Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Busy Bees

Well in the middle of March we drove to Coppell to see my family and celebrate my momma's birthday. The seven hour drive from Clovis does NOT leave enough time and I always dread the drive back home to New Mexico. My mom, sisters, aunts, and I attended a wedding shower for my soon to be cousin-in-law, Liz. It was so nice and the food was delicious! If you ever get a chance to eat at The Dove's Nest in Waxahachie, do it! The tea room is so cute and the shopping in the square is equally nice. Since we had Vegas coming up, we left Roy in Coppell. It has been two and a half weeks and I miss him SO much - he is my baby boy! How can you not miss this face??


Since we moved to Clovis after we got married, we did not have time to take our honeymoon. We had planned on taking our honeymoon to Orlando, Florida. I like warm places and escaping New Mexico winter would have been nice. We ended up canceling our trip because we wanted more time with family. It turns out that canceling our plans was a good idea because we lost Paw Paw during the time we would have been gone. So it was nice being able to be with family during that time.

When planning a new honeymoon, we decided on VEGAS!


Vegas was such a blast! It is always weird leaving a small city and traveling to a larger city. We always miss all the food options we get in larger cities. When we got to Vegas on Wednesday, we checked into our hotel and then went walking around the city. SO. MUCH. WALKING. Just a little advice if you are going to Vegas, pack comfortable shoes! The city designs the walkways to where you have to pass eeeevery hotel and casino. How convenient. Our first show we saw was Blue Man Group at The Venetian on Thursday. I have seen BMG in NYC before, but it was still amazing! Michael says BMG was his favorite show. Him being a drummer, he said he is going to BE a blue man some day. Good luck with that one, babe! When we called to buy tickets, we just went with the cheapest option. The guy ended up calling us back and said if we went to the 10PM show instead, they would upgrade us to 8th row and center for FREE! Of course, we said yes!


On Friday we walked around town and ate dinner at a place we found on Urbanspoon (great iPhone app. by the way!). We found a New York Pizza place called No Name Pizza Kitchen. All the reviews said the pizza is amazing, but good luck finding it in the hotel. We took on the challenge. NNPK is in The Cosmopolitan. When we walked in we immediately asked a worker where to go. He had no idea what we were talking about so we asked someone else. When we asked, he laughed at us, but explained where it was. Once we got to the right floor, we could not remember the restaurants he said it is next to. Mind you, this place has NO sign out front and is down a long, narrow, hallway. We asked yet another person and she directed us to the right location. The pizza is absolutely the best pizza I have ever eaten in my entire life. You MUST try and find this place when you are in Vegas. After pizza, we gambled for awhile. Well, Michael gambled. I only like the slots and they were not very nice to me. The first day, I won $25, but should have stopped there. The going good never lasts for long! Michael played roulette until it was time for Cirque Du Soleil's "O". This show is incredible! As you might know, there are several Cirque Du Soleil options in Vegas. "O" is the one that uses water. The stuff they do in this show is just so unreal. By far my favorite show of the entire trip. Thank you thank you thank you to Toney and Terrie for buying these 13th row and center tickets for us!!!!


Oh my, I making this post really long! Sorry y'all!

Our last show we saw was The Price is Right - so much fun! Granted, this was not the real show with Drew Carey, but they gave everyone an equal chance to win so it differed from the real thing. We still got the price tag name tags. When we were walking in, the guy in front of us, who was hilarious, shouts "APRIL, COME ON DOWN!" He did this to about 10 other people. He was way excited (the alcohol probably contributed to it as well). We ended up with great seats for this show as well, we were at a reserved table which was basically third row.

Throughout our trip, we met a lot of nice people. Whenever they asked us where we were from we said Texas. We could not bear telling people we were (now) from New Mexico. We also got told we do not sound like we are from Texas - what a disappointment - especially since Michael can be such a hick! I cannot wait for the day when I can honestly say we are traveling from Texas. We are just 15 minutes to the border... close enough you think??

At the end of this week, we will be traveling to Coppell again, but this time is for Claire and Cody's wedding! We are so excited for the two of them! The travel will be hard on us, but we cannot wait to share their special day with them! We will also be bringing Roy back home with us! I have been having dreams that he does not know who I am anymore and does not love me. I know, call me crazy.

We also recently made a big purchase... are you ready for it???


WE BOUGHT A MOTORCYCLE! Michael's co-worker was selling his bike and so we got a really good deal on it. We thought a lot about it before purchasing it, but in the end, it will help save money on gas. Michael has been driving it back and forth to work, and in the end, it will pay for itself with what we save in gas. We also plan to take mini-vacations with it to see the sights of New Mexico.

