Summer Travels and Amazing Friends

I have to say that this has been one of the most fun summers that I've had so far!  We have been super busy...but have spent lots of time traveling to see friends out of town as well as spending time with our friends here in Abilene.  We have been to many weddings, wedding showers, and even a baby shower for one of my VERY best friends!  I would really consider the friends that we have more like family.  We share everything together and even have family dinners with our friends that live here in Abilene.  Some people have dinner parties...we have family dinners!  They are super fun and we always love getting together and laughing, telling stories, and just spending some quality time together.  In fact, we just had a family dinner at our house this past weekend and I'm already looking forward to the next one!  The girlfriends that I have are more like sisters to me.  I love each and every one of them and I know they would do anything for me just like I would do anything for them.  We turly do have AMAZING friends!!!

We have also gotten some AMAZING news from one of our closest friends.  They are pregnant!!!!  I have talked about them before, they are our friends that lived with us for a little while last summer, Brent and Bria.  They have been through so much here lately.  Bless their hearts, they have had several miscarriages and when we found out they were pregnant again, we just dropped to our knees and prayed.  They have had two sonograms and they baby has a healthy heart beat and they are all doing great!  This sweet little peanut has been prayed over and prayed for and we just look forward to the day when this little blessing arrives.  Speaking of babies...one of my besties is due in 2 weeks!  I just got back from spending our annual girls weekend full of shopping, eating, laughing, and talking together.  She just looks so precious...you can't even tell she's pregnant from behind!  Sweet little Gavin is due on July 11th and I can't wait to meet that precious little boy!  Amie and Ryan are going to be such amazing and precious parents and little Gavin is so lucky to be coming into their family.

Amie and I are both teachers and so every summer we get together for a few days during the week and just have girl time.  They live in the Metroplex and so it is always fun going up there and exploring all the great things the big city has to offer!  I am always glad to get home to my family...but I terribly miss her and getting to go to all the fun places that Abilene doesn't have.  We had SO much fun though...just like we always do!  I got there on Sunday right before dinner and left yesterday a little after lunch.  We spend Sunday evening just talking, laughing, and talking about little Gavin.  Monday is our official shopping day...which we always do at the fabulous Northpark Mall in Dallas!  But first...we laid out by the pool and then went and had lunch at a fun French bistro, La Madeline, and then off to Northpark we went!  We spent most of the day just window shopping and getting a few necessities and then we decided to see what Neiman's had to offer.  I'm sort of a shoe-a-holic...so I was in for some trouble!  I did find a pair...and I definitely got them!  I got an adorable pair of Christian Louboutin's...and they were even on sale!!!  So, I had to get them!  But, we did take a lot of time to think about getting these fabulous pair of shoes!  We spent our time thinking having some ice cream, cookies, shopping a little more, and then finally deciding that I just couldn't pass up a pair of Louboutin's that were on sale!  So, now they have a nice new home in my closet until they make their debut on my feet!  When we left the mall  it was dinner time so we went and got sandwiches from Which Which and then went back to Amie and Ryan's to watch the Bachelorette.  But....we had to make brownies first!!!  After the show was over, we talked some more and then went to bed.  Then...my last day was here :-(  We got up and went to Dunkin' Donuts for coffee, came back and talked some more, and then got ready and went to lunch at another French bistro called Mimi's Cafe.  It was SO good and we had SSSOOO much fun!!!  We never run out of things to talk about and we have spent a lot of today texting each other about the weekend and about how we can't wait to see each other again!  The next time I'll see that sweet  girl she'll be a momma!!!  AHHH...I CAN'T WAIT!!!

