Rock Hopping

Chris took off the whole week this week to work on the house. He's done a great job! His dad actually was in town from last Friday until Tuesday. They worked hard and finished up the sanding/mudding of the laundry room, textured, finished electrical, and got a lot of little odd jobs out of the way. Chris and I primed the walls and ceiling (I forget how many coats we did--too many!) and painted both. Chris then tiled the floor all day on Wednesday from 10am until 3am! We slept in the next day and took off for a fun day away from the house, exploring our favorite Texan state park; Enchanted Rock. We went once when we first got married and vowed that we had to go back with Marlow. It was a blast and just a beautiful day. We both got a little sunburned, but it was worth it. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from Thursday.

18,772.8

That's how many miles I drove in 2007 for my job. Good job, Corolla.

My Latest Etsy Find

I like this a lot.

Too Far Away

There are days that being so far away from family is difficult. And I've been in that season for quite some time now. They are roughly 20 hours away, too long of a drive over a weekend. I wish I could just hop on a plane for a few days to get my fix, but that's not possible. It's been months since I've seen them and it's just hard sometimes. I love my husband and his family that live close, but nobody can replace your own family. If you live near yours, I hope you're thankful.

Let me introduce you to some of my favorite people:

Mom
This woman's got it together on the inside and out. She is who I think of when I read 1 Peter 3:4 that talks about "having the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of worth in God's sight." I don't understand how I came from her because I can be such a loud, obnoxious, spastic person sometimes and she is so gentle with her words, careful to think before she speaks, and just naturally tender and calm. Those are great qualities in a mom. She has always put her family before herself. She is steady and constant. She is so good at making much out of little whether it be in entertaining children, cooking, camping, or budgeting. She is a friend to everyone and doesn't judge others. All feel welcome in her presence and even seek her out for advice. She is thoughtful and makes it her business to bless others.
Dad
No one could replace him. Together, he and my mom are a unit. They are individuals, but they operate together and unity is really seen in their marriage. My dad is a hard worker. He doesn't complain often and can always find good in a situation. He is a jokester and though sometimes they are just too much for me to handle, he's always making someone chuckle. He's good at brightening your day with a hug or a back rub or sticking food in his mouth in a weird way that makes it just look gross and funny at the same time. Basically, he's a big kid. :) He is a great father and always worked hard to provide well for his family. He is creative and remembers in detail things that happened years ago. He can make up a themed song on the fly and has a endless appetite for all things chocolate. I love my dad.

Andy
My big brother. I am so proud of him. Proud of him for the small things and proud of him for the big things. He is a man of wisdom, always seeking answers to life's questions first from God's Word. He desires not to live life like an ordinary person, but to live radically for Christ, each day making a difference for His name. He is funny and always has a pun to share. He's intelligent and knows much more about computers and electrical things than I could ever want to know. He also has a good memory for random information. He makes much out of little and is easily pleased. He goes out of the way for you and likes to be the one in the background taking care of things while others are in the spotlight.
Mandy
I couldn't think of a better sister-in-law if I tried. She's got everything I've always wanted in one. She's got such a sweet disposition, a truly caring heart, she's funny when tired and funny when not tired, and best of all, she reflects Jesus. Her conversation and attitude and thoughts are align with God's. She is a great listener and empathetic to others. I love her spunk and the fact that she's so comfortable to be around. In fact, I'd say that she is a relaxing person to be around. You don't feel a need to be someone you're not, to impress her, or to entertain her. She's so talented at crafty things and I envy that. She's good with kids and very creative.

