Before & After

Chris and I have been enjoying being at home these last few weeks and spending time with friends before school starts. Today was my first day of new teacher orientation...brain over-load. Everything is new, new co-workers, new policies, new schedule, new classes to teach and most important of all...new students. I pray that these students will be blessings in my life. I pray that they will enter my classroom with open minds and willing spirits. Needless to say, I cant wait to meet each of them.

I spent some days over the summer preparing my room. I've got some before and after pictures, for ya.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

 Hope you have a better idea of where I'll be practically living over the next 9ish months :) Now it's just needing some high schoolers to fill it.

Talk to yall soon,
Sarah

                                       

Chicago/South Padre/July 4th

CHICAGO!

Chris' Gram.  We love her!

 After we got back from our Vegas trip, we had about a week at home before jetting off to Chicago!

This is my third time to go with Chris to Chicago over the summer to visit family.  This trip we focused on visiting new places.  In previous trips, we went downtown, did the river tour, went to a Cubs game, and the top of Willis/Sears Tower....so this trip we opted out of these "tourist" activities.

In the backyard of the House in Lake Geneva.

Instead, we drove up to Lake Geneva (about 1.5 hours from Chicago) where Chris' grandparents owned a lake house.  Since I've known Chris, he has always talked about all the good times spent at the lake house--so he wanted to show it to me! It was wonderful getting to see the place he made so many wonderful memories.

The next stop was visiting Northwestern University.  We enjoyed the little town that was close by..just lovely! The campus was very beautiful, much like Baylor--except Northwestern is surrounded by million dollar houses and as we all know...Baylor is not!

At Smoque! BEST BBQ

We visited a few new restaurants: Gino's East (pizza), Gibson's Steakhouse, and Smoque (best brisket we've ever had) to name a few.  Yummy!






















SOUTH PADRE

After the Chicago trip, we had about another week at home and then it was off to the beach!

As we were entering the island of South Padre, a gulf storm decided to unleash.  It was raining so hard, it seemed as if the island was going to sink.  Our biggest worry was...will it rain the whole time we are here?? Thank goodness the rain disappeared, although the clouds hung around.

We spend two nights there with Cayla, Christy and a friend of Christy's.  I had never been to Padre, so it was nice to visit a new place and see the beach! We did a Jet Ski Tour of the island...ended up being a jet ski free-for-all (really no tour). We did see dolphins, which was super neat while on a jet ski..... you are so close to them!

I love him!

JULY 4th!

Our July 4th consisted of a fun couple of days! Jimmy and Brittany Black were in town from Georgia, so we invited Nathan and Molly Cash down to spend the night (July 3rd).  Jimmy, Brittany, Chris and I went to Wild West and saw Randy Rogers and Wade Bowen play...love me some Texas Country!

Then for lunch on July 4th we had Graham and Erin Musgrove (along with the Cashes) over and had grilled and fried fish that Nathan had caught earlier...it was delicious.  :) After that we all rented a boat on Lake Waco and enjoyed the afternoon out on the lake...super super fun!!

The girls!

Cooling off in the lake...the best spot :)

Boy, has June and the beginning of July been filled with many fun times! The summer is going by too fast!! I have my first professional development with Midway tomorrow and I get to start moving all my stuff into my room on Tuesday!!!! So exciting! 

This weekend Chris spent all day Saturday and Sunday in Dallas with Motus (his cartoon thing).  We are both really excited to see what the future holds with his voice company--no more teaching for him! He is such a hard little worker :)

Until next time,

Sarah

DIY Burlap Lamp

After doing some shopping over the past few days, I've noticed burlap is starting to be a trend. Anyone else agree?  I've been searching, for quite some time, lamps for one of our guest bedrooms and haven't found any I like....so I put my thinking cap on and decided to use burlap and re-do the lamps that were already in there.  Here are some pictures of the process!

1) Cut original fabric off, leaving a skeleton of the shade.
2) Cut burlap strips, tie at the top and bottom.

Lamp shade is complete!

I had to spray paint the bottom of the lamps black as well.
Here is the final product! 

 I'm hoping to get a few burlap accents for the room to tie it all together!

Sarah

Celebrating Our Marriage!

So, we took a lot of pictures (and don't worry, I will share them with you) but I wanted to start with this one....this was our view from our room in the Belligio...jaw dropping..

Ok, to continue....we flew in on June 4th our anniversary and had reservations at Delmonico in the Venetian Hotel and Casino.  I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend it--thanks to Sarah Scott for recommending it to us :)

The next day, we got up and went to Serendipity 3 in Caesars Palace....oh my it was AMAZING!

The item we had to try was the 'Frozen Hot Chocolate', they had a regular and a double....we decided to go with the regular, and look at the size...

SO GOOOOOD

 Then we ordered the 'French Toast Log'...that's right LOG, thankfully we were smart enough to split it.

left to right: potatoes, eggs, syrup, whipped cream, berries
Underneath: French Toast Log

After our tummy's were stuffed, we decided to walk it off and went into every hotel/casino. Here are a few pics.

