Our move out West

It has been quite a while since I have posted anything. Our little family has been quite busy for many exciting reasons and I can't wait to share all of the details!

As many of you know, Michael and I found out on July 13th that he had received the position of Government Sales Specialist, with Fastenal, in Denver, CO!  Michael worked incredibly hard applying for jobs every night he came home from work and preparing for his interviews. He also traveled to Seattle for one of the interviews for this particular job (this was definitely a perk! and we plan to visit Seattle soon!). We were beyond excited to finally have the opportunity to move to Denver. Michael and I had been discussing a move and pursuing job opportunities in Denver since January of this year, so finally getting the job offer and realizing that we would be moving was incredible for us! I was a little overwhelmed at first because we were only given two weeks to pack up, find a new apartment and move to Denver. To make a long story short, everything worked out perfectly and we were able to find the most perfect apartment (thanks to Michael!) and we were headed to Denver! There is no doubt in my mind that Denver is where we need to be and that the Lord has wonderful plans for us here. Every step of the way, from finding an apartment and moving into it (sight unseen), the Lord has been with us and shown us the beautiful plans that he has for our family. We have been so incredibly blessed to have everything work out so flawlessly! The move was stressful, don't get me wrong but all in all we couldn't have asked for a better experience.

We had one last dinner in Oxford before the move with Mark, Nick, Emily and Maria

 

Our family and friends have been amazing and so supportive during this whole process. Michael's dad Mark brought down a 24' trailer to Southaven for us to pack our stuff up and haul to Denver. Mark, Nick (Michael's brother), Layne (our friend), Maria and Emily (Michael's Sisters) all helped us move our belongings into the trailer. Mark then drove the trailer to St. Louis and parked it a couple days to wait for Michael to finish up his training of the new manager of his store in Memphis. Michael and I said goodbye to our first home that we shared in Southaven, MS on Monday the 30th and made our way to Godfrey, IL to spend a day with family before we headed out west. Needless to say there weren't very many tears shed as we pulled away from our little home in Southaven. WE were so ready to move on and excited to see what Denver had to offer us! We spent a wonderful evening in Godfrey celebrating Nick's 21st birthday! We woke up early the next morning and got on the long road to Denver. The trip was fairly easy with just a few glitches here and there but we made it to Denver on Tuesday night and stayed in a hotel. Wednesday August 1st, we moved all of our belongings into our apartment in an incredible time of 2 hours! We had some awesome moving guys (Mark and Paul Repking, Michael's uncle) and they didn't even complain about moving our incredibly heavy armour. I was amazed at how fast we were able to get everything moved in! We had a quick lunch and said goodbyes to Mark and Paul and they headed back to St. Louis that afternoon. Michael and I spent that night on cloud nine so excited about our new home. Our apartment building is literally feet away from a nature perserve trail where we can take Bocephus on walks and runs. We are also in walking distance to so many restaurants, shopping and even a Target! it is going to be a perfect place for us to live until we find an area and a new home to move to that is more permanent.

Our apartment building

I headed to TX on Thursday morning to make my way to Ft. Davis and to get ready for another Campmeeting. Most of you know about Campmeeting and how important it is to my family. This was my 26th year of Camp Meeting. A little background history on Campmeeting, taken from the Bloys Campmeeting website. Bloys Camp Meeting is held each year since 1890, it was founded by Rev. William Benjamin Bloys, a Presbyterian minister. His camp pulpit was an Arbuckle coffee crate. At that first camp meeting, 48 people from remote ranches and towns slept in tents and wagons. Family groups had chuck-box meals, sharing their fare with guests. Bloys has grown steadily and now regularly welcomes 2,500 worshipers. Many are fourth and fifth generations of their families to attend Bloys, and it is not uncommon to meet men and women who have attended 60 or 70 consecutive meetings.

I had a wonderful time this year seeing family and friends and spending some quality time with my Mom, Dad, Uncle Keesey and his girls and my grandparents. Our family had a small showing this year but next year it sounds like everyone is going to be there including Michael :) I can't wait to show Michael around and for everyone to meet him. Campmeeting is so special to me and such a wonderful part of my life it has given me a foundation of faith and a constant in my life that can hardly be described.

 

After Campmeeting was over, my mom headed to New Mexico to make a few stops in Santa Fe and Taos. In Santa Fe, we met up with my good friend Sara Lemoine. It was so wonderful to see her and to finally realize that we would only be living 6 hours away from one another after being so far from each other for many years! We walked around the square of Santa Fe and ate dinner on the patio at The Shed. Dinner was delicious!