A Little Place in the Hill Country

Our little place in Comfort, TX is such an awesome place to go visit.  It has been in our family since the late 1800's when my great-grandparents immigrated here from Germany.  My great-grandparents built the house, the cabin, and the German well-house by hand.  The rock that is on the house and the cabin are from the rock query that is on the place.  They had five children, one of them being my Grandpa.  They lived on the place and worked the farm land to provide a living for their family.  When my Grandpa went to College Station to go to school at A&M (WHOOP!), he would hitch hike from Comfort to College Station and then back home again.  When he went to A&M, it was men only and you had to be in the Corps.  Which meant that you would eventually have to go and serve your country in the war.  He graduated in 1944, so it was inevitable that he would be serving.  What is so neat about this story is that he was a German fighting on the American side against his own people.  He couldn't stand what Hitler was doing and wouldn't have had it any other way.  In fact, he received a Purple Heart in the war because he was leading a company on the front lines and got hit by shrapnel.  He passed away when I was 5, but I was close with him even though I wasn't around for very long before he passed away.  He taught me how to hold my thumb up in the air and say "Gig 'Em Aggies!"  Except, I was still so little that I  hadn't developed my pronunciations yet and it sound like, "Gid 'Em Addies!"  Hehe...we still laugh about it.  When he got really sick, I would lay in bed with him and either watch or listen to the Aggies play.  He never missed a single one of them!  Special times...I'm glad that I can still remember all of that.

It is so peaceful and relaxing down at the place.  You can't hear a thing for miles and you can truly see the beauty in what God has created when you can turn 360 degrees and just look at the wildlife, plants, trees, sky...it's amazing!  The Guadalupe River runs through it and during the summer we'll drive down to the bank, park, and walk the rest of the way down to the river to wade or fish in it.  A couple of years ago we took Hope (my parent's lab) and Faith down there with us and let them get in and go for a swim.  Talk about being in doggie heaven!  They were swimming all over the place!  And when they would get out on the bank, they would turn right around, run, and jump right back in the river.  It was the cutest thing to watch them play and swim in the river!  We also hunt Axis and white-tail deer on it.  They are such beautiful animals and it's amazing to watch them interact with one another.  Sometimes, we'll just go and sit in the blinds and just watch them.  There used to be a Peacock out there...we have no idea how it came to be at our place...but it was there!  It was so pretty and so fun to watch.  It looked so out of place though!

A few weekends ago we went down to see my Grandma, who lives in Kerrville which is about 30 miles away from Comfort.  It was just dad, mom, Michael, and I.  Cody is having to work on the weekends with being so busy from the hail storm that hit on Easter weekend.  When we got there, we went and had lunch and just spent the rest of the day running some errands and speding time together.  That evening, we went out to dinner and then went bowling.  It was a fun, relaxing day!  The next day, we got up early and then drove out to the place.  We had a little bit of cleaning and maintaing to do and then it was off to shoot the shot guns!  The boys keep clay pigeons down there for whenever they are just hanging out in between hunting trips.  They stay down there when we go for a longer period of time and just live like rugged mountain men!  So, they have all kinds of odds and ends to keep them occupied in between hunting and in the evening when it's too dark to go out.  We got out the shot guns and threw some clay pigeons and just hung out down at the place with my Grandma.  We all had a lot of fun together!  It's always nice to get away and go out into nature and just enjoy being away from all the hustle and bustle of life!

Me and Michael shooting...dad was throwing doubles so we could shoot at the same time!

Another one of us shooting



My dad shooting and my brother throwing the clay pigeon for him.



Me, my Grandma, and my little brother :-)



Dad with his kids and Grandma with her grandkids!



Daddy with his Momma!

My parents and my Grandma



This is the house that my great-grandparents built back in the 1800's.  It's in amazing shape and is really cool on the inside!  The rock cabin is to the right of the house.  This was actually built as a TV room because my great-grandmother wouldn't allow TV inside the house when it was invented...crazy!



The house and rock cabin from a little further out.

This is an original German well house.  You don't see many of these anymore...they are traditional to German families so it's really neat that we have one in our family.



Mexican Food Cooking Extravaganza!

Happy Summer!!!  Man...it feels so good to have finally made it to summer break!  Today officially ends the first week of my summer break and I have to say that it was a very busy week!  I had tons of errands to run.  Mainly errands that I had put off for the last couple weeks of the school year because I knew that I would have more time to get stuff done when summer started.  I also completely cleaned our house from top to bottom and it felt so good to get that done!  I clean every other week...but I deep cleaned this week.  With having three dogs, their hair seems to get into the tightest spots.  During the school year, I just don't want to spend an extra couple of hours or even a day sometimes cleaning the blinds, light fixtures, doors, and baseboards.  So, I usually put it off until I know I'm going to be home for an extended period of time.  Now that that's all done, I feel like I can relax a little bit more!  I also had homework to do...of course!  But thankfully I turned in my last assignment last night so I can spend the weekend not having to worry about homework!  I also wanted to get all my homework done before the weekend because we are going to some of our very dear friend's wedding tonight in Dallas.  Adam and Erica are getting married tonight at a beautiful vineyard and it is going to be a blast!  Lots of college friends will be there and several of our best friends will be there as well.  She is going to be such a beautiful bride!

