Getting very close!!

We cannot WAIT for our little Ellie to be here!!! We are so ready - though her nursery may not be just yet. :) just one more month to gland we will have a little tiny baby girl. Sometimes it's so hard to believe it! But all the onesies and adorable outfits covering our living room right now are making it much more real. :)

How far along? 35 weeks 2 days
Baby's size: the average for 35 weeks is 5 and 1/4 lbs... Pretty sure she's a bit bigger than that, but close
Maternity clothes? YES. Or just giant giant t shirts and sweats
Stretch marks? Sadly, yes. Have some pretty bad ones on the under side of my belly where most of her weight rests. Hopefully they will fade!!
Sleep: good in between the difficult and sometimes painful rolling over, and getting up to use the restroom. Getting to be not so much fun.
Best moment this week: picking out some clothes for her, seeing Clint fall in love with little outfits for her, doing the tiniest laundry ever and marveling athow small size newborn really is!! (have had wonderful showers since last post as well, so so special, we are so blessed!)
Movement: she's still a good little mover and never stops for too long, but definitely must be close quarters in there
Food cravings:  Not really. Still drinking milk all the time. Wanting to cook.
Anything you loved before that you absolutely cannot eat anymore?: Nope!
Have you started to show yet: people stare at me in public as if I should not be out. They elbow each other and say "look at her" in Spanish as if I don't understand them. It's weird but kinda fun :)
Gender prediction: girl girl girl, our house is full of pink and ruffles and cuteness!
Labor Signs: nope, not a single Braxton hicks, and she is still super high up
Belly Button in or out? Flat/out. Stretched to the limit!
Wedding rings on or off? Off! Got another even bigger fake ring to wear. Ugh.
Happy or Moody most of the time: happy. Mostly very happy and excited. Happy tears threaten often, definitely have my moody moments though!
Weekly Wisdom: Newborn outfits don't look like a human can actually fit into them. More like doll clothes!
Milestone: not sure about her, but our to do list is finally starting to dwindle down. 4 weddings left, wrapping up our editing, nursery slowly shaping up, getting so ready!!

Baby Brock!

How far along? 22 weeks 3 days
Baby's size: 11 inches head to toe :)
Maternity clothes? Yep! Or just comfy clothes or longer shirts
Stretch marks? nope
Sleep: can't seem to wake up at a decent hour... But I guess that's normal for me, haha
Best moment this week: Clint and I SAW movement from the outside! It's also now fairly easy to feel if you are patient.
Movement: yep, this girl is very active when I'm still and quiet and seems quite strong already!
Food cravings:  not too bad. Oj, sparkling grape juice, grapefruit
Anything you loved before that you absolutely cannot eat anymore?: don't tend to eat as much of the meat in things as I normally would.
Have you started to show yet: oh yeah! Showed our little girl off at a holiday party in a little black dress. Fun!
Gender prediction: found out it was a girl right before thanksgiving! So excited!
Labor Signs: nope
Belly Button in or out? in, but getting shallower by the day!
Wedding rings on or off? Off! Too nervous about getting them stuck! Wearing a fake in a bigger size, haha, it's awkward when I get compliments on it
Happy or Moody most of the time: happy. Mostly very happy and excited but tired. Happy tears threaten often, definitely have my moody moments though!
Weekly Wisdom: shooting weddings is much more emotional, but makes me pray often that this little one will have a hubby as loving as her daddy is. It begins!!!
Milestone: seeing and feeling big movements, loving it! Bought first decoration for her room and the cutest dress ever at h&m! So much fun!!

We love her so much already!!

Summer!!

These are in the freezer, hardening as we wait!!



I'll let you know how the recipe turns out and will post it if they are good. It's from Everyday Food and sounds yummmmmy! :) Happy Summer!

