Bridal Shower Invitations...

One of my favorite places to go browse is Swoozie's.  The initial attraction was the fact that the name of the store loosely resembles my name but beyond that it has some adorable and unique seasonal party items.  It is a little expensive but is a nice treat to visit.  I enjoy looking at everything but especially the paper products.  When it came time to buy invitations for the bridal shower I am helping host in Dallas in early May I already had it narrowed down to a few choices I had been eyeing for a while.

Aren't these cute!  The green design around the edge totally fits with the bride's style.  (At least I hope so...we lived together for four years so I hope I am not too far off.)  I think she has a red comforter that she loves with a similar pattern.  With a little help from Mike, I managed to get the text aligned just right.  Even after a few test runs, I was a little nervous about printing them.  Forty invitations later I only had one casualty.  Mike is working on using his calligraphy skills to address the envelops in green ink.  (Mike learned how to do calligraphy before our wedding so he could address all of our wedding invitations and they turned out great!)  I think they will look pretty good once they are finished!

House...

We made an offer on a house...and it was accepted!!!  :)

First Day of Spring!!!

Happy first day of spring!  Sadie and I went to the park with some friends and took the opportunity to take a few pictures.  I've had such a restful spring break!  I feel ready to take on the last eleven weeks of school and all the challenges that will come with them.

March Madness!!!

Don't forget to fill out your brackets!  March Madness starts today!

The Baylor men's team gave a great effort in the Big XII tournament but sadly missed out on being part of the NCAA tournament this year.  I guess I'll have to pick another team.

Does anyone else every feel like the media totally ignores the women's tournament?  Local news rarely mentions it and ESPN puts the games on their less popular channels if there isn't anything else going on.  The Baylor women's team is a number two seed this year!

Is it time for Baylor to win another NCAA championship?  I think so!  Being a Baylor student when the ladies won the championship was so memorable.  I knew a few of the ladies from my education classes and they were so humble and sweet.  I remember studying for finals with Sophia Young after her big win and teaching down the hall from Melanie Hammerly the next year.  I also saw Abiola Wabara laugh off negative comments from a jealous football player.  Go Bears!!!

The Beginning Of House Hunting...

One of the teaching strategies I learned this summer at a professional development session is an activity called "good things".  In the classroom setting you turn on some fun music and lead students through good things that have happened recently or will happen soon.  I won't get into all the reasons for and benefits of the activity, but it is definitely a positive activity that can be used in virtually any work, family, or social setting.  One of the "good things" we are looking forward to is buying a house this summer.  While Mike was at work today I took the opportunity to start house hunting.  The main purpose was to get an idea of what we like and don't like.

This first house was in a cute neighborhood.  It was a corner lot and had some nice trees and landscaping.  The rooms were large and open.  I would probably want to change some of the lighting, paint color, and hardware.  On a scale of one to five I would give it a three.  It is a good option but it needed some changes.

The second house was very interesting.  It is very simple from the outside but the floor plan was unique and surprising.  It has many decor options and felt very warm right away.  The deck in the back wasn't too appealing but isn't a deal breaker.  On a scale of one to five I would give it a four.  It wasn't love at first sight but it felt like a place we could grow into.

The third house had the exact same floor plan as the first.  Many of the details that I wasn't fond of in the first house were more to my liking in this house.  I think the floor plan is ok but still not quite what we are looking for.  On a scale of one to five I would give it a three.  It is better than the first one but still not just right.

The fourth house was disappointing.  It was my favorite from the listings but was my least favorite in person.  The front yard is tiny and there are huge power lines right behind the house.  I could tell multiple large dogs lived there before I even saw them.  I wasn't fond of the layout and living room was enormous.  Usually a spacious living room is great but this one was massive even with the mammoth furniture that attempted to fill it.  On a scale of one to five I give it a one.  It isn't an option at all.

