Hello everyone,

Just a little note to let you know that some of our engagement pictures have been posted over on Shari and Dane Henson’s blog, www.lifenotlinear.com

Corby and I were so thrilled to have them take our pictures! We had such a fun time exploring Lubbock, finding fun sites to take pictures, being goofy and getting dressed up. I think the results are great! I’ll post a sneak-preview here, but head over to Dane and Shari’s place to see much, much more!

Natalie (I don’t know how to make this picture fit.)

Natalie

Here are a few random pictures! Enjoy!I painted only 1 wall in my apartment RED and now all my friends want me to decorate their apartments.

I saw this way cool VW van and yes its Pink!

For Dane’s Bachelor party we went to a tracker pull racing contest. It was way loud but way cool. All of Dane’s California friends think we (Texans) are crazy!

Dane and Shari are now Married!

Dane had the coolest cake ever. Its TUX.

My good friend from Fort Davis got married this summer as well. I am now related to him in a crazy way because he married my brothers wife’s cousin.

Last but not least, I like to read to Rohan! He is my nefew and he is cool. We are going to take him to Sea World for his first major outing.

CORBY

Can I please just hit fast-forward?

Natalie

Ahem, a story from the oh-so-exciting world of Hobby Lobby.

I have been working at Hobby Lobby for one year. Woo-hoo? I don’t get a raise or a pat on the back or anything, but I guess it’s some small accomplishment.  So, to celebrate my one year work-i-versary, I’ll tell you all (all four of you who read this blog) what happens when you combine a too-outspoken cashier (me) with a grumpy customer.

I am working the returns register, which processes refunds and exchanges, as well as normal purchases.  The returns register is always the slowest line to get in at Hobby Lobby; I advise you to avoid it. Anyway, Grumpy Customer has been in the store for a good, long while, and she has managed to accumulate a card-load full of crap. The store is not busy.  There are about 4 registers open, and no register has more than two people waiting in line.  Grumpy jumps from line to line, costing herself much more time than if she had just picked a line and stayed there.  Three lines later, she ends up in my line, where she waits impatiently.

Now, Grumpy doesn’t act like any normal person, placing her items on the counter so I can ring them up or starting to fill out her check.  No, she holds every item up for my inspection, saying, “Look, there’s a scratch on this corner. Can I get a discount?”  or “The paper is peeling off the back of this frame.  Can I get a discount?”  This goes on for about five minutes.  She doesn’t get the discounts she wants, so she gets very upset.  Remember now, she has stood in four lines, by her own choice.  The store is slow.  So slow, in fact, that some employees have been sent to other departments because there is nothing to do at the front end of the store.

Grumpy:  “I waited in line for 20 minutes! This is ridiculous! Why do you only have four registers open? Why can’t I get a discount? Why? Why? Why?!”
Me: “Your total is $54.25.” (or whatever it was)
Grumpy: “Are you not going to answer my questions?! I hate this store! Your customer service is terrible.  Why do you have so few lines open? WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR YOU TO CALL MORE CASHIERS?!”
Me:  “Well, ma’am, to call more cashiers, the store HAS TO BE BUSY! You have a NICE DAY!”

Oops.

In other news, I am going to Sea World on Saturday.  I love Sea World.  Passionately.  I mean, I’m super excited to see my fiance and my future family… But I GET TO GO TO SEA WORLD. I like Sea World more than Barnes & Noble.  I like Sea World more than Mahon Library.  I like Sea World more than my comfy bed on a Saturday morning.  I like Sea World more than T.J. Maxx.  So, the next time I blog, I will have touched a dolphin, been splashed by Shamu, watched a baby Beluga swim, rode the Steel Eel coaster, eaten overpriced theme park food, said “hi” to the Budweiser clydesdales and Natalie the donkey, splashed down some water slides, and probably have bought a stuffed animal.  BEAT THAT!

Okay, so I can’t NOT blog, and no one reads my other blog (Plus, it just looks lame. This one is much nicer.) So, I guess I’m back.

I’m going to try to add some friends’ blogs to the blogroll list… friends such as Meagan Daw…. no! SMITH! The amazing Kristin Thomas, the odd, but endearing Kyle Gregory, and the lovely lady, Kim Gassiot. Of course, there is a definite chance that I will do it wrong and Corby will have to fix it.

