Blake + Katie

2011-10-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

I have no words to start this entry. Where do you find words to write about losing someone? I've posted my feelings and revelations on here before but this is different. This is raw. Until I find my words, I'll let the life of my beautiful and sweet Mom do the talking.

The following video was made by my dad, my siblings and I for the funeral. If you choose to watch it, know this: I'm not sharing this video in any way to glorify my mom. She would never in a million years approve of that. Instead, it is my family's hope that through her life others will see Jesus. She glorified Him in everything she did: her marriage, her job as a mother, her day to day life, and most importantly and recently through her journey with cancer. Countless people told my siblings and I last week that they never heard my mom say a bad word about anyone. What a legacy! She was an incredible woman but she serves an even more amazing God. Throughout the video there are clips of framed verses. These verses sat all around my parent's house and her love of God's Word defined her life. My mom would add new verses often and they truly reflect the love of Christ that so radiantly shone through her.

Here is her obituary:

Sandra “Sandy” Brown Mack joined her Savior on September 25, 2011, surrounded by family, after three and a half years of demonstrating her hope and faith throughout her journey with breast cancer. She was born on December 31, 1959, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Bill and Katie Brown.

Sandy grew up learning to bake and decorate cakes at the family bakery, Brown’s Bakery, where she perfected her cake decorating skills. She attended Abilene Christian University where she met her best friend and the love of her life, Steve. They were married for twenty-nine wonderful years and had four beautiful children. Sandy was a devoted wife and mother who dedicated her life to raising her children. She loved worshipping the Lord by singing praises as well as faithfully serving Him, setting an example for her children and all those who came in contact with her. Because of her dedication to the Word, Sandy orchestrated and organized Leadership Training for Christ at Boerne Church of Christ for eight years. Sandy was a big sports fan, especially passionate about the Oklahoma Sooners and Spurs basketball. (Although she often cheered on the Mavericks in order to keep peace with her Maverick fan children.)

Sandy is survived by her husband, Steve; her children: Ryan and his fiancé Sylvia, Katie and her husband Blake, Julieanne and her fiancé Bryce, and Will; her parents, Bill and Katie Brown; Steve’s parents, Scott and Linda Mack; her siblings: Michael Brown, Brenda Bailey, and Billy and Lindi Brown; her brothers/sisters-in-law: Tim and Kelli Maynard, Tracy and Nancy Mack, Tim and Lisa Mack, Linda Brown, and Joyce Brown; along with a host of nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her brother, Randy.

Pepper Steak

2011-07-25T12:08:00.000-07:00

I've never posted a recipe on my blog before for some unknown reason. (Actually it's probably because I mostly cook recipes from Pioneer Woman and well she's already blogged the recipes and that would just be silly for me to re-blog it.) However, I do have a recipe that needs to be shared with the world. It is quite simple and it was a staple in the dinner rotation in my house growing up. Whenever Blake and I were still in our first year of dating, I cooked Pepper Steak for him and I'm pretty sure that he decided to marry me that very day. Pepper Steak is also the first recipe I burned and cried over as I was getting used to a new stove in our apartment right after we got married...I'm pretty sure Blake thought "what have I gotten myself into?" at that point. Oh, memories!

Without further ado, here is Pepper Steak and my best Pioneer Woman impression:

As I said earlier, my Mom cooked Pepper Steak often when I was growing up so this is her recipe. It is simple and quick and delicious. Perfect! I love it when my Mom copies recipes for me. These simple, little notecards have become so precious to me and I'll treasure them forever. This one has been used a lot (as you can probably tell by the little bit of food that is stubbornly stuck over the word "soy") and I still get it out every time even though I have this recipe memorized.

What you'll need for Pepper Steak:
1 lb of round steak (you could also use stir fry meat if your grocery store carries it)
2 T. olive oil
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/8 t. pepper
4 T. soy sauce
1/2 t. sugar
1 can of bean sprouts
2 tomatoes, quartered
2 green bell peppers, sliced into thin strips
1/2 T. corn starch
2 T. cold water

For this recipe, you'll want to get everything ready before you start to cook because everything moves pretty quickly. Start by slicing the peppers and quartering the tomatoes (you want them to be in wedges). Go ahead and measure out the soy sauce and open the can of bean sprouts.

In case you don't know, these are bean sprouts. You can find them on the grocery aisle that houses all of the asian and mexican food. They look a little weird but they add quite a bit of texture to this recipe so don't leave them out even if you've never tried them before.

Next, chop up the garlic and slice the round steak into thin strips. (If you buy stir fry meat, then you can skip this step because your steak will already be in strips...duh.) Also, to make slicing the beef a little easier, put the round steak into the freezer for 10-15 minutes. It will harden the steak just a little and make it much easier to slice.

Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. (You can also use shortening instead of oil...that's what my Mom uses but I don't always have that on hand.) I normally use a skillet to cook Pepper Steak in but I received a Le Creuset Dutch Oven for my birthday and I can't stop using it because it's so pretty and it makes things taste better, at least that's what I keep telling myself. If you don't have a dutch oven, then a skillet will work wonderfully. Promise. Once the oil is hot, brown the steak and the garlic together. Sprinkle in the pepper as it's browning. Once the meat is brown, pour in the soy sauce and the sugar. Cover and let cook for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, take off the lid and inhale the intoxicating smell of soy sauce and admire the beautiful, bubbliness. (Bubbliness is not a word, but I'm an English teacher so I'm allowed to make up words.)

Next, pour in the tomatoes, green peppers, and bean sprouts. Stir them into the meat/soy sauce mixture and then cover and cook for another 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, check to make sure the peppers are soft. If not, cover and cook for another 2-3 minutes. In the meantime, dissolve the cornstarch into the cold water. This will be used to thicken up the sauce.

Once your peppers are soft and the tomatoes have started to break down, stir in the cornstarch/water mixture.

Stir until you feel that the sauce is thick enough. This is the part I always struggle with. Sometimes it thickens up real fast and sometimes not at all. It tastes wonderful either way so don't stress out too much about the sauce.

Also, surprise! You should have been cooking rice this whole time so that you can ladle your pepper steak over it. Once your rice is finished cooking, put some into a bowl...

And then spoon the pepper steak over the top. Make sure you get a little of everything and plenty of yummy sauce into the bowl.

Enjoy!

The Tale of the Missing Sandwich

2011-07-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to say that we have the perfect dog (even though we do), I'll just say that he's perfect for us...and he is hilarious. Who knew that something that doesn't even talk could make me laugh as much as Kevin does? He is pretty low maintenance most of the time. He hardly ever begs for food although I have gotten into the habit of "accidentally" dropping scraps onto the floor while I'm cooking. Therefore Blake blames me fully for what happened today while we were eating lunch. So here begins the tale of the missing sandwich:

We arrived home from Home Depot and I made us a couple of turkey sandwiches for lunch. A few scraps of turkey may or may not have fallen onto the floor while I was making the sandwiches and Kevin may or may not have been around to immediately eat them off the floor. No harm done, right? WRONG! The little punk got a taste of the wonderfulness that is hickory smoked turkey breast.

Blake had just sat down on the couch with his sandwich when we heard a crash in the garage so we both stepped outside for a few minutes to check out the source of the crash (a power tool that was sitting too close to the edge) and when we came back inside, Blake's sandwich was missing. Gone. No trace of evidence. Nothing. At first I thought maybe in his hurry to get to the garage he may have taken the sandwich with him and sat it someplace else, but the sandwich was nowhere to be found. It was then that we noticed our lovely dog looking rather happy and licking his lips. Even though he put on his best, innocent, "I've never done something like this before" face, we knew he was guilty.

Mug shot of the accused:

The guilty culprit was sent outside where he remains right now because Blake says he has to stay out there forever. FOR-E-VER. (think The Sandlot) But we know that won't last because let's be real...he's the cutest dog in the whole world. Plus, Blake is leaving right now to go back to Home Depot and well... Kev didn't eat MY sandwich so I'm not holding any grudges. :)

Don't You Worry...

2011-06-29T21:24:00.001-07:00

Blake and I will just be waking up to this view for the next several days. It takes my breath away every time I look out the window. I just love Colorado!

MAVS

2011-06-27T13:34:00.000-07:00

I don't claim to be a diehard, huge fan of many things...I mean I do love the Rangers and enjoy watching them and I do love watching football and cheering loudly for the Sooners. I pretty much will watch any sport (although I do complain rather emphatically when Blake changes the channel to Nascar). However, those family and friends who know me best in the world know that my heart lies with the Dallas Mavericks.

That being said, obviously these past couple months have been the most exciting in my sports fan life. They finally pulled it off. The Mavs are NBA Champions. I realize this happened a couple weeks ago but we are still crazy excited here in DFW!

Thankfully I am now living in Mavs Country as opposed to Spurs Country (love you Mom and Dad!) and so we were able to experience all the excitement that goes along with living in a city with NBA Champions. Blake and I, along with a bunch of our friends, watched game 6 at the American Airlines Center on the big screens along with 18,000 other Mavs fans and IT. WAS. AWESOME. Best 5 dollars I've ever spent. We were able to celebrate in Victory Plaza along with all the other Mavs fans after they won it. It was a blast! Best time ever.

Anyways, here are some pictures from the night they won it and all the celebration that followed! Most of these were taken by our friend Hutton except for the middle one which was taken on my iPhone, hence the awful quality.

This is how I sat literally the entire game unless the Mavs scored or made a defensive stop...

...then everyone was on their feet screaming.

With Jenny and JuliAnne

So excited!!!

All the guys: Hutton, Heath, Jesse, Mason, and Blake

The whole group!

These pictures were actually taken at the Mavs celebration after the championship parade. It was so much fun!

Forever Reign

2011-06-23T15:12:00.000-07:00

For the longest time, I thought that I wasn't an emotional person. (Blake probably just laughed out loud at that statement) What a funny joke. I tear up both in the most bizarre of times and in the most obvious of times. For example, I tear up during commercials and trashy reality shows (bizarre). But then I also tear up (most often) while singing praises to God (understandable). Obviously, I'm an emotional person.

Singing has always been my outlet for communicating with God. My parents tell me that I used to sing myself to sleep when I was little. I have no idea what songs I would sing but I like to think I might have been "praying out loud" (when in reality I was probably singing "You are my Sunshine" or the Barney theme song).

I actually remember the first realization I ever had that the songs we sing in church were actually saying something and had meaning. I was probably 11 or 12 when we sang "Anywhere With Jesus" at church one Sunday night and I remember telling my Mom later that I had realized the truth in the words I was singing. And those words, like many hymns I sang as a child, are stuck deep in my heart even now. "Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. Anywhere he leads me in this world below. Anywhere without him dearest joys would fade. Anywhere with Jesus I am not afraid."

At the church Blake and I attend now, we sing newer songs and I find joy in focusing in on new words and praising God with them. It's become a habit of mine to immediately get on the computer when we get home from church on Sundays and buy a new song off iTunes that we sang that morning or google the lyrics so that I can read over them again.

The song that most recently latched onto me is called "Forever Reign". If you haven't heard it, I highly suggest listening to it. The words have touched my heart over and over these past few weeks.

My Mom had scans run last week and the days leading up to the scans are understandably some of my most emotional ones. It's during these days that I seek comfort from God the most. And time and time again He has used songs to calm my heart. "Forever Reign" was the song for this round of scans and it's words are some of the most powerful and most personal that I have ever sung to my Creator.

I strongly encourage you to download the song or google the lyrics because the verses are powerful but the most compelling part of the song for me is the chorus:

Oh, I'm running to Your arms, I'm running to Your arms.

The riches of Your love will always be enough.

Nothing compares to Your embrace

Light of the world forever reign.

The image I first pictured when singing this song is a vivid one from when I was really young. Whenever my Dad would come home from work in the evenings, we would drop everything we were doing to yell "Daddy's home!" and sprint to the back door where we would wait to jump into his arms. I still can remember how much joy and love we felt during those moments when we were literally running to his arms. (He actually complained when we grew into teenagers that we had stopped so it started happening again but with a more sarcastic edge...sorry Dad!) :)

Since I can still remember the joy and love I felt as a child running into my Daddy's arms, the thought of running into my Heavenly Father's arms is an overwhelming one. The comfort that overcame me as I sang these words is one that I've struggled with putting into words which explains why this blogpost has sat unpublished for two weeks now. It's a comfort that has spread into every aspect of my life and one that has summoned my tears and my emotional side many times...which I guess isn't such a bad thing. :)

My Mom's scans came back with results that aren't the best but we are thanking God because they aren't the worst either. The tumors in her lungs are progressing and they found two more tumors in her brain. They have added two more chemo drugs that we are praying will be effective and work quickly against her cancer and that the side effects (which could potentially be pretty bad) will be minimal.

As always, we are very thankful for your love, prayers, and support. We feel truly blessed to be surrounded by so many prayer warriors. And I feel particularly blessed to serve a God whose love will always overcome and who comforts us in His all-powerful arms.

P.S. Seriously, go buy the song "Forever Reign" on iTunes...you won't be disappointed.

Pathetic

2011-06-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

Kevin is used to being outside during the day while we are at school. But now since we are off for the summer he is depressed. He wants to go outside pretty much all the time but he also can't handle being out there if he knows that we are inside. It's just a huge controversy going on in his head so instead he spends most of his days giving us the most pitiful looks that he can muster so that we might feel sorry for him and take him outside to play.

This is what he looks like most of the time:

I didn't even pose him for this picture. This is what he has been doing all morning...how pathetic is he?!

He is much happier outside where he can chew the bark off of all of our firewood and drag it out all over the yard.

Or when he is playing keep away with his favorite stick. (Don't judge us for making him play with a stick. He hides any other toys we leave outside.) Kevin is very good at playing fetch with a ball, but for some weird reason he would much rather play keep away with a stick. He runs in circles with a stick in his mouth and wants us to chase him. Obviously that's no fun for me so I normally just throw the stick and then ignore him until he brings it back.

However, last week I threw the stick and went to water some of our plants and then turned around to this:

How does that even happen?!

He is the weirdest, funniest, most pathetic, and most perfect dog ever...but I'm a little biased. :)

The Half Bath

2011-06-07T15:23:00.000-07:00

This is my husband, Blake (hopefully if you read this blog you already know that):

When we first started dating and then when we got married and then again when we were looking for and buying our house, he told me that he wasn't handy around the house. What a faker. Blake just redid a bathroom in a week. And when I say "redid" I mean he ripped out everything and replaced it with new things. He also re-routed electricity, patched drywall, and laid tile. Now in his defense, he really did believe that he wasn't handy. But that was before we started watching the DIY Network pretty much exclusively and before I started whispering all my house hopes and dreams to him while he sleeps (just kidding...that would be weird even for me).

