Trying my hand at gardening

Much of today, Chad and I have been working in the yard, clearing the front flower bed to get ready for planting shrubs (there is nothing there now) and going to the nursery. We have this local nursery that we went to for the first time today, and I think we were probably there for two hours. They were so helpful and knowledgeable! I will never go to Home Depot or Lowe's to buy plants while we live here. A couple posts ago Chad showed you a picture of where he busted out the concrete slab that was supposed to be for an RV, although it must have been an RV for elves because it wasn't a very big slab. Anyway, he will be planting a garden there soon, and I have decided that my part in this whole venture will be sowing and caring for the herbs. I really like to cook, and I love using fresh herbs in my cooking, but I almost never buy them because 1)they are very expensive, 2) the quality in the local stores leaves something to be desired, and 3) I usually only use a little bit of them so the rest goes bad. Anyway, when we went to the nursery today, I picked out the seed packets of the herbs I like to use most often in cooking: thyme, basil, cilantro, mint, Italian parsley. These packets with a ton of seeds in them were less than 2 bucks each! They didn't have any rosemary seeds so I bought a rosemary plant. Well, while we were there, they just happened to be having an herb seminar, so I sat in on that and learned a bit more about how to plant and what sort of conditions to plant the herbs in. So over the next few months I will be documenting my first try at growing my own herbs, and I will show pictures of the progress. Here is the beginning: (thanks, mom, for all the pots! I didn't have to buy a single one.) From the left is thyme, flatleaf parsley, rosemary which is already smelling up the whole front porch, basil, mint, cilantro, and the 5 little pots on the bottom right will be tomato plants. I will be transferring everything in and out until the weather at night gets warmer. Once (if) the tomatoes become plants, we will transfer those to the ground in the backyard. The beginnings of my project. We are also planting spinach and squash in the garden, and probably some other veggies as well.

If you have any tips about planting in west Texas, we would love the suggestions! Chad's grandparents who lived here for years had a very large garden in their backyard and have given us some advice. Wish us luck!

This is a post by Lesley

I just wanted to clear that up and let all the readers know that I will try my best to put as few spelling errors in here as possible, and also check it for spelling multiple times before I post. Anyway...

I'm so excited. The yearbook is almost done. We have 8 pages left to do, plus the index. It will be done in just a few days, which makes me super happy!

Also...we have just received our first sketch for our cabin. We are meeting with the builder next Saturday (hopefully--they just had a foot of snow in the canyon so we'll probably have to meet in town, which is fine), and plans are underway to build this summer! Yipee! I'm not going to show you the sketch we received today because it is just a first draft and won't be what the floor plan will actually look like. You'll see soon enough.

Another piece of exciting news...Chad got an A on his 6th nursing test! He only took his 5th one last Saturday so this was really fast. Only one more left, then the wait for his clinicals, then the NCLEX. Keep him in your prayers as he gets to the part that he sees as what is going to be the most difficult.

And...it's the weekend! We will do more work on the house this weekend and get all the laundry put up that had to be washed over the week since our house has been demolished. We'll post pictures as soon as all the flooring has been replaced (except for the existing tile), which should be over the next few weeks. Then the house will be safe to visit again.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

A Chad update

The title doesn't mean that I am updating you on Chad, It means that I, Chad, am creating this post. It will be filled with random pictures of our lives right now. First, as many of you now I have begun the process of installing saltillo tile in the entry way of our house. The demo is done and now we must drive to San Antonio on Spring break to get tile that matches. I used a 4.5 inch angle grinder to get the thin set up and in the process got dust on everything we own. Literally I think this dust is so aggressive that it has probably traveled to some Carribean island by now and created an asthma epidemic among their children. So much for my New Years resolution of bringing peace to the world. Maybe next year. Here are some pics of the demo and the aftermath.

The ugly tile before

My weapon

My destruction!!!!!!!!!

So here is the aftermath of grinding up thinset despite, I might add, my efforts to contain the dust.

Notice where the star once hung on our wall

We were up until 11:30 that night cleaning. On a lighter note here are some pics of my climbing wall.
My wife just the way i like her, barefoot and climbing Random picture of my garden area (formerly concrete slab)
My compost bin made of recyled material (old lattice and pallet) and filled with recycled material (notice the beatiful egg shell, banana peel, and purple onion...delicious!)

