Thanksgiving, part one

My Thanksgiving break started Monday night when Jessica hosted a group of girls at her house. It was so fun and not a single picture was taken. This no picture taking business carried over to the next day.

Megan and I made a road trip to Dallas on Tuesday. Ty has been in Fort Worth this month on a surgery rotation. I was going down there to spend Thanksgiving with him and meet some bloggy friends. Megan and I had such a good time driving and the trip went by super fast. We stopped at an outlet mall and went to HomeGoods before dinner with Kate, Erin, Mojito Maven, and Slynnro. I have read their blogs for a long time and it was nice to meet them in real life. :)
Somehow Megan and I both managed to not snap a single picture all day.

While Ty worked on Wednesday, I hung out with one of my best friends from college (and bridesmaid), Laura. She took me around her fun area of Dallas. I loved seeing the fun neighborhoods and all they had to offer. I requested a cupcake bakery, so Laura took me to Society Baker. YUM.

I forgot how much fun we have together! She is one of those friends that you just easily pick up right where you left off. Love her!

Please note that Laura is wearing a sleeveless shirt. It was 85 degrees on Wednesday, but it dropped almost 50 degrees overnight and Thursday (Thanksgiving) was COLD!

Ty had Thanksgiving off, but not Friday, so we stayed in Ft. Worth instead of going home to our families. The first three weeks he was there he stayed with a girl who graduated last year and is now in the surgery program in FW. It was SO nice of her and her husband to let Ty stay there free of charge. Elise had already told one of Ty's classmates she could stay at her house starting the last week in November before Ty knew he was going to be in FW for the month. He got an extended stay hotel for the last week. I can be a tad picky about my hotel rooms and Ty was so sweet to make it more welcoming for me. He had a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream in the freezer, Thanksgiving napkins, and a little fall decor. He's a keeper.

Ty did his rotation here.

Ty and I ate dinner Wednesday night at Mellow Mushroom.
Pretty tasty! The dough was really good.

We bought our Thanksgiving dinner at Central Market. I wish we had one of these here!


Best turkey giblet gravy ever! It had a little bit of a spiciness to it. YUMMMM!

See the salsa. Isn't that part of everyone's Thankgiving dinner? No? Well it should be. I can't get enough of chips and salsa.



We also explored downtown Ft. Worth, TCU, and the botanical gardens. It was too cold to explore much though.




We saw Due Date later that night and it was funny, but not great.

I left for our hometown Friday morning. Ty worked a half day and met up with me at my parents house later that day. Thanksgiving, part two coming soon.

the weekend

I go to the craft fair every year with my aunt and cousin and it has become a fun tradition. This year my mom and sister just happened to be in town, so we all went together.

Toting Mason around

Mason and Brynlee (my cousin's little girl) taking a break from shopping.



We did a lot of shopping on Saturday and it included a stop at Babies R Us for a jumperoo.
Someone is obsessed with jumping, but I think we wore him out with all the shopping!

I got a really cute video of him jumping real hard and then nodding off to sleep, jumping real hard and nodding off to sleep and so on.

The main reason for the family visit was for my Dad to run in his first half-marathon.
He did great and beat his goal time!


All the people in the middle and around the corner were runners. I think my Dad said close to 10,000 people were registered!


We kept Mason nice and warm.






Family photo minus my brother, brother-in-law and Ty.

tgif

I have a bunch of jumbled thoughts today, so bullet points it is.

• tgif---my parents, sister and nephew are coming to visit this weekend. Get ready for lots of Mason pictures on Monday. :)

• Is anyone else watching Outsourced? I think it is hilarious.

• I bought a pair of Uggs this year. I realize they aren't the cutest boots, but my oh my are they cozy. I want to sleep in them. Seriously, I have to make myself take them off each night before I crawl into bed.
  

