Happy 24th!

 This past Friday was my BIRTHDAY! I turned the ripe age of 24!

Every year, my birthday just seems to get better and better.

This year, I hinted to my mom and hubs-to-be that I wanted a Silhouette and that they could merge on the effort of getting it for my birthday.Then on the day of my birthday, I told hubs-to-be that instead, I just wanted a wireless printer...and to forget about the Silhouette. I still really wanted it, but I kinda thought that there was really no chance of getting it.
My best girlfriend in the entire world, Lesley, and my maid of honor, came to El Campo for the entire occasion! It was awesome.
I quickly forgot about presents, cakes, parties, and wishes, and began to embrace what really mattered to me. FAMILY.
They are my everything. My wonderful fiance' & my maid of honor, picked me up the wireless printer for my actual present, as well as an inside collapsible wire dog kennel for my princesses. Les, got me TONS of bath & body works products, which is amazing. I used to get boo-coos of pampering stuff in high school and college, now I get kitchen gadgets and hobby machines. So pampering products are super special to me and are rare as gifts!  Then fiance' grilled me a rib-eye steak on our Old Smokey. It was superb. We then went to Dairy Queen for dessert! lol...it was awesome. {I really wanted to make my own cake for my bday, but they both insisted on them making it, but time took over, and a cake was never baked!}  Saturday morning we woke up early and headed to our fishing spot in Surfside. It was the worst day for fishing EVER! 30 mph wind gusts=extremely violent current plus, it was high tide at 10am, which was not good for us. By 11:30 we packed up and grabbed lunch, made a few extra stops, and got home and got ready for an awesome night ahead of us.
Stoney LaRue, a Texas Country artist, was playing at a local pub here in El Campo. He was amazing...we had a BLAST! Some drinks were thrown down, mostly by others, but I was simply there to enjoy the awesome music that rocks my soul.  My parents and lots of family & friends went with us. Before going to the pub we visited with family and celebrated the 4 April birthdays. I got some awesome gifts from them too! A casserole dish & holder, a leather cross, a ceramic canister, 2 necklaces and the biggest present, a SILHOUETTE!
I am so blessed! My mom decided that she could take care of the Silhouette machine for me. I was so excited and it was so unexpected. She also made me a beautiful amber & turquoise Swarovski necklace that I am in love with!
Sunday morning, the three of us headed to church. It was fantastic and refreshing! After church we headed into Sugarland for our Easter dinner with my parents, my aunt and her family, and my Nana. We ate at Carraba's, an amazing Italian restaurant! Yum! 
Overall, It was an AMAZING Easter weekend and Birthday weekend! What an awesome way to celebrate my birthday, with the celebration of Christ's life!
I am so extremely blessed with wonderful, supportive, and loving family. God is just amazing!
HE IS RISEN!!! {here are some pictures from a fantastic weekend}

 the wire kennel for the pups...I think they like it, what do you think?

 gorgeous flowers at our fishing spot...

 hubs-to-be and I on my bday!

 My BFF and I, horrible pic quality

 one of 2 pics i took during fishing {the other is the flowers} Wishing we caught this...but we didnt, it was on the road

 Stoney LaRue

Hubs-to-be with Stoney & his bass guitarist

 Me with Stoney LaRue and his bass guitarist

STONEY LARUE!
{these are all edited through instagram on my iPhone!} 

 

This Past Week...

It's been a few long days since my last post. Here's whats been happening:

11.30: I traveled home to El Campo to get ready for Brian's return home. Got together with my cousin's wife Melissa and her kids, Baylee and Kade and we played Wii Just Dance2. Needless to say, I got a well needed workout!

12.1: I slept in LATE...shame shame...but it felt so wonderful, and I had a massive headache that I couldn't kick the night before! Then took my sick grandmother some leftover Thanksgiving dinner (frozen) and some turkey soup. I got together with Melissa and her family gathered at her house as we all ate stew, watched the kids play, and then put up Christmas lights.

12.2: I woke up, and worked my tail off to get my house clean. My mom and brother arrived at my house from Austin, and then Brian returned home from Pecos an hour later! All of us, plus my aunt, hopped in my mom's truck and traveled to Sugarland to get some grub at Carraba's before the live stream broadcast of Glenn Beck's Broke. The food was wonderful, and Glenn Beck taught me so much. It was a long night of talking with family in El Campo after the show.

