Easter 2013

Happy Easter, Everyone!

I do love this holiday and celebration of faith and the empty tomb! 

I am blessed by our church home at Coastal. It was a great service this morning.

After church, we had our friends over for Easter lunch. 

It was a feast and all soooo yummy.

We had ham, green beans, mac and cheese, rolls, and

twice baked potatoes casserole. Delicious!

I have already pinned the recipe of twice baked potatoes on my Pinterest.

So good!

For dessert, I made a red velvet cake. I love the cook book, The Cake Doctor. 

It always makes great cakes!

After being super full, Megan and I took a walk with the dogs.

I was so excited to walk in my NEW running shoes.

Pretty snazzy, huh?

An update on running, Megan and I have signed up for the Jalapeno Half Marathon in Fort Worth

 in June.  13.1 miles baby!

(Yes, what were we thinking...Fort Worth...June...hot!!!)

Our training starts in mid April. Right now we are getting comfortable running 3 miles.

So far we have run a little less than 24 miles these last 2 weeks- about 3 miles every day for 4 days a week.  I am so proud :)

I bought new shoes and super high tech sweat absorbent socks (or so the sales lady told me).

I am ready to run! 

That was our Easter. I am going to relax the rest of the day and enjoy my husband.

Chad leaves next weekend for his month long rotation in Dallas. :(

So I am enjoying him all I can!!

Happy Easter- 

May the Lord bless you on this glorious day!

Easter Egg Party!

Last night the girls came over and we dyed Easter eggs. It was super fun!

We are still not sure if our eggs were actually hard boiled. :)

Is it bad if some were floating?

We ate, talked, and dyed...

Megan and Janey's top eggs!

Amy, me, and Jen's top eggs!

Chad came in and judged.

(If only one of mine would not have cracked!)

All the beautiful eggs! 

The Top 3 Winners!

1st place is in the middle. Amy's

2nd place is on the left. Jen's

3rd place is on the right. Megan's

It was fun to get creative and eat lots of chips and puppy chow. 

I am so happy and blessed to have these friends!

Now for a day off! Lunch plans with the girls and then date night with my smokin' husband!

Excited- he has no idea what I've planned! Muahhahahaha! :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter as we celebrate the blessing and joy of our resurrected Lord!

Happy Easter!

Curse You, Vanilla!

You ever have those days when you get a burst of energy to bake at 7 p.m. at night?

(I am a teacher...therefore 7 p.m. is late! In case you didn't know)

Yeah, well don't do it! (unless you have double double checked every ingredient!)

Tonight I thought I would bake Pioneer Woman cupcakes for an Easter egg dyeing party I am having on Thursday. (I'm super excited about it. Can't wait to show my skills of dyeing eggs. ;)

So I look at the recipe....

do I have cake flour? no

buttermilk? no

But that's fine I can substitute! 

Here I go...mixing.... beating...substituting...

Did I check for vanilla extract?

noooooo.....

Introducing almond cupcakes....

Did they stick in the pan?

You know it.

Did Chad laugh when he took a bite?

You know it.

Curse you vanilla!

Almond cupcakes=fail

You know some days are like that. 

Some days just stink from the get go. You keep trying to fix things, make them work, substitute. 

You hope for the best but some days vanilla is better than almond.

So, I laugh with Chad.

I thank God for my awesome hubby, friends, for money back on our taxes, for my precious kids at school, for Easter, a 4 day weekend, for the gift of faith and forgiveness...

and for edamame peas. :)

(seriously they are like crack)

I get over it and try to enjoy an almond cupcake with a missing bottom half that is still stuck in the pan. :)

Happy Late Night Baking!

Spring Break

It's a family tradition that whoever gets out for spring break first calls all the other family members and yells over the phone, "IT'S SPRING BREAKKKK!!!!" Yes, us educators are excited for a week long break! :)

Chad's and I spring break started out with our small group coming over for supper, bingo (none of us won :/ ), and games. I love hosting things and opening our house  to others. We are so thankful for the friends we have made and the many laughs we always get to enjoy when we are together. 

Saturday, Chad and I went to our first Houston Rodeo. My uncle spoiled us and gave us the grand tour of everything rodeo. He also treated Chad to bungee jumping. It scared me half to death but my dare devil husband enjoyed it! It is now something he can mark off his bucket list. Next, skydiving...

Chad bungee jumping!

Next, my uncle thought it would be fun to treat us both to a ride! I hate high fair rides that hang you in the air upside down for minutes on end...

Before the ride...

During the ride...

 I love how Chad is waving peacefully and I am hanging on for dear life!

On Sunday I  drove to Austin to see my brother and Mom and Dad. Chad had to stay and work. :(

Can I just say how much I LOVE Austin! 

