What Day Is It??

This has been such a long weekend. (Details in later post)

So long that I am having trouble remembering what day it is, and why I have not been napping all day long.
Michael's parents were here this weekend to visit.
They came for the wedding of one of Cheryl's good friend's sons.
But we showed them a good time the rest of the weekend too!

I attempted another outfit that I found on Pinterest.My version:

Friday we went to the Astros game.
They lost.
No surprise there.
Saturday, we went to the wedding.
I did not know more than 5 people at the wedding.
I had never met the bride and groom.
It was awkward.The only plus - there was a photobooth!!!
You know we hit that up!
Well, I'm off to take another load of stuff to our new house!!

Dinner Ala Cindy

I made these two dishes for dinner tonight when Michael's parents got here.

They are both recipes that I got off of Cindy's blog.
You can see her blog here.
She is such a wonderful Christian woman and a role model for me - and she is an excellent cook!
(And she will hate that I said all of that about her!)

The first recipe is Tomato Basil Sausage and Tortellini SoupIngredients: 1 pound Italian Sausage, 1/2 pound frozen tortellini, 2 cans tomato soup, 1 can crushed tomatoes, , 2-3 cups vegetable broth, 1-2 cups milk, 1/4 cup cream, 1 tsp basil, 1 tsp onion powder, 1/2-1 tsp garlic powder, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese.

Directions:
Brown the sausage in a large dutch oven. When brown, move to a small bowl. Don't rinse or drain.Cook the tortellini al dente. Drain. Set aside.Mix all ingredients, except the sausage and tortellini in the dutch oven that you browned the sausage in.Once the soup is simmering, add the sausage, tortellini, and a handful of parmesan.
Eat and Enoy!

Next is Peach Cobbler
Ingredients: 3/4 stick butter, 1 & 3/4 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, 3/4 cup milk, 1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 large and 1 regular can of sliced peaches, 1 T cinnamon

Directions:
Melt butter in a 9x13 pan and preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix 1 cup sugar, flour, milk, and baking powder in a bowl.
Pour batter over butter.Arrange peaches on batter.Pour juice on top gently (Don't Stir!)Mix 3/4 cup sugar and cinnamon in a bowlSprinkle over all. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
Eat and Enjoy!
These are both so quick and easy - and delicious!

Michael's parents are here this weekend for a wedding, and we are so excited to spend time with them!
Don't hold it against me if I don't post tomorrow!
Have a great (long) weekend!

And The Big News Is...

WE'RE MOVING!!

Are you surprised?
Yeah, me too!
Within the last week we have gone from being content with where we live, to wanting to move, to thinking about looking for a house, to having a house fall into our laps, and then last night we gave our landlord notice of our move out.

Did you get all of that?
Let me fill you in a little better:
We moved into our rent house in the Heights (central Houston for all you non-Houstonians) this past August.
We had planned on living here for the next 3 years while I am driving to Clear Lake (30 miles) for school.
But, in April Michael started working at Jersey Village, which is 16 miles from our current house.
We were just fine with living in the middle of our two "occupation sites", but with the increase in gas prices, we have been rethinking it.
Plus, we would really like to be closer to all the youth kids, especially for the summer.
I just want them at my house, all the time.
And they won't/can't come when it is 40 minutes away.

We've also had a few problems with our current rent house.
1) Its tiny. Its pretty much a house for ants (funny enough, ants are about the only bug/rodent we haven't seen around here)
2) Its really old. Refer to the parenthesis above and that will all make sense.
3) There is only one bathroom. While it does offer free, daily marriage counseling - I'm over it! I need my space to get ready!See, I wasn't kidding!
4) Literally the smallest closet I've seen in my entire life. (even smaller than yours, Emily!)
5) Keeping with the trend of "Tiny" - the kitchen is tiny and I have no counter space. That's it for the counter. There is no more to be found outside the border of this photo.

Add all those things up and you've got 2 people ready to get outta here!
We kind of started looking around, but not too seriously because I am scared to add any more time to my hour drive to school.
Then Michael found out that the church owns a house and they are trying to sell it.
After a bit of asking around we found out that it is a great (BIG) house, in Cypress, a little dated, but clean and so well kept.
Michael did what anyone would do and asked if we could rent it.
The answer was yes - you can rent it for the low, low price of FREE!
Um, hello, sign me up!
Their only request is that we make the house look good (keep the yard and inside pretty) and hopefully it will sell!
Yes, I think we could make that happen!
However, we do have to be ready to move out if/when it sells.

Its crazy, I know, but we are so excited about this new adventure in our lives!
Its going to be a BUSY couple of weeks trying to get out of here (especially with two visits from family) but it will be completely worth it to be in the new house by the beginning of the summer.
One of my favorite parts of youth ministry is opening my home to the kids, and I can't tell you how excited I am to be able to do that!

We can't even explain how blessed we feel to be given this opportunity!
We have definitely felt the love and support of our new church family.
This is just another way that God is showing us that this is exactly where He wants us to be at this time in our lives, and we could not be happier.

See ya never little Tabor House!

Mini Me

4 years ago I moved to Houston for the Summer and lived with the Sawyer family.

They had a 15 year old daughter.
She thought I was weird for having lots of pictures of my boyfriend.
She liked to hide in my room and scare me when I got home.
And she LOVED to eat cookie dough straight from the bucket (who doesn't?)

What I didn't know was that I was living with a miniature me!
Here's a little recap of the past 4 years with Claire.

We both love to relive our childhood - this time via chalk drawings

We both love holidays and baking funfetti cupcakes!We both love costumes! And being queens.

