Re-LAUNCH!

Hey y'all!

Today is the day I am officially going viral! This blog has been pretty exclusive and the only way you could read it is if you were given the link for it, but today that has all changed! Along with a new look and layout other changes will continue to happen in the days to come so don't be alarmed. It's just me making the blog more attractive and fun to read. With that said pass this on to your friends, family and anyone else who you think would get a kick out of following this blog. Be sure to check out tab at the top "Blogs I follow" to see some of the fun ladies I follow. After all they are the reason I decided to go "Viral" and re-launch my blog.

I hope Tuesday treats y'all well!

Love,
E

Brooke visits ATX!

Happy Sunday Y'all!

I hope the weekend treated y'all well and much needed rest was gotten! Here in Austin we are still waiting on Fall to arrive. Seems as though she is late but the truth is she will be here....right around Christmas, I'm sure :)

This past weekend Jess' sister came to visit! We were super excited for her to come because a) she hasn't seen our new digs, b) she has never been on 6th Street and c) revert to letters a) and b)! What other reasons do you need to come to Austin??

She arrived on Friday night and we headed out to dinner where we caught up and had some tasty bar-b-que. We then returned home and her and Jess played "Call of Duty". I am not a "Call of Duty" fan, it gives me a little bit of anxiety with all the shooting and blood. Yes, I am a wuss and I like it that way. Give me Mario Bros. or a singing/dancing video game and I. WILL. DOMINATE. Especially with singing and dancing. (Ashlie knows what I'm talking about, she too was blessed like me with a voice of an angel) Anywho, they played that all night and it was pretty entertaining watching them get all torn up if they didn't advance or win the level they were playing. I enjoyed just watching them spend time together, it's not often we get to do that with our family.

Saturday we woke up and just hung around the house until lunch. We then headed out the SoCo better known as South Congress to the Food Truck Park. If you want to get the "real Austin" go sit at one of those picnic tables in that park. You will see all walks of life. Literally. Austin is a very eclectic city and culturally diverse I might add. Brooke had a good time people watching. I was glad she was entertained.

Brooke and Jess picked a Cajun food truck where they got fried shrimp and french fries. I chose the "Pitalicious" truck, the pita was filled with grilled chicken, french fries and p-licious sauce. I wanted to be adventurous, but that left much to be desired. I will just get a sub sandwich next time we go and then hit up the cupcake truck :)

Me with my pita

Taking a picture in front of this wall was on my bucketlist. Thank goodness Brooke was with us to take it!

Brother and Sister in front of a cool tree that you can't really see.

Saturday evening we went to dinner at Iron Cactus and then hit up some bars on 6th. Jess ran into a classmate of his that he hasn't seen since graduation in 2004! It was pretty crazy! Brooke and I had to convince Jess to say something to him. He was really happy/surprised to see Jess. I'm glad we ran into him.

Today we had lunch with Jess' cousins and that was a lot of fun. I wish we could do that once a week with our families. It's nice to catch up and laugh over some yummy food!

It's time for me to get off here and plan the week. I hope everyone has a happy Monday!

love,
E

disclaimer: my thoughts and opinions of the food truck are my own. I was not compensated for any of the comments made about the food truck experience ;)

Dear....

Hi everyone! Today's post is going to be geared on little letters to people I have tucked away in my head. Im sure y'all are thinking "huh?, what?, que?" haha! Once you read a little more you will understand!

Dear Mom,
I miss you. Thank you for putting together our family pictures even though me, emily, dad and Jess huffed and puffed about it. You were a good sport and never got on us (or even shook us :)) like you really should have about complaining. I hope one day soon you can take off your busy schedule and come see all we have done to the house. Decorating it for Halloween was hellacious without you.

Dear Dad,
Thank you for being so caring. You always offer good advice and your patience is so admirable. Don't forget to take a break every now and then. You know I worry about you.

Dear Sister,
Keep up the good job at work. I know you hate going some days but you are very helpful to customers and I know it secretly makes you really happy to help them. Try not to drive mom too crazy, leave me some room to do it too ;)

Dear Mother-in-law,
Thank you for the pep talk last week. Lord knows I needed it. Hopefully ya'll can come stay with us soon. We would love to have y'all.

