She Likes Purple

January Highlights

1. Mike and I went to New Orleans to celebrate my 32nd birthday, and it's going to be a tough birthday to top. It was a wonderful little weekend away. We ate unbelievably good food (August and Johnny's Po Boys, FTW!) We also enjoyed both a swamp tour and a cocktail tour. (I love this cocktail tour so much, I've now been on it three times.) More than all those things, though, we enjoyed naps and sleeping in.

2. Hosted a baby shower for Kristie! 

3. Spent some time with Mike's sister and her family. Kyle was spoiled with so much cousin time, he sulked around for days after they left. 

4. After a very fitness-light 2013, I started to regularly work-out again this month. I got back to yoga, tried a few at-home vidoes, and tested out my very first FlyWheel class. (I was offered a free month of classes to the two local FlyWheel studios, and I hope to write up a full review (+ a giveaway!) soon.) Let's just say during my first Barre class at the studio, I actually thought I might have broken a muscle. I don't think that's physically possible, but it was unfamiliar pain. I felt like an absolute rockstar after the class, but all broken muscly during.  

5. In addition to working out, I started the 21-Day Sugar Detox this month. I am only five days in as of today, but I'm a fan so far. I feel great, I've already lost a little weight, and it's kick-started a healthier year for me. (I just bought the cookbook, by the way, since it's got most of the information I thought I'd need.) 

Unpictured highlights: a happy hour with a friend who gets me, a movie and dinner date with my mom to belatedly celebrate my birthday, and our mini-Cowboy's Stadium field-goal kicker!

The Kicker

Kyle got very into football this past year (say what you want about Johnny Manziel, but he sure knows how to make a four year old think football is the most exciting thing ever), and he's asked if he can play football himself about a hundred times since September.

Didn't think that sports-introduction through, did you, self?

"You can be the kicker!" I said once, somewhat jokingly, and now he's obsessed with that. 

So far, we've kept his "join a team" requests at bay by playing ball with him in our own backyard. I might try to convince him we're our own official team if some friends wouldn't mind coming over once a week to cheer us on. He'd be a lock for team MVP!

The love for the game is still there, though, so we were all pretty stoked to bring him to Cowbow's Stadium this past Sunday, where Mike's company had a sponsored family day planned. We got to hang out on the field and kids got to try out different football-related stations. One station was kicking field goals. 

Kyle beelined for that particular station and was first in line. He waited patiently for things to get started. Seriously, the kid didn't move for 15 minutes, and that's quite possibly a first in all of his waking hours. 

Just waiting

Setting it up

Kick! 

So his two dreams include playing football and being a MotoGP racer. Nice, safe dreams that won't do a thing to his mother's blood pressure levels, oh no.

I'm in trouble.

I'm giving you permission to laugh about this

Many Mondays ago (like last YEAR, even), I did what I often do on Monday nights. I wheeled our big recycling can (which is the same size as our regular trash can) across our porch and to our back door, so I could dump the recycling in it. In fact, I think I need to share a picture so you can properly visualize the scene. First arrow is the back/side door where we keep the recycling and the second arrow is ... WELL, WAIT FOR IT.

It had rained that day, was still raining actually, so our porch was slippery and I was in, I don't know, OIL-SLICKED SHOES or something, because as I wheeled it back across our porch and down those side porch steps, I fell down them and landed in the muddy yard. (SEE: SECOND ARROW) It hurt, kind of badly, but I thought "Okay, I'm okay, this sucks but I'm okay." 

It was then that the trash can (which was wobbling on the porch after I let it go to FALL DOWN) fell down the steps as well. 

On top of me. 

I was in the rain, in the MUD, with a trashcan spilling trash on me. I think a beer bottle fell on my head because my hair smelled awfully hoppy after that.

What makes ME laugh about this entire situation is that I could see into the house, into those big double doors above, and Mike and Kyle were dancing around in the hallway. They couldn't see me from their vantage point. It was dark and I was under a trashcan ANYWAY, but I could see them, enjoying their evening. Neither of them had trash in their hair.

I picked up the trash, and put it back into the recycling can, wheeled it to the curb and went to the front door, which had been locked. Mike had locked me out. SERIOUSLY? Go ahead, MONDAY, why don't you just pour salt into my trash can wounds. I'm muddy, bruised, locked out of my house, and smelling like a BAR without the pleasure of having any drinks.

I knocked, kind of aggressively, and Mike opened the door a little surprised and said, "Why do you ... look like that?"

I got about 10 seconds into the story before he laughed.

I think the lesson learned here is that: 1) Mondays sometimes act an awful lot like Mondays and 2) Mike's taking the trash out from now until forever.

What To Do in New Orleans: Eat Fancy & Then Eat Not-So Fancy

Mike and I celebrated my birthday in New Orleans two weekends ago, and it was one of my best birthdays to date. We usually stay put, throwing a party or going out to dinner. It was so much nicer to say an official goodbye to the holidays and a hello to a new age in a fun city with room service and naps, let me tell you. (Recommend it to everyone!) And it was Mike's first time in the French Quarter, so it was a blast to be somewhere we'd never been together. 

