Happenings Lately-Holiday Edition

What I have been up to lately...Holiday Edition!

I made a chalk drawings with my mom and Kali in my parents back yard. :)

I attempted (along with lots of others) to break a Guinness World Record by reading to the most kids in a 24 hour period with Read Across the Globe.  Unfortunately, we didn't beat the record.  But I will say that the book we read was great!  I was like "who wants to read a book about farming?" (sorry, I'm a city girl) but once I read it I wanted to buy it for my children's book collection.  Check it out!

I sat in the live studio audience of Great Day Houston!

We decorated the Christmas tree and Kali decided that we needed 4 of the same ornaments on one branch.  It was too cute to move so we left it there. :)

 We built a gingerbread house and a certain 2 year old ate most of the decorations...

I took a 2 year old to the Woodland's Mall to see Santa and then to the playground inside.  She didn't want to leave.

I attended the FANTASTIC Christmas musical experience called Celebration at Houston's First Baptist Church with my friend Terrie, her mom (below) and granddaughter, Lila.  I bought the tickets back in November when they went on sale.  I actually went twice this year, once with Terrie and co. and the other with my Grandmother.  The show is amazing!

I bought a Christmas ornament with my niece and nephews name on it!

What I’ve Been Up To Lately Vol 3

 As always, I have my bad blogger hat and t-shirt on to write this post.  Besides my birthday post, I haven’t written anything since March!  Tsk tsk.  Sorry about that!  :) Here’s what I’ve been up to in random order:

Easter 2015

As usual, we spent Easter at my parents’ house.  My parents heated the pool and all of the kids got to swim. I also made this year’s bunny cake!  If you aren’t aware, it is a family tradition that me and my sister make a bunny cake.  My sister refuses to help anymore, so I was “forced” to make one by myself.  It's a hard life. :)

SCBWI Houston Conference

I have tried to attend the Houston SCBWI conference for a few years now, but I always miss it.  In 2013 I had just missed the Houston conference but went to Los Angeles one instead.  Last year, the Driving Jacks 5K was happening so I couldn’t make it.  This year, I got an email about the LA conference again but can’t go since it is too expensive and thought about the Houston conference.  I said “I wish I could go to that one, but it’s always in April” and then thought “Wait, it IS April!” and proceeded to google when the 2015 conference would be.  As luck would have it, it was the next day!  Haha.  I almost missed it for a 3^rd year in a row.  I have since been involved in the local chapter and being the event planner and over achiever I am, I offered to help coordinate the 2016 conference. 

Astros Suite Tickets

My work gave us Astros Suite tickets for doing a great job on the events!  I have always wanted to go to a sporting event and sit in the suites.  Bucket list item!!!!!!  The seats were great, the fajita bar was tasty, and the wine was delicious.  It was a fun night!  I took my friend Tracie to the game and we had a blast.

Jamberry Nails

Ignore the fact that I need a real manicure

My sister introduced me to Jamberry Nails a few weeks ago and I have been obsessed ever since.  I started off with 1 set of nail stickers but have now hoarded my way to 12 sets. Oh goodness.  Luckily, my mom and sister also have several sheets and we all trade.  My toes and fingers have never looked so cute.  I am always debating what color to get when I get a pedicure, now I can have fun stickers that stay for a long time.  (Seriously, my pedicure ones stayed for just over a month and my fingernails stayed for 2 weeks).

Children’s Museum of the Woodland’s

I took Kali to the Children’s Museum in the Woodlands and at first she didn’t know what was happening.  She likes to sit back and observe for a while before jumping into the action.  Once she felt secure enough, so started to play and there was no stopping her.  She played dress up, ‘drove’ a car, slid down the slide, got soaking wet in the water play section (she was having fun, I couldn’t stop the fun!), and built lots of tall buildings.

Baseball player signing

My work hosts an annual Astros Day where they have 3 players come out and sign sports stuff for everyone.  I don’t need more clutter in my life and don’t collect any sports stuff.  I called my dad to see if he would want something signed and he said a baseball.  Jose Altuve, Marwin Gonzalez, and Luis Valbuena were all there to sign items for us! 

