Friday, June 15, 2012

A Beautiful New Mexican Wedding!

A few weeks ago, I packed up and flew to Albuquerque for my sweet friend Steph's wedding. Steph and I actually met through an ex-boyfriend in college. We became fast friends with our similar interest in acting completely ridiculous and not caring who is watching. I say when the relationship ended, I got her in the custody battle. After college, Steph moved home with me while we both looked for jobs. We lived dorm style in my childhood bedroom and made the best of the ridiculous heat that found its way there. She moved back to New Mexico after a few months, but we stayed close.

Derrick and Steph met about two (maybe three?) years ago. Derrick is completely in love with her. You can tell with every way he looks at her. I don't think there is anything he would not do for her. Steph lights up when she's with him. It is truly incredible to see one of your friends so happy around another person.

Here are some pictures from the incredible weekend: (I, of course, got a little carried away with my picture picking)

 J-Patt and Brooke. 
Derrick's stepmom, Lisa, created these cute place mats. It had a fun maze with Steph and Derrick and a Guess Who? game with fun things from their lives. 
 Steph and Derrick in the limo
 We lit Chinese Lanterns at Steph's parents' house. Ours caught on fire which also somehow burnt my hair.
 JPatt and I
 Perfect little couple
 Watching the Chinese Lanterns
 Until a professional got a hold of her, Steph's bangs looked like this at nearly every moment
 What else do you do when you need to steam your dress besides make a clothes line with the straps?

Look at what a beauty she is! 

 Brooke, Margaret, and I
 The song for the cake cutting was the Dairy Queen "Ice Cream, and Cake, and Cake!" Derrick broke into a fabulous dance.
 Margaret and I 
Our group at the wedding 
 Bridesmaids on the dance floor
 I feel like photo booths should be a must at all weddings
Love you two so much! Thank you for letting me be a part of your special day!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Headed to the Polls!

A few months ago, my dad decided to go after one of his goals to become a member of City Council in Coppell. This was something that many of his friends in the city had been encouraging him to do for what seems like for forever.

Before going into too much detail, let me tell you that my dad in incredible. He was valedictorian at his high school, made incredible grades while at Texas A&M, served as president of his fraternity, married his college sweetheart, raised the three of us crazy kids, runs an great business with my grandfather, and is always volunteering or signing up for some new group. When my dad has a goal he goes after it. I can't think of a time I saw him go after something that he didn't achieve. He is always looking for groups to become a member of or some fun outing to do with the family. When he said he was running for City Council we were far from surprised.

At first we were thinking it would be a no brainer win. Until, someone decided to run against him. This is when the fun began. After putting out signs, having campaign parties and making shirts we all spent a day out at the polls! My dad got there at about 5:45, my mom 7:30, my brothers 10, and Dustin and I at 11. We were there until about 8:30 passing out flyers, talking my dad up, looking for people we knew to vote, and sending out texts and Facebook messages letting people know to stop by. After waiting, for what seemed forever after the polls closed, we found out my dad had won! I couldn't be more proud of him. While it was long day and we were exhausted, I ate up every second of my flyer-passing job. When would I ever get to do it again?
 My mom, brother Josh's girlfriend Alexa, and brother Jared
 My sweet parents
 Nina was showing her support
Vote for Gary Roden 
The whole fam at the victory party!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Book Review: A Discovery of Witches

Have you read A Discovery of Witches? If you liked Twilight, or anything else related to vampires, you will definitely love this book! Great news? It is an adult read. Dustin is constantly making fun of me for my young adult preference to books. I blame it on my job, but secretly they just thrill me more than any adult book. I take a break every now and then. This was definitely worth the break from the poorly written, weak plots that I'm used to.

Diana Bishop is from a very long line of famous witches dating back to the Salem Witch Trials. However, Diana wants nothing to do with her magic. After her parents died at a young age, she went to live with her aunt and her aunt's partner. Diana wants to be normal. She wants to live like every one else and does everything she can to not use her magic. Ever. Diana is a historian which is one of the most fascinating things about this book. The history in it is wonderful. Diana, tired and alone, decides one day to use her magic to call a book down. The book ends up being a manuscript that supposedly tells witches, vampires, and demons how they came to existence and what to do to keep their race from dying out. Instantly, every creature in the world is interested in how Diana was able to call this lost manuscript and what she did to break the spell to open it. Including, a very old, extremely attractive Matthew Clairmont. He instantly feels a pull to Diana that he cannot explain. The two of them fall into a quick friendship that turns into a forbidden relationship. Vampires and Witches are never to be in relationships; which causes a lot of problems when the two decide they will not follow any such law.

I am IN LOVE with this book. It is a trilogy and BEING TURNED INTO A MOVIE!! WHAT WHAT! Yes, I love a book so much, I just said "What What! Don't make me raise the roof and give a holler! I am never one to actually research a book when it gives it history. I normally pass through the parts I don't know and make sense with what I can. I had my iPad literally next to me at all times so that I could find each part of history this book talks about. Diana, being a historian, is amazed at the history that Matthew has lived through and can't get enough of it. Let me tell you, neither could I.

