late night adventure

Its always an adventure at our house.

Last night...we'd gone out for dinner and drinks, and had settled in to watch the Nashville episode of the Foo Fighters show since I head there today for work.

Earlier in the evening I'd noticed the sidewalk out front of our house was very wet, I thought it looked odd but it had rained a lot that morning (I got SOAKED trying to walk S so I just attributed it to that).   Later, Kevin sees it and says "we have a major problem".   My first thought is I hope its not TOO major as I have to fly out of town for work in the morning.   There is STILL a lot of water, and its actually flowing.  We go behind the garage and its a tiny lake and we hear flowing water......I wade into the water, get the gate to next door open and there is water just pumping out of their overflow valve.   They are new neighbors and aren't at the house -- they move in TODAY -- so we can't tell them, we did the next best thing we could think of....we found a shut off valve and turned off the water.  I feel a little bad we have to tell them we shut off their water right before move in day but at 10:30 at night it seemed like the best solution....

random thoughts

I found out this week that the Boneyard we recently visited is closing, very sad to hear it.....it was a fun place to take S and though we've only been once we were hoping to make it again soon.    That is one gripe I have about Houston, good places seem to come and go (and oddly some of the bad places just keep on going even though I wish they'd go away).   We also recently found out a couple of restaurants are closing or moving because the land they are on is going to be used for luxury apartments.  When real estate is in demand you have to build up to make it cost effective, but still not happy about it.

We attended the Texas Renaissance Festival yesterday, an annual tradition for us.    It was a chilly (colder than we were thinking it would be) and fun day.  We watch the weather and just go when it looks right, tough for making plans with others but the best way to do it!    We discovered hot spiced wine, it was there as a "cold day special" and loved it.   At least once i wanted to hold onto K's since it was keeping my hand warm.    He is now the proud owner of some very nice handmade gloves, he had needed new gloves anyway and so we did some shopping while we were there :)    He looks very knightly with them!

We both did a 'joust' on a little metal horse that you ride down a track and try to get your pole through a ring, harder than it looks!   We felt a little odd in line with little kids, but are glad we did it!

November adventures

A week into November already?!?!   This year is flying by!

We are still exploring and discovering places to go in our new area, and could not be happier.

Here are two of my favorite recent adventures:

• We finally took Smokey on one of our explorations --- to Boneyard, its a bar with a HUGE dog park behind it -- pretty great idea to put these two things together, and it was very popular when we went last weekend, we were able to park in the (closed for the day) Credit Union parking lot next door.   K actually had to let S and I out since S was getting so antsy when he was all the dogs that it made it easier for him to park.
• One event that we may never live down, S got into a fight with a 3-legged dog, not sure who the instigator was but K could see it was about to happen and grabbed S but no one was grabbing the other dog, so our silly dog got nipped and had what seemed like a bloody nose.   He's fine and we'll definitely go back, just a reminder of why to keep near your dog when you go.

• K has been wanting to check out some of the local food trucks, he's never eaten from one and I haven't in quite a while - there are so many now!    Getting to eat from one is complicated since I refuse to pay to go to a 'food truck festival' -- the entrance fees are more than we'll spend on food(!), so we found a spot that would work for both of us -- our local HEB actually had a 'food truck meetup' advertised and we made that our dinner plans for Friday night.  It was a great set-up, they had 6 or 7 trucks, HEB was selling beer and they had a live musician doing covers set up right outside the store, and the have a large area with tables where we could sit to eat.   It was a tough choice for which truck to order from -- there was Brazilian, burgers, wraps, Gulf Coast specialties and more.  We each chose to order from the Reel Deal seafood truck (definitely a first for me) and were not disappointed.      Houston also has one coffee truck, Espresso Rescue, and we each ordered from that one, hot chocolate rather than coffee...very good on one of the first chilly nights of the season.  I love that it looks like an ambulance, when you need caffeine it truly is an emergency!  and its run by a man who is a retired flight attendant, he wants to serve good coffee out of a truck after serving bad coffee on a plane for many years (from the article outside the truck)

almost WW

artisan gelato....so, so good........

almost Wordless Wednesday

Houston skyline at night, from a local bar we visited for the first time last night (Dogwood).

Settling in

Today marks 3 weeks since we moved in!

It has been a busy and wonderful 3 weeks.    As of today we have all the boxes unpacked or put away. I'm not gonna lie, we still have a few to go through, but we've looked at them and decided they can be dealt with at at a later date, including wall hangings - we did get our clock hung on the wall today.

We are LOVING our new neighborhood and Smokey likes it too.

A few of our recent adventures:

- Kevin took Smokey to get his haircut and they didn't have to get in a car, he was able to walk him there and back.

- we saw the dog haircut place on our bike ride to a large park nearby.

- Smokey gets 2 walks every day

- tonight we walked to a nearby wine bar.

- we are now close enough that when my brother came through town I was able to see him since I had enough time to come home on my lunch break and visit!

