Weekend Craziness

I cannot tell you how awesome my weekend was. It was relaxing, it was fun, it was eventful.

Friday we took Anna on a short walk when we got home and then I cooked tacos. We watched some HP and relaxed. The storm also helped. I love when it rains...especially when it rains in July/August.

Saturday it rained some more and I was supposed to meet up with my friend/co-worker Becca to go shopping for going out clothes for her Bachelorette party this coming weekend!! Becca and her fiance just moved into a home in Richardson, so she invited us over. So while we went shopping at Northpark, Steve and Drew hung out. Becca and I had such a blast shopping together! We both got AMAZING deals on dresses at Macy's. Regularly priced dresses at $96...we got them for $20. We went to James Avery so that I could get my niece Rachel a bookmark for her first communion. And then we stopped in the Nine West store (I should NEVER go in there but once a year...I could spend all my money in that store). We found shoes to go with our dresses (also on sale-regular price $90-got them for $40) and then we headed back to her house to order pizza and play some games! We played Skip Bo and Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture. Seriously, we had a great time and being in Becca and Drew's house finally got us back on the house hunt wagon.

Sunday we got up bright and early at 7:00 and went for a 3.3 (give or take a little) mile run. We picked up the pace from earlier in the week. Steve's starting to get back in the groove...it won't be long until I'm trailing behind him again I can already tell. :( After that we got ready and went to Denton to see Clara's baptism and Rachel's first communion. They are the sweetest things. I'm so glad we were able to be there for that!
Here's my niece, Rachel! She was so happy to take her first communion!


Here's the family (minus Avery). Clara got baptised.



This week is a short week for me! Steve and I are going to go to Austin on Friday and spend the night there and then Saturday he's going to go hang out with his brother and I'm going to go and hang out with Becca and her friends for her bachelorette party! It's going to be so much fun! I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully this week will go by faster than it usually does :)

Finally, an Update!

So, this weekend was a really great weekend. Barring the fact that I spent entirely too much money....it was fantastic.

My niece, Rachel, turned 8 years old on Thursday. I can't believe that 8 years ago, I was standing outside of a hospital room door, my ear pressed against it, straining to hear whether I would have a niece or a nephew. I remember that my Dad and I were the only ones who thought it would be a girl. Everyone else thought my sister and Kurtis would have a boy. I remember hearing my sister say "It's a girl!" and as I heard that I almost let out a scream of delight and turned and half ran, half skipped down the hallway to tell my family and Kurtis' family that we had a new baby girl in the family! I remember Kurtis coming out of the room, holding her, tears in his eyes and running down his face. It was such a beautiful day. My niece is 2 years away from being 10.



So for her birthday my sister planned a surprise trip for her, Avery, my parents and I to meet up at The American Girl Store and Bistro at the Galleria. Oh. My. Gosh. The American Girl Store is so amazing! I told my parents they should count their lucky stars that this wasn't around when I was Rachel's age. It was so cool..and yet, completely ridiculous! A hair styling salon for dolls?? Really??
So, Rachel picked out a doll (she chose Elizabeth, by the way-I suggested her- 5 Cool Points for Aunt Ra-Ra!!!!), she got a night gown for Elizabeth, and a bag to carry her in. We ate at the Bistro and we got a cool cake to eat. Avery and Rachel even got to put their dolls in tiny chairs that attached to the table so their dolls could "eat" with us :) It was really cute and Rachel had a blast.



Afterwards, we went to Claire's and got her ears pierced!!!! Yet another moment that made me all wishy-washy and I got teary-eyed as she sat in the chair waiting to get her Emerald studs put in her ears. She is such a big girl now! She didn't even cry when she got them done! When the first earring went in, her eyes got really wide and her face got all red, but she didn't shed a single tear. I was so proud! And to celebrate her new earrings, I bought her 3 more pairs for when she can take out her studs! It was so much fun!

I got to hang out with my mom after all of that. We tried to shop at Macy's...but we just couldn't get into it. Maybe it was just because we were at the Galleria...or maybe we were just tired. I don't know. It was fun getting to be with her though.

That night I went to Denton and saw the Denton Musical Theatre production of "Crazy For You!" My wonderful friend, Mandy, was Irene in it. She was absolutely fabulous! She looked gorgeous and I loved hearing her sing. She really rocked and owned her roll. I feel so lucky to have been able to have seen the show! There was just so much talent on the stage! All of the musicians were fantastic, the dancing was great, and the comedy was superb. I was so impressed with everything!

Sunday, as everyone knows, was Mother's Day. Steve let me sleep in and made me blueberry muffins. I asked him what he was going to do when we have real kids, as opposed to just Anna. :) That afternoon we went over to his parent's house and we had lunch with them and gave his mom her present. Steve made a handmade card, that was really impressive and took a lot of time and thought and we got her a few gifts that I think she really appreciated. I was happy to be able to do something for her, and I had a great time with them while we were there. Then we went over and spent a little time with my parents. My mom and I went to Lowes and I got a Hibiscus tree to go in a planter that she had. I am "borrowing" it from her. It's out by my front door right now. We'll see if it gets enough sun light...but the hibiscus is lovely and our front door area looks so pretty now with the tree there. I had a good time with my mom and I think she had a great Mother's Day. I got her wind chimes at this cute little boutique by our apartment, that sound so pretty. I hope they last a long time!

So that's our weekend...I guess I could update by saying I'm still looking for a teaching job. I'm hoping something comes my way. I keep hearing about these "hiring freezes" at different districts, but I haven't seen anything on websites to confirm those rumors. I don't know...I just want a job.

