Thank Goodness for Thanksgiving!

I love Thanksgiving. I love the food, football and the time I get to spend with my family. It really is the best holiday ever...other than Christmas and my birthday :).

Thanksgiving break started last night after my class got out at 6:45pm. I was going stir crazy in class knowing that I was going to be done for the week on a Tuesday! David and I went to dinner at Los Cucos (YUM!) and then we went to see Skyfall in theaters.

David was drooling over the Aston Martin...I was drooling for other reasons...

So even though I fell asleep for about 10 min in the movie, it was SO good. Javier Bardem as the bad guy was amazing. It didn't hurt that Adele sang the opening credits either! SPOILER ALERT::The ending was sad, but I am pretty pumped that Ralph Fiennes is the new M! Voldemort as M in the James Bond series- legit.

Today has been a wonderful day off! I slept in, got my nails done, had a lunch date with the boy, and spent the afternoon cleaning around the house. Now its time to pack and get ready to head north to spend a few days with the family!

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

Weddin' Update

 

Yep, you read that correctly. 47 days... and only 30 more days left of school (Thank goodness)!!

There are so many things that I have to get done between now and then; it is just so overwhelming. I continue relying on little lists written on sticky notes and Notes on my iPhone to help me keep things organized.

Well time to get back to homework before I have to work on wedding stuff... lovely evening ahead for me!

Have a great week, y'all! It's FINALLY feeling like fall! :)

Home Workin'

Yikes. I have truly become a slacker when it comes to keeping up with this blog... Sorry y'all! I'm currently waiting for only the BIGGEST game for the Aggies to start against Alabama. Gig 'Em Aggies!

As promised, I am going to post a few pictures from our "new" house!

Front with Sunset

Since I last updated, NOTHING has happened to the mean ol' primer on the wall in the living room, so its still a whitish gray with dark maroon peeking out in places...

So much brighter in here!

Couch before...

Couch with new slipcover and blanket :) still have some work to do with it!

Front Door

David's "Man Cave"

Dining Room with sad excuse of a table and chairs! New table coming soon!

Deck area

Backyard!

Annnnd Last but not least... my favorite room of the house:

The Kitchen :)

 Well as I finish this post, the Aggies are up 14-0 with 7 min left in the first quarter. Keep it up Aggies! Whoop!

Oops!

Okay, so I would like to officially apologize for not updating y'all in like three weeks!

I have been so swamped with wedding showers, school, football, and moving things into our new house!

No, I unfortunately don't have any pictures yet, but it is on my to-do list (which is a mile long...)!

My two wedding showers have been AWESOME and I am so thankful for everyone that was able to celebrate with us! We have another shower this weekend and I am looking forward to a fun party.

Here's a not so funny story for ya, Ags:
Dark maroon living room. Not cool. First project for the house, obviously. Finally picked out paint color (pretty bluish gray aka Behr River Rock). Bought Kilz primer and painted two coats on a very large room. While painting primer, I was thinking, "this is drying kinda weird..." but kept going. BIG mistake. Wait two days and attempt to paint a test spot of actual paint on walls. Paint separates and does not go on smooth due to primer. Cue words of frustration, slamming things down, and eventually tears. Looks like lots of scrubbing walls to get the junky primer off the walls. Awesome.

So this is basically what is going on in my life right now. I promise I will attempt to post pics of the house soon!

A few of my favorite things...

September went by with a blink of the eye and now its already October?!

I think October is one of my favorite months aside from November and December and July...
I LOVE the fall. Not that Texas ever really has a fall, but we are out of the triple digits and its a little chillier at night, so that works for me!

In honor of my favorite month,  I wanted to post a few of my favorite things!

Favorite smell:
Cashmere Glow body lotion  by Bath and Body Works

Favorite face wash:
Purity by Philosophy

Favorite Tea:
Carmel Vanilla Truffle Tea by Lipton

Favorite Starbucks Drink:
Iced Soy Chai Latte

Favorite Halloween Costume from my childhood:
Scarlett O'Hara

True Southern Belle right there...ha!

What are some of your favorite things right now?

My First 5k!

Yesterday was my first 5k run, and it couldn't have been a more beautiful morning!

Me, Caitlin and Kasey! We signed up together!

 

My sweet boy!

