One of those days!

I am so glad that today is my last work day of the week!!  It has truly been one of those days where you want to scream, cry, pull out your hair, and punch someone in the face!  I have had no conference time whatsoever, the time I could of had my room was being used for a party, I didn't get a lunch, and I have not had a moment without students to get anything done or just a moment to breathe.  Such a crappy Hump Day.  Ok, done venting!  We have a Dynamo game tomorrow night and leave for Chicago Friday...I cannot wait!

Weekend Love

We had a wonderful weekend!  Friday we just relaxed at home, which was so nice.  Saturday we had a date, and, as usual, it pretty much revolved around food.  Dinner was at Chicken Kitchen and was ridiculously good, and actually healthy!  From there we decided to try something new for dessert...Epicure Bakery.  It was this awesome European place, and the dessert was incredible.

I had the strawberry role.

Nick had the Vienna chocolate cake.

They also had some cookies that looked crazy good, so we got some to take home and try later.  Also, the big thing we had to get because we got them the whole time we were in Italy.  I have no idea what it is, but it is amazing!

Afterward, we went to Barnes and Noble, got Starbucks, and looked at travel books.  It was such a great way to spend our Saturday.  We planned vacations that are in the far future, but it was fun nonetheless.

Sunday was our family day!  My dad's birthday is today so we celebrated yesterday at my brother's house.  We all just hung out outside...they fished in the pond, Ginny and I laid on a blanket reading, we grilled, zip lined, and spent the day in each others company.  My brother lives on 9 acres, so we had plenty to do there!

Great weekend, and I only work three days this week!

Chicago!

All of Nick's family, except for his parents, live in Chicago.  So, for Easter we are flying up there to spend 3 days!  We are so excited to get to see everyone and hit all of our favorite places, plus a few new ones.  We are getting there super early on Friday, and Nick's parents will pick us up from the airport and we will head straight to Grandma Sally's for the best apple pancake on the planet! Then I will finally get to experience Navy Pier.  All of the times we have been to Chicago, we have never had time to go, but Friday afternoon will be spent at the pier!

We will of course have lots of family time, including the big Easter dinner that I have never been to.  The best part will be getting to spend lots of time with the Grandparents!  They are the best and cutest couple ever, I hope Nick and I become like them!

Other necessary stops will include Jarosch Bakery...

The very bottom cookies are my favorite, and pretty much the best cookies in the world!

We may have to hit up a White Castle while we are there too!  Can't wait for a fabulous Chicago trip!

Livin' in Sunshine!

How about this...I got my first blog award!  I got it from Emily, who also received one, and I am basically copying her post to explain it (thanks, Em). 

The Sunshine Blog Award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspire others in the blog world. The "rules" for accepting the award are:

1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post.

2. Pass the award to 7 bloggers.

3. Link the nominees within your post.

4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

6. Share 7 things about yourself

So, problem is, I am still pretty new to blogging and do not know to me other fellow bloggers.  Therefore, I am going to nominate only 2...oh, well!

Tiffany
Beth

Now, on to the 7 things about me!


1. I think that teaching middle school English is one of the best ways to spend my time!  I absolutely love it!

2. I would be completely lost without my I-Phone!  It has everything in it!

3. I'm obsessed with lists!  I make a list  for just about everything...groceries, places to go, places to see, things to do.  I am a lover of to-do lists, and the satisfaction I get from checking things off is probably  not normal!

4. It's hard to admit, but I am a huge reality TV junky.  There are lots I watch on a regular basis, i.e. Project Runway, America's Next Top Model, So You Think You Can Dance, Kendra, Say Yes to the Dress, etc.  Then there are others that I will totally watch whenever I happen to see them on, i.e. 16 and Pregnant, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, American Idol, Dancing With The Stars, Tool Academy.  I am not totally proud of this, but it is a fact!

5. I am in love with the arts.  Nick and I have season tickets to the Houston Ballet, Theater Under the Stars, and Broadway Across America.  Museums are always amazing to me, and I can never get enough of the fine arts!

