tuesday, may 25

as much as i still despise waking up as early as we do for work, i never tire of seeing God show off every morning...

monday, may 24

we sold our couch and chair on craig's list. what to do with all this extra space???

sunday, may 23

it still makes me sad knowing that it is over. the LOST finale was everything it lived up to be. i was too enthralled to think to take any other pictures than this one of one of the scenes in the beginning. such a great show

saturday, may 22

as mentioned on our blog, we were able to take in a cubs game last weekend and with some pretty fabulous company!

friday, may 21

we made it to college station for our last aggie game this year. i took this pictureas we went into extra innings. we got plenty of free baseball all the way until about 10:30. yay.

thursday, may 20

we were treated to dinner at pei wei by brenda (lee's co-worker), suzanne, and devin. yum!

wednesday, may 19

today was the balloon release for emily's wish at the school where i teach. the students at ahs raised so much money to help a little girl's wish come true.

tuesday, may 18

golf galaxy, part II

another plus to lee discovering golf galaxy and visiting on sunday is that he got to enter his name in the running for lots of awesome prizes. he got a call that he had won this nifty little "valuables bag" to keep put on his golf bag.

monday, may 17

oh banana bread, it has been too long since we have seen you on our kitchen counter...

seriously, we love this banana bread so much that i did not even have a chance to take a picture of the whole, fully-baked loaf before we sliced into it. be jealous, be very jealous

sunday, may 16

lee discovered the store, golf galaxy. i guess when it is raining, he can still get his golf fix now! it was nice timing on his part though because they are running some awesome specials this month. just for trying out a new driver, he got a mini sleeve of free golf balls! awesome!

saturday, may 15

some of our favorite kids (who aren't our nieces or nephews): kason and emily ottinger! aren't they just adorable?! emily was smiling at us on her blanket and playing with her ball while kason tried to play the wii with his dad and lee.

friday, may 14

so, it hadn't rained in quite a while in houston. while we were at dinner, the rain decided to come. and come it did. we could not see our car parked right outside the building when we looked out the window through the rain. it was only a little bit better when we drove home.

tuesday, may 11

so, for whatever reason why, i have been really into sudoku and kakuro lately. maybe it started with giving my students sudoku to do after TAKS. maybe it started with doing all the sudokus in the airplane magazines when i flew to alabama. maybe it never really went away. either way, i thoroughly enjoy it. and if you have never tried kakuro, but you like sudoku, check it out. it is pretty addictive also.

monday, may 10

my sweet husband decided that he would buy me the workout video i really wanted a few weeks ago, knowing i would probably wait forever until i actually bought it for myself. he did not buy it saying i needed to do it, but i wanted to do it because i knew i needed a little something extra to tone up where i wanted to be better toned. here's to "no more trouble zones!"

sunday, may 9

one of my new favorite meals is chicken parmesan from the "cook this, not that" recipe book. this is a before shot, but the meal is just too good to pause for an after shot.

saturday, may 8

with lee gone to an overnight bachelor party, suzi and i helped, well mostly suzi, organize an impromptu girls' dinner. i gave gringo's a try for the first time, and i must say it was quite tasty. although, the company was even better! suzi and i followed dinner with coffee at rao's. wow, i wish i had discovered this place sooner!!! seriously, such a cute coffee shop...very similar to some of the best in tuscaloosa so it felt right at home. i even enjoyed a snickers latte, which was one of my favorite necessities to the late-night study sessions at rodgers' library.

friday, may 7

our sunday school class is a group of amazing guys and girls. we are so thankful to have developed relationships with so many of them. we love our sunday morning time in the Word with everyone led by our awesome teachers. we also enjoy the social events when we really get to connect and build these friendships. before our classwide gathering at tutti frutti, we hung with kyle, lindsay, and this little guy at freebirds. i think his face says it all :)

thursday, may 6

teacher appreciation week, cont.

my school finally acknowledged teacher appreciation week with a day full of events. we began the day (which is a late arrival day for the kids) with breakfast made and served by our principals, raffles and free prizes, massages, manicures, and an awesome food spread for lunch. i won a raffle and got my free prize of a gift certificate for barbeque. (if you know me, you know my feelings on barbeque but it is a gift)

wednesday, may 5

happy cinco de mayo!

our friend and future san francisco neighbor, brad, came to stay for a night while he was in town to take a certification test to work as a pharmacist in california. we made the mistake of thinking it would be easy to show up at a mexican restaurant on cinco de mayo in houston, tx and get a table at a reasonable time. silly us. at 5:45, pappasito's had a 2 hour wait. we went next door to chili's and had just as good a time!

