Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Our Weekend Getaway

February is not my favorite month.

It's cold for one.  The holidays are over along with the excitement of returning to my classroom after the break.  There is the anticipation of things to come...Andrew's birthday, spring break, Easter.  But those feel so far away.  There is nothing fun in February.  

(Yes I know there is Valentine's Day, but we aren't big celebraters)


February is  just blah.

Some people get the January blues.

I get the February blues.

I lack motivation.

 I don't want to do anything but curl up in my warm bed and veg out.

Veg out.... no relation to vegetables.

I'm talking double stuffed oreos for dinner.

My lack of motivation has left me feeling behind and overwhelmed with everything.

Last Tuesday I felt like I was on the verge of a breakdown.  I sent Andrew a text at lunch and simply said, "I need a vacation."

It was only a few seconds when he responded with, "Me too.  When is Spring Break?"

Spring Break was too far away.  I needed a long weekend.

Thursday my coworker mentioned that her and her family were headed to Branson for the weekend.  

That sounded perfect.

It sounded even better after I checked the weather and realized it was supposed to be a pretty nice weekend.

I sent Andrew a text saying we should go to Branson for the weekend.  We could play golf and shop and just get away.

And that is exactly what we did.

Andrew worked from home Friday so as soon as I got home we headed north.  

We took it easy Friday night, grabbing a quick bite to eat and then just hanging out in our hotel room.

Saturday morning we golfed.

And by we golfed I mean, Andrew golfed while I rode in the cart and manned the flag at each green.

It turned out to be a gorgeous day.  Almost 80 degrees and sunny.  

I was not prepared to get a tiny little sun burn in February.

The course, Buffalo Ridge, was gorgeous.










I used to tag along with Andrew pretty often when he played golf, but it has been a long time.  He has been playing with the nephews lately and I don't tag along when he does that.

I know he loves playing with the guys, but I hope he enjoyed having his wife tag along this past weekend.  I know I loved it.

I never thought I would say that.  But my man loves golf and I love him so I've learned golf isn't so bad.  :)

For the most part it felt like we had the whole course to ourselves. 

Andrew finished that round of golf in record time.

We had originally planned to save the outlet mall for Sunday but since we finished golf so early we decided to shower up and hit the mall a day early.

As we were shopping we just kept saying how unbelievable the weather was.

At one point I asked where we would have to move to have that kind of weather year round.

I was ready to pack up and head out.

Saturday night even though we were both exhausted and would have been totally fine with have a pizza delivered to our hotel room, we went ahead with our dinner plans.

We got dressed up and went out to a nice dinner.


We don't do this very often because quite honestly I eat like a two year old and a nice restaurant just doesn't have all that much appeal to me.

But this was fun.

I enjoyed putting on a dress, special make up, and curling my hair to go out with my man.

Maybe I can learn to eat a steak so we can do this more often. :)

Since we hit the mall a day early that left us with a much needed lazy Sunday morning.  We slept in and then headed to Cracker Barrel for a late breakfast before heading home.

My parents had given us a gift card for Valentine's Day.

Right as we were getting ready to leave we heard a couple sitting a few tables over tell the waitress that it was their anniversary.  

Andrew asked me if I would be okay if we gave them our gift card as a little anniversary gift.

Of course!

I love his heart.  He loves people.  He serves people.

And there is nothing sexier than a man who loves likes Jesus.

It was the perfect way to end our little getaway.

We both came home a little more refreshed and little more ready to face the new week.

But still...

Bring on March!



Monday, February 15, 2016

Top Ten Reasons to Spend the Weekend with Aunt E

10.  Uncle Andrew has cool toys!!


9.  Lots and lots of room to crawl and play.


8. Pancakes for breakfast





7.  A rocking chair that is just the right size.
 (Her little profile is seriously the cutest thing ever!)





6. Uncle Drew brings you KFC mashed potatoes and gravy for lunch.



5. Kisses from Aunt E



4. Liberty Belle and Lincoln Baxter
(Those sleepy eyes!!)





3. Baths with Aunt E

2.  Homemade play pens

1. All the loves you want






Say Cheese


That ladies and gentlemen is my very last selfie with braces.

That's right!

All that metal came off this afternoon and I could not be more excited.

The closer it got to my appointment the more nervous I got.  I was nervous that Dr. Lay would decide I needed to wear them a little longer.  I was nervous that the process might be painful.

I have a long history of being afraid when it comes to people working on my teeth.

It wasn't too bad but taking the bands off did hurt.

I may have screamed a little.

At one point Dr. Lay told me not to worry, he wouldn't accidentally pull a tooth.

But that is exactly what it felt like he was trying to do.

Once everything was off he did some grinding and polishing.

That didn't hurt but I did not care for the sound.  

I wish I had more pictures of the process.

And now on to the first selfie post braces....



I brought home my box today.




When you get braces they give you this long list of foods that you are not supposed to eat.  I'll admit I didn't really follow that list very well.  

How am I going to have cheese dip without chips?

I mean really!

Nuts is also on that list.  

Paydays are my favorite candy bar and I have not had one in almost two years.  I don't know why I chose to follow this one rule, but I did.

So today I went to the gas station and bought myself a Payday.

Party!!




Monday, February 1, 2016

Reading Goals

A few years ago I set a goal for myself to read 52 books within the year.  I was teaching 7th grade English at the time and was reading lots of young adult novels which made it fairly easy to meet and surpass my goal.  

For one reason or another it seemed like I read less and less books each year after that which makes me sad.  I have always loved to read, but lately it seems I tend to pick up my phone rather than a good book.  

This year I decided to see if I could meet that goal again.  

52 books in a year.

A book a week.

Thanks to snow days and sick days I am off to a great start.

I have finished 6 books so far.

I am keeping track of my books with Good Reads.  I have tried to use this website once before but didn't really see much purpose in it.  I'm still not sure I see all the benefits of it, but I'm trying it again.  I don't write reviews for the books that I read so I'm mainly using it to keep track of my books.  


I'm currently trying to read through all the books that are sitting upstairs on a bookshelf.  I have books that I've had for several years and have never read.  It is time to remedy that.

One of those books is Alibis in Arkansas.


I bought this book probably five years ago.  I found it on a clearance rack for $5 and bought it for no other reason that the setting is Arkansas.  I read it over the weekend and really enjoyed it.  Well worth the $5 I spent all those years ago.

Christian novels are my comfort zone.  

This year I want to read more nonfiction...biographies, parenting books, teaching books.

I hope to read at least one nonfiction book each month.  

In January I read It's Not What you Think by Jefferson Bethke



and The Connected Child by Dr. Karyn Purvis



Neither one of these were 5 star books in my opinion so I'm hoping February will bring a great nonfiction read.

Any suggestions?