Day 2: Family Day in Connecticut

Thursday began with daily mass. This is not something Jacob and I normally do and at first we were hesitant to attend because we had hoped to sleep in that morning. However, we are both thankful that M&M encouraged us to attend mass because it started our day off on a positive note (and mass was only 30 min. long). After mass, 13 of us (Michelle, Manuel, Mary, Stan, Danielle, Stanley, Emily, Abby, my mom, my grandma, Brittany, Jacob, and I) headed for New Haven for a scavenger hunt inside the Knights of Columbus museum. After the scavenger hunt we had several delicious pizzas at Bar. The pizza crust was thin and crispy and the toppings were mouthwatering (i.e., nice and greasy). Yep, we even tried mashed potato and bacon pizza, which was good but confusing for our mouths. Ultimately, our favorites were the cheese and the pepperoni pizzas.

After our pizza lunch we headed back to Trumbull to decorate Mary and Stan's backyard for the reception. The rain never let up and after a few hours of wrapping tulle around the tent posts we headed back inside drenched with water. I know this in probably difficult for our San Antonian friends to comprehend since we're in a drought so to put it into some perspective, we were wearing rain coats, rain shoes, jeans, sweatshirts, and carrying umbrellas, and still our jeans were soaked up to our knees. It felt as though we had gone to Schlitterbahn with our winter clothes on.

Day 1: Heading East for Manuel & Michelle's (M&M's) Wedding

On Jun 17' 09, we boarded a plane and headed for LaGuardia, NY. Since we don't travel much, we arrived at the airport so early that we were the 1st people in line and we waited 1 1/2 hrs before the check in counter even opened.


Manuel and Michelle immediately greeted us upon our arrival at LaGuardia, NY. From there we headed to CT in Michelle's mom's minivan. During the drive, we celebrated M&M's upcoming wedding with sparkling grape juice.

After checking into the Hilton Garden Inn in Shelton, CT, we headed over to Mary and Stan's house (Michelle's mom and stepdad). Michelle's family greeted us with open arms and made us a spectacular dinner! The dinner consisted of a salad, chicken tarragon on garlic toast topped with gravy, pork tenderloin, rice, and steamed broccoli. For dessert we enjoyed carrot cake and tiramisu. We felt as though we had just dined at a 5-star restaurant! We can definitely see why Tommy (Michelle's brother) is pursuing a career as a chef.

Monica's b-day

On May 24th, we celebrated Monica's b-day at Maggiano's where I attempted to eat a HUGE bowl of pasta that lasted for 2 additional days!

Monica


Jacob & Me


Matthew, Jacob's mom, & Jacob's dad

Beto & Monica

Monica blowing out her candles (Beto gave her a delicious Tres Leches cake & Maggiano's gave her a plate of refreshing lemon cookies)

Jacob (not so) busy at work

Jacob spent part of his day in a dunk booth for his school's fun and fitness day on Apr 23 ' 09. His students jumped at the opportunity to dunk him.

A Better Mouse Trap

We just spent 2 hours trying to build a "better mouse trap." Okay, it was more of a barricade with an opening to allow Chloe and Crystal access to the bathroom while keeping Casper out of it.

Yes, we did consider several options but each option came new problems:

Option 1: Lock the cats in the bedroom with access to the bathroom during the day.
Problem: We worry that the cats may retaliate and protest by not using the litter box (yes, this is the exact reason we need the barricade to begin with).

Option 2: Lock Casper in the spare bedroom.
Problems: It sort of defeats the purpose of having an indoor guard dog if he's locked away in a room all day.

Option 3: Leave Casper outside all day.
Problems: We live in TX and after all of his practice of getting through a barricade we also fear that he may be able to climb fences. Basically, we love him too much to risk leaving him outside all day.