We're slowly starting to look at houses. I don't want to get too serious about it until I know whether or not I'll be teaching, but it's nice to know that we're really close to being able to afford a home.

Holy Cow, it's been a while!

Well, it's been over a month since I updated this thing! Looks like I've got some explaining to do!

Honestly, I just haven't felt like I have all that much to say. I'm in a book slump. I'm about 1/2 way through Obama's book, but I really need to dedicate the evenings to reading because this reading-a-serious-book-at-lunch thing isn't working.

So, I got a new car! Yay!! It's a 2008 black Honda Civic! It's my dream car! Ok, maybe not my "dream" car, but it's the car I've wanted since before I was 16. :) My Mother in Law says I should name it...and I've been fiddling with a few names in my head. I believe it's name just might be "Black Beauty" ha! So, I think I'm sticking with that. Though, I did notice yesterday that I have a slight ding in one of the doors...THANK YOU to whomever felt the need to hit my car with their car door! I hope Karma comes and bites you in the a$$ because I certainly don't know why you couldn't have been more careful! Yes, I'm a little upset-but I knew I would be the second I noticed any scratch or dent. But guys, I haven't even had the car a month yet and I've already got some jerk messing up my car! At least it's not too obvious. I've also entered the adult world by finding and getting my own car insurance (and renters insurance). I feel so grown up! :)

On another note, I'm totally kicking butt and taking names on my work out program, if you can even call it a "program". Yesterday, the hubby and I went on a distance run of 5 miles. Mid day. Hot, blazing sun. 80+ degree weather. Yeah. It was hard. But we made it and we have the sun burns and sore legs to prove it! I'm determined to add about 1/2 mile to a mile every other week. So, I'm losing weight-don't know how much. And I'm almost back into my "skinny" jeans, so that's a plus! I can do 30 man pushups! Hells yeah! We're also trying to get up early to go to our apartment's fitness center...though that hasn't happened in about a week. Which leads to me to:

My allergies. Good Lord, are they bad right now. My Zyrtec has completely stopped working on me. I'm stopped up all day and at night. When I tried to go bed last night (and pretty much every single night for 3 weeks), my nose closes up, my ears close up, and whenever I swallow my throat closes up for a few seconds. That's not normal, so I set up an appointment with an allergy specialist. Thing is, I can't get in until the first full week of April. Yeah, not cool. Don't know if I'll be able to make it. So I'm hoping that I qualify for allergy shots. If so, I'm also hoping my insurance covers it. I'm just sick of not being able to breathe and I'm sick of losing precious sleep at night because of these allergies.

As for other things, life is good. School job fairs start up in a few weeks. I'm counting down the days. And I'm very nervous. I sincerely hope I can find a job this year. I don't care where it takes me. I'll go just about anywhere to teach music. So cross your fingers for me on that. I need all the luck and help I can get.

Everything in the home life is good. My husband and I have a great relationship. It's just great that we both can say to each other on a daily basis how lucky we are to have one another. I guess you could say we're still in the honeymoon phase :) It's a nice feeling that I hope doesn't go away.

General Update

So, I realized I haven't updated in a while...

So far so good in the H-home. We actually moved into a two bedroom apartment around Christmas. And when I say "around Christmas" I mean, we started moving stuff on December 23rd. We got a really good deal on a flat in the same complex we were living and decided to break our lease early and move into it. It's got about 400 (at least) more sq. feet than our townhome did and my kitchen is about 3 times the size it used to be. We love it. The only problem is that we're on the 3rd floor and we can hear the people above us. They are NOT light footed, let me tell you. And they love to blast their music at 6:45 in the morning-which is kind of Ok considering we're already up (but it's still annoying). I'm enjoying this time in our life because it's nice not to have to worry about the upkeep of a house...but I still can't wait to have a house and not have to worry about hearing our neighbors stomping around.

Steve's enjoying his job, which is good. He's been working there since the week after Christmas. We have almost the same schedule, except he gets to be at work at 9and leave at 6:00 and I have to be at work at 8:00 but I leave at 5:30. Steve's really been a sweetie lately...He's such a great husband. He never ceases to amaze me. He's been amazing at moving the stuff into our new apartment and putting up pictures and curtains.

We got a new couch and we just bought a new flat screen TV to go in our living room. Our old one pretty much bit the dust on Sunday. I can't say I was sad to see it go. The only thing I was sad to see go was money that we'll be saying goodbye to each month as we pay the new TV off. But it won't take us long and hopefully, we won't have to buy a new TV for at least 5-6 years or longer.

I'm back on the weight loss/work out wagon! I've actually been doing really well and kept with the program since the weekend after NY's. I don't know how much weight I've lost, but I'm pretty sure it's a fair amount and I know I've lost inches because my clothes are finally either A)starting to fit like they should or B)starting to get slightly big. I work out in the evenings at our apartment's fitness room. It's not the greatest-but it will do for now. I've been going pretty much every day to at least do 30 minutes of cardio or up to 45 minutes of cardio plus weights. I've been trying to talk myself into going in the mornings-but the bed is just so warm and I like it...But my evenings pretty much suck because I come home from work, work out, cook, eat, and then I need to shower, and go to bed. If I worked out in the morning I'd have more time to enjoy myself in the evenings. Maybe when it gets a little warmer...

Anna is doing really well. I think she likes the extra space but we've been doing a lousy job of taking her on walks and runs during the week. We're fixing that tonight by going on a run when we get home. A nice long one-hopefully 5k. She'll love every second of it. She's such a cutie...

I guess that's the update. Just waiting until March and April when the job fairs start up for the school districts. We'll see what happens. I can't wait to teach.