Dinner at The Shed

 

 A gorgeous church in Santa Fe

My Green Chili Stew and a sopapilla

Mom and I split this amazing Chili Relleno dinner and a salad! SO GOOD!

 

We spent the next day shopping and touring around the square. Mom, Sara and I had such a wonderful time. That evening, Sara headed back to Albuquerque and Mom and I headed to Taos. Taos has many memories for our family because we grew up spending many Christmas seasons there skiing. The first Christmas I spent in Taos was when I was about 10 months old. Mom and I had a wonderful time walking around Taos, exploring the town and shops, eating delicious New  Mexican style food and just talking about life! I am so thankful for the time that I have with my Mom and how our relationship has evolved. This trip was the most time I have been able to spend with my Mom one on one in eight years (Since I moved to MS) and I truly enjoyed every minute. The three of us kids are so incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful Mom and Dad! After a full day in Taos, we headed back to Denver but made one last stop at Ikea and met Michael there so that we could purchase a new mattress for our king bed that we bought right after the move.

 

The night we got back to Denver my brother Ben also drove into town on his way back to TX from Utah. Ben was in Utah studying rocks for his Geology graduate program. Ben stayed for two days and helped us put furniture together and unpack. I am so thankful for Mom and Ben's help and there is no way that I could have unpacked and organized the apartment without them. We had a great visit with Ben before he headed to Snyder, TX to visit our grandparents.

 

Mom and Michael and I spent the remainder of the week unpacking and putting our apartment together. Michael was at work every day so Mom and I tried to use every hour to get things done, purchase new things needed for the apartment and make it more like a home. There is no way that I could have finished it all so quickly without the help of my Mom. She is amazing and helped so much with organizing ideas and decorating ideas. Here are some pictures of our apartment :)

 

Living Room

Living Room, wasll still needs some pictures

 Master Bedroom, thanks Ben for putting the dresser together!

 

Master Bedroom (Michael did a great job of putting the bed together!)

 

Dining Room

Entry Way/Dining Room 

Entry Way/ Dining Room

 

Kitchen, looking from Living Room 

Kitchen

 

We do have a guest bedroom/office and a bathroom that I did not include in the pictures because the rooms are not 100% finished but we are ready for everyone to come visit! I will include pictures from our trip to Rocky Mountail National Park and the rest of the week Mom was in Denver in the next post. It has been a busy but fun Summer! We are loving the cool, dry weather in Denver and Michael and I are excited about our first weekend to spend together in Denver!

 



Photo Dump and the meaning behind the blog title

It has been a while since I last updated the blog. The reason that I have this blog is to keep family members updated on what we have been up to lately in MS. But before I get to the pictures and updates, I thought I would finally explain the reasoning behind the title of my blog.

The first time that I heard the saying "don't cry those crocodile tears" was during my student teaching in Jackson MS. A little boy that was in my classroom would come in everyday and would cry when his mother left. The teacher would always say "don't' cry those crocodile tears". I was intrigued by the saying and wondered what it meant. So I looked it up and found that crocodile tears, or superficial sympathy, are a false or insincere display of emotion such as a hypocrite crying fake tears of grief. I have always loved this saying and find that it is applicable to not only the children that I work with, but also my own life. I like to keep in mind that so often when I am upset with my situation that it is not really that bad. Things can always be worse and I should remember to be thankful for what I have and the opportunities that God has given me throughout my life. This is where the second part of the title comes in to play. Goodnight prayers are something that is very meaningful to me. This is my time of the day to release all my innermost thoughts, emotions, desires and ideas to God. My prayers at the end of the day are when my most sincere emotions come through in my conversations with the Lord. When I was trying to come up with a title for this blog I liked the idea of having the title be two things that were very opposite, so I have named my blog "Crocodile Tears and Goodnight Prayers"

Now on to the photo dump from the beginning of March until now. We are headed to Oklahoma for Easter to spend some time with my side of the family, so I am sure there will be many pictures from that weekend! To continue from our birthday weekend, my sister-in-law Maria took me to the coolest nail salon called the Nail Bar. This place was so much fun! We spent over three hours getting our nails done while relaxing and watching movies and sipping wine! Thank you so much Maria for this wonderful day.

Me and Maria at the Nail Bar. I really have the best sisters!!

I loved this color by Essie and the basic manicure stayed for 2 1/2 weeks! Amazing!

After getting our nails done we headed home and grilled out with the boys. Yummy Kabobs!

All of our close friends and family know that we love to dress our dogs up. Michael's sister Emily sent us a picture of their dog buddy with festive bows for our birthday so we thought we would dress our dog child as "risky business" style and send it to the Repkings. I guess our love of embarrassing our animals can be found on both sides ha!

