Monday, May 31, 2010

Spring Cleaning?

Since we've started this blog last year our layout has changed multiple times (if any of you who have been reading since our blog birthday). Jess is always rearranging her classroom, house, closet...and now the blog. No promise that it won't change again but maybe this one might stick around for awhile?

We had an awesome weekend and will be posting about it shortly. Check back soon. : )

Monday, May 24, 2010

Like Finding a Needle in a Haystack...

...but SO worth it! You all know by now that Jessica has been feverishly looking for a new school to call home for the upcoming school year. Well ladies and gents the wait is finally over (almost)! Jessica received not one but two job offers today. Both are from two really great schools but in two different school districts. One is for a fourth grade Math/Science (departmentalized) position while the other is for for a fifth grade (self contained) classroom. So far she decided that the 4th grade Math/Science position isn't really for her and that she would rather go with the 5th grade position. We say so far because she has another interview this Thursday at a school in yet another school district.

While we are counting our lucky stars with all of the recent good news, we hope to be able to share the good news with all of you by the end of the week.... getting our pen and paper to start a "pros and cons" list as we speak.


Friday, May 21, 2010

We Live in the Capital..oh ya?

Austin isn't a big city. That's one of the things are we truly enjoy about it. It's just big enough to have some city charm, something that LA didn't have enough of for us. Anyways, last weekend we spent a day exploring a few neighborhoods to see where we wanted to possibly end up after our year lease is up. At the end of the day we decided to head over to the Capitol building. Since it was the weekend we knew that there would be lots of parking so we might as well take advantage of the opportunity. This place was freakin' H U G E !!!!




So we took a few pics ....








and then.
we. found. this.





At first we thought it was a heart. oh how cute, a heart in the Capit0l? umm ya look closer. does that really belong in a city government building? apparently the state of Texas thinks so. We left laughing and wondered if anyone else has ever noticed this "artistic" expression before.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

32nd Birthday, Cake, and Some Birthday Candles

It's the first birthday that we've spent away from family and friends. Jake and Adam haven't spent a birthday apart in awhile now so we felt a little out of our element not celebrating May 20th together.

Thanks to a good friend of our and the "family secret" recipe we enjoy some yummy chocolate cake. Are you reading this Lizzie? Jessica not only made the cake, she actually ate chocolate! It was THAT good.









After dinner and cake we started to watch a movie and noticed that Stew was a M.I.A. This usually means two things. One: he's sleeping under the coffee table or on his favorite spot at the bottom of the stairs. or Two: he's getting into trouble. I'm sure you can guess it's usually the latter. It's the very reason why we have a bell attached to his collar.

During a commercial Jess went to the kitchen to clean up and see what Stew was up to. What did she find? About 3/4 of the candles that were on the counter (see picture below) were gone! Yes ladies and gentlemen those are 48..count em 48 candles on the counter. Are you getting where this is going yet?




Apparently Stew was pissed that we didn't share our cake and ate the candles instead. That or he loves himself a bit of wax (and chocolate) after a long day? Thankfully the wax (or chocolate) wasn't toxic and all we ended up was some yellow, pink, white, and yellow speckled poo on our morning walk. Note to selves: never leave ANYTHING on the counter. ever.

That's doable right? ha.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

May Showers?

Since moving from California just a month ago we've really had to adjust to the weather change here in central Texas. Not only is it NOT sunny 365 days a year here, but the humidity and constant weather change from day to day (sometimes hour to hour) has been something we've had to get used to.



Although the humidity can be quite miserable (are we really saying this already...it's not even July yet!), we really do enjoy the warm spring/summer showers that also come with it. Those of you from California know that when it rains in LA everything pretty much stops. People don't know how to drive, recess goes indoors, and you don't know what to do with the rest of your day besides catch a movie at the theater down the street.




Instead of the whole city coming to a close, Austin's energy doesn't seem to cease. People are still riding their bikes, enjoying a late weekend brunch under the covered patio outside of their favorite restaurant, or enjoying one of the city's many local lakes.



Besides still being able to enjoy one of the many things in the city, the overall temperature is pretty awesome too. When's the last time you wore shorts and sandals in the rain Californians?

