Newlyweds: Becoming "The Spencers"

23 Weeks

2011-12-06T08:06:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, we had a wedding to attend, which of course meant dressing in something other than maternity jeans or yoga pants. I haven't really purchased any "maternity dresses" so far as I've been able to make some of my looser fitting/shift style dresses work with the growing belly. I had thought about what I was going to wear in advance, but Saturday morning I got out the dress I thought would be perfect (empire waist, winter-y black dress) and decided to try it on.

I was able to get it on and with William's help, it even zipped!! I thought I'd found the perfect attire for the evening until I went upstairs to take it off. It was a little tight in the top but after about 5 minutes of trying to get the side zipper undone myself, I had to call in reinforcements. It took William about 10 minutes to get me out of the dress, and at some point during that fun I decided I would not be putting that dress on again. I went back to a tried and true loose fitting shift that I had worn to another wedding a few weeks earlier- luckily it still fit but I think we are nearing it's limit for maternity wear as it keeps getting shorter and shorter in the front :)

So, since I was all dressed up, I decided to actually take a "belly" picture to send to my parents. Here I am at 23 weeks.

Nursery Lust

2011-11-10T10:50:00.000-08:00

Since I have officially known that baby Spencer is of the male persuasion for a week now, I have of course come across some baby boy items that I'm dying to have for him and his nursery. You've seen my nursery inspiration from the previous post- I'm obsessed with the "vintage farm/modern design" of this room and am thinking I want to go with that theme.

These are a few of my favorite things...

This crib... doesn't it look just like the one in my dream nursery...AND, plus of all pluses- it's from Walmart and SUPER reasonably priced. That never happens to me. I usually fall in love with something that's a ridiculous designer name brand and I could never afford (and even if I could afford it, I could never justify spending that kind of money on that thing, whatever that thing is).

I found this on pinterest but it's from an etsy store. I love the blue and orange AND the owls are not only super in style right now, but a nod to my days as a Chi Omega (often referred to as "hooters") at Baylor. Side note- I went to Baylor homecoming last weekend and I'm always surprised at how much I miss those days. Nostalgia was everywhere...

This obviously will not fit my little guy this Thanksgiving but I think it's awesome and I really need to find it for next year. How cute are the tail feathers in the back?? For your favorite little turkey :)

My parents brought me an old dresser to re-do for the baby's room. I'd like to make it look kind of like this...now I just have to figure out how to do that exactly. If you have any tips- send them my way.

Also, if you get the urge to go ahead and buy me any of these things, that'd be nice too. I'm trying to wait until after Christmas to start going nuts on my nursery/baby prep. We'll see how that works out.

It's A...

2011-11-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

BOY!!!!!!!!It's official!! It's a boy!!

Noonday

2011-11-02T11:21:00.000-07:00

I follow quite a few friend's blogs and really enjoy keeping up with what everyone is doing. A few months ago, I was exploring my friend Renee's blog and discovered Noonday Collections. She is a Noonday Ambassador and basically it's an organization that works with women in third world countries to create unique jewelry, home goods and accessories. The women who make the goods actually receive the proceeds when you buy things so it's a win-win for everyone.

Last week, I entered a giveaway on Renee's blog for a $50 Noonday Collections gift card and I WON!! I just placed my order and am super excited to get my trellis cuff and cubist cuff (in silver)! You should definitely check out Noonday here http://www.reneedubose.noondaycollection.com/ambassador-reneedubose.html and while you're at it, go read Renee's blog http://theduboseframe.blogspot.com/! She's super fashionable and stylish and writes great blogs!!

Thanks Renee for my fun new accessories!!

Blog Resuscitation

2011-11-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

My blog has been more than just abandoned lately, I think it has been in a coma. I’m going to try and bring it back to life over the next few days but it’s going to take something big…

Something bigger than pics of my poor little Huck back in the cone and on kennel confinement after surgery number 2 to remove the screws and pins he had put in during surgery number one…

Something bigger than anecdotes about the hail storm that killed my beautiful yard…

Something bigger than my first ever FALL porch decorations or preparations for Baylor homecoming and a Kvasnicka baby shower…

But what could top all of that?
This is what…

An official announcement on an internet forum that there’s a baby Spencer expected to arrive March 27, 2012.

Tune in Thursday when we find out if we’ll need pink or blue soccer balls to start training for World Cup 2030.

Oh Huck!

2011-09-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s been more than a month since I’ve updated this little blog site of ours so I doubt that anyone is still reading this…but in case you are, here’s the latest breaking news in the Spencer fam.

Our sweet little puppy Huck (see previous blog post) has had quite the weekend. On Sunday, we loaded up Berkley and Huck to head to our favorite little creek for some swimming and retrieving. Our two little pups really enjoy hanging their heads out the window while we’re driving and since we were only going a few blocks, we rolled down the windows (half-way) and let their ears fly. Just as we were heading through a four-way stop, we hear a thud and I see the blur of Huck’s body in the side mirror falling out of the car.

We quickly pulled over and our little man was standing in the intersection on three legs whimpering. William grabbed him and we headed back home. Since it was Sunday, we gave him some pain relievers and let him sleep it off hoping he just had a little bruised foot or something. Monday morning, we woke up and found that he was still not putting any weight on his back right leg so I called to take him into the vet to get the situation assessed.

After a long day of pain killers and xrays, we found out that Huck had broken his femur right at the hip joint- a pretty bad place for a pup to get a break. We were referred to a veterinary surgical center where they told us Huck would have to have surgery and get a screw and pins put in his leg and then go through a pretty extensive 6 week recovery process. He went in for surgery early this morning and everything went according to plan. We will get to bring him home tomorrow if everything stays on course. His leg will be in a sling for at least 2-3 weeks and he’ll have to wear a very stylish cone. We are also going to have to try and keep him “still” which is kind of a task for a 4 month old puppy!

I didn’t really realize how much I loved this little pup until yesterday when I was watching him go through so much pain. I can’t imagine how bad I’m going to be if my kids ever get hurt! I will keep this blog updated on his progress over the next few weeks but we are confident he’s going to be back to his normal puppy mischief in a matter weeks!

New News

2011-08-15T07:45:00.001-07:00

I’ve been a bad blogger…again…and let my updates slip, but this time it’s not due to lack of subject matter, but more lack of time! Things have been busy around the Spencer house these past few weeks.

A couple weekends ago, William and I took advantage of one of our last soccer-free weekends and headed to Tyler. We talked my mom and dad into coming in from Amarillo to go with us so they could come out and take a look at our lake lot. If everything goes as planned, we will hopefully start taking some steps towards building a house out there in the next several months. There’s still a lot to do (clearing land, dredging the shore line, getting house plans drawn up) before we can take that step so our timeline is very uncertain right now but we had a great weekend getting to see ALL of both of our families.

The biggest news to come out of that weekend though was that we got to bring home our new PUPPY, a german short-haired pointer which we named Huck (short for Huckleberry). He’s quite the active little guy but also a major snuggler. Enjoy the pictures of his cuteness below…

Also, in a very unplanned random series of events, I got a new car! William and I got an offer from someone to buy my car which made us start looking around and we found a really good deal on a Toyota Sequoia. I’ve been missing the convenience of an SUV lately so I was pretty excited to make the trade…plus we actually made money of the deal and reduced my mileage significantly! I don’t have pics but it’s a white sequoia, you’ve all seen one.

In very random, non-personal news, I just learned that schools in the north don’t have names (like I went to LaMesa Elementary, Ash Sixth Grade, Coronado Seventh Grade, Estacado Eighth Grade, and Plainview High School) but are just numbered PS 167, PS 243 etc. It stands for Public School and then they are all numbered…how impersonal! No wonder some northerners seem colder than people in the south. They are conditioned that way from school age on!

Things I Love…About America and other stuff

2011-07-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

1.iPhone game apps that involve words…the tried and true “Words with Friends” and my new obsession “Hanging with Friends.” Please find me on both under the username TamiSpencer. I will dominate you (unless you are Chelsea Griffin, in which case I blame my losses on the fact that somehow I always get an unlucky draw against you and end up with ALL vowels or NO vowels. Who do you know at Zynga that is letting this happen over and over and over again?)

2.The way my knockout roses look after I take the time to prune all 547 bushes. (sidenote- I HATE the pruning process. This time, my legs took quite a beating from the thorny rose bushes…and the entire 2 hours I spent pruning the song line “Every rose has its thorn” was on replay in my head. Torture times 20).

3.DATE NIGHTS on a WEEKDAY!! Last night, hubs and I met up with our friends Drew and Laura to do a little dinner and a dollar movie. BONUS—ON TUESDAY THE DOLLAR MOVIE COSTS 75 CENTS! SERIOUSLY, you can go to a movie, in a theatre (with air conditioning) for 75 CENTS!! We saw Source Code. It was better than expected. I’m loving some Soccer-Free* July already. (**soccer free July has already broken the rules and scheduled a joint practice on Thursday evening. He just can’t stop people.)

4.Nordstroms Anniversary Sale. My bro’s awesome wife (shout out Kimberly K.) has a friend who’s a personal shopper, therefore allowing me to tag along with her on a special “members only VIP pre-sale.” Probably won’t buy anything this month as we have the upcoming vaca and I’ve been a little Groupon happy lately so my shopping budget has dwindled, but it’s still an awesome sale (and I really love being involved in anything that labels me a VIP).

5.WEEKENDS AT THE LAKE with super fun family members! We celebrated the 4th with some of William’s fam at Lake Cypress Springs. There was some jet skiing, boating, fireworks, children ages 4-40 fishing, one smashed hand, lots of great food and some refreshing summer drinks, and LOTS of girl talk with some awesome sister-in-laws. (pics coming soon.)

Travel Tips

2011-07-05T09:18:00.001-07:00

I have always traveled quite a bit for work and have usually been our company’s “travel agency of choice” arranging flights, hotels, cars and anything else that needed to be done to make sure we made it to 4 meetings in 4 separate states in the span of 52 hours. What I have learned is that, given an unlimited budget, you can make almost anything possible (i.e. picking someone up in a tiny town on a private jet with dinner catered in-flight so they will agree to attend a meeting with you in Washington D.C. and be home in time for their grandkids pop warner game). BUT, when it comes to personal travel (which I LOVE way more than work travel), we usually cannot afford the luxury of private jets and 5 star hotels, so I have found some handy resources that help me to find the best deals available out there in the travel world and I thought I would share a few of those for anyone trying to book a summer getaway!
1. Subscribe to the weekly emails from Travelzoo.com. Travelzoo will send you their “Top 20 Deals for Travelzoo VIP” each week. They scour the travel world to see who is offering the best deals on flights, hotels, vacation packages and even entertainment (Broadway shows, dinner deals, even a few spa packages) and send you an email of the 20 best deals across the board for the week. This is especially helpful if you’re not looking for a specific location or date to travel but know you want to go to a “beach destination” and have a window of time that works for it.
2. Use Kayak.com to search multiple travel sites for flight deals at one time. Type in your destinations and travel dates and Kayak simultaneously searches expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, and airline sites to find you the best prices. It cuts out a lot of time and hassle of going to multiple websites and comparing. Once you find the airline that’s offering the best deal, I always recommend going to the airline website and price checking. Sometimes the airlines offer a little better deal when you book directly with them. It can also save you some hassle to book directly when it comes to seat selections, and changes or cancellation you have to make, and online check-in.
3. If you travel regularly on someone else’s dime (i.e. your company), make sure you are taking advantage of travel rewards that you can cash in on personal travel later! For example, we usually fly American (because my boss is a rewards member), so why not earn miles on all my business flights I can cash in for a trip! I also do this with Marriott hotels, Southwest Airlines and even Expedia (on Expedia, I can earn points for any trip I book, whether it’s for me or not—this can really add up!) These rewards programs also usually offer bonus incentives which can amount to free car rentals, resort credits (can you say free massage!) and even free nights. Make sure you go to your rewards program website and REGISTER for ALL their bonus incentives. It’s a great surprise when a couple thousand extra rewards points show up on your statement.
4. If you’re traveling to the west coast, check out Virgin America for the best flight deals. Not only do they often offer direct flights to the west coast (from DFW) for as little as $79, they also have free entertainment on board (televisions with satellite TV in-flight on every seat) and it will be the best flight experience you’ve ever had.
5. If you’re traveling with a small group (4 couples or your whole family), it is sometimes cheaper to rent a nice house than individual hotel rooms. Check out vrbo.com (vacation rentals by owner) for some great steals on NICE houses. (Word of caution- remember these are private homes so you’re trading in some amenities like restaurants on site and room service. Make sure you have access to a vehicle or book within walking distance of an area that offers lots of dining choices).
6. I am a little lustful in my desire for luxury travel. I’m not going to lie, I really like NICE hotels, but when traveling for pleasure, these places are usually out of my price range. I’ve found two really great resources that offer discounts on some high-end hotels. Sometimes these are way too high, even at a discount, but every once in awhile you can score big on a great deal. My favorite is Jettsetter.com (a part of the online shopping auction gilt.com). It’s an “invitation only/member” travel site so here’s your personal invitation from me to check it out http://www.jetsetter.com/invite/tspencer09
The other one I love is Snique Away. They also offer daily specials to really awesome places (most recently I found a great deal to the Lake Austin Spa, wish I could go). Here’s a link to that one as well http://www.sniqueaway.com/invite/TamiSpe
These are my best online resources and we’ve found some great deals through these sites. Hopefully you’ll find this useful in planning your next family getaway!!

Waco, Texas

2011-06-27T09:04:00.001-07:00

My good friend and fave blogger Lauren Cowling just posted the lyrics to a song she was challenged to write about Waco. While I found it hilarious, it also made me a little sad because it's so true, I never go to Waco anymore. I'm getting old and I no longer have friends in undergrad or an apartment floor to sleep on when I go down for a game. I'm also petitioning her to add the line "I married an Aggie and it seemed to lengthen the road, I never go to Waco anymore."

For your enjoyment, the original song by Lauren N. Cowling,
"I Never Go to Waco Anymore"

I never go to Waco anymore.
So hard to make my way south,
All the good times I’ve ever known happened in the 254.
I never go to Waco anymore.

Just past Hillsboro, way before Austin
Waco sits on 35 like a jewel in the desert.
It’s so much more than just Baylor,
The tales of the Brazos soothe a man’s soul.

I never go to Waco anymore.
So hard to make my way south,
All the good times I’ve ever known happened in the 254.
I never go to Waco anymore.

Dr. Pepper, David Koresh, Waco is love.
Waco is looooooooooooove.
Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Cameron Park Zoo, Waco is love.
Waco is loooooooooooooooove.

Sitting on 35 like a star in the night,
She’s not big, but she’s bright.

I never go to Waco anymore.
So hard to make my way south,
All the good times I’ve ever known happened in the 254.
I never go to Waco anymore.

(check out more of LC's comedy as well as the best Bachelorette recaps of all time at www.lcblogs.com)

Trying New Things

2011-06-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

I can’t decide if I’m one of those people who loves trying new things or who enjoys the comforts of the tried and true. There are instances where I find myself lying on both sides of this line but I’d say for the most part, I fall somewhere in the middle. I like just enough variety to keep things interesting, but also some familiar routines that keep things comfortable. As you know from my previous few posts, lately I’ve been changing up my diet and exercise routine but I don’t want my blog to become only about that, so I thought I’d share a few random facts before explaining my new found love of spaghetti squash and how I kicked some booty in my workout today.

