Elder Thomas

My cousin got his mission call here to San Antonio.  I had no idea if I'd ever even get to see him, but turns out his first area was in our ward.  It was so fun to see him every week at church, go out and teach with him and to have him over for dinner.  I'm happy we both have the Texas mission experience that we can share at family reunions in the future. It was really cool to see the growth in him, even in just a few months.  He's getting transferred this week, and we'll miss him! 

Watermelon

Dave and I love watermelon, a lot!!!  We've been getting one every other week for the past few months and we're loving it.  Even though it's ridiculously hot, eating watermelon makes me love the summer months.

 We try to pick out the heaviest watermelon in the bunch.  Last week Dave picked out a great one with hardly any rind.

If we're not careful, we'll eat the whole thing in one sitting.  So I usually have to divide them up into three different portions.

YUM!

Date Night

Dave and I planned a great date night last Friday.  We went out to Red Robin and shared an order of my favorite mozzarella sticks and my favorite teriyaki chicken sandwich.  Growing up, we had a lot of Family Night dinners at Red Robin because we loved the cheese sticks!

I got some great discounted movie tickets through Groupon that were about to expire, so we decided to go see Captain America.  I popped up a bag of my favorite kettle corn and we each picked out a few treats at the store.  We had to make a rule that we couldn't start eating the popcorn until the movie started, which was torture sitting through all those previews!

The Many Faces of our Living Room

We have a nice apartment and all, but I was getting a little tired of it. We got a great deal and definitely the cheapest price around.  There's only so much you can do with 700 sq ft and no budget though.  So on Saturday we spend the day re-arranging.  Anything we hadn't used in the last 13 months had to go. 



A few days after moving in



A month in, many furniture donations later



Last Saturday before cleaning




The new look

I feel refreshed, which is good because we just renewed our contract here.

In Loving Memory of Chuck

So Dave and I have been throwing the idea of getting rid of one of our trucks and getting a more fuel efficient vehicle.  Mine is in great condition so we looked into selling his because although it runs great, it's falling apart.  We realized we wouldn't get enough out of it to get another decent car, and the goal is to save money, not spend more money.  So I finally gave in to just seeing what we could get for mine. 

   We realized that we could sell my truck, get a newer used Toyota and still have some cash left over.  I took it into the dealership and was greatly disappointed with the offer that they gave me.  So I agreed to list it on some free sites to see if anybody would even be interested (I think I only agreed to it after I got on auto trader and saw that there were about 27 other Ford F-150's around the same year on there, so I thought the odds of it even getting considered would be slim to none).  We got a few Spam calls and kinda just forgot about it.

    Last weekend somebody called and wanted to look at it.  He sounded pretty interested so we met him and let him take it for a test drive.  He was looking for a truck for his son who just turned 16.  That was Saturday, on Monday he called and said he wanted the truck, he just wanted to take it to a mechanic first.  So on Tuesday we met him at an auto shop and the mechanic had nothing but great things to say about it.  He called that afternoon and said he could meet us at his bank in a couple hours to buy Chuck.  I couldn't believe it, it all happened so fast!

   Everything went so smooth.  First of all, we sold it for $6,000 more than what that crazy Ford dealership man offered me. (I'm still debating calling him and letting him know) Also, after we officially handed over the truck, the guy asked me if I wouldn't mind moving the truck over to a different parking lot where his wife would be meeting him to drive it home.  I was honored that he trusted me enough to let me and sooo happy to have one last drive with him.  Chuck was such a great truck and has been through so many big things with me.  I really hope that they take really good care of him! 

So we're a one car family now, let the car shopping begin!

Girls Camp

This year I went to Girl's Camp with my Young Women. 

I was never one of those girls that enjoyed girls camp when I went, back in the day.  It's five days of girls wearing funny outfits, doing wacky hair styles, putting on crazy make-up, dancing, cheering, and singing loud, nonsensical songs; six things that I've never enjoyed doing. 

But I put on my tie-dye shirt and my good attitude and went.

All my YW, ready to go.  We went to a camp on the Blanco River just an hour North of us. The coolest part was the Blue Hole, a little lagoon that has this huge water slide (top right of the picture). Sadly, since we're in a drought the water was not flowing and pretty nasty, so the slide was closed.  It was still beautiful to look at.  Thankfully, they had a nice pool that I got to go in every day to keep cool, cause it was HOT!

      I was a cabin mom for the best little group of 1st years.  They were so cute and fun. They were always helping in the kitchen and including others, I loved all of them!
     As a cabin mom I didn't have that many responsibilities but after the first night I learned why.  A few sick and dehydrated girls meant getting up in the early morning hours and not much sleep, so luckily I got to fit in a few naps during my off hours. 

I did find some time in the afternoon to work on the craft.  It was just so cute I had to do it, it's a little recipe holder!  So I have some work to do still, I need to fill it with recipes.  But when I finally finish it, it's gonna look great! We already have no counter or cupboard space in our little kitchen, but I'm sure I can find some room for it. 

Although I did get cell service and I talked to or texted Dave whenever I had a spare moment alone, I really really missed him!

The only thing not horrible about leaving behind my husband is the wonderful welcome home surprises I get.  He's so wonderful :)

Fourth of July Fireworks

So Texas is in a huge drought, one of the worst in San Antonio's recorded history.  All fireworks were prohibited in San Antonio, even at Six Flags and Sea World.  We really wanted to see some fireworks though.  With our TV antenna, we get 2 or 3 good channels (meaning in English and not worship) and one of them had the Macy's firework show on it and it was amazing!!!

There are fireworks over the Hudson River with like seven different lauching points on the river.  The show was probably 30 straight minutes of crazy bursting fireworks put to music and all in sync.  It was so cool!  I'd definitely watch it again next year!

Something cool and new that we saw were smiley face fireworks.  We had never seen them before this.  I don't know how people make fireworks but that is pretty impressive!

Independence Day Weekend with the Jacksons

One of my best friends, Cari Sue, got married in May and she is out here in Dallas for the summer.  Her husband got a great internship there.  Dave and I were very excited! (she's one of the people that introduced me to Dave when I got back from my mission)  So Cari Sue and Sean decided to make the drive down to San Antonio to visit us for the weekend.

 Dave putting the finishing touches on their welcome sign.  We took them out for Dave's favorite, Tex Mex at the unique Alamo cafe.

 We went down to the Riverwalk to walk around.  We love the Texas trinket shops that live up to the phrase that everything is bigger in Texas.

The next day we went out and braved the crazy crowds of the Comal River.  We each shared a tube and went down the shoot a few times.  It was so relaxing!  Then we headed over to Gruene, TX to have lunch on the Guadalupe River and see the sites of the little town.  We went home and ended the night with some Wii and ping-pong.  Such a fun day!

There is a huge fire ban all through out Texas so, sadly, no fireworks were allowed.  We decided to have our own fun, so we made patriotic sugar cookies and ate them all. 

It was so fun having them here!