Temple Trips

Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks!

We went up to Houston two Fridays ago and stayed with James' brother Andy and his wife Susan. It was fun to see their new house. I can't imagine actually owning a house, it seems so far away. Saturday James and I went to the Houston temple together. It was sooo nice to go and feel the peace that is there.

I love the Houston temple...I haven't been there for two and a half years! I think it is so beautiful...and it is great to take pictures in front of!

Us by the fountain.

Saturday afternoon, we drove to College Station for a b-day party for one of our nephews. It was at Chuck E Cheese, and we had a pretty good time. This guy that James and I used to work with at Whataburger now works there. We ALWAYS see people we know from Whataburger everywhere we go, it seems. :) Sunday our little niece was blessed in church. She is so small and cute...and quiet. All she does is sleep, really. She looked pretty in her white dress, white shoes, and white bow! We took a group picture of all of us, but I don't have a copy of that yet.

Tuesday we took some of the youth from church to the San Antonio temple for a temple trip. It was a really good experience, and I was glad that both James and I were able to go. We had a lot of fun!

Me and the other young women leaders with the young women.

Me and James on the temple grounds. It is so pretty there!

In other news...we moved this weekend! Not anywhere far, just to a bigger apartment in the same complex. We got most of the moving done on Saturday, my mom came to help and she was able to put a lot of stuff away while it was getting moved in. It made SUCH a big difference! We LOVE our new apartment! The layout is so much better and we have a lot more storage. It just feels so much more like "home" than our old apartment. I will take some pictures when we get everything put away.

We will be going to Utah from July 2nd-July 7th...so we will be getting ready for that trip this week. I am really excited!

Picture Update

Here are some pictures of us at the Corpus Christi State Aquarium from a month or two ago. It was pretty fun, and we got to go for free because it was "family fun day," and University students and employees got to go for free...so that was pretty sweet.
James looks so cute.
This is the Lexington...it is pretty neat to take a tour through it. I have gone several times, but it has been a few years. Anyone who visits Corpus should check it out.
This picture is hilarious to me...every time I would put my purse down next to the glass, the otter would go CRAZY and keep batting at my purse through the glass continually until I picked my purse up. They were so cute.This was a really cool dolphin show at the Aquarium.

I found some pictures that I forgot that I had! Here is me getting my makeup done on my wedding day. She also did my hair for my wedding day. She did a wonderful job...although I did NOT enjoy having someone else put makeup on me. I felt like I was going to get my eye poked out. I thought these pictures were kind of funny though.

This is part of our little "Newlywed Barbeque" that we had in Kingsville. I took a picture of our little guestbook table and our table center pieces. I realized that we didn't get any pictures of James and I, but that's okay.

Weekend at the beach

Last weekend was a fun one for us. James' family came to Corpus to visit for James' birthday. Friday night James and I went camping on the beach with his brother Andy and wife Susan. It was my first time to camp on the beach, and it was an adventure. Sand got EVERYWHERE! But it was really fun. The next day we went swimming and made sand castles.

Here is James working on our sand castle in front of our tent!



Andy and Susan building their sand castle.
The water was actually warm enough for us to go swimming! We tried to use this boogie board we bought, but none of us were very good at it, haha.

We all went to a Corpus Christi Hooks game (minor league baseball team) on Saturday. The best part about it was that the name of the stadium was Whataburger Field! They even have a Whataburger there where you can buy food. So of course, we did.

In other news, I had finals this week, which means school is OVER for the semester! I feel like I did pretty well. I am excited to have the summer off and get some projects done that I have wanted to work on for a while. :)

Weekend Fun

Well we have had a fun past few weekends. Two weekends ago James and I drove to College Station to attend a baby shower for Lesley and a wedding shower for my old roomie, Kim! We had so much fun. Of course James and the "guys" didn't attend the showers, haha. They did "guy things."

Lesley's baby shower was very cute. It was hosted by her sister and Anne. Everybody loved looking at all of the cute little girl clothes! By the way, Lesley just had her baby this past Saturday, and her name is Evelyn.

Kim's wedding shower was a lot of fun also. It was good to see her so happy and excited about getting married. I still can't believe sometimes how much things have changed in the past few years. I love reminiscing on how my life has come to be where it is now, and I am always reminded of my blessings as I visit old friends and see them take these wonderful steps in their lives. Here is a picture of the two of us (not a good one of me, but Kim looks great!)
While we were in town, James and I went to visit Brother's Park Pond. We used to always go there when we lived in College Station, especially when we first started dating. It was one of the first places James and I went together as a couple. It is so peaceful and beautiful there. I remember the first time he took me there...it was pitch black, and as he led me on the trail, I couldn't see a thing. I was worried he was going to do something bad to me, haha! I kept asking him, "WHY are you taking me back here? I don't like this!" That is my paranoid self. Of course nothing bad happened. It is one of our "special places." Here is a picture of James at the park.

This past weekend we kind of just hung out and relaxed! It was so nice to just chill. :)

5 Things

--5 Tag--

10 years Ago...

I was 13 and in the 8th grade at Clara Driscoll Middle School in San Antonio, TX.

I got my FIRST CD that year. Wow, haha.

5 Years Ago...

I was in my first year of college. The spring semester was interesting...I started taking business classes on West Campus at A&M, which was really exciting. My roomates and I discovered the long hidden "golf course" snack bar which we ventured to almost daily. It was like our secret place to eat on campus that no one else knew about. Oh yes, about this time exactly five years ago I TOTALED MY MUSTANG!!! A sad time, but in certain ways it led me to where I am today...I started working at Whataburger because I needed to bike there...which is where I met James..and so on!

