Weekend Craziness

This weekend was crazy busy. It all started Saturday morning when we got up, checked out the house (pictures are already posted) and then drove to The Woodlands to see the movie True Grit with Bryan, a friend of mine, Samantha, and some of her friends. It was a pretty good movie! I want to see the original movie now - hopefully Netflix won't let us down! :) After the movie everyone went to Cafe Express for lunch/a light snack. Then everyone went their separate ways, which involved Bryan taking me to Spencers in the mall for the first time. It's a bit of a "naughty" shop. I was hugely uncomfortable, but if you want some entertaining people watching, you should check it out. It was there that I managed to pick up a couple things for Laura's Bachelorette party that night.

See picture below of Laura posing with some of her glam :) I think she liked it.



All the ladies met at Shogun which is a restaurant in Vintage Park where the chefs come and cook all the meat and fried rice on the grill right in front of us. Our guy was really funny. He even flung some rice at me & I caught it in my mouth! I've got skills, what can I say? The food was delicious. Most of the girls headed to Big Texas after that to go dancing. Their wedding is getting close! And in case you were wondering, Bryan played RockBand all evening with Collin, Laura's fiance :)

Sunday afternoon we attended Regan's soccer game! She was in a tournament in Cypress which isn't too far from us. It was actually insanely hard for me not to run onto the field myself, haha. Soccer's easy to get into! Maybe we'll have a child who will want to play soccer. I hope so!





Regan's #10, headed after the ball:



It was so fun to watch! And it was wonderful to see Regan, Aunt Jana and Uncle Keith. Way to go girls! They tied 1-1.

We had to leave Regan's game early to make it over to Katy in time for the Project Grad fundraiser we decided to go to. Uncle Dwayne & Aunt Tricia invited us to go with them and we are SOOO glad we agreed! It was lots of fun! They were there + Aunt Jana & Uncle Keith joined us after Regan's game.

There was BBQ for dinner, a bar, dancing, gambling, prizes & (my favorite) a photo booth!

Here's Bryan & Uncle Dwayne tearing up the Blackjack table:

Aunt Tricia's dancing away to "All the Single Ladies" on the left (look at her moves!), and Aunt Jana & Aunt Tricia are taking on the slot machine on the right:



This is Bryan, Aunt Jana, Uncle Dwayne & Uncle Keith:



And how hilarious are these photo booth pictures? This was too fun :)





It was so much fun!

What a great weekend! It was soo good to see everyone that we were able to!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Bryan and I aren't very big into Hallmark holidays as a general rule, but I decided to surprise him anyway! Especially since he "got me a gift" yesterday :)

Actually what happened is I've been searching for a new bag (after about a year or so I get bored of carrying the same one... plus they wear out and start looking kind of sad), and I saw a very cute one on another blog I follow (thanks Amanda!) that was made by Vera Bradley. I decided to check out their website, found some really cute bags, and asked Bryan to take me to a local store that carries them (Leather & Luggage). I figured out which style I liked best, and then ordered it online yesterday in the fabric I liked best. It's sooo cute! Can't wait to get it! Bryan's calling it my "Valentine's Day gift." which works for me! Like I said, we don't really exchange gifts except for Christmas, and sometimes birthdays and anniversaries. I can't wait to get it!

Anyway, so today I got Bryan a card and made us a candle lit dinner for 2 :)
We had water, wine, salad & homemade pizzas, yumm.



I think Bryan enjoyed it! Plus it was the first time either of us had a candle lit dinner. It was a little romantic - even if it was pizza.



LOVE you all!

Actually, it's a couple hours later and I need to edit this post to include a thank you to MeMaw & Paw for the awesome red velvet cupcakes & gift card. Thank you!

Let there be light

On Friday they installed all of the lights, which looked nice. But it was not nearly as impressive as being able to actually flip a switch and see light!

Eye light above the fireplace! Also, notice they made the hearth too, which wasn't there before:

Bryan's bathroom lights & the nifty outside light (that we can put on a timer I think!):



Puny little garage light. How sad is that? Haha:



Annnnnnd, I also rang our doorbell for the first time!!!
Too cool :)



In other news, I owe y'all a big post about this weekend, but it'll have to wait until I figure out how to scan in some hysterical pictures from last night :)

It's electrifying!

Today's major building progress: all of the tile is finished including the grout, our address stone was installed, all the electrical work was just about finished and the fake window above the garage was being worked on. Many accomplishments! I'll show you pictures in just a second.

First, Bryan did some work & I started a new dishcloth. Have I finished the first one? Nope. BUT I really wanted to see if I could actually start one by myself without anyone telling me what to do. I got really into it and got much further with this one than I did the first one in less time; however, to be honest, the pattern says its supposed to end up looking like a square, and mine looks more like an octagon... hmmm. But the stitches look really nice, and it doesn't so much look like a mistake, as a more creative version of a dishcloth. I'm just going to call it a success, and brag that no one else has one like it :) Haha. Maybe one day I'll be able to follow a pattern correctly.

