impromptu.

I love being spontaneous. I'm not very good at it, and I hardly ever do it. Probably why I love it.

I also love Thursdays. It's close enough to the weekend to be exciting but not so close that you have Friday fever all day and evening long.

So spontaneity on a Thursday? Great stuff in my book.

Today was our 2-month anniversary. I thought I was going to spend it reading about the measurement of behavior while hubs went on his weekly group bike ride. But much to my pleasant surprise, he walked in from work and told me to put some clothes on. No bike ride. We were going to happy hour. :)

Last Thursday I went out with a few ladies from church to McCormick and Schmick's, a fancy seafood restaurant with some tremendous happy hour specials. I raved about it so much Ben wanted to give it a try! He was in heaven...half pound cheeseburger and fries for $2.95. At a white tablecloth restaurant. Incredible. And yummy too! I enjoyed a beef tamale for 2 bucks and we shared some bruschetta and hummus. I love apps for dinner!

It just so happened that Crave Cupcakes is next door to the restaurant...so of course we had to bring some home for our couch time treat:

 Peek-a-boo!

 The very cool fold-out mess-proof box...

 A kitchenaid stamp on a cupcake? Love it.

Our vanilla (for me) and red velvet (for him) yummies all ready for a fork...

I don't know if I'd say it was my favorite cupcake I've had, but it was pretty good! You could see the vanilla bean in both the cake and icing on mine, which earned it points, but I might try another flavor next time. I was in plain jane mode tonight. Pure and simple.

Anyway, I loved our quality alone time away from books and computers tonight, and I'm glad we're cheesy enough to celebrate things like our 2-month wedding anniversary. Silly newlyweds...

the symphony.

Sad day. I just put on a t-shirt I haven't worn since the move and it still smells like home...I miss home. I hope home will come visit me sometime soon! Hint hint... I've had to resort to Peyton Manning bribery. The Texans play the Colts at home the first week of the regular season, and I know you Knoxville-natives can't resist that laser rocket arm.  :) The guest room is getting lonely! Just sayin'...

So last night while watching my 4th hour of online videos for the week, I apparently passed out on the couch and lay motionless for some time before Ben finally poked my foot enough for my eyes to open. I don't nap much, especially when in the middle of something school-related. However, so is life of late. Just a little peek into what's been going on this week...work, watching lectures, and sleeping somewhere in between.

Saturday night the hubs and I had a fun little downtown Houston outing. We went to the symphony! It was a special performance that was right my up alley, and there was just no way we were going to miss it.

Lord of the Rings at the symphony?! Say what?! The movie was shown on the screen in the background, and the symphony played the live score right along with it! It was way cool and I got chills more than once. They even had a full chorus to sing all the scary Sauron-themed music, along with a couple angelic singers to round out all the elvish songs. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening and am already excited for our next trip! It seems like they do a lot of really cool special performances. (Including a special tribute to the one and only John Williams...I know a special someone who would enjoy that one...)

 Outside Jones Hall before the show!

Tonight our community group had a great little cookout in lieu of our traditional Bible study. Ben and I got to meet some new people, get to know some we already knew a little better, and enjoy the first hotdog I had eaten in a while...it was so good. I had a long afternoon at work and was a little down before we left, but I felt so encouraged and lifted-up by the time we left. I've just really loved everyone we've met through church, and I'm so excited to have friends to do fun things with! 

Off to bed! Thankful there are only 2 days left to the weekend...and guess who has Saturday off? This kid.  :) Super pumped.

blame the real world.

Oops.

I apologize for the hiatus. I'd put the blame on the new almost full-time job, but it would be unwarranted. Our faulty internet is in fact the more guilty culprit, but we're thinking the glitch has either been fixed or will be in the very near future, so hopefully I'll be able to maintain connection for longer than 2 minutes at a time from here on out. That would be welcomed, since starting next Monday evening I'll be knee-deep in an online class. Yeah, the internet is pretty vital to make that one happen.

I know it's already Tuesday, but I still want to recap our weekend! We had a pretty busy couple of days leading up to its start, so we chose to stay in Friday night, make a yummy dinner, and breeze through our recently purchased Season 1 of White Collar. And guess what? I took a picture of the food...imagine that. Teriyaki salmon with jasmine rice and green beans. A meal I've made before, inspired by a lunch I once enjoyed at Cinderella's Royal Table in the happiest place on earth:

Had to throw in some biscuits too. The plate looked way too healthy for a Friday night dinner otherwise. Hefty amounts of calories are a must.

