Monday, August 29th 2011

Well, as everyone knows, Chris and I spent most of these last two months in New England. It's most definitely been a summer of uncertainly and change but as the summer comes to a close, I think it has been one of my favorites. Chris and I have never had this much time together in the summer and we've spent it with family and friends and enjoyed every minute of it.

In the midst of our uncertainly and confusion, I made what could be considered a rash decision and started looking a puppies online. We had always planned on getting a pup in the fall of this year but with the uncertainty, it was up in the air. About 4 weeks ago, I located a breeder in Houston who has 1 week old Golden doodles for sale. While a bit more money than I was anticipating, golden doodles were a breed that I had been looking into for years. (Thanks to my friend Ed and his dog Seamus.) We have picked out our pup, below, and will be taking him home with us in about 3 weeks.





While we don't know what the future will bring exactly, I am happily looking forward to spending the upcoming months in Austin, getting to know the addition to our house and happily anticipating visitors. And I have to way, that dog is damn cute.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Prospect St,Holliston,United States

Sunday, May 22nd, 2011

C got home at 12:30 last night and was right back to work at 8am this morning. I am trying not to bother him so that he can get his work done and we can go to the smoothie place that I've wanted to check out. What better way to keep myself busy than to update the blog AGAIN! I have a few good shots of our trip home from the wedding last weekend and I messed around with some of them so let me know what you think. 

It's amazing how quickly the landscape changes over when you leave Austin. One second you're in the city, the next in a suburb, and then BAM, its all "country roads take me home." Its also shocking how much this drought affects the landscape. We drove over a "lake" that was just puddles and all the docks were resting on the ground. This is a creek that we drove over. 

While we are out in the Marble Falls region, we ran into an enormous amount of wildlife. Mostly deer but we also saw a fox. I thought it would be something that we would only see at night but the next morning, when we were leaving the house, we saw a family of deer. The baby deer is in the middle. I made C pull over so I could take a billion pictures. Deer paparazzi. 

On our way home from Marble Falls, someone was getting a little cranky due to lack of coffee.  I won't name any names but this person is tall and has curly brown hair. We pulled over to the first diner that we saw. I think we chose a gem.

They had coffee and biscuits and gravy so we left satisfied. Then when we got home, we spent the day with the apartment which I still haven't posted pictures of. I'm keeping you all hooked so that I retain some readership. 

I'll try to take more pictures today so that I have more to blog about this week. I miss you all and really can't wait to see you again this summer.

Saturday, May 21st, 2011

Surprise! 2 blog posts in 2 days! 

Don't get used to it. I'm just not that good. 

I forgot when we moved down here that spring in the south means thunderstorms. Southern thunderstorms are thrilling and terrifying all at the same time. They seem to whip in and out faster than you think possible but during their brief stay, they are intense. The sky turns a funny bruised color and lately, I've drawn back the curtains to lay on the floor in front of the back window and watch. Melissa and I used to do that when we were little girls at my Dad's in Tennessee.

C and I were running a couple of weeks ago and you could see a thunderstorm off in the distance.  When they are far away like that, it seems like you can watch the whole storm move across the land. It was a very quick run. 

Anyway, here is a quick video of a storm that hit us a week ago.  I think it looks like a hurricane in Florida.

This is the same storm where lightening hit the gates to our apartment and broke them.  Which is good because I never figured out what the code was for the gates.  Additionally, the puddle that I showed you outside our window was gone within 5 minutes after the storm.  We are in a severe drought here and need all the rain we can get. 

I hope the weather is improving at home.  It's gloomy here today but hot and humid.  I'm hoping the sun will come later and I can go to the pool!


 

Friday, May 20th 2011

Bit of a delay this week as work has been quite busy.  C has been traveling since Tuesday and I've been working long hours trying to learn a new system at work.  It's been a rather long week with not a lot of interesting events. 

Last weekend was busy and fun.  We went to a bar called the Mean Eyed Cat which had great live music and cheap beer.  Saturday we drove a little south for a wedding.  The wedding and the reception venue were wonderful.  The reception was at a ranch and it was a very relaxed evening.  Here are a few glimpses of the site:

The dinner had a Mama Mia feeling to it.  It was dusk when dinner was served and there were candles and lights everywhere.  Even though the venue was outside, it had a very intimate feeling.
 

 I thought it was impressive how they created small, cozy spaces within a huge, open space. 

There was a trailer park with about 10 trailers set up that had couches and some areas to freshen up.  There was even a children's play area set up which was handy because there were quite a few children at this wedding. 

This was the second bar set up that had all the specialty cocktails.  I love the little man statue with the big guitar. 

All in all, it was a lovely weekend.  C and I worked on the apartment all afternoon on Sunday and it has really paid off but I'm still not quite ready to post pictures.  Mostly because it would take such a long time to type up the blog. 

More updates soon!  I miss you all so much. 

Monday, May 9th, 2011

I know that I owe you all pictures of our apartment and I am working on putting some together for you. But in the meanwhile, I wanted to share our Sunday with you. 

On Sunday, it was a whopping 97 degrees here in Austin and the humidity seemed to be rising every minute. We were debating going for a run or a hike but I was having a bit of a cranky moment and was being indecisive. So we grabbed the camera and jumped in the car to see what kind of adventure found us.

