a tour without showing this part.





This is our formal dining room. I really love this room. Growing up, we always had the piano in our dining room so that dad, Bro, and I could entertain our guest immediately following the meal. I've always wanted to continue this tradition. Unfortunately, we do not have chairs yet for our table, but I'm working on that.

I was not able to fit the whole kitchen into this picture, but I did get half. The other half is just the stove top, fridge, and some more cabinets. This will probably come as a shock to most of the people who know me at all, but I actually have enough cabinets that I have one empty shelf! It's a miracle.


This is the first half of our living room. It consist of a futon for reading that is placed directly under a sky-light. I've already spent many hours reading by the natural light. It is one of my favorite places in the house. Also, we have a really nice little bar here. I'm also working on tracking down some bar stools.

This is the second half of our living room. Our furniture actually fits in this place. And, thanks Mom, for the lamps. They look great!





We have a fireplace!!! I've always wanted one of this, but this is my first time to have one. Dad's painting is the perfect piece for the mantle.







This is the guest bathroom. If you come to visit me, you will take care of your business here.











This is the guest bedroom. The quilt was a gift from my grandmother when I graduated from high school. It won the blue ribbon at a county fair. I love this quilt.










Here, of course, is my art studio. This picture was taken before I started pursuing three separate art projects. It is now a disaster as all art studios should be. hehe.






This is our two car garage and our basket ball goal. So, Bro, are you ready to clobber me and BJ at a game of b-ball?










Finally, this is a picture of our new ice maker. It is really awesome having an unlimited supply of ice.

Six Months Old

Gus is officially a half of a year old. We have made it a tradition to take a picture of me and Gus in this or similar poses the twentieth of each month. So here is his cuteness today. Enjoy. I know I will.

Below is one of our other attempts at this pose (which is getting progressively more difficult as he gets increasingly more massive). In this one, Gus demonstrates his uncanny ability at being a mess. It's charming.

One year

Here's what I thought one year anniversaries looked like: chocolate, flowers, sweet cards, and a private corner in an expensive restaurant. Here's what my one year anniversary looked like: BJ woke me up by jumping on me and yelling "happy anniversary!!!" way to loudly, we thawed out the top layer of our wedding cake and barely got down one bite at breakfast, we went to Hastings after church to reserve our copy of Harry Potter (the gift we agreed to get ourselves for lasting longer than most celebrity marriages), and than during the evening (the evening I thought I would spend at a nice restaurant), we went to a party with about twenty-five senior citizens and ate sandwiches (tonight was our going away party at Nugent). So, needless to say, it wasn't what I expected. But why should it be? Nothing else this year has been what I expected.

On top of the unpredictable nature of this past year, today was representative of our first year of marriage in several other ways. We laughed a lot today, and we got in a minor argument that I really wanted to stay mad at him over, but forgot about it within the hour. We settled for a cheap present because money is tight (again). We fought nerves over our upcoming life change while being sincerely happy that we are together for our life changes. We held hands in church, and wrestled with each other on our way home. But best of all, we spent it with our family at Nugent, the family we weren't expecting a year ago, we stumbled upon because we need a hundred bucks to pay some bills, and we are now trying to figure out how to leave.

I'm sitting here wondering why God chose to plop such an amazing gift in our laps, a church that loves us, and then send us away only eight months later. Tonight after dinner, several of the church members told BJ what a wonderful preacher he is, and how he should find I congregation in our new home area that needs him and not waste his gift. They were sincere, and I have seen many of them shed tears over losing a preacher that they had come to love so much. I turned to my brother and said, "A year ago, I married a preacher, and I didn't even know it."

A year ago from today, I cried as my father and I prepared to walk down the aisle because I knew I was having to leave in a certain sense the family who had raised me and nurtured me into the woman who was to become BJ's wife. Tonight I am crying because I'm having to leave another family, only this time, I'm not sure what comes next or what they have raised and nurtured me for. All I know is that BJ and I are a little better for having met them, and we will never, never forget them.

#2 on life goals list

A couple of months ago, I did a post on my ten life goals. Number 2 on the list was to start a small business. Well, what better time to attempt to accomplish a challenging life goal than when you move 200 miles a start fresh in a new place? I have been working the past few days on launching a small business in which I will teach small art classes, private art lessons, and private piano lessons. I now have a website for Ms Kalyn's Art School, and I have contacted two home schooler organizations in an attempt to get some students.

After working four weeks (I know, a monstrously long time) at a job that does not in any way involve art, I'm starting to remember why I switched majors three years ago: I don't thrive without art. I make it okay, yes. But there's no thriving going on until I come home at five and launch into designing wedding invitations for a friend or practicing the piano for my sister-in-law's wedding. I've decided to go ahead and take the chance on making a living out the things I love to do. BJ and I (and Sienna and Gus and Tony) may starve for a few months, but, hey, isn't that what artists do best?

Things I can already tell I'm going to miss about Abilene

Well, it has finally set in that we are going to be leaving Abilene by the end of the month. I really didn't believe it a week ago when we first got the news about the job, but after a trip to Frisco and some time to unwind, I realize it is in fact true. BJ and I are both excited about starting this new chapter in our life, but here are some of the things I know I'm going to miss (in no particular order).

-Little Panda. The best Chinese food on earth.

-Late night trips to Walmart with Bro. And especially the part where we wake up the next morning only to realize we forgot to take the groceries out of the car. How many gallons of milk have we ruined that way?

-Nugent. Yeah, we most definitely cried the entire church service this Sunday. I actually wasn't sure if BJ would make it through his sermon.

-$500 a month for rent. Not happening in Frisco.

-Jack and Jill's apple fritters. Krispie Kremes has nothing on this local chain.

-Fat Tuesday. I don't know what I'll do without my weekly dose of crazy girl talk, home-cooked food, and chocolate.

-Josh and Allie. They've been BJ's friends forever, but strangely enough, I feel like I've known them for just as long. You just can't beat old friends.

-Monks. Iced tuxedo mocha and talking with Allie and Em...need I say more.

-Driving by the place where I got married everyday.

-ACU. Parts of the college drive me nuts, but overall, it was a great four years.

-Being close to family. We're only two hours from my parents, and both of our siblings are within five blocks.

-But most of all, I'll miss living in a town that is on the top of every alphabetically organized list. This is surprisingly convenient.

"BJ, I would like to formally extend an offer of employment for the 2007-2008 school year"

After a year of job applications and rejection letters, the unreachable was reached today. BJ got a job at Legacy Christian Academy in Frisco, TX. I think that at the moment, we are both stunned. To be perfectly honest, I'm crying while I write this blog post. I'm so happy for my husband. He has worked so hard the past year at a job he didn't really want to do with people who weren't always nice, and he has done it all for his family. Now, he's going to get to see what it is like to have a career. And he'll get to teach kids about the subject he is most passionate about.

If I have learned one thing since leaving Menard for ACU, it is that there is really no point in trying to predict life. I never expected to marry someone six years older than me (and a Yankee!) at such a young age. I never expected to graduate with a degree in art (and absolutely love it). I never expected to live with two dogs and a cat. And I NEVER expected to move to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. But God is funny, so oh well.

When I started this blog, I wrote this statement in the "about me" section: "I see BJ and myself as a team traveling on some bazaar journey trying to figure out what God is up to and how we fit into it." At the time, I thought it was a fairly cheesy statement, but one that really captured how I viewed our life. Now, I feel like we've come to a very significant turn in the road, and I'm really excited to see where it takes us.

