Leap Day

Today...

-I woke up extremely late.

-My hair refused to straighten. I haven't worn it curly in months, so it's use to being straight and I haven't had much problem with it. But today, it decided it did not want to straighten. So in a pony tail it went...

-ALL of my clothes were wrinkled. Seriously, all of them. And since I woke up late, I didn't have time to iron anything. Usually on work days, it doesn't take me long to pick an outfit and go. Today, I tried on like... 10 outfits. Which just made me even later.

-Since I was running so late, I ran out the door this morning without my lunch. Which means I had to eat fast food for lunch. Which means I had to leave during lunch. Which means I had maybe 10 minutes to actually eat.

-I wore new shoes to work today, and by the end of first period I already had blisters. My feet are killing me.

-They officially biopsied my grandmother's lungs, and her cancer is indeed as aggressive as they thought. It is in the last stages and they have given her 2-3 months. She has decided to not do any treatments.

It's been a long day. And it's only 2:15. Leap Day, you are not my friend! Thankfully, you only come around once every four years. I can't wait for you to go away and for my amazing life to be back tomorrow!!!

Homesick

You're in a better place, I've heard a thousand times. And at least a thousand times, I've rejoiced for you. But the reason why I'm broken, the reason why I cry, is how long must I wait to be with you? I close my eyes, and I see your face. If home's where my heart is, then I'm out of place. Lord wont you give me strength to make it through somehow? I've never been more homesick than now.

I live ten hours away from my earthly "home". The city where I grew up, the city that made me who I am. The city where my best friends are from and where my favorite people still live. I live ten hours away from my home state, the state that I love so much. I've lived in Texas for three years, and I can honestly say that I have only been "homesick" one time. And that was when my grandfather had a stroke and was about to pass away. I think the only reason I was even homesick then was because I just wanted to be with my family. Sure, I miss Alabama. I miss the people the most. But I've never experienced homesickness, because I know that I wouldn't be happy living there. I love my life in Texas.

However, there are days when I am so homesick for my real home in Heaven. There are days when I want to be there so badly. I'm tired of the heartache on this earth, I'm ready to meet my Savior, and I'm ready to be reunited with my sweet mom. My mom has been gone for six years, and yet there are still days when my heart aches for her. There are times when I want to pick up the phone and call her, when I want to drive home and see her standing in the door, when I just wish I could wrap my arms around her and give her a hug. I can close my eyes and see that smile, hear that laugh, and my heart aches to be home with her. They say that through time, the ache is less. And I would agree with that. When she first left, I could hardly get out of bed to face the day. Now, life is normal. But there is always a dull ache in my heart, and I will always, always be homesick for her.

Don't get me wrong, I love my life. I don't want to die anytime soon. But when my time comes, I'll be ready. I'll be ready to go to my real home, meet my Savior face to face, and give my mom another great big hug.

In Christ, there are no goodbyes. In Christ, there is no end. So I'll hold on to Jesus with all that I have- to see you again. To see you again!

Celebrations

My weekends really remind me of how blessed my life in Dallas is. I can't imagine living anywhere besides here. I love everything about my life here!!

On Friday night, we celebrated Sarah's birthday. We ate dinner at Celebrations and then came back to our place for cake and hang out time. At Celebrations, I was sitting at a table with 19 other people. And as I looked down the table at these 19 smiling faces, I was overcome with a feeling of gratefulness. Those 19 people were 19 of my favorite people in the world. They all are special to me in a different way, and I just couldn't get over how blessed I am by each of their friendships. It was such a special night, to be surrounded by 19 people that mean so much to you.

With my 19 of my favorite people at Celebrations

Sarah's amazing birthday cake that I made :)

With the girls at Sarah's party... these girls mean the world to me!

After the party, Katie and Sarah spent the night with us and Amy spent the night downstairs with Kathryn. The next morning, we got up and went to brunch at Panera Bread. That afternoon I went and grabbed a movie with Amy. We saw "This Means War" and it was sooooo funny! Then I went and grabbed dinner with Amy, Kathryn, Cali, and Matthew at Taco Diner. Many laughs were had, for sure! Then we met David, Alex, Devin, and Katie at Tillman's for another weekend of their homemade smores. (If you live in Dallas and haven't been to Tillman's for their smores... GO. NOW)

Kathryn, me, and Katie at Tillman's

Sunday was a pretty relaxing day as well. I went to church and then headed up to Plano. I spent the afternoon with Valerie. We watched girly TV shows and made delicious cupcakes. (Think: Oreo bottom. Then a reese cup. Then chocolate cupcake batter. Topped with homemade peanut butter frosting. Divine.)

