Sunday, September 11, 2011

HOUSE PICS - living room tour

I'm starting the house tour in the living room - fitting, because it was the first room to get set up in the house (we had the cable installed the same day as the refrigerator and washer/dryer... priorities...).

Okay, this is an overview of the room.


This is another overview... I wanted you to get a feel for the layout, so this was taken from the breakfast area, looking through the archway.


You can kind of see a little of this area from the previous pic (look on the left).


This is "my chair." The picture doesn't do it justice (this isn't just any chair, people!). We've got our blanket basket (Lan likes to keep it cold in here!) to the right, and the infamous lamp table ("Too practical to throw away" -Lan) to the right.


The couch...


Lan's recliner...


The coffee table - the wooden tray was a gift from Lan's brother, Brandon. Thanks, Brandon!!


The TV with all of our movies (alphabetized...)


Our new bookcase, a hand me down from Jonah and Anne Marie (we love it! Thanks, guys!)

Coming up next, the guest bedroom! Get excited :)

Have a great week, everyone.

Love from Houston,
L and J

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Greg and Lori get hitched

Meet Greg and Lori.

(Oh hey, Lan)

We consider Lori and Greg to be some of our closest friends.

I met Lori in late high school and knew immediately that I wanted to be her friend (I seriously remember thinking she was soooo cool - and I still feel that way!). She's one of the main reasons I wanted to be a Chi O (and I credit her for getting me to the Chi O house on bid day). A little while later, Lori became my big sis (best big sis EVER), solidifying our life long friendship :) Lan met Lori through mutual friends in college - they had lots of mutual friends!


I met Greg at the Chi O house - he was a house boy and I always enjoyed eating lunch and hanging out with him (especially when he played the piano!). I have very fond memories of Mama Jones impressions and funny moments at the house (most involve Lori too). (Lan met Greg through Lori)


Another fun fact - Lori set us up (thanks for that)! I'll never forget that morning - I had several missed calls and texts (that rolled in around 3 AM or so - I was already asleep) from Lori saying she had the PERFECT guy for me. Well, she was right :) There's more to that story, but that's for another day.


Anyway, Greg and Lori tied the knot a couple of weekends ago. They are two of the most wonderful people we know (really genuine and always there for you!). We are so happy for them and we hope they visit us soon! We love ya'll! Here are some pics from wedding weekend...

Me with Lan at the rehearsal dinner.

Me with the bride - isn't she stunning?!


Me with the other program attendants - Mary and Jane Gray.


Me with my little sis - Erin May (Greg's little sister, Lori's Chi O grand little sis and now her REAL SISTER - yay!). I love her! Please come visit soon.


Me with Lan after the wedding.


Our Chi O family (greatest family that ever) - Courtney, Rachel, Lori, me, Erin


Silly family pic (not really sure what Rachel was going for here, haha)

Lori and Greg - we wish you many, many years of happy married life!

Coming up next - HOUSE PICS! I wanted to wait for everything to get settled before posting them, but they are coming up soon (one room at a time).

Happy Labor Day friends!

Love from Houston,
L and J


Sunday, July 31, 2011

The Home Stretch!

Okay.. we have quite a lot of ground to cover here! Some of these pictures are a few weeks old, but haven't been posted yet (oops).

Here's where we stand now... they finish the house Wednesday (!!!!!!!), it's being inspected Thursday, we do our new home demo next Monday, and, if all goes as planned, close a week from Wednesday. That means we move in August 13. That's TWO WEEKS, people. OMG. I'm freaking out (in a good way).

Okay, these first pics are the oldest. The tile had just gone in. This is pre-light fixtures.

A pic of the tile in the common area (you're looking at the breakfast area).


Master bath

These pics were taken after the fixtures had gone in. Still pre-carpet.

Taken from the kitchen looking into the breakfast area and living room (they covered the tile up so the workers wouldn't rough it up).


Guest bath shower - no faucets yet.


Guest bath sink - no faucets yet.


Master bedroom


Master bath - our shower without the glass.


Our coach light :)


Front of the house - pre-front door and landscaping.

Okay... the last set of pictures were from a Tuesday, I think. These are from the following Friday, July 22.

Kitchen!!!


Guest bath.


My window with our pretty chandelier


Front of the house.

Okay - last set! These are from last Thursday. The first time I'd been to the house since the last house blog post.

Our kitchen sink, overlooking breakfast area and living room.


Our kitchen (that's me with our friend Christine in the background). I LOVE our kitchen. It's so pretty!!


Our front door.


My window! Dining room with carpet.


Guest shower.


