'Tis Wedding Season - With Working Pictures :)

I'm reposting this because some of the pictures weren't working in the last post - sorry about that!

Last weekend, Dan and I headed down to San Antonio to see two of our good friends, Sean and Faith, get married. San Antonio is normally about three hours away from Waco, and we got stuck in traffic on the way down, so it took us about four hours or so to get down there. We were planning on spending Saturday afternoon walking around, but instead we had to hurry up and grab something to eat and head to the wedding. All in all, we were only there for about twenty-four hours so it was an exhausting weekend, but so much fun!

We stayed in the St. Anthony Hotel. Of course, we booked it through Priceline, and we were so happy with it. It was a really unique older hotel - it's actually a historical landmark. I tried to take a few pictures but it's hard to capture the feel of a place with a camera.

Or maybe that's just me. But oh well...here's our room. Notice the antique wooden bed and dresser...

And here's the lobby of the hotel. I know! Can you believe this place?

Then we were off to the San Antonio Botanical Gardens for the wedding! It was a gorgeous day and all the flowers were in full bloom. I didn't have a lot of time to look around or take pictures because we were running a little late. We did get one picture of us in front of some of the greenery:

And I did get a picture of this guy:

He was playing bagpipes for their wedding! Sean is Irish and Faith is Mexican, and they incorporated a lot of their heritages into the ceremony and reception. The bagpiper played all the music for the ceremony.

And then for the reception....mariachi!

Yes, an all-female mariachi group. They were great. They actually only played during cocktail hour and then a DJ took over. So we mingled with friends for the cocktail hour and listened to the great music. Next, we sat down at our table to cute little menu cards and tile place settings. If you can't tell, the food was Mexican/Southwestern themed.

Here's a picture of me, Faith and Jenny at the reception.

And here Dan and I are with Sean (the groom), Camden, and Matthew.

So much fun! Eleven of us went out to brunch the next day at the Guenther House and then we came home. I honestly wanted to go to bed around 7:00 pm that night, and I was definitely sound asleep by 9:00. So, moral of the story: San Antonio is fun, weddings are great, and check the traffic before you go.

Money Saving Websites

I've already educated you about Priceline, which is kind of cool because this is the most popular post I've ever written. I've also told you about how to use drugstores to your advantage.

Well, today, we're going to talk about ways to save money again. But this time, it's simpler. All we're going to do is look at some websites that can help you save money in your daily life. All you have to do is either add some blogs to your RSS feed, or mark some websites as favorites and check them occasionally.

So are you ready?

Money Saving Mom
I'm not a mom, and most of you aren't either. But this blog is great. I rely on her for keeping me aware of all the hot deals going on. She posts some free samples, where you just go type in your name and address and get mailed samples of food, toiletries, and even dog food. (Toiletries are great for travel!) She also posts restaurant deals - for example, did you know last Tuesday, Starbucks had a Free Pastry day? True fact. Finally, she posts grocery coupons - often these are printable, and sometimes they mail them to you.
If you go to this part of her webpage, you will see a list of about every grocery store that exists. You can sign up specifically for store deals from whichever store(s) you shop at. For example, I'm only signed up for Walmart because...well...I live in Waco. Each week, she posts the weekly store deals and ways you can combine those deals with coupons to save the most money.

Hot Coupon World
This is a website basically full of message boards where everyone posts all the latest deals and coupons they have found. The most valuable part of this site (I think) are the forums. There are forums for each store, as well as for free samples, and other topics. The other extremely helpful tool on this site is called the "Coupon Database." You can search for coupons for anything on your grocery list either by type of item, by brand, or whatever you want! It's so helpful if you have the time to do this before you go shopping.

A Full Cup
This is similar to Hot Coupon World - it's just another good resource. Sometimes if there isn't something you need on one website, you can go to the other one and find it.

Supercook
This is like the coolest website ever! You go here and type in the ingredients you have and want to use. As you add ingredients, different recipes from sites all over the internet come up using those ingredients. It also lists what other ingredients you would need to make that recipe, so you can check at a glance if it's something you're able to do. This is a great way to make sure nothing goes bad in your kitchen - it's so easy to find a use for all your random ingredients through this site.

Hillbilly Housewife
I don't use this site as much, but it's very helpful for making your groceries stretch out as much as possible. I have used a lot of tips from the articles from her site. For example, in one article, she shares how to buy regular ground beef and make it low fat just by cooking it a little differently. (And regular ground meat is way cheaper than the low-fat kind, so it saves a bunch of money!) She also has an emergency $45 menu for a week, and recipes for homemade convenience foods such as homemade biscuit mix, salad dressings, and beverage mixes.

