My May Tornadoes

This year was a bad one for tornadoes, as I'm sure most of the nation knows.

I've always been afraid of tornadoes, and I think I always will be. This year, I wasn't in an outward panic like I was last year, but I was able to keep it all inside.

When both of the May tornadoes came through, I was at work and Chris was at home.

May 20th:

I knew we were in for bad weather when I left for work that day and I kept telling myself that I'd be okay at work because my refuge area in the casino is one of the safest in the building.

All day we had been listening to the News on our computers and phones, just to keep an eye on the weather. Just before 3pm there was an announcement that a tornado had touched down just west of the city of Newcastle.

This started a panic in me because I had made friends that worked at the Newcastle Casino in my year and a half working there. I started frantically e-mailing and texting my friends in the area, and I could just feel my chest tightening when I didn't get a response from them. I knew it was most likely because they were taking their safety precautions and were away from their computers and phones, but it didn't ease the dread in my heart. When the Severe Weather announcements said that the tornado was passed Newcastle and heading for Moore, I sat patiently and waited for my friends to respond, and turned my attention to my friends that I knew lived in the Moore area.

As the test messages started pouring in from my friends and family in California and other parts of Oklahoma, I tried weeding through the "Are you OK?"s and "Where are you?"s to find the replies from those I had contacted first to make sure everyone I cared about was alright.

The tornado died down and reports of destruction started pouring in.

The Warren Theater in Moore off of I-25 has been hit!

Two schools destroyed with many children, teachers and other staff still unaccounted for!

Cars overturned, crunched and thrown across highways and interstates!

Homes destroyed and the death toll steadily rising!

It would be real! This couldn't be true!

I'd just driven down I-35 today on my way to work and it was fine! I just saw the Warren in all it's glory standing tall, with the new IMAX addition gleaming proud! There's no way it was all destroyed in a matter of horrifying minutes!

But it was true...it was all real.

The worst I'd ever lived through before those terrifying moments had been a could of wildfires that had mostly burned over uninhabited land with most casualties being wild animals and plants. Never had I seen anything like this in a place I called home.

The rest of the day dragged by in a haze. A sort of shocked disbelief, even though nobody I loved had been harmed. Nothing I owned was destroyed.

Come time for me to go home, the reality of the chaos really hit harder.

Heavy rains rolled in after the tornado had dissipated, causing severe flooding and furthering the destruction. Most of the major interstates I knew would be closed due to the tornado's destruction, though I didn't know how bad the flooding had become.

I drove up through Newcastle to get home that night instead of my usual route up along I-35, but once I got to the beginning of I-44, which would have taken me from Newcastle Casino to my home, I found that the police has blocked the interstate off and were forcing traffic to choose alternate routes to reach their destinations. I didn't know how to get home from there, and so I did what anyone would do when lost. I called my mommy.

My mom pulled up a map on her computer and after I told her where I was, she looked for city streets and side roads that would take me home. I memorized the roads and hung up so I could head home. Power lines were down across Central Oklahoma, which made for a dark and dreary drive home. Down one of the country roads that was supposed to take me home, there was a car that had hit a power line, and the pole was in the road and in some gently flowing water. Cars were taking turns going around the power line, and as I drove over the water, all I could think of was "Please don't shock me...please don't mess up my truck...I just want to get home."

Not a mile further down the same road I came to a 4-way intersection and the road I was on was heavily flooded. Rather than chancing it through the rushing water, I turned right and called my mom again. Since I still had no idea where I was or how to get home, she gave me a new set of directions. Shortly after, started to recognize street names and finally I knew where I was.

As I drove through Oklahoma City, it seemed like power was out at every other intersection. Sometimes the traffic lights were on, sometimes they were flashing red, and sometimes they weren't even flashing. I almost ran through an intersection because it was so dark outside, but I saw another car coming up on my right, so I stopped (though just barely).

I knew it was going to be a hit or a miss as to if I would have power at my house, because every other block wouldn't have any.

I pulled on in to my driveway two hours after I got off work, unlocked my front door and flipped on the lights.

They came on.

My night was over.

I was emotionally drained.

