Pithy Jane Austen sums up how I have felt every day since June here in hot, humid Houston! It makes me not want to do anything other than maybe look at magazines (I heart magazines). Jay on the other hand has been one busy bee.

Now that the house is jacked up and leveled, it was time to tackle the lake of stagnant water under our house. Jay, god bless him, tackled this less than stellar job.

Here he is under the house. See his foot?

He was very dirty!

But it worked! Gallons and gallons of water were pumped out from under our house and into the street:

We also saw Journey this weekend, which was beyond fun! The crowd was a riot. Jay put it best when he said it was like te punchline to a bad joke "It's like being at a Journey concert... In Texas."

Nothing really blog-worthy went on this weekend. Saturday we saw the new batman movie, which I actually kind of liked. Heath Ledger was ridiculously good as the joker. Then we went to our friends Eric and Amanda's apartment complex's pool for a bbq. The pool scene there reminded us all of Cancun spring-break. Everyone there was young, and skinney, and drinking.

Those are my feets in the pic



View of downtown from the pool:

Audikins sticking his tongue out:

At the same time that we bought the "X" Avignon lantern at Restoration Hardware, we also bought four of the Mykonos bronze lanterns. We weren't quite sure what to do with them, until I made a trip to Hobby Lobby and found these perfect shepherd hooks which are in the picture below. And what's even better is that they were on sale for $5.99! I only bought two because I wasn't sure how they would look, and when I went back they were all sold out which is a bummer. But the two stil look cute. Notice Audie trying to get me to open the gate for him, so that he can go out front.

Here is a close-up:


The biggest change in our backyard though, is Jay's secret garden. It is FLOURISHING!

Here is Audie being a good boy waiting outside the garden because he knows he's not allowed in.

Just to show that the garden is for real, here are pics of some of the crops which are just about ready to be harvested ("girls pick, men harvest")

Eggplant:

Grapfruit:

We finally got our new "X" coffee table! And it is HUGE. I knew it would be big, but I had no idea it would be quite this huge. Instead of huge we're going to call it "functional," because it really can fit a whole lot more on it than our old coffee table could. In fact, our old coffee table was probably more of an end table than a coffee table, so this is actually a major step up.

So I have now officially completed all of my "X" purchases. Below are the Restoration Hardware coffee table, Restoration Hardware Avignon lantern, and Target side table:



Here is a bit of a closer view:


And a front view. Notice how our "functional" coffee table dwarfs our utterly non-functional sofa. Can't wait until the sectional arrives!

PS - Next to the sofa, please notice the thank you notes which we are earnestly working on...

I have to also post some pictures from the Rehearsal Dinner, because it was almost as fun as the wedding itself.

What made it really fun was, as always, the people that were there.

Enjoy the ridiculousness:

James' mom did an amazing job with the decor, and I am bummed that I don't have a good picture of it. This is as good of a picture as I can find:

I haven't updated this blog in way too long. One excuse I've been giving is that Audie ate the chord that I need in order to download pictures. Which is true, and until I get said chord there probably won't be any more posts. However, I do have a bunch of wedding pictures that needed posting before any other new stuff goes up. I think I haven't put those up because the sheer number of wedding pictures is pretty overwhelming. But I am happy to say that I picked a few goodies to post. So here they are!

The first one is my favorite, because I feel like it shows how overjoyed I was the whole entire day:


As does this one where we are FINALLY husband and wife!!!

James and Luke looking dapper

The boys and their Danny Noonan hats. They're a riot alright...

The girls and their pretty beachy waves

And lastly

Cograts to us :)

All of the girls finally received their bridesmaid dresses (yeah!). Kate, the best maid of honor ever, immediately sent me a picture of her in the dress:

She looks beautiful! So much better than the 80's prom queen nightmare dress that Coren Moore tried to pawn off on me...

The big project of the weekend (other than the usual cleaning of the house, and putting down the gutter) was beautifying the front of the house. The house came with a black wicker swing on the front porch, and we had a white wicker chair that we got from James' grandmother. Two cans of black spray paint, and few black fingerstips later, we had a black wicker chair to match the black wicker swing. We also put up the American flag, and some hanging flowers. Here is the end result:
I kind of love it!