Our realtor and I drove through some other neighborhoods and I pointed out aspects of homes I liked.  We had to stop and see one house that was particularly appealing.  The inside was gorgeous!  It had all the bells and whistles you see on television.  Granite, slate, brushed fixtures, stainless steal appliances, and more.  At the time, on a scale from one to five  I gave it a five!  The more I think about it though I wonder if it was house lust at first sight.  It is the picture perfect house from all those television shows...but could it ever feel like home?  We'll see what Mike thinks.

Sweet Sadie Dog!!!

I can't believe we have had Sadie for more than a year!  If you have ever heard me talk about her you know how great she is.  She is sweet, snugly, quiet, calm, and clean.  Don't get me wrong, she gets into plenty of mischief but most of the time she is my silent shadow.

A few weeks ago we took her to the vet when she was showing symptoms of having a urinary tract infection.  When we took her back to make sure the antibiotic had down its job we found out it was much more serious.  After some tests and a few puzzling results we learned Sadie has cushing's disease caused by a pituitary tumor.

Reading about the disease really scared me at first.  So far she really doesn't act sick at all.  We were warned that the medication can have some unpleasant side effects but so far she is doing well.  The medication regime is nothing compared to when she had her neck injury early in the school year.

Impromptu Trip To The Midwest...

As explained in the previous post, last week felt like a marathon.  This will serve as the much longer post with all the road trip style pictures.

Mike and I got up at 4 am to make our early flight.  The good thing about traveling early in the morning is that the lines are short.  The bad thing about traveling early in the morning is that nothing is open.  For the record, Chili's restaurants in airports have some good breakfast options including the breakfast tacos I had been looking forward.

Once we landed in Chicago and met up with my sister we made our way to our rental car.  We were suppose to have a Chevy Impala but were excited when we got an Infiniti FX35.  It took some getting use to.  It had a back up camera, push start ignition, sunroof, and plenty of other interesting features.  Those heated seats snuck up on me at first but quickly became my favorite feature as we drove north and it got colder.

Mike was very excited to be stuck in Chicago traffic in his snazzy rental car.

Christine brought the Garmin she got for Christmas.  As she said, Mike had three women telling him what to do.  It was definitely a fun toy to play with.

As we drove we passed many interesting places such as Six Flags Great America.

If you read my road trip blogs from last summer you know how much I appreciate being welcomed to places.  We finally made it to Wisconsin!

Just barely into Wisconsin we started seeing advertisements for cheese everywhere.

I took this one for the men in Sunday School.

The sights and smells of farm country bring back a lot of memories!  Things always seem to be just the way you left them.

Who put these windmills all over the place?  These weren't here last time I was here.  I guess there is modernization in farm country.

We took a break from driving to pose in the snow.  The locals were excited about what a warm and beautiful day it was but no one could convince Mike.  "Get inside before you get hypothermia!  It's too cold to be outside!"  He was really surprised to see people jogging in shorts and t-shirts.

To remember our grandma we stopped at the Kristmas Kringle Shoppe.  She bought us each a Christmas ornament with our name and the year each year since we were born.  This is one of the traditions we will miss the most.

Welcome to downtown Fond du Lac!  This is the big city in the area.  I'm sure you can imagine why I had trouble blogging while we were in the area.

Welcome to the St. Joe shopping center!  My grandparents farm was in St. Joe.  When we were little we didn't really understand why grandma couldn't just order pizza.  There are so many small towns in this area.  We also passed by my great-grandparents house and their business.

This is the church in St. Joe.  I remember many summer picnics here when we visited during the summer.  It was a temperate forty degrees and quite windy.  The priest's car got stuck in the snow but we managed to push it out.

This is the building where my mom went to school for a while.  It is right next to the church.

As we made our way back to civilization we were really excited to finally see something familiar.  I think Mike was tired of seeing places like Menards, Fleet Farm, Culvers, and Piggly Wiggly.

