30 Day Picture Challenge - Day 4

Day 4 - A picture of your favorite night

Well, this one has a clear winner!! My favorite night was my wedding, of course. Truly the best day of my life. We had so much fun!

30 Day Picture Challenge - Day 3

Day 3 - A picture of the cast of your favorite TV show


Duh.....

My junior year of high school, I missed a lot of school. I got mono and had my wisdom teeth removed, resulting in me missing about 6 weeks-ish of school on and off. Fortunately, Lifetime TV had taken that time to play Golden Girls a whopping 6 times a day, and I watched it every time. I have every season on DVD and I really do watch it all the time - ESPECIALLY, like now, when Art is away for work and I have to fall asleep without him. It's the best! :)

30 Day Picture Challenge - Day 2

Day 2 - A picture of yourself and the person you've been closest with the longest.

I couldn't decide... I've always been close with my mom. My cousin Julie and I grew up like sisters. I've had the same best friend, Clara, since the fifth grade. I've been dating Art since the 11th grade. I'm the kind of person that, once you get in my inner circle, you are there for life. I love having lifelong friendships and relationships, so I included a picture of me and all four of them! :)

30 Day Picture Challenge

I've seen a few people do this on Facebook, and I thought the idea was really sweet. I'm finding Facebook a little creepy these days, so I decided to revisit my old neglected blog! Plus it's rainy today and Art's out of town until Tuesday, so I found myself with some lonely free time. :)

Basically, I post a new picture each day for 30 days based on the questions! Knowing me, it'll probably take me more than 30 days to get all the pictures up... but it should be fun! :)

Day 1 - A picture of yourself with 10 facts

1. I love seafood, especially shellfish
2. Sometimes, when I cook, I pretend I'm on a cooking show, with the talking out loud and everything.
3. I don't cook breakfast or grill, but I do pretty much else in the kitchen. (And I obviously need to do something about my obsession with food, given that #s 1-3 have been about eating or cooking and then eating.)
4. I think it's ridiculous that I have to say a pledge to the Texas flag every morning.
5. Golden Girls is my favorite TV show.
6. When I was little, both my ear drums ruptured at the same time.
7. I hate air blowing on me - ceiling fans, vents, everything.
8. I really want to raise chickens one day.
9. I still send birthday cards - most of the time! :)
10. I'm finishing up my Masters degree this year.

Catch ya tomorrow! :)

A Lesson in Optimism

Fact: I have a new recipe to post soon, as soon as I get the pictures uploaded. I'll give you a hint: we had to drive to San Antonio to get the ingredients, but you will probably only have to go to your local grocery store. If we had one of those, I would have gone there!

In the meantime, I have been lovingly pestered by my dear family and friends to update. The reason I haven't updated since I got my job, is, well... my job. In short, this job is the most exhausting, ideal-breaking, bubble-bursting, intense struggle I have ever gone through in my life. I could write for days about my experiences and why, in general, I'm finding it difficult to love my job. But I won't.

I have been called some form of "Sunshine" all my life. I'm blond, generally happy, and I try really hard to find the positives in life (I am my mother's daughter, after all). Looking back, man, that was easy. I've had the best life ever. My family is jam-packed full of love. I have always had all my needs (food, shelter, etc.) met. I went to three amazing schools and got a terrific education. In spite of all my faults, I am quite talented in a variety of different areas. WHAT was there ever to not look on the bright side about?

Well. I am quickly learning that optimism is about staying positive when maybe things aren't so great. Now, the above things are all still true. But a quick look at my life now will show that everything is different than it was before I got married and moved. As I quickly near the 6-month mark as Art's wife, I can't believe how different it is.

More than ever, I have to count my blessings. And I don't mean proverbially, as in, "just get over yourself," which is how I would have taken that phrase before. Literally, out loud, say everything I am thankful for. It's a routine I've adapted every day on my way home from work. It changes every day, but a few things make the list daily:

1. I have the world's best husband. Art was always nice to me, and the fact that we have been together for 8 years usually was enough to make other people jealous. When I came home crying from my first (and second... and third... and fourth...) day teaching, dinner was made. My lunch is packed almost every morning, and I get a hot breakfast almost every morning. I haven't done the laundry in a really long time. He lets me talk on and on about the same stuff every day, and listens like it's the first time he's ever heard it. I don't know how he knew exactly the support I would need as I try not to drown during my first year teaching, but he did.

2. I have a beautiful house, and it is something I share with above husband. It's the first house where we started our family (and yes, I consider us a family even though we don't have kids!). It's withstood a lot of storms.

