Texas Lou

Archive for the ‘Family’ Category

Good morning and welcome to my weekly Thankful Monday blog post!

Here’s what I’m thankful for today:

1. I’m thankful for the opportunity to see The Book of Mormon musical with my friends Cris and Carolyn at the Kennedy Center on Friday.  Thanks to all of us working together, the plans for the night turned out great!  I’m cherishing these little trips right now as once I have kids they will be fewer and far between.  The play was hilarious and the Kennedy Center was a beautiful venue!  What a great night!
2. I’m thankful for the generosity from my sister-in-law’s dad.  He was cleaning out a storage unit this weekend and gave us several items that homeowners would need including a shop-vac and a miter saw!  I’m so grateful for his generosity and the future spending he has saved us!
3. I’m thankful for family.  Sunday, we had lunch with my in-laws to celebrate my nephew’s 20th birthday.  It was nice to spend time with the whole family and enjoy my mother-in-law’s awesome lunch, including her famous coconut raspberry cake!  She and I also made bacon wrapped figs using the figs from our fig tree.
4. I’m thankful for the cooler weather we’ve been having.  Our air conditioner has been broken so the cooler weather in August has been a blessing!
5. I’m thankful for a fresh start this Monday!

Have a great week!

Good morning!  I apologize that I haven’t written a Thankful Monday post in TWO WEEKS!  But, I’ve been a very busy girl.  I spent 10 days in Seattle and Victoria, Canada celebrating my cousin’s wedding, site-seeing, and spending time with family, came home for 5 days, and then left for a 4 day weekend at the beach in Nags Head.  I’m feeling refreshed but I’m super sad my fun trips and time with family and friends are over.  I think being grateful will help cheer me up, so here’s what I’m thankful for today:

1. I’m thankful for an amazing trip to Seattle and much cherished time with my family.  I LOVE my family and just saying that makes me feel that it doesn’t give my feelings about them justice.  I’m such a lucky person to have these people in my life!
2. I’m thankful for a wonderful trip to Nags Head in the Outer Banks with Sarah and Cris.  We had the best time celebrating girls weekend and I’m extra grateful to Cris and her parents for letting us use their condo at the beach!
3. I’m thankful for my husband who has spent so much time traveling with me and then putting up with me being gone on trips without him.  He is very supportive of me and my love for family and traveling and has even been a wonderful shoulder to cry on when I’m sad that my trips are over.
4. I’m thankful for my family.  I can’t say how much they mean to me and spending time with them only makes me realize how lucky I am to have them.  I wish I lived closer to all of them.
5. I’m thankful for a very smart and skilled friend who helped us diagnose a problem with our air conditioning so we didn’t have to pay to have someone look at it (I’ll of course buy him dinner as a thank you).  Between the new house, fixing up the condo, my car payment, and Ben’s car being in the shop for the past month, we need to save as much as possible!

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Good morning and welcome to my weekly Thankful Monday post!

On a side note, I know I have been only using this space for my Thankful Monday posts for the past few months.  I enjoy writing about other topics, but time constraints are what have mostly kept me from blogging about my usual stories and ideas.  If there is anyone out there that actually reads this, I can tell you that I do plan to get back into regular writing again once things settle down with our new house, traveling, and fixing up our condo.  In the meantime, I feel these posts about gratefulness have been a benefit to me so I have continued to make time for them in my busy schedule.

And now, here’s what I’m thankful for this week:

1. I’m thankful for a husband who has similar interests to me and for date night.  I can remember always arguing with my ex about what movie to see, but luckily, my husband and I don’t have that problem.  Friday night, we tried the new Sedona Taphouse for dinner.  The food was good, but a little overpriced.  The real reason I wanted to go there was for their beer selection…they have over 500 beers available and update their draft list daily which often includes many local beers.  Then we went to see Pacific Rim which we both loved.  It was a great night and made me suggest that we try to have date night more often!
2. I’m thankful for family.  I must be very lucky because I have a wonderful and supportive family who really enjoy spending time with each other.  I’m going to get to be around alot of my extended family very soon and we are all very excited about it!
3. I’m thankful for my cats.  They always bring a smile to my face.  They are so cute and each have their own individual personality.  Yesterday, Ben and I let them go outside briefly to explore.  It’s so fun watching them absorb all of the new sights, sounds, and smells around them.
4. I’m thankful that our good friends had a healthy baby boy on Wednesday.  I’m so grateful that both mom and baby are doing well and that our friends are finally starting this new phase in their family.  Ben and I were lucky enough to get to hold the little guy on Thursday when we visited them at the hospital.  I’m wishing them all the health, love, and happiness in the world for their futures!
5. I’m thankful for life.  Everyday there are struggles and things can feel rough, but I just have to remind myself that I am alive and live a pretty good life surrounded by amazing people.

Have a wonderful week!

Hey everyone!  Welcome to Thankful Monday/Tuesday (really it should be called Thankful 24/7)!

I was enjoying an amazing long weekend with family in Texas this weekend so that’s why I’m late posting.

Here’s this week’s list:

1. I’m thankful that we got to celebrate my cousin Jennifer’s marriage to her best friend Eric this weekend in Houston, and I’m also thankful that I got to see so many family and friends that I hadn’t seen in years/months!  It was like a wonderful family reunion!
2. I’m thankful that in addition to seeing much of my dad’s side of the family at the wedding reception, I got to see a ton of my mom’s side of the family too!  How lucky am I that I got to be surrounded by so many of my loved ones on a rare trip home to Houston!  I’m very grateful for the effort everyone made to be together!
3. I’m grateful that we could afford the plane tickets to Texas and also that we ran into minimal bad weather and travel delays along the way, especially since there has been so much bad weather happening lately.
4. I’m thankful for the opportunity to visit an old family favorite restaurant, Gaido’s, for a delicious meal with my family.  My parents used to take us here all the time when I was little and I have lots of wonderful childhood memories of eating here so it was nice to walk down memory lane.
5. I’m thankful that my husband was able to come along on the trip and spend time with my family and I and meet many family members whom he hadn’t yet met.  It’s always extra special to me when I can have him as a travel companion with me.

Have a wonderful day!

Good morning and happy Thankful Monday!

Here’s what I’m thankful for this 3rd day of June, 2013:

1. I’m thankful that God has blessed my friends Chris and Cara with a baby boy.  They are expecting him in July and I got to help celebrate him this weekend at Cara’s baby shower!  It was a blast…we shared great food and cake, made onesies, created scrapbook pages, and watched Cara open lots of wonderful gifts.  I’m wishing her an easy and safe labor and delivery!
2. I’m thankful for my cats.  We found a mouse in our house this weekend, and ever since, Eva and Revolver Ocelot have been busy tracking it down!  Thank goodness for my kitties!
3. I’m thankful for a very helpful mother-in-law and father-in-law who helped us do some work on our condo this weekend and have provided endless advice on our renovations.
4. I’m grateful for all of the men and women out there who have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice for this country’s freedom, especially those who have given their lives or become disabled while in service.  Ben and I ran the 4 the Wounded 5K on Saturday morning to support the cause to help our wounded service men and women.  I’m also thankful to my work for providing me with a free entry to the race.
5. Lastly, I’m thankful for the opportunity to see alot of family this coming weekend.

Have a great day!

Good morning!  Yesterday was Memorial Day and my brother was in town visiting for the long weekend, so I didn’t have a chance to log in and write my weekly Thankful Monday post so here it is for Thankful Tuesday:

