One Word

I stole this idea from my sister's blog; I thought it was cute and hope it might spice up my blog a little (since its been quite dull lately)!
One Word
1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Your spouse? honest
3. Your hair? brown
4. Your mother? strength
5. Your father? supportive
6. Your favorite thing? Anthony
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your favorite drink? water
9. Your goal? heaven
10. The room you're in? office
11. Your hobby? scrapbooking
12. Your tv? off
13. Your fear? fire
14. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Chicago
15. Where were you last night? home
16. What you're not? perfect
17. Muffins? yum!
18. One of your wish list items? Italy
19. Where you grew up? Texas
20. What are you wearing? jeans
21. Your pets? none
22. Your computer? dying
23. Your life? great
24. Your mood? stressed
25. Your car? red
26. Something you're not wearing? earrings
27. Favorite store? Target
28. Your summer? busy
29. Your favorite color? green
30. When is the last time you laughed? minutes
31. Last time you cried? days

UPDATE:
We closed on our condo yesterday so we are officially home owners (well, now we owe a lot of money to the bank), but everything went well and we move in this weekend. We are so excited and can't wait to get settled. We also found & purchased a white leather splitback sofa--for now it will go in our living room until we get one for there, then we'll move it up to our loft area. It folds down flat so it can also serve as a bed--so more room for guests! I love it and the best part is we got a great deal!

catching up!!

Here's a recap of what's been going on this month...since once again, I've been a terrible blogger! Here are a few pictures from our girls trip to Mexico. We took my mom to Puerto Vallarta and had a wonderful time. It rained more than we had hoped but we still were able to relax and get some sun. We always have a great time together and never seem to run out of things to talk about.

Hanging out by the poolview of the beach from our balcony

the beach is surrounded by mountains...so pretty

dinner

sunset

I have been in Miami for the past week for a work conference. I had a great time and really enjoyed meeting lots of people from all over the world who work for Junior Achievement. I enjoyed my time at the beach, but I was so ready to get home to Anthony. We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary apart (again for the 4th time). I was in Miami and he was in Dallas. We are going to CA in a few weeks and just bought a house so that's how we'll be celebrating year number 4 this year. I love being married and can't believe its already been 4 years!!

YES, you read correctly in the above paragraph...we bought a house!!! Well, it's not official yet but it will be on Thursday when we close. We are moving out of our 1920s upper unit apartment and into a brand new townhouse/condo. We are super excited and have lots to do before this weekend when we move in. We have been cleaning out and throwing away a lot of things. It feels good to give away stuff that someone else can hopefully use. Once we get moved in, I will post some pictures of our place--it is modern/contemporary with lots of windows; I will try and get some pictures posted once we move in.

In the midst of all the craziness, I managed to drive down to Waco for the day a few Saturdays ago for my niece Elizabeth's 3rd birthday. All the other kiddos were there and I enjoyed getting to see the whole family. I just love being an aunt and think I have the cutest nieces and nephews!

I am hoping to find some time to see the movie Mamma Mia. It's one of my favorite musicals and I think the movie will become one of my favorites too. Anthony might even go see it with me because he's a big fan too!

Well, as usual, life with the Shoemaker's has been busy! I started a new job this week, working full-time for Junior Achievement. It has been good so far, but with any new job, lots of things to learn! We have also found the townhouse/condo we want and made an offer yesterday. We'll see what happens with that but if all goes well, we hope to close on July 24th and move that weekend. I'm a little nervous about making such a large purchase but we love the place and are looking forward to having a place to call ours. Once I get pictures, I'll post some. Tomorrow I'm heading to Mexico for a long weekend with my mom and sister, Kim. We are taking my Mom for her 60th birthday and am looking forward to some girl time.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

the wedding weekend

Well, once again, I've been slacking on my posts...sorry! Now that the wedding is over I think things will slow down some but we'll see. I was in Houston for 5 days for my sister-in-law, Laura's, wedding. I helped plan a lot of the wedding--it was so fun and an honor to be her Matron of Honor, but I am glad it's over. She was a beautiful bride and her and Jon are great together. It was a fun-filled weekend with lots of celebrating and visiting with family and friends. Here's a short recap with pictures:

Thursday night, a bunch of Laura's girlfriends went out to dinner at a Puerto Rican restaurant in Houston called Isla Coqui...it is just fabulous and the people loved us. The food is great but not as yummy as Granny's cooking! Anthony's grandmother is from PR and she is the best cook...boy do we love those fried plantains!! We made a special outfit for Laura to wear...a pink tank top that had Bride on the back, a white hoodie that said Soon to be Mrs. Hinson and a veil. She loved it!


At the end of our meal, they brought us tres leches that was sooo good and a free round of these pina colada/coconut shots that were quite tasty too. Since we were celebrating and they just loved our group so much, they gave us a few more rounds of shots! I don't think there was any alcohol in them because they tasted so sweet!Here's a picture of cousins from Anthony's dad's side of the family. We love the Bankes clan so much and it was good to see some of the other cousins we never see. This group has much fun together!!

me, Laura and Tara at the rehearsal dinner

the BIG day!!! Laura was such a beautiful bride and everything about the wedding was perfect.

at the reception i got to visit some with all my family. my parents, my siblings and most of their kiddos were there so that was great. they are all growing up so fast but i love getting to see them more often.

