Pool Installation

What do you do when the house you are house sitting for doesn't have a pool???  You install one of course.

Free Willy even comes with it!

A plastic one that is!  I filled up the pool with water and hung out outside on Friday night with a beer.  

I started off with Blue Moon Peach, but quickly upgraded to Abita Purple Haze because Blue Moon Peach is AWFUL!  Next time I will have wine though.  Nothing says white trash more than plastic pools and beer. LOL. :) #classy

Speaking of keeping it classy, here's a story for you.  I was planning on going outside to set up the pool but needed to change clothes first after I got home from work.  The backyard has a high fence around it so I thought I would just go outside in my t-shirt and panties (oh goodness, I just said panties on-line) but at the last minute thought better of it and put on some shorts.  

I set up the pool and added the water hose to it.  I decided to put my bathing suit on so I went to the back door...but it was LOCKED!!!!  Unbeknownst to me, the lower lock on the door locks by itself.  Yep, I had locked myself out with no keys, no phone, and no beer.  

I went around to the front, but that was locked too. I went to the neighbors house to see if they had a spare key, but she didn't answer.  Can you imagine if I didn't have shorts on???  I would have been mortified having to walk down the street to a neighbors house in only a t-shirt and panties!!!  After about 20 minutes, I went back to the neighbors and luckily she answered (she had been in the shower).  She let me borrow her phone and I called my aunt's mom to come and unlock the door.  

So, long story short, my plastic white trash (but fun!) pool almost turned into a real life #keepitclassy horror story. :)

#stayclassy #wearshorts

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. 

Give me some beads

I am attempting to recap all of my 30 under 30 adventures and am running way behind.  This should have been posted in March! Enjoy reading about it though.

On March 18^th, 2012 I headed down to New Orleans for Mardi Gras with my friend from college, Amber!  #12 on my 30 under 30 list is party in New Orleans for Mardi Gras..whoop whoop!!  What a fun/different/exciting place.  This story has been edited for my families ears J, and I know it’s not Vegas, but some stories will stay in New Orleans. ;)

I drove down by myself (my Mom just about threw a fit about that-mind you it wasn’t that I was going, but that I drove by myself. LOL) on Saturday afternoon and got to the hotel about 9:30.  My sister had told me to make sure I stop and get gas no later than Lake Charles because random people walk up to you and ask you for money.  Once she freaked me out I pretty much hurried along when getting gas/stopping to pee so I wouldn’t get harassed.   I had already had a loooong day by getting up early to drive to Spring for my friend Mandy’s sons 5^th birthday party then I got on the road about 2:30 (my goal was to leave Spring no later than 2 pm…I talk to much so that didn’t happen).  I had rented a car because I would be driving right at 1,00 miles that weekend (Route: Pearland to Spring, Spring to New Orleans, New Orleans to Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches to Pearland= 1,000 miles) and I didn’t want to put that many miles on my car. I already drive almost 100 miles a day to/from my new job (new apartment March 17^th!) so to give my car a break I rented one (a Hyundai Santa Fe was really nice, you should get one!).

Anyway, Amber was coming from Nacogdoches and we would be in I-10 at the same time in Baton Rouge.  I had originally wanted to stop and eat dinner together then follow each other the rest of the way, but we were running late so I told her to meet me at the hotel.  I stopped at BBQ place and had dinner, I really wanted Cajun food but I couldn’t find one right off the road in Baton Rouge.  The restaurant was great though, I had a BBQ sandwich and a side salad. 

Back on the road I got to the hotel around 9:30 (I still beat Amber…she drives slow!) and we changed clothes and headed out. We parked under the freeway and walked to Bourbon street.  Apparently we had just missed a parade because there were TONS of beads on the street.  Street beads=Don’t pick up because they smell like pee!  We made it to Bourbon street and got a drink (Margarita? Yes please!). 

On the way to Bourbon street we saw a girl almost get abducted!  We were stopped at a light and all the sudden this van started jerking.  The driver and passenger were fighting (and the car wasn’t in park?! Really dude?) and the girl was trying to escape out of the van .  Someone from the back of the van got out and tried to push her back in, but eventually she got out and was all bloody and stumbling down the street.  We didn’t want to just leave her so we watched her until she went inside and got help with a police officer.  I don’t know if she wanted to go with those guys at first (she looked wasted-no sure if it was drugs or alcohol), but when she wanted out they almost didn’t let her go. 

