one year ago today.

Bible study was "cancelled."

So I went for a run with my boyfriend.

And we ran.

It was hot. But I survived.

Thank goodness.

Because then this happened...

(He's on one knee.)

Then I said yes. (Duh.)

Then we celebrated with everyone we knew.

And somehow a year has passed since all that. We planned a wedding, finished college, got married, moved 900 miles away...and now here we are. Crazy. Time flies.

One year later, we celebrated again.

All him by the way...dessert, candle, delicious crabcake-stuffed salmon I didn't get a picture of...all him. I'm a lucky girl.  :)

texans.

First NFL game in Houston? Check. I guess you could say we're officially Texans fans now...we have shirts to wear at least!

These kids got to have their first professional football experience:

And I think they enjoyed it well enough, despite Peyton Manning's absence and the accompanying Colt struggle. Maddie had her less than cheerful moments as the game went on, but she still seemed excited to see the big stadium and take pics of the pros.

Our seats were pretty high up, but we still had good views! Because it was the 10th anniversary of 9/11, they did a really cool tribute before kickoff that brought tears to all our eyes. The NFL planned for field-sized flags to be rolled out in every stadium with a 1:00 EST start at the same time. They showed video on the big screen of players all over the country paying tribute to the great US of A while Taps played in the background. Chills. It was awesome. So proud to be an American. :)

Of course Texas had to be pay its own tribute to...itself. Which they did (as they do every game apparently) by rolling out the giant Texas state flag and singing the state song.

Does Tennessee even have a state song? Rocky Top? Anyone? Oh Texas...

Some things we learned about the Texans experience at Reliant Stadium:

-They're big on fan involvement. As in letting the fans finish all the announcer's sentences. You're expected to yell out the last names of the starting line-up players after being prompted with the first name, AND every time (I mean EVERY time) the Texans make a first down, the announcer will yell, "And there's another Texans--" Now it's your turn to yell, "FIRST DOWN!" Every. Time. It gets old, but yay for excited fans I guess.

-It doesn't matter how hot it is outside, bring your boots and winter coat, because it was FREEZING in there! I was very thankful for the roof over our heads and very efficient AC, but I had chill bumps the whole game. And it was September.

-They serve foot-long hotdogs. And they're really good.

-People will call you confused if you double up on team gear. I don't blame them, he does look rather silly and confused with his Texans hat and Colts shirt. At least they're both blue? Eh...

-Oh, and make sure you have a full tank of gas when you arrive, as you will need it to sit in traffic afterwards. Unless you're a seasoned pro, unlike us, and have an idea of where you're going when you leave and what direction is home.

Overall it was a fun day, though! After the game (and hour's worth of traffic) we had to take dad and sister to the airport and say goodbye. :( I'm so glad they got to come see where we're living these days, though! And I will see them in a few short months--we bought our plane tickets home for Christmas this week! Yay!

the fam.

My sweet dad and sister finally made it to our fine city this past weekend! Unfortunately the cooler weather that graced us last week did not stick around for their arrival, but we made do and cranked the AC.  :)

Our list of activities included a lot of driving around and pointing to things, as we were kind of pressed for time and wanted them to at least see where we spend all our time these days. Plus it was rather warm and you don't want to suffocate special guests who aren't accustomed to the heat.

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking...I took a lot.

Friday evening we ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Pappasito's. It was a good way to start off the trip...lots of happy tummies.

Mmm...my monstrous plate of food.

His plate of food was even bigger...

This is the part where Maddie got bored and decided to play with her food like a true 18-year old...

Clever. Or gross...

After dinner we walked around Rice Village, stopping in Half Price Books long enough for Maddie to buy a 98-cent record of R. Kelly's "Ignition Remix." Remember that? Old school. Dad and Ben weren't crazy about the boutiques and clothing stores sister and I were drawn to, so we ended up at the Chocolate Bar, where we took about 30 minutes to decide what to order. Newbies are always overwhelmed by that place.

Saturday morning, after Benjamin prepared us all a delicious breakfast, we headed out to meet the one goal Maddie had for her trip: buy cowboy boots. I think dear sister was expecting Houston to be a much more cowboy/ranch-inspired town than it is and was disappointed by the endless concrete, tall buildings, and widely international scene, so we headed to Cavender's Boot City (which I think they might even have in Knoxville) to get a taste of true Texas.

They had plenty of inventory...

The favorites...

I liked them too, but mom didn't give me a wad of cash to pay for half of them...and they're expensive.

I think hubby could pull off the cowboy look if he had to.

Success.