Are there any websites you use to help you save money?

Authentic Happiness

I've been reading the book "Authentic Happiness" by Martin Seligman this week. Well, I actually started it last week but then the whole Breaking Dawn weekend marathon got in the way. So I started it again Monday, and I've really, really been enjoying it. It's all about why some people are happier than others, and how to become happier yourself.

One of the main concepts that stuck out to me is the differentiation between "pleasures" and "gratifications." Seligman calls pleasures things such as a bite of ice cream, a back rub, smelling a nice perfume..anything that is a sensory and emotional experience.

Gratifications, on the other hand, don't necessarily have an accompanying emotion. Think about things where you get "in the zone" and almost lose track of time - things that you get completely absorbed in. This might be rock climbing, scrapbooking, volunteering, gardening...when you really get into them, you're not thinking about how much you enjoy this activity, you're just thinking about the activity. Gratifications take more work and effort - but they end up making you a happier person in the end. The more time people spend in these kinds of activities, the better off they are.

The other thing that I have been interested in so far is the concept of "strengths." Seligman notes that we spend most of our effort trying to correct things that are wrong with us, but we would be much better off if we spent our efforts developing our strengths and figuring out ways to use them every day.

He has a website - http://www.authentichappiness.com/. If you go there, you can take a Strengths quiz for free. (You do have to register at the website, which means putting in your name and email address.) The quiz is sort of long, it took me about 25 minutes. But then it lists your strengths and in the book talks about ways to best utilize them!

So here are my top 5 strengths:

1. Judgment, critical thinking, and open-mindedness: Thinking things through and examining them from all sides are important aspects of who you are. You do not jump to conclusions, and you rely only on solid evidence to make your decisions. You are able to change your mind.

2. Perspective (wisdom): Although you may not think of yourself as wise, your friends hold this view of you. They value your perspective on matters and turn to you for advice. You have a way of looking at the world that makes sense to others and to yourself.

3. Social intelligence: You are aware of the motives and feelings of other people. You know what to do to fit in to different social situations, and you know what to do to put others at ease.

4. Gratitude: You are aware of the good things that happen to you, and you never take them for granted. Your friends and family members know that you are a grateful person because you always take the time to express your thanks.

5. Love of learning: You love learning new things, whether in a class or on your own. You have always loved school, reading, and museums-anywhere and everywhere there is an opportunity to learn.

What's neat is that I use four out of the five of these every day right now. Gratitude...well, I'll be honest, I was surprised to see that on there. But I am really thankful for everything I have... so I guess it's up to me to figure out how to incorporate that more in to my daily life.

Thanks everyone, for reading my blog!

What activities do you consider "gratifications?" Mine would be reading novels, scrapbooking, sometimes cooking, sometimes running, and sometimes therapy sessions with clients. (But sometimes those things are just chores, too - I think only the first two are always gratifications.)

What are your strengths? Go take the test! Or just read about the strengths and guess! I'm curious!

First Half of July in Cliffs Notes

July 1 - My birthday! Day off, spent with family and friends, and relaxing...pretty much perfect, really.

July 2-3 - School and lots of it. Finishing up Summer 1 session.

July 4 - Cookout but no fireworks...it was still 100 degrees out at 9:00pm so we decided to skip it. Plus...we're kind of lame like that.

July 5 - I start at the Counseling Center, get my own big office, find out I work with really cool people, and I'm really just so excited about this year. I'll start seeing clients next week - yikes!

July 6-7 - School and lots of it. Oh yeah, and heat too. Lots of that. Dan starts Finance, Business Law, and Economics. I start Social and Organizational Psychology.

July 8- Mom, Mark and Julie come! Sammie is overjoyed at her new armadillo and rabbit, and of course her best friend Julie. Sammie does not let Julie, the armadillo, or the rabbit out of her sight for the next few days.

July 9 - We all go to the Mayborn Museum, try to go to dinner at George's with Sean, Faith, and Calah, wait an hour and then they tell us they really don't think they'll be able to seat us, so eat dinner at Ninfa's and resolve to hold a grudge against George's.

