He got bigger, but not smarter

Most people have a phobia of one sort or another. I, for example, am terrified of needles. When I have to get a shot or blood has to be taken, I about have a panic attack, and I am especially frightened when I get a splinter in my foot that requires a needle to pick it out. My dad has an irrational fear of matches. Apparently, as a child, his older brother through lit matches at him, and in the process, he created a phobia that still plagues my dad. To this day, Dad won't eat a birthday cake that has had lit candles on it.

So, in the tradition of his mother and grandfather, Gus also has managed to come by a rather bazaar phobia. I discovered his phobia on a few innocent walks in the park. A few weeks ago, we were walking in the park like always - me on the left and Gus on my right. A young mother came towards us from the right with a baby stroller, and Gus about knocked me over freaking out and running off my side of the sidewalk. I didn't give this much thought since it was his first time to see a baby stroller, but since then we have encountered many more baby strollers with the exact same panic attack following each. Today, Gus about chocked himself on his choke chain, and in the process tripped me up pretty good. To make matters worse, we live in a town where everyone either has a baby or is pregnant - everyone!

The ridiculous nature of this fear reminds me of when Gus was a baby and we were first taking him on walks around Abilene. He wasn't afraid of cars when they drove by, but he was deathly afraid of the parked ones. Thankfully, he got over that fear. Hopefully, this baby-stroller phobia will also only be temporary.

Mommy's little bear grew up...way up

You might remember the following picture from a post I did April 27, 2007.

I say you might remember it because it is quite simply the cutest picture ever known to man-kind. In fact it was so cute, it inspired me to take a picture in this pose every month to document Gus's growth. For some reason (perhaps I am near-sighted both in eyes and in spirit) I didn't foresee this ever becoming difficult. However, today, to mark his nine-month birthday a few days late, BJ and I trudged out to the back yard to take our monthly picture. We got the picture, but let's just say Gus has grown. Take a look:

And one more:

In the first, he looks like he may be trying to kiss me, but by the second it is clear that he is pretty much just disgusted with his lot in life as an overly cute fluffy thing. And me? Well, I'm just trying to not fall over.

Coupons, Frisco style

In the mail, I periodically get the Frisco Style Magazine. It is fill with useful information, like where to find the best au paurs (spelling? it's some sort of a nanny) for your children, or what chefs in town serve the best forty dollar plate of French food I can't pronounce. This past issue had a coupon like all good magazines should have, except that this one wasn't for mac and cheese or cereal. It was $50,000 off the next house you buy in some gated community. If I hadn't already figured it out, this made it pretty clear to me that Frisco is not going to be a permanent home for BJ and I. But I guess for the time being, it at least makes for an amusing magazine.

The Pierce Curse as seen at Wendy's

When Pierces venture out into the public to do anything, it generally goes badly. This weekend while my brother and dad came to visit, we had a pretty good case in point. The three of us ran to Walmart to purchase some of the necessities (toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc.) that they had inevitably forgotten. On our way out, we decided to stop by the Wendy's in the parking lot to get Bro a frosty and Dad his daily cup of afternoon coffee.

When we got to the Wendy's, Bro went up to order. This is how it went:

Bro: I would like a chocolate frosty.
Worker: Okay, anything else.
Bro: Yes, a large cup of Wendy's custom bean coffee.
Worker: Would you like that with M&M's or Oreo.
Bro: I want coffee.
Worker: Yes, it comes with M&M's or Oreo swirled in.
Bro: The coffee?
Worker: It's like a frosty with M&M's or Oreo's swirled into it (making a swirly motion with hands).
Bro: Uhm, I'm not pointing to the Frosty Twirl. I want a Wendy's custom bean coffee.
Worker: Oh. You want a coffee. Okay.

So after this fiasco (during which Dad and I had been trying to not totally burst out laughing in the background), Dad got his coffee. Unfortunately, when he took off the lid to put his creamer and sugar in, they had left absolutely no room for extras. It was filled to the brim. So Dad, after a good bit of spilling, took the little paper cups used for ketchup at Wendy's and started dumping out cups full of coffee until he had room for his creamer. Of course, during this process, he got coffee everywhere which I had to clean up on my way out. On our way to the car, we all decided that convenient store coffee is definitely the way to go. The Pierces will have no more Wendy's coffee, custom beans or not.

Day one of my new job

Yesterday, I started a new job . My employer, Abrakadoodle, is a franchise that offers art lessons for children ages 20 months to 12 years old. I'll be working about 10 hours a week, which is all I was really wanting to do this year. I think it will be pretty fun, and it will help out my resume next year when I'm looking for a real teaching position.

