Our Happy Life

Real post to come soon!

2012-01-26T11:48:00.002-06:00

I have been crazy busy lately. Funny how I seem so much more busy now that I am off work. Who knows! We have had a lot of great stuff going on. I am getting on a plane in the morning to go to the Created for Care adoption retreat and can't wait. I will update the blog on our happenings as of late soon!! Happy almost weekend!!

A few late Christmas shots & Ethiopian Cuisine

2012-01-16T22:34:00.006-06:00

We had a fun night out this weekend at a restaurant in Houston called The Blue Nile. A month or so ago I posted on my blog that our agency wanted us to go out and learn about Ethiopian food. My friend Brittnie posted on my blog that she would love to go try Ethiopian food with me, so we made it a date. Brittnie and her hubby along with my sister and her hubby all went to the Blue Nile and had some very interesting food. I really do intend to make it a priority to learn how to make Ethiopian food, but it will definitely be a struggle. I haven't all together mastered cooking in my 5 years of marriage and new things are not always a huge success!

But the food was very yummy! I had lamb, Lance had some type of ground beef with greens and cheese and I don't remember what all else was eaten. But it was all very very good. The extra interesting part was that they didn't serve your food with silverware. They brought out a spongy type of bread, I think it was called Injerna, and you used that to scoop up your food. I was loving it. I was also probably a bit of a creeper, b/c I could not help but stare at all the beautiful Ethiopian servers and wonder if Jane was going to look like them one day. They were such beautiful people! We had a really fun night, however I guess we showed our true colors at the end of the night b/c we went to Dairy Queen for a blizzard! :)

I cannot wait to celebrate her culture with her. I often wonder if she will be very proud and want to share her culture and background with others, or if she will want to blend in. I hope we do a good job of making her want to celebrate her differences! I want that for her. :)

Notice Lance's "fork"

The other side of the table enjoying their food. Bethany actually got a crazy dish that was like 6 things mixed together.

We decided that we should make it a monthly international dinner night and try a different type of food each month. I think the decision for next month was Greek food. Can't wait! :)

On a different note I was looking through my camera and realized that I never posted any Christmas pics. I only took about 10 and 5 of those would probably get me killed if I posted them on the blog. They were all taken at about 6am. But we had a great Christmas with the family. We got together with the whole huge group one night which was crazy, kids running everywhere and lots and lots of fun! Christmas eve was a little more low key with the cousins and aunts and uncles. Christmas day half of our extended family was unfortunately hit with RSV and the kiddos were all SO sick. It was awful and took a while for everyone to bounce back from that.
Due to the illness we weren't able to get together with our extended family so Lance & I, the Girods and my parents literally spent all day (I mean 6am-midnight) at my parents house watching basketball, playing games, playing on the wii, going for walks (yep in our pj's) and eating TONS and TONS of food. It was an AWESOME AWESOME day!!

This was the day after Christmas. The Girods came over to our house and we took little Maxwell to the park. It is still surreal that they live here. Betho and I went and ran errands right after this pic and were both just laughing the whole time about how crazy it is that we are actually "running errands" together and live 10 minutes apart. I never thought that would happen!

Max opening his Santa presents at my Mom's house

Little snow bunny came over to Aunt KK's house to ice sugar cookies!! This is one of my favorite pics of him. He looks SO CUTE!

So blessed you are on this earth!

2012-01-14T17:56:00.006-06:00

Today is my sister's birthday. Not Bethany, but my other sister, Roxanne! We are not related by blood, but are sisters. I wrote this on her facebook wall, but I could not do life without her. We live in different places now, but will be "doing life" together for the next 60 years! Roxanne is my constant encourager, shoulder to cry , person to laugh hysterically with, and just all around wonderful friend who is always there for me! She is always seeking to be the best wife and mother possible and is on a never ending journey to seek the Lord and grow closer to him with everything she is and does. She has been blessed with many gifts, but what stands out the most is her ability to love othes. Jesus says all over the bible that loving others is the greatest, most important thing we can do here on earth. Rox is bursting every day with the love of Jesus and it shows. Everyday! So refreshing!! I love you Rox and am SO thankful for your 27 years on this earth. SO SO many people are blessed with your presence!!

Yipee!!

2012-01-12T13:25:00.009-06:00

All adoption papers are now sent!! The crazy, busy part is finally over! Such a relief! And if that wasn't exciting enough my last day at work before my transition to my new job is tomorrow and I am SO looking forward to some time to myself in between jobs. I will have 3 weeks off which will give me some free time! I am looking forward to more quiet time in the mornings and afternoons, more time to cook, more time to clean, more time to work out and more time with my hubby and friends and family I need to catch up with!

I emailed our agency and asked what I needed to do next and her reply was, "Once we get your dossier, it will make its way around the US getting sealed. (UT...Washington DC-US embassy-ET embassy...UT again...then ETHIOPIA!!) At that point you will be on the wait list for a referral. YEAH! Do a happy dance! :)"

If you know me at all you know I of course did a happy dance!! I know the real hard part is still to come but I feel so accomplished knowing I completed all this craziness that they call the "paper chase". I mean, it was hard work. It was hard juggling work, buying a home, changing jobs, Lance changing jobs, and going through some emotionally and physically difficult fertility stuff. But we did it. Of course we did. Jesus told us to do it. I'm so glad we listened and let him push our faith to points farther than it has been pushed before. We are filled up to the brim with love for our precious little Jane Jordan!!

We would like our friends and family to continue praying for this adoption with us. If you could specifically pray for:

1. The health of this child's mother as she carries her. Pray that her mother continues to feel God's presence in her life and pray that she is experiencing peace.
2. Pray that Jane's mother has food to eat and a safe place to sleep.
3. Pray that Jane's mother has friends and family in her life to help her in this journey.
4. Pray that Baby Jane is getting the nourishment that she needs and is developing into the perfect little girl God is forming her to be.
5. Pray for our ability to continue to have the ability to finance this adoption. We have been floored, absolutely floored at the response we have had in this area. However, we have a ways to go and are still only 50% there as far as fundraising goes.
6. Pray for Lance and I and give us wisdom as we prepare our hearts and our home for welcoming this little one who may have lots of unknown needs.
7. Pray that we will become parents naturally and know how to transition into this role.

Thanks guys!!! We love all of you so much!!! :)

Next paperwork stop....Addis Ababa, well almost!

2012-01-04T17:06:00.014-06:00

We got a call from our agency today telling us that we forgot to sign a form and that my employer forgot to sign something too. But hey, we sent them 38 notarized forms and 25 pgs of education, so that's not too bad. If this was school I would have gotten 96%! I am going to get the missing signatures from my employer and get our stuff all fixed and resend Monday morning. So instead of our papers heading towards Ethiopia tomorrow it will be next Wednesday. No biggie! I KNEW I would mess something up! I guess our papers needed to be in just a few days later in God's timeline! That is my new motto for this adoption. When something happens I am choosing to believe it is just lining us up with the perfect baby! :)

But we are so happy to know that we are about to be on the notorious "wait list". In the mean time we are just waiting for our fingerprinting appointments with the FBI and then I guess Lance and I will just sit and stare at each other for the next 6-7 months until they send us a picture of our baby! ;)

Other than that not much else going on. I am wrapping up my last two weeks at my job before I make the switch to my new job. In between jobs I will have 3 weeks off!

On Jan 28th I am heading to Atlanta for an adoption retreat (Created for Care). I am going to have 3 days to sit and soak up wisdom from christian women that have been at this for a long time! I am rooming with a sweet girl that I have yet to meet, but that has two little twin girls that she adopted domestically and they are SO CUTE! I am so excited to meet this new friend. God aligned our paths in a really cool way and I think we are destined to be friends.

I will need to post about the SUPER cool story about even getting into this conference some other time. But it was nothing short of miraculous! :)

I thought I would add a few pics of Jane's Christmas toys from her family for all to see! I'm thinking she already has a pretty big fan club. And of course some pics of my fav little man Max. He has been a sick little munchkin and it is SO sad! But of course, still 100% cute as can be!!!

That's all for now. I hope everyone is enjoying their week post Christmas!

So close I can taste it!!

2011-12-22T13:36:00.004-06:00

Good news on the adoption timeline front! We are finished with our home study and have completed our dossier!! We are awaiting final approval that our dossier is correct (you hear absolute horror stories about people being delayed years due to this paperwork being wrong!), and will be getting the final copy of our home study after Christmas. This means that we can send in our immigration paperwork, and wait for our fingerprinting appointments! Once that is done we will officially be a waiting family!! So to all of you non-adoption people who may as well be reading Chinese with all this, we are hoping to be a "waiting family" by some point in January!

Once we are approved and waiting all we have to do is wait! I know this will be hard in its own way, but we will be able to focus on fun baby stuff! It's kind of like we are done "trying" to get pregnant, and can take a deep relaxing breath and just wait for the baby to come. Waits right now are approx. 6 months. So we may just have a picture of our baby girl to show off this summer!!

I hope everyone is having a great Holiday so far. I had a VERY hard time today with the oral typhoid pills we are taking. It was a very, very, very hard day at work today. I was so nauseous that at one point I could not even move without throwing up! I had to text a friend to come into my office and help me! But it seems to have passed. Whew. The bad thing is that I have 3 days left on the pills and my doctor is closed for Christmas! Hoping not to have to repeat this. :)

Love.

2011-12-21T18:43:00.006-06:00

Ok. I love this. Kinda teared up when I saw it! I am ordering this tomorrow for her nursery! I cannot wait for the beginning of her "sweet little story" and I cannot wait until her "page meets mine"! And our story already most DEFINITELY reads LOVE! We love you soooo much little one, where ever you may be right now!! :)

A baby actually comes at the end!!

2011-12-17T10:07:00.006-06:00

I'm not sure if this is how pregnant people feel or not, but the whole adoption thing is very surreal! It seems so far away that I have a hard time really believing that when this is all said and done we will be getting a baby! I have been following a few people's adoption blogs and they are both in Ethiopia. One for their first trip to meet their baby and the other to pick their baby up. I just got soooo excited this morning thinking about that day for us! It still doesn't really seem real, but seeing others at then end of the journey with their babies was so encouraging and exciting!!! :)

Mom Jobs

2011-12-14T15:18:00.007-06:00

I totally have a job that you could call a "mom job". I actually switched my major from Broadcast Journalism to Speech Pathology so I could have a job that lends itself to mommy"ing". Which was also good, b/c I think I was a pretty awful journalism major. Now that motherhood is starting to finally creep in, although very slowly and in an unexpected way, I am thankful for my career choice.

Since we moved to Sugar Land I have been experiencing quite the little commute. Yesterday I left for work at 7:45 and arrived at 9:20 due to 2 wrecks! I had no intention of leaving my current job until recently and an offer literally fell into my lap. So, I will be starting a new job in the good ol suburb of Sugar Land on February 6th. It is minutes from my house, and they are in the process of creating extra space so that the therapists can bring their children to work!!

I am still unclear about what my work life is going to look like when baby J gets here, but I am SO thankful for my job, the flexibility, and the opportunity to help little cutiepatooties learn how to communicate with this big scary world! :)

Not much else is going on around here....HA, yeah right! We are now in the process of getting our 8 hours of agency required training done, 2 hour online seminar, transracial exercises, and discussion questions done. I guess I was skimming when I read this part of our adoption manual b/c I could have sworn we didn't have to do this now. But apparently it must be done before we can submit our dosseir, thus keeping us off waiting lists until it is done. Oh, and one of our exercises is to "experience ethiopian cuisine and write about the experiece". So if anyone wants a unique evening out, feel free to join us. I actually found a place on Richmond in Houston that is supposed to be yummy!

We were also told that right now in Ethiopia, waits for a referral are approx. 6-7 months and that once you get your referral you are still looking at a 6-8 month wait until you can bring the baby home. So assuming we are finally on a waiting list in 2 months or so, we are still looking at some waiting. I am continually floored that it is so darn difficult to get these babies out of the orphanages. But, it is what it is. It will just make that day even better when we fianlly load up our precious cargo into the car at IAH and drive her to her forever home!!!

That's all for now. It is definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Not so much feeling like it, it is 75 and humid today. But growing up in Houston, I have stopped wishing for the cold. 75 degree Christmas feels like Christmas to me! :)

makin a list....checkin it twice!

2011-12-10T11:45:00.004-06:00

I must say that we are SO KILLING the adoption to do list! If you read my previous post a few week ago you could see how much paperwork we had left to do. But now we have NO MORE PAPERWORK LEFT!!!! I cannot think of a better Christmas gift! We are still waiting on the final draft of our homestudy to be sent to us, but as for little annoying detailed stuff that we have to run all over town gathering...we are done, done, done! :) Yesterday Lance took a half day so that he could get his physical, "good conduct" letter from the sheriff's office, and we both go lots and lots of shots! We decided to go ahead and get all of our immunizations now since some of them take 6 months or so to complete the series. So once we get our home study back we will apply for immigration and then we will be SO close to being on a waiting list for our baby girl. Once we are on a waiting list it could be as soon as 2-3 months that we get a referral. It could be much longer as well, but we are hoping for sooner! :) Our agency doesn't have a waiting list right now, which is rare for Ethiopia at this time, so we are hoping that means little Jane will be here decked out in red and green by next Christmas. Another random thought, I was looking on pinterest and looking at all of the cute 1st birthday party ideas moms put up and it hit me that little Jane will be quickly approaching 1 when we get her. How fun to get a baby and then get to have a big party so soon! :)

new passport photos....check!

immunizations.....check!!

Doesn't that look lovely.....they brought them in and I said..."Oh look Lance, they are on pretty little trays, this won't be bad at all!" hehe

Happy Saturday! We are laying low today, and recovering from all the shots. I feel a tiny bit nauseous and they said to expect that. But really no biggie!

3 things!!

2011-12-07T21:10:00.018-06:00

First thing: This last weekend we had so much fun at the Goforth's land! Ed and Donna (some great friends), have some land outside of Houston and they needed some of their cedar trees cut down AND were awesome and came up with the idea of having Lance and some awesome friends go out and cut down trees starting bright and early Saturday morning to raise some money for the adoption! They worked almost all day and I think had some fun with their chainsaws! They went out Friday night and Donna had them lots of yummy snacks and then made them a huge breakfast and lunch that day. Me, my mom and Betho went out later that afternoon and got everything ready for dinner, celebrated my Dad's b-day and even made s'mores by the fire! It was such an awesome day!! :)

Cuties in their beanies!

no words.

Look at that little nugget. Oh my!

Max loves his uncle Lance!

I love them!

Hanging out

Payton and Martha chillin in their chairs

All ready for bed!

Happy Birthday Dad! We love you!!

Cute Donna and my cute mom fixing up dinner!! Just love them!
Festive little spread!
Awesome tree

Lance and Jason after a hard days work!

All the worker bees on the porch taking a break

Second thing: Baby Girl Agan officially has a name!! We have had this named picked out for some time now, however I never officially announced it! We wanted her to feel connected to us in a special way and decided to give her our names. SO we combined our middle names, and we are naming her Jane Jordan Agan. So for those that are praying for this sweet baby, you can now pray for her by name! We are so hoping that little Jane Jordan is with us next Christmas! We love you so much little Jane!