Anyways, on to the bathroom. All of our bathrooms are builder grade and in bad shape. We have linoleum (and in the master bath-carpet...sick) and then the most basic fixtures. They aren't unusable just old, ugly and in need of major updates. We weren't planning on replacing the vanity in our half bath but that was before we found mold when we ripped out the baseboards near the vanity. We decided that it all had to come out. We are so very happy with how the bathroom turned out and I am so proud of my handy husband!

Here is the before:

Ugly vanity.

Ugly linoleum.

This is the electricity that Blake had to re-route through the wall. After we removed the vanity, he cut into the drywall and routed it through the studs in the wall and then patched up all the drywall. It was very impressive.

And here is the unbelievable, beautiful after:

Didn't he do a fantastic job?!?

Told You So

2011-06-04T15:02:00.000-07:00

Remember when I said that it would take me until June to finish the dining room? Told you so. But good news... it's June! Which means, it is finally finished! Woohoo!

During Spring Break, we installed crown molding and beadboard wainscoting and painted the walls literally the color of dark chocolate. This week, I finally got around to painting all the molding white and then Blake built me some awesome shelves to display my pretty white dishes.

Here is what the dining room looked like before:

Not awful or ugly...just plain and boring.

And here it is now:

The tissue paper flowers were for a baby shower for the lovely Sarah Brooks but I really like them and feel like they will probably stick around...probably until...oh... Christmas.

I cannot tell you how much I love these shelves. Our dining room is too small to house any sort of hutch or china cabinet but I wanted to display my dishes somehow. Ledge shelves at Pottery Barn run for about $55 for a 4 foot long shelf. These babies are 8 feet long and we paid about $20 for materials for both. I stained the wood and then Blake built them and installed them for me. I LOVE them. And him. A lot. :)

I am so incredibly happy with how the dining room turned out. It is now my favorite room in the house!

Obviously, Kevin really loves it too...

Confessions

2011-04-17T14:09:00.000-07:00

Having a full time job is exhausting. I'm starting to realize that I'm going to have to learn to balance having a job and having a life. Teaching takes all of my energy so by the time I get home I have no productivity left. I realize that there are people out there who can handle jobs and life...I'm just not one of those people. I like my couch and my TV shows and falling asleep on the couch in the middle of those TV shows just a little too much to be productive when I get home from school every day. (For anyone worried about the health of my husband...don't worry I do muster up enough energy to cook dinner and make sure he is fed every night. And remember, he is in the same position as me and he likes the couch and TV just as much as I do.)

Because of my lack of productivity during the school week, everything gets pushed to the next break from school. Small projects like yard work and cleaning happen on the weekends but everything else like painting and decorating become scheduled projects. It's actually a little humorous to me now that pretty much everything is a "summer project". However, we did have a couple of "Spring Break" projects that we are quite proud of. The biggest project was the dining room. We painted and added crown molding and wainscoting and I love it...but it's not finished. We still need to paint all of the molding and wainscoting and build a couple of shelves to hold all of my dishes. It will get done. It may be June when we finally get around to finishing but it will get done. :)

I did, however, finish one project over Spring Break. Last Summer, I bought a dresser off of Craig's List for $35 to use as our TV stand in the living room. I loved the shape and the color but it was a little beat up. I have wanted to paint it since the day we picked it up but Blake thought we should try it out as is before making any decisions. He's so smart. I liked it and the color of wood for a while but after about six months, I started thinking that it blended too much with the wood floors and it needed something. That something was a couple of coats of white paint.

Here is my awful I-forgot-to-take-a-before-picture-until-after-I-started-and-had-removed-all-of-the-hardware-picture:

And here she is now in all of her glory:

(I feel like this picture is crooked. I promise that our house is not and I guarantee it's not the wall lamps because we spent an hour ensuring those were the same height. I also feel like I should apologize for the Xbox controller and the NetFlix trash on the dresser but that's how it looks pretty much all the time so nevermind. No shame.)

I painted the dresser and then distressed the edges and the drawers and then put three coats of polyurethane on to insure my paint job from the heavy TV that sits on top. We took out the top drawer when we first got the dresser to make a spot for the cable box and Xbox but during the makeover Blake reinforced the shelf inside and then cut out the back of the dresser so that our electronics can be easily plugged-in and breathe a little easier in their tight little nook.

So there's my completed Spring Break Project. I would promise another blog post soon to give you a look at some of the other things we are doing around here but that sounds more like a Summer project. :)

I'm Lovin' It

2011-04-12T18:49:00.000-07:00

I stole my title from a popular slogan. If you don't know what it is then just walk up to any local sixth grader and sing "buh duh buh buh buh" and they will respond with "I'm lovin' it...hey we should go to McDonalds!". I sang that first part to all of my classes last week to kick off my lessons on advertising and propaganda and every single child responded with the above phrase. This is how I entertain myself at school...but enough about that and onto the massive life update.

Here are the things I'm lovin' these days:

1. Matt Boswell's CD: Vintage. I've mentioned before that I love old hymns and this is one of the best "hymn" albums I've ever come across. His version of "Blessed Assurance" is just fabulous. If you like hymns then definitely look this one up!

2. It's April. This means a couple of things...

a) It's almost May which means it's almost summer.

b) It's spring with lovely weather and pretty flowers.

c) There are plenty of thunderstorms and I love a good thunderstorm.

d) Most importantly...it's my birth month. (I announced this to my classes on April 1st and told them to start saving their money for my present...they didn't laugh. They don't think I'm funny. Oh the life of a middle school teacher....love it!)

Here is a picture of Julieanne, my future sister-in-law (refer to number 3), and I with our Sandy Mack-made birthday cakes. We were all in Boerne last weekend and she is the #1 Mom of the year every year so of course she made us all her famous cakes so we could all celebrate together.

3. A new sister! As you could have concluded from #2, Ryan proposed to Sylvia on April 2nd! We just could not be more excited. I told Ryan I'm just so glad he decided to marry someone that we all actually like and get along with. She's just a perfect fit! (for us and for Ryan too, I guess)

The happy couple:

4. Big life changes. Blake has decided to start a whole new career in August. He likes teaching but he wants to get started in the business world. Blake has been offered a position to work for his Dad's company and the timing just felt right for him to move on from teaching. We are excited about the new opportunity and we're anxious to see where this change takes us!

5. My Mom's recent scan results! She had scans run yesterday and got the results today. We are praising God because the cancer in her lungs is improving and her brain scans looked good at this point. Say a prayer of thanksgiving for us! We are very relieved and grateful for this progress!

Praise God for an abundance of blessings in life to love!!

Thankful

2011-03-10T19:14:00.000-08:00

Today I am thankful that I serve such a powerful God.

During my quiet time these past few weeks, I've been reading through Exodus and it's always interesting to me to find new little treasures in the stories that I've heard my whole life.

Like this one...

When the Israelites were escaping from Egypt, they found themselves trapped between the Red Sea and an army of angry Egyptians. And then this happened:

"But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.”

Exodus 14:13-14

How encouraging to know that we worship a God who rescues His people while we just stand and watch. It's comforting to know that I have someone fighting the battles for me. It just takes ~~daily~~ hourly prayers to embrace the "just stay calm" part of that verse. :)

P.S. My Mom had scans run last week and the tumors in her lungs have begun to grow again. Her oncologist prescribed a new type of chemo that she started last week. The tumors are causing her to have trouble breathing and a bad cough. Prayers that the chemo kicks in quickly so that she can breath comfortably are much appreciated.

Strangely Blessed

2011-02-06T12:04:00.000-08:00

Throughout the month of January, Rick Atchley taught lessons over the book of 1 Peter and the concept of being called to be strange for God. Being taught to be strange for God is not a new concept for me. Growing up, I attended several retreats and youth events where we were told that we should stick out for our faith instead of blending in. There was even an entire week of ACU Leadership Camps where the theme was (and still is) "Aliens in the World". No, being strange for God is not a new concept, however I sat listening to his sermons with tears in my eyes because being strange for God has all new meaning at this stage in my life.

The two most prominent spiritual leaders and influences on my life have always been my parents. Growing up I witnessed them living out their faith in many ways day in and day out. Their faith helped to shape my own in some ways that I am just now starting to realize. However, in these past few years, I have been blessed to see their faith lived out to the glory of God in ways that I would never imagine.

Those of you who know my parents have seen the strange way that they have handled the trials that come with metastatic cancer. Where others might be discouraged, they have hope. Where others might be angry, they have peace. And when others see no reason to believe, they have faith. Every single time I talk to my Mom about her cancer, good news or bad, she always begins or ends (and sometimes both) the conversation with "I know God is in control no matter what happens Katie, never stop praying."

I know they are not perfect. In the ups and downs that come with my Mom's particular type of cancer, there are definitely times of suffering and heartache but watching my parent's handle these ups and downs has been nothing short of an incredible testimony to their faith and their mission to give God the glory, no matter the circumstance.

A couple weeks ago, Reg Cox spoke at The Hills as part of the "Strange" series. His sermon was titled "A Strange Reaction to Difficulty" and the entire time he was preaching, I could not get my parents out of my head. Here are a couple of his major points that I took note on:

1. Expect EVERY part of your life to be used as a tool to proclaim Christ
2. Suffering is a blessing - it can be a vital platform for demonstrating real faith. Through pain, God is revealed through profound and vital ways.
3. Hope is an open act of rebellion. The world will notice when you exemplify hope through suffering.

As Christians, we make the strange decision to believe that Jesus is Lord no matter what happens and that is strange to people who don't know Christ. Through all the pain and suffering that my family has endured throughout the past couple of years, I feel strangely blessed to be witnessing the unfailing faith and unwavering hope that my parents are demonstrating. My prayer is that the world will take notice.

Rick ended the service that Sunday with these words, "Being a Christian isn't just saying 'Hallelujah' but 'Hallelujah anyway'". My encouragement to you is to continue to sing His praises, no matter the circumstances.

"But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, do not be frightened. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have."

1 Peter 3:14-15

My Dog Is A Wizard...

2011-02-04T22:08:00.001-08:00

Tonight while we went on an awesome surprise date planned by my oh so wonderful husband, we left Kevin in his crate. We normally leave him outside but because of the snow/ice covering the yard, we decided to leave him inside. We gave him a treat and left him in his crate. He gave Blake his saddest puppy eyes and we felt really bad about it while we were out.

However, our dog has somehow learned the wizarding trick of apparating (Harry Potter...duh. And read them, Julieanne) because when we opened the back door, there he was waiting for us to get home.

We were quite shocked and became even more so when we walked into our room and found the crate still locked but moved about a foot from its usual spot.

There is no other logical explanation except that Kevin has been attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry behind our backs where he has learned how to move from one spot to another by apparating. (or that Blake only locked the top lock on the crate door and Kevin somehow squeezed out the bottom, bending the door in the process)

What a punk! But its just nearly impossible to be angry at this face. :)

Really?!

2011-02-03T18:32:00.000-08:00

Well, we are coming to the end of our third ice day which means our third day of no school. We have already received the call that we will not be having school tomorrow, making this (in the stolen words of my little brother's Facebook status) "a 6-day weekend".

Let's be real here: snow/ice days are not near as fun on the teaching side. On Tuesday afternoon, I was honestly upset that I forgot my stack of ungraded essays at school...not upset enough to risk my life to drive the 5 miles up to school to get them but upset nonetheless. :)

Our backyard has looked like this since we woke up on Tuesday morning:

Why isn't it melting!?! We were just walking in the park LAST Friday in shorts with Kevin. Oh Texas weather...I will never understand you.

This poor child was not a fan of the snow/ice covered backyard at first...

...until Blake dragged him out on his leash. Now he loves it out there and won't stop eating the snow. It's hilarious playing fetch with him because he has no traction on the ice and slides all over the backyard.

I've already read two books and baked cookies and we cleaned our whole house last weekend so I am all out of things to do. I guess relaxing in front of a fire for this unexpected week off isn't the worst thing in the world. I'm sure I can handle it. :)

Stay warm out there!!

Magic!

2011-01-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

My parents planned a surprise trip as one of our Christmas presents and we "opened" the surprise on Thanksgiving Day. We really had no idea where we were going so they gave us all a present to unwrap. Inside all of our presents were new Mavs shirts meant to be a hint as to where we were headed. After the obviously sarcastic shouts of "vacation to Dallas!!" were over, someone pulled up the Mavs schedule for the week before Christmas and discovered that the Mavs would be playing both in Orlando and Miami that week. My parents then announced that we would be going to Orlando/Disney World with a side trip to Miami to see the Mavs play the Heat.

We flew out of DFW the Friday we got out of school and met the rest of my family in Orlando. We spent four days at Disney World (magical), a night in Miami (shady...but in a magically fun and risky sort of way), and a day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (magic...literally). Family vacations always tend to be entertaining with my family and this one of course was no different. Keeping in stride with most of my blog posts, I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story...

We started off the week at Magic Kingdom where everything was decorated for Christmas. Including Cinderella's castle. It was AWESOME!

On Main Street!

Waiting for the Electric Lights Parade to start!

The next day we went to Universal Studios: Islands of Adventure. Universal Studios was not impressive. Ask me about that another time. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, on the other hand, was incredible. It was very crowded but the rides and feel of Hogsmeade/Diagon Alley/Hogwarts was so cool.

Hogwarts:

Entrance to Hogsmeade...

Monday morning we woke up early and drove to Miami where we hung out for a couple of hours waiting for the game to start. After we checked in to the hotel we rode the free metro to American Airlines Arena to pick up our tickets and then to find somewhere to eat for lunch. It was on this free metro that we heard people talking about how in New York people will just walk up and shoot you, but in Miami people are more into drive bys. Welcome to Miami...very comforting.

I felt better about the city of Miami when we watched this pretty little sunset out our hotel window.

And then I felt even better when we all showed up to the game decked out in Mavs gear. Funny story: When we walked up to the doors, the security lady high fived us and told us she was a Mavs fan. Then when we found our seats, the usher was fascinated by us. Everytime the Mavs would score or make a good play he would turn around and give us a thumbs up. But he kept asking why we weren't Lakers fans...I'm not sure he knew exactly where Dallas was. He was precious. He even brought in a security guard when ~~Blake and Will~~ the fans around us started getting out of control.

AND THEN I felt even better when the Mavs won. :)

On Tuesday, we drove back to Orlando and went to Animal Kingdom for the rest of the day.

Blake took this picture of "Mt. Everest" with his iPhone. Check out that reflection!

Our only character picture. We just happened to be standing there when Pluto walked by. Lucky!

The next two days were spent at Epcot and Hollywood Studios.

We played some game at Epcot where you had to save and invest your money and you had to carry around this piggy bank to different stations. I think this picture is so cute because Dad looks really happy...probably because he was the best at this game. Julieanne was the worst at it. Shocking.

Cute little children at Hollywood Studios!

Christmas lights at Hollywood Studios. They were incredible!