Saturday morning

So far today, I:

-sent Clint off to golf with his dad and brother at 6:45AM
-for some reason, did not get back in bed after send off.
-saw Charlie basking in the sunrise in the backyard (we are dogsitting at my parents) and decided to join him with some coffee and a good book.
-yelled at Charlie for spilling my coffee (all over the book, the blanket I had laid out and a Bible) and felt immediate remorse from the sweet look on his sad little face (he was only trying to have some fun!)
-got more coffee, spilled it all over myself as I sat down to read again, and felt more remorse
-read anyway without cleaning up second spill
-noticed GIANT mosquitos circling and decided to read inside (which Charlie was happy with bc he was getting hot anyway)
-read inside, had some diet coke, scrambled eggs, tuna and popsicles as it kept feeling like lunchtime but was only in the nines
-brushed Charlie so he would be pretty for going to Lorie and Rogers later
-Read Acts 1 and was confused about the basic drawing of straws for the new 12th disciple (doesn't that seem weird?!), researched a bit and realized they did not have the Holy Spirit yet, so what else were they to do without Jesus there but pray and trust that God would choose the right straw?
-Decided to look up the verses referred to by Peter as prophesy about Judas and was surprised to find they didnt't refer to Jesus or Judas at all (can you tell I have usually taken their word for it on references to the old testament??)
-Searched for a commentary, found many that skipped over that part of Acts 1, finally found one that said the verses are originally about David, who is a "Christ figure" and his enemies...which makes them allude to Christ and Judas, His "enemy." I guess most places the references are vague like this. I don't know why I thought they were all perfectly obvious before (probably bc I had never looked them up!) Any thoughts on that?
-Read a blog I am currently obsessed with and reading from start to finish like it is a book (Bring the Rain)
-smashed a bug, then left the shoe on top of it until Clint gets home because I do not want to pick it up
-eaten more popsicles (they are only 15 calories!)
-got a text from Clint that he is winning!
-Blogged a play by play of my day because I haven't blogged in 5 weeks and I'm feeling guilty.

Does that sound like a do-whatever-I-want-all-day day so far or what? It has been delightful but also I am not an alone time person for the most part so I am ready for my hubby to get home.

Tonight we are celebrating Father's Day with Lorie and Roger and then on Monday with my family since the rents are in Nashville this weekend.

I hope this weekend is nice for you as well. Isn't the summer weather wonderful?! (from sitting inside in the AC....horrible if you have to be out in it for too long) Something about summer just makes me happy. I'm off to get really sweaty taking Charlie on a walk, but he will be a happy puppy so I don't mind. (and I won't feel so bad about eating an unnamed double digit number of popsicles. yes i am still on the bodybugg bandwagon. i would love for you to get one and let me help you set it up. love it.) Happy saturday to you!


Me and Charlie reading :)

I am BUSY

Really really really busy!!!

So sorry for my lack of posting, and for the fact that this post will not be cool. Work is crazy right now and at times it is overwhelming working for two different people who both have May as their busiest month of the year. Trying to keep perspective and remember how thankful I am not to have to begin a summer of being the Ambassador of Fun in a few weeks. It's already too hot outside for that!! Thank goodness I work inside this summer. :)

Biggest Loser is on tonight and we are getting closer and closer to the finale and I'm just so excited!! Can't wait until 30 more minutes pass and I can watch! The plan is to clean during commercials as our apt is MORE than a wreck. Busyness will do that to an apartment, but even moreso since I'm not great at keeping it clean in the first place. Eek! (some of you may have seen the kitchen picture on facebook after baking my mom an Italian Cream Cake for Mother's Day...the kitchen has improved SLIGHTLY since then, but not much)

If anyone watched the Undercover Boss episode with 7-11, come see Igor at the NEW 7-11 store in our little shopping center by our apartment! We are so excited!! Igor is so cool. He was a delivery driver who was just so thankful for the "American Dream" and being able to get a job. He and his wife worked different shifts and barely saw each other, but he still had so much joy just because he was thankful for what he had. Joe DePinto (the undercover CEO of 7-11) gave him his own 7-11 store at the end of the show - and little did we know it would be in our backyard! Hooray! I love 7-11. Got coffee there this morning and it was splendid!!

We are having VERY annoying internet problems that cause me to have to disconnect the wireless network and reconnect it all the time. The process takes a couple minutes and its really annoying. Hence I haven't wanted to use the internet much as it puts me in a bad mood!