Good weekend, good week

Well, I had a really fun weekend. I took Friday off, and Thursday afternoon I met up with mom in Weatherford for a weekend of shopping in Austin. We left early Friday morning and stopped by Shawn & Emma's to get a tour of their digs. Boy, is that place nice! We had a nice little visit with them, and then it was time to pound the pavement and find some good deals. We were seriously at stores from the time they opened until the time they closed on Friday and Saturday. We had so much fun! Our first stop was Ikea, where I found some cute area rugs for the guest bedrooms, some curtains for our room, and a few kitchen things (this was my first Ikea experience, and I'm hooked). Then it was on to the outlet mall in Round Rock where I found some clothes. Next we went and checked in to our hotel and went to our favorite Chinese restaurant, Twin Lion, for dinner. Not to waste any time, we then headed to the Arboretum for more shopping, and finally, the Gateway shopping center where they have a Crate & Barrel (first time in one of those too), an Ulta, and various other stores. Well, we still hadn't gotten our fix, but they were shooing us out and locking the doors, so we decided it might be time for us to go to sleep. On Saturday we headed out to the mall and then went to my favorite Mexican restaurant ever for lunch, Trudy's. After that we went to a few local Austin stores further south, and headed out of town around 5:00. On the way back to Weatherford we stopped at the outlet mall in Hillsboro where I found my prize item, a beautiful Kitchenaid Artisan mixer, and I got a great deal on it...less than 50% of what the regular price had been of the one I saw earlier in the day at Macy's. I've already used it twice and I love it! Anyway I was joking earlier about them turning off the lights and locking the doors, but this really did happen to us just as I was finding some really cute stuff to try on at the Gap outlet. Not to be discouraged when they turned off a light, I ran to the dressing room. It was a good thing I did because I got some really good deals there too on some cute stuff. I got back on Sunday in time to pick Chad up from the airport. It was really good to see him after not seeing him for a week.



This week has been a good one. Things are dying down at school, and spring is in the air, which means everyone is in a relatively better mood. We have a 4 day week this week with a teacher workday on Friday. I get one teacher workday off this year because I'm a UIL coach, and I was originally going to take this Friday off, but I decided that I will take one off later in the year and use this Friday as a day to get caught up, wrap up some yearbook stuff, and plan my curriculum for the rest of the year.



Lastly, we are excited because we have a brand new internet service provider. I know, fascinating. This is what people without kids have to talk about on their blogs. Anyway, I didn't know until about two weeks ago that you can get DSL and not have a landline...did you know that? Well, you should have told me! Since Chad & I only have cell phones we didn't want to put up the extra dough for a landline just so we could have better internet, so we suffered with stinky wireless for 6 months until I finally found something affordable and fast! So now we are up and running with our DSL and Chad can actually take his practice tests at home without "a network cable being unplugged" every 5 minutes. Woo hoo!



That's it from here. Chad has his 5th test tomorrow...we'll keep you updated of course!

**Update...Chad passed his test yesterday with an A...only two more to go.

Well, I figured since it's Saturday I better post since I have the time. Not much has been going on around here, just the usual. We had a good week. Thursday night (Valentine's Day) we had a few couples over from church for dinner and then we all went to a play at Tech. The play was written by a guy in our small group who is getting his Master's in playwriting from Tech. Anyway, it was being produced all week so we all decided to go on Thursday. It was really good and funny. (I know, I should be a play critic with insightful comments like that).

We are almost finished with our 4th yearbook deadline, with only one left after that. I'll have workdays every day next week until it (the 4th DL) gets done. I can almost taste the sweet satisfaction of completing the yearbook. Once the middle of March rolls around, it will be done, and all we have to do then is wait for them to print it and deliver it, and -oh yeah- plan next year's book.

Hmm...what else is there to tell...oh yeah, we got our new mattress. Some of you out there in blogging world may not care (especially the random people I don't know out there who read this blog), but we have wanted to buy a new mattress for a really long time, and it's not just any mattress, it's a Tempurpedic. Yes, that's right, we paid way too much money for the privilege of sleeping on marshmallows. Seriously though, we've had it for two days, and so far it has been super comfortable and worth every penny. So for those of you out there who have thought about buying one of these and just haven't brought yourself to do it yet, we can attest that it really is worth the money, as much as we know about it so far.

Yes, just another exciting week in the Montandon household. Hope everyone has a good weekend.

It's been a few days

Well, things are going well here. Chad took another test on Saturday and yep, you guessed it, he passed with an A. He is now on to his fifth test. He also just bought all the wood to build his climbing wall in our shed, so he's been working on that the past few days as well. As of today he has a cold, so he might be moving a little more slowly until he gets over it.

