Weekend Update

Last weekend was nice and relaxing. Friday night we spent the evening at home watching season 3 of Friday Night Lights (our new TV obsession that even Taylor loves! ha) after going to get burgers from a local place called Bunny's. Taylor's test was pretty tough earlier that day and  I think he enjoyed doing something mindless that evening.

Saturday we woke up early to clean the house. It had been WAY too long since we had done a deep cleaning and 3 hours later, the house looked great! There is something about  a clean house that just makes you feel better. After cleaning we headed to the golf course. It was almost 90 here on Saturday so the course was pretty open. We have learned that people in CU don't really come out of their houses when it gets over 85 degrees! Ha. Obviously they have never been in OK or AR during the summer :)

Also on Saturday my little sister went to prom for the first time! I had really wanted to be there but it just didn't work out. Situations like that really make me miss living closer, but I know we are here for a reason and it's only a season of life. Doesn't she look beautiful?

The pretty dock where her group had dinner!

After golf we headed back home to get cleaned up and go watch the Thunder game. As most of you know, we don't have cable. It's just really expensive here and we already watch enough TV with the local channels. So whenever we want to watch sports, we usually have to go somewhere in town that has a TV. We were both pretty tired after golf, so we decided to stay close to the house and ended up going to Red Lobster to watch the game. I just find that really funny. Who knew we'd ever go to Reb Lobster, sit at their bar, order a piece of chocolate cake, a coke, a fruity drink, and watch the Thunder game? Ha.

Sunday morning we got up early and went to the early service at our church. I had been wanting to go see a softball game all season but it had just never worked out. Their last game was Sunday morning at 10:30 so since we went to early service at 9, we were able to make the game! It was really hot again, but I just love watching softball. Taylor doesn't find it quite as entertaining, but he was sweet to go with me.

I finished up some laundry Sunday afternoon and then we called Laine and Andrew to see if they wanted to go play golf that evening. A local course in the area has a $7 rate (with cart, which is crazy cheap for the courses in our area) if you start at 5pm, and since it doesn't get dark until 8 here, you can get in a whole 18 holes! It's pretty awesome. We had a really fun time on the course with them and the weather was just perfect. I think we'll be doing that a lot this summer! Hope y'all had a great weekend.

Finals

Today Taylor takes his one and only final of the semester. That means at the end of the day he will be finished with his second year of graduate school! I can hardly believe it. Any prayers or good thoughts you would like to send out around 1:30 this afternoon would be much appreciated. I hope he channels his inner Einstein this afternoon but I hope he doesn't end up like this! Ha.

Have a great weekend!

OKC Memorial Marathon

This past weekend we headed to AR to meet Taylor's family for the OKC Memorial Marathon. It was such a fun weekend! We had a lot of car time, but that just means we get to spend time talking :) Due to some issues with Taylor's car and my car not getting the best gas mileage, we have starting renting cars for long trips back home. I get to use the University's rental car account as an employee so we get an incredible deal (especially for being under 25)!

This past weekend we ended up with a Toyota Yaris. It was very simply and basic, but perfect for the two of us traveling. We kept track of our mpg for the whole trip and we ended up getting 40 mpg! It was awesome and confirmed to us that renting cars for trips back home really is a great deal. We don't put any wear and tear on our own cars and since the rentals are always brand new (typically they will be current year models with less than 1000 miles) we get incredible gas mileage and end up spending what we would in gas just to take my car! After gas and the rental fee, I think we paid $3 more than we would have in gas alone to take my car. And that doesn't even include the cost of wear and tear, which we have learned is very important to factor in!

 

 Ready to be in AR!

We passed the Tornado Hunt team from The Weather Channel on our way to AR!

We headed to AR about noon on Friday and arrived around 8:30pm. We were very hungry by the time we got to Taylor's parents house and lucky for us, they had Whole Hog BBQ waiting!

After dinner we stayed up talking for a little bit and then went to bed! Saturday morning we had a great breakfast and then headed to OKC. Saturday was a pretty relaxed day. We picked up our packets at the convention center, stopped by the new outlet mall in OKC, and then went to eat dinner at Victoria's Pasta Shop. Taylor and I love Victoria's. I had not been there since college so we were both very excited to eat there! After dinner we headed to the hotel and watched the first half of the Thunder game before falling asleep.

 

Can you tell Taylor was excited to be running? :)

4:45am came very early on Sunday for race day! We made our way to the starting line to drop off my brother in-law and father in-law since they were doing the first parts of our relays teams. After they started we spent the rest of the race driving around to cheer each other on and then switching racers at each relay exchange. It was a lot of fun! After the race we went to Mama Rojas to eat (where I ate entirely too much) and then headed back to AR. Once we got back, Taylor, his dad, and brother went to play golf. I'm not sure how they did that! I was tired and had not run nearly as much as them earlier that morning. The girls all stayed at the house enjoying pie and relaxing watching some shows, which was much more fun in my opinion!

