New House {inside}

Well, it only took a few months, but I am finally prepared to share the inside of our new house in Houston. We painted the living, kitchen, and 2 bathrooms and left the rest as it was before. This one required a lot less work than the last one, but the unpacking process seemed to take eleventy billion years. Maybe it was because we had to cram a 2,000 square foot house's possessions into a 1,400 square foot house. Maybe it was because we have 10,000 lbs of stuff (yes, they weighed our moving truck, and yes, that is equal to 5 tons, if you're counting). Needless to say, we got rid of a LOT of stuff and have stopped buying furniture forevermore (kind of. mostly. exceptions must always be made- i.e. card catalog below). Hope you'll come visit!

Living Room:

Dining Room:

Kitchen:

Man Cave Room:

My Bathroom:

Bedroom:

Guest Bedroom:

Noah's Bathroom:

Sorry I've been MIA! We've been a bit busy between Thanksgiving, moving, new jobs, and Christmas.

Here is a picture of our new house! I'll post photos of the inside when it isn't full of piles of stuff. :)

My Latest Crafts

Aprons & matching gloves!

Happy Anniversary...

Noah and I are about to have our 2nd anniversary (crazy)! To celebrate, we took a trip to San Francisco. As I planned the trip, I tried really hard to think of something to get him. Keep in mind, he is the hardest person to shop for because he doesn't want anything, which I love about him all the time except for on his birthday/our anniversary/Christmas. Anyway, I was SO PROUD of myself when I came up with the idea to get us tickets to a cool jazz club in San Francisco for part of our trip! Noah loves jazz and we've never been to a jazz concert before. Jackpot.

The night of the concert arrived and I told him what his surprise was at dinner. He was so excited! I finally picked a good gift AND managed to surprise him! Hooray! We anxiously arrived to the jazz club 30 minutes early and were the first people in the room.

Our table mates arrive shortly after and were raving about the group that was performing that night.

Girl 1:"They're from Minnesota and they're my favorite band!"

Girl 2:"They are great!" "

Me: "Excellent! We really like jazz."

Girl 1: "Yeah, I guess they're kind of jazz."

Wait... whaaaat?

Meet the band:
They were not 'kind of jazz.' They were kind of crazy with a little funk on the side.

Here is a run-down of the rest of the evening:

After the first note the band played:

Me: [whispering to Noah] "I think they might not be a jazz band."

10 seconds into the first song:

After the first song:

Me: [whispering to Noah] Do you think this is one of those things we'll look back and laugh about later?

Noah: [pauses... then solemnly nods]

Ohh it was bad. One member of the group just stood behind a keyboard and jumped up and down all night. A large portion of the evening involved the singer singing unintelligible sounds at us and then having the audience sing back. Which they did. With fervor. I am pretty sure we were the only people in the audience who were not totally loving it. The girls next to us did not sit down once and knew every word to every song. The group got several standing ovations. I felt like I was taking crazy pills.

After what seemed like days, but in real time was only about an hour, they sang their last song and left, at which point Noah and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. That is, until the girl next to me took a break from screaming at the top of her lungs, grabbed my arm, and yelled, "DON'T WORRY! THEY'RE COMING BACK! DON'T WORRY! IT ISN'T OVER YET."

Honey, I'm so sorry. I'll try to do better next year. By the way, please let me know when it's time to start laughing about it.

Alaksa

This summer 5 of my college friends and I got to spend a week in Alaska! The 6 of us are all petroleum engineers for different companies and since college have spread out across the US for our jobs. One of them has been working in Alaska for the last 3 years, and the other 5 of us FINALLY found a week that we could all go visit. We should have done it sooner- it was one of the best trips I have ever been on. It was 50% the company and 50% the amazing views and activities that we got to do. I don't think we left a single Alaskan adventure un-conquered.

Landing in Anchorage: it is already gorgeous (it is 9:30 PM here)

Hiking Flat Top! I was impressed that I survived this one.
Yay!
Eliot, the friend that lives in AK, has his pilot's license and took us up!
Eeee!
Of course we had to try on a coonskin cap... (Eliot, me, Chad)
We rode the Alaskan train to Seward... see the huge glacier? It's not fair that people get to live here.
We went white water rafting in a class V river... and didn't drown...
My favorite group shot (Derrick, Chris, me, Lindsey 2, Chad, Eliot) on our Fox Island dinner cruise.
Thanks for obliging me on all of my Kodak moment demands, boys.

Skipping rocks at sunset

We took a fishing charter... unfortunately, this was all I managed to lure in. Isn't it a beauty?
Luckily for me, the other 5 collectively caught 34 lbs. of halibut and salmon. We took a few filets straight to a restaurant where they cooked them for us. It was by far the best fish I've ever had- it doesn't get much fresher than that!
Then we crashed on the train ride back to Anchorage...
Lindsey, Derrick, and Chad
Eliot, me, and Chris
Panning for gold!
And, of course, we shopped. Here, Chris is modeling my new Fox earmuffs.
I came home ready to move Noah to Alaska! I would highly recommend a vacation there, especially if you are tired of Oklahoma's heat.