I guess my excitement was a little premature with regards to the new car.  Although with it being a ‘new’ car, you don’t expect any problems on pretty much the first day you use it really do you?

I’ll explain in a minute, but first, our weekend…The boys have developed a sudden case of camera shyness so not many pictures I’m afraid!

On Friday Col went up into the office, so I took Rowan for his first experience of American grocery stores, which means, we did very little grocery shopping and instead enjoyed the other ‘half’ of the shops! lol!

We went to Walmart, Target and H.E.B where we dandered around, picked up some bits’n’bobs and collectively complained about the heat.  Because this time last year I had no car and was essentially stuck in the house all day most days, I skipped the insane mid-day summer heat here.  I’m starting to realise that was a blessing.  I couldn’t even touch the steering wheel it was so hot.

Friday night, we had been asked out to dinner by Cindy and Tim and as it turned out we ended up going with them to Janet and Pauls house for burgers by the pool.  Janet has a beautiful house and for those of you who don’t know, she’s a wonderful cook – as is her husband, which we discovered on Friday evening.  His burgers were delicious!

Anyway, we chatted, swam in the pool, ate, ate some more and I wasn’t expecting just how awestruck Rowan was at everything.  The mere concept of someone having a pool in their garden at home is unheard of, mainly cause it’s cold and would probably spend most of the year frozen solid.  He was just open mouthed at the whole thing.  He keeps talking about ‘living the dream’.  We told him that he arrived at just the right time, because he gets to see the ‘best’ of living out here and that we don’t always live as lavish as we perhaps have been for the last few days, simply because we’ve had no money (thank heavens for our tax return coming in a few days after he arrived!).

As soon as dinner was over, he didn’t even wait for dessert, he just went back outside and sat listening to the crickets for a few minutes sipping on a bottle of Shiner Bock (Texas beer).  I watched him through the window and it brought tears to my eyes and a lump to my throat, I’ve never seen him so chilled out and relaxed.  It’s amazing watching someone experience something like this for the first time, the sheer wonder and amazement, his eyes light up at even the smallest of things that I’ve noticed we’ve grown to take for granted.  Him being here has made me re-appreciate this place a bit I think!

After his few minutes of quiet introspection, he stripped back down to his swim shorts and jumped right back in the pool.  He couldn’t quite figure out why someone had a pool in their garden, the weather to use it and yet they weren’t in it every minute of every day! LOL!

Rowan and Col swam out there alone for a bit while I sat inside talking to everyone (wouldn’t be like me!).  When we got home, Col said that Rowan told him that he loved it out here (heat and insane humidity aside) and that when he got home to Ireland he was going to start saving for his next trip.  Col told him that you get a 90 day travel visa when you come to the States and he’s welcome to stay for as long as he likes, any time.  I’m thrilled, I was worried that the travelling would have a negative effect on him to the point that he’d pause before considering coming back out – I’m glad I was wrong.

On Saturday, I had to get up at the crack of dawn, worse still I had to wake Col.  Although Col is definitely a morning person, I felt bad waking him up so early at the weekend, but I definitely didn’t feel like driving myself into the city only a few days after getting my ‘freedom’ (and, to be honest, I’m not sure I’ll ever feel confident enough to drive into the city!).

Now, a little history – I met Amber online about 6 or so years ago and she’s been my best friend ever since.

This is Amber and from the day and hour we ‘met’ online, she’s been a bad influence on me! LOL! When I first came to visit, she got me started into scrapbooking, I’m a creative person, so it didn’t really take much.  You see, everything I become addicted to or obsessed with and pretty much everything I spend money on can somehow be traced back to Amber, she gets the blame for a lot of things.  This is one of them! lol!

In the beginning, every 2 week vacation I went on in the States, I bought enough scrapbooking supplies while out here, to go home and make my scrapbook.

It was handy because although I never had exactly what I wanted or needed, I just bought enough to make a scrapbook, I went home and I scrapbooked.  Here, on the other hand, is a lot different, in that it is now at the stage where I have a room for my Scrapbooking supplies and workspace to do it and am now building up this fortress of crafting supplies.  My point is, I’ve gone somewhat mad since getting here (again, Amber’s fault!).

Anyway, that’s the back ground.  So when another bad influence friend Helen here in Houston, asked me a few months ago if I was interested in going to a scrapbooking convention I almost exploded with excitement!

It was here last year too, but I didn’t know anyone and ended up not going, but this time, I handed her my money and told her to sign me up for classes.

Yes, you read that right, scrapbooking classes!  We enrolled for 5 classes and I have to admit I was even a little nervous as Col drove me to the Galleria – I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I got to the Westin hotel just a little before 8am, Helen arrived, we checked our lunch bags and headed off to our first class where I ended up winning a door prize! yay!

What a day it was! I learned so many techniques and ideas! We had to take some basic supplies, but everything else was provided for us and the kits we got on our  way in to the classes were filled with some serious merchandise! We counted it up and the kits definitely covered the cost of the classes (and sometimes then some!).  It was so much fun, the day flew by and ok, I came home with $200’s worth of seriously great bargain scrapbooking supplies but it was worth it and I’m already excited and geared up for next year.

While I had a fantastic day, the boys on the other hand, did not!

When Rowan got up, he sunbathed for a while, they ate some frozen pizza for lunch and went to the sports shop close to our house ‘Soccer for All’.  Rowan ended up getting an MLS Allstar shirt for a STEAL.  They then tried to find a batting cage so they could have a crack at (please ‘scuse the poor unintended pun!) some baseball but they ended up relatively lost and unable to find the stupid place.  Which worked out ok cause I was finished over an hour earlier than I thought I’d be (turns out I can shop pretty quickly when I want!).  On their way to pick me up, the car over heated.

