Justin's High School Graduation

Life has been crazy and I haven't done too good with the blogging. So much has happened and I'm going to try to catch up with everything in order. My posts might be a little behind because of this, but oh well! :)

This May my cousin, Justin, graduated from high school. I am so proud of him! It seems like just yesterday he was coming home from the hospital. (I know everyone always says this, but it's really true.) I'm an only child, but have three boy cousins. I love each of them as if they were my brothers. We all grew up in the same town and are very close.

He's decided to go to college for Ag and judging. He's good at it and really enjoys it. Here are some pics from his graduation.

Gran (Our Great Grandmother) and Justin

Brayden, Tika, Christopher, Justin, and Chris

(Justin's parents and brothers)

Leslie (My Mom), Justin and Me

Justin...the 2010 Hobbs High Graduate!!!

The Beauty of Life

"Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams." - Ashley Smith

 I stumbled upon this quote and found it to be really inspiring. I don't know anything about the person who said it or where it came from, but it reminded me of my Grandad. He loved to look around and just enjoy the scenery and beauty around him. Wherever he was, it didn't matter, he was always happy and having a good time. Not a day goes by that I don't think of him. Whether it's a pretty sunrise, or a child swinging, he's always in my heart.

I haven't done very good about blogging lately, but I've been so busy enjoying life that I haven't really been on the computer much. So, for the few people who read my blog, I thought I would post an update.

The spring semester is over, thank goodness! Now, I'm working on the last step to obtain my Master's degree, my internship. I found out in April that I would be able to complete my first choice of internship at the Lubbock County District Attorney's Office in the Hot Check Office. I couldn't wait to get started! My adviser told me I could start as soon as my classes for the spring semester were over. After the semester ended, however, I took a week off to go home and help my mom since she had surgery. Anyway, today is the third week of my internship. It's going great and going by a lot faster than I expected.

As far as wedding planning goes, I'm still working on it and hope to blog about everything very soon!

Spring Break and Family Fun

It's been a while since my last post. School is taking first priority right now with everything else following behind. With that in mind, I did get to have some fun with family the last couple of weeks. Two weeks ago it was my spring break! It was a much needed break from school. I went home and enjoyed time with my Mom, cousins, and the rest of my family. We went to one of my favorite parks one day to fly kites, but it was too windy. :( On a happier note, I took a picture of the scenery.

This past weekend my Mom and my cousins, Chris and Brayden, came to visit for the end of their spring break. All of the years I have been in school, our spring breaks have never lined up. It's kind of a bummer, but we make it work! We had tons of fun and some good, quality bonding time. Here are some pictures from our fun at the mall...

Wedding Website

I started looking at wedding stuff right after Adam and I got engaged. I had heard about theknot.com from friends and magazines. I created a website during the first month of our engagement, but never got around to finishing it until now! School and other things seemed to take priority in my life, but I am done with it and wanted to share it with everyone. There isn't any information about registries or our honeymoon because we are still working on those areas. I will update the website as the information changes. Let me know what you think!

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/AmandaMalone&AdamGreer

Have a great week! :)

I have the BEST Family and Friends

I am blessed with wonderful family and friends. Monday night when Adam and I got back to Lubbock, we went to Sam's to look for a TV...again! He had called some places in the DFW area and didn't know if he would have better luck there. We ended up getting a Vizio and I really like it! Thank you to all of my family that pitched in for my awesome gift! :)

Erin and I went to Zumba yesterday like we do every Thursday. Okay, almost every Thursday! Afterwards we went our separate ways to get ready, but we were going to meet back up for dinner. Erin told me she had to run some errands and she would call me when she was done. She told me it was a surprise! I didn't know what she meant, but I figured I would soon enough. When she got to my apartment, she had brought me some personalized stationery! Anyone that knows me knows that I am crazy about stationery! Kristi had someone she knew in Lubbock make it for my birthday! It is so cute! I can't wait to use it! :)

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!! The Big 25

It's official, I'm a quarter of a century old! Ha ha! My birthday was technically yesterday, but since it fell on a Saturday, I celebrated all weekend! I usually celebrate for a couple of extra days, if not a full week or weekend, since my birthday is the day before Valentine's Day. And I'm blogging today because obviously I was enjoying my actual birthday yesterday.

Adam came into to town. I was so excited he was able to come for the weekend because he has President's Day off. I hadn't seen him since MLK Jr. weekend in January, which is far too long! He made it to Lubbock early Friday evening, but we didn't go to on to Hobbs because he had a surprise planned. I got a Wii for Christmas from my Mom. I've really been wanting one. There's just one thing, my TV is pretty old. While I'm not really particular about TVs, Adam thought I should have a new one for better Wii use. So, he talked to my Mom, my Nana, and his parents and they all went in for my birthday to get me a new TV! WHAT A GREAT GIFT! :D We spent our evening on Friday looking for one. (That's another story for another time.) We ended up getting one at Best Buy. We took it to my apartment, hooked it up and it worked great for about 30 minutes. All of a sudden these green, vertical lines appeared. They eventually went away, but Adam didn't want to take any chances. So, we packed the TV back up on Saturday morning and took it to back to Best Buy. They had more of the same TV, but we both really liked the LGs and Adam didn't think it was a good idea to get the same TV again. Right now is the time of year that TVs from 2009 are being phased out for the new 2010 models to be released. This meant they couldn't order the LG for us.

What to do, what to do?! Adam is going to look for a TV in the DFW area. If he can't find one there we have a problem! Lol! It was kind of a bummer that things didn't work out, but now this just means Adam will have to make another trip back to Lubbock to bring me the TV and I will get to see him again! :) My Mom and I were going to do some more wedding stuff this weekend so, I think he is going to bring it then and do the wedding stuff with us. It's very exciting to get to see Adam two, count that two, weekends in a row!

The rest of my birthday weekend was wonderful! We came to Hobbs on Saturday after taking care of the TV stuff. I love being able to spend time with my family. We didn't have my party on my actual birthday because my cousin, Justin was out of town for FFA. Instead we got together on Valentine's Day. Adam and I have to head back to Lubbock tomorrow because I don't have President's Day off from school...BOO! On a happier note, here are some pictures from my birthday!

Erin brought me cupcakes for my birthday!!! :)

Chocolate and Red Velvet! What could be better?!

Isn't it pretty?!

My birthday cake!

My (favorite) uncle Chris! He's the life of the party! ;)

My aunt Tika!

My Mom and Justin. He's a goofball, but it's what I love about him!

Here's the normal one.

My Gran!

Justin and Nana!

Me and Adam

Mom and Me

My Valentine's Day flowers from Adam! Daisies are my favorite! :)

Daybreak

I'm trying to be really productive this semester and complete my course work in advance. I always get things done on time, but I'm trying to take advantage of free time and complete things early. So, I'm at Daybreak (a coffee house) studying with a friend. Yes I know, you're probably wondering how I can be studying if I'm blogging; I'm taking a break.

I get all kinds of ideas from Kristi about a lot of different things! Recently she posted a blog called 101 in 1001. It's a list of 101 things you want to accomplish in 1001 days...kind of a small bucket list on a timeline. I thought this sounded like fun so I'm going to start my list. I told my mom about it and I think she is going to make one also! That will be fun! It may take me a while to complete my list because I want to think of things I really want to do and I have school work to focus on. I think I will read more in this semester than my entire college career, undergraduate and graduate, combined! Ha ha, but seriously! It's going to be intense. Thank goodness this is my last semester. I will just have my internship left this summer and then it's graduation in August! :)