Beachin' Day Trip

Last Wednesday we packed up the kiddos (my cousin Jen, my Godchildren, and our friend Lizzie and her daughter Taylor were in town for the week) and headed down to Galveston for the day.  We had a fantastic time running around in the water and ended the trip with ice cream.  The kids were worn out and so were we.  Love spending time with family!

Enjoying the beach with my sweetie!

 My amazing Godchildren, Abby & Rylan

 Cheesin'!

 Hugs for Ry-man!

 Water baby!

 Beach Kisses

 Sister Cousins and kiddos!

 Rita's Galveston for ice cream!

 The whole crew - this picture was actually taken by the staff at Rita's and posted on their Facebook page!

Girls Week!

Last week was full of fun lunches and dinners with my girls and ended with the perfect bachelorette party weekend for my best friend Leigh Anne. Here's the run down:

Monday: Lunch with my favorite K-team girls!

On Monday Jackie, Megan, Megan's daughter Finley, Liz, and I met up at Cheeburger Cheeburger. I am slightly addicted to that place now. It was so fun to catch up with these girls and although I'm SUPER excited about teaching 3rd grade next year I will definitely miss getting to spend so much time with them. Megan had to leave early to pick up Avery from VBS but here's a picture of the remaining three of us.
Monday night was Girls Night at my house! I made one of my favorite dishes- fish and shrimp tacos! Here are all the girls after a riveting game of Cranium.


Tuesday: Lunch with my old work buddies from Elliott Electric.

Oh how I miss these girls! Megan, Adriane, and I because great friends when we all three worked at Elliott. At first we weren't super close, but I wore them down and we've been close ever since. We try to get together for lunch or dinner every couple of months and they make me laugh so much. I love spending time with them! Bonus: Megan is also pregnant and 2 months ahead of me. In fact, it was at her wedding when I first got the "I think I might really be pregnant" feeling. The next day I had a positive pregnancy test! Sadly, we forgot to get a picture of the three of us! :( Next time...

Wednesday: Sara Baker comes in town!

Somehow we got no pictures of this either. BUT - we did watch some Harry Potter and hang out. I love me some Sara Baker - aka: the other Sara, aka: my imaginary friend, aka: my other personality. :)

Thursday: Preparing for Galveston!

Thursday Sara Baker and I spent the day getting ready for Galveston and finally Leigh Anne and Morgan arrived so we could head downtown to go to Costco with Krystin, Kristyn, and Katie Mayes!

After an eventful trip to Costco we finally headed to the beach house. We hung out and played the Game of Things and went to bed sometime around 3am <--- waaaaaaay past my bedtime as a pregnant lady. Little did I know that this would be a trend for the next 3 days.


Friday: Spa Day!

On Friday morning we got up and headed to the Spa at the Hotel Galvez where we relaxed, got pedicures, massages, and facials. It was so nice to relax with friends and get pampered. No pictures from the spa though because nobody wanted to be seen without makeup lol.

Friday night girls started trickling in from Dallas, Nacogdoches, and Houston and we headed to the Sand Bar, a little restaurant and bar in the neighborhood where the beach house was. I guess I'm not used to the bar scene (especially sober) because it's quite different when you're pregnant. We had a good time none the less and headed back to the house to hang out on the porch until 3am again.

Saturday: Beach Day!

On Saturday a few of us girls got up early and went to get groceries so I could make breakfast tacos for everyone. My friends have been calling me "Mommy Sarah" long before I got pregnant because I'm always the one cooking for everyone. I guess it's my nurturing nature? Breakfast tacos were a hit! After eating we headed to the beach to hang out in the sand. Kristen Keal and I were the only ones who took advantage of the boogie boards and we both caught a wave!

Here are some more pictures from hanging out on the beach:

Why am I wearing lipstick on the beach you might ask? Well I used my favorite Mac lipstain the night before and frankly after scrubbing my lips for 10 minutes I gave up and just applied more so I wouldn't look diseased.

Saturday night we went out in the Strand and had a blast dancing the night away with each other. What a fun group of girls! I am thinking this beach trip thing needs to become a yearly event. So thankful for great friends and good times!

