March!!!

For as long as I can remember March has been my favorite month and an extremely special time in my life. For me March meant birthdays for me, my sister, and my grandma and that included a whole lot of celebrating. March always included awesome birthday parties thrown by my mom which included all the cute arts and crafts you can think of, horse back riding, hay rides, nail salon parties and of course brownie cakes provided by grandma. Along with my own birthday party on the day of my sister's birthday party I got a day of shopping with Grandma, and then there was always the yearly joint birthday celebration for my sister, my grandma and myself. This was always a huge deal at a fun restaurant and included our many "sets of parents" including my Godparents who were always in town for our birthdays from Colorado, Doug and Pam, sometimes a few others, and it usually included boyfriends or best friends.

During college I had quite the time adjusting to March that didn't include non stop birthday celebration, but I made it through ;)

And now that I am here in Houston March is once again my favorite time of year and although its a little bit different than the good old days of extravagant non stop birthday parties, it is once again something I look forward to every year, because here in Houston the entire month of March is dedicated to the Houston Rodeo, which just happens to be held at Reliant Stadium walking distance from our house. The Houston Rodeo has to be my favorite part of living in Houston (well not including meeting Marc here). And not only do I get to go to the rodeo several times during the month of March, EVERYONE comes to visit to go to the rodeo and being a girl who considers home to be in three different states, getting the chance to have my friends and family from all over the country come to visit me is something I truly look forward to.

Here is how the Houston Rodeo works. Outside around the park there is a giant carnival including rides, shopping, and tents and tents of food. Inside the convention area there is livestock, farm machinery, and all the shopping your heart could desire. And let me tell you Cowboys and Cowgirls know how to shop I mean I could spend days walking around wishing I could buy all the cute clothes, boots, and accessories. And then every night and I mean EVERY night in the stadium there is the actual rodeo which includes several amazing events including bronc riding, bare back riding, bull riding, calf wrestling, wagon racing, barrel racing, the calf scramble, and my personal favorite mutton bustin. The calf scramble is where they line a bunch of high school kids up on the floor of the stadium and let calves loose and the kids have to chase them around, catch them, tie them up and drag them into the middle of the floor, it is amazing and usually results in a few kids being dragged instead of the other way around. Mutton bustin is when very small kids are put on to sheep with a helmet and hold on for dear life while the sheep bolts across the pin and whoever holds on longest wins and it is absolutely adorable! And following the rodeo there is a different concert every night. And this happens EVERY night! So if you haven't made it out to Houston in March yet, start making plans!!! We tend to have visitors in our house for every day of the month and it is so worth the exhaustion that hits us at the end of the month every year.

This year our visitors included Marc's sister, Christina, who has been out to Houston before but never for the rodeo, my mom who comes every year, and my best friends from college Annie and Jen who have come out every year since I have been here.

And here come just a few of the countless pictures we took this March...

Christina's Visit
Christina's visit included a night at the rodeo including an AMAZING performance by Sugarland, a Saturday walking around the rodeo checking out all the shopping, food, and livestock, including a close encounter with a very large pig with left me with a very purple foot, new cowgirl boots for Christina, and just some altogether awesome hanging out time.













Annie and Jen's Visit
Having my Minnesota girls in Houston every year is something I look forward to most every year. These girls were my sidekicks in college, are a huge part of my life, and I can never get over how every time they are here it feels like we have never been a part. This year their visit included a girls night out at Ruby Tequilas including some amazing Dos Ritas (this is a giant margarita with a Dos XX upside down in it, it sounds weird, but its amazing and you must try one). Also included in the visit was a night out at the rodeo with my mom including the Miranda Lamber concert (this girl is a spit fire and put on amazing fun show), lots of pool time as always, and lots of play time with Romo.
















My Birthday
It has kind of become a tradition that my birthday revolves around all the rodeo fun. Last year Marc got me a fancy cowgirl belt with cow hair and rhinestones and front row tickets to Brad Paisley (I touched his hand) who puts on an amazing show. And this year he got me a gift card to Cavendars, the real cowboy shop here in Houston, and front row tickets to Keith Urban who puts on amazing show and is my absolute favorite. Have a ever mentioned what a lucky girl I am?