This started the afternoon from HELL with regards to the car.  We ended up parked outside the Westin hotel, in rush hour, with some kind of kid-bonanza going on, there was a whole bunch of young teenagers dressed in flashy dresses and tux’s and us, sitting there with the bonet up on the car letting her cool and pouring the best part of a gallon of water/coolant into her.

It didn’t stop there, a thunder storm had taken out lights across the city, so the rush hour traffic was moving snail paced.  So when we eventually DID get back on the road, it wasn’t for long and we had to stop mid-way and take a long walk around a CVS until she cooled down again.  We eventually got home, 3.5hours after leaving the Galleria (for what is, at most a 40minute drive), we were all stinking (cause we couldn’t run the AC and in stormy weather the humidity is awful) and grumpy.  It wasn’t a good time!

We changed cars and headed to Spring Creek BBQ for dinner.  Rowan wasn’t as fussed on it as he has been on other places we’ve eaten.  I don’t know what it is, I know when we had Nicky and Nikki over on their pitstop home they weren’t as fond of it either.

We love it, but people at home aren’t accustomed, most not even aware of this kind of food so it might take some adjustment.

In order to make us all feel better after such a crappy afternoon, we broke out the Sing Star and sang until late! lol! What better way is there to make yourself feel better than to sing into the wee hours?

Sunday was another stormy day, so that ruled out our plans to go to Galveston Beach, I let the boys lie in and went out on my coupon shopping trip for the week (my first in 3 weeks!) where I did a little shopping for Rowan and pushed the boundaries of my driving a little more.

When I got back the boys got themselves sorted and we headed out to introduce Rowan to the American Breakfast culture!

He ordered a Lumberjack, which, for those of you who don’t know, consists of eggs (whatever way you want), a slice of ham, 2 sausages, 2 slices of bacon, hash browns, toast and pancakes.

The lady accidently applied my ‘2 slices of ham’ to everyone’s breakfast – so, basically, there was a butt load of food.  Not only did he clear his own plate, but he finished the meat I couldn’t eat and had a slice of Col’s ham too.  He definitely enjoyed it and said he’d like to go back.  I’ve NEVER seen anyone polish off an entire lumberjack.  It was impressive! LOL!

After Breakfast, my grand plan kicked in to play and I didn’t give Col or Rowan much choice about what was going to happen! LOL!

Since I’m all about progress and checking things off my to-do list, Col was sent off to get a haircut, since, on Friday night, someone thought that Rowan and I were his kids, while he was there, Rowan and I shopped in Target cause Rowan needed shorts/swim shorts and I needed lightbulbs.

Next up we headed down to Men’s Warehouse in Town Square where it was my turn to sit back and enjoy the wedding planning and the Boys turn to do the work.  Our sales assistant was awesome, he’s a young guy, just started working there and we had quere craic with him!

He had us in fits the whole time and was bowled over by the fact that we are paying for our attendants garb.  It’s traditional here for the Wedding Party to buy their own get-up.

We went with the more traditional route at home, it’s customary for the couple to take care of that kind of thing.  It took over an hour, we filled in forms, the boys got measured, tried some things on, we picked the suits, waistcoats, ties etc and discussed some options that Col is considering adding at a later date – which I’m excited about cause I think it’ll look awesome if he does decided to go with them.  Anyway, the guys suits are ordered and paid for which was something I took great pleasure in crossing off our list!

Next we decided to head out to our venue and square up the bill with our coordinator.  When we got there the place was deserted (I guess the storm made everyone go home) so we didn’t get to sort things out, but no harm done.  Rowan got to see the venue and take a peek around which was nice.

 

Originally, we were supposed to go to Cindy and Tims for dinner and swimming around now, but because of the stormy weather, we all decided postpone it and instead on the way home from the venue, we stopped in to the cinema and picked up some movie tickets before dinner.

For dinner, Rowan had his first experience of my favourite fast food restaurant here, Buffalo Wild Wings!

We ordered our ususal for Rowan and Col and i ordered a grilled chicken wrap with a side salad.  The lady asks if I want my side salad now and I say yes.

She comes back and gives me my salad and there’s grilled chicken strips on the side.  I don’t think much of it, maybe this is something new, what do I know? But after I’m done eating most of it, she brings me over another side salad this time with my wrap beside it.  I’m like ‘huh?’.

She said, ‘Oh I totally screwed up there and you didn’t notice’ (yeah, cause that’s my job to notice!), ‘I gave you someone elses order, but it’s ok you can just take it home’.  So I went home with a full meal of left overs!

Anyway, Rowan enjoyed Wings and we managed to sneak in an hour of sitting on our butts at home before heading out to the movies.

What a film! I won’t say anything about it because I want everyone to go and watch it but I think it’s one of, if not, THE best film ever made.  We all loved it and buzzed for over an hour after it was finished.  Fantastic!

No Sing Star before bed last night, but it was another late one – I don’t know how Col manages to get up for work in the mornings, but he’s fighting fit!

Today is another murky grey storm day here in Sugar Land, Col is on his way home to pick up Lexie and take her to the dealer, for what I can only imagine is going to be a battle.  Rowan is playing COD on the PS3 and I’m not sure what we’re going to do for the rest of the day – suggestions on a postcard please!