Surprise visit from my Mom!

Last Saturday night Gabe said he had to go up to work so I was just watching TV in my room, when he got home at 10:30pm He came in and told me to come out to the living room to see something so I went out and my Mom was standing there. I was so surprised I was not expecting that all. I started to cry because no one had ever come to visit me before and I think I was just so surprised too.
My mom stayed until Thursday afternoon. We had so much fun. I showed her around the rec center where I work and then we walked all around Texas Tech Campus. She came to my Zumba class and did a great job. We went to a couple museums and then just went and looked around at a lot of fun shops and stores. It was so fun to have here and show here all around Lubbock, there's not much to see but It it was fun to show here my life here in Texas.
Thank you Mom for coming to visit me!
Gabe thinks he can use this good gesture to earn points. Granted it was really sweet, but this morning a whole week later, he said Hey I have surprise for you, I brought your mom here last week. Sorry Honey you can't milk that one forever. Plus he brought here so I wouldn't be alone last week when he went to D.C to go golfing.

Life as I know it

Well I have done a few things in the last month. At the begining of last month I turned the big 26. So that was exciting I guess. I'm not sure if my life is exactly what I thought it would be at 26 when I was younger, but I can't complain. I have an awesome husband and great job I love and pretty much everything I need. We celebrated with tons of friends and then finished the night with the Bachelorette Finale. It was a great birthday.

I also go the change to fly out to Richmond last month and visit Lindsay and her family. It was so fun spending a few days there. I have the cutest nieces and nephews. We played, got to go to the beach, swam and just had a great time. I should of took pictures but i didn't.

Texas Tech Started back up so my job is pretty busy, I love having the campus full though and seeing all the classes here at the rec center so busy. I am even teaching a Zumba class once a week. I might not be able to shake it like other teachers but I think my class is pretty fun.

This past weekend I flew out to SLC to see my family. Gabe works weekends now and I decided I didn't want to spend my 3 day weekend home alone. It was so fun to see everyone. We got to spend a lot of time with Lisa, Jonathan and the twins. We went swimming, ate great food, and went to the Payson parade. I got to hang out with one my best friends Patrice and reminisce. It was so good to be around a family even if it was just for the weekend. It gave me the little break I needed to make it through the next three and half months. The weather was absolutely beautiful and it made me miss Utah, Provo and BYU. I really did have some of the best times ever out there. I did take a few pictures!

A few recent cakes

I have made a few cakes in the last couple months so I thought I would post the pictures. I really enjoy decorating the cakes I just wish I could just get someone else to do the baking and all the clean up. :) It is fun though and helps fill my evenings when Gabe is at work. So if anyone near by needs a cake sometime let me know!

Wonderful Friends and time off!

We had a great 4th of July weekend. No traveling for us just staying home and relaxing. Gabe and I spent Saturday cleaning and rearranging the house. I found a cute new kitchen table and chairs on craigslist that fits perfectly in our little eating area. I feel like I have a real kitchen eating area now. Maybe we will actually sit down at the table for meals now, but that would require me cooking so I'm not too sure that will happen. Of course its been raining here forever and so our town was basically flooded over the holiday weekend. I was hoping to spend my weekend out at the pool and we had a BBQ planned, oh well we still had a bunch of friends over on Sunday and enjoyed food and fun. My work gave me a huge brisket and we cooked that up. It was really good and we are glad our friends could come and help us eat it or else we would of been eating BBQ brisket for a year. And of course Gabe had to shoot off some fireworks with our friends and of course I kept nagging him that he was too close to the house or to be careful they were going to hurt themselves or catch something on fire. I had Monday off so it was great to be able to sleep in and have a day off or work. If only I could have a 3 day weekend every week.

