It's Been a While...

Wow! It’s been forever since I’ve written a blog. Ok, well actually only seven months, but it felt like forever ago. So now that school is finally over (pause to do a little victory dance) I can get back to writing about more interesting things.

This last semester was a beat down. I didn’t even have my normal 15 hours, only 12 hours of class, but it was still intense. If I’ve told you about my philosophy class and math class, you would understand. I don’t speak math, and the little fuse in my brain for philosophy was always burned out. So you can see where frustration might have been overwhelming. But no worries, I survived and I’m moving on.

It’s summer now!!! So excited! Time to lather on the sunscreen, sit by the pool, and just relax. I intend to do that a lot more this summer than ever before (Although beating last summer’s record of ten hours on the beach in Florida for a week will be tough). I was planning on working 24/7 and saving for the future and school and gas money and things like that, but this past year has been a long and busy one, so I’ll take advantage of the little time I have home to just enjoy the simple things and not rush through summer. I’ll still be taking care of my favorite little two-year-old boy, Cody, though. :)

The Plan:

1. I know its summer, but I have to make up for lost classes over last semester by taking a quick Maymester. World Lit II. Just a lot of reading and discussion. Just two weeks long, no big deal.

2. Registering for classes at A&M! Oh by the way, I’m in! I found out a long time ago but as you know, I haven’t been on here in a long time.

3. Read at least three books. One fiction, one nonfiction, and a Christian sort of book (by that I mean like go through my mother’s library or have a fun day at Mardel reading the back covers of every book until I find one that will speak to me.) And of course keep up with my own devotionals. (I can’t remember reading a book cover to cover that wasn’t for school, so I’m excited to do some fun reading.)

4. Go to California with the family!!! Best part is that Andrew will be joining us! Yay! He can finally see my favorite beaches, visit my very best friends, and of course meet some of my folks. Poor guy. He has been optimistic about the trip, so I’m praying it all goes well. :)

5. Learn a few different dishes to prepare. Already talked to Mommy and she said that every day I’m off from work, meaning Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we will have fun trying out new dishes and meals. Looking forward to it! Especially since I’ll be moving out soon and need to know a lot more than how to make spaghetti and cereal.

6. Start writing What I Wore Wednesday posts! I love, love, love how Mary does her WIWW blog posts, and every time I get dressed I pretend to take a picture of my outfit as if I’ll write my own posts. But now I’ll actually do my own. :)

7. Find ways to motivate myself to workout. I’m great about starting all kinds of new routines, but terrible at sticking with them. Three days in and I’m throwing in the towel. So ya, I need to work on that. Maybe get back into P90X, although I dread it more and more these days.

8. Read and outline my psychology book from my first course freshmen year. I’ll be diving right into all my major course once I get to A&M and it would be smart to have a leg up on as much information as I can. I’ve taken the introductory course at UTD, but I’ll have to take it again at A&M seeing as how only their major courses are accepted for graduating.

9. Relax. I know I listed a lot of stuff to get done this summer, but I’ll have three months, and only about 20 hours of work every week. So relaxing is a must if I intend to stay sane through my next year out of the house and totally out of my comfort zone.

Ok so that was a long post, but it was nice to write out all my goals/plans. Now I have to keep up with them.

Thursday Happiness

1. Being able to finish a paper right before it was due. (I tried working on it the night before but my brain was too dead)

2. Getting extra credit for showing up to Government today (only 4 out of 35 students showed up today so the professor decided to reward us that showed up)

3. Getting extra credit in English for the same reason! (except this time there were 7 of the 35 present)

4. Leaving English 3 minutes after class started (she decided not to teach since there weren’t any students there, so she made it a ‘working day’)

5. Getting in another run with Snoopy (I’m trying to do that more and more- that’s two this week, and hopefully one on Saturday)

6. Skype with Andrew :)

7. Babysitting Whitacker, Brinley, and Creighton: I got the biggest compliment ever, “Sarah! You make the best spaghetti ever! I love this!” – Whitacker Thanks Whit! I love critics like that. Especially when all I did was boil spaghetti and add Ragu sauce to it. Lol. Second best compliment of the night, “Ms. Sarah! I love these cookies! They make my tummy smile!” Score! I can bake cookie dough, too! For those of you who think I can’t cook, *cough* Valery *cough* and those of you who I’ve admitted to not being kitchen savvy, scratch it all! According to my new critics, I’m a five star chef!

8. Relaxing at my next job watching sleeping kiddos, Ella, Lilly, and Charlie to be exact. Yup, I went from job to job tonight. Talk about desperate for work lol. But it’s all good, because I’m writing this at work. Which also make me happy. :)

Happy Thursday Moments

So I think I might make this a habit, a post about what made me happy on Thursdays. We’ll see how this goes.