I traded my work clothes for my coziest pajamas, scooped up my kitty and crawled in to bed.

May 31st

More bad weather was in the forecast and I didn't think I had it in me to stress and panic anymore.

I was wrong.

A severe storm was forming west of my house, moving slowly and developing rapidly.

Again, we had the news playing on multiple devices and most of the weathermen were focused on the El Reno area.

Half jokingly, I told my Supervisor that if they mentioned a tornado near the fairgrounds, she should get prepared for me to start crying since I lived on the other side of I-44 of the state fairgrounds.

Not long after that, I wished I had never said anything because I had jinxed myself.

A wide tornado had touched down just south of El Reno and was traveling west, basically following I-40 and making a beeline for the fairgrounds.

 I cried so much after the tornado that went through Moore just a week and a half prior, that I didn't have it in me to cry anymore, even though this tornado was heaving towards my home and my husband.

If I believed in a God, I would have been on my knees praying, promising anything and everything for the safety of my home and family.

The storm chasers on the news weren't much help, not for a lack of trying, but because there was so much rain and wind. They kept showing shots of what they thought could be a tornado, but they weren't sure because if a tornado had touched down, it was rain wrapped and nearly impossible to see.

The only damage to our house was the siding.

Even without a tornado on the ground, there were strong, damaging winds ripping up my neighborhood and threatening to topple trees, power lines and anything that stood in the way.

It felt like the storm was just circling overhead with the threat of a tornado touching down just teasing me.

At some point in all my worrying, Riverwind was given the go-ahead to take cover from a different storm.

As my fellow dispatchers and I gathered up our emergency bag and radios and headed to the vault to take cover, I never felt a pang of worry for myself. I was never concerned with my own safety, just the safety of my friends, family, and home.

Not long after getting in to our safe area, we were told we could come out because there was no tornado in our area, just heavy straight winds. The winds were dangerous, sure, but they wouldn't be taking out the building any time soon. Not unless they got about double or more in strength.

Again, this storm moved on and I was left exhausted.

Luckily there was no downpour of rain after the tornado and getting home was much easier.

The Aftermath

I hate to admit that it took such a series of events for me to realize that Oklahoma is in fact my home.

I live here, I work here, I go to school here, I have family here, I've made friends here.

It took a devastating storm and my fearing for my loved ones lives and well-being for me to understand that I belong here and am a part of this state.

I've made donations to the Red Cross and Salvation Army. I've been raising money selling jewelry so that I may donate my profits to the Moore public school system, so that they may rebuild and the children there can try and return to a sense of normalcy.

So far, I've raised $214 from selling jewelry.

Chris was able to raise about $600 for a friend of his that lost his home, and gave me another $200 to turn in with my donation to Moore schools.

I only wish I could have done more.

Oklahoma...
I'm sorry it took me almost two years to realize that you are my second home.
I'm sorry I didn't understand sooner that I belong here now.
I won't forget it again.

Mall of America

So I'm quite overdue for my post about my trip to the Mall of America with Chris... oops.
Well I found out that I can write blogs at work, so I may start taking advantage of that on our slow days!

Anyway...here's my recap on the trip!

So after I got off work on Monday at 10:15pm and came home, changed, grabbed my clothes and we were off!
We were stocked up on laffy taffy, cookie teddy grahams, beef jerky, Monster energy drinks and a few other miscellaneous snacks.

Chris started the trip since he was used to working nights, and I tried to get some sleep so that I could take over driving once Chris got tired. At about 6am, Chris was starting to get tired, so we stopped off at a gas station, refueled and swapped seats. I took drove until about 8 or 9am when we stopped off for real food at a little Subway, then we were off again and finally got to the Mall at about 10:30am.

I didn't think the mall looked that big from the outside, but once we got inside my mind changed. It was huge! The middle of the mall was a Nickelodeon themed amusement park (mostly for kids) and there were 3 full stories of shops, 2 major food courts (with some miscellaneous food shops and full sized restaurants scattered around the mall) and a 4th story with a full sized movie theater, a Hooters, Dicks Last Resort a comedy club and a few other major restaurants.