tuesday, may 4

teacher appreciation week

apparently, one of the things they forget to mention in college is that if you choose to become an elementary school teacher, you get AWESOME gifts for ANY occasion. lee got continually showered and blessed with gifts each day this week from the kids that absolutely adore him. check out this cool, unique gift from one of his students:

monday, may 3

my awesome day of saving! see our blog for the complete recap of my accomplishments.

sunday, may 2

this empty chair represents lee's place at breakfast with my family cracker barrel before i left town to fly back to houston. they wanted him to know how much he was missed!

saturday, may 1

these lovely ladies are my sister and grandmother. aren't they beautiful?!

friday, april 30

i. love. this. place. so. much.

thursday, april 29

i flew to birmingham in anticipation of my meeting with my research committee to hear for sure whether or not i was finished with my project and able to graduate. the moment of truth. although surprise, surprise, my flight was delayed. board time: 7:20 PM? try again, continental.

wednesday, april 28

lee got a new pitching wedge. everyone knows what that is right? of course. it is the best option to use when the ball does not land on the green. in fact, this club is so great that it could very well change everything about your golf game...or at least it did for lee. i think it falls in line as one of the most awesome things he owns.

tuesday, april 27

our sunday school class has 2 softball teams, and they finally got to play each other. this meant lots of fun for the wives because it was an earlier game which meant moms & babies could join in on the fun too! i posted about the game on our blog so i won't say much more here, but it was a fun night for everyone!

monday, april 26

i know i have mentioned this before, but now that it is hot again in houston and we ride in lee's truck which has no a/c, i thought the chick fil a ice cream cone deserved a post again. it melted quickly, but seriously, this is the best after-school snack around!

sunday, april 25

after sunday aggie games, the kids have the opportunity to run the bases and get autographs from the players. we stuck around to watch the garrett kids run. jennings is the only one i was able to capture on my camera, and this shot was just moments before he face-planted into the dirt. however, he jumped back up, never shed a tear. the kid loves baseball and loves doing anything baseball players would do.

(note: for those of you who do not know jennings, he is not the cookie monster shirt kid)

saturday, april 24

i must say i am quite proud of this picture for several reasons. but let me first say, we did wind up going back to college station and hanging out with friends after a change of plans and me locking my keys in my car!

at about 10pm, lee wanted to play disc golf on a&m's campus so he, katy, and i all drove out to campus. i was exhausted from work so i was the observer of the game while we walked all over campus. to avoid falling asleep standing up, i decided to try my skills at taking a picture of the moon with my camera. silly sounding to you maybe, but a friend from work had told me how to play with some settings to get the camera adjusted correctly for such a shot. this is the best of them all, and obviously i still need to work on it more, but i am quite impressed with my first attempt at such a difficult shot, especially when i was so tired!

friday, april 23

so, lee went to college station for the night to baseball thinking it would be the only game of the weekend to go to and hang out with everyone there, but i had to stay home because i had to work the next morning. please note the day of the week for this post...yes, friday. i had to work on a saturday morning. boo!

anyway, i am not like lee who does not mind eating out by himself if he has to. so i picked up mcalister's to go and enjoyed an evening on the couch by myself. i really wanted to be hanging out with everyone, but our plans changed on saturday so that actually did happen for me.

thursday, april 22

finally, a picture of one of my classrooms! yes, one of them. i float among three different classrooms. my kids were gone to lunch at this time, but this is where i work!

wednesday, april 21

this is such an amazing book. it is still on many bestseller lists and often right out front anywhere you shop for books. if you like anything set during world war II, you like this book. check it out...

tuesday, april 20

i'm a nerd, i know. i have developed a hobby for couponing. i love the idea of saving money by simply taking the time to cut a few coupons out of the paper. i totally make back the cost of buying the paper (which should be no one's excuse not to coupon). plus, i can print them from these great websites as well! i love that some of my favorite stores for groceries & household items (target and walgreens) have their own store coupons too because you can "stack" a store and manufacturer coupon and get a great deal sometimes.

i took a tip (one of many) from my mom and bought a coupon organizer. this little beauty makes shopping so much easier because i always have it with so i cannot forget any coupons, and i can keep them organized by food, bathroom items, paper products, etc. love it!

monday, april 19

i'm starting a new workout! after becoming a huge fan and proponent of jillian michaels' "30 Day Shred," i decided i needed a little something new and different for working out. plus, i figured trying a new video would get me more motivated toward working out regularly again since swimsuit season is pretty much here in houston.

so, here it is. it is very much aerobic-driven, but it incorporates a lot of kick-boxing, which i LOVE! i keep wondering why i have never given kick boxing a try...it's awesome and a great workout. maybe blogging about this will actually keep me accountable and motivated to keep up a good weekly workout routine!