What I've been up to

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted anything on my blog. I'm terrible!

I was going to try to update everything in order, but since Blogger is not my friend, the pictures went up in random order.

*On Friday, I got a pedicure. I haven't ever painted my toes any other color than red, pink, or purple. So this green was way different. I like it though, it reminds me of Easter!

*Want to know what it's like to drive to Del Rio? Besides the tiny towns, this is all you get after you leave San Antonio. I tried to take a picture of the waterless rivers, but none of the pictures turned out very good.

*On Thursday of this past week, Dad and I went to see how his plane is looking. He found something wrong with it a few months ago and of course once it was taken apart to be fixed, everything else needed fixing too. It's almost ready!

*See those two planes above? Those belong to Russe11 Stover Candies. Dad and I peeked in them for a few seconds and um, I would like to fly in one of these very soon, please!

*Also on Thursday, I decided to make a couple of crafts! Both of these took me less than 20 minutes a piece and turned out super cute!

I got the flower idea here!

*My 22nd birthday was last Saturday and luckily I got to spend it with Taylor in Del Rio! We've never spent my actual birthday together, so that was nice. Just another perk of Taylor being in Texas!

Taylor, Ryan, Marie and I went to Whataburger after I got into town on Friday night and we ended up staying until almost 1 A.M. (!) We decided to take a couple of pictures to commemorate not only the start of my birthday but also Marie and Ryan's first trip to Whataburger! They were big fans of the ketchup and the onion rings!

It's only been 5 days since I've been back from Del Rio, but it feels like much longer! I am already counting down the days until I get to go back!

Day 1

Today is the day Taylor starts Phase I of pilot training.

I am so proud and also excited for him as he starts this incredible journey.

This phase is full of lots of academics and preparing for Phase II which will be the time he actually gets back into an airplane. Taylor's a smart kid so I think he'll be fine in this first phase. Especially because he has so many great friends with him in his class to study with!

If it were me and I had all those friends in my class, I would most definitely fail out of pilot training because I have zero group study skills. I like to turn group study time into "what did you do this weekend" time.

Also, another funny side note, last week I had a dream that I was in pilot training with Taylor and I had no clue how I had gotten there or what the heck I was supposed to be doing there. I was so sad because I didn't really want to be a pilot but I didn't want to fail out either. I also wondered how on earth I was going to learn everything in the classes that everyone else had already had time to study.

Thank goodness it was a dream! I'd like to stick to being Taylor's cheerleader for now.

Oh yeah...back to Taylor.

Even though I know it will be extremely hard on some days, I know that Taylor will be fine. He's the coolest kid I know, after all!

Good Luck Taylop-goo. I love you!

Where am I?

After a trip from one end of Texas to the other, I am finally back home. It's weird how simply sitting in a car can wear you out almost as much as running a couple of miles!

Sometime last week, Taylor and I decided to take a quick trip to San Antonio so we could celebrate the start of Taylor's pilot training class. When I say sometime last week and quick trip, I mean that we decided on Monday to go, I left here on Wednesday, we checked into our hotel on Thursday, and we were back in Del Rio by Saturday.

Once our San Antonio plans were finalized, we decided to extend our trip to Lubbock. Since Taylor will be busy for the next year or so, he wanted to spend some time with his family. I got to tag along because I love me some Veretts!

SO, I left home on Wednesday and drove to Del Rio for the night and then we got up and headed to San Antonio on Thursday afternoon. After getting settled in, we walked to Sushi Zushi in downtown and oh my full belly. I ate so much that I barely made it back to the hotel before I slipped into a food coma. I have never had sushi that delicious and I'm counting down the hours until I can go back.

On Friday, we decided to walk a couple of blocks to the Riverwalk and the Alamo. Fortunately/unfortunately it was two days after the 175th Texas Independence Day so there were kids everywhere. I really had to restrain myself from telling kids to stop climbing the walls of the Alamo.

Luckily we were able to get a decent picture in front of the Alamo without too many people in front of it. While we were there, they were constructing some sort of shape with yellow roses. 

On our way back through the Riverwalk to our hotel, we found a nice Ice cream/gelato shop. Taylor had plain vanilla and I got this pretty rainbow flavor. An older couple in the ice cream shop told the owner that they didn't need his help choosing a flavor because they go to Italy all the time and they KNOW gelato.

