Valentines Day and Other Activities

It is mid-February and time for that good ol Hallmark holiday, Valentines day. I hope everyone had a great day filled with chocolates, flowers, and classy greeting cards.  Chris and I opted for a pre-Valentines dinner since I had class the evening of Valentines, more on that soon.  First off I need to get you caught up on the happenings of that last few weeks and weekends.  Lets see where did I leave off...THREE WEEKS AGO! :0 my apologies.

January 27-28th was a relatively calm weekend, I have no recollection of what I did on Friday.  Saturday one of my coworkers was hosting a party for a few friends.  Since I was in town for the weekend I decided to go visit, while the boys played Disc golf.  After the party I met up with Chris and a few friends for dinner and drinks at Cyclone Annya's a Mexican restaurant down the street. Everything was delicious and I came home and crashed out shortly following dinner.  Sunday morning was a great church service followed by a trip to the local brewery in town for a chili cook off.  The cook off was fun, there were tons of different chili's you could try and almost everything was delicious.  

Chili Cook-Off

The week flew by at work we are still pretty busy with lots of new stuff coming up every day.  That weekend I decided to go to college station for a girls night out with Christy.  We had lots of fun stuffed planned and then the rain began, it ended up being a horrific storm with tons of rain, hail, and a tornado.  Since the weather was horrible we canceled our outdoor activities and opted for dinner at Olive Garden followed by movies and ice cream at home.  We got two movies and naturally I slept through both of them...fail. :(  Saturday we slept in and then took the dogs on an hour and a half walk.  With all the rain, Christy has a lake in her backyard so the dogs haven't been able to go outside and run around.  They needed a nice long walk to get out some of their energy.  After all that walking we both worked up quite an appetite, we headed to Koppe Bridge for one of the best burgers in town.  After lunch I headed back to Houston to get ready for the coming week and study for my first accounting exam.  

Monday was a busy day I had to get everything wrapped up that happened over the weekend before I head out to College Station...wait what didn't I just get back from there?  Well call me crazy, but I agreed to help our recruiter at the A&M career fair. Later in the afternoon I head back to CS, we had a happy hour and dinner with the new recruits that evening.  After dinner I hung out with Christy and we both studied for our upcoming test.  After we got tired of studying we ran to the store to get supplies to make Chocolate covered strawberries, we need something delicious for studying so hard!  The next morning I head over to the business building to recruit for Plains.  It was a fun and interesting process to participate in, makes me very thankful for the job I have and that I am not searching for one fresh out of college.  

After the fair I said bye to Christy and headed back to Houston for my Accounting test.  This is the first test I have taken since I graduated, and to be honest with you I really enjoyed it!  You may think I am crazy, but the second time around is so much easier and much more enjoyable. The rest of the week flew by and before I knew it, it was the weekend! Two of my old college friends were coming in for the weekend so it was packed full of fun things to do.  Friday after work Chris and ran some errands and ate dinner at Goode Company BBQ, it was delicious.  After dinner we went to the local gun store to check out new guns :) this always makes me happy.  I am thinking about investing in a smaller handgun for concealed carry.  The SIG 238 Extreme kinda has my eye for now.   After gun shopping we met my friend at the house for a relaxed evening in, we rented some movies and got some ice cream.  Saturday morning Chris and I had a two hour introductory course for Crossfit, we have decided to join and get back in shape.  Its an intense work out and I am excited about the possibilities, it really helps to push your body to its limits! 

Once we finished our work out we gathered up the troops and head downtown to an Irish stew cook off, I don't know where I find these things, but they are fun.  We got to try lots of different Irish stews, listen to Irish music and watch River-dancers.

The boys

We all had a great time, after the festival was over we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.  Once we were stuffed beyond the point of recognition we went home and played some dance central to burn off all the calories. After a quick power nap we met up with some other friends for a visit at TAPs.  Around 12:30 we headed home, this is the latest I have stayed out in a while.  Unfortunately my neighbors decided it was a great night for a party the first group was parked in a car outside blaring their music, I called the cops on them.  The second group I waited until two to ask them to turn it down.  About three I fell asleep, naturally I was up at seven, so the boys and I went to Torchies for breakfast tacos.  After breakfast Chris and I watched a movie we had rented Friday, it was excellent and I was semi-conscious though out the movie! 

