New York

Jason and I took a vacation to New York last month. Before we went to New York, we flew to Dallas to spend some time with my family. While we were there, we toured the new Dallas Cowboy's stadium. Yes, it really is that big! We were able to see the locker room, one of the suites, the press box and the club where the players run through to go to the field.


This picture was taken in one of the suites. The field wasn't down because they were doing some work on the stadium.


This was taken in the Miller Lite Club where the players run through at the start of the game.

After spending the weekend with my family, we were on our way to New York! Our first dinner in New York was at an Italian restaurant, La Bottega.


After that, we went to Madison Square Garden and Times Square.


The next day we went to the Today Show and then toured NBC studios. We saw Brian Williams' studio, the Saturday Night Live studio (which is much smaller than I imagined) and Jimmy Fallon's studio.


After that, we walked around Rockefeller Plaza and then walked up and down 5th Avenue. In the afternoon, we went to Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. We got lucky and were able to sit on the front row! It was really fun to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff, like how they transition between commercial breaks and how a make-up artist touches up Jimmy Fallon's face constantly.


We went to the Statue of Liberty the next morning.


This was my favorite part of the trip. I was so excited to see the Statue of Liberty and tour it. We bought tickets online to go all the way to the crown. I had read that you have to be able to climb about 30 flights of stairs to get to the top. I kind of thought, Oh they just say that; there's probably an elevator. Boy, was I wrong! We had to walk up all 30 flights on a tiny spiral staircase to get to the crown.


But once we were there, it was worth it. The views were amazing! Of course, we also had to walk all the way down the 30 flights too!


This picture looks a little weird because it was kind of rainy and it's taken from a window in the Statue's crown.

We went to Little Italy and ate at a pizza shop called Lombardi's which was probably the best pizza I've ever had! They say Lombardi's had the first pizza oven in the United States.


We also saw Chinatown, SoHo, TriBeca, the Financial District and Grand Central Station. We walked through a lot of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but that place is so huge we couldn't see it all.

And, of course, we went to Serendipity and had their famous frozen hot chocolate–which was amazing!


We had our picture taken at the same table where the movie was filmed.


One of our favorite places in New York was Central Park. We walked all the way around the Jacquelyn Kennedy Reservoir and saw a beautiful sunset.


Jason and I had such a fun time in New York. We would love to go back one day!

Waiting

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you." -Psalm 32:8

I receive an e-mail devotional every day. One of the devotionals earlier this week told a story about a woman who went to Bible College. She said while she was in class, a student asked the professor, "How do you know God's will?" The professor thought about the question for a minute and then responded, "If you want God's will with all of your heart, He won't let you miss it."

I think that sometimes it's easy to be impatient and do your own will, rather than waiting on God's will. Many times we don't surrender everything either. It's scary to just let go. But if we truly desire God's will for us, we have to surrender, we have to wait and we have to seek Him. That's where I am right now. Except I sometimes worry and stress instead of fully surrendering; I sometimes try to plan the future instead of waiting for God's timing; and I sometimes try to figure things out on my own instead of seeking God first.

But it'll come. Everything will fall into place. God will speak. He always does!

Two Years Ago Today...

Jason was putting on a nice suit...


My mom and sister were helping me get dressed...


We celebrated with our friends...


And our families...

Jason walked his parents down the aisle...


My dad walked me down the aisle...


We said our vows, exchanged our rings...and...


We got married!

Happy Anniversary, Jason! I love you!

Girls Weekend

Last weekend I went on a girls weekend vacation with my mom and sister. We went to Florence, Georgetown, Round Rock, Austin and Salado. We had a ton of laughs, did a lot of shopping and had a great time!

Our first stop was Florence. We went to a winery there and had lunch. The winery was in the middle of a neighborhood and is based on Italy.




We also went to Georgetown and did some shopping at their town square. We saw this statue outside one of the stores and took a picture with this nice gentleman!



