House & Ice

Sorry for the delayed update-but yes, we did close on the house on Friday! It feels good to have the keys in our hands (and garage door openers! :)

Today I took Sarah to this thing called Ice at the Gaylord Texan (great name-huh?)... they go every year. It was AMAZING! There was over 2 million pounds of carved ice in the exhibit- and was only 9 degrees inside. I'm so thankful I now live in Texas where there are very mild winters! Here are some pictures- sorry they're not great because I took them with my phone.

My favorite part

Me & Sarah

Ice Slide

This evening after work Scott and I are headed to Houston to ride with Marci, Mike, and their kiddos to Florida for Mack and Cheryl's wedding!

December 5th is the Day...

we're moving to Houston!

First of all, I just want to clarify something on the title of my post, "Property Virgins No More"... Property Virgins is the name of a real estate show on HGTV that I LOVE and I thought everyone had heard of it. Apparently not, because my mom hadn't, and she thought the title was really weird. So I just wanted to explain in case anyone else was thinking it was weird! :)

Even though we close on the house on the 20th, Scott can't start working in his new office until the 30th (so we can't move before then) and I can't train my replacement at work the week of Thanksgiving. The plan is to have me train my replacement the week of the 30th, move at the end of the week, and then we'll be official Houstonians! :)

I'm excited that TWG is having movers come do all the work for us- it will make the moving much less stressful. The crew is coming that Saturday morning, boxing everything, loading the truck, driving to Houston, and unloading that evening.

Here are some pictures I took of the house while we were there last weekend.

We can't wait to trim back the plants- you can hardly see the house!

The little porch I love

The kitchen by far needs the most work. We want to paint the walls and refinish the cabinets right away. Eventually we're going to put a cabinet above the sink, and get new counters and appliances. And the back splash has got to go too :)... at least it's neutral colors though.

This will be fun to decorate for Christmas

The entry (needs new paint too)

This might seem silly, but I'm really excited to have an actual entry. In our apartment (and every other apartment I've ever living in), you walk right into the family room with a little square of tile around the door. I guess I'm just looking forward to having a "real" house and a new space to decorate! :)

Today I Broke My Record

of my longest run!

Today I had to run 15 miles, which is the furthest I've ever gone in one run (my previous record was the half marathon I ran with I was 15)... and it was hard.

I was tired and sore everywhere. When I was finally done, the thought of running for another second seemed like torture- I don't know how I'm supposed to do another 11.2!

Next Saturday is 16 miles so I guess I'll just try that and see how it goes. Any marathoners out there have any advice or words of encouragement? I need it :)

A 30 Hour Weekend

I'm "babysitting" for my nanny agency at the fair this weekend in a Good Housekeeping/Ikea tent... I'll be coloring with little kids for 15 hours straight on both Saturday and Sunday so wish me luck :( At least there will be another girl there. We're going to be best friends by Sunday night!

On a more exciting note- we close 5 weeks from today! Woohoo!

Property Virgins No More

Introducing our First House

(I can't wait to get some better pictures)

It was a long, stressful process with two other offers besides ours...

but on Nov. 20th we can call it our own!

We have big plans for this little house

view from dining/family rooms to entry and office

we love the fireplace

I was just going to put a link to the listing, but thought it might be a good idea to not post our address online! So here's the description:

"Beautiful, move-in ready home in a great gated community. 3 bedroom/2 bath with bonus room for 4th bedroom or home office. Lots of ceramic tile throughout, large master suite with garden tub and shower in bath. Located in a secure, gated community with full time guard on duty, neighborhood pool and sports fields, fruit trees in backyard along with extra large patio. Great location near Westpark tollway, I-10, and Grand Pkwy. Highly rated Katy ISD schools."

Here's the floorplan:

The best jogging spot EVER!

This weekend I had to run 11 miles- and I was really in need of some new scenery. Yesterday morning Scott and I went to White Rock Lake which has a path going around the entire thing that lots of people have told me about. It is also where my marathon will start- hence the name "Dallas White Rock Marathon". Scott sat in the grass and read so he was in heaven.

When we got there a race was going on- there were TONS of people running with their numbers on. I ran anyways though... and there were other people running and biking on the trail that weren't in the race. Well I had been running for about 2o minutes when I got to their finish line. One other lane was open that I should have gone through, but a herd of bikers was coming from the opposite way and I didn't want to get ran over by them so I just went through the other lane- the race lane. As I ran through I felt bad because all of the people were jumping up and down, cheering, yelling "way to go!", there was a photographer taking my picture as I crossed the finish line, and "my time" was flashing on a big sign! I didn't know what else to do so I just kept going- they were probably thinking "what the heck?"... at least it gave me some good motivation for the rest of my run! :)

I really, really liked running there. The trail is asphalt so it's better for my joints than running on the concrete sidewalk I usually run on, there were TONS of people out (even after I passed the part of the trail where the racers were) so I felt really safe, and there was a lot to look at to keep me from getting bored to death. I saw:
-a bunch of ginormous mansions
-people kayaking
-a sailboat race,
-a group of chubby ladies hula-hooping (my favorite- I couldn't help but smile)
-a fitness bootcamp with their instructor yelling drill sergent style
-a police officer every few minutes
-fishermen
-a dog park
-a million other runners/bikers/walkers/rollerbladers

So if you live in Dallas I highly recommend you go check it out!

I LOVE this time of year!

We got the Halloween decorations out, it is cool enough outside to turn off the AC and open the windows (at least for today), we had Chicken Brunswick Stew for dinner, and Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner.

I love, love, LOVE it!!

Chicken Brunswick Stew from Southern Living

*we loved it- but it's really "oniony" so you might want to put less of them in if you're not a big fan. And it makes TONS- so I froze about half.

Ingredients
5 cups chopped onion
6 (4-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 (14.5 oz) cans no-salt-added cream-style corn
2 (14.5 oz) cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (14.5 oz) can no-salt-added chicken broth
1 (12 oz) bottle chili sauce
1/4 cup butter or stick margarine, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
*be sure to use the hot pepper sauce that contains whole peppers packed in vinegar rather than the red-colored sauce.

Directions
1. Place onion in a 4- to 6-quart electric slow cooker; top with chicken. Add corn, tomatoes, broth, chili sauce, butter, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, mustard, pepper, and pepper sauce; stir well. Cover with lid; cook on high-heat setting 1 hour. Reduce to low-heat setting, and cook 6 hours or until chicken is tender. Remove chicken; shred and return to stew. Ladle stew into bowls sprinkle with additional pepper, if desired. Yield: 9 servings (serving size 1.5 cups)

Per Serving: CAL 302 (22% from fat); PRO 21.6 g; FAY 7.5g (sat 3.6g); CARB 38.8g; FIB 4.6g; CHOL 58mg; IRON 1.6mg; SOD 1,216mg; CALC 51 mg