Casa del Maxwell

We have one more week of packing and purging of things before we load up the truck and move into our new home. I am so excited to have a little more space with a second bedroom, second bathroom and a balcony and to be living in the same complex as a few of our friends, but at the same time, the leaving is bittersweet.


It's not that we're moving far away and leaving behind people we love, like Patrick's sister and our brother-in-law did back in May. It's just that, well, this was our first home together. The first place we picked out and furnished and lived in for the past five years. We know all its quirks and how loud our current neighbors are. I know where all the light switches are without having to run my hand up and down a wall. I know how to find my way from the darkened kitchen to my side of the bed without stubbing my toe.

So, in a couple months, once we get things all set up in Casa del Maxwell, come on out for a visit! We'll have an actual guest bedroom for you to stay in! That is, as long as you don't mind sharing it with the kitties...

"Knuden" Reunion

Hope everyone had a wonderful, fun-filled, Four of July! This year, Patrick and I ventured up to the DFW Metroplex for the first Knudsen Family Reunion and along the way, met up with some friends whom we hadn't seen in awhile.

We drove up from Austin Saturday morning and got to Dallas in time to have very yummy lunch of Cuban food and bottomless mimosas and bellinis with Amy and her boyfriend Glenn (the second 'n' is silent). From there, we drove to our hotel in downtown Fort Worth and then met up with Julie and Matt for drinks at Flying Saucer, where we sampled some new beers and I made faces when sipping Patrick's Double Dead Guy Ale (Brandi, has Chris had this one??) and some incredibly hoppy IPA. We laughed, traded stories (some people might call it gossip) and I think I might have agreed to going to my 10 year reunion somewhere in there. And from the third story of the parking garage, we saw a couple of fireworks go off, but that was about it for our 4th of July celebration.

On Sunday, the entire Knudsen branch of my family (minus Rachael & Hagan) gathered at my cousin Jenny & Curtis' house. I think Jenny was a little sleep deprived, because she wrote "Knuden Reunion" and forgot the 's' in Knudsen on the chalkboard. We got to see people that we hadn't seen in a number of years and even got to meet a few new members. I got to squeeze the neck of some of my favorite cousins, and played with my cousin Lori's rolly-polly of a son, who has the most squeezable cheeks you have ever seen! It was so nice to see everyone in one place since the last time we all got together was almost 9 years ago (not including all the weddings that happened in between.) I have to admit, at first I wasn't to excited about a family reunion when I first heard about it, but we had a bunch of fun and finally got to connect with family that live just around the corner. Can't wait to see the pictures from yesterday!

Birthdays

I have to say that I think I've been pretty spoiled by my past few birthdays. Last year, I spent a week in L.A. hanging out with Courtney in the hills of Hollywood. The year before, I was in NYC, spending time with both Patrick's and my sisters and getting to visit our newborn niece. Three years ago, we actually threw a big Quarter of Century party and made fajitas for about 25 of our friends (learned our lesson with that....order take-out or else your home will smell like fajitas for 3 weeks.) So this year, I think I was a little bummed that I wasn't traveling or planning a party.

It was a nice birthday. Went to lunch with Tracy and our coworker Beth, enjoyed some Mexican Martinis with Patrick and Chris (and almost Susan, but she went to Chuy's instead of Trudy's), watched UT beat up against LSU (and then end up losing the 3rd game of the College World Series), and got a million texts, emails, voice mails, and messages on facebook wishing me a "Happy Birthday." I felt loved. But there was something missing and I'm not sure what that was. Maybe it was just because I've been spoiled before. Maybe it's hitting me that I'm so much closer to 30 than 20.

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Patrick surprised me with the soundtrack to Wicked and the promise of attending the show in August, so I've been addicted to Kristin Chenowith's voice for the past week and can't wait to lock in a date to see it!

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This past weekend, we had planned to go to the Real Ale Anniversary Party down in Blanco for some free beer and music, but with record setting temperatures (106 people!!) and heat warning advisories spreading across Central Texas, we opted for the cold 68 degree water of Barton Springs. Sophie seemed to love spinning in her duckie floatie in the shallow end while we attempted to lay down in order to cover our entire bodies with the water.

And between game night with our small group, Barton Springs, dinner at Guero's, poker with Jake & Jill, and a Goodbye brunch for our friend Steven (who finally gets to be in the same town as his girlfriend Iliana, my college roomie), our weekend was packed. Fun, but packed.

This coming weekend will prove to be no different, I'm sure. Independence Day with a trip up to DFW for the Knudsen family reunion. So excited to see some of these people, some I haven't seen since getting married, and some will be seeing them for the first time (lots of new babies!) I'm just praying for no traffic this weekend.

Personal Trainer?

I can still hear the voice echoing in my ear from last night: "Up! Down! Up! Down!" After doing a few sets of those in a row I tell her, "Now go find Uncle Patrick!"

