Catch-up post - Eating with Erin

I've been cooking and baking up a storm the past few months! Here are a few things I've made.

Oscar Statue Cookies (these were actually in February for Jaime's Oscars party, but I never posted the pics)

Pineapple Upside-down Cupcakes (for book club)
Roasted Rosemary Skillet Chicken (burnt my arm for this one, but it was worth it!)

Tomato Soup Cake (another book club gem)

Lamb Stew (made with Guinness!)
Kebabs (de-Kebabed, made when Irv & Suzy visited)
This is making me hungry! Time to go start dinner...

Catch-up post - June

June is close enough to being over and we don't have anything big planned, so here is a June summary as well.

A few weekends ago we went to PA for Cory's annual wakeboarding trip. Last year our friend John went with Cory, and this year his wife and my good friend, Beth, and their daughter, Sydney, and I decided to go along! The weather was gorgeous, we ate a lot of good food, did some waterskiing and wakeboarding, and got to see a lot of family and friends. Cory's friend Tim and his family were there, and we got to see Cory's mom, sister and her family (our nephews and niece are SO cute!), and my parents. The highlights of the weekend were: Yuengling, getting tan, and seeing Sydney and Connor learn to waterski! And of course spending QT with our friends and family! We were lame and took zero pictures; if I get some from Beth I'll post them.

My cousin Derek is in the Navy and moving across country from San Diego to Pensacola. So he stopped in Houston on his way and spent a couple nights with us this past weekend! We are fortunate that we grew up not too far away from each other and got to see each other a lot, so we are pretty close. We don't see each other often anymore, so I'm glad this worked out; it was great catching up and having Derek get to see where we live and meet Cosmo!

Catch-up post - May

At the beginning of May, Heather and I went to NYC to spend a weekend with our BFF Carolyn from Penn State! She is there doing her residency.

I flew into Baltimore and Heather picked me up and we drove to Carolyn's hometown of Rutherford, NJ, where her friend Bonnie picked us up and we drove to Carolyn's place. Although it was a long voyage for me to get there, it was really nice to have some time alone with Heather; it's so rare that we get that anymore. New York was awesome! We had a lot of great food (Mexican, Thai, Sushi, brunch) and some very expensive and delicious drinks! We went to a bunch of cool bars and clubs, including one that had free happy hour for ladies, one on top of a building where you had a great city view, and one in the meatpacking district.

We also went to Brooklyn's Botanical Gardens, Central Park, and the Empire State building.

And we saw 'Wicked', which was just amazing! I absolutely loved the show.

On our way to Times Square that day, we bumped into O'Neal from the Biggest Loser! He was the nicest guy and even let us take our picture with him.

It was a wonderful weekend! The three of us don't get to be together very often, but when we do, it's like no time at all has passed. I love that about our friendship. Next up for us: 30th bday trip, somewhere awesome!

Also in May I worked my last Shuttle mission and I started a new job! I'm still working at NASA but have moved to a new position in Safety. I've been here 6 years and it was time for something new. I'm still learning my new job and a new way of thinking, but I'm enjoying it. The people are really nice and the regular office hours are fantastic! Cory is still enjoying his job, and he is super busy being the Increment Lead for his group.

Catch-up post - April

I've been a complete slacker with the blog lately! My bad. I'll be posting a few catch-up posts by month (since it's been that long - woops!), and then hopefully we'll get back to normal. So here's what happened in April:
My parents came to visit over Easter and we had a lot of fun! One day we went to Brazos Bend State Park and walked around some lakes and saw gators! It was pretty neat/scary. Obviously they would not let people walk around there if there were daily alligator attacks, but I was surprised how close we were to actual live big alligators! We also had a picnic that weekend with our friends; lots of good food and company! Somehow we managed to not get a picture of all of us, but here's me and my mom, my dad and Cosmo, and a giant gator.

That Monday when my parents left, Cory's friend from high school, Lauren, was in H-town for one night for work, so we went downtown and met her for dinner. It was great to catch up, and it prompted us to start planning a budday reunion in Virginia in September! We know a lot of peeps in Virginia so we'll also be seeing my sister and brother-in-law, and my cousin and her husband and her new baby. Can't wait!
Cory's Dad and Suzy also came to visit in April and we had another good weekend! They golfed a couple times, and we went to the Greyhound Park one night which they really enjoyed. Lots more good food and company :) I don't think we took any pictures, we need to do better about that!