Life in Transition

It's funny how things sneak up on you in life. You make plans, you talk about those plans, you think about those plans, and you even plan for those plans. But suddenly, when it's time to follow through, there is this pause, kind of like, wait! What am I doing? This would describe my head the last few days as I began packing for Lubbock.

Don't get me wrong...I am very excited to move to Lubbock and I WANT to move to Lubbock. It's just that C and I have been so busy lately with wedding activities, showers, birthday celebrations, and actual weddings that I have not had time to stop and really think about the fact that I am officially moving to Lubbock this Friday. I haven't really dealt with the emotional side of our plans...the part where I am moving 300 miles from my family and most of my friends. So, needless to say since I am very sensitive, I have had a couple of breakdowns (or meltdowns, whichever you prefer) this week. I already stress easily when it comes to big projects (funny how I am a teacher since I stress easily) so when the boxes came out this week the tears came too. Lucky for me, I have a great support system around me, starting with my wonderful husband who can deal with anything I throw at him. I think I caught him a little off guard but he knows me so well so he adapted quickly. Now that I am in Lubbock for training for my new job, I am managing those feelings better...at the moment. :)
Last weekend my good friend Lizzy got married. The wedding was very pretty and lots of fun. She had a great band so the dance floor was packed all night. It was also fun to spend time with some of my closest girlfriends right before I move. Lizzy was a beautiful bride and her family is lots of fun. I think I may be getting too old for those late nights, though. My body just doesn't recover from those nights as well as it used to.

Colton's cousin JuLea got married this past weekend in Lubbock, which is why I am still here. No sense in flying back for one day just to return on Tuesday. Her wedding was outdoors at Spirit Ranch. She used peacocks for her theme and her colors were purple and lime green. It was a gorgeous color combination. Her dress was amazing, too. Lots of flowers all over...I am not doing it justice explaining it. It was a lot of fun and Colton's entire family was there, even Grandmommy! I love getting to see his family. It's always a good time.

Well, the official move is this Friday. Wish us luck!
XOXO,
Devin

School's Out for Summer!

Woohoo! Finally, the end of the school year is here. I thought it would never come. My last day working for Fort Worth ISD was officially Monday, June 7th. While I have enjoyed my time here in Fort Worth, I am looking forward to my new school in Lubbock. Friday was the last day with the kiddos and I only had to go in Monday for two hours or so to check out (which is a really detailed process of basically chasing administrators all over the school to get them to sign you out. fun!)

My first day of summer was actually rather busy. I came home from my two hour sprint through PHS to find the laundry basket overflowing. So began a full day of laundry, baking chocolate chip cookies (cravings....too hard to resist), making lunch for my husband (a  really elaborate way to say I made some mac n cheese), cleaning the kitchen, P90X, and making dinner for Colton. Now, I will say, dinner was more elaborate. Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, green beans...a way to congratulate myself on making it to the end of the year. Funny how I always choose to reward myself with calorie laden foods. But man do they taste good!

Tuesday brought a little time by the pool, where I rescued a poor baby bird who had fallen in and could not get out. I also began my serious workout routine. I call it my serious workout routine because it involves me doing three different workouts a day...30 day shred, P90X, and some type of cardio. I realized that I had overlooked the fact in my euphoria that school was out that I now have absolutely no excuse not to work out and make myself feel comfortable in my own body. So...its time to get serious. I also enjoyed a little one on one time with Laura Bush. I am absolutely loving her memoir, Spoken from the Heart. I have literally laughed and cried while reading it but I am not done yet so I will post a review later when I finish.

Today, the realization set in that I am MOVING to LUBBOCK in three weeks and of those three weeks one is almost over and one will actually be spent in Lubbock at a training. What this means is I have exactly one week to pack up our whole life here. If you know me, you know I stress easily so imagine how poor Colton feels. Actually, so far I have taken it fairly well. I am extremely organized so I sat down today and made my to do list. I work well when I have a list to work off of and I like being able to cross things out. It makes me feel better.

So...with all these realizations about my short time schedule....I think I will take a walk with my hubby and procrastinate until Monday, after Lizzy's wedding weekend, to start. After all, my best work is done last minute...or at least I tell myself that!

