Rocky Mountain High!

So... again I have been bad at updating the blog. I have so much to blog about too, so I guess the only reason for not blogging is laziness. But I am getting over that and making a strong effort to bring you exciting and riveting stories of my personal adventures at least twice a week...starting today.

Last night we got in from a very long, but very welcomed retreat to Red River, New Mexico with the fam. IT WAS AWESOME, partly because of all the cool adventures and great time with family, but mostly because of the relief from the 110 degree heat here in Austin...ug. I will let the pictures do most of the talking. Enjoy.

We will start with the drive down and Lizzie's first big road trip.



She loved the water and all the rivers. We couldn't keep her out of them!

Here is Ava Grace and Lilly Mae taking pictures in front of the "fake bear".

Here is the crew before and during our rafting trip.

The view from Greenie Peak! We took the Jeeps up the bumpy roads all the way to the top. Even Lizzie made it.

Here we are on the way to Goose Lake. It was freezing and their was snow on the ground at the top.

More pictures from the top.

Check back later this week. I am posting pics of the master bedroom and the guest bedroom...and on "Show Us Where You Live Friday," I will have pics of the house from the outside.

Don't Skip Church!

Yesterday I almost died.

Jason and I went to Sunday School yesterday morning and as I was attentively listening to the lesson, my stomach started growling something terrible. I tried to make it stop, but it just wouldn't. I realized I hadn't eaten anything for breakfast, and since I am trying to give up caffeine, hadn't had any coffee either to mask the hunger pains.

So, during the prayer, I leaned over to my honey and whispered in his ear..."Want to skip big church and go get breakfast?" I peeked over at me and smiled. I proceeded to say, "We can get there before the crowd and celebrate Father's Day...just the two of us..."

Talk about peer pressure. He totally gave in.

So, ever so inconspicuously, we departed from our Sunday School crowd and headed straight to the car. We arrived at Cracker Barrel just in time and had a great breakfast. Since we were in the neighborhood we dropped by Walmart to pick up a few things for the trip to New Mexico this week, and then...of course...a quick detour to Cabellas.

I looked at my watch and sure enough it was only 12:30 p.m. The church crowd was just now getting to Cracker Barrel, and HA...we were already on our way home and thinking about how we would fill the rest of our day. We are such rebels!

So...back to driving home. As we pulled through the four-way stop less than a mile from our house, this young girl in a silver Toyota Carolla comes blazing through her part of the stop sign. She nailed the back end of car.

Jason pulled over, and I began to cry. "If we would have only been a half second later on that, she would have rammed her car right into the passenger, seat where I was sitting," I screamed. "Thank you God! Thank you Jesus!"

A little shaken up, my husband got out of the car and went over to check on the other driver. By this time, four police cars had shown up. Her car was totalled, and ours had signifcant damage...but amazingly, no one was hurt. AMAZINGLY.

Moral of this story is...you really shouldn't skip Big Church for breakfast.

Lesson Learned.

Show Us Your Bathroom!

Today at Kelly's Korner we are showing off our bathrooms. We have two bathrooms in our cozy home. This pic is of our master bath. As you can see, I need to change a light bulb.



I love our master bath so much because it has a tub and a separate shower. I love having a huge bathtub!



Here is another shot of the tub. The walls were already painted this dark taupe color, so we stuck with the theme, adding only a few chocolate brown accents, and super white and fluffy towels. It is very neutral, but we love it.



I love to monogram, so when I found these towels with an "F" for Fenton, I had to have them.

Now on to the guest bathroom, which is pretty tiny, so kind of hard to get a good shot. We used the same chocolate and bright white theme, only added cool blue walls to give a little something extra.

Here is the guest room shot using the same towel formation as in the master.



This is the best shot I could get of my favorite bathroom item...the guest room shower curtain. I ordered this from Ballard when we lived in D.C. after seeing my friend Julia's. It has been washed several times and still looks new.



Here is a pic of the cute soap dish my mom found at one of her stores. If you look closely, you can see a bar of soap with an "F" on it. Again...monogramming...love it!



For all you Kappa Kappa Gammas out there, this is one of two Fleur-de-lis in my house. I promised my husband I wouldn't flood our decor with remembrances of my college days, but I have to have a few shout outs to my sorority sisters. Go KKG!

And because every good bathroom has a good toilet.

Hope you enjoyed the tour. I promise to update more often and will eventually get all pics of the house on here.

Payless is the New Manolos

I absolutely love to buy shoes, because a) I don't have to take anyting off to try them on, and b) I still wear the same size that I did when I was 15. For all you shoe lovers out there, I highly suggest you take a quick trip down to Payless and check out their fabulous selection of super cute shoes. PAYLESS...who knew?!I purchased this pair this past weekend for $19. They are navy blue with little pink dots and actually very very comfy.
These little black patent peep-toed slingbacks were also a steel at $19. Super cute for summer all the way into the fall.

And these were my favorite finds of all. I have been looking for a cute pair of bone colored shoes to wear with my greens and blues, and haven't been able to find a pair that didn't look OLD. My luck changed this weekend at Payless (my new favorite store). I couldn't find a good pic online which probably means they are on their way out, but these little beauties were only $17...and they're Dexters. Remember Dexters? Remember Gap Khaki shorts and Dexters? Remember how expensive they were and how you could only get them at Dillards. Crazy how times change.