Such a fun trip!

And I'll leave you with this video of the Fairy godmother lighting the castle...

Awwww magic! :)

God is Good!

2010-12-28T10:15:00.000-08:00

My mom had scans run yesterday and she got good results back today!

Just to remind you: In mid-November, they found new cancer growth in her lungs, liver, and brain. Her doctors started her on a new chemo regimen and whole brain radiation.

The news she got today is that everything in her lungs and liver is either shrinking or stable! We won't know about the spots on her brain until they finish the whole brain radiation but we are praising God today for his healing and for good news! Say a prayer of thankfulness with us today!

Weekend to Remember

2010-12-17T13:32:00.000-08:00

When we got married, we received a very unique present. A couple from my home church, who is good friends with my parents, registered us for the Family Life "Weekend to Remember" marriage retreat. To be honest, we were quite skeptical of the whole weekend from the beginning. We rescheduled the weekend twice and we were actually planning on skipping out on some of the sessions to get some of our Christmas shopping done.

And then, we attended the first session. We were sold right away with the humor of the presenters and the relevance of the topics to us. We knew going in that we definitely weren't struggling in our marriage but we came to the realization that we just weren't exactly focusing on it. To be brutally honest, we had become more roommates and best friends, completely and selfishly focused on ourselves over the last couple months instead of focusing on being "one" the way God intended marriage to be. I blame full time jobs, routine, and reality. And enough blame... I guess I'll just have to get over that considering we'll just get more and more busy from here on out.

We came away from the weekend much more focused on each other and much more relaxed. The retreat took place at the Westin La Cantera in San Antonio and it was awesome. There is just something so relaxing about staying in a really nice hotel.

Especially one with views like this:

(This picture was taken from the Westin La Cantera website.)

I would highly recommend the "Weekend To Remember" to any of you young marrieds (or just marrieds) out there. It will completely refresh you and your view of your spouse. Best wedding present ever!

Blessed

2010-11-28T11:57:00.000-08:00

I have always loved Thanksgiving. Every year when the holiday season comes around I have an ongoing debate in my head about whether Thanksgiving or Christmas is my favorite holiday. Well ladies and gentlemen, I believe I have reached a conclusion. My favorite holiday has now been decided and Thanksgiving is the ultimate champion. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas. I would listen to Christmas music year round if Blake would allow it, but Thanksgiving just has a very special place in my heart.

I love everything about Thanksgiving. I love the food. I love the desserts. I love the fall weather. I love the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. But most of all, I love the time spent with family. During Christmas, unfortunately, we get bogged down with all the "stuff" and can so easily overlook the most important parts. During Christmas we try so very hard to be generous in our giving but so often end up focusing on the receiving end. (I am most definitely the most guilty when it comes to this) But during Thanksgiving, the focus is on preparations that will ultimately lead to everyone sitting around one big table reflecting on the blessings in this life.

In the Mack family, everyone has a job when preparing the meal. It has almost become tradition for each of us to complete our part of the meal.

For example, Dad always carves the turkey and the only reason that was worth mentioning is because of this treasure of a picture that I just MUST include because every good blog post needs a picture :) Love you, Dad!

The fellowship that happens in the kitchen with those people that I love most in this world are memories that I want to remember forever. And then bringing all of the food to the table and enjoying it together is just so special.

After what my family has been through during the past couple of years, these moments are priceless. I cherish each and everyone one of these memories. I feel so incredibly blessed during Thanksgiving which is why I love it so much.

My Dad quoted this verse before we ate on Thursday and it completely sums up how blessed I feel no matter the circumstances:

Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!

For who can know the Lord’s thoughts?
Who knows enough to give him advice?

And who has given him so much
that he needs to pay it back?

For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.

Romans 11:33-36

There is just so much to be thankful for: My wonderful and perfect-for-me husband, both of my families, a great job that I'm passionate about, our house, a perfect and very cute dog :), and above all else, a powerful and unfailing Lord who has blessed me with all of the above.

I hope your Thanksgivings were as filled with blessings as ours was!

Prayers Please

2010-11-11T15:25:00.000-08:00

Family and Friends,

My family has been so blessed by all of you in the past 2 1/2 years since my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. We feel so incredibly blessed by the encouragement you have given us and the prayers that you have lifted up on my Mom's behalf.

My Mom received the results of her latest CT and bone scans on Tuesday. There was some good news: The tumor in her sternum has stabilized and is really of no concern at the present time. However, we were surprised by the news that there are numerous lesions and masses scattered throughout both lungs, which are new. There is also a new lesion on the dome of the liver. Obviously, this is of great concern and will result in a new course of treatment. The plan is to start a new chemo regimen beginning next week.

My Mom has been feeling very good, probably as good as she has felt since her original diagnosis. Thankfully she has gained energy and strength which will be needed as she gets into another treatment regimen.

This news is not what we wanted to hear but we have hope because we know that we serve a powerful God and we are constantly encouraged by the thoughts and prayers of those around us. Please continue to lift up my Mom especially as she begins a new treatment regimen next week. As always, we are so very grateful for your prayers and completely blessed by your friendship and love for all of us. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and prayers!

Update!

2010-09-12T20:14:00.000-07:00

Yes, I realize it's been five weeks. No, I'm not going to apologize. My life is now crazy so all I can do is give you an update of what's been happening in the last five weeks.

For starters, we helped these two little college freshmen move into their dorm and get settled to begin their first year at ACU. We were so excited for them and we never miss an opportunity to spend a weekend in Abilene.

The next week we started school. I took first day of school pictures but they are incredibly awkward so they won't be making the blog. Instead, I'll leave you with these little treasures because we were much cuter and much less awkward when these were taken.

School has been great so far for both of us. We both have had challenges but we also are excited about what's to come this year. Prayers for our students are much appreciated! It's going to be a great school year!

After the first week of school Blake went to the lake with his friends for their Fantasy Football Draft and I headed to Dallas on Saturday for mani/pedi's, laying out and then dinner with all the wives whose husbands were at the lake. We ate at La Duni for dinner and it was delicious!

All the wives that were there:

For Labor Day weekend we headed back to Abilene for the Mack/Maynard Family Retreat. Every Labor Day my family gets together for the weekend to hang out. It's always fun but it was especially relaxing and enjoyable this year. We stayed at The Sayles Ranch Guesthouses which are actually owned by Blake's Uncle Terry and they were the perfect location for our family. We hung out by the pool and just enjoyed being in each others company.

On Saturday night we ate at The Homeplace in Tuscola which is where all of these pictures were taken.

Love him.

Even when he makes weird faces.

Whole family minus Ryan (who was in San Antonio) and Cousin Kalee (who was sick this night)

Whole family minus Ryan and Kalee, plus Dylan and Bryce (the boyfriends)

Mom and Sister

Pretty cousins and sister.

More pretty cousins.

Pretty brother. Just kidding. (In other news, this brother is a very talented college runner these days. He has done amazingly well in his first two college cross country meets! Yay Will!)

Siblings. Ryan wasn't there because he is a big time medical student right now. He is in the middle of rotations and he was on call all weekend. We missed you, Ryan!!!

And that brings us to this weekend. We just hung out and got some things done around the house and then went to the TCU game on Saturday night. It was a blow-out but it was still fun. We are just so excited that football season is back. We love the Rangers but we've missed football. And yes, Blake wore an ACU shirt to the TCU game. Why not? Both purple, two of the three letters are the same. Close enough. :)

So there you have it. Five weeks of our lives squeezed into one blog post. And now the Cowboys are calling for my attention.

Have a blessed week!

A Nice Little Story

2010-08-07T10:10:00.000-07:00

*Warning: This post is very long...but so is the process of refinishing furniture so it all works out.*

Prologue:
My Mother-in-law, Marcia, has been offering Blake's bedroom furniture from his room in Denton to us for a while now. We decided to finally take her up on that offer since we have a couple of empty bedrooms in our house. This particular bedroom suite is very special because it belonged to Blake's grandparents. They bought it when they first got married which was 63 years ago. I have always loved the look of this furniture and Blake has a special attachment to it because of the above reason so we decided to use this new/old furniture in our room and move our current furniture up into a second guest room. We drove to Denton on Monday to clean out Blake's old room and load up the furniture and bring it back to our house. This leads us to the next part of the story.

Part One: The Decision
Alternate Titles: Complete Ignorance, Katie Tricks Blake, Oh Yeah We Can Do That!

We moved all of the new/old furniture into our room on Tuesday morning and sat around looking at it and talking about where we I wanted it. Upon further inspection of the furniture, I looked at Blake and said, "You know, this really needs to be refinished. We could do it ourselves. It wouldn't be too hard and we should do it before we go back to school or it will never get done." Then I used my best occlumency* skills so that Blake wouldn't be able to read my mind and see what I was really thinking. (That this would be an exhausting project that would for sure take all week and need careful and particular attention paid to detail but in the end it would most definitely be worth it.) Thankfully, for the first time in a long time, Blake couldn't read my mind and said, "Let's do it!", and off we went to Home Depot for the necessary supplies.

*This is a Harry Potter reference. If you don't know what it means then get your life right and read the books. You still have time before the 7th movie comes out in November. *cough*Julieanne*cough*

Here are the before pictures. I forgot to take them when the furniture was in our room and we had already started sanding but you get the idea of how beat up it was...

Part Two: Sanding Down The Furniture
Alternate Titles: Is It Supposed to Look Like That?, I Think We've Ruined It, There's No Turning Back Now, What On Earth Have We Gotten Ourselves Into, Lungful of Sawdust

We moved all of the furniture out into the garage, turned on our handy garage air conditioner (which we made fun of when we first looked at the house...now we love the previous owners for putting it in), and prepared our sanders. We used electric sanders and went to work removing the existing finish, or what was left of it. This was the scariest part. At first it appeared as if we were ruining the furniture but the more we sanded, the more we realized that we were getting down to the wood. This part took forever and was definitely the most difficult part of this task.

Then we took a break to answer the door where I received our new vacuum that I ordered. A Dyson Ball DC25. I never in my life thought I would be excited about a vacuum but I ripped open the box like it was Christmas morning once I got it into the house. IT. IS. AWESOME.

Part Three: Staining the Furniture
Alternate Titles: Oh That's What It's Supposed to Look Like, This Looks Awesome, We Are Geniuses, Let's Give Up Teaching and Refinish Furniture Instead

After we used our awesome new vacuum to suck up all the stray sawdust on the furniture, we wiped them down and used a wood conditioner to get them ready for staining. Then we painted on the stain, let it soak in, and then wiped off the excess. We realized at this point that we are really good at this. We could probably go pro if we wanted. We did two coats of stain to get the color just right (we waited a good seven hours between coats). Then we left it alone to dry overnight.

Part Four: Sealing the Furniture
Alternate Titles: Can We Please Just Be Done With This?, I'm Never Doing This Again, Will We Ever Have Furniture In Our Bedroom Again?

It's at this point that we were pretty much done with this project. Not done like finished but done mentally and physically. We didn't feel great at this point (probably from inhaling buckets of sawdust and countless fumes from wood conditioner and stain) and we were both sore from sanding (shows you how out of shape we are) but we pushed through and finished up the furniture with two layers of Polyurethane. We painted the first coat on and then let it dry overnight. The next morning we lightly sanded down any rough areas and then put on one final coat. (No pictures of this because they looked exactly like they did with the stain, just a little bit shinier.)

Epilogue: Moving The Furniture Back Into Our Room
Alternate Titles: Hallelujah!!, Once Again We Are Geniuses

After a sufficient 24 hours of drying time, we moved the furniture into our room. I could not be more happy with how it turned out. The chest of drawers and the vanity look awesome. The bed has a couple flaws, especially on the posts but we are still very happy with it. We feel so accomplished and we are so proud of ourselves that we carried this project through completely.

The Chest of Drawers

The Vanity

The Bed

Now we just need to finish everything else in our room...like painting the walls and finding a long dresser and accessorizing everything. Maybe we'll get to that next summer. :)

Above the Kitchen Cabinets

2010-08-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

I have always been amazed at how people accessorize the top of their kitchen cabinets. It always looks so cute, cohesive and put together. I would have absolutely no idea where to start if I were to accessorize above of my kitchen cabinets so I decided to brainstorm ways to make the space between the ceiling and the cabinets look less empty. I knew I wanted to hang something on the wall and I knew I wanted it to have words on it and my idea for this project just stemmed from that!

I first stalked both the websites of Hobby Lobby and Michael's for sales on scrapbook paper and canvases because I just refuse to buy anything from those places if it is not marked down. Lucky for me, scrapbook paper went on sale at Hobby Lobby and then a couple weeks later canvases were on sale for buy one get one free at Michaels. JACKPOT! This project was just meant to happen. :)

I bought ten canvases because the verse I chose to use has ten words (well nine but I wanted an extra to put the book and number where it's found in the Bible) and I decided to paint one word on each canvas. A little more expensive, but oh so cute and worth it!

Next I painted the edges of the canvases black because I wanted the paper on the front to pop and to appear that it is in a frame. Once the paint dried, I pulled out my Modge Podge, cut out my scrapbook paper to fit the front of the canvas, and then glued the paper onto the canvas and smothered it in a thick layer of my new best friend, Modge Podge. Then, I sat them aside to dry and admired them while I waited on Amy Jo to get here for the next step in the project.

Amy has been one of my closest friends since high school and she is my go-to person when I'm in need of craft assistance. (Funny side story: When we were in high school, she used to beg me to do crafts with her and she would drag me to Hobby Lobby where I would complain and mope until she would let us leave. Now I spend way too much money at Hobby Lobby, crafting and making things is pretty much all I think about, and I plan (and get really excited about) craft days with Amy. Oh how things change.)

Well Amy owns a Cricut, a fancy cutting machine that she brought over to help me out with my project. We cut out all the words using her Cricut and then used the cutouts as stencils to trace each word onto the canvas. We traced with a Sharpie and then filled in each letter using black paint.

This is Amy painting and smiling because I finally want to do crafts with her:

And now for the finished product:

Drumroll please....

In case you can't read the words, these pretty little canvases say:

"For the happy heart, life is a continual feast."

Proverbs 15:15

Such a great little bit of encouragement every time I walk into the kitchen!

So that is what I've done above my kitchen cabinets. I am beyond happy with it and it turned out better than I expected (much credit to Amy and her Cricut). And now I don't have to worry about finding cohesive accessories to put up there! :)

Learning to Lead!

2010-07-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

Last week we traveled to Abilene where we led a group at Learning to Lead for ACU Leadership Camps. Learning to Lead is a camp for upper elementary aged kids that takes place on ACU's campus. Blake and I became friends while working as counselors for the summer at Learning to Lead when we were in college. Near the end of the summer we had "camp crushes" on each other, though neither one of us would admit it right away. Because of that friendship and our camp crushes, Blake finally built up the courage to ask me on a date a couple months later...and now here we are today, four years later and he is still my camp crush.

