Wanna Laugh? Watch This.

Louie's 106

Tonight was Date Night for us and we had dinner at Louie's 106 downtown next to the Driskill. We had: App- proscuitto wrapped mission figs stuffed with blue cheese with balsamic reduction. We got a bottle of Matua Valley 2006 Sauvignon Blanc to pair nicely with our seafood dishes of: (me) Seafood Risotto (mussels, shrimp, scallops, salmon, calamari), and (Chris) a trout dish. Afterwards, we walked around downtown, then shared a banana split at the Driskill Bakery Cafe.

What We've Been Up To

The Study is complete.

Facelift to the flower bed out front.Our current project: Master Bathroom. This is the damage we did yesterday.

Making Time for Marriage

In the past 48 hours I have put in 30 hours of work. My boss has been out of town this week, so I've taken on normal weekly clients, plus I did two events, one yesterday, one today. Friday night's was a cooking lesson/demo for a group of 10-year old girls at Camp Little A on Lake LBJ. I taught them to make meatballs, a cream reduction sauce, pasta, steamed broccoli, a salad, and garlic bread. They were a fun bunch of girls. Oh to be 10 again. Last night's event was a 40th birthday party out in Cedar Park. I had been to that client's house before for a shower, and they asked me back to do a bunch of hor d' eouvres and some wine pairings. It was a late night, but fun.

Chris and I are back to our remodeling after a couple months break. We are currently working on the master bathroom. Today we're going to pick out tile for the wall and floor.

Making Time For Marriage:
We have made a few drastic changes to our lives lately due to our desire to really focus on our marriage. Things have been kind of hard for awhile, mostly because of stresses from work and being over-committed in a few areas. We've decided to act instead of react. We've been reminded that our covenant marriage is of the utmost importance and that it is really worth fighting for. We feel that God has really blessed those decisions and given us extra doses of unity lately. It's been good.

You are Good - Nichole Nordeman

Have you ever heard a song that as you listened, your heart shouted,
"Thank You, Jesus!"? This is one of those for me...
(Video posted for listening purpose only! Ignore super-cheesy Christianness.)

"You Are Good"--Nicole Nordeman

When the Sun starts to rise and I open my eyes
You are Good, So Good
In the heat of the day with each stone that I lay
You are so Good

With every breath I take in
I'll tell You I'm grateful again
When the moon climbs high
before each kiss good night
You are Good

When the road starts to turn around each bend I've learned
You are good, So Good
And when somebody's hand holds me up, helps me stand
You are...So Good

With every breath I take in, I'll tell You I'm grateful again
'Cause It's more than enough just to know I am loved
and You are Good

So how can I thank You? What can I bring?
What can these poor hands lay at the feet of the King?
So I'll sing You a love song.
It's all that I have to tell You
I'm grateful for holding my life in Your hands.

When it's dark and it's cold and I can't find my soul
You are Good, So Good
When the world has gone gray and the rain's here to stay
You are STILL Good

With every breath I take in I'll tell You I'm grateful again
Though the storms they may swell, even then it is well and
You are Good

So how can I thank You? What can I bring?
What can these poor hands lay at the feet of the King?
So I'll sing You a love song.
It's all that I have to tell You
I'm grateful for holding my life in Your hands

You are holding my life in Your hands

....Does anyone want to learn to play this song so I can sing it??

I've Got a Logo!

A computer graphics friend from Purdue created several for me and I got to choose the one I liked best. This is the fun part of starting a business. :) Also, we've purchased a domain name for the website. Nothing there yet, but here it is: www.tasteandseefinedining.com.

I've created new business cards, and I'm in the midst of getting the logo and "Chef Carey" printed on a coat. It has been fun creating a more professional face. In my spare time I've been doing a lot of reading and research. Next step will be marketing myself, perhaps doing at-cost lunches for businesses to target clients, then cooking!

Psalm 34:8 "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good."

Since July 19th

- We finished the wall in our dining room. It looks great after the paneling being torn down, getting texturized, and painted. Trim still needs painted and put up.

- I've continued enjoying cooking for my client, Nikki. I prepare 9 meals for her each week and she eats on them throughout the week until I see her again the following Tuesday evening. Lots of fun. This is where my creativity flourishes.

- I had 2 interviews and accepted a part-time position as a Foodie at Central Market. I'll start mid-August.