In other news, I have an addiction I feel compelled to confess. I’ve tried to deal with it privately for a long time, but after multiple failures, I now know that I need public accountability from all of you wonderful people. I am undeniably, unabashedly, unashamedly…

an ABBAholic! (God, grant me the knowledge to know which fashions were really bad, the discernment to see which ones were secretly good, and the wisdom to know the difference.)

I’m serious. I own the four-CD, collector’s edition ABBA Gold collection. With the companion picture album and information book. I know all the lyrics. I have several of the songs in French, Spanish, German and Swedish. I’m seriously considering dressing up as Agnetha (the blonde one) for Halloween. I saw Mamma Mia yesterday, and while the movie was entertaining, the ABBA purist in me was not happy with the changed lyrics. Or the lame story.

Well, now that you know my dark secret, hold me accountable, dear friends. If I burst into song in public, be it “Dancing Queen” or “Super Trouper,” don’t let me suffer and sing alone! Join in the humiliation! And then call a cab, I’ll be in no state to drive myself home.

Natalie

Hello All,

So in March I went to Lubbock with a specific purpose, I asked Gary McCoy or Natalie’s Dad for permission to marry his daughter. So as you know this caused me to have to talk to him one on one or mano y mano. At one point in the conversation, which I thought was going well, he said “Unfortunitally I cannot answer your questions right now”. With his use of constant double negatives I thought I was done for. Then he simply said that it would be good to have both him and Sally McCoy in the room. After a big sigh of relief and about an hour later it was official that I could now as Natalie to Marry me!

So little to Natalie’s knowledge I have been planning to ask her since January of 2008. I must tell you that finding the ring is by far the hardest and easiest part. Once you find the right ring you know its the right one but man it can take a while to find it.

For those of you that were not there, here is a little story about how I actually asked her. It began with a lot of planning and organization on my part. I wanted her parents to be there so they could witness this awesome moment but if I invited them somewhere it might be obvious what I was doing. So I decided to ask her on the 4th of July at my great home town of Fort Davis, TX. Thanks to everyone’s help we were able to confuse Natalie to no end but I think she still suspected something even though I had been telling her for months that I would not ask her until she was done with school. We are planning to get married some time in the spring of next year so keep an eye out here for more details. Until then I will let the pictures do the talking!

I actually had Rohan ask initially for me so he was responsible for keeping track of the ring. He is wearing a shirt that says “Natalie will you marry my Uncle Party?” It was awesome!

I soo thought Rohan was going to drop the ring.

This is when it all went down, July 4th, 2008 6:05 PM

This is when I pointed out that her parents and Dane and Shari were there!

This is the most awesome ring you will EVER see…

We are chuck people! Thank you Rara and Doc!

My sister is an awesome graphics designer and she made this way cool banner for the party!

My brother gave a speech and Natalie laughed at him.

Awww the family!

This is a great picture but this is all you will ever get to see! lol.

Our GREAT friends Dane and Shari. Thanks for taking such great pictures!

Our Great new friends Jett and Kelly. I work with Jett in Austin and we have great hang out times. I am pretty sure they had a BLAST in Fort Davis!

This is a shot of us at my parents property in the Resort! Its a great please to hang out and be peaceful.

I am so excited to spend the rest of my life with Natalie and I want to Thank everyone that made this 4th of July memorable and we wish you all a great summer!

Love to all!

CORBY and NATALIE

I blog about my life, good and bad. If that bothers you, just don’t read my posts.

Life doesn’t edit itself.

After this wedding, we’ll work through all this shit.

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged anything. Life is plodding on, day by day. I’ve had some very happy times and some not so happy times lately, which I guess is the way life is.

I love my job. I love almost everything about it. Almost all of the people I work with are amazing, and even the few that aren’t are at least bearable. I love the diversity of the people who work there. We have college kids working part time, single moms supporting their families, college grads, highschool kids, people who have made their career working at Hobby Lobby and people who are just there for a while. The girls who I work with during the day are some of the sweetest girls I know, and the stock guys are some of the most respectful guys. I enjoy getting to interact with the people I check out. I constantly strive to have a good attitude at work and remember that it doesn’t take much effort just to give someone a smile. The moms with little kids are my favorite. Some of the cutest kiddos come through! I like getting the experience of dealing with people in all kinds of situations. Even though it’s just a cashiering job, I know I’m learning things that will benefit me long after I have parted ways with Hob-Lob. I’m working quite a few hours this summer, trying to bank some money. Usually around 35 hours each week. Not quite full time, but close. The paychecks are certainly better in the summer than they are during the school year!

