Crusin!

Hello Blog world. I hope everyone could survive for a week without me blogging. I am sure you check everyday! :) Just Kidding. But the reason I was away was because I was on the best "Girls Week" with my mom and sister. We just got back today from a cruise to Progresso & Cozumel! It was SO much fun and SO relaxing. Not to mention that we ate constantly, literally I did not feel an ounce of hunger the entire week. It was so much fun to just hang out with my mom and Betho. We made lots of fun memories and had some definite quality bonding time! The ship we were on was full of, well lets say "interesting" people. It was definitely entertaining/creepy at some points. It is one thing to pass a slightly odd or drunk person on the street. However, when you are confined to a ship that is floating in the middle of the ocean it is a different story. All of the people were great, there were no problems at all. But I am not gonna lie, we were a tad bit shell shocked for the first few hours. On the days we were at sea we just laid out, ate, went to shows and wasted WAY to much money at the casino! I have now learned that I am in no way a gambler by nature. I honestly felt ill putting money into the slot machines and watching it go away into nothing. I was into it at first but as the week went on and money was dwindling I couldn't help but imagine all the things I could use that money for! Our days at the ports were really fun too! We went to Cozumel and saw (no exaggeration) a four foot long barracuda!!!! We names him "Barry" and had a code for alerting the rest when he came back into our presence. Fortunately, we all came out of Cozumel with all of our limbs intact. Overall, it was just a fun relaxing week and I am so glad we were able to do it. I have really been overcome with how blessed I am lately and am so thankful that we were able to go on this trip.

On a different note, Lance and I officially turned in our keys today. We will never again live in our tiny little apartment. It seems like yesterday that I was writing about moving in and now we are gone. We are living with my parents until August when we move to Lubbock for grad school. So today we turned in out keys, put the rest of the stuff in storage and even got a 3 month membership at a gym here in Sugar Land. It's weird how fast things change. Last week I was a teacher living in my apartment in Houston and now I am a student (soon to be) living in Sugar Land and about to be living in Lubbock.

Ok that's all for now. I still haven't taken of my swim suit cover up and we are about to go out to dinner. I don't want the same strange looks at Pappasitos that I got at the gym! Here are a few pics of the week. Our room steward folded ANYTHING that we left on the bed/floor into an animal. The picture of me holding the shirt is my shirt folded into a fortune cookie....I think! Enjoy and have a good week!

Happy Birthday Lance!

Just a quick blog shout out to my Hubby who is turning 24 in just a few hours. Lance & I were the same age for a few months but I am glad he is 10 months older than me for when we are turning 30,40,50 etc. I am already dreading the day I am not in my 20's so I am glad Lance will hit it first! I will not get too cheesy/sentimental but I couldn't love my wonderful husband more! I honestly cannot believe that I have such a perfect husband. I know that no one is perfect, but I really think Lance comes close! I am SOOOO blessed! Everyday is a wonderful day for me because Lance makes everyday different and special and I love him toooons! This picture is his school picture from when he taught at Graham last year. We lived in different towns so Lance sent me this picture and I framed it and put it on my bedside table. My roomates thought I was really lame and made fun of me all the time!

p.s

I am no longer a teacher and I really miss my kids! I have no idea how teachers do this year after year. I have been looking forward to the end of the year for months, and when I walked into my classroom today and didn't hear any little voices it was really sad. Hopefully I will see some of them again someday. :(

Betho is ENGAGED!!!!!!!

UPDATE:

Here are some pics of the proposal! The one of them hugging is right after he did it! SO CUTE! :)

I am so happy I can finally post this on my blog! I won't write much b/c I want Betho to get to tell everyone the story! BUT Bethany and Cody got engaged on Friday night and it was AMAZING! You should definitely call her and get the story! It is so cute. I cannot believe little Betho is getting married and we will both be wives now! I couldn't be more excited for her. The ring is REALLY pretty too!! We were in New Braunfels this weekend for Lance's birthday and it was so excited watching Betho show everyone her ring and tell them the story. Cody was pretty cute too! Lance & I are very grateful that Cody still loves us. We were in charge of taking him to the park where he was going to purpose and we got LOST and almost blew the entire thing! It was very stressful, but thankfully it all worked out just as planned!

