I Heart Long Island

Last weekend we ventured up to Long Island, New York with Casey's parents to visit family. We must have brought the Texas heat with us because it was H-O-T up there. Here's a run down of the week:

Baby Page's first flight, Thursday, July 21st:


Dinner at the Snapper Inn on the bay on Thursday evening:


Putting our feet in the icy cold water at Jones Beach on Friday (which was also my birthday):


Fishing with the family on Saturday:



which was Baby Page's first boat ride


Thursday night we went to The Beachtree Cafe for dinner followed by a walk around East Islip to get some Italian Ice:


On Sunday there was a BBQ at Aunt Lorie and Uncle Ed's house which wouldn't have been complete without an all out Badminton Battle and some Bocce:



Can't wait to take Baby Page up to Long Island next year!

Babies, Babies, Babies!

They say when you get pregnant it seems like everyone is pregnant, well in my case they are!

Last weekend I went to Fort Worth to Liz's twin baby shower. Yes that's right, Liz is having TWIN girls that are due in July! Along with Liz, there are 4 other pregnant ZTAs, all of which got married last year - crazy huh? Liz is due in July, Megan in October, Christy in November, and me in December! Here we are lined up for our bump shot!

Here's Liz opening the Princess Onesies I got her - gotta love that 5 point crown!

SFA Zetas

After the shower Christy and I decided to stay one more night (we had both originally planned to head home after the shower) and I am so glad we did. We met up with Natalie and Ashley at a cute little part of Fort Worth called West 7th (I think). We ate at a restaurant called Patrizio's that I assumed was going to be expensive because it looked so swanky, but was super reasonable! Yay for time with my girls!

I am so lucky to have such wonderful college friends. I'm not friends with that many of my high school friends because I graduated a year early, but I am so blessed to have these girls. Love my ZTAs!

I Sprung Forward

I must have sprung forward and forgot about my blog! Okay a quick recap...

March - Honeymoon... awesome... still working on blog entry.

April - Wowza.. what a month! Here are the highlights...

April 1 - I played a really funny/mean April Fool's joke on my class. Okay I know what you're thinking "Why on Earth would she play a mean joke on Kindergartners???" In all fairness, my little friends were pulling pranks on me all day so they totally deserved it! So here's what I did.. I sat them down and told them that today was my last day as their teacher because Mr. Casey (that's what my kiddos call him) had been transferred and we had to move. They all started looking really sad so I yelled "APRIL FOOLS!!" They cracked up and started going "AHHHH YOU GOT US!!", "MRS. PAGE!! THAT WAS A BAD JOKE!!!", and of course the few saying "I KNEW YOU WERE JOKING, I KNEW IT WASN'T A FOR REAL JOKE!"

April 2 - 1st Annual Willbern Elementary Carnival! Casey and I volunteered to help at the Chick Fil A booth (gotta be near the yummy food!) and I loved getting to see all my kiddos from last year and their parents. What a fun day! I even rode a ride with my former student and HUGS buddy Raven! Here is a pic of me and my sweet Raven:


April 8 - Casey had an interview for the supervisor training program and got it! He will be possibly interviewing for jobs in Houston, Austin, Denver, Salt Lake City, Tennessee, and Seattle so keep him in your prayers.

Amy and I also went to Opening Day at Minute Maid to see the Astros play the Mariners. Amy is such a sweet friend and is my favorite friend to watch baseball with because she's so knowledgeable. Here are some pictures!




April 9 - Melissa and Zach came through town so we had dinner at Pappasito's with them and then hung out for a while at our house. I always love hanging out with Melissa because we have so much in common. We've been great friends since high school and I love that she found such a wonderful guy to call her husband.


April 10 - Megan's Bridal Shower! I co-hosted a bridal shower for my beautiful friend Megan! She wanted a Garden Party theme so I tried to give them best garden party shower I could. It turned out sooooooooo cute and we had a blast.


April 16 - Marathon Woman! I ran my first half marathon in Bastrop, Texas. What an amazing experience. Originally I was supposed to run it with my friend Jennifer, but she had to cancel at the last minute. I was really really scared to do this by myself, but I just made a goal of finishing in 3 hours 30 minutes (the max) so that I could say "YES I HAVE finished a half marathon!" instead of "One time I attempted a half marathon.. it was awful". Well boy did I surprise myself! I didn't train nearly as much as I wanted to, so when I got to the race I had really only ran 5 miles straight.. no more. When the race started I just went! I RAN the first 10 miles! No walking! I was so proud of myself! The last 3.1 were a different story. I hurt SO bad! I walked most of the last 3 which is why my time wasn't as good as it could have been. I finished in 2h49m which is almost an hour faster that I had hoped for - whoo hoo! Here are my results if you want to see.. and here is a picture!
I would definitely recommend doing the Zooma race to any women especially if you want to have a fun girls' weekend! I can't wait to do it next year!

