We're still alive... I promise!

I think this has been longest time off I've taken from the blog since I (or rather Andy) started it.  I have honestly missed it, but our new life in Katy, TX has been... well... busy.  So here's a brief recap (aka highlights) of the past couple of months.

We started our new jobs with Katy ISD at the end of August and that will require a post all on its own.  Just know that it took us a while to transition to our new schools and our new roles at those schools, but things are finally a little better.

Before school started, our dear friends Brandon and Joy spent some time at our house while they were transitioning from their home in Cleveland to their rental house in East Bernard.  We haven't had a chance to spend a lot of time with them, but it's so nice to know that they are close to us.  Hopefully, once they're settled in their new home and things are somewhat "normal" we can see each other more often.

Andy's parents visited for A&M vs. Bama game, and it was Andy's mom's birthday.  We had good food and good fellowship.  If only the Aggies had come up with the win!

Yummy football food!

 And we got a little crazy... Andy's mom made us a BTHO BAMA sign to put in the yard.  And Andy decided to blow up our huge Reveille for the front yard.  I guess it's go big or go home!

This is how we do it at the Rice house.
Thanks and Gig 'em!

Doug and Wendy came to our house for Doug's birthday.  We ate at Longhorn Steakhouse, and it was delicious.  That was mine and Andy's first time, and I'm pretty picky about my steak but it was quite tasty.  After dinner, we went to Top Golf.  We were told the wait time was 2 hours and 45 minutes, but Doug was determined to stay and celebrate for his birthday.  I assume most people added their name to the wait list but then ended up leaving because we only waited 45 minutes to an hour.  We had a blast!!

 

We took a half day off of work on Friday and went to Tarkington one weekend.  We went to the pep rally, volleyball game, and the cross country meet the next day.  The kids were so excited to see us, and we were so excited to see them as well some of the staff.  You don't realize how much you missed a place or missed people until you haven't seen them for a while.  I definitely had some tears in my eyes.  It was such a good visit.

 

Miss these kiddos!

The Taylor girls basketball team participated in the Race of the Cure run/walk 5K in Houston.  So of course, Andy and I joined them.  Last year, one of their coaches was diagnosed with breast cancer so this meant a lot to the girls.  Andy and I ran the 5K and then walked the 5K afterward with the girls.  We had a good time but were definitely wiped out when we got home.

The crowd during the run...

The crowd during the walk.  There were TONS of people!

My cousin Jillian called me one weekend and ask if I wanted to go with her to College Station to an A&M football game.  Heck yes!!  I hadn't been to College Station in years.  It was such a fun day girls trip.  I love talking to her and getting her opinion on things.  She's such an independent and strong woman.  Here are our pics from our trip. 

Also, it was my first time to see Johnny Manziel play live.  He's much smaller than in real life than he looks on TV.

Since we have actually had visitors stay at our new house, we got our guest room fixed up.  At our old house, we didn't have a spare bedroom with a bed.  Now, we do which makes me really happy!  I love having guests over.

And then we got new bedding!

 

Around the house

Andy and I have been pretty busy over the past few days.  Mowing the lawn, working on the landscaping, organizing/cleaning up the house, cleaning out the garage, fixing up the spare bedroom, and the list goes on.  We don't have much time left before our lives become super busy with our jobs.  It will be nice this year that Andy doesn't have a fall sport and specifically won't have cross country meets on Saturdays - yay!  I will definitely miss going to the meets, but it will be nice to have two days for the weekend instead of one.

Andy cleaned out the garage so that eventually my car will be able to park in it.  He moved all of our boxes that will stay in permanent storage (Christmas décor, keepsakes, etc.) into our extra bedroom until we can lay plywood down in the attic or rent a small storage building for it.  We then fixed up our guest room.  It's still not ready for pictures yet, but hopefully those will come soon.  Andy also made his kayak rack for the wall in our garage.  Andy's kayak is about 14 feet long which can take up a lot of space especially in a garage.  Andy is always great a researching new DIY projects for the house or the kayak, and of course he found one to hang the kayak on the wall.  It actually turned out quite awesome.

 

 

Today we worked on the landscaping in the front of the house.  We dug up the old plants that we didn't want, took out all of the old mulch that had been there for who knows how long, placed new edging around the flower bed and tree, put new mulch in, changed out the rocks next to the garage and dug up another plant.  My back is currently screaming at me.  I am thinking some Advil before is going to be necessary if I want to be able to move in the morning.  Overall, we are quite pleased with the work we got done.  There is still a lot more to do, but the front of the house looks much cleaner now.