New venture number one- I joined a book club. At this point, I only know one of the girls who is in the book club and we haven’t actually met to discuss a book yet, but I have read and finished the first assigned book and we are meeting next week to discuss. I’ve always wanted to be in a book club (yes, I’m a huge nerd who used to get grounded for sneaking a flashlight to bed so I read under the covers after hours) so I’m pretty pumped that there a few girls my age out there who share this interest. Maybe I’ll start adding book reviews to my blogging genre. (To satisfy your curiosity, we read Best Enemies as our first book. It was a little cheesy but held my interest and is an appropriate summer beach read, but I wouldn’t call it a “good book.”)

New venture number 2- I’m officially a non-organic herb farmer. I’ve had my little herb garden for about a year and in the past month, my parsley has been ATTACKED by these crazy, colorful caterpillar worm things (I found out they are called Black Swallowtail Caterpillars). They are kind of cool looking

but they are eating all my parsley and, who would want to eat something that had been climbed around on by THAT! I’m trying to decide if I should off them with some pesticides, or let them have at my parsley crop since they will eventually turn into these beauties

New venture 3- Paleo cooking/eating. I’ve already elaborated on this a lot so I’ll just share some new found knowledge and appreciation for spaghetti squash. Pasta is probably in my top 2 favorite foods and the idea of never having it again isn’t really something that sits well with me. I’d heard about the amazing spaghetti squash and how it simulates the strands of spaghetti but I have to admit I was skeptical. Last night I tried it out with my 8.6 lb mega-squash I found at sprouts and I have to say it was pretty tasty. See below for inspirations and instructions on how to create your own “healthy/paleo/spaghetti” below.

This is an 8lb Spaghetti Squash

Cut it in half using the BIGGEST knife available and scoop out all the seeds/center
(this stuff)

Half or quarter it (depending on the size) and place it rind up on a baking sheet

Cook at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes (again, mine was huge so I went about 45-50 minutes). Pull it out and use a fork to scoop out the "noodles" from inside the squash. Your squash noodles will look like this

Top with your favorite sauce and you've got a great veggie sub for traditional noodles.

New outlooks on an old venture- I’ve been doing crossfit for almost a year now, but I’m just starting to really get into and see the benefit in motivating myself to continue to get better and push harder in the workouts. I’m trying to push myself to use heavier weights instead of staying with what’s comfortable, try and finish faster instead of being ok with being in the back of the pack and really go as hard as I can go in each workout. Today, I felt pretty cruddy going into the workout, but I actually pushed myself hard and felt good about the results. I finished the workout in 8:48, a very respectable time among the females. In case you want to do it yourself and see how you measure up against me, here’s what we did. (Feel free to post a comment about how it took you 10-12 minutes to complete this same workout. If you did it faster, keep it to yourself as I don’t need that kind of negativity for all the internet world to see).
3 rounds of the following:
10 Deadlift (105lbs)
15 Ring Dips
20 Box Jumps
30 meter suicide run (3 cones, run to each, touch the line and back each time)

Verdict Is In

2011-06-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

After much debate (and a few days of postponement), the Spencers officially began a regimen involving a mix of Paleo/Advocare/Crossfit that we are calling our “24 Day Challenge.” Advocare actually has a weight loss challenge that is called the 24 day challenge where you stick to a diet similar to Paleo (for at least the first 10 days) and use products to achieve some increased weight loss results over that time period. We decided to use the products recommended for the traditional 24 Day Challenge and maintain a Paleo diet the whole time. I’m challenging myself to also attend Crossfit at least 5 days a week throughout the challenge.

We started this up last Wednesday which officially makes today Day 6. I have worked out 4 of the past 6 days and we’ve been pretty good about sticking with the diet. Last week, I didn’t really do a lot of meal planning so a lot of our food was kind of hodge-podge of whatever we had that sort of fit the diet thrown together into some semblance of a meal. This week, I sat down with my favorite recipe app (epicurious anyone?) and searched for some awesome meals to plan for the week. I went to Sprouts yesterday and stocked up on TONS of fresh produce as well as some snacks for William, who had gotten kind of cranky last week when deprived of his normal daily snacks of cheese and crackers and chips and salsa.

Last night, I made a meal that was so good I didn’t even notice I was “dieting.” I thought I’d share the recipe for other friends who browse the blog and might be looking for something yummy and either “Paleo” or just on the healthy side.

Grilled Salmon with Mango Salsa

Ingredients:
1 Large Salmon filet
2 mango’s (peeled, pitted and diced)
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro (I used a little more)
¼ cup chopped red onion (used about half of a large red onion)
Juice of one fresh lime
1 serrano chili (seeded, and minced)
1 tsp grated lime peel
2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped or minced)
2 tablespoons olive oil

Prepare the grill and heat to medium-high. Meanwhile, combine the first 7 ingredients in a bowl. Mix in 1 ½ tablespoons of the olive oil. Season your salmon with salt and pepper or your favorite herb combo and brush with remaining ½ tablespoon of olive oil. Grill until done, ( I like to put salmon in a foil pouch to keep it from sticking to the grill and I grill about 10-12 minutes). Top with the salsa and serve!

I heated up a can of black beans mixed with a can of chopped green chiles to serve with this (Black beans are not technically paleo, but I was ok with that). It was a delicious meal and quick and easy to prepare.

Tonight, I’m trying a “Paleo Spaghetti” that uses spaghetti squash in place of the noodles. If it turns out well, I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.

To Paleo or not to Paleo?

2011-06-07T11:11:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, William and I jumped off the deep end of the exercise pool and joined our local Crossfit gym (shout out Crossfit Richardson!) Although it’s been one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done, I’ve actually gotten to a place that I ENJOY working out and look forward to going to the gym almost every day. This is in large part to the amazing community that the gym offers. Regardless of my class time, I always have a work out buddy that helps motivate me through whatever insanity is the WOD AND I’ve even made friends that I spend time with socially!

I’m not sure exactly how Crossfit started but I know it began with a guy in California and has spread across the country like wildfire with franchise gyms everywhere (even a few overseas)! There are 11 locations in the Dallas area alone, but there’s definitely something special about Crossfit Richardson (www.crossfitrichardson.com). One of the funniest things I’ve noticed is that Crossfit has its own language and it takes some time to figure out what anyone is talking about. For example, a WOD (pronounced like “wad of paper”) stands for Workout Of the Day. Everyone does this workout, in some cases modified for different skill levels, and almost all WOD’s are timed and your name and time posted on a board in the gym.

Paleo is the nutrition philosophy most commonly endorsed by Crossfit. Basically, paleo is a form of eating where you “eat like a traditional hunter/gatherer would have eaten.” This means proteins, fruits, vegetables and anything that grows naturally. I’m not an expert on the diet by any means but I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not this is something that is realistic for me to implement in my life. I do love meat and fish, which are both part of the diet, and I love fruit and vegetables and discovering new ways to prepare them. The thing that would be the hardest for me would be to not eat dairy or bread/grain products. I LOVE cheese and I think most people would agree it makes everything better (including vegetables). I also love bread and think it would be hard to live without pizza and sandwiches (2 of my favorite foods).

To figure out if the Paleo diet really makes you feel and look as great as everyone claims it does, I’m going to implement my own little experiment starting next week (Monday, June 13). Monday-Friday, I will cook and eat Paleo. Saturday and Sunday, I’ll go back to no rules dining!! I’m mainly posting this to the internet to give myself a little accountability and to document the effects in the way I feel, my performance and energy during the day and my workouts, and if I lose any weight or see a difference in body composition. I may even post a few “Paleo friendly” recipes if I come across anything life changing.

So, here’s to a new challenge and one more week to indulge in chips and queso on a Wednesday and sandwiches for lunch!

Wednesday Morning Funnies

2011-05-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

This conversation went down last night after we watched an episode of our FAVORITE show, Friday Night Lights, in bed. William promptly turned off the tv and rolled over to go to sleep. I decided it was a good time to tell William a really interesting story about something we had just seen…

Me: That girl that was the reporter, her name is Emily Jones and she’s from Plainview! She was in high school with my brother and now she’s a fox sports reporter.
Will: I’m trying to go to sleep. Why would you think it was important to tell me that right now?
Me: Because, you’re my best friend. And best friends pillow talk!
Will: That’s what girl best friends do. Guy best friends tell each other to shut up.
Me: I LOVE YOU (laughing)!
Will: SHUT UP!

And that is a glimpse into the beauty that we call marriage. Love my husband so much.

My Own Prince William

2011-05-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

I’m a little late on this post, but I can’t let the “Royal Wedding” go by without remembering that growing up, I used to think about the fact that Prince William and I (or “Wills” as he was called back then) were very close in age…and maybe, just maybe…if we happened to run into each other in the English countryside, he would decide that he would like to make me his princess. Well, THAT William did not ask me to marry him, but another William DID! And these are the reasons I’m glad that I’m married to my prince William instead of that other one-

-He has a full head of hair. I’m not that attracted to balding men and by all predictors, he will have his hair for a long, long time.
-He wears his wedding ring ALWAYS. Even when he’s at the gym, or the lake, or hunting. He is taken and doesn’t mind wearing a symbol to ward off all the other “princess hopefuls”
-I really don't look that great in hats and it seems that royals always have to wear them. I've never tried a diamond tiara...but I'm guessing that would make my hair do strange things also.
-He doesn’t require that I curtsy to his grandmother. I never really liked to curtsy all that much.
-He let me get married in a protestant church in South Texas where I was allowed to wear a strapless dress. Although lace sleeves are lovely, I always wanted to get married in strapless.
-He didn’t make me wait 8 years for a proposal. We knew we were in love after about 18 months so he went ahead and popped the question.
-He lets me split holidays equally between our families instead of having to hop around from one palace with his boring royal relatives to another.
-He doesn’t attract paparazzi everywhere we go, which is good because I go a lot of places wearing workout clothes with a head full of day-old curls which I’ve somehow tied up on the back of my head. Not really magazine ready most of the time.
-He doesn’t have 18 different names or titles. And when I married him, I didn’t have learn to remember a bunch of different names and titles for myself either. This is also a plus in the vows- I would have never been able to remember “I take you William Arthur Louis Earl Spencer”
-I didn’t have the added pressure of over 2 billion people watching me get married on live television. I’m not sure I could have even remembered “I take you William” with that stress.

The only thing that I do “covet” a little bit about marriage to “Wills” is the AMAZING music they had in the ceremony. I would have loved to have a full choir (including a group of young male sopranos) and the most amazing pipe organ in the world to play some majestic sounds as I walked down the aisle, but I had a pretty amazing organist and guitar/vocalist at my wedding too so I guess I’m still happy with my choice(shout out Jenni Lynn and Jared Billups!) All things considered, I definitely think I got the better end of the deal here marrying William Spencer and he tells me that the Spencer’s have some British royals in the family tree so here’s hoping that someday we get that call.

Diving Back In

2011-04-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

You don’t have to look far to see that this is my first post in almost 7 months. It would take about 900 words and a lot of excuses to explain my absence in the blog world, and, let’s face it, would be about as exciting to read as CNN is to watch when broadcasting a general session of the House during a break. So, with the acknowledgement of my long absence in the blog world, I will dive back in with a new post that may or not be any more exciting for you than the aforementioned hypothetical post on the “absence explanation.”

One week ago, William and I celebrated our second year as Mr. and Mrs. Spencer. This started off with a little romantic weekend getaway to OKC with 16 of our favorite 11 year olds and their parents. We celebrated by watching these little nuggets play some soccer and then sharing in some amazing “group buffet dining” excursions. I would say this trip was as good, if not better, than the year one cruise celebration.

We returned to Dallas just in time to celebrate our actual anniversary on Monday night with a little dinner in Uptown. Thanks to restaurant.com, we got a pretty good deal on a sweet meal at Palomino in the Crescent building. We indulged in a bottle of wine, cheese platter, salads, scallops, steak, and of course as much bread as they were willing to bring us. After all, it was our anniversary.

It wouldn’t be an anniversary blog post without including a top ten of my favorite things about “Year 2” for the Spencers. Enjoy.

10. The many times he randomly came home with a bouquet of flowers. It always makes my heart “swell” a little.

9. Surprising the hubs by taking a day off from work to finish spreading the 1,000 lbs of mulch he had dumped in our driveway the day before. His surprise and joy when he came home to find me covered in dirt, sweat and blisters verified for me that my husband receives love through my acts of manual labor.

8. On our trip to Orlando last summer for a friend’s wedding, neither one of us had to pretend we were too cool or too old to wait in a 3 hour line to be among the first to experience the new Harry Potter World at Universal Studios.

7. Discovering the magic of the television series “Friday Night Lights” together and analyzing the incredible marriage of Coach Eric and Tami Taylor and all the ways we are just like them. Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose.

6. William’s first brush with spontaneity, he suggested we meet half-way between Dallas and San Antonio during my month-long work trip. It was super sweet and he told me he just “really wanted to see me.”

5. Celebrating William’s 28th birthday with a back-yard “drive in” movie and some of our closest friends. It was a perfect night complete movie theatre popcorn, candy and Karate Kid.

4. Working together to lay-out our new backyard landscaping and then spending every night for several months watering all our new, vulnerable plants. It seemed pretty laborious at the time but I enjoyed spending time together and the end result of our beautiful backyard perfect for hosting impromptu get-togethers.

3. Relaxing weekends spent together where we had zero plans and no agenda. These sometimes occurred at home, sometimes at the lake or the farm, but always resulted in amazing times of conversations and growth in both of our marriage and our walk with the Lord.

2. Continuing a tradition dating back to long before we were married. Sunday night pizza night!! -Proof that sometimes it’s the little things in life that God uses to bring you the most joy.

1. Waking up every day to my best friend and the love of my life and knowing that God has blessed me with a man who brings me joy and challenges me to grow closer to Him.
In his anniversary card to me, he wrote maybe the sweetest line that’s ever been written and the new prayer for our marriage, “ I look forward to forever, but pray that I never overlook today.”

Here’s to year three- may we continue to look forward to our future without ever overlooking the blessings of today.

Random Ramblings

2010-09-09T13:05:00.000-07:00

Some thoughts have been flitting through my head lately so the most logical thing to do with said thoughts is post them to the internet :)

-I can not figure out why ALL of my shirts are getting these little holes in them. Doesn't seem to matter that I don't dry them in the dryer, where they are from, or what material. I thought it was the washing machine but my mom has a fancy new front loader and she said it's happening to her too. I think the quality of clothes must just be declining. I can't afford to replace all my shirts every 3 washes. This needs to get resolved. Any ideas?

-It rained for about three solid days in Dallas. I love the rain and was kind of sad when it cleared up this afternoon except for the fact that people were suffering from major flooding issues. I was relieved for them. When the tornado sirens went off last night, I had a flashback of a childhood memory. I'm standing in the doorway of my childhood home screaming at my family and neighbors to get out of the middle of the cul-de-sac where they all stand watching the sky looking for any sign of "rotation." I had been running back and forth from the basement to the door ever since the emergency broadcast system had informed us to "seek shelter immediately" trying to convince my family that they were stupid for not heeding the weather man's intense warnings. When that didn't work, I told them they were selfish and obviously didn't care if I ended up an orphan because I was only the one who would be spared when a twister suddenly dropped from the clouds without giving us the warning of lots of cloud rotation.

