Snow Day

 Apparently, I'm not that MARRIED TO THE BLOG after all, eh?  Yeesh.  It's been weeks since I last blogged.  Yeah, sure.  I could talk about how busy I've been.  But really, I was a total lazy bum there for quiiiite a few days.  Turns out it's pretty exhausting to go on vacation for over two weeks!  Whew.  The day we drove back I left Austin around 9:30 a.m.  Picked Mr. Siss up from DFW around 1.  And we got back to the Lil' Apple at 10:30.  It was a long day, and snowing in Dallas no less!  We just beat the nasty weather here in Kansas.  We passed a couple of overturned cars outside of Wichita.  That black ice will get ya!  Once the conditions got a little slick, I gladly passed over driving duties to Mr. Alaska, thank-you-very-much.  I wasn't going to take any sub jobs for Monday because I figured I would need a day to recover.  But guess what?!  It was a snow day anyway!  Score!!  So I got to spend the day guilt-free.  It was lovely.  I love the snow.  The picture you see here was taken TODAY, not the snow day from a week and a half ago about which I speak.

 Isn't it beautiful?  When we move back to Texas, I can't say I will miss the bitter cold and the gray, wintry days all that much.  But I WILL miss the snow.  And distinct seasons.  That's okay.  You can't have it all.  Wait, can you?!

Our neighborhood has been taken over by flocks (I almost said 'swarms'....hahahahaa) of CROWS.  This is what you see my little Lola girl staring at with intense concentration here.  She was frozen in this pose for quite some time.  She prefers squirrels ("Squirrel?!"), but in their absence, crows will do.  Crows really like to go through your trash.  We don't need a picture of that though do we?

 I knew, just KNEW, I was going to regret not putting on a wee bit of lipstick for this photo.  My lips are almost the EXACT same color as my face.  Oh well.  Then it would've seemed too formal and contrite, and Mr. Siss would've been on to me.  Cute pic though, no?  My friend has this link party on her blog called "Embrace the Camera Thursdays."  I would link it, but I couldn't find it.  Maybe later.  Anyway, that was the spirit of taking this photo.  Just a commemoration of a day in the life.  It's so easy to just get swept up and carried away with it, isn't it?  One of the big blessings in my life right now is TIME.  I am not working a stressful job, and usually not even forty hours a week either.  Neither is Mr. Siss.  And we don't have children.  And we hardly know anyone around here.  So we have...TIME.  Yeah, sometimes I can get a bit restless.  But most of the time I'm just glad to have it.  When you are busy and running around a hundred miles an hour, it's hard to stop and take photos like this and just be GLAD.  GLAD that you are healthy.  GLAD that you are safe.  GLAD that you are loved.  And so many others.  Do not mistake me.  There are days when I'm not always glad.  Gratitude is something I am working on.  I think my default mentality is sometimes to look at people that have what I want, and feel envy, wanderlust.  This leads to negative feelings.  Or pointless feelings anyway.  Then I thought, well, look at all I have that others do not.  Why are you not looking at it that way?  That paints an entirely different picture!  I know.  I know.  This is SO basic.  But just because it is a fundamental truth does not mean it is an easy one.  There is a difference between knowing something to be true extrinsically versus intrinsically.  I'm working on it.  A wise man once said, "You can't think your way into right acting.  You've got to act yourself into right thinking."  That applies to so many things.  Exercising gratitude (although it's somewhat more abstract and therefore the actions can be harder to pin), and getting fit.  How many times have you made a plan of action about fitness, from your couch?  I know I have!  Talked about it.  Thought about it.  But then when it came to actually doing it, I fell short.  I'm back at trying again.  This time trying to put my thoughts away when they are telling me I don't want to work out.  Just do it.  Don't think about it.  Just do it.  And then hopefully, after a few weeks/months of the same pattern, the thought patterns will have changed also.  That's the plan anyway.  I'll keep you posted.  It's only week one.  Dang.  Calm down.

I like our cute little plants in the kitchen window.  Why is it that doing dishes in front of a window is SO MUCH more tolerable than a wall?  I don't know.  But it IS. 

It's ten p.m. and this girl needs to study and get to bed!  What are you grateful for today?

What's on Soriah's phone? From the frozen tundra

I finally ventured out of my living room a few times to play, "What's on your phone?"  Yay, me.  There were a couple of really slim weeks there where the only photos I could have submitted would've been, yet again, more pics of my dog and Mr. Siss.

The first one here is a little gem from Wal-Mart.  Apparently this little guy can read!  Or, maybe, just maybe, he used his sense of smell.  But I like to think it is his adept literacy skills and appreciation for the English language, don't you?

My boss lent me this book.  It is an amazing story that tells what happened to this family in the weeks following Hurricane Katrina.  It totally blew my mind.  I lived in New Orleans following Katrina working as an insurance adjuster, but was not there until five weeks or so after the storm.  This book gives me a whole new appreciation and perspective on DUE PROCESS.  A fascinating read!!

WE GOT A NEW CAR!!  This is our new Subaru Outback!  We are so completely pysched because we have both wanted one for a long time.  We have gotten the windows tinted since this photo and it looks way better.  Now I am back to driving a manual too.  Giddy up.

