Weekends Are Wonderful

Weekends are Wonderful! This past weekend Luke and I worked on the garden, and went hiking at the Guadalupe Mountains located only an hour away from our home. I have garden pics, but plan to post those to tomorrow. Below are some great shots of the mountains for all to enjoy.

Here is our famous sign shot of course! However, you'll notice the added additions!!! We were so excited Jacob and Mandy joined up with us. For those of you who don't know, we have fellow Auburn alums living also an hour away in Hobbs, NM. It really is amazing that no matter where you go, you can find the Auburn family. Jacob is in the same line of work as Luke, so it's nice they can relate to pretty much everything.
This picture of Luke and Mandy looks like a postcard. It really was beautiful!


Such happy hikers at this point!

We were happy hikers the whole time actually, but we do have a good story as it turns out.

This house below is a stop along the trail we were following, however, with a poor map in hand we headed out to continue following the trail, and just couldn't find the path or any markers to help guide us in the right direction. Four college educated folks mind you. So...we headed off following a riverbed in search of our mystery trail. This went on for an hour or two with us following the riverbed, and certain to see a sign sometime soon. After attacks by large cactus plants, and no sign in sight, we finally decided daylight was fading too fast and headed back towards our truck. On the way back out we re glanced at an earlier sign to find that all four of us completely missed the arrow pointing us onto the trail we searched hours for. Oh Well!! We had a blast and made our own trail. We've all decided we'll return and conquer these mountains.

The fog was coming in quickly and daylight fading fast on our way out. The temperature really does start to drop very fast out here.
It was a great weekend! On another quick note--today I start my first day of substitute teaching. I'm only doing a half day of 5th graders today, but tomorrow I have a full day of 1st graders, and then a whole day of 2nd graders on Thursday. Should be a lot of fun! I am really looking forward to 1st grade.

So Excited!

I really thought twice about posting today. I feel like you people are going to get sick of me. However, I was thinking about all of the exciting things happening and wanted to make sure you folks were aware of what this weekend brings.

First off, THE WINTER GAMES!! I love watching any and every sport. I just thinks it's amazing what these people can do. It always motivates me too! If it's the summer games I usually want to go swimming, and the winter games brings out my desire to cut up the slopes on a snowboard. Thankfully we are going snowboarding next weekend, so that desire should be filled easily. The coverage starts today, so DON'T MISS A MIN.

And--

This Sunday airs the newest season of the AMAZING RACE! I love this show and want to really do it one day. I am almost sure they would pick me too! I have the whole storyline thought out, I just question who I should take as my partner. Luke would be great and I do think having a man is almost vital to survival (ex: the only all woman team was elminated on something that every man on each team knocked out easily! They just didn't have the strength).
However, I really think doing the race with a sister would be pretty darn exciting. Plus, they are the ones who expressed interest in doing the race. With my foot being the way it is, and that whole sob story--we know I'm the key to getting in the race, it's just breaking down each sister and seeing who would be the best fit for me!!

Katie my older sister has great street smarts and suprises me all the time being great at different things (ex: she can back any trailer no matter how large). I know that seems like a weird thing, but skills like that come in handy on The Amazing Race!

Jenna my younger sister is extremely smart! She is great with math (something i don't excel in) and speaks spanish. I think she would be better at many of the things I am not too great at since I do consider myself much more street smart and her book smart. So...it's a tough one!!

Last but not least--It's Valentine's Day Sunday! I don't get too caught up in this one, but it's always fun to show a little extra love.

Week Days

Ol Mother Earth has done it again. This past weekend I could have walked around in shorts in a t-shirt, and today we woke up to an inch of snow of the ground! I think this year has had some of the weirdest weather I can remember. For example, Carlsbad residents tell me they only get one snow a year MAX--we've had a ton so far. They say they only get on average 13in of precipitation a year--I think we've already gotten that this year! Weird! I'm glad I hadn't planted anything in the garden as of yet. I think I'll hold off for a couple of weekends now.

