River Weekend

This was supposed to be posted last night (Sunday night) but the internet wasn't cooperating, so here it is:

Dustin and I spent the weekend at the river with his family and had a really wonderful time being with everyone. We arrived Friday around 6 and all went out for BBQ, then came back to the condo to relax and catch up with everyone. Justin was bartending and made some very tasty drinks, especially considering I'm a super picky drinker. Saturday we floated the river in the morning, which was great because it wasn't insanely packed in like it was in the afternoon. It was still super hot out though and the spring fed, cool, clean water felt MAGNIFICENT! We had a long lunch, played some cards and relaxed for a bit before hitting the pool. Justin and Jennifer bought a 10x10 tent, so we alternated dips in the pool with relaxing in the shade, a great way to spend a 100++ degree afternoon in Texas! Saturday night we grilled out fajitas and ate on the big shady porch overlooking the river. Sunday we had a leisurely morning and then it was time to head out. All in all a great weekend!!


This afternoon we swam in my parents pool and FINALLY got pumpkin to swim!! It was super exciting and we could tell she was enjoying it but still a little scared. Lucy still won't get near the pool when we're in it.....too much experience with being pulled in.

Now I'm back in Austin and Dustin is in Waco = :(

In other news my parents are back from their mission trip to Mexico to do dental work. One day they had people walk 9 miles to come to them. That's awesome. The fun didn't end when they got back to the States though, right now they're at the office on an emergency visit because an 8 yr old girl shoved a bedazzle rhinestone up under her gums. Oh the adventures we'll have when we have kids!!

Dustin's second summer session starts tomorrow and is shaping up to be pretty busy with a big research class and three times as many students to mentor as the first half of the summer. You can do it hunnie! I'm currently watching a Harry Potter marathon that I presume is being played in anticipation of the new movie coming out Wednesday and just generally getting ready for the week. Two more weeks at this firm and then its off to the prosecutor's office. I have really high expectations for that, so hopefully I won't be disappointed!

Have a great week everyone!

Dustin's Done with Comps!

Dustin had a big test this past Friday, his masters program has mid point exam to determine if everyone knows and understands the information sufficiently to continue in the program. He's been studying for almost two months now, and I'm so glad its over with! We had a fun night celebrating with some of his other classmates, who were also quite thrilled to have this behind them :) 

Also, a week or so ago we went to a baseball game at the Dell Diamond, which turned out to be incredibly fun, especially considering I don't really like sports. It was great to sit outside and do all the fun little cheesey things that they do at baseball games. There were lots of cute young families with their kids there, and it was fun to talk about one day doing things like this when we have little kids. 

I know I've been horrible about updating the blog but its pretty easy to sum up how things are going: Dustin has been studying a ton, I've been working a lot and spending 3 hours a day commuting (ugh) and we do get to spend every weekend together but its not nearly enough!! 

We do have lots to look forward to though, we're spending next weekend with Dustin's family at the river and then in August we're heading up to the mountains in Colorado for a lovely getaway for just the two of us :) 

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer and had a great fourth!

Weekend Adventures

The first week of my clerkship in a private firm went by pretty quickly. Among other obvious differences between working in the public versus private sector, I actually have an office now instead of a cube. A huge office, in fact. With giant windows. I get kind of lonely in there though, I think I need an office-mate to take up some of the excess square footage and help it not be so crazy quiet all the time. 

Also, as I mentioned before, this job is in San Antonio and I am staying in Austin. The commute is about an hour and a half, one way, but has been surprisingly pleasant so far. I have fallen in love with the adorably quaint town of Blanco and think if we ever did decide to live out in the country, that would be an excellent place to start looking. 

So Friday I drove 1.5 hours to work, worked all day, then drove 3 to 3.5 hours up to Waco to see Dustin. Whew! Let's hope my car can handle it and that gas prices stay steady! Dustin had watched Frost/Nixon while waiting for me to arrive and I caught the tail end of it, seemed pretty interesting. 