Although these were a little scary at first, the thunder and lightening storms are pretty cool too.




We're sure that we will miss the CA weather predictability from time to time, but for now are enjoying the change in routine and taking advantage of a warm shower while getting a little exercise in along the way. Stew doesn't even seem to mind the loud noises- A+ in our book! For once we're not singing,"rain, rain, go away".

Monday, May 10, 2010

Celebrating Mother's Day Our Own Way

With our first Mother's Day out of the state of California, we knew we couldn't head over Paradise Cove and have a Mary with our family. To celebrate the day we headed over to a spiritual center called, Austin Center for Spiritual Living. Before we left, some really good friends of ours told us that we should look into finding a church or some other type of spiritual center to help us find good, lasting relationships here in Texas. Moving away from family and friends has definitely been a challenge for us and we look forward to all of the visits they have planned this coming summer and fall. What being said, we still know the importance of finding good people to share in our life's adventures.

We met some really nice people at Austin Center for Spiritual Living http://www.cslctx.org/, and plan on heading over to another center that's a little bit closer to home this time.

Where ever we end up settling we realize that staying grounded and finding the time to look inward in important no matter what stage or transition of live you are in.

It's been a new experience putting ourselves out there and meeting new people **Think first day of school all over again **, but also fun just putting it all out there since we don't have a network of family and friends here. We have ended up meeting a collection of different people whenever we are out and about. We're actually heading over to a "Guac Off" next weekend hosted by someone that we met at the wedding a few weekends ago....should be fun!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Howdy Ya'll



Sorry guys..we couldn't resist. Might be a preview of what's to come for our Christmas cards. YES it is only May and Jessica is already thinking THAT far ahead.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Second Anniversary



In true blogging style we've decided to take the time to take pictures as well as write about the important (and not so important..ie car wash experience) events in our life. Keeping with our tradition of our annual picture for our anniversary keepsake book, we have a few pictures and an entry about how we spent our evening.

We we absolutely love this idea, but with our oh-so recent move we knew that our anniversary would be very low key this year and were a little embarrassed that this would be officially documented on our anniversary book. Remembering that our anniversaries won't always be celebrate this way and Siggi's voice reminding us that we needed to take the picture "no matter where you are or what you're wearing", we kept with tradition. So, here is our entry below along with the picture that we took for our book.


Celebrated the evening together cooking dinner, a crisp glass of white wine, and watched The Lovely Bones. Halfway during the movie we decided to wanted a little sweet treat so we all (Stew included) walked down the street and shared a chocolate shake. We didn't exchange gifts this year but promised to see a concert sometime this summer.



The trip to A&W is pretty classy right?? haha...The important thing was that we spent it together doing some of the things we really enjoy. Hoping that next year we'll have something a little more exciting (we're thinking white sandy beaches and a few cocktails in hand) to write about--a couple has to dream big right?!

Monday, May 3, 2010

Happy Anniversary!




....to US!

Today marks the day that we celebrated our love witnessed by our treasured family and friends two years ago. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect wedding day and thank everyone who has continued to support us. Tonight we celebrate with a toast, dinner, and our "annual anniversary picture"!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Dogs and then Some

After a night on Lady Bird Lake last we were inspired to (finally) head over to the hike/bike trail area to see what all of the hype was about. Let's just say that this place did not disappoint!



We spent the late morning doing a some errands and grabbing a quick lunch before heading over there. Although we (Jess mostly!) were a little apprehensive to bring Stew we knew that it was totally not fair to lock him up in the house all day with the GREAT weather we were having today. With our bag packed with toys, water, and all of other other essentials (is this what it's like to have kids to ready to go out for the day??!!) needed to make sure that we have control over our son, we drove down towards the lake.


The Austin skyline behind Lady Bird Lake



Not too soon after parking were we greeted with runners, bikes, and dogs running everywhere ---OFF LEASH! Not sure of how Stewart would respond, this was Jess's worst nightmare. Since it was our first time here we decided that we would give it 10 minutes to see how he responded. As we kept walking closer towards the water and the off leash dog park area Stew started to calm down and become submissive to the other dogs. We tried to get him to play fetch with the sticks and tennis balls that we brought, but he didn't seem too interested. We even got Stewart to get his cute little paws wet! For those of you who know him, this was a big day in our books. Below is a collage from our playdate at the lake...













