There's a Bat in Here?

Now that we have internet (and with it, a real grown-up cable package too - whoo hoo!), I can officially blog about yesterday. You lucky duck...

Our story begins at 2:30 am Friday morning, when I rolled over in our incredibly squeaky but darling bed, waking Lee up. I was trying to apologize for waking him up, but we all know nothing makes sense in the middle of the night. Still, I tried in earnest to explain why I had jolted out of sleep: "I'm sorry, Lee. I was having a dream that there were bats flying outside, and then when I woke up, I saw that wreath up there [pointing to the wall] and thought it was a bat." But it was to no avail. Lee sleepily/nonchalantly replied, "There's a bat in here?" We both rolled over and went back to bed. When I apologized yet again that morning after we really woke up, he said he wouldn't have even remembered it if I hadn't said anything.

Maybe you had to be there, but I still thought I would include that story for posterity, and at least I will appreciate it in years to come. :)

Our B&B suite was not equipped with a shower, so an early morning bath it was! Fine with me... We got cleaned up and then went down to breakfast. We were served a delicious meal: fruit salad to start, then a cheese and bacon omelet with fresh, seasoned tomatoes on the side, homemade biscuits, and freshly-squeezed orange juice. Mmm, scrumptious! I took pictures, but I had forgotten the memory card in the computer, so they are trapped in my camera until the moving truck comes with the cable to get them out. Whoops.

The ride to Spring was mainly uneventful...the usual - bathroom breaks, reading, grad work. We did see an overturned Miller Lite truck. Maybe it was childish of me to take a picture, but all that spilled beer (blue) was too funny.

We passed into Texas through Texarkana, but we didn't see a "Welcome to Texas" sign. That was pretty upsetting since that was the one I had been waiting for most. :( Maybe it was because the city is technically in both Arkansas and Texas? I don't know. In any case, this was all I got.

Next in our food saga was good old Sonic. We knew the restaurant was going to be on basically every street corner in Texas, but it was right next to the gas station where we filled up and we couldn't wait. I mean, tater tots at a fast food place? Fo' sho'!

Soon after lunch, it started pouring. But as quickly as it came, it left... And don't worry Mom and Dad - we remembered what you said about how hard it rains in Texas. :)


My birthplace! Just had to include it...


Rayford Road. Our new home. When we got to the apartment complex, we signed our lease and waited for our keys in the Clubhouse. My cousin, Rebecca, showed up to "help us move stuff in" (aka keep us company, which was much appreciated - thanks, Becca!).


When we finally got our keys, we drove down to our apartment. It. Is. So. Cool. Look:

Living room...


Messy kitchen:


Dining room/kitchen looking from living room:


Guest bedroom/office:


Guest bathroom:


Master bedroom (that's the door to the master bath):


Master bathroom:


Roman soaking tub (we have TWO of these...can you guess how happy I am?!):


Saweeeet walk-in closets:


Deck and storage closet:


Our luxurious accommodations for the night:


And by far the biggest surprise...what do we find in the laundry closet but these: (!)

We totally were not expecting to have a washer and dryer! We were planning on buying a set, but with the move and me out of work for the summer, we didn't have enough extra $$ to purchase them right away. God knew what we needed though, and He provided! We will still probably have to pay $20/month to rent them from the complex, but that's a small price to pay until we can afford our own. No more lugging laundry to/from relatives' houses! You have no idea how excited I am. In fact, I was so excited that I did a load last night... AND I folded it. For those of you who know me well, you know I would rather do almost any other household chore, so that was a big deal. :)



Our apartment is on the west side, so we can sit on our deck while it is still (relatively) cool in the morning, sipping our coffee and spending Saturday mornings together, without the sun beating down on us. And then we get to watch the sunset at night. Glorious. Just one glitch in that plan... No patio furniture yet, and only one lawn chair. All in good time I guess. This is the view from our deck and master window. We are really hoping that this street does some serious Christmas decorating. The light-lined houses would be so pretty at night!



So after an exciting day, we went to Burger King (we still had no food), and I called my parents to talk for a few minutes. I taught my dad how to blog for me (hence last night's post). Thanks again, Dad! You are my hero. After we got our food, we went to my cousin's house to play games with her and her husband, Pete. ...Saw a GIGANTIC spider near their door. Tried not to freak out. Didn't work.

We went home, watched an episode of 24, and hit the sack, err...air mattress.

This morning, the cable guy came around 8:45, and by 10:00 - voila! Awesome cable and internet! We DVR-ed a movie just because we could, and we paused live tv for a potty break. Again, because we could. We are cool like that. Just let us be. In fact, right now, we are watching a show on demand ("How the States Got Their Shapes").

We left our apartment for a WalMart run around 11. We needed to replace basically ALL of our refrigerated/frozen food, and many household items. It took us an hour and a half but we did it. Our cart had never been that full, and I don't think we've ever paid that much for plain old stuff either. (Is that tax deductible too?! Please? ;) 17 bags, $263, and a broom and a mop later, we had replenished our pantry/supplies.



We quickly dropped the stuff off at home, then ran right back out to get fingerprinted for school. On our way back, we stopped at Lowe's to get an overhead light for our living room and propane. We got a little sidetracked with this little guy, something I had been talking about since we knew we were moving to Texas...


Our very own cactus dish garden!

