Aggies BTHO Texas Tech!

Saturday the Aggies played Texas Tech .... and beat them soundly! Actually, we were very thankful for 2 fumbles in the in-zone from Tech, which helped us out a lot, but our Aggies (and especially Tannehill!) came through yesterday!

Bryan & I went with Mom and Dad, and sat in some FABULOUS seats close to the 50 yard line, 2nd deck, 23 rows up. Very nice :)

Here's the Nationally Famous Fightin' Texas Aggie Band:



Final score 45-27! (Please excuse the random person's hat and nose in this photo)



Having the Aggies win AND Tech and t.u. losing all in the same weekend really makes the world feel so right. Way to go, Ags! Whoop!

Decisions, decisions

Building a house instead of purchasing one that's already ready to move into involves LOTS of decisions. We have 21 days from the day of signing our contract to make almost every single design decision before they charge a hefty fee to change our minds about anything. This coming Thursday is our day of reckoning. (Time really does fly.)

So far we've decided on our brick, which will look like this:
(It's a deep red with black & white bricks scattered)

We also selected a very light colored stone to border around the bottom of the house, but I don't have a picture for you to see yet :( sorry.

We also decided on the color of cabinets (same in the kitchen and bathroom) but the floor tile and counter tops are different.

Here are the samples for what the kitchen will look like:
Deep green (almost black) granite for the counter tops, a warm brown for the cabinets, and then the tile for the floor.


The bathrooms will look like this:
Same color cabinets, but the counter tops are a lighter color and the tile is a little different (though it didn't make it into the picture)


In addition to the above, we also decided on:
- front door
- inside doors
- light fixtures
- flooring throughout the house (some wood, some tile, and some carpet)
- alarm systems (including smoke & carbon monoxide)
- blinds
- bathroom fixtures (shower, sinks, faucets, etc etc)
- railing for the stairs
- fireplace
- appliances in the kitchen

The list just keeps going!! Thursday evening we spent almost 4 hours at the Design Center making these decisions. They said we were actually pretty decisive compared to many couples and that they were thrilled to not have to play "marriage counselor" with us :)
Believe me, I'm glad too!

Next Thursday we go back and select the things we didn't have time for (there isn't too much left) and finalize the choices we made this past Thursday. It's pretty exciting stuff!! What's even more exciting is that once we get through this part, they start BUILDING the house - whoop!!

Info Overload

This evening was Round #1 (a.k.a. informational meeting) at the Ryland Home's Design Center for Bryan and I. As noted in the title, they gave us SOOO much information!

They walked us through this entire showroom devoted to types of counter tops (and all the colors of each type), flooring (carpet, tile, wood), bathroom pieces (sinks, shower heads, counter tops, cabinets, etc), door styles, paint colors, light fixtures, stair railings, fireplaces, etc etc etc ETC! Whew.

It's a good thing we went to the informational meeting though because tomorrow evening is our first "design appointment" where we actually meet with someone by ourselves and talk through what we want, and they help us figure it out and how it would work all together. I think at least seeing the place and realizing how many decisions we have to make tonight will help us to stay more relaxed tomorrow. Plus we were able to spend some time comparing our different ideas of how we were thinking the house would look and finding some common ground. Bryan and I very rarely argue, but I still think it will help tomorrow to have worked through a few different views!! We are determined to stay on the same side throughout this process. It's so exciting - there's no reason to make it negative!! It's a good thing I married a sweet guy :)
Although, I would like to point out so far he's been the executive with the decision process, not the wife ... just saying. :)

Completely different subject: tomorrow is my formal observation at school! If you happen to think about it, I could use a few extra prayers and angels from around 1-2pm tomorrow. I have a few crazy 5 year olds that make teaching anything sometimes very difficult. I hope I can help them have a very GOOD day tomorrow so that the lesson I'll be observed during will go better. I spent quite a while this evening prepping every little piece of it and rehearsing with Bryan. He makes a pretty good pretend 5 year old. Did I say pretend? Kidding, kidding...

Also, Bryan's job is going well so far! He's still looking for things to do, but it is starting to get busier, which is very encouraging. I'm so proud of him. Thank you for the support so many of you have been giving him!

That's it for me! I'm about to go dream of either wrought iron stair rails, tile backsplashes, bedroom carpet, counting to the number 4, or reminding my children to keep their hands and feet to themselves over and over all night. Bryan even says I've been known to say certain student's names in my sleep ... and I usually sound frustrated, haha. Hmm, I wonder which names those could POSSIBLY be?? :)

Night!

Sweet Home Springcroft!

Today was an EXTREMELY exciting day for Bryan & I because ...
we signed a contract to build a house!!
Whoa!