Brookly, Barrett and Elizabeth just waiting for the cake to be cut

me and my hubby :)
our reception was at the same place so it was fun to be back there and reminisce about our wedding day almost 4 years ago

Cutting the caketime to say goodbye!

off to Mexico...wish I was going on another Honeymoon :)Now that the wedding is over, its time to get busy with the house buying process. We are still in the looking stage but we are trying to make a decision pretty quick on where to buy. I will keep you all posted once we make a decision.

BTW, I had a wonderful time in Austin a few weeks ago. It was great to hang out and relax, and it's always great to spend quality time with family. We went to the pool one day and of course, I didn't put any sunscreen on...yes, I burned! I don't really ever burn (just tan) but since it had been a long while since I had been in the sun I guess my skin wasn't used to it. I started peeling just in time for the wedding, so Laura and Tara exfoliated my back every night so it wouldn't look too bad. By the time Saturday rolled around, you couldn't really tell.

Austin

I'm heading to Austin this afternoon and will be there until Friday. I wish Anthony could go with me, but I'm looking forward to some time with my sister and her kiddos. Barrett had his tonsils out last week so we'll be taking it easy most of the time I'm there. It's always good to have sister time too and Kara will also be there visiting her in-laws so hopefully we'll all get to hang out at some point. Enjoy your week!

I'm BACK!!!!

Well, it has been almost a month since I last posted, but I do have good news--school is out for the summer, which means I will have more FREE time to do things like blog! The last 2 months have been super busy around the Shoemaker house--work has been out of control for Anthony and I've been busy juggling my two jobs and trying to wrap things up for the year. Both of my jobs revolve around education and the Dallas ISD school calendar so we try and cram a lot into April & May. Anyway, as much as I enjoy being busy and having lots going on at once, I have to admit I am excited about only working part-time this summer since my afternoon job is only during the school year.

A few updates:
In mid-May, we drove down to Fredricksburg and toured some Texas wineries. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty some of the Texas wines were. It was a quick trip but a fun time with friends. The Brocks came up Memorial Day weekend and we had a great time hanging out with them. Lots of eating, drinking and catching up! We've also started the house-hunting process! We are in the very early stages so it will still be several months before we buy a place but its exciting to at least get the ball rolling. I am a little freaked about buying a house since we've purchased very few items since we've been married.

My Summer Plans:
I'm going to Austin next week for 3 days to spend time with Kim and her kiddos. It will be great fun, hopefully little Barrett is feeling better and we can hang out at the pool.
Laura's wedding is less than 3 weeks away! I'll be heading to Houston on June 18th for all the festivities!
My mom, Kim and I go to Mexico on July 4th! I can't wait to relax by the beach and catch some rays. I do love my girl time :)
We're heading back out to CA in August--we loved it so much the first time that we were looking for any excuse to go back! A family friend is getting married in Sonoma at a winery so we thought we should go out for the wedding then also spend a week vacationing there. Our friends, the Brocks, will be coming with us again!
Getting caught up on my scrapbook--I am so far behind!
Crossing another life goal off the list...Learning Spanish! Yes, that's right, I have purchased the Rosetta Stone CDs and I'm going to try and learn Spanish this summer. I would actually get to use it everyday with my job so I hope I can really get it down. I'm hoping my hubby will take me to Puerto Rico if I learn it so I can practice with natives :)

It's going to be a great summer and I'm looking forward to a time of relaxation but also a time for growth. It's nice to be back and I'm going to do a better job with keeping up with this.

By the way, I lost ALL my blog links when I changed up my blogger template, so if you don't see your name on the side please post a comment so I can find your blog again (especially since I'll have time to read now)!

Life has been a bit of a whirlwind the past month or so and I'm sorry to all my readers (all 5 of you) for slacking on keeping up with my posts. The keyboard on our laptop is still not working but I finally got to Office Depot last night to pick up an external one that can plug into the USB port. We'll see if that works. If so, I can finally post pictures! I don't really have many pictures to post since Anthony and I have pretty much been working around the clock--especially him. Oh the life of a young attorney!! Anyway, here are a few highlights of what's been going on when we haven't been working:

• Celebrated Cinco de Mayo with our friends, Tyler & Lauren Knight at Matt's in our neighborhood. It's great to have the live so close to us now :)
• I went with my friend, Karri, to see RAIN--the Beatles Experience; I love the Beatles and it was fun to listen to a group who sounds a lot like them LIVE. Lots of people were dancing & screaming and were really into the music. I'm sure it was a flashback for lots of the women there!
• I drove to Abilene for Laura's graduation from ACU (Anthony had to work :( so he didn't get to go), but I had fun and ran into some old college friends. I can't believe its been 4 years since I graduated!

AND THE MOST EXCITING NEWS OF ALL!!!

• My brother's wife, Suzy, had baby #3 this morning...Hallie Elizabeth Poe weighs 7 pounds, 19 1/2 inches long and is perfect in every way! I can't wait to see some pictures of the little one :)

That's all I've got for now. Once school is out I should have more time to post! Until then, I'm afraid I won't be on blogger much...to post or to READ, which is what I enjoy most :)