My weekend was good. My team won first place in Glen Rose, and I got to see my friend Larry from college. It was good to hang out with him and good that my team won, but not good that one of the buses broke down while we were in Glen Rose so we all had to pile on one bus for the 6 hour ride home. Anyway, the trip was fine except for that, and me being tired pretty much all the time from all the UIL events and yearbook deadlines that are running my life at the moment.

Yesterday we also went to a Superbowl party after our small group Bible study, and it was an evening filled with food, games, football teams I don't care about, and hanging out with friends.

That brings me to today. I finally got our plane tickets booked for our vacation this summer, so that's exciting. Only four more months until school's out! I won't start counting down the days quite yet (too depressing) but I am looking forward to summer, or at least spring break.

We have had a good weekend around here. Chad got up to go take his 3rd nursing test yesterday morning (and I got to sleep in! Woo hoo!) and he passed with an A. So he's almost halfway there with the tests. He has another one this Saturday, and then three more after that. He's doing great! Yesterday we also went running, did laundry, and raked the last of the leaves that have fallen into our yard.

Also, I spent a lot of yesterday researching plane ticket deals for our Hawaii trip (which explains the running--I'm trying to get in shape for our trip, plus fit into all the clothes I've grown out of). I need some advice from those of you who travel a lot. I have heard that there are better days of the week, and good times where you are a certain amount of time away from your trip, that it is better to buy tickets. Our trip is in mid-June, so when should I look for tickets? I had back luck yesterday because all of those flight-comparison websites had not updated their fares over the weekend and I kept trying to buy a fare that is apparently sold out. Anyway, if you have any advice about this, I'd love to hear it.

That's about it from here. More laundry this afternoon, and maybe a nap. Hope everyone has a great week!

Well...

The UIL meet is over and done with. I was up at school at 6:45 this morning to make sure my contest rooms were ready, and my judges and proctors started showing up at 8:15. I had 13 judges and 6 proctors total, so plenty of help. It ran very smoothly and I was finished by 2:00. Then I came home and took that nap I had been fantasizing about all day. So, now I know I can do it and it won't be such a big deal to me next year. I know some of you who read this are actually interested in how it went, so that's why I'm posting. Thanks for caring about the miniscule events in my life.

I just talked to Chad a little while ago and I think he is giving his third talk as I am writing this. After that he'll be done for the day and he'll just have Bible class and the sermon tomorrow (just?). Then he'll be going to visit Shawn & Emma, so I'll be picking up Brandi from the airport and we'll have a good ol' fashioned slumber party on Sunday night. I'm excited about it, and I'm also ready for Chad to be home!

Quick update. It's been a busy week and it will be a busy weekend as well. But, I am feeling a little deprived of blogging, so I decided to take a few minutes to feel like I am actually communicating with people. So a lot of you found out today that my sister is expecting another baby, and since she published it on the world wide web, I figured it would be okay to discuss on my blog as well. I'm really excited. Keep those nieces and nephews coming, family. They're lots of fun.

Also, I pulled a Josh today and made a complete fool of myself in front of the entire student body. You see, there are two mascots at school, and I have one in my yearbook class and one in my Journalism I class. So, they asked me to be a part of the pep rally today. Wanting to be a good sport, I said yes. So I had to do this stupid obstacle course thing with two other girl teachers that involved me jumping rope for 10 seconds at the half court line. It was a battle of the sexes pep rally, and the girls won. I mean, the guys didn't really try, but still I was glad that we won and also glad that the mascots didn't make me hula hoop. I'm actually pretty good at jumping rope. Anyway, a lot of my students were taking pictures at the pep rally today so if they got any of that I'll be sure to post it. I'm sure y'all will get a kick out of it.

Tomorrow is the dreaded UIL meet at the school. I'll be up at the crack of dawn to get my events ready, and I will be coordinating my four events all day (making sure I have proctors, judges, etc.). Just thinking about it makes me want a nap, which I will be sure to take tomorrow afternoon.

Chad's in Brownwood. Pray that his retreat goes well and that his trip is safe, along with the other people traveling to and from there.

We are going to Hawaii this summer. I can't wait.

That's all for now, folks. I'm actually having some girls from church over to the house tonight so I better straighten everything up. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

See you in March

Those of you who read about Chad and Lesley's adventures (as unadventurous as we may be) on a regular basis might notice over the next couple of months that the blog won't have as many entries on it. This is mainly due to the fact that I am a yearbook teacher, and out of the 5 deadlines we have during the year, four of them are in January, February and March, all before Spring Break. Sometimes I feel like an accountant that's really busy during a short time of the year and significantly less busy during other times of the year, but anyway, if you don't hear from me much before March, that's why.