Who else has to resort to such tactics when their man makes a trip to the store solo??  And btw...this lotion is AWESOME.  And cheap.  What more can you ask for out of a moisturizer?  (Yeah, it even smells good.)

I decided to try my hand at a watercolor.  I think my age was in the single digits since I last participated in this artsy activity.  I am no artist and can only draw the simplest of things, so I have to supplement this using my sense of humor.  My dad liked it a lot and I had fun doing it so I feel successful. 

We are visiting Mr. Siss' family in Anchorage.  This are the results of Day #1 in the annual Spades tournament.  His mom and I kicked the boys' butts! 

A shot of the mountains surrounding Anchorage. 






I'm pretty sure this might be the world's tiniest house.  Or at least the tiniest one in Kansas!  It is down the street from our house and we noticed the 'for sale' sign the other day.  Should we put in an offer?  We could move Lola into it and it could become the world's largest dog house!

The front porch shot of the in-law's pretty house.  A winter wonderland!

I got a pedicure yesterday and was flipping through gossip mags and saw this.  I think it's disgusting.  Who thinks this is pretty??  Blech.  She looks like a giraffe.

I used to do my hair like this all the time when I didn't feel up for the whole blow dry process.  And Mr. Siss hates it!  So I took this pic to show him how de rigeur I am.  Not that it will change his mind one bit.  But still...

I took this on the plane on the way up to AK.  We got to fly first class all the way.  It was awesome!!  I ate my face off and even had champagne!!

Another shot of the beautiful mountains.  I love my little Retro Camera app.

Mr. Siss at the wheel, happy to be visiting home.

Moi, happy to be on vacation.

More fun with the Retro Camera app.

A wonderful weekend of not much

It has been a long, lovely weekend and besides the execution of a couple productive tasks, we didn't really do much. The upside to a weekend filled with a lot of empty space is the illusion that it was much longer. Most of my weekends spent in Austin just whizzed by with incomprehensible speed. Maybe some of that also has to do with the theory that the busier your week, the shorter your weekend. Here's the thing - my life is very simple these days. I'm sure you're already privy to that if you have read my previous posting of late. Yeah, sometimes I miss a lot of the social action and my Austin girlfriends especially. But the last few years have been so crazy, moving all over, switching jobs, and the like, that I'm really enjoying the simplicity for now. I think when we move next June that I will be ready for the change.  For now I am embracing simplicity and a lot of quality time with my man.  It's pretty likely that I will be teaching full time again next year, as well as still taking graduate classes.  And it would certainly be a blessing if at some point in the somewhat near-ish future I find myself pregnant.  The clock, after all, is starting to tick louder.  So the simple life in the mean time - BRING IT.  

Next week, Mr. Siss will be free and clear of the army!!  He has served his three years and now it's time to move on.  We are excited about the journey ahead, but I'd be a fool to not be nervous about the impending financial changes.  Thank goodness for the GI bill!!  He will be taking four classes next spring and that will at least help to pay for the roof over our heads.  

It has been utterly freezing here in Kansas all weekend, hence another portion of my reasoning for not really doing squat this weekend.  It is suppose to be in the negatives tonight.  Oh joy.  It occurred to me the other day that I will experience a colder winter here than I did in either of the ski towns I lived in!  Yikes.  We cleaned house this weekend, watched some movies, and as a first annual tradition, made some Christmas ornaments.  If I had the weekend to do all over again I would have added in there a trip or two to the gym and more reading.  My love for my laptop and all things internet really gets in the way of my reading sometimes.  Gotta work on that.  

Here are the ornaments.  We watched It's a Wonderful Life while we worked on them.  Mr. Siss had never seen it!  He tried to talk me out of it and into seeing something else, but of course I wasn't having it.  Later he did say he was glad we ended up watching it. 

The little painted sleigh and wooden penguin are Mr. Siss'.  He's very good at staying in the lines while coloring and painting.  And I enjoy watching him furrow his brow in intense concentration.

As you can see, they aren't really the most creative ornaments in the world.  But I wasn't really aiming this year to win any ETSY awards, just create a new, happy memory with Mr. Siss.  This is a special Christmas for us this year and I wanted to commemorate that.

I was kind of in a rush at Hobby Lobby (the movie was starting in ten minutes and I hadn't planned ahead.  I'm spontaneous, dang!) and so I bought these scrapbook stickers to glue on there.  They don't work that well with the curved ball so I'm not even sure they'll hang on until next year. 

Can you tell that I made pretty much the most delicate ornaments ever?!!  They have to be perfectly seated upright or else all the goods inside get messed up.  That's okay.  My mom still has ornaments that I made when I was six that have two pieces of glitter on them and they're still cherished.  That's what counts, right?

Okay, are you ready for pretty much the lamest Christmas photos ever?!!

Don't worry!  I am not using them for our card!  I'm either going to wait until next weekend for a do-over, or just use a super cute pic from Thanksgiving that I like.  I just used the self-time on my camera to take these and was in a big rush to beat the setting sun.  The first one is okay.  I'm not crazy about my hair, or the man's beanie.  Don't get me wrong.  I love me some beanie action, but not really in this photo for some reason.  And I would like it closer up.  Like I said, we were in a big rush and my camera was about to die too.