We both loved working as counselors and we loved going to ACU Leadership Camps as campers and so we wanted to go back and volunteer to be group leaders since we have summers off. We joked last week that we needed to go back to Learning to Lead every year because it is like free marriage counseling because we remember why we first started liking each other. (Not that we need that reminder)

We led a group of 6th Graders for the week and taught them all about learning to follow Jesus like Peter did in the New Testament. We had so much fun getting to know all the kids in our group and playing games and singing praise songs. Julieanne was a counselor this summer and so she was in our group with us too. It was an incredible week!

Here's Blake and Julieanne at Water Games.

This is right before Blake dumped the bucket on Julieanne...she was not happy

Here we are all together!

One day at breakfast, Julieanne walked up wearing the same shirt as me so we matched for the day! Love her.

We brought Kevin with us to Abilene and he stayed at Julieanne's boyfriend Bryce's house who owns Kevin's brother. (Did you get that? It's a little confusing.) Bryce's dog is named Andy. Kevin and Andy played non-stop all week and Kevin was a little depressed and completely exhausted when we brought him home on Friday.

Here they are (Kevin is on the right in both pictures):

These pictures were taken on the iPhone so sorry for the bad quality!

Happy Graduation Will!

2010-07-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, Will graduated from high school and even though that was a while ago, I feel like it is still worthy of making the blog. Will is getting ready to move to Abilene to become an ACU Wildcat! He will be running cross country for ACU and we are so excited to watch him continue his running career.

Here is the graduate!!

With Mom and Dad:

Julieanne likes to make pictures awkward by holding hands:

There were multiple cameras taking this pictures obviously:

Love him:

This is our friend Kamren. Her older sister, Kylie, graduated with Will and is going to ACU with him. Love her!

So proud of him!

Kitchen Reveal!

2010-07-08T15:18:00.000-07:00

Our kitchen has been finished for a couple of weeks now but our computer is on its last leg and is struggling at the moment. Thankfully today is one of its good days so I'm jumping on the chance to blog.

Because of the above mentioned computer crash, I do not have pictures of the cabinets "before". Instead I only have the "during" and "after" stages of the kitchen re-do. I am so incredibly happy with how it looks right now. There are a couple of things left to do like replace the light fixture (which is a hideous fluorescent chunk on the ceiling that hums every time you flip the switch) and add crown molding along the ceiling. I also have a little bit more decorating to do but that will happen eventually with more time and more money.

Here are the stats on the kitchen: When we bought the house, the kitchen had recently been redone with black granite countertops, a light colored stone backsplash, and stainless steel appliances so we really lucked out there (seeing how I love all of those things). The cabinets were a really light wood tone with a high gloss all over them. I hated them...a lot. Plus I have always had this thing for white cabinets so we decided that painting the existing cabinets would be our first project in the house. It was a HUGE project to take on right at the start but I am soooo glad that we did because they look so much better! So we painted the cabinets white (Sherwin Williams Stucco) and added some oil-rubbed bronze hardware and then painted the walls the same color as the living room (SW Silvermist). And voila! I'm in love with my redone kitchen!

Here are the "during" pictures. The cabinets have a coat of primer on them and you can see on the inside of the cabinets the actual color of the wood.

And here is what it looks like now!!

My pretty Fiestaware now has a home where I can see it's loveliness all day!

So there you have it. Painting kitchen cabinets is quite the task but we are so glad we did it. I love cooking in my kitchen (which is a plus for Blake and for our wallets) and I feel like every time I am in there I say "Man, I love this kitchen." Our house is definitely starting to feel like our home!

Wishing...

2010-06-22T19:06:00.000-07:00

Right about now as the days are getting hotter and the air conditioner is being cranked down and the electricity bill is going up, I wish I was here...

and here...

Watching sunsets like this...

and this...

(Isn't God amazing?!?!)

But since we can't spend a week in Hawaii this summer like we did last summer then I'll settle for the next best thing...spending all day every day with this guy (even if it is just in Texas):

Oh how I love summertime!! :)

A Tribute to the Best Dads Ever

2010-06-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day to the best Dad I've ever had! In a world where good dads are hard to come by, I am so lucky to have you! You have been an incredible leader for our family and such a great example for everyone else around you. Thanks for being so great! I love you so much!

Here is my tribute to you in pictures:

Cute glasses Dad!

In our Sunday Best!

Indian Princesses! Our Indian names were Singing Flower and Running Horse...I'm sure you can figure out whose was whose.

Re-enacting the diploma hand-off at Graduation.

I tear up a little every time I look at this picture...it was such a special moment on my special day.

And another special moment...we practiced dancing several times prior to my wedding which was a blast and so in this picture I'm giving Dad props after our dance because he did so well.

Love, Katie

And now the real tribute to my favorite dad in poem form.

You are the world's best dad,

Even when I make you mad.

But let us all be real right now,

The other children made you have a cow.

We all know you have a twin brother,

So maybe I really belong to the other.

But don't you worry even one day,

You are my dad, I checked the DNA.

I hope this poem makes you glad,

Happy Father's Day to the #1 Dad!

Love, Blake

Happy Father's Day to both of our wonderful Dads!! We love you!!!

One Year Ago Today

2010-06-19T15:04:00.000-07:00

One year ago today I was doing this...

And this...

And Blake was doing this (waiting on me)...

Then we saw each other for the first time and there were many tears (from me not from Blake)...

And then we said our vows...

And then Blake kissed the bride...

And then we were announced as Mr. and Mrs. Blake Browder...

And then we were officially husband and wife...

And now we are living happily ever after!!

If you haven't figured it out yet, today is our anniversary!! I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be married to my best friend.

Blake, you make me a better person and I couldn't be happier to be your wife. Here's to the years to come...I can't wait to spend them all with you! I love you!!!

Greenish, Blueish Gray = LOVE

2010-06-12T07:11:00.000-07:00

Instead of giving you a whole tour at once of our new house, I have decided to just give you snapshots of the progress we make as we unpack and get the house exactly how we want it. This could take years so if you are interested in seeing the entire house then you will just have to come visit! :)

Starting off...
We painted the living room and entry way the most awesome color EVER. (And when I say painted, I mean hired someone else to paint because the ceilings are 22 feet tall in our living room and entry way. We decided spending the money on a painter so that we wouldn't have to risk our lives with scaffolding was definitely worth it.) I have recently been obsessed with the color gray. I think it looks so chic with black and white furniture which is what we have. I didn't want to go with a complete gray for the living room because since it is such a big space, I thought it would look too much like a cloudy day. Therefore, we went with a paint color from Sherwin Williams called "Silvermist". I would describe it as a greenish, blueish gray...and it looks AMAZING (in my opinion). So without further introduction, here is our living room taken from stark white to absolute loveliness!

BEFORE: Here it is with our lovely paint samples on the wall. We chose the one on the far left.

AFTER: Oh I just love it! Please excuse the camping chairs and the kitchen drawers being painted. This was before we moved in. There is furniture where those things are now!

And there's your first snapshot of our house! There will be many more to come! Most likely coming next: The Kitchen!! We are finished with the cabinets (woohoo!!) and now all we have left is to finish painting the walls!

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-06-10T16:26:00.000-07:00

OK it is my goal this week to get everyone caught up in the blogging world. I have like six different posts in my head that I've been meaning to sit down and type but I just haven't had the time. So, lucky for all of you, I have made the decision to post one every day until I get you all caught up. Plus, I am in the middle of a two week intensive writing seminar for my job next year and so I've been inspired to blog.

For Memorial Day weekend, I went to Paige's lakehouse for a weekend with the girls. It was a blast! It was my first "girl" weekend since I married Blake and it was so much fun! I mean I love spending all my time with Blake but it feels good to have girl time every once in a while! There were ten of us girls there plus Paige's parents and aunt and uncle. They cooked some AMAZING meals for us!

It was a fun and relaxing weekend with some wakeboarding, some getting extremely sun-burned, and some reading. Loved it! I didn't get pictures of all of the girls but here are some of them!

All the ACU girls that were there. Go Wildcats!

Touchette and Kasey

Touchette and Hutch = Best Friends

Paige and I

Old Roommates!

The Newest Member of Our Little Family

2010-06-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

I realize that it's been a while since my last post. I blame not having internet for a week and then opening every single moving box in our house to find my camera cord. So with my excuses out of the way, it is now time to introduce you to the newest member of our family...and no I am NOT pregnant. Let's not start any rumors here people.

This is Kevin. He is the cutest little puppy ever. He is a blue heeler/shepherd mix and we love him with all of our hearts. It probably wasn't the best idea to get a puppy as soon as we even moved into our house but we just couldn't resist his little face. Plus, he was abandoned on the side of the road with his brother and sisters and he needed us!

He has definitely had his moments with chewing on the furniture and keeping us up all night with his crying and barking but he is learning. We are taking him on his first road trip this weekend to Boerne for Will's graduation. That should be quite an experience and I'm sure he will be spoiled with attention because no one can resist his puppy cuteness!

So now that you've seen Kevin, you can come meet him anytime! I know I've been promising pictures of our house and I promise those are coming soon!!! We have a couple projects that we are finishing up and then I'll definitely give you a tour via blogpost! But for now you can just keep coming back and staring at the pictures of Kevin's adorable little face!

WOOHOO!!!

2010-05-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

I GOT A JOB!!!!

Most of you know that I have been subbing all year long in hopes that I would land a full-time job. Well all of my hard work (and tears and prayers) paid off! I am now an employee of Birdville ISD! What an answer to (many) prayers!! God really is SO GOOD! Here are all of the great things about my job: It is in the same district as Blake (so we'll be on the same schedule), it is only 10 minutes from our new house, it is 6th Grade (my favorite grade to teach), AND it's Language Arts (my favorite subject) I am so excited about starting school next year! (Which is so weird, because I am also so ready for this school year to end.)

I will be teaching at North Richland Middle School. For those of you familiar with the area, it is just East of Richland Hills Church of Christ. Like I said, I'll be teaching 6th grade Language Arts but not Reading. At this school, they have a Reading teacher AND a Language Arts teacher. This basically means that I'll only be teaching writing, grammar, and spelling. For most of you that sounds like torture...for me it will be heaven! Those are all of my favorite things about the subject of English! I am just so incredibly excited and completely thankful for God's faithfulness in my job search. And now the real stress of being a full-time teacher begins!

Happy Mother's Day!!

2010-05-09T12:04:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to the best Mom ever! You have done an incredible job raising four children (and I know the other three weren't easy). You are so patient with all of us and you are always willing to listen to everything that I have to say. You handle all situations with such grace and I can't think of one time when you've said something bad about someone else. Watching you battle cancer these past two years has shown me not only how strong you are physically but also how amazing your faith is. We have all learned so much about the Lord through your example. You are an amazing Mom who deserves to be celebrated everyday but especially today! I love you so much Mom!

And also a Happy Mother's Day to the best Mother-in-Law! Marcia, I have been so blessed to be a part of your family! You did a wonderful job raising Blake (and I know he didn't make it easy) and you have welcomed me into your family with open arms. You have made being a part of a new family so easy. You are so generous in every aspect of your life, but especially with your time. Thanks for being there for us whenever we need you! You are such an incredible Mom and Mother-in Law! I love you!

And once again, Happy Mother's Day to all of the mother's in my life!!!

Praise the Lord!

2010-05-06T19:32:00.000-07:00

I have GREAT news! My mom had tests run on Monday and she got great results back on Tuesday! The tumor on her sternum is shrinking and there were no new tumors growing! Praise God! We are so very thankful that the chemo is working and that she is feeling good.

This past weekend Blake and I headed to San Antonio to run/walk in the Race for the Cure with my family. Mason and Casey and Touchette all came down as well to run and to support my Mom. We are so thankful for great friends! (However, I somehow didn't get a picture of Mason at the race but he was there! Sorry Mason!) All of the boys ran the 5K and then all of the girls walked around and collected all of the free stuff and then walked the 1 mile loop. It was so much fun and really awesome to see all of the survivors and their supporters.

Early in the morning ready for the race!

Cute family!

Love you Mom!

Siblings

Girls!

Will won the Race. We were so proud!!!

And Ryan got fourth! Yay brothers!

Everyone out walking! There were sooooo many people!

Will getting his 1st place medal!

It was such a fun weekend and it was great to honor Mom by participating in the race. We had a great time and really enjoyed being with family and friends for the weekend. Thanks to all of you who donated money to the Race for the Cure and continued thanks to all of you for your prayers. We truly appreciate them!

Next to come on the blog: The New House! Woohoo!

So Proud!

2010-04-25T16:07:00.000-07:00

I just need to take a second to brag. I mentioned a couple posts ago that Blake's students took the Math TAKS at the beginning of this month. If you don't know, Blake teaches 5th grade Math and 5th graders have to pass the TAKS in order to move onto 6th grade.

Well he got his student's scores back this week and 100% passed and 70% were commended (which means they missed 4 questions or less). How great is that?!? He worked so hard to get them prepared for the test and he had some pretty high standards set for him at his school. He was so relieved and proud of his students and I am so proud of him!!

Race for the Cure

2010-04-10T15:55:00.000-07:00

As most of you already know, my Mom is currently fighting breast cancer. On May 1st, Blake and I are heading down to San Antonio to run in the Komen Race for the Cure. We would like to invite all of you to run in your own Race for the Cure or even come to San Antonio to run with us! If you would like to find out when a race close to you is then click here. If you would like to make the trip down to San Antonio for the weekend then you can register for the race here. Supposedly the registration closed for the race yesterday but I'm pretty sure you can still register if you want. You can at least try!

If you aren't into running or if you are just too busy then you can still make a donation to the Susan G. Komen foundation to help with finding a cure for breast cancer. Click here and click on either "Make a Gift" or "Donate to Katie". By donating at this specific site, your money will go to the San Antonio Race for the Cure. Up to 75 percent of funds raised in San Antonio stay in the community supporting local nonprofit organizations that provide vital breast cancer screening, treatment and education. The remaining 25 percent goes to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Grants Program which funds groundbreaking breast cancer research and scientific programs around the world. If you can't figure out how to donate on that site then simply go the www.komen.org and click on donate.

Join us as we honor and show our unending support for my Mom because she is incredible and deserves every bit of it. We love you, Mom!

If you decide to run in a Race for the Cure then let us know! We'd love to hear all about it! Thanks in advance to all of you for your support! And keep up those prayers! We truly appreciate and love you all for it!

Life Update!

2010-04-07T15:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, sorry it has been almost a full month since my last post. Don't worry, I have a semi-good excuse. Since, it has been so long I decided a quick life update is in order for those of you who care about the lives of Blake and I.

