Adventure Landing

On Saturday night the Young Marrieds class made our 3rd annual trip to Adventure Landing. We decided to do it in June this year instead of August. It was still quite warm, but not too bad. We all started with a round of miniature golf. We split up onto different courses with guys and girls. I don't know what kind of luck I had working for me that night, but I actually got three holes in one! I never do that! Mark said my score was even better than a lot of the guys! Of course, not his though. Although, I'm pretty sure Amy won overall for the girls, because she just kept sinking them in! After that, a few of us went to the go carts. I never seem to end up with the fastest one, but at least I didn't get the slowest one like I did last year! It was a great night of fun and fellowship with our friends!

The group

Alli coaching Sharon on her putt

Justin taking a swing

Mark standing by and taking it all in

Self portrait of Alli and me

The girls: Courtney, Sharon, Amy, Jenn, Paige, and Alli

Video on the beach

Mexico!

We got back from Mexico on Wednesday and I am finally getting around to blogging! I had to narrow our 130 pictures down to less than 30! It's still going to be a long post, folks! We had a GREAT time! We spent most of our time on the beach. We would wake up, go to the breakfast buffet, go to the beach, go to lunch, go to the beach, go to dinner. You get the idea! It was the best vacation I have ever been on and it is so much more special because I got to spend it with Mark. The whole trip was very low-key and very relaxing. The resort was wonderful. If you are thinking vacationing in Mexico, we recommend the Iberostar resorts. They are very family friendly and made for an enjoyable stay. I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking!

Our first ever plane trip together

Hotel lobby and complimentary drink upon arrival

Every day we would come back to a different towel animal/creation on our bed. These were our favorites!

On the beach, finally! This was our first glimpse of the ocean the day that we arrived.

The beach in the evening before dinner

I loved hanging out on the beach. Please ignore the man behind me!

My view every day. You can't beat that!

We did a lot of lounging and reading

Clearly Mark had just played in the ocean and not me because he is dripping wet and I am perfectly dry!

Soaking up the sun

One of the activities you could do on the beach was archery. I got in the yellow first, but Mark's score killed mine!

Mark gets a bull's eye!

Yea! I'm in the yellow!

This was the center courtyard of our building

Front end of the resort by the lobby

Inside the lobby of the resort adjacent to ours

Writing in the sand . . .

We also loved to people watch while we were there. The kids in particular were hilarious. Here were a few quotes from the children around us:

Brother: The show is at 9:30
Sister: But that is past our bedtime
Brother: There's no bedtime here. You do whatever you want.

Little boy standing in the doorway to his room (bird chirping in the background): There's that darn bird again. It woke me up this morning!

Two young girls clicking their drinking cups together on the beach: VACATION!

Spa day

As you might remember, I previously said that Mark gave me a spa package for my birthday. Today I got to use it! Alli and I both had the same package so we went to enjoy it together. We got massages, pedicures, and manicures. That is the life! It was so relaxing and so enjoyable. It am all pampered and ready for our vacation. We leave tomorrow! Thank you, Mark, for such a thoughtful gift and thank you, Alli, for sharing it with me!

Surprise Party

On this coming Sunday, Mark will be turning 30! We will be on vacation, so I threw him a surprise early birthday party. On Monday night, at 6:00, people just started showing up at our house. I thought it would be to hard to try to coordinate him leaving the house and then getting everyone else into the house secretly. The first people to show up with Miranda and her son Ranger. Mark answered the door and was a bit confused. I was like, "Hi! Come on in." I took her on a tour of the house because she hadn't been here before. She was concerned that she had spoiled the surprise but she just happened to be the first one there. Then Paige showed up at our door. When I walked back into the living room, Mark was like, "What's going on?" I finally confessed that it was a surprise party for his birthday. Then a lot more people started showing up. We had pizza and cake and just hang out. Everyone wore black in mourning for the big 3 - 0. It was a really great time just to be together and celebrate Mark! Thank you so much for everyone who came. It meant a lot to Mark to have so many people who wanted to celebrate his birthday. Happy 30th Mark!

Mason is holding "baby Kate"

We had a lighting mishap. The candles blew out when I started walking, and I had to relight them. Atleast I didn't drop the cake!