- I made a really tasty BBQ brisket on Tuesday. Slow cooked it for 10 hours until it fell apart when touched with a fork. Last night, at the convincing of Southern Living Recipes, I attempted to use the left overs and create a new "BBQ Pot Pie Dish" that sounded amazing. It called for a topping of instant mashed potatoes with a little Southern Living added goodness. I followed the recipe EXACTLY and ended up with a big pot of "mashed potatoes" that was the consistency of cream gravy. I started thinking about it and decided that little flakes that look like oatmeal shouldn't really turn into mashed potatoes anyway. Can you even consider that a vegetable? What do they even make the "instant potato flakes" out of? Never again, instant mashed potatoes. I've learned my lesson.

An Overdue Update

2010-08-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

I have been seriously neglecting this blog lately and I feel like it’s because we don’t have anything crazy exciting happening in our life right now (i.e. moving to another state, having a baby, other major life changes). I also realize I really enjoy reading other friends blogs when they are just simple updates on the day to day, so here goes my attempt at a “short” update. As you know from previous posts, brevity is not my specialty, but I’ll do my best.

Updates
-William’s soccer team officially qualified for select this fall by sweeping the qualifying tournament with 3 big wins in a row. Due to their success, we’ve had a couple weeks and weekends free of soccer so we’ve been making the rounds to visit family. Last weekend was spent in Tyler with the Spencer/Moharer clans and this weekend we’re westward bound to Amarillo to enjoy some cool nights with the Bectons.

-We have started doing Crossfit workouts in Richardson and, although they kick our tails, it’s the first time the Mister and I have been able to successfully work out together. And by together, I mean that we’re in the same room doing the same workout but not standing anywhere near each other. This is made even better by the fact that our good friends, the Carby’s, are also Crossfit-ers and we get to see them about 4-5 days a week now.

-Half of my hydrangea plants have been officially SCORCHED by the ridiculousness of August in Texas. Should have known they wouldn’t last through the heat getting afternoon sun. We’ve set up a beach umbrella to try and protect the other half from suffering the same fate. It’s kind of working for now.

-William has been approved/accepted to take his “PE” exam in October (professional engineer). He had to turn in a huge packet that summarized all the work he’s done over the past four years for review and he was approved! When he passes, he’ll get to sign his own name on his engineering plans followed by the 2 little letters, P.E., which makes you big time in the engineering world. He will be spending most of his free time studying for the next few months so, please call me to hang out, I’m sure I’ll be bored.

I think I already shot that whole “brief update” I was trying to keep to so I’ll stop here. A thought for today…this is the one time of year I’m so glad I’m not a teacher or student. Going back to school from summer was always the worst. I would send my sympathies to my teacher friends, but I don’t feel that bad for you because almost all of you that I know took about 12 vacations this summer. Happy back to school week!

A Beginning and an End

2010-07-22T12:44:00.001-07:00

I'm a few weeks behind on all things blog but I'll try to play catch up a little. A few weeks ago, my younger cousin (who was closest to me in age in the cousin crowd) got married. Her husband was actually her brother's best friend growing up so we've all known "Johnny," (who now like to be referred to as Jon since he's all grown up and an army Doc) since childhood. Holly and Jon began their new life together as "The Hardys" on July 10, 2010.

It was a beautiful and elegant wedding and the whole family got involved in the fun! Holly asked me to be a bridesmaid and sing a little number with one of her good friends Allie. My mom served as the pianist and organist and my dad stepped in the day before as the official videographer. He also served as the only photographer for our family so the few pics I captured must also be credited to Jerry Becton.

My Aunt Lanette with Holly, the beautiful bride.

The Becton/Spencer family

All the men in my life.

The bridal party with Holly.

Allie and I cranking some tunes on the mic.

So now for the end...it's not really an end...just a transition, but one of my closest friends is moving to upstate New York next week and William and I hosted a little going away bash for them at our house lase weekend. Leslie and I knew each other from a distance at Baylor but quickly became close friends after re-uniting in Dallas. Over the past four years, she has become an accountability partner, encourager, and one of the first people I turn to for advice in a crisis. None of these things will change with her moving, we will just have to learn to do it over the phone instead of face-to-face...unless I finally catch up to 2010 and get a webcam and microphone and learn to use skype...but that's another post for another day.

I was a little busy keeping everything moving in the food department on Saturday to take pictures so I borrowed these from Leslie's recent post about the party. Leslie, please don't sue me for copyright infringement. Please notice the "Adios Leslie and Justin" sign...my first attempt at Arts and Crafts in many, many years, as well as my table decor with the flowers in some of my bright glasses from the college years. That was actually a tip from my mom that I was skeptical about but, it turned out well.

Leslie and I share a common love of Dublin Dr. Pepper.

Everyone who was still there at 10pm.

Justin..the other half of the honoree couple with some of the boys.

Some of the guests going through the food line.

Truly, Leslie and Justin are 2 of William and I's best friends and they will be greatly missed in Dallas. I'm still working on the details (aka convincing William) but a trip to New York to visit is already in the works!

Florida Wedding Fun

2010-07-12T14:37:00.000-07:00

Over July 4 weekend, William and I headed to Orlando, Florida for the wedding of his best friend Jason. Jason was the best man in our wedding last year and William returned the favor as his best man last weekend in what turned out to be a rainy, multicultural, and amazingly fun 4th of July weekend.

We got there Friday evening and headed straight to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Because Jason's mom is from Hong Kong AND that's where he met his British bride, Lindsay, the rehearsal dinner was at an amazing Chinese food restaurant in downtown Orlando. I forgot to take pics that night so you'll just have to trust me that it was great and good times were had by all.

Saturday turned out to be the big adventure. We were supposed to be ready by 1:45pm to meet up with some of Lindsay's friends from London and catch a bus to the wedding (which was scheduled to start at 4pm). Erin Proctor and I were actually on time to meet up with our English friends and we headed to their house to wait for the bus. Since we were getting picked up 2 hours early for the ceremony, Erin and I anticipated a lot of lag time and packed books to read and comfy shoes in our bag to wear up until the wedding...which turned out to be very ironic by the time the day was done.

After waiting at the house for a bus to come by until 2:45, we decided to call our own taxi to the ceremony (which was a 45 minute commute from the house). The taxi we called told us he could be there in 30 minutes to pick us up, which would make our arrival time at the wedding EXACTLY at 4pm IF he actually showed up in 30 minutes. One of the English friends had a rental car and we decided we should probably just drive ourselves but about 2 minutes after we left the driveway, we got a call from the bride letting us know that the wedding planner was sending a car to get us. We turned around and went back to wait for the car. The rest of the story gets quite lengthy and complicated but I'll just say after 2 more attempts at driving ourselves and receiving calls to go back because our taxi was almost there, we were finally picked up around 4:15pm and walked into the country club at 5:09pm. Because it was smaller wedding and all the guests were out of town, and due to 4 accidents on the major freeway that everyone took to get to the wedding, we ended up arriving only about 20 minutes after the other guests and they just held the start time of the wedding until everyone arrived. It was an intense day and we really bonded with our 3 new friends from London through the experience. Here we all are after finally making it to the wedding and witnessing the beautiful ceremony!

I made William pose for a bunch of pics with me because the site of the wedding so beautiful!

Wedding Highlights....

Pics of the beautiful bride and groom and wedding party

Lindsay's amazing grandfather from England. I chatted with this guy as much as possible and he was on the dance floor ALL NIGHT! He kept reminding everyone he was in his 80's and if he was still going, we should be too!

This is the most amazing ice sculpture I've ever seen. They poured drinks through the middle and even served the drinks in frozen ice glasses. Amazing.

We spent the rest of our time in Orlando celebrating with Jason and Lindsay, shopping some amazing outlets and visiting Universal Studios! Here are some photo highlights of the rest of our trip!

Erin and I on the boardwalk at Universal celebrating July 4th!

Will and I at Universal

The new Harry Potter ride...this room was filled with pictures that moved and talked to each other just like in the movie!

The wizarding world of Harry Potter...I'm not a huge fan, but it was pretty cool.

408 Takes Possum Kingdom

2010-06-29T10:31:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago, me and my 3 besties from college hit Possum Kingdom lake for our annual roommate reunion trip. This tradition started about a year after college and we've been keeping it alive every summer since. To clear up any confusion, 408 was our infamous apartment number at "The Place" in Waco. It became known around campus (or at least around our group of friends) for many things including awesome Twister parties, Chi-O pre-event four- course dinners,and having 2 kitchens and 2 front doors... But I digress.

This was our second annual lake weekend and once again, we let our boys tag along. They are great for driving the boat, manning the grill, and making sure our koozies always contained an icy beverage. They also really enjoy hanging out with each other and are great at keeping themselves entertained. This year, that consisted of watching a lot of World Cup and US Open on the TV on the boat.

We were having too much fun to constantly pause for pictures, but we managed to capture a few moments along the way.

We always think it's a good idea to ride 4 deep on the jet ski. Someday we'll figure this out.

A series of pics where the Captain's hats came out....

How the guys spent most of the weekend

Not a good idea to take pics during the boat ride to dinner...a little windy

Watch for the sequel, 408 Takes Vail, coming March 2011.

Showers, Bachelor Parties, and Surprise Weddings

2010-06-08T09:11:00.001-07:00

This past weekend was one of the most exciting and unusual I've experienced in quite some time. William headed down to New Braunfels on Friday afternoon for a bachelor party so I kicked off the weekend with a girls night. I had a blast having sushi and ice cream with a few friends, both old and new! I arrived home a few minutes before my parents arrived at the house and then did my best to show them the new landscaping in the dark!

Saturday morning, we had breakfast on the deck in the backyard and then took our time getting ready for all the day's festivities. There were a couple of family functions planned for the weekend that my parents drove in to attend. The first was a wedding shower for my cousin Holly at Brookhaven Country Club. Mom and I enjoyed a fabulous lunch and shower with my cousin and some of her soon-to-be family and friends and then headed to Walburg, Texas where we were supposed to meet up with the other side of the family to celebrate my Uncle Joe's 70^th birthday….or so we thought.

The party was scheduled at a German restaurant and beirgarten (yes, that's how they spelled it). When we arrived, we all headed into a private upstairs room and spent some time mingling and catching up with family and some of Joe's oldest friends. After dinner, Joe and his fiancée Amy had hired a friend of theirs to do some entertainment. He plays the keyboard and sings and has been at some family functions in the past so this did not seem at all strange. After some entertainment, he called Joe up for us to sing Happy Birthday. Joe began his "thank you" speech after the song and then things took an unusual turn.

He asked his 2 sons to stand up with him, then Amy's brother, then my dad and one of Amy's friends. He said they had all meant a lot to him and he asked the musician to play the song they had discussed. Well, the song he played was called "There is Love" and it is mainly about how a man should leave his father and a woman leave her home and the two should become one…so we're all thinking this is a strange song to honor your sons and relatives.

THEN, as the song finishes, he asks a few of Amy's relatives to come up and asks if her son will escort to the front of the room..and the musician begins playing Here Comes the Bride! So our musician stands up with a Bible in hand and becomes the minister. They get married as we're all watching in shock and, of course, the whole room is crying (including Uncle Joe, Amy and the minister).

After everyone finished hugging and congratulating, we all headed out to the beirgarten in the back for some dancing and celebration. It was a great night and a very romantic turn of events.

Now I can check "Attend a birthday party that turns into a surprise wedding," off my "things to do in life" list.

“Curb Appeal” Before and After Shots of our Yard Makeover

2010-05-26T10:39:00.001-07:00

Front Yard Before

After!

We installed a sprinkler system about a month back and are still waiting on a few areas of grass to recover so just pay attention to the beds J

Before…

After!

I personally planted all that bright green sweet potato vine you see! I did not, however, plant those little mushrooms. Those will be taken care of ASAP!

Love the new Japanese Maple! One of my favorite trees

Before… (all of those lovely pansies had since died so it was really a big dirt bed, but I didn't have pics of that)

After!

Now for the Backyard!
Please excuse that most of my before pics are from the deck building time last summer…it still shows what used to be there!
Before…

After!!

Before…

After (pay attention to the back corner)

Before…

AFTER!!!

Before… (best angle I've got)

AFTER!! With my favorite addition..the hydrangeas…and our dog model we hired to make the backyard look more "lived in."

And a random shot of my fave new additions to the yard

Also, not pictured is my very first attempt at an "herb garden." I planted mint, parsley, and cilantro and they are all doing great!

We're looking forward to lots of summer fun with friends in our newly remodeled yard this summer. Feel free to come over anytime.

New Blooms

2010-05-20T09:07:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago the Spencer house, or more specifically the Spencer yard, underwent some major transformations. We added new beds and TONS of plants both in the front and backyard and it's amazing the difference it makes.

As soon as I find my camera charger, I'll take pics of everything and so some before and after shots, but for now, I'm posting a pic I snapped last night of my FAVORITE of the new additions...the hydrangeas! They are pretty high maintenance but worth all the effort when they already look like this after only 2 weeks! Get excited for the full story coming soon.

Cruisin'

2010-05-19T14:12:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning, William and I returned from our week-long anniversary cruise! I was going to write a post about it this weekend but our camera died completely somewhere around day 3 so I was looking for the charger so I can include the 4 pics we were actually able to take on our trip before the juice ran out! (I still haven’t found the charger but did discover I can put my memory stick directly into the computer and save the pictures so all is not lost!).

After a 48 hour battle with food poisoning, we loaded William, our luggage, and some sprite and crackers in the car last Monday morning and headed to Galveston to board the Carnival Ecstasy for a one week Mexican cruise to celebrate our first year of marriage. By the time we made it to the south edge of Houston, William was finally conscience again and feeling hungry and felt fully recovered by the time we had our first dinner seating on the boat Monday night.

Our first day was a full day at sea so we set out to explore all that the Ecstasy had to offer. After enjoying the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, we headed to the pool and spent a few hours napping, reading and catching some sun. William went to the gym at one point to get in a workout but had to abandon his hopes of getting in intense daily cardio after experiencing the sway of the boat while trying to run on the treadmill. I didn’t believe him that it was that bad and had to go see for myself later that day. That was my last trip to the gym for the duration of the trip.  We had a late lunch at another all-you-can eat buffet and headed inside to meet up with some friends we met earlier for the daily bingo game.

Not very long into the second game (I think small diamond is what we were going for, for all you bingo enthusiasts that know what that means,) William looked over at my card and said, look you have bingo. I wasn’t sure but he appeared to be right so I stood up and shouted bingo. The two older women behind me (who had brought along their own daubers might I add) started to fuss at me that there was no way I could have bingo because they hadn’t called enough of some column or something and I soon found out they were indeed correct, I did not have bingo. This is normally where I would explain that we had punch out cards instead of markers and you had to unfold and refold all the numbers between games so it got confusing as to whether or not they had called each number, but I’ll spare you those details and move on to the part of the story where the theatre full of people began to boo me. I think that’s the first time in my life I’ve actually been boo-ed. I was pretty unhappy with the entire crowd at that point but quickly got my revenge. The next number called was the one they found to be missing in my first bingo claim, so I had a real BINGO this time!! I stood up and shouted BINGO…FOR REAL THIS TIME…which was quickly verified by our fabulous cruise director and I was awarded $120. So then I yelled, “Boo me all you want, but I got $120 and you didn’t!”…ok, I didn’t yell the second part but the first part is word-for-word. I will also leave out the part of the story later in the week where William lost my…I mean our… $100 winnings in about 10 minutes at the blackjack table, but I guess losing money that wasn’t yours to begin with is the best way to lose money. Tuesday night was formal night on the ship so we dressed up in the nicest clothes we brought and headed out to have some cocktails before dinner. Here’s one of the few pics we were able to take during the week of us on formal night.

