Four Years ago today….

Russell asked me to marry him.  And I said YES.  Best decision of my life!!

Blame Jeremy….

So I have been waiting to post – because  have been waiting on Jeremy to send me a picture.  I’m assuming 3 weeks later it’s not going to happen.  So here is what we have been up to the last few weeks….

Three weekends ago I went up to Dallas to help with a dress sale, as a fundraiser for South Africa.

We had over 300 dresses donated, and probably a third of them sold.  We made quite a bit of money, and plan on having another sale at the end of February.  I am so proud of my sister for planning and doing all the work. 

(insert picture of me, mom, and Les- that Jeremy took and apparently doesn’t want to share- lol)

That weekend, Russell decided not to come with me.  Dad was still out of town, and Jeremy had plans- so I had to drive up there all by myself.  Dad came back from being in Europe for three weeks, so when he came back on Saturday, of course he wanted some OTB!  So Kristi was my date, instead of Russell.  And then CiCi’s for lunch on Sunday- haha.

The next weekend was Super Bowl Sunday, and Super Saturday at church.  We went have been meeting in a middle school for three years now.  Every week we set up and load everything out in carts – and after three years we have accumulated a lot of stuff. Super Saturday was a day to come in and steam clean ALL the floors (that we roll out every week to protect the gym floors).

And we cleaned out the preschool carts, and all their toys.   I didn’t take any picture of the before./after of my cart- but it looks SOO much better.  We threw away a lot of broken toys and put some into storage that will be great when we have a building, but don’t really need now.  We cleaned all the toys and organized them.  It was HARD work (especially the floors) but it was very much needed.  They also announced that they plan on starting to build our building this year- we vote next week to approve all the plans!!  Can’t wait.

On Super Bowl Sunday we had Russell’s family over.  Kathy brought over her Africa pictures- she recently got back from a work trip to Botswana.  It made Russell and I even more excited to go.  She had some amazing pictures from the safari they took.

This weekend, on Friday we had a party for all the children’s workers at church.  We met at the Bridgeland pavilion- it was a really nice place.  Lots of picnic tables, bathrooms, and a fire place.  And we needed the fireplace because it got cold this weekend.  It was fun to have the kids running around, playing the bounce house.  While the adults got to hang out and talk, eat hotdogs and chicken sandwiches, and even made smores. 

It has been fun the last few weekends.  Yesterday we just laid around the house.  I have been under the weather for the last few weeks, on a steady diet of cough drops, Dayquil and Nyquil.  Just when I thought I was getting over it, Russell is coming down with it.  So hopefully his doesn’t last as long as mine did. 

Tomorrow is my birthday and less than a month until South Africa!!!

Go Texans

In honor of the Texans making the playoffs we had a Go Texans day at work for the last two Fridays.  So I am hoping that they can pull it off against the Ravens today, so I will post this to give them some extra motivation!!!!

This is a few of the teachers I work with in our Texans jerseys.  Yes both me and the lady in the red were borrow Russell’s jerseys, that is why they eat us. lol.

This picture is from a few years ago when we had gone to a game. Its Russell’s favorite.

 

GO TEXANS!!

Year of Dates

One of Russell’s Christmas presents this year was a Year of Dates.  And yes, this was a pinterest inspired gift.  He received a basket of envelopes, on for each month, that had a preplanned date activity.  And each contains everything we need for the date.

So yesterday we went on our January date.

We went to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts to see the King Tut exhibit.  It is the last time it will ever be outside of Egypt again, and it’s last stop was Houston.  A couple of other teachers had said it was really good, so I was excited to check it out.  Now, I know this date was probably more up my alley than Russell’s, but I knew he would like it as well.

It was a pretty good exhibit.  I know they had extracted over 1,000 items from his tomb, and we were a little disappointed they didn’t have a TON of stuff, but they did have a lot, and the most important stuff.  We were also disappointed that they didn’t have the sarcophagus- they had one of the small ones that contained his stomach, but not the large one that actually contained his body.  But I can understand if it is solid gold, it is very valuable and hard to ship.  But other than those two things it was very fun, educational, and interesting.  We had a blast.

Then we walked around the rest of the museum and saw some of the other art they had.  Then we headed back to Cypress because we were meeting some college friends for dinner.  My old rooommate Katie and her husband live in Richmond, and Krystal (my old bible study leader) and her husband just moved back to Cypress.  They are both really great, and so are their husbands, so I’m sure we will make it a regular thing.

I wont say what the rest of the years dates are since they are still a surprise for Russell.  So stay tuned for the rest of the dates!!

All Shotted Up

For those of you that don’t know … Russell and I are going to South Africa on mission trip over Spring Break.

Because of this, we needed to get some shots.  So on Tuesday we went to the doctor to get our shots.  Russell had to get Hepatitis A and B, Typhoid, and he was due for his Tetanus.

 

I was also due up for my Tetanus, Hepatitis A, Typhoid and I went ahead an got my flu shot.  I had two on each arm.  And my arms were very sore the next day, and even a little today.

 

Jeremy called us today and said we are getting a lot of support for the trip.  We are probably about 60% there.  If you are interested in supporting us let us know!

Fantasy Football

This year I was in two fantasy football leagues.  One with some guys from church, where I did TERRIBLE.  And the other was with the six “Roddy’s” (mom, dad, Les, Jeremy, me and Russell).  In the Roddy league I did AWESOME!! 

Russell said I picked the best league to be good in, because the Roddy league actually had some money on it.  At the beginning of the season we all went and bought a $25 gift card.  The winner gets all the gift cards, except the one they bought which goes to the 2nd place person.

I made it to the championship game.  And it was a nailbitter.  Good thing Drew Brees was going for the record because…..

McCARTHATRONS WIN!!!!!!!!!!

I now have to think of things to buy from Pennys, Best Buy, Target, iTunes, and OTB!!!

 

Good season, a lot of ups and downs, but lots of fun!!!  Looking forward to taking my family’s money again next year

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays.  We had a fantastic two weeks of spending time together and with family and friends. 

The way the holidays fell this year, Russell was able to take 2 weeks off with only 5 days.  So he had the exact same break I did.  It was nice having time together just to relax and do nothing.

On Christmas we had Russell’s family over.  However, Max woke up with vertigo, so he ended up having to stay at home.  But Kathy and Tony made their way over and we had a nice ham lunch with all the fixings.  Russell and I had opened stockings in the morning, but waited to open presents until we did with the family.  Santa was very good to us this year, was very blessed by so may loved ones!

My family came down the Thursday after Christmas.  Leslie had to work through Christmas so they came down as soon as her 7 days off started.  We celebrated Christmas Thursday night.  On Friday the boys played golf (go figure) and s ladies did some shopping.  Saturday we watched the Aggies gang up on Northwestern!!  And Sunday after church they had to leave to go back.

Both Russell and I went back to work on Tuesday, luckily though the kids didn’t come until Wednesday.  It has been an adjustment getting back on schedule, but I am confident it will be a great semester!!