Aaron
Oh where do I start? In a sibling kind of way, I've been in love with him since I met him in the womb 23 years ago. It's been said that we have been the best of friends and the worst of enemies, but I'd say we have always been on each others' sides. If I think of someone I really love, he comes to mind. I've looked up to him for as long as I can remember. There is so much to admire about him. He's creative and smart. He is so good at problem-solving and thinking out of the box. He's loving and always seems to notice the unnoticed ones. I feel safe with him. I know he'd take care of me and look out for me. He's so thoughtful and a great helper. And he has a great memory, too. He's good at thinking up new inventions and alternative solutions. He's sweet and kind-hearted, always making me laugh. One of my favorite quotes from him took place in the spring of my Junior year of high school. I was trying on prom dress options at home and was determining which would be the one. I was frustrated because I wasn't exactly fitting into them as I would have liked. The zippers didn't zip and the clasps didn't clasp. I remember venting about how I felt ugly and fat. Aaron's response was unforgettable: "Carey, you're not ugly. It just doesn't hold all of your beauty."

Today

Chris woke up and "went to work." He's in his office, but he's having to work from home. Ugh. Not fun on a Saturday.
I have been sprawled out on the floor every since I woke up, making cards. It looks like a disaster, but the finished products are fun.

Marlow has been cuddly and sad that we are not more active with him today. Hopefully later we'll head for the park.

It's cold outside and I've been going out to our wood pile every half hour or so to bring another load of logs in.
Also...here's a picture of our finished Dining Room. Eventually I'd like to get some kind of buffet or corner hutch, but that will be down the road. I also plan to put up three ledges with pictures.
Butternut Squash Risotto with Sauteed Edamame and Zucchini for lunch.

Happy Easter!

Taken 3/7/08 in our backyard

Quik Laundry Saves the Day

Last night after work we ran, ate a quick dinner (see picture below), and headed out to the Quik Laundry around the corner to bust out 8 loads. Since we are doing our Laundry Room right now, the washer and dryer are in the garage and we didn't want to keep bringing them in and out, hooking and unhooking. So, just like college days, we packed the car with dirty clothes and brought Scrabble to play. Chris is allergic to fabric softener, so it was a big deal for him to come with me and hang out for 2 hours. You can see that he was thrilled.

Take Two

I'm trying to take more pictures of my food. This dish is Indian-inspired, but concocted of things I found in my fridge. Eggplant, onions, tumeric, allspice, coriander, cumin, red wine vinegar, white wine, marinara, vegetable stock, feta, chickpeas, thyme...with naan.

Celebrations

This weekend consisted of work and play. During the day, we worked on the house a lot and got a lot of yard work done. Friday evening we met friends, Scott & Lydia, for dinner downtown at Bess Bistro (Sandra Bullock's restaurant--her sister is a pastry chef and created the dessert menu) to help celebrate Scott turning six years old on Leap Day! After dinner festivities took place at The Ginger Man and we celebrated for several hours more before heading home. Saturday evening took us to another friend's place for a wine tasting party. It was fun to actually be invited to one instead of working it as an event for my job. It was a Bordeaux/Bordeaux-style night, so every couple brought 2 bottles within the varietal and we enjoyed a horizontal flight, comparing and contrasting, being wine geeks, and enjoying the vine.

At Bess Bistro

Cheers!

Stuff White People Like

I found on a friend's blog this hilarious website, dedicated to listing all the things white people like. It's really funny, especially if you're not white and embarrassingly if you are. Check it out.

