SOOO Full

I ate way too much at dinner. It was one of those times that it doesn't sound like too much food, so when your body is telling you that you are full, you tell your body to please be quiet until you finish eating. Not good. Ugh.

I have so much to say, and no where near the time or energy to say it. There are some things going on at work that will probably turn into nothing for me, but I have been on an emotional roller coaster for the last 6 days as I've prayed over a teaching position that has opened at our school and whether or not I want to talk to the owners about it. It has been exhausting.

I did a LOT of resting this weekend. I feel like I could use another day of it. Just quiet... that's what I want. But tomorrow is August 1st, and this is one of the busiest times of year at the school, so there won't be much rest for a while. This week will be go, go, go from the time my alarm clock goes off tomorrow morning until Friday at 6:00. Hopefully we will have a nice night in on Friday and sleep late Saturday before we take care of all of the errands that we couldn't afford to attend to this weekend. Sometimes being broke is a blessing!

I had dinner with Jenn, Jage and Krista Thursday night, and it was incredibly refreshing. I have said this before, but I will never take it lightly: I am so thankful for the version of myself that they let me be. It is truly a gift to spend time with them. We are hoping to take a trip together sometime this coming year. That would be so great!

I wish Jeff would blog. And I would love to see Jenina. I saw Jennifer today... the baby room is practically complete and looking oh so cute! Emily Elizabeth is already stylin' and she's not even out of the womb yet! Love it!

There are things I should do tonight... some organizing and mopping. But I think I'm going to lay down with my book and try to get some extra rest before this sure-to-be-crazy week begins.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Girls Trip 2.0

It took me all week to recover and finally post a blog, but I can officially say that I have been on a "girls trip"! It was a great weekend full of friends, food and shopping and I am so happy that I got to go this year! I'm calling in 2.0 because the three lovely ladies that I went with actually have taken a trip together before. It was two summers ago, and though I was invited, it was the weekend of my sister's wedding, so I couldn't make it.

When we were deciding what kind of trip we wanted, we chose shopping over beaching or... something else. I don't remember what our third option was. But we decided to hit the outlet malls in San Marcos! We found a great deal on a hotel in Austin, 40 minutes from the outlet malls, so we stayed there. It was PERFECT! The hotel was on the very northern point of Austin, so Round Rock, and the shopping it holds, was only minutes away.

We were all at the hotel around 5:00 and didn't waste any time hitting some stores. We went to Sam Moon, where I picked up a rockin' orange purse, an owl necklace that caught my eyes months ago on a mom at our school, a chain for a pendant I was given, a woven headband and some cute white sandals with three flowers on each shoe. When I was unloading my treasures at home this week, I realized that the shoes are completely different sizes. They were both wrapped in tissue paper at the store, and it was such an ordeal to unwrap the abundance of paper that was surrounding one shoe, I didn't unwrap the other, and thus came home with one shoe in my size, and one shoe for a MUCH smaller foot. Hilarious. Thank goodness they were only $14. They are cute enough that I am definitely going to keep them and make a collage with them one day.

After Sam Moon, we went to Ikea. Marie had never been before, so we wanted to introduce her to the greatness that is Ikea, and like all first timers, she found it a bit overwhelming. But I bought some finger puppets for my nephew (due in November) and some "B" bookends, because we randomly happened across a huge bin full of the letter B. How could I not buy them?

After that, we were hungry and wanting to keep it simple after a day of driving, we ate at Chili's. My enchilada soup was perfection, as usual, and Marie had a coupon for a free brownie sundae. I had NO idea those sundaes were so good. Oh my goodness. I wish I had one right now.

After dinner, we made a quick trip to Target to get a few essentials that ended up not making it into a suitcase. Brett and I made a trip to Target on Thursday night so I could get a couple of things for the trip, and while there I spied some ADORABLE covered clipboards on the clearance isle. As you may or may not know, I am a big time list maker, and this clipboard called to me something awful! But I wanted to save my money for the trip. Well, when we all got to the hotel, guess what Tara had with her?!? The clipboard! So when she announced she needed to hit a Target, I went in search of the clipboards and snagged one that I am happy to say has held, not one, not two, but THREE lists for me this week! Score!

Saturday morning, we took our time getting up. After sleeping a bit, enjoying a free hotel breakfast (I forgot how much I LOVE Nutri-grain bars!) and throwing on clothes, we piled into Tara's "Rocket" and headed out to San Marcos.

What can I say =-) We shopped all day. I love shopping. We all found lots of things we were hoping to find and plenty of things we probably didn't need. I found a Bible that Brett was wanting to get for his boss who is moving to California. It is an awesome Bible, and they only had one copy, so though it was the most expensive thing I bought all weekend, by far, I am glad I found it for a discounted price.

At the outlet malls, I also bought an apron that says "Domestic Diva", a shirt for Brett, 2 more pairs of shoes, 2 bracelets, a plastic pitcher to replace the glass one that I broke after Nikki's wedding, and an adorable serving platter. Nice!

