Splendid Spring Break

Spring Break has been absolutely wonderful so far with only 1 exception...it has gone by waaaay too fast - it feels like it just began and it's already Thursday! But that's no big shocker - I could tell you that was going to happen before it even started. Well actually there are 2 exceptions to the splendid spring break because we did have a little trip to the hospital this week, but I'll tell more about that in a minute.

I haven't done anything too spectacular this week...just a bunch of little things that have been fun and relaxing. On Saturday, I helped host a baby shower for my friend Amanda. My friend Amy and I had a great time putting it all together, and everything turned out fabulous! I can't wait until Amanda's baby Cole is born! Anyway, that afternoon Sean came back from his business trip in NYC with a little blue box from Tiffany (woohoo! This boy definitely knows one way to my heart!)...I opened it up to find a cute little porcelain keepsake box with New York landmarks on it...it's like the ultimate New York souvenir--love it!

On Sunday I went to church with Natalie, and Sean had to go to the Reserves. He came back home that night and suddenly got nauseous. He could not stop throwing up that night and couldn't keep any fluids or anything down, so we decided to go to the hospital at about 3am to get him hooked up to some fluids and anti-nausea medication...poor thing was miserable! Thankfully it worked and we went home around 6:30 to get some rest. He was feeling much better the rest of the day - just a little weak. That same thing happened a few years ago when we lived in San Diego and nothing worked until we went to the hospital, so that's how we knew to do the same thing again. We still don't know whether it was food poisoning from something he ate at lunch that day or a stomach bug. Either way, I'm glad it went away fast and he had all day Monday to rest up before going back to work.

On Tuesday I met Sean, Natalie, and my father-in-law downtown for lunch. We had a great time eating and visiting, and afterwards I made Sean play one of those old games at the front of the restaurant that tells you what you were meant to be - it told him he was supposed to be a doctor...guess he has a long way to go, ha!

Yesterday I met up with my friend Hayley for happy hour...we had a great time chatting it up and drinking margaritas, which was fitting for St. Patty's Day since they are green! I just love Hayley--we always have so much fun. She is so down-to-earth and easy to talk to.

I wish I had pictures to share of all these little adventures -- one of these days I will get better about taking pictures, promise!

Actually I do have 2 pictures taken from my iphone at the rodeo a couple weeks ago...one with Hayley:
And one with Sean:
That counts for something! :)

Today my Mom is coming to visit for the next couple days...we are going to relax, shop, etc....I'm so excited! I love hanging out with my little Momsie--in addition to being my MOM (that word says it all - that bond can never be broken!) who I love so very much, she really is one of my best girlfriends! She knows me better than almost anyone, and I can just talk and laugh with her for hours! Anyway, I will end this aimless little spring break blog post with a quote I heard on Grey's Anatomy a few days ago that I just love and think is so true:

"It's the accidents that always turn out to be the most interesting parts of our day, of life -- the people we never expected to show up, the turn of events we never would've chosen for ourselves. All of a sudden you find yourself somewhere you never expected to be, and it's nice. OR, it takes some getting used to...but still, you know you'll find yourself appreciating it somewhere down the line. So, you go to sleep each night thinking about tomorrow - going over your plans, preparing your lists, and hoping whatever accidents come your way will be happy ones." :)

Telluride

Wow, has it really been since September that I have posted?? I am horrible about this, but I will get better...someday. :) Anyway, we got back Wednesday night from an absolutely wonderful trip to Telluride, CO. We met Kami and Donny (my sister and brother-in-law) and a couple of their friends (Brian and Heather who we'd only met once before, but we will definitely have to hang out again because they live in Houston and they are so much fun!) there. Donny's dad owns a beautiful home there:
It was ski-in, ski-out with several luxurious guest suites, 2 hot tubs, upstairs/downstairs kitchens and living areas...really just too much to even name. One of the neatest things was that all of the wood and stone in the house was from some sort of cool place or story. For instance, the logs were all involved in a forest fire, so that's why they have the dark markings on them.

We had a blast skiing and hanging out in Telluride. On Valentine's Day while we were eating lunch we noticed that Ed Helms (Andy from The Office, also from The Hangover) was eating at the table next to us with a couple other guys. After debating back and forth for a while (should we try to get a picture with him, should we not? The guys were obviously leaning towards NOT, but the girls were just too tempted!), Kami was brave enough to tell him we were big fans and ask if we could get a picture. I'm so glad she did because he was very friendly! He asked where we were from and we talked for a bit. We assumed he was just their for vacation so we didn't ask, but it turns out he was in town for some sort of comedy show that he was doing with some other guys. We didn't know that until later on when we saw the sign for it, and we called to try and get tickets, but it was sold out. :( mwah mwah. Oh well, it was still really neat to meet him because we are all huge fans of The Office!
Pictured L-R Heather, me, Andy (well I guess it's actually Ed but it seems much more natural to call him Andy), and Kamster!