6.  Not to worry, we have season tickets to the Houston Dynamo as well.  Nick gets his manly stuff too!

7. I have polycystic ovarian syndrome.  It isn't a huge deal, I take medicine for it, and it sucks!  It is basically the gateway for many other issues like diabetes, high blood pressure, and ovarian cancer.  However, since I am taking something to regulate my hormones I should be fine.

Organization...

It pretty much rained at our house all day on Saturday.  Nick and I decided to take that time to organize all of our paperwork.  We still had everything separated into our two expandable folders from when we were not married, and decided that after being married a year it was time to condense and combine.  We took all of this madness...

and turned it into this fabulous, organized drawer...

While we were doing this our children (the dogs of course!) were playing with their new presents.  I got some teddy bears from students for Valentine's Day, and decided that the puppies would have more fun with them then I would.  They also played in the box that the new filing cabinet came in!

By the way, we are pretty sure that Mouse is double jointed or something.  He is the one on the right in the first picture...I have never seen a dog lay with their hips out like that and completely flat on the floor.  He looks so funny, but that is how he has always laid!

Picture Perfect

Pretty much anyone who knows me knows that I never ever leave home without a camera.  Whether it is in my purse or pocket, whether it is digital, film, or disposable...I ALWAYS have a camera!  I love photography of all kinds, and I am pretty much addicted to it.  The real reason for this post, though, is to share one of the things that Nick and I collect.

Tacky Picture Frames!

We have recently started to get tacky picture frames from our travels.  It has become one of the best and most fun parts of our trips...trying to find the best, tacky picture frame.  I also think it is one of the coolest ways to share where we have been and a picture of us too!  So far we have one from Rome, Maui, Florida (Orlando), and Galveston.  We look forward to adding many more.  On a side note, we also try to find a Christmas ornament from the places we travel as well, but I will post pictures of that another time.

Spring Break

Being a teacher means that I get Spring Break; however, Nick doesn't and we are saving his vacation time for the Summer so we did a mini weekend getaway to Galveston!  It may not sound all that fabulous, but we had an awesome time.  We stayed there Friday and Saturday night...had dinner, did the strand, had lunch, hit up a museum (Texas Seaport Museum, including Ellissa the oldest ship still sailing), got ice cream, and walked the beach.  It was a perfect, relaxing weekend.

Nick playing on the Strand...

Enjoying our root beer and tea on The Strand!

Then we played at the Texas Seaport Museum...

It was pretty surreal to see all the plaques that said how high the water was when Hurricane Ike hit.  We found a column that showed the water levels for all the major hurricanes...

It was a great little getaway that was still close to home!  I am enjoying my time home from work, but must admit that I am already getting slightly bored by myself.

Dynamo!

As I have mentioned before, Nick and I have season tickets to the Houston Dynamo (professional soccer team).  Last night they had a pre-season game against Chicago at HBU.  We had a lot of fun, met up with some friends, and even got some awesome pictures!

The first one is Nick with Brian McBride, who is pretty much an American great when it comes to soccer.  He has played on the U.S. National Team, and Nick was super excited.

Then, I got a picture with a couple of my favorite players!  The first one is with Mike Chabala, and I love him!  He is so genuine and nice, plus, I have an autographed soccer ball that he tossed into the stands for me.

The last picture is with Cam Weaver, who I have grown to love from watching him play.  He is pretty much a giant, and I look so short next to him!

I can't wait to get off work today...Spring Break is so close!  Nick has to work next week, but we are spending the weekend in Galveston for a mini get away and I am stoked.

Baby Fever!

No, I am definitely not pregnant! However, it seems like everyone Nick and I know is pregnant.  We are still going to wait a little longer, but the baby fever has set in.  I can't wait to be pregnant and have kids!  The real reason I am mentioning this is because my dad bought us baby clothes.  He said he wanted to be the first to buy clothes for our future first born, and he was beyond sweet about the whole thing!

