Now that's COLD!!

Can you believe it's 28* (feels like 14*) and snowing outside in the great state of Texas?!?! It is COLD! WINDY! WET! ICY! and a little bit snowy. It was 80* when I came home from work yesterday around 4:00 and then the wind blew in and within a matter of an hour the temp had dropped 40 degrees! Yes, seriously, 40 degrees in one hour. So I set out for work today knowing the ice was coming but there really wasn't much I could do about it. The roads were clear at 8:30 this morning. Not so much at 1:00 this afternoon - when I had to scrape the ice off my windows before I could leave!!

So here's a pic of the neighborhood from earlier this afternoon. It's still flurrying a little right now so maybe there will be more before the day is done. Not likely but I just want a SNOW DAY TOMORROW so I can stay under the covers and eat soup all day long.

Notice the nice lawn two doors down with the winter rye grass - yep, the green one. We're still in a drought and will most likely not be able to water our lawns at all next summer and people want to have green lawns in the winter! I have to admit, we did it on year ... in Houston where you get more rain than you know what to do with!! Anyways, aren't the white rooftops pretty? Hey, we take what we can get and if that's half an inch of snow a month before Christmas I'm OK with that! Here's another pic of the world's best dog having fun in the cold!! She loves the cold weather for about 5 minutes then she's ready to snuggle up on the sofa!

So that's what's going on in my world. I guess I've been busy this week since I just noticed I hadn't blogged in a while. Let's see ... nothing big going on. Just trying to decorate for Christmas and catch up on the shows we missed last week. My TiVo didn't record the season premier of The OC a couple weeks ago so I missed that but I plan to get caught up on the other episodes sometime. On our way home from Austin we stopped at TWO outlet malls! The one in Round Rock totally rocks and then we stopped in Hillsboro too. James is the best husband in the world because we actually missed the exit for the Round Rock mall and he actually turned around and back tracked so we could get there. Then, knowing we still had to pick up the dog and get home and unpack so we could go to our friends' house he agreed to stop in Hillsboro too! I'm telling you, James has a thing for shopping and I know how lucky I am.

I hope everyone is surviving this winter weather, wherever you are! I think I'm going to light the fire, open a bottle of wine, and call it a night!

First things first

GIG EM AGGIES!!! WHOOP!
The game was absolutely incredible. I had never been to a game at DKR Texas Memorial Stadium and I have to admit, it was rather intimidating. The noise, the orange, Big XII South Championship at stake for t.u. and the fact that they were favored by 13 was all just a little over the top. In the beginning, I was kind of quiet. Sure we scored but we missed the extra point and we have started a trend of losing by one point so that missed extra point was certainly going to come back to haunt us. NOT SO MUCH!! Maintaining a shutout until late in the third quarter was pretty exciting then they scored and it was "OK, back to reality". Then we just went crazy. We didn't care that we were with t.u. people and surrounded by a sea of burnt orange. We got loud (and maybe a little obnoxious but who cares). We were biting our nails up to the end then the players rushed out onto the field and over to where the band and all the maroon was. It was soooo exciting! I was apprehensive at first with all the orange and the expected outcome of the game but at the end, the team that was favored by 13 points didn't even score 13 points. WHOOOOOOOP! A great end to an otherwise heartbreaking season.

Aside from all that, we had a great but very busy Thanksgiving week. We went down to Houston to work on my mother-in-law's house. She's still planning to move to Dallas and her house was badly in need of a fresh coat of paint and we had to replace some boards and some other work. It was actually kind of fun and we couldn't have asked for better weather but if I ever decide to take on such a large project, someone please slap me. UGH! We did get to go out with our Houston friends one night and it was great to see everyone!! As much as I say I like life in Frisco, I do miss Houston, Pearland, and the people we left behind. We celebrated Thanksgiving on Wednesday and headed to Austin on Thursday. We had a really hard time finding a place to eat on Thursday since all the restaurants were closed. Geez, like restaurant workers need a day off or something. Whatever! ha ha We were very excited to see that the Texas Land and Cattle across the street was open for business so we treated ourselves to a very nice dinner. :-) This mini-vacation to Austin was great, especially the game.

So that's what we've been up to and why I've been absent from the blog. Mother-in-law doesn't have internet and we were so busy leading up to the trip. It's good to be back!

I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Turkey Day!!! Good luck on the Christmas shopping!
It's the most wonderful time of the year!!

Trees

I decided to go ahead and post the pics of the trees. The bald one is an Autumn Blaze Maple and the other is a Red Oak. Both are supposed to have beautiful fall color so we'll see what happens next year. The tree farm we used was up in Gunter, TX. If you don't know, it's about 15 miles north of Hwy 380 on Hwy 289/Preston, so pretty much in Oklahoma. If you're in the Dallas area the website is www.tree-land.com. We really liked the guy and the trees are guaranteed for a year. You should check them out in you're in the market!!




And here's a pic of our back patio with the flags flying.



Happy Veterans Day!!! Thanks to all those who have served our nation and those who are currently serving. God Bless You and your families.

Another one gets away

My beloved Aggies lost another heartbreaker today. One point! One freakin point. AGAIN! It was horrible but thanks to my good friend Miller I am well medicated and am getting past it. Well, thanks to Miller and t.u. Texas lost tonight. It was a bittersweet moment in my life because if we had scored 2 more points in each of our last two games we would be going into the day after Thanksgiving in a much different situation. Instead, it's just another year and I don't really care what happens, as long as we don't lose by ONE FREAKIN POINT!

