Holy Fear of Frogs, Batman!

UGH!

Can I just say that to start with? Ughghghghghghgggghhhhh!! <--- that's me shuddering.

Yeah, yeah, all God's creatures. (snakes, lizards, spiders, frogs and scorpions are not my favorites of God's creatures...in fact my friend posted a picture of a spider on facebook that would make me lose control of my bodily functions.)

Anyways. I grew up in the country...dealt with all the aforementioned hideousness that are creepy crawlies.

My best friend even lived on a farm until she got married a few weeks ago and we found these last summer:

Those are chicken snakes....about 6 feet long and my friend was hooking the hay and pulling it out of the barn, her dad was shooting the snakes, then Isaac was shoveling them and bringing them outside to turn belly up to get rain. Don't tell me it doesn't work because we had one of the worst droughts on record last year and it rained that day with not a cloud in the sky!!! I won't show you the picture of the one that had a bulge in it's throat (wait, throat, neck, belly...is there a difference on a cylindrical animal?) and Isaac knew it was an egg so he tried to just crunch the egg with the shovel, I know what a boy, huh? And the snake split open and the egg yolk ran....I know, but this is real life when you are living in the country!

Anyways! Now that you've got the willies here's my frog story. Isaac was sweet and took the dogs out last night and about 45 seconds after he went out he called me. He told me I'm missing it, the dogs found two frogs in the dog park and don't know what to do about them and it's hilarious. I'm all for cheap entertainment and believe me these dogs entertain pretty often! I run down there with my phone camera already on because y'all know how long it takes the iPhone camera to come on (3gs anyway).

So, Isaac found Mr. and Mrs. Michigan J. Frog. Really? You don't know that reference? This is who the heck Michigan J. Frog is...

So, I told him to put them down and not come NEAR me with those things! So, he said watch.

He picked one up and Abby was EXCITED! She loved them! She nosed them, tried to lay down next to them and rub them. Tried to taste them...whatever, she's a dog...no kisses for mom!

Anyways I went into the dog park to watch them play with the frogs and decided I was going to video it.

The video is quiet at first but it does get kind of loud because of some doofus screaming :)




Anywho...am I alone here? Anyone else afraid of frogs? I don't like rodents either and birds have it out for me as well...pretty much anything else is good with me! :)

Cleaning A Vacuum

Ok. To me, "cleaning a vacuum" sounds like an oxymoron. And it makes me feel a little Monica-ish.

I remember in one episode she had a dustbuster to clean her big vacuum.

Anywho. Like I've mentioned in previous posts, we have 2 blue heelers. Everyone said, isn't it great how little they shed? But....

So, since I have some time on my hands, I try to make sure I vacuum every Wednesday. Is that often enough? Anywho, my cousin cleans houses and does it for everyone in our family. So, when I lived with my aunt she would come every 2 weeks and clean the house and we would just spot vacuum in between when needed. So, I never saw anyone clean out a vacuum filter. Now, the next picture may make some people say GROSS! But, you've been warned.

That was 2 weeks worth of dog hair. I skipped a week, so sue me...I got to it! Anyways. I kept noticing that our vacuum seemed like it was losing suction. Well, I noticed below the canister where all that hair was that it said "Turn to left to take filter out" So, I turned it and pulled it out to see and looked at the bottom because a couple of weeks ago I noticed you could buy new ones at Walmart. Again, I'm 25, and have only been married and responsible for a home for 2 years. I'm sure some of you are smirking thinking I'm dumb, but I'm hoping there's at least ONE of you out there that didn't know this, either! So, I looked on the bottom and it said to wash with hot water. Let me tell you it was gross, too. But, I did it. There's a foam pad around the filter and a filter in the middle. So, I took the pad out and washed that too and washed the filter then set out a dish towel and turned the filter upside down and let it dry out. See photo below. Upper left corner is the foam pad, black thing on the right is the filter and the bottom is the canister it was all in.

Ok, so I hope that SOMEONE learned something, too!!! Hope you didn't lose your lunch on the dog hair in the trash. I've got oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in the oven now that are beeping at me! See ya later!!

A Wild Week

My goodness. As I was writing the last post a big storm was rolling through Houston. A rainstorm like I'd never seen before. Now, I know that it wasn't from a hurricane, but evacuation did cross my mind. :) Once you see those signs on the highway it kind of sticks with you! HA! I posted and the power went out right before 5 p.m. It didn't come back on until 6 a.m. the next morning. Needless to say it was a good opportunity to clean out the fridge and freezer and shop for better food!

We've been pretty boring around here, just a trip to Costco yesterday. Costco has always made my heart happy...buying in bulk for cheaper AND coupons...however we got a 24 pack of glass bottles of imperial sugar Dr. Pepper (Isaac has many food allergies and corn is one of them), a 24 pack of glass bottles of Mexican coke (Monica, that's for you!), a 20 pack of gatorade, a 35 pack of water plus the rest of the basket full of stuff. Well, that was all well and good until we got back to our apartment and the lightbulb turned on in our head simultaneously and we looked at each other and realized we had 3 flights of stairs to climb. We got it done and in the meantime there was a stray dog roaming around the apartment that took a liking to me and bit Isaac. *side note* Baby, that's what you get for always being the dog whisperer and child whisperer. I started calling him Roscoe and I gave him water. He hung out for a while then he was gone.

