New Orleans Trip

New Orleans, I think I love you, but only for an occasional weekend.

Jared & I decided at the beginning of August to go see our friends in New Orleans. We wanted to get away from Fort Worth and just have some fun! We needed to leave the house by 2:15pm to make it to our 5:00pm flight. We exit off of 30 to get onto 121 and there's traffic which is just grrrrrreat. So we sat in traffic for 45 minutes. Not a good way to start off a much anticipated trip. We finally made it to the airport and got our boarding pass and it said "FIRST CLASS" that's a major score when you're flying standby!!!

My favorite words to hear on the plane were, "Ladies and gentlemen we are 10 minutes away from New Orleans. Flight Attendants please prepare for landing." I really do NOT like to fly!!

Richard was kind enough to pick us up from the airport and he wanted to show us around the city. I had been to New Orleans once before when I was a little girl, but I don't remember anything about the city.

That evening we ate at this place called the Butcher. It was a REAL butcher shop! I didn't even think those were around anymore. I wasn't feeling very exotic so I ordered just a turkey sandwich and let me tell you it was the BEST turkey sandwich I've ever had. The meat tasted so fresh and full of goodness. I'm a pretty picky eater especially when it comes to meat.

The next morning we ate at this hole in the wall called Slim Goodies, and it was nothing but goodness all around. I ordered just plain Jane eggs and toast. Crazy, I know. The rest of the day we walked around the French Quarter, along the Mississippi River, then I took a 3 hour nap! As we were walking through the French Quarter there were some homeless people on the sitting of the street. As we got closer to them one of them said, "Hey you're on a TV Reality Show it's called Give Me A Dollar." We all busted out laughing. That was one of the most clever ways of asking for a dollar that I've ever heard. I wanted to give them a dollar just for making me laugh!

After I woke up from my nap I realized that my phone alarm went off for me to take my birth control pill and sinus meds and I went to get my purse and realized I left my purse in the car which is parked in Dallas. Somehow I managed to grab my wallet but left my purse!

That evening we rode the trolly car and went to an awesome restaurant called HerbSaint's for dinner. I cannot even begin to explain how amazing this food was! It was like tasting Heaven. I was pretty nervous about trying something new because of my sensitive gag reflex to certain foods. (If a food has a funny taste or texture to me I gag. I can't help it!!!!) But to mine & Jared's surprise I didn't gag a single time! I actually had to pull myself away from the food. I ordered Sausage & DUCK Gumbo, Chicken & Mushroom Ravioli, and Dirty Rice. I wasn't sure about eating the Duck so I thought I had scooped it aside. Later Jessica told that it was actually the Sausage I was scooping away and the Duck was what I was eating. Jared ordered Grits & Shrimp, sounds gross, but quite the contrary! The shrimp was the best shrimp I've ever had! Richard ordered some sort of veal wrap and I had a bite of that too! So I tried Duck and Veal! Go me!!

(Dirty Rice)

Chicken & Mushroom Ravioli

Duck & Sausage Gumbo

(See Susan, you're not the only one who takes photos of their food!)

After dinner Jessica & Richard took us to Bourbon Street (which smelled like puke). I thought I was a cultured person, well after seeing Bourbon Street I'd like to think not. Bourbon Street is one l-o-n-g street and the setup goes like this: bar, bar, bar, strip club, strip club, gay bar, gay bar, tobacco shop, bar, bar, bar, strip club, strip club, etc.. I saw plenty of drunk people and girls with barely anything on to last a lifetime. We were walking by what we thought was just a regular bar, however it was a gay bar! The bartender was wearing, get this, a bow tie around his neck and a g-string and I'm not talking the kind of thong(s) you can wear on your feet! I wanted to throw up my expensive dinner!!

Over all the trip was awesome. We loved New Orleans! When we got home we took another 5hr nap to catch up on some sleep that we definitely lost while we were there! But the lost sleep was well worth all the fun!!

"When I play pretend, I'm an ambitious person..."

