Happy 5th Anniversary!

*I started this post last week, but due to being out of town for a family reunion on our actual anniversary, I didn't have time to publish it.*

June 26, 2004- D and I began our new life together. We were so young- I was 18 and he was 20. I remember thinking about how young I would still be when we celebrated our 5th anniversary. And now, here we are. We've started and finished college, found jobs that we love, bought our first car together, and then our first home. We've shared so many laughs, made fun memories, and enjoyed great friendships.

At one point when we were dating, I came up with a list of 50 reasons why I like D. This past year when I was going through things that we had saved from those years, I found the list and thought I'd share some of them. Some are sweet and some are pretty funny.

Why I Like D

1. Your blue eyes
   
2. Your thoughtfulness
3. How nice you are to my sister (that would be you A)
4. The way you always tease (really?)
5. How you won't step down from your morals
6. The way you would stay up till midnight to do your homework just to talk to me a little longer (what can I say? we were in high school)
   
7. The way you respect everyone
8. How, even though you would much rather watch ESPN, you settle on whatever I want to watch (things change after you get married)
9. The way you look when I confuse you (ha!)
10. How you put up with my brother's teasing
11. The way you'll never end a phone conversation without saying those three words
12. How you always compliment me
13. Your love of His Word
14. Your love for your family
15. The way you love me!

Happy 5th Anniversary D!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

I don't know why, but I have that song stuck in my head. Anyway, yesterday we returned from our cruise with R & P. To say we had fun would be an understatement. It was so great to spend time away from everything, hanging out and laughing with friends.

Departure

Galveston

Thursday morning, we woke early to get on the road by 7:00 am. After a stop in Giddings to see the house the guys are working on and to get a breakfast taco, we were on our way. If you've ever been on a cruise before, then you know how hectic the departure process can be. Thankfully, it wasn't too bad. We were on the ship and eating lunch by 1:00 or so. The ship was really rocky that day, but it calmed down for the rest of the trip. At dinner that night, we found out we were at a table for 11, so our hopes of just eating by ourselves went down the drain. Two families that knew each other would be our dinnermates, and after several attempts at holding a conversation with them, we knew we had little in common. Dinner was so awkward that we considered trying to switch tables, but decided to give it another chance. After dinner, we went to see the show that they put on each night. The dance routine was disappointing, but the comedian was hilarious. She would be doing another routine the next night, so we made plans to see her again.

Formal Night

Friday was spent hanging around on the ship. We laid out, P and I read books, we all played Bingo, the guys played basketball, shuffleboard, putt putt, and ping pong. I think P and I were so thankful that the guys had each other so we could relax. Watching the guys play basketball was really funny- the wind and the rocking of the ship would mess their shots up. Dinner that night would be our formal night, but the UT baseball team was also playing in the College World Series. We all really wanted to see the game, but the ship either didn't have ESPN2 or weren't showing the game that night. The guys were disappointed, but we knew we could look it up online after dinner. Dinner that night went much better. There weren't as many awkward silences, so it was much more enjoyable. After dinner, we changed clothes and checked the game online, only to see that it had been delayed because of the weather. We arrived early to the lounge where the comedian would be performing and caught the last part of the karaoke show. This ended up being one of my favorite things to go see- not because the singers were that great, but the guy running the show was hilarious. Here are some one-liners from him:
"Stop being so white and dance!"
"If you are not clapping, you are ugly."
"Good job, karaoke stage mother!"
Wow. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

Cozumel

Playa Mia Beach Club

Saturday is our port day. We would be arriving in Cozumel in the morning and our group is taking a taxi to a beach club to spend the day in the water. The water was beautiful. The weather was hot! But we got to have all the drinks we wanted. We spent time in the water and laying out, reading or sleeping. The buffet lunch we were promised was disappointing, but it held us over until we got back on the ship. D had fun climbing a floating rock wall and then sliding down the other side. R paddled around in a kayak. P and I got floating rafts and relaxed in the water on those. Afterward, we took a taxi back to the town and did some shopping. I bought two maracas for my kindergarten class when we learn about Mexico next year. P got a pair of earrings and R bargained with a merchant and bought a picture frame. As we were walking toward the ship after we had passed the first security check point, we saw a crowd around the side of the sidewalk. Several girls had jumped off the pier and into the water... right by the sign that says no diving. They were then climbing a ladder back onto the pier. Members of the Mexican police saw this and came running over. We really thought they might get a ticket or taken to jail, but it didn't seem like anything happened. One of the moms had the nerve to say, "But we paid for this!" Oh, Americans.