Saturday morning I was up bright and early (well, not really, but for a Saturday maybe) to head off to work. The center is open on Saturdays, so I'll probably be working a couple mornings a month on the weekends. It's not for very long, though, and it gives Benjamin the opportunity to go off and wreck his mountain bike, breaking the seat, and getting big nasty bloody welts all over his knees and elbows. Good job, baby. Way to be rugged.  :)

Saturday night we went with Ariel and Brian to see Harry Potter! I was so excited...maybe a little too excited in fact, because we arrived more than 2 hours early. It might have been a little unnecessary, but we got great seats in the IMAX theater and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It was only my second IMAX experience, and I had forgotten how straight up huge and awesome it is. Great stuff. There were times I got frustrated with the differences between the film and book, but overall I thought it was a great ending to the series. We got free posters and decided to take pics while we waited...

Those glasses are so unattractive.

Sunday we had a somewhat unsuccessful trip to an outlet mall about 30 minutes away from our home. Great potential, though, so I will definitely return. Ya know it gets pretty hot in Houston, so we were sweaty and worn out by the end of our excursion. We thought it would be a good idea to get some ice cream on our way home...and we stumbled upon a gem. Behold the beautifully-colored, deliciously-concocted gelato trifecta from Gelato Blu:

That would be pistachio, hazelnut, and vanilla bean gelato sitting side by side in a perfectly gigantic serving bowl. We devoured the whole thing and are already planning our next trip. Sooo good. I guess it's okay this town doesn't have a Sweet Cece's...

I'm working a lot of hours at work this week, but I'm really starting to love it! I'm getting to know the kids better and learning the ins and outs of therapy and data-taking. My biggest hurdle is over-thinking it, so I'm working on that, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Each child is so unique and has his or her own set of likes, dislikes, and needs. I still have a long way to go, but right now I am so thankful for the other therapists who are just so helpful and encouraging. Now I just have to figure out the balance between work and my class...hopefully it won't overwhelm me too much.

Ok, the husband has been listening to an incredibly monotonous online presentation about crude oil for far too long now...best be off to entertain him!

the job.

Well, apparently the interview went well this morning, because I just received an email offering me the job!! I am beyond excited and so relieved. It's kind of a complicated thing to explain, but I'll do my best.

I will be working as an ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) therapist at an autism learning center here in Houston. At the same time, however, I will take a series of three online classes (lasting three months each) through Florida Institute of Technology in order to sit for an exam in April or May to become a BCaBA (Board Certified assistant Behavior Analyst). In order to complete the certification, I am required to do a certain number of supervised hours with a certified clinician. Those will be done at the learning center, but because I will be working 30 hours a week, they're going to pay me!

I have always been fascinated by autism and drawn to kids on the spectrum, so I am just thrilled for this opportunity. I am hoping to attend grad school starting next year to become a Speech-Language Pathologist, many of which work with autistic children, and I think this certification will help me to better administer those therapies, while broadening my overall knowledge of autistic interventions at the same time. The center even offers speech services, so I might get to interact with a few SLPs and observe them while I'm there! It is just a great set-up. See why I was afraid it was all too good to be true?

I keep thinking back to Cedar Springs' Global Mission Conference last spring when Tim Keller came and spoke about how to share Christ with the world. His first way was through our daily work. I remember he talked about having to be very like and very unlike the people we worked with at our jobs. We have to be like them by being very good at what we do, and we have to be unlike them by being marked by noticeable characteristics like integrity, generosity, charity, Gospel creativity, and the way in which we handle adversity. I really feel called to this position working with autistic young people, and I am so excited to discover what God has lined up for me to learn through the kids and staff. I can say it is going to be a definite challenge, but I am confident that the Lord has and will continue to equip me to do this job well. My prayer is that I can not only do it well, though, but that my work will reflect Christ each and every day.

I start observing Thursday! Thank you to everyone who was praying for me (and Ben) throughout this job search process. They were (and still are) much appreciated!

"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ." -Colossians 3:23-24

weekend.

Hi all!

So I really like Houston weekends...there's still so much newness to everything, and I get really excited about anything we do, even if it's just running to TJ Maxx or driving a really long way out to pick up my snazzy new Texas license plates (both activities we did yesterday). It's even more exciting when we stumble upon little outings that require zero dollars...but let's face it, we are really good at spending money. Good thing I might have a job (ish) after this week to help out in that department!

Friday Ben got to go on a field trip with work to an oil rig in Galveston. Then he showed up back home at like 2:30...and was done for the day. Seriously Exxon? We spent the afternoon getting hooked on a new show we found on our free OnDemand: White Collar. It's like TV on DVD but cheaper and better. We actually stopped by Target last night to purchase Season 1, because when I get hooked on a show, I really get hooked on a show. And this one's all witty and sly and FBI agent-y, so I like it even more.