It has taken some getting used to from all of us.  The first few days my legs hurt, not used to living in a 3 story place.  The stairs are good for me and we are getting good at being efficient in bringing things with us when we move from floor to floor.  Smokey still cracks us up when he can't get traction on the wood floors, but he's getting better (and he can run up and down the stairs like a champ!)

Its finally beginning to feel like home and we'll enjoy exploring and finding places for years to come.

Move in success

We are moved in!    We are still getting settled and have a mess of boxes around us, but they are gradually getting unpacked and we could NOT be happier.

Don't get me wrong, we've had our share of setbacks but try to remind ourselves that is just part of moving and we'll forget about it (or laugh about it) in a few months....it will also remind us of why we don't move very often.

The list so we can look back at it:

- we've had to disassemble/reassemble our bed at least 5 times, 4 times in one day (first because movers didn't make the little legs stand up that support the mattress, later because each worker we've had in has had to move the bed - contractor, add a jack guy)

- washing machine water sources were switched -- and for some reason still drips

- comcast has been out twice and we still don't have tv or phone.....thank goodness for netflix streaming (and a very techy hubby!) <-- i="">this one is the big frustration, wish us luck for tomorrow!

- our entire moving shifted a day, but that was for the best -- Saturday was GORGEOUS!


We're enjoying exploring our new area -- we rode our bikes to get gelato at a nearby place last night, Kevin discovered it when we wanted to grab some pizza one day last week when we were even more 'box city'.

Something I realized recently, this is the first time since moving out of my parents house (1997) that I have a mailbox out front (well actually attached), everywhere else has been a whole set of boxes in one area....won't miss that.  and we bought a nice one, with a lock and fully enclosed -- the one that was here was open on top so everything got soaked when it rained....no good!

moving day fail

Today was to be our move in day...or so we thought.   Early this morning, we went to the house expecting to have a busy day with the movers getting our belongings all in place.   We are both so excited to finally get to stay in the house!!

The movers were confirmed and they came to the house about 9 am, but the weather was not working with us...we thought we could still make it work, but the sky opened up and it was just a deluge and with so much water coming down and so much already on the ground we were concerned with how it would work.    Ultimately the movers made the call to see if we could postpone, and while we were sad to agree to it its probably the best choice --- make sure our belongings and brand new floors don't get soaked, and possibly ruined.

We did accomplish a few small things --- we fixed a running toilet and set up our shower rod and shower curtain.

Here's hoping we have better luck tomorrow!!!

BIG WEEK

This is a big week for the Tucker family!

Not only are we attending the first Texans game of the season today(!), we will also close on our new home later this week!!!!

Any other year the Texans game would be the big event of the week, and while we are excited about it -- woke up thinking GAME DAY! -- it pales in the excitement we have towards getting one step closer to being in our new home.

Just yesterday we were talking about how its more exciting than Christmas as a kid and is agonizing to wait as we know there is a lot we need to do and we want to be able to just get started on it!

We have bought several items for the home, and they are in a pile in the dining room in my in-laws' house - ceiling fans, thermostats, a garage door opener and a garbage disposal.

The wood flooring we ordered also came in earlier than expected, thankfully we can let it stay at the store for a few days...

We also went and got MORE paint samples yesterday, there are so many colors!    We now have 9 samples to pick 4 different colors (2 yellows, 2 blues, 1 white (ceiling) and 4 cream/taupe variations).  Choosing paint is so hard to do, there are such subtle differences...one we liked last weekend now looks too pink, never saw the pink it in before,,,

September

Hello September!

I've already seen 1 giant jack-o-lantern (actually saw it on 8/31), this year is going fast enough lets not speed it along any faster than we have to!  I am as excited as anyone about the cooler weather that will be coming....

Another reason not to speed the year along any faster than it is already -- this is an exciting month for us:  we will close on our new home, move in (after some repairs and changes are made), and spend the days and weeks that follow making it feel like home and exploring our new neighborhood.

Moving to a smaller place is going to be hard -- we did a lot of purging and selling/giving away furniture and belongings we know we won't have space for, and will likely do more as we move into the new place and find homes (or not) for things -- it will be worth it, and getting rid of stuff we had held onto with no real need to do so has felt very freeing!

labor day

The first week of the semester is under our belt and we could not be happier!

It was even busier than most years since we moved and closed on our house during the first week of classes -- I would NOT recommend that for anyone who works in higher ed, but it couldn't be avoided.

We made it through the week and celebrated with pub night at Saint Arnold's on Friday - it was set up as the kickoff event for LSU fans for the LSU/Wisconsin game taking place the next night -- I've never seen so much purple and gold (and in so many varieties) - we even saw a diaper with the LSU logo.

This weekend has been wonderful and relaxed -- we were concentrating so much on getting through the week so never even stopped to put together any plans for the long weekend, just knowing we don't have to do any packing has been a great way to spend the weekend.