So happy to have Laura, Eric & Sophie in Austin!

Today...

• our server and internet were both down for the first 3 hours of work this craptastic morning.
• one of my favorite New Yorkers comes to visit for a few days and I get to see her tonight! Looking forward to dinner and drinks with Em.
  
• and last but not least, Austin's population just got a little higher today, since Patrick's sister, our brother-in-law and their adorable little one are in the midst of moving back to the little blue oasis in Texas.
  

Wearing Uncle Patrick's boots

Woo Hoo!

"One sister down, one sister to go!" That's what I told my sister after finding out that Laura, Eric and Sophie were officially moving to Austin. Patrick's and my 5-10 year plan for all of our loved ones to be in Austin is slowly starting to take shape!

It's been quite awhile since we've lived in the same city as immediate family, so I'm a bit curious how often we will get to see each other. I wonder what we'll do for the holidays and if we'll be traveling as much as we used to. But I guess that's what marriage is all about: family and compromise.

So, after living in Brooklyn for the past decade, they are making the leap and setting up shop down here. It's always been something we've wistfully talked about, so I don't think it has still quite sunk in yet. And still a small part of me says, I'll believe it when I see it. But I have faith and we are beyond excited! I am so excited to have them here because I've always wanted to have a closer relationship with them, to actually know them. To see them more than a couple times a year. To have our niece recognize me and know me by name when I scoop her up, instead of "who is this crazy lady holding me?" To babysit Sophie so Laura & Eric can have a night out. To be able to meet for happy hour after work or brunch on the weekend. So, yeah we are pretty darn excited and can't wait!

From New York Trip - Sophie's Birthday

Can't wait to see this face (and her parents') more often!

Re-Visit

Facebook seems to have replaced my blogging. But I miss writing, so I'm going to try to ramp up over here.

In February, we celebrated Patrick's last birthday of his twenties by sending him off with a couple of our guy friends to play some golf while I attended a baby shower. Lots of golf balls were lost and lots of onesies were unwrapped. We then headed down to New Braunfels for dinner at The Gristmill and a Bob Schneider show at the historic Gruene Hall. And as excited as I was to finally get to see a show there, I don't know if I'll ever go back. I guess I'm spoiled by Austin's no smoking laws.

Early in March, after hearing some horribly sad news about a friend, a couple friends and I decided to take a self defense course. I had always wanted to learn how to defend myself in case something should happen, but it wasn't until Sabrina's death that I finally took the step to doing so, she was my catalyst. I still can't imagine what her close friends, family and husband went through and are still dealing with. I didn't take the class just for myself, but also in her honor.

From R.A.D.

Because of some crazy coincedence, we got to spend the last two weekends in March with my sister and her boyfriend Hagan. They came down here for a wedding and then a few days later, we went up to New York to celebrate our niece's 2nd birthday. That's probably the most time I've spent with Rachael since I lived in Arlington! I really enjoyed it and I'm loving that our relationship has grown into friendship instead of just being familial.

We got a behind-the-scenes tour of Food Network courtesy of Rachael, watched our good friend Emily knock a plant over, spied on Guy Fieri preparing for a taping, and ate some of the best food at Tom Colicchio's Halfsteak at Craftsteak. Lots of wine, food and catching up seems to make up most of our time in The City.

From New York Trip - Food Network

Our good friends Brandi and Chris, trekked down to the Big Apple with their one year old in tow to meet us while we were on their side of the country. Pizza, subway rides, bagels and dinosaurs later, we had to bid farewell. It was so good to see them and I'm hoping that another two years don't pass before it happens again.

From New York Trip - Brandi, Chris & Austin

The last day we were in New York, we got to dancey dance with our niece Sophie, a few of her best two year old friends and a bunch of their respective adults. We ate sweet-and-salty cupcakes that I am still craving and laughed at the the adorableness that are two year olds.

From New York Trip - Sophie's Birthday

I hope that I get to see more of our New York families and friends in the near future. Patrick and I do have a 5-10 year plan to have everyone living here in Austin. Just so you know!

The Next Day

As I left Patrick's office last night, I turned my key in the ignition and Barack Obama's voice filled my car. "We have come so far...but there is so much more to do." He spoke of Ann Nixon Cooper and all that she has seen in her century of being on this earth and wondered what the next century will bring. What change will my niece see? What will Patrick's and my children be able to celebrate? Will bans on gay marriage finally be viewed as a horrible injustice the way we now view racism and slavery? I hope and pray that we continue to work towards building a nation not on hate, but on love.

Once Patrick got back home, we popped open a bottle of champagne and toasted to our new President-Elect and to our future.

Yes we can!

Vote!

Friday is that last day of early voting so Go Vote!!


