Joseph, Mary, the Angel, and baby Jesus

Here are the pictures my nieces and nephew acting out a live nativity at Christmas. It was hilarious. None of us really knew what was going on, but my dad had gathered us in the living room after breakfast Christmas morning to read us the story of the birth of Jesus, something we have never done before by the way.

Then all of the sudden out of the bedroom appeared...

Joseph and Baby Jesus:

Mary (who was not really into live nativities or costumes):

and the Angel:

Mary scolding Joseph about his care of Baby Jesus:

Joseph placing Baby Jesus in the manger:

This was all so unexpected and hilarious! Simone (Mary) wasn't really into any of it, Darby (the Angel) was just interested in her costume and flying around and NOT saying "Glory to God in the highest" like Poppa told her too and Sutton (Joseph) LOVED it all. He loved that we were all laughing and laughed right along doing whatever we told him Joseph should do. It is for sure one of my favorite Christmas memories of all time!

wonderful weekends!

The past two weekends have been a blast! I got to do two of my favorite things: spend quality time with my sister and see tons of friends and family at once!

Two weekends ago my sister's husband planned a fun filled surprise weekend for Marta and I while he was out of town. I got in Friday night and surprised her, although she had already deduced that it was probably me coming! On Friday night we went and saw Bride Wars (we thought it was hilarious) while Adam stayed with the kids!

Then Saturday we took Darby and Sutton to my aunts for the day and night so we could have a kid free 24 hrs! We then met my dad for lunch at one of our favorite places, Hula Hut. We had great quality time the three of us and then Dad even took us and bought us some pens. Yes writing pens; my dad collects fountain pens and bought us some really cool things called Sherpas. You'll have to google them. We love them!

Afterwards we got to go on a mini shopping spree; Marta had strict instructions to buy 2 dressy outfits, one for our night out on Saturday and one for a surprise Kyle has for her in March. I also took the advantage of shopping to buy myself an outfit!

Saturday night we got drinks and then went to see the Broadway show "Ain't Misbehavin" with Ruben Studdard and Frenchie (last name?) from American Idol! It was down town at the Paramount and it was AMAZING! It was basically just a musical review of 20's/Big Band music and it was phenomenal! There was actually another girl from American Idol in the cast too, that for some reason wasn't billed, but I can't remember her name! Marta? Afterwards we had another one of my other Austin favs, Kerby Lane! Mmmm breakfast!

It was a wonderful and fun weekend! Thanks Kyle!

Then this past weekend we went to Lubbock for Masterfollies/Homecoming at LCU. We got in late Friday and hit the ground running!

Friday night I went out with some of my good friends from club and had a blast catching up and staying up way too late.

Then Saturday we woke up early and went to our clubs alumni breakfast. Thankfully Adam and I were in "brother" and "sister" clubs and have the same breakfast, along with Marta and Kyle, even though they're all WAY older than me ;)! It was so great to see so many people that you haven't seen in at least a year or longer! We then went to lunch with some good friends and took much needed naps!

Saturday night we went to Masterfollies and I loved it. My club didn't do so hot, I think they are in a recession or something, but none the less I LOVE follies. I always have since I was a child. I guess at some point I'm supposed to grow up and get over it, but I might never do that. It was really fun to see all the shows though and all the people we didn't already see at breakfast!

Sunday after church we went to lunch with the Crawfords and then I got to go to my sister-in-law's baby shower for our niece, Harper, who will be here in less than a month! I'm so glad Heather thought to have the shower on this weekend so me and others from out of town could come, because I would have been sad to miss it! They got tons of great stuff and Harper is going to be a very well dressed child, that may have to have outfits changed 3 times a day in order to use all her cute clothes up!

My sister-in-law Jessica's shower for other niece, Gabriella (also due in one month), was on the same day in Austin and I was sad to miss hers! I want to see some pictures please, April and Cari! I'm looking forward to making April's shower though for our other niece (name yet to be determined), due in April. Yes, we are having 3 nieces in 2 months! Yay for girls!

Anyways, (if you actually made it this far in this post) I wasn't very good at taking pics in Lubbock, ie I did not take any. I did manage to get a couple from Austin though and one is below! I'll do another post later this week with some pictures of the kids live nativity at Christmas. No one put pics of that up on their blogs and they need to be posted for the world to see!

Marta and I in our new outfits before our night out!

Master Adam

This past Saturday Adam graduated with his Masters in Social Work! It was a very exciting and long anticipated day. Adam has been working very hard and sacrificing a lot for school for the past 2 1/2 years and it was so exciting to celebrate the culmination of all that. Adam's parents, both his sisters, our niece, our cousin-in-law, and my grandparents all made it out for the big day and it was a lot of fun.

It was the most exuberant and exciting graduation I have ever attended! There was extreme cheering, yelling, clapping, and standing up for pretty much every graduate. The speaker was the new Associate Dean for the School of Social Work (it was only Social Work graduates) and surpassed any graduation speaker I have ever heard; she was inspiring, funny, and to the point (ie not very long!).

Here are some pictures of the big day:

Walking in....the girl behind him looks very excited!

Getting his name announced!

Getting "hooded"

Moving their tassles over

"Master Adam" and myself

Adam and his sisters, Heather and Jennifer

Adam and Gran

Adam and his parents, Bryan and Rhonda

It was a wonderful celebration and we're so so happy he is done with school...for now at least!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM!!!!

deep in the heart of texas

This past weekend we went to the Texas State Fair! I have been looking forward to it all fall and I am so glad we went when we did because, little did I know, it was the last weekend it was here!