Once Bryan finished up the stuff he needed to do for work, we went by the house (of course). Then his Dad called and wanted to see if we could meet for lunch at Los Generales. We meet him over there and visited for a while, and then asked him if he'd like to see the house too, so all three of us drove over there. We just can't get enough of seeing it!

First some updated pictures of the cabinets in the kitchen since I wasn't really able to get in there until now because of the tile. Sorry they are at weird angles. It's pretty challenging to get the entire kitchen into one picture:





Here's the proof of all the electrical stuff!! This really makes it feel real. It'd be kind of a bummer to live in a house with no lights, sockets, switches, etc :) On the left is the pile of sockets, light bulbs, fixtures, etc, on the right is a picture of the lightening in the kitchen and the picture underneath is an example of the fixture that goes above the counters in the bathrooms. All of the fixtures look wonderful. The only ones not installed yet are the ones with fans (master bedroom & family room) and the fancy fixture that goes in the formal dining room.

Here's the fabulous address stone by the garage door + one of the outdoor light fixtures. The star underneath the number simply identifies the house as one built by Ryland.

Updated tile (with grout this time!) pictures on the master bathroom shower and tub:

And, lastly, the window above the garage getting worked on (almost finished!):

Pretty soon we'll be seeing counter tops, wood floors, carpet & the backsplash! Can't wait!

We also swung by MeMaw and Paw's house, and had a chance to visit for a little while. Now we're back at home about to watch a movie. I do love the 9/80 schedule Bryan works so we get every other Friday as an extra "Saturday"!

Fashionista

Well, okay, I'll never been considered fashionable, but how cute are these shoes?!?
These are the shoes I mentioned in an earlier post when I went shopping with my Mom. I almost never buy myself shoes, so I didn't feel guilty in the slightest, haha.



Love them! :)

Double Crochet

Today has been interesting, and it's only 1'o'clock. Good or bad sign?

First thing this morning I took my H sized crochet hook and one skein of Sugar & Cream yarn off to QuiltWorks. I was the only person who turned out in the cold to attend the Tuesday morning crochet lesson offered there by Terri. It WAS cold! But I've been trying to teach myself with only minimal success. It was time to get some help, so I did.

Terry got me started on a project, and showed me mostly how to connect the double crochet stitches to the slipknot & chain stitches (which is really as far as I'd managed to get by myself). The project I'm currently working on is a granny square which will become a dishcloth. It consists of mostly double crochet done in the round, which is traditionally considered easier than straight stitching. This is as far as I've gotten so far (in about an hour & a half):

I would have gotten further, except every time one of my double crochets didn't look quite right, I'd take it out and do it again ... and again ... and again ... and again. I really want to get this right! And the double crochet stitches are becoming second nature - phew! The hardest part for me right now is following along with the pattern and keeping track of each stitch & turn. Terri says that gets easier with practice too. I'll take her word for it, because there's nothing easy about it right now.



The finished product will be about 8 times that big. Now that I'm moving much faster it shouldn't take me more than another couple of days. I'm proud of myself for trying something new!

When I left QuiltWorks I decided to drive up to the house, thinking it may be the worker's lunch/siesta time and I'd get a chance to really look around. Unfortunately, on my way there, I was scared senseless by a very, very far-to-close call. I was on Highway 249, going slightly under the speed limit of 50 mph (because of all the lights), when I was about to cross the intersection at North Point Green (I think). As I was maybe 20 yards away, a car on the cross street decided to ignore their red light and come on into the intersection, slam on the brakes and PARK mostly in the lane that I was driving 50 mph on. Panicked and seeing a disaster about to happen, I slammed on my brakes, trying NOT to t-bone the car that stopped in the middle of the intersection, which caused my car to screech, rock to the side on 2 tires, and skid sideways into the intersection very narrowly missing the parked car by .... maybe a foot. So now we're both facing sideways in the middle of the intersection.
Well, what about all the other cars driving on that road you ask? Well they were in the same slam-on-the-brakes situation I was in, with just slightly more time to react. They slid all around next to us, so that in a few seconds there were 4 cards stopped at weird angles in the intersection and several others barely out of the intersection. It felt like a too-real-life version of tetris. That's the most scared I've been in a very long time. A couple of cars bumped each other, but it was only small dents & scratches. It could have very very easily have been so much worse. We slowly got our cars untangled and out of the intersection. Several of the cars that had bumped each other pulled over to the side of the road.
I just drove to the next parking lot, pulled in and just sat trying to calm myself down. One of the other people in the near-accident pulled over next to me and got out of his van. He came by and knocked on my door to get my attention. When I saw what car it was/who it was, I went ahead and opened my door. He was just checking to make sure I was okay ... which is when I just started crying. I felt so foolish, but I was just so shaken up.
After I'd calmed down, he left, and I called Bryan. It seemed like a good time to talk to him. He told me he managed to lock himself accidentally into his office which made me laugh. He had to put in a work order saying he was "trapped in his office" and felt pretty foolish. Thankful for some humor, I went ahead to the house to look around. My back, neck and shoulders are STILL cramping and sore from the tension and the shock. When I get back from D.I. later I may take a hot bath or use a heating pad or something to loosen them up. Scary stuff.

