OOO Baracuda...

This song  has been in my head for the past 6 weeks and very prevalent in my life the past 2. I mentioned Sing last week and it is now over....bittersweet. The picture above is all the Baracuda from our act with our Queen (Julianne). Being a senior extra for this year's act was definitely the right choice. In order to graduate on time, since one of my summer classes was cancelled, I am taking 19 hours...no I'm not crazy. I definitely had my moments where I was VERY VERY sad (aka cried) because I wasn't doing full time, but my stress factor would have been out of control. I mean I'm already one big ball of stress, so the addition is not needed! Anyway, we wrapped up our performances this weekend and the top 8 that will perform in PIGSKIN were announced late last night...

Me, Chelsi, Julianne, Jenni, and Nicole all anxiously awaiting the results...

Lets just say that this year the results were a little odd...by that I mean everyone was a little confused by the judges judgements. We are soo very thankful we made PIGSKIN!! First they announce the People's Choice Awards (we won BEST CHOREOGRAPHY, our Sing Chairs Rocked!!), then they announce the top 8 (in no particular order) of who will go to Pigskin. We were the last group announced and with the way things went this year, we were pretty terrified. Even though things turned out a little differently than we had hoped, last night was such a fabulous night. My parents and oldest sister, Katie, came to watch me and I cannot even express how much it meant to have them in the audience. It's soo fun to perform for someone and they are soo special to me that it was 10x better! 

We had such a fun night together...Food for Thought (yumm), LOTS of wedding talk, Sing and the Announcements!! I LOVE THEM SOO MUCH!! I also got to share my last performance with soo many of my closest friends. They could not have made it more special!!

Here are some more fun pictures from Sing---

Some of my favorite senior baracudas!

A little bunch of our Spring Break group!!

2 of my very bestest friends...Jenni (the middle) is actually my Maid of Honor and Chelsi is in the House Party!!

Christine has been one of my best friends since kindergarden. I do not know what life without her would be like...she is also in the House Party!

All-in-all, starting with Thursday (cuz lets be honest, that's when college kids start the weekend), this weekend was pretty superb! I think I aced my presentation and test on Thursday and even squeezed in a short 30 minute workout before our Sing performance. Ben was driving through Waco on his way to Lake Zapata on Thursday, but because of Sing I didn't think I'd get to see him. I left some baked goods on my front porch for him to pick up, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find that they were still there when we were finished with our performance. He got caught in traffic so I got to see him!! What I thought was gonna be a quick "hello, goodbye" turned out to be an hour and half hang out...soo wonderful! I absolutely adore that man! Afterwards I got to run to the SLC and finish up my workout that started earlier in the day. Then, on Friday, despite my tired lag, I had a wonderful run in my Aerobic Running class in the morning. You know when you have a run where you just feel strong? That's how I felt...my body felt soo strong and it was wonderful! Last year, when I was training for the Bearathon, I became sort of a lank. Now when I'm running, it is good to feel like I'm still strong and athletic. After my classes ended I had the most amazing trip to Barnes & Noble. I am absolutely obsessed!!! After finishing The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks on Thursday, I went nuts...I purchased 3 new books!! 

1. The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers

2. Trading Up by Candace Bushnell

3. Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult 

My first read....drum roll please....

I cannot put it down!! 

I even got a very rare, much needed nap in before our Sing performance. Afterwards I was able to eat dinner with some wonderful friends that have graduated, but came back for the big weekend. Since I was feeling strong I got another quick run in because nothing was going on. Saturday started off with a few errands and then a playoff soccer game. My soccer team was soo wonderful this year and we made it to playoffs!!! Unfortunately we did not end on a victory, but we had tons of fun! 

We decided to go with the elementary school soccer pic! I felt so honored to be this team's captain...Berlian even brought me a flower (my favorite, Gerbera daisy) to Sing practice later for being a "great captain." Lets be honest, I didn't do anything special besides e-mail the team, but the gesture totally made my day!

