Our Equation: Us = Silly!

On a Saturday night, making some coffee and about to watch "The A-Team" together :)

How Dare I

I woke up this morning having a wonderful realization about my attitude lately. It relates to my deep desire to become a mom.

When I hear about someone who complains about how miserable their life is while not doing anything to change their reality, it frustrates me. Why would you have any right to complain if you're not making any valid efforts to get out of said situation?

So this morning I wake up thinking, "You know you've been needing to get things done". Things related to my possibly needing surgery to figure out why I have not had my period for so long. Yet every once in a while I tell Sam things like, "'..'cause you know, I probably can't have a baby.." and "nothing has changed... I'm probably barren.." What is Sam supposed to say to that?

How dare I not accept God's perfect plan and will. I'm not sure if I'll be able to have kids, but there is a way for us to find out and that's by having the exploratory surgery. Yet I have not done anything to keep the process moving forward. How dare I complain about my life. Somehow I feel that God has planned for us to be parents one way or another. Maybe we will need to adopt. And that would be PERFECT because it would be His divine plan.

Regardless of what happens.. everything that happens in our lives is according to His plan, and if I truly trusted in Him I would not complain. He tells us to leave all anxiety behind and trust in Him, above all.

This is my plan now.

Conroe No. 4 Grand Opening! and... Architect Barbie?!

So I was happily on my way to start writing up a new entry about how great the grand opening of my second fire station was, and I saw a fellow architect's blog mentioning an Architect Barbie. In an apparent effort to teach little girls about what they can be when they grow up, Mattel has begun an "I can be.." Barbie series and this is what Architect Barbie looks like:

First of all, KUDDOS on the great hot pink tube, Mattel! Can't wait to go to my next jobsite visit toting this puppy around. And look at that skirt! If I dress like that I'm sure I'll get Mr. Contractor to do anything I want. Oh what a happy and pretty and pink life, that of a lady Architect!

Anyway, back to business. Today was the grand opening of the City of Conroe Fire Station No. 4; this was my first full-fledged project which I saw from Programming all the way to Construction. It was so exciting! Kind of strange to see rooms and equipment you spent months designing and drawing be "real" all of a sudden. The station has some nice features and the Client couldn't be happier with their new building. That made me feel really good :) This year marks a centennial celebration for the fire department so they went all out for this grand opening:

two nice cakes (this one was based off our SketchUp rendering)...

colorful balloons...

... and even one of the original fire trucks for the City! Which was later used, along with a new fire truck, to do the ribbon-cutting. Pretty cool :)

The best part was seeing the fire station inside and out, seeing how the firefighters decorated the place and how proud they are to show it off. I absolutely love working on a design, getting to see it turn into reality and learn from the process so I can improve on the next design. It was a good day :)

The day room (very nicely decorated!):

One of the main corridors, which features stained concrete floors:

The tower:

The apparatus bay:

From the parking area (it was a cloudy day but thankfully it didn't rain):

Yay Conroe! :) For more photos of the station taken by a professional photographer, go here: http://www.glyonphotography.com/CONROEFD/

Made by me!

I started off the new year wanting to make things again. When I was a teenager, I remember making a lot of things that I needed because I couldn't afford to actually buy anything new: a box for filing paperwork, a set of small drawers for desk tools, etc. I only needed a cardboard box, glue, scissors, and a little creativity.

I've done it again! :)

Since I'm not the best at going through mail and/or getting rid of little pieces of paper here and there, I decided we needed a mail box in our kitchen. Sooo I started thinking:

Cardboard box: Check...

Glue: Check...

Scissors: Check...

But what would I use for the outer lining of this box? I suddenly remembered that a few months ago I snatched a discarded binder full of laminate samples from the office, and sooo the process began!

Outer lining: laminate samples

Inner lining: plastic dividers from an old planner

Front tag: leftover basswood

It works! No more paper clutter on our counters!

Excited

YAY!!! :)

Rooting for the Other

Hang on to your seats. It's a double-feature night!

Natalie Portman's in a new movie titled, "The Other Woman". The trailer depicts her character as a sweet ingenue who falls for and sleeps with a married guy. Awwww look at that! In the blink of an eye she gets the guy divorced, gets pregnant and married!! And double-aww! She works soooo hard to earn his son's affection. Life's awesome!

Wow. I think I have an issue with that. Then again it's Hollywood. *shrug*

American Idol Greats

Random alert.........

I was just going through an entertainment website's "Top American Idol performances", and out of 20 these were the ones that I had to look up to watch, just because they're so memorable:

- Allison Iraheta's "Cry Baby" (Exit performance)

Yes, she botched a note or two on this one; this was, however, her exit performance and she was literally singing through tears. Her passion on every word, every syllable is palpable. If only she would've sang this way the night before:

- Kris Allen's "Heartless"

This guy was in trouble before this performance; the judges hammered on the idea of a Danny Gokey/Adam Lambert showdown, but no amount of persuasion was able to take him out of the competition (or the AI victory, ultimately). The arrangement was fearless and so much more attractive than the original. Above all, it just takes guts to rearrange and perform a song that had been sung not long before on the same stage, by Kanye:

Kris Allen - Heartless (American Idol 8) [HQ] en Yahoo! Video

- Kelly Clarkson's "Stuff like That There"

It's amazing to me that this girl was a nobody when she sang this; to this day she's my favorite AI winner not only because of her talent, but her charisma as well. This was Big Band week and let's face it: there have been very very few performers on this show who have been able to pull it off on similarly-themed weeks. Kelly not only pulled it off, she freakin' nailed it: