A Fun Evening with Friends

Ok, so anyone who knows me knows that I am not a sports enthusiast. I find myself at sporting events all the time because I support the people in my life who have a passion for it, but it is certainly not my idea of a good time. So, when friends from church told us about a fun evening at the ballpark, I was like, "Oh, yippee." Casting Crowns, one of my favorite Christian bands, was performing at the ballpark first though, which did make me eager to go. I can't say that I watched much of the game at all - my husband told me we won :) - but I did end up having a fantastic evening. We have great friends and just spending the evening with them made it all worth it. Oh, and we discovered that they sell "All You Can Eat" seats. This is definitely the way to go to the ballpark. They've opened up a huge restaurant above the covered seats in this area where you can go and hang out in the air conditioning for the entire evening, if you choose. And they were right about the "all you can eat" part. They set up a buffet that included nachos, hot dogs, grilled chicken sandwiches, in addition to huge bins of popcorn and peanuts with boxes you could fill to the brim. The only disappointing thing to me was that although drinks were also included, your only choice was soda. All I wanted was water but strangely enough, that wasn't a choice. Anyway, if you feel like going to a Rangers game any time soon, I definitely suggest you buy these tickets. In the past, we've paid between $15-$20 for decent tickets and these with food included were only $30. When a small bag of peanuts or a bottled water already runs you $4.50 out there, it's definitely a steal!

10 Years!!

Wow! It's crazy to think that 10 years

have just flown by! More than that, it is insane when I think back and realize we were just barely older than the kids I teach when we met. We have spent over half of our lives together, and yet I am still in awe of God's goodness and provision when I look at my life and the blessing of my husband. As I stare at these pictures from our wedding, I am reminded how much we have changed (and not just physically!). I think it's awesome to think of how we have grown up and grown in love with each passing year. And my husband is still every bit the romantic that he was from our youth. I still get poems and flowers and just sweet, goofy messages all the time. I always used to wonder if saying and hearing "I love you" would become so second-nature that it lost all

significance, but I can confidently say that this is not the case. We probably say it multiple times every day to each other, and it still makes me all tingly inside. Even now as I sit here by myself (Brian is out of town for three days at the regional track meet), I find myself sad, somewhat bored and very much missing him. It breaks my heart when I hear others say that they would give anything for their husbands to leave them alone for the weekend. Of course, I understand the significance of alone time, the need to be by yourself, but I guess for me, I just enjoy spending time with my spouse so much that it burdens my heart to hear others express less of a connection with theirs. When I was in Paris and Brian sent me roses at the hotel I was staying in, one lady (bitter much, might I add???) made the comment that we must be newlyweds. When I responded that we would be celebrating 10 years of marriage, she then said it must be because we don't have kids. Granted, I was annoyed with anyone so outspokenly rude anyway, but really I just felt sorry for her. I know that not everyone has someone in their life that outwardly shows affection. I find myself so very blessed and thankful that I do. We aren't perfect, we certainly are an example of opposites attract and can butt heads because each of us believe that we are correct (especially when trying to work on a project together!!), but we also make it a practice to communicate, to listen to each other and never leave something unresolved. Life isn't easy, and we've definitely had our share of heartbreak, but I truly believe that love can resolve anything. It's why I have a tattoo of a heart on my ankle - because of everything in life, it has been the one thing that has shaped me into the person I am. I have my husband to thank for that!

We have always taken family pictures and sent these out as our Christmas cards, so here's a little review of the last 10 years:

1999

Our first Christmas together as a married couple! I'm hating that short hairdo!! Actually, I am none too fond of this picture at all. It does make me laugh, though, to think back on our first Christmas in our house in Arkansas. I was 2 1/2 years into college while Brian was 3 1/2 years at the time. Buying our first Christmas tree was so much fun (and we still have that one to this day!). We don't have anything else from that picture (as far as furniture or decoration goes). I guess moving quite a few times since then does that!




2000

It's our second Christmas in that little house in Arkansas. We were loving being married and having a home of our own. I was wrapping up college by this Christmas and had just started looking for a job in the "real world." Brian was preparing to get his Master's degree.







2001

This is our final Christmas in Arkansas. I had been working for the NW Arkansas newspaper which meant commuting an hour to work every day. It was a tough year just keeping up with that schedule since I had 10-hour work days on top of the 2-hour commute. (I think it was the one year that I actually let my hair go natural. Hated it!!) I started to dabble in graphic design by then, so the cards will continue to show a little more customization! This little house (barely 900 sq. ft.) was starting to feel REALLY small. I think we were ready to be done with the whole college experience and move on with our lives. Brian was wrapping up his student teaching in Rogers, and we began to set our sights on moving to Dallas.

2002

Ah! We have moved to Texas by this shot. This is at the park across from the first house we built in Cedar Hill. We spent our first 6 months living in an apartment while we got to know the area. Brian had taken a teaching/coaching job at a middle school in Duncanville while I found a job at a publishing company. It didn't take long for us to want a house again. It's crazy to think that we went from 900 sq. ft. to our house in Cedar Hill with over 3500 sq. ft.

2003

I think this was our first official Christmas in our new house in Cedar Hill. We really enjoyed the three years we spent here. Let's see, by 2003, I have found my calling in life as a teacher. Brian and I both worked at the same middle school. Life was fun!

2004

Oh yes - we were a little enthusiastic about our new pool at this point. Isn't it crazy to think that we could actually swim from March through Thanksgiving?? Texas is a good place for a pool! We had really settled into our new home and wanted to make it ours. Little did we know that the winds of change were already blowing! I think this was the point when I decided to make the cards quite a bit more unique. (I also finally wizened up and started putting dates on the photos! It's hard to remember back 10 years as to which photo goes with what year!!)

