God is Good

When I think about the seemingly negative things happening in my life and all around me during this time, my chest constricts and it becomes hard to breathe. My heart feels like it's going to explode with love, sadness, compassion, guilt, and sympathy. At the same time I feel completely helpless and I can hardly bear it. I suppose this is normal. I constantly have to remind myself that God is good, one of the things I learned at The Village. God speaks through Matt Chandler, the head pastor, in a way that young people can relate to and understand, which brings me to my first request. Matt is having surgery today to remove a brain tumor they found last week after he was taken to the ER when he collapsed from a seizure. Please pray for him and his family, for comfort and ease through this process, and for wisdom and steady hands in the surgeon.

Please keep Hope, Peyton, Evelyn, and Hadley in your prayers during this time too. My brother-in-law passed away in mid-November, and it's a difficult time for the family as a whole.

Grandpa Troy is not doing well and is being tested for bone cancer today. Up one day, down another, as GG says. Please pray for healing and comfort.

There are a lot of negatives that one could focus on, I think. I get dragged down sometimes by these thoughts, as one understandably might. I am comforted in the thought that I have Bryan, who is my best friend, to go through these times with. Don't get me wrong, I'm not Debbie Downer all the time, just on occasion when I think about all of this happening simultaneously, and especially during the season of joy and giving. I am thankful for the life that I have and the people I get to share it with. I am thankful that God gave me something I can get lost in and forget about the rest of the world, and that's my drawing and painting. I appreciate the little things, like when I get a call from Brit about a story that only I will think is funny. God is good for providing all of these comforts, and He always has a plan.

3.....6.....9?

The washer drum is out of balance.
The master bathtub doesn't drain at an acceptable pace.
The master toilet handle broke off.
The guest shower doesn't get hot water.
The sprinkler head is broken in the front yard.
The can lights in the living room don't work.

Yes, bad things happen in 3s and we're up to 6! What's next, house? Bring it on. I've got my tool belt and I'm READY.

Providence

We began our search for a new church community today. We went into our first service at a new church weary of new people and legalism, and left with a refreshed outlook on our faith and where we need to go from here. We visited Providence Church, a Village church plant located in Frisco. I loved the feel of a small church, when we walked in we were immediately recognized as "newcomers" and greeted warmly. Coming from a church of (at least) 6000 across six services with three separate locations, this was a new feeling. After we left, we both thought it was okay but we didn't feel at home, so Bryan suggests the fabulous idea that we visit at least 20 different churches in the area before we decide where to go. I think this is brilliant because 1 - it gives us a chance to see all different denominations and ways of preaching since neither of us has much church experience, and 2 - we live in the Bible belt so it will be fairly easy to find churches.

Bryan's choice next week - we'll see how it goes!

New Cakes, New Trees

It's been a busy month and it's only the 15th! This last weekend I made a Spongebob rice krispie, a dirt bike cake, and a train cake for a birthday party. This was my first experience in multiple cakes for one event, so that was exciting! I think they turned out pretty good, my train cake picture came out blurry, but here's the other two:

I finally got to use my new "grass" icing tip! The "dirt" is crushed oreos and the "trees" are green suckers with brown icing. Spongebob came out a little more orange that I expected, but hey I'm still learning.

Bryan's been super busy at school too. He's teaching full time now for his mentor teacher and he's the head of the speech team. Hopefully he will be a (paid) teacher in the Spring or Fall!

I finally got to paint something fun in our house! It's about-dang-time.


Palm trees! This is in our front entry way. We've decorated the whole thing with a beachy theme complete with paper lanterns and a surfboard (on the other wall). There are also hooks in the leaves of the trees to hang hats and scarves (no, the irony is not lost on us). To see more of my art, go to: www.artifolio.com/meg/gallery

Our camera has died recently (mostly because I left it out in the rain), so pictures may become scarce in the near future. Can't wait for those Black Friday sales!