 I finished around 32:40, and I'm pretty proud of that time for my first one. You gotta start somewhere, right? David started way ahead of me, and was waiting for me when I crossed the finish line with a big hug and some water. Such a good guy! :)

The rest of yesterday was spent tailgating before Texas A&M BTHO South Carolina State, 70-14! That kind of score took me back to the "glory days" of my high school football team, but that's a whole different blog post. All those Southlake Carroll haters out there are probably just rolling their eyes... (yes, Kalyn, that was directed at you! ;) )

Now its back to reality, workin' hard to get ahead of school work for the week. Is it December 13th yet?!

Fabulous Friday!

It's finally Friday, and somehow I survived another week of school and work! I've been MIA for a while so I figured I would throw a bunch of things into one post.

1. David and I are officially homeowners! We signed the papers on Monday but we're not getting the keys until the end of the month... I promise I will make a huge post about the house and all its details as soon as I can get in there! Patience is not a strong point for me so this is going to be a long next week!

2. How is it already September 21st? I swear it was just Labor Day. Dang. On that note, 99 days until the wedding. 99 days of using the word "fiance" as many times as I can (I'm still not used to saying it!).

3. Tomorrow is game day in College Station, but it starts off with me running in my first 5k! I'm pretty excited about it! :)

4. *BRAG TIME* I completely dominated in Fantasy Football this week and ended up ranked first in the league (of all guys) might I add! This has never happened to me, and I doubt it ever will again, so I just had to slip this in here as documentation that my somewhat flawed way of choosing players because they're cute or have a cool last name worked for me this week!

There you have it. Thanks and Gig 'Em!

In Remembrance...

Although I wrote this yesterday, I was not able to post this until today.

Eleven years ago today, a shy little seventh grader walked into Mrs. Jackson's language arts class for her first class of the day. She thought it was odd that the TV was on and watched in horror as a building was in flames. "Oh, this must be in a foreign country", not realizing this was happening on American soil. It was only when she saw a second plane crash into that second tower that she heard the words "New York" and "terrorist attack", that she realized this was huge. The class continued to watch as they saw a another plane had crashed into the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Panic consumed the girl when she remembered her father was in Washington D.C. on business. For the rest of the day, she was worried about her beloved dad until her mom called late in the school day to say that Daddy was ok. Many other little girls around the country were not as fortunate. 

Everyone has their own memories of that tragic day eleven years ago that will live in our minds forever. Even now, it is so hard to wrap my mind around why some people are so evil that they take pleasure in taking the innocent lives of so many people. I take solace in the fact that I know God has a special place in heaven for those innocent victims, the firefighters that ran into help, and the children that lost their parents that day.

It's BACK! Texas Aggie Football!

FINALLY.

After a week delay due to that mean ol' hurricane, Texas Aggie Football is here!

Ok, so I love football season.

The beginning of the season is so full of hope and anticipation to see how your team is after the off-season. This year's anticipation is on a whole new level. We're officially in the big leagues, boys, the SEC. College Station has literally doubled in population and its taking a toll on the infrastructure; thanks to the never-ending construction on vital roads.  Even though the traffic is a nightmare and the wait at all your favorite restaurants is an hour and half, its all worth it for that game day experience.

 We get out to our tailgate spot early to set up, cook lunch (or breakfast if it's an early game), set up the TV so we can watch other games going on around the country. An hour before kick-off, we head toward the stadium. As we walk through the tunnel, it is a sea of maroon. It's pretty cool. We get to our seats just in time for the pregame videos and National Anthem. This video gives me chills, even if it is 100 degrees.

My sister and I decided to go to the mall today to pick up some Aggie gear, as if we don't have enough already... but hey, new season, new wardrobe, right? Dad and David, if you're reading this, don't worry we didn't go crazy! :-)  I just HAD to get this tank though, I'm drawn to sparkle like a moth to a flame. It's in my nature.

Here we go, Ags! BTHO Florida!

Thanks and Gig 'Em, Y'all!

So long, August!

Its almost September! Good riddance, August! It always feels like September heat is much more bearable than August heat, just because it's September. :)

August has been a good month, don't get me wrong... and it has truly flown by. Earlier this month, I was finishing two summer courses, "summering" for two weeks in the middle, and then started back at school. This past week in particular has been challenging to get back into the groove of a hectic schedule.