July 10 - Show them around my new work and introduce them to coworkers. Dan introduced Mark to the Gut Pack, head to Salado and walk around, get really hot, go to Austin and settle in for the weekend

July 11 - walk around Austin, see UT campus, Capitol building, get really hot and go back to hotel. While everyone else rests, I drag Mom to go shopping at Crate and Barrel and Whole Foods and make good use of my birthday money. That night we went to see Esther's Follies, which was the highlight of the weekend for me - GO if you're ever in Austin!

July 12 - Brunch at the Oasis, with the most amazing view I've ever seen. Outlet shopping in the afternoon, as well as a trip to Ikea. Drive back to Waco. Cry on the way home because I get sad when my family leaves. :(

Here's a picture of the view from the deck of the Oasis - this is Lake Travis, in Austin:

July 13-15 School. Heat. Work.

Cyclone Corral

Yesterday, Dan and I met up with fourteen of his former colleagues and their families and we traveled 45 minutes outside of Waco to go to Cyclone, Texas. Never heard of it? Well, neither had I before last night...and we passed about eight other towns that I'd never heard of either on our way to get there. But we ended up at a destination that is one of the best-kept secrets by all the Central Texas locals... Cyclone Corral!

In Texas, the way to tell if a restaurant is any good is to pay attention to the parking lot. Unpaved? Good sign. Full of trucks as far as the eye can see, with maybe a few motorcycles thrown in? Yep, you're probably at a good place for some authentic Texas barbecue.

Cyclone Corral is a BBQ "restaurant." I use the term loosely because it's not what you might think of as a normal restaurant. It's only open Thursday through Saturday, and only for six months out of the year. It's all open air, so although there is a roof you're still basically outside. There are plenty of big tables, so even if you go with a group of 16, like we did, you still sit together.

And the food... The food is all served all-you-can-eat family style...for $12 a person! What this means is they brought plate after plate of ribs, brisket, and sausage, and bowl after bowl of potato salad, coleslaw, baked beans, and corn on the cob. It was just amazing. I rarely eat red meat, maybe once every couple of months, but I loved this dinner!
We had a lot of fun spending time with the Rapoport crew, enjoying the summer weather, and eating good food. And of course, enjoying the decorations...

May Break

I don't really have a whole lot to write about. I'm enjoying my break from school - two more weeks until my intense summer class begins! Dan has five days left of high school...which still doesn't feel quite real. I don't think he'll really believe it until about a week after he's gone. Then in two weeks, he too will be starting intense summer classes at Baylor.

In the meantime, I'll be traveling a little - to Chicago and Michigan, mostly for my sister's graduation but also to see Andrea and other friends! And I'm hoping to get in at least a little bit of shopping... I'll be gone this Tuesday through next Monday.

While I'm gone, Dan and Sammie will be holding down the fort as Dan completes his last week of teaching. There's a "party-size" Stouffer's lasagna and a frozen supreme pizza in the freezer, so at least we know they won't starve. Who am I kidding -  he's going to like that better than most of my culinary creations! He also got to rent "Quantum of Solace" on Netflix ... so I think he'll be alright. :) 

We've been on an Oscar movie watching spree lately  - the last three movies we've gotten have been Slumdog Millionaire, Benjamin Button, and The Reader. I liked them all, but the order I listed them in is the order I would recommend them in. The first two are close - it was hard to decide which was better. The Reader, on the other hand, was good but a little graphic so I'd just be aware of what you're getting into if you want to rent it. 

Enjoy your week. :) See lots of you soon!

Caldo Verde

So our CSA experiment is going...okay.

Don't get me wrong, I love it. We get tons of fresh, organic veggies every week and I love finding new recipes to use them in.

However, my husband...is a different story. He will try everything I make, but after about ten different sauteed types of greens in as many days, he got a little sick of them.

I've been promising him that the greens are only because that's what's grown this time of year, and soon we're going to get more tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, and other spring and summer produce than we'll know what to do with!

In the meantime, thought, we've found a compromise. I've been using all our greens to make soups. And we found a soup we like that uses tons of greens, and it's sooo good! We both really, really like it.

It's in a cookbook called Recipes for America's Small Farms, which my mom got me for Christmas. Although the recipe may not look like much, it's so good. This is definitely a very simple soup that tastes much better than the sum of its parts.

Caldo Verde
(Because Dan's a Spanish teacher, we can translate this for you - it means "GREEN SOUP" in English! You're welcome!)

