Will you be Mine?

Valentine's 2011 came and went pretty quickly. We both were at the hospital most of the day on Valentines, but did come home and have our traditional meal of crab legs. I love having a nice meal at home away from the crowds. I guess we never really have been big Valentine's celebrators- is that even a word? Colby sent me flowers one year when we were engaged and living in 2 different places, but other than that- I'm more of a "just because" kind of gal. Although, I love getting cards and words of affirmation no matter the holiday! So I did have one of those tucked in my purse that morning. :)

But, my favorite part about holidays is decorations! I love it! Guess I got that as a hand-me-down from my mom who always decorated when I was growing up and she sends me something fun each year to add to the collection. Colby rolls his eyes and grumbles about something else to get out of the attic, but I guess it's something I want to be fun for my kids in the future. I loved having my red and pink around all month long. And don't be fooled, most of the decor is from Big Lots, Hobby Lobby the previous year after holiday-sale, and The Dollar Tree. They have such great finds!

My favorite little guy. Wanted to take a Heart Day pic, but he was a little afraid of the heart, ha!

Ok mom, I'll pose with the flowered rose ball, feeling the love now?

 

Our traditional crab, as seen here, and here, and one more place that I didn't blog about. True story, I ask Colb if we're still planning on our usual dinner, and he looks at me like, what dinner? I then proceed to click through the blog and show him evidence, and he says, well, you proved me wrong! See how blogging spurs the memory! I can't wait to print mine out into books. :)

My Valentine

Yay for love and crab legs- Thanks Albertsons! They are always on sale on Valentines weekend and they steam them and flavor for free in case you didn't know! Just add yummy garlic butter sauce with some parsley.

 

This is probably my favorite little Decoration

I had several scripture blessings from my bridesmaid luncheon, and many of them are about love. So I placed them all over the house as a reminder of God's love for us and His promises. This one was Colossians 3:12-14 which was in our wedding ceremony. ^"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

 

 Then from the same luncheon, my hostesses wrote out a beautiful toast, so I placed this on the mantle as kind of a blessing over our marriage. It looked really pretty too!

 

I have been loving using things I already have and then sprucing them up for the holidays. I put snowflakes on this swag for Christmas, so it was fun to do hearts as well. And thanks to Target's dollar section, stay tuned for some cute Easter eggs! :)

  

Once again, already use this wreath, so put some cute metallic mini hearts on it

 

Pink, red, and glitter, yay!

I put the same mini hearts on all the cabinet knobs, oh Colby, he sure tolerates me well :)

I've had lots of fun changing this little basket on the island out for different holidays, etc. Got to put out the pink flowered balls that I had from college with a little crinkled wrapping and the same mini hearts. They came in a pack of 24 for $2 at Big Lots. I just tell you that to encourage those that are on a budget like us, you can even get good groceries at BL!

And last, my new addition from my mamacita, looked so cute on the front door, but gave Rocky a heart attack every time it hit the door from the wind, may be bringing it inside next year!

Happy Valentines! Hope you had a wonderful day and know that God's love for you surpasses all understanding. Nothing can separate you from His love! May you all be filled with the fullness of God!

Ephesians 3:19

Superbowl XLV

 Once again, our favorite small group leaders The Dunns hosted a fun Superbowl party. This was at the end of the very long snow week, so it was great to get out of the house and spend time with friends that we hadn't gotten to see previously in the week since we didn't have Bible Study b/c of the ice. It was a unanimous crowd going for the Packers, but I mean- I was only rooting for them b/c I love me some Green and Gold, ha! Go Bears! :) We were definitely ready for the Superbowl to come and go, because it seemed like everything in town was Superbowl focused. Trash pickup, iced roads, electricity outages, traffic, blah, blah, blah...Jerry's World. It's sad how much money truly does go into something like that. I mean really, football? Too many starving people in the world in my opinion. Although, I guess it's still a good time to fellowship with friends.

Carolyn's cute (and delicious) cookies!

 

Umm...so The Jackson's cousin won the burrito prize pack at Chipotle which consisted of 25 burritos, guac, salsa & chips. Yummo! So sweet of her to share with us! We had Chipotle for 2 days!

 

 Yummo!