1. Woke up way energized for my History II test. (I think it was the meds doing the trick cuz there’s no way I’d ever be that hyper at 5:40 am after only 3 hours of sleep)

2. Walked out of that test very confident! Crossing my fingers now!

3. Watched Modern Family in the library again (except this time I didn’t struggle to keep from laughing, I was struggling to stay awake. Those meds were wearing off…

4. Got to Skype my babe :)

5. Daddy came home from his trip!!! And brought my uncle Radu with him too..but more importantly, Daddy came home!

6. Ate some Gomboti (a Romanian desert my grandma sent up with my dad, they were yummy)

7. Went to work and followed through with a slight lesson in mini discipline!! Woop woop! I usually give in to crying kids since they are not mine and I don’t have to deal with them later, but this time I made that little boy sit at the table and finish his food. It was either finish his food and go play or sit at the table and cry until his daddy came home. Yup, I won! He ate the whole plate! Took a lot of strength to not cry right along with him or just set him free form the table, but I did it.

8. Came home to a very quiet house, no homework, just me in my peaceful room just relaxing.

9. Remembering Andrew comes home tomorrow! Woohoo! :)

Ok well I should probably get some sleep before the hyper phase of my meds kicks in again. Night everyone!

Have I mentioned that I Hate Bugs?

Well I do. Me and bugs/insects are like two negative charges on magnets that should never attract. Except the bugs didn’t get the memo that I’m also negative, and swarm to bite me as if I were positive! Gah! If you’ve ever seen me after getting bit by a bug, any bug, mosquitoes more often than any other insects, you would know that I swell up like crazy and turn all red. It’s not a pretty sight.

So while babysitting on Sunday, some stupid insect has the nerve to bite me! It even worked its way under my jeans to bite my ankle! Stupid ninkumpoop. Anyways, so I get bit, right? And it starts itching 10 minutes later, but no swelling yet. Phewf, I thought I was in the clear. Ha! I get home about 3 hours later and my ankle is already the size of a golf ball. Well, it just looks like I have a golf ball under my skin. I automatically try to ignore the itching, redness, and swelling and act as if it’s a regular bug bite. I mean it’s not like I’ve never had one before that drove me absolutely insane…

So today, Tuesday, I wake up and my ankle now looks like a tennis ball! And it’s starting to ooze out where the little twarp of a bug bit me, and its bruising, which isn’t at all characteristic of a regular bite. So I bump my worry up a notch. Around 10:30 am I was really worried, as it hurt to even walk on my foot. Now I have no choice but to call my doctor and pray that she has an opening to see me after class. Sadly, no opening, but she would try to work me if I went in after 2.

1:45, I arrive in her office and 10 minutes later she takes me in. Halleluiah! The nurse then comes in and takes a look at my pathetic looking ankle and unnecessarily freaks me out by warning me it could be a staph infection. Great, just what I needed. Shortly after Dr. Davis walks in. Before I go any further let me just describe her to you- She’s a sweet, petite old lady with sophisticated red rimmed glasses that sit on the tip of her nose and has surprisingly room-temp hands, unlike the freezing hands of the stereotypical doctor. So you get the picture that’s she’s sweet and even a little southern… Anyways, she looks at me and says, “Wow, hunny, those pesky bugs just love you!” Oh joy. After explaining how sensitive I am to these bug attacks and pleading with her to get me allergy tested, get some cool shot to make this all go away, or take meds the rest of my life, she sweetly says, “Sorry hunny, but this is how the good Lord made you, and there’s nothing we can do to fix it. It sucks to be you.” And I didn’t embellish any of it, I promise, that was word for word what she said. My frustration was slightly subdued by the cuteness of her conclusion about my annoying reactions to bug bites. She did note that if I wanted to I could look into natural healing remedies and oils to see if they would work at all… (little light bulb in head turns on and flashes “Mrs. Journey! Mrs. Journey! She’s got the answer!”) Dr. Davis was kind enough to give me a shot (gah I forget what it’s called) but pretty much a steroid to make the swelling and itching go away. Then prescribed me not one, not two, but three different meds for the stupid tennis ball on my ankle! An antibiotic capsule, an antibiotic cream, and another steroid (I promise I read the prescription bottles but they are not close by right now and I can’t remember how to spell them).

This is ridiculous! One stupid, insensitive, no-good, stupid, horrible, terrible bug has got me drugged! What’s this world coming to?!

Ok, I’ll stop venting now. Goodnight ya’ll.

