Jessie Joann

One of my bestest friends in the world came to visit me all the way from Tennessee in January!! We went to college together, we were in the same sorority and we lived together.

I took her to her first moving sushi bar, she loved it!

We walked around Sam Houston State's campus and pretended like we were college kids again...spring break! Woo!

Ran to the apple store and found this hilarious photo booth option called chipmunk!

Jessie and "Jean Stanley" (She always calls my mom by her full name pahaha)

I even brought her to work with me. ^ hard at work up there!

And we finished it off with some Route 44's ;)

Shortly after her visit she got a job in Georgia!!!! We're such big girls now!!!!!

So We're All Caught Up...

This post is going to be kind of a boring one (I always think looking at pictures of people's vacations is boring), so this is just more of a benchmark thing...something that I can look back on and remember what happened in January 2012....yes January, I realize it's April...iFail.

Winning!!

I wish you all could have experienced Kathy in the casino.
Funniest. Thing. EVER!

Me & My Honey

My $17 drink...ughhh

Mom with the coconut cup

Little cutie!

My flashy formal night outfit

Shawn and his cousin singing "I believe I can fly" and the two random girls that jumped in to help!
(They needed it) ;)

Mom doing the hokey pokey pahahaha

What you're seeing right now literally almost turned into Shawn
putting a 12 year old in a head lock...this was hilarious!!!

Snoozin'...

Dad in our tiny room that me, Shawn, his brother and my dad shared! Ha...good timess

WAKE UPPPPP!!!

We really did have the best time, and Kathy is busy finding another cruise for us to go on. I can't wait!!

Been Gone Too Long

I really have been so lazy about this blog. I love love love to read blogs, I literally do it every day multiple times a day but for some reason I just never have time to write in my own blog. I still have to post pictures of the cruise my friend Jessie's visit and so many other things!

But for now, I'll post pictures of the most exciting thing that's happened in the past couple of months...

Our first little fur baby!!!!! Ladies and gentleman, Nikita Lynn Bahardoust:


We got her from the shelter off 242 , we went to just "look" but when it was time to go I said, "we aren't getting one?" and Shawn told me if I wanted one I had to choose between these three so I took a look at the three and I realized I hadnt even looked at little Nikki she was so perfect! I'll post se pictures of when we first got her, she's huge now compared to then but those pictures are on my old phone (and Nikki chewed through the charger so...) anyways, I brought her home and 4 days later she developed a cough. I didn't think anything of it until it got really bad, I had to hospitalize her. Our sweet little girl had distemper...that was the roughest three weeks of my life. I literally thought she was going to die and she almost did. But $3000 land a hundred pills and breathing treatments 3 times a day later...she's finally a regular and happy (super bad) puppy. And we couldn't love her more. She's the perfect dog for us and I'm so glad we picked her out because if she had stayed in the shelter or gone to Anyone else I don't think she would have made it.
I'm posting this from my iPhone (another new and exciting thing) so not even sure those pictures will show up. I'm literally just talking into the phone and it's typing out what I'm saying. Even this. And this. Hehehe how did I go so long without one of these?!

More to come soon, I promise! ...I hope!

Catch Up

I've been SO busy lately...and I'll still be busy through the end of this weekend and into next but I want to post a few things so that I'll remember to do the in depth posts on them later....

Lately I have:

Had a fun date night with this sweet guy. (Not Pablo, the cutie behind him ;)) I drove up to Huntsville one night and we had a little date night. I made these AWESOME Whiskey BBQ Sliders and Shawn made some homemade salsa...bless his heart...the salsa was good but let me just say that my breath still smelled like onions and garlic 24 hours later. I dipped a chip in the salsa and almost ate it before I realized an ENTIRE CLOVE was on my chip...it hadn't been chopped up at all pahahaha...bless him.

Went on a cruise with My mom, stepdad, dad, Shawn, Shawn's parents, his brother, his cousin and her husband and 2 kids...my first cruise. It was so fun!! I couldn't find the charger to my small digital camera so I had to bring my big camera. I didn't' get too many pictures because I hated lugging my big camera around but I will definitely post what I have! (And yes...I did get a spray tan...pahaha yikes)

One of my bestest friends in the WHOLE world came all the way from Tennessee to visit me! We had a lot of fun and I have quite a few pictures to post from this crazy girls visit!!

