Texas Lou

Archive for the ‘Texas’ Category

Good morning and welcome to Thankful Tuesday!

One thing I’ve been trying to do to make sure I express gratitude more often or when I don’t have time to post on this blog is to write a few things down that I’m grateful for each day in a little notebook I keep in my purse.  I’d say I remember/have time to do this about 3 times a week.  I have noticed that it seems to help me think more positively and have a happier outlook on all things.  I’ll hopefully continue to do that along with updating my “Thankful Monday” posts on this blog and occasionally practicing gratitude with my boys by writing what we’re thankful for on our kitchen chalk board.

Here are just a few things I’m thankful for today:

1. I’m grateful that Charlottesville now has an Alamo Drafthouse and I’m also thankful for a fun girls night out with Sarah, Lindsey, and Sherry to check it!  We went and saw the Dark Tower and had dinner at the theater and I was so excited and impressed with the new space!  Any time we get something like this here that reminds me of Texas, it makes Charlottesville feel a little more like home! 🙂  Bonus:  the owners are from Beaumont, Texas!
2. I’m thankful for Ben watching the boys and holding down the fort (doing dinner and bath/bed time on his own) so that I could enjoy possibly a last girls night for a while since the baby is supposed to come soon.  Thank you Ben for helping me have some “me time”.
3. I’m thankful I’m still feeling relatively well despite being between 37 and 38 weeks pregnant.  After my first pregnancy, I really had low expectations for feeling good (and still being pregnant) at this stage so I’m very glad that it hasn’t been torture like last time.
4. I’m grateful I *mostly* wrapped up a big project I’ve been working on for weeks last week before the baby arrives.  I was nervous about getting this project done in time especially since I had put so much work into it so having it finished has been a big relief!
5. I’m thankful for a fun pool day with friends and for my mama tribe!  Saturday, the boys and I spent a fun day at the pool with Sarah, Lindsey, and all the kiddos!  I probably wouldn’t have felt comfortable taking the boys to the pool by myself this late in my pregnancy so I’m glad Sarah and Lindsey were up for a fun play date to help us get out of the house.

Have a happy day!

Hi friends,

It’s been a long time (3 months to be exact) since I last posted.  Life’s been busy with 2 two-year olds, work, home-ownership, and a few other things I have up my sleeve.  I’ve been trying to remember to be grateful and practice gratitude and I’m even trying to teach my boys how to practice it, but nothing seems to work as well as this weekly posting so I’m back for more!

Today, I’m thankful for the following:

1. I’m thankful for a fun trip to Texas 2 weeks ago and also so thankful to my dad for footing the bill, my sister and brother and their significant others for hosting us, and my mom for making a special trip just to see us for a couple of hours.  We had such a great time in Houston and got to see so many friends and family we love so much.  We can’t wait for our next trip!
2. I’m grateful for the opportunity my boys have to start preschool in August.  We got into our first choice school and I’m so excited for them to start attending and learning!  I’m grateful they were accepted and we didn’t have to be on a wait-list.
3. I’m thankful for new opportunities at work.  I’m been extra busy at work since the start of 2017 learning some new skills and getting familiar with new areas of our website that I hadn’t previously had the opportunity to work in.  I’m grateful to my boss and team for giving me the opportunity and also providing me with support as I learn.
4. I’m thankful for spring!  It’s here and the cold weather, my least favorite, is almost behind us!  Bring on the flip-flops!
5. I’m thankful for my husband who continues to work hard on getting our house in order.  It seems like he is constantly fixing or improving something and all of that on top of working full time and taking great care of his health and fitness!  We would be lost without him.

Have a happy day and I hope to post again next week!

Happy New Year Friends!

I’m wishing everyone peace, prosperity, health, and happiness in 2017!  Here’s what I’m grateful for today:

1. I’m grateful for an amazing Christmas holiday celebrated in Texas surrounded by so much family!  I’m so thankful that we were able to travel and spend time with so many of the people that mean the most to me!  I hope you had a great Christmas too!
2. I’m thankful that I work for a great company with an awesome employee discount benefit!  Our 10 year old TV finally kicked the bucket last night and I was able to save almost $500 on a new TV with my employee discount.  Thanks Crutchfield!
3. I’m grateful for my mom.  She always does her best to make sure that her family has a great Christmas.  She outdid herself this year by providing a big and beautiful festive home for us all to convene for the holidays and by cooking some amazing holiday meals!  Thank you Mom!
4. I’m grateful for my husband who spent his first Christmas away from his parents so that we could spend the holiday in Texas (my first time in 5 years!).  I know it wasn’t easy for him or his family to be apart on Christmas so I want to say a special thanks to them all for being cool with it.
5. I’m grateful for a fresh start and the new year.  There are exciting things coming for my family this year and one of my goals is to try and remain grateful with a positive attitude and to also raise my boys with that same mindset.