We've been searching a while and found a builder and a neighborhood that we really loved, it was more a question of what style, floor plan, exact location, etc.

We will be working with the builder Ryland Homes in the neighborhood at F.M. 2920 and Boudreaux Rd. called Inverness Estates. It will be a 1.5 story house (bonus room/bedroom/bathroom upstairs) - with a whopping 3,307 square feet!! I think it's quite possible that while it's just the two of us we're going to feel quite lost ... so once it's built, come and visit!

Here's the street we'll be living on:


As you drive down into the cul de sac, our house will be on the right:


Here's our lot (9023 Springcroft Ct)
We won't have any houses behind us in that big field:


Welcome to our home!!


The construction is due to start in late November/early December, and the builders anticipate completion sometime in April (depending upon weather, etc.).

This is hugely exciting for the two of us!! Expect posts of updated construction photos once it gets underway :) We're going to be home owners - Whooo hooo!!

Have a seat ladies and gentlemen

Do you remember 2 1/2 months back when we looked for chairs for an entire week to compliment the amazing table that Ronnie built for us?

Well, we finally found some at the Amish Barn in Old Town Spring & ordered them in different colors (not really certain how they were going to turn out...)

They were finally delivered today! And.... totally worth the investment!!!

Check them out:



The seat is cherry wood & the rest is oak. It matches great!!








We are SOOO happy with the way they turned out!! Mom saw them today & liked them too :)
These are a pretty big improvement on the folding chairs we've been using as far as looks go, haha. Too cool!!

School even when not in school

On Tuesday I left my 18 kiddos at Nitsch in the capable hands of a good substitute (thank goodness!) and went to Theiss Elementary to observe a FABULOUS kindergarten teacher (of 20+ years of experience - 10 at Nitsch and 10+ at Theiss).

It was actually pretty crazy. Those kids were so well behaved. The economic and physical make up of the school is basically night and day to our school, which made me a little concerned that I wouldn't learn as much as I would at a school in a (more) similar situation, but that didn't turn out to be the case at all. I really enjoyed my time with Mrs. D and learned a lot! She has also been kind enough to offer to send me some of the resources/materials that she uses in addition to meeting with me every 3 weeks or so to do some lesson planning in my struggle areas. How awesome is she? On a scale of 1-10, definitely a 15!

After school let out, I visited MeMaw & Paw Evans for a little while! I had a training in 2 hours and so I decided to stop by :) I really enjoy visiting with them!

Then I attended a D.I. (Destination Imagination) training that lasted forever... I didn't get home until after 9pm (yuck) and still had to get everything ready for today.
After a very late night last night and a looooong day today, I guess I better get back to lesson planning... have a great night!

Unspiritual Feet

First and most importantly: Bryan started his new job at Anadarko today!! He said it was a good first day, and I am so glad!! I'm still hoping that he will write about it himself so I won't say too much, but we are super happy about the way everything turned out! Yay Bryan!
(And yay duel-income!)

Second, and not very important: one of my students said one of the most sexually provocative things I've EVER heard from an elementary student - let alone a 5 year old. Oh.My.Goodness. I was actually really embarrassed myself - and then I had to call his Mom and tell her what he said - as well as the call the DAD of the girl he said it to! TERRIBLE.

And lastly, I tried NIA for the first time today at the YMCA after work! It's a mix of martial arts, yoga and aerobics (try to picture that one). Frankly, I couldn't picture it in my mind either so I wasn't really sure what to expect. However, it was a great workout! (Even if I couldn't make the spirit move my feet in dance.... I felt pretty foolish sometimes.) My thighs are super tired and I met some really nice women though - and I met my substitute for Wednesday! What kind of crazy coincidence is that?! On Wednesday I'll be doing an all day observation at another elementary school in the district, which should be pretty interesting, and hopefully informative/helpful too!
Dancing is a great workout! I'm trying ZUMBA tomorrow!! Anyone wanna come with me?? Eh?? Eh?? :)

Texans vs. Chiefs

Mom and Dad took Bryan and I to the Texans game today!! Neither of us have been to an NFL game in about a decade, so we were quite excited :) Plus, we were going to be enjoying the Anadarko suite - niiiiice!!

We arrived just in time to see the start to an amazing Military Appreciation Game, 5 soldiers parachuting onto the field while a man rocked the stadium with his voice:

The game got started and although we were coming from behind, the Texans kept fighting for a win:

Here are our hosts for the day, my wonderful parents:

Texans WIN!! 35-31

Bryan and I loved the company, food, ice cream, view, and football game!

THANK YOU GUYS! It was great!

Baby, it's 3AM and I can't stop coughing....

