Sponsors Wanted!

I have just gotten a button made for my site. The longer I am here, the more I get into the things that everyone seems to be doing around here. Because of this, I would love to start having some sponsors. This is for NO charge, though! I would simply love to swap buttons!

For more information, look at the sponsors page at the top that I just got posted!

Email me if you're interested/have any questions! :]

San Antonio - Day 4

Tuesday we decided not to set an alarm again. We were planning to go to the art museum, and we had to wait until four in the afternoon anyway in order to get in for free. Since we weren't really on a time crunch, we allowed ourselves to sleep in again. We ended up getting up a little after eleven, and it was really nice. Then we decided to head downtown again. Like every other time, we ended up in the parking garage again (I think our parking was about 18 dollars that day, which was a little ridiculous!).

The view from the parking garage. It was a convention center that was actually really pretty. We didn't go to anything at it, I just felt like taking pictures that day, I guess! Since it was about lunch time, we decided to get some food before we went to the Alamo. We remembered seeing a McDonalds in the area, so we ended up eating there. It was pretty annoying though. I couldn't stand being around some of the children there. It scares me how some people do not teach their children manners these days.

The view on the way to lunch. The building on the left glows green at night and has some spotlights on top. It's really pretty, though I still need to figure out what the building is! That red sculpture was pretty cool, too. They had another on the other side of town. If you looked to the very right, that's the sign for the mall parking we used the whole week. :]

This beautiful church was on the way there, too. I have a thing for old churches, I find them so amazing. They had some great stain glass, too. It was difficult to get very good pictures since I couldn't get any further away from it. I think you can tell that it's pretty, though.

After lunch we headed for the Alamo! Even though the line to get into the shrine (the front building right there) seemed really long, it really only took us about thirty minutes or so to get in. The wait was not long at all, and there was some wonderful scenery that helped pass the time.

Like this building. I'm still not quite sure what it is, but the detailing on it is beautiful. I just could not stop staring at it. I wish all the cars and things weren't around it. It seems so old, but a lot of the building are like that there. It's like the town built up around them. I love that.

We were at the alamo for awhile, but it wasn't quite two when we finished. We couldn't get to the museum until four, so we had some time to kill. Michael had just been to New Orleans for a business conference he was speaking at, and they went to the original Pat O'Briens there. We saw they had one here, so we decided to stop in. This was their signature drink, the Hurricane. It had A LOT of rum in it. Let me tell you. I'm a small girl, about one hundred pounds, and I don't drink much. I can't handle a lot of alcohol. I couldn't even finish this thing and I was a little tipsy. For the first time, might I add. Michael thought it was hilarious that I giggle at everything, apparently. Anyway, he bought me the glass as well, it's beautiful!

At around 3:20 we finally left the bar and decided we would walk to the museum. His phone said it was only about two miles away from where we were, though it looked a lot further on the maps we looked at. We both enjoy walking, so we decided it wouldn't be too bad. Unfortunately, we had to walk through a bad part of town, and it did make me a little uncomfortable. We had an old, homeless guy yelling at us which did freak me out. However, we did finally make it to the San Antonio Museum of Art. This is the back view of it. We got there a little after four, and got in for free. Woo!

Something I should probably tell you all is that I am a huge Mythology fan. I took the class in college, but I've always been in love with it. I find it incredibly interesting, though I really just love literature in general. They had this incredible statue of Athena, along with other Greek gods, but she has always been one of my favorites. Though we enjoy art, Michael and I are fans of contemporary art...

Unfortunately, their contemporary art section was pretty small. They had some amazing things though, and we enjoyed looking at them. We were there about an hour, which was pretty nice. Then as we went outside to check out the back patio, we realized that the riverwalk goes ALL the way to the museum. We were so frustrated! It did not look like that on the map! It did make it a couple miles longer than the other way, but we felt more comfortable with it. We almost took the water taxi, but it was 15 a piece, and we didn't mind walking. It's beautiful, after all!

It took us awhile to get back to downtown, but we walked hand-in-hand the whole time, and it was really nice. We ended up having dinner on the riverwalk again (Tex-Mex again. We're a little obsessed with chips and salsa, but we are from Texas!). It wasn't quite as good as the other place, though. After that we finally headed back to the hotel, feeling exhausted from walking about eight miles that day!


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I cannot believe it's already Sunday and spring break is over! I have to return to work tomorrow, and I know my sixth graders will probably be crazier than they were before break! It's crazy, but I only have about seven weeks until graduation now. Have a good week!

