Thanksgiving

Hello out there!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their respective family and friends.  I cant seem to express my love for the holidays enough, I think its mainly due to being able to spend time with the ones you love.  Sunday morning bright and early Chris, Caleb, and I drove back from yet another disappointing Aggie game.  Once we got back into Houston I headed to the airport to pick up my parents, for our Thanksgiving week! Since we were all starving we headed to Goode BBQ Company and had some delicious food.  Since the weather was so nice we sat outside and enjoyed our food.  After lunch we ran a few errands and checked out a few open houses (just to show the rents what is available in the Houston area).  After a little rest we all headed to the grocery store to get my weekly groceries.  For dinner that evening I made a Chili recipe out of the Abs diet book and some Pumpkin bread (not in the abs diet book).  Unfortunately I did not have the week off so while I was at work my wonderful parents finished hanging stuff up and decorating my new place, they are so handy to have around.  

That week at work was extremely busy preparing for the 4th quarter employee meeting, so I was exhausted when I got home and we didn't get to do very many fun things.  Monday night Chris and I grilled Steaks and baked potatoes for dinner, they turned out pretty delicious and we all ate way too much.  Tuesday night we went to our favorite Italian spot, its a little restaurant in the heights area that makes authentic delicious food.  The place is byow (bring your own wine) so we took a bottle with us and enjoyed some Italian food as a family!  Wednesday was a short day at work so after lunch the rents and I packed up our stuff and head up to A&M to spend the rest of the week with Christy and Tommy.  Its been a while since the whole family has been together so it was good weekend. 

Wednesday night Christy, mom, and myself made a pecan, pumpkin, and chocolate pie for Thanksgiving.  The next morning we were up early watching the parades and cooking Thanksgiving lunch.  Since the Aggie game was that day we had our traditional meal at lunch.  We had tons of food and everything was extra delicious.  Our menu consisted of Turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, sweet potatoes, cranberries, gravy, rolls, and pies galore!  After dinner Christy, Tommy, his girlfriend, Justin, my cousin James and I headed to the traditional A&M vs Texas game.  Sadly it was another disappointing loss for the Ag's, the good news is we will be moving to a different conference the SEC and we will be getting a new head coach.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Most important part of dinner!

Friday I got up and did a little holiday shopping, since everything was on sale I wanted to get lots of Christmas decorations!  I went to Michael's and bought lots of stuff to make wreaths and Garland for the handrail of the staircase.  Thankfully no one was at the stores I went to so I got in and our in a matter of an hour.  Friday we didn't do much just hung out as a family, relaxed, and ate more food.   Saturday morning we were up early to head back to Houston to get the rents on a plane back to El Paso.  Thankfully everything went smoothly and they made it home safe.  That afternoon I cleaned the house, made and put up lots of decorations, and did some reading.

My first baby tree!

Garland for the stairs.

The wreath I made for the door...I think I need a few more.

Sunday morning I was up early so I hit the gym for a pre-church work out.  After my work out and church I headed to home depot to pick up a Christmas tree!!!  I miss our old family tradition of picking a tree, coming home decorating it, and eating Unlce James famous toasted cheese.  I was able to get it up and decorated so now the house looks like Christmas!   Well I have tons planned for this weekend so its time to "hurry every chance I get" Have a wonderful weekend!

Until next time...

One Busy Week

After a busy week I like to think that, "Oh maybe the next one wont be so busy."   Unfortunately that never seems to be the case...don't get me wrong, I love to be busy, but you need to relax every once in a while. Monday started out tame, but around 8 o'clock  I received a phone call from a very good friend of mine, her dad had passed away the night before.  I know God has perfect timing, but you start to question his timing when things like this happen.  Her dad was very young with all three of his children in college.  He was a great father and husband and will be missed by many.  Since I have a close-nit group of college friends we decided to head to Mission to be with our friend in her time of need.  Tuesday night around 9 p.m. we headed to Mission, it was a long drive, but worth it.  We got in town around 2:00 a.m. and checked into our hotel.  The next morning we headed to the funeral home for the viewing, we spent most of the day with her family, but due to work constraints we had to head back to houston Wednesday night.  We made it back safe and sound around 11:30.  Needless to say the rest of the week was tough to get through, I do not function well on no sleep. 

