28 years young! :)

Guess who had a birthday today?! Yep, it was yours truly! I am 28 year young today! :) I honestly don't feel 28 at all; however, I'm getting to that point where I have to ask myself, wait, how old am I? ;)

This weekend in honor of my birthday/Easter we had all of my family up to visit. And yes, I said ALL of my family! All 8 of them, so we had a grand total of 11 people in my house! We had a great time together filled with BBQ, shopping, watching tv, eating at the Harbor, and amazing Easter service, a yummy lunch, birthday cookie cake and presents, and a Ranger's game!

Today was my actual birthday and I had a great day! My coworkers got me Chick-fil-A for lunch (my fav!) and my students got me some sweet gifts and cards! We went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse tonight with Jacque, Jason, and Jillian and they gave me the new Taylor Swift and Sugarland c.d! Can't wait to listen to them! Jillian also got me a sweet card and some super cute stationary! After dinner, we went to Dairy Queen for a baby blizzard and just spent time catching up! When we got home, my sweet hubby gave me some beautiful pink roses, an iTunes gift card, and a gift certificate for a massage! I definitely can't wait to use that! I'll post pictures tomorrow of all my loot, so be looking for it! ;) 
In honor of my big day, I thought I'd post some baby pics! Yes, that's me, rocking out my super awesome hair, and no I'm not a boy! :)

Here's Grandpa feeding me cake and ice cream on my first birthday!

Seriously, how could you not love that pouty face?!

visiting the goats with Mama and Papa!

I had a wonderful day, and am so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family!

13 Things Your Child's Teacher Won't Tell You!

I found this online tonight from Reader's Digest, and it was TOO true not to post! :)

1. If we teach small children, don’t tell us that our jobs are “so cute” and that you wish you could glue and color all day long.
2. I’m not a marriage counselor. At parent-teacher conferences, let’s stick to Dakota’s progress, not how your husband won’t help you around the house.
3. We’re sick of standardized testing and having to “teach to the test.”
4. Kids used to go out and play after school and resolve problems on their own. Now, with computers and TV, they lack the skills to communicate. They don’t know how to get past hurt feelings without telling the teacher and having her fix it. (AMEN!!)
5. When I hear a loud belch, I remember that a student’s manners are a reflection of his parents’.
6. Your child may be the center of your universe, but I have to share mine with 25 others.
7. Please help us by turning off the texting feature on your child’s phone during school hours.
8. Guys who dribble a ball for a couple of hours a game can make up to $20 million a year. We educate future leaders and make about $51,000 a year.
9. We take on the role of mother, father, psychologist, friend, and adviser every day. Plus, we’re watching for learning disabilities, issues at home, peer pressure, drug abuse, and bullying.
10. Kids dish on your secrets all the time—money, religion, politics, even Dad’s vasectomy.
11. Please, no more mugs, frames, or stuffed animals. A gift card to Starbucks or Staples would be more than enough. A thank-you note: even better.
12. We love snow days and three-day weekends as much as your kid does.
13. The students we remember are happy, respectful, and good-hearted, not necessarily the ones with the highest grades.  

to highlight or not to highlight....

that is the question!

So the other day husband and I were having a big fight discussing the fact that I REALLY did not appreciate that he told me that he wanted to shave a goatee (which I hate) but I asked him to please wait until the following week because we were going to be taking pictures that weekend and wanted him to have his beard in these and he agreed to do so.

*If I haven't mentioned this before, I love, love, love, my husband with a beard. I believe it is his best look, makes him look his age, and oh so handsome! Any other facial looks however, I pretty much despise! He knows this and has basically grown used to wearing a beard for the entire part of our dating/marriage relationship. At times though, he does become a bit rebellious and throws a fit saying that he "doesn't like the beard" and "it's too itchy" or "too hot". Soon after that he shaves his entire face or does the detested goatee for a short time, until my whining and complaining convinces him to give me the beard back!

But anyways, back to what I was saying.

