Fun for all...

... or at least for me! I just got a phone call saying that my new toy is in! And I'm picking it up TONIGHT! Any guesses on what it is?



If you guessed an iPhone 4, you're right! I've been waiting oh so patiently not so patiently for the past 2 1/2 weeks for it to come. Woo hoo! I'm so glad to get rid of the phone I've had for the past 2 1/2 years (which I never really liked)!

I'm also getting to go to one of my favorite stores, Sephora, to go buy make-up for my sister. The only thing better than  getting Michelle all new make-up (brushes, included), would be for me to be getting it. But that would require spending my money... It's so much better spending someone else's money... ;)



I already know most of what I'm getting her color wise, because I've used my make-up on her so I know what already looks good.

This weekend we're traveling home because it's my sister's last weekend at home before she heads to college. I'm so excited for her to be leaving, but sad that she's going to be so far away! We'll just have to go visit her or something.

I'm totally bummed out, though because I'm just going to miss one of my best friends... She's moving WAY up north and is leaving early Saturday morning... too early for me to get up. Hopefully Thanksgiving comes quick because I'm definitely going see her then (right Amy!)

Well, \enough for now... More pictures to come after this weekend and I get the rest of the photos from our vacation!

Vacation... Part I

We've been back from Virgin Gorda for a little over a week now, and I can't wait to go back some day. :) We had an absolute blast with my family snorkeling, hanging out on the beach, and shopping in St. Thomas. Without further adieu, here are some pictures (the rest will have to wait as they were taken with my dad's camera and I didn't get a CD before we left).

View from the villa

Beautiful sunset!

Us at the beach

Stormy skies

Dustin making faces

Michelle so excited to be floating in the ocean!

Picture time at Spring Bay

Alan at Spring Bay

The Holman/Letz kids :)

The women at The Copper Mines

Us

The men at The Copper Mine

What it looks like driving to the villa... 

Looks like you're going to drive off the island into water!

My face got really burned... hence the hat

Double hibiscus... my new favorite flower!

Double hibiscus bud... LOVE taking pictures right after it rains!!!

Pretty purple flowers

Our yummy coconut Alan so graciously cracked open for 

Michelle and I to eat!

Other pictures soon to come... Dad got some great ones! More updates on our life to come soon, as well. =)

Month in review...

Yet again it's almost been a month since I have blogged... Shame on me! To my credit, though, I have been watching my 15 month old nephew the past 2 weeks. And one of those weeks I also added another 15 month old. It's been a BLAST! I adore my nephew and love getting the time to get to know him and hang out. So on to recapping the past three or so weeks.

• My sister graduated from high school Friday, June 4. Alan and I drove home the Thursday  before and spent the Friday going to the doctor (more on my doctor's visit later), hanging out, and picking plums at my grandparents (which were SUPER yummy!). Michelle left for New York early Saturday morning, so the rest of the family just hung out and celebrated my birthday with yummy steak, grilled veggies, rolls, potato casserole, my favorite summer salad, and a super delicious strawberry cake!

                              

Michelle and I after graduation.

• The next week began my summer job of nannying for my nephew. This was also the week that I had the second child, a little girl born the same day as my nephew. It was fun to see both of them interact. I got some adorable pictures, but for privacy, I won't be posting them.

• That Friday, we headed to the lake with Alan's two sisters, their husbands, and kids. What a fun weekend that was! We didn't rent a boat, but spent Saturday morning at the "beach" part of the lake. It wasn't much of a beach, but the kids definitely had a blast. I didn't get any pictures of me and Alan, but I got plenty of everyone else.

So I've been working on my photography skills, and even though it's a picture 

of a spider, I was just so excited that I was able to (sort of)

 make the background blurry!

• Last week was just another week of nannying. Friday we were supposed to go to the Houston Ballet, but we ended up not making it due to horrendous traffic. It took Alan an hour and a half to get to his sister's house. It should have only taken him 30-40 minutes. We went out to eat instead. :)

• A while ago I had mentioned going to the endocrinologist. Nothing much came out of that appointment, aside from finding out that my hormone levels weren't messed up after all. Well, my dad, being the doctor he is, wanted to make sure that my adrenal (I think) glands were not messed up. So, the Friday of my sister's graduation, I went to an imaging center to have a CT scan and ultrasound done. Whatever they looked at were normal, thank goodness, but there is a slight concern that I might have PCOS, which my doctor in College Station told me I definitely did not have. So, now I get to find a new doctor here to visit and I guess we'll go from there.

• Ever since I ended my school year, I've been working out so that I can wear my bikinis and some of the outfits that I wore on my honeymoon on our vacation to Virgin Gorda with my family. Well, the week has finally come where I can successfully say I can wear the outfits. I have lost 16 pounds so far (still have 14-19 pounds to go). The bathing suits are starting to look good, or decent at least, and I am so excited! My goal is to hopefully lose 5 more pounds by next Friday (which is when we leave for Dallas), so I'll only weigh 10 pounds more than I did when I got married! Then, I hope to have the last 10-15 off by the end of summer. We'll see how it goes!

We don't have a full length mirror, so I had to stand on the 

bathtub in our guest bathroom. Excuse the mess. :)

• Last, but not least, you should have a before and after of our bedroom soon. We finally got the bed put together, and the main picture and two sconces hung. All that is left is to hang my wedding bouquet. I might just have to get it cleaned up today so I can post the pictures later today or tomorrow

Best Birthday... Ever!

