Happy Birthday Kendall!

Happy Birthday Kendall!!

Kendall is my very best friend from the 4th grade!! If you have never met the two of us, you should know that we are the COMPLETE opposites. I think some might wonder how we have been friends for this long, but somehow we make it work. While I have just recently found my shopping addiction, Kendall has had it since the day she was born. She can be shy, but she loves to dance. Give her a good beat and you'll see every part of her start to shake. I'd tell you about the moment I knew she could move at an 8th grade dance, but I'm pretty sure she'd drive over here and kill me. While I will tell you my feelings and talk them out to death, Kendall likes to hold things in. I'll never forget in 5th grade when we were on a Girl Scout spend the night trip, I leaned over before we went to bed and told Kendall she was my best friend. Her response, "Thank you." I was convinced she hated me.

Kendall was my Maid of Honor. She did the most incredible job. I have to say with my "get it done" attitude and her attention to detail, I was worried at how this whole plan a wedding thing was going to work out. I could not have asked for a better Maid of Honor. She went to every appointment with me and planned the BEST bachelorette party.

Kendall is one of the most generous people I have ever met. She has such a kind heart and would do anything for her family and friends. Her loyalty is something I admire most about her. I know I could always count on her. Kendall is the strongest person I know, and I think I grow a little more from her advice. She hates birthdays and presents more than anything, so I better get to the pictures. I wish I had my old computer and could whip out some pics from waaaay back in the day!

 With our 3rd Musketeer and other best bud from the 4th grade, Rachel

 Spring 2011

 Rich O'Toole Concert

 Summer 2008

 Going to visit two of our best friends from high school, Lauren and Torri

 My birthday 2009

 High school friends aka "The YaYas" at my wedding

Copyright Erica Joyce Photography

 Going to watch the Mavs game

 Copyright Erica Joyce Photography

On our way to an Eli Young Concert 

 Kenny Chesney Concert

Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights Concert

 Prom 2004

Out for my 18th Birthday

I love you Main Amigo!!!! Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Two weeks ago I celebrated my 26th birthday. I have to say that I handled this one better than 25. I hate getting old. I love my life more than anything and I'm super blessed with friends and family, but I just don't want to get old. Could I stay in my 20s for forever?

As much as I hate turning old, I had the best birthday. My friends and family turned it into a full birthday week! Went to eat and hangout with friends Saturday, birthday Tuesday where Dustin completely spoiled me, birthday with my team of teachers at school Thursday, Friday morning breakfast in Athletics, and Saturday lunch with the family. Thanks guys! I love each and every one of you!

Cookie cake Morgan brought to my birthday dinner

My sweet husband! Paid for everything on the night out with my friends, helped out with my plane ticket to Albuquerque for Steph's wedding, flowers, birthday dinner, and a Starbucks gift card. He rocks!

Sweet friends out on my birthday!

Cab ride on the way home had strobe lights and fog machine. It was awesome. 

Flowers from the hubs

Birthday cards from my Great Aunt and Uncle, Sammie and Richard, my little Jasmijn, and my mother-in-law Janet

One of my students knows how much I love the salsa her dad makes. So she gave me two jars. She also knows my creepy obsession with duct tape and made me this bag out of it!

She even attached a little charm with duct tape bows!

Happy Birthday donut in the breakfast the athletic girls had

Thanks again guys!

Happy Opening Day!

Baseball season is here! Dustin has been looking forward to this day for months. Especially since the Mavs haven't been looking so hot, he has been bored out of his mind. This time of year means that I am Sports Widow until about December/January. Once baseball starts Dustin is glued to that TV. Halfway through baseball starts football which means seeing him even less. Not to say I don't enjoy the Rangers with him. I like to watch the games every once in awhile. I enjoy going to them even more though. However, I can't watch them every. single. night. There are more important things on, right?

Anyways, I did not do anything for Valentine's because I knew that Opening Day was a much bigger deal! I wanted to surprise Dustin with a big Opening Day basket. I had seen one of our friends do it for her husband last year and have been keeping it in my pocket ever since. I had been gathering stuff for a few weeks, and was waiting for Dustin to fall asleep Thursday night. Problem was I feel asleep on the couch before him! He tried to wake me up and move me about 10:30, but I knew I had to wait it out or miss my chance. This meant I fell asleep AGAIN! So at 2am, I was silently moving around trying to get everything ready. Let's hope my skills at leaving presents out improve before I have children.

So it says Happy Opening Day, but the silver got blocked out with the flash. I attached this to the shirt I was leaving for Dustin. I'm a little horrified. I just realized I spelt "wear" wrong. That's what 2am will do to you.  

Dustin irons his shirt every night and leaves it up against my closet in his bathroom. (Yes, we use separate bathrooms and closets. Yes, his closet is next to my bathroom and mine is in his bathroom. Basically, I have too many clothes so need the bigger one and get up way earlier and make too much noise to get ready next to our room) But... back to the story. I switched Dustin's shirt out with the Rangers one I bought for him.