So the next morning, we're in the bathroom, getting ready for work. I'm putting on my makeup and he's trimming his beard before he gets into the shower. He normally trims his beard, or shaves his neck in the mornings, so this is all a normal routine. Do you know what is NOT normal? Me casually glancing over at him to see that he has JUST SHAVED OFF HIS ENTIRE BEARD!!!! Then that's when you would have heard a little something that goes like this:
C- "WHAT ARE YOU DOING??!"
B- "What are you talking about?"
C- "You just shaved your beard off!!!"
B- "Yeah? So?"
C-"Do you not remember the conversation that we JUST had last night about this and you said that you were NOT going to shave it until next week???!!!"
B- "Uh, not really. What's the big deal?"
C-"You KNOW I don't like it!"
B- "It's not that big of a deal!"
C-"Yes it is! You know how I feel about it."
B-"It's my facial hair!"
C-"Yes, but I have to look at it every day!" (so I maybe should not have gone there..ooops)
B-"Oh! So you're saying I'm ugly?!"
C-"No, I didn't say that. You just know I like your beard best. And you didn't even talk to me before you shaved it!"
B- "So I have to ask you every time I want to shave or change my facial hair?!
C-"No, but it would be nice if you just talked to me about it before you actually did it!"
B-"Well, what about YOUR hair?"
C- "What about my hair?!"
B-"I don't like it!"
C-"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T LIKE IT?!"
B-"That red. I hate that red that you put in it. It doesn't look normal and I don't like it!"
C- "Fine! I won't do it again!"

(P.S. Props to you if you're still reading! ;)

Anyways, long story short, we made up and were fine! The point of this whole post is, soon I will be making a trip to my hairdresser for my normal cut and color. However, since that last fight  discussion with my hubby, I'm wondering what I should do about my color. See, for most of my hair coloring career, I have always gone dark. Once upon a time, I experimented with some highlights, but that lasted a short while and I moved on. My hairdresser and I have always thought that dark brown always looked best on me. I started adding a little red to my dark brown over the past year or so and have loved that. It's not really dramatic, but looks pretty when the sun shines on it! However, my husband does not agree. He keeps begging me to put highlights back in. So, now that I'm stumped, I'm asking your opinion. Which do you like best?

hello highlights!

This is Bryan's favorite picture of me with the highlights and it's the one he's always talking about!

This is more recent over the past year when I started adding red to my dark hair..even though you really can't tell

You can also refer to my blog profile picture! ;) Ok ladies, what do you think?!

blog designers anyone?

So, I realized that after blogging for, oh almost 4 years, it was probably time to for an official blog design! I would love to hear from you who you used, who's your favorite, ect. I've seen some pretty cute stuff out there, but don't know where you got it from! Any info you have would be much appreciated! I want something professionally designed, but also don't want to spend an arm and a leg on it. Thanks girls!

Spring Break 2011!

Spring break was wonderful this year! I'm trying not to be too upset that it's over, but glad that I finished another week back to school! I keep reminding myself that the faster we go back, the faster we get out! ;)

We started off our spring break this year fast and furious! Charity and Luke drove in from Nashville and stopped by on their way to my parent's house. We also had Morgan and Chris come down and spend the night with us all that Friday night. It was one great, big, slumber party! We went to the harbor and ate at Gloria's then headed to Twisty Treats for some yummy frozen yogurt. We spent the rest of the night laughing and having lots of fun! It was such a sweet time spent with friends! On Saturday, we packed up and then drove down to Lorena to spend a couple of days with my parents. I also had the chance to see Kyrbie and baby Lexi! It was so good to see everyone!

Monday morning, Bryan and I continued our trip by heading to San Antonio. We took the loop around Austin and that was SO much faster than actually driving through Austin! We will definitely be doing that again! We arrived in San Antonio and got checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Sheraton Gunter and it was a historical hotel, downtown, literally 2 blocks from the Riverwalk. We parked when we got there and never drove again until we left! We walked everywhere and it was so nice! We did a little shopping and saw the movie "Beastly". Yes, I liked it and Bryan was really sweet to let me pick the movie! He said it wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be!

We went to dinner at Landry's and it was super yummy! Very delicious seafood! We visited the Alamo and had a great time. I wanted to go inside, but when I saw the line that wrapped around the building, I quickly changed my mind and we just walked around the area outside!

We spent the rest of our time being lazy and watching tv in our hotel! It was so great being lazy and having nothing to do! We headed back to Rockwall on Wednesday and then went dancing with some friends at Southern Junction. Thursday night Mom and Rachel came down and we went shopping on Friday at Market! We spent the rest of the night relaxing and enjoying our weekend. Sunday morning Bryan taught Sunday School, we went to luch with our friends at Joe Willy's after church, and then spent the afternoon with Wes and Amanda!