My reason for neglecting the blog is because I am now long-term subbing. YAY! This is as close to a full-time a job that I am going to get this school year and I am LOVING it. I am teaching in a 7th grade English class in Keller ISD for a teacher who is on maternity leave. I started two days before Spring Break and I finish on May 14th. That is eight whole weeks plus two days. It has been an awesome experience so far and I have learned so much to prepare me for my first year of teaching. I also love going to the same school everyday and being recognized at that school as a member of the faculty. (Not being recognized and known has definitely been one of the hardest parts of subbing this year.) My kids are great, the school is great, and I feel like a teacher. So in short, life is great for me!

Blake's students just took their Math TAKS test this week which is a huge relief for him. He feels confident that his students did well. Having the stress of the test of the table will make is job a lot more enjoyable over the next couple weeks. Next week, Blake and the other teachers on his team are taking their students to an outdoor camp for a couple days to learn outside the classroom. He is really looking forward to that.

In other big news, we are buying a house!!!! We signed a contract a little over a week ago and we are now in the "pending" stage. We are scheduled to close on April 26th and we are so excited! I will post pictures when we have some and when we get closer to officially owning the house!

So there is the update. I promise I'll be better this month about posting. Enjoy the rest of the week!!

The Mavs and Of Course Some More Running

2010-03-17T13:01:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Ryan came down to visit and we, of course, had a blast. He actually came down to run in the Dallas Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon but we made a whole weekend out of it! We started out on Friday night by meeting Clark and Lara Packer and Heath and Ryan in Dallas for dinner and ice cream.

Then on Saturday we slept in and relaxed before heading into Dallas so Ryan could check-in for his race. Then we headed to the Mavericks game with Heath, where we watched the Mavs blow their 13 game winning streak. But it was still fun! We had awesome seats and Shawn Marion talked to us during the game after the ball bounced into our section and then he winked at me (or at the general area that we were sitting in...but we'll just say it was me).

Before the game started

And there's Dirk.

On Sunday morning, Ryan ran his half-marathon and Blake and I went to cheer him on. We didn't get home until late on Saturday night because of the Mavs game and then we lost an hour of sleep because of the time change which all led to Blake and I waking up an hour and a half late. Oops. We made it to the race with plenty of time to see the finish though, so everything turned out alright. Ryan, of course, did amazing! He ran 13.1 miles in 1 hour and 19 minutes and finished 27th out of 15,000 runners. And the coolest part is that they announced his name over the loud speaker as he was finishing!

Here he is rounding the corner to finish..

And here he is on his way to the finish line!

Thanks for coming Ryan!! We always love having you here!

Julieanne is 20!!!

2010-03-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

Julieanne's birthday was on March 10th and I was planning on making this post then but I made a very important blog post prayer request that day and I didn't want to cover it up (If you haven't read it please scroll down...I would appreciate it!). But, Julieanne is very important and special and she still deserves a birthday blog so today is the day!

Julieanne turned 20 last Wednesday and I just can't believe that she is that old. I remember my parents taking Ryan and I to Sea World when my Mom was pregnant with Julieanne and there was a dolphin named Starbuck who was the star of the dolphin show. After that, we were set on naming our new little sister Starbuck. Fortunately, my parents did not go for the idea and named her Julieanne instead. We were a little disappointed but we've gotten over it. We still love her!

I decided to post a series of pictures of Julieanne because there were just so many good ones that I couldn't pass up, plus I had to make up for the late blog post!

Thanks Mom for those bowl cuts!

These next few are CLASSIC Julieanne. (Don't hate me, sister!)

We love you Julieanne!!!! We hope your 20th birthday was wonderful!! Enjoy this new year of your life, little sister!

Happy Birthday Tyler!

2010-03-11T17:35:00.000-08:00

Tyler's birthday was last week and lucky for us, he and Ashley came into town this week! We were all able to go out to dinner for Tyler's birthday at Babe's. It was great to see Tyler and Ashley since they live all the way in Nashville. Plus, we always love seeing Blake's parents, grandparents, and Tiffany! And we also love Babe's.

Tyler, Ashley, Tiffany, Me, and Blake and Babe the Chicken

Plus Marcia and Jerry!

Now with Mema and Pawpaw!

I hope you had a great birthday Tyler!!

Prayer Request

2010-03-10T10:32:00.000-08:00

Almost two years ago, my Mom was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. In December of 2008, she had a mastectomy after several rounds of chemo and then started radiation. Last March, the cancer spread to her brain and was then labeled as stage four. She had surgery to remove one of the tumors and intense radiation to remove the other one. She continued doing chemotherapy after that. Since then it has spread into her lymph nodes (which she had surgery to remove) and most recently to her sternum (breast bone).

A couple weeks ago, her doctors started her on some new very promising treatments that are still in the testing stages. We were feeling very hopeful about these drugs and felt that they might fight this form of cancer better than anything else that's been tried. Unfortunately, they did not work fast or well enough because the tumor that is located on her sternum has continued to grow. She has been in a lot of pain because of this particular tumor and the doctors decided to pull her off the study drugs yesterday in order to begin a more aggressive chemotherapy in hopes that it will shrink the tumor.

This has been such a long, hard battle but our family truly has been held together and blessed through prayer and support of our friends, family, and people that we have never even met. We rejoice because we serve such a faithful God. We know without a doubt that He is bigger than this cancer and He has the power to heal her. We would really appreciate your prayers as she begins this aggressive chemotherapy and continues to fight this cancer. We know that many of you that read this are prayer warriors and we thank you so much in advance for your prayers. Love you all.

Kneeling Empty Handed

2010-03-02T14:05:00.000-08:00

I LOVE old hymns. I grew up in a really small church and the song books we used were published in like the 1800's (maybe not that old) and they were full of all of the old hymns. I know most of them by heart and I have memories of sitting next to my Mom during church and listening to her belt the alto part of all of these songs.

As a child, I never focused on the words. Whenever we sing older hymns in church now, I get super excited. Not only do they give me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, but I am able to really focus on the words of the song and in most cases the words are incredible. Being the English freak that I am, words fascinate me. I love to look for hidden meaning in these songs. I love poetry and all of the old hymns are basically poetry put to music. LOVE IT!

Last week at church we sang the song "Rock of Ages" during Communion. (On a side note; every time I hear or sing this song, I can't help but think of Angel in the book "Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers. Read it if you haven't already. Such an incredible story of God's unfailing love for us.) Anyways, a phrase in this song just latched onto me right in the middle of Communion and I started crying (shocking, I know) because I had never noticed this little treasure before. The words

Nothing in my hands I bring,

Simply to the cross I cling.

flashed across the screen and as I sang them I understood them in a whole new way. These words were EXACTLY what I needed to hear. I am juggling so many different worries, requests, and pleas right now that I am not simply "being" in God's presence. So often I approach God with my hands full but sometimes God wants us to simply come empty handed. When we focus our eyes on Him, I feel that God can truly see straight into our hearts and fill us with some of His incredible love and peace. My goal this week has been to approach the cross with my hands empty and I really have found myself stepping away with my heart full. With all of that said, I encourage you to really focus on kneeling at the cross with empty hands and I can only pray that God will bless you as He has me this week.

We Survived the Cowtown 10K!

2010-02-28T09:25:00.000-08:00

Well after our weeks of training (kind of), we ran our 10K this weekend. We've been dreading it because we really haven't been training too seriously. We were doing well there for a couple weeks but then we both got sick at different times and then we had record snowfall and we've just been really busy. Thankfully we both survived the run and finished much better than we were expecting. Ryan, Hutton, and Mason all ran it with us and everyone did so well.

We woke up on Saturday morning at 5AM to a well-prepared breakfast by Ryan and then headed to downtown Fort Worth to get ready for our race. There were so many people (3,443 in our race alone) and it was very exciting. During the race, Blake and I ran together and we both felt really good through about mile 5 and then I just hit a wall. My knees were hurting and my muscles were cramping and Blake really had to keep me going but I made it without walking. My goal was to run 11 minute miles and my mile split times were under 10 minutes. Everyone in our group finished in the top third of the race. We were all very proud of ourselves and now we are spending the rest of our weekend recovering!

Early in the morning before the raceThe Runners:

Hutton, Blake, Me, Ryan, and Mason

Ryan was the first in our group to finish.
He finished 14th overall and ran it in 36:59.

Mason was the second one in our group to finish.
He finished 171st in 47:02.

Hutton came in third in our group.
He finished 663rd in 54:30.

Blake came in fourth.

He finished 1,294th in 59:59.

And I rounded out the group in fifth.

I finished 1,346th at 1:00:23

After we all finished!

Julieanne came to support us!

So proud of each other!

Special thanks to Julieanne for taking all of the pictures, carrying our things while we ran and for cheering us on at the race!

Sing Song Weekend

2010-02-26T19:05:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went to Abilene for all of the Sing Song festivities. It was a great weekend and we were able to spend time with family and friends that we haven't seen in a while. I love going back to Abilene. As we were pulling in on Friday night, Blake and I both made comments about how going back to Abilene feels like going home. We just love that place...maybe we'll end up back there one day.

We arrived in Abilene on Friday night just in time for dinner with our friend Touchette and then we hung out at our hotel with my family. On Saturday morning, I went with my Mom, Julieanne, Aunt Kelli, and Maribeth to the Siggie Mother/Daughter Sing Song Breakfast. It was so much fun to see Julieanne having some of the same experiences I had in college. It was also great to see all of the Siggies! Saturday afternoon was spent with all of our friends and then Saturday night was of course Sing Song. The Siggies were cupcakes this year and they were oh so cute! We really enjoyed the show and it was a lot of fun to be on the other side of it this year.

Mother/Daughter Breakfast

Aunt Kelli and Maribeth

Julieanne, Mom, and I

Roommate Lunch at Jason's Deli!
Carly, Me, Kasey, Touchette, and Paige

With the precious cupcake after Siggies WON!

College Friends!

Family after the show holding up our number of Sing Song wins.
It's OK Will...you have plenty of time to catch up!

The Glory Days

2010-02-17T19:43:00.000-08:00

If you know anything at all about ACU then you probably know about Sing Song. It is the hardest thing in the world to explain to someone what Sing Song is. I have tried explaining this ACU phenomenon to several people and I always get crazy looks. The conversation always ends with me saying "It's just an ACU thing. You really have to see it." So if you don't know what Sing Song is then search for ACU Sing Song on YouTube...that's the best way to explain it.

With that being said, Sing Song is this weekend and I could not be more excited!!! I LOVE Sing Song. I have to admit that I have been living vicariously through Julieanne who is participating in the show this year. Blake and I both have so many great memories from our Sing Song experiences. In preparation for this weekend, I just had to take a look back out our glory days when we were in the show. Oh how I miss those days!

Congratulations Will!

2010-02-15T08:14:00.001-08:00

My little brother, Will, thinks that I should change my blog to be just about him and his running because (his words not mine) "most of your posts are about me anyways". After he said those words to me, I told him that I would never again post about him and his running. Well I lied...

A couple of weeks ago, Will signed a letter of intent to run for ACU. How exciting is that?!?! National Signing Day was on February 3rd and so now it is official! He was even in the Boerne paper. He is just so famous!

Here he is with the proud parents and his coach:

Yay Will! We are so proud of you and can't wait to watch you run as an ACU Wildcat!

In other running news, Blake and I signed up to run in the Cowtown 10K next weekend. (Mistake? Most likely, considering I used to fake asthma attacks when I ran Cross Country in high school and that was only 2 miles. Oops. Sorry Dad!) So this gives us less than two weeks to train our bodies to run 6.2 miles. We have been running but the farthest we've gone so far is a 5K (or 3.1 miles). I'll definitely let you know how we do (and if we survive). Wish us luck!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-15T06:42:00.000-08:00

Well Valentine's Day has come and gone. Valentine's Day has always been a family holiday to me. Growing up, my parents would always make a special breakfast or dinner for us and we would always have little presents at our place at the table. I've never really celebrated Valentine's Day any other way because at ACU, Valentine's Day falls smack-dab in the middle of Sing Song. So even though Blake and I have now been dating/engaged/married for four Valentine's Days, we've never really done anything special. I mean he is always great about giving me flowers and candy and all that but we've never done the whole going out to dinner thing.

This year we weren't planning on doing anything big. We actually had decided that we didn't want to go to a nice restaurant because they are so crowded and more expensive on Valentine's Day. We had decided to go to Double Dave's and eat pizza instead. But plans changed when Blake got a call from one of his friends offering him a last minute ticket to the NBA All Star Game. I mean really...he couldn't turn that down. So we postponed our "Valentine's date" so that he could go to the All Star Game. Don't worry, he promised that he would make it up to me. :)

So with my husband off high-fiving the top players in the NBA (Did I mention that he had great seats close to the tunnel and high-fived almost every single player? Including Dirk Nowitzki, Tim Duncan, Lebron, Kobe...you get the picture), I curled up on the couch and watched the Olympics and "Pride and Prejudice". Obviously I would have loved to have Blake curled up on the couch with me, but with figure skating on in the Olympics and my favorite movie...let's just say I wasn't complaining. Plus, what's the point of celebrating love for just one day a year? We like to celebrate it year-round around here. :)

Here's all of the Valentine's Day loot!
Thanks Blake, Mom and Dad, Marcia and Jerry, and Gama and Bapa!!

And here are some of the pictures that Blake took at the game. If you didn't know, the NBA All Star Game was played at Cowboys Stadium this year. They set a record for the most people to ever watch a basketball game with like 108,000 people. Crazy! As you can (kinda) tell from the picture...his seats were very close to the court.

And this is how close he was to all of the players. Yup that's Dirk Nowitzki right there. And this was taken on Blake's iPhone so there is no zoom. Crazy!

I hope everyone was able to celebrate Valentine's Day with the people you love! I am so blessed to be loved by so many and to have so many people in my life to love.
Happy Valentine's Day!

Snow Days

2010-02-13T17:36:00.001-08:00

Well you probably have heard by now that the DFW area had what I would classify to be a blizzard on Thursday. It started snowing sometime early Thursday morning and didn't stop until late Thursday night. We ended up with ALMOST FOURTEEN INCHES!!! School was not cancelled or even delayed on Thursday morning so Blake and I headed off to work in about two inches of snow.

**A word of advice to you: Never purposefully place yourself in a room with 20 sixth graders and try to teach them math while there is record snowfall piling up outside, especially if you are in a classroom with a window facing the playground. It will be torture for you and for the children...trust me on this one.**

By the time I left school, there was a good 7 inches of snow on the ground. By the time Blake got home from school, we found out that all DFW schools were cancelling classes. By the time we woke up on Friday morning (after an incredible nights sleep because we knew we had a three day weekend), there were 13.8 inches of snow on the ground. It was just incredible! And everything looked so beautiful covered in snow! We've definitely had a relaxing weekend and we've been LOVING the snow (and the cancelled school).

