Maxi Skirt

I saw a tutorial over at Elle Apparel back in September on how to make a maxi skirt. I immediately decided that I wanted to make one, but began seriously questioning my sewing abilities. Y'all, I cannot thread that stinking bobbin. So if it either runs out or comes out of where it needs to be, I am done with my sewing until someone comes to my rescue. Luckily, my mom is a knowledgeable and talented seamstress, so I waited until I had an opportunity to work with her on the skirt. I went to Hobby Lobby this past week with my lucky 40 percent off coupon on my phone. I scanned the jersey knit selection and decided on grey. Using my coupon, my 2 yds fabric was only $5.99! Now that's a cheap skirt : )
During the TAMU v UT game, my mom, Mamaw and I worked on my skirt. We measured, cut, pinned, sewed and sewed some more, but I love the final product!
I would give you step by step directions on this one, but y'all would not end up with a skirt that looked right, so I'm just leaving you the link!
Here's what mine looks like!

THANKSgiving

This year Thanksgiving was quite a bit different than our norm. Instead of heading to Longview for a long weekend, we celebrated Cody's 27th birthday on Wednesday here in Houston and then headed out Thursday morning for Marlin. We spent time eating a lot of food and visiting with my family before heading out to the deer lease. This was my first time to sit in the stand and I was super quiet, just ask Cody! : )

We headed back into Marlin (our lease is only like 20 minutes away from my Mamaw's house) that night for the TAMU v. UT game before calling it a night in our pop up camper. Friday morning early I headed into Marlin to meet up with my Mamaw and mom before heading to Waco for some black friday shopping (we got some great deals!), breakfast at Chick-fil-a and a quick stop by Baylor's beautiful campus! Even in November all of the flowers look beautiful! I miss walking across that campus each day!

Pat Neff Hall (The Judge Baylor statue is behind me)

The building that I had most of my education classes in is to the right of Pat Neff...its called Draper Academic Building. Just FYI : )

Afterwards, Cody and I spent the rest of that day at the lease. Saturday morning we hit up the Kosse Cafe for breakfast before heading back to Houston.

I've been able to get up the Christmas decorations, watch the Baylor Bears beat Tech (sic 'em!), work on a few Christmas gifts, go to church, run a few errands together and we've worked on a few projects around the house. It has been perfect! We ended our break with pizza night (YUM), which also means leftovers. : )
I am so thankful for the time we've had at home, the time that Cody has had off and the time that we have had together. How refreshing! I am also thankful for the week that I had away from school and the time that I was given to rest and get my attitude and brain ready for 3 weeks and 2 days of school until Christmas break. I am thankful for the time that I was given to work on grad school and the upcoming deadlines that will signify the end of my first semester. I am thankful for the time with friends and family! I am thankful for this beautiful fall weather and how easy running is in it! I am thankful!

Christmas Crafternoon

I have a week off from school. A whole week!!!! So excited!
Thus far, I have been working on my final projects for grad school, cleaning and crafting.
My husband is a hunter and last year one of the deer that he got he was not mounting, so I asked him to save the antlers. I had not yet figured out what to do with them, but decided to take apart a flower arrangement that I did not love and spread them across the antlers.

I also used some of the flowers to add a little umph to my fall wreath.


We had a crafternoon today and worked on wreaths for Christmas!
Our fuel

Hot Chocolate Bar

Working hard

Finished products


A lot of us made the ornament wreaths that seem to be very popular on pinterest.
You need
-80ish ornaments
-a wire hanger
-hot glue

1. Form the hanger into a circle and then unwind the top part
2. Hot glue the top of the ornament to the ornament to make sure that it does not pop off.
3. Place the ornaments on the hanger one by one arranging them as you go. You might want to use some smaller ornaments in with the bigger ones so that they can fill in the holes.
4. Wrap the top of the hanger back together once all of the ornaments are on and then hot glue to secure.
SO easy!

Kitchen

When we bought our house, the kitchen looked like this:

Then we changed out the appliances and it looked like this:

Then we decided we were getting new countertops and Cody started the demo/putting in new subtops:


And then they came to put in our new countertops and it looks like this!!! LOVE!


PS, the guest bathroom got a facelift too...
From

To

Rock N Roll San Antonio

This weekend, we ran our first half marathon of running season in San Antonio. After having such a great experience at the Rock n Roll New Orleans, we decided to try another of their races. Our journey there began very similarly to our trip to NOLA. Part of the Katy Fwy was entirely shut down which caused I-10 to basically be a parking lot. Luckily we only sat there for an hour, which makes this by far a better experience than the drive to New Orleans. Once in SA, we went to the expo to pick up our packets and shop.

For dinner that night Cody and I headed to Whole Foods before heading back to Nick and Sarah's house for a relaxing evening.
On race day we woke up super early to get downtown. Lauren and I never managed to find Carolina, so we ran on our own (sad day!)

We started out our run at such a good pace until about mile 10. Y'all it was humid and borderline hot! My stomach started hurting, so I told Lauren to go ahead. I felt absolutely awful and in hindsight I am pretty sure that I was dehydrated. When my blood sugar is high, I dehydrate easily. I had taken off my pump before leaving the house that morning and had eaten breakfast afterwards. On top of that it was hot, which means that I would have needed more water than I would on a cold day and I was using Gu chomps (which I love), but that have caffeine in them which also further dehydrating you. That being said, this was not my best race and I did not meet my time goal. I did not do as bad as I thought that I would and I still ran 13.1 miles. Everyone has a bad running day and mine just happened to be on race day. Boo! After the race, I was able to down a water bottle and put my pump back on which made me immediately feel better and once I got even more water later on, I started feeling all the way better.
We decided for the race today to wear the same things in different colors (note the shirt and headbands)
Afterwards, we headed to the Alamo Cafe for a hearty lunch before heading back to Houston!

A Glimpse....

Into my week!
Monday was field day! My kindergarteners were paired up with one of my sweet friend's 4th grade class! We had a fun day!

That night, my dad was coming through on his way to the other side of Houston for work the next day. This happened to be at the same time that my brother was staying with us, so we got to have a family dinner! Love!

Tuesday was a HOA meeting and lasagna that I had made ahead and frozen (makes life so easy!)

Wednesday was the first meeting of Fit Girls, a program for 4th and 5th grade girls to promote healthy minds, bodies and hearts! We are reading books, growing hearts and training for a 5k! It was an absolutely insane day that led up to it, but everything went well and the girls seemed to really enjoy!! Please pray that the program will help promote a healthy lifestyle for these girls at such an important age and maybe some will even find a love for running!

Thursday I got a mani-pedi which was AMAZING!! And now I'm ready for the weekend! Hope you all enjoy yours!