We had a busy spring break, but had a lot of fun with our friends and family! ;)

Answers to Your Questions!

Thank you so much to the lovely ladies that left me some questions to answer on my Q & A post! I was so excited to see your comments, and now without further ado:

Emily asked the question, " When do you and Bryan plan on trying to have babies?

Well, Emily, as much as I'd like to give you an exact date we're keeping this one a secret for now. I will say that we are planning on trying to get pregnant in the near future, but can't say when "near" is. And, no, I am not currently pregnant! :)


Lindsey asked, "Why don't you start your own teacher blog?"

Lindsey, if I'm being completely honest, I'd say that I don't think I'm good enough to start one! :) I actually never even knew there was such a thing until I just recently stumbled onto yours and several other teacher's blogs! After seeing all of everyone's amazing ideas, I think to myself that I could never be that good. One of my favorite things that I find are the free downloads that all of the teacher's post for free games, centers, etc. I know that they make all of them on their own and just off the top of their heads! I don't really know how to do that or have the graphics to make all that awesome cute stuff. I'm sure I could learn, but I just don't know how to. It may sound stupid, but I just don't have those creative ideas floating around in my head. However, if someone else can think of it, I can recreate it in my classroom like nobody's business! ;) I know that I don't have to make a lot of stuff, I could just post pictures of what I've done that week or ideas I had. We'll see! Maybe someday I'll learn how to, but for now, I'll just keep enjoying the fruits of everyone else's labor! ;)


Marlayna asked, "If you weren't a teacher what would you be?".

Hmm, good question! You know, I actually have several answers. Now, whether or not I could ACTUALLY do them if I wasn't teaching may be a different story! ;) If I wasn't a teacher, I wish I could be a musician. I would probably be singing my heart out on some stage, making an album, or playing the piano. I've been singing almost my entire life and when I went to ASU, I debated on majoring in music or education. Obviously, education won! If I wasn't singing, then I would have liked to have had a career in medicine; however, unfortunately, I do NOT have the brains for science AT ALL! Science slays me! I think seriously, if I couldn't teach, I would just be a stay at home Mommy! I mean, who wouldn't want to do that! I've also randomly wanted to go back and work @ ASU. I always thought that would be cool to go back as an alum and work there. I had a job working for the Athletic department while I was in college and loved it! I am definitely great at the secretary stuff! I'm neat, precise, and organized! Hopefully though, I won't have to put this plan into action (well, except that Mommy thing one day)!

Ashley actually asked me two questions! The first one was, "If you could have one last meal, what would it be??" and the second one was, "Where do you find your clothes?".

This is actually an easy one for me Ash! It would be Texas Roadhouse's ribs, mashed potatoes with extra gravy, several of their yummy rolls, a house salad with no tomatoes, extra eggs, and honey mustard dressing, and chocolate sheath cake! Yum!

As far as my clothes go, I'm a pretty simple woman! I mainly shop for clothes at Target, JCPenney's, Kohls, Old Navy, and Forever 21. I have never been one to spend lots of money on expensive jeans, or one shirt. I would much rather buy more for less, rather than only getting one item! Now, that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to buy a pair of Seven jeans though! I just can't make myself do it! I also almost never pay full price for anything. I am the sale queen! I can almost always find all of my things on sale! What can I say, it's a gift! ;)

Amy asked me, "Do you plan to have as large of a family as you grew up with?

Haha! That would be a NO! If you didn't already know, I am the oldest of 7 children, and Bryan is the second oldest of 4! Bryan and I both love big families, but definitely don't want to have 7 children. Our perfect number is 4! I think that's just right. We feel that we wouldn't know what to do with just 2, and I don't want an uneven number like 3. If God blesses us, then we want either 2 boys and 2 girls, or 3 boys and 1 girl. I don't really care though, as long as I get one of each!


Thank you girls so much for playing along! It was so much fun, and I definitely plan on doing it again in the future! You girls rock!! :)

A little Q & A! :)

Hey friends! I decided I wanted to try something new that I haven't done before. I feel like my blog has been boring lately, so I thought I would have a little Q & A session out there for all you fellow bloggers that would like to know me better! Feel free to ask any questions that you like and I'll do my best to answer them! Now, don't leave me hanging here! Ask whatever questions your little heart desires..serious, funny, embarrassing..I'll take them all! Can't wait to hear what you have to ask! :)

A Wonderful Lesson

I found this post on one of the blogs that I regularly stalk! I just love her and her stories about her kids are awesome! I loved the quotes that she posted and they really spoke to me! Everything was so true and I think she hit the nail on the head! Please make sure you take time to read it! ;)

Jillian Grace Cunningham!