2005

I think we were wishing so much for a white Christmas that I decided to create one for us! By 2005, Brian had branched out from Duncanville into the Mansfield area. Although we loved our house in Cedar Hill, we started to see a significant change in the area and began to think that 5 years down the road, let alone 50, the area wouldn't be what we wanted. By the summer, I had also gotten a job in Mansfield so we started thinking about a move.

2006

The Cedar Hill house sold in 2 weeks in the fall, so by Christmas we were living in a tiny rental house (reminiscent of our first home in Arkansas. Believe me - it is MUCH harder to go back to 900 sq. ft. when you've been spoiled with more space than you knew what to do with!). We are in the process of building a house in Mansfield (technically Arlington) at the time of this photo, so we took it at the pond at the front of our neighborhood. We are both teaching in Mansfield and loving our new community.

2007

What can I say? It was a windy day! We are standing in front of the house we built in Arlington. The inflatables are Brian's idea of decorating outside (VERY easy when it comes to putting them out and packing them up!!). We wisely started taking several vacations a year by the point, including our annual trip to Breckenridge at Christmas. We are working hard but enjoying our time off to the fullest as well!

2008

We finally had professional pictures done (for the first time since our wedding). I really love how these turned out, so I worked them into our card. I think it is the most sophisticated of all my attempts, so it's my favorite. Of course, now that our family has changed (thanks to Winnie), we will just have to get new family portraits done next fall as well. I really think it ends up being a nice Christmas present to ourselves (in addition to skiing at Breckenridge, of course!). I won't lie - it was hard turning 30 but other than that, this has been a phenomenal year for us. We have been blessed to really make good friends here and love our life! It appeared for a while that the winds of change were starting to blow (especially when the head coach left Brian's school), but thankfully things seem to have resolved themselves. I was beginning to think we have a 3-year itch or something since it seems we had turned our lives upside down every three years so far! For me personally, change is hard. I get stuck in my routine and enjoy a comfortable, known environment. I am just trying to look at life as the adventure it's meant to be, though. I won't say that we'll live here until we're old and grey for the simple fact that I don't want to live my life ever looking back and saying I wish I had been brave enough to move or try something different. It has not always been easy, but it has ALWAYS been worth it. Who knows? Perhaps the winds of change will blow us to Colorado before too long. We'll see...

Ok - enough mushy stuff. I really don't like the whole idea of using the blog as a journal to share my every thought and emotion. I really keep up with this just to give a glimpse into what's happening in our lives. My marriage and a decade of love just seemed like something worth celebrating with the world. I pray that others are so blessed.

i-touch

I have a new little toy! I have really wanted an i-Phone since last year, but when I went to the AT&T store and saw that the monthly charge for it would double my ridiculously low cell phone bill, I decided to forego buying it. Recently, some of my students had out their i-Touch and after checking it out, I found that it has all of the really cool features of the i-Phone without the monthly cost!! And I do mean ALL the features! You can text and even use it as a phone if you wanted (there's an app for that! - sound familiar? like the commercials??). What I love is that it will pick up on wireless connections wherever you are, and you can instantly get on the web and check email. My problem is that I teach all day and have school stuff on the computer, so by the time I get home, I usually don't relish the idea of sitting at the computer then. Unfortunatley, you can't check personal email (or you're not supposed to anyway) at work, so I get really behind in my personal emails. Now, I literally check it every hour. It's so quick and easy! Oh and I love all the fun apps. I have tons of pics, music, games, etc. on there as well. Anyway, I'm always up for new techie toys!

Football??!!

So, it appears as if football season is longer and longer every year. Already we have been in the midst of spring football with daily practices and periodic scrimmages. Because of all the swine flu craziness, poor Brian has had track season prolonged, so he's been attending dual practices. The regional track meet was supposed to be two weekends ago, but all events involving students from other schools were prohibited then because of the hysteria that broke out. Seriously - it was crazy to see all the overreaction. We were hoping for an extra spring break in there for us, but since that didn't happen, I think everything else should have just been postponed a week or so. Anyways, all that is to say that the regional track meet has been moved to this week - more accurately Thursday - Saturday of this upcoming weekend. This meant that spring football plans were altered as well, and Friday night's scrimmage marked the end. The new head coach seems really nice and there was definitely a difference in the atmosphere at even just a scrimmage. It turns out the coach allowed the players to "draft" their own teams and that's who they played with. It turned out pretty well. The kids seemed pretty excited and the coaches appeared happy with the end result. There was only one injury, which Brian thought was pretty good (although he mentioned later that this kid tore his ACL on the opposite leg from last year's injury - poor kid!).

Fun Over the Weekend

Ok, we absolutely loved going to the Taste of Addison. I am so glad that friends told us about it (and hung out with us). The food alone made the drive worth it! And apart from the chilly weather at the end, it couldn't have been a nicer day! I highly suggest planning your spring around this event next year!

Time with the Nephew!

We had some visitors this past weekend! Brittany, Matt and Wake came to Texas to enjoy a day at Six Flags and then a couple of days at The Great Wolf Lodge. We spent a day in between all of their fun just hanging out with them. Here you see Uncle Brian trying to share the love for music with his nephew. Mostly, we enjoyed watching the little ones (Winnie and Wake) just chase each other until they were both tired!

Great New Band!

Reverchon is a band led by the Praise and Worship leader in Youth at Walnut Ridge. They are amazing! They just produced their first album and had a CD release party the other night.