The rest of my time has been/will be filled with: Business Trips, Luncheons, Scheduling and Administering classes, working late, and being anywhere but home. I'm looking forward to next weekend when I can revert back to my little hermit ways. But for now, I just need to enjoy the craziness of my life...right?!

MORE TO COME! :)

Snack Attack!!

Lately I've been hungry ALL. THE. TIME. it seems like.

I'm hoping it's just my metabolism working overtime...but that's beside the point.

Once I got off the diet I began reaching for any and all the foods that I deprived myself of while on the diet (as most normal people do). When I finally got a grip and got my head on straight I realized that if I continue eating like this then I will gain all the weight back in a second! Don't get me wrong, I'm still not really watching what I eat BUT I am taking steps to improve my normal diet. Which brings me to the point of this post, snacking.

I've found a lot of great snacks that can fill me up and take my mind off of the unhealthy foods that my mind craves.

One of my first go-to snacks are snap peas.

I got the idea from my mom who was snacking on them one day when I was over at her house. They are such a low calorie food so you can eat a TON of them and it will fill you right up. The other night at the grocery store I found little packs of these with Lite Ranch Dressing that I brought to work. So when I get the urge to snack, I just bust these babies out of the fridge and snack away, guiltlessly.

The next little wonder that I've discovered are these little Special K Cracker Chips:

They run about 110 calories for 27 chips! That's a lot of chips when you think about it...as I was counting them out it almost felt like TOO much! And they are SO GOOD! They don't taste like regular diet food so you don't feel miserable or like you're sacrificing taste to be healthy.

I've also been addicted lately to a very strange snack....oatmeal....yea...

But, I found it in my drawer in my office at work the other day (I used to eat it for breakfast and completely forgot it was there). It's low calorie and you can get it fat free and the best part is because it's so thick it really fills you up!

And finally another really cool thing I've found at the grocery store are this little low calore snack pack things. The ones I bought were filled with carrots, grapes, CHEESE, and pretzels. I definitely support all things diety that include cheese...DEFINITELY. And these little snack packs are perfect. I don't have a picture of them but here's a great idea of how to make your own little snack pack like this (I got mine at Randall's):

That would be so easy to do on your own!

So, I used to hate Randall's...that grocery store always seems like it has 2 lanes open and 85 people trying to check out...but lately...I've actually really come to like it. Because they have the fun things like the snap-pea packs and the little cheesey delicious snack packs. But I ran in there last week because I had visions of delicious chicken fajita's dancing through my head but it was kind of late so I was dreading the chopping process (I'm the slowest chopper upper-er in the world!). So I saw in the veggie section PRE-SLICED fresh red and green bell peppers and onions in their own convenient packages AND freshly pre-grilled chicken! So convenient, so I grabbed the fajita veggie packs, the grilled chicken and some mushrooms and when I got home all I had to was add oil, soy sauce, and sriracha (this may sound weird but trust me, ADD THIS to your veggies when you're cooking for fajitas, YUMMMM!) and then cook the veggies and mushrooms down, add the chicken that I sliced to warm it up and I had the BEST dinner in under 10 minutes. It's really not expensive either. Love the convenience. :) Okay the point of that long, drawn out story was...if you have a Randall's nearby you should go check them out!  haha yea...

Okay leave it to me to turn a quick blog post into a novel.

I just got back from my cruise last weekend and my best friend Jessie is coming to visit me this weekend so I'll try to post the cruise pictures and Jessie adventures soon!!

Amazima

When I was in college in Tennessee, one of my best friends in the whole world was OBSESSED with Africa. Obsessed to what I thought was borderline CRAZY! Why would she want to go to this place? Why?? I understand that there are people there that need help, but there are people here who need help just the same. I was completely missing the point...along with her obsession with Africa, Jessie was OBSESSED with a blogger named Katie Davis. A girl who is our age who is doing big things for orphans in Africa. She was 18 I believe when she first went there and before she knew it she was the mother to 14 little African orphan girls. I won't go in to her whole story because I sincerely, really and truly, encourage each of you to go to her blog, start from the beginning and read about her journey.

You cannot read her story without feeling inspired. Don't believe in the miracles of the Lord? Need to believe in a miracle of any kind? Need to believe in hope? Need to be reminded of the goodness in people? Read this blog.

I've always thought that I was a reframer, I take every situation and I always try to find the good. But I tend to leave out the part about Jesus.