Jillian Grace Cunningham is finally here!
Born February 20, 2011 at 10:48 p.m.
Weighed 6lbs 12 oz and was 18.5 inches long.
Born with a head full of dark hair and absolutely precious!

Princess Jillian, your Uncle Bryan and Aunt Chelsey stayed with your mom and dad all weekend, and were determined to walk you out! We spend Friday night, and all day with them Saturday making your mom eat spicy food, return gifts, and go shopping while walking, walking, walking! I guess it finally worked because you finally decided to come! Your mom was a champ Jillian! We were so excited when you were finally born! Even though we had to wait at the hospital until 2:00 am it was all worth it! Here we are waiting and telling them to bring you out to the nursery!

Getting your first bath!

                                                    all snuggled up in your bed!

                                            Uncle Bryan holding you for the first time!

                                                                 He loves his girl!

                                               Aunt Chelsey loves her princess!

                                                   Your awesome godparents! ;)

San Antonio anyone?

Hubby and I are thinking about going to San Antonio for a few days during spring break! Does anyone have any recommendations on places to go see, restaurants, good shopping spots? I already think I've found a hotel, so I don't need that, but I'll take anything else! Ready? GO!

The Art of Marriage

This weekend our church began a new Bible study in our life groups called "The Art of Marriage". I was really excited to start this new study and we had the 1st session today. I really liked it! We started off by watching a dvd session and then talking about some of the points in the book/video. I can't wait to see what all I'm going to learn from this study.

God has recently revealed to me areas that I need to change in my life in order to become a better wife to Bryan. Now, believe me, my husband is not perfect, but neither am I. It wasn't until I was married that I realized that marriage has a way of bringing to light how truly selfish we each are. It's hard to discover this, but once we admit how sinful and selfish we are, we can move to change it.

Some things that I want to work on changing is realizing that my husband is not the enemy. Last weekend when we were supposed to go visit my friend Morgan, I was so excited to see her. I had been waiting weeks and counting down the days. Unfortunately, the snow came and even though I knew we probably wouldn't be able to go see her, I kept telling myself we were. Bryan had to be the bad guy and make the decision that we weren't going. If I had been a good wife, I would have realized that even though he wanted to go, he was making the best decision in order to keep us both safe. So did I decide to be the good wife? Unfortunately, no. I treated him like the enemy, told him that I was mad at him and that he ruined my day. I wouldn't talk to him and we got into a huge fight. I'm not proud to admit that I did these things, but admitting them is part of the growing and healing! :) I eventually took time to cool down, and realized that it wasn't his fault. I apologized to him and made everything better.

 I know that you might find it hard to believe, but I have a hard time apologizing. I guess part of my sinful, selfish, nature thinks that I never do anything wrong; however, that's not even close to being true. I'm slowly realizing that at times, I can be a huge brat to Bryan. I treat him in ways that are disrespectful and not loving. Thankfully, he's always gracious to forgive me! It's hard, but I can't wait to see what God is going to show me through this new study. I want to be the wife that Bryan deserves and I want our marriage to reflect the holiness of God- the way that it was designed to be!

Weekend with Morgan!

This past weekend, Bryan and I had the chance to go to Ft. Worth to visit our best friend Morgan! We were originally scheduled to go visit her last weekend, but because of all the snow we got, Bryan decided that it wasn't safe enough to travel. We were disappointed, but decided to reschedule. We left Friday around 5:30 and that was a big mistake. What normally takes us about an hour, took us around 2 hours after being stuck in traffic on I20 all night. Needless to say we were very glad to make it there! We had the chance to meet up with Morgan AND Chris and it was so great to see them! Chris and Morgan broke up about a year ago, but God has led them back together again and they are taking things slowly, seeing where God is going to take them. Bryan and I couldn't be more happy! :)

That night we all went out to dinner in downtown Ft. Worth, then went to a cookie and ice cream shop that was delicious! We went back to Morgan's house and all stayed up talking until about 1:30 in the morning! It was so good to catch up and laugh at funny stories together! The next morning Bryan and I spent some more quality time with Morgan, had a late lunch and then headed back to Rockwall. We had such a sweet time together and I can't wait to do it again! Thank you Lord for sweet friends!

blogger is not my friend!