Third thing: Here are a few pics of our new casa! We still have some work to do, but I think its starting to look like home! :)

Guest room.....come on over!! :)

Most important room of the house! Baby girl we CANNOT wait to be sneaking down the hall to peek at your cute little self in your crib! Can't wait to decorate and make this room cute for her!
Baby girl's/guest bathroom!
Master bath.....we plan on painting but I haven't gotten there yet.
Master bedroom. I plan on stenciling this wall. Probably a project for after Christmas!
Kitchen
Breakfast room
Family room
another view
Dining room....don't have a dining room table yet so we have our guest room furniture in there!
Living room
Study

The fog has lifted

2011-12-06T15:42:00.006-06:00

I have been away from blogging for a few weeks b/c I have been in kind of a fog. I have just had a lot on my plate dealing with life. Not that I have been going through anything traumatic or awful, but sometimes life has weeks or months that a harder or busier than others and this has been one of those times.

I have come to the conclusion that Adoption is really hard. We are in the midst of reading the books required by our agency and I cannot tell you how many times I come across the words "at risk", "sensory integration disorder", "anger outbursts", and "attachment issues". I'm not going to lie. The first three chapters of my first book are now covered with tears. I was initially shocked at the words "at risk" that were popping out multiple times on every page of one book in particular. At risk? Why is she at risk? Then as I continued to read I realized that yes, she is "At risk", but so are all of us. Yes, she will need healing and love and a bit of extra care in the beginning. But so do all of us. Yes, her scars may run deep. But this is not something we can't overcome. Our little baby girl is going to be loved by us, and taken care of, and will have to endure all of her crazy mother's attachment antics (believe me this little chica is going to attach to us!), but in the end we are not in charge, capable, or in control of her "healing". We are going to leave that to the ultimate healer, who makes all things perfect in his time! All babies are "at risk" because they are born into a scary, imperfect world and are given to imperfect people. I have decided that our little one is not so different than the others. She will be a blessing and a challenge, but try to find one mother with biological children that hasn't endured challenges as well. All babies are challenging blessings!! :)

God has taken me from terrified, to cautious, to anxiously optimistic, to excited and prayerful!! I am grateful that God has cleared my mind and allowed the fog to be lifted!!

Also, we had a wonderful weekend doing a little outdoor, tree chopping fundraiser that was called, "Texas Chainsaw massacre-bringing home baby Agan." Left my camera, but will post pics when I get it back!!

Timeline

2011-11-20T23:22:00.008-06:00

Lots of people have been asking me about the timeline for our adoption. Considering the number of kiddos needing a home it has been shocking to people to hear how long it takes. Don't worry, I was shocked at first too! But here is where we stand and here is what we have left to do before becoming a family of 3!

DONE:
Locating an agency we feel comfortable with- check
Initial paperwork filled out and notarized- check
Initial phone interview with agency- check
Initial acceptance into the Ethiopia program- check
Location of an out of state home study agency (our agency is based in Alabama so we were on our own here)- check
Initial paperwork filled out an notarized for home study agency- check
Social worker matched with us- check
Location of all marriage licenses, birth certificates, passports, income tax returns, and photos of our home- check
Three letters of recommendation sent to home study agency and three letters sent to us for dossier paperwork- check
First home study visit- check

In process:

*Gathering financial statements from both of our jobs
*Guardianship forms if we were to die in Ethiopia (kind of made me laugh imagining betho with our little cutie)
*Gathering good standing letters from our bank( this has been a chore! I actually lost it a teeny bit with a bank of America rep and told her I was disappointed that such a large agency was not supportive of helping orphaned children find homes. Dealing with the bank has been the single most difficult thing yet as far as paperwork goes! And it's not bc our credit is bad or we have debt or something. They have just been SO hard to deal with!)
*i600 application (form allowing us to travel to become the legal guardians of an orphan- it takes 5-12 weeks to process)

Still to do:

*letters proving health coverage
*letters proving life insurance
*new passport photos
*bank letter notarized ( this may literally take an act of God)
*lots of finished paperwork notarized (no biggie)
*final homestudy visit
*8 hours of education
*2 hour Internet seminar
*2 books to read
*have dossier finalized and home study finalized and notarized and sent to agency head quarters and to Washington DC
*send in completed i600a and wait for approval and fingerprinting appointment
*physicals

SO once this is all completed, and our goal is Dec 10th, we will send it all in and wait for approval. This should take around 6 weeks. Once we are approved we will get fingerprinted and this will take around 4 weeks to be approved.

THEN we are officially waiting for a referral!!!!! This takes around 3-6 months. Once we get our referral( which is a pic of our baby and any history they have) we say yes or no. Of course we will say YES. Once we say yes, we wait for a court date in Ethiopia. The wait for a court date is around 2 months right now. We will then go to Ethiopia and meet our baby and deal with some legal stuff.

We will then very very very very very sadly be sent home and await another court date to return to Ethiopia and appear in court one more time and pick up our baby and finally bring her home!! They wait between court dates right now is 8-12 weeks.

Many have asked me how old our baby will be. We are hoping for an infant and feel pretty confident that we will be referred a young baby. However, as you can see there are several months tied up in legal stuff so some time will pass between the time we see our babies first picture and actually have her home I Sugar Land. Likely 5 months or so. We are guessing she will be closer to 8-9 months old when we get her home.

So in a nutshell (ha!), we are about about 2 months from being on the waiting list and then we will be about 9 months from baby Agan being home. We hope we will have her in less than 12 months, however I think that 12 "ish" months is a realistic estimate. But what's a year in the big scheme of things right!?

Happy week everyone!! It's almost time for Thanksgiving! What are you thankful for?? I know what we are thankful for around here!!

Thankful #4

2011-11-17T22:04:00.007-06:00

Family vacations!! I have amazing parents (will definitely post about that soon) and they have always taken us on amazing vacations!! A couple years age they took us on an amazing Christmas vacy to Costa Rica! I was reminded of this trip a couple days ago. Betho sent me an email that said, "Thought you might need a good laugh!" I laughed hard!! The picture of us laughing after I was "saved" makes me smile! I just LOVE all of those people!

Look at my sweet mom trying to save me! And look at my sweet husband.....ummm.....not exactly noticing! Betho said she was ducking down because she didn't want to watch me die. Sure! Thanks mom for taking one for the team! :)

I am thankful that we have been lucky enough to go on vacations and see other parts of the world!

Happy Weekend!

Thankful #3

2011-11-16T21:18:00.012-06:00

Thankful that I now have an excuse to buy an American Girl doll for a daughter!!! I had years and years of fun with my American girl doll, Molly! Now our daughter will have her very own American girl doll too!! All these dolls have a story and a history making up all the different kinds of girls that have lived in America. I want to write the American Girl people and suggest that they invent an adopted American Girl! A little girl, born in Ethiopia, that came all the way across the world to live in America and meet her new family. Sounds good right!? I think in this day in age an internationally adopted, Ethiopian/American girl doll would be quite appropriate! I'll let you know if they take my idea. I'm sure they will. :)

"Cecile"

"Addy"

"Molly"

Thankful #2

2011-11-15T21:12:00.008-06:00

I thought I would write one thing I am thankful for everyday until Thanksgiving. I guess my friend post yesterday can count as #1. So here is #2. MY SISTER. I just love her. I feel so bad for those that don't get to experience life with a twin. I could post for days about my best friend. Even though we live in different cities, we have still managed to be in each others daily lives thanks to facetime! She still spends most nights hanging out with me on the couch....at least for a few minutes!! Love you nuggie!! Thankful for you!! Miss you everyday!! Hippie dress up day!

Now we both got BLING!

Mother/Daughter Cruise

"Fish Are Friends Not Food" and "Do You Want Fried With That!?"

Costa Rica

Being weird and staging a hippie wedding. We posted these on face book and people actually facebook messaged me telling Betho "Congrats on her beautiful wedding!"

Leaving me in Lubbock for grad school. Such a sad day!!

First pic with Betho as "Mommy!!"

Christmas Photo Shoot 2010

Gender Reveal. Max or Juliette!?

"Bling" party!

Quick photo at a friends wedding

Mexico 2010!!

Lubbock visit!

Posing at the mall :)

Friend's dress rehearsal

Summer fun!

Friends

2011-11-14T22:54:00.015-06:00

We have some amazing friends, and have realized this now more than ever!! I mean seriously generous friends!! We prayed that God would put people in our lives that would help support us mentally, financially and just with time and company when we needed a mental break from all the adoption stuff. God has POURED out his love and support for us through friends! We literally have checks rolling in night after night, people calling, texting, and praying for us daily!! This is largely because of our friends, but really because God put it on these friends hearts to support us in lots of ways!! We feel SO loved and SO blessed to have friends like we have!! So, all of you amazing friends out there, We love you and are SOOOOOO thankful for the support you guys have given us already! I also MUST mention that we now have enough money towards the adoption to cover everything on the U.S. end. We still have a long way to go, but are 100% covered as far as fees go up until we get our referral for our baby. This means we have lots of months to get the rest of the funding. Our friends are awesome. God is awesome. He is providing for us in abundance!! This picture is special to me. I drove to Del Rio a couple of months ago for a wedding with these wonderful friends. This was the first weekend that I told everyone about the adoption and these two girls were SO supportive! Michelle (on the right) shares my heart for adoption. She just gets it. It was such a great 6 hour drive. Talking about plans for our families, babies, lives and everything else!

Suburbia

2011-11-13T23:18:00.004-06:00

Only have time for a quick post and I can't upload pics from my iPad so they will have to come to tomorrow. But we are officially in our house. I L.O.V.E the suburbs!! I know people that know me well are probably shocked to hear these words come out of my mouth, but it's true!! I love getting up and saying good morning to the neighbors, I love having a yard, I love love love the space and I love being so close to church. A neighbor actually came over today with 3 handmade oven mitts, cookies and fudge to welcome us to the hood! So yea, I was meant for suburbia! Our house is looking good and all of our stuff is up! We definitely have some blank walls and empty rooms, but it's ok! It is so exciting to know that this is the house where we will start our family! These are the tubs that will wash little chunky arms and legs, this is the kitchen where I will make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for my kids and this is the living room where we will read stories and watch movies!! I can't wait to see the memories that unfold in this house!!!

On a different note, this little slice of suburban heaven has given me a serious little commute in the morning. So I must go to bed. House pics coming tomorrow!

Happy week ahead!!

Fall happenings!

2011-11-05T00:13:00.010-05:00

Halloween this year was fun! I haven't really done the whole dressing up thing for a while, but this year we had a couple of good excuses! One of our friends had a Halloween themed 30th b-day and then the next weekend some friends had a little dress up party too. We found this Bee Keeper costume for Lance and thought it was hilarious! However, it took some work to find a bee costume that covered my, well lets be honest, booty. The costumes now are insanely teensie!! I was in shock. Most things that I tried on were so hoochie mama that I couldn't even leave the dressing room to show Lance! But we found one eventually!

Me and my little nun sister!
The bee keeper, bee, nun and munk. A very eclectic group! :)

And best of all, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Max!! Oh I just love that little spider!

On Saturday, we headed out first thing in the morning to be at a 10am shower in Dallas. One of our sweet friends is having a baby girl and we definitely didn't wanna miss out on celebrating little baby Jayde Marie Miller! Don't have pics of that b/c camera cord is in a box somewhere! It was SO fun, and SO fun to have a girls day with my sis and see some of my best friends! I wish Dallas was closer sometimes!

On another totally different note, November is adoption month! It's crazy how engaging the adoption world is, and I already feel like the whole idea of adoption is just a part of me! Our church doesn't do Orphan Sunday stuff, but we will be going to First Baptist in Houston Sunday evening to an Orphan Sunday event. I think my parents are going to come with us too! I can't wait to meet other adoptive families in the Houston area!

Without going into too much detail, I have to give God some serious glory for somethings that have been happening around here! We had our first little adoption hump to overcome and we prayed prayed prayed and God came in and blessed us with MORE than we could have imagined. I was moved to tears by the love, and generosity of our church family and friends this week! It was just a great reminder that God is in control and listens and responds to our prayers!

This week as I was struggling with trusting that God would provide I prayed, "Ok God, here is my mustard seed. I wish I had more than a mustard seed to bring to you right now but I don't. So please take this tiny seed and move a mountain" and guess what!? He did! Duh. When will I learn!

If I have said this one time I will say it 1,000 times. But I just can't believe how blessed I am that God has chosen me to watch over this little baby and be her mommy. I have had several friends express their "sadness" for me over not having biological children yet. I think this is a normal reaction. And I would be lying if I didn't admit that somedays I think "will it ever happen to me?" I know adoption is a bit weird and hard to understand, and I don't expect people to. The only way I can think to describe it is that when God plants a desire in your heart, it fills it up. My heart is full of love for this baby. God has literally "turned my mourning into dancing and my sorrow into joy".

Biological blonde babies or curly head little brown cuties are all fine by me!!

Remember the 147 million little souls this month. Pray for them daily. If I am learning anything in this process, I am learning that God listens to the prayers of his children! :)

Happy Weekend! We are moving TOMORROW!!! The next time I post I will officially be a suburbanite!

Keep Calm & Carry On

2011-11-01T09:25:00.009-05:00

Last night as Lance and I were going to sleep on our couch (both sneezing & coughing and drugged up on allergy meds), wedged between piles of adoption paper work, half packed boxes, dismantled bed frames, mattresses leaning against the walls, and the contents of all of our kitchen cabinets piled as far as you can see, he prayed, "Dear God, please help us to keep calm and carry on with our lives as best possible". I had to chuckle at the sheer chaos of our lives right now! That picture came to mind and I think we just may need to buy it and hang it above the mantle in our new house! Everything we have going on is such a blessing. We are crazy busy with our jobs. Blessing! Crazy busy with moving into our house. Blessing! Crazy busy with our adoption. SUPER DUPER AMAZING BLESSING! But, these blessings are also making us tired! Bring it on God, this phase of our lives will definitely bring glory to you if this A.D.D girl is still standing at the end of 2012, baby in arms, still employed and with a house that actually has furniture and pictures hanging on the walls!

Baby bedding!

2011-10-31T09:03:00.006-05:00

I know I am jumping the gun due to the fact that we are just about to start our home study (e.g., social worker comes in and checks us out) and have months ahead before we are holding our baby. BUT I just can't help but browse baby bedding! A baby girl sleeping in my house in her beautiful pink bedding has been a dream of mine for a loooooong time and I can't wait to see that little brown head poking out of her pink and white crib in the morning! Here are the ones I love! I like the soft pinks and antique looking old school stuff!! So excited! I can't wait to create a pretty room for my baby girl to come home to!! She soooo deserves some ruffles!! Who doesn't!? These are the two I like right now!

I Love My Hair

2011-10-24T22:28:00.004-05:00

I have been doing a bit of research on how in the world I am going to do this little ones hair. I am actually going to a conference in January and they have some "just for fun" sessions and the one I signed up for is African hair care. I also have a friend from work that has been telling me about the PROCESS involved in doing African American hair. It's a far cry from the the 5 minute brush, add some curl spray, and shake with a towel I do every morning! BUT she showed me this video and I laughed so hard!! For any one who knows me well you know, biological or not, my child will be a spaz! This little spastic puppet made me laugh so hard! I can so see myself blasting this video and performing the moves along with the lyrics for our daughter on days when she "hates" her hair!
Enjoy!

A girls gotta have some clothes!

2011-10-23T18:37:00.005-05:00

I realized I never actually posted about the gender of the child we will be adopting. We went into this with no intention of specifying a gender. However, after some prayer and other factors that I probably won't blog about, we are officially adopting a little girl!!!! When this decision became official I just had to go out and get baby girl some clothes! Aren't those little jeans and that tiny bow JUST THE CUTEST!! :)

Oh Lance, you have no idea the world you are walking into!! But, such a cute daddy already!! :)

Why Ethiopia

2011-10-17T20:23:00.009-05:00

Why are we adopting from Ethiopia of all places? Well let me tell you!

