Happy Halloween!

I have been a major blog slacker recently. I just haven't had time! I fully intended on doing a million posts last Friday when I was working at the schools but their internet wouldn't let me. Plus, my camera is dead so you will just get mini-posts for the next bit. Again, please excuse my pictures, they are on my 1974 iPhone. 


On Saturday, we met with my family to have our annual pumpkin carving party. We had brunch and got to work. I wish I could show you the step-by-step of how it is done, it is actually very easy! I promise to do a better post next year! Below is my final result: cute Dracula! Notice the blood dripping from the mouth.

Saturday night, we had a friend's birthday costume party. We went as hippies. I LOVED our costumes. The best part was that I got to wear flat boots!

Happy Halloween!

Tuscany Part 2

Saturday, our plan was to head to this cute little town called San Gimignano and then to Florence. It was Abbey's birthday so we needed to start the day with some Prosecco.

San Gimignano's cute streets

Look-out over the town

We saw a wedding in town!

My favorite part of the town was the Tuscan ceramics. I fell in love! We found this amazing shop that had hundreds of ceramics. You weren't allowed to take pics or I would have a million. The ceramics are a bit pricy and I had next-to no room in my luggage so I bought the essentials: olive oil container, pasta forks, and a (non-pictured) Christmas ornament.

Off to Florence! 

First Gelato stop of the trip

Fake David statue

In front of the Ponte Vecchio

We all got friendship necklaces with our names

Showing off our necklaces!

Close-up of the Ponte Vecchio

We needed a drink! And free Wi-Fi!

Golden Doors at the Baptistery

The Duomo

That evening we went to a delicious dinner at Abbey's favorite Florence restaurant, 13 Gobbi

Cute interior

Birthday Girl!

Tuscany Part 1

On to the trip! I have broken the posts up as to not bore myself and you. 


Erin, Jennifer and I flew into Rome and landed Thursday morning. Abbey picked us up at the airport (on time!) and we started the drive to our villa. Side Note- Abbey has been appointed to pick me up from airports all over the world (LA, Vegas, and Dublin) and has been at least 2 hours late for each of these pick-ups. Her saving grace was that she flew into Rome so her flight made her on time. MOVING ON... Abbey drove and I was the navigator in our miniature car. I can read maps. BUT, Abbey had Google Maps directions (no pictures) printed out and the Italian road signs are not the same. We started out on what should have been about a 3 hour drive. The entire drive, it just didn't feel right. We weren't seeing any of the signs we were supposed to see. After many turn-arounds, stops, attempting to iPhone map, we realized we were on the wrong highway! Luckily, Italy isn't very wide so even though we were driving up the wrong side of the boot, it wasn't horrific. We got to our Villa about 10PM and had dinner there. 

We ate Caprese at every meal! 

Friday morning, we woke up to see our amazing villa in the sunlight! 

The place was more of a compound of villas. You can see Abbey in our doorway. We met 2 older couples from Georgia staying there too!

 The main office of the compound

Villa pool and views!

We started off to find wineries! Apparently we have some issues with directions because we started out the wrong direction down the highway. We couldn't figure out why we weren't seeing any wineries! This was one random one we found that was obviously someone's personal winery. 

Olive oil farm! I bought a bottle for myself and my parents!

Once we went down the right road, we found this AMAZING winery in the Chianti region. Click to see their website here! I ordered wine and had it shipped home. I'm not a white wine drinker, but they claimed to have the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world. The Prosecco (Italian version of Champagne) was amazing too. I ordered a Chianti Classico and Prosecco for myself, and the SB for Brooke. When I go back to the area (yes, when), I will be staying at this winery.

Tasting

All of the yummy-ness

Our new friend, Rafa

Another view of the winery

My purchases. Please excuse the poor quality. My camera broke mid-way through the trip so this is from my ancient iPhone.

Days 2 of 4 complete!

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Series

I have about 10 blogs to do about my trip so I'll start with the shortest! The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Series. It would be redundant for me to blog about each book so I'll do one quickie one. I started book #1 before the trip and finished the final book the day I got back. We had some down-time in Spain while Abbey was working so Jennifer and I spent that time reading. 

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nets

All by: Stieg Larsson

Background:

I had heard lots about this series. I heard the first book could be hard to get into and that the characters could be confusing. BUT, I heard it was worth it. 

First Thoughts:

Everyone was right about it being hard to get into. The first book focuses a lot on Swedish economy and random stuff that I had no clue about. Once I hit page #150 or so, I breezed through all three books. The characters all had Swedish names so I was a big lost. Even after reading all of the books, I still don't think I know all of them!