Right now I'm pretty pissed off at blogger right now! Is it just me or does anyone else have the problem with the photo uploader? Ever since they changed it to this new one, it hasn't worked as well! It takes me F-O-R-E-V-E-R to load pictures...like 5 or more minutes people! This is not normal! Also, it has a habit of taking my pictures and turning them to the right when I'm uploading them. It's a major pain in the butt, b/c I have to go back, rotate all the pictures to the left, and then upload them again! Ugh! It seriously is why I haven't been posting many pictures lately. Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me? I'd love any tips or suggestions if you have any! Thanks!

Baby Garrett is here!

On Monday, February 7th, Garrett Wesley was born at 8:11 a.m, weighing 7 lbs 14 oz, and was 20 & 3/4 inches long! Of course we HAD to up to the hospital to check on Amanda and visit baby Garrett! We were completely smitten with him and I just LOVE his hair! He is so handsome and completely adorable! Welcome to the world baby Garrett!

recent updates...

I'm going to ignore the fact that I haven't updated in, oh, almost two weeks, and give you bulleted updates!

• Things at school have been crazy with January testing (TPRI, DRA, math assessments). Thank goodness that's done!
• I had my friend Amanda's baby shower at my house and it went great! Did I also mention that it snowed pretty much all day?! That will be a memory I won't forget!
• We had a potluck with our life group from church two weekends ago and bbq was on the menu. My husband stupidly kindly volunteered to bbq for oh, 30 people that Sunday for lunch. His happy hiney had to get up at 4:00 a.m in order to start bbq-ing chicken and pulled pork for everyone! I stayed in bed and slept in! We had a great time and everyone loved Bryan's bbq!
• Last week I received the sad news that a friend of mine from college, who was in my Phi Lamb sorority, had passed away. She was born with cystic fibrosis, and went in several weeks ago for a double lung transplant. They thought everything looked good, but sadly she passed away. Jenifer's passing was just another reminder that life is fleeting, but I take comfort in knowing that she is with our sweet Savior right now!
• This month we've been working on eating more at home and less out in order to save more money. People, this has been HARD for me! We were so used to eating out several times a week, I definitely wasn't looking forward to quiting almost cold turkey. He made us eat at home for 5 days in a row, and I swear I almost died! ;) Thank goodness, it actually wasn't as bad as it seemed. We I purposely made extras so we could have leftover's the next day for lunch. Let me tell you, this part I've enjoyed! I like eating yummy leftovers a lot better than my regular turkey sandwich! We just plan our menu and write it on the calendar every week. That way we can look and know what we're having, and whoever gets home first can just go ahead and start dinner! We're on week 2 of this and are having luck so far!
• Also, tying in with our eating habits, we've both joined Weight Watchers and are really enjoying it! Sometime in the future, we do plan on starting a family, so both of us wanted to be health when that happens. I definitely want to lose about 25-30 lbs. We both realize that although we haven't been eating the healthiest all the time, we haven't been doing as bad as we thought. Our main issue has been portion control! I actually did WW during college and it was the only thing that has ever worked for me. I like that I can eat the things that I like, but within reason. I have daily points that I can use, but also have weekly points that I save so I can eat out at places like Texas Roadhouse, on my cheat day! Once you get into the routine of counting points, it's really not bad! I was only on it for about 2 days last week and lost 1.2 lbs! I know it's not much, but it's SOMETHING! Plus with WW we're only supposed to lose about 2 lbs a week. I'm excited to see what results I get this week! Bryan also did really well. He of course lost about 5lbs and I'm very pissed excited for him that he can lose the weight so well! ;)
• This past weekend we had date night on Friday night, whoo hoo!
• Saturday was a beautiful lazy day and I was definitely spoiled with the weather!
• My parents were at a conference this weekend in Richardson, so they drove through to have lunch with us on their way back. It was really a treat to see them! We took them to lunch at Gloria's, got some Twisty Treats, and hung out at the Harbor. It was a great weekend!
• At church we've been studying alot about grace. We listened to Chris August's song "7 x 70" and it's awesome. You must go listen to it now.
• Well, that's all I know people! Hug your loved ones tonight and tell them you love them, because tonight's all you may have.
• Be blessed!