Bonjour!

A few weeks ago I was very lucky that M was set to have a work conference in France, so of course I tagged along!! We left Houston a few days before the conference was set to start and were off to Paris!

We left from Houston around 4 pm on Saturday afternoon and after a long set back in Newark airport (seriously, no one wants to hear "Folks we are going back to the gate because our brake system is not working properly) (also, no one wants to hear the airline reps say "We have another plane for you but that one is broken too and it's being repaired!!!) we were on our overnight flight to France! We finally arrived in Paris around 1 pm and were ready to do some touring around after checking into our hotel. Jetlag is a major B so pleasssse do not judge these photos. ;) I would have loved to be in a bed but there was no way we were missing our first day in an amazing city!!

Arc de triomphe (I had no idea there was a tomb of an unknown soldier??)

Paris in the fall!!

Crepes, glorious crepes!

Of course we had to add our lock to the bridge and throw away our key forever!

 My favorite!

 It's so hard to comprehend how huge it really is in real life! Amazing!

I just love when it twinkles at night!

 

Yummmmmm.

 

After our visit to the Eifel Tower, we were so exhausted!! We had literally walked for around 5 hours by that point. We grabbed a quick dinner and headed off to our hotel to try to sleep. I'm not sure how you have trouble with that when you are so exhausted but believe me, it happens!! haha.

 

Day 2 coming soon...

2years???

How in the world has it been 2 years since I posted on this thing?? Time flies when you're having fun I guess! So many things have happened since then. Hmmmmmm, where to start? Lets just go with a list, shall we?
-The wedding actually happened and it was so.much.fun. Wish we could have another one!
-Moved grade levels at new school, moved back to old school and have finished teaching a full year there. Too much moving if you ask me. I shall hopefully not move for a very, very long time!
-Celebrated our one year anniversary with a wedding of one of our bffs and a getaway to Hotel Galvez a week or so later
-Lots of our friends have had babies but none of our own yet
-Traveled to Germany and Italy, Nevis for our honeymoon, some really fun girls trips, Gulf Shores with family, Boston and Foxboro, Vegas and an upcoming trip to France!

I'm going for a goal of posting once a month..hopefully I'll be back before another 2years! Haha!

Don't go CAARRAAAAAZZZYYYY!

Wedding planning is in full swing! We are having so much fun taking care of everything and have been relatively stress free! Praise the lord. I feel like M and I both have been to enough weddings that we know what we like, what we don't like, what we think works for us, etc. There hasn't been an arguement at all. (Knock on wood!) Every appointment I have been to has gone something so smoothly and quickly. Hopefully it will continue to be this easy and I'll be the happiest bride on the block!

Lexi and Lola want to know what they need to wear for the wedding??? :)

I definitely feel like the wedding is a great day for everyone to celebrate two people coming together as one but it is more about what is happening than the ceremony or the reception. Of course we want all of our guests to have a great time but our future and marriage is the most important thing and unfortunately, that gets lost in so many people's planning time before the wedding!

I'm so glad we chose to get married in Galveston. I love the old world charm, the small town feel and I have such great memories walking the Strand with my family as a child. Love my time and memories from there. Everything is so historic and I'm so glad that most businesses have bounced back from Ike. There was so much devastation from that hurricane! I pray that we don't have to worry about things like that again for a long, long time!

I'll leave you with one of my favorite engagement photos!

how do you deal with ungratefulness??

in life, you will probably encounter people who are ungrateful. i think everyone does. people who are ungrateful for the services you provided them, people who are ungrateful for things you do for them without anyone noticing, ungrateful for tons of other things. i can deal with most of them. i encounter this type of thing everyday.

i cannot however, deal with people who are ungrateful for their parents.....people who only come back and become grateful when things don't go their way. we should all be grateful EVERYDAY for the things and the people in our lives. no one wants to look back on life and WISH that they had the time back that they spent being selfish and self absorbed.

i personally lived in a loving home, where i was fed a home cooked meal every night, played outside until my heart desired, went on family vacations, never had to ask twice for something i needed and some things i didn't need for that matter but above all of those things....i never had to ask for a kiss goodnight or someone to tell me they loved me or that i was beautiful. never ever. that is one of the single most important things that has molded me into who i am today and the parent i want to become.

be grateful.....don't turn your back on people who have loved you from the day you were born. some people don't have that luxury.

i'm off the soapbox now...have a great night! :)

p.s.....i LOVE my family!