On the pier

Saturday dinner was just the four of us. The other families spent the day swimming with the dolphins and didn't come to dinner that night. It was nice to have the table to ourselves. The show that night included a ventriloquist, so we went and watched and laughed. He would be doing a stand-up routine the next night. Later that night, the ship had a Mexican buffet. We went, but P was the only one willing to wait in line to try the food. I don't think it was as good as our local Mexican restaurants.

Enjoying an afternoon snack

Our last dinner

Sunday was another lazy day for us. We slept in, ate a late breakfast, read books, and pretty much did nothing. Later that afternoon, we played couple against couple in putt putt. I was reading a really good book and didn't want to put it down, so I read for most of the day. The guys made trips to the casino, I found postcards to send to my kindergarten class (now big 1st graders), and we watched the Newlywed/Married show. After dinner, we went to see the comedian do his stand-up routine. It was really funny. P had to get on to an inebriated lady that was being so loud, we couldn't hear the comedian. She used her 6th grade teacher voice and said, "Hush!" after another lady behind us had basically said the same thing to the lady, to no avail. I thought for a second we might have a skirmish on our hands, but realized the lady was in no condition to even figure out who had asked her to be quiet. We thought it was funny all the same though, because P said it so loud that the comedian was kinda startled by it and paused in his routine.

All in all, the trip was so much fun. We did decide that next time, we would probably go on a Royal Caribbean cruise. I'm not hating on Carnival, but the people were having too much fun on the FunShip for us. It was really embarassing to see the lack of self-control displayed on the cruise. It was also sad to see how the economy has affected the cruise industry- there was no midnight chocolate buffet ( our waiter told us they have had to cut back), our waiters were taking care of more tables than I remember from our last cruise so we didn't get to know them as well, and even the quality of the food was affected. That didn't stop D from ordering two or even three different desserts!

Summer is here (almost)

My first weekend of (almost) Summer has been great! We watched the Horns play in the Super Regional last night (won) and this afternoon (lost)... which means we will also be watching them tomorrow evening to see if they will be making the trip to Omaha. I'm really liking Texas baseball this year (and high school baseball as D's little brother's team is going to the State Championship tournament). The games have been hot- thanks to Texas summer heat- and I've gotten my share of a baseball tan (burned on the front of the legs, white on the back). But the games have been oh-so-fun!

Other things on my list of summer activities include painting our bedroom and finishing up the bedroom makeover, which was started by the purchase of new bedroom furniture. I love our black sleigh bed! As always, I'm a bargain hunter and made some really good finds at my favorite store, Target.

Green recycled glass hurricane: $13.98

Sunburst mirror: $12.48 (originally $49.99)

Charger-turned-wall decor: 3@ $3.24

I'll keep you posted on how the re-do turns out. Other things to be excited for:

Cruise to Cozumel with our friends, R & P
Family Reunion in the Hill Country
Weddings!
Relaxing (sigh)
Reading
Morning walks
Afternoon naps
and more blog posts!

Get Well and Teacher Appreciation

As I mentioned in my last post, I have not been feeling well lately thanks to the pesky mold spores in the air. I missed school on Monday because of the pounding headache my friend was giving me. The best thing about missing school is how much love your students lavish on you the next day. Here's a card a student gave me when I returned on Tuesday:



I feel so loved. And speaking of feeling loved, this week is also Teacher Appreciation week. My class has really blessed me in so many ways throughout the year and it's funny how well we get to know each other... The last three days has seen an influx of little (and big!) brown packages. Take a look:

*one or two bars might already be missing*

As one student told her baby-sitter last night, "My teacher cannot live without chocolate!"

