And I'm back...

I have safely returned from the land of sunshine and 75 degree days to a tropical mess here in H-town - no thanks to Hermine (and apparently I missed the whole tropical storm forming in the Gulf over the weekend thing - clearly I was enjoying myself too much to care about Texas this weekend, tsk tsk).

I had an a-mazing time in Northern Cali. No worries - I plan to have a detailed blog post up by this weekend if I can get my stupid internet to work at home. But until then, I'll leave you with these little morsels that Candice took this weekend:

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I am in L-O-V-E with him!

The Ridge Winery

In the City.

Leaving on a jet plane...

A weekend of:

This:

Plus these wonderful gals :

Plus this little nugget:

And this wonderful Hubby of Sarah's:

Equals:

ONE AMAZING LABOR DAY WEEKEND!

I'll see y'all on the flip side :)

Re-discovered ..and it feels so good...

When I was packing for my move last week, I "re-discovered" all of my dvd collection. Why did I re-discover it, well because I had all my dvds stuffed into the cabinets of my tv stand that I never opened apparently. So, as I packed them into boxes, I realized that I do in fact own a lot of dvds, and good ones at that (although some might argue with me on that). In my new apt, I prouldy displayed all of them on a book shelf next to the tv stand (who would have thought?), and I'm excited to watch them and remind myself that I do in fact own a lot of movies that I can watch at a moments notice. A few of the faves that I re-discovered:

Probably my most favorite Romatic Comedy, they just don't make them like this anymore..

A favorite of mine at Christmas time - I might just pop it in before then though.

I have the first two seasons of this on DVD - yea forgot about that AND I l-o-v-e this show with all my heart.

And who could forget about this classic - never gets old.

I conveniently forgot that I owned the entire series of Sex and the City - an effort to obtain all seasons lasted for a good five years, how could I forget? I look forward to re-watching all of it!

So - as you can see, I have quite a bit of dvds on my hands ( and that is just as sampling) that I forgot about that I'm looking forward to watching again (for the millionth time). That's one thing moves are good for - reminds you what you own..among other things.

happy movie watching!

All moved in...

Well, Saturday was the BIG move! The movers arrived bright and early at 7:45 a.m. The move was happening whether I was ready or not. Five hours later, I was moved in at my new apartment. It didn't help the process that I lived on the third floor of an aparment building, nor that I was moving to the second floor of a duplex. But the movers got it done. With a slight soy sauce episode (oops - my fault), we got everything put into my new place in one piece.

The boyfriend was a big help that day also, and my sister and brother in law, Erin, and Lauren came over that afternoon for Margarita Moving day. Kate, Erin, and Lauren were a big help in unpacking the kitchen, bedroom, and living room. By the way, did I mention I LOVE my new place? Its so much bigger, with much more storage space, and I finally don't feel like I'm living on top of myself! I made dinner for the boyfriend and I on Sunday night, and it was fab to have such a big kitchen to cook in. (can you tell I'm excited?).

I still have a lot of unpacking and decorating to do. But that will come with time. Trying to find places for all my stuff can be a process. And the bathroom needs some shelving units put in before I unpack that bad boy.

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Here's the bedroom, and my new bedspread that I am in l-o-v-e with!

Callie had a few freak out moments along the way, but I think she's settling in nicely to her new abode. Lots of window sills, and its fun to roll around on the hardwood floors. Did anyone else's pets go crazay when they moved to a new place? Or is it just mine?

Callie loves boxes.

So now I begin the decorating and making my apartment feel like home process. That's the fun part, right? Can't wait to host my first get together!

This week - is the week before Labor Day weekend, so its sure to be slow, but can't wait for this weekend!

The fun that awaits

I'm in the midst of moving - which if you read my earlier post, I hate moving, well packing. The packing, however, is managing to come along, and I've managed to do a little each night so it was seem as daunting on Friday night with the last minute things (like the big pile of clothes in my bedroom).

In order to get through this "fun" period, I've planned actual fun things for the month of september/october to look forward to. Here are the actual fun things I have coming up:

1. Trip to San Francisco/Palo Alto to visit a college roomie - Sarah - who just had a baby in May, and Candice, one of the my other lovely college roomies, will be joining us also. I've never been to that part of the world, nor have I seen Sarah in like three years, nor have I met her new baby boy, nor have Sarah, Candice, and I been together in the same place in three years, so I'm pretty pumped.

The last time we were all together, we will miss Heidi that weekend!