Final Thoughts:

I loved this series. It focuses on 2 characters that carry though all three of the books. Mikael is a reporter who finds himself researching a 50 year old crime with the help of a young anti-social girl named Lisbeth. It can be a little intense (I heard the movies were even more so) but it was great. I highly recommend!

This Week: Europe!

Wednesday, I am leaving to go to Europe with college friends Abbey and Jennifer, and Fort Worth friend Erin. Abbey lives in Spain so we will be starting with a week in Italy, followed by a week in Spain. This is what I am looking forward to:


Thursday-Sunday: Tuscany
We will be staying at a villa with wine tasting, cooking classes, and relaxation

(This is not our exact villa because I lost the email with the link but the feel is the same)

Sunday-Wednesday: Rome

Abbey goes back to Spain and we three are staying in Rome at a hostel with a private room and shared bathroom (we're living big!). Last Euro trip with Abbey, we only stayed in hostels and I loved it. It's not for everyone, and something that I will probably outgrow, but I love it for now. It's cheap, clean, lots of young people, and easy.

The Colosseum

Vatican City

Borghese Gallery

Wednesday-Wednesday: Southern Spain

Erin heads back to the US while Jennifer and I fly to Spain to meet Abbey. She lives at a European dude-ranch in the southern region of Spain (as best as I can tell...). We will meet in Seville, stay the night, then head to her dude-ranch to lay on the beach, ride horses, and chillax. 

I really have no idea what her area looks like. This is a guess.

I have been so busy A) trying to get the big stuff on the wedding planned and B) working that I haven't had time to get excited yet. These pics definitely helped!

The Proposal!

We're engaged! Here's the story... 

Background: I am an extreme planner. I want to know every detail of every event. When I asked him a million times what we were doing, what I should wear, etc., he kept saying, "You just need to go with the flow." 

Last Thursday, he sent me an email saying he won a trivia contest on one of the football message boards he frequents. Below is the letter. He told me I could pick what I wanted. I said either the tour or the koozie. Ha! PS- I couldn't figure out how to put a document on a post so here's a screen shot.

We went to Austin for the weekend to "visit his sister." We got in late Friday night and just went to dinner with his sister's family at Chuy's. Saturday, we got up, had breakfast, walked around their neighborhood, and then the two of us went to watch the Tech and Texas games. We ended up at a sports bar and watched the games with a billion other people. He told me we had to leave at 5:00 PM because he had a surprise. He said we were going on the tower tour he won. When we got there, they asked us to just hang out because they were waiting for a large group to show up. 10 minutes later they told us that the group didn't show so it would be the two of us alone. Below is us waiting:

When you go on the tour, they make you walk through a metal detector and Johnny went off! This was NOT supposed to happen. First, the person letting us through the metal detectors said really quickly, "Ohh let's just use the hand wand for him!" Then the guides at the end of the hall yelled at me to "come on down" to the elevator so Johnny could get frisked in private. Once we got to the top, they let us walk around the top and it was so pretty! We got lucky because we missed the rain by about 30 minutes. 


View of the south mall:

We made the loop and he stopped me, said all of these great things, and popped the question! Self-pic after: 

View of the ring. Every pic we took came out blurry! I saw a picture of a similar ring on the internet but never saw it in person. The ring on that website was not exactly what I wanted so we had someone make our ring with a few changes. Click here to see the inspiration ring. It came out perfectly! 

Another after pic! 

Where it happened

He had another surprise lined up for dinner but told me our reservations were not until 8:30 so we had an hour to kill. We went to Eddie V's for some celebratory drinks. I found my new favorite drink: ginger vodka, ginger ale, and lime. 

My surprise was dinner at the Vince Young Steakhouse! I had been dying to go there and even made a joke earlier in the day that he would never take me there. Johnny's friend knew one of the owners so Johnny let him in on the secret and they spoiled us all night. 

First, they treated us with yummy champagne. 

We started off the meal with a cheese plate and yummy salads. 

We both got steak and I had mine topped with Crab Oscar. 

Our surprise dessert! 

The meal was one of the best I've ever had. Highly recommend! 


Behind the scenes:
1. There was no large group we were waiting for. Johnny had purchased all of the tickets so we would have a private tour. 
2. Saturday afternoon, he packed a bag of my dress and my make-up so I could change before dinner. To get the bag to the car, he needed a distraction. He enlisted the help of his 6 year old niece, Avery. She took me to her room to show me her red coat. Random. 


The whole experience was amazing and perfect and I am so excited for everything to come!