25 Random things about ME

Someone on Facebook started a chain where they were to make a note that listed 25 random things about themselves. I thought it sounded fun, just a little hard. So if I am going to spend that kind of time on it, then I am going to post it on the blog!

1. I have a shirt fetish. A shirt cannot be on my shoulders – it has to be close to my neck – or I can’t wear it all day. That really eliminates lots of shirts which is why I wear the same type in different colors.
2. I bite my fingernails to the point they hurt and bleed. Every time I try to stop I bite them worse. My dream would be to have nails, but I have no clue if I will ever figure out how to break that habit so my fingers aren’t ugly.
3. I love Tivo. It brings joy to me so that I can still watch shows I enjoy that my schedule doesn’t allow me to watch. I even Tivo Saved by the Bell!!!
4. I have gotten to the point that I cannot function all day without at least 1 cup of coffee – sweet-n-low saves me from sugar so it is not as bad for me. It is a horrible addiction
5. Praying and reading my bible really does make me feel better. Having a relationship with God is the most amazing feeling ever. When I get busy and fall away from Christ I feel something missing in me. It is amazing the love and connection I can have with God almighty.
6. My favorite thing to do after a hard day is run me a candlelit bubble bath with a cup of coffee and just soak my worries away!
7. I LOVE being an aunt. I love getting to spoil my brother’s little boys. I love getting to be there from the beginning. I love that they yell my name when I walk in and that they beg to go with me when I leave.
8. The only place I have EVER worked is the college. I started as a work study 5 years ago, and then moved to part time then to full time. I have had 3 different full-time jobs at the college, but have only worked there. Maybe I am a little scared to go anywhere else.
9. I am horrible at texting. I am slow and not like most people my age with that. But I hate talking on the phone, so I text.
10. I am SO ready for my husband and I to be finished with College. I am ready for him to get the job of his dreams, and me to have more options.
11. I HATE going to the movies. Too many high school and Jr. high kids there that want to be loud. Does that make me old to say that? So sad.
12. I cannot wait – like some days I am way too impatient and am counting down the days – to have a baby. I know the best thing for a baby would be for us to wait a while longer for our lives to calm down, but I am so ready for that time in our lives. I am blessed to have a husband who is excited about it and ready for it too.
13. I am scared to be away from my husband for more than a day. It is kind of like the fear of staying away from home when you were a kid – which I never did because of my fear. He is my security and I need him with me.
14. I do not know how in the world I got so lucky to have the husband I have. He is kind, compassionate, patient, loving and he is so good looking. How in the world did I get him? I don’t deserve him.
15. I wish I knew how to wear jewelry. I love how it looks on people but I hate how it looks on me and I hate how it feels. It took a while to be ok with my Wedding ring!
16. Part of me wishes I could be a stay at home mom some days. I would love to be there through every part of my kids growing up – but I think I would go stir crazy! I cannot be in the house that long. Maybe one day I can have just a part time job so that I have more time with kids but not always at home?
17. I hate cats. They scare me to death. They are very smart and I hate that I think they know what I am thinking. It is just creepy.
18. Growing up I was a major tomboy. I don’t wear dresses. I hate makeup. I love basketball. BUT, my absolute favorite color to wear or to decorate with or just all around is PINK! Weird huh?
19. I hate roller coasters. I am scared of heights. BUT, if they talk me into getting on one, I close my eyes the whole ride, have no clue what is going on but I LOVE it and want to go again. Never will I open my eyes and the next visit to the park I will resist getting on one again to the point of tears.
20. Our first Valentines day together we split a Wii. We decided that roses and chocolates are sweet, but what would we use for a long time and enjoy together? So leave it to us to buy a Nintendo product to celebrate our first romantic holiday together! How could we NOT marry each other after that!
21. I am 24 years old and have a back of the door basketball goal up that I still play with often!
22. I secretly love to cook. I am horrible at it. I am ignorant with it. I don’t have the utensils or pans for it, but in a weird way it is fun.
23. My dad had a drug problem when I was younger. He has been clean for about 6 years. As horrible as that experience was and those memories are, I am thankful I went through it. I would not be the person I am today without those hard times. Being a daddy’s girl made it rough, but the amount of love and respect I have for him now is amazing. I learned about what true faith in God was during that time. I truly learned that if God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.
24. I wish real chocolate milk, Dr Pepper, Hamburgers, Pizza, Enchiladas and chocolate candy or cake were all good for you. I could stick to that diet!!!!!!!!
25. I love poetry. I would love to write songs all the time. I wish we really could do anything we wanted to do – but instead we have to make sure we pay the bills.

Now it is YOUR turn to write 25 Random things about yourself!

