November Blogathon

Kristen over at The Mrs. and the Momma is hosting a blogathon in November. A challenge to blog {almost} every day in November. I love when someone gives me prompts for blogging, and I love Kristen, so I thought why not?

Here are the prompts:

>>>FALL State of Mind Week<<< Monday 11/3 - There are 30 days in November, so share 30 facts about yourself. Tuesday 11/4 - Share your go-to, favorite Fall recipe. Wednesday 11/5 - Tell about your Fall or Holiday season traditions. Thursday 11/6 - Get your craft on...blog a Fall craft...or link to your favorite Martha Stewart one! Friday 11/7 - Tell us about your health/exercise routine.  Do you have one?  Tips?  What works for you?
>>>Week of BLOGGING Threes<<< Monday 11/10 - Share your 3 favorite posts from your archives Tuesday 11/11 - What are 3 of your blogging goals? Wednesday 11/12 - Put yourself out there and do a vlog about whatever tickles your fancy. Thursday 11/13 - If you could tell your novice blogger self 3 tips you wish you'd known... Friday 11/14 - Introduce 3 blogs you read/frequent and tell why you enjoy them.
>>>Self-Reflection Week<<< Monday 11/17 - Tell about your city/hometown...what to do there, little gems, best restaurants, etc. Tuesday 11/18 - Write a "currently" posts using these prompts HERE. Wednesday 11/19 - Write a letter of forgiveness to some one you've held a grudge against...leaving names out of course. Thursday 11/20 - Talk about prayer...do you pray?  How has it affected your life?  Stories? Friday 11/21 - What did you want to be when you grew up?  How did that pan out?  Do you still have those dreams?
>>>HOLIDAY Week<<< Monday 11/24 - What are your favorite Fall/Winter trends?  What clothes flatter your body type?  Feel free to make this shoppable! Tuesday 11/25 - Post your best/favorite family photo(s)...no words necessary. Wednesday 11/26 - Favorite Christmas music and what do you most look forward to in December? Thursday 11/27 - Thankful List Friday 11/28 - Holiday Wish List (that everyone can shop...or send you gifts!)
Want to join me? 

Currently

Current Book
For the first time in a LONG time, I'm not reading anything. [gasp] Our book club is reading Me Before You for our next meeting, so I think that's what's up next for me.

Current Song
Take Me to Church by Hozier {I haven't watched this YouTube video so here's hoping it's appropriate.}

Current Drink
Daily, I am drinking a fancy Arnold Palmer - strawberry lemonade and sweet tea - yum!

Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure
The number of episodes of Sons of Anarchy I watch a night trying to get caught up. Also the amount of time my friend Amy and I spend discussing it.

Current Outfit
An oversized t-shirt that used to be Brent's and pajama pants. About to hit the sack {not that my outfit during the day today was much better}.

Current Celebrity Crush
Jax Teller

Current Mood
Impatient. I am ready to finish my last audit {which coincidentally is for the client who was my first audit} and to transition into my new role 100%!

Current Excitement
See above. {grin}

Current Anticipation
Halloween on Friday with the kids. Trent is so excited for his costume. I did screw Drew's up and it should be delivered Monday. Um... So we'll see what I can pull together before Friday.

Current Film
Before I Go to Sleep is coming out in theaters this weekend so book club is planning a field trip! 

Current Picture

This kid kills me!

What's going on currently with you?

My Thoughts on Marriage

I've been thinking a lot about marriage lately. Probably because Brent and I just celebrated 10 years of marriage. He read the post I wrote about our anniversary. He asked me after the fact what I meant when I typed 'Marriage is HARD, y'all. Worth it {duh} but hard.' It got me thinking. 

Do I really think marriage is hard?

I definitely think there are days that are hard. There are times when I feel like Brent and I couldn't be on more opposite sides of the spectrum. There are days when I am a grouch or he isn't in the mood to talk or whatever. But when I really think about it, I wouldn't say our marriage has been hard. I have been extremely happy at least 95% of our marriage if I really think about it. I think it is almost that I expect it to be hard therefore I say it's hard?

