Firsts...

I found a new blog that I'm loving and she did a "Firsts" blog post as well...so I thought I'd copy :)

First thing you do when you wake up in the morning:

Look over at Ben and say, "Coffee, coffee, coffee, please!" Haha...it's a little morning ritual.

First thing you reach for when you open the fridge:

Hmm...I tend to open the fridge and just stare aimlessly and then close it again! Maybe some red grapes if we have 'em!

First thing you do when you get to the gym:

Put my bag in the locker room! And then head to the treadmill for some running!

First thing you do when you get home from work:

Ideally, I would love to dump my stuff and go take a bath! That only happens every once in a while though...in reality, I probably just jump on the couch and watch something on TV!

First car:

My first car that was a 1998 Ford Explorer Sport, 2 door! I will never again buy a 2-door car...it was the most hassle ever! I had it for about 3 years before I totaled it the summer after my Sophomore year in college working at a summer camp! :(

First accident:

Funny enough, the one above was not my first accident! Although totally not my fault, and in no way avoidable, I got hit while driving Ben's car by a guy who ran a red light. I was just sitting there minding my own business, when he comes and slams into us...I did not have my license or any shoes on so I called my Mom to bring me both items before the cops showed up! 

First thing you wanted to be when you grew up:  

I wanted to be a pediatrician until I realized how much work going through Med school was going to be. So I just work with kids in another way :) 

First choice beverage:

Oh my goodness, I love to drink (haha...not that way). I would much rather drink than eat, any day of the week! My favorite beverage would probably be a nice hot cup of coffee since the weather outside has been chilly and rainy! Fave alcoholic beverage would be Rekorderlig...a fruity cider that is DELICIOUS! Too bad they're like $15 each at a bar :(

First choice breakfast:

Hands down...french toast! E're time!

First choice dessert:

Hmmm...this is a tough one! I'm such a sweet person that it's hard to choose.. Probably a Crave Cupcake :) As long as my BFF is sitting right there next to me having one too!

First song that comes to mind:

Ben made me the Taylor Swift CD as part of my birthday present so I have been jamming in my car all day running errands! Specifically that "22" song! Even though I'm 25...womp womp

First major purchase:

When we bought our car here in New Zealand...

And then totaled it...and bought another one!

Which we have named...

Sybie!

(rhymes with Libbi)

Because Ben's friend, who I have met loads of times, kept calling me that thinking that was my name and then we just had to have a Sybie in the family! 

First job:

I was babysitting starting when I was about 12 but I would say my first real job was working in the nursery at First Baptist Church in Galveston! This doesn't include the pity jobs that I got from my dad working in his office! I got paid, yes...but probably wasn't an essential employee :)

First time you flew on a plane:

Goodness...I can't even remember! All of our early vacations consisted of us driving to Florida to see my Grandma but I can't remember a time when we flew there! Our first big vacation as a family with a couple of family friends was when we went to Croatia after my Junior year of high school. I was 15 and and didn't really do anything touristy! I had a crush on a boy that we went with so I'm pretty sure I was obsessed with him the whole time! :) It was pretty awesome vacation where we took a boat trip to some nearby islands and I wrecked a scooter and scraped up my leg so bad. I was a baby for the rest of the trip and on the flight home! Hurt so bad...

I would love to go back to see if it's any different 10 years later! (whatttttt???)

After writing this, I'm seeing a trend...I need to work on my driving skills :(

Hope you enjoyed! :)

Craft Time

It's time for a craft update! Since the dresser, we have worked on a couple other little projects around the house that I'm loving and make us feel more at home...

1. Bedroom Canvases

Ben's sweet Mom sent us some Styrofoam sheets with some ideas of what you can do to spruce them up and decorate your home. We decided to go out and look for some fabric to make "canvases." I really like how they turned out and they add some great color to the room (it looks red in the pictures but its more of a coral color in real life)! The fabric is so "us" as well...passport stamps!

