Hello! It's nice to meet you. I AM the newest Art Institute of Dallas graduate, Patricia E. Hagenbuck.
Today, I got to stick my head into an oven, scrub quarter inch thick grease off of racks and pots, and deck scrub the floors for one last time before getting all dolled up and heading over to Go Fish to enjoy the company of my classmates that I will likely never see ever again. Okay, Kathryn and Ashley are the exception, but I will gladly do without the rest. :P
Now I can move on to wedding planning! I'm so much more than happy!
Stay tuned for potential photos of my ceremonial trashing of all things AID related scheduled to occur tomorrow promptly after waking!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
The Birds and the Bees-
-have a completely different significance in Grady and my relationship: Our apartment is apparently in their airspace. Often on sunny days, whole flocks of birds will fly around out over the field below us and periodically come to rest on our windowsill... Same with wasps! And our window does not have a screen, unfortunately!
Today, the weather is beautiful and I'd give anything to be able to bask in the glory of the sun but I have a lot of household chores and homework to conquer... The window would be a perfect option if only there was some protection from the curious creatures outside, specifically the massive hawk that has made a handful of passes by the window today and anything that is attracted to the sweet smell of the peach room fragrance stuff we just plugged in! Bummer.
Today, the weather is beautiful and I'd give anything to be able to bask in the glory of the sun but I have a lot of household chores and homework to conquer... The window would be a perfect option if only there was some protection from the curious creatures outside, specifically the massive hawk that has made a handful of passes by the window today and anything that is attracted to the sweet smell of the peach room fragrance stuff we just plugged in! Bummer.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
On the Health Front
After an evening in the emergency room last night, we found that I have lymphadenitis--my lymph nodes are aggitated and inflamed with a bacterial infection, source unknown. It's not anything that was passed to me or that I could have passed on to anyone else.
It's similar to the type of "infection" I dealt with in high school with the costochondritis shenanigans. I need to eat bland foods and take a whole slew of medications for about a week and a half. Okay, only three meds, but that's far more than I'm used to these days!
Today, the hospital called because they had routinely gone over my CT scan results and found that I have disk protrusions in my back between L4-L5 and L5-S1, with moderate central stenosis (a lack of elasticity and range of motion) in the L4-L5 region. In other words, my lower back is all out of whack and I need to make more appointments that I still don't have time for.
So if we were to wrap this up and summarize, these are my main points:
1) God answers prayers-he gave me a clear diagnosis and it was a relatively minor, albeit uncomfortable, problem.
2) I just need to eat sad sad meals for the next little bit and suck it up to get through graduation in 26 days!
3) When you have random pain, don't be ashamed of going to the er because they get their tests back WAY quicker than the doctor (who will be calling tomorrow with information on the test they ran on Friday)
Thanks for all of your prayers and concern! God is good, all the time!
It's similar to the type of "infection" I dealt with in high school with the costochondritis shenanigans. I need to eat bland foods and take a whole slew of medications for about a week and a half. Okay, only three meds, but that's far more than I'm used to these days!
Today, the hospital called because they had routinely gone over my CT scan results and found that I have disk protrusions in my back between L4-L5 and L5-S1, with moderate central stenosis (a lack of elasticity and range of motion) in the L4-L5 region. In other words, my lower back is all out of whack and I need to make more appointments that I still don't have time for.
So if we were to wrap this up and summarize, these are my main points:
1) God answers prayers-he gave me a clear diagnosis and it was a relatively minor, albeit uncomfortable, problem.
2) I just need to eat sad sad meals for the next little bit and suck it up to get through graduation in 26 days!
3) When you have random pain, don't be ashamed of going to the er because they get their tests back WAY quicker than the doctor (who will be calling tomorrow with information on the test they ran on Friday)
Thanks for all of your prayers and concern! God is good, all the time!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Platinum What?
I periodically watch a variety of incredibly stupid wedding shows- it started as excitement that I got to join the ranks of women searching for the best florist and photographer, see what kind of ideas other women have had, whatever. Now it's mostly just for a cheap laugh! Weddings have gone to a pretty ridiculous realm of unrealistic imagination and quite frankly a stupid competition for attention.