On Sunday at church, our priest gave an interesting homily that in part touched on marriage. He said 'Don't judge your marriage by how happy you are but by how happy you make your significant other in your marriage.' Whoa. That majorly struck a chord with me. I constantly find myself keeping internal tabs and measuring how Brent compares to me as a spouse. 'Is he going to watch football all day?' 'Why doesn't he help me fold clothes?' etc. etc. etc. But really does that do anybody any good? If I focused on making him happy, would that in turn create more harmony where he would return that sentiment? {Not that he doesn't make me happy, but I think you get my drift.}

Fr. Adrian also said there were 4 things you needed to make your marriage a success. 1) Prayer. 2) Forgiveness. 3) Patience. and 4) Perseverance. Again this was very convicting to me. I definitely lack in patience, my prayer life leaves a lot to be desired, and forgiveness can also be hard for me. So basically, I have persevered. Not really something to brag about when it comes to marriage.

We have lots of friends in all stages of marriage. Newlyweds, pregnant with their first, old veterans like us, even divorced. One friend in particular talks about how she has 'trained' her husband. And it's not quite as archaic as it sounds. When her husband does something nice for her, she rewards him. Which makes him want to continue doing nice things. That's it. That's her strategy for their marriage. Now I counter that with they have been married less than 3 years and don't have kids yet. But really, that sounds a lot like what Fr. Adrian said.

I love my husband. Truly, madly, deeply. But after 10 years of marriage, am I taking our relationship for granted and not making Brent feel loved? Probably. Am I putting his happiness before mine? Not even remotely. Do I practice forgiveness and patience? Nope.

But...CAN I do all these things? For sure! I feel really empowered that, even though we have a really good marriage, I think I can do more to make it great.

So here's to making the next 10 years {times 6 or so) GREAT!

Weekend Recap: The I 'Thought' It Was Fall Edition

The calendar might say it's fall, but it's Texas, and Texas said 'Kiss my a$$, fall.' It was in the low 90s yesterday. I'll take that any day over 105*, but I'd prefer a little more fall right now if I could get it. 

So Saturday I took the kids outside to play. I still feel like we end up cooped up inside more in the apartment, so we're trying to get creative to get the kids out. The only real complaint I have about our complex is the lack of a playground. So we played in the sand volleyball court.

Twinkies {she took her shirt and shoes off to match her Bubba}

And then we put our feet in the pool.

And then we got all the way in.

Yup, swimming in late October is totally normal right?

We also had a birthday party to go to for my friend Kelly's little boy who turns ONE on Monday! It was a sports-themed party, and she asked me to make the smash cake. 

Football field green with some grass. #nailedit

Kelly and Trey with me and Drew {Trent politely declined a picture.}

Today consisted of house picking up, church, grocery shopping, football watching, and MORE pool time for my crazy kids. Brent took them while I went to the grocery store. It was so relaxing to shop by myself, ha.

Here's hoping fall shows it's face soon!

While the Parents are Away

Trent and Drew had a great time staying with my parents while we were away. Drew slept through the night every night {something I don't think she's ever done at my parents' house}, and it was probably because my parents ran them into the ground!

They met Patty and her crew at a park by the kids' school on Thursday. Mom said they played and played and played.

She looks like a ragamuffin! We roll classy, don't we?

Brent had the brilliant idea to order Trent a toy {for excellent behavior at school} for it to ship to my parents house on Friday. Trent was SO thrilled!

Saturday my sister et al came over again and my dad BBQ'd for them.

Teaching the secrets of a good rib rub.

I was ready to see my babies on Sunday, so I got my mom to send a picture of the kiddos before our flight took off.

I think they are two lucky little kids!

Devil's Thumb Ranch - Part 2

If you missed the first part of my anniversary recap, it's HERE.

