Game, Set, Match...

This past weekend I played in an area tennis tournament, the first tournament I've played in over 10 years! Since college, I had played in leagues in Dallas and just got back on a team here in Austin this Spring. I have had so much fun being back on the court after about a 6 month break during the move process. It has also been a wonderful way to meet some great girls in this area. The tournament this past weekend was very small so at our level there were only 4 girls in the singles bracket. We played a round robin & 3 of us were tied in matches won at the end so it went down to games won. It was very close, but I came out on top. It was a little hot & humid at times and I didn't know whether my body would hold up, but it was a fun time and great practice. My legs & back are definitely feeling it today!

Experiences in Rock Climbing

So after we had our first yard work day of the season & were completely exhausted, we decided to try our hand at Rock Climbing b/c our arms weren't sore enough just yet. Some friends of ours from Church invited us out to climb a beginner's rock up near Georgetown. I must need a pre-beginners rock b/c I didn't make it that far, but Jarrod did pretty good. We learned the rock climbing lingo, "Belay On" & "Climb" or something like that.

Our Biking Trail Adventures

We purchased some mountain bikes about a month ago and have been enjoying taking them out on the trails here in Austin and just around our neighborhood. We've both always enjoyed riding bikes and have rented bikes on some of our vacations. After Jarrod's sister and brother-in-law led the way with their bike purchases & our move to Austin where there are some great places to ride and where you are just not an "Austinite" if you don't have a bike, we decided to take the plunge. I'm not that coordinated to ride with my camera in hand to snap shots so here is a pic of our bikes on our new bike rack in the garage.

Jarrod's is the olive green Ironhorse on top & mine is the silver GT

We've made it out to Brushy Creek trail a few times & down to the massive trail around Town Lake downtown one time. The rest has just been meandering around the neighborhood, but if you have been to our house, you know that meandering around our neighborhood on bikes is not a breeze, it's a workout! We have quite a few good hills that can really make your legs burn! We've loved having a different activity that allows us to be outdoors! However, we also recently were forced to enjoy the outdoors in a different way -- for our first yard work day of the Spring! We had lots of work on our hands with lots of trimming to be done & weeds to pull. Needless to say we were both very sore the next day. Yard work is definitely a work out! The joys of home ownership as Jarrod says.

Dad visits

Dad came up to visit us last Thursday. We went out for some tasty dinners at an italian place called Rocco's on Thursday & tried out the new steakhouse in Steiner Ranch on Friday. Both were very good. The steakhouse is 3 stories and has an amazing view of Lake Travis, but also serves up some really great food! We'll definitely go again. Dad & I also explored a Texas vineyard near Austin called Stonehouse Vineyard. They only have 6 acres of vines so they make only 2 wines at their winery, but they partner with a vineyard in Australia and have some pretty good bottles from there. The tasting was fun and the drive out to the vineyard through the hills was beautiful. Saturday we headed down to San Antonio for a Massey Reunion, but detoured through Lockhart so my dad could taste some of the wonderful BBQ we keep talking about. Then on to the reunion. It was great to see family on my dad's side that I hadn't visited with in a while, some in 10 or 20 years! The gathering was to celebrate my grandfather's sister Josilee turning 100.

The Massey cousins that were able to make it to the reunion: (from left) Charles & Jackie Lowery, my dad & his 3 sisters to his left, Kay, Becky & Sue, and Patricia Hopkins in front.
Jarrod & I with my Mimi
Josilee blowing out her candles with grandaughter Kimberly's help.

I wonder what you wish for at age 100?!?

Cooking School

Last Wednesday, I went to my 2nd cooking class at Faraday's Kitchen Store in Lakeway. Jarrod had given me two classes for my birthday & went with me to the first one a few weeks ago where we learned to make Cream of Mushroom Soup, Chicken Cacciatore with white corn polenta, & Poached Pears with Zabaglione (pronounced za-ba-yon) ;). Faraday's brings in chefs from area restaurants & such to lead the classes. It is really fun. There are about 15 seats around a horseshoe shaped bar that faces the kitchen where you sit and watch the chefs do their magic. The second class I went to this past Wednesday taught me how to make all different kinds of sauces like hollandaise, beurre blanc and caramel. I think my favorite was the beurre blanc sauce, although we did make a caramel using red wine which was quite interesting. We made about 9 or so different sauces and I'm sure my husband is hoping that I will put all I have learned from these classes to use!! LOL

Do I hear 30....