Upcoming cakes: Dominos (the game, not the pizza place), basketball, teddy bear, and the last one's a secret :)

This post has been mostly about me... I apologize for that. Bryan's just so busy teaching and making lesson plans that he hasn't had much time for anything else! He has written a couple of new songs though, and I do believe they've got a lot of potential!

Cloudy witha Chance of...oh wait, it's not cloudy.

Since it FINALLY cleared up for a change, here is a picture of our house! We are not fans of the blue, mind you, but it is far to hot/rainy to do anything about that right now. Plus we spent all our money painting the inside (pictures when we finish, I promise).
If you haven't been out yet, we will try to have a party soon. All of the houses in the neighborhood are similar looking, i.e. wood-like with porches. I'm sad to say that there are some that are cuter than ours...but it's what's on the inside that matters most, not the outside. That's what I try to tell myself. :) We really do love this house. I'm not sure if it's the house itself, the location, or simply living in a house that we love the most. Maybe it's a combination of the three.

As I said last post, cake season has begun. Last weekend I made bulldog pupcakes for Aunt Sherry's big 5-0:

Happy birthday Aunt Sherry! This next week we have a birthday, but no party. To make a cake or not to make a cake, that is the question.

Bryan's a Debate Coach!

I promise to post a picture of the front of the house soon.. it's just been so rainy and gah-ross outside that I haven't been able to get a good one. Plus our yard needs serious work. Plus the outside just isn't as cute as the inside. I'm just sayin'.

In other news, Bryan's principal (because the principal is your pal) asked him to be in charge of the speech and debate team this year! This is exciting because that means he will still be at this school next semester even though his student teaching ends this semester. His mentor teacher is retiring at the end of the year, so if you put two and two together...nah, I don't want to jinx it.

In other other news, cake season has commenced! As it turns out, everybody who's anybody has a birthday in September or October in the Hoskins family. This weekend on the menu: bulldog pupcakes.

The Beginning of The Beginning

WOW it's been a busy week! Bryan started teaching and is getting into the swing of things. The teacher that he's student teaching for is going to retire after this year, so maybe if he does a good job he can be his replacement...! We've started slowly moving boxes into the house, but we wanted to try and paint/ fix some things before we officially move on Saturday. We don't know where anything is at this point. So crazy! A HUGE thank you to Bryan's parents, Kim and David, for a refurbished lawnmower and to his grandparents, GG and Troy, for a weed eater! I forgot to take a picture of the front of the house, but here are some before and afters on the inside:

Kitchen Before:
What's with the dark blue accent wall?

Kitchen After:
Minus all the clutter on the counter of course.
Living Room Before:

Brit actually came with the house, but don't worry we had her removed. :)
Living Room After:
You can't see it in the picture, but even the gray brick fireplace doesn't look so bad now.

Bryan and his dad worked really hard putting in the wood floors for the past 2 days! Thanks David! I was in charge of painting, and I have so much more to do! Good thing I love painting! We're moving on Saturday, so once we get settled we'll have an omg-we-just-bought-a-house-come-over-and-see-it party!

Closed

We closed! We signed all the papers and gave all our money and we're DONE! Well, done with that. What a long process. Now we have to paint, clean, mow, etc. Hooray! I'll post pictures of our progress as we make it.

Another cool story, we saw Paul McCartney last night at the new Cowboys stadium! What a ridiculously cool show. Not to mention the stadium. Now I even want to go to a Cowboys game, and if you know me at all you know that's totally out of character! How old is Paul now? 60something? And he can still rock. it. out. Awesome!

Hurry Up and Wait

As it turns out, everyone is trying to get this house deal closed - so it's not as bad as we feared! We have a good chance of getting into it now. The liens have been cleared from the title, so all we need to wait for is "short sale approval" from their lender, which I still don't have a complete understanding of. I think it means that the lender needs to approve a sale that is less than what they owe, but I'm not positive. Still good news though! (I think...)

In other news, Bryan is starting his student teaching this Fall on August 24 in Denton ISD. Exciting!