We did a little shopping around Telluride that afternoon, and that evening we had Valentine's Day dinner at Allred's. Allred's is a really neat restaurant on the mountain (you have to ride the gondola to get there!) where Will, our next door neighbor from when we were kids in San Antonio, is a chef! It was so great to see him, and of course the food was delicious! I wish we would have gotten a picture with him because we ended up not being able to get together after that. At least we got to see him for a short time....what a small world this is! I miss those childhood days in San Antonio with the "Winter Hill Gang."

Most of the remainder of our time in Telluride was spent snow skiing. I hadn't skied since we went to Big Bear in California a couple years ago, but it's just like riding a bike - it's easy to pick right back up where you left off. We had so much fun...I really love skiing, and I've decided I want to try to go at least once every 2 years from here on out.
The whole group:
Sean and I on the "See Forever" run:


On Wednesday morning we left for our flight back to Houston. At least we only had 2 days until the weekend, so it kind of eased us back into the real world, but it was still sad to leave. I just love traveling...can't wait to start the countdown to the next trip! For now, I just have to focus on getting my students through the Writing TAKS successfully...I will say it was nice to come back to my little ducklings on Thursday! I kind of missed them even though I only missed 2 days of school. I call them my little ducklings because when they follow me in line it reminds me of ducklings. Some of the boys aren't too crazy about the idea of being called "ducklings" but I stick with it anyway. Hehe :)

Classroom, Labor Day weekend, etc....

As you can imagine, the past few weeks have been very busy with school starting and everything....hence the reason for not posting in about a month. However, I am finally coming through with a couple pictures of my classroom as promised. Keep in mind that my room is in an old portable with those oh-so-stylish brown paneled walls.... so you have to cut me a little slack there....it's not so easy to make that look cute! I have given it my best shot, though, and I will continue to add things and make improvements throughout the year.

I absolutely LOVE my students, my school, and my team. I can't imagine myself wanting to change grades or schools or ANYTHING anytime in the foreseeable future. I really do love my job -- the only downside is the looong hours I have been working, but I was expecting that, so no surprise there!

Last weekend we went to the first A&M game and then to San Saba for the rest of Labor Day weekend. The whole weekend was so much fun - we didn't want it to end! The Aggies played a great game, and we had a lot of fun sitting with Shannon, Jonathan, Evonne, and Brannon.

After the game and a brief visit to the Chicken, we drove to San Saba. The "Franklin" side of our family was in town and we had so much fun visiting with all of them. My Uncle Jerry's friend had flown in from Houston, and on Sunday morning he took us for a plane ride around San Saba. It was really cool to see our house and everything from the air.

After that we went down to the river and sat in lawn chairs in the shallow part, chatted, and relaxed. Then we cooked out and had some delicious doves and fried fish. On Monday we relaxed a little more, played some 42, and got ready to head back to the real world. It was a wonderful weekend and I can't wait to go back! :)

Last night we went to the Woodlands for a Brad Paisley concert with Shannon and Jonathan...it was really fun, I just love Brad Paisley. Now we are just watching some football, I'm grading papers, and about to go run some errands. Tonight we are going out with Shannon, Jonathan, Evonne and Brannon. Evonne and Brannon are in town from San Antonio. Should be a fun night! We're eating Mexican food and I feel like it's been awhile (at least a week! haha) since I've had Mexican food, so I'm getting really excited. :) Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! XOXO

Back to school, back to school

I really need to be at the school working on my classroom right now, but I haven't written on this thing in a while so I decided to stop by for a quick hello before I go. :) The past couple weeks have been busy as expected....I have been to teaching workshops out the wazoo...some have been really good, some have been 'eh'. They all kind of start to sound the same after a while....I have gotten some really good ideas though. I have spent every available moment this week (mainly those few precious moments in between workshops and a few hours each evening) working on my classroom or buying stuff for my classroom, and I still have a lot more to go. Yes, it is indeed back-to-school-time for me.....overall, though, I am loving every minute of it! I have my list of students and I cannot wait to meet them. Wednesday night is "Meet the Teacher" (or in my case, "Meet the Students") so I will meet several of them then....I am so excited to see their precious faces! :) I will try to get some pictures of my classroom when it's finished and post them on here. I'm hoping to get the majority of it done today and tomorrow afternoon, but that's probably just wishful thinking! That's okay, as long as it's done by Wednesday I'm good to go. Alrighty, I better hop to it....hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!! xoxo

busy busy busy

Summer is rapidly coming to an end, which is very bittersweet to me. I can actually count on one hand the number of days left before school starts in which I don't already have an obligation or something planned. I'm happy because I'm excited about setting up my classroom and meeting my students and everything....I'm a little bummed because I know it won't be long before I will be missing summer and longing for a vacation!