Anyway, once Benjamin had recovered from his oh so long and laborious day at work (ahem), we picked up our new friends Brian and Ariel (yes, we have friends!!) and went out for sushi at a fun and awesomely inexpensive restaurant called Sushi Choo Choo. There's a conveyor belt that runs throughout all the tables carrying appetizers and plates of sushi. When something comes by that looks yummy, you just take it off the belt and start eating! The plates are color-coded based on price, but we didn't pay too much attention to that because it was all so cheap! And yummy too!

 Mmm...hello sushi!

 There goes the sushi choo choo! So fun!

 Ariel and me...

Ben with working buddy Brian.

Our stack of plates! We were stuffed...though not enough to skip out on the gelato place in the same shopping center, also delicious!

Brian is Ben's mentor at work, and we are both so incredibly thankful for his and Ariel's kindness since we arrived. They've been in Houston over a year now and have learned soo much about the city in that short time. I am so glad God put such a sweet couple in our lives that we can relate to so well. They took us to our newlywed small group last week, and we joined them for Sunday school, church, and VBS set-up earlier today. They have definitely helped make this transition easier, and Ben and I are so grateful!

Yesterday morning we slept really late and spent the first half of the day de-cluttering the guest room. I've been avoiding the room altogether because walking in it just stressed me out, but Friday I finally buckled down and painted the dresser so we could start putting things in place and finding everything a home. Now it's only a couple more Hobby Lobby trips from being done! 

After the aforementioned TJ Maxx visit (which was overwhelmingly full of people) and 30-minute drive to the car dealership, we came home, ate some leftovers, and headed out to see Horrible Bosses at the movie theater.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed my Bunch-a-Crunch, the movie, and the gigantic theater that I think was bigger than the Pinnacle but surprisingly still not as crowded. Next weekend we will be returning to the same theater to see HP7 with Ariel and Brian. I. Can't. Wait. No midnight showing, though. Hubby's gotta get up early.

Oh yes, we also finally received our wedding pictures yesterday! Actually we could have had them about 2 weeks ago if we had only checked the package room at the apartment office a little earlier. Oh well, they were so fun to look at and I'm hoping to somehow acquire the attention span to put a good lot of them up on Facebook sometime this week. I have an interview of sorts on Tuesday morning that could lead to my dream job, but that's all I'm saying until after it's over, on account of the fact that it still might be too good to be true and I don't want to get everybody (including myself) all excited over nothing. So. I will check back in when there's news on that front! Have a great week!

what not to do.

Our Houston apartment has 10-foot ceilings. They are a blessing and a curse.

Positives:

• You don't really feel like you're in an apartment complex because it is so spacious.
• We have little peek-a-boo windows above all the door frames that let in more natural light and again make everything feel more elegant.
• Nice, big windows.

Negatives:

• It's more space to cool...and we average 100 degrees in the summer. Yay...
• Those nice, big windows...we've had to purchase 108" curtains for each room, and I kind of doubt we will ever be able to reuse them, at least in the near future. (Thankfully Ikea sells curtains that average $15 a panel, we'll see how hey look.)
• Also--my sweet husband is not the tallest fellow in the world, meaning we have yet to devise a way to get those curtains hung...

However, Ben is a do-er, meaning a) he tries to get the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible, and b) he is awfully stubborn when it comes to the safety of himself, others, and anything he might be using to get said job done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Case in point:

 

Unfortunately I was not quick enough to capture the moment seconds later when that big stack of books went sliding to the side and my sweet not-so-tall husband came toppling down in a not-so-graceful manner. Poor thing.

I'm not sure which I was more worried about, though...my sweet husband or my collection of Harry Potter books that were resting at the top of that pile and went flying across the room. Watch it now.

Needless to say, we are now in the process of requesting a ladder from maintenance to hang those curtains. Oh the adventures of home decorating. :)

the 4th (and the 5th).

We had a rather calm and relaxing 4th of July yesterday. Part of me liked it, since it will now be rare for Ben to have a day off other than Saturday or Sunday. But part of me was pretty jealous of the lake and the pool and the much more manageable Pellissippi fireworks show back in K-town. We toyed around with venturing out to Freedom Over Texas, the largest fireworks show on land in the country apparently...but that statistic alone was enough to turn me away. If we lived in walking distance, maybe. But we don't, and since we once waited two hours in traffic trying to exit Knoxville's downtown 4th event, we just stayed here, and actually got pretty lucky!

 

It looks a little far off I know, but we actually had pretty great views of the big show from the top of our apartment's parking garage! There was a little gathering of people up there watching it, and the snazzy man in his Mercedes convertible even got the music over the radio for us. I had a strong urge to belt "God Bless the USA" and scream the part about "hills of Tennessee," but then I remembered I'd be the only one doing that since I was not in Tennessee. That made me sad.
 

Blurry iphone picture of Ben and me on the roof...yes we got iphones last week by the way. They. Are. Incredible.

I had ribs cooking in the crock pot all day and made some potato salad and sauteed corn with garlic lime butter for our early dinner (just in case we did decide to face the ridiculous crowds). It was yummy and all-American!

