Favorite Things

It's the first day of May and I'm so excited for summer to be here!

I just got back from taking a final and only have one more left this Thursday. It's so crazy how this semester is winding down.

Well, since I've had some free time, I've been looking at dozens of recipes and dreaming about when I'll be back home and able to cook and bake whenever I want. Oh, the joys of a fully stocked kitchen!

First up are these sugar cookie tacos. Such a simple idea that is way too adorable. These are definitely at the top of my to-do list. Perfect for parties!


The next two are from one of my new favorite blogs, that I stalk look at daily. It's called Cookies & Cups and you should really go check it out. Not only is she really funny, but her treats are so yummy. Even if you don't plan on making any of them, you should at least go drool over the pictures.

These s'mores cupcakes make me die a little inside. One of my favorite things to do, inside or not, no matter what time of year, is to make s'mores. I'm a little ashamed to say that I've definitely made them over a stove top (more than once). There's nothing that screams summertime treat to me more than a s'more.

The second treat are the key lime pie ice cream sandwiches. I mean, what a great idea! It's another perfect summertime treat- and key lime pie is one of my daddy's favorite desserts. That's a double win for this recipe. I can't wait to make up some!

I plan to make each of these sometime over the summer and am going to try to post my results up here. So, in other words, I need taste testers!!

Super Bulldog Weekend

I understand it's been a long time since I've updated, but this semester has been crazy and hectic and one roller coaster of a ride.

This past weekend was Super Bulldog Weekend and my family was able to make it up here. On Saturday, Amanda & I ran our very first 5k with Sarah.

L-R: Sarah, Amanda, and me

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Amanda's and my Stats from the run

 I ended up with a time of 35:21. Amanda beat me with her time of 33:55, but she was the one that put in serious time and training. I should have put more effort into training before hand... oh well. Hind sight's 20/20 right?

Lin in his original element-- eating crawfish!

Later on Saturday, Dad bought Lin some crawfish. He showed Amanda how to eat them and then he just went to town. That boy can put them away!

We also went to the spring game later that night. It was ridiculously cold for it being April. It was seriously in the 50's and really windy. Really miserable weather!

This past Wednesday was the last day of classes here at State. Amanda & I took pictures of each other-- we're such cool kids. I'm still in shock that I am done with classes. I just have four finals left next week and then I will graduate, get my degree, and start working. It's crazy how quickly it's all happening!

last day of classes!

 Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Spring is on its way!

Springtime is my second favorite season. (Fall is my all time favorite. I just love all the colors!) I love the warm sun with its cool breeze. And today is one of those perfect days. I think the high here is around 78 or so for today but it's pretty windy and sunny. It's so nice to have after cold weather- not that it's gotten very cold this winter, but I'm a warm weather kinda person!

This morning, after my 8 am class, I went over to Barnes & Noble and reserved my cap and gown for graduation. It's so exciting seeing everything start to come together. I can't believe it's only 78 days away now! It's also hard to believe that spring break is just a couple weeks away. I know that the spring semester always flies by, but it never ceases to amaze me just how quickly everything happens. And after spring break, everything will be downhill!

Hope y'all are having a great day and that you can enjoy the weather!

Today was going to suck...

...until my teacher cancelled my night class.

Now I have a free evening! This never happens :)

I can't stop daydreaming now about what to make for dinner. There are endless possibilities. I'm thinking that I'm not going to follow any recipes. I'm just gonna go straight up chopped-style and see what's in the pantry and go from there. Can't wait to see what I come up with!

My puppy

Today has been full of me dreaming about my future once I graduate. I can't wait to move back home and be close to all my friends and family there. I can't wait to start my new job and see where God takes me. I can't wait to move into my own place and begin to start my life out on my own. I'm especially excited about being around this little goober more.

This is from when we got her, Christmas Day 2007. Wasn't she the cutest puppy?

She loved trying to chew on the ornaments... She seriously stole my heart!

This is from this past summer 2011. She's only laying down because we'd been playing fetch nonstop for almost an hour!

