Missing Lauren Spierer

I'm taking a time out today from normal blogging topics to blog about a missing student. There have been requests on Twitter for anyone who blogs to please blog about Lauren Spierer.

I'm sure many of you have heard about the missing college student Lauren Spierer who attends Indiana University. Lauren was last seen around 4:30am on the morning of June 3, 2011 near the intersection of College Ave & 11th street.

I can't even begin to imagine how Lauren's parents and family must feel. I have been following the story ever since news broke of her disappearance. No one is coming forward with information and there are very little clues. Someone has got to know something, right? Lauren's parents have begged and pleaded for any information that could lead to some kind of break in the case.

Here is a picture of Lauren. She is such a beautiful girl.

Here is a picture of a truck that Bloomington police believe to be involved her disappearance.

I live far from Indiana but felt that even from Texas I could help raise some awareness on Lauren Spierer.



What I'm Looking Forward To

This week I'm looking forward to so many things. Big, small, and random.

1. I'm looking forward to eating our leftovers for dinner tonight. Last night we had my dad over for Father's Day I made a delicious pasta dish. Linguini with spicy italian sausage, peppers, and onions. So yummy. Can't wait to indulge in that again tonight!

2. I'm also looking forward to hanging up the last our our wall decorations in our new house. We have just a couple of things to hang in our bedroom and living room.

3. I'm looking forward to getting at least four workouts in this week. I already worked out today, so just 3 more to go! I'm blessed since I work at a gym I just have to walk 5 steps out of my office to the training floor to workout! Love being able to get my exercise in during my lunch break!

4. I'm looking forward to buying a new flat iron. Mine broke a couple a couple of weeks ago so it has been a frizz fest up until now.

5. I'm excited for the upcoming weekend! We already have some fun activities planned! One of my best friends sings in an amazing party band here in Dallas and they are playing near our house on Friday so we are going to her show. My brother who lives up north is also going to be in town with his family, so we are having everyone over for a BBQ on Sunday!

6. And last, but certainly not least, I'm looking forward to all my usual trashy reality TV shows! Love me some Bravo TV!

A Spoonful of Lovin

I love that our apartment is nearly all packed! Just some clothes in our bedroom and a few random items in the kitchen and our place will be completely packed!

I'm loving that we hired movers for the first time to take care of this move and that we aren't doing it on our own! That deserves a Vicki Gunvalson Woo Hoo!!

I love that our dog, Wrigley, brings us so much joy and laughter. And he is pretty darn handsome if I do say so myself.

I love that my back has healed so well. I can't believe it will be one year this weekend that I broke my back in the Memorial Day car wreck. The Lord really carried us through this past year and we feel so blessed to have our health. Can you believe this was the condition I was in nearly a year ago? This picture was taken when I sat for the first time. Not one of my finer looking moments but it was a huge milestone in my rehab so it was worth documenting!

I love that I get to meet my sweet nephew in just a few short weeks! Hudson will be here before we know it!

I'm loving my new shoes that I got this past weekend!

And last, I'm loving the beautiful day that has come after a rough night of severe weather and tornadoes, and I pray for those who were not as fortunate.

On The Move...Again.

This week we are in the process of moving. Again. I say again because in the nearly 4 years we have been married, we have moved quite a few times. This will actually make move #5. That is right, 5 moves in just under 4 years.

I can't wait to get into our new house. It is the perfect home to grow into. We are totally in love with it. I will do my best to "document" our moving process, which begins at the end of the week. And as soon as we get into the new house I promise to share pictures.

The stress of this move has been a bit overwhelming, maybe because we have moved so much I just get so anxious and stressed over the whole situation. One thing that I am so proud of myself for is before we started the packing process I went through every room/closet in our apartment and cleaned out so much stuff to throw away! I'm talking 7 large trash bags! I was so proud of myself. I have never been a hoarder, but it just feels so good to purge once in a while! Check out that pile of junk we got rid of! This is probably more exciting for me than anyone else.

Stay tuned for pictures of our move and the new house!

Vacation in Washington D.C.

For Spring Break (yes, that is right, Spring Break. My husband is a teacher/coach so we still get to take Spring Break trips) this year we went on a fabulous vacation to Washington D.C. with my in-laws. Neither Jonathan or I had ever been to D.C. which truly made this vacation a trip of a lifetime. We had so much fun and created some wonderful memories with Babe and Papa Joe, aka PJ (that is what I call  my in-laws).

We attempted to do EVERYTHING we possibly could in the 5 days we were in Washington. There is so much to do and see when you go to D.C. it is impossible to get it all in, but we sure as heck tried! Jonathan and I flew in early on a Sunday morning and Babe and PJ didn't get there until that night, so it was nice to have the day to just explore the area around our hotel and have some alone time.

Our first full day started off bright and early with our tour of the Capital. Our tour was arranged through the Oklahoma's Senator office. We live in Texas but our in laws are in Oklahoma. We technically stayed in Arlington, Virginia near the Pentagon, so we took the Metro everywhere which was really fun. Jonathan was able to navigate his way through he metro and always knew which train we were suppose to be on. You would think he had been living there all along. It was great because without him we would have been riding the Metro in circles the whole time!

**I must warn you in the following pictures I do not look much like myself. When I fly I get terribly swollen for days and it greatly impacts my appearance. LOL **

Here is a picture of us coming up the escalator at the Metro.

And a picture of us outside the capital.

We also went to Arlington Cemetery which was so beautiful and absolutely amazing! We watched the changing of the guard of the tomb of the unknown soldier. What an amazing moment to watch!

One of the coolest things we did was a segway tour of the monuments! This was awesome!! It lasted for about 3 hours and we were able to see everything! The Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial were truly amazing. As much as I loved the Segways, I was not great at them. In fact, I was quite terrible, and I know I embarrassed my husband. Haha! But I still loved every minute of it!

We also went to the National Archives, Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian! My favorite thing at the Smithsonian was seeing Julia Child's exhibit. I stayed in it for probably close to an hour!

I have some more pictures from our trip that I will share later on. We truly loved our time in D.C. and will treasure that trip forever!

Shame, Guilt, and New Furniture

So it has only been about 8 or 9 months since I last blogged. Shameful, I know. I feel so guilty. I want so badly to be a good blogger. My sister Lindsay, who can be found at  Woods Life , says it just takes practice and consistancy. So cheers to getting back on the horse.

We have so much going on in our lives right now so what better time to begin blogging... again. To sum it up we went on a fabulous vacation to Washington D.C., bought some new furniture and we spent a few weeks house hunting. We found a house in the next town over and we cannot wait to move in just over 2 weeks! I will share more about our vacation and new house along with pictures in a later post.

Our new furniture came in from Ethan Allen recently. We got a gorgeous club chair and matching ottoman. I just love the crisp clean lines that this brings to our space!

Happy Birthday Lady

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

For those of you who don't know, the person that I refer to as "lady" is my mom. It is a nickname that I started calling her years ago and it just kinda stuck! Today is her birthday! She is the best mother anyone could ever ask for and I love her dearly!