Our First Home

MTV cribs never visited...

Neither did Better Homes and Gardens.

In fact, I'd say half of the people that did visit probably left shaking their heads...

But to me it was a lovely home...

 My first that I shared with my Beast.

And I loved it.

From the missing doors...

To the awesome ceiling...

From the bed that we climbed into head first...

To those great floors...

From the hot water heater that I could never figure out...

To the huge bathroom...

I loved our little trailer at 2500 Old Military Road.

Our Room

I have always loved a good before and after. I'm super tired tonight so this probably won't be one. Sorry, if I got your hopes up.

We moved into our new trailer, it was really dirty and smelled like a dog kennel but....after much cleaning, carpet removing, painting and good ole fashioned crafting, we have made it livable.

The master bedroom has progressed the farthest, although it still needs some love.

So here is the before:

Carpet was already removed and the floor was kilzed but...

It wasn't pretty but it's made great strides:

 I even kept my promise and kept the ridiculous pictures framed and displayed:

We have made great strides. I might be regretting how dark the walls are, but I'm not going to worry about that now.

One last note, for my mom:

Here is a close-up of the drapes. Our secret? um...well, they are made from an old quilt. The part that you see was the back of the quilt. and the window is still in bad shape, it's just hidden. But as I say all the time (even though no-one else finds it amusing), free is my favorite color. I kinda love them.

Well, we're on hold as I try to get a job, but I will keep updating and hopefully have some better quality before and afters.

A Month of Crazy

 Too much has happened in the past month to post in one blog, and so much is going on now that I don't want to save anything to post about later because I doubt it would ever get done. Instead of writing a long, drawn-out post about all that has happened,  I'll post a sort of abbreviated timeline of the craziness that has and is ensuing. This timeline has been handily recorded via the pictures on my iPhone:

 I passed my open defense to become Amanda Beaster Ph.D., and I learned that I WAY over use my hands when speaking. Watching the video later, it looked like I was translating my entire lecture into sign language.

Here is what we did afterwards...my brain was (and still is) shot. The relief I felt at that moment was indescribable.

There is something you should know in order to understand the next shots, my family loves two things: Soda and having parties at their homes. When my mom was down for the defense, she spotted an unbelievable deal on soda, and knowing all the upcoming parties they were planning, we stocked up for them. We Beasters do big things son. So here we are loading FIFTY-TWO 12-packs into my little car. Beast is still suffering with the groin pull, which made this adventure all the more hilarious. I was pushing a man in a wheelchair and two carts LOADED to the brim with soda. People stared, and I don't blame them. It was probably like watching an episode of hoarders and extreme couponers all at once.

Loading the car.

A lot of soda for that little trailer.

He struck this pose all on his own.

 Little did I know that I would be moving that soda a total of 15 times before the adventure was over...

Here we are getting all loaded up. It started raining, and didn't stop for well...it still hasn't.

 We packed the umbrellas so here I am with my plastic bag on my head.

 Our last couple shot in Mobile. That shed in the background is the one that Beast built.

We stopped at Waffle House on the way. Beast was not into the whole photo-blogging that I was doing, something about the early-morning-raining-groin pain-thing he was rocking.

 I don't think the plastic bag really helped much, unless I was going for the drowned rat look and I just don't remember. Anything is possible, these were the busiest days of my life. (Note: we moved just three days after I defended)

 Chocolate Chip Waffles, oh how I love thee.

This was my view for the next 17 hours. I hated that car by the time we finally got to Michigan.

 I was trying to take a picture of the PURE MICHIGAN sign, while driving....I know...I blame my poor decision making on the fact that my brain was slowly beginning to leak out of my ears at this point.

 I ended up driving the truck a lot after we moved. I was terrified of parking that beastmobile. So I parked at the very back of the vast tundra of every parking lot.

 Beast hunted us up some squirrels for supper one day. He had to take it easy because of the groin strain, but he still brought home the bacon...errr squirrels that night. And believe it or not, they were delicious!!

I had more but this is already ridiculously long, so I'll finish on another day. Suffice it to say, this had been a crazy and fun month, but not one that I want to repeat for a very...very...long time.

Well, tomorrow is the big day. After 25 years of school, I will be doing the final defense of my dissertation. I can't even believe it, but I am soooo ready!!

But today, I'd rather write about Christmas!!!

I love this holiday and all the fun it entails and the beautiful sacrifice it represents. The Beast Christmas tree is only a foot high and looks like this:

But it is perfect for our mini-home and is ready to be transported to our new one when when we go.

I love to wrap presents, but it takes me FOREVER! I probably have 12-15 hours invested into that little pile of gifts you see there. I'd seen all the fancy-schmancy butcher paper wrapping on Pinterest and decided to try it with paper grocery bags. They turned out pretty cute and saved us mooola. A very important consideration for two about-to-be unemployed people :) Plus I live in a trailer park, can't be getting all fancy.

