new blog.

with my new marriage comes a new blog. no endings, just beginnings.

with much love,

Lauren.

happy.

Has it really been two months since my last post? Can so many amazing things really happen in just two months? Since I last wrote my life has made a drastic change for the better, and I owe all the glory to God. The Lord has been so wonderful to me lately and I feel so unworthy but so grateful. I signed my contract with La Porte ISD today. I am an official TEACHER. FINALLY! Beginning Monday I will be on the faculty as not just a tutor and sub (which is what I've been doing the past two months) but an actual have-my-own-classroom teacher. I have just fallen in love with the precious kiddos and am so happy that I will see them through to the end of the year.

I also was accepted into the Counseling Program at UHCL in December. After months of not hearing anything and assuming I wasn't considered as a potential candidate anyway, I got an interview and was told I was accepted into the program. They only took 11 of us. It is a cohort system so we will start and finish the program together every step of the way. My cohort will be my family for the next 3 years! And Lord willing, I will finish my MS in Counseling in December '14. I am already overwhelmed by the workload I am faced with this semester. I went from working at a bakery and having a ton of free time (though it never felt like I really did but still) to a full-time teaching position on top of graduate school. Wowza. God had a plan for me. If I had found a job at the beginning of the year I never would have applied to grad school. At least not this year. It will be difficult but I have this amazing and calming feeling that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I couldn't be more thrilled.

My Mother moved to Austin for 3 months to go to school as well. It is so weird not having her around but she is finally getting to do something that I know she will be happy with the rest of her life. I miss her but she is coming home this weekend for Caden's musical.

Speaking of, opening night of Lil' Abner is tomorrow and I can't wait to see my brother in it as Available Jones. Go Caden!

I have been tutoring a 6th grader two nights a week at the library and have really enjoyed it. I love helping her out with school. She told me she has really improved over the last few weeks in math class and I was so proud of her! Plus I finally realized how awesome libraries are and how I have been missing out pretty much my entire life. I can check out up to 75 items at one time? Yes, please. I have been on a reading binge lately but will most likely not be doing much free reading this semester. At least I got all of the Hunger Games knocked out over Christmas.

I really didn't want this to turn into a wedding blog once I got engaged, but it's not like I have to worry about that anyway since I hardly ever write anything. However, so much has gone on in the wedding process. Back in October we set our date, got our venue, and I got my dress. That process was quite stressful on me so afterwards we went on a wedding hiatus. I finally realized we needed to keep making progress so about two months later we marked more things off of our checklist. We ordered our save-the-dates tonight and I can't wait to send them out. My wonderful friend Christina and her husband Colin took some engagement pictures for us in College Station. We got some great shots at the Century Tree and in Downtown Bryan. She was so much fun to work with! Our engagement pictures with our actual photographer are next month. Basically now that the stressful part is over (well, not really but a little bit - I am just stressed by nature) I am having fun with the little things. Picking little details for the ceremony and reception and trying to make a lot of things myself. Thank goodness for Pinterest.

Michael is doing great and loving his job. No complaints there. I hope I will find the time to write more this semester. I really want to be able to look back and see what I was doing during that crazy time in my life as a first-time teacher, grad student and wedding planning bride! Ah!

God is so amazing ALL the time.

Lauren

Oh and by the way... I have stuck to my sweetener guidelines successfully. I no longer use sweet-n-low! Whoop!

so long sweet sweeteners.

With the holidays approaching, I am not looking forward to the amount of treats I will be exposed to at work and at home. I boxed up about 50 pumpkin and fudge pecan pies today and all I wanted to do was gobble them up. Working at a bakery is definitely enjoyable, but it comes at a price...a bite here and there really adds up. Today I decided that since I don't have the self control to say no to a cookie, I need to try to cut back in areas where I might actually be successful. I am going to attempt to stop sweetening my beverages. I rarely have cokes and never drink energy drinks, but I love tea and coffee and drink it all day long. So today I decided I will do my best to acquire a taste for coffee sans creamer and sweeteners and unsweet tea. I drank my coffee black this morning and it was awful, but I powered through.

These are my new guidelines for my daily beverages:

• no creamer or sweetener in coffee (milk is ok but I'm going to try black) except for an occasional trip to Starbucks, I just can't order black coffee at the bucks.
• No adding sugar or sweet-n-low to my tea at work...sweet Red Diamond at home is ok.
• Now that I am a hot tea drinker (Hello Harney & Sons...you're awesome) I can only sweeten my hot tea with honey.