This past weekend was a little tough because my family and I had to say goodbye to our beloved patriarch. My precious grandpa went home to Jesus. This is comforting for me because I know that he is in a much better place. I can just imagine the joy he has now, probably hiking or fishing in a place even more beautiful than his Colorado. I will always remember his love of the Dallas Cowboys, M&M's and "Circus Peanuts", helping him fold the laundry, going on walks, and the sweet smile on his face. I was blessed to have him in my life this long.

We had such great style back then: My legit Tweety Bird shirt, and Tara's pigtails and Barney shirt!

Well I don't want this post to be sad or depressing, Grandpa definitely wouldn't want that! 

Monday was the first day of school, and it went swimmingly! As "head TA" this year, I had to get preparations in order for the lecture and labs for the week. Thankfully, we didn't run into any hiccups- especially because the bossman decided to cut the syllabus down from 150 pages to 68 pages... 68! He's going soft on these kids... ;-)

Some of my TA duties this week included:

• Making copies of syllabus and other handouts
• Preparing a seating chart
• Taking pictures for said seating chart
• Picking up 90 blue books for the first exam: the second day of school! (Needless to say, I had to fight the crowds of undergrads in the MSC bookstore)

Gosh, when I write this out, it doesn't seem as crazy as it was when I was running around...

On top of being a teaching assistant, I'm taking three classes: back to back to back. YIKES.

• Financial Analysis for Agribusiness Firms: First for the day, thankfully! Looking like this will be the time-consuming, dreadfully boring course this semester.

• Strategic Agribusiness Management: Instantly liked the professor, very laid back and funny.  Although the subject is not my favorite, I think it will be an interesting class.

• Real Property Analysis: My elective! ha! Anything real estate fascinates me, our guest lecturer yesterday gave an entertaining lecture over the history of the real estate financing market. Geez, how nerdy do I sound?

Finally, I wanted to recommend an app that I have been so completely obsessed with since I got it: Living Earth. It shows real-time satellite images of the earth. I took these two screen shots two days ago:

Check out Hurricane Issac!

I just love how you can see the lights at night!

 A new way to have the world at your fingertips! :)

It's Official!

Our HONEYMOON is officially booked...flights and all!

Time to stock up on beachy dresses and swimsuits for our week in Jamaica!

Secrets St. James Montego Bay Resort

Yes, Please!

 Ringin' in the New Year on the beach sounds like a pretty good deal to me! I cannot wait to get there! :)

Growing Pains

Ok, so I don't really mean growing pains, but the past few days have been full of little changes for my family! I spent all last week at home with the family, and my mom and I would wake up early and go walking with Duke. This dog is probably the sweetest, cutest, and LAZIEST dog ever. Nah, not really, but Duke does like to drag after we get one block down the road! One morning after we got back to the house I decided to take a few cute pictures of him. :)

Here's one from SIX years ago! Our precious puppy!

THEN

NOW: Those brown eyes! :)

This weekend was spent moving Tara aka Tarable, TareBear, Boo into her dorm! I had to haul a ton of her stuff to College Station...and I was lucky enough to get stuck with her very fragrant dryer sheets. Note to self: don't leave sickly sweet smelling dryer sheets in a hot car--- they will overwhelm you every time you climb into the car, resulting in an instant headache! But it was all worth it for the baby sistah!

The backseat of my little car!

In addition to moving Tara in, my Daddy was so sweet and switched out the light fixture in our kitchen! And what a man, he can pull off wearing pink! :) We also celebrated Melanie's early birthday with a family dinner to Chili's and indulging in a molten chocolate cake. mmmm!

Finally, I got my handsome groom to get fitted for a tux...doesn't he look so pleased?! Trust me, he was enjoying picking out clothes! ;)

Hope y'all are having a great week!

[Insert Cutesy Title Here]

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to spend a few hours with my dearest friend of TEN years now.... The goofy girl I met in seventh grade Spanish is now going to be a bridesmaid in my wedding!

We went to try on her bridesmaid's dress, and she looks GORGEOUS in it!

 

 My mom and I also were able to pick up THE DRESS this morning!! I am so blessed that the dress has just been a dream to deal with... it was delivered early (it was supposed to be in around October), and alterations have been a breeze (I'm a shorty and didn't have to alter the length at all- I was SHOCKED!!) 

