father's day

for father's day, i decided to create a pinterest project i had found months ago.  i bought the letters and painted them while lee was out and brendan was asleep one afternoon.  a few days later, brendan and i headed out to a local park while lee was golfing one morning for a little photoshoot.  brendan was not quite as smiley as i hoped he would be, but in his defense, it was ridiculously warm for 10am and the ground was still wet which made him even more uncomfortable.  all in all, i still got a few good shots...and a lot of "blooper" shots.  lee loved the gift, which is the most important part of it all.  these are the three that made it into the frames.

regardless of how the pictures turned out, i wanted to make sure lee knew what a great dad he is.  brendan and i are incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful man lead our family.  i love watching lee and brendan together, and cannot wait to see what our little family will be like in a few years.  no matter what the future holds, i know that lee will always do the absolute best for our family.  we love you, lee!

family photoshoot

 last weekend, we had family photos taken for the first time.  my friend, amanda jones, is an amazing photographer whose skill is just phenomenal.  i wanted to share these with you...some have already been seen on facebook but others are new.  if you are in the houston area, you should definitely look into having her take your family shots or child's photos.  if you don't live in houston, it would totally be worth bringing her to you, but that's just my opinion :).  she said turn-around for the fully-edited CD of prints would take about ten days, which i was totally fine with.  they arrived less than a week after we took them.  awesome!  i ordered a 16x20 photo canvas of one of the shots that i bought with a groupon-type deal (there is currently a new deal on savemore.com for a 18x24 canvas print for $38!), and i cannot wait for it to come in and go over our fireplace.  also, some of these or others yet to be seen might be showing up on our Christmas cards!

2

today is our 2nd anniversary.

our second year of marriage brought laughs and tears. death and birth. travels, dark times, and restoration. we moved again and still live in texas. we took on new jobs and roles at work. we grew closer, and more importantly, grew stronger as a couple.

God's hand on our marriage was ever-present and we are so thankful for His guidance. we still don't know all the answers and probably never will, but we do know God does have an evolving plan for us as individuals and as a couple that we are willing to follow.

just as the past two years has made us the couple we are today so will the years to come mold us into a better wife and husband.

to our family and friends who pray for us daily and encourage us often, thank you for your love, support, and friendship. we are so fortunate to be surrounded by so many wonderful examples of Godly relationships.

lee, thank you for this journey and for always leading us as a family. i love you.

update

just to keep you posted on our life, lee was hired to teach 5th grade at a school in new caney this week! thank you so much for your prayers during this process.

for those of you not in texas, new caney is right next to kingwood, where we live now. it is a different district than where i teach but still very close to where we live.

keep him and his soon-to-be students in your prayers next week as they start a new class together!


(more posts are coming very soon!)

reading list for 2010

time for reading while working is a bit harder than last summer when i had no job and all the time in the world to read. however, we have still managed to find some time to read through a few books. yes, this lists consists of books from both of us!

lindsey's list:
The Blind Side by michael lewis
The Help by kathryn stockett
Sarah's Key by tatiana de rosnay
I Will Carry You: The Sacred Dance of Grief and Joy by angie smith (not for the topic but because i read the author's blog)

Current reading: Wild Goose Chase by mark batterson (a gift to lee from ben. lee loved it so now it's my turn)

lee's list:
The Tangible Kingdom by hugh halter and matt smay
Love is an Orientation by andrew marin
Wild Goose Chase by mark batterson

Current reading: Forgotten God: Reversing our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan

what have you been reading? what do you plan/recommend to read this summer?

spring break, part 1

just as my family gets ready to begin their journey out west to visit us for the rest of spring break, it seems to be a good time to recap the first part of our week.

spring break began with a relaxing night at home on friday...spring break could not really start until we were rested up from a week of little sleep. once that was taken care of, we were ready to embrace everything great and wonderful about spring break.

we drove to college station saturday night, enjoyed some good country food for dinner, and then took in some baseball on sunday. it was soooo nice for us to enjoy a sunday afternoon game and not have to rush home to get ready for the work week. let us not forget the whopping 4 games of scene it trivia we played with katy as well. lee almost had a complete undefeated run but was stopped with a last second victory in round 2 of disney trivia...betcha can't guess who won?! :)monday brought quite possibly the most perfect weather day we have had so far. we, of course, took advantage of this and spent the afternoon outside on what turned into a wonderful "day date." we decided on the houston museum of natural science where we discovered dinosaur fossils, precious gems, exotic shells, and yes, even the pendulum from LOST (ok, not really but the only one i've ever seen in person).then, being the explorers that we are, we took a stroll through hermann park. hermann park, for those non-houstonians reading, is right in the middle of downtown houston. right in the middle of skyscrapers, hospitals, and more. needless to say, not what you would expect to find amidst all the concrete and metal.