The hardest thing about this project was trying to figure out how to hang them. The first command strips we used (Styrofoam=super light) had them falling off the wall in the middle of the night! After we got some "poster" command strips, they seem to be holding up much better! None have fallen off so far...

2. Bathroom Towel Hooks

Ben drives me crazy hanging his towels on doors, door handles, bedposts, etc. so I have been dying for a place to properly hang my towels for some time! I looked all over the city for something that I liked but everything was either way out of our price range, or not quite what I was looking for! So, I decided to make one myself! Ben was making a tool bench out of pallets so he had a spare board for me to use and I ordered the perfect hooks online! I love how it turned out!! And hopefully there will be no more wet towels hanging all over the house!!

3. Coming up next...

Now that I've done something for the bedroom and the bathroom...the kitchen is next! As usual, it will probably take three times the amount of time it's supposed to take but hopefully I will have it finished fairly soon!

I've been getting into a spring cleaning mood lately! Hopefully our house will start looking more decorated because of it!

love,

the webers

Passo 2.0

I have been in a blogging funk lately! Sorry for my fans who haven't gotten to read anything in a while...haha, who am I kidding?

Many of you know that we lost Passo a couple weeks ago :( He was our first right-hand-driving car and we loved him very much! Enough sadness...we have moved on to....

who is better in every way! :)  

It's a Honda Civic and we got an amazing deal on him! We took a little mini roadtrip just to test him out this past weekend and went on a hike. The hike was good and muddy! My pink tennies will never be the same :( Looks like I'll just have to buy some new Nikes when I'm back in the States! ;) Which if you didn't know...will be for four weeks in October/November! We are so excited to see everyone we have been missing and to meet some new faces!! Ben and I will have a new nephew and my BFF will be a mom by then!! :) Some of our must-see/do's include:

-Fightin' Texas Aggie football! Whoop!

-Mexican Food...mmmmm

-Shopping!!

-Nutcracker Market...the most wonderful time of year :)

-Visiting friends and family

AND

-Early Thanksgiving!

Any name suggestions for our new car?? We can't think of anything good...

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End of an iPhone era

So, this past week, I decided I needed some Wicked Soundtrack to hype me up for my morning workouts. When adding music onto my iphone, I ran out of room and had to choose between music and my 243,270 pictures (okay, not that many but I love them and keep them all for a reason)! They begin when I got my very first iPhone for College graduation (Thanks Mommy and Poppy!) and go all the way up until last night! So...I took a page from Rachel's book and uploaded all of them to our SmugMug account! I had to hide one or two here and there :) But if you have the time and energy...you can relive my last 3 years! Here are some of my faves (not in chronological order...):

One of my summer school kiddos drew this wonderful depiction of me...I gotta big head!

Ben and I were driving around Katy one day and we saw this bad boy parked outside an auto parts store! I wonder what kind of parts they needed...

Ben used to come over to help me watch Kyle...here is the beginning of his helpful pictures...

Haha! Little elf...

Sleeping...

More Sleeping....

Thanks bud! :)

The next two pictures, we are at a pawn shop and Tyler found some legi chain mail in a box. He then decided to try it on...

And then he couldn't get it off...I think I laughed so hard I peed a little during this incident! Poppy had to come and help him get it off! PS-it cost $400!!!!

My last weekend in the States, Kyla, Kayla, and I went to most of the bakeries around Houston and had a cupcake taste off. We had about 2 dozen (big/mini) cupcakes and my ultimate fave was Crave!!!! This was not a unanimous decision though....

Hahah! Karmia...gotta love snapchat :)

Beautiful Karmia with her face mask...bleh...

Haha! I sent this picture to Rebecca H. originally because we were looking for a Ken doll to put on Kathryn's bachelorette party cake! It is very hard to find a Ken doll with moveable arms and legs...but I was successful!! Sexy!

This is another gem from watching Kyle! The Wii asked me this one day while I was weighing him...