1. First and foremost, I am so thankful for all of the men and women who have given their lives and those who continue to serve to allow us to live in a wonderful and free country.  Words will never be sufficient to honor them, but I am grateful for the sacrifices of them and their families.
2. Secondly, I am so thankful for a weekend with my little brother, Mikey.  He drove up from South Carolina to spend the weekend with us and see our new house.  We had such a blast hiking and swimming in Sugar Hollow, hanging out on the farm and shooting skeet, trying different beers and wines at local breweries and wineries all over the area, and of course watching Arrested Development!  I’m so grateful to get to spend time with my family and also very thankful that Ben’s family embraces my family and that we all get along.  I love my brother and can’t wait until we get to have another sibling weekend!
3. I’m thankful for the beautiful weather this weekend that allowed us to spend some time in nature and the outdoors.
4. I’m thankful for family, friends, and fun times.  We had a blast at the Market Street Wine Shop Free Wine Tasting, Fridays After Five, Beer Run, Timberwood Grill, the Beer Hound Brewery, Sugar Hollow, the Whiskey Jar, Commonwealth Skybar, Mountfair Vineyards, Jefferson Vineyards, and Stinson Vineyards.  I’m also thankful for the opportunity to live in such an amazing place with so many things to do.
5. Lastly, I’m thankful for the 3 day weekend and a short week!

Have a good one!

Happy Monday!  It’s May!  Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo and Orthodox Easter!  There are always so many things to celebrate if you just look around you!

Today, I am thankful for the following:

1. I’m thankful for getting to spend some quality time with extended family this weekend.  Friday night, Ben and I had dinner at one of our favorite places, Beer Run, with Ian (brother-in-law), Sarah (sister-in-law), and Phyllis (mother-in-law) and then went to see the Nathanael Greene Elementary School production of the Jungle Book where my niece, Elise, played Bagheera!  We also got to visit with Shane (brother-in-law), Lori (sister-in-law), Abby (niece), and Lori’s family.  Saturday night, Ian and Sarah treated us to kebabs on the grill with friends and then Sunday we had a delicious lunch cooked by Phyllis in the company of Abby, Elisa, Lori, and Lori’s parents.  What a weekend filled with wonderful people!
2. I’m thankful to be making real progress on our new house and our condo.  The condo is almost empty and ready for painting, new carpet, and some updating while the house is getting slowly unpacked day-by-day!
3. I’m thankful that we got our new amazing LG washer and dryer on Saturday!  I am loving them so far!  You can fit twice as much in them as you could our old ones and they have so many amazing settings, including Steam and Sanitary Steam!  Plus they make really fun noises and play music when they start up and finish a load!
4. I’m thankful that we are hopefully getting cable and internet today!  It’s kind of a silly thing to be thankful for (there are many more important things in life) but I am a TV and internet junkie!
5. Lastly, I’m thankful again for our new house!  I love it a little more each day and can’t believe I finally have a home of my own!  I can’t wait to raise babies, host parties, and make lots of memories in it!

I was in Texas this weekend and traveling all day yesterday so Thankful Monday has turned into Thankful Tuesday!

This Tuesday, I am thankful for so much after spending a wonderful long weekend with my family at the beach!  Here are just a few of the things I am grateful for:

1. I’m thankful for my mom.  I’m thankful that she hosted my sister, brother, Ben, and I at the beach this weekend, cooked us some of our favorite meals (swedish meatballs…yum), and showered us with gifts (reusable bags from the cities we attended college in, Texas honey from my uncles’ beehives, and delicious HEB tortillas!  I really have the best mom in the world (but I am a bit biased since she is MY mom)!
2. I’m thankful for my brother, Mikey.  He’s always so much fun to be around and we enjoyed his company this weekend while we joked, shared some delicious Saint Arnold‘s beer, and basked in our favorite home-cooked and Texas meals.  My brother understands what its like to live far from home and outside of Texas because he currently resides in South Carolina and I feel like we’ve become closer since sharing that experience.  I’m also so thankful that Mikey stayed up until 2 AM (3 AM his time) driving us from Houston to Padre after our flight was delayed…what a trooper!
3. I’m thankful for my sister, Carrie.  She has the sweetest smile when she is being positive and despite what she might think, I love her very much and enjoy spending time with her.  I’m thankful she was able to get off work this weekend to spend time with us, and I’m also very thankful that she provided her car for transportation so that we did not have to rent a car.
4. I’m thankful for my dad.  Despite having a busy work day and a conference call scheduled, he took time out to meet us for a Tex-Mex lunch at Chuy’s yesterday and then drove Ben and I to the airport.  He even managed to fit in a quick reunion with my step-mom and little brothers!  I’m really grateful that I got to see my dad and spend a little time with him since we were only in Houston for a few hours.
5. I’m thankful for Debbie.  I love Debbie and she has always been one of our favorite “aunts”.  I’m thankful that Debbie was able to spend the weekend with us and also so grateful that she took time to drive us back to Houston since Carrie had to leave Sunday to go back to work.
6. I’m thankful for Josh, Caroline, and their two sweet kiddos.  It was so nice to see them and spend Saturday at the beach with them!
7. I’m thankful for my Uncle (Amo) Jamil, Aunt Norma, and their family.  They drove from San Antonio to Padre to spend some time with us on the beach on Sunday.  It was so sweet to spend some time with my little cousins, play in the ocean and in the sand with them, and get to know them some.  I miss living close to them, and I’m so grateful for every time we get to see each other.
8. I’m thankful that I got to see my step-mom and my little brothers even if it was only for 30 minutes.  They are growing up so fast!
9. I’m thankful for my husband, Ben, who lets me drag him all around Texas, especially when I know he’s not crazy about traveling.  It’s much less sad to leave Texas and my family when he’s traveling with me.
10. Lastly, I’m thankful for the really cool TVs and free movies that United Airlines provided us.  Being able to watch Zero Dark Thirty and This Is 40 on the plane made being delayed for a couple of hours a lot less frustrating!

I could go on and on, but I’ll stop at 10!  I hope everyone has a beautiful week!

Good morning and happy Thankful Monday!

I certainly have ALOT to be thankful for this morning, including but not limited to the following:

1. I’m so thankful that Ben and I closed on our new house!  We are now homeowners and we absolutely LOVE our new home.  I ca’t wait to throw parties in it, raise babies in it, and make a lifetime of memories!
2. I’m so thankful for wonderful family who helped us do some moving this weekend.  A special shout out goes to Ian for his heavy lifting, Peter for letting us borrow his truck, and Sarah and Phyllis for the many meals they cooked for us to keep us going!
3. I’m thankful for the beautiful weather we had this weekend.  Not only was it quite enjoyable to be outside, it helped make moving alot easier without having to worry about extreme heat, freezing cold, or rain.
4. I’m thankful for my husband, Ben, without whom I wouldn’t be able to afford the house of my dreams.  It’s also been so amazing to experience this rite of passage with him by my side.
5. Lastly, I’m thankful that I’m headed to Texas next weekend for the first time in almost a year (I think that’s the longest I’ve ever been away from my home state) and that I get to see my family who I love so much!

Have a beautiful and very happy week friends!

Good morning!  Spring is actually FINALLY here and we’ve been having beautiful weather so that is definitely something to be thankful for!

In addition to my gratefulness that spring has arrived, I’m also thankful for the following:

1. I’m so thankful that Ben and I close on our new house this week!  I can’t wait to live in a house again…it’s been 8 years since I’ve lived in an actual house!  So long apartment living!
2. I’m very happy for my cousin Jennifer and her new husband Eric.  They got married in Florida this weekend and I’m extremely thankful for Facebook and all of her friends and family who posted pictures of the beautiful event and lovely family so that I could share in the celebration.
3. I’m thankful for the new friends I’ve made at work who have made working here feel much more comfortable and happy.
4. I’m thankful for all of the wonderful people who have offered to help us move and fix up our condo to get it ready to rent.  We are lucky to have such kind and generous people in our lives.
5. I’m thankful that in less than two weeks, I will be a first-time home owner AND I’ll be in Texas visiting my family!
6. BONUS:  I’m thankful that the Farmers Market is finally back in season.  I went early Saturday morning to enjoy it and missed it so much!  I’m glad its back for another 9 months!

Have a wonderful and beautiful week.  I hope everyone is lucky enough to enjoy some warm and beautiful spring weather (sans allergies of course)!