Gobble Gobble

I love long weekends..I love being off from work long enough to forget what day it is :) It was a busy weekend, but a good one...

I worked Wednesday, seemed like I was the only person at work ~ I know I wasn't, since I saw other people, but it was definitely a skeleton crew. I probably could've taken the day off, but didn't have any real plans to go anywhere, didn't have to cook or travel, and I had made plans to go out that night with some former coworkers I hadn't seen in years so it made more sense for me to be in town...if I'd have stayed home I wouldn't have driven in. Kevin did take the day off and enjoyed a gorgeous morning at a park nearby - brought his bike and his camera. I wish we had cold weather more often, but it is pretty nice in many ways to live in a place we can be outdoors in the winter...most people put bikes up for the winter, we put ours away for the summer.

Thursday and Friday we spent with each side of the family. Living closer to Kevin's family made driving to spend the day with his family really no drive at all. Unfortunately, that means the drive to my family is longer, but still an easy day trip. Great to see both sides of the family, and I got my fix of turkey and pie...

Saturday morning we attended CPR training. It had been years since I'd taken a class and Kevin never had taken it before. He'd been wanting to take one since someone knowing CPR saved his uncle this past summer and now that we're moved and settled we were able to take the course. Its changed since I took it last time, and I know I understand it better. Having a small class (only 3 of us) gave us a lot of time for individual questions. I hope that if I were to ever need to do it, I could help someone by doing CPR...

That night we met up with another former coworker in town for the holiday (HI SHARON!) She was able to put a group together to go to Cafe Adobe - we used to eat there almost on a weekly basis, my waistline is thankful I don't anymore....It was great to see everyone! I worked with her my first job out of college, the first "real" job, and we had a lot of fun and I learned a lot during my time with them.

Sunday was a heartbreaker of a day. I was able to go to the Texans game, and the first half was wonderful but then they just fell apart and got walked all over the entire second half. Its tough to be a Texans fan. The highlight of the day - before the game we tailgated with St Arnold's (local brewery). It was the first time we were able to do so, and we'll definitely do it again. We had to walk around the Astrodome to find where they were - I had never seen how many tailgaters there really were...there must be as many people OUTSIDE the stadium as in it! We found out where their lot was and finally found it.....how we did, I don't really know. I was looking for a flag or their tie-dye Bentley, but Kevin and his dad saw the trailer....They don't have food, but they have beer on tap! I cannot wait until they can give tours at the newery (new-brewery)!

Draperies

I got a photo of the drapes, and you can see the new wall paint color. I forgot to take a before picture, so this photo of the living room that we took the weekend we moved in will have to do:

As you can see it was plain white walls and windows. We wanted to warm up the room and so we had the living room and kitchen painted a 'honey' color, and we love it. The wall color looks a bit different depending on the time of day, much warmer than the white walls we started with. We'll eventually paint other rooms in the house, but this is a great start, especially since these are the rooms where we spend most of our waking hours at home. The crown molding is also new and really completes these two rooms, now I just need to find a large wall hanging for behind the kitchen table and a window treatment for the kitchen and we'll consider them complete! Houses are always a work in progress, and with this house I want to make that effort, I never really did with the other one.....

Well, I didn't take photos of the draperies yet..but will soon.

We had a great weekend. We stayed around the house most of the day Saturday...it was dreary and rainy, and a good day to just stay at home. It rarely works out for me to be able to stay home on the days that the weather is telling me to stay home, so it was a nice treat. We made spaghetti for dinner, and I even baked some muffins for breakfast for Sunday, and broke in the smoker with a brisket - smoked it for 6 hours, then cooked it overnight in the oven. We had friends over yesterday to help us eat it...tasted so good, and it was a great treat to have it work out that everyone we invited was able to come. That should be the first of many good meals cooked on that smoker.

Tonight the Texans are on Monday Night Football. Kevin will be there, I'll watch it on tv. We are VERY excited to see them on national tv, especially against the Titans....

Thanksgiving is only a few days away and I am so annoyed that all the stores are already cramming Christmas at us. I know, their objective is to sell, sell, sell, but would it really be so bad to take these days to stop to think of all that we have to be thankful for? Even in the economy we are in right now and with all the people laid off, we have a lot to be thankful for. I am guilt of getting caught up in the hub-bub of it all, but do want to stop and think of all that I have to be thankful for. Here are the tops on my list of what I'm thankful for: a wonderful family (including the family I gained from marrying Kevin), my sweet husband, good health, a job I enjoy, living in a country with all the freedoms that we have. I know my list is much longer but that is my top 5. I want to be better at telling those in my life I'm thankful for how much they mean to me....I know that they know it, but its good to hear, even a simple thank you to the person working a check-out can brighten their day...

