Will & Ella

Tonight I got to hang out with a couple of my favorite kiddos. 

The evening was full of hugs, legos, spit up, smiles, poopy diapers, bath time, and bedtime stories about a mouse named Wilf, and we had a blast.

Hula Hut

Last night we met up with some of my coworkers {both current and former} for happy hour at Hula Hut to celebrate the fact that I am done studying {at least for now} and my birthday.

Grace and Chris...

Chris and Tricia...

Kathy, John, Eva, and me...

We had such great time catching up, and before we knew it, the restaurant was almost completely cleared out, and we realized that we had been there for almost 4 hours.  What can I say?  Time flies when you're having fun, and I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends.

Easter Weekend

This past Saturday, we drove up to Denton for Kari and John's wedding.  Kari was a Construction Science major at Texas A&M with Ben, and we hadn't seen her or most of that group of friends in about 3 years, so we were really looking forward to getting together with everybody and to finally meet John.  The wedding was at the Buffalo Valley Event Center in Denton, and this sweet little guy welcomed us as we were driving in.

Ben's crazy friends Justin and Joey were also there to welcome us when we pulled up, and since we got there a couple of hours before the wedding started, they helped us kill some time before heading up to the hotel room to get cleaned up.

The event center has 19 hotel rooms available on the ranch, and luckily, we were able to reserve one before they all filled up.  It was really convenient to be able to stay the night at the actual wedding venue, and our room was perfect. 

It was clean, the bed was comfortable, and it was filled with all sorts of buffalo decorations.  I mean what room is complete without a buffalo on your tissue box and towel rack?

The wedding ceremony was perfect.  Everything was so beautiful and so sincere.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, but you could tell just by looking at Kari and John that they are both so in love.  At one point during Kari's vows, she got choked up and had to stop for a second to catch her breath, and I'm not gonna lie -- I might have teared up, too.  They are such a cute couple.

The wedding reception was a blast.  The fajitas were delicious, the dancing was so much fun, and we had a great time catching up with everybody. 

Ben and Joey...

Natalie and Justin...

 

Ben and Boone..

Karly and John...

Crispin and Megan...

Natalie and Joey...

And Justin...with his awesome dance moves.

Both of the cakes were so delicious, too.  The bride's cake was so different from any wedding cake I had ever seen before.  I loved it.

 

After the reception was over and we had sent off the bride and groom with sparklers, we hung out with all of the "young people" to have a little more fun.  We soon realized though that we're out of shape when it comes to staying up late and partying, so when Ben confessed that he was getting a little tired, we quietly snuck up to our room and hoped that no one would notice.  On Sunday morning, we had a brunch at a Mexican food restaurant in downtown Denton before heading back to Austin.  Before heading home, we stopped by my mom's house to pick up Annie and Amos who were having a blast celebrating Easter with my family.  We didn't stay too long since both of us were pretty worn out from our road trip, which we actually realized on the way there is the longest one that we've ever been on together, but it was so good to see everybody even if it was for just a little bit.  This weekend definitely wasn't our traditional Easter weekend, but we had a lot of fun catching up with old friends and making new ones.  Thanks again, Kari and John, for inviting us to be a part of your special day.  We hope to see you {and everyone else} again soon!

Young at Heart

I went to an assembly at Oak Hill Elementary yesterday.  And, yes, you read that correctly.  Random, huh? 

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Young at Heart kindergarten reading program, and the kindergartners were putting on a musical program in honor of Young at Heart and to recognize both Ms. Gathright {my kindergarten teacher} and Ms. Taylor for starting it.  The program was centered around the alphabet {where reading all begins}, and it was really cute.  It was called "Alpha Bop", and the first song that they sang had the lyric, "Alpha bop, alpha bop, every letter makes me hop."  Very catchy.  So catchy that it is {unfortunately} still stuck in my head.

Ms. Gathright invited me to attend the program since I was in her kindergarten class when the program began.  My mom had always told me that the program was started because of me and my best friend Kate, but to be honest, I had always thought that was just her version of the story.  Apparently she was telling the truth though.  Ms. Gathright said that Kate and I were both so ready to read, but because I was in such a rowdy class, she spent most of the day trying to keep the rest of the kids in line and didn't get to spend nearly as much one-on-one time working with us as she would have liked.  That's when she came up with the idea to have volunteers come up to the school on a weekly basis to read with the kindergartners, and that's when Young at Heart was born.

Ms. Gathright asked me to stand up and say a few things about my experiences with Young at Heart, the importance of learning how to read, and what I'm doing now.  Speaking in front of such a large group {all the kindergartners, 1st through 3rd graders, their parents, the teachers, and all of the volunteers} was definitely not my favorite part of the program, but it was fun to remember the days that I sat on that very same cafeteria floor during assemblies and to see so many of my old teachers. Some of them came back for the program, some of them have recently retired and are now substitute teachers, and some of them are still teaching at Oak Hill. I saw Ms. Beckley {my 1st grade teacher}, Ms. Dumas {my 2nd grade math teacher}, Ms. Thomas {my 4th grade language arts teacher}, Ms. Knight {my art teacher}, and Ms. Barlow {my principal}.  Ms. Barlow was such awesome principal, and I was so excited to see her.  The thing I remember most about her was that she always showed the students how proud she was of them with a thumbs-up or a high-five, so it only seemed appropriate that when I told her what I was up to these days, she responded by holding up both hands for a high-five.

Never in a million years would I have thought that I'd return to my elementary school for an assembly at the age of 26, but I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity.  Being in that building and seeing all of my teachers brought back so many wonderful memories and made me wish I was a kindergartner again.  Recess and centers are definitely a lot more fun than work and laundry.

