My 30th Birthday

I really wasn't looking forward to my birthday this year. I was pretty much dreading turning 30 and was hoping everyone would just forget it. I had a lot of fun in my twenties and now they would be gone for good. I would also be in a different decade than Josh and didn't want that to happen. No one listened to my woes and celebrated my birthday anyway, so I have officially turned 30.

There were many celebrations for me this year. On Valentine's Day, my family had a birthday dinner for me, my dad, and my brother-in-law. Everyone from my dad's side of the family was there and we had a really nice dinner. Of course there was dessert and singing and then presents. I was VERY spoiled this year! I got a lot of cute clothes that I've had fun wearing, as well as a gift certificate to Olive Garden and a new book.

A week later, Josh's family had a birthday dinner which also included me. We had another great dinner and dessert, and then I was spoiled once again. I can't believe how much both of my families love me! None of them cared what my age would be; they just wanted to celebrate and let me know how much they loved me. I feel very honored to be apart of both of these wonderful families!

The week leading up to my birthday brought some teasing at work. My friend, Esther, would stand by my desk and chant "3-0, 3-0". Then she put this post-it note on my desk so I couldn't forget what would soon be happening.


She also gave me a cute card the day before my birthday which basically told me not to worry and that being in my 30's would be great. It was really sweet!

I also received a card from my mom and dad in the mail the day before. It was a nice surprise!


On my birthday, I awoke to my incredibly sweet husband making breakfast. He is the best cook and always spends a lot of time making sure everything is perfect. It was really yummy and he even cleaned up afterward. Then he gave me his present. It was the best present anyone ever gave me! He gave me this beautiful card which told me he didn't care how old I was and that nothing had changed and he would always love me. It made me cry by how much love he showed me. He's such a blessing in my life!

He also gave me a gift certificate to get my teeth whitened. I had mentioned that I'd like to do that awhile ago and he had remembered, saying it was the only selfish thing I've ever asked for. I've had a really hard time ever since we got married when anyone asks for lists for my birthday or Christmas because Josh gave me everything I've ever wanted when he said "yes" at the altar.

Later that day we celebrated with some of our friends at Fat Cats. We were going to go bowling, but it was closed that day, so we played at the arcade instead and then had pizza at The Pizza Factory. Everyone was really sweet. They either gave me the tickets they won or got me prizes with their tickets. We were just like little kids again, redeeming our tickets and picking out prizes. Josh and I got a set of funny glasses and a water baby. Our friends, Caron and Sarah, got me an awesome pen that I can hook to my purse and some army men for Josh to play with.


The rest of the day was spent snuggling on the couch with Josh (my absolutely favorite thing to do!). It was a wonderful day and I'm so grateful to everyone who helped make it that way! I guess turning 30 wasn't so bad after all!

AutoRama 2010

On Friday night Josh and I went to the AutoRama at the Expo Center. Josh loves cars and was like a kid in a candy store. He drooled so much that night, I'm surprised he didn't slip and fall!
The car above is a 30's or 40's Ford Roadster. Josh loves the color combination and would love to paint the motorcycle like this car.

I couldn't believe how big the event was. There were hundreds of cars, trucks and motorcycles in the biggest showroom at the center. It was fun to walk back in time and see the old vehicles restored to their former glory.

Josh's very favorite is the original Chevy Camaro. He likes it because of it's curves. He says it has hips and looks like a woman. What a silly husband I have!

I wish we would have written down all of the cars we took pictures of because even my car-savvy husband doesn't remember each type of car. But we took pictures of the ones that really caught our eye. This next one was the first one we saw. I thought it looked really neat, but not very drivable. I couldn't see how anyone would be able to see out the windshield. Josh patiently explained that it was meant to be a show car and nothing else.



We couldn't believe anyone would want to "soup-up" a Suburban. There were also some neat little contraptions at the show. These two were my favorite. First there's a motorized bar stool and the second is the coolest wagon I've ever seen. I wish my wagon was like that when I was young!