In order to take in the full mall, we decided we'd make two laps around every level. First focusing on the shops on the right, then on the left

Of all the stores, our two favorites were called "Mind Marbles" and "The Afternoon".
Mind Marbles is a store that has games, toys, puzzles, books, and all sorts of things to stimulate different parts of your brain. The store was broken up in to sections like "logic", "memory" etc. and all the things in that section, stimulated that part of your brain.
I bought a book from mind Marbles where you answer a question every day for a year, then the next year, you answer the same question and you get to see how you have changed and how your answers have changed over the years. You do this for 5 years. So far I've filled it out every night before bed!
We also got one of those books for Chris's mom, and an art puzzle for his youngest sister. It's not like a regular puzzle though where the pieces fit in to one another...in fact they're just squares and you have to overlap them to make the picture. I didn't know how much she's like it, but she seemed to love it!
Out other favorite store (The Afternoon) was a store that just had a bunch of cool little trinkets and knick knacks. There were odd books, weird games, strange kitchen tools and appliances, unique clocks... I could have spent all day in there just looking at all the neat stuff!
If I had an endless budget, I would have bought one of everything...but I settled on a measuring shot glass instead.

When the mall was closing, Chris and I weren't very tired since we had slept for a while at our hotel (which was like a mile and a half away from the mall) so we went to a nearby Casino for some dinner and free play. It wasn't the neatest casino I've been to, but the food was pretty good and it was still fun.

On out last day, we went to the Rainforest Cafe for a big, filling lunch before we made our way home. Our waiter told us that we were eating at the original Rainforest Cafe, which was neat. The whole restaurant was really cool though. There were plants and fish and waterfalls everywhere, and the ceiling was painted to look like the starry night sky.
I'd love to eat at another Rainforest Cafe!

After eating, we walked the aquarium under the mall. It was a full sized aquarium with turtles and fish and sharks and octopus! All it was missing was Shamu! It is incredible that all of that is tucked underneath a mall!!

With one thing knocked off my bucket list, we had to scratch one more thing off, so we made a detour to Pizza Doctors on the way home since it was just over the Minnesota/Wisconsin border.
I'd seen this place on some food show and it looked so amazing!
Basically, anything you want to put on a pizza, they'll put on a pizza. There were taco pizzas, seafood pizzas, pasta pizzas, dessert pizzas...anything you could want!
My favorites were the macaroni and cheese pizza and the Mr. Potato head pizzas. The Mr. Potato Head was basically a baked potato pizza. I think there was a tasty cheesecake one too, but I ate more dessert pizzas than regular ones. 


There's no way I can go in to detail about every little thing we saw, so hopefully some of these pictures can explain for me!

Panorama of the amusement park in the middle of the mall

There was a LEGO shop that had multi-story LEGO displays!

These "paintings" were made up of single square LEGOs

The jellyfish display in the aquarium was absolutely beautiful.

There was a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant and they had Forrest's suit form the movie!

First, Second and Third...

First off...
New job? Love it so far!
I get three days off, which feels absolutely surreal, and until I start school, I think I'll feel like a lazy bum because I hardly feel like I'm working...
I get to wear my own clothes... which are business casual... which I have learned is a look I like a lot!
I don't smell like smoke when I come home...
My supervisor is super awesome (not that my old one wasn't, and I actually miss her and my old co-workers quite a bit)...
I don't really deal with grumpy, greedy patrons...
I get to keep all my insurance and bonus check...
How cool is that?
PLUS! There's a Panda Express! (Though that's actually more of a bittersweet side, as you will understand later in my post).
So...so far, loving it!

Second...
Tornadoes...I hate them.
We had a severe storm sweep through the state on Wednesday and while I didn't panic too terribly (since it went mostly south of us) it reminded me that tornado season is indeed upon us, and I will never be completely okay with that.
There were earthquakes Monday night/Tuesday morning (I think it was) and I was fine with those! We shook around a little, no big deal. 5 in total, I only even felt one.
But throw me a tornado and I turn in to the biggest, cry-y-est, sniveling baby there ever was. I hate them and they scare the living daylights out of me (could I sound any more like an Okie girl right there?).
Dangit Chris, why did you have to be born in tornado alley!

