Guiltless Gluttony

Last year, we decided to start a new Thanksgiving family tradition of participating in the Thundercloud Turkey Trot the morning of Thanksgiving.  However, a 103 deg fever and a month long sickness kept me at home on the couch last year, so I’m excited to actually participate this year!  I am thankful for health!

We figured that we could indulge our stomachs without all the guilt if we ran/walked 5 miles that morning, so that is what we will do!  This year, Matt’s parents will be joining us as well, for their first American Thanksgiving in 5 years!  Matt and I are so thankful to spend this holiday with both of our families all under one roof! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just in time!

Since Matt and I were in an apartment prior buying our home, we had (read: still have) a decent amount of furniture to purchase to “fill up” our space.  One of those items that we  I have been looking for more than just about anything is a patio table. 

I could not believe how expensive patio sets were; even a place like Walmart wanted $1500 for a table and 4 chairs!  I may have been a little picky about what I wanted (no glass because I didn’t want it to fall over and shatter; no iron because I didn’t want it to rust or burn your bottom in the summertime).  That left me with wood as an option, and those happened to be even more expensive (go figure, right mom and dad?  Who would have thought that I would only like the more expensive option??).  So I started looking on Craigslist, still finding the sets just a little out of the price range we wanted to spend.  Until last weekend.  I found this beauty…

for what I deemed a “steal” at $150!  It needs a light sanding and a fresh stain, but other than that it’s perfect!  The table can be 3 different sizes (in the picture it has one of the leaves in, so the table can actually get larger than what’s shown), so eventually when we expand our patio, we will have even more room!  Just in time for winter, right?  Oh well – at least that gives me plenty of time to get it in shape for spring!  The longer we are in this house the more I’m realizing the truth in all those statements my parents made about work never ending.  As we get things done, somehow our list gets longer instead of shorter.  For a list maker like me though, life couldn’t be better! 

Weekend away

I guess, seeing as how I implied in my previous post that I would write about this later in the week, that I need to write about out anniversary weekend in San Antonio.  Saturday evening is about as late in the week as it can get, but I am sticking to my word!

Thanks to Matt’s parents for getting us a gift card to stay in San Antonio (for a Christmas gift last year! At least we got it in before this Christmas!) – we were able to stay in one of the nicest hotels on the Riverwalk!  We headed down 35 on Thursday after Matt was finished with work, stopped in Austin to stay there for the night and have a mini birthday celebration with my mom (Happy [belated] Birthday Mom!) and then left for San Antonio on Friday morning. 

Here’s a small picture recap of our weekend…

We stayed at the Watermark…

This isn’t our room, but looks identical to ours…

  We got to hang out at the rooftop pool/hot-tub while we were there :)

Friday night we ate at Boudro’s, which was delicious!

On Saturday morning, we got up to head up to Austin to go to the UT/UCF football game, and Katie got to come with us, as well!

 

Married for TWO years :)

Saturday  night we were back in San Antonio and went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant for dinner to get fajitas. 

On our actual anniversary, we went out for fajitas again… quick back story: we were married one year to the day from our first “official” date.  On our first date, Matt took me to a Mexican restaurant in Houston for fajitas.  When we were planning the meal for our wedding, we decided to do food that we wanted something different instead of the usual chicken or fish meal, so we did fajitas.  Last year, I was sick on our anniversary, so Matt had to cancel the dinner reservations he had made and ended up picking up fajitas to bring home (because that’s good if you’re running a 102 fever, right?).  So we decided it’s a tradition now, that every year, on November 10th, we have to have fajitas, so off to Chuy’s we went this year! :) 

I know these photo posts are not nearly as entertaining to anyone other than myself, and maybe my mom or Matt’s, so hopefully I’ll find something more interesting to blog about next! 

Two years ago today…

… I was doing this…
…receiving this message…

…wearing this…

  … I was walking down the aisle to this…
… and this…
… said “I do”…

and celebrated the night away with our friends and family!

I have a thousand additional pictures I would love to share on here, but at the risk of losing the few readers I still have, I’ve decided to refrain from posting any more.  However, speaking of celebrating – we just got back from a long weekend on the Riverwalk in San Antonio to celebrate our anniversary.  I’ll post about that later this week!
Happy Anniversary Matt!  Here’s to the many more to come!

November already?

Wow – I can’t believe that it is already November.  October just flew by, and clearly I couldn’t keep up on the blog.  I thought I’d do a little photo recap of what we’ve been up to, as well as show you a quick project I did today.  If you’re not a college football fan, you may want to just skip over these… 

This first picture here is the back of my FAVORITE – Kirk Herbstreit.  He actually walked right by us (read: I ran through the crowd pushing and shoving to get closer to his path) on his way into the stadium, but I couldn’t get a picture.  

 

I could have reached out and hugged Musburger – I restrained myself though.  The third pic is a little blurry – but that’s Corso picking Texas to win, Mark Cuban on the left of the table, Fowler, and then of course, Herbie.

 

Matt’s parents were in town for TX/OU weekend – so we had a great time catching up with them, shopping and eating a lot!