I love my family. My sister and I are growing a lot closer, slowly. We’re not bestest buddies or anything yet, but we have quite a few pleasant times together. We have more common interests now than we did when we were younger, more common ground. I spend a lot of time at my parents’ house, even though I don’t live there anymore. We have a lot of movie nights, and we’ve seen some great films and some stinkers this summer.

I’m not going to lie; I certainly do not like my current living situation. This isn’t the place to go into any details, though. My attitude right now is just to deal with it, and I’m always trying to keep the fact that it’s only for nine or ten more months at the front of my mind. Sometimes, though, nine or ten months seems like an extremely long time. I love Archer, though, so he makes it worth it to live here, since I couldn’t really have him anywhere else.

Friends are probably the area that I’m struggling with the most right now. All of my good friends are either graduating and moving away or getting married and moving away. I’m at work all the time, so I don’t really have a good avenue for making new friends. And normally, when I get home from work, I’m so tired that I just want to sit in bed and read for a while before I go to sleep. I’d say that 90% of the time, I’m not lonely. But, man, that other 10% is killer. I’ve always been a bit of a loner, which is fine most of the time. Sometimes, I do wish I had people to hang out with.

I’m ready to be married and live somewhere else for a while. I’m excited about planning a wedding, sure, but I’m more excited about living the life that comes after all the wedding stuff has passed.

Well, that’s a bit about my life currently. Perhaps a bit melancholy… I apologize.

I did not have to put Judah to sleep! It’s a long story… Basically, I ended up at the vet’s office at the exact same time as some of the staff from the Haven (the no-kill shelter where I adopted Archer). They were able to convince the owner to take Judah. He’ll have a place to live out his life with other leukemia-positive cats, where he’ll be well cared for and very happy!

Hooray!

I’m taking Judah to be put to sleep tomorrow afternoon.

It’s the worst outcome possible for this situation, but it’s the only option I have left. He has feline leukemia, which is not treatable, as well as two types of ringworm. The leukemia can be passed to other cats, so Corby can’t take him like we’d planed. The ringworm can be passed to other animals and humans, so even though it’s treatable, it’s a turn-off. The vet said there’s no way to know what stage of the disease he’s in… he could have ten happy years left to live or he could have a couple of months. I’ve called every no-kill shelter and fostering program in a 100-mile radius, and they’re all full. If I take him to the Lubbock animal shelter, they’ll kill him. There are documented cases of them euthanizing animals within a few hours of receiving them. If Judah has to be put down, I don’t want it to be in a scary, unfamiliar environment. I’d rather it happened in a calm, quiet place with someone who loves him.

I cried when the vet brought in the results of the blood test. I cried when I was calling all the shelters. I’ve cried myself to sleep the past few nights. I cried on the phone when I was talking to the vet. I cried when I told my mom what I’d decided. I cried when I fed him and cleaned the litter box tonight.

I envy him, almost. He has no idea that in less than 24 hours, he’ll be dead. He’s eating, playing, sleeping and pooping just like normal, while I’m agonizing in sorrow. It’s hard to think that this time is the last time for everything. The last time I’ll clean out the stinky litter box while trying to keep him from playing with the scooper. The last time I’ll see him following the food bag around, jumping on the chair and table trying to get the food. The last time I’ll see his paw sticking out from under the bedroom door, begging for attention. After tomorrow, I’ll never see him chase imaginary bugs or pounce on shadows and strings. He’ll never again curl up on the armrest of the recliner while I’m eating lunch. He’ll never scare Zappa again or hiss at Alex. I’ll no longer have little red scratch-marks on my hands. He’ll never again butt his head against my shoulder or almost trip me by running through my legs. There won’t be anymore cuddly afternoon naps or playing games with catnip and a piece of rope.

It’s really twisted that you have to set up an appointment and pay someone to kill your pet. But at the same time, I know it’s the best thing I can do, even though it’s the shittiest thing, too. The vet said he’s probably about 6-months old. He hasn’t been alive long enough to even see all four seasons. The only light in this awful situation is that I was able to give him a last month where he’s been well-loved, well-fed and happy. Tomorrow is going to be a terrible day.