how strange it is..

Note: This post has been edited to reflect privacy changes in my name. Sorry for the confusion!

So it's August, and I am NOT going back to school. It is such a strange feeling!

Every August since I was five years old I've been going back to school. I'm missing out on new books and new school supplies!! It feels so weird, yet so...normal...at the same time.

The kids...err..college students...start back at St. Aug's today!! I am so excited for the new semester. After a summer of not advising ANY students, I have been eager to start doing my job again. I wonder if I'll feel that same way in a few weeks!!

The gamer bought me a poster for my office wall, titled "Excuses for Missing Class" and it is so funny - I've got a ton of compliments on it. And I'm already set with 20 excuses that I won't be accepting from my students!

By the way, it's back to Ms. B1 again at this school. I was Ms. B1 when I taught high school, and then went by just Heather when I worked with the student athletes at NCSU. So it's an adjustment having to introduce myself as Ms. B1 again here! I also get a lot of Mrs. B1, which I clearly am not.

The complications of my personal/professional/legal name is interesting. As of now I'm a B1, B1-B2, B1 B2 and a B2. I am a person of many names. I really do need to make a decision on that....But that's a whole 'nother post!

some updates

I've added a link to our pictures (click here!) on the left side of this page, titled "Lots of pictures!!"

That link will take you to our most updated photo albums and will show you a lot more photos than I'm able to post on the blog!

I just added pictures from our spring Vegas trip, graduation, and the summer!!

In other news, the gamer is well on his way to applying to PT school. Keep him in your thoughts as these next few months are going to be very stressful for him!

Also, we just purchased a big plasma TV - all for the main purpose of watching the ASU-LSU game on August 30th. What can I say? We love Mountaineer football! Only two more weeks to go until the season starts - woo hoo!

the peach omen

This post is in response to the earlier, strange occurrences but had to be a category all it's own.

So I've been mentioned how strange things happen to me, sometimes. Actually, more often than not.

So lately the gamer has taken up calling me Peach. It started in reference to a character I'd play on Mario Kart. I was always, always Peach, and he was always, always Toad. Even though strangely enough, neither one of us holds loyalty to those characters as much anymore :-P

So anyways, I am a pretty klutzy person. I really try to pay attention, but I don't think anyone has ever used the term graceful to describe my actions. I am constantly bumping myself against inanimate objects of furniture that I swear were not in that place yesterday!

Last year I most have bumped my hip along a table at work over 30 times. I'd always show up with bruises elsewhere as well. The gamer would sometimes joke that he hoped people didn't think he hit me :-P

Remind me to tell you the story of when Chris and I showed up to the bank to open a savings account. Just picture me with a swollen chin, Chris with his hand wrapped up from surgery, and us with a BUCKET of change.

So anyways, this weekend I received two HUGE bruises as we attempted to reorganize our office. Two huge black and blues later (the ugliest ones I think I've ever gotten) and Chris started up calling me Peach again.

I promise you though, I could just hardly touch something and get a bruise. I bruise like a peach. Hence the name.

Then last night while we were sitting at dinner at a pretty nice Chinese restaurant I looked at the empty table next to ours and there it was. A PEACH. Just sitting on the table.

Now when have you ever seen a piece of fruit just sitting casually at a nice restaurant table?

I am telling you that thing was staring back at me. It was like an omen. I immediately pointed it out to Chris and we laughed about how maybe peaches are my omen. Like a sign that I'm going to get another bruise or something.

And then the strangest thing happened next.

We took our fortune cookies out with us and I opened mine on the drive home. These one's have the fortune on one side, but on the back they always have an English word with the Chinese translation. I always look at that side first.

My word?

PEACH.

Now how crazy is that? Out of the millions of words, and tons and tons of different words I've seen on my fortune in all the years I've opened them, and TODAY IT HAD TO BE PEACH?

I really should have worn extra padding or something today :-P

strange occurrences

Strange things happen to me ALL the time.

Seriously, just ask Chris. I'll mention something to him I like, want, am bothered by, etc and then *poof!* something strange happens. Want some real examples?

In the early 90s they began expanding the two-lane stretch of 421 from Winston to Boone. In an attempt to make it two lanes on both sides, they dug out a whole new road right next to the existing "highway". Over TEN years later, and that "new" dug out road was still just sitting there. Nice and paved but no one was allowed to drive on it.

In 2003 when I started going to App this was the first time I really noticed how much of a pain it was that we had only one lane up to Boone, and that the new 2 lanes was just sitting there, perfectly ready to use.

I casually mentioned it in passing to Chris that I would really like for them to get a move on with things and open up the rest of the highway. It'd been that way for over a decade though, and there was no news or rumor that it would be finished anytime soon.

And then, one week later, it was opened.

STRANGE? I think so.