 Love us some Chipotle!

 Colby and Kyle were both on call that night and had to leave the game early to tend to the Trauma ER and the Psych ER. How cute are they in their matching JPS scrubs? :)

 Fun friends

 Phillip, do I have to share?

 Harrison wasn't feeling good, and Dr. Kyle had to check him out!

Love these sweet friends. So blessed for their friendship!

Snow Days

Well, once again the month is going to pass by! Better update! :) February started out with the craziest ice/snow days yet. Colby was on call the night it blew in and came home about 4 in the morning when the sleet was starting. I'm so glad he got to come home a little early, or else he probably would have been stuck! When we woke up that morning, our street was an ice skating rink with about 2 inches of ice! It was freezing cold temperatures for the whole week, so it took awhile to melt! Ugh! There's a reason we live in Texas folks! When Colby was accepted to med school in Pennsylvania first (love you Camille!) I was dreading the whole "winter thing." Relieved to stay in Texas, yet we've gotten a pretty good taste of it after moving from San Antonio to here. People who know us know that we are way too cheap to pay for air conditioner, and let's be honest living tight means something's gotta go. We def lived in San Antonio in a 2 story house and our most expensive electric bill was like $70 bucks in the dead heat of summer. Well, things haven't changed here, we just don't run it too much. But peeps...when it comes to cold- I hate it! I have the space heaters in front of me wherever I sit all winter long, in the bathroom to pre-heat so I can take a shower, am wrapped up in a blanket always, ugh! I just don't like being cold! So this was a hard week. We had several hours without power, and a frozen pipe in our bathroom. However, it made me so grateful to have a warm house to be in. I prayed fervently that week for the homeless that they would find a warm place to sleep.

So we ended up having 4 snow days where Colby was excused from rotations. I was supposed to have Psych clinicals, but since the place I was scheduled operates based on the school district, I was canceled too! So we hunkered down in the house for the week. Ok, I will admit on Tuesday I begged Colb to take me to Rosa's for Taco Tuesday...yah, that wasn't a good idea. We slid all over the place, and barely got Colby's truck back in the driveway. It was great to be able to spend time together in our pajamas. I did have to work on one of the days, since the hospital wasn't closed of course, and mercy- it was a long drive there! It was blowing snow the entire time I was driving at 5:30 in the morning and you couldn't even see where the lanes were on the highway! I prayed the whole drive and thankfully got to and from work safely- Thank you Lord! I gave myself plenty of time and honestly, the scariest thing is the other people driving. I was passed several times by yahoos going way too fast! All the Northern people probably are laughing at our snow days, but frankly, we don't have the plows, snow tires, or equipment to make things still function and it's not safe b/c people don't know how to drive in it! Which makes me wonder- if we consistently have weeks like this each year- how come we don't have snow plows? Hmm... anyway, wanted to remember our cold winter!  PS- I haven't really blogged about this, but since the ski trip, my knee has been doing all kinds of crazy things. So, I've been on crutches, going to physical therapy, etc. and it still isn't really feeling better-prayers appreciated! Just wanted to document that ice and crutches def weren't a good mix, ha! :)

View of our street

 Thick ice

 So, Tuesday was supposed to be trash day, but obviously the trucks couldn't come to pick them up. Everyone's trash cans were literally iced to the road all week.

 Colby about to break his neck ice skating down the driveway

 More surfing- crazy guy. Our kids are in for a heap of a bad example, ha!

 Me waving from the safe un-iced garage

  And this is pretty much what we did all week. Here my boys are the happiest they could be! Rocks snuggling by the fire and Colby snuggling in front of the playstation.