-Tiffany

San Antonio - Day 3

Monday was the only day we actually set an alarm for. Why, you ask? Because we were heading to Sea World! We knew with it being spring break pretty much all over Texas that it was going to be crazy, especially with how many people were clearly around San Antonio already. So we set our alarms and we got up so that we could try to get there at 10 when they opened. Since my brothers work at Southwest Airlines, they were able to get us discount tickets which ended up saving us over twenty dollars. It also saved us from having to stand in one line to buy tickets, we just had to stay in the one to actually get inside. Since my camera isn't the best, we took Michael's. I had him take pictures since I really can't watch and take pictures.

So we finally got into the park around 10:20. We got our map and show schedule, and saw that the Shamu show was showing at 11, so we decided to walk to the far side of the park in order to see it. Luckily we got there early, because it got packed! It was great though!

There was a baby! She was kind of training him as they did the show, but he went up on the platform at the end, and it was adorable!

They're such incredible animals. It's impossible for me to think that they could be capable of hurting someone if they wanted to. They seem so calm and loving with the trainers.

They could wave!

The baby is jumping with it's mom or dad! It really was adorable!

This was the very end of the show. Aren't they precious? I really enjoyed seeing the orcas!

The Shamu show lasted for about twenty minutes, so then we looked back at the showtimes to see what we wanted to do next. There was a show starting at noon that had beluga whales, white sided dolphins, and acrobats, so we decided to check it out. Once again, we were glad we got there early because it got crazy pretty quickly. We always moved to the far sides, you could see really well and no one went there first because they wanted to sit in the middle. The show really was incredible!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the beluga whales. All they really did was push the trainers around, so it was difficult to get pictures of them. However, the dolphins were incredible! She had them jumping over her.

There were several divers, I think about six of them. They were dressed to look like lizards. They did jumps off the diving boards, but also things from the very top of the building. It was amazing!

She was amazing! She did her act with just a hoop and a ribbon, and she was suspended in the air. It was beautiful, and I felt like I could probably watch it for awhile. I can't imagine how strong she has to be in order to hold herself up in the ribbon.

Aren't they so cute? During the summer mom and I went on a cruise and in Cozumel we got to swim with the dolphins. So I've gotten to touch them and give one a kiss, they're such incredible animals! 

After that, we weren't too sure what to do. The next show we might want to see was not until 4:30, and it was about 12:30 at the time. We decided to go ahead and eat there, and it was crazy! There were so many people, but we ended up having some decent food, and we found a table after a few minutes of searching. After that, he went through and saw the dolphin cove where you could pay to feed them (we did not, I can't touch the little fish they eat, ick!) and then we went through and saw some sharks and other fish. After that we started looking through the gift shops. I ended up getting an adorable Beluga whale magnet and a shot glass (We collect them from places we travel), and Michael bought a beautiful Dolphin statue for our first place together. 

After taking those things to the car and getting back to the park, I allowed him to drag me onto the suspended roller coaster. I HATE roller coasters. I HATE that stomach dropping feeling. I HATE heights. Ultimately, I was not excited. However, I knew he really wanted to do it, so I sucked it up. 

This would be me, feeling completely sick after riding the roller coaster. However, they had giraffes, so I just had to take a picture by them! It took about a half hour, but I felt better, and I was glad it made him happy that I went on the roller coaster. It was about 3:30 at that point. It was hot and completely crowded, so we decided just to hear out. Instead, we went and got ice cream on the way back to the hotel. We went back to the hotel and watched some Friends (probably a lot of it, actually, we're both obsessed), then we went and had an incredible dinner at Olive Garden. We got a dessert that was amazing!

I didn't enjoy Sea World as much as I thought I would. I'm sure it would probably be more fun if we were younger or had kids. I look forward to going back in the future when we do have children though, I think it will be a lot of fun then.

-Tiffany

Help!

I would really like to do a linkup after I finish my series about my spring break vacation, but I definitely need some help. I'm working on getting a banner made for it, but I don't really know what to so from there. Could someone help me with how to make a link for the banner that will bring people back to my post, and how do I open up a thing for people to link up to the post?

Obviously I'm completely unaware of how these things work! Any help would be great! :]

San Antonio - Day 2

This was our first whole day in San Antonio, and I have to say that it was pretty good! The night we got in we sat in the hotel and kind of talked about what we wanted to do for the rest of the week, though our plans did end up changing some. We decided that we would go to the zoo the next morning though, and then we went to bed. As you all know, we sprung forward on Sunday, but we didn't worry about setting an alarm. It was a vacation after all! So, thanks to the time change, we ended up finally waking up and getting out of bed at NOON. It was wonderful! Then we got up and headed out to the zoo. While my mom was texting me about how bad the weather was back home, this is what we got outside to...