If you can't read all the posts, pick one of these, they left me so inspired:

Here. Here. Definitely click Here. Ohhh but definitely this one too! Okay, I haven't made it through her whole blog yet, I started from the beginning and I'm still half way through 2009. Here are some quotes:

"I never want to leave this room so full of the Holy Spirit that I can feel Him like electricity pumping through my veins, so alive with God’s love and promises that all we can do is dance.

So here I am. And one day I will leave, but I will always come back because my heart will remain. THAT is what it is, that is why. The joy of the Lord bubbling up inside me until i threaten to burst. The God inside of me and all around me who makes me dance."

"and these moments, these little glimpses of something better and higher than the world that we live in keep my face smiling, my eyes shining and my heart dancing in my chest. it will keep me pouring out every ounce of everything that i have because there is no better blessing than the opportunity to give yourself away."

I guess I finally realize why you love Katie Davis so much Jessie ;)
Now...who wants to find an organization in Houston with me?!

November/December 2011

November 2011 Ren Fest

We started off November with the Renaissance Festival...LOVE that place. Seriously the greatest turkey legs and sausage on a stick EVER lol Plus it's always great for people watching. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the interesting peeps, just a few of our many activities.

These super funny masks I made him try on. The guy in the background that looks like Marilyn Manson
was totally hitting on SB. Talking about putting roofies in his drink and all this other
weird creepy stuff hahaha YIKES!

Blurry Picture of me about to shoot! I was checking to see if he was
going to take the picture and he snapped away before I was
"ready" whoops!

Excellent Form ;)

I hit it!!! The very bottom left corner on the yellow target, I was the only one to hit
the target lol, one of SB's hit the roof!

Holt giving it a try...

Cuties!!! Doesn't SB look so tough pahahaha

Good job honey!

This Llama was hysterical. He had such a strut going
on, funniest thing EVER!

This crazy maze we walked through.

Waiting to get out of there!

Our swing ride! It was so fun :)

This statue man, he was really good! He
would only move when you gave him a tip.

Bye Bye Ren Fest! See you next year!!

It was such a good time!

I went twice, one with SB and his aunt and cousin and the next time with my friends Lindsey and Caitlin.  I'm so glad I went twice because I got to see so much more the second time around!

Now onto Christmas. this year we had three, one at my dad's, one with Shawn's parents and one at my mom's.

It really was one of the best Christmases ever, here's a little snapshot:

This is what Christmas at my dad's looked like:

We ate such a yummy dinner and then the boys PASSED OUT! Even the puppies were zonked out. So I watched football while they napped. (I made sure to wait till they woke up before I started cleaning, I knew they couldn't resist the "Do you need any help?" questions, and yes I took them up on it ;))

This is what Christmas with Shawn's family looked like:

Our first Christmas!

Two of Shawn's cutie little cousins!

They are so funny :)

Shawn's precious cousin Hammed. LOVE him!!

Braydon and Alyssa did Amber's makeup for her. How cute is he with his little lips pursed too!

They got Nintendo's from Santa and I got to play with them all night! I want one now ;)

The finished product...good job Braydon and Alyssa!

Amber and Scott :)

Shawn's sweet dad. He cooked and cleaned all day!

Dinner was SO good!!

And this is what Christmas at my mom's house looked like:

Hi cutie!

I don't know why my eyes look so crazy.

We literally spent the whole night pretty much parked at this table playing my new favorite game, SPADES!! I seriously became obsessed this weekend. I "re-learned" how to play and we spent Saturday and Sunday night with Shawn's fam playing till like 3 in the morning. Then when we got to my mom's house it turns out she's an old pro at it, and she taught me when I was younger (I knew it seemed familiar!) I'm not very good but luckily I had a little helper with me. These pictures are SO precious. Pablo sat with me practically the whole time. He had his little paws on the table and everything...I had to put him down after a while though because he kept drinking my milk! He is so CUTE

Pablo's ready to play some spades!

Trying to read the other players faces.

My fur babies were clearly not in a picture taking mood...

But they are just too cute not to share!

While the rest of us were playing spades after dinner, Tony and Pablo decided it was time for a nap.

I just realized that most of these pictures are deceiving, I cut out like 80% of the people, not on purpose! I just got my camera out too late. There were a lot more people that I didn't get to account for. 

But seriously, best Christmas ever. Just getting to spend tons of time with family and we literally laughed our way through the whole thing. I'm a lucky girl :)