We went into this whole thing with the intentions of adopting from Uganda. I LOVE the people there and always imagined our family consisting of a Ugandan or two (maybe someday it will). Without going into too much detail we did a lot of research about Uganda and the children and came to the conclusion that, yes, there are thousands of children without families. There are children of all ages available for adoption with the majority of the need being kids over 4. I would sit on the computer and look at waiting child postings (not just in Uganda but here in Texas) and sob looking at the little faces dressed in their best clothes hoping someone would notice them and bring them home. A literally gut wrenching painful reality that leaves a knot in my stomach just typing it. I began to slowly have my eyes opened to a real life crisis not just across the world but right here in the US! And when I say crisis I mean CRISIS!!!

This is a bad thing y'all. I learned that there are about 147 million children that do not have a mom and dad to tuck them in at night. 147 million children that have never had a hug from mommy and daddy, never had a hot meal and never had a bed to call their own. 147 million children that have no sense of security, safety, our love! 147 million little babies that would do anything to have a mommy to squeeze tight at the end of the day and a daddy to show them off to his friends. 147 million innocent lives at risk of being victimized, abused, starved or worse.

As I looked at my precious little nephew and so many of my friends children I began to get angry at the harshness of this world. While these babies are being rocked to sleep in snugglie blankets and watching baby Einstein, 147 million others are starved for love and affection not to mention literally starving for their basic needs to be met. Just not fair!! So how could we help!? We don't really have much extra money. We don't have a big house. I drive a beetle, I couldn't even fit 1 baby in that car! Those were just a few of the things I was dwelling on. In reality we are rich compared to most of the world, we have a bigger house than most people in the world and we own two cars free of debt while the majority if the world doesn't even own one car! Not sure how I got so out of touch with reality but I'm glad God was able to bust through my shallowness!

So we are officially adopting but don't know for sure from where. We learn that it will be rather hard to get an infant from Uganda right around the time that we learn we are having some fertility issues of our own. I selfishly want to experience raising a baby and want Lance and I to go through that together. This is a very hard thing for me to admit b/c I often still feel like I am turning my back on the precious 8 year old girl in the red dress with matching red bows. If I wont be her mommy who will?! These things still leave me laying up at night. We learned that there are millions of orphans in Ethiopia as well, and that there are often young babies available for adoption. We did the initial interview with the Ethiopia people and I asked her if there was a bigger need in Ethiopia or Uganda and she said, "Where there is one orphan there is a need". So true! This was so good to hear and reinforced that it doesn't matter where of how you are helping as long as you are helping. We prayed for about a month about it and decided Ethiopia it was.

We are not changing the world by any means and aren't even putting a dent in the orphan crisis, but at least we know one baby will have a chance to know Jesus and feel like they belong! Ohhh sooo excited just thinking about squishing this little one!!! So there you have it. So excited to finally see the family that God has planned for us! So glad He has opened our eyes!! :)

If you say, "But we knew nothing about this," does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?"
Proverbs 24:12

New Job!!

2011-10-15T11:16:00.006-05:00

I know I said I would do a post on "why Ethiopia" and I will be doing that soon! Hopefully tomorrow. We have been SO incredibly busy moving into the house and dealing with what we have learned is called the adoption "paper chase" and a "paper chase" it is!!! You would not believe the amount of documents required and it seems like each group we are working with (e.g., social worker, agency....) need the exact same things. I feel like I am repeating the same forms over and over. BUT it's ok!! We are HAPPY to do it! :)

The real reason for today's post is to share the exciting news that Lance got a new job. I haven't posted all that much about Lance's job journey on here, but in a nutshell, he has pretty much been looking for a job since he graduated with his Master's last May. He has been working as a fitness manager/personal trainer at 24 hour fitness for over a year and we are so grateful that he was able to do that. However, it was a highly commission based job with pretty bad hours, ok awful hours. We never saw each other and it was just not great.

Last week after a LONG year 1/2 of interiews he accepted a management position with the YMCA in Katy and will be overseeing all of their fitness programs. It is a fixed income type of thing so we won't have to deal with the unknowns of a commission based job anymore. This is particularly exciting for me b/c although I will still have to work a bit, it will give me a better idea of how much (or little hehe) I will be working once baby girl comes!

We are also working working working trying to fix up our new casa! We love the house, but it really needed some help to make "home". Without a lot of extra money to spend I will be hitting up pinterest a lot to see other peoples CUTE decoration ideas. Speaking of Pinterest, it won't let me on and I have to use Betho's account. I think they are full or something. Wierd!

So as you can probably see we are keeping ourselves pretty busy around here. Hoping we still have a few friends by the end of this year b/c we haven't had a while lot of time for socializing lately! Bear with us guys!! :)

Until next time.......

Our coffee site!!!!

2011-10-06T19:46:00.005-05:00

Lance and I just set up our coffee site to raise money to bring little baby Agan home!!! The organization we are working with is called "Just Love Coffee" and they are awesome. They help support not only adoptive families, but also help to support the economy of third world countries where coffee is one of their main exports. We will be given $5 from every coffee sale and are hoping to raise enough money to pay our first agency fee of $2,900. This is yummy, good quality stuff! So, if you are a lover of coffee then stop by our page and grab a bag!! If you like it don't forget to tell a friend! Click here to go to our site.

Much love,

Kayla, Lance & Baby A :-)

Why Adoption? Why Ethiopia?

2011-10-05T23:21:00.007-05:00

I'm sure several of you are wondering why in the world we are adopting a baby and why we are adopting a baby from Ethiopia.

Since I am a very forthcoming person I would be happy to share our little story with the blog world. I also want to document this so that when, God willing, we have our little one, we can look back at the journey.

So here we go, bear with me.

It all started in the summer of 2003 when I went on a mission trip to Uganda with my church youth group. At this point in my life I thought I was walking with the Lord, however my faith and relationship with God was less than ideal. It involved a lot of me asking God for things when I needed them and half heatedly hoping that maybe he heard me. I did not walk with God on a daily basis. All this to give you just a small picture of my small faith at that point in my life. However, I will NEVER forget the day when God told me I would be adopting a baby. We were on a safari after spending some time in a small village with lots of children a few days earlier and I heard God say to me (not audibly-but in my heart) that I would be returning to Africa one day to adopt a baby. Looking back, I am so thankful that God forced his way through my rebellious, stubborn 18 year old self to reveal one of his plans for me. Years went by and many life seasons, and spiritual highs and lows came and went. However, one thing never changed and that was that I was destined for adoption, and knew that Jesus gave me a tiny piece of his heart when it came to caring for those in less than ideal circumstances.

Fast forward 5"ish" years and I was now a year into marriage, with a hubby that is one of the most kind and compassionate people I have ever met in my life. I casually mention adoption and he isn't so sure. I decided that if God wanted us to adopt a baby, he would place it on both of our hearts so I silenced my mouth for the next two years or so and prayed. Sure enough, with no prompting by me, Lance told me that he thought adoption was a good fit for our family and that he would love to begin praying about whether or not we should adopt first or have biological children. However, no real answer was heard. We decided that we should have biological babies first and then adopt later. After a couple years of no babies, one surgery, and 2 different doctors giving me a perfect bill of health we decided that our infertility was not "infertility" at all. Around that time I began having dreams and hearing verses in my mind that I did not even know existed. Odd I know but it really began happening to me. I would find myself singing a verse I had never even heard before in the shower and 9 times out of 10 it had something to do with adoption! After lots and lots of prayer, tears, questioning, and just an overall desire to live out God's will for our life, we decided adoption it is!!

It is crazy how God's word is filled with adoption. He adopted us when we did not deserve it. He loved us unconditionally when we were unlovable and he accepted us when we were unacceptable. Jesus sought out the lonely, broken and different and calls us to do the same. What God has been telling me over and over the past couple of weeks is that our time on earth is short. Really, really short. It is our job to do the best that we can and show as much love as we can for the short time that God has allowed us to be here. This is the most important thing in life. We are here to show the love of Christ to others and bring him glory and honor through our lives. This we need to focus on first and make our main job. The rest will fall into place. :)

So there is the story of how we came to adoption. This is much, much longer than I anticipated so I will post on "Why Ethiopia" tomorrow.

Here are today's prayer requests:

1. Please pray for our babies first months of development if she has been conceived and for the health of her mother. Please pray specifically that her parents (specifically her mother) are praying for her and somehow come to know Jesus is they don't yet. Many Ethiopian orphans are orphaned due to death of their parents. I want our child to be reunited with her biological family one day in heaven! :)

2. Please pray for our initial paperwork and application fees. We know God will not let something like money get in the way of adoption, but it is a looming cloud right now.

3. Please pray for Lance & I to stay organized and on top of things. We also just closed on our house and are spending lots of hours working on that!

4. Please pray that the Ethiopian courts stay open. They close for the months of Sept & Oct and no one ever knows what will happen with adoption when they re-open.

Ok that's all for now.

Thanks for checkin in......

News!!

2011-10-04T21:05:00.003-05:00

We are so excited to announce that we are adopting a baby from Ethiopia!! This has been something we have been praying about for a couple years now and after God doing a big work on our hearts, we are doing it!!

We still desire to have biological children and believe that we will in God's time. But we feel confident that this is exactly where we are supposed to be right now!!

We have chosen to give this 100% over to God and we have faith that we will be provided for and protected throughout this process. The more we learn about the ins and outs of international adoption, the more we realize that this is going to be quite the journey and we aren't taking any of it lightly. We know challenges lay ahead! However, we are ready and can't wait to grow closer to God and grow stronger in our faith.

God has already started giving us wonderful signs that HE is with us in this. We know that God loves adoption and we feel so blessed that he is choosing to grow our family by blessing us with a little munchkin from afar!!

Please check my blog frequently, as I will be posting prayer request for our little one. It is an odd feeling having NO control whatsoever over this child but it leaves us with no option but to put this little life, and its prenatal development and safety completely in God's hands.

I will also be writing more later on why we are adopting, why it's Ethiopia and all that good stuff.

We are super excited to get going on this crazy journey! Keep checkin in......

RADICAL

2011-09-17T20:12:00.013-05:00

I posted a few weeks ago about a book I read, Radical by David Platt. If you haven't read it, I strongly suggest that you go to the closest book store or hop onto amazon.com a get this book.

In a nutshell, this book talks about how our faith, the commands given to us in the bible, and just how our overall relationship with God gets very mixed up in our "American" culture. It talks about the very real and often unavoidable struggles between the things of our culture and how it affects our Christian walk and purpose here on earth. Don't worry, it's not one of those books that says all wealth is evil and that we need to sell everything we own. However, it has definitely helped me refocus on what is and what isn't important and how I should be using what I have been given for the betterment of the world and people around me. Not only because that's what we should probably do as Christians, but because it is in fact what we have been COMMANDED to do. Its crazy how easily I forget things of such high importance!

It's awesome, encouraging and a must read!!! It has really encouraged me to get into the word and really hear and do what it says!! Read it and tell me what you think! I would love to hear how other people receive this book!!

On another note, I just LOVE my fam!! The Girods are here this weekend (Betho was here all week chillin with my Mom while my dad was out of the country) and Cody got here yesterday. We had a GREAT day today! They came over this afternoon, we headed to Barnaby's (my FAV) for lunch and then came back over here and put little Maxieboo down for a nap in my room. We created the coziest little nap time environment for him, consisting of 3 fans, 4 comforters for his palate, and then 2 baby blankets to cuddle with. I mean he was living in luxury. However, he did not see it that way and after a mere 20 minutes of snoozing his cute little head popped up and he was wide awake for the rest of the afternoon. He is a little sick with his first cold (break my heart-depressing) so I think he was a bit out of sorts. But that's ok, he joined our party. We made a huge spread of hummis, cheese, grapes, turkey, chocolate and chocolate wine and all watched football! We thought chocolate wine was going to be the best thing ever and it was, in our opinion, almost un-drinakble. It was so weird and I can still taste it lingering in my mouth! Gross!!

I just love them. Can't wait until they can actually move here and we can do this kind of thing every weekend. Having a twin and then having her marry one of your husband's best friends is just the best thing ever!! Once we get our house (which is is 2 weeks!) I am going to get a pack and play and a rocking chair so Max can have slumber parties with Aunt KK & Uncle L!

Tomorrow we have church and then small group lunch/football watching. It should be a great day!! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Football season!

2011-09-12T18:24:00.005-05:00

I think I post this same post every year, and think one of these years that it is going to get better. But unfortunantly my opinion of football has not changed over the past several years. I mean I am SO bored! No matter what I do I cannot find the joy or fun in watching a football game and I can usually find fun in anything!! I need some advice on how to embrace the fun of fall football b/c everyone else seems to love it but me!? Am I just wierd!? I just do not see the appeal in any way what so ever!

However, now that we have a house I can probably fill the hours with fun little chores and crafts!! Anyone out there who feel the same is more than welcome to come over and make cookies and decorate!! :)

Happy Monday! Glad it's about behind us! :)

Blessed regardless of my circumstances

2011-09-11T23:45:00.004-05:00

This has been one of those weeks where I have been having a little personal pity party over some things that have been going on in my life. The good thing is that I know my self worth is not measured by my accomplishments, good traits, bad traits, life stages or anything in between. My self worth lies in the fact that I was fearfully and wonderfully made by my heavenly father and was made in His image. I was created to be a light on this earth and walk around on my two feet, day in and day out living out my life to show God's glory here on this earth. One thing I know for sure is that I was not put on this earth to be bitter and entitled. I want the life that God has predestined for me since the beginning of time. I want to stand at the gates of heaven and hear, "Well done my good and faithful servant" and what I want more than that is for as many others as possible to stand with me at that gate and hear that same thing, because I allowed God to do a work through me and brought others to him!!

I am so blessed to have the life I have. Its overwhelming at times that I have been given so much. I know that "to those who are given much, much is expected", and I pray that I will never get in the way of what God expects from me because of my own silly emotions and occasional pity parties. Plus pity parties suck and are depressing! No thanks!!!

We sang this at church this morning. God speaks to me daily through songs. He must know how my brain works and how I retain scripture. He spoke to me today through this song.

Every blessing you pour out I turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in Lord, still I will say, blessed be the name of the lord, blessed be your name Jesus. Blessed me the name of the lord, blessed be your glorious name!! He gives and takes away, He gives and takes away.
My heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be your name!

He has given me much and has taken little. My heart will CHOOSE to say blessed be your name Jesus until I am standing you in heaven one day!! :)

Boston!

2011-09-08T21:22:00.009-05:00

Boston is:

Chowder eating.....

Monument hiking....whew....

Statue looking.....

Pizza sharing....

Window Shopping........

Canolli eating....

new culture exploring......

Baseball watching......

scenery loving......

musket shooting learning......

knowledge gaining....

food smelling....

lots of walking.....

hot dog eating.....

American history touring.....

Italian food eating......

bed and breakfasting"ing"......

Whale watching.....

Witch hunting in Salem......

Dunkin Donut eating......

&

MUCH MORE!!

Boston is AWESOME. It is so clean and beautiful. Filled with history, great food, you can get everywhere on foot or on a subway, and it has endless things to do. We had such a wonderful time learning all about the history of the town, eating lots and lots in the "North End" which is like a little Italy, going to Chinatown, whale watching, and going to Fernway to watch Texas kill the Red Sox. We stayed in the most beautiful bed and breakfast and filled every second of our trip with fun!! I would recommend Boston to anyone who is looking for a fun, interesting, relaxing, exciting vacation!