The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

Ike

I have started to write so many times about the horror that is the destruction from Hurricane Ike, and each time, I cannot come up with the words to fully describe my shock, hurt, and sympathy for all those who have been affected. From what I have heard from people who have been to the Gulf Coast and to the Golden Triangle area, things are worse than the media is portraying. Entire communities leveled, some with only the slab of concrete left to mark where their homes once were, others not even that.

Patrick's parents still do not have power, and while that is completely inconvenient and frustrating, they are doing OK. I'm so glad they were safe and were not located closer to downtown Houston, or worse, Galveston. Utilities are being worked on around the clock and slowly, lights are coming on and stores are opening up.

I was at Costco yesterday picking up groceries and tears welled up in my eyes when I saw the pile of donations located at the entrance. Peanut butter, water, tuna, diapers, granola bars, canned goods. Around the store, at least every other person had an least one of those items in their cart, and I'm sure that not all of the people buying diapers had a baby waiting for them at home.

On Saturday, a lot of Austin (including me) was annoyed that we didn't get any of the rain that was supposed to come our way. The UT game was postponed which was unfortunate for people flying in from out of town. And people were cursing the blue, sunny, skies. But I would not have traded any of our annoyances for the horrible things that people elsewhere are dealing with. I am so thankful for the roof over my head, the food in my working refrigerator, the job I still have, and my family and friends that are safe.

Giving Thanks

As two of my co-workers had to leave to go be with their parents in a hospital today, I just wanted to thank the Lord that both my parents and Patrick's parents are doing well. For those of you who don't know, Patrick's dad was in the hospital last week for internal bleeding, but was released last Friday once they felt things were under control. I don't believe they ever figured out quite what was going on, but he's doing well now. Please continue to pray for both Mike and Nancy.
We love you!

The Bell Pepper

While waiting in line on opening weekend to see The Dark Knight (which I highly recommend), some friends joined Patrick and I in entering a contest for the FN Dish where you were supposed to send in a picture of an impersonation of the Iron Chef Chairman. Someone you know did end up winning, just check out the end of the slide show and this results page!

Pictures & Books

Our computer at home is literally sitting wide open on the floor with the monitor displaying a bright blue screen saying something about BIOS. So, that means my pictures of L.A., my new Locks of Love haircut, and our "new" chair are still living in my camera. Blah. I guess they'll show up eventually.

Last night, I finished a cute book that I actually ended up giving my Dad for Father's Day. And despite the title of the book, I think it's really a sweet and loving look at parenthood, but specifically about fathers. Written by mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, wives, and husbands - it let me reminisce about childhood and look towards the future of being a parent and a wife of a father. I hope my Dad enjoyed or is enjoying the book as much as I did.

New Toy

Our computer has been acting funny ever since I turned it off the other day during a lightning storm. And I haven't been able to download my pictures from the LA trip yet. So, in the meantime I have to tell you about my favorite new toy.

Rachael and Hagan got it for us for Patrick's and my birthday and it's amazing! The Roku is the Netflix TV set top box instant player. So anything that you can instantly watch on Netflix on your computer, we can watch on our TV without having to do some crazy wiring hookup. I've been able to watch Showtime's This American Life (love Ira Glass), some of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival shorts (makes me want to go back) and the first feature film I saw on it was The Business of Being Born (started lots of thinking/discussion.)

I give the Roku two enthusiastic thumbs up!

It's been awhile...

It's been over two months since I've written a post. And a lot of things have happened since April, so I'm going to continue my bullet style of last time in no particular order

• We flew to South Carolina to attend Patrick's cousin's wedding and got to hang out with a lot of family, eat some amazing food, and drink a lot of Newcastle. I definitely want to go back when we have more time to see more than the hotel room and visit the fam out there. Patrick's cousins are amazing people and I would love to spend more time with them and their kids since we rarely see them.
• For Mothers Day, Patrick and I trekked up to Arlington to spend it with both sets of parents, Laura, Eric & Sophie and some of my extended family. We got to surprise Mamaw (my Mom's mom, the last grandparent for both Patrick and me) with a homemade Trifle, assembled in our hotel room.
• We did not see the Maxwell/Scott clan in a hotel room for a third weekend in a row.
• Patrick got a promotion! He's now the Operations Manager, the #2 guy in Austin for his company. So, needless to say, he's been working crazy long hours.
• My 19 year old cat Lily passed away about a week ago. She lived a very long, good life and will be missed.

Rachael and Lily cuddling quite a few years ago

• After Lily's passing, and some begging from Rachael, Hagan and Rachael adopted an adorable kitten. Meet Professor Pork Chop! (Now Chloe and Calliope have a cat cousin!)

Professor Pork Chop

• To celebrate my birthday next Monday, I'm heading out to the West coast to visit Courtney. A week long vacation and I can't wait! It will be so nice to get away for awhile, but I'll definitely be missing Patrick while I'm gone. Although, I'm sure he'll be fine playing a bit of Madden and enjoying some golf.

