the Texas food (& family) tour

 Our trip to Texas has come to an end-- a day earlier than planned, actually. We weren't supposed to travel back until today (Tuesday), but when reports of Snowpocalypse 2.0 started circulating...we all made some frantic phone calls to Delta and lickedy-split got our flights changed to yesterday. I have no interest in sitting around in airports, waiting for cancelled flights to get rebooked...or in arriving in Atlanta and then being stuck there for 3 days, unable to drive home because Georgia gets a little cuhraaaazy when it snows (since it's barely been 3 weeks since our last Snowpocalypse, the memories are still fresh). So it was sad to cut our trip short by a day, but I'm happy to be riding out the storm in the comfort of my own bed and not the C Terminal of Hartsfield-Jackson.

My sister and I awaiting our frantically-rescheduled flight yesterday afternoon in Houston.

At any rate, it's probably good that we're home now. I'm pretty sure I've already gained 30 pounds since we arrived in Texas on Thursday...another day would mean another day of Texas food and therefore another fat roll added to the new collection and like...dang. So sad. So worth it.

If you've never been to Texas before, I must forewarn you: the food is abnormally good. Especially if you happen to like Mexican food, seafood, and/or pastries. Sadly for us all, I am extremely passionate about all three...probably a genetic thing, since both of my parents are from Texas? That's what I'm blaming it on, anyway. It seems that all of my family members are equally passionate about the Texas food scene, so I was in good company all weekend.

This was Friday morning, our first stop for kolaches (and doughnuts....and coffee...). Clearly I was excited. Also, I took a picture of the inside of some of our kolaches so that those of you uneducated in the ways of kolaches can see what I'm talking about. In the picture above, the (whole) kolaches are in the white and red baskets. They usually come in two sizes-- a large one that's roughly Hot Pocket sized (how's that for a standardized measurement?), maybe 6 bites...and a small one that's about two bites.

The top one is a ham and cheese, the small one is a sausage (like a cocktail weenie).The pastry that robes the meat is something magical and ethereal. I can't really describe it any better than that, sorry.

You're probably thinking that the only reason we went to Texas was to visit blog friends and eat. You're almost right, but not quite. In fact, the TRUE reason we went out was because it was my Nana's 90th birthday. My dad and uncles organized a big surprise weekend where we all just kinda showed up on her doorstep from our various parts of the country. And then we partied and ate all weekend. It was awesome. It has been a few years since we've visited (and even longer for some other folks) AND they've never met my niece Carley, so it was a huge and wonderful surprise and we had a blast. It's really been years since I've spent so much uninterrupted time with my siblings and this was a super fun chance to make up for lost time. I am really thankful for the days we had together (and the food, obviously).

On Saturday morning we had to do some last-minute party preparations. Trust me, you've never partied until you've been to a 2:30 p.m. 90th birthday celebration.

Sarah knows what's up. We used that sign for a multitude of things over the weekend.

These masks were awesome. We ran around the store scaring people because we are mature adults like that. 

The party was great-- I don't have any pictures of my own because we had a photographer doing the legwork for us, and I don't have her pictures yet. So sorry, so sad-- just know that my parents forced everyone in the extended family to wear WHITE SHIRTS AND JEANS for the ENTIRE PARTY because...because I don't know why. It was as awkward as you are probably imagining. We looked like a cheesy family beach photo that wandered into real life. Luckily my siblings, husband, cousin, and I were all on the same page about how hilarious the whole thing was. Many good laughs were had.

Surprisingly, on Sunday morning we made another run for doughnuts and kolaches. Sarah and I bravely guarded them in the back seat.

As you can see, everyone in the family is on a very strict and disciplined diet. And also I hate everyone on earth that has ready access to a Shipley Do-nuts. HATE YOU.

On Sunday afternoon we had a humongous shrimp fry (and grill and boil). Basically the menfolk spent like 8 hours making shrimp, starting with the disgusting task of de-heading and all that, and finishing with the glorious deep frying (and covering with this yummy concoction and grilling...those were AWESOME). Gulf shrimp are no joke, people. You shoulda been there.

Matt and I as we patiently waited for the dinner bell to ring and Shrimp Fest to begin. I may or may not have passed the time by enjoying a glass of wine or seven.

Shockingly, our Last Meal in Texas was breakfast on Monday...kolache run #3. Delicious. Amazing. So not available in Georgia, which should be a crime. Ugh.

So now we're back-- I'd planned to head back to work today, but lucked out and got a Snow Day! So far I haven't made it out of bed, except to make coffee. I've got my husband and my Lola curled up beside me, I'm watching big fat snowflakes falling through the window, and I'm about to eat some really lame and healthy non-kolache breakfast while I watch about 27 episodes of Revenge...it's gonna be a good day here. Stay warm, friends!

howdy, yall.

This blog is coming to you live from the hot sunny large state of TEXAS!!!!

That's right. Texas. Large and in charge...just like my hips. Which are growing exponentially as we speak because TEXAS FOOD IS SO GOOD.