Snow Days

Today it is white outside. It is cold. It is icy. I am home in our warm house because School – AKA work – got cancelled. It is a day most people nap or get warm by a fire, but today I am taken back.
Today I can’t help but remember some of my favorite memories of Justin and me. A little over 2 years ago we had just decided to take our friendship to the next level. We had been close for a while and had basically been dating (going out to eat, watching movies, going out of town for day trips) but we had just decided to take the leap of faith in each other and ‘get together.’ I remember WOSC had cancelled school for a few days. At that time we both worked there so that meant we both had the days off. I lived in my TINY 300 square foot efficiency apartment. It had a dorm fridge and 2 burners – I had a toaster oven that had to work as my stove. Since I have bad luck driving in ice – that is for another post – I didn’t leave my apartment for a few days. When I woke up I texted my lovely boyfriend so that he would come over when he woke up and he showed up with stuff to cook breakfast. So he made use of my tiny kitchen and made some food. At that time it was still a bit awkward – we are use to being best friends and hanging out all the time and now it was a tad different. To overcome that we tried to be just like we had been. He ended up getting stuff to make lunch and dinner those 2 days so we basically spent every waking moment together. We spent our time by making a pathetic snowman – it had fruit loop eyes, was made of only the snow on the stairs and patio and a running hat on! - , beautiful snow angels in the grass downstairs, watching movies and doing what we have always done best – talking. We had always thought each other was ‘the one’ but I think those 2 snow days really sealed it for us both.
Today is not as fun of course because he is at work. When he came home from lunch I asked him if he knew what days like today remind me of and without missing a beat he said those days in my little apartment when we started dating. Those were days that we will never forget. It was so fun falling in love with the man that I now call my husband. We already knew what each others favorite color was and what each others favorite song was from our friendship, so I remember learning how he likes to kiss and how being romantic with him would never be a challenge – just natural. We were just simply 2 best friends that had fallen for each other in ways they never knew were possible. After our snows days we knew it was just a matter of time before God laid it on our hearts to get married and start our lives together as man and wife. But I think it was in those 2 days that we started our forever life together.

Bring on the Ice!

I think if every day was like today, that I would never know what being exhausted felt like! We got off at 2:00 because of the weather, I came home and took a nap, when my husband got off work I got up and just spent time with him! What a great night!
My weekend was productive. Many of you would be proud of me - I did some wife-like duties! First off let me say that for those of you that keep up with my blog that we are doing just OK on the whole losing weight/diet plan. We did good the first week, but of course with school in full swing it gets so hard! So this weekend we searched some low fat casseroles and Sunday was full of cooking! I cooked lots of stuff up and did what many recommend and froze them for when we don't have time to cook. That way not only is dinner ready, but it is healthy! One question though - I ran into the problem that the first dish that I sat out today was not defrosted by supper time. So it threw the cooking time off and all. Any way to avoid that?
Something about doing that gave me a little confidence that maybe this losing weight and eating better is attainable. It just takes preparation!
Ok well here is my next question for you vacation savvy people. We are looking at our vacation time and we have finally set a week in the summer that we are both going to take off. So now comes the hard part, where do we go? Here are some ideas and feel free to add - Disney World, Cozumel, Vegas. We want to go on a fun big trip this summer - we figure it will be our last big one before we have kids. We will take future vacation money and save it for a kid. So we want it to be fun and full of memories! So bring on the ideas!
I hope everyone's week is going well. Tomorrow night my classes got cancelled already because of the weather so I have a feeling it is going to be a great week!
:)

Sad

No matter how well your life is moving along something can always come up, even if you know it is coming, that just makes you sad. Even if it isn't something that is a bad thing, good things for other people can just make you sad in a selfish way. I guess I am very selfish, because as happy as I am about the situation and opportunity for another, I am so sad. I feel that feeling of being lost. Amazing people don't just come around every day. What a blessing to have someone mean so much that it crushes you at the thought of not seeing them daily. I will be supportive and happy in the long run for them, but today I am just selfish and sad and need to cry for me.

Thank you President Bush!

Great People

It has been such a blessing having such a strong Christian president. I am so thankful for his solid Christian beliefs even when it caused him criticism. The bible says when the world is against you, God is for you. May God bless president Bush and his wonderful wife. You will be deeply missed.

Love Thursday

I love this picture for many reason. April took our engagement pictures. We were on a bidge here. She shot normal, but sometimes she would be playing with her camera or something and we were oblivious to her. This was not a posed picture, she just caught us in a true intimate moment. This picture reminds me of Passion. More than anything, I love this picture because everything else was out of our minds except each other in that moment. I love when the world fades away and he is still there - not faded. True Love.

Wordless Wednesday

Biggest Ice cream I have ever seen. I took this picture in Vegas - 3 years ago on New Years Eve.

Girlie Girl?

When I was younger I was 100 percent tomboy. I grew up with an older brother that taught me how to play sports and be with the guys. I think my mom had dreams of me being this girlie girl. She always made me have long hair - I didn't cut it off until my sophomore year of high school! She always had her little outfits she wanted me to wear. So of course to school I would, then change as soon as I got home. When I was in 5th grade I forgot to tell my mom that we had school picture one day. I went to school in an OU basketball jersey and OU shorts. I remember someone called to tell her. She came up and fixed my hair but let me just take the picture in that outfit. She says to this day that in that picture you can see my true self! When I was 7 she had glamour shots taken of me. She loves these pictures. Even though they do not reflect me at all - I love the pictures too. Maybe because my mom loves them so much and cherishes them. Who knows! So here are a few of them.

