Mardi Gras in Texas

I love Mardi Gras. I grew up going to New Orleans regularly with my parents all the time, but especially Mardi Gras. Seeing as we live 9 hours away from the Big Easy, we have to make our own fun here. We invited a bunch of our friends over for a Mardi Gras/Oscars party. We had red beans and rice, crawfish ettoufe, cornbread, white chocolate bread pudding, and of course King cake (my favorite bread item ever). Add some coffee and it was a fabulous evening.

I love that our friends will come cram into our itty bitty apartment, be willing to sit on the floor or stand up, so that we can have a good time. We truly had a blast. We laughed the whole time! I feel blessed to have that many amazing people in my life.

My friend, Patti, brougt me some grapefruit when she came. It was HUGE! Seriously, it was the biggest piece of fruit I've seen. Here's the line up:















It literally dwarfs the other produce. It is a locally grown grapefruit too. So maybe it is true what they say: everything's bigger in Texas?

This week is going to be good. I did not have to work today so I am cooking Indian chicken curry for some friends of ours that are moving to Scotland soon. Then, on Friday I am flying to Tallahassee for my cousin's wedding. More on that later

Have a fun day

Awesome

Turns out that not having a real job is awesome when you only have a 4 day work week. My weekend begins tonight at 6ish. Awesome.

This is really only awesome because the kids exhaust me. I really do not love being at home all day with out much to do. But somehow I find ways to stay busy and get things done. Taking care of Ethan is really a top priority and that is really fun!

Lately....

Our sitting getaway was wonderful. It was so quiet and peaceful. We were able to sleep in and rest. We got school things done, but mostly we just enjoyed not being in the hustle and bustle of things. We had lots of time to pray together and just sit in the presence of God without noise, like the super loud train that goes by our apartment seemingly every 5 minutes. It was a great little marriage retreat, even though we weren't in a fancy hotel or anything. Ethan is incredible and any time I get a chance to spend lots of time with him is amazing!

Last weekend we had Couple's Night at church, which is always fun and quite a treat. We meet up at the church, draw names to split into groups, and go out to dinner together. The kids stay at the church so it's adults only. It was such a nice way to get to know some new people from the church. And the food was good too!

We finally have been able to start our prayer group back up! Each Monday night, Ethan and I meet some at some friends' house with other friends from church and just pray for each other and our church. It is an incredible time! Last semester, we saw God move in so many incredible ways that we praying together in groups is something we will never give up. But since the beginning of the year, someone has been sick or out of town each week so this was the first time we were able to be all together. It was amazing! I love praying with others and this experience has truly opened my eyes to God in a new way.

The rest of the week was pretty laid back. We did get to go to a concert at the House of Blues. Our friend from church has a brother in a band that had a cd release party on Friday. It was a sold out show and I completely understand why. They were amazing! The band is called The Early Republic and you should totally check them out! It was nice to feel "young" again and do something cool and fun and we got to support a great band in the process. We love music so it was a great way to spend a Friday night.

Neither Ethan or I really love Valentine's Day. But since it was Saturday night we went out like usual. This time we ran some shopping errands. I had some birthday money to spend so I was able to get some new jeans (finally!). We went to Pei Wei to try the new dish, Thai Mango Chicken, and we highly recommend it! We went to Target to get some odds and ends and then grabbed some coffee and a movie and had a relaxing evening at home, still in bed at a decent time for church the next morning.

This coming week should be pretty good. We have our version of disciple now, called Winter Blast, at church this weekend. Ethan and I are both helping out and it's always a good weekend. We're ending the weekend with cajun fest at our house to celebrate Mardi Gras. Also, I am getting my hair colored on Tuesday. YAY! Bye bye grays!

House Sitting Getaway

My aunt and uncle live about 30 minutes away from us near Dallas. They are out of town this weekend and we are house sitting. Really we are more dog/cat sitting. They have a beautiful house and wonderful pets. It is so nice to be able to get away from campus and just relax. We have no obligations, there is no noise out here. We only have each other. We are really looking at this weekend like a marriage weekend getaway. We didn't bring too much to do. We plan on spending a lot of time in prayer together, reading Scripture, reading some stuff for school. Who wouldn't love a weekend to spend with your spouse and God with no other distractions (besides feeding the animals of course)?