On an entirely different note, I had a fun time driving BJ to work this morning. BJ is a little luckier than the average working guy in that he gets sent off to work by the whole family. Since we only have one functioning car at the moment, I drive him to work, and of course, I bring the dogs along in the back seat. This morning while we were sitting at a red light, I looked back at Sienna, and she was staring out the window very intently. I followed her gaze, and it lead to a landscaping company's truck sitting next to us. In this truck, a gruff, manual-labor-working man was baby-talking to Sienna. He had a big goofy grin, and was gooing to our dog. It made me happy that our dogs in the back seat possible brightened someone's day. Unfortunately, Sienna's day-brightening abilities ended when we got home and she started whining for no reason whatsoever.

BJ's first day of school

As sick as this might sound, I feel a wee bit like a proud mother right now. BJ had his first day of school yesterday, and, of course, he was fabulous! His only real hang-up was one section of eleventh graders. But anyways, here are some pictures of BJ, his classroom, and what we've been doing the past couple of weeks, which have, in general, been spent almost entirely in BJ's room getting everything ready.

This picture was taken last week while we started the process of decorating BJ's room. Here, he is putting a border around his bulletin board. Somehow, I never pictured BJ doing this. Perhaps my Elementary-Ed.-major friends from college, but not BJ.

This is BJ and I after day two of decorating. By this time, we had done the time line for BJ's room. All LCA classrooms are required to do a time line, so I did one for BJ using brown packing paper and black paint. We tore one edge of the paper and then crumpled it up to give it the "I just found this in the Dead Sea" look that all Bible classrooms should have.

BJ was given this poster of Jesus, so I (stupidly) volunteered to paint all 13 apostles and Paul to put around this. I, being me, forgot this little promise until 9 o'clock the night before Meet-the-Teacher. So BJ and I had to really buckle down. We cut out the packing paper, he burned the edges with the candles, and I started to work. I painted until three o'clock that morning, and then I woke up at seven and continued painting until noon. We got the paintings up hours before the parents started showing up. On Sunday evening, we laminated them, which accounts for the shininess in the pictures.

This is a close-up of Matthew. I'm rather fond of Matthew.

Last but not least, this is picture of BJ after his first day of teaching. He had been wearing a tie, but that was torn off pretty much moments after the bell rang. Anyways, I think he looks pretty professional.

Remember that cartoon, Pinky and the Brain...

Yesterday, BJ walked into my art room a little disgruntled to tell me that Tony, once again, had ran out the door, and I needed to go get him. Tony, like all cats, is always trying to escape so that he can pursue his true goal in life, that of taking over the world and enslaving all non-cat beings. I got up from the project I was working on, went to the door, and, as always, Gus followed closely behind. When I opened the door, Tony had only ventured about 10 feet into the yard, but even 10 feet can be a lot when your trying to catch a mad cat. Fortunately, Gus sensed that there was a mission needing to be done, so he ran out in front of me, tackled Tony, and held him down until I could get to him and safely bring him in.

I say Gus sensed something, but that is probably incorrect wording. After all, Gus doesn't really ever sense anything. It is more likely that he saw Tony and thought "Ooh! Kitty-cat! Tackle!" Yes, that's probably what happened. But whatever it was, Tony has once again been foiled in his attempt to take over the world.

I'm an artist...we'll leave it at that

Whenever I tell people my major/profession, I always get interesting responses. It is actually half the fun of being an artist. You get to her people say "Oh, how fun," or "How do you make money with that?" Today at church, I got one of the more interesting responses I've ever received.

We have started attending a nice Church of Christ in Lewisville. The people there are extremely friendly, and everyone wants to introduce themselves and talk with us for a long time. Today, a woman in her sixties came to introduce herself. She asked BJ what he did, and he had such a nice, simple answer: "I'm going to be teaching Bible at Legacy Christian Academy." Then she asked me what I was doing. I've begun to dread this question because it is at the moment rather complicated, but I dove into my answer: "I am an artist. I'm trying to book private art and piano lessons, and I am also working on launching a handmade wedding invitation business." She gave me a weird tilt-of-the-head look and then said, "Well you don't meet people like you every day." I wasn't sure how to respond, so I fell back on my normal response - giggle softly and look at BJ for social rescue. It worked as always, and we left for a nice lunch with the preacher and some members.

The lady's response to my answer made me laugh, but it has been on my mind all day. What am I doing with my life? I haven't really got a clue. I'm chasing a bunch of neat sounding ideas, and if they don't work, I dread the defeat of applying for jobs that have nothing to do with art, and if they do work, I don't know if I have the talent, perseverance, or any thing else to actually succeed at them. Some days, it feels like it might be easier to just go back to being an office manager somewhere, have a simple answer for people at church, and do art for a few glorious hours on the weekends. But I've blabbed long enough. This is the twenties, right? We are scared and not sure what we're doing for a decade. Hey Bro- is this existential despair, or what exactly?

