So Far...

School is back in session and aside from the sore throat from all the talking and my aching feet things are going well. It may be too soon to speak, but all of the horror stories I heard about the Class of 2015 have so far remained a thing of the past (knock on wood). Maybe they grew up over the summer. Maybe the bad apples vanished. Maybe they came to Jesus. I don't know, don't care.  But I actually kind of love them right now.  Yay!  Here's hoping for continued harmony in my EIGHTH year teaching sophomore English.

Joe is now working on his MBA at TCU, which gives me a break from football some nights (I love football, but it's mainly just college teams I care about).  Since I'm done with academia for now, I've filled the void with A Game of Thrones.  It is a set of books turned to an HBO series, and I'm hooked.  So far I've only watched half of the 1st season, but it is an excellent show (think Camelot meets Lord of the Rings and Braveheart but less predictable than all three), and I will probably turn to the books to get my fix until season 2 comes out. Other than that, things have been pretty uneventful.

One of the goals we had when we starting hacking away at our debt last year was to refinance the house into 15 year mortgage with a MUCH lower interest rate than we currently have. I wish we would have done it to begin with, but live and learn. The appraiser was just out on Monday, so keep your fingers crossed for us.  If all goes accordingly, we should close before the end of September.  It's just a waiting game.  I hate waiting games with big events like this.

Sorry for the boring stuff.  I'm going to have to get some ideas for blog topics to supplement..like finishing my Spain blogs...Or maybe I can post pics of crafty baby projects since mycousinamanda is having another girl!  And for the record, just because I make the occasional baby item for a family member or friend does not mean I am hopelessly overcome with baby fever, as my brother so kindly pointed out to me. Just maybe a passing baby hot flash or something like that. We're not in baby fever territory just yet. :) 

I'm off to watch these rain clouds (gasp!) roll in.  The wind is blowing leaves off the trees early.  It looks like October and feels like summer out there.  Bring on the rain and cool weather!

Lucky Me

I just want to brag on my husband for a minute. He stopped to pick himself up some fancy schmancy beer this past weekend and asked if I wanted anything.  I just told him to pick something out if it jumped out at him, but otherwise I didn't care for anything in particular. Knowing I'm on a Spanish wine kick, he brought me this bottle of Albarino and said that he picked this particular one because it looked like a label I'd design. I think he's a keeper. And how cute is that label?

Pool at the Joule

This past weekend, after a Mary Kay morning courtesy of my good friend and consultant, Megan Ross, I had the pleasure of hanging out at the Joule hotel in downtown Dallas.  Myfriendkim invited me to a girls' night, which I gladly accepted.  I'd been to the bar at Charlie Palmer for a wine tasting, but I'd only heard about the fabulous rooftop pool in the attached Joule.

Yeah, that's a glass front overlooking Main.

 Let me tell you... it is the coolest thing in the whole city of Dallas, maybe Texas.  The front edge of the pool is glass and looks over Main Street 10 stories below. Never mind that I wasn't crazy about hanging out near said glass (partially because I envisioned the glass dislodging from the building sending the water and us gushing out on Main Street or that maybe people could see my body though the other side of the glass, and I worried the optical illusion would make me at least 40% larger than I already am. Eek!), but it was awesome from the other side of the pool and the view was just as nice.

The less frightening but equally lovely view.

The Joule would be a perfect spot for a romantic retreat or just to go and relax like we did.  Plus, if you get hungry or want to party it up, it is walking distance of some really cool spots in downtown Dallas.  I could get used to living downtown.

Refreshing mist= frizz.

Cork Letters

So I pride myself in my lack of creepy hoarding tendencies, but I do have a thing about keeping corks.  See what I mean?  It was becoming a bit of a problem because I was using up all of my large vases after the hurricane starting spilling over.

So many corks!

Well, I've seen some super cute ideas to repurpose corks--- like necklaces and trivets, but I came across this idea on Pinterest, and knew I just had to make my own. So I did. And I liked it.  The cool part was picking through the corks and remembering the occasion tied to each. Some cork labels were plentiful and others were rare.  It showed our changing taste in wine over the years, and that was cool.

Getting the corks placed was the trickiest part.

So with a $1.99 letter from Hobby Lobby, some hot glue, and Lord know how much invested in wine, this is how it turned out.  Pretty cool!

