Dog Park vs. The Man

That's right. We got a note on our door this week telling us that we will incur a $25 fine if our dogs are off the leash, which basically menas that our complex is trying to kill dog park. BUT I called an emergency (top secret) dog park meeting at our place yesterday and 8 of us got together and discussed our various options. We are going to meet with our apartment manager tomorrow morning to discuss our proposal of a temporary fence that we could put up and take down so that we can actually still get together in the evenings. I'll let you know how it goes. I might make a powerpoint presentation to show how serious we are about our dog park time.

Here's what's new. I am in the process of interviewing for a teaching assistant position at a women's shelter here in Dallas. Just this past year, they started a school that is inside the shelter for students who do not have the documentation yet to be enrolled in public schools. The class size is average 5-6 (with a certified teacher AND an assistant!). I would be responsible for helping tutor and mentor these kids while they're in the midst of a really tough, transitory time. I had my first round of interviews last Thursday and it went really well. I am going to have my second round on Monday at 11am. I'm very excited about this job because......

Alex wants to get his MBA, preferably as a fulltime student. If I got this job at the women's shelter, I would be the breadwinner (can I get a woot, woot!?!) and Alex would work part time and go to school full time. This is exciting cause then Alex wouldn't have to work at stinky ole' Frito Lay anymore. Whee! What a great and exciting time for us! We'll definitely keep you posted!

Everybody Zumba!

I (Beth) am currently in Washington DC visiting my friend Emily but she is working today so I am updating all of my web communities.

Nothing new has really happened in the past month. Alex had an interview with JP Morgan a month ago, but we haven't heard back yet. If anything, it has made Frito Lay nervous and they may try and change some things around to keep him on. That would be AWESOME!

I'm starting to think about post-Girl Scouts life and trying to figure out what the next step is. No luck yet. I'll keep you posted. My neighbor, Sarah, and I have been going to Zumba at the Dallas Rec center near us. It's a dance aerobics class (think Latin Jazzercise) and it's super fun. Because of my work schedule this week, I got to go 3 times, so I'm skinny-minny for the time being.

These past couple of weekends have been busy. My parents came over for my dad's birthday extravaganza. We did Medieval Times, laser tag, the Stanky Leg, and the Farmer's Market downtown. It was really really nice to have them in Dallas. Last weekend Alex and I drove to Houston to visit Nanny and Bob and then came back up through College Station. It was a wonderful (but exhausting!) trip. Gracie came along and annoyed me and pooped on the Kornegay's floor. Thank you, dog.

Next weekend, my sister and company will be coming up to stay with us for the weekend. That should be really really fun.

Schmupdates

As I sit here typing this, smoke from our neighbors' highly possible illegal activities is wafting into the livingroom via a hole in our closet, despite the towel I have stuffed under the door. Looks like I'll have to air out my winter coat before work tomorrow. What a perfect time for an update!

- Alex and I have begun the process of looking for a small group. Our "gypsy church" (thanks, Brooke!) just isn't getting us the fellowship we need right now. I have not abandoned the idea of having to depend on the Lord for fellowship, but, for now, Alex and I need structure and people who can pour into us. We have contacted some small groups (found through this website: www.iamsecond.com) and we're going to try one on February 8th. Yay! I am excited about meeting some new people and reconnecting with an established group of believers.

-I scared Alex really bad last week. Sometimes, while he is in the shower, I will come into the bathroom and brush my teeth. Usually, I accidentally turn the light off on my way out, which is Alex's cue to yell at me. Well, last Wednesday, I turned off the light and shut the door (like normal) but I stayed in the bathroom. It was pitch black, of course, and Alex began his usual tirade to get me to come turn on the light. When I didn't respond, he leaned out of the shower (I could see his glow in the dark watch) to flip the switch. At that point, I grabbed his arm and yelled. He slapped me in the chest, looked me in the eyes, and yelled for a good five seconds. It made me laugh all day. hahaha.