Option 4: Get rid of one species (either both cats or the dog).
Problems: We made a committment to the animals when we first adopted them and will only give them up if they become aggressive or if we can no longer provide a good home for them. Again, it comes down to us loving them and them not doing anything that truly warrants us giving them up (yet). After all, it's separation anxiety that has caused Casper to resort to drastic measures and seek out the bathtub as a safe haven while we're not home.

Option 5: Put a cat hole archway in the door.
Problems: We might not install it or create it correctly. We may not build the opening large enough (our cats love to eat). We'll need to buy a new door if we ever sell the house.

Option 6: Keep trying to build a better barricade.
Problems: It takes time to set up in the morning and we need to build it strong enough to keep Casper out but still safe enough to prevent him and the cats from being injured if it fails.

After considering all of our options we determined that option # 6 is the best one.

After numerous failed attempts of building a barricade with a baby gate and other random materials we have around the house, we finally succeeded (we think). The barricade consists of 2 sturdy cardboard boxes, 2 shoe racks carefully positioned on their sides, and a baby gate to top it all off. The true test will be tomorrow. Hopefully, it works!

Pssst...

Wanna hear a secret?

Fun Day at McAllister Park

Today we met up with our friends Amanda and Daniel at McAllister Park for a picnic lunch to catch up with them and to meet their new son. We had a great time talking with them and watching their daughter play on playground (it's really funny to see how random kids interact with each other).

For lunch, chef Jacob made Turkey Club Subs (yes, real bacon was included) and a fresh fruit salad. We also enjoyed Cheetos and water. Lunch was delicious!

After lunch, we headed to the dog park because Casper was still full of energy.

He got to know a few dogs...

he even almost played with another dog...

but ultimately he wanted to be anti-social...

Wanna be nosy?

I found the greatest website for nosy (concerned) citizens.

It's the SAFD active response site. I discovered the site last week when I became concerned about a few fires on the access road on my way home from work. I went to the SAFD website and it indicated that 1 vehicle was already responding to the fires. My mind was set at ease.

Then this afternoon while we were making dinner we heard several sirens that sounded as though they were on a street nearby. Upon realizing that the sirens might be from fire trucks, I immediately accessed my new favorite website. Sure enough, 3 vehicles were responding with the hurst tool ("jaws of life") to an incident on the street in front of us! We speculated about several possible situations. When we conveniently drove down the street on our way back from DQ we noticed that one of the houses had a huge mangled mess of a garage door lying in the grass. What happened? We may never know the exact details but it made for an interesting night and great conversation.

When Chloe's Hungry...

she can really eat!

The poor monkey never had chance.

Organic only goes so far...

For the last few months we've noticed a gradual increase in the little black ant population in and around our house. Trying our best to be environmentally conscientious, we've tried to control (and eliminate) the ants using organic products. However, the last straw was when I noticed that the ants had made their way into the honey in our pantry. We don't mind killing a few ants around the house but we draw the line when they get into our food.

We are officially seeking professional help.

Especially now that the girls have packed themselves up and are threatening to leave.

Dr. Jacob Saves the Day

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the "kids" were sleeping, Jacob was monitoring his Fantasy League stats and I was vacuuming the house.

I vacuumed the living room, bedroom, part of the office, and the area around the litter boxes. With everything going so well I felt inspired to vacuum underneath the oven. Crystal sat nearby eagerly waiting for me to retrieve all of the puff balls she carefully stored away under the oven. I playfully tossed a few back to her and then began vacuuming all of the crumbs, fur balls, and dust that we normally can't see. Then I noticed them...crumbs were sitting in the bottom of the oven drawer. Armed with the vacuum I sucked the crumbs out of the drawer. While cleaning the drawer I somehow rubbed my finger against the sharp edge and all of a sudden I felt extreme pain and saw blood pouring down my hand!