She was in my wedding - duh!We are both Divas. And we don't hate it.We sometimes look like twins, and most the time look like sisters.And today proved that even more!
I opened my door to find that we were basically wearing the same outfit!I'm sure this is not the last time something like this will happen.
We are literally the same person!

I'm so glad that I got to spend ALL DAY with her today!
And, I'm even happier that she is in Houston for the whole summer so I can hang out with her all I want!

PS - Check back tomorrow for some big news!

Weekend Update

I guess its about time for my first outfit post.
I have been loving this Ann Taylor Loft outfit for awhile now.
It was one of my first pins on Pinterest (thanks again Kitty!!)
And so I decided to try to recreate it.

Here it is!What do you think?
Don't judge it based on my modeling abilities though.
I have no skills.

In other news:
My parents were here this past week for my mom's conference and this weekend we got to go around the town a little bit!

The weekend consisted of LOTS of Mexican food

After all the food, we went to IKEA!!
Where I instantly fell in love with this picture wall.And these little hanging buckets!
Aren't they adorable?My mom and I can't spend a weekend together and not go to a Christmas store.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the really windy Kemah Boardwalk!

It was so great to spend the week with my parents!
Visits from family make it a little easier to live so far away from them!
And this coming weekend, Michael's parents are coming to stay with us!

Happy Monday!
(When I'm out of school, Mondays might be one of my favorite days of the week!)

Tourists in Our Own Town

While my mom was in her conference today, we took my Dad on a tour of Minute Maid Park.

Home of the Houston Astros, currently the worst team in the MLB.
Embarrassing.
But for my Dad, a lifelong Astros fan, it was a dream come true.

We got to tour the press box, the owner's suite, the diamond club (where the Bush family has seats) the dugout, and we even got to walk on the field.
Michael broke the rules and touched the grass when our tour guide wasn't looking.
What a rebel.
It was actually really interesting to see all the different parts of the stadium and to hear the history.
Here are a few pictures from our tour.

First view of the field on the tour
Daddy and Me!View from home plateOn the Astros' fieldSitting in the dugout like old times - Coach and Player
View from the dugoutBoys on the tourTonight we are taking my parents to one of our favorite restaurants.
You guessed it - Mexican food!
And tomorrow - IKEA!!

Hope you have a great weekend!

Random Thoughts Thursday

I'm declaring today to be Random Thoughts Thursday.
Mostly, because there are alot of things going on, but none of which would make a good blog post.
So, I'm compiling them into this one measly blog post.
Here we go!

1) I just found out that Austin Box, the starting linebacker for the OU Sooners was found dead.
He is from Enid. I went to elementary school with him.
I am not claiming to know him, but I'm asking that you pray for his family.

2) I'm interested in Pinterest-ing.
Somebody HOOK ME UP!
Please. and thank you!

3) I've added a little "pages" section to my blog!
I have only finished the "Our Story" page, but there will be more to come.
Check it out!

4) I love boyfriend shorts!
I bought 2 pairs yesterday. I am completely obsessed with them.
Its hard to find cute, comfortable, and most importantly MODEST shorts these days.
Boyfriends shorts are perfect.
Plus, I got them at LOFT Outlet, and their sizes run big so I was a full size smaller than usual!
YES!

5) Michael's sermon from this past Sunday is online.
You can listen to it here.

6) I drove my parents' car all over Houston yesterday and didn't get in a wreck!
This is an accomplishment.
I might have hit someone over Thanksgiving while they were here. Someone who didn't speak English (surprise, surprise).
I was only going 0.5 mph, but my mom freaked.
I was surprised she let me drive her at all this week. Not to mention drive her car!

7) We have real tv now!
Well, we have about 10 channels.
We bought bunny ears the other night so that we could get news channels and Modern Family.
Important stuff like that.

8) I have no pictures from my time with my parents yet.
I'm a bad blogger, I know.
Here is one from the last time they visited, during the Bedlam game.

I would love to know any random thoughts you are having today!
Leave a comment!

Home Slice

I'd like to introduce you to one of our favorite dessert places in Houston.
Its called House of Pies.
Their specialty is pie...and tator tots. (Seriously!)
Its completely delicious!

We love House of Pies.
We took Michael's parents there to get some pie.
We took Kyle and Sarah there 2 nights in a row for pie, and loved it both times.
Yesterday we took my parents for a meal and pie.
And if you ever come visit us in Houston, we will probably take you too!There have been some good choices made at the House of Pies.
Such as:
Coconut Creme Pie
French Silk Pie
Strawberry Cheesecake
Bayou Goo
Key Lime Pie
And there have been some bad choices made.
Here we are with a bad choice - Banana Pudding Cake

(We're smiling because we haven't tried it yet.)

The waiters are always a little creepy.
There is always a reference made to Village Inn.
And there is always a joke about it being the HOP instead IHOP.
But it is always a great time!

Kids in Hats

I came across this Etsy shop through one of the blogs I follow and completely fell in love.

Not only with the adorable hats that this lady can make, but also the kids.
Tell me they are not the cutest little kids you have ever seen!
The site is called The Crafty Pirate.
Click here to see here entire etsy store.

Who doesn't want a little mouse?

Or a frogger?
Every little girl needs a Hello Kitty hat, and that bow is precious.

I honestly think this is the daughter that I never knew I had.

Seriously, she looks so much like me when I was little (right sister?)
She is a total diva.
And she is wearing a tutu. I love tutus on little girls.

And my personal favorite. YODA!

This is absolutely the cutest thing I have ever seen.
I am not a big Star Wars fan, but this might just win me over.

Now I just need to find someone who makes Buzz Lightyear stocking caps.
Anyone who knows Michael knows that my son will be decked out in Buzz/Toy Story.
And Dallas Cowboys.
Wearing thick glasses.
I bet you can't wait to meet him and introduce your daughters.