I got peed on this morning.

This morning, the alarm rang at 6:40, I got a plastic cup, walked out to the yard with Gus, and filled my cup up with Gus's urine. A great way to start the day. Some say it's even better than Wheaties. Unfortunately, in my groggy stupor, my hand wavered, and I got a tad bit on me.

On my way to work, I dropped off the urine sample. I am extremely, extremely happy to announce that the sample came back normal. Gus doesn't have diabetes insipidus. Yay for high gravity indexes (whatever that means).

Besides being told my dog is a healthy (stupid) puppy, my favorite part of the morning was when all the nurses at the vet asked, "Oh! Was it hard to get? Did you have to chase him around all morning?" Apparently, this is what normal dogs do when you try to get a urine sample. But not Gus. Anytime Gus pees, it's about the same: He stands normally and looks strait ahead. When I was retrieving the sample this morning, the only variation to his routine was that he looked up at me with a look that said, "This is strange." Basically, taking a urine sample from Gus is about as difficult as getting a water sample from your sink faucet.

So to sum it all up, it's been an additional $50 later, and the diagnosis remains the same: Gus is an idiot.

Taking a short moment at work to write a cheesy post

I just received a call from BJ. He was walking to the office where he will have yet another job interview, and he was feeling sick with nerves. This time, the interview is a little different from the bagillion other ones we've had in the past year. With every interview, we have prayed and pleaded that he would get the job so we could stay in Abilene and be comfortable. This time, the job isn't in Abilene, and I don't have a clue what I want to happen or what would be best for us. I want BJ to have a job he likes, but neither one of us want to leave Nugent. So while BJ is walking to todays interview, I'm taking a moment to say a prayer I probably should have been saying all along this past year when he was walking to interviews: Your will be done. It just took me a year to figure this one out.

A house divided

Gus and Sienna are not only completely different in appearance,, buy they have entirely opposite personalities as well. And, ironically, their owners are also polar opposites at times, as I was reminded tonight by an incident in our bathroom.

Being at work all day has made me exceptionally clingy with Gus here lately, so when I'm home, Gus and I can usually be found doing the same thing: he'll be laying on his back while I'm rubbing his belly. Embarrassingly, I tend to baby talk to Gus during this process. I know that's stupid, but his cuteness makes it impossible for me to keep the mumbo-jumbo from flowing out of my mouth.

So tonight, Gus and I were sitting on the bathroom rug doing our routine while BJ was brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed. After spitting out his toothpaste, BJ looks down at me and Gus and says, "It is quite possible you are going to drive me crazy when we have kids." He then looks at Sienna and says, "Don't worry Sienna, you don't have to be stupid to be loved," and he started petting her.

At this point, I'm getting slightly irritated because he called my dog dumb (a fitting label, but it stings none the less), so I say, "You're just jealous you don't have this kind of a relationship with you dog."

Sienna, a picture of pure-bred, Labrador elegance, is now lovingly looking up at BJ with her front two paws meekly crossed. BJ says, "We're too elegant for that."

I wanted to retaliate, but I was currently sitting on a bathroom rug rubbing the belly of a giant oaf. And, of course, Gus chose this opportune moment to start rapidly kicking his hind leg (he's ticklish). So me and my mutt remained silently on the bathroom rug while our more elegant counter parts went to more refined places like...I don't know...the living room.

Prayer Requests

I just found out a moment ago that one of our church members at Nugent has been diagnosed with cancer. His name is Richard and his wife is Ada. The cancer appears to be in a film surrounding his brain. I know that his family, both biological and congregational, would appreciate prayers.

Also, on a less urgent note, I found out a few hours after I did my last post that Gus is not out of danger after all. The vet is afraid that he might have an extremely rare disease called diabetes insipidus. I realize he is just a dog, but I really love that mutt. We won't know for about a week and a half if he has this disease.

Diagnosis: Stupidity

Gus has always LOVED water, but this past week his adoration of H2O got a little worrisome when he drank so much two mornings in a row that he threw up. Thursday, BJ booked Gus an appointment to check things out since over-consumption of water can be a sign of diabetes. Unfortunately, BJ had to stay home this morning to wait on our furniture to be delivered, so it was just me and Gus on what turned out to be a very interesting trip to the vet.

When I got there, I of course had to explain to the vet what was wrong: "My dog drinks too much water, so my husband thought I should bring him to the vet, but I think he's just stupid." The vet just kind of laughed and said we would do a blood test and a urine sample. The blood test went smoothly, and it was then time for the urine sample. They sent me out with a Tupperware container to walk Gus around until he peed. We walked around, and Gus eventually went number 2, but as far as pee went, he was as dry as the Sahara. I finally brought him in and said I thought I needed some water for him to drink. The vet brought a bowl of water, laid it by Gus, and left.

Twenty minutes later, the vet returns. Embarrassed, I look up at him and say, "I just brought a dog to you for drinking to much water, but he's refusing to drink any water this morning." That's right, Gus just wanted to lay down and rest. He didn't want water.

The vet showed me the results on Gus's blood test, and he is as healthy as he can be. I'm supposed to drop by some pee later. According to the vet, dogs are much like humans in that they can have strange obsessions with random things. So $150 later, I have now learned that I have a dog who has a strange obsession with water. That's it. That's the problem. My dog is an idiot.

My favorite part of the whole horrific morning was when we walked back to the waiting room. There were a lot of dogs in today sitting in the waiting area. One of the dogs, who according to the nurse had been fine with all of the other dogs, freaked out when he saw Gus because he didn't know what the big black fury thing was. This sent all the dogs into a barking fury, including mine. The nurse started laughing and yelling to the other freaked-out dog, "I promise, Gus is a dog." Apparently, me dog looks more like a monster off of Sesame Street than a dog. Thus ended the my most embarrassing trip to the vet's office.

Entering the mind of a fluffy puppy

What Gus thinks during his nightly brushing session:

"You can brush me all you want, but you will never take my dignity or my tree bark."

What Gus thinks during his monthly picture-posed-with-mom-holding-me-like-a-stuffed-animal:

"I hate being this cute."

He may be a preacher, but he can still be a jerk

BJ and I say a prayer together every night before we go to sleep. Here is a short, preacherly moment from last night.

BJ: Do you want me to do the prayer tonight?
Kalyn: Sure.
(after about 3 seconds of pious silence before the prayer begins)
Make it a good 'un.
(me laughing at my own cleverness)
BJ: Dear God, please give my wife a better personality.

New Job!

Well, for the first time ever, BJ and I are financially somewhat stable. That's right, I got a job. I am the new office manager at Veteran's Garage Door. Allie is training me for the first two weeks, and we're having a pretty good time so far.

With two people working, there is a whole lot of down time, but we find ourselves busy pretty, also. Here are some of my favorite moments from my first two days:

-Early Wednesday afternoon, Allie and I decided it was time for me to do my first phone answering. The phone rang, we both looked at me, and Allie said to go ahead. I picked up the phone, and...nothing. It was one of those fluke calls where there is no one on the phone.

-I spent a little time yesterday calling applicants to tell them the officer manager position had been filled. I know, it's a little bit evil.