We went to visit my grandparents, and my grandma sent us home with a plate each of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and broccoli with homemade cheese sauce. It tasted so good! Thanks, Gramma! And since then, we've been watching 24, exploring our cable, and blogging.

It's great to be here, but we need our stuff. The apartment won't have that "homey" feel until we get it set up, but it's the little things that help. Like this housewarming gift from my sister...

A cowboy boot bank. YES. And it matches our kitchen so well! Thanks, Rachel! It's almost half full already. :)

Oh, and for those of you wondering about the fate of our African violet that took a little tumble on Day 1, it's a little banged up but hanging on. If you notice from the pictures of us moving, it's about half the size now because the leaves got cut off, but it's a fighter!


Well I think that's all for now. I hope I got all the details of the past 2 days, and I hope you enjoyed reading about them! I'm not sure when we'll do anything else exciting enough to write about, but until then...

~Hooks

We are in Texas!

We arrived safe and sound in Vortexas, but we have no internet until tomorrow. So to all my faithful readers, sorry, but you will just have to wait until then. Thanks, Dad, for blogging this for me.

Arkansas Is Really Flat

Today started with a wake-up snuggle from my hubby and a lovely breakfast in our fancy schmancy hotel. They had really cute square plates and bowls, and Lee was especially thrilled with the sausage and gravy. We headed out for Little Rock, and I did some graduate work (yippee). I got bored after 3 hours and decided that I needed a reward for working so hard, so we decided to play games. Since Lee had been yelling out different state license plates since the beginning of the trip (jolting me out of reading or my grad work), we thought it best to make an actual list and keep track of them. We challenged ourselves to come up with the states from scratch - in alphabetical order - and we did a pretty good job. We only used our atlas a few times. So far, we have spotted 33 states, and with 1 day to go, we're getting a little nervous that we'll spot the difficult ones like Alaska.

Between license plates, we played, of course...20 Questions. We both won a few, but I held the record with 9 questions with "tubing." As we passed over the Mighty Mississippi, we also passed into Arkansas. I don't have any cool pictures of the river - sorry. Those concrete barriers are pretty high for short people to see over!


We stopped at Chic-fil-A for lunch. It was awesome, as always, but no pictures because I figure it's going to be a pretty standard part of our lives now that we're moving to Texas! Sorry, all you Northerners... I feel your pain. And while we're on the topic, I have to say that I feel like all I blog about is food. Is that wrong? I mean, I guess right now, all we do is eat and sleep...and drive. And the other two are boring to write about. So, food it is!

Our plan was to go to Cotham's Mercantile, home of the hubcap burger and famous onion rings. Lee had seen the restaurant on "Man vs. Food" and had his heart set on it from the time he knew we were stopping in Little Rock. We went to google the address, and to Lee's dismay, found out that it had ridiculous hours. It was only open from 11 am to 2 pm on weekdays! He was so disappointed. :( So back to google it was...

After about an hour of searching, Lee picked out a little place called Krazy Mike's. It was fabulous. Small, hole-in-the-wall place known for its wings, shrimp, and catfish. I had a "Na'wleans Po Boy" catfish sandwich, and Lee ordered a pound of Creole-spiced shrimp. Hushpuppies were also in the mix. Mmmmm!


Lee's shrimp came "as is" - legs, shells, and all...which royally grosses me out. I tried not to look at him while he was eating, but his shrimp leg juices kept spraying me across the table, and it was too much. I ate my sandwich and was done. I didn't even want ice cream afterwards. You KNOW something is up if I don't want dessert! :) Lee wanted me to document his shrimp. Ughh. I literally closed my eyes while I took this... It pains me to include it here.


Krazy Mike was actually there, cooking food behind the counter! You could tell it was him because his pictures looks just like him, and one of the locals called him by name. I sooo wanted to take a picture with him. What a memory that would have been! A picture with the owner! But of course, Lee denied my request. Grrrr. So I had to settle for this picture from the menu to remember what Krazy Mike looks like. Lee, I hope you know our kids will be disappointed when I tell them this story. ;)


But as sad as it was missing out on a photo opportunity like that, Lee well made up for it in his choice of lodging tonight. He booked it completely on his own as a surprise for me. And let me tell you...he done good. Just outside downtown Little Rock is a gorgeous little bed and breakfast called the Rosemont Inn. And I get to stay there tonight. Hooray!


I love every little thing about this 1880s farmhouse. The creaky wood floors, the floral and striped wallpaper, our hand-painted porcelain sink, the wonderfully worn-in couches in the living room... There is a beautiful dining room, complete with complimentary snacks and drinks. The gardens out back are truly breathtaking. It's just too bad it's a bajillion degrees out and the cicadas are deafening. :)


This next picture is significant for two reasons:

1. It showcases another part of the beautiful gardens.
2. That is exactly where my purse sat all during dinner. Because I am a dorkwad. And forgot it there. Because I was taking pictures. (table on the left)
   

Our room is like a little quaint cottage...


...with some modern marvels, of course. (MANY PROPS TO LEE!)


We even have our own private entrance if we want to venture to the gardens out back for a while.


After dinner, we enjoyed a few minutes on the porch swing out front. You can be jealous. It's ok.


And now, I'm off to use that marvelous jacuzzi and read a good book. Lee, you are my hero. Still, you should have taken that picture with Krazy Mike. ...But I still love you. Goodnight, world!

~Hooks