XOXO,
Devin

Bachelorette Re-Cap & Lady Gaga

May and June are proving to be filled with all things wedding related. Lots of showers, bachelor parties, and bachelorette parties to be followed with weddings in June. We have spent a busy May jetting across Texas to attend all these festivities all while trying to keep our sanity before we move. Our days in Fort Worth are numbered and soon we will be official residents of Lubbock. But until then, we plan to enjoy as much time with friends and family here. It has not really hit me that I will be moving away FOREVER in less than a month, I guesss because I am very excited. But the good Lord knows I will miss my parents and our cute dogs Bailey and Gracie. ANd....my sister may be moving back to Fort Worth just when I leave. Boo!

The school year is winding down nicely. Finals and benchmarks have taken lots of time this May and I know the kiddos are ready to go. Just when I think I may go grey prematurely or pull my hair out one of them will step in and do something really fantastic. This was what happened last Friday. I had a frustrating morning reviewing them for finals. The day before I had handed out their end of year notes. Every year that I have taught, I create a typewritten letter (it has actually evolved into more of a brochure with quotes and song lyrics) but I hand write a note on each one for each student. It  is time consuming but I do it because I want them to know I care. Well, 7th period rolls around on Friday and one of my students presents me with a hand-made card about twenty minutes into class. It has a huge picture of Lady Gaga on the front (I lOVE her) with shards of those plastic dress up mirrors you played with when you were little artfully arranged in a collage around it. I thought"Sweet" and then opened it up. All my 7th period students had written a note in it. I cried! Ha. It was so sweet and the first time I have ever received a note from my entire class together. I have received letters from individuals before but this was the first time a class planned together. I loved it! I was reminded of why I teach and why even the most frustrating moments are worth it.

This past weekend was the bachelorette bash for my good friend Lizzy. We spent Saturday evening out and about in Dallas, hitting up Dragonfly for dinner first. Let me tell you the macaroni and cheese at Dragonfly is to die for. Delicious! After two hours of fellowship and wine, we headed off to S4 for a drag show. It was fun but we only stayed an hour. Next up...the PM lounge at the Joule. Very swanky and filled to the brim with people. It was a fun night of dancing with the girls and the bride seemed to enjoy herself quite nicely!

Next up...an 80s themed 30th birthday bash! Four days and counting til summer.....

XOXO,
Devin

Life in the fast lane....

It feels like Colton and I have been going, going, going lately. We have been back and forth to Lubbock several times to house hunt and then do walkthroughs plus we have had several wedding related parties to attend so our weekends have been cram packed. Last weekend was the first weekend we stayed in Fort Worth in awhile and we had a shower in Dallas for my good friend Lizzy who is getting married in June. We spent this weekend traveling to Lbk Friday and back to Dallas Saturday for a surprise party for Colton's buddy Lucas, who turned 30. It was a quick but necessary trip to wrap up some details of Colton's job next year. To top all of this off, I have been sick for almost two weeks now. I had symptoms of a cold but could not shake them. I actually missed a day of work due to fever and achy muscles. Finally, I called the doctor this week and got some antibiotics. I now feel so much better.

We have lots of exciting things coming up. We will both be in Austin this weekend for different reasons. I am visiting my sister with my mom and Colton is attending a bachelor party. We have several wedding related parties to attend in the next two weeks and then in June we have back to back weddings- my good friend Lizzy and his cousin JuLea. And the big moment we have been waiting for....our move to Lubbock. I foresee lots of cleaning and packing in my near future. We have stuff everywhere- my parents, his parents, storage, and our apt so its going to be crazy getting all this stuff together.

I found out I will be lead sponsor of cheerleading next year, which I am excited about. It will be fun to go to all those football games and the school I will be working at has a very strong athletic program that competes in that playoffs often so that will be exciting to be a part of.

The countdown to the end of the school year is here...three more weeks. The kids are wound up and hopefully we can make it to the end with no major catastrophes. Everyone has summer fever, including me!

XOXO,
Devin

Our New Home in Lubbock!

Colton and I are proud new homeowners! Here is a picture of our new home in Lubbock, Texas. We are so very excited to begin the next chapter in our life together.

In other areas of good news, I was formally offered a job today by Lubbock ISD. I will be teaching social studies and co-sponsoring cheerleading at Estacado High School. I am thrilled with this offer and cannot wait to continue my teaching career in my new home school.

C and I have been very busy lately traveling back and forth to Lubbock to finalize plans for our move. We are about to embark on a month and a half long wedding crazed frenzy with showers, bachelorette/bachelor parties, and two weddings in the next six weeks. We will be crazy busy! It's a fun time with friends and family, so I will not complain.