Our lovely hotel: Bellagio

Caesars Palace

Sports Betting

The Cosmopolitan

Monte Carlo

We also went into the M&M's store....oh my goodness over-whelming!

Not sure if you are familiar with Man vs. Food on the Food Network, but the show visits different restaurants and one that it visited in Vegas was Hash House A Go Go.  Sooooo we had to go!

Yep, Chicken and Waffles were calling our name!

Stacked high with a knife holding it up.

We also did the gondola ride in the Venetian Hotel...not quite like the gondola ride in Venice, but was very special doing it with my hubby! 

The next little adventure was going to the Pawn Stars Pawn Shop! This place was not close to the Strip, the best way to get there was by bus (our feet were worn outttt).  Right when we got there, they had kicked everyone out to do 40 minutes of filming.  I guess someone brought in a "TV worthy" item.  So we waited in a long line in the middle of the day in the desert!! It was toasty! Finally, they were done filming and we were able to go in a look around.  None of the actual pawn star dudes are out and about, but it was cool to see the place!

 We also went to two shows.  One was called Vegas (a variety show) and "O" Cirque du Soleil. They were both good... "O" was outstanding! Here are some pictures.

Hope you enjoyed a brief summary of our trip!! Our next trip is to Chicago to visit Chris' grandmother--we are both looking forward to it!!

Sarah

365 Day ol' Cake = Delicious

Chris and I celebrated our one year anniversary for a week in Las Vegas! But, before we headed to the desert, we had to enjoy the top tier of our wedding cake.  I was very skeptical at first, but it turned out very yummmy! Here are some pics of us enjoying it--we are dorks, so you'll have to excuse some of them, we are silly.

Enjoying our cake with diet coke & cherry coke! 

Vegas post coming up next!!

Recent Pinterest Successes

So, I love spending time looking at Pinterest...as I'm sure many of you do! And 90% of the time, I'm looking at recipes and I end up getting hungry, grrr! I really wish I had the time and calories to make every single dessert recipe! There seriously isn't one recipe/picture that doesn't make my mouth water!
I wanted to share some of the recipes that I have tried recently!
1) Zucchini Tots

2) Chocolate Chip Cookie n' Oreo Brownie Bars

3) Southwestern Black Bean Salad

4) Eggplant Parmigiana

I think these all turned out great and I recommend all of them!!

Spring 2012 Adventures

For all of our followers out here...I promise promise promise I will keep our blog more up-to-date this summer!! We have a lot of fun trips planned and I will definitely document them :)
For now, I need to catch up on our adventures this year and the best way to do that is with pictures! Who doesn't like pictures?!

Christmas 2011

 

 

MY CHRISTMAS PRESENT! Meet Wookie!

I love this picture of him!

They have truly become friends :)

New Years!!

Had a great time with friends at a New Years Eve blue themed partayyy!

Half Time Putt for $5,000! Sadly I wasn't close....

  

March 22nd-->My BIRTHDAY!

Flowers and Balloon that surprised me at home! Thanks dear!

My Birthday Present! (The entertainment center, not TV)

SPRING BREAK 2012!!
First New Orleans, then a 7 day cruise to Cozumel, Belize, Costa Maya, and Honduras!

 

Our boat!

Mom's 50 Birthday Bash!

We surprised her good :)

Hobbies: Kayaking, Tennis & Training for a 5k!

I dropped him off at the top of the river and picked him up 2 hours later at the bottom! Can't wait to try it out with him!

We went to the Twin Rivers tennis courts for the first time with the pups! We had 2 courts to ourselves so Mick and Wookie just ran their little hearts out.  Talk about good ball boys!

Chris and I after our first 5k! We completed the 8 week "Couch 2 5k" program (an app on the iphone) and reached our goal! Now we just have to keep it up!! 

I'm just mentioning this because....I really dislike running with a passion, but the Couch 2 5K program has really helped me get over that mental block, somewhat....

Anywho, I, surprisingly, finished 2nd in the 20-29 girls age group...WHAT?!?

Cameron Park Hikers

We've really enjoyed going to Cameron Park, it's a hidden treasure in Waco! Once you are on the trails, it's like you are in a different world.  Yes, don't worry, we only go when it's daytime :)

Mick is loving this!

Miscellaneous Activities

Shiloh can't stand Wookie....Shiloh thinks she is a human, ha!

Griesemer boys!

UHS boys basketball made it pretty far in playoff this year!

DATE NIGHTS! I look forward to these random nights! 

We have a new found love! Bahama Bucks ice! My fav is Jamaican Punch and Chris' is Grape! 2 for 1 with the A+ card! Woot!

Of course, we saw Hunger Games! And get this, I've actually read the first book! Go me!

Lone Star Jam in Austin, Tx! A day filled with Texas Country Music, yes please!

Fredericksburg, Tx: Wendt Wedding & Enchanted Rock Climbin'

Our furry kiddos on the way down to Fredericksberg

At the beautiful, fun wedding!

On top of Enchanted Rock the morning after the wedding!

END OF SCHOOL!!!
Oh my gosh, guys, 2.5 more days (actually 2 now, since today is half way over!!) Here are some sweet things my students made me!