The Simone Spot

Holiday kickoff!

2011-12-12T16:25:00.001-08:00

Daniel and I are officially enjoying the holiday season. We started off with a wonderful Thanksgiving with the Simmons. Daniel and I got to have everyone in our home which was so much fun. We were able to squeeze 19 people in the house and 7 of those were children 8 or under. There weren't many dull moments. We had a wonderful time and it was so great to get to visit with everyone. I am always so thankful to be apart of this family.

After Thanksgiving, we spent our first December weekend participating in what I like to call "Christmas kickoff 2011!" We shopped (mostly online), wrapped a few gifts, enjoyed potato soup and hot cocoa with friends, made it to the Carol of the Lights at Tech and got our own lights up at the house. The Normans got to help with light hanging, not sure if they knew what they were getting into but it was a great time.

And, finally we co-hosted our first annual Christmas party with the Cates and Normans last weekend. (It didn't feel right without our friends Bryce and Amanda there but we still managed a good time).

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Fall with Friends

2011-12-08T21:09:00.000-08:00

Well...I noticed that the last time I posted was last May which is sad but not suprising. Daniel and I are doing very well but between work and school I just don't make my internet time much of a priority. This summer we celebrated our 5th anniversary in Hawaii. It was so much fun and quite surreal. It was my intent to post pictures but at this point the moment has come and gone. I also feel that all of our house guests have suffered enough with the MPix photo book viewing, complete with panaromic pictures. Yes, we are those people.

We have had a wonderful fall and are thankful to have gotten to spend a weekend in October with our closest friends, The Hays, Normans and Cates, in the retirement community of Granberry. We filled the weekend with enough activites for an entire week of enjoyment. We ate ALOT, played a number of games including the Newly Wed game, Outburst and toss with household objects (This involves throwing a frisbie, football, kitchen trashcan and roll of small paper all at once. Words cannot describe how fun this was!), watched a subpar comedy play about Licoln's assasination that was really entertaining and went roller skating (roller skating was complete with squat races, couples skate, frozen pickle juice and suicides). It was a weekend full of laughter that I hadn't had in months. I cried and almost wet myself multiple times. I am so thankful for friends that remind me what it means to relax, have fun and enjoy the simple things in life!

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Hawaii!!

2011-08-30T16:49:00.000-07:00

Turns out I had created a Hawaii slide show but couldn't get it to post and forgot I had it...so now others can be tortured with the same photo book pictures our poor house guests have been subjected to.

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Five years of joy...

2011-05-18T19:36:00.000-07:00

This summer it will be mine and Daniel's 5th anniversary, it seems to have gone by so quickly and I can confidently speak for both of us when I say we love each other more now and value our relationship more now than the day we we got married. But...enough with the sentimental thoughts. I will save those for our actual anniversary. The reason I am posting is because since Christmas I have been wanting to take "anniversary pictures". Daniel and I have not had pictures made since our engagement pictures and I wanted to capture both of us 5 years down the road. Well, we got them taken! And I have to say I am impressed with myself for getting it done ahead of time and actually getting these pictures posted. I am impressed with Daniel because he went to 3 different locations, changed outfits 3 times and enjoyed every minute (yes, I am married to the best man in the world)! However, I am most impressed by and thankful for my sister-in-law. She took the pictures for us and they turned out wonderful. If you are interested I can give you her info!

So here they are: (a few are cut off, not because of the photography but my inability to use smilebox)

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TahDah!

2011-01-01T10:37:00.000-08:00

After a lot of hard work and a very busy fall, our kitchen is almost completely finished! I absolutely love it and am enjoying it so much. It was finished just in time for the holidays and we have gotten a lot of use out of it already. I must say that I have the most talented and skilled husband and father-in-law ever! I may be a little biased! :) We also had the help of our great friends Bryce and Amanda and my parents with painting and sanding. Let's just say it has been a family effort. I have posted pictures below. (there is an island that eventually will go in the middle but we all needed a break to enjoy the holidays, especially Daniel) Speaking of the holidays, we had one of the best seasons ever (getting to see lots of friends and family)and I will post pictures as soon as I have time to transfer them. As always, I feel so blessed and am truly grateful!