September 25, 2010 is exclusively about the Grady and I joining in marriage, blessed by God and witnessed by family and friends. That's all that matters to me. Some one else could plan my entire wedding and I could know nothing about my wedding and that would be fine! Because the only element of my wedding that really and earnestly matters is that Grady is there with me to become my husband.
Sure, there are things that we like and want, but watching Platinum Weddings right now is just making me giggle about how seriously people take some of the silliest things! These big trees with crystals and candles hanging as table center pieces, thousands of roses, cakes with different flavors in each tier, absurd favors for guests to take home...
If nothing else about my reception is particularly memorable, I hope that people walk away feeling that they got to celebrate our love. I could care less about the rest. I love Grady.
September 25, 2010 is exclusively about the Grady and I joining in marriage, blessed by God and witnessed by family and friends. That's all that matters to me. Some one else could plan my entire wedding and I could know nothing about my wedding and that would be fine! Because the only element of my wedding that really and earnestly matters is that Grady is there with me to become my husband.
Sure, there are things that we like and want, but watching Platinum Weddings right now is just making me giggle about how seriously people take some of the silliest things! These big trees with crystals and candles hanging as table center pieces, thousands of roses, cakes with different flavors in each tier, absurd favors for guests to take home...
If nothing else about my reception is particularly memorable, I hope that people walk away feeling that they got to celebrate our love. I could care less about the rest. I love Grady.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Happy Saturday!
Listening to- Eisley: Combinations, Adele: 19
It's been a most excellent week for me! Monday was it's normal monotony, but the rest of the week has been rather enjoyable!
Tuesday- I had my first golf lesson from my sweet hubs-to-be! I will confess that I thought it was a particularly ridiculous "sport" before then, but I am absolutely hooked! It's exactly the arm and ab workout I've been seeking for some time!
Wednesday- We had no customers whatsoever in the gallery, which I know I should consider a bad thing, but I was kind of nice to get to just hang out and do nothing when I'm normally pretty busy! Afterwards, I tried to rescue a dog but it said no...
Thursday- snow day! Grady was off work and we got to chill and cuddle all afternoon and evening! He was subjected to an evening of Gilmore Girls, but we did get quite a bit of My Name is Earl in there first :) We tried again to save the dog, twice. I was straight up rejected once again, then the dog had been caught the second time around. Thank goodness someone was able to successfully get the poor yellow lab out of the snow!
Friday- should have been a snow day, but it was AiD's presidents day... Either way, I got almost the entire apartment clean! I still need to do some clothing-putting-away (my least enjoyable task...) and a bit of vacuuming and then the entire place will be spotless!
Today has been a most eventful day so far: we went and bought Bo and Geri, our African dwarf frogs, a new tank so we can better care for them. Of course moving live animals from one home environment to another always seems to be shenanigans when I'm involved. Bo found his way into our sink and then the drain and we thought Geri had been crushed by the shifting gravel... You'll all be glad to hear that I successfully fit my hand into the drain, rapidly got over how surprisingly ticklish I find frogs in my palm to be, and transported Bo into his new home. Geri was just being a punk and they are both happily swimming around in the clean water!
And now I'm caramelizing a crap ton of onions (four large ones) for some French Onion Soup! I am absurdly excited get to use my French Onion Soup bowls for the first time ever! And we discovered a new favorite wine: the recipe calls for a red wine and being "adventurous" with our selection, we went with the 3 Blind Moose Cabernet Sauvignon. Don't ask why; we wouldn't be able to say. I know, I know- label loving is frowned upon, but I find our random selections are our winners more often than not. Anyways, after a sampling of, I have concluded that it is delicious. That's saying a lot coming from me- a white wine wussy who can only handle reds when paired well! It's really smooth with notes of cherry and just a hint of smokey-oakiness. I love it!
Once I get my happily caramelized and drunken onions over to the crock-pot (don't judge me) to hang out in beef broth and herbs for the remainder of the day, I think I'm going finish the aforementioned chores, maybe rearrange the living room and then spend what's left of the day to embark in a a pamper-me afternoon of bathing, lounging, and reading, glass of wine in hand!