And last, but not least, in my first grade class, we used shaving cream to spell words, math, etc. and I let them have a little play time when we were done. One of my babies wrote this for me one day! Love it!

If you want to see the rest of my 700 picures you can go to our SmugMug account...I bet you can find one of you!! :) 

Fun in the Snow!!!

Post #50! Woo Hoo! Here's to another 50!

Everytime we go somewhere new, I declare that it's my "new favorite place"! The problem is everywhere we go ends up being my "new favorite place!" Well, this weekend we went to Ohakune with some friends from church and got the chance to play in the first big snow of the winter.

We also did some hiking, eating, Carrot Festival-ing, and just relaxing! It was a great weekend. Since Ben and I have never been south of Auckland on the North Island, we decided to hit up multiple spots on our wish list! I have read reviews for and been wanting to go to Te Tiro in Waitomo for some time but we just hadn't managed to make it there.

Cool, entrance huh? Well, we finally did for one night and it was amazing! We stayed in our own little cabin overlooking the countryside, which was so quiet and peaceful! 

The B&B also had it's own glow worm grotto which is was so cool to see! Waitomo is known for its glow worms and caving so it was nice to have our own little private display! We definitely want to head back to Waitomo (and Te Tiro) during the summer to do some blackwater rafting!

Also while we were down in Waitomo we did a little bit of hiking to a really cool natural bridge!

I have to admit I wasn't quite sure what a natural bridge was to begin with but I am amazed...and a little scared to walk underneath! :) It was a really fun weekend and having a Monday off makes for a wonderful 3 day week!! 

It's officially Winter!! With love from the snow,

the webers

Gertrude's Saddle

Okay, I promised a part two of our Fjiorlands (correct??) trip! But first, I have some exciting news...we got a dryer!!!! I can't even think of the last day we have NOT had rain so it was kind of a necessity! I had even forgotten what it's like to have fluffy, soft towels! I don't know if I'll be able to go back to the outside drying hangy-thing when the rain lightens up...but, our electricity bill is high enough as it is, without the added dryer! So, we'll see what it's like this month :/

Okay, back to trip pictures! Here are some of my favorites!

Last you heard, we had just arrived in Queenstown and done the gondola and luge (so fun!). The next day was supposed to be the ONLY day with sun/no rain so we decided to make that our Milford Sound/hiking day! We woke up and drove 4+ hours to Milford Sound. It would have taken less time if we didn't stop every second to take pictures of the amazing scenery! Pictures don't even do justice to the amazing landscapes and mountains surrounding us! Just the drive there was worth going!

We found this waterfall going under one of the bridges and you could climb all the way under it! Very cool!

We finally made it to Milford Sound and had lunch. There was a hike around Milford Sound but it was closed when we got there :( Too bad because it looks super cool! 

 After getting some recommendations from someone who worked around Milford Sound we decided to change our plans and head out to find a different hike, Gertrude's Saddle. This one was a LOT more intense and much longer than the original 3 hour hike we planned to take. We were first greeted with signs like this:

Good thing it was Summer (ish) and no snow around! The hike was pretty tough and I can't say that I made it as far as Ben and John did but it had some amazing views! 

We found this perfect pool of water (it looks deceptively small in this picture). If it wasn't freezing, I probably would have jumped in!!

I'm told this is a lake at the almost-top of the hike. I didn't make it this far... :( I was enjoying sitting on a rock and contemplating how I was going to hike back DOWN! 

In this picture we have climbed pretty far up! You can see by Ben's wrist is the carpark where we started! And the hike started by following that riverbed on the left. I wish it was just a little less bright :(

And I'm pretty sure I posted this on my last post but this is my favorite picture from the trip! The clouds dripping down the mountain...this was on our way back out of the hike...It almost does the beauty justice!

And last but not least...a reminder of our accomplishments as "fit and experienced trampers"! 

I'm off to get my hair done today...it's going to be cute!! Keep a lookout :)