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A Lifetime Ago

That's how long it has been since I've blogged. I was never the most consistent blogger but this is an all-time record.

Wow, how do I sum up the last almost 9 months? The answer is quickly--so that I can quickly get you up to date and onto more "current" things.

Back in May, we loaded up all of our worldy possessions in our cars and a trailer and moved to Southlake, Texas. We were blessed with a very safe drive and other than the boredom of a few stretches (I'm talking about you, Las Cruces, New Mexico), we had a pretty smooth trip. We spent one night in Tucson and two nights in Odessa before we made it to the storage unit in Keller. We took a few bags with us to Aaron's aunt and uncle's house where they were kind enough to make us feel so incredibly welcome for a month.

That month was pretty great. After meeting in law school, we finally had a month to just spend time together! We worked out, played with the dogs, saw friends in Texas we'd missed so much, ate good Tex-Mex and BBQ and tried to stay cool. Man, it was one hot summer.

After a month, we decided that we would not wear out our welcome and we found a little 1BR apartment in North Dallas. We picked the location because I started working at lululemon athletica. As you can imagine, the job was pretty much a dream come true for me. I got to wear workout clothes to work--and not just any workout clothes. I was able to--and encouraged strongly--to take as many fitness classes as possible. And, I got to meet amazing friends who were just as crazy about working out as I was. All was great until the schedule got old. As great as my time at lulu was, retail is retail and along with that comes nights and weekends. After too many of those nights and weekends spent not at home with my favorite person, I knew it was time for a change.

I was so blessed with an opportunity to apply for a job at UT Dallas. After a few interviews, I was offered the position of Assistant Director of Development and Alumni Relations at the business school. I have been at my job since the end of September and I feel incredibly lucky. I have an amazing boss and I love what I do.

During this time, we were so fortunate that Aaron was working on multiple contract jobs. Although he sometimes had a little bit of a long commute, we are so thankful for the way God provided this employment while he was looking for more permanent employment.

We found an amazing church home at The Branch in Farmers Branch and thanks to some very special people, we got plugged in right away. Before long, we were in a small group, Aaron was part of the softball team, and we were teaching 3 year olds on Sunday mornings. Our preacher is outstanding and we couldn't be any happier with our new church family.

And now, the fun stuff. There is, of course, so much I am leaving out but the thing is, there's so much more life that IS happening...RIGHT NOW.

In late October, Aaron and I started looking for a house. This was a risky move because we were still sort of unsure where Aaron would end up for work and we didn't want to buy anything that would make his commute unbearable. After a few trips out with our realtor, we stumbled upon the perfect little house for us. We made an offer in November and before we knew it, we were printing out bank statements and every other document imaginable.

In late November, Aaron's interview train pulled into the station. He had a handful of interviews and many seemed promising. One in particular was with Frost Bank, a regional and well-respected Texas bank.

Enter December.

We were excited to head to California for Christmas, thankful for the ease of the transition we had experienced over the past few months and all the recent happenings for us--church, house, job.

December 16, 6am: A positive pregnancy test.

Praise God! We had no idea (Aaron says he had an idea but I sure didn't). What a blessing and the timing could not have been more perfect with seeing family over Christmas.

December 22-26 Christmas in California

December 27: Closed on our new house

December 28: Aaron starts his new job at Frost

December 31: We move into our new house

That is what you call the fast track to grown-up life, my friends. To say we are blessed just doesn't even do it justice. We are THRILLED for all of the things that God has entrusted us with--amazing jobs that we love, a house that is quickly becoming our home, a NEW LIFE--a baby Echols! It makes me want to go to my knees.

To add to all of that, while we were at the doctor for my first appointment with our OB, we learned of an opportunity that was too good to pass up. This little muffin joined our family on January 14 and it will never be the same!

Scout is half Boerbel (mastiff) and half black lab. She was born on 11/30/11 so she is roughly 2 weeks younger than our baby. She will grow to about 70-90 pounds full size and so we are enjoying this puppy stage because we know she won't be this way forever. She is so much fun and, not that we're biased, one of the smartest dogs we've ever known. Taking on a puppy with a new house and a baby on the way may seem crazy but it has been so good for us to make the transition from just worrying about ourselves to living on a schedule and caring for someone else. I think it's one of the best things we could have ever done to prepare for baby. We are confident that her and baby E will be the best of friends.

And Baby E...what can I say? We love him or her so much already that it's crazy to think that we could love it any more than we do now. Baby E has been a pleasure. I have not been sick at all and life is pretty much normal for me. In the beginning, I was pretty tired but that has only gotten better. I credit exercise and hydration for feeling good. I have been able to keep up with my workouts--I usually can get in about 6 days a week. I've been cleared by my dr. for running and yoga and so Aaron and I are planning to do the Dallas Rock N Roll half marathon next month so long as baby cooperates. We saw Baby E's heartbeat at 8 weeks and heard it at 11 weeks...which is awesome...there's nothing like seeing that or hearing that.

