Why Married Friends are Great

I truly cannot compare the two schools I’ve been at.. that would be unfair. The circumstances are totally different. I am lucky enough to find and make some really, really, realllllly good friends at both locations. Like.. life long friends that I would trust with just about anything. I don’t know if everyone has that at their work places, and I am very grateful that I have been able to find that!!

There is one glaring difference between my friends at HMS and my friends at GMS. At GMS, I have married friends. I’ve considered if I naturally gravitated towards them since I am now married myself.. but I think these people and I were just meant to be. We have our own group on Snapchat and our own group on text with our very own clique name. We come from different backgrounds and have different beliefs, but we are all excellent teachers and love our students…. And we’re pretty cool and funny too.

One of my favorite texts happened this weekend, “Ok. How do you keep your husbands from eating things intended for recipes during the week?!?!!” Ha it was funny because it’s happened to me too!!! I didn’t really have an answer.. actually I’m not sure anyone answered. Has anyone figured out this question to life!?

Also, they understand when I have to sleep in the bed by myself. Last weekend I was creeping on someone in my life and didn’t want to screenshot their snapchat… so I texted one of the girls and said hey.. will you have your husband record the snapchat on your phone… because Travis is out of town. And she did it!! Except she had to do it like five times because she kept laughing and I needed to send it to someone important.

We can also discuss important things like money. Not the specifics, of course… but it’s really nice to be able to have a discussion with a married person about money. Everything from “who is the money person” which I despise… mainly because just because I don’t check the online bank every hour, doesn’t mean I’m not a money person. But to saving for a down payment on a house, to eventually moving because families are expanding.. it’s really nice to be able to communicate with a married person who gets it.

They’re also the first people that text you when they hear the school is on lockdown after school yesterday. Besides my mom and husband, it was them I was texting.. as I sat in my assistant principal’s office for nearly two hours. They were the people that were concerned for me and everyone else on campus. They were also the people that have a soft spot for a student that is crying out. (Sidenote: he had a bb gun and was never on campus, just close by) But it was a long two hours and I was appreciative to those immediate texts that said, “If you’re at school, I’m praying for you.”

Needless to say, as I was reflecting about my school year and that day specifically, I just kept coming back to how great my married friends are.

They lit. 

Flaquitos

I have a new plan for my life. I’m gonna open up a Tex Mex restaurant. I threw the idea out on twitter last night after my meal hit. The. Spot. And I got one like and one reply of “I’ll invest”… so I’m pretty sure I’ll be successful.

What did I make?

Chicken Jalapeno Taquitos… or Flautas… I’m not sure which one it’s technically called. I also tried making an avocado ranch for the first time. And it did not disappoint. So basically, that’s what my restaurant will consist of… taquito flautas… and avocado ranch. I’m sure we’ll have some type of nachos. Those shrimp nachos I made that one time were also the bomb dot com. Oh and crock pot chicken with a can of salsa. It’s so good. I will now be taking applications…

Oh, and a name. I am open to suggestions.

Back to these flaquitos… I had leftover rotisserie chicken that I needed to use. I also had a pico that I hadn’t opened. So, I grabbed some cream cheese, avocados, and white corn tortillas at the store.

I had my sous chef (Travis) mix the cream cheese and chicken. (Hint: This is much easier when the cream cheese is at room temperature) Then I added pico, jalapenos, a dash of garlic powder and Mexican shredded cheese. I melted some butter and put butter all over the bottom of the pan. I rolled them semi tightly and put them folded side down.  I crammed them in there.. I figured it would help keep them closed.

Then I popped them in the oven at 425 for 15 minutes. During that time I had my sous chef mash some avocados, I took about 1/8 of the mashed avocado and mixed it with some ranch and avocado oil to make it a little less thick. With 5 minutes remaining, I opened the oven door, slathered a line of avocado ranch and then sprinkled some more cheese on top. I let it bake the remaining 5 minutes and then turned in on a high broil for 3 min!

I made guacamole with the remaining mashed avocados, had some leftover guac ranch, had regular salsa, and a chipotle salsa. YUM. Next up was just deciding how we were going to eat it! I smothered mine with more guacamole ranch... Trav piled some leftover stuffing on his. It was so good. 

I think next time I’d love to try this with some beef or brisket!! 

Lake House Update

Y’all. We’re having a blast with the lake house. There’s always “projects” or “work” to be done… but it doesn’t feel like work when you’re there! It feels like an escape and you get to continue making it into our space.

