Summer time and the living is easy...

Update time!

I have been a lazy, lazy blogger, and while I seriously doubt that anyone reads my blog enough to notice, I still feel like I should be updating more often. So here's what's been going on in the life of Sarah, Casey, Riley, & Zac (our new official spelling of his name):


1. Instead of going to New Braunfels for the weekend after the flooding that happened, we opted to make it a day trip and ride up to New Braunfels with Casey's parents to show them around that area (neither of them had ever been) and then to drive up to Austin for our wedding food tasting. On Saturday we took the Pages to New Braunfels and showed them around. We made our first stop at Naegelin's, the oldest bakery in Texas. This is always a must when we go to New Braunfels for 2 reasons. 1. We love supporting family owned small businesses. 2. Everything they make is incredibly delicious and very affordable. We ended up buying them out of kolaches so that we could take some back to the Chagla's who weren't able to take their family trip this year due to the flooding. After Naegelin's we went over to check on Heidelberg and were very sad to see that they were hit pretty hard with the flooding. All of their downstairs lodge rooms were flooded so all of the rooms were being gutted and repaired. Hopefully they will be back up and running by the time Casey's bachelor party rolls around in a few weeks.

2. I have been subbing at TWYLA and am loving it.

3. The weekend of June 18-20 I went to Nacogdoches and was lucky enough to be asked to help plan my best friend's proposal! James proposed to my beautiful best friend Leigh Anne on June 18th and it was perfect. I also got to hang out with my other best friend Sara Baker! Here are some pics from the weekend:






4. Upon getting home from Nacogdoches we celebrated Father's Day with Casey's family at Shannon's house. We got Casey's dad a bunch of miscellaneous gifts and among them was this book. I HIGHLY recommend it as it has made me laugh harder than I've laughed in a LONG time- WARNING: it obviously uses very explicit language- use discretion if you are offended by curse words. After getting home from Father's Day festivities we had Casey's (dog) Father's Day from the boys:




4. We went to Longview this past weekend to help my dad with some stuff and go to my cousin Lily's 5th birthday. Later that night my mom helped Casey and I give the pups a hair cut. Here are some pics from the party and also our hairless hounds:

Our God daughter Abby crawling all over me

My cousin Jen & I

Ms. Lily opening her gifts!

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

5. I've been missing some things lately... I really miss cooking, fashion, and photography. I used to be so passionate about all three of these things and I've really let my passion for these things go by the way side. So in addition to planning a wedding, trying to stay fit, helping my best friend plan a wedding, keeping the house in order, and working part time, I am going to try to also put some effort into bringing more artistic and creative endeavors into my life again. What this means for you blog readers is that from time to time I might post an outfit, photograph, or meal that I have cooked and that I am proud of. Whether these things will truly hold any artistic value will remain to be seen, but they will be things I am proud of and this blog is about self expression and finding myself so yeah... lol. Here are some meals that I have made that I am proud of:

I may have blogged about this dish before, but it's my signature dish and something I make all the time so I thought I would share. I call it Italian Flag Pasta (because of the red green and white)

Italian Flag Pasta:
-Any pasta - I usually use angel hair or penne and I mix 1/2 whole wheat pasta and 1/2 regular for texture
-Cherry or Grape tomatoes - quartered
-Chopped fresh basil (does not work with dried basil)
-Kosher salt (my secret ingredient in everything)
-Fresh cracked black pepper
-Olive oil
-Lemon juice

I usually add shrimp that I have sauteed in olive oil and fresh minced garlic, but you can have this as a side dish (I'm planning to have it as a side for our 4th of July party) or you can add grilled chicken or shrimp and have it as a main course. It's SO easy and so yummy! It's a perfect summer dish.

This is a pasta recipe that I got from HEB Cooking Connection. It's pasta with this amazing imported tomato sauce with chicken sausage, fresh basil, and parmesan cheese. You can really do this with any pasta, tomato sauce, and chicken sausage. I have been adding basil to everything because my basil plant is thriving - yay!

Okay so I think I have successfully overloaded this post and it just might be the LOOOOOOONGEST post ever. More later!

Back to work....

Well I may be out for summer break, but I just can't stay away from sweet kiddos for too long - for the summer I decided that I will sub at the preschool I worked at last summer. I could not have received a warmer welcome- most of the kids from my class last year were there and literally welcomed me with open arms (which were wrapped around my midsection for several minutes) and begged me to work full time. While I don't think I could handle that because of all of the wedding stuff, it was really nice to hear that they missed me. I'll be at TWYLA no more than 2 days a week and it will be nice to have a little extra money for wedding stuff ... or maybe an iPhone 4! More later!

Texas Flood

Right now I am very (selfishly) upset about the fact that New Braunfels is flooded. This weekend we were supposed to go stay at our favorite river side resort with the Chaglas, but that trip is no more because of the flooding. This is especially sad because Bash (Chris' dad) was just diagnosed with terminal cancer and does not have very much time left in this world and all he wanted was to go to Heidelberg and have a nice vacation weekend with his family and friends.

I know this is selfish because a lot of people lost their homes and businesses this week from the storms/flooding, but I can't help but be disappointed.

Please send a prayer up for Bash and for the people in New Braunfels that have been affected by the floods.

3 of 4: ZTA weddings galore!

Okay that quite possibly might be the cheesiest blog title I've had so far, but I could not resist!

Last weekend, my BFF Leigh Anne, her cute boyfriend James, and my hubby to be Casey headed to the Hill Country to go to my dear friend Christy's wedding. This was 3 of the 4 ZTAs getting married this year with yours truly being number 4!