My correct bridesmaid dresses came in today! Yeah, yeah, yeah!!!! Katie promised that as soon as she gets hers she will try it on, and send me a picture of it, which, of course, will then get posted here. ALSO, James said he sent an email to the guys with the LL Bean khakis I want them to get. Crossing my fingers they will now actually get them! This is what the khakis look like:

I have been bad about getting out a new picture of Audie, our half English, half Neopolitan mastiff. So here he is! The brown stuff on his nose is remnants of the dirt he had been eating just prior to me making him sit for this picture.

This past weekend James and I put together a Passover feast! It turned out really good for our first outing, if I do say so myself. The charoset came out more like a smoothie, and the chopped liver was more mashed than chopped... but all in all not a bad showing. Either way here is our Passover table: Please notice the matzahs, and hagadot, and Seder plate (so authentic!)

On a related table note... as promised, here is a picture of my table with my lovely Provence table cloth from my aunt, my Tiffany bowl (pony) from Katie, my Delft candlesticks from Amsterdam., and a pitcher from the exotic Home Goods. Gotta love Home Goods...

The following day we woke up hugover, but nothing that some chocolate croissants, and baguette couldn't fix. After a lovely breakfast picnic on our bed, we were ready to go see PARIS! Our first stop was to be the Notre Dame. Notre Dame was obviously gorgeous. The gargoyles were cool, and the stained glass windows were pretty. But I'd seen many pictures of it, as well as many other pretty churches before. So off we went to lunch. After another yummy meal, at another lovely brasserie, we decided the next stop would be the Louvre. The Louvre on the outside it breathtaking. It looks like an old palace, and the triangles are interesting to look at as well. The Louvre inside is very stuffy. I think that they don't circulate air in order to help preserve the art? Who knows. We saw all of the classics. I loved the winged victories dress. I thought how I would love for my wedding dress to look something like that (that's foreshadowing...). Saw the Mona Lisa. Again, like at the Eiffel Tower, there was no line, which is apparently unheard of. We walked right up to it, looked at it, and I asked James now what? He said, now you look at it. So we looked at it some more. And then moved on. The best part of the Louvre as far as I was concerned were the benches to sit and look at the art, because at that point the 2 bottles of Sancerre were catching up to me big time, and that, couple with the lack of air in the Louvre was really starting to kick my ass. We made sure to see the Venus De Milo, because it's a classic, and then peaced out. Which James says he was pissed about, but I don't believe him. After another day's afternoon nap, we sat with our Rick Steves book and picked a restaurant to go to. We settled on one with classic French cuisine. Apparently every other English speaker in the area purchased the same book, because there wasn't another French patron in the classic French restaurant. Nonetheless, the meal was devine. I had escargot for the first time. The taste like garlicky mushrooms. Delish. We then decided to go for a walk. We walked through the streets in the general direction of the Seine River. As the River came into sight, James asks, what's that? I didn't see anything, and he goes look at the bank on the other side of the river, and then I did see them sparkling or something like that. So we decided to go see what it was. As soon as we got to the edge of the River, James again goes, what's the Eiffel ower doing? And I look over, and the tower was all lit up in a sparkly light show. It was so pretty! James goes, why is it doing that? And I go I don't know, but it's pretty so I'm going to take a picture, and as I am snapping away, James goes maybe because of this... and takes out a diamond engagement ring, which was sparkling just like the Eiffel Tower was sparkling in the distance. I was so confused. I just kept looking at the sparkly ring, and the sparkly tower, and back again. James claims that that is when he asked me to marry him, but I don't remember that. I do remember asking did you know it (the tower) was going to do that? And James goes I paid them to do that. Really?? No, not really. But when I saw it I knew it was the right moment to propose. AWWWWWWWWW! Although I didn't drink 2 bottles of wine that night, the rest of the night is a blur just like the night before.