Also, we've got a washer and dryer now (thanks Melanie!), so does anyone have a black refrigerator they are willing to sell us?

Closing Date, Schmosing Date

Well, August 6, 2009 has arrived and we are NOT the proud owners of a new home. As it turns out, the sellers had too many liens on the house and were about to go into foreclosure - but they didn't tell their realtor. Obviously they thought that maybe if no one knew about their debt, then it would just go away! They told us they would try to work something out so we could still close on the house, but needless to say it didn't happen.

The reasons we are in a bind now are threefold:
ONE - We have to be out of our apartment by August 31 because we had to give our notice.
TWO - We don't have enough time to close on another house at this point and still be out of our apartment on time.
THREE - We are out $320 for the home inspection, and $440 for the appraisal. That's money we don't get back. Not now, not ever. There has been some debate as to whether the realtor is liable for this since it's his client that was dishonest. I'm still not entirely sure, but I do know that $760 is a lot of money to just throw away.

So we begin the house hunt again. LUCKILY, we live in a rockin' apartment complex (The Remington) and they are able to extend our lease for 1 month, even though they've already leased our apartment to someone else starting in October. So we have an extra month to find something, which is a little less bad.

God has a plan!

P.S. Does anyone have a washer and dryer they are looking to sell? Our leasing company is coming to pick ours up on Monday because we thought we were moving. Awesome.

New 'Toos

So I can't decide what my favorite part of our San Antonio/Austin road trip was. Was is when Bryan nuzzled a strange woman? Or when he came up from under water in the pool right into some girl's butt? Is he trying to tell me something? Maybe it was when he was excited about his new shirt, until he saw 2 middle aged men wearing it too. :)




On the way down we ate at the aptly named, Yumm Factory. It was indeed yummy. We played Bananas while we ate our "Burger Specials" with sweet tea.



We went to Schlitterbahn first to take care of some schlit. After that we checked out the Riverwalk in San Antonio and ate at our favorite place, Rita's. We got over served though, and totally forgot to use our coupon. Dammit!

Bryan wanted to fit in and not look so touristy, so we opted to purchase some traditional San Antonian garb.

The homosexual barista at Starbucks most definitely hit on Bryan that night too. When he found out we were married, and that Bryan is in fact straight, he pointed out that he had the sombrero on backwards and walked away. Nice.

After San Antonio, we headed up to Austin to see what 6th street was all about. I very much prefer 6th street to any sort of bar situation in Dallas. We got some sweet 'toos, but I almost chickened out on mine for sure. Bryan was making really painful faces and I got nervous! (In case your curious, we were completely 100% sober when we got the tattoos.) I finally went for it though, and I quite like how it turned out! I designed it, and it says "love" in the swirlies if you look closely. It's also only about 4 inches tall. The picture makes it look a lot bigger.

P.S. In the picture on the top I'm smiling on the outside, but crying on the inside. I'm pretty sure I permanently injured Bryan's hand from squeezing it so hard.


Bryan's turn! He actual went first, and his took almost an hour and a half. I can't imagine how people sit through hours worth of tatooing.


This pic was in our hotel room right after he got it done. The face says "eeeeeeeks-look-at-the-blood-o-m-g-this-hurts" doesn't it?

These were taken in a diner on the way back home. The seat belt in the car pressed his shirt to his tattoo and made it stick, doesn't it just make your skin crawl thinking about having to rip your shirt from a fresh wound? The next pic is of him rubbing aquaphor on it after he finally got his shirt away from it. It wasn't SO bad after he got some water for it.


And here is his sweet new 'too! He already had the cross there, but it was blue before. He said that going over the old tattoo was the worst pain ever. The picture is a bit blurry, it's a lion on his back legs facing the cross and a crown over the cross.




Bryan also got a sweet new hat to fit in with the locals in Austin. We were all about the rockin' head gear this trip.
And that's that!