Wednesday we docked in Progresso, Mexico on the Yucutan Peninsula. We had heard there wasn’t a ton of great stuff to do in Progresso so we decided to book a “beach party” excursion with some of the friends we met on the ship on Monday. They took us to a private area of the beach w/ drinks and a restaurant and we hung out there for awhile before heading out to the market to browse for some souvenirs. We didn’t find anything we couldn’t live without so we headed back to the beach and spent the rest of our time on Progresso swimming and laying out. We headed back to the boat around 4pm and took the 2nd of what would turn into daily naps and prepped for our night on the boat. I can’t remember the specifics of each night but most of them consisted of a late dinner and then heading to our favorite “club” on the boat where they had nightly karaoke. We never actually made it on stage but it was always entertaining to watch. There were also a couple of really funny late night comedy shows that we went to and laughed harder than we should have at somewhat inappropriate jokes.
Here we are at the "Port of Progress" (Progresso)

Thursday was our day in Cozumel, Mexico and we had booked a “boat, kayak, and snorkel” tour. We got up early and met up with our tour group on the pier. We were happy to see that another couple we had befriended on the boat was on our excursion so we had friends to hang out with for the day! The water was gorgeous and the day was perfect and we hopped on a boat where they took us over to a private beach to kayak and enjoy some lunch and activities. We kayaked, looked for conch shells, ate a really good Mexican lunch, played some “water balloon toss” and then got back on the boat to head to the snorkel spot. The tour guide didn’t seem to understand the challenges that snorkeling close together in a group of 40 posed, but despite a few fins to the face, we had fun and saw some really cool fish. We headed back to the boat and decided since we were already wet, it was the perfect time to check out the water slides. They proved to be much better than expected and we ended up returning more than once before the trip was over.

Here's a pic of William relaxing in the hammocks on the beach in Cozumel.

Friday was our last day at sea so we decided to get all the sun we could before our vacation ended. This was our view while laying out on Friday, looking out over the ocean.

When we felt like we were about as burnt as we could handle, we headed in for another round of bingo. This time the game was “blackout,” and there was a $1,000 prize at stake. I kept watching my card and noticed that one of them was getting very close to being blacked out. I got down to needing just ONE number to win the $1,000. After waiting excruciatingly through 4 more numbers that weren’t the one I needed, someone else called bingo and I watched my $1,000 slip right through my fingers. But, you win some you lose some, so William and I went to play some shuffleboard to ease the pain. We enjoyed our last dinner and some entertainment that night as well as karaoke and a comedy show before closing out our last night on the ship. We came back to our room to find our nightly towel friend waiting (this pic was actually taken earlier in the week before the camera died).

We got off the boat on Saturday morning and headed back to the real world. We had an amazing time and both decided that we really enjoy the style of cruising and we’ll have to work more cruises into our future vacations. I’m so happy to have a husband who makes me laugh and who I always have fun with no matter what we’re doing. It was a great ending to a great first year!!

Sentiments, Rain Delays, and Gratitude

2010-04-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

I never really thought people paid attention to my teasers but a friend last night (shout out TayTay) let me know she had been waiting for my promised anniversary post all week so I think I owe it to her to do a little write up!

Last weekend, William and I celebrated our first anniversary. We are going on a cruise in May as the big celebratory bash, but we decided that for the actual weekend of the anniversary, we would each plan a date night for the other and celebrate all weekend! I’m all about dragging out celebrations as long as possible. It just makes everything more fun when you have a birth-month instead of day, two anniversary dates + a trip etc.

We decided we would do William’s date on Saturday night and mine on Sunday night (our actual anniversary was Sunday). So Saturday, we got home from soccer stuff around 4:30pm and William told me to get ready and pack an overnight bag and we’d leave around 6pm. The first place William and I ever met each other was at a Village Church Christmas party at the Hotel Intercontinental. We got in the car and I had no idea where he was taking me but sure enough, we pulled in the Intercontinental and checked in for a little anniversary stay-cation. We checked out the digs and spent some time people watching as the Dallas Military Ball was at the hotel the same night and then headed out to an amazing dinner at Uncle Julio's. It was a great night and I definitely appreciated the thoughtfulness and significance of spending some time in the first place we ever met.

Sunday morning we slept in, had brunch at the hotel and then headed down to church. It was a very overcast and drizzly day and I started to get nervous about my upcoming date night as it was scheduled to take place outside. Since soccer was canceled for the day and it was raining, we spent most of the day relaxing and watching movies (and doing a little laundry on the side). About 5pm, I decided that it wasn’t going to be dry enough outside and my date just wouldn’t be the same if I moved it indoors William suggested we wait and just do in on Monday night. We did treat ourselves to some Cane’s chicken for dinner and defrosted our saved wedding cake for dessert. We had a great, relaxing night in and the cake was surprisingly tasty (for year old cake!)

Monday night, we got to conclude our celebrations with my date night. I told William to take as long as he could at soccer so I would have plenty of time to set up. He got home right around dusk and took a quick shower giving it just enough time to be dark outside. I led him into the backyard through the side door where he found a picnic of our fave Papa John’s pizza, salad and wine on a pallet of pillows and blankets in the backyard. I borrowed a projector and speakers from friends of ours and hung a white sheet on the end of the deck so we had our own little makeshift outdoor theatre! I rented Sherlock Holmes because I knew William had been dying to see it but before the movie, I played him a little slideshow of “Our First Year in Pictures” complete with thoughts and captions on each one. It was an amazing night and we decided we need to do it again and invite all our friends for a little backyard theatre/picnic action soon!

A lot of people say that the first year of marriage is the most difficult. I really hope that is true, because if this is as hard as it ever gets, we’ll have an amazingly easy and wonderful life together! I love William more each and every day and he truly challenges me to be a better woman in all areas of my life. He pushes me to dig deeper with Christ, be more effective with my job, and more intentional with my relationships. He is a constant source of encouragement and my best friend. I know I am so blessed to share my life with this man and am grateful for our amazing first year!!

It's Been A Year

2010-04-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

Sunday (April 18) is William and my one year anniversary. In one sense, I can't believe that it's already been a year since our wedding day!! It seems like the time has truly flown by but on the other hand, it seems like we have always been married. I sometimes find myself thinking back to when we were dating and remember how the drive home every night from his house (now our house) seemed to be the most miserable thing in my life. Being married really is much more convenient :)

There are so many things I want to write about this occasion, but I think I'll save them for Monday, after we've had a chance to celebrate with each other because I'd like to say them to William before I post them to the blog world.

Until then, here are some pictures of my favorite wedding day moments...truly one of the best days of my life thus far!

Giving me away...so happy to be getting married!

Fist Kiss as "The Spencers"

First Dance

Cutting the Cake

Dancing the night away...

Living Happily Ever After

Inspiration

2010-04-07T12:53:00.000-07:00

I’ve been noticing lately that inspiration is very easy to find and I seem to be increasingly influenced by new and various “inspirations” almost daily. This is a very blanket statement that I will try to describe in some recent life experiences.

Inspiring Moment No.1
The NCAA tournament this year inspired me to get serious about being a Baylor fan again. In my college years, I was one of the most die-hard Baylor athletics supporters on campus. This partly stemmed from the fact that I HAD to be at events because I was usually working them, but mostly stemmed from a genuine passion for my school and a desire to see my classmates succeed on the field (or court/track/etc.) Some of that passion has waned over the past few years but our trip to the sweet sixteen, being surrounded by a relatively full house of fans wearing mainly green and gold and watching a team who undoubtedly left everything they had on the court re-inspired my love of good ‘ole BU.

William and I at the Sweet 16 in Houston

Inspiring Moment No. 2
I got an email from Real Simple magazine that directed me their website where I inevitably ended up browsing through all their “quick tips” and “solutions” slideshows. This picture inspired me to get serious about organizing my closet.

Inspiring Moment No. 3
Several months ago, I came across a link to an acquaintance of mine from Baylor’s blog. I clicked on it (because I often have slow days at work and these things help get me through) and was immediately inspired for all sorts of reasons. First of all, I want my blog to be as exciting as hers (it never will be. I’m just not that kind of person). Second, she has amazing photos of homes and spaces that inspire me to try new things with our décor and take on some new projects. She also posts delicious recipes that make me want to cook, great fashion spreads that not only inspire me to go shopping, but to take things I own and try them in a new way, and sometimes just fun blurbs that inspire me to laugh. At the risk of this person finding out I’m online blog stalker, I’m posting the link to her site here because it’s just that good and inspiration is meant to be shared.

Inspiring Moment No. 4
I can’t get through an entire blog without mentioning my new business venture in AdvoCare. Today, I listened in on a conference call where they announced outstanding performances by other distributors and the successes that people have found in their AdvoCare business. The top earning distributor in the last pay period (2.5 weeks) brought home a check for over $97,000. This is overwhelmingly inspirational to know this person was once just like me and has worked their way up to making almost 6 figures not annually, but every 2 weeks. Incredible. Really. (**legal disclosure- results are not typical**) I don’t think my goal is to make 100 grand per pay period, but if they can do that, surely I can make a few thousand a month , right??

Inspiring Moment No. 5
At the risk of sounding cliché, I am constantly inspired by our amazing God. Sometimes in the beauty of nature, sometimes in the love or acts of service from my husband and friends, and sometimes in the recount of stories I’ve heard countless times. Easter always moves me, but this year, I was especially touched trying to reflect on what Jesus really did for us on the cross. I tried to put myself in His shoes as he watched his friends betray Him, as He prayed and pleaded with God for another way to absolve the sins of the world, as He was berated, beaten and abused and ultimately nailed to a wooden cross to hang there until He died. I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around it but even greater was the moment that He rose out of death’s sleep and walked out of the tomb as our risen Savior. It inspires me to live every day in light of the cross. To bring glory and honor to God in everything that I do, and to live to serve the Lord above everything else.

Here’s our “church family” Easter picture from last Sunday. All these people (plus many not pictured here) are also one of the greatest sources of inspiration in my life, constantly pushing me to draw nearer to Christ.

Praise God for every inspiration, the insignificant and great that surrounds all our lives. Maybe someone will find something I’ve written in this blog a little bit inspiring. I hope so.

In honor of a former name....

2010-03-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

I know this blog is called "Becoming the Spencers," but as most of you know, before that happened, I was a Becton. There was a lot of pride attached to the Becton name and we even had a town on the map in Texas. Please enjoy this story from the Lubbock Avalanche Journal about my former life and ancestry. Just for reference, I am related to all the people quoted in the article. Polly Wampler is my aunt (dad's sister), Gail Wilson is my cousin (Polly's daughter), and Ute is my dad's cousin.

http://lubbockonline.com/stories/032910/loc_597672050.shtml

P.S. I'm thinking of keeping the name Ute alive...look for little Ute Spencer coming in approx. 4-6 years.

Fiddlers, Fun and Fat Loss

2010-03-15T12:59:00.000-07:00

As an intro, I’d just like to point out that I really love alliteration (see title)!
This past weekend packed in a lot of events in multiple categories. After some work travel last week, I came home to a few days of in celebration of “Spring Break.” Since my boss is on a cruise and out of pocket completely, he let us all share some time off so I got Thurs-Wednesday of this week as a mini spring break from the office! I’m still doing some work from home, but mainly trying to catch up on various maintenance issues, doctor’s appointments, and chores that are difficult to complete outside of the 9-5 work schedule.

We kicked off the weekend by attending "Fiddler on the Roof" with William’s family on Friday night. William’s mom got his step-dad tickets as a Christmas present and so graciously included the whole family in the outing. The musical was great and we even saw the final performance of on the most acclaimed actors in the lead role of “Tevyah”. As somewhat of a musical expert (and by that I mean I played some roles in community and school versions of musicals), I thought he was great in the role, but you can tell his voice had seen better days. Despite that, it was great and so much fun to spend time with all the fam.

Saturday was a day of yard work and errands but concluded in celebration of our great friend Justin’s birthday in the Bishop Arts District. We had a great time hanging out with some friends and browsing all the fun shops in the area. Since William and I are still cleansing, we knew we couldn’t eat pizza at the party so tried to fill up on salmon and broccoli before we got there. Even though our healthy meal was delicious and satisfying, I think it was the toughest challenge either of us has faced so far to turn down Eno’s pizza! Pizza is somewhat of a passion at our house and a weekly meal staple. We’ve both done great on the cleanse though and are feeling and seeing some great results! I have even had more energy and stamina in my work outs this week!

Sunday was a great day of church, soccer and browsing for landscape designs. We will hopefully have some fun landscaping updates to the backyard later this month! I’ll post pics when it happens.

All in all, it’s been a great few days and with only 2.5 days to go on the cleanse, I’ve lost over 5 pounds and probably some inches too. I’ll keep you posted on total results from the cleanse after I do final weigh and measures on Wednesday…Until then…

The Challenge

2010-03-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

Today, William and I started a 24 day health and nutrition challenge through AdvoCare. The program is a 2 part challenge starting with a 10 day “cleanse” and then followed by 14 days of a “lean and trim” process. I thought by posting this to our internet audience, we could create a little bit of accountability to stick with our goals and complete the full 24 day program.

As some of you know, I’m actually a distributor for AdvoCare products after falling in love with some of the products during our annual Texas vs. the Nation game, and I’ve been told this is one of the best ways to get started in AdvoCare and become familiar with some of their top selling products. So, here’s the breakdown of what the next 24 days look like for William and I.

Days 1-10- “Herbal Cleanse”
About a month before William and I got married, I did a “natural” 7 day cleanse that was recommended to me from a fitness instructor. Basically, I ate fruit every 2 hours until 3pm then I switched to raw veggies. On day 3, I got to add in a small amount of lean protein. It was miserable and I was starving most of the time, but I did lose weight. The problem with this was that the meal plan was completely unrealistic for everyday life so it was a quick, temporary fix to the extra pounds I wanted to get rid of pre-wedding. When someone first recommended this cleanse, I was scared of the word altogether but after doing some research, I found it to be MUCH better and more maintainable than others I have heard of in the past.

Basically, we have a few shakes and mixes we take in the morning and replace our normal breakfast with a meal replacement shake. The shakes by themselves aren’t bad, but can be made even better by blending in some ice and frozen fruit. It’s actually a better option than my normal breakfast, which is usually some kind of bar and a banana.

You can have a mid-morning fruit “snack” and hardboiled eggs if you’re really hungry. For lunch, you eat some veggies and lean protein and can even have a complex carb (so for this meal we are eating turkey sandwiches on whole wheat bread w/ mustard and baby carrots/fruit.

Afternoon snack is nuts/fruit and you also get a yummy spark drink to give you a little energy boost for the afternoon. For dinner, it’s just a matter of picking healthy options such as lean proteins (chicken, fish etc) and fresh, steamed veggies. You take a pack of cleanse tablets before bed and make sure you’re drinking LOTS of water throughout the day and that’s it.