So, since it's summer time, that means that I have tons and tons of time to spend in my kitchen experimenting with new recipes!  Monday was Memorial Day and so I decided to cook a complete Mexican food dinner. I have been becoming extremely addicted to food blogs here lately and I have found some amazing recipes on all of them.  My recipe binder is about to break from all the recipes I've printed off.  Cody came home and saw me adding to it the other day and told me that I really have a recipe addiction problem!  But...at least he gets to benefit from all the yummy food that gets cooked!  So, on the menu were all new recipes that I have never tried before.  Which, can be somewhat intimidating because you don't know  how they taste or if you could alter them to make them better.  It's also scary because if all the food turns out not so good, not only have you wasted a lot of money, but you've also provided a yucky dinner to your family.  Never a fun thing to have happen!  Ok, back to the menu.  Here's what I made:

Chili Relleno Casserole (For the Love of Cooking Food Blog)
Avocado Corn Salsa (For the Love of Cooking Food Blog)
Charred Vegetable Salsa (For the Love of Cooking Food Blog)
Cheesy Chili Cornbread (Tasty Kitchen Food Blog)
Mexican Rice (From a Bag!)
Julio's Chips (The only kind of corn tortilla chips this family buys...yummy!)


All the veggies that went into the charred veggie salsa.  I also added garlic and cilantro after I broiled these on high for about 15 minutes.  There's nothing like homemade hot sauce!

The spread of Mexican food dishes!  Just looking at this makes me want to go right in the kitchen and make it all over again!

I had to get close up's.  On the left is the Chili Relleno Casserole and to the right is the Cheesy Chili Cornbread.

Here's the Charred Veggie Salsa and the Avocado Corn Salsa.  Delish!  I have to say that the kitchen...well really the whole house...smelled so good after the veggies had been roasting all day and after all this had cooked.

 My mom also made an enchilada casserole (a family recipe) and some pinto beans.  My little brother is one extremely picky eater and he wouldn't have eaten anything that I cooked, so mom made those things for him.  We had tons of food and everyone loved all the new recipes.  We also had lots of yummy leftovers, that are now all gone!  I will have to make all of those things again!  It was a great way to kick off the summer and spend a day with the family at home!

I also want to say a special thank you to all the men and women who serve our country and put their lives on the line each and everyday to protect us and give us our freedom.  We are so blessed by each and everyone of you!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

Friday, May 27th, was my precious daddy's birthday!!!  I am a HUGE daddy's girl and it is always so special to be able to celebrate his birthday with him.  One of the best things about living in the same town as your family is that you never miss a holiday, birthday, anniversary, etc.  We get to spend every single one with both sides of our family and it is truly special.  Not only do we live in the same town as our families, but we live diagonally across the street from my family!  No...it's not like Everybody Loves Raymond!  In fact, it's completely the opposite.  I would honestly have to say that it's one of the best things to live across the street from my parents.  With Cody's job, he might have to live in another town for several months at a time, and he feels good knowing that when I'm home, my parents are just right there if I would ever need anything.  It's also nice because we get to see them and my little brother all the time.  During the summers we go over there pretty often and go for a swim in the pool...that is until all five dogs jump in and take it over!  It will also be amazing when we have kids because they will just be right there if we need help or babysitters :-)  Anyways, on Friday, we got to celebrate my daddy's birthday together as a family and it was nice to start the weekend off that way.  It was also the last day of school for me, so I was home that afternoon by 1:00...so I made him a birthday cake!  I got the recipe from Pioneer Woman...if you have never made anything from her blog or her cookbook...you must do so...NOW!  She cooks like Paula Deen...so you can imagine how good everything is!  The cake that I made for him is called Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake...she calls it the best chocolate sheet cake ever!  It was definitely delicious...and I even had one little sliver.  I also found a recipe on her site called a Milky Way Cake.  I was debating whether to make this or the other cake.  The Milky Way Cake has 11 Milky Way Bars in it!  Can you imagine that?!?!?  Oh dear Lord, I can just see the sugar comas that we would all be in with just one bite of this cake!  I will be making this over the summer though...it's just too tempting not to make it...at least once!