Barely put a dent in my stash. Who needs a cork letter?

Follow Your Nose

When I was at Office Max the other day lamenting all of the Back to School items on display, I ran across some pure nostalgia. Mr. Sketch markers.

Amazing in 3 languages!

 Only they weren't the basic scents. There is now an 18 pack with 6 new colors. OMG. I died a million times.  And then I bought three packs to indoctrinate encourage my students to appreciate the pure joy that is Mr. Sketch. (And I might go back for more!)

Aren't they glorious?

Never mind that an administrator might walk by and see me encouraging my students to sniff markers.  I am merely training them to have a keen sense of smell that will come in handy later in life. I will save them hundreds since they will no longer need to purchase a wine nosing kit to ID the aromas in the glass of wine they are smelling. You know, in case that wine smells like banana split or tropical punch...in which case they should pass on that wine. See?

Weekend Getaway NC

Joe and I flew out to North Carolina to visit my brother and his girlfriend this past weekend.

We spent the first night just hanging out and went to a nice dinner at The Steele Pig in Sanford, not too far from Will's house.

True Story:

Dad: "What are y'all doing?"
Me: "Heading to Will's house from the airport."
Dad: "Ask Will if he's still smoking."
Me: "Um, no Dad, he quit a while back."
Dad: "He said he had two briskets..."
Me:  "Oh! You mean smoking..."

The guys spent all day Friday smoking a brisket in Will's new custom smoker.  He's very proud of said smoker, and he has the whole process down to a science.

Envision Will hauling this behind his Range Rover. LOL

Needless to say, we had some delicious food that evening.

Saturday we got up and headed out to Charleston, SC.  I'd never been, so I was excited to check it out.  It's only about a 3 or 4 hour drive from Will's, and he'd made us a reservation at The Peninsula Grill for that evening. But we killed some time at a local Charleston wine bar called Social. If I lived in Charleston, I would be there all the time.  They had a great beer and wine list and cheese and meat menu, so we drank and snacked for our lunch. 

Will and Holley at Social.

Me and Joe and some old guy.

Joe enjoying a beer after his 8 mo self-imposed "no beer or liquor" stint.

 It was Bell's Oberon.

Just a cool truck outside a Gelato shop.

We walked around a bit before dinner.
 

There were functioning carriage houses everywhere!

 Apparently Bobby Flay did a Throwdown at the Peninsula Grill over their coconut cake, which was ah-mazing and huge.  We split one slice 4 ways and still had some left on the plate. I'd go back to eat there alone, but there were so many other fantastic places I'd have to try first.

The famous coconut cake. Yum!

After dinner we met up with one of Will's AF buddies and his girlfriend and danced the night away. I don't know what got into me, but I was a dancin' fool.  It must have been all the good food and wine, because Joe busted out some really interesting dance moves, including one we all dubbed "the chair hop."  No one caught it on film, so the next time you see him you'll have to ask for a demonstration. You won't regret it. Trust me.

The next morning we got up and strolled through the market. I was feeling pretty rough after my night of debauchery, but everyone else was 100%. I guess I'm just a wuss. We had brunch at High Cotton where there was a Dixieland Band playing (so cute). I mostly picked at my omlet, which was absolutely delicious, but my stomach betrayed me and threatened barfage if I ate more than a few bites. So I mostly drank water and was miserable while everyone else enjoyed their meal.  Hopefully I didn't ruin it for everyone.

Thinking about starting their own charter fishing boat.

We loved Charleston, and can only describe it as "like New Orleans, but cleaner."  After swinging by Ryan's place to hang out and eat (he also owns a smoker and smoked pork loin!), we drove back to North Carolina in the blinding rain.  I was going to take a picture, but I figured it would just make everyone here all depressed and jealous. We got back Sunday night and lounged around and then packed up and headed back to Dallas the next day. Joe and I had a great time, but we missed our dogs terribly and were beginning to suffer withdrawals. I think they missed us, too!

Pantry Door Makeover Pics

Conditioning the chalkboard makes erasing easier.

Ready to go!

I had no idea what to write.

As promised, here are some pics of the finished pantry door makeover.  I went to Hobby Lobby today and snagged some chalk and eraser.  I also picked up a locker organizer to hold them.