My Starbucks Buddy

First, let me say that I love Starbucks.  But, what I love more than Starbucks is my little buddy that goes with me.  Most of the time, I go to Starbucks with my mom or my girlfriends.  Cody will take me if we are together and I get a sudden urge to have a delicious carmel macchiato, but he doesn't like coffee.  So when he takes me, it's just a run through the drive through.  I always have a blast when my mom and I go or when I go with my girlfriends because we usually get our drinks and sit outside (unless it's too terribly cold or hot) and just relax and catch up.  It's so nice and there's just something about getting coffee and maybe even a little baked goodie and sipping it with mom or my girlfriends and just hanging out.  It kinda reminds me of a Sex and the City outing with your girls!  But, my Starbucks buddy is extra special.  She goes with me during the mid-morning when it's a vacation/holiday from school.  My sweet, little Starbucks buddy is my precious baby girl, Faith!  She LOVES to go to Starbucks!  She's the only one I ever take.  When I ask her if she wants to go with me to Starbucks, she jumps up and down and runs to the back door and waits for me to get my keys so we can go.  If I'm in a hurry, we just run through the drive through and make a quick trip.  But, since it was spring break and I had gotten all my chores done, we had some more time to kill.  We went by my dad's office first so that she could say hi to him and all the people in his office and then we headed to Starbucks.  I went in and got my drink and then went back to my car and let her out and we sat at one of the tables for a little bit.  I am having to read a book for my class right now that I have to journal about, so I brought it with me and read a chapter while we sat outside.  Faith gets pretty excited at first because I don't get to take her very often, so she was trying to go to all the people that were walking in and even trying to chase a few of the birds.  Once she finally gets used to the new atmosphere, she just lays down beside me.  We only stayed for about 20 minutes, but I just wanted to take her for a little treat!  She's one spoiled rotten little dog!


My Starbucks buddy!  This was taken while we were still in the driveway...she was ready to go!



Spring Break!!!

Oh...how I love spring break!  It seems to come at just the right time and is the perfect little refresher to help get us teachers through the rest of the school year.  Or...at least until TAKS anyways!  I love what I do and I love being around my students all day long...but let's face it...we all need a little break from each other every once in awhile!  I already blogged about the trip Cody and I took and that was a big part of my spring break.  Cody doesn't get a spring break, so it was nice that he was able to take off work on Monday and Tuesday of spring break so that we could go on our anniversary trip.  We are both very blessed to have amazing jobs and work at places that allow for us to take vacations together.  Anyways...back to spring break!  This was probably the best spring break that I've had since I started teaching.  The other two have been wonderful and we've done some fun stuff, gone on other trips, and just relaxed.  But, I still say that this was the best so far!  I know one reason is because of how much fun we had while we were in San Antonio.  When we got back, my next class had started and so I had some homework to do.  That part kinda stunk...but I got it all pretty much done right after we got back so that I could just do some stuff around the house.  I know y'all are going to think I'm crazy, but after I got my homework done, I did some spring cleaning, bathed our three loves, cooked several meals, and relaxed.  This is the crazy part...I loved every minute of it!  I honestly love having these holidays within the school year because I truly do love that part of being a wife that means taking care of the house, taking care of my hubby, doing laundry, cooking, taking care of the kids (a.k.a dogs), and of course working out!  I do all of this all the time throughout the year, but it's nice to not have to get home from work and do it.  I'm slightly OCD and I love having a clean house and cooking yummy meals and having them ready when Cody gets home from work.  I also love having family and friends over for dinner too.  I just enjoy being able to do stuff like that for people...it makes me happy!  Oh...so the meals that I cooked over spring break were chicken stir fry, spaghetti and meatballs, and an Italian pasta melt.  I had never made meatballs before, and I'm glad I finally did.  They were very good and it was nice to have something besides ground beef stirred into the marinara sauce for change.  I would be lying if I didn't say that a little of it was for me to.  Cody likes that I keep our house so clean, but he's not like I am about it!  So, the cleaning house part is mainly for myself!  My favorite part of being home during spring break is the time that I get to spend with our babies.  During the week, we are both so busy.  By the time we get home, sometimes we are just too tired to take them for a walk or go outside and play fetch with them.  During spring break (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the Summer too) I played with them throughout the day, snuggled with them a ton, and we took them for several walks.  I loved every second of getting to spend some extra time with them!  And I'm sure that they don't mind getting the extra attention either!  I also got to watch all my favorite day time TV shows, relax on the couch, run some errands with my mom, and just be a little lazy!  It was so nice!    I guess the next vacation/holiday is summer!!!  Wow...and that's only like 55 days away...but who's counting!

Anniversary Trip...San Antonio Look Out!!!

