Taking on.... Georgia?

So I've been holding off on this blog until we had some definite answers... And now that we do, my husband has given me the "ok" to blog about it!

Our lives have been turned upside down over the past month. Basically, Thomas found out that come December 31st, his job here in Austin would be going away. Apparently, Italy decided to do some company "restructuring". We were assured it was nothing performance related.. But, as I'm sure you can imagine, we went into panic mode! Thomas immediately started job hunting ( within and outside of his company). His option within the same company would allow us to move back to the east coast and back into our home in Lawrenceville. However, we knew there would be a lot of travel and responsibility involved. Thomas' other option was to take a position with a different company that's located in Dallas. This would be a travel- free job.. However we were having trouble thinking of living in the Dallas area.
After much thought (and a whole lot of praying!) we've decided to move to Georgia! We're very excited. Although we've only been in Austin 5 months, we do miss our home.. And it'll certainly be nice to free up some money. Paying double bills can put a bit of a hold up on your social agenda!
We' re very sad to leave the friends that we've gained since moving to Austin.. But we're excited about the next part of this journey.

We'll continue to keep everyone posted on details! As of now, Thomas will be starting his job January 3rd and will be moving to Georgia right before the New Year. I'll be in Austin for a few more weeks to finish up my job and will probably be in Georgia closer to the end of the month.

More to come on our Christmas week. For now, I need to run before my free in-flight wireless runs out! :)

I love you. I love you. I looovvveeeeeee you.

I'm currently watching Elf (hince the title of this post).  It is one of my all time favorite Christmas movies.. however, Polar Express and Christmas Vacation are a close tie as well! I guess I just love Christmas movies PERIOD. I think Thomas rolls his eyes every time he notices that I've recorded another christmas movie. But I cant help it. Just call me Buddy. I love Christmas. 

It ended up being a really nice weekend. On Friday night, we went out to dinner with our Kentucky friends and some of their extended family. We went to Home Slice and it was very yummy! 

On Saturday, we woke up early for our day trip to McKinney. It took about 3.5 hours to get there. We went to Frisco first and took the dogs to a local dog park. From there, we went into downtown McKinney and had lunch at a local italian restaurant called Sauce. It was really cute! After lunch, we drove around, did some shopping, had In-N-Out for dinner, and then headed back! 

In-N-Out was really the highlight of the trip. Sadly, that was kind of a deciding factor for this day trip. They've just recently opened a couple of In-N-Out burgers near Dallas. And we love it! The menu is minimal (burgers, shakes, and fries).. but they do have a "secret menu" online that gives you additional info on things to order. 

http://www.badmouth.net/in-n-outs-secret-menu/ (check it out if your interested). I prefer my fries "Animal Style"! :)

This morning, we got up and met our Kentucky friends for Brunch at Z' Tejas. It's a local "tex mex" restaurant. We actually decided to take the dogs with us so that we could head to Zilker park straight after. As I've mentioned before, its our favorite park.. and its huge. So its definitely a good place to wear the dogs out. They've basically been sleeping the rest of the afternoon (and I may or may not have taken a little nap with them). 

Thomas will be out of town this week and my birthday is on Wednesday.. so we celebrated my birthday a little early today! He cooked me a yummy spaghetti dinner and let me open my presents early. I got a Under Armor Shirt and a nice pair of Under Armor running gloves!

I got a package in the mail this week from my mom as well. It contained a cute outfit, some running pants, and a couple gifts from my brother and sister in law (cookie cook book, spice bowls, and a icing decorater kit). I was very excited to have lots of fun new stuff! And I've been in a cookie baking frenzy :) Tis the season right?

Time to run! I'm trying to write and watch Elf at the same time and I'm missing some of my favorite parts. Completely unacceptable! :)

Hope everyone has a good week! 

Flem. Enough Said.

I have been sick for like a full 7 days. I am more than DONE with this cold! It started out with my throat. I sounded like a man for a good 5 days. To the point that I was hesitant to make phone calls in fear of being confused for a man. My throat has gone back to normal.. but now I've got an uncontrollable cough and excessive amount of flem. Sexy, I know. GO AWAY COLD. Your putting a damper on my week!

This past weekend, we went out to dinner and to a concert with our friends Kim and Jason. The concert was Will Hoge and it was very good! It was at a local venue in Austin (Stubbs). Other than my feet hurting from standing for so many hours, I have no complaints about the evening. It was a lot of fun!

