Silly Kitty

Last week sometime Lonestar decided he wanted to play in the sink.  Well, he got his claw stuck in the drain plug, and the picture is too funny to not share.  Look at his face... All he wants is this drain plug off his claw.  Maybe he learned his lesson.  Doubt it though.



Christmas Tree

It is our tradition to put up our Christmas tree and Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving while we're out for school.  In the past we have put them up the Saturday after Thanksgiving; however, this year we were too tired after traveling with the camper so we waited until today to do it.  We love our house with all the Christmas  decorations!!  As Andy said, it makes our home "cozy," which really means everything gets squished in the small space we have.  But really it is cozy and it's ours.


It may not look like much, but Andy
is an excellent packer.

Andy always puts the star on.
It's a dangerous job! lol

The white fence keeps Maddie Mae out!

 

This year we are going to trust Lonestar to not climb up the tree.  The first year we had a Christmas tree, we came home to a gaping hole in the tree where Lonestar had perched throughout the day to relax.  And then another time, we actually found him in the tree just chillin' like it was his second home.

Our tree looks so much better now...
I didn't realize how few ornaments we had.
This was our first "official" Christmas though.

Crazy Cat!

Thanksgiving Break

Andy and I spent our Thanksgiving Break camping in San Marcos this year, and we invited his parents to camp with us.  Sometimes I think if it weren't for us, they would never use their camper.  (lol)  The drive was pretty long, especially since we stop to take breaks.  But I believe part of camping is the drive to campground, so we try to make it fun and just take our time.  Once Maddie settled down, the trip was much more bearable.  As you can see below, she found comfort in sleeping on Andy.

On Thanksgiving day we drove to Shiner to celebrate with my family.  Unfortunately my brother was with his girlfriend's family, but we definitely enjoyed the company of my mom, step-dad, grandparents, and my mom/step-dad's foreign exchange student Jaime.  We ate an absolutely scrumptious meal of turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, mashed potatoes, pecan pie, chocolate sheet cake, banana pudding and much more.  My mom is an incredible cook!  Andy's mom had never been to Shiner and his dad had been only once a long time ago.  So he gave them a tour of my little but famous hometown.  I think the Green Dickson Park was their favorite.  Actually when I moved from Shiner to College Station and now to Cleveland/Tarkington, I didn't realize that some towns didn't have nice parks like the one in Shiner and the several in College Station.  Supposedly Cleveland is in the process of building a park, so we'll see if we're here long enough to see it.

My mom and I

My mom, me, and Jaime

My mom, me, and Andy's mom

This was the second or third picture
and he was ready to be done.  Still cute!

On Friday I finished making my Christmas cards.  Well, I made only 20 and the rest are store bought cards.  I still need to address them and get stamps.  I hope to get them done sometime this week and for sure next weekend.  You can't go to San Marcos without shopping at the Outlet Mall.  Andy's mom and I decided to wait until later in the afternoon to do some Black Friday shopping.  I had a pretty successful trip.  I didn't do any Christmas shopping, just shopping for anything that I liked or Andy would like.  I spent about $150 and got TONS of stuff for us.  Definitely like the Outlet Mall!

On our way to do a little shopping!

We were going to put up the Christmas tree and decorations tonight, but we decided to watch the A&M football game instead.  And of course, I'm blogging too. :)  The goal tomorrow is to get the tree up.  I love it when our house is decorated for Christmas!

Instagram

I recently discovered Instagram and InstaCollage.  Love them!  I have always seen my friends on Facebook add photos from Instagram, and I finally tried it myself.  Here are a few...  Yes, I'm a little addicted...

 

 

 

 

 

Fishing Trip

Andy went on another fishing trip this weekend.  This time not in his kayak.  He and his dad actually went on a guided trip.  They had a blast!!  They left about 4:30 this morning and didn't get back until about 5:00pm.  Unfortunately, most of the fish that they caught were too big or old.  Apparently the meat on bigger fish isn't has tender and "fresh" as the meat on smaller fish.  I assume the bigger the fish then the older it is which would make sense about the meat not being as delicious.  They did have at least one keeper though, and I am sure Andy will want to grill it tomorrow.

Andy with his new warm camo gear!

First catch of the day!

 Next week is Thanksgiving, and we have a camping trip planned to visit my parents in Shiner.  Our camping spot is in San Marcos, and it's actually across the street from the Outlet Mall.  Too bad I'm not much on Black Friday shopping because that would probably be one of the best places to stay if I were.  We have a full day of school on Monday and a half day of school on Tuesday, and then no work for three (five if you count the weekend) glorious days.  It will be so nice to not be at work, away from everything that stresses me/us.