Here is the recipe for the Italian Cream Cake I made. It turned out wonderfully despite a couple of mishaps and redos! (turning on the blender and sending buttermilk everywhere, overbeating the egg whites, realizing I only greased, didn't flour the pans AFTER I put them in the oven and taking them back out, washing the pans, regreasing AND flouring...but it still worked!!)

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/desserts/decadent-italian-cream-cake/

* CAKE BATTER:
* ½ cups Butter, Room Temperature, No Substitutes
* ½ cups Good Shortening
* 2 cups Sugar
* 5 Large Eggs, Separated
* 1 cup Buttermilk
* 1 teaspoon Good Vanilla
* 2 cups All-purpose Flour
* 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
* 1 teaspoon Salt
* 1 cup Shredded Or Flaked Sweetened Coconut
* 1 cup Chopped Pecans

* FOR FROSTING:
* 1 stick Butter, Softened
* 1 package Cream Cheese (8 0z.), Softened
* 1 teaspoon Good Vanilla
* 1 pound Powdered Sugar
* Chopped Pecans For Garnish

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream butter, shortening and sugar in a large mixing bowl with electric mixer. Add egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well after each. Add buttermilk and mix well; add vanilla.

Sift flour, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl; add coconut and pecans and toss together well, then stir into wet ingredients. Mix well by hand.

In another bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Fold gently into cake batter, then divide batter into 3 greased and floured round cake pans.

Bake 20-25 minutes at 325 degrees, or until lightly browned and cake tests done when a toothpick is inserted near the center. Cool thoroughly on wire racks in pans.

While layers are cooling, prepare frosting. Cream butter and cream cheese together in a medium bowl; add vanilla, and gradually add powdered sugar, beating until smooth.

Carefully remove cakes from pans and brush off crumbs. Place bottom layer on serving plate, top with frosting. Place second layer over first, top with frosting, then place the last layer. Frost the cake, then sprinkle with chopped pecans as desired. You can cheat and make this with a white cake mix, but it’s just not the same.

Keep cake refrigerated.

ENJOY!!!!! (I just stole a piece of my mom's at her house...Mmmmmm!)

Love :)

What a wonderful Valentine's weekend! We relaxed a lot, saw Aunt Lea and Uncle Jake who were in town from Amarillo, watched the Olympics, and celebrated!

On Saturday when I got back from Ashley's shower (fun!) I found this:



What a sweet husband I have. (That little candy is a ring pop, my favorite!)

That evening we went to Kara (Clint's step sister) and Jason's house to hang out with Aunt Lea and Uncle Jake who were in town. Jason had smoked a bunch of meat including ribs and it was soooo good!! I even accepted their offer to give me some to take home and didn't share any of the leftovers with Clint. Poor thing! :) Now I want a smoker! (It turns out Aunt Lea had to go to the hospital last night unexpectedly for what they thought was a heart attack, but it didn't end up being one. So keep her in your prayers.) We had a great time with the kiddos too!

The next morning Clint found two pettifores from Stein's (his favorite) and a funny Valentine's card. He also started my morning right with this:



MMMmmmm. I love these. He gave me one in my stocking at Christmas and I was hooked.

I also gave him a Starbucks card...I've had one since Christmas that I have been using and I know he was jealous, haha, so it was the perfect gift! :)

We enjoyed a very relaxing day including lunch at Aboca's - an amazing hole in the wall Italian restaurant you MUST try if you live in Richardson - with Clint's dad. Thanks Keith! :)

After moving back the reservation from 7:30 to 8 because I wasn't ready yet, we headed to Koto for some yummy sushi. It's just right by our apartment, so we walked which was fun but FREEZING. We had a great time and were so glad that it turned out to be really yummy! It was our first time to try this place and we were pleased. We ordered off of a special valentine's menu that included the "Lover's Roll" which was even wrapped in pink soy paper. So cute!



The calamari and rock shrimp were also quite tasty. It was a lot of fun! I love my cute husband so much! :)



He confessed that he had just shoved the flowers in the vase however he could get them to fit, so I had some fun arranging them. I've always loved arranging flowers! So pretty! Can't wait to see them bloom.