2. Trip to Dallas to visit some more college friends. Most of my college friends moved to Dallas after college. A select few reside here in Houston, and I have the pleasure of seeing most of them on a monthly basis (Mel, we need to work on that...). But, the Dallas friends, I haven't seen in a while. Because most of the time when I got to the Dallas area its to visit my family. Well, I planned a special trip up to Dallas to see them! Can't wait.

I love this photo, I'm not sure Elaine does since she de-tagged herself in it on facebook...tsk tsk

Elaine and I at Baylor Homecoming 2008

This is Brian. The first guy friend I had at the ole BU
(he's an eligible bachelor Ladies, shoot me an email if you want his digits ;) )

3. Trip to Fredericksburg to drink wine and do girly things. (the boyfriend will be gone for over a week coming up - he's going hunting in Canada, long way away, so I planned girly things for while he is away).

Fredericksburg will no doubt be fun with these girls.

I cannot wait for the above three activities! Now, just gotta get myself moved in to my new place, and I'll be set!

Liz is a Red Raider Grad

A few weeks ago I travelled to the land of dry heat and flat lands - a.k.a. Lubbock, Texas. My little sister Liz was graduating from Texas Tech University, Sic em! The weekend was full of celebrating Liz and her accomplishment.

The graduate!

Friday night I flew from the humidity to the dryness, and headed to our 4 star accomodations at the La Quinta Inn. Holler. I lucked out and had my very own room for my weekend jaunt. The only pain in the rear was that the toilet didn't work. Yea. That's awesome. After refreshing myself and calming the static from my hair, we headed to dinner at Ruby Tequilas. I have so-so feelings about this restaurant because when I ate at it in the dirty-H I got fish tacos which were more like quesadillas with a garnish of tilapia. Anyways, I was hoping my faith in the RT would be renewed, if the ginormous sangria-rita drink didn't do it, then surely the fried avocados would. I left feeling pretty satisfied.

Dad and I at RT

Liz and her bf Josh at RT

My parents room became party central for the weekend because they upgraded and got a love seat in their room, luckies. So we partied in their room to the wee hours of the morning, okay okay, till midnight, I'm old, what can I say?

The next morning, we wanted to treat ourselves to the free breakfast at the LQ, but were severely disappointed when we realized that the line for the waffle makers was about 100 people deep. Alas, we mosied on over to the Cracker Barrel for some delicious pre-cooked breakfast.

That afternoon was Lizzie's graduation. The good thing about an August graduation is that it only last 1 1/2 hours. The bad thing - it was freakin hot. I was so very excited to see my little sister walk across the stage and graduate. It brought a tear to me eye. She's been through so much and I'm so proud of her for getting to that day.

The family (minus the oldest sister)

That night we had dinner at Las Brisas, one fine steak establishment in Lubbock. After lots of wine, steak, and desserts - in which I burned the crap out of my mouth, who knew caramel off a sizzling plate would burn your mouth, we headed back to our hotel for another party in the parents room - this time involving champagne, mmmm.

At dinner

The next day, we finally got to enjoy the LQ waffle maker. It did not disappoint. My sis and her bf whisked me away to the Lubbock airport and I flew back to the humidity, where atleast my hair isn't an electric current.

Lover of Treadmills

It's Houston. It's hot. Its humid. Basically its a sauna. And, unless you get up at the butt crack of dawn to do your runs, its pretty miserable (heck its still miserable at the b.c.d., but a little more bearable then at 6 pm). So, if I miss my early morning Saturday long runs with the running group I'm in...which has happened more often than not this summer...I do my "long" runs on a treadmill. The farthest I've run on the 'ole treadmill is 6 miles at 24 hour fitness. Their machines only "allow" you to run for 60 minutes (it's a courtesy thing apparently for the millions of other gym goers wanting to use the machine). But, give me a little break, I was there on a random Saturday afternoon, and there were like 5 million treadmills open all around me, so I took my time. And, I actually didn't mind running the 6 miles on the ole tmill (let's see how many nicknames I can give it before this post is over, I'm at 2 so far..). I had a t.v. and plenty of water, and I wasn't pouring sweat into my eyeballs, my contacts appreciated it. I ran 7 miles two weekends ago with the running group, and it was nice running outside, actually going somewhere. But, alas, I missed by running group this past Saturday because I was lounging on a floaty in Lake Travis. So, tonight my friends, I will be attempting to run my first ever EIGHT miles on a mill. In my boyfriend's living room (he conveniently owns a t-m, which helps with "the whole don't use the gym equipment for longer the thirty minutes when there is a wait" problem). I plan to put on the Bachelor Pad and plant myself on the tm for 88 minutes (or however long it takes to run the 8 miles). Wish me luck!

 
Coming up - "Oh crap - i'm moving in 4 days and have half my apartment to pack still"