I went last year with my parents and my Uncle John the day after we got engaged and have just had such great memories of it being a fabulous day and so much fun; and thus I have built the whole experience up in my mind for a entire year. I tend to do this though: I think something will be fun, decide to do it, day dream about it up until the event, and then have way too high expectations! Thankfully, Adam has great memories of going to the Lubbock fair and thought it would be fun too!

My high expectations did make the start to the day a little rough; but we soldiered through and eventually all my expecations were met...once I stopped having them! (If only I could remember this life lesson, I learn it several times a year, yet always seem to forget!)

Here are some pictures from our FABULOUS time at the fair:

BIG TEX:

Attempts of BIG TEX, Adam, & Rachel:

Photo by Adam:

Photo by Helpful Stranger:

Best Fair Food 2007/Fried Grilled Cheese:
Tasted like pure grease:
At the top of the ferris wheel!:

It was a wonderful day and now I will start my anticipation for next year!

_________________________________________

I've decided to do better about blogging. I told my sister that facebook wasn't for half-doers and she threw it back in my face! She got on the facebook bandwagon full force, so now its my turn with this blogging thing.

I also need to be better about responding to comments and actually start to comment on all the blogs I read...I tend to stay on "safe ground" and only comment, occasionally, on family member's blogs! Part of my excuse is that I don't have "events" to blog about....but I've seen some things like posts about what people are reading, their "favorite things", favorite movies, or just life thoughts in general; and I'm sure I can muster up some more good office stories!

So, I'm throwing it out there so hopefully I'll follow through; I'm going to post and comment more!

good love is on the way

This post is a little over due....but its never an inappropriate time to talk about my friend John. A few weeks ago I went with my best friend from high school (although our friendship obviously transcends the limits of good ole CP) to see John Mayer. It was simply amazing.


I just love John; him, Jen, and I just have so many great memories together. Like dancing in the car our senior year of high school to Why Georgia while "Nigel with the brie" (my crush for WAY too long) stared on, or having Room For Squares be the soundtrack to the best summer of our lives (felt that way in high school), or making an almost 24 hr trip to visit him & Jen in Oklahoma City my freshman year, or singing every word to every song our first time with him while Crystal yells "marry me John" in the background.....the list goes on.


With this concert we probably added our favorite memory, and I mean that for all three of us. The night was incredible: we ate Chuys before hand (John couldn't make it but we thought of him often), he sang all our favorites, we danced the WHOLE time, and John didn't wear his shirt; what more could we ask for?

It was a fabulous night and we plan on many more!

PS - I do still have a husband (he's totally supportive of mine and John's relationship) and he has started blogging again...you should read it!

the office...

is honestly where I feel like I work sometimes. I have a great job, with great hours, great experience, great friends, great benefits, ect; but sometimes the things we do are hilarious and it feels like we're on an episode of "the office".

Bowl for Kids Sake (BFKS, bc I'm too lazy to keep typing that!) is a huge fund raiser we do all year long with volunteers throughout the community who get friends and family to sponsor them to bowl (think Jog-a-thon in elementary school). So, a couple of Fridays ago we had an All-Staff BFKS and if you participated then you didn't have to work during those hours, sounds pretty great, right? Well, here is where the "officy" stuff comes in.

Like a whole month before the actual day they had a Kick-Off Party, which was basically one huge extremely awkward bowling party. It was from 11 to 2 and it was "come and go" and they had Wii bowling, bowling decorations, a bowling cake, huge plastic bowling set, ect. and like 90's alternative music blaring. They presented it as "come and sign up and hang out"; except we're really supposed to be working, and there were never more than 3 people in there at a time, and you really sign up online so there was not a tangible reason to be there.

So awkward and hilarious.

Then for the actual day of BFKS your team had to have a theme and costumes and lane decorations. I mean, I really thought when I left LCU that my days of buying things at GoodWill and Savors were over and that my roommate's costume box was a thing of the past (apparently she knew better because she still has it!) But no, no it's not, not when you have to be a Bowling Barbie:

Tennis Barbie, Sleepy Time Barbie, Malibu Barbie, Rocker Barbie, and Evening Gown Barbie.

Oh yes, we had wigs, we had lots of blue eye shadow and pink blush, and we were each a specific Barbie. And yes, this picture is taken in my office; I was dressed like this in my work place where I'm supposed to be a professional. And to top that off, four of the five of us are from the same team, and apparently we were supposed to come into work in the morning before BFKS started, because our boss sure did! But instead, we showed up in these clothes and did eachothers make up in the bathroom!

I was getting a little nervous about how ridiculous we looked until we showed up at the bowling alley and everyone else was equally enthralled in the competition. Let me tell you though, we TOTALLY got the shaft on the awards, we didn't win anything! And look at our lane:

Overall it really was a hilarious and fun day. Thank goodness I have fun girls on my team (and Heather too!) that make things like this fun to do together!

But honestly, this is just one episode; you combine this with the general awkwardness that are some people on my team, and on other teams ,and just the feel of the office, with themed trainings where you win candy for having the right answer, and all-staffs where we are led in camp songs that require singing as well as choreography.....it is the office!

P.S. The Nerd Herd swept the competition: