Birthday marathon day

This weekend, Ben and I flew (go southwest!) to Dallas to spend the weekend with my family. They are so precious. I love them. As I may have said before, I love and crave family time and even more so now that we live in Houston. We flew in Friday night about 7:30. When we got to the baggage claim, my bag never came out! They kept telling us that our flight had just not sent their bags out yet, but that was completely untrue. Ben already had his golf clubs and there certainly was no one else waiting for their bags from flight 50. Finally we filed a claim and my parents took us to get ice-cream nearby. We came back about an hour later and my sweet little pink bag was waiting for me at baggage claim. Someone very irresponsibly put it on the wrong flight to Dallas but I'm thankful it made it at all.

Saturday was our marathon day. Here's how the day went...

First, we left at 8:15 for the FIRST (yes there were more) football game of the day. All three of my nephews play football and so my sister and brother-in-law go to about 3 games every Saturday and countless practices during the week. They are amazing parents. This first game was for my 6 year old Nephew Zach and we were privileged to watch him score a touchdown. After the game, we enjoyed a nice birthday brunch at Mimi's Cafe in Allen complete with eggs, bacon, and a delicious muffin. First Yum Yum of the day to be followed by many more.
Then, we took our FIRST shopping trip. We went to TJ Max and then the Allen Outlet malls, followed by a quick trip home for shower and very light lunch. Next was the 2nd football game - Andrew's, the 10 year old. After that, we had a brilliant idea to go out to Anthropologie and look for a fun birthday purse. We drove out there and it was so fun to shop around in that amazing store. After this, we rushed back home for the birthday dinner. Jacob, my oldest nephew, and I share the same birthday - October 29th, so we were duly celebrated with tacos, lemonade, cake, ice-cream and presents. Oh so fun. And in case you thought we hadn't done enough yet, we raced off to the 7:30 game for Jacob, oh but not after a quick airsoft gun between the boys. The "fun" game resulted in painful welts and muddy jeans...I don't understand. Anyways, by the end of the day, Ben and I hadn't really seen each other much so we left the football game early and went out for coffee. It was a sweet time despite the tiredness. *Sigh* I bet you need a deep breath just after reading that. But even with the craziness, that is my favorite kind of day - full of family fun!!

Sunday we just went to church and watched the Cowboy game and then flew back home. Below are some pics from the weekend.

Zach gearing up for the airsoft game

The birthday people - Lynn 25, Jacob 12 (almost). We're awkwardly high-fiving :)

My brother Keith and I

The delicious cake!

Our Wal-Mart Trip

Today, we went to Wal-Mart. Judging by our purchases, you would have no idea we were professional, mature (we're still working on this anyways), adults in our twenties. My bag: Halloween stickers (for my kids of course), glitter pens, a journal, and neon note cards. Ben's bag: ROCK BAND 2! It was buy your special treat day at Wal-Mart for us.

So, yes, we have Rock Band 2 now. We started a new local tour to unlock all the new awesome songs. I'm Dazzle, Ben's Blazer, and we are from Chicago. Our band name is the Dazzling Blazers. I mainly play the drums and Ben rocks it out on the guitar.

It was a nice day together. We ate lunch at Jason's Deli and then went to the driving range. I usually start out very enthusiastic and pumped up when we go and then about halfway through my pile of golf balls, I start to get discouraged and start hitting bad (really just worse) shots and this just makes things worse. So today, before I went down this slippery slope of despair, I got my Harry Potter book and read on a chair out in the grass behind Ben while he hit the rest of his golf balls. It was such an amazing day outside.

Then we went to see the movie Fireproof. It really makes you think about your marriage and how you treat your spouse. I was definitely convicted of little ways that I treat Ben and ways that I can show him more respect and more love in the way I respond to him or speak to him. We had a good conversation about it afterwards and were very encouraged by the movie. I recommend it.

6 Random Facts

Well, I was honored to be tagged in Becca's blog to write 6 random facts. I will then tag 6 more people at the end of my post. Read my facts, and if your name is at the bottom, write your own set of 6 random facts. Just for fun. Enjoy!

1. I absolutely love sweets - my favorite being chocolate chip homemade (or break and bake) cookies.

2. I have issues with ordering food, especially at new places or at places where I haven't found my "regular" dish. I deliberate over all the different choices - healthy or not, sandwich, soup, fries, fruit...there's just so many choices. I try to imagine the flavor of the food and then decide if that's what I'm feeling like eating. I then try to imagine how I will feel when everyone else gets their food because I hate the ordering regret I so often get. I often come down to the last minute and make a rash, incorrect decision.

3. I speak Spanish almost fluently. Most of you that are reading this know that, but some may not. I'm not a likely candidate - not one drop of Hispanic blood in me, never lived for more than 2 months in a foreign country, and I can't salsa very well. I have been told though that I could look Spaniard with my dark eyes and brown hair - I was ecstatic to hear that.

4. I rode the Limo Bus today to church because we parked off-site. It was incredible and is just like it sounds. Regular bus on the outside, plush limo on the inside with stars on the ceiling, the mood lighting, and cushy fancy seats!

5. I am reading book 7 of Harry Potter...it's amazing! I have never been much of a reader until I got married and Ben is a reader so now I love to read...any good suggestions are welcome.

6. I love routine. I have a routine for everything it seems. I get up, get ready, and drink my coffee in the exact same order and way most mornings. I walk my kids to lunch and pick them up going the same route everyday. I drive to work and home the say way everyday. The things that are not a part of my routine don't get taken care of us much. For something to consistently happen, I have to weave it into my routine. Ben is exactly the opposite. Makes life interesting in the Cooper house :).

So there ya go...hope you know a little more about me now. I now tag...

1. Pat Cooper 2. Jana Mattern 3. Liz Ramsey 4. Jen Lewis 5. Amber Roberts 6. Caroline Traylor

Funny quotes

Teaching bilingual kids can be pretty funny sometimes. Words come out that mean nothing to them, but are pretty funny to me. I'm sure I do the same in Spanish sometimes and people laugh when I'm not looking. Some examples...

Today we started talking about Synonyms. Tough word in English I guess. So one of my kids kept saying cinnamon. "Ooo! Ooo! I know a cinnamon for sad!" So funny. I let it go once, hoping he'd catch on as we all kept saying synonym, but no, he definitely kept saying cinnamon. Then the other kids started copying him...not me...all talking about the cinnamons for sad that they could think of. Quickly, I corrected them and we chanted Synonym together many times during the lesson and again throughout the day.

Next funny story...So this week in science, we are learning about Simple Machines, like inclined plane, screw, wheel and axle, etc. I didn't really know what they were until I taught them last year. Did anyone else never learn them? They were new to me. Anyways, one of them is a wedge. Well, in Spanish, you don't have a silent e. I asked the class, what is the simple machine that is like an inclined plane but moves? One of my sweet little girls cries out WEDGIE! Not many of the other students caught it, probably also thinking in their heads wedgie, but I again, quickly corrected them as I chuckled. No, no, wedge, not wedgie. Haha...just some funny moments from my sweet kids learning English :). I love them!