12:3: Lack's is going out of business, and I wanted to see what they were offering. We bought a new sectional couch with a coffee table and end table (pictures to be uploaded this week). We got everything half off. Then we all packed up and headed to Austin to meet with my father at Plucker's Wings, and then headed to Johnson City to unpack. Brian and I then traveled back into Austin with our friend (Brian's best man), Justin. A local Texas Country Music Artist, Kyle Park, was playing live at Midnight Rodeo. So we went dancing and had a few drinks, and then headed home after the concert.

12:4: Lazy day, we slept in...hehe...then my parents, brother, Brian and I went shopping for my brother's birthday. We had an experimental dinner at Kona Grill. It was mostly a sushi, and japanese grill. It was an experience, to say the least. We tried sushi, which tasted great, but didn't settle very nicely, lol. But overall their food was great. I'm not sure if we will be going We had a great time, and my brother enjoyed every bit of it!

Brian trying out his chopsticks for dinner!

Birthday Boy eating his red velvet cupcake!

Great picture, besides it being fuzzy from the lighting!

I couldn't resist the look of this...I ate almost the entire thing!!! It was so delish!

Today has been an even lazier day. I have been debating all day about posting, but just didn't have anything special to post...hence the preview of my previous week.

I haven't thought too much about the week ahead of me. I know tomorrow Brian and I will travel back to EC and decorate our house for Christmas, as well as do a few projects around the house. I will be getting our Christmas photo cards printed this next week, and start mailing those out as well.

Brian could leave anytime between Tuesday and December 15 for a job, so I usually don't plan anything because there might be the possibility of him staying home for a few days. He was asked to go back to West Virginia the day he got back from Pecos. He turned the job down, in fear that he would be snowed in before Christmas and woudln't be able to make it home for his actual holiday off.



God Bless,

Great Weekend

This past weekend was great. Brian and I packed up Thursday night (April 23) and headed to Johnson City. When we got there mom had made hawaiin chicken and rice! It was excellent. She made cupcakes for my birthday.

Friday we woke up and headed to Driftwood and ate Salt Lick with Justin. It was awesome as always!

We headed back home and Krista and Cody got there in the afternoon. Krista & LeeAnn got me awesome jewelry for my bday!




The Birthday necklace from LeeAnn




The necklace from Krista.

Cody made me a beautiful cross made of horseshoes and stars! It's amazing!

We hung out at the house Friday night. Mom made roast potatoes carrots and rice & gravy for dinner. She also made an 11 layer Chocolate mousse cake. Had a few margarita's, and beers. We watched a storm roll in. It was awesome!

Saturday morning we woke up and had omelets. Then we drove into Austin and went to Cabenders and Cabela's. After that we showed Krista and Cody around downtown. We drove by the Lonestar State Jam and heard Jason Boland & The Stragglers. He sounded awesome!

We went to Fogo right after that. It was awesome! I love that place. It's so good! We ate so much! Their chocolate mousse cake was amazing as always!

After dinner we were going to go to Midnight Rodeo. But Brian persuaded me to go home instead and drink there and save money. So we didn't end up going to Midnight. We went to the liquor store and got stuff to make buttery nipple shots!

We got home and took shots and made margaritta's. It was relaxing and we danced a lil bit. Krista got pretty toasted. She was tipsy & buzzin for sure. She had a good time until she started getting emotional. We had a LONG discussion about her past and the future. Poor Cody! Lol...

Sunday morning we woke up, and headed into Austin. We went to Austin High to attend the Austin Stone Community Church. It was a very inspirational hour or so. I was overwhelmed by how many people were in love with our Lord. It was an amazing experience. Lots of singing and heartfelt love. The sermon was good. I kind of dozed off into la-la land. But overall, it was an experience I'd like to go through again! I felt really sick once the sermon started. I was cramping and felt like falling on the floor and curling up in a ball. I actually was getting nauseous and lightheaded as we started to leave. I finally took some aspirin and we headed to P.F. Chang's for lunch. It was AWESOME!
John was there at church with us. He seemed moved by the whole experience too. He gave me a DVD, and a book called Fireproof for my bday. He also gave me and Brian an engagement present. It's a book called The Love Dare. It's a book that challenges couples on a 40 day Love Dare.

