The McSpaddens

This was year 3 of the cookie party that our good friends, Crystal and Keenan hold every year in December. Basically we eat a great, Mexican feast, we each get about 10 cookies to decorate (Crystal spent 3 hours baking them!) and we a have a contest. Our favorite cookies to decorate are always the "Decorate Your Spouse" cookie. We also decided to add the "Unique Christmas Sweater" contest to the mix.

Every year, it's a toss up to see who decorated the best spouse cookie. Unfortunately, I was a little more eager to eat my cookies, rather than decorate, so my spouse cookie of Mark ended up looking a bit like "Cartman" from South Park. Mark really redeemed himself this year, though. He stepped up his "cookie decorating game" a lot.
We look forward to this party every year, and we can't wait until we get to show off our cookie skills again next year!

I was blessed to spend the weekend in the Big Apple with my good friends, Kimberly and Meaghan. No boys allowed! We had a great time shopping, eating, seeing Wicked (awesome!), and more shopping. My favorite parts were going to the top of the Empire State Building, seeing the wonderfully lit tree in Rockefeller Center, eating pizza in Times Square, and seeing Wicked. It was definitely NOT relaxing, as I came home with sore arms (from lifting all of those shopping bags), and sore legs (I bet we walked about 20 miles!). 

It has been a couple of months since we got it, but isn't my new computer beautiful? Mark had fun helping me decide which one to get, and I think he's had more fun playing on it, than I have! We are really excited to have a desktop for a change. I have officially converted to the Mac World. Long live my IMac!

Well, it's been awhile since I've made a post on here, and Mark did such a great job keeping everyone updated, so now it's my turn to share a little about the happenings around the McSpadden household.

Anniversary #2 was awesome! I won't mention that I bought the wrong kind of cherries for the cheesecake (they were very tart- not the actual filling, but rather they were tart cherries-- I used Splenda to make them sweeter!) and I used 2 tspns of celery salt for the fettucine alfredo in the cookbook his mom gave me, when I probably should have used just a 1/2.... it did taste more like fettucine Celeria :) His mom assured me that she wasn't trying sabotage the meal! :) I believe her, but I changed the recipe to a 1/2 tsp. of celery salt and I warned my sisters in law so that they didn't make the same catastropic celery mistake I made.... but here's the best part!!!! My sweet husband ate all of it and said that the meal was perfect. He even ate the left overs for 3 days! How sweet is that???? We conversed later that week, and he finally admitted that there may have been a tad bit too much celery. :) He's so sweet!

We even wrote the intro to our book, "You Stink," last night. It is really funny, and I can't wait to keep on writing. It is so much fun being married to a man that makes me laugh everyday. The best part of marriage for me right now is being able to reflect on our lives and just laugh about the things that have grown us so much! Woohoo! I am excited about year 3!

Yesterday we celebrated our 2nd anniversary with a local day of fun and food. Shevawn woke me up to an amazing waffle breakfast which we ate out on our patio thanks to the new bistro set she bought and put together for us!

We spent the rest of the day out and about, shopping, eating, just hanging around. Then last night, Shevawn made my favorite meal, Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo with a homemade Cheesecake for dessert. Yummy!

Even though Year #2 wasn't perfect, I can say there is no one I would rather have an imperfect year with than my wife. Marriage isn't easy, but it's worth every ounce of effort we've put into it thus far. Here's to many more to come...

Ok so we've been back for a week and are just now getting this last video posted. What can I say...we've been busy.

We hope you enjoy this short message from Greece....

That's right...Rome...center of the world for centuries. We shot this yesterday in front of the Colosseum.

We are all caught up on videos and now it's off to Greece!

We spent the weekend on the coast of Italy in Cinque Terre...another amazing place!

We had a wonderful day in Florence on Thursday. Great weather, amazing food, and breathtaking sites.

We've also had a chance to add a lot of photos to our Flickr gallery. (You should see some on the right of your screen.) Just click on any on of them to see more!

Sorry it's been a while between videos. We've been shooting them, just haven't had the internet to upload them. Enjoy this little number from Wednesday, and we'll be sure to get all caught up within the next few days!

A glimpse into our pre-trip adventure...

Well not really "there" but we are almost ready to be there :)

We've got most everything packed up...and as a bonus...we've even done some cleaning. It's about time for some shut eye...and then...off to Europe!

PS. Yes...the picture on the right tells it all...I have a man purse...and it is GREAT!

Just wanted to let everyone know that yesterday I ended my 2 month french fry drought. Over the last 2 months I stayed away from most fried foods, and I can seriously count on my hand the number of times I gave in to any fried food over that period. (And with very little physical activity, I've got 12 less pounds to show for it.)

But yesterday, the french fry, the representation of all that is fried and fatty, won me over. It was ok...not great. But it is contagious. I had another serving today. Even so, I'm definitely more aware of what I'm eating, and that's a very good thing. We'll see where I go from here.

We are reallly excited about Mark's new job at the Garland Group. He is basically doing the same thing that he has been doing (web developing), but he get to work with some really cool people, and make a fun salary. He has to drive kind of far, and that stinks, but he seems to be enjoying working "normal" hours and getting to spend time in the evenings not working, but rather just enjoying being at home! I am so proud of him for being so patient in his job search and really choosing the job that was truely the best for us.

I was so getting so used to him being at home working all of the time, that there were a couple of times last week that I needing something from home when I was at work, and I couldn't call to see if he could bring them up. I guess, like my 6th graders, I have to realize not to depend on others to take care of my business---ha ha!

Anyways, major blessings over here at the McSpadden household, and we are now gearing up for our trip to Europe in just 6 short weeks! Woohoo!

We just got done watching the Aggies come up 1 point short against Memphis in the Sweet Sixteen. I mean...it is a big step to even see Aggie basketball in the big dance much less the Sweet 16...but we were so close.

Great season and we look forward to next year. (If we keep at our pace over the last 2 years, we should be in the Elite 8 next year!) Thanks and Gig'Em!

Well, I thought I'd give this blog thing a try. I've tried myspace and facebook, but I really would like a place for Mark and I to share the ins and outs of our marriage and lives without going all the annoying myspace popups.

I am currently enjoying my Spring Break this week... finally!!! I think that school districts really created Spring Break for the teachers because if the teachers didn't get the break, they would probably walk away from teaching and try something new. Instead, I get a week to refresh and remember why I love to teach so much!

Mark is on a break, too. Although he says that he is taking a Spring Break with me sometimes because he's at home, I know that really he is praying about a new job. He has been working hard on his own business, but he is ready to take a break and do something different. We are really praying that God will open some doors in the web developing market here in Dallas. We'll see.

I hope that we can use this blog to keep up with our friends and family! Everyone knows how much I love to chat, so forgive me if the posts get long!