Third...

I love my kitty Korra...whom my phone likes to autocorrect "Korea".

The family is growing!

When Chris and I signed the lease on our rental house, one of the stipulations was no pets. Unfortunately, the previous owner had a dog that tore up the floorboards and hardwood flooring, so the landlords had to refinish all the floors in the house. To prevent this from happening again, she just put a no pets clause in the lease.
Well it's been 8 months that we've lived in the house and if I do say so myself, we've been very good tenants. We've paid rent on time every month, we have not had any complaints, we keep things pretty tidy, and we've only had to call the landlord twice, both for problems that he said we might have (a leaky faucet in the kitchen and a loose knob in the shower).
Now, I'm a cat person. I love cuddling with cats and petting them and hugging them and relaxing with a purring kitty. Last week, a stray cat wandered up to the house as my sister-in-law and her husband were leaving at around midnight. The cat started meowing and crying, and though I didn't have anything that a cat could eat inside, I brought out a bowl with some water in it. The cat looked at the water, scoffed and came to start rubbing my legs. I saw down and the cat jumped on me and started purring like a motorboat, and wouldn't get out of my lap. Before this, I hadn't really loved on a cat in over a year, so it triggered my desire to have a pet I could love...especially since Chris and I don't exactly have the same sleep/work schedule.
Well, a couple of days later, Chris called out landlord about possibly getting a cat. Our landlord said he would talk to his sister (who actually owns the property) and see what he could do for us. After a weekend of no news, Chris called back Monday evening. Our landlord said he really had to go to bat for us, but his sister finally agreed and said we could get a cat, so long as it was fixed, up to date to shots, and we provided proof with a description of the cat's gender and color. I was ecstatic! Of course at this time, the shelters were all closed, so Tuesday after running a few errands, off we were to adopt an addition to the family. Three shelters later, we found our new little furry baby.
Her name is Korra, she's a little over a year old, and she is perfect! She loves cuddling and being petted. She likes playing with toys and people and is careful to not use her claws. She's adorable, and I fell in love!
Last night, she slept on the bed most of the night with us. I think she only left because Chris tosses and turns a lot in his sleep and she was probably getting kicked and squished.
I don't want to leave for work, because I just want to love and play with her all day!

Speaking of work, I start my new position Sunday.
It's been a little bit of a pain in the butt with paperwork that needs to get taken care of, but I just keep telling myself it'll be worth it.
I had to fill out some transfer paperwork, then get my current manager to sign off on it as well as my future manager. Well after running in circles to even get the papers in the first place, I got my manager to sign off, then had to drive over to Riverwind to turn the papers in. I got to Riverwind yesterday and turned the paperwork in to HR, thinking there was going to be a few things I'd need to do, but the woman simply said "Okay, thank you, I'll get these to Laura." I looked at her, hesitated, and asked if that was it and she told me yes, so I left.
About 20 minutes later I got a call from Riverwind HR and she told me I needed to sign my acceptance letter and meet with someone. I had planned on going back Friday to get my badges, so I asked if I needed to drive back over then, or if it was something I could do Friday.
Looks like it'll be a long day Friday!

Monday, I got enrolled in my classes at OSU OKC for the Fall!
I'll be taking:

• Nonverbal Communication
• Intro to the Deaf Community
• American Sign Language 1 - Lecture
• American Sign Language 1 - Lab
• Intro to Speech Communication

Luckily I was able to schedule my classes so that I only go in Tuesdays and Thursdays, leaving me open to work Sunday, Monday, Friday and Saturday, plus have Wednesdays to myself.

Chris' news for school isn't quite as happy.
He went in Tuesday to enroll in classes, signed up, then went to see the department head to see about taking piano lessons, and the department head gave him the bad news that he is resigning and when he leaves, the college will lose the program's certification.
Chris is bummed out, but looking at his options as he still wants to go to school in the fall.
I'm rooting for him and I know he'll figure something out.

Well, I'm itching to get back and play with the kitty, but I'll keep everyone up to date with the latest happenings as they come!

Changes Everywhere!