Guest bath


View of kitchen from the breakfast room


Master bath (and Lan, master photographer)


Our little gem Magnolia - it already has a bloom!


Front of the house with landscaping!!

Okay.. these are all the pictures until after we move in and get settled. I hope they made you want to come visit us :)

Love from Houston,

L and J

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Night at the Museum

A couple of weeks ago, we went to an event at The Museum of Natural Science with our friends Emily, Jonah and Anne Marie. It was really fun! They had a bunch of food trucks outside where you could eat, and a Beatles cover band. They were even dressed like The Beatles (complete with gold, glittery jacket). Awesome. The people watching was interesting (a highlight of the evening for me was the senior citizen dance party). And, to top it all off, you could look at all the permanent exhibits.


Where the band was set up - the dinosaur room!


The girls! Me with Emily and Anne Marie.


Me and Lan.


Emily got her fortune told by Zoltar!


I'm pretty sure my friends thought I was crazy for taking this picture, but this is for my Mississippi friends. Sarah, Erin, Angela... this one is for you. One of the traveling exhibits at the museum is a Texas history exhibit.

Caption - "And on the 8th day, God created this exhibition."
Oh, Texas...

Okay.. that's all for now! We are in MAJOR packing mode. We're going to the house Thursday and I'll take more pics and post them this weekend.

Coming soon.... MJM/DYW Recap, House Pics, Recipes.

Love from Houston!
L and J


Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Our First Anniversary :)

I can't believe it's already been a year, but we celebrated our anniversary on July 3. Having the long weekend was just as nice as we'd hoped!

Thanks to everyone who sent us anniversary wishes! We felt so loved (and surprised you all remembered!).

We also used that weekend to visit Lan's aunt and uncle in Beaumont (we hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving), which was really fun (Lan got to go fishing with his uncle and cousins and I got to go to some yard sales and antique malls with his aunt). I requested that we come home on Sunday so we could celebrate our anniversary on the actual day, so that's what we did!

For some time now, we've been planning to go to The Melting Pot (a fondue restaurant) for our anniversary. It came highly recommended from friends of ours who have eaten there, and it's easy to see why!! It's SOOO good. A little pricey, so it's definitely only for special occasions, but it's really yummy. I already want to go back :)

Best. Husband. Ever.


Our first course - spinach and artichoke fondue. Traditional cheese fondue has white wine in it, and most have some sort of alcohol in them (for consistency and flavor), but we knew we didn't want alcohol in ours, so our waiter recommended this one. SOOO good. We practically licked the pot clean.

He made it by putting some vegetable stock in the pot, then he added some garlic, artichokes, spinach and spices, then he mixed in the cheese. We got bread, chips, veggies, and apples (sounds weird, but it was actually really yummy!) for dippers.


Main course. Lan had a "Pacific Rim" entree with teriyaki-marinated sirloin, white shrimp, citrus-marinated pork tenderloin, breast of duck, breast of chicken and potstickers. I had the filet. And we got a table of veggies to share. Our waiter also made us stuffed mushrooms - yummy!

The way it works is you cook your meat yourself in a hot liquid at your table. We chose to fry our food. It came with 2 types of batter to dip your food in before putting it in the pot, and 5 types of sauces to put on your food when it came out. I was worried about this course, but it was fun, and the food was great!


Isn't he cute?


Dessert. I don't want to say this was the best course, because it was all good, but this was AWESOME. I wish I had some right now. Lan is a sucker for anything turtle, so we got the turtle fondue (flambéed table side!). As you might guess, it had milk chocolate, caramel, and pecans (at the end, we ran out of dippers and Lan scooped the pecans out of the pot and ate them - "just like chocolate covered pecans!").

For dippers we had cheesecake, pound cake, rice krispies, banana, strawberries, brownies, graham cracker-covered marshmallows, and oreo-covered marshmallows. Like I said, it was good.

I didn't want to stop eating!


The infamous wedding cake. We'd heard mixed reviews about this, so we didn't really know what to think. Especially since this cake made a long journey to get here (we had to carry it in a cooler from MS over Memorial Day weekend) and it was suspiciously wrapped by our cake guy, but it was good!

Lan seems to notice more freezer burned taste than me, but we both think it's still good (apparently the cake guy knows what he's doing after all) and we're still eating it! We're only half way through!

So, that was our anniversary.

Especially in Houston, I get a lot of "you're so young to be married" type attitudes, but, let me just say, I would rather spend my young years married to Lan than be unattached any day. He is such a blessing in my life and I'm so proud to be his wife!

We'll that's enough mushy stuff, and that's all for now!

Up next - more recipes and house updates!

Love from Houston,
L and J