Sunday, December 20, 2009

It's beginning to look...

... a lot like Christmas!
I haven't blogged in awhile but thought I would share our Christmas lights with you. We have really enjoyed getting to decorate our new house this year. Although pictures didn't really turn out as well as I wanted to you get the idea. I hope everyone is having a great, great Christmas season!!

Sunday, November 29, 2009

It's the most wonderful time...

...of the YEAR!! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving spent with Steve's family in Amarillo. We drove up Wednesday and had a great few days to catch up and enjoy some family time. Even though we were away from home we made our annual trek out to the stores for Black Friday. We got some great deals and getting up at 4am was worth it :) We left before the snow that fell today and Steve was disappointed, oh well here's hoping for some snow at some point this year.
We came back to Waco to put up the last few touches on our Christmas decorations. We have the front decked out and all 3 Christmas trees up. We listened to our favorite Christmas CDs on the way back which was wonderful. My favs this year are Chris Tomlin and Selah. There are many others that will get some play time in the next few weeks. 3 weeks of school before the Christmas break and I'm sure they will fly by!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Friday, October 30, 2009

21 Months


The picture is of Emily's room. As you can see it's pretty empty now. She has lots of stuffed animals and books already, that's the teacher in me~ she must have books! I have visions of our little girl in her nursery someday with pink stripes and ladybugs everywhere. It may not be as soon as we want but it will be here sometime. The current referrals had a 44 month waiting period. Some say it will get longer, some say shorter. Only the CCAA knows since they are the ones in control of all the adoptions. So we wait and find lots of things to keep up busy! Fall has been great so far and it seems we've had something besides work going on every day. I'm anxious for cooler weather since that heralds the Thanksgiving and Christmas season.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Great State Fair of Texas

We took advantage of Steve having a Friday off for BU's Fall Break and headed up to the State Fair. This is an annual tradition for us and we enjoy getting to experience all that the state fair has to offer including yummy food (fried of course!), fun animal shows, shopping, and the show at Music Hall. This year Karen and Anna went with us and we enjoyed showing Anna, who is from Germany, around the fair.
One of our favorite shows the bird show. It's always fun to see.
This year we were there for the rabbit judging. This little one is appropriately called a "lion head" rabbit.
Although we didn't try it the big winner in food was Fried Butter ( I don't think so!). There was always a long line to try some out. We did enjoy a corny dog and funnel cake.


Bill Geist, CBS reporter, was there and enjoying some of the same events we did.

We LOVED the fair show this year, Mary Poppins. Steve and I saw the original production in London and thought the US tour was even better!

Big Tex

Karen and Anna
And at the end of the day this is how we felt... full, happy and tired!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

THE Concert

When Steve found out that U2 was going to be in Dallas he knew we had to go. We both thought this was THE BEST concert. I hadn't been to a really big concert like this besides NSYNC (I can't believe I'm admitting to that :). Cheryl and Rich came along and we had tons of fun. The concert was at the new Cowboys stadium which was very cool. Steve even found and wore his Joshua Tree Tour shirt from 1987. Here some pics...

Thursday, October 1, 2009

some house pics

Steve and I waited a little while to hang pictures in the new house. We wanted to make sure they were in the right place but of course I always second guess them once they're on the wall-ugh! We have a ton more to hang but we got a good start. So here a few pictures to show you what we've done so far...
We had to rearrange the dining room due to a vent being blocked by the china cabinet (the things you find out when you get your ducts cleaned). I really liked it the other way but I'm sure I will get used to this arrangement. I'm thinking we are going to paint this room some shade of red but one thing at a time :)


Here's our den. The picture didn't turn out great but you get the idea. The bookcase is filled with some of our favorite pictures. On each side are black and white pictures from our travels to Italy and Paris. We were so pleased at how they turned out! Steve's favorite part of this picture is the new HD tv :)

It only took me 7 years to get my cross wall up! I got my first cross as a wedding gift and have done some collecting since then. We now try to purchase a cross as one of our souvenirs as we travel.
We still have lots of blank walls but the good thing is that we still have lots of pictures to hang. I enjoyed putting our fall decorations out for the beginning of October but I really looking forward to decorating for Christmas.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

land of the living

It's been awhile so I thought I would update on what's going on with us. Steve and I both are fully recovered from having Swine Flu. It wasn't horrible but it lingered for awhile and we both missed most of a week of school. At least we've gotten it and we don't have to worry about it anymore. We both got the regular flu shots this week so hopefully we have done some preventative medicine. We continue to work on the house. It's been fun and this week we are finally hanging pictures so pics will be coming soon.

I feel like I'm back to the land of the living... why you may ask. Well, for the past 5 weeks my eyes have been swollen and still are. They haven't hurt and my vision hasn't been affected which are good things. Still, 5 weeks of swollen eyes is not fun. Now my actual eye balls are swollen and blistering (gross, I know). Some days are better than others. I've been avoiding some places/people since I look puffy but I decided I have to get over it and move on. I've been 6 doctor appts. and most seem to think it's allergies to something. We moved out of our house for a week and they didn't get completely better so although it may be something in our house it is others things as well. We now have clean air ducts at home which is a good thing I guess. I have started back on allergy shots which we're (me and my allergist) are hoping will work a little magic. I went back to church today after missing for several weeks, it was WONDERFUL!! I'm so blessed by our church and our friends at church.
So that's what's up with us. I hope everyone is having a great start to fall!!!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Just a few words Wednesday


Well, they got their own and now Steve and I both have it, lovely! Let's hope the fever goes away soon!!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Cooking with Julia

Last Saturday we saw Julie & Julia with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. It's a fun movie and I think Meryl Streep did a great job! Well, we were inspired to try out Julia Child's French cooking. We choose Boeuf Bourguinon, a recipe featured in the movie and a dessert that didn't have to be cooked~ Chocolate Mousse (since we only have one oven). Although it took about 7 hours start to finish we had a BLAST trying something new. It evened turned out pretty good :) I did less cooking and more picture taking. So enjoy our night with Julia.
Here's Steve studying the cookbook. Gotta read the recipe very carefully!
Anna is an exchange student from Germany who is living with Karen this semester. We have had tons of fun introducing her to American traditions and fun. I'm sure she thinks we're crazy sometimes!

