CMT awareness month - What is CMT?

September is Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease awareness month!  It is totally coincidental that I have the same initials as this disease, but some folks who are near and dear to me live with this disease and I'd NEVER even heard of it until I met my husband.   That is exactly why I want to raise awareness (and money) for it, its fairly common and almost no one has heard of it....

I sometimes forget my husband has it and admit I don't fully understand what all it affects in his life -- he has often looked at me doing a task (tying my shoe, buttoning a shirt) that to me is just second nature and he's like 'how do you do that so fast?"    This infographic is a good reminder of some what he deals with on a daily basis, and I know that he has a milder case than many.

I don't often talk about it as I know many people are private about their health, but he said he's ok with me sharing this, so now I want to make sure everyone knows about it.  Its common and yet there's no walk, or public events that I'm aware of to raise money and awareness....

There is a movie about a girl living with CMT -- check out Bernadette if you have a chance....

Credit for infographic goes to: Contractor Quotes.

almost WW

NFL is back...and I'm most excited about my new Texans earrings....you enjoy the game your way, I'll enjoy it mine :)

Under the Radar brewery

We'd read about a brand new microbrewery in Midtown, and being a 3- day weekend, Sunday seemed like a great day to check it out.  

We could've ridden our bikes there but with chances of rain we chose to drive.   It was a funny, "who's on first" conversation -- whats it called, Under the Radar; Kevin thinking I'm talking about its not known yet so its under the radar, but no that is its name (and its not well known yet).

We had a great time -- they have a large open area with large picnic tables (and shade umbrellas over a few), a tailgating game set up, and it is even dog friendly!   We left our not so friendly dog at home for our first trip out there.  Also: clean bathrooms with a/c, nice little break from the outside area.     It will likely get more crowded as people learn about it, there was already a steady stream of people for our visit.   

A beer is $5 or you can do what we did -- buy tokens for 3 beers and get a free pint glass ($15) -- if you don't use all the tokens you can bring them back another day.

We started at a table in the shade, but moved to a table under the roof before some scattered rain showers came through -- marrying a novice weatherman has its perks!    The rain let us get to know some folks who joined our table - they had found the place as they were interested in the food truck next door after they went to the zoo.

We had a great afternoon there, and bonus -- we ate some German food from a trailer parked in the parking lot.   The family that had joined our table included a man who had been stationed in Germany in the Army and he said the food was pretty authentic -- I had a brat on a pretzel bun with a cucumber salad; and we split a pretzel.

Looking online today I realized this was the second year in a row we went to a microbrewery on the first weekend of college football (last year we went to 8th Wonder in Eado) -- I could make this a tradition!    Houston now has a ton of microbreweries and there are several we have yet to visit.   

Many people go out of town for Labor Day, we take it as an opportunity to explore our own city.

long weekend

Fall semester is in full swing for both of us!   Kevin's semester started a week later than mine, so we had two weeks of first-week craziness -- not sure if its better or worse that it was spread out, mine one week and his the next or just get it all over at once?   Who am I kidding, we've both been running crazy since we got back from our trip.

This 3-day weekend couldn't come soon enough.  As of now, no big plans and we're staying in town.

We had a good visit with Kevin's parents, brother, niece and 2 nephews yesterday -- grilled burgers, yes please!     Added a slice of bacon to it, yum!

Here are a few quick highlights:

• Kevin bought the Hamilton musical soundtrack and we are loving it!    Already looking forward to it coming to Houston in 2017/18.  He is not usually interested in musicals, so its a treat to know he wants to see it -- and he loves the history in it, may even use in his courses!
• Football is back -- we attended a preseason Texans game, did our fantasy draft (I again got the worst grade of all...), and he spent much of yesterday watching college football....I can watch football, its the shows ABOUT the football that I just don't want to see 
• still loving my handpicked blueberries - used them in pancakes this weekend

Arkansas

We were on vacation last week, and the time away is just what we needed.   We found a remote cabin to rent, with a pond on the land we can use for swimming and lots of land and trails for hiking.

hiking buddy

I was a bit worried of how hot it would be, but it's cooler than home and drier.   We have seen a couple of thunderstorms, its relaxing to sit on the porch and watch it rain.

We brought Smokey with us and he is LOVING his time off leash, lots of exploring and poor guy got stung on his ear.  He's not a fan of water but we did get him to wade and a *tiny* bit of swimming, anything he can do that isn't him crying on the dock is a win.  He mostly just explores the shoreline, and drinks lots of lake water...

We've mostly stayed close to the house, but did decide to try out ATV riding on Tuesday.    We rented a side-by-side so we could share one vehicle and ride in comfort.  It was a great way to explore the Ouachita National Forest and let Kevin do some off-roading.  We saw lots of deer and a turtle, and also saw some sights -- the top of Eagle Mt Vista, and Little Missouri Falls.

We have met some characters in our adventures, and even made a run for the border (with Oklahoma) since the area we are staying in is dry....and wouldn't you know it, right AT the border is a drive-thru beer store, we went to one a bit further down the road, still it was in the owner's front yard and was a mobile home turned into a store, but when in the rural area..it works!

After I wrote this, Smokey finally actually swam!  We got in the boat to try to fish...we head off shore and that's when he swims towards us....we thought he'd come all the way to us, luckily he didn't...he kept trying to get to us, but would just have to turn back.....we finally went to shore and helped him out with us, but he climbed up on me...scraping me up, but still so fun to have him in the water with us, even for a little bit!