Dear Texas Rangers,
You really messed up the Playoffs for me and my Granny. Now we have to watch some teams we really could care less about. Luckily for y'all we don't have to see y'all again until next season. By then we will be over it.

Dear HOA,
You are a pain in my ass.

Dear husband,
Thank you for being you. I love you very much and enjoy spending time with you. Im proud of your installment of the ceiling fan in the man cave. It almost killed you and me in the process but it was worth it to see how proud of yourself you were once you were done.

Dear readers,
Thank you for reading....

Love,
E

Sorry for the delay....

Yikes! I can't believe it has been 17 days since I have posted! I am a terrible blogger! Sorry about that! Truth is I have a million things I want to blog about daily and I just never do it! Between house projects, school and traveling I get too busy to think "oh, I should probably blog a little something today!" I like to really tell my story when I blog so sitting down just to throw down some words just isn't my style. Plus I haven't been the Peppiest Patty here of late so I didn't really want to drag anybody down.

We are good to go now so no worries!

It's Fall here in the Todd household despite the crazy warm/freezing temps! Here are more decorations from our house!

I made this Happy Fall banner, I think its so cute!

This one is of our master bedroom! I just love it!

Jess installed his first ceiling fan this week! It was a two day project with a couple of road blocks but he figured them all out! I was so proud of him! We are still rookies at this homeowner thing so we are still figuring things out :)

We have been spending a lot of time with our neighbors Rachel and Kyle! Kyle is a pitcher for the Houston Astros so we have a lot in common with them! Us four are the youngest in our subdivision so that is kind of fun. We are looking forward to their company during this offseason!

I hope y'alls week was a good one! I have to pack us for an overnight trip to my parents house!

Happy Friday!

-E

Paleo Shmaleo and Painting Shmainting!

Hello there! Happy Tuesday night!

I hope the week has started off on a good note for y'all! Our week has started out good and busy again! Can't complain though, my OCD personality appreciates the busy-ness :)

We started the renovation in the Man Cave and boy let me tell you taping and painting is FOR. THE. BIRDS! I am not a fan. Thankfully though, thru the will of God we got thru it. One coat anyways, tomorrow will be part dos. (Si, I am speaking Spanish because I am deliriously tired and I think it's funny right now, lol)

Here are before and afters thus far....

We actually painted the room entirely I am just too tired to walk up the stairs and take another so this is just going to have to work for now :)

The color is "Night Flight" and it is perfect for all of Jess' memorabilia. We like how dark it is so it will make the room more "cave" like. Tomorrow we will paint again and then once we get back from Ennis/Kilgore we will peel off the tape and start decorating! That is my favorite part!!!!

Jess is still going strong with Paleo. He has lost 9 pounds in a week and a half. Our cheat days are on Saturdays and boy oh boy do we love those days! It is crazy though how crappy we feel on Sunday after we have eaten unhealthy for one day. 

I decided to document the meals I make Jess so if any of y'all were wanting to try Paleo y'all could get an idea of how and what he eats.

When he wakes up he has 2 pieces of bacon (chopped up) and 3 eggs.

 For lunch he has either leftovers from the night before or tuna, turkey, summer sausage with a mix of nuts and either grapes or plums. This is a can of tuna (dry, no condiment) a handful of pistachios, grapes and a salad with light balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

 This is dinner, Spaghetti Squash with homemade meatballs and half homemade sauce. The meatballs are just seasoned ground meat made into balls and the sauce is one can of tomato sauce (no salt added) and one small can of tomato paste (no salt added).

In between breakfast and lunch he will eat something at least once. Between lunch and dinner he will eat something 2 to 3 times and then after dinner he will eat something. These are just his main meals while the other times he is eating its a portion or serving of some kind of fruit, meat or nut.

The staples we have in our house are summer sausage, turkey, grilled chicken, tilapia, shrimp, bacon, sausage, cashews, almonds, pistachios, pickles, plums, oranges, apples (Jess doesn't eat those) cauliflower, zucchini, squash and carrots. Basically anything that can go bad is what we have in our kitchen and is what you should try and follow (eating wise) if wanting to achieve the Paleo diet.