-This afternoon was REALLY slow, so we are both have our own ways to pass the time. One way is simply by drinking a ridiculous amount because its something to do. Of course, this leads to a lot of bathroom time. As some sort of test (mainly trying to make the time pass), Allie decided she would not go to the bathroom until 4:oo. At 3:50, her nose randomly started bleeding, and she was forced to run to the bathroom. When you're really bored, these things are actually entertaining.

-I think my favorite memory, though, happened before my first day of work on Wednesday. I squatted down on the floor to ask Gus if he would still love me after I left him home all day. His answer was simple. He rubbed his nose against mine. That was some ooey-gooey preciousness.

I'm sure this new job will generate many blog posts. The guys I work with are hilarious, and, let's face, garage doors are a fascinating subject.

Shopping like a grown up

When my brother graduated from ACU three years ago, my parents got him a lab top since he was planning on going to grad school and he like computer-type stuff. Me, not so much. I'm NOT going to grad school, and I do NOT like computers. But they did want to get me an equal size gift, so I got money to go buy a couch for my home.

I've been researching online for a couple of weeks, so when Memorial Day rolled around, I was ready to go out shopping. I had figured out online that if I was careful, I could probably get a five piece living room set for the money I had. Mom came up to help out, and we pretty much figured out the whole furniture thing in the first two hours and spent the following six hours shopping for what really matters: clothes. After Mom left, I took BJ to Ashley Furniture to show him his choices, he fell in love with one set (basing his decision on which is was more comfortable), and we bought it.

This was really exciting. We are coming up on our one year anniversary, and we are still having a bunch of firsts. This was our first big purchase. We were actually pretty giddy on the way home from the store. It feels like we may actually be grown ups, but I'm still not sure.

Thoughts on dreams, death, and Gus's messed-up hair

Saturday morning I woke up and started piddling around the house cleaning as always. Suddenly, while making the bed, I was struck by an image of a dream I had had earlier that morning. The more I thought about it, the more the dream came back to me. It went something like this...

I was at Grandma Farr's farm with Gus sitting on the swing in her back yard. Grandma came out and saw Gus for the first time (she only saw him in pictures before she died). She said, "He looks dirty", and I said, "He needs brushed." She went inside and looked around the house for old brushes. She brought me out a few old broken brushes and we brushed Gus together.

If Grandma had ever met Gus, this is exactly what would have happened. She was always working, always cleaning. And she was a bit of a pack rat, so she would have had plenty of brushes hidden away for Gus.

After the dream, I was a little thrown off for a couple of days. It was the first time I had dreamed about her since her passing, and she was very real and present in the dream. I remember when Grandma Pierce died, and I would dream about her, I loved hearing the sound of her voice and laughter so much. I felt that same way Saturday. When someone special is lost, I believe that dreams about those loved ones are one of the most amazing gifts God gives us. For a short moment, I got to hear her and see her and be reminded of her unique quirks. It was a very good dream, although I wouldn't have minded it lasting a little bit longer.

I have to go, I have to go, I have to go...!

Gus is by far the easiest baby animal I have ever raised. He's calm, hasn't been very sickly, and is actually really good with guests. But he does have one weakness: he's had a hard time figuring out a way to communicate with BJ or I that he needs to go out. He knows he isn't supposed to relieve himself inside, so he usually just holds everything in until he has to trickle a little, and BJ and I stumble upon the drips and run him outside as fast as we can. Needless to say, this isn't a very effective method.

The real problem driving this whole issue is simply that Gus doesn't whine. Sienna is the world's biggest whiner. She whines when she thinks she might detect a trickle coming on, so we always know when we need to take her out. But Gus doesn't want to inconvenience us. Or rather, his intelligence hasn't caught up with his bladder.

Yesterday, though, for the first time ever, Gus let me know he had to go. Maybe he's actually the smart one and has been doing this for a while, but I just figured out yesterday what the I-have-to-pee signal is. This is how it goes: Gus runs up to me, turns in a circle, sits down very quickly, and then stares at me with unusual alertness. If I don't catch on soon enough, he repeats the turn-sit-stare process.

I wouldn't call this new method brilliant or even practical, but if this is what Gus has come up with, I have little choice but to take him out everytime he turn, sits, and stares alertly at me. Somehow, the inaneness of the whole process fits Gus, who is currently lying next to my desk chair panting loudly with his purple tongue hanging out, as always.

Graduation Weekend

Since Thursday, BJ's parents have been down from their home in Illinois to see my sister-in-law, Alison, and I graduate. BJ and I have both been blessed with spectacular in-laws, so we have a great time when they come down. Here are some of the memories from this weekend.

Friday night, I had BJ's parents, Alison, and her fiance Breandan over to our place for dinner. It was my first time having all of them for a meal, so I had a blast preparing everything. We had this laof of bread (it was my first time to braid bread!!!), clam chowder, salad, and hot milk cake with ice cream.

This is me and Alison and graduation. Thunderstorms cam right at the end of graduation, so there was no recessional. It was nothing short of a disaster trying to find family and friends afterwards.

On Monday morning, BJ and I took his parents around campus. I got some really good portraits of them at Jacob's dream. What I want to do is get portraits of my parents at the same place and frame large prints of each for our house.

Last but not least, here is a very characteristic moment with BJ's dad captured by BJ's mom. BJ's dad get a little camera happy any time he get's his camera out, so while we were at the sculpture, he was trying to get all sorts of crazy pictures. Classic.

When I grow up...

A couple of weeks ago, my brother tagged me on his blog to do a top-ten goals list, and I figure that the night before my graduation from college is a good time to do this. I've thought a lot since he did his own list about what my goals are in life, and I soon realized that I am not a very ambitious person. It was really, really difficult to come up with ten. So I just tried to picture in my head what I want to see if I could see into the future. Here's what I saw in no particular order.

1. Kids. I'm the world's single worst babysitter EVER. But, in defiance of all logic, I still really want to be a mom. I think it is because I saw the relationship my mom had with her mom and I see the way Bro and I now are with our mom, and I know that I'm supposed to take part in that tradition of motherhood. When I was a kid, I played with baby dolls all the time, so I guess it shouldn't surprise me that motherhood became a part of my list so quickly.

2. Own a small business. I know that if I really want to do art for a living, I pretty much have to start a business of my own because there just aren't many good jobs out there. Also, I think I would like the independence of being a small-business owner.

3. Travel. I want to leave the U.S. at least once. My preference is Europe because that is were the art is I love so much. BJ, Bro, and I are already scheming towards this end.

4. Embody hospitality. Here's were I get hoaky. I want to create an environment in my home where people feel welcome. This means several things to me. Good smells coming from the kitchen, a pleasant but not extravagant decor, lots of heirlooms and things from the past in each room, art, the piano playing, and most importantly, loving and welcoming spirits inside (other than the dogs. I'm talking about BJ and me). BJ and I love having quests in our home, and I want to be the kind of hostess where people love coming to my house.

5. Maintaining my weight. I don't want to be one of those women who says "Now that I'm married, I don't have to worry about my body." Avoiding the American obesity crisis is important and really difficult for me. Important because I want to feel good about myself, be healthy, and look good for BJ. Difficult because weight problems run in the family and I love to cook and eat. This is both a goal I don't like to see on this list and one that is very important to me.