We are fortunate that we are able to stay with Kevin's parents while we are between houses, and even Smokey feels at home, we can tell when he started eating normally again.  Knowing we'd be between houses for a few weeks made packing difficult as we had to keep out items we'd need, but send as much as we could with the
movers.  The best item we kept out is a new toy for Smokey -- we used that to put him at ease, crazy critters are his favorite!

We've also been able to spend time doing some shopping for the new place (the fun part about moving).....we saw the home on Friday and are even more excited getting to see more about our new home--- the master bath has TWELVE drawers for storage (our previous home had NONE)

REJOICE!!!

We closed on selling our house today and are so relieved.   It has been quite an ordeal, and took all summer so we were so happy to sign the paperwork today....now we get to concentrate on the new place (and the beginning of the new semester - busy time for both of us)

what we did this summer...

School starts on Monday, and for some reason I started thinking about the 'what I did on my summer vacation' essays we did way back when....

Our vacation was actually in May (and it was wonderful) so what did we do with our summer?   in a word -- MOVE.

We listed our house for sale on Kevin's birthday (6/25) and had an offer in mid-July.   After we had an offer we started looking for a place to move to, and that was its own adventure.  In town it is very much a seller's market and so we had to put in offers on FIVE different places before one was accepted.  We had our heartbreaks on places that we could really see ourselves in, but think that place we found and had an accepted offer on is a great place for us to be -- located in midtown Houston!

August has been spent packing and packing some more.   Our move out day is Monday.   We still have a lot to do tomorrow (Sunday) but we will be ready!

Kevin has been busy taking care of stuff at home.   Our ceiling is finally painted, this was the last item on our fix list for the buyers.   He had to talk to at least 6 different painters, but did not give up!

Hopefully we will have photos and adventures to share soon!

What did you do this summer?

Happy Lefthanders day!

We are definitely the minority and I regularly find other things that wouldn't seem to be right-handed but are.....so I really enjoy celebrating a day for us, and really want to visit a Lefty store one day (yes like in the Simpsons)

Furbaby adoption anniversary

Our dog usually takes terrible photos (read as: I can't take good photos of him), today I finally got a good picture of him - I think it is his gift to me for his adoption anniversary, that is what I'm calling it.. its not a birthday, but today 7 yrs ago is when we brought him home.. he even got a haircut today :) look how gray he's gotten!   no wonder we teasingly call him our grumpy old man...

Planes

another weekend, another birthday party!   Our niece and nephew's birthdays are close together so we were able to celebrate with them - this time to celebrate our nephew turning 9 - again this weekend.   We had a completely different kind of party -- movie, dinner (he ordered his first steak!) and back to my in-laws for cake and presents.   The movie we watched was the new Pixar movie, Planes Fire and Rescue, and I was so happy to have an excuse to see the latest animated movie.  I think that even Kevin liked it and we know our nephew liked it - he was on the edge of his seat for most of the movie!     There were little jokes and quips throughout the movie that were as much for the adults as the kids.  Kevin had a great idea for a gift - toys that go along with the movie.

I could eat cake every weekend, thankfully for my waistline I don't :)


This weekend was also wedding dress shopping with my sister and all of her bridesmaids.  I promised that there will be no photos until after their big day (not even teasers).  We had a great time and had a lot of fun playing dress up -- we had time to look at the bridesmaid dresses too.

July

July 2nd was the halfway point of the year!   How are we halfway through 2014...I know, time flies....and I rarely get on this blog to capture the moments.  I cannot say that will change, but I'll try to do some recaps.

We had a pretty laid back 4th of July weekend.   We spent it at home -- were thinking we'd have house showings (but didn't).   We grilled some really good hot dogs (Nolan Ryan beef dogs - yum!), steamed sweet corn (Olathe corn - I love you), and finally got out the ice cream maker again to make our delicious peanut butter ice cream (hadn't made it in probably 2 years, and we've barely put a dent in it over a week later).  The recipe is in the book that came with the ice cream maker and is DELICIOUS. Sonic ice makes great ice cream maker ice.

Not living in the city has the advantage that fireworks are legal (our HOA has regs against them but most people ignore them).   We were able to just bring our chairs to our driveway and watch the fireworks -- it was hard to know which way to look there were so many!!    The people in our neighborhood go all out on purchasing them, they really do look like professional ones -- a long way from the sparklers and roman candles I had as a kid.    I loved the fireworks that day, could do without them days later when they were still freaking out Smokey -- we had to work with him to get him back in the yard he was so terrorized (he was getting into bad habits since he was too scared to go outside to poop).

The weekend was pretty rain, which we needed, so it was a good weekend to stay around the house -- and now that we are having showings again I really appreciate the uninterrupted time at home.