(Both photos stolen from my Sister)

Absence, Update & A Plug

I guess I had a lot to say in February and the beginning of March. But I feel like I've been incredibly busy over the past three weeks and haven't had much time to write. So, since I last wrote:

• Patrick and I have become obsessed/addicted to trying new wines and finding local vendors that sell our favorite Texas wines, thanks to the Hill Country Wine Trail. And now looking foward to the Austin Wine Festival!
• I traveled up to DFW metro to have some much needed girl time with both Amy and Courtney. And got to see Courtney's great-niece!
  
• Easter came and went and for the first time since I was a kid, Patrick and I dyed eggs!
• Our little niece Sophie turned the ripe old age of 1 year old, and apparently has grown teeth and visited the White House.
• The kitties became very interested in our storage closet that holds our water heater. Later, I found out we had a "visitor." After waiting a day in hopes that it would find it's own way out with no luck, I had to extract the scared little bat.

***And a plug for my sister: please visit and comment often on the FN Dish. She's the associate producer and we want her to keep that position! If you check out last week's video, you get to see Mr. Tony Bourdain rant on the Food Network - love that clip!

Growing Older

There's a number of things that I didn't like growing up, but now that I'm a semi-adult, I find that it doesn't kill me or may even now like it.

Brown Flexible Fabric Band-Aids: As a young girl, I wanted something that wasn't so drab. Muppets or Disney or even Clear would have been better than brown. But now, because I have the flex, I can type with my index finger just fine! And they seem to last longer than the plastic bandages anyway.

Singing when prompted by a phrase: My mother used to do this constantly, joined by my father at times, and it always drove me nuts, not sure why, exactly. But yes, I do this now that I'm older. Something someone says will remind me of a song and I will break out into a verse until my mother says "You used to hate when I did that!" I think it's just genetic.

NPR: Seriously, what kid wants to listen to talk radio? I wanted to enjoy music in the car, not have the news rehashed, and thankfully, most of the, time my parents obliged and actually liked a lot of the same music as me. But for some reason, I seem to be tuning into NPR pretty frequently now. Fresh Air with Terry Gross has been my daily entertainment while running to the bank for work and I'm actually enjoying the following of the campaign trail.

Christmas 2007

I have finally uploaded all my pictures from Christmas. I didn't take many this year, and those that I did are mostly of our baby niece.

Patrick and I talked about what a great Christmas we had this year. I was determined to have all our Christmas shopping done early, which was both easier and harder this time around. Harder, since we didn't start till after Thanksgiving. Easier, since we finally set a pretty strict budget instead of like years past where one of us would say "oh, I want to get this other thing for so-and-so...." and the so-called budget kept ballooning. We really wanted this year to be about spending time with our families and that's exactly what it turned out to be instead of the usual running around, crazy, trying to get things done . We wanted to spend time with our New Yorker sisters (et al.) since we only get to see them once or twice a year. And I wanted to squeeze Sophie as much as possible because the next time we see her, she'll have doubled in size.

Our First Tree

I was trying to take pictures of our first Christmas Tree, all decorated and lit up, but Calliope wanted some attention and posed for me too.

Calliope stretching for a belly rub

Presents are all wrapped! I think Patrick is excited that he hasn't had to do any wrapping and that all the presents are actually tagged this year - that way he knows which one is his. See the homemade tags?

The Birthday present is for my sister - a Christmas Eve baby.

For our niece!

Chloe decided to help with the ornaments for the tree. She likes playing with the brass bells and loves attacking the soft cloth ornaments. When I come home from work, I usually find them somewhere in the middle of our living room floor.

Chloe "helping"

A Better Bag

I normally bring my own bags to grocery stores and try to refuse bags when I can just carry the item in my hands. Every once in awhile, I'll forget to bring the bags in, or buy too many groceries to fit into the bags I do bring in, or just plain forget to say "Thanks, but I don't need a bag."

As of today, Whole Foods here in Austin has discontinued offering plastic bags at checkout (they'll still offer 100% recycled paper bags.) And to kick off their campaign, I got a free reusable bag from them! Now, every time I use the bag below, or any other bag I bring in, they discount 10 cents for each bag - which is double what they used to pay!

only 99 cents after today

Hopefully some other grocery stores will follow suit (ahem....HEB, Walmart, Target....) But I think these other places are still just getting used to the idea of people bringing in their own bags. I don't know how many times I've asked the bagger to not bag things in plastic before putting the items in my own canvas bag or "No, I'm not buying that green bag, it doesn't need to go in a plastic bag."

Being a typical 12 year old kid (and because everything they do embarrasses you), I remember getting embarrassed at my mom bringing in her own bags. Now, I'm glad she did that and instilled that into my head. Now I always keep one of those fold-up bags in my purse, just in case.