6. Go Green. I think that as a Christian, it is only right to be sensitive to the needs of the environment God has blessed us with. But I'm not very good at doing this. I think that this mainly stems from ignorance. I want to become more informed about how to take care of the environment and then implement the information.

7. Spend daily time with the arts. All art is intriguing to me, but sometimes laziness convinces me that TV is more entertaining than painting or drawing or playing the piano. I want to become more disciplined about daily devoting myself to the arts I love so that I can continually improve.

8. Give personal gifts to those I love. This goal probably sounds a little wierd, but let me explain. During the days following grandma's death, it occured to me that every single member of her huge family had items made from her hands that they will always cherish. She crocheted place mats, afgans, and hot pads, made quilts, sewed clothes and aprons, and did countless other personal gifts for Christmas, birthdays, graduations, and marriages. In fact, one day when I was taking a short moment to sit down and mourn her passing, I realized that the blanket I had wrapped myself in to cry was made by her hands. I want to spread that kind of tangible love to my friends and family, ecspecially when I have kids.

9. Have a healthy marriage. Here's what I'm hoping for: thirty years from now, the church where BJ and I are attending decides to do a marriage class, and the most natural choice for who to teach this class is BJ and I. There are going to be a lot of ups and downs, but I just hope that we keep steady, always keep the romance, and grow in our faith together as well as separatly.

10. Something about God and faith goes here... but I'm not sure what it is yet. I'm at a funny place in my life where I know faith is the most important thing, but I'm not sure why or how it is going to play out. I hate when twenty-somethings talk about how confused they are in their faith and yada-yada-yada. But, it is kind of complicated. I just hope that when the end comes, I've worked through some of the confusion to a state of peace and some sort of certainty that God is actually there.

A few random sayings from a uniquely random guy

Sometimes, I just don't know what to think of the things that come out of my husbands mouth. Here are a few from the past week.

This was said in Dairy Queen while BJ was trying to decipher what Sienna's image of herself might be:

"I'm Sienna...Invader of kitty litter boxes!!!"

The other night while I was getting sentimental about our upcoming move from our first apartment together where we have so many good memories, BJ gave me a bit of a reality check:

"Yes, but now we will make new memories in a less crappy house."

And, finally, I have no idea where this comment came from:

"Sex is one of the few things not made better by milk."

Mama's little bear

Some posts just don't need words.

Ah, how cute

Yesterday I was given the honor of being a University Scholar. At ACU, this is a pretty big deal, so I was excited. There were two students from my department, myself and Erin Holland.

The way these induction ceremonies usually go is something like this: the student name is called based on alphabetical placement of the departments, that student and the professor from their department who they chose stand up together, the professor places an Olympics-type medal around the students neck, and a minute or so long paragraph is read that was written by a member or members of their department's faculty.

These short readings are pretty consistent. They list accomplishments, significant volunteer work, publications, convention presentations, etc. But (big surprise), when the mc got to the art department, consistency was thrown to the road side. Instead of listing the cold hard facts of our accomplishments, they wrote about how Erin has more natural talent than any student they have ever had, and for me, well, let's just say this was the last sentence:

"One of Kalyn's professors said 'If I had a daughter, I would want her to be just like Kalyn.'"

And the audience went:

"Aaaahhhh."

I had to hold in my laughter over the ever-present quirkiness of my department. But I was also kind of proud of them. I don't know if it is the extra-long classes or the nature of our curriculum or just the incredibly good fortune of have exceptionally decent people as professors, but the art professors get to know their students way past the surface level. And yesterday, it showed. Of course, it had to be at the expense of my overall embarrassment of getting the only "ahh" at a fairly formal affair. I guess that when I leave this fine institution, I will always know that although I may not have been the best student ever, I was the one they wanted to adopt.

Finally, one of our pets is turning out to be a Christian

When BJ first got his job as pulpit minister at Nugent Church of Christ, I bought him a perfect, medium size Bible for preaching. Tonight, Gus ate the corner of the cover of this Bible when we weren't looking. According to BJ, Gus in hungering for the word of God.

Saying goodbye

It seems like a vast amount of time separates this post from my last one just over a week ago. A lot has happened. Thursday afternoon, my grandmother passed away. The past few days have been a time of mourning, fellowship with family, and remembering an amazing woman.

It has been five days, and I already miss her. The last three and a half weeks before her death were awful, so I'm glad she is finally at peace, but that comforting thought won't make the healing process go quicker or be easier for my family. Since my Grandma Pierce died eight years ago, the sharpness of the pain has dulled, but I still miss her at every milestone I face in my life and every time I sit down to play the piano, which she loved so much. Now, I will miss them both.

I would like to take a moment to write down a couple of my thoughts from the funeral today. First off, this was probably one of the only funerals I've ever been to where all of the glowing, wonderful things that were said about the deceased were actually true. The speakers talked about her embodiment of Proverbs 31, her extreme submissiveness and peacefulness, her love of her family, and, most of all, her reflexion of Christ in her life. And, yes, that is all true. All I could think while sitting in that church building with over one hundred of her decendents was that we had all given grandma a reason or two to not love us so much or disagree with us or feel disappointment in us, but her love never decreased when we screwed up. She sometimes thought my skirts were too short, and I occasionally slipped and said "crap" or "sucks" in front of her, but I haven't a single doubt that she loved me dearly. Two days before she came down with the illness that took her life, she heard that BJ and I were having some money problems, and she immediately wrote a check for a considerable sum of money. Although that check is minuscule compared to everything she gave me in the past twenty-two years, I will never forget that final gift.

On a lighter note, I had a haunting moment this morning where I wondered if perhaps the ghost of Grandma might be present. My grandmother believed in reproducing rapidly (obviously, she had eight kids). In fact, one of the last conversations we ever had was in her hospital room when I assured her BJ and I would have kids and got her approval on a couple name ideas BJ and I had. So when I was getting ready for her funeral this morning, it suddenly hit me that I had forgotten something very important last night. Birth control. My Sunday pill was still there. She would have loved that.

What makes Gus so dang wonderful

Today is our four week anniversary with Gus. It has been a fabulous four weeks full of laughter, barking, failed attempts at teaching Gus anything, and, unfortunately, more pee than I ever thought possible. As we are getting to know Gus, we are constantly learning more about his personality. Here are a few of my favorite memories or new discoveries about our precious puppy.

1. Gus is not so bright. When Emerald and I took our new puppy's to the vet last week, everyone was raving about how smart Emerald's puppy is. All anyone thought of to say about Gus is that he is fluffy. Yes, he is very fluffy.

2. Gus does not like leashes. During my fourth attempt to get him to walk on a leach, we put it on him and then decided to walk without holding the other end to see if we could just get him used to it. BJ, Sienna, and I took off walking to the park, but Gus did not follow. After noticing this, we peeked from around the corner of our house to see him sitting, leash attached, staring blankly up at the sky.

3. Gus likes water ALOT, so, therefore, Gus pees ALOT. After the rainstorm yesterday, Gus stood next to a puddle in our yard drinking water while he was simultaneously peeing. Great multi-tasking skills.

4. The old saying "His bark is bigger than his bite" was actually a prophesy of the birth of Gus. Most of the time, our house is filled with the barks and howls of Gus while he is playing with Sienna. But the second I come over to pet him or pick him up, he melts and is completely silent.

5. Gus is a little stinky. Turns out, you can use Febreeze on absolutely everything. Trust me, I have. The only think I haven't Febreezed in this house is Gus because BJ fears it would be a health hazard.

