twenty-five

1. I love the beach with all my heart. It’s my happy place. I go there for a week with my fam every summer
2. I check Lindsay’s blog every day
3. I placed at the state track meet in Pole Vault every year (even the year my pole broke on my second attempt in front of thousands of people… I pulled it together and got up and cleared it on my last try)
4. I did competitive gymnastics for 12 years of my life
5. I love Kanakuk and really miss it
6. In heaven I will be able to sing like Jennifer Hudson and Idina Menzel
7. I love to shop and I wish that everything I owned was from Anthropologie
8. I let my 7th grader small group girls dye my hair dark brown in college – it was supposed to be 24 washes. It lasted for 6 months.
9. I am and always will be obsessed with Sing – I know I need to let it go, but it’s just never going to happen (i will take this opportunity to mention that when i was the sing chair, tri delta got first place!) im telling you, im obsessed
10. I love Friends. I own all the seasons and watched them all in order with my roommate junior year.
11. I’ve never finished a crossword puzzle
12. I want to have a beach house some day – Mark wants a house in the mountains
13. I love to run- my husband and I ran three half-marathons in 2008
14. I love to travel (I’ll be in seven different cities -and five states- in the next five weeks)
15. I love my family with all my heart and will travel any amount of miles to be with them
16. I had never heard of Lubbock or Texas Tech until a few years ago…. Who knew I would move here.
17. Every Thursday we eat dinner at Dions and watch The Office with Chase & Taryn
18. I love to perform on stage
19. I can’t wait to be a mom
20. I’ve watched You’ve Got Mail and The Devil Wears Prada so many times I have them memorized
21. I wish I could get married to Mark again every year – that was greatest day of my life and I would love to get to wear my wedding dress again!!
22. I was a cheerleader for Baylor
23. I cannot sleep without a sound machine
24. My husband is a mountain man and I love it
25. I’m obsessed with So You Think You Can Dance
26. I try really hard to be a good long-distance friend
27. I love love love to bake and wish there were more people in our household to eat it

(i know, it's actually twenty-seven. what else did I forget?)
thought of a few more:
28. Would get a mani/pedi every week if I could
29. Hate to iron
30. I am doing my part to "GO GREEN"
31. I've recently become obsessed with scrabble
32. I adore things with birds and butterflies on them - so sweet and dainty

paradise.

Our trip to the Dominican Republic was one of the most incredible vacations we've ever been on! It was refreshing to be with our dear friends, Lindsay and Elliott. We miss them so much, every day, and it was a much awaited reunion. It's taken me a while to upload these photos because I don't even know where to start to describe what a fantastic time we had! It was simply PARADISE. Here's some of what we did....

The soon-to-be mommy and daddy: Elliott and Lindsay Drake - We took their dog, Ridley, on a walk through one of the national parks in Santo Domingo. (I thought it looked like Jurassic Park in the background, haha)

Best friends for life. After dinner in the Colonial District downtown.

Yogen Fruz. Best yogurt I've ever had in my life!!! No joke. and its organic (i think) and super healthy! (my hair is looking quite rough here, sorry. they don't have hot water and sometimes no electricity either and it was extremely windy that night)

This was the most beautiful view of the whole trip. I wish we could have captured it in a photo. We were driving along the beach and then about 2.5 seconds later we were up at the top of a mountain at 2500 ft. above sea level. Seriously, God is amazing.

in awe.

took a long, adventurous walk along the beach

it was so beautiful!

The gang. We would give anything to be able to see them more than once a year :(

This was the coolest palm tree because it shot out parallel to the beach and then went up over the ocean.
This is us on the whale watching tour. Humpback whales travel to the north ocean of the Dominican Republic every year from Jan-March. The day we went, it was raining and the water was pretty rough, so they said we may not see anything... but they were wrong! We saw three whales and followed two of them for quite a while! They were bigger than our huge boat. It was amazing.

Look closely and you can see its whole head.
The view of the harbor from where we ate lunch after whale watching.Cutest preggo lady ever! Can't wait to meet that baby girl!!

We went to a cave called Tres Ojos (three eyes)- named for the three ponds inside the cave. It was really cool!

This was the third pond in the cave.... we were "inside" the cave and the pond was open to the sky.... again, so beautiful!

The trip really was a perfect reunion. It was so special to see the mission work that Lindsay and Elliott are doing in their neighborhood and in their city! It's clear that the Lord has placed them in Santo Domingo for His purpose. He is always faithful to provide for our needs - whether in the Dominican Republic or in Lubbock, Texas.

Elliott and Lindsay, we love you and are praying for you daily! Thanks for such a wonderful trip and for the life-long memories.

Believe it.

I never thought tumbleweeds were a real thing. I thought they were only in old books and movies about the wild west (aka Fivel Goes West). Well shortly after moving to Lubbock, I quickly found out that they are in fact real and they are EVERYWHERE. I hate them. They blow through the streets, they pile up on the side of your house, your fence, your alley, they mess up my flowers, they scratch my car. yuck. Here's some proof for all my non-texan friends!

This one in particular hit our student worker, Jenna, in the parking lot! haha

Where do I live??

Cupcakery.

I found a new Lubbock treasure today. The Peace O' Cake cupcakery. It is the cutest place! It's a little cupcake shop on 34th & Indiana. It's only been open for three weeks so you should try it out! The owners/bakers are super fun and most importantly, the cupcakes are delicious!

If you want to give it as a gift, they'll put it in these cute little boxes!

They have different flavors everyday.

Kenna and I enjoying our strawberry cupcakes at work. yum.

Mission Trip

mountains.

my favorite little guy who spilled bubbles all over himself but couldn't have cared less bc he was having so much fun!

Mark and Chase - real doctors for the weekend

The CMDA med school mission trip in El Paso was a major success. Mark has been working for months as the VP of missions to set-up and plan the trip for all med students, pharmacy students, nursing students, doctors, etc. Taryn and I were the only non-medical students, but we had a blast playing with the kids. It was so much fun to watch Mark in action! He is going to be the greatest doctor. He was so cute running around with his stethoscope and examining people. It was so neat to see the ways the Lord worked through our group to touch so many people both spiritually and medically. I know Mark has been called to be a doctor and I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for him. I don't think I could be any more proud!