I had this sitting on all of his stuff. I was so super excited!

Car flag, koozie, coffee cup, beer, peanuts, bubble gum, and sunflower seeds. The Hotchkiss duo is ready for   some Texas Rangers baseball!

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Have you all read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close?  or seen the movie? To be honest, am I even getting the title right? It confuses me every time I see it. On my board at school, under what I'm reading, I wrote it wrong 5 times. My students kept having to correct me.

http://www.comingsoon.com/

The picture is the movie poster, but it was the same on my book as well.

I have to be honest, and you all know from my few book reviews post, that I LOVE to read a book before the movie. It is a must for me. However, I think I would have been ok without this one. The book is cute. Hard to follow though. Oskar lost his father during 9/11. Two years later, he is still having an extremely hard time moving on. It literally hurts him to try. It seems like his mom and grandmother have just moved on, and he is the only one remembering his father. One part of Oskar and his dad's relationship was adventures. After finding two keys in his dad's closet, Oskar believes his father has set him on last mission. He makes it his life to find out what his father was trying to tell him. While following him on this journey, we get to meet his grandmother and grandfather who narrate the other chapters through letters. Oskar's grandmother loves her grandson and has written letters to him. She tells him her story of being married to a husband who left before meeting his song. To be honest, I thought she went into way too much detail about her marriage to tell a child. Other chapters are narrated by the grandfather who wrote letters to a son (Oskar's dad) whom he never met who also went more into depth than any child wants to know about their parents. It was a hard book to follow. While Oskar is witty and mature, it is hard to connect with the rest of the story.I almost wished the grandparents' letters had been thrown out. I enjoyed their story, but not from their point of view. I was wanting to know more about Oskar.

I really want to see the movie. The movie looked a lot better than the book. Yes, this freak of a book person actually admitted this!

Friday Night Movies #4

I'm sure every single one of you has seen the previews for The Vow. I bet by now, most of you have seen it. For those of you wondering do I go to the theater, wait until it comes out, or don't even bother, this is for you.

http://www.blog2zapit.com/

I tricked Dustin into going to see The Vow last Saturday for our Valentine's. He didn't completely understand what he was buying tickets for. After they were bought I finally showed him the trailer. Sneaky Taylor!

The Vow was absolutely adorable!

After a car accident, Paige (Rachel McAdams, one of my faves) finds herself waking up in a hospital to a strange man. The strange man ends up being Leo (Channing Tatum, the perfect definition of eye candy), Paige's husband. She has no recollection of who he is. In fact, before the accident, Paige was completely in love with her husband and had not spoken to her family or childhood friends in five years. However, waking up Paige remembers being extremely close to every person from back home and engaged to Jeremy. In her mind she is still in love with Jeremy and has never even met Leo. The previews make the whole movie look like it is all Leo trying to get her to fall in love with him again which he does, but it isn't the entire plot. You see the struggles they go through. I cried a lot through the movie. This is based off a true story. Most of the movie isn't true I'm sure, but I tried to put myself in her shoes. Going home to live with some strange man who is so used to being around you. He even walks in on her naked one day just out of habit and she is incredibly creeped out. I just couldn't imagine living with someone that is a stranger to you, and that person is completely in love with everything about you. Especially, with the fact that her family had no idea who he was and she thought she was in love with someone else would just complicate things even more.

I loved this movie! I'm a total rom-com die hard though. I still tape The Notebook every time it comes on. I read Nicholas Sparks even though they depress me so much I eventually go on a "Sparks Break." If you aren't huge on them, wait until it comes out in theaters. If you feel like you could predict every second of the film, don't bother. It was a cute, funny movie. Dustin laughed a few times even though he would probably never admit it.

One of my student's was reading a book the other day called The Vow.  It was based off the true story. Now whether it was made after or before the movie I wasn't sure.

Happy Watching!

Sweet Seven!

Today marks seven wonderful months of marriage with Dustin. I know, half of you are thinking seven months gees that's nothing, and the other half not being able to wait until you are at seven. Out of nearly all of my friends I am the only married. Every time I talk to anyone I get the questions of "How's married life?" "What's it really like?" "How is it different?" I totally meant to do this post on our six month. Six months seems like such a milestone. Dustin thinks I'm crazy when I remember each month, but I feel like you get to celebrate whatever you want your first year of marriage. So, I decided to post this for our seventh month because who actually does anything special for seven months? (This has nothing to do with the fact that I was just too lazy to blog on our actual 6 months)

So here is my take on marriage in just 7 months...