• I wore my Uggs to the mall last night and instead of taking them off to try on clothes I left my jeggings and boots on and just pulled my pants completely down. A sales lady came to check on me and I needed a different size. I had to open the door and show her what I needed. (The door was from floor to ceiling.) She laughed at me or really more like with me. I was quite the site with a dress on and my pants pulled down to my calves while still wearing my boots.

• I made Chicken and Dumplings Wednesday night and have been eating the leftovers. It is one of my favorite winter meals.

• I went in to Gap last night looking for a Christmas present for my niece. OH MY GOODNESS!! All I can say is it is a very good thing that I don't have a boy and a girl at home. I would have bought the whole store.

A few screenshots from their website to show you what I mean.

The sequin bow shirt, the tulle skirt, the chunky cardigan, the corsage tee, the poms on the beanie--ah, I love it all.


I LOVE patterned tights on girls. The whole outfit is adorable.



I love everything!

Gap doesn't show a lot of their clothes on models, so the boy pictures are lacking. But look how cute the two boys in the bottom picture look!
Can I take that little girl in the peacoat home with me??

• Did I say TGIF already?
  

Slime!

I'm always trying to come up with fun things to do with H, my BBBS little sister. Last week we made slime. It was so much fun! If you have kids or nieces and nephews I would definitely recommend this as a fun, easy activity.

I found the recipe on Our Best Bites--they have a great section on kid friendly recipes and fun kitchen activities. They also have a cook book coming out in February and it looks great!

Visit their site to see step by step instructional pictures and to find out what Borax looks like. (I had no idea.)

Homemade Slime aka GAK

1 teaspoon borax powder

1 1/2 C water, divided

4 oz (1/2 C) Elmer's glue, clear or white

food coloring

Add borax powder to 1 cup of water and stir to dissolve. Set aside. Pour glue into a medium mixing bowl and add 1/2 C water. Add a few drops of food coloring until desired color is reached and then stir to mix glue solution until smooth. Pour the borax mixture into the glue mixture and watch the solids start to form. Stir for a few moments and then use your hands to gather the mass. The mixture will be very soft and wet. Keep kneading until it firms up and feels dry. Discard excess liquid in bowl. The more you knead and play with the slime the firmer it will become. Store in a ziplock bag or air tight container and the slime will keep indefinitely.

I bought neon food coloring and it made such fun colors!

Last night H and I saw MegaMind. It is a very cute and funny movie!

This past weekend I went home for Nathan's 2nd birthday party. My SIL, Sarah, always does such a great job with his birthday parties. This year's theme was farm animals. She made his shirt, but it was hard to get a picture of a very excited 2 year old--it is a horse wearing a party hat!

Going home meant I also got to spend time with my family.
This little guy was my companion while I did my make-up.


Look at his thighs! So cute!


My dad is running in a half marathon this weekend in my city and my mom, sister and nephew are coming too! I'm excited to spend more time with Mason. He is at a really fun age and just smiles and laughs. He also discovered my face this weekend. He would put his chunky little hands on my face and just pat it. My sis said he just started doing that.

Ty had to work all weekend and I definitely missed him!

Hello Yellow

I used to hate the color yellow, but lately I have fallen in love with it. It is so bold and happy!

It all started with these wellies.

Aren't they adorable on Lucas? (Ty's nephew)

I found this coat on sale at Old Navy in San Francisco and couldn't pass it up.


While Ty and I were in Dallas I made him stop at Home Goods (love!) and I found these book ends to flank my cute books.


Chesley gave me these for my birthday. There is a chance of rain tomorrow and my fingers are crossed that it happens, so I can wear these!

I'm not sure they are appropriate attire since we are doing applicant interviews tomorrow. I love interview days, but I miss casual Fridays. They look like professional attire, right?!


I wrote this yesterday, but it didn't publish, hence all the past references. Tomorrow is actually today.

The burdens of a medical student

Medical students are typically given a white coat when they start medical school. It is always a big deal and students start out wanting to keep it pristine. In the first and second years they usually only wear it on special occasions, like when they go to Washington.

