Following the Fowlers

Well, I feel like I have been neglecting my blog because I simply don't have anything to write about. My life has been work, work, and more work. It used to be on a bad day at was a work until 5:00. Now on a good day I get to leave by 5:30. I left today at 6:00. The amount of paperwork, testing, and day-to-day expectations for Plano is very overwhelming. I have had so many people ask my how I am enjoying my new job, and I feel like I have only been negative. I work really long hours, bring work home with me, and am feel like I am constantly stressed. So, with that being said, maybe I should list the things I am enjoying about my new job (in no particular order) :

1) my commute!
2) I love my teammates. I am getting the chance to work with people closer to my age and we really enjoy each other's company.
3) I have a great team leader who is very patient with my million questions a day.
4) My students are very sweet. They have been wonderful to me.
5) For the most part, I have had good interactions with supportive parents of my students.
6) I like working in the same district as my husband.
7) I am learning many new things.
8) I work at a really great school with great staff.
9) So far I have had students bring my cookies, brownies, and cheesecake!

So, now I will try to spend the rest of my evening looking on the "brighter side" of life! :)

So funny!

It was Monday, September 18, 2000. Mark and I met up between two buildings on the east side of campus. He was headed to geology and I was headed to elementary math theory. We had just returned from a weekend trip up to the Plano area to visit his parents and my brother. Mark said, "Hey, are you doing anything tonight? Cause I was going to try to be romantic." "Romantic, huh?" I stated with laughter. "Alright, I'm free." That evening, I remember that we didn't go out to eat and the sun set not too long after he picked me up, so we must have had dinner separately. When we finally made it to our destination, we were at the capitol building in Austin. I absolutely love the capital building and used to enjoy hanging out there before the security was stepped up after 9/11/01. We got out of of the car and started wandering around the capital grounds. After about 10 minutes we made our way over to a covered stone pavilion in the front of the capitol. Mark told me to wait there because he had left something in the car. When he returned he had a dozen red roses in his hand. You have to understand that this was very unusual because Mark had never given me flowers in the 5 months we had been dating. He stood in front of me and told me that each rose represented something he wanted to give to me. The roses stood for friendship, joy, hope, mind, heart, soul, body, devotion, commitment, trust, love, and life. After he explained each of the roses he would lay it on the ground around me. By the end of the 12, I was in a circle of roses. He then said these words, "There are many things I want to give you in your life. I can't afford to give them all to you now. But, there is one thing I can give you." Then he knelt on one knee, pulled out a ring box, and asked, "Hattie Epperson, will you marry me?" And, since you now know Mr. and Mrs. Fowler, obviously my answer was "YES!" On a side note, the ring box had a light in it that lit up and shone when you opened it, and that is why Mark proposed to me as the sun was setting.

Thank you, Mark, for asking me to marry you. You bless my life daily with your love.

This past weekend my parents and grandmother came into town to visit and attend my brother's concert. For those of you who don't know, my brother, Jeremy, lives in the Dallas area and also attends the same church as Mark and me. We have been so blessed to live close together over the last 4 1/2 years! Jeremy was a vocal music major in college, but didn't go into that as a profession. About 2 years ago he discovered a men's chorus in the Dallas area that sings in the barbershop quartet style. They are called Vocal Majority and they are nationally renowned! He has been an official member of the chorus for a year now, and he really loves it. They put on a fall, Christmas, and spring show for the public. It is really something to see! They sound amazing and they have choreography that makes it entertaining to watch. This past concert was about songs that "shaped America", so it was a lot of patriotic songs, which I loved! We enjoyed visiting and we definitly enjoyed the concert. Go Jeremy!

If we had a neighborhood home owners' association, we would have long ago gotten a notice and/or fee. Yard work simply isn't our thing. Mark doesn't enjoy mowing. I'm not what you would call a "get your hands dirty" kind of gal. I can barely get one little house plant to grow, much less a whole garden or flowerbed. However, our bushes for the past 2 months have been absolutely horrendous. I wish we could blame it on the previous owners, but this is all our doing.

Dad, before you read the next part of this blog, promise me you won't have a heart attack!

This morning, I voluntarily told Mark that I would work on our front yard bush situation. I don't think I have ever voluntarily done yard work in my entire life, unless you count volunteering to ride on the riding lawnmower, which I don't think actually counts. So, while Mark was edging and mowing, I spend my morning crawling on my hands and knees pulling weeds and then running the electric hedge clippers/trimmers. Thank you to Mark for helping me rake and finish that one last hedge I just didn't have the energy for! Now, I know my front yard hasn't miraculously transformed into something amazing, but at least we aren't "those" neighbors anymore!

Saturday morning I talked Mark into getting up and going to the Nastia Luikin "Welcome Home" parade. The parade was in her hometown of Parker, which is about a mile up the road from us. We parked at Southfork Ranch(from the show Dallas) and walked about 1/2 mile to the road where the parade would be. It had a very small town feel. Everyone was in lawn chairs and even the high school band showed up! There were a ton of people in the parade who had no sign to tell us who they were. We kept making jokes with our surrounding bystanders about this. Of course, Nastia wasn't until the very end of the parade. We were there for about a total of 2 hours and I thought it was a great way to spend a Saturday morning. I want to say a big thank you to Mark for tagging along and providing wonderful company!