The McGhee's

2009-08-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

Well Grandma reminded me that I haven’t blogged in a while so I guess I should get it updated and BOY do I have a lot to blab about! I started this at 10:06 a.m. on Monday morning. I will post what time it is when I finally finish and get it posted!

With my new duties at work, my days are cram packed. I can’t believe the morning is already half over. It is a little more stressful but I enjoy it! My boss has really let me get involved with some great things and I am very thankful. Our Emergency Response Team has come together nicely. Cameron is paying for all of us on the team to get our Hep C vaccination so that is pretty cool. I’ve really even started to enjoy the safety committee even more. Some of the employees are even willing to talk to me about things they would like to see change. It’s nice to know they trust me to take it to the safety committee for them! We have a new HSE (Health, Safety, & Environmental) guy that comes down once a month. He is much better at his job than the last guy.

One thing that I REALLY am enjoying more and more that I get to handle is all the event planning. We had “Fajita Friday” last week and held a salsa contest. It is mostly a team building thing. They can’t enter the contest by themselves. They have to have a team mate. We’ve done a salsa contest and a chili cook off. So if anyone has any ideas for neat things like that (for grown men… most probably won’t participate in a bake off) then please let me know! We are really working hard for a better attitude around here. Some people are just grumps!

The house is looking great. We worked REALLY hard on getting it finished before Stacy’s Scentsy party! (BTW 10% off in August is almost over!!). Everything was in place and looked fabulous… just as long as we kept the door to Sierra’s old room shut. That room was a disaster zone! Guess I shouldn’t say was because technically it still is.

My first Scentsy party was a huge success. I guess it was kind of cheating because I knew everyone at the party really well. But it was still nice to get the experience and the dreaded first out of the way. The new fall/winter scents and catalogs are in and I’m very excited. Every month, they release a new warmer and scent. This is the warmer of the month for September. I can’t wait to get one ordered!!!

I can’t believe that this Friday will be our 6 month anniversary! Time sure does fly!

I’ve started helping teach the 3 and 4 year olds Bible class at church. The lady that teaches now asked if I would be interested in teaching next semester. I told her I didn’t think I was ready for that just yet. Maybe after a few more semesters of just assisting someone else I would be ready to take that on myself. Now that we have a house, I hope we can start having some devo’s at our house. We don’t really have a youth leader since Denny left and there for a while, there was a big gap in between my youth group and the upcoming youth group and weren’t any teens. The preacher’s daughter and one of her really good friends got baptized this past week. I have a teen study book just for girls that I am going to do an in-depth study on the book myself and I hope to start a “girls only” study group. Maybe that would be a class I could teach on Wednesday nights? I always loved our girl’s class when I was in high school.

Well I think I am done blabbering. It is officially 4:03 p.m. and I am ready to post!

2009-07-07T09:07:00.001-07:00

It has been too long since I’ve last blogged! Where do I begin?!!?

The 4th of July was too much fun. I was really glad to get to see Randi and McKayla. I think they get sweeter every time I see them. Even Randi gives me a million hugs. We cooked out on the grill all weekend, popped our own fireworks, went to Firecracker Fandango, and watched the fireworks downtown. Very, very busy and over way too quickly!

We still haven’t moved into the house yet. Our lease is up on July 31 but we can stay another month if we need to. We just pay extra for the month rather than re-signing the lease. But I think we could be in before the end of the month… everyone pray! And since I know you are all so concerned about it, just like I am, my new dining room table is STILL sitting at Furniture Row… pitiful.

Dewayne bought a new truck… and he definitely needed one. He ended up with this 2007 2500 4x4 Dodge Diesel. I’m really glad we bought it. I’m not crazy about the idea of having another car payment but it is better than having to spend all the money to get his fixed.

People think I am exaggerating when I talk about Daisy and how obnoxious she is in bed. She is so rotten! She sleeps between us every night with her head on the pillow with ALLLL the blankets wrapped around her. So, I woke up the other morning and took a picture!!!!!!

See her tiny little head buried in all those blankets?! Yes, she sleeps like this EVERY night!!

Dewayne’s sister got me hooked on the Twilight series. I’m almost finished with New Moon and I’ve only had the books for a week. I’m really dragging out the end of New Moon because the movie doesn’t come out until November 20th! I will be 22 by then!!! Are they TRYING to kill me?!!? I’m afraid to start the NEXT book because they haven’t even started filming on it! I will surely go insane before they get them all filmed!

Dewayne really wants to take a vacation soon. We will see!!!

2009-06-23T14:18:00.001-07:00

Our weekend was packed full of nothing but work! We went to mom and dads and did some work over there til about 9:00 on Saturday. Sunday, we went to church, had lunch, came home and cleaned (TONS of laundry, spot cleaned the carpet, cleaned the kitchen) went and worked at mom and dad’s some more, and went grocery shopping. I thought weekends were for being LAZY??!?! No one told me this before I got married!!!

Still no word on when we get to move. I had REALLY wanted to be in the house by this coming weekend because a) Dewayne has lots of family coming in for a wedding and we wanted to have more room so more people could stay with us and b) my dining room set is just sitting at the furniture store collecting dust in their warehouse waiting to be delivered. Sooooo disappointing!

I am on the Emergency Response Team at work since I am CPR certified. We haven’t been given our assignments yet but I REALLY hope I get to be the person that calls 911 and or the person that stands out front to direct the first responders.

EVERYONE should go see The Proposal. I don’t think I have EVER laughed so hard at a movie. My stomach hurt so bad from laughing by the time it was over. Best movie I have seen in a long time!!!

2009-06-19T06:14:00.000-07:00

We had such an exciting weekend in Rochester! Dewayne and the boys went fishing Saturday morning while the girls went garage sale-ing in Munday. I didn’t buy anything but it was still fun.

Saturday night was VERY exciting with lots of crazy storms and tornados with very little warning. The tornado sirens went off and the storm hit just a few minutes later. Dewayne’s parents lost a tree but the closest tornado to touch the ground was about 10 miles from their home. The electricity went off around 7:00 and stayed off til the next day around 1:00 p.m. Very eventful and exciting but made the guys miserable. The stormed dumped a BUNCH of rain in a very short amount of time and ruined all hopes of hunting or fishing. All the roads were flooded and too muddy to do anything.

Well our plans to move into the house have been slowed a little. There was an issue with our Landlord’s paperwork for their new house and they have to get that straightened out first!

Incredibly, I started this blog on either Tuesday or Wednesday and it is now Friday. My apologies for the out-dated information!

2009-06-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

This was at the Petroleum Museum over the weekend. Dewayne decided he could fit… not so much.
My husband is so goofy!!

He is also very sweet. He cooked dinner for me while I was at church last night! On June 21st, it will be a year ago that he proposed to me. Time goes by SOOO fast!

So once again, we are trying to go to Rochester this weekend. I really think it might happen this time, though!! He is going to ask a guy to cover for him this weekend since he is on call. Munday, TX is having their city wide garage sale and I am going with his aunt Brenda! I’m very excited because I hope to find a bed for our NEW guest bedroom! I’ve decided I am looking for a daybed with a trundle. I think that would be neat to have for the kids. Stacy had one when we were little and we always slept on “squeaky” at Grandma’s house which was a daybed with a trundle.
I believe that is all I have for today!

2009-06-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

Dewayne and I had a great weekend! Didn’t make it to Rochester (again!) but we spent the weekend with Dewayne’s cousin. His wife got a job down here so they are moving to Odessa. They came for the weekend to kind of learn where things are.

We went to see Land of the Lost while they were here. It was a lot better than I was expecting it to be! I can’t WAIT for The Proposal with Sandra Bullock to come out. I want to see that movie so bad!!