Happy Sunday from our family.....



to yours!!!

Who Doesn't Love a Wedding?

Last night we went to a wedding on Lady Bird Lake.



A few things to note. One: what can be better than a wedding on a beautiful spring evening? and Two: we didn't have to sit in 30-45 minutes of traffic to get there! We were thrilled to get an invite to see an old family friend's son get married and spend some time meeting some people from Austin.

The proud father of the groom, Richard!



The happy couple take a stroll after their vows







We had a great time taking goofy pictures in the photo booth (photos up soon!), stocking up at the candy bar, and getting our groove on the dance floor. We don't know what it is but since being married ourselves we enjoy going to see the family and friends that we love share their commitments to each other with us. More importantly, we enjoy spending a fun night out together remembering our wedding and the vows that we promised each other almost two years ago. It's so nice to take the time to remember our commitments to each other and the vows we spoke on our special day.

What's your favorite thing about a wedding?

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Where Are You Going?

We're definitely getting our dose of parenting when it comes to our little son, Stewart. He's not the easiest animal to take care of and we've been trying to learn to set boundaries with him ever since we started our training classes with him at J9sK9s. He (and WE!) have learned a lot, especially the fact that all dogs are not created equal.



With Jess as a teacher you'd think that this fact would be obvious right? Weeelllll not so much. Although teaching has helped with consistency, we've learned that Stewart needs a lot more boundaries than some of our friends' dogs. Boo Hoo right? It's harder than you think.

One of the things that we've decided to work on to set more boundaries is not letting Stewart on the couch (he's such a cuddle bug though!) which will eventually lead to not sleeping in the bed with us (is this possible?!). We are proud to say that we've been very diligent in not inviting him up as well as telling him to get off the couch this week and have noticed him responding well to this change. It's a work in progress, but we are determined to help this little guy out with his nervous/anxiety issues he has new people and dogs. Channeling the Dog Whisperer as we speak! ; )

This post is to update those who love our son about his progress, but more importantly to show everyone what our son does when we leave the house (see below). Those of you who have dogs and love them as much as we love our son know the face you'd see on the opposite side of the glass....priceless




Just a little something that makes us smile during the day. You've gotta find those small moments in life that truly make it worth living...this is definitely one of them- issues and all. What makes you smile?

Unexpected Night Out

Lately we've been trying to partake in anything house, job hunt (Jess), and free. Ya that's right FREE. Truth be told, moving does cost a lot of money! We wouldn't trade all the money in the world for the change that we've decided to make, but a couple's gotta budget.

We got a call from a few Cali friends around 7 and decided that we would make it a cheap night out since we have yet to meet people that we would like to hang with during our free time. We first headed to the infamous Stubb's BBQ bar/restaurant to meet some friends who are part of the wedding that we are going to on Saturday (tonight). We found free parking (ya hoo) right around the corner from the place and were ready for some free margs and a really good time. Guess our timing was off because as we were about the walk into the place, we ran into the bride's mother and father who said that everyone had just left to go to the dueling piano bar. Not what we expected, but hey where the party goes...we go.


We headed down 6th and walked past a comedy club (note to self: look that place up when we get home to plan a visit), a few tattoo parlors, and an eclectic mix of clubs/bars. Finally making it to Pete's Dueling Piano Bar, we were ready for a drink and to mingle with our friends.

These guys were hilarious! We didn't even have a drink in hand before these guys got us singing, dancing, and laughing our asses off.




Richard and Jess. He's known her and her brother, Jeremy, since "they were seeds". His son RD (Rich) and his fiance are the ones getting married on Saturday night. By the looks of things it looks like we are going to have a ball at the wedding reception. Who doesn't love a wedding right??






We've been to places like this before and always had a good time, but we were still surprised at how much fun were had that night. We have some family and friends whom we know will love heading out to this place when they come to visit. Don't you love the growing itinerary?