Before

After

I am hoping we don't get in trouble for changing the landscaping.  Apparently, we are supposed to submit a form to the Architectural Review Committee to approve any landscaping changes we make.  Oops, we totally missed that one.  I really don't think they'll make us dig it all up.  It definitely looks much better than it did before!

He's a sweetheart!

Andy decided to surprise me the other day...  It doesn't happen often, but when it does he sure does know how to make a girl cry.  Andy went to have his truck washed on Friday, and when he came home, he surprised me with a bouquet of tulips (my absolute favorite flower), a massage gift card to Massage Envy, and the sweetest card ever.  My love language is words of affirmation which I think is due to my low self-esteem.  So Andy could have just gotten me the card with his kind words and that would have been enough.  But oh no, he goes above and beyond.  I love him so much, and he really does know how to make me feel better.

Here's a picture of my tulips... They are opening up already! 

With the flash

Without the flash

Lake Time!

Yesterday Andy and I met up with our friend Rick at Lake Conroe.  Rick is our parents' age, but he's a total bachelor.  I know it seems kind of weird since we're much younger than him, but I really think he just took us in as his own children.  Andy met him about 5 years ago at the YMCA because they played on the same men's league basketball team.  Then we just started hanging out outside of the gym, and now we're friends.  We had actually lost touch with Rick for a couple of years, but he had been contacting us this summer wanting us to go out on his boat with him.  With packing, moving, and unpacking, we hadn't had a chance until yesterday.  It was really great to catch up him and his girlfriend.

Selfie!

Eating at Sam's Boat for lunch

Clean Teeth and Astros Game

Last Monday we had our teeth cleaned, and it had probably been about 10 years or so for the both of us.  Unfortunately, we have been paying for dental insurance for the past three years and just used it for the first time.  We are usually not wasteful with our money, and it makes me embarrassed to admit that we literally wasted all that money on dental insurance.  Either way, it doesn't matter now.  We are now on the right track to getting our teeth cleaned every six months.

My checkup went well.  The dentist did recommend that I get my permanent retainer put back in on my bottom teeth.  It broke off in pieces several years ago, but I never went to have it put back on.  Andy needs to have a deeper cleaning done on his teeth due to the tartar build up between his retainer and gum line.  Plus, he needs to have a teeny-tiny cavity filled.  We are holding off since we will be getting new insurance in a couple of weeks at our new jobs.  Overall, it was good to go and make sure everything is going well.

Also on Monday, we went to my high school to put our school things in my classroom.  The teacher who had my room last year still had his stuff in my room, so I couldn't really work on my room any.  Bummer.  Andy's stuff is now in my room as well since his school is under construction, and teachers won't be able to get back until the work week before school officially starts.  I did talk to the secretary today, and the teacher in my room did pick up his keys.  She said she would notify him that I would like for him to get his stuff so I can start officially making the room mine.  I am going to the school on Monday regardless because it will stress me out if things aren't in order by the time we have our back to school meetings and work days.

Tuesday evening we went to the Astros game with Doug and Wendy.  It was actually Wendy's idea to take Doug to the game and then surprise him when we showed up.  So, he had no clue that we were going to be there.  And yes, he was surprised and pretty excited!  Andy and I aren't big into professional sports but especially baseball.  If we're going to an Astros game, then it's to hang out with someone because we are definitely not watching much of the game.  The Astros ended up losing in the end, 10-15.

Before we left the house

At the game

Two peas in a pod!

Doug and Wendy - cute!!

The whole gang!

We were going to leave in the bottom of the 8th inning but decided to hang out on the first level and watch the rest of the game.  We ended up witnessing a verbal altercation between an Astros fan and a Red Sox fan.  It was actually quite comical and that's what happens when you drink too much beer.  The cops ended up getting involved and escorting both gentlemen out of the stands.

Arguing with the cops...

 

More pictures of us before we left...

 

I hate rugs!

Why do rugs have to be so gosh darn expensive?  I mean, seriously.  Do people really spend thousands, and I do mean thousands, of dollars on one rug?  What makes them so expensive?  I was thinking about $200 for a rug, but as always the price in my mind is never right.  My living room is in desperate need of a rug, and I am super picky.  At this point, I am so tired of looking at rugs that I want to scream!

We have purchased two rugs and taken both of them back.  The first one we bought from Ikea, and I loved it!  I still do love it.  It's the perfect color and design.  However, it's too small for our space.  I need at least an 8x10 rug and this one was only 6x9.  At this point, I am so devastated because I really loved it.  It felt good on your feet and it was priced exceptionally well at only $100.