Yesterday we spent most of the day cleaning the house from top to bottom to get ready for an open house that is scheduled, and we had a showing as well -- hooray for one cleaning allowing the house to be clean for multiple audiences.   Today we'll vacate the house for the open house to take place and it times out right that we'd be out of the house anyway to help celebrate our niece's birthday (the big FIVE).   Because of the open house Smokey will come with us to the birthday party -- any guesses on how much food he manages to sneak away from the kids?  (not IF but how much)     We went gift shopping and picked out a Barbie friend and a Barbie outfit for the birthday girl.    I had no idea there were so many Barbie items out there, just recently we gave some of my old stuff to our niece.  One thing I still don't understand is "Skipper" -- she is still sold and I never understood why there was this other 'kid sister' as tall as Barbie but who was always odd one out, the clothes and shoes don't fit her......and the name, Skipper?     oh well, maybe I'll never understand it.....

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

"Chocolate tower" dessert from our anniversary dinner on Monday.   We had a wonderful night celebrating our anniversary - 7 years!!     We went to Union Kitchen a new to us restaurant (love Groupons!) and had a wonderful dinner - salmon tartare appetizer, we each had steaks with different sides that we could taste (loved the polenta), the dessert above and some yummy red wine.   Great relaxing meal and a nice break from the work we've been doing on keeping the house 'show-ready'.....love you sweetie!

house listing fun

Can I go back on vacation?!?!

I know I can't, but last week made me wish I could.

We've been busy getting our house ready to go on the market and had a few final projects to tackle - mostly clearing out furniture and rearranging furniture for staging (and lots of cleaning) - to have it ready for pictures for the listing and for the showings we hope will come quickly.

All these plans were put on hold when we woke up last Saturday to a broken a/c.   We were able to have someone come out to look at it the same day, but the part wouldn't be in until Monday/Tuesday at the earliest.

As a short term solution (so we could sleep) we got a window unit for our bedroom -- it was nice to have a cool room in our hot house (but would look terrible in pictures!).  We went ahead with furniture moving, but were delayed in finishing up our work.

On Monday they realized that it was more than just the originally thought part (thank goodness parts were still under warranty) and so we had to wait for another part, and it was finally fixed on Wednesday.

We lost 5 days but we are now back on track!  We still hope to be listed before the end of the month.

Wish us luck!

Steamboat

Wow, time flies!  We've already been back from vacation for 2 weeks (I was ready to go back on vacation after 2 days back at work!) and its been a busy couple of weeks.

 

As promised, just for our own recollection, I'm doing a brief write-up of our trip.

Our flight didn't leave until the evening, and while it was nice to be able take our time and pack that day, I definitely prefer getting my traveling done early in the day, we were so excited the day seemed to move so slowly.   While we were at the airport in Houston, we saw reports of tornadoes near the Denver airport, not something we wanted to hear.   We were fortunate that our flight was still on time and no rerouting necessary - we saw lots of hail on the side of the road after we arrived in Denver.  

We spent two nights in downtown Denver.  The first evening we got settled in and spent the night at the historic Brown Palace Hotel (they raise their own bees!).   On the full day in Denver, we explored downtown on foot.   We toured the Byers-Evans house – I love being able to tour historic homes, how people lived - and I do not envy how they did their housework (some old vacuums looked dreadful).   Downtown is very walkable, and there is a free shuttle on 16th that we were able to take advantage of.   We ducked into bars to avoid the rain (and one HAIL storm) and toast the start of our vacation.  While we were at the bar we heard a loud siren -- it was a tornado siren, we weren't sure what to do, looked around and no one reacted at all.....it was eerie...

 

On Friday, we picked up our rental car and headed west to Steamboat Springs.   We took a scenic route on the way out there, lots of switchbacks and as we got higher and higher, snow!   It got so chilly we were thinking we’d packed the wrong clothes, but Steamboat was further down in the valley so it warmed back up (yay).

We had a lovely week in Steamboat.  It’s a small town and so we could easily park and walk the length of the main drag, we visited many of the local restaurants and bars (and tasted elk for the first time).   We also took several short hikes – short, partly because for sea level dwellers like we are, the thin air gets to us.  We walked to a scenic waterfall and saw it from two different vantage points.

One afternoon we rented bikes and rode along the path next to the river that runs through town, the Yampa was roaring from snow runoff.

The city is named for the hot springs that the first settlers found – it sounded like a steamboat to them.  Unfortunately the namesake no longer makes the noise due to construction, but there are still several springs around town.  We walked around to see (and smell) several that are all close to each other. We also drove out to Strawberry Park, a pool created along the river that is fed by hot springs.  The pools were HOT!    We were there at dusk and were able to see a few bats come out to feed.   While in the pool you can reach over the wall and feel the cold river, I’d never be brave/stupid enough to jump into it but did like to cool off my hands and face wen it would gt too hot.

On our last full day, we took another hike and found ourselves near a wooden ski jump, we climbed the structure and had the most gorgeous views of the entire valley.    The ski jump was so steep I cannot imagine going down it.  

The trip was just what we needed - restful and relaxing.   We both needed R&R after a long semester and to get us ready for what will be a busy summer as we list our house for sale...

