Most of my life, I was super jealous of my cousin Jason for a lot of reasons, but mainly because he got St. Nick presents every year, and I never did. So this year Carl and I started something new- the celebration of St. Nick day. It was totally exciting and very fulfilling.
I got Carl some waterproof waders for him to wear while he's paddling out baits.

And he got me some cowgirl boots. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!! I've always wanted some. Try to ignore the pajama pants and just focus on the boots.

Carl and I went to Austin a couple of weeks ago to visit his parents, and they ended up having two extra tickets to the UT game. We all went downtown, had some chili, and headed over to the game. On the way to the stadium we scored this foam hand, and as you can see, it ended up on Carl's head.


On the walk down, we also ran into some face painters. They were actually just engineering students trying to make a little cash. Becky and I both got a longhorn on our cheek.

But they just weren't quite what we envisioned, so we went to some professionals once we got to the End Zone Club and asked them to vamp it up a bit.

Last week Heather and I carved pumpkins. When we went to buy some pumpkin carving knives, we ran into some face paint, and I asked her if she would like to look like a clown. She got super excited, so I did the best I could. It looked nothing like the picture on the package, but she liked it anyway.

Last weekend Carl, Heather and I went to a cornfield maze. Heather had never been to one, so Carl and I showed her the ropes. We all had a lot of fun. Here we are before we went in the maze.

This year they added a new feature- a goat walk. It was actually just a pen you could go up to and feed the goats. We all got a food-filled ice cream cone and started feeding.

Then we headed over to the corn shooter. We all attempted to shoot a corn on the cob at a painting of the Statue of Liberty. Heather was the only one that hit it- on her first try! She won us a bag of freshly made kettle corn. Carl was really excited. That's his favorite part about going to the cornfield maze.

Once in the maze, Heather got a little tired and Carl carried her on his shoulders. It didn't last too long though.

It took us a while, but we finally made it out. Then came my favorite part of the evening- s'mores!!! I LOVE s'mores. We all had our s'mores, picked some flowers, and headed back home. Heather was passed out by the time we left the parking lot.

I was in my friend's wedding last weekend. Her name is Ericka Sluka, formerly known as Ericka Goode. It was a lot of fun. It felt more like a class reunion than a wedding though. Most of us girls from Hallettsville were in the wedding. It was really fun catching up with everyone. This is a picture of my friend Neil and the groom's Grandpa. Carl wasn't able to join me for the wedding, so they were both my dates for the Grand March.

This is a picture of me and Toni. I miss that girl soooo much!! She lives in Brenham with her husband, so we hardly ever see each other. We talk a lot though.

Anthony flew in from Ohio for the wedding. He moved there a couple of months ago and is in the process of starting a bakery. He'll have so much fun with that.

Here's Ericka with all the girls. There were a lot of us, but it made it a lot of fun. There was a DJ at the reception, and I requested our group song from high school- "Wide Open Spaces" by the Dixie Chicks. When they played it we danced in a big circle and sang our little hearts out. And the best part- the whole hall was watching us and they all said we were super cute. I love that.

Kirsten and Eric are moving at the end of next month. I'm absolutely devastated. It seems like it snuck up on me really fast. I'm so excited for them, but I'll miss them sooooo much.

I finally bought a sewing machine- something I've been wanting for a long time. The only problem is, I didn't have a clue what to do with it. So I brought it to my friend Desiree's house, and she showed me how to work it. Kirsten came too, and we had a lot of fun.

I decided quite some time ago that I'd like to start sewing items to sell at the Saturday market. I was thinking about purses, but a lot of people sell them at the market, so I decided on baby carriers. I did a lot of research, and I started sewing. My friend Ameera had a baby shower last weekend, so I took it as the perfect opportunity to test my skills. This is the carrier I made for her. Its very sturdy- we tested it out a lot to be safe. And best of all, she loved it.

Ameera is eight months pregnant. Its really hard to believe. This is the first time I've seen her since she's been pregnant, and it was pretty shocking to see one of my classmates like that. She's super happy, and I'm so excited for her.

The shower was in Houston, so I got to stay with Robin. We went bowling with her friends and I had one of the best nights I've had in a while. Her friends are so much fun.

Last week I met my new little sister, Heather, from the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program. Yesterday we hung out for the first time at Chuck E. Cheese. She had a blast. Here she is in front of the camera on the stage up front. If you look up top you can also see her on the tv screen. Next week we're going over to my Aunt Kassia and Steve's for swimming and b.b.q.

My mom and Susan just bought me a new laptop. woo-hoo! Its super nice- thank you!!!!
On Labor Day Kennedy and I shared a bowl of popcorn. She likes to shove it in her mouth as fast as she can, so I had to keep getting her to show me her tongue to make sure she was done with her bite. She's just so cute. Last night I was on the phone with Susan, and I heard her saying, "stacey, stacey, stacey". It almost made me cry. I'm so excited she's at the age that she can talk on the phone. Its so much more fun that way.

Last weekend Carl and I went to Hallettsville. We had a lot of fun. Here are Samantha and I in our rubber boots. She'll be so embarassed to see this picture, but I think we're cute.

These are my siblings. I don't think I've ever had any pictures of them all on the blog before. Sam is 15, Ryan is 13, and Ariane is 11. They're really great kids.

We all went down by the river and shot skeet. I actually hit a couple, and I was stoked! Carl gave me a pretty good lesson. He's awesome. He hit almost every one of them. It was Ryan's first time, and he did pretty well himself.