Happy 2017!  Love you all!

WOW!  It’s been a long time y’all!  Life is busy with 2 toddlers!  I think since the last time I’ve written we’ve enjoyed 2 trips to Texas, endured multiple illnesses, and celebrated the boys turning 2!

I actually have a quick moment to express some gratitude so here it is:

1. I’m thankful that my boys are 2!  They are amazing and watching them learn, play, and interact with each other every day is a blessing times 2!
2. I’m thankful that my boys seem to be catching up developmentally.  Being born 2 months early, we’ve dealt with physical delays, speech delays, motor skill delays and have been involved in multiple therapies.  While they still have some catching up to do, the development doctors and therapists at their 2 year NICU development checkup yesterday were very pleased with their growth and improvement!  Go Carter and Morgan!
3. I’m thankful for my husband.  We don’t always agree or get along but he humors me more than I probably realize and he works very hard to take care of the boys and I, our house, and himself.  He went out and bought a window AC unit for the boys’ room since the HVAC on our second floor is broken and installed it right away!
4. I’m thankful for my good friend Lindsey who has taken family photos of us multiple times over the past 2 years.  She is so talented and did I mention she does it for FREE?!?!  Plus she is just an amazing person!  Here’s one of my favorite shots from our most recent photo shoot about a month ago:
5.   I’m thankful for all the amazing people I work with!  We’ve been having lots of good times at happy hours lately and its so nice to work with friendly and fun people!
6.   BONUS – I’m grateful our cat, Revolver Ocelot, came back after running away and being gone for almost a full month!  I’m so thankful he is ok despite losing a lot of weight and being bitten by another animal.

Happy day friends!

Oh wow!  It’s been a while since my last post!  Summer has been busy yall!  I need to remember to be grateful and keep a positive outlook on life so here’s a few nuggets of gratitude!

1. I’m thankful for the opportunity to fly to Texas with Ben and the boys back in July and introduce Carter and Morgan to so many friends and family and the place that I first (and will forever) called home!  They got to meet so many people who are some of the most important people in my life and that makes me so happy!
2. I’m thankful for an amazing summer so far!  We’ve done so much, including but not limited to, graduated from swimming lessons, tried out our first splash park, flew to Texas and back, ate authentic Tex-Mex, went to the Richmond Zoo, met and visited uncles, aunts, and cousins (in both Texas and Virginia), attended 2 beer festivals, went to King Family Polo with awesome friends, had so many awesome play dates, went swimming, visited new wineries and breweries, tried lots of new foods and restaurants, and went on lots of fun walks!  If I have time, I’ll do a detailed recap of the boys’ big summer.  What a blast it has been and I thank my boys and everyone involved for making it so much fun!
3. I’m thankful for a new restaurant in town I’ve discovered, Brazos Tacos.  It is owned and run by Texans, serves authentic Texas-style tacos and awesome salsas and guac, and is totally kid friendly!  I’m so thankful for a little taste of home here in Virginia.
4. I’m grateful for awesome coworkers and cool people I have the opportunity to work with.  I’m lucky to be surrounded by such talent and amazing personalities.
5. I’m grateful for all of the moms in my life…they make being a mom myself so much easier and so much more fun!

Love to you all!

I’m trying to keep positive these days!  Lately, I’m thankful for the following:

1. I’m thankful for fun friends visiting from out of town and a husband who watches our children so I can have a night out!  My friends Cris and Carolyn were in town so a bunch of us spent a great evening at World of Beer!  It was a blast!  Then on Sunday, we had a great lunch at Beer Run!  I got to enjoy awesome people, great food, and two of my favorite beer joints in town!
2. I’m thankful for my hard-working husband who spends most of his free time trying to keep up with the demands of our yard and house!  He is constantly fixing something or mowing the grass or doing some sort of upkeep and I hope he knows how much I appreciate it.
3. I’m thankful I FINALLY get to take my boys to Texas and go to the beach after a 2 year beach-hiatus!
4. I’m grateful for the holiday we have this week!  YAY 4th of July!
5. I’m thankful for electricity.  We had a rough thunderstorm with hail last Thursday and I was afraid we were going to lose power again.  It blinked a couple of times but luckily it came right back on.  After last weekend’s power outage, I am much more grateful for the common comforts electricity provides that we often take for granted!

Happy day friends!

Good morning and happy Thankful Thursday (it’s been a busy week)!