The wheels are a-turning and my life is a-changing.

I've decided to go back to school at OSU-OKC to get my Associates Degree in Sign Language interpreting. My sister in law is more than willing to help me out, already having offered me use of her old text books and notes, and giving me tips on which teachers I should or should not try to take. From the sound of it, my mother in law is thrilled beyond belief about me starting the program because she knows how much her daughter loved it and how happy it has made her.
The more I think about it, the more I think I will like it. I think that I could do well as an interpreter, as ASL 1 back at Cuyamaca in San Diego came very easily to me, and I have a bit of a soft spot for the Deaf that Hearing people sort of run over.
For example, I was working at the casino one night when a deaf gentleman came to the desk with two older women. One of the women told me he was a new member and needed to get signed up with a card. Well it's a pet peeve of mine when a couple comes up and one person does all the talking for both. Especially when I direct my question at the other person. So, she handed me his ID, and I asked him "You've never had an account with us before?" as I usually do. She looked at me and told me he was deaf. In my mind, I was thinking "Okay, time to brush off a few ASL 1 vocab words!" and I was excited! Usually in cases with deaf customers (which we get on occasion) I can muddle my way through with paper/pen and a couple vocabulary words that I remember, but this woman would not let me get a word/sign in! I looked to him, waved politely to get his attention and had planned on pointing to the address on his ID and signing the word "correct" to ask if the address on his ID was correct. She jumped in front of me and blurted out "Everything on his ID is fine." So I let it go, I continued on and went to ask him if he had a phone number. She looked at me like I was stupid and told me "He's deaf, deaf people don't use phones." I wanted to tell her that just because a deaf person cannot hear does not mean they cannot text. A lot of them do. It's still a great way to communicate. But alas, I did not feel like causing a scene, so I continued on. Come time for him to put in a PIN number, I pushed the pin pad towards him, pointed and was about to sign "four numbers please" when she cut in front of him and put in a pin number for him. Between these instances, she was signing to him and he looked incredibly frustrated the entire time. I would be too if some lady was taking over for me and not letting me do anything myself!
Deaf people have a handicap of not being able to hear, but they are not handicapped, nor are they stupid.
Deaf does not equal Dumb.

*exasperated sign*
Well, to get back off of my tangent...
I have been accepted to OSU-OKC, I just need to submit my transcripts and I can register for the Fall semester!
Chris applied to and was accepted at Rose State and he plans to enroll in the Music and Audio Engineering program (or something to that effect) so that he can learn the ins and outs of music production. After his program, he'll be able to run a studio, tour with a band to set up live music, or work with producing music really in any way he chooses.
He's incredibly excited except for the part where the degree requires math and a lot of physics. I think he'll be just fine though.

Not only is school changing for me, but I also start a new position at Riverwind Casino on April 14th as a security dispatcher. It will be a pay cut, but it will be easier for me to attend school and really focus on my studies because I get three days off. Plus, I get to keep me benefits and vacation time so I can go visit my family this summer. It'll also be nice that I already know the majority if of the 2nd shift dispatchers and the 2nd shift outside security guards. I don't know the inside department, but I'll figure it out!
I'm extremely excited that I'm going to be out of the smoke, I'll get to wear my own clothes, and I won't have to deal with so many rude customers! That alone just may make the pay cut worth it!


Well, that's all the news I've got for now. I'll keep you updated if anything changes!

From Graphic Design Major to... Well, I don't know.

Since 8th grade, my heart has been set on being a graphic designer. I fell in love with Photoshop and knew that for the rest of my life, I wanted to play with it and get paid.

Now here I sit, about 8 years later, and my life has done a complete 180 from where I thought I'd be.

I don't want to be a professional graphic designer anymore.
The stress, time, effort, money and tears aren't worth the small amount of pride I feel when I complete a project anymore. I feel like the sacrifices I'm making to pursue school just isn't worth it any more.

I still enjoy designing, but I don't want to make it my career anymore. I'm afraid that if I pursue it any further, this thing that I love will be something that I hate, and I don't want that.