Here are a few pictures of the record snow fall (actually these were taken after only about 7-8 inches so imagine 7 more inches on top of that):

Hellooo Winter Wonderland!!!

Happy Snow Days Everyone!

Amy Jo and the Rodeo

2010-02-01T14:45:00.001-08:00

Saturday was Amy's birthday and so I made the trek to Dallas to celebrate with her! Amy has been one of my best friends since high school and I am so glad that she lives close by. We went out to eat in Dallas at a restaurant called Urban Taco and then headed back to her apartment to eat some very delicious chocolate chip cake. It was a really fun night and I was able to see and catch up with some people that I haven't seen in a long time. I hope your birthday was great Jo! I'm glad I could be there to celebrate the 24th year of your life!! :)

Me with the Birthday Girl!!All the girls there to celebrate!

In other news, Blake went to the rodeo on Saturday night (while I was in Dallas for Amy's birthday). It was his first rodeo and he says that he isn't going back until he has a pair of cowboy boots and a hat so we might have to invest in those items. He had a really good time and this is the only picture he took...typical.

A Few of My Favorite Things

2010-01-29T16:08:00.000-08:00

As you can tell I'm struggling a little bit with things to write about. We are pretty boring around here these days. So since I have nothing to share about what we are up to I thought I'd share some of my favorite things right now.

Here are a couple things I'm just crazy about these days...

This is a Scentsy. If you don't know what that means then Google it. You need one! It's like a wickless, fireless candle if that makes any sense. You plug it and put bricks of wax into the top bowl and then it melts and fills the whole room with amazingness. My mother-in-law gave me one for Christmas (thanks Marcia!) and I LOVE it. In my opinion it works better than a candle.I'm also currently in love with the scent Twilight Woods from Bath and Body Works. I'm not a big fan of really strong scents so I don't spend much time in Bath and Body Works but this scent is so subtle and wonderful! And the hand lotion is very refreshing after being around germy children all day.
I always love a good cook book. This cook book was a Christmas present from my parents and it is fabulous! I've already cooked a handful of recipes from it and they have all been delicious! I can't wait to use it more. The recipes all call for simple and fresh ingredients which is what I love to cook with.
If you know me at all then you know how much I love piano music. I like to play the piano (though I'm not very good) but most of all I love to listen to other people play the piano, especially when they are really good. This guy, Yiruma, is REALLY good. Julieanne introduced me to his music last year and I just stumbled back upon it recently and I can't get enough of it. If you have never heard of him then do yourself a favor and download the song "River Flows in You". It really is incredible.
I love a good book series and although this one is written for fifth graders, it's a good one. "The Lightning Thief" is the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. (You most likely have seen a preview for the first movie that's coming out next week) The stories are all about the Greek gods and all the myths that go with them. The premise is that the gods are real and Percy Jackson is a demigod (half-man/half-god, like a modern day Hercules) and he has to go on on these quests to save Mount Olympus and really the whole world. They are action packed and really funny. I loved studying the Greek gods and goddesses in school and so I really have enjoyed reading these. Plus, reading them makes you really popular with the fifth and sixth grade crowd which makes me a cool sub. :)

I Am The Luckiest

2010-01-22T10:36:00.000-08:00

It's getting close to Valentine's Day hence the abundance of pink and red and lovey-dovey kisses and hearts all over my blog. Since we are getting close to the month of love, I decided that I needed to brag a little bit about my husband. I've known for quite a while that I'm a very lucky girl to be married to such an incredible man and that feeling was reassured 100 times over this week. I had the opportunity to sub in the 5th grade classroom across the hall from "Mr. Browder" on Tuesday. I've heard stories about all these children for the past 6 months and I was so excited to finally put names with faces. I considered trying to convince all of the students that I had never met Blake before and the last name was just a coincidence but the first student that walked in the door looked at me and said "You're Mr. Browder's wife, aren't you?" and I couldn't lie to such a direct question.

Everywhere I went in the school I heard students whispering, "That's Mr. Browder's wife!", even fourth graders and Blake doesn't even teach fourth grade. It's like he's a celebrity! Just to be able to see how much his students, and all the students in the school respect him and look up to him was absolutely amazing. And to see how he acts around his students and how he truly cares about each of them filled me with pride. I am so blessed to be married to someone who is just as passionate about teaching as I am. I've always known about his passion and drive for teaching but to be able to actually see it left me completely in awe of the man I married. So there you go, I am the luckiest girl in the world...at least in my eyes. :)

I love you Blake and I am so incredibly proud of you!!!

Recap of 2009

2010-01-18T13:15:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to recap this last year but I just haven't had time until now. So here is a review of the oh so eventful year of 2009 in pictures...

For 6 months of 2009, Blake and I were still just an engaged couple. Oh how I loved those times of planning a wedding and dreaming about our future, but married life is so much better.

I participated in my last Sing Song at ACU

I went on a cruise with all of my friends for Spring Break...so much fun!

In March, we found out that my Mom's cancer had spread to her brain. It was the most stressful and emotional time of my life so far but we were all amazed by the love, prayers, and support that were poured over us by family, friends, and people we didn't even know.

I graduated from ACU!

I went on a trip to Washington D.C. with Julieanne, Ryan, and my parents.

Then we got married...it was kind of a big deal (for us anyway).

We spent a glorious week in Hawaii for our Honeymoon. I was just telling Blake the other day that I think it's about time we go back. He didn't really go for the idea.

We spent a fun week in Beaver Creek, Colorado with the Mack/Maynard/Browder family celebrating Bapa and Gama's 50th wedding anniversary.

We moved into our first apartment!

Blake started his job as a 5th Grade Math teacher.

We spent a couple weekends watching our favorite little brother dominate Cross Country.

We spent our first Thanksgiving as a Mr. and Mrs. in Boerne with the Mack family.

We had a White Christmas in Denton with the Browder family.

We spent a week in Colorado with the Mack family and celebrated to coming of 2010!

So there you have it. 2009 was such a great year filled with big events, vacations, and a lot of family and love. I feel like almost everything we did in 2009 was planned out and expected before the year began. It's not going to be like that in 2010. We have no idea what is in store for us but we are looking forward to another great year! Happy 2010!!!

Believing the Hype

2010-01-06T14:09:00.001-08:00

For some reason I never believe "hype". A book series will come out that everyone is talking about and I for some unknown reason will set my mind against reading it. A perfect example...Harry Potter. I REFUSED to read them for the longest time even though Blake was threatening to break up with me if I didn't. (Don't worry he was just kidding) Then I read them and was sorry that I'd waited so long. Same thing goes for TV shows and movies. I really don't know what is wrong with me.

One thing that has been hyped up quite a bit in the past 5 years that I have refused to participate in is the TV show, LOST. For those of you who don't know, LOST is a show on ABC that is about to start it's 6th season. It has an absolutely crazy plot that hardly ever ties up loose ends. There are so many more questions that answers but I am now hooked. I just finished the 5th season last weekend and I can hardly wait for February 2nd when season 6 starts. I love shows like this that actually make you think. I love to hear other peoples theories about what will happen and I love to discuss my own. I also love shows that shock me. LOST does all of these! So I guess I should have believed the hype from the beginning. Oops!

Something else that has been hyped up an enormous amount in the past couple years is "The Twilight Saga". These books are all the talk in middle school and since I am striving to be a middle school teacher I thought it would be a good idea to try them out. While I am glad that I read them, they are not worth the hype. These are not very well-written, the love story is more obsession than love, each of the 500-700 page books only have like 3 pages of actual action, and I just don't think vampires are that cool. I'll admit that I did think these were entertaining reads and for the most part they kept my attention. I thought the second and third books were the best out of the four. The fourth one was definitely the worst...although I did enjoy making fun of the storyline to Blake. I can see where the hype comes from, considering the main male character, Edward Cullen, has no flaws (although I really didn't like him). But Twilight is definitely not my thing and in my opinion...not worth the hype.

So in summary...

Watch LOST and forget all the hype about Edward Cullen. (and don't hate me if you love Twilight! Totally just my opinion!)

A Faith Like Mary's

2010-01-04T09:38:00.000-08:00

I normally make a list every year of my New Year's Resolutions and then I tend to stick to them for about a week. I decided to do things a little differently this year since my previous lists weren't really working. I've chosen one resolution this year that will most assuredly touch every area of my life. Before I tell you exactly what my resolution is, I must first give you a little background information that led me to my decision for this particular resolution.

A couple weeks ago at church, Rick Atchley spoke about the birth of Jesus like most preachers do around Christmas time. However, he focused most of his sermon on Mary. Growing up, I always thought about how difficult it must have been for Mary to walk around knowing that everyone probably doesn't believe your story. But I never once thought about the incredible faith it took for Mary to believe Gabriel when he told her that she would be carrying and raising the Son of God. Here is this newly engaged girl who is probably excitedely planning her new life with her husband-to-be and all of a sudden an angel comes to her and tells her that even though she is a virgin, she is going to become pregnant and give birth to a son called Jesus who is the Messiah and who will save the world. That would be some very frightening and stressful news. If I was Mary I would have so many questions and thoughts swirling around in my head for Gabriel. I would want him to tell me how I'm supposed to make everyone around me believe that this child is the Son of God and not a pre-marital mistake. I would want to know how you are supposed to raise the child that will reign over all the earth. I would want to know a step by step explanation of how exactly I was going to get pregnant. And above all else, I would want to know exactly why He chose me. However, instead of asking question after question, in Luke 1:38, Mary simply reacts:

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said."

What incredible faith! How amazingly wise that Mary knew without a doubt that God's story was so much bigger than her own; that his will and plan were much more beautiful and well thought out than what she could have ever dreamed.

This is my New Year's resolution: That I will remind myself daily and possibly even every hour that I am part of a much bigger story than my own. That I will face the challenges and blessings that my life will surely hold in 2010 with the words "I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me as you have said". That I will aspire to have a faith like Mary's, knowing full well that God's plan is better than mine.

Christmas with the Macks

2010-01-03T15:30:00.001-08:00

We spent the second half of our break with my family in Colorado. Blake's parents offered to let us use their second home in Woodland Park, Colorado for the week and we jumped on the chance! Blake and I love Colorado and we were so happy to spend some time up there with my family. Even Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Brenda were able to come! We went to the Garden of the Gods, the Olympic Training Center, and Monarch to ski for a day. We also celebrated my Mom's birthday and New Years, played some very competitive games of Monopoly and Pit, and ate some great food. It was a very relaxing week and we had a great time!

Opening our Christmas presentsAt Garden of the Gods

Playing Pit

The entire group out on the deck

At The Melting Pot for Mom's birthday

Lovely parents

It snowed the entire day we were at Monarch and it made for great skiing!! Here's Ryan and Dad on the lift. Apparently Dad didn't want his picture taken since he didn't turn around.

Dad and Julieanne waiting in line for the lift.

Blake and I

Random picture we took on the stairs one morning

One last look at the incredible view of Pike's Peak! It almost looks like we were photo-shopped into this picture.

Thanks for our Christmas presents and for spending a week in Colorado with us, family! We enjoyed it! Love you all!

Christmas With the Browders

2010-01-03T13:44:00.001-08:00

Since Blake is a teacher and I am a sub, we both got two whole weeks off for Christmas. It was wonderful! We were able to spend quality time with both of our families. We started the break by making the long trek to Denton down I35 on the 22nd. After 30 minutes of traveling we arrived at Blake's parents house where we stayed until the 26th. On Christmas Eve, we headed to the Gaylord Texan to see all of the Christmas decorations and the ICE exhibit. A blizzard hit Denton midday and so once we got back from that we just curled up on the couch away from all the snow and watched all of the Christmas movies that were on TV. We got to open one present on Christmas Eve (cute pajama pants to sleep in!) and then we all went to bed so Santa could come!

On Christmas morning, we woke up and opened presents and Santa did not dissappoint! I got a new wallet and Blake got a Time Capsule (a wireless hard drive and router for our computer). We enjoyed breakfast and then a relaxing morning followed by a delicious lunch. Then we all went to see a movie together. It was a great day!

Tiffany and I with a new friend at the Gaylord

Waiting to see ICE!

With the Grinch...the ICE sculpture not Blake :)

It was so neat!

A White Christmas!

Christmas Morning

Tyler, Ashley, Tiffany, Me, and Blake on Christmas Day

Tiffany, Ashley, and I got matching robes and pajamas so we just had to model them!

It was a great Christmas and we loved spending some much needed time with the Browders! Thank you Jerry, Marcia, Tiffany, Tyler, and Ashley for all of our gifts and for a wonderful Christmas! We love you!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

2009-12-17T18:38:00.000-08:00

Well I've gotten behind on blogging once again and so you get three whole posts in one day! Lucky!

Christmas is upon us and so I decided I should post a picture of our Christmas tree. This Christmas tree was a hand-me down from Blake's parents and it was originally a pre-lit tree. However, several of the lights have burned out and so now it's only a half-lit tree. We are still enjoying the lights we have left and we decided this would work for the rest of this year. We might have to hit the after Christmas sales in search of a Christmas tree on clearance.

I just finished wrapping all of those presents under the tree! Some of them may be for you!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Sweet Baby Jackson is Here!!!

2009-12-17T18:10:00.001-08:00

Jeff and Ronda Brooks are two of my dearest friends. Jeff was my youth minister in high school and then I worked for him as an intern for two summers at Saturn Road Church of Christ. He also performed half of our wedding ceremony! Well, Jeff and Ronda recently had the most precious baby boy. I have been praying for this baby for a long time and he is such a huge testament to God's faithfulness especially to Jeff and Ronda but also to everyone else involved in their lives.

This was a couple months ago at Ronda's baby shower.
Amy, Ronda, Jeff, and I (Amy was also in Jeff's youth group in high school)So EXCITED!!

*These next two pictures were stolen from Facebook because I didn't take any close-ups of baby Jackson*

Introducing Jackson Wyatt Brooks:

Sweet baby boy!

So excited to meet him!

He loved Blake!

It was so nice to meet you Baby Jackson!! Can't wait to see you again!

Happy Birthday Tiffany!!!

2009-12-17T18:00:00.000-08:00

Tiffany's birthday was on Monday and we all went to celebrate at La Hacienda Ranch!! However, Tiffany did not know that we were going to be there to celebrate with her. Blake's parents threw a surprise party for her and it was so much fun. Great food, great company, and a great occasion to celebrate!

Here's Tiffany after we all yelled SURPRISE! She had no idea!With the birthday girl!!

Hope your birthday week has been great Tiffany!!!! We love you and we're so glad you were born!!

We Love Portland!

