Friday, April 28, 2006

Pampered Chef Party!

Last night I had the privilege of hosting my first Pampered Chef party. It was a BLAST!!!! I was blessed with 12 people in attendace - THANK YOU to all who came! Silly me didn't bring a camera, though, so I don't have any photos of the great time. It was a cooking show, so we actually got to watch Terri, the consultant, fix a dish using Pampered Chef products. She made a Spinach & Strawberry Salad, which was DIVINE!!! We saw some really neat products and had a really good time! I'm looking forward to getting my new products so I can start using them! If there's anybody out there reading this that I haven't told about the party, I'm so sorry I missed you. If you'd like to order any products, it's still not too late! Just go to this website, click "Order Products," and punch in my name as the host! That way I'll get the credit for your order! But all in all it was a delightful experience, and I may just do it again next year!!

Monday, April 24, 2006

The Family Just Keeps Growing!

Over the weekend, we got the fantastic news that Justin's older sister is expecting her first baby! This is incredibly wonderful, yet unexpected news! Nicole and David have been married for more than 10 years, so everyone was used to them not having any kids. Well, that's all changing in the blink of an eye! She's due around the first of December. So when you take that fact into consideration, along with the fact that my sister is due with her second child at the beginning of November, I think going home this Christmas is going to be REALLY FUN!!!! I can't wait to see my precious husband holding his darling little neice or nephew! Brings a tear to the eye just thinking about it... Another funny thing is that both of these couples are really wanting girls! We'll see if either of them get their wish!

Friday, April 21, 2006

Aaaaaaah, SPRING!

We have now entered that scrumptious time of year when the weather is warm and sunny, there's just enough rain to keep it cool, the flowers are blooming, and if you're lucky you can catch a glimpse of baby animals about! We have a little family of killdeer (That's a bird for those of you who have never heard of it before, like me until a week ago!) that are nesting right outside our office building at work, and the babies hatched last week. Killdeer can walk as soon as they hatch, so we had 4 little fluffy, baby killdeer running around, closely supervised by a squawking mama! Somehow at the beginning of this week, we were down to only 3 - we don't want to speculate too closely about what happened to the fourth one! Kristy, Rebecca, and I decided that since they were going to be hanging around the office, we should name them. So the three remaining babies are Frank, Frankie, and Frankster. Now admittedly, that's not incredibly creative. But we have no possible way to tell them apart, so we thought any of those names could apply to any of them, so we were ok no matter which one we called them. (I call them all Frankster...) I noted with some dismay, however, that today I've only seen 2 babies about. We decided that Daddy Killdeer must've taken little Frankie out to see a movie, which is why we haven't seen him all day. Surely there's nothing else that would've happened to him!!! RIGHT?!?!?!?!!?? Now if you're thinking that all this is slightly absurd, well, it is. But you've got to do something to keep your mind occupied when you're bored at work all day!! And when my apartment building won't let me have a pet, I just form an emotional attachment to whatever animal is about... DISCLAIMER: This is not my picture - there's no chance the grass around here is that lush and green. However, this is exactly what the little family we have around here looked like, so I thought it might give a good idea of what I'm talking about! Aren't they precious?!

Friday, April 14, 2006

My Dear Friend

My dear friend Charity came to visit me last weekend, and I've finally downloaded the picture to my computer so I can blog about it! Charity goes to grad school in Dallas, and since she had a break last weekend, she took a mini-"vacation" to come to Waco! Waco's not all that hot of a place, but she seemed to enjoy herself. We played Phase 10, watched "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," and talked about boys (EEEEEEE!) - all of which are blasts from the past for us. We only go back about 3 1/2 years, but those were some of the most intense years of our lives (as missionaries in Africa!), and so we have a really strong friendship because of it. So even though we don't live close to each other, she's still dear to my heart and I cherish the time we can actually spend face to face! I love ya, girl!

Monday, April 10, 2006

Grad School Blues

My husband is definitely inflicted with a case of the Grad School Blues. We're now in the last month of his first semester, so it's CRUNCH TIME for all the projects, papers, and exams. Yuck. He lives at the library. This is in no way intended to sound like I'm complaining about him having to be at the library so much. I understand that he has to, and I'm proud of him for being such a hard worker and good student. But it still stinks for him and I wish there was something I could do. I was able to help him gather data for a project this weekend, and that was infinitely fun for me. Not necessarily the time spent on the computer, but just the fact that I could actually participate in and help with the things he spends such long hours on at the library. We're a TEAM in this grad school thing, just like we are in all of life. So with my help this weekend, he actually got all the data that he needed to turn in today, and that was a brilliant success, in my opinion. If the dern professor looks at all his hard work and tells him he still needs to change something else, I'm going to be really mad. He's got some good stuff and it's going to be an awesome project. So at our house, we're in survival mode until May 11th, that blessed last day of class for my precious husband! I look forward to seeing you then, dear! :)

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

The Land of the Living

I've finally recovered from strep throat (Amoxicillin is a wonderful thing!), and back to life as usual. This weekend was pretty crazy, with not only all the drugs and trying to recover from strep, but also with my mom's visit at the same time! It was a great time, though, and I'm bummed that I forgot to get any pics to post here. I feel like I didn't do a very good job of entertaining her, but she said all she came down for was to share my life! So we went grocery shopping and did laundry. You ask for it, Mom, you got it! We did make it to the Cameron Park Zoo, which I think was lovely. One of the best zoos I've been to, especially for such a small town. I love the way they keep several different kinds of animals all in the same enclosure... That's fun stuff. We also ate at several Waco specialties, including Bush's and George's. I was pretty impressed with George's. Very tasty and inexpensive! So altogether my weekend was great, and it was a combination of antibiotics and Mom's TLC that have me feeling better now!

On an entirely unrelated note, The Big Dance has finally reached its conclusion. I'm very pleased that Florida won it all, they were who I was rooting for after Gonzaga got beat. This is the first year, however, that I've actually watched the championship game and all the hoopla that goes on afterwards. It was all fine, I think it's great that they get to keep a piece of the net. But one tradition that I do not in any way understand is "One Shining Moment." I've been hearing lots of Justin's friends talking about this song that is played after the final game, and how it's always an emotional thing for them. Several guys have posts on their blogs about it, and several of them talk about how they always get teary-eyed during that last video montage. Well, last night was the first time I've ever experienced "One Shining Moment." I would've been in bed, but my husband insisted it was something I couldn't miss. I hate to admit it, but I thought it was stupid. (Don't tell him I said so!) In the first place, the song wasn't even good. But then there was just a silly video montage of random clips of the tournament. I just didn't get how that could be emotional for so many guys. I guess it's not necessarily the song or the video itself, but what it represents. Another college basketball season comes to a close, seven months until the next one. Maybe that's why they're sad. I think they'll be fine with pro basketball until then. And before we have another basketball season, we get to have MY favorite season, which is FOOTBALL!!!!!