6. Gus is Sienna's new favorite toy. Also, Tony is pretty happy since Sienna now has significantly less time to eat him.

7. Everyday is the best day of Gus's life. And every time I come home is the best moment of the best day of his life. Apparently, Purina puppy chow is a smorgasbord of Prozac.

8. But best of all, Gus is really, really lovable. Just like the character he was named after, the fat and stupid mouse from Cinderella, there is no way a person can't love him. The other day while BJ and I were striving to watch TV over the noise of Gus barking while tugging on Sienna's ear, BJ looked down and said, "I'm really glad we have him." That pretty much sums it up.

Exhibit A

This week, I got in the photos of my senior art show, Exhibit A. I was really pleased with the quality of the photographs, so I thought I would post some pictures, ecspecially for people who wanted to see the show and couldn't come.

This is a photo of the pre-show preparations. Kayla and Emerald helped with a lot of the cooking. Kayla and her fiance, Darby, were helping me set up the refreshment's table just minutes before the door was open.

This is the group who I did the show with. Hanging above us is a whole bunch of A's. We each made about seven of these over the preceding week. The word Jazz is also in the grouping. This is because we had a live jazz band performing at the opening.

I love this photo because it is me talking to the person in the artwork we are standing in front of. A couple of summers ago I drew a charcoal picture of my brother, and it was in the show. So this is the model standing next to the artwork derived from him. Pretty cool.

I like this picture because I think it shows how chaotic the evening was. There were just tons of people there the whole time. Also, this is a good picture of what the gallery looked like as a whole.

This is my favorite picture from the evening. BJ and I are just standing around talking in the midst of the loud, busy room. I still can't really believed that I had a husband at the gallery opening. I never would have expected to have that sort of a guest at my senior show three years ago when I started my art degree. Life is funny.

An update

I got to see Grandma today, and it was really difficult seeing her in this condition. Just a week ago I was sitting at a wedding reception talking to her. Today, she looked fatigued, breathing was a huge labor for her, and she constantly feels uncomfortable. The doctor reconfirmed with our family this morning that Grandma does not want life support or the paddles used, and he took her out of ICU. At first, we thought it was a good sign that she was out of ICU, but it seems that he mainly did it so that the family is no longer limited by visitation hours. In other words, we're just waiting for something we don't want to acknowledge we're waiting for. She told Mom yesterday that she has lived a good life, she has been happy, and she is okay with going. Knowing she feels that way helps with letting go, but it is never easy.

Seeing Grandma's eight children anxiously sitting in the waiting room and holding her hand when they go to her room despite her very contagious pneumonia has really made an impression on me. The very people she brought into the world and now helping her leave. It is beautiful.

I would like to ask for prayers for our family. More specifically, I ask for prayers for my mother. She talked to Grandma everyday 2 or 3 times a day for as long as I can remember, and they have never lived more that 22 miles apart. Mom has quite an adjustment to make whether or not Grandma miraculously pulls through. For Grandma, I just pray for peace.

Craziness

Well, this is the longest I've ever gone without writing a post, but I have a good reason. I went to Menard (where there are hardly any working computers) for a little of my spring break, and my grandmother ended up getting severally ill, so I've been consumed with that situation. I just got a call from mom that Grandma is doing better, though. Our family would appreciate prayers, though.

I have enjoyed getting to see my family, but this has been a tough break. In fact, I think I can safely label Tuesday night one of the worst nights of my life. There where two contributing factors to the horribleness of this night. First, everyone (including the doctors) seemed pretty certain that Grandma was going to pass away that night, so I couldn't stop thinking about the phone ringing. And to make matters even worse, Gus had found the tuna and dry food of my parent's cat, Abby. And he ate it ALL. Basically, he had three days worth of food in an evening. I probably don't need to write this out for anyone, but he was really, really sick. So I was trying to run him outside the whole evening plus cleaning up things when we didn't make it out in time. Finally, at around 3:30 a.m., he and I got to sleep, but he woke up at 6:15 with the same problems. In fact, it never really ended until about noon.

End the end, though, the night turned out all right. Grandma made it through and is improving, and Gus finally got all that food out of his system.

It's a boy!

We have a new addition to the family. Meet Gus. He is an Old English Sheep Dog mix. And he is HUGE!!! The vet could not believe he is only about 6 weeks old. He is very fat, and very furry. BJ calls him a box with a head. I love him. This blog post is a dedication to our new baby and our two other crazy, loveable pets.

This is a close-up of the head part of the box. Pretty precious.

This is Gus's manhood. Ruff! (Uncle Bro's in the background. He is continually amazed at the cuteness and craziness of his niece and nephews.)

This is Gus and Sienna bonding. It was a short moment, but BJ managed to catch it in a picture. Most of the time, Gus is trying to play with Sienna while Sienna is trying to figure out why he is still in her home. She was really excited when we brought him home, but she has since realized he isn't leaving.

This is BJ and Tony recovering from the exhaustion of having a new puppy in the house. Before we got married, a lot of people doubted whether BJ and Tony could live together. Well, here's proof. They can.

What???

Today in my figure drawing class, we were drawing portraits of our model as always. Things were pretty calm and quiet. Then, all of the sudden, our model broke down crying and ran out of the room. She didn't ever come back, so we had to take turns modeling. It was one of those moments where I realized that although I may be a girl, I don't understand girls.

The Exciting Life of Tony

Tony spends approximately 20 percent of every day staring at the fish tank. That's a lot of time when you consider the 75 percent of his day that he knocks out with sleep, eating, and playing in his kitty litter box. This is pretty impressive considering most of the fish died two summers ago, so there are only five fish left in a huge tank. But, even so, Tony is absolutely enthralled with the almost non-existant activity in the tank. Yesterday, though, something happened. One of the fish boldly jumped above the surface of the water and made a splash. I could literally see Tony's world shake. In Tony's world, it was the equivalent of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's wedding in the life of the paparazzi. I was so happy for him in all of his little shaky, wide-eyed excitement. I'm pretty sure it was one of the best days of his life.

PUPPIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A family at our church recently discovered that their dog had given birth to what they thought were 11 puppies underneath their house. Since BJ and I are pretty much the only people at the church in good enough condition and small enough to crawl under a house, we were elected to go out this morning a help get the puppies. We had a blast.

I have never crawled underneath a house, and that was really fun, ecspecially since I'm short enough I could get on all fours while BJ and Reggi were scooting on their bellies. Once we got to the back corner, we started stacking puppies into a Rubbermaid container. We then scooted them out and rolled them in a wagon to a shed where we counted them: 6 girls and 6 boys. That's right: 12 PUPPIES!!! I was pretty excited, and continued to cuddle with them. Here are a few pictures of the adorable puppies...

My Valentine's Day card from BJ

After my last post, I thought that the Valentine's Day card BJ got me was particularly appropriate.

The outside read:
"I'm not interested in a nice, normal relationship..."

And when you opened it, it read:
"I like ours better!"

Perfect.

Wondering why I said "I do"

During the first year of a marriage, I think everyone has moments when they can't believe how lucky, and then there are those moments when they wonder what in the world they have gotten themselves into. Tonight was one of the latter.