So, that’s what we’ll be doing the next 10 days. I’ll try and keep posting updates and will explain phase 2 when we get there. I’ll also kick this off by listing a few of our goals over the next month or so…
1. Tami to lose 12-15 lbs and keep it off!
2. To get in at least 4 good workouts a week
3. To develop better eating/cooking habits for both of us!
4. To feel better and have more energy day to day
5. To feel confident and comfortable in a swim suit (there will be before and after pics but I’m not feeling like I’ll be able to post those online at this point. Maybe if my results are good…I don’t know.)

Wish us luck!

What Might Have Been

2010-02-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

For as long as I can remember, I have been a fan of the winter Olympics. Maybe it’s because I grew up a few hours from mountains and snow but rarely saw a lake or ocean. Maybe it’s because my parents hated beach vacations so I was naturally inclined to prefer winter because that’s when we traveled. Maybe the passion my best friend Jeana had for it growing up rubbed off on me, but regardless of the reason, I truly love the winter Olympics. I love watching almost every sport (with the exception of curling). I even think the Biathlon is exciting to watch. Though I don’t really understand the correlation between cross country skiing and riflery, I’m still on the edge of my seat hoping that the American hits every shot. I love the half-pipe, downhill, moguls, luge, bobsled, ski jumping, hockey, and every combination of any of these, and, for as long as I can remember, I have loved women’s figure skating most of all.

I know the public admission of this may knock my “cool” level down a bit, but I don’t really care about being cool anymore, so I can live with that. I think part of my love for the sport has stemmed from the complete domination by American women in so many games. I loved all the ones I can remember…Nancy Kerrigan, Michelle Kwan, Tara Lipinski, Sasha Cohen, Kristi Yamaguchi, Sarah Hughes…I still remember watching each of them skate and, in some cases, tearing up as they took the medal stand. I don’t know if it’s my knowledge of the figure skating world that’s changed or the talent of the US team, but I was really bothered by the fact that last night (well, maybe the short program night) was the first time I’d ever heard of Rachel Flatt. For me, her name very accurately described her performance last night. It was good, but left me feeling flat. But I digress…

Despite my love and respect for this sport, for some unknown reason, I have gone through my 26 years of life up to now and have never set foot on an ice rink. I know we went to malls that had them as a child, and I always wanted to try it, but for some reason, fate hasn’t allowed me experience that yet. At some point in college, I realized that this was something most people have done at some point in their lives that I hadn’t, so I decided to “save” it; to make my first time on the ice a meaningful and significant moment. I tried to go in Rockefeller Center at Christmas time in NYC on a trip, but there was a 3 hour wait. William was going to take me in Steamboat a few years ago, but the place closed early. So as you can see, God’s plan has obviously been to keep me from the ice. I think I have finally figured out why. I think I would have been great on the ice, maybe even unstoppable. I might have been the first woman to successfully land a quadruple toe loop in competition. However, God knew that my immense success on the ice would make me miss out on growing up as a “normal,” non-Olympic champion teen. He knows my heart would have become proud at all my gold medals and glory and maybe not been as close to Him, so he has set up roadblocks in my path to greatness up to this point.

Hopefully, I am too old now to begin the path to Olympic stardom from scratch, so I will finally be allowed to at least skate once, just to see how it feels. I publicly promise to my blog audience that I won’t take it any farther than just a pleasure activity. There. Now I’ve said it, so bring on the skates.

MIA From Life

2010-02-17T10:12:00.000-08:00

I was going to title this blog “MIA from Blogging,” but then I realized that the above title would be much more appropriate seeing as how lately, I have been not only absent from the blog world, but I have been an MIA friend, MIA wife, and MIA from my life in Dallas in general. There is a “good” reason for all this absence though. As most of you who read this know, I spend about a month in El Paso each year to put on a collegiate all-star football game called Texas vs. the Nation. I won’t get into a lot of detail here other than to say my whole life is work for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for about 30 days. If you want to know more about how all that turned out, go to www.texasvsthenation.com. I write a lot of that content as well so no need to duplicate that effort on this blog.

I have had recent complaints that I write too much on this blog and don’t include enough pictures so I’ve decided the rest of this blog will catch us up to present time with the events that have occurred since I last posted an entry (shortly after New Year’s). I will try and include detailed captions so we don’t miss anything.

The NYE Party

I cooked a multiple course dinner for 12 which actually turned out pretty decently. I also dyed my hair brown over Christmas and this is what it looked like then.

It has lightened up considerably since NYE, but wanted to post the brunette pics. No idea what color we'll keep from here on out. Input is appreciated.

Berkley is usually the life the party, but was exceptionally entertaining on NYE. This may be one of my favorite pictures of all time.

My birthday happened to fall in the middle of bowl chaos, so I went a little uncelebrated on the actual day, BUT, I returned home to an awesome gift from my hubby...

A NEW COOKTOP!!! I had so much trouble with the old one and we had multiple "repairs" done on it, but I still couldn't get a pot of water to a rolling boil EVER! I made some soup on the new cooktop last week and my water boiled in less than 5 minutes. AMAZING!! Against warnings to never get a woman appliances as a gift, William succeeded 100% in getting me a wonderful gift I will enjoy for years to come!

This also doubled as a Valentine's day present, but he didn't let the go by without some sweetness. We had an amazing sushi feast at Kotta (I highly recommend it) and then he came home with some of my favorite flowers.

And, last but not least, some highlights from what I'm sure will become known to our children as "The Great Snow of 2010."

So glad to be back in the real world. Please call me to hang out and catch up. I'm sure if you're reading this, I probably miss you.

New Year, New Blog-Part I

2010-01-08T11:09:00.000-08:00

Don’t worry. I know you’re panicking about the title of this blog and you may think I’m going to make big changes and take away the wonderful musings that you became so addicted to reading during 2009. All it means is this is my first new blog post of 2010. Now that we’ve averted that crisis, I have many new updates and very little space so I’ll get right to it.

First things first, here’s a little year-end wrap up about the conclusion of 2009. William and I spent our first Christmas as non-singles in Amarillo with my family. It snowed all day on the 23rd as we were driving into town so we arrived in Amarillo to a white Christmas. It continued to snow throughout the night and we had an even more beautiful and white Christmas Eve morning

After trying out several different highly recommended Dallas hair stylists (**FYI, I have not gone off on a completely unrelated tangent…just keep reading and it will all make sense**) I realized that there is no one in the metroplex area who I trust to highlight my hair anymore, at least not anyone I can afford. I was tired of paying for “full highlights” and coming home to find a few randomly placed yellow stripes in the under layers of my hair and I was also tired of paying twice as much as it costs me at home for a job that is half (and that’s generous) as good. SO, Christmas Eve morning, William and I jumped in the 4-wheel drive 4-runner and braved the ice to take me to get my haircut at Bob’s. Bob has been doing my mom’s hair for 30+ years and mine most of my life, when I wasn’t being bratty and demanding that I couldn’t get my haircut by mom’s stylist because I was afraid I would inevitably end up with “mom hair.” I walked in, sat down and told him I wanted to color my hair, and to do his best to match my roots. He warned me that it would be drastic, I told him to do it. It marked the first day of my life spent as a non-blonde.

That evening, we all piled in the car and headed to Plainview, the town where I grew up and my mom is still the church organist and handbell director, for Christmas Eve services. We all slept most of the way but I woke up about 20 miles from Plainview, where the icy roads were particularly perilous, and counted 16 cars in the ditch in the remaining miles to the edge of town. The ride home was a little slow as well, as the roads were getting worse as the temperatures dropped.

Christmas day with the family was wonderful! We woke up, had breakfast, and took our time opening up presents and sorting through stocking. The family was much too generous and we all walked away with a few more fun un-necessities. William got me an engraved iPod shuffle for our first Christmas (and we also got each other a new TV for our bedroom as our big first Christmas gift to ourselves!)

Due to the eventfulness of the Holiday season this year, I’ve decided to cut the length of my post and make this into a 2 part blog. Check back soon for the rest of the story of Christmas and all the excitement of our New Year (including dinner parties for 12, lawnmower fires, and possibly a pic of the new brown do if I can find my camera charger).

Tis the Season

2009-12-04T10:45:00.001-08:00

Although I have been denying the "readiness" for the Christmas season since the consumer market started pushing it on us in October, it seems the season is here in full swing and since it's actually December, I've decided to embrace it.

I spent the Sunday after Thanksgiving decorating a house that is my very own (well, mine and William's) for the first time. I got to do what I wanted…to an extent. See, my mom so graciously donated 3 huge Rubbermaid tubs filled with garlands, holly berries, Christmas ornaments, lights, wreaths etc, so I did what I wanted, using what had been given to me. I did, however, splurge on some new festive PB candles (thank you for all the wedding gifts that have allowed me to milk those gift cards for 7 months!), a few table runners and a tree skirt.

Since we have officially received our first snow, I decided it was time to bring my Christmas spirit to my blog world…so here goes!

Evidence that it actually did snow in Dallas…some build up in our backyard that lasted about 2 hours…

My dining room table arrangement

My Willow Tree Navitiy (one of my favorites and entirely gifted from my friends in Plainview at our wedding shower!)

The Buffet Arrangement (thank you mom for the red globes!)

The top of the entertainment center. I was bummed that the lights in this didn't work but too lazy to re-srting them. Also, the nativity here was a gift from William's bosses and was hand carved in Bethlehem from olive wood found outside of Jerusalem. I thought that was very cool!

Another little garland arrangement on the bookshelves

And finally...the tree. This isn't a great pic b/c the lights aren't on. Also, we were given a bunch of red and gold ornaments to use while we build up our own collection...but I think it turned out pretty nice for just using what we had been given!

I still need to do some work on the outside of the house and that might get accomplished this weekend, if my sweet husband can help me a little bit (hint, hint!!)

Our First Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T14:28:00.000-08:00

William and I spent our first Thanksgiving as married folks with his family in Tyler and at the farm in Pittsburgh. We had a great time celebrating with family and I enjoyed learning a few new family traditions from William's side.

For example, William's mom's family had a tradition of having a glass of "Cold Duck" to kick off the thanksgiving feasting. Here's Meredith and I with ours (fyi, Cold Duck is a sparkling wine that was believed to be an expensive thanksgiving treat until Will's mom discovered it was $2.50 a bottle)

William's mom made a "California-style stuffing" using water chesnuts and mushrooms, which was delicious! She asked me if I knew how to make gravy, so that was my assignment for the meal prep! Here's me making gravy (although you can't really see the gravy...just my face!)

Here's the family sitting down for dinner (minus Jamal who was taking the picture)

I also contributed a couple of pies to the meal (and, was very proud that I even made my pie crusts from scratch! Thanks Mom!) They were a big hit with the Moharer and Spencer families throughout the weekend!

We left Tyler on Thursday evening and headed to the Spencer farm in Pittsburg. We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out at the farm with Williams Dad, Aunt, 4 cousins, their 6 kiddos (all under age 10) and 8 dogs!! It was definitely a full house and there were plenty of funny stories and good times had. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures at the farm, so I can only tell you that we had a blast!!

Saturday, we packed up and headed back to Dallas to meet my family at Cowboys Stadium for the Tech vs. Baylor football game. Since my mom and dad went to Tech and my bro and I went to Baylor, it's a fun family rivalry that we've started to attend pretty regularly. William was a trooper and came to cheer on the Bears/Raiders despite having gotten up at 4am for three days in a row to go duck hunting! He did NOT, however, wear the green BU shirt I laid out for him. Instead, he wore neutral gray (see pic below)

Even though the Raiders got us in the end, it was a great game and the Bears made a good showing in Arlington. The Bears have played it down to the wire against Tech the past couple years...I think next year's our year to finally get the win. Here's a pic of our house divided...

I know this probably won't become a regular thing, but it was amazing to get in a little bit of time with all the families that William and I represent over this quick holiday weekend. We love them all and have such a great time with each of them. It was a great kick off to the holiday season and to celebrating as a Spencer! Love to all that helped make our first Thanksgiving a great one!

Who Needs Babies....

2009-11-19T12:30:00.000-08:00

When you've got a snuggler like this!

Yes, that's Berkley asleep on her back snuggled up next to William and covered with a blanket. Pretty cute, and funny. She would have a hard road to adjustment if she wasn't our "only child."

Tweetly, Deedily Dee

2009-11-13T11:01:00.000-08:00

Not too long ago, the words “tweet” and “twitter” were associated with things such as birds, Jackson 5 songs, the sound a whistle makes…etc, but most people today, when asked to do a word association with “tweet” would say the first thing that comes to mind is the popular social networking site Twitter.

I was recently pushed onto the bandwagon of creating a twitter account by someone in my company. We are trying to create a following on twitter for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Texas vs. the Nation Challenge (@TexasvsNation, if you’d like to willing jump on our wagon). I was scolded for not having a twitter account and supporting my company and the game that we are all so proud to be a part of. (I guess giving my time, talents and efforts to working for the game and moving to El Paso, Texas for months at a time wasn’t enough to show my devotion to my job, but the twitter account was the final proof of my loyalty.)

I’m surprised to report that I’m not completely addicted to tweeting, twittering twitting… whatever it’s called. I’ve been a member for a few weeks and I think I’m having take-it-or-leave-it emotions towards the site. I have found some interest in following some of my favorite speakers/preachers (@MattChandler74, @JohnPiper, @villagechurchtx) as well as following reports about my favorite sports teams (@BaylorAthletics, @ESPN_Big12)…but as far as following the average person, I really don’t find it that interesting. I also don’t think there’s anything exciting enough in my day-to-day activity to post updates very frequently. I try and do a few updates a week, especially if I’m traveling , but I can’t think of anything that interesting to post every two hours.

If you don’t have a twitter account, I suggest trying it out for yourself. I don’t want to form your opinions for you…if you were a member and following me (@tjspencer09) I guess right now, you’d probably see this message:

@tjspencer09 just posted a pretty boring update on my blog about twitter…

Weekend Wrap Up

2009-11-02T13:56:00.000-08:00

This weekend was Halloween...not one of my favorite holidays but it was going to be a pretty good one this year because William and I were signed up to volunteer at our church's Trunk-or-treat festival. We were on the "entertainment" committee and were in charge of running a game station. Unsatisfied with any of the proposed games, William of course decided we would bring own out for the kiddos to play. Tie-one-on was such a hit among the kids at our wedding reception, we thought that the church visitors would enjoy it as well.

Throughout last week, I found myself fighting off a cough that kept getting deeper and meaner and congestion that did the same. By Friday morning, I was feeling really crummy and finally headed into the doctor for some help. After a chest x-ray, flu test (again) and multiple comments about the "concern" the doctor had for the sounds coming from my chest, I was diagnosed with bronchitis, a relief compared to the speculations of flu and pneumonia that he was throwing around when I first went in. After getting a cortisone shot and prescription for a z-pak, he asked me what my plans were for the weekend. He quickly canceled my volunteer plans telling me that not only would I probably be contagious, I would also have about a 90% chance of catching the flu again if I was around that many kids with my immune system weakened by the bronchitis.

I was bummed as I dressed William up in his funny trucker costume and sent him to man our game station solo, but the weekend did have a saving factor.

No one ended up needing our company season tickets for the Cowboy game this weekend, and since Cowboys Stadium is basically a glamorous, indoor sports bar, (and due to the miraculous effects of steroid shots and Z-Pak's) I decided I would bear the burden and go to the game. My brother, sister-in-law and their brother in-law went with me and we had a blast exploring our new access to the field level club and watching the Cowboys kick Seattle.

William and I wrapped up the weekend with some couch time catching up on the episodes of Flashforward we had missed and eating pizza...my favorite Sunday night activities.