Since I hadnt seen Chris in a while we had a nice date night on Thursday.  For dinner we walked down to a local pub and had steak and a bake potatoe, for dessert we walked across the street to Russo's New York Pizzaria and had different types of cheesecake.  Since we had eaten all that food, we decided to walk it off by heading over to the Specs in the middle of Midtown.  It was a beautiful evening and the weather was perfect, at Specs we picked up a bottle of wine and head back to the casa to watch a movie.     

Friday was a short, but busy day at work, after work I ran a bunch of errands to get ready for the weekend.  There was another Aggie game so I had to get ready to go to CS.  One of Chris' friends was dunking his Aggie ring that night, so Chris, our friend Caleb and I packed up and head to CS.  Once we got there we met up with Chris' friends for dinner and the ring dunk.  The next morning I was up early for the A&M game, the game was great considering we won 63-7, but a little bit boring.  I know you cant ever satisfy this Ag not happy when we lose and bored if we win by a large margin.  This week we will be playing our final game with our long standing rival the University of Texas.  I am hoping for a good game and win by the Ags, keep your fingers crossed! 

We ended up staying Saturday night in CS to see friends and headed back early Sunday morning to pick up my parents from the airport.  I was very excited to see them, its great having them in town!  I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, and dont forget to cherish the time you spend with loved ones.  

Until next time...

Time flys when you're having fun

Another weekend has come and gone, where does the time go?  Do you realize it is less than two weeks until Thanksgiving and only one week until my parents get in town.  I cant describe how excited I am!  I have a whole list of things they get to do when they get here so they wont get board.
 
1) Clean the house
2) Wash and wax the car
3) Hang my paintings
4) And cook lots of food

I am not asking too much?  Just kidding Mom and Dad you all can kick up you feet and relax!  Its going to be a wonderful time with the whole family.

This last week was a busy week at work, even with all the work I was doing the days seemed to drag on.  I think I am so excited about the holidays coming up, its hard to focus on work.  You can tell when its getting close because everyone in the office starts getting antsy.

As most of you know last Sunday we went through the yearly ritual of changing our clocks back.  I really despise doing this because it gets dark before I get home.  This is the first year that I have noticed it really affected my sleep pattern, by six I am ready for bed.  Thankfully I remembered to change all the clocks so I didn't have any major issues.  There were only two funny incidents that occurred,  when I got in my car to go to work I thought I was an hour late.  That same day I almost left work a hour early because my coworkers clock had not been set back.  Other than that no major mishaps. 

The week was dragging and I started getting stir crazy, by Thursday night I had to get out of the house.  Since I live in walking distance of Midtown, Chris and I decided to walk down to the new Tapas place and give it a try.  The happy hour specials were great, half of Tapas and Sangria.  We each got two different plates and shared them, everything was really delicious and just the right size.  After dinner we walked around Midtown and hit a few different spots.  We normally meet up with some friends of ours for wings on Thursday so they picked us up and we all went to Buffalo Wild Wings and watched the U of H Cougars play Tulane.  It was great evening and just what I needed.

Friday was a busy day at work, but I got everything wrapped up that needed to be finished that week.  After work I ran a bunch of errands to get the supplies I need to make Christmas gifts.  That evening after a quick work out Chris and I watched the History Channels documentary on the Vietnam war and cooked some dinner. The documentary was excellent and I truly regret not asking my grandpas about their war experiences.  I know for many it is a very difficult thing to discuss, but if the younger generations do not hear about these things, they become the unappreciative spoiled brats that are running around today.  I am very thankful to all the Vets and current military men and women that served, or are serving today to protect our country.  If you have a chance check out the History channels Vietnam in HD, its an eye opener for those that weren't directly involved.

