Tripping

My friend Roberta recently returned from France.

Photo shamelessly stolen from Roberta's G+ account - with permission of course

You might remember Roberta from this post or this one or this one.  There are other posts I could link to as well, but for simplicity and since I love this picture...

Roberta in France...picture also stolen with permission.

Roberta came back with awesome stories and beautiful pictures.  She brags...she is rude.

Uh-mazing.  Another stolen picture.

And kind of sweet and generous since she also returned bearing gifts.

Thanks, Bird!

Anyway, the husband and I were so jealous of her travels we decided to book a trip to Italy.  Okay, okay we had been planning a trip to Italy for the spring 2013, but we actually booked hotels over the weekend!!  The timing was just coincidental.  :)

We will be headed to Venice, Florence, and the country side of Tuscany.

(source)

Oh, and a tiny little place called Rome.

(source)

Needless to say we are very excited.

The husband has been lots of places around the world.  When he was in the Navy he was stationed out of a port in Japan, but he has never been to Europe.  My only trips out of the country have been to Mexico and Jamaica.  I have been out of the country a grand total of 3 times, so this is VERY exciting to me.  I cannot wait!

Have a fabulous Tuesday!!

Weekend Recap

Let's start with birthdays!!  Today is my sis-in-law's birthday and Friday we went and had a great girl's dinner at Crappito's.  Since I am terrible, I have no picture of the SIL and me, so here is one from last year's birthday celebration.

We were this cute this year too.

The weather in Houston was pretty great over the weekend so on Friday we dined outside on this great patio.  I love the food and the patio at Crappito's.

(source)

It was a great evening!  Happy Birthday Dawn!  Love you lots!!

Saturday morning I went to the Houston Garden Center and bought plants for fall planting.  I wish my backseat always looked this good!

The car is no longer this pretty, but the deck looks great!

Mums, pansies and blue eyed rivieras.

More pansies.

I got this awesome jack-o-latern squash at my grocery store at the end of October last year for 4 bucks!  I love him.

I finally got my Texas stars hung.  I was happy.

This bougainvillea was on sale since it is not really a fall plant.  I hope it does okay, I think it is super pretty.

We had the most awesome cool-ish weather this weekend.  I wish it would stick around longer.  Sammy had a great weekend playing in the yard.  Sunday night she was worn out.

And for your entertainment at my expense...have you seen this new magazine ad for the new UN-scented oil of olay lotion?

Yep, I scratched and sniffed before reading the ad.  FAIL.  I laughed out loud though and took a picture to add to the blog, so I guess this is a successful advertisement!

Happy Monday!!  Did you have a nice weekend?

Insta-Friday #4

This week was gorgeous.  Monday night we went to dinner at the Raven Grill, one of our favorite restaurants with an awesome patio.  We had dinner out there with Augustine the chicken.

Augustine lives at the Raven and is very friendly.  They have a lovely patio with a kind of side yard.  There was a couple there that had never been to the Raven and the lady was very offended that there was a chicken on the patio.  I am thinking Augustine is probably cleaner than a pigeon on a patio, but that's just me.  It wasn't like she was inside the restaurant.

That night there was an awesome moon out.

I have decided I am kind of addicted to the ginger flavored cat cookies from Trader Joe's.  They are for people.  Says so on the package.

I found this cool air freshener in a friend's office this week.  Awesome.

Weird I would like a daisy, right?

I unloaded my Halloween decorations and I found this Halloween card from several years ago with my niece and nephew on it.  So cute.

I hope your week has been fantastic!!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Weekend Recap

Happy October!!  We have lovely fall-ish weather here in Houston...a great way to start October.

My weekend can be described in this one picture of Trixie.

L-A-Z-Y!

My lazy relaxing weekend started on Friday evening with an awesome new recipe from Healthy Tipping Point.  I made Caitlin's Cornbread Quiche and it was fantastic.  You can find her recipe here: More Cornbread Quiche.

In my saute I used onion, garlic, mini portabella mushrooms, and spinach.  It was delicious!

On Saturday we had a rainy lazy stay at home day and on Sunday we got massages and watched the Texans win.  Lazy weekend.  And it was fantastic.


On Friday I did do something productive, but since it was part of work I can't really take any weekend productivity credit.  I took a Red Cross First Aid course.

It was interesting to read the full science behind CPR and to learn how to perform it and learn how to use an automated external defibrillator.

I feel now like I could actually help in an emergency instead of just panic.  Knowledge is very helpful.

I hope you have a fantastic week!!!