Texas Country Weekend

I just found this post in my queue. I wrote it out, then planned on adding pics, so I never posted it. The pics are on FB, and I think everyone who reads my blog is also my friend on facebook, so I thought I'd go ahead and just post it. :) Even though it's a bit old, enjoy the weekend recap...

This weekend we went to visit Zac's best friend JT, whom I also happen to consider a great friend. He comes to see us all the time, and we'd never been out to see him, so it was time to pack up and go! J lives in Graham, but a few hours after we arrived on Friday, we left for Wichita Falls. We went to Target and Academy, so J could get some things (and what do you know...I ended up buying stuff at both stores too! ha!), then we met a college friend for dinner. Guy is married to a Kara, who is so sweet and pretty. I really enjoyed meeting her, and their precious 4-month old son, Easton. After dinner, we wasted some time at a bookstore (infested with teen couples who could not keep their hands off of each other...ew), then went to The Iron Horse Pub, to see JT's little brother and his band Brazos Stone. Zac has seen them perform, but I'd only seen Brady (J's brother, the lead singer) and Bridget, the fiddle player, do an acoustic set for a radio station here in the metroplex. Zac had told me that Brady had a lot of showmanship, and he was so right! I would not normally consider myself a fan of Texas Country, but I absolutely loved the show! They have a big following out west, and up north, but are breaking into the metroplex scene too (they had a show in Fort Worth on Sunday), so hopefully we will get to see Brazos Stone again soon!
Saturday morning we woke up and decided not to go to the lake. JT was cut by the blade on the boat motor the Saturday before. It cut his shin to the bone, and he had to get 8 stitches. Anyways,when we arrived Friday, I could tell it was infected. So Saturday morning we took him to the Graham hospital to get it taken care of. They put him on two different antibiotics, and suggested not swimming in the lake. No biggie. Zac and I hadn't seen J's mom in a long time, so we decided to head to Throckmorton, J's hometown. After visiting with the family for awhile, we went to his aunt's home to swim in her nice pool. Molly especially loved it! That night we drove back to Graham and ate out for dinner. We were pretty tired that evening, so we just stayed home and watched the movie Salt. It's fun to have old friends where you are able to have a quiet night in, and not worry about dressing up and hitting the town. It was a wonderful weekend! Thanks for your hospitality J! We are BOTH lucky to have such a great friend in you! :)

And just for fun, when we got home, I calculated all the driving we did over the weekend, and according to google maps, it was 432 miles, and 8.5 hours.

Hot Fun in the Summer Time...

Madeline's school goes to two week sessions in the summer (as opposed to one month). This is cool because Liz takes her out of one session each summer and she gets to spend time with my parents (her Grandma and Pappy) and us! I remember being a kid and spending time without our parents at our grandparents and aunt&uncle's houses! Liz and I were talking about this recently and agreed that some of our favorite childhood memories happened in these magical weeks when we were independent from our parents, and got to need and bond with other family members. Zac and I look forward to this week with Madeline to ourselves so much and plan fun activities for her, so she can develop the unforgettable type of memories that I cherish. I think our time with her this year was even better than last. She is such a SMART and FUNNY girl, as well as caring and kind. I'm so proud to be her aunt. Anyways, here's what we did this year:
Sunday we met my parents for dinner in Waco to make the exchange. We ate at Texas Roadhouse and Madeline was instantly very affectionate towards us.
Sunday-met for dinner in Waco, drove home, went to the park, raced home

Monday-made Mosaics, went to Top Golf (a fancy schmancy and much more fun driving range)




Tuesday-had a playdate with a friend and her kids, drove to McKinney to see the Enrights and Falcos


Wednesday-had lunch with my coworkers for lunch, went swimming at a friend's pool, saw Toy Story 3

Thursday-went to the park (twice!), made cupcakes, and drove to Austin
Friday-lunch with Baw and Eli, then bowling with Eliza and Tatem and Scott, then headed out to Breck's lakehouse, where Liz and Andy and Owen were reunited with their favorite girl! :)


Phew...see how fun and action packed it was? Not to mention all the amazing memories we made (and memorable quotes we got) just hanging around the house in between all the activities!

What a weekend!

I went to Austin this weekend for the State Track meet. Since Zac is applying for assistant principal jobs, this could realistically be his last event as a coach. He had two kids make it to state, both pole vaulters. Neither did their true best, but the boy did win second. (The part that stinks is that earlier this season he vaulted 15'9" and the kid who won first at state won with a vault of 15 feet!) Anyways, no gold medals, but it was still an awesome experience for MHS track. Zac was very sad not to have his awesome distance runner there though. Last year she won the mile and two mile, but an injury kept her from competing this year. Zac kept saying "it feels so weird to be here without Carly!"


