Long Time, No Blog

So, I'm sure no one has been looking at this thing lately (except for Jason, who checks it everyday then says "No blog?" as if he's shocked) :)

It has been a while. And, while not necessarily intentional, I suppose I have taken a break from blogdom. I think it would be quite difficult to cover everything that has happened since the last time I posted, but I'll try to cover some of the major events (not necessarily in order).


Of course, there was Christmas -- absolutely wonderful! I really enjoy spending time with family, playing games, eating yummy food... it's hands-down my favorite time of the year. It reminds me how incredibly blessed we are with wonderful family. And the 2 weeks off work was nice too!

Oh! And Mom made Jason a stocking! She made me and my brother stockings that we've had forever and now all the kids, kids-in-law and grandkids have one. They are really special! (Jason's even has an extra special something on it)



Before we headed out to visit family, Jason and I took in some impressive light displays in the area:


Although our street didn't really have a theme or anything, I was excited that 10 houses in a row on our side of the street had lights!! woohoo!!

I have cooked in the crock-pot again since the last post and it turned out really tasty. I did a "cowboy" pot roast from a crock-pot cook book my parents got me for Christmas and it was yummy! In fact, tomorrow we're having another slow-cooked meal. Eating more at home is saving us time, money, calories and the oh-so-painful "where do you wanna eat" "i dunno, where do you wanna eat" discussions. Plus, there are usually leftovers that I can take to work for lunch, thereby saving even more money!

Before Christmas we re-financed the house and had a pleasant surprise at closing. Instead of the 5.25% we were expecting, they had re-negotiated and got our rate down to 5% even.

Just yesterday, Jason and I got library cards from the public library. I checked out two books. First, I'm reading "The Secret of Lost Things" by Sheridan Hay, which is pretty good so far. And even though he didn't check anything out from the library, Jason was inspired and read half of "Prey" by Michael Crichton that he had here at the house.

We were taking one dog for a walk each evening, but we got off track and haven't been doing that regularly. Maybe we can start that up again.

We've got some exciting things coming up. I can't wait to see my nephew's play this week. Then, it's off to Las Vegas for a little vacation.

I have a desire to do somewhat of a "spring cleaning" and get everything de-cluttered and organized. And I've also got the sudden urge to paint!! Maybe there are some renovation photos in the future of this blog?!?! Who knows. But I will try not to wait over a month before the next update. :)

Only in Texas...

...can it be 81 degrees at lunchtime and be snowing by bedtime.


On Sunday, Jason took me downtown to Spaghetti Warehouse for my birthday dinner. We had planned on going on Saturday, but we were stuffed from lunch and cake! We had a great time and then walked around downtown for a while. Jason decided Sunday is his new favorite day to go out to eat because it's not as busy. Isn't he handsome :)


This is not what I wore to my birthday dinner:


We finished decorating the house. Here is our tree in all it's glory:


And we managed to get the lighting just right in the living room and get all the dogs to look at the camera at the same time! Good enough for Christmas cards :)


Tonight we found a pretty good place for tamales.


Even the tamale aficionado approves!


We also got all the aforementioned Christmas cards addressed and ready to mail!

What a great birthday!! :)

First, I found my hat! Then, since Jason was in the other room doing secret birthday stuff, I had to celebrate by myself. So, I ended up taking a million photos of myself on my phone in celebration (actually, the total ended up being 28, coincidentally). Hooray hat!!!


Then , my sweets came in and we took a few pics together:


Then we went over to my brother's house and got to celebrate with my parents and nephews and niece! Mom and Jason took most of the pictures over there, so I'll have to post some of those later. Plus, Jason got a few pics of the kids that are cute, and I don't want to post them without asking my bro and sis-in-law (they are getting back from their cruise tomorrow).

We had lunch, played "Ticket to Ride" (Jason won!!), ate cake and ice cream and enjoyed the visit!! Mom and Dad got me a crock-pot, which I am totally excited to start using!! Need to go look up some recipes...

Then, when we got home, I got to open the cards and gift that my sweets got me. The dogs got me a card and reminded me that I'm 193 in doggy years (which makes 28 seem REALLY young) :)

And Jason had ordered a customized jigsaw puzzle that we put together together (that makes sense, right?). I love it! It's one of my favorite pictures and I can't wait to get a frame for it and put it on a wall!!!


It was a great birthday! I love spending time with family!!

Here's a picture of Jason's new hair-do (I'm the stylist). I'm still not sure he likes it, but he's being a good sport about it. He's a cutie, isn't he?


That's pretty much it for the day. I was hoping for a Missouri win over Oklahoma, but pretty sure it wouldn't happen. I was prepared for the OU win, but it really does make me sick that they were ahead 55-21 with 5 min. left in the game and their starters were still in. Seriously? Classless. Something about being the first team with so many games over 60 points... which translates to the team with the least class of all time. Bleh. Hope the Gators win the National Championship!!

Oh, and I don't have to act my age yet, do I?

It's December!

I haven't blogged in a while, so this will be a bit of a catch up post.

Thanksgiving was good and having an extra long weekend is always nice.

We ended up going to a high school playoff game on Friday night and got a look at the future UT quarterback. He was pretty good and it seems like he'll be a good fit for the offense. The fans we sat in front of were... interesting? No, annoying is probably a better word. Their team could do no wrong and the refs were "trying to give the game to the other team". As an impartial observer who was originally pulling for their team to win (they are closer to home and the team that has the future UT QB), I found myself hoping that the other team won just to spite the poor sports behind us. Does that make me a poor sport?

My high school alma mater won their game this weekend too and is one step closer to back-to-back state championships. Woohoo!

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Begin College Football Rant

And then there's college football... sigh. In a system where "every game counts" apparently games played on October 11th, 2008 don't, in fact, "count". Beating Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl almost always means a trip to the conference championship game... except this year, there was another good team in the Big 12 South. Now, ultimately it was up to Texas to finish out their gauntlet with a win in Lubbock. They almost did, but they didn't. It was a three-way tie, but the top two teams in the BCS rankings (and the only two who had a shot at the National Championship) were Texas and OU. And Texas beat OU 45-35 in the Red River Shootout.

Sooners like to say "but we beat Tech soundly and they beat Texas, so it doesn't matter that Texas beat us". Well, if you really wanted to use that logic, we've already beaten Florida (Texas > Arkansas > LSU > Ole Miss > Florida), but that's not how it works. Heck, if it was, all we need is for Florida to beat Alabama and we should be declared the National Champions.

But it is what it is. Now all the Longhorns can do is sit back and watch the "Can't Beat Texas Bowl" (otherwise known as the Big 12 Championship game) and hope that perhaps Missouri can pull the upset (not likely). And when that doesn't happen, put on a dominating performance in their BCS bowl game and then watch Florida stomp the Sooners.

I hope Colt McCoy comes back next year...

End College Football Rant
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The Sunday before Thanksgiving we got a new grill. The old one was in pretty bad shape. So while we should have been cleaning the house and getting ready for company, we were putting together the grill and cookin' up some burgers. But it was worth it, and it was fun, and we got the house clean anyway (because I have a sweet husband who helps out a lot!). :)





And yesterday we got the lights put up outside:



It's December!