We decided that since we were so close to Austin, we would do some shopping and tour the Capital.


I had so much fun with my mom and sister on our girls trip! I think we should make a girls trip an annual event!

Newness

I've been going through all of our pictures since I decided to make a book of each year we've been married. I recently came across all of our honeymoon pictures. It was fun looking at those and remembering how excited we were to go on our honeymoon in Las Vegas. Here are two of my favorites:



Our honeymoon will always be special to me, not just because it was our honeymoon, but because it was the first vacation we've ever taken together. When I remember that time together, everything was so new to us–a new step in our relationship, a new life together, a new "normal" way of living. Now almost two years later, we're still settling into our way of life, but we still experience new things like new responsibilities, new friends, new traditions and new habits.

God has blessed us more than we ever thought through our marriage. Sometimes it's easy to get comfortable and overlook those blessings. I don't want to do that. I want to always remember and feel the "newness" of everything.

Pictures are nice to have because they capture some of our favorite memories. A lot of times we just take pictures of the big events in our lives. But the truth is, sometimes it's the small things in life that give us the best memories. I'm trying to live each day with a "newness" and hold on to my favorite times, big and small.

Random Thoughts

Jason worked at an event on Saturday that his job sponsored. When he came home in the afternoon, he suggested we go on a spontaneous trip to Hobbs, New Mexico. So we called our friend Tim, all hopped in the car and drove to Hobbs for the evening. We went to Black Gold Casino and played the penny slots and 5-cent slots...high rollers, I know! We had a great time, but unfortunately, Jason and I didn't make any money. Tim, on the other hand, did! Right before we were about to leave for dinner, he placed a bet on #1 in Roulette and won $35! After that, we ate at Tia Juana's, the same place we ate after our Carlsbad trip earlier this year. Then, we headed back to Lubbock and watched Home Alone 2!
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I try to workout regularly, but that doesn't always happen. When I do workout, I do Pilates. I realized recently that I don't really get my heart rate up very often, so maybe I should start doing some cardio. So I bought The Biggest Loser workout last night and tried it for the fist time. It's so hard, but I feel great after doing it (although I am a little sore)! If you're looking for a challenging workout, try The Biggest Loser!
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I'm sometimes really bad about getting pictures printed. Now that everyone pretty much just has digital cameras, it's so easy to not get your pictures developed. Before, when everyone had cameras with rolls of film, you just take the roll of film out, get the pictures printed and put a new roll in. Now that we don't use rolls of film, it's easy to just dump all your pictures on your computer to make space on your camera. So I've been thinking lately that I need to get all of our pictures printed that are just sitting on our computers. But then, my sister gave me a great idea last week. She is using www2.snapfish.com to make photo books of all the trips she and her husband take. So after thinking about it, Jason and I decided to do that, but make yearly books. Our books will start the year we got married–2007. We'll design a book that has all the things we did that year: wedding pictures, honeymoon, our first apartment, etc. Then we'll do the same for 2008, 2009 and so on. I've started to collect all the pictures that I want to put in each book, and then we'll start designing the book. I think this will be a really cool way to follow our journey in life!
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This weekend, Jason and I are going to Dallas to visit my family. We can't wait! We always have so much fun seeing my family and just relaxing with them. It's a nice get-away for us!
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Until next time, have a great day!

Surprise!

This past weekend I threw a surprise birthday party for Jason. I had been planning his party since April, and wanted to tell him about it several times–but I didn't! I almost blew it the day before the party because I convinced myself Jason knew everything. I was so nervous he would find out about the party, so I was looking into every move he made! But again, I didn't say anything.

Here are a few pictures from the party:

Jason opening presents

Jason and me

My family came in town for the party. Jason and I were so excited to see them! Jason didn't even know they were coming into town.

My good friend Abie helped me with all the planning. I couldn't have pulled off the party without her!

Some of our good friends and their cute babies

Happy Birthday, Jason! I love you!