Deep Fried Date Night

I have been blessed with a husband who has an eye for trashy-looking food places that will actually be good. It's his sixth sense. He noticed J&J Seafood Market from the freeway awhile back and couldn't believe I hadn't ever noticed it . . . (because who wouldn't want to eat at a place with a broken down sign and bars on the windows?) But lo and behold, we went there last night and my mind was blown! It was filled with people, there were tons of fresh fish and shrimp, and I loved the little grocery area with cool Cajun/Southern ingredients and spices. I'll tell you what, it was the best catfish I've had since moving out here. Y’all should be jealous J The shrimp was delicious, and the hush puppies tasted so good they were gone before I thought to take a picture. Houston, you're alright.

Thoroughly Inspired Part II

Awhile back I did a post about feeling inspired. That feeling has been back this week! Here are some things I'm loving right now:

• Houston weather. I love this city and I love this weather. 70 degrees and sunny? In January? I could get used to this. (This is a picture of the Texas Medical Center. We live less than a mile from here)

• A fun culinary adventure--Houston food trucks. I had a life changing fried avocado taco last night from this one...

• A new blog oliviaraejames.com

• Good books. These are a few of my favorites from the past couple months:

Taste What You're Missing: The Passionate Eaters Guide to Why Food Tastes Good

(I'm not finished with this one yet, but it's fascinating)

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

The Hobbit

(Nerdy, I know, but it's so good! Give it a chance.)

Uglies

• My shows. Slightly addicted to...

Parenthood



Downton Abbey

Parks and Recreation

 

• This talk by President Uchtdorf. I've read it about 10 times!

Of Regrets and Resolution

"The more we devote ourselves to the pursuit of holiness and happiness, the less likely we will be on a path to regrets."

 

And...it's February!

It's been awhile but I actually felt like blogging again tonight; so here I am with a quick recap!

December:
Christmas and New Years with Matt's family couldn't have been better. Lots of snow, lots of food, lots of movies, sleeping in, sledding, skiing (Matt), Christmas lights, playing with the dogs, and just enjoying time together. We also got to get together with my extended family, hung out with old friends, Skyped with my family on Christmas morning, and talked to Michael on his mission!

January:
Winter break was a good time, but going back to work after two weeks of vacation was a little rough. Mostly because I had a TON of writing to grade from the final exam and felt behind on everything else. It took a couple of weeks, but I got the grading done and got back into my groove. It's nice to be busy and on a schedule. Plus I've got some more funny student stories to share...but that's another post for another day. Things have been going well and we're in our big push now for the state test in April. Pretty exciting stuff!

Matt's second semester of med school has been super hard, but he says he's enjoying it more than first semester because of the subject matter. Overall he's liking his classes and he survived his first round of exams this past week! I'm so proud.

And now it's February. We're back. We're happy. Life's good. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

 

The past few weeks have felt like a whirlwind. Lets start with the week before Thanksgiving . . .

Let me start off by saying that this little 4 day trip I took was actually the longest time I've spent away from Matt since we got married. It was way harder than I thought! I never thought I'd be "that girl," but there you go. Loved the trip, but missed my husband every second of it.

On November 15th, Rachel Fay Woodbury got MARRIED! We were roommates our freshman year at BYU and we've been best friends ever since. I'm so grateful that I was able to get a couple of days off work to fly out to Mesa for her wedding. She was such a beautiful bride. It was also the first temple sealing that I've been to, other than my own. It was an incredible experience.

Congratulations Rachel and Dave!

 

 

I also got to hang out with this girl! It had been too long.

 

 

Since I had the next week off, I decided to extend my trip and drive back to California with Em. We took a side trip to see my friend Elliot, who was supposed to have a baby that day. Luckily Camden waited to make his appearance so that I could have a quick visit with his mama. He's here now though and I'll probably have to make another trip out to Tucson asap...