I'm planning to at least do a once a week summary of how I'm feeling and looking. If this bores you, just skip on over it, my feelings won't be hurt:)

WEEK 13

-Baby E is the size of a peach.
-Aversions: Depends on the hour, really.
-Cravings: Vitamin Water Zero and grape gatorade (I've had this one for almost 2 weeks now).
-Weight Gain: none.
-Baby Bump: none, sadly. I'm dying for one!
If you will forgive my sleepy face (this was at 6am pre-yoga)...


Look at that, we're all caught up. And it's Valentine's Day, double win! Hope you get to spend it with those you love most!

Food Trucks

On Tuesday night, Aaron and I went into Santa Monica to check out some food trucks for dinner. These things are all the rage in LA and a few of them come to Main Street in Santa Monica every Tuesday night. It was a beautiful warm evening and so it was a perfect weeknight date!


As for our meals, we decided to go with Vietnamese food. I had a lemongrass chicken rice bowl with brown rice and vegetables from The Feast Truck and Aaron had a Lemongrass Chicken Banh Mi (Vietnamese sandwich) from Phamish.

After dinner, we shared a rainbow shaved ice from A Rockin Ice.
Nom nom! We're definitely going to check it out again!

"Many are the woes of the wicked, but the LORD's unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him." Psalm 32:10

2 Years

On April 25, 2011, Aaron and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary. I can't believe how fast time has flown. On the other hand, I can't remember what it was like before we were married! We have been so blessed by this amazing marriage.

We were going to keep things low key this year because it was Easter weekend but on Thursday, April 21, Aaron asked me if I could take a half day on Friday and if I could get someone to cover my Saturday morning spin class. I had no idea where we were going...Aaron is really really good at this surprise stuff! On Friday, we left Malibu at about 3:30 and headed down PCH. Still no idea...about 2 hours later (gotta love LA traffic), we were in Pasadena. I always rave about Pasadena so I was really excited to spend the night there. But then it got even better! I had mentioned this gorgeous hotel to Aaron in passing months ago, never dreaming we would actually stay there! If you are ever in the area, The Langham is definitely worth the splurge.

Aaron had it all covered. These were waiting for us in our beautiful room:

The hotel colors are pink and gold and I couldn't get enough of it. I love these little hotel goodies in the bathroom.

When we checked in, Aaron told me that we had a bit of time before our dinner reservations at 7. Is he good or what? We spent some time checking out the beautiful grounds.




For dinner, we headed into old town Pasadena for a delicious meal at El Portal.

On Saturday morning, we slept in and had breakfast at one of the hotel restaurants. So relaxing! Right before we left the room, we noticed that we had three chocolates left that could not be left behind. While I was double checking that we had everything, Aaron taste-tested them and ranked them based on what I would like best, haha! (He was right on, by the way)

One last picture before heading out...

After checking out of the hotel, we stopped in LA Chinatown because we've never been.



After Chinatown, Aaron took me to Bottega Louie downtown. He has eaten at the restaurant with our friend John and he brought me macarons (not a misspelling; they are French macarons!) the last time he was there. It was really cool to see it the day before Easter.





Sunday was Easter so we went to service in the Fieldhouse on campus.

Our friends are so fancy.

We took a picture but it did not come out well:( Picture fail.

Monday was our actual anniversary. Again, I thought we'd do something easy since I taught spin after work. Aaron came up big again and took me to Gaucho Grill where we went on our first date! I am a lucky girl.

Not a really scenic or special picture but proof that we were there!

It was a really wonderful wedding anniversary and it makes me so excited for all the future celebrations!

The reading from our wedding: "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Colossians 3: 12-17

Feeling Mighty Fine at Twenty-Nine

Well, my birth”day” definitely turned into a birth”week”…I’m a lucky girl!

The past few weeks have been a bit crazy with all of the traveling that I have been doing for work but it has been a lot of fun. The last week of March found me in Scottsdale and Dallas. Dallas was particularly fun because Aaron flew in to meet me there. We had a great work event at an awesome spot called Saint Ann and Aaron and I enjoyed our short stint navigating around the busy downtown area. On Friday, April 1, we left downtown Dallas for Southlake. We had lunch with Aaron’s aunt and uncle, Sandra and Bruce, and then we made our way to downtown Fort Worth to see our friends Jeff and Katie. Jeff and Katie were wonderful and generous hosts and treated us to a wonderful meal and a great visit. On Saturday morning, we packed up again to head to Forney to visit our dear friends, the Bryans. It was my first time meeting Houston and we had great time catching up with their whole sweet little family.

Saturday night, we headed back to southlake and spent the rest of the weekend being totally spoiled by Sandra and Bruce. The weather was beautiful and it was great to have a weekend to relax and eat well and sleep well!