Royal Caribbean Cruise

I went on a cruise in May with my friend Clarissa!  We went to Cozumel, Belize, and Roatan.  I had a blast and fell in love with cruising.  I can’t wait to do another one.  Somewhere between Belize and Roatan (where I got in the water) I got a SUPER bad ear infection that still hasn’t 100% healed.  I think it was when we went cave tubing in Belize.  I should really write an entire post about just my cruise…let me get back to you on that.

Fondue Restaurant 

For my birthday my friend Terrie took me out to a fondue restaurant.   Bucket list item!!!!  I have always wanted to go to a fondue place but it’s kind of expensive just to do for no reason.  We went to The Melting Pot off Westheimer and it just happened to have a review that said it was the most romantic place to take a date. LOL. As you may or may not know, I am a self-proclaimed marshmallow freak and when the dessert fondue came out, I was so excited.   Yum!  They even gave me a signed birthday card when we were leaving.

 Cole Turns 4!

 Cole turned 4 at the end of April and they hosted a fish fry for him.  He requested a cake with m&m's on it and that is what he got.  

I think that’s all for now!!  I will be back with a post about the cruise, my birthday, and my trip to Venezuela where I met a real life Willy Wonka!!!

A Sad, A Happy, and an Anniversary

A Sad-Last Sunday would have been Jabba’s 4^th Adoptiversary and today he has been gone for four months.  I miss you buddy, here’s some catnip treats for you up in Heaven!

A Happy-This Sunday my family and I are trying out to be on the Family Feud!!!  Survey says:  I will let you know how it goes. I probably won’t be able to give you too much info because of the contract we have to sign.  We drive to Austin on Sunday morning for the tryouts, compete against several different families, and if they like us, they will fly us out to Atlanta this summer.  Super fun! If you and your family want to try out for the Family Feud, go here.  Our team is my sister Laura, my aunt Laura (Roger's wife), Laura's sister Katie, Katie's husband, Scott.  Wish us luck!!!

An Anniversary-Two years ago today, I ran my first (and probably, only!!!) marathon!!!!!! Doesn’t time fly?  I remember the next day my legs were on FIRE!  I started the 21 Day Fix on Sunday and my legs are burning just like they were that day (only not 26.2% less). #memories #26.2Hurts #CanIBeatMyTime #rainandcold

What I've Been Up To

I know my blog has been all about Kenya lately…but I promise I have been doing other things since I have been home.  

Normally I would post all of these in their own separate blog posts, but I am really busy right now and it is taking way to long for me to wrap up all the things I want to say about Kenya.  If I was to do that, it wouldn’t be until the end of May when I would tell you about all this stuff.  Please be patient with me, I am typing and writing stuff as fast as I can in between all of the other stuff I have going on right now.  Plus, to tell you the truth, I have been reading a fantastic new book that is taking a lot of my spare time when I get home and I would rather read those books. LOL.  <-- That’s honesty.

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Drive-In Movie

I have always wanted to go to a drive-in movie theater and a few months ago Groupon had one for half off two tickets.  They were set to expire early this month, so I decided to take a friend with me to see Ironman 3.   My friend Leslie and her friend Theresa also came with us.  Theresa is new to Houston so we invited her along.  We heard that the theater sold out easily so we got there around 6:15 (for an 8 pm movie) and it was sold out. :/  We were able to get on that side of the fence though to watch the movie, as long as you have radio you can still here the movie (turn your car that direction).

Mother’s Day

For Mother’s Day we went to Landry’s Seafood in the Woodlands for lunch.  They didn’t have their usual menu, only a buffet, but it was wonderful!  I have never had such a good buffet, you go Landry’s!  We also go my Mom a DiamondCandle as her gift.  We burned her candle to see what ring she got out, but it wasn’t a $5,000 ring. Oh well, it was pretty!   More on Diamond Candles in another post!

