Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Last year we took some friends to see Wicked at the Hobby Center. This year, to repay us, they decided to take us to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Two days before Christmas the four of us ventured up to downtown Houston for dinner and the show.


Prior to the show, we enjoyed dinner at 3 Forks. This restaurant is known for it's amazing beef selections. With so much good food, we were hard pressed to finish it all. Once done with dinner, we walked the short distance from the restaurant to the Toyota Center.

 Waiting for the show to start

 The Narrator of the show

Violinist and Guitarist rock out center stage

Our seats were amazing. As you can see from the pictures, we were nearly even with the stage. We were so close that we could feel the heat coming off the pyrotechnics! It was a fantastic show and definitely a possibility for a holiday tradition.

Decorating for Christmas

Our second Christmas together. This year, due to my work schedule, we will be spending Christmas on the island. Fortunately, we won't be spending the holidays alone. Mom and Dad will be joining us on Christmas eve and stay a couple days. Aunt Sandy may also be joining us for Christmas dinner. 


So we went ahead and got a nice Christmas tree from Home Depot. It's a 7.5' Black Foot Hills Fir tree, pre-lit with multi-color led lights.

 Jason putting our tree together and fluffing it

 Lit with garland, no ornaments yet.

As soon as the tree skirt came, the kitties wanted to lay under the tree

We are looking forward to celebrating the season in our home. This will be my first year staying on the island for Christmas. I'm looking forward to it. Services will be held at FPC at 4 pm (kid friendly) and 7 pm (traditional candle light). All in the area are welcome to join.

Thanksgiving 2011

This year we spent Thanksgiving in College Station with my family. It was a day of food, fun and football. The whole Gilbert clan (minus Av) was on hand for the festivities. The girls all did facials to help Marcy out with her budding Mary Kay business. Dinner was full of yummy treats of the traditional variety. After that we had a Christmas gift card white elephant exchange. J got a Home Depot card and I managed to knick the Specs card :)


Of course, we can't get together without some pictures. Below is the whole Gilbert side of the family (again, minus Av) and one of our immediate family (this year's Christmas card).

Long time no update

Well..... It's been over a month since I last updated here. I'm going to do some dedicated posts for bigger events. Here I'll do some smaller things.


Right after Thanksgiving we got our 3 offer on the house. We were thinking that we'd get 2, but the second never came through. So far this is looking far more promising than the previous offers. More paperwork is being done and things are being taken care of with the house. Prayers that we officially close this time, anticipated date is December 31.


Wedding plans are going smoothly. I've touched base with most of the major people in the last week. Everything seems on track for the big day. The centerpiece pots will be picked up tomorrow. I did a test run for our gift to guests. I think it turned out well.


Rascal is doing all right. He's taking meds daily, which puts some strain on out of town plans. Still in limbo, but I'm sure we'll get there eventually. I think everything else gets its own post, so I'll get on with it.

D'Feet Breast Cancer 5k Walk

Yesterday I had the pleasure of doing the D'Feet Breast Cancer 5k Walk with one of my dear friends Mandi. It was a great event that allowed us a chance to spend time together that also benefited a great cause. I have been trying to do this walk for about 3 years now, and every year something has come up. We finished in about 45 minutes, not much longer than it takes me to "run" a 5k. I think I'll be taking a break for the near future from races, what with the wedding and all. 


Speaking of, we are now just under 3 months to go! Seems like this year has just flown by. Please tell me they aren't going to continue in this fashion! This month is going to be fairly quiet for wedding things. I will have dress alterations and my wedding band should be ready this week. Our second round of invites will go out either just before or just after Turkey day.


Sadly, we lost another buyer on the house. We had hoped to be closing on the house a week from tomorrow, but we found out Thursday that their lender had backed out. So the house will be going back on the market again. We can only hope that it will get sold before the wedding. 

Galveston Revival 5k Run

In honor of the 3rd anniversary of Hurricane Ike, Susan and I decided to run the Galveston Revival 5k Run. The last 5k I ran was actually in July of 2008, just before Ike. I spontaneously decided to run the Volkslaufe during a trip back to Frankenmuth. 


I don't run 5k's to break or set records. I mostly do them to say "yup, I ran that". For this year, this is the first one I did. Unfortunately, my hip/back problems forced me to walk more than I'd have liked. However, I still managed to finish the race in about 40 minutes. Below is a picture of Susan and I post race.

