Good day!

I got some exciting news today! I got an academic scholarship through Lamar today! I am SO excited. I couldn't apply for scholarships before the deadline in April because I had not been at Lamar full time for a semester yet so, it was looking like I wouldn't get one for the 2012-2013 school year. I was lucky to have a very nice scholarship employee at Lamar find a scholarship that someone lost. This is honestly something I never expected to do, I never tried hard in high school. I was more worried about my social life and extra curricular activities. I naturally thought that I wasn't very good in school since, my grades never showed it. However, I found out that when I tried I could really do well in school. Moral of the story is that hard work pays off. And on top of that I got a 100% on my first anatomy and physiology II quiz! yay! And we started our fetal pig dissection today and it was SO neat. I loved it..maybe I'm weird. Anyways..Life is good for now! The semester hasn't gotten too crazy yet. Tom's work load has slowed down a lot so we get to spend a lot more time together :)

Married to a Foreigner Part 2

So people thing it's all fun and games being married to an English man (and sometimes it is) but lately its been pretty darn frustrating. And not because of him at all just because somethings are more difficult because he is not from here. Obviously. So this is going to be a big vent post about our latest battle.  So first, we found out that we will be living here for longer than expected which is good! However, we now need to find a house instead of throwing money away at an apartment. Which brings me to our first problem..credit. I have great credit but since I'm in school, I'm not working. So it's all on Tom..and Tom has NO credit in the US. He has great credit in England but nothing here. And apparently credit transfers from France, Australia and all these other countries except for England..of course. So, we have been working on building Tom a credit score and we have done everything we have been told but 7 months later still not one ounce of credit. (They told us it would take probably 3-6 months to get credit). So here we are having to tell our apartment complex if we are staying or not by the 10th of this month (for a 60 day notice). Our lease is up in October but still its a bit nerve racking trying to figure out what to do.
Secondly, we recently had to register our car in Beaumont and get car insurance. I set everything up and we got a great deal with the car insurance. I spent a few hours in June getting everything signed up and thought it was all good...but it wasn't. When we were vacationing in Florida I get a call that since Tom does not have a Texas Drivers License we are not eligible for this sector of insurance but, if he can get a drivers license by August 10th we can keep this insurance and save 30 dollars every month (which is a big deal to me). So as soon as we get back from our vacation we go to the ever exciting DPS and wait for over an hour to be told that since Tom is between 18-24 he has to take adult drivers education. Great. So Tom is REALLY busy at work right now with it being the beginning of the season and is finding it hard to find time to take this 6 hour online course. So finally I sign him up for the course and get him started. He finishes it in a couple days and we have to pay 40 extra bucks to get it over-nighted so he can go the next day to the DPS. So we go to the DPS yesterday with the document and bring all of what we were asked to bring to the DPS. So we wait another 2 hours only to be told we had the wrong documents....this time Tom was much less nice I had to go the back and handle the situation since he practically yelling at the woman telling us the information. She gave us a "skip the line" pass..thankfully. But then tells us Tom has to get a permit and that it would be 2 months before he could have a driving test. Which obviously does not make my deadline for the insurance. I about broke down after all of my efforts to get this together. I tried calling different DPS's to see if they had a random opening but they were all rude of course and just said no without any question. So these are not by any means major life problems, we are fine and healthy and loving life. I'm just venting and I wouldn't change anything..except for the people working at the DPS :)

Courage

  "Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all."

So the other night while Tom was at work the only thing on was The Princess Diaries. Anyways, I was casually watching it while doing other things but then I heard this quote about courage and I absolutely loved it. Ambrose Redmoon is actually is quoted for saying the first sentence in the quote, I'm not sure about the rest. But, how true it is. I tend to be quite cautious when it comes to most things. I'm constantly thinking about how certain actions will impact others. While this could be seen as a good trait, it's exhausting and draining.  My friends always joke that when there is nothing to stress about I find something. I need to think less, have more faith, and live more. Stop worrying about things I cannot change and love every moment that I am blessed with. I just loved this quote so much that I wanted to share it :) Hope others find it as powerful as I do. I found the image below on Pinterest ( I LOVE Pinterest) and thought it went well with what I was thinking about. I also just love Gordon B. Hinkley. That's all for today :)