Saturday was such a beautiful day and it was wonderful to get to play outside. I was hoping to get in a long run before my family got to town, but my left knee was giving me a little trouble and then about 10 minutes into the game I was brutally dead-legged. I haven't ever really been dead-legged and it kills. I was severely limping all day long. It was pretty pathetic. For some reason my left knee is still giving me a little trouble. I'm not really sure what it is since my right knee is my bad one (I had to have a couple surgeries in high school and was left with no meniscus), but hopefully it's just been overworked a little and needs some rest. I'll stick to the elliptical for now. Due to my recent knee issues and overbooked schedule, I made the executive decision to not run the Bearathon this year. :( 

Me and Jenni excited to have completed the race under 2 hours! 

I know a lot of people who care about me will be pleased with this decision since I usually have a tendency to push myself to the very limit, but I cried. It's probably the best decision for me right now, but running has been a big part of my life for the past 4 years and it kills me to know that I might have to give it up one day. Even just pulling back a little bit is a real struggle for me. I'm a horribly competitive person and finishing my first half marathon in a time I would have never imagined (1:56) was such a high for me. I was hoping to keep running lots of halfs and continually improve my time. Right now, my plan is to keep competing, but in smaller races such as 5Ks and 10Ks. Hopefully I'll run the Bearathon 5K and maybe even run another in April in Dallas. I'm soo sad not to run with Jenni again, but we can still go on shorter runs together and focus on planning the wedding. 

This morning I slept in just a little bit and made myself some amazing/healthy pancakes. I don't know what was wrong with me, but I forgot to take a picture. You could definitely taste the healthy in the pancakes, and by that I mean that they would never be something I would make for Ben, but I really enjoyed them. I needed to wait a bit before working out to let things settle, so I went shopping. No better way to pass the time! There's not too much shopping in Waco, but I made a trip out to Old Navy and when I didn't make a purchase there I walked across the shopping center to Ann Taylor Loft. I LOVE THIS STORE!! If only everything in this store were on sale I would buy it all!! I made a couple good buys and then ran home to grab a protein bar to hold me over during my workout. OHMYGOODNESS--how could I forget to mention my protein bar purchases? I made a trip to the good HEB on Saturday after my soccer game. I went to the one with a fabulous organic section and made the find of the century with these protein "bars." 

Sweet Mother of All Things Delicious!! I could eat these for all of my meals!! This one is the Triple Chocolate, which I haven't tried yet, but the Cookies 'N' Cream is to die for!! I spent some time at Starbucks yesterday just reading The Atonement Child and I planned on only eating half the bar, but before I knew it it was ALL gone...WHOOPS!! 

Back to today--after my quick protein bar (today I had a Luna Cookie Dough), I had a great workout. I wanted to take it easy on my knees, so I did a good 50 minutes on the elliptical and then a couple leg strengthening exercises. By the time I was done I was ready for a good lunch. I talked to Ben as I finished up my lunch and to my surprise he was only an hour and a half away from Waco! Soo excited!! I got to spend another couple hours with him before he headed back to Denton. This was perfect since we won't see each other for 3 or so weeks. Of course, we did some good hunting/fishing show watching. I actually really enjoy watching the outdoor channel. I have to keep that a little on the DL so I can still watch my shows when we get married, but I love the outdoors, so it's not hard to watch others enjoy it. Plus, most of the things they're doing I think would be pretty fun to try out. Don't worry, we got some girlie things in too...like officially deciding on our wedding invitations and catching up a on the Bachelor before tomorrow's big show. We should have a GREAT convo on the phone tomorrow night after Jake picks his girl. Who do you think it's gonna be? I'll be honest-- I would be happier if he picked no one than if he picks Vienna. I adore Tenley, but I don't think he'll pick her. They never pick who I want them to. They also never work out, so maybe I should be a counselor on the show or something and guide them in their decisions...good idea! Anyway, my time with Ben was wonderful! It will be a hard 3 weeks, but we'll make it. We always do and then it's soo wonderful when we see each other again!! Only 3 more months til we live in the same city!! Cannot wait! I'm off to get some rest, but I might just have to make another post tomorrow after the big show! 

Oh The Weather Outside Is DELIGHTFUL!

