Mostly for Erica...

I mostly made this post for Erica, so she can see what happened while I was talking on the phone with her, but first, here's a picture of our bed. :)  Doesn't it look good?  

And here's what happened while I was on the phone with Erica.  Taco decided to pull out the toilet paper and begin shredding it.  Luckily, I noticed before it was TOO bad, but still.  Yes, I made Jason clean it up because he was the one that left a little bit of toilet paper hanging down for the dog to be able to reach!
That's Taco's idea of fun.

New things for everyone!

Jason got some new clothes for interviews... right down to the shoes.  Can you tell I dressed him? :)
I'm trying to convince him he should dress like this more often because I think he looks spiffy!
And here is his work "uniform" aka black pants and a white polo with SECURITY on the back, and the company logo on the front.  Today is his first day, and he's work 12 hours to get his training over and done with... they REALLY need people, so they want him to work as soon as possible.  The nice thing is that he's working at the mall across the interstate from us, so it's like a 2 minute drive... and he could ride his bike to work if he really wanted to.  Oh yeah, ignore the hungover, high, not so happy look on his face... today was opening season of deer hunting (with a bow), so he woke up EARLY to hunt, came home and took a nap, then went to work... he's really just tired in the picture, not hungover, high or anything like that. :)
Jason got his pants yesterday, and they weren't hemmed at all, so the ones he's wearing today are safety pinned for now.  I decided I needed to learn how to hem pants, so I searched online, and found a video on youtube showing how to hem pants... and TADA!  I can do it!  This is my wonderful hemming job.  For my first ever time doing it, I think I did pretty darn well.  The entire time I was doing it, I was just thinking about how Gramma would be so proud to know I learned how to hem pants. :)  I guess tonight I'll do his other pants.
More new things for us.  Last night we bought the fridge on the far right for $100.  It's a year old, and the only thing wrong is it is missing one of the bottom drawers (and I think another shelf), but for $100, it was REALLY hard to pass up, so we got it because the other fridge (next to the freezer there) just wasn't cutting it.  There's a freezer in the top part of that little fridge, so you can imagine how small the fridge part is.  The night before last we bought that chest freezer (in anticipation for a deer being killed soon). :)  Craigslist is our absolute favorite place to get things!
Our other find from Craigslist, but we got these like the second day we were here... our washer and dryer.  They work VERY well, and they were only a year old too, so they should last us awhile.
And for good measure, here is our living room.  I know, it's kind of messy right now, but it gives you an idea of the size and whatnot.  You can see our new recliners which are VERY comfy, and the futon on the right.  The tv is GREAT being on the wall, and doesn't seem so huge now that it's not in such a small apartment.  I still need to get an audio pier for below the tv to put all the boxes on (dish box, vcr/dvd, Wii, etc), but we're getting there.  By the way, see Taco sitting on the carpet there??  Yeah, that's how small he is in this house!  Haha

That's about it for now.  I've been applying left and right for government jobs all over the area, but of course those take awhile to hear back from... so it goes.  I'm hoping to get a retail job or something to hold over for now... time to get out and apply for those! :)

Family from the Woodwork!

For a long time Jason has wanted to find relatives from his father's side of the family.  He didn't really know where to start until he started talking to Nana.  Nana knows his aunt (his father's sister) because they go to the same church, so she gave Jason her phone number.  After talking to Natalie for over an hour, he then had phone numbers for 3 of his cousins, as well as his grandparents, so he called those.  He called his cousins, and Kimber gave him his brother's phone number.  SO... Jason called Josh... and Josh couldn't believe it was really Jason because he's been trying to find him for a long time (they both knew each other existed... just didn't know how to find each other).  I believe the conversation went something like this:

"Is Josh there?  Hey Josh, this is Jason, your brother."

(Josh in the background) "Shh, be quiet, I need to find out if this is really who he says he is."

Then there were several questions asked to confirm it was Jason, and once Josh was convinced that it really was Jason, he HAD to meet us that night... it was like 8 or 9.

Josh (age 27), Jason (age 24) , and Garrett, Josh's 4 year old son.  Same height, same build... crazy.
And here's Jason and Garrett.  Garrett warmed up to us pretty quickly, which apparently isn't normal for him, so it was pretty neat.

Last Saturday, we went over to Josh and Shannon's house to watch the UT football game (which was nothing to talk about) and hang out some more.  Jason got to ride his first 2 wheeler... a little small for him, but he enjoyed it, nonetheless.
Then Garrett decided he wanted to chase Jason around the yard.  The funny part is the fact that Jason was going so slow since he was just learning that Garrett could keep up with him just fine.  Haha
Gavin, their 9 and a half month old son, watched from inside.  He was asleep the other night we met them.  He's a very happy kid though, and I get my baby fix from him for now. :)
Jason, Garrett, and Josh's wife Shannon.  Garrett was showing them what parts of the motorcycle were where, like the gear shift, the brakes, the motor, etc.
Here are some cousins... Jason, Kimber (their cousin), and Josh.  They were pretty excited to all be together!
And what better to do with a brother than arm wrestle?!  Jason and Josh on the floor, and Dusty, Kimber's boyfriend, mediating in the middle.  Josh actually won, but I have a feeling there will be some rematches in the future... that floor wasn't big enough for both of them to get the room they needed. ;)

Josh and Jason are quite a bit alike, it's almost scary.  Some of their mannerisms and humor crack me up because they are just the same... and they even pick similar women for wives. ;)

Thus far, it's been good for Jason to find him other family. ;)  Josh and Jason have a sister named Amber too, but we haven't met her in person yet because she lives farther away.  We're also hoping to get to meet his grandparents in the next month or so... we'll keep you updated.