Next weekend I will be doing the D'Feet Breast Cancer 5k Walk with my friend Mandi (among other things).

Robert and April's Wedding

At the end of September, we were able to make a quick trip back to Wisconsin to see J's brother get married. Due to both our work schedules, we weren't able to stay too long. However, it was great to see everyone again.

The happy couple :)

Us after the ceremony

We had a great time celebrating with them, and getting to spend some more time with family.

Updates on Rascal & the Wedding

After undergoing a biopsy, we are still no closer to learning what Rascal has. Since the steroid shot helped, he's going to continue to get treats infused with steroids. The vet gave me some plain treats to see what he liked best. Interestingly enough, he loves all treats :) 


In other news, we are doing well on the wedding plans. The first round of invitations went out about a month ago.

To date, we have gotten about 1/3 of them back. Hopefully the second round will be going out after Thanksgiving, so don't worry if you haven't gotten one yet. It may yet be coming. We now have all the big things taken care of for the wedding. I know I'm running behind on activities/events. I'll try to do better about updating.

My Old Man

In case you are unaware, we have 3 pets: 2 cats and a snake. My old man, as I affectionately like to call him, is Rascal.

I found Rascal almost 6 years ago after he'd been dumped at TAMUG. Well, recently we've found out that he most likely has an auto immune condition. For a while he's had some small callouses on his front paws. Recently they developed into larger, claw-like structures. Two weeks of antibiotics ruled out that it was merely a bacterial infection. Since his steroid shot last week, the callouses seem to be shrinking.


He will live out the rest of his life having to be medicated, but hopefully it won't impede a long and otherwise healthy life for him.

Quiet weeks

The last few weeks have been fairly quiet, hence the lack of posts. The wedding plans continue to stay on track. Since my last post, I've met with the florist again, we tasted and chose our cakes and we had our first pre-marital counseling session at the church. Oh, and we have our invitations in a waiting to be mailed. My dress is in and I will be meeting Mom and Dad in two weeks for my first fitting. I'm super excited to put it on again.


Beau has been in Amsterdam all week, but is due back tomorrow afternoon. I believe that this is one of the longest stints apart we've had since we started dating. Definitely the longest we've gone without phone conversations, I've talked with him once since he left and only for about ten minutes. So I'll be glad to have him back.


More to come later, as I'm waiting on some pictures to post with stories. Guess I need to think about calling it a night. Hopefully no insomnia like last night.

Wedding Shower pt 1 - Michigan

I have been remiss in getting this post up since it's been a week since the shower. I had hoped to have a picture or two to share, but alas not at this moment. I had a fantastic time getting to see old friends and run around to old haunts.


Friday was mostly spent with me just reliving old memories and enjoying town after getting in. Saturday was the shower. There were about 13 attendees. We enjoyed salad, pizza and cake at DaVinci's in Frankenmuth. It was wonderful to catch up with many of the people while the party went on. We got a wonderful array of gifts, some from our registries and some not. That evening was spent with more friends, food and fun. Sunday I ran a few more errands and then meandered my way back to the Detroit area. Due to some confusion, I was able to meet Zak to give him his vest, but not spend time with him catching up.

My shower attendees

All in all a good, if short, trip back to the homeland. Upon my return, I officially started my new job. This last week was fairly slow, as I expect many of them to be. However, it has been enjoyable and I look forward to many more to come.

New Job!

Well, I finally got a new job. It was a crazy turn of event that lead to where I am now. Leaving Artist Boat was quite a leap of faith back in June. I was fortunate enough that there was a spot for me with Sea Camp again this summer. Beyond that I really was unsure about where I was headed. I through my name out there for so many jobs, and so many different ones, that I thought surely something would come up. And it did! 


I am now the Director of Youth and Children's Ministries at my home church in Galveston. It is a position that I am super excited about and look forward to a new journey. While it certainly isn't the highest paying job I could have gotten, I think that it will over all be the most rewarding. 


In other news, we have accepted an offer on the house and we are currently waiting for all the legalities to be followed. I'm hoping that it's off our hands by the end of this month. The first wedding shower is next weekend and I'm excited about getting to go back home. Also, we are beginning to make solid plans for the honeymoon. Life is good!