So every year we celebrate our anniversary during the week of spring break by going on a short little mini vacation.  This year, we decided to go to San Antonio.  Back in October when we were debating where to go, we were torn between Austin and San Antonio and decided that San Antonio would be way more fun.  Don't get me wrong...we LOVE Austin...but San Antonio had more stuff to do during the day.  We wanted to go and play at all the fun places that San Antonio has to offer and just be big kids on our trip.  It was SO much fun!  I have to say that this is the best and most fun trip that we have taken together, not counting our honeymoon of course!  It will be hard to top our honeymoon!  But these little mini vacations that we have taken have been the perfect amount of time to be gone from home and still do fun things, eat at amazing places, and just relax...a lot!  We did so many things in the three days that we were gone and even got to see some of our best friends along the way.  Since it was our anniversary...we HAD to treat ourselves!  So, our first stop was to go to the amazing outlet malls in San Marcos.  When we left Abilene, we had two different options on ways to get to San Marcos.  Like I said, we got to see some of our best friends along the way, and they happen to live in Austin.  So, we decided to go through Austin on our way to San Marcos and have lunch with Josh and Emory.  Getting to see them was such a treat...it's been too long!  Emory was actually visiting Josh on his vacation, so it was an even bigger treat getting to see him too!  Since Josh lives in Austin, he knows all the best places to hang out and eat.  By the time we got to Austin, it was time for lunch, so the timing was perfect.  We ate at this amazing place called Wahoo's.  They have some amazing Mexican food and are known for their fish tacos.  It was so good, but what was even better was getting to catch up with friends along the way.  After lunch, we headed to San Marcos and literally shopped until we dropped!  We only go shopping like that once a year...and when you're at an outlet mall...you can get double for the money!  So, that's exactly what we did.  We both got tons of great new work clothes, work-out clothes, and I (of course) got three amazing new pairs of shoes!  I LOVE shoes...I almost always buy a new pair anytime I go shopping.  It's a problem :-)  After we were done shopping, we were on our way to check into the hotel in San Antonio.  We stayed at the Omni at the Colonnade.  It was about 15 minutes away from downtown, malls, the zoo, and Sea World.  It was perfect because it was quiet and peaceful and away from all the hustle and bustle of downtown, but just close enough that we went and ate lunch on the River Walk every day.  That's another thing about San Antonio...they have GREAT places to eat and the views are even better!  We ate at Scuzzie's Italian Grill, Boudro's on the River Walk, Texas De Brazil, Hard Rock Cafe on the River Walk, and Cheesecake Factory (it's a must in any big city)!  I know it sounds silly to talk about going out to eat, but Abilene just doesn't have a huge variety of places to go.  So, it's always fun when we go to any other town or big city to eat a tons of places that we don't have here at home.  Every place was amazing and I don't even think I could pick a favorite.  They were all so different.  I will have to say that I loved eating on the River Walk.  The weather was perfect for eating outside.  And watching all the little ducks and birds that live on the River Walk was so much fun...they are so cute!  We also got to go to the zoo and to Sea World while we were there.  We were a little worried that it was going to rain because the rain chances when we first got there were like 30%.  But, it didn't rain!  In fact, it was bright and sunny and just breezy enough that it made it comfortable to be outside all day long.  San Antonio has an amazing zoo with some animals that are near extinction.  They have this new exhibit called Africa Live...it's amazing to see these animals that are from the other side of the world interact with each other.  They are absolutely beautiful.  It was our second favorite of all the exhibits.  Our favorite was the monkey exhibit!  They were hilarious!  We stood there and watched them swing around and play with each other for quite some time and could have stayed for longer...but our dinner reservations were calling our name!  The next day we went to Sea World.  Oh my...we had a BLAST!!!  When we first got there, they were about to feed the dolphins.  They told us that if we got over to the exhibit in time, we might could get in line and be able to feed them too.  And...we did!  I LOVE dolphins and this was so much fun to get to feed them and love on them as they swam by us.  They are so playful and interactive with you.  They feel really cool too...almost like silky rubber.  If that even makes sense!  Then we walked around and saw all the other animals, aquariums, and exhibits.  We decided that the last two things we would do while at Sea World was to go to a couple of shows.  The first one we went to was called Azul.  It was a show with Beluga whales, dolphins, and aerial artists.  It was amazing to see and to watch how these animals interact with their trainers.  Then...we went the Believe Shamu show.  It was great!  Watching these 8,000-12,000 pound whales jump out of the water and do tricks is truly unbelievable.  What was so cute was the little, well not really little, baby.  She would stay close to her mom and even tried to do some of the tricks.  It was funny because you could tell that she was still not very coordinated, but she tried and did so good for only being 7 months old!  Oh...at only 7 months old she already weighs almost 1,000 pounds...crazy huh?!?!  Then, it was time to go home that next day.  We did swing back through San Marcos and go to the outlet malls again.  We just had to make sure that we made the most of our shopping while we were on vacation!  Just helping boost the economy I suppose!  I will have to say that we missed our babies (dogs) dearly.  Cody's mom stayed at our house with them while we were away.  So, we knew that they were completely being taken care of, loved on, and getting spoiled even more than they already are.  It's always nice to get away for a few days, but it's also nice to be home.  Especially when you walk in the door and you have three little loves going bonkers when you come in!  We had a blast together and look forward to many more anniversary celebrations!!!

