Holiday Parties!

We have been busy with FUN these past few weekends, and even though my little Dell is about to die from viruses I was able to upload some pictures last night!

First we put up Christmas decorations...and I was unable to figure out the tree plug system, so my handy hubby stepped in. He succeeded.


We didn't do a lot of decorations this year, but I moved this table under the pass-through, strung garland and hung our stockings with care (since we're mantle-less).

And I let my cute little snow-people hang out in our living room, too. That and our tree are mostly the extent of how we decorated. I hung a gorgeous wreath on our door, but no outdoor lights. I know, we're scrooges this year.

A couple weekends ago we got together with Sarah, her boyfriend Thomas, Pam and her boyfriend Jason for a holiday dinner. We ate at Max's Wine Dive, which was fabulous, and watched Colt not win the Heisman (no comment on that...). Below is Sarah's steak...which so artfully displayed her steak knife in a bone.

Group shot from Howl at the Moon later in the evening. We had so much fun and we were amazed to find a night that worked for 6 people!

And as most Texans know - it snowed!! We were out at a company happy hour, but I managed to get some snow action shots! It really stuck all night and into the morning...I wish I had a picture of our house, because our lawn and roof were white.

This was my failed attempt at a nice, outdoor puppy picture for our Christmas cards. They're still cute anyway! Very typical - Dixie is eating a stick and McLovin is soaking in the sun.

This past weekend we got to have dinner at the original Ninfa's (yum!) with Kevin and Tracy, our friends and Jeremy's second cousin. Tracy is due in February, so we spent most of the meal forcing Baby Poli to move around in T's tummy! We can't wait for that little squirt to make his or her debut! Our friends, the Harbisons, also had a Christmas party. Since Jeremy's company didn't have one and we didn't make it to mine, it was fun to have at least one to go to! We also got to catch up with our favorite "hustler," Chris.

Emily, a lawyer, had quite a story as well...the night before she slipped at Chick-fil-a and bruised her tailbone and basically shattered the bones in the tip of her finger. She seemed okay at the party, although the Vicodin and Shirley Temples may have been helping. :)

Don't they just look too cool?

We also celebrated Tyler's 11th Birthday this weekend. I can NOT believe my little brother is ELEVEN. It seems like just yesterday he was 3 days old on Christmas morning, our house was under construction, and we were all passing him around while opening presents...

Jeremy and I are horrible at keeping secrets, especially when it comes to gifts! So since Jeremy's work schedule finally calmed down and he was at home all afternoon, we broke down and decided we needed to open gifts last night!! I know it sounds not very fun, but we're busy with family anyway over the holidays and it was nice to spend some time alone together! Jeremy had just finished shopping for me in the day, so none of his gifts were wrapped, but I had finished his last week. Enjoy my gorgeous wrapping below...

Jeremy and the dogs with the goods. Yes, there is an air mattress in our living room. We're basically living ghetto these days - we hooked up Jeremy's laptop to our TV so we can watch Netflix movies instantly (because you know, we're too impatient to wait the 2 days it takes to get them in the mail!). But our new couch, as opposed to the sectional, is not very comfy for TV-watching for more than 1 person and we need an ottoman. Our free solution for now - blow up the air mattress! The dogs love it too, so the whole family gets to snuggle. I promise we're buying an ottoman soon and the air mattress will go away.

Please excuse the curse word on the gift below, but if you know Jeremy, you know he uses Excel spreadsheets to plan our whole life, complete with color-coding, formulas, etc. I saw this and it was too perfect to pass up. I don't think he finds it as funny as I do though...

My "big" gift this year!! Tall, chestnut, size 9. I'm in love. And I don't care if they're not cool anymore, they keep my feet toasty warm and they're super comfy. These will be perfect for our trip to Telluride in January!! Also (not pictured) I got the Williams-Sonoma recipe box and embosser (so I don't lose my recipes anymore), UT socks and underwear (for game days, of course!), and the Jon & Kate + 8 book, Multiple Blessings.

Jeremy's big gift...that we all enjoyed playing last night into the wee hours (no Wii pun intended)!! Jeremy also got 2 books - a nice UT book with photography of the campus with the personalized cover, and the Bro Code (Barney's book from How I Met Your Mother).

