Category Archives: Jared

Jan16

Lazy Weekend Recap

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Elisabeth

This weekend has been a four day weekend for me. Technically, it should’ve been only a 3 day weekend, but I missed work Friday due to a migraine that had just been getting worse and worse over the week. (One of those unexpected side effects of being pregnant- most migraine and pain medications are off limits. And sometimes, Tylenol just doesn’t cut it).

Despite the discomfort, this weekend has allowed me time to reflect how lucky I am. A couple of things that specifically come to mind:

1. I have an amazing, thoughtful, sweet husband who goes out of his way to make my life easier.

2. I have a wonderful home, and even though it’s not perfectly what I want it to be (who’s home ever is?), is more than I thought I would have at this time and place in my life.

3. I have two adorable dogs to cuddle with when I am feeling yucky/sleepy/frustrated/needing snuggles.

4. I have good friends and family members to spend time with and who truly care about me.

Case in point:

Exhibit A: Friday evening, I was feeling a little bit better (after sleeping most of the day), so Jared offered to take us out so I didn’t have to make dinner. We went to one of the better Mexican restaurants around here. It was packed and noisy, which started to make the headache come back, and I couldn’t eat too much. It was the third time we had tried eating there since we found out about Baby Boothe, and each time I come home on the verge of puking, so we decided we will try visiting there again in about 7 months or so. Jared felt bad, but I thought it was so sweet that he was just trying to make life easier for me.

Exhibit B: Saturday we did some errands. Jared even suggested we could go to Kohl’s and search for some clothes that will fit me a little better. (For somebody who has struggled with how I look and weigh for most of my life, it’s been a little challenging to accept the changes that are occurring around my midsection, even if they are for a good cause!) He even cheerfully bought me some of the clothes I tried on.

(Side note: I will say that so far, my favorite place with the best prices for maternity clothes has been Burlington Coat Factory. Found these great looking black pants with a comfy elastic waistband for $10! Score!)

Exhibit C: We had some friends come over Saturday night. I was getting the house cleaned up and Jared was upset that I wasn’t sitting and cuddling with the dogs. But I know how proud of our home he is, and to make sure it looks nice, it takes teamwork. And we had a great time when our friends came over. Even if we stayed up a little later than we previously wanted…After all, I have a feeling that once Baby Boothe comes, time for friends will be a little more limited.

Exhibit D: All the extra things around the house Jared sneaks in. Like trying to help me with dinner last night, and cleaning up the entire kitchen. Or getting up with the dogs in the morning because Stevie doesn’t know how to sleep in. (After all, THE FOOD WON’T WAIT FOR HIM PAST 7:15! If we try to push it, he lovingly will jump on our heads and lick us until once of us gives in and feeds him. And with his dog breath, you might as well just not let it get to that point…)

I know that there’s more that I am forgetting with my sleepy brain, but at least there’s the general idea. So much to be grateful for in my life. Sometimes things like work overwhelm me, and I just need times like now to recenter and realize that the main things in my life that define me are not my career at school. It’s the things here at home that are the most important and meaningful to me.

So here’s to the best decision I’ve ever made in my life: choosing this great guy as my husband. 🙂

Dec31

2011 Reflection

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Elisabeth

2011 Reflection

Getting to the end of another year is bittersweet. While I am enormously grateful for all the things I have learned and experienced in the past year, it’s always amazing to me how time flies by. Wasn’t it just last week I was finishing up finals in college? And just a little before that, finishing high school? Good old nostalgia.

So, looking back at this year in a glance, here are some of the highlights:

January: I was still enjoying teaching in my new school. The “honeymoon phase” was almost over, but not quite.

February: The dogs got to experience a Texas snow day. And what’s not to love about watching dogs who are pansies in the normal wet stuff try and figure out how to navigate FROZEN WHITE wet stuff?!

March: brought one of my favorite holidays, Spring Break, and I learned how to make my first quilt… which I really will finish, one of these days!

April: School spirit abruptly changed as several people found out they would be losing jobs and that budget cuts were going to cause dramatic changes for the upcoming year (Thanks again for supporting Texas public education, Rick Perry. I’m sure you’d do even better over the nation.)

On a much happier note, Jared and I celebrated our 4th anniversary where he stole me away from work for a few days and we went to Fredericksburg, Texas and hiked at a local park, Enchanted Rock.

May: Jared got to celebrate his birthday in style, which unfortunately (for me) included getting his Ninja 636 bike. We also had a lovely visit from his grandparents, whom we hadn’t seen in years. We had a great time visiting the Lady Bird Wildflower Center.

June: I had a wonderful opportunity to be involved with the Central Texas Writing Project. I learned a lot, had a chance to practice my writing more than I’ve had a reason to for years, and found strength to attempt another year of teaching 7th grade. Most importantly, I met some incredible, inspiring people that I connected with at a professional and personal level, which forever changed me.

July: was my down month (sort of). I had the chance to attempt some art projects, read some books, and squeezed in helping my district’s Young Writers Camp for a week.

August: Jared threw me a surprise party for my birthday, which made me feel like a princess. Just another reminder of how grateful I am for having him in my life. I also started my fourth year of teaching 7th grade, which was probably a bit of a mistake, looking back at the feelings of anxiety and discomfort I had been experiencing leading up to that moment. Hindsight now is 20/20.