Safety first

Today as I was waiting for the park n ride bus, a guy was trying to find someone to carpool with and asked if I wanted to ride with him downtown. I said NO I will wait for the bus. He's probably telling the truth and just needs a second person so he can take,the HOV lane, but I don't get into cars with guys I don't know... I did make an exception once, one of the hardest things I've had to do, I only did it because I felt I would be safer in the car then the side of the road (my car had broken down and it was before I had a cellphone). Luckily for me he was a nice guy, and I still know his full name! That situation could've turned out very badly for me if he had not been a good Samaritan.....I wonder about that day and him every once in a while.

we're back

We are back from vacation!!   We had a wonderful time and we were ready to come home - the best combination.

This weekend is going to be spent catching up on chores and getting set for the week ahead (do I really have to go to work tomorrow?)

I hope to do a full recap soon (complete with pictures), for now here is a teaser of a picture.

Fish Creek Falls

We did have several firsts on this trip:

• hearing tornado sirens while out in town
• tasting elk
• seeing a ski jump from the topp

Steamboat Springs is a great little city, and we only scratched the surface of what all there is to do there.

Smokey was especially happy to see us, he doesn't fool us -- he got spoiled while we were gone since he whines and won't eat - but he milks it!!!

Wordless Wednesday

one of my welcome home signs courtesy of Kevin :)

contemplating moving

We've been talking for quite some time about wanting to move back into town, and have decided to do more than talk and are taking steps towards achieving that goal.  We called a realtor a couple of weeks back (5/5), have gotten pre-approval for a loan, and have been crunching the numbers like mad to see what will work for us.

We are very much in the "information gathering stage" - we want to see what we could get for our money, and will decide if the time is right to make the move.   Its exciting -- we talk about what we'd do if we were closer in (shorter commute is a favorite for me; walkable neighborhood; closer to restaurants, museums, the list goes on and on).  It is also overwhelming when we see what our money will get us and think about all the steps necessary to list, sell, pack, move (and possibly move twice).

We met with our realtor yesterday to drive through some neighborhoods to see if we like the areas we've been looking at online - house listings show you the house, but you need to see a full picture of the area -- it was time well spent, we liked some areas, and ruled others out (even though the individual houses were SO cute).   We are getting serious about moving forward - both of us tossed and turned last night we've got so much on our minds.   It will be a busy summer for us!!!

I do love our house and will be sad when we leave it, but we know we'll be moving onto better things!  The improvements we've made to this house will make it easier to sell, hard to believe we've been here almost 5 years!

First things first, we'll take our vacation we've been looking forward to (been scheduled since January!) and really get to work when we get back.

Weekend Recap

This was my busiest weekend I've had in quite awhile - which is why its Tuesday and I'm just now doing a recap :) On Saturday I attended the first birthday of a dear friend's daughter. The theme was the cutest I've seen I quite a while, her Berry first birthday....and had homemade Strawberry Shortcake decorations (toys from my childhood!), down to the strawberry candies and strawberry cake. The party was at the clubhouse of the little girl's grandparents' neighborhood, a great place for a party since it had a playground right next door, so kids could go and run and climb and still be part of the party - easily called back when it was cake time. They also had a pinata filled with candy for all the kids, and it was a SOLID one, they made 2 rounds through all the kids taking a swing at it before all the candy fell out. . They even made the party "adult friendly" by having some beverages for us, I wouldn't expect any different from a couple who tied the knot at a brewery!  It was a great time, and I stayed to help with cleanup and take some photos of the families (with my friend now being in Chicago its not that often they can take a family photo with everyone).  I think the birthday girl was happiest when everyone was gone and she was on the floor! Sunday was Mother's Day and so my sister and I spent the day with my mom, it is always a double celebration since her birthday is so close to Mother's Day.   We played a tile game, and just visited, it was a good day and a break from our usual trips of trying to get them set to move.... I was all over town this weekend, but I wouldn't have missed either event! It also meant I didn't see much of Kevin, always a bummer but it gave him plenty of time (and quiet) to get his grading done -- he finished that up on Monday and is now on a very deserved break before summer school. This week got off to an exciting start for me - it was a pretty calm, quiet Monday...quiet since the semester ended and only a few hundred students are taking the mini term.  It was quiet until on my way out from work I got in the elevator, the doors closed and NOTHING.   I was STUCK!   I've never been a fan of small spaces, and had to fight to stay calm......I was stuck for about 30 minutes, and never been so glad to see those doors open.....

draft day

Last night the NFL draft started, and we had a great night - Kevin had the house to himself to watch the draft (and had just finished giving finals that same day) and I had a girls night out with my long-time friends, several live out of town now and so it was a real treat to get together!!!

A whole night of talking, laughing and Tex-Mex were just what I needed.

I DID see who the Texans chose with the first pick -- gotta love that the bar area of restaurants have tvs!   With the last name of Clowney wonder how many red noses will make appearances at the games...

