Where It All Began....

I posted this photo on my Facebook last week and y'all had so many questions and asked for the whole story. So, here it is. 

While we were on our Spring Break trip (I'll recap it soon), we visited the new football facilities at Arkansas State University. A lot has changed in the 16 years since we left, but this place will always be special because it's where DJ got his start in college athletics. 

We weren't dating when this started, so I'm just sharing what he told me, but he had a friend on the football team, and he went out to watch practice one day. Back then, ASU did not have a full time video coordinator on staff, and only had students filming practices. One of the guys that was filming got in to an argument with the coach and stormed off the field. 

The coach looked at DJ, and asked him if he knew how to work a camera. DJ did, and the coach told him to climb up the tower and start filming. 

And, as I said in my Facebook post, the rest is history. 

Eventually  he became the head student video coordinator at Arkansas State and received a full athletic scholarship in place of a salary. There were a few coaching changes and an AD change in that time period, but the new coach coming in, Coach Roberts, honored his full scholarship so long as DJ was able to prove himself, and he did. 

 DJ majored in Communications with an emphasis in New Media, and even today, I don't know what that means, other than he could operate a camera for the local news. I'm sure there's more to it, but that's what I took from it. 

DJ was a few years in to his gig when we met. We started dating in August, right when football season was starting and he basically told me that I needed to be okay with not seeing him often. I didn't believe him at the time, but I learned quickly that it meant seeing him at lunch and in the late evenings, and rarely on the weekends. 

I never cared about football until we started dating. Sure, I knew offense and defense, and how many points you get when you score, but that was it. I was captain of my high school dance team, so I went to all of the games, but in college, I went to maybe 3 games each year. The year we met, I was at every home game, and somehow snuck my way as a SGA member to the ASU/Army game.... and I wasn't even on SGA. (Thank you Sarah Bing.)

I remember, going to his office after the games and sitting amongst other students who had filmed the game and watching them work. We often pulled all nighters at the football office, and around 2 am, we would pull the cushions off the couches and sleep on the floor while tapes were being copied. 

In the early 2000's, they were still using VCR, and DJ would have to drive to the Memphis airport, about an hour away, and put the VHS on the plane and sit and wait for the VHS for the next team we were playing, That's when he met his good friend, Chris- Chris was working at Ole Miss, and they would sit in the airport and chat. DJ was later Chris' best man, and they still have a close friendship today 

Within the first month of dating, I knew I would marry DJ. We quickly bought rings and asked my parents permission, and by that December, we were engaged. 

The following summer, he interviewed for a GA position at Ole Miss under Coach O, who is now at LSU. We found out that he didn't have enough credits to graduate and needed to stay at ASU one more semester. 

That year, ASU won the conference championship, and we were bowl bound. We found out Thanksgiving weekend, that our wedding plans were abut to be thrown for a loop. DJ and I were married December 17th, and had to have my brother step in as a groomsman, because one of our groomsmen had to fly out and be with the team, and while we had planned to have friends video the wedding, we relied on my uncle. We flew out the morning after our wedding to Lafayette, La for the New Orleans Bowl... it had been moved to Lafayette because that was the year Hurricane Katrina came through and the city was still destroyed. So yes, we spent our honeymoon at the bowl game. 

7 weeks after we were married, we moved to Ruston, La where he took the head position at Louisiana Tech University. And the pay was dismissal. I told him he could be a manager at McDonald's on that salary. But, that year was amazing. We meet so many wonderful people. We really bonded together as a couple, because we were all we had. 

After the season, the coach was let go, and we were faced with the opportunity to stay or move on. We decided to move on to Ball State University. DJ was born in Indiana and had family there so we thought it would be nice to live near them for a little while. We always knew it wouldn't be a long term location for us, but we stayed for 4 years. Two of our daughters were born there. 

We eventually found our way in Tulsa and made the move, because it was closer to my family and we were going through our 3rd coaching staff change at Ball State. Tulsa became home to us, and I will always love that city. I really feel like it's where our kids grew up (yes, I know they're still young and not finished growing up) but we had wonderful friends, a wonderful church, great people on staff, and it just became our home. 

