Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday. We spent our first holiday as a married couple in Abilene. I have to say that I was so sad not to be with my family. It wasn't that I was upset to be in Abilene with my in-laws. It was just I didn't want something big to happen that I was going to miss. We had a great time though. On Wednesday after sitting through some ridiculous traffic on I-20, Mendy, Brent, Baby Morgan, Dustin, and I finally made it! We hung out with the family and just caught up. Thursday we woke up and went over to Dustin's aunt and uncle's house. It was a lot of fun. I think in my head I had this whole "What if their family does it differently than mine?" question rolling around. It was pretty much the same and I loved it. The guys watched football all day, and I got to know Dustin's aunts and cousins a little bit more. Thursday night-Saturday morning we hung out at Dustin's parent's house. I loved getting to just hangout with the family. It was just so overwhelming how easily we just slid into this family routine.They have been a family themselves without me for awhile obviously. I just didn't know how it would work with someone new in. It seemed like I had been spending holidays with them for forever. Saturday Dustin and I drove back to Dallas and did Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house. I was so excited to get some family time on my side for a little bit. Even though my parents are right down the highway we still somehow only see each other once or twice a month. During football season, especially, it seems like we are just so busy with our season tickets and my parent's to the A&M games we don't get time together. My brother Jared, brother Josh's girlfriend Alexa, and both my  brother's friend Jared were in town for the holiday. Jared #2 and Alexa are so much part of the family that it felt like everyone was there.

The best part of our trip to Abilene... getting to spend time with Baby Morgan! Normally when Dustin and I see her it is for a few hours or just a day. We got about 2 1/2 days with her and I loved it! She is the sweetest baby and has the cutest laugh. Dustin and I have yet to get her to laugh, but I tell Dustin she is on strike until she gets cousins. Hint, hint. haha. No worries, no cousins for awhile. I somehow walked away with only pictures of Morgan, but she is so cute it didn't matter. Here are a few.

I love this picture of Morgan looking up at Dustin. She loves to look at him and touch his goatee. 

I am Thankful!

I have a ton of blessings that I am thankful for. I could go on and on naming every single one of them. All to which I'm sure you would get bored with pretty quickly. I did want to mention a few things that I just can't seem to get off my mind. I have been the happiest I have ever been in my entire life these past few months. It goes to a lot of things. I have a great family and wonderful friends that I couldn't live without. Sometimes though things just stop me and I can't help, but be thankful.

First off, my sweet husband! Dustin has just been so wonderful. I have to admit I was really worried when school started up and I was going to be so busy with sports and teaching. I didn't know how Dustin would handle me not being home much. He has been such a great help. He runs errands, helps with the cleaning, and especially helps with Ferguson. He has been so patient when I say I'll clean the apartment tomorrow and don't get to it. He has been understanding when I'm too exhausted to do anything. He even surprised me with my favorite candy, twizzlers yesterday when he knew I was exhausted from running around and being sick. Love ya babe!

Also for my family. My family has been extremely sensitive with me. I have been so sad missing Thanksgiving this year. I still have all 4 grandparents and I'm the oldest grandchild which means I'm the only one that is married and missing the holiday. It makes me so sad and they have been suepr nice. I'm also thankful for my in-laws. They are wonderful. I've had so many people comment "Wednesday to Saturday with the in-laws that is a loooong time." I don't feel that way at all. They are so much fun to be around.

The third thing I have been counting my blessings for lately... MY JOB! Lately I have been so happy with my job. It is hard sometimes. 12 and 13 year olds just don't get that you have a life outside of school sometimes. This year I was a tad worried about the kiddos coming up to us, but they are absolutely wonderful. They are great kids. I had one student the other day make me a "Mrs. Hotchkiss' Coloring Book" when she found out how much I loved to color. I love the people I work with too. We have so much fun every day and everyone is so supportive. Sometimes I hear these horror stories of teams or administration not getting along or being supportive. I just enjoy the people I work with.

I also love... that even in 7th grade my students can make hand turkeys! After they finished their quiz and school work they could make a hand turkey on the board Friday. I love how they created each one to be their own.

