Small Town Kid...

In other news, I miss Abilene. I thought I was a city girl until we moved to the city... turns out I'm a semi-country girl that really likes visiting the city. I'm not sure what it is about Abilene, but it has its own kinda charm. Sometimes it really sucks to walk into the grocery store here knowing that there is NO way I know a single person in there. I hate knowing that if my car were to break down here and Marc were in class, I better have a towing service on my speed dial because there is no one else to call. And even if I did have a close friend that I could call, chances that they would be remotely close to my location in this enourmous city is very small.


So in honor of missing Abilene, and never quite being able to express it in the right way... here is a list of what I miss - in words and pictures, because well... pictures say it better than I ever could!


I miss...

- always knowing that even if there was NOTHING to do in Abilene on the weekends, we had great friends to sit around with.
- camping... well trying to camp and always returning home at 2 in the morning because it really wasn't that great of an idea.
- listening to Eli Young songs every weekend and having best friends that know  every word as well as I do
- having so many people over that our entire yard was full of cars, because the crazy vetranarian wouldn't let us park in "his" parking lot
- Sharky's
- having friends that knew that 7:00 really meant somewhere around 9:30.
- when Saturday night meant that less than 8 hours went by from the time you said goodbye to your friends til the time you saw them again at church on Sunday.
- Free, delicious home-cooked dinners every Wednesday night with Marc’s family.
- watching my little brothers (and sister!) grow up.
- making Elayna help me rearange my furniture when Marc was working.
- having a house with a backyard.
- how driving “all the way across town” really meant a 15 minute drive.
- the West Texas Fair & Rodeo
- Abilene High vs. Cooper Games
- Fujis and Bonsai
- the “Butternut and Treadway” and “695-1181” commercials
- Knowing that my friends closets were a better place to look for clothes than the Abilene mall.
- The Grape House.
-  not needing a GPS to get EVERYWHERE
- the Bumann's hot tub when it was 10 degrees outside.
- Thursday nights at our favorite place :)
- fitting more stuff in a refrigerator than anyone could ever imagine
-actually knowing our neighbors.

Most of all I miss...

And of course :

Most of all I miss you girls dearly!! 

Somedays...

Monday. Ugh, just the sound of it makes me sad. Today wasn't so horrible. The kids at the shetler had the day off from school so guess who got to work at 8 AM instead of Noon? Since I basically work at a daycare (no thats not my "title" and really there is more to it than that, but on days like today no one can argue with me, its a daycare), I have to follow the school schedule. So when the kids are at school I work 12-8 so I can be there when they get home and when they are not in school I am there from 8-4. I like 8-4 better for the most part (like being able to cook dinner and see Marc) but I like being able to sleep in on my 12-8 days and only seeing the kids for a few hours instead of 8.

However, today was fun. We had a wonderful organization donate tennis rackets and I have been slowly but surely teaching these inner city kids the sport of tennis. Most of them have no idea how to play and think the rackets are better used as pretend swords, but we are working on it. So today we "played" some tennis (with balls that weren't actually tennis balls on an outdoor basketball court... but hey, we do what we can). We had our Bible study, ate lunch (well they ate, I supervised), watched Chronicles of Narnia, and had coloring contests (with Veggie Tales on in the background).

There is one thing I do miss about the summer and the 8-4 workdays, the Bible studies with the kids. I miss hearing them pray and their thoughts on the story or verse of the day. It is always so refreshing. However, since during the school year most of our time is spent together after school, all of my energy is dedicated to homework and making sure they don't kill each other. But today we got a chance to have a  Bible study and a popcorn prayer. If you ever need to be blessed listen to a child pray, they are so sincere and loving and honest... everything Christianity should be. They pray for things like: mean people to have a good day, and moms to find a job, and that somehow, someway God will make a way for them to leave the shelter and live a better life. My heart breaks a little each time I hear them pray. I can't even begin to explain how much I want these children to succeed. They have faced so much in their short little lives, and it is just not fair. They are the products of a broken society, of lifetimes of bad decisions and of tragedies and struggle. I can see the attitudes and actions (good and bad) of their parents in almost every single one of them... I feel like they are bound to a cycle that has been placed on repeat. Some days it is literally almost too much, I want to be more to them than a daycare provider, and in someways I know I am.  I hate the feeling that for some of them it is too late, but some days I feel hopeless. Some days all there is to do is pray, so thats what we did today. One of the little girls started the prayer and to my amazement, they all sat still, taking turns praying for things that were on their mind. Some days make the other days so worth it.

