Ruby

So, I always have all these plans of laying things out in a nice neat organized way. In any of my journals, I always give a quick history of myself and whats been going on in life in the beginning of it, what if someone later in life goes to read them, picks up my 3rd journal before my first? This way it's ok to read out of order. But anyways, when I started this blog I kind of wanted to do the same thing, go through each month of our marriage from the beginning, but I'm over it. Time to pick up with now and get started or I will miss out on the now. Life is coming at us fast. We love it, but I don't want to miss it as it's passing us by. So time to dig in. I guess one thing in particular that has made life speed by is our fun dog Ruby. Ruby is a Vizsla, known for their energetic temperament, she keeps things fun. We got her just 3 days after moving in to our brand NEW home. Yes, I am a wonderful wife to let a puppy do it's training on my, i mean ours ;) brand NEW carpet. I must say I am glad we are mostly out of the accidents in the house faze. Since we got her, she has only gone #2 in the house twice and the other, um... let's just say enough. :) But, I am happy to report she now very rarely has accidents in the house and typically just prances by the back door when she needs to go out. Unfortunately she doesn't like staying out. She always wants to be right by our sides and gets worried about missing out otherwise. Some fun things we have gone through with Ruby thus far...

Going to the potty in her crate, and us coming home to it and having to clean it. (sometimes twice a day)

Probably TMI..but her eating her feces. Finally grown out of after feeding her pineapple juice. The Vet prescribed meds didn't work, but the pineapple juice did. Thank goodness!

Deemodex mange. All dogs have the deemodex mite, her immune system just wasn't strong enough to keep hers at bay, so two medicated shampooed baths later, I'm happy to report it's gone. :)

I said fun things, right?

Well, she is fun to cuddle with on the couch, and play fetch with. She knew how to fetch at 8 weeks. She is fun to watch run and play. She really likes bubbles. It's funny to watch her jump up and try to attack them. She loves playing with Boomer, Rocky's parents dog. And she loves both sets of our parents. Which I am thankful for. Rocky's parents have been gracious enough to "babysit" her a time or two, or three or four. ;) And my parents have become the day sitters. Because I work, she is crated in the day and I let her out a lunch. But sometimes I want to go out to lunch, so not enough time to let her out and go to lunch, so my parents often come over and do that for me. All in all she has been a fun part of our lives. I can say if it were just my choice in the beginning, we probably wouldn't have a Dog, but through my Sweet Husband's coaxing, I did give in. And now can't imagine life with out her!

New Things in Life: The House

Rocky will probably be shocked to know I am even blogging. I have a confession to make. I love stalking all of your blogs, and sometimes do it for hours, but when it comes to blogging myself... not so good at it! But, I'm determined, (for today anyways) to be better. Not so much for your sakes, but for mine, because, as Rocky posted last, there are so many new and exciting things in our life! And, I will delve into that now, beginning with the house.

Ok, for the last ten minutes, I have rewritten this paragraph about 6 times. Trying to think, where did it all begin, or what should I start with, and thats just too much work! I'll just share the many ideas that rambled through our heads beginning shortly after we got married, leading up to the home we live in now.

Option A: Purchase some family land from Rocky's parents(his parents and much of his extended family live in Boerne on 300 acres) and buy a trailer, live in that and lot's and lot's of money and eventually build out there. --This didn't work out because we found that many of the trailers we liked were just almost just as expensive as some homes, so, why not just build the home? Which brings us to...

Option B: Purchase some family land next to Rocky's parents (his parents, and much of his extended family live in Boerne on 300 acres) and build a Tilson home. The floor plan was actually "The Marion". We traveled to Bryan, Tx and actually walked thru and video taped it and talked with the people at Tilson several times. If anyone knows my Husband, you know he does not make any decision with out hours and hours of very thorough research and thought. -- This didn't work because knowing we were building on family land, whatever home we built would be permanent, and both being first time home buyers, we weren't sure the things we were going to like in a home vs. not, or even how big our family will be and also, could we get/ afford a home that we could grow comfortably in for the rest of our lives? So then Rocky got in his head what about a garage apartment? Which brings us to...

Option C: family land...build a garage apartment as cheaply as we could. We were going to model it after our own apartment, live in it for 5 years, or so, basically see how cheap we could build it and have it paid off. By then, we would know more of what we actually wanted in a home after we "lived a little" and could build it and also have this great garage apt that if need be our parents could live in, or some one could rent out eventually. We actually loved this idea. Probably the most. Rocky did some research and we got it priced and then went back to option B and decided who cares, build the Tilson, and we would be just fine in it forever. And then, a NORMAL thought came into our head, what if we just bought a home? Which brings us to...