So after shopping we drove around a good bit and decided we were hungry. Dad wanted a hamburger, so were stopped at Beck's Prime, a fast-food restaurant that boasts better-than-average burgers. I got a chicken sandwich, but dad and Ben agreed their burgers were definitely better than average. It was on the expensive side, though, so we opted to go for the 50-cent ice cream cones from McDonald's instead of Beck's Prime milkshakes for dessert. We took them back to the shade of our neighboring park at the apartment and went for a short walk.

Sisterly love :)

We watched the first half of the UT-Cincinnati game at the apartment (while I took a quick cat nap), but for the second half, the fam wanted to experience the festive atmosphere at Bubba's, our Houston UT Alumni Association hub for the football season. The crowd was thinner than last week but there was still plenty of orange to be seen. Including this lovely spectacle parked outside the door:

Classy, huh?

Saturday evening we checked out the Galleria, where we found dad a Texans hat for the game, and ended up at a random pizza joint for dinner. Maddie wanted pizza, and guess what, we ended up on the wrong road for the restaurant we were aiming for and decided to just go with our strengths and stop at the first pizza place we found. It was just fine though and we got to sit down immediately.

Sunday meant it was football time in Texas! I'll show all the details from our first Texans experience in another post soon to come!

weekend in pictures.

Well hello there. It's been a while! The last couple of weeks have been a little different...with school starting in the Houston area, the number of kids at the center has dropped dramatically, so I've had some much needed time off. Last week I started in-home therapy though, so that kept things interesting. I enjoyed the in-home sessions, but a couple of the kids live really far out, so I'm going to become great friends with my car. And I might have to start keeping a log of how many hours of my life I sit at Houston red lights...because based on last week that number is going to sky-rocket.

Hubs and I have had a fantastic long weekend. We were hoping tropical storm Lee was going to bring some desperately-needed rain to our fair city, but we got a couple sprinkles at most. She DID bring a wonderful breeze, though, and drop the temperatures about 10 or 15 degrees, so I'm not complaining too much.

Saturday marked the start of the college football season, and I must admit it was weird being so far from all the action! I had to work through the morning and early afternoon, but I got home just in time to join Ben and friends at a sports bar to watch the Vols! We found the Houston chapter of the UT (the real UT that is) alumni association and met up with everybody at Bubba's, the official Houston bar of the Tennessee Vols for 2011. It was so bizarre but so cool seeing the place filled with orange!

I took this on my phone so it's a little blurry, but you can still see the orange representation! We only stayed until halftime since the game got started an hour and a half late, but we're excited to have found a little piece of home 900 miles away from Neyland.  :)

With Benjamin, the official DJ of the evening...his job was the turn on Rocky Top over the speakers every time we scored, which thankfully was quite a bit!

I love this guy's shirt..."There's nothing burnt about this ORANGE." Burnt orange referring to the other UT that people like to talk about down here. I'm getting tired of having to specify the University of Tennessee every time I say UT...it's a mouthful.

Sunday was a little gloomy...just cloudy though, no rain. We hit up Walmart and Lowe's and spent some time to hanging a shelf in the guest room. Got to get it ready for our guests this weekend! We're also hosting Bible study this week so I finally have motivation to finish things up around here.

Today was just gorgeous. Well, the high was like 90, but for us, that is awesome. Ben and I went for a run along the Buffalo Bayou, a park that stretches all across the city for a whole bunch of miles. We did not run a whole bunch of miles, just a couple, but I was just in love with the breeze and cooler air. We came back to our apartment, made lunch, and took it down to the park by our apartment to enjoy the weather a little more!

This would be the extent of Lee's damage...nothing too exciting.

Ben finished up a meal I made last weekend that we've been enjoying all week:

It all started with this recipe I found for whole wheat flat bread and tzatziki sauce. It was SO good. Joy the Baker's food blog has become my new best friend...she's a rock star. This cucumber yogurt sauce was so fresh and healthy and fragrant, I know I will be making it again. Anyway, I decided to marinate and grill up some Greek-inspired chicken (I used the recipe from here), roast a couple diced potatoes, and put it all together to have homemade gyros! They were just delightful! Almost as good and definitely healthier than the authentic version I enjoyed daily while studying abroad in Athens.

Ahh, good memories.  :)

The purple flower place! (we so creatively named it) The little window under those beautiful flowers served up the best gyros we had while in Greece. It was one of the select few that included french fries inside the wrap...SO good. I couldn't tell you where in Athens this place is located, but I can guarantee you that if I ever get to go back, I will wander around until I find this place, and hope those flowers are still there!

Well that about sums up life of late! We've got a busy week ahead, but are so excited to spend time with friends and family! I'll try to be better about updating more frequently...hope everyone's had a lovely Labor Day! Fall is coming, I can feel it...