Friday afternoon, I put our old dining room table for sale on Craigslist. We had it sold and out of the house by 9:00 that evening. It was awesome!! So now our house looks REALLY empty with all the stuff packed and our table gone. Our new table is in but we are waiting til we move to have them deliver it. There is no room at our house now and that will be one less thing to move.

I guess that is all that is new. Our lives are pretty routine with work and all. We both still l-o-v-e our jobs, probably more so for me than him. Just hoping the economy is on its way back up. We are starting to see companies spend a little more now that oil has increased a bit. I always thought economics was so irrelevant to life when I was in high school… boy was I wrong. It should have been MORE than half a semester!

Isn't she cute?! She has grown so much. She is about 9 months old now. I just ordered her some new bows so I will have to get some pictures up of those. She has a nice little collection going on and I think there are like 10 more that I picked out that I want. She is so spoiled!!!

Chance of rain today… praying hard for it!!!

2009-06-03T13:22:00.000-07:00

Dewayne and I have officially started packing. We just packed things we know we can live without for a while like some décor, holiday decorations, movies, etc. We took them down to our storage building to get them out of the way. That place was already stacked to the ceiling with wedding gifts and now it looks even worse.

We picked out all the paint colors that we want to do… two bedrooms and two bathrooms. I don’t have a clue what to do with the third bedroom! Maybe I will see if Dad will let me have my bunk bed and stick it in there. I don’t particularly want to do that… but it would be something!

I tackled some MAJOR laundry yesterday and this morning. I HATE laundry with a passion! But I am down to maybe one more load! And then the piles will start all over again…!

Dewayne cooked us a steak last night. He loves to cook out on the grill! He went to the store and bought everything himself! I was so proud of him!

Might attempt Rochester again this weekend! Dewayne is itching to go fishing… so we will see!

2009-06-01T08:47:00.001-07:00

I really didn’t get much accomplished this weekend. We WERE going to Rochester but Dewayne ended up having to work on Saturday. I was pretty disappointed. But it was cool since I spent most of the day hanging out with Stacy for her birthday! Letty and I snuck in her house while she was gone to another birthday party and decorated her dining room for her.

And this is my feeble attempt at a cute cake. Who cares what it looked like... it was VERY yummy!

And this is my cute cake on FIRE!

We kept mom and dad’s new puppy this weekend. She is something else!! I’m leaning towards the idea that she might be bipolar. She could be SO sweet at times:

And other times I was ready to go out of my mind! She and Daisy don’t really get along that well. Daisy doesn’t mind playing with her but Carley doesn’t really understand that she bites too hard. Daisy knows when to stop.

Anywho, we are getting ready to start packing up for the move. Stacy still doesn’t have a close date but it will make our lives much easier to start packing the things we just don’t need right now! We even signed our vacating notice for the townhouse! These next two months are going be fast and furious!

2009-05-28T12:23:00.000-07:00

Dewayne and I went to look at paint samples on Tuesday night. We are stoked to move in!! Anyway, RIGHT after we left Home Depot, a nice little storm hit. I told Dewayne to drive a little farther south so we could enjoy the rain a little more. (Isn’t it amazing how it can be raining in one place and NOT a quarter of a mile away?!) So we drove around in the old country club here and found mom and dad a new house!!!

It is a 10,177 sq. ft mansion that sits on 6.47 acres with an amazing pool in the back. 3 bedroom (I knew that would be the deal breaker… 10,000 sq ft and only three bedrooms?!?!?) 4 and one half bath, 3 living rooms and fireplaces out the whazoo!!

And they were only asking a cool 2.1 mill! HA! Like I said, mom wasn’t down with the 3 bedroom thing…

We have a lot to do this weekend. I think we are going to Rochester for Dewayne’s cousin’s wedding shower and reception. One of Dewayne’s other cousins wanted to go fishing with him so that will be a nice time for them to have at it! All that fun while we get to babysit Carley…

Fabulous!

2009-05-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

We had such a fabulous Memorial Day weekend!! It was so nice to get to spend some time with Randi and McKayla without having to share with anyone else!! And how amazing is it that there wasn’t a single family member missing?! We really enjoyed our time with everyone!!

Dewayne and I are officially banned from holidays. We always spend way too much money. Yesterday, we bought a new 8 seater dining room table, 2 matching bar stools, the matching server and a flat screen TV for our bedroom. Now, I get to find cushions for these chairs! I have this black and white Paris theme I want to do in my dining room! Anyway, this is the table.

With that being said, we bought the table for a reason. We are looking at moving into a rent house in July. It’s not 100% sure that we have it yet, but we are pretty positive it will be ours! We are SO excited! This will really be a huge step for us and we can NOT wait! We will have a front AND back yard… and a garage! It is just SUPER!

2009-04-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

At 4:00 a.m. Saturday morning, I was jolted awake by Dewayne jumping out of bed and yelling at me to give him his gun (it was in my nightstand drawer from when he was out of town one night). I handed it to him and he raced down the stairs. I was so scared! He didn’t even tell me what was going on. Dewayne yanked the front door open with his gun drawn and in his underwear.

Apparently these two (not so bright) guys had beaten on our door so loudly it woke him up. They saw a car parked in front of our townhouse and decided that the owner of the car lived in our apartment. Boy, were they wrong!

And me… I am upstairs this whole time still without a clue. I peeked out our bedroom window but all I could see was a taxi. I heard the door shut and one of the two guys said, “DID HE HAVE A GUN??” At that point, I got brave and went downstairs. Dewayne was at our back door and the guys were still beating on doors to try to find this lady. So I called the cops. The cops arrived about 6 or 7 minutes later and these two pure bred geniuses were STILL walking around. One of them even decided he needed to pee and did it on one side of Dewayne’s truck!!!!

After the cops put them back in the taxi and sent them on their way, Dewayne and I went outside to talk to the cops. They said that the white guy had given the lady (the owner of the blue car) some money to hold for him right before he got out of jail. Now, he was out of jail and wanted his money back. They happened to be driving by and SAW this car from the road (which is a fairly lengthy distance) and decided to drop by at 4 in the morning.

Now, let me tell you about the owner of the blue car. I know we can’t judge a book by its cover, ESPECIALLY after the Craigslist killer BUT… I’m pretty sure this lady is not involved with these two idiots. She is a single woman well into her sixty’s. She is a teacher at Permian and is always going out with her friends. She has 100 bumper stickers stuck on her car all of which involve Texas, Bush, or Jesus and a Ty beanie baby on her dash board. She always tells us when she is going out of town and when she will be back so that we can use her covered parking space that she has to pay for! When I told the apartment manager about the incident she said, “Wait… you must be mistaken! They were looking for BARBARA???”

The story isn’t over. After the cops leave, we went back upstairs. We had every light in the house turned off so we could see out but they couldn’t see in. Daisy was such a good girl during this entire ordeal. She was scared! So scared that it scared the poop out of her! It wasn’t funny at the time because Dewayne was already mad as all get out and he stepped in dog poop. He yelled at ME (!) and made ME (!) clean it off!!!! It was such an eventful evening. And of course, Dewayne laid down and instantly started snoring. However, I just laid there. I finally fell asleep a little after 6:00 a.m.

Daisy

2009-04-07T06:32:00.000-07:00

I just thought everyone needed an updated picture of our baby. She may not be as fun as grandkid pictures, but its all ya get for a while!!!!!!

Isn't she sweet!?!?!

It's been a while...