- My family visited for a week. We really loved having them here and they are quite possibly the easiest guests we've had. We got to show them around our city, eat at our favorite restaurants, and take them to our regular hang-out spots. They also got to see me graduate and eat my food. Chris's parents came into town for my graduation, as well. And, we got to help celebrate my Dad turning 60!

- This weekend we had more company--Laura and Josh came from Dallas. Again, fun times.

6 Days and Counting...

Last weekend we finished the office and it looks great! Thanks to our talented friend, Curtis, we now have awesome red oak bookcases. Chris stained them to be the same color as our desk. 5 rooms down, 4 to go!

Marlow is recovering well from his surgery. It's just been hard keeping his activity level down when we can't exercise him yet. That boy is ready to go running again!

I've been meeting once every other week with a friend of mine who has begun to mentor me. She's a mom of 2 and has been married for 7 years. Her walk with Christ and just the wisdom God has given her is a blessing to me.

I had an interview with Central Market this week and was asked to return for a second interview. That will be set up for sometime next week. I applied for a part-time position so that I can keep my current job, which I love.

We are enjoying our garden so much. I keep forgetting to mention that. It was all planted in April and we been enjoying the fruits of our labor for a couple of weeks now. Lush tomatoes; sweet and juicy, the way they should be. We've got a TON of cherry tomatoes. They've just about taken over the entire garden, but there are also some large 3x5 tomatoes that have survived. Yum! Also, 3 different kinds of peppers; banana peppers which are almost ripe, green bell which are almost ripe, and little sweet red peppers. We've already eaten a ton of those. My weekly clients are enjoying tastes of my garden, too. I use them in my cooking often. We also have thyme, chives, and lots of basil. Having a garden is so rewarding. I'm already looking forward to planting new stuff for the fall.

The countdown is on. 6 days until my family visits! Woo hoo! We haven't seen them since Christmas. That's been one of the hardest things about moving away. I now see my parents twice a year. We go up to Indiana once and they come down once. Can't wait. Aaron is coming, too.

Our Puppy Is A Conehead

Marlow got neutered yesterday. He has to wear this cone for a week to 10 days until the stitches are healed! Not fun.

Happy July!

This week I am cooking A LOT since my boss is out of town and I am covering normal clientel by myself...but it's fun. I just have to keep organized since I'm doing parties as big as 60. And I also have to wear good shoes. Since I cook out of my own kitchen, it can seem natural to just have bare feet, but wearing comfortable shoes really helps my joints when I stand for so long.

This weekend has been all about house projects. This was the first weekend in quite awhile that Chris was in town, so he wanted to catch up on some things. We got a lot done together, but the list seems to be never-ending. I guess that's part of being a home owner. We did buy a dishwasher today, so that's a great thing, considering how many dishes I usually do when I cook. It will be delivered Wednesday. And Chris used up some gift cards to Fry's and bought a 20" flat screen monitor so he can now work from home more--or watch 24 on a bigger screen than our TV. :) I won't hate on our 19" TV/VCR combo...we've watched many movies on it. It was afterall, a prize that Chris's dad won in a golf tournament. You can't beat free.

Busy Bee

I have been working so much lately! It's been good though considering my job can be inconsistent at times. The bigger checks are always nice, even though I haven't been caught up on sleep for sometime now. My boss will be out of town all of next week, and I'm taking on 4 events and a normal client, AND I'm starting to cook for my first very own weekly client, aside from my real job. I will be cooking mostly every day all day next week, and when I'm not doing that, I'll be grocery shopping, or making deliveries out to Lakeway.

Tomorrow night I'm taking Chris out on a date to dinner at Cibo's and to see "Ratatouille."

Marlow's Half Birthday

Yesterday Marls turned 6 months. We took him to do his favoite thing...hike and swim at the Greenbelt. He had some filet mignon for dinner, and we also stopped to get him a cup of ice cream on the way home.

I Like To Recap

Quick Recap of Recent Activities:

1. Good friends, Dick and Sandi Butler, were in town last week. I met them for dinner at Z'Tejas and we got to catch up. I saw them last around Christmastime, but it always feels extra special to have friends come from Indiana. They were in Austin for a wedding.

2. Our great friend and a talented carpenter, Curtis, made us two bookshelves for our office. We are going to stain and finish them to be the same color as the desk. They look great and will be the last touches on that room! Finally to get the books off the floor!

3. Kenny Chesney concert! We tailgated beforehand with good friends, Casey and Megan, and enjoyed ourselves despite a major down pour of rain all throughout the concert. Sugarland and Taylor Swift opened!

