Since Forever

It has been a long while since I have gotten on here. Life has been crazy, I have spent the last year, August 2015-December 2016, working on my Masters in Guidance and School Counseling with Angelo State University. I was completely surprised at myself along with my abilities to go back to school and still live a daily life. I "graduate" next week, so Tim and I are praying that God will allow opportunities to open up when necessary within this field. 

Any-who, lets take step back in time!

At the beginning of August my sister Samantha and her family were all baptized at church. Tim and I, along with my parents all went to witness this. It was pretty amazing to see my sister and her husband make the declaration for the Lord, but also the kids. I feel like this is a Brady Bunch moment, afterwards we went and celebrated an awesome beginning with ice cream. 

With the start of this new school year my assisgnemnt was to do 160 hrs of practicum or observation hours. I was lucky enough to be with a school counselor at 2 great schools every afternoon. (At my campus there is not a counselor so I had to go elsewhere for this part.) So I worked half a day with my original school with lots of teachers (and lots of older kids) and spent my afternoons working in my passion.  

A couple of years ago I decided at the end of every week I would go to Starbucks and named it- Starbucks Friday, it was of a weekly reward for surviving the week. Any other teachers out there know what I mean by surviving the week. Well for my first Friday of the year I wanted to try a new coffee shop, Palace Coffee, it has more of a small time feel, and they make great looking drinks like this. 

#coffeeart

This one- Sprinkles always finds things she's not supposed to have, this morning she found a pen.  I think she does it because she gets my attention and it usually ends with a treat.

My mom and I had an idea of making Sprinkles costume this year for Halloween,  so while we were looking for material I told her I wanted a bandana/necklace for her. This is what she made her. Sprinkles likes it ok, I do catch her trying to chew on it sometimes, but she hates wearing accessories so it doesn't last long.

For her 3rd Birthday we took Sprinkles to get a treat and a new toy from Yellow City Pet Supply, it is a cute little pet store (I only saw dog and cat items).  She picked out some peanut butter cookies that are made with legit only normal ingredients, so if I was stranded and needed to eat one I totally could, and she also picked this pink flamingo- she is my daughter!!

For Tim's Birthday we went to Kabuki (Hibachi style) for a dinner date since it was a Tuesday. We were seated with two workers of BNSF and we can make friends anywhere so we visited and they did a Sake Bomb together, I sat that one out. 

It was fun celebrating this guy!! 

Along with my spastic schedule I wanted to try a food box service, I chose Blue Apron. It was definitely interesting for sure. 

This is a cauliflower steak on a bed of grain and arugula with a topping of a hazelnut grape reduction. Ok- the meals were good but maybe too fancy for me. Now, I can appreciate a good meal and don't need it to be chicken strips with macaroni and cheese, but I am naturally not a cauliflower eater so I think I did well with things I don't normally eat. I don't think Tim was sold on this food box service.

In mid-October a special gal, Jordi, was getting married out of town but before she left I was able to go to her shower and afterwards it was hot and miserable. Like maybe early summer miserable so I put on shorts and headed to family game night at my parents. This necklace is my favorite necklace ever, it was my wedding gift from Tim, my new initials.

#patternmixing

Ok- these two littles are an odd couple. One day Spencer likes Sprinkles and the next maybe not. They are funny together. If one looks the other doesn't, I think moms of several small children can relate.

At the end of October I was told of a greenhouse that sells flowers to the community at discounted prices. Now I have tried to have a green thumb but I think since I don't consciously think about it I forget to water them, oops.  These have already died in their pretty flower pots. Tim might have been angry at me for buying them and then letting them die, but I did try to keep them going. He said I can't buy any more, my response was, "I paid $6 for them, its fine".

For Halloween I wanted Sprinkles to be a Sheep, so cute an fuzzy. Well Nana tried, I searched for fabric that was similar and my mom found a pattern online. She made it and gave extra room so she wasn't a sausage, it was still a fail. Her front paw wouldn't go in, it could have if we broke it but I am not about to break limbs for a costume. I felt bad that there wasn't time to fix it so she wore her necklace my mom made her and I said she was a Park Ranger- she likes parks and she likes to make sure she's in charge. 

#itworked

Early November we had a day of running to lunch and just hanging out, when we were done we met up with some other men of the family. Jim took this picture of us, I think it captures us pretty well- 1) we love BWW and 2) we like to be near each other. I talked while they watched the Tech vs. Texas game, I bet they enjoyed that.

I like to take pictures of Sprinkles and I then send them to Tim at work. Now, I don't know if he appreciates them, is annoyed by them, or even sees them but I would say at least once a week he gets one. I have coined the term #Sprinkatime, like Sprinkles and Erica time, he didn't totally get it. We sure do love this pug!

It was nearing Red Ribbon Week and my mentor and I were in charge of creating the week of dress up plans for kids. I quite enjoyed this part of it, but one of the days was "I VOTE TO BE DRUG FREE", so naturally we needed a Trump/ Clinton mask for our delegates. Tim was a big help, he picked them up for us when he was in Lubbock. Now I have two masks that we will never wear, but a cute reminder of our hard work (Wendy did most of it, but I helped cut out letters).

Tim had to leave town unexpectedly but I had already planned a girls night with my bible study girls for a meal.  We did soups and salads and played a game Say Anything, I enjoyed it so much that I bought it on Black Friday and we played it with family that weekend. But, Sprinkles was so distraught with us ignoring her she laid in her bed, that never happens. 

The day before Thanksgiving I was up with a list of things to do- although I still for some reason waited till the morning of to make a dessert for Tim's family that totally could have happened on this day- but while I was baking I watched This Is Us, and snuggled with you know who while Tim and the guys went golfing.

Thanksgiving Day we had 2 lunches, so we made one for lunch and one for dessert. I totally appreciate a good holiday meal, we were satisfied with our family meals.
Again with these two- always at my chair hanging out. I did tell Spencer to give Sprinkles a kiss, so he was trying to kiss her back, it was too cute. 

Auntie Kelley brought Sprinkles a little gift (maybe it was a miss you gift?), a LARGE flamingo. She loves it. She will drag it around and chew its legs.

Tim was gone for the most of a week and I tend to enjoy one night of random girl stuff but a week of it is too much. But I get to eat more of what I want. Bread and cheese!! 

Anything Caprese is a win in my book!

I am going to end with this cute gal! She does make our days brighter and keeps us entertained. We are excited for the holiday season to continue- tonight with Tim's work Christmas Party!!!

Happy Holidays!