2009-04-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

I guess it has been long enough since I’ve blogged…

I don’t have much to update. We have decided to push back the house a few months since everything is so unstable right now. Cameron didn’t have enough people take the voluntary retirement package and are resorting to INVOLUNTARY workforce reduction. We also got emails from the company’s CEO today stating we will not be getting our raises in May as planned. I’ve been told my job is not at risk… but how disappointing would it be to start building a house and have to back out? We are looking at starting the project in August. PLUS, the homebuilder we are going to use is starting another subdivision just a LITTLE farther north of town that we both liked. They are putting in the streets and won’t start building there for another month or two anyway!

Daisy lost her first two teeth! We have been a little concerned about her because almost ALL of her adult teeth have grown in and none of her baby teeth had come out! She has twice the amount of teeth so it hurts twice as bad when she decides to chew on your hand! The vet said it would happen between 7 and 9 months. We were all over at mom and dad’s this weekend eating some ribs and Travis came running up to me with a tooth. I thought it was his but it was one of Daisy’s! He had spotted it on mom’s white carpet! So I was checking her mouth and it looks like the same tooth on either side has fallen out!

Dewayne and I have something planned on almost every weekend from now until the end of May. We are busy, busy people!

We are having a chili cook off at work. I’m so excited because I have become the “event planner” around here. From the Oil Show, to the Christmas party, to a chili cook off! My boss is also having me plan something that Cameron does for our major customers. I love all the planning. I’ve decided I actually miss all the wedding planning. Who knows, maybe that is actually what I will end up being! I always wanted to when I was younger… Maybe I should switch my major to business management and minor in sociology… It’s a thought!

2009-03-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

just a few random pictures

2009-03-23T08:05:00.000-07:00

We have wedding pictures!!!!!

2009-03-22T19:03:00.000-07:00

2009-03-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Dewayne and I got on our own cell plan yesterday. We both agreed we hadn't been that happy with Alltel so we went to the AT&T store and both walked out with iPhones. :) TOOOO MUCH FUN!!!!!

I got the pink skin for mine!! I walked in with the intentions of buying a Samsung Eternity... but we BOTH got sucked into the iPhone! Imagine that...

For those of you who are going crazy... I hope to have wedding pictures on Sunday... cross your fingers!!!!!

Some more AWESOME news... we hope to start building our house next month. We still haven't sat down with a lender but we will do that soon. I will keep you updated on that too!

Home...!!!

2009-03-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of the Carnival Fantasy in the dock at Progresso. It was the same size as the Ecstasy. It sailed out of New Orleans and followed us around but ran about an hour behind us.
Our suite

The two of us in Progresso, Mexico. To save all the questions, Dewayne is wearing a pair of sunglasses on his head and on his face because we had JUST bought some cheap ones to wear around instead of wearing the expensive ones around!

Swimming pool and slide on the Lido Deck of the Carnival Ecstasy. I heard rumors that the Ecstasy will be drydocked in September and a new pool an slide will be put in... will be neat to go back and see it!

Water in Cozumel, Mexico. The white part in the picture is the side of the boat. :) I took this picture looking down from our balcony.

Just a sneak peek. Day by day activities and pictures coming soon!!!

2009-02-19T14:15:00.000-08:00

I just booked our Cozumel excursions!!! We will be scuba diving from 10:00 a.m. til noon and then we swim with the dolphins at 2:00 p.m.

http://www.dolphindiscovery.com/cozumel/cozumel-gallery.asp

Those are pictures of Chankanaab Park. Free snorkeling was included in our dolphin swim package so maybe we will do a little of that!

Ahh! I have so much to get done. I am SUCH a procrastinator!

Story time!!!

I have chosen to sleep on the couch at Stacy’s house for the past month or so. Sierra has become increasingly violent in her sleep. She yells at me and kicks me, rolls on top of me and L-O-V-E-S to play with my ears. So I figured it was best to get married with both of my ears still attached and minimal bruises! :)

Last night, I was sleeping. I don’t have a clue what time it was. Something jolted me awake and I heard someone come into the garage from the back yard (there is a door in the garage that goes straight out to the back yard) I started panicking. I couldn’t decide whether I should run back to one of the kid’s rooms or into Stacy’s room where Mr. Top Shooter man was!!!!! 911 also ran though my mind. But apparently I don’t have much logic when I have been sleeping and as dumb as this sounds, I decided they wouldn’t be able to see me on the couch and I laid and watched to see what would happen. I guess maybe I thought I would jump up and scare them to death…? I DON’T KNOW!!!!

By that time, the intruder had made his way into the kitchen from the garage and I FREAKED! I’ve NEVER been so scared in my life. A man walked around the corner… and it was MARK!!! He had gone outside because the dogs were barking. I absolutely did not hear him go outside! Totally NOT cool!

2009-02-17T12:36:00.000-08:00

We got our marriage license last Friday. Best $80 we ever spent!!

We went up to the airport on Saturday for the big homecoming/family reunion. Sierra is just too funny! I was holding her before the plane arrived and she kept saying, "Larriat, I'm going to run to my daddy when I see him!!!" She also decided she would walk to her mom when she saw her, but she was definitely running to see her daddy! I guess it is final they will be moving to Alpine, but I still don't want to talk about it!

We are getting down to the nitty gritty! 11 days to go and I am so, SO ready! Both my boss and Dewayne's boss are coming!! I'm so excited for all the family to be here! I am trying to figure out a nice place where we can ALL go to dinner the evening of the wedding. Yes, I am trying to be just like you, Betheny! I don't even know if she reads this or not, but it was definitely the COOLEST when we all got to hang out after their wedding! Its best not to roam the streets of Odessa at night... but we can totally do dinner somewhere!

One of my friends works at Pacific Tan and I did a Mystic (spray on) tan last night. I've got to admit, my entire body looks AWESOME. It really worked great. Except my hands. I must have had them positioned wrong, especially my left hand. Because they look like I have been playing in orange mud. :) But everything else is perfectly even and very natural looking! I do believe I will be doing it again before the wedding... if I can figure out what went wrong with my hands!!!!

Gotta go to a meeting my boss just decided to call... hope its a good one!!!!

2009-02-11T08:47:00.000-08:00

Not much time to blog… just wanted everyone to know I have just been REALLY busy!!!!

The wedding is coming along just fine. Just lots of things to do in the last 17 days before!!! AHH!!! 17 days!!!!

crazy weather and a flat tire

2009-01-28T13:25:00.000-08:00

I am going to take Bridal portraits on Friday!! Friday is also the first day we can apply for our marriage license!! If I apply for it at 4:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon, we have to be married by 4:00 p.m. on February 28th!

I feel like all I talk or think about anymore is the wedding! I can’t help it though. It is exactly one month away and I am going crazy! Everything is working out so great! We met with the coordinator at the Elegante over the weekend to go over logistics and stuff. We officially picked out the room set up, stage set up, audio set up, the chairs we wanted to use, table cloths, napkins, cake table locations… it is all decided! The only thing left to decide are the hors d’oeuvres options. Hopefully we will make that decision by the end of this week!

The weather in this town has been loony the past few days. We have been having these BEAUTIFUL 80 degree days… and yesterday’s temp never got above freezing. In fact, I think it stayed under 25 degrees! The worst part was the precipitation. People in this area don’t know how to function when there is ice on the roads. I was reading today that medical crews responded to more than 50 wrecks in Midland and Ector County alone and there were three fatalities in our area. But the ice is melting today and we are supposed to have a high of around 60 degrees. The boss man shut us down at 4:00 p.m. yesterday because it started raining again and the temp just kept dropping.

