...my hair goes nuts. Seriously. It's only rained about 3 times here in the past 6 months, and I'd forgotten how out of control my hair can get in the humidity. I remembered because Chance decided tonight would be a good time to dine outdoors. And, well, it was - but my hair doesn't thank him.
This weekend was exceptionally good for some reason. It was just your average weekend - no super exciting events or anything, but it was fun. Sunday Funday at the boys' yesterday was pretty enjoyable - despite having to choke down about 40 minutes worth of Meet the Browns (ugh, really?) - it was good company.
I was in a pretty strange mood last night - I was hyper when we rolled in at 12:30AM or so...but unfortunately Chance had taken benadryl for his allergies and just crashed. I stayed up reading til about 5am...just started reading Baby Proof by Emily Giffin last night and couldn't put it down. Brooke introduced me to her books Something Borrowed and Something Blue and I practically swallowed them whole. I often read relatively heavy or deep books, so it's refreshing to read something so light and girly. (Shoot, I never thought I'd say that).
We slept in until around 11:30 today - which we haven't done in a long time! We finished cleaning the house and kinda vegged, really, for part of the day. Got a few things knocked off our to do lists, at least.
Mid-afternoon I did something I'm quite proud of...I fixed my iPod by myself! Okay, I had a little help from a website...but still. I popped it open, unplugged the battery and the hard drive - well, and a few other things before I realized what I was doing - then plugged it all back in and restarted it - and it worked. It's totally back to normal now - I'm pretty excited about it and fairly proud of my relatively non-technical self for the repair. (:
Another interesting tidbit about this afternoon: Brewster escaped. (Mom, don't freak out - just keep reading). He's been having a digging problem lately - but I didn't think it was that bad. Chance went outside to get something from the car while I was finishing up the chores. By his account, he heard a dog barking coming toward him and thought "Great - another stray. Claire's gonna want to take him in". Then he saw the dog - a dachshund...and still wasn't too pleased. Then he noticed the green nametag - you know - the one that says Brewster. He was floored. Brewster came running up to him and Chance brought him inside - I was in shock when I saw them walk in. I'm glad Chance happened to go outside when he did. He cramed a bunch of rocks under the fence which should hold him in for a little while longer til we can either fill the hole or...correct his behavior. Geez. Scary, but slightly funny at the same time. Maybe you had to be here.
This blog wasn't supposed to be this long, really. What I REALLY wanted to tell you about was tonight - kinda the 'cherry on top', if you will. We had dinner plans with my super-amazing-great friend Natalie. Gah, I love her - we've been friends about 4 and a half years I guess (correct me if I'm wrong). (: She's a cutie. Anyway...we went over to her house to meet her (her house is super cute) and got to meet her roommate/best friend Camden and their precious dogs. She'd told me about a Mexican food place she loves (back when we wrote the top 20 Mexican restaurants blog)...and she wanted to take us there (for a late birthday dinner for me)! (: So she drove us down to a place called Sazon on South Lamar - interior Mexican (you know, only the BEST kind). She treated us to dinner (Chance and I shared a Chile en Nogado - one of my favorite dishes), she fed us some of her tasty grilled shrimp, and she bought us mojitos to top it off. Scrumptious. She also gave me my birthday present. I think I offended Chance a little on the way home when I told him that she has given me some of my favorite presents. (: But she has - she always makes me the most special things (like the rose painting/drawing and the dinosaur friends tshirt she gave me)...but this time she really outdid herself.
What amazes me is how much she cares - how well she knows me even though we don't get to hang out as often as I'd like, even though we missed AT LEAST a year of each other's lives since we've known one another. She somehow knows me.
I'll preface it with this: the other day...I'd found some jewelry on etsy I wanted to post a blog about (but, that never happened). For those of you who don't know what etsy is, it's a site where you can sell and purchase handmade items (from clothes, to artwork, to furnture, to jewelry...you name it). I had stumbled upon some sellers who crafted some pretty cool items - and I thought I'd share them with my readers. Luxe Deluxe, Just Be Designs, and Old But New - just to name a few (feel free to check them out).
Anyway, when I opened my gift tonight (it came in this cute little package):
...I was FLOORED.
She'd done it again. Natalie had gone to a place in town called Bead It and handcrafted a necklace for me. It looks like an antique - something passed down for generations. I love antique-y things. I can't even really describe it, it's so pretty - I'll just have to let you see for yourselves! I just can't believe she made it (well, I can, she's so dang creative, but still)...
Natalie, I really can't thank you enough! Now, I don't want to devalue all the other wonderful birthday gifts I got - which I love - I really do.... but Natalie - this gift means so much to me. It's such a work of art - I want to find a way to display it when I'm not wearing it!
...what a great day. What great friends I have (I could write 5,000 blogs about this). I hope I can be the friend to you guys that you all are to me. But like I said - that's a novel for another time. (:
For now, I'm off to watch Heroes with Chance - and to drink the coffee with the 'homemade creamer' he just created! (: Yum yum.
when it rains...