Happy love day! :)

Baby Rose is coming!!!

Katy is in labor right now! Just wanted to post so that anyone who saw this could pray for the Roses. I love you guys and I hope baby Rose's birthday is wonderful! This is such a special day!! I'm so happy and couldn't be more proud of you!

7-Eleven, Bodybugg, Family

Just took a wonderful walk with Charlie, Clint and my mom to 7-Eleven. We used to take the same walk when we were little and it was the highlight of the WEEK! I can remember picking flowers for the cashiers along the way and happily presenting them to him as we bought our slurpees. We also thought it was cool that Laine's birth weight was 7lbs 11 ounces so it was kind of her store. 7-Eleven is really a great store. Having worked with them now for a while (I work for their Dallas PRC on Tuesdays and Thursdays), I have really noticed how nice and hardworking everyone involved is. And they put out a quality product. It's like a happy little family...and it has been a part of my family since I can remember. I love 7-Eleven! If I was rich, I think I might even like to own one.

Part of the reason for the walk was to rack up some extra burned calories on my Bodybugg. If you don't know what a bodybugg is, as lots of people I have found do not...watch biggest loser!! Haha.

It is quite a little wonder. Very motivating...and motivation is not something I have been able to find in the last long while....like since our wedding! I have worn it for the past almost 4 weeks straight and have LOVED it. I'm threatening to become a salesperson for them on the side bc I love it so much. I got it from my parents for Christmas and got the digital display (the watch looking thing) from Clint Dad and Trish for Christmas. It's a pricey combo but totally worth it. It also comes with online software and a subscription so that you can upload your burned calories (you connect the bodybugg through usb) and enter your calorie intake. It tracks everything and shows you how much you should be losing if you are entering your food correctly. One of the best things about it is that it shows you how little it takes to burn a few extra calories in a day. A nice walk, playing some intense Guitar Hero (we have had two noise complaints since I realized this burns a good amount of calories!), simply standing instead of sitting, going to the mall to window shop instead of watching tv...so many enjoyable, non-exercise things can add to your burned calories and really help you have a good deficit for the day. If you do go running or something, it does it a lot faster, but it shows that all you have to do is try to be active and get yourself moving a little. And then you don't have to eat dry salad and grilled chicken all the time, you have some room. I believe I have probably had one indulgent thing every single day since starting this "diet," and I have still lost the amount of weight I was aiming for (so far). It's just keeping in mind how much you have had and choosing what/how much to eat with your brain instead of your eyeballs/how-much-do-I-want-it-o-meter. It's like a little game. Yesterday I entered all my food and pressed submit and it came out to my EXACT goal of 1650 calories. I raised both hands in the air in celebration (Clint said I looked like Brett Favre) at my preciseness. And, even if you do go over on calories because someone made chocolate cake or bought you dinner out...just play a little extra Guitar Hero at the end of the night. :)

Baby Rose has not showed up so far, so continue to pray for the wonderful Rose family who are in anticipation of his arrival! I'm so excited for them and their new family. I can't believe my best friend is having a baby!! I love you Roses and I know you will be the best parents ever. I'm glad yall are gong first because I know I will have a lot to learn from yall and you will be wonderful examples!

New Year's thoughts...including more blogging!

(please excuse the acorn background...no time to change it at the moment!)

Well, does blogging every 5 weeks or so count as blogging more? I don't really think so. I need to blog more so all my blogs won't be about how I never blog. Wow. That's a lot of blogs. I'm going to get a blogging application for my phone and try to think of blogging as more of a journal and less of a "I have to retell everything that's happened since I last blogged." In fact, I think I'll download the app as I type. :)

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Years with friends and family. I just love being with people I love, doing nothing or everything or anything. It is the best. Good thing I live with one of the ones I really love doing anything with and get to see the others (some of them...others I don't get to see as much as I would like!) as much as possible. So thankful for all the wonderful people in my life. So blessed. So thankful that Jesus came to give us all life and that we get to celebrate Him in such a neat way during the Christmas season. I hope to continue that celebration throughout my life this year.