I had yet another nail in my tire yesterday. I didn’t even notice my tire was low and when I got home at lunch, I realized I had a voicemail from a girl at work. They had notice my tire was low when I was driving off. So I called my dad (Dewayne was on location and couldn’t answer his phone) and he said to drive around the corner to 7-11 and put some air in it and go get it fixed. I tried REALLY hard to get it to put air in the tire, but I ended up making it go completely flat. So dad had to come up there and help me. He decided there had been ice on the end of the hose when I was trying to do it and that is why it wasn’t blowing air. Did you know we spent $2.25 on AIR for my tire? But we got it done and Discount got it fixed. I can’t wait to get rid of this car!!!!!!!!

Okay, that is all for now. Mom and I are going to try on my dress after work today and I am SOO excited!

2009-01-23T14:06:00.000-08:00

I got a delivery today!

The card reads: "Thank you for all you do. I love you. Dewayne"

Only 36 more days until I get to marry the sweetest man in the whole wide world!!!!

Oh, and this is a picture of our penthouse suite on the cruise. Dewayne informed me that we get VIP status on the ship since we are staying in this room! I am SO ready!!!

HONEYMOOOOOOON!

2009-01-20T08:15:00.001-08:00

It has been a wild past few weekends!! My shower was wonderful and I received so many wonderful things!! Sierra and Emma (Dewayne’s cousin) helped me open all of my presents. I wasn’t even sure of everything I got until Dewayne and I (and mom) went through it all together!

What I learned today: My insurance covers chipped repair on my windshield for free! I went to get lunch for our safety committee meeting and on my way back, a rock hit my windshield and chipped it. I was so upset because it is LITERALLY one thing after another with that car! Anyway, the guy is coming to the house at 5 to fix it. I am so excited!

My boss just came in and told me as of this morning, he had to let 6 of his employees go, me being one of them. As of 3:00 this afternoon, they had decided to raise his budget so that he didn’t have to let anyone go. I have never had so many emotions run through my body at once! But my job is secure, at least for another year. The real world is harsh!

Wedding

All of my bridesmaid dresses are in and in the possession of the maid. J Some of them need some minor/major adjustments but it will all work out fine. I have ordered all of my last little things like my cake knives and my garters. I also found my shoes! That is really all I had left to find!
I will be taking bridal portraits at 10:00 a.m. on January 30th. I can hardly wait! We will be doing them at the Clay Desta building in Midland. It is too yucky to do them outside and this place has a HUGE atrium that looks like it is outside.

WE BOOKED OUR HONEYMOON!!!!! We are officially staying in a Penthouse Suite on the Ecstasy for a 5 day cruise of the Western Caribbean! It REALLY hit me last night that this is REALLY happening. We were going through the activities we will be able to do. I think we have decided on swimming with the dolphins and scuba diving in Cozumel and a tour of the Ancient Mayan ruins in Progresso. The rest we will shop.

2009-01-08T12:12:00.000-08:00

Well the holidays are over and we are getting back into the groove of working again. It was a nice break. It always makes me wish I didn’t have to work… but I know I would go out of my mind if I didn’t. Maybe after we have kids in 10 years or so… :)

We are trying to get everything ready for company this weekend! I am really getting excited. I have decided the nerves will probably hit me after the shower on Saturday. The wedding is 51 days away and I am so ready for it. We received our first wedding present in the mail yesterday and I must say that it made me quite emotional!!!

FYI if anyone has tried to call to make reservations at the Elegante and were told there was no group rate for our wedding, please try again. If you already made your reservations and didn’t get the group rate, let me know ASAP and I can have it fixed with a simple email!

I got a phone call that Travis’ tux is in. We bought his because it is cheaper to buy his size than to rent it! The flower girl dresses came in two days ago. I just called University Bridals and my bridesmaid dresses are in, too! AH!! That is so exciting. That has been my biggest stress and now… it’s over!!!!

Hustle and bustle...

2008-12-22T14:17:00.000-08:00

So I do believe I might have the coolest boss in this world. He gave me my Christmas present from him today. It had a sweet little card and he wrote very nice things in it. I opened my present and it was a pink and brown leather women’s devotional Bible. That was enough to make my eyes tear up. I flipped through it a little bit and when I closed it, I noticed he had Larriat McGhee imprinted on the front of it. He really put some thought into my gift and it REALLY meant a lot to me!

I got the girls at work each a reed diffuser for their home or office. They were all so excited! A very small, very cheap gift that went a really long way.

We got registered this weekend. Dewayne got to “man the scanner” and he had a blast with it. When I got home and checked them out online, I had quite a bit of editing to do since he kind of went overboard on some things… but nonetheless, we are registered! I am so excited. My shower is January 10th at 2:00 p.m. I am so excited!! I gave the lady at church that is throwing the shower my guest list last night. Look for your invites early in January!

We have some sample tuxes ordered for Dewayne, Mark and my dad to try on this weekend. I am really excited to get that done. I just remembered I changed my floral appointment to today at 5:00. I just called and cancelled it again. I am way too busy!!!

There is this sweet little guy that works out in the shop. He is on the safety committee with me. EVERY time he sees me, he says, “Hi, Mrs. McGhee, only X days left” and he always has it right! I really enjoy working here. There are some very thoughtful people!

Dewayne and I did the Salvation Army’s angel tree this year. We picked a little 6 year old girl named Jayla. The card comes with a need and a wish. Her need was clothes and her wish was “anything Hannah Montana”. We got her a pair of jeans, a pink striped sweat suit, a zip up jacket, some Hannah Montana fleece pajamas and a Hannah Montana doll. Best $50 I ever spent at Christmas! It is truly a blessing to be able to give a kid a real Christmas.

I am one gift shy of being done with my Christmas shopping. I know, cutting it close. I REALLY tried to put some thought into the nieces and nephew gift this year. There is one for each that I am so excited about! We decided to draw names for gifts next year… I am game unless I get Mark or Scotty. They are IMPOSSIBLE to shop for!

2008-12-15T14:42:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas party was a huge success. All of the bosses here were extremely appreciative of everything I did. I think they really needed someone around here to take leadership on these kinds of things. Our safety guy is here this week and he was amazed at all the Christmas decorations. Teresa told him it was all because of me!

It is tradition that we send a fax to our vendors (people we buy stuff from) and they send us gifts or gift cards to raffle off at the party. I got a total of 61 gifts. We really had lots of fun.
We did have Santa there for the kids. They got to sit on his lap, have their picture made, and got a stocking with goodies. He was great!!! I will be finding a different DJ next year. He was not very good. I didn’t find him and he was sort of last minute because someone didn’t find one in time. But next year I know how things work and what to do and what not to do!

We finally picked a florist!! Mom went with me to the LAST place I was going to and she and I both really liked them. I will give her a call tomorrow and let her know. I have an appointment with Al’s Formal Wear on Saturday. Hopefully that will be ONE more thing I can cross off my list. It is getting so close and I am so excited. The days just whiz by with me being so busy. Sometimes I just have to step back and look at what needs to get done!

As a heads up to everyone, it looks like my shower will be January 10th at 2:00 p.m. We finally get to go register!! Woo Hoo! I am so excited! I know that some won’t be able to make that date but I know some of you will be enjoying MUCH better things!!!

We are almost finished with our Christmas shopping. We discovered yesterday that out Linen’s N Things is going out of business. We walked in and the store was practically empty. We did get two very neat things to hang on the wall. One was originally $149 and the other $119. They were 75% off! That is MY kind of shopping!

Okay, back to work!

2008-12-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas! I love everything about the season. I am a LITTLE disappointed that it is December 8th and it is 72 degrees today. However we have a “chance” of rain/snow showers tomorrow with a high of 44 degrees. I will be making stew again. That is a HUGE hit when it is cold out.