The wedding is January 10th in Houston and I am soooooooooo excited to start doing all my Maid of Honor duties! Here is a cute pic of Betho & Cody.

Texas Tech here we come!

Don't have much time to write but our prayers have been answered! Lance and I have both been accepted to graduate school at Texas Tech and we are moving to Lubbock sometime in late August. We are so blessed that we are able to go to school full time and both get this our of the way at the same time. I am especially excited for Lance because this Master's degree is exactly what he needs to get his dream job!

I am not nervous at all about moving to a new place because I love change! But I am very, very sad about leaving Houston and could use prayer about this issue. There are so many people here that I am going to miss and I am sad that I won't live by so much family and new little ones. But God is good and I am confident this is what we should be doing right now. I think it will be amazing for Lance and I to do this together. So in May 2010 Lance and I will be well educated with our dream jobs! Well my dream job is being a Mom so that may not be by 2010! I will have to settle for Speech pathologist until at least 2012 which will be absolutely amazing. I can't wait to learn so much and get into this wonderful field.

CONGRATS JAMIE! MY COUSIN JAMIE FOUND OUT THAT SHE IS HAVING A BABY BOY! I CAN'T WAIT TO MEET MR. JOSIAH ANDREW!

Just a few thoughts for the day....

So here are just a few thoughts for the day....

1. What's the big deal with Dallas sports teams? Being married to Lance I am realized that him and all of his friends are like suuuper duuuper obsessed with the Cowboys, Rangers and Mavericks. I know being from Houston we don't care much for Dallas but its not even that. I honestly just don't get it. What is the appeal? The more and more I learn about sports and become a sports fan I get a really icky feeling for anything "Metroplex" related. I think I need to stop watching sports with Lance and just stay indifferent. I mean what about the Rockets? They are so much cooler than the Mavericks. They are sooo entertaining to watch and they are the most impressive, upbeat team. They are a group of little guys, and they were missing two of their best players for half of the playoffs. They still held their own, losing by just a few points most games and I don't think there is any question that they would have advanced if circumstances were different. Ok that was scary. Last sports post ever! :)

2. Today at work I was wondering at what age children realize that adults don't know everything. I have realized that the students in my class actually think I can fix anything. They think I can instantly heal mosquito bites, pull a liquid or some food out of my pocket at all times if they are hungry, make them fall asleep if they are having a hard time at nap time, tie their shoes even if both my hands are completely full....the list goes on and on. But I am honestly wondering. I know that a 4 year old has to be close to understanding that adults aren't miracle workers but most of my kids still do. I want to figure this out before I have my own kids.

3. I am really sad that I just started watching American Idol this season. I love the top 4 finalist!

4. I am wondering what my fellow female friends are thinking about the one piece swim suit craze this year. Cute or not?

5. I can't wait to find out the sex of Jamie & Jays baby soon! I feel so strongly that it is a girl but I don't know why!

6. I had the most amazing thing happen to me this week. As most of you know Lance & I have been waiting and waiting and calling and emailing ect. to try to get some answers about graduate school. But I have come to the realization that Lance and I have done everything we possibly can. We have called everyone we need to call and prayed and prayed and prayed and now we can just sit back and let God work. I have had the most overwhelming sense of peace this week knowing that it is out of our control now and that God will reveal his will to us in his time. It is such a wonderful feeling. But I think this is the first time I have truly felt the peace of letting God take control.

7. Betho is coming home for the Month of May & I am sooooo excited. I cannot wait for us to hang out like old times. It is weird to be together for 22 years and then spend a year apart!

8. As of today I only have 7 full days of work left!! I can't believe it. I am beyond excited, but I am going to miss my little babies! :(

Ok that's all for today! Have a great rest of the week!

