A Week With 22

So we started school on Monday with kids that is and this weekend, I have finished quite a bit on my to do list but there is still so much more left to do.

I'll start with Monday, August 24. My 22 friends came in to Kindergarten and I only had 1 friend who was unhappy being there, the rest were really excited. It was a really busy day having 22, 5 year olds but we managed to get through it all and finish the week. I have some super sweet kids this year and I'm really looking forward to teaching them how to read and write and love to learn.

To celebrate the end of a successful week, Tom went out to happy hour (happy night) on Friday with his co workers and I made dinner for a sweet family (The McGowans) whose daughter was in my Kindergarten class 3 years ago and battled Leukemia and won her battle but sadly, their son passed away just a couple of weeks ago from head trauma. They are in my prayers daily and I would love for you to pray for this family as well. After I delivered their dinner, I came home and played with Maggie, tackled laundry, scrubbed the baseboards, mopped the floors, dusted and cleaned the bathrooms. Wow, my house hasn't seen that kind of cleaning in a while but with school back in session, I have spent more time in room 206 than in my home so I wanted to show her a little love! It actually felt good to clean house! I plan to do a bit more today just so I can come home to a super clean home tomorrow!

We headed out to dinner last night at Chilis (thanks Epstein family for the gift card) Yummy, it hit the spot! However, I became sidetracked during dinner watching this family (mom, dad, 2 girls approximately 11 and 7 y.o). The mother sent her dinner back and by the time they brought it back out to her, the rest of the family had finished their dinners. Anyway, the whole time the family enjoyed dinner and while mom was waiting for hers to reappear, the mother FED the 7 year old. I mean, spooned it up and made airplane noises to have her daughter eat. She even held the glass for the child to drink. Now I know what you are thinking, "the daughter could have been impaired" NO, she was playing her Nintendo DS the entire time mom was scooping the food up for her. Yikes, please don't tell me that you allow your child to play video games at the table or that you feed your 7 year old! I was absolutely mortified for this woman, and the child. How on earth does this lady expect her child to be a fully functionable human being when her mother is still spoon feeding her? Okay, that's my beef for the day. But what are your thoughts?

I am getting ready to prepare tonight's crockpot dinner- slow cooker lasagna, if it's any good, I'll let you know with the recipe post. I'm also going to make salsa for us to snack on and to take to work tomorrow to share with my team! I think I might also make some parmesan garlic monkey bread for tonight- I'm ready for dinner already!

Who knows when I'll post again, I'm trying to get back into a school year routine but it's hard to go to bed and wake up early then work all day and not want to come home and crash! Hope everyone has a great, relaxing Sunday and a wonderful week!

Vacation!

I can't go back to school without posting one of my favorite things about summer- VACATION! Luckily, Kelly wants to know about favorite vacations in the Show Us Your Life tour so although I can't pick a favorite vacation, because each is so very special, I can share our most recent trip from which we just got home Thursday.

Tom and I went to Oahu, Hawaii this year. We try to take a vacation every year and we have usually done cruises but this year we decided to do something different and stay at one location. So, Hawaii was our choice. This is the second trip to Hawaii for both of us although not together. Tom went as a child and I went in 2002.

We arrived on Wednesday, August 5 and despite the 5 hour time difference, I wasn't tired at all. We started off on our trip by stopping by Da Kine Bail Bonds. So I know this isn't the usual place for most to begin a trip to paradise but being the reality tv junkies we are, we wanted to see if we could get a glimpse of our friend, Dog the Bounty Hunter! Ha! Unfortunately, no such luck!

We then went on to check in to our hotel. We stayed at the most beautiful resort, Hilton Hawaiian Village. If you ever get a chance to stay there, do it. It's beautiful, relaxing and they have nightly entertainment and a show on Friday night complete with fireworks. It was really nice.

We had tons of good food in Hawaii if you don't count the few trips to McDonald's! We actually ate at a great beach front restaurant called Duke's a few times. It was SO GOOD! I had one of my favorite mainland dishes but I don't think I can ever eat it again and not compare it to Duke's. I would be willing to go eat there every day!!! If I ever have to have a last meal, this would be it! What is it you ask? Hawaiian Pizza! But it's not your ordinary Hawaiian pizza. The sauce was not a tomato sauce but rather a macadamia nut pesto covered with cheese and ham and fresh pineapple chunks. Yummy!