Sold! To the couple on the back row who has no clue what they are doing! Ok, so recently we were finally able to go to this antique auction near our house that we have been wanting to attend since we moved here. There was some stained glass windows being auctioned off at this particular sale and we had our eye out for a piece for one of our windows. However, once arriving, there was sooo much more! I went early to scout out what we might want to bid on and picked out the piece of glass I wanted and a couple other things -- one of which was this adorable piece of furniture that would fit perfectly in our half bath downstairs. After the scouting, I called Jarrod immediately to tell him we had to go to the auction that night. So we both finished up most of our errands and met back up at the auction at 7pm. What an experience it was! It was more than just shopping -- it was entertainment! People watching was great! Jarrod loved the fact that the couple sitting next to us opened their picnic basket to an array of cheeses and a bottle of wine! Hilarious! But, definitely fitting as we found out as the night progressed -- no lack of entertainment. So back to the buying -- well that adorable table I just had to have was auctioned off 5th so I had not had a chance to learn how to do this yet and I let it get away. I should have had a price in my head of how much I was going to bid, but it all just happened so fast!

Auction Lesson #1: write down max price for all items wanted.

After my table got auctioned away, I was so sad and just couldn't forget about it so we sat back and watched for a while, and a while longer and longer....they were not bringing out the piece of stained glass I wanted. 2 hours later they still hadn't and our stomachs were growling.

Auction Lesson #2: Bring snacks! The popcorn at the concession doesn't do it!

We bid on this painting that came up that retailed originally for $1000 & we won it for $85 + tax & 15% auction charge. We thought it might work in our entry (and it did! but is so high up that we can't hang it just yet until we get a taller ladder.)
Finally about 10 o'clock, the auctioneer had lost lots of buyers and bidding was getting scarce so he asked us to go pick out the things remaining that we wanted to bid on. Finally! I could bring my stained glass up! He began auctioning some of the items and a very cute old lady sitting toward the front was trying to bid on something she really wanted, but was not very confident about her bid so the auctioneer didn't see her hand and sold it to someone else. Wow! Was she mad! I hate to admit it, but old ladies are so cute when they are mad.

Auction Lesson #3: Be confident about your bid and stand up to get his attention if you are being ignored.

So my stained glass was finally up there and the bidding began. Luckily there were not many bidders left and since quite a few other pieces had gone earlier in the night, I didn't have to put up much of a fight and got it for $30! If you have looked at stained glass windows at antique stores before as I have, you know they are not necessarily cheap! Especially for one in good condition. I'm guessing the piece we got would retail for at least double what we paid, but some larger pieces can get up into the 100's. Anyway, we were quite proud of our purchases and the stain glass window fits perfectly in the bathroom window where we wanted to put it.

We're famous!

We started out our weekend as we do many weekends, our Friday night sushi date. We have many sushi places we like to go to, but we went to our fave that I've mentioned before, Tomo. It was yummy! We had missed a couple of Fridays b/c of various reasons so it was great to get back to our routine. After dinner we went to the movie theatre to see the new movie "Fireproof" with Kirk Cameron (http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/)







If you haven't seen it, you should check it out. It is made by the same folks that produced "Facing the Giants". It presents some great lessons and a WONDERFUL message. After the movie, our names became "famous" in Austin as we debuted on The Word 99.3 FM radio in an on the spot, live interview about the movie. Being on the radio was certainly a first for me!

Picnic at Arboretum

Last week I had a picnic lunch with Jo Neel & little Ellie in a park at the Arboretum. It was lots of fun to get out to enjoy the nice weather, catch up with Jo Neel and watch Ellie laugh and play in the park. She especially loved sitting on the bull statue! Jo Neel is a friend from A&M that I have reunited with now that I am living in Austin. They moved here not too long ago so she has been super helpful in giving me tips about Austin. We went to church with them a few weeks ago and joined them for some ultimate frisby out in Barton Springs Zilker Park that afternoon with their church group. I was not that good, but was told that I made a goal and that was all that mattered. Jarrod says all that matters is that his team won! (We were on separate teams)

Working on the House

We've been working away trying to get everything in its place in the house. Our first purchase for the house was some beautiful new office furniture so that I don't have to work off the kitchen table anymore. The furniture was hand made in Guatemala and Jarrod pointed out the other night that I have quite the ecclectic office -- Guatemalan desk & credenza, painting of Italy, a chair, side table & rug from Bahrain, and a painting by a family friend of some mountains with a water feature below it. This past weekend we were able to get a lot done including: staining the concrete on the back patio, halling off as many boxes as we could to the recycle center downtown Austin(where all the crazy longhorns were getting ready for their game I might add - my eyes were strained from all the burnt orange!), Jarrod trimmed all the tree limbs (so they'll grow straight up he says) & set up our new garage organizer while I changed out the hardware on our cabinets in the kitchen and did lots of loads of laundry. In the middle of all of our work, we were able to take some time out to try a new church that we really liked so we'll try it again. It is the closest one to our house that we have been to so far and we had a really good feeling about it. We also went to a cookout at our neighbors house that was a great time getting to know lots of people on our street better. They are all super nice and so welcoming. Seems to be a pretty tight knit community so we are excited about that. We had some great fajitas and of course Jarrod told them as we were leaving "I'll come over anytime as long as you feed me." I wonder what he is saying about what he gets at our house! hmmm! (Actually, we also went to the grocery store on Monday for a stock up and I have cooked every night this week - shocker!)