One of the other coaches drove the kids back to Midlo, so Zac got to stay in Austin with me and spend time with our families, which I have to say was my favorite part! :) We stayed with my folks and had some quality time with them, and then Sunday we met Baw and Aunt Nancy and my cousin Amy for lunch at Jason's Deli. (YUM!) Saturday afternoon we went to Eli and Ryan's new condo downtown. It is so amazing and has great views of the city. One of the coolest things is that the gym where Eli works is in the same building, so that is super convenient for him! That night we met Zac's family for dinner at Mesa Rosa to celebrate mother's day. After dinner we went to a park and just watched Ellie play (okay, we played a lot too!) until the sun went down. Fun times!
Woah...who even knew that merry-go-rounds could go that fast? It was borderline painful...yet so fun too, haha!
brothers :)
Eliza's fan club! All the Oldham's (plus Andy, Tatem's high school BFF) watching Ellie play...
the cutie pie...
I love that little girl! She had a fever and was still such a champ all through dinner and the park!
Eli and Rye's new condo. Their stuff isn't really moved in yet, but it is sooo nice!
When we went to Jason's Deli to eat lunch, we saw Matt and Tara and three week old baby Magnolia walking in to Sprouts! It was such an awesome run in! Maggie Mae is so tiny and perfect! It was great to see them, even if just for ten minutes! :)

PS-I blogged two separate posts back to back on the same day, so make sure you look at both of them...if you want. Just scroll down to hear about our weekend in Katy and Cinco de Mustache:)

MAY I tell you about this month? :)

Wow, it's been too long since I blogged about something fun in my life. This month has already been action-packed! We got to go to Katy to see Madeline's very first dance recital, which was about the most cuteness I can possibly stand without exploding. I even teared up a bit...that's how precious it was! :) I taught her some fun poses on the way...
the pout
the kiss
this is her blowing the kiss.
Madeline and one of her friends after the show. Hadley bought Madeline flowers. Precious!
After pics and hugs and lots more pics, we went to BR31 (some call it Baskin-Robins) to celebrate. Madeline chose a neon blue and pink ice cream, which was "cotton candy."
Owen is still as perfect as ever, and growing much bigger. He smiles often and gets lots of attention. Molly thinks his face tastes delish! :)
On the way home from Katy, we met Ramsi and Bez in Bryan to look at puppies! Ramsi's been wanting a Sheltie since I met her and Zac found this litter listed online. We got to help them pick her out. Ladies and gentlemen...meet... Worley! :)
Friday, May 7th I had to take my state Special Ed test (which I found out later I PASSED!) and then was the second annual Cinco de Mustache party. There weren't as many mustaches this year, but the fun was multiplied. I played flip cup for the first time and turns out I'm not very good at it, but it was lots of fun. There was also a pinata, silly girlfriends, and yummy food catered by Nicole's dad, who is a chef in Dallas! Obviously it was an AWESOME night!Unlike a lot of our PO5(ish) events, the boys were invited this time. In fact, Zac and I rode to the fiesta with Ramsi and Bez and Cody and Rheanna.
So yeah, I was awful at the pinata, but I still got some candy...off the kitchen counter!
For some reason we spent a lot of time in the bathroom. Nicole has a gorgeous shower, and it only seemed appropriate to take a weird picture in it...

See? I told you the bathroom was like the cool place to go! Rhe-T and I even took this pic with a sign that SAYS bathroom, just to prove it!Molly and Worley are quickly becoming besties, just like Me and Ram. Aww...two generations of BFF's...how sweet! :)

In a few weeks I turn 26! OMG!! :)

La Musica de Zumba

I think I've mentioned that I'm doing Zumba. I love it. I'm lifting weights twice a week and doing Zumba (cardio and muscle toning) three times a week. I've been doing it consistently over a month now and I love it. I look forward to it, and love the way I feel afterwords. One of my favorite parts of Zumba is the fun music. We all know I love Spanish and all types of music, so it's so fun to be exposed to new songs and also to dance to songs I already know. Here are a few of my faves...
This is our cool down song. If you are only going to listen to one song, click on this one. It's so pretty. Since it's the last song I hear it gets stuck in my head and I drive home singing it and then sing it some more in the shower.

This is a really fun poppy song with a club sound to it.

This is more of a rap sound, and is also my fave song choreographically speaking! :)
OMG...when I just searched on YouTube, I found someone doing the actual dance we do. This is the exact way my class does it too. Doesn't it look FUN!? Can you see how an hour of non-stop dancing like this could be a hard-core workout?

