saturday, july 10

i realize this was already on our other blog, but i don't make an appearance on this one much. plus, it was a pretty exciting moment for me.

that's right, crave cupcakes!

friday, july 9

panera: the breakfast of champions. the perfect prep for a 4 hour test!

thursday, july 8

even though i got full teaching certification from the state of alabama (and i am "highly qualified"), the lovely state of texas said that i had to take their tests in order to have full certification here. so, i actually had to study AGAIN after finally graduating a couple of months ago. i crammed this whole book into my head for a day and a half.luckily, it all paid off :)

wednesday, july 7

we went to our first astros game of the year! (and i played the "hipstamatic" app on my phone again!)

tuesday, july 6

i have photographed my banana bread on here before and many people have tasted it. i made it once again for bible study so i thought i would include the recipe this time. i found the recipe at eatbetteramerica.com, which is a great website for healthy, tasty recipes and coupons.

monday, july 5

everyone knows i love a good deal so it should come as little surprise that i am admitting to shopping the gap outlet 4th of july sales twice in 5 days. i saved a killer amount of money and bought stuff for lots of people. i realize i should have photographed everything i saved on, but i was too excited to think of that and only snapped a picture of the bag!

sunday, july 4

for independence day, we grilled out in college station, and i made my first patriotic desserts!

saturday, july 3

i know, another food post. and mexican food again! however, this is quite blog-worthy. i made a startling discovery at our usual mexican restaurant of choice in college station: they brand their tortillas with the a&m symbol!!! wow. i mean wow.

friday, july 2

a night in to myself with no car means blogging, reading, and watching movies. this particular friday night, i opted for an itunes rental of the new alice in wonderland because of love the disney cartoon and lewis carroll classics. i thought it was good, but not great, and borderline creepy at times. the jabberwocky was pretty convincing though. i look forward to seeing "alice" in future movies.

thursday, july 1

i decided after nights of terrible sleep that one cure to the problem might be investing in a new pillow. i like to have a little thickness in my pillow and the old one had just about lost all of its fluff. so far so good!

wednesday, june 30

i wish this picture did justice to the massiveness of this taco salad. we tried out a fairly new mexican restaurant in our area, ruby tequila's, and this is what they brought me for dinner. trust me, it was massive in person.

tuesday, june 29

i started a bible study group with some girls from our church tonight. i was so thankful that we were back in time for me to start this with everyone. i did not have time to pick up the book, but thankfully the first chapter was online! i love that this study is on ruth!!!

monday, june 28

ever since i received the recipe in my email, i knew i was destined to make these cupcakes. peanut butter chocolate cupcakes. yum. the cake wound up a little more airy and dry than i would have liked, but the icing. oh the icing.

sunday, june 27

after being gone for three weeks, we had no food to eat in the apartment. after some serious coupon clipping, i set out to restock our kitchen. i saved....$45!!!! oh man, it still gets me excited to think about it. i know i might be a dork because of this, but i am a dork who saved $45 on groceries :)

saturday, june 26

so, i wanted photo proof that i had been to denver, co even if just in the airport for now. as we were taxiing on the runway, i snapped a shot of the (rocky ?) mountains in the distance. the snow-capped mountain tops almost blend in with the clouds. it is so crazy to me that the tops are still covered with snow even in the middle of the summer!

friday, june 25

thankfully, our last day in the city gave us a nice afternoon of sunny weather that we had not experienced since my first day there. we took advantage of this and took a walk along the bay where at&t park sits.later we met up with most of the rest of the epic church team for some ice cream and fellowship at union square. it was a nice end to a fun little trip.

thursday, june 24

my first venture to san francisco's chinatown. i bought a shirt as a token of my trip, met shauna's new friend kit who has an amazing scarf store, and stood in shock on the sidewalk alongside shauna as we realized her van had been towed. luckily, ben retrieved the van within an hour or so, but that is a slightly difficult event to explain to three little boys who just want to ride back home in their van.

wednesday, june 23

i can never get enough of these three! i wish i had just a fraction of their energy and excitement for life.

tuesday, june 22

my first full day in the city started off with great weather...i was wearing sandals and capris! and this is the weather we ended the day with at elijah's baseball practice on the other side of town where the sun rarely shines:
p.s. - happy 19 month anniversary to us!

monday, june 21

before heading back to houston, we decided i should just fly on out to san francisco to join lee for a few days. i was supposed to arrive in the city at 7:30 pacific time which i was excited about because i could probably eat dinner with lee and others in the city. everyone knows that airlines often like to throw little kinks into tentative, post-flight plans. i had a 2 1/2 hour delay in phoenix, az instead of just the originally-scheduled 45 minute layover. so as i ventured to find dinner in the airport, i found this! i had heard about it but never seen it in person before!

sunday, june 20

for whatever reason, we did not take a picture with our dad on father's day which was quite a shame.

after church, we went to my grandmother's house for the afternoon. the baby birds i discussed about a week's worth of posts down were still there but not quite as tiny and cute. in fact, they were looking much more creepy than cute this day!

saturday, june 19

morgan's wedding day!

friday, june 18

i did not include this story on our blog when i posted picture from my friend morgan's wedding, but i thought i would briefly discuss how morgan and i met. we lived in the same dorm our freshman year, but this dorm was 14 floors and housed about 900 girls so i could actually say that about a lot of people. more specifically, i quickly discovered that she and i also went to the same church, about a block away from our dorm. i noticed that i would see her some in the dorm, but on sundays, we would both leave at the same time, i would see her at church, and then i would see her again that afternoon when we got back from church. sometimes we would even be in the elevator at the same time and never speak to each other. we both finally decided to say hello and introduce ourselves since it was clear we at least had the church thing in common. turns out, we had a lot more in common and developed a great friendship! we continued going to the same church and eventually were roommates for two years. we had some ups and downs (like most friendships do), relationships, break-ups, new friends come along, and more. i am thankful for her friendship, and i was so honored to stand alongside as she married a man i know will take wonderful care of her and love her.

thursday, june 17

one of the first days i was at my parents' house, my dad offered me an outdoor project to do...wasn't that sweet of him?! :)

the job was to clean some patio furniture they have outside. this furniture happens to sit under quite a think canopy of trees so my mom wanted to make sure i clarified that they don't enjoy the filth that these chairs had come to be. it is just difficult to maintain their cleanliness.

i did not make it through the entire set of furniture but i did tackle two of the chairs. those of you who follow me on twitter may have seen this, but these are the before and after shots:

wednesday, june 16

while staying with my parents, my mom wanted me to sort through some of my old keepsake items and decide what was really worth saving and what we could part with. it is funny that she asked me to do this because she would have been perfectly content to keep it all. i could go on and on about all the stories that came out of that project, but here is a little taste of what i found. the picture quality is terrible because it came from a cell phone, but this is my indian headdress from our thanksgiving lunch in kindergarten. i had a vest made out of a paper bag too but i'm pretty sure it was a little too small. the fact that i could still wear this is proof that i have always had a large head.

tuesday, june 15

after lunch with one of my oldest friends (in terms of how long we have known each other, not so much our age), i stopped off in the downtown area of prattville, the city i grew up in. recently, the city has renovated an area where a building burned down. they left the space open, made it a garden, and it leads to a really nice walking area along the creek (beauty from ashes, literally). i could not help but i try out my measly photography skills on the scenery. here are a couple of my favorite shots...