Quick Update

Howdy all! Just a quick update as there hasn't been a whole lot going on round here. I heard back from UT Houston, sadly I was not the perfect fit they were looking for (although I did meet the qualifications). I've yet to hear about anything else that I've put my name in the hat for. Hopefully I'll hear something soon.


Sea camp has been going well. Last week I was with the Texas City day camp all week. This week I'm helping with a few camps, but mostly prepping for next week. I will be co-coordinating the TAG Marine Biology camp next week. It'll be a long week, but I'll get great pay for it.


This upcoming weekend will be a couple of planned activities. First we will be seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 2 on Friday. Then Saturday will be pot-palooza, in which my girl friends and I will be decorating terra cotta pots for the reception. Well, I'm gonna get my afternoon under way.

NBL and Reject Art Show

One neat thing that I got to do through Sea Camp was going to the Neutral Buoyancy Lab associated with NASA. This is where the astronauts train for their space walks. It is the closest they get to a zero gravity here on earth.

The NBL is home to the world's largest indoor pool. Each astronaut has a team of 4 divers assigned to them that help supervise during their 6 hour session.

Here I am down in the lobby! Exciting stuff, I know ;) Last Friday Beau and I went to support Em at her art show in Houston: Salon des Refuses: Artwork Rejected from the BIG Show. She ended up winning the people's choice award that night. Below is us in front of her piece.

Life is going well, despite the heat that is summer in Texas. Fortunately Galveston was one of the only places that held a fireworks show this year due to the drought and burn bans in effect.


GISD went really well this year and ended last week. I'm enjoying a week off before going back to work for Sea Camp. Next week is the Texas City day camp. My interview went as well as I could hope. When I know more, I'll let y'all know. 

House Update

I'm sure everyone is curious about how the house selling is going. The house officially got up in the beginning of May. So far, there have only been 2 showings (according to our realtor) and no offers. We may have to reduce the price to get a taker.


Also, I'm applying for a job as a senior research assistant with the UT Health Science center. It's a perfect match for me (in my opinion) as it's basically doing everything I did for my master's, except on human DNA. I'll keep you updated on the progress.

Save the Dates

Last night we selected our save the date photo! Want to know our pick? You'll just have to wait and be surprised. I know everyone will like it though, so keep your eyes on your mailbox in the next 4 weeks. Hopefully soon we'll have the digital files so I can update our wedding website. 


This weekend we made a decision on the bride's maids dresses. It was a great score, but hectic getting it together. It's a two piece dress: long a-line skirt and convertible strapless top. Good news: it was super cheap; bad news: it's being discontinued (or just was). So it was a bit of a scramble to get it ordered, but we were successful! Below is my lovely sister-in-law modeling the dress.

The rest of life is moving along. We spent Father's day weekend with my family. It was a nice relaxing time, and possibly one of the last times we'll get to stay for a couple days until Thanksgiving. So now it's back to house work, it never ends!!

A Successful Weekend

The engagement shoot went wonderfully this weekend. It was great to have Melissa in town doing this for us. Pictures are already going up on her website, here for the sneak peek of all our amazing photos. Choosing one picture for the save the date is going to be tough!

Engagement photo weekend

This weekend is our engagement photo shoot weekend. Today we got up to do sunrise pictures on the beach here in Galveston. It was crazy early, but well worth the shots we got. Tomorrow we are going the theater district in downtown Houston and Discovery Green for the rest of the pictures. Hopefully we will get our save the date picture chosen quickly and can have those out no later than early July.


Met with the DJ on Thursday and was very happy with him. He is super organized, has a sound company (read - good equipment) and stellar online ratings (perfect ratings). It feels good to have another thing checked off the list.


The house is officially on the market, now we just have to get an offer. Hopefully that will happen quickly. Well, that's about it from here for now.

Chugging away

Well, it's been 2 weeks since my last post and a lot has happened. I made a difficult decision to leave Artist Boat. This weekend I went through training for Sea Camp GISD program. There are things on the wind, I just have to have faith.


Wedding plans are coming along nicely. Dad sent us the information for a potential dj yesterday. He was quite impressed with this one that was at one of Mom's ta's wedding last night. Hopefully I'll hear from him soon for price and availability.


Last weekend we went registry shopping. It's not as easy as you would think. All in all, we spent about 5 hours making our registries between Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond. We may go back, or just add things via the websites as we think of them. We also celebrated our one year anniversary. I gave Jason a couple's massage, he gave me a kindle. After registry shopping we did dinner and a movie at Star Cinema Grill. 