Ingredients:
1 onion, peeled and minced
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
4 Tablespoons olive oil
6 large Maine or Eastern potatoes, peeled and sliced thin (note from Kristi - I have no idea what these are, I just use regular Texas potatoes and they work perfectly)
6 ounces chorizo, pepperoni, or other dry garlicky sausage, sliced thin (note - don't skip this, although I have to admit my definition of "dry garlicky" has varied wildly depending on what's in my fridge at the time...)
2.5 teaspoons salt, or so
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 pound collard, kale, or turnip greens (or swiss chard, or spinach..) trimmed of coarse stems and veins, rolled crosswise and sliced filament thin
2 quarts water (I think it tastes better if you use chicken broth for at least some of this)
*Also, I usually add some cumin, and the recipe says that it will taste good with any of your favorite herbs and spices!

Directions:
Saute the onion and garlic in 3 T of the oil for 2 or 3 minutes over moderate heat until they begin to color and turn glassy. Add potatoes and saute, stirring constantly, 2 or 3 minutes, until they begin to color also. Add the water/chicken broth, cover, and boil gently over moderate heat 20 to 25 minutes, until the potatoes are mushy. Meanwhile, fry the sausage in another saucepan over low heat for 10 to 12 minutes, until most of the fat has cooked out; drain well and reserve.

When the potatoes are soft, remove the pan from the stove, and with a potato masher, mash the potatoes right in the pan in the soup mixture. Add sausage, salt, and pepper, return to moderate heat, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the greens and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes, until tender. Mix in the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, and taste the soup for salt and pepper. Serve accompanied with a crusty bread.

Enjoy!

Adventures in Fredericksburg: The Enchanted Rock

Dan and I climbed the Enchanted Rock on Tuesday, during the few brief hours of our entire trip that it wasn't raining. According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife website, the Enchanted Rock is "a huge, pink granite exfoliation dome, that rises 425 feet above ground, 1825 feet above sea level, and covers 640 acres. It is one of the largest batholiths (underground rock formation uncovered by erosion) in the United States." The hike up is a little over half a mile, so not far, but it was pretty steep! We were both out of breath by the time we made it to the top.

We're Back from Fredericksburg!

Dan and I slipped away from real life for the last four days and are just now settling back home in Waco. We packed our tennis shoes and picnic backpack, dropped Sammie off at her farm, and headed about 3.5 hours Southwest to Hill Country - Fredericksburg, Texas.

It was amazing. The weather - well, not amazing. Cloudy, chilly, with an outright downpour for the better half of our stay. But we still got to do everything we wanted to, including all the outdoor stuff, and we also got to make great use of our fireplace because of the weather.

I know you're scratching your head right now... a fireplace? What kind of hotel were you staying at...in Texas, no less? Well, actually we stayed at the Corner Cottage Bed and Breakfast and honestly, that was the best decision we could have made - this place is what made our trip so wonderful.

Monday afternoon, we pulled up to this house...

...And were shown our "room," the Garden Room. We had our own private entrance and everything!

The door opened up into the main room room, which had a bed, couch, TV, and fireplace:

Next to that was a little kitchen area, which had these freshly-baked cookies waiting for us (from a secret recipe, no less!) The kitchen was also stocked with coffee, pop, apple cider, tea, hot chocolate, wine...you name it.

You then walked from the kitchen area into an enormous bathroom.

So I didn't quite capture the entire bathroom with this photograph, but you can get a good feel for the antique-y type decor combined with all things flowers (after all, it is the Garden Room)!

One funny thing that happened was that we knew there would be a huge Jacuzzi tub from the website. What we didn't anticipate, however, was the lack of a shower! I guess I just never thought about it, even though it was not mentioned anywhere when the website told about all the accomodations! So we spent the last four days taking baths. They even had a silver pail to help you wash your hair.

Here we are at breakfast this morning, with our hostess, Marsha:

She was the one who tended to our every need and served us breakfast every morning at 9:00am sharp. (Okay, more 9:00-ish than sharp, but who's complaining?) Every morning, Dan and I would share a table with the people who were staying in the other two guest rooms. We ate butter pecan french toast, ham and cheese breakfast casserole, fruit and yogurt plates, pancakes, pear crisp, and plenty of other things - and keep in mind, we only had three breakfasts there! The breakfasts were so big and delicious that we did not buy one lunch the entire trip - we only needed occasional apples and granola bars that we'd brought with us.

Here's an action shot of Marsha, cooking away. Great kitchen, isn't it?

