Memorial Weekend

Hello to everyone!  I hope everyone had a wonderful and fun filled Memorial Weekend....cause I sure did.  Granted I truly missed spending time with the family at one the awesome pool parties, but visiting Chris is SC was pretty exciting.  Since it was a long weekend Chris flew me up to Greenville so we could explore his new little town.  Lets just put it this way it was quite a bummer land back in hot ol Houston.

I took Friday off to make it nice long weekend and head up to SC Thursday night.  Since Chris had to work a half day Friday, I took advantage of my day off.  After sleeping in, I got up and headed for a run to explore the neighborhood.  Chris lives about two blocks from a neat downtown so I headed that direction.  The main drag has tons of little shops, restaurants. parks, theaters, and lots of things to do.  A nice little river runs through downtown, I ran to the river, around the park and back to his apartment.  It was a good morning work out with  great scenery.  After Chris got home we walked back to downtown to eat at a little southern fare restaurant.  After lunch he showed me around downtown and then went back to the casa to relax.  That evening we met up with one of his coworkers and his wife for dinner at "famed" BBQ joint.  Now Carolinian's rave about their BBQ and to be honesty I don't know what about, Texas BBQ is the best.  After dinner we drove to Clemson and checked out the campus and the college town.  It reminded me a lot of A&M and the scenery was beautiful.

Saturday we got up early and headed to the farmers market in downtown, we did a little shopping and ate some Shrimp and Grits for breakfast. Since Chris is very close to mountains we decided to spend the day hiking and exploring the different trials.  It happened to be perfect weather for hiking we did two different trails and got to see a couple of waterfalls along the way.  By the time we got home I was beat, even though I am in fairly good shape hiking took it all out of me (it might also have been that Chris hikes at a strenuousness pace, if its a 3 hour hike he completes it in 1.5).  That evening we went to a nice little Italian place for dinner and I enjoyed several pounds of delicious pasta and a glass of wine. After dinner we went to a little wine bar to explore the Greenville nightlife, the people watching was great.

Sunday it was up bright and early again to go hike some trials in North Carolina.  For lunch we drove into a little town and had a delicious lunch at a farm to table restaurant.  The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and watching movies.  Monday we decided to rent a jet ski and play on the lake for a while before I headed back to Houston. I have never ridden a jet ski and boy was I missing out.  I am not going to lie I was terrified, I thought I was going to die when Chris was driving.  (Please not this does not reflect on his driving skills, its just a whole ton rougher for the person on the back)  Let me tell you the minute I got behind the wheel it was pure FUN!!  I was chasing speedboats and hoping their wakes, I am pretty sure we got up to 60 something speed wise.  The lake was gorgeous, the weather was perfect, and the water was warm... couldn't have asked for a better way to end the weekend.  Then it was back to reality sitting in the Greenville Airport. 

                    

21's Birthdays, Weddings, and ridiculous amounts of fun

Good Afternoon All,
   It has been a wild and fun two weeks now its time to get you all caught up to speed.  Two weekends ago was my little sisters 21st Birthday.  Can you believe it, she is 21 years old..good Lord how old does that make us :( Anyway lets not think about that.  That same weekend also happened to be a very good friend of mines wedding.  I kicked off the weekend Wednesday night...yes you read that right, some times the weekends just aren't long enough and you have to start early.  I made a big crockpot of jambalaya and had the girls over for wine night.  We had lots of wine and food and probably stayed up too late, oh well you only live once right?  Thursday afternoon Christy came in to town, as well as several of the people coming for Becca's wedding.  I met Becca freshman year in college and we have been friends since. We have a big group of friends that all hung out together in college so her wedding was going to be a college reunion.