(almost) wordless Wednesday

We are just a few weeks away from our vacation to Colorado and cannot wait!    We booked it just after new years and I haven't researched it a bit (very unlike me).    I'll probably read about what there is to do as we get closer, but know that we are both ready for some R&R.....above are some photos from our previous trip to Colorado (Kevin's first) in 2008 - wow, time does fly!

Book club update - ashure recipe

Book club went really well!

They liked the book - it made for some very interesting conversations and we learned some history from it - and also liked the dessert, they were surprised I'd attempted it.  Preparing for the book club was like a little school project- have to find info on the author (and a picture), work on questions to prompt discussions and I also found a door prize (bought some packaged "Turkish delight" dessert).  It was fun, but boy I don't miss homework!

The dessert was a hit!  I actually ate on it the rest of the week (Kevin was not a fan) and still had a ton leftover.

There are many variations of the recipe online, and it seems to be pretty forgiving - - just substitute in/out what you fruits, nuts you like!

I basically followed this recipe (it sounded doable, and had some shortcuts over other recipes - uses canned beans).
Notes on where I did make changes:

• I couldn't find currants so left them out

• I added vanilla since I like it and the recipe in the book called for it

• I used pistachios - again since the book called for it and if i have leftover nuts i prefer pistachios.

• I brought toppings that I liked - ground cinnamon (just grabbed the bottle off our spice rack), chopped pistachios, dried figs and dried apricots, pine nuts (the last 3 were what was left from what i bought for the recipe).

I brought some of what I had left to work later in the week - I'd bounced some ideas of the gals there.   They tried it and most liked it, and one girl has a Turkish mother and I was pleased to hear that she thought it tasted like what she'd had before!   

books and bedspreads

We had a pretty quiet weekend.   We did change the look of our bedroom by getting a new (and long overdue) bedspread.   I love TJ Maxx -- we found this beauty and it was a good price - I'm never sure if I should believe the 'compare to' price on their tag, but still know it was a good deal.  A bonus of this one -- since it has so many colors we were able to leave the brown bedskirt that we already had on the bed (this one didn't come with a skirt) and just retire the bedspread.  The lighter color really brightens up the room!

Leaving the old skirt on the bed also made it MUCH easier to make the swap.

While we were at the store I saw a sign for "toss pillows" -- when did they stop calling them "throw pillows"? My first silly thought was that throw pillows was seen as too intimidating, so they lightened it up with that name.  I canNOT call them toss pillows, nope they'll be throw pillows.....and 2 pillows that came with the bedspread say they are 'boudoir pillows'   - that's a new one to me.

We also made a trip to Lowe's, our home away from home.   Home ownership involves many trips to Lowe's.

Sunday I started making dessert for book club.   I'm hosting this month and the person hosting selects the book, leads the discussion and provides refreshments.   I'm making a dessert that is featured prominently in the book, I debated whether or not to do so since it is a dish I'd never heard of and couldn't even find a way to taste in town -- several Turkish and Middle Eastern restaurants and a grocery store and none of them had it.  But, I decided to go ahead with it since we usually try to tie the dish (or dishes) to the book and since the recipe is IN THE BOOK its pretty much begging me to do so.   I broke the steps up into several evenings and finished it up tonight.   The dish is called ashure (or asure) and also referred to as Noah's pudding.   It had grains and beans and dried fruit (and sugar), ever heard of it?   Its unique, not my regular dessert but I can see the appeal.   I definitely would never have tasted it otherwise, hope my book club group likes it.   I love trying new things and learning about new places, and this dish and book very much achieve that -- book: Bastard of Istanbul, and in getting ready for book club I learned the author faced possible jailtime for some of what she wrote!   Here is the recipe i used.

April Fools

No April Fool here!    Mostly because I avoided social media and the web today.

Every year I fall for something, I've got 4 more hours so something will probably get me.

Its feeling like spring here in Houston and we are so happy about it!!

Mr Fix It

I have to brag on K for a few minutes - he's become quite the Mr Fix It.  Neither of us are very handy and so we are always so surprised when something we do actually works - I think he may have to admit to himself he IS handy now!!

Our blender had been leaking for a while, not a lot but it was definitely getting worse and was making a mess when we'd use it -- we use it a lot since we blend veggies for soups (its a texture thing).  Anyway, I'd resigned myself to having to buy a new one -- way back we'd tried to buy just the glass pitcher and couldn't find it so I figured parts weren't sold separately.  He kept at it, and found a way to buy the gasket and blade assembly and we figured out how to swap it out, and its like a new blender!  it cost $15 instead of $100+.   I also love that it allowed us to only replace what was really wrong and not toss an entire blender in the trash. I'm far from green but really do try to 'reduce, reuse, recycle'.

His other accomplishment was huge!   Our refrigerator is still fairly new and it infuriated us that the ice machine has never worked well.... we even had a repair man come out when it was under warranty and he did nothing and told us he guessed people in the country it was made in didn't use ice....what?!?!   ridiculous.

