Room with a View

We've moved some furniture around today since we bought new living room furniture which will be delivered on Wednesday. We moved the old couch into our front room which looks out into the neighborhood. I've been sitting here most of the day reading while enjoying this gorgeous day. Sunshine, blue skies, and trees=happiness!

Texas Winter

This is why I live in Texas. 80 degrees in January. Here's hoping the rest of our winter is just as mild.

Pinterest Fail

This weekend, I experienced my first Pinterest fail. Ann & John invited us over for dinner on Saturday and I wanted to take an appetizer. I found what looked like a yummy recipe for jalapeno pinwheels. They were a total mess. I baked a batch because I might have been able to get over the ugliness factor. They didn't even taste good. I know I didn't mess it up because the recipe only called for cream cheese and jalapenos. Definetely needed something more.



With an hour to spare, Costco came to the rescue and we were able to take an artichoke/jalapeno dip. We had a ball at the Wardens' new house. John is a master at the grill and we even made Smores over the fire pit. Good times with good friends!

Houston Texans

I'll admit. I'm what you might call a fairweather Texans fan. I typically don't enjoy watching the games and don't really keep up with them. However, this year the team went to the play-offs for the first time ever. The excitement spread through the city. We even bought Texans shirts. This afternoon, we joined the Conrads and Max & Kristen to watch the Texans/Ravens game. The girls enjoyed people watching and the boys cheered the team on. Unfortunately, the Texans lost. I don't know much about football, but I could tell the Ravens were playing dirty. At one point, one of their players tackled one of ours (ok) and then slammed his head into the ground (not ok.) I can't help but feel proud of our good guys.

ElPaso 5K

This morning we ran that 5K that's associated with the Houston Marathon. Neal set a PR and I was lucky to finish. I ran the whole way without stopping but I was running like a turtle today. Slow and steady. It still amazes me to see the marathon and half marathon runners. Maybe it's emotional for me because I've been there and know what it takes to train for an event like that and what it feels like when you've accomplished it.



Bonus puppy picture.

Another Craig's List Sale

We posted the big screen TV on Craig's List again and this time got a bite. We loved the size of the screen, but the actual TV console was huge. It's an older projection TV that Neal had from his bachelor days (aka a monstrosity that collects dust bunnies.) So Neal got an email from an individual that referred to himself as "Dr. America." So Dr. America came by the house to see the TV and informed us that he was buying it just to sell it to make money since he was a poor college student. Sounded weird but that's his business. He decided to buy it and wanted to put it in his Toyota Camry. Negative ghostrider. We offered to load it in our truck and drive it to his place if he would take it that day. We took it to his town house. He texted later and said the speaker didn't work which it did when he took it and turned out still work. He just didn't have it hooked up correctly. The surround sound package was part of the deal and he also took an old desktop computer that we found in our attic.

So now instead of this....



...we have this.



It's quite a bit smaller and the sound is awful for the size of our living room, but it's just temporary. We'll get a bigger TV one day, but it's not really a priority right now

Goal #1=Complete

A lot of my 2012 "resolutions" were more like a big to-do list, the first one being getting a system for organizing recipes in place. Not too much thought went into this one which is probably why it was the first one to get accomplished. I went from a big stack of recipes I've printed out, pulled out of magazines, and received from my wedding showers to all of them organized into a binder. Not rocket science, but it works for me.

My other goals are off to a good start. The one in particular that I'm rocking is to pray for at least 1 person every day. I've set a reminder on my phone to remind me to do this. Now it's becoming a habit and I'm often doing it before my reminder. It takes 21 days to form a habit so I'm almost there.

$428

We have big water jug that we throw spare change into. Occassionally, we'll throw a few bills in. This afternoon we decided to count it to see how much was in the jar.

We started with a pile of money. It was fun to occassionally find a peso or colones in the mix.



Our trusty assistant bean counter.



The grand total was $428. Sounds like a good start to a vacation fund! I think this may be a New Years tradition to count our spare change in the jug.

Quadruple Fortunes?

Tonight we had Chinese food for dinner. I've never been a fan of the black eyed peas & cabbage New Years tradtion. However, we did eat cabbage tonight. In the form of an eggroll. We'll see if the wealth shows up in 2012!

After dinner, the waitress brought our fortune cookies. Mine was stupid. Something about my artistic talent. But Neal opened his cookie and pulled out 4 slips of paper from the one cookie. It was the same fortune printed 4 times.

"A Cheerful Message is on its Way to You."

Of course, our minds went into baby mode. We started thinking maybe this fortune cookie was telling us that we'll be having quadruplets this year since there were four fortunes. We jokingly decided that if we have 4 babies, each of my siblings can have one.

Hello TwentyTwelve!

It's here. 2012. I remember when the 21st century seemed so far away and now here we are living in it. 2011 was one of the best years of my life. Many blessings to be thankful for. This past year made me realize that God really does have a plan and I've finally been able to accept that. It's like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. Instead of being bummed that I'm not where I thought I'd be at certain ages, I've learned to embrace life and trust God to lead us in the right direction. Much better way to live!

Our New Years Eve was pretty uneventful. We were planning to be in Corpus for the new year and unfortunately had go south a few days early for Tio Tommy's funeral. The burial ceremony was a beautiful military ceremony. We took advantage of our extra time in Corpus and spent some time with Grandma and Ite. New Years Eve came. The Yonkers had a little get together at their house. It was nice to just hang out and not have to be out on the roads with the crazies.

We got up early, sans hangover. Neither of us drank very much on NYE and it made for a much more pleasant drive back to Houston. The drive couldn't have been more perfect. No traffic, blue skies, a 90s country song countdown.

It wouldn't be a new year without a few goals. I started a list in my planner. I always try to make a goal for different areas (physical, spiritual, financial,etc).



So now that our Christmas tree is gone, here's what's in my living room instead. Neal has officially started his Ironman training. His indoor trainer had arrived over the weekend. Something about this just makes me laugh!