It was wonderful! Especially after driving through the rain all day the day before. It was still a little cool when we got to the zoo, but we still enjoyed it a lot. (You see, I'm secretly still a child inside, and I LOVE zoos. In face, I went with Michael's family to our zoo today. That will be a whole other post!) Anyway, I got some pretty nice pictures there, too!

 1. The elephant was SO cute, it was swinging it's trunk back and forth like it was dancing. I took a video of it as well :]
2. Look at that hippo! I could not believe how big it was!
3. I loved this bear because we're always telling my dog he looks like a black bear (and obviously he understands this), so I just had to take a picture!
4. Zebras are cute, enough said.
5. I just like the picture, rhinos are huge, too!
6. Isn't the cheetah pretty just laying there?

The only thing that really upset me about this zoo was that they did NOT have giraffes! (what kind of zoo is that, anyway?). They had them on the directories around, but not on the recent maps. So they don't have them anymore :/

We thought the zoo would take us a lot longer, but it only took us a couple of hours, and that was even with having lunch there. Gotta love hot dogs and chips! So then we had to sit in the car and decide what we wanted to do the rest of the day so we did not waste gas going to the hotel and out again. Like I ended with yesterday, sure enough we ended up back at that mall. We ended up having to use the parking garage again since everywhere else was full. We decided to check out Ripley's Believe it or Not, since we had never been before.

I have to tell you, it was pretty cool! There were a lot of unique things to see. One of the many things I love about Michael is how much he loves learning as well. It took us a lot longer than most people because we always have to stop and read everything. I'm glad we did, because they had a lot of interesting things! Like this giraffe skeleton (had to have giraffes somewhere since the zoo certainly didn't!)

 Or this Eiffel Tower made completely out of toothpicks!

It was pretty neat, and it took up some time as well, which was really nice. After that, since we were already paying for parking and we were right there, we headed down to the riverwalk to walk around for awhile. We had already decided we would eat there tonight, too. We found a place called Ritas, and it was amazing. (It also helps me towards completing a number on my 101/1001 list. Eating at new restaurants). They had great margaritas, too! After dinner we headed back to the hotel where we watched some Big Bang Theory and went to be early! Come back tomorrow to read about day three: Sea World!

-Tiffany

San Antonio - Day 1

As some of you may have read, Michael and I had originally intended to go to Disney World. Since we can fly for free thanks to my brothers' jobs (they do payroll for Southwest Airlines) we would only have to pay for the package for hotel and parking admission. Unfortunately, as it got closer the flights filled up. Since we have to fly standby in order to fly free, it quickly became obvious that we were not going to be able to go. To say we were bummed was definitely an understatement. However, there wasn't much we could do! About a week before our spring break I was thinking about things we might be able to do over spring break instead, and then it came to me. Sure enough, great minds think alike, because Michael was thinking about the same thing; San Antonio!

We had both been when we were younger. I moved to Texas when I was seven, and I'd say my family probably went when I was about nine. While I remember going, and a couple family stories we will never forget, I didn't remember much of the details so we thought it would be perfect to go again. So, he came in from school Thursday night since he doesn't have classes on Friday, and I worked all day Friday and then came home and packed (last minute, of course). We got some sleep, and then left around ten on Saturday. I could tell my dad was stressing out, and that did amuse me a little. I'm not sure how he is going to survive when I'm married and no longer living with them.

The drive should have taken about five hours. According to the GPS we should have been there by around 2:46. However, we hit a lot of traffic, especially in Austin which was not surprising at all despite UT having their spring break next week. So with traffic and stops, and then an accident right inside San Antonio, we ended up getting to the hotel at about 5:30. It felt like an incredibly long drive! We made one stop too, where the worker proceeded to tell me I looked just like his niece and asked if he could take a picture of me, which I found pretty creepy. Needless to say, we got out of there pretty quickly!

The hotel was nice though, especially for the $49 a night price we got it for. We hung around the hotel for awhile, both tired from the drive in. At about seven we decided to go get some dinner. We headed for a Chilis since we had a giftcard, and ended up at the mall, which was a nightmare. The Chilis was part of the mall, and we had to wait about thirty minutes outside. Naturally it was the coldest it was the whole time we were there. Luckily, we had a wonderful view of the riverwalk while we waited.

We finally got seated, but the whole experience was a nightmare as well. We only saw our actual waitress once, while another girl helped us the whole time. There was an annoying group of college kids beside us cussing every other word, and they got Michael's order wrong and then took about fifteen minutes to fix it. It was the worst restaurant experience I've ever had and we were thrilled to get out of there. We decided to avoid the mall from that point on, but that didn't really work out too well...