I've got a whole lot to catch you up on, but lets just start with today and work backwards. I woke up this morning to a nice e-mail from the professor of my first class saying that she was canceling class due to weather conditions. Obviously this was awesome, but why weren't my other classes cancelled? Especially my last 3 classes which I had a test, a presentation and another test in. As I opened my door around 10:20 in kind of a downer mood, I was overwhelmed by a sea of white...IT WAS SNOWING...HARD!! Still, my question remained, why weren't classes cancelled? After grabbing some ginseng peppermint tea at good 'ole Common Grounds, I headed to Mass Comm class. It seemed like everyone was pretty irritated to be sitting in class on such a rare day in Waco, TX. Halfway through class I looked down at my phone and saw that I had a text from a number I had never seen...it read "Baylor will close today at 2." Best text I've EVER gotten!!!! One of my tests was at 12:30, but that was my easy one. Classes closing at 2 meant that I wouldn't have to make my big presentation or take my super hard test. YES YES YES!! I finished my test in 15 minutes and was able to run to the SLC before it closed at 2 and get in a good hour work out. I could have done a DVD or something, but I'm not a fan of working out at home. I just don't have motivation where that is concerned. Since I opted to postpone lunch to catch the gym before it closed, I was starved by the time I made it home. In the middle of my pita pizza, Megan called and was on her way to pick me up to play in the snow! The day just kept getting better! We went to the science building fields and took lots of pictures and threw a ton of snowballs. It was just like being in elementary school again on a snow day...LOVE IT!!

We had soo much fun playing in the snow...Jake (Lunden's dog) did too! This picture doesn't really show the amount of snow we got. 

This is a little better, but still doesn't show it all. I love these 2...they are just about the cutest couple and I wish Ben was still at Baylor so we could go on tons and tons of double dates! 

The rest of the day consisted of a nice hot bath to denumb my body while reading my book, The Last Song. I am having soo much trouble putting it down. It is getting better and better with every chapter! Then, I cleaned my room and bathroom. It was much needed. I'm like a tornado during test week. Everywhere I go I leave a HUGE mess! My mom would totally agree...except she would say this for more than test week, but I'm actually quite clean here. Then, I decided that since I had time, I definitely wanted to make myself a fabulous dinner. What better on a cold cold day then MAC AND CHEESE?!?It's a very rare occasion that I indulge in mac and cheese. It's just not the healthiest of foods, but after much searching, I found a healthy recipe. HALLELUJAH! I have been looking for a good one for ages. This one was great and very very tasty. I accompanied the mac and cheese with a delicious salad and popped some fudge brownies in the oven after the mac and cheese was done.

 

Delicious!! The recipe included cottage cheese, ricotta cheese and cheddar cheese...these all mixed wonderfully and the added nutmeg gave it a great kick. There are only about 200 calories per serving in this recipe...makes it even better!!

I definitely needed to add a salad with the mac and cheese. I just wouldn't have been satisfied, plus 200 cals is definitely not enough for dinner. The salad was the usual spinach with chickpeas, red onion, pecans, cauliflower and a little little bit of avocado on top. MMMM!!

WOWZAS!---These are delicious! I tried a little bite just so I could give y'all a proper review. You may think it's weird that I made brownies in a muffin pan, but I am a huge fan of the crispy edges. I definitely need that new brownie pan that came out. The one with the seperate slots for each brownie, so they all have the crispy edges...best invention ever! I got this recipe out of the Cook Yourself Thin cookbook. They are called Fudgy Brownies and only have 56 calories per brownie. Whoa!! You could eat like 4 in one sitting...precisely my thinking! :)

So the rest of the night I intend on getting some much needed school work done and catching up on The Bachelor. What an INCREDIBLE day!! 

Now for the weekend---

SING started on Thursday! For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, Baylor puts on this huge show called Sing where each fraternity and sorority creates a dancing/singing act. The top 8 groups get to perform in Pigskin, which is the production put on at Homecoming. It is soo FUN and soo INTENSE!! This year Tri Delta's act is called C'mon and Swim...we are fish!! I love love love our act and have soo much fun being in it! It's kind of sad because this is my first year not doing full-time, but there is no way with the hours I'm taking, so I am a senior extra...aka Baracuda. 

This is little miss Chelsi and me watching on club night (Thursday). The show is soo long, but soo worth getting to see all the competition. I'm super competitive!! 