Well, House is recorded on the DVR, and I must stick to my plan, though I am tempted to upload tons of pictures and tell you about everything that has happened since my last blog. Next time I'll tell you about my bodybugg, another time about our new apt (jan 30!) another time about how Dave Ramsey is whipping us into shape. I'll also remind you to pray for the Roses and their little baby Rose who is coming any day now. I'll actually blog about the title of this post, New Year's thoughts...once I get them all together or have a few. Happy New Year to everyone! Thanks for being a part of our 2009!

Gotta Keep It Up!

Trying to keep blogging regularly again...

Right now I'm watching House, drinking a nice and frosty diet coke, sitting by my sweet husband. It is quite nice!

We are one month into Dave Ramsey's plan as of tomorrow and we are more than halfway through with our mini emergency fund, the first step! We surpassed our goal and are quite pleased with ourselves :) Next month we may decimate the savings with Christmas gifts, but at least we won't be using any credit for them! Once we move apartments, we can REALLY get going! Wahooooo. Also refinancing my car loan and getting a better rate, paying it off earlier AND paying almost $100 less a month. GO REFINANCE!! If you are with Viewpointbank already, there is no fee, nothing to lose. Very nice!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving/21st bday for the twins weekend! It was so much fun to hang out with the kiddos while they were home. They are the coolest siblings ever. We spent the night almost the whole break over there and had a blast. LOTS of yummmmmmy turkey and stuffing (thanks to mom!), games, bday celebrations, staying up late and sleeping in! Can't wait til Christmastime when we can hang out again!!!

Also found out Laine is moving home after graduating this December! We're so excited we'll get to see her so much more. YAY Laine!! :) (Mom and Dad were super happy too...this is my mom's recurring hope that every child will move back home at some point! :))

We are keeping Jon Jon, our nephew this weekend and are really excited! Anyone have any tips or fun ideas for us to do? I was thinking we could make and decorate Christmas cookies, but I guess that's kinda girly. I know Clint wanted to bike with him, but it has rained alot so the trails might be closed. (Jon Jon's quote when Clint was surprised his mountain bike didn't have gears: "My legs ARE my gears!!") Any ideas?

Well, sorry this post is boring, but I don't have the energy/patience to put pictures up. At least I'm blogging!! Woo hoo!

Catch up post

It always seems really daunting to update after I haven't in quite awhile. I feel like I need to have some awesome post, complete with pictures recreating the last months to you guys. But, if that's the case, then I will never do it. I think I will just allow myself to blab about whatever I wish instead, maybe with some catch up included. :)

This weekend was our Thanksgiving with Lorie and Roger and the fam (Clint's mom and stepdad). Jared was in town so we decided to stay the weekend at Lorie and Roger's. Clint and Jared had a golf day on Saturday and enjoyed the awesome weather while Lorie, Roger and I cooked, went to Sam's for the holiday sample feast, Lorie, Kara and I did our nails and toenails, and just had a leisurely day in general. It was quite wonderful! Then Sunday was the big thanksgiving feast with the whole family. If I get around to it during this post, I'll upload some pics from the weekend from my phone. We cooked up a storm and had a wonderful meal and time with family. Then Clint and I decided to stay over one more night and just go to work straight from their house Monday morning. Woo hoo! I have had some bad allergies and just didn't feel like driving/riding home and or getting anything done at the house.

Homemade croutons for our Thanksgiving salad - cheaper AND yummier than buying them! (Lauren N - thanks for teaching me how!)

I'm really liking my job(s) and having a great time at all the events that come with them. I'm so thankful to work for such great people! In the past few weeks we have been working on: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 release, Maserati GranTurismo Convertible unveiling, Coca Cola Dallas Elevators Kick Off Pep Rally, New Moon Advance screening ticket giveaway event, Star Trek release, New Moon screening, and many other little details. It has been bussssyyyyy!

The new Maserati GranTurismo Convertible! Prettyyyyyy

Rock T from 97.9 The Beat MCing our Dallas Elevators event!