4. We had a little dinner party last night with our Ford friends. I cooked and we ate. It was fun. They also brought their cute poodles over for Marlow to play with, and that he did.

5. I've been working a TON lately. It's either feast or famine with my job lately, and right now it's Thanksgiving.

Marlow and Chihuahua

This is the sweet face I returned to from our vacation!


And I found this while hiking on the Greenbelt this afternoon.

Hilton Head

What a week! We packed in a lot, but had plenty of time for relaxation, sleeping in, and just plain fun. We stayed at a condo with Chris's parents and his sister and her husband. (We left Marlow with friends in Austin while we were gone. We missed him a lot!)

Highlights from the trip:

- seeing wildlife; lots of crocodiles, blue herons, pelicans, seagulls, dolphins, butterflies, racoons, squirrels, and frogs
- the beach! laying out, people-watching, playing in the ocean
- visiting Ft. Jackson, where I went to Basic Training exactly 5 years ago
- fresh seafood
- watching a sunrise on the beach
- celebrating our 2nd anniversary

Lots of pictures below.

June 4th was our anniversary.

The Bonsers and Wilkersons.

On the beach.


Watching the sunrise.

In our LONG wait in the Charlotte airport.

This was the infantry division I was in while in the Army at Fort Jackson.

Goofiest picture of the century!

What a goofball!

Not Nice Glue

Now I've done some dumb things in my life, but today's event might top them all. I super-glued my hands--both of them. Here's the story: I was about to fix a pair of earrings that a stone had fallen out of (obviously fake). As I tried to squeeze the little bottle of super glue, nothing would come out, so I assumed it hadn't been opened yet. After realizing that it was open, I squeezed harder to break the dried up glue that was stuck in the opening. The glue gushed out and I tried to catch it all in my hands because I was doing this over our nice dresser--smart, I know. Luckily, the dresser is okay. My hands, however, are a bit raw. I tried soaking them in nail polish remover (has to have acetone in it) for about 15 minutes and that seemed to help, but not enough. In addition, I used my pumice stone to scrub my fingers and nails. This pryed them free from each other and I'm still working on making them look like normal, healthy hands now. This incident reminds me of a time in high school when me, Jenny, Stephanie, Michelle, and Susan all taped our fingers together for the day. Whoever could withstand it until the end of the day won. A couple of us had presentations to do, and I remember presenting a posterboard or PowerPoint with my fingers taped tightly together. Quite funny then and now. Super glue is not.

Susan Was Here

It was a great visit having Hu here this weekend. It meant so much to me that she made the time to come down to Texas. She's my first friend from back home I've had visit since we moved here nearly 2 years ago. We packed in the fun in just 3 days. Now she's off on her 'Around the World' tour in just 7 weeks!

Growing Up

Marlow is almost 5 months old. This is him this morning taking a nap...with a smile on his face.

The Guest Room Remains Full

Last weekend was a blur. I got off from work on Friday, stopped by the grocery, and when I got home I had about 30 minutes to speed around the house, picking things up before our company for the weekend arrived. It was Curtis's birthday on Friday, so we went to a steakhouse and ate dinner. The rest of the evening consisted of me prepping and cooking for Saturday night's meal, which would be his official birthday dinner. I even stayed up until 4am waiting on the créme bruleés in the oven! Such is my life. Many times I've stayed up to crazy hours of the night cooking away or going to the grocery for something last minute. But it's sort of fun. Saturday morning we went hiking on the Greenbelt again. The water was higher than I've seen it in the past, so Marlow had a good time swimming about. He's really learned to love the water.

It was a quick weekend, but we loved having our guests come. This weekend Susan will be here! Susan is one of my closest friends. We first met in kindergarten and we joke how we remember both liking New Kids on the Block. We reconnected in middle school and have been great friends ever since. She just graduated from IU in Fashion Apparel and Merchandising, and after her visit this weekend with us, she's off on her tour of a crazy amount of countries in just a few weeks around the world. She will be the first of my high school friends to come visit, so I'm looking forward to showing her our life in Texas.

Currently I am reading "Feminine Appeal" by Carolyn Mahaney...not to be mistaken with "Feminine Mystique." :) I'm only a few chapters in so far, but it's been really convicting me of thoughts and behaviors in wife hood. It's been saying things that I've needed to hear for awhile, so definitely a good thing. It reiterates the importance of mentoring and being mentored as a woman, and the entire book talks about the verse in scripture out of Titus 2:3-5. I'd recommend it.

Funny Little Guy

Outside our kitchen window this morning.