Little Tony and the Big Pillows of Doom

Today, Tony decided he, like many cat's in the world, wanted to sit in a window sill and disdainfully look out at the stray cats and other poppers of this world. He chose the window sill above our guest bedroom bed to be his throne. In order to mount this throne, he hopped onto the really cute pillows I recently decorated the bed with, and then made a leap up towards the sill. Unfortunately, slickly painted wood has little grip, so after a good bit of struggle, he plopped down into the pillows, which are so soft and fluffy, they just rolled him onto my computer hard drive which (not so softly or fluffily) rolled him onto the floor.

Most cats might get discouraged at such humiliation (especially since me and BJ were pointing and laughing) but not my resilient little Tonster. Nope, he hopped back to the pillows, leaped towards the sill that, strangely enough, still had no grip, and ricocheted right back to the pillows. He lands on his back cradled between to large pillows(one at his head, the other at his behind) and was left completely immobile. At this point, I believe the humiliation (and our sounds of uproarious laughter) did finally get to him. He seemed to just resign himself to reclining between to ridiculously soft and fluffy pillows, staring disgruntled into the purple, patterned fabric of his prison. I eventually got my breath back and took mercy on him. I picked him up and placed him in his window where he gallantly resumed his reign as the master and lord of all things. I did not see him get down from the window, but I examined the area, and I am happy to say nothing is broken.

TONY'S HOME!!!

When we moved to Frisco, we didn't bring Tony with us because we were planning on immediately heading up north to see BJ's family, and I didn't want to leave him by himself in an unfamiliar place. So we left Tony with his favorite babysitters, Josh and Allie. Unfortunately, car trouble led to a cancellation of our trip and a delay in being able to go to Abilene to retrieve out favorite feline. Thankfully, though, we were able to get down this weekend.

During all the move, I managed to lose our cat carrier. Tony hasn't gone on a ride that lasted longer than five minutes since he was a baby when I brought him to Abilene from Menard. BJ was a little nervous about Tony roaming free in our car for the four hour trip to Frisco, but with money too tight to go buy a cat carrier, we decided to chance it. Of course, I'm not sure what we were worried about it. Tony, being a cat who has been raised with dog's ten times his size, is really not scared of anything, including a car. I had him in my lap ready to comfort him when he freaked out, but instead, he jumped in the backseat and started cleaning Sienna. Eventually, he settled down between Gus and Sienna and took a nap. As much as Tony would hate hearing me say this, it seems he is really just one of the dogs. Of course, he's the fearless, intelligent, cunning dog, unlike the other two.

Randomness

My brother has tagged me to do a blog post which follows these guidelines:

* We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
* Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
* People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
* There are additional rules that I am choosing to not follow, simply because I don't know enough people to tag.

So, after a few days of careful contemplation, here are my eight random facts/habits:

1. When I was a young child, around four or five, I had nightmares about Saddam Hussein killing me.
2. I like to wrap plain Lays potato chips or plain Ruffles potato chips in lettuce and eat them after I've had a sandwich for lunch. I like the salty taste of the chip mixed with the taste of lettuce.
3. One of the first evenings after BJ and I started dating, I asked him what his favorite word was during one of our late night conversations. To me, the sounds of words are a fascinating topic that I could talk for hours about. Unfortunately, this is not true for everyone. I believe BJ may have encountered his first doubts about dating me on this evening. By the way, my favorite words are taffeta and Chantilly.
4. When I can't relax and fall asleep, I go through the alphabet trying to think of names I wouldn't mind naming my children for each letter: Adam, Bridget, Carson, etc. D is an exceptionally difficult letter for me.
5. Last night, I watched a DVD of Murder, She Wrote episodes and stitched a tea-pot Christmas ornament. I'm pretty sure this alone makes me a freak.
6. Growing up, I spent a lot of time at my Grandma Pierce's house. We would have monster drawing competitions on paper towels everyday. I would try to make my monsters really spiky because Grandma said it made her back itch.
7. When I get sad, I like to watch the Princess Diaries or read books that were written for young girls. I think this is because I have an aversion to growing up.
8. I've often had dreams about kissing random people. Once, I dreamed I had cheated on BJ with Bob Marley. I felt so guilty, I was sure BJ was going to dump me. Also, kissed Dr. Fleer, a professor from Rochester College who comes to lectureship at ACU and who taught BJ in undergrad. I felt so guilty about this dream, it took me several weeks to admit it to BJ.

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.