Weekend with old friends and babies!

Dave and I spent a much needed weekend away from home! Luckily, Dave's old roommate from A&M and my good friend from A&M live fifteen minutes apart in Keller. We were able to spend one night with each of them. At Sarah's house, I got to play with her two kiddos. Cameron (2 and 1/2 years) loves reading and putting together puzzles! He will make a great student. And Trevor (13 months) is very laid back. He was happy just being held.
Dave's old roommate, Randy and his wife Mandy have a three month old baby. I got to meet Sophia for the first time. I loved holding her...she was too sweet! Did you notice that Trevor and Sophia's bellies were both showing? :) Healthy babies!

Since I'm showing off babies, here is a recent picture of Abigail. Dave and I babysit her once a week. She is 16 months old. We love spending time with her!

Wondering about the remodel? We should be getting the interior walls textured this week so we can start painting. Here is an updated picture of the exterior. We have recently had the trim painted, gutters installed, and new landscaping. It is starting to look much better.

Happy Halloween - 80's Style

I love it that my school allows the kids and teachers to dress up for Halloween! At the end of the day Friday, we have a costume parade to show off all the great costumes.

Twin Diaper Cake

Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE baby showers?!! They are a great excuse for craft time. I made this diaper cake for boy/girl twins.

Cowboy Diaper Cake

I'm back to blogging! I have been busy the last five weeks teaching and working on our house so I haven't had much to blog about. However this week I made a little time to make a diaper cake! This one is for a cowboy/western nursery.

Back Home

This last weekend, I went "home" to visit old friends and to see my mom. Even though I consider Abilene my home, I refer to Cleburne as home. When I wasn't busy seeing old friends, I hung out with my mom and her best friend, Jan. We talked and quilted all weekend long.

I had lunch on Friday with a special young lady named Maddy. I taught Maddy when she was in the third grade, and she will soon start seventh grade. Her mother and I have stayed in touch through the years. It was so good seeing Maddy, her mom, and her brother.

Saturday, I attended my ten year high school reunion. It was fun seeing everyone and sharing old stories. Some of these girls I have been friends with since fourth grade!

On Sunday, I had lunch with my friend Marlana. Every time I go home to see my mom, I go visit Marlana. We taught together four years ago and I really miss her!! She has three adorable kids. This is her youngest playing dress up.

My friend's giveaway!

Our Happily Ever After
Check out my friend's blog! Katie is having her first giveaway. She and I have worked at Lytle together for three years!!

The Clary House

Last weekend, I drove to College Station to have a girls' weekend with two fellow Aggies! I hadn't seen Jacki or Meredith since last summer. It was great sharing old stories and laughing a lot! We stayed at The Clary House. It is a bed and breakfast owned by Meredith's mom. It was built in 1902 and is located on the south side of Bryan. Anyone traveling to this area should consider staying here. Linda is an amazing host, the rooms are beautiful, and the food is delicious! Linda made us two gourmet breakfasts. She also had fresh cookies waiting for us. Look at the website and check out the rooms. I stayed in The Elizabeth Room. I felt so at home and relaxed that I didn't want to leave.

All Aggies know that you can't go into College Station without buying an Aggie t-shirt. None of us could pass up these adorable bright pink shirts (yes, you can make fun of us for matching).

Saturday's Breakfast - The crepe was filled with cream cheese and peaches! It was DELICIOUS!

Sunday's Breakfast - The waffle was filled with cream cheese and strawberries, and the quiches were in the shape of a heart! Too cute and again tasty!!



While in college, Meredith and I worked for an Accommodations Counselor in the Disability Office. We surprised our old employer, Donna, at her office! It was such a joy to see her again. She is a special lady and I will always remember her.

The rest of the weekend we did lots of shopping. We also got to enjoy some of our old favorite restaurants. Saturday for lunch, we met up with my old "church family." They adopted me in college and fed me once a week. They have three beautiful girls and I can't believe how old they have gotten! The oldest, Jessica, is going into high school! I am really mad at myself for not taking a picture with them.

We made a stop on campus at this enormous Aggie ring! This picture was taken right after I received a parking ticket. Another tradition at A&M. My freshman year I gave large amounts of money to the PTTS.



We had a great time in Aggieland and this trip really made me miss my days there!

Oberammergau

Dave planned our European vacation a few years ago so that we could attend the Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany. In 1643, the people of Oberammergau made a promise to perform the play every 10 years if God spared them from the bubonic plaque. The town currently has 5,000 residents and over half of them are directly involved in the play. 4,700 people come to watch each night. The play is performed five days a week for six months. It was six hours long in German, but we had an English script to read. We had a two hour intermission in order to eat dinner back at our hotel. In order to double their population on a daily basis, they put guests anywhere that has a bed and bathroom. We actually stayed at a sanatorium. Six hours in a theatre chair listening to German might sound boring and long. However, the time flew by and the play was much more than I ever expected! I was extremely amazed by the message and performance. The choir, orchestra, and actors were as good as professionals. You have to live in Oberammergau for twenty years or have been born there in order to participate in the play. It is hard to explain the entire experience into words, you just have to experience it for yourself. I would love to go again some day.

We couldn't take pictures during the play, but here you can see the stage is out doors.
Last scene of the play.

We were very fortunate to be on the third row. The seating is covered even though the stage is not.

Dave before the show.

The town was beautiful and of course full of shops. We bought a hand-made cuckoo clock!

Neuschwanstein Castle

Dave and I went on vacation to five European countries: Austria, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Liechtenstein. We took 1,800 pictures so it will take me FOREVER to go through them all! I have decided to blog about a few of my favorite moments from our vacation. To begin, I would like to share our day of riding bikes to Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. One reason this castle has become a very popular tourism site is because Walt Disney used Neuschwanstein as inspiration to create Cinderella's castle. The castle was built in the 19th century for King Ludwig II. He led a controversial life and his death was very mysterious. We have toured many castles in Europe and this one has been the most impressive on the inside and out.

We made a stop at the beautiful Swan Lake. The swan is a symbol of the region so King Ludwig II had many swan decorations in his house.


We went on our second toboggan ride!


Our guide for the day graduated from magic school (seriously) so he put on a little show for us. He was really good! Random I know, but we were amazed!

After an hour and a half bus ride, two hours of bike riding, lunch, a magic show, and a toboggan ride we finally arrived at Neuschwanstein Castle. We went on a thirty minute tour of the inside. We had a great day!

This is the view from the castle. You can see King Ludwig's parents castle in the hills below.

Mesa Verde National Park

Last weekend, Dave and I made a quick trip to Mesa Verde National Park in Southwest Colorado.

Before we arrived at our camp, we saw a few mule deer and these adorable baby turkeys!

We are getting a little spoiled with our camping. We rented this tent and two cots. The tent was HUGE compared to our backpacking tent.

The next few pictures show a few of the many cliff dwellings. The Anasazi Indians lived on the mesa tops around 650 A.D. Starting in the 12st Century they began to live in alcoves. Perhaps to avoid enemies or weather. They would still climb up to the mesa top for farming.





Dave and I went on three guided tours which took us into the dwellings.



You can see how they would make their houses out of wood and plaster.


Now the fun part was getting in and out of the cliff dwellings. Amazingly the Indians would use hand and toes holes to climb along the cliff! I still can't figure out how they survived. I'm sure they lost a few people to the canyon.





Throughout the weekend, we went on several short hikes.

Dave cooked some delicious meals! For breakfast, he mixed sausage, eggs, onions, and bell peppers! Yum!

During the day the weather was in the 80s. It felt great! At night it got down in the 50s so the fire felt great and made yummy roasted marshmellows.