Finally Fixed

Well, I got the blog fixed! Found a new background that I liked. Seeing it back and looking nice makes me want to blog again. So here's what has been going on.

I finally got well! It took about 2 weeks, but I am back to fully myself. I hate being sick. Thankfully I have a fabulous husband who took good care of me and a sweet momma who came over to Texas just to be the "live in nurse." Unfortunately, right after I got well, Ethan got bronchitis with a sinus infection and was feeling really bad for a few days. He's better now too and we are enjoying it!

I got a job!! I am working for Camp Fire USA at an elementary school here in Fort Worth. I work in the after-school program doing enrichment type stuff. This week I am teaching them to play chess. It's really fun. I love the kids already and I really enjoy my coworkers. We are blessed that this job opportunity opened up. God provided it for us, that's for sure!

School is definitely rolling. Ethan's classes are really challenging him and my one class is going very well. I had a fabulous birthday. It was right at the end of me being sick, so it was so nice to get out of the house. We went to dinner at our favorite sushi place and then went shopping. I got some great things on really good sales! It made the day even better!

Other than that, things are normal around here. We love that God has provided and provided and continuously shows us his care and love for us in the small things as well as the large. We know He's doing big things around here and we're excited to be a part of it!

New Layout Problems

I wanted to change my blog background from the Christmas theme finally, but the background I wanted is having some issues. I decided just to use it anyway until the site can get it fixed. Then, I will add it back on so it will look better. I found it on simplychicblogs.blogspot.com Anyway, enough of that boring stuff.

I have a job interview today with one of the after school programs I applied with. We will see how it goes. I am a little nervous, but mostly excited. The people there have been nice each time I've talked with them. I am hoping to have another interview with a different after school program soon. I am praying that God makes it clear what to do. I know he will.

I am feeling so much better. Thank you so much for praying. This strep thing is pretty serious apparently. Luckily I got on antibiotics pretty quickly. It could have been worse I suppose, although I would hate to think what that would be like. Yikes. Now Ethan's at the doctor getting checked to see if he has a sinus infection. We are falling apart! It's all pretty good timing though, seeing as school hasn't really gotten back in the full swing of things.

I'll keep updating with news on jobs and illnesses!

Have a fun day!

Perhaps the Longest Week

So this past week has probably been one of the longest weeks of my life. Monday I was feeling horrible and rested all evening. Tuesday I was still not feeling well, but stayed at home and got a lot of things done. Tuesday night I woke up in the middle of the night with a super high fever. I got it down and Wednesday made an appointment with the doctor. Turns out I have strep throat! Which I though would be no big deal...get some antibiotics, sleep for a day or two and then be done with it. No such luck. Apparently strep in adults is one of the worst things you can get. I was feeling so awful on Thursday afternoon I called my mom and she came over to help out. Ethan had class and work and was behind because of taking care of me. Mom was a huge help! I was feeling better on Saturday to the point where my mom decided I could probably get out of the house for a little while. After 1 1/2 hours of not really even doing anything, I was miserably exhausted. I came home and tried to sleep but my blood pressure was so high that I could not get comfortable. My sweet husband brought me back to the doctor and she said that I was fine, just my body was overworking itself to get over the strep. She drew some blood to check on some things but she wasn't too concerned and sent me home to get some rest. So basically, I am sitting here on the couch waiting for those tests to come back and to get the go ahead to get up and do things. We'll see. Hopefully today!! But I have been getting better slightly each day so that is good. As long as I'm not getting worse. I am just not the type of person to sit on the couch and do nothing for a week. It is not fun at all. I have watched so much TV and movies it's ridiculous. I just want to get better and get a job!!

But God's timing is always perfect and I am sure He has something in store for all of this. I needed time to be able to rest and get better and I also needed to not jump at the first job offered to me. Because of that, I may have a good shot at a job I really really want instead. We are still praying and waiting. God is good.