Birthday! :)

On to my birthday! It was absolutely amazing. It started off with breakfast and presents in bed. Thomas is SO good to me. Then he got a hot bath ready for me and told me to get ready for my day. So I get all ready and wonder whats going to be next and then there is a knock at the door annnnnd its my mom and siblings! I was so surprised I had no idea that they were coming over! My mom said we had to leave immediately. So along with all my sisters we went to get pedicures. It was so nice. Just what I needed. We then went back to the apartment to "go out to lunch" but when we got back the apartment was all decorated with streamers, balloons and a lunch with all my favorite foods were on the table. Then we had some cake that my sister homemade and decorated! It was perfect. We all hung out until my family had to go back home. Tom took me out to my favorite food for dinner.. Mexican! It was a great birthday to say the least. And Thomas spoiled me lots of course. Now I have to figure out how to make his birthday equally as amazing..its going to be pretty difficult.
Here is the cake chef Emily made-

The super cute table decorations( I love the movie Tangled)-

And my new favorite t-shirt from Emily-

All in all it was a great day! Thanks to Mom, Alex, Emily, Bethany, Kailey, Dad (for letting them come to Beaumont) and of course Thomas! Love you all.

Beginning of Summer

So..I've been REALLY bad about blogging and I have SO much time right now. It's pretty embarrassing. So I'm going to do some catch up today :) I'm going to start off at the beginning of summer with the visit of James (Tom's brother) and Lauren. It was a blast having them here even though it wasn't quite as exciting as it should have been. Tom was unfortunately really busy with try outs at work so we were stuck in the ever exciting Beaumont for 2 weeks. So, I've only lived in Beaumont since we got married (7 months) and I've been busy with school and work. I had not looked into anything fun to do so right before they got here I decided to search it and see if there was anything fun to do in Beaumont. Let me tell you...it was a sad search..basically we had to choose between an energy museum and an oil museum. Or both if we were really daring. So that sums up Beaumont for those of you who don't know much about it. It's nothing exciting..but has everything we need. I'm not complaining..I do like it but it's no tourist destination. So I felt awful that they paid so much money to vacation in Beaumont,Texas. However, it turned out to be very nice. It was a very relaxed time. We did make it up to Austin for a weekend to hang out in the city and then over to Schlitterbahn. We picked an interesting weekend to go to Austin...It turned out to be a motorcycle/biker festival that weekend. So at night they closed down more streets than normal and motorcycles lined every street. All I will say is that it was a bit interesting walking down the streets of downtown Austin at 10 pm..But it was definitely an experience. Here's a picture of what it looked like!

Then to finish off their visit we were lucky enough to get a suite box at the new Dynamo Stadium for a game. It was so much fun and the stadium is SO nice! All of us before the game :)

It was so good to have James and Lauren here and I hope they had as much fun as we did having them here! Can't wait till our trip back to England in December!!

Happiness

This post is a bit more serious than my other posts but, I wanted to be grateful today.

Today I was thinking about what it truly means to be happy. I am truly happy every day. Even when things aren’t going exactly the way I hoped. I’m happy because I have an amazing husband that loves me for me. I’m happy because I have a nice place to live and Thomas has a job that he loves. I’m happy because I have an amazing calling at church with such sweet girls. I’m happy because I have the true church in my life. I’m happy because I know I’m trying my hardest at school and its showing. I’m happy because I love everything about my life. I’m peaceful and content with absolutely everything. And I’ve been this way since I met Thomas. I’m so grateful for him, all my family, and friends. Thank you to all of you who have been there for me and contribute to my true happiness. Here is a quote that I found that I love.. "We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have" - Frederick Keonig

On a less serious note: I have 3 set in stone A’s for the semester! I have one final left next week for anatomy!! And to keep an A average I have to just make a 50 on the exam. Next Wednesday is my exam and then I’m free for the summer! My last day of work in next week and that is bittersweet.  This is a picture of what I’ll be doing starting next Thursday. Laying out by the pool and reading a few books off my long summer book list :)

Our Cajun Adventure

I promised my sister, Emily, that I would not blog again until after my four tests next week. But, I have some extra time tonight while I'm waiting till midnight so I can register for classes for fall. oh yay.

