Blue Bell

Thomas' only "off" day is Tuesday (doesn't really count as a off day since he still goes in for a few hours for treatment) but we always try to do something fun to get out of the apartment. This week we drove to Brenham, TX to visit the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory.  Thomas has always LOVED Blue Bell, and we decided the hour trip would be worth it.

After driving past 23490283580 strip malls (I've decided that Houston is one big strip mall) we then entered the wasteland of real Texas. Seriously, we even passed a few ghost towns. And we passed a few gorgeous farms/ranches and that made me happy to finally see, but I think most of them must be hidden far, far away from the interstate so that new folks like me think the typical ranch that you see in the movies about Texas simply don't exist, but strip malls do. We did allow ourselves 5 minutes to talk about missing scenic New England, then we moved on.

And of course, the Blue Bell factory was epic. They actually use local cows (it takes 60,000 cows/day to run the factory) so now I want to support only Blue Bell since they support local farmers. We took the tour along with a group of ladies who were pushing 95 years old. They were kind of mean and harassed our poor tour guide with questions. Thomas and I could barely make eye contact as we kept giggling uncontrollably about their comments. I even heard one of them say that Blue Bell should "make more sugar free desserts." Let's just say this lady had surely been eating quite a few desserts that contained sugar in the course of her lifetime and did not have much room to complain about sugar free desserts. No pun intended.

Everyone received a free cup of ice cream at the end of the tour, and the guide told us we were allowed to sample as many kinds as we wanted. I may or may not have taken this information to heart and sampled 5 kinds of ice cream. I don't know what got into me, but the samples were very small and I didn't finish my cup of ice cream, so don't fear for the health of our child. And take my advice and hurry to your grocery store to pick up a half gallon of Blue Bell Tiramisu....they only made one shipment of it and will not be making any more. It is a delight.

What? We're Moving! Again?

Well, we finally found a cute little house to rent in Houston. Hallelujah. However, the postal service probably isn't saying "hallelujah" as this will be the 6th time in the last 16 months that I've changed our address. I'm sure they think we are in the witness protection program or we're drug dealers or we're running from the law or something crazy like that. Once, a postal worker asked me if the move was "temporary" or "permanent" when I was filling out my paperwork. I glared at her and didn't even attempt to explain.

I've had to change our address in the following order:
1. from Clemson duplex to my parent's house while we were in limbo in Minnesota
2. from my parent's house to our apartment in North Attleboro
3. from apartment in North Attleboro to Danny and Stacia's apartment while Thomas recovered from surgery
4. from Danny and Stacia's apartment to our apartment in Foxboro
5. from Foxboro to our furnished apartment here in Houston
6. from furnished apartment to new house in Houston

And while I'm making lists, here is a list of the following things I will not miss about living in this furnished place:    

1. Having one knife with which to cut things in my kitchen
2. the African figurines
3. the awful suede couch that I've spent so many nauseated hours with
4. the dishwasher here is worthless. wretched. bane of my existence. cleans nothing.
5. the bad mattress here as neither one of us feel truly rested when we wake up  
6. the burners on the stove that smoke every time I turn them on, which in then makes me nauseated (and our new place has a GAS STOVE! so excited)
7. Black, brown, and beige decor makes me want to run screaming from the building
8. parking in a parking garage that makes me want to hyperventilate because I am terrible at parking and I'm terrified I will side swipe another car.

And of course I will leave you with 2 parting shots of the beloved African figurines. I have nightmares about them. These animals are attacking one another. WHAT. IN. THE. WORLD?

We'll be out of here in one week, but we're not counting.
                      

My fascination with alligators

I have a strange fascination with alligators. I know... disturbing, but I just think they are incredible creatures. Now, I don't have any stuffed alligators in my house or framed pictures of alligators nor do I really even want to be that close to an alligator, but I'm always looking to SEE them in the wild. No alligator farms for me...I want the real deal. But, I'm also a 'fraidy cat and am terrified when I do see them in the wild. Yesterday was a perfect example. We decided to go to Brazos Bend State Park  where there are miles of trails through the woods and 300 alligators living all around. There were alligator warning signs everywhere and rules about what to do if you come in contact with an alligator, and I started to get really freaked out. Thomas had a heyday with this and told me in case of an emergency, he'd use an old wrestling move called Fireman's Carry to get us away from an alligator. He even demonstrated on me and I nearly had a heart attack. We only ended up seeing 3 alligators {although I was convinced more were watching us from the underbrush} and one otter/beaver, we aren't sure what it was. It was a gorgeous day and a great way to spend Thomas' day off!

