Static Head!

Sammy!

This is very random but Samantha Brown was at a mall in Dallas in September doing publicity stuff for Ecco shoes. We HAD to go see her so we waited in the long line to get her autograph and a picture with her. We're so goofy but it was so cool!

San Antonio Vacation

I'm working my way backwards in time since I've been a slacker at blogging.

The middle of December Michael and I took a few days off from work and made a trip to San Antonio.  It seems that this might be our yearly tradition since December 2007 we went for a few days to Fredericksburg and in December 2005, I think it was, we went to Las Vegas.

Along the way we stopped in Shiner, TX to visit the Shiner Brewery.  They had a nice facility, but the tasting was nothing like what St. Arnold does.  Oh, how we miss St. Arnold.

This sign in the Shinery Brewery parking lot cracked me up.

Okay, on to San Antonio.  We stayed at a beautiful historic hotel just 2 blocks off the Riverwalk.  It was nice to be so close that we could walk down there anytime we wanted to without the hassle of parking.  When we checked in the man at the desk told us we were upgraded to a 4th floor room with a view of the park across the street.  We were pretty excited at the sound of such a nice view but when we got up to our room we realized that it really wasn't as nice as it sounded because we suspect the park was the homeless park.  Oh, well.  Whenever we were in the room we were either sleeping at night or taking naps during the day.  I sure do miss those naps.

At La Fogata (Yumm! Best Mexican food ever)

Alamo plaza

Home Sweet Home

Erica reminded me that I haven't posted any new pictures of the house since we moved in. I can't believe it's been almost 5 months since moving in. It seems like just yesterday.

Den/Kitchen

Fireplace in Den

(Any ideas for decorating over the mantle?  mirror, artwork?)

Kitchen

Coffee bar in kitchen (sorry the picture is so far away)

I got Michael a Keurig coffee maker for his birthday and he's loving it!  Secretly I'm loving it too.  We're going to paint the coffee bar cabinet black and distress it soon so that it blends in with the rest of the room.

Decorations above the kitchen cabinets.

Thank you, Hobby Lobby!  If I have to spend our money somewhere you are the place I would like to spend our money at the most.

Dining room

I think I'm going to work on sanding and painting the furniture black since the finish was damaged during the move.  This might take a while but we'll eventually get to it.

Office

Not much in this room except my desk which you can't see (thankfully) and the file cabinet.

Our bedroom

I think my next project will be curtains for our room since our neighbors behind us have very bright spotlights shining in their backyard and in ours.  With fences only 4.5' tall it looks like daylight in our room even at night when they have their outside lights on.  Bummer.

Our bathroom

Note to self: Need to get new towels that match the bedroom.  These ones are so raggedy.

Our flex room or whatever you want to call it

This technically is called an optional 4th bedroom since it has a full closet.  We're going to eventually get a comfy chair and floor lamp so that we can do some reading in here.

We haven't taken any pictures of our guest bedroom but we do have one in case anyone wants to come visit (hint, hint).

Long time no talk

I've been bad about updating our blog since we started it. I know I should update it more often but I guess I just feel like no one is probably even reading it and there's really nothing worthwhile to write about most days anyway. But, faithful Marianne is reading so I'll work on updating a little more frequently for ya.

Shop Till I Drop

I'm driving to Houston tomorrow to go to the...


Whoohoo! I love going to the Nutcracker Market and shopping till I drop (literally). My mom and I end up shopping from 10am to around 6pm straight with a short break to eat a lunch brought from home. My feet get sooo sore and tired but it is totally worth every aching step to see the convention center filled with a glorious array of Christmas gifts and home decor items. Hopefully I'll find a few Christmas gifts to mark off my list. Happy shopping!

Busy, Busy, Busy

The past couple months have flown by! Michael and I closed on our first home in September and moved in a couple days later. Things haven't slowed down since. We're loving our new home and all the extra space we have to spread out. It's a welcome change, might I add, that we have a house now. We've spent the last 4 1/2 years in an apartment while Michael finished up school and during those years we ached for a home of our own. God has greatly blessed us in giving us a wonderful home and fantastic neighbors.

I'm now working on decorating which is fun but completely overwhelming. My house is a blank slate for all the decorating ideas I have rattling around in my head and what do I do?...I freeze, go blank, crumble. I guess it's like that ol' elephant my dad always used to tell me about...take it in small chunks. I'll get there eventually but it sure would be nice if I could get over my fear of hanging things on the walls. I've been reading a few blogs on home decor to inspire me. I love Nesting Place and all the neat ideas of no-sew curtains and more. This woman can do wonders with a hot glue gun!

Speaking of new home stuff. Since we've never owned a home we've never lived in a neighborhood (except when we were growing up of course). Since we've never lived in a neighborhood of our own we've never noticed people who decorate their homes for Halloween. This October we were AMAZED at all the people in our neighborhood that decorate their homes and yards with spiders, zombies, caskets (yes, I said caskets), and the like. I was totally blown away by one house that had spiders that were at least 3ft by 3ft crawling up their house and caskets in their yard. There must have been 6 or 7 spiders. There was one house, though, that took the cake for the most ridiculously decorated yard. This house had 9 of those inflatable yard characters along with what seemed like 10 pumpkins sitting on 4 bales of hay. Come on, do we really need 9 inflatable yard characters lined up side by side around the front and side of a corner lot? It completely amazed me. Now I'm just wondering what Christmas will be like. I hope we're not going to be dragged along into "keeping up with the Jones'". Supposedly a couple of our neighbors are making gigantic candy canes for each of the houses on our street (there are only 7 houses on our street). I'm still pondering outside lights and if I want us to go to the trouble of putting them up. We'll see as it gets closer.