The project that won't end

As you may or may not know, we have been working on building a covered patio with a "kitchen" area. It has been going on for almost 6 months now and we've run into every issue possible. BUT we're almost done so I guess I need to post pics!!! The first picture is just so you can see from the back of the house, it's when we had to fix the arches that were messed up - they were pointy - not good. They have since been redone and look much better.
Next is after arches are fixed, stucco is done, ceilings are in, lights in, fans in - yeah! All that's left is brick at the base of the columns and the stone work for the grill area which will be L-shaped in the corner on this next picture


I'm sure I should have a lot more pictures, but I don't. Due to the many frustrations pictures have been the last thing I've thought about. I will definitely take many pics once the brick and stone is done this weekend!!!!

Tahoe Ski Trip

Dang - so I'm already behind for the year! So...let me catch up!

We went to Heavenly Ski Resort at South Lake Tahoe towards the end of January. Now yes, it's very true that I am such a klutz and therefore not a very good skiier BUT I love to go on winter trips and ski, tube, just play in the snow. When we got there on Thursday it was raining and it didn't snow in town until late Saturday and Sunday. We did ski on Friday which was horrible! It was warm enough on the mountain that although it was snowing it was a wet snow. We were soaked to the bone by the end of the day. And I fell a million times! One of the last times I fell my head snapped back and I had whiplash for several days after - not fun. Saturday we took a break because we were tired and I had not recovered from my falls. We had planned on going up the gondola to do the Heavenly Flyer - a zip-line ride!!! Yeah, didn't happen, the Flyer was closed the entire time we were there due to weather. Instead we went and saw a movie, Bride Wars - cute and had drinks at Cabo Wabo in one of the casinos. Sunday wasn't too much more exciting. Jason skiied for part of the day but I was still suffering so I walked around the village and then went up later to go tubing.

All in all I would have to say it was the worst ski trip I've ever been on. On the positive side, it was nice to get away from work for a few days and we still managed to have fun despite the circumstances. Here's some pics - nothing to amazing because of the rain it was always foggy and misty so we didn't get to see the amazing views that Tahoe is known for!

This is the view we had from the mountain. We were expecting much clearer skies but no such luck.:(

Like I said, not my favorite vacation ever but still a nice getaway. Oh - I did read some books while we were there! Marley and Me was one of them - I really want to see the movie now but am glad I read the book. It's such a good story and true!

Update on DigiScrapping & Vegan

I purchased Photoshop yesterday and most of the afternoon I played on it trying to figure out how to do things with photos and create a scrapbook page layout. So, first of all, I love the tutorials on The Shabby Shoppe website! They were very helpful when I was trying to figure it out. Now I still don't know how to do everything but I've created 5 scrapbook pages on our paris trip!!! Woohoo! I love The Shabby Shoppe and the same person has another site that has some free digital scrapbooking products which is all I've used so far. I figure I'll wait to spend money until I've gotten a little better at it. I found Photoshop at Wal-mart for the cheapest price but still, that cost me a little bit. Jason is glad that we finally have something to do with all of our photos, if I can do a couple pages a week then I'll be caught up, ok, well at least get a lot done, quickly!!! I'm currently trying to figure out how I can post an image of one of my pages on my blog, when I do...I'll post one!

Onto the veganism...it's still going well - yeah! This week we'll be trying some soy hot dogs and I found a recipe to make chicken nuggets using tofu - not sure how that will be but Jason is willing to try it! I don't plan on making too many "fake" alternates b/c I don't really think that doing that is THAT healthy, but one every so often isn't bad. :) A controller at my company switched to vegan last August and suggested some other books to read for more information and also to reinforce the reasons why I switched. I ordered a couple on Amazon and waiting for them to come in.

Scrapbooking

So I've always been jealous of those that scrapbook for a hobby. Usually the scrapbooks are so creative and cute! I, on the other hand, am notorious for taking pictures (when I remember) and just saving them on the computer. I rarely print them and never seem to have them available to post on blogs or facebook.

Given this...I am going to try to become a digital scrapbooker! I have a website (thanks Whitney!) that sells all the things you need and for a relatively cheap price too. I need to purchase Photoshop and so far the cheapest place I can find is to buy it on Amazon. I don't know how to use the program so I'll have to learn that too - if you have any advice, PLEASE let me know!!! I'm hoping to get the software and get started by the end of January. I'll keep you updated on how I'm doing.