Thankful

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I think about all that I have been blessed with throughout my life... 

My husband.  I can't even begin to describe the deepness of my love for Andy.  He means everything to me.  He has given me confidence in myself, he has shown me how to stand up for what I believe in, he builds my self-esteem up daily, he encourages me, he always supports me, and he loves me no matter what.  He is an amazing husband and my best friend.  I couldn't imagine my life without him in it.

My mom.  My mom is one of my best friends.  She loves me unconditionally.  She supports me in everything that I do and have done.  I don't think she ever missed a single cross country meet, basketball game, or track meet throughout my junior high and high school career.  She is always there for me when I need someone to listen.  I am so thankful to have her as my mom and no one can ever replace her.

My brother, college education, job, family, friends, home, cars, food, pets, in-laws, health, money... God has blessed me with much in my life.  I don't deserve any of it; yet He continues to bless me and my family.

One of Andy's basketball players lost his father in a car accident last weekend, and it just makes you stop and think.  There are so many things that I stress about in life, but in the end does it really matter?  What matters are the people around me... us... that support us, love us, and care for us.  The life that God has given us is so precious, but I take it for granted every day.  My hope and prayer is that I can really reflect on this past week and remind myself of what is truly important in my life.

Crazy Saturday

This morning was Andy's basketball scrimmage for the new season.  We had JV and Varsity kids mixed up together, so it's hard to get a feel for how the season is going to turn out.  There are definitely some things that we did well (very well, actually) but there is a lot of room for imrovement.  I just pray that we stay healthy and no injuries this year.  Looking forward to the first real game on Tuesday!

Our volleyball team at Tarkington played in their Regional Final match today and has made it to the State Tournament next weekend.  This will be two years in a row that they've made an appearance at State.  Last year, they lost in the semi-final game, but hopefully this year they can make it to the final game and actually win State.  School is going to be crazy this week!

Gig 'em Aggies!  A&M beat #1 ranked Alabama this afternoon!  Whoop!  It was such a great game.  Definitely shocked that we won, but I'll take a victory over the reigning National Champions any day.  It's been a great season with all the changes - new conference, new coaches, some new players, new morale/attitude.  It's nice to finally see some success for a change! :)

Stole some pictures from the Aggie Athletics facebook page...  Just some of my fave people!

Coach Sumlin

Kliff Kingsbury

Johnny Football!  Yay!

Mike Evans

Ryan Swope

I mean, seriously people... WHOOP!  Aggie Football makes me so happy right now.  I am always proud to be an Aggie, but it sure is nice to be proud of good football too.

Tomorrow is my family Thanksgiving gathering on my Mom's side of the family.  I really look forward to spending time with my extended family.  Despite our differences, we really do make a great family.  We have celebrated Thanksgiving around my grandpa's birthday for as long as I remember.  We always make Christmas lists and then draw names.  I like the surprise on Christmas Eve of finding out who got your name.  I know my family is close when even though we may not have seen each other for months it always feels like we've never been apart.  This will also be the first time I've seen my mom in about 4 months... Gee, I miss her a lot.  Maybe one day I'll live closer to her.

One more thing... We've decided to run in the Rock 'n Roll New Orleans Half Marathon.  Pretty pumped up about it.  Andy has already made our workout schedule.

Half Marathons?

For the last several months, Andy has been telling me that he really wants to run another half marathon for his 30th birthday (which is coming up in May).  After searching the Internet, I couldn't find one the weekend of his birthday.  But of course Andy has come with a much better idea... Haha!  He comes by my classroom today to tell me that we should run the Rock 'n Roll Half in New Orleans in February AND another half marathon in Nashville at the end of April.  I really think we could do it... I just don't know if I'm ready to dedicate that much time to training for it.  We don't have a lot of extra hours of spare time laying around especially with basketball season officially beginning on Saturday. 

We did run a half marathon once before in 2010.  Unfortunately, we did not do as well as we had predicted thanks to our Nike Run App.  It was wrong!  The entire time during our training we thought our times were great and the mileage was correct.  Ha, nope!  The mileage was off, big time.  We (especially me) hit Mile 10 during the actual race and died a slow death to the end of the 13.1 miles.  BUT, we never once stopped to walk even though my pace was probably close enough to a walk those last three miles.  We were proud of ourselves despite the lack of training.

So maybe... just maybe... we'll run another one (or two) in 2013! 

After our half marathon in 2010!