Well that is what has been going on with us and I hope to update y'all again soon on many more exciting times to come!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

What We've Been Up To

Well I am new to this whole blogging deal, but we are going to give it a go! We want to be able to update all of our family and friends on what we have been up to lately. This is going to be a long one, so I apologize in advance. Here is the jest of it:

November 2010:
WE GOT MARRIED! Our wedding was everything we could have ever asked for and more. Thank you to our family and friends who made our big day so special. I do not think we could ever thank everyone enough. It was such a relaxed, laid-back wedding and that is exactly what we hoped for. We just wanted everyone to eat, dance, and have a great time. We hope everyone enjoyed themselves. We spent our wedding night and next day in Houston, Texas relaxing (while family and friends packed our house, again, THANK YOU!) before our big move to Clovis, New Mexico. We ate a lunch at Houston's (my favorite restaurant from back home), saw a movie, ate very nice dinner at Perry's Steakhouse, and headed back to College Station to our empty house. Leaving our house in College Station was bittersweet. We bought the house thinking it would be our first home together, but God had different plans and brought us here. 

December 2010:
 We got moved to Clovis, New Mexico and unpacked. The unpacking took awhile, but I had nothing else to do while Michael was at work.

We are sad to say that we lost Paw Paw (Michael's grandfather Ray) during this month after battling cancer. He fought his hardest and now he is one of God's angels and no longer has to suffer. We all miss him. 

We spent a few days before Christmas with my family and Christmas day with Michael's family. The day after Christmas we drove to Waco, Texas to be a part of Jake and Jenna Hartsfield's wedding! Their wedding was beautiful and we are so glad we got to spend such a wonderful day with them before they moved to Charleston, South Carolina where Jake is stationed for the Navy. 

We drove back to De Leon for a few days of hunting. Guess what?? I SHOT MY FIRST DOE! The feeling was unreal and I swear my heart was about to bounce out of my chest! The initial sound of the rifle startled me and I closed my eyes when I pulled the trigger, oopps. When I opened my eyes I did not see the doe anymore and Michael feared she jumped over the fence. We walked out to look for her and my hopes were dropping fast until I spotted her in a clearing. We got summer sausage, ground meat, and tenderloins. I like to joke when we make burgers that I, literally, killed our dinner.

On New Years Eve we drove to College Station, Texas for our friends, Carolyn and Rob Hetrick's wedding. It was GORGEOUS! And so fun. I loved being able to see a lot of our friends we used to hang out with when we lived in College Station and it was a great start for the New Year. 

January 2011:
I started school at Eastern New Mexico University, and so far, I absolutely LOVE it. The campus is a good size and the people just do not get much better there. Yeah there are some weirdos, but I hope to make some friends soon. Not too much went on here, but my mom and sister Jenna did come visit and it was just what I needed before classes started! Being so far away is definitely difficult... Michael's parents also came out after classes started. They did not stay long, but I do not think Toney would know what to do with himself out in these parts. Haha. 

February 2011:
My childhood dog from home, Minnie passed away early this month. She got real sick and I prayed to God to end her suffering, which she passed the next morning. I love and miss her a lot. On that same day though, a door to door salesman came to our house. When I opened the door, an excited puppy ran straight into the house! She ran back out, but I tracked her down to see if she had tags and took her to the vet to see if she had a microchip; she did not. We currently still have her. She is ten hands full, but is super sweet and her puppy head tilts are simply irresistible. We, or shall I say Michael, named her Kimber. Imagine that! ;)

Michael went to Washington D.C. the first part of February for work training. While he away Terrie came and stayed with me. I really enjoyed it because if I was here in this house by myself I would have been sleeping with a gun under my pillow! 

We also attended a USPSA shoot at the local gun range, Patriot Outdoors, where Michael competed and placed FIRST PLACE in his division! Way to go, babe! It was his first shoot and he was definitely nervous, but wants to compete in many more to come.
 
March 2011:
It is the beginning of March so not much has gone on here, but we are going to Dallas for my mom's birthday and my cousin's wedding shower. I am SO excited to see all of my family - I miss them so much!! My wonderful, amazing, loving husband also changed my brake pads and rotors for me! Oh my goodness I extremely thankful he is so handy because those needed to be changed BAD. At the end of this month we are taking our honeymoon to VEGAS! So stoked! We are going to The Price is Right (HECK YEAH!), Cirque De Soleil "O", and Blue Man Group. SUPER stoked about Blue Man Group because after we booked our tickets we got a call back saying they would upgrade for free to the 8th row if we went and saw the show at 10pm instead of 7pm! 
Well friends, I think I have drug this out long enough. I hope to stick with this so y'all can see what's up in the Prather household.