Dallas...

This past weekend, Drake and I headed to Dallas for a fun filled weekend! The weekend started with Dallas not welcoming me back, I think it must be mad at me for leaving! :) This past week was a week in the history books for Dallas as far as weather is concerned. Layers of Ice and Snow made things a bit difficult, however I didn't let this stop me to much! ;)

Some how I made my flight with out any issues into DFW late Wednesday night. ( As a side note, I wore a tank top to workout out outside on Wednesday here in California, and as I walked off the plane in Dallas, it was very necessary to bundle up in not only your coat, but scarf and gloves.. so crazy)

Dallas did a lot of shutting down over the next few days, but this did not stop me from getting to my hair appointment Thursday morning, I mean the roots I had going on, where quite scary! This was an emergency. After that, I got to have a great dinner with my " Tex Mex" and good friends. ( A thanks to my mom for making the scary drive in from Austin, I don't think she would have come if she really knew how bad the roads where once you got to Dallas.. but I am so glad she made it! )

Friday however, I did not make it out of the house due to another blast of snow.. but it made for good pictures and enough time for an afternoon puzzle that we worked on, and let me tell you how proud I was that we finished this puzzle! ( A few snow days and you will do anything to not go stir crazy)



This is my friend, Steffanie's little boy, Colton! I loved playing with him all day on our snow day! :) How sweet is he!




Just a little snow!





Where is the road?? Good thing we stayed off them Friday!



This was our puzzle.. it was actually really hard! :)  

A Productive and Oddly Exciting Weekend..

Well I want everyone to take a minute and brace themselves for what I am about to say. This weekend was so unbelievably beautiful outside that I might have fallen in love with California for a split second! Yes, that is right, I was one happy little camper when the warm sun was shinning down on me and I was able to be out and about with out a coat. Meanwhile all my Texas friends and family were freezing! I just want to say haha! :)

No but seriously it was so pretty outside, that it was truly a crime if you stayed in doors. So I decided to clean up the yard and get it looking nice and ready for spring. The Gardner's pruned all the roses, for I really have no idea how to do that. I then planted Pansy's in the walkway. This took me all of Saturday afternoon, this gardening stuff is hard work!  However, I am very excited now that the yard looks great and even more excited to see the flowers really grow and bloom over the next couple of months. Pretty flowers are not something I normally get to see a lot of in Texas.

Along with our pretty flowers, we also did some shopping for our guest bedroom. We currently only had one guest bed, however with just my family coming to visit there was not a place for everyone to sleep and I know poor Randi is tired of getting the couch! So we purchased another guest bed, which means that we obviously think that lots of people want to come visit us! Hopefully Easton will attract some visitors for us! Of course when you buy a new bed, what else does that mean.. yep, your right... Casey gets to go shopping for new bedding and pillows! I really can't complain about sun and then shopping! ;) Here is what we ended up with.

Now I saved the best for last! Mr. Drake needs to get bragged on here, he scored some major brownie points this weekend. Sunday morning I went to church and ran some errands and was gone for a few hours. When I got back around one, I came home to find that Drake had put the WHOLE crib together by himself on his own, and had it all ready for me! I was so happy, I totally expected to have to pull him off the couch and bug him, but no he did it all on his own with out me bugging him! I guess he is ready for Mr. Easton to arrive! :)

You can imagine my smile when I walked in the door and this is what I saw! You can't see the finished product till I get the bedding all put in. However, that should be soon! :) 

After the bed was in place, this is where  I found my two little helpers! All pooped from working so hard, and not missing a second of the football game. 

Earthquake..

So I know it might be weird, but when I found out we were moving to California, one of my comments to Drake was, " Oh yea, I bet I get to experience an earthquake while we are there." I know for a fact at that moment he had to rack his brain and wonder why he married me, I know he thinks I am crazy. However, the fact of the matter is, in Texas we deal with hurricanes a bit ( Houston and the coast mainly) and we deal with tornadoes ( across the state), but earthquakes are not on our radar.

 I just thought it would be neat to say I have felt an earthquake before, of course I would never wish a major one on us, but a minorearthquake, what harm is that. :) Well, Friday was my lucky day, I can honestly say I felt the earthquake. It was only a 4.1 magnitude. However, I was at the house in the kitchen and I felt a weird feeling and thought it was a bit odd, but I did not think much about it. What do you know though 10 mins later on the news, there is breaking news of an earthquake that was in Morgan hill and was felt all in the San Jose area.