I also made the decision to student teach come January to finally complete my certification.  I’ll be in a Pre-AP/GT 8th grade English/Language Arts class and I am SO excited!  The district is a small, but exemplary district about 10 minutes north of us, and I cannot wait for January to get here!

On a completely unrelated note, I decided that the laundry room needed a little change, so I found an old bulletin board and recovered it to “match” my new ironing board cover. 

Before…

And after a trip to hobby lobby for some fabric and a staple gun…

 

And here it is up in the laundry room…

 

Hopefully I’ll find a way to keep up with blogging in November – I love this time of year!  Hobby Lobby actually had Christmas music on today! Yay!

Re-design

You might notice something a little different around here.  I decided it was time for a change again.  Sorry for the lack of posting - we have been so busy lately. Matt's parents were in town with us over the weekend and we went to the fair and the TX/OU game.  Now that things are back to normal, I will be back soon with an update!  Had to at least update the look of the blog for now :) What do you think?

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I posted on facebook that I was baking these and had a request for the recipe, so I decided to blog about it so I’d have the recipe in my archives to refer back to.  I actually got this recipe from my friend Becky – she made these for us when they had us for dinner and they were delicious!  They are almost bread-like they are so soft and moist.  YUM. 
Here’s the recipe…
1 C. sugar
1 C. pumpkin
1/2 C. oil
1 egg
Mix above ingredients together.  Sift and add to above:
2 C. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon (I also added a dash of nutmeg and allspice at this point)
2. tsp baking powder
Dissolve and add to rest of ingredients:
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 C. chocolate chips
1/2 C. nuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 375 deg.  Drop on lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake approximately 10 to 12 minutes (Sidenote: It only took 10 minutes in my oven, but when Becky made these she said it took 20-25 minutes.  Use a toothpick to test when they are done).
  ENJOY!

Blog Design

Just a quick post to show y’all the most recent blog design I made.  I have been friends with Jill and her husband Grant since college and they just recently had a precious baby boy and wanted their blog design to reflect that.  You can click on the picture to be taken to her blog to check it out!

A few house updates

Look what arrived in the mail the other day from my mother in law! 

My new ironing board cover!  I had to run out to Target to get an ironing board hanger so that I could proudly display my ironing-board-turned-work-of-art!  Does that make me completely old that I just got excited about an ironing board cover?  How many times can I say ironing board in one blog post?  Anyways – I love it.  Thanks Maggymom :)

Also, I decided to finally paint our guest bathroom.  It had been driving me crazy because it felt so BLAH, so I grabbed a gallon of paint and went to work.  I am really happy with how it turned out.  I think it could probably use another coat in a few places, and I’ll get around to that eventually, but it finally feels like it is decorated! 

   

What do you think?

Last – Matt and I found some rocking chairs on craigslist for a steal (compared to what I had seen them priced at), so we added those, a fun fall wreath and some pumpkins to make our front porch feel a little more welcoming.  I still need to stain the rocking chairs to match the shutters, but I love them!

Oh… and I just had to brag on my husband for a quick second.  He came home from work yesterday with these…

… just because.  I’m a lucky girl :)

Happy Fall Y’all

Well it’s official.  Despite the sauna outside yesterday, we had a cold front come through, it’s October, and that means FALL!  I’ve got my fleece and my Ugg slippers on, and I even used the seat warmer in my car today!  I love SO many things about fall, so I thought I’d dedicate a post to wish y’all a happy fall! 

Fall brings…

College Football!   Oh how I love spending a Saturday watching college football on the couch with my husband :)

Pumpkins! Pumpkins and more pumpkins!

Fall candles – pumpkin spice and cinnamon – YUM.  I have 2 of these burning in my house right now!

Mums!  I still need to pick some up for our front porch, but I love the way these look in the fall.

Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes!  I’ve only had one of these so far, but this is how you really know fall has arrived – I L.O.V.E seeing that sign up at Starbucks!

What are your favorite things about fall?

Another weekend out of town

Matt and I spent the weekend in Houston catching up with friends.  We originally intended on going to the Tech/UH game, but as we got closer to gameday, tickets were just a little too over-priced to justify seeing as how Tech isn’t even ranked and I had a feeling we were going to lose (and I was right).  We stayed with our friends Kyle and Liz (thanks!) and watched a lot of football :)

My favorite part of the weekend, as it usually is when we go to Houston now, was getting to love on sweet baby Kate.  My college roommate and her husband invited us over for dinner on Saturday night (thanks Bec and Josh!) and we spent the first 2 or 3 hours just lovin on their little girl.  The only pictures I took all weekend are of her (seriously Becky – next time we have to make sure we take a picture of the 5 of us together!)  So, once again, at the risk of being that crazy lady who posts pictures of someone else’s kid, here are a few of my favorites. 

Seriously, how can you not love these cheeks?   Kate loves to make this little face – and I love it too :)

Dad – this ball tastes so good!  Thanks for getting it for me!

Um… ok I’m tired now guys… take me in.

My favorite from the night.

Ok, I guess that is more than enough pictures of a child who isn’t mine :)  I love this little girl so much though – I can’t imagine how much more love you’d feel if it was your own!

On a side-note, I’m working on a new blog design for my friend Jill.  It’s not finished yet, but I will post as soon as it’s done, so stay tuned! :)