20 days and counting...

So we have a lot of stuff going on lately. On Friday we are going to Abilene for Betho's graduation from GRADUATE SCHOOL! She is now the most educated person in our family! She got her master's, worked full time and was a teacher in the department all in one year. Way to go Nug!I am always up for a trip to Abilene no matter what the reason, so I am looking forward to the trip.

A week from today we are going to Colorado on a family vacation and then 2 days after we get home we are off to Lubbock for good! So we pretty much only have 5 days left here and are squeezing a lot into everyday! We have dinner plans every night with different people and in the mean time Lance & I are trying to get everything together for school. Tech actually sent me about 14 PowerPoint on a CD in the mail to study to "get ready" for the semester. I am choosing to look at that as a positive and be thankful for theopportunity to get ahead...otherwise I may be a little overwhelmed. :)

I went and bought some stuff for our apt. yesterday. Considering the fact that we are gaining a bedroom & bathroom we needed more stuff. I have been told numerous times that Marshall's is the best place to go to get good deals on good stuff but I am SO intimidated by that store. Huge stores where you have to sift through things to find good deals has never been my thing. Hopefully without sounding like a snob....I must say that I would much rather get my stuff from a place where things are neatly places on the rack or on a shelf. I am just too impulsive and impatient for the digging. However, I am glad I listened to my friends because I found some great clothes, a shower curtain and seat cushions for our breakfast room table & it was CHEAPPPP!

Just in case I don't have time to blog again for a while I want to post some of my favorite pics of this year in Houston. We have had so much fun & will leave with lots of great memories! :)

Hanging out at Jamie & Jay's....we have been so thankful for them!

The night Betho & Cody got engaged! Such a cute family I must say! :)

Right before leaving for the church! That was such a fun morning with all the girls!

John Mayer concert in the Woodlands...this was right after the honeymoon.

Me with the Hubby & almost brother Cod-Cod at some show.

Me with my new car at our apt!

Watching Craig Biggio hit 3,000 with Garrett & Michelle! We will miss you! :(

The high school Biology teacher brought Sharks to my classroom for the kids to "experiment" with! Look at my little scientist!

Dress up time!

Anna Kate

Don't have time to write. But Betho hasn't seen Tim & Shel's adorable little bundle Anna Kate yet. Here she is! She is so cute & TIINY! All of her little cousins were so sweet to her & did such a great job holding her. I can totally see how Mom's keep wanting to have babies! They grow so fast and the newborn phase is so cute! She is 7 days old. :) Enjoy!

Pictures make me happy!

Since we are living at my parents house I have found lots of pics on their computer that I didn't even realize I had. I love going through pictures and remembering all the memories at the time they were taken. I stayed up way to late last night going down memory lane. Here are a few of my favs that I dug up! Enjoy!

We rode our bikes to Wrigley Field!

80's Dance Party in college..one of the best

nights at ACU!

No explanation necessary why this is a favorite!

So happy after getting our marriage license!

Lance too!

Fun childhood pics! I found so many like this.

Swim team back in the old days!

We traveled to probably 90% of the churches in England! We were getting a little delirious and possibly inappropriate by the end of the day!

Easter camping trip and it snowed!

Again in Europe....we were in the freezing rain and still had 10 miles to walk to our house! Desperate times call for desperate measures!

I hope you enjoyed these pics! I had tons fun digging them up!

Fun Busy, Busy, Busy Weekend!

This weekend definitely ranks among the best of the summer. The weekend started out on Saturday with Jamie's baby shower. It was the cutest little surfer themed shower and Jamie looked like one of the cutest little prego's I have EVER seen. It is always fun to have an excuse to see all the family and catch up too! She got lots of cute stuff and it is really starting to seem real that Josiah is going to be here soon and that she is going to be a mommy! I cannot wait. We will unfortunately already be in Lubbock when the baby comes but believe me I have the money already set aside for that very important plane ticket!

The next wonderful event that day was Betho's lingerie shower! We threw her a shower at my Mom's house that night and it turned out being so much fun! It was a PJ party and we played games, ate all of Betho's favorite foods like meat queso, red velvet cupcakes, pigs in a blanket and chocolate chip cookies (yes we all gained about 5 pounds), and then just hung out for hours! The hostesses were amazing and helped me transform the house into the cutest, brightest, happiest place! I was so glad I had all of my little helpers or it wouldn't have been half as cute! A lot of the out of town friends spent the night too and it was just like old times in college! We stayed up until about 3:30 and 10:15am hasn't seemed early in a long time, but it definitely did this morning! Betho got TONS of cute stuff and it was just a great night of catching up with friends and getting to spend even more time with family that I don't get to see everyday! I have the best family and was loving soaking up all the good family time this weekend!

Even number 3 of the weekend was hosting our small group (First Family) at our house...well my parent's house...tonight! It was so much fun hosting 2 events in their house! I told Lance that we were meant to have a bigger house because now that we are living in a big house I love cooking and having people over. I have always loved doing this but a 650sqft apartment can only fit so many people! I think our apartment in Lubbock is about twice as big so maybe I can do more of that in Lubbock.

