Sew Much Fun

I bought my birthday present this weekend. It was a brand new sewing machine. I am sew... I mean so excited. I have already finished a number of projects. To quote a line from Happy Gilmore... "My fingers hurt." When I lived at home I would use my mom's sewing machine. Not being able to sew for two years now has made me even more exitced and

thankful for mine. My mom first got her's when I was little becasue she used to make my clothes. It was the machine she taught me how to sew on. So I was thinking this might be the sewing machine I use to teach my daughter on.

A pair of burp cloths I made for a friend who is about to have a baby.

A pile of finished projects!

Here are the shorts I made for Paul Bunyan.

Everything Jesus! Ranch

A few weeks ago my Hubby and I went on a field trip to a ranch/farm. Here almost everything is homemade. We were able to milk a cow, pick greens for our own homemade organic salad. The next day, we went back, just the two of us, to talk with the owners and find out more about the ranch and their ministry. They blessed us with great conversation, great organic food, and raw milk. The dessert is organic pudding made with raw chocolate and avocados with bananas.

April Showers and Flowers

So today we were going to run a 5K.... yeah did not happen. Not only were we not motivated enough but

it also has been raining all day... yes! Well anyways I though I would post this picture. This was taken in a field by our home. I think I am going to enter it into our local paper for a contest! I married a Texan and have been here for almost two years (wow!) but I still kinda shake my head when thinking about all things Texan. This is the first thing I have found here is south Texas that makes it a beautiful place... the wildflowers. I have never seen anything so beautiful and so many! Praise God for His creation.

Donuts!

For my Hubby's graduation we had both of our families come into town. Our place is pretty humble and would not hold all of our family for a comfortable dinner. So, some very good friends opened their home to host us and a few others. We wanted our parents to meet more people where we live... and celebrate Phil's accomplishments. Our friend got this cake made of Krispy Kreme Donuts! Oh cute, right! So we added a few touches and woop, zoop, swoop... instant officer cake!

New Chapter!

My husband passed his state test yesterday! Praise God! We were thrilled. Thank you to all who were praying for us through this time. No this is not a picture of my hubby, It's Eric Estrada who played the character Ponch on the police show Chips. Because of his name my husband earned the name Ponch. Even at his graduation his instructors called him Ponch. Yesterday we celebrated by buying a graduation present for him and eating at Carino's... yum! We are excited to start this new chapter and excited to see God's continuing faithfulness to us and our family!

Skunks Beware!

My Husband is awesome. He provides for our family in every way. There seems to be one creature that he keeps um... protecting me from... skunks! His skunk kill is now up to 2! The first "Skunky" as I name it was on our honeymoon. We went to Ft. Davis for our honeymoon and drove one night to see the Marfa Light. (More like Marfa Yeah Right!) On the way there he runs over and kills "Skunky." Fastforward to this morning. I take Texas outside and right away it smells like a skunk. Over where my husband parks his truck right by the marks made by the tires was a d-e-a-d dead skunk, Skunky II. Now I'm pretty sure that he was ran over, plus I've seen enough CSI to know when I'm looking at evidence. Ok to be honest I've been covering my eyes every time I have to pass by. Hubby didn't even know what he did. When I told him, he commented on what a great hunter he is and that I should cook it and serve it to his parents and sister tonight. (I will never be that country!) That to say this is a tribute for all the skunks that have been sacrificed to my husbands tires and all the skunks out there. P.S. Both cases were complete accidents. My husband is very sweet and would NEVER intend to hurt innocent animals.

Texas Adventure

Before...

After...

Our beloved red heeler is almost two years old. Some of his favorite hobbies include sleeping on the couch, sleeping on the bed, sleeping on top of my Hubby and I while we watch movies, and chewing up the house. He loves to chew and has become very good at it. Phil suggusted that we document his progress. This little Tiger we named 'Tegere.' Keep in mind this is the third one Texas has owned. This particular one was given to Texas on Tuesday and lasted till Friday.