A few of my favorite livestock photos
If anyone needs a picture of a cow let me know, I have a million, I can't get enough of cows!













The carnival, food, and shopping



















A few of my favorite pictures from the actual Rodeo Show
















Thank you to everyone who made March such an amazing month for us. My Houston ladies, Kelli and Steffie, surprised me with cupcakes and flowers for our Monday night get together. Christina, Mommy, Jen and Annie we absolutely loved having every one of you here and hope you come back soon. And to all of you who sent birthday wishes from far away thank you so so much. And we hope you can find a chance to make it out to enjoy the amazing Houston Rodeo with us some year. Walking in the house every day and seeing the sweet birthday cards and flowers from everyone touched my heart! I am truly blessed with such amazing family, friends, family to be, and my loving fiance!

A long overdue update...

So to start things off on this revamped blog of ours, here is a little update about what has been going on in our lives over the last six months, sorry this is a long one, six months was way too long…

I guess the biggest change around here was my GRADUATION! I finally finished my thesis after a few months of writers block, a lack or enthusiasm, and procrastination. In the first week of February I defended that thesis to my committee of faculty members, passed, had a little goodbye party from my lab, turned in my completed and signed thesis for binding, and was officially awarded my masters degree in neuroscience from Baylor College of Medicine. Now my diploma is in and I am just waiting to pick it up when my bound thesis arrives as well (pictures to come). It was a long, twisty, and unexpected road to get where I am, but I couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out! I live by the phrase “everything happens for a reason” and I don’t regret any step I took in my education (no matter how hard that first year of grad school was or how unexpected my departure from grad school was). I now have a very strong education in both psychology and neuroscience, I had amazing experiences working in very different labs and through those experiences found without a doubt that a lab wasn’t where I wanted to spend my life.

So I am taking my well-rounded degrees, including a bachelor of arts and a master of science, and I am taking on a whole new unexpected adventure. And when I say unexpected, I mean it. No matter how much of my childhood I spent saying I would never be a teacher, I guess I finally realized how much of my mom is in me. That’s right, I am currently enrolled in an alternative certification program and hoping to land a teaching job (yes despite the education budget cuts) as a HIGH SCHOOL BIOLOGY TEACHER. I am taking my love for kids, my background in psychology, my understanding of human brain development, and my dream of having a job that I feel makes a difference in someone’s life, and I mashing it all into a new career I can honestly say I am truly excited about. A large reason I got the education I have is because of the teachers and mentors I had a long the way, including my number one teacher, Mommy, and that is something I want to give back. I can tell you that I spent a lot of time saying I wasn’t good a science and I wasn’t going to grad school, but I excelled and ended up where I am because of my support system (my parents and god parents most importantly) and those educators who took the time to mentor me and show me what is out there. But I know there are a lot of kids out there who don’t have what I grew up with and if I can reach even one kid and get them excited about their education than I will consider this new career of mine a success. And it turns out alternative certification here in Texas is pretty simple (which I am so thankful for because I am quite done being a student). I just had to attend a couple months of Saturday classes, get some classroom observation hours, take a content (Biology) exam, and do a few online modules. Right now I am studying for the test that makes me legally qualified to teach, finishing up some online modules, applying to any school district in driving distance, and counting on the need for quality high school science teachers outweighs the budget cuts. More to come on my adventure in future blog posts!

In the mean time, the bills have to get paid (especially with this wedding coming up haha). So despite how much Romo and I enjoyed my last few months of graduate school “writing from home,” I found myself a NEW JOB. I am currently working at the Houston VA medical campus (although I am employed by Baylor) as a research assistant in a psychiatry lab run by one of my old committee members. Despite my excitement about getting out of labs once and for all following graduation, it was a welcomed job offer at the perfect time and is the perfect transition job to adjust from student life to real life employee. I have spent the first couple of months simply analyzing backed up data in this very small lab (there are 1.5 of us) due to the ridiculous VA background check and orientation process (I won’t get into why it took me 2 entire months to be an official VA employee and how relived I am that Baylor is the one paying me). But now that I am officially allowed on VA campus (shhh don’t tell anyone I worked there for 2 months now ;)) I am heading up a behavioral study on alcohol drinking behavior in rats just like good old times!

