Sewing
I broke three sewing needles making Kara’s birthday present. Three. Feel special, Kara. Very special. :-)
I can’t wait to post pictures about this project. I have to wait until she opens it, though!!
Read MoreDisciple Now T-Shirts
My old youth pastor, Chris, called me a couple months ago to ask if I wanted to be a teacher for his church’s Disciple Now. I was SO excited that he called, and I happily agreed to do it.
The overall theme for this year is medieval, and we will be discussing chivalry, relationships, love, dating, etc. I am teaching the senior girls group, and our color is blue, so I made shirts for myself for the weekend!
The first shirt is just for fun. I found an example of a shirt that I liked, and I edited it to my liking. This is the dragon shirt for the first night:
Front of the Dragon Shirt
Back of the Dragon Shirt
Dragon Detail
Isn’t the dragon cute!? I love how it turned out! I used freezer-paper stenciling for both of these shirts. You draw or trace a design on to freezer (butcher) paper, cut that out with an exacto-knife, and then you can iron the wax side on to the shirt. After painting on to the stencil and letting it dry for a little bit, you can peel the freezer paper off. I added all of the detail with a little paintbrush. I think the hardest part was cutting out the medieval font for the dragon shirt. The detail was a pain, but it was worth it for how it turned out! :-)
The other shirt goes more with the actual theme of the weekend. This one I came up with totally on my own. It’s the Shining Armor shirt:
Front of Shining Armor Shirt
Back of Shining Armor Shirt
Detail on the Shining Armor Picture
I am most happy with the way the knight’s helmet turned out on this particular shirt. I also love the color change in the plume (is that the right word?) on the top of the helmet. I like the details on it. David likes the shine around “Shining” on the front of the shirt.
What do you think??
Read MoreFive Years
Yes, this post is coming almost a month late, but better late than never, right?
David and I agree that it absolutely does NOT seem like five years ago when we were here:
Our Wedding Day
And now we are here:
Our Fifth Anniversary Date
Though I prefer these pictures of “here”:
One Big Happy Family - (Other than a cold Cooper!)
Fifth Married Christmas
We had a much better photographer in these pictures. :-) If only Cooper had been happier in the snow! lol
Our fifth anniversary was a lot of fun! The only thing I requested was that I wanted to be surprised for dinner. I didn’t want to go through the, “So what do YOU want for dinner? I don’t care. What do YOU want for dinner?” routine. David was awesome! He planned it all out himself and wouldn’t say anything about it until we pulled into the parking lot except “make sure you’re hungry tonight!” He took me to an amazing Brazilian steakhouse that cooked more meat than you could ever try. Then we went to an Italian gelato place for dessert, which was (as always) divine.
Afterwards, we loaded up on as much caffeine as we could manage and drove ourselves to the youth lock-in at church. The parents in charge of the youth group told David, “Oh come on – it’s just an anniversary! You’ll have another one next year!” in an attempt to convince him he should come. Good thing they were joking. :-) In all reality, we both enjoyed serving together, and I LOVED playing games with all of the students. We have an awesome group of people at our church.
In honor of five years together, I thought I would list at least one major event per year of our marriage:
- Year 1 – We got married!! :-) (duh)
- Year 2 – I graduated with my bachelor’s degree, we made the (what was for me) HUGE move to Lubbock, we started graduate school, and I changed churches for basically the first time ever. That was a life-changing year.
- Year 3 – We made an addition to our family by getting Cooper. I just love our dog.
- Year 4 – We graduated and stopped torturing ourselves with grad school! lol We also made the even larger move to San Antonio, and David found a great job.
- Year 5 – We found our new church home that we both love, made amazing friends in our new home, and have really settled in here. I started my own business and then found a teaching position where I am blessed with a great administration that backs me up 100%.
It’s amazing how many things have happened in just five years. I love that I have a husband who I can count on every minute of every day. I love that we support each other, love each other, and continue to learn from one another on a daily basis. He’s one of the funniest, smartest, and funnest people I know, and I am so blessed to be his wife.
I can’t wait for the decades we have in front of us. I love you, Honey-Bunch. :-)
He's Amusing 
Niiiiiice
"I feel pretty, oh so pretty!"
Asking for a kiss?
