Titi V Comes to Arkansas

V trying on shoes to match the dress she just bought.

Both of us trying on shoes. :-)

Thanks, Nine West saleslady for taking the picture and humoring us.

So, a few weeks ago, one of my best friends from dance class/ballet company in Victoria (we've known eachother since we were 6), Veronica (Titi V to the kids) called to ask if she could come visit us since she found a great flight deal and could redeem a bunch of miles. I said SURE! (We don't get a lot of visitors up here! Although we have had both of our families here over the summer, and that was a treat!)

Anyways, she flew in on Friday night and stayed until Monday afternoon. It was awesome having her here. I'm not sure if she came more to hang out with me or with the kids, but that doesn't really matter. :-) Saturday, the whole family went to the gym. V and I took Zumba, Aaron worked out, and the kids played in the YAC (youth activities center). We had a blast in Zumba (that we paid for in soreness later) and then we came home to relax. We had family photos scheduled for that afternoon at 4, but the weather was storming/raining off and on, and we ended up postponing them till Sunday. So, instead of taking pictures that afternoon, we went and got pizza and did a little Duggar stalking. She is a HUGE fan of "19 Kids and Counting" and just the Duggars in general...and since they live just a town away, we told her we could drive down 71B in Springdale and show her Josh and Anna's car lot. We don't know where the house is, so we didn't officially stalk them, just pseudo stalked. ;-)

Sunday, we went to church, and came home to relax a while before trying "take two" of fall family photos. The weather ended up cooperating beautifully. We went down to the Fayetteville square, and our friends George and Terae (Terae has done all of our family photo shoots since the kids were born. She's super flexible and we've been so happy with all of the pictures.) came out to meet us around 4. We got some great family and candid shots in, and Alec and Emma had a blast playing with the leaves, all of the foliage, and a little waterfall pond thingy. Emma actually ended up slipping a leg into the water (oops), but other than that I think we got some great shots. I can't wait to see them. After that we picked up Sonic and came home to relax the rest of the night. V introduced me to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (don't know that I'll ever be able to watch it again, they are so obnoxious.)

Monday, Aaron went to work as usual, and V and I took the kids to MDO. We went and ran some errands, got breakfast, and went shopping at the Promenade. She was able to find a super fabulous dress and shoes for a photo shoot that she and Dr. Dan are doing in New Orleans (belated engagement pics). And she bought Dan a dress shirt from Banana Republic as his "gift from Arkansas." Maybe when he's done with his residency and things simmer down, he can come visit us too...and give us free checkups...JUST KIDDING!

V and Dr. Dan are both blessing Houston with their careers daily. He uses his skills to heal people, and she uses hers to educate high school kids who would most likely be "lost in the system" otherwise. She teaches Spanish at Cristo Rey, a Jesuit charter school that is focused on giving students practical real world work experience while they get their high school education and prep for college. These are low-income kids who are able to go to school there because they are actually motivated. They go to school four days, and work one day. It sounds like an amazing opportunity for the kids who are attending there.

And this brings me to the fact that I have been pondering going back to school and getting certified to teach. I've been considering doing this for a while, but it's just deciding on when to start. For now, I am perfectly happy being with my munchkins, but at some point they will start school, and I will probably want to be doing some kind of work. I will never go back to teaching dance full time in the evenings, because that cuts out all of our family time. Who knows? It's definitely something I am praying about regarding the what and the when. Well, that about sums up our weekend. We had a great time with Titi, and are all really glad that she paid us a visit!