Memorial Day Weekend

If you haven't guessed by now from reading our blog, I love holidays. All of them. This weekend was memorial day weekend and Paul and I had a great time. I think remembering those that have given their lives for our freedom is a great way to kick off the summer. There is just something about patriotic music and the smell of charcoal that puts you in the mood for summer.

This weekend we took a short trip to Beaumont to visit Paul's cousin Staci and her husband Michael. We are so lucky that they live close by. We have such a great time hanging out with them. We spent the whole time playing games, which is amazing, because we love playing games and luckily so do they.  We also took a quick trip to help them make some purchases for their new house and check out the new house they are building just outside Beaumont.

This was Paul's favorite game that we played. We even played it three times. It is called Ticket to Ride and it is very fun.

We came home on Sunday and got to relax. On Monday we decided to check out the Houston Zoo. I have been telling Paul since we started dating that I wanted to go to the zoo with him and he finally decided to take me.

Me and my new friend.

feeding giraffes

The Houston Zoo is inside Herman Park near the med center and the park is beautiful and full of tons of fun things to do. After the zoo we decided to take a paddle boat ride. It was lots of fun and a lot more work than we though it would be after walking all around the zoo.

Paddle Boats!

Baby ducks by the paddle boats

On the paddle boat

After the zoo we ended our day with some light shopping at the galleria and an early dinner/late lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Another place I have always wanted to go. The food was good and the cheesecake was amazing. Paul even liked their cheesecake and he claims to hate cheesecake so you know it has to be good.

Two Down a Lifetime More to Go.

May 16th was out 2 year wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe it has been two years since our wedding. It feels like it was yesterday and a million years ago at the same time. I can truly say that every year has gotten better as we continue to learn more about eachother and grow as a couple.

This year for our anniversary we visited a nearby winery for a tasting and tour. It was gorgeous and we learned a lot. When we were there they were setting up for a wedding that they would be having later that night and it made the day even more nastalgic.

Rows and rows of grapes

Rose bushes are planted at the beginning of each row to protect the grapes.
Roses have such a low immune system that if there is a disease that could affect the grapes the roses will get it first and begin dying.

Paul decided to try a grape off the vine.

They weren't quite ripe yet

Later that evening we had dinner at Tradicao. It is a churrascaria (Brazillian Steakhouse). For our first anniversary we ate at Texas de Brasil. Both were amazing. I love churrascarias. They bring all kinds of deliciously cooked meats on skewers around to your table as often as you like. They also have a great salad bar. At this churrascaria they even had guarana, which is a Brazillian soft drink.

For dessert we had a papaya smoothie and they decorated the plate for our anniversary.

I gave Paul a new golf bag for our anniversary.

Paul didn't tell me until this year that he was tailoring all my anniversary presents to what was traditionally done for that year. For our first anniversary (paper) he wrote me a beautiful letter and had it framed.  For this anniversary he got me these beautiful hand crafted crocheted tulips. The 2nd anniversary is cotton, and tulips are my favorite flower.

I also got these earrings!

Anyway, we had a great time this year on our anniversary and I look forward to celebrating may more.

MS1 no more now onto MS2!

Last week Paul completed his first year of medical school and I am happy to report that he did very well. He is easily in the top half of his class. This past year I have seen him grow more and more not only in his studies, but in his confidence that this is what he was meant to do with his life.

He still has not chosen an area of medicine that he will be specializing in, but this summer he is going to do a clinical rotation at a pediatric clinic to either rule it in or out of the running. This year he has found it easier to rule things out rather than in.

I am very proud of all that he does and mostly that he has not lost who he is in medical school. He is still very loving, kind and sociable. Going into medical school I had prepared myself to lose Paul and had tons of plans to fill my time so that I wouldn't get lonely. However, I was pleasantly surprised that Paul was able to manage his studies so that we still got to spend tons of time together. In fact, my scrapbooks are no more finished now than before we moved here.

Dasher has also done a great job not bugging Paul while he studies too much. In fact, he wants to be so much like Paul that he studies all the material along side of him. And sometimes we find him studying on his own.

We found Dasher studying one day...at least that's what we say he was doing rather than trying to keep Paul from studying.

Anyway, I am very proud of Paul and have to say that I am looking forward to the month of June where Paul will not be in clinicals or in school before he starts back again as a MS2!! He is 1/4 of the way to residency!

And of the girl I'm taking to the Easter Parade.

Easter is probably one of my most favorite holidays. I love what it represents religiously; I love the hope and newness it brings with the freshness of spring. I also enjoy dressing up, and the hats! Spring is easily one of my favorite seasons.

This year for Easter with the help of my family (even though they didn't realize they were helping) I talked/guilted Paul into going to Oklahoma for Easter even though he had a major final the Monday after. In my defense what else can you do on an 8 hour drive besides study with minimal distractions. He ended up doing better on the final than he did on the midterm too so in the end it was all good.

Spring time in Oklahoma always consists of tornados. A few weeks before we left, portions of Oklahoma got hit hard with a devistating tornado. When traveling you always need to be on the look out. This is how we ended up taking about an hour and half detour around a thunderstorm to avoid potential tornadic activity. At first, Paul didn't take me seriously when I said the clouds ahead of us looked suspisious. He claimed it was just the sunset, but I just had a feeling I couldn't shake. Then I called my Grandpa K and he confirmed that the weathermen (I am sure it was Gary England) confirmed that the thunderstorm we were driving into contained the threat of tornadoes and hail. Paul then turned the car around and we watched the thunderstorm from the distance of a parallel highway. The lightening was actually kind of pretty, but at the same time made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Nevertheless, we made it to my hometown safely thanks to the iPhone and my Grandpa.

