Staycation

AMP has gotten some time off the past few weeks, so even though I've had to work, we've had a lot of fun around here!  It's kind of been like a little "Stay-Cation!"

Friday, March 23, we began by celebrating our 6 month anniversary by staying at the Adolphus, downtown.  It's a gorgeous hotel, with dark, rich wood and grand staircases.  We ate at our favorite restaurant, Nick & Sam's Grill, and they found out we were celebrating, so they brought us out champagne.  

 

(Side note: they might have known we were celebrating because I still enjoy telling people we just got married recently!  One lady complimented my sparkly heels that I was wearing with my jeans, and I said, "Oh, thank you!  I wore them at our wedding!"  Which is true.  And I just love that!)

 Dinner at Nick & Sam's Grill

Self-portrait in front of the elevators.  

AMP is wearing his jeans and sport coat--my favorite look of his. ;-)

Saturday, March 24, Mary Ellen came in town to run the Rock 'n Roll half marathon with several friends from Houston.  Adam went with me down town to get her, and we brought her back to see our house.  Sadly, the only photo I have is of the Angel Food Cake dessert I made.  I added graham cracker layers this time, and it was quite tasty!  I think next time, though, I will make it in cute small dishes or something, because once you dip into it, it doesn't look so hot!

 

I hadn't seen Mellen since our wedding, and Adam was so sweet to make our spaghetti dinner (we loaded her up with carbs!) so that she and I could talk and catch up.  I guess I have no photos because we were too busy talking!  

During our staycation, we've had beautiful weather!  We've ridden bikes several times.  This happened to be the time I mentioned last week, when AMP's tires went flat and we drank margaritas at the gym.

This is AMP's favorite bridge at White Rock Lake. 

We stopped here to watch the pups at the dog park jump into the water.  :-)

Adam has two bikes, so I've been riding one of them.  We used to be able to just borrow one from the apartment he lived in, and it was more my size.  This ride made me realize that this bike was incredibly uncomfortable and much too big for me.  (My feet couldn't touch the ground when sitting on it!)  I started doing some research, and it just so happened that Richardson Bike Mart was having a weekend sale.  Guess who got a new bike!!

 The last time I had a bike of my very own, I think I was 11 or 12.  It's been so fun to have a bike that fits me.  It's a hybrid (not quite a street bike and not quite a mountain bike), and I've really enjoyed it so far!

Have I mentioned how nice it's been outside?  I think so.  We really wanted to eat out side one night, so this was our make-shift dinner table.  That would be a card table (one of my parents' wedding gifts from 30 years ago), a folding chair from college (don't worry, I don't label all my chairs!) and a kitchen chair. 

Instead of this awesome table set up, I've been dreaming of a picnic table out on our deck, so we brainstormed and looked for inspiration online and designed our own version.  We spent several hours researching, drawing it out and then visiting Home Depot for the wood.  AMP's been working so hard on this, and it's been so cool to see it come together.  

We're going to stain it and also have benches, but the wood has to dry out (it's treated pine) for about a month before we do that.  I will post more photos when it's out on our deck.  I'm so excited and impressed with AMP's skills!!

 I was able to take a day off in the middle of the week last week, and we went to the Arboretum.  The tulips were in full bloom and everything was so colorful.  We decided to become members and can now get in as many times as we'd like in the next year.  Since it's so close to us, I think we will get lots of use out of this. More photos of our Spring Arboretum day to come.

The day I took off, I got so much accomplished!!!!  (I'm still trying to figure out if I can work "full time" four days a week, haha.)  I made the window treatments from a 12x9 painter's drop cloth.

  I thought I was going to have to sew them, but I just cut them four feet wide and nine feet long and hung them on these "knob" things that the owner had left in the house.  I'd seen people do long painter's drop cloth drapes, but not swags like this, and I was just kind of hoping that the fabric would hang right.  It did, and I'm really happy with the results!  I think it finishes off the guest room.  :-)  Come visit us!

And last but not least, we played Mega Million like the rest of the US.  I'd never bought a lotto ticket, but it's been on my bucket list (I know...I dream big!).  It'd been a long week at work, and we were having "Happy Hour" at our house, and we texted Adam's parents to say hi and "Happy Friday."  Turns out they were doing the same thing!  So we talked with them on the phone and kind of had our Happy Hour together!  We talked about the $640 Million lotto and realized we had time to buy a few chances.  Too bad we didn't win.  Then I could really have my four days work week (or less)--ha!

 

At work, we are in full-blown "March for Babies" mode, so we are fundraising, running all over town for meetings and just generally going crazy with logistics for 40,000 people to walk.  It's a good crazy, and I'm grateful to be a part if it, but it's still pretty high-stress at times.  So to have Adam home more and able to do things that we normally do together or take turns doing, like making dinner and grocery shopping, especially, it's been such a blessing.  We've gotten a picnic table, many bike rides and quality time together, it's been really great.  Especially the quality time part, for this girl!  It's been a great few weeks, and going back to our regular schedule will be kind of a bummer.  Maybe we'll just keep buying lotto tickets and hope to win.  Ha.