Things That Made Me Happy Today

In order of which they happened today-

1. Actually staying awake in my 7 am class today

2. Making a perfect cup of coffee (which is difficult for me, I never seem to get the right combination of cream and sugar)

3. Watching Modern Family in the library between classes and getting funny stares while I try to laugh quietly

4. Acing my history test!!!! (which I didn’t really study for)

5. Skype with Andrew today

6. Wearing my new A&M shirt

7. Getting a note on my sandwich from Mommy

8. Finding a pack of gum in my car that I had forgotten about (although the gum was kind of stale)

9. Playing hide and go seek with Whit, Brinley, and Creighton (actually even thought I lost Brinley for five minutes… she was a pro today, hid in the drapes behind the side of the bed and didn’t make a sound…I actually had to yell around the house for her to come out, promising she would not be “it” for coming out of hiding)

10. Managing to burn a batch of cookies and not getting upset about it because I was busy taking care of three little kids (no worries though, if you dipped them in milk long enough they got soft and chewy. So besides the slightly blackened surface of the cookie, they were perfect!) haha
Sidenote- As I was making the cookies, which were just the frozen kind you pop in the oven for 10 minutes (I know what you thinking, “Wow, and she still burned them!? Yes I did, you try hearing the oven beep while corralling a 2, 3, and 5 year old for dinner while the tv is blasting), Whit complained that he didn’t like those kind of cookies. So I said he didn’t have to eat any. When they came out, he wanted to try one, and kept saying, “I like these cookies….no wait, No I don’t like these cookies. Well actually I might like these. They are kinda good, I think, I just don’t wanna hurt your feeling since you cooked them for us.” Precious. So I assured him its was ok if he didn’t like them, I didn’t actually make them, so I wasn’t the least bit offended.

11. Getting off work early and making it to the family bbq at Ariana’s for dinner.

12. Blasting music and singing at the top of my lungs with Valery on the way to take her home

13. Watching the A&M v OSU game with Brayden and Landon at work after dinner

14. Playing football in the house during game commercials

15. Managing to avoid smashing our heads into the walls and corners of furniture while being tackled

16. Babysitting boys old enough to get themselves ready for bed while I just chilled on the couch.

17. Having quiet time and journaling.

18. Getting into bed in a room with a slight chill, which makes snuggling into a warm down comforter 100 times better.

Night night everyone!

A&M WEEKEND!

This weekend was an amazing weekend of a lot of firsts

Brace yourself, this is a long post…

Friday morning I woke up excited and had my car all packed up to go to A&M for the first time to visit Andrew. Thankfully Carley got out of work early so I was on the road at 4:30. I was shaking! The first ten minutes were so scary! All I could think about was, “I’m crazy, driving 4 hours by myself to a new place…what am I thinking!?” But then I had a little pep talk with myself, yes I know talking to myself may be insane, but it worked! I calmed down and just kept on driving. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Actually kind of relaxing. But when I saw that sign that read: Bryan 36 miles…. I GOT SO EXCITED!! I was almost there! So that was my first mini road trip alone.

I finally arrived at 8 and took forever to find parking. After parking and texting Andrew where I would be on campus, I called Lauren so she could direct me through it all. As I was power walking through the Welbourn tunnel (yes! speed walking, regular walking was too slow of a pace on my way to see my babe for the first time in two very long weeks!) I had a very amazing surprise! Andrew was just 15 feet to my left! So I pretty much charged at him and jumped on him! He caught me and we had to the best reunion ever. Poor Lauren tho, I accidentally hung up on her in the process. No worries, I called her to apologize a few minutes later. :) So that was the first reunion with my babe at A&M.

Andrew then took me on a tour of the campus. I tried my best to keep track of what he was showing me but I was way too tired and excited to internalize it all. I was just in a daze of finally being with him again. It was wonderful. At about 10 pm we went to Kyle Field to save seats for all of Andrew’s outfit for Midnight Yell. Oh. My. Gosh. Midnight Yell. That was intense!!! But so much fun!!! Lauren was sweet, she fed the lines to me for every yell and song two seconds before they came up so I could stay on track with everyone. Oh, and the part where the lights go out and you get to kiss your date was also amazing ;) So that was my first Midnight Yell and it was fantastic!

After midnight yell Lauren and I went home to her house and had a fun sleepover in her room with Jessica, too. Talked for a while and then feel asleep around 3 am. Woke up Saturday morning and got all prettied up to go see Andrew again. Yup, got my game day dress on and my clutch in hand and I was ready to experience my first game day, as a Corps girlfriend. I got to campus and found Andrew easily, thank goodness. That place is so darn big I was overwhelmed the whole weekend! It’s a whole city over there! Anyways, had a yummy bbq lunch with Andrew’s outfit, S-1, and his parents. Then he gave us a tour of his dorm room. Well, if you call walking up one flight of stairs and barely walking two feet into his room a tour, then I guess it was a tour. Poor guy, that room is so small and lifeless; I would never be able to live in such a place. I’d need my decorations, picture frames, fun throw pillows and blankets…but no, he only has a bed, desk with his laptop on it, and footlocker on the floor. Yup, I’d die. So that was my first day chillen with Andrew at A&M.