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Wow.....

2010-09-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

It has been a really long time since I blogged and a lot has happened since then:

1) Daniel and I closed on and moved into our first house! It has been so fun but we are still in the process of rennovating our kitchen. (For those of you that know me, my obsessive compulsive tendencies don't mesh well with a continuous mess but it will be well worth it.)

2) Daniel and I took a trip up north with my parents to see my Uncle and Aunt. It was so much fun! We went to Port Huron, Michigan, Niagara Falls and ended the week with a couple of nights in Chicago. It was great and we absolutely loved Chicago, can't wait to go back.

(the new house!)

3) Daniel is really enjoying his job and I am back at school. It has been a busy start to the school year but I will get into a routine soon.

When we get the kitchen finished, I will post pictures.

Oh, and I better not forget, we participated in our first adventure run with our friends Bryce, Amanda, Paul and Sarah this past weekend. We "ran the jailbreak" mud, water, barbed wire, tires and all. It was so much fun and just an awesome weekend seeing great friends! I will post pictures as soon as I get them from Amanda.

THE NEXT CHAPTER.....

2010-05-17T19:26:00.000-07:00

Wooohoooo! Daniel has graduated from both LCU and Texas Tech. The past 2 weeks have been extremely busy, but very exciting and we got to share the celebration with family.

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We both feel extremely blessed. Daniel began full time employment as an Electrical and Automation Specialist at Hurricane Test Laboratory.....I intended to make this a "reflective" blog, some of my friends do and I really enjoy reading them. But, it took me so long to figure out how to make that slide show, it is too late for me to be feeling very reflective. Maybe tomorrow I will come back and reflect on this next chapter of our lives as I originally intended....haha. I do know,though, at this stage in our lives I feel more content, fulfilled and happy than I ever imagined. I am married to a kind, thoughtful,funny, strong and intelligent man. I am so thankful for him and his accomplishments. I believe God is good and he does bless us richly! (Maybe I wasn't too tired to reflect..lol).

Spring Happenings

2010-04-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I have blogged....so I wanted to post a few pictures of our spring time fun with family and friends. I am trying to use Smilebox (thanks to my blogging sister-in-law). We will see how it goes.

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Daniel is home!

2010-01-31T17:54:00.001-08:00

Daniel has been home from China and life seems to be back to some sort of normal for us. He has been home for almost 2 weeks now but we have been so busy "soaking up" the time we missed, I haven't had a chance to write. He has many great stories and certainly will remember this trip forever. We are both are so glad he was blessed with such an incredible opportunity. And, I am so thankful he is back and safe. I think all my familly would agree with this: I am not the same without Daniel around. I am ecstatic to have him back home!!

52 hours later....Daniel is in China!

2010-01-04T16:32:00.000-08:00

Daniel left at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday morning and finally made it to China at 9:00 a.m. this morning. He had a flight cancelled, several delays and many hours of layover. The picture above is in front of a temple in Taipei, Taiwan. Daniel had an 11 hour layover there so he got to take a tour of the city. He is doing great and should be rested and ready for work in the next few hours!

A Christmas to Remember.....

2010-01-03T14:13:00.000-08:00

Well, Daniel and I almost spent our first Christmas away from each other (unintentionally). I left to go to my parent's house in Bowie the day before Christmas Eve and the plan was for Daniel to fly in to Dallas on Christmas Eve since he had to work. A blizzard, cancelled flight and 12 hours of Daniel driving 10 miles an hour all the way to Bowie; Daniel arrived in Bowie at 5:00 a.m. on Christmas morning! According to Daniel, "love will make you do crazy things." It was quite romantic but it is safe to say, we will never travel seperate at the holidays again.

Once all the chaos settled we had a wonderful time! We got to spend time with my mom's and dad's extended family, it was so much fun. (I will post pictures as soon as I can bum some off of family members. It seems I have lost my digital camera.)

