Susie Homemaker!

Alright! I finally got my phone to play nice and allow me to post pictures from this past weekend.

Here are my finished pillow products! I am pretty excited with how well they turned out. I think Luke was even shocked out how great they came out, and we all know he's hard to impress.
I know I promised picnic pics, but...we had a change of plans and ended up jump starting our New Mexican garden instead. Yes...I do realize that my pants are up beyond any acceptable level for people our age. Don't worry...Luke made fun of me for everyone already!

Here's Luke tilling as well!

Finally...our finished tilled garden! We haven't planted yet, but I have plans for the left half to be beautiful flowers and the right to be yummy veggies. Luke is going to build a compost box and herb box too. So...once we start producing, I'll be sure to post!

Sewing Saturday

Happy Saturday to all!
For Christmas this year I got a Singer sewing machine. I have been wanting one for a while now and finally put it on my Christmas list this year. With the move right after the holidays, I didn't get a chance to really pull it out until yesterday.
I'm going to have to say that setting everything up with the thread felt a little like brain surgery. If you have no idea about anything in the sewing world like me...getting everything in order before you even start to sew is HARD! I did finally get everything together though, and started exploring the different sewing options. My goal this weekend is two new pillow covers for our couch pillows. The current ones are UGLY! Luke has to work for a little bit today, so that's the goal while he is out. So...wish me luck in that adventure!
Once Luke is finished we are going to have a picnic! The weather is just beautiful out, and very warm considering we had snow so recently. I hear the whole East is covered in snow, so I'll post picks for ya'll to live through us. Ha!
Happy Happy Saturday!

Tubing Video

I think I finally got this thing figured out!

Cloudcroft Crazy!

It's amazing such a snowy winter wonderland is only two hours away. Cloudcroft has the feel of an Aspen retreat with little shops lining the streets in a rustic way. Luke and I got into Cloudcroft around 12:30 this past Sunday to eat lunch and hit the slopes. No snowboarding or skiing in store though--we went TUBING! Neither of us had ever been snow tubing before, so this was a great experience. I highly recommend it if you've never been and want to do something for cheap entertainment. The guides working loved both Luke and I, and hooked us up with the fastest tube on the mountain! No seriously though, they buffed the bottom of one tube to increase speed, and so graciously let me borrow thier scared tube for the day. My favorite thing to do was have the workers throw me into a crazy spin down the slope. I think Luke's favorite way was belly down speed racing. He was one of the only people on the slope to hit the fence at the end of the run (meaning he was going REALLY REALLY FAST)! Once you hit the fence the whole crew applauds your dare devil ways. Overall it was a blast! I tried to post a video we took of us flying down the mountain, but for some reason it's not working, so I'll post it on Facebook if possible and you can check it out there. So far I am LOVING this adventure ride in New Mexico! Now...I'm off to find a JOB...still working on that piece of this adventure :)

This Desert Life

Here are some pictures of our New World! I don't have any indoor photos of our home yet--mainly because it's not 100% in order as of yet. Luke and I should have that completely finished this weekend.
So far the town as been great! The neighbors all came over and introduced themselves and brought us dinner. A new mexican spicy stew of sorts. I'll have to send out the recipe shortly. A little different kick and taste, so exciting to both Luke and I. Our house seen below has 5 pecan trees, so Luke and I are collecting currently and plans for a pie are in the works.
This past Sunday we took a day tour over to Sitting Bull Falls. This is a 150ft. waterfall located about an hour away from our house. We hiked around the area and plan to go back this summer to swim in the pools. We took our suits for this go round, but just couldn't bring ourselves to do it. That's it for now!