Monday, November 10, 2008 | Posted by Claire at 10:13 PM 7 comments
Labels: birthday, books, claire, dogs, friends, jewelry, mexican food
it might be a quarter life crisis, or just a stirring in my soul...
Well, I'm 25. John Mayer says it well. And yeah - man, the weeks prior to and following my birthday have been weeks of...reflection and wondering. I'm not gonna divulge ALL of my incoherent thoughts about being this old on our blog, but I AM going to tell you about my birthday and all the goings-on and festivities. That's much, much more fun.
Chance made me a delicious dinner last Friday night (the 17th) - it was scrumptious. A coconut-crusted tilapia salad with mandarin oranges, strawberries, apples, feta and some wonderful homemade citrus dressing. I wish I could describe it appropriately - it was truly some of the best fish I've ever tasted.
We decided to pop open a bottle of wine and celebrate the bday early. Much better than the Little Caesar's we had for his 24th (still sorry about that one, C). We had a relatively relaxing evening at home...it was nice.
On my birthday (Sunday the 19th), we headed for my hometown of Tyler. We treated ourselves to some Bill Miller breakfast tacos and were on our way. When we got there we dropped off our stuff at my dad's and visited briefly with he and Karen...then made our way to Ming's for lunch with one of my absolute best friends in the world, Daniel Elbert. He's been my buddy since 6th grade - I just love the kid - so it was great to spend some time on my b-day with him. Chance, Elbert and I went to the Caldwell Zoo (which is still one of the best zoos I've ever been to, second to San Antonio). We wandered for a couple of hours checking out the animals...we were slightly disappointed that the painting elephant wasn't painting, and there were fewer monkeys than times past - but it was a good adventure nonetheless. The weather was gorgeous. We also spent a little time out at the rose garden (which was in full bloom) at an arts and crafts fair out there. That may have been a flop, but my dad joined us...and I honestly enjoyed just relaxing and walking around.
We dropped Elbert off eventually (and sadly), and decided to check out our friend Trevor's vintage shop, Blue Owl, which he opened fairly recently. It's awesome to see him doing something so cool - the store setup is seriously awesome - its even got a cool lounge area...and his merch selection is awesome and VERY pleasantly priced.
Following our afternoon adventures we headed to my grandmother Golly's house. We hung out with her for a while until we headed to dinner at Coyote Sam's - a fairly new restaurant in Tyler. Elbert decided to join us for that too - so it was Chance, Elbert, Golly, mom, my sister Luci and my aunt julia who celebrated over dinner. I'm going to TRY not to turn this into a food review blog - lol - I LOVE food, so that's hard. Anyway - their portions were giant and we all ate til we were stuffed, I'm pretty sure. I opened a few gifts and some cards (including an inappropriate one from my sister - thanks Luci!) It was great spending time with everyone, and we ended up back at Golly's house talking to her til 12:30 AM. She's a night owl, even at 87 years old. I just adore time with her - and it was nice to get to chat with her for so long...just the three of us.
We stumbled back to my dad's house...a block away from Golly and got a good night's rest in his California King sized guest bed. Shoot. If I could have that bed, I'd take it. It's such a great bed, it's worth mentioning in the blog. Ha.
Monday was fun as well - we slept in a little and then headed to lunch with Dad and Karen. They were more than willing to take me to probably my FAVORITE Tyler restaurant - Villa Montez.
Mmm. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. The food there is great too. I'll let Chance talk more about it in his food blog, but for now, pictures will have to suffice. We shared a delicious Cucumber Mojito -
as well as my favorite appetizer...and some scrumptious entrees.
We went back to their house for cookie cake - then said our goodbyes (ugh, that's always hard)...
...picked Golly up from her house...and headed over to the McMurrey office where my mom and sister work to say bye to my mom and meet up with my sister... I took a few pictures there (I had forgotten to take any at dinner the night before, unfortunately) - *Elbert, if you read this, we NEED a picture over Christmas break*.
Apparently my mom and my sister were both about to pull their hair out, so that necessitated a viewing of some crazily dressed man(?) singing Rio De Janiero on you tube. Seriously. Talk about torture - but at least they think its funny. I'd link you to it but I can't remember the dude's name and I wouldn't want to subject you to that kind of pain.
We hung out there for a little bit then headed out to Logan (my nephew)'s school Brook Hill to pick him up and say hi to him (we hadn't seen him at all yet and I needed to - those kids grow so fast)! We talked to him and he showed us his classroom - I'm so impressed with all they're teaching him. He's in 2nd grade and learning things I learned in 6th. Seriously. My amazing friend Kameron (who was also a roommate in college) happens to teach at Brook Hill in the high school so we saw her classroom and went to grab some coffee at a cute little shop in Bullard on our way out of town. Talking to her was so nice - we've both missed her a ton. When we left I was super satisfied with our time in Tyler, even though we'd only gotten to spend about 27 hours there, and we didn't get to catch up with everyone...but still, it was nice.