Leigh Ann and I "posing with" the New Moon cast! We had a green screen station at our event that created these for everyone. Fun!

Clint and my Dad have been working hard on the release of DragonFire SDK, the first software development kit that allows you to write iPhone apps - in Windows!!! Until now, programmers had to have a mac, learn the mac programming language, and then create an app to send to the app store. With DragonFire SDK, they can create and test apps using Windows code they already know ON a PC! Clint has had lots of fun with it so far, including creating the website for DragonFire and the graphics for their first app, Unstacker, that is used as an example of the first iPhone app to be created in Windows. It's free - download it from the app store! If you want to check out DragonFire SDK, go to dragonfiresdk.com - send it to anyone you know who might want to create an app!

The awesome logo Clint created!

Angela, Lauren N. and I also threw Katy's baby shower since my last post. It was SOOOOOO wonderful to get to see Katy and celebrate baby Rose. I am SO very excited about his arrival and am just dying to get myself up to NY to see him somehow. It was a great time with friends, I enjoyed it so much! It was so wonderful to get to hang out with Katy, even just for a little bit. She is such a dear friend and I miss her so much these days! It was so great to be able to share in this amazing time of life with her.

Clint, myself, Lauren and Ricardo ran the 5k they talked us into! It was fun, tiring and a success! It got Clint and I thinking about options as far as training for something, but so far I can't really think about running more than 3 miles. Not sure what we will do but we need to do something! It was a good time, thank you guys for telling us about it! Good luck on your 8 mile turkey trot! -- They weren't able to talk us into that one!

Before the run...we look much happier than we did afterwards!

Book club has begun. One day after work I went in to Barnes and Noble to just look through the book and maybe read a bit, since I was planning to buy it on Amazon for about half of what B&N offer it for. I ended up reading about half of the book sitting at B&N! If you know me, you know I am notorious for this, I just can't put books down! But now I'm thinking...maybe I don't need to buy it after all! A couple more trips to the bookstore will do it! :) ...To book clubbers - I teared up at least 3 times in just the prologue and the first few pages...get ready!! :)

This happened awhile ago, but I don't think I ever posted about it: Jillian's first OFFICIAL EP came out on iTunes!!! This album is really pro quality, it was produced by a wonderful friend of Jillian's named Chris August. It has a nice sampling of several of her songs, showing the different kinds of music she writes, plays and sings. Her myspace has a link to it on iTunes, as well as her upcoming show dates, where you can buy a physical copy and get the cutely designed cover. myspace.com/jillianedwardsmusic. You can also hear many of the songs there. More news to come on her budding career. Good things are happening! :)

Buy it on iTunes here!

I should really split these things up into different posts huh? That way it wouldn't seem like there was so long in between posts! Oh wellllll. I'm long winded.

On more thing...Clint and I have become Dave Ramsey followers! November was our first month on our new budget and it has gone very well! We HAVE occasionally slipped and called him "Damn Ramsey" (Freudian!!), but it's more love than hate in the love/hate relationship. I promise it is, Dave!! I know when we get to call in and yell "We're debt free!!" in 8098340698 years, we will be loving you more than ever. Anyway, it's nice to have a good budget in place and to know we are ready for Christmas, at least. Hooray for talk radio!

We also got to go see the So You Think You Can Dance Tour! It was awesome! This was a birthday present from Lorie & Roger and Angela & Charles. Thanks guys!!

So much fun!

CHARLIEEEEEE!

We decided to steal Charlie for part of the weekend, and here is what ensued:

Lots of fun...

(learned a tiny bit on photoshop to do these, that was exciting!)







Adorable cuteness...











And a little mischief...





Doesn't that face just look like he's up to something?? :)

We love Charlie! We're so glad he likes to sleepover every once in awhile. :)

We may be what some call a little "Charlie obsessed," but we don't mind and are proud of it!! (ahem, Jill, Cole and Laine)! If you're going to be obsessed over a dog, why not over the best one ever? :)

Fall, birthdaying, jobs, and talk radio

It's Fall! I love it! We have the windows open right now and it is WONDERFUL!