I got spoiled for the weekend. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday.

Mom and Dad wanted to take me to Cavenders for my bday present. I got cute boots! They're square toed which is different for me. But they look really fancy.

I was in a really bad mood when we were at Cavenders. I wanted to be selfish and Brian wanted me to see a hat that he really liked. I was just moody and didn't care about anything but going home and sleeping. Nothing in that store would fit me. I'm too big for their clothes and belts. I was just not a happy camper.

We left everyone. Krista and Cody headed to San Angelo and mom and dad headed home.

Me and Brian headed to EC and went straight to Aunt Debs house to celebrate Kayla, Randy & my birthdays. We had fajitas and cake. I got $ of course and lottery tickets like normal. Lol...

The night was almost over. We went to Melissa's and watched Avatar (deb bought it for my bday).

I had a great bday wknd. It was awesome.


Monday I went shopping with Melissa and Deb. We went to McAllisters for lunch. It was really good. Then we went to Target, Hobby Lobby and Houston Garden Center. I bought a knockout rose bush, a hibiscus bush and a cute purple flower bush. I also bought a dress and some little things I needed.

Yesterday I didn't do much. I went over to debs for a while and then over to Jackie's to help the kids with their projects. I got home and did some dishes and laundry. Stayed up late & watched TV.

This morning I woke up and made turtle cheesecake fudge. It sounded really good! So I made some, lol. I did some laundry, and I'm about to eat something for lunch. We are really tight on money, so I have to scrounge something up. We have no new groceries and we need alot of house stuff like toilet paper and laundry detergent. We just don't have the money right now to afford anything. I'm not quite sure what we're going to do...I've asked mom for more money. But I hated doing it. I hope me and Brian can figure it out without my parents help. I know I have to get a job, but I really don't want to work and I really don't want to get a job before Garner cuz whoever I work for won't let me have an entire week off. It's so frickin complicated. It sucks.

I have no idea what's going to happen especially the $400 that I need to pay credit card minimums. I know that's not possible, so I will prolly have really bad credit now, if I don't already. Se-la-vi... God will take care of everything for me. I just have to do my part.

For Now & God Bless

*@*


-- Post From My iPhone

My Birthday

Today is my 23rd birthday. I'm still young, but I feel a lil more grown up than I did a few months or a year ago.

It's been a pretty good day I guess. Uneventful really. Memaw & Big Dad were in EC this morning. I slept in til 10 and then met them at the hotel. We went to Los Cucos for lunch with Brian.

They left and I went over to Aunt Debs to visit. We went to walmart to pick out a new bed set for Dustin. Him and his psycho girlfriend of 5 years broke up 2 or so weeks ago. He's finally ready to start moving on after finding out last night that she was seeing someone else. WHAT A BI***!!!

Anyways, after shopping I went and got my oil changed in my truck and then went home and set up stuff to start a jewelry making business with my mom. It may not pan out the way I think it will. We will see.

Well me and Brian are in La Grange. We r driving to JC, to my parents house. It doesn't feel like my birthday today. Saturday & Sunday will feel more like my birthday. Krista & Cody are heading down to Austin/ JC tomorrow night from San Angelo! I'm so psyched about seeing them. That itself is a birthday present alone!

Brian got me a necklace on Tuesday. I got it early cuz he can never wait to give me any present! Lol!



For Now & God Bless

*@*


-- Post From My iPhone

GOD is AMAZING

I meant to post this Monday night...

I am so blessed. God has done nothing but give me every opportunity to succeed in life. He is constantly testing me. Every second of evry day.

Today he challenged me, without a doubt!

I was hired on as a sales associate at Cato here in town. I've worked the position before. It was a year ago, but at a different store. I didn't really think that I would work for them again.

Luckily I got the job. I can't decide if I'm excited or scared, though. I've been through this position before. I liked it before, but I hated the fact that it took my time away from Brian. I couldn't be at his beck and call. I couldn't stay home and cook all day.

