Ice of Texas

Its an ice/snow day in Houston!   "Ice of Texas" is a silly hashtag I've seen for it, play on the 'eyes of Texas'.

The rest of the country may laugh at us, but we are simply not built for cold*.  Flyovers and bridges ice over and its dangerous, saddly people here can't even drive in rain!

I'm fortunate that I was able to make plans to work from home and saw this morning that my school is closed until 1 pm -- not sure why they plan to open mid day (and just for staff since classes are cancelled), but we'll take it, and lots of other schools and businesses are closed.

We've been watching news coverage all morning and ice is everywhere.  K's alma mater (Sam Houston) got some good snow, I love watching the kids (and adults) play in snow.   We just had ice on our picnic table from the rain that froze - and our umbrella is frozen solid!   We have a rare daytime fire going in the fireplace now.

I'm glad to be home, and make everyone (including first responders) safer by being one less car on the road.

If you do have to be out in it - drive slowly and stay safe!

I'm off to read my book, and be worse than a little kid - checking to see if there are updates on further closures of my school.  EDIT: my school did close all day!  got a phone call and text message near noon letting me know, so I had a full ice day and an unexpected 3- day weekend

*We do know how to deal with heat and humidity. I remember a trip to San Diego and a "heat wave" that all the people there were dying over and it was still chilly to us!  its all about what you're used to.

Bridal Show

Yesterday I accompanied my sister to the Bridal Extravaganza, and we walked all over the convention center!    I had never been to a show of this scale (thought it'd be too overwhelming when I was the bride to be).   It was quite an experience.  I am so glad she has already made some of her major decisions (venue) so we could focus on a few things she wanted to look for (photographer, linens, invitations) and see some of the things we'd never thought of that could be helpful (dance lessons).  Even though she isn't looking for a baker we did partake in of some of the cake samples and love to look at the beautiful cakes - my favorite: this mustache one (had to photograph it for my friend Delena), complete with a mariachi musician on the top.

We had a great time wandering and talking about all things wedding, and sat to regroup and review -- there are so many vendors they were already starting to run together.  Its fun to see her talk about weddings and all the different options she has before her.  I am glad that I'm a helper this time and not having to make the decisions.  I know she and Chris will make a beautiful wedding that reflects them as a couple, and they are starting early since their date isn't til 2015.

A great take away from this event was the idea of having an album made of the engagement pictures and using that as a guest book -- almost like a yearbook, guests will get to see more of the photos than they would otherwise and in putting it in something you'd want to look at anyway you'll see your guests and their wishes for you for years to come.   (kind of wish we'd done that!)

The show can be overwhelming but just having fun and seeing all the offerings is what its all about.   The ideas you never thought of and get from it make it worth it (the takeaway from the one we went to before my wedding was chocolate fountain as groom cake!)  Here is a photo of the future bride wearing her sticker showing she is a bride.

I got to see a lot of my sis this weekend (always fun!), we also went to a class to decorate coasters on Friday night and our dear friend Delena who came south from Chicago to escape the cold also joined us.   It was a fun night of chit-chatting and each making our own designs on the glass coasters, cannot wait to see the finished product.   I put a picture on instagram, not sure how to post that here....hmmmmm

welcome 2014 and resolutions

2014...time flies and its a new year again!!   It'll take me most of January to write the date correctly....make it a great year!!!

I'm not sure why I do it, but I still make resolutions, along with much of the country...

Looking back at last year's resolutions I realized that in addition to the resolutions I'd planned to make smaller/short term goals, totally forgot about that!   Much like people forget about/give up on their resolutions
a few weeks into the year.

I like the idea of smaller/short term goals, keep myself accountable, and so I plan to do better at setting them -- that way each month is a new start.   I've also learned to be very specific and measurable with my resolutions/goals to make them easier to achieve (and to tell if you did achieve).

We were not very successful with last year's resolutions -- though we did start over with our tupperware, have been using mint.com, and did keep up with organizing various places in our house.   We also did the better way of making a change - when we saw the need for it.   I've been trying to organize my digital life, my personal email was a mess with all the various newsletters/advertisements I receive.  I found this service called Unroll.me and love that it puts all the subscriptions into an email that I receive once a day and makes it really easy to unsubscribe from those I no longer want (some I didn't know I even had!).  Already I can see the emails that I do want to read and reply to much easier without having to sift through the junk.  Our efforts to improve our workout room will also help us as we work to get into a new routine.