Over Easter weekend Thomas and I were able to go to New Orleans with my family and then after we all spent Easter Sunday in Beaumont at our apartment. We had so much fun and found out that it is possible to sleep 8 in our apartment and have everybody take showers and get ready for church by 10 am. It must have been a miracle.

On to our trip.. As soon as we got to New Orleans we went straight to Cafe Du Monde to try some Beignets and oh boy.. they were amazing. However, if you have not been to Cafe Du Monde I recommend that you do NOT sit on the side where they have a window that you can peak in. You will most likely lose your appetite. You see exactly how they make the beignets. They deep fat fry them for a long time...a really long time. It was nasty. Surprisingly I still tried it and it was delicious but most everything that is deep fat fried is unfortunately. Then we walked around and went into different shops and over to the French Quarter. After a bunch of walking and site seeing we decided to get a bite to eat at a Cajun restaurant called Mulate's. It was a fun restaurant that had live music and dancing after seven. We were really adventurous and got an appetizer called the Cajun Sampler which consisted of Grilled alligator, calamari, fried craw fish tails, grilled frog legs, and tilapia! For those of you who don't know me very well I have hated fish for as long as I can remember. But, now that I live in Beaumont my taste buds seemed to have changed. I LOVE craw fish and tilapia and really almost anything. And I tried everything on the sampler. I was so proud of myself. Kailey, my youngest sister, had a hard time with the frog legs. Here is her face when she saw what our appetizer was :)
She is great. That ended our first day in New Orleans! The next day we got up early and went on a Cajun Encounters Swamp Tour. It was SO worth it. It was an hour worth of going through a swamp and it was SO much prettier than I had imagined. Although at the beginning I was a bit freaked out when our tour guide said it wasn't odd if a snake came on board but just to let him know and he would take care of it..and only one person had been bitten on his boat as a tour guide. One is one too many for me. Way too many. Luckily no snakes on our tour :) But we saw one alligator in the wild and we were able to hold an alligator! I would post my picture but I looked terrified so I'll post a picture of Thomas and my mom they handled it way better.

After the swamp tour we did some last minute shopping and hit the road back to Beaumont. BUT we made on amazing pit stop at the best craw fish place ever, Steamboat Bills. It is amazing and completely changed my out look on fish. It is amazing and if you are ever going through Louisiana its a great stop in Lake Charles. Surprisingly almost everybody in my family enjoyed the craw fish and Pistolettes. Warning: if you do try these at steamboat bills you will be hooked and crave it after leaving :)
After our yummy dinner we finished our drive back to Beaumont and had a wonderful Easter!

We will be making another trip to New Orleans and Steamboat Bills when Tom's brother James and his girlfriend Lauren come here from England. We are SO excited. Only a month more till they come and school is out for me!! YAY!

Married to a Foreigner

People always say to me “oh don’t you just want to listen to him talk all day?!” I just smile and remember when I was in a trance from his accent. Of course it was very charming in the beginning of the relationship but after a while it has become normal to me. It’s just Tom’s voice just like my mom has a certain recognizable voice and so on and so forth. Occasionally he will say something odd and I suddenly remember he does have an accent! In the beginning it was quite fun because he was a novelty every restaurant and store that we were in. Every time without fail he gets the typical questions “Where are you from?” or “Are you from London?” I now know never to ask someone from another country any of these questions knowing how truly annoying it is to most of them. This is my all-time favorite experience with Tom’s accent. We went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant near our home here in Beaumont. We had just been seated and our waiter comes to ask for our drink order. The conversation goes as follows between Tom and our waiter.

Waiter-“what would you like to drink?”

Tom-“Two waters please”

Waiter-“A what?”

Tom- (a bit slower) “ Two waters please”

Waiter- “We don’t have that here”

Tom-“ you don’t have any water?”

Waiter- “No”.