Hopefully life will get less stressful and I can get caught up on so many things that have gotten set aside. Melissa comes in Thursday for our engagement shoot. Save the dates will be out by the end of this month, early next. We'll keep you updated as we go. And as promised in my last post.....

Church Sneak Peek

Yesterday was Matt and Abby's wedding (friends from church). This gave us a peek at how our wedding will go. The church looks beautiful, even with the temporary chairs. Hopefully, if all goes well, the pews and other furniture will be back in time for our wedding. Here are a few pictures for y'all to view.

They hope to have the rest of the stenciling done as well. Everything is being restored to original look from the 1800s. Lots of bright, rich colors; it really is stunning. I can't wait for everyone to see it in person in January!


The wedding was absolutely beautiful. It was simple, classic. I should have a digital copy of our photo booth pictures. It's quite silly, and very us. Keep posted!

Wedding Dress Shopping Day!

Yesterday was wedding dress shopping day. I was greeted by a surprise in Kyle and Marcy coming into town. 

The first place was amazing. The consultant was nice and really helpful. For all you future brides in the Houston area, I highly suggest Ventura's Bridal. The first dress I tried on ended up the winner. Sorry, no posting pictures here. Can't risk Beau seeing. But I will post a few of the losers.

And possibly my favorite picture from the day: Em hiding in the train of the Cinderella dress at Alfred Angelo.

We are still in search of the perfect bridesmaids dress. We found a couple of potentials at Alfred. Once we find the ones, I'll post them here. 


After a successful day of shopping, Beau and I went to our last show of the season: Mamma Mia. We had a blast and the show was just as amazing as I remembered. I can't believe that it had been 9 years since I'd last seen it. 


This morning we got up and met everyone for breakfast in Sugarland. It was nice to see everyone one last time. I'm so glad that Kyle and Marcy were able to make it in. A great weekend :)

House and Wedding Updates

Today was work day #1 on the house in order to get it on the market soon. We actually got about 75% of the stuff done that we needed to. I got the bathrooms and bedrooms in order while Beau did touch up painting and tackled the backyard. We brought a load of stuff back as well that we'd left up there. Beau is planning on going back next weekend to finish the yard work, pressure wash the back patio and bring the last load of stuff home. 


The meeting with the florist got postponed until Monday. I'm super excited to meet with her and talk about the ideas. We went to Matt and Abby's happy hour yesterday, which was a lot of fun. Decided to split the cost of the fake flowers for Cadee to throw. Obviously they will still be good when our wedding rolls around. The church renovations are coming along well. It's going to be beautiful. Perhaps I will get some pictures to share. David told me that they finished painting and it look amazing. Ok, time to wind down before tomorrow. Another full day.

Bujinkan Galveston Dojo Family Festival 2011

Last weekend was the Bujinkan Galveston Dojo Family Festival. It was the first year it was run and went fairly well. Jill did a zumba/hip hop class for free which was awesome. I'm hoping to start doing it on Saturdays to help with getting into wedding shape.

Jill (right) zumba-ing with the ladies

The rest of the day was dedicated to showing off bujinkan. We had intended to do two demos, a kids class and an adult class. It ended up being one formal demo, a casual kids and casual adult class. The turn out for the formal demo was actually a fairly decent one. 

Tim and George demo sword work

Hopefully next time we hold one, it'll be even bigger. If you are interested in joining either the zumba class or the bujinkan class, comment here and I'll get you more information.

Engagement photos a go!

We have figured out the engagement photo situation. Our photographer decided that it would be beneficial to go ahead and come out to do our engagement photos. She'll be coming into town on the second weekend in June. This will give us a chance to get accustomed to working with her, so we are prepared when the wedding comes around.


Since she's going to be staying with us the whole weekend we have many options. The plan is to take some shots in the theater district of Houston, since that's been a big part of our lives this year. We'd also like to do some shots on our beach.


Everything seems to be falling into place nicely!

Adventures in Kayaking

Friday was quite the adventure with kayaking. One of my favorite groups to take out, Blinn College, met us at Armand Bayou for what was to prove to be an adventurous day. Robert, their instructor and long time friend of AB, insists that the students always help (as part of the kayak experience). This of course made it much easier. 