Progression to Adulthood

So it LOOKS like we will be getting our first house! I don't want to post the address because I don't want to jinx it... but it's in Mckinney and it's wicked cute! We close on August 6, unless we close July 31 (which is my birthday, so that would be super sweet). The sellers want to close by the end of July, but the lending complany says they can't unless they rush it, and even then it's still just a maybe. When did we become such grown ups? Getting married and buying a house... Next thing you know we'll own an SUV.

...A Month Later

Surgery is EXPENSIVE! Why is medical care so outrageously priced? And why don't they give you a heads up before you go under? When I go to a store I know how much I'm spending before I hand over my visa. Do you know how much my foot surgery cost before insurance? $15,000. Fifteen THOUSAND dollars, just for the hospital. Then you have to pay the doctor and the anesthesiologist on top of that. THEN you pay for physical therapy. Thank goodness I have insurance, but my deductible +15% is still a ridiculous amount for such a minor surgery. What about cancer patients who are in and out of the hospital? What about people who DON'T have insurance? Maybe Obama's plan will help, but then again maybe it won't. Medicine is a thriving industry, whether we like it or not. But then how do we change it?

Bear Fail

:D

Pink Goose

So.. since the last post I have had surgery and recovered well. I feel like the week after my surgery was just a big blur because of the pain medication I was on. BUT my foot is healing and I got a hot pink cast today! Just a few more weeks on crutches...then a boot...then a lace up brace...then freedom!

Bryan got a call yesterday from Blue Goose, which turned into an interview, which turned into him having a job there! He trains all weekend then will be on the schedule officially next week! So go to Blue Goose in Highland Village and tip him well :) He deserves it. Plus I need a new pair of shoes... hahaha just kiddin :) He really does deserve it though.

Swine Flu, Shmine Flu

Alas, April 30th has come and gone and I did not win the Buns logo contest. I was, however in the top 10% as a finalist so that totally rocks! We will have to wait and see about the bake-off.. they don't announce those finalists until September.

Bryan is taking his finals today - he's almost officially able to student teach!

Watch out for the swine flu!

Bryan's GIG

Bryan and his band that doesn't have a name (because names are overrated), performed at an open mic night last weekend! Here's a short clip:

They did so well that the host pretty much begged them to come back next week!

In other news:
A pile of towels. PSYCH! Bear.

ALSO I entered my recipe for Texas Style BBQ Chicken Pizza into the Pillsbury Bake-Off! We shall see how that goes...

BUNS

SO, as I mentioned before, I've been looking at some graphic design contests to enter for fun. Wellll, I've entered a logo designing contest for a new eco-friendly, trendy, upscale burger place called "Buns" opening in Seattle and I'm a finalist! Here's my design:
I'm so stoked that someone liked my idea! There were a total of 360 entries from 42 countries, so that's kinda cool. They said they will announce a winner by April 30, and they will post all the entries on this site soon: http://bunsburger.com/branding/
(if you check there now, you will see my name by #91 :P)

Also, in Bryan and Meg news, Bryan is looking to find a job waiting tables for the summer, and then in the fall he will be student teaching/waiting tables. We aren't sure which school he will be at, but we'll let you know! He's also gotten to work on his music a lot with a sweet keyboard we just got from craigslist! I'm scheduled to get surgery on my foot to remove a bone that has broken loose from ligament. While surgery isn't pleasant to think about, I'm VERY excited to have my foot stop hurting! That will be in the beginning of May. Since we were planning a trip for that time, alas, we will have to reschedule our world travels to a later date. :D

Meg

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! :D

I'm forced to remember that this holiday isn't about the Easter Bunny and decorating eggs (and making cupcakes), but that it is more than that. Celebrate well, and enjoy the day!

Meg

Contestaroonies

So I realize it's been a while since we've updated.... it's just that we don't have a ton of news to report. So here are the little things:

Bryan is a busy-bee ("um, that looks the LEAST like a bee" - movie quote anyone?) applying for a summer job, as well as a teaching job for the fall. He is looking all over Texas, so hopefully there will be some good opportunities for him.

