New Year

Where does the time go? Things have been so busy for us that I rarely get on the computer anymore, unless it is at work. I have a blackberry phone now which has made it even easier to avoid getting on the computer. I get my emails in my phone and I don't have to sit down every night to check them anymore. It's been great, except for the part where I never respond to any of them. Sorry everyone!

Well let's see . . . 2008 has been a hard year for my family and I think I can speak for everyone when I say we are so looking forward to a new and better year. 2008 held more changes than I think most people go through in the same year. It has been an emotional roller coaster full of ups and downs with so many things that are hard to talk about. So I see 2009 as a new beginning. Here's to hoping and praying for a wonderful new year.

John and I did manage to get the same days off for the new year, but unfortunatly I managed to come down with a terrible cold and we ended up spending the four days home together with me in bed or on the couch. I had so many plans for the time off, but I guess I am more grateful that I had the time off to be sick instead of having to call in.

John even called his mom to get her recipe for potato soup and spent an hour Friday night making it for me. Isn't he sweet!

Puppies

John has started a new job with that has required him to be gone quite a bit for training. So it has been just me and the dogs a lot. Blou had seven puppies in September and they have been keeping me busy. We made a pen for them out of cinder blocks that kept them contained in the yard for a couple of weeks, but they eventually learned how to escape. Now every time I come home I try to be real quite so that I can sneak in the house without them knowing I am home or I end up with several in the house and me trying to chase them down. Then once they realize I am home they cry at the door, thinking they are being mistreated.

Here is one of them hundled up on the porch (they no longer sleep in the dog house since they have discovered the big dog beds).



Here is one of the girls that was actually bought by a guy from my hometown!

Sept. 15th

Well this morning has been one interesting morning in the Pokorny house . . . our two dogs decided to leave the yard again. Oh, I need to mention that we have had seven puppies born since my last post. Once again, I let the dogs out about 3:00 a.m. and was too tired to wait for them to come back in, so I shut the door and went back to bed. I awoke later to crying puppies because they had not been fed in several hours. I went to get Blou (the momma) and she was gone! John and I spent the next hour or so looking all over the neighborhood. Luckily Blou came home on her own and General was on his way home when I found him.

Labor Day Weekend

John had his first formal interview Friday morning in Midland, so he left Thursday night. He said it would be his luck that something would happen and he would not make it on time if he waited until Friday morning to leave. He ended up not liking the man that interviewed him, so he is not sure that it would be a good fit for him anyways, but they said they will let him know later if he got the job. I just hope that he gets to have options and can pick the job that he thinks he would be the best for him (this job that he just interviewed for would be in Abilene and would be about an hour drive one way for him each day).

I was surprised when I got off work Friday to find him in the parking lot waiting to take me to lunch. I think Thursday night was the first night we have spent apart since we got married, and I was happy to see him home when I got off.

We drove down to San Antonio on Friday and stayed until Sunday and then came back to San Angelo to repack and head to Robert Lee to go hunting. I was so worn out that I decided to just get a different suit case and start over, instead of trying to unpack and repack (Both suit cases are lying in the living room floor in front of me right now).

We headed up to the ranch and John spent the rest of Sunday getting the jeeps ready to go out on Monday. It ended up being another late night, but I did manage to sleep in a little. Monday we (John, me, and his parents) set out to go to the gun range. John and I had been looking forward to shooting our new .40 S & W pistol and as always, I enjoy shooting our over priced 22 rifle. The new pistol ended up being difficult for me to pull the trigger, so it was not my favorite gun to shoot. Lucky for me John didn't care for it either, so we will be looking to trade it for something else.

The rest of the afternoon was spent putting up decoys around a watering hole for the dove hunt later and then riding around the ranch looking for the elk and any other game. It turned out to be toooooo hot to see anything and I would have gladly welcomed a swimming pool by that time. I was left a little burned and drained from the sun.

We went out in the evening for my first dove and and I am proud to say that with my first shot, I took one down. John was next to me and saw it, but I do think he was a little surprised. It was really a lot of fun for me. I kept having flash backs of playing Duck Hunt on Nintendo when I was little, except you really didn't have unlimited shots. All in all it was a very good day and a nice Labor Day weekend.

John did mention that it was his first time hunting with a wife and when
I asked him how it was, he said was kind of weird because he had never done it. It is amazing how we see things differently now. I have been hunting with him for almost four years now, but it is still different to us. Here is a few pictures from this weekend.