Option D: Buying a home!!! I have great connections with an awesome Realtor... actually my sister! If you ever need one, let me know and I can give you her info. She's great! Anyways, we looked at 3 or 4 houses and we actually found one! It was older, and honestly needed some work, but the idea appealed to Rocky to renovate it, and we eventually convinced ourselves that it would be romantic to be painting at midnight and building this house back up together. So we put a contract on it. And thankfully, due to some roof damage complications, it fell through. We were a little sad, because that meant back to the drawing board, but my sister said she would go back through and pull houses again for us and by some miracle, a home came up in this cute little neighborhood in Boerne. Which brings us to our final choice and decision.

This is the home we looked at buying.

In the Realtors MLS system, typically, never do you find a listing for a home that's not been built or that is being sold by a builder, but our miracle is that ours was. It was an experiment actually by KB, they were in the process of building several spec homes, in which they had a team put together several different homes with finishes they thought would sell the best and fit those homes the best. Which normally the buyers go and choose all of there own finishes. So, we quickly walked through the model and hurried and put a contract on the house, not knowing any of the finishes. Well...it just so happens that every last finish, down to the door knobs are what we would have chosen. And we now are living the American dream in this darling house in Boerne!

Rocky and I say it all the time, but we know we are so blessed. We are thankful for these blessings and that we have the opportunity to have a roof over our heads. We know there are many less fortuate than us and that we need to keep trying everyday to be worthy of these blessings the Lord gives us. Well, I know that was long and drawn out, but that was more for me to remember the journey we went through to buy our home then for you. :)

New Things in Life

It is 10:02 p.m. and I have to go to bed. I feel the need to write something here. Life has definitely changed for us recently. For a recap of the last 7 months for Rebecca and I:

Got Married, went on a honeymoon, Rebecca changed jobs, we lived in an apartment, went house shopping, decided a house wasn't in the cards for us yet, Rocky survived 2 rounds of layoffs, changed positions in his job, we went house shopping, bought a house, Moved from apartment to house, sold my truck (see previous entry), bought an SUV, bought Rebecca a car w/ air conditioning, bought a puppy.

My Dad summarized it like this, "you got married, sold your truck, bought a house, bought a minivan(referring to the 3rd row seat SUV), and bought a puppy. Looks like you are falling right in line and the only thing left is to have babies."

He basically hit the highlights.

We could write volumes about any of these topics, and I am sure we will be hitting some of these soon(particularly the house, cars, and Ruby our puppy).

Rebecca and I talk everyday about how blessed we are. We don't understand how our lives can be so good. Why do we have everything we want? Certainly there are lots of more deserving people out there. We try to live the gospel to the best of our ability and we see the hand of the Lord blessing us everyday. We are trying to be worthy of the blessings we receive, but how do you repay a blessing. We are truly unprofitable servants. We can attribute every good thing in our lives to the Lord blessing us for our clean and honest living.

Why I hate Toyota-by the other RW

As one of the RW's in 2RW I feel it is my duty to influence as many people as i can through this blog. Particularly in tonights topic. I feel that i am the minority that has bought a lemon, but this happened to me and i am still upset about it.

The Beginning.....
2 years ago I graduated college and got a great job. To reward myself i bought my dream truck. A 2006 Toyota Tundra, 4x4 TRD off road package. 300 horsepower V8, 5 speed transmission, 4 door in charcoal grey. As if that wasn't sweet enough I added the TRD exhaust and a Ranch Hand grille guard. I bought it used with 55,000 miles on it. "Barely broken in" says everyone. This truck should last you for at least 300,000 miles w/out skipping a beat. I paid top dollar for it because it was exactly what i wanted down to the seat color.



I drove it to work and got tons of compliments. In my line of work there is an image to maintain and this truck was fulfilling its intended purpose.