Clint's birthday was this past week and we had a lot of fun. I gave him some jeans he had been wanting (and that I had been wanting him to have;)) and the Garmin Forerunner 305 for biking! It shows all sorts of things like the map of the ride where you can compete with your own last ride and your heart rate, speed, altitude, calories burned (you put in the weight of your bike and everything!), and then you download it all to your comp and use the cool software to analyze it (and google earth). He is excited about it! We had a relaxing day and lots of fun. :) I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful husband and I LOVE celebrating him as much as possible! We also went camping with his family last weekend and had a blast. Then we stayed the next night in Waco and watched the Cowboy game (grr) with Cole, Jill, and Amber! It was so much fun. I love them. :)

I started my new job this week. I'm working part time with the marketing company I've been working with and the rest of the part time with a PR company that I met through Hawaiian Falls. I have really enjoyed it so far and can't wait to really get going with it. I love the people I work with and am enjoying the work itself a lot too, so yay!

Ugh, the Cowboys aren't doing so well huh? Booooooo. This has made me start listening to the ticket after the games during the week, which then made me start listening to other talk radio in hopes of finding the Dave Ramsey show. Then I realized it had been a week and all I had listened to was talk radio! So I'm on a talk radio streak. Anyone know any good talk radio channels or shows?

What have we been up to?

Wow it's been awhile!! But I'm back in blogging world, at least for today.

And today is a special day because HUDSON PETTIJOHN was born!!!

He looks so adorable, doesn't he?! I love him already. I'm so proud of Nat for delivering him too! Way to go girl!! Love you guys! I really wish I could be there!

Since that is the most recent news, I guess I'll go backwards from that to fill you in. Let's see. Currently I'm finishing up working at Hawaiian Falls for the summer (I am an Ambassador of Fun there - which deserves its own post) and am looking HARD for a teaching job. I made it into the teaching pool at RISD, but there are no math positions open right now, so for now, that's a no go. I'm signed up to sub if nothing works out. Also applying everywhere else and trying to find "ins" to get an interview. If you have any ideas, let me know!

Clint's dad is recovering very well from his heart surgery, and we are so thankful for that!

One of my best friends in the world in pregnant, and I'm SOOOOO excited!! I love you Katy and Kristian and baby Rose! :)

We kinda totally failed on The Zone Diet. Right after we started Clint's dad had his heart attack, and I was taking my math content test, getting a new job, etc. Things got hectic and stressful and there was not time to calculate and cook each meal perfectly. Grr! It really is a great diet and we are starting to do it a little more in a moderate way.

We have started running! By started I mean we will run for the 3rd time tonight. Our goal is a 5k with a tenative half marathon in the future (why do I ALWAYS type marathong??) We found out that the drive in front of our apt is a half mile around, so that makes it really easy. We've only done a mile at a time so far, but tonight I think we are trying for 2 (or maybe 1.5). I hope the running bug gets me again. I loved to like running last time! Haha.

We went to Del Lago over the 4th with my family. It was a lot of fun! My family used to go there for little vacations some summers, it is resort on Lake Conroe, but we had heard they redid the resort and WOW!! It was amazing!! I loved it. I need to post some before and after pictures from when we were little and we went. It even has a little waterpark now. We had tons of fun and watched the most amazing fireworks in the most perfect place - right underneath them! I've always loved fireworks, but I always wish I could be closer to them, so that I can lay down and look straight up and they are right there. And that is what we got!! We even had pieces of cardboard from the fireworks falling on us. It was so wonderful and romantic too! I can't believe it was our second 4th of July married. Time flies!!!