As we cruised Armand Bayou I was wondering where the gators were. We usually see a handful of them as we go. Some how I missed a 4-5 ft gator as we headed out. Later we saw a 2 ft baby as we were eating lunch. Lamenting on our return trip that we had seen much, off to my left I saw a fairly sizable alligator. Just one didn't bother me so much, the second one though inspired some healthy concern. The former had to have been at least 6 feet, while the latter was a good 2 feet bigger. My guess was that they were a nesting pair. The smaller on stayed at the surface, but the larger one never came back up. It was quite the run in, my heart definitely skipped a few beats.


On our way back, we hit a pothole and managed to seriously bend our rim causing a flat. Thankfully we were near a precinct of the Houston Police Department. An officer was nice enough to bang it back into place so we could make it back to Galveston. Never a dull day at work for me.

Wyman Wedding

Once again, I'm behind with posts. Last Friday, April 1, was my former roommate Susan's wedding. We had a lot of fun there and I stayed pretty busy as a bride's maid. The ceremony and reception were held at Butler's Courtyard in historic, downtown League City. 

The girls at tea the day before the wedding: Susan, Shana, Me, Beth and Mere

Hmmm, apparently there aren't any pictures of J and I together. I was so busy I plain forgot, otherwise I'd include it here. The wedding was beautiful, but it just help solidify to us that we are making the right decision for us with having a mid-day wedding.

We just got invited to another wedding, that same weekend. Abby, a girl I go to church with, is getting married in May. It'll be a nice chance to see what the church will look like, as Abby and her fiancée Matt will be getting married there as well. 

We have the invitation design selected, now working on return card design and other things that will be going in the invitation. Engagement pictures are still up in the air. Hopefully we'll know more about what's going on with that soon. Otherwise we are just coasting with everything. Things should calm down soon. Ok, time to get moving again.

Wedding website a go!

Keep in the know about our wedding and all the details surrounding it. Click here!

Wedding planning is set to cruise control currently. Between work and other commitments we are too busy to move on anything else. Not to worry though, we are pretty much on track anyway. Next on the agenda is shopping for my dress in May.

Kayak Instructor Training

This weekend was kayak instructor training for me. It was three intense days of learning and kayaking out in Offatts Bayou on Galveston Bay. As a result, I am now a Level 1 Kayak instructor. This means that I can now lead trips around Galveston Bay on my own. Woo!

Barcycle

I'm a little behind, but we had barcycle last Sunday (March 13). It's an annual event that happens the Sunday before St Patrick's Day where everyone bar hops on bicycles. Safe right? Tons of fun of course :)

Here we are outside of Pressbox with our friends Art and Steve, this was a late in the game. I believe Pressbox was #5 on the list.

The entire group outside Yaga's (#6) 

This year we participated on Razor scooters that sparked. It was quite the hit with all the intoxicated people. Perhaps next year we will have bike?

Second Sunday, Fat Tuesday & Lent

This past Sunday was the Krewe of Barkus and Meoux parade. We met up with Shana's Mom and Aunt to watch her and Sophie walk Alex and Cleo in the parade. They had lots of animals including a goat, snakes and ferrets (along with many dogs). Following the Krewe of Barkus and Meoux parade was the kids parade. Sadly there were not a whole lot of firetrucks. We ended up leaving part way through for other engagements. Perhaps I'll put pictures up soon.


We had a nice Fat Tuesday dinner, although the Fat Tuesday parade made it more difficult that originally planned. Due to the parade, we ended up at Saltgrass Steakhouse. Both of us decided on things to give up for the season of Lent. Jason is giving up soda and I'm giving up my fast food breakfasts. J felt bad because yesterday he ended up with a 24 hr bug and had to break his promise. Thankfully he's feeling better and should be able to get back on track.


This weekend we have Billy Elliot on Saturday followed by barcycle on Sunday. For those of you who aren't familiar with barcycle, it's essentially it's a pub crawl that takes place the Sunday before St Patrick's Day where people move from bar to bar on bikes. It's quite a sight to see, and quite entertaining once the alcohol sets in. Well, more to come later. It's about time to get ready for training tonight.