Saturday we washed and cleaned out my car (so very needed!) and then went to the Waco Public Library. I am now the proud owner of a library card! I've never gone to libraries other than the ones at UT or Baylor, and quite frankly have been a bit of a snob about books. We have three already heavily laden bookcases and a limited supply of money for things like brand new novels that I'll read within a week and then never pick up again. So I got over my obsession with buying new books everytime I wanted to read something and got a library card. This is an incredibly silly thing to be excited about, but I am so excited!! I'm almost halfway through my new borrowed acquisition! 

Dustin studied a fair amount during the day, he has such a bad habit of doing that all the time ;) So I read and played with the dogs. We caught a late afternoon showing of The Proposal, which was a typical, cute Sandra Bullock movie. I really liked it and I think Dustin liked it too, even if he doesn't want to admit it :) The movie is worth seeing just for the scenery and house alone though! I was ready to pack up and move to Alaska within the first 45 minutes!

Last night we made dinner together, which is becoming one of my favorite things to do. When Dustin and I first started dating I made it very clear I'm not the cooking/cleaning/baking/housewifely type and he was fine with that, but I'm starting to find myself enjoying cooking (don't hold your breath on any of those other things though). Anyways, I made chicken stuffed with goat cheese, sundried tomatoes and fresh basil with a white wine sauce and Dustin grilled corn on the cob (yum!) and slices of peaches (I love grilled fruit!). It all turned out very well and we were pleased with ourselves :)  We also watched a horrible movie called Blindness. It really wasn't horrible, except that it was. Its crazy how very "Lord of the Flies" society can become in such a short period of time. 

This morning we had our coffee and breakfast out on the balcony. I absolutely love doing that, our balcony is one of my very favorite parts of our apartment....so shady and breezey and nice, even when its ridiculously hot out. I drive back to Austin later this afternoon/evening, but we're going to try to squeeze in some more fun-ness before that happens! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

The Texas Traveler

Last week and weekend went by like a whirlwind. It was my last week at the Attorney General's office and it went really well. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my clerkship and will definitely be looking there for employment opportunities in the future. 

Thursday I drove up to Waco to spend a day and a half with Dustin. It was sooooo good to see him :)  We were really spoiled for the first few weeks of my clerkship because he was on a break between semesters so we were together the whole time. Its been an adjustment to only be together on the weekends. 

Friday evening I drove down to Houston to spend a weekend with 7 of my girlfriends from college. We had such a fabulous time, I think this is the first time we've all been together again in years and it was so fun to catch up with what everyone is up to. We spent Saturday on the beach, then had dinner on the lake, then went out later in the evening. I really enjoy being around people who have nothing to do with law school, they tend to be more laid back happy people :)  We all plan to make this an annual get together, I hope it works out!

Dustin was in class all day Saturday, but if I remember correctly I think its his last saturday class for the summer. He's still spending a lot of time studying for a test he has coming up in July, so we'll both be really happy when that's over. 

Today I'm back in Austin. Tomorrow I start my clerkship in San Antonio, which I'll be commuting to, so I'm hoping being in the car that much is tolerable. I'm excited about this next clerkship and am curious to see how it all turns out. 

So in short, within a 4 day period I'll have been in Waco, Houston, Galveston, Austin and San Antonio....hence the Texas Traveler!! Hope everyone had a good weekend!

My Super-Padres

I am an excellent driver. Excellent.

Exhibit A: In high school I drove our family car (an Expedition, i.e. LARGE) through our garage door one day when my car was too low on gas to make it to school on time. Picture a closed garage door with an Expedition-shaped outcropping. Oops.

So Friday I popped by the hair salon where my mom was to pick up something I had left at home that she brought into town for me. The next part went something like this: She was getting her hair highlighted. Nice chat. Time to go. There's a truck blocking me in my spot. No problem. I'll just pull through since there's no one parked in front of me. Gas Pedal. BOOM. Whoops. I'm stuck on the cement parking block I didn't know was there. Awesome. My lunch break ends in like 10 minutes. Double Awesome. I try to get off the cement block. Excessive tire squealing and no movement of the car. Ugh.