So, since it was my daddy's birthday, we all went out to eat together at Copper Creek.  It was amazing, as always.  The only problem with Copper Creek when it comes to our family is that my mom has a hard time finding something to eat.  She's a vegetarian, and Copper Creek doesn't really have very many things other than a salad, baked potato, or some veggies to eat.  Which are all very good, but when you go out to eat, you want to eat something special.  But, we all enjoyed every last bite of our meal together and then it was on to our house for some cake!  Everyone enjoyed the cake, I think next time I'll make it without the nuts on top because my brother didn't eat any because of that.  Or, I could do half and half.  We also took some of it to Kerrville with us that next day when we went to see my Grandma.  She loves sweets and she gave this cake a thumbs up too!  I'm so thankful for my precious family and so thankful and blessed to be able to spend another birthday with my daddy!  I love you so much!!!

A few pictures of my daddy, brother and me on his birthday!  Plus...a picture of the chocolate sheet cake...which is now almost gone!!!

Girls Night!!!

Sometimes, the only thing a girl really needs is to spend time with her besties!!!  So...that's exactly what I did last Saturday night with two of my bestest friends!  Because our boys were at Boot Camp, Bria, Britain, and I thought it would be the perfect time for us to have girl talk, wine tasting, and hors d'oeuvres at Bria's house.  Then we all went to see a movie with a few other precious girlies from our life group, Krystina and Jessica.  And Jessica's mom came too...she was so sweet and it was so good to meet her!  We saw Bridesmaids...HILARIOUS!!!  You must go see this with your girlfriends...I believe that we have taken some very good  one liners from that movie! 

So...about this wine tasting.  I do enjoy having a glass of wine on occasion.  Especially if I'm hanging out with friends or we go out to eat a nice restaurant or if we are on vacation.  I really don't have a glass of wine or any other type of cocktail when we just eat at home, just the two of us.  Although, sometimes it is such a wonderful way to relax or enjoy with a nice meal at home...or just because!  Anyways, when I buy wine for my self it's the cheap, super sweet kind!  I think it's because that my favorite kinds of cocktails are also super sweet.  Margaritas, Mojoito's, Apple Martini's, Cosmopolitan's (thank you Sex and the City!)...they are all surgery and oh so delicious!  I think I just like sweet stuff and so sweet wines are usually all I buy...I don't venture out into the unknown!  But thank goodness that one of my best friends is a wine connoisseur!  Whenever Brent and Bria lived in California, she found a job working at one of the hundreds of beautiful winery's.  She loves wine and the history behind it, so it was the perfect job for her while they were there!  While she was working at this winery, she learned even more about wine and that's how our wine tasting experience all came together at her house!  I have to say that it was so yummy!  She had a bottle of semi-sweet white wine and a bottle of deep and hearty red wine.  She paired each of them with foods that went along with the notes from the wine.  We had so much fun sitting around the table talking and spending some much needed girl time together.  I love my sweet friends so much!  I'm so thankful that God has blessed me with them...I don't know what I would do without them!!!  I think I see another girls night coming very soon for our futures!  I'm thinking Sangria...what a lovely summer drink with all the fresh fruits...I can't hardly wait!

Doesn't this just look divine?!?!?  Bria is so talented!

2 Bottles of Wine: $75
Hors d' Oeuvres: $50
Spending Time with the Girls: PRICELESS!!!

 