The girls stopped for a pedicure in between outlet malls. My feet embarrass me, so I never get pedicures, but I enjoyed a refreshment at the Starbucks that was conveniently next door to the little spa, where I also rekindled my love of Freecell. Haha!

We had an AWESOME dinner Saturday night. Tara remembered a restaurant that she had eaten at before that usually had live music, so we hunted it down. It was called Nutty Browns, and the show that night was Rotel and the Hot Tomatoes. They were SO MUCH FUN! There was a long wait to be seated outside, but they sat us at a table where we could see and hear everything inside. It was so great.

After dinner, we unloaded all of our goodies at the hotel and then headed to an independent movie theater, conveniently located 5 minutes from the hotel, where we saw Larry Crowne. I am SO happy to say that I enjoyed the movie. It isn't getting great reviews, but I have always been a believer that good actors can make an average script shine. There was some predictable dialogue, but most of it was in the first scene of the movie. After that, I enjoyed every quirky character. And Fez is lookin' GOOD!!!

Sunday was more sleeping in, a seriously good lunch at Chuy's, and a trip to Best Buy, where I bought the soundtrack to 500 Days of Summer(so good!), Ulta 3 where the girls bought nail polish, and Bed, Bath and Beyond, where I bought an apron for Brett that says "Grill Master. The Man, The Myth, The Legend".

I headed home after that.

It was a great weekend. And it came at the right time. Work has been difficult lately. Not bad, just incredibly busy. I needed a mental break. And though leaving Brett behind is always hard, coming home to him is the best!

I took a few pictures! Feast your eyes =-)

Casa de Bacon

It's been a great day off! I pretty much made my way through my to-do list.

I first got up and walked. FINALLY! I didn't go to the park because there was a 4th of July parade this morning so I think the road was probably blocked. Instead I just walked near the house. And guess who I passed when I was 3/4 of the way home? My dad! He pulled over and showed me the grill that he had just bought Brett. How great is that?!? Brett is grilling our dinner as I type!

After my walk I met Jennifer for coffee. It was great to see her and she is doing really well! Baby is getting close! I think she only has 7 weeks to go!

Then I came home and got cleaning. The cleaning lasted from 10:45 ish to 4:15 ish. I stopped to make some muffins and then lunch for Brett and I. They were slow at work, so Brett was sent home after 4 hours. Nice!

I didn't craft at all, but instead I took some pictures of the house to post. Ya know, now that we have been here 4 months. These are not great pictures, but it's the best I can do with my little point and shoot! And there are WAAAY too many of them! But my favorite parts of each room are all spread out. My craft room is my favorite room. It has two closets, one that I use for clothes, and one that I use for craft storage.

You are also going to see the deck, which was a huge selling point for us. You can't really tell in this picture, but it was 3 grills on it. Wowzers!

I took a picture of the pantry because the size and organization of the pantry totally wowed me when we were looking at the house. The bathroom is small, but cute, which you can't really tell in these pictures. The island is AWESOME!!! SO useful! Okay, that's all I got.

Happy Independence Day! Almost.

What an interesting week it has been. I'm so thankful and so happy to say that I am doing better. I made good choices with my food all week and am already feeling tons better! I'm a few pounds lighter too, which is a great way to get back in the swing of things. I'm expecting another good week, and I'm THRILLED to say that it is going to start with me being off of work tomorrow.

I say this all of the time, but I am incredibly thankful to have been born in America. We are a young country, but a great one, and the price that was paid for my freedom is not lost on me. I understand it and thank God for it often.

It's nice having the 4th fall on a Monday. Three day weekends rock! Brett has to work so I'm going to have the house to myself. I plan on some serious cleaning. Well, here is my official, tentative plan: Get up at 7:30 and go walk at the park. Meet Jennifer for a grande non-fat iced chai at Starbucks at 9:30. Come home and clean, clean, clean! Shower. Eat a healthy lunch. Bake up a batch of Hungry Girl's Ooey, Gooey, Chocolate Cherry Muffins. And then maybe do some crafting? Brett is supposed to work until 6, but we both think there is a good chance that they will be slow and he will come home mid afternoon. That's what usually happens.

I hope everyone has a great holiday! I've done a good bit of dishes and laundry so far today. I also fancied up a store bought angel food cake to take to my parents house for dinner tonight. It's a recipe that I saw in the newspaper and have been wanting to try. You mix a 20 ounce can of pineapple chunks, undrained, with a package of instant vanilla pudding mix and 1/2 of a container of FF cool whip. The entire cake is 42 points, so if we cut it in 10 pieces, they are 4 points each. I hope it's good! It's too tall for the lid to fit over it so it's just sitting in my fridge. It will have sat in there for a couple of hours once it is eaten. Hope it's still good! I'm worried it will dry out! The filling is crazy moist though, so hopefully not.

Happy 4th! Be safe!