September: We finally received rain. That deserves honorable mention because we had the worst drought recorded in Texas history. And my garden that I planted actually survived through it mostly intact enough for me to get a few things from it. I got a much needed new cell phone, which I have had a lot of fun with since. (How did people do it without cell phones? They are such amazing devices!)

Best of all, Jared’s work rented out a local theme park and we got another weekend away. Gotta love being spoiled like that.

October: Jared crashed his motorcycle on a race track during a track day, and fortunately, didn’t get hurt. While this isn’t exactly a “positive” highlight, as a wife, I can appreciate his safety a lot more than his need for speed. So while he was understandably upset about the whole situation, and I was sad for him, I was also not-so-secretly glad that he no longer had easy access to a dangerous vehicle.

R.I.P., no-longer-so-pretty blue bike.

November: Getting to see family and friends, some whom we had not seen in years, in Utah was a treat. More importantly, it did not snow while we were there, which meant we didn’t freeze to death! (Just kidding- seeing family was more important. Promise.)

December: is my favorite month. There’s just something about the holiday season that generally makes people kinder, and our world needs more of it. I got to spoil Jared for Christmas, which was fantastic, because I can’t usually surprise him like that. We were also lucky enough to sell the rest of his motorcycle gear for a pretty decent price. We also have had two weeks off from work and have just spent time with each other– and amazingly, we aren’t sick of each other yet! I love this guy so much.

All in all, I’ve learned a lot of important lessons in 2011, many of which I probably shouldn’t discuss in length on here. However, I can say that 2012 will be the biggest year yet! Major changes are in store, which I will discuss at length as things unfold in the near and far future. 🙂

Goodbye, 2011! You were good, but I’m welcoming 2012 with open arms.

Dec6

Nearing the Breaking Point

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Elisabeth

Nearing the Breaking Point

It’s been a while since I posted last. And it’s probably for a good reason, too. Mentally, I haven’t been in a good place this year, as hard as I have tried to make it seem differently. Both work and health have been seriously tearing me down (and I think work might be tearing into my health as well!) But mainly, I want this to be a place where I can focus on the more positive things going on in life. Hence, my silence here.

November was definitely a hard month, but I am so grateful for Jared’s support. I often wonder how I was ever so lucky to deserve him as my partner. Despite all the difficult things I have been going through, he’s always wanted me to do whatever would make me happiest. Always building me up, never berating me for the tough things going on. And that support I’ve needed so desperately lately.

Another highlight of November was visiting family in Utah over Thanksgiving. We were surprisingly lucky, as the weather was pretty mild and we didn’t run into any snow (for me, that’s completely a good thing–you can grow up in a place that has lots of snow over winter and see how you feel about it and get back to me later). And despite me not feeling well, it was great to see family and friends and share exciting going-ons in each others’ lives.

Moments like those help pull you back from the breaking points and return you to a more sane place.

And last but not least, this is one of the best places in the world, and I got to see it again when visiting Utah. I love the natural beauty of this mountain. And it was on a back road on this very mountain that Jared proposed to me over five years ago. It holds a special place in my heart.

Oct8

A mini-adventure.

Posted on October 8, 2011 by Elisabeth

A mini-adventure.

Jared is loaning a long flatbed trailer from somebody who works at his work. This normally wouldn’t really matter to me, but 1) He’s using the trailer to tow his bike and some other people’s to a track day next week, and 2) The people live over a hour away and we had to take a lot of back roads to get there.

But it was not as bad as it could have been, because even in the most miserable situations, you can find something fun and quirky. Like an ostrich farm.

Seriously. I have photograph evidence, taken with my phone.

I promise, it looks so much cooler in real life. They are pretty impressively sized birds.

But why would anyone have an Ostrich Farm in TEXAS? What could you possibly do with that? Make really big exotic omelets? I don’t know.

Also, look at the sky.

Also more awesome in real life. In the past several months, we have had 3 days of rain, mainly yesterday and today. And it has been glorious. I don’t want it to stop!

Unfortunately, rain + a massive trailer = interesting driving conditions. Since I would rather have the rain anyways, I think it would have been much better to drive in the rain but not have the trailer for the motorcycle stuff, but for some reason, Jared thought it would be worth it. At least nobody was hurt, this time.

Oct8

There’s an app for that…

Posted on October 8, 2011 by Elisabeth

There’s an app for that…

Jared has this habit of looking at apps for my phone. (He got me the good phone first, and so he’s constantly suffering from phone envy. Here’s hoping that he gets his own awesome smart phone soon…) So, he’s been looking at all sorts of things that I can download for my phone that he wishes that he could have on his own.

The other day, he came across this app called “Paper Camera” that was Amazon’s app of the day recently. Meaning that you can download the app for free when it normally costs money. He told me that I should check it out and see if I wanted to download it to my phone. I didn’t really have time to “check it out” but it sounded intriguing, so I went ahead and downloaded it (after all, it was free, right?).

What it does is takes pictures, but instantly converts them to different styles. Case in point: My classroom.

This is Comic Book style.