This week has been pretty low key. I've just been working and laying low.. trying to get better! I've been working a little more than usual this week.. so this has been the one morning that I've had a sec to sit down and blog!

We've got a packed weekend ahead of us. Some friends of ours that we actually met on our honeymoon are coming into town to visit some family. So we're getting together with them tonight for dinner. And then hopefully again on Sunday for lunch before they go. We're also planning a day trip to McKinney, TX on Saturday to explore a little bit of and finish up some last minute Christmas shopping!

We'll be headed to NC next Friday to celebrate an early Christmas with our families.. so Im in a little bit of a crunch to finish buying last minute things! Luckily we've already sent the bulk of our stuff out via Fed Ex. But I guess I'll be cramming a few last minute things in my suitcase! :)

As a side note- our niece went to see Santa this week! I was talking to my mom about it and she and I got into a discussion about our "santa" experiences as kids. Apparently, I wanted nothing to do with the jolly old man. I guess this explains the fact that we have no "sitting on santa's lap" photos anywhere. And to make matters worse (and more funny), my mom informs me that we would send down our wish list as paper airplanes. Santa was on a lower level that was visible from an upper story.. therefore, we would stand up top and fly them down. Is THIS why I didn't get that barbie dream house?! SANTA NEVER GOT MY LIST!

Anyway, that's it for now. I need to run and get ready for work! And finish some last minute laundry that I've been putting off all week.

Happy Friday everyone!

Christmas in Austin! :)

Wendy girl :) struggling with the Christmas spirit this year..

Our christmas tree.. any bigger and it would take over our little apartment. This one fits perfect!

Thanks Jennifer! :)

:)

Our Fireplace and stockings! 

Harley in his "bed"

Confession

So I'm feeling a little guilty. I made all this fuss about not getting out with all the crazy black friday shoppers. And what did we end up doing?! Shopping on black friday! In our defense, we needed a couple items from Petsmart... and then we figured since we were out and about anyway, we might as well see how crazy other stores were. Truthfully, they were not crazy AT ALL. I think all the hardcore shoppers were out in the middle of the night! Therefore, it worked out great for us. We were able to hit up REI, Best Buy, and Sports Authority without any issues. Surprisingly, this was our first trip out- I've managed to buy all other christmas gifts online. And PS- if you've never used www.retailmenot.com, check it out! I live by it. You type in the store your thinking about buying from online and it pulls up all current coupon codes (it's hit of miss sometimes.. but I've had a lot of luck this season).

On Saturday, I decided it was officially time to put up Christmas decorations. We didn't get a real tree this year (which is a bit of a bummer) but our apartment is so small- it couldn't of handled it. The one that we have is perfect for small spaces (6 ft tall and skinny).
Not only did we put all of the christmas decorations up, I got ALL my presents wrapped (or at least all the presents that I have so far).. so Im feeling pretty good! Im not usually this on top of things.. but we're doing any early Christmas this year with our families in NC so I needed to have them all wrapped and ready to ship ahead of time.

Sunday was our typical catch up on everything day. We went to church, took the dogs to the park, and did a whole lot of laundry while watching football (Thomas does fantasy football so Sunday's are completely taken over by football these days..)

Thomas is out of town this whole week.. so its just me and the dogs. We'll definitely miss him! It's always sad to see him go.. but it usually goes by pretty quickly with my work schedule. 3 out of 4 kids are sick so I think it'll make for an interesting week! Speaking of which, Caroline just woke up after napping for 30 minutes and I had to run up and help her back to sleep before she wakes Sam up (story of my life).  Better run for now! Hopefully every has a good week back.

Gobble Gobble!

We've had a nice Thanksgiving. We woke up early this morning to do our Turkey Trot run. I'm glad we decided to get there a little early. I cant even begin to explain how many people there were! It was by far the biggest race I've ever been to. 22,000+ people. I wish I would of had my phone to take a few pics.

Luckily, the announcer made a point to mention that it might be smart to come up with a "rendezvous" point (I think he was referring to families with kids, but it worked for us too!). Thomas and I lost each other within 2 miles of our race.. but we were able to meet back up at the end. I ran the 5 miles in 1 hour and 8 minutes. Thomas did it in 1 hour and 3 minutes. We probably would of finished about 15 minutes sooner but our start was pretty slow given the number of people running.