We performed Thursday, Friday and Saturday and I felt like we got better with each night. That is always encouraging and I am pumped for this weeks performances. Ben got to come on Friday night and we had soo much fun. It makes the performance so much more fun when you know you have someone in the audience watching. He performed with Kappa Sigma while he was at Baylor, so he understands the intensity and how much I love it. I thought he was going to have to leave early on Saturday morning, but he got to stay until about noon which meant we got to go out with friends on Friday night. I love it when he visits!! I know I've seen him a lot lately, but it's just soo nice having him at Baylor. I really wish he was here for my last year, but oh well...we'll be MARRIED soon! 

On Sunday morning I hit the road to head back to Dallas so Ben and I could take our engagement pictures. OMG, it was soo fun and I love love love what I have seen so far! Taylor McCabe is our photographer and he is soo good at what he does. Look him up at taylormccabephoto.com. 

This is just 1 of the 3 samples Taylor sent us last night, but I love it! I am soo excited to get the rest of the pictures. We did the photo shoot in a field on a pretty overcast day, but it was perfect. I was bummed that the weather wasn't nice, but it actually made the lighting even better. It even started raining at one point and we got to bring out the umbrella. 

After we finished up the photo shoot, which ended in about a 10 degree temperature drop...perfect for when I put on a summer dress (whoops!), we headed back to Denton for Brenda's surprise birthday party. I was soo excited that I could be in town for the occasion. I generally miss just about everything since I'm still at Baylor, but I couldn't miss this. I cannot even express how excited I am to move to Denton after Ben and I get married and be able to hang out with Brenda whenever I want! She has become such a good friend and I gave her a little surprise for her birthday....I gave her a book that she had been wanting to read and told her to open her card after she opened the present. I always write like a book when I give someone a card, but when she got to the bottom she was very excited...I ASKED HER TO BE A BRIDESMAID!! Soo glad she will be standing up there with me on our big day! Her and Landon are such a big part of Ben and my life that it only seems right that she's there with me. Woo hoo!! 

After the party Ben was so kind and took Katie (his sister) and I to Jason's Deli. Have I expressed my love of Jason's yet?!?! I AM OBSESSED WITH THEIR SALAD BAR! I could seriously eat it everyday and it has been the inspiration for my at-home salads. I was soo excited when Katie told me how much she loved it too...my new sister and I can go together all the time! On the way there, we discovered that the song Ben wanted to play at our wedding was PERFECT for when the bridesmaids and I walk down the aisle. That's all I'll say because I want it to be a surprise to those attending, but I get so happy whenever I hear it now. It is perfect! Then, we went back to the house and watched Undercover Boss (soo good) and the Platinum Weddings that was filmed at our venue, The Piazza in Colleyville. It made me even more excited for the big day...137 days! Of course, we couldn't finish the night without some hot tub time. Landon, Ben, Brenda and I got in the hot tub and ended up having a very serious conversation. I learned a whole lot about the way men work. It was like pre-marital counseling...intense. 

My plan was to leave around 6:30 to get back to Waco in time for my first class at 9:05, but like most visits to Denton, I ended up staying a bit longer. We went to Old West (yummmm!) for Brenda's birthday breakfast. I recommend this place to anyone who lives in the area...it is scrumdidlyumtious!! It was a perfect way to end the weekend and I was pretty sad to leave and come back to real life, but little did I know that today would be soo fabulous! 

Just thought I would end with a very happy picture. This is Megan, one of my dearest friends and another bridesmaid. Don't know that I could have had more fun with anybody else today! 

Loving life....God is soo good!!! 

Love and Shrooms

No, I am not doing drugs, but I have found a new love for mushrooms!! I'll get to this later when I discuss last night's dinner, but first I'll start with the weekend...

Ben got to come to Waco this weekend and because school was cancelled in Denton and he didn't have to teach, he got to come early on Friday! We had a fabulous night on Friday with wonderful friends and good food...well I mostly ate chips and salsa, but that's good food to me! Lets just say that Ben has turned into quite the old man, so it was an early night and he fell asleep around 10. Wow, I know. I'm gonna have to work on this. We celebrated our Valentine's Day on Saturday night since he'd have to go back to Denton on Sunday. We decided no gifts this year with all the engagement, wedding and birthday stuff that has been going on, but we did cook a mean meal together. I've wanted to do this for soo long! We both love cooking and Ben is always cooking for his family, but since I'm not there I feel like I miss out on EVERYTHING!

