...Thanksgiving vacay...

here's the highlights:

Sunday (before Thanksgiving) - my parent had come in town to Houston, picked me up and we headed to Fredericksburg where we met Kelly. Kelly & I walked the town a lil, then had dinner with the parental units. The kind of nice thing about Fredericksburg is that all the shops close by 5 or 5:30, so there's not much to do. So we just sat around and relaxed, talked, watched TV, my dad did Sudoku, my mom & sister & I looked through some magazines...very chill!!

Monday - woke up, had breakfast at the B&B, shopped, shopped, had lunch, shopped shopped, had dinner, chilled some more...the perfect day. It was a B-E-A-Utiful day...perfect weather. Funny side note: my dad's favorite store is a jam/salsa/dressing store that has tasters set out of everything they sale. You just walk around tasting jams and salsas and all sorts of dips.

Tuesday - woke up, had breakfast at the B&B, the 4 of us headed to Temple for lunch with Katy, Brent, Brady & Blake at McAlisters. Spent the afternoon with them. Then we all headed to Waco for dinner with Kristy & Ashlyn. We were all together, except for the 2 bro's-in-law. That's 2 parents, 3 sisters, 2 nephews and a niece!!! Then the 9 of us headed to the Baylor girls basketball game!!! Super fun!! We're never all together! The kids loved it and the bears won...a great night! After the game mom, dad, Kelly, Ashlyn & I headed to Arlington.

Wednesday - shopped, hung out at Kell's, got ready for Turkey day.

Thursday - cooked, cleaned, set the table (I'm always in charge of this because I'm the baby and they never taught me how to cook...haha), Kristy & Trent drove up from Waco and joined us for Thanksgiving dinner...we had steak!!! It was all very yummy...especially the desserts (yes, plural). Played a family game of cards after dinner.

Friday - shopped, shopped, didn't buy anything, shopped, had lunch, shopped. Played with Ashlyn...my niece is wonderful!!! Sometimes she's bratty (is that a word?), but mostly she's sweet and hilarious and the more time I spend with it makes me miss her even more when I have to say goodbye!

Saturday - we celebrated Ashlyn's 5th birthday by her dad driving 3 of her little friends up to Dallas from Waco. We went to RainForest Cafe & Build-A-Bear. The kids LOVED it, it was super fun! Then we packed up and headed back to Houston.

My parents stayed with me Saturday night, came to church Sunday morn, went to lunch, then home for good.

IT was a WONDERFUL thanksgiving break. Great time with the family. I was only slightly annoyed a few times throughout the very hectic week, which is huge!

Super Duper: Craziness of Christmas parties and festivities just around the corner.
Super Pooper: Finals less than 2 weeks away :(

...sick & giving thanks...

So apparently I'm the kind of sick that refuses to go away. I guess I've been trying to fight this for over 2 weeks now. I know what you're thinking, "Go to the doctor", well I tried that. I went last Thursday, she put me on some antibiotic, and then Tuesday it flared up all over again. I think this second wave of yuckiness may be completely unrelated. What I've had the past 2 days has really felt more like allergies. My boss is so great, she insisted that I head home early. I did, and fell asleep for 2.5 hours!!! It was awesome. So I called the doctor and I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon. The goal is to kick this thing so that I can enjoy and have a fabulous Thanksgiving break.

Just for a little extra, with Thanksgiving now just one week away, I thought I'd share just a few things I'm thankful for:

• my God who is my rock, His provision, His love, His grace, His patience
• a new niece/nephew on the way
• getting to wear warm coats
• of course, the niece & nephews I already have
• pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks
• supportive parents
• sisters who care
• a whole week off for Thanksgiving & almost 2 weeks off at Christmas
• friends who listen & put up with my whining & drama
• a church who is supportive of me working & going to school at the same time
• new shoes

ok, that's all i got. I'll be out of touch til after Turkey Day, so everyone have a good one. Relax, enjoy friends & family, and tell the God of Heaven & Earth what you're thankful for!

Super Duper: Headed to Fredericksburg for a few days before Thanksgiving with mom, dad & sister!!!

Super Pooper: My sister 's family Katy, Brent, Brady & Blake aren't joining us for Thanksgiving :(

...kickin' it old school style...

To be honest with you, I don't even know where to start! Last Friday night was "Retro Prom" with the Single's Dept at my church. We were supposed to dress up like the year that we graduated from high school. Well, since I graduated just 5 years ago...that's not that exciting of a costume. Anyways, here's some pics...they pretty much tell the story!

Yeah, not sure about our expression...we're really excited about something.


This is all the girls singing and dancing to "Girls Just Want To Have Fun"...let's just say I lost my voice.


Yeah, Rob's tux was awesome. We were just being silly acting like we were falling all over him.



This is one of my faves. Michelle is one a rather quiet person, but she TOTALLY shocked all of us and came as the "goth girl"...we loved it!!



I included this pic because I wanted you to see how big my hair was. Teazed and frizzed and sprayed out as far as it would go, in every direction.



This is the end of the night. We took some crazy pics afterwards at my apartment, this is one of the more normal ones that we took.

What a night!!! One that we will remember forever! Fun times with the church peeps!

Super Duper: Did well on a test in Teaching & Administration!
Super Pooper: Did not so well on a paper in Old Testament :(

...for your viewing pleasure...

A few pics from last weekend at Baylor Homecoming!

Lainey & I at Bonfire!

Ms. Emily Belek & I at the H0mecoming parade!

My sis, Kelly, and I at the football game! Sic 'em Bears!!!

...Baylor Homecoming 2006...