After the run, we came home and I finished cooking before we went to our pot luck Thanksgiving Party. I was in charge of taking a couple of sides. My Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie (duh) and Macaroni and Cheese. Luckily I was able to steal the Mac and Cheese recipe from my friend Jake. It is DELICIOUS and super easy so I'm going to share it below.

1 lb of elbow macaroni
3/4 block of velveeta cheese (large block)- cubed
3 cups of milk
3 tbsp of flour
3 tbsp of butter
salt and pepper to taste
cheddar cheese for topping

Cook Macaroni according to box instructions. In the mean time, bring the milk, flour, and butter to a simmer (I used medium high heat). Then slowly add in cubes of cheese and stir continuously to avoid burning. Once mixture is smooth, add to drained pasta and mix. Add to a rectangular baking dish and cook at 350 for 15 minutes. Then add cheddar cheese on top and put under the broiler for a couple minutes.

We are home now- after a small hitch in the day. I locked the keys in the car. AGAIN. I don't know WWHHYY I keep doing it. Luckily, our balcony is easily accessible to the stairwell. So Thomas climbed over and jumped into our office window (good for us..  not so good as far as intruders go). He wasn't very happy about it. But I'm thankful that the window was even unlocked! I'm going to try and work on my locking the keys in the car issue. Sometimes I just have a million things running through my mind and I get preoccupied. I mean that's normal right??

As for the rest of the weekend, we intend to do a lot of relaxing, dinner with friends on Saturday night.. and most importantly, put up CHRISTMAS! I'm so excited. It's taking a lot of effort not to run down to our storage unit now and start dragging things up! Luckily, I'm pretty tired. Maybe I'll go to bed now and start bright and early (insert evil laugh).


Hopefully everyone had a joyful Thanksgiving! Good luck to all those that are braving the Black Friday sales. I'll be sleeping soundly in my bed :) (But as a side note- Thomas and I DID consider driving over to the Best Buy and Target to see what idiots are already outside lined up.. but then we decided that would require too much energy. And knowing me.. I'd probably lock the keys in the car again! I cant be trusted)

Goodnight everyone!

Back in the Grind

There aren't many weekends where I end up doing all the things that I sought out to accomplish. Sometimes my "to-do" list are so long (i.e unrealistic). But somehow I managed to get everything done this weekend. We had friends over for dinner on Saturday night.. so I think that had something to do with it. I'm typically my most productive when people are coming over. It forces you to clean all the things you really don't want to clean :) It's either that.. or you hope they turn a blind eye to the 5 piles of unfolded laundry.  

Thomas and I did get a run in yesterday.. but it was incredibly humid. So we did a mere 3 miles. Hopefully the 5 on Thursday wont do us both in. And let's also hope the humidity let's up a little as well! 

I ended up seeing Breaking Dawn yesterday. I had not planned on going to see it anytime soon. Thomas couldn't even be bribed with candy and popcorn. (sidenote- he's still holding a grudge over being dragged to see Sex and the City 2. What he wont tell you is that he fell asleep in the theater).  Anyway, my friend Kimberly was willing to go with me.. and in return, her husband was able to stay home and watch football with Thomas. So really, I was doing Jason (Kimberly's husband) a favor but giving him an out :) So Jason- you are welcome!

I'm feeling slightly run down today. I'm thinking maybe I did a little TOO much cleaning this weekend instead of relaxing (or possibly just ate too much Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie over the weekend!). But hopefully a good nights rest tonight will take care of that. And here's to a hopefully flawless (short) work week! 

Happy Thanksgiving week everyone! What are YOU thankful for?

Typical Saturday

Seeing as we live in a tiny apartment with two dogs, going to the park each weekend is a priority. Luckily, we've moved to a VERY dog-friendly city. The recreational parks and dog parks are amazing. Their everywhere.. and more than half of them are off leash. The picture that I've posted at the top of the blog is one of our favorite parks. It's called Zilker Park. It's huge and has a nice backdrop of the city. As soon as we get there, the dogs go nuts.

We headed to Zilker Park this morning (after getting coffee and muffins of course) and stayed for about an hour. To say that our doggies are tired would be an understatement. We've been home for several hours and I don't think I've seen Harley budge. Unfortunately, he just doesn't know when to stop. I think he would probably chase after the ball until his heart quit on him. He's slightly obsessed- which is of course his nature as a Border Collie. He's got two jobs in life- catching the ball and hearding Wendy. He does them both very well :)

Once we got home, I decided to partake in my usual Saturday baking frenzy. I don't have a lot of time to cook during the week.. so Saturday is my day to cook some of our favorite foods to have during the week. Today was Enchilada Casserole and Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie. I've cooked both before and they are two of our favorites! Im including the recipes below.. they are definitely noteworthy (as are the blogs that they are listed on).