After living in Tulsa for 7 years, we arrived in Austin. It's hard to believe we are entering our 4th football season here, and I still feel like a newbie, and don't know my way around very well and I still feel like we aren't as settled as I'd like to be. But, that will come in time just like it did at all of our other schools. 

He loves his job here, and he's good at it. Every day is something new. Construction meetings for the new football facility, operating with a staff of 3 plus students, position meetings, practices. I know that he stays busy and there are many days that he skips lunch. 

Several years ago, I was asked if DJ would ever leave college football and I don't think he will. I think just like a coach, it's in his blood. It's what he loves, and I could never ask him to leave behind something that he loves so much. Sure, it's a hard life, but he told me that when we started dating.... I just actually believe him now. 

Much thanks to Chris Buttgen who is the current video coordinator at Arkansas State for being a friend, and for showing us around the new facilities. 

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday friends! Our Spring Break officially starts today and we are taking off tomorrow for a weekend of camping and then off to see family for a few days. 

I'm linking up today with Andrea and Erika and sharing a short list of favorites from the week. 

I came home from work Monday and Adalyn was still in her pj's. This girl loves her pj's. 

Some silly selfies before getting her clothes on and heading out to activities for the big girls. 

Gretchen has started a bracelet shop and we're hopefully launching on  Etsy shop soon! In the meantime, you can find her over on Instagran. 

Look at how fun her loom bracelets are! 

Speaking of fun, I received my first set of Red Aspen nails in the mail this week and I couldn't wait to try them! You receive everything you need to apply these, and they're super easy to apply! 

It took me about 20 minutes from start to finish, and they're easy to cut down and file. They feel like I'm wearing acrylic nails, but the price is so much more affordable! You get a set for just $13.00 and once you remove them, you can reuse them! I plan on keeping these on throughout Spring Break and changing them once we get home! 

That's it for today's favorites! I'll see y'all back here some time after Spring Break! 

3 Things.

We are counting down the days to Spring Break over here. I almost didn't publish a blog post today, because I am just ready for a vacation, but then I thought I'd share a quick 3 things today. I'll also share my regular Friday Favorite round up and then I'm taking a week off from this blog space while we are on vacation. 

1. Warmer Weather

We have been getting a tease of warm weather days and it is wonderful. Last week, the girls rode bikes to the park one afternoon, and last Wednesday, Adalyn spent an hour outside riding her bike and I walked and it was wonderful. Spring days make me super lazy inside the house though and I just want to be outside enjoying the sunshine. 

2. Kite fun

We had some wind and the girls decided it would be fun to fly kites. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing, and they flew their kites all over the backyard. It was so much fun watching them run around. I'm telling you, the warm weather ruins me. 

3. Clean Rooms

This weekend, I sent the kids outside and I overhauled their bedrooms. They needed to desperately be cleaned and re-organized. I pulled out piles of clothes that are too small, switched closets around..... Gretchen's too small clothes went to Megan, Megan's went to Adalyn, and Adalyn's clothes went to our neighbors. I dusted, threw away trash, cleaned out toys It felt so good to get their spaces back to a functional space. 

Since COVID hit last year, we've been home so much more and while we have been trying to balance work, homeschooling, activities- I have become really lax in the cleaning department. Especially upstairs. It got so bad that I didn't even want to go upstairs because I knew I would get mad at what a disaster it was. Like, I stopped tucking the girls in at night, because the mess would enrage me. I'm also a perfectionist, so even though they would clean and pick up, it wouldn't be to "my standards" and it was just a big mess. So, it was easier for me to ignore it and pretend it wasn't there. 

Every once in a while I would try, but it just got to be to much. Anyway, I just needed them out and for me to do it and have it done, and now we can move forward with them making beds every day, dusting weekly, and a more regular cleaning schedule. It feels god to have it done and much more manageable right now. 

 

Homeschool Fun!

Homeschooling has takern a weird turn lately. I feel like I'm to the point where it's not new anymore and I'm at the end of the year rush to get things done and concepts taught in case the girls return to school next year. So, I won't lie that I'm stressed out about the end of the year, and I'm worried that we will still be doing school work until the end of June, and that freaks me out a bit! 