Oh, we did plenty of other things in Fredericksburg besides lounging around at Corner Cottage...climbed big rocks, tasted lots of wine, and shopped til we dropped. And I'll share those in later posts. But for now I will just leave you with the fact that I want to go back, like, right now. Anyone wanna come with?

Priceline Guide (Tips for Getting the Best Room at the Best Price)

Do you use Priceline to book all your hotel rooms? If not, you are wasting your money! Dan and I have used Priceline to book every hotel room we've stayed in for the past year or two. We've stayed in a suite in San Antonio for $45 a night, a Hyatt Place in downtown Austin for $50 a night, and a 4 star hotel in Dallas for $55 a night. Priceline is so easy and cheap - if you use it correctly. So here is a guide to using Priceline for your hotel rooms - you will have no excuse to waste your money after you read this! :)

1. Go to Priceline and find the "Name Your Own Price" section. Type in the city you're interested in, then click on "Bid Now." Right now, you're not actually bidding on anything. You just want to see the different zones for that city to decide where exactly you want to stay. The bigger the city, the more zones it is divided into. So for example, Dallas has 17 zones! By looking at the map, you can figure out which of these zones you would be okay staying in. Jot these down on a piece of paper.

2. Next, go to Bidding for Travel. This place is the key to Priceline bidding! It's a website where people let you know what offers they bid on Priceline, whether it was accepted or not, and what hotel they ended up in. This is your key to knowing how much to bid and what hotel you are going to get. 

Click on the city and state you are interested in. 

The top post on the page for your city and state will say "Hotels List for ____." (I'm currently looking at Hotels List for Dallas, Texas). Click on this. This shows you what hotels are offered by Priceline in each zone for each star level. This is what is so helpful! For example, most places we've stayed at, I've only bid on three or four star hotels. But when we went to San Antonio, I saw a 2.5 star hotel in a good zone was definitely nice enough for what we wanted. So you can easily see all the choices that Priceline will give you. I usually go to the hotel's websites to check them out if I'm not familiar with them.

3. Once you've gotten an idea about what zones and star level (i.e. 2, 2.5, 3, or 4 star hotels) you want to pick, it's time to look through the message boards. Look and see what prices have been accepted for the zone/stars you're interested in, and what hotels people have been getting recently. Usually, there are 3 or 4 hotels for each star level, but it seems like Priceline usually gives them out in clusters or alternates between two. You can usually get a very good idea of what hotel you'd get if you bid on a specific zone at a specific star level, and even better you can get a great idea of how much to bid!

4. Once you have your zones, star level, and bid figured out, go back to Priceline! Bid and see what happens. You do have to enter your credit card information to bid, but nothing gets charged unless your bid is accepted. If it gets accepted, great! If not, you either need to expand your zone search or raise your bid.

Here is the thing - normally, Priceline will only let you bid once per day. But if you follow these instructions, you can bid many more times in a row. I can't explain it nearly as well as the Bidding for Travel FAQ, so if this is something you're interested in, click here and scroll down to Question 9. (The FAQ also answers lots of other questions you might have, so I recommend checking it out anyway even if you don't need to re-bid the same day.)

5. Once you got your bid accepted, Priceline will immediately tell you what hotel you're staying at and give you the confirmation sheet. I definitely recommend printing out the confirmation sheet and bringing it with you to the hotel, just in case you have any problems. But you're done! You now have a hotel!

Don't get discouraged if your offer doesn't get accepted right away. It seems like some hotels release some rooms to Priceline way in advance, and then they release even more much closer to the date. I have bid the exact same price on a room and been rejected one week and then accepted a week later. 

Please ask me if you have any questions! But I promise, this is so simple and you will end up getting hotel rooms so much cheaper than the retail price. Good luck!

More Recipes

Dan and I decided to join a CSA that just started up in Waco, called Waco City Farm. We get tons of produce that was grown locally and organically every single week! We are even splitting our subscription (is that the right word?) with a friend because the amount of veggies we get is way more than we could eat in a week. (That has the added bonus of bringing the cost down to under $10 a week, which is ridiculously cheap for what we get.)

If you've never heard of CSAs, I recommend you check them out. There's usually at least a few in every city, and there are so many benefits - organic food (usually), supporting your community, eating in-season, reducing your carbon foot print, etc etc etc...not to mention it usually tastes delicious!

We got our first basket last week and it included mostly greens, since it's January and all. We got kale, swiss chard, bok choi, mustard greens, spinach, and turnips...as well as a few more things that I can't think of right now.