Did I mention that I'm totally not a fan of Mr. Siss' footwear choice either?  When he wears those shoes I always ask, "So when is lift-off?"  I freakin' hate those rocket propelled monstrosities.  But of course, he loves them all the more.




Okay, this second photo...I look so chunky.  Seriously...I look ten pounds heavier here than I do in the first one!  I also think Lola should have on some embarrassing Christmas flare for the next shoot.  The more ridiculous, the better.  We really tried to find Mr. Siss a ridiculous Christmas sweater, but man are they hard to find in this town!  They are really expensive on eBay too.  I already have one to sport from Christmases past.  I will note, however, that the two sweaters we are sporting here were Goodwill finds from this week.  That was the cheesiest one we could find for Mr. Siss.  He was pretty proud of himself for being manly enough to sport a woman's sweater!  Anyway, we can do better.  More on that later.

Thanksgiving 2010: A recap

What a wonderful Thanksgiving it was!  It was a lot of driving, went by too quickly, didn't get to spend as much time as I wanted with all the people I wanted, but it was still totally awesome.  And worth the drive.  And the calories.

Mr. Siss and I managed to leave around 5 pm, the Tuesday night of that week.  I was feeling all proud of myself because I managed to get all of my baked goods packed up nicely.  I have never really baked in my life, hence all the self-congratulation and sense of accomplishment.  I had pumpkin break cupcakes with cream cheese icing, a loaf of pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, and a whole pan of apple crisp.

We had some visiting and school touring to do before meeting up with everyone on Wednesday night.  We broke up the drive and stayed with my friend, Jeff, in Fort Worth before heading down to Austin.  The family was convening for a few days in Austin, all driving in from various parts of the state.  All five of us, plus two dogs, would be sharing a two-room sweet at the Wyndham Garden Hotel (read: not near as nice as a real deal Wyndham) just near downtown.  I don't mean to rip on this hotel, but when you say the room (called a cabina.  really?) overlooks the pool and then it faces the back of the exercise room and you can't even see the pool, that's annoying.  And why would you go to all the trouble and expense to put in a kitchen, complete with full size refrigerator, dishwasher, sink, and microwave, and then supply it with n-o-t-h-i-n-g?  I just don't get that.  Four styrofoam cups.  That's it.  Anyway, enough complaining about the hotel.  It served us well and my mom was even generous enough to foot the bill for us!  Yay Mom!

Emily, the lovely redhead you see above and one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world (and former roommate, last year), was kind enough to host Thanksgiving dinner at her place.  My aunt and uncle (upper left picture in above collage) drove down from Dallas that day and came over, too.  Jason and Maria did double duty, eating at her family's house and then coming over to join us.  I really doubted their eating abilities, but they came through and then some!  My brother had seconds, and dessert!  He ordered a Greenberg smoked turkey and had it sent to Austin from east Texas.  It's definitely my favorite way to have Thanksgiving turkey - SMOKED. 

On Friday the ladies enjoyed a lovely day of shopping.  No, we are not hardcore enough to get up early and go to all the big box stores, fighting crowds and looking for deals.  No deal is that sweet for my liking.  We went and checked out this new-ish part of Austin (2nd Street) where they have some little boutiques and various shops.  None of us had been there before, so we wanted to scope it out.  We went to this great little place (if I remember the name, I will come back here and link it) that even served us mimosas while we shopped!  My mom bought me this super cute necklace and we had a lot of fun just trying different things on and taking our time.  Hangin' out.  Then, since we couldn't really afford anything else in their shops, we headed off to Marshalls!  Ha ha.  I had to go back to my old shopping spot.  It paid off.  I bought two adorable dresses, one that my mom thought was way too tight and then I bought it anyway.  The ladies that were working the dressing room were all winking at me on the side while I tried it on, like, "Yeah girl, don't listen to yo momma.  That dress is hot on you!  Mmm  hnh." 

Friday night we all met up for dinner at Curra's.  Holy crap.  The enchiladas were amazeballs.  The Chiapas enchiladas...I'm tellin' you.  Mr. Siss went into food coma for a bit.  He was so happy.

After Curra's some of us headed to Lustre Pearl to meet up with Emily, her boyfriend Gilbert, and some of his family.  I missed my old stompin' grounds and really wanted to get my ping pong on and beat all of the boys (who claimed they had improved since last spring).  I totally whooped them.  It was greatness.  Then my brother crushed us at Foosball.  He's a Foosball champ.  The man's got skills.  What can I say?

Saturday morning it was time to part ways.  Always the sad part.  My brother would be leaving for Baja in a few weeks.  My sister-in-law would be holding down the homestead in South Padre while he's away.  So I knew it would be a while before I saw them again.  Sad face.  Luckily I will be seeing my mom for a couple of days over Christmas before we head to Alaska.  Overall, it was an excellent holiday (would've been better if we could've seen Dad) and I really have so very much for which I am very grateful.