I have been in charge of our company Christmas party. I LOVE this job. I found a really neat Santa to be there for the kids. They will get their picture made and get a stocking with some goodies. Dewayne, Mom, Dad, Stacy and the kids are all going. That is my FAVORITE part about working for Cameron; my boss is a Christian and everything is so family oriented.

I have been really stressed lately because I have been so busy. I had a dream about the wedding the other night. We didn’t have a caterer for the rehearsal dinner, no flowers, no groomsmen, and no one knew what music to play or how to play it for that matter! It was a silly dream but it is because I have been so busy with work and neglected the wedding plans. Things are getting back on track, though. It looks like my shower from church will be January 10th. That isn’t official yet. I do however understand that many of my family members will not be able to make it.

I do believe I have found my bridesmaid gfts and I am SO excited!!

Here is a new picture of Daisy!! She is 13 weeks old today.

Stuff...

2008-11-21T07:58:00.000-08:00

I made stew last night and it was absolutely wonderful. Perfect for the weather!!! Travis and Sierra loved it too. I was proud of myself. I have been branching out to try and cook new things! So far, I have done great. I have been making homemade apple sauce and Travis just loves it! Sierra… not so much.

I have still been keeping a calendar of what we eat. I like to cook easy things when the kids are around like pigs in a blanket or spaghetti. But I am hoping that after I get two or three months full, I can eventually have enough meal ideas to plan out an entire month! That would REALLY make things easier.

Thanksgiving is going to be a breeze this year. We will have Thanksgiving at mom and dad’s house, go shopping on Black Friday morning and then leave for Rochester. His family doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving til the Sunday after so that his entire family (his mom’s side) can be together. Christmas is going to be the tough one. We will probably spend Christmas Eve with his family and drive home Christmas day to be with mine. At least they only live 3 hours away! But I have a feeling we will be traveling on Christmas day, no matter what for the rest of our lives!

Daisy has easily already become part of the family. Everyone passes her around like a baby. You absolutely cannot resist that face of hers! She has learned how to romp up and down the stairs at the house. She likes to race you to the top but coming down isn’t quite as easy for her.

*Wedding*

I am going to talk to another florist on December 6th. This is the LAST one I am going to talk to. I am so over it! A lady here at work got flowers from one of the florists that I had talked to and she was going on and on about how ugly they were… So I decided to give one more a shot.

I found navy blue and silver rose petals for the girls to throw! I’ve got them ordered and I can’t wait til they get here! I will have to let the girls practice at Christmas!

I can’t believe there are only 99 days left! I found out all the stuff I need to know about applying for a marriage license and all that. I am just so excited! We are starting to deal with the “yucky” part of being grownups. Getting me on his health insurance, we will have to get me put on the lease for the town house… those aren’t the fun things!!

Flowers, tuxes, and registering for gifts are my last major tasks… I think. I know we are going to register at Target and Bed Bath and Beyond. I think Dewayne is even excited about taking the little scanner gun around the store to pick stuff out! I can’t decide whether or not I am going to tell him that Home Depot has a wedding gift registry…

Anyway, I believe it has been decided that we are taking a cruise for our honeymoon! It will be a 7 day to Montego Bay, Jamaica, The Caiman Islands and a few other beaches. We are going to swim with the dolphins and go scuba diving! I am so excited! There is a boat that leaves the port on March 1st so we will fly out the next morning!

2008-11-13T13:26:00.000-08:00

Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

Send a Christmas card overseas! For more information, visit www.redcross.org
I printed off some Christmas cards for Travis and Sierra to color. There are several rules and regulations so check out the site before you send them.

I learned a lesson yesterday. Parchment paper burns at temperatures over 400 degrees. Tee hee. I set off the smoke alarm… My pizza didn’t stick to the pan though!!

I printed out a calendar and wrote down what we were having for dinner each night this week. I gave it to Dewayne and said if you don’t like it, YOU change it. I get SOOO tired of getting off work and trying to decide what to cook. By the time we finally decide, I am totally out of the mood to cook! He had no complaints and we have stuck to it! VERY helpful!

I am trying to get caught up on expense reports at work… mainly because it’s almost time for them to be turned in again… All of the guys under parts/sales (“my guys”) have to send me their receipts for anything they put on their company credit card. It is my responsibility to get them to Houston.

Some interesting things I have learned from expense reports:

1. Cameron employees are addicted to McDonalds.
2. There is a chain of convenience stores called “Loaf N Jug”.
3. According to the show “Mythbusters” a single piece of paper cannot be folded in half more than seven times. My guys are determined to disprove that with their hotel receipts.
4. It does not matter whether you leave the restaurant copy of the receipt at the restaurant or not.
5. My guys can’t read. Otherwise they would leave the restaurant copy of the receipt at the restaurant.
6. A staple WILL go through an inch thick stack of wadded up receipts.
7. A staple will NOT go through a two inch thick stack of wadded up receipts. They try anyway. When it doesn’t go through, they try again, and again, and one more time.

2008-11-12T14:39:00.001-08:00

Daisy and I went to the vet yesterday. She weighs a whopping 1.75 lbs at 9 weeks old. She was due for her next round of puppy shots so we went ahead and did that. She goes again on December 1st for her 12 wk shots. But she is a healthy puppy! I REALLY liked the vet, too. He has his home and cell numbers on his business cards in case of an emergency.

Dewayne and I have been talking about putting her through the 4 trainings offered at Petsmart. If you complete the 4th training, she gets the same certification as a service dog and can go into any hotel, restaurant, store, etc… and they can’t make her leave. We could even take her to hospitals and let her visit patients. I thought that would be the neatest part. We will have to see. The only thing stopping us is we don’t have a Petsmart in Odessa, it’s in Midland. Each class is one night a week for eight weeks. It is just hard to commit to that with so much going on. We already paid for a potty training class this Friday and I am going to have to cancel.

I was asked to join our safety committee here at work. I will hold the title of “Scribe” which also handles the treasury and secretarial duties. I think it will be fun. I will get a few overtime hours each month also. The shop guys around here are like kids! They have to be bribed to do their job. They get donuts every week they don’t have a recordable incident and get a “food reward” every month that they have zero recordable incidents. Today was food reward day and I had to go get NINTY burritos. That will also be my responsibility on the committee. One of the shop guys had Ruben call Teresa and ask where their food was and I informed Ruben after I am on the committee, if ANYONE ever calls me and asks where their food is, they will not get any.

Everyone needs Office 2007. The other day, I was typing a guy’s address and it is San Clemente, CA. The street name was Spanish also. After that, I noticed all my words were underlined in red like they were misspelled. Technically, they were. Word automatically switched my language to Spanish and did spell check on my words. The Spanish ones were correct but all the English words were wrong. Technology is AWESOME!

2008-11-10T08:29:00.000-08:00

Well my birthday was AWESOME! Mom took me to Red Lobster and then we went to her house for cake and I must say it was probably the cutest cake I have ever seen! Mom did SUCH a good job on it!

Then Saturday night, Stacy got me tickets to go see Jack Ingram for my birthday. I can remember going to a Pat Green concert like 5 years ago and Jack Ingram opened for Pat. He was a nobody and I didn’t listen to him at all! Now Jack is a pretty big deal! Anyway, we had a blast!

Dewayne got me a HUGE birthday present… it counts as all my Christmas presents too… but it is SO worth it!!! Yes, I am fully aware that I am a spoiled brat!

Meet Daisy!!!!!!!! AKC registered yorkie! We drove to Sweetwater, TX to get her on Saturday!!! She is SO sweet. She will be between 5-6 lbs full grown. She probably weighs around 1.5 right now. We have an appointment tomorrow morning with a vet right by the townhouse. I have heard that yorkies are very stubborn when it comes to potty training but she has done amazing. She pottied in her kennel the first night but not last night! Eventually we will get a male and his name will be Duke!!