I would highly recommend you all do the same. :)
It's been a most excellent week for me! Monday was it's normal monotony, but the rest of the week has been rather enjoyable!
Tuesday- I had my first golf lesson from my sweet hubs-to-be! I will confess that I thought it was a particularly ridiculous "sport" before then, but I am absolutely hooked! It's exactly the arm and ab workout I've been seeking for some time!
Wednesday- We had no customers whatsoever in the gallery, which I know I should consider a bad thing, but I was kind of nice to get to just hang out and do nothing when I'm normally pretty busy! Afterwards, I tried to rescue a dog but it said no...
Thursday- snow day! Grady was off work and we got to chill and cuddle all afternoon and evening! He was subjected to an evening of Gilmore Girls, but we did get quite a bit of My Name is Earl in there first :) We tried again to save the dog, twice. I was straight up rejected once again, then the dog had been caught the second time around. Thank goodness someone was able to successfully get the poor yellow lab out of the snow!
Friday- should have been a snow day, but it was AiD's presidents day... Either way, I got almost the entire apartment clean! I still need to do some clothing-putting-away (my least enjoyable task...) and a bit of vacuuming and then the entire place will be spotless!
Today has been a most eventful day so far: we went and bought Bo and Geri, our African dwarf frogs, a new tank so we can better care for them. Of course moving live animals from one home environment to another always seems to be shenanigans when I'm involved. Bo found his way into our sink and then the drain and we thought Geri had been crushed by the shifting gravel... You'll all be glad to hear that I successfully fit my hand into the drain, rapidly got over how surprisingly ticklish I find frogs in my palm to be, and transported Bo into his new home. Geri was just being a punk and they are both happily swimming around in the clean water!
And now I'm caramelizing a crap ton of onions (four large ones) for some French Onion Soup! I am absurdly excited get to use my French Onion Soup bowls for the first time ever! And we discovered a new favorite wine: the recipe calls for a red wine and being "adventurous" with our selection, we went with the 3 Blind Moose Cabernet Sauvignon. Don't ask why; we wouldn't be able to say. I know, I know- label loving is frowned upon, but I find our random selections are our winners more often than not. Anyways, after a sampling of, I have concluded that it is delicious. That's saying a lot coming from me- a white wine wussy who can only handle reds when paired well! It's really smooth with notes of cherry and just a hint of smokey-oakiness. I love it!
Once I get my happily caramelized and drunken onions over to the crock-pot (don't judge me) to hang out in beef broth and herbs for the remainder of the day, I think I'm going finish the aforementioned chores, maybe rearrange the living room and then spend what's left of the day to embark in a a pamper-me afternoon of bathing, lounging, and reading, glass of wine in hand!
I would highly recommend you all do the same. :)
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Well, Hello February!
Listening to- A Fine Frenzy: One Cell in the Sea, Priscilla Ahn: A Good Day, and the washing machine a room away
Watching- Iron Chef America, practically muted
Working on- wedding stuffs and gifts
Current Countdowns-
48 days to graduation
231 days to our wedding!
72 work hours to externship completion (at 18-19 hours a week, that should be just under 4 more weeks)
As of today, Grady and I have nailed down a date (September 25, 2010), a ceremony location (the sanctuary of Custer Road UMC), and now our reception site (The Tribute Golf Club). Colors, flowers, cake baker, dj, and favors all pretty solidly selected.
This frees up our Tuesday afternoons for new activities: I have a agreed to learn to golf and Grady is pretty ridiculously excited to teach me! I'm sure hilarity is what we have to look forward to.
*Ammendment 1 (February 7, 2010):
(Listening to-Eisley: Combinations. Watching- Ace of Cakes marathon [don't judge me- they have an interesting creativity even if they don't really make cakes]. Working on- honeymoon location picks to give to the Prices.)
It seems that the wedding plans are coming together in ways better than I could have imagined, all in this weekend! We have a couple of friends from church that are wanting to offer their help and services to make my life easier which is more than welcome!