This was a staged reinactment. He blew them out too quickly the first time!

Take a look at what is on the TV screen. Yes, that is correct. We are watching The Grinch in the middle fo the summer. Mason found the movie among our DVD collection and talked Mark into putting it on for him.

Thank you also to Allison for helping me scheme! I went over to her house Monday morning and baked the cake. The she graciously delivered the cake, drinks, and ordered the pizza! Thanks, Alli!

Prayer Request

This week Mark and I will be taking our first "real" vacation together. Our Honeymoon was to a small town just west of Austin called Fredricksburg. It was wonderful and we have very fond memories of that time, but it was by no means "fancy." Then, in 2005 we made a road trip to California to watch Texas beat Michigan in the Rose Bowl. But, let's face it, that was us driving our tiny Pontiac Sunfire thousands of miles across the country. We were so blessed to be able to take a family cruise with my family in 2006. Having said all of that, we are now headed to Mexico for a weeklong stay at an all-inclusive resort. This is the only trip we have every planned for, and saved for for several years. We will be all by ourselves and we are basically viewing it as a "Second Honeymoon". Well, as the time approaches, I am getting more and more anxious. So, I have two very selfish prayer requests. The first is for our safety. We have never even been on a plane together, much less out of the country on a trip by ourselves. Secondly, please pray for us to have nice weather. The weather forecast says rain, storms, and more rain. You can see how this might hamper a beach vacation. So, I know that these prayers requests may seem silly, but this is really important to us, and we would appreciate you lifting these things up to God. Father in Heaven, I commit these worries into your hands.

Little thieves!

I was disturbed, but mostly just confused, by what happened to me at Target today! I had quite a few things I wanted to try on, but you can only take 6 in at a time. So, like I always do, I parked my cart outside the dressing room and took in my six items. When I got back out, I started going through what I still had left. I realized that a slip I had picked up was missing. So, I went and got another one. Then, I realized that a nightgown was missing. That I was mad about because it had been on sale and was the only one in the size I needed! THEN, I realized that two cute baby outfits (not for me!) I had picked up were also missing. I didn't really understand what had happened because everything else was still in my cart. However, I was able to get more of the baby clothes and finished up my grocery shopping. The thing that made me REALLY mad was when I got to the checkout line and realized my Kroger reusable shopping bags were missing. WHAT?! So, someone went through my items I wanted to purchased, took what they liked, and then also stole my bags? Those I had to replace by buying Target bags, so ugh! Who does that?

Be warned!

For Mother's Day I ordered my mother flowers from proflowers.com. When you order, it gives you a pop-up that says you can get free shipping. I had to "sign-up" to get free shipping. But, then you don't even get that right away. You have to mail in for a rebate. Well, now I have two different companies that have been charging me random monthly fees because I signed up for their service. So, now I have tried to call and get those charges reversed and those accounts closed. I just did that today, so I will let you know if I actually get my money back, or it if I have to keep calling them. So, be forewarned that if you order from proflowers.com, do NOT sign up to get free shipping. I think I will probably just find another flower company in the future.

Oh, those kids!

I wanted to jot down a couple of the funny things my students have said in the past week before I forget them during this wonderful time of the year that is known as summertime! The first occurred during some group work time. They had been writing a story and then making it into a book with illustrations, etc. In one group there was a boy standing there not helping at all. One of the girls in his group said to him, "No one is paying you to stand there and look pretty." I busted out laughing when I heard her say that. I asked her if her mother said that to her and she said no, she had heard it on T.V. The other happened at the very beginning of school. I had morning duty this week, so I wasn't in my classroom the first 15 minutes when students are allowed to come in and and start working. Apparently two of my students decided to start "play wrestling" just for fun. So, another of my students ran into the next door teacher's room and said, "Come quick! There's a commotion in our room." That may not sound funny at first. But think about it . . . how often do you use the word "commotion"? Then, on top of that, think about how often you have heard a 10-year-old use that word to describe the above situation. I loved that it was a "commotion"!
P.S. Yes, I was very upset with the two boys causing the commotion. And, yes, they had some severe consequences!