what we did find was a beautiful, peaceful japanese garden tucked away beside the lake. seriously, you would never know you were in downtown houston when you walk through this place. we also found a washington-monument look-alike which is actually the "pioneer monument." we then discovered all of this connects right up to the zoo where we could have parked for free...oh well!
tuesday brought lots of cleaning in preparation for the fam, but more importantly, brought a nice little surprise from lee:

the other 364 days are great for saying "i love you" too

no, this is not an anti-valentine's day post. this is a reminder for us of another special day in our lives that did not quite align with february 14th.

the day after valentine's day 2008, we got engaged. for those of you who have not heard the story, we will gladly share with you anytime...lee is especially proud of all the secrecy on his part.

valentine's day is nice, and it is even a good excuse to have a date night or maybe even a girls' night out (i guess guys would not really have a guys' night on valentine's though). however, i think most of us know everyday is meant for telling those closest to us how much we love them...spouse, parents, kids, friends...not just the one day in february with the highest sales in chocolates and greeting cards year-round.

with that said, enjoy a stroll down memory lane with us as we remember a special valentine's day after...

celebrate good times, come on!

the birthday recap post...

first thing's first: breakfast at rudy's. there was no doubt in my mind where the day would begin. for those of you outside of texas, rudy's has some pretty amazing breakfast burritos, and it is always a stop when we stay in college station.next on the agenda: aggie basketball. we enjoyed the game with katy and some of the garrett clan (thanks, as always, for awesome tickets). we got to try the camera out on basketball action, and i even learned how to take widescreen photos. the aggies were able to pull out the win, although it was close in the end. lee says there is no way they would have won had they been playing texas.grand finale: dinner at koppe bridge with friends. all of the garretts, katy, the clendenins, and joel joined gathered with us for awesome burgers and birthday cookie cake. thanks to all of you for hanging out with us and celebrating lee's birthday. he says he had a wonderful birthday. but then again, how could you not when you fill your birthday with some of your favorite events and restaurants alongside some of your favorite people in one of your favorite places to be?!and a thanks from lee to those who we could not spend the day with also but sent their wishes, cards, and gifts!

happy happy birthday!

happy birthday, lee! at this moment, you are in the midst of enjoying a day filled with some of your favorite people and activities in one of your favorite places to be.

i hope we have many more birthdays to share together! i love you!

(birthday celebration pictures will follow soon!)

happy anniversary

it is hard to believe we have already been married a year. our first year of marriage has been so much more than i think either of us ever imagined. here's to many, many more anniversaries to come! and, here is a little recap of the past year...

1 year of marriage filled with (in no particular order)...

2 different states of residence
14 (i think) different states visited during vacations
2 busted tires
1 late winter snow
1 live, then left-for-dead, christmas tree because we forgot to water it
4 different college campuses visited
1 cubs game together
1 sec championship game
1 day at the master's
3 major league baseball games together
1 pre-season nfl game
1 month (and counting) of riding to work together

and so many more events, memories, laughs, cries, and special occasions to count.

i love you, lee!

just keep swimming, just keep swimming

last saturday was our 9 month wedding anniversary...it is ok to acknowledge less-than-one-year anniversary marks, right? i thought so.

last saturday also happen to be the day we decided to go to the aquarium here in houston. we have talked about going pretty much since we moved, whenever we would drive by. the aquarium is surrounded by huge tall buildings and major interstates, but it is a fun little adventure tucked away in downtown.
we got to pet rays and see so many different kinds of fish, some crazy-big turtles, even bigger catfish, sharks, and white tigers. yes, tigers. at the aquarium. they are a special exhibit i think. we wanted some really good pictures of the tigers because they are such beautiful creatures, especially up so close, so lee decided to try to grab the attention of one of the tigers. who knew that a white tiger would be particularly attracted to a guy tapping on the glass?! needless to say, the tiger was so aroused that it jumped at the glass at lee! i wish i'd had my camera ready because it was the most bizarre thing that has ever happened to us. at an aquarium.it may seem hard to find something to follow up such the shock of a tiger jumping at you, but we decided we would try by hopping on the train to ride through the shark exhibit. the sharks were awesome even if the only thing separating us and them was the (probably) thin layer of glass with gallons & gallons of water pressure against it above our heads. we did get some cool shots & had a great time. too bad it was too hot to take a ferris wheel ride...

California is my new favorite place

My brother and I recently decided we needed to take a brothers only trip. This of course, resulted in extreme awesomeness...... and baseball (also awesome). Ben will be starting a church in San Francisco next year so we decided we would go to Los Angeles for a day then head to San Fran. First things first, the Los Angeles airport is the most disorganized, jacked up place I have ever been and I will make it my life's work to avoid ever going there again. The same thing goes for downtown LA. There is no need/desire for me to ever go back. So without further ado, lets start the show.

