Making Changes

Slowly but surely, this house is becoming a home.

An interesting thread that I saw last week, intrigued me...
How has your lot changed since your google street view pic?
Ours has changed considerably!!

It went from...

To...

The transformation is pretty cool.  The google street view pic was taken, by my estimation, a little over two years ago since that is how old our house is.  The house next door was just having it's foundation poured.

As for the inside, we weren't required to make very many changes after we moved in, but one thing became clear once everything was in and set up.  Too much yellow.  Matt and I like the yellow, contrary to popular preference, there was just too much.

So, I took care of number 86-Paint the Dining Room.
I made the paint choice by myself...first online, and then went a completely different direction in the store.  I've always had the problem of picking the "khaki" that ends up peach, or pink, or anything other than "khaki".  At home, I had every intention of just painting a square to see if I liked the color.  I was nervous after painting that square, so I kept painting.  And kept painting.  And then, I kept painting. I painted through Matt trying to convince me to let him paint with me (he has never painted before, he says, and I had no way to fix any of the white if there were mistakes made). I painted through Leann coming to visit and sat her down to watch me. and I painted through my alarm telling me it was time to eat (see previous post about that).  I painted, painted, painted.  I did a good job too.  Four days later, I put on the second coat, and I couldn't be happier with it.  I don't know the real color but I call it "Mocha Frappuccino".

So....what do you think?  Improvement? 

Times a GAZILLION

Number 83 has gotten me thinking a few times, because a different restaurant once a month is going to be 33 new restaurants!!! Matt will probably enjoy it, but for this month, it's a set one.

August's new restaurant is a new take on food.  MyFitFoods is the treat of the month.  And I'm not just having it once a month, I'm having it 5 times a day, for 21 days straight.  It's a food challenge, hence the new take on food.  Lean eating, lots of protein, like LOTS of protein, and foods with high antioxidants.  The icing on top of the cake (or lack thereof, actually) is the liver cleanse in the morning.  Some of the food is really yummy and I will try to duplicate it as close as I can to the healthy version (turkey pasta, lemon turkey).

I've got to say, with the 80 oz of water Im drinking a day and the entire combination of healthy food, I'm losing weight, I have more energy, and I'm sleeping way better.

Here's a look at some of the meals.

H-Town Breakfast

Luis' Migas Breakfast

Lemon Turkey Lunch

Turkey Pasta Lunch

Berries and Yogurt Snack

Chicken and Fruit Snack

Fajita Dinner

Tenderloin Dinner

The best part....it's all prepared for you!! 

A series of Nights

In lieu of friends and family responding texts this evening and my husband being sick in bed and asleep since 7 pm, I am reviewing my list.  It frustrates me, the list itself, not the journey of completing the tasks.  Having things hanging over my head is hard.  It makes me think twice about starting something I can't finish.  I think I will ignore that nagging feelings though.

On Saturday we celebrated Leann's birthday with dinner at Cheddar's and then moving on to Big Texas. Matt seemed grumpy the entire evening but was persistent and finally was successful in getting me on the dance floor.  Leann went out with him and she couldn't get him to be successful.  Since Matt and I had previously danced in the house to iTunes, I knew the trick.  Under the railing I went to drag Matt along on the dance floor with me.  I'm glad I did...

It was the beginning of mine and Matt's two-stepping night at Big Texas.  I do not have faith that my sweet husband could two-step with someone else, but that's fine with me since it leaves only me for him to dance with.

I feel good marking this off my list...WE TWO-STEPPED, IN PUBLIC!!  No more being jealous of the people on the dance floor while I look on longingly.  Now if only my readers could have been there as Leann tried to get a picture of us two-stepping...it's one of the reasons we kept getting back on the dance floor.  You can see the anticipation in the photo - my face and my thumbs up in the air like "what the heck, woman?"

The birthday girl and myself

The group - 

Celeste, Michael, Leann, Myself, Matt, Larry, Phillip, and Monique

 Now we will see what happens the next time we find ourselves in a two-stepping situation.  At least we I know how now.

Polos, Clubs, and Carts

What a great time I had golfing on Thursday with my wonderful hubby and the Jessicas.  Matt normally plays with my brother on Thursdays, but he was out of town climbing a mountain.  We played Mulligans, a Par 3 course of 9 holes.

Myself, Jessica Smith, and Jessica Bailey dressed to the nines!  Showing is better than describing...

We played like we knew what we were doing, had a great time, and Matt was a great teacher for the three of us.  I'm pretty sure my brother would have gone ahead and played without us.  Haha.
I cannot wait to play again and Matt is so excited to be able to talk about golf all the time now.  I think I had a successful golfing trip considering I hadn't played (if you consider 1 golf lesson playing) in over 15 years.

My first hole...it took me 3 shots to get there

...love...

My husband rocks!! He mailed this love note to me, at my office.

I love you. 

Once I start, I just can't stop

My very first roommate aside from family was my roommate in college, Heather.  Upon starting college, it was very confusing when I talked about things involving my sister, Heather, or my roommate, Heather.  It was hard to distinguish at points...to the point that I still refer to roommate Heather as exactly that..."my roommate Heather".  She's married and has a precious daughter Madison, and I'm married...no kids as you know.  We are far from roommates.  But we are blessed to be neighbors at this point in our lives.  In February, Heather informed me that she and her husband would be moving back to the Houston area.  They decided to settle in Mirarmar lake, where they bought their first house.

Their sweet little family

Anyways...Heather and I have continuously lost touch over the years.  It's one of the things we do best.  Yet, we always manage to find our way back to each other.  This time, as I said, it's because we are neighbors.  We're lucky...I can't wait until they need an emergency baby sitter!!! 

Well, as luck would have it, Heather also wants to walk and eventually start running.  We started out on Friday of last week.  We walked for at least half an hour, we broke a sweat, and we chatted about all the things from over the past year + that we needed to catch up on.  Come Sunday, we were ready to go again and walked for closer to 45 minutes.  We made plans to go on Tuesday as well, after David got home to take over with Madison and I returned home from my meeting.

On Monday, there was an unexpected event happening at the lake in the neighborhood.  Sadly, a woman, a mother, fell into the lake somehow and did not resurface.  Many neighbors came out to talk with each other, console the children and husband of the woman, and to wait and hope and pray for the woman being cared for by EMS.  Since Monday, the constables were able to be seen patrolling around the neighborhood.  

On Tuesday, we geared up for our walk and headed on our way around the lake.  We encountered police officers who were stopped with a man at the lake.  We freaked ourselves out, stopped at my house, took Matt's cell phone, headed out again, power-walked, and ultimately cut our walk short.  

I feel good when I come home, sweaty, and energized.  It takes away some time from being with Matt, but eventually, I have faith, he will be joining us.  Hopefully David will join us as well and Madison too once the weather cools off.  

Here's to the beginning of #40 walking 3 times a week for 2 months straight.  It's started, and I will continue.  And hopefully it will continue into the year until the months when it is just too cold to bear.

In Print

I am so excited...this post is nothing more than me being excited that not only did I get the prints, get the frames, and assemble the prints and frames...but I successfully hung the framed photos from our totally awesome wedding.  I hung them pretty ok, too.  They're straight, they're evenly spaced, and they are a focal point.  I feel a little vain tho....

nonetheless...

I love it!!