3. Most people wish they had my dog. And how could they not.

4. Minus this moment right now, I am healthy. And I have a lot to be grateful for.

Our first visitor... and some GREAT news!! :)

Last week, Art and I got our first visitor from Ohio!! Our friend Jamie, Art's former boss and roommate, was at a conference in Abilene and decided to rent a car and visit us for the weekend. Now that he's been here, Jamie might rather have had us drive up to Abilene, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.

The Rio Grande and Lake Amistad have been flooding crazily since Alex and the subsequent tropical storms rolled through (here's something I didn't know: the desert gets hurricanes. Bizarre.), which made for some bummer weather lately, but while Jamie was here we got one day of good sun! It was so awesome to show someone from our hometown what Texas border life is really like! :)

Jamie got to see all the Del Rio landmarks: the Walmart, Wings & Rings (our only sports bar), the Herald (best restaurant in town), the Veranda (one of two wine bars... we don't have a fabric store, but we have two wine bars.), and a delightful Laughlin tradition: Drop Night. Of course, I think Lake Amistad is the best thing about Del Rio, so on Saturday we hit the lake with our friends Paul and Maria and their enormous puppy, Bud. Good times, as usual!

And, for those of you who are wondering, the answer is no: Art did not wear his stand-in wedding ring to the lake. :) We were out on Paul and Maria's boat when Art's ring was lost, and they noticeably went this time sans wedding rings as well. We were happy to spread caution! :)

The day Jamie got here, I got a call from the principal of Del Rio Middle School, asking me if I could come in for an interview the next day. I didn't want to abandon Jamie, but of course I took the opportunity!! She offered me the job at the interview (crazy!), it was approved by the school board that Saturday, and I'm scheduled to sign my contract on Wednesday of this week.

I am Del Rio Middle School's newest 8th grade English language arts teacher!! I cannot explain how excited I am to have been given this opportunity. I student taught math at Mad River, and had always thought I would teach math, but I came into this position as an English teacher and I couldn't be more excited about it. Of course, this is the one time where being the cheapest grad student ever has failed me: I got all my Language Arts methods books from the library at UD, and thus returned them, so much to Art's chagrin, I had to purchase them again today. But I am truly exploding with ideas about writer's notebooks, classroom library, book assignments, and first-week teambuilding. I spend pretty much every day writing things down that I want to do with my students. I'm so excited to get to work with them on a subject that I've had such a passion for all my life. I am truly, truly thankful that God led me to teaching at just the right time. Such a gift! :)

Speaking of gifts... look what came home with my wonderful husband on the day I got the job:

Lucky me. :)

For tonight's dinner, I made homemade pesto (with my Aerogarden basil!) with spaghetti and chicken cutlets with a Parmesan/sage crust. I hope someone is making you something special tonight! :)

USA! USA! USA! ... and a major bummer.

It's storming in Del Rio right now, and if there's one thing Peanut hates, it's thunder. So bear with me - if it looks like I have a crazy typo, it's because of the 12-pound Chiweenie trying to get as close to me as physically possible.

This weekend, Art and I had a few people over to watch the World Cup game, USA v. Ghana. As Art said, "you don't have to love soccer, just America." So I whipped up some pico de gallo and guacamole (nothing more American than that, right?) and Art made me a pitcher of margaritas. Well, it was intended to pass around, but for some reason I was the only one who decided to take part. How strange.

Unlike this picture shows, we actually do have plenty of seating in our house. I guess these guys just really wanted to sit by each other.

Kirby, Art, and Paul... really into the game, I suppose! You can see Peanut's little ear next to Art's leg... all the boys on the couch!

Unfortunately, USA lost the match. We found ourselves wondering what to do with our Saturday. Well, we live in Del Rio, so we did what every Del Rioan should do on Saturday - we went to the lake!

This is my brother-in-law Kirby. As you can see, it's hard to be grumpy on the lake! Especially when you are full of margaritas!

Art and Paul, standard.

I'm pretty sure these people told me their names, but I forget. But we enjoyed some good time in the lake, and I attempted to swim.

Then... bummer.

What you are looking at now is the final resting place for Art's wedding ring. Yes, just shy of the two-month mark, the original wedding ring is gone. :( It was a total accident, but unfortunately there isn't anything we can do. Kirby (bless his heart) called a scuba diver friend of his who said he'd go dive for it, but we aren't feeling very optimistic. I cried a completely ridiculous amount over it, but once we got out for the night I was fine. Fortunately, I was given a plain silver band my senior year from my sorority, Pi Beta Phi, that fits Art perfectly, so that is what he is currently wearing. It's kind of cool, actually, because Art's grandmother and great aunt were both Pi Phi's, so it has a little bit of meaning. We are going to San Antonio to get a new one this weekend, and then hopefully we can have it blessed and have a little ceremony with the priest here. I'll post some pictures if we do that! :)

Not too much on docket for this week! Just cleaning and hanging out with my family. Just another day in paradise!