Molly's brief reunion with Glenn

When Glenn was in Houston interviewing with Centerpoint Energy, he stayed at my parents house of course. This was the first time he and Molly have seen each other since August! She couldn't believe her eyes when he walked in the door. Here are a few cute pics that my mom took.
Needless to say I was very jealous that he got to see her and I didn't, but we will be back with her for good soon.

Update!

“They say California's the big burrito; Texas is a big taco right now."- Dan Rather

We are definitely moving to Houston! Glenn got an offer yesterday evening from Centerpoint Energy! AND we get a moving bonus so we can hire movers! whoo hoo!

The above Dan Rather quote sums up how I feel about now and is especially fitting considering my love for Mexican food!

It's Over...I'm goin home

Glenn has made the decision that law school isn't for him and he would rather be an engineer. SO this means that we must be out of our campus owned apartment by March 6th (2 weeks) and we are moving back to Texas. It's still up in the air exactly where we will move to, but Glenn has 1 offer in Dallas and hopefully will have one in Houston in the next couple of days. We will know for sure by this Friday!

Things I will miss about Los Angeles:

• my job


• looking at the ocean all day at work


• beautiful scenery in general


• wonderful weather


• great concerts


• never-ending fun places to visit


• Trader Joe's


• always having healthy options at restaurants


• amazing shopping


• Palm trees everywhere


• recognizing that tv shows are filmed where you take your lunch break every day


• It never rains


• dogs are alloud everywhere (except my apt)

Things I WILL NOT miss about LA:

• HORRIBLY insane traffic


• lack of parking nearly everywhere


• expensive rent


• not allowed to have Molly in our apts


• expensive groceries


• everything is more expensive...


• lack of friends and family


• no good Mexican food (up to my standards anyway)


• no good barbeque


• the ocean is too cold to swim in w/o a wetsuit


• too many pedesetrians to avoid while driving


• motorcycles drive between the lanes of traffic...scary


• being so far away from family and friends

San Diego Wild Animal Park

The San Diego Wild Animal Park is a center for the preservation and display of endangered species. It covers 1,800 acres (730 hectares) in the San Pasqual Valley north of San Diego. The Zoological Society of San Diego, which also administers the San Diego Zoo, opened the park in 1972 to increase public awareness about the need for animal conservation.

This place is indcredible! I can't believe that families don't travel across the country for vacations to see this in the same way they do DisneyWorld/Land! I have never seen such happy and visible animals who seem to have no idea they aren't in their natural habitat! I took so many pictures and video/slideshow but now I am too tired to edit the video tonight after all that walking. I will post a few of my best pictures.

We went on the special "Cheetah Run Safari where a small group of people got up close with a cheetah and watched him run! The Cheetah was so relaxed and purring that they let us take a picture with him!

We were able to feed Lorikeets with little cups of nectar. They loved it and I had one jump on my hand to drink it.

The other tour we went on was the "Journey into Africa" tour which brought drove us throughout a huge area that is made to be very close to the natural habitat in Africa. There was a litter of lion cubs and they were passed out from playing later in the day in an old land rover that was set up in their area.

If you ever get a chance to go to this park DO IT!

Slideshow/video to come...

A Productive Evening

Tonight I finished this watercolor that I have sloooowly been working on. It is unlike me to start something and not finish it in a few days...because I am impatient. I just wasn't feeling motivatecd. I read my new watercolor book Making Color Sing before I started it, and although it inspired me to start something, I think I was so wrapped up in doing everything by the book that I wasn't having fun.

Today on my lunch break I ventured into Barnes and Noble and saw that they had the BIG Chuck Close book that I've been wanting for a while. It is huge and heavy and has every painting he ever did. I bought it...I just had to! I couldn't make myself put it down. Luckily I am a Barnes and Noble Member and saved 20 %!

Although his artwork is completely different from the piece I was working on...just reading about him inspired me. He faced so many challenges, figured out how to make things work for him and did what he was good at. I like to see how his work progressed. From monochromatic to color and then beyond.

After reading my new book for a while I couldn't wait to create something myself so I finished my watercolor in a matter of hours. I still referred to my Making Color Sing book, but I was much more relaxed for some reason and let loose a little. I think that is the best way to go about it for me. I went from almost giving up on it to actually kind of liking it. There you have it. I'll leave you with a neat Chuck Close quote that I found that reminded me of why going by the book doesn't always end up the best-

“If you ask yourself a personal enough question, your response is more likely to be personal, and that means that if you get yourself into trouble, no one else's answers are going to be applicable, and you'll be flying by the seat of your pants and you'll have to come up with something.”- Chuck Close

Love and Marriage...the survey

Because I have nothing better to do at the moment...

1. What is your husband's name? Glenn
2. How long have you been together? Married for almost 11 months, together for 3 years and 3 months
3. How long did you date? From first official date until proposal - exactly 1 year
4. How old is he? 23
5. Who eats more? Glenn of course...but he never gains a pound!
6. Who said I love you first? Glenn
7. Who is taller? Glenn, but when we first met I was wearing really tall shoes and he thought he wouldn't have a chance b/c I was taller...then I took the shoes off.
8. Who sings better? neither of us are really singers...
9. Who is smarter? Glenn is brilliant but I like to think that we are smart in different ways
10. Whose temper is worse? Glenn's, but I RARELY ever get mad. Usually I get upset or sad before I get angry
11. Who does the laundry? Both of us, but Glenn has done it more lately
12. Who does the dishes? Glenn does them more but only b/c he has more time during the day than me. I did them more when I didn't have a full time job.
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? we don't have sides
14. Who pays the bills? both of us, but I guess you could say that I do b/c I'm the one bringing in the moolah (haha)
15. Who mows the lawn? we don't have a lawn, but if we did he would mow it. I am way too clumsy to handle a moving blade
16. Who cooks dinner?I cook more, but sometimes I'm tired and he does
17. Who drives when you are together? he used to but recently he has had flat tire/lack of insurance issues b/c he always rides the bus so I have been driving everywhere. That is changing this week though!
18. Who is more stubborn? hmm, I think we both can be equally stubborn
19. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Depends on the situation.
20. Whose parents do you see the most?Mine.
21. Who proposed?Glenn...of course
22. Who is more sensitive? ME for sure
23. Who has more friends? probably Glenn, but we both have a lack of friends in California
24. Who has more siblings?Glenn
25. Who wears the pants in the family? we share pants ;-)
26. Where did you meet? At a DG party in Tulsa that neither one of us wanted to be at.
27. What was the first thing you said to your husband? I don't know but we had a great conversation about music.
28. Where was your first date? Dinner and a movie with my big sis Kersten and my gay boyfriend Reed. I knew after this date he would either think my friends and I were absolutely insane....or he would think that we were entertaining...luckily he wasn't scared away!
29. Where was your first kiss? the Kappa Sig house
30. Where did you get engaged? at our apartment in Tulsa
31. Where were you married? Sharp Chapel at TU
32. Where was the honeymoon? LA-funny that we ended up coming here to live...
33. If you could have changed anything about it what would it have been? Longer! and less traffic.