Last weekend we had a mini-vacay in San Antonio at the Westin La Cantera Resort with my wonderful fam. We had so much fun, and I don't think any of us wanted to leave! On Friday night we went to La Margarita in downtown SA for some delicious Mexican food and, of course, margaritas. On Saturday morning we got up for a wonderful breakfast and then everyone kind of did their own thing....Dad and Colby went golfing, Mom, Kami, Alli, and Donny went to the pool, and Sean and I went to Fiesta Texas. Yep, 25 yrs old and I'm still a roller coaster junkie :). We didn't get to do as much as we wanted because it was so crowded, but we still had a lot of fun. If you want small crowds and short lines, Saturday is definitely not the best day to go to an amusement park. Of course we knew that, but it was really our only option this time and I was still determined to get my roller coaster fix! Then we went back to the hotel and everyone met up in time for happy hour (or "happy time" as Mom likes to call it!). The floor we were staying on had a room with some yummy hors d'ouvres and wine and beer during happy hour. Afterwards, everyone went down to the pool and hot tub and lounged a little and had a great time cutting up and having fun. Then we got ready for dinner and ate at one of the restaurants at the resort, followed by a friendly game of shuffleboard which I think my Mom and Dad won pretty handily...I never knew they were such pros! On Sunday we got up and ate some breakfast, lounged around and watched a movie, and went down to the pool for a little bit while the guys played more golf. Then we went to one of my fave SA restaurants, Alamo Cafe, and afterward everyone went their separate ways to start the work week. Here are a few pictures...

I spent this whole week at a teaching workshop called Summer Writing Academy. It was pretty long, but I actually enjoyed it for the most part. I learned some great ideas for teaching writing and had fun getting to know a couple of the girls that will be on my team as well as a few from other schools in the district.

Last night we went to the Astros game with my father-in-law. We had great seats and the Astros won, so it was just an all-around good time!

Today I am going to make myself work out because I haven't in a while and I feel so "blah!" For the majority of today, though, we will be continuing to unpack our apartment. It is going so slow! Fitting the contents of a 3 bedroom house into a 1 bedroom apartment has been quite a challenge, but we're making progress little by little. We have a storage unit, but it has filled up rather quickly. I'm glad that this is only a short-term living arrangement. Hopefully (as long as God agrees that it's what he wants us to do!) we will be buying a house before the end of the year and moving in while I'm out of school over the holidays. But in the meantime....we've gotta get back to unpacking and setting this place up the way we want it for the next few months. Hopefully we will get a lot done today and tomorrow.

Tonight we are going to hang out with our friend Hayley (who is in town from San Francisco) and some other friends from college, so we are excited about that! Hope everyone has a great weekend! XOXO

Lazy Saturday

Today has been a nice lazy Saturday. Other than a quick jaunt on the treadmill this morning, I pretty much haven't done anything except meet my friend Katie at a place called Hungry's for lunch. The food was very yummy and I really enjoyed catching up with Katie. We haven't known each other for very long, but the few times that we have been able to get together we've gotten along great...she's just one of those people who is really easy to talk to and I love that. She will be teaching in Katy ISD next year as well, and she has plans to move out there within the next couple years - I can tell we're going to be great friends :)

So I was bad as usual and didn't take any pictures last weekend...not a single one! And there's not really a fun story to tell that sticks out in my mind particularly, although it was a very fun weekend. So in case anyone was eagerly awaiting the stories and pictures that I mentioned at the end of my last post (and I'm sure you all were....ha!), sorry to disappoint. I guess I'm just not that good at this blogging thing yet! I don't ever think to myself 'Hey, I should take some pictures right now to put on my blog! ' But I really should start doing that because I know it's a great way to record memories and share with family and friends....my whole purpose for starting this thing in the first place! Oh well, someday I'll learn...

