Yeeeee-HAW!

Bryan and I joined MeMaw, Ronnie & Celina at Brill Elementary bright and early this Friday morning to watch Little Ronnie & Alexandra's grade level Hoe-Downs.

Alexandra is in the 4th grade, and not very enthusiastic about dancing, but she looked cute. I don't have photographical evidence, but Ronnie, Celina, Bryan & I joined Alexandra for a dance towards the end.





Ronnie is in the 2nd grade, and pretty excited about showing off in front of his family :)



Bryan, Ronnie & Celina hit the dance floor during Ronnie's Hoe Down too!
How low can YOU go?!





The coyote howl cracks me up!!



Please forgive the quality. My camera is falling apart :(

Feeling country, everyone? What's even weirder is that 2 days ago I tried to drive down HW 249, but wasn't very successful because HUNDREDS of horses, people & dogs were riding down the highway. I guess Houston is just excited about the Livestock Show & Rodeo coming up!

Great job Alexandra & Ronnie!
Love seeing you guys!

Lots of Somethings

I guess the builders got the memo that I'm VERY ready for them to hurry things along, because a ton of things were finished yesterday and today! It's pretty amazing, really. To be honest, I didn't take these pictures. I spent the afternoon pining, ironing, and sewing new curtains for the antique screen that will go into our entry way with my Mom. (Thanks for your help!!) However, Bryan swung by after work and took pictures of everything that's been done.

Prepare to be impressed.

First, and most unexpected, landscaping! We didn't realize this would be done so soon. It looks really nice! There's still one tree that will go in the backyard that hasn't been planted yet. Otherwise, wow! Almost looks like a totally different house from the street, doesn't it? Very cool!





In addition to landscaping, they installed our brand spanking new A/C! Anyone who lives in Texas understands the importance of this particular item.



Then they installed our ceiling fans:



Our garage door motor and keypad entry to the garage were installed:



The all-important TOILETS were put in! As well as all the plumbing fixtures like faucets.





And finally, but possibly the most exciting of these, the back splash was put in!! Bryan was impressed :) I love it, too. The smaller dark tiles in the back splash are made from the same granite that our counter tops are. Pretty!

Backyard!

To say we were "excited" to see the backyard fence would be a complete understatement. Ecstatic, overjoyed, and in love with our backyard would be closer to the truth. For some reason when I had a checklist in my mind for everything left for the workers to do, I somehow managed to forget "build a backyard fence." Which, in retrospect, was a pretty huge omission. Thankfully, our builder did NOT forget such a big detail!

Before I show you the backyard ... the other item of interest:



Gutters! Important, but not nearly as exciting as our very own backyard.

So moving on ....

Here's what it looked like when we drove by mid-morning:



Here's what it looked like at lunch about an hour later with one side done:



And here's what it looked like after a lovely afternoon and evening spent with my parents at the lake house:



It's a PERFECT sized yard! We were so nervous it would be too tiny, but it's not. And I started having all these images of days shooting my bow ... playing catch and tag with our children ... planting flowerbeds & a garden, playing fetch with the puppy ... a grill and porch swing ... oh my gosh. Like I said, "excited" was a major understatement.

I'll have to get a few more proper photos during the day tomorrow.
Just imagine when it has grass! And a tree! Whoa.

Weekend Madness

Have you noticed that all my extended posts about weekends involve us being EXTRA busy? But I really do love it! Prepare yourself for a lengthy post today. They wouldn't be so long if I stayed on top of my game, but like I said, we've been really busy!

THURSDAY
Our "weekend" (for blogging purposes) started Thursday, actually. I naturally checked out the house, and found out where the sidewalk ends :) And found the master bathroom shower looking much nicer now that it has a seat and a top to the wall.



Then I met Bryan at the Woodlands' Lanes for the Anadarko Junior Achievement Fundraiser (which involved a couple hundred Anadarko employees and a few spouses bowling together with a 50's theme). It was a lot of fun! Of course, no pizza & coke for the two of us :( But Bryan won a hat! And I won a laser pointing pen - which will come in handy when the puppy arrives :) And we won 2 free chic-fil-e sandwiches and a free Texas Road House appetizer! Pretty cool, eh? And Mom, Dad, Meemaw & Papaw were nice enough to donate to the Junior Achievement cause! Thank you guys!



Sorry for the blurry pictures. Using a flash didn't seem quite the thing when I didn't know too many people :)

FRIDAY
Bryan went to work and I spent the day shopping with my Mom. Although we saw lots of cool stuff, the only thing to really note is I think I found the bar stools we're going to go with! They're like standard saddle stools, which I like, but they have room for "real" butts like mine :) Here's a picture of the shorter one. The ones we would get would be the taller size.

SATURDAY
Bright & early the two of us drove to Tomball High School for the Destination Imagination competition. (Bryan had no reason to go, except that he's 100% sweet, and he was worried I'd lose my temper if any of Nitsch's admin showed up. Which they did, and I kept my temper b-e-a-utifully!) Here are some fun photos of the kiddos at the competition:

Saturday afternoon was spent doing even more refrigerator shopping (we've been doing a lot of this, plus checking out online reviews, etc). And then Saturday evening my parents went by our house and then drove with us out to Rosenburg to meet my grandparents for some Texas Roadhouse - yum! (And yes, we skipped the rolls, haha.) It was really nice to be able to have dinner with them.

