Happy Anniversary!

Walked in from lunch and found this on my desk!

3 years and many more to go!

I love you, Plum Berry Doodle Bear ;)

Merry Christmas

Happy Ugly Sweater Christmas Party

The managers in the call center hosted an ugly sweater Christmas Party this past weekend and it was lots of fun. There were prize give-a-ways, a white elephant exchange and of course a contest for the ugliest sweater. Slone's name was drawn for the prize give-a-way and won a 3 piece luggage set! I had just told him a few weeks back that he needed his own set and now he has one! God has been working in our lives like that lately - more on that in a later post :)

He has a mouth full of sunflower seeds :)~

Long time, no blog

It's been a while since our last post but can I just say that we have been super busy! What's new, right?

Well I guess I should start with Thanksgiving. We went to Slone's Boompa's house in Gruver, Texas. I was hoping for snow because I think they just got some a few weeks back, but it didn't happen. However, it's so very peaceful there and I'm glad we got the chance to take a mini-vacation. We played cards every night, made our first gingerbread house, played washers, made pies and lots of other yummy food.

Spoons :)

Kirk and Jill came to Arlington the Sunday after Thanksgiving and we met them Monday night for dinner in Fort Worth. It looks so pretty downtown this time of year since all the streets and trees are lit up!

Braxton's surgery

My sweet nephew had to have tubes put into his ears Thursday morning. Katelyn and Bubba said he was such a big boy and everything went very well. Thank the Lord! :)




Papaw (my dad) even bought him a new car for being so brave! Bubba said all he wanted to do was sit in it and open and shut the door. I can't wait to squeeze this sweet boy at Christmas time!

New Bakeware + New Recipe = Happy Starkeys

Lately, I've been watching a lot of cooking shows and I have really been wanting some of Rachael Ray's bakeware. I love checking out her website and while she sells her products on there, I find it a bit too expensive for us right now. As I was out shopping last weekend I went to Ross to check out their home section. To my surprise, they now sell Rachael Ray's products! They sell for about half the price and I took home 2 new items to start my collection!

Parmesan Salmon with green beans and corn :)

Mavs!

Our friends, Trent and Holly, invited us to the Mavs game Friday night. Little did I know we would be sitting in floor seats! This was the second time that Slone and I have been able to sit so close and we loved every minute of it :) Thank you so much Trent and Holly!

Let the party begin!

For Slone's birthday I got the family together and we all went to Nagoya, a sushi restaurant here in Arlington. They have loved and eaten sushi from the time I met them and I hated the thought of it. The past year and a half I have really opened up to trying new things and must admit that I now love sushi! However, I will only eat the California roll and Shrimp/Avocado rolls for right now :) The manager was nice enough to let us sit at the hibachi grill and watch the Rangers game even though we were just ordering sushi. It turned out to be a great night as we ate sushi, finished up the game at our house and ate homemade cheesecake brownies!



Saturday we had plans to visit the Dallas Holocaust Museum but really bad storms and tornadoes rolled in so we decided against it. But don't think it kept us away from Joe T Garcia's for another birthday celebration for Slone! The Fearings and Nances joined us for dinner and we played the card game, Golf afterward. Jill was sweet enough to get Slone a Turtle Pie ice cream cake and we sang Happy Birthday :) He was such a good sport!

I hope you had a fun 26th birthday. I love you so much!

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Banana Nut Muffins for breakfast, Brisket luncheon at work, and Sushi Fest tonight!

I love you so much!

Love,
Care Bear

Texas State Fair

This was my first time to go to the State Fair and we had a great time. We went with another couple from our homegroup to evangelize to anyone that was interested! There was a booth set up for us and as people felt led, they stopped by and asked us questions. I was pretty nervous because I had never done this before but it ended up being very eye opening and rewarding. Slone and I prayed with another couple for their marriage and just for God's will to be done in their lives. I also watched Slone as he prayed with a young man for his salvation. It was so moving and inspiring! He is so good at opening up to anyone and sharing the gospel with them.

Fried Cheesecake!