After our afternoon excursion, we headed back to the hotel and
napped until it was time for.....

Taylor and I thought seeing Wicked would be really fun and it also happened to be the last show during San Antonio so we didn't want to miss this opportunity. We were not disappointed! I loved it so much! I think Taylor even had a good time.

I may have gotten in trouble for taking this picture. They are strict at the Majestic theater! I just wanted to document the moment, people!

On Saturday we drove back to Del Rio for the night and then woke up bright and early for the long drive to Lubbock on Sunday. 

There happens to be a stretch of 80 miles with ZERO civilization and I may or may not have had a full bladder the entire 80 miles. Taylor graciously stopped as soon as we found indoor plumbing though so crisis averted. Also, those 80 miles were full of twists and turns and no shoulders on the roads. 

While we were in Lubbock, we met up with a couple of Taylor's friends for lunch, and got to enjoy some quality Verett time.

On Wednesday, we said our goodbyes and made the drive back to Del Rio. On our way back, we stopped in Ozona, Texas and found an indoor Sonic. Is that even legal? 

I spent one more night in Del Rio before heading home on Thursday. As usual, I didn't want to leave so I took my sweet time getting ready to leave and before I knew it, 2pm had rolled around. Oopsie. 

My trip home though was one of the more eventful. In Uvalde, I saw 7 Border Patrol officers and TWELVE regular police officers stopped at a car wash and arresting one person. Holy cow!

Then in San Antonio, there was a really bad wreck that completely blocked 3 out of 4 lanes so it took an hour to get out of the city. Plus, it was also around 4:30 and I think some of that was work traffic. Austin happened to be just as bad, but in two separate places. One delay was because a road light fell into one of the lanes. Just try to picture that. I'm not sure how it happened, but I do know that a lot of people lost their minds over it and forgot how to drive. I can usually make the drive from Del Rio to my house in about 5 hours, but this time it took me almost 8. 

So, just to recap in case you got lost throughout all of our travels...Frost, Del Rio, San Antonio, Del Rio, Lubbock, Del Rio, Frost. I think that I spent a total of 30 or so hours in the car over the week. Although we had lots of fun, I will not be riding or driving anywhere in the near future. 

I'm so glad I got to spend so much time with Taylor before I lose him to pilot training! Hopefully after I recover from my car aversion, I will be able to make another Del Rio trip soon. I'm already excited!

I hope this isn't for a grade...

I know everyone is dying to know how my challenges are going. Ok, probably not but I'm going to tell you anyways because I want to.

I haven't had a soft drink since last week! I started this one earlier because I didn't really see the point in waiting until Monday. Water isn't so bad.

The exercising has been put on hold for now. We had major storms already this week so going outside is a no-go and I've been a little sick so I weenied out on that one.

I don't think I've fallen asleep before 2 AM this week, yet. I get really sleepy around 8 PM and then tell myself to hold out a little longer until a normal bedtime but I usually get my second wind around 10 and don't slow down until 2:30ish. TERRIBLE habit, I know.

I didn't do the meal plan thing either. Mom has started tennis season and Jesse is playing about twelve different sports right now so nobody's schedule has really lined up for dinner or grocery shopping.

My other big thing is that I have successfully avoided using Facebook and Twitter as much. I check it once in the morning and then log out until late afternoon. If someone sends me something, I can usually just respond through my e-mail. Of course I checked it quite a bit while I was in the waiting room at the dentist...but that doesn't really count. Right?

I know, I have already failed on 3 out of 5 challenges but maybe I should have picked a week to start these things when I wasn't so busy.

In other news though; last week I had SIX of my teeth filled because of cavities. I didn't go to the dentist at all while I was in college because I was hardly ever at home during the week, so I accumulated lots of dental bills. My dentist decided to do them all at once and by the end, I was ready to wring his neck. The whole thing took about five hours and my mouth was half-numb for two days. And now I can't even chew food on the left side of my mouth because it is still so sore. I think I'm going to have to go back because...OUCH. My teeth don't like ANYTHING touching them, not even water. I would like him to please give me another shot of that feel good stuff so I can eat.

Also in other news, I am driving to Del Rio today! Taylor and I are going to hang out in San Antonio this weekend and then we are driving to Lubbock next week! It will be busy, but really fun.