Tomorrow I head back to College Station to face the hectic rush of the start of the fall semester, and Sunday is dedicated to moving yet another sister into the dorms. I am so looking forward to this semester full of tailgating with family and friends, our first football season in the SEC, and planning for exciting things in our future!

Little Bride and Groom

I know I just wrote a blog post.. but I just HAD to put this on here!

137 days til I get to marry this cutie...but who's counting?

Tasty Treats!

Well so far this week has been quite successful!

Found some wedding shoes
Got a Planner! (yes, I get excited about school supplies...why else would I still be in school?!)
Got my dress fitted... I pick it up on Thursday!
Worked on ceremony songs & the reception playlist

I have been getting suggestions (mainly from my little sister) to put some recipes on the blog. Well here's a salad that I made last week that I kind of threw together and it actually worked!

When You're Too Lazy to Go to The Grocery Store Salad:
Spinach
Avocado
Clementine
Feta Cheese (Tomato and Basil seasoning)
Olive Oil & Vinegar Dressing

This is such a delicious dressing! Y'all NEED to try it!

It's not a pretty salad but it sure was tasty!

It was so good and it worked out perfectly as a meal because it finished off most of the food in the condo before I headed home for the week! It would have been even better if I threw walnuts and tomatoes in there.

While I've been home, I was finally able to celebrate my birthday with my family. When my mom asked what I wanted as a birthday cake, I immediately thought of a recipe I saw on Pinterest. A Red Velvet Trifle. MMMM! This is so sinful but WONDERFUL!

What are some new recipes that you have tried out recently? I'd love to hear about them!

Finally Summer!

I am FINALLY on my summer break! I took both sessions of summer school at A&M and I am 9 hours closer to graduation. Financial Statement Analysis, Marketing, and Management are now checked off my list.

What was the first thing I did to celebrate?

I went to SPOONS, of course!

In my two weeks before the fall semester starts, I have a TON of to-do's:

• Second dress fitting
• Dentist appointment (bummer)
• Find a make-up/hair stylist for the big day (if y'all have any recommendations for anyone in D/FW let me know!!)
• Keep up my INSANITY workouts... HOLY COW I have never been so sore!
• Get crackin' on preparations for the fall semester.

I have also been watching the Olympics practically every night they've been on. My absolute favorite sports to watch are Women's Gymnastics, Swimming, and Women's Soccer. I think my fascination with gymnastics started when I was little and my mom would sit me and my sister down to put our hair in sponge curlers for church the next morning. How I didn't hate gymnastics after that Saturday night ordeal, I don't know! :)

What are your favorite Olympic events to watch?

Weekend Wrap-Up!

What a weekend!

Saturday was relaxing... I got to watch the Olympics and paint my nails! Its the little things that keep a girl sane.  David and I also went to dinner with his wonderful aunt, uncle and cousin. I just love them! :)

 

My nails have a base of Essie's Ballet Slippers and Revlon's Stunning on top!

Sunday, I had a 3:30 pm soccer game. SO miserable. 100 degree Texas heat. YUCK. After cooling off and probably drinking a gallon of water, David, his co-worker Daniel, and I exercised our noggins by playing a trivia game called Pub Quiz! We don't really play for anything other than the satisfaction of getting a few questions right. Each team has a goofy/inappropriate team name and since the Olympics are currently going on, we decided our team name to be Olympic Gold Diggers (this is no reflection of our character whatsoever!) :)

After class today, I found that ants had infested my closet. Absolutely the worst place ever! Come on, ants, I spend a lot of time in my closet but I don't eat in there...

Luckily, Home Depot is 2 minutes away from my house and I got the hookup on ant killing! After clearing out all my clothes and spraying in every nook and cranny of my closet, I think I finally got rid of them! No idea how they got there but I'm hoping they're gone for good.

Now I'm going to try to plan out my dinner meals for the week... if anyone has any good suggestions let me know! :) Have a great week, y'all!

Holy Wedding Bells

So there are officially 156 days left until the biggest spectacle of my life: my wedding. Please bear with me while I freak the veil out.

According to TheKnot.com, I have 129 tasks on my to-do list. Some of the extremely blaring tasks I have yet to do (that is suggested for 4-5 months out):
-Plan out ceremony
-Finalize menu
-Decide on formal wear for the guys (try convincing your fiance to do this one.. ha!)