2009-12-08T17:42:00.000-08:00

We flew into Portland late on Thursday night and then had all day Friday to play! We started out by going to the site of the race to check out the course and watch the boys practice. After that we went and ate at this awesome place for lunch. It looked a little like a Denny's from the outside so I was a little skeptical at first until I walked in the front door and saw a whole case full of delicious looking pie. Then we saw the menu and realized that they had a lunch trio that included a sandwich, soup/salad, AND a slice of pie. JACKPOT! The pie was delicious and it turned out to be a great restaurant choice. We all ordered different kinds of pie and shared them around the table...except for Blake because he liked his too much and gobbled it up before anyone else could get a bite!

After that we drove to see the Multnomah Falls and the Columbia River Gorge. We took the scenic route and it was so beautiful. I think we saw five different waterfalls on our way to the Multnomah Falls and they were all just so neat! Every waterfall got a little bigger as we went down the road so it was a great build-up for the last one. When we pulled up and parked to see the Multnomah Falls, Gama said something along the lines of "Isn't God amazing?" and I just couldn't agree more. I can't help but think of the Creator when I look at His amazing work...and these waterfalls were AMAZING. We took lots of pictures and drank hot chocolate and then headed back into Portland.

Friday night we went to downtown Portland where we went to an incredible bookstore called Powell's Books that was four stories with shelves all the way to the ceiling. I was in heaven. It was overwhelming how many books there were and I loved it. After that we headed to a seafood place called "Jake's Crawfish" for dinner that had tons of fresh fish and it was delicious!

Watching Will practice:

At the Columbia River Gorge:

One of the first waterfalls along the scenic route:

Gama and I in front of a neat bridge:

We love puffy vests!

Another waterfall along the scenic route:

Multnomah Falls:

Isn't it just beautiful!?!

I don't need to tell you what we did Saturday because you can just scroll down to the next post! We loved Portland and it was a great weekend to hang out with family! Thanks Will for giving us a reason to go!

And the 2009 National Champion Is...

2009-12-07T14:53:00.000-08:00

I know you all have been anxiously awaiting my post about the results of Will's meet this weekend, and trust me you won't be disappointed. I'm not going to tell you the results right away. In fact I think I'll go ahead and build up the suspense as I tell the story with pictures that way you can feel like we did on Saturday.

Here he is on Friday, warming up and testing out the course The race was at a horse/greyhound racing track and they had indoor seating where you could see the course through big windows and they had TV's at every table broadcasting the race. It was the perfect place for Gama to watch the race!

Mom made these signs so Will could see us when he ran by...but I don't think he ever did. He was so focused!

Here he is warming up before the race. I know this picture looks blurry but really it was just that foggy outside. Also it was like 30 degrees and there was frost on the ground. Not the normal Texas racing conditions. We were a little nervous how the boys would run in the cold since they've been running in the heat for the whole season.

But Will braved the cold and took off his sweats. This is minutes before the race started. They were all trying to keep their muscles warm.

Right before the race started. I think I was more nervous than Will.

There he is with about a mile left to go! This is the only picture I got of him running because I was too busy cheering that I forgot to take pictures. Plus they were going really fast.

Now the suspense is really building...

This is on the podium after the race. We really weren't sure how these guys were going to do against the best teams in the nation. We knew they would place in the top 5 but the competition is just so tight. So tight, in fact, that the top 4 teams were only separated by 13 points. So they announced the third place team and then they brought up the top two teams onto the podium and Boerne was one of them! They drew out announcing the winner for a couple minutes and we were freaking out. As you can see, Will was a little nervous.

"And the Nike Cross Nationals 2009 Cross Country National Champion is....

...BOERNE XC!!!!"

I'm really not sure how this picture turned out because I was jumping up and down and screaming but I'm so glad it did. The thing I love about this is that all year they have expected to win the meets they ran in. They really were just that good. And after every race they were never really happy because they already knew they were going to win. But they had no idea how they would do in this meet. They thought they could win it but they just didn't know. This picture just captures their shock and joy and it really was the most exciting thing to watch.

And this was our reaction!!! Actually this is after we had calmed down a little bit. Some official Nike guy was taking pictures and decided to take ours and post it on the NXN website.

He was just so happy!!! Also, they gave the champions of the meet these special white Nike jackets that say "Champion" up the side. So legit.

With their HUGE trophy that they keep for a year and then they have to send it back for next years NXN Champion.
Brothers

So proud of him!

This is the best picture I could get of them because Will and Dad just wouldn't stop talking! There was too much excitement!

LOVE YOU!!!

Proud Gama and Bapa! Gama is pointing at the "Champion" on Will's jacket...because that's what he is!

Already signing autographs...he's so famous!

So there you have it! Will is a National Champion and we are just so proud of him! We did other things in Portland while we were there but I'll save that for a later post... Will deserves his own!

Don't Worry About Us...

2009-12-03T15:04:00.000-08:00

We'll just be here...
Watching this guy...

Do this...

At the Nike Cross Nationals Meet!

Our plane leaves in a couple hours and we are so excited!!! Don't worry, I'll post a full report next week. Good luck Will...and just remember, "how ever fast you are running, RUN FASTER!!"

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-30T16:47:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving this year in Boerne with my family and had so much fun! I love Thanksgiving...sometimes I think it's my favorite holiday until Christmas gets here and then I just can't decide.

Lots of preparation went into Thanksgiving at the Mack house and everyone helped with the meal in some way. Mom was definitely the Grand Master Planner and Chef. She made the dressing and oversaw everything that we were making. I made the Seven Layer Salad and the Buttermilk Pie this year and everyone else just pitched in where needed!

In our aprons!

Our first Thanksgiving as a married couple!

Ryan and Will helped Dad make the breakfast casserole the night before. Ryan also made the (homemade) Cranberry Sauce and the Pumpkin Pie

Blake made the Green Bean Casserole and the Cinnamon Rolls

Julieanne made the Sweet Potatoes, Deviled Eggs, Cranberry Salad, and the Chocolate Pie

Will put the topping on the Chocolate Pie and made the Pecan Pie.

And Dad happily did the dishes!

Yum!

Family Photo

I have so many things that I am thankful for this year that this blog post would be twice as long if I listed all of them. I am above all thankful that I worship such a faithful God. I am also extremely thankful for my oh so wonderful husband and for both of my families. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I hope that all of you did as well!

Mema's Famous Cinnamon Rolls

2009-11-30T15:46:00.000-08:00

If you were to ask Blake what his favorite food was, his answer would most likely be "Mema's Cinnamon Rolls". Mema (Blake's Grandma) makes delicious cinnamon rolls that are very popular among the Cox/Browder family. Since we decided to spend Thanksgiving in Boerne with my family, Blake decided to introduce the Mack's to Mema's cinnamon rolls, and boy are we glad that he did! Blake made them with little help and he did a very impressive job. They were DELICIOUS!! We realized too late that we had rolled the dough way too thick which made for HUGE cinnamon rolls...but who's going to complain about that? :)

Rolling them up and slicing them into rollsWhen they still looked little!

And then they quadrupled in size

I feel like this picture is upside down...but you can still see the yummy-ness

So proud of him!

Didn't they just turn out great!?! Having Mema's cinnamon rolls made us think of the Cox family celebrating Thanksmas (Thanksgiving + Christmas..duh) in Denton. I am so thankful to have married into such an incredible family and we were both very sad we missed out on the Thanksmas festivities. Although I think some people were a little sad that they missed out on Blake's cinnamon rolls (Tiffany and Emily).

We missed you, Cox and Browder Family!! Can't wait for next Thanksmas!

Life Update!

2009-11-19T19:07:00.000-08:00

Well I promised an update on life so here it is. There aren't any pictures in this post so for those of you who only scroll through to see those, you can just stop reading now.

Blake is still going strong as a 5th Grade Math teacher. He is really enjoying his job and always comes home with great stories. He was observed by his principal a couple weeks ago and got a good report back. While he does like teaching, he is VERY excited for Thanksgiving break. It will be refreshing for him to get a few days off.

I am subbing in three different school districts right now which is keeping me very busy! I try to sub at least four days a week. It can be pretty stressful and crazy going into a different class every day and figuring out lesson plans, classroom routines, and emergency procedures. Thankfully, I've been getting calls to go back to the same classrooms. It makes it so much easier when I already know the kids names and schedule! I've subbed as low as 3rd grade and as high as 8th. I haven't been brave enough yet to accept any jobs in lower elementary or high school. Blake laughs at me a lot because I change my mind about which grade I like the best every day. Recently, I took and passed my 4-8 Generalist and ESL-Supplemental Certification tests. Now I am certified to teach any subject in 4th-8th Grade (as opposed to before when I was only certified to teach English) so I am hoping that will make me more "hire-able". I'm still holding out for a full-time position before January but I'm content right now subbing. I pray every day for patience and guidance about where God wants me to be and I have full confidence that He'll place me where he wants me in His own timing.

We are still enjoying living in our apartment although we are ready to start looking for houses sometime in the near future. We love the area that we are in so we'll most likely be looking in the Keller and North Richland Hills area. We are very excited about that!

We are loving being married and we are constantly learning new things about each other and growing together. It's just so much fun!

A Weekend of (Watching) Running

2009-11-17T17:45:00.000-08:00

*Disclaimer: There are a TON of pictures on this post. But I'm just trying to please all of the 4 people that read this. Plus I got a little camera happy this weekend. What can I say... I'm a proud sister!*

First off I must apologize for how long it has been since I've updated. I really am mad at myself about this. I've had what you call "blogger's block". I've started three blog posts in the last 4 weeks and this is the only one that I've actually finished and published onto the blog. I promise I'll do better!

This past weekend we woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to drive to Austin, TX to watch Will run in the State Cross Country Meet. I've mentioned his cross country team before but I'll remind you real quick about them. THEY ARE AMAZING. Seriously, it's pretty incredible how talented they all are. Right now they are ranked #4 in the NATION. They've been impressive all year and this week was no different. They won first place in 4A Boys with a total of 30 points, beating the second place team by 90 points! Their average time as a team was better than any other team at the entire meet, including the nationally ranked 5A teams that were there. Will was 24th overall and ran a great race! We cheered him on and wore matching shirts and I took so many pictures. I'll let them tell the rest of the story...

Julieanne, Gama, and I waiting for the race to start

The star of the day warming up

Getting focused for the race

Going so fast that I only got a picture of his back

The other proud sister!

Waiting on the medal stand for his Gold medal!
(For those of you who don't know, Will goes to Boerne Champion High School which worked out great since they were the champions!)

The whole team. Only seven runners actually run the race but they brought along a couple alternates as well. All the guys wearing medals actually ran the race with the exception of the coach on the far left.

With the 24th best 4A runner in the state!

Proud Parents!

The whole family

Will's team is running in the National Qualifiers Meet in Houston this weekend and if they qualify then they will run in the National Championship Meet in Portland, Oregon in December. They have a really good chance of qualifying which is so exciting! Good luck Will! We love you and we are SO PROUD of you!

After we watched Will dominate on Saturday, we went to watch Ryan dominate the Rock 'N' Roll Marathon in San Antonio on Sunday morning. He was running the half marathon which is 13.1 miles and way more than I would ever consider running. He did so well and ran faster than he thought he would. He placed 110th out of over 30,000 runners and ran it in 1 hour and 28 minutes. We were very impressed and proud of him. We also had a lot of fun running around downtown San Antonio and cheering him on as he ran by! YAY Ryan! We are very proud of you and love you too!

Here he is the first time he spotted us. I think this is about 6 miles in. And would you look at that...he even smiles when he is running half-marathons!

This is at about mile 10...still going strong!

And now for the big finish! He's moving so fast that he's the blurry gray blob in the middle of the picture.

WOW that was a long post. I guess it makes up for my month long hiatus from the blog. For those of you that read all the way to the end...way to be a trooper! You must be a true fan! Stay tuned for some updates on our life this week!

ACU Homecoming

2009-10-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

Well this weekend we headed to Abilene for ACU Homecoming weekend. We had a blast! We love Abilene and so we always love to go back. Plus we spent a lot of time with family and friends that we don't see too often. I took a lot of pictures so I'll just let them tell the story of our weekend...

First, Blake and I both got up bright and early to go to our club breakfasts. (He didn't have the camera so you only get to see pictures of mine.)

The only members present of 2473 Campus Court at homecoming

Cruise 2009!

Precious little Squig at breakfast

Siggie family

Then we got some hot chocolate before the parade

Then we found a good place to watch the parade...

...and waited for it to start

Julieanne dressed up as a gold nugget and we cheered for her really loud

On Saturday night, Blake played in the GSP vs. Galaxy football game.

Then on Sunday we went to church and then lunch and Mom and I matched!

Love them!

It was a great weekend but we are so tired from staying up late and getting up early. It's going to be a long week but it was worth it! Touchette, thanks for letting us stay with you!! Love you!!!

Class Act

2009-10-14T17:02:00.000-07:00

Ok I forgot one of the biggest reasons why I love fall in my post below. FOOTBALL!! I love watching football! I'm a big OU fan but I also cheer on the Red Raiders (thats for you, Dad!). I've never been a Texas fan but I am a fan of Colt McCoy. Anyways, I found this video on YouTube today and felt like it should be shared. Watch it!

I just think that it is so cool that the quarterbacks of two of the best teams in the country (Ok that might be a stretch for Oklahoma right now) are so willing to share their faith and be Christian leaders on their teams. And even though they are HUGE rivals, they put that aside in order to share Christ. How neat is that?!

Holiday Season Is Upon Us!!!

2009-10-12T17:19:00.001-07:00

Well Fall is upon us and I couldn't be more excited! I LOVE when the seasons change (not that we have a lot of that in Texas but I'll take what I can get). I love fall the best because it is the start of the holiday season! Anyway, I thought it was time for a change in the blog layout hence all the Halloween spirit I'm displaying now. Don't even worry because there will be Thanksgiving and Christmas spirit displayed on the blog as well.

One way we celebrated the coming of fall was by going to the Texas State Fair. Blake got free tickets at school and so we met some friends there and had a blast! It was cold outside so it felt like fall. We really just walked around and ate. Corn dogs, funnel cakes, chicken fried steak on a stick, garlic bread, caramel apples, and stuffed jalapenos pretty much sums up what we did at the Fair. When we got home we couldn't move or eat for the rest of the day. We felt disgusting but it was fun. We missed out on the fried butter and the fried peaches and cream because there were incredibly long lines. Crazy!

Here we are with Big Tex:

These are my reasons for loving fall...

*Halloween candy is EVERYWHERE
*Soup on a cold day is the best!
*Hot chocolate
*It's time to get out the scarves
*I love pumpkin decorations!
*Thanksgiving is in the fall and I LOVE Thanksgiving.

And last but not least: It means that Christmas is almost here!!! YES!

I Think We've Always Known...