We're actually moving! :(

So tonight we started packing up all of our things and I was less than thrilled! I cannot believe that our first year of marriage and our first little home is coming to an end. I will never forget coming home from our honeymoon and decorating our apartment! I was sooo excited to get here and make everything really cute. It seems like yesterday and I cannot believe we are actually leaving this happy little place. I am usually the type to love packing things and getting organized. I LOVE change and thought I would be thrilled to be going somewhere unknown. I know God will bless our lives wherever we are and I know we will be happy wherever we end up. But I really had NO idea this would be so hard! I guess it is just the fact that this was our first home and first city together as a married couple. Everything we have done here has been a first as a couple. I remember driving around to find the grocery store, mall, pharmacy, movie theatre and getting so excited every time we did something new. I still remember going to Kroger together right after our honeymoon and being so excited about our first grocery trip as a married couple. We have made so many great friends and have been so lucky to live by so much family. We are going to miss being close to so many people we love, but I am praying that God puts new wonderful people in our life once we move.

But for just tonight and maybe the day we drive away from Houston, Texas I am going to let myself be sad and reminisce about all the wonderful memories we have made in our first home and first city together. On a lighter note I am really going to miss the Galleria, pappasitos, sushi, all the weirdos you run into (I really do love all the interesting people I run into here), professional sports and just all the things that come along with a big city. I know I will enjoy not sitting in traffic and saving tons of money on gas and all that, but I really love living in such a big city. I am fascinated with the "melting pot" aspect of Houston. Some weeks I feel like I have visited the Middle East, Africa, Asia and rich American suburbia all in one day! But I must say when I get lost in downtown Lubbock or Abilene I won't fear for my life! Here is a picture of me packing some boxes. You can tell I am just a tiiny bit depressed! :(

So long 1037 Griffith Road.....Thanks for the memories!

This blog entry is dedicated to the wonderful "Griffith Girls"! Many of you may not know what a "Griffith Girl" is however, to those of you that do, you know it is the best thing in the entire world. To quickly explain, at ACU you have to live in the dorms your freshman and sophomore years and after your sophomore year you can move off campus. Well, when my friends and I were trying to move off campus we couldn't decide who should live with who and how we were going to split up among houses. We thought it was just too depressing to live 5 minutes away from each other (this makes me laugh now that I live in Houston and most people I want to see are at least 15 minutes away) and we just had to find an alternate solution. So....we found a group of I think 10 town homes that formed a little square and about 12 of us just split up among the available houses. We were so close we could literally talk to one another from our windows. We did everything together and I spent two of the best years of my life in walking distance from some of my very best friends in the entire world. We would all go to class in the morning and if we were able to come home for lunch we would just walk around the parking lot and see who was home by the cars and just let ourselves in with our lunch. No doors were ever locked and you always knew who was home just by looking out your window. There was NEVER a time when at least 1 or 2 friends weren't home and if by some very strange chance no one was home you could always count on Riley, Chloe, Bailey or Bently for company....those were the wonderful griffith puppies of course!

After graduation most people left Abilene and moved on to different cities and most of the original girls moved out. However, Betho and Kara moved into Me, Betho, Ally & Sara's old house while they finished up school or worked on master's degrees. Not to hold onto the past too much, but I think Betho and Kara keeping one house alive gave all of us a little comfort. We always had a place to stay if we were in Abilene for something and a place to hold onto a small piece of the life we once had before bills, work, getting up early, and not being in walking distance from a friend at all times!

However, like all good things....they must come to an end sometime. As of tomorrow Betho and Kara will officially be moved out of 1037 Griffith Road and there won't be any of the original "Griffith Girls" left! :( I hope the community lives on and that the new people take advantage of such a wonderful place to live! Here are a few pictures of some of my favorite memories of 1037 Griffith Road and some of the other Griffith houses! I really do feel SO blessed to have these wonderful college memories! They will literally last me a lifetime!


Ally's "Disney" themed Birthday Party! Yes, she was turning 21!



We went to a Halloween party this night and Lauren (top right ) got pulled over for making an illegal turn. We were all in full costume and the cop shined the light in her face and said, "Name please....Age....Hair color".....she was wearing that full Afro wig and when he said hair color we all BURST out laughing....the cop was not amused!


A visit from Rox, she was definitely our favorite out of town visitor!



One of our annual Griffith Christmas parties. They were always secret Santa parties and we looked forward to them for months!



Halloween pumpkin carving contest. We worked SOOO hard and got last! :(



I came home really late one night from the library and someone had put this scary thing in my dark room! I thought it was a man and RAN down the stairs screaming. Traumatizing!



Our last Griffith Christmas party!



Bailey, Bentley, Riley & Chloe!