Matt and I arrived safe and sound yesterday afternoon and are excited for a fun and relaxing mini-vacation with family and friends. We started off with friends. Blog friends, to be more specific.

Last night Amanda coordinated a fun little get-together-and-eat-Mexican-food soiree at a tasty restaurant. The food was awesome and the company was even better-- PLUS I can add like 4 more people to my list of "internet friends I met in real life that didn't abduct and/or murder me." Beating the odds every day, I tell ya. If you're a regular reader here, you probably will recognize these girls by name if not by picture-- Brittnie is in pink (and she brought along both of her precious girls, including the one that was born about three weeks ago!) and Jaclyn (no blog, but she makes regular appearances in the comment section!) is in stripes. Jaclyn (who also brought her child. In her belly.) actually lives in Florida but ALSO happened to be traveling in the Houston area this week and so like...is that perfect timing or what??! Also, it should be noted that I was wearing shoes with a substantial wedge. I'm not actually that tall.

And that is seriously all the pictures we took at dinner. Blogger fail. There were more people and they all left before we thought to take pictures. Laaaame.

After dinner we retired to Brian and Amanda's adorable house. Since this is the second time we've met in 'real life,'  plus we've been blog/FB/text/phone friends for like 3 years (so presumably they assume we won't murder them in their sleep and/or kidnap their twins), they were nice enough to invite us to spend the night with them. Amanda wasted no time slipping into something a little more comfortable (Christmas PJs, of course), and I joined her so that we could have an official slumber party.

We did try to get our husbands to take pictures of us, but they all turned out ugly. So we went for the selfies. Selfies never disappoint. Then we Face Timed with Allison, since she was too lame to come down and join us for the evening. So it was kind of like the triplets were all together at once, only not.

We stayed up late watching the Olympics, eating cookies, telling stories, and laughing. It was great. But Brian and Amanda had to work today (laaaame), so we eventually had to call it a night and head to bed.

And that's the vacation thus far. Matt and I are still currently hanging out in the Joiners' empty house...robbing them blind? Only time will tell. For sure I'm currently occupying Amanda's "blog spot"-- the place where she says she does all of her blogging.

I'm not entirely sure if she props her feet up or not, but it seemed like a good choice. Please excuse my wet hair and no makeup...I just got out of the shower (that they took all the baby toys out of....so it was a pretty boring and un-noteworthy shower, to be honest). We're about to go get ready, pack up our belongings, and head out in search of kolaches. Brittnie's husband Brandon is a big kolache enthusiast/snob and he gave us all the insider info on where to get the best ones last night, so we're excited to embark on this awesome adventure en route back to my grandparents' house.

Since we're here to visit and celebrate with family, I probably won't have a lot of time to blog/read blogs/comment over the weekend and early next week...please forgive me and try to move on with life. :) But ya know...it seems silly to come all this way and then be holed up with your laptop the whole time. (Then again, maybe I'll get sick of real-life people after a few days and be dying for some quiet time with my computer...actually, that's pretty likely) BUT I'm keeping all the most important and exciting things updated on Instagram and Facebook, so be sure to keep an eye out there if you're dying to see a picture of me riding my grandfather's stair-chair-lift-elevator thingie...BECAUSE THAT THING IS AWESOME. I want to buy a new house with two levels just so that I can get one. Okay not really. But kind of.

Have a happy weekend!! And yay for blog friends!! :) I highly recommend you go make a blog date with one of your 'internet friends' right now...as long as they aren't a serial killer, you're bound to have a great time!

thanks for a decade of wasting time!

You may have heard that Facebook celebrated its 10th birthday this week. Can you believe it's only been 10 years? I remember it like it was yesterday...but at the same time, it seems like it's been around my whole life (and not just a third of it). Let's also reflect on the fact that in the past 10 years my net worth has increased by about $4 (with a couple of Naked palletes that I could probably liquidate to bring my net worth up to about $75), whereas Mark Zuckerberg's has gone up by like $40 billion. And we're roughly the same age. That's such an encouraging fact...

Anyway, like everyone else on earth (or FB), I made one of those little 10 year videos yesterday. And I can't figure out a way to share that here, so...great story, Erika. But I think they're fun, and the music (which is the same on every single person's) makes me feel all teary even when the pictures/factoids aren't particularly sad. I will share, though, that according to both that little video AND my own personal research, this is the first profile picture I put on Facebook:

It's blurry because it was uploaded in 2006 and pictures maxed out at like 1kb back then. I probably got this thing off a floppy disk.

Also-- help me out. According to my 10 Year video, I joined FB in 2004. But this is my first profile picture, which was uploaded December 15, 2006...were there not profile pictures the first few years? Anyone remember? Or did those just get lost somewhere over the years? I really can't remember there ever not being profile pictures, but...I could be wrong.

This morning I saw a quick little video that told you how to find your Facebook 'number'-- as in, what number person you were to join. Mark was first...the rest of us fall in line somewhere behind him. 

