Amarillo by Mornin'

Well, since Mark has officially "abandoned" our blog (ha ha) I will update the world on what has been happening in the McSpadden household. Well, we are working, working, working, and in the meantime, we are looking for a house. My aunt is helping us look for a place, and we are really excited about extending our space a bit! More news on that in the coming weeks.

This past weekend, Mark and I got to take a pleasant, yet strenuous drive to Amarillo, Texas for the wedding of one of our favorite friends: Katherine. It got off to a slow start, as we were supposed to leave Friday night, and I caught the "crud" (from one of my germ-filled sixth graders, I'm sure!). So, by Sat. morning, I was feeling much better... that's right- Amarillo by morning!

Let me just say, a 6 hour car ride is such an amazing way to spend quality time talking with your spouse. I am really serious on this... no exaggerating or sarcasm! We really got to talk it up, it was great!

The wedding was beautiful, the flowers, the cake, all of it was lovely. However, in all my listening to George Strait's song, and hearing people talk about "A" town, I have never heard how awful this place smells. Mark and I were immediately surprised by the pungent aroma of the nearby dairy farms. Wouldn't you know that a dairy farm or 2 were placed right by our hotel! We screamed, "hurry up, get in the hotel room, so the smell will go away!" But, nope. That smell followed us back to room 120. Wonderful. Luckily, I was still halfway recovering from "the crud" so my nostrils were lucky to be somewhat on vacation.

Anyhow, we loved getting to be a part of Katherine and Billy's special day (she was also one of the Aggies on the trip we took to Thailand, back in 2004), and we even got to grow in our marriage by spending over 12 hours in the car! It may have been smelly in Amarillo, but coming home to a rekindled marriage smells pretty nice to me! :) Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Parks!

* On a side note- the picture on the right, below with the bride (Katherine), the groom (Billy), Mark, and I, has a lady in it. She was a relative of Katherine's, who jumped in the picture. Funny, huh? We thought it was hilarious and didn't have the heart to bump her from our photo!

All these babies....a blog blessing and mild rant... all in one

There must be something in the water. It seems like ever woman I know is pregnant... yep, preggars! It reminds me of a time about 3 and a 1/2 years ago when I would say, "Mark, all my friends are getting married!" I remember how much God has shown me that our patience in waiting to get get married has paid off, and I have to believe that he prepared me during that time for later on in my life when I would feel left out again... like I was the "only one" not experiencing something special. The truth is that "right now" is our something special. We are getting to spend quality time alone together, growing our marriage. 

Don't get me wrong- we aren't trying to have a baby... I mean for crying out loud- I am still trying to convince Mark of the benefits of having a dog! If that has taken 2 and a 1/2 years for him to cave on getting a dog, how old will we be when babies are in the picture? I know that women in the Bible were having babies until they were 50, but really?  Again, God has shown me how much patience is rewarded, so I trust that in God's timing, Mark and I will be blessed with.... a DOG... and then baby... who knows. 

Anyway, I am not saying I want us to join the baby train, I am just surrounded by these amazing women that are getting the opportunity to start a family with their amazing hubbies. I just pray that one day I will have the chance to share that opportunity with my husband. To see a little Mark... typing on his little MacBook.... well... it is just a precious thought. Honestly, I am just so excited about my friends and their husbands and the joy that they are experiencing that I can't stand it. I couldn't be happier for them. Bring on those babies... not a "McBaby" yet, but one day... hopefully....

This blog is dedicated to all my baby-filled friends: Crystal, Mandy, Somer, Kelly, Allison, Rachel (who just had her baby) and  the many others that I have forgotten (and some who probably haven't announced it, yet!)

3rd Annual Cookie Decorating Party

This was year 3 of the cookie party that our good friends, Crystal and Keenan hold every year in December. Basically we eat a great, Mexican feast, we each get about 10 cookies to decorate (Crystal spent 3 hours baking them!) and we a have a contest. Our favorite cookies to decorate are always the "Decorate Your Spouse" cookie. We also decided to add the "Unique Christmas Sweater" contest to the mix.

