Friday, June 26, 2009

Apartment Hunt Success!

We went, we saw, and we loved it!!!  Matt and I had a great apartment hunting trip to Maryland last weekend and found the perfect place in Annapolis.  I'd write more, but I'm off again on another trip in just a moment- this time to the beach with my college buddies!  Hopefully Matt will have time to give more of an update later, but I must cut this short in order to make my flight.  

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Sentimental Sale

I sold my car tonight.  For various reasons it was in our best interest to sell my Honda before leaving Texas.  Thanks to a co-worker and her daughter, they made it happen.  It's going to a great new home, but it's kind of sentimental saying goodbye to my first car.  I saved years of babysitting money in order to buy a car (Thank you Angie, Purvis family, Wainwright family, Collins family and many others...) .  All that saving paid off when my Mom and I spotted a beautiful red 1994 Honda Civic one afternoon.  For 10 years it got me to and from jobs, school, vacations and made the trip out to TX.  It was perfect for me and I will forever encourage anyone to drive a Civic.  In the meantime, we're now a one car family and I'm kind of excited.  It's the same excitement that likes going to the laundry mat, because I know it will be all the more appreciated when we do have a second car once again.  Not sure when we'll be able to replace it, so maybe we'll find a bike friendly area to live in.  Wouldn't that be fun?   So long little red road runner... beep beep...

Monday, June 8, 2009

Matt's Pilot Post

Matt here. I've decided to start contributing to Manna's World, so here goes my first post.

To begin with, yes I'm now a graduate. But it turns out that the diploma hasn't been my ticket to relaxation. Because we're in somewhat of a state of limbo, the physics department at Baylor was kind enough to hire me for the summer as a "temporary employee". I'm doing similar work to what I did as a grad student, but I don't have to teach (hooray!). I'm just as busy, working almost as many hours, and actually waking up earlier. The biggest difference is that the work is a lot easier than research, so it's been a nice break so far, despite the hours.

Also, there is the job situation - a frequent question directed towards us both. As of right now, the most promising opportunity is an organization in the DC-Baltimore metroplex. I have gone through several rounds of several types of interviews, taken several types of tests, have been approved by the hiring committee, and last week was informed that I have the job, but because of the need to shuffle some papers around the official final offer will come until a bit later (this week, next month - who knows). From what I can tell it is a great job and will be a perfect fit for us both. Also, Jenna will finally be free of her current eight to five.

Because of some details too involved to elaborate on here, they are not able to provide house hunting trips to new hires. So, at their suggestion we booked our own trip for next week. My cousin Diana has been kind enough to let us stay with her, her husband Andrew, and their kids Evan and Erik, who live in the area. We'll be focusing our search on the Annapolis area (mostly because we like seafood). Should be a fun trip, and it will be nice for me to see the area while not worrying about interviews and tests, and for Jenna to see it for the first time. We're looking forward to some time with family as well.

And that is pretty much everything we can tell you. All we know is that we'll be in Waco for the rest of June and the first few days of July. After that our life is once again a great big black box other than "Maryland". We'll miss the sweet tea, southern accents, and Texas barbecue, but nevertheless new life here we come.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Funny Clip

Please oh please take a minute to laugh at this video clip :)