In between all the gifting and playing last night, I baked up a storm. I made sandtarts (or Russian tea cakes), more fudge and homemade peppermint bark. The bark is really good, if I do say so myself, and I will never pay $30 for a tin of it again from Williams-Sonoma. I would still like to try baking candy cane cookies (my favorite), but they're really labor-intensive and I might just run out of time.

Our plans for this Christmas aren't too busy - we're both taking tomorrow off to go see my dad for lunch and during the day and my mom at night for church and dinner. Then Christmas morning we are sleeping in (my one requirement this holiday), then spending time with Jeremy's parents, Aunt Pat and Uncle Dan, and Meemaw and Peepaw. It should be relatively stress-free. I am working on Friday, but it's only a 4-hour day and I can be casual, so I don't mind!

I can't believe Christmas Eve is tomorrow and our 2nd anniversary is only a week away! I LOVE this season!!

Goodbye, Eggnog Chai!

My dearest Eggnog Chai,

I know we've been though a lot together. My first memory of you is in college, studying for winter finals. Curling up at a Starbucks with you late into the night. Life was easier then. Mom and Dad paid for you, and I figured the hikes around campus made up for any calories. Wait, did I even know drinks had calories in college? I don't know. We've had a good run, and I appreciate our time together.

...but...

You've started to let yourself go. Baristas are confused if I'm ordering a latte with chai or a chai with eggnog latte. I know what I want - I just can't express it the right way. And then $4 later, I am so let down. You're not the same. You're not new and exciting anymore. Gone are the days of late nights at Starbucks and not counting calories. We've both moved on in our lives and I'm not sure we're on the same road anymore.

I regret to tell you, my lovely E.C., I have found happiness in a new holiday beverage. It's not you, it's me. Seriously. And I think I'm happier where I am now, really. I wouldn't give names, but I think you have the right to know. Caramel Apple Spice. Nothing against you or your holiday fun, but CAS is also at Starbucks year-round. So when a sudden cold snap hits Houston in February, I won't be disappointed again. Plus, I looked into the calorie count...it's not great, but I can handle it. And I just don't need much caffiene anymore. I can only handle it in the morning at work, so if I want a toasty beverage at night, I just have to get CAS. I hope you can understand. I am sure someone else has already found you and you'll have many holiday seasons together in the future. But we must end here.

Cheers,
Meagan

Thanksgiving in Pictures!

I take no credit for these - only for stealing them off Jamie's Shutterfly page. In my defense, she did send me the link.

Table #1...the "kids" table :)

Table #2 - if you ignore the random mix of chairs (that would be patio, folding, desk, and 2 old dining ones!), I think I did a pretty nice table setting!

Another view of my table - we hosted 13 people, 9 at the big table, and 4 at the kids table!

My sweet husband "carving" the meat (or taking the foil off our honey-baked ham)

The final piece - rolls and then it's time to eat!

The spread! Ham, turkey, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, frozen cranberry salad, squash casserole, broccoli casserole (with Ritz crackers on top!), rolls, & cranberry sauce

After dinner, playing with baby Katy!

Judy, Uncle Dan, GiGi (Heather's mom), and Aunt Pat

Isn't that a cute one??

The tired hosts

Tony & Judy, my in-laws

Dad & Heather (I think my dad was disappointed we didn't have a recliner for him!)

Josh & Jamie (the photographer!)

Heather's girls, Caroline & Sarah

So...it's 7:43 am.

And I've been up since 1:30am. Yes, that's right. For 6 hours now. I made myself stay in bed until 5, then I got up and got ready for work. The good news is I get to leave at 4:30 today. The bad news is I'm sure I will be dragging once lunchtime gets here.

I've got a lot of exciting stuff coming up in the next few weeks, and I promise to be a total camera geek so I actually have pictures to show!

Best holiday weekend ever.

Seriously, the best. I am absolutely going to bore you with all the details.

Tuesday night we skipped out on cleaning/preparing for our Thanksgiving feast and went to dinner at Benjy's with Justin, Sean and Chris, who was in town from Kyle. It was totally worth staying out late for - I hadn't seen Chris in months and there was a lot of laughing at dinner, to say the least.