If y'all want any of the recipes I am posting pics of just let me know! I would love to share!

I have got to hit the sack now, I am all out of gas!

I will be back soon to post pics of the man cave!

Goodnight!

Love,
E

Busy Bee's!

Hey Y'all!

I hope this week is treating y'all well! I am super excited because the first official weekend of Fall is just a couple of days away! Yay for kettle corn, caramel apples and pumpkin spice lattes....better yet pumpkin EVERYTHING :D

I love the holiday season! I am hoping that Austin will treat us well this offseason and actually give us Fall and Winter verses just Fall or just Winter. Texas weather can be so unpredictable so I am keeping my fingers crossed for some nice cool nights.

Since we have been back we have not stopped working on the house. I feel like every day we are putting stuff away. Not cleaning, (while that needs to be done as well) but just simply putting things in their places. Yesterday I started putting out my Fall decor! Boy oh boy was I excited! My house now smells of pumpkin spice and cinnamon! I have my little pumpkins out and my gourds! I'm not finished though so stay tuned for the rest of the decorating pictures once it is complete.

If you like the Fall aroma find the nearest Bath and Body Works and get yourself some of their wonderful smelling candles. I stopped in one the other day and got myself a few along with some Pumpkin Spice kitchen soap. The candles are 2 for 20 or 3 for 30 and so on and so fourth.

Jess went to the deer lease this past weekend and my best friend and her boyfriend (who live here but work out of town during the week) came home and I stayed with them all weekend. It was her boyfriend's birthday so I went out with them to some of they're favorite places in Austin to eat and hangout.

Sunday morning I got up and headed to Ennis to pic up some things my parents had at they're house. When I got there me, my mom, sister and aunt went to this farmhouse that sits on some property Jess and I bought last year to see if there was any exciting pieces we could use in our houses. I found a little tin cup and a headboard type thing to put on one of our walls. Jess isn't too thrilled but once I paint it and give it a little face lift he will come around.

We are planning to Chevron our staircase wall in the coming days. I really want to do it but I know it is going to be be super-d-duper hard! I will keep y'all posted on that little BIG project. We have yet to start on the man cave because like I said, we have been putting things in their places every day we have been home.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Love,
E

We are now Austinites!

Hey Guys!

How are ya? Me? I'm great! We have been in our NEW house for almost a week now and we have so much we want and need to do! My mind feels like it is going 90 to nothing all day. Once everything is in it's place I will feel better. I am OCD in that kind of way and hate having things out of order.

Jess kicked off his Paleo Diet on Monday and it has been an adjustment for the both of us. He will eat every 2-3 hours that will consist of some kind of lean meat, eggs, nuts or fruit. I think fruit is frowned upon but he cut out carbs and dairy completely so he has to have some kind of gray area where he can splurge a little. Cooking paleo has been quit the task, seasonings and dressings are very very VERY limited when preparing meat or fish. I did some research and found some spices I can use that will spice up our meats a little bit so that will help!

Last night's meal was very good! I recommend this recipe for everyone not just paleo diet followers. The best thing about it is that it is so easy to make and very little time is needed to make it. The dinner I prepared was Paleo Crock Pot Stuffed Peppers.

You can get the recipe from here. I used ground turkey instead of ground pork and only cooked them for 5 hours on high in the crock pot. They came out amazing and I accompanied them with these guys....

These of course were my fave! I am such a fat kid and love love love BACON! I got the recipe from here but literally did my own thing once I saw the temp and time to cook them at. I used 7 asparagus stalks and wrapped them in one piece of lean reduced sodium bacon, sprinkled some extra virgin olive oil and some sesame seeds and VOILA! They were so good!

Jess really liked the meal and I for see him requesting it again soon. This is a healthy meal and even people who aren't doing paleo will love it. Another good thing about it is that you have left overs for lunch the next day!

Other than trying to be a paleo chef, student and maid/new homeowner I have been just trying to enjoy Austin. Jess is going to the deer lease this weekend so I will be alone for a day or so until my friends get into town. Kind of having anxiety about that right now :/

I look forward to posting about all the things we have going on with the new place! I hope y'all are having a happy hump day!

Love,
E