Every year, it's a toss up to see who decorated the best spouse cookie. Unfortunately, I was a little more eager to eat my cookies, rather than decorate, so my spouse cookie of Mark ended up looking a bit like "Cartman" from South Park. Mark really redeemed himself this year, though. He stepped up his "cookie decorating game" a lot.

I guess I redeemed my lack of cookie decor. skills by wearing a sweater that looked like a blanket. I won for the ugliest sweater. :) The best part was that it only cost me $3. What a bargain! Mark won for most creative Christmas sweater. He had to improvise since he didn't have a Christmas sweater to wear. :)

We look forward to this party every year, and we can't wait until we get to show off our cookie skills again next year!

Girls Trip to NYC

I was blessed to spend the weekend in the Big Apple with my good friends, Kimberly and Meaghan. No boys allowed! We had a great time shopping, eating, seeing Wicked (awesome!), and more shopping. My favorite parts were going to the top of the Empire State Building, seeing the wonderfully lit tree in Rockefeller Center, eating pizza in Times Square, and seeing Wicked. It was definitely NOT relaxing, as I came home with sore arms (from lifting all of those shopping bags), and sore legs (I bet we walked about 20 miles!). 

Our flight was delayed on Sunday b/c of the weather. We were supposed to be home around 2pm on Sunday, but we made it in around 11pm.... grrr!!! But, we were just thankful to be home. :)

I missed my sweet hubby, and I hope to get a chance to go back with him one day. I would love to go to the 24 hour Apple Store with him (his dream) and take a carriage ride in Central Park. I loved NYC--- go there! 

My New Computer

It has been a couple of months since we got it, but isn't my new computer beautiful? Mark had fun helping me decide which one to get, and I think he's had more fun playing on it, than I have! We are really excited to have a desktop for a change. I have officially converted to the Mac World. Long live my IMac!

My Wonderful Husband

Well, it's been awhile since I've made a post on here, and Mark did such a great job keeping everyone updated, so now it's my turn to share a little about the happenings around the McSpadden household.

Anniversary #2 was awesome! I won't mention that I bought the wrong kind of cherries for the cheesecake (they were very tart- not the actual filling, but rather they were tart cherries-- I used Splenda to make them sweeter!) and I used 2 tspns of celery salt for the fettucine alfredo in the cookbook his mom gave me, when I probably should have used just a 1/2.... it did taste more like fettucine Celeria :) His mom assured me that she wasn't trying sabotage the meal! :) I believe her, but I changed the recipe to a 1/2 tsp. of celery salt and I warned my sisters in law so that they didn't make the same catastropic celery mistake I made.... but here's the best part!!!! My sweet husband ate all of it and said that the meal was perfect. He even ate the left overs for 3 days! How sweet is that???? We conversed later that week, and he finally admitted that there may have been a tad bit too much celery. :) He's so sweet!

We even wrote the intro to our book, "You Stink," last night. It is really funny, and I can't wait to keep on writing. It is so much fun being married to a man that makes me laugh everyday. The best part of marriage for me right now is being able to reflect on our lives and just laugh about the things that have grown us so much! Woohoo! I am excited about year 3!

Anniversary #2: We are starting to get the hang of this!

Yesterday we celebrated our 2nd anniversary with a local day of fun and food. Shevawn woke me up to an amazing waffle breakfast which we ate out on our patio thanks to the new bistro set she bought and put together for us!

We spent the rest of the day out and about, shopping, eating, just hanging around. Then last night, Shevawn made my favorite meal, Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo with a homemade Cheesecake for dessert. Yummy!

Even though Year #2 wasn't perfect, I can say there is no one I would rather have an imperfect year with than my wife. Marriage isn't easy, but it's worth every ounce of effort we've put into it thus far. Here's to many more to come...