Miscellaneous Cooking

2009-10-27T13:16:00.000-07:00

I know my posts haven't been very personal lately, but this is just too good not to share. Have you ever gotten home from work and started staring blankly into the refrigerator wondering what on earth you can make for dinner with the large amount of frozen chicken breasts you bought from Sam's, 2 lemons, some eggs, garlic and frozen veggies?? This is almost a daily struggle for me and I usually end up going to the store to purchase some ingredients for a yummy sounding recipe I've been wanting to try...

I always thought, what if I could just list the ingredients I have at home and then find a recipe that is just as delicious sounding without making another trip to the store?? Bingo. Recipematcher.com.

Type in everything you find in your pantry/kitchen, identify what you want your main ingredient to be (i.e. Chicken Breasts for a main dish or mixed frozen veggies for a side) and BOOM...over 100 (depending on your variety of supplies in stock) recipes pop up for you to try.

I'm trying out the Smothered Bacon Chicken tonight... I'll let you know how it goes.

http://www.recipematcher.com/

Technology drove me into a lake…

2009-10-21T09:51:00.001-07:00

Despite my love for The Office and Michael Scott’s very convincing arguments against technology (shout out to my blog title), I have found some really exciting uses and improvements in the technologies I use daily lately.

First of all, I’d like to take a moment to try and convince all readers of this blog to create a Gmail account. As a former user of many different free email hosts including yahoo, hotmail, and msn, Gmail is BY FAR the best I’ve ever known. I love this little host so much that I have even abandoned my office email outlook account. How can you do that, you ask? Well, my Gmail is so smart that I can set it up to both send and receive all my work emails (as well as any other email accounts I might still receive messages to) into ONE central account. Your next question, wouldn’t that be confusing to mix all your work and personal emails into one inbox. The answer: No, because Gmail is so smart that is automatically labels incoming mail from my account formerly known as outlook AND automatically reply’s from the account that the email was originally sent to. Genius.

I have recently discovered Gmail “Labs”, which are a lot like applications for the iphone. My two favorites are the forgotten attachment detector and “Got the Wrong Bob?” The forgotten attachment detector searches your emails to see if you mentioned “attached, attachment, attaching” in the text and alerts you if you start to send such a message without the attachment. This has proved quite useful for me and has greatly reduced the number of follow-up “oops I forgot to attach” emails that I have to send each week.

“Got the Wrong Bob?” will scan any email recipient list that I make and alert me if I’m sending an email to William, my client that it thinks I meant to send to William, my husband. How does it know who I meant? It cross-references past email lists to see which “William” I usually send an email to in conjunction with Leslie and Taylor (or whoever else is in your recipient list). Once again, Genius.

My other favorite new find is the AT&T Uverse TV Mobile Remote Access app for the iPhone. From this application, you can manage your Uverse DVR…it does everything from deleting old recordings to free up space to searching and scheduling recordings of all shows starring John Krasinski or Tina Fey. Another genius idea that helps make life just a little bit more convenient.

So, despite the occasional failures of technology, I’d say as a whole, it’s a great thing. I may change my mind if it ever drives me into a lake though.

Intentional in Everything

2009-10-14T09:50:00.000-07:00

Our lead pastor at The Village Church, Matt Chandler, just posted an entry on his blog that was very powerful in it's simplicity. He simply wrote out what he usually says during the "welcome" at each church service. This brought me back to thinking about my home church and our welcome. It usually consisted of the list of weekly activities and quick "We're glad you're here. Take a minute to let us know if you're a guest with us by filling out the card in the back of the pew and dropping it in the offering plate." This would be followed by about 5 minutes of shaking hands and greeting others, especially visitors, which I'm sure was more of a social hour and time to discuss which of the 2 restaurants in town people would be attending for lunch and if others would like to join.

There is nothing wrong with the way my home church did welcome. It was a small community and everyone knew everyone else, and it was a fitting welcome for FBC Plainview. But the way the Village tries to make every part of their service intentionally pointed towards turning hearts towards Christ is inspiring to me and makes me aware of trying to use everything in my life and every word that comes out of my mouth to intentionally glorify God.

Here's what Chandler posted.

“Good Morning. My name is Matt Chandler I am the Lead Pastor/Teaching Pastor here at The Village. If this is your first time visiting with us I want to welcome you. I am guessing that if this is your first time here you are in one of two lanes. The first lane is that you are a believer with a background in church and you’re new to the area or are just checking out our community. If at some point in the next hour or so your heart and mind are moved and you want to know more about us, you can fill out one of the cards in the seatback in front of you and either drop it in the joy boxes or, and this would be our preference, walk across the parking lot to the white portable buildings and there are some men and women over there that can answer any of the questions you might have about the church. The second lane is that you’re here today and you aren’t a Christian and don’t have a background in Church or not a recent one anyway. I want to welcome you. This is a safe place for you to have some doubts about what we are saying to be skeptical and curious. There are no doors that are closed for you here so explore as much as you want. Go to a home group, check out Recovery, help us mentor local students, hop on a plane to South America or Africa and help us, help others. As a former agnostic myself, I have a great deal of respect for the genuine seeker. If we can help answer any of your questions or serve you in anyway let us know.”

FOr the full blog post, click on the link in the side of this blog for the Village Church pastors.

Bargain Update

2009-10-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

Occasionally I like to bring a little money saving news to the table on the blog. I know there are lot of sites like this one out there but I have found and used more coupons from AdPages.com than any other Dallas area bargain site.

I mainly use the restaurant coupons that come in their monthly mail out but today I checked out the website to see what the "additional offerings" were that their magazine claimed you could get on the web.

I particularly like the restaurant "gift cards" you can purchase at a discount. William and I love to go to Blue Fish for sushi but usually end up spending about $50 for that dinner. On www.adpages.com, you can buy a $10 gift card to Blue Fish for $2.50 or a $25.00 gift card for $8.75. One thing to beware of with these deals, they do come with a minimum order amount. The $10 card can only be used on orders of $35 or more and the $25.00 card requires a minimum $70 total. So, knowing we usually come in around $50, the $10 card is the best route for us and gives us a total discount of $8.50 on our meal.

It's not a big enough break that we can become regular patrons of some of our favorite upscale dining spots, but in the days of counting every dollar, it definitely helps. Browse the site to see if any of your fav's have offers available!

Bored and Boring

2009-10-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

I have been a definite slacker on keeping my fans up to date on the Spencer life as of late. Partly, this is because I was sick and not feeling clever and witty enough to write. I also think it has something to do with the rain that has plagued Dallas for about a month now. It makes me feel sluggish and unmotivated to do anything more than the bare minimum to get by.

We really haven't been very bored or boring. Lots has happened in the past few weeks. We finally finished the deck COMPLETELY and will be celebrating with a cookout this weekend (that is,if the never-ending rain acts out of character and ends). We celebrated a couple of friends births with some fun outings including a dance studio turned VIP night club and swanky pizza party in the well known Bishop Arts District. We've had wedding showers, baby showers and some hang out time with family and friends. William has had between 1-3 soccer games every weekend (when the rain allows), and I've finally gotten started back up with my KLife small group (shout out to the coolest group of 9th grade girls I know!).

BUT, to make up for a lack of posting and lack of anything exciting to show in pictures, I decided to give you a virtual tour of my office today. Our lease is officially up our office space, but as of now, we haven't found a place to move to. My boss is definitely a lover a spontaneity, so here's where I've been working the past 3 years and 6 months...well, actually just a little over 2 years. We moved offices about a year after I started.

This is the reception area where you would wait to see me if you had an appointment and I was super busy. I decorated this area...the flower arrangement and all.

Then you would walk down this hallway where you could see pics from some of our company's greatest moments. I am even in a few of them. Very exciting.

At the end of the hall, if you looked to your left, you would see our conference area. Yes, that's a flat screen TV w/ satellite. Yes, it improves office productivity.

If you walked towards the TV, you would probably see Bret's office on your left. This was a legitimate action shot of Bret making things happen. You can't stage a picture this real.

If you walked towards the TV but looked to your right, you would stumble upon our boss' office. This is the huge, creepy fish that he caught in Cabo. It makes me uncomfortable when I'm in there.

Now, if at the end of the hall, you had looked to your right, you would find my office. If you were to walk into it and look left, this would be your view. That's the office calendar and an autographed Tony Romo jersey that was our "Christmas Bonus" in 2007. I will attempt a 360 degree virtual tour here...

Turn slightly to your right and you'll see my Sugar bowl poster and bookshelf (along with random boxes that for some reason MUST remain in my office)

Turning completely to your right, you would see this. My desk. Where the magic generally tends to happen. I have two computer screens, which is awesome for when I want to do work on one and watch news videos on the other. I'm a big fan of multitasking. I also have lots of fun little mementos, mainly drawn for me by my co-worker Erik's two daughters.

So there it is. This is where I spend about 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. If there's anything you'd like to see more of, feel free to pop in anytime.

Highlight Reel

2009-09-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

Monday Night Football with the Dallas Cowboys

Last night, I attended my first “real” NFL game ever. In case you wondering what a “fake” NFL game is, I’ve attended two Pro Bowls and the Hall of Fame game, neither of which counted for anything other than pride/practice so I don’t consider those legit outings.

My company just happens to have 4 season tickets to the Cowboys inaugural season at Cowboys Stadium and last night, those tickets were mine. William and I thought long and hard about who to bring to this exciting event with our two extra tickets and decided that it was only fitting that we bring the men that brought us into this world and gave us a love of the game, our dads. My dad drove in all the way from Amarillo, TX to attend the big event with us and Mr. Mark Spencer came in from Tyler to share the evening as well.

From the mega-huge-monstrous-enormous HD video screen to the very posh “Cowboys Club,” the new stadium makes you feel like only the Highland Park elite are Cowboys fans, until the fan cam scans the crowd and reveals the same drunk, tatted up couple in Romo jerseys and foam cowboy hats dancing uncontrollably in the mid-upper deck.

Here’s a truly horrible picture of William and I down the aisle from our seats…did I mention that they were 2nd row on about the 47 yard line? Oh, yeah, they were. I am now spoiled for all future Cowboy events where I have to sit anywhere but on the 1st or 2nd row.

The afore-mentioned video board…this turned out to actually be kind of distracting. When you’re sitting that close to the players, you would think you’d rather watch the action going on right in front of you rather than up above you on the screen. My dad said once he caught himself watching the screen and then looking down at the field for the replay…oops.

We were actually pictured on this board sometime during the 2nd quarter for about 5 seconds. We appropriately smiled and waved and watched ourselves on the giant screen.

A couple of little offensive plays (these were probably not the 2 that actually resulted in a gain). Despite the lack of offensive charisma, the Cowboys won their first regular season game in the new stadium 21-7, and we were there to witness history.

Just a note to fans planning to attend games in the future, please allow 2.5 hours to get back to Dallas from the stadium if you stay until the end of the game. Arlington and the organization could really use a good civil engineer to figure out an exit strategy for the 100,000 fans that attend games. Anyone know where I could find one of those?

Oink Oink

2009-09-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

This past week I have had the great privilege of suffering through the swine flu. There have been a lot of questions and concerns about this so I thought I’d address some of those for my blog readers today. I hope this puts everyone’s minds at ease about the truths of this almost “pandemic” illness.

Question Number 1: Do you really have the swine flu?
Answer: Yes.

Number 2: How do you know it’s not the regular flu?
Answer: Because my doctor said “You have the H1N1 flu, otherwise known as swine flu.” He’s a doctor so I took that as a pretty solid diagnosis.

Number 3: Have you started oinking/grown a tail/is your nose looking smooshed? (All these questions were mainly presented by my boss)
Answer: My cough sounds a little bit like an oink sometimes/not that I can see/yes, it’s a little smooshed but that could come from laying face down in my pillow for 7 days.

Number 4: What’s the difference in the swine flu and regular flu?
Answer: Well I think it’s a little more contagious and harder to get rid of…but really I think people are just more afraid of you so you get more time off and less interaction with people.

But, in all honesty, it’s been a pretty nasty week and I hope none of you contract this illness. (If you do, you cannot blame me because I was under complete quarantine the whole time I was contagious. William would be the only possible person who might get it from me.) The symptoms started last Tuesday and today is the first day I’ve really been up and moving around the house. My boss had been really supportive and insisted that I work from home this week and not come back until next Monday. That has really helped as the strength comes back slowly after being sick.

MVP in my life this past week was definitely William. Even though he banished me to the downstairs guest room and forced me to carry a can of Clorox wipes with me at all times (“please wipe off everything you touch”), he was an amazing caretaker and nurse. He made me food every night and came home from work for lunch most days to make sure I was drinking fluids and eating when I could. He also made sure I was entertained and had our friend Russell drop off a sack full of movies and TV on DVD to keep me occupied during the down time. (Because of his kindness, I’d like to insert a free plug for Russell’s store, EntertainMart. This kind of advertising usually costs big time. For all your entertainment needs at lower prices, check out one of their 6 locations across the country. http://www.entertainmart.com/).

I would also like to put in a plug here for hand washing, disinfecting, and keeping yourself away from the general population when you’re sick. I have friends with confirmed cases of strep, mono, and flu. Please do your community a favor and stay home when you’re sick. Oh, and get a flu shot. Believe me, it’s worth it.

Living a cool life

2009-08-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

On any given day, there are hundreds of words that could describe the emotions, events, and occurrences in my life. This weekend, a common thread of “coolness” ran through everything we did. Here’s why…(in a brief, list format).

1.Friday night we enjoyed an amazing rehearsal dinner with old friends and new and drank some “cool” margarita’s and paid tribute to a super Cool couple in our lives, John Paul Schulze and Katie Booras.

2.After that, we returned home for a more intimate gathering of some great friends and hung out on our cool new-ish deck and patio furniture. Very Cool.

3.I woke up early on Saturday morning (kind of not cool) but the weather was so Cool (71 degrees), I decided to go for a run and it felt so good outside, I did my longest distance in quite awhile.

4.Spent the day relaxing and running errands before heading out to the Booras/Schulze wedding, where my friends had given me the honor of singing a little number about Jesus. Again, Very Cool.

5.The reception after was one of the most fun ones I’ve attended…and they had my favorite, mac n’ cheese, on the buffet. Super Cool.

6.Sunday, went to the new Dallas Northway campus of The Village Church for the first time. We’re very excited about our new church location and obviously I am going to describe the first service as very Cool. (http://northway.thevillagechurch.net/)

7.After sweating through most of the summer in our NOT AT ALL COOL upstairs bedroom, William installed a window unit for us!

We slept at a refreshingly COOL 68 degrees and, for the first time in our own bed(pictured below), were cool enough to use the comforter and cuddle a little.

8.Spent Sunday evening at the park where our REALLY COOL pup and I watched William play some soccer. My dog is undeniably cool, and my husband is as well.
(Berkley D. Spencer)

The only not so cool in my life is probably me, because of the cheesy-ness of this post. Oh well.

Calizona

2009-08-25T14:42:00.001-07:00

If a state goes bankrupt and can’t see out of their deficit hole, shouldn’t another state be allowed to buy them out? I think it’s only fair. This is how American business used to run before we started relying on the Government to dish out more money to help those businesses who didn’t manager their profits well the first time.

My proposal? Let Arizona buy out it’s neighbor. They could tear up the tourism industry and their target demographic would be people who are really cold.

Defrost your soul in Calizona.

Finally!!