It looks like I'm in pain...
We have a blast together!
Rejected!
He's my best friend in the world.
Blood-Letting
It’s been forever since I have been able to give blood. I can remember going with Mom and Dad when they gave blood for years before I was of age to be able to. It was just a month or two after I was finally of age to give blood that I finally did.
I have never ever EVER liked needles or blood. Blech. However, I’ve always felt like this is one way I can help the people around me, so I have tried to go often. One cool thing is that I am a pedi donor, which means I have a certain thing in my blood that allows my blood to go to babies. Cool, right?
One thing I’ve thoroughly enjoyed since beginning this is that it’s become something Mom and I do together. We used to go grab something to eat, hang out for a while, and then “race” to see who could finish giving blood first (as if we can affect it). It’s been a long time since we have gotten to do this, and we finally got to while I was home for Christmas!
All Prepped Up
David, Mom, and I headed to the blood center early last week. Mom was able to get all prepped first. She’s always so calm!
Enjoying Herself Much?
I’m glad I got these pictures when I did. This was one of the hardest times I’ve had with giving blood. Ugh. There has only been one time that I have passed out, and I got really close this time around. (For the record, the only time I ever beat Mom in finishing giving blood was the same time that I passed out. Lovely.) Luckily, Mom was wise enough to realize I should warn the nurses. Even though David was prepped and stuck well after I was, he beat me! What?!? I kept asking Mom and the nurses if I was done yet because I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. I’m just glad I didn’t pass out in the middle of the whole thing.
Even with all the trouble, I can’t wait to go again with you, Mom. I love that we do this together!
Read MoreSymmetry
Remember this post about nutria? Some of our best conversations (or at least the funniest) happen in the kitchen. We had another short one the other day.
Important background information: I like love symmetry. I love it when pictures line up just right. When my hair looks balanced. When everything just feels straight. This does not mean there isn’t a place for asymmetry. For example, in photography, you actually want asymmetry. The reason for that boils down to mathematical principles, though, which suits me just fine. :-)
Other important background information: The day before this short conversation occurred, I had seriously whacked my left elbow on the car door. It was bad enough to make me nauseous. You know that funny bone? I can’t figure out why God decided that was amusing enough to include in our skeletal system…
Enough background information. Now for the conversation:
*I slam my right elbow into the corner of a cabinet HARD, bounce around the kitchen yelping, and try not to cry.* (For the record – David kissed my elbow to make it all better!) :-)
Me: Good gracious, that hurt!
David: You need to be careful with yourself!
Me: It’s not like I mean to do these things… At least I’m symmetric now. Both elbows will be equally bruised.
*seriously long pause where David looks very concerned*
David: Please never accidentally cut one of your legs off.
Read MoreSpace Heater
Well, it’s official: we finally got to put extra blankets on our bed. It’s finally cooling down in this part of the state! Granted, it’s not freezing yet, but the lows at night have been dipping down to the 30s and 40s! The highs during the day are still touching the lower-end of 70s, but I’m just glad it’s finally cool enough to need a jacket from time to time.
David cracked me up. He’s actually the reason we needed the extra blankets. He was perfectly fine until I had to get up to teach yesterday morning. Then, he sat shivering in bed until it was time for him to get up. His personal space heater (as he called me) was no longer present. That was the moment of declaration that it was time for extra blankets.
That’s right: personal space heater. Not best cook, best teacher, or sweetest wife. Best space heater.
At least he’ll keep me around to keep his toes warm. :-)
Read MoreThanksgiving
Poem taken from www.mamarocks.com. I thought it described yesterday to a T. :-)
I Ate Too Much
I ate too much turkey,
I ate too much corn,
I ate too much pudding and pie,
I’m stuffed up with muffins
and much too much stuffin’,
I’m probably going to die.
I piled up my plate
and I ate and I ate,
but I wish I had known when to stop,
for I’m so crammed with yams,
sauces, gravies, and jams
that my buttons are starting to pop.
I’m full of tomatoes
and french fried potatoes,
my stomach is swollen and sore,
but there’s still some dessert,
so I guess it won’t hurt
if I eat just a little bit more.
~ Jack Prelutsky ~
Read MoreFlickr Photostream