It was a quick trip. We got into town late Thursday night and left after breakfast on Sunday, but we crammed a lot of fun into those few days. 

We ate incredible food, too, and our two favorites happened to be one high-end joint and one low-end one, both so delicious that I have to recommendt them to you for your next Nola trip.

1. Fancy: John Besh's August

I don't mind splurging on meals every now and then. If a meal is outstanding, I'm okay dropping a few bucks on it. My least favorite thing, though, is when we splurge on a meal and it's just so-so or even totally underwhelming. August was recommended, but it's pricey (even for lunch, which is my usual cut-some-dollars-from-the-bill trick), so I was a little weary. And it was a birthday lunch! I wanted it to be fantastic.

Oh, but it was.

No pictures of food! Because I was too busy eating it all.

Mike and I split the gnocchi with blue crab and black truffle, and this may go down as one of the best dishes I've ever had. All other gnocchi is ruined! (Not really, I'll still eat you, gnocchi.) It was just amazing. 

Mike got trout and I got the filet, and they were both equally delicious. Everything was just all-around outstanding. We were stuffed and couldn't eat another bite or we would have tried a dessert. Mike did have his eye on the banana pudding, so another time. Maybe just for dessert and cocktails, another don't-spend-all-your-money trick.

After lunch we took naps. Also recommended.

2. Not-So Fancy: Johnny's Po Boys

We had an hour to kill between our swamp tour and our cocktail tour on Saturday, and we wanted somewhere to eat that would be fast, delicious, and a short walk from where both tours met. We used Yelp! and picked Johnny's.

(That's Mike in line! I made him wait in all the lines. Birthday perk.)

It took a while to get our food, so we had to have a couple beers. (Practically forced to!) I got the blackened chicken po boy, and it really was the best sandwich/po boy I've ever had. It was just so flavorful, the bread warm and buttery, and while it was huge, and I couldn't imagine finishing it when it arrived, I nearly did. 

It's a good thing that place isn't anywhere near me, or I'd be in some serious trouble. 

It might be our first stop when we return, though.

My Five Favorite Books of 2013

(Warning: some spoilers below) 

At first I didn't think I had read enough books in 2013 to create a "best of" list. Then I thought, well, it's not as if there's some sort of book police lurking in the shadows. So, here I go.

1. Wild

I wrote an official review here, but to sum up: this was my favorite book of the year. It was inspiring and gritty, honest and incredible. I enjoyed both the flashback sections and her raw descriptions of the hike itself. I wanted to strap a backpack on and hit a (much shorter/less treacherous) trail after finishing it, and I also wanted to write the author a thank-you note. 

(I didn't do either, but maybe I should have.)

2. Me Before You

I didn't know a thing about this book (other than that a few of my favorite peopled loved it), so it was refreshing to dive into a story completely blind. The dialogue and main character reminded me a little of Marian Keyes' books (good thing, she's one of my favorites), though the underlying plot points and the ending were in a league their own. It was just beautiful, quite honestly.

I didn't know what I expected from the end -- would it end this way or that way or another way altogether, I wondered while reading -- and when I got to the very last page, I sighed through my sobs. It would end that way, and it was perfect.

3. Eleanor & Park (with Fangirl being a close runner-up to it)

I love John Green and really loved The Fault in Our Stars (review of the latter here) and Eleanor & Park certainly reminded me of John Green, with both books' flawed teen characters falling awkwardly but naturally in love. I liked E&P better, though. The dialogue felt a little more natural, and I loved both characters just so, so much. It reminded me of my own first love.

I thought the ending was perfect, too. Damn, I love a perfect ending. (Not a happy ending and it's not that this ending isn't happy, it's just that I love when an ending feels completely true to the rest of the story that came before it.)

Fangirl (another from Rainbow Rowell) is a bit lighter and about college-aged kids vs high-school ones, and I enjoyed it almost as much.

4. The Snow Child

Elizabeth sent me this book for my birthday last year (thank you, E!), and I put off reading it for a while. The first few pages never grabbed me, after I tried them a few times. I finally read it over the summer and was blown away. What a beautiful book. (The saying should be "never judge a book by its first three pages.") 

5. The Rules of Inheritance

A memoir of grief, written by a woman who lost both her mother and father by the age of 25. I highlighted passage after passage, devouring the way she strung words together. (About her time in New York, for college: "In those early days I swayed under the weight of the buildings towering above me. The ribbons of people on the sidewalk pulled me to and fro, and I learned quickly to just give myself over to it all.") As much as her story was inspiring and relatable and raw, I was equally inspired to just write more. Her writing made me want to write.