BJ was playing World of Warcraft with his friends, which I generally don't mind, especially on days like today when I'm doing homework. But for some reason, I decided to measure his devotion to me today to see which is more important: WoW or me. So I did what any wife who has lost all self-respect would do: I flashed him like a beadless girl at Mardi Gras.

At first, it seemed that he hadn't even noticed. I got irritated, but when I look at the conversation block on his screen I saw that the situation was far worse that him not noticing; he had written, "hey guys, gotta go. Kalyn is showing me her boobies." All the guys wrote their haha's, and then a moment later BJ wrote "I just got slapped", to which Dave responded, "Note to self: get a wife. Minus the slap."

I guess I should be proud of myself that BJ definitely chose me over quests and trolls and the race to level 70. But when BJ returned, there were entirely too many jokes about boobies, more specifically my boobies. This was disturbing. When Dave beat BJ to level 70 by four minutes, Dave did a little good-natured gloating, to which BJ responded "but I hit level 70 with boobies". After this, Dave had to admit that he would "take level 70 with boobies any day over just level 70." This has officially been one of the more embarrassing nights of my life.

Marriage counseling on the road to DQ

Every Sunday evening after church, about eight to twelve of the congregation members pile up in cars and drive to the Dairy Queen in Anson. Despite the Super Bowl being on, tonight was no different from any other night, except that we got the whole DQ to ourselves.

On nights like tonight when we have a fairly big crowd, the women pile in one vehicle while the men go in another. This has become a time when I have gotten to observe these women the most and communicate with them more openly than we do in church pews before service starts. I love hearing them talk about their past lives and their plans for the week and how adorable their great-granddaughter was when family came to visit over the weekend. But the part that interests me the most at this point in my life is when they talk about their husbands.

They have all been with their men for more years than I've been alive, and the glimpses I see of their marriages are simultaneously inspiring and exciting and terrifying. For example, Ann, who is nearly blind, talked a few weeks ago about what a hard time she and Mac are having finding the right shades of make-up for her. As she is going blind, her old trusty brands are changing shade names, so they are going through the trials and errors of shades that wash her out or leave dark lines. In some ways, I just want to say "how cute" and think of me and BJ growing old together, but that would be overlooking the profundity of what I am guessing if frustration on Mac's part as he tries to understand the labels on the mysterious products his gorgeous wife has effortlessly used for so many years.

Tonight, there was another one of these humbling moments. Ada's husband mysteriously became ill right about the time BJ and I first started going to Nugent. They are just now figuring out was is wrong and finding a few ways to relieve his pain. The women in the vehicle were discussing whether Medicare would pay for one of the treatments he is receiving this week, and Ada, who is about sixty-five with health issues of her own, said with her teeth practically gritting together, "If I have to go digging ditches, he will get that treatment." And she would.

I've heard a lot about the honeymoon stage which apparently BJ and I are experiencing, and how it's the happiest time of your life and so on. And I love this time, as one can tell by the numerous sappy posts I have written about the surprise I constantly experience as I see how much love grows daily within this covenant. But tonight left me speechless. I love BJ a lot tonight, but it is impossible for me to even grasp the depth to which this love will grow after fifty years of good memories, bad memories, funny moment, stretches of boredom, and all the other complexities of marriage. All I know is that when this body of mine starts getting tired and frayed, and the random gray hair I now have has taken over the rest of my head, I hope I am willing to take up a shovel and dig a ditch for BJ. I'm pretty sure I will.

Tony's is now attacking the drawstrings on my pants as I write this blog. It is punishment.

I have always considered myself a friend of nature. I try not to pollute, and I have always like taking care of God's little creatures. Take for instance when I took in Tony a year ago when he was a disease stricken kitten living in a bush. If I hadn't done that, today there would probably be 20 illegitimate kittens from five single mothers who were savagely raped by Tony and would be cheated weekly out of child support, but I saved the stray cats of Menard from such distress.

Anyways, it has come as quite a shock to me to find that 2007 is proving to be the year I became an enemy to nature. On New Year's day, I killed a deer. And last night on the way to church, I hit a rabbit. It died. I'm a bad person.

I am so excited!!!!!!!

My senior art show is having it's gallery opening tomorrow night. The past two weeks have been a crazy hodge podge of cutting, pasting, sewing, deco pouging, painting, and other random activities. Unfortunately, this has made little time for sleep or for seeing my husband. So although it's been fun, I'll be kind of glad when it is over.

I just finished writing the artist's statement that will be hung in the gallery. Each member of the opening has to write one. I thought it might be fun to post it on my blog for those of you who won't get to come to the show. I'm planning on posting pictures asap. Wish me luck!

Artist's statement:

"Before going to Kindergarten, I would spend most of my days at my Grandma Pierce’s house. Our normal activity to pass the time was to sit at her dining room table and have drawing competitions. The guidelines for these competitions were as follows: use crayon on paper towel, and draw monsters. So I spent hours trying to draw monsters more scary and spiky than those of my eighty-year-old grandmother.

Art ran through the veins of my family. My Great-Aunt Doe was a gifted photographer who painted her black and white images with pale pastel glazes. Everyone who grew up in Menard, Texas, had their first picture taken in her dining room, which is in the house I eventually grew up in. My father is perhaps the most artistic of the bunch; he is a carpenter, pianist, and painter all in one. And my mother and her mother are gifted seamstresses who sent me to school each year with two week’s worth of homemade clothes. Also, my brother had a passion for the written arts that was contagious, as is apparent by the poetry sprinkled among my artworks.

I grew up with very quirky, artsy people all around me. And I loved it. Art, be it visual, musical, or written, was a tangible presence in my life as I grew up, and thankfully, I lived in a town so small there was nothing else to do but art. I guess it is only natural that I ended up in a department that so many people look at with a skeptical eyebrow raised. When I am asked my major, and I reply with “art”, I always get the same response: “You won’t be making any money.” Yes, I know. But without art, without its acts of creating and of seeing the created and of continuing in the traditions set for me so many generations ago, life would not make sense to me at all."

Living is a stretch for me

As everyone knows who has ever taken an exercise science course with me, I am one of the two most inflexible people in the world (the other being Kayla). So in cross training Monday morning, I was sad to hear we would be doing a flexibility (or shall we say inflexibility) test. The teacher puts us in groups of about six, which meant for me that five people would be witnessing my humiliation. Sure enough, my score was literally a third of every other person in my group except for one girl who had a c-section six weeks ago. She only doubled me. Thus continues my life long hatred of p.e. courses.

What grad school does to a body

I just got home from a test, and due to cabin fever caused by the past two weeks of crazy weather, I decided to do an aerobics video. I asked BJ if he wanted to join me, to which he said no thanks. But with a bit of persuading, he agreed to do the toning section with me that comes after the dance portion.

So I did 30 to 40 minutes of working out and called BJ in for the 15 minute toning section. BJ smirked at first as we did light workout, but as it progressed, he said with a hint of confusion, "My legs are hurting a little." A bit shaken from the discovery that a woman's aerobic video might be harder than he thought, the video moved on to the stomach work out.

And then ten minutes later I hear: "My stomach's cramping and I can't breath" and "I think I'm going to die."

I've decided that BJ will be doing more aerobics with me.