"AHHHHHHH!!!! I'm bleeding to death! HELP!!!! I need a bandaid!" I screamed out to Jacob. Feeling faint due to the amount of blood I had seen, I quickly sat on the ground gripping my pinky finger with a paper towel and holding my arm above my head. Not believing that it was an emergent situation, he slowly came to my rescue, grabbed another paper towel, and gripped the life out of my finger in an effort to stop the bleeding. After about 5 minutes, the bleeding finally stopped and we were able to bandage my cut.

In the mood for a melody...

Our view of the jumbotron (the speakers obstructed our view)

Tonight was the night! We went to the Elton John/Billy Joel Face to Face concert and it was AMAZING! Together and alone, EJ and BJ sang all of our top favorite songs...Good-bye Yellow Brick Road (my all time favorite), Piano Man, Uptown Girl, Just the Way You Are, Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, I Guess that's Why They Call It the Blues, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, Moving Out, and so much more. Not only can they sing well, but they are both quite entertaining. Who would've guessed that Billy Joel is so witty? We hope they return to SA soon.

Us waiting before the show...yep, we're up pretty high (the 2nd row from the top)

Both on stage

Vision Walk

On Saturday, we woke up bright and early (6:50am) to attend SA's first annual Vision Walk with one of my friend's from Grad School.

When we first arrived at Brackenridge Park, we had trouble finding the correct Pavilion/parking area. We eventually started seeing signs for the event and found parking in the new parking garage. Based on the signs we had seen on our way to the garage, my thought was to take a right from the garage into the park. About half a mile into our walk, my friend called me to tell me that she and her family had parked in the garage too and that they saw balloons and weren't too far from the event pavilion. I had thought it was odd that she had seen balloons and didn't think the garage was far from the event because we had been walking for quite a while and we didn't see any balloons or pavilion in sight.

Eventually, we made it to the pavilion and quickly realized that we had been following the signs for the walking path! We also learned that if we had taken a left out of the garage, we would have immediately seen the balloons and pavilion. We found it ironic that at a Vision Walk, we couldn't see what was right in front of us.

That's Chacho's

We LOVE Chacho's! It's greasy, affordable, and just plain good (did I mention that it's greasy?). Not to mention that ordering food from Chacho's is always an experience (especially when we order through the drive-thru).

For instance, every time we order our meals we're never really sure what we're going to get. Opening our to-go containers is almost like opening a box of cereal and searching for the 1 out of 4 prize identified on the outside of the box. Remember how you felt as a kid? You always hoped for that one specific item, which sometimes you got and other times you didn't, but in the end you were happy because you always got a prize. That's our Chacho's experience.

I almost always order the 2 Beef Taco Plate. The plate always comes with 2 crispy beef tacos, rice, and some type of bean (I always order borracho but sometimes I receive refried). Then comes the mystery portion of my plate. Sometimes I receive guacamole, lettuce, and/or tomatoes, but I'm never certain which combination of the 3 I will receive until I open my container. Heck, I don't even know what's supposed to come in my plate because the items are so inconsistent, but fortunately the food is always spectacular! That's Chacho's for you!

Our Chacho's meals from Thursday. We both ordered 2 beef taco plates. My plate had lettuce, tomatoes, and guacamole; Jacob's was missing the tomatoes. Despite the variations, we both loved our meals. (I shared my tomatoes.)

Friendship at First Sniff

On Sunday, Casper finally met his cousin from his father's side, Bentley. Bentley is a beautiful, friendly, gentle-natured Beagle. They seemed to hit it off right away and are now best butt-ies.

Low performer...

Casper's job is simple.

1) Keep intruders away from the house.
2) Love us unconditionally.
3) Greet us when we come home.

As you can see, he's not fulfilling duty #3 of his job description.

Should we fire him?

Pizzaria Tijerina!

My sister gave us 4 personal deep dish pizza pans for Christmas this year and we finally tried them out 2 weekends ago...and then tested them again this weekend. Hmmm...should we quit our day jobs and go into the pizza business?

Catchin up...

We're slowly but surely catching up on all of the movies we've wanted to see over the last few years but didn't have/make time for.