Essentia cooking for me, cookbook and Youtube with video instructions on preparation :)
Karen chopping, Steve browning the meat
Hard at work with little bitty onions

While we waited for it to cook Steve and Anna worked on some math homework


Tada, Boeuf Borganon~ Julia Child style.

Karen hard at work on the mouse, you had to mix it over hot then cold water. What a pain! But TOTALLY worth it, it was so yummy!


I was in charge of melting the chocolate.

And for dessert, Mousseline Au Chocolat

To continue on our great night we introduced Anna to The Sound of Music! She enjoyed it even with Karen and I singing along. It was a fun end to a day full of new experiences in the kitchen. Not sure how much we'll use Mastering the Art of French Cooking but who knows!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Better View

I thought I would give you a better view of the rocking chairs I mentioned in my last post. As I said before my sister had these waiting for us on the day we moved in. It certainly made my day since our closing did not go as plan and there was a lot of anxious moments waiting for Fannie Mae to get their act together. At last we came home and even though we couldn't get in yet we could enjoy part of the house. Our previous house didn't really have a porch so this is a great addition.


Monday, August 31, 2009

New house, new room

Sorry it's taken me so long to post pics of the new house. We LOVE it and are working our way through getting settled in. It's so nice to have moved into a larger house where there are more places to put things. We're trying to throw away as we unpack which is what we should have done before we packed, oh well I tend to do things backwards!!
There are other rooms finished but I thought I would post pics of the dining room since it is one of the main reasons we moved. The table is from my parents so I grew up with it and love the color. We were lucky enough to find a china cabinet that matches perfectly. We had so much fun putting things up and making it ours. We got to unpack all our nice china finally. It's like we were getting wedding gifts all over again :) We are still trying to decide what color to paint the dining room and are looking for seat fabrics now. You can see another of my favorite house features through the window, white rocking chairs. My sister surprised us on our first day with these perfect chairs and a table. I can't wait for it to cool down so we can enjoy sitting on the porch.






Tuesday, August 25, 2009

next up Reno

After Salt Lake we headed west to Reno. We stayed downtown and enjoyed wandering through some casinos, a concert, and Lake Tahoe.

The famous Reno sign
Lake Tahoe, it is BEAUTIFUL!!!!
I cannot tell you how absolutely amazing the blue water is and how fun it was to enjoy a day on the lake.

Another shot of the Lake. We took a paddle wheel boat out on the lake, fabulous.

Not the best shot but... we got to enjoy a concert while in Reno. Heart and Journey, they were both rocking. It was fun to sing along and enjoy some great performances.
Reno was a fun stop on our Western US tour. I made time for a pedicure and Steve got to see some new casinos so it was great for both of us.

Monday, August 24, 2009

a little behind

I'm so behind!! I've gotten sidetracked with a new laptop from school which meant I had to move all my pics which took a 16 gig flash drive. Then I got some kind of severe allergy attack to my eyes. Last week was not good so I'm hoping for a great on this week. I had a different order to all these pics but blogger is not letting me move things around, grrr. Oh well, enjoy a few pics from Salt Lake City.

From our visit to Park City Olympic Park, it was great!

We really enjoyed seeing all the Olympic run (even in the summer without the snow).
One of many torch areas around the city.

Temple Square, very interesting and pretty.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Yellowstone part II

The other side of Yellowstone is all about the animals. Animals are free to roam where they wish in the park and sometimes that was interesting. One reason I wanted a new camera was to be able to get some good shots of animals that weren't too close (I wanted to see a bear but didn't want to get too close). We were very lucky and we got to see most animals that we wanted minus the big horn sheep. We woke up at 5am one morning to see the animals at dawn (when their supposed to be more active) and it was productive in that we saw a grizzly bear and an elk but no sheep. We drove to the north entrance to see the sheep, no sheep. Oh well, we also saw some wolves but they were too fast to get pictures of them. Anyway, enjoy the animals of Yellowstone (and Colorado)!
A moose from Family Camp

Bald Eagle, from our float trip on the Snake River


Some kind of deer, on the side of the road in Wyoming


Pronghorn Antelope, Yellowstone

Can't remember this little guy's name but he was too cute not to take a picture of him!


Mule Deer hanging out by the Snake River in Yellowstone


Chipmunk in Yellowstone

Canadian Geese in a geothermal area, guess they want it warm

An Elk at dawn

I took lots of pictures of bison since we saw them everywhere. Here they are at dusk roaming from one side of the highway to the other. There were lots of calves in this herd.


This is how close those big animals can get, it was a bit nerve racking!


I couldn't really tell what this little guy was but he stared at me a long time.

A young black bear, I was a little nervous wondering where his mama was and not wanting to get too close!
I loved seeing all the animals and getting to experience them in their natural habitat!