Cursed be all cabinet doors and meditations on marriage

For the past few weeks, it seems our house has gone through three day cycles of clean, disaster, clean, disaster... Yesterday was a disaster day, but I couldn't bring myself to clean it again. So it remained a disaster until my sudden energy burst at approximately 7:30 this morning (a bazaar time for a night owl to have an energy burst). I ran around cleaning like Martha Stewart on Red Bull. That is, until a cabinet door sabotaged my rampage of domesticity. I was bent over cleaning, and when I stood up straight, I banged my head really ridiculously hard on the corner of the door. I walked crookedly into the bedroom, prayed I wouldn't die from strange concussion complications(keep in mind, 2007 has not been a kind year to me so far), and fell asleep for two hours. When I awoke, a sizeable knot had formed on my noggin. My brother said it is the air rising up in my head. BJ agreed. Jerks.

On the bright side, today was mine and BJ's 6 month anniversary. We ordered pizza and watched an old musical. I LOVE being an old married couple. Although I am still a total novice at this whole marriage thing, here are some things I've noticed about married life in the past six months:

1. Fights cool down significantly. Whereas we used to feel the need to state our positions and yell, we have now resigned ourselves to something like this:
Kalyn: (perturbed look)
BJ: (pleading) Honey, don't be mad at me.
Kalyn: Okay.

2. The greatest thing about living together is it feels like I got my life back. When we were dating, I was constantly driving here and there, trying to fit BJ into the openings in my busy schedule. Now he's just here. And I'm just here. Suddenly, I have more time to sew and paint and play the piano, and the best part is BJ is here to be with the me I never felt I had time to be when we were dating. In some ways, its like he is finally getting to KNOW me.

3. With time, excitement cools while you find yourself falling in love more and more. I always thought that butterflies in the stomach were synonymous with being in love. But the butterflies are getting more and more rare while, at the same time, I am finding myself staying awake some nights staring at BJ amazed that I love him more today than on our wedding day (and for the record, I loved him a lot that day).

When I told Mom our plans for our 6-month anniversary, she laughed and said we sounded like an old married couple. I actually don't think I mind being an old married couple.

An evening at the Gensic home which included an inept spinner, a lesbian, a formidable loser, a vicious cat, and me

Using the money Grandma and Grandpa Gensic gave us for Christmas, BJ and I got a pretty nice camera. The other night while having a game night with Josh and Allie, we decided to utilize this new nifty gadget by recording an evening spent with friends. So here is the game of life as played by Josh, Allie, BJ, and me with lengthy distractions by Tony.
The above is a picture of the spinner on the game of life. Incidently, Josh is handicapped when it comes to spinning spinners. This resulted in Allie, the game's technician, acquiring hundreds of thousands of dollars off of fixing the technical difficulty.

This is me and Allie losing a turn. Apparently plastic cars can get flat tires.

This is Tony distracting us. Oh, he's so cute, says Allie and I.

This is BJ prior to losing in a humiliating defeat.

This is Allie coming out of the closet. Josh took it pretty well.

This is Tony when he decided to bite Allie's sock.

This is Tony when he decided to never, ever, ever let go of Allie's sock (approximently one minute later).

This is Tony falling asleep while keeping a firm grip on Allie's sock. His perseverance is startling.

The long, long, long, long road that leads home

The past week has been eventful, both in good, bad, happy, and tearful ways. So here it goes.

Saturday we drove the thirteen hours to Illinois, and Sunday we went the 6 hours to Indiana to spend time with more extended family. I love seeing BJ's family, so we had a really good time. One of the highlights were when Grandma Gensic called my husband a dumb sh** because he kept buzzing her for saying illegal words in Taboo. We traveled back to Illinois on Tuesday, spent more time with the new Mom and Dad as well as Allison and Breandan (my sister-in-law and her fiance). It was really hard to leave Thursday, especially when Dad hugged me and whispered in my ear "You sure are good for that boy." That was definitely one of the highlights of the week.

After driving 13 hours Thursday to get to Abilene, we headed out early Friday morning for San Antonio (4 hours) so that I could be the Matron of Honor in Theresa's wedding. I know that the title makes this kind of obvious, and it's a bit sappy to say, but that was really, really an honor. I've been a bridesmaid twice before, but being a Matron of Honor was completely different. I had a lot of responsibilities, but it was nice being able to do something for Theresa. One of the other best moments from the week was at the reception when I got to do a toast for Sean and Theresa. I talked about how I had seen Theresa earlier in the day the first time they went out together, and I had given her the piece of gum she was chewing when they first kissed, which of course made me responsible for the whole affair. People laughed in all the right parts, and I managed to hold off the crying until the very end of the toast when I got sappy.

Although the wedding was beautiful, it was a hard day because I knew Theresa would be leaving for Kentucky in two days, and she did leave today. I'm so happy for her, but it's a little hard knowing she is so far away.

We went back to Menard Sunday and had Christmas with my family. I love spending time with them and had so much fun. But since I was so tired and it was so different having Christmas a week late, everything just kind of hit me: I had spent a Christmas away from my family, and me and Theresa are now grown up and married, and everything keeps changing. I ended up crying a lot. But I still managed to win a few board games.

Tonight at about six, me and BJ left Menard. I was driving, and about ten miles out of Menard, I hit a deer. A car had be coming in the opposite lane, and the lights had blinded me just long enough that I didn't see it. We were very blessed. We are all safe, and the car seemed to only have body damage. Hopefully, insurance will cover it. It was my first wreck, and I am still a little shaky. My family came and got us, and Bro drove us to Abilene in his car. BJ, myself, Tony, and Sienna are now all four safely tucked away, ready for a long night's sleep. And if you were counting, it was about 50 hours on the road.

The Yankees are com ... having me over for Christmas?

I'm getting a little bit nervous. We leave for my first Christmas away from home tomorrow. I love BJ's family (and my new family), but I know I will miss my good ol' biological fam. Hope I don't run up the roam minutes too much.

As soon as we get back from Illinois on Thursday, we will leave early Friday for my best friend's wedding. Theresa was my Maid of Honor five months ago(I can't believe it's been five months), and I will be her Matron of Honor next Saturday. I am so excited! But this could mean over a week until I get to blog again. (sad face).

On the brighter note, I just got my final grades in, and I managed to pull my 77 in Spanish to an A and maintained my 4.0. BJ is so irritated. He wants me to make a B or a C so badly he has actually bribed me with nice dates. Apparantly I'm missing out on something in life by always being so darn perfect.

But in a slight digression from my perfection, I received an e-mail today that I am on chapel probation. Apparently, they missed my exemption papers. I'll be fighting that battle when I get back.

It's official!

Well, it's official. BJ's a preacher for Nugent. And I'm a preacher's wife. God is funny.

But seriously, we're really, really happy. They're a great church, and it feels like home. It is all older people, except for one family with three ridiculously cute kids. The men were really nice when they asked BJ if he wanted to take the position. We both feel very honored.

The best part of the morning, though, was when BJ managed to fit the word diva into his sermon. Not only did he use the word diva, but he also used it has a descriptor for a prophet. That's right. Jonah's a diva.

Bad habits acquired in college

As we (when I say we, I mean my friends, family, and regular blog readers) know, Pierces are a little bit crazy. Just a tad.

So today, I was about to drive away from my brother's house where I park for school when he pulled up from giving his classes their final. I roll down my window, and he asks me, "What's ya having for lunch." I replied that I was having pickle flavored Lay's potato chips (my newest strange food item discovery that I quite enjoy). Bro chuckled and said that he was having Barbecue flavored Lay's chips. So we both went to our houses and had exceptionally mal-nutritious lunches.