And this picture is from this past Christmas Break. She still has the cutest face... and notice the stick she found over at Nana's that she wants me to throw...

Yes, she has way too much energy. Yes, she can be frustrating. Yes, she's a lot of work. But I love her and I can't wait to be back home with her again. There's something about a dog. She loves me no matter what. Even if I'm trying to teach her something and don't stay as calm as I should, she's always there, always wanting to play. She's such a good dog and she's so smart... probably too smart. But who couldn't look at that face and not love her? And see the way that her ears always perk up when she sees someone and not want to love on her? Or find it so funny watching her run because her back legs are a bit longer and she always seems to be leaning to one side or the other. And what's not to love about the way her tail is always curled up with that white tip in the air?

One of my favorite things when I still had my horse was to watch the two play together. She and Trouble (yes, that was his real name... and he lived up to it!) would chase each other around the pasture. I still remember taking her with me the first time I went to go feed them. I'm pretty sure it was Christmas day after I got her. She was terrified of the horses. I ended up having to pick her up and carry her over there to show her that they were OK. And then, of course, once she realized that the horses weren't out to kill her, it was pretty much impossible to keep her out of their pasture. The older mare, DeeDee, couldn't care less about her and would typically just ignore her, but Trouble couldn't get enough. They'd spend forever chasing each other, and then when Trouble did get tired and want to graze, Reveille would crouch on the ground, not far away from them, and try to herd them to keep them together.

Well, this post turned out to be much longer than I expected, but I guess I'd just never sat down to think about all of her little quirks I love.

End of January 2012!

I simply can't believe the last weekend of January is almost over now. This month has flown by! This is awesome, since I really can't wait for this semester to be over with. Not that I don't like being here, but I know that I'm so very close to graduating and I am now ready to go ahead and graduate and move on.

School is definitely back in full swing. I have my first test tomorrow morning. It is in Food Chemistry, which is probably my hardest class this semester. I've spent all day going over notes and I'm not even through them all yet.

I've been trying to get back in the habit of running again and so Amanda and I have been doing the couch to 5k program while Christina walks. It's been difficult waking up at 6 to go to the Sportsplex, but it is definitely getting easier. I also like that it makes my body form a routine, instead of having different times to wake up since my class schedule varies throughout the week.

Not much has been happening, but I started to feel bad about not having updated this in a while. Great news, though. Spring Break is only in 40 days... and I graduate in 103! I love having countdowns. It makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something sometimes, even though it's usually just because I've made it through another day of classes. I have no clue what it will be like this coming fall semester when I will be back home, working a full time job, and not having to go to school! It's pretty mind blowing to think about right now. School is all I've known for the past 17 years of my life!

I hope y'all have a great Sunday and enjoy the rest of January!

Christmas Eve!

I can hardly believe it's already Christmas eve!! It doesn't even feel like it's December yet. This year has flown by so quickly.

I've spent my day today baking cookies, sewing on my Toms, making brown sugar body scrub for presents, and helping mom make her tortilla cup dessert.

It's been a really nice day, being able to relax and spend time with my parents. (Poor Lin is having to work today)

I'm about to have to get ready to go to our Christmas Eve service at Grace tonight at 6:30. Most of our family will be going and I always enjoy this service.

Have a Merry Christmas! I know I won't post tomorrow, but hopefully I will soon after.

My Day

Today was a great day. I was able to take my time getting ready this morning since I didn't have any plans until 2. it was nice being able to lay in bed for a while, take a long & hot shower, eat a bite, and just relax a little.

Then I braved the crazy Tyler traffic to drive across town & meet with my best friend Macie at Starbucks. I hadn't seen her since this past summer and it was wonderful being able to catch up and just talk about what was going on in our lives. We stayed way longer than I thought we would and both of us ended up not being able to accomplish anything else in town for the day, but it was all well worth it.

It was raining ridiculously hard while I was driving home, but it has now slowed down to a nice and steady drizzle back home. I'm looking forward to crawling back in bed and enjoying listening to the rain as I fall asleep.