*Wedding*

I met with the seamstress on Friday! I L-O-V-E my dress. It is absolutely beautiful! I didn’t want to get out of it! The good news is that because of the uniqueness of the way my dress is built, it isn’t going to take much altering. She will have to shorten the length, of course, and just a few changes in the bust. Then I get to take BRIDAL PORTRAITS! I haven’t decided on whether or not I am doing extensions again. They were REALLY cool but it hurt like crazy trying to get them off! Here is what it looked like before she curled it.

It probably only made my hair another three or four inches longer… but it was MUCH thicker! And it held the curl better than my hair does… Maybe I will try bridal portraits without them… and base my decision off that!

A lady at church told me she was considering having my shower the second weekend in January. Its not firm yet but she and I both think that seems to be a nice time.

BOLO...

2008-11-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

Happy 21st birthday to Larriat!! WooHoo!!

Ladies and gentlemen, I am placing a BOLO (learned that from NCIS!!) on a toy yorkie. I want one SO badly. If you know of anyone that wants to get rid of one or a breeder or ANYTHING… please tell them you know someone that would give them a WONDERFUL home. I want a female, on the smaller side if possible (3-5 lbs full grown). But as long as it is a toy (not standard) I will take it. Buying from a breeder will cost between $1,500 - $3,000 plus the $700 pet deposit at the town house… so you can see my dilemma. I am willing to pay a reasonable amount for one, I'm just not going to take out a loan to have to do it! Wedding present anyone… Christmas maybe…???? :)

*Wedding*
We are going to meet my seamstress today at lunch and get my dress pinned for alterations! I’m so excited since this will be the first time to see MY dress! Then, Dewayne is taking mom and me to lunch! He took off work today because of my birthday. He had a stage job today that was split between today and Saturday. He missed my birthday last year so he told them he didn’t want to work. :) He spoils me so much!

Sierra gets so excited when we talk about the wedding! She always wants to hear “our wedding song” which is the “Here Comes the Bride” on www.dewayneandlarriat.com and look at all the pictures. Then we have to look at a picture of her and Randi’s flower girl dresses. Dewayne and I bought some winter flowers to plant in the back yard. Dewayne was outside planting them last night and Sierra decided those were the flowers she and Randi were going to throw at the wedding.

I found out navy blue daisies just aren't possible so we are going to do periwinkle and white with navy and silver ribbon. Disappointing… but at least the florist was honest with me about how the navy daisies turn out! She said the last thing she ever wants to do is disappoint a bride on her wedding day. I liked her a lot!

Oh my goodness I have so much work today but I don’t want to!! After all, it is my birthday!!

ROCK THE VOTE!

2008-11-04T09:48:00.000-08:00

Don't forget to Rock the Vote 2008! Your vote matters!

Engagement pictures are up @ http://www.dewayneandlarriat.com/ I can order prints of any size! Just let me know!

116 days til the wedding and 3 days til Larriat's birthday!!

2008-10-31T08:11:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween!!!! That means it is only 7 days until my birthday!

Stacy and Travis’ pumpkins were smashed last night. It made me SO angry when I realized they were theirs. I made me even more upset that I was RIGHT there and I never heard them.

Drama story time: After I took Travis to his open house on Tuesday, I decided to just get some Keith’s Hamburger Station to take home. I checked my bank account yesterday morning and my checking account was down to like $40 and then I noticed $100 had been drafted out of my savings account which it automatically does even if my account gets down around $10! When I checked the history in my account, the brilliant cashier at Keith’s had charged my debit card THREE times! Twice for the total of my meal, $26.38 and once for $226.38. I nearly had a cow. I called down there and Keith, the owner, checked his receipts and saw the error. He asked me to come by and he would just give me cash for it. So I went by and one of his brilliant workers just gave me my cash and told me to “sign the paper bag” so they had proof I came to pick it up. The owner didn’t even come talk to me! At least he was honest about it...

Every year I go order some Halloween cookies from a place here called Fat Jack’s for Dewayne to take to work for the guys. This year when I went to order them, the owner told me they stopped taking orders several weeks ago because they had so many! So, I made my special peanut butter cup cookies this year for him to take. I made at least 130 of them and made regular peanut butter cookies with the left over dough.

Just thought this was neat to share. We took this picture after we had our safety lunch and they handed out our jackets. Small and blurry...but its the best I could do!

We will be getting Cameron hats that have “365” on the back of them. I am going to take my jacket back sometime and have Mitchell changed to McGhee. Teresa ordered my name plate for my office and it says Larriat McGhee on it.

*Wedding updates*
MY WEDDING DRESS FINALLY ARRIVED!!!!!!!! I hope to try it on today at lunch!

We are taking engagement pictures on Sunday. I am getting extensions put in my hair tomorrow. If I like them, we will take them out and save them to reuse for bridal portraits and the wedding.

120 days!!!

Couch...

2008-10-27T14:26:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to get this posted... and a blogger that searched for a photo of a "jigsaw couch" reminded me to get it done. We got this at Furniture Row. It comes in "sand" like ours and "chocolate" like the pillows on it.

So here is the picture of our new couch. We NEVER separate it! It is so awesome when Travis and Sierra come over. They have plenty of room to roll around on it and cuddle for movies.

Things are still the same... busy busy.

Attention bridesmaids: your dresses have been ordered. They should be delivered in about 12 weeks.

4 months and 1 day from now... Dewayne and I will be married!!! AHHHH!!! It is all going by so quickly! Dewayne has decided we are taking a cruise for our honeymoon. He wants to do a 7 day Carnival Cruise. He took a five day for his senior trip in high school and loved it. I agree as long as we get to go scuba diving and swim with the dolphins.

November will be over before any of us know it! We have to get engagement pictures done this month, my birthday, my dress will be here the 12th, Dewayne's birthday, then Thanksgiving and Mark will get to come home!

Now I don't want to work for the rest of the day... I just want to type! But I have reports due to my boss in the morning and not all of my sales guys have turned in their stuff so I have to go harass them!

These days...

2008-10-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

Where, oh where do I begin? I haven’t blogged in more than a month but it seems like a year!
I have so much to say I just don’t know where to start or stop so I apologize in advance if this is confusing and/or all over the place!

I absolutely love my new job. My boss is unbelievably awesome. I planned my first party for the upcoming Oil Show. It is Wednesday night at the Country Club. I have spent so much money on this party, it’s insane! I will definitely have to post some pictures! Dewayne and I get to go but there are very few people in the office that are invited. I’m important around here! My office is even in the “executive wing”. I’m smack dab between Dave and Pat… the head honcho’s around here!

I have been staying with Stacy while Mark is gone. I like sleeping with Sierra. She is a cuddler. It’s fun though. Dewayne has been a big help for Stacy, too. He loves to do yard work and stuff so he doesn’t mind doing all the dirty work! He is such a sweetheart!

The wedding is coming along great! I found a photographer (finally)!! I hope to go take our engagement pictures out at Noel Plaza this weekend. I’m waiting on the lady to call me back to confirm a time. I will call and order bridesmaid dresses today. That has been a bunch of drama but we found one! I finally feel like things are all coming together nicely. 131 days to go!

Okay… back to work for me. I am busy these days and I love it!

Busy, busy!

2008-09-15T15:18:00.001-07:00

So it’s been a while since I blogged! There has just been so much going on!

First of all, my new job at Cameron Compression Systems is amazing. I am so ready to know everything there is to know about my position! I love the work and my boss is such a nice guy. He is so laid back and doesn’t treat me like a secretary. I don’t have to answer the phones, or greet people or make coffee… it’s no longer my job! I do a lot of reports for Dave (my boss) and the sales guys.