2009-08-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

After 5+ years of dating, my good friends Alex Cammack and Kathleen Ross are finally engaged! Alex popped the question on Saturday morning during a beautiful sunset viewing at Kathleen’s grandmother’s house in Brady, Texas and then brought Kathleen back to Fort Worth for a day of celebrating with family and a surprise engagement party with friends that drove in from as far as Houston and San Antonio!

Because they are both little smartie pants, they will have to wait a little while to get married. Alex is in his 3rd year of dental school in San Antonio and Kathleen is starting her 2nd year of med school in Houston. The first time they will have a corresponding week off is July of 2011! We will all keep praying that an earlier window of opportunity would open up for the wedding but Kathleen has a great attitude about it and just kept saying "2 years isn't that long." I know the Lord will be faithful to them in this time!

The women of 408

Wanna Date 408? is officially out of business. Sorry to all the boys who never got their chance...

I love that we can share these exciting life happenings together! Can’t wait for the wedding celebration in 2011!!

Fourth and Long

2009-08-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

Four months ago today, April 18, 2009, William and I stood together at the Church at Horseshoe Bay and promised to love honor and cherish each other for the rest of our lives. So, what have we learned in our 120 days (approximately, of course) of marriage.

First of all, time really does fly. It not only flies, it’s on one of those super jets attempting to break the speed of light. I can’t believe it’s already been 4 months, which is almost 6 months, which is like half of a year! (Reference here, one of my favorite Jessica Simpson quotes, “Twenty-three is old. It`s almost 25, which is like almost mid-20s!)

I would like to list a few of my favorite things about being married to William to honor this momentous anniversary.

1. He always cuddles with me in the morning. After he’s already been up, showered, eaten breakfast and read, he gets back in bed with me and cuddles for at least 5 minutes. This little routine is really helping me to fight back against my morning grumpiness (though it still gets the best of me some days.)

2. Praying together. We are easing into doing this more often but since we got married, it has really become a special time. My favorite is when we pray together right before falling asleep.

3. He takes care of the yard work. I’m not a big fan of working in the yard, but I do enjoy having a nice yard so before William came along, this was a catch-22 situation. Now, I can enjoy my nice yard without having to do too much of the work . (I do help, though. Sometimes.)

4. I’m really starting to enjoy our Sunday night routine, which (when we’re in town) usually consists of ordering a pizza and relaxing together. He’s even got me watching Entourage recently and I’m already hooked.

5. I love how he tries to pretend that my girly shows are so stupid but, when the finales come around, he has a favorite picked to win and tries to act very uninterested while inquiring about who wins (ex. He thought Brandon should win SYTYCD, even though Evan was really his favorite)

Most of all, I just love William and the fact that we get to walk through life together as a team. Because it’s verging on football season and it’s been the focus of my work lately, I am tempted to talk in football analogies. In my book, I got the number one draft pick in game of life and there’s no one I’d rather have at QB for our family than William. Thanks for being my husband and for sticking with me…four down and a LONG way to go!!

Weekend Recap

2009-08-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

Better Late than Never

I know I promised a weekend recap from the Hall of Fame trip and I apologize to both of you who have been waiting anxiously for that :)

As I previously posted, I spent last Thursday-Monday in Canton, OH for the 2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction festivities. Overall, it was a great experience and something I would highly recommend that football fans do at least once in their lifetime.

I got in late Thursday night and settled into my less than clean accommodations at the local Comfort Inn. It wasn’t too bad but let’s just say I didn’t walk around without shoes on or lay on top of the comforters. There’s not a huge selection of luxury accommodations in Canton, Oh which led me to wonder where they were housing the superstars like John Madden and Roger Goodell who I’m sure never lay their famous football heads in anything less than 5 star accommodations.

We toured the actual Hall of Fame on Friday morning, which turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the trip. My favorite displays were of course the bust room( pause for definition: Bust—a bronze replica of the face, neck and shoulders), where the busts of all the former inductees are displayed.

Bust Room

A former Dallas Cowboy Great and my friend--Randy White, HOF '94

Mike Singletary--Sic 'Em Bears

We also attended a dinner where they introduced all the hall of famers in attendance that weekend. I was most excited to see John Madden, Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, Troy Aikman, Bart Starr and Rayfield Wright.
There were tons of other events throughout the weekend but, since I’ve realized blogs are much more interesting when pics are included, here are some of the highlights from the rest of the weekend in pictures.

The Biggest Beef Rib I've ever seen. I could only finish half...

Cowboy Greats in the Hall of Fame

The Lombardi Trophy

So excited to see TO in a uniform that wasn't the Dallas Cowboys...and just a note, he was the only one not wearing the appropriate "throw back" Bills hat. Good luck New York.

Overall, I attended about 10 events and picked up a lot of good info for the job. I forgot to mention I was there for work, not play, but mostly just absorbed info and took mental notes on the events. Next year, I hope to return and take William with me. It would have been much more fun if I could have shared the experience with him.

Coming soon: The deck progression continues and a special tribute to the family pet.

HOF

2009-08-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I’m headed to Canton, OH this weekend for the 2009 Pro Football Hall of Fame Induction festivities. I have mixed emotions about the trip. Excitement because it will be a very cool thing to attend and something most people never get to experience; Non-excitement because I’m going by myself and will attend most of the festivities to take notes on how my company can incorporate some of the HOF’s activities with our game week in 2010.

For all those that have asked, the 2009 Hall of Fame Inductee’s are:
BOB HAYES
Wide Receiver. . .5-11, 185. . .Florida A&M. . .1965-1974 Dallas Cowboys, 1975 San Francisco 49ers. . .11 seasons, 132 games
RANDALL MCDANIEL
Guard. . .6-3, 276. . .Arizona State. . .1988-1999 Minnesota Vikings, 2000-01 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. . .14 seasons, 222 games
BRUCE SMITH
Defensive End. . .6-4, 280. . .Virginia Tech. . .1985-1999 Buffalo Bills, 2000-03 Washington Redskins. . .19 playing seasons, 279 games
DERRICK THOMAS
Linebacker. . .6-3, 243. . .Alabama. . .1989-1999 Kansas City Chiefs. . .11 seasons, 169 games
RALPH WILSON, JR.
Founder/Owner. . .Virginia, Michigan. . .1960-present Buffalo Bills. . .One of original founders of American Football League, Wilson formed Buffalo Bills in 1959
ROD WOODSON
Cornerback/Safety. . .6-0, 200. . .Purdue. . .1987-1996 Pittsburgh Steelers, 1997 San Francisco 49ers, 1998-2001 Baltimore Ravens, 2002-03 Oakland Raiders. . .17 playing seasons, 238 games with 229 starts

Sunday’s Hall of Fame Game will feature the Buffalo Bills against the Tennessee Titans. For more information on inductees and weekend events, visit www.profootballhof.com, or just wait for my weekend recap next week.

The Golden Arches

2009-07-31T10:33:00.000-07:00

Growing up, I remember consuming countless happy meals, cheeseburgers, quarter pounders and breakfast items from Plainview’s own McDonald’s. I loved Macky D’s (as my Dad referred to it). I loved the miniature ice cream cones, the milkshakes, the playground, and even consumed a few McRib sandwiches with my Granmommy and Grandaddy (“them’s good eats,” they would say.)

Somewhere around sophomore year at Baylor, I realized that my friends did not eat McDonald’s and thought you were kind of disgusting if you did. I also watched the film Supersize Me and feared becoming fat and developing heart problems if I continued to enjoy my quarter pounders and fries.

Last night, William surprised me by saying he was craving some McDonald’s. He asked me if I wanted to go. I took a minute to debate if this was some cruel test to see if his wife had an overweight, unhealthy craving inside that was just waiting for the right moment to bust out and ruin the physical attraction that he once had towards me, but then I realized that my husband isn’t much into testing me, so I said “Heck Yes! I want some McDonald’s!” And with that, I welcomed the golden arches and all its comfort and glory back into my life.

Will You Marry Me?

2009-07-29T12:29:00.000-07:00

You might think that the pictures above are from a season finale of “The Bachelor,” but they are in fact some lovely snapshots from the night my amazing husband, William, proposed. Most people who read this blog know the story well, but just in case you missed it, I’ll give you the brief version. It all started with a hidden clue in my office on a Friday morning that began a scavenger hunt sending me in search of a “lost puppy.” Considering I had been begging for a dog for months, and that William loved to surprise me w/ creative mystery dates, this was not a dead giveaway for me. My journey eventually led me to a spa in East Texas near his family’s ranch where I was pampered with four hours of wonderful treatments. My final clue led me to his ranch house where I found a scene that was beyond romantic waiting for me and the perfect man with the perfect ring and the sweetest proposal I’ve ever heard waiting at the end of it all.

Why am I taking this journey down memory lane? Well, as much as I fought it this season, I was sucked into another “Bachelorette” series and watched week after week as slimy wanna be superstars fooled the girl and men like I’ve never met in the real world gushed about a semi-attractive girl and her amazingly perfect feet. In the end, Jillian, the Bachelorette, had three men with rings ready to get down on one knee for her. Fortunately, she didn’t let Bachelor number one make it to the proposal. He got as far as confessing he loved her before she cut him off and told him she was in love with another man.

Bachelor number two really got me. He had been kicked off the show the previous week but loved rejection so much that he came back and proposed as well. His proposal really got me…he said, “I think you are someone I could spend the rest of my life with.” I’m pretty sure that if William had used those words, I would have told him to go think about it and come back when he knew that I was THE person he WANTED to spend the rest of his life with. Not just someone who he thought might work out.

Bachelor number three actually got the “yes” and is now engaged to Jillian. In the “After the Rose” Episode, they actually said they are planning to get married within the next year or so. She’s going to move in with him in Chicago and see how it works for a while and then they’ll go ahead and get married.

So what is my point in all this? I feel like ABC and the “Bachelor/Bachelorette” reality series has really devalued the proposal. Since when does “Will you marry me?” mean, actually let’s keep dating and see if we’re really right for each other and, if at some point we decide we are, we’ll go ahead and get married. I can remember at least 10 proposals that have occurred on the series and only one has resulted in an actual marriage. Most have ended in break-ups and one actually ended in a nationally televised confession from a bachelor that basically said, “Ummm, when I said Melissa, I actually meant Molly…oops, let’s not get married and I’m going to need that ring back.”

When William asked me to marry him, he told me he loved me, I was THE ONE for him, and he was ready to spend the rest of his life as my husband. That’s a marriage proposal. Listen and learn all you future Bachelors and Bachelorettes. If you’re not ready to set a date, DON’T PROPOSE. Thanks

How Sweet It Is

2009-07-21T09:17:00.001-07:00

Celebrity Tubing :)

We all four fit on the Jet Ski

The guys trying to be as cool as we are

Floating!

My neighbor, who is around 58-60 years old, told me last week that she and her three college roommates were headed to float the river for their annual "roommate reunion." I only hope that Georgina, Annette, Kathleen and I can keep pace with this tradition well into our later years. This past weekend, we had our 3^rd official reunion weekend and this time, we let the boys join in on our fun.

The four of us, with our significant others in tow, headed out to Possum Kingdom lake to spend a little time yachting on the "How Sweet It Is," skiing, wakeboarding, tubing, eating fattening foods, and just having a good time in general. I was particularly excited to see that all the guys seemed to have as much fun together as we did. I know it's rare to group together four guys who don't know each other that well and for them all to click and really get along and I feel so blessed that we all picked such awesome guys to marry/someday marry (shout out Kathleen and Alex). We even had trouble convincing them to stop having "guy time" and come hang out with us!

Every time I get together with this group of friends, I'm reminded how lucky I am to have been able to walk beside each of them through the ups and downs of college and I'm excited to continue to see our friendships grow and deepen over the many years ahead.

Next up: Group Ski Trip??

Decking and Decorating

2009-07-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was the Spencer/Becton family deck building project. William has been wanting to build a deck in our backyard since we bought our house and this weekend, the months of planning finally culminated into a build project! My mom and dad came down from Amarillo with a trailer full or tools ( and some furniture for us!) and we devoted the entire weekend to building, eating and decorating.

William really started the project the weekend before last, digging post holes and setting posts in the concrete for our foundation. Friday afternoon, the actual deck construction began and the guys worked non-stop from about 6am to midnight Saturday and Sunday to get the project near completion. It was a brutal weekend to be working outside and I think they went through about 45 bottles of water and another 30 bottles of Gatorade in 3 days! The hard work paid off though and we now have an awesome deck to host some backyard parties! William has a few more hard days work ahead of him building the benches for our fire pit area and finishing out the top of the arbor but there is definitely an end in site!

My mom and I concentrated on food prep and did some indoor decorating and tweaks when we weren’t helping with the work outside (Yes, I really did put in some manual labor hours outside but not nearly as many as the guys!)

Overall, it was a fun weekend with family filled with hard work and fulfilling results. Shout outs to Matt, Kim, and Russell who put in some long hours this weekend helping out and to Justin who helped prevent William and/or my death with some hazardous heavy post setting last week.

Can’t wait to have everyone over to enjoy some backyard entertaining soon! Before and after pics will be posted asap.

Word of Caution

2009-07-07T08:18:00.000-07:00

Unless you are looking for a reason to go jump off a bridge, you should probably avoid the movie "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." William and I watched this Sunday night and I'm still trying to recover from the absolute heartwrenching depression that it inflicted. It's a movie about the holocaust and concentration camps (should have been the first clue) but the thing that made it so awful is there is no "redeeming quality" or moral. Justice is the main theme and it comes about in a most disturbing way.

Now you're probably going to want to see it out of curiosity, but don't say we didn't warn you.

God Bless America--Please!

2009-07-02T11:46:00.000-07:00

I’m not one of those people who started a blog to rant about politics, government or religion (though I will not hold back or apologize for my religious convictions and might share some every now and then.) I really want this to be more of a lighthearted account of some of the funny musings that come along with learning to live with a boy, but, in light of the coming holiday and some recent news, I need a little rant.

For the first time in my lifetime, I’m actually scared of the direction our government and politics is headed. Though old “Slick Willy” had his moral indiscretions, I was not terrified by his policies and I didn’t suspect that he might be leading us into the Biblical “end times.” I was proud of the way GW Bush stood up and fought back against the 9/11 attacks and helped suppress Sadam Houssein’s rein of terror over his people. Those were controversial and tough decisions, but I saw the need and understood the reasoning behind them.

I do not understand why our Nation’s leaders think it’s a good idea to keep sending our national deficit further and further down the toilet to give more money to large corporations. I grew up in West Texas, a farming community, and learned a few things from the farmers who dominated our small town economy. First of all, you know there will be years your crops are destroyed by a hail storm. You should save for these times and, after you mope for a (very) short time, pick yourself up, plow your field, and plant and prepare for the next harvest. Second, you can’t live on insurance money alone. If you’ve tried your hand at cotton over and over again and still haven’t seen a profitable harvest, you might need to sell the farm and make an attempt at selling insurance, or maybe become a politician, seems like anyone can do that these days.

I do not think that government should own any of our country’s major corporations. I do not think that government should control anyone’s salaries (except for those who work directly for them.) I do not think that my choices in healthcare procedures should be determined by our legislature. I don’t trust the government to decide how many pre-natal tests and sonograms I should have done and who I should trust to do them when the time comes for us to start a family.