Wednesday Jeremy disc-golfed with the other Hamblen men, then we got ready for Thanksgiving. We hosted Jeremy's parents, his brother Josh & his wife Jamie, Aunt Pat, Uncle Dan, my dad & Heather, Heather's mom Gigi, Heather's kids Caroline & Sarah, and even Amy, Chris and baby Katy stopped by for a plate! It was definitely a full house (especially in our tiny house)! We had everyone over Wednesday night because we left Thursday morning for Austin to have another yummy lunch at Green Pastures and then to cheer on our Longhorns against A&M. We loved hosting Thanksgiving at our place and all the food was awesome.

Friday we had coffee in the morning with one of Jeremy's bosses who lives in Austin, then we had lunch at El Patio with Amanda and Tyler and headed back to Houston. It was a quick trip, only 24 hours!, but so fun. I will look forward to making that trip every other year from now on! Friday night we met up with Zach and his wife Carrie, and Zach's brother JC and his wife Rhoda for drinks at Empire Cafe. Justin and Sean met us up there too, and again, there was lots of laughing and reminiscing about college days! (Zach, Sean, Justin and Jeremy were all roommates at a house at UT, plus 2 other guys.) Carrie and Zach had found out earlier in the week they're expecting a little boy!! We still can't believe Zach's going to be a dad, but we're so excited for them & Zach, Jr (not really his name).

Saturday Jeremy watched football all day long while I shopped, so we were both happy! I am sure Jeremy could fill an entire blog with his thoughts on UT football and the BCS (if you're living under a rock, 2 teams we BEAT are playing in the Big XII Championship), but maybe another day. That night we ate dinner at the Black Lab to celebrate Jamie & Judy's birthdays, followed by watching OSU suck it up big time against OU (OSU - learn how to play some DEFENSE, PLEASE!!).

Yesterday we stayed in our pj's all day and I Christmas-fied the house while Jeremy worked/studied/clicked refresh 100,000 times online to read more about the BCS standings. I unpacked our 1 Christmas decoration box, hung the wreath and garland and got the tree up (which will remain ornament-less until this weekend, probably) while we watched Love Actually and drank apple cider! We also watched Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation with Jimmy Stewart and Maureen O'Hara. It's hilarious and I highly recommend it if you're in the mood for some classic, wholesome Jimmy! :) (Thanks to Judy and Tony for Netflix-ing it..."I hate Boompa!!") And wow, we sound totally lazy and worthless.

Lastly - I have no pictures to post because I took NONE this whole weekend. Bad Meagan. I am hoping sweet Jamie will email them to me because she was so nice to take pictures for us! :)

This is cracking me up.

If you know Jeremy or me at all, you know we LOVE the TV show Scrubs. Like, love love.



Did I just download that song?
Yes.
Was I completely bummed it couldn't be converted to a ring tone in iTunes?
Absolutely.

It's Tuesday.

I am pretty sure I just suffered through the longest morning ever at work, coding stuff for accounting.

Happy Veteran's Day! Thanks to any and all of you!

We had a low-key weekend, but threw in a day trip to Austin for the Baylor game. The weather was awesome (though I did get sunburned on my legs and half my face and neck!) and we had plenty of time to enjoy Matt's El Rancho (including a vat of queso!!) with Amanda and Jeremy's parents after the game. I kind of thought Jeremy might have a breakdown on the way home because we couldn't get any of the Tech-OSU game on the radio, even in Houston. Luckily, we got home in time to see the second half. And Jeremy was thrilled on Sunday to see Texas is still ranked #3 in the BCS. Hook em, Horns!

Good news - Starbuck's eggnog lattes are back!! I enjoyed my first one on Saturday and was so excited. The smell of eggnog and those little red cups really mean the beginning of the holiday season to me! I also highly recommend the Espresso Truffle Latte and Jeremy loves the Gingersnap Latte. Yummy!

By the way...when I just Google image searched "starbucks eggnog" I definitely caught a glimpse of an article I wish I hadn't seen. "Equal in fat to a McDonald's Quarter Pounder." Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I knew the weren't healthy, but come on! They're only around once a year! Don't ruin this for me!

We also bought McLovin a dog bed from Target this weekend. I am pleased to report he's enjoying it immensely! Dixie was never one for beds, I think she gets too hot. When we'd crate her, she'd get under the bed in her crate and she usually sleeps under our bed on the wood floor. But little McLovin will find anything semi-soft you've left on the floor (dirty clothes, clean clothes, towels, sheets, anything) and sleep on it, so we thought he needed a real bed!