All these new things forced me to frantically search through my cookbooks and online recipe sources to try and find meals that incorporated them. I was looking for things that would use mostly ingredients I already had, were somewhat easy to make, and hopefully both Dan and I would like. So far, I've found a couple, which I'll share below, but I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the mustard greens and turnips. Any suggestions?

Sweet Pepper Pasta Toss with Kale
This was our dinner one night, and then Dan's lunch and snack the next day. We both loved it, although I made a few changes. The dish is vegetarian as written, but I added in a pound of sweet Italian sausage to make it more meatatarian. I also drizzled quite a bit of olive oil over it at the end to give it some more flavor. Oh and finally, I used green peppers due to the fact that they were ONE FOURTH the price of red and orange peppers.

Tuna Salad with Swiss Chard
Obviously, Dan got nowhere near this one, but I liked it enough that I wanted to include it on here. I've been eating this for lunch the last few days and honestly I've been looking forward to lunchtime every morning because of it. As long as you like tuna, make this!

I also have two more recipes that in no way relate to my CSA, but are still yummy:

Indian Tandoori Chicken
Spicy. Healthy. Unique. And goes oh so well with my favorite Naan bread. We made this last week when we had friends over for dinner, and I kid you not that when I saw them recently, Faith said "I'm still dreaming about that Indian food you made last week!"

Classic Spanish Sangria
I'm posting this recipe because it was a special request from my friend Kelly. I usually make this in the summer, but after Kelly reminded me of it, I decided I want to make it soon. Maybe when I drink it, I'll remember our warm days in Spain, sitting outside in the plaza for hours, just watching everyone go by... This recipe is about the closest I could find to the sangria we drank in Salamanca. When I make it, I pretty much follow this except I also add club soda right before I serve it - maybe a cup or so. Some people use Sprite or 7Up, which would also work. I also add a lot more fruit - it's my favorite part! Oh and you might want to cut down on the rum a bit - traditional Spaniards like it rather potent.

Seriously, let me know if you have any other ideas for my CSA food! We have a new batch coming this Thursday so I need to get going!

Congratulations Mr. President! (and free Starbucks)

What a day...what a day!

I watched a lot of the coverage today...while working out, in between classes, before dinner, etc. I have no words to describe how amazing it was to be able to witness that, and I can't imagine what it was like to be there in person. I'm so proud of America today!

If you missed it, check out the new White House website and a video of President Obama's speech here (Thanks to my friend Matt for putting up the links!)

Let's be honest, it can be a little scary to be optimistic. We don't want to be disappointed or look silly if things don't go the way we expect. But are those really the worst things that could happen? No...the worst thing that could happen is the president has some great ideas and works to implement them, but we are all full of skepticism and cynicism, so we don't do our part. I think we should all begin this new presidential term with a good dose of healthy optimism and a commitment to work toward positive change for our world.

So are you in? If so, make your way to Starbucks! Starbucks is offering a FREE tall cup of coffee tomorrow through January 25th for anyone who pledges to volunteer five hours of their time to help their community. Talk about a win-win situation.

Congratulations, Mr. President. :)

Almost Christmas!

We are almost packed and Sammie has been dropped off at camp. We are coming back to Ohio tomorrow! We are driving to Dallas in the morning, then flying out of DFW at 1:50 and getting in to Columbus at 5:05. We are really excited to see everyone and get to spend quality time with friends and family. We are a little sad that this year won't be quite as exciting as last year... but I won't lie, it will be so nice not to be completely stressed and frantic like we were last year right up until our wedding. And you know what else that means... we will be celebrating our 1st anniversary on December 30th! 

We decided to keep it low-key since we will be in Columbus, but we just made reservations for a spring break trip that we are going to call our anniversary present to ourselves. We're going to Fredericksburg!  We're going Monday through Thursday, the week of March 9th - we both have off of work and school for spring break. It's going to be awesome. Check out the website and look around at all the wineries, lavender fields, shops and restaurants there...everyone who goes absolutely loves it, so I have high hopes. 

Anyway, I hope everyone else traveling out there has a safe trip and makes it home without incident!

My New Favorite Thing

I just had to share this with y'all before you bought Christmas presents for any kids you know. 

The Meebie

We have these in our playrooms and they are absolutely awesome. (We have the full-body one). It's so cute and the kids love to put the different faces on it! We have some kids make it girls, some make it boys, and I had one little girl call it "that mean old man." It's also great for them to express sadness, happiness, and other moods that they might not be able to describe in words but can express through facial expressions on a toy.