Vacay, must read book and precious little Sophie Tate!

2011-08-28T22:00:00.013-05:00

Lance & I leave for Boston soon and I am so excited!! A little break from the 110 degree weather, and the never ending mental and physical "work" that comes with my job will be SO nice!! We have actually never been on a trip with just the two of us before and I can't wait.

So far we have lots of fun things lined up. We will be driving to a little town outside Boston to go whale watching, going to a Rangers game at Fenway, doing the Freedom Trail, touring some of the old historic neighborhoods, and lots more fun stuff!! I have been an extreme nerd and have researched all the stuff we will be doing and then made Lance listen to me read about all of it. We wouldn't want to show up somewhere and not know the history! hehe! :) I was a little worried that Boston would be under water by now but I think we are in the clear!

I am going on an electronic hiatus and turning off my phone for the entire week! I don't want to risk seeing an email from work and then worrying about having to deal with anything, plus I just want to remember how it feels to not be connected 24/7 and just worry about hanging out with my hubby and enjoying our vacation together!!

When we get home we will be getting very close to the big move! We have a wedding or something almost every weekend in Sept. so the move is going to be here before we know it. I can't believe we will be living in Sugar Land in a few months. It still kind of makes me chuckle to myself. :)

On a different note I am reading a book called RADICAL by David Platt and it is a MUST READ!! I will post more on how that book has completely moved me and made me really re-evaluate some of the commands given to us in the Bible! It is awesome. I read some of it out loud to Lance all the way to the woodlands today b/c I just couldn't keep it to myself. On that note, we were driving to the Woodlands to meet Jamie & Jay's (Jamie is my cousin) little baby Sophie Tate Blackburn. She is adorable. So dainty and girly! I held her for hours while she cuddled on my shoulder. She is just soooo sweet!! Enjoy a pic of this little angel!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend and has a wonderful week! :)

We got a house!

2011-08-23T20:05:00.003-05:00

We found out yesterday that will officially be home owners on Sept. 30th!! Yipee!! Isn't it cute!? We are really excited about this new little venture. We will be doing lots of painting and a few big projects and I can't wait to get in there and get started. I walked around home depot today for an hour and realized I have no idea how to make sure your floors match your cabinets and your counter tops match your walls etc. etc. But I'm sure I will figure it out with a little help from my "decorative" friends! :) I will post inside pics when we are officially the owners!!

Wish me luck on the commute. We will be moving to Sugar Land and I work about 30 miles from the house. That part is a bit depressing but I think it will be worth the little drive!

Home buying...stressful or exciting??

2011-08-03T21:53:00.002-05:00

So, I guess Lance and I are grown ups now b/c we are actually looking at buying a house soon! I never thought I would move to Sugar Land unless I could get a home in "Old Sugar Land" (aka-the first neighborhood in Sugar Land, streets of charming little houses, huge trees, elementary school on the street, all built in the early 1900's) and sure enough one came up for sale!! Lance and I have both seen the house but have unfortunately never been able to go at the same time due to our crazy, clashing work schedules. BUT I am going one final time tomorrow and we are hopefully going to sign a contract and see if it is meant to be for us to live there. I am hoping so b/c I love the house, however when we decided tonight that we wanted to go ahead and put an offer on the house I almost threw up! It's scary to think of all the things that could go wrong in a house this old, and although it has been updated like crazy, I have grown accustomed to being able to call the apartment complex and have them fix any problem we may have free of charge. But I must say, I have definitely fantasized about walking my kids to their first day of kindergarten from that house! SO we shall see......wish us luck! :)

Back to reality.

2011-07-05T22:40:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow I go back to work. A little worried b/c I went to Kroger today and got so fatigued and winded that I thought I may have to take a little nap by the water misting on the lettuce and broccoli! I feel much better as far as pain goes but am still definitely not 100% myself. But, I'm sure it will all only get better.

Good bye movies, ice-cream, angry birds, and never ending episodes of "Friends". You have been so good to me the past seven days!

Wish me luck tomorrow as I get back into my routine of busy busy busy. I know everyone is busy, but it's just so hard to mentally switch gears when I have been laying low for a week.

Not much else going on around here.

Happy almost Wednesday! :)

Sitting on the couch, eating milk duds.

2011-07-02T14:35:00.012-05:00

Yep, the name of this post sums up my week so far. But yes, there is a reason for all the sitting and eating! :)

For several months now my doctor has been suspecting that I have a condition called "endometriosis" which probably lots of people know about because it really seems to be extremely common right now. In a nutshell, it is a condition where tissue that is supposed to be in one place in the body is growing somewhere else. Since this tissue is not where it is supposed to be it causes lots of problems including stomach pain, backaches, infertility.....you name it. The tricky thing about this disease is that the only way it can be diagnosed is by surgery. Bethany found out that she had it last year and had it removed. My doctor said that based on my symptoms and the fact that I had an identical twin with the disease, that he would guess I had about a 90% chance of having it as well. I was not buying it and actually deferred surgery twice. Probably not the smartest decision I have ever made. However, after being sick and tired of the chronic pain I was beginning to be in, I decided to just do it!

I went in for the surgery Wednesday morning and prayed a specific prayer for a very smooth morning, where everything happened on time, and that I would have a supernatural sense of peace throughout the whole thing. God was SOOOO incredibly present the entire time and answered every specific prayer that I prayed. We got there at 6:30am, paperwork done by 7, IV in my hand by 7:30 and "byebye" Kayla by 8am on the dot. I never felt and ounce of nerves, and was actually enjoying the morning talking with all the doctors and nurses. They let Lance sit with me throughout the IV and talking with the anesthesiologist etc. etc. and it was just not bad at all. Before I knew it I was in recovery with my sweet husband standing over me with my water. Side note- Lance is SOOO sweet. I told him that I wanted my own drink when I woke up and that I would really like to not have to wait on something to drink since I had been warned by Betho that you are dying of thirst when you get up and that it sometimes takes a while for them to get to you. I had to smile when the first thing I saw was Lance hovering over me, with my personal cup in hand filled to the brim with ice water. Thanks L! :)

Once I came to a bit more I learned that I did in fact have endometriosis and that they were able to remove it all! It was only stage 1 and my doctor said there was no scarring and that I had a "best case scenario" situation! Such a blessing! I am looking forward to no more cramps & stomach aches, not to mention the best thing of all, our chances of having a baby now are greatly improved. We were told before that we were technically "infertile". Although, I knew in my heart that I was not "infertile" it is still never something fun to hear and is a word that stings a little bit more every time you hear it! I hope to be done hearing that word forever. :)

So, now I am just recovering. It has actually been kind of fun. I don't have to worry about working, cleaning, cooking or anything. I am in some pain but it is not nearly what I thought it would be! It is still hard to stand up straight and my throat has been sore from the tube they had to put in for me to breath during the procedure, but all in all it has been ok! I have spent some fun time with my mom & dad, with one of my best friends who came over yesterday to stay with me when Lance went back to work and with Lance. Only being expected to sit on the couch and eat is pretty easy if you ask me! :)

Once again, I am overcome with how blessed I am with this life that I have!

"Before" being wheeled away! A little visitor we had the over the night before. Have you ever seen a cuter yawn?! I didn't think so.

So much to be thankful for!

2011-06-09T22:35:00.009-05:00

So a lot has been happening lately and honestly, I have just not felt like blogging at all. But in honor of my 4 year anniversary with my hub, I thought I would post a little something!

I should be saying, "Oh my goodness, I can't believe it has been 4 years. It has flown by!" But that's not how I feel. I truly feel like we have been together forever. I can hardly remember life before Lance. I can remember life before marriage, but Lance has been part of my life since I was 18, so it pretty much seems like forever. In a good way!! :)

We celebrated with a nice little night in with our fav food, tex mex of course, and a little gift exchanging. While we were cleaning up dinner I told Lance, "I can't imagine a happier life." I don't take what God has blessed me with for granted! I thank God every night before I fall asleep for my marriage and pray that it is in his plans to let us live a looooong looooong life together! I have the "too good to be true" and am so blessed and grateful for it. I am so happy that I am a "wife".

Then-2004 Now-2011

In other recent news, as you all know by now, Maxwell Stone Girod is here! I know, I know I am an awful sister for not posting earlier, but who are we kidding, people can't take this blog too seriously anymore due to the fact that I go 6 months without posting!! :) He is the most precious, wonderful little man! His arrival into this world was a bit intense, I think he may have a flare for the dramatic like his Mama! But everyone is doing great now. We are all in love with him and can't get enough. He is kinda a little chunkster and his cheeks are getting bigger by the day. Being an Aunt is the greatest thing and I can't wait to see him again soon. Lance and I are going to spoil this little man like crazy!!

As far as work goes, I am in love with my job and can't believe I get paid to do what I do. I am now working about 30ish hours a week for a pediatric, outpatient clinic. I still go into the nursing home on occasion to help out here and there when there is a need, but I pretty much spend my days with kiddos now!! I am constantly challenged at my new job and it definitely keeps me on my toes. I find myself reaching for old grad school notes daily sifting through syndromes and therapy techniques for lots of very strange stuff that I never thought I would actually work with first hand. It has been eye opening for sure! Just when I think I know it all, someone new walks into my office with a whole new set of challenges and the learning continues. However, I love love being a Speech Pathologist. It is such a blessing to help people communicate for the first time or find communication again after having lost the ability for a while! Who would have thought I would truly love a career that I initially picked b/c it didn't require any upper level math. hehe! Just kidding......kinda. ;)

Not much else going on around here, just working, enjoying church and friends and squeezing in as much time with Max as we can! I am so obsessed with him. When I had to get in my car and leave this last time I literally could not let go. Like, I was probably hurting the poor child! He is just soooooooo beyond perfection.

Ok, that's a good ending to this post.

Happy Happy almost weekend!

Fun times coming right up!! :)

2011-04-20T23:24:00.002-05:00

I am so looking forward to this weekend! I am leaving to drive to Austin tomorrow after work, staying with Betho & Cody for the night and then heading to our annual family camping trip. The funny thing about this year is that I am going alone. Lance has to be in a wedding, my parents have some things to do for the Girods, and Betho & Cody aren't looking to travel at this point in there lives, so I am just going by myself to soak in some good bonding time with family and friends I don't see everyday and miss TONS!

I will be heading back to Austin (which is only an hour away in case I have to leave sooner) Sunday morning to go back to the Girods and hang with Betho & Cody before we go to the hospital Sunday night to begin the induction! Can you believe it!? I have managed to re-schedule my clients until Wednesday at 3pm. I actually managed to re-schedule 15 clients. Thank you Jesus! It was a miracle! :) So I will be off 5.5 days from work and hopefully Max will come fast so I can spend some good time with his before going back home.

I can't wait for this fun weekend with family & Friends and can't wait to meet my nephew!! :)

Is it April 30th yet!?!?!?

2011-04-10T20:58:00.006-05:00

Hi blog world,

Sorry for the lack of posting! Although I have been pretty busy, I have mainly not been blogged b/c I am awful about taking pictures of life and who really wants to read a long post with no pictures. Facebook has made me lazy and I usually just wait for someone else to post pictures and then I steal them. Lame I know.

But for those of you who love me enough to read a pictureless post, this is for you. :)

As, most of you know Betho is going to be having little Max any day now, well probably any "week" now. I am hoping we don't have to wait until April 30th!!! I was sitting in church today holding one of my very best friend's little 2 year old and was just SO in love with her and I know its b/c I love her Mom so much. I leaned over to my friends Mom and said, "I just love her so much, she is the sweetest child I think I have ever met", her mom then replied back, "You can't even imagine how much you are going to love Max when he gets here!" I think it is just human nature to love the children of the people closest you you the most. But it was in that moment that I was just SOOOO excited and overjoyed about getting to meet little Max. Max's mom is not just my sister but my very best friend on the face of this earth! I can't even put into words the love I have for her. Our husbands like to joke that we love each other more than we love them! Which of course isn't true but I can see where they are coming from hehe. :) But all that to say, I can't even imagine how much I am going to love little Max. A little person that is a part of my sister, who she will be personally responsible for taking care of and loving and who will likely grow up using really big words and telling funny stories b/c he was raised by her!!

I know having babies is one of the most normal, maybe even mundane things in this world b/c it happens millions of times every day. Having kids is just normal. However, when you really stop and think about the miracle it is, it is a pretty amazing, wonderful thing. Almost a little bit weird and crazy that you can grow a human being and then a short nine months later here they come! Then once they are here, that's it. You are a mom and your husband is a dad and you set off on this lifelong journey with your new title of "parents" joining the millions of other people doing the exact same thing. Odd. Exciting. Such a blessing.

So, all this to say I am just so so so so excited to get to be on the sidelines watching, helping, encouraging, and loving Max when he gets here. He is so loved by so many people already and I can't wait to see him and meet this little mixture of Betho and Cody-which I must mention that due to the fact that Betho & I are identical twins and have the same DNA Max is pretty much just as much my son as Betho's (kidding of course)!

Love you Betho! Can't wait to see you as a mom and love Max and be his favorite Aunt!! Aunt Kayla & Uncle Lance have lots of room for you to come over and play!!!! :)

Twentyten

2011-01-02T22:55:00.004-06:00

2010. Started at the Paquare mountain lodge in Costa Rica. Will never forget watching fireworks from a hut in the jungle with lance. Next COMPS. AKA 12 comprehensive finals to get out of grad school. Passed, well all but one. Re-took it. Passed. Whew! Threw a baby shower. Spent time with our small group. Went on a few road trips. Went out with the girls. Scraped ice off my windows. Went to class. Studied. Went to class. Studied. Scraped ice off my windows. Took the national exam. Scariest day of my life. Waited and waited on the results. Passed! Whew! Turned 25. Mom came. It rained, snowed, hailed and sleeted. Scraped ice off my windows. Organized some field trips for my Aphasia support group. Love those people. Graduated! Cried when I said by to my friends. Parents threw me a party. Most beautiful cake I have ever seen. Worst thing we had ever tasted! Packed. Looked for a job. Lance looked for a job. Moved to Houston. Found an awesome apartment. Went to Mexico. Unpacked. Re-connected with some great church friends. Placed membership at church. Joined a women's Bible study group. Love it! Lance got promoted. Found out about 15 of my friends were pregnant. No exaggeration. Found out I was going to be an aunt! Threw a Thanksgiving party. Threw a Christmas party. Did lots of holiday stuff. Found out I was havin a nephew!! Cried! So happy!! Decorated my most beautiful tree yet, if I may say so myself. Celebrated early Christmas with my family. Fun! Celebrated with Lance's family. Fun! Went on a New Years "staycation" with my hubby to the Magnolia Hotel in Houston. Danced/sang the night away to some awesome live 80s music. Knew every song. Such a dork. Took down my wonderful tree. Threw all the Christmas decorations in the guest room and closed the door. They're still there. Uggh! Went back to work. Tired of working but glad I have a job. Decided to work out more. Original I know. Ok there it is. 2010 in a nutshell. Happy New Year!

Gender reveal pics!

2010-12-18T14:02:00.010-06:00

Here are the "Gender Reveal" pics I promised (see below post). Enjoy! Lance & Kate playing outside. As you can see Kate thought it was a girl! ;)
Its a boy!! First outfit!

Cute letters Lauren made!

Finally got the cake cut!! And......it's.......BLUE!!

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...BOOOY!

Josiah making his guess!

Check out that cute table!

Everyone made guesses about what it was. I guess this pic is before ppl put up their guess!