Can you tell whose is whose? Ok, I'll just tell you...the big one is Ben's and the one next to it (can you see it?) is mine. I have been dying to have Bison since this summer when I read about it in the "Eat Clean Diet." Ben and I went to the HEB in Hewitt (special occasion!) and they had it!! I was soo excited and Ben was super impressed that I was going to eat steak. The meal was kind of my Vday present to him.

   

Look delicious right?!?! It was soo good and I even threw in a reduced-fat roll (thank you Ben!). I think this is the first steak that I have had since high school and I will be throwing them in a little more frequently then every 4 years. I'm very excited to keep cooking with Ben when we are married!

Now on to the shrooms---every Sunday I have cereal for dinner, Cereal Sunday. Growing up we always had breakfast for dinner on Sundays because it was my mom's night off from cooking and over the past few years I have just become obsessed with cereal. I'm not talking one small bowl of cereal...I'm talking 2 heaping bowls of cereal. It was my treat to myself for working my butt off all week and eating healthy. Well, this Sunday, I decided that I would start making my breakfast for dinner nights a bit more nutritious. Not to mention I was pretty famished from my hard workout right before dinner. So, this Sunday I made a scramble...

MMMMM!! This was soo good. It included: regular egg beaters, egg white beaters, spinach, chopped red onion, and chopped mushrooms with whole wheat toast. I could have made a whole other batch, but that would have defeated the purpose of this nutritious dinner. That doesn't mean I wasn't tempted though...good thing I was out of egg beaters! I have never hated mushrooms, but lately I love them in everything. After I finished this off, I proceeded to get out the raw mushrooms and put a little sea salt on them...DELISH! 

Today has been a pretty successful/productive day. I had a wonderful interval run this morning, went to class (sweaty as usual), got our door fixed (the doorknob came off), had a wonderful afternoon at Barnes & Noble, attended meeting, and made myself a fabulous salad for dinner. I still have Sing which will make it an even more productive day and of course, The Bachelor! So, I'll just get real honest...birth control (yes, I had to start taking it because I will be getting married in July) has made my face errupt with pimples. I HATE it!! Well, I doubt it would be so bad if I wouldn't pick so much, but it's just soo darn tempting. So today I got a little tired of looking at them and decided on this look for Barnes & Noble...

The hat did a good job at hiding my "village" as Ben liked to call it. I will say that due to some heavy application of Neutrogena spot treatment they have faded quite a bit. THANK GOODNESS!!! I decided to get a hot tea while I was at Barnes and was soo excited because I have become newly obsessed with the new Starbucks Vanilla Rooibos tea. Unfortunately, they didn't have it, but I was pleasantly surprised with a Green Cinnamon Spice tea. 

Hot tea has become my thing. I have realized that it's a waste for me to buy coffee because I can only drink about a cup of it and then I either get tired of it or my stomach can tolerate no more. Guess that's probably a good thing considering teas are good for you. Not that coffee is bad, but I feel better with tea.

Lastly, I just had to share the salad that I made for dinner tonight...holy moly...I LOVED it!!

This was absolutely heaven! My plan was to do this post while I ate my salad, but nothing got done. I devoured this sucker! It is spinach, red onion, pecans, almonds, craisins, raw ramon and the secret ingredient...a Just for One package of broccoli w/ cheese sauce...sooo good!! This will be a frequent meal for me from now on! 

I should probably get some homework done before I dance my little heart out at Sing! I can't believe it's this weekend!!! 

My Terrible, Horrible, Actually Not Too Bad Day

Today started a little rough....lately I haven't been getting much sleep and last night was no exception. I stayed up studying and woke up around 3 or 4 passed out on my binder on the couch. I'm sure it was a sight to see. Needless to say, getting up at 7:30 this morning was not easy. Tuesday/Thursday are pretty long days for me--I go from 9:30 to 5 in class. My first 2 classes of the day were tests and my 3rd was a speech. I won't lie...I did not feel that great going into my tests, but I was keeping Ben's words in mind and was just trying to "chill." I've actually learned that these past 2 semesters have gone better when I'm not totally stressed about school and tests. The mindset of just realizing that it will all be okay has worked very well for me. Anyway, after a quick trip to Common Grounds to grab some much needed coffee, I was ready to face the day. My first test (Negotiations & Conflict Resolutions) really wasn't that bad. I did have a little trouble remaining focused, but for the most part I felt good about it. My second test (Mass Communications) was a breeze. I was in out and out of there in no time. On to my speech...NBD! It was a speech of introduction and the girl I introduced actually loved it and then come to find out, we're neighbors! I was definitely dozing by the end of the class though, and decided that although it is VERY unlike me...I was going to skip my last 2 classes and get a little rest. Thus, the beginning of my not too bad day!