April 19 - HAIRCUT! I have been waiting 5 years to cut my hair short and I finally did it! Here is my new look...


April 22 - Riley's Birthday & Megan and Todd get married! For those of you who don't know, April 22nd is our beloved Riley's birthday and he turned 6 this year! Oh how time flies.. I miss our sweet little baby puppy, but he is such a great dog and always makes us laugh. On Saturday my dad, Casey, and I took Riley & Zac to Petsmart so Riley could pick out some toys and see the "hammies" (hamsters, fish, guinea pigs, birds.. anything in a small cage or tank). He is obsessed...


Friday evening Adriane and I went to our beautiful former coworker Megan's wedding. It was the sweetest little country wedding with a few personalized touches during the ceremony. It was great to see Meg so happy. Here are some pics.




April 24th - Easter! My dad came in town to spend Easter weekend with us and it was a very nice relaxing weekend.

We dyed eggs ...


Went to church....


and hung out with the family...

We also got some fun surprises from the "Easter bunny", but more on that later. Hopefully I won't forget about my little blog anymore!

Goodbye 2010!

Hello 2011!

This past year was the best year of my life. I married my best friend, finished my first year of teaching, and rekindled several wonderful friendships.

For New Year's Eve, Casey and I went to Nacogdoches to spend the weekend with Leigh Anne, James, Christy, Nick, Jennifer, and Carl and I can truly say this was the best NYE to date. It was so relaxed and understated and it was wonderful to end the year with such great friends.

Here are some pictures from our weekend:

The girls and I with our sparklers!

The guys did a great job on the fireworks display!

Handsome Casey and me right before midnight. :)

Me and best friend Baker!

The New Year's hats were repurposed as dog bowls!

New Year's Day Shooting

Now for the resolution(s):

1. I will run my first half marathon. I am already working toward this - I signed up for the Austin Zooma half!

2. I will be more diligent.... in everything! I am a GREAT starter, but I have a hard time keeping up with things after I start them and I'm even worse at finishing things. This blog has been one of the only things I have continued to do after starting... well ever!

3. I will paint more, draw more, take more photos, dress up more, cook more, bake more, read more, and generally DO more with my life. As much as I love to sleep and lay on the couch watching crap television, I deserve better and so does Casey. I want to get out and do more with our lives. I want to take the dogs on more walks. I want to watch more movies than TV shows. I want to read more books than magazines (I LOVE magazines...) and I want to foster my relationships with family and friends more than ever.

4. This year, we WILL travel more. I absolutely love to travel... if I had one thing that was the most important thing that I wanted to do with my life (besides becoming a mother, and other family responsibilities) it would be to travel as much as possible. So far this year Casey and/or myself will be traveling to the following places:

• St. Lucia (maybe) for our honeymoon in March
• New York (again) to visit family
• California (for Casey's work)
• Colorado for a family vacation
• New Mexico to visit Christy and Nick
• On a cruise for Leigh Anne's bachelorette party
• Possibly Indiana or Missouri to check out campuses if Casey decides to go to Seminary.

5. I will get back into shape (did I mention that I have gained 10 lbs since the wedding?) and STAY in shape. I'm so tired of the fluctuating due to my whimsical view on food. Food is for nourishment and overeating constantly is just gluttonous.


So hello 2011 and Happy New Year to everyone!

Christmastime in NYC

This post will mostly be pictures from our NYC trip! All I can say is that this was by far the best trip I have ever taken!

On our way to and arriving in NYC:

First night out, we went to an amazing Tapas restaurant with Katie & Bryan:







Walking around the city on Sunday with Aunt Lorie and Uncle Ed:





Grand Central Station, Times Square and the Marriott:






Walking around the city with Katie, on the subway, and Ground Zero:





Library, Macy's, Union Square, and Flat Iron District:





Ice Skating in Central Park & Yummy Italian food!





New York City Fire Department and yummy Chocolate Store!





On our way out to Long Island and dinner with the family at Irish Coffee Pub!







Shopping in the Italian Market and in the cute little towns on Long Island:







Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes:

This show was INCREDIBLE! We got a great deal on awesome orchestra seats and I am so glad we decided to do this. It was the perfect cap to our trip. I recommend anyone going to see this if you are in New York around Christmas - the music, the dancing, the 3D Santa show - it was all ..well... spectacular!

Top of Rockefeller Center:

Casey and I decided to go to the top of "The Rock" after getting out of the Christmas Spectacular and again, I'm so glad we did. For $21 we got to go up 69 stories to see amazing views of the city. Here are some pictures from the top!

Finally in the Newark airport at our terminal, ready to head home:

Finally home and we had a GREAT Christmas with the family. My dad came down to Houston and we had Christmas over at Casey's parents' house and got wayyy too many gifts. :) We are truly blessed. Merry Christmas everyone!