Thanksgiving holiday

Well, the Thanksgiving holiday is coming to an end and its been wonderful. We drove in Tuesday night to Allen and spend that night and the next day with my family. Ben golfed with my dad and I spent the day with my mom. We just talked and drank coffee and ate and looked for recipes for the next day. So refreshing. Wednesday night, we went to Arlington to spend time with Ben's family from Mississippi. If you know us well, you won't have a hard time guessing what we played with them...yes that's right...Rock Band! It was a roaring good time with cousins and aunts and family.

Thanksgiving day, we went over to my Aunt and Uncle's house to eat our first Thanksgiving dinner. My cousin Emily recently got engaged so everyone but us (we'd already met the lucky guy) got to meet her fiance Preston for the first time. Oh I remember those days...such a special, sweet time of life. There are 4 girl cousins on my mom's side that I have grown up with. I'm the oldest of the 5 of us and its been fun to grow up with each of them and see how each year, so many changes happen. After a delicious lunch, people not at the "kids" table, shared memories of old Thanksgivings with people some of us have never met. It was so fun to hear funny stories about our family members we never met. Later in the afternoon, we headed on to Arlington for our 2nd Thanksgiving dinner. Delicious and fun as well, but different. Each family has their own traditions and I love them both. We also suffered through the Aggie game that will not be spoken of ever again.

Yesterday, we got up at, yes, 4:30 am to go shopping. I'd never done that before and it was more for fun than for actually getting a good deal. I went with Ben's high school age cousins and my sister-in-law Cherish. Our goal: be one of the first 200 people at Forever 21 so we could get a scratch-off card to win a gift-card. To no one's great surprise, none of us one anything but it sure was exciting. I bought 2 shirts at 6:30 am in the morning, not on sale. We shopped a little longer and left the mall about 8:15 am. It was quite strange to see so many people at 5:30am. Usually the only people I see at that time of day is either no one because I'm asleep or just Ben as I roll out of bed. Very strange feeling.

The rest of the day was more shopping, relaxing, 3 episodes of What not to Wear with Pat, delicious food, and some sudoku. I feel fully refreshed and feel like I can go back to work for 3 weeks before the next holiday!

Our new look

A few weeks ago, we rearranged our apartment. It's really not tiny - definitely bigger than our first apartment - but the way we had it arranged made it feel smaller than it was. So, we moved the couch and the tv and the bookshelf. We have enjoyed the new set-up a lot. It feels much more spacious and neater. This is what we ended up with...

The view from the door to the "dining room" (just use your imagination). The standing candles are some of my favorite decorative things. I got them for Christmas from my parents last year.

The "living room" with my husband - isn't he cute!

View from the kitchen

Just 30 minutes

So, today I started a 30-minute work out plan. I have never been consistent at working out. I've never loved sports, and I've never loved working out. In first grade I went to one day of the little kiddie softball practice and decided it wasn't for me. I wanted to watch Garfield after school instead of do sports. I love outdoors but I'd rather be having a picnic or taking a walk than running. But, I've come to the point where I don't really have a choice for 2 reasons. The obvious reasons for working out haven't motivated me enough - more energy, just plain being healthy, and all the happy endorphins. But for the past couple years, I've had consistent headaches - not migraines but bad enough to be not fun at all. So, I've been told several times lately that working out really really helps them so that's motivation #1. #2 is that I haven't been sleeping very well lately. Sometimes I'm stressed out because of school but other times I'm really just thinking about tons of random stuff and can't fall asleep. I've been told and have experienced that working out really helps that also. So, I've come to the point where its headaches and no sleep or working out plus all the other benefits. So, for today (and hopefully a lasting amount of time), I choose working out.

So then comes the question...what do I do??? I've always been a person that backs away from something that's complicated to implement or that I don't quite understand how to do. Working out is one of those things to me. There's so many theories and different workouts that you can do. I've heard so many different little facts about how long, how intense, and just what you do in your workout that I was left with no clue as to which is best. So, today, I looked on WebMD about working out. It took me to a site about a 30-minute workout. It gave step by step what resistance training exercises to do and then a block of cardio and even exactly how to do that. It told me how long and how often and said results would follow after consistently working out. I found it here, just in case any of you have come to the same delimma that I have. Now if you go there and you have a better idea for me, please please let me know. But that is what I did tonight and I feel sufficiently worked out and ready to sleep. Goodnight!

Family, Football, Food

What a nice weekend. Ben's parents, Mark and Pat, came down to visit us. They could not be more loving or supportive to both of us. Whenever they are around us, they shower us with compliments, encouragements, and tell us over and over how they think we are wonderful. They are such a blessing. They rolled in around lunch time on Saturday and took us out to lunch at Pot Belly's, one of my faves. Muy delicioso.

After lunch, we went out to watch the Blue Prints class flag football game which we WON! Two games back to back! Now, I say we, but I say that to feel cool. I don't play - I just chat on the sidelines with other wives who have opted not to play. Yes, I was warmly welcomed to play, even encouraged, as they need a certain number of girls, but my past football experience screams DON'T DO IT! You see, long ago in a Powder Puff Football game in college, the girls on the other team were rough and I couldn't handle the pressure and yes...I cried. I didn't want a repeat of this in front of all my friends and with my husband on the team. Can't you just imagine the scene - wife cries, husband wants to say "STOP CRYING! This is FOOTBALL!" but knows of the serious consequences later for saying this. So, needless to say, I decided happily not to play so that this situation was not even a possibility. But I will faithfully be there to cheer and support the whole time.

Then we proceeded on to more good fun and food with family. We went to Lupe Tortilla (or The Lupe Torillia factory as Pat calls it with the ll pronounced incorrectly) and had their amazing fajitas. Ben told the waiter that it was my birthday and that we were out to celebrate it, so at the end of the meal, they brought out a huge sombrero that I wore as they sang to me in Spanish. White girl who speaks Spanish (that's me) didn't catch all the lyrics but one part did say "We come to you Drunk, and its our pleasure to wish you happy birthday". We laughed at this. With the sombrero came some delicious Flan. Again, muy delicioso.


This morning, Ben taught in Sunday School and did an excellent Job. He talked about the historical background of the Bible. Let me know if you want some more info on that. It was all about the validity of the New Testament as a historical document. As silly as it sounds, I sometimes forget that real people from history wrote the Bible. They lived in a different culture and time and that influenced their writing. It was a really interesting lesson.


Pat and Mark left after church and they made our weekend so special. We loved having you here guys!