After all the funeral events were completed we took dad with us to Madison to see our other grandpa.  We had been looking forward to stopping at Schultz's Cheese Haus on our way to get our cheese fix.

When in Wisconsin, you must have cheese!  Yum!

Madison is a very interesting place especially compared to the farm country parts of the state.  One of our favorite places to visit as kids during our summers with our grandparents was Ella's Deli.  It is very difficult to describe just how unique that place is.  It is too bad we didn't have time to stop and relax there or at the Nitty Gritty.

We drove through the University of Wisconsin campus.  It was a school day so there were students everywhere.

I'm sure it is a shock, but the University of Wisconsin has a great agriculture program.  My grandpa who wasn't a farmer graduated from the program and I think he was some sort of animal nutritionist.

This shows how out of practice my picture taking reflexes are.  I thought it was cute!

This is my aunt's dog Midas the golden retriever.  She brought him to visit grandpa too.  He was huge, fuzzy, and slobbery compared to Sadie.

Though we weren't looking forward to our late flight home, we did have to keep moving south back toward Chicago.  Our impromptu trip to the Midwest was brought on by a sad event but we still managed to enjoy life while remembering my grandma.

Last Week...

The past few weeks have been quite busy and stressful, but last week was absolutely exhausting.  We found out after our Sunday School lunch that my grandmother had passed away.  She and my grandpa had a dairy farm in Wisconsin before they retired.  As pictured above, they always seemed to make faces in pictures similar to the American Gothic painting by Grant Wood even though their personalities don't fit that image.  Mike did a great job taking care of all the travel plans so I didn't have to worry about it.

On Monday I was working fast and furious to get as much taken care of at school as I could.  I had to get everything ready for the rest of the week and the next.  The first round of TAKS testing was Tuesday.  The students did great but those days are so mind numbing for the teachers.  Mike and I were up at 4 am on Wednesday to catch a really early flight after staying up really late the night before.  We flew into Chicago, met up with my sister, and drove to Fond du Lac for the funeral.  The last of the funeral events were Thursday morning.  After that we drove to Madison to see my other grandpa before driving back to Chicago to catch our late flight back to Houston.  We were able to make it back to work on Friday after another late night.  I'll give a more detailed account of our impromptu trip soon.  I took plenty of road trip style pictures!

Sadie is recovering from a busy week last week too.  While we were out of town she stayed at Casa Curry.  After they got to know each other Sadie and Sinatra got along pretty well.  Though I am not totally sure what went on while we were gone, I have some clues.

Katie left a note for me on facebook.  "I wish I didn't have to go to work so I could stay home and watch them follow each other around all day!  Sadie has already tried to take over Sinatra's pillow and blanket.  So Sinatra got her back by going in her crate at bedtime!  And even though I was petting them both at the same time, Sinatra made many disgruntles noises to let me know he was not thrilled that I was petting the other one.  :)"

Sadie hacked into Katie's e-mail to sent me a message.  "I am secretly writing you this letter on Katie's e-mail to tell you that I miss you and want you to come home soon!  The Currys and Sinatra have been really nice to me.  Sinatra even let me lay on his pillow and blanket.  In return I let him get in my crate.  But here's the thing, they take REALLY LONG WALKS!  I don't think that they have noticed that I am a very small and delicate creature who need not walk through TWO NEIGHBORHOODS in 70 DEGREE WEATHER!  I kept trying to let Katie know that I was done by stopping in the middle of the sidewalk and refusing to walk any further, but she just laughed and made me keep going.  Sinatra was no help either.  He kept talking about how he could walk all day.  Boys!  Still, I am having a good time and would not mind coming back to their house again.  But maybe next time you could tell them I don't take walks or something."

We heard other accounts of chewy stealing, kennel escaping, and doggie snoring while Sadie stayed with the Currys.  We missed our dog so much and couldn't wait to get her back.  Thank You again to Sean, Katie, and Sinatra for sharing their home for a few days.  Katie will probably give a more complete account of the visit soon.