Today I’m thankful for the following:

1. I’m thankful our tenant has decided to continue renting for 6 more months!  That definitely takes some pressure off since we can delay finding a new renter for a while.  Plus he’s a great tenant!
2. I’m thankful that we can afford to go to Texas to spend some time with family at the beach this summer!
3. I’m thankful that I was able to successfully complete a fairly tough project at work despite having a cold that is lasting a long time and causing my head to be foggy.
4. I’m grateful for my in-laws who housed us, fed us, and provided us with air-conditioning and running water when our power was out for 26 hours last weekend.
5. I’m grateful our power was only out for a day and not longer and that none of our food in the refrigerator or freezer went bad.

Have a great day!

Good morning friends!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day!  Here’s a list of things I’m thankful for today:

1. I’m thankful for a great 12 month checkup for my boys on Friday with no reactions to immunizations thus far!  I’m also thankful for the doctor’s go-ahead that we can start giving the boys cow’s milk instead of formula.  That is going to save us so much time and money!
2. I’m thankful for a fun-filled weekend!  After our doctors appointment on Friday, we met up with my friend Lindsey and her kiddos for some outdoor time and walking at Saunders-Monticello Trail.  Lindsey took beautiful photos of us a couple of weeks ago and wanted to give me the pictures.  Afterward, we met up with Ben and headed to Fridays After Five where we met our friends Chris and Cara and their little ones.  We had a great time enjoying the beautiful weather and dancing to the live music!  The boys did so great!  Saturday, after an awesome personal record-making 4 mile run, I got to spend some quality time with some amazing ladies helping to throw a baby shower for my friend Amy and her lil guy who arrives in August!  Sunday was low key with some quality family time.  Monday, we celebrated Memorial Day with brunch at Beer Run.  Sarah and Cora joined us for brunch and then we all headed over to Old Mills Trail near where Ben and I used to live and run together for a sunny walk.  Afterward, we took the boys swimming for the first time!  The weekend ended perfectly with a cookout at Ben’s parents’ house.  The boys got their share of hamburgers and fruit salad!
   

   Mommy with her boys in the pool for the first time

   

   Daddy with his boys in the pool for the first time

   

   Morgan at Beer Run for brunch

   

   Carter excited for brunch at Beer Run

3. I’m so grateful for the new drive-thru Starbucks in town!  Coffee and I are best friends now that I have 2 children who like to wake up before 6 AM and unloading and reloading the boys in and out of the car just wasn’t feasible for a latte but now my prayers have been answered and I can get my caffeine fix without waking them up!  An extra special thanks goes out to my cousin Megan for the Starbucks gift card she gave me…my bank account is grateful for that!
4. I’m thankful for the beautiful weather we’ve been having and while I’m thankful for the rain Texas has been receiving due to their drought status of recent years, I’m also thankful that all of my family in Texas is safe and sound despite the floods and storms.
5. I’m thankful for all my friends and family who bring happiness and smiles to my days!  Love you all!

Kind of a long title for a post, I know!

I recently discovered that an individual out there maintains a genealogical website about members of a branch of my family tree.  I’ve always been interested in genealogy so the website alone intrigued me.  However, I discovered that within his website, he was linking to a term paper I wrote my freshman year of college about my relative, Edward F. Mitchusson, who fought and died at the Alamo.

I had created a professional website a while back, leslieelsaifi.com, and linked to my term paper mostly as a way of being able to reference the document whenever I wanted and have a backup copy in the cloud.  I had no clue anyone else even knew it was out there, let alone linked to it!

It’s pretty cool that research I did almost 13 years ago is getting shared with others around the web!

Thankful Monday was a bust but how about Thankful Tuesday!

I’m thankful for the following this lovely autumn day:

1. I’m thankful for our double jogging stroller that I bought used for $50 when I was pregnant.  If it weren’t for this awesome invention, I’d pretty much be getting no exercise or vitamin D via outdoor time.  Last weekend, Ben and I took the boys for a walk in the stroller on the Saunders-Monticello Trail and they seemed to enjoy a nice change in scenery from our regular neighborhood walks.
2. I’m thankful for our new Honda Odyssey that has given us much more room to travel together as a family and allows us to take the above-mentioned stroller to other locations besides our house!  I can’t wait to drive it to Texas!
3. I’m thankful for my husband and his willingness to buy the typical mommy vehicle instead of buying something that the young, cool guy in him wanted.  Ben has NEVER had a new car and I’m sure when his got totaled he was thinking, this is my chance to buy something new and fun.  But I convinced him that we needed a bigger vehicle and now he is driving the 3-year old Subaru Forester while I drive the fancy new van.
4. I’m thankful for my part-time schedule and an employer that allows it.  I work 30 hours a week – 24 hours at work on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and the other 6 hours from home when the boys are sleeping during nap time or at night.  Because of this, I am still able to spend the majority of my time with my buddies which is the most important thing to me!
5. I’m thankful for coffee!  It really does make it easier to get up at 5 AM with only 4 hours of sleep behind me!

Happy day friends!