Saturday morning Chris and I headed up to San Antonio for a friends birthday.  The plan was to spend the afternoon shooting, eating, and watching football.  I was pretty excited about the shooting part, its been a while since I have been able to shoot trap.  We loaded up all our guns, bought out all of Wal-mart's ammo and headed to good ol San Antonio.  It normally isn't a bad drive, but we got stuck behind a motorcycle ride and they were going about 20 miles under the speed limit...ugh it was a long drive.  Once we got there we set everything up and started shooting.  We did a few rounds of trap and then set up some targets for pistol.  We were having a great time until we heard a semi-auto assault rifle let off a couple of rounds and it wasn't us shooting.  The minute we heard the bullets whiz past us we were on the ground.  We have no idea what these people were doing, they had no reason to be shooting in our direction.  After that little incident we decided to move to another area on their property. I am a stickler for gun safety, I have heard of too many accidents that happen when people just aren't paying attention.  Since there were seven of us I made sure everyone was safe, but apparently there is no way to prevent other people from shooting at you!   


The rest of the afternoon was great we set up their trap thrower and shot for about four hours.  I currently have a 20 gauge and have been looking to upgrade to a 12.  Being with a bunch of guys that love to shoot, I was able to try quite an assortment of shotguns.  I really enjoyed a few of them but found a winner that will soon be a gift to myself.  Unfortunately the gun that won is pretty pricey so if any of you fell inclined to donate to the Tory shotgun fund...I am accepting donations! 

Beretta AL391 Teknys Gold Target 12Ga, 30"

Beretta AL391 Teknys Gold Sporting

 After we finished up shooting we went inside to eat burgers and watch some Aggie football. It was another terrible game for the Ags they ended up losing in the 4 OT.  Oh well there is always next year!  We spent the rest of the evening talking around a campfire.  It was a nice weekend, but now its over and time to get ready for the work week, oh the joys of being a grown up!!!  I hope you all have a great week.

Until next time...

Cheers to the Weekend!!

Well Ladies and Gentleman the weekend is upon us, and that is just too wonderful!!  It has been an extremely long and busy week.  Since I haven't written in a while lets get caught up on last weekends festivities. 

Friday night Tommy flew into Houston for the A&M vs. Missouri game.  I picked him up at the airport and we head straight to College Station.  It had been a long week for me with trying to get settled into my new place and keep up with everything at work I was ragged, but it was Halloween weekend so I had to get the gumption up to go out.  That evening I met up with friends, once everyone was dressed in their respective costumes it was time to hit the town.  We went to several house parties and Northgate (the strip of bars in College Station)  It was a fun evening, but old grandma Jones over here was ready for bed before we went out! Being in the working world real changes your internal clock, getting up at 4:30 makes staying out late a difficult task.

Saturday morning I was up at ready for some Fightn Texas Aggie Football.  Since my cousin was taking his PE exam he gave Christy's boyfriend his ticket therefore Christy and Justin both got to sit with me! It was an exciting game in the football world, but a TERRIBLE game for the Aggies.  Oh well you can win them all!

After the devastating game we were tired and hungry, since the weather was absolutely perfect (70's with a cool breeze, jealous?) we decided to grill some steaks.  I ran to the grocery store and got steaks, potatoes, corn, and garden veggies.  It was a delicious meal and we topped it off with some Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes with Cream Cheese frosting that I made earlier. 

Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes

Sunday morning I got up and made everyone pancakes, bacon, and hashbrowns it was a fun and yummy family breakfast.  After breakfast Christy and Justin had to study so I took Christy's dog on a walk...well let me rephrase Christy's dog took me for a run!  It was another wonderful day so I couldn't pass up being outside basking in the wonderful weather (yes Northerners I am bragging)  :)  That afternoon Tommy and I drove back to Houston to get him on a plane to Midland.  The rest of the evening was spent getting groceries and relaxing. 