Mr V's Journey to Recovery

I know that my blog has a very small readership. If you read this and know my college roommate and friend, Delena, I wanted to share with you a blog she created to track her dad's recovery. He was in a very bad car accident last Thursday and is in the ICU of a hospital in Houston. He is a fighter, and has a long road ahead of him.

I've known Mr. V for over 12 years, since Delena and I met our freshmen year of college. He is a wonderful man and a loving husband and father. Whether or not you know her and her dad, please keep them in your prayers as they embark on this long road to recovery.

New Smoker

Today we put together a new smoker for Kevin. The one we had before had rusted out and finally gotten to be unusable, so we got rid of it and decided to wait until after we moved to get a new one (one less heavy, awkward item to move). We'd been wanting to get a new one, but just hadn't made the time to do it...until last night, we went to HEB and found the one we wanted. We need to get it so we can break it in before smoking a turkey for the family Christmas gathering in early December.

Purchasing it was an ordeal - it always is for us. We found the item out front and were told we could just go to the checkout and they'd have the item number there. The checker looked through his booklet and didn't have it. He sent a bagger out to find it, no luck.... While we waited they checked other people out, we didn't want to hold up the line entirely. They finally had to have a manager help us - after shutting down our checkout line. At least they would sell it to us - when we got the grill, Home Depot wouldn't sell it to us at first because of some kind of recall.... It could be a joke, how many people does it take to sell us something? We were finally able to buy it, and even had a couple of guys who work there help us load it in the car. Its a big, heavy box.

We just left it in the truck last night (and treated ourselves to concrete mixers at Culver's - the pumpkin pecan one is so good, better than pumpkin pie!), and tackled assembly today. The gate in the back of the fence came in handy, Kevin was able to drive the truck behind the fence and we unloaded it (piece by piece) onto our back patio. Much easier than bringing it through the house. It took us quite a while, but we got it put together and it looks great! We are a good team, when one of us is frustrated the other one keeps us focused and plods through to get it done....so we now have a fully assembled smoker, ready to start using next weekend! cannot wait for the good food we can make with it. The smoker even has the Texas star on it in several places, goes well with our door and other decorations..

We also have a painted living room and kitchen!! We hired a local company to install crown molding and paint these two rooms, they look great! We chose a 'honey' color, gives the house a Tuscan look. We'll have pictures soon - after our curtains are installed.

Volunteering

I'm excited - I found a way to keep volunteering with CAP even though I can no longer work on Tuesday nights. I've "adopted" two CVS stores near my house and will check on them each week to tidy up the display if needed and take inventory to see if they need to be replenished. I did my first check-in last night.

At one store, the display was still in the box so I had to set it up.....can't sell them if they are still in the box! The assistant manager helped me and we got it set up, hoorah! I can follow directions, but sometimes have a hard time understanding what they mean....hopefully it'll still be standing when I check back in next week. At the second store the display was set up, and one design was sold out! So, I'll let my contact know they need to send them some more. The inventory all goes straight to the store, so its a pretty easy job for me, and one I can do in my part of town....I am so glad that I was able to find a way to keep working for this great cause....

Edit: Addition CAP stands for Children's Art Project (Thanks Emily!) I forget that not everyone knows my abbreviations :)

Happy Halloween

This weekend's weather was gorgeous! It made for a PERFECT day at the Texas Renaissance Festival. My sister went with us and we had a great time. Being Halloween, there were costumes of all kinds. She and I dressed up and Kevin was an anachronism :). Some of Laura's friends were also there, so she joined up with them to watch some shows and Kevin and I watched some entertainment but mostly just wandered around and enjoyed the weather outside - cool and sunny. The most entertaining show we saw was "drench a wench" where a girl sits in a dunking booth and heckles people while they try to throw bean bags at a target. often she gets spectators so mad that they pay to be able to try to dunk her. she's good at what she does!

We left early to be home in time for trick-or-treating, and had a LOT of kids come by! I should've had more candy, but wasn't sure if we'd have kids come to our door or not. We had LOTS of kids come by, love seeing them in their costumes - my favorites: the tiny boy in a lion outfit, the boy that just yelled "candy" when I opened the door, and the kids singing "trick-or-treat smell my feet.." as they walked away. Our favorite trick-or-treater: our nephew dressed as a Transformer.

enjoyed our extra hour of sleep last night, though really I just woke up extra early today...

Today we went to my in-laws to watch the game and have dinner, good meal and a Texans' win!!

Cannot believe its already November...