My dad has always called me sugar bear, so he bought this adorable onsie that has bears on it, and the little feet are bears!  Then he found a hoodie for babies, how cute!  The little bear in the back says My first bear!  I love my dad to pieces, and he just made us want a baby even more!

Cake makes everything better!

I have had a stressful and just crappy last week and half at work, so Nick, being the wonderful husband he is, agreed to make a rainbow cake with me last night.  We had quite a bit of fun, and it is so pretty.  There is no way to be upset when, not only do you have cake, but a bright pretty cake!

We started out with just regular cake mix, icing, and then 'professional food coloring' (that is what I call it at least, you can't use just regular food coloring).  We made the cake like it says on the box (we used white cake so that the colors would be extra bright), and then we mixed in the color.

The colors turned out so good!  Then we baked like normal...

The results were fabulous!  We put a thin layer of chocolate icing in between each layer and cream cheese icing on the outside.  I am in love with this cake!

Now I will smile when I eat my lunch!  Spring Break is so close I can barely stand it!

Grow, Grow...

I had an eventful and wonderful weekend!  Friday, my beautiful best friend Sara and I went to the ballet.  It was amazing!  Full of a love triangle, murder, drugs, and hallucinations.  Then, Saturday, Nick and I had a mini lunch date and then went to see Cirque Dreams, which is pretty incredible.  Sunday was spent in the backyard planting our garden!!  We had so much fun doing this last year, and this year it is going to be even better!  I have some pictures of the process:

We changed the location from last year, and had to clear out all the grass and weeds so we could start fresh.

Then we put down all of our garden soil.  The area is bigger then it looks in the picture.

We got this pretty fence from Lowe's to go around the garden to keep out our EXTREMELY curious dogs!

So, here is the run down of the garden contents:

Lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, corn, bell peppers, strawberries, and potatoes.  Then I have an 'herb basket' that has rosemary, lavender, and cilantro.  Delilah destroyed the avocado tree so we replaced it with a Persian lime tree.  I am super stoked about that!  Around the tree we have daffodils and tulips planted, and since they are bulbs we will not only have flowers this Spring but they will come back every year!  The circle hanging baskets are not actually put into place yet, but they will have flowers.  Also, I have another, longer rectangle basket thing for the fence.  So excited about the garden!!

Our backyard needs a major overhaul!  Getting Delilah when she was only 2 months old really took a toll on the yard.  We basically have no grass...there are holes, holes, and more holes.  If it isn't a hole it is dirt.  The plan is to get sod laid this summer so we have pretty grass covering the whole yard.

It's Rodeo time!

Nick and I have gone to at least one rodeo every year since we have been together.  Yesterday we went and saw one of my most favorite performers...Dierks Bentley!!  He is incredible live, and we had so much fun.  Here are a few photos of our evening...

 

We were told that we HAD  to try fried Oreos. I am not a big Oreo eater, but these were ok. I guess you could call it an experience; however, I don't know that it is one we will have again.

   
     

He was so ridiculously good!  We had a fabulous night, and the rodeo tradition continues!

Birthday!

It has been a while since I update, but I have an excuse!!  My birthday was last Thursday, and things have been busy since.  I had a fabulous birthday dinner with my hubby at Escalantes, which is was amazing as usual.  Saturday the rents came over to cook for me and hang out, and then that evening I went out with my little brother and his girlfriend.  All in all it was a wonderful birthday weekend!  I got the coolest gift ever from Eric and Selina...

I wanted speakers for my Ipod, and these are by far the sweetest ones I have ever seen.  You get to decorate them however you want with sharpies!  We decorated about half of them together, I am finishing up the rest while my kids are testing, haha.  I will try and put pictures of the completed speakers up soon!

So, I turned 24 and did not feel old until 2 things happened:

1. It was also a kindergarten student's birthday.  I asked him how old he was and he said 6.  Then he asked me how old I was, and I told him I was 24.  His response was "Whoah! Hahaha, that's old!"  Thanks Cedric!

2.  It was pointed out to me that I am twice as old as my students, literally!  I teach 7th grade so they are 12.