Valentine's Day

What a wonderful Valentine's Day!! It started out for me on Wednesday when Josh came to my work and brought me a dozen roses, a balloon and a singing/dancing teddy bear. It was such a nice surprise to see him at my desk with a big smile on his face! I kept the roses there until Friday so I could enjoy them for a few days. I also taped the bear doing it's dancing. It sings "Get Down Tonight". It's more of a rap version than the traditional but it's so funny to watch him move. Needless to say, we didn't play it very often at work for fear of offending patients.

Then this weekend we enjoyed Valentine's Day as more of a Valentine's weekend. On Friday night Josh took me to see "Dear John". It was such a sweet, romantic movie. I like that he doesn't complain about watching chick-flicks with me! On Saturday we went to lunch at Z-Tejas and then saw "Avatar". Josh had been wanting to see it and I figured since he went to see my girlie movie, I should go see his movie. It was actually really good and we had great time being together.

Sunday morning, Josh made me breakfast. He made my favorite-eggs in a basket. So good! Then I gave him the card I made and tickets to the Zac Brown Band concert. It's his favorite group and he introduced me to their music. Anytime I hear "Chicken-Fried" I think of him because it started playing on one of our first dates and he started jamming to it.

Then Josh gave me his presents. He is so very good to me! He already made this holiday perfect for me when he became my husband but he made me come up with a list of gift ideas anyway. He bought me some wonderful books because he knows I love to read. He also bought me a cute shirt and a nice, warm sweater. And socks since mine keep getting holes in them and I needed some new ones. lol.
I can hear the question already. No, I'm not pregnant, but we do want to be parents in the future and I am pretty scared right now. I've always wanted to be a mom, but now that that time is here, I'm scared that I won't be a good one. I'm scared that I won't teach our children enough, or I'll coddle them too much, or I won't show them how much I love them as much as I should. I'm also just scared of the world they will be living in. Josh has been very loving and patient with me and I asked him to buy me some books about being a mother which have helped. I know there's no instruction manual to being a mother, but if I can learn from others' experiences, it would be great!

Anyway, back to Valentine's Day. Josh and I spent the day together and then went to dinner at my parent's house. It was the annual birthday dinner for my brother-in-law, Rhett, me and my dad. Everyone from my dad's side comes and we have a great dinner. We also gave away (and received) a lot of Valentine's treats. It amazes me how much my family loves us and I am so glad that they do! Here are some of the treats we were given.

We then went and saw Josh's mom, Kim, and his brothers. They are so great to us and I'm glad to be apart of their family. It was neat to be surrounded by so much love yesterday!

I am so blessed this Valentine's Day! I am blessed to have the most wonderful in the world! He loves me more with each day and shows that to me in the many things he does. He helps around the house by cleaning, taking out the garbage and doing laundry. He also is a great cook and leads us in prayer each morning. He is such a hard-worker and student and also teaches me many things. He is patient, tender and kind with me. He is a shoulder to cry on and listens no matter what I have to say. He is my best friend and I feel like the luckiest woman in the world! You are the perfect Valentine, Josh! I love you!!!

Contest Winner

And the winner is....

BECKY MATHIS!!!

Way to go, Becky!

Our anniversary balloon finally hit the floor on Saturday which was day 59. Becky guessed right on. Thank you so much to everyone who guessed! You guys are great! I'll have to do more contests in the future. Becky won a $15 gift card to Cold Stone.

Super Bowl Party

Last Sunday Josh and I had a Super Bowl party at our apartment. We wanted to stay home and watch it, but invite others to see how great football is in HD. Josh loves watching football where the picture is so clear and can't imagine how we ever did without it.

We decorated with some balloons and went shopping for munchies and other not very healthy food. We had pizza, hot wings and any other finger food you could think of. My sister, Sarah, helped to plan the party and she did a great job! It was the first time we had more than a few people at our apartment because it's not very big. I'm sorry we couldn't invite everyone! We'll have to have more small parties so everyone can come over sometime. Here's a picture of our guests watching the big game. Some of the pics I took were really fuzzy. I'm not sure why, but Josh ended up changing the shutter speed and then everything was fine.