The weather has been insanely weird one day its 80 degrees the next day its in the low 40's.  Even though it was chilly and windy Sunday Chris, Caleb and I took the dogs out and played disc golf at a local park.  It was fun, but very cold!  We finished up the evening with dinner, laundry, and movies.  

Chapplet -Cab Fran 07, be jealous!

Monday night Chris set up a surprise dinner date for Valentines (what a guy)!  After work we got dressed up and he took me to one of our favorite restaurants Lucios.  Its a small little restaurant with an incredible chef,  we took a delicious bottle of wine that we have been saving for a special occasion.
We had calamari for an appetizer, I had the roasted duck breast with roasted beets, swiss chard, and apple hickory consume...delicious!  Chris had the Sesame Crusted Ahi Tuni, with a sweet and sour glaze, wasabi mashed potatoes and asparagus. Everything turned out perfectly it was a wonderful little evening out!  Before I knew it, it was 4:20 a.m. and time to get up for our first crossfit workout.  Hello guess all good things must come to an end.  Hope you all had a Happy Valentines and don't forget to tell the ones you love how you feel about them, more than once a year!

Valentines Date

Until next time...

Tory

  

         

Where does time go?

Where does time go?  I know we all take that saying with a grain of salt, but seriously where does all my time go.  I could have sworn that I update my blog last week, but apparently I haven't been on in quite a while! My apologizes to my dedicated followers (cricket, cricket) Ok so to the news of my ever so busy life..well sorta.  I am going to start with two weekends ago.  Thursday was date night with Chris, we went to a little Italian place in the Montrose area that we have never tried before.  I had the special of the night lump crab meat served over Penna pasta in a cream sauce and he had the veal, sadly to say we weren't impressed. Our little Italian place in the Heights is still the best!  After dinner we watched Moneyball with Brad Pitt, I hate to offend any baseball fans, but that movie was just about as boring as the sport.  Friday was an uneventful day that I can recall, I think most of the day was spent doing "me" things and then going to bed early.

In a moment of crazyness I decided to sign Chris, myself and two friends up for a free Crossfit work out on Saturday morning.  Well unfortunately the boys didn't make it because they were to tired.  I ended up going, it was an incredible workout and I spent the next four days limping around.  It is a high intensity interval training program designed to work every muscle in your body and boy did it.  I found muscles I didn't even know I had! Chris is going to try it this weekend, we are thinking about signing up for a month just to switch up our workout routines.

Fast forward to last week, Tuesday I started back to school!  Wait  who's bright idea was it to go back to school.  Well I figured if I wanted to advance my career I would need to get an MBA.  Before I do that I wanted to get some business classes under my belt, therefore this semester I will be taking financial accounting.  So far it is an interesting class with a good professor.  It will be a very helpful class for the work I do.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, until Friday.  Friday I headed up to good ol College Station to hang out with my little (big) sister!  With school starting I knew she would get swamped so I want to spend some time with her before she gets sucked into study mode again.  It was a fun weekend Friday evening we went to the gym on campus and did some weight training and then an exercise class.  The class was extremely hard but we had fun doing it! After the class we went to La Bodega for some Baja Mexican food, chips and queso and margaritas.  Saturday she had to work so mom and I cleaned the house and painted her bedroom...yes we painted, we were bored so we painted.(Its ok to think we are crazy) That evening we were all exhausted so we ended up going to Road House for dinner and then passing out when we got home.

Sunday we were up early to get groceries before she had to head to work.  I am slowly trying to convince my family that their lives would be healthy and simpler if they would read and use the "Abs Diet" book.  I am not one to promote items, but seriously the abs diet is amazing, delicious, and easy.  After reading this book you can have no excuses that you are to busy to eat healthy. After breakfast I headed back to Houston to take care of  the people that stayed at Hotel Tory.  A couple of my friends, their mom, and bfs came into town for a work assembly and they all ended up staying at mi casa while they were there.  Since I was out of town my amazing friend Liz and Chris took care of everyone.  I got back in time to say bye to Liz and grab lunch with Darleen and her mom. After lunch I vegged at the house and studied and relaxed.  Darleen and her boyfriend were still in town so we got a pizza and watched a movie before we all crashed out.