New Hobby :)

So since Marc is either at school, studying, or playing some sort of XBOX game 90% of the time, I have found my own hobby (which he will probably soon regret because it means me spending lots of time in places I can spend lots of money:). I have decided to start making jewelry, and it turns out its pretty fun and relaxing and it leaves me with some awesome looking things to wear! I haven't decided whether I want to try and actually sell them (like on etsy or something) or if I want to just have fun and make them at the request of friends and family. Right now, I really just like being creative... so if you see one you like or need something specific, let me know and I will see what I can do!

Here are the ones I have made this weekend... The pictures aren't wonderful so please don't judge :)

The coloring on this one is a little hard to see, the beading is light and dark purple.

Other than my new hobby life has been normal! I go to work and Marc goes to school. We don't see each other all that much during the week since I work until 8 and Marc goes to school everyday at 9, but our weekends are usually pretty fun. It is so nice to have two whole days off together. We have found a cool new church and have really enjoyed going.

Also, it is our favorite time of year because our Saturday and Sunday afternoons are filled with football! Marc loves the Cowboys and we even ate a special Sunday lunch the first week of football because our cable was not showing the Cowboys game, and we had to find a restaurant that was! I have decided to stay loyal to the Broncos even though I don't agree with the firing of Mike Shanahan. So far they have surprised me, we will see how long that lasts. Next weekend the Cowboys play the Broncos... our house will be divided. Until then, I leave you with a picture of Marc and I before our dove hunting adventure and a picture of our ridiculously lazy dog...

 Yes, that is how I found her after my shower, and yes that is my pillow.

More About Our Summer :)

We have literally been around the WORLD this summer. First in June we went with Marc's family on a Mediterranean cruise. In one word it was AMAZING... much better than the Caribbean cruise to Jamaica (where we almost died) and Cozumel (where we went deep sea fishing and I almost died from sea-sickness). Marc and I drove to Dallas (a 4 hour drive) to meet his family for our flight to New York (3.5 hour flight) and then we flew from NY to Barcelona,  Spain (8.5 hour flight). We literally  flew all night and were SO confused when we landed at 8:00 a.m. in Barcelona and had NO sleep, but it was so worth it.  From there we boarded a cruise ship and went to Naples, Italy (Pompeii); Rome, Italy; Pisa &Florence, Italy; Nice, France; and one more city of the French Riveria (I cannot at all remember the name). It was fantastic! Here are some of our favorite pictures!

On the way to DFW!

Barcelona!

On the cruise ship with our wonderful towel animals that I love!

Pompeii

 

More of Pompeii

 

Castel St. Angelo... we had just watched Angels and Demons and this is the main church in the movie!

The Coliseum

Pisa! I love this picture!!!

 

A copy of David in Florence. 

 

The Beautiful French Riviera, however don't let the water fool you it was FULL of jellyfish. 

I got really excited over our towel animals :) 

After our cruise was over, we flew back to NYC and spent the night at the Sheraton on 7th & 53rd. It was so close to Time Square, and very amazing. New York City is my absolute favorite place on earth and it was the perfect ending to our perfect vacation!!

For Marc's Birthday in July we went to Dallas to see Coldplay with Leah and Mitchell (Marc's brother and his girlfriend). It was crazy amazing, by far the best concert any of us had ever been to. Only a few pictures for this because they all kinda look the same. 

 

  

 

After that we had a few weeks of traveling back and forth to Abilene on the weekends for different reasons. Then we had our anniversary weekend! It is so crazy we have been married one whole year. We decided that since we spent our honeymoon in Boston to see our favorite baseball team, we would make a special trip for our anniversary to San Antonio to see Cowboy's Training Camp. We stayed at a very cute Sheraton right across from the riverwalk and had a wonderful time. Of course we only took a few pictures, but here are the ones we have!

Our Room

Eating lunch the first day. 

The Alamo.

 

Tony Romo at Cowboys Traning Camp!

And that is very summarized version of our very crazy summer!! We are actually enjoying being in school and work because now we have a routine! Maybe next week I will have something to talk about from the present... I'll work on it.