Let me just start by saying that I'm exhausted!!! Homecoming was a blast, but it totally zapped me!!! I'm gonna try and just hit the bullet points:

• Common Ground with the lovely Lillian!!! A great combination! I love me some Common Grounds (it beats Starbucks and day of the week :)
• Baylor Bookstore with Brian & Elaine! Soooo good to see them!!! Elaine & I got the same cute new "Sic 'Em Bears" shirt.
• Met up with other friends at Rudy's for dinner...man, I had forgotten how yummy it is!!!
• Headed to the bonfire. It was good. Mainly just because I got to see my Emily Belek!!! And meet the man in her life!! Yeah, I'm just about the only single girl left on the face of the earth!!!
• Early Sat morning I headed to the parade (which was huge because NO ONE else in my family went this year!!!). Met up with Elaine, Brian, Leslie, Michael, Sarah, McCrady, Jen & others. I was soooo super glad I went. It's just such a fun Baylor tradition. Running into people, random "Sic 'em Bears", floats, bands, etc. Also saw tons of friends, met the man in Jae's life (I told you, I'm the only single girl left!)
• Then met up with my sister for the Baylor game. We ran by the KXA tailgate before the game and had a great time catching up with old friends!!!
• The game was soooooo hot!!! I had to get on the road so I left at the end of the 3rd quarter. Wouldn't you know that the bears decided to play in the 4th quarter and ended up winning the game! Good for them, sad for me since I left early!

All in all a great weekend to see friends and catch the Baylor Spirit. I'm a Baylor Bear at heart and proud to say it. C'mon guys, raise that hand in the air one more time....eeeeehhhhhhhhhh SIC 'EM BEARS!!!!

Super Duper: Turned in a major paper and took a mid term today!! So glad to be done with that!

Super Pooper: Not sure how good the paper was...

...the past 8 days...

It's been a crazy past week! Last Friday after work I headed to Waco for a fun weekend with family & friends.

Friday night I hung out with the loverly Lillian. We had dinner with Riley, then picked up my precious niece, Ashlyn, and met Jeff at Katy's Custard. Fun times hanging out with people you don't see very often. Ashlyn spent the night with me at Lillian's apt!! We watched "High school Musical" and popped popcorn! It was super fun! Ashlyn & Lillian got along quite well...fun times!!

Then Saturday we all woke up and headed to my nephew's, Brady (he's 4, let me remind you), soccer game! It was great fun. Every time he or anyone on his team did something good, he would look over at me and his parents and give us a huge smile and a thumbs up! He must have done it 20 times during the game...it was hilarious! I have a pic of it, I'll add it later, I promise!

The whole reason I had gone to Waco for the weekend was a friend's wedding! Riley was my +1 for the wedding. We had a fabulous time (well, at least I did, Riley wasn't feeling up to par) seeing old friends and sharing in such a momentous occasion! Afterwards Lillian decided to ride back to Houston with me just for fun!!!

Then Sunday after church, Susan (my boss), Joe (her husband), Lillian and I loaded up and headed back to Waco, dropped off Lillian, picked up Emily (their daughter) and headed to Arlington for the conference (National Preschool & Children's Convention for Ministers).

We were at the Wyndom in Arlington by the Ballpark. It was a really good conference and I learned a lot! Good to get away and meet new people. Everyone should have the opportunity to attend some kind of specific training like this for their area of expertise!

Wednesday night we were given off. I went to this amazing food expo thing with my sister, Kelly...it was INCREDIBLE!!! Then we met up with my friend Jae. We ate dinner and I hung out with her and her other friends, Whitney, Jen & Claire. It was a fun night to see old friends!

We finished up with the conference on Thursday and headed back to Houston. All in all a great week! I really missed my friends though and was ready to get back!

Super Duper: I bought a cute new purse at the gift shop of the hotel we stayed at!! It's super cute for the fall!
Super Pooper: I'm feeling sickish :( and I have to do homework for Monday :(

...a funny anecdote...

I'm not sure how many of you know, but I have actively been trying to lose weight for about 3 weeks now. Wednesday is my weigh day. I don't have a scale at home, but my good friend Will (Jr. High Associate Minister) happens to have a scale under his desk (random, I know). Anyways, I go get the scale and take it to the back warehouse so that I can weigh on concrete and in a little privacy. Well, yesterday was my 3rd time to step on the scale and see if I had lost any weight. I was SUPER excited to see that I had lost an additional 2.5 lbs!! That's a total of 6 lbs!!

So I go to put the scale back, and I start telling my lovely friends, Rebecca & Annetta, how much weight I had lost. They were excited for me, high fiving, saying "way to go!!" and I respond by saying, "yeah, i didn't expect to lose that much this week, I'm soo excited!!!"

Side note: at our office we all have cubicles, the youth offices have their own little room with 5 cubicles in it. 4 of them are open, but one is larger, with a door, a sitting area, and then a partition to go around to the head youth minister's desk area.

Back to the story. I figured that the head youth minister, Jerome, had overheard all of this hoopla about my weight loss. Jerome is usually pretty tolerant of our silliness, and gets a kick out of it. So I say, "Jerome, I know you're sitting back there (since I couldn't see him) celebrating with me in my weight loss. Really, it's okay. You can let it out!"

Well then a voice (that clearly isn't Jerome's) responds by saying, "Jerome isn't back here. This is the IT guy." Okay, so it's bad enough that this guy heard me gushing about my recent weight loss. But what I haven't told you is this guy, Richard, is young, cute & single. Yeah, Rebecca and I have been gushing for a few weeks now about how he secretly wants me!! So now, imagine how mortified I was that he was sitting back there as I was making a huge deal about losing 6 lbs!! I looked at Rebecca, mortified!!! It actually was hilarious, but we couldn't laugh, because then he would hear us!!!

Oh, good times in the office!!!

Super Duper: Headed to Waco for a fun, quick weekend!

Super Pooper: Homecoming plans with the family are frustrating me!!! Too many people with different agendas!