Day 22: Favorite Vacation...

Hmm... this is a hard one because I am such a travel fanatic.

Even though it is cliche I am going to with our honeymoon. We went to Cozumel and spend one day in Play Del Carmen...

Our honeymoon was amazing- we had our own private entrance to the beach, our own hot tub on our veranda and it was definately the most relaxing trip I have ever been on. The food was great, it was beautiful there and I loved spending a full 7 days with Ryan with no interruptions from the outside world. Yeah, hands down it was definately the best vacation! If I could repeat it I would jump on a plane in 1 hour and be the happiest person on the planet.

Our private entrance to the beach- i was standing on our veranda we were SO close to the water.

La Playa Bonita- it was my favorite beach. We found it while driving around the Cozumel and spent an afternoon there totally by ourselves- that was pretty cool!

My other top vacations are definately Lake Tahoe, Napa Valley and Charleston.

Easter!

Just trying to keep up with the 30 day blog plan has been hard enough so needless to say I haven't blogged about life lately...


I know Easter is long gone but I want to write about it because it really is one of my favorite holidays. This year was so great because we were back in The Woodlands with family- last year we didn't come down and it just wasn't the same not seeing my family etc. We went to church that morning and the service was really great and moving, I definately cried. The thing that I love about Easter the most is that it is the ultimate new beginning and it changed our world forever. Although there are no take-backs in life there is forgiveness and from God there is complete redemption and that is amazing. Easter is such a pefect picture of grace, hope and future and I honestly don't know how people make it through the day without the support and belief that Jesus is the one and only way to heaven and He is our new beginning. After the service we took fun pictures with one of our new couple friends... I like to refer to them as A & E. Here they are in all of their glory...

Me with my handsome hubby!

Aron and Elyse- they are so cute!

Me and E!! love her!

Our crazy husbands!!

After our papparazi moment we headed out to the petting zoo where there were baby goats, kangaroos and event a camel- this is me talking him... he was cute. smelly. but cute.

Hello Camel...

Then we headed to my parent's house for our annual Easter Sunday Los Cucos fajitas feast and I made this easter Hummingbird cake:

After we were stuffed we then took family pictures and went swimming... here is a million more pictures of us:

Mom, me and sister

us with our cousin Ethan

Nana, me, my sister and my Aunt- Scout is in the background :-) 

Happy Belated Easter!!

Day 21: Favorite City

 This is a hard one... my favorite city to live in would be Fort Worth, but favorite city to visit is a hard one to answer. I really love Charleston, Paris, Nashville and Lake Tahoe. I mean even looking at this picture of Paris makes me miss it...

If I must pick just one I guess I would say Charleston. I loved the food and personality of the city. It was so homey, clean and I loved biking everywhere.

My least favorite would definately be Vegas. Of course I had fun when I went but I don't really have much of a desire to go back- too dirty, hot and crowded.

What are your favorite cities??

Day 20: Nicknames...

Mine are not very inventive... Come on people- get creative with the nicknames! J/K
Obviously my most popular is just Jen- rarely do people ever call me Jennifer. Here are a few other ones...

Jenny from the block
Jen-Jen
JenLea
Jenny-Lea
Q-ball
Qualls
J-Lo
JJ
J-squared
The fabulous J
Flying J

Did I leave any out??

Dsy 19: Something you miss...

Fort Worth!! Big surprise right? I really do miss the city, bbq, all the fun things to do and most importantly the people! 2 of my closest friends in the world live there and it has been quite the adjustment being without them. Luckily we take turns visiting and so I still get to see them but it's just not enough! When you move away from your family your friends really become your extended family and we all just became a huge part of one another's lives. I would never take the time I spent back with them and miss them everyday. I also just miss the excitement and the newness of our life back there- we were always visiting new places, eating new food and anything else that comes with getting to know a new city. We still have fun here but now it's more about revisiting places we love instead if finding new spots.

Although there is no doubt in my mind that we are supposed to be back in The Woodlands I do wish we were just a little closer to Fort Worth. I miss and love you Raven and Katie and all of my extended family in Fort Worth!

Day 18: Something you regret

Hmmm... I am not an advocate of regretting things. You can't take anything back so thinking about it seems like a waste of time but I will continue on this blogging challenge and give an answer...


I regret putting other things in front of enjoying life- whether it be work, responsibilities, trying to control things or even just trying to fix broken relationships. I tend to focus on trying to make things perfect and it's just not worth it. This is something I learned about myself a few years ago and at times it's great because it gives me a good work ethic and makes me work hard at being a good wife, friend, daughter etc. but like with anything too much is exhausting and I can't really "fix" or control anything. I wrote a post a while ago about how beautiful not being in control can be and this really goes back to that...

So what if the house gets a little messy, someone gets annoyed because I didn't do what they thought I should or I finish that work project tomorrow before the deadline instead of today- the world will not fall off the hinges. Moving to Fort Worth really helped with this because I had to dive into the unknown which is scary for me and it turned out to be amazing so I look forward to more opportunities like that one.

In college I was very responsible and worked alot- sometimes I wish I had concentrated more on just enjoying my sorority and living in the tiny h-ville as opposed to setting myself up for a career. I have great college memories don't get me wrong- I had a blast but I also put alot of pressure on myself. I am not saying that my hard work didn't pay off because now I have a great job and get to work from home but  I don't want to look back on the chapter I am in now and wish I had taken more risks etc. but that I had truly lived life to the fullest.

Single, Married, Kids, No Kids, College, High School, etc. live in YOUR chapter. Don't get me wrong I think that planning is great and that goals are necessary in life but none of this should take away from your enjoyment of what is happening now becaue you will never get it back. I am also not saying that being responsible isn't important because it is but as with anything there must be a balance. 

I know this post is supposed to be about regrets but I would rather focus on living a life without regret- don't you wish that we could keep no record of our own wrongs just as God doesn't keep our records?? Sometimes a little bit of amnesia would be great... I try not to dwell on the past but more on living a life without regrets and worries. I actually would not consider myself much of a worrier because I am such a planner that worry rarely sets in but one verse that I would like to leave this post with is one that is such a challenge...

Matthew 6:34 - Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Day 17: Something you are looking forward to...

Well, I am looking forward to a lot of things in life! One short term thing that I am looking forward to is definately summer! The nature of my job is that our busy time is during the school year so we get a huge break during the summer! Every year I really look forward to it and this year is no different :-) The nature of Ryan's job is that summer is his busiest season so that being said I look forward to the time that we spend away together. We aren't planning any huge trips for this summer but we hope to do a few long weekends away- I definately look forward to that since my life is one big waiting room until the next vacation. :-)

Long term, I look forward to paying off student loans, having babies (in the far away future) and traveling! We want to take a big trip when Ryan graduates next year- we are thinking Greece or just doing a European tour type of thing. It has been way to long since I have been to Europe so I definately look forward to that!