SUNDAY
We bought a refrigerator! We did other fun stuff too - like spend most of the afternoon enjoying the gorgeous weather on MeMaw and Paw's porch :) But that was the expensive thing we did. We took advantage of the Lowe's "tax refund" deal, where they give you 10% of what you load onto a gift card. We took advantage of it since we needed to make such a large purchase. It'll be delivered to our home when we move in!

Then we drove by the house (honestly not expecting to see anything at all done, since they hadn't done anything on Friday or Saturday, grrr), but they installed our kitchen counter tops! And they look wonderful! The pictures do not do them justice. We are very happy with the way everything is turning out.

If you managed to make it all the way through this blog post, you deserve a pat on the back! Or a sugar free mint patty, yummm.

Driveway Drama

We owe Paw a huge debt of gratitude for coming to our rescue yesterday!

Around 9:30 in morning Bryan got a call from Jimmy, our builder. He said they had just finished excavating and were going to pour the cement for our driveway in about 30 minutes. Wow! Talk about short notice. On Valentine's Day, Bryan and I took a romantic date to Home Depot to purchase the necessary PVC pipe, couplings, end caps, cement, purple primer, etc, in order to run the line under the driveway to make installing our own sprinkler system after closing easier to do. This needed to be done after excavation and before pouring the cement, so you can see why timing was of the essence.



So thankfully we already had the materials, and thanks to divine intervention, we had also thankfully left everything in MeMaw & Paw's garage because they live really close to the house. This turned out to be the best thing we could have done because Bryan & I were both in a position to NOT be able to be at the house putting the pipes together within the next 30 minutes, so we would have been majorly S.O.L. :( However, the overseer had already dug the trenches for Paw by the time he arrived and put together the pipe & laid it out. THANK YOU SO MUCH, Paw, for doing this for us!! You're amazing!

Then, as it happened, MeMaw, Paw, and myself had already planned to meet Bryan at Andarko for a quick look at his office and lunch in the cafe! I think MeMaw & Paw were pleased with the office and all of the perks they offer their employees - like the on site gym and fabulous cafeteria.

Here are some pictures of Bryan with his grandparents in his office:



It was a very nice outing! We'll have to do it again!

Then, because as we all know I can't help myself, I went by the house to see the new driveway and sidewalks that were poured! It looks really nice. The guys working on it looked at me fearfully when I arrived like I might do something as stupid as walk on freshly poured cement. I don't know if I relieved them or disappointed them by not stepping on it ...



And here's the little step/stoop outside of the garage's side door:



And, since I thought the excavation and cement was supposed to be the only big project for the day, boy was I surprised when I went inside and found all of the bathroom counter tops! The first picture is of the full bath downstairs with the double sink (nice!) and the second picture is a close up of what the counter tops look like. They're a bit lighter than I remember, but they still look good. It's amazing how much more finished the bathrooms look now with cabinets, tile, and counter tops! Soon there will be toilets (which come in handy) and all of the plumbing fixtures like faucets.



Can't wait to see what will be there today when I go by!

Also, in case you were wondering how we're doing on the all-carbs-left-behind 2 week experiment, we're good :) Going strong on Day #3! Plus we're getting lots of good exercise. I can't wait to eat some fruit again! I didn't realize how addicted to apples I was until this week!

Funemployment :)

Funemployment (verb): The fun part of being unemployed.
(Yes that's made up, so don't bother with dictionary.com, haha.)
It definitely includes enjoying a day of shopping and hanging out with my Mom!

First thing this morning, I went to the gym. I've been going almost every day since I said I would! (I didn't do very well over the weekend though.) I found a new cardio machine I LOVE! It's sort of a blend between an elliptical & stair master. It makes me feel like I'm hiking up a mountain very quickly - which is pretty good exercise, if I do say so myself.

Then I met my Mom at the house. Two items of note: the alarm system has been installed and our stair railing is now stained. The big thing was that they were blowing in the insulation into the attic, but that doesn't really make for good pictures.



Then we each had a salad at Chic-fil-a, and headed to "downtown" Tomball to do some shopping. Items I was specifically looking for: clock for the mantle, antique screen for the entry way, quilt for our bedroom, entertainment system for the family room, and a buffet/china hutch for the formal dining room. What did I find? 3 of these! After months of searching for these items with minimal luck, I actually found THREE all in one day! I guess I owe some pretty serious kuddos to my Mom, because she must either have a good eye or must be really excellent luck :)

Here is the fabulous clock that will go on our fabulous mantle:



And here is a pretty pathetic picture (sorry about the breeze) of the really cool antique screen I bought for our entry way. The fabric is terrible, but it will be very easy to make new pieces of fun and bright fabric to replace the current boring white with blue flowers (ew) that it came with. Plus it will be easy to customize and change whenever I want! (Think Christmas themed too :)



And .... dun dun dun ... : THE CHINA HUTCH!
I was so excited when I saw this I think I pretty much started shaking. We've been searching and searching with no luck. Since our dining room table/chairs are really unique, there needs to be something kind of unique (in light wood) to go with it. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this. I LOVE IT! Like really, really, really love it.



Please excuse all of the stuff all over it/around it. It's in one of those semi antique/artsy old time shops full of really random odds and ends. I'm sooo stinkin' excited. I can't wait to see it in the dining room! Well, if I'm really honest, I can't wait to see EVERYTHING in the new house! We're getting much closer. Estimated TWO WEEKS until its totally built. (Do I hear a "whoop" out there?) Then the inspections, and walk throughs, and all that good stuff gets rolling. Come on, mid-March!

Thanks for keeping me company today, Mom!