- New plan for the future! I went to Abilene this week to visit my family and my dad suggested that Alex and I look into the Peace Corps. Strangely, this had never really crossed our mind but we looked into it and it has now become our favorite option. We are currently in the process of applying and from what I hear, that process is long and daunting. You need to apply nine months to a year before you can leave. We would like to go next January so we're applying now! It's very exciting to see how things will pan out. The program that we are really interested in is working with youth in Jordan. Peace Corps also has a large operation in Morocco, which would be awesome too.

-Work for both of us has been frustrating lately. I haven't had a normal work week in a while, which has resulted in missed paychecks and a lack of routine. Alex's job is same ole', same ole'.

-The neighbs are good. We dog-sat a couple of weekends ago and that was an experience. Max is the equivalent of Gracie's boyfriend, and they are quite the pair. It was nice to be able to be nice. We had a Wii date with some other neighbors, which basically resulted in us laughing more than we actually played.

That's about all the new stuff for now. Drop us a line and let us know how you're doing!

Fun fun fun til' her daddy takes the Tbird away

Someone recently asked me what Alex and I do for fun. The question initially stumped me but after a few days of thinking about it, I have come up with a list of things that we do for fun. So, here you go:

- Visit ethnic grocery stores, like El Rancho
- Play bocce ball, especially with Gracie
-Hang out with our neighbors. This we enjoy so much that we do it daily.
- Host parties for our friends
- Play board games like Boggle or Settlers of Catan.
- Dance in our livingroom.
-Try new recipes
- Paint
- Recently, we've been rock-climbing.
- Making funny faces
- Playing the alphabet game
- Reading and studying the Bible together
- Go running or biking
- Trying new places to eat
- Watching movies in our pajamas
- Talking politics
- Getting slurpees from 7/11
- Walking to places
- Spending our gift cards leftover from our wedding
- Wearing the dog out as much as possible
- Telling funny stories
- Playing music together (guitar and piano)
- Photography
- Trying new activities like the State Fair or mountain biking
- Traveling
- Playing "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" online and losing big time
- Arguing about who is past the line in the bed (It sounds dangerous but we usually end up laughing until we can't stand it anymore)
- Watching the dog

Those are just a few. I think the reason I was stumped was because none of these things are very big (i.e. we don't plan many activities- they just kind of happen). Alex and I usually have a blast when we are together. It doesn't take much to keep us happy!

Starting off the New Year with junk food....

That's right, folks. Alex and I had my high school buddies Chris and Joe (with minor appearances by Emily and Benjamin) over for a small New Year's celebration. Instead of trying to guess what they wanted to eat, once everyone got here, we drove to WalMart and I instructed the boys to buy what they wanted. We ended up with a cartful of microwave burritos, pizzas, chicken wings, chips, Cokes, and some awesome garlic toast. Needless to say, I hope that our menu last night is not indicative of our diet for this year. When it actually became 2009, we were wwatching Casino Royale and I just happened to glance at the clock. It seems like the older we get, the less exciting and more tiring New Year's becomes. Oh well, Alex and I look forward to 2009 as we continue to find our niche in Dallas. We are excited about what God is doing and can't wait to see how He continues to work.

Christmas was very very relaxing. Alex took the last of his vacation so he had a whole week and a half off. It was nice to have him home! We had a small celebration with the Wise family before Christmas. My family came from Abilene and stayed with us. Alex and I took them rock climbing. Each time we go, I am impressed by Alex's ability to scale the walls so quickly. He (and my sister) is a natural!

The actual Christmas celebration was in Fort Worth at my Grandmother's. It was an excellent time to visit with my family. We did a Chinese gift exchange, had a huge delicious lunch, went caroling, and some of us participated in the cinnamon challenge, where you try to swallow a tablespoonful of cinnamon. None of us completed it but we have some really funny pictures (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2633180&l=87d3d&id=8300453). Then Alex and I went back to Abilene where we stripped wallpaper in my parents' kitchen.

Now, we're pretty much back to the grind but it's okay. It's nice to be back in the routine of things.

I hope that your holidays were just as wonderful as ours. Let us know how you are!

The Reason for the Season!