Oh yeah, and it's super soft. Seriously, I'm pretty obsessed. 

Boom Goes the Dynamite!

This guy is now a newscaster in Waco.

See?

It was fun to watch this and revisit old YouTube video days. 

It made me laugh to watch this one again as well.

Anyone have any other favorites?

Anyone wonder why I work a 10 hour day and still stay up watching pointless YouTube videos? I sure do...

Monday Morning and Movies

So I didn't update yesterday as promised, due to the fact that Ike...did not really affect us at all. It ended up going more east than they thought it would, and therefore Saturday was just a really rainy and humid day...but nowhere near what we were told to expect. And from what I hear, it sounds like Ohio actually has gotten it much worse than Waco!

Dan and I watched "The Other Boleyn Girl" this weekend. It was actually really good. I'd heard mixed reviews on it, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but we both really liked it. It makes me want to watch more historical movies because there are so many parts of history I know nothing about.

Other movies we've watched recently:

"Bella": Wonderful independent movie. Unique and a great story.

"Lars and the Real Girl": Watch this! I don't care that the description looks weird, watch it!

"Atonement": Decent, I really liked the book and I'm not sure if I would have liked the movie if I hadn't read the book. Dan felt sort of mediocre about it.

"21": I'd recommend the book over the movie on this one as well, but it's still worth watching. It's neat knowing it's a (sort of) true story and it makes you feel like you too could count cards in Vegas!

Top 6 Pictures

Leah and Matt's wedding photographer put their pictures online, and they are absolutely amazing. (His name is Reece Booth, and his website is http://www.reecephotography.com/.) I thought I'd share a few of my favorites...there are of course hundreds of others that might be a little more representative of the entire event...but this is my blog, and therefore, I pick and choose as I like.

So here are the Top 6 Photos of the Event:

#6. Yay for a good picture of me with the bride!

#5. Yes, the photographer thought this was worthy of putting on his website, so I figured I'd immortalize it on mine as well. If you can't tell, this is my thigh with the bruise from my fall two nights before. He has a picture of Frank (the arm slice) up as well, but I figured you've all seen enough of that...

#4. I have no idea what is going on in this picture, but it makes me laugh every time I look at it. I need to find out what song was playing at this moment, because we all seem to be really enjoying it

#3. I love this picture because Dan is giving his toast, and you can see how much everyone is enjoying it/ captivated by it. I guess all those days he spends trying to hold high school students' attention have paid off in some great public speaking skills!

#2. This is during my toast - and look they were laughing at what I was saying! Woohoo!

And finally, the number one picture of the evening.... This picture is amazing on several accounts. First of all, Dan is apparently practicing his modeling career. Secondly, I think I must be confused by the fact that Dan is practicing his modeling... Leah is the only one of us who is aware of the photographer. And Matt, well, he's just chillin'. Dan said that Matt's just sitting there thinking to himself "Hey! I'm married!" over and over again. Either way...this is priceless.

Entrepreneurs in Dominica

So most of you have probably met or heard me talk about my friend Andrea. About a year ago, she visited Dan and I out in Waco and we had our first trip to Rudy's BBQ together... this is a picture of us being really nervous about eating in a restaurant that has picnic tables and serves you a loaf of white bread with your meat!

Don't worry, we've since adjusted, and now Dan and I routinely take visitors to get a taste of Texas BBQ.

Well, I think the experience helped Andrea realize how important bread is to people, no matter where you live. Andrea moved to Dominica so her husband, Kyle, could go to medical school there. While they were there, she started up a bread baking business with another girl, Ashley. They were a big hit on the island. Although she and Kyle are back in the United States now, their fame lives on. Ashley's newspaper published a feature article about their business!

http://www.jacksonsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20080903%2FLIFESTYLE%2F809030301

(Yes I know, I still can't figure out how to put links in that are just links and don't look like this. Hey Josh, wanna help me out??)

The article tells their story and also includes some of their recipes. Enjoy! I have more if you're interested, and they actually have a cookbook they made as well if you like them.

The Harvest

One of our first memories from Waco is the afternoon I decided to surprise Dan with a trip to Waco's local winery. Neither one of us had ever heard of it before, but I found it online and thought that the free tasting it promoted would be a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

When we first pulled in the driveway, we were a little nervous. There were no real buildings, only trailors. But there were plenty of vineyards and when we got the tour, we could see that the four trailors they have (plus a giant shed) are more than enough to make their wines.