Mother's Day is this Sunday and I am looking forward to spending some time with my awesome mother. She is a mentor, rock of support, and, most importantly, a best friend. I love her with all my heart and I will be sad to move five hours away from her. I am excited that she bought season tickets to the Tech football games, though. I have a sneaking suspicion my dad will turn his projected two games only into every home game trips, which will be nice for me so I can see them more often. Dad is already planning away on our backyard. I am sure he will have it done up to a T by the time we have lived there one year.

Current obsessions:

P90X

stalking decorating blogs

stalking furniture blogs

dragging Colton to furniture & appliance stores

counting down the days until summer

XOXO,

Devin

Good things come to those who wait...right?

As you may know, C and I have been trekking back and forth to Lubbock for awhile now in search of our first home (oh...and me a job). Ha! So, we determined the area we wanted to be in and began looking at homes in two specific neighborhoods. Our first two trips were not fruitful. We never really found a house we loved. We did find one we both adored but it was right next to a power grid. Can we say NO loud enough? I do not want my future unborn kiddos playing outside near power lines. Unfortunately, we had no clue what we were doing at first and if we had paid attention we might have never gone in this house in the first place. But...oh well. So, we left last weekend for another trip to LBK as seasoned home searchers (does two or three trips of home searching makes us veterans? I think so!) I was very hopeful as I had decided I was in love with a specific house in a neighborhood we had not really looked in. I had stalked said house online all week. I was sure we would love it. We were met with rain (somehow all of our trips have brought bad weather) and, of course, good ole Lubbock wind. Awesome! Our first stop was a home our realtor selected for us to see that was new construction. We actually met with the builder. Little did we know, as we walked in to our appt, that this would be the house that captured our hearts. I will fast forward through the other houses as they were nothing special until our last stop at the house I thought I would love. And I did love it...except there was no shower in the master bath. C would have to trek across the house to use a shower. The master closet was also a little on the small side. Boo! But...our hearts were hopeful that we had found our new house in our first stop. We went home and slept on it. We went and saw the house two more times and decided to make an offer. SO....here is where I will pause this story because I do not want to gush all of the details only to come back disappointed if we do not get it. Everyone say a little prayer for us that we found our new home. I will update once we know!

XOXO,
Devin

Cadbury Eggs...a love/hate relationship

If I had to choose one seasonal candy to live off of forever, it would be the Cadbury Creme Egg. I love these things so much my husband threatens to disown me everytime he catches me eating one. I even have a recipe saved in my google reader for Cadbury Creme Egg cupcakes. What! I think I have what many might call an addiction. Luckily for me, these sweet treats are only available for a limited amount of time. Not lucky for me, retailers have started setting them out directly after Valentines. That gives me three months of guilt/bliss to enjoy. Oh how I wish the more I ate them the skinnier I got. Dream on, D, dream on.

In other, more interesting Street news, we spent a busy Easter weekend spending time with family and friends. We had dinner with our good friends Allison and Matt at Pappadeux Friday night. Wine, good music, and good friends on a gorgeous spring evening on the patio...can you really beat that? Saturday found me traveling to Rockwall with my mom and sister for my grandma's surprise 80th birthday. It was so much fun. My grandma was surprised, to say the least. It was her first surprise party and her first ride in a limo. It was an all girls affair with the women of my family and my grandmother's gal pals. We had lunch at Gloria's on the harbor in Rockwall. Very fun.

After her birthday lunch, I came back to Fort Worth to meet Colton so we could head out to Possum Kingdom Lake to spend Easter with his family. We spent the evening having fun and fellowship with his dad's side of the family. They are very close to one another. Its something I really like about them and it makes me happy to be a part of their family now. Plus, I am lucky. I have good inlaws. One of my students asked me the other day if I like my inlaws and I feel blessed that I can say yes.

We woke up early Sunday morning to make it back to church services at eleven. After church, we went to my parent's house for Easter. Mom had a great Easter lunch and she even gave us all Easter baskets filled with yummy treats. My mother is aware of my affinity for all things Cadbury so she placed some creme eggs in my basket. They are now sitting on my kitchen table and I am in the process of an staredown with those eggs. To eat or not to eat? That is the question.

I have a wonderful family and I am very blessed to be able to spend time with them and enjoy it. Colton and I are very lucky to have as much love and support as we do.

This weekend is Lizzy's shower and I have been busy planning every last detail. Hopefully all goes off without a hitch. I will try and remember to post pictures of the party. We have another Lubbock trip in our near future and hopefully we will find good news/things when we are there. Jobs and a house would be nice!

XOXO,
Devin