5 Months Ago...

Thanksgiving! This was my first Thanksgiving back home after my mission. James and I didn't get to spend it together, but it was nice to be with my family.

5 Things on My To-Do List Today...
1. Do a "Peer Review" for papers from the people in my group for class tomorrow.
2. Go to "Buc Days" with the Young Women from church tonight! Fun!
3. Look at our budget for next month and try to figure out what we can spend.
4. Order promotional items for work
5. Update monthly budget for accounts at work

5 Snacks I Enjoy... (none that are "healthy" obviously)
1. Chips and Salsa
2. Cookies!
3. Doritos
4. Cheese and Crackers
5. Peanuts

5 Things I Would do if I was Suddenly a Billionaire...
1. INVEST IT!!!
2. Buy a house
3. Go shopping for clothes and buy whatever I want for once in my life!
4. Travel. Go places I've always wanted to go and visit old friends.
5. Give some away to family/friends/church.

5 of My Bad Habits...
1. Cracking my knuckles...constantly
2. Picking at my cuticles...often tears the skin and looks disgusting.
3. Procrastinating...especially when I really don't want to do something (like schoolwork)
4. Obsessively checking to see if the doors are locked
5. Checking email/facebook way too often

5 Place I Have Lived...
1. San Antonio, Texas (birth-18)
2. College Station, Texas (18-21)
3. Fairmont, West Virginia and Morgantown, WV (areas on my mission...Feb 2006-Feb 2007)
4. Lynchburg, Virginia (again an area on my mission...Feb 2007-Aug 2007)
5. Corpus Christi, Texas (Jan 2008-present)

5 Things People Don't Know About Me...
1. I love Coke, but I can't really drink it anymore because I lost self control and drink TONS if I do!
2. I like to pop zits...haha...there's something satisfying about it.
3. I really actually do LOVE Math!
4. I'm scared of failure...when I mess up in front of other people it is very embarrassing.
5. I get paranoid and anxious a lot (aka I'm crazy)

5 People I Tag...
Whoever hasn't done it yet!

Newlywed BBQ

We had a "Newlywed Barbeque" over the weekend at James' parent's house in Kingsville. It was pretty laid back, and we actually had a lot of fun. There was about 60 people there. It was fun to hang out with the sister-in-laws. I'm pretty lucky to be a part of a group that generally gets along really well. We have fun talking about our husbands and the family trends, haha. Hopefully there will be pictures coming soon.

Jill (sister-in-law) made a TON of brisket and potatoes for everyone to eat. It was soooooo good. We took home a bunch of leftovers that still taste delicious. James' mom made two cakes, an Italian creme cake and a chocolate cake...ALL FROM SCRATCH, including the icing. I was amazed! Plus she decorated them so they looked like professionally made cakes. It would be cool to be able to do that. With such a talented group of cooks and bakers...I feel a little out of place at times.

We also got some more gifts, which was really nice. It's actually pretty amazing when we think of all of the gifts we received. All of the wedding gifts really do help a newly married couple get started. I am very grateful for those that did send us gifts and/or thoughtful cards. We would never be able to afford all of the stuff we have on our own, at least not for a long time.

In other news...James went to the Jimmy Buffet concert in Houston last night with his brothers. It was the first night that we have spent apart since being married. I have to admit, it was a little scary being alone in our apartment. But I'm glad that he was able to go and have a good time. :)

Life Update

For those of you who we don't keep in contact with regularly, I thought I would make a post about what James and I have been doing for the past little while.

James is taking correspondance classes from BYU and plans to enroll somewhere in the Fall to pursue a degree in Finace. He is currently working at his brother in law's company, Capnor USA, doing computer modeling for laser scans of oil refineries.

I began graduate school at Texas A&M Corpus Christi this Spring, pursuing a Master in Business Administration. It's not the same as the good 'ol Fightin Texas Aggies in College Station, but the timing and the place was right for our situation. We both really love and miss College Station and our friends there. We hope to find our way back there someday, but it just didn't work out to live there right now. Hopefully we'll at least have some good football games to watch this Fall.

I am working at TAMUCC in the Graduate Studies department. I am the "business person" for the department...basically I handle all the money. There is a lot more that goes on behind the scenes than I realized. I've learned all about awarding scholarships, how people are appointed assitantships, and have been able to use what I know about numbers and accounting to balance and maintain all of our accounts. Mostly I have learned that there are A LOT of rules in state organizations! It's hard to keep everything straight. But I have learned new skills at an accelerated rate while working here. It is very stressful; there is always something new that I need to learn and do, and always problems that need fixing. But it makes the day go by really fast and I am rarely bored. I have to admit, I like the paycheck! It is really nice having a 'real' job. A definite step up from the fast food industry...where, as many of you know, I resided for many years, haha.

So we have been pretty busy working and going to school. We also have a lot going on at church. I just got called to the Young Women's presidency as the 2nd Counselor. It is pretty fun working with the youth and getting to know them. But pretty much our only days we have to relax are the weekends. And then there are usually family events going on, grocery shopping that needs to be done, studying, bills that need to be paid, and THEN of course, trying to go on a date and have fun together!

I am excited about this weekend. We are having a "newlywed barbeque" at James' parents house. I think it will be fun and hopefully we'll have something interesting to update about afterwards. :)