This book has everything you could possibly need.

  • Adventure - Check
  • Fantasy - Check
  • Incredible pieces of history - Check
  • Humor - Check
  • Suspense - Check
  • A love relationship - Check
  • A love relationship with a super smoking hot vampire - Check, Check
Seriously go buy the book! Hurry, before I say What! What! again

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Girls Night In!

A few weeks ago The Hardline from The Ticket, a sports talk radio station, was coming to our most favorite place Chimy's for a broadcast. Dustin and our brother-in-law, Brent, are HUGE fans of the show and were dying to go. My sister-in-law Mendy wanted to meet up with them; so this means I got to watch our cute little niece for the night!

I was super worried because Morgan takes a little while to warm up to people. I was terrified when she woke up from her nap she was going to be so scared that it was me there. It was the complete opposite. After taking her everywhere she pointed to see if anyone else was home, she was happy and content to have a girls night in with her favorite and only aunt. I had so much fun spending time with this sweet little girl. We danced to music on the iPad, played with toys, and sat outside. I seriously could not get enough of her. Here are some cute pics from the night.







Friday, June 8, 2012

Current Obsessions!

Haven't done one of these since... well since the first one. Here's what I'm loving these days:

 The fact that my baby brother can enjoy Chimy's in Norman just like I did at the original in Lubbock. Between the Lubbock and Fort Worth locations, I have some of the greatest memories.
 First off, I'm not loving how disgusting I look in this picture, how dirty our apartment looks, and how teacher-esque I'm looking, but I am loving my mustard yellow pants. I have never been a yellow person before, but lately I can't get enough!
 This beautiful scene from Steph's wedding in Albuquerque. 
 My sweet, amazing, good looking husband that has been completely picking up my slack while I have been so tired with the end of school and extra training I needed to do. I'm seriously the luckiest woman in the world. 
(Quote from one of my students while looking at a picture of Dustin in my room: Wow, is that Dustin. I didn't expect you to be married to someone so good looking. 
um... thanks?)
I'm reading this for my book club right now. I can't wait to give a book review on it. It is AMAZING!  
 Why, yes, that is a picture of One Direction. The sweet girls that had dance parties in my classroom after school got me hooked on them. I'm a boy band lover. The first step is to admit I have a problem.
 The fact that these two hotties will be playing tomorrow in Dallas. I'm completely devestated I'm not going. The last time they toured together I was in the 10th grade. That night pretty much started what the rest of my high school memories would be. If you have tickets that you don't want, I will gladly take them off your hands.
That I will be catching some rays in this beautiful little Mexican resort in just a little over a week. 
The Hatfields and McCoys three night special that was shown on the History Channel. I already kind of want to watch it again. I'm a total history nerd if you can't tell.

Last, but not least
The baseball team from Harvard dancing to Call Me Maybe. Not only is it one of my favorite songs, but any guy that will dance to it gets an approval by me. 

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Recent Happenings

My schedule seem to have been crazy packed lately. The end of school was ridiculously exhausting. Other than that I'm not quite sure I could tell you what we have been doing, but I guess it is a lot since I seem to never see my friends anymore!

 A fabulous day date to the horse races with the hubby
 I even won some money for once
 We took my sweet niece to Abilene to hangout with my in-laws. I'm still amazed at how she can work an iPad at 13 months.
We went to my favorite college/adult hangout the Chimy's Fort Worth
I had a night out on the town with these people and became super excited to go to Mexico with them in jut a few days. 
 Dustin and I watched an eclipse from our balcony. Breathtaking. 

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

What Time is It? SUMMER TIME!



School is out for the summer! I am a happy girl over here. I had the most incredible kids this year. Many (MANY!)  were quite the handful. I have so many crazy teacher stories from this year that I will remember for the rest of my life. There were a ton of sweethearts that I will never forget. Every week, I had a group of girls that came to my room to do homework and have a dance party to cheesy boy band songs. It was truly amazing to become so close to so many kiddos. The last day of school was filled with a dance party in my room too!  I truly love my job.

It was a little bitter sweet though. Our team leader and math teacher decided he was retiring this year. He has been our "dad" and an incredible leader to us. He mentored me through a lot my first few years of teaching. He will surely be missed. 

What are your plans for the summer? This week off I have been busy helping interview new teachers for our empty positions and sitting in on 3 days of CHAMPS training which is a district wide discipline plan we are doing. In two weeks, Dustin and I are headed to Mexico with my sister-in-law, brother-in-law and friends. We are headed back to where we had our honeymoon and I cannot tell you how excited we are. The week we come back is a Youth Writing Camp I am helping run. July and August are going to be pure relaxation and planning for next year. My main priority lose weight!

Hope you have a super relaxing summer and don't get TOO hot!

Did you enjoy my High School Musical picture and title? I have this fun picture of about 50 kids doing the Wobble in my classroom, but I can't find my camera among the 1000s of things I brought home from school.