The best way I know how to describe it, is that it feels like I'm taking a hobby and trying to make a career out of it.
It's like jewelry making or scrapbooking. I enjoy making jewelry for myself or for friends when I have the time, but it's not something I'd want to turn in to a career. I don't want to make jewelry for the rest of my life.
I love designing things for myself, like my blog layout or invitations to birthday parties or little fun pictures just because, but I don't want to design for other people anymore.
I'll probably still pick up a freelance job here or there, but I'll do it for me and because I want to, not because it's my job and I have to.

Today, I went to UCO and withdrew from my classes. Wednesday I have an appointment to speak with a counselor and I'll drop my Graphic Design major.

I have no idea where I want to go from here.

8 years of my life I've had tunnel vision, set on graphic design. Now that I don't want to do it anymore, I have no idea where my life is going to take me.

The strangest part of it all though is how calm I feel.
Not a week ago, my professor informed us that at the end of next month, our portfolios were due. When we turned our portfolios in, the entire design staff goes over all of them and basically decides either "Yes, you're accepted in to the second half of the program", "It's good, but take the portfolio development class this summer and submit again". or "No, graphic design is not for you".
I was in a panic. My heart was pounding, I was sweating, I was a complete wreck. I was terrified that I wouldn't get accepted in to the second half of the program, and if I didn't get accepted, then what would I do with my life?
Now, here I am, withdrawing myself and purposefully changing my career path.

Like I said, I haven't the slightest idea what I want to with my life now, but with the help of my family and friends, I hope to find something soon.

Right now, the only thing on the table is transfering to OSU-OKC for American Sign Language interpreting like my sister-in-law, but they don't offer a Bachelors Degree.

We'll see, I have the rest of the spring semester to try and figure it out.

Thank you everyone for being supportive, I'm making changes in my life to better it and things are only going to get harder before they get any easier.


Krysta Figueroa,
Ex-Graphic Design Major

Getting the New Year off to a good start

For 2013, a resolution of mine is to make some new friends, without Chris' help.
So far, I've made one friend in Oklahoma and since moving to Oklahoma City, I don't see her very often seeing as she lives in Norman.
I've lived here for a year and a half, though have yet to really make any good friends other than a few at work. Unfortunately, I can never really go out with friends from work because the days I am off, they are most likely at work and I can't hang out with them before work, because I have school 4 days of the week. So I'm trying to meet some people outside of work, and it's not going all too well in reality. Most people I meet have different schedules than I do, and I'm just so busy anymore! Mondays and Tuesdays I am off of work, but I go to school either from 12pm-3pm or 9am-12pm. Wednesdays and Thursdays I'm busy from the time I wake up until I go to sleep. Fridays - Sundays I work from 4pm-12am, so I can't have a girls' night out because I have to work!
So it's been a challenge to meet new people, but I refuse to give up. I love Chris with all of my heart, but I don't want my social life to revolve completely around him. I want some of my own friends to share inside jokes with or to go grab a hot chocolate with or go see a chick flick with. I want a girl friend to go get my nails done with, or to go out dancing with.
So keep your fingers crossed for me and hope that this is my year to meet someone!

At the beginning of this month, my mom came out to visit for almost a week.
I missed her so much and it was great to have my mom back. I was able to get off of work for her entire trip, so I got to spend the whole time with her, without taking any vacation or missing any hours at work.
While Mom was here, we went down to Chris' dad's house and got to meet up with all of his family, minus his sister and brother-in-law. It was great to let my mom and his parents really get to talk and get to know each other a little better. Chris and I had an odd relationship at the beginning, so our parents never got to really meet other than at the wedding, but that was a very busy time. I was so glad that our parents seemed to get along so well.
After brunch with Chris' family, we picked up my cousin from the airport, who was in town to surprise his best friend (who happens to also live in Oklahoma, seeing as he is stationed at Tinker Air Force Base) for his birthday. Out of all the weekends of the year, my mom and cousin just happened to pick the same one to come out to Oklahoma!

In other news, Chris got a new job!
He left Riverwind Casino after nearly three years of security to start working at Oklahoma Christian University as a campus police officer.
It's bee a little rough at the beginning with his hours and days changing quite frequently, and a few miscommunications with his past police work and qualifications, but it's all smoothing out and I think this will be good for us.
Not only will Chris be making more money, but I think he will be a lot happier once things settle down.