Once everyone got to the house we headed out to BINGO!! Don't be misled thinking this is an old folks game, it is not.  In Houston there is a huge bingo hall and it is quite the thing to do on Thursday nights for 20/30's crowd.  Its neat because you can bring your own food and drinks and have a good time with friends.  This was my first time going and it was a blast.  Unfortunately we didn't win any money, but we had a good time playing.  After bingo we went to midtown to have a few drinks, it was nice relaxing evening and thankfully not too hot!  Friday we were busy as ever trying to get all the last minute things finished up for Beccas wedding.  Around three we rounded everyone up and headed to the venue for the rehearsal.  Since dinner wasn't until six we all headed back to mi casa to hang out and ended up playing a speed game of monopoly.  The rehearsal dinner was held at a local BBQ joint and everything was delicious.  After dinner it was back to the casa to pre-party our going out.  Once everyone showed up we headed to Washington to have another night out.  Keep in mind, my body is not used to this back to back going out.  I am normally on the 4:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. schedule.  We all had a good time dancing the night away. 

The next morning we were up and at it again.  Since the boys were in town we decided to get a work out in before the wedding festivities.  We all headed to Crossfit for a 9 a.m. work out, it was challenging, but we survived.  After lunch with the group we headed to the venue to get ready.  After make up and hair time we were ready to go get Becca hitched.  It was a beautiful service and everything went smoothly.  After the ceremony it was time to party!  It is impossible to describe the amount of fun that was had that evening.  Since these were the guys I learned how to dance with we danced the night away!

Trio of Trouble

Sisters

After the reception was over we headed to Wild West a country bar just down the street and continued the party there until 2 a.m.  Since Sunday was Christy's birthday we had to wait until Midnight to get her in.  Whooo and then she was 21!!  I think she had a really good time hang out with the group, thankfully it was a pretty tame 21st birthday.  Sunday morning I ran a few people to the airport and then it was time to celebrate Christy's birthday (even though we celebrated all weekend)  For breakfast we walked down the street to Coco's crepes and had Nutella crepes.  Since she was 21 we headed over to Blackfinn for Mimosa's.  After breakfast we were le tired so we took a nap.  For dinner that evening we went to Mia Bella an nice little Italian restaurant in downtown, Christy had Shrimp Fettuccine and a Cosmo and I had some sort of Veggie Fettuccine and a glass of wine.  Dinner was delicious!  Afterwards we both decided to get some rest, I had work in the morning and she was heading back to College Station.  It was a long awesome weekend and was sad to see it go.          

Birthday Cupcakes

21

21st Birthday Breakfast

Cosmo with dinner

Raking in the gifts

Sweet new watch

 

Friday

  I hope you all are as excited for the weekend as I am!  It seems like it has been an incredibly long few weeks.  I have been on a writing hiatus due to finishing school, trying to stay on top at work, and be able to eat every day!!  OK I am over exaggerating I wasn't that busy, but it seemed like it.  I am going to have to start a few weeks back, because it has been a whirlwind of activity.  About five weeks ago Chris got a new job, with the company he used to work for, a week after starting they put him on a project in Greenville, South Carolina. Then bam he was gone! Well he had a week to get everything sorted out and get up there.  He left April 22nd and will be in Greenville for 6-8 months then Malaysia a year.  Since he had to move so quickly, I kindly volunteered to watch the little girls.  Even though its lonely with out him I have the girls to keep me entertained....how could you say no to those faces??

The upside to Chris moving is his company fly's him back every three weeks, or I can fly up and visit him, hello Greenville SC here I come!  After Chris left it was a long week of work, studying, and finishing up projects for work and class.  That weekend I took the girls and headed to College Station for some much needed sister time!  It was an awesome weekend, Friday night we watched an Aggie Baseball game.  They just redid the stadium, it was very impressive.  The best part was the baseball games were just as much fun as when I was in school, and we beat Texas...so no big deal.  :)  After the game we grabbed a bit to eat, showered and headed out to Northgate for a little action.

The next morning Christy had to go to work so I was super lazy and did nothing but read and study...it was glorious!  Once she got off work we head to the gun range so she could shoot my new handgun.  Even though we didn't have much time to shoot before they closed, we still had a good time.  That evening we went to dinner at Roadhouse and had another round of Northgate.  Turns out I am getting old and this staying up late thing that college kids do is really hard for me!!  Needless to say I was exhausted Sunday.  Since Christy had school and work I head back to Houston to relax and get ready for the next week.  With Chris gone I acquired a lot of spare time, therefore I have really been focusing on working out and eating healthy!  I have Crossfit every M,W,F at 5 a.m., Tuesday/Thursday I go to my regular gym to swim, and MW nights is yoga!  I think I just love working out.  Crossfit has been pretty brutal, but I am getting stronger and I love the challenging workouts.