Here is one additional photo. John received his diploma in the mail last week and I gave him his frame tonight to frame it. This would be him pretending to kiss it! We are both so proud that he is finished with school for now!

August 19th

I have been thinking about my blog a lot the past week and I know that I have been neglecting it. I still enjoy reading about other peoples’ lives and how their stories are unfolding. It is like reading a good book! I find that sometimes I can not seem to stop and then I am disappointed when I am completely caught up and have to wait for another post. I guess I need to slow down and let God do his work in everyone’s life and quit trying to rush it.

From this I am reminded that right now there are still a lot of things to come for John and me. We have been married for a little over three months now (3 months and 9 days to be exact) and I realize that our lives are simple now. I know that we need to enjoy the time that we have together and the simplicity of our lives as they are right now. Thanks be to the Lord for giving us this time! I know that life will take off for us and we will miss this time.

I guess right now I want to answer a question. What is our marriage?
It’s staying in bed late on Saturdays just to be together. It’s burnt dinner or in my case salty chicken and staying up late to finish a whole season of Friends. It’s the joy that I feel when I have cooked something well and it was not too salty for him. :) It’s running all over town together searching for the perfect item to purchase – in order to get the best deal of course. It’s the car rides on rode trips when we seem to have the most time to talk. It’s holding each other in hard times. It’s taking comfort in knowing he is home when I get there. It’s that kiss hello and the good-bye kiss in the morning. It’s the mornings that I stop him just to get a hug and when he takes the time even though he is running late. It’s the little texts during the day that simply say that he was thinking about me or that he loves me. It’s the ever constant reminder that is on my left hand that reminds me of his love. It’s loving each other despite our flaws. It’s wondering what life is going to be like for us in the future. And it’s us talking about all of our hopes and dreams for the future.

While these are some of our joys, I am reminded that it is not perfect. It’s dealing with the “worse” that the pastor talks about in the wedding ceremony and trying to remember to rejoice in the “better.” And it is trying to be better in handling those “worse” that may come our way. I hope that we learn better how to handle each other in moments of heated debate and continue to trust in the lord to lead us in our newlywed years and in the many more to follow.

I am out of words for now and I am reminded that I have yet to spend anytime with my husband tonight. So I leave you with my thoughts and I am headed to the living room to be with my husband. May the Lord continue to bring you joy and peace!

July 15th

Well today was John's birthday and I think it was a success. John has spent the past four days asking what I got him and I have refused to tell him. He has never been so anxious for his birthday present. He says he was just really curious this year and it was killing him not knowing.

Last evening I left the house to go to my part-time job and while I was there I get this phone call asking me about this big box that was in the back closet! I couldn't believe it but he snooped and found it! He begged so much that he got to open it the night before his birthday . . . he had no idea at the time that there was an even bigger present hidden somewhere I knew he would never look - the laundry room! :)

So today on John's birthday I got up and bake a cake first thing so that it would have time to cool and I could have time to ice and decorate it. I made a half chocolate and half yellow cake and swirled it together in the middle. Then decorated it with red and white icing and the candles that spell out Happy Birthday. It came out really nice! Before I went to meet him for lunch I stopped and bought a birthday balloon and on the way out from eating lunch, for some strange reason, he decided to pop the truck and up flys the balloon. Why he choose to pop the truck I will never know, but he also managed to spoil another surprise.

When he got home I had the cake, ballon, and one more birthday present waiting for him!

One Year Older

The past couple have weeks have been busy for us. We have been traveling out of town every weekend to be at the Gun Shows with John's parents. John has been busy wrapping up his last course of his bachelor's degree! I am so proud of him, he will actually be through and starting to look for a job in his field, which will make him so much happier. I have accepted a job at another accounting firm here and will be starting next week. I have had some time off so I have been looking forward to getting some things done around the house.

I spent most of the day today looking and looking for something special for John's birthday. I even went to multiple stores looking for the perfect card. I really thought that I could find something sweet that talked about the first of many birthday's as a married couple, but no such luck. So I settled for one that just said, "I'm not letting go . . . ever." It was the best that I could find for what I wanted to say. I finally settled on a couple of gifts for John and rushed home to get them wrapped and hidden until his birthday. I plan on baking him a cake and decorating it the morning of his birthday and having his gifts and cake on the table when he gets home. Here's to hoping it all works out - and I don't burn the cake!