Slow Motion

Work has been pretty exhausting lately due to the fact that lots of my students have horrid home lives, which eats me up. I think about them 24/7 and haven't even been sleeping well lately because I feel so burdened with all this. It's just not fair, and the worst part is that the system is faulty, so even when the correct people are notified, nothing changes. It's tragic. We just love on them as much as we can while they are with us, and then pray for them when they get on that bus in the afternoon. It's heart breaking. Needless to say, I am so pumped for Spring Break and I'm ready for the fun and stress-free activities. We aren't doing anything near as cool as we did last year, but we do have some good local stuff planned...
Saturday-going out to eat and downtown (Ft. Worth) with a big group of friends. FUN!!!
Sunday-headed to Ray Roberts Lake State Park to meet my cousins and Uncle for a day of nature and relaxing.
Zac has track practice each morning Monday-Wednesday, but I plan on sleeping late! ;)
Tuesday night we are taking the distance runners (the athletes Zac coaches) out to eat and to bowl. It will be lots of fun and the kids have already been asking about it.
Thursday night Liz, Andy, Madeline and Owen will arrive to stay for the weekend. We are going to hang out and have fun around here Friday, and then Saturday the McKinney cousins and their families are coming down for the day. Yay!
Anyways, doesn't sound like much, but I know the week will FLY by!!

¡Vamos a España!

It's official! We're going to Spain! After lots of discussion, a few disagreements, online research, mind-changing, some stress, and lots of excitement, we have booked our airline tickets to Spain!! I will spare you all the boring details, but it was quite a hassle, and I was starting to think we weren't meant to take this trip. But I just got off the phone with Iberian Airlines and we are GOOD TO GO! I already received the confirmation email and all of our reservation info!!
We are leaving Tuesday, June 8th and return Wednesday, June 16th. We are flying roundtrip to and from Granada, although we make stops in Madrid coming and going. I'm not sure we will have time to leave the airport, but at least we'll get to see the city from the plane! :)
I wish we could go all over Spain, but after lots of talk (and more and more talk) we decided we just don't have the money and flexibility to do that, so we are focusing on Southern Spain. Andalucia, Seville, Cordoba, Malaga, etc. Zac and I are a great team because I am the dreamer who wants to be gone all summer and would spend every penny we have and then some, and Zac is the realist who is good about budgeting and being smart about things. We balance each other out. This is the first major trip we've planned together, and I will say it is somewhat stressful and includes alot of sacrifice. For example, I've always wanted to go to a bullfight, and although Zac has no personal desire to, he will because I want to. On the flipside, I'm not much of a beach person, but Zac wants to spend a day on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and I'm fine with that. This is an experience for both of us, so we want to make sure we each get out of it what we want, and get to do it with our best friend the whole time. :) Cheesy, I know, but it's true!
It is going to be such a fun trip, I'm so excited I could squeal. My fingers are doing little dances right now, as my brain is trying to tell them to type! Yay...it's really and finally happening!!! :)

kind of a deep post

This morning we headed to McKinney (an hour away) to go to church with my cousins, and have lunch with them. I had been to their church a few times, but Zac never had. We have had a hard time finding a church that we like because we both prefer a traditional service (choir, organ, hymnals) as compared to a praise style, but we want an open-minded congregation and pastor. We were both raised Methodist, but all the Methodist churches we've tried close to home are either a praise style service or the congregation is filled with all old people and we didn't quite fit in. Anyways, I've loved Ellen and Amy's church the times I've gone, so I wanted Zac to go. It was a great service today. I enjoyed what he preached about while I was there, but the more it marinates within me, the more I like it. He was talking about Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness and being constantly tempted by Satan. (This was also a pep talk for me about resisting temptation, since I gave up Dr. Pepper for Lent and have been miserable and having headaches and wanting to give in, but I haven't.) Anyways, at one point in the scripture the devil quotes the bible. The preacher said "there are many 'bible quoting devils' today, who take scripture and twist it how they want to, and pray on the most vulnerable groups." I think that is so true and it was so cool to hear a minister say so. Living in an extremely conservative town, it is hard to hear people say "I'm a republican because I'm a Christian." What are you trying to say about me...that I'm not a good Christian because I don't consider myself a Republican? It's frustrating to me. You can be a Christian and still have different political opinions. The main thing that bothers me I think, is that people use being a Christian as an excuse for being close-minded. I think the whole point of Christianity is to LOVE your neighbor, even if the neighbor is not exactly like you, and even if they make different choices, and even if they choose a different lifestyle or religion. It is not our job to judge and it's not our job to try to use the bible to condemn a certain group, just because we don't agree with them. This is getting kind of heavy, and I meant to just talk about how much I loved their church. We really wish it was not an hour away, or we would join for sure! We are still going to try to visit as often as possible though. Anyhow, after lunch we all went to eat at Jason's Deli...yum! It was so good to see my family and chat about work and life and the kids and sports and everything else we always blab about. :) When we got home from McKinney we took a long nap and then took Molly to a local park since it was such a gorgeous day. We'd never been to this one, and ended up walking around for abut an hour and a half. Molser loved it.

