Iberian Daydreams

Ugh, I miss Europe.  I want to drink coffee and eat little sandwiches from here again, and tomorrow would not be soon enough.  Well, I'm behind on getting the real pictures from my camera onto my computer, plus the whole "I don't have Photoshop anymore because someone stole my old computer," so, this little photo from my telefono will have to hold you over.

Well, I have been wanting to switch blog servers, or something, or just do a big ole re-vamp of the blog, but I'm struggling for creative ideas as to theme.  Other than my utter lack of earth-shattering blog ideas, summer is progressing-ish.  Lawry is now in his second internship and also in the midst of applying for his second year internships.  Those normally end up as the permanent job offer so he's nothing short of busy at all of the hours.  But his adorable red-headed self still makes time to let me know he'd rather be in watching endless hours of Mad Men with me in Austin.  Great man, that Lawrence. 

I'm dragging on a bit here, so I'll leave you until tomorrow, when a magical idea will occur to me and this blog shall be a new space of wonder and merriment, right?

Adios!

-Mals

Crafticals

My summer has arrived!  I am spending my days doing some delightful domestic work.  I made a pillow?! I know, right? And, I made some pesto-shmesto and did some garden up-keeping.  In other more interested news summer of long-distance lovers is going better.  Lawry is in Austin again this weekend to see me off before mi mother-daughter voyage.  Since I just mentioned the mother-daughter voyage, I guess this is a good time to tell you that I'm going to be a little offline for a short spell.  But when I come back we will drink wine together (in spirit) and I will tell you great tales of Europa!  For now, look at my crafty skills.  The left is the original pillow covering, the right is my new covering and the middle is Michele Norris, bringing you the day's headlines.

Happy Summering friends,

Mals

Reset Button

Hey there, you!  Remember me?  I used to be relatively entertaining and fun and I told you cute stories about my tall red-headed husband and our little teddy bear pup.  And you had fun comments about those stories and or the related pictures.  Well, I've missed that all year long, but I want to make amends.  Well not so much amends as much as I'm just going to restart our relationship and maybe you will too?!  Alright, hurray!  Well, how was your year?  I hope it was good and blessed.  Ours was tough.  A new teaching job, Lawry started Lawyering School, a new city with highs and lows of its own.   But we also notched another year of madly-in-love-with-each-otherness, so that was pretty good.  Well, I want to share all of the everythings about this past year, but that would be a long post, and I'm figuring we're starting this thing back up fresh, so I'll leave you now with a cute picture of Lawry enjoyin one of his basic food groups.

Well toodles amigos!  I'm doing some crafting tomorrow, so maybe I'll show you the finished project?  I mean, if it's good, I will totally do some virtual-bragging :)

-Mzzz

Labor Daze

Oh I was so so thankful for a three day weekend this weekend, particularly for hill country watering holes...

In my opinion, so much better than a community pool...

Among the obvious swimming and touch of hiking, we had a wonderfully Wambrano weekend.

• Hung out with new FRIENDS! We have friends in our new town!
• We visited a church a second time AND had a lunch with the pastor (we're not that good, they invite all the new people out once a month or so, they made it easy on us).
• We had extensive conversations on the church and our beliefs (I think if I love any earthly thing more than Lawry, it's me and Lawry together).
• Went to Lawry's Mecca--Ikea--and despite Tina Fey's best predictions, I did my best to not give in to the eventual "Ikea Couple Test"
• Sewed stuffed and it worked!
• Grilled incredibly delicious Labor Day dinners
• Made this week's goals (have I mentioned how much I love my marriage?)

Until next time brothers and sisters,

Mals

PS We are now Texas State Parks Pass owners, so if you want to go camping or hiking or swimming with us during this next year--you'll get in for free with us!

More Roadtripppin'!

So these pictures are on Lawry's thumbdrive, I have to remember to grab it from him and this is why it takes me so danged long to post stuff!

So after Flagstaff...

SEDONA!

 Oh my, the southwest, you've won my heart, and you are less hot than Texas.  You are win-win.

 Taking tons of detours to finally hike up to the arch in the canyon? Worth it!

Then, after a stopover in Sin City, we finally arrived at Yosemite!  Which truly deserves its own post, so until next time friends!

Resting from week one of work,
Mals

We'll make it by sunrise

Before beginning our Austin adventure, Russell wanted to pack up our things and drive.  It's not something I ever thought I'd do, especially now that I'm not in college anymore, but golly, we had the time of our lives... so far :)  Well, it was a le long trip, so I'll blog about in installments, because I love the suspense :)

Day 1-2: Palo Duro Canyon and Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, TX; Flagstaff, AZ

 The thing about camping in Texas in the summer... it does NOT cool off at night, but watching desert storms roll in might be on my new favorite vacation activities list.

 So Cadillac Ranch may be one of the coolest places in Texas... this crazy (and wonderful) man decided to bury some Caddies on his ranch and then lets anyone come out and spray paint whatever the heck they want.  People grab extra spray cans just laying around and let loose on these cars.  It's a blast!

Flagstaff, AZ is a new city on our "Ideal Places to Live" list, anyone know if they'll have a need for some fiery redheaded lawyering in 3 years?  We're so there.

Up next: Sedona and Yosemite! (we drove covered quite a bit of ground on the front leg of this voyage)

Excited about the new school year,

Mals

Austinians

Austinites? Austinians? Austiners?  Enlighten me.

We're so excited to get more use out of these...

So much so that we made our FIRST EVER REI purchase! And became REI members... whoa, we are part of the cult!

We're really proud of our useful storage purchase... though we do have to take it back down so they can deep clean the carpets whilst we are gone on our western voyage.  We are demanding tenants.

Moving in and out,
Mals