It bugs Beast to no end that I just stuck with the red. He really misses the green and feels like I have committed some grave Christmas mistake with my monochromatic tendencies :) I love family traditions. I think the brown paper wrapping may stick around as one of ours, although for my husband's sake I'll probably include both red AND green accents next year.

My family has some fun traditions:
My mom numbers all of our gifts. On Christmas day, Dad reads the Christmas story from Luke 2. Then someone, usually me, picks a gift, and mom declares who the recipient is...sometimes...she's a busy lady so there are usually a couple that she doesn't know who they belong to or that get mixed up, but it just adds to the fun. The person that opens the gift chooses the next one. I love this because it draws the gift opening out and everyone sees every reaction to every gift. Beast loved it too. He's an only child, so it was fun to watch him enjoy the craziness of a big family last year. I can't wait to add a bunch of our own little beastlets to the mix (Preemptive answer: No, I'm not preggers).

Can't believe it is almost here! I can't wait :)

Christmas Party!

So what do you get when you take a bunch of really smart people, and add an open bar, fantastic food, a mediocre DJ, and a dance floor? The University of South Alabama College of Medicine Research Christmas Party!

I spent a long time getting ready, pin-curled and set my hair and wore a carefully selected dress just right for the evening. All of these choices were intended to once again try to knock my husband's socks off...however stupid muscle relaxers foiled my plans. My zombie husband worked up an eyebrow raise and a "you look beautiful" before returning to a state of zoned out-ness that accompanies those dreadful little pills.

The neighbors however did not disappoint, they were outside having a bon-fire when we were leaving. I got a couple wolf whistles, a "Are you on the Menu?' and a few other trailer-park-suitable compliments before we headed out.

The party was tons of fun and after just half a Stella Artois, my husband awoke from his muscle-relaxer-induced, zombie-like state and really told me what he thought about how I looked. Um...We'll just say he was quite pleased :)

Photo bomb! We got a creeper over my left shoulder there :)

So like any dutiful wife who had dragged her injured husband to raucous Christmas party, I then proceeded to leave him at a table with people he barely knew so I could go dance with my friends. Thankfully, he's a great sport. He encouraged me to go and enjoyed the stimulating conversations he engaged in with all of the people there. He cracked jokes all evening about the intelligence level in the room and kept insisting he'd seen the doctor from Jurassic Park.

Aww...My handsome Zombie-Beast :)

We had such a great time. I LOVE to dance, and although it would have been awesome to dance with my husband, I had fun with all the girls on the dance floor.

This was our first party as a married couple and even though Beast pretty much had to sit at a table and not move, we still had a blast. I love that I can bring him anywhere and know that he'll have a good time (except the grocery store, the man can't handle the grocery store, AT ALL :).

Needs

I NEED my husband to get better. He's pulled his groin again and hasn't been able to walk without pain for at least three weeks. I can handle the extra work: the labor is of love, and it doesn't bother me at all, and I love the later mornings snuggling with him and the long, heart-touching, soul-searching discussions we've had.

But He is so full of life, so ready to move, and He so wants to do, do, do, all of the things that need to be done, that it literally hurts to see him unable to move without pain. To watch his frustration build after only a few steps require him to sit until it eases.

We've talked about Job and James and how suffering makes him stronger and has a purpose. But this normally healthy man, who is so careful with what he puts into his body, what he comes into contact with, and how every task is completed, needs to be able to move and work again.

and I need him...
to be able to grab me as I walk by and pull me into his lap for a kiss,
to sneak up behind me and put me on the ceiling just so he can make me laugh (yes, he really does this),
I need him, I need him, I need him.

and yet...the smile that is all mine when I walk in the door is enough.
The arm that wraps me up tight in sleep is more than wonderful.
The laugh that still shakes the trailer and makes my heart ache with happiness is more than I dreamed of. I have him, I have him, I have him.
and that, and the Lord, is all I need.

Whew! Things are happening fast here! As my final days as a student and my final days residing in Alabama race by, I am getting very excited about what our future holds in store for us.
Beast feels like the Lord wants us to take a step of faith and move home sans jobs or any source of income. We have been living very, very frugally to prepare for this time, but it's still a little breathtaking sometimes.
It's good though, we're young, intelligent, and well-educated, so I am hoping we'll find jobs relatively quickly. In the mean time, we bought a single-wide mobile home. After living in our tiny trailer for 6 months, it will fell like a mansion :) I'm getting excited about decorating. I love to make crafts and have been filling up my pinterest with all things lumberjack/woodland, which is the theme I think I'll be going for in the new home (if you've met my husband and his beard, you understand why this suits us so well).

Anywhooo just two weekends left, only 12 days till we move and 7 until I defend. The official announcement went out to the College of Medicine earlier this week.
Here's what they look like:

Pretty Awesome. Still hard to believe too.
That's all I got for now.
I gotta finish up here so I can get home to my Lumberjack :)