You can also see our new leather couches in this picture.

The second rug we bought was from Garden Ridge.  Once again, it was a great price of $100.  It looked much brighter in the store, and I really thought it would work.  Our furniture in the living is dark and our laminate wood floors aren't light either, so I really need a rug with some brightness to it.  I don't want rainbow or neon bright, but something in the rug needs to pop.  Well, this particular rug just fell flat and the brown seemed too dark.  It wasn't as soft as the rug from Ikea either, but it was the perfect size at 8x10.  Also, the green color in the rug didn't match my bright green accent wall.  I really don't want to settle on the rug because I feel like it's an important part of our living room to tie everything together so we took this one back as well.

Apparently, I deleted the picture of it in the
house.  So I only have this one from the store.

I have spent countless hours browsing the internet for rugs.  I have looked at random rugs websites that Google suggested.  I looked at Wayfair, Zulily, Kohl's, Walmart, Target, Amazon, Overstock, Rooms-to-Go, and probably several others.  I have found very few that I liked, but they were $500+ and I refuse to spend that much money on a rug.  I considered buying a beige rug and painting it, so I did some research.  I don't think I'm patient enough to paint an 8x10 rug for my living room hoping that I don't screw it up.  So, I'm stuck in a rut, and right now I hate rugs!

Here are a few of the ones I have seen recently that I like, I think.  Unfortunately, I don't know if I'm head-over-heels for any of them, but I haven't seen them in my living room.  It's so hard to tell from pictures if they would work, if the colors are bright enough.  Thankfully most of these places offer free shipping, but what about shipping it back if I don't like it?  Ugh.  I wish I weren't so picky.

$250

$300

$500

These two I threw in as extras just because I am so tired of looking at rugs, and they seemed similar to the previous rugs.  I don't even know their prices, and if I did they would probably be out of my price range.

This next one is, of course, the perfect rug.  But it's priced at a lovely $1100.  I am definitely not spending that much money a freakin' rug!

Maybe I should just find a solid colored rug instead of trying to find something with multiple colors and designs.  I don't know.  This has been a very frustrating process.

Sewing Machine

As Andy and I have been slowly (and I do mean s-l-o-w-l-y) settling into our new home, I had this random thought that I wanted to learn to sew.  It really was only a thought until I opened my big mouth.  It wasn't even a serious thought.  You know how you see those really cool things people pin on Pinterest and you pin it too knowing full well that you will never even begin to tackle that project?  Well, that was my thought about sewing and buying a sewing machine.  But then Andy started doing research on how much a sewing machine would cost.  Then I started doing research on sewing machines.  Then I asked Andy's mom about her sewing machine, and that folks is when my thought became a reality.  Yep, I am now the owner of a Singer Confidence Stylist sewing machine.  Apparently, I can make button holes, zippers, and 70 different types of stitches.  Here she is...

She doesn't have a name yet...

I have never touched a sewing machine before.  Ever.  My babysitter when I was growing up sewed.  My Granny sews, like makes clothes and stuff.  I have seen the basic, very basic, operation of a sewing machine before, but I didn't even know what a bobbin was until I started researching sewing machines.  I ordered my machine off of Amazon because it was the lowest price by $20.  We had some problems with the UPS delivery, but they eventually found our house.  I read tons of reviews and most everyone said it was extremely easy to use.  They weren't kidding.  The instructional DVD it came with was super helpful.  I will probably have to watch it a few more times before I can "thread" my machine on my own, but that's okay.  Andy's mom had given me some scrap fabric and black thread.  I have now sewn a line eight different times.  I'm pretty good with the straight stitch, but the zig-zag needs some work.  I know I will get better at it with practice.

First to last goes left to right.  I did get a little better in the end!

Making clothes with my machine is not a priority for me.  I would really like to make things like curtains, small decorative things around the house, maybe small gifts for friends, and anything Andy needs.  Andy already has a list going for me, or so he claims.  He has been asking me to make him a fishing bag without a zipper because they one he has now has a zipper and it's rusted due to the salt water.  That will probably be my first project to tackle.  I want to make some doilies for my coffee table and lamp table in the living room.  I have read about several scrapbookers who use their sewing machine for their scrapbook pages.  Now that would be really neat instead of sewing by hand.  My machine will actually sew a button onto something, so I'm pretty excited to use that.  But for now, I shall stick to straight stitches and easy projects.