We ended up at the Austin Botanical Gardens.

 

 

 

Unlike the Dallas I remember as a little girl, Austin has a lot more trees and so we followed the shaded paths around the gardens. The flowers were beautiful and they had some fun surprises like a Prehistoric garden and a turtle pond. 

After wandering around the gardens, we thought that 1pm would be a good time to go running in the Austin heat. We drove over to Town Lake and parked under the overpass and joined the thousands of people who run/walk/bike Town Lake on Sundays. It was a HOT run but it was fun to meander along the water and see glimpses of the Austin skyline though the trees. I don't think I've ever turned that red after a run. I didn't take any pictures because my camera is not run friendly.   

Our run left us hungry and we went to a local grocery store to stalk up on weekly groceries. I am enjoying how cheap produce is down here and might have bought 4 avocados since they were just a little over a dollar each. Avocados for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

But on the way home from the grocery store, we decided to stop at Taco Deli for lunch. We caught them just before they closed and they served us some of the best tacos I have ever had. Word of warning: Don't use too much of the green sauce. It was beyond hot and I cried through the last bite of my veggie taco.  

It was delightful.  

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool with some beers and books.  It was fun to finally have a play day in Austin. 

More updates to come soon! Hopefully apartment pictures in my next post. 

Saturday, April 30, 2011

This update is a bit late but it took me a while to create it.  I now present our road trip to Austin:

PS. I made the whole movie without Chris's help.  Movie GENIUS.

This made me laugh today:

http://llamafont.com/

We spent our last weekend in Boston doing some very Bostony things.  Friday night, I went to a Red Sox game with Vanessa and although we froze and lost, it was a great time.  Tedy Bruschi walked past me during the game and I just stared at him a bit starstruck.  I would have smiled or waved but I was shivering too hard.   

 C and I went to another Red Sox game on Sunday.  If was forecasted to rain all weekend but it turned out to be a great day. 

Here is C wearing my hat and eating my peanuts. 

And here is win at Fenway!  Finally!

I took Monday off so that I could watch one of my best friends run the Boston Marathon.  It was inspirational.  Ed finished in 3:52 minutes and when we saw him at mile 24, he was still grinning.  I got a little bit of color on my face and lost my voice from cheering on the runners.  It reminded me of my half marathon and all the support my family gave me.  It's been so hard to motivate to run the last few months and I'm really hoping that a change of pace and lifestyle in Austin will help me get back into a groove. 

Here is Ed at mile 24! 

We have a few more days here in the apartment but a very busy week planned.  C's birthday is on Friday so there are celebrations to be had and goodbyes to be said.  I'll check back in soon with more pictures!

It was an eventful weekend for our little apartment and I have some photo updates to share with you. The photo qualities aren't great since they were taken with my phone but they do a decent job of showing how much stuff we packed a pretty tiny crate. We decided to move everything in a pod because frankly, it was the cheapest way to move. They deliver a pod to you, you fill it up, you lock it up, they pick it up, they drive it to your next location for you, and they deliver to the location of your choosing. It seems a little sketch but we're giving it a shot.

C spent most nights last week breaking our furniture down. That is the advantage of IKEA furniture. It might not last forever but it sure does break down into a billion little manageable pieces. How we'll get it back together again, I do not know. I've spent the past two weeks going through our stuff and packing things into boxes.With our combined efforts, this is the mess we created:

This weekend, we received our UBOX which was WAY smaller than I pictured it being in my head. I know they gave us dimensions but it still took me by surprise. My step dad, C's dad, and my college roommate, Kelly, stayed at the box all day and loaded the box piece by piece, making sure we didn't waste any space, while the rest of our moving crew moved things out of our apartment and loaded it into cars to be taken to the box.  It was a work of art. There is a mattress, box spring, futon, three shelving units, a butchers block, and a desk loaded into that thing. Along with all our kitchen goods, clothing, and junk. I made some cuts along the way and sadly the bed frame is staying here.  On a more positive note, it looks like I get to shop for a new bed!  

It look a little bit of elbow grease to shut the pod...

But we got it!  

Our box was moved to a storage facility and will be in Austin no later than next Wednesday.  

I cannot thank our moving crew of friends and family enough because without them, I would still be sitting in front of that box on a mountain of stuff, probably crying. Their support and senses of humor fueled us through the day and we topped Saturday off with a great lunch at Mikes. Pictures to come later. Also, Happy Birthay Mumster!!!

I never thought I would move back to Texas. Never in my wildest dreams. I'm a New Englander by birth! I love things like sleet and swimming in 60 degree ocean water. I love having four real seasons and being able to reach the coast in under 30 minutes from just about anywhere. My family is here! My friends are here! Why on earth would I move back to Texas?

But I am.  

Lease signed.  

Pod rented.  

Job transfered.  

I will admit.  I'm freaking out a bit. 

While I never thought I would move back south, I know that this move will be a great adventure for C and I. One that we really couldn't pass up. And since I can't take all my friends and loved ones with me, I thought I could at least keep you all updated about all the trouble that I get into and things that we see along the way. Which is the purpose of this blog. I will try to update you all with pictures, stories, and maybe even a video or two. In turn, please keep me updated on how all of you are doing. I will miss you all more than you can imagine.