Mass Exodus...

...to Texas?

A year ago a friend moved down to Dallas.  She and I knew each other back in Kent, we were baptized together in fact.  She was a Senior in high school while I was a lowly seventh grader, so her gracious friendship toward me is still remembered.  She was the first of the Pacific NW friends-turned-Texas Resident.  

Christie & Calia--the cool September day we were baptized in Lake Retreat, WA. (not a warm lake)

Then, you might remember this post a few months ago.  I found Kaitlin randomly while I was visiting a church service...turned out to be her church.  We had breakfast together and talked about hanging out more...and by the next time we got together, Kayla had found us on facebook.  She and Kaitlin and I went to SPU together, lived in the same dorm, and share other random connections.  And then, icing on the cake: Michelle was here for 2 months for job training, so we had some good reunion time. 

Calia, Kaitlin, Kayla, and Michelle @ Amigos in Dallas. 

But the latest, and the biggest surprise so far...2 weeks ago another friend, Camille, found me on facebook, and it was a friend from the good ol' high school days at Kent-Meridian.  We ended up having lunch and hanging out yesterday and catching up the past 10 years.  (yep...ten year reunion was last September, and we haven't talked since graduation).  Loads of fun, we've got more plans to play (read: sew aprons) again soon, and over lunch we shared stories of being homesick for the PacNW (especially now that the weather here is so nasty and over 100 degrees for 2 weeks so far).  

She's been here for nearly 8 years, and I've only been here 2.5 years, however that could have been 2.5 years where each of us would have had another friend in Texas, and we live about 15-20 minutes away from each other.  She's new on facebook, which is why we found each other so late.  But, in our conversation yesterday, we realized that we have a mutual friend who at least somewhere in the back of his mind knew that both of us live in this area, and could have pointed that out to one of us and saved us those 2.5 years worth of missed friendship-hanging out time!  I won't name him, since some of you loyal blog readers might know who this friend is, but his initials are: I(an) S(hafer).  (couldn't resist--sorry).  

Anyway, this year has been interesting and good, I feel like I finally have my first Texas friend, but I am also extremely surprised with how many people I know from home have surfaced down here in the Texas scene.  What is it about Texas?  Why does it seem to be sucking in pacific northwesterners?   Recent conversations about this have confirmed that it might not have much of a draw, but for some: the job market, for others: school, and for still others, a significant other...the cheaper cost of living, better housing market are a couple of reasons people have stayed.

So, Here's my question to the blog readers: What would it take for you to move to Texas?  What would be the draw? What would make you consider it?  I'm just curious about how many of you would move here, and for what reasons, under what circumstances? Post your answers in the comments...I have a theory, which I might share at a later date--after some postings prove me correct or wrong.  Perhaps this will turn into a more interesting research topic, but for now it's just plain fun curiosity!

on a date . . .

Date Night with Ricardo! 

I took pictures with my phone and tried to do this blog post while we were out hanging out tonight...but it turns out I cannot upload photos from my phone to the blog...yet.  I'm still learning. But here's what we did!

Ricardo registered for the "Too Hot to Handle" 5K (it's tomorrow morning at 7am).  He did have a good point that if they really want to run a too hot to handle race, they would hold it in the afternoon...when Dallas is miserable.  

Sign outside the store where we went to register for his race.  I checked the temperature when I left, 97 degree heat, and I'm still supposed to watch for ice falling from roof?

Dinner at Cafe Brazil! I'm hat and fappy.

15 on 15

I attempted it!



Since I missed 10 on 10, I did 15 on 15 to make up for it.
Unfortunately, Tuesdays are not the most interesting days of my life.
Since I'm normally not very busy, I did have time to try to get one picture every hour. But now while I'm looking through it, I realize that it was an efficient day (I got a LOT done) but probably one of the most boring days of my life to look in on. And you can probably determine which were the hours where I was too lazy or uncreative to find a great shot. Anyway...here goes.





8:30am...working on the plants.



9:30am...still working up a BIG MESS



10:30am...a big bunch of yummy for the compost bin!



11:30am...Done for today!



12:30pm lunch and caring for my beat up feet (I gardened them too hard)




1:30pm Laundry out to dry (being green!)




2:30pm...I'm exhausted, it's too hot in Dallas. 101 Degrees, and thank goodness for limes in drinks.

3:30pm...My sister commented that I don't any pictures of our house posted on my blog...here it is! Hopefully the yard will be much prettier by this time next year...we're still working on it, but it's too hot in Dallas: everything dies.




4:30pm...Working.

5:30pm...Sudden rainstorm. Yes, my clothes were still out on the line.

6:30pm...Drowning Elephant ears

7:30pm...I'll be very excited when we reach this point of our project. Then all the sheetrock will be out of the living room.

8:30pm...transplants doing great!





9:30pm...finished with 1 out of 4 baby hats. (This one's a raspberry).




