the southernmost point of the US

for the first time ever, i took a girls' trip last week. two of my sisters-in-law (minus 1, who was greatly missed!) and i ventured down to key west, fl and had a great time! shauna's recap and pictures can be found here so for those who read both, i hope i am not too repetitive. (correction/modification to shauna's: as a mom, she wrote with genuine enthusiasm that we slept until 8am everyday, but i must clarify to say that we slept until 8am EST which means it was still 7am in the time zone we were all used to. :) even though that is early for me, i am probably correct in saying that 7am is still later than they are used to waking up with kids around so i completely understood their happiness in that small treasure.)

onto the trip!

from the minute the three of us were together, the fun began. we had a brief moment of fear that we might not actually have our rental car that soon turned into an upgrade to a pt cruiser! girls, why did we not ever take a picture of our sweet upgrade?! from there, we made our way out of miami, paid the tolls, and began our journey through the keys. we enjoyed the interesting sights along the way, the water on either side of the highway, and the lovely little local place we found for lunch in one of the middle keys. we were not crazy about the 45mph speed limit or the unknown of when we would finally arrive at our destination, but those small details did not deter us much as we finally arrived in beautiful key west.our feline friend who could be found around our room most of the day!
the rest of our trip included deciding on a few local places to share our meals, swimming in the atlantic ocean (a first for me), lounging at the pool, eating delicious ice cream, and snapping some photos at the southern most point of the united states, each other, and the gorgeous sunset we got to witness in its entirety.
our last full day was mostly in miami where we attempted to go the beach, but instead took a dip in our huge hotel pool and dined on some delicious cheesecake factory for dinner.

shauna and emily: you are great sisters-in-law and teach me so much about how to be a Godly mom and wife. thanks for the laughs, deep conversations, and humor in spite of wrong turns. shauna, emily, & erin: hope we can do it again soon when all four of us can go together!

the big 5-0!

last thursday, we took a trip to prattville to surprise my dad for his 50th birthday. he was definitely surprised, and it was so exciting to know we pulled it off without him knowing we would be there!

we filled our few days with the fam with birthday lunch, harry potter, a round of golf for lee and my dad, a vbs celebration service, and a low-key karaoke birthday party for my dad. that's right...karaoke. singing in front of people is not exactly my favorite thing to do, but somehow i still wound up singing a duet of "i just can't wait to be king" with rachel, and "you're the one that i want" with lee. i guess i figured if i had to that it might as well be a song from a movie and i might as well share the stage with someone else. we also got to enjoy some classic 70's music, a little elvis, and our very own group version of "take me out to the ballgame."

we ended our trip with a few hours in tuscaloosa. we arrived to sunday school a few minutes late, but we still got to catch up with all of those wonderful people. we also got enjoy iguana grill for lunch and more hang out time with our friends there. yes, i know we live in texas now and have great mexican food out here, but iguana grill is different than anywhere else because of that awesome salsa. yum :)

we have a couple more trips before the summer ends so stay tuned over the next couple of weeks!

just a few thoughts

for the past week, lee has been doing some work in college station. nothing much, just some extra summer cash! the only downsides to this is that it puts him away from here for a couple of days at a time, and he has to get up pretty early most days.

the alone time i have had over the past week has given me some time to think about a few things. first of all, i love lee very much, and i love his selfless desire to take care of me and us as a family. also, i love my "me time" as much as anyone else does, but when it is time to go to sleep, i like my husband to be there beside me. that is not too much to ask, is it? :) i guess i should also admit that i even miss updates on the cubs and family guy quotes.

lee, i appreciate you more than words can say. thank you for all you do for us. i am a lucky girl :)

our new home

after a week, we feel like we are right at home with everything in its place and unpacked. we still have the few random boxes or piles of things that still have not found a permanent dwelling place...but soon will! we are very excited to start our life in houston here and look forward to the memories that will be made.

for your viewing pleasure, i have included some pictures of the living room and kitchen areas. the first is a shot of the couch and decor above, along with the awesome built-in shelves and desk to the side. the second is a better look of the built-in area, as well as the bookcases lee put together a few days ago and look into the HUGE bathroom (trust me, it is huge). the last is a shot of part of the kitchen and the nook for the table. enjoy and welcome to our home!
p.s.-we have recently discovered the fun of video chatting! if you have a web cam, we should totally video chat sometime because the chances are pretty good that we are in different states than you and would love to see you smiling face in our computer :)

part 2 of the p.s.- you probably did not know this, but i was taking an online class this summer that i still needed for my master's, and i would just like to announce that i am officially done. it could have lasted all summer, but i finished things up early! woo hoo! and that is all.

keeping my promise

the original intention of this blog was to keep family and friends informed of the progress of our move to texas. it has also come to include the events of our lives, which no one seems to mind so we will keep that part coming :).

however, the moving process has sort of not been mentioned much since the initial post once we got here (remember the picture of our crazy storage room...). for those of you who don't know, lee was hired to teach 5th grade math & science in humble, tx! this is a huge blessing not only because it means he has a job, but it means he has a job this early in the summer (last year he was not hired until after the school year had started in alabama).

another big piece of news in regards to us getting settled in houston is that we found an apartment and we move in today! we had some pretty intense apartment searching, along with rental house searching, and in the end we found a really great apartment in cypress, tx. we are really excited about starting our life in texas in such a nice place. unfortunately, this means we get to move all of our stuff one. more. time. BUT, it will totally be worth it because we will be moving into our apartment!

pictures to come soon!