I don't know if it was our non-eventful weekend or some unruly caffeine hanging out in my system, but I was up at the crack of dawn this morning. Like 5:30. And I don't have a job. Who does that? I lied in bed writing cover letters and potential job emails in my head until I finally remembered we had some leftover mushrooms in the fridge, so I popped out of bed and surprised the hubs with a yummy mushroom and mesquite turkey omelette. It was my first experience making an omelette...and I do believe Ben's words were, "I think this is the best omelette I've ever had!" Now he might have just been being nice, but I did cook the mushrooms in some white wine, so he might have been telling the truth. Nothing like vino for breakfast! :)

Eatin' breakfast in his jammies :)

Sorry I take so many pictures of food...but there it is!

I spent the rest of the morning uploading pictures, sending emails, cleaning like a mad woman, and doing some laundry. Then after lunch I glued my rear to the couch and spent endless hours searching for jobs, sending resumes, and filling out really repetitive applications. Job hunting is not my favorite activity...just waiting patiently (psh) for something to work out!

Hope it isn't as hot where you are as it is here! Thanking the Lord for A/C...

lazy sunday.

Sundays are meant to be a day of rest.

And I love it more than anything when I can wake up, go to church, eat somewhere yummy for lunch, then come home, don my pajamas, and do nothing all afternoon but watch Bravo reruns and movies on TBS. It is my happy place.

And that is exactly what we have done for the past three Sundays in Houston. Church, eat, nothing.

Unfortunately, it is baseball day on TBS (one of my pet peeves), so I thought I'd take the opportunity to stop in and share some things! We've been staying busy this holiday weekend. Friday I spent the day interviewing at a nearby preschool. Let's just say I didn't mesh too well with their system, though, so there's one potential job marked off the list. Our couch surfing might include some mass resume-sending this afternoon, so maybe I'll find more luck next week.

Yesterday we made our way to a really nice and clean Walmart near our apartment, which was a great find. Great Value brands to the rescue! (of our budget, that is) We also stopped into Pier 1 to look for some coasters and ended up finding a tv stand on scratch-and-dent special! So we can finally watch tv in the living room without looking at the floor...it's quite wonderful.

I've been taking advantage of all my time at the apartment and trying out some lovely summer recipes that I want to share. These have all been so easy and delicious.

Last night, we made homemade pizza for dinner, including made-from-scratch dough! I don't frequently attempt pizza dough on account of the yeast...we don't get along too well. But guess what other ingredient already contains yeast and tastes really good in pizza dough?

Beer!! It's genius! Here's how to make enough dough for 2 personal 9" pizzas:

Combine 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a food processor. With processor running, slowly add 1/3 cup beer and 1 tablespoon olive oil until dough pulls away from sides and forms a shaggy ball. Using floured hands, form dough into tight ball and cover loosely with plastic wrap; let rest 10 minutes. (ONLY 10 minutes! That's how fast you can have homemade pizza dough!)

We made our pizzas in a non-stick skillet, but I'm sure this recipe would work in the oven or on the grill. To make in a skillet, you just heat up 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan over medium heat, then transfer the rolled-out dough into the skillet. Let it cook for 3-4 minutes and use a fork to poke any bubbles that form. Then flip the dough and put all your toppings on. Reduce heat to low, cover the pan, and cook about 5 more minutes. And that's it!

(Disregard my burned cheese arms hanging off the crust.)

For dessert, I channeled my inner Martha and followed her recipe for this Strawberry Cake. It was pretty easy (no weird ingredients) and tasted pretty darn delicious. My cake was maybe a tad bit dry once you got past the strawberry layer, but with a little ice cream, it was perfect. 

Before...

And after...

Finally, I made these bars from Southern Living last weekend and have thoroughly enjoyed them as well. Apparently I've been on a fruity dessert kick lately, which is rather unusual for me the chocolate-lover. If I had to choose a fruit for dessert it would be peaches, though, so since those were involved here, I approved.

Peach Melba Shortbread Bars

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup cold butter

1 cup peach preserves

6 teaspoons raspberry preserves

1/2 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine first 3 ingredients in a medium bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until crumbly. (Or pop flour, sugar, salt, and butter in a food processor and pulse it a few times if you can't find a pastry blender and want an easier method anyway.) Reserve 1 cup of this mixture.

Lightly grease an 11"x7" or 9" square pan. Press remaining flour mixture onto bottom of pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

Spread peach preserves over crust in pan. Dollop raspberry preserves by 1/2 teaspoons over peach preserves. Sprinkle reserved 1 cup flour mixture over preserves. Sprinkle with almonds.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool 1 hour on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

Think I'll go eat one right now! Enjoy! And Happy 4th tomorrow!