Well, Alan outdid himself this year for my birthday! On my actual birthday (last Saturday), Alan took me out for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner (diet... what diet!?! haha). We went to Chick-fil-a for breakfast, Spring Creek BBQ (my favorite bbq place) for lunch, and then P.F. Changs for dinner. At P.F. Changs we tried lettuce wraps for the first time... They were probably the best thing I've ever put into my mouth. SOOO yummy! I wish I had discovered them sooner, but I'm thankful that I know what to get there now. :) Alan also took me shopping at my favorite store, the Ann Taylor outlet. I got some super cute dresses! I have a feeling that I'm going to be living in dresses this summer. I'd much rather wear a cotton dress than jeans/shorts and a top any day!

Fast forward to Monday... We had already sold my first car, the Xterra, a couple of days before and Alan wanted to get rid of our baby car, the Scion XD, so I'd have a more reliable SUV for driving in the Houston traffic. We drove down to College Station to visit the Toyota dealership with a car and price in mind, and if we couldn't get that, then we'd just wait until the next vehicle sale was on. Needless to say, I walked out with the best "belated" birthday present ever... a 2010 Toyota Highlander!! It is the most beautiful car I have ever seen! Haha. It has leather seats, a moon roof, and a back-up camera to make sure that I don't back into anything (I've run into a telephone pole and a garage door when I was in high school...). Now, enough talking... On to the pictures. :)

The color is "magnetic gray"

What a wonderful weekend! I hope that everyone had a blessed Memorial Day. I'm thankful for all those that keep America a safe country!

Photoshop!

Well, tons has happened, yet again, and the blog has gotten somewhat neglected as of late. Last Saturday, I graduated from A&M with my Master's in Curriculum and Instruction. I am so relieved to be done, but an itsy bitsy small part of me actually kind of wants to get my doctorate. Now, not enough to go back to school anytime soon, but seeing all of those doctorate students getting hooded kind of got me thinking. To be perfectly honest, I will probably never get my doctorate, but for one short instant I thought about it. :)

For a graduation present, my parents got me Adobe Creative Suites 4 (and I should be getting a free upgrade to CS5 since it was released right after they bought CS4). I haven't had much time to play with it, seeing as our last week of preschool was this week (a whole other post about the end of preschool), but this evening I've been playing around with the help of free tutorials. So, without further ado, I bring you the only the picture I've touched up and watermarked (just for fun). Hopefully I'll learn more and more and will soon be a "pro" at this.

Before

After

Did you know that Adobe has it's own format to save pictures in? It took me FOREVER to try and figure out how to post the after picture... It is really easy, though... Just change the way you save it to a jpeg file and it's done. Have a wonderful weekend! I'm off to hit the hay... it's been an emotional day.

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary...

How does your garden grow?

For some reason this nursery rhyme just popped into my head while I was out checking on our growing garden this morning. It is looking really good and I can not wait to start getting fresh veggies to eat. We already have jalapeños and tomatoes that are growing our a lot of our bell peppers have begun to flower, but no fruit yet. One of our squash/zucchini plants has taken off and the other two are moving at a slower pace. The green beans amaze me! Alan set up a ghetto trellis for them to climb up and most of the plants have begun to do just that, all on their own. Here are some pictures to document the growth, sense everyone is just so interested... haha.

Baby Jalapeño 

Cherry Tomato

Squash or Zucchini 

Proof of our ghetto trellis

Winding it's way up the twine

Close-up - it amazes me that it just curls 

around the string on it's own

Another close-up of a green bean plant

In other news, only 4 days until I graduate! I can't believe that in just a short time, I will officially have my Master's of Education. It's crazy to think that after all this time in school, 18 years (including 1-12 grade, undergrad, and grad school), I will finally be done! My dad and grandparents from Texarkana will be traveling down Friday afternoon, and my Granny will come for graduation and dinner and then head home that evening. I'm so excited to see everyone, but am sad that my mom and sis won't be able to come. PGisd decided that prom needed to be late this year, so that is interfering with graduation. 

Well, I'm off to go paint. We're trying to get the master done before family comes down. I'll post before and after pictures once I'm done.

Job Hunting

Well, if you know me IRL, you might be shocked to hear this, but I have bitten the bullet and decided to apply for teaching jobs in the public school. This change of heart was a long time coming was very abrupt, and I have to admit that I am still shocked, myself. However, I am very excited about the prospect and hope and pray that I didn't wait to late to submit my application.

It all started Saturday afternoon. I had just driven to College Station to go to a baby shower for one of our good friends from church (whose husband grew up in DeKalb, TX for those that know the area... such a SMALL world!). While I was there, I was still adamant about only teaching in a preschool. Little did I know, though, that this would change all too soon.

To make a long story short, Alan and I went to dinner that evening at The Cheesecake Factory, my favorite, and on the way home we just talked about preschool vs. public. At this point in our life, it just makes more sense for me to be in public education. Needless to say, I couldn't sleep Saturday night and began researching and applying for various school districts around our house. As of today I have completed and submitted applications to three different districts and debating whether or not to submit an application to the fourth four different districts. Hopefully I haven't waited too long to submit my application.

I would value your prayers as we begin this new phase in our lives. Hopefully I will soon be able to tell y'all that I have a position in a local elementary school (preferably pre-K through second grade, although I won't turn away any position).