The people, the FOOD, oh the food, and all the fun things to do. 

Some highlights of our week were:

1. 6th street (ok people are crazy!) 

2. Round Rock Outlet Mall- sorry Dave Ramsey I broke budget!

3. Fredericksburg- I loved the wild flower farm and hiking Enchanted Rock- although it was not that enchanting.

4. Steeping Room- one of my favorite shops in Austin. We smelled tea leaves and picked out some of our favorite tea flavors. 

5. Relaxation and family time! I miss having family close by. It was so good to spend time, laugh, talk, and just be together. 

6. Alamo Draft House- movie and food it can't get any better! We saw Oz the Great and Powerful. Great movie and the caramel salted milkshake...I love you! best. milkshake. ever.

Here is a pic of some of the food we got at the food trucks.

 Cream soda, fried pickles, and fried nutella and marshmallow! 

 Favorite BBQ place!

 Delicious. This is now in the Austin rotations of places to always go.

The bread, the meat, the coleslaw, the meat, the potato salad, the meat...

It was a great spring break! Full of rest, love, and family. And to end it all I got to come home to my hubby! I love coming home to him and our life we've made together.

I hope you all had a wonderful spring break! 

Now, how many days till summer?!?

Marathon? What?!

So, my friend and I have started to run. Running meaning 1-3 miles ever so often. Some days we run...some days we don't. It's relaxed. I bring Georgia who pulls me along. Yeah, we have started to run.

Well, the other day my friend threw out the idea of running a marathon. Immediately, I thought NO WAY! I cannot, will not, want not to run 26 miles. I make fun of those people. Those people are crazy. Yet...

I think I might. The more I thought of the crazy ridiculous notion to run that much, the more the bud of desire began to bloom. I am 23. I have no kids. I am healthy. WHY NOT? Then, my friend and I started actually looking up marathons. There is one in San Antonio, a place Chad and I have never been, that is in November. It's the Rock 'N Roll Marathon. My friend and I started getting excited...as girls do when a plan starts coming together. We could have a couples weekend. We could treat ourselves to a hotel. (We better start a Dave Ramsey envelope now!!!) We could accomplish an amazing feat and our hubbies could enjoy music and relaxation. Let's do it!

Now, will this really happen...I don't know. We have not started training. We have never ran this much before. We have not changed our diets and I love being lazy. But I hope it does happen. I hope we do this amazing thing, this mental and physical challenge that pushes us to the limit, and I hope we do it together. I hope I accomplish this thing I never I thought I would do. I hope we run a marathon. So in high hopes, I write this blog to help motivate me to run a marathon.

What I hope I will look like...

What I think I will look like... 

Kindle Love

I am in love with my kindle. I am obsessed with it and recently a wonderful has happened. I have figured out how to check out books from the library...aaaamazing! I just sit on our couch at home in my pj's checking out books. I am in love with my kindle...have I said that already?!

So the books I have been reading:

The Secret Keeper

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others. I was not expecting the ending at all. It was a total surprise which I liked that. I want to read it all over again now knowing the ending. It was an easy read and kept my attention. It was also set in England...which is always a bonus for me. Speaking on England- can you believe the final Downton Abbey?! Why? Why?

 The Language of Flowers

 This book was an easy read. I actually bought it (Amazon- you have made it so easy! My Dave Ramsey budget does not like you!) and enjoyed it. It was about a girl in the foster care system. It makes you think about loving broken children and what the foster care system does. The book was interesting and I liked how the author brought in the concept of flowers. It made me want to learn more about gardening and the language of flowers. I would recommend it!

The Light Between Oceans

I love this book and might just read it again. I also bought this one. It was amazing, in a powerful way. It is not a happy book. It is more a book about life, the decisions you make, and how they effect others. I was bawling at the end of it. I love reading experiences that move you to deep thoughts and discussions, that make your heart appreciate life and loved ones. I would recommend this to everyone!  So good!

The Winter Sea

This was an ok book. I could not get into it for some reason. There was too much background knowledge but I did like the story. If you want lots of history and a romance story you would like this one. I did check this one out from the library so I felt rushed with finishing it on the due date before it magically disappeared from my kindle. That could of aided in my negative feelings towards this book. 

The Shoemaker's Wife

I just bought this...it was only $2.99 (and now all my kindle Christmas money is gone...SAD DAY!) It is set in the Alps and I have enjoyed it thus far. I have high hopes for it and will keep you posted.

That is what I have been reading. What have you been reading? 

I plan to read more over Spring Break. I will be camping with my family and have a long appointment with my kindle and a comfortable lawn chair. Oh kindle love!

Happy March Everyone! 

(Thank goodness February is over...it was a dreary month!)