6,000 miles after i bought it the check engine light comes on and i think nothing of it. I know it is under warranty till 1000,000 miles so i take it in to Toyota of Boerne to get it checked out. First they give me the run around about how i bought it at cavender toyota in San Antonio and should get it warranted there. I remind them that the "used certified" warranty doesn't stipulate that i have to take it there and that one of the selling points was that you could get it serviced anywhere. Long story short, they take it in and tell me that the engine has to be replaced. Thats right, not repaired, not rebuilt, replaced. I THOUGHT THIS WAS A TOYOTA!!!! THE 4.6 L V-8 IS SUPPOSED TO BE A TANK!!! They then proceed to put the blame on me, saying that i didn't change the oil and that is what made the back piston break. I did change the oil, but did the work myself and had no proof. If i couldn't prove it i would have to pay the $8,000 to fix it. After stewing over how i am going to pay for this for a few nights, miraculously i wake from a deep nights sleep to the realization that i can prove i changed the oil. When i got the truck it was serviced by Toyota, meaning that they installed a Toyota oil filter. I got my supplies from Wal-Mart where i installed a Fram oil filter. After informing them of this, they replaced the engine with a brand new engine. P.S. This process took a whole month. As they are fixing my truck they decide to replace the timing belt and radiator and charge me for it b/c it isn't under warranty, for whatever reason.

Now i am thinking it is a smooth sail from here. i have my dream truck with a brand new engine. my mind thinks 360,000 miles w/out breaking a sweat.

2 months ago the fan belt started squeaking and i took it in again. they repaired it w/out questions.

3 weeks ago there was a loud rattling coming from the engine compartment. Long story short i was left stranded on the side of the road because the linkage between the torque converter and the transmission broke. Really!!!! could this possibly be the company that everyone believes is so great and will last forever. To top it off. I just surpassed the 100,000 mile mark where the warranty is over. In the end it is warrantied because it is so close to 100,000 miles and i had been in so often.

If you are counting (I am), that is 3 times in the shop in 2 years for over $12,000 worth of work. Luck for me i had the warranty.

I now am left with a terrible decision to either keep my truck or sell it and get something else. what else though? anything else would be a downgrade.



If you have read this far you are obviously bored and influencable. let me take one more moment to influence you out of buying a toyota. Unless you want to buy one from me. i have one for sale. it is basically brand new!

~Rocky

February 2010 "Love Notes"

(Some of the first cookies I not only made when were married, but EVER for Rocky!)
The month of February. Rocky and I have offically been married a month, and we are loving it! We have settled into mariage and a cute little routine of how things go. Go to work, come home, cook dinner, Rocky comes home, pray, eat, and enjoy the rest of the evening with each other. Some times that means watching American Idol and Intervention together, going for walks, talking about life, and the list goes on. I truly LOVE spending my evenings with Rocky. He really is the best Husband a girl could ask for and the Man of my dreams. I still sometimes pinch myself at how lucky I am to have him, and this is fast forward to April! But anyways, we have established a very fun routine. We want our days to hurry up and our evenings to slow down, our weeks to fly by and our weekends to never end. And we go round and round. I know,this is probably very boring to read, but I need to document these wonderful times and feelings I am having during this early time in our Marriage, where I can one day look back and be able to reflect on it. Ok, so part of this documentation is writing down the "Loves Notes" I find through out the apartment in the mornings. It's not every morning, but a good two out of three in the week, I open the pantry with a note that says, and I quote, this mornings..."I JUST LOVE YOU!" Signed, " HUBBY.". Or I open my scriptures one day last week to, "Enjoy the Scriptures. You are doing a great job. I love you to pieces. RW". And some of the other notes that I have found inside the fridge, on the front door, on the tv, throughout the house, include "Good Morning Sweetest Heart. I will be thinking about you today. I love you!", "Rebecca, I am so lucky to have you. Thankyou for all you do. I (insert heart) you.", "Thankyou for taking out the laundry. I love you. RW", "I am sad you aren't feeling well. I hope you feel better. See you soon. (Heart) RW", and "I love you. Thankyou for cleaning up. It looks great. RW" I'SNT HE THE SWEETEST BOY EVER?!? I know. I am sooooooo blessed to have him. And I just get giddy a little bit, thinking not only for this life, but for Eternity!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so I kind of got side tracked on our love notes and my brag session, and I would say it's over, but now I have to go back to February and brag about Valentines day. For Valentine's Day, Rocky blindfolded me and took me to the cabin on his parents land, when I removed the blind fold, we were there, and he had a cute little table with a single red rose, a red and white checkered table cloth and dinner set up in front of a beautiful fire he had started. Once again, He went another day making me feel like the most special girl in the world. It was great. He gave me a typed little set of "journal entries" of some thoughts about me, and cute stories and happenings of our life. I gave him a sweet card, and the Book of Mormon on tape for his dreaded mornings and afternoons of traffic. We had a great Valentines day.