I just got back from another UIL trip yesterday, in Flower Mound. It was a long trip home, stopping multiple times to repair and/or fill the other bus with more antifreeze. I was just glad it didn't break down completely, and we didn't have to fit all the mathletes on our bus. This weekend we are hosting a UIL tournament at my school, and I am in charge of all four journalism events. Since I've never done this before, I'm trying to be overly organized (is there really such a thing) and color-code everything, line up a few judges ahead of time, and make sure I have all my copies done way in advance. I'm sure it will be fine, and worrying about it would be breaking my New Year's resolution, so I'm not going to. I'm just sorry I have to give up this Saturday, because this is the weekend Chad is going to Brownwood to speak at the Heart of Texas Youth Retreat. Keep him in your prayers as he travels there and back, and as he speaks to the youth there. He will have 5 lessons total.

Also, in the next couple of weeks, Chad will be taking his Nursing 3 & 4 tests, with only 3 left to go after that. I'm so proud of him for studying so hard and being so disciplined. He would probably say he's not really being so disciplined, but it's all getting done somehow. And, he had the time to make a lemon meringue pie this weekend when I was gone. I was impressed, but I always knew he is quite the renaissance man.

Anyway, like I said, I probably won't blog much in the next couple months, but that's okay because we're pretty boring. If you're not already subscribed to something like bloglines, you should because that would keep you from checking the blog everyday only to see that nothing new has been added. But, if anything exciting does happen in our lives, y'all will be the first to know. Hope everyone has a great week!

Four years

Today is mine and Chad's four year anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been four years! Seems like just yesterday, not 7 1/2 years ago, that we met as potwashers at Blue Haven. The rest is history! We are at a lodge in Ruidoso until tomorrow celebrating. In the interest of not being on the computer the whole time we're here I'm going to sign off now...I just wanted to blog and say how blessed I am to have Chad for my husband and I am looking forward to spending the rest of our lives together. Have a great day everyone--I know we will.

The joys of homeownership

The title of this blog is partially sarcastic and partially serious. Yesterday we had the plumbers out to fix a couple of slow drains. In the process, one of our copper pipes that's probably been there since the house was built in 1962 busted and we had water all over the bathroom floor, and when we discovered the saltillo tile in the hallway was wet, we realized it had leaked between the wall of the guest bathroom and our closet. At that point we discovered the floor of our closet (carpet) was wet as well. Bummer. Anyway, after paying the plumber (to leave) we surveyed the damage. We're not really sure the extent of the damage at this point, but we are glad we have a 1-year home warranty that SHOULD cover leaky pipes not due to freezing. I think this is probably the first of many times we will call for a repair on our house only to discover that something much more major needs repair.

If you're going to have a plumbing issue, it should not be on New Year's Day, and it should not be right before you are about to leave town for your anniversary. The warranty place is (of course) closed today so we'll have to call them tomorrow before we leave. Luckily it's not a real emergency and only one of our water sources is unusable. We can still use the guest bathroom shower and sink, our shower and all the kitchen stuff so we're okay.

Chad and I briefly thought about pretending that we had not noticed the leak and pouring water all over our carpet so our homeowner's insurance would pay for new flooring, but then realized that might not be the best plan.

Anyway, the reason owning a house stinks, as most of you know, is because you are responsible for all these repairs. The reason it is good is because we are in control of who repairs it and when, and we don't have to wait for a landlord to get around to fixing it. And, if a leaky pipe or whatever is the worst thing that happens to us, all we have to do is remind ourselves that we have a great place to live and that we're not about to lose it because of a foreclosure like so many other folks these days. So this is what I think of when I start thinking that it's a bummer that our pipe busted. And, I'm not going to worry about it, because that would be breaking my resolution on the first day of the new year.

Naming a baby in 2008?

MSN.com has just released the Top 10 boys and girls names of 2007. I don't know how accurate it is since the Social Security Administration hasn't released the "official" list, but it's probably pretty close. Most of you who read this know that I am and have been really interested in names/words for most of my life (since I could read I guess), and this article points out one reason why names are fascinating: many times, the surgence or resurgence of a name reflects things that are happening in our culture. Most of you probably know at least one baby named Addison that was born since "Grey's Anatomy" appeared on TV, and the article points out that Addison climbed 20 spots in just 2007. That's kind of a big deal to name geeks out there. The same kind of thing had the opposite effect in 2006 when the name Katrina dropped from 246 to 382. To read more about the effects current culture has had on naming, go here. Fascinating! The author of the site sponsors a "name of the year" contest, and this year it was Barack. Let's see if the political climate of the United States has an effect on the number of little Baracks born in the United States in the coming years, shall we?