At the house, this is what I saw:

First, the fireplace again because it's incredible (notice the tile next to it):

Then I went upstairs because I couldn't really get to the master bathroom to see what they'd done, and I noticed something large, metal & ugly was missing!
They removed that big railing from the half-wall upstairs:



Next is the upstairs bathroom that I couldn't see yesterday because there were men working in it. Notice that the tile on the floor AND the tile at the shower are up! Plus you can see the cabinets under the sink & the "head knocker" above the toilet:

And the laundry room is laid out:

They were in the process of finishing up the full bath downstairs & finishing the master bathroom. Once all of the tile is laid out, then they'll go back through and add the grout. It's looking very nice though! I didn't think the cement looked all that bad ... but this looks much better :)

I realized after the near accident, however, how much driving to our new house is starting to feel like "driving home." I was sincerely wishing that I was driving up to our garage and could get out and go sit down in our living room and get a glass of water, just like I will when we're really living there. It's coming up pretty soon though, I just need to be patient a little longer.

I'm back at the apartment for now, going to try to put a few more rounds on my dishcloth, and then I'll go back to Nitsch Elementary for our Thursday afternoon D.I. time. Only one more week to go of that, which I'm kind of grateful for. Stay safe on the roads & stay warm!!

I'm Lovin' It

The title sounds like we went to McDonalds, but really I'm just loving everything. I'm loving this week of "vacation" known as unemployment (aka not being tortured by my administration) . I'm loving the progress on the house. I'm loving the time I've been able to spend with friends and family lately. I'm loving just about everything (except for maybe the frostbite we might get if we stay outside for more than 5 minutes - burr!)

Yesterday I got up when Bryan left for work around 6:15 and exercised at the YMCA. I went home, showered, and met up with my friend Laura & her .... almost aunt-in-law(?), Nancy, a couple of hours later. Nancy is making Laura & Collin a wedding quilt, where guests will write little notes on 6x6in. squares and then she quilts them together and makes these fabulous quilts. Too bad I didn't know about this idea a year and a half ago!! Anyway, Laura wanted some help picking out the 3 fabrics needed, so I tagged along. It's going to look so pretty! We then had lunch & then she dropped me back off at the apartment where I managed to get a little housework done before I had to head off to Nitsch Elementary (wait a second ... I thought I was done there?) to meet up with my D.I. Team! Our competition is on Saturday, Feb. 19. I decided to keep going with my team because we've all worked so hard, and I don't mind going back to Nitsch a few more times to help them finish :) I worked with my team of 4th graders to make our paper mache "planets". It was a MESS. But we got some of it done! We'll (hopefully) finish the planets Thursday afternoon. Then I drove to the middle of downtown Houston (yuck) for this informal dinner to talk about a potential job for next year - yay! It's through a public charter school system called Yes Prep. I've only been out of a job for a few days and I've already got a few things working my way for the next school year so that's a pretty huge relief and encouragement. The dinner wasn't over until almost 9:30 though - good grief. That's our bedtime! And then I had to navigate downtown to get home in the dark ... which didn't go nearly as well as finding the restaurant to begin with. Thankfully Bryan helped me over the phone to get onto a highway. (All the entrance ramps were blocked!!) I made it home and was in bed (finally) around 11pm. Phew! Busy (and long) day.

Today I slept in ... oops ... I was out so late last night that I just turned off my alarm clock. (Pretty cool that I can do that!) Then I met my Mom at the Barnes and Noble at the Woodland's Mall to do some Costa Rica research for the trip we're planning to take in June (whoop!). We got lunch together and did a little shopping. Pottery Barn is such a cool store! I wish I could afford things in it, haha. Even still it was fun to browse and get ideas :)
I did get a very cute pair of shoes from PayLess!

Anyway, the house is far more interesting than how I'm managing to fill my time, so I'll stop rambling about what I've been up to and show you some pictures!

First of all, one of the most FANTASTIC things so far:

On a scale of 1-10, our fireplace rates at a pretty huge 15. It's wonderful and so incredibly pretty. Ahhhh! I wish we were living there NOW and could get a fire going. It's going to be so nice next winter when these crazy cold fronts come in :) Anyway, I hope you're as impressed as we are!!

In other news, ALL of the cabinets are installed - bathroom and kitchen. They also look really nice. And then today they started laying down tile! Right now there isn't any grout; instead, they've laid out the tile with spacers between them until they pour the grout. I'm no professional, but I think everything is looking so good.

Bathroom between the 2 bedrooms (cabinets, but no tile yet):

Master bedroom (with cabinets & tile):

And the kitchen (with cabinets & tile), which looks AMAZING:

And the living room with most of the tile put down:

BEAUTIFUL!!
And to think that I was super worried about the color we had selected. Good thing I couldn't change my mind without paying some ridiculous "I'm indecisive fee." It would have been a shame to miss this. Bryan wants credit for reminding me that it was going to be fine, so here's his credit :)

Also, I saw this today when I went to get some yarn at Hobby Lobby:

I didn't get it, but how cute would that be above the back door?