Things We've Been Up To

~ Chris and I have been running 6 days a week.
~ I planted our garden; corn, zucchini, yellow squash, and carrots. My herbs survived the winter, so we've got enough left for me to use in my cooking. Also, my neighbor gave me a bunch of tulip bulbs. I planted those, too, and can't wait to see them come up. I love tulips.
~ Kitchen remodel. I took off all the cabinet doors and hardware, sanded them down, and today I put a coat of primer on. I might do another coat, then paint. I'm going with white. It will really brighten up our tiny kitchen space and hopefully give the impression that they are newer. After the doors are done, I'll start the sanding on the installed cabinets and continue from there. At that point I'll move all our kitchen stuff into the dining room.
~ Chris has really been enjoying his job lately. It felt like it was an overnight change where one day he woke up and realized he was content with his job, happy he was there, and excited to continue being an engineer. This is huge because never since I have known him has he wanted to do engineering. It was always a step toward something else, a way to pay off debt before seminary. But right now, he feels happy where he is. Praise God for that.
~ I reupholstered the dining room chair seats. It was a table and chairs set we bought for $70 a few months after we got married from Chris's mom's friend. It's done us well and we want to keep it around as long as we can, but it just needed better looking fabric.
~ Marlow is eating a shank bone right now. Tonight I made us Thai roasted (almost 3 hours!) lamb shanks with jasmine rice and steamed bok choy. It was tasty, but a lot of food. Chris will enjoy leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I gave the bone to him almost an hour ago! He's still working hard at it and I'm sure it will be devoured within the next hour. Good for his teeth.

On the Search

This post is to find my friend, Sara!!! (I don't remember your married last name!) I get so excited to read comments from you that you leave, but for some reason, I'm not able to access your profile, look at your blog, and get an email address or something. I'd love to catch up and actually talk to you, but I don't know how without posting my phone number...which wouldn't be a good idea. So, hopefully you read this sometime soon and mess around with your blogger profile privacy stuff so I can contact you!

Jaxson Reese

He and I hang out every now and then. We have lots of fun together. He's 4 months old now and laughs a lot.

Bison, It's What's For Dinner

Tonight's: Seared Bison with a mixture of Whole Grain Mustard and Kalamata Olives with Julienned Peppers on a Portobello

Saturday's: Mahi-Mahi with Saffron Rice, Boston Lettuce, Grapefruit, Avocado, Lime-Basil Vinaigrette and Sesame Seeds

Sam & Karen Visit

From New York and Indiana they came
Compared to last year we did nothing the same
Eating Thai food, drinking Ginger Man
Hiking Greenbelt, of Rudy's they were fans
Karen's birthday dinner I cooked
After playing Blokus, they were hooked
Walked around UT, looked in shops
Only one day came raindrops
Now they're gone and we are sad
To see them again we will be glad

Friday nappers

Friday Night Salsa Dancing Lesson with the Hekmans

At Ginger Man downtown

Happy Birthday, Karen!

Lord of the Rings

With Love, Carey

Happy V-Day, everyone. Did you know that there were several Mr. Valentines (referred to as Saints) and they were all martyrs? Supposedly the 14th of February is the "feast of" to commemorate them, set in order by the Roman Catholic Church and established in 496. Not sure how it later merged into a holiday that celebrates love and romance.

We commemorated the martyrs today by eating Thai food at our favorite local joint, Madam Mams. I put together a gift bag for Chris to find when he ate his breakfast this morning. It included some of his favorite things...Winterfresh gum, Oh's cereal, Pilot G-2 ink pens, "The Fellowship of the Ring" DVD, and Whoppers candy. He got me flowers and prepared a hot bath for me when I got home from work. He is a great husband and it's fun being in love.

Be Green in the Kitchen

One of my favorite challenges is to make something wonderful from what appears to be nothing. My good friend Michelle is really great at that. She has the touch to make things beautiful and aesthetically pleasing without spending much money at all. I think it's a wonderful gift.

I enjoy doing it with the contents in my refrigerator. Truly, I love to clean and organize. My husband teases me because it's to be sure that sometime during each weekend he'll find me on a chair reaching to the top of my pantry or on my hands and knees spraying down and wiping out the freezer. I also live by FIFO. It's a term used in the food industry; First In, First Out. There is usually a sequence to which we use food in our home. If leftovers are present (And I hate eating leftovers. Fortunately Chris is my live-in garbage disposal and he doesn't mind finishing off a pan of lasagna or remaining mashed potatoes.) it is top priority to get rid of them before making a whole new meal with new ingredients. I like to waste as little as possible and try to live by the RRR method of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle even with our eating habits.