So Much to Blog About... Friday

I love Fridays. Fridays just have a good feeling to them. Today my bright students earned a marble party. They collect marbles as a class through out the week for good behavior, correct answers, or showing Christ-like character. We set a goal of how many marbles we need to collect before earning an award. Yesterday they met their goal and today we had a bubble party with root beer floats and a bottle of bubbles for each student. I thought it would be a little warmer so after our treats and the boys popping all the bubbles the girls could make, we went inside to play.

Snow Much to Blog About... Tuesday

It seems silly that I get the song "Snow" from the movie White Christmas stuck in my head. Although I love the song's harmony it seems silly living in south Texas because we never get snow. Never say never (hey I think that's a song too right?) It snowed/iced for awhile. You know you're a teacher in Texas when the whole school is excused to "play in the snow." For a minute it felt like home in Colorado... for a minute. I was surprise to see the snow piled up on our doorstep. I really do like the Texas winters. They are such a relief from the harsh summers. The best part about Texas snow ... no shoveling!

So Much to Blog About... Monday

As a teacher a phrase I dread hearing is "Mrs. Estrada... what's that?" You know those words aren't good. Ah oh! A little girl in my class asked me this while we were in our daily reading groups. I am working with a small group of students at a table in the back of my classroom. Hanging beside me is a strand of paper lantern lights. These act as our "reading lights." "Mrs. Estrada what's that?" she said and pointed to the lights. Good question, I looked and saw something hanging off of one. "Oh it's just a leaf," I said trying to not draw any attention to it. But as they say in the NFL"upon further review" I saw what it really was... a BAT! Ok city girl here, does not like furry, small, creepy things. I like all of God's creatures I just like some of them better stuffed and bats would fall in this category. "Ok class clean up your desks and let's go to lunch." They responded "But there's 15 minutes till lunch." Once they all realized this they acted quickly and were all very obedient. Two teachers came to my rescue and captured it and released it. I have never seen a bat in my room before, but one of the doors to my classroom was taken for repairs and left off overnight. The bat must have gotten into to building and decided to rest on my paper lanterns that hang by my HEAD! Thankfully the next day the door was returned and it's safe to say we are bat free! You can be sure I make sure the doors are closed and locked before going home.

Shootout!!!!!

This is the video of our hostage situation tournament championship. After 3 rounds i was the ol' John Wayne!

And This is Love...

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD
THAT HE GAVE HIS
ONLY BEGOTTON SON,
THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES
IN HIM SHOULD
NOT
PERISH BUT HAVE
EVERLASTING
LIFE. JOHN 3:16

Happy Valenyine's Day

Baking Cookies to celebrate Valentine's Day for our Sunday school and youth group!

I wanted to take a cute picture of my valentine and I... but this is what I got.

Take Two... Our first Valentine's Day as Husband and Wife. We spent the day with a Family from the Midland Church. It was such a good surprise and a pleasure to worship with them this morning.

Some of her sweet tea...

This post I would like to talk about tea. Teas have been important in many different cultures and across many times. Even today I believe the "coffee break" stems from a need for a traditional tea time. Teas can be formal like in the day of Jane Austin or praised in country songs about good Ol' Texas. A few friends and I hosted a Jane Austin Tea for the girls in our youth group. We got to enjoy a formal tea setting and watched the new version of Pride and Prejudice. It was so much fun to plan and attend. My favorite part was talking and getting to know the girls better. Oh yes, and I developed an addiction to Chi tea now.

Living in Texas for almost a year now I have learned a few customs of Texans. For example, salsa is called hot sauce here. Another very important part of being a Texan is sweet tea. Now, in my Yankee ignorance, I thought sweet tea was iced tea with sugar mixed in. WRONG! After having lunch with some friends I learned the science and art behind brewing sweet tea. For homemade Texas sweet tea, the hot tea is poured over a ridiculous about of sugar instead of pour in sugar into the tea and mixing it. This way the sugar becomes one with the tea rather than just getting mixed in. Crazy, I know but there is truth to this method. I tried making sweet tea for my hubby and I today and this method totally worked. I have never made sweet tea this good before. I don't know if I will go as far to say I am becoming a Texan but I will admit that I am glad I can make a good cup of sweet tea... at least I can try to fit in. :)

Things we are looking forward to in 2010!

