If you are wondering where I’ve been, I’ve been outside!  More pictures to come soon.  You just have to wait a bit longer.

I didn’t intend to step away from the blog nine days ago and not come back for nine days, but it’s been a long week.  Longer than you can imagine.  I am not even quite sure it’s only been nine days.  Don’t worry, nothing terribly bad happened, just a lot of stuff.

.work (overnights)
.dinner with grandparents
.spontaneous storm chase trip to Oklahoma and back within around 27 hours
.back to work (mornings)
.sleeping
.sleeping, sleeping, and more sleeping (bc trying to convert from overnights to mornings can be hard enough without adding a random trip to Oklahoma without much sleep, or any at all)
.Easter/Game Night with Beau’s family
.cleaning a house that hasn’t been attended to in far too long during all these events

But, I’m back. I finally am caught up on sleep, feeling well again (felt a little sick after that trip to OK), and can rest without feeling horrible now that the house is mostly clean.

Above are a few pictures I took while we were hanging out at an abandoned gas station on an Indian Reservation in northeastern Oklahoma.  The storms just weren’t developing as we’d wanted at that point, nor did they ever really, and we were patiently waiting.  Below you can see Beau and Shawn discussing the craptastic storms.

Well, that’s all I have to share with you currently.  I will be posting pictures of the nieces and nephews searching and coloring eggs on Easter soon.

So much has changed for the good in the past year.   Looking back at last April, I was continually busy with a wedding and new home on the horizon.

last April i was:

living in 3 different homes (seriously)
waiting for Beau to graduate college
trying to survive living at my dad’s house
sleeping in one bedroom, with two cats
visiting the new home
painting and painting and painting
having a bridal shower with family (exactly 1 year ago I believe)
tasting cakes for the wedding
telling beau how excited I was to marry him (and get it over with)
having my mom alter my dress
buying our wedding rings from amazon.com
wishing I had enough money to have a professional photo for the wedding
hoping Beau would be hired full time at work
dreading looking at the newest GFS and seeing snow on for the wedding date
freaking out about having to change my last name
working mostly overnight shifts
glad the the sunrise was becoming earlier and earlier
happy the sun was setting later
dreaming of having everything moved into the new home
making diagrams of the house
picking out color after color for the walls
drooling over everything in the pottery barn magazines
taking multiple trips to the home depot/menards
checking our registry on target.com (I know it’s cheating, but i hate surprises)
excited about spring
energized about summer
eager to decorate the inside of our home
thrilled about living with beau

This april, I’m very much hoping it will warm up.  We received a sloppy 1-2″ of snow last night and even though it will melt fast today, it would be so much nicer if it weren’t snowing at all.  I want to wear shorts and skirts, and lay out on the deck and tan, and go for jogs outside, walk around the neighborhood.  But on the bright side, the birds are back, and I love hearing them sing in the morning.  And I saw our bunny rabbit digging his little nest/hole yesterday morning.

Spring will come, soon, and it will be great.

Last week, my friend Shanna went on vacation to wonderful California (I’ll admit to being jealous!).  While she was away, I gave her kitty, Gabby, some company.  She was a little nervous to have me around, but I got some cute shots of her eating her food at least.

I love cats.  I don’t know how someone could not enjoy the company of cats.  They have their moments, but overall they have such unique personalities.  I love to see how my own cats react to meeting new people.  My friend Jared visited this past weekend, and all three of my cats took to him differently.  Pacey, is overall pretty social.  But he still kept his distance.  Maebree, who hates Beau and loves me, actually cuddled with Jared one night.  And then there is Rayliegh… Ray Ray is the shyest little kitty in the whole world.  He was completely scared of our new house for at least 2 months.  And when new people are around, or unusually loud noises are present, he runs and hides.

So Gabby, don’t worry, I won’t take offense to your shyness. :)

Just updated our storm chase page with a chase log for yesterday’s adventure.  We had our friend from SCSU with us, Jared.  Three co-workers of ours, Ron, Kris, and Scott came along as well, and Ron even brought his 2 year old son, Dylan.  It was a lot of fun.  I just wished we’d been able to see more.

The Omaha National Weather Service actually just updated their storm survey page and have concluded that a tornado likely occured just west of where we were as we passed through eastern Omaha into the town of Missouri Valley.  Beau is checking out his video as I type to see if we possibly caught anything while we were scrambling to get east.

Reports page in case you are interested.

But, I did get some great pictures of little Dylan.  The youngest storm chaser I’ve ever chased with at least.

enjoyed a warm shower while half asleep still.

listened to Imogen Heap my entire ride to work.

worked 8 hours while waiting patiently for Beau to bring me a Chipotle burrito when he got there at 2.

drove home with Taylor Swift.

wished for someone I could photograph since the light was almost perfect (compared to yesterday’s warm but harsh light)

went for a run because it finally was warm enough.

hung out on the floor in the living room with the cats and stretched.

did a little cleaning.

downstairs to my computer to edit photos from the weekend.

caught up on Grey’s and Desperate Housewives.

watched an awesome 20/20 special on abc.com about wasteful government spending and other pathetic things.  (a must see)

uploaded pictures of the family.

headed to bed after a quick bowl of cereal.

(promise to add some recent pictures tomorrow!)

the little things of a simple thursday.

a quiet morning watching Grey’s in bed and cuddling with Maebree kitty.

eating cereal while reading blogs on Google Reader.

working on my new website (more to come later on this).

catching up on Lost from Wednesday night.

driving to work on a gloomy but spring-like day.

looking forward to heading over to Bdubs after work through the entire shift.

spending time with coworkers at Bdubs while enjoying wonderful wings and beer.

driving home in the fog and talking with Beau.

feeling exhausted (even after a simple thursday) and falling asleep immediately.