Look at the huge laundry room we have!! It is amazing!

Keeping Austin Weird

This week was my first full week in Austin and working in my new job out of the house (actually apartment for now). It was a good week, but really ready to be in our house b/c staring at the blank, white walls in this tiny apartment all day & working from our kitchen table is already wearing on me. Don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful that we have this temp apartment that Jarrod's company has provided us. Anyhow, this week at work was mainly getting organized and familiar with what I'll be doing. And, of course, as always when you join a new team, the email went out to the new department that I am working in to announce my joining the team and tell about my background. At the end of the announcement, it read "Mikalah is a graduate of Texas A&M University and lives in Austin, TX. " Well, one of my former Aggie co-workers also rolls up into this same department and received the email announcement. He emailed me immediately and said "Boy, that last line looks like a typo, doesn’t it?" A&M and Austin, TX just don't seem to go together in the same sentence. It was funny too because I even took a double take when I read that line! LOL Oh, well – guess I am just part of “keeping Austin weird” as they say here. So this Aggie will fit right in! (I think their definition of weird is probly a little different than mine though ;)

1st Weekend in Austin

After about a 2 month process of putting our house on the market, selling our house in Dallas (in 1 week I might add!!), house hunting in Austin & Jarrod & I living separately while I finished my job out in Dallas, this past weekend was our first as official Austinites! It was great to both be in one place & be in Austin without every minute taken up searching for a house. House hunting was fun, but mentally exhausting! Anyway, we had a great weekend. On Saturday, after unloading all of my stuff in the temporary apartment in Roundrock, we headed out to explore the city. We did some shopping, drove by our future house which we love & headed down to the lake. We ate at a place on the lake called Cafe Blue that Stacey suggested we try b/c one of her co-workers owns it. http://www.cafebluetx.com All seating is outdoors on this huge deck overlooking the lake with a marina right next door. So we ate and enjoyed watching all the boats go by & the sun glistening off of the lake. The food was pretty good, but the atmosphere is really what makes the place! It was a relaxing end to our day. We are really looking forward to enjoying the outdoor nature of this city! So why wait -- the next day we tried out a new church, ate lunch, relaxed and headed out to the Brushy Creek park trails to go for a walk. It is worth noting that we must be nuts b/c I looked at the temp gauge on my car on the way there and it read 104 degrees!! Anyhow, we walked about 4 miles on some trails that wind around a creek, some streams and a really cool park area. Actually it didn't feel too hot b/c there was quite a breeze so we really enjoyed ourselves. There were walkers, runners, bikers, canoers, & picnicers (is that a word?) all around. We can't wait to follow in Jarrod's sister and brother-in-law's footsteps & purchase some bikes to take out on these trails!

Making our Trail...

Well, after much nudging by our friends, we are entering the world of blogging! I'll try to summarize the trail that got us to where we are today. Our journey together began a little over 3 years ago when we met through a mutual friend on April 24, 2005 in Dallas, Texas. We had lots of fun adventures in dating and on August 4, 2006 decided we wanted to have a lifetime of fun adventures together. We were at the Dallas Museum of Art when Jarrod proposed & we were married a little over 9 months later in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. It was an amazing time sharing our union in marriage with our friends and family with the beautiful beaches of the Destin area as our backdrop! We had quite a few fun trips in our first year of marriage -- to the lake, tubing & canoing down rivers, Los Angeles, Napa & too many fun times with friends and family to list. To top off our first year, we headed back to Santa Rosa Beach for our anniversary & the memories of our wedding weekend flooded back! We had such a great time re-visiting the area. It will definitely always be a place that we visit often & that holds special meaning for us. As we were celebrating our first year together, we were also about to embark on our first big change together -- moving to Austin, Texas. Jarrod was offered a great opportunity to take a position at his company's Austin division. So, as of 5 days ago, we are now both in Austin. Although, we are very sad to leave our friends in Dallas, we are ready to embrace this new experience! We love the outdoors & relaxed nature of Austin already and are looking forward to visits from friends and family!

We hope our blog will help our friends & family keep up with the "trails" we are making on our new journey! Please visit us often and drop us a line!