On a side note, here's a picture of my shoulder from this morning. I shot several different guns yesterday and didn't realize how much of a kick they had. My shoulder didn't hurt at all, but I still ended up bruising pretty bad. This picture doesn't really do justice to just how dark & large it is. Oh well, I guess it's just the price I pay for having so much fun yesterday!

Christmas Party

Today I attended a Christmas party hosted by Patti. I had such a fun time being around family and close friends right before the craziness of getting prepared for Christmas starts. During the party Naomi and I managed to sneak away to have a mini photo shoot. Her husband, John, was great and agreed to take the pictures. We really tested his patience I'm sure, with all of our silliness!

Here are a couple pictures that were taken today.

Have a great rest of your weekend!

Current obsessions

Here are some of my current style obsessions...

For some reason I adore her style here... just started following her blog over at lovemaegan.com --You should check it out!

such a cute tattoo

LOVING braided hair!

and I adore the funky braids here

I love the wavy long hair here!

LOVE IT!

I'm also obsessing over leg warmers... even though I don't really have any boots like this!

Well, that's about it... I have a lot more that I pinned tonight on Pinterest... you should click on the link & follow me!

'Night!

Grandma's Baptism

I've kept putting off updating this about Grandma's Baptism, but here I am! I'm just so lazy when it comes to finally getting on here to write something down and post pictures... things that are pretty basic and easy!

Anyways, my Grandma was baptized this past Sunday by my Daddy. It was a really awesome experience to witness. Grandma wrote out her testimony and dad ended up reading it out loud for her. Grandma's a crier, so she knew she wouldn't be able to get through all of it. This was expected, but it really hit me when Dad started to get a little choked up while he read. Even Naomi and I started to tear up! I took as many pictures as I could, but all I had was my iPhone... so I apologize for the crappy quality. The lighting was not very forgiving, and Dad's white shirt practically glows in all of them, but here they are!

My favorite picture is the one at the bottom in the middle where Grandma turned to the audience and raised her hands up in the air while the audience whooped & yee-hawed & hollered! It was really awesome.

Yesterday's Post

I'm sorry if my last post was depressing, but I really needed to get all of that off my chest. I know that I only have a few readers, so I'm sorry that y'all will have to deal with the moodiness I'll sometimes leak out.

Anyways, today I have an eye appointment for a check up in Tyler this afternoon and then I'll come back home. I'm going to try to meet with someone about working over the break & figuring all that out, but I'm not sure about all that yet.

Tomorrow should be busier since all of the family will be home. Mom has a lot of things she wants to get done, mainly going to go try to find a Christmas tree out at nana & papa's place. Apparently we threw away our Christmas tree last year and didn't realize it until we started looking for it again this year.

We are also supposed to be making Christmas candy sometime soon. I think that if we don't get to make some Saturday that we're supposed to be try to next week on Tuesday or Thursday. Sad thing is, I don't know if I'll be able to help then since I'll most likely be working. 

Oh well, at least I'll be pulling in more money than I'd get from just giving plasma.

Dream Job

I don't want to have to work at Brookshires over the break. Yet I know how badly we need the extra money & I definitely do not want to add to the burdens mom & dad have.

All I want is to open my bakery. It's the dream job I've always wanted. I didn't even want to go to State... I wanted to go to culinary school instead, but mom & dad wanted me to get a bachelors degree in something (hence the food science degree!).

I know that opening my own bakery will be hard. It will take a lot of time, patience, sweat, tears, maybe even blood, and a whole lotta money. But that's all I've kept thinking about this past year, especially since I'm so close to graduating.

I keep dreaming up recipes & menus, designs & the layout, uniforms & cleaning, etc etc. Boring things that only I would think about this far in advance & get excited about. I yearn for the tiredness I'll feel, the pain in my feet from standing all day, the stress in having to make decisions & deal with day to day operations. All weird things that most people would normally shy away from, but it's something I genuinely want.