Cino de drinko was this last weekend and hopefully everyone got to celebrate appropriately with a margarita in hand.  Chris was back in town that weekend and we both headed to College Station.  Five years ago one of Chris friends from college passed away so every few years a group of his buddies get together and go back to visit his grave.  That was the reason we went back.  It was a nice long weekend of visiting with friends and hanging out with Christy.  Sunday we were back in Houston and Chris was on a plane back to SC.  Then it was nose to the grindstone for me.  My final for Financial Accounting was Tuesday night and I needed to do some studying.  I haven't received my grade, but I feel fairly confident about the test, we shall see.

Since this class I have decided it is important for me to get my MBA.  If I can make the deadline (June 1st)  I will be starting in the fall, but if not I will begin in the Spring.  I am pretty excited, I miss school and am ready to get back to it.  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and to all those wonderful mothers out there Happy Mothers Day.  Hate to break it to the rest of the world, but my moms the best...period.  Love you mom.

Until Next Time...    

     

Paris and other adventures

Sorry for the long hiatus, the last two weeks were incredibly busy.  It all started the weekend of March 24th.  That Saturday Chris, Darleen, and I head up to Dallas for our friends James and Meghan wedding.  I was very excited because he was a key member of our college group, so it was practically a college reunion!  We arrived just before the wedding.  It was beautiful wedding and we all had a blast at the reception. 

The next week and weekend were a blur and before I knew it I was getting packed to head to Paris, France.  I found an inexpensive direct flight and decided it time to get out of the country.  Chris and I decided that six days in Paris would be to long so the first two were spent in Bruges Belgium and the last four days were spent in Paris.  Tuesday after work we sprinted to the airport to catch the nine and a half to Paris.  The flight actually wasn't bad, but it might have been because I spent the whole time reading.

Once we landed in Paris we took a train to Bruges.  Unfortunately with all travel there has to be some issue, our train ended up getting delayed for 1 hour and 45 minutes.  Bruges was a beautiful little town all though extremely cold.  We spent the rest of the afternoon wondering around town checking out all the little shoppes. There were probably 300 chocolate shops in a 700 yard radius!  Hello heaven.  While wondering around we found a neat little underground pub and stopped in for a drink.  After that we had dinner and then crashed out.  The next morning we were up early to meet a group for a bike ride through Bruges and to another city.  We rode through Bruges out of town and had Belgium waffles at a town not to far away.  It was a beautiful ride with rolling green hills, little farm cottages, canals, and windmills. 

After the bike ride we took a boat ride down the canals in the city.  Friday we headed back to Paris via train.  The next four days were packed full of walking around Paris and seeing the sights.  Disclaimer: if you have your heart set on visiting Paris do not read the following.  I was not impressed with Paris.  I know it sounds jaded or who knows what, but I wasn't.  It was crowded, cold, busy, and disappointing.  It was like New York except everyone spoke French.  I really dislike crowds, tourist, and lines and that is all Paris was.  The lines were incredibly long, its a huge city so you walk for miles and then stand in line for hours.  No don't think the whole trip was a bust there are a few good things about Paris.  The main one being the bread....hello I have no idea how the people stay thin over there. (well its probably all the walking, smoking, and coffee drinking) There are cafes and bakeries on every corner, with fresh hot french bread, chocolate croissants, and crepes!  I think all I ate there were nutella crepes, french bread, and chocolate croissants.  It was glorious oh and the wine was excellent, most of the days we ended drinking wine in a little cafe. 

Even though it wasn't my favorite vacation I still got to see everything I wanted to see and have some time away from work. I hope everyone had a wonderful few weeks.  Enjoy the weekend!

Train ride to Bruges

Town Square in Bruges

Canals in Bruges

Sweet little underground pub

Millions of chocolate stores...no wonder everyone was happy

Arch de Triumph

Eiffel Tower

Sacre Coeur Basilica

Waiting in line...

