witte women

Rachel came to Houston, so what did we do?  Drive to San Antonio!  We had good reason though, Megan and Milo were there! 

Oh the way to San Antonio, you HAVE to stop at Buc-ee's.

 And you HAVE to get Beaver Nuggets.  YUM!  (and diet dr. pepper)

Megan and Rachel are just so curious...

Megan had a great day planned for us.  We shopped, ate, hung out, and found some michief. We wanted to go to the Witte Museum, because you know, we're all Witte girls in one way or another. Megan's dad just happened to be taking his class on a field trip to that very museum that very day.  One of his students didn't show up, and then he took some other students' wrist bands and then hid them under a rock for us. 

Megan got a call, and this is what I heard: "Hi Dad....yes, we're going there later today....Ok, do we need to meet you somewhere?.....Oh, they're by the electrical box?  Wait, they're by the electrical box by the bus stop under a rock?....Ok, we'll find some tape.....Thanks Dad, bye!"

So yep, Megan's dad hid us some wrist bands so we could get into the museum for free!  Sweet deal :)  It is named for us you know, we should get in free anyways.

 We had a great time in San Antonio - thanks Megan and Milo!  Rachel and I are so thankful that we've had time to get to you know you better this year.

Oh, and Rachel got to experience rain for once.  Apparently rain makes you pose like this.

I always love the days after camp is over, and apparently that feeling happens whether it's 11 weeks of residential camp in your backyard or three short weeks of day camp at church.  During those weeks of camp, you realize the things that don't HAVE to get done, but life feels better when they do get done.  And then the "normal" work day of 9-5ish feels like a vacation in itself, and you are motivated to cross all those usually mundane things off your extra long to-do list.  So I'm enjoying some days of vacation and getting things crossed off my list.

One of those things is of course Pinterest.  You can't possibly keep up with Pinterest and plan a wedding while camp is going on, so now it's time to PLAN.  Rach comes today, mom comes on Sunday, and we'll see Megan twice in there too!  Let the real planning begin.

I started the morning on Pinterest, after making a 4th of July cake on the 5th of July and going for a short but sweaty run.  See what I mean about the motivation?  And I stumbled upon this blog that I love love.  And here's a piece of it:

But wedding advice all bears one hideous characteristic in common, a characteristic which chafes at love and romance like sandpaper in a diaper: practicality. No, thank you, I don’t want your practical advice. I’m engaged and in love. I have one day in my life during which I have permission to make my dreams come true. No… just thanks anyhow. My wedding laughs confidently at your practical advice, ‘cause we won’t need it. All the inspiration photos pulled from all the blogs and magazines, those luscious centerpieces and layered fabrics and calligraphied cards and those twinkle-light roofs and glowing paper lanterns, we’ll have all that exactly as pictured. That fat-cheeked flower girl with shiny patent leather Mary Janes – yes, that, too. And the wee custom dress she wears so adorably – yes. All this, and it will all come way under budget. Way. The dance floor underneath the stars where the songs you’ve forgotten you loved issue forth from the band and you gasp in delight, and you and your guests dance with limbs loosened, and good-looking shoes inexplicably comfortable. The grievances temporarily forgotten, gaps bridged, secrets spoken aloud and toasted to and laughed off. We’ll have that. And it’ll last all night. In fact, it’s going to last the whole weekend, and possibly for several more weeks. And everyone I love will be there, and they’ll never leave. We will form a new community, a new country with it’s own rules and it will all come way under budget. Way. (http://www.kuperblog.com/index.cfm?postID=261)

Found originally on this blog: http://apracticalwedding.com/


So Rachel, Meg, and Mom, hope you're ready!!  =)

we're engaged!

The word is out...Chris and I are engaged!  Here's the story...

Chris suggested that we go to La Grange to have dinner with friends for my birthday.  Of course I agreed, because I'm always up for hanging out with those fun people.  He picked me up from church after the day-long Easter egg hunt on Saturday, and we made our trek to LG.  When he picked me up, he made sure to show me my birthday present, but told me I would get it "sometime before dinner."  I'm not patient.  That car ride was not fun.

On our way to LG, we passed by camp.  Much to my surprise, Chris turns off the country paved road and on to the mile long dirt road I know so well.  He then asks if I'd like my present.  Well, yes of course I would like my present.  But first, he has a song for me to listen to that has a clue in it.  He plays All Your Life by The Band Perry, and I'm stumped.  I make a few lame guesses, but none of them are satisfactory.  (Side note - the first time I played this song for Chris, I ooooo-ed and awwwww-ed over how cute it was, while he rolled his eyes).

By this time, we've driven up to the chapel.  We get out of the car, and he grabs my present from the back seat and we head inside.  We walk up to the front, and Chris FINALLY lets me open my present.  Inside I find these:

They are glass jars with LEDs (the future of lighting) in them that glow like fireflies (a light bulb should go off in your head now, that's the tie in to the song...).  He opened up one of the jars and showed me the LEDs with a very nice ring hanging on it.  Now, I can't really remember exactly what he said, but it was something about fireflies, and it ended with "but only if you'll marry me."  Well, I said, "sure, why not?"  Actually, I said "yes of course."  Then, a moment later I'm pretty sure I said, "wait, this is for reals, right?"

And there you go, that's the story.  Well done, Christopher :)

Here's a picture in the chapel right after we got engaged.

And then we went to dinner with a bunch of friends in LG, and one of them threw a baby at Chris.  Good thing he caught her!

I think MiLisa might have been the most excited...

And no, we don't have a date, or a dress, or colors, or flower girls, or a place yet.  You'll know when it's time.

My garden

Many of you know I like to grow things, so I thought I would make a blog post all about my gardening.  It's so easy in Texas!

This is a tree I planed back in November of 2010.  It's growing strong!

JUST KIDDING!  No garden posts here, but I just had to make someone angry.  Now that she's rolling her eyes and probably saying some choice words to her computer screen, I will continue.

We have an Easter egg hunt coming up at the church, and I didn't want to buy gallons of egg dye, so I started looking around online.  My first options were boiling onion skins and beets and things like that, and I said no thank you.  Next I found some blogs where people died eggs with koolaid - score!  Tonight it felt like I was doing a science fair project all over again.....ah, home sweet home :)

 I used grape, lemonaid, pina-orange and cherry (sorry, the picture turned upside down...blame it on my iphone)

And here are the eggs!  The color is more vibrant in person, but the red and orange look great.  Not sure kids will be thrilled with the brown/purple or the white/yellow, so we will try more tomorrow!

And now on to people pictures...it just keeps getting better, right??

 This little guy is hilarious!  

it's about time...

Here are some pictures from Christmas in Indiana.

 We got to meet Ashlyn!

 And hang out with the coolest kids 'round these parts.

 There's me, BIL, Rach, and the G-parents

 And the fam...

 And my mother being goofy...

 And the other coolest kids!

 That's Dr. Cindy to you.

And we played chess.  Well, BIL played chess and I tried.

Thanks for a great time in Indiana!