I can now officially knock off "experiencing an earthquake" off my list of things to experience!

Christmas Treats...

This Christmas season has been a very different season then in the past. For starters I actually had time to enjoy the season. With more free time, I took full advantage to take part in all Christmas traditions, which I regretful have to admit I have not done in the past. Christmas seasons tend to turn in to people running around with their heads cut off, and running from one event to another yet never getting a chance to stop and actually enjoy the time.

This year I can honestly say ( not sure this is a good thing) that I watched every FALALALA Lifetime Christmas movie they aired. Yep, I put them on Tivo and watched them when I had down time. It was so nice to sit in front of the Christmas tree, drink hot chocolate and watch good ole family Christmas movies!

I also went to see a few different Christmas light displays, not to mention made it to the city twice to see the Christmas decorations and festivities.. on one weekend I saw a Santacon ( aka pup crawl) but Santa's were everywhere!

Macy's might be my favorite building here in the city when it is lite up!!! So pretty, however inside their store is another story, always a mess, but my guess is because everyone thinks it is the last day to use their famous WOW coupon that is 1 day only.. however this 1 day only coupon is only to be followed by 25 more coupons. It cracks me up the number of Macy's mailings I have received this year..

To finish up my holiday season ( here in California) I spent a whole day baking for friends and Drake's coworkers.. It was so nice to spend a whole day in my PJ's cooking and well of course taste testing my creations.

Here are some pictures from the Season and my new wish is that I take time every year to really enjoy the season and not rush around no matter how busy the future years may be! :) .. Next year I will be adding Taking Easton to go see Santa to my list of things to do. :) Can't wait..



This was maybe a 100th of the number of Santa's I saw in one day! :) It was so funny, but I would have been so confused as a kid!!



Drake's mom and I in front of the Macy's building!!



Homemade Peanut Butter Cookies with little Kisses, Drake's favorite!




I called this operation Cinnamon Roll. Growing up one of my best friends Amber's Mom, made this Cinnamon roll in the shape of a candy cane, it was always my favorite. Making it from scratch scared me, but it turned out ok.. I still have room for improvement, but I will call it a success!!




Puppy Chao.. I think I ate half of this before I gave anyone any, oops I can account a few pounds to this for sure!

 Now we are off to Texas to finish up the Holiday Season and Enjoy some family time!!

                                                     Merry Christmas !!!

Oh Happy Day...

So all day, I have been just as joyful as can be, smiling from ear to ear and just simply happy! So I thought I would share with you all the things that are making me happy, well I guess just some of the things, since we could be here all day if I listed each thing. :)

Fall is my favorite time of year, and just makes me happy!

These beautiful flowers are growing like crazy in our front yard, they are so pretty and the best part of the flowers, is that I have had to do absolutely nothing to make them this pretty! Which is probably why they are actually growing. In Texas, these would not exist in my yard, but currently there are least 100 of them blooming!!

This is my new jacket I bought today, and not only do I love the jacket, but I love that I got a steal on it. I felt like running out to the car as quick as I could before they realized how cheap the sold the jacket to me! What a great feeling and such a fun color!!

Ahh, my luggage, who would have thought luggage would make me smile!When I got it down today to start packing, I just got so excited about going home!!I get to see all my friends and family tomorrow!! ( Lets not forget to state the obvious here, the happy day is coming from the fact that I finally made it to my trip home, which has been on a count down since the last time I got my luggage out to move out here! )



This is Chloe's new steps to get through the doggy door! This makes Drake and I both happy, since we no longer have to get up and take Chloe out in the middle of the night, or listen to her cry! Gosh that is really a pain, I really hope I never have to encounter crying in the middle of the night again, good things babies don't do that! :)

 



Ok, this is actually where California once again tried to ruin my day!! Today was the day that I decided to take all my water bottles and cans to the recycles center to cash in for all my money California has been taking from me when I purchase my water! Well take a look, actually you might want to get your calculator out, above is what I got back today!! That is right.. a whole $3.09, I mean really after all my efforts to help stay green, this is all I get back!! The lady at the Safeway lied to me, you don't get ALL your money back!! I am debt now since I spent money to buy containers to keep the bottles separate!! On top of just getting about 3 dollars back, they should at least pay me an extra 5 dollars to walk back into that place, it smelled so so so bad!

Even though California tried to ruin my day, I didn't let it get me down, I am going to take my money and go get some pumpkin ice cream at baskin robbins! I believe I deserve a treat after all my hard work!!

Happy October everyone!!!