Carl rode with me on a 4-wheeler one time, and he swears he'll never do it again. He thinks I drive too fast, but he has NO IDEA!! Samantha is the scariest driver you've ever known. She likes to race, and I'm not one for an adrenaline rush- so she rode home by herself.

Last weekend I went to Oklahoma for a family reunion. It was such a blast! Pretty much all of our family was there, including my mom, kennedy, and susan. It was so much fun to see everyone.
This is a picture of my beautiful mema and her absolutely wonderful and wild twin sister, Aunt Sharon. They had the best time. They're so much fun to watch when they get together. Something hilarious always happens, but I won't mention what that might be, Aunt Sharon.

On Sunday evening, we all went on the back porch and shot clay pigeons. It was a lot of fun, but the gun was a little too loud for Kennedy's ears. Here's Papa taking care of her.

And here I am attempting to shoot a moving target. Its a lot harder than I thought. I'll definitely have to do some practicing- and make sure I use a left-handed gun cause my ears were ringing like crazy.

But of course, the most fun of all was game time! I love games so much, and I think one of my favorite things about the family is that most everyone else loves to play games too. We got a game of cranium together every night.

This is my cousin Heather. I thinks she's acting like a bird or something, but I can't really remember. A part of cranium is that you have to do cherades, which our family is very experienced at.
Okay, that's it for now, but I've got more reunion pictures, so check back.

Things have been pretty crazy lately with school and everything, so I haven't had much time to do anything fun. School's going really great through. I made all A's on my mid-terms. I'm so happy to be where I am. I'm continually overwhelmed with the feeling that I'm on my path and doing exactly what I'm meant to do. Its a really awesome feeling.
These pictures are from about 3 weeks ago. Carl and I made an over-night trip to the beach. We didn't catch much of anything, but it was still fun. Here I am with the only fish I caught, a Spanish Mackerel.

This was on our way down to the beach. You can't see it too well, but in the left corner, River's nose smudges make a really creepy looking face of a man, and it looks just like a ghost in the picture.

When we're at the beach River always digs a hole in the sand to sleep in. But the weirdest thing is how she gets her snout absolutely covered in sand, and she just leaves it like that and falls asleep. It seems so uncomfortable, but I guess she doesn't mind it.

A couple weeks ago Carl surprised me with some flowers and a bag of my favorite goodies. It was very nice and very unexpected.

I also wannna say hi to my Mema and Papa. Thank you guys so much for reading my blog. I love you so much!

where to begin? its been entirely too long.
well, one of the most exciting things for july was that i got to make a last minute trip to oregon to see my family and friends. i had so much fun. it was just absolutely wonderful, and i feel like i really needed it. even though portland's not where i grew up, it still feels like i'm going back home when i go there. and it was such a blast to hang out with kennedy. she's at the best age. she's so much more interactive than she was the last time i saw her (march). we had so much fun together. if you ask her what sound different animals make, she imitates them for you. my favorites are the owl, elephant, and pig.

on saturday night we went out to dinner with susan's parents, joe and rene. we had a great time, and kennedy was the center of attention, of course.

robin and shelly were in seattle for a week, so robin jumped on the train and came to portland for a couple of days. here are kennedy and i waiting to pick her up.

and this is a picture of mom and robin before we went to go pick berries. we had such a great time doing that. i'll put up some pictures of that next time.

on saturday night, robin and i met up with some of my friends that i haven't seen in ages. here we are before we met up with them, having girl talk. we had a lot of fun, but the night ended not so great because robin's purse was stolen. it seemed horrible at first, but everything has worked out.

somehow i left town without any pictures of susan. i don't know how that happened, but i'm pretty bummed out about it. sorry suz.
until next time......

Kirsten and I finally got to do something together on Thursday. Our work schedules just never mesh, so we hardly ever get to have time together. So on Thursday, I picked her up from work at 2:30, and we headed to Mountain Breeze. Its on the Guadalupe River, and we try to make it there at least once a year. We had hoped to be able to float the river, but the water is not moving- at all. They ended up giving us some tubes so we could at least sit in the water, and we never had to paddle. We stayed in one place the whole time. It was still super fun though.
After the water, we went back to camp to set everything up, and we realized that I had forgotten to bring the tent. I brought the poles, but no tent. Kirsten almost peed in her pants. Luckily I brough a blow-up mattress, so we just blew it up and slept in the open air. And it actually turned out to be quite nice like that. Except that I got bit by something bad, and I have a huge, red welp on my back that won't stop itching.


Here's a picture of the little fire we made. We cooked hot dogs over the fire, and they were so good.

Then we just played some cards. That's pretty much a tradition now. We had a really great time. Hopefully we'll be able to go back again before the summer's over.

Well, I caught a little bit of heat for what I said about the whole shark fishing thing. Apparently I sounded a little bitter. No, he was just playing, but I did get in trouble for not putting up the picture. So here it is.... Carl's 5 foot black tip. He released it after the photos.

I had the day off today, so we went out to Medina. It was a little bit cooler this time because we had the kayak, so we weren't so limited as to where we could fish.


I actually didn't do any fishing today. I was in the mood to just sit, relax, throw the ball for River, enjoy the sun, and read. And that's exactly what I did. We had a really great time.

And so did River of course. Every time Carl brings his fishing poles downstairs, she knows something's up and gets super excited. She sure loves the water.