This is the booth where we volunteered.

Big Tex

GaMe NiGhT

Great job, girls!

Girls Inc

Yesterday was my first day to volunteer with Girls Inc. The program consists of about 40 girls from Kindergarten to 6th grade. Here is a snippet from the website about their organization:

"Girls Incorporated is a nonprofit organization that inspires all girls to be strong, smart, and bold through a network of local organizations in the United States and Canada. With local roots dating to 1864 and national status in the U.S. since 1945, Girls Inc. responds to the changing needs of girls and their communities through research-based programs and advocacy that empower girls to reach their full potential and to understand, value, and assert their rights. In 2009, Girls Inc. reached over 900,000 girls through Girls Inc. affiliates, our website, and educational publications."

One of my teachers in my Master's Program is requiring us to observe 15 hours of adolescent students. Instead of just sitting back and watching, I decided to go ahead and be part of their volunteer team. I am always nervous about meeting new groups of students. I don't know why, but I just always wonder if they are going to like me. So I prayed on the way there just for me to be able to be a good role model to the girls and for us to have a good time. As soon as I got there a young girl came up and hugged me and showed me where her teacher was. It was so sweet!
Then as they were lining up to go inside they say to me "you're pretty" and "do you have a baby?" To me, these comments are so random and unexpected, but to them their little brains are just working away and they are just trying to figure me out. I can't wait to hear more "random" things from them!

Since I work full time I'm not able to get to the school until 5:00 and the program only lasts until 6:30. I still think it's plenty of time for me to get to know the girls each week and reinforce some positive roles among them. The director told me yesterday that they were looking for someone to lead an arts and crafts session for the girls. If you know anything about me, this is right up my alley!!! I have already found something we can do as a group and I'll try to post pics soon. :)

Braxton turned 1!

Yesterday was a hectic day! Work, class, Jordan's short film premiere at Studio Movie Grill and...(drum roll please....) Braxton's first birthday!! My brother and Katelyn allowed me to live vicariously through their photos once again and sent me pics of Lil' B eating his birthday cupcake.

Week night outing

Last night Jon and Heather took us to Pappa's Burgers. A sister restaurant of Pappadeaux's, if you will. It was half price burger night and we enjoyed every minute of it! I'm so glad they were able to introduce us to a new place to eat :)

It's that time of year again!

Softball is in full swing again! No pun intended :)

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Here are some shots of the flood that happened this morning. I took them from my office building. The skies are clearing and the water is going down now. It was a sight to see all of the firemen and helicopters rescuing people from their rooftops.

Memorial Day weekend

What a long and relaxing weekend! On Saturday, Slone and I lounged around the house and I did a little bit of shopping. We splurged on some crab legs Saturday night at Joe's Crab Shack but the amount we paid and the amount of crab we got didn't quite add up. : / He says from now on he isn't eating crab unless it's all you can eat, lol! Nonetheless it was some good eatin'! :)

Sunday we heard an awesome sermon at church and attempted to have lunch in downtown Fort Worth. However, a lot of the places we tried were closed. So we headed back to Arlington and laid around until it was time to head over to Rona's. She invited us to grill out with them at their new apartment in Carrollton and I'm so glad we went. We grilled out, played football and lacrosse, and then put a family team together and played sand volleyball against another family at the complex. We played way past dark and used two little pool lights to light the court. We didn't get home that night until after midnight and we were so thankful that we got to sleep in Monday morning!

Monday was the relaxation day of all relaxation days! It felt great. We have been really busy with school starting back (I'm working on my master's) and making adjustments at work. Slone made me breakfast in bed and we watched reruns of The Office :) Later that evening we washed and vacuumed out his car, ate at Freebirds, got some ice cream from Braum's, and watched some college football.

I wish I had some pictures from the weekend, but my camera wasn't charged by the time we had to leave for Rona's. She is supposed to be sending me some this week though so I can post them later.

Jo Jo and Lil B's playdate

Simple Beauty

Birthday Boy!

MMMM, cake!

On second thought...