Dewayne and I went insane for a few hours this weekend. We went out to buy a new mattress since he will have an extra bedroom. We walked away having purchased a mattress, a new living room set and a bedroom suit. J Furniture row was running a great deal and we decided to go for it! We mainly did it because we are moving him into a town house in a few weekends. It will be where we stay for a while after we get married. Hopefully the market will come down some during the meantime and it won’t be so impractical to buy a house in this town. We still hope to build and with both of us having such awesome jobs now, it is a real possibility.

Anyway, the couch I picked out is AMAZING. It is called a jigsaw couch. I will just have to take a picture of it when it comes in because I couldn’t find it online. It sounds weird but you just have to see it. It is a sectional but when you push all of it together with the ottoman, it makes one HUGE round bed/couch/chair. Yeah, the picture will help!

I am moving in with Stacy while Mark is gone to DEA. Sierra and I will share a bed. I think it will let Stacy sleep a little easier cause she gets so spooked, but I will also be there for the kids. I am keeping them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, mom keeps them on Mondays and Wednesdays. They LOVE to come to “my house” when it is my turn to keep them. Trav and Dewayne play the Xbox 360 and Sierra loves to pull out her bucket of toys and read her books to us.

It doesn’t sound like a whole lot going on but between school, a new job, helping with the kids, and packing up Dewayne’s junk... but it is a lot to balance! Even Stacy has said something about how we haven’t done any wedding stuff! But hopefully it will pick back up at the end of the month. Only 166 more days!!!!!!!

2008-08-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

I went for my drug test yesterday. I will start work on Tuesday. If anyone is interested in who/what I work for, the website is http://www.c-a-m.com/ compressor systems division. All of my benefits and insurance start on DAY ONE of employment. Mom didn’t believe me, but my employment offer letter even said they do. Best of all, I get my tuition reimbursement. If I don’t like it, I am going to stick it out til I finish school so they will pay for it all! I even get my own company issued laptop.

I am taking Sociology and Computer Science this semester. I am way more excited about the computer science class. We will study office 2007. I get to put it on my personal laptop. Also, it will be what I am using at my new job so I will get to learn it twice as fast. Pretty awesome!

So the latest and greatest on the wedding: Hilary has officially agreed to sing live at the wedding. I am SOOOO excited! That makes for two live singers! I am having a REALLY hard time finding a photographer. That seems to be the hardest part of this! Dad said he had a Polaroid he would take pictures with. Good ol’ dad…

I am keeping Sierra today. I got her some princess crayons and two coloring books. Between coloring and watching Sponge Bob, she hasn’t made a peep in the last 30 minutes. I have been picking Travis up every day from school and he loves it. He and Sierra both call Dewayne’s apartment “Larriat’s house” I am going to let him come over for a while today while Stacy is at class. He loves to come over and play with Dewayne and with Dewayne’s new job, he gets to come home more in the evenings. Trav sat in Dewayne’s lap all through church last night. HA! Sierra just looked at me and said, “Are you finished writing your knee mail?” :)

Today...

2008-08-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

Dewayne started his new job today. I really think he was excited about it because he knew a few guys that worked there. A lot of the people that quit JW (his old job) either went to Express or Wood Group. He picked Wood Group. It is still a wireline company, they just don’t do work in Fort Stockton which is amazing!

Still waiting to hear from my job… I can’t take it anymore!!!

BIG NEWS!!! I declared my major! I am stoked! I decided to major in sociology and minor in criminology.

I am getting so excited about the wedding! Only 194 more days to go! I am busy, busy, busy! Still trying to find a photographer that doesn’t charge a million dollars for photos. We have decided to go with the Elegante as our venue! I hope to go put the deposit down on Thursday. I have started a little list of nit-picky things that need to be done and it is FOREVER long. I officially have three things marked off it. :) Wedding planning is a LOT more stressful than it seems!

Forks.

2008-08-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

Well things are finally starting to look up. Dewayne got a job with the company he wanted to be with. The pay is amazing and he won’t have to work so far away from home. He will also have service on his cell phone on the locations that this company works on… so I won’t have to sit and wonder about him all the time! He is getting his drug test and physical this morning. Hopefully he will start on Monday!

I am still waiting to hear from Cameron Compression. I have never had to wait this long to find out if I got a job or not… the stress is killing me! I would just rather know than have to sit here wondering! But maybe it will be worth the wait. I talked to HR about their tuition reimbursement program. They put a guy through law school. How awesome is that?! I may be old and feeble by the time I get my degree… but I will have it and I won’t have spent a dime nor have one single student loan!

My last day at the Foundation will be the 20th of August. My boss decided for me. If I don’t get the job at Cameron, I will work temp jobs through Manpower until I find something permanent. The staff is taking me for my good-bye lunch on Wednesday. I am supposed to decide where I want to go. I am thinking about going to the Petroleum Club. I really don’t care much for it but it will probably be the last time I ever get to eat there. I could never afford it on my own! It’s one of those places that you have to make sure you don’t rest your elbows on the table and there are 12 different forks at your place setting: one for your salad, one for your meat, one for your veggies, one for your dessert…

Wedding plans

2008-08-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

Friday was a good day. Mom and I drove around to almost every bridal shop we could find but all of them were those “independently owned” stores and didn’t have much of a selection to try on. They all had the books to just order the dress out of and hope you like it. I learned that was a bad idea when I took three print outs of dresses I loved to University Bridal with me and ended up hating every style I thought I liked. But my dress has been ordered. It was more than twice what I was hoping to spend but I am in love with it!

We also got prices on venues. I am waiting on a final price but I believe we will go with the Elegante Hotel. It is very pretty and a lady I used to work for is now the event coordinator for the hotel so I hope she can really hook me up within my budget. But it includes set up, clean up, tables, chairs, linens, plates and silverware, etc. Mom decided it was more than worth the extra money so that they weren’t responsible for clean up. We would also get the family a nice group rate if they decided to stay the night at the hotel.

(Also, if it makes any difference to people’s travel plans… Dewayne and I plan on copying Beth and Josh and staying in town that evening and hanging out with the family. We can’t go to Brick Town or anything even close to that cool… but we can figure something out. )

We rented my arch, candelabras, and Corinthian Columns and bought my invitations. Stacy is so creative. Dewayne actually is the one who found the invitations and when I showed them to Stacy, she had a vision and we decided to make the invitations ourselves. I picked out my flower girl dresses. Oh, update on the wedding party. Sierra and Randi both agreed to be my flower girls and McKayla is going to be a greeter, my ring bearer’s escort down the isle, and a Jr. Bridesmaid. She is going to be exhausted!

Excitement in Larriat's world!

2008-08-07T07:09:00.001-07:00

So, my job interview went GREAT this morning! I really think this is the one I want! I go back for a second interview on Tuesday with HR! David (my would-be boss) said he would make a final decision by the end of next week for sure. Ahhh! I just can’t sit still! This would be a much needed change and a HUGE pay raise. Keep praying guys! God has heard them!

More good news… I have another job interview this afternoon. It is with a wind turbine energy company. I guess they have expanded a branch to Odessa because they are hiring lots of positions. They are the nation’s third largest wind energy provider. www.suez.com They better be REALLY good to top the other position I interviewed for this morning though!

I know you all are wondering… so yes, the spaghetti was good last night. J After church, Dewayne and I drove around and looked at a list of houses that a realtor pulled for us in our price range. Guess what we found? Absolutely NOTHING! But if I get either of these jobs, I really believe we can up our price range and really get what we want! Maybe even build on a few acres of land!