With Chris' raise, I'll be getting a new car.
It's going to be weird not driving my little '99 Ford Ranger, but it's about time I get a new car.
We haven't started test driving yet, but I think I'm probably either getting a 2013 Ford Focus, or a 2013 Hyundai Accent. Whichever one I get, it's going to be blue. I love blue...
I would get another truck, but thinking of the future, I should get a car that gets good gas mileage, and thinking of the even further future, I need a car that's going to be a good family car for future baby Figs (way way future baby Figs).

I'll do my best to keep updates coming more regularly!

Monthly Highlights of the end of 2012

I apologize for failing so miserably at blogging.

I'm not going to try and catch up on all the details that have happened since September, but I'll try and hit the highlights of the couple months I've neglected.

October:

10.10.2012

It may not seem like a big deal to some, but Chris and I finally got a washer and dryer! The dryer has been acting up a lot lately and we're probably going to need to get another, but the point is, we got our first one and no longer have to go to the laundromat or someone else's house to wash our clothes!

I never thought I'd be so happy to be able to do laundry in the comfort of my own home.

Month of October

Chris started training for his first 5k, and I trained with him as often as I could. When he first started, he was lucky to be able to run for 3 minutes. I'd don't a 5k before and was a little better at running, but before long, he was running alongside me the whole time!

November:

11.06.2012

I was just under 18 the last presidential election, and this year I was able to let my voice be heard and place a ballot in the presidential election. It was one of the hardest things I had to vote for, not only because I was basically putting in my input for the future leader of the free world, but also because I felt so split with both candidates. There were things about Obama I really agreed with, but other things I hated. With Romney, he had ideas I thought were brilliant, but there were things about him I thought were ridiculous too. In the end, I weighed the pros and cons to both men, and cast my vote in the 2012 election.

11.16.2012

To celebrate my 22nd birthday, my wonderful hubby bought me tickets to see Bill Engvall at Firelake Grand Casino in Shawnee! He's one of my favorite comedians and it was an incredibly funny show. Plus, Chris gave me $80 to play on at the casino, and on the back of our tickets were offers for $10 match play. I only ended up walking out about $20 up, but hey, $20 is $20!

11.17.2012

All of Chris' training lead up to his first 5k, and he finished! I'm so proud of him and I hope we can do one together next time.

11.22.2012

Chris and I both had to work Thanksgiving this year, so instead of having dinner, Chris made us a Thanksgiving lunch. He made the whole meal by himself, and it was incredible! He made way too much food, and we had leftovers for quite a while, plus we were able to give one of my co-workers some food too, seeing as she came over for a little bit to come with me to work.

December:

12.16-21.2012

My best friend came out to visit me! While she was out, we went to the Chickasha Festival of Lights and to Bricktown for some Okie-style clubbing. We shared a lot of laughs, and it was great to have her back. We stayed up every night talking for hours, just catching up and getting each other up-to-date. I was sad to see her go back to San Diego, but it was fun while she was here.

12.21.2012

The world didn't end! Sorry Mayans...

12.22.2012

Jeanette threw the First Annual Fields Family and Friends Christmas Ball and it was great! We all dressed up in formal clothes and danced the night away to Christmas music, with the Cha-Cha slide threw in after much pleading from Chelsea and more resistance from Jeanette. There was a photobooth and lots of delicious food and I'm already looking forward to next year's ball.

Since January is still happening, I'll save this month's activities for a more detailed posting in the near future.

I'm making a mid-January New Years resolution to be better at blogging!

I promise!

Krysta

Summer has come and passed, the innocent can never last

6 weeks in to the school year and I think I'm going prematurely grey.

What on earth made me believe that I could go to school full time and work 38 hours a week?

It wouldn't be too bad if my classes were all lecture based, but I have 2 project based classes. Typography, which I don't think I'm doing very well in, and Computer Graphics 1, which I feel like I've already taken. It's really difficult to make time to do all of my projects when I get out of school, then come home, change, and go to work, then stay at work until midnight so that I can come home and go to sleep and wake up at 7 in the morning...then rinse, lather and repeat.