On Saturday we loaded up the truck and headed to Austin bright and early. When we arrived at our rental house, Angel & Tyler were there waiting for us. We rented a lovely home in Southwest Austin that was very close to the venue and boy was it an eventful and fun weekend!

So what happens when 8 college/sorority friends are reunited under one roof that happens to include a fabulous pool? A whole lot o' crazy fun!



We had a blast cooking out, laying by the pool, and reminiscing about the good 'ol days in the ZTA house and can I just say I have the best group of friends a girl could ask for!

On Sunday we were out by the pool until it was time to go to the wedding. Christy & Nick got married at a lovely restaurant called Green Pastures in downtown Austin. The grounds were beautiful and there were lovely (and loud!) peacocks running around everywhere. Here are some pictures from the night:




This past week brought the end of school and my first year teaching. While I am very happy to have such a long break, it was very bittersweet. I had a wonderful group of Kindergartners this year and I was sad to see them leave for the summer, especially since I know that 6 of them will not be returning to my elementary school. Now that I'm done with the sad goodbyes, it's time to relax and finish planning this wedding and enjoy having 2 months off. I celebrated my new found freedom by going to see SATC 2 on Friday morning with Kelli! Did you know that movie tickets are only $5 if you go to a movie before noon? Well that is just about the best thing ever - I'm super excited that I can go see movies this summer without breaking the bank!

Okay on to this weekend:

Friday night I went to another friend's wedding reception here in The Woodlands. My lovely friend Anna from TWYLA got married in a private ceremony a few weeks ago and had her reception on Friday. It was a lovely reception and Anna (as always) looked stunning!

On Saturday we went out for one of my best friend's birthdays - Andi turned the big 3-0! We had an AWESOME dinner at Pallotta's and then headed over to the Goose's Acre for a few beers.

Today Casey and I took the pups to the vet for their yearly check ups and unfortunately for them... their shots. Riley always does such a great job at the vet, but we were a little concerned about Zach seeing as he had never been to the vet with us. They both ended up doing a GREAT job and we now have two happy, healthy, and up to date pups!

Now on to my first full week of being off - yay!!

Mud Bugs

Another busy, but wonderful weekend! Yesterday was the Page family Crawfish boil that used to happen every year, but hasn't happened since I've been around (Okay guys I get the hint! Haha). Casey's mom and dad bought 200 lbs of crawfish and we spent 8 amazing hours eating them and hanging out with all of our wonderful family and friends. There were about 75 people there when it was all said and done and only 2 or 3 lbs of crawfish remained at the end of the night. Here are some pictures from yesterday:






We were all exhausted today, but had a great time so it was all worth it.

Celebrated Shannon's birthday today and now hanging out with my dad and grilling steaks - life isn't too bad. :)

Iron Man Field Day

Oops! I forgot to blog about the fantastic field day we had at Willbern Elementary! Well here we go!

Friday, May 7th was Field Day at Willbern Elementary and while I had kind of been dreading this, it turned out to be a really great day. The reason I had been dreading field day were two fold:

First off - it was supposed to be very hot and humid that day and I really did not want to be out in the heat just yet.

Secondly, Casey and I had the brilliant idea to go see Iron Man 2 at midnight on Thursday. This seemed like a fantastic idea until around 11 p.m. when of course I started getting sleepy (my normal bed time is around 10 pm). Well I am proud to say that I pushed through and the movie was great! I really love the Iron Man franchise and I'm kind of a closet comic book fan... I guess the secret is out! :) We got home around 3am, I got 3 hours of sleep and actually didn't feel horrible on Friday which was very surprising.

Friday was fantastic actually, the kids were in a great mood and were really listening (something that doesn't happen too often toward the end of the school year) and they had a blast at field day. I heard NO complaining from any of my kids all day long which was very surprising to me - I figured I would hear "I'm tired", "It's hot", "I'm thirsty" 1,744,084 times, but nobody complained at all. We ended the day by doing some fun worksheets (a treat for them) and watching some cool sciencey programs on United Streaming. All in all a great day! Here are a few pics:

Isn't She Lovely?

WOW was this weekend a doozie! Casey and I drove something like 700 miles in 36 hours - here's how:

Saturday morning: I wake up at 5:30 - shower and we get on the road to Longview around 7am. We arrive in Longview around 10:30ish and my mom and I immediately go up to the bridal place to get my dress that FINALLY came in. It was absolutely perfect, more perfect than I remember and I am SO thankful. :) Leigh Anne came with me for support and it was so nice to have my best friend there with me for that.

After picking up my dress we headed to Bodacious to meet up with Casey and my dad for some BBQ. One thing I do miss about Longview is eating at the restaurants that I grew up eating - Bodacious, Papacita's, Lupe's, Pietro's... there's nothing like home sometimes.

After eating it was back to Dad's for quick nap and then on to Princeton, TX for Liz & Buckley's wedding! Casey and I made great time on the road and it was nice going a different way to the Dallas area (we took 80 instead of I20).

The wedding was absolutely gorgeous! Liz's colors were Red with accents of turquoise (a ZTA homage?) which is one of my favorite color combinations. Liz looked absolutely stunning and so did my beautiful Zeta friends who were all there that I miss SO much. Here are some pics from her amazing wedding!

This is us squeezing every Zeta at the wedding into this tiny photo booth (16 of us)- idea courtesy of Sarah Nicole Wood

4 ZTA weddings in one year? OKAY!

Blushing Bride!

Beautiful Liz and her Dad walking down the aisle to "At Last" by Etta James :)