Girls' Trip

This past weekend, Holly, my mom, and I went on a mini-vacation to Barton Creek Resort & Spa.  When Holly worked there about a year ago, Barton Creek gave her gift cards for a one-night stay at the hotel and dinner for two in exchange for some modeling that she did for them.  She invited my mom to go with her as a Mother's Day gift last year, and luckily, they invited me to join them.

On Sunday, we laid out by the pool all day.  Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture, but it was so nice to just lay out in the sun, soak up some rays, and do absolutely nothing.  We had a great time catching up and even ordered some turkey wraps for lunch.  They were so good!  Later that afternoon, we headed to the spa.  My mom had a facial, Holly had a mani/pedi, and I had a massage, which was absolutely wonderful.  And it couldn't have been scheduled for a more perfect time considering Ben and I spent the entire day before turning our backyard from this...

...into this.

I'm not sure if it was because of a fungus or if our grass just went without water for too long last summer while adding onto our patio, but either way, we lost most of it.  Ben rented a tiller to rip up all of the dead grass, we spread a bunch of dirt, and then we re-sodded most of our backyard.  It looks amazing, so hopefully we'll be able to keep it alive this summer...but back to our mini-vacation.  After our appointments, we checked into our hotel room.  The room that we stayed in was really nice, and the view was awesome.

I just love the hill country.

After taking showers, Holly took us on a tour around the grounds.  The landscaping was beautiful, the golf course was gorgeous, and everything was so green. 

 

  

 

 We had a lot of fun walking all over outside and throughout the beautiful hotel finding all of the pictures of Holly.  We found her in two of the elevators and in an insert on a table in the hall.

After walking around and working up an appetite, we headed to dinner.  The restaurant was called 8212 {which is Barton Creek's street address}, and because it was a Sunday evening, we practically had the whole place to ourselves.

Holly's gift card was for a three-course dinner for two, and it was a ton of food.  We ordered the nachos and flautas as appetizers, the red snapper and a rib-eye as our entrees, and the blackberry cheesecake and kaluha chocolate cake for dessert.  And, yes, everything was as amazing as it sounds.

The beautiful model herself.

After stuffing ourselves silly, we headed back up to our hotel room.  We watched a little bit of TV and then went to bed.  Unfortunately, I had to get up early the next morning for work and head back to "real life", but not before snapping a picture of what was hanging in the elevator. 

Thanks again, Holly & Mommy, for inviting me to a be a part of such a fun weekend.  Playing "rich" was a lot of fun. :)

Uncle Jimmy

Please keep my family in your prayers.  My mom's Uncle Jimmy passed away on Sunday due to complications after a lung transplant, and although we are comforted in knowing that he is at complete peace and with the Lord, we weren't really ready for him to go, and we are really going to miss him.

My New 'Do

As much as I love wearing my hair in a ponytail, I realized last week that I was tired of my mop and made an appointment to get it chopped today during lunch.

Before: 

 

After:

 

When I said I "chopped", I wasn't exaggerating.

 

So what do you think???  Personally, I love it.

Tim McGraw Concert

Ben and I went to the Tim McGraw concert last night.

Ben gave me the tickets for Valentine's Day this year, and he got us really good seats.  This is a picture that I took before the concert started without my zoom.

The Band Perry was the first opening act.

I absolutely love their song called "If I Die Young".  After hearing it for the first time on the radio, I pulled it up on youtube and listened to it as many times in a row that it took to learn all of the words.  Needless to say, I was pretty excited about hearing it live, and they did a great job.

Kimberly Perry looked so cute in her dress and boots, too, but unfortunately, I just couldn't get over the fact that her one brother's hair looked like it came straight out of the 70's and her other brother was wearing a wool scarf.  At one point during their performance, I leaned over and told Ben that he should start wearing a scarf with his boots and jeans, but based on the look that he gave in return, I'm pretty sure that he doesn't agree.  Luke Bryan was the next opening act, and he did a great job.

I like several of his songs, and he is pretty good live, but I honestly had no idea so many women loved him so much.  I'm not sure if it was his voice or all the hip swaying that he did, but the ladies were going crazy.  Personally, I was just ready for Tim McGraw.

When it came time for Tim to come out, the Frank Erwin Center went completely dark as the music started.  After just a few seconds, it became obvious that Tim was going to appear from somewhere other than the front stage, and everyone started frantically looking around.  All of a sudden a light came on directly in front of us, and Tim started singing as the smoke surrounded him.  He was just a few yards in front of us, and it was so awesome!

 

When the lights came on, he turned around, and everyone around me went crazy!

He sang the entire first song while walking around on the small stage at the back of the Erwin Center before heading up to the front stage to finish the concert.

 

Overall, the concert was amazing!  He sounded great, and with every new song that started, I thought to myself, "Awww....I love this song."  Tim really is one of my favorite artists of all time, and I had a blast watching him perform.  At one point during the concert, he invited The Band Perry back out, and he and Kimberly sang "Can't Be Really Gone" together.  It was beautiful.

Later on during the concert, he came back to the stage right in front of us, and then invited Luke Bryan back out to join him.

They sang "Back When" together, and it was fun watching the two of them ham it up together.  They looked like they were having a blast.

One of the last songs that Tim sang was "Indian Outlaw", and it was great.

I can't even remember the last time that I heard that song, but considering the number of times I listened to both that song and "Don't Take the Girl" on cassette tape back in 4th grade, I'm pretty sure I will never forget the words to either of those songs.

Thanks again for the tickets, B.  I know that Tim doesn't make your heart throb like he does mine, but I appreciate you going with me.  It's hard to believe that it's already been almost 8 years since you first took me to see him perform, but then again, those tickets were for my 19th birthday, so I guess it has been awhile.

I love you, Tim McGraw....oh and you, too, B. ;)