These pics are from LA/Anaheim/Newport Beach/Irvine. I know I said bad things about LA, but the surrounding areas such as Newport Beach, Anaheim, and Irvine were beautiful places. We got to take in an Angels game three rows from the field. The fans there provided a really great atmosphere. The stadium is very unique and it was one I hadn't been to before so I can now add it to my list. The picture of my feet is of the first time they were in the Pacific Ocean. We did all this stuff in our first day. Now its time to head to the bay.

Some wonderful people from Ben's church in Missouri allowed us to stay at their house in Novato, which is about 25 miles from San Fran. This was very helpful because we didn't have to pay for a place to stay. The house was beautiful and these are pictures of the views we had plus some of the outdoor area. Every morning we would walk outside and see deer just laying around. It was a wonderfully peaceful place.

Another thing my brother and I enjoy apart from going to different baseball stadiums is visiting colleges that are well known for either academics or athletics. Since we were so close to Palo Alto, we decided to visit Stanford University. The campus was gorgeous and massive to walk around. The architecture was stunning and we also got to throw the frisbee on the big lawn at the front of campus. Downtown Palo Alto is my new favorite city that I have visited. Its hard to explain that but just trust me on that one. Plus it was 75 and sunny and perfect weather and it was the end of July so that didn't hurt.
The other pics are of Muir Woods in San Fran. We didn't actually have time to check everything out but the view was amazing. Any of you that have ever been to San Fran know that the fog just sits on the city from time to time and its very low.

The Golden Gate Bridge is the most recognizable landmark in San Francisco so of course I took lots of pictures. It was very interesting to see when the fog was low because the top of the bridge could not be seen. The other pics are of the crookedest road in America. We drove it in a standard and we had to go up a massive hill so that in itself was a lot of fun. There's also a small picture of Alcatraz.

This is the San Francisco Giants ballpark. It is one of the best stadiums I have ever been to and I consider myself a connoisseur of baseball stadiums. Ben and I went to two ballgames to see the Giants vs the Phillies. The second game we got great seats for a cheap price because we went in during the third inning. We paid 15 bucks for 90 dollar tickets and we sat on the fourth row behind the Phillies dugout. It was pretty sweet. This area is also significant because it is the part of San Francisco that Ben and his team will be starting their church in. Please pray for this area and for all those that are contributing to this vision.
Lastly I want to say that my time in California was a time for me to reconnect with God and sort some things out. Ben, thanks for helping me with that. I pray that God will do amazing things in my life through the things I realized while on this trip.

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 :)

off day = golf day

friday was a weather day for lee and became a vacation day for me. upon my suggestion, lee decided to play golf and, i joined him. an important note to mention here: i do not play golf, but i have mad score-keeping and golf-cart driving skills. so, we set out for a 10:04 tee time on a beautiful day. my only performances of the day came on the driving range for two VERY ugly "drives" (one of which only went maybe 20 feet slightly airborne to the extreme left). lee, on the other hand, played a solid 18 holes. he was mostly pleased with his performance by the 18th hole, i think, and he did much better on the back nine than the front nine. lee taught me what to do and not to do on the course. by the end, the sun was out and the wind was gone. it was a perfect, sunny day and we had the sunburn to prove it. i tried to get some nice action shots, but maybe this will be the start of a fun past-time we can do together and i can take even more. here are the ones from friday:
this is lee's attempt to line up his putt similarly to camillo "spiderman" villegas...nice form, huh?!

by the way...who out there has heard of and/or eaten a boston butt? you know, the huge hunk of pork that people often sell as a fundraiser? just curious if it really is just an alabama thing since lee had never heard of nor tasted one until this weekend...

the snowstorm of 2009

yes, the weather guy on tv called it a snowstorm. but, hey! we live in alabama, and if the snow actually sticks and stays for a few hours, why not call it a snowstorm!?
as most who reside in the south, we were skeptical of the prediction of snow for today. i mean, it was not the first time the chance of snow was mentioned this winter so why would this time be any different? luckily, we were greatly mistaken. there was already snow on the bushes and trees when i unfortunately awoke at 6:45 this morning. what a shocker! i weighed my options of enjoying this little amount of snow or going back to sleep, and, if you know me, you know i chose sleep - hoping it would still be there when i woke up later. not only was it still there a couple of hours later, it continued to fall and eventually left a nice blanket of snow over everything!
an unusual way to welcome the month of march, but we'll take it!

this is all we thought we were going to get when we woke up...little did we know...
it was going to continue falling for another 2 hours! this picture does not do justice to the final accumulation, but it gives a pretty good depiction. through the trees to the left, publix is normally visible, but due to the thick snow and strong wind at the time, it was nowhere to be seen.

the back of our apartment as the snow falls...our first snow!

p.s. - by the time i finished this post, half of the snow was already melting away...oh well! it was fun and beautiful while it lasted