this and that

So we're planning on moving in July this year. We're not sure where yet, but we think out time at The Triangle has come to an end. Its been a great place to live, incredible nice and cozy, but it's been over run by the younger college generation. Since we want to start a family eventually, I can't imagine pushing my newborn down the hall here while the college girlies run around gossiping about boys!! Mark and I have always said we feel like the RAs of the building, which is kind of funny. We never talk to anyone around us other then say hi, but we just feel so much older! With that said we looking into becoming a part of a ministry called apartment life. We have friends who have done this for 5 years and they really got a lot out of it. Basically we would live in another apartment complex around the Austin area and find ways to engage the apartment community. We would work with the management, have a monthly budget, and plan events to create more of a community within the complex. We're really excited about the opportunity, we have an interview next Friday. Once we know more I will update!

Mark has been at an executive meeting in Washington DC this week, I feel like I have barely talked to him! because I haven't! He comes home tonight around 10, and we plan to have a nice relaxing weekend together, hopefully we can accomplish that.

The weather here in Austin has been absolutely crazy lately! Its January 19, and 80, yes 80!!!! degrees outside! Most people love it, and yes it's nice but the 40 degree up and down in the temps has me constantly sick. I'm sure next week it will snow, it would only make sense now!

I've been addicted to a show on Lifetime called Dance Moms. The season premier was last week and this show is just ridiculous! Its about 6-7 little girls who are apart of a Dance Company and follows them through their training and competition season. The  main part of the show is the ridiculousness of the moms and the dance teacher. The teacher is SO rude and mean to the little girls and their moms, but they moms have nothing better to do then sit at the studio and gossip up in the viewing gallery! They cry every week saying they don't know why they subject their kids to this, yet they are still there... I guess I shouldn't judge too much since I am the one sitting on my couch watching the train wreck!

Mark and I watched the Kings Speech last weekend, what a great movie! I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know anything about English Monarchy other then Queen Elizabeth. It was a really moving movie, I highly recommend it!

and that's it for today!

Vienna, Austria!

Just a few of the many pictures from our trip!

Seared Tuna on Austrian Airlines flight! 

Veiner Snitchel! (SP???)

Stephansdom

Emperors square

This is where Hitler had his famous speech in Vienna

The old wood doors everywhere were so beautiful 

most amazing coffee E.V.E.R. 

Our friend Maurice! 

Pizza with Ham! Behind Mark is a machine you can pay .50 Euros to go to the potty! 

Emperors Summer Palace dressed up for the Christmas/New Years Markets! 

Mulled wine and delicious pastry! 

One of the booths at the markets

The emperor built this for his wife, so she would have a place to go in the summer and look out over the city. 

Walking around with an open beer is completely legal! 

Famous Opera house

Beer/keg???

cheers! 

Mark's short ribs

"The Shovel"

Christmastime

Merry Christmas!!

I'm only a few weeks late right? Mark and I had a busy Christmas this year. I worked the week before and Mark was in NYC for some company meetings. We both packed up on Friday before Christmas Eve and drove down to Houston. We spent Christmas with my parents this year, same as last. Christmas Eve morning we went over to my high school best friends house to play with her baby!!! Turner is the sweetest little thing, she is so happy and such a delightful baby! We had a great time, ate some pizza, and played the dancing game on the Wii! Mark danced to Kung Fu Fighting, and yes I have a video. Ill keep that one around for awhile as leverage... We went to church on Christmas Eve and had a delicious dinner a Raffas, a new family tradition! Christmas morning was nice and relaxing. We opened gifts and had a great breakfast. Mark got his shoes from my parents he has been patiently waiting for. I got all of the rest of my bedding from our registry. Actually my mom MADE my European pillow shams! They look so amazing, we love them! Eric, Cate, and Elle came down to Kingwood around 2, and we had a great Christmas feast, another round of Christmas presents and a few games of Banana Grams!


A few weeks before Christmas we started planning a trip to Vienna, Austria. Mark has a friend who flies for Austrian airlines and is based in Vienna. Our original plan was to get up super early on Monday morning the day after Christmas to fly to EWR, and then take a train (I found it it would be 4 trains) over to JFK (where Austrian flies out of). Turns out the flights booked up so we ended up leaving Christmas night to fly to EWR. It was a good decision though, we got to sleep in on Monday before heading over to JFK, which took awhile but saved us a lot of money from taking a cab. It was kind of fun! We boarded our flight for Austria around 5:30 PM EST.

The flight was amazing. We had business/first class seats, and I feel like I can never go back to economy now... The seats laid out into beds and moved into all kinds of directions. There was a chef on board who served amazing food, our appetizer was seared Tuna, followed by beef tenderloin, followed by a chocolate cake. There was a coffee menu with about 10 different kinds of coffee/cappachino etc on it. Delightful! We didn't get much sleep on our way over there but watched a lot of movies! It was really a great flight and we had a good time. We landed in Vienna around 7am their time, and took a train to our hotel which was only about 10 minutes away.

Ill post more details and pictures in my next post!