It hit me today that our life in Houston is rapidly coming to an end. We are moving in 20 days and I am pretty sad. I am super pumped about getting our master's degrees and starting fresh in a new place. But at the same time I still feel like it is pretty new and fresh here. We are finally getting connected to a group at church and are just really comfortable here. But God is taking us to Lubbock so off we go! :) I have been constantly praying for us to find a good church in Lubbock and feel really good about finding one. Sometimes thought I kind of feel like our life is making my head spin. It almost seems blurry when we stopped trying to get connected into jobs and relationships here and started trying to make plans and connections in Lubbock. It has been the craziest whirlwind of a year.

I do have to say though....even if they hold me down and beat me over the head with text books at Tech I am going to stick it out! I will not put graduate school off for one more year! It is taking every ounce of my being to start this 2 year program and if I don't take the plunge now I never will! I definitely want to be a Speech Pathologist and there is just no way around 2 years of grad school. So we are putting our duel income, 9-5 jobs, shopping sprees, and spending way to much money on going out to eat behind us and embracing the life of two full times students! Wish us luck!

Here are lots of pictures from the weekend! Enjoy! :)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today was my wonderful mammasita's B-day! Betho was in town and we had a wonderful day! We had a really yummy breakfast this morning and aside from just a little working, we pretty much relaxed all day. I have been so lucky to have gotten the chance to live with my Mom this summer. We have had so much fun and I am going to miss her so much when we head off to Lubbock. I am really lucky to have such a great relationship with my mom. It has been such a cool thing living here as an adult. In high school parents have to take on such a different role....and I am sure I didn't make it a walk in the park either! :) Now, although she is still my Mom and still has a lot of wisdom to impart on me (like how to drain meat, clean the kitchen and clean a bathtub....j/k) our relationship is so much different and so much fun. I will always be so thankful that I have a Mom that has been praying for me for the past 23 years and continues to pray for me daily! I am very blessed! I Love You MOM! :) HAPPY B-DAY!

I forgot to mention that my cousin Tim and his wife Shelley had their baby girl today too! So the baby and my Mom share a B-day!

Summertime!

I love summer. I was sitting today thinking about how great summer time is, especially for a teacher! Lance and I are both working, but only until noon. We have been having such a great time swimming, hanging out and watching LOST....we may be a little addicted. We have also been keeping my cousin's precious little girl Grace on Mondays and it has been so much fun hanging out with the little cutie! As much fun as we have had with her, it reminds me how far I am at this point from wanting to enter the mommy world. Luckily for me, we have LOTS of little babies in our family and more on the way! So I should be able to get my fix anytime I need to without having my own. :) Someday.....but I am thinking that someday will be a looooong way away....well long like 5-6 yrs. Other than that, not much else has been going on and it has been niiice!

I had to add a pic of Lance & Grace! I couldn't resist!

Belton, Beach & 4th of July!

We have had a lot of fun things going on lately! We went to Belton to see Lance's family last Tue-Thurs and had a great time. We got to spend a lot of time with his parents and even got to see both sets of Lance's grandparents. Lance's parent took us out to a really cool restaurant and the rest of the time I pretty much pigged out on his Mom's WONDERFUL cooking! Everyone was also really excited b/c the Belton parade was in USA Today as one of the TOP 10 THINGS TO DO ON THE 4th! John & Ellen were in the parade and his grandparents were driving thier truck! Here is the blurb from the paper....

'We the People' 4th of July Parade Belton, Texas
Located about 40 miles north of Austin, the town of Belton is known throughout Texas for its Fourth of July parade, which draws participants and spectators from across the state. Featuring floats, bands, decorated bicycles, classic cars and rodeo riders, the procession — which dates from the mid-1800s — has been an annual event since 1919. "Belton's parade is a true celebration of patriotism and the family, with a Texas flavor," Schmader says. "The parade's theme, 'Mom, Dad and Apple Pie,' says it all." rodeobelton.com/parade.htm

We always have a great time in Belton and I am really glad we were able to go!

On Friday we went to Clearlake bright & early and spent the day at the beach with Jamie, Jay & Josiah (in utero of course)! Jamie was the sweetest little mommy to be. She even packed a special cooler of ice cold towels to put on her belly while she was in the sun. She didn't want her precious little baby to get over heated of course! :) They are already the cutest parents and I can't wait to meet little Jo. Our day was actually cut a little short by a HUGE storm that blew in and literally almost blew all of our stuff into the ocean. It took Lance & Jay almost an hours to get the surf boards and stuff loaded up on the top of the car! It was a really crazy storm! That night we went to see fireworks and ate mexican food! It was a really fun day.

The next morning Lance & I headed to Schlitterbahn! It was totally packed with people but we had a really fun time. However, I never knew water slides were so scary! I have never been daring at all when it comes to rides. However, it was just Lance and I so if I didn't go he had to wait in line all alone. So I was really daring and did the scary slides where you lay on your back and drop straight down. It was really one of the scariest things I have ever done b/c I am kinda afraid of heights. :) I got to the bottom of this one "slide of death" and Lance had already gone down. He was just standing on the side laughing. He knew right after he went down it that I was going to be terrified....and he was right! I still have a big knot on the back of my head from being jarred around the slide. But overall it was an awesome day and I can't wait to go back!

That's all I really have to report right now. I hope everyone is having a good week! :)

(here is a pic of the "slide of death" but it doesn't do it justice!)