This week was a hectic one at work as long as we make it through November we will be good to go!  My evenings were filled with working out and shopping for the dinner party we were having on Thursday.  I spent most of Wednesday evening buying and prepping the food for Thursday.  For dinner I made Chili in garlic cheese bread bowls, with a chips and Queso appetizer, and pumpkin pie for desert.  Thankfully everything turned out really well and there wasn't much food left over. 

Home made Pumpkin Pie!

Getting ready for Fall with some decorations.

Well its the weekend so its time to get out there do something fun!  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend

Until next time...

Travel, Moving, and Aggie Football

It has been an extremely busy last few weeks therefore writing has been impossible.  Thankfully I found an amazing place to live in the nick of time, two days after signing the lease I was back at the airport for a quick trip to Philadelphia for work.  It was an interesting trip, the meeting went excellently, but I single-handily killed every type of electronic device I touched.  This is never good because I am normally the tech savvy one of our group.  During the presentations the first day I spilled water on my computer and killed it, completely shutting down the presentations that were going on.  Thankfully my coworker and I prepared for every type of disaster, therefore I grabbed the back up computer and got it up and running.  Needless to say I didn't drink any water after that.  Later that evening when we had a group outing my phone died, talk about feeling completely helpless.  Its amazing how much we rely on those little devices, I couldn't even tell you what time it was...helpless.  Thankfully the rest of the meeting was hazard free, pretty sure it was due to that fact that I killed everything that we needed.  A couple of days later my phone came back on and our IT group was able to fix my computer.

Thursday morning I flew back into Houston to finish out the work week and get ready for the weekend.  Friday night Chris and I went to his roommates birthday party.  It was a fun evening with lots of good food.  Saturday morning Chris and I headed to College station for an A&M Football game.  It was a great game and my boys won so that's all that matters.  This was Chris first time to go to an Aggie football game with me, lets just say he saw my football season personality.  The best part of the game was my little sister got to sit with me!!!  I love football season because I get to see Tommy and Christy on a regular basis.  Now we just need Mom and Dad to move to College Station!

Work has been very busy with lots of new projects cropping up.  I can not begin to express how blessed I am.  Not only do I love my job, but I work with a fantastic group of people.

Moving day was insane, but somehow everything fell into place.  The week before the move I spent boxing up everything I own.  I don't know how I got all of that stuff in my tiny apartment.  Since I have acquired some large sets of furniture I decided to hire movers...probably the best idea I have ever made!

Friday morning rolled around and it was Move day, not something I was looking forward to at all.  The movers were set to come between 12 and 2 so I made sure I had everything packed up.  Well 2:30 came and went then 2:45, 2:50 at this point I was becoming very agitated.  I had scheduled all the utility companies to come after four assuming I would be at the new place by then.  I also was going to a concert that evening with Chris and some friends and needed to be moved by six.  I called the movers and of course they were running late.  3:25 the movers arrived and thankfully they were excellent, they had everything moved out and into the new place in two hours!  Even better the utility companies were late so everyone arrived at the new place at the same time.  Chaos ensued, the neighbors were mad because the moving truck blocked them in and the gas, electrical, and cable guys all showed up at the same time.  There were so many people in and out of the house, I am not even sure if they were workmen, or just random strangers checking out the new digs.  Thankfully everything got installed properly and I am up and running....well sort of!!! I believe the thermostat is broken on the air condition, because it runs until the compressor freezes over!  I called the management company and hopefully that will get worked out soon, other than that I am loving the place. 

The rest of the weekend turned out nicely in between unpacking, I went to a concert, had friends in town, went to a kickball game, a friends birthday party and watched some great football.  By the way, since I know you are all dying with curiosity, the Aggie's won again this week!  Whoop  I hope everyone is having a wonderful beginning of the week.  Don't work to hard! 

Until next time...

Time to find a home

Its October 3rd and I have less than three weeks to find a place to live.  Now if you have ever met me you might understand how this set me into a great panic.  For those care free spirits that like to live life on the edge and not plan ahead this might not have been such an issue.  I on the other had have a calendar that has the next six months of my life planned.  Now don't get me wrong I have been looking for a place to live for a while, but most places wont know whats available until 30 days before you move. 