We got to know the owners, who are a Swedish couple named Ulf and Inga. One of the most interesting things about them is that Ulf is the Chief Medical Director at the VA here in Waco (which is a really, really big deal) and he was actually a doctor in Sweden, then had to complete his residency, etc. all over again when he moved to the United States! So this guy is a doctor. With a successful winery on the side. Wow...and I think I feel busy?



So anyway, Dan and Matthew took wine tasting classes there last year and we've gone to several events they've hosted. Last Saturday, they invited us to help them harvest the grapes! We got there bright and early and went to work.

First, we had to remove all the nets covering the grapes. If they don't put nets over them, the birds will come and nest in the branches and eat all the grapes.
Then, the beautiful grapes were exposed and we worked our way down the rows cutting them off! The variety we harvested is called Norton grapes, and used to make ...um... some kind of wine. (Okay, so I'm going off memory here, and I totally forget what kind of wine they are used for.)

Of course, we happened to get stuck with the most dense row of grapes. Even with five of us working on it, it still took us about twice as long to do one row as everyone else! And we really were working hard!

Well, Dan was working hard at least... (see next picture) :-)

Just kidding, I was working hard too! Here's a picture of both of us, laboring away.
Finally, around noon, we were all done! All the volunteers brought the grapes into the shed and then Inga served us an amazing home cooked lunch, with homemade meatballs, bread, hummus, salads... and of course, plenty of wine. All of the grapes we collected went into buckets and they processed them in the afternoon. Look at all the grapes we harvested!

Anyway, it was a wonderful time overall, and I can also now say with complete confidence that I never want to be a migrant worker.

Here's the link to Tehaucana Creek's website if you're interested: http://www.wacowinery.com/

Summer TV Watching

Summer has always been the season where I end up watching too much bad TV. I think this habit began in late elementary school, when Julie and I watched four episodes of Saved by the Bell - back to back - EVERY SINGLE DAY all summer. (I think we got in trouble for it almost every single day too, but since they were on before Mom or Dad got home, we continued to risk it.)

I'm not really sure why I loved SBTB so much, and I haven't seen it in years, but my habit of watching TV when I could be doing way more important things has continued - and especially that we're now in Texas, where we have to wait until 9:30pm to take Sammie on a walk or it's literally too hot, we spend a lot of evenings indoors channel surfing.

So here are the top 5 TV shows Dan and I have been watching this summer:

1. Curb Your Enthusiasm. We've been renting this on Netflix and it's actually really funny - I'm not ashamed to admit this one! It's Larry David, the creator of Seinfeld, in a mostly unscripted show about his life in LA.

2. Ace of Cakes - This show is on Food Network, and it's awesome. They make these ridiculous cakes for people, such as an exact replica of a house, or a 3 foot tall dinosaur, or a giant bulldog. And what's better is the people who do this are these skater guys and all their friends who for some reason decided to learn how to bake cakes. They may or may not be high at work every day, and they're all hilarious and the last people you would expect to see making these elaborate cakes. Overall, a must-see.

3. National Open House - on HGTV. This show profiles three different cities every episode, and then shows three houses in each city at different price points. So for example, one episode had houses for $200,000, $600,000, and 1 million in San Diego, some city in Iowa, and Baltimore. It's so crazy to see the difference between parts of the country and the houses they look at are usually really neat. However, sometimes we'll get sucked into this and end up watching it for an hour and then think, "hmm..did I really just spend an hour looking at houses on tv?"

4. Jon and Kate plus 8 (TLC). I know for a fact that there is at least one other person out there who reads my blog and watches this show too! You have to admit that this is one of the most addicting shows on TV. Dan and I will end up watching the marathons on the weekends and we always end up discussing Jon and Kate's relationship. Can you imagine what it would be like to have eight kids? It's fascinating to watch them navigate everyday events...

and the final bad tv show we've been watching this summer....

5. living lohan! I know, I know, it's awful, and we sit there and scream at all of them, because they're awful, and dina lohan is the worst mom ever, and alli lohan is the most annoying 14 year old i've ever met, but somehow i just have to know if michael and nina get back together, and if alli ever ends up sounding fairly decent on her album...oh man. I can't believe I just admitted this on the internet.

Anyone have any recommendations that I should add to my list?