Yes, it's a terrible-quality photo, thanks to my iPhone and lighting, but still - what a cutie! We put his bed in whatever room we're in and he snuggles up in it every time! I love this dog more and more every day!

Frat Boys Rock the Vote.

Swap out the cute kids in the video below for some mumbling, dancing frat boys and you have this...



It's ATO guys from UT. I love that they're on YouTube.

We did.

Did you?



Sorry Sarah - I totally stole it from you. :)

Halloween & Black Saturday

I love dressing up for Halloween and Jeremy and I worked very hard brainstorming couples costume ideas for about a month. We were excited to actually have a party (thanks to Kevin & Tracy!) to wear our costume to. Here's what we came up with...

Yes, we're a banana hammock. And we made the "hammock." We're crafty.

I should have known that when we got a flat tire on the 610 feeder right by Memorial because Jeremy rubbed a curb and then the jack broke and the we paid some dudes $50 to change the tire all while we're rocking the burnt orange gear on the side of the road that our Longhorns were doomed. Lubbock, the day after Halloween, ranked #1 for a few too many weeks (I think we prefer the underdog position) plus flat tire spells trouble. That's all I will say on it. I'm on a media blackout. Don't ask me about it.

Now...is it too early to start decorating for Christmas? Because I am completely itching to hang stockings and light up the tree!

Odds & Ends

I felt the need to update...but don't have much to say!

Sarah, thanks for updating your blog! :)

We got our new A/C unit a couple weeks ago and have even enjoyed using our heater 2 nights! (Did I mention last winter we couldn't use ours for fear of carbon monoxide poisoning from a cracked heat exchanger in our 30 year old unit? So we used space heaters which would then make our breakers flip due to old wiring, thus cutting off our alarm clocks, thus making me late to work on multiple occasions.) It's no fun to pay for stuff like that, but a 1975 unit to a 2008 unit is a nice change!

We watched UT beat the pants off of Mizzou, which was an awesome game to watch! We were supposed to go but opted out as Jeremy has been working until 2am regularly the week before and until 3am the night/morning before the game, and from noon until 5pm right before the game. It was nice to watch it from home (though I am sure Jeremy disagrees!).

Last weekend Jeremy went to the UT-OSU game in Austin (yeah, we won that one too!). I went to Dallas with Sarah and Pam to visit Becky for her birthday. It was only one night, about 24 hours, but it was such a great trip! We got to see Becky's condo she bought last year, which is ridiculously cute; we went to dinner with Becky and her old friends to Mi Cocina then saw High School Musical 3. It was amazing! So cheesy, so silly, and so fun! We laughed really loudly in a lot of parts and Becky even (very loudly) whispered "Yesssss!" when Zack & Vanessa finally kissed. We're hoping they do a High School Musical 4: Freshman Year in college. I can't wait to get the soundtrack and start learning some moves!

Here's a birthday picture for Becky!

Hope you had a great birthday weekend! Love you!

This weekend: hand out candy to my 2 trick-or-treaters, rock Kevin & Tracy's Halloween party with our amazing costumes, and cheer on UT at Tech Saturday night. I will reveal our costume pictures after Halloween! It's going to be amazing.

Happy Birthday, Tony!!

Hope it's legend...wait for it...dary!
Love, Meg, Jeremy, Dixie & McL

#1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Texas is #1 this week! The game was amazing and I am in love with Colt McCoy (sorry Jeremy!). We had a blast watching with friends at our place, even though I am sure my sister had the time of her life in Dallas. Some pictures from game-watching:

Sean & McLovin having a moment

Pam & Jeremy

Me & Sarah

UT Barbie signaling one of many touchdowns for the Longhorns!!

OU Barbie threw herself off our table, courtesy of my mom

Also - big news! Effective yesterday, I was promoted to Regulatory Specialist from admin of our group. I'm getting my own areas and wells, a Blackberry and my very own office with 2 windows and 2 guest chairs! I'm kind of a big deal around here, what can I say?

Check it.

I did mark off a couple things from my DIY list this weekend! Saturday I painted our guest room and hallway for about 7 hours. Our walls are kind of textured, so it really takes some elbow grease! We are SO thrilled with the result - all the yucky green is officially covered up now! I also rearranged our guest room and it looks way bigger now, and for a small 11' x 11' room that is a big deal. My hands are so sore but it was totally worth it. We also purchased a little mouse sander and some glossy black spray paint, so sometime this week I will attempt the bar stools again. My camera is dead but I will post "after" pictures soon!