 

And then we drove to Glendora! I hadn't made any concrete plans, but everything worked out perfectly. I got to see all of my people--grandparents, aunt, as well as my "second families." Most of my friends have moved away now, but we spent so much time at each other's houses growing up, that seeing the Spencers, Jacobsons, and Hartwigs was truly like visiting with family. It was very strange to be back there now that my parents and siblings have moved away. It was the first time I had been back since my wedding 2 years ago. Nothing has changed though, and Glendora will always feel like home. I also got my Sergios and El Merendero, so I'm calling it a success.

 

A couple of days after I got home, the Scotts flew out from Utah to spend Thanksgiving with us. We had such a great time! We threw together a fabulous dinner, despite my teeny tiny kitchen, and enjoyed the time we were able to spend together. We saw a couple of movies, drove out to Galveston, went to a Renaissance Festival (quite an interesting experience), ate lots of delicious food, went to the Arboretum, saw Matt's school, went to the Museum of Art, and saw lots of Christmas lights.

 

Thanksgiving morning at the arboretum. It's really hard to be so far away from my own family right now. That will never change. But it would be so much harder without the love and support that I feel from the Scotts! I'm grateful to be a part of this family too.

 

 

And now the Christmas season is finally here. Here are a few pictures of our little Christmas-fied apartment!

 

 

Wouldn't be Christmas without the Simpsons Village, right?

 

 

 

 

We obviously downsized this year when it came to the tree. But I'll be darned if we didn't cram in as many ornaments and lights as it could hold! I think it's beautiful.

 

 

Despite the 80 degree weather, it's beginning to feel like Christmas. Hallelujah. And Houston doesn't skimp on their lights and decorations either. It's going to be a good one!





A Med School Kind of Halloween

So apparently the folks over at UT Medical School have a complete and utter disregard for proper Halloween celebrations. Matt's block exams are this week, and his biochemistry test is tomorrow so hanging out with me, watching Hocus Pocus, and going to a Halloween party was out of the question for tonight. There will be plenty of future Halloweens though--I wasn't too bummed. And I pulled together a pretty good celebration of my own:

1. Carved the most amazing pumpkin of my life and plunked it on a fence spike so it would look like a floating head.

2. Set up shop for the trick or treaters.

And then they never showed up! Not a single, blessed, soul. Darn it. So what's a girl to do but take the candy bowl upstairs and indulge her Friday Night Lights addiction?

Hey, it's better than what Matt's been doing all night . . . this is a video of one of his lectures last week. Phosphora-what??

CollegeHumor's Favorite Funny Videos

 

 

Central Market: Trader Joes' Cooler Big Brother

picture courtesy of weddingmapper.com

We have been receiving ads for Central Market since we moved here. The ads were cute, and the food looked exciting. So, we made a date night out of it and went in search for something unique to make for dinner. Turns out that Central Market is one of the coolest places we've been to! Think Trader Joes only bigger, with a whole array of gorgeous fresh flowers (half the store smells like fresh roses), 10 million different kinds of cheeses, a wall of gourmet chocolate, an entire bakery section with a display of tarts that could have been straight from Paris, a deli that was so crowded on a Friday evening that it had to have been good, and samples.

We put together a delicious spread of grapes, fresh guava, black bean hummus, pita bread, baguette, brie, and ancho chile/monterey jack burgers on fresh ciabatta rolls. Random? Yes. Delicious? I think my overly excited expression in this picture says it all :) Another hidden gem! Keep em' coming, Houston.

Is it really here??

I am so excited for fall that I can hardly stand it. I've spent the last couple of weeks envying facebook pictures of my friends wearing their scarves and jackets at BYU football games, the instagrams of the beatiful fall leaves in Provo canyon, and countless blogs posting recipes like dinner in a pumpkin and crock pot soups. A little depressing, until Matt surprised me by breaking out the Halloween decorations while I was at work! That settled it. I was going to welcome fall properly, regardless of the 90 degree weather--pumpkin bread and all.

And then this weekend happened! We've been in the 60-70 degree range for the past couple of days. Sure, the leaves are all very green, and it's supposed to get back into the high 80's tomorrow, but I wore a scarf and had soup for lunch today. That will be enough for now.

3 weeks until Halloween.
6 weeks until Thanksgiving.
12 weeks until Christmas.