The rest of our resolutions:

1) Pay off 'bad' debt – starting with finishing paying off the living room furniture (interest free period ends in April), and then moving onto K's student loans -- we paid off one in 2013!   We'll be 'paying ourselves first' this way rather than just saving and paying unnecessary interest.

2) Travel more – we'd like to take at least 2 trips this year, and plan that one will be to a place we’ve never been.

3) Lose 20 lbs (each of us) – K plans to work out at least 3x per week –  I'll also plan for that often and work on eating more 'clean' (still need to work on how to make this one specific/measurable).

4) one just for me -- I've realized I have my mom's short temper and take it out on K which isn't right, so I need to work on better ways to communicate with him and not just getting mad....we can probably both work on our communication skills with each other.

5) reading!  I didn't make my goal of 20 books in 2013, but will try that again.  K reads a ton already.

Edited to add:
6) take my lunch break at work -- sounds odd, but I often work right through lunch/eat at my desk which isn't good for my eyes, brain, or my stomach....so I plan to step away to eat, even if I'm still in my office.

goodbye 2013

Last day of 2013!   We've had a relaxing break at home, and even tackled a home project.  We now have 3 shelves in our workout room to be able to store and organize the cable box, new bluray player and dvds.  This project will make all the difference in getting us both to use that room more often - netflix streaming while I work out, yes please!

Its not as exciting as a holiday trip, but something that we'll enjoy for many days/weeks to come.  We've come a long way in our at home projects, found the studs pretty easily and only ended up with one extra hole in the wall (a HUGE win for us!)

We have no big plans for tonight, just fixing a pot roast, and will have champagne at midnight (or maybe at New York's midnight) and protect our big bad dog from the fireworks in the neighborhood.   We've been hearing them all week, and he's not a fan....

I had to post our pizza picture from yesterday, it kind of (if you squint) looks like a firework (or maybe an amoeba).   Its our first attempt at a completely homemade pizza.   We had a tough time getting the dough to spread out and part of the odd shape is because we then had a tough time getting it onto the pizza stone, it stuck to the peel.

The flavor of the crust was good, but since it was uneven parts were still doughy.   We ended up having it as an appetizer and ended up going out for a pizza....It was made with a lot of love, but we need to work on the skill level....we'll try again with the other part of the dough (and after reading a bit more on how to do it).....some of the most memorable meals are the cooking fails....

I'm glad this is one of the last meals of 2013 and not the first of 2014 -- we might worry that it shows what the year will be like, I try not to be superstitious but do find myself wanting to make the beginning of the year great to set the tone for the year.

Have fun celebrating and stay safe!!!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.    We've watched way too many Christmas movies, the classics for us are National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story and Home Alone.  We also baked cookies (with mixed results), and this week have been able to celebrate with both sides of the family.

My last day to work for the year was Dec 20  -- hooray for working at a university!   We debated taking a trip, but decided to just enjoy the break, celebrate with our various groups and stay close to home.

Our festivities started on Saturday when we celebrated with Kevin's mom's side of the family -- lots of food, family and fun that day.   I'm not the biggest fan of a white elephant gift exchange, but learned to just take it as a fun activity and don't get my heart set on any one gift.   We do get a lot of fun stories from it each year.

My parents came up on Monday and we had Christmas with them, my sister and her fiance (still love that I can call him that now!) that day, complete with some homemade Texas chili -- sis' fiance and Kevin made the chili while my sis and I baked cookies - chocolate cookies with mint Hershey kiss on top, and a few with reese's bells instead (K's idea).  

We spent Christmas eve with my in-laws and exchanged gifts with them last night.  This actually worked pretty well so today we could focus on thei kids' gifts.   We went back over to my in-laws for Christmas dinner and opened gifts with our niece and nephew and played with them.  You really do need 3 adults for each kid, for the assembly of some of their gifts-- the dollhouse our niece received took several of us to assemble -- and was a hit with both kids!    I still hear about the Barbie McDonald's my dad had to assemble the middle of the night and all the stickers he had to put onto it...but boy, did I love that toy!

 Our gifts were easy open and go for our niece (thank you Melissa and Doug) and the books and puzzle we got our nephew will be enjoyed later in the year.

They were overwhelmed with all the toys and also loved playing in the box the dollhouse came in!

Its been a fantastic few days, and I know that I'll enjoy the next few days off....