Clint also did something sweet for me during our blogging hiatus. I was putting off getting my hair highlighted bc I like getting it done at this one place by a sorta expensive haridresser and since I have been kinda in between jobs we were low on money. Clint secretly made an appointment for me and told me we were going to brunch with his parents. Then he drove me to the hair place instead! He is so sweet. AND on top of that, while I was there he secretly took my car and washed and cleaned it, inside and out! And if you've ever been in my car, you know that is a big job. :) He is such a sweetie! And then the other day I woke up and he had cleaned out and vacuumed out my purse for me! I don't deserve him. :)

Well, that is all I can think of to update you with for right now. I probably have some pictures in my camera to post later of some of these things. Glad to be back in blog world. Thanks for not getting mad at me while we were gone!! :)

This might seem stupid...

but we are starting another blog! I realize we have not posted on this one in quite awhile, but hopefully having another will help us get back on the bandwagon. Our new blog can be found at

Life in the Zone - Hopefully

and will be our journal of our new fitness and diet plan. We'll keep track of progress, struggles and general thoughts and changes on what we are doing. We are really excited about this and I hope you'll read it so that we will have to stay accountable, haha.

In other news, I am studying to become a 4-8 grade math teacher! I take my test a week from Memorial Day and then will be eligible for hire! So, if you know anyone who needs a brand new teacher, ha, let me know. :) I'm also looking for a summer job until I get a teaching job, so any info on that would be great too.

The kiddos have been back in town from school and we've been having fun with them. It's so fun to have the whole family together!

Let me know what you think of our new blog! We are loving the new plan so far and in fact in quite full from my yummy breakfast right now. :) We'd love to chat with anyone about it!

blogging!

So, we thought we'd start video blogging now that we have a camera...but that isn't so much happening and honestly I don't feel like people like it as much. Or maybe it is just bc we haven't been posting consistently lately. Let me know if you have a preference.

Lately we've been playing a lot of Guitar Hero World Tour. I'm the drummer and Clint's the guitar hero. It's quite intense. The other night we had been playing for about an hour and I realized I had been sweating for awhile!! So I guess it's a little healthier of a habit then sitting on the couch watching tv, at least. AND I'm beginning to think I'm an actual drummer...so I might have to try to learn for real. Then I could say I play like...4 instruments (not to say I play any of them well enough to actually claim them, but it would sound cool at least). Right now Clint is practicing up on the drums. I think he is trying to make sure there is still nothing that I am better than him at in the video gaming world. Maybe THE coolest thing about it all is that we got to make our own rockers that look like us. Well, they are crazy rockstar versions of us, at least. We'd love to come have anyone play with us! It's a lot of fun and we crack up at each other a lot. Wow I talked a lot about Guitar Hero!!!

In other news, I got a free magazine subscription (Marie Claire - not my fav but it'll do for free!) from our coke rewards points! We've since stopped buying diet coke so I don't die early from some kind of aspartame poisoning, but my days of being a total diet cokaholic paid off. Pretty cool!

I'm not sure if I have told the blogging world about our breadmaker we got for Christmas from my parents, but we love it! We have made white bread, cinnamon swirl bread (twice! it's Clint's favorite favorite), and we just tried rosemary bread - like Macaroni Grill's - the best ever! It came out pretty close! It's so nice to be able to make something SO homemade without making too much of a mess. And it's SO yummy!

At work we launched the new website - tangle.com - after much hard work and anticipation. My profile is tangle.com/laurenbrock. Be my friend :)

I'm working lately on having a positive attitude in different situations. I've found that it actually does work if you just look at the positive and stay joyful, life is in general, better. I usually try this in the morning when I'm usually grouchy and really not wanting to be awake. Just smiling and knowing this day is one God planned for me makes me joyful and helps me realize all that I have to be thankful for. And that really helps me not be so grumbly. Just a random little idea I've been working through. :) Contentment.

Read the whole Twilight series in a couple weeks. Loved it. SO good. I'm a big fan. I need some more books to read. Also read The Shack. Anyone heard of it? I thought it was great...did I hear that it was controversial? Any thoughts? Any book recommendations?

We've been eating chili like manly men. We had a huge thing of ground beef that was on sale, had to defrost it all, made an insane amount of really good chili, and are trying to finish it in time. It's pretty funny. And yummy.

Valentine's Day is Saturday and I have Monday off!!! Wonderfulness! I can't wait. Our first one married. :) Happy Valentine's Day everyone! <3

Fun at the Dog Park and Not So Fun at the Dog Wash

We got a new video camera! And Charlie is the cutest/funniest thing ever!