Flying Adventures

The past two weekends Gabe and I have flown to opposite sides of the Country. Over Memorial Day Weekend we flew out to Dallas to attend our good friend Algot's wedding in Dallas. It was really great to see him and his new wife sealed and share that special day with them. I love going to other weddings because I literally have no memory of what was said at my own wedding, so when I go to other weddings it helps me remember the special day I had over three years ago.
Since we were already in Dallas and I had Monday off, i took an extra day off and we flew out to Salt Lake City to visit my family. Lindsay moved this past week back to Virgina so it would be last time I could go out and see everyone minus lachelle (we missed you Lachelle). It was great weekend. We had a great time visiting with friends and family. On Monday we went up into the mountains and had a BBQ and played football and just enjoyed the beautiful weather and scenery. That is one thing I miss about the west, the mountains. I loved playing with all my cute nephews and my little niece. I wish we all lived closer to one another. We were able to make it back home with the only exception of missing the last flight into Lubbock, but we got to spend some more time with some friends in Dallas. We got back Wednesday morning and I went straight to work.
Then on Friday I left straight from work and we flew back out to Dallas and spend the evening with Gabe's family for my brother in-law's birthday. Then we woke up at 5am and headed off to DC for my nephews baby blessing. It was hot and humid in DC we did a little walking around but mostly we just relaxed and spent time with Wade and Kelly and the family that was there. The baby blessing was great, little Ammon was adorable and he made the day special by blowing out of his diaper on his lovely mamma at church. I think he just wanted to make the day memorable. Some great food and games finished our trip in DC. We will have to go back so we can do all the cool sights and museums. We did eat at Ben's Chili Bowl, Bill Cosby's favorite place to eat.
Well we were suppose to catch a 6am flight back to Dallas and then we would be fine making it back to Lubbock. Well lucky for us that flight got cancelled and so we weren't able to leave until 10am and by the time we made it to Dallas all the flights to Lubbock were oversold. Not good for stand by passengers. Gabe's amazing father decided he could do some work a few hours from Lubbock drove us home. The drive actually went by quick just 4 and half hours and we listened to my Father in-law tell stories the whole time. We are so grateful for David taking us home so Gabe could go to work at 4am the next morning.
I am so glad to be home this weekend with nothing to do. Well besides laundry and cleaning. All this traveling as taken a toll on my house, it is pretty pathetic. So tomorrow I am going to sleep in and then take my time to clean. I love traveling around but I am so happy to come home. Nothing beats sleeping in your own bed.

Sometimes you just need a day in bed

Things have been kind of stressful lately in my little world here in West Texas. Sometimes I hate feeling stressed or worried about my troubles because I know there are so many people with bigger trials in their lives but my own mountains were seeming very heavy to climb this week and I just needed a day a lone in my bed. So yesterday I called in sick to work, which wasn't completely untrue, plus sometimes I think mental/emotional sick days are just as important as physical ones. I woke up at my normal time because I guess my body is just use to that but then I just laid in my bed all morning dosing in and out of sleep. Then I watched TLC and home decorating shows all day. I think in all I watched like 6 episodes of Say Yes to The Dress. Its bad if you are starting to see repeats. I picked up my house a little but mostly just did nothing and ate a lot of ice cream. It was a good day. Sometimes it is just so nice to be alone in the comfort of your room closed off from the outside world. The down side was I was wide awake at 1am this morning so waking up for work this morning was a little struggle, but my "me" day has definitely helped me regroup and I think I am ready for the summer! I miss being a kid when the summer meant sleeping in and playing all day. I guess in a month or two I will just need to take another "me" day.

California for work! I know hard life I live!

Last week I went to Anaheim California for a work conference called NIRSA( national intramural and recreational sports association). It was a really good time. I got to stay in a nice hotel and attend different sessions and workshops as well as go out and have some fun. We went to Downtown Disney, an Angels Game, and the beach on my last day there. It was a little disappointed that it was cold and raining the first three days and then became nice right when we had to go home. Good thing I live in Texas and we are having nice weather now. It was a great trip and I learned a lot and hope to improve my program at work. Next year the conference is in New Orleans so hopefully i will get to attend that one as well and maybe Gabe will come along. Trips are more fun with him there.

Oh yeah and I might of put a couple of quaters in the slot machine at the Vegas Airport :)