Rain?

As of tomorrow, it will be three weeks since the last time we received rain at our house. This is unusual since we live in Houston and we usually average a little over 5 inches for May and June (each). As I type, the sprinkler is going in the back yard to try and revive our dying grass. We bought a sprinkler when we bought our house three years ago and have probably only used it 2 or 3 times since. This is now the second time in a week we have watered. Since the forecast is looking very dry and hot for the next week, it looks like we may have to get into the habit of watering. So much for the saying, "It rains somewhere in Houston everyday!"

To Drum Another Day!

Evan got Guitar Hero World Tour for Christmas and while we have played it some since then, we have been playing it a lot in the last couple of weeks. At first we were just playing different songs and taking turns playing drums, guitar, or singing. Evan is one of those people that is just good at video games and so it came as no surprise to me that he was really good at the guitar. I am not one of those people but I still decided to try and play the drums on most of the songs. I was terrible when I started but I am improving the more we play. For the record, I am still playing on "Easy" but in my opinion it is all about having fun.

Last week we got serious and started doing band play with Evan on guitar and me on the drums. I love to sing but I don't feel like I am playing a video game when I am singing. Also, I thought the drums would be more fun even though they would be more challenging. Evan is a lot of fun to play with because he doesn't get mad at me when I mess up or cause us to get booed off stage. For the record, every time we have been booed off stage has been because of me, not Evan :) We are both very competitive but still able to have a lot of fun with it.

Last night we were playing and I started to get frustrated because I was consistently missing the note every time I was supposed to hit the red drum pad. Since I am right handed, I hit all the drums/cymbals with my right hand, except the red drum pad. I told Evan, "I think there is something wrong with my reflexes all of a sudden!" After starting three songs over because of my "poor" playing, Evan sat down to see what was going on. He was missing the red notes too! He did some more trouble shooting by playing in the Wii Freestyle mode and came to the conclusion that the red drum pad was not responding. Honestly, while I was disappointed that it was broken, I was more interested in the fact that there was nothing wrong with me!

Evan did some web research into fixing the problem since the warranty expired a while ago. Evan is VERY good at troubleshooting and fixing things. I was confident that as long as it didn't involve soldering (only because we don't have the materials) Evan could fix it. Sure enough, after taking it apart and applying a little electrical tape to reconnect the wires to the back of the drum pad, it was fixed!

Memorial Day and Shrimp Burgers

I promised more posts come the end of May and here they are! Since my last post, a lot has happened and plans have changed. Our move has been postponed and it looks like we won't be spending the first part of the summer in D.C. No worries :) God has really done a work on me since I was a teenager in the area of adapting to change. I used to really stress when plans changed or when there wasn't a plan at all. While I still struggle some with the second scenario, I am improving on the first. I'll have to post an update as to our moving time-line later when we know more. As for now, we're just enjoying the beginning of the summer.

Over Memorial Day weekend, we had a great and relaxing time. We watched movies, played on the Wii, slept in, and did some shopping. We really enjoy cooking together and I love trying out new and somewhat intimidating recipes when I know we will have the time to do it together. There was a recipe for shrimp burgers in the April issue of Southern Living that looked really good but like one of those recipes that I would tear out, put in my recipe binder, and never fix. Never fix because of the prep that was involved and good shrimp can be expensive and it would take a lot of planning. I decided Memorial Day would be a perfect opportunity to try the recipe since we didn't have much else going on. We went to the grocery store in the morning, did all the prep stuff after lunch and then had them for dinner. They were pretty good and the sweet and spicy tartar sauce definately had a kick to it. I don't know if we'll ever make them again but it was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures:

[caption id="attachment_232" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Amy making the patties"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_234" align="aligncenter" width="242" caption="Evan making his shrimp burger"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_235" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Enjoying our shrimp burgers"][/caption]

Check back at the end of May...

So as you may have noticed, I have not been posting much the last couple months. We have been doing well but are in the middle of a big transition so I haven't really had time to do much blogging. Please check back at the end of May when I will start to post again. We will be living in D.C. for most of the summer and then moving to Charleston, WV in the middle of July so there will be plenty to post about :)

Christmas 2008

I know what you are thinking; Christmas was over a month ago! I am obviously trying to do a little catch-up work here. We went to San Antonio to see family again this year. While we usually go and stay for about a week or so, we only stayed about 48 hours this time. I was singing at Christmas Eve service as part of the choir and Evan was running sound for the service. That meant that we got to enjoy Christmas Eve with our church family. It was a lot of fun and an amazing time of worship. Praise God!

The next day we woke up early and drove to San Antonio to spend time with Evan's family at his sister's house. We got to open presents with everyone, including our niece and nephew, Elizabeth and James. We then had a very yummy Christmas lunch. If you'd like to see pictures of all the food you can check out my sister-in-law's blog here. That night, we went over to my Grandfather's house to see my family, including my aunt and uncle who were in town from California. I took pictures at my parents' house of them opening presents but none of them came out very good so here are some pictures from Christmas morning/afternoon with Evan's Family:

[caption id="attachment_212" align="aligncenter" width="426" caption="Elizabeth with her present from us, My Little Ponies! The stuffed animal horse is from her younger brother, James."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_213" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Page, Dave, and Evan playing Guitar Hero World Tour (Evan\'s Christmas present)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_214" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The girl band! Page, Judy, and I playing Guitar Hero World Tour."][/caption]

On Friday, we did some day after Christmas shopping with my family for Evan. His Christmas presents from my parents were new coats. We found him some great and much needed jackets and didn't really have to fight many crowds.

We left San Antonio on Saturday morning so we could make it back to Houston in time for a bridal shower for one of my college roommates, Julie. Julie lives in Atlanta but her family is in Houston so her Mom's friends were giving her a shower since she was in town for the holidays. Mandy, one of our other roommates (not technically a roommate, but might as well have been) was also in town visiting her family for the holiday so I got to ride with her to the shower. Mandy did an awesome job driving since the shower was on the opposite side of town and it was pouring down rain for most of our drive back. Here is a picture of the three of us from the shower. (I will be posting about Julie's wedding in the next couple of days).

[caption id="attachment_215" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Me, Julie, and Mandy at Julie\'s Bridal Shower"][/caption]

The other reason we came back from San Antonio so early was because one of the couples from our small group were getting married Saturday night. The entire time we had known Josh and Catherine, they had been engaged so it was great to get to be at their wedding. The wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun. It was the biggest wedding I had been to other than my own. I know it is a little late, but CONGRATULATIONS JOSH AND CATHERINE!! Here are some pictures from the wedding:

[caption id="attachment_216" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Catherine and Josh at the beginning of their ceremony"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_217" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="The BEAUTIFUL cake...we didn\'t stay to taste it :("][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_218" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Evan and I at the reception...He is SO CUTE!!"][/caption]

Snow in Houston - 12.10.08

Most of you have probably already heard about the snow we got here in Houston a couple of weeks ago but I wanted to post some pictures. It was amazing to see how much it actually snowed! We probably had a little less than 1 inch that accumulated but for Houston, it was unbelievable. I think the coolest part of the whole thing was that it was on my birthday. Since I was very young, I have always wanted it to snow on my birthday and 26 years later, in Houston, TX, it finally happened. Here is the link to the photo album and there is a link to a video below.
Photo Album:

Snow in Houston_12.10.08

Video:

Before and After Pictures

As promised, here are the before and after pictures of our house. We renovated the living room and both bathrooms, as well as replacing all the carpet, the front door, and did some landscaping. It has been a lot of work over the last two-and-a-half years but it has been a lot of fun.

House before

 

House after

If you know of anyone looking to move to Houston, let us know :)