And then it was Monday again....where does the time go.  I will try and get on later to update you on all my weekend activities.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  

I am back!

With the busyness of the holidays and the build up of work while I was on vacation I might have taken a short hiatus from blogging, but now I AM BACK!  Lets see where to begin, there was so much that happened I dont even know where to start.

December 22nd I head back to good ol El Paso to see the family for Christmas.  It was a great week long vacation with lots of food, family, fun, and laughter.  I truly enjoy going home because our family knows how to have a good time.  It was great getting to see everyone especially those who made the trip south.  This year we were able to celebrate a white Christmas which was nice. 

SNOW!

Love seeing snow on cactus!

Christy raked in on the gifts.

The Family

Family Take 2

I was slated to head back to Houston on the 29th so the family decided to celebrate my birthday early.  Being born on NYE can reek some havoc on your birthday, but this year I celebrated twice so I cant complain.  Thursday when I got back to Houston Chris picked me up from the airport and then we headed out to meet some friends up for dinner and drinks.  Friday I was running around trying to get everything ready for our NYE party, I got decorations and lots of goodies to eat.  Saturday Tommy arrived in H-town and we headed down to Reliant stadium to watch the Aggies win their bowl game!  Even though I was sick of my Aggies losing, I am really glad Tommy got me the tickets for the game, it was a good game and I enjoyed watching them WIN!

Birthday!

 

 

 

And the ags win!

NYE and Birthday Celebration

For NYE I decided to have some friends over for dinner before we headed out to the NYE party.  Chris and I made burgers, ham pinwheels, bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos, chili con queso, and cake to celebrate our birthdays!  It was quite a full house, but we had a good time.  After dinner we hopped in some cabs and headed to the NYE party to meet up with other friends.  It was a fun night ringing in the New Year.  

 

These last two weeks at work have been extremely hectic and I haven't had a chance to breath.  Judging by the start of the new year its going to be another busy year for Plains.  Even though that means more work, I really enjoy it so no complaints from my department.   Just this last week I made a quick trip to Oklahoma to visit a training school for our operators.  It was a fast one day trip, but still very productive.  I hope you all enjoy the weekend!

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/around-world-6-237-pictures-235906523.html
I wanted to share this link because it is incredible, one day I hope to be able to make a video from my travels around the world.  

Until next time...

Vegas Baby

I hope everyone had a wonderful week/weekend tis Monday again.  Thankfully this is a short week as I will be leaving Thursday night for home, YAY for Christmas Vacation. This last week was busy, but uneventful. I don't remember much of what I did, just running around on last minute errands.  I did have to get a meningitis shot since I will be taking a business finance class at U of H this spring.  I miss school and I am eager to get my MBA started.  I would like to have that completed before I am 30, which is totally doable.  Until then I will be taking a few courses to get a better understanding of Accounting and Finance. 

This weekend was quite an epic one with my girls trip to Vegas! A good college friend of mine is getting married so we decided to have her bachlorette party in Vegas. Friday after work I sprinted to the airport and headed to Vegas. Once I got there I checked in and decorated the room.  Since the girls didn't get there until later I decided to try my hand at some gambling.  Now I am not a gambler because I feel like there are so many other things I can do than give my money to a casino..heck I haven't even bought a lotto ticket.  I prefer poker or black jack because you're not playing against a machine, but since I have never played I decided to hit the roulette table.  Being that I am not a gambler I don't make outrageous bets, so after about an hour I was up 70.00 dollars and decided to walk away.  It was fun, but I get too bored sitting there so its not really my cup of tea.

Soon after I finished the girls arrived and it was time to get the party started.  We all were pretty hungry so we headed to Kahunaville the bar/restaurant in our hotel.  After dinner it was time for some dancing, we decided to walk across the street to Tao, an night club in the Venetian hotel.  Now normally there is a long line and a 30-50 dollar cover charge to get into these night clubs.  Some how since we were a group of girls we were ushered to the VIP area so no cover charge, no waiting in lines, and free drinks.  We had a blast dancing the night away.  Around 2:30 we decided to head back to the hotel and crash out for the night and the better part of the next day!

