Major Catch-Up / Life Lately

Hey guys, remember me? I used to blog consistently over here, but now that my baby is over a whole year old, she is into literally everything, and it's tough to get enough time to shower and eat, let alone blog.

I soooo miss this space and the fellowship with my blog friends, though. I want to try to be better. No promises. No guarantees. But I'm going to try. Even if it's just one post a week... that's still better than none, right?

I am thankful that I am friends with so many blog friends on Facebook (or at least follow on Instagram) - it makes it a bit easier to stay caught up with everyone!

Waaaaay back in September, Annabelle turned one. For her birthday, Dan and I decided that we weren't going to buy her a gift since she doesn't need anything... so we decided to start the gifting of experiences tradition with her. We decided that her first trip to the zoo was in order, so that's what we did! Living two hours to the closest zoo makes it tough to go all the time like some of my friends and their kiddos do, but we had a fun little weekend trip to Dallas, and she LOVED the zoo. (She has since been to the St. Louis Zoo and the Tulsa Zoo as well! She's a zoo-hopper, I guess! We created a monster... she is hooked on them!)

Annabelle and I drove up to Kansas City at the end of September because I was a bridesmaid in one of my best friend's wedding. Little Annie got to spend a couple nights with her Grammy and Great Meme while I was busy with wedding festivities. They fed her lots of ice cream, and she had a blast. She's now looking forward to seeing them again TODAY!!! (for the first time in seven weeks! Woo!) 

We did find out that she's a chips and salsa junkie just like her mama... see below. :) 

While I was in already in Kansas City, Annabelle and I drove across the stat to St. Louis to see another one of my best friends, Michelle! We had to meet little Huxley, who was born in July. We had a blast catching up in person rather than via Skype, and we took the kids to the zoo (and to eat food... lots of food!) It was so great seeing so many friends during my trip to Missouri... but I was SO glad when we made it back to Texas. There's just nothing like your own bed, right?! 

Phew! That was a lot all at once... sorry! It feels great to be sharing again, though! :)

(Since I'm still WAY behind, I have a few more catch-up posts coming before I'm back to normal... sorry in advance!)

Spring Break 2013

One of the things I enjoy (among many) about being a teacher? School breaks! I thoroughly enjoyed having a week away from school/work, but I am ready to be back tomorrow. I feel rejuvenated, and I'm ready to tackle the last quarter of the school-year! Spring break was adventurous, though, so I'm going to recap through pictures.

1. I started spring break by enjoying an ice cream party with my colleagues and students! Our hardworking 8th graders deserved that little party for working so hard and behaving to their best abilities during testing. They asked me specifically to bring ants on a log (for an ice cream party... I know...) so I did! I also took homemade chocolate chip cookies, though -- don't worry!

2. Dan and I spent that Friday evening enjoying free Panera and then just hanging out. We hadn't spent time with each other in nearly three weeks (aside from a few hours one Sunday), so it was really nice to just get back into the rhythm of being a couple! We also bought all of our seeds for gardening this year, and I found my all-time favorite soda (and I don't drink much at all) at Ace Hardware of all places... On Saturday, we cleaned my entire house and ran several errands... and went to church/dinner! I took a selfie picture when I was bored in the middle of cleaning, and then Dan lounged with his favorite cat (Stormy) on the couch when we were all finished! 

3. On sunday morning, we woke up at 6:30 and set out for Glenwood Springs. It was a place we had always wanted to visit, so the road trip was totally worth it! We crossed it off of our Colorado bucket-list. I got to meet up with a friend, and Dan and I checked out the hot springs for a few hours. It was a lot of fun, and the drive was BEAUTIFUL! Oh, and did I mention that I found an ice cream cupcake at a gas station at 7:30 in the morning while it was snowing? This crazy girl could never pass that up, and it was delicious! We checked out a local brewery, and they had a reuben made out of tempeh that I ordered. It was SO good, and it was nice to have that taste again after nearly five years meat free. 

4. On Monday morning, we headed back East to Copper Mountain. We stayed in a hotel in Silverthorne, and we spent two days at Copper Mountain skiing and then one day at Winter Park skiing. It was tiring because I am no good at skiing, but spending time with my sweet fiancé is totally worth the pain/struggle. We also met up with a friend and his family at their condo in the mountains, and that was really nice. Dan and I drove to Breckenridge one evening to go shopping, and I was SHOCKED to find TWO ITEMS with my name on them! I have NEVER found anything in a store with my name, much less spelled correctly! I *ALMOST* bought one of them just because, but I decided I didn't need them. Wednesday morning, we found a few inches of fresh snow on our car when we headed out, and that was also a nice, fun surprise! :)

5. On Wednesday, we headed to Denver International Airport to pick up my mom on our way home from skiing. I somehow managed to take ZERO pictures while she was here (except at the Wolf Sanctuary, but I will make a separate post about that excursion soon), so I don't have too much to show. We went to Heart of Jerusalem, though, as always, and I took my mom to a couple places she had never been as well (Jack Quinn's and Jose Muldoon's). We also made homemade broccoli cheese soup, beer bread, and brownies one evening (recipe for the soup coming soon), and we spent some time at Garden of the Gods. We didn't do too much, but it was nice having my mom in town for a few days. She got to experience Dan furminating both cats (and you will see just how much they LOVE that process), and after she left, we started our seedlings in cups so they can get a nice start before we transplant them to the garden beds outside after Colorado decides to stop freezing randomly. For Easter, Dan woke me up at 6:00 to go to the Sunrise Service at our church at 7:00 (which was held outside and FREEZING cold, might I add), but then we had a productive morning afterward while we waited for Dan's sponsor family (Mike and Ellen) to come over for lunch. We had a great time talking to them and grilling out in what felt like EXTREME HEAT after this morning, and yes, I do have a sunburn from eating outside. Oops. 

Spring break was pretty busy, but it was so nice to finally spend some time with Dan again! Sometimes I feel like we're still in a long distance relationship despite the fact that we live 15 miles from each other. It's an odd feeling for sure.