While I'm lucky enough to have both my parents alive and well and just a phone call away, I lost my dad on a daily basis at the age of nine, when he left our family to immediately start a new one. That's not an extraordinary event, happens every day, but it literally wasn't until I read this book that I really understood that so many of my feelings over the last twenty-odd years were feelings of grief. Grieving for a dad and family I'd simply never have.

Another author I want to write a thank you note to. Maybe I'll write more of those in 2014.

What was your favorite book this year?

Ten

Mike and I became Mike and I ten years ago today. 

(Imagine a lovely picture from the last 10 days here.)

We're worlds away from that first awkward day of us, not knowing a damn thing about each other, about where we'd go, what we'd become, what little boy we'd make one day. I didn't even know his last name that day. (To my defense, it's kind of a tough one.) I also didn't know if he'd call the next day. Though I knew I wanted him to.

He did.

Happy you-no-longer-celebrate-it-though-I-still-write-sappy-blog-posts-about-it anniversary, Michael! Thanks for calling me the next day and for giving me your last name a few (hundred) days after that. 

Best tens years of my life.

My 2014 To-Do List

Each year I write a list of things I want to accomplish in the coming year. (Here are my lists from 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.) Most years, I don't actually come close to checking everything off the list. It's a lot of things! You might suggest I scale back, choose just a handful of things to tackle. You wouldn't know me very well, then. I like a full list. Keeps me on my toes.

And, it's not really about drawing a line through everything, though it'd be fun to hit 100% one of these years. It's just about trying to. It's about becoming better. 

1. Write a book 
2. Read more books than I did in 2013 
3. Send Christmas thank-you notes from Kyle
4. Leave the country
5. Make 25 new cookbook recipes
6. Finish Couch to 5K
7. Run a 5K (major bonus points if I somehow manage to PR in 2014)
8. Pick out new couches (even if we're not able to buy them in 2014)
9. Buy a living room rug
10. Go snorkeling
11. Take violin lessons
12. Throw a July Fourth party
13. Earn a 50-class yoga bracelet at my studio
14. Watch the Veronica Mars movie with other ladies that love that spunky blonde as much as I do
15. Take my mom to Austin
16. Make a 2013 family yearbook
17. Look into a conversational Spanish class
18. Go horseback riding
19. Paint our front door 
20. Bring brownies or a lasagna (or something delicious) to one of our neighbors
21. Take Kyle to his first day of Kindergarten 
22. Buy a bed frame
23. Get my passport updated; get Kyle a passport
24. Hang our living room shelves
25. Run in Central Park
26. Go to the Perot Museum 
27. Try an outdoor yoga class
28. Try Crossfit 
29. See all the best picture nominees
30. Figure out a shoe storage solution for my closet
31. Finish Elizabeth's best of 2012 books list & read her best of 2013 books list
32. Take a family photo shoot
33. Take Kyle to College Station
34. Visit the Henrietta apple orchard, near our home
35. Replace our kitchen counters (since we already own the new counters) 
36. Write a poem
37. Go to my general doctor 
38. Buy prescription sunglasses 
39. Look into a creative writing class/workshop
40. Look into joining a local marketing organization 
41. Take Kyle to a MotoGP race
42. Finally go to our neighborhood water park 
43. Bring cookies or treats to our local fire station
44. Run our town's Easter fun run
45. Try these restaurants: Komali, Ziyaafat, Tei-An, Pecan Lodge BBQ
46. Finish my nostalgia wall (nearly there!)
47. Send at least three care packages to people I adore
48. Re-read To Kill A Mockingbird & Rats Saw God
49. Throw a champagne-inspired dinner party for my ladies 
50. Make the canvas art I have in mind
51. Deliver meals for Meals on Wheels at least 4 times
52. Finally find a fantastic eye cream/face cleanser/moisturizer
53. Visit a local farm with Kyle
54. Re-do/organize Kyle's room
55. Make another vacation box
56. Make this cocktail
57. Dance with Mike on our seventh anniversary
58. Wear colored jeans
59. Clean out the upstairs office space
60. Frame Kyle's awesome soccer picture for our living room 
61. Sign Kyle up for t-ball
62. Host an outdoor movie night
63. Make Boston cream cupcakes
64. Start Kyle on an allowance
65. Mimic one Pinterest outfit 
66. Take a day trip all by my lonesome 
67. Try acupuncture 
68. Throw Kyle a fifth birthday party
69. Dye Easter eggs
70. Make brisket
71. Make Kyle's baby clothes quilt
72. No snacking after 9:30pm every night I'm at home
73. Make a 2010 photo book too
74. Send off some baby blankets I've been meaning to give to a friend
75. Be happier than 2013

In addition to all those things (phew!), I have a few other less tangible intentions to set: speak with more love when I'm speaking to those I love, work even harder, write write write, then write some more, figure a few key things out, and quit worrying so damn much about what others are going to think unless those others are my husband, my son, or offering to pay my mortgage. (Let's talk if you want to pay my mortgage!) 

Happy new year, my friends!