Russ thinks it's a girl. Lance does not agree. :)

Me and the cute preggo!

Some partygoers!

Wonderful friends!

Just a little decorating....can't have a baby party without balloons!!

Betho & her 1st BOY thing!

MiMi hanging up Max's stocking. She had one on hand for Juliet just in case!!

Aren't they cute!?!?!

The Fam!

MiMi & Grandpa

Pink team can't believe it!!!

Cute Cute Betho!

Such a good idea!!

Jamie placing her bet!

SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!

Anxiously awaiting!!!

Thank Heaven for little BOYS!!!! :)

2010-12-14T17:36:00.004-06:00

This weekend was one of the most exciting weekends of my life! Betho and Cody had their "gender" ultrasound Friday and only Cody's mom found out the sex of the baby! She then called a bakery here in town and they made the cutest cake ever! It was covered with poured chocolate icing with lots of little pink and blue question marks so we couldn't see what was inside. No one, not even even Betho & Cody knew what the baby was until they cut the cake! We all wore colors according to what we thought it was. Boy WAY outnumbered girls, however, MiMi & Grandpa thought it was a girl! Enjoy the video!! It was SOOO much fun and I can't believe in a few months I will meet my little nephew Max!!

(more pics to come soon)

Hello old friend!

2010-11-13T16:11:00.002-06:00

Hi again blog world. It's good to be back! I have been pretty busy lately/not had much to blog about really. My mom asked me why I don't blog anymore and I told her that I didn't really think people would want to read about how I wake up and go to work all day! :)

However, we have been doing more than just working and I thought it was about time to get back into the blogging thing!

So lets began! First, I must share that Lance will be starting a new job Tuesday. He was working as a personal trainer at 24hr fitness while he was looking for a job and they actually (after about a month long interview process) have decided to hire him on full time working in a management position with the company! Whew! Job hunt finally over. Thank you Jesus!!!

I had a bit of a job change as well. The company I started working for lost their contract with the building we were in and a new company took over. Initially, I planned to stay with my original company and just be transferred, however the new company offered me a job and I decided to go with them. I am very happy with this new company and VERY glad I made the switch. I am in the same building, same job exactly, I just work for a new company and have a new boss. I love being a Speech Therapist more and more everyday and am so glad I suffered through graduate school!

Ok enough about work, lets talk about Christmas! I am SO excited for the holiday season this year!! We have Thursday night game night with some people and next week I am hosting a Thanksgiving party for our little game group. I am making a real live turkey and everything! Wish me luck! I have also been scouring the Paula Deen holiday baking magazine and have tons of crafty christmas ideas too! Its been a few years since I have had the time to enjoy the holidays and I can't wait!! However, I may have to triple my hours at the gym at this rate!!

We continue to LOVE living here, aside from the recent weather, which has been AWFUL and I mean AWFUL, we are having a lot of fun! We placed membership at church and have really gotten involved with the young married class. We have also loved being so close to so many of our closest, wonderful college friends. There are a few more people that need to get here ASAP to complete the group in Houston (you know who you are), but we are really blessed to be surrounded by such close friends and family! We welcome any family that wants to move close to us....hint hint! ;)

I'm not sure if I am supposed to be posting this on my blog.....I called to check if this was ok and didn't get a hold of her so have made the command decision to just say it (plus she said it on facebook). But the absolute highlight of my life at the moment....like I am excited beyond expression is that Betho and Cody are having a baby! I know I am sounding dramatic by saying this but I am seriously beside myself with excitement. I truly LOVE this baby so much already and can't imagine how much I am going to love it when it is in my arms on May 1st. My boss needs to be ready for me to leave work with zero notice b/c I will NOT miss this baby's entrance into this world! Betho and I have always done everything the same and I'm not going to lie, I always pictured us pregnant at the same time and having our kids pretty much play out our life, doing everything the same. However, I think this is perfect for them and I am planning on playing out this dream with my first and her second!! Just typing this makes me want to do a little dance! When I found out I literally started running down the hall into my office. I was about to burst with excitement and had to get to a closed door to let out a victory scream!! Everywhere I go I imagine doing it next year with Betho and the baby! So exciting!

Alright, I am off to clean the house. We have people coming over for dinner tonight, Thanksgiving dinner with friends here Tuesday and inlaws in Friday. This is going to be a fun week, but I am thinking that people would not appreciate visiting us with the house in its current state!

Happy Saturday!

Fun happenings!

2010-08-28T21:51:00.002-05:00

The past week or so have been fun! Betho & I went to Plano to spend the weekend with Rox, Cameron & Avery! It was SO fun to get to spend some time with Rox and the girls! I am obsessed with those little babies and can't wait to see them again. It was also fun to order pizza, make cookies and watch movies with Betho & Rox like old times!!! This past week we also had a little surprise party for Kara. Kara is one of my best friends and we lived together at ACU. I Love that she is in Houston! Some how the party turned into a costume party and we had fun playing games and acting weird! :)

My job situation is a little "in transition" right now. The company I am working for now wants to transfer me to a facility in Missouri City instead of the Heights. I'm not sure how I feel about this and I have gone on a few interviews this week. I have been praying and trying to decide what the best place is for me. Lance is still personal training while he looks for something more permanent. He is doing great at this job and has gotten a good amount of clients. I am SO glad he was able to find this job. It is the perfect, flexible job since he is going on interviews and looking for something more permanent. But for the mean time he is happy and doing great at this job!! However, he is starting to make me look bad with this whole "fit" thing!! :)

Continue to pray for Lance's job situation and our new life here in Houston. It seems to be one transition to the next. But we are loving it here and still LOVING that we don't study all night every night!! Enjoy the few pics below! Happy Saturday! Little C. Lily sleeping on Betho! Betho is freakishly good with kids!! I called her the baby whisperer b/c she was so good at keeping little Cam happy.

Crazy girls at Kara's party. I just LOVE them!!!

Hello again!

2010-08-16T20:58:00.003-05:00

So its been a LONG time between blog posts. I am thinking it's been a matter of months. OOPS! I think it goes without saying that I have been busy busy busy!! So here is what has been going on lately:

I started my new job-finally felt like I was actually getting the hang of all the paper work, caseload etc. and get TRANSFERRED! The company I work for is called Rehab Care and the building I work in is owned by a company called Paramount. Anyway, Paramount didn't renew their contract with Rehab Care and I have been transferred to an acute long term care hospital. This means I will now be totally immersed into the medical world of Speech Pathology which intimidates me more than I can express. I am starting to wish I would have listened more in my medical classes as opposed to hiding the People Magazine in my book and saying, " I will never work in a hospital, this doesn't matter!" I can't believe I actually just admitted that I did that! However, I am very excited about what I will potentially be able to learn in this setting and now I will never be bored at work! I haven't actually accepted this position and will be touring the facility Wednesday, but if it all works out I will be changing jobs October 1st. Wish me Luck!

Went to Mexico- We went to Mexico with some wonderful college friends and had one of the best weeks ever!!!! We layed out, ate, layed out, ate, layed out, ate. Getting the picture! It was so fun and was the best way to relax before entering the working world.

Reconnected with family- We got the chance to spend some quality time with family this summer. We now live in the same city as lots of family and have loved seeing them. We also got to see Lindsey and Ava a couple times in from Abilene. We are hoping to make a trip to see Lance's family soon too!

Made new friends- We have been so lucky/blessed to have already made some wonderful friends at church. We love our class at church and have been spending time with some great people. I am in a bible study on Monday nights with some girls and Lance has been playing volleyball and softball with some guys. Everyone has been so welcoming and have made us really feel at home at church!

Spent time with old friends- One of the best things about living here is that it is home to some of my best, lifelong, friends! I forgot how much I missed some of my best friends when I was away in Lubbock. I get to go walking, go to movies, and have dinner with lots of my best friends now on a weekly basis. It is GREAT!!! :)

One of my best friends had a baby- One of my lifelong best friends Roxanne had baby number 2. We just had a "Sip n' see" shower and is was great. Little Cameron Lily was a hit! :)

Lots of trips to Austin- and last but not least I have made what feels like several trips to see Betho & Cody and they have made lots of trips to see us!! I MISS Betho when I have gone more than 3 days without seeing her and am still holding on to hope that she will be here one day.

Ok that's all, sorry for the lack of pics, I am too lazy today! :)

Happy Late Father's Day!

2010-06-24T18:56:00.002-05:00

Happy "late" Father's Day Dad!! I am horribly late on the post but my week has been super duper busy with the new job and I haven't even been on my computer! But thanks Dad for being the best example of how to have a great family, love God, have fun, build stuff, pack, hike, travel, eat, laugh, dance, sing, and everything else amazing about you!! I am beyond blessed and can't imagine ever having any other Dad! I have been so lucky to have you in my life. I have so much fun spending time with you and look forward to the times when I know we will see each other!! I Love You!! I also want to send a shout out to my wonderful Father-in-law! We got to spend Father's Day with my in-laws and has SO much fun. I was so lucky to marry into such a wonderful/fun family!!

Amazing week!!

2010-06-12T09:28:00.011-05:00

We are finally home from an AWESOME week. It all started last Thursday when we headed to Austin to "help Betho decorate" which really meant shop, eat, and watch movies. Saturday morning Betho and I got up bright and early to head to McKinney for our wonderful friend Roxanne's baby shower to celebrate baby #2....Cameron!! It was awesome and SO good to hang with the Bradford family and little Averton for a few hours! After that we began the treck all the way across Dallas for a wedding (who knew how gigantic the metroplex was). It was for one of my really good friends from grad school and it was the last time I will probably get to see some of my friends for a long long time. It was really hard leaving that wedding and I may have possibly started crying on the dance floor right before we left!! :(

So, after the wedding we headed to Valley Ranch (some other Dallas suburb) and an HOUR later met up with the Mexico trip group!!! P.S. Dallas is not my favorite place to drive around. We spent almost 3 hours getting from one destination to the next. That's ok though because by Sunday afternoon we were laying by the pool sipping yummy frozen drinks and eating guacamole!! With the exception of some yoga by the beach & beach volleyball, thats pretty much all we did for 4 days straight! IT.WAS.AMAZING! We had such a good time together. The weather was perfect, no rain and hardly any clouds. I am kinda having vacation withdraw and can't wait for our next trip! Lance and I are currently planning a trip to Peru to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. It isn't going to be for a year so I am going to have to be patient. However, it may take my post grad school self that long to get into good enough shape for the trip so it's ok!

Ok well that's about all with the trip update. I officially enter the working world Monday and am anxious/excited to see how it is all going to go. My boss never called me back with what I am supposed to wear which is kind of annoying. You hate the be dressed the wrong way on your first day of work. However, I'm not sure wearing the wrong color scrubs one day it too big of a deal! :)

Ok have a good weekend! We are celebrating Father's Day early this weekend with my Dad at my house so I need to go get things ready. We are having our traditional "Father's Day Special", hot dogs, BBQ potato chips, and cherry pie. Can't wait!!! :)

Randon to have pics of a table but I had to show off our new and improved table! My dad stained the top for us and we repainted the chairs and legs. Love it! Thanks for the help Dad!

Here is the "before". Doesn't it look SO much better!?

Betho & I at the wedding. She was my date!

Rox, Ave, and Nonni ( I think that's her g-ma name)

Cute little Rox and Cameron

Us with the beautiful little preggo mamma

The whole group right before leaving :(

Me and L-Oh yeah, it was our 3 year anniversery while we were there!! Love you L!! :)

The pretty beach!

ok the end.

Paradise!

2010-06-03T15:17:00.003-05:00

If you need me you can find me here!! I am waiting on Lance to finish packing and we are off to Austin today, Dallas Saturday for little Cameron Bradford's shower & a wedding and then we will spend the next several days here!!

New place.....Austin.....Mexico!

2010-06-01T15:51:00.006-05:00

Decorating done.
Unpacking done.
Setting up furniture done.
Painting furniture done"ish".
All we have left to do now is put one more coat of paint on our newly beautified table and chairs and bring them home from my parent's garage and our new little home will be complete!
Next on the agenda.....going to Austin to help Betho decorate her new place and then off to MEXICO for what I am predicting to be a vacation for the books!!! I can't wait! I just need to find a place to get a good spray tan in Austin! :)

Below are a few pics of the living room and kitchen. And, in keeping with the Agan tradition....a fish! We are currently eating on a card table....I will post my pretty blue table soon once we finish painting. I must say I am pretty proud of my new found painting skills. That is a lot of work!! I also have somewhat of an eye sore of a chair in the living room but it is the world's MOST comfortable chair and I can't part with it!! :) I tired to move it out of the picture but it crept in!

I painted some frames to match the fish. I hope he doesn't die :)

We are still alive I promise!

2010-05-31T19:50:00.004-05:00

Don't have time to post long, I am at my mom's house finishing about 6 hours of repainting my kitchen table and chairs in their garage. We don't have Internet in the new place yet so that's why I haven't gotten to posting. However, I will post soon with pics of our new place and other things! But here is a quick rundown of life lately & a few graduation pics from there computer.

* I officially graduated and am now Kayla Agan, M.S. CF/SLP
* We moved to Houston last week and were greeted by tons of moving helpers and have everything moved in!
* Apartment is GREAT! I LOVE it....it is huge, has huge tubs and closets and we are the first people to live there. It doesn't have that "apartment" feel at all and I am loving living there!!
* We leave for Mexico in 6 days for a little vacay with some of our closest college friends and Betho & Cody!
* I start work June 14th and am pretty nervous/super pumped to be finally getting a pay check- **On that note, I am working at a skilled nursing home helping people who have had strokes, trauma etc. with their speech, swallowing and overall cognitive abilities. I'm not sure I ever actually posted what I will be doing with my life post grad school. :)
* Lance is still looking for a job, but had a second interview today and we are hopeful something good will come of it! They said we would definitely hear by end of next week. We are praying and keeping our fingers crossed!
* Other than that I have been soaking up every minute of my new found freedom!! I have been really into painting things lately and have become quite crafty with all my free time. I have spent a lot of time driving up an down Westheimer in Houston trying to get a feel for my new "neighborhood". I am a little worried I am going to either go broke or get fat with all the AMAZING restaurants in walking distance from me and Lance.

Ok that's all for now, I need to leave Sugar Land before it gets too dark! I am a chicken and don't really love driving around Houston after dark! :)

The music at the Ice Cream Shop was apparently too good to resist! :) Love them!

Packing up!

2010-05-13T10:47:00.006-05:00

Life is pretty good right now. I have been sleeping in, cleaning, hanging out with Lance and just enjoying my newly found freedom post grad school. Lance and I went together yesterday to get haircuts (well I got highlights) and it was really fun. However, I was really nervous about Lance discovering how much the highlighting process costs. After I got my hair washed out I told the girl, "My husband has no idea how much this whole process costs, and I think it may depress him, can you make sure and give me the bill?" She promptly replied, "Oh sorry, he already paid and is waiting for you in the front." Uggh!! So the secret is out. However, Lance took it really well and said he actually thought it would be way worse!! I kept it to myself that when you throw a hair dry and a cut in there it IS way worse! ;)
Today the plan is to work out, lay out, and then pack. I have mixed feelings about packing. I hate having to spend so much time wrapping each little thing up and carefully putting it all in boxes. However, I love the satisfaction of having everything neatly put in boxes and all taped up! I have always been the kind of person that loves change and empty walls and neat little boxes stacked everywhere signals that change is coming and it makes me really excited!
Lance's parents are coming tomorrow for Lance's graduation and I can't wait to see them for a while. We are actually leaving with them Sunday and going to Houston to get an apartment and Lance has a few interviews lined up! I know an interview doesn't necessarily mean a job, but just the fact that he has a few interviews is something to be so thankful for!!
Speaking of getting an apartment. I think I am coming to the point where I am just about done with apartment dwelling! I want to do it for one more year so we will have a better idea of where we are going to settle and everything. However, I think we will sign 1 more 12 month lease and then take the plunge into home ownership! I wanted to buy a house this summer. I made a big plan about what we could use for a down payment, etc. etc. and presented my case to Lance. However, I have a logical husband that convinced me that buying a house is not something you want to rush. It's a good thing I have him, or my impulsiveness could get the best of me! :)
Ok that's all for now. I found this picture of me on an older post, packing to leave Houston to move to Lubbock. I told Lance to take a picture by our Lubbock boxes and I said, "How do you feel about leaving Lubbock?" I think his face answers that pretty clearly! :) I also found my planner from my senior year of college while I was packing! Look and see if you can read what the page says! It made me smile!! :)

Leaving Houston 2008

Leaving Lubbock 2010

Can't wait to see where we are in 2 more years!