• Marriage is not that different from dating. Dustin and I never lived together before we got married, but once we moved in, it just seemed like when we were dating. We were around each other a whole lot more, but it wasn't like our relationship completely changed.
• You learn a lot about each other. Sometimes it is really hard. You have a lot of moments when you think... ok, that is way different from how I do things. Dustin and I come from different cities, backgrounds, and life styles. So for awhile it was hard putting everything together. For example, Dustin is just naturally a clean person. His places have just been for the most part picked up. I am messy. I try to clean up, but I normally will just designate a day a week to get everything done. Then I just attempt to keep it up.
• Cuddling on the couch, sweet notes, etc. last for awhile, but you literally just can't keep up with that every day. You start to appreciate the little things. I feel like this is when I truly felt what love was. During holidays and summer I'm home all the time. I clean, cook, do laundry and everything else. I'm Super Wife. Need something done? I gotcha. During the school year, I'm a little lazy. During a season? Maybe I'll see you as you  brush your teeth to go to bed. We just had a two week period where I saw Dustin maybe once before 8pm. Coming into this marriage, I don't think Dustin realized how much I'm not home. After awhile, I noticed the bed was made up when I came home or all the dishes had been put away. Maybe the laundry had been folded or had even been started. He took the dog on a walk. Now I know most of you may think 'isn't that just responsibility?' To me, I just felt loved. He realized I wasn't home a lot, and it wasn't my fault. He also realized if one us didn't do it, it didn't get done. It's the little thoughts that started to make a difference.
• Added on to this, you have to once again learn lifestyles and what the other means when they say things. Dustin gets home an 1-6 hours before I do. By the time I walk in the door, he's ready to cook, clean, and hangout. For me, I'm ready to sit and be quiet for a bit. I used to get my feelings hurt because I thought Dustin was telling me I was a bad wife when he cleaned up while I sat around. It took me awhile to realize he was just trying to help.
• If you have been alone and living single for awhile, marriage can be an adjustment. Dustin and I for the most part have lived alone since we got out of college. Even when I had roommates/lived with my parents we didn't see each other. Let me tell ya, it is hard to all of a sudden come home to someone who wants to hangout and talk. We were both so used to getting in the car, shutting down, and being completely lazy when we got home. It is different when you are coming home to someone that you can't go in your own room and shut the door from.
• Get ready to make some hard conversations serious. Finances, savings, houses, etc. It is super easy to forget those conversations, but they are a MUST have.
• I'd say the hardest thing is that you will still see your friends, but your friends will think it's different once you're married. I had to stress to several of them that I am the SAME person just with a different name. Luckily, I have some fabulous friends that this was an issue for about two weeks. I think most of you know though that I don't let you not talk to me.

Let me tell you one thing, marriage is AWESOME. You  come home every single day to your best friend. You spend every night with your best friend. You get to hangout every weekend with your best friend. Now that best friend may you drive you completely crazy, but at the end of the day you love them and you just can't stay mad. Dustin makes me laugh nearly every day, he brings me out of bad moods, and leaves me alone when I say I just need to be on my own, he doesn't judge me for my messiness or lack of wanting to work out, he babies me when I cry because my knees hurt so badly because I actually did work out. You get someone who just gets you. They know what to order if you run to the restroom at a restaurant, they'll make dinner when you're too tired, they even let you scream and throw things just because they know you're stressed. Marriage is everything I thought and more. Love you Dustin.

End sappy love post.... NOW!

Is the font of my posts turning up funny to anyone else? On my computer/iPad it is readable, but on Dustin's is not. It may be time to contact my dear friend Natalie at Fifth of August. My blog may need a new look!

My Sweet Valentine!

Happy Valentine's Day a whole two days late! Dustin and I have never been big on celebrating the actual holiday. I have to say I'm on both sides of the fence on this particular one. I think it is ridiculous to have a day where someone has to be reminded to tell me they love me and do something special and for me to do the same. But, how many of us have just gotten so caught up in life that we forget to mention to someone how great they are? How many times do we become so used to someone's behavior that we forget to tell them how appreciative we are of everything they do? Every day I tell Dustin we don't have to do much, and each year he does little things for me that make me feel like a million bucks!


This year we went to eat at Bob's Steakhouse in Grapevine. We went to the Fort Worth one the night we got engaged, so this brought up a ton of stories between the both of us. I don't know if we have every truly sat down and gone through each moment of everything that we were feeling/thinking. It was fun to hear how nervous and excited he was. Then I semi-tricked him to take me to see The Vow. (I'll post more about this later) Let's just say he didn't quite understand what movie he was buying tickets for. Have you all seen what AMC is doing with some of their theaters? The one near us turned half of their theaters into 18+ and 21+ only. It is fabulous! The particular theater was being rundown by middle school/high school students and was not even worth going to anymore. (because I was never one of those kids right?) The 18+ does just food and the 21+ includes a bar. Each theater has reclining chairs that you could seriously fall asleep in. We had a great time!