Ah, staying at home for the first time in our marriage, how refreshing!
Ah, family coming from near and far to visit, how fun!
Mom and Dad came down from Boise to visit this past week and my big sis, Laurie, and her two kids, Parker and Payton, came from Arkansas for the week after Christmas too. We made quite the merry group and saw just about every corner of San Antonio and nearly Southern Texas as we possibly could in a week.
Here's a few moments from all the madness:
Visiting the San Antonio temple.
Touring the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi. Dad was a signalman in the Navy from 1963 to 1966 and touring the ship was very moving for him, and cool for the rest of us too.
Letting Mom stick her toes in the Gulf of Mexico, her special request.
Opening presents and playing games. (And, yes, I got a robot vacuum and Wicked tickets! Ah!)
Funny unpictures moments include us attempting to visit the same pizza place from Man Vs. Food (Big Lou's) and waiting in line for almost in hour, outside, in the cold, before learning that the wait was another two hours! Eek! Other excitement includes my niece now being taller than me (sad!) and an exciting adventure in Hobby Lobby with my sister, that may or may not one day be revealed. ;)
I am so happy that we were able to all be together for Christmas, and so very lucky that I have a family that is always saying things either interesting or amusing, full of hugs, and so supportive and kind. What a merry Christmas!
And a little bit more, the Foulk household is getting in shape!
In the last month, we have done all sorts of exciting homeownery things, like glazing our bathroom cabinets. I read about this online and decided to try it because there is a) no sanding required and b) no sanding required. So with a paint brush and brown tinted glaze, I took our cabinets from this to this!
(From a boring blond maple to a darker, richer brown that lets the wood grain show through.)
The best part is that it took me, like, an hour to do everything! Success. The camera doesn't quite do the new color justice, but they look really good in person, I promise. I still need to pick out some glam hardware, but they look so much better than they used to.
To make everything even better, our beautiful new granite finally showed up, and we got to put in our crisp white vessel sinks and pump faucets too. It's glorious, I tell you, glorious! Here's the classic before and after shots:
When we moved in, the inspector told us that the countertop in our master bath was broken and that it would leak into our cabinets if we used the sinks, so this is the first time EVER that we will get to use our master bathroom as it was intended! That is, once the plumber finishes his handiwork in a few days. At least it looks really pretty.
Last month was also our official bulk trash and bush pick up for the San Antonio trash department, so we got to get rid of all this stuff. Yes, the pile was so large, it dwarfed our house. I am feeling a little bad for the tree in our front yard, whom I love, but Mike assures me that his beautiful leaves will grow back eventually.
We also found a rug that matches our living room decor for a super amazing deal (even if it is a tad bit small), installed some new faux wood blinds, finally got to use one of our fireplaces, and got our guest bedroom in shape for when my parents come for Christmas.
I have to say, owning our own house is so rewarding! And, in contrast to the townhouse we (still) own in Idaho, this house is old enough that we don't care (too much) that we are learning as we go along. Like that one chick says in Pride and Prejudice, "Lizzy, it's such a pride being able to run my own home."
Oh, and anyone up for a painting party? You know, purely so you can experience that joy yourself....
USAA threw another great Christmas celebration. Mike and I got all glammed up, strolled down the red carpet, had our photos taken by throngs of paparazzi, said a casual hello to Rod Stewart and Whoopi Goldberg, ate like kings, and ended the night only a few feet from stars from Heroes and ER.
So pretty much your typical Saturday night for us rock stars.
Just kidding. Seriously, the USAA work part was amazing this year. Every time we get pampered like this, I think to myself, 'I am so lucky that my hubby got the brilliant idea to apply for a job in the far away land of Texas. And please pass the tres leches parfait."
Here's a little video montage of 5 clips or so of us and our amazing view of The Band from TV, which includes guys from Heroes, ER, Desperate Housewives, House, and (the only one I watch, to my chagrin) The Bachelor. In the first clip, you can even see Mike's CEO, Joe Robles, shaking the tambourine along to Hard to Handle.
I really enjoy decorating, and so Christmas is a fun time of year. I get to bust out the angels, elves and a small army of snowmen to replace all the serious stuff in my house with a bit of whimsical fun. Here are some of the fruits of my glitter-filled labors.
Lessons I am learning: all my decorations are (guess what!) too small for this house. Oh well, maybe I'll score some sweet deals on decorations after Christmas. But, as for now, we work with what we have!
One thing that isn't too small? Our tree! We had the perfect corner of our living room all set up for it, and then the poor thing started unfolding itself. It was shoved up against the mantle, face-planted against a sunny window, and bursting to get out of the french doors. In other words, we had to move it. So, now our tree is the massively oversized centerpiece in our living room. A delicious smelling center piece, I might add, and I'm enjoying it for all its worth, since I promised Mike we could get a fake tree next year.
As part of the festivities, we happened to have two Christmas parties in one night, one for my work and a formal dinner party with our friends. The work party was a success: Mike got to meet all the doctors I work with, we ate the most delicious shrimp ever, and I won $50 while standing in the buffet line. The friend party was also great: we had an awesomely fancy dinner and a whole lotta laughs.
Yay for Christmas!
(And, yes, please do consider this photo your digital Christmas card from the Foulks!)
Lots of fun and exciting things have been happening lately.
The first one? My new fridge! It's glorious, I tell you. All shiny and double doory, with an ice maker and a deli drawer, and the freezer on the bottom. This is the Fred Astaire of fridges. The Fabio of refrigerators. The Edward of ice machines.
Even Mike can't stop drooling.
Sure, it makes the rest of our cabinets look laughably small. As for the rest of our appliances... well, they are hiding their 1986 heads in shame. I think the vent on my range is on the fritz due to sheer humiliation.
But oh well. We're in love.
The next few exciting things happened over Thanksgiving break. We went to Mike's sister, Tiff's, house in Dallas for a blissfully low key holiday weekend, and then Mike's mom came back to San Antonio with us to check out our new house (and help us decorate for Christmas).
While we were in Dallas, we got to go to this really cool place called Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, where safari type animals just roam over 1700 acres of Texas hill country. You get to drive right up to them and feed them, which is pretty darn cool and also a little scary, especially when they stick their big, horned heads into your Toyota Camry. Here are some exciting photos of the mayhem.
Free window wash by the zebras!----------------->
This is Tiff and Don's car, with a European deers head about to go inside it.------------------------>
The zebra border patrol. "Excuse me, ma'am. I need to search your vehicle for brown, deliciously good food pellets."
And a funny little video of Mike feeding one:
And me freaking out:
While in Dallas, we also went on a little genealogy adventure to one of Mike's distant relative's house to see if he had any photos for Mike's mom. I was pretty excited to go because this relative happens to own an architecture and interior design firm, and the word on the street was that his house was going to be pretty cool. It was. Here are a few of the reasons why:
A rose from Princess Diana: A guitar signed by BB King: And signed Muhammad Ali gloves surrounded by Salvador Dali sketches: There were also signed Andy Warhol pictures, art by John Lennon, and also just some awesome architecture and interior design stuff that made me happy. It been a fun Thanksgiving weekend, and I'm glad I could share it with family, eccentric millionaires and unabashed zebras alike.