Peace out Grad School!!

2010-05-10T18:49:00.001-05:00

I am officially D.O.N.E with graduate school forever. I will be starting work on June 14th but for now I literally don't even know what to do with myself!! I cannot believe that this 2 years of, well, misery, is OVER!! I am sooo happy. Unfortunately, I am recovering from an awful stomach bug and am really weak so we can't go out and celebrate tonight. But that doesn't change the fact that I am done whooooo hoooooo!! Happy Monday....it may as well be Saturday for me!!! Oh how I love it!! :)

Happy May 8th!

2010-05-08T10:40:00.004-05:00

Don't have time to post much but I wanted to send a quick Happy Birthday out to a few very important people today!! May 8th is my Grandma's Birthday....she isn't with us anymore but (as you can see of my Dad's blog too) she is missed! I was young when she died but have lots of very fond memories of her kind spirit and fun personality! She was one of those people that wasn't just a good person but a truly "nice" person as well....ya know what I mean?? Today is my wonderful mother in law's birthday too!! I love her and am SOOOO glad I married into such a great family! She is so sweet and loving and I am very thankful for her! She loves to talk, shop, and learn all the weird hidden things in the bible just like me and we have a great time together! Last but not least, today is Roxanne's, one of my very very best friend's, little girl's birthday. I am missing her party as I type and am super sad.....darn finals! But happy birthday little Avery...it seems like yesterday I was getting your first ever picture on my phone while I was in Hawaii!! I was so excited to land and check my phone to see if you were here yet! You are so sweet and cute & are going to be a great big sis!! Ok, off to study!

I hope everyone has a nice weekend! It is freezing here so my hopes of studying in the sun have been crushed! Oh well I guess I am meant to stay pale for a little longer this year. :(

Happy "early" Mother's Day Mom! :)

2010-05-06T19:51:00.010-05:00

Just in case I am buried in books Sunday (studying for my last final EVER) I wanted to do an early Mother's Day post!!! I wish I could be with my mammasita but unfortunately, I am stuck in Lubbock studying. Yuck!

But on with the post, I am quite certain and have been for a while now that I have one of the best Moms in the world! My mom has been my rock, support, and encouragement the past couple years while I have been trying to get through grad school. She has been encouraging me & believing in me every second from day one, and has been SO patient with me! I can't even imagine what I have put her through either! It can' be easy having to be the one on the other end of all my stressed out phone calls, tears, and fluctuating moods!

Not only has she been here for me the past couple years, but for the past 25!! My mom has a supernatural ability to "know what's right" and I appreciate that now more than ever! She ALWAYS has a solution and is almost never wrong. I am thankful for her 6th sense about bad situations now that I am older!! She protected us from so much as we were growing up and we always knew we could count on her to be there for us. I know all kids don't have that security in a Mom and I am so glad that I did! I hope to be half the mom she is someday!!

I am so lucky to have a mom that:

1. Prays for me everyday

2. Calls me everyday

3. Likes to just hang out and watch movies and chat with me

4. Likes to shop! ;)

5. Loves her husband and teaches me how to be a good wife

6. Is sooo thoughtful and never leaves anyone out

7. Uses the bible as her guide for life, and makes every decision in an attempt to be a servant of God's

7. Has a heart for volunteer work

8. Has a really cute sense of style

9. Is willing to go with me to get ice cream even when she is on Weight Watchers

10. Used to make me breakfast tacos every morning before school and wrap them in foil so I could eat them in the car on the way to school

11. Is extremely generous and paid for all of my crazy schooling

12. Knows how to have a good time

13. Is organized.....I don't know where I would be without an organized Mom!

14. Has always been my biggest advocate

15. Loves me and makes me feel special & important every time we talk!!

I Love You Mom!!

Happy Happy Mother's Day!!

Miss You!!

Mystery Solved

2010-05-03T12:04:00.002-05:00

Today I decided to study at home. I am done with my internship and am really sick and tired of the library, so I decided to try to study for my last 2 tests ever at home! I was doing ok, in spite of my serious A.D.D. tendencies, until I realized I smelled smoke. The people below us smoke so I though it was possibly coming from them, however it didn't really smell like cigarette smoke. SO I have been searching this house like a little detective all morning and getting nothing done. I finally go so annoyed that I decided to stop and unload the dishwasher and just try to ignore the smell. Well, when I opened the dishwasher I found the smell. Somehow one of my mixing spoons fell and was burned alive by the dishwasher. I didn't even know that could happen. But now at least the mystery is solved and I have no choice but to focus and study! Yuck! Ok, that's all. I hope everyone is having a great Monday. Wish me luck on my last 2 finals EVER!! I am having a really hard time getting motivated!!

Away we go....

2010-05-01T14:16:00.005-05:00

So we are officially leaving Lubbock. Come June"ish" we will be moving to Houston. We are really excited about the move and excited for the opportunities there. However, I am VERY VERY sad to leave some of the wonderful people here in Lubbock. As bad as the weather is and the dust and wind, the people more than make up for it. I have made some really great, true friends here and it is going to be an adjustment not seeing some of these people everyday anymore. We have gotten involved in a wonderful small group that we love and I have made some amazing friends at school! We have been through a lot together the past two years and I wouldn't have made it through grad school without them. I have been lucky enough to get to experience engagements, babies, marriages & lots more with some of my wonderful friends and I am going to miss them a lot lot lot!! Here are just a few pics of my amazing Lubbock friends!! I will miss y'all & will never forget all the memories!! Taryn saving the day during one of our MANY snow/ice days!! I will miss Taryn LOTS and miss the snow NONE!!!Cute Stacy just weeks before we all got to meet little Will! Carli & I at our End of the Year banquet.
Charlotte's wedding shower

Some of the girls. Class of 2010! :)

The very first "Lubbock Gang", sadly Mark & Elizabeth moved to Amarillo and Shelbi & Preston moved to Dallas. BUT Taryn & Chase are still here and are such wonderful/fun friends!! :)

Some of the girls at Christmas time!

Carli, Mindy & I at Stacy's babyshower!!

This post almost made me cry!! I am really going to miss these girls. :( But were onto bigger and better things and I can't wait to see what the future holds in Houston & can't wait to get started with my new job!

Nashville Road Trip= Amazing!!

2010-04-20T22:24:00.004-05:00

Lance and I returned late last from our wonderful trip to Nashville, Tennessee. Lance was the best man in Justin Scott's, one of our great friends, wedding and the whole trip was so great. We were a little late in getting airfare and didn't want to spend the money to fly so we decided a couple of weeks ago to bite the bullet and make the drive. It was about 15 hours each way and it was SO GREAT!! You wouldn't think 30 hours on the road would be fun, but it really was. We drove through some really pretty parts of Texas, Arkansas & Tennessee. We got up really early in the morning and saw the sun come up, saw beautiful green fields filled with cows and flowers, saw cool old cities like Memphis, and got to experience some new "culture" at a couple stops in Arkansas ;). We decided that if we were gonna save money by driving that were going to be committed to being frugal the whole time! We packed a cooler filled with just about every snack you could imagine which we later coined "The Cafe" and just made turkey sandwiches, and PB&J as we drove along the road. Lance and I are really busy all the time and it was SO nice to just enjoy a long relaxing road trip. Last night when we got to about Abilene I told Lance I was actually really sad for the road trip to end. Don't get me wrong, I was glad to get out of the car, but who knows when we will have that much uninterrupted time together without all the distractions of life again!

Ok on to the good part for all the girls! The wedding! I don't have any pictures yet b/c my camera died and we couldn't get it to charge up. However, it was the most beautiful wedding, out on an old plantation in Nashville. The reception was out in an old building that almost looked like an old carriage house and they had hydrangeas and Lillies everywhere!! They served really southern food like shrimp and grits and macaroni and cheese (I mean you can't get much better than mac n cheese at a wedding!), and had some amazing cheesecake too!! Amanda, the bride, looked amazing and Justin looked great too! :) The bridesmaids all wore sage green headbands that were SO cute and tastefully done that matched the groomsmen's bow ties. The girls wore pale yellow dresses and after the ceremony changed into cowboy boots! It was SO cute!! I forget how awesome weddings are when you know the bride and groom are the real deal and are going to be so happy together. It was so awesome to be a part of. God is so good!

Ok, well speaking of that busy life that I was taking a break from, I will fill you in on the latest. I am getting close to the end of grad school and it is so exciting. I am flying to Houston Thursday for a couple of job interviews that I am really excited about. On paper one of them seems like my dream job so we will see if it in fact is! Lance is still looking for a job too and we are praying that we get a clear answer on where we need to be. However, if I am able to get one of these jobs, it will give him the ability to literally look full time for a job without having to worry about money for a while. I would still like Lance to find a job before I do so I am continuing to pray for that specifically, however every time I make a plan it changes so I am trying to just go with the flow! Lance is on the tail end of grad school as well and words cannot express how happy I am to kiss school goodbye forever. I have made some wonderful friends here in Lubbock and will truly miss them, however I must admit that I won't miss a dang thing about grad school!!

Ok, pics to come soon once I can steal them from someone else that is actually good about taking pics!!

Easter pics

2010-04-06T19:15:00.010-05:00

I stole some pics from Mrs. Curry and had to post some camping pics!! Enjoy! The whole crew chillin at the fire talking!

I was freezing and was trying to avoid getting wet again! It didn't work. :)

Me and Lance!

Ave and her Uncle Reid

Spectators hanging out on the shore.

Our favorite the place...the table with all the food! :)

Chatting at the campfire

I just love them both!

Cute mom and daughter!!

Ave loved to make this confused little face!

Hanging out talking. So fun!!

Beautiful little Ave playing

Avery loved eating dirt!

Could a pic be any worse??

Goforth/Carslile family

Dougie giving a little speech at church!

We went to see the Curry's AMAZING new house out near Fredricksburg! It was AMAZING. This was our Easter devo on their porch.

Minutes before Megan jumped out of the water b/c she thought she saw a "crab"! :)

Who thinks they will be next!?!?

Some of the girls after our hike.

family pic.......Think Ave is tired!? :)

The cute Bradford family!

Payton & Avery....TOO cute!!

Boys jumping off a rock!

Go Cody Go!

and Mr. Curry finished it off!

These pics are of Parker working up the nerve to jump off the rock!! He was a little timid at first!! Amazing what $3 and 5 pieces of candy will do!!

This is where he started.....we had to do some serious bribing!!

I Passed!!!!!

2010-04-06T18:47:00.002-05:00

I found out today that I passed my praxis exam. So I am officially licenced to practice Speech Language Pathology (well almost....there is lots of paperwork to be processed!). The test was really hard to finish so I had to SPEED through a lot of the questions, leaving me pretty nervous about the results. I had actually kind of forgotten about the test until I realized that my results were going to be posted so soon!! I got an email today at about 7:30am saying results were posted! However, I was too scared to look this morning so I just left the house without ever checking. On Tuesdays am in a group that works with stoke patients and today we were going on a field trip. When I got there everyone was so happy and talking about how they passed and I was SO mad that I was too chicken to look at my scores! So I called Betho and made her look them up for me. It was kind of hard for her to figure it out b/c I had given her the wrong user name and our conversation went something like this....keep in mind we were texting:

Betho: I can't seem to log into your account, you may need to wait and just do it later.
Me: Do it! It can't be that hard to figure out, I must know!!
Betho: It says you passed.....I think....what do you need to pass??
Me: (can't text back.....having slight panic attack!) What do you mean "I think???" What is my score???)
Betho: Ok here it is, never mind, you passed for sure!
Me: Ok thanks so much!!!!!!
Betho: You owe me BIG TIME. My hand has been shaking for 10 minutes....can you imagine if you would have failed!?
* so I owe Betho big time for taking on that stressful task for me! Love you Nug!!! :)

So needless to say that was one of the most stressful 10 minutes of my life and all the while I was on a tour of a printing press pushing wheel chairs and trying to act interested in the tour. However, I don't think I was fooling anyone!! So next on the agenda, find a job!!!

Life lately

2010-04-05T20:06:00.003-05:00

We got back last night from our Easter camping trip and it was soooo super fun. I love this trip and look forward to it all year. This year was great like always! Weather was perfect, food was yummy, and the company was great!! It is so nice to just get to relax for a couple days and hang out with good friends and family. Pics to come soon of camping!

On a different note I think I find out tomorrow if I passed my national exam. If I did I have almost NOTHING left to do and I will be done with grad school forever in 4 quick weeks!!!!!! If not I will still be done in 4 weeks but will have to take the stinking test again on April 23rd. Please God don't let that happen!! I have heard that it sometimes takes more like a month to get your scores so I may not find out tomorrow, however I think I do. eeeekkk!

Like I said before, we are done with school in a month! I wish I could say, "Oh it flew by, it seemed like yesterday that we moved here!" But that would be a lie!! I feel like I have been in grad school at tech for 5 years! I can hardly remember not being in school at Tech. Words cannot express how excited I am to be actually working a normal job where I get paid!! I am loving my placement right now in a long term care facility and am hoping to find a job in that setting soon. I may have an interview in Houston on either Friday or Monday for a facility that I would absolutely love to work in. I am praying I still have that interview b/c I haven't heard from them in a few days. However, I have a feeling it is going to happen.

We are currently weighing the pros and cons of where we should move, look for jobs etc. We are trying to make the decision whether or not we should wait for Lance to get a job and then move or move where I get a job. We need to start making money ASAP so if I find a job first we may go there and then Lance can start looking full time for a job. Who knows!! God has a plan so we are just trusting that the right job will come along for each of us. I fully trust that God has a plan for our careers and I fully trust that we will both find the right job, regardless of the order that we find these jobs! :) We are quickly approaching the next phase of our lives and it's exciting. I am going to miss my friends though. It is super sad!!

Ok, I am going to finish Dancing With the Stars! I am loving it this season! Super sad though that Shannon D got booted already! I hope everyone has a great week!

Oh I almost forgot. I won my family bracket and I must say it wasn't even close!!! Whoo Hoo!!

Easter Camping!!