I almost feel like there's an emptiness in me since I know that I'm nowhere near seeing this dream of mine come true. I know I'll have to work at Brookshires, or a bunch of other jobs I won't like. I know that I have student loans I need to pay off once I graduate. I know I have hardly any credit and will have one heck of a time if I want to get a business loan. I know that I'll need even more money to start up the joint and will be lucky if I start seeing ends meet & maybe making a little extra in five years. I know all of these hard things and so it makes me sad. And it makes me upset. And I stay up thinking about all this and so it makes me tired.

But it's time for me to grow up and just deal with all these facts. I'll need to suck it up and just do the things I don't want to do and try to be happy about it.

Home for Christmas Break

My fall semester is over & so I was able to get home this past Friday. I was only back at school for a couple days, but it was weird how it felt like much longer.

Today is a super rainy & cold Sunday, so I'm just spending the day with my family.

I'll try to post something more interesting later!

Going back

I postponed my drive back to tomorrow morning. I'll leave around 7 when dad & Lin also leave to go to work/school.

Hope I can get a good night's sleep!

Semi-Finals game

The Cougars lost today to Midland Christian 49-7. The loss hurt, but we were the first team to score against them since the playoffs started! They will most likely end up winning State next Saturday.

In other news, Mississippi State won against Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl 31-3. I'm sad I missed it, but I'm way more happy with my decision to stay here & cheer on my brother.

I'm going to church tomorrow morning with my family & then I'll head out afterwards to go back to State. I only have one week of classes left & one final so I'll be back home in about a week. I don't wanna leave, but at least I won't be gone long!

Before I go, here's a pic of Lin putting his stuff on the bus this morning when they left at 7:30. It was awesome sending them off, standing in the pouring rain!

And here's another picture of Naomi & me. We made matching hats & wore crazy blue eyeshadow & eye liner to cheer our Cougars on! (this pic is courtesy of Naomi. Once I put on my gloves I couldn't use my iPhone!) Aren't we adorable? :)

Regional Championship Game

I can't believe it's been a week since I've last updated this. It's wonderful being home, but it has also made me slack off... I've only been on my laptop once since being home. I keep thinking "I should update about what's been going on" and then I manage to convince myself to push it off to the next day.

Well, here's the recap of what's been going on.

Thursday, I got in around 2 to Tyler and went straight to see Mom at Memaw's house. I then went to see Lin after school/before football practice and then went home after a quick stop at Brookshire's to pick up a few groceries (man, I missed that store!). Mom made pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and homemade bread! Nana had intended to come & eat with us, and then John, Naomi, & Hazel also ended up eating with us. They didn't intend to, but it wasn't hard to convince Naomi once she heard we were having fried okra!

Friday I went with mom to aunt Leah's and we visited for a while. We went back home and got ready to leave for Lin's football game. Grace played Northland Christian from Houston for the Regional Championship. It was in Buffalo, TX at their new stadium there. A bunch of our family came. It was a great time full of football, cheering, & laughter. I forgot how much I desperately missed high school football games! Grace ended up winning 28-21. It was such an awesome game. We were standing most of the time, ringing our cowbells, and being as loud as we could!

Naomi & Me after the game was over!

Me & my sweet Mama after the game

Me & My brother... can't believe he's taller than me now!

A bunch of pictures from after the big win!! We now have 3 trophies!

We celebrated with the team for a while after the game. The field was new, so Buffalo wouldn't let us go out on it like we usually would after a game. Coach Maddox was awesome, though, and led the team out to the bleachers where we could all crowd around them and pray and congratulate them. It was a wonderful night!

I slept in a little on Saturday and then went over to my sweet Nana's for biscuits & gravy she made me for breakfast (my absolute favorite!). We helped her hang some pictures & do little things around her house. We went back home & just messed around until around 1 when Lin got back from watching film up at the school. We unloaded a trailer full of branches from a tree they cut down, and then came back to the house to watch the State v. Arkansas game at 2:30. It was a sad loss, but it was still nice to be able to watch the game with my family. That night Lin & I went to Tyler with our cousins Abbi & Gray to get some ice cream & hang out a little. It was great seeing them. It's weird how we all grew up together, yet now we hardly see each other.

Some of our adventures in Barnes & Noble. I love how crazy we are together!