Planning out the ceremony is a huge deal! I feel like I haven't been to enough weddings to get a feel of what I want, just what I don't want... I'm not really feeling a unity candle or the unity sand thing, whatever the heck that is. Truthfully, the only thing that I have on my mind about the ceremony is having to stand in heels for as little time as possible. As long as we say our vows and we exchange rings, I'm blissfully content!

Of course, we will most likely want to spend a little more time at the ceremony to get our money's worth, so does anyone have any creative suggestions as to what I could do to fill more ceremony time?

Now, I have to admit, besides finding THE dress and going cake tasting, finalizing the menu has me PUMPED. Who wouldn't be? You get to taste pretty much the whole menu before you have to decide. So much for keeping to my bridal diet plan... As excited I will be to spill the beans (ha! get it? BEANS!) about what we decide, I'm gonna have to keep the food choices a secret for my guests!

Planning a wedding is stressful, and I have no idea what I would do without my momma because she has been a HUGE help. I'm thinking we should start a wedding planning company after all the research we've done! I've also been living on Pinterest since before I've gotten engaged, just getting all kinds of ideas for weddings, parties, future homes, etc. Most of these ideas are so totally unrealistic and I really feel sorry for David because he is going to have to keep bringing me down to earth and dealing with the aftermath of Jordan's Crushed Pinteresty Dreams... this is not going to be pretty!

If you're not already following me on Pinterest, check out my boards here!

All About Jordan

Okay. Just when I need one more thing to add to my plate, here it is. Blogging.

I have decided to start blogging. This is a crazy part of my life, and I know I'll want to look back and remember this time! So, in essence, this is like my 5th grade journal, minus the part where I talk about how cute I thought (enter boy's name here) was.

About me, I have one year left in my Master of Agribusiness program. I still can't believe I have survived a year of graduate level classes on top of being a teaching assistant. Yeah, most of you instantly think of the grad students in the back of the room that never do anything, just put a check mark on your homework, and mess up grading your tests. Well, yeah, I do that too, but this class is not your typical class. I am one of three teaching assistants for an entrepreneurship (and yes, its taken TWO years to be able to type that word without spell check!) class that is a senior capstone course for Agricultural Economics majors. Most people roll their eyes and think, "please, I got a real degree..." Well I can promise you, it would be a walk in the park if it weren't for this class. Let me lay it out for you:
1. First day of class, hand out syllabus. 150+ page syllabus. (grin at the terrified looks on 128 students' faces)
2. Grade about 2-3 assignments per student per week.
3. Hold office hours and run a help lab. Fun, but irritating when you're trying to get work done and a student inundates you with a million questions.
4. Grade final projects of over 100 pages, in one week: Finals week.

So if you're still with me after my little rant and complaining sesh... I wouldn't trade this job for anything. It allows me to get to know the students (sometimes a little too well!) and the other two assistants are two of the best girls I know!

I'm also the oldest of four girls. Yes, my poor father. Don't worry, he has a boy dog, Duke! My sisters are crazy. Seriously.

Mariah is a year and a half younger than me, studying elementary education at Texas A&M, and has spend the ENTIRE summer in Zambia. She is working with Camp Life to minister to precious children that would never have the opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ if it weren't for special people like her!

Tara is crazy. Crazy talented, crazy smart, crazy cute. It's annoying actually. She is starting at Texas A&M in the fall and DOUBLE majoring in Honors International Studies and Economics. She has her own shoe painting business, and it is blowing up! Check it out here!

Melanie is ten years younger than me and she is going into the 8th grade. In my mind, she is still three years old with little curly pigtails and playing dress up in our old princess costumes. Mel plays french horn in band, is in running club and can make you laugh so hard with her accents.

I am so lucky to have sisters that I can laugh with, fight with, and terrorize our parents with!

So there is this guy, that somehow tolerates me enough to want to marry me, David. We're getting married in December and I couldn't be more excited! He is so smart, loyal, is constantly making me laugh and roll my eyes. We met our freshman year of high school but didn't start dating until our senior year. FINALLY, after almost 5 years, he proposed on Christmas Eve in front of our families and friends. I am looking forward to this new chapter of our lives together!