2010-03-30T23:38:00.002-05:00

1 1/2 days of internship, 1 test and then EASTER CAMPING!! This is a family tradition and definitely one of my favorite events of every year! Our family along with several others have been doing this for as long as I can remember!!! It is so much fun! I will leave you with a camping pic from Easter's past.....way past!! We were hot stuff huh!?? This is Mrs. Roxanne Bradford by the way, not Betho! :)

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend as much as I am going to!!! ;)

Spring Plates & Snow :(

2010-03-19T22:15:00.003-05:00

I have been waiting for months to bust out my spring plates. Last year I came across a HUGE sale at Anthropology and was actually able to make a purchase there. I got the cutest spring"ish" plates and have been waiting for spring to come so I could put them out! However, the forecast for tomorrow is wind and 2 inches of snow. Having a bright and springy table just doesn't seem right with lots of snow on the ground! Oh well, I am leaving them out and hoping that spring decides to actually come sometime soon!! :)

Sleep!!!!

2010-03-19T14:24:00.003-05:00

Apparently I have been a little sleep deprived lately. I have been so busy with school, studying, and having house guests that I think I was neglecting sleep! I am a night person anyway and will pretty much force myself to stay up as late as I can, so I don't miss out on any social time and I think it caught up to me!

Yesterday morning I was supposed to be at my internship at 8:45am which means I need to get up at about 7:15 in order to shower, eat breakfast and get there in time. That didn't happen. The morning went something like this. 7:15 alarms goes off and I think "I won't wash my hair" snooze, 7:30 "I'll just skip a shower this morning" snooze, 8:00 "I'll just skip breakfast" snooze!! So I ended up barely making it in time and ate a red velvet cupcake in the car for breakfast that got all over my scrubs and totally gave me away!! When I got home at noon I was the LAZIEST human being on the face of the planet!!! Lance & I went to see Alice and Wonderland (which was sooooo good) at 1:40 and then I came home, showered (thank goodness!) and slept from about 4-6:30pm. I finally got up and we made dinner and I fell back asleep on the couch at about 9:30-11:45pm. I then got up and went to bed at about 12:00am and slept until about 10:30 am this morning!!! Can you say gross!?

Anyway, it is 2:30 and I have yet to do anything but watch a movie on TV and eat lunch. And no, I am not pregnant before anyone tells me that's why I am tired! :) But rest is what spring break is for right? I hope to be a bit more productive tomorrow and get some much needed cleaning and working out done!!!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

"We Miss You Betho" birthday trip day 2

2010-03-16T23:42:00.006-05:00

The fun birthday weekend is coming to an end. I had SO much fun with my mom this weekend and can't wait to see the whole family for our Easter Camping Trip! It is definitely one of the highlights of every year! So, I just need to get through a few more weeks of school and then it will practically be here!! Whoo Hoo!! Below are a few more pics of my short trip with my mom. I had so much fun today with these two!!!!! Us after my delicious birthday dinner!
Birthday gift from Betho! It came in the mail today. We are going to Mexico in June and this hat is PERFECT!

So cute huh!?

Birthday shoes! Love them!!

Me & my cute husband!! :)

Here's the story. I was looking for a very specific shirt ALL day today. (**see above gray shirt) I went to practically every store in the Lubbock mall and decided I should try TJ Max. Luckily, I had great luck and not only did I find what I was looking for I found tons of awesome shirts for an awesome price! So, after about 2 hours of sifting through rack after rack, trying on clothes, and then carefully calculating what I could afford on my phone, I had narrowed it down to the final 5 shirts! Or so I thought. Apparently the girl working the dressing room got confused about what clothes we were going to buy and what we didn't want (even though we put the clothes exactly where she said to if they were "yes's"). So out I come of the dressing room so excited to be buying clothes for once and I hear my mom say, "hurry they are taking away all our clothes!" She was right! Just like that, and I mean it, within like 60 seconds are clothes were gone. The weird thing was that the people were annoyed with us for being slightly flustered by the fact that they had just hung all of our clothes back onto the 100's of crowded racks. So we set off to try our best to dig back up our clothes, which I must say was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. This isn't like losing your clothes at GAP. Have you been to TJ max? So I finally found most of my stuff and so did my mom and we got out of there! Which we couldn't have done quick enough!! People were most definitely starring!

My Mom pretending she just had a pleasant shopping experience!! :)

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!! See ya later! :)

"We Miss You Betho" birthday trip day 1

2010-03-15T16:14:00.007-05:00

My inlaws stopped in before my mom came and we had a super quick, but really fun trip with them!! They are heading to Sedona Arizona and we were on the way! They got me the CUTEST dress I have ever seen and I can't wait for it to warm up so I can wear it!! They will hopefully be stopping back by on their way home this weekend. We always love having them here!!! We miss family. :)

So first and foremost, WE MISS YOU BETHO!!! We aren't going to be together on our birthday for the first time in 25 years!! I am SOOOOO sad!! But luckily my Mom is here to visit for a few days, and besides mourning the fact that Betho can't be here we are having a great time. I miss my Dad too by the way! I love having the whole family together and wish it could happen more. But anyway on with the post.

So the weather has been BEAUTIFUL around here lately. Sunny, warm, and no wind. Well, mother nature decided to change it's mind and it is freezing, flooding, and going between raining, sleeting, and snowing! Welcome to west Texas Mom!! But of course, we did our best to make the most of the day. However, considering I have a Volkswagen Beetle and 99% of the cars around here are massive F350s, the flooding roads turned into a nightmare for us in my little car. At one point we were sitting at a stoplight and giant cars on either side of us flew through the flooded streets and we were so drenched it was like my car was at the base of the "Tidal Wave" water slide at water world where all the kids stand at the bottom waiting be get soaked and knocked down! That was us. So we decided to cut our shopping trip short and go to a movie where we were safe and warm.

Tonight we are going to make taco soup and stay indoors. It will be fun to have a cozy night in with the fam! I am going to post a picture only blog of me and Betho in memory of her b-day, which is mine too but she is all alone and I don't want her to forget me! :)

Last time I promise!!

2010-03-08T15:50:00.002-06:00

Saturday at 10:45 I have my licencing exam for Speech Pathology. AKA if I can pass this test I am licenced to practice and will never have to take another scary test again!! So, if you have a spare second any time between 10:45-12:25 Saturday morning, prayers would be appreciated! Wish me luck! :)

Shutter Island

2010-03-07T01:27:00.002-06:00

Everyone is titled to their own opinion. However, I went to see Shutter Island based on my Dad's post that said, and I quote, " The movie was actually much more suspenseful than scary/creepy". I must say that I beg to differ. I would say it was equally scary/creepy and suspenseful! It was definitely one of those "get you thinking" kinda movies that kept you on the edge of your seat, however some of the characters were 100% creepy and gross!! I was pretty much terrified the entire time until about the last 10 minutes. Even after I figured out the twist I was terrified! Maybe I am a chicken but if you don't like to be scared I wouldn't go see that movie. However, now that I am home safe in my bed I can say that it was a good movie. Just scary!!! :)

I Love My Family! :)

2010-02-28T11:04:00.004-06:00

Don't have time to blog long. But I had to post a few pics of my short trip to Abilene to see little Ava and the fam! My sister, aunt, and Mom (who I hadn't seen since Christmas!) all drove to Abilene and I met them there for a short little 2 day trip! We pretty much just hung around in PJ's and talked, which was GREAT! We missed Jamie & didn't feel the group was complete without her. It was so fun to watch Linds be a Mom! She is a natural. So calm and makes it look easy!! Enjoy the pics of little Ava. I know I took a lot but I couldn't get enough!!

COMPS!!!!!!!!!!

2010-02-21T21:44:00.002-06:00

I passed COMPS!! This is a delayed post b/c I had to re-take one that I didn't pass, but as of today I have officially passed ALL 10 of them! I will be graduating in May for sure now!! What a relief!! I mean you can't even imagine!! I have been worried about these tests for 5 yrs!! Thank you Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great day!

2010-02-14T21:38:00.003-06:00

Wonderful day! Got up and went to our fav Lubbock breakfast spot, The Slide Breakfast House, for some yummy sweet potato pancakes and omelets and then headed home for a wonderful relaxing day. However, I am embarrassed to admit that we accidentally SLEPT through church! That is super depressing to me b/c I LOVE Sunday mornings. The problem was that we slept through the 8:30am service & our church is in between buildings right now and have been so crowded at 10:00 and 11:30 they have had to turn ppl away. They have asked the members to go on Saturday night or at 8:30 on Sunday's to assure space for new people that may have never been to church. But we couldn't go Saturday and didn't know if we should take up a spot in the late ones today....so we went out to breakfast instead.

Besides that I worked on some school stuff and Lance applied for jobs and then we collectively pulled our culinary skills to create a super delicious vegetable stew for dinner. It definitely hit the spot since it had been chiiiiiily today!

Speaking of looking for jobs...it's kinda tough! I know we will both get jobs and be where we are supposed to be but it is a big giant question mark right now. Lance has applied with lots of colleges around the country (e.g., Florida, Auburn, Colorado State, Rice etc.). He has also applied with the corporate office with the YMCA in Houston and the Rockets. We have NO idea where we will end up and it is kinda scary/exciting thinking about where we will be this time next year! I guess only time will tell.

Ok I am sleepy and think I am going to hang out with the hubby.

Adios.

I don't like you.

2010-02-13T17:21:00.004-06:00

I have been in the house all day working on school stuff and was getting a little stir crazy. So, I decided I would get up, stretch my legs, and feed the fish. I never feed the fish, clean the tank, or even really acknowledge the thing. That is all Lance. But since I was in the mood to do something else for a bit (as is evidenced by this little post), I though I would feed the fish. I shook in some food and he didn't seem to notice so I put my finger in the water to get his attention. HE ATTACKED ME! He shot up from the bottom of his bowl and tried to bite me with his little mouth! Not that I could even feel it, but I don't like him. He stares at me when I am cooking and just really kinda freaks me out. Ok that's all, I am going to go for a little jog. I need to get some fresh air and don't wanna be in the house with the evil fish! :)

Dear God, please find us jobs some place warm.....

2010-01-30T20:27:00.002-06:00

It has been WIIINTER here lately. It hit us really hard Thursday morning in the form is freezing rain, and I do mean freezing rain. It took some very careful walking to get down the steps in our apartment that morning b/c not only were the steps frozen, so where the hand rails. Scary!! About midway through the morning I was sitting at my therapy table playing domino's with some ladies and I looked outside and saw the biggest snowflakes I have ever seen and in less than an hour all you could see was white! So pretty!!

However, at 12:00 as I was driving home (school got cancelled!) it was quite different! If you don't know I have a little Volkswagen Beetle and a drift blew up behind my car that was taller than me and I was stuck! I finally got a guy with a shovel to help me carve out a driving path and then was able to get the remaining snow/ice out from behind my car with my coffee cup from that morning! Amusing I must say but VERY cold!!

This was my front porch when I got home. We live on the second floor! Crazy right!?
Some more pretty snow outside the apartment. This was nothing compared to the next morning!

and some more.

This was my car window the next day as I got in to have lunch with a friend!

Taryn to the rescue after lunch!! I was so glad she had a scraper b/c I had kind of a long drive to a hair apt!

I have seen the terrible side of snow though! Now that it is starting to warm up the snow is all melting and GIANT icicles are falling everywhere at my apartment. Like no exaggeration, they could hurt you! And it is slush everywhere and my feet have been wet for days! Yucky!! How can something so pretty turn into something so nasty in just a few days??

God, if you are preparing me for life up north please reconsider! Thank you! :)

Perfect baby girl!! :)

2010-01-26T18:31:00.004-06:00

The highlight of this week has of course been the arrival of Miss Ava Reese Campbell!!! Can you believe how absolutely adorable and chubby this little baby girl is!? I was able to drive down to Abilene and spend a few hours with little Ava and the family and it was SOOO worth the drive. She is perfect, cuddly, makes the cutest little sounds, and has the best chubbiest cheeks I have ever seen on a baby (probably b/c she was almost 9 lbs!). Lindsey & Jason seem to be doing great as well and are already such great parents!!

(In case you don't know Ava is my cousin Lindsey's baby)

Cooking......

2010-01-22T12:13:00.003-06:00

I have a request for all of my blog readers....male or female, but I am guessing the responses will be mainly female. :) But I was on the phone with my mom the other day telling her how I cook the same things over and over. I actually got a cookbook from my aunt as a wedding gift and it's full of family recipes. However, I ONLY cook from it and think I need to branch out. However, cooking kinda overwhelms me and I get nervous trying new things.

SO if you have the time and would like to post your "easy, do it all the time recipie" I would LOVE it!!

Thanks in advance!!

Freede Family Christmas 2009 in pictures!

2010-01-18T22:43:00.029-06:00

I have done my best to "condense" the pictures for the sake of this post. But here is goes. Christmas 2009 with my family....in pictures. Enjoy!

The first pics are from our short time in Houston where we had Christmas ever with the extended family! It was GREAT!! I miss everyone so much and love when we can all get together! I have the greatest family ever. :)

Us in our traditional Christmas pj pants! We were happy to finally have Cody in this pic!

Some of the girls of the fam acting weird! :) Love them!

And some of the boys...

and my Aunt Cheryl & sweet Josiah.....

and some of us at the table pigging out on Mexican food! Delicious!!!

Trying to take a picture with the timer!!That's better :)

Putting all of our Christmas goodies in tins to take with us on the plane Christmas Day! Are we artists or what!? Oh and don't let me forget the shirts Betho made for us to wear! Our faces were on the back. That's cool right?? :) Cute little Men!

This part begins the portion of our trip that took place in Arenal. Arenal is a town that is the home to one of the only active volcano's in Costa Rica. Unfortunately the clouds were too low to see it too well but we could hear it rumbling the entire time!You know you are in Central America when 9/10 churches have this! A 15 foot tall Jesus hovering over the congregation!!

Canyoneering! This is pretty much repelling down waterfalls!

Listen up....you don't want to die!! :)

The volcano. We were super close. We actually stayed on the site that keeps track of all the volcano activity!

How about a coconut??

Wonderful family!

Here begins the part of our trip that took place at the beach! We went Deep sea fishing.....boogie boarding on HUGE waves & ate the best fish I have ever had in my entire life at the best restaurant I have ever been at in my entire life! After a long day of riding the waves on little boards!

Ready.....set.....jump on and paddle! You can tell we have no idea what we are doing!

Go Betho Go!

And in comes Dougie!!

I rarely made it in with all parts of the swim suit intact!!

Out of order....but one of the fishing guys literally took part of the fish I caught and fed us sushi right there on the boat. It was amazing & the entire family partook in the little feast which was a stretch for some at first, but everyone loved it!

Dad caught a huge sailfish!!!

Jumping shot

Betho, Cody & Lance's fish! Mine was turned into suchi!

Hey, it's harder than it looks!!

Enjoying some Pina....as they say in Costa!

"Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day!"

SO this is not in the correct order. But this is the part of our trip where we went white water rafting in the jungle on the Paquare River. Which = AMAZING!!

Here is the amazing hotel we stayed at in San Jose (which is the capital city) before and after our rafting adventure in the jungle!!

Some of the cute hotel decor! Don't you just love Christmas!!

I need those at my house!

Cute little restaurant

A little sloth....can you see him up there??
( I accidentally deleted the pic of the sloth when I was editing and couldn't it to reload but we saw a SLOTH!)

6am bird watching tour. We saw some Tucans!

Dinner at the Jungle Lodge on New Year's Eve. There was so electricity in the rooms, no judging the hair!!

What a cute fam I have!!

The main lodge. Picture Perfect. Right on the Paquare river.

Dougie looking over his open air shower to say hello!

Cody & Lance playing some "futbol" with the natives. USA=1 Costa Rica=4

Quick snapshot

Love them!!

Risked my life on that little yellow boat of death!!

My shoes & I made it out alive!

Pocas....one of the guides showing us his moves!

Cody survived too!