2009-10-08T15:48:00.000-07:00

Ryan, Julieanne, and I have told Will for quite a while now that we found him on the side of the road/he was dropped on our doorstep/we brought home the wrong child from the hospital, etc. I mean come on... he has bright red-orange hair! Well, we have made an incredible discovery...HE HAS A TWIN! I guess this proves that he was in fact adopted or maybe it just proves that we have another brother!

After discussing this theory with my mom, she assured me that Will is in fact my real brother and that she only had one red headed child on September 28, 1991. So maybe this guy is not his real twin but he looks JUST like him. And another crazy thing...this guy is also on a nationally ranked cross country team. What are the odds!?! I'm just waiting for someone to tell me that his name is Bill or Gil.

One of Will's friends found this picture online on a running website or blog. I would circle the boy that looks like Will but I really don't thing it's necessary because the red, curly hair is quite distinguishing.

The twin:
The real deal:

Incredible resemblance right?!? We are really hoping that both of their teams make it to Nike Nationals so that they can be reunited...I mean introduced. My parents might even get confused about who they are cheering for!

Will, I think you should take some advice from your twin about the appropriate length of shorts. Just kidding! Also I was just kidding about you being adopted, we really do love you and wouldn't trade you for anything or anyone!

Ryan is 24!

2009-10-05T15:56:00.000-07:00

Today is Ryan's 24th birthday and since I posted a baby picture of Will last week on his birthday, I decided to make it a tradition. So this is Ryan at age four...oh so precious:

Happy Birthday Big Brother!!! I hope it's been a great one so far! Can't believe you're 24! I'm so proud of you and I love you so much!

Happy Birthday Ryan
I hope you haven't been cryin.
You are now twenty-four
Your birthdays will be many more.
Now have some fun and eat some cake
Happy Birthday from Blake.

Happy 8th Birthday Will!!!

2009-09-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

Today is my little brother Will's 18th birthday. I just don't even know what to do with myself! He is getting so old and this is yet again another shock of reality that I am now a "grown-up". Anyways, for the past 10 years my older brother Ryan and I have always wished Will a "Happy 8th Birthday" because we just can't believe that he is any older than that. We have even been known to make or buy cards that say "Happy 8th Birthday" on them and try to convince him that he actually is only 8. He never believed us. He is just so smart! So in memory of that memory I have decided to post this picture:

(And yes I realize that he is more around the age of 4 in this picture but it's the only one I had of him as a child here in the apartment. Just look how cute he is!!)

And now he is all grown up to the age of 18 (but still just as cute), and applying to college and getting ready to graduate from high school and winning State Cross Country meets! I guess I will admit that he doesn't look anywhere near the age of 8 anymore. Here he is now:

Happy 18th Birthday Will!! Now you can vote! (and buy cigarettes...but don't do that because it's against the Camp Gama rules) We love you and we are so proud of you!!! Enjoy this new year of your life, little one!!

Top Chef...at least in my kitchen

2009-09-18T09:59:00.000-07:00

I love love love the show Top Chef on Bravo. If you aren't familiar with it, Top Chef is a reality show competition where chefs compete in all of these crazy cooking challenges. The show begins with several chefs and someone gets eliminated every week until there is a winner at the end. I am definitely a sucker for shows like that...The Bachelor/Bachelorette, Project Runway...you get the point. On Top Chef, I am constantly amazed at how well these chefs know different flavors and what tastes well with what and how to cook so many different kinds of food. While I don't have the desire to ever be on Top Chef or to be a chef in any restaurant, I do LOVE cooking in my own kitchen. Cooking for me is relaxing and I feel like I've accomplished something once I have a meal on the table that tastes, looks, and smells good.

As a wedding present I received two very special cookbooks. One of them is full of recipes from Gama and Bapa (grandparents) and the other one is full of recipes from my Mom and Dad. All of the recipes are in their handwriting and I will treasure them forever. They are wonderful! I use them weekly and all of the recipes taste delicious and remind me of home. However, I have decided to try out at least one new recipe a week from my other cookbooks or from anything I find online. There have definitely been some failures that won't see our kitchen table again but I have also found some great recipes...

Like this Colorful Chicken Alfredo that I found on a friends blog:
It turned out delicious! I used a little too much pepper in the sauce but that can be easily fixed next time I make it...because there will definitely be a next time.

I also made Italian-Style Meat Loaf last week. I personally am not a fan of meat loaf but the picture in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook looked really good so I tried it out. It turned out delicious! The recipe called for both ground beef and Italian sausage and it used garlic and spaghetti sauce and mozzarella cheese among other things. It tasted like a huge meatball! The recipe made six individual meat loaves and said that you could freeze any you don't eat which worked out great since there are only two of us. Blake thinks we should make meatball sandwiches with the other ones that we froze so we might try that out soon.

It has been quite an adventure experimenting with different things and learning how to cook everything myself. I don't have my mom in the next room to answer all of my questions anymore...thankfully she is just a phone call away!

I'm just thankful that I'm not judged on my cooking by these guys:

This guy is a much easier critic (plus he eats my food even when it fails):

While trying out new recipes has been fun, I have to say that the two favorites are still Gama's Swiss Chicken and my Mom's Pepper Steak. Those are going to be really tough to beat!

On another completely different note, Julieanne received her bid to Sigma Theta Chi (the social club I was in at ACU) last night so she is officially a Squig for the next couple of months! So exciting!! We are headed to Abilene today so that I can cheer her on during Bid Night. We haven't been back to Abilene since I graduated so we are very excited about this trip!

Wildcat Pride!

2009-09-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend the ACU Wildcats played Texas A&M Commerce in the Cotton Bowl and we of course had to go support our Alma Mater! Touchette came down because she works for ACU and so she had to be there and Julieanne came down to hang out with us. It was POURING rain all weekend so we went to Academy before the game to buy raincoats to keep us dry. Thankfully they had covered seating at the Cotton Bowl and so we stayed dry during the whole game. We saw so many people that we hadn't seen in a while and the Wildcats won in overtime so it was a great time!

Our matching raincoats!

Go Wildcats!

There they are before the game!

Overtime victory!

Amy met us there!

Wildcat Pride

After the game, we went out to eat in Dallas with some of our friends and had a good time catching up with everyone. Earlier, I said that it poured here all weekend and that is not an exaggeration. On the way home from dinner there was a lot of traffic on I35 and we assumed it was because of an accident (which there was one) BUT the main reason for the traffic was because I35 was flooding! They only had one lane open and there was a firefighter standing in the water and it came up to his mid-thigh! It was crazy! Even with the rain we had a great weekend and we loved seeing everyone!

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

Every Labor Day Weekend for as long as I can remember and even before that, my Dad's side of the family has what we call the Annual Mack/Maynard Family Retreat. For those of you who don't know, we get together and hang out at a hotel and the girls shop and the boys golf and fun is had for all. Sadly, this Labor Day was a little different. Since we went on a week long Mack/Maynard family vacation to Colorado this summer for Gama and Bapa's 50th wedding anniversary, we decided to cancel this years retreat. Blake and I both kept commenting how sad it was that we didn't have one this year and we missed seeing the whole family. But instead of sitting around Fort Worth and pouting, we decided to go to Boerne to hang out with my family!

We convinced Julieanne to come down from Abilene so that the whole family could be together and we had a blast! The big event that we planned for the whole weekend was to watch Will run in his cross country meet on Saturday morning. Will is seriously an AMAZING runner and his team won the State Cross Country meet last year and they have a really good chance of winning it again this year. But to our disappointment, the meet was cancelled because the course flooded on Friday night. So we went to breakfast instead and then had a relaxing day of watching college football. On Sunday we all ate lunch together and then Julieanne had to head back to Abilene. After she left we went to the Botanical Gardens in San Antonio to walk around because it was a beautiful day and because they had some new exhibit with huge bugs. We had a very relaxing and fun weekend. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story!

Since we couldn't watch Will run, we watched him play this game instead at breakfast. We cheered him on and everything!

Oh yeah, and we decided to defrost and eat the top tier of our wedding cake. It was in my parent's freezer and we weren't sure how to transport it all the way back to Fort Worth without it thawing out. We aren't big followers of traditions and we didn't want it to go bad because it was a REALLY good cake and we only got like two bites of it at the wedding. Turns out it had already started to go bad so it wasn't that great but we ate a bite anyway.

At the Botanical Gardens with a giant damselfly

Love him!

Awkward

Precious parents at the Gardens

With the lady bug

Mom and I

So that was our weekend! Sorry we had so much fun after you left Julieanne. Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us come down and for taking such good care of us!!

How to Survive Life After College Without a Job

2009-08-31T14:35:00.000-07:00

Whenever I graduated from ACU with my lovely education degree I was 100% sure that I would have a job before school started. Why I was so confident I don't know but here we are in the second week of school and I am sitting on my couch instead of in my own classroom. I guess I should start off by saying that I'm not one of those people who can sit around and do nothing and like it. I didn't plan on being at home all day and being bored out of my mind but I actually have become surprisingly good at it. I know that some of you have been thinking "What does Katie do with all of her time?". Well today is your lucky day because I will now give you my secret survival tips for being jobless and therefore poor and bored.

1. CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN

I'll be honest with you...I am not the cleanest person (Just ask any of my college roommates, my sister, or my mom). I normally pick up after myself pretty well but I have never been a huge fan of vacuuming, dusting, cleaning bathrooms, etc. But one of the perks of being jobless and bored is that I am forced to clean simply because I have nothing else to do. My apartment just might be the cleanest one in the whole complex. I find myself dusting every other day and vacuuming and cleaning the bathrooms at least once a week. The only problem is that the apartment always seems to get messy on the weekends when Blake is home. Now I know what you're thinking and I admit that I can't blame it all on him but whenever he is home I'm no longer bored so I just give up the cleaning. I guess I'll have to work on that for when I actually do have a job...

2. FIND A TV SHOW TO WATCH

This takes up a lot of time especially if you have whole seasons of TV shows at your fingertips. We have Netflix Instant Watch which means that I can stream TV shows and movies from Netflix.com onto the XBox and watch them on our TV. It's crazy! So I decided that I would finally jump on the bandwagon and see why everyone (and by everyone I mean Blake, Ryan, and Touchette) obsesses over the show LOST. I'll admit that I'm a little intrigued but I'm not sold on the show yet. Thankfully, I have plenty of time to continue to watch the hour long episodes. Before you think I'm a complete couch potato, know that I limit myself to only 2 episodes a day and I watch them between loads of laundry and cleaning.

3. TURN OFF THE TV AND READ A BOOK

I realize this completely contradicts what I said in the previous post. However, I found myself getting caught up in all of the daytime TV shows which are just awful and make me want to die. So I decided that besides episodes of LOST and the shows I record on TV (Top Chef and Project Runway), I would keep the TV off all day and read instead. This really isn't the hardest thing in the world since I am in fact striving to be an English Teacher and since I have shelves of books that I never had time to read in college and because I just really love reading.

Here are all the books I've read in the past two months:

Believe it or not, this was my first time to read the Harry Potter books because I never wanted to buy into all the hype. I'll admit that was a mistake because I LOVE them! I would highly recommend any of these books! Right now I'm in the middle of "Anne of Avonlea" and "Three Cups of Tea" and they are both great!

4. LEAVE THE APARTMENT AT LEAST ONCE A DAY

I seriously go crazy from being inside all day! So I find little things that I need to do outside of the apartment like going to the grocery store, going to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to spend my gift cards, going to lay out by the pool, or even something as small as going to mail something and getting a Coke from Sonic. Luckily for me, I was able to leave the apartment for long periods of time last week because I babysat with my first best friend and college roommate Paige at Prestoncrest Church of Christ. This was fun for many reasons: One being that we babysat really cute kids, two that I got to hang out with Paige, and three because Paige and I met and had many childhood memories in the Prestoncrest building so we re-lived all of those memories.

This obviously wasn't taken while we were babysitting but this is Paige so it counts. Love her and this picture!

5. FIND A FRIEND TO DO ALL OF THE ABOVE WITH

I am so incredibly thankful to have Casey Orr only ten minutes down the road. While it's not a good thing for her that she is in the same situation as me, it's a good thing for me because we can help keep each other busy and we can vent our frustrations about being jobless and bored. So thanks Casey!

Well now you know what I do with all of my time. I know you are all so very jealous of my glamorous life! And now if any of you find yourselves in the same situation as me, you can use my five secret tips to survive the boredom!

First Day of School

2009-08-24T16:09:00.001-07:00

Well today is the first day of school and Blake had his first day as a teacher! He was really nervous last night and this morning but he feels a lot better now that he has one day under his belt. He didn't have any funny stories today but I am fully expecting him to entertain me with funny, awkward fifth grade stories as the year progresses. I've been eating breakfast with Blake every morning before he heads to school so that I can see him and get my day started. This morning we had pancakes! It was the perfect start to the morning and then I just had to take a first day of school picture before he walked out the door...unfortunately we don't have a fireplace.

My handsome husband, the 5th Grade Math teacher!

I'm so proud of him!

These next few are of Blake's classroom...

Blake full of Green Valley Gator pride

While Blake spent his day at Green Valley, I spent my day shopping and eating lunch with Casey and JuliAnne! It was my first time in 17 years to not have a first day of school. It's a little more bitter than sweet since I would much rather be spending my first day of school in my own classroom BUT I'm trusting that God knows better than I do about what I should be doing with my life at this moment. I'll leave you with this quote from one of my all-time favorite movies "You've Got Mail". Even though we don't live in New York and it is not quite fall (it was 105 degrees here today), I always think of this quote when school starts because I love school supplies and the start of school means that fall, my favorite season, is almost here!!

"Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address."

Blake is 23!

2009-08-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

Well Blake turned 23 on Monday so we celebrated his birth this week. On Monday we went to La Hacienda Ranch for a nice birthday dinner. We had delicious fajitas and table-side guacamole. I love this place and I was really hoping Blake would choose to eat here on his birthday but I didn't want to influence him in any way so I didn't say anything. Needless to say, I was very excited when he made the decision without any of my help! Blake's parents Jerry and Marcia met us there along with Mema and Papa and Tiffany! We had a great dinner and Blake even got a birthday brownie!

Tiffany has these fantastic birthday glasses that she carries around with her and everyone has to wear them on their birthday at least for a little bit. I'm definitely keeping my eye out for some of these for myself to have as back-up in case she ever forgets hers.
All Blake wanted for his birthday was to ride this train...not really but this was just too good of a picture opportunity to pass up!

On Tuesday we continued the birthday celebration by having pancakes for breakfast (of course) and then I cooked Blake a birthday dinner of Pepper Steak and Molten Chocolate Lava Cake with Homemade Ice Cream. It was great!

In other news, Blake has Meet the Teacher night tonight, which I think is so exciting! It kind of makes everything real now that he is actually meeting his students and their parents. He is getting a little nervous about the school year so keep him in your prayers as school starts. His first day with students in his classroom is on Monday and I couldn't be more excited for and proud of him!