To begin with, since there are just two of us, I usually make 1/2 of a recipe or smaller amounts of food. This reduces the amount of product I use. I reuse food that is still in containers in other meals to finish them. Last night I made a wheat pasta dish with veggies; sunburst squash, sun dried tomatoes, peas, and shiitake mushrooms. I also had about 1/4 cup left of pinto beans from a previous night's dish(wilted kale and pinto beans), so I just threw those in for extra protein. Call me OCD, but I feel accomplished when after dinner, I look into our fridge and there are a few containers less than there were before. And finally, I try to recycle as much as I can whether it be empty containers of sour cream, salad dressings, etc.

But back to my main point of making something out of nothing...it's really fun for me to see that we've got random ingredients in our pantry and fridge, to use them and throw something together that is healthy and delicious. That's satisfaction for me. My aunts used to say that my mom could feed a whole house on a chicken for a week. That's what I'm talking about. Making little become much by stretching and improvising and adding. When I've used things up, I reward myself by going grocery shopping and doing it all over again the next week.

Good Reads

Books I Read Last Month
1. Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller
2. My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
3. Marley and Me - John Grogan
4. Same Kind of Different As Me - Ron Hall & Denver Moore

Now Reading
1. Sex God - Rob Bell
2. Love & Respect - Dr. Emerson Eggerichs

Weekend

We took Marlow to the park on Saturday. Perhaps only dog lovers will understand this, but we really get so much joy seeing him enjoy life. When he's able to be off-leash and run, jump, swim, play, roll in the mud, and chase other dogs, it makes me happy. I feel like it's essential for his personality to be able to have those times. It engages his mind, presents challenges that he has to figure out on his own, and the woods is just a place of stimulation for him. I like to see my dog happy.

Yesterday was a productive day at the Bonsers'. Chris has been working to enclose our laundry room for the past several weeks now. I'm continually amazed at his remodeling skills and I love his work ethic. When he sets out to do something, he truly does it with excellence. And because of that great quality, whoever buys our house someday will reap the benefits. He finished the electrical and put up insulation in the laundry room. Whenever we rip open walls and such, we always find surprises such as exposed live wires and aged rat poop and a rusty tin can with $500 in it. Just kidding on that last part. I keep hoping to find a hidden treasure within our walls though. Yesterday I ran a few errands in the morning, getting a new Brita pitcher, buying round two of curtains for the dining room (hopefully these look better, if not, they're going back where they came from), and of course stopping by the hardware store for a few extra odds and ends. We ate lunch and I got started on the front bushes. I hear you're supposed to trim them down before Spring time and if you feel like you're really hacking them off, then it's probably the right amount. I always love to see their fast growth once the warm weather returns...which it has. It's been consistently in the high '70s to high '80s all week. I love Springtime in Texas, but it's always too short.

Under the Weather

When Chris and I returned from our trip, he was at the brink of his illness with flu-like symptoms, feeling achy and naucious and fatigued. It's been about 2 weeks since we've gotten back and he's still not completely back to normal. He's going to the doctor this morning. I got the bug on Saturday. It was strange. I went to bed Saturday night completely fine, feeling normal and healthy. I woke up at midnight and every hour from then until about 7am getting sick and then returning to bed. At one point, I just brought my pillow and a blanket to the bathroom floor with me. The cool tiles felt good on my feverish body anyway. And it lasted all day Sunday. I'd move only to lay down on the couch in the livingroom or go to the bathroom, not even holding my head up all day, but just propping it up with pillows to catch some glimpses of the Superbowl before falling asleep again. Not fun. I woke up Monday feeling a lot better, but not completely back to normal. I had to move slower, and I called in sick to work, so I just rested and still did a lot of laying around. I managed to take the trash out and get some string cheese from the fridge, but that was about it. So far today, feeling back to normal. It's weird how the flu just gets you out of the blue like that, sometimes with no warning at all. I know it's going around quite a bit this season, but I hope it doesn't choose you.