Well folks, that is the happenings of February with a little mixture of the happenings of now, i.e. some of the love notes, and the bursting love I still have for him!

January 2010

So, Because I have been so terrible about writing in my journal since we've been married and since so much has happened, I want to take the time to back track a little. Thankfully it's only 4 months!

On January 2, 2010 Rocky and I were married in the San Antonio Texas Temple. We were blessed and thankful enough to have both sides of our family come in town to celebrate our wedding with us. The week before the wedding included visits with family, last minute pick ups, a table cloth fiasco (saved by two of my amazing sisters), an impromptu job switch by me, Hives covering my entire body, 2 Dr visits and steroid treatment, decorating of the reception hall and rehearsal dinner place, Once again by amazing family members on both sides, a bachlorette party involving the kissing of a hunky Edward, and bachelor party involving guns and steaks, late night dominoes and karaoke and much much more.


After the Wedding, and the first day in our cute apartment together opening all our gifts, we sailed away on a cruise ship to Mexico, the Mayan ruins in Progresso and snorkeling in Cozumel. A funny story about our honeymoon. We met our "cabin neighbor on our balcony off our room. We couldn't see her, as there we tall walls, but after expressing to her that we were newlyweds, she said, "Well, then if I hear the walls a bumpin, I know y'all are havin a good time!"

Some cruise highlights include a day in Progresso. We took a bus ride to Uxmal and saw some Mayan Ruins and ate at a little mexican restaurant in the visitors center and ordered mexican cokes. We dreamed about quitting our jobs and abandoning our "normal life", selling all of our stuff and traveling the world together. And then we had a day in Cozumel. We took a catamaran to a private beach where we rode horses, layed in a hammock, and had as many soft drinks as we wanted on the house. On the way to the beach we stopped by a corral reef and did some snorkeling as well. Before boarding the ship we toasted with virgin daiquiris and pina colladas. Oh! Just writing this makes me want to do that all again! We had lots and lots of fun!


After arriving home, I started a new job. The whole way it happened still seems a little crazy today to me. I had been working at a child care center for the last year and a half. I enjoyed it, but was starting to feel my time was done and like I wanted something new. I had somewhat decided, that after the wedding and we had settled in that I would begin job searching. I wanted something completely different, more of an office setting, but, I still had my stipulations that it be in Boerne, at least equal the pay I had, and normal work hours with weekends off. Lo and Behold, the Monday before my wedding, I received a call from a sister in my Ward saying she had a friend on facebook who was offering a job, and if I was interested, here was the info. Funny enough, I had mentioned to this lady one time that I was sort of ready for something new and she remembered. So, I called up this girl on Tuesday, had an interview on Thursday,an offer an hour later, and bam! A new job! Switching jobs was little intimidating to me at first, to go from little kids, and coloring, and playgrounds, to office desks, emails and spreadsheets. Oh, and did I mention, adults? But, I took it all in stride, and felt it was exactly what the Lord wanted for me and am now very settled in.

So, that was the month of January! What a huge month it was, from last minute wedding plans, to being sealed for time and all eternity and receiving those choice blessings, to honeymooning, and switching jobs. Big month. Big fun.

The Name

The name of our blog is "The 2RW". It is also the name of our future Ranch and Steak House, and store, and whatever else our little hearts desire. We came up with it because we both share the same intials and and there are 2 of us. I know, so exciting and clever!

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! I decided I should join in the blogging world again, mostly for myself and to document all the wonderful things going on in my life, (since I am majorly slacking in the journal writing department) but I also thought it would be a good way to keep in touch with our family and friends. I can't promise that I will post that often, but I can hope!

So, First off, let me tell you a little bit about ourselves...

My Husband Rocky, works for a Commercial Builder in San Antonio and he loves ALL things outdoors, fishing, hunting, long walks, exploring the wilderness, and so forth.

I'm Rebecca, and I work at the corporate office for a chain of retail stores in airports across the U.S. and I love ALL things indoors! Reading, cooking, baking,(those two, only on occasion) watching t.v., surfing the internet, etc and I am slowing beginning to learn to love the outdoors as well. :)

I hope you all enjoy and from time to time will leave a comment where we can all keep in touch!