First: A friend has offered an amazing photography package with more services included and a much better cost than I have found with absolutely anyone else around!
Second: A botanist friend has offered to grow our sunflowers for us to ensure the type, quantity, and quality that we are expecting for our wedding! That cuts out the cost of a florist while eliminating the anxiety of hoping a grocery store will have what we need available on September 25.
Third: While in the church's wedding meeting, I got to hang with a friend (whom I have desperately missed) and her family. Her mother offered to throw me a wedding shower! So sweet!
My most sincere apologies if you don't care about the wedding details, because this looks like its rapidly morphing into a wedding blog! I like this venue better than annoying everyone with constant wedding updates on Facebook. :)
Watching- Iron Chef America, practically muted
Working on- wedding stuffs and gifts
Current Countdowns-
48 days to graduation
231 days to our wedding!
72 work hours to externship completion (at 18-19 hours a week, that should be just under 4 more weeks)
As of today, Grady and I have nailed down a date (September 25, 2010), a ceremony location (the sanctuary of Custer Road UMC), and now our reception site (The Tribute Golf Club). Colors, flowers, cake baker, dj, and favors all pretty solidly selected.
This frees up our Tuesday afternoons for new activities: I have a agreed to learn to golf and Grady is pretty ridiculously excited to teach me! I'm sure hilarity is what we have to look forward to.
*Ammendment 1 (February 7, 2010):
(Listening to-Eisley: Combinations. Watching- Ace of Cakes marathon [don't judge me- they have an interesting creativity even if they don't really make cakes]. Working on- honeymoon location picks to give to the Prices.)
It seems that the wedding plans are coming together in ways better than I could have imagined, all in this weekend! We have a couple of friends from church that are wanting to offer their help and services to make my life easier which is more than welcome!
First: A friend has offered an amazing photography package with more services included and a much better cost than I have found with absolutely anyone else around!
Second: A botanist friend has offered to grow our sunflowers for us to ensure the type, quantity, and quality that we are expecting for our wedding! That cuts out the cost of a florist while eliminating the anxiety of hoping a grocery store will have what we need available on September 25.
Third: While in the church's wedding meeting, I got to hang with a friend (whom I have desperately missed) and her family. Her mother offered to throw me a wedding shower! So sweet!
My most sincere apologies if you don't care about the wedding details, because this looks like its rapidly morphing into a wedding blog! I like this venue better than annoying everyone with constant wedding updates on Facebook. :)
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Hard Times, My Friends
Last Friday, when I first got the news that a friend of mine passed away, I felt like perhaps I was going to be a bit alienated from the whole grief process; he and I had never been extremely close and to be honest, we hadn't spoken in three years or so. I'm not quite sure why I thought that would exempt me from the hurt of this situation.
We might not have been bffs or anything, but we still have memories together. Most of all, I have known his family for the same 10 or so years and have a great deal of love and respect for them, specifically his parents. Since I moved home a year ago, they have offered unexplainable amounts of support and love. That's where the vast majority of my grief has been directed: my heart breaks for these parents who have had to experience the kind of tragedy no one should.
Addiction took my friend away. Made him into a person he didn't even realize he was. Addiction has brought a whole world of hurt down on people who never could have deserved it. Brought scars into the memories, jaded us all forever.
In the last day or so, I find that my grief is moving towards deep sadness for the girlfriend he left behind. In my mind, I keep putting myself in her place and can't keep from crying every time. I know how very much I love Grady, how wonderful everything is in our little world, how we love to talk of things yet to come; they had a past, a present, and plans for a future, but none of those dreams and expectations will ever be fulfilled.
The Lord is sovereign. The Lord is sovereign...
We might not have been bffs or anything, but we still have memories together. Most of all, I have known his family for the same 10 or so years and have a great deal of love and respect for them, specifically his parents. Since I moved home a year ago, they have offered unexplainable amounts of support and love. That's where the vast majority of my grief has been directed: my heart breaks for these parents who have had to experience the kind of tragedy no one should.
Addiction took my friend away. Made him into a person he didn't even realize he was. Addiction has brought a whole world of hurt down on people who never could have deserved it. Brought scars into the memories, jaded us all forever.