New Stuff

It's official!! I'm a New Mexican as of last night! It's been a while since the last post, so I'll say the Holidays were great.
Luke and I were lucky enough to visit both families for Christmas. We had a wonderful break seeing our families and got a bunch of great new things. I think Luke was most excited about the Wii. He is officially crazy over Wii wakeboarding from the resort game.
Luke and I brought in our 4th New Year together (yes...this is our 4th year in a row kissing) in Nashville. We had dinner and drinks with some friends out on the town and then headed to a house party to watch the ball drop.
Thursday, Jan. 7th the movers arrived. They loaded up my car, our house, and off went everything. Luke and I drove to Oklahoma to visit with my cousins as we made the half country trek. I will say Oklahoma toll road are NOT COOL! I forgot they even had tolls in Oklahoma and after donating around 13 bucks, all I can say is they should at least make the roads decent!
So...first day in Carlsbad and I'm writing from the Holiday Inn hotel computer. Luke is hard at work already and I have run the new town errands of setting up the water (they require you to come in person,) and already started the job hunt. I still have not called Navarro to find out if I got they job, but I'm guessing if they were interested in giving me the position I would have heard something as of now. Sad Day! Would have been a pretty cool deal. I guess it wasn't meant to be, so I'll take it as that. I visited the New Mexico State University Carlsbad branch this afternoon and spoke with the Human Resource woman there, so hopefully they have something for me. She seemed very interested and positive in the idea of them having something for me, so...keep you fingers crossed for me.
That's it for now! Life is happening so fast!

The Interview (Life Skills)

So...I had the interview in Carlsbad last week. Everyone has asked me how the interview went and for the first time EVER...I honestly have no idea how the interview went. For me I think I did a great job at stepping in and interviewing for something I truly know nothing about (nuclear quality assurance,) and the people seemed to like my personality?? I will say the trip was hilarious though.
Luke and I headed out early Monday morning last week for our full day of flying. Plane tickets to only get close to Carlsbad are ridiculous. I could have flown to South Africa for 1400 bucks and they wanted 1300 to fly from Nashville, TN to Roswell, NM!! The company I was interviewing for had no beefs about me flying into Roswell, but since Luke was heading to Carlsbad as well we went together into Midland/Odessa, TX to save money and made the 2 and 1/2 hour drive over.
It's Tuesday now in Carlsbad...I'm excited to go check out this dessert town and hopefully find a home...and...it SNOWED over night and into the day, eventually reaching 8 inches. SERIOUSLY?? I thought this was the dessert. Apparently they get one snow a year and this one came very early. I'm really starting to wonder about 'ol planet Earth here. Weather patterns seem to get stranger every year. Back to Carlsbad though. I bet you could have made some serious money videotaping me trying to figure out a snow covered car. Yankees would have gotten a real kick! First off, I had no idea your windshield wipers do not work unless you wipe all the snow off. That sucks and kind of defeats the purpose a bit it seems to me, but what do I know. Then...after wiping off the front I sit down and buckle up to then realize I can't see out of the back windshield either. REALLY!! So...I get out and wipe that off and buckle up again when finished. Ok...so at this point the northern folks would probably be peeing on themselves. After buckled I then realize I can't see out of the side windows either and must get out again to take care of that. So...after sweeping off the entire car, I finally get going!! Man I'm not cut out for snow! Another note, Carlsbad only gets around 18 inches of rain a year, so...they are not cut out to handle a good bit of water. The snow begins to melt throughout the rest of the day and I find in one day I've master snow and flood driving. If anything, this trip has made me stronger. Ha! no seriously! The week goes great and I leave without finding a home (I'll write a whole blog about that later). Luke decides it best he stay out there another week in order to not travel again before the holiday and the official move, so I find myself driving back to Midland/Odessa airport alone in the early morning hours on icy/snowy roads (it snowed again the night before I left go figure). 4 hours later I finally arrive at the airport in one piece thankfully (some close calls on the scary roads). I take off with no worries, find out Houston airport has been shut down due to snow, end up on a plan to New Orleans, transfer then to Nashville, and make it home with my bag even at the end of the night. THANK YOU SOUTHWEST! They really are the best airline to fly with. So ends this blog! I hope I get the job, but who knows! The experience and trip were well worth everything!