I only ended up taking about a 30 min. nap, but it was very refreshing. I am not a nap taker...I just end up thinking about all the things I could be doing. I followed the nap up with a WONDERFUL workout! My new favorite thing is interval training and I did a hard one today on the elliptical. I went back and forth from hard to medium to very hard to medium resistances and crossramps. I was sweatin like crazy when I left the SLC. Best part of my work out....I finished The Choice by Nicholas Sparks! LOVED IT!! I was sort of disappointed when the book ended, but the Epilogue totally saved it! Then I was off to the good HEB. In Waco we have the ghetto HEB, the even ghettoer HEB, and a couple of good HEBs that are a little bit further away from campus, but soo worth the trip. I had some fabulous purchases...dried organic fruit, almond butter, and dun dun dun dun--A NEW NICHOLAS SPARKS BOOK!!! My new read will be The Last Song. Yes, it has also been made into a movie and has no other than THE Miley Cyrus starring in it! Can't wait! Oh--did I mention that when I went into HEB it was sleating, but when I came out...IT WAS SNOWING!! The day just kept getting better!!

After a little cleaning of my room (it's always a disaster when I have tests), I made a wonderful dinner!

Yumm!! Cream of asparagus soup and chinese coleslaw...Have you ever been to BRIO?! Oh Goodness..It's delightful! I went last summer with my best friend, Jenni, and had their asparagus soup and have been hooked ever since. This was much better than my last at-home try. It was Baxter's organic and even had little pieces of asparagus in it. MMM!! 

Chinese Coleslaw is one of my absolute favorites! My mom makes it at home and it is a staple with all of us girls. It's soo quick and easy. I kind of improvised on this one because I didn't have all the ingredients, but I used slaw mix (just the lettucy stuff), carrots, onions, raw ramon w/ half the packet of seasoning, and vinegar and oil for the dressing. My favorite part of this is the raw ramon..it's a guilty pleasure! I used to have it as a snack in junior high. I don't think I've ever actually eaten cooked ramon. 

Today turned out to be an absolutely fabulous day! I love it when that happens. The only thing that will make it even better will be a wonderful quiet time before bed. Now I'm going to return my attention to Real Housewives of the OC...another guilty pleasure! Ben is coming to Waco tomorrow...well I hope he gets to. They have gotten 7 inches of snow in the DFW area..WOW!! Let's keep our fingers crossed!! 

Back to Being the Baby

I'm back in Waco and absolutely exhausted, but it is well worth the fun I had this weekend. I left Waco early on Friday to get to Denton and take Ben out to lunch on his birthday. He's 23 (sounds so weird), so I'm back to being the baby of the group again. It sounds so little but I love going to lunch together. We used to go every Friday after class (generally to McAlister's) and I definitely miss that! I got to meet all the people he teaches with and his kids when we got back. It was soo fun to put faces with names (hi Kelsey!). We had a fun dinner at his house on Friday with his family and 2 of our best friends, Landon and Brenda. Definitely one of my favorite meals EVER! I discovered venison...it is my new found favorite meat! This is a huge step for me. I don't usually eat a lot of meat, but I think I could eat venison everyday. Plus, this will be soo convenient in Ben and my marriage since I know we will always have plenty of deer around. Hopefully next year we will be able to eat one of the deer I kill. This is Ben's goal...we'll see. It was the perfect night to sit by the fire in the backyard. Landon, Brenda, Ben, Katie (Ben's sister), and I had soo much fun talking and laughing all night!

Katie wouldn't get in the picture but I wish everyone could have been there to see the birthday dance she did for Ben! Let me just say that I cannot wait to live near these people!! 

