Spend it till it's gone!

I nearly forgot to blog about our second to biggest purchase in our 4 years of married life (our car is first)...our new front loading washer and dryer!  

 

The weekend before heading to Houston our washer decided to flood our living room. It was a Sunday afternoon, we had spilled something on our kitchen rug so I decided to throw it in the wash real quick (ha, last time I do laundry on a Sunday!). Anyway, Collin was napping (thank goodness) and Michael and I were just cooking in the kitchen. I walked out a while after starting the load and notice a huge stream of water come from the washer and across our living room! Thankfully our apartment is old and funky and the floor slants down. So all the water was gathering against one wall instead of the entire floor. And we don't have carpet! It took pretty much every towel in the house to clean up the mess and we finished right as Collin was waking up. After some investigating and not being able to find the source of the leak (all pipes were dry and we did find some oil dripping underneath- we think it was an issue with the drum) we determined it was time to buy a new washer and dryer. We had bought these ones used, 4 years ago when we were first married for about $250. We hadn't had any major problems with the washer until then and the dryer took a few cycles to dry a load, but at least it still dried. But we had already determined that we would not be taking this set with us next time we move. They had served us well, but I was more then happy to get new ones! Thankfully there were some early Black Friday sales and we were able to get a great deal. Only downfall is they couldn't deliver it for a week :( Thankfully, Becca let us use their washer and dryer as needed...such a huge lifesaver!

Out with the old...

 

...In with the new!
I felt silly getting excited about a washer and dryer. But aren't they beautiful?!

 

Collin loves to watch the clothes spin round and round. One morning when we should have been packing for our trip to California we sat on the floor for a while and just watched the clothes get clean. He loved it!

 



Oh and the same week we purchased the W&D we took our car in because it was making a funny noise. Turns out there was metal showing through on one of our tires! Yikes! We were really grateful we caught it before something happened, and that it was an easy (although expensive) fix.

 

We spent so much money that week it was stressful, but all I could do was laugh! Costco's deal for Christmas cards was ending that week as well and I was deciding between a couple types. I finally just said who cares, I am spending the extra $15 and getting the nicer ones! Spend it till its gone is what my dad always says. Probably not always the best mentality, but when you had already spent $1500+ that week, what is an extra $15, right?

 

So a washer and dryer, 50 nice Christmas cards, 4 new tires and an alignment later...Merry (early) Christmas to us! Yay for being an adult ;)

Thanksgiving 2014

Our original plan was to go camping at the beach with some of our friends for the Thanksgiving weekend. But we all had some degree of a cold. Remember how Collin was starting to get sick the weekend before in Houston? Well we all got it, some of us (Collin and me) worse then others (Michael...he always gets off easy! Lucky duck!) Anyway we decided it would be best to stay home and not expose ourselves to the elements and try sleeping on the hard ground when we weren't sleeping well at home to begin with. Thankfully we weren't sick enough to make our Thanksgiving weekend at home totally miserable and had a lovely little weekend as a family.

 

Neither of us our the biggest fans of turkey and other traditional Thanksgiving foods. So we decided to try our hand at making lamb. Originally Michael wanted lamb shanks, but those are quite hard to find! So we settled on a different cut, browned it in a pan and then finished it off in the crockpot. I even had to buy my first bottle of wine for this recipe. I felt like such an adult, but self conscience too! I ran into one of our friends while at the store and had to clarify that the bottle of wine was for cooking...not drinking! Didn't want anyone getting the wrong idea ;) We also made a quinoa cranberry orange salad (not a favorite, probably won't make it again) and a yummy potato gratin, recipe courtesy of William and Sonoma.  The cheese in it was $10! It was definitely a splurge dish, but so rich and yummy!



And all I wanted for dessert was a Costco pumpkin pie. I had been seeing them in the store for the past several weeks and couldn't seem to get it out of my mind. I even went right when they opened the day before to get it. And good thing I did because when I went back later that night (still trying to find lamb) they were sold out. I was happy knowing my pie was safe at home in my fridge. And to watch Collin try it for the first time made it totally worth it! That boy keeps us laughing and for that I am extremely grateful!



Can't remember much else from the weekend. I think there were a lot of naps involved. Michael did play football Thanksgiving morning, Collin and I spectated. And we did hit up Target Friday shopping to see if there were any deals left. We got a couple little things, but they were pretty picked over. Which was ok, we were keeping Christmas small this year.

Weekend in Houston

Its catch up time! Lots of big changes have happened in the few months since my last post. Now that life has settled down a bit, and we are getting into a routine, it is time to crank out some blog posts before I forget all the things we have been doing!

 

First, lets jump back to November when Michael took Friday off and we took a weekend trip to Houston to visit Michael's brother Dennis and meet his fiancé (now wife) Swati. Swati's family lives in Houston and they were visiting from Pennsylvania. Swati's mom was so kind to let us stay at her house. We had such a fun weekend with them. Swati is wonderful, and after only a few short days together I can tell we are going to be great friends!

 

We went to NASA, took a tour, saw some pretty big space shuttles, played in the kids area and learned lots of cool things about space!

Only picture I have of Dennis and Swati...sad! And we didn't know that the tour takes you outside and left Collin's jacket in the car. We improvised with the nursing cover. I felt like such a bad parent though- it was a rainy day and Collin was already showing signs of a cold. Guess we all have those times!

 

 

Bad quality pic, but they were both laughing and spitting. Collin's face in this one is priceless!

 

We went bowling. Uncle Dennis was so patient in teaching Collin how to bowl. Collin loved it and laughed every time. But by the second game was done and just wanted to eat his snacks.

 



We played at the park, went to breakfast with Swati's family, tried some yummy authentic Indian food, and just hung out and enjoyed being together. Come back and visit Texas soon!!

 

Swati and Dennis flew out Sunday morning and Michael and I decided to drive home to San Antonio via Lake Jackson. A small town a little south east of Houston right near the coast. Michael had just applied for a job there and we wanted to scope out the area since we were already so close. We hit up the local ward for Sacrament meeting and then drove around the town a little, and out to the beach before heading home. We thought the town was so pretty, lots of trees and well maintained. And the few people we met at church were friendly and welcoming. Overall we had a good first impression and thought that we could see ourselves living there if anything came from the job posting. Little did we know how things would change in just 2 short months! Stay tuned for more details on that story! ;)

Beach near Lake Jackson.
I sent it to my family and said "If I squint I can almost imagine I am in California"