Just when I thought it was all over...Chance pulled a fast one on me. We were over halfway home when Chance decided he was hungry - and we happened to be relatively close to Highway 6 (you know - the road that takes you in to College Station)....so he decided we'd take a little detour for dinner. I instantly called our friends Robert Adam and Casey (I tried miss Chalyce too, but no answer). We were able to meet them at Blue Baker (which Chance and I crave ALL the time)...it's an awesome sandwich shop - they've got amazing bread...and cookies! Yum! It was SO refreshing to spend time with those two kids - I love them dearly. R.A. is one of my closest friends from college and his wife Casey is seriously awesome - once I met her she quickly became one of my good friends. We got back on the road pretty late - but it was totally worth it all. Spending time with my family and friends was all I REALLY wanted for my birthday - and I totally got it.
The celebration continued into this past week - my homie Jen made me a beautiful kahlua birthday cake (which I wish I had a picture of)...and the small groupies sang happy birthday to me. Haha. Good times.
Basically - all that to say...I had an awesome 25th birthday (despite my continuing quarter life crisis). Thanks to Chance for making all that happen - I'd better kick things up a notch for his 25th!
Sorry this blog was kinda' a doozy...but I wanted a record of our adventures. If you actually read it all, then kudos! Seriously! And THIS was me trying to keep it SHORT! (:
Sunday, October 26, 2008 | Posted by Claire at 6:16 PM 8 comments
Labels: birthday, claire, college station, family, friends, trip, tyler
Our Other Links
Blog Archive
Friends' Blogs
-
6 years ago
-
6 years ago
-
9 years ago
-
11 years ago
-
13 years ago
-
13 years ago
-
13 years ago
-
14 years ago
-
14 years ago
-
14 years ago
-
15 years ago
-
15 years ago
-
15 years ago
-
16 years ago
-
16 years ago
-
16 years ago
-
17 years ago
-
17 years ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Chance's Favorite Blogs
-
4 days ago
-
1 year ago
-
7 years ago
-
14 years ago
Claire's Favorite Blogs
-
1 day ago
-
1 day ago
-
1 day ago
-
1 day ago
-
6 days ago
-
1 week ago
-
3 weeks ago
-
3 months ago
-
5 months ago
-
5 months ago
-
5 months ago
-
1 year ago
-
1 year ago
-
2 years ago
-
2 years ago
-
3 years ago
-
3 years ago
-
3 years ago
-
4 years ago
-
5 years ago
-
5 years ago
-
5 years ago
-
6 years ago
-
6 years ago
-
6 years ago
-
8 years ago
-
9 years ago
-
9 years ago
-
10 years ago
-
11 years ago
-
11 years ago
-
11 years ago
-
11 years ago
-
12 years ago
-
12 years ago
-
13 years ago
-
13 years ago
-
13 years ago
-
14 years ago
-
15 years ago
-
15 years ago
-
15 years ago
-
15 years ago
-
16 years ago
-
16 years ago
-
16 years ago
-
16 years ago
-
16 years ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Labels
- 2009 (1)
- aggies (1)
- allergies (1)
- amarillo (3)
- arizona (1)
- austin (3)
- baby (1)
- barbeque (1)
- benjamin button (1)
- birthday (2)
- books (7)
- breath (1)
- cable (1)
- camera (1)
- cars (3)
- chance (33)
- christmas (5)
- claire (42)
- closest (1)
- coffee (2)
- college station (2)
- computer (4)
- computers (1)
- concerts (1)
- cooking (3)
- dad (1)
- decor (2)
- design blogs (1)
- detox (2)
- diet (2)
- dinner (1)
- dogs (5)
- drive (1)
- driving (1)
- eslers (1)
- exercise (1)
- eyes (1)
- family (2)
- finances (1)
- food (13)
- fredericksburg (2)
- friends (19)
- frozen yogurt (1)
- furniture (1)
- games (2)
- garage (1)
- haircuts (1)
- halloween (2)
- holidays (8)
- honeymoon (1)
- house (3)
- howie (1)
- hullabaloo diner (1)
- inheritance (1)
- ipod (1)
- jewelry (1)
- lowes (1)
- marriage (1)
- mazda (1)
- memories (1)
- mexican food (3)
- mountains (1)
- movies (2)
- music (5)
- neighbors (1)
- networking (1)
- new car (1)
- new mexico (1)
- obama (1)
- organization (1)
- painting (1)
- parks (1)
- photography (1)
- pies (2)
- politics (2)
- race (1)
- recipes (3)
- relax (1)
- restaurants (1)
- san antonio (1)
- san francisco (4)
- scuba (1)
- sick (3)
- small group (1)
- snow (1)
- social networking (2)
- sxsw (2)
- texas (1)
- thanksgiving (4)
- the nest (1)
- travel (2)
- trip (2)
- tv (1)
- twilight (5)
- tyler (4)
- union (1)
- vacation (5)
- web design (1)
- wedding (1)
- WholeNine (1)
- wine (1)
- wine wine tour (1)
- work (5)