I get inspired from just about about anything positive. I see people helping people and I know that I should help more people. I hear friends encouraging other friends and I know I should to be more encouraging. I know I should do more especially when it comes to things that I care deeply about. I should use what God has given to me to help other people. My problem has always been follow through. I get so caught up in the emotion and extravaganza of it all and that's all I pull away or give to it. And I go along with my life as if those moments never touched me. How sad that I am wasting my life. A quote I just read: “You have to believe that your life has meaning and purpose BEFORE you see that it does. If you believe it then you will be doing the right things, and saying the right things, and putting yourself in the right situations to see that your life has meaning and purpose but if you HAVE to believe it before you SEE it.” Sometimes I believe my life has a great purpose but maybe that's only because I hear my Momma's voice in my head other times when I fail or I disappoint myself I don't believe my life has purpose, but I want so badly to believe it. Don't start with Jeremiah 29:11 please. So we've gone from things that ought to be done and purpose and where's my point..?

My point is that my purpose is being slammed into the ground because of my lack of follow through. It sucks. I.hate.it.with.everything.inside.of.me. So now how do I turn it around? Well I got the title of this post from a Atlanta based Photographer (who is amazing) that I have been following for a few months. He posted this call to action on his blog about serving in your community with what you have. I have two things that I can use: a passion for helping people and my outdated camera. Those are good enough. I'm going to stop sitting here and thinking about what all I could do and I'm going do it. I'm 21 years old and for the first time I know what I want to do with my life and it's time I start doing it. The only person stopping me is me. I suck as a person, but I'm taking the first step to getting out of this rut that I put myself in. I hope in 20 years I look back on this moment and realize that's when started living out my purpose and dreams.

www.zarias.com is the blog where I got the inspiration from. Read it.

Bittersweet Road

Jared & I are a almost a week shy of celebrating our 9 month old marriage. Through this time we have experienced many joyful highs and very devastating lows. It didn't help that the first 2 months that we were married we fought nearly every moment we were around each other. Thankfully our relationship has gone gotten much, much, better since those days. Sometimes I just sit and think about the wonderful man I married. I still can't get over it. It brings me to tears when I think about Jared. He's the most wonderful, compassionate, loyal, genuine, thoughtful, loving person that I've ever met. I still get floored when I think that God chose ME to cherish this gift (Jared) He's given me. I cannot imagine why God chose me for Jared, but I am incredibly thankful that He did. I know I married out of my league.

I have this raging force inside of me to protect him and our marriage. I get violently mad when someone hurts him or brushes him off. Right after Jared & I got married a few friends that were the absolute closest to us left us. There was no falling out, argument, or anything to insight discord- they just disappeared. It's like all of a sudden we weren't cool. Before we were married we were out every weekend just blowing and going like we always did then BAM no one is around and it's just the two of us. We couldn't figure it out. Our friends were still hanging out with our other friends and life seemed to be rocking right along for them. And we were left completely out of the picture. Jared & I tried to contact these people every way possible by technology known to man and we never got a single response. (There's a happy ending I promise!)....

So at the time we were going through this dry and lonely season the most beautiful thing came out of it. Jared & I started to grow so much closer to each other and became really good friends. And we started hanging out with our families more and became so much closer with them. So it was like we felt completely abandoned and God led us into a deeper relationship with Him and with each other. It amazes me that God knew who and what to get out of the picture so that we could grow closer together. I wouldn't trade those bittersweet days for anything. God allowed all of that to happen for a purpose and as long as there is some sort of positive purpose I'm ok with going through some crap.

If Jared & I had not been stretched I don't think I could ever written how wonderful he is like I did above. God grew my love for Jared and Jared's love for me. I am head over heels in love with my husband and I would go through a thousand years of struggle if only to get a little closer to him.

Petey, My Kitchen Inspiration

The other day Jared & I were walking around Lowes to get some inspiration for our new home that we hope to have soon. I was pretty focused on the kitchen during our excursion. We picked out a chandelier (I love, love, love chandeliers!) that we couldn't live without and as we were walking back over to the area where they keep all the kitchen hardware & appliances I saw Petey. He was nudged in a corner and his price was $4! I immediately fell in love with the little guy and decided that he was going to be my kitchen inspiration. He reminded me of something that would sell at Anthropolgie for $40. After I saw Petey Jared & I went to the paint department and then I picked out paint colors for our comfy kitchen. The idea I have in my head for our kitchen is exactly what I want and I'm hoping I can pull it all together. In my mind I can adjust any house to fit the idea of what I want our kitchen to look like. The colors and how it's decorated is the most important part to me. I'm pretty picky on how I want our house to look. Make sense? Petey just brings it all together for me. It's kind of like when I went to do our wedding registry at Bed Bath & Beyond and I was picking out towels with my sweet mother-in-law. I picked out some different colored towels and Dorenda looked at me like I was crazy, but once I pulled it all together she liked it. I have a feeling that's how the kitchen and pretty much the rest of the house will go. I just get an idea and run with it. My taste is definitely not the norm, and I'm cool with that.