We had a discussion at Easter about how awesome the beds were at the lake house… then we decided maybe we are just so tired every time, we sleep awesome no matter what!

Our room is almost complete, but I’m keeping my eye out for anything that needs to go in there. We finally hung our succulent, and I love the addition of the green to the collage. I went back and forth with ordering an air plant or not.. I eventually decided on an artificial plant due to turning the air up when we’re not at the lake house. I hear the air plants are pretty durable, but I don’t know about a Texas summer. 

Here is the downstairs so far! Shop Mama has done a phenomenal job decorating the lake house with shade of blue? I wasn’t sure if I should say turquoise? It’s beautiful, and one of my favorite things is the large island in the kitchen… we already stand around it all the time.

The upstairs is a work in progress! But the pool table, foosball table, and darts are all up there!

Here was mine and Shop’s latest project. We needed to take a bench that Glen made and change it from maroon to fit our décor in the living room. 

We began by  spray painting the entire thing turquoise... we, of course, had our helper Koal. Then we took a metallic bronze and lightly sprayed and patted some off. Shop just kept telling me, “you can’t mess it up!” The sun was facing the wrong way when the product was finished, so I took a picture of the back of it! We let it dry and it’s now in the living room!

Is is Saturday yet? I need to be there.  

Fishing Date

Yesterday, I received an email from my husband asking me to go on a fishing date. 
There were three different options for dinner and I quickly accepted. We're new boat owners (a fishing boat).. so I thought it was a fantastic idea.

We were on the water by 5:30 and Travis had caught his first fish by 6 pm. A lovely bass. All about that bass, bout that bass. 
I caught myself a realllllllly big stick fish. You haven't heard of that species? It's very rare... and very hard to catch. But I managed!! And I am so proud. 

 

Then my lovely husband had gone to the store and gotten a veggie tray, chips and salsa, summer sausage, cheese, and diet coke!! It was the best lake dinner ever!! 

I told Travis when we got the boat that I wanted to learn to back the trailer down. I'm not gonna be the wife that sits in the boat helpless as her husband does all the work. I've backed a boat trailer down once before, and I knew I wanted that to be my job. Travis can back a trailer into the smallest space possible... oh 2 inches on this side? Not a problem. I watched and listened to his thinking while he put the boat in... then, I backed the trailer down (with him on speaker phone) to pick the boat back up! It wasn't perfect... but our phone call was under 5 minutes which I was proud of. 

I am sure there will be many fishing dates in the future. 

Meridian State Park

Located on the west side of Lake Whitney… almost to the beginning of the hill country. I left school at 3:15 pm and jumped on 30W.. this took me south of downtown Ft. Worth, so I didn’t even have to go through downtown which is always a win. Then I jumped on the new Chisholm Trail Tollway! I took that all the way to Cleburne where I hopped on the little back highway 174. I was there by 5:00 and was able to catch the first sunset!

Dinner was a clam linguine over my special gluten free noodles! We went on a quick exploration walk, and then sat by the fire! Before we knew it, it was 10:45 and we had to go to bed!

We were up by 7 and cooking cheese grits… my favorite staple. My mom’s cousin Carrie doesn’t eat grits on the reg like I do… and she was saying how good it was. The fried Spam was also extremely delightful.

Then we began our morning hike! Our morning hike was 4 miles around Lake Meridian that the park sits on! It’s a great little trail that has many elevation changes! We stopped at the lookout and ate a snack and I continued to explore the grottos that were below the lookout. How cool is this. Several of the grottos were full of foliage, and I’m not sure which was more beautiful. We took a quick 30 minute nap, and headed out on another 2 mile hike. By the end of our hiking my phone said we’d gone 6.8 miles and climbed 30 floors. Holla.

The wildflowers were in full bloom. And it was gorgeous. 

Dinner that night was foil packs cooked over the fire. We used that wonderful TexJoy seasoning on our chicken with squash, zucchini, mushrooms, and onions. The fire cooked it perfectly and I ate all. Of. Mine. Then mom used her new oven to cook a peach cobbler.

The next morning we used the oven to cook biscuits… put that with apple butter.. and eggs and venison sausage.. and my stomach is SO happy. Did I mention even the bath house was pretty?

If you’re needing a recharge of your self battery.. then head to Meridian State Park. I didn’t charge my phone battery once… because no cell service is good for the soul.