How Great Thou Art......

Here's a song fitting for Easter and everyday for that matter, that brings me to tears EVERYTIME. When I say everytime, I mean it! I've heard it thousands of times and love it more each time it's played. Carrie Underwood did a fabulous job! Happy Easter!

Holy Moly!!

this girl's getting married!

First of all, I cannot believe it. So much so that when M asked, all I could mutter out was..."Are you serious?" (in my most excited voice, of course!) I couldn't be happier and let's face it...it was about time! HA! My favorite guy dropped to his knee in front of "our house" on the front porch and it was so sweet. Love that guy. He totally knows that my birthday is my favorite holiday of the year and made sure it was extra special! He made turning 27 into something great, that's for sure! The boy put a ring on it and I still smile everytime I see it. Bling! :)

Since the engagement, things have just started flying so fast! We have pretty much nailed a date, church, reception venue, catering, engagement pictures and several other things and we've been engaged for a week and a half. Things just keep falling into our lap and working out perfectly! I will take that as a sign from heaven above! I'm sure there will be a few snags but for now, I'm going to have to surpress my feelings of a panic attack and appreciate how easy this whole process has been for us! More details to come soon after the offical booking of the venues! The owner of the reception site is out of town and won't return until mid-April, hence the hold up.

I can defintely announce that the wedding will be in Galveston! One of my favorite places to go! I've been visiting there since I was a small child taking day trips with my family. I've always loved the old world charm and history of the city. I love it even more after the hurricane, it just seems like places with that much history can't be broken by a storm, even when the entire city was pretty much under water. The church we've chosen is currently being restored to all it's former glory, even 2+ years after the storm. I can't wait to see it complete. Yes, it will be done in time for the wedding. The pues (sp?) will be the last thing to arrive and that will be in August. So exciting!

More to come on the wedding front....I should also note that I've heard people talk before about getting "pregnany brain" but I'm pretty sure there should be something called "wedding brain" because I have lost my marbles. I am pretty much forgetting everything but myself on the way out the door these days. Lord help me!

Random....

I'm trying to be better about blogging but the winter weather just makes me feel so blah! I could never live somewhere that is gloomy most of the year. It's safe to say that I will never move to London!

Let's go with a list on this one:

• My poor Lexi girl has a uti. You didn't know dogs got those? This is her second one. Awesome. She is on medication so hopefully it will be gone soon! I seriously feel so sorry for her...
• This requires me to take her outside every 5 minutes. Torture in freezing weather.
• For all of those people who complain about how hot it is, the weather at this moment is why I will take hot weather over cold weather any day. Something about being cold just paralizes me!
• I haven't had more than 16 kids any day this week. They are pretty much all sick with the flu. I am hoping and praying that I have bathed in hand sanitizer enough to keep it away from me. I have had at least 4 absent and sent 1 home on top of that every day this week.
• You would not believe the number of kids who do not know the concept of blowing their nose. I find that hard to believe, but seriously....I have talked about it no less than 20 times this week.
• I can't wait for Valentine's Day...such a happy little holiday. Who doesn't like a day that focuses on love?!?! Even when I was single, I still celebrated. It might have been with a heart shaped pizza from Papa John's but I still celebrated! :)

Gotta run....some little furry pup with sad eyes has to go outside. AGAIN! Let's all hold hands and pray that the sickness that is all around me vanishes soon!