Beltway Boot Camp

Last weekend all of our hubbies were off on a men's retreat with our church.  It was called Boot Camp and it was amazing to hear about their experiences with God while they away for those few days in nature.  What has been even more amazing is to see the transformation that God has made in them.  Every one of our hubbies were strong men of faith and leaders of our households.  But, when they came back, they were different.  They have a renewed faith and are even stronger men of God.  The way that God spoke to them was incredible.  God showed them that not only did they need to be Christian leaders of our homes, but that they need to fight for us and fight to keep the enemy from giving everyone in our home false promises.  We had a journal to read while they were gone were we spent time in prayer for our husbands.  One of the things that I read that stuck out to me was that by Cody going on this retreat, he was fulfilling God's spiritual authority.  The excerpt that stuck out to me was, "Your husband, and spiritual authority, has an incredible opportunity to go away for the weekend and be filled by the Lord.  It is our prayer that he will take the time to "sit" before the Lord, be still, and be satisfied.  As he takes this time to "be filled," his family will be blessed in the process.  Think about it this way...the Lord will feed your husband spiritually for the week; he will return home and feed his family.  ALL will be blessed because of his obedience.  The truth is, we reap benefits when our spiritual authority obeys."  WOW!  Those are incredible words of wisdom that I know I will keep with me always.  I have thought about them often this week as I continue to realize more and more that having Cody be such a strong man of God has helped me grow closer in my relationship to God.  It has not only increased my faith and my love for the Lord, but it has helped our marriage grow.  God has blessed us in so many ways and I continue to love Him more and more each day!

Baked Donuts?!?!?

Um...YES PLEASE!!!  Ok, I love donuts.  But I can't remember the last time I actually ate one from an actual donut shop.  I think it was probably sometime in my high school years...and I graduated in 2003!  So, needless to say it's been too long.  When anyone around me gets donuts, I usually will tear off a little piece of one so that I can have a bite.  It's pure torture to not stuff the whole thing in my mouth though!  Most of you that know me (and know me well) know that I don't really eat anything that isn't healthy.  Meaning, I don't eat any fried foods, anything with gloppy dressing, I don't eat sweets too often, and I try to stay away from preservatives, etc.  But, sweets are definitely my weakness!  I love to bake them and I love the way they make my house smell.  When I make something sweet, I usually will nibble on it here and there.  But I usually wind up bringing the rest of whatever I've made up to school and setting it in the work room or give it to my students.  Cody's not much of a sweet eater, and I give a plate full to my parents to take home with them.  So, unless I decide to eat whatever is left by myself...I just bring with me to school.  Now, I had been craving donuts for awhile now.  I found a donut pan on Amazon awhile back.  One was for mini baked donuts and one was for regular sized donuts.  I put them on my wish list and kept going back and debating whether I should order them or not.  Mainly, I just didn't want to pay $5.00 for shipping on a $15.00 order.  So, I was in Dillard's one day buying a wedding gifts for one of my dear friends that's about to get married and happened to come across them in the store.  My mom was with me and so it was quite hilarious when I started jumping up and down in the middle of Dillard's because I saw these donut pans in a store.  I've been looking for some since last summer.  I remember going to Target, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Dillard's, and Michael's and no one had them!  But, I finally saw them, and don't doubt for one second that I didn't buy them!  I also saw them at Michael's this past weekend...so Abilene has two places now that carry these magical pans!  They are made by Wilton by the way...you should go get some too!

Anyways, last weekend I had been slaving away on making this Unit Lesson Plan for my course that I'm taking right now and when I finally finished, I needed a pick-me-up!  So, I grabbed those donut pans from our cabinet and went to town.  I couldn't decide what glaze or topping I wanted on them, so I made two different kinds.  I had tons to choose from though.  I could have done vanilla glaze, strawberry glaze, chocolate glaze, lemon glaze, maple, glaze, cinnamon-sugar, powdered sugar, the list really could go on forever!  So, the two that I decided to make were vanilla glaze and cinnamon-sugar topped.  They were honestly to die for!  I mean for a baked donut...I don't think you could get much better.  I did try one of each, and I couldn't decide which ones I like better.  Sometimes I worry that things that I bake like that won't taste good to other people because my palette is so different due to the fact that I don't eat normal things like most people!  But I know that they were good because my little brother liked them and ate several of them!  And this boy loves his donuts!  Now that I know that everyone enjoyed them, I'll definitely be making them a lot more!  And with lots more variety!  I want it to be like you just walked into a donut shop when you come into my house after I've made them!  Thank goodness summer is right around the corner...looks like I'll be one busy donut making girl!



Baked Donuts!!!  These were also the cutest little things!  They were bite-size, so you could have several of them and still feel guilt free!  Yummy!