It's always so moving to see the Firefighters during the races!

I took off Monday and we had planned on playing golf before we headed back to CU, but sadly it was pouring when we woke up :( Taylor was pretty sad but I promised him we would play golf this week sometime. And it didn't make him feel any better than when we headed back home it was clear blue skies and the perfect temperature! Ha. So instead we spent the morning doing nothing and then went eat lunch before heading out. We got back home about 9:00pm that night and I went straight to bed. I'm the type of person who likes to wait and unpack the next day but Taylor is not. Ha. I was pretty much asleep and he was still unpacking :) Hope you all had a great weekend!

Happy Monday

Just something I found on Pinterest today to bring a smile to your Monday :)

Have a great week!

Where I Stayed

So the Pioneer Woman always takes photos of the hotels she stays in and then posts them on her blog. Now, I know my hotels are not nearly as nice as hers, but I thought I would share where I stayed as well! (Sorry some of the photos are blurry!)

Wyndham Las Colinas (Dallas) The hotel was nice and outside of the city so there wasn't any traffic. That's a big plus, especially in Dallas!

Hilton Austin This hotel was right in downtown Austin and very nice. I got to stay on the 18th floor which was fun! I wish I would have taken a photo of the hotel lobby because it was very pretty. This room definitely had the most comfy bed!

SpringHill Suites Houston This was my least favorite of the three hotels and the one I stayed in for two days! Ha. I felt like I was in a hotel in Florida, which would typically be nice, but the rooms were really hot! The only plus was that they did offer breakfast in the mornings. But at least they had the Food Network on cable :) Hope everyone is having a great week!

Texas Travels

I spent last week in Texas recruiting for work so sorry for being MIA! I thought I would share some photos from the week... I left Monday morning and got to Dallas about 10am. I got to rent a car for the week and it was awesome! I ended up with a Chevy Cruze and loved it. Every time I got into the car it had that new car smell :)

I didn't have to be at the college fair (the reason I was in Texas) until 4pm so I hit the outlet mall and went to In-N-Out! Our friends have always talked about In-N-Out and I had never been. The verdict? Delicious! If you're ever around one, make sure to go.

I went to the college fair that night and then got to go see my best friend Jess and her husband Michael afterwards. They live in Texas so that was one of the things I was most looking forward to about being in Texas. It was so nice to catch up and finally see where they live! I got up on Tuesday and headed to Austin for the next college fair. It was about a 3 hour drive and I left way too early, so what did I do? I hit the outlet mall again right outside of Austin! Ha. I know, I have a really hard job :) This is my setup at the college fairs.

They have these really big college fairs called NACACs where hundreds of schools come and thousands of students can receive info about the schools and talk with counselors (like myself). These were my first NACACs and they really wear you out. I had some pretty bad congestion last week and my ears didn't ever pop after my flight, so it made hearing at the fairs pretty interesting.

On Wednesday I woke up early and headed to Houston to pick my boss up from the airport. She was coming to help with a dinner I was hosting that night for some of our admitted students in the Houston area. The dinner turned out great and she was impressed with how I handled everything. And I had TONS of leftovers!

Thursday was the final college fair in Houston. I didn't really do much that day because I wasn't feeling 100% but it was nice to just hang out in the hotel room and watch the Food Network :) I forget how much I love that channel since we don't have cable. Friday I headed back to CU and got home about 5:30 that night. But not before making a stop at the most delicious popcorn stand, Garrett's, which was conveniently located right next to my terminal gate!

Hello Spring!

Disclaimer: I wrote this post a couple weeks ago and never posted it. Whoops! So let's pretend that it's still March...

So this last week has been tons of fun! My parents visited us last weekend while my sister was in Cancun (jealous!) and we had a great time. I didn't realize they hadn't been to Papa Del's yet so we made sure to have dinner there. We saw The Lorax on Saturday and it was so cute! After church Sunday they headed back to OK and we decided to go play golf. It was my first round of the year and it went surprisingly well.


I also received my copy of The Pioneer Woman's new cookbook last week! Thanks Mom :) I made her perfect iced coffee recipe and it is awesome! I feel so cool bringing my new tervis cup with homemade iced coffee to work each morning. Ha!

We have finally started using our grill on a regular basis. I love using the grill because our dinner options multiple a ton! Plus, Taylor does most of the cooking when we use the grill :)

Since Taylor is on Spring Break this week, I took Wednesday afternoon off and we went to play golf. The weather was perfect but I can't say the same for our golf games. But any day on the golf course is better than any day at work, right?

Tonight we are having friends over for a grill-out turned crockpot BBQ sandwiches party since there is an 80% chance of rain. After dinner Taylor and I are attending the midnight showing of The Hunger Games! I am so excited. We bought tickets about a month ago once I realized I didn't have to work this Friday. I have only ever attended one midnight premiere so I can hardly wait.

Have a great weekend!

Sorry for the delay! I'll try to get back on track with posting :)