In all honesty, I'd love to keep the girls home another year, and I'm not quite sure that will happen unless schools look the same next year. For us, we cannot quarantine a child for 2 weeks, because we both need to work and who would watch our possibly exposed children? It's easier to homeschool than play the on again off again game with the school district. 

That being said, we are trying to have some fun mixed in with learning, and I decided that every Friday in April needs to be Fun Friday! I'm currently working a lot of Friday's to make up missed speech therapy sessions and that also has me feeling behind. I promised myself that I wouldn't work any Friday in April. 

Here's a peek at the fun we've been having. 

Adalyn finished up her 3rd unit in The Good & the Beautiful workbook. She's using this workbook for reading and language arts. At the end of the unit, she has games to play as a review and she absolutely loves them! We will only have 2 units left to finish for this year, but each unit takes us about 5 weeks to complete. 

Back in November, we found a big, fat, green caterpillar. He made a cocoon in one of our flowers, but never came out as a butterfly. We took the cocoon and decided to dissect it. 

Gross. 

That's all I can say about this one. As we shook the cocoon, you could hear the caterpillar loose inside. The cocoon was hard to cut in to. As I cut it, I accidentally cut into the caterpillar and green juice squirted out. The little guy was brown and dead (obviously) but I wasn't expecting the squirt of juice. We didn't really dig much further! 

Ooblek! 

Megan watched a Netflix science show about Ooblek and asked if we could make some. Thankfully I had the ingredients on hand so we mixed some up.

You just need 1 cup corn starch to 1/2 c. water (we doubled the recipe) and you can add food coloring if you'd like. 

When you apply pressure, ooblek is a solid, but when the pressure isn't applied, it becomes a liquid. 

The girls played in it for a while and made a huge mess! They had a blast! 

Friday Favorites

Happy 1st Friday of March! I'm not sure about y'all, but March to me, means Spring, and I am ready for it. Bring on the warm days, lots of outside play time, park visits, and Spring Break! 

I'm linking up today with Erika and Andrea for Friday Favorites and as always, sharing a random list of favorites from the week! 

Megan has been receiving Kiwi Crates for over a year and she still loves them! We recently bumped her up to the Tinker Crates, because they're a little harder than the kiwi crate. There are different lines available based on interest and age ranges, and I'm not sure we will ever grow out of them! Each month, we are sent a new activity, and Gretchen and Megan have this activity as their time. Megan and Gretchen don't play together often because of their ages (the teenager is much introverted), but this is the one thing they do together that really bonds them. And, it gives me an hour of time where they are upstairs together and quiet! It's so nice! Ha! 

If you'd like to try out kiwi crates for your kiddo, click here for 50% off your first month! 

I recently grabbed this shirt and I'm in love with the puff sleeve on it! It's a great transition piece in to Spring! 

Over the weekend, we celebrated our cousin turning 10! We headed off to the park to celebrate with family. The girls love their little cousin and toted her everywhere. 

Megan did a few gymnastics while she was out at the park too! 

Gretchen has been begging me for years to start her own business. She really wants to do something productive and save money for college. And at 13, she's a huge overachiever. I love that she gets really passionate about projects and is always wanting to turn them in to an opportunity to raise money........

When she was in 5th grade, her girl friends got together, made bracelets, sold them and raised over 400.00. 

Last year, she organized a used book drive for her school. 

For 13th birthday this year, she didn't ask for presents, but asked for money to be raised for Charity Water and she raised over $400.0 for them. 

So, we have started on Instagram page and will be launching on Etsy shop soon so she can sell her creations! She'll also be donating 10% of her commissions to Charity Water and saving the rest for college. This girl dreams big, and I don't want to stop her, so I'm trying to support her as best as I can along the way. 

We would love for you to follow her on Instagram! 

My favorite pick me up drink..... all the Zyng. This past Monday was exhausting and it's not often that I drink caffeine, but when I do, it's a zyng drink! 

I baked fresh sourdough on Tuesday and by that evening we had 1 piece left. The girls and I devour this. 

That wraps up today's Friday Favorites!

If you missed my skincare routine, you can see that here, and our final wrap up of our camping trip in west Texas is here!

Happy Weekend!