All that being said, my hope lies in this: I believe in the sovereignty of an Almighty God. I believe that the people in power are not there by accident but were selected to serve a purpose in these times and will, in the end, bring glory to God through whatever means HE has laid out. I am trying to constantly be aware of these truths and be reminded that our God has a plan for us and we know the ending is finding our home in heaven.

So, this weekend I will celebrate my freedom as an American. I will celebrate that God allowed me to be born and live in a country where I am free to worship Him publicly and privately and free to openly express my concerns about our leadership without fear of repercussions. BUT, more importantly, I will celebrate my freedom in Christ and the knowledge that no matter what this life brings, I am but a visitor passing through this world and my citizenship lies in heaven.

So, I’ve officially ranted about politics and religion. I promise I’ll take a break from that for awhile ;)

Groceries on a Budget

2009-06-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

I’m not going to lie, I’ve never been a coupon clipper, mainly because if I did clip them, I’d probably lose them or forget to take them to the store with me and then I’d be even more frustrated about my trips to the grocery store than I already am. I hate grocery shopping. I think this emotion stems from numerous trips to our small town grocer that ended up taking multiple hours because everyone in town that we knew happened to be shopping at the exact same time. Down every aisle, there was a 30 minute conversation waiting to happen. Looking back, I think that was most people’s purpose in even going to the grocery store. No one ever had very much in their carts…

Back to the point though, I hate grocery shopping. BUT, today I discovered something that makes me just the slightest bit excited about my next trip to Tom Thumb. I feel like the world deserves to hear about the exciting new option of online coupon loading. If you have a Tom Thumb rewards card, you can log onto their website, register your card, and load e-coupons directly onto your rewards card. Next time you go to the store, they scan your card and automatically deduct coupons loaded onto your card from your purchases.

This is genius to me. I went on the website and browsed through all the coupons and loaded everything I might even ever think of buying. There is also a link from Tom Thumb to the Proctor and Gamble site where you can register your card and load coupons for things like Tide, Cascade, Charmin, and Crest toothpaste! I think this is easy and exciting enough to motivate all of us non-coupon clippers to change our ways. Now if we could only get them to stop mailing out those huge savings flyers. I’m sure even the most motivated shoppers throw those directly in the trash. Paste the links below to let the fun begin!

http://www.tomthumb.com/IFL/Grocery/Coupons
http://www.pgesaver.com

Covenants and Contracts

2009-06-22T11:42:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had the honor of standing beside one of my best friends as she became a Mrs. and entered into the Holy covenant of marriage. I have had the opportunity to do this for several friends lately (and have a few more to come soon!), but each time, I am moved by the tangible presence of God in that moment when two followers of Christ join their lives together to walk as one for His purpose.

In this ceremony, the minister made the comment that marriage is not about “being in love,” although that emotion is present, it is a covenant between a man, woman and God to stand beside each other through whatever path the Lord lays out and to respect, serve, and challenge each other along that path. This is not the first time I’ve heard the message of the marriage covenant spoken but I think it’s something that cannot be said enough in the church.

Statistics state that between 40-50% of marriages in the United States end in divorce. Among the Christian community (defined as evangelical Christians who attend church regularly), the statistics are not much better. Between 25-35% of Christian marriages end in divorce.

I am so thankful to be a part of a church body that emphasizes the true covenant of marriage as it is outlined in scripture. Most of our pre-marital materials revolved around understanding that my spouse’s job is not to meet my needs, expectations, or general wants and desires. In fact, our marriage is in no way about me. It is about learning, growing and understanding Christ’s love and sacrifice for his church through a model of selfless love. I am called to love William whether or not I feel like he is meeting my needs. My call is to serve him, to encourage him, to challenge him to grow deeper in his relationship with Christ and he is to do the same for me.

One of the best illustrations I’ve heard on the topic came from a John Piper sermon that we listened to during counseling. It was titled Covenant vs. Contract and outlined the differences in the two ideas. He said most people enter into marriage on contractual terms. As long as you hold up your end of the deal, I’ll hold up mine. They have their clauses built in to protect themselves if the other person breaches the terms that were outlined in the dating and engagement stage. There is always an out if things don’t end up like you thought they would. The covenant is entered into under the acknowledgement that regardless of the other person’s failings, I’ll hold up my end of the deal. The Biblical example of this is Christ and the cross. He gave his life for me, knowing that I was a sinner, and that I would constantly fail Him.

One of the hardest concepts for me to grasp as a female is that my marriage is not based on emotions. There will be times I don’t feel in love, but I made a covenant with God to stay with William, regardless of fluctuations in my feelings. There will be times I feel like he’s not meeting my needs, and in those times, my call is to examine my heart and realize that all I need is the Lord, the love I share with my spouse is just a bonus and blessing for this life. He cannot be all that I need, he is a sinner living in a fallen world, as am I, but I am so glad to be walking along side him through this journey and learning more and more from him each day.

Praise God for the gift of marriage and for my wonderful friends and family who offer constant reminders of the beautiful covenant William and I have been called to.

Storms, Blackouts, and God

2009-06-11T08:00:00.001-07:00

Yesterday evening began pretty ordinarily. I left work, got in a quick workout, and went home to start cleaning the house to prepare for our first big overnight visitors to the new Spencer home. William’s Dad and family are coming in town tonight for his Aunt’s 60th birthday party (Happy Birthday Aunt Laurie!) and will be spending the night with us. I had just finished the floors and had dinner on the stove when the house went dark. The TV, which had been broadcasting storms across the DFW metroplex, went black and all the lights went down with it.

Fortunately, we have a gas cook top so dinner continued to cook. This set the stage for a little impromptu (and involuntary) candle light dinner. It’s amazing how an annoyance (like a black out) can be turned into a huge blessing. For the first time in awhile, William and I enjoyed a peaceful, and pretty romantic, dinner. Afterwards, we both took some time to enjoy the storm, sitting on the front porch drinking a glass of wine and watching the rain fall. It’s amazing how in the midst of a storm, you often find greater peace than in the calm.

My life has been in a state of calm, or a peak, for quite awhile now. Yes, there was the busyness of wedding planning and the transition of being married and obstacles at work, but I have not been faced with a hard time or major challenge in a long time. Last night I realized that because I’ve been walking through the good times in life, I have not called out to and pursued the God who gives me peace in both the good times and the bad as often as I should. In the midst of the storm, we are very aware of the peace and calm that we long for and that can only be provided by God’s love and grace towards us in these struggles. I’m trying to learn to seek Him just as much in the calm as I do in the storms.

Praise God for impromptu blackouts and for every good blessing he bestows on my life…

But, as of 7:30am, our house still does not have power…I think I’ve learned my lesson and would like to have the lights back on please!

Soccer Mom

2009-06-09T09:52:00.001-07:00

I never really imagined myself becoming a “soccer mom,” but, since I married William Spencer, I think that it’s inevitable that I will one day drive a large SUV, pack coolers of orange slices and Gatorade, and struggle to invent a new and more effective way to remove grass stains from white uniforms.

This past weekend, William’s team of 8-9 yr. old boys had a tournament in East Dallas. Since it was a weekend free of wedding activities (a rarity in the Spencer family), I decided to be a supportive wife and attend some of the games. Watching how great he is with his team foreshadows what an amazing father he will be someday. One of the mom’s from the team was thanking me for sharing William with her son and telling me what a great role model and coach he is and it reminded me that one of his most attractive qualities early in our dating relationship was how amazing he was with kids. I remember telling one of my friends that it was dangerous for me to watch him coach because it made me want to marry him and immediately start a family!

A lot of our close friends and family question the amount of time William dedicates to soccer and coaching this team. I sometimes get frustrated when he can’t make it to birthday parties, social functions, weddings, and church events because of soccer but hearing his team’s parents express gratitude and praise for not only William’s coaching skills, but his character and the example he sets for the kids and parents alike, I remember that William is more than a coach for these kids. For some, he’s the only example of Christ that they ever see. It’s more than coaching job, it’s his ministry and I’m so blessed to get to share this passion with him.

And, by the way, the 00 FC Dallas East boys got second place in the tournament. They lost in the finals to the infamous “Bandits” who always seem to stand in the way of FC and tournament championships. Hang in there guys, you’ll get them next time!!

Gardening 101

2009-06-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

In light of some new developments, I’ve decided to go public with my gardening story. It turns out that my thumb might not be the complete opposite of green, but the universe was working against me in my first attempt at some pretty potted plants.

William and I took a Sunday about a month ago and bought out the Lowe’s garden section to spruce up our front yard. We planted some wild grass, flowers, and bushes in our front bed and they looked great. Then, William gave me the task of planting a few pots for the front porch. While browsing Lowe’s garden area, I came across some white and purple Calla Lillie's. I was immediately drawn to them for a couple of reasons.
1. Calla Lillies are one of my favorite flowers.
2. The purple and white Calla’s were one of the primary flowers used in our wedding.

How perfect to select these beautiful flowers to adorn our front porch as well. So I bought 2 of each color (each w/ multiple blooms) and also a deep purple plant to surround the flowers and add some depth. I spent a good hour potting and arranging everything just right and it looked amazing when I was done…but as the days went by, my pots started looking worse and worse. After trying countless ways to perk my plants back up (including moving them off the porch into the sun, watering them with rain water, adding fertilizers and more potting soil), I finally looked up online remedies for calla lily care. I discovered that they are particularly high maintenance plant and will only bloom if the conditions are perfect. If it’s too hot or they get too much sun, they burn up. If they don’t get enough sun, the wilt. If they don’t get enough water, they die. If they get too much water, they rot.

When I checked the soil, it felt pretty saturated which led us to believe that they had been over watered. One of the things it said online was to make sure your pots allow adequate drainage at the bottom and upon inspection, we found our pot had one center hole and that’s it. So last night, William decided to drill a few extra drain holes in the pots. It took only one hole to discover what the problem was with my lilies. An impressive amount of brown water started running out of the new drain immediately and a smell that resembled rotten eggs solidified that indeed the pot had held in too much water and it had rotted at the bottom.

Above are pictures of my pots in their current state…next time, I’m planting something more durable and little less high maintenance, so I guess I’m looking for a plant that’s a little more like me.

The Real Housewives of Richardson, Texas

2009-06-01T08:55:00.000-07:00

So, I’m pretty sure Bravo TV is not jumping on the Richardson housewives reality show pitch but, if they had have, here’s what you would have missed in episode 1.

Title: Domestication of a Newlywed

I’ve always considered myself ahead of the curve among my peers on being what we traditionally call “domestic .” I briefly worked as a maid for my parents and know my way around house cleaning, I taught many a freshman girl how to do laundry in the Collins dormitory, I started ironing in the 5th grade, and given the proper gadgets and access to my “phone a friend” lifeline (shout out Mama Becton), I can follow almost any recipe successfully. In light of all these facts, it came as quite a shock to me that I managed to look completely clueless about running a household during my first few weeks of marriage.

Disaster number 1: The kitchen is full of suds

William’s soccer team went together and bought us a very nice Calphalon cookware set. I was really excited about this since I hadn’t had new cookware since my first college apartment so I began the process of unwrapping all the pieces so I could begin making 5-star quality meals with my new pots and pans. I decided to read the care instructions since they were so new and shiny to see how I could make my cookware last for the long-haul. The manual said you should always hand wash the pots and pans because dishwashing detergent would ruin the non-stick coating. So, I’m sitting here looking at all 14 pieces of cookware and the task of handwashing every piece seems a little ridiculous, plus, I remember that mom had similar stuff and always ran in the dishwasher. Suddenly, I get a great idea. If it’s the dishwashing soap that ruins the pans, I’ll just run them in the dishwasher with hand wash soap instead! Brilliant! Or so I thought. About 20 minutes after I start the cycle, I hear William yelling my name. I come to the kitchen to find white suds flowing from the bottom of the dishwasher onto the kitchen floor. William had stopped the cycle and the entire dishwasher was full of soap. We cleaned up the floor, emptied what was left in the soap dispenser, and re-started the cycle to try and wash the remaining suds out. Well, a few minutes later, the soap is flowing through the kitchen again. At this point, I could tell William was frustrated and I was so embarrassed I told him to get out of the kitchen and that I would handle cleaning it up. It took two more rounds of shoveling out suds with a big plastic cup and soap running into the kitchen before I was finally able to finish the cycle and, subsequently, wash all the pots and pans by hand. I think in the future I’ll probably just run them in the dishwasher with regular detergent and risk losing the non-stick coating. That’s what Pam is for anyway.

Lesson learned: You cannot run anything but dishwasher formulated soap in the dishwasher.

After rehashing that little episode, I think I’ll save my lack of success in gardening for another day. My ego might not be able to handle so much public ridicule at once.

Initiation into Marriage and the Blog World

2009-05-28T09:06:00.000-07:00

I’ve always thought the idea of a blog was fun and finally decided to get serious and put some pen to paper, or actually fingers to keyboard, and create one of my own. The real reason I’ve enjoyed the musings of others for so long and not created my own cyber journal is that I was afraid my life might not be exciting enough to keep bloggers interested. I still think this is true but, due to the abundance of reality television shows popping up this summer on the topic of “newlyweds,” I decided that the American public is interested enough in the topic to get decent summer ratings on network television, so maybe a few people (mainly my parents and in-laws) will read a blog about William and my new life as “The Spencers.”

William and I were married on April 18, 2009 in Horseshoe Bay, Texas which makes us newlyweds for about six weeks now. Everyone keeps asking the cliché question, “So how’s married life?” The only response I can ever think of to give is “so far so good.” But, then again, I don’t think too many couples encounter serious issues in the first six weeks of marriage. If they do, there were probably some pretty good signs pre-wedding day that their union wasn’t the best idea for anyone involved. I don’t feel like this is the case for me because I’ve got some pretty awesome friends and family that definitely would have stepped in and not let me make the biggest commitment of my life if they knew it was doomed from the start. (However, my dad did say more than once that if we get divorced, we will pay him back the cost of the wedding + interest.)

So, let me try and answer the “how is married life” question a little more specifically. My pre-wedding fears of feeling the need to wake up earlier have been realized, but come to find out, it’s not so bad to get up at 7:15am, especially when you’re woken up by a kiss on the forehead and a soft spoken “time to get up.” Those of you that know William might think this method seems a little uncharacteristic and that he might be more likely to wake me up with a checklist and rating system for how the night’s sleep went and suggestions on how we can improve our evening rest and morning routine, but that’s not the case. He actually loves me enough to know that I need to wake up slow and lets me ease out of bed and into conversation at least 15 minutes after my wake-up call.

I’ve also heard a lot of my friends say that one of their favorite things about being married is easy Saturday mornings where you wake up slow, eat a big brunch, and just hang out with your husband. We really haven’t been able to experience this since we’ve been either out of town or catching up on chores we missed from being out of town every weekend since we’ve married. We spent the first weekend following our honeymoon in separate cities for soccer and wedding showers, then William had a bachelor party, then I had a church retreat, then I was gone for back-to-back bachelorette parties, and that brings us to this weekend where we will be in Waco for another wedding. The schedule will continue like this until early August when I hope to actually experience those lazy Saturdays with my husband. I guess you could say that married life has been busy. We are loving getting to celebrate so many friends going through this stage of life together, but the schedule of it all is pretty crazy!

There’s probably a lot more I could write about but this post is getting pretty lengthy so I’ll save some for my next post, which will probably revolve around my initiation into lawn care and an embarrassing story involving a dishwasher disaster. I know you’re chomping at the bit from that little teaser.