Show Us Where You Live Friday

So Kathryn.this friend of mine, has this friend who has been hosting Show Us Where You Live Fridays. Kelly (the friend of a friend) has an amazing blog, and although I have never met her, I feel like I know her just by reading about her and her family...that is a little weird, but hey we are in the 21st Century.

I LOVE houses, home decor, HGTV so you can imagine my excitement to get in on this wonderful idea. I have missed the past four weeks, so I will try to catch up over the next couple of Fridays.

This week is dining rooms. Most of you know that Jason and I moved into a little starter home in Kyle, Texas back in November. There is still some work to be done, but all in all, our cozy "first house" is shaping up quite nicely. We have an eat in kitchen so showing off the dining room and the kitchen is basically the same thing. The pics are a little grainy and dark because I had to use my bberry. Drum roll please...

These curtains came with the house. They are a little matchy matchy for my taste, but they work for now. Any thoughts on what type of window treatments to put on a window like this? Is a valance the only option that would work?

Since the lighting fixture hangs so far down, we really need something lower to the table for a centerpiece. I love fruit in pretty glass bowls, and this worked out perfectly. We received this bowl as a wedding gift and I found these very real looking fake pears at Target for $8. I like to change the fruit out each season.

This chabby chic red china cabinet is my absolute favorite piece in the entire house. We bought it before we were married and Jason housed it in his apartment until I moved in. It originally served as a bookshelf when we lived in D.C., but now I think it is the perfect quirky space for my china!

We also have this bar piece that holds our wine glasses, etc.

The big red berry arrangement is one of the centerpieces from our Christmas wedding. I can't believe it has been almost two years!

And now onto the kitchen...




I would love your suggestions. Can't wait to check out all the other dining rooms!

We've Been Discovered

It's official. Our blog has been discovered. I googled searched my name on the Internet to see if a specific story was posted where I was quoted, but I came across this! Anne Schroeder is a political blogger in D.C. She did a short story on Jason and I when we were engaged. Apparently she stumbled upon our blog back in February (how did I not see this sooner?). For those of you "outside the beltway" this means nothing, but to those of you in D.C....you know this is cool.

To clear the air, Jason knowingly ran 14 miles, and I want to write a book about MY experience in D.C. And by the lack of comments...we are boring as well.

The couple who blogs together stays together?

Back in January of last year we wrote about a cute CapHill couple both working for Rep. John Carter, who got married: Jason and Carmen Fenton.

And now, they share a blog: "The Fenton Spot: The story of a young, married couple leaving behind the excitement of national politics for life in a small town ..."

She hates it when he leaves and has to stay home alone. He unknowingly ran 14 miles the other day, and she wants to write a book about his experiences in D.C. Etc., etc.

By Anne Schroeder Mullins 02:00 PM
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Texas Top Ten

Hello Readers! Sorry for the temporary vaca from the blog. I have no excuse, except for the lack of time and motivation to do anything on the computer that I don't have to. (Excluding facebook, myspace, people.com, usweekly.com, popsugar and drudge...oh and the Austin American Statesman)

There is so much to update you on that I don't even no where to start. So we will just fast forward through the past months up until last weekend (I know I am even late on writing about last weekend).

I was in Winnie, Texas Friday and Saturday. Winnie is a small town on the southeast coast (Texas is not landlocked Jess!) and was seriously devastated by Hurricane Ike. There are lots of cattle in this area and so many of the ranchers fences, barns and houses were literally washed away. TSCRA was down there rebuilding some of those fences. I was down managing the press, not building fences. I heard a rumor that Bush Sr. was roaming around the area somewhere helping out too...but I didn't see him. Anyways it was a great event...see more here.

The real prompting for this blog came on Friday's drive. I realized that one of my favorite things about Texas is the speed limit. I was in the fast lane, going 75ish when this dude pulling a four wheeler behind his truck started riding my rear. I moved over to the slow lane and he passed me, but as he passed me, he threw his hand out the window and made some sort of hand motion. At first I thought he waved so I waved back...but the more I think about it, I think he was flipping me off. I thought Texans didn't flip people off while driving...

So in an effort to save time and sum up the last couple of months I have compiled a top ten list of the things I took for granted while in D.C. The first one being...

1. Friendly highway drivers, except for this dude of course...if he was, in fact, flipping me off.

2. The ability to drive incredibly fast on any major highway. (Speed limit in VA...60, and heavily enforced. Speed limit in TX...70, technically making it 75 and not so heavily enforced)

3. A garage for my car, and a yard for my dog who has learned to poop in the neighbors yard, which was great until they realized what she was doing.

4. The ability to attend weddings of college friends. It was so good to see everyone at Katy's wedding, especially the bride herself. Who knew you could lose such contact with people you once lived with.

5. Walmart and its cheap groceries.

6. A good old Southern Baptist Church where we can become members and get involved.

7. Cheap Mexican food...that tastes like Mexican food.

8. Red Dirt Music (courtesy of Mr. Fenton)

9. Being close to my best friend, Jason's best friend, and both of our families.

10. And finally...the ability to go to the White Deer Rodeo (All you bucks out there know what I mean by that).

Clearly we are happy to be in Texas...but I also miss D.C. a lot. I miss my friends, my bible study group and even my job. I miss being in the middle of all things political, but I am also grateful to be more removed, to gain a little perspective and enjoy just being a Texan.