 {gorgeous Spanish Moss all over the place down here}

{random picture of Fireman's Carry that I found online. Can't you see us running out of the woods like this?}

{otter/beaver, maybe you can identify?}

Read...NOW

Hurry to your nearest bookstore and go purchase Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. It looks like this:

Or better yet, buy it off of Amazon because their price is way cheaper than what I paid at the local bookstore. But, I like supporting bookstores so do whatever makes you feel good. 

Seriously, this book is the best book I've read since The Help. It's an incredible story of an American POW during World War II. I won't give away anymore details, because Thomas says I can't talk about it without giving it away and he is reading it next. I read it on 2 plane flights plus another afternoon at home, I could hardly put it down. 

Go...support America, support books, and get your read on. 

Husbands, take note

This past weekend, I went back to South Carolina for a fun girls weekend that my mom had planned months ago. It was a great time together and I loved every minute of the cooler weather and being together. 

Upon my arrival back in Houston, Thomas had flowers waiting for me at the apartment. He was really proud of himself because he's been keeping a note to himself on his phone of the flowers I've mentioned I like. I know, he's cute. (He swears I talked about liking lilies once...I have zero recollection of this, but they are really pretty.)

 And of course he got a card to go with the flowers. He said, "I got this card in the 'I love you' section, and then I opened it up and realized it says 'Feliz Cumpleanos' but I figured you'd think it was funny anyway." And I did think it was funny, so funny that whenever we send you a birthday card, you can expect the same thing. Although, we don't know what many of the words mean except for the ones that Thomas translated as "apple" and "peach." It could be a really inappropriate card but we'll never know the difference.

Fall in my Imagination

First and foremost, a big thank you to those of you who read my pitiful blog post about how sad I was regarding my lack of a KitchenAid. My sister-in-law Kelly MAILED me a hand mixer that she didn't use any more. Can you imagine my joy upon opening that care package?! 

Secondly, my fellow NFL wife and warm climate dweller Cissie gave me the recipe for this pumpkin spice cake. She used to live in North Carolina but now resides in Florida because of her husband's job, and she took pity on me and texted me "combine a spice cake mix with a can of pumpkin and bake! It'll give you a taste of fall." I've done this before with a yellow cake mix, and the spice cake mix is so much better. I also made a cream cheese apple cider frosting, and it was delicious. The recipe for the frosting can be found here, just scroll past the cupcake recipe. And FYI, the cider takes awhile to boil down to 1/4 cup. Be patient.

{We may or may not have eaten this portion of the cake straight from the pan.And the lighting in our apartment is awful, hence the weird yellow light in the picture.}

And Baby A has been making me crave this Santa Fe Soup that has always been a favorite. I made it last night and we were not disappointed.  Thomas is loving the things that I crave these days! Meat and beans?! His dream come true. I got the recipe from Caroline over at Savory Sister years ago, or so my recipe card says. Also, the recipe says not to drain the beans, but I drained and rinsed them to cut out some of the sodium.  I just added a little extra water to make up for it and we couldn't tell the difference. Oh, I also only used 1 pound of ground beef. Thomas didn't even know. And it makes a LOT, so freeze half or share it with a friend. 

Santa Fe Soup

2 lbs ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

2 (1 oz) envelopes of Ranch dressing mix

1 envelope taco seasoning mix

2 c water

1 (16 oz) can black beans, undrained

1 (16oz) can great northern beans, undrained

1 (16oz) can kidney beans, undrained

1 (14.5 0z) can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 (10 oz) can Rol-Tel tomatoes with green chiles

1 (11 oz) cans shoepeg corn, drained

Brown beef with onions, drain. Add remaining ingredients and blend well. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Serve with grated cheese, sour cream and chopped green onion. Yields about 3 quarts. 

Familiar Faces

Our dear friend Preston and his sweet wife Erin came to the game with me yesterday. We both knew Preston really well in college, and Thomas was just in their wedding this past summer. It was so much fun to see familiar faces, and they only live an hour and a half away at Texas A&M! And we won, so that is always nice. Especially when the win means that Thomas won a bet against our friend Tyler who plays for the Steelers, and Tyler owes Thomas a book of his choice. 

Here we are in our lovely furnished kitchen. Please note the African figurines at the top and the ultrasound of Baby A on the fridge.