The amazing cupcakes

After some girl time, I went over to the Martin's to spend some time with my Charlie bear. After giving Charlie a bath and putting him to bed, Lacy and I finally had time to just catch up on life. Most of the time we're chasing after Charlie and don't have time to chat, so it was nice to spend an evening just chatting with her and Baron.

Yesterday I spent the day with a new friend. We grabbed lunch at Angry Dog in Deep Ellum, and then spent the rest of the afternoon/evening playing video games, watching TV, and just getting to know each other. It was a nice way to spend my day off, for sure. :)

Now it's back to the grind of life. School is pretty crazy this week with the launch of our newest project. I'm super excited about this weekend! An old friend from Dallas is coming back to town for the weekend and staying with us. It will be so nice to catch up with her, and I'm really excited about it.

While life in Dallas is great, life back home in Alabama has some things going on that make my heart long to be there. I wish I could hop on a plane and be there now, but unfortunately I can't. My heart and prayers are there though, and I wish I were too. It's so ironic how some things in life can be going so smoothly, while others are so rough. I guess that's life though! Never a dull moment around here, that's for sure. I don't think I'd have it any other way.

Victory through Him

I've written a lot lately about how life has been so great and wonderful and blessed. And today, life is still great, wonderful, and blessed. But it's also a little bit harder. Everyone goes through ups and downs, and I guess this is just another down period for my family.

On Friday, my grandmother was admitted into the hospital for pneumonia. This is my dad's mom. Through some different tests that they ran for the pneumonia, they found blood clots to her heart and legs. Through more testing, they found that these blood clots are being caused by lung cancer. It's a llung cancer that is hard to find because it's deep in the tissue of the lungs. They have not been able to biopsy her lungs yet because of the fluid in them from the pneumonia. Therefore, all we know about the lung cancer is the doctor guessing. We will know more for sure once they are able to do the biopsy- which will hopefully happen either Thursday or Friday.

The doctor says that the biopsy could come back and prove him wrong, but from what he can tell the cancer is already really progressed and in the last stages. He says that it's really aggressive and he has given her about 4 more months.

She also had a biopsy done last week on her breasts to determine if she has breast cancer. She hasn't gotten the results from that yet because of being admitted for the pneumonia, so that could also be something else to add to the list.

If you think about it, please pray for her as she deals with this news. Also pray for my dad. I'm worried about him while he is dealing with this. His dad just died a little over a year ago. His brother died a few years back and his sister lives in Florida, so he is having to deal with this alone. Please pray that he handles it all with strength and that he finds peace in this situation.

My family would greatly appreciate your prayers as we walk through this time period! God is good through all things- even the hard ones. I am thankful that I serve a God who is stronger and mightier than any cancer--- and that through Him, any ending to cancer is a victory.

Yikes.

So I spent all day yesterday either curled up in my bed or curled up on the couch feeling.like.crap.

I don't know WHAT was wrong with me, but it was terrible. 24 hour bug? Possibly. It was awful awful awful though!!

Thankfully, I'm back at work today and feeling MUCH better.

Unfortunately, my kids are BONKERS.

Is it time for our 3 day weekend yet?!?!?

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to you and all the other single ladies out there! I found this card and thought it was perfect for some of us today. :) :)

Pool, DI, and a little bit of hockey...

What a weekend, what a weekend, what a weekend!

It started out with the 7th grade dance... which was hysterical. It was alot more fun than I thought it would be. My kids were cracking me up the entire time! I really enjoyed myself. I also got this lovely heart from one of my students- ha!

After the dance, I ran home and quickly got ready for an outing with a friend. I met a friend in Frisco, where we played pool and ate pizza. After that, we went by a pub and grabbed some drinks, and ended the night at his place watching a movie. I really enjoyed getting to know him better. :)

Saturday morning was off to the DI competition. After sitting in traffic for an hour and a half and making a pit stop at Starbucks, I finally made it. It was an interesting afternoon, for sure. Needless to say, I was happy to have my Starbucks. Is anyone else as obsessed with their valentine cups as I am?!

Saturday night I grabbed dinner with my girls. Oh, how I have missed them! It was so good to get some girl time in. After dinner, we went down to the Bishop Arts District and ordered smores at Tillmans. This dessert is by far the best dessert in town. Homemade marshmallows(blackberry, peppermint, and maple), homemade chocolate, homemade graham crackers, and a little fire! This is my favorite place!