This past weekend we watched "The Notebook." It was such a great movie! We can't believe we waited so long to see it.


Next on our list...


..."Wall-E." Hopefully it lives up to our expectations. :-)

2 Saturdays & 2 Breakfasts

Breakfast foods are my favorite types of food; I could eat them morning, noon, or night.

So, for Valentine's Day, Jacob took me to Nicavid's for breakfast. Nicavid's is a cozy cafe/bakery off Fredricksburg Rd. For breakfast on Saturdays, they offer an all-you-can-eat, made-to-order breakfast that includes, pancakes, french toast, omelettes, biscuits, gravy, sausage, bacon, and fresh fruit. We both had omelettes, pancakes, biscuits-n-gravy, bacon, and fruit. Plus, for Valentine's Day they even gave us 2 chocolate covered strawberries. Everything was delicious and I can't wait to go back to try some of they fresh baked pastries!

Then this past Satuday, Jacob took me to I-Hop to spend the I-Hop gift card I received from the DEO team as a going away gift (thank you DEO team!). Breakfast at I-Hop was as spectacular as usual! We each had a pancake combo. Jacob ordered his with the Harvest Nut-n-Grain pancakes and I ordered mine with the traditional buttermilk pancakes! The pancakes, eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns were declicious! Did I mention that I LOVE breakfast foods?

Puppy Playdate

This afternoon Brittany and Preston stopped to have dinner with Casper and me. The 4 of us had a great time...however, the girls were not too excited about having another canine in the house!


If it smells like my cousin then it must be my cousin!

Notice Crystal observing from the window

It's a g-r-r-reat day to play!

3 hours!!!!!

That's how long it took me to get home today! Yep, that's what happens when 1604 is shut down. It took me 20 min. to get to the traffic jam and then another 2 hrs and 40 mins to get out of it. Gotta love those "large objects" that hit the underside of overpasses. Did the driver really think that the bridge got taller?

Sad, Happy, Excited, Anxious, & a Little Confused

Sad because I'm leaving the DEO team...

happy because I'll see them again when they come to one of my training classes...

excited about starting my new job as a trainer...

anxious because I'll be out of my comfort zone until I learn my new job...

and a little confused about why my start date was suddenly pushed up by a month.

Yep, it's official! I'm going to the training academy!

Taking it too far...

A few pictures in a suit was all we needed...

before I knew it, it turned into an all-out photo shoot...

Giddyup!

As he walked into the building, the adults and 10 year olds knew that there was a "new sheriff in town." Armed with blue jeans, a borrowed cowboy hat, a huge aluminum foil belt buckle, and a package of pencils, Jacob walked down the dusty path that led to his school. Ok--seriously, it was just Western Day at the local elementary school.

Saturday Highlights

This afternoon Kelly and Charlotte stopped by for a grilled cheese and veggie soup lunch. It was nice to see them again because I hadn't seen them for a few months. Casper was very excited to see them too; fortunately, Charlotte likes dogs and didn't mind all of his barking and slobbery kisses.

Kelly & Charlotte

For dinner, Jacob and I enjoyed Double Dave's pizza buffet with salad, pizza, pepperoni rolls and chocolate chip dessert pizza (d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s!).

After dinner we headed to Border's to spend our gift cards from Christmas. New books, yay! I even started list of books I want to look for the next time we go to Half-Price books.

After the bookstore we headed to our favorite "healthy" dessert stop...Orange Cup! The Acai, with strawberries, chocolate chips, and almonds was just as good and refreshing as I had remembered! Jacob enjoyed his Acai with blueberries, strawberries, and kiwi.

Dinner with a friend

On Sunday, 1/25/09, my friend Vicki from Florida came into town for training. I've only met up with her 2 other times, but we used to talk on the phone almost every day when I worked with her so although I haven't spent a lot of time with her, I still feel as though she's a friend.