Just a few pictures of the two of us at the various places that we visited while we were in San Antonio

The amazing animals at the Zoo and Sea World. Only a few pictures of the many I took of the tons of animals that we saw!

Our little boogers!  Cody's mom sent these to us while we were in San Antonio!  It was good getting to see them even though we were away from them.  We love these three little babies so so much!

3 Years and 3 Dogs Later...

HAPPY 3rd ANNIVERSARY!!!  Cody and I just celebrated our 3rd anniversary on March 1st!!!  Neither one of us can believe that it's already been three years...time just goes by so fast!  It has been an amazing three years and every year just seems to get better and better.  We are truly blessed to have family and friends in our lives that have shown us amazing examples of what great marriages are and what it takes for them to continue to be that way.  So, since it was our anniversary on Tuesday, we definitely had to celebrate!  We decided not to go out and just stay in and cook dinner together.  Over spring break, we are going to San Antonio on our anniversary trip to actually celebrate.  So, we just wanted to keep it low key and spend time together at home with the babies...a.k.a. dogs!  I found this great recipe from the Pioneer Women...love her!  It was cajun chicken pasta and it was sooo good!  It was spicy, but not too spicy and it had tons of different kinds of vegetables and of course pasta and chicken.  The sauce was sort-of like an alfredo sauce, but it had cajun spices in it to kick up the heat a little. I had also gotten a Groupon a couple of weeks ago from a new bakery in Abilene called Sweet Celebrations...they specialize in cupcakes.  So, I ordered 12 different kinds of cupcakes and that was what we had for dessert!  These cupcakes are soo good...we will definitely be going back for more!  It's also crazy to think that when we first got married, we just had our boxer, Sarge, who is now 6 years old.  Our first year of marriage we added Faith, who is a 2 1/2 year old chocolate lab.  And over the summer we added our next addition, Trigger, a black lab who will be 1 in June.  Now, we have three dogs (1 boy and 2 girls) and couldn't imagine life without them!  They are wild and crazy, sweet and loving, and completely spoiled rotten!  It was a great 3rd anniversary celebrating it with the family that I love more than I could even put into words!  We are so excited to see what God has in store for our future!



These are the pictures that we took on our Anniversary.  Notice the yummy ingredients that it took to make the cajun chicken pasta...and the finished product!  And then...the cupcakes...so good!  And of course Cody and I and our three sweet loves!



KJK Sing Song 2011- Once You Pop The Fun Don't Stop!!

Sing Song 2011

So, during the month of February, ACU puts on this big musical production called Sing Song.  It's where all the sororitiess, fraternities, classes, and mixed voices practice for hours and hours to put on one of the biggest musical productions in Abilene.  There is one winner from each division, and it is very highly cherished to be the winner of Sing Song.  Especially if you are in a sorority or fraternity.  It's super competitive...but always fun!  There are six hosts and  hostesses that perform in between each act, and let me tell you they are always amazing.  ACU has been putting on Sing Song since 1956 and every year it gets better and better.  When I was at ACU, I was in the sorority called Ko Jo Kai.  We are known as Kojies...and we WON Sing Song this year!!!  It was so amazing to see our "Little Club of Women" up there on stage making all us alumni proud.  They were so cute this year.  They're show was called "Once You Pop, the Fun Don't Stop."  They were popcorn...and most definitely the cutest little popcorn I've ever seen.  So, I said earlier that the practicing goes on for many hours and for several days a week.  You'll see what I mean when you watch the video of the Kojies from the link I'll post in here from their final show on Saturday night.  Everything is choreographed and the songs are put together from various artists and alumni.  The costumes and props are all made by hand.  It's a very big deal!  I remember being in college and doing all the preperation for Sing Song.  It involved many sleepless nights, but lots of fun and excitment always went along with it.  There was so much anticipation building up to each show, and you really become closer with the girls in your sorority.  It was so much fun to be a part of when I was in college and it's also fun going back and sitting in the audience.  I had so much fun this year because not only did we win, but I got to go to Sing Song with my Big Sis.  She is one of my very best friends and she has been ever since I was pledging and she took care of me :-)  Her name is Amie and she and her husband, Ryan, are expecting their first baby in July.  They actually just found out that they're having a boy!!!  His name is going to be Gavin...so cute!  Anyways, if your sorority or fraternity win, then you get to go up on the stage and sing your club song.  So, since we won, we got to do that this year and it was amazing!  Amie and I stood together with women who were ranging in ages from 19 to 90 singing and stomping the way only Kojies can!  You really are sisters with these women.  It's always fun to see the pride that we all have for our sorority and the love we all have for each other!  Enjoy the performance from our Little Club of Women!!!

Me and Amie after Sing Song :-)