Oh the life of a stay at home "mom"

So this week I get to pretend to be a "Trophy Wife", minus the "wife" part of course, stay at home "mom" (to two cute dogs), or just a plain ol' bum. Whatever you want to call it, as of last Thursday I was unemployed and really feeling the anxiety that comes along with it. As I left TWYLA with a tear in my eye, I got a moment of clarity when I realized that everything was going to be okay. Yeah, Casey and I might be living paycheck to paycheck (his paycheck) and eating Ramen Noodles every night for dinner, but at least we have each other and we're happy. We'll make it and we'll be fine and in 10 years this will just be another blip on the radar and we'll laugh about how "poor" we were. As far as me being a "Trophy Wife", by that I mean since I don't have a job I get to stay home and concentrate on making things run smoothly at home. Whenever I think of women that do this I always think about the women I see who drop their kids off at daycare and spend the rest of the day working out, letting their housekeepers clean their house, and then of course shopping. Unfortunately I won't be doing any shopping and I will be the housekeeper. Today I am cleaning the house, working on assignments, and running errands. I have been up since 5am and I can't believe that it's already 1:00. Time flies even faster when you're not at work. I thought the day would drag on but I've been busy since I woke up and haven't even come close to accomplishing everything I need to do today. There's always tomorrow though!

This weekend my dad came in to celebrate his birthday and spend some time with Casey and I. We had a packed weekend and had a blast. For those of you who don't know, I have the best father in the entire universe and I do mean that literally. I have been my dad's sidekick since day one and would be totally lost without him. On Friday I had substitute training for Conroe ISD and then met Daddy at the house so we could go get some lunch. We went to Guadalajara in The Woodlands for lunch and had some delicious fajitas. After that we went up to the mall to walk around and chat. I got a call from my new boss at Ann Taylor Loft so we also dropped by there to talk to her. I start on Wednesday- yay! Friday night we had plans to go to the Astros game but traffic was insane due to a bad storm coming in so we decided to go on Sunday instead. We went out to eat at Outback and then went home and fell asleep on the couches watching Monty Python - not a bad a little Friday!

On Saturday morning we got up and I made breakfast tacos (with low carb tortillas) for Daddy and I and then as we were getting ready to head out to Galveston, Casey got a call from his sister Katie. She needed a ride from IAH to Galveston because she was flying in from New York to go on a cruise with some friends and her flight was delayed almost 3 hours. So Daddy and I headed out to Galveston by ourselves. As soon as we got to Galveston we were starving so we went to grab a light lunch at The Strand. I have never been to the Strand so I had no idea what there was to do or eat down there. We asked a lady who was working a parking lot booth and she recommended some steak and seafood place or a place called Fisherman's Wharf. We decided to go to Fisherman's Wharf because it sounded like a nice, family owned, unique kind of place. We were wrong. It ended up being a super expensive Landry's owned restaurant, but the food was good so all was well in the end. After eating lunch Daddy and I went down to the Strand to do some shopping and we had plans to go to the Railroad Museum but they were closed - LAME! I was really surprised at how many stores didn't re-open after the storm and I was SUPER impressed at how high the water got in the Strand. You could see water lines that were 5-8 feet above my head- insanity. I guess I had forgotten really how bad Ike was last year, but after that I'm praying for no repeats of last year! At around 2:30 Casey finally rolled into Galveston and we went to Stewart beach for an hour or so. I didn't realize it but my dad had not been to a beach since he was 20 years old- is that not the craziest thing you've ever heard? When I was a kid I was usually with my mom during the summers so we went to the beaches in South Carolina, so Daddy and I never went to the beach together. Weird! After the beach we went to Casey's for dinner and I'll have to be honest - whatever they changed post-hurricane, the food was NOT good. I was very sad because that's where we always go! Here are some pics from our Galveston trip:






On Sunday we slept in a bit and then went to the Astros game against the Diamondbacks. We ended up getting club tickets which was nice because I haven't sat there in forever and it was nice and cool which Daddy liked. Unfortunately the pitcher that started was AWFUL and got us way behind so we ended up not being able to catch up enough to win the game, but it was a decent game to watch. Here are some pics from the game:




This week I have a lot going on despite being underemployed. I have my first day at Ann Taylor Loft on Wednesday as well as an interview at Stepping Stones Preschool on Wednesday morning. Not sure if I am going to take a full time position right now because that kind of defeats the purpose of me subbing to get a full time teaching job, but we'll see how things go. TTFN!