So I think that is all the big changes in my life these days, other than being a happily engaged girl of course. With all the changes I am going through, Marc has been working as hard as ever at Exxon, playing softball, spending time with his “little brother” King from Big Brother Big Sister, and through all the chaos in my life has been my number one supporter and I am reminded constantly how lucky I am to have him by my side for the rest of my life.

Finally, in between our work schedules, trying to stay in a workout routine, finding much needed down time that we both can’t live without (as those of you who know us best know so well), and the everyday happenings of life we are finding time for wedding planning! As many of you know I love to plan ahead of time so the chance to plan everything ahead of time is something I am enjoying fully (even when others think I am little bit crazy). And considering that I am hoping to be finishing up my first year of teaching two weeks before our wedding date I am lucky to have this time to get as much done as possible now to avoid stress later. Wedding planning has been an absolute joy! I love every part of it and jump at the chance to use my creativity that has been stored away during graduate school and did I mention I love planning ;) And again I am reminded what a lucky girl I am because I have a wonderfully artistic, organized, and extremely willing co-planner/fiancé who has been involved every step of the way already! And on the planning team along with Marc and I, is my now expert wedding planning Mom ☺ She spends much of her days responding to my countless wedding emails about decorations, shoes, dresses, venues, budgets and even took a special trip out to spend the weekend venue hunting with us (and her venue selecting skills deserve a blog post all to themselves)! My favorite thing about this wedding in the end will truly be how so many people we both love, from so many different parts of our lives, are helping to make this day special for us. So many of our family and friends have amazing talent and creativity and are ready to help through the process and I can’t wait to see how it all pulls together in the end, and in the meantime the planning is something I am truly enjoying and I am sure something you will hear much more about as it gets closer to the big day of June 16, 2012! And I will to be sure to post the link to our wedding website as soon as it is up and running :)

Well, I think I definitely used up my blogging time for the day but I have a big post coming of my favorite month of March full of birthdays, visitors, and the rodeo! There will be lots of fun pictures and I hope to have it up sometime this weekend so y’all come back now! But for now I will leave you with a little March sneak peek Bahaha!

Hello Again

Well we got engaged in October and it seems like life hasn’t slowed down since! There have been holidays, wedding planning, work, new jobs, graduation, classes, visitors, birthdays and somewhere in the mix I completely failed at blogging. And with all the blog stalking I have been doing lately, finding all the fun wedding and photography blogs I can handle, not to mention all the cooking blogs I already follow and my ultimate favorite thepionneerwoman.com, it makes me sad that I haven’t been a better blogger. But my increased blog stalking has inspired me. I am now 25, no longer a student, have a brand new fancy camera thanks to my wonderfully sweet fiancé that I hope to learn how to use, and I have decided to make blogging a weekly activity for me. That way I can keep all our long distance relatives and friends updated on life here in Houston, document our life together, and in the process I have a little creative outlet and a way to practice my photography skills and display them. So I am starting slow, with promises of once a week updates and who knows maybe I will surprise myself with enough to say for a couple posts a week! More frequent blogging will let me keep updates shorter (because anyone who has ever received an email from me or even just read a previous blog post knows I tend to ramble and throw out way too much information all at once), and who knows what will pop up here, wedding planning (without giving away too much detail of course, we wouldn’t want to ruin the fun), Romo pictures of course, maybe a few little updates from the last 6 months of life, vacation updates, and the everyday happenings in our little family.

And just because they're so darn cute and we are loving the beautiful weather here in Houston before it gets too hot to handle I will end the post with a fun picture of my two favorite boys playing :)