When she said she could meet up for dinner her only request was that we eat Mexican food (she seems to really like Tex-Mex). I suggested we eat at El Chapparal on Redland Rd. She ordered tableside guacamole (very tasty) and chicken enchiladas with cilantro cream sauce and I ordered spinach enchiladas smothered in a rich cream sauce (my all time favorite dish). It was nice to catch up with Vicki and hear how everything is going with her and some of the other people I used to work with. We both hope that she'll be scheduled for another TDY soon (maybe even with someone else from her office)!

Scrabble Date

On Saturday, 1/24/09, our friends Amanda and Daniel invited us over for Capparelli's cheese, salami, pepperoni, sausage, and mushroom pizza, Caesar salad, brownie sundaes and 2 games of Scrabble. We love getting together with them because they're great company and they always make Scrabble interesting. Daniel even teaches us new words (e.g., clumpage, innards) and this time the words were even in the dictionary we used (e.g., wizen, dram). We're always amazed at the expansiveness of Daniel's vocabulary!

Shoes

What are my favorite type of shoes?

Free shoes!

The other day, my friend Carol from work was giving away a pair of gently used tennis shoes. They weren't necessarily the style of shoe I would buy for myself but they fit, were functional, and were free so I gladly accepted them. I now have a new-to-me pair of work out shoes. :)

Good Ol' Wok Inn

Today we had lunch at the original Wok Inn on Grissom Rd. Today's all inclusive $4.75 special was Mongolian Beef, which we both ordered. So, for $10.72, we enjoyed 2 drinks, 2 bowls of unlimited, serve-your-self soup with crispy wonton strips and green onions, and 2 plates of Mongolian Beef, fried rice and egg rolls. Yep, Wok Inn truly offers a good amount of delicious and greasy Chinese food for a small price. Plus, I have left-overs for lunch tomorrow.

2 Great Movies

Since we've been married, our trips to the movie theater have dramatically slowed. We went from seeing a new movie every Friday night, to seeing a new movie about 1-2 times a year. In fact, instead of seeing movies our weekend highlights typically involve trips to the gym and HEB. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?

However, this year has been different. We've already seen 2 movies since the year began and best of all, both movies were great! The movies were Gran Torino and Marley and Me. (Don't worry, we won't spoil the movies.) We both reacted strongly to both movies and came out of the movies discussing what we saw, how we felt, and how we connected with the characters. We highly recommend both of these movies.

Food filled weekend

Jacob waiting for our main course to cook (Melting Pot)

This weekend was packed with delicious food!

It started on Friday when we ate a Rome's onion and black olive pizza. It was so delicious that we finished the whole pizza. Normally we save at least 2 slices for lunch the next day but we hadn't eaten a Rome's pizza in so long that we were unstoppable.

Then on Saturday we went to Rio Mambo with Jacob's family. Jacob had 3 brisket tacos and I had 3 crispy picadillo tacos. Everything was delicious and again, we didn't have any left-overs.

Jen enjoying the cheese fondue (Melting Pot)

Finally, on Sunday, in celebration of our 6th anniversary we (over-) indulged ourselves with a 4 course meal at the Melting Pot. First, we had the Boston Lager Cheddar Cheese Fondue with veggies, breads, and apples. Next, we both had Southwester Cobb salads. Third, we had our main course cooked Coq au Vin with veggies, salmon, filet mignon, chicken, pork tenderloin, shrimp, spinach artichoke ravioli, and lobster tail. Then, we finished off our meal with Cookies-n-Cream Marshmallow Dream chocolate fondue with strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, rice krispy treats, marshmallows, brownies, and pound cake (we even had seconds on the bananas and strawberries). The food was spectacular and we were surprisingly stuffed when we left. We'll definitely visit the Melting Pot again but to save money we think we'll only focus on the cheese, salad, and chocolate the next time around.

Jacob enjoying the chocolate fondue (Melting Pot)

I married a younger man!