After that drama we kept going down the street and got some beads (nope, not that way!).  The balconies were filled with people throwing beads.  If you wanted big beads you could buy  them in a shop, or you could flash something.  I didn’t want beads to begin with, much less big beads so I stayed away (EDITED STORY :)  ).  I really got beads for my sister, my nephews school has a carnival every year that gives out mardi gras beads so all of the ones I got were for her (plus, she only needed smaller size beads so large ones wouldn’t have done any good and I didn’t want them at my house). 

We left around 3:30 to drive back to the hotel and we finally fell asleep at around 4 am…super long day! 

The next morning I knew I wanted to see a parade so we got up early and headed out around 10 am (9 am is early when you got to bed at 4 am!).  We took forever finding parking spots, we drove seperatley because I was going to leave straight from there to go to Nacogdoches and she was going to hang out with some of her other friends that were there.  We got to the parade route about 20 minutes before the parade started.  We knew that the cool people get on risers and catch beads so we found one by Luke’s restaurant and walked up the steps.   No one stopped us and we hung out there talking to people while there.  They said we should have had wrist bands on but we could stay as long as the bouncer didn’t kick us out.  We caught tons of beads there!  I told them about my sister’s carnival and people handed me bags of beads.  I got a to-go bag from Luke’s restaurant to hold them all.

After the parade was over we were starving!  We wanted Cajun food, but at that point any food would work.  Luckily we found a great cajun restaurant towards where we parked.  Amber we to check on the cars and drop off my beads while I waited for the table (one of us had to stay).  When she came back she said she had gotten a parking ticket (oops! Note to self: don’t park on the streets of New Orleans!) but my car was fine.  We ordered the most AMAZING cheeseburger French fries. OMG, it makes me want them just typing this. Then we both ordered other food.  Nothing compared to those freakin’ French fries.

After we ate we went back to see another parade.  We couldn’t get back up on the balcony (we actually didn’t try, but decided not to press out luck) and went to look for another good place.  We got lots of beads and kept going down the street further to find a better spot.  We ended up next to a set of bleachers for military families that were super sweet.  I also told them about my sister’s carnival and at the end of the carnival one family gave me all of their beads!!!  At the end of the parade I had so many beads my bag was breaking.

I decided it was just about time for me to get going because I still had a 6 hour drive home.  My original plan had me leaving right after lunch.  What time did I end up leaving New Orleans?  6 pm!  Amber and I headed back to the car, but were held up by the parade when we were trying to cross.  The police were going to let about 40 people from our side go across when the parade finished so there wouldn’t be a mad rush and everyone get trampled.  I told Amber to hold on to me so we could both go and not lose each other.  We were one of the lucky 40 people but Amber got stuck and her shoe came off. I kept pulling on her to make sure she came with me but she wanted her shoe. LOL. She said she had contemplated leaving it, but remembered how disgusting the streets were and went back to get it.  We laughed so hard. (It WAS funny, you had to have been there and been sleep deprived).  One little boy fell down and another guy was being a jerk, but we made it across and it was time for me to go. I said goodbye to Amber and left for Nacogdoches!

The ride to Nacogdoches was semi un-eventful.  About 10 pm my phone started to die and I didn’t have a car charger.  I stopped at a gas station to ask where a Wal-mart was and told them I needed a car charger, a guy in the store said he had one that I could have.  I was scared that if I went out there I would get attacked or something, but he brought it in to me and said that he had bought one of those kits with all of the attachments and he had that one left over.  Cool!  (thanks random guy at the gas station, that was really nice of you!).  I did keep watching my rearview mirror to make sure he wasn’t following me, lol.  He wasn’t though.  I was so tired when I got to the Texas line that I stopped in a church parking lot and fell asleep (with the doors locked!) for about 30 minutes and got back on the road.  I made it to Nacogdoches about 1:30 am and fell right to sleep.

That’s my Mardi Gras story.  Nothing to wild, as you all know I am not a big partier anyway so I hope you didn’t expect some wild story.  Even if something had happened, it would have been edited. ;)

Do you have any wild Mardi Gras stories?  I want to here them!

The Hunt for a Keg

Can you guess what I did this weekend?

You: Found a pot of gold? 
Me: Nope, guess again!  
You:  Saw a unicorn in a magical land?
Me:  No, but I will give you a hint…BEER!
You:   A keg stand?
Me:  Yes, you are so smart!!!!