It would be interesting to see if this list took into account the kre8ive spellings of the mainstream names already present on the list (Addyson, Haylee, Ayden, etc.: you know, the parents who want to be "different."), or if those names are just a bit further down the list.

Anyway, if you are planning on having a baby in 2008, there's one list for you. You may want to get your ideas from it, or you may want to avoid it completely. Bottom line, if you love a name, you should go for it no matter how popular or unpopular it is. I mean, I grew up with many other Leslies in my classes (no other Lesleys though), and I was just fine. Anyway, even if you decide on a name for your child and have regrets about it later, a name isn't as permanent as it may seem. You can always change it like these people did. One girl in the article, named Sophie, began going by Isadora at the age of four!

Family Heirlooms

This is probably a normal thing, but I find that the older I get, the more interested I am in family heirlooms. This past week when we were at mom's house we went through a box of old quit tops that my great-grandmother Josie had done but never made into quilts. Mom wanted to know if Erin or I would like any of them. As ugly as some of them were (a lot of them were done in the '60s and the fabric reflected the garish styles of that decade), we hated to say no because a family member had made them. Anyway, I ended up with one and Erin decided to take the rest of the box.

Speaking of heirlooms, I received a gift for Christmas that is very special to me. Over the past few years, my mom, who would not fancy herself a scrapbooker, has spent a good amount of her free time (remember, she WAS working full-time until July and also taking care of my grandparents, just so there's no mistake that she had lots of free time) compiling scrapbooks of my life until I graduated from high school. She completed these scrapbooks and this was my main Christmas gift from her this year. It's so neat to have all of these memories compiled in scrapbooks so I can look at them whenever and be able to show them to my kids someday. They are also full of my mom's funny comments that only she could have said. Mom did a good job of taking separate pictures of me when I was a kid and I'm thankful that she did the scrapbooks that are just for me (she did the same for Erin a few years back). Anyway, her gift was definitely the most special gift I received this year and I am very thankful for it.

Also on the subject of inheritance, I have decided on my New Year's resolution for 2008. Many of you know that I get stressed/worried quite a bit, and this can be traced directly back in my family tree to my maternal grandparents, but especially my granddad. Anyway, that's not an excuse and I know that worrying is also a sin, so my resolution for 2008 is that when I start to get worried, to stop it and put all my burdens on God and have faith that he is going to take care of the situation and me. So there it is, I've gotten it out in the open so now I can't go back on it.

Happy New Year everyone!

Home again

It's well into the first week of my two week vacation from school, and we are home from visiting mom and grandmother in Weatherford. This holiday season was special for me because it's the first holiday season in 3 years that we have gotten to spend with my side of the family. I'll never take it for granted again! The first few days of my break, Erin, Josh and the kids and dad and Ginny all came to Lubbock and we had our first Christmas celebration in our new home. Well, it was really on Christmas Eve, but close enough. Then on Christmas day we packed up and drove to mom's for some family time in Weatherford. It was a lot of fun. After Erin and her family left, we rented a U-Haul and drove out to granddad's old barn out on their land to go through and pack up what was left there when they moved from the farm almost 10 years ago. We found some cool stuff but mostly it just needed to be gone through and gotten rid of. You know it's scary when you find a box that your granddad has labeled "bric-a-brac," and then there were all the boxes of old bank statements and tax returns circa 1970. No, I am not kidding. Anyway, we had fun doing a little manual labor that day and I'm sure mom will have a blast going through every single box that we brought to her garage.

So now we're back home and I'm savoring every minute of the time I have off. I could be doing a lot of work, but I promised myself that I wouldn't do anything work-related and that I would just enjoy my time off and relax. This is hard for me because sometimes "relaxing" means giving myself time to worry about all the stuff I have to do. Anyway, I'm not going to do it. Let tomorrow worry about itself.

Next week we will be off to Ruidoso for a couple of days to celebrate our fourth anniversary. I'm really looking forward to that. Chad has come down with a nasty cold that is making him feel pretty miserable, so please pray that it will go away before our little mini-vacation.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year. Here are some pictures from the past few days.