Colby's 28th

Well, since January is almost over I need to acknowledge Colby's birthday! He finally caught up to this old lady and joined me in the late 20's! :) We are actually only 3 1/2 weeks apart, but since its Dec/Jan, we were born in two different years, which makes it feel more of a difference. For Colby's actual birthday, which was on a Thursday, I cooked him a yummy dinner for when he got home from clinic. We had a birthday date on that Friday and went out to an excellent seafood place downtown, which was fabulous! We spent a little time in Barnes & Noble killing time reading magazines. And then to Colby's surprise, we went to a hilarious impromtu comedy show downtown.  We laughed so hard! They use people from the audience throughout the show, and lets just say we were in some random company that night- don't think they could have planned better "stand-ins."
The best part of the show, was that it was free! True story- back on our anniversary in May, we took Rocky to the dog park and there were some people there filming. We didn't pay much attention until they approached us to be in the video. The guy told us to email him and he'd hook us up for tickets. We've been busy and hadn't found a time to go, so when I was planning his b-day date, I decided to email and what do you know? He still honored that after 8 months! We will definitely go back again as willing paying customers, as it was a great show!
Happy Birthday my love! You are the greatest blessing that God could have possibly put on this Earth for me, and I am so grateful. I'm so proud of all your hard work, and know that we WILL make it to the other side of this crazy season of life. I love you! :)

 My Birthday boy laughing at me for taking his picture

 

Warm Delight desserts for 2 and a candle to blow out! (he got his real birthday cake at small group-Thanks Patricia!)

Happy Birthday Colbs!  (On his actual birthday)

 We had gotten home from date night and I realized we didn't take any pictures! Colb had already taken off his tie, but he's still oh so cute! :)

Ski Trip!

I have NO idea what the heck my blog is doing  with this whole font change but I'd rather not waste time figuring it out- so here it is...simply stated! :)

Probably the highlight of our year was getting to go skiing with friends! We had been planning the trip for like 6 months, I requested off of work way back, starting saving,  and when it finally came, we were so excited! The best way to spend our Christmas/b-day money- so thanks fam! I worked the 26th and the 27th and when I got off of work on the 27th we hopped in the car and didn't get out until we were in Colorado the next day! Yikes- long drive but luckily I was exhausted after working and slept pretty well in the car. We drove to meet Colby's sister Kaylan and Austin in Lubbock and since Austin is a paramedic on night shift, he drove the rest of the way overnight! Seriously- he was amazing to drive so much! We were very grateful! It was awesome to get up to the mountains, to see the beautiful landscapes of God's creation, to relax and spend time with friends, but oh my goodness was it cold!!

 Warning- lot of pictures- but I love them! :)

Hey Kaylan!

 Austin- our fearless driver!

 Andrew and Colb rocking the glasses after being in the car all night

 Hilarious! And let's face it- we all looked like this at some point! Love you Andrew!

 After we got there and got settled into the condo- we went sledding!!!

 First round didn't go so well- haha!

 "Colby! Ahhh....Colby!  COLBY!" - Me screaming down the hill

 My "it's not fun unless there's a waiver" husband getting some air

 In one piece! And Cold!

 Colb and Andrew

 Our condo was right by the lake- it was gorgeous!

 So so pretty

 We went to the Dam Brewery on the first night for some yummy food!

 Group Shot- Keystone 2010!!

 Brad, Daniel, and Andrew on the quad

 Austin and Kay ready to go!

 Andrew and Colby on day 1

 Brad and Colby up on the summit

Us freezing on the lift- on day 2 (but it was like 8 degrees that day-no worries)

 How Great is our God!

 He can move the mountains!

 He is Mighty to Save!

 The trees are God's great alphabet:
With them He writes in shining green
Across the world His thoughts serene.

~Leonora Speyer

 That's me in the green rockin' the snowboard- but oh my knees, not as young as I used to be, ha!

 Starfire- a racy black on the last day with the town below

 Austin and me- the lone boarders on the last day

 Sweet- we look hardcore, huh? Not.me.

 A break to warm up on the last day- it was so cold the camera lens was fogged completely over- this is my hat hair

 The 4 troopers skiing on the last day. -19 degrees, -31 windchill! Crazy- um yes, my face was so frozen and it was the coldest I have ever rode in, but we had to make those lift tickets count! I might add that Kaylan broke her wrist on day 1 and Colby cracked his heels on day 2 so they couldn't come the last day but would have been there, sad! And yes, Colb is working those crutches seeing patients! :)

 

 This is how all the evenings went- game nights! So fun! Love these friends!

 Catch phrase- "say it ghetto- Dat sun!" :)

 Ringing in 2011 a little early because we were tired!

 The whole gang- great trip! Thank you Lord for that blessing!