We also couldn't pass up dessert. Hula Pie! Words can not express the delight of this dessert!

We also enjoyed a trip to the Polynesian Cultural Center. This was so educational and interesting. If I ever taught school in Hawaii, this would be a field trip for sure! I could have spent each day there visiting the different villages and learning the different cultures that make up the Polynesian Islands. Tom even got chosen to play the drums in the island of Tahiti. He was actually pretty good at it.

Fortunately, we had friends that arrived in town on Friday of our trip and we spent lots of time with them touring the island. They went to dinner with us a few times and also went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, Duke's and the Dole Plantation along with us. Jane took lots of pictures and I can't wait to get copies of them- I'll make sure to post some. Of course, no trip would be complete without a trip to ......

We stopped at Walmart to get some snacks to take back on the plane and to stock up in case the hurricane turned tropical storm turned tropical depression turned into more. Luckily we were safe and had no delays in returning to Texas. However, it would have been nice to be stranded in a beautiful hotel in paradise- even with a little rain!

A day of rest!

I have truly enjoyed my Sunday! Today started off with sleeping in a bit then up for a bowl of Cap'n Crunch then floating in the pool for a while. I then came in and took a shower and a long nap. In between all of that I decided to try Amanda's teriyaki chicken in the crock pot. It smells pretty good and I can't wait to try it for dinner tonight. Why am I being so lazy and carefree today you ask? Well, tomorrow school starts back. It is only a week of staff development complete with meetings, long lunches and catching up with friends but it also means long days of setting up my classroom and getting ready to meet my new friends! I have done lots from home this summer. I made new curtains for my room, wrote some plans, organized materials, ordered some new books and made my first day of school gifts. However, it's still the fact that summer is over that makes me sad. I actually enjoyed this summer. I got in the pool regularly each week, redecorated my family room, did LOTS of shopping with my mom and bonded with Maggie. That is what I will miss most when I go back to work, my Maggie. We have decided that she is not going to be crated this year. We are going to leave her to run the house. I'm not sure that is a great idea but we are going to try it out. We have left her periodically this summer and she hasn't destroyed too much- only her bed actually. I think as long as we leave her out with some chew toys, she will be fine. Besides, how can you crate this sweet face?

For those of you with dogs, how old were they when you finally decided to put the crate away?

PS. I know most dogs love their crates, or this is what we have heard anyway, Maggie despises the crate and runs and hides under the bed when she thinks she has to get in it.

Unleashed And On The Go!!!

On the way to Tom's parents and driving to Dallas each day, Tom has often commented on a place called Unleashed. He has mentioned it a few times and even cut out newspaper articles about the place for me to read. Well, I finally decided that I should check this place out. So, on Sunday, we got up and ready and put Maggie in the car and took the drive to Unleashed. As soon as we got there, I got excited by the way Maggie was acting (she jumped out of the car, which is extremely rare). It's just like she knew she was getting to do something really special. Well, as soon as we got out of the car the sniffing and smelling game was on! Maggie toured the yard and then she was ready to go inside when she spotted a couple friends going in. She almost pulled us down trying to get in the door. We checked in with her records and such and we were off. There are 2 different off leash parks, the powder puffs and the bodyslammers. Well, Maggie is a bit of a body slammer so we chose that park, plus, there were lots more friends to play with! As soon as we walked through the gate, many friends came over to greet Maggie. I could tell she was super happy! She played for almost 2 hours but never left her Mom's side! She would run and play and come back to make sure I was still there. Even when she would run with her Dad, she would still come back to me. It was almost like she was telling me all about what she was doing. Maggie made lots of friends at the park! I think it's funny how all of her pals were boys but either way, I'm just glad she had a great time.

Show Us Your Life- Wedding Party

This week we are showing off our wedding party. Tom and I were married at our church, Wilshire Baptist Church. Our minister, Pastor Mark Wingfield was really special to us because we were his first wedding and Tom was his first baptism. One day, I hope for Pastor Wingfield to participate in our baby's dedication! Anyway, I had a very unconventional wedding party as I opted to not have equal numbers of bridesmaids and groomsmen. I wanted to include all of my friends from different times in my life. I had my best childhood friend- Wendy, my college friends- Katie and Heather, my grown up friend- Amanda and my lifelong friends, my Aunt Jan (who was also my matron of honor) and her children, Chandler and Halee. I can't forget my neice Makayla as the best little flower girl! We had a great time together and it was a dream for me to have all of my friends together finally!

