Have I mentioned I like to eat?

Happy Thanksgiving! RJB and I have continued with our tradition - Turkey Trot in the morning, dinner with the in-laws in the evening, then out to FdL for our second round of turkey lovin'.

Mom with her bird

Dad doing the honors of surgically breaking down Mom's bird

It was good times all around though I cannot believe Christmas is right around the corner! Hopefully work will let up a bit so I can enjoy my favorite time of year! 

RJB and I continue to make home improvements. The third plumber was a charm in fixing our forever leaking faucets, a home theater (or something) guy is mounting our TVs this week, we purchased some uber cool and modern fixtures (lamp and bookcase to hold TV components), and are in the market to buy more furniture. We are selling my old TV stand and arm chair and plan on replacing the chair with some goodies from Design Within Reach. Thank goodness RJB also likes mid-century modern design.  Nonetheless, we are making progress but as we bring in new furniture, our old stuff looks bulky. Perhaps this is all part of the consumerism plot to get people to buy more. 

We are still considering whether or not we will put up a tree this year.  I noticed that a lot of people in our area have their decorations already up.  Not sure if they are really motivated or just taking advantage of no snow and abnormally warm weather.  I, however, am currently too lazy to open my Christmas decoration boxes. :-(

Tomorrow is the much awaited doctor's appointment for Dad. Cross your fingers and pray for a big zero on the test results!

Yee Haw

A few weeks ago the gals met in Austin for a brief (too brief!) weekend visit. ADF got a fancy new camera and was our weekend photographer...enjoy!

Fun at CCs

At Salt Lick. ADF asked some poor guy to take

about 50 shots of us like this. In a way, it is a little creepy family photo-ish...

As it turns out, Salt Lick is BYOB, so while we

waited, we took care of a nice bottle of red.

KH and YM...hee hee hee

The glorious meat

Walking around a lake downtown. no idea what lake it is. 

Dressed up for Sushi..again, we are all prepped for staged family photos! FYI, I was the only one in flats; I'm not really THAT short. 

Heartbroken

The last month and a half has been a whirlwind of emotions.  If there was ever a time in my life to give me pause and actually listen to what my Dad tells me year over year ("Julie, don't waste your youth on work" or "Julie, you need to learn how to manage your stress" or my personal favorite that generally comes after my reporting of a stress-induced ailment "Julie, you need to take a look at your life"), the time is now.  My family is dealing with a reality that was unexpected and baffling.  Frankly, I'm not sure how to help but I think doing more than acknowledging that my Dad is right and start making a change in how I handle work is a good start.  So, be patient.  I'm not sure how to go about making the kind of change you encourage me to make, but I'm working on it.

Starting to look like a home!

Yesterday was a big day. I finally cancelled my gym membership after not visiting this gym for too long to mention. Sorry RJB.   It was the easiest gym break up ever. Manager was working the desk, she didn't work me over, and I was in and out in 5 minutes. Ah, customer service.

We also had our new bed frame delivered and our table and chairs. Everything fits well and we are quite happy with our purchases. Sylvester was pretty upset when RJB took the old bed apart and there was nothing for him to hide under...so he hid under hanging clothes in the closet. The new bed has fairly low clearance for him to get under but when there's a will there's a way. Sylvester can flatten out like a roach to get under there!

We do have a little bit of furniture rearranging to figure out in our main living area, but for now it will suffice. The last big purchase will be a day bed for the second bedroom. Then its painting, new curtains for the master, and hanging things on the wall.  Maybe by year end we will be settled!

New bed, old sheets (if you have good ones to recommend, please let me know. These have pilled.), and summer blanket. Notice the yellowish gold curtains. High quality - I am pretty sure they are custom - but not our favorite color. 

Here's the table sans leaf. The buffet hanging out back there is what needs to find a new home.

Yes. Completely Random.

A few observations from the past week:

1. Having someone wash your hair is the best treat ever.  I think it is my favorite part of going to a salon and if I were super rich, I would hire someone to wash my hair everyday.

2. Sometimes sharing with your friends makes you feel more powerful when facing stressful situations.

3. I continue to be baffled by people who eat snack foods with powder flavor while on public transportation. It is stinky, the incessant crinkle of the bag makes me crazy (keep in mind this is during rush hour so the train is packed with people standing on top of you), and then when finished, the powder flavor is all over your hands!!! yuck.

4. I will always walk hard - heavy heel strikes - and don't think I can every change this. But I am all for some nice slippers to reduce impact......size 7 or maybe 8....just sayin'.

5. The kiddos (born, say circa 1984 - 1990) continue to baffle me. How can a generation so near to mine have such a completely different work ethic? Probably history repeating itself, but the latchkey generation is light-years away from the helicopter-parent generation.

6. The guy who wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jeykll and Mr. Hyde also wrote Treasure Island. I had no idea. It is also poetic that I read Jeykll and Hyde right after busy season. Gives you pause about what anger and hatred can do to your soul.

7. Almost two months in the new place and I still haven't figured out commuter footwear. Train is slightly too far away to comfortably walk in heels and the walk is long enough to cause premature wear to my lovely kicks. Problem - wear heels in the office so pant length is for heels. Flats to the train with said pants equals pants dragging on the ground.  Not cool. This is the ONLY reason why I am looking forward to winter. I can tuck those pants into my winter boots. And yes, it is a fly look. :)

Froedtert

I made it through busy season alright - just the same ole paper cuts, CYA stacks of paper, signing my name to probably too many returns, and eating more sugar than a person should be allowed (given how tired and hopped up on sugar  I was, I would tell myself "only three pieces of Halloween candy today" like I was a child...however like an adult I ate about a fourth of a pound of candy a day.)

There are times in your life that give you pause: phone calls from home, realizing that in a 7 day period you've eaten more McDonald's than you have in the last 14 years, not knowing what day it is because they blend together, and buying your first serious piece of furniture. Yep. Serious. Furniture. As in, we will likely have this until the end unless RJB wins and we upgrade in size. We bought a bed frame. This is very exciting for me because I have wanted a sleigh bed since I was a little girl AND RJB liked it without my suggesting to him that it might be a great design. Between a bonus and store sale, we will be proud owners of this in 1 - 2 weeks:

Uncle Grant wasn't generous enough to also allow us to get new dressers so we will still be mis-matched but I really don't care. And RJB is secretly happy that the rubbermaid bins I currently have under the bed will need to be moved (why it bothers him to have a few of those under the bed is beyond me). 

RJB and I were planning on going out of town next month to officially disconnect from work but decided to save on $$$ and stay in town instead. So we will do dinner, shop, catch up on movies....(by the way, RJB just asked in a suspicious tone "what are you writing about me?" ha ha!). I am actually excited because I haven't been in the new crib very much since we moved it. Perhaps I can actually get settled!

Speaking of the new crib, we finally ordered bookcases - we got two so we are officially at 3 in the house and need more (quote "we cannot possibly sustain this growth"). I guess we are all set if we get snowed in for a few weeks. 

Boxes of my beloved books!

 

Of course about a week after these guys were delivered, we got a "welcome to the neighborhood" coupon from Pottery Barn. Thanks.   Next on the list, kitchen table (we discovered the one we love is way too big for our space), a bed for the second bedroom, then new dressers to match the new bed! We got a ways to go, that's for sure. 

Going through the Big D and I do mean Dallas

Somehow I never posted pictures from my brief trip to Dallas in July! It was great times and I cannot wait to see the girls again in November (yay Austin and seeing little Luna!)

Ok, so this wasn't in Dallas but at Karen's wedding. But man alive is it funny!!