I have such a sweet tooth that this will be a huge step for me if I can make it work. With the amount of coffee and tea I drink I can only imagine how much less bad stuff I'd consume in a month if I nix all of my hazelnut creamers and countless packets of artificial sweeteners. Hopefully I can hold myself accountable to this!

A post about my best friend's beautiful wedding this past weekend will be coming once I get the pictures on my computer.

With much love,

Lauren

that awkward moment...

...when the lady at the nail salon puts on gloves before giving you a pedicure.

I went with my mom tonight to get a pedicure at a nail salon close to home. I've been there before when I used to get pedicures about once a month, but I stopped after I graduated college and would bet my last pedicure was about 9 months ago. We went through the motions of picking out colors and sitting down to let our feet soak and whatnot when my nail tech, we'll call her Amy, slaps on a pair of gloves. I look and my mom and whisper under my breath, "my feet are so disgusting she has to wear gloves!" I glance around the store and notice no other woman giving a pedicure is wearing any. We couldn't help but bust out laughing. In my defense, she did have fake nails painted a fancy purple, so there's a slight chance she didn't want to mess them up. Or maybe Amy is a germaphobe Emma Pillsbury type who goes to great lengths to stay sanitary. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

At least my feet feel awesome now!

Lauren

note to self.

No more Starbucks after dark.

I am a Starbucks fanatic. I've calmed down in my ways compared to how I used to be - I had the Starbucks credit card - but I still pay a visit to the Siren more than I should. Tonight I made a run to WalMart with my sister, and as usual when out an about, I got a craving for Starbucks. We swung by and I grabbed my grande nonfat no whip pumpkin spice frapp (it's too warm outside for the latte) and headed home. I got about 1/4 of the way through it and began feeling nauseas. Maybe this was my body's way of saying "hey...it's 9 pm, lay off the caffeine and sugar will you?" This isn't the first time this has happened. No more coffee after dark - unless I'm driving of course.

What a waste of $4.60, but at least it wasn't a venti!

Lauren

back when.

Tonight I came across something that hasn't crossed my mind in years. The social network many of us had before MySpace blew up and Facebook was even heard of... Xanga. Xanga was like a blog for us youngsters. We got on and wrote about all the stuff we did and pinned all the picture badges we possibly could into one post.

I stumbled upon a friend's old Xanga tonight and it brought back so many good memories of us back in 2005. I decided I wanted to try to find my old Xanga and when nothing came up on Google, I remembered that I deleted it years ago. I am kicking myself for that now. Once I got a MySpace I deleted my Xanga...once I got a Facebook I deleted my MySpace. I never regretted either of those choices until tonight. I want to go back and read the things I wrote about at 17 when I thought things were tough then. I wish I still had my MySpace so I could go and see who my Top 8 friends were (I'll never forget the day Cross Canadian Ragweed put me in their #1 spot on their page). Life has changed so much and it would be cool to get a reminder of how things used to be. The good thing about Facebook is that your stuff doesn't get deleted when you want to step away. I have taken advantage of this many times and am currently on a Facebook hiatus right now. But when I come back, the memories will still be there waiting on me.

Because of the internet, I never spent time writing in journals or diaries growing up. I wrote about my life on Xanga or MySpace...and like I said before, despite the fact reading them would probably be incredibly embarrassing and even painful at times, I wish I could see them again. There have even been times I contemplated deleting this blog just because I hardly have enough posts for this to even be considered a blog. I'll be sure to remember how I feel tonight if the urge comes up again.

And to my dear friend who didn't delete her Xanga - thank you so much for the blast from the past. It takes a long time to grow an old friend, and I am so glad you're one of the few who stuck with me this long.

With much love,

Lauren

enchanted. delighted. ecstatic. you name it.

I am very excited to be able to announce... MICHAEL AND I ARE ENGAGED!

On September 21, we went to College Station for an overnight trip. That evening we went by our old apartment building where we were once neighbors so he could pick up his grill. It had been chained up there since we both moved out earlier this year.

Right there on the sidewalk where we first met, he asked me to be his wife.

I can't find the words to explain how amazing it is that this incredible young man wants to spend the rest of his life with me.

It's crazy to think how far we've come since a year and a half ago. We knew none of the same people when we first met and now we are surrounded by amazing friends and family who constantly demonstrate their love for us. Thank you so much for all you do.

God has been so wonderful to us. He has blessed us beyond measure and I look forward to the plans He has for our marriage.

With MUCH LOVE,

Lauren