Another strange thing happened towards the end of my time in Boone. While we were in college the gamer and I loved Taco Bell. We would go there at least once a week. Now I'm telling you, this Taco Bell had to be the most run down one you'd ever seen! Tile was cracking everywhere, and it was just plain gross. I never really complained about it ( I mean, it is a college town), until one day towards the end of my last semester there, and I said to Chris, "They REALLY need to renovate this place." He agreed, but things don't really get renovated in Boone...

I left Boone in December to go student-teach, but Chris stayed in Boone. In January he called me and said, "You won't believe it. They tore down the Taco Bell" By the end of that semester the swankiest, nicest Taco Bell you ever did see was built.

I'm telling you. I will casually mention something, and then it happens! And it HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.

When I got my new job Chris and I started taking a stretch of 440 that we hadn't normally taken in the past. On the first day I commented on it's bumpyness and how the road was all torn up and in desperate need of repair. However, like 421, this stretch of highway did not show any signs of the DOT wanting to come in an make any fixes.

Sure enough though, within two months of my mention, one lane had been completely repaved shiny black, in stark contrast to the other three lanes of concrete and patches. And it seemed to have happened completely overnight. We never saw cones or crews, and there was never any traffic delays.

Within a week all four lanes of that stretch of highway were completely repaved. And all done AT NIGHT, without a single disruption to our daily commute.

And these are only a few of the many crazy coincidences that happen to me. I am going to have to start making a list!

smells like fall...

Did anyone else feel it?

This morning it felt distinctly fall like. Cool breezes are so welcome after months of warm, balmy mornings.

I can't wait for fall to really start! :)

black saturday baby!

Yesterday I got tickets for the BLACK SATURDAY football game - ASU v. Furman!!!!!!!

I have NOT missed a Black Saturday game in 6 years - this will be my 7th time going! :)

Just getting tickets was a feat in itself. Last year the server was bombarded with people trying to get tickets the day they became available online. Luckily I was still able to get some after a few hours of reloading.

I made sure to write down on my calendar when ticketing would be this year, and was totally prepared to be ready at 7:59am to get them.

And you know what happened? I completely forgot all about it.

By the time I remembered it was too late - and it said there weren't any tickets available. After some reloading though 2 tickets reappeared - and now we're going!!

AHHH! I can't wait for a beautiful fall day in Boone, walking along King Street and through campus, and being with all the crazies at the game.

October 25 can't come fast enough!

part 3 - blast from the past

I know you are all hanging onto your seats for the best part of this 3-part story. And it has to start with this reflection. What's the #1 reason why I love my husband?

His predictability.

You'll understand why, soon enough. So anyways the whole group of us has been working hard all day, going through old boxes and attempting to make a dent in the huge amount of packing, goodwilling, and purging that has to happen in less than a month.

Everybody's doing their own thing, but we're all in the basement somewhere. I've got a table to myself, going through some boxes of the gamer's old stuff (this is where I found his treasures!!) and I'm throwing old puzzle books and loose change to the gamer's niece as I rifle through old pictures, school notes, etc. Sidenote - Breanna made well over $15 dollars picking up loose change that day. Not bad!!

So the gamer's dad brings me an old bookbag to go through to make sure nothing's in there before it can be donated. I pick it up. It is H-E-A-V-Y people.

Then I make the first of many realizations. OMG. This is the gamer's OLD BOOKBAG from highschool!! Now remember, the gamer and I dated in high school. I remember him carrying around a 10 ton bookbag.

You see, the gamer did not like to empty out his bookbag, use binders, folders, or any other system of organization. Instead, he carried around every single peice of paper he ever used or recieved in this bookbag. I knew when I opened it I would find about 10 tons of looseleaf papers.

Sure enough, that's exactly what I found.

It's as if the boy just dumped his bookbag on the last day of high school, and never gave it another thought again.

Predictability!!

Classic Chris.

So I went through the big zippered section just fine. Might I add, that there were quite a few papers/homework he could have done better on if he had just turned them in on time. Seriously though, how was he supposed to find them on time in that mess of a bookbag?!

And then I opened up the second section. There wasn't any papers but at the bottom I saw what looked like some flattened paper bags and another plastic grocery bag. Looked like some garbage, really.

The plastic bag revealed an old can of Easy Cheese that had completely busted open!! Oh GROSS! I couldn't even believe it.

Then I opened one of the paper bags - a disgusting odor came out - and what looked to be OLD FOOD at the bottom.

And then the second realization hit.

OMG...if this kid hadn't touched his bookbag since the last day of highschool, could this possibly be AN OLD LUNCH BAG?

And sure enough it was.

CLASSIC CHRIS moment.

I screamed for Chris. Inside the paper bag we found a practically petrified sandwich.

After the intial screams from everyone looking on, he reached in and pulled out...

A FLATTENED FUDGE ROUND!

Which Chris claimed actually still looked edible. Oh - my - goodness! We also found what looked like Goldfish dust.