I'm excited to have some time off to celebrate Christmas. God has been teaching me lately about the intricacies of the Body of Christ and I am thankful that He appreciates diversity among the brothers and sisters of Christ. We pray that you and your loved ones have some time to spend some good quality time celebrating what God did for us on the first Christmas.

Alex has this week off for work. I don't know if he'll know what to do with himself! I worked last week, but I have off two weeks for Christmas. Yippee!



Here's how much fun Alex and I are having. ALOT of fun. This past week we took a gingerbread house over to our Iraqi family's house and here's how it turned out. Their English is getting so much better and we are getting to have more abstract conversations. They are simply wonderful people. They gave us some cheese rolls (boureg in Iraqi) that were unbelievable and we served them to our neighbors today and they were a big hit!

Which berings me to our next fun activity. Today, Alex and I hosted a White Elephant Gift Exchange party for our neighbors. It was lots and lots of fun. We ate good food, had a trivia game, did the gift exchange, and then Alex did a toast where we shared with them how big of a blessing they are. Honestly, God has blessed us BIG TIME this year with amazing friendships with very cool and very sweet people. THEN, Sarah wanted to go Christmas caroling, so a couple of us went caroled around the complex. Here's a video of us doing 'O Holy Night' which is Susan and Sarah's favorite.

Merry Christmas!

Beth and Alex are busy bees

Goodness this has been an interesting week. Here are some highlights:

-Please be praying for Alex's work situation. He is basically doing a two person job but getting paid for one. The situation is affecting his performance- not because he's doing a worse job but there's so much to do that he can't get to it all- and that affects his bonus and raise. Frito Lay is not being very fair to their employees right now. He almost had to work Thanksgiving which launched a major hissy fit from me. He has been applying elsewhere and it's still slightly possible that he could move up to Frito lay headquarters in January.

-My job is going good. We're discussing goal setting this week, which in my opinion is the most important. We're trying to instill in these girls that the decisions and choices they make now are going to affect them in the future. Last week, we had a dance party and I fell doing the Cha Cha Slide but don't worry- I'm okay; only my pride was bruised (just kidding!). It's been interesting but this six weeks has been a welcome break from the more difficult schools.

-Alex and I had the opportunity to attend the First Annual Victorian Ball in Waxahachie, Texas. Our neigbor, Susan, with the help of her husband, Richard (see below) put it on. It was SO fun! Many of our neighbors showed up and Susan taught us different Victorian dances. I led the parlour game of the night and it went over really well (despite being a little nervous). We took my grandmother from Fort Worth to the ball. She's in the picture below with the young ballroom dancer. When Grandmother and I walked in, we immediately thought that she was going to have to take the stairs. Then a guy came up behind us and said we could take the elevator. This building is about 100 years old so I was feeling dubious about the elevator. He opened these closet doors and Grandmother and I peered into this dark shaft that didn't have walls. It was basically a platform with wires attached. Grandmother looked at me and said, "We can take stairs." But the guy pressured us to try it and we did and we're still alive, so that was an experience.

-Tonight we took our Iraqi family to North Park mall to see Santa. It was wonderful. They are familiar with Santa (AKA Baba Noel in Iraq) but they had never seen him before. The five year old was SO SO SO excited. She stood at the little fence and yelled his name and said that she loved him and blew him kisses. I wish I could put pictures up. It made her night! He gave her a book with coloring sheets and she carried it like it was the most important thing she owned. What a blessing to be able to share that moment with them. Next week, we are thinking about taking some movies and kids' Christmas books so we might be able to explain the story behind Christmas. We might make a gingerbread house, too!

That's about all our exciting news for now. Please let us know what's been going on witchu. I'll leave you with a conversation I had yesterday with one of my girls.

Girl: You're married?

Beth: Yeah.

Girl: You don't act like you're married.

Beth: Um, how do married people act?

Girl: Happy and joyful

Beth: Errr, okay....

She then began to back pedal while I chuckled under my breath. I also had a conversation with a girl this week who asked me if I had ever considered dying my hair and then cowered in disgust when she noticed I had a nose piercing. Much love from the junior high ladies...