An update in Life in general

I always think of writing here, but I’ve just never formed a connection with this place the way I did with Open Diary. I read some friends in a non-noting, psycho kind of way because I am interested in what they are up to, but that never leads to sharing anything. But today, I’ve decided to give it a go.
It’s been almost a year now since Emmett & I got married. As expected, this year has been full of ups and downs. Only once or twice did I wonder what the hell I’d gotten myself into but luckily things have settled down. We just needed to communicate and get back on the same page.
We moved into a condo in Jarrell in April, and so far we’ve really loved it. Jarrell is a small town, 25 miles or so outside of Austin. It’s the perfect location for us, he works pretty close to Austin, and I work in the opposite direction in Temple. Jarrell is almost exactly halfway in between the two. I like our place, I like our neighborhood and most of our neighbors. I like the development across the street from ours because it’s perfect for walking Penny Lane, which I’ve started doing pretty much every night. I’m still doing kickboxing every Tuesday and it makes my body happy and my mind too actually. I’ve taken up some running and actually completed my first 5K, the blacklight run, in June. Last month, I also discovered the bliss that is hot yoga. My friend Amparo got free passes to a gym in Temple that offers a pretty wide variety of classes, so we tried hot yoga, barre, spin, their kickboxing & their boot camp. My favorites were hot yoga (took that class 4 times over the course of a week) and barre (I am still trying to convince Emmett to build me a barre so I can put it in one of our spare bedrooms. Ugh. Amazing!). The only class I wasn’t fond of was spin, only because I am pretty short and the seat hurt my butt & lady parts. Not fun. We’re still trying to find another hot yoga class that we can take - the gym that we had passes to is really expensive and they don’t offer the option of individual classes. I miss it not just for the exercise but also for the mental calm it provided. It’s so nice to be able to get away from the stresses of work, marriage, life in general. Even if it’s just for an hour. The escape is something I find myself searching for and not finding in other areas.
I was promoted at work in January, not sure if I wrote about that. It’s a good thing, and a bad thing if I’m honest. I find myself working even more overtime than before, and the position I was promoted to has all but been eliminated. So now they just pile things on me as the need arises, and that has left me with about 10 distinct functions with any one of them ready to explode at any given time. At least it’s a job I guess. I was well into the interview process with another company a few months ago, but they wouldn’t hire me because I have to be out of town in Ohio for weddings in September and October, and it would interfere with my training schedule with them. Once these weddings are over though, I can re-apply because they have training classes starting every few months and the best part is I don’t have to start at the beginning of the hiring process. I’ll just pick up where it was left off. So we’ll see. Right around that same time I should find out what is happening with my position here and what raise I can expect and that may dictate the direction I take.
Probably the best thing about the last few months is that my sister and her 2 girls have moved to Texas from Alabama. In fact, they are living where Emmett & I were before, so only about 30 minutes away. And that folks, makes for good times. This place just wasn’t ready for the awesomeness that occurs when my sister and I are together.
I think that’s all. I really want to try to write here more often. Life just so often gets in the way of all of my good intentions.