On Sunday night, I experienced my first real big Texas hailstorm. Holy cow, that is some serious business! We drove to the airport that morning to fly to Austin and unfortunately, the hailstorm caused us to be delayed for a few hours. We arrived in Austin just in time to get ourselves to Rudy’s for some delicious barbeque…yum. With full and happy bellies, we headed towards UT where we were staying for the night. My work event was hosted by an alumnus at his law firm downtown so we had more good food and a great time visiting with the Pepperdine Law Austin alums. On Tuesday morning, I woke up to spend my first birthday outside of California, I think…and it was great! Aaron and I got a quick workout in at the hotel gym and then we were off to birthday breakfast at my new favorite place…Central Market! That place is amazing, seriously. After breakfast, we got packed up and Aaron had made a list of things we could do for the day since we were not flying out of Austin until about 5pm. We decided to go check out South Congress Avenue which is a funky little part of town with awesome shops, food trucks, and interesting people.




After working up an appetite, we went down to Lake Austin to have birthday lunch at the Hula Hut right on the lake. It was such a gorgeous day and the food did not disappoint.


After lunch, we had just enough time to get some shopping in near campus and then it was off to the airport. While at the airport, I thought I would text my brother and T to see if they wanted to join us for dinner when we landed back in LA. I told T that we were probably just going to go to Urth Caffe in Santa Monica and I was really excited when she said that she had a meeting in SM and so my brother was just going to meet her there for dinner. Perfect?! Maybe a little too perfect? Well, I sure didn’t notice, haha! Turns out, my brother and T had already been invited to dinner by my very sweet, but very sneaky!, husband. When we finally made it to Urth, imagine my surprise to see my brother and T AND 4 of my best girlfriends here at Pepperdine!



I had NO IDEA, which obviously makes it that much better. They surprised me with cake and everything and it was awesome. After dinner, Bran and T wanted to get yogurt so, why not?! Haha. When we finally got home home, I opened the door to more balloons and more cake!

Aaron had arranged for our friends Scott and Kevin to have that at home for me. How spoiled, right?

As if that wasn’t enough, later in the week, I had to go to San Diego for work and I was able to make a weekend of it and see some of my best girl friends in the whole world. I stayed downtown on Thursday night and got up in the morning to go to my alma mater for a bit before meeting Jess for lunch at one of our old favorites, Whole Foods in La Jolla. It was so wonderful to catch up with her. Later that day, I met up with my sweet Kate at her awesome downtown apartment when she got off work. We spent a few days doing what we do best--eating, talking, and shopping:)

This past week, I had one more work trip planned to Nashville. I've never been and so I was really excited about the opportunity to get out there. When I arrived, I headed straight to the Opry. I sort of stumbled upon it by accident but it was a great move!




Nashville is a really awesome city. It has an Austin vibe with all the music but it's very cosmopolitan with a country kick. I stayed downtown and went to our Pepperdine event on Wednesday night. On Thursday morning, I woke up and headed to Lipscomb to see our friend Jenny who is teaching at Lipscomb this semester. Aaron went to ACU with Jenny and her husband Matt and I have had the pleasure of getting to be friends with them. It was great to see her!

After visiting with Jenny, I drove back towards downtown to walk around and take some photos.




I met up with one of first year roommates before heading out to the airport. I had time to duck into a few boutiques on my way to the airport and I ran into Mallory from The Amazing Race. We chatted for awhile and probably could have gabbed some more! She is so sweet and adorable in person.

I can't wait to go back to Nashville. Aaron has never been so we'll definitely need to make a trip sometime. I'd love to catch a show at the Opry sometime.

Just to keep this 29th year interesting, on Tuesday before I left for Nashville, I decided to join a team for the Ragnar Relay So Cal 2011. The relay is a 200 mile race from Huntington Beach to Coronado Island. Teams are made up of 12 people and this team needed a 12th person at the last minute. I had heard about the Ragnar last year and Kate was actually a team captain for her team this year. I haven't been "training" per se, but I figured that if I could get a leg assignment that was decent, I would be able to pull it off. I almost immediately started to second guess myself when I said I would do it but I am SO glad that I stuck with it! I was on a team of mostly Pepperdine alums and one current student, Lauren, who posted on a facebook wall that her team needed a 12th person. So, I flew back to LA at about 10:30pm on Thursday, packed, and picked Lauren up to leave at 6:45am Friday morning. What followed was a surreal, brutal race but it was the most fun time running I've ever had. Running a relay is awesome because your team is supportive and pushes you. I was running much faster than I normally do and it was so cool to see what I was made of! We each ran three legs so I ran my first leg of 5.8 miles at about 4pm on Friday, my second leg of 3.8 miles at about 3am, and my last leg of 6.4 miles at 12:30pm on Saturday. It was hot, hot, hot and so trying to sleep and getting in and out of the van was...interesting. People go all out for this race...costumes, van decorations...it was so much fun and I made some great friends. I can't wait to do it again! Here are a bunch of pictures.










RAGNAR was so fun but I'm definitely happy to be home. No more traveling for me, I've missed my husband too much!

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Romans 12:9-10