On Saturday, my little brothers, Paul and I dyed Easter eggs together (yes we are all over the age of 16, but somethings are just always fun and old habbits are hard to break). My brothers always enjoy mixing dyes to see what colors they can make and somehow what you think will make an ugly egg traditionally makes the coolest looking egg.

Paul squeezing in some study time before dying eggs.

Eggs waiting to be dyed.

Eggs all in a row

Steven and Nick dying eggs

How many eggs can you get in one cup of dye?

Mark and I dying eggs

After dying eggs we got ready to go to my grandma's for Easter lunch a day early. Since, Paul and I would have to leave early on Sunday and my older brother was coming down for Saturday only we decided to have our Easter lunch a day early. I was glad my older brother, sister-in-law and neice and nephew got to spend Easter with us. My mom and I filled plastic eggs for them to hunt while they were here and my nephew brought his present I had gotten him for his birthday to play with us. I had gotten him a Leggo board game, where you build your play area. I helped him build the game board and then he played the game with his dad and uncles.

Tyler with his Leggo game

Steven, Tyler, Mark and Ben playing the Leggo game

Tyler hunting eggs

We marked the eggs with A and T on them for Addelynn and Tyler.
 Addy enjoyed finding the eggs marked just for her. She would go "It says A!"

The uncles hid some of the eggs a little out of reach

I got one!

Addy refused to put the eggs in her bucket so she put them on the table instead. Silly girl.

More egg hunting

Checking out what's inside the eggs

The craziest thing that happened was just before the egg hunt was over
 the "Easter Bunny" (yes a real rabbit) ran accross my grandma's front yard
and everyone chased it around the back of the house. 

After, the Easter egg hunt and lunch Paul and my younger brothers took off on a fishing expedition. My little brother's sending Paul pictures of giant fish they had been catching lately with texts that said "man, you gotta get up here and go fishing" is what helped further convince Paul to make the trip to Oklahoma for Easter. I am happy to report that the fishing trip paid off for Paul, because he was the only one to catch a fish this time around.

Paul with his big ol' blue cat fish.
(I am glad they threw it back in the water)

On Sunday, just after we woke up the power went out in my mom's house and suddenly I wished I had boughten an Easter hat to wear, 'cause I litteraly got dressed in the dark (it had turned really cold (in the 50s) so I couldn't even wear my Easter dress) and it was raining so my hair was very frizzy. We still enjoyed the service with my grandma and grandpa though, and then came back to my mom's house for a quick lunch before heading back south. I am very grateful once again that Paul will make small sacrifices in his school work to spend time with family, and is willing to make the long drive to Oklahoma with me. The drive isn't so bad either, because I love traveling with him and Dash does great as well. I think we have really bonded during our long drives even if I do sleep most of the way.

A trip to Dallas/Brazil

This weekend Paul's mom's side of the family had a get together in honor of his Aunt Rachel and Uncle Daniel. Paul, Bethany and I drove up on Saturday while Dasher stayed behind with his puppy girlfriend Molly.

I guess now would be a good time to further explain a few things. Bethany, Paul's sister, moved in with us about two weeks ago. She recently took a job here in Houston and had to start within a few days of accepting the job so she moved in with Paul and I while she settles into Houston and moves into a place of her own. It has been good having her here. We are all so busy though, that we really don't see each other often; we all literally go in three different directions every morning. However, I do enjoy having someone else to shop with besides Paul. No offense dear.

Dasher's puppy girlfriend, Molly, is the beagle puppy of one of Paul's good friends in medical school, Robert. Robert and his family were kind enough to host Dasher for the weekend while we were in Dallas. It is nice to have friends you trust and who are kind enough to help you out when needed. Houston is beginning to feel more like home with every new friend we make.

Ok, now back to the post. Paul's Aunt Rachel is a doctor in the military and will be deploying to Iraq soon. She has three children she will be leaving behind as she serves our country overseas. Paul's Uncle Daniel will be moving to Minnesota to attend seminary school soon as well. So, on Saturday everyone got together to wish them well and encourage them as they moved on to the next chapters of their lives. For those of you who may read my blog and don't already know, Paul's mom is from Brazil and has 9 brothers and sisters. Not all of Paul's aunts and uncles were able to come to the get together, but there were a lot of people nontheless. We also had a traditional Brazilian dinner with desserts and everything. I even made Pao de Quiejo (a Brazillian cheese bread that I love). It was great food, and it was nice to see everyone again. Paul just happens to have two aunts who are speech therapists as well and I always enjoy talking with them.  Below are a few pictures I stole from Paul's mom from the weekend.

Group shot of everyone gathered in the den area

Paul with his little sister Jessica

After the get together, we spent the night with mine and Bethany's old college roommate and friend, Beth. We didn't get to spend much time with her, but it was good to see her even if it was just for a little while. It had been a while since I had gotten to hang out with her and Bethany at the same time too. We just needed Kendra and it would have been a complete little mini reunion of the 211 girls.

Before heading home on Sunday morning, we drove back to Allen to go shopping at the outlet store and it was lots of fun. I practically got a whole new wardrobe. I wasn't expecting to find very much at the outlet store, but they had some very good deals that I just couldn't pass up. It will definately be a place I visit again.

All our purchases
(please excuse the I have been in the car forever looks)

Paul had to make up for all the time he spent in the girly stores by stopping at the PGA Tour store.

All my great purchases

Paul's old belt

Victory! We found a replacement...thank you Target!

It was definately a long weekend, but a good one. I am glad to be home and I think Dasher is too. He has been sleeping since we walked in the door. Thank You Molly for wearing him out. Monday I believe will come to soon. I am ready for summer and it is just around the corner. Paul only has 2 weeks left of school and I only have about 6 more. Then we will have 3 weeks off together before Paul starts back again at the end of June. I am definiately looking forward to it.