I have those same fears. However, I need a job, badly. I want to support myself so I can have the luxuries, at my wedding, that I wish for. The money is probably THE biggest reason I took the job. It was kind of weird though. I thought I was going in for an interview earlier this afternoon. It turned out to be a 4 hour interview and training session. It was a gruling process. It was mostly spent on my manager training another new girl. It was a bit frustrating. But I left happy, knowing that I have a job and that maybe I can save a good chunk of my earnings for the wedding.

Overall it's a good thing. While I was sitting...waiting really...I was ready to run out and say forget it! I was bored and I just wanted to work, not sit for 3 hours doing paperwork in an extremely unorganized backroom/desk. Nonetheless, my manager threw a FIT when I told her I needed this wknd off for travel to Austin for my birthday. Then I proceeded to tell her I needed every other weekend off. She BLEW UP! I was ready to RUN!!! Crazy lady was lucky I stayed for 4 hours. She was very inconsiderate about my time and didn't even thank me for coming in on short notice. I came in an hour after she called for me to meet with her!

I'm going to cry, and be in pain from being on my feet all day. It's going to be a challenging job. Not the actual work, but the fact that I have to work with this insane woman is what's challenging.

Let's just say, I hope it lasts longer than the first time I worked at Cato (which was less than 2 months).


Well it's now midnight. I am working tomorrow from 11-5...
6 hours! It's crazy how I just jumped right in!

Anyways, Good night!



For Now & God Bless

*@*


-- Post From My iPhone

Headed to the COAST

Cato wasn't going to well! Here's my brief schpeel about it.

I told my boss yesterday that I need this weekend off for my b-day to spend time with family, as well as every other wknd to plan my wedding, so her response was,"You work for Cato, Cato doesn't work for you. Your first priority is your job. You, your family and your personal life come after." Let's just say I don't plan on marrying my job. So, after 2 days, I'll be working elsewhere. I don't need the money THAT bad, thanks!

So Memaw & Big Dad came down to EC last night. Brian got off work yesterday and came home early when I was at work. He was all curled up on the couch. But I got home super tired. I had blisters on my feet. Brian had set up a dinner with his dad & Karen in sugarland at Razzoos! It was awesome! We had a good time too!

As we were headed into sugarland, MEMAW called and told us that her & Big Dad were on their way to come & see us for my birthday. They were just driving and thought about heading to palacios to go fishing.

So after a long night and an early morning, I'm in their car, headed to palacios to do some fishing. Brian went down to Alice headquarters this morning at 4pm. He should be getting back into El Campo around 2 or 3 and then he may be joining us in Palacios!

Tomorrow I will be 23! It's crazy! I'm getting old. My time click is ticking and thank God we're getting married in 18 months (to the day tomorrow). Cuz I want to start a family SOON!!!

I'm going fishing.


For Now & God Bless

*@*


-- Post From My iPhone

22 is now OVER!

So...

Today was my 22nd birthday. It was, overall, a good day. This morning was kinda rough. I had severe pains from missing Brian. Not real pains, I was just really upset. It was hard knowing that Brian wasn't going to be here for my birthday. He made it even harder when he told me that I needed to be happy on my b-day. I eventually sucked it up after I had a long shower, and thought about a few things.

The day seemed to be getting worse when I found out that I made an 87 on my Tx History Research paper over Dolph Briscoe. I worked my butt off for a good grade, and it seemed like the instructor couldn't find anything wrong with the layout, the works cited, the documentation, or any of the big structural elements of a research paper. However, she nit-picked at my entire paper and found EVERYTHING that could possibly be wrong. Some of her corrections seemed false and I wanted to call her out on it. I emailed her telling her how I didn't agree with her critiques and how I didn't believe that the grade she gave me reflected my paper. I know, I know, its an 87, but seriously, it was much better than a B+. It was definetely worth at least an A. But no, 3 points wasn't in my paper for her to give me that extra boost of confidence.

So I was pretty darn bummed from the grade I had been waiting on for 2 months!

