Two Month Hiatus

So I realized today that somehow I've gone over two months without blogging...how is it that two months could have passed already??? Yikes! Here is a little bit of what's been going on in the Halvorsen Household since my last post:

Spring Break! I had an INCREDIBLE time having my sister here for the whole week of spring break. We haven't had real, serious sister time like that in years, and it was so wonderful to just hang out together. Reanna, you need to move to Austin as soon as possible =). Re also got to meet "the babies" (aka Hailey and Abigail) and had fun playing with McKayla as well. And of course, we did our sister pedicures, a must whenever we get together. During spring break, Justin and I also celebrated our third year of marriage--crazy! It is so hard to believe that we've been married for over three years now, and that we've been in our house for three years too! Wow!

And on to...Easter! Easter was really fun this year because Justin and Katherine came down to spend the weekend. But, it was also their anniversary so they ended up staying in a hotel instead of at our house...so we got to see them but didn't have to wash sheets for the guest bedroom =)! We had a great time hanging out with them and love that they live so close to us now! They joined us on Easter at Justin's sister's house and they also got to meet the babies and have fun with McKayla. She was getting to indulge in lots of chocolate, so she was on high-energy mode the whole time. Definitely a very fun weekend!

Next up was my birthday...entering my last year in the twenties. It really wasn't very traumatic. I'm convinced that since Justin is 2 1/2 years older than me I will pretty much always feel young and am not really that worried about the "Big 3-0" approaching. I got to celebrate one day early with my brother because I took my physics class to Six Flags in Dallas and he decided to meet us there. It was really cool for him to meet some of my students and see me "in my element" (as he said). The only bad part was it rained for half the day, but we still had a great time. Plus, he surprised me by bringing pop and cup cakes for everyone...which led to the great question "How OLD are you?". Gotta love high schoolers! On my actual birthday Justin and I went to the Broadway Across America production of "Avenue Q". Kind of raunchy, but totally hilarious and we loved it. It was a really fun way to spend my birthday since we hadn't been to a show like that in a long time (and it set up me being able to convince Justin that we HAD to go to RENT!). All in all, not a bad way to turn 29!

And next comes the most exciting part of the semester--finishing my projects for my master's degree! The last weekend in April I finalized everything and happily pushed the "send" button to email the projects off to my professors. I still don't know my grade for one class, but I don't even care. Unfortunately, I haven't seemed to slow down too much, but at least I've had some time for planting and yard work on some weekends!

The next big event was my impromptu trip to OK City to spend Mother's Day with my mom. I think my brother called very late the Monday night before Mother's Day (yes, just a few days before) and proposed that Justin and I drive to Dallas and then drive to OK City with him and Kat to see mom for Mother's Day weekend. Unfortunately, Justin could not go due to work, but I decided there was no reason for me not to go (except for feeling guilty about leaving Justin behind!). So, early on Saturday morning I headed up to Dallas and joined Justin and Kat for the remainder of the ride to OK City (yes, a total of about 7 hours in the car-fun!). Then, we had a great time with the rest of the family which included a trip to the Yellow Rose Theatre where I won a "Peacock Prancing" dance-off. Yes, I am THAT cool! Unfortunately, they couldn't take pictures...it really is too bad =). Then, on Sunday afternoon we turned back around and headed back home. It was really neat to be able to be with my mom on mother's day, since it's been at least five years (if not longer) since I've seen her on mother's day...and she was absolutely thrilled to have all three of her kids (and Kat!) with her on the special day.

And finally, our most recent escapade was Memorial Day weekend in Dallas at Justin and Kat's with mom, dad and Re. Thankfully, Justin was able to go with me this time! The dogs got to spend the weekend at the Kennel (which was actually a really beautiful ranch that even had an underground pool just for the dogs!) and we got to spend a fun weekend with the Longs. We visited the SouthFork Ranch (you know, where the Dallas TV show was filmed), saw the Grassy Knoll and I even got in shopping with mom and a pedicure with Re and Kat! Justin and I also experienced Wii for the first time...we rocked it out (ha!) on Guitar Hero and Justin gave brother Justin a run for his money in boxing. We also learned about a fun game called ladder ball (or ladder golf) and loved playing that...we must now buy one for ourselves! We also got to help Justin celebrate his 31st birthday...man my brother and husband are OLD--haha, just kidding guys! Though we were tired from the whirlwind weekend, it was really great to have the WHOLE family together! We look forward to Christmas when we can all be together again!

So, that's what's been happening around here lately...as you can see we've kept ourselves rather busy =). We plan to keep up the same as we go into the summer months (as I write this I relish in the fact that there are only 5.5 school days left-woot!). I will be traveling to MN for a week for my very good friend Amanda's wedding and to visit with my best friend since second grade Dawn; then comes a short stint at home before heading off for three weeks of grad school in St. Louis (I actually can't wait to be a full time student again for a few weeks); and then I return for a few more weeks before another school year starts all over again! While I'm jaunting around everywhere Justin gets to hold down the fort here in Austin and work his magic at budgeting for the state.

I will hopefully post some pictures soon of Easter, Memorial Day, etc...but I think most of you can look at them on Facebook if I don't get them posted here =). And, hopefully I will blog again without waiting for two months so you don't have to read a novel to catch up with what's going on in our lives!