I plan to enter the Pilsbury Bake-Off (www.bake-off.com) for shits and giggles. I'm trying to decide between a dessert recipe or a meal recipe. Since most of my best desserts are hand-me-downs from family, I suppose I can't enter those under my name so I'm leaning towards a hot meal idea. I'll let you know when I decide! Since the deadline is April 20 I need to hurry.......

I'm also considering entering a variety of graphic competitions just for fun. I figure it's a good way to branch out with my art and whatnot, and since ultimately I would like to be an artist it's also a good way to build my portfolio and confidence! (I hope) Plus, it gives me a reason to carry my sketchbook everywhere and wear all black and only respond to questions worthy of my answer and be ultra philosophical and....... just kidding.

I've never been one to enter contests. I'm just not a confident person, so I'm trying to change that!

Here's a game I like to play when I get bored at work:
http://www.playedonline.com/game/58231/Bloons.html

More news later!

It's a BOY!

Don't worry I'm not pregnant! Although all this pizza-eating with Bryan has expanded my waistline... RACHEL who is my brother's wife (Andrew) is going to have a BOY in June! She found out yesterday and is SO excited!! Dad says that he is going to go out and buy some tiny fishing poles :)

Also a quick note: you are able to comment on this blog even if you are not a member of blogspot.com. You can post it anonymously, just be sure to put your name so we know who you are!

Eventually Bryan will post something here, but until then you just get my point of view :)

Meg

Vegas Vacation

So we just got back from a spontaneous trip to Vegas, baby! Yep, we booked it Friday night and left at the butt-crack of dawn Sunday morning ;) We stayed at the Venetian where we were greeted with shifty looks that said "You are staying here?" I guess we don't look like we can afford it.. which we can't really, we just got a super good deal - they almost paid us to go! Can we talk about our room for a second? It was bigger than my last APARTMENT. Not even kidding. We had 3 tvs, a living room area, bed area, and the biggest hotel bathroom we've ever had. We almost didn't want to leave the room we were so excited! Almost.

Once we figure out how to add more than 1 picture at a time, we will do just that! We had lots of fun gambling and eating and gambling and shopping and eating and gambling! We actually wound up ahead and came back with more than we left with! Bryan has a super secret new gambling strategy that he is really proud of, but if we told you, we'd have to kill you. And who knew they had Hawaiian coffee in Vegas? Since it's our FAVOURITE (yeah, I spelled it the British way, what?) kind, we bought 5 bags :) What, we don't have an addiction *twitches*.

And in other news, Bryan is taking his certification test to teach high school speech on Saturday! Hooray for him! Once he passes this test and finishes this semester he will be able to teach full time in the Fall! How EXCITING!!

Also, our friend Andy, who is my best friend Brit's fiance, is starting boot camp for the army on Monday, so send thoughts and prayers his way. Annnnd my brother Andrew is in the Navy at Guantanamo Bay and his wife, Rachel, is pregnant and we get to find out the gender on February 11th! Yay!

Lots of super fun news, thanks for reading!

Meg

Brand New BLOG!

Hello friends and family! We are hoping to keep this blog updated pretty well with fun posts and events :) As everyone reading this probably knows... we got married last August and just spent our first "married" Christmas together! We have a Pomeranian named Bear, although Bryan insists that he is my dog - but once you are married, what's "mine" becomes "ours", right? ;) He is definitely the cutest dog in the world and I dare anyone to try to prove me wrong once you meet him.

(See?)

Bryan is currently substitute teaching and working toward his teaching certification to teach Speech at the high school level, and I am working for my dad who is doing laser therapy for pain - check out our website (that I TOTALLY made).

Bryan has begun a movie review blog as well, and there's a link on the right side of this page if you'd like to view it. I also have a website for my art, which is on the right side of this page as well.

Thanks for visiting, and check back every now and then for new posts! I think there's a way to send an e-mail to you when we post a new entry, but I'll have to check on that. Let us know if you'd like to be included in the e-mail (once I figure out how to do it)!

Meg