China

2009-12-21T08:35:00.000-08:00

Daniel found out a couple weeks ago that he will be going to Shen Yang, China for work! He is going to be supervising a test that his company is contracted with there. He will leave January 2 and be gone for about 2 1/2 weeks. We are both really excited for this opportunity! (I just wish I was getting to go, too.) I am also a little nervous. For those of you who know me, I don't do well away from Daniel for very long at all, much less a couple weeks in another country but I am sure it will be fine. I plan to "house hop" to friends and families homes here in Lubbock and maybe even make a quick trip to Bowie to see my parents (keep me from sitting around and dreaming up absurd things that aren't really going to happen). I'll post pictures and updates of how the trip went when he gets back!

Merry Christmas!!

An early Christmas gift!

2009-11-29T18:21:00.001-08:00

Daniel got his Christmas present early this year, a Giant Schnauzer puppy! Her name is Lady and she is 10 weeks old right now weighing in at 12 lbs. We are enjoying her so much, aside from the sleepless nights. (We are trying to kennel train her and she doesn't care for it much). Buster is still "dog of the house" but we're not sure how long that will last since Lady will be getting really big, reallly fast.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-14T14:24:00.001-08:00

We had a great Halloween this year (maybe my favorite, especially since Halloween is my least favorite holiday.) Daniel and I dressed up with our good friends Bryce and Amanda for our church Halloween party. We didn't win the costume contest but we sure had a good time getting ready! We feel so lucky to be in town with family members, we got to see Kason, Jansen and Daniel's cousins Kloe and Kadence all dressed up. They were all so cute!

I am really excited that the holiday season is underway. I plan to cook, decorate and really enjoy friends and family this year. I already got Daniel his Christmas present early, so check back in a couple of weeks for pictures! (We are going to have a new little puppy! That won't be little for very long.)

Fall...

2009-10-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

The fall season is already off to a great start! I started back to school at my new job, I love it at Lubbock High and the transition went smoother than I could have imagined. Daniel has a very light load in school since he is finishing so soon so he is getting to work more and we both have found the extra time to enjoy a few little get aways. At the end of September we got to go to the Pine Springs 50th Anniversary, it was fun to visit old friends and be back up at camp.

Early October we went on what we called a "couples retreat." We got to sneak away to Ruidoso with friends. It was so much fun just to enjoy time with friends, be outdoors, and relax in the mountains (we managed to squeeze in a little shopping and A LOT of good eating, of course). I think we would both agree that this has already been a great fall!

Enjoying fun, friends and the Fourth!

2009-07-14T08:11:00.000-07:00

For Fourth of July weekend, we got to go to the Metroplex area with several friends. We went tubing, ate lots of good food and went our friend's wedding! After our friends left for the weekend, Daniel and I got a couple days to ourselves for a little summer vacation. We went to the Ft. Worth Zoo and Six Flags, it was super exhausting but a lot of fun. With Daniel being done with summer classes and all my free time, we have also had the chance to do a lot of cooking together. It is so much fun! We were so proud that we made homemade pasta we had to include the pictures. Who needs Red Lobster with our pasta skills?!

Celebrating summer!

2009-06-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

Summer is officially here and we are enjoying it! The first weekend we had off Daniel spoiled me for my birthday (as he usually does) and took me out for dinner at a great steakhouse in town. I already have had a chance to babysit both nephews here in Lubbock, it is fun and helping me fill my time. I am finding it hard to transition from work and graduate school to well....absolutely nothing for my summer break. I am sure I will figure out new ways to filly my time soon, Daniel is hoping for some great cooking and I do plan to to try some new recipes!

Life in West Texas!

2009-05-19T18:45:00.000-07:00

Daniel and I are enjoying life out here in Lubbock. I have finished school giving me a lot of new free time on my hands. (Thus the blog!) Daniel is working and going to school, we couldn't be happier. The past few months our time has been pretty occupied with nephews. We have three nephews now, Jansen, Walker and Kason. Kason came onto the scene early this spring but has been doing really well! We get to see him and Jansen pretty often as they are right here in Lubbock with us. We are looking forward to the next couple summer months, hoping to get to spend more time together. We hope to discover new hobbies, visit family and friends, and babysit our nephews (of course).