Ahhhh! I don’t think I can sit here all day! I will leave around 1:45 to go to my next interview. Then I am off til Monday… woohoo!

Spaghetti

2008-08-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

I have another job interview in the morning. I am so excited I can hardly stand it! It is with an oil and gas pressure control equipment company in Odessa. He is meeting me for breakfast in Midland so that I don’t have to miss work for my interview. Pray hard for me! If he offers the job on the spot, I will hand in my two weeks notice when I walk into work tomorrow morning! Stacy even helped me draft my notice.

We went to see The Dark Knight on Monday night. That is definitely the night to go see movies. There were hardly any little pre-teens out causing problems! Anyway, the movie was forever long. Even Dewayne was kind of ready for it to end. And who knew Heath Ledger could be SO creepy?! It was even creepier knowing they finished that movie without him. But a good movie!

We are going to eat spaghetti at moms tonight before church. I’m not a fan of it, but Dewayne is and I never make it since I’m not too crazy about it.

I am so excited to see Jenny and the girls!! Scotty too...but mostly just Jenny and the girls! I hope we can do some wedding stuff with Jenny while she is here. Dad’s family reunion is on Saturday though. I think Dewayne and I will just attend the lunch part. I hope they aren’t having spaghetti…

We drove around looking for houses last night. There had been talk of getting a two bedroom apartment or a town house because we will need more space when I move in, but I think he wants a house. The market is just too crazy right now!

Okay, I am starving. Maybe I will post again later for all you blog-lovers!

Good days and bad days

2008-08-04T07:29:00.000-07:00

I have been told that if you go into a day with a positive attitude, you will have a positive day. I had a great attitude on Friday. Friday was a horrible day. It was both Rhonda and Julie’s last day. I cried when I had to say bye to both of them…

Then I realized I had a flat tire on the way to the bank. Dewayne had to drive to Midland to put on my spare for me so that I could get back to Odessa… only for Mitsubishi to tell me that because I didn’t get my oil changed EXACTLY every 3,000 miles, I voided my free tires for life warranty. Hello…? What do the tires have to do with the oil? So we got the flat fixed at Sam’s for FREE… only to find out that my tires cost $197 EACH.

Yes, I am done complaining. Oh, except one more thing. The air conditioner went out at the apartment yesterday. Thank goodness it was in the evening. Apparently that isn’t considered an “emergency” and you can’t call out a maintenance man on the weekends for that reason.

Today is a much better day though. I had an email from my boss this morning that said:
“Effective Tuesday, Aug 5, for approx 90 days, we are going to try new office day start at 8:30 AM. Thanks.”
Which is cool I guess… since I am the only one that actually gets here before 8:30…

*Wedding*
So mom and I are taking off work this Friday so that she and Stacy and I can do wedding stuff. We still have to decide on a venue so hopefully we can get that done Friday. I need to get fitted for my dress, taste cake and book the date with the cake, rent my arch and candelabra, make a final decision on invitations, engagement pictures… blah blah blah… the list just goes on and on! It’s like it never ends! But we have lots of fun and I kinda think Dewayne is getting a little more excited about it!

Jobs...

2008-07-31T09:59:00.000-07:00

I went for a job interview this morning. I don't know how I feel about it. It is at Bogan Dunlap and Wood Insurance. I would only be a customer service rep. The pay is the same as my current job and the position is in Odessa... I just don't know what I want to do! The interview went well though. I will just pray about it and see! Everyone pray about it too! I am so frustrated with my job right now!

Dewayne has mentioned possibly becoming a Game Warden. I always tell him "no" when he mentions becoming a police officer. It would be really cool for him and I know he would love it. I would just be husbandless like my sister for 4 months while Dewayne trains in Austin and Mark trains in Virginia. It would be cool if they were gone at the same time though!

Not much new on the wedding. I am trying to decide if I want to try on more dresses or not. The one I picked is perfect. But trying on wedding dresses is one of the most fun things to do in this whole entire world! I have told myself I am going to make a decision by August 15th because the dresses are custom made in Japan and take around 13 weeks to get in! We have asked Dewayne's cousin to play the guitar and sing during the wedding. He will sing "our" song during the unity candle lighting. I'm just excited! It needs to hurry up and get here!

Okay... I need to do some work. I just don't want to!

2008-07-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

So it has been a while since I've posted. But, just as I had hoped, I have a new subject to blog about! Dewayne proposed on June 21, 2008! The plans are underway for our marriage on February 28, 2009!

FYI, we no longer have our Sugar Gliders. We traded them for motorcycles! We decided we are busybodies and can't stay home long enough to have pets like that! Anywho, wedding details to come!

P.S. I have had this website going for a while, but I didn't want to release it until I had asked all of my bridesmaids. I will update info as soon as I know it!

http://weddings.theknot.com/pwp/view/co_main.aspx?coupleid=6403193109111071

2008-02-14T17:26:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Dewayne finally gets to come home tonight, but it won't be for a while. They have been in Ft. Stockton working all week and had to stay there every night. We had originally set a $20 limit for Valentine's day, just kinda relaxed and not a big deal. Dewayne came home Monday with a half carat diamond bracelet. He so went over his limit. I was frustrated because all I did for him was a card, a giant Recees heart, and I made him a cherry pie because it is his favorite. Then I was going to make him crab legs for dinner. Anyway, I told mom how sad I was that he got me a diamond bracelet and all I got him was a cherry pie. :(

2008-02-08T08:18:00.000-08:00

I get some strange phone calls at work. I think we might be listed as a phone service somewhere. People are CONSTANTLY calling asking me to give them the number and/or address to somewhere. People who call and ask for nonprofits info is totally understandable. It’s in our database. But I had someone call and ask for the phone and addy to the Social Security office in Odessa. SERIOUSLY? Just yesterday a lady called and asked, "Is this so-and-so’s office?" I said, “No.” She said, “Oh, can you look up the right number? They are at 1400 N. Main.” *eye roll* Then we get the oh-so-nice people! Like the lady that just called and said she needed to be connected to someone who could give her information about her account. Here’s what went down.

Me: “What kind of account?”
Her: “My checking account.”
Me: “Ma’am, are you trying to reach the Permian Basin Area Foundation?”
Her: “Look I just need to talk to someone about my account. I need some information.”
Me: “Ma’am, we’re not a bank.”
Her: “I want to talk to someone about my account.”
Me: “We are not a bank, this is a nonprofit organization: The Permian Basin Area Foundation.”
Her: ………very long pause……………click.

It is SO hard to be patient with people like that and she was so rude and attitudy the WHOLE TIME! But I guess I got in the wrong profession if I didn’t want to always be nice!

Hmmm... maybe THIS is what blogs are for...!

2008-02-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to post a picture of Shelbie and Spike I got tonight. A tad blurry but I will take it! He is on the left and she is on the right. Her belly is getting so fat! Maybe she will let me take a picture of it later!

2008-02-04T12:15:00.000-08:00

Well, my last post was on Jan. 29 and today is Feb. 4th. I still have absolutely nothing to write about except I got an 85 on my first test since I started back to school! I told Dewayne he needed to blog and all I got was a. "Hmm." I am sad to report after having a massage appointment for a MONTH, mom, Stacy and I did not get to go get them. One of the therapists had a family emergency. I was going to just cancel mine and get it some other time, but mom and Stacy insisted they go with me. I got a sweet picture of our Sugar bear but Shelbie and Spike are not quite that cooperative yet.

Maybe this blog thing isn't so hard. I could just blab for hours!

2008-01-29T13:15:00.000-08:00

Heather, you have inspired me! I love to read about your family and the funny things the kids say and do. Hopefully I will have enough to write about, too. So here it is! The first Larriat and Dewayne blog!