The whole time we just cracked up laughing at the fact that Chris left all this in his old bookbag for SIX YEARS.

That's right. It's been in there for SIX years. He left high school, and he NEVER looked back.

Classic Chris.

I honestly would not have expected anything less from my gamer husband!

Obviously the bookbag lost its donation status and ended up in the garbage pile. But not before we found this lovely old progress report, among the rest of the 10 pounds of discarded bookbag papers.
And yes, the gamer failed computer science his senior year of high school. And I'll leave you with that!

part 2 - hate to see you go, but love..

To watch you leave! Hoorah for big changes happening in the gamer's childhood home!

But before the changes can really start to take place, here's a little bit on how it was. Ahh, the memories.

The old fridge. And in old, I mean OLD. I've been told this thing has been around for over 36 years. The gamer has NEVER seen another fridge in his house in all his life. It's being phased out with stainless steel. Who would have thought?

Ahhh. The eternal smiley face. See, when they moved into the house years and years ago the wallpaper was stripped...but then never replaced. Apparently the gamer decided to make his own decoration instead, and voila - Mr. Smiley has been shining bright on the wall up the stairs for years. Apparently it is good luck if you rub him on your way past.

Besides my big ole backside, take note of all the video game consoles! As if stuck in some time warp, this entertainment system still houses what are called THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find the original Nintendo and what I think represent Sony, Dreamcast and Sega. Or is that all one brand? Maybe there was a SuperNintendo in there?

All I know is I was not very much help when it came it to organizing all the systems into separate boxes, since I kept getting the names wrong. But I promise you, the gamer and his brother must have owned every game available, every wire, every attachment possible to every single console! I also know that we've got atleast four different consoles in our own house - Nintendo 64, Playstation 2, GameCube and the Wii. Seriously people, how much is too much?

See that dent on the wall? The gamer got in a kicking match with the wall a looooong time ago, and left this indention to memorialize his victory. Or defeat?

Just an example of the wiring mess downstairs in the gaming room. In a house full of three gaming brothers, you'd THINK that it would be more organized, but I'm told there's an actual system behind the madness. Just imagine this room with at the very least, three to four computers set up. Then think about how it looks on those infamous gaming weekends. I've never been allowed in, but I'm sure it looked something like this: more computers to count, dirty boys, and a hundred Dr. Pepper cans.

And the deck had to go too?? What did I tell you? Everything goes people! Discarded wood pile paves the way for an awesome new deck in progress.

Apparently this was THE best treehouse on the block in it's heyday. It was abandoned soon after computers arrived on the scene.

We sure all look to be working hard..

And the best is yet to come people! Stay tuned for the #1 reason why I love my husband.

part 1 - cleanin' up house

This past weekend we spent in Winston, helping prepare the gamer's parents for their big 'ole move up to Delaware. There's so much going on, and lot's of pics - so I'm going to make this into several separate posts. Enjoy!

So a little backstory on this move. It's history in the making people! The gamer and his family have been settled in the Winston house for about 17 years. Mind you, that's a LOT of stuff to be accumulated in that amount of time. So basically, as they clean house and prepare for this move, it's about two decades of stuff they've got to sift through. Not an easy task!

The gamer completely moved out of this house when we got married last year. Except he did. not. bring. any. stuff. with. him!! Sure, he had all of his belongings from his 5 years in college. But I still always wondered...what happened to all the stuff from his childhood? his room? You know...memory stuff. Like old pictures, medals, ticket stubs, books, etc.

The gamer has NEVER been much of an "accumulator." I think he has pretty much left that up to me all these years. Over our seven years together I have accumulated a LOT of stuff. Ticket stubs, old receipts, tons of photos, cards, love letters, - you name it, I got it.

Living in our house for a year on my own before we were married, I pretty much decorated it on my own. An entire moving truck filled to the brim was necessary to move me in with all my belongings. When the gamer moved in, I swear, I was half expecting him to bring the clothes off his back and nothing else!! He requires so little. Quite honestly, he moved in, filled the dresser with his clothes, loaded his computer on the desk, set up his tv and video game consoles, and that was that. If it wasn't for the Wii controllers downstairs on the table - or the libary of video games - or leveling guides by the computer, you'd think it was just me living here!

So anyways, the kid barely had any belongings from his childhood. Whereas I had two huge storage containers with what I called my "memories" he didn't have any clutter, whatsoever. In the long run, it made for a very easy transition for the both of us when we got married. We didn't have to fight over whose couch to keep, or whose set of dishes to use. We bought lots of stuff together that was distinctly "us" (you know, the gamer and his wife.)

Of the two thousand pictures and photos displayed throughout the house of us, family, and friends, there is ONE of the gamer and his family during his childhood.

But I still would have liked to have some more stuff from his past.

And by golly, this weekend we got some!!

More on that to come!