So I've been absent from my blog for a week. I've wanted to blog but there was nothing going on up here. James turned 33 (OMG!!!) on Wednesday but he was in NYC for the week so we didn't get to celebrate until he got home Thursday. I picked up some Chinese takeout and got an ice cream cake from Coldstone. I'm not Martha Stewart enough to actually make one of my own, thank you very much, but after paying what I did for the cake I think I'll learn. Those things are crazy expensive!

We bought some trees for the backyard and had them planted yesterday (Happy Birthday to James!). They look great and I took some pics so I'll post them tomorrow or later this week. Our yard seems more like a backyard than a square of grass enclosed by a fence so it's pretty nice. They're 65 gallon trees and there was absolutely no way we were going to plant them on our own. There's still room for the future pool ... very far future but one can dream! Our next project is to install three pendant lights over our kitchen island. Our kitchen is very dark and over the island is a great place for extra lighting so we're pretty excited. We are going to have an electrician come out to do the wiring so we don't burn the house down. We can't wait to get that done - the lights come in on Monday so maybe by next weekend I can share some pics of those too! Then it's Thanksgiving and we're looking forward to the big trip down to H-Town.

I guess that's all I have to say. The Miller and the late hour are causing a lot of typos so this is taking me way longer than it should. I hope everyone had a fantabulous weekend! I'm off to catch some of the USC game (come on Oregon) and maybe play some computer games.

OH - speaking of games - can you believe the PS3 is going for $599!!! James wants one for Christmas. I think Santa is going to forget that one on his shipment this year! HOLY COW!!! It's a video game for crying out loud!! I think the PS2 will do for another year at least.

Hip Hip HOOORAY!!

THREE CHEERS for me surviving two weeks of full-time work!! I am so proud of myself. I actually got out of bed before 6 am every day and had plenty of time to get ready so I arrived early every single day! If only my old bosses from ERAC could see me now ... I guess this is what it's like when you don't feel like your driving to your execution every day. HAAAAH!

So James' birthday is next Wednesday and he really has no idea what he wants. I mean, when I ask, his actual reply is "I don't know". Where do I go from there? I've picked out a couple very small items but I'm thinking that's all he's going to get. It's the thought that counts, right? I can't say what he's getting because he actually reads this sometimes. Do you think it makes sense to get your husband a Gift Card? Either way we're spending the money so wouldn't it better if I actually got him a gift instead of a GC? I always feel like gift cards are fink-outs, like I was too brainless to come up with a good gift idea, when the truth is that's probably what the person wanted in the first place. I'm usually excited when I get gift cards but then I'm the person they were designed for --- I spend $100 over the value of my gc!!

We broke down last night and turned on the heater! I'm glad we did because I just set it at 64* overnight and it was 64* in the house when we woke up. I think we actually dipped into the 30's last night -- my hibiscuses (whatever the plural of hibiscus is) are probably dead since they're tropical. It's really not that cold but the chilly nights make it really hard to get out of bed in the morning!! We also had a fire in the fireplace last night, and the first since the TV was installed so we were a little nervous, but it was just fine! It's starting to feel like the holidays already. Unfortunately it's already starting to look like the holidays in our neighborhood too. Our neighbors already have their outdoor Christmas lights up. They had them installed by a company (which I think is a great idea since we have those super high rooftops). I don't think they've turned them on yet but they're up there. Another house has their garland in the yard (in a pile) waiting to go up on their front porch and they have like 4 of those white 'Christmas' trees in the front yard, intermingled with their Halloween blow-up thingys ofcourse. I plan to take up all the "Halloween" stuff this weekend but leave all the "fall" stuff out through Thanksgiving. I usually do Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving but since we're going to be IN AUSTIN THE FRIDAY AFTER THANKSGIVING it will just have to wait!! Yes, James and I have tickets to the game and we've already reserved a hotel room (with Marriott points even so it's free!).

I better wrap this up since I'm at work. It has been a really busy "cooky" day and I'm just exhausted. I suppose when one opens a bottle of wine to go with Thursday night spaghetti at home, one expects to share said bottle of wine with one's husband. Instead, the husband opened his own bottle of wine (guess he didn't like my choice) so obviously I had to finish the one I opened. There's no such thing as leftover wine in our house! Maybe that has a little to do with why I'm so exhausted!!! :-)

Hope everyone has a great weekend! GIG EM AGGIES! B.T.H.O.OU! WHOOP!
Mel, hope the Ags are on ABC in SLC tomorrow. I know coverage is usually regional so I hope you get to watch it!

Happy Halloween!

What's up with all you parents? You think just because you have to take your little kids out Trick or Treating that you need to leave work early or something? Traffic was an absolute nightmare last night. You know what ... the candy isn't going anywhere!! I suppose you're all going to do it again around the other holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas too. The nerve of some people!! :-) Really, we had a successful night and saw soooo many cute costumes. We almost ran out of candy but James reluctantly pulled his stashed bag of Twix out of the fridge so the night was saved. In Pearland, we used to get quite a few older "kids" that didn't do much to dress up (and didn't seem very appreciative) but this year in Frisco was great. Everyone was saying thank you ... I'm pretty sure when I was a kid I would just take the candy and run! Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween and I hope you're enjoying all that great candy!

I went to Sonic this morning to grab a coke since all we have at home is caffeine free and that just wasn't going to cut it today. I ordered a medium drink and it was $1.40. Ummm what? $1.40 for a 22 oz drink, filled with ice? I should have just bought one from the rip off machine in the break room where a 20 oz bottle is $1. Seriously ... thank GOD my car doesn't run on Diet Coke. Then again, I wish I could get Diet Coke out of a gas pump!! ha ha ha!