I’m just sitting back trying so hard not to laugh so I finally pipe up and ask the waiter for two waters. He replies “okay be right back.” For those of you who have not heard Tom talk it is not the typical London or as they call it “posh” English accent. Tom is from Doncaster, England which is in South Yorkshire. A completely different area and accent than London. So when Tom says the word water it comes out more like wa-uh. I really don’t even know how to write it like he says it but that is my best try. NOBODY at any restaurant can get it right the first time without saying what? Or Sorry can you repeat that? It has become quite a joke in our family when we go out to dinner and we all watch him order his drink. It happens every time. I finally decided to post this after he was harassed last night at chick-fil-a. They made him say harry potter, bloody Mary and other English things. It definitely keeps me laughing.

My next post will be about our awesome trip to New Orleans!!!

One Fun Weekend

We randomly decided to overload this weekend with excitement. To start it off with a bang we went to the midnight premiere for The Hunger Games with about a hundred overly excited high school students in the theater. It was my very first movie premiere and it was pretty good. It was quite amazing that I was able to stay up that long. I have the sleep habits of an elderly person. I go to bed as early as possible and get up around 7. Its a curse. I have so badly wanted to stay up late and sleep in but its apparently not for me. Anyways, after we had a few hours of sleep after the premiere Thomas had some work to do and since it was a beautiful day I went with him and got a bit of a tan. Then Thomas treated me to Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt. YUM. I absolutely love frozen yogurt. Probably one of my most favorite treats. After that we decided to go to the pool at our apartment complex and lay out some more. It was an absolutely beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky with a nice breeze. Couldn't get any better. We weren't out for too long so I did think I would get too bad of a sun burn. Well I should've thought again. I am now a lobster. Hopefully it turns into a nice tan :) After all this we decided to go to the Southeast Texas State Fair. I had never been to a actual fair before, just the rodeo. So this was an all new experience.
(Just a little part of all the craziness of the fair)
And what an experience it was! We recieved some advice on what food to eat so we tried a pork ka bob and it was just as good as reviewed! We then decided to try out a few rides at the fair. Thomas had his eye on the most crazy ride at the fair which put you upsidedown while going up and down and spinning in circles. Sounds fun after eating a lot of greasy foods right? No..not so much. My stomach felt as if it were on fire for the rest of the night. But we lived through it and learned to never do something like that again. Here is a video clip a ride almost the same as the one we were on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Te1KA98oAQ
Crazy right?
Even though the fair was fun it was nice to go back home and relax. It was so loud and overwhelming. I think that will be our only fair experience for a while.
Saturday we had a bit more of a chill day. Just shopping and cleaning.
Then Sunday we went to church and then enjoyed the beautiful weather. We then went to Vidor to have dinner and play games with some friends. We had a great time!

Spring Break 2012

I knew that I would struggle to find time to blog! I think about it but there are just so many other things to do. We had spring break last week and it was pretty fun despite being sick almost the whole time thanks to Tom! Of course he was only sick for 2 days and I'm going on 10 days.
We started out the spring break by driving up to Dallas to see some of Tom's friends. We stayed with them for a couple days and were able to go to a FC Dallas game. It was so fun!
Then we went to Great Wolf Lodge with my family! And it was SO fun.

It was great because it was all heated and NO sunburn to worry about!
Luckily at this point I was not sick :)
We were there for a couple days as well!
Did you know that Grapevine, Tx has the largest British Grocery store in Texas? Neither did we! But oh boy now we do. My parents found an ad for the "British Emporium" in a Grapevine, Texas tour book. So, on our way home we stopped by and Thomas was in heaven. They had absolutely everything he missed from back home. So he picked a few favorites and was a very happy boy on the way home.
This was pretty much the end of our spring break. I got sick the next day and have been every since. yay. But I'm too stubborn to go to the doctor. Just glad I was sick on spring break rather than during school. seriously.
The last weekend of spring break we were back in Houston for a tournament Thomas was coaching in and they ended up being finalists! Way to go boys! It was nice to be able to spend time with my family and get them all sick...whoops! That was our spring break! All in all it was nice and much needed :)