Anyway...

I have managed to have some sort of a personal life in between the madness of my life, though I'm not quite sure how.

On the 3rd, we celebrated Chris' 26th birthday.

My hubby turned 26!

It feels like just last year he was the one celebrating his 21st birthday, sipping a margarita and realizing how much he disliked alcohol. Now he's 26...and doing the same thing.

Anyway...

I managed to get his birthday off, both from school and work! Thank you labor day for cancelling classes, and thank you boss for scheduling me off on Mondays.

The father and Debbie-in-law took us out for a late lunch at Cattleman's, where we dined on delicious steak and potatoes.

Actually, the steak wasn't anything wonderful for its price, but it was good.

Anyway, after that I took Chris to the movies. Seeing as we had never been upstairs at the theater before (it's a section you have to be 21 or over to get in to) we went on up and Hubby enjoyed a cold frosty drink before the movie.

He's been really in to his bike riding (he did a 100k that I'll mention later!) and so we went to see Premium Rush...the bike movie.

I went in having terribly low expectations, but I will admit that I was very pleasantly surprised by it. It was action-ish, sure, but there was enough of a storyline and comedy to keep me interested.

Come the 13th, we celebrated Hubby's youngest sister's birthday with a little tRain concert (Yes, the capitalization was intentional).

We got rained on, but hey...that's what ponchos are for right?!?

We didn't want to have a De Ja Vu incident for little sister, who got rained out of her Sugarland concert because of lightning and thunder (which isn't so great for outdoor arenas)...so we had out fingers crossed.

Even then, it was actually a really great show.

I'd definitely go see Train again, though preferably without the rain. I love rain, but not being stuck in it and having a wet sweater sticking to me. And wet shoes...I hate wet shoes.

Our shoes were soaked and we were shivering, but singing along and dancing around (and huddling together) kept us warm.

The fact that Pat Monahan sang "Calling All Angels" right in front of us was pretty nice too.

The 17th, Chris and I celebrated our one year anniversary.

I can hardly believe I've been married for a year already. Time just flies by when you're not looking, and man did it ever fly!

We had this plan that we were going to take an extended weekend in Texas and go to Six Flags, but my History of Graphic Design teacher planned our first test that day, and she does not give make-up tests. In order to keep from failing the class before I even began, we skipped out on Texas and stayed at home for some dinner and a movie. Hopefully sometime soon we can celebrate late.

We did defrost our wedding cupcakes though and enjoyed the year-old pastries.

MMMmmmm...

Actually they weren't bad. A tad dry, but still pretty good.

And they still made our tongues nice and blue.

As I mentioned, Chris rode his bike in a 100k down in Texas, and I couldn't be more proud of him if I tried!

Originally he wanted to do the 100 mile, but he knew he wasn't ready for it yet. He has come a long way in the short time he's been riding, and it's very inspirational to watch him go. When he first started off, a 10 mile ride was like dragging himself to Hell and back. Now, he's riding in the Hotter 'n' Hell race in Texas and kicking its butt!

Well, okay so it wasn't an easy feat, but he did it and like I said, I'm so proud of him.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get time off to go and cheer him on, but I was thinking about him every second.

Way to go Chris!

My college had a career and internship fair last week and I decided I'd give it a look.
I definitely felt like I wasted my time.
It's unfortunate, but I don't think many job fairs cater towards artistic majors. There was one magazine at the career fair, and that was it as far as artistic jobs, and even then, a magazine isn't where I want to end up.
So I decided that if I want to get noticed or get professional, I need to start kicking it in to high gear. I'ce started to try and create a logo for myself (in between all of my other school projects) so that I can start designing stationary, business cards, and fixing up my portfolio. I want to start getting serious as a designer, because how welse am I going to make it in the world?
The job market seems to be geared more towards business jobs...the stereotypical office jobs...not the artistic ones. It sucks, but it just means I'm going to have to work that much harder to get myself noticed in a world full of starving artists.
Wish me luck!