Krewe of Aquarius Kick Off Parade 2011

Possibly my all time favorite Galveston Mardi Gras event, the Krewe of Aquarius Kick Off Parade! This was Jason's first time attending. Me, I can't remember how many times I've gone over the past few years. It's always a blast and we catch a lot of beads (and sometimes other stuff). We met up with Shana and her family (minus Ginia) to enjoy the festivities.

Us waiting on the parade

Sadly I didn't get many pictures as my camera was about to die. We did see our hair stylist, Heathyr and her friend Stacey in the parade as they went by. A good first Mardi Gras so far. Looking forward to this weekend with the Krewe of Barkus and Meoux parade and Children's parade (with antique firetrucks) on Sunday.

We have a date!

It's official! We have a date for our wedding: January 28, 2012. The ceremony will be at First Presbyterian Church in Galveston with reception to follow at the Galveston Artillery Club.


Now that we have venues set we can kind of coast for a while. With the exception of me picking my dress, we have everything on our 9 month+ time line complete. Hopefully we are through the hardest part, with the toughest decisions made. Definitely looking forward to it though :)

We have interwebs!

Apparently my last post didn't publish, so here we go again. We have interwebs! Everything is pretty much up and running now with the exception of tv. Hopefully we can get an appointment this week to get directv installed.

Wedding planning  is going, with venue selection being a pain. This afternoon we are going to see one more venue, the Galveston Artillery Club. We are between this one and Tremont House. Hopefully next week we'll have a decision made for venues and dates. Then we can coast until April/May.


We just got back from enjoying the Krewe of Aquarius parade with Shana and her family. We caught lots of beads and had a good time. We saw Heathyr (my hair stylist) and her roller derby in the parade, along with all the Aggies on the Krewe of Thalassar floats. So far it's been a good weekend.

All moved in

Well, we are all moved in. Bittersweet for me as I will miss Shana, but am looking forward to the months and years to come. For the most part, we are all settled, just unpacking and organizing left. Once it looks a little nicer, I'll take a video and pics of the new place.


Internet is dependent on Jason's phone, and my laptop battery. Hopefully we'll be up and running for good next week. Gotta keep it short til then.


In the last week we checked out 2 venues with GHF. We were only waiting on Tremont House, but now we've been offered another option. David and Jennifer have offered to sponsor us at the Galveston Artillery Club for the reception if we so choose. Right now we don't know anything about it. Once we know more we can make a definite decision. More later.

It's almost here

We are one day away from the movers coming to load up Jason's house and bring it down to the island. By this time tomorrow, we will mostly be in the apartment (with the exception of my big stuff). It seems like this day was so far off, and just yesterday we were looking for a place to call our own.

Wedding planning is off and running. We are penciled in at the church and will submit paperwork and deposit when we have a venue set. I managed to get off from work this afternoon so we are trying to go see a few places today: Ashton Villa and Garten Verein. I'm also going to look up a few more possible venues here. If we don't go today, it'll be Wednesday of next week before we go. Once we have the venue set, I'll be calmer about everything. I just want to make sure we get a special place for our day.

Well, need to go get some stuff done that's been put off for whatever reason.

An Extra Super Super Bowl Sunday

I got quite the surprise this afternoon from beau. After we got the truck unloaded from the return trip, we'd decided to go to an early dinner. We were just about ready to go when I got an unexpected surprise. There, in our mostly barren apartment, Jason got down on one knee and proposed. Of course I said yes! Before I'd even seen the ring to boot. 

The ring is custom made, one of a kind (just like me!). It's a 3/4 carat, princess cut diamond. It's set in 14k white gold and has a channel of beading down each side. This is however, a temporary ring. There was an issue with the beading completely filling in the channel that the jeweler was displeased with. Consequently they are casting a whole new ring. This will give them a chance to resize it though. Right now it's about a half size too big.


Needless to say I was surprised and happy for the proposal. Officially we'll be engaged from the start of living in the apartment, and the apartment holds that much more memory for us. Now on to the fun part: planning! Details will be posted here as we figure things out. So keep an eye open.

Aggies vs Baylor

This weekend we went to College Station to attend an Aggie basketball game with mom and dad. We had a lot of fun at Reed, but sadly our beloved Aggies ran out of time.

That night we enjoyed watching Despicable Me with mom and dad while partaking of some ice cream and wine (not together). 