I was looking through photos on my laptop, all are very old and came across a couple of funny ones of Sadie. :)

Happy New Year!

Wow, first off, let me just say I have no idea where 2008 went! I feel like it flew by so quickly. We celebrated the end of the year by going to a friend's house for a small get together. We stayed until midnight but left pretty quickly after that, I was very tired. :) New Year's Day we had mine and Jason's family over for lunch. It's become somewhat of a tradition and something I think we'll keep doing. This year we had soups, cornbread, black eye-d peas of course and dessert! It was fun to visit with everyone without the craziness of Christmas! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures!
There's not much else going on but I'm trying to keep to my resolution of blogging more often, so far, not too bad! I'm not looking forward to tomorrow, going back to work after being off for 11 days - yikes!
Hope everyone had a great 2008 and that 2009 is even better!

What I've Been Up To

My first resolution for the New Year is to be a better blogger!

Ok, so what have I been up to? Let's see.... since August we have gone to all the UT football games, including the TX/OU game in Dallas with our friends Laurie and Paul and the UT/KU game in Kansas where we met my cousin Danielle and her boyfriend, Rich. We really enjoy going to the football games, there is so much energy and college football is something both Jason and I like!

A few trips to Houston for work - various training and a Christmas party. Busy at work with year-end close, our audit, annual plans and we're down one person so just generally keeping up!

We had a great Thanksgiving that was made better by a UT win over ATM! We enjoyed spending time with our family and seeing our nieces and nephews, they seem to be growing up so quickly.

Christmas was good as well. LOTS of family time but spread out enough so that we really enjoyed seeing everyone! Our nieces were both too cute in their Christmas outfits and of course our nephews looked very handsome as well. I wish we had more time to visit all of our friends and their kids during the holidays. I love seeing them and experiencing the joy of Christmas through their eyes!

Lastly...I've become a vegetarian or almost vegan as I say. I made the decision to try it after reading some articles and books and it's now been 4 weeks! I say almost vegan b/c most people think of vegetarians as eating dairy, eggs and sometimes fish and I am not eating those things. I don't feel like I can really say vegan b/c I'm still working on switching to soy butter and reading labels to cut out all animal products - they seem to sneak into a lot of dishes. Anyway, surprisingly it's been the easiest thing I've ever done when it comes to changing something about the way I eat. AND I feel great! I've always had a sensitive stomach and since going almost vegan :) my stomach has calmed down a lot.

Ok, so that's all that's been going on, I think anyway. As I said, one of my resolutions is to be a better blogger!

Later

8 Things about ME

I was tagged by Elizabeth and figured I needed to post something... :)

8 TV shows I watch:
1) The Office
2) Fringe
3) Brothers and Sisters
4) Grey's Anatomy
5) The Bachelor
6) What Not to Wear
7) Family Guy
8) Any chick flick on the movie channels!

8 Favorite Restaurants
1) El Mercado
2) Austin Java
3) Clay Pit
4) Hula Hut!
5) Mr. Natural
6) Maudie's
7) Thai Passion
8) Apple Annie's

8 Things that happened Today
1) woke up too early considering I'm off work
2) took my car in to get a new windshield
3) shopped at Academy and Best Buy
4) ate lunch at Twin Peaks - yes, it's like Hooters, not sure how I was convinced to do that
5) bagged up some old clothes to take to Goodwill
6) got bag ready for spa day tomorrow!
7) put up all the holiday wrapping paper and ribbon
8) made a fire

8 Things I look forward to
1) Day at Lake Austin Spa on Tuesday!
2) 2009
3) New episodes of The Office
4) The UT/Ohio State game on Jan 5th
5) the new Bachelor on Jan 5th - this will be dvr'd
6) ski trip in January
7) sleeping in for a few more days
8) our patio being finished!!!

8 Things I wish for
1) more patience at work
2) more appreciation for having a job with a good company
3) an end to the poor economy
4) to be able to run the Cap 10K
5) to be a better vegan
6) this next year to not go by so quickly
7) see out of town friends sooner than later!
8) positive ending of cancer for my friends that are going through treatments

8 People I tag!
1) Renee
2) Whitney
3) Joni
4) Suzanne D
Ok this is sad, I don't know if I really have anyone else to tag! ha ha!