Here is part two of our top ten lists. This time it is a list about some of the things we are looking forward to this year. Again it is in no particular order and by God's grace.
1. Hubby's graduation in March
2. Celebrating our one year anniversary in March
3. Hubby starting his new job and schedule of five days on and four days off
4. Visiting family
5. Late nights with friends
6. Searching for/building a house
7. Growing closer as husband and wife
8. Paying off truck
9. Summer adventures
10. Serving our church

Top 10 Thanksgivings from 2009

Here are 10 things my hubby and I would like to give thanks for 2009. Now this list can go on and on so for simplicity sake we limited it to 10. They are in no particular order. What can you give thanks for?
1. March 7 -Our Wedding Day!
2. First year of teaching completed
3. Summer break
4. New job for Phil (out of nearly 100 applications he was chosen)
5. Being apart of Lifegate Church
6. Opportunity to teach and be involved with the youth at the church
7. Late night with friends
8. Visiting families
9. Becoming an uncle and aunt for the first time
10.Our dog ... Texas

A New Year...

What to bring...

I want to try to make truffles to take with us to my husband's family's house for Thanksgiving. I have to make them before but each time it came out rather... well not right. This time I was so excited that they turned out MUCH better. At first you don't succeed...

The chocolate waiting to be poured. I did discover that it is possible to burn chocolate chips!

The truffles!

The Final Coat of chocolate.

The finished truffles packed in their cute tin and waiting to be eaten by family. I consider any recipe successful if I don't have to throw it away!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

HgTV Design Star... JK :)

Before...

After

Here is the final product! I hope this will help with the mountain of papers that seem to pile up on our counter. Of course this organizer will not fix our problem. It is just a tool to help us become more organized. This will only work if we are willing to make the effort to keep our home clean and neat. I have to say that I found my secret weapon and favorite new project... the no sew fabric glue. This glues anything to anywhere! I highly recommend it!

101...Ideas

I was inspired by a magazine that a friend let me barrow (I will return it, I promise). The magazine held 101 affordable decorating

tips. I found a really cute hanging orginizer that I thought would help clean up the mountians of paper that pile up on our counters. I'd thought I'd be crafty and modify the pattern a bit. I'm thinking quick and easy...bingo! fabric glue! Right? Wrong? My glue plan failed. Ok plan B, sew it! Great idea, right? Right, if you have a sewing machine ,which I do not. So I got out my mending kit and started sewing. So far plan B is in process and is working (for now). I hope to post more once that final project is complete.

The Eyes of Texas ...I Mean the Ears

Our special dog, Texas, had been scratching his ears. Normally, I'd think "He's a dog, right? No problem!" After a week of nonstop scratching, he started to cry every time he would mess with it. I let it go for another week thinking that he's just being "Texas" and will get over it. As much as I love him and as many cool things he can do, he can be very stubborn and weird at times. One afternoon while shopping with a friend, I shared about this "issue" in our household. My friend use to work at as a vet-tech and suggested that I look inside his ears and see if there were any black spots. I looked and sure enough the inside of his ears were covered in black spots. My husband thought it was time to take him to the vet. I am thinking of all kinds of problems he might have, fleas, bugs, mites, worms... Once at the vet's, the doctor took a quick peak inside Texas' ears and said "He has allergies." A shot and 10 day prescription later, we were home. "That's it?" I thought "Allergies? I can deal with that!" Our dog has allergies. Texas is now doing much better. He no longer has any black spots (no pirate pun intended) and is successfully living with allergies.

Here are some pictures we took in Fort Davis...

West Texas...nough said.

-Phil