The next week was Spring Break for me so I was headed to TX. The trip definitely started out with a bang or rather the smell of burning rubber :(

My clutch went out on my car and so I broken down in Tchula, MS 75 miles away from the closest mechanic. It was a long day and I ended up having to rent a car in Jackson and head to TX at 5:30, not arriving in Houston until 1:30am. It was a long day!

I spent a lot of quality time with this precious girl that is growing so fast! We had a girls sleepover, watched movies, painted our nails and had tons of fun! We also went for two long walks and a bike ride. I love having cousins so close to home :)

Later during the week we hit up the Houston Rodeo. I LOVE going to the rodeo and we were definitely in for a major treat this year! Here are the piglets. I was amazed that the mommas foot was the size of the piglet!

We stopped off for lunch and of course a yummy daiquiri/margarita swirl.

We also treated ourselves to a fried snickers. I've always wanted to try something fried at the rodeo and it was delicious!

So, this was our treat! Dad was able to get us VIP tickets to the Jason Aldean concert. Thanks dad!!

This is the Anadarko Suite. So much fun! Delicious food that was all you could eat and drink. They had grilled shrimp, chicken wrapped in bacon, beef tenderloin, potatoes, nachos and so much more!

The National Anthem was the best part of the rodeo for us. It was amazing!

This talented rider was riding with no saddle and no bridle!

Mom and Dad enjoying the suite!

Jason Aldean put on an amazing show and the concert was sold out!

For dessert, they had an ice creme cart that came to each suite and they served the ice creme with cookies, brownies and in this precious cowboy hat!

We all had such a blast at the rodeo!!

When I returned home to MS to our little house I hardly recognized it because of the blooming azaleas!

We decided to go fishing the next weekend at Arkabutla lake and it was so much fun!

Michael was the first one to catch some fish!

Then I caught my first crappie. We caught 6 in all! We fried them up and they were delicious with our sweet potato fries. Thanks Nana for the recipe :)

The next week I went to see the Hunger Games. It was so good and I can't wait to read the books

The next weekend, we went to Godfrey, IL to visit Michael's side of the family for Easter. We had brunch at Michael's Grandma Repking's house. We had such a wonderful time! We even got to see Emily play soccer and she is such an amazing athlete! We were able to see her score a goal! We went to our favorite restaurant in St. Louis, Annie Gunn's and as usual it was delicious!

I have developed a love for oysters and these were my favorite so far!

Believe it or not this is shrimp not a lobster tail. They called this the colossal shrimp and it was yummy!

These were good too but I preferred the spinach and cheese oysters. Such a pretty display!

I wish I had taken more pictures of everyone and at Michael's grandma's party but I completely forgot. It was such a fun weekend! Thank you Repkings for having us!!

I found this Robin's egg in our yard. I tried to find out information about hatching it but it sounded pretty much impossible since I had already had the egg for a day and it was not in the right temperature. But it is absolutely beautiful.

We have started the process of packing for our trip this weekend. We are excited for a Browning/Smiley Camping trip and to use our new gear that Michael's Aunt and Uncle gave us.

7 moments: My week through pictures and some extra

I decided to take pictures throughout my week of things or moments that inspire me or that just make my day better! I think I will get better at taking pictures but this week it was hard to remember!





We went to Sams this past weekend and bought a flat of blueberries, which I ate almost half of them on Sunday and they were delicious! They were the biggest blueberries I've ever seen!

Sonic now has Sweet Potato Tater tots! Yumm

A few of my spring decorations

Yummy breakfast that my husband made for me on my birthday on Tuesday! Bocephus snuck a piece of my bacon while I wasn't looking. I probably didn't need it anyways

He looks pretty guilty to me.

Forget Me Nots I bought at Target for Spring in memory of our first dance at our wedding



"Forget Me Not" by the Civil Wars. They are amazing and will be playing at Memphis in May this year!!!

White Chocolate Raspberry Torte Cheesecake that my husband bought me for my birthday. When my mom asked me what kind of cake I wanted I told her cheesecake. She responded by saying that wasn't a birthday cake, but Michael surprised me with one even though I didn't tell him I wanted cheesecake! I guess great minds think alike ;)

Last but not least, the flowers and trees are blooming and spring is in the air! It is a warm 82 degrees here today and I think we will be getting a cool front but we are sure enjoying this beautiful warm weather. Michael and I have been going on walks/runs every evening and it is the highlight of my day :)

My dad may kill me for posting this picture, but I love it. I stumbled across it today and it just makes me smile! Typical Saturday morning breakfast in the Browning family. I miss my family so much and I can't wait to be with them in a week!!