Amen.

Not feelin' it

Sunday: Sore throat
Monday: Sore throat and pounding headache
Tuesday: Headache

Stinkin' mold spores that are in the air.

However, the rest of my week looks bright. Tomorrow I'll be at school, doing the regular routine. But Thursday and Friday I'll be attending a reading workshop, which will be held at our school so I won't be in class. It'll be a nice change. Then after school on Friday, D and I will leave to go see my parents that night and will spend the next day with his parents. Then it's back home again for church on Sunday. I'm looking forward to seeing each of our families, though I'm sad we'll be missing out on our weekly Friday night dinner with R & P.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Can you guess

why D would be excited?




11 biscuits for the price of 10.


What a bargain shopper.

Good intentions

I've been meaning to update my blog lately. Life, however, has gotten in the way- in good and not so good ways.

Monday: I actually can't even remember what happened on Monday. I do know that the evening found us shoe-shopping for D. This is something that 1) doesn't happen often and 2) is usually about as fun as pulling teeth. D, in all his frugal-ness, tries to find the best value for a pair of shoes. Then he wears these shoes until they are literally falling apart (his last pair finally passed away due to holes in the soles of the shoes). On this day, I was able to sway his opinion that best value doesn't always mean best quality, and he bought a pair of fairly nice shoes. But it doesn't stop there- he also found another pair that he liked and had them shipped from another store to our store so he could try them on later in the week. I know- one small leap for D, one giant leap for the Blasig family.

Tuesday: School was crazy. Then there was the Faculty meeting after school. I can't remember if it was Monday or Tuesday that we found out we would be missing another friend at school next year. D and I had plans to go to the baseball game with friends on this night, and I'm so thankful that we were able to do this. I really needed to laugh with friends and get my mind off what was going on at school. I'm going to miss the friends that I have at school so much, but more on that later.

Wednesday: Another crazy day at school. I spent the day trying to get everything ready for the field trip on Thursday. After lunch, I got a headache and ended up having to miss our weekly gathering (and Chuy's creamy jalapeno). I went home and took a nap instead. D was out of town on a work trip and he ended up getting sick and staying at the hotel most of the day Wednesday.

Thursday: Field trip day! Picnic lunch, nature walk, recess on the huge playground. We got back to school around 1 and finished out the day. I was exhausted. Took another nap when I got home. :)

Friday: Field day (not to be confused with field trip day- my kinder class kept asking when we were going on our field trip again...) The stations were fun and of course, I had to get involved in playing with the kids. It was nice to be popular-- everyone wanted me on their team for tug-of-war. Tears were a pretty common occurence throughout the stations. One of the most memorable was when a little boy was crying his eyes out because another boy called him an Aggie. As he was crying, he moans, "I'm not an Aggie. I'm a Longhorn." Wow. I hadn't seen this happen before. It was quickly settled and the other little boy apologized.



Field day also involved a teacher tug-of-war where teams of teachers battled it out against each other. While it doesn't matter who won (kinder team did, by the way), as we were high-fiving each other after our victory, it hit me again that these awesome ladies would not be there to defend our title next year. I had to walk away quickly for fear of someone seeing the tears building in my eyes. I am going to miss the talks, the joking around, the Friday runs to Chick fil-a, the comfort of having great friends to teach with. This year has been so much fun. I can say that I never dreaded a day of school because of these girls.

Friday night involved eating at Chuy's with P and then meeting R at our house for dessert. As P and I are nearing our house, we see R's car pulling out of our neighborhood. After some detective work due to R "confusing" us by putting his left blinker on and turning right instead, we end up at the park where they're going to play basketball. These guys are so funny together. Even a game of HORSE is hillarious to watch. P and I made ourselves comfortable on the swings, then finally convinced the guys it was time for dessert.

Today's plans involve yardwork, housecleaning, and a little grocery shopping for dinner tonight. R and P are coming over for a good 'ol southern meal of chicken-fried steak and mashed potatoes. Yum.