His name is Petey because of the bird off of Dumb & Dumber. Our all time favorite movie!

I'd really like for our house to be like walking into a James Taylor, Eric Clapton, or John Mayer song. Nice, easy and comfortable. A place where you could just sit back and let the atmosphere rock you to sleep. That's what I'm going for overall.

For now, we need to close on a house and start packing!

Kennedy Piper & Grace Kathleen

My nieces are seriously too gorgeous for words. Kennedy is a ball of energy and completely stubborn. Gracie is the sweetest baby I've ever been around. She loves to cuddle so she's my kind of girl. Kennedy will scream if you try to cuddle with her. I love seeing them and I try to see them anytime I can. They grow so fast and every time I see them they change. I remember when Kennedy was an infant.. she was the most difficult child. She always (still does) need attention. Gracie is content with playing with her toys and simply being held. The girls are polar opposites. I cannot imagine life without them. I love them completely and I hope one day I'll be the cool Aunt that they'll want to come hangout with. :)

Wasted Time

I got home from work at 2ish.. it's now about to be 4 and I've sat behind computer trying to update this sad, sad, blog. 2 HOURS I've been trying to figure all of this out and I think I've finally got it! Go me! I'm sure my husband would be so happy to know that I spent 2 wasted hours on this when there are so many things I should be doing. Between Facebook, email, MySpace, Twitter, and now Blogger I'll be quite the little social-butterfly-time-waster.

Earlier today I had to stop and get gas on my way home from work. I figured that driving to work with the gas light on was a bad enough idea and driving home with the light on would be a "I'm out of gas. Jared please come help me!" phone call that I did not want to make. So I stop to get gas and I put my debit card in the little slot and put "pay outside debit" and it says "please see cashier." I don't want to see the cashier, I want to do it here. So finally after shoving my card in the pump numerous times I give in and begin to walk into the gas station. I take about 5 steps away from my car and some sleazy guy with missing teeth & wearing an Earnhart cap says to me, "hey baby, nice tails." I paused for a second then just walk into the gas station pretty puzzled. I started thinking about what he said as I was waiting inline to pay for gas along with a lot of other people who were apparently hitting up QT's special on hot dogs... I kept saying in my mind, tails, tails, tails.. What was he talking about? My first thought was that he was referencing my rear end, but why did he say "tails" because I only have one, singular, tail end- maybe? Then I look down and I have my hair in pig TAILS! (During the summer I refuse to fix my hair unless it's absolutely necessary. It's way too long and it's too hot to use a blow dryer! So I always put it in braided pig tails.) I was glad to know he wasn't talking about anything other my braided pig tails. :)

That's all for today! I've got to get some things done!

I'm a bad blogger...

I'm not very good blogger.. I think my one and only post was from January, that's pretty sad. I think I mostly wanted to start a blog was because honestly, I love reading other people's blogs and I thought someone might like to read mine. And regrettably, I haven't been the best at choosing my words carefully with past blogs.

So this is my past mid-year resolution: blog more often. As I type that I realize that will be much easier said than done. I'll try! :)

Jared and I are in the process of house hunting.. Using those words "house hunting" kinda makes me think we should be carrying a gun in the Tahoe as we are looking around. Words give so much imagery. Anyway, we're house hunting and it's a pain, but also pretty fun. I really enjoy the long drives and talking with Jared about so many different things. We talk best when we're driving or walking. I love that we have found one of our things. We've been looking for a house for awhile, but we're getting pretty serious about it now. The biggest let down is when we find a house then look at the surrounding areas and there's nothing around or there are shady areas close by. We found a perfect house and it had everything that we wanted and more until we looked at the areas around the house and it was in really poor shape and there wasn't a grocery store for miles unless we wanted to go to the local Fiesta!

Hmm... what other random things can I write...

I think my favorite part of the day is when Jared comes home. I intentionally lock both locks so I'll have to get up and unlock the door and I love just seeing him standing there. He has his briefcase (man purse) in one hand and the biggest smile on his face. He comes in the door sets his briefcase down and immediately turns to me for a hug and a kiss. I know it doesn't sound like much but to me it's everything.