At SFA homecoming this weekend one of my main goals besides seeing my old friends and fellow alumni was to find a keg to mark one item off my 30 under 30 list.  A keg stand you ask?  For what reason?  You do not drink beer!  I know, but you got to take one for the team list.

After the Driving Jacks Alumni Night meeting Krista, Colleen, Britney, and I were hanging out in the Driving Jacks office and we started looking for a keg so I could complete one more item. 

We had heard that there was going to be one at three different places, one at Theta Chi, one at the baseball teams party, and one at the Sammie house.  All three turned out to be complete fake-outs, getting us all excited and I was losing all hope. (Cue the sad music and a tear).

Everyone was trying to call their friends to find one for me, then Colleen suggested that we just drive to our friend Josh’s party and see if there was one there since we couldn’t get him to answer the phone. 

At this point it was close to midnight and I was super, super tired (I am an old lady people) and I still had to go back to the hotel and do the 30 Day Shred (#7 on my list).  I was beginning to think we would not find one. L

On the way to Josh’s house Colleen stopped at Amanda’s house to see if they had one.  Krista and I stayed in the car, crossing our fingers.  I saw a few cups and said “If there are cups, then there must be a keg!” but I didn’t want to get my hopes up.  Colleen walked out with Amanda and did a thumps up sign, we were in! 

The next dilemma we faced was where to park.  The parking lot at the apartment complex was super tiny, hardly big enough for residents and people were double parking.  Even though we would be in there for 10 minutes tops, I made the smart decision to park elsewhere so my car would not get towed.  Krista and I found another complex about 2 blocks away, it was freezing so we decided to make a mad dash to the party.

This is our running/determined face:

Me in front of the party, so excited!:

 Amanda and Kool-Aid man educating me on how to do a keg stand.  They would make great college professors.

Here we go: 
I lasted 7 seconds the first time around (I’m not really a fan of beer…why don’t they have margarita kegs?)

Here are the two awesome gentlemen who made my first keg experience possible:

Then everyone wanted to do one, I started a trend!

And then I did another one.  It was super fun!

I did it!  Do you see the beer on my shirt?  I got sprayed!

Thank you Amanda for letting us come to your party!  I will never forget it.

 

St Arnold’s Brewery and Spaghetti Warehouse

As a work reward trip we went to the Spaghetti Warehouse for lunch and a tour of the St. Arnold’s Brewery.  We left work about 11:30 and headed downtown for lunch.   I hadn’t been to the Spaghetti Warehouse in 15+ years so this outing was a treat!

 

 I ordered Shrimp and Crab Bowtie Pasta (super yummy) with a side salad and tons of bread.

Then it was time to drive to the St. Arnold’s Brewery!!!  They host tours Mon-Sat check their website for times.

Behind the Brewery was an old park with a swing set!  Who acted like a kid and swung on them? This girl!

We waited on the front steps for everyone to get there and saw this Tie-Dye Rolls Royce that was parked inside the building. 

The entrance to the brewery had Willy Wonka doors!  Mysterious and exciting things happen behind those doors.

St. Arnold-Saint of Breweries

You pay $7 and you get a pint class with the St. Arnold’s logo on it and 4 chips that are redeemable for free beer!  I didn’t drink any beer so I gave my chips away to my co-workers (but kept my glass).  They also had rootbeer and water, so I helped myself to that.

There were a ton of tables were you can sit and drink you beer, they also had the St. Arnold’s logo on them.

 

On the tour they started upstairs with an explanation of the process of making beer.  I got a little bored with all of the technical stuff so me and my A.D.D. self wandered off and didn’t pay much attention.  I remember them saying something about it was a craft beer brewery and there were three criteria for being one.  1.  Independently owned.  2.  Manufactor under 6 million barrels of beer per year  3.  Cannot add any additives (like corn).

This is where they do something with the beer and move it between three tanks.

Here are a few of my favorites:

St.  Elvis

St. Dude

St. Michael Jackson

They said that the average beer fermented for 10 days to 2 weeks, but the pumpkin beer (Pumkinator) fermented for 2 months!

I really liked the St. Arnold’s Brewery!  I had a lot of fun and the staff was wonderful and answered all of our questions.  It would be a great place to host an event for your company. 



Downstairs they had these big steel tubs that held more beer while it was being fermented.  The State of TX requires that they all be labeled with a name or serial number so the owner named each fermenter after his family, friends, and random people he liked.