Anyway, quick recap of last weekend: Friday - we swam, played water volleyball (which Kami, Dad, and I beat Mom, Sean, and Donny in - quite handily I might add), Kami and I went fishing with Donny and Sean (we didn't last long - it just wasn't that exciting to us and the gross bait didn't help matters either), and we had some delicious fajitas. Saturday - swam some more, Donny and Sean went fishing again (minus the girls this time), went to my grandparents' house for a fish fry (yum!), watched the fireworks at the park, played poker. Sunday - went to church, ate lunch, and packed up to head back to Houston. On the way back to H-town we stopped at Sonic and got a cherry limeade chiller (which is cherry limeade mixed with vanilla ice cream) and ahhh, I was in heaven! They are so good! Thursday I tried the strawberry limeade chiller and it was equally as good - I can't decide which I like better.

This week really flew by - I can't believe it's already the weekend again! Some highlights of the week: On Tuesday we went to our small group Bible study in Katy...we really enjoy that group. On Wednesday I met Sean and Kresta (my cousin John's lovely wife) downtown for lunch, and we randomly saw my dear friend Shannon, so she joined us as well! Wednesday night I joined Shannon and several other friends from Kappa at dinner - it was great catching up with them - I hadn't seen a couple of them since college! Thursday night we went to the Astros game with our friends Ryan & Amy, which was really fun - it was actually the first baseball game we've been to this year! Amy teaches 3rd grade in the school that I will be teaching at, and I am so excited - another person that I can already tell is going to be a great friend!

I guess that about sums it up for the week. Tonight we are going to dinner with our friends Ryan and Amanda. We are eating Thai food, which neither Sean nor I have ever tried before, so should be interesting! I've heard it's good though, so I'm not scared. :) And I will leave you with a picture that Kami took of Momsie and I before we left on Sunday. Thank you Kami - without you, this would just be another pictureless blog post.

25th birthday, etc.

I turned 25 on Friday, and I have decided I want to stay there. :) I like 25, it's a nice age - old enough to be an adult, but young enough to still be, well, young. So the plan is: I will still celebrate birthdays (because where's the fun in not celebrating birthdays!?), but I'm staying at age 25 for at least a few more years.

Ha, if only that worked! ;) And it's not that I'm saying anything above 25 or 30 or even 40 is "old" - it's just that anything beyond 25 is venturing out into the unknown for me. You see, for my entire life thus far, it has seemed like each year life has gotten better and better...and I fear that it can't stay like this forever....I feel like at some point, and I don't know when that point will be, I will reach my "peak" and things will start going downhill! :-0
But, God is so good and I will just continue to pray that He will continue to pour out the blessings. :)

It was a good birthday...after Sean got off work we left Houston for San Saba. Along the way we stopped at Coldstone and got their "birthday cake remix" creation, which is my absolute favorite. And the guy making it knew that it was my birthday, so he upgraded me to the "Love it" largest size which is easily big enough to feed 3 people. He thought he was just being nice and generous (and he was), but little did he know that I would eat the WHOLE thing. Anyway, then we met my parents in Killeen for dinner (thankfully we had 2 or 3 hours of driving time in between for my ice cream to settle), and afterward we all drove the rest of the way to San Saba. There waiting for me was a delicious German chocolate cake (my fave!) prepared by my wonderful parents... so I proceeded with my indulgences of the day and ate some of that. Probably about a 5,000 calorie day, but hey - it was my birthday, I obviously wasn't counting :)

Here is a picture of me with my German chocolate cake....

The next day we went to Brownwood for the Mahan reunion, which was enjoyable and also, let's see...interesting. Family reunions always are pretty interesting, aren't they? I hadn't been to one in a while, so it was Sean's first one to have the pleasure of attending...we had some fun and quite a few laughs. ;) But it really was a good time, and very nice to see some relatives I hadn't seen in years. The next day, we took my Dad to his golf tournament in Brady (which he and his partner won - yay!), Sean had to head back to Houston for work, and I went with my Mom to Dallas for Market to place some orders for Mbellishments. This was my first time to go to the Dallas Market - last year I went with my Mom and Kathy to the market in Las Vegas. We had a great time, but it was very tiring! Yesterday I hung out with my Mom at Mbellishments for awhile, went to the golf course and rode along with my Dad for awhile (Wednesday is their big golf day), and went to Digg's (the new restaurant in town) with Shi'Ann and our families. It was great catching up with Shi - we hadn't seen each other in a few months. It turned into quite a humorous experience as well - we came across a fellow who had had a little too much to drink and was very entertaining - sometimes you've just gotta sit back and laugh! And somehow Shi'Ann and I both ended up being named "Sharon" by the end of the night. I guess you had to be there. ;)

Sean is coming back to San Saba tonight after he gets off work, so I'm really excited about that! Donny and Kami are coming too. It's going to be such a fun weekend! Hopefully I'll have some fun stories and pictures to post after we get back to Houston on Sunday. Until then, Happy July 4th weekend everybody! :)