Price is Right

My sister had told me that the Price is Right was in town and that her and her husband were going to go. I was immediately jealous and wanted to go as well, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sit with them if I bought tickets.  The day of the event (a Tuesday) she said there were still tickets available and that I should buy one.  Of course I did!  We went to the Hard Rock Cafe that is next door to the theater (btw, when did the name get changed from the Verizon Wireless theater?  How did I miss that?!) and had dinner before the show.  The show itself was really fun and the host was hilarious, but unfortunately none of us got picked to be the contestants. :/  It was a fun night and I am glad I got to hang out with the Laura and Beau. 

Houston Social Source Whole Foods Singles Event

I just joined Meetup.com (it’s free!) and saw that there was a single’s event happening on a Friday night at Whole Foods off Montrose.  I posted it to FB and my friend Lily said that she wanted to go also.  We met at Whole Foods around 6 pm and got our nametags, goodie bags, drink tickets, and free food.  We added our name to a few drawings and I won a free spray tanning session.  Now, I have gotten a spray tan before, but I wasn’t a fan.  I am not sure I am going to use it or not, we will see.  There was an 80’s cover band playing too that were pretty good.  No cute single guys though. :/  We did play several games that were fun, including Whole Foods Scavenger Hunt and Grapefruit bowling in the parking lot.  At the end of the night there was also a bachelor/bachelorette game that was fun to watch.

Planning a 5K

When I as in Kenya I was thinking about what I would fundraise for and I decided I wanted to fundraise to help them build a school.  I am in the middle of planning a 5K fundraiser set for sometime in February.  More details to come!

Farmers Market

Most of you know that I am not very good at cooking, but I decided that I need to eat better than I have been lately.  My friend Leslie told me about a really big farmers market off of Richmond and Eastside in the Upper Kirby area.  I decided to check it out and buy some good veggies while there.  I had just gone shopping at Trader Joe’s the weekend before (love that place) so I didn’t need too much stuff, but I still wanted to see what it was all about.  I walked around and saw so many great vendors with all of this fresh looking food.  I saw lots of veggies (maybe fruit?) that I didn’t know existed and was too afraid to buy, but maybe next week I will get the nerves to actually try.  I ended up buying lettuce, tomatoes, white carrots, purple carrots, a breakfast taco, iced coffee with goats milk, curried lentil soup in a jar, and a curry jalapeno Indian sauce in a jar.  I have been eating salad and fresh food all week.  My body is thanking me.  Hopefully I can keep this up!  

No Label Brewery Party (this was actually before I left)

No Label Brewery sponsored our TIR relay team back in March, so they invited us to come to thew brewery to see how the beer is made and also just have a fun get together.  We met the owners, tried the beers and ginger ale (I stuck with ginger ale), played giant Jenga, and took a tour of the facility.  The owners (and their precious baby) were the nicest people!  

Cinco De Mayo

Cinco De Mayo was on a Sunday this year and I went for a strawberry margarita with my friend Tracie. Tracie lives in Pearland so we met halfway around Reliant Stadium at Pappasito’s Cantina.   This was before my ‘healthy’ grocery store trip though so I could gorge myself on salty chips and salsa.  

Astro’s game

The alumni association at SFA invited all of the SFA Houston alumni to an Astro’s game the Friday night after I got back from my trip.  I had a blast meeting new alumni, connecting with some old friends, and cheering on the Astro’s.  Unfortunately the Astro’s lost to the Detroit Tigers, but I got to watch fireworks at the end of the game so I was happy! :)  Plus, I got a free orange Astro’s shirt, free SFA Alumni koozi, and free SFA alumni stickers.  I was a happy camper!

Work Presentation

Part of my work paying for half of my mission trip was a stipulation that I would have to give a presentation when I got back to the entire company (about 100 people) what I did and what I learned.  I despise public speaking and was so nervous, but it sort of came naturally because I had so much to say about my trip and I wanted everyone to hear about what a fantastic place Into Abba’s Arms was and what a great service they are doing for the kids.  I showed about 20 pictures and gave away a free set of spoon/fork that had rhinos carved into the top, which were hand carved by an actual African Tribe.  Afterwards tons of people came up to me saying that they loved the presentation and my pictures.

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What have YOU been up to?  Do we need to catch up?  I have been trying to see all my friends since I have been back, but I am thinking I am missing a few people.