Now I’ll move on to the game…..WOW! Before the game we watched Andrew and the rest of the corps march in. Now that was a sight. Everyone all in uniform, walking in straight lines, having a mean look on their faces, ya, I was a bit intimidated. After watching them march in and finally finding Andrew in the stadium, we got to our seats and sat down for the first time in a couple hours. Oh it felt good, and I had to savor it because these Aggieland people stand the whole entire game!!! Our poor, tired legs only rested about 15 minutes and then the game was off! First quarter flew by, with (if I can remember correctly) two touchdowns. Ok, this is where the game got great. I LOVE this tradition! Whenever A&M scores, you get to kiss your date! Ahh! Ya, that was sweet :). By the end of the game I was more than ready to get outa there and eat and relax. So we waited for the guys, that is Lauren (Andrew’s roommates girlfriend and I) to change and then I took us all out to Jimmy Johns for a yummy 11 pm sandwich. After dinner, Andrew and I went to hang out at Lauren’s house (the Lauren I had known from before, not the roommates Lauren- sorry, just thought I should clarify) and we had some great conversation together. So that was my first A&M game! Whoop whoop! It was also my first game with Andrew sitting next to me! I’ve been to all his games before, but this was the first time we watched together :) Oh, and Andrew’s and mine first legit double date with his roommate and gf!


Sunday morning I woke up, got ready, and picked Andrew up for church. We went to Grace Bible church, and it was great! Then we went to lunch at Raising Cane’s. That was yummy too. It was so hot outside that we only strolled around campus for a few minutes and then headed back to Lauren’s house to chill and talk. It was really nice just relaxing and chatting like we usually did when he was still in town. :) I had to drop him off back at campus by 4, so the rest of the night I chilled with Lauren and we went out to dinner together. Actually got to sleep at a decent time Sunday night, 11 pm instead of 2 am. So that was my first Sunday with Andrew in College Station and going to Grace Bible church. :)


Monday was kind of slow. I woke up, packed my car up, said bye to the girls, and went to campus to see Andrew for a couple hours between his classes. That was fun. Well except the part where I had to kill time when he had a class, but oh well. We had lunch together and then it was time to say goodbye. Which surprisingly was not as hard as I thought it would be. Just kinda side hugged him, he kissed the top of my head (because he’s not supposed to kiss me in uniform), and he walked into the building and I walked towards the parking lot, which was like a mile away….About a minute into my walk, it starts pouring. Like bucketsful. I was drenched in a matter of seconds. Then tried to dodge the rain by going through buildings, and got very lost. Ended up on the opposite side of where I was supposed to be, all wet, and cold, and tired, and sad about leaving Andrew. It’s a miracle I didn’t burst out into tears. But thankfully I have an amazing friend, Lauren, who came to the rescue. She drove from her house to the parking garage I was hiding from the rain in, picked me up, and drove me to my car. I love her, she’s such a blessing. So then I was finally on the road. Three and a half hours later I was home. Showered, ate dinner, and went to sleep. So that was my first goodbye to Andrew at A&M, my first time getting caught in rain on campus, my first trip back. Fun weekend. Now I can’t wait to go back!!! :)

First Anniversary :)

A year ago on August 1st, Andrew met me at my neighborhood park where we sat on the swings and with a serious towards sad look on his face, he said, "I don't think our relationship right now is gonna work out for me anymore.....will you be my girlfriend?" After choking on a possible tear I hugged him so tight and said "Yes." Ok well actually said yes after a few moments of being speechless lol.

The past 12 months have been absolutely fantastic and amazing. :) I couldn't ask for a more amazing and wonderful boyfriend and best friend. I thank God for him every day.

So a couple weeks ago he told me on August 1st we are waking up early and watching our first sunrise. So at 5:30 am I was already showered and getting ready to be out the door. He picked me up and we watched the sunrise :) It was Gorgeous!!! It was so, so beautiful! Here are some pictures :)







After watching the beautiful sunrise, Andrew took me out to have breakfast at La Madeline. It was yummy. Then we went to church, which was so nice because we hadn't been to church together in seven weeks! Then we went out to lunch with my family and celebrated my Aunt Ariana's birthday. That was fun :) Then we headed back to my house and just chilled the rest of the day.

But wait, the date wasn't over. We even had a candlelit dinner :) That was a first for us. And very special. :) Overall it was a very special and beautiful day spent with my best friend. :) Thanks babes!!!!!!