But the day, eventually did shape up. I got over my 2 year old hissy fit, which was totally plausible to it being my birthday and the circumstances. Me and mom went into Austin and went to dad's office. I faxed out my ASU transcript request for UHV, and we were soon leaving on our way to Costco.

We got to Costco and looked at what computers the offered. It was pitiful and I didn't see anything I liked. So mom walked around the kitchen gadgets and I found an imersion blender that seemed pretty cool. We couldn't find any reason to stay at Costco, so we left and headed to Best Buy.

We arrived at Best Buy and started looking at Wii Games. We found an airplane game as well as the closest Mario game to the first Mario adventure game on nintendo. Then we headed over the the laptops. I looked at a few, but I soon found myself hovering over the HP laptops. They just looked so much prettier than Dell, Toshiba, Sony,etc. I had my eye on a white 14 inch laptop with a white keyboard. It looked a little more sophisticated, but then the sales lady told me that they didn't have any of those in stock, and I had to choose another one. So I got this one

It's nice, and perfect for what I need it for. My old laptop, which is really not that old ( I got it in 2005, but it's a 2002 refurbished) will probably go to Brian. When he goes on jobs out of town, he can take it with him and he can talk to me online instead of wasting his minutes on his phone. Plus, my new computer has a webcam, so all Brian needs to do is to buy a webcam and buy a wireless card from AT&T and we will be able to talk via internet through webcams...Seems like a cool idea, we will see how it works out.

After my parents bought me the new computer, we headed downtown Austin and had dinner at P.F. Chang's. We were kinda disappointed because their portion sizes were a bit smaller than usual, and some of the things we ordered were not that good.

We stuffed our faces pretty well, though, and then we took off to HEB when I heard my voice message from Brian. It sounded like he said he was coming home, but I didn't want to count on it, so I called him. Sure enough, I was right. He said he was planning on coming home tomorrow, Thursday, and that once he got back to Wharton, he would drive to JC to come see me and spend the weekend here. Well me and mom went to HEB and got a Triple Threat Chocolate Mousse Cake!!! YUM! We got home and ate some before I started dilly-dallying with my new laptop.

I'M SO EXCITED!!! I can't wait to see him. It was the perfect birthday news I could have gotten. So I get to see my baby in less than 24 hours!!! yay!!!

So now its time to go to bed. Geez I love to write LONG blogs huh? Not that anyone will care since no one reads this. Its all for me to read when I want to in the future.

So, its off for another night.

God Bless *@*

22 fastly approaching

It's now April 22nd, my 22nd birthday. I've been waiting for this birthday for 22 yrs, well ever since I realized that I love the number 22. It's my lucky number. Both Brian's and my birthday are on the 22nd (his happens to be in January).

However, I really don't think that the big 22 is going to be as special as I would like it to be. Brian is gone, I don't get to be with him on my special day. The one person I really want to be with on my b-day is him, and he's in Louisiana on a job, because no one else at work had the balls to go.

I know its not a big deal in the realm of one birthday that he's missing. I mean he wasn't here to celebrate the first 16, so why is it such a big deal to me? I honestly don't have an answer. Maybe its because he is the one person in the world, besides my family, that ever really remembers? Lately my "friends" have been very forgetful of my b-day. Only very few remember and call me, but most of them probably remember because they see it on facebook or myspace. One in particular forgets every year, and I get so mad for no reason. We haven't seen each other in a year so why does it matter? I think its cuz I knew her and was by her side for 6 years during grade school. So does it surprise me every year that she forgets?....

I've always been very selfish on my b-day. Its just a part of who I am. Is it so wrong to want all of the attention on me for one day? Well I'm not sure.

Its just another day in my book. I will get excessive calls from family, some who care and most that don't. I will be spending it with my mom! Which I'm glad I have my parents to be so supportive of everything I do. I know that they can tell me each year how special I am. I just want the one person that says, "Wow, I'm so glad you were born," to be with me.

I'm bummed, and my mood will most likely not change until this b-day stuff is over, and until I get to see him again. It may be an extra week, so I'm counting on 2 more til he comes home. I'm glad he's making money, but I want him here, right now, in my arms, to celebrate my day.

Well since I'm getting more and more upset, I will head out.
God Bless *@*

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