That was pretty much our day one! Sorry I didn't take anymore pictures, but all of the other posts will have many, MANY more! (Once I make sure to get the ones off of Michael's camera as well) Day two will come tomorrow! Happy Thursday!

-Tiffany

Guess whose back!

That's right! I have returned from vacation this afternoon. I planned to post a bit earlier, but I've been super tired ever since I got out of the car! I'm not sure why that is since I was not doing the actual driving, but that seems to be the way it goes. Anyway, I am planning to do a post series about the trip, probably a different post for each individual day. At the end of the series I think I am going to do a link up for something exciting you guys may have done for spring break, or just for fun so far this March! (I just have to figure out how to do the linky stuff!) Hope everyone is having a great week!

Spring Break

It's finally spring break time! While I have been enjoying student teaching and really care about my sixth graders, I definitely need a break right about now! I can't believe in about eight weeks I'll be graduating from college (one week is spring break, and then I have a week off between my last day of student teaching and graduation). Anyway, back to the point of this post...

If you have read through my 101/1001 list (it's on it's own page and can be found up on the page tab ^^^), then you know one of my things is to go on a spontaneous road trip. Well, Michael and I really wanted to go somewhere this spring break. We haven't gotten to spend much time together this semester, and we've never gone on a trip just the two of us for more than a weekend. Our intent was to go to Disney World since we can fly for free on standby, but then all of the flights filled up. (Boo!). After that, we decided we just wouldn't go anywhere.

Then, about a week ago, I sent him a text asking how he felt about going to San Antonio. We had both been there before, but it was when we were young with our families, so I knew we would appreciate it in a whole new way. So, while it might not be completely "spontaneous," it is for us. We like to make sure we have a place to stay when we go somewhere, so we did book a hotel.

So as of tomorrow morning we are off to spend some time together. Seeing Shamu and some great museums, I'm really looking forward to it. I will be gone tomorrow until sometime on Wednesday, so I will talk to you all again, then!

Have a great weekend/week!
-Tiffany

Bridesmaids

When I decided on the bridesmaids for my wedding, it was actually a really difficult decision. I had some friends from my hometown, but some great ones from school as well. However, I didn't have too many friends that I counted as "best friends," people that I could rely on to be there and do things if I needed them to. Well, slowly I began putting together my group. My close friend for ages is my maid of honor, and I wouldn't have it any other way. She has struggled a lot in her own life, but she's still such an upbeat person. I know that she loves me and that she will do anything she can to make the wedding and all events before it wonderful.

I think chose two friends from college, Jesica and Sarah. While it will be a three hour drive for Jesica anytime she has to come, she was more than willing to do all of that. We're incredibly close and I wouldn't want to do it without her. Sarah and I were roommates for a year and it was my best dorm experience ever. I was so sad when she had to move into her sorority  house the next year. She lives closer by, so it's not a big deal for her. She already graduated in December and already works around here which is great!

For my last two (yes, that means five girls. It started as four, but then there was one that I just had to add. Sometimes it works out like that, and we had not purchased the dresses yet or anything, so it was all good), we have known each other since middle school. We grew up in the same town where Courtney and I went to church together as well, and Becca and I were inseparable. We were all three close through high school when we did drill team together, and just about everything else, really.

Anyway, this brings me to the true point of my post. I have a friend, let's call her C. We started school together in third grade and went through together from that point. For a long time we lived about four blocks from each other and I was always at her place for birthday parties and what not. Her parents became like second parents to me. It was nice. However, when I went off to school she stayed here (with a boyfriend I could not stand). I didn't get to come home a lot, she didn't try to contact me a lot, so naturally we grew apart. Occasionally we would meet up, but usually I would have to be the one to do the meeting. Well, last year she called me and told me she was pregnant, and that she was excited about it. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against having children before you're married as long as you are responsible enough to do so, and she was not. The whole thing was just upsetting because she handled it in the wrong way, and her boyfriend was awful. Well, we never discussed the wedding, but when she got the Save the Date with our website, I assumed she would go there, where we have listed our bridal party.

Obviously not. Or she just wants to hear it from me.

She keeps sending me all these text messages asking if she's in the wedding. That she needs to know so she knows how fast to lose the baby weight. I have no idea how to respond. On one hand, I feel bad because we had been friends for so long. We did grow apart though, and she has new responsibilites. Ultimately, I have no idea what to say to her. Why is mom always out of town when these things come up?

Welp, I guess I'm off to student teaching. Happy Tuesday!
-Tiffany.

It's Follow Friday!

It's Follow Friday over at Hollie Takes Notes

Link up!