After our munchy dinner we had an ice cream cake from Cold Stone for dessert. It was soo yummy! We all had a great time watching the game even though all but one of us were rooting for The Colts.

During the game we played bingo. Sarah had made cards we could fill in. One was for what would happen during the game and one was for the commercials. We had prizes for those who won and I think everyone had fun. Josh kept putting his foot in the picture, but I think it turned out cute.

I'm sure our neighbors were laughing at all the cheering and moaning that was coming from our apartment that day. After it was all said and done, I thought it was cool that The Saints won since they had never won The Super Bowl before. Here's some more pictures from the party. The first is Josh enjoying the show. Doesn't he look comfy?


Kelci's such a good sport for putting up with Paul all the time!

And last but not least, the party planner herself, Sarah.


My aunt and uncle, Lorna and Del, were also there. As well as my cousin, Matthew.

The End of January 2010

This last week of January has been pretty busy for us. I started doing all procedures at work by myself and it was the craziest week. I'll be taking turns with the other two nurses, so I'll only have to do procedures every three weeks, thank goodness. It went really well, but I was very stressed and pretty drained when Friday night finally came. This weekend has been a nice, relaxing one and I don't want it to end!

Josh has been doing homework almost every night this week. He's one week ahead on his assignments and is still doing really great. He has another test on Friday and another project due soon. I don't know how he does that and keeps up with everything else! We also heard from one of the other four applicants for the police job he's waiting to hear about. She wasn't selected. We heard this on Monday so have been on pins and needles ever since, waiting to hear if Josh got the position or didn't. We haven't heard a single thing. It's driving me, and Josh's mom, absolutely crazy! Josh seems to be calm about the whole thing and just laughs when the two women in his life get worked up about it. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us and keeping their fingers crossed that a job will come his way! We really appreciate all of your love and support! It helps get us through-especially at times like this when all we can do is wait.

A couple of cute things have also happened this week. Our cat, Moroni, was found to be in-between the covers of our bed. She usually does this when we're laying in bed, watching TV, but this time I was just walking past the bedroom and saw this lump in our covers. After doing a double-take, I found that it was Moroni. She had climbed up in between the two blankets and was sound asleep.




The next cute thing happened yesterday morning while we were at my grandpa's birthday breakfast. Everyone from my dad's side of the family goes to breakfast at Denny's once a year to celebrate with my grandpa. As we were waiting for everyone, we found that we needed another table. I started to move the one next to ours over and the waitress came over saying "you must be a mom". I told her that I wasn't one yet. Then later, during the meal, she came around to clear up some empty dishes and I started handing her some. She then said that I would be a great mom. That took me by surprise, but made me smile. I thought it was neat that someone I don't even know thinks I'll be a good mom just by a couple of things she saw me do. It was a nice compliment! And I hope I can be that great mom she says I will be when I get the chance!

I have a couple more pictures I'd like to put on this post. This is another holster that Josh made. I think it's really neat! He made it for our Derringer and it's more a "show-holster" than a workable holster.
He also made it so it could be put on a belt and worn.


Sorry about the millions of directions this post took! I kept thinking of things I wanted to blog about. I hope everyone has had a good January! And that the rest of 2010 goes just as good!

Anniversary Balloon Contest

This is the balloon Josh bought me for our 1-year anniversary. As you can tell it is still up. Some of the helium has come out, but it is still at the top-most corner of our apartment. We think this is pretty amazing since most mylar balloons are down in about a week. So I thought of a contest we could do. Anyone who wants can guess how long they think the balloon will stay up and whoever is the closest to when it actually comes down will be the winner. There will be a prize involved. It is now at day 40 of being up. I will try to put a timer or something at the side of the blog to keep track of how many days it's been up. Good luck everyone! Please just put your guesses as comments and I will let you know who the winner is. :)