Sometimes, no plans are the BEST plans!

Yesterday was pretty much the perfect day. I had absolutely no plans when I went to bed Friday night, but here is how Saturday unfolded. I slept late, and then woke up to a bouquet of flowers from Zac. For now reason at all...wasn't that sweet? We relaxed around the house a bit and then decided to go to lunch. I had been given a card for a free meal at Chick-Fil-A (which I LOVE), so we went there. Yum! After lunch we went shopping to kill some time before a movie. We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to walk around and look. Our local outdoor shopping center put up their Christmas decorations, and it was a gorgeous day, so all this combined made me so very happy. Everyone we passed was in a great mood, and everything just felt right with the world. Plus, we got to go inside Barnes and Noble and if I could bottle the smell of that place, I would! I love it! I have talked about it before, but Zac and I can spend hours in a bookstore, some of it together, and some on are own, but we are both completely content. Next thing we knew, it was time to head to the theater for one of the greatest movies I have seen in ages...The Blind Side! I posted a trailer for it awhile back and have been anxiously awaiting to see it, so I had pretty high hopes, but it surpassed even how amazing I thought it would be! Zac even loved it, and he is quite the movie critic! If you have not seen this movie, I highly recommend it! I can not say enough good things about it! (Liz, you and Andy should go on at least one more date before Owen comes and see this! You will both love it! I promise!) Another cool thing about the movie is that the little boy in it (who pretty much makes the movie!) is the nephew of one of our close friends. He was also in Hancock, and even played in Friday Night Lights! He was great!
When we came home we took a little nap and watched some tv. Awesome right? The day couldn't get any better, but then Ramsi texted and asked if we wanted to hang out tonight. Yay!
They came and picked us up around 7, and we took a few pics before leaving the house. I LOVED Ramsi's hair that night! Isn't it gorgeous? I wish mine was long again...and I knew how to do that!


We decided to eat at Papasito's which we LOVE but rarely go to. It is Zac's number one favorite Mexican food restaurant! We were pretty excited to be there...


They have the best chicken fajitas, and it comes with this garlic butter sauce. Yum...it's truly heavenly! After dinner we weren't sure what we were going to do. As we were driving, we saw the new Cowboys Stadium and decided to drive closer to look around. Zac knew there was a high school playoff game going on there, but it had already started and we didn't really wanna pay a million dollars just to watch a game we didn't care about. (Our waiter told us at dinner that parking on game day is $60-70 bucks! Isn't that insane?) Anyways, so we start getting closer, and then we see an entrance with no parking attendant taking money. Huh. We pulled in and were just driving a bit, looking up at the massiveness, when "LOOK! There's a FRONT ROW parking spot!...FREE!" So we pulled in to walk around a bit and see the Tom Landry statue. Then Zac remembers that he has a "Texas High School Coaches Association" pass that might get us into the game free. What the heck, we'll try it. So we all walk in, and VOILA! We are in the fancy-schmancy stadium COMPLETELY FREE! In fact, we were kinda/sorta treated like VIP when we walked in, or else the people there are just the friendliest in the world. One of the two. :) Anyways, we walk in and jeeze...this place is incredible! We had to take a pic immediately.

The JUMBO-tron is literally the biggest thing you've ever seen! Well, I don't know, but it's HUGE! It is the biggest in the world! (Click here for more interesting trivia about it, like the fact it took over a year to build, Oh...and guess how much it cost?!) It is so high-def that it almost hurts your eyes to look at it, because it's so crystal-clear!
Some guys that coach with Zac were there, so we went and sat with them for awhile. (Yeah, they paid to park...far away, but we didn't rub it in or anything!)

Since we didn't really plan to sit at a football game all night, we decided to leave after just a bit. We had already gotten the experience of the stadium (free). Did I mention that parts of it felt more like a 5-Star hotel than a sports venue? Check out this lighting and marble flooring and leather lounges. It really was gorgeous. The building itself is like a piece of art!

When we left the stadium, the party was not even over yet. I mean, look at how much fun I had on the way back to Midlo!! :) Yep...I do know that I'm a complete dork! But My best friend Ramsi always says that it's fun to be a nerd, and I have to agree! Also, it's way more fun to be a teenager than an adult! See below for proof...

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