This week I've been struggling with a job application. I know, I know. Lindsay, you need a job. But, it's for a Christian private school. The application is pretty intimidating. I think it's good, though because it does make you look introspectively into your faith and make yourself what you believe and why you believe it. I'm filling it all out today and making sure it's ready to take to the school tomorrow.
So, I commit to making sure the application is filled out by the end of today. You're my accountability.

While I'm writing this my dogs keep trying to get in my lap, so I'll let them help and make a 'live' appearance. Excuse the lack of makeup I told the girls if they were going to be on the internet they should put on makeup first, but they said that wouldn't be as real. ;) The first picture is of me and my 2 year old blue heeler, Mia. She's my best little friend that's covered in hair. She knows she's my baby. You got lucky with a picture of her "looking" and not kissing me. It only took 5 tries to get one where she wasn't trying to kiss me. I'll post a video sometime of her doing her big trick where I point my finger at her and say bang and she spins and falls. She's rather proud of that one.

This is Abby...oh, Abby Kadabby. She's our crazy one. She's funny, wild and snuggly. I turn on the camera on my ipad where you can see yourself and she loves it! Our house in Dallas had mirrors everywhere...kind of weird. But, there was a book case in the hallway for several months which blocked the mirror at her eye level. When we got ready to move we moved the book case and it blew her mind. She thought we got another puppy and was determined to let that dog know it was HER house! She's 40 lbs of lap dog love!

Ok, next blog I've got a discovery I made about my vacuum. So, anyone with pets, anyone my age that never really deep cleaned your vacuum (is that an oxymoron? clean your vacuum?) or anyone who doesn't have pets that just needs to clean out your filter I've got pictures of me doing that! :) it was GROSS!!! I'll save it for next time, though! Hope you're having a great week. Leave me some love!

Just a Little About Us

Hello everyone,

My name is Lindsay. I'm 25. I'm a teacher. Well, I can be. I taught 2nd grade for one year, then budget cuts, positions moved around, blah blah. You know the rest. So, I am a 'real housewife' for now! Which is great, it gives me time to do things for me like bake, watch movies, make paper crafts, sing Broadway showtunes, and bible studies!

That's me!

I'm married to a WONDERFUL man named Isaac. He's a body man...meaning he does collision repair on cars. He's got a 1963 Chevy C-10 that is literally school bus yellow (hence the belt buckle) that is his first true love! It was his grandpa's farm truck, then his dad's, now he took it and restored it. We go to car shows and when we buy a house here we'll be able to get it out of storage and bring it with us!

We've got two CUH-RAZY blue heeler girls named Mia and Abby.

photo by Kendall Mason


They keep us pretty busy! And yes, they're my babies!

So, that's us! :)

In February 2012 we moved from Dallas, TX to Houston, TX. If you're from Texas you will understand the rivalry there. It's not an out-right obvious one such as Texas vs. A&M, but if you ask any Dallasite about Houston they scrunch their faces, make fake vomit sounds and complain about humidity, traffic and rude people. If you ask Houstonians about Dallas they look like there's a bad smell in the room and complain about 'too many trees and grass' (I promise I've had people say that) and traffic and rude people. Isaac was an air force brat and wasn't born with this innate hatred for Houston. Before we moved here I had been to Houston TWICE in my life and that was enough! HAHA! I told God "I will NEVER live in Houston." That's what I get for telling God His plan!

On a side note.... God? I'll never live in the Bahamas! ;) Worth a try, right?

So, in February Isaac came down to meet with a friend that used to work with him at the shop in Dallas, but is now the shop manager here. 2 weeks and 5 days later we moved into the 3rd floor of an apartment that when I mention what street it's on I get a lot of sympathetic looks and hear, "Oh honey, you didn't research well, did you?" Well, it's our home and we love  are okay with it, all 45 steps up the stairs, gun shots at night, dog park smaller than our old backyard and all. It's our new home and we're making the best of it.

Thanks to a friend that Isaac works with now, we've plugged into an AWESOME little church in the Woodlands. It's absolutely amazing. It's got fewer than 40 people that attend Sunday worship. And there are Bible studies throughout the week. Since it gets pretty lonely I go to both Wednesday night Bible Study and Thursday night Bible Study. I'm also going to a wonderful Ladies Bible Study on Sunday nights. Right now we are doing a Beth Moore study on James.

So, what will I talk about here? Us, our lives, my crazy obsession with my puppies, some of my crafts I make, anything I feel like sharing. Any tips I find and lessons I learn that I can share to make anyone's life a little easier. And the best of all Jesus and what he's doing in our lives! 

So stick around, can't promise the same Bat time, but it'll be the same Bat place!

www.reluctanthoustonian.blogspot.com