Kellen and Bonnie are scoping out the ornaments, lights and--oh yeah--presents.I think we've got ourselves a little Mozart on our hands. She'll be composing by age 3. Kellen and Pee Paw enjoying some quality time watching the "Jungle Book."Uncle Chad's electric drumset was a BIG hit. Look how fast Bonnie's hitting the drums!Kellen really enjoyed playing and was really amused every time a sound would come out of the amp...(oh yeah, Chad got an amp for his electric drumset for Christmas)Then it was out to play in the leaves. Secretly, we were just trying to pawn off the raking on our niece and nephew. It worked!This is about the time Chad suggested to Kellen and Bonnie that they should start throwing the leaves on me.

And Kellen got leaves in his mouth. Serves him right for being so mean to his aunt who was only trying to get some good photo ops.

I've just uploaded most of the pictures from Tyler to my Flickr website (see link to the right). If you are interested, you should be able to download the ones you want from there. I thought this would be a little more practical than burning 3 CDs of 330 pictures for anyone who may have wanted just 5 or 10. Also, when I was uploading them I did go to the trouble of rotating the vertical ones but it didn't seem to work. Enjoy!

Family time in Tyler

Okay, after many hours and a lot of patience, I have managed to upload some of my favorite pictures from the weekend. I took over 300 pictures because I had to do some "field testing" to learn about some equipment I'll be using to teach next semester, so these are just a few of the shots I got. Luckily there were lots of photo ops with all the cute little kids around.

Elle playing with her cousinsThree of the four cousins (not sure where Ava was in this picture, but good pose idea Joey)
My favorite picture of Joey & Emily from the weekend Sweet JoseySilly RileyI think Uncle Shawn was talking to Riley through the mail slotI love this picture of Josey playing with the leaves and Emily watching her in the background.I don't know what Elle did, but Shawn didn't like it.The tallest & the shortest in the family. Shawn didn't have to duck at all. Joey's got ups. (Shawn wasn't quite as successful jumping over Joey's head)Awwwww! Photo taken by Joey. Chad dropped me shortly after. Sweet little AvaI think Ava was walking too slow for Paul.Cute picture of the moms and their daughtersHmmm, maybe Josey takes more after her Uncle Chad than we had hoped for
Santa showed up at Paul's, and everyone was interested...Riley was a good sport. She even told Santa she wanted a ballerina or something like that. Elle was convinced to sit on Santa's lap so she could open her presents, but Ava wasn't having any of it.Neither was Josey for that matter ("Maybe if I cover my face that guy will go away")
I think Emily's a little too happy in these pictures that Josey is in complete misery. Nice.We had a fun weekend and can't wait to see our family again soon.

Just so you know...

I have been trying to upload a bunch of pictures from our weekend in Tyler for the past couple of days now, and Blogger/my internet haven't been cooperating. So far the only picture that has uploaded is this one of our new "green room." Chad painted this room last week and I love the way it turned out. I purposely didn't put a view of the whole room on here because it also contains Chad's drumset and our computer, neither of which I think add much aesthetic value to my attempts at decorating. Also...Chad made an A on his second nursing test today. Way to go Chad!

In other news, I have a little over one week of school left and it seems to be dragging quite slowly. No surprise there. I have quite a bit of planning to do for next semester, and I want to finish that before we leave for the holidays so I will have a work-free break. Also, Chad and I have made plans to take an anniversary trip to Ruidoso and stay at a lodge there. Can you believe we have been married for 4 years? It's gone by so fast. Maybe while we're there I can convince him to try skiing!

I'll keep working on the pictures.

We had a really good weekend. Thursday night we drove to Denton (probably saw 30 deer on the side of the road on the way there) to spend a couple days with my old roommate & friend from A&M, Emily, her husband Matt, and their son Tobin. Tobin and Josey both turned two on Thursday, so while we were there on Friday I helped Emily out with Tobin's birthday cake. This is the same roommate that microwaved a hamburger in its foil wrapper and didn't know how to cook pasta in college. Emily's going to kill me for saying that but I just wanted to show how far she's come! She has taken up baking and really loves it. Look at this adorable crayon cake she made! It was my first experience with fondant and I helped with mixing the black part. We had a good time hanging out and on Friday evening the four of us went to the Mavs game in Dallas and spent a little time with our friend Brent. Then we got up Saturday morning to make it back to Lubbock for my school's football playoff game, which they lost. And now we're back home and Chad's out working in the yard so I better go help him. Thanks Emily and Matt for a fun weekend!