Now, since I was in college when FB started-- and FB was originally only open to certain colleges, mine among them-- I've always considered myself to be in the first group of people who got on board. Like, basically I discovered FB. I was on it before it was cool. (And I'm still on it, even though it's arguably less cool than ever...) But once I saw my 'number,' I felt like my whole life has been a lie. I think that in order to consider yourself one of the 'first,' you'd have to be at least in the first million users or so. And sadly...I'm not. If this thing can be believed, I was lucky number 4,904,526 to join The Facebooks. Womp womp.

However, I feel a little better when I look at my blog's Facebook page (which I just created in November). Created almost a decade after my personal profile, I come in strong at number 1,403,012,343,270,805...which does not even look like a real number to me. Like...isn't that waaaaay more than the whole world's population or something? Then again, I guess lots of people/companies/webpages have multiple pages, so it could make sense.

Anyway. I think you should look up your own personal FB number. Anyone else in the neighborhood of 4.9 million? That means we probably joined like...the same week. Or day, who knows. Wouldn't that be weird? If you joined earlier than me, feel free to keep that info to yourself. I like to be the best, which is obviously measured by how early you joined Facebook.

Game Time!

It's almost Olympics time!!!!! Are you ready??

You may recall this from previous Olympic years, but I'm a pretty huge fan of the Games (not to be confused with the Hunger Games, which I'm also a huge fan of) in general. Summer Games used to be my way way way favorite, but I'll admit that in the past 8-12 years (haha such a weird range, but it's an every-four-years event, so...) the Winter Games have been creeping up higher in the rankings for me. 

I think the main reasons that I used to not care as much for the Winter Games are threefold:

1) I can't relate to them. Living in Georgia my whole life means I have NO personal experience with anything even sorta like the stuff that goes on in the Winter Games (or anything having to do with snow, as we learned last week). I don't know anyone who snow skis seriously or owns their own ice skates. And seeing all that white on TV just kind of hurts my eyes. 

2) They take place during the winter. Which means that for most of my life, I was in school. I just couldn't spend all day long enjoying the competitions and the chase for gold medals...I was in school. Summer Olympics definitely had the advantage there. I lived Summer Olympics when they were on. Winter Games were just an afterthought if I finished my homework early enough.

3) I don't understand most of the sports. This is highly related to #1 for sure. Actually, it's probably exactly the same...but I wanted to have three points. But there's only so long that I can stare at a screen and pretend to care about something I don't understand (please see also: basketball, soccer, political talk shows). 

But like I said-- things have changed. Now I find myself anticipating the upcoming Games with nearly as much enthusiasm as I did the '12 Summer Games! What changed? 

Two things.

1) Matt and I started dating RIGHT before the '06 Winter Olympics. This meant that our very first few weeks of being 'us' were spent watching the Winter Olympics until late at night. Sharing a couch. Wondering if he'd hold my hand. Catching glimpses of him looking at me when he didn't think I was looking...ahhhhhh. All to the tune of people skiing, luging, skating, bobsledding, and whatever else Winter Olympians do...and suddenly, Winter Olympics were my most favorite thing on earth. I watched every single possible hour of the Games that year and it gave me a handy and socially-acceptable excuse to sit in front of the TV with my new boyfriend. And now I feel this warm and fuzzy sense of nostalgia for the Winter Games. Summer Games, you might be more relate-able, but you did nothing for my love life...Winter Games? High five.

2) The Wii Fit.  

Source

Laugh if you must, but this point cannot be reiterated strongly enough: The average Southern U.S. resident will never ever ever have the opportunity to personally experience the vast majority of sports represented in the Winter Games. So when the Wii Fit came out and suddenly I could virtually experience what it was like to ski jump, slalom ski, and snowboard? It was AWESOME! And all in the comfort of my living room. So now...now I have a better understanding of what the athletes are doing in those sports. And because I got a few high scores on the Wii, I'm also basically qualified to armchair quarterback the athletes and critique their techniques and offer advice. Thank you, Nintendo, for adding yet another thing to my ever-growing list of Things I'm An Expert About.

So I'm really looking forward to the next few weeks. February is a long and dreary month-- it's fabulous to have something to look forward to. 

Melissa over at Stirrup Queens was kind enough to consolidate all of the confusing TV schedules and make an easy-to-understand TV coverage schedule. I've got mine printed and am going to start highlighting my must-see events and rearranging my schedule so that I'm ready. I've even considered dusting off the Wii Fit and getting in a few practice rounds of ski jumping and slaloming so that I remember what all to be criticizing the Olympians about.

For the record, I most look forward to watching figure skating (DUH) (and pairs is better than singles, obviously), ski jumping, freestyle skiing, and snowboarding. My least favorite sports are all the boring ones: cross country skiing, biathlon (are you KIDDING me, how is this even a thing?), and curling. Most of the other sports fall somewhere in between. Speed skating is the most stressful sport to me...I just think they're all going to knock each other over and then blade all of their fingers off (sorry if that makes you puke)...it really ties my stomach up in knots. 

Any favorite sports I'm missing out on? Anyone want to present a compelling argument in favor of the biathlon not being the dumbest 'sport' in history?? Have at it!! :)