Today I'm off to get finger printed and turn in my 80 page application for sub teaching. Holy cow I didn't realize all the paperwork involved in teaching. Hopefully they will qualify me quickly so I can start adding income to the Dorman family. It's been half a year since I last worked! YIKES! I really wish I could have found something out here in my field, but...the whole state of New Mexico is pretty void in terms of cargo. Maybe the next location will be freight friendly :)

Now to touch on my weight journey-- I've been busting it at the gym for the past two weeks and feel pretty good. I'm doing a lot more strength training than ever before and think that explains why the scale hasn't budged.
One thing I HATE and must mention is my butt though. I love my butt don't get me wrong, however it's frustrating!! It's the kind of butt that when worked out well actually grows outward and up. This is great for walking around in a bathing suit, but...I don't walk around in a bathing suit most of my days. So...it actually makes my jeans tighter. BOO to that! I just must remember that some girls would kill for a big round booty! However, I've decided to keep it up! I think having a great, tight, lifted butt is better overall! I'll suck up the tight jeans and pray the waist shrinks enough to make up the difference. Wish me luck people!!!

Susie Homemaker!

Alright! I finally got my phone to play nice and allow me to post pictures from this past weekend.

Here are my finished pillow products! I am pretty excited with how well they turned out. I think Luke was even shocked out how great they came out, and we all know he's hard to impress.
I know I promised picnic pics, but...we had a change of plans and ended up jump starting our New Mexican garden instead. Yes...I do realize that my pants are up beyond any acceptable level for people our age. Don't worry...Luke made fun of me for everyone already!

Here's Luke tilling as well!

Finally...our finished tilled garden! We haven't planted yet, but I have plans for the left half to be beautiful flowers and the right to be yummy veggies. Luke is going to build a compost box and herb box too. So...once we start producing, I'll be sure to post!

Sewing Saturday

Happy Saturday to all!
For Christmas this year I got a Singer sewing machine. I have been wanting one for a while now and finally put it on my Christmas list this year. With the move right after the holidays, I didn't get a chance to really pull it out until yesterday.
I'm going to have to say that setting everything up with the thread felt a little like brain surgery. If you have no idea about anything in the sewing world like me...getting everything in order before you even start to sew is HARD! I did finally get everything together though, and started exploring the different sewing options. My goal this weekend is two new pillow covers for our couch pillows. The current ones are UGLY! Luke has to work for a little bit today, so that's the goal while he is out. So...wish me luck in that adventure!
Once Luke is finished we are going to have a picnic! The weather is just beautiful out, and very warm considering we had snow so recently. I hear the whole East is covered in snow, so I'll post picks for ya'll to live through us. Ha!
Happy Happy Saturday!

Tubing Video

I think I finally got this thing figured out!

Cloudcroft Crazy!

It's amazing such a snowy winter wonderland is only two hours away. Cloudcroft has the feel of an Aspen retreat with little shops lining the streets in a rustic way. Luke and I got into Cloudcroft around 12:30 this past Sunday to eat lunch and hit the slopes. No snowboarding or skiing in store though--we went TUBING! Neither of us had ever been snow tubing before, so this was a great experience. I highly recommend it if you've never been and want to do something for cheap entertainment. The guides working loved both Luke and I, and hooked us up with the fastest tube on the mountain! No seriously though, they buffed the bottom of one tube to increase speed, and so graciously let me borrow thier scared tube for the day. My favorite thing to do was have the workers throw me into a crazy spin down the slope. I think Luke's favorite way was belly down speed racing. He was one of the only people on the slope to hit the fence at the end of the run (meaning he was going REALLY REALLY FAST)! Once you hit the fence the whole crew applauds your dare devil ways. Overall it was a blast! I tried to post a video we took of us flying down the mountain, but for some reason it's not working, so I'll post it on Facebook if possible and you can check it out there. So far I am LOVING this adventure ride in New Mexico! Now...I'm off to find a JOB...still working on that piece of this adventure :)