My bridesmaids all wore dresses of their choice in pink and we all carried hand tied bouquets of pink roses!

Tom's groomsmen were his best college friends, Mike, Glenn and Tim! They were great and made all of us girls laugh the whole night!
My favorite part of my wedding was that I had my favorite uncle walk me down the aisle. I thought of my daddy the entire walk and I carried a red rose in his honor and lit a candle at the alter in his memory. Uncle Hal did a great job of escorting me and I'm so glad that I had him by my side!

Okay so actually I had the entire Horton family in my wedding! I love them all! Chandler and Halee are like my little sisters, Aunt Jan is the perfect aunt and best friend and well, there are no words to describe how wonderful my Uncle Hal is!

And finally, the happy couple!

I love the fact that you can see my pink boots in this shot!

Well, come back next week for pictures and details on the reception!

Actually I will probably post those Tuesday since we will be in Hawaii next Friday!

Show Us Your Life- Wedding Dress

March, 12, 2005

My wedding dress was an Oleg Cassini, who also designed clothes for Jackie O. I saw the dress in a bridal magazine a few months before I got engaged and luckily, the weekend after I got engaged, mom and I went shopping and found it. Unfortunately, not on sale but it was well worth it. It was the first one that I tried on and I just knew it was the one. Mom did convince me to try on a couple more but we both fell in love with the first one!

Twenty three layers of tulle create the skirt with a cathedral length train. The sleevless top is adorned with caviar beading and Swarovski crystals. The dress was extremely heavy but fit perfectly with just a slight nip and tuck in the top to keep it from falling off of me!

I haven't had the dress heirloomed because I learned from a coworker what she did with her dress and I plan to do the same one day with my daughter which is every year on my daughter's birthday, I will put her in my wedding gown and take a picture with the hopes that one day, she will wear my gown on her wedding day.

And yes, I did wear my pink Uggs for my entire ceremony and reception! The congregation never knew until we were pronounced man and wife and we were walking down the aisle and I lifted my skirt up to walk down the steps. I did get lots of compliments about how unique and original it was. I got the biggest compliment from a friend's daughter who said she would be doing the same thing at her wedding one day!!!

Wonderful Wednesday on Thursday!

Happy Birthday to this big guy!

We celebrated Tom's birthday on Wednesday night with his parents and my step dad. Mom is still in South Carolina taking care of her sister who has cancer. Please keep my aunt in your prayers as well as mom who is taking on more stress that she really doesn't need. I am so proud of my mom and I miss her alot. I'm used to talking to her everyday- no matter what, we chat even if it's just for a minute. She is really my best friend and I have no idea what I would do without her. I hate that I can't be with her in South Carolina or simply take this burden from her. I'm praying that everything goes well.

Anyhow, Tom got lots of nice gifts for his big day! He got lots of things for our yard and patio, a new grill cover, patio lights, outdoor fan and speakers. We are ready to have a pool party for sure now!!! I picked him up a new shirt and watch for our Hawaii trip in a couple weeks! We had Larry fajitas (for those of you who aren't familiar with these, they are my step dad's famous recipe that we love. We NEVER eat fajitas out anymore cause these are too fabulous!) I also stopped off and picked up rice, beans, chips and salsa from On The Border for our little party. Yummy, yum!

In preparation for this little party, Kara and I went to get pedicures and relax a bit. It was quite fun and pretty entertaining especially when I opted to get a little crazy and go with the zebra stripes on my pink toes!

I also fell off the diet bandwagon this week when Kara convinced me that I needed a stop at Cold Stone! I actually traded in my usual cake batter ice cream choice for the limited time Chocolate Jello pudding ice cream. I added some peanut butter as a mix in because really, if you are gonna splurge you might as well make it worth your while, right? My suggestion, skip the pudding ice cream- it's a bit too creamy- unless you like that of course!

Tonight is Girl's Night Out! Kara and I are heading to the harbor for the Concert on the Lake. We are unfortunately missing our pal Janelle. Come Home Soon my friend!!!