 

West Texas Camping: Day 4

On our final full day camping in west Texas, we stayed right in Fort Davis to hike and explore the remnants of the fort used by the American military in the 1800s. We got up and had breakfast, and then packed sandwiches and a picnic lunch. Our hike started at the top of the mountain and it took us an hour to hike down. 

There was a gorgeous picture window at the top of our hike. 

I'm still in awe over the landscape. It's not really pretty but it's definitely unique and exactly what I would think of when I thought of dessert in Texas. 

3 Welte girls, ready to hike to the bottom. 

Pointing to where we had to hike down to.... it took us about an hour to get to the bottom, but it felt a lot longer! 

There were some rough spots along the way, like this narrow rock pathway. 

That's what we were trying to get down to. 

We finally made it to the fort. 

Adalyn was laughing because she thought it was underwear hanging on the line to dry... it was actually towels, but I didn't tell her otherwise. 

Barracks all lined up in a row. 

After walking around the grounds, we made our way to the picnic tables for lunch, and the girls spotted the wigwam. We talked about how Native Americans use to live in these!

For the most part, there was one museum space and the hospital space. We could somewhat see inside a house that had been at the fort....  after it was used as an army base, it eventually turned in to houses for the town, and we learned the history of people who lived there. The grounds were huge, and after our hike, we didn't walk all the way around and some of the areas, you couldn't go in to anyway. 

After our lunch and our tour, we were ready to hike back up that mountain behind us. 

Three girls and their daddy. 

There were cacti all around. 

And we found this heart shaped rock on our hike back up. 

We took a different trail on the way back up, and this one was much easier! I'm so glad we didn't take our first hike back up- it would've been really hard! 

It seems we rarely have pictures together! The girls took off up the trail so we followed behind. Somewhere along the way, I heard a snake and we stopped and watched it slither away and I thought to myself that it had to have been super close to the trail when the girls ran by! 

Once we made it back to our campground, we made smores and had dinner. 

Then we went stargazing. The stars were unbelievable out here where there wasn't any light pollution. We had promised the girls we would take them back to the top of the mountain to see the stars, and we used our Sky View out to find stars, planets, and constellations. 

Monday morning, we packed up and headed back home. Our weekend camping trip was wonderful. It was the perfect little getaway for our family. 

 

My Evening Skin Care Routine

Skincare isn't something I really thought about until my 30s. I think when you're young it's just not something you want to mess with, but once you start seeing fine lines and age spots appear, you're like "woah! I should take care of this." 

I change up my skincare routine every once in a while, so today, I'm sharing my current skin care routine for the evenigs. 

I use Young Living's Orange Blossom Face Wash right now. I just need 2 squirts and it cleans my entire face. I usually shower at night, so that's when I wash my face. It just makes it easy to remember to take all of my makeup off then. 

The Orange Blossom face wash is made from 100% naturally derived ingredients and it's really gentle. It doesn't dry out my skin at all! It's also great for teen skin, so I have Gretchen using this as well. 

Right now I have a few little breakouts along my chin. I'm not quite sure if it's hormone related or from wearing a mask, but I spot treat with Tea Tree essential oil. 

In June, Young Living released a new skin care line, Bloom. I still have the Brightening Essence from when the collection was released. You shake this, and put a drop on your hands and apply to your face. I have used this for 6 months, and used the other Bloom products as well and overall really like the entire line. I just haven't bought the face wash and moisturizer again, because I'm waiting to run out of this and then buy the set again. 

The brightening essence infuses moisture in to your skin and creates brighter, more luminous skin. 

True Botanicals reached out to me on Instagram asking if I'd like to try their Pure Radiance Oil. I researched the company and ingredients before saying yes, because I wanted to stay true to the products that I use and promote. I will only share clean ingredient products with y'all, because that's important to me! 

I'm using their Pure Radiance Oil after the bloom essence. The Pure Radiance Oil contains essential oils and again, it's made with clean ingredients. It's a thicker oil, and it provides a lot of moisture to my skin! You can use the code AUSTIN15, for 15% off any purchase on their website through April. 

I'd love to know what products you're using for skin care and if you're in the habit of having a good skin care routine!