In the last day or so, I find that my grief is moving towards deep sadness for the girlfriend he left behind. In my mind, I keep putting myself in her place and can't keep from crying every time. I know how very much I love Grady, how wonderful everything is in our little world, how we love to talk of things yet to come; they had a past, a present, and plans for a future, but none of those dreams and expectations will ever be fulfilled.
The Lord is sovereign. The Lord is sovereign...
Monday, October 26, 2009
Everything Keeps Changing
and that's a very good thing.
Since the last post, the mister has moved out of Waco and into the new apartment! It's really nice and that's pretty much where I am if I'm not at school, work, or church. Grady's gotten through almost all of his training at Allen PD--he's only still working on the police radio because the woman now in charge of training him has a whole arsenal of excuses for not doing so... That aside, the whole job thing is going well for him, which makes us both happy! He's currently working night shift, 10pm-6am, and that's been a little weird but mostly amusing in conversation and meal decisions. When I'm wanting some dinner, Grady is waking up and wanting breakfast; when he leaves work at 6am, all he wants is dinner but IHOP and Denny's aside, there are few/no places serving anything besides breakfast exclusively. Regardless, this schedule works well enough for us because he sleeps while I'm in school or doing homework mostly and our "free time" (as if such a thing exists...) is available to be spent together!
In the same span of time, I have wrapped up a quarter and begun another. Everything from summer quarter turned out nicely with mostly A's and B's-- the only C was from my design class where the teacher refused to take a grade for the month's worth of homework that I had to do late because my dominant arm was in a sling... An issue to take to the dean? Yes. Do I have the time or energy to fight this battle? No. I came out of the quarter with a 3.1 so I'm still pleased. This quarter now is ridiculously insane, but the best challenge I've had in a long time! I am taking 18 credit hours (which translates to 24 in class hours) and working two jobs (Saxbys Coffee Barista and a Baking TA at school). At least the class load is filled with mostly fun classes! I'm taking Supervision and Career Development, Cost Control, Beverage Identification, Advanced Patisseries, and Chocolates, Confectioneries, and Centerpieces. I find it really forces me to stay on top of my homeworking, although I'd like to be ahead of my homeworking. Perhaps that's asking a bit much for now; hopefully this Friday (Oct 30), a randomly gifted day off of work, I will be able to bust out a lot of recipe cards and cost a most of my recipes for Cost Control.
With all of this craziness, you should know that I am the happiest girl in the world. No matter how tough a day has been or how frustrated/stressed I become, I know that there's only a half hour drive at most to get to the most fabulous and wonderful guy who will do practically anything to make me smile again. We finally get to do that couple's stuff that I've been waiting patiently (and some days impatiently) for for the past three years. We can take walks, watch movies or shows, read, work out, eat meals, take time to worship and praise God, play with our puppy! The last two and a half months have been wonderful. Face to face discussions and arguments so beat the over-the-phone ones. We've learned so much more about each other and grown as a couple in really great ways. Even when I'm not happy, I'm happier than I've ever been before.
Since the last post, the mister has moved out of Waco and into the new apartment! It's really nice and that's pretty much where I am if I'm not at school, work, or church. Grady's gotten through almost all of his training at Allen PD--he's only still working on the police radio because the woman now in charge of training him has a whole arsenal of excuses for not doing so... That aside, the whole job thing is going well for him, which makes us both happy! He's currently working night shift, 10pm-6am, and that's been a little weird but mostly amusing in conversation and meal decisions. When I'm wanting some dinner, Grady is waking up and wanting breakfast; when he leaves work at 6am, all he wants is dinner but IHOP and Denny's aside, there are few/no places serving anything besides breakfast exclusively. Regardless, this schedule works well enough for us because he sleeps while I'm in school or doing homework mostly and our "free time" (as if such a thing exists...) is available to be spent together!