The catacombs

The army museum

Nortre Dame

Palace of Versailles

Marie Antoinettes Farm house

Where she was held before her beheading

The Louvre

Until next time...

Tory

Spring Break

Spring Break has come and gone in the blink of an eye.  Even though I wasn't on vacation this year, I still had a blast because Christy was in town.  Christy arrived Tuesday afternoon with her dogs in tow, once we got everything unloaded and set up it was time for dinner.  I made chicken lettuce wraps, so we relaxed ate dinner and talked.  We were both pretty exhausted from our long day so we decided to rent a movie and stay in.  We rented Immortals which is a movie about the Greek myth, The Bow of Epirus and the Gods of Olympus.  Once the movie was finished I went straight to bed I still had to get up at 4:30 for Crossfit.

Wednesday after work Chris, Christy, a co-worker and I headed out to the local indoor gun range.  I want Christy to become familiar with pistol shooting so she can get her concealed handgun license when she turns 21.  I just bought a new handgun so we were going to give it a try.  Little did I know this range doesn't allow anyone under 21 to shoot with out a parent.  The boys stayed and shot for an hour while Christy and I check out the local SPCA.  The SPCA is a huge animal shelter in Houston, I am sure Uncle James would have loved this trip.  :) After we visited the shelter we went to marble slab and enjoyed a delicious ice cream in the awesome spring weather!  

Thursday after work I headed straight home to pick up Christy for our night at the rodeo.  Once I picked her up we headed downtown to catch the metro.  Traffic is usually terrible in that area so its easiest to ride the light-rail to reliant stadium.  Since it was spring break the place was packed with tons of families and kids, not my ideal setting, but we still had a blast.  We checked out the animal exhibits and watched some cattle shows.  For dinner we each grabbed something different from the food area and then headed to the carnival.  I was pretty excited about the carnival because last year Chris and I cleaned up there.  Apparently I bragged to much about my skills and ended up failing miserably at every game.  One guy must have felt bad because he still gave me a prize!  Christy brought her skills and ended up winning Betsy the cow! Once we exhausted our tickets we headed in to watch the rodeo.  The rodeo was very entertaining, afterwards Jason Aldean a Nashville country star performed.  I didn't realize how many songs he had that I really liked.  Even though we were dead exhausted we still wanted to ride the Ferris wheel, so we did.  After an enjoyable ride we head back to the metro for our ride home.

Waiting for the Metro

Biggest longhorn I have ever seen

Our winnings

Rodeo time

Betsy and Christy on the Ferris Wheel

Health and Science Museum

Thankfully Fridays Crossfit had been canceled so I was able to sleep in until 630! After work Christy and I went to the little pizzeria near my house and had a slice of coal fired pizza for lunch.  Since Christy is a health and science major we decided to go check out the Houston Museum of Health and Science.  It was a lot of fun, they had quite a few interactive exhibits.  Even though it was geared towards a younger audience we still learned a few new things....or at least I did!  Since it was about time for everyone else to get off work we met up with Chris, Caleb, and some friends at a sushi place for happy hour. After Sushi we walked over to a patio bar and had some drinks and hung out for a while.  Since it had been a long week we all ended up going home around ten.  

Saturday just so happened to be St. Patty's day, so what other way to celebrate then dress up in your best green attire and drink green beer.  Christy and I slept in a bit, so around 11 we met everyone at Guadalajara for some Mexican food.  I know it was St. Patty's day, but we just wanted some good Mexican food.  We wanted to go see 21 jump street, but the next showing wasn't until 3 so we walked down to a local bar and listened to some good ol Irish music for a while.  The movie turned out to be pretty funny, I haven't laughed that hard at a movie in a long time. Since Christy and I ate junk food all week, we decided to detox and have a salad at Barnaby's for dinner.  After dinner we ended going home and going to bed, we were le tired.  Sunday it was back to the real world for all of us.  After breakfast Christy packed up and headed back to CS.  I cleaned, cooked, and got ready for the new week.  

St Patty's Day

Have a great week

Until next time...