James and Gali's European Vacation (where we got engaged!): In August of 2006 my mom and I were planning a trip to Scandinavia where we would meet my uncle and cousins. At the 11th hour the trip had to be cancelled, because my uncle had a work emergency, and I was left with a ticket to Amsterdam. And so, James and I decided to maybe in 6 months possibly go on a trip to Paris, inevitably via Amsterdam. In early October the "maybe, possibly" changed to "definitely!" and we booked James' ticket to Amsterdam. Then, in mid October James found out he was getting transferred to Houston, and plans for that move got underway, which left plans for the Paris trip somewhat at the wayside. Finally, March 10th arrived and with only a Paris hotel room booked, we were Amsterdam/Paris bound. We touched down in Amsterdam, and immediately got on a train to Paris. I didn't expect to, of all things, love the train trip as much as I did, but it was simply amazing to see the European countryside. My fave part was the definitely sheep, they just looked so perfectly preppy against the green hillside. After 4 hours on the train, we arrived at Gar du Norde, and had to endure 3 metros to get to our hotel. James such was a trooper lugging around my way-too-big suitcase (I was NOT about to find myself without something I need in Paris!) Our hotel was nice and, um... cozy, but we loved it. That night, after awaking from a jet lag laden nap, we had dinner in a brasserie around the corner from the hotel and then decided to go for a walk. As we began our walk, we noticed the Eiffel Tower looming over the rooftops, so we decided to walk in that general direction. As we walked, I took about 80 million pictures of the tower, and as we approached we saw that there was no line whatsoever to go to the top of the tower. James, who had been to Europe a few years ago in the summer, said that not having a line is absolutely unheard of. At that moment I didn't necessarily care to appreciate how lucky I was that there was no line, all I could think was how lucky I was to be under THE Eiffel Tower. We quickly zipped right up, and soon enough I was at the top of THE Eiffel Tower. The top floor was too touristy for us (yeah, we're tourists too, but they had, like, fanny-packs and stuff) so we went down a floor, which had equally as amazing a view, but not as many people. We slowly made our way down the Eiffel Tower, making sure to not take any of it for granted. One at the bottom we decided to make our way back to the hotel, and maybe stop for a drink on the way. Nothing really seemed open, until we saw a place which I think was called the Volcano. I'm actually pretty sure it wasn't called the volcano, but that's what it looked like to me, and so, a far as I'm concerned, it was the Volcano. Either way, we go in. I asked for a sauvignon blanc, because I thought that was the most French sounding of all the white wines that I could think of at the moment. The waitress just stared at me for a few seconds, and the says "no no no, you no want that. I will get you a good one." Now, I'm not sure why all the "no, no, no's," because the wine she brought out was a sauvignon blanc, but it was seriously, no joke, the best sauvignon blanc ever. Sancerre is the name. And, ok, I am not 100% sure if this really is the best wine EVER (Sancerre) or if it was simply that I was in freaking PARIS, FRANCE, but I had honestly never ever before or since had wine that good. I proceeded to drink 2 bottles of wine, and James drank the equivalent in beer. Them after that........ yeah right. I have no idea exactly what happened after that. But we obviously somehow made it back to the hotel room, which is pretty impressive considering the amount of French alcohol we had consumed. I also somehow made it through the following morning (albeit barely) which is also pretty impressive. But I will write about that tomorrow. I really meant to write about how James and I got engaged, but this somehow turned into a travel log... I love blogging! Some pics from the trip above.

My bridesmaid dresses are to be made by Coren Moore. Above are 2 pictures. The one on the left is my maid of honor Kate in the bridesmaid dress I want, the Reilly with ruffle (only mine would be navy) and the one on the right is the one I received, the Julie (again, in navy. At least they got that right...)

I have had quite a year! As of January 2007 I moved from Connecticut to Houston, TX, got engaged, started a new job, began planning a wedding, bought a house, adopted a puppy, quit my job, got another (better!) job, and am now bracing for my wedding day which is coming up in a month and half. I decided to start a blog because I always seem to have some sort of project on the horizon, and I think this could be a great outlet/resource into which I can channel all of my thoughts and ideas. I am sure that this blog won't be too pretty right now, but I am thinking that I will either get better at it with time, or... I will lose interest. To be determined...

My current "big project" is my upcoming wedding. I have a bunch of ideas which I hope will translate well the day of the wedding.

I'll start with the colors. The main colors for the wedding are navy and white. Originally I had planned to also have touches of red, but have lost most of the red accents along the way.

Some pictures I like are above