Smiles

Monday night we went to walmart to get groceries. We never go without seeing people we know of course. We had almost finished shopping and we were walking towards the front when this little kid walks by. I know her. Her eyes caught mine and she just stopped. Her eyes got big and a smile came to her face. She started waving. She was within 3 feet of me and she is just waving. I told her hi and smiled. We both kept going. She is in 5th grade now. I know her from when I student taught in her 3rd grade class. Every time I see her she usually runs and gives me a hug. I hadn't seen her in about 6 months so she was hesitant this time. I got so close to this class. I student taught in a 3rd grade class and a kindergarten class. I think my heart is more with the younger kindergarten kids, but I loved being able to build relationships with the 3rd graders. They had full personalities. They could make up jokes, use sarcasm, show emotion. I think I felt like I taught them more because I connected with them more. Something is very satisfying about the fact that 2 years later every one of these kids still know who I am and they still get a big smile on their face when they see me. (Of course that could be because I was the only teacher to play basketball on teams with them at recess!) I can't wait to see the adults they turn into. I hope I get to see that. This was a fun semester. It was a very stressful one, but fun. Just look at the ornery group! I can't help but smile when I see this picture!

P.S. The girl I saw is in the white sweater on the front row. :)

Love Thursday

This is Rece and Garrett when Garrett was about a month old. I love the child-like pure look Rece has.

I had to post 2 because I couldn't decide. This is me and my boys napping at my mom's house when Garrett was about 2 months old. We did this a lot, but this is the only one caught on camera. I think it shows the closeness we share.

Christmas Break is over :(

Today is it. This is my last day on Christmas break. It is a sad day. It is the feeling that you get the minute before you know you have to get out of bed in the morning. That minute that you want to last at least another hour. 2 weeks flew by. Teaching during the break made it not feel like a normal break either, I was at the college just as much as I was at home. But it was a good thing for the college, and in the long run, I think it will be worth giving up most of the break for. Now it is time to start another semester. Another semester of work, another semester of taking Graduate classes, and another semester of teaching adjunct. The thoughts and stress of all of that starting tomorrow has kind of ruined this last day of freedom!!!
So on a different note, we had a great anniversary. We were going to go on a big trip (either skiing or back to Vegas) but since Intersession was so consuming and I really needed to be close to the college, we didn't go. We did decide to just run to the city for a few nights. Nothing big. No plans. Just me and him. It ended up being our best trip yet I think! We just got to relax and be spontaneous with our time. Our hotel had a hot tub and so that was nice to just go sit and relax in. We shopped a little, ate at our favorite restaurants and went to the movies. I still wish we could have had that big getaway to celebrate 1 year married, but it was just a blessing to go spend a few nights without interruptions together.
The break was pretty productive in a a few ways. My husband stripped all the nasty carpet out of our kitchen and re tiled the whole kitchen in a few days. We were without a fridge, stove, washer, and dryer for a few days, but man it looks so good and clean. I didn't get a before picture, so I am searching for one and then I will post a before and after picture. We are getting close to being done with house updates for a while.
We found a new restaurant that we love. We ate it last time we were in the city and have been anticipating it and ate it again this weekend and it once again impressed us. If you haven't ate at the Santa Fe Cattle Co then you have to go try it. It is just good ol country cookin. I am usually a pasta fan (Fazzolis is my all time favorite!) but this place is just awesome.
We decided that our New Years resolution is to eat healthier and exercise. We both have such crazy schedule that it is hard to cook good food and not just fast food. So we are trying. We also want to exercise. We both feel so much better when we workout. My goal of course is to shed pounds through it. I went on a streak a few years ago and lost about 30 pounds altogether, but I have just about gained it all back. :( I don't have the frame or genetics to ever be really skinny -
but I don't want to be overweight. We got a basketball goal for Christmas thanks to my mother in law and so I am going to enjoy workout in that area! It cost more to eat healthy, but it will be worth the money for us to get some energy back. Strangly we kind of enjoy working out, just have to make the time to do it. Life is busy enough, but we have to take care of the bodies that God gave us! So wish us luck! (Mainly me, he already looks good!)
Ok that was a lot of reading and no pictures. So here are so pictures from Rece's 7th b-day party. It was back in September but I guess I just never posted about it. It was a skating party, and a fun one at that! We played limbo on Skates! I couldn't be kept from the fun even if the kids had a height advantage!!!
Here is Garrett playing. He had the right idea, no skates!!!

Here is Rece man. He ended up geting 2nd place I believe.

And then here is me. No I wasn't the 1 that beat Rece. I got close to last. But I sure did try hard!!! :)