Another reason for the trip, not just to see the folks, was to pick up my Grandma Marion's dining table and chairs for the new apartment. They look amazing, and we managed to destroy a couple u-haul furniture mats in the process. We are excited for things slowly coming together. Next weekend, 6 days from now, Jason's house will get moved. That will be the official start to our life together. We couldn't be happier!

In honor of moving....

I give you Simon's cat!

First Moving Weekend

I think we can call this first weekend a success with moving. We made a total of 4 trips in all to the apartment. With each trip we would bring up all the boxes and then proceed to unpack them. Definitely a lot easier than trying to do it all at once in my opinion (of course it can't always be like this). Each time we go it feels a bit more like home.


I was able to get all the shelves covered with liner and all the small drawers. We need fatter liner to finish the bigger drawers and pantry. We changed out bulbs in both bathrooms (for the most part), both bed rooms and the upstairs storage closet to cfl's. We have 3 new bins for recycling. The bedroom door curtains are hung up and functional. And for the most part we have the inventory done. 


During this week I'm going to get the water switched over, Jason is going to set up the internet, gas and electric. In March, we will get directv set up. Movers come to get him moved in 2 weeks and myself in 3. Once we are completely in, I'll take pictures and post them here. 

It's official!

It's official! We met and signed all the paperwork today, along with getting our keys :) There are a few loose ends we are still working on tying up. After lunch we are going to pack up some stuff in the car and head over to work on getting our new home set up! 


We can't believe we've finally made it here. Seems like only the other day we started the process of finding "our place". It's going to be a long, slow process over the next few weeks, but before we know it we'll be settled and starting this new journey.


Tonight we are off to dinner and games with several couples from Jason's company. Should be a lot of fun. Tomorrow will be church and more moving of boxes. Pictures to come as things get set up.

Packing Day 1

This morning was spent packing things up in preparation for moving in another week or so. I cannot believe that we are a week away from meeting with the Realtor to sign all the necessary paperwork, perhaps even get the keys. A girl can hope right? The dining room is slowly filling up with boxes. I can't wait to get them over to the new place. Official moving day for Jason is the 12th, me the 19th. 

Tonight we are hitting ArtWalk downtown. Should be a lot of fun. Shana and her pb will be there, possibly some of my family. Looking forward to the fun, who can say no to free booze?

For Sale!

Combining two households can prove to be a daunting task. Fortunately I think we are going to be ok for the most part. We do have a couple items needing to be sold. Please contact me if you are interested.

Table #1, pub height with four swivel stools: $200

Table #2, standard height with four rolling chairs and expanding leaf (shown with leaf in): $200

Futon with mattress and mattress cover: $75

Dehumidifier: $75

New Loft

As I'm sure many of you are aware, Jason and I are going to be moving in about a month. Our new home will be a loft in downtown Galveston, which we are very excited about.

Our unit is on the second floor of the salmon colored portion of the building (yes, the whole section). The unit is approximately 1900 sqft, it is just ginormous! It's got two bedrooms and two baths, along with spacious closets, a storage closet on the first floor and a garage space.

One of my favorite things is all the charm that comes with a loft: exposed brick, pipes, siding. It adds a uniqueness that makes it one of a kind. Super tall ceilings give us big windows that will let in plenty of light all day (south facing). Plus there are two built in units (entertainment unit seen above and bookshelf below) for even more storage.

Needless to say, the next month cannot go quicker. We've already got movers lined up, and I've already started packing. It'll be here before we know it. We are looking forward to starting this new part of our journey together: our first home.

Wisconsin Trip

To ring in the new year, we took a trip home to Wisconsin to see Jason's family. We had a ton of fun. For new year's eve, we played 500 (us vs his folks). New year's day was Christmas #3 for us, with his family.

The next day, we spent time with his friends up near Green Bay to watch the Packers take on the Chicago Bears. We had a great time spending time with good friends.

The third was spent over in Madison, seeing the University of Wisconsin campus. It was super cold, so we toured campus in the car. Lunch with friends got me eating cheese curds. Sadly the dairy on campus was closed, so no ice cream for us :(

Before leaving on the fourth, we headed over to the Milwaukee County Zoo. Surprisingly, not a lot of animals were out. There were still enough animals out to make it worth it.

We had a lot of fun on our trip. It was a great way to ring in the new year.

Welcome to our blog!

We got the idea to create a blog to share our life with everyone. So you'll find all our adventures and island living  here. Stay tuned for more :)