Enchilada Casserole
http://www.justgetoffyourbuttandbake.com/?p=3352

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
http://ourforkingblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/chocolate-peanut-butter-pie.html#more


Now, its time to relax and possibly do a little reading! I've recently started the Hunger Games and I'm OBSESSED. Each chapter leaves you hanging.. therefore, the books are hard to put down (or in this case, my kindle). I would highly recommend them to anyone. They are a fairly easy read.

As for tomorrow, Thomas and I will head to church and most likely brunch after that. We're also planning to head to the park (again) but for our benefit this time! We're both running in the Austin Turkey Trot (5 miles) on Thanksgiving so we're trying to do some last minute preparation for that!

Meredith (my sister-in-law) and I are in training for our first half marathon. It's the Austin Half-Marathon and its taking place in mid-February. Since Im training in TX alone, I'm attempting to set mini goals for myself to be held accountable. The turkey trot is helping with that process. Wish us luck!

Happy Weekend everyone.. just think- only 3 works days (for most of us) and then a long weekend to come!

Black Friday

Christmas is by far my favorite holiday. I love the meaning behind it.. I love buying gifts and surprising people.. I love everything about it! And I'll be the first to admit that my Christmas decorations will go up before we even hit December.
But Im slightly disturbed by the Black Friday hype. Can we get through Thanksgiving first?! I've never been a Black Friday shopper.. And truthfully I've never been bothered by it until this year. Walmart is opening at 10pm ON thanksgiving.. and Target is opening at midnight.
Therefore, most employees probably have to be there at some point Thanksgiving night to start prepping.

On top of that, one of my new Austin friends (Angela) manages a Target locally. So not only does she have to be there on Black Friday.. but basically all day Thanksgiving to set up for Black Friday. It makes me really sad for her. She wont even get to have a Thanksgiving. She'll be resting up for the Black Friday craziness!

Are the deals really that great? And even if the are- surely opening at 6am is sufficient.

I think I'll stick with Cyber Monday so I can actually enjoy my Thanksgiving!

A few recent Pictures to share!

Our long journey on the way to Texas!

Our first night out to dinner after a long day of unpacking!

The realization that we're actually in Texas!

The Congress Bridge Bats (when mom and dad came for a visit)

Hook em' Horns! (our first UT game)

Happy Halloween from Harley and Wendy! (Dogtoberfest at The Domain)

A fresh start!

So I love to read blogs- but somehow I cant keep up with writing my OWN blog. I started blogging in the first place because we moved to Georgia and we were so far away from friends and family. Now- we're REALLY far away from friends and family.. so I've decided to give this another shot!

Around May of this year, we found out that Thomas' company wanted us to move to Texas. Initially, we were shocked. But over time, the idea became more appealing and we decided to go for it. Our house went under contract very quickly and it seemed like things were falling into place.
About a month later, our housing contact had fallen through. We had already made plans to move so we decided to follow through with them.. and had hopes that our house would sell quickly even once we were gone.

That was July. Its currently November and our house is still on the market. So now we're in a position where we've decided to rent our house. It's definitely not ideal but we don't have many other choices. Pray that we'll be able to find a family that doesn't destroy our beautiful home!

(Backtracking a little) - We made it safe and soundly to Austin. The dogs, and Thomas and I packed up in the biggest Uhaul that you can get and we made the 3 day trip to get here. We couldn't of picked a worse time to move- the highs were in the mid 100's and our apartment is on the 3rd floor.. but somehow we managed. And it's finally starting to cool down! I thought the days of fall would never get here!
Unfortunately our apartment is TINY and half of our possessions live in a storage unit- but hopefully it will just be temporary. After having a taste of home ownership, I'm not used to apartment living anymore!

All else is well. I started my new nannying job a week after we arrived. I'm nannying for a family with 4 kids - Mary (10), Jack (5), and Sam and Caroline (2). As I'm sure you can imagine, being a nanny has its good and bad days (especially when your outnumbered).. but for the most part, its been a joy working with the Miller Kids. They make me laugh on a daily basis!

Thomas is working from home now that we've moved. He still travels occasionally.. but the dogs and I both enjoy getting to see him more often!

I guess that's it for now. More to come on how life is in Austin!