...and how about those Horns???? Hook 'em!

DIY

I am feeling very DIY lately. I usually come up with ideas and never follow through - waiting to be able to save money to pay someone else to do something for me. No more! I've been reading this awesome blog and the moral of it is "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful." That is really speaking to me! So last night I grabbed a red, rooster bar stool I inherited from my mom, sanded it and primed it with spray paint. Somehow this weekend those bar stools are going to become black! I tried spraying a small patch with the black spray paint I got and I don't think I like the look of it...not sure what else to do, but hopefully my friendly neighborhood Ace owners can help me out with some other paint selections.

My other BIG plans this weekend:
-Paint bathroom (yep, it's time for the dark brown to go!)
-Paint the hallway (it's tiny but we just never got around to it, so it's still the previous owner's green)
-Paint the guestroom (same story as the hallway)
-Finish bar stools
-Paint some Christmas gifts
-Finish making our 'Team Julianne' Dancing with the Starts t-shirts (I used to be an iron-on letter pro and now I can not for the life of me get these letters to stick!!)

Eventually, we will paint the kitchen neutral, paint the kitchen cabinets white, and paint our bathroom vanity cabinets black. Those are later weekend projects though! Fingers crossed on paying someone to paint the kitchen?

Also, since I now officially have 2 pregnant friends, I am calling the sex of their babies:
Tracy - boy (but they're not finding out, so we'll have to wait until February!)
Carrie - girl
We'll see if I'm right!

I'll try to capture some before and after pictures in case I actually accomplish all the stuff on my list this weekend...

And I bought this adorable little tassel from my new fav blog's online shop. I think it's my inspiration for my kitchen colors - roosters but not in black, red and white. Greens and blues with some darker accents (like my counters and stools).

I love Pike.

Day 14- Jeremy was able to get off work early on Friday so we left around 3pm to try and beat traffic. We ate at Jeremy's favorite, Matt's El Rancho, with Amanda where there was no wait (seriously ever other time I have eaten there it's at least a 30 minute wait). Jeremy and I treated ourselves to some Amy's Ice Cream before retreating to our freezing cold hotel room (which I refused to complain about because at least there was a/c!).

Vat of queso!! Yum!

At Matt's El Rancho

Day 15- Saturday we slept in then met Sarah and Thomas at Thomas's tailgate - the food was incredible!! I love that smoker! :) The game was a great one to watch and once the sun went behind us, it was very pleasant. Jeremy can probably comment more on how UT played, but I know we played well, beating those stinky hogs 52-10. We had dinner at Moonshine with Jeremy's friend Zach and his wife Carrie, who just found out they're expecting their first baby in April! It is always fun to catch up with them, and we got to see their new house. We also saw the blonde drummer from Foo Fighters at Moonshine (I totally called it!). He sat down near us with his wife or girlfriend and their baby, but then they left 5 minutes later. Boo! Probably good though because I think Jeremy would have stared the whole time!

Day 16- Sunday we slept in again, ate lunch with Amanda at EZ's then headed back to reality. We returned home from Austin to find the wonderful crews from Pike in Georgia put new poles and transformers down our street and at 8pm, they turned our power back on! Many neighbors had gathered on our street and it was great to be able to witness the lights coming back on! We hugged and screamed when we saw our neighbor Matt's porch light come on! We were a little worried about our 30 year old a/c unit coming back to life after 16 days, but sure enough it kicked right on, as did all our lights, TV's and fridge. Our cable had been ripped from our house (I think really from Centerpoint cutting the tree off the lines in our backyard, not from the storm) but Jeremy was smart enough to contact Comcast last week to get that fixed, so we even had cable and internet up and running. It felt amazing to sleep in our own bed after 16 days, and to have all our clothes and stuff back in one place. I swore up and down I would not clean anything last night, I only wanted to bask in the glory of electricity, but I broke down and vaccuumed and Pledged all of our stuff in the living room. Other rooms will have to wait, but at least one is (fairly) clean and back in order. Today I'll pick up the dogs from the kennel and then I'll need to do some major grocery shopping since all we have left in our fridge is Coke Zero and beer.

Yes, our yard is trashed from tree removal.

Next up - planning our post-Ike block party!!