Texas - Part 1 - Friends

At the end of January I flew to Texas for the reception of my dear friend Kimberley and her husband Marcos. They were married in Brazil on New Year's Eve and were having their US reception in Tyler Texas. I flew from DC to Dallas. Casey and Lisa landed about 20 minutes after I did and from there we got a rental car and made our first stop at I 'N' Out! Love it! And it is so cheap! Then we made the 2 hour drive east to Tyler.

This post is about friends - but really it is just about all the food we ate in a short amount of time. On Friday we all went to Cheddars for lunch.

Then we went to Braums for dessert (cause we were not already full!). I remember Braums from my childhood when I spent to summers two summers with the McKeown's.

For dinner, Marcos and Kimberley made us a typical Brazilian dinner of beans and rice. It was so good, I could get that every day. Wow is it good!

Saturday was devoted to the reception. On Sunday, we just hung out and chatted, in the afternoon we went for a nice walk on a greenbelt area.

We picked up dinner at Papa Murphy's and Casey did a great job of cooking the pizza's!

And yes, later that night we went back to Braums!

Being in Texas for 4 days was really refreshing. I was around some of the most important people in my life, whom I consider family. At times, as we were reminiscing, I would have to remind myself that we were not teenagers in Nevada, but rather grown adults in Texas! We did a lot of reminiscing down memory lane and some awesome 90's styles that Lisa and I totally rocked. It was a wonderful time and I am so very thankful that we were all able to come together to celebrate the marriage of Marcos and Kimberley.

January Randomness

January 2017 started off like most January's very slow and chill. I rented my first Redbox (I know I am behind!).
 

We had a very mild winter - as in we only had 1.4 inches of snow before a random storm that damaged some of the flowers that were already blooming. 

 

Tuf and I ate very healthy on a 21 day fix:

Even Princess got on the health food craz and sniffed some coconut kale chips I made.

January also brought the craz of the inauguration. It was my first time to experience what this city go through in as our nations prepares for a new President. High fences and stands go about around the White House and along Pennsylvania Avenue. 

I work 5 blocks from the White House and since inauguration day is on a Friday, we all worked from home. And this is how I celebrated my first time in DC as a new President takes office. 

A few days after President Trump took office there some protesters climbed a construction crane to protest something. As I was walking to work a group of people were looking up to the crane and the police were there, but at that time nobody was sure what was going on. 

By 10am the protesters had unraveled their sign and it said "Resist" - it was a Greenpeace protest. The five or so protesters ended up coming down later that day. 

One thing I love doing in January is updating all the Christmas cards I received in December. All these people mean something very special to me.

One of Tuf's Christmas presents from me was her favorite band's lead singer, Justin speaking at what he called "The Open Book Tour". It was a really great evening in Annapolis and now I have to admit, pretty much love Blue October as well.

The middle of January also brought a random conversation with Tuf and I about moving into a smaller place now that it was just her and I. We didn't need the house in Silver Spring and neither of us were looking forward to yard work that would come this spring. So, we searched some apartments and on one Sunday we decided to start in Maryland and make our way to Virginia. We looked at about 5 apartments and found one that offered us some really special deals that made moving seem possible.After talking to our current home owners about breaking our lease and they agreed, we signed a one year lease on an apartment in Rockville - more to come on the apartment in my February posts.

Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017

 

Welcome 2017. Before we embark on what 2017 has and will hold, I would like to take a moment to remember the past year. 2016 marked my 2nd complete year in DC. When I moved in the east coast I gave myself a 2 year minimum and I reached that goal in 2016! While reaching my first goal of living on the east coast for 2 years, I have decided that I will stay in the Washington, DC area for another 3 years, with a tentative plan to leave around October of 2019.

2016 brought back my love of New York City and my continual thankfulness of living on the east coast, along with a lot of great memories and also some no so great things. I still miss Idaho and I still feel like Idaho is my home, but I am growing accustom to life on the east coast. It is amazing how your perspective changes over time and the situations you are in.

Now for a brief recap of all that 2016 brought.