My mom offers to drive me back to work. She's in the middle of having color put on her hair (for those of you that don't know, this involves excessive foil wrappers all over your head), the look is complete with those giant robes that hairdressers put on you, which she can't take off because if the color on her hair were to get on her clothes they'd be ruined. The color has to sit for 30 minutes, so we're cruising through town as is. We chuckle about how unfortunate it would be if we got in a wreck with her in this getup. My mom is super woman :)

Meanwhile, my dad drops what he's doing at the house, drives into North Austin from Drippin', brings with him a jack, 2 by 4's and an extra set of keys to my car (I fortunately remembered to leave my keys with the hairdresser, but that was excellent planning ahead on his part). Everyone at the hairdresser is sure we're going to have to get a tow truck to pull me off. They don't know my dad is also a super hero. Within 45 minutes my car is back in a normal parking space, no damage down to the very low underside. Yay Dad.

So hooray for having wonderful parents that can fix any problem at the drop of a hat. Their only solace is to know that it is very likely that one day I'll have a child just like me.

PS: My parents were amused when I married Dustin, chuckling to themselves that now incidents like this would be his problem. Fortunately for Dustin, this incident occurred in Austin, where I'm working for the summer, and he was in Waco at the time, where he is working and in school for the summer. Next time hunnie :)

Our First Anniversary

We had an absolutely wonderful first anniversary. We flew into Austin early Sunday morning and drove out to my parents house to pick up our cake tops that have been frozen since the wedding, they still tasted delicious though, the chocolate was AMAZING: 

We went to lunch at Habana, a Cuban restaurant on sixth street. Since it was Sunday it wasn't very busy and we were able to get a great table outside in the shade and just relax and enjoy the pretty day. We had drinks and a couple of different appetizers for lunch (kind of like a tapas style meal) and then went to check into our hotel. We stayed downtown at the Omni, which was also where we stayed a year earlier for our wedding night....awww :) 

In the afternoon we went on an Austin Duck Tour, something we've always talked about doing but never have. It was alot of fun and very entertaining. Below is a picture of Dustin on the water portion of the tour: 

For dinner we went to Louie's 106 downtown and it was sooooo good. Dustin ordered us an appetizer of lump crab meat between two slices of lightly fried avocado with a spicy aioli sauce, he sure knows how to pick 'em! We enjoyed wine and red snapper for our meal (yep, we both got the same entree, it sounded too good to pass up). After that it was back to the hotel which was a short 2 blocks away. 

It was a really special and fun day for us, here's to the many more to come!!

Erin's Graduation

We flew up to Lubbock this past weekend for Dustin's sister's graduation from high school. It was a really fun time: good people, good food, good conversation. We're very excited for Erin, who will be attending Texas Tech in the fall--furthering the UT vs. Tech rivalry we have going on in that side of the family. 

After graduation she had a dinner party at a train station that has been converted to a really neat bed and breakfast. It was catered by the same people who did Dustin's graduation a few years ago, best fajitas in the world!! 

Erin right after the graduation ceremony: 

Erin's super cool (and super tasty) cake: 

Dustin and Justin chatting out back while watching the trains go by: 

Erin unwrapping her gifts. Super cute red dress!!

Posing with her Tech blanket. There are 3 guns up and 1 hook 'em horns (go Jennifer!): 

The three siblings all in brown shirts and thick glasses, matchy matchy:

Erin being ghetto fabulous in her new shades and kicks. Dustin was enlisted to join: 

We were able to stay with Dustin's grandfather at his retirement home, they have a fully furnished apartment there that can be used like a hotel room. It was wonderful to get to spend time with him as well. I think this is the first time we've had the whole family together since our wedding last year and it was really nice to see everyone!

We also celebrated our first anniversary this weekend, I'll post that stuff tomorrow night!