Can't seem to shake this awful sinus/cold/who knows what it is stuff. This morning I woke up with a horrible headache from it and was up most of the night coughing/trying to breathe. I decided to request a substitute and stay home and sleep and take a million Mucinex. My very stubborn husband is trying to make me go to the doctor.
We'll see....

September and October are just cruel months to allergy sufferers!

In other news, I went to school yesterday feeling like this and spent the entire day in parent/teacher conferences. I'm pretty sure they now all think I have the plague and I'm the reason their children keep getting sick. However, it was good to have a chance to speak with so many parents!

Make sure you get your flu shot :)

Momma turns the big 5-0!

Sunday morning we woke up bright & early again for one last fishing trip. This time Meemaw, Mom, Bryan & I were on a boat and Marissa, Grady and Grandma were on the other boat. Papaw kept the camp fire going for us :) And Dad went bow hunting.

The extra special part of Sunday? Mom turned 50! I love birthdays and this is an especially fun one. Here's Mom with the sunrise:



Who says fishing can't be a spectator sport?
Here's Meemaw keeping an eye on us (she did lots of fishing the day before):



Here's the dude fishing with the sun artistically positioned :)



I caught a 22" trout! Whoop!



And after fishing, we had lunch and cake and gifts for Mom!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!



LOVE YOU MOM!!

What a great weekend :)

Doves

After the morning fishing trip, we ate a delicious lunch, had a little siesta, and watched some Aggie football in the lodge's community room.

Then it was time for some dove hunting!
This is everyone ready to get going:

Pretty sweet ride, huh?



Dad with the lovely grandma's:



Mom & I:



Bryan's very focused:



First success:



The dove hunt was fun - especially just being around family laughing, talking and being outside with beautiful weather!

Once it started getting darker, we drove back to the lodge for dinner, drinks and even more quality family time:





I love my family!!!
And we still had ONE more fishing trip to go the next morning before we all needed to leave!

No grunt, NO FISH!

For Mom's 50th birthday we went to the Santa Cruz! The Santa Cruz is a part of the King Ranch. It's an incredible lodge, with an incredible cook, and some incredible hunting and fishing. In short: we had a blast! After I got off of work on Friday Mom, Grady, Marissa, Bryan & I drove down to meet Dad, Meemaw, Papaw & Grandma who were already there. We basically gave hugs all around and went straight to bed because we had an early start planned for Saturday.
(Oh, and we watched Meemaw finish dominating Dad at Shuffleboard, too, of course)

Check out the digs Bryan & I had!



The next morning we set out bright & early to do some bay fishing:
Check this gorgeous sunrise out!



Bryan & I before heading out:




Here's Meemaw & Papaw about to set out with Dad:



Grandma catches the first redfish!!

I didn't get many photos this morning & I don't have pictures from the other 2 boats, but we all had a GREAT time fishing!! We caught lots of trout and learned to "pop, pop, pop" to make the bait croak and then, of course, as our guide kept reminding us:
NO GRUNT, NO FISH!!!
So we did lots of grunting when we reeled them in :)
And sure enough ... it works!

Megan & Andrew Get Hitched

Last weekend Bryan & I drove nearly 6 hours to the 5 Star Ranch (north of Dallas) to watch his cousin Megan get married. The drive had pretty scenery and was pretty uneventful except for this...

We still aren't sure if this counts as a blow-out or not because usually tires explode during a blow out and ours didn't, BUT during normal flat tires you get a few moments worth of air to get to the side of the rode and we didn't. It went from having air to having NO air in the middle of a highway in the middle of absolutely no where. This wouldn't have been too bad but we were already dressed for the wedding AND when we took off the spare tire from the back of my CRV it took off back down the highway rolling until it finally fell over into a ditch (thank goodness). I chased it down and spent quite a while trying to roll it back to the car. What a mess. Thankfully it only held us up 35 minutes or so though and we were still on time without getting too dirty!

Once we arrived we parked and had a little down time so we visited with Bryan's family and finally found some seats on the hay with MeMaw & Paw and Ronnie, Celina, Alexandra & Ronnie:







It was a really sweet ceremony followed by BBQ, cake & dancing! We had a great time. I've really loved getting to know Bryan's family. We stayed the night in McKinney with a past co-worker of Bryan's, Matt and his wife Krissy. They are about a month away from having a baby boy join their family!! The nursery was adorable :)

Thanks for letting us stay with you Matt & Krissy!
Loved seeing all the Evans' out there .... and ...
BEST WISHES MEGAN & ANDREW!

Toooooo funny!

I realize this is not my usual, but when I saw this little video I just about passed out I was laughing so hard ... and in the last 3 days I've probably watched it 10 more times just because it's so stinkin' FUNNY!!

Enjoy:
http://www.break.com/index/worst-tatoo-customer-in-history

(Watch it!)