So we've gone on for years with ice trays, buying bags of ice and being annoyed (our old fridge had the water line FREEZE in the door, so we were used to ice/water dispensers in the door not working).   K did some research and found that ice maker is known to have issues, he ordered a new one, installed it (all by himself I never even saw the part) and suddenly we have ice to spare!  Why we waited so long, I'll never know, but I love it....We tossed the ice trays.....

It really is the little things that make my day, I'll drink more water now since I like it cold and he can have real 'iced' tea which he loves!!

Spring Break

Its beginning to look like spring around here and we are greeting it happily!   Still chilly some days, but there are afternoons when it feels and looks just gorgeous outside.

In preparation for the spring, we spent last weekend working on our patio.   By 'working on' I mean some retail therapy.   Most of the patio furniture we have is pretty old (its moved houses at least once, in some cases twice) and was showing a lot of wear and tear.  We got some new pieces, and accents for some old pieces and it looks like a new space!

It took trips to FOUR different stores, but we finally got what we wanted:

- new umbrella - with built-in solar powered lights (no more stringing up Christmas lights for us) - red - Home Depot
- two new chairs -- anti-gravity...sooo comfortable!  -- green - Sams
- an outdoor rug -- red and gold - Lowe's
- cushions for the chairs we did keep - multicolored to tie it all together - Lowe's
(we'd also gone to Ace looking for some equipment for the grill, had to order it)

Some of the pieces we didn't keep - a loveseat and table - will get a new home with brother-in-law.

The space is very relaxing and we'll be spending a LOT of time out there.

To kick off the season, we even ate dinner out there today!   We treated it as sort of a picnic, and I felt like I was playing hooky since we ate before I would get off work.   I wasn't playing hooky - we actually had a holiday on the work calendar!   Very nice to get a one day spring break from the university, faculty and students were off all week (read: ghost town).  K also had spring break this week - he relaxed and did a lot of grading!!

We really celebrated our spring break last night with a happy hour with some of my coworkers and their husbands.   It was our first time to all hang out, and won't be our last.   We started off at a tapas restaurant downtown, Batanga, and had so much fun we continued the evening next door, at Okra Charity saloon.  What is a charity bar?   I don't fully understand it, but part of their proceeds go to charity - and we get a say in which charity by voting with tickets we receive with each drink purchase.    The evening sped by, and when we finally did leave we were surprised to realize it was after 11 (we'd met up about 6)!

Kids' energy

Hello March!

I keep saying I don't like hot weather, but after this winter (and yes i know its a HOUSTON winter), I may have to admit that I prefer the heat to the cold...I think I like snow, but I like visiting it and getting to and from work in the cold is no fun (the garage we used to have at work spoiled me -- now when its cold/windy/raining I am out in it for a few blocks - also makes me realize a walkable city is great in nice weather but tough to deal with in extremes..

All that said, yesterday was gorgeous weather!   much appreciated after the cold, wind and rain we've had much of February (I still think we lucked out with the weather being fairly good for the conference).

We took some advantage of the weather and spent part of the day with our niece and nephew (and their daddy - Kevin's brother).  Glad we took advantage of yesterday since today will be rainy and this week we are back to cold... reminds me of a book i just read that talked about how March couldn't decide if it belonged to spring or winter.....


We spent part of the time at their daddy's house where we

- watched them on their skates/roller blades - nephew is getting pretty good, niece is having a tough time  - her feet go in opposite directions and I was always hopeless on skates so I'm no help.   She wears them and runs in the grass to keep up with brother, so she's still happy....

- took turns playing with them on the trampoline - they were on it constantly, and one of the 3 of us adults would get in there with them and bounce and try to 'pop' them up by jumping while they laid down on the trampoline.   My last time in there I dropped to my knees which popped nephew way up in the air, so far that it startled him and when he came down he had to go clean himself up - he'd actually peed his pants a little and admitted it (so glad he was laughing).

- gave nephew the book K found for him - he is a serious reader and kept asking us to be quiet while he read in the car.

We also went to eat at a restaurant along Lake Houston, Sharky's.  We'd wanted to sit outside, so did everyone (30-40 minute wait) so we settled on sitting inside - probably for the best so the kids would actually eat a bit.   We got the best table, one side was a long couch and both kids went to that side.

Great place for kids with their menus being color sheets and the whole table being covered with paper so even the adults could color and draw while we waited.

After we ate (K got niece to eat by timing the bites with her) we all went outside and they ran around a bit and we walked down the shore to see the boats tied up (a few people arrive to the shopping center on their boats).   Niece couldn't take her eyes off the boats, would've jumped into one if we let her.  We even got to see one group get into the boat, untie it and drive off......they want daddy to get a boat now, good luck to Daddy.....the only kind of boat i could get would be the kayak i saw one fisherman in....

We stopped off for froyo -- the concoction nephew made would've made me sick (chocolate ice cream and a ton of toppings including sour patch and gummy bears).

We had a great time, and I wish i could harness their energy -- back at the house it was back on the trampoline, and then to the skates as we were leaving.    Very glad they live close by....