In the 3rd & 4th year of medical school it is worn daily. They are no longer sitting in the classroom, but are out on rotations. Ty has two white coats, so he can wash one and wear one; they get pretty dirty. The coat helps distinguish them as student doctors. {Sidenote: students' coats are always short. Once you become a doctor you can get a long one. :)} But I think the main point of the coats is to carry around all of their stuff. They get HEAVY.

Ty emptied his pockets, so he could wash his coat. Look at all of this stuff: Three books, scissors, several articles, hospital papers, stethoscope, pens, highlighters, snacks, tape, syringes, etc.

He carries around books and articles to read up on what is going to be done that day and to reference. Med students are constantly being asked questions, aka pimping, which I think is an awful term. :)

He needs snacks for energy--you know those sour treats have protein in them. haha.

See that silver pen...It lights up and blinks. I'm sure that helps him write all his soap notes. haha.

But seriously I don't think I could ever be a medical student. Not because I couldn't do the coursework*, but because I literally don't think I could bear all of that weight.

*There is really NO way I could handle the courses. I don't think I have that part of the brain.

dinner with friends

I had a birthday dinner with some great friends Monday night. We had such a good time.

My best friend Chesley. Love this girl.

Megan and Jessica

They both gave me great gifts! I wasn't expecting anything but their company. So sweet.

boots for sale

I found these boots online at Ann Taylor Loft and fell in love with them.

The Loft stores in my town do not sell shoes and my size was sold out online. I found a store in Texas that had my size in stock and they shipped them to me. Unfortunately, my heel slips out of these. I even bought some inserts and heel grips and I was still having problems. I had to make peace that these just didn't fit. This color is sold out online and in stores.

I thought I would offer it on my blog before I returned it to the store. You know, in case there was another crazy lady like me out there who really wanted these boots, but couldn't find them.

High style goes low-rider. Western-inspired boot features tapered toe and pull loops. Embossed detail at top shaft and ankle strap. Medallion hardware accents. Tonal topstitching. Cushioned footbed. Light traction on sole. 3/8" platform. 1 1/4" stacked heel. 8 1/2" shaft.

Size 7.5
$95 including shipping
I will use paypal.

Tis the Season

It is so hard to not be thinking about Christmas. It is everywhere. Heck, some stores have been selling Christmas decorations since August. I have a love for stationery and always spend way too much time trying to decide on the perfect Christmas cards.

Shutterfly has a great selection this year. I have ordered photobooks from them and my MIL has some really pretty stationery from there, so I know the quality will be good. I really like receiving and sending Christmas cards with pictures.

I typically do a flat photocard, but I like the idea of doing a folded one like this.




It allows you to type in a message of your own and there are several layouts to choose from. I like to customize the cards as much as possible and Shutterfly allows you to do that.

Do you all send out Christmas cards? When is the ideal time to send them out?

Birthday Weekend

Ty, Nuts and I spent the weekend in Dallas celebrating my birthday. It was fabulous! Definitely the best birthday ever. {Today is my actual birthday.}

I found a great hotel deal at aloft, a part of the W Hotels brand. It was a fun, contemporary place and they let dogs stay for free--no deposit is even required.

Nuts loved climbing on this bench.

The lobby had really fun seating arrangements.


And a pool table.




Our hotel was in a new development area, so there was lots of open space for us to talk Nuts on walks. There were so many turtles in this pond. I counted 22 in one small area.
Ty was being a typical boy and was throwing rocks/acorns
trying to get the turtles to move around.


Tried to get a family photo on our walk using the self-timer.

Nuts didn't want to cooperate.



We did some Christmas shopping at Northpark.

{And birthday shopping! :)}

We had dinner at Mi Cocina. I love their chips, queso and salsa!!
After dinner hanging out back of our hotel.




My sweet husband had the perfect weekend planned with shopping, relaxing, food, and presents.
It was perfect. Thanks babe!