Saturday was soo fun too! Ben and I went and watched the 7th and 8th grade boys basketball team win the District Championship! Funny how I have no attachment to Harpool besides Ben and I instantly became a fan. The 8th grade boys seriously look like grown men and they are incredible athletes. Since when are kids 6'4" at age 13?? AHH!! I looked like a midget! The kids were soo cute with Ben though. One of the boys he coached in football ran up to me and gave me a huge hug....loved it! When we got home I had to squeeze in a quick run with Ben's mom so I could feel better about what I was eating for dinner....

Joe T. Garcia's!! Holy Yumm!! I just love going to Ft. Worth and eating there. There were 14 of us who went to celebrate Ben's birthday. It was one of the most fun dinners I've ever had! One of my favorite things about Ben and my relationship is that our friends are friends with the both of us in a genuine way. I don't know if that makes sense, but I could hang out with his friends without him and still have soo much fun. My parents and one of my sisters and her husband got to come out too, which made it even more fun for me. I love any chance they get to hang out with all of us. I gave Ben his present at dinner and it was definitely a HUGE hit! He got the Bone Collector Pop-Up Blind...anybody know what that is?? Yea, I had no idea, but it's exactly what he wanted and I soon learned all of the facts (thanks Jason). Good dinner, good company, good fun...it was a FABULOUS night!! 

Here's the group minus the parents...we had a BLAST! 

The last big event for the weekend was my meeting with the florists for the wedding. I LOVE LOVE LOVED them. It was just our first meeting, so it's not official or anything, but I would just absolutely love for them to do our wedding. It was such a fun and easy meeting and I know that I could just give them my ideas (which I did...a lot of them), and let them run with em. I don't think I would stress at all on the wedding day because I could trust them with everything. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything works out! 

Anyway, this was a FABULOUS weekend and soo hard for me to come back, but I love being here too. I'm definitely ready to not have to go back-and-forth anymore, but I guess right now I have the best of both worlds. Planning a wedding, amazing weekends with family and friends in Dallas/Denton, plus the college life and all of my best friends here! Can't complain! 

Ps When I got back I went to the SLC to work out and could NOT stop reading The Choice by Nicholas Sparks, so I just kept finding things to do! I love Nicholas (we're on a first name basis)! 

Manic Monday

Wow!! Today has been absolutely nuts! I think this is the first time I've actually sat down and relaxed for a bit. I'm gonna go ahead and apologize...I know I promised pictures from my fun weekend, but when I got to the party and was about to snap my first photo I realized that I left my memory card in Waco. WHOOPS!! So all my pics are on my mom's camera which is in Dallas. I struggle sometimes! ie. When I got back to Waco I went straight to HEB to pick up some groceries and due to my large tea from Starbucks I had to use the bathroom badly. I went into the HEB bathroom and when I went to get toilet paper I accidentally pulled the entire toilet paper contraption off the wall...how does that happen?!?!

Despite this minor mishaps, my weekend was fabulous! Pretty tiring with all the traveling, but well worth it. The anniversary party was very entertaining just like I knew it would be. My Mamaw is a pill! Afterwards, Ben and I went back to his house in Denton and rested for a while. On the way home I go to grab my favorite...Jason's salad bar! to go. It made the day even better. Then, we went to the Shane & Shane concert with his sister, Katie. We scored free tickets!! Of course, the evening would not have been complete without a trip to Beth Marie's. Guess what!! Beth Marie's is having a contest for who has the best love story that involves them. Duh!! Ben and I totally win! I'm going to try and get the essay written this week and submitted. If you don't know our story you can look at benandnatalie.com. I went back to Dallas on Sunday to help my mom out in the nursery at church and got to spend some quality time with my adorable niece. After church we went to Sweet Tomato. I have wanted to go for soo long. It was fabulous!! I highly recommend it. It's like Souper Salad or Jason's salad bar on crack...LOVE IT!!

Well, today has been super busy with class and lots of different meetings and stuff, so I'm off to relax a little bit. Or rather do some much needed homework and wedding planning. Hopefully I'll have pictures up soon and when things aren't so crazy get to share some wonderful meal with y'all. I haven't gotten to really fix anything great today. I did have a great run in aerobic running and then added onto it with an incredible run/catch up with Michelle. I've definitely missed running outside...time for this cold weather to go away.