This week was my do or die week, I had to find a place to live before I left for a work trip to Philly.  I contacted a realtor and we hit the streets. It was a whorl wind tour of the scariest and most awful places in houston.  My goal was to stay under 800 dollars and inside the loop which I knew was going to be hard, but I did not think it would be impossible.  Apparently you either live in the slums or you pay big money for a small but decent place.  Since the economy is so bad everyone is renting, thus driving up the price of rental properties and making them hard to come by.  If you find something you better get it before anyone else does or it will go into a bidding war.  Really folks this is getting out of control!  Needless to say I am ready to buy and get out of this craziness.  Thankfully Friday afternoon a sweet deal came on the market and I pounced on it.  Turns out I will be moving about three blocks from my original place.   

I am very thank to have a place to live, I now have to deal with the whole moving thing....bleh not a fun task.  The last time I moved, I was able to fit everything in my car!!!

Until next time.

I am so busy.....

"I am so BUSY"....That seems to be my response to everything these last three weeks.  Which in all honesty I love!  I would much rather have so much on my plate that I have to have post-it notes to remind me of my post-it notes. I know a little OCD, but I don't forget anything.  If you looked at my Outlook calendar you my be slightly scared, yes my noon reminder is to take my vitamins...don't judge me its helpful.  Whats even better is its linked to my phone so I get a reminder 15 minutes before any appointment on my calendar.

I originally started writing this post three weeks ago, so I will finish where I left of.  Tuesday morning (3 weeks ago), work was busy as usual when my boss called me into her office.  We have been working on a project for the end of the year quarterly employee meeting and we needed to get it finished up.  The only thing lacking was the video and photos for the presentation so she told me to head to Louisianan on Tuesday... as in tomorrow morning.  I got every thing booked and I was set for the 5:30 a.m. flight to New Orleans.  The trip wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't been fighting a terrible cold.  Whatever you do DON'T FLY IF YOU HAVE ANY TYPE OF SINUS CONGESTION worst flight of my life.  After we took off and reached our altitude, the pressure in my ears started to build, due to the congestion I was unable to pop my ears.  The pain became excruciating I tried to mentally calm myself down, until I realized I was becoming very faint and wanting to vomit.  I called the flight attendant to get a barf bag.  The man next to me was kind enough to reminded me that I looked as bad as I felt.  (Thanks I had no idea, that I felt bad)  The flight attendant was very kind and understanding, she said that she had that happen to her before and the best thing was a hot towel behind my ears.  The towels helped immensely, but it took about two days before I could hear again.

The trip went well even though we out in the field from 5:30a.m. to 8:30 at night.  It was an exhausting trip, but we got everything we needed to finish up the project. Friday morning I flew back to Houston in time to change clothes unpack and repack for my trip to Austin.  I drove to Austin that afternoon and met up with some of my college friends for a fun filled weekend.  Friday night we went to a local food truck and had some delicious farm to plate food.  We topped dinner off with a Gordough doughnut, mind you this is not your average doughnut.  The are specialty doughnuts about the size of your face and completely unhealthy, fattening, and delicious. 

Mama's Cake - doughnut with yellow cake batter filling with chocolate fudge icing

Gordoughs!!

That evening we went to 6th street and did a mini pub crawl.  It was a great evening because I found out one of my cousins that I haven't seen in six or seven years was working at one of the bars. We stopped in and I was able to catch up for a little bit.

Saturday morning we watched another disheartening Aggie football game.  They lost again....the Aggies are tearing my heart out, but as they say life must go on.  After lunch I met up with my cousin so we could catch up properly, it was great to see him and hear how all the family was doing.  After catching up we went to a chipping and putting range to test my skills.  Well apparently you have to practice to improve because I am still terrible!!  

It was a great long weekend, but it was good to come home. 

Until next time...