Sunday morning I taught two year old sunday school and then went to my sunday school. After that, I grabbed lunch with Katie and Scott. It did my heart so good to have Katie/Scott time. Those two mean so much to me and I haven't spent quality time with them in so long. They are two of my dearest friends, and I loved catching up with them over lunch!

Last night I went to the Stars Hockey game with another friend. I had never been to a hockey game, but we had great seats and it was so much fun! Unfortunately, we lost by one goal. :( It was still exciting though! When we walked out of the game, it was SNOWING in Dallas! Snow makes everything better. :) We grabbed dinner at Fuzzy's Tacos (which, by the way, is amazing!!) and had great conversation. It was a great way to end the weekend!

My weekend was obviously super busy, but it was so great.

Have I mentioned that I love my life here in Dallas? Because I really, really, really do.

Weekend Recap

Last weekend was an epic weekend, as always. Friday night I went to dinner at Matt's Rancho Martinez (my favorite!) with Amy, Cali, Stephanie, Alex, David, and Devin. Afterwards we went over to Kathryn's and we just sat around and talked about life. I really enjoyed getting to know them all a little bit better through conversation. They had me laughing so much!

Saturday morning I got up and headed to Austin! I got there around lunchtime and went to lunch with Kev and Ali. After lunch, Ali and I started working on food for the super bowl party on Sunday! Alicean found some really great recipes. That night, we went to dinner with some of their friends and then we went and saw Wicked! It was amazing! That musical is so great. It was the second time I had seen it. It wasn't as good as the first time, but it was still really great! It's next stop is Birmingham, so all my friends back home need to buy a ticket and go!!!

Sunday morning I slept in and it was so nice. I woke to the smell of Kevin's brisket smoking in the backyard... which, by the way, was amazing. I'm not a big brisket fan, but Kevin's was so good! We cooked all day again and that night they had a super bowl party. About 30 people showed up! It was a lot of fun. I was glad that I stayed for it!

I took Monday off of work, so I slept in.. again. Which was again, so nice. Then I headed back to Dallas, where I ran some errands and cleaned some of the apartment. Monday night I made my grandmother's chicken and dumpling recipe and it was so good!! Holly and I really enjoyed it. :)

Overall, it was a super fun weekend! This weekend should be fun too. It's super busy! Tomorrow night David and Alex are cooking some of us girls dinner. Friday is the 7th grade Valentine dance and after that I'm suppose to be meeting a friend for drinks. Saturday night I've got dinner plans, and Sunday is church! I'm sure other things will go on, because they always do, and I'm excited about it! Next weekend its back to Austin because CHASE is coming to town!! So excited. February is turning out to be a great month! :) :)

Happy birthday, MawMaw!!

Too many times I've heard my friends talk about how they aren't close to their grandparents. They say they have nothing to talk about besides the weather and that the conversations are always awkward and short.

I am SO thankful that is not the case with my MawMaw!!! My MawMaw is the most amazing woman in my life. She is kind and always happy, gives great advice and always offers a listening ear when I need one. My MawMaw may be a tiny little woman, but she is a spunky little thing! Fun times are always to be had when she is around!!

When I was really little, I loved MawMaw time because it meant her yummy chocolate chip cookies. Im so thankful that my grandmother has become so much more to me than a chocolate chip cookie baker! ;)

When I was a teenager, she lived with us for awhile to help when my mom was sick, and she was such a rock for our family. She made sure things stayed as normal as possible. She talked with us about our moms condition and never hid things from us. She gave up her life to ensure that ours could stay as normal as possible.

After my mom passed away, she remained involved in our lives. She offered so much support, wether financially or emotionally. We got together monthly for dinners and those are such special memories!

Now that I've moved away, I rarely get to see her. But I LOVE calling her on the phone and catching up on life with her. I can tell her anything and she loves hearing it all! If I lived closer to her, I would see her all the time and I hope she knows that. However, I am so thankful that I have a MawMaw that I can call and talk to about more than the weather--- I can talk to her about anything and everything!!!

Today is my mawmaws birthday!! I hope you have an amazing birthday! I love you so so much and I wish I could be there to celebrate with you! You are an amazing woman and I'm so blessed to call you MY MawMaw!! Thank you for always being a constant in my life. You mean more to me than you know!!!