And so did Dougie!

and Lance.

Canyoning again!

He had to catch her. No amount of words can describe the situation. You will just have to ask her about it!!

Breakfast one morning. Oh how I miss the fresh fruit!

Repelling

Ziplining!

Oh don't worry....he is just telling me not to move b/c a "Bullet Ant" AKA it hurts so bad you feel like you were just shot, is right in front of me on the tree!

The lodge again! So amazing.

Casa de Girod!

The view from my parents room. Did I mention that this river was rated #2 most beautiful in the world!?

Casa de Freede

These are on the drive to the jungle lodge. Sorry they are kind of out of order.

Ok these are out of order too but it is a progression of me flying out of the raft!

Quick break to take a quick hike to a waterfall!

Back to the rapids!

Go team Churro!!!!

Check out Betho's face!!

Ok thats it. If you read until this point I am impressed! I hope everyone had as great of a time with their families as I did this Christmas. I am so thankful that I have these people in my life & so thankful that my parents were generous enough to take us on this amazing trip!

So Happy!

2010-01-14T18:46:00.003-06:00

It is over!! It is all finally over. If you don't know what I am talking about I am talking about the tests that have been keeping me from having a life for a month now! This week I had 5 hours of testing every day and today at 5 I walked out of my LAST one.

Today actually went kind of horribly. I think it was a mixture of extreme sleep deprivation and malnutrition but I got really sick & shaky at the beginning of my tests and got sooo behind I barely finished the entire 2 last tests. It was definitely a very unfortunate situation. BUT now that I am home and am in my pj's and about to split a pizza with my hubby I don't care so much. Tonight will the the first night in almost 2 weeks that I haven't studied until I fell asleep in my books and got up at 6 am to start again. This week literally consisted of me getting up and studying until noon, test from 12:30-5:00, dinner, studying until my eyes wouldn't stay open anymore and starting it all over again! In hindsight I would have been MUCH better served to get some sleep and cut the studying short due to the aforementioned disaster today but what can you do.

Now I just have to wait until Feb. 8th to see if I have to remediate which means take the test over again if I fail! :( Yuck. However, I know this information so well I am not worried. If I failed today it was more due to exhaustion than not knowing the infomration so it shouldn't be too terrible if I have to retake a handful!

Ok onto better things. Like what am I going to do now that I have a life????? I guess I should start by taking down my Christmas decorations, but I think the chances of me doing anything that involves work isn't going to happen for a while.

Lance & I are going to Abilene tomorrow and are going to get to stay with Lindsey & Jason. I can't wait to see the nursery& spend some time with them!! Then I am getting my hair highlighted in Abilene in the morning (I have officially sworn off Lubbock hair people.....my hair is SO blonde right now with some killer roots!), and then we are heading to Austin to see Betho and Cody. I have already requested:

1. Going to Chuys

2. Going to a movie

3. Getting a pedicure

4. Going shopping

I am super pumped!

So if you can't tell I am quite excited for my life to go back to normal. I only have two classes in addition to my clients and all of my clients this semester are 70+ years old which is what I love!!

So I am worry free until Feb. 8th when I could possibly get the news I failed some tests. Whatev!

Have a nice weekend.

Happy MLK Day! :)

Thanks God.

2009-12-21T07:49:00.004-06:00

I know I have renounced blogging for a while b/c I need to be focusing on more important things but I just had to share a quick thought. I got up this morning at about 6:15 to start studying. I sat down at the kitchen table and prayed....."God, please be with me today. Like literally give me a physical sign that you are with me because I am starting to feel really negative and need a change of heart." Anyway, about 45 minutes later I went outside to check on the weather b/c my apartment was freeeeeeeezing and the sky was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! Lubbock is completely flat, and when I looked up all I could see was the most beautiful sunrise stretching across the sky as far as you could see and lighting up the ground under it as far as you could see, leaving everything a pretty shade of orange and pink. Amazing.

Thanks God!!

Baby Shower.....and short blog hiatus!

2009-12-14T11:48:00.003-06:00

My friend Carli & I had a baby shower for a friend last month. I am a tad late on posting pics but needed a short mental break from studying & thought blogging would be a good "break". The shower was for our friend Stacy who we are in grad school with (who by the way had the baby and still has to take all tests that I do the week after Christmas....YUCK!). Below are the pics of our shower that we did on a TINY budget and if I may say so myself it turned out pretty darn cute. I was super sick with some mystery illness that was making it really hard for me to breath and I was running a 101 fever. But when you are 1 of 2 hostesses you can't really decide to stay home! Aside from the sickness, it was a huge success and we were both a little shocked we were able to pull it off with our crazy schedules! Carli, Mindy & I. Mindy is in grad school with us and is Stacy's sister. I am SO jealous that they are in school together. I think I could possibly enjoy grad school if Betho was in it with me!!
Cute little blocks

Some of the guests. All of these girls are in school with me. I am going to miss them when I leave in May!!

Carli showing off her balloons!

Me posing by the balloons and our tissue paper balls (thank you marthastewart.com)

Me & Carli waiting on the guests....looking a little sleepy!

Our homemade mobile!

Didn't really go with the theme or blue/yellow & planes but I thought it was too cute to pass up!

Some more of the table

and some more table......the end.

I am probably not going to be back to blogging until after my COMPS on January 14th. We are going to Costa Rica which I am extremely beyond pumped about but it means double time on the studying until Christmas and triple time when I get back. But don't you worry I will return!!! :)

Thanksgiving!

2009-11-29T22:28:00.004-06:00

So this year was our year to have Thanksgiving with Lance's family in Belton and it was so much fun! We both managed to get a good amount of time off school & headed down to Belton after class Tuesday and stayed until Sunday. We got to spend time with both sets of Lance's grandparents and pretty much spent 5 days eating! On that note, I am going to be in a swim suit in T minus 21 days for our Christmas trip to Costa Rica so that was definitely my last hurrah (if you are reading this Ellen I am not happy that I have a pie in my fridge right now)!

My life has been pretty consumed with school and studying for the 13 comprehensive finals I have a week after Christmas (thanks Texas Tech!) so it was SOOO nice to take a break and just relax with family. Below are a few pics from the weekend. As usual I am super lame and NEVER take any pictures. My poor little camera rarely sees the outside of its case! I promise to be better and put more pics on my blog next time I post.

I have pretty much resigned myself to studying from tomorrow until Jan. 14th.....except for Dec. 25-Jan 2 when I will be basking in the Costa Rica sunshine!! However, if I don't post much that's why. But come January 14th at 3pm I am a free woman and may just post every day!! I hope everyone had a great time with their families this Thanksgiving. BRING ON CHRISTMAS!!

Lance & Jake. Jake is one of Lance's best friend from growing up and ACU. Jake and his wife Emily live in Belton and we got to hang out with them a little one night!

This is on a walk to find Lance's grandma's Donkey "Spot". They live out on the country and have a donkey that is over 40 years old!! We searched for FOREVER trying to find him to feed him and were a little worried he may be dead! :(

Here is Lance's cute little grandma once we found him. Priceless picture!!

Late Wishful Wednesday!

2009-11-04T16:32:00.012-06:00

I wish I could re-live my wedding reception over and over again!!!!

I don't have time to say a lot but this came right to mind when I read this weeks topic!! I know everyone thinks that their wedding is wonderful so I am going to sound a little cheesy, but I had SO much fun at my wedding reception. It was perfect in every way and we danced and danced and danced the night away until almost every single person there was drenched in sweat! I know that is kinda gross for a wedding, but to me it meant we all had fun!! It was the perfect night and the perfect way to start my life with Lance! :) Please excuse the terrible picture quality. I didn't get my pics on a CD so these are just some random ones from Lance's computer that ppl took.

Must read!!

2009-10-25T22:55:00.002-05:00

My mom sent this to me and it made me so happy.....it's a must read!
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends andparents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. "Agree to disagree".
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what theirjourney is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a "secret", you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; Godnever blinks.
16 Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one isup to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take "no"for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie.Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ''In five years,will this matter?".
26. Always choose life.
27. Forgive everyone everything.
28. What other people think of you is none of your business.
29. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.
30. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
31. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
32. Believe in miracles.
33. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you didor didn't do.
34 Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
35. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
36. Your children get only one childhood.
37. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
38. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
39. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'dgrab ours back.
40. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
41. The best is yet to come.
42. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
43. Yield.
44. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Thoughts for the day......

2009-10-20T16:31:00.003-05:00

My thoughts right now.......

**First let me explain the pic: We went to Lyndsay "Reed" Miller's wedding last weekend and didn't realize how fancy the rehearsal dinner was. So, Betho's boss let her borrow an $800 dress that she loaned me! It was SO not my style and I felt weird in it all night but it was really fun to wear something so fancy!! Betho had on a super pricey dress from her too that was NOT her style either! I had to post some pics! (not that you can even really see the dress here)

1. 2 weeks of midterms have finally come to an end! I will now be able to sleep more than 3 hours a night and not look like death everyday by about 4pm!

2. I am officially 5 months away from taking my licencing test that will make me an official speech pathologist!! It's about time, I am getting exhausted.

3. I know over 20 people with the swine flu! 14 of which are my students I work with on Wed/Thursday, and 2 are my friends that I am in close contact with every day. Should I be worried??!!

4. I am completely in love with little Josiah and can't believe I missed his 1st b-day party.

5. I am also completely in love with pregnant Lindsey and can't wait to meet Ava. I will be missing that shower this weekend too and am SOOO sad about that!

6. Speaking of missing everything, if I have missed a big event in your life b/c of grad school I am going to make it up to you when I get out!! I am not sure how yet but there are LOTS of you out there.

7. Lance is applying for internships right now and they range from right here in Lubbock to Connecticut! It is crazy how up in the air our future is right now. I HATE the idea that we may live apart for a few months but I LOVE the excitement of not knowing where we will be next year! I love change!!

8. I am loving Glee and Flash Forward!

9. God has given me energy that I didn't know I had and I am so thankful for that! I have been going 1,000 miles a minute the past month and my still intact sanity is definitely due to a higher power!

10. My husband has started to become a cook (probably out of survival) but I am SO proud of his skills!!

11. We actually have real friends here in Lubbock and that is such a blessing! We are really getting connected with some people at church and it's great. Ironic since we will be moving again soon, but nice for now. This happened to us in Houston too. Right when we were finally connected with great friends we moved. Hopefully our next city will be more long term!

12. Ok.....off to eat a weight watchers snack. Oh yeah, I have been on weight watchers for about 4 weeks now and I am hungry!! Like for real HUNGRY!! I am thinking of having a "I'm done with midterms" splurge meal in the form of queso smothered burritos! Yep, I think I will!

13. If you are reading number 13 you are too nice and didn't need to listen to me ramble on and on about nothing!

Have a great Tuesday!!!

Memories in an old t-shirt!

2009-10-04T14:57:00.007-05:00

So....I was cleaning out my t-shirt drawer today to try to make some more space and I found this! It's funny how many memories can come back from one tacky little t-shirt! Here's the story, freshman year at ACU a bunch of us decided that we should form a flag football team and play in the intramural league! Could we play football? NO! Did we have any idea what we were doing? No! But we decided to form a team anyway and it was so fun! We were pathetic and horrible and didn't win one game. I remember sitting in the dorm freshman year trying to decide what we should call our team and we had nothing so we just became, "The Flag Football Team"! Jason Campbell (before he was Lindsey's hubby) was our coach! If you look closely you will see lots of familiar faces on this little football team! I am on the far left...not looking great I might add! This is definitely one thing I love about old t-shirts sometimes! I don't think I am going to throw this one out!! :) Creative right!?

This is the back! We were very matter a fact!

I think this photo was taken 6 years ago!!! Half the people in this picture have babies now!! We were so young!!!

Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat....Go Asher Go!!

2009-10-04T14:10:00.005-05:00

I am a bit late on the post but my life has been kinda crazy lately to say the least. I actually just unpacked from this trip I am posting about and it was a week ago so you get the idea! But last weekend we flew to Houston to see First Colony Church of Christ's production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat!! It was so great, the props, costumes, set, singing everything was really impressive and Asher (aka my super talented Dad) was AMAZING too!! He had a solo and it was so funny! He had to sing it with a french accent and definitely nailed it! I was chuckling in my seat the entire time (in a good way...of course)! I was also impressed with the dancing. For the most part the "brothers" in the show were between the ages of 40-60 and they had some definite coordination! In addition to the show, we also got to hang out with Betho, Cody and my parents for the entire weekend! We all got up and had a huge yummy family breakfast Saturday and then went to Brazos Bend for a picnic (which was fun but HOOOOT)! Overall it was such a GREAT weekend! Good job in the show Dad!! We all LOVED it!!

I know it's a little fuzzy but we couldn't use a flash and it's all I could get! This is mid-solo!

Me & Kara after the show. Her and Ben were SOOO sweet and came to watch the show!

"Asher" and Kara!

The entire fam with the star afterwards!

Awesome end of the show!!

This one is a little better of "Asher" singing his solo! Can you see his little beret!?

This is Pharaoh....aka Meredith and Megan's dad! He was sooooo cute as Elvis and did AWESOME!!

Blog Makeover Help!!! Please! :)

2009-09-28T20:31:00.003-05:00

Ok....so I have an ugly blog and I don't know how to make it cute! I downloaded some program that was supposed to help (paint.net) and it didn't! I don't have much time to sit and mess with my blog....and I don't want to pay someone!! Does anyone have some (quick & easy) advice on how I can make my blog cute with a cute background???? ANY help would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Wishful Wednesday....a little late!

2009-09-25T00:24:00.004-05:00

'I wish' .... I got paid $1 million a year to

BE ON BROADWAY!

You have NO idea how obsessed I am with the idea of dancing and singing on Broadway! It is like an ultimate, although 100% unattainable, dream of mine! I hear a song and can instantly imagine myself dancing & signing on some big state in NYC wearing an amazing costume. I have had many a work out sessions listening to Broadway songs on my ipod pretending that the voice coming through the speakers is me!

A girls can dream!!

Wishful Wednesday!

2009-09-15T20:26:00.009-05:00

I finally remembered to participate in my friend Kelsey's "Wishful Wednesday". This week it is,
'I wish' .... I could be ________!
(Name that TV star!! Post a picture and tell us why)

I would definitely have to say:

Julianne Hough

from Dancing With the Stars

She is so cute! Not to mention completely in shape, amazing dancer & now she is a singer and actress!! Jealous! :)

Fall=Pumpkin Pie!

2009-09-13T12:19:00.006-05:00

So it's almost time for one of my most favorite times of year! I never thought much of fall until moving to Lubbock where there is a BIG weather change come late September/Early October. And this year it seems to have hit us all of a sudden and is so nice! Lance & I went to early church today and it was so "Fall"! Probably in the 60s with a nice little breeze. Perfect way to start a Sunday morning.

Since we have been married I have started a tradition of making a pumpkin pie on the first day of fall. It is my favorite pie and I love the way my house smells when it is baking! Well, due to the perfect weather and premature feeling of fall I made the pie just a tad early this year! It was so yummy and made our little apartment smell so happy & homey!!

Writing this post makes me laugh b/c I can all too easily remember almost writing this exact post last year but literally being on the verge of a grad school induced nervous breakdown. I hated the cold weather, I had broken out in to hives and was studying for like 5 different tests at the same time! Oh how it is a good feeling to look back on that horrid time and know school will never be that bad again!!

Ok, I am off to watch the Cowboys with my hubby & am actually looking forward to it! No, I have not come around to liking football but do like spending a day lounging on the couch with my hub!