A few weeks ago Jacob and I took the real age test. Considering that we both eat healthy foods, we exercise, and we don't experience too much stress in our lives, we expected our real ages to be younger than our calendar ages.

Jacob took the test first and sure enough he was younger (by 5.3 years).

Then I took the test and I turned out to be older (by 1.5 years)!

I was shocked! Sure, I complain about the disgusting double fiber bread that Jacob buys, I sometimes choose to eat the easy to open candy bar over the pain in the rear to peel orange, and I usually stay home when it's too cold to walk but I had no idea that these few decisions would impact my age by so much. As result, I started drinking more water, choking down more double fiber bread, stocking our house with more convenient fruits (it helped that cherries were on sale last week), and exercising more by incorporating weight training and more rigorous cardio back into my workout.

Today, I modified the responses to my real age test and based on my improved healthy lifestyle, my age went down (a little). My real age is now 28.1. Yep, I'm still married to a younger man.

Norman

We've been adopted.

Sometime last Spring, we started noticing that a lonely bird would hide in the corner of our back patio. He tends to arrive around dusk, depart around dawn, and is always alone. We think it is quite sad that a bird would sleep in our patio corner all by himself. Something that made him look even more pathetic was the way he would tuck himself into the corner with his back and tail facing our back window. Yes, it's a very pitiful sight (see for yourself in the picture below). As a result, we've welcomed him to our home and done our best to keep curious cats, an oblivious dog, and our noisy selves out of his way. We named him Norman because, well, he looks like a Norman.We've come to accept that Norman's schedule is unpredictable; sometimes we'll look out the window and he won't be there and other times he'll surprise us and appear again. We look forward to seeing him because when we see him we know he's okay, but it also saddens us a little because it means he hasn't found a long-term nest mate, yet.

Norman

A Day at the Park

On Saturday (Jan. 3) Jacob and I hit the trails at Friedrich Park. Since my lung capacity was still low from the flu, we decided to "take it easy." However, because we hadn't been to the park for a year or so, we ended up taking a pretty good hike up and down several steep and winding trails. As a way to casually catch my breath, I would pull out the camera and suggest that we take a few pictures. Unfortunately, Jacob caught on to what I was doing and became a little annoyed that I kept stalling. However, because I had insisted that I was healthy enough to take a hike, I tried to hide my exhaustion as much as possible.

Jacob making the steep climb while I took a short break. :)

Friday Fun

On Friday (1-2-09), my sister, my brother, Michelle and I went out to shop for bridesmaid dresses. Before our shoping began, my sister treated us to a refreshing snack at Orange Cup. It's a lighter and healthier alternative to Marble Slab. :)

Brittany

Manuel & Michelle

We explored phase II of La Cantera, picked up glasses for my brother, then headed to the dress shop. We tried on several dresses in many different colors. Michelle is armed with information to coordinate with her sisters and decide on final colors.



Next, we headed to Kona Grill for another snack. We split tacos, pizza, and sushi (I didn't have any sushi).

It was a fun Friday!


ps
It turns out that my sister really is a good driver (most of the time).

:-)

M&M Visit

Today I was finally well enough to see my brother and Michelle (a.k.a., M&M).


This evening we went to my mom's house for dinner and games with M&M. It was nice to see both of them and to hear about how their wedding plans were coming along. We enjoyed dinner; however, it did get a little tense when I asked my brother about his visit with my dad and my dad's family...I know it's a sensitive subject but they are still my family and yes, I'm just plain nosy at times.


After dinner we played the game "Hear Me Out" which my mom and my sister had given us 3-4 Christmases ago. This was the first time we actually played the game and when my brother informed us that it was a drinking game we finally realized why the game didn't make much sense the last time we tried reading the instructions. So, with bottles of water, cups of cocoa, and glasses of tea in hand, we started playing the game. It is quite a fun game (even when alcohol is not involved) and we're looking forward to playing it again sometime.