I have been so productive this Thanksgiving break. I feel a huge weight off my shoulders. I went to the ENT yesterday. In college I lived in a house that had some mold that used to make my roommate and I sick all the time. We were constantly coughing and I noticed my voice has never been the same since. This year it had gotten worse. I could hardly talk by the end of the week and my voice has constantly been raspy. The ENT stuck this awful thing up my nose and down my throat and found that almost like a blood vessel had burst and something had grown on top of that right where my vocal chords open. I'm having a small procedure on that in December. I won't be able to talk for a whole week though. Along with that I have: changed my name at the social security office FINALLY, driven to a DMV thinking it was a DPS, driven to 3 DPS places (in 2 days. Everytime I went the lines were way too long), bought some jeans and took those back because they forgot to take off the sensor, gone to a Dr. to get a Z-Pack for being sick, sat on the phone with 2 credit card companies to change my name, went to the bank to change my name, went to the eye doctor, sat at the pharmacy, got my hair cut, and took a huge chunk off my Christmas shopping list. WAHOO!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

O Who?

Good Morning!! Dustin and I are enjoying out 2nd weekend in a row of not being busy/going out of town. Last Friday when we both came home from work I realized it was my first free Friday since school started. We hardly knew what to do with ourselves. Last night we continued our relaxation. We did dinner at Texas Roadhouse and went and saw Moneyball. I was extremely reluctant to see it, but knew Dustin was dying to because he had actually read the book. I absolutely loved it! I always forget how much I love sports movies.

A few weekends ago we went up to Norman for the Tech/OU games. My brother-in-law, Brent, went to OU and my baby brother,Jared, goes there too. So it was a family rivalry game on both sides! I had so much fun getting to see Jared and meet his friends. Friday night we went out to 747 and then met at Brothers where Brent used to work. Jared left to hangout with his dear old lady sister.

Saturday was so fun! I almost felt like a college kid again. We started the morning off at 747 having some drinks and eating lunch. Then I went to find Jared at his tailgate. There is a pizza place right next to his frat house that is their hangout. It seemed like nearly the whole fraternity was in there. Everyone was watching games, playing games, and just having fun. I got to meet a lot of Jared's friends who were super nice. He took me on a tour of the Lambda house too. It was sort of weird because I had been there a few times in college when I used to come visit Lauren and Torri. Then we headed to what Jared called a tailgate. It really was a HUGE party going on in this kid's backyard. I ran into some younger Coppell people, Annie's cousin, and even some of Lauren and Torri's friends that I had met before.

The game was UNREAL! Unranked Tech playing #3 OU? We assumed we were going to get killed. We weren't even going to buy tickets until Dustin found them for about $30. There was a rain delay for about an hour. I threw a truly child like tantrum that I have to say I was horribly embarrassed for. The storm completely freaked me out because we were stuck in the stadium. I was. ready. to. go. I was cold, wet, knew we were going to get killed, and had probably had a little too much fun with Jared. Tech started incredible though! We were in the lead quickly and just kept going. I have to say it was probably the weirdest and most calm game I have ever been to. The Tech fans knew better than to get too excited because we probably couldn't hold the lead for long. OU fans didn't know what to do. They all figured they would make a come back. OU hadn't lost at home in 40 something games, but I think they didn't want to be too confident. Both sides cheered when they scored, but the whole environment was just calm. In the end Tech came through, and we WON! I still can't believe it. We left the stadium to lots of boos, name calling, bad words, and a few people purposely running into us. We didn't care since we had won!

Unfortunately, Tech got creamed the next weekend at home playing Iowa State; so our pride was short lived. We are ready for this weekend's UT game though! In fact, in start in 5 minutes. See ya!

Here are a few pics from our OU weekend.

Dustin and Jared showing their school pride. Our first night in Norman.

Jared and I in the Lambda house.

This is Jared's friend/roommate Matt. They have known each other since early elementary, and now I teach his niece!

Jared and I at the tailgate party

Tech/OU game

Beautiful site isn't it?

Did I mention one of my best friend's Morgan moved to our apartment complex from New Mexico? Soooo excited!