VIP at TAO!

The girls!

Around noon we got up, grabed some lunch and head out to check out the strip.  We walked around and looked at all the sights and sounds.  For dinner that night we headed to Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffets restaurant.  Its a pretty ornate restaurant with a working volcano in the middle, lots of boats as seating area and tons of other entertainment going on.  After dinner we walked over to the Bank nightclub in the Belligao.  It was another fun evening of dancing and meeting new people.  We met a fun group of Canadians and Australians!  Now I want to go visit Australia...I see a trip next year, better save my pennies.  That evening we got home around 3:30 a.m.  Needless to say we were all exhausted, unfortunately a bunch of the girls had to leave early so most of us were up at 7:00 a.m.  My flight wasn't until 4:00 so I rested until lunch, had some Pho, did a little shopping and then headed to the airport.  I got home around 9:30 and was ready for bed.  Pretty soon I will be back on a plane to El Paso!

Enjoying a tasty beverage at the Bank.

Surprise look who we ran into in Vegas!

Just a few shots from around Vegas.

The Forum shops

Until next time...
 

Counting down the days until Christmas!

Only 13 days until Christmas!!  Are you all excited yet?  I know I am, I will be heading back to good ol West Texas in approximately 9 days to enjoy the festivities.  The last few weeks have been busy, fun, and exciting so I will try to fill you in on all the details.

  Work has been crazy I spent the last few weeks putting the final touches on the 4th quarter employee meeting for my boss.  The quarterly employee meetings are where all of the Houston employees come to hear how Plains is doing in the business.  Most of the presentations are created by the CEO, CFO and higher ups, this meeting the employees requested to hear from Operations.  That's how I got involved in the project, we decided to create a video and power point presentation on "A day in the life of a field operator."  I helped my boss put this together and she and two our our field guys from Louisiana gave the presentation.  Thankfully it turned out great and the employees really enjoyed it.  In fact it was liked so much they have asked us to do a series of other presentations.       

   Enough of work on to the good stuff; that Friday we met up with some friends for dinner at a local Tex-Mex restaurant, after dinner we went back to the casa to relax and hang out.  The next morning I was up bright and early to start preparing for the Christmas party I was hosting that evening.  For dinner I made brisket, spiral honey ham, beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, cookies, puppy chow, and rolls.  All of the food turned out well, it was just a tedious process getting there.  I spent most of my day watching football and cooking.  Everyone started arriving around 7 and we had a good turn out,  after dinner we watched the OU vs OSU game and played some Kinect games. 

Sunday turned into the most epic relaxing, lazy day I have had in a while.  After church Chris, Caleb, and I ate some left overs and watched movies all day.  It was rainy and miserable so it was a perfect day to stay inside and be lazy.  This last week was another busy week at work, catching up on all the stuff we missed while preparing for the meeting.  Thankfully I got everything caught up and ready for the Christmas parties that were to ensue that weekend.

Thursday night was our Operations Christmas party.  It was held at a New Orleans style jazz club downtown.  It turned out to be a great party, we rented out the top floor of the club and had a catered dinner.  It was a great setting to be able to talk to all the guys in the field that you don't see very often.  Friday my boss gave us the day off so I was able to run a bunch of errands that I needed to finish up.  That night was our work Christmas Party, this is where all the Houston employees get together and celebrate.  Its a large function with lots of food, dancing, music, and casino activities.  After the party ended we met some friends up in Midtown for some drinks.

The live Jazz band at the Ops Christmas Party

Chris and I before the Christmas party

Saturday I was up early getting ready for my girls to come into town.  We normally try to have a girls weekend once a month, but with everyone's busy schedules its been impossible to do.  We were final able to set a date when everyone could make it.  The girls each arrived at different times and we just hung out at the house, ate, talked and played games.  For dinner we went down the street to get some pizza and wine.  That evening we stayed up playing dance central on the kinect and taboo.  Its been a while since I have laughed that hard, needless to say it was a much needed an awesome girls weekend.  I hope everyone has a wonderful week....and remember its only a few more weeks until Christmas!

A few of the girls Liz, Darleen, Ashleigh

Myself and Mrs Ashton!

Until next time...

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...