Girl Scout cookies

At Wal-Mart, I spied Girl Scout cookie booth sales. As a girl who sold them for years - and went to Savannah & London with our earnings - I can't resist purchasing them from girls. 

We ended up with 6 boxes, some will go to work with me. There are 2 bakers and I use one set of names even though the boxes sold around us have the other names. 

- 2 thin mints
- 1 tagalong (peanut butter patty) 
- 1 samoas (caramel delite)  -- will go to work since K isn't a fan
- 1 lemonade 
- 1 cranberry - new kind i wanted to try 

What is your favorite flavor? 

I've seen articles about pairing cookies with beer and have to just say no...they are so good on their own, only drink you need is milk.

back home

The TAIR conference went really well!   There were issues and complaints (note: don't put pork on the menu) but also lots of compliments and connections made.   I've made many great friends in working on the conferences and know I can reach out to them for any work-related questions I may have, and think I helped a few people who are newer to the profession -- funny to realize that with 12 years (when did that happen?!?!) in the field under my belt I'm an "old timer".

I was actually able to attend sessions this year (first time in 3 years) and did my officer duties.  I will very happily finish up my duties and have finished my term on the executive committee.  I'm sure I'll still be involved (already looking to help with moving our elections online), and will enjoy being a member for a while.

I also go to know my coworkers a bit better -- 5 of us drove up and back together.   I enjoyed being a rider both ways.

We arrived home on Friday evening -- 4 nights is a long way to be away, and whenever I travel for work I am glad I don't do it often.  Kevin came downtown to pick me up (he also dropped me off Monday so i didn't have to leave my car downtown all week) and surprised me when we got home - he'd gotten my car washed, it looks like a new car!  I never get my car washed but always wish that i did, he's definitely paying attention.  added bonus of my car staying home all week.

This weekend has been getting caught up on chores and spending as much time outside as we can.  it is still a little chilly but nice out.  We purchased some flag poles so that K can display flags that he has - a Texas "Come and Take it" he got as a Christmas gift and a Texans/Texas flag.    We had to purchase flag poles and so broke down for a trip to Wal Mart.  I don't understand their organization at all - we looked for the flagpoles in sporting goods, gardening, home improvement and had no luck.  Before checking out we asked a SECOND employee and she said they were in STATIONARY...flag poles and envelopes make PERFECT sense together, but they were there.....they are now installed on our back fence and look great!

Addison

Howdy from Addison (near Dallas)!

I'm here this week for the annual TAIR conference.  This is my last year on the executive committee (hooray!) and so I've been working with planning it for nearly a year.  I'm so glad that planning is over and its finally here.  There will be hiccups and hectic days ahead but its here and we have a big turnout (over 250!) and good weather, and I'm so excited!

The hotel is right near 'restaurant row' so I'll be eating good the next few days - already found the hotel gym this morning :)

Kevin had to stay at home, instructors can't miss a week of classes!

Decade

This is a nearly wordless Wednesday (our blog, our rules).  Monday (2/17) marks 10 years since our first date, hard to believe we've been together for a full decade!

The photo is from my dear friend Delena's wedding - Feb 2007.   Its a cute picture of us both (and friends Erin and Trey) and you wouldn't know it in the picture but we were engaged at that point, but not telling people since we got engaged the weekend of the wedding and we would NOT take any focus away from the bride and groom.

Here's to many more years!!

Weekend Recap

We had a full, wonderful weekend!

Although the calendar read the first weekend of February, we had a very belated Christmas with my side of the family.   We weren't able to all get together in December due to my brother and sis-in-law's ever changing work schedules (and his demanding school schedule) so we planned for this weekend and it worked well for everyone.   I love having my family over - brother and sis-in-law drove in late Friday night, and everyone else came on Saturday.

We had a wonderful time visiting, laughing and exchanging gifts -- they were all truly surprises to us since we'd asked for things so long ago -- and I even forgot what we'd bought!   We may have to remember this for Christmas 2014 -- shop so long ago that you forget and its a surprise in a whole new way!

I debated what to cook for everyone - cooking for 8 is intimidating and I didn't want to do something that would put me in the kitchen all day (I like cooking, but not that much and not when it takes away from time with family).  We tossed around the idea of going out to eat, and we improved it by getting takeout instead so we could take our time, and make it easier for my dad to hear us - he's had some hearing problems lately and cannot hear when there are multiple conversations going on.  As a family we still have to work on that, but being at home rather than a restaurant helped since there weren't other diners' conversations to compete with.

One bonus of having our Christmas in February - the menu is completely open!   If we'd had it in December I'd have felt like we needed our traditional meal (very much like Thanksgiving), but this gave us free reign!   and with getting takeout we actually got food from 2 different places (Greek and Thai) so everyone really got to get exactly what they wanted.

It was a busy day of celebrations - K popped out in the afternoon to have a birthday lunch for his brother, a ground hog day baby.

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.