10:30pm...Bed and laptop.

Austin

Ricardo and I are being as Spontaneous and Romantic as we can this summer, because once the semester starts again, neither one of us have time for trips, activities, life or anything else.  

We had been talking about going on a shopping trip (not a big one, but just to get some "back to school and work" clothes down at the outlets at San Marcos).  And we decided to do that Friday and Saturday.  We drove down Friday afternoon, met up with our friend Andrea for dinner (Indian food-yummy!)

Andrea! She's awesome.  And getting married next month!!

Dinner! My favorite was the lentils, with the Naam (not pictured).

Andrea then had an errand to run, so Ricardo and I went and checked into our hotel (yuck! we don't recommend the America's Best Value Inn in Austin) and met up with her and her fiancee for dessert later.  We went to Mozart's, listened to some live country/bluegrassy music and ate too much dessert.

They were fun...kinda loud I guess, there were a lot of people around, but no one seems to be sitting at the front tables. 

Amazing desserts:  Warm pecan brownie with chocolate ice cream (now I wonder who chose that??),  Warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce, and a coffee vanilla ice cream shake and pomegranate italian soda on the side.

Ricardo and I at the mall.  I really liked this picture of him, I on the other hand, look a little crazed.  Probably because I had to go to the mall.  

View of the lake (river? I always think this qualifies as a river, but I think they call it a lake) as we are leaving Austin.  

I just found this picture. I guess Ricardo's really excited for marathon training to begin again, and for his new running shoes! 

He pointed out to me that I completely forgot 10 on 10 this month.  Sigh...tomorrow's the 15th, maybe as punishment for forgetting I can do 15 on 15, but that might be a challenge to get a picture 15 consecutive hours--serves me right for spacing out.

The Stole

I tried to take a picture or two, we'll see if you can tell what it looks like!  It was big --(a little too big, actually!  I didn't hem it on purpose to see how long he preferred it, and it needs to come up a few inches) --but so big it was hard to get into the frame while still close enough to see some detail.  The inspiration for this stole is from John 15, "I am the true vine, you are the branch, remain in me and I will remain in you".  

It doesn't hang as it should over a closet door, but it was the best thing I found for taking a picture.  The Associate Pastor seemed to really like it, which made me really happy 

:) and he wore it around the office for about 20 minutes.

I have no new projects coming up, but ready for more, so if you know anyone who needs a stole (or a pastor you need a gift for) I'm up for trying more designs!

Summer Vacation

It's all about doing all the things I can't do while I'm taking classes.  

The list is never ending...and I think it gets things added to it faster than things crossed off!

Today I helped Ricardo with some of the electrical work for the new bathroom...

he's in the attic, peeking through the hole in the ceiling where we are hanging the light/vent...

and I worked most of the rest of the time in the garden, doing laundry, and sewing a stole!

...which... has become my new "hobby".  My friend Katie graduated from seminary in May, and got ordained and assigned to a church in June, plus her birthday is in June.  So as a congrats-good luck-birthday gift, I decided to try making her a stole to wear over her robe to kick off her preaching in her new church!  I unfortunately didn't take any pictures, but she's promised me one, so I'll post it when I get it.  I'm currently working on my second one, for the Associate Pastor at the church I work at...his birthday is Wednesday, so I'm praying I get it done in time!  Since I'm not sure whether or not he reads this blog (don't think so, but want to be careful), I'll not post pictures until after I give it to him.

So, other news to catch up all you kindred spirits and faithful blog readers: Last Sunday was a big day, we had a GospelFest (10 people playing bluegrass and gospel music) and homemade Ice Cream contest.  I made ice cream with the youth, they made 3 flavors: Chocolate Strawberry, Cookies and Cream, and Peanut Butter S'mores.  (The Peanut Butter S'mores won a prize!) I also made a Lemon Basil, which didn't win, but people were really curious about (making faces while they listened to or read what it was), but enjoyed once they tried it!  

This weekend we went down to Houston to spend the holiday weekend with my parents and the dog!  We had plans to watch the fireworks on Clear Lake on my parents' sailboat, but the pending stormy weather helped us decide to stay at home and be bums.  We watched Wimbledon, the Olympic Trials, a movie or two, and made a paella.  Always fun! 

BNB and Ric making Paella despite stormy weather.  They stayed in the covered alcove of the back patio.  Check out daddy's aquasocks...classic!

On our way back to Dallas we stopped in Huntsville to visit our friends the Garcias.  Ricardo got busy helping Luis fix a piece of furniture, while I played with the girls and talked with my friend Rebecca.

 

Cutest girls in the world!

They might come visit us this week for some swim lessons: FUN!

Ricardo and Luis being manly men.

Closing Shot: Luis and Rebecca's youngest has some interesting flip-flop habits.  Not only did she not quite get them on the correct feet, she's got some crazy toe action going.  I thought it was darling!

Too cute!