A Decent Job

Finally, BJ has a job that is okay. I knew everything would be alright this time when after two weeks he was still saying "pretty good" when I asked him how his day had gone.

As I look back on the past five months of financial scares and horrible employment, I can honestly say I would not trade those months for anything. We learned a lot, and grew a lot closer. And now that there is actually money to spend on a blizzard from Dairy Queen, the ice cream tastes better than it ever did before.

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of our sudden contentment is that is blows away many of the truths I believed in concerning college. I thought that we went to college to get an education that would get us a job in a certain we would find fulfilling so that on our death beds we could say we did something. But what I've learned is that if BJ ends up being an electrician's apprentice for the rest of his life, that does not in anyway reflect on the value of his life. He is building relationships with his fellow workers at Watson Electric, and it's satisfying for him, and I love hearing the stories he brings home about those men.

It always bothered me when people looked down on manual laborers. My father is a maintence man at a nursing home, but I garuntee that he has meant more in the lives of those elderly people than almost any highly educated social worker. He has taken a job some might label insignificant and used it in a way that leaves me in awe and humbled.

So, yes, my husband is an electrician's apprentice with a Master's in Divinity. And I am so proud of him.

Yikes!!!

Today at work, I kept making a whole lot of mistakes. Why? Because I had just found out the exact date of my Senior art show: January the 26th. It is the first show of the year, and I am so nervous. This means no Christmas break for me. I will be working on art projects ALOT. But I'm excited. Or at least, I think I am.

Shame on me

I have great regret in announcing that I bonded with annoying English major guy. We found common ground in making fun of the education department. We were making fun of the posters in an old education department room where we have class. I feel so ashamed of my moment of elitism. But is was kind of funny.

The Pierce curse and a beautiful day

If you know my brother or read his blog (sharetheboredom.blogspot), then you know that there is a Pierce curse. Our family, for know particular reason, has incredibly bad luck (along with being so forgetful and absent-minded that we often bring the bad luck unto ourselves).

This week, I discovered that taking the Gensic name does not erase the Pierce curse. It is in my blood, and now BJ is suffuring because of it.

It all started Monday night when we decided to go buy our first Christmas tree and decorate our little apartment. We picked out a 6 foot Douglas Fir tree (it's georgous) and some really cool ornaments. Then we came home so excited we actually attempted singing Christmas carols. But, of course, when we got home the first thing that happened was BJ went to unplug the tree, and it blew the fuse to the entire front half of our home. So we immediately had to go back to Walmart to get a fuse.

Then the curse continued last night when we decided to go on a walk, and after two blocks, started getting rained on (with really, really cold rain.) Now, I'll admit we were pretty stupid to even attempt a walk in the first place since it was about 30 degrees outside. We turned back immediatly, got back to our front door shaking and shivering only to find we had locked ourselves out. We tried multiple ways of breaking into our home, and both thankfully and unfortunately, our house is pretty dang secure. So we went over to my brother's, called a lock smith, and paid forty bucks to get back inside.

So, why is their "a beautiful day" in my title? My most leastest, horriblest, awfulest classes was canceled this morning due to winter storms!!!!!!!!! I HATE Spanish. Also, I didn't do all my reading for a quiz today in Art History, but now my grade doesn't have to suffer. I guess maybe God was feeling bad about the whole Pierce curse thing, and decided to give me a couple of perks today!

Wedding pictures picked at random

Well, I got my wedding pictures in today. And they're georgous. And I've looked at them about a million times. And then some. Here's a few randomly picked among the number file names since I can't figure out how to see them before I download them. I know, I'm incompetent.

This is one of me getting ready. I love this one.

My family! I love them! I love this picture!

Oh my goodness! That picture is awesome, too!

I love BJ! I love wedding pictures!

Mmh, cake! Mmh, pictures!

On that note, I need to wake up in the morning, so I probably need to sleep as well.

Sometimes, I think I hate English majors

In my poetry class, there is this one guy who absolutely embodies everything that is annoying about English majors (for the record, I love a good number of English majors, including my brother and Kayla, but about forty percent of English majors are irritating). So anyways, this guy has never really been a fan of my poetry, primarily because it is understandable and not so lofty you have to have the author give a fifteen minute explanation to find out what it means. Tonight, we workshopped his poem. I actually understood this poem and liked it, unlike his last two (one of which was his interpretation of a Jackson Pollock painting translated into poetry. Now really? He didn't even use colors Pollock used.) But then he ruined this brief moment of me being a good Christian who likes English majors when he started defending his decision to not put an s on the end of a word that needed to be plural for clarity's sake. It's an s! Who care?

A story about Sienna...

...so you know it has to be gross.

The other day, Tony threw up in the office room. I gathered up all of my cleaning supplies to go take care of the mess. When I went back to the office, the puke had already been cleaned up.

Once again, dogs are disgusting.

Gotcha!!!!!

Well, BJ has really had a knack here lately for saying the wrong thing (take, for instance, my last post). Last night, he really stuck his foot in his mouth. It was great. Or at least, it was for me.

I have the reputation in our little household of being the messy one, and, granted, I have at times earned this reputation. So last night, BJ saw an opportunity to poke fun at my tendencies when he found a pair of my boot socks out on our dresser. I was getting in bed when he pointed at them, and I quickly said, "Oh, those are clean. I was about...uh...to put them up." He smuggly picked up the socks and threw them into my cabinet, at which point I smiled and pointed behind him. What he failed to notice when he found my socks on the dresser is that also occupying dresser space was a clean pair of his jogging pants and four pairs of clean boxers. Needless to say, he looked a little sheepish after that one. HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!

What ever made you think that would be a good thing to say?

Tonight I was trying on my bridesmaid's dress for Theresa's wedding to see if it needed alterations. I came into the computer room to model it for BJ. We were discussing what needed altered, and I mentioned how nice the dress looks in the chest area (it has some really pretty gathers). BJ's reply was "Yeah, for once it doesn't look too big." As a fairly self conscious A-cup, I froze. Then BJ froze when he realized what a stupid thing he had just said. Of course, he immediately started trying to remedy the situation be saying what he meant to say, to which I replied, "Next time you want to compliment me, don't try to be clever."

an old church and an old soul

BJ preached at Nugent again today, and it looks like we're in the running for the job. We really want it, and this time it isn't just for the money. This time, we want the job because the people are amazing. During the main prayer in the morning service, the man who was praying started thanking God for all of the people in the church who had been helping him out this week around his house with jobs he never thought he would need help with. Apparantly, old age is just now really starting to catch up with him. He became very emotional during the prayer, and so did the people of the congregation who had been helping him. It was refreshing to see weakness expressed and shared instead of hidden in shame.

I also had one of those wow-I-love-BJ moments today. BJ is a fairly unconventional guy: I mean, I had to warn my parents about his earring before he came home with me for the first time. And he's fairly technical and modern in that he built his own computer and keeps up with all the newest computer technology. Also, he's liberal and nontraditional on most of his opinions, ecspecially in the church. But, today, when he had a cold and kept having to blow his nose, he used a cloth hankerchief. The last time I saw a man use a cloth hankerchief was my Grandpa Pierce: my Dad is way too young for those. I love how in unexpected, random moments, I get a peak at a really old, beautiful soul in my husband.