Sunday morning we went to church and it was awesome being able to go to a service at Grace again. I forget how much I love it there. And it's really nice now because John & Naomi have started attending church there with us. I basically spent the rest of the day with the family doing stuff around the house and just enjoying being home.

On Monday, I pretty much spent all day over at Naomi's. We visited during the morning and then went to town with Patti to get some ornaments & materials I needed for a project. Then when we got back to Naomi's house, we got working on my Toms. I've worn the pair Nana got me last year out and they were starting to get holes in the toes. I wanted to save them somehow & decided on covering them... let me tell you, it's much harder to do than it sounds! I think they're going to turn out awesome, though!

My recovered Toms project

Tuesday was the big Dallas trip. Nana had a catering job she did for a company and all we had to do was drop off the food to them around 11:00 am. Since we would already be in Dallas, we decided to do some shopping. Abbi got to come with us so that was wonderful! We started off eating breakfast at LaMadeleine's... it's basically a tradition for us it seems, but they have a wonderful breakfast there! We went to several stores and the Galleria. They had their Christmas tree up and we all got pictures. We then went to Matito's for lunch/dinner around 4 and it was delicious! Some of the best Mexican food I've ever had!

And today has just been full of cooking and trying to get ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow, along with me stitching on my Toms whenever I get a chance! My fingers are so sore!

Hopefully I'll update again soon about how Thanksgiving went! Hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow!

heading home

I'll be heading home for Thanksgiving break tomorrow! I can't wait to see my crazy family :)

Easter 2010

I love how Reveille even tried to get in on the pic at the bottom :)

Texas Love

I think that one thing that college has done has increased my love for my home state. Mississippi is great and all, but there’s something intoxicating about knowing I’ll soon be home for a visit. I soak up every minute I can while home.

I guess there’s just something about Texas that makes me feel at home… and it’s more than the fact that it’s where I was born & raised. Everything just seems clearer/brighter/fresher there. I love being outside & taking pictures of the awesome landscape. I love the way that things are different there. I love living out in the country, where things are especially different. We have our own practices & customs that outsiders just don’t understand.

I don’t think there’s anything prettier than seeing a Texas sunset when you’re driving down the highway and there’s nothing else around. Or when you’re at a small pond out in the middle of nowhere, with a couple friends or family members and all you can hear is the sounds of nature around you. Or even when you pass by a pasture and see horses or cows grazing. It just sets my heart at peace. One of my absolute favorite things to do when I owned my own horses was to go out during fall and sit on the big round bale of hay and just watch them eat and take in the smells around me. I seriously don’t think there’s a better smell than a horse. I know some people don’t like it, but there’s something about wrapping your arms around a horse’s neck and just smelling him and hearing the noises his heart beat makes and the sound of him chewing. That’s probably what I miss the most from not having my own horses anymore.

Anyways, I was looking around different websites the other day and found this tumblr. It’s full of funny little icons that are all about “you know you’re a Texan when…” I figured I’d share a couple with you. All of the ones she makes can be found HERE. 

 So true, especially since it's mom's favorite! I never realized how much of a Texas thing it is until I moved to Mississippi!

 Again, SO TRUE! I have a wish list full of different boots I want. :)

 Yep! This definitely happened this summer.

 These next three are SO true, especially for my family. It kinda comes with the whole "My dad's a coach & my brother plays" thing, too. It's pretty much impossible to get away from!

 and I miss it so much!

I know that mom would especially agree with this one! haha!

 of course! you mean, not everyone does that?

 Haha! This actually happened to me my freshman year here at State... and I didn't think I'd have a problem with it since I'm going to school in Mississippi!

 It was a sad day when no one here knew what I was talking about... it's surprisingly difficult to explain, too.

 Yep!

 Oh boy, you should hear my Papa!

... and I LOVE it! I especially miss the TexMex from back home!

Hope y'all enjoyed them. A lot of the ones on her site apply to the South in general, but there are a LOT that are very specific to Texas! Man, I just can’t wait to head home on Thursday. Those 457 miles will fly by, as long as I know I’m heading back home.