January: First time to Great Falls; Snowzilla (never seen that much snow in my life, and never want to see that again!); First trip back to NYC with Melissa and Alissa; Workday training

February: First White House Tour; Went inside the Supreme Court for the first time to pay our respects to Justice Scalia; Annapolis; Carrie Underwood concert; Forts around DC

March: Karen, Kimberley, and Marcos visit

April: 2nd annual sunrise service at the Lincoln Memorial; Cherry Blossoms; James visits; 2nd trip to NYC; Yesenia and Lionel visit

May:Kathie visits; 2nd trip to NYC; Finally met Zachary Levi thanks to Kathie's fantastic idea about going to see the Broadway Play, She Loves Me, in which Zac starred in; Passport DC (2nd annual time attending); Memorial Day weekend in Yorktown with Stacy, Robert, Peyton and Melissa

June: 36th birthday; SHRM conference

July: Anthony's family visits; 4th of July (another failed attempt at seeing awesome fireworks); Together 2016

August: Tuf's birthday; first trip to National Aquarium; first trip to Ocean City, Maryland for a beach weekend, Year 2 officially living on the east coast; 2nd annual trip to Boise

September: Life Changes - people leave, new job as a Generalist (career goal)! 

October: Chill month; my first Blue October concert; started driving in DC to work! 

November: First Presidential election drama in DC; Karen visits; Thanksgiving

December: People's Christmas Tree at the US Capitol, the tree was from IDAHO!!!; all things Christmas in DC; Marcos and Kimberley are married in Brazil and I watch with Lisa on Facebook live with her in Idaho and me in Maryland. 

2016 was an interesting year. There were a lot of struggles, and a lot of personal growth. I was able to accomplish a little more traveling out of the area like my three trip to NYC - I can give tours of that city as well! :) and the ocean, I love the ocean - my goal is to go a few more times to the ocean in 2017. Thank you 2016! Looking forward to what 2017 holds.

Hay & Eli - December

Now for the last post of the kids for 2016. I just love them so much and I am so glad that Hailey is coming to visit in a couple months! 

Isn't she just precious!

End of 2016 Random

My last random post for 2016! After this post there are only 2 posts left - yay me for finishing relatively on time this year. Now to wait until I find a coupon to print my blog. I'll recap 2016 in the last post of 2016 but below are some randomness for the month of December. 

Dex and I cuddling.

This cracks me up! My cat has some serious issues!! But I love her to pieces!

Dexter was so excited to be in the basement and see the KITTY!!!

 Baylor trying to snuggle as close to me as possible.

 Is my cat seriously the biggest animal in this photo. They all thought I had something yummy - nope - just cinnamon. 

I love my friends from my last job. I am always thankful for the friendships I create along the way. On the Wednesday before Christmas a happy hour was organized for another former employee and it was great because all the people that had left showed up and only Martha and Lyndsey were still employed at the company where we all once worked. Tara was in town from Nebraska so I got to hold her baby, Ryan for an hour and it was so precious. It was great to see Debra and Rupert and of course Gina! I miss this girl and she kindly took me to my car so I didn't have to ride the metro.

Earlier in December Kathie, another friend from my old job stopped by my work so I could see her precious babe Tristan (who I had early on nicknamed Dorito). And I got to hold him for a while as well. I just love babies (not children), just babies. 

 After years and years and years of trying to get me to try Cafe Rio I caved and finally went, and it was really good. I still love Costa Vida and it is nice to have something similar that is close by.

And to cap of this random post with some seriously random things. I love this saying, "What if I fail? My darling, what if you fly!" I have always been afraid to fail, which is turn has kept me from trying new things. I was scared to move to the east coast because what if it didn't turn out the way I thought it would. And guess what it didn't turn out the way I thought it was going to turn out to be and yet I still flew. I am also a firm believe in making memories and not stuff. I am not a materialistic person, probably cause I like to travel too much! :)

I love this - I really do try to be happy, honest and real.

Goodbye 2016 randomness and hello 2017 with probably just as much if not more randomness.