Saturday morning, the boys were really antsy to watch football. So we got dolled up to go sit in a bar.

Are you ready for some football?!?!

Flew thousands of miles for this? {grin}

Kristen and I tried to get a pedicure in Winter Park, but there were only 2 salons and neither had any appointments. HOW is that possible?

After a disappointing loss for my Aggies, we headed back to the resort for more shenanigans.

 This is the cabin we stayed in. Isn't it so cute?

The view just continued to amaze us.

The inside was so cute too! 

They seem really interested in my pictures!

 We have no clue what this hole was for so we called it the 'kill hole'. 

Be careful or Jason will get you and throw you in the kill hole!

Cheering? on Florida State

Sunday morning we got up bright and early to wind back down the mountain to fly back home. We had such an amazing trip but were all excited to get back to our babies!

Back in our truck! Last selfie! Brent is over it!

A joyous reunion occurred at my parents - well - Trent said he didn't miss us, and I couldn't get either kid to get in their car seat to come home. To say they like my parents is an understatement.

Back to our usual Sunday fun!

And that is how we did Denver! If you are looking for any place to stay, we couldn't say enough good things about our ranch resort. There were TONS of activities you could do, amazing food, beautiful views, top-notch service!

Happy anniversary, love!

Devil's Thumb Ranch - Part 1

We got back yesterday from our anniversary trip. We did decide to take a quick trip out of town, and we ended up inviting Kristen and Schuyler with us. Kristen's birthday is our anniversary, and we always lament that we can't celebrate together, so this year we did! We went to a resort about 80 miles north of Denver in Tabernash, CO, called Devil's Thumb Ranch.

One word for our trip - FABULOUS!

Brent amused me the WHOLE time and took all the pictures I wanted!

TAKEOFF! Kid Free! Love!

We spent most of Thursday walking around Denver. We found a cute restaurant called Corridor 44 for happy hour.

Let the good times begin!

Oh yeah! This was just our 'happy hour' snacks.

4 people in their early{ish} 30s, and we laugh at this. {grin}

We walked around a little more and then went to eat our anniversary/birthday dinner at Vesta's Dipping Grill. It was SO amazing. 

Happy birthday, K Dub!!!

After dinner, we drove to the resort. In the dark. Up a windy mountain. With GPS giving us bad directions. We got there with enough time to check in, get to our cabin, and go to bed! We couldn't see anything and kept joking 'Where are the mountains?'

Well, we found them Friday morning!

Hello mountains!

The view on our walk from our cabin to the main lodge.

We ate breakfast at the main lodge, and it was INSANE. All that fresh air made us hungry.

Kristen and I spent a few hours Friday morning at the spa. We got massages and then spent time in the spa with a bottle of champagne. The service was nuts, just totally top notch!

Our personalized cubbies!

Besties!

We met up with the boys at the other hot tub {they spent the morning having a 'man date' consisting of procuring alcohol and snacks and putting air in the car tires...I think we girls won the award for best morning.} for more drinks.

This doesn't even look real does it? View from the hot tub.

A few drinks in...

We were supposed to have dinner at the steak house on the resort grounds that night, but we looked at the menu and opted for the main lodge restaurant {where we'd had breakfast}. We definitely made the right decision again!

Lots of pictures still to share, and this post is already long enough...so I'll finish tomorrow - more Gurliamson shenanigans and pictures of our cabin!

X

Today marks a DECADE that Brent and I have been married.

A DECADE. TEN years. I am so pumped for us!

Marriage is HARD, y'all. Worth it {duh} but hard.

Let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

10.16.2004

2005

2006

Not sure what happened to 2007, but I have NO pictures from that year. Oops.

2008 

2009

2010

2011

 2012

 2013

2014

Observations: We have been to a lot of weddings, and that seems to be the only place I take a picture of us. I look A LOT older than I did on our wedding day. We're still pretty darn cute. My smile hasn't changed! I LOVE THIS MAN!!!!