In the same span of time, I have wrapped up a quarter and begun another. Everything from summer quarter turned out nicely with mostly A's and B's-- the only C was from my design class where the teacher refused to take a grade for the month's worth of homework that I had to do late because my dominant arm was in a sling... An issue to take to the dean? Yes. Do I have the time or energy to fight this battle? No. I came out of the quarter with a 3.1 so I'm still pleased. This quarter now is ridiculously insane, but the best challenge I've had in a long time! I am taking 18 credit hours (which translates to 24 in class hours) and working two jobs (Saxbys Coffee Barista and a Baking TA at school). At least the class load is filled with mostly fun classes! I'm taking Supervision and Career Development, Cost Control, Beverage Identification, Advanced Patisseries, and Chocolates, Confectioneries, and Centerpieces. I find it really forces me to stay on top of my homeworking, although I'd like to be ahead of my homeworking. Perhaps that's asking a bit much for now; hopefully this Friday (Oct 30), a randomly gifted day off of work, I will be able to bust out a lot of recipe cards and cost a most of my recipes for Cost Control.
With all of this craziness, you should know that I am the happiest girl in the world. No matter how tough a day has been or how frustrated/stressed I become, I know that there's only a half hour drive at most to get to the most fabulous and wonderful guy who will do practically anything to make me smile again. We finally get to do that couple's stuff that I've been waiting patiently (and some days impatiently) for for the past three years. We can take walks, watch movies or shows, read, work out, eat meals, take time to worship and praise God, play with our puppy! The last two and a half months have been wonderful. Face to face discussions and arguments so beat the over-the-phone ones. We've learned so much more about each other and grown as a couple in really great ways. Even when I'm not happy, I'm happier than I've ever been before.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Whoo Who!
I only have one week left in the long distance portion of my relationship!
Grady got the job with Allen PD and starts work on Monday, August 24th. His last day of work in Waco will be Thursday, August 20th; Grady's father, brother, and I are driving down to Waco frickin' early on Friday, August 21st to get all of the furniture and whatnot out of Grady's current apartment and move him up here! He'll have to live with his 'rents for a week seeing as his new apartment won't be ready for move in until the 29th.
Wanna see where Grady's going to be living? Times Square is mighty pretty; read a bit and have fun! He'll be in a one bedroom A9 plan, which isn't listed on the web page, but it's the same layout as the A6, but 830-something sqft instead of 787 sqft. We also negotiated the same price for the A9 as he would have gotten for the A6. :) He'll be on the fifth floor (and there are elevators)!
I am absolutely in love with his bathroom-to-be; I have honestly never seen a bathroom this big or nice in any apartment ever! I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as we have him moved in!
I'm just so excited to not have to say goodbye anymore. We're so used to being on our own all the time that I'm sure it's going to be incredibly weird being together all the time, but I look forward to driving him crazy, being driven crazy by him, having our first face-to-face fight, and learning how to deal with all of it! I'm more excited about sharing meals, making friends, hanging out, and more together however! People will stop thinking that I've fabricated an imaginary boyfriend :)
Grady got the job with Allen PD and starts work on Monday, August 24th. His last day of work in Waco will be Thursday, August 20th; Grady's father, brother, and I are driving down to Waco frickin' early on Friday, August 21st to get all of the furniture and whatnot out of Grady's current apartment and move him up here! He'll have to live with his 'rents for a week seeing as his new apartment won't be ready for move in until the 29th.
Wanna see where Grady's going to be living? Times Square is mighty pretty; read a bit and have fun! He'll be in a one bedroom A9 plan, which isn't listed on the web page, but it's the same layout as the A6, but 830-something sqft instead of 787 sqft. We also negotiated the same price for the A9 as he would have gotten for the A6. :) He'll be on the fifth floor (and there are elevators)!
I am absolutely in love with his bathroom-to-be; I have honestly never seen a bathroom this big or nice in any apartment ever! I'll be sure to post pictures as soon as we have him moved in!
I'm just so excited to not have to say goodbye anymore. We're so used to being on our own all the time that I'm sure it's going to be incredibly weird being together all the time, but I look forward to driving him crazy, being driven crazy by him, having our first face-to-face fight, and learning how to deal with all of it! I'm more excited about sharing meals, making friends, hanging out, and more together however! People will stop thinking that I've fabricated an imaginary boyfriend :)
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