8 to 5

I recently started back to a "real" job. I really like it a lot! It definitely kicks my rear but it's a good kicking. I think about work even when I leave work! That's a first! :) I've worked at this place for almost 6 days... and it has been very interesting. The first day I hung up on several people because I wasn't sure about the hold button and the transfer button. Two pairs of heels have literally broken in the middle of my day after my lunch break. So I was out of luck (not like I ever have any!) for going home to grab a different pair. I even went and bought new heels that I really liked and the next day it was raining as I was walking into the building and all of a sudden it's like I'm wearing no shoes!! They wouldn't stay on my feet! I felt like a little girl who was wearing Mommy's shoes. It was humiliating. Then one time I was going on the elevator to my car and some guy FARTED IN THE ELEVATOR and pretended like he didn't just invade my airspace with his poop particles. I just looked at him while trying to hold my breath. It was awful.

So on the upside we should be closing on our house at the end of next week! We thought we were going to close on the 15th but it didn't happen. This weekend we will be packing like crazy. And if you know me, you know I'm a lousy packer. I go through everything and swoon over every little trinket that I have. I need to: pick paint colors, buy paint, pack up everything, buy 2 chandeliers, buy kitchen hardware, and then officially move and unpack everything and bring more chaos into my life.

Also, what's with all this rain lately? I cannot stand it anymore! I'm a sunshine person! I need sunshine like I need air. I don't function well without either. Hopefully the moving weekend won't be raining and nasty like it is now.

Now, I must get away from a computer screen.

Cooking Gone Wrong

We've been so busy these past couple of weeks that I've barely had time to cook. It's been some Chipolte here and (gross) Chik-Fil-A there. And I admit, I'm afraid to cook. I'm so scared of screwing something up, which has always been a regular occurrence by the way.

Tonight I decided to cook Red Beans & Rice with cornbread. I was still in the New Orleans mode. I've got the rice, beans, and seasoning in the pot cooking away and then I began to make the cornbread... I read the instructions probably 5 times to make sure I got it down completely and I thought to myself that I'd be the biggest moron in the world if I screwed this up because all I had to do was add milk! Easy, right? NOPE! The recipe called for 2/3 cup of milk and I added 2 & 2/3 cups of milk... Smooth move. Once I poured the milk into the mixing bowl I thought it looked really soupy then it clicked.. I added TWO EXTRA CUPS OF MILK! I tried to get out some of the milk by straining it, but that didn't work. So for my next genius move I added some flour to the mix. Yeah, that didn't help either. I thought, well I've already screwed it up so I might as well throw it into the oven and see what happens.. 21 minutes later... DING! I pull out my cornbread/flour concoction and it was definitely soupy cornbread that was burnt around the edges.

Eh, maybe one day I'll get it right.

Goodness All Around

Jared is watching the OU vs BYU game right now so I figured since I'm bored to death with the football game that I'd do a post! :) (Just because I married an ex-football stud doesn't mean I have to like football!) Also, we don't have TV at our apartment so Jared is trying to soak up as much football as possible.

Pretty exciting things have been going on in the Kesler household lately. Yesterday we got the appraisal for the new house and it came back in the perfect price range. So it looks like we'll officially be in the house by the end of September!!! I also bought a sample color of paint today for our cabinets. It's called "Dove White" or "White Dove" something like that by Benjamin Moore Paints. I'm excited about trying it out on a piece of wood that I can hopefully find around here somewhere.

Today I had my first online buying experience! I went to www.urbanoutfitters.com to look for some ideas and ended up finding two awesome steals! Excuse my lack of description skills as I try to explain what I bought... Item #1 is a birdcage key hanger. It looks antique and has a cute little bird on it. And item #2 is the letter "k" and it's going to be my new apron hanger! It looks like it was made out of recycled paper or something. I got both of those for under 30 bucks including tax & shipping! I'll post pics once I get them in. My pitiful description doesn't do them justice.

That's all I've got for now.

New Orleans Trip

New Orleans, I think I love you, but only for an occasional weekend.

Jared & I decided at the beginning of August to go see our friends in New Orleans. We wanted to get away from Fort Worth and just have some fun! We needed to leave the house by 2:15pm to make it to our 5:00pm flight. We exit off of 30 to get onto 121 and there's traffic which is just grrrrrreat. So we sat in traffic for 45 minutes. Not a good way to start off a much anticipated trip. We finally made it to the airport and got our boarding pass and it said "FIRST CLASS" that's a major score when you're flying standby!!!

My favorite words to hear on the plane were, "Ladies and gentlemen we are 10 minutes away from New Orleans. Flight Attendants please prepare for landing." I really do NOT like to fly!!

Richard was kind enough to pick us up from the airport and he wanted to show us around the city. I had been to New Orleans once before when I was a little girl, but I don't remember anything about the city.

That evening we ate at this place called the Butcher. It was a REAL butcher shop! I didn't even think those were around anymore. I wasn't feeling very exotic so I ordered just a turkey sandwich and let me tell you it was the BEST turkey sandwich I've ever had. The meat tasted so fresh and full of goodness. I'm a pretty picky eater especially when it comes to meat.

The next morning we ate at this hole in the wall called Slim Goodies, and it was nothing but goodness all around. I ordered just plain Jane eggs and toast. Crazy, I know. The rest of the day we walked around the French Quarter, along the Mississippi River, then I took a 3 hour nap! As we were walking through the French Quarter there were some homeless people on the sitting of the street. As we got closer to them one of them said, "Hey you're on a TV Reality Show it's called Give Me A Dollar." We all busted out laughing. That was one of the most clever ways of asking for a dollar that I've ever heard. I wanted to give them a dollar just for making me laugh!

After I woke up from my nap I realized that my phone alarm went off for me to take my birth control pill and sinus meds and I went to get my purse and realized I left my purse in the car which is parked in Dallas. Somehow I managed to grab my wallet but left my purse!

That evening we rode the trolly car and went to an awesome restaurant called HerbSaint's for dinner. I cannot even begin to explain how amazing this food was! It was like tasting Heaven. I was pretty nervous about trying something new because of my sensitive gag reflex to certain foods. (If a food has a funny taste or texture to me I gag. I can't help it!!!!) But to mine & Jared's surprise I didn't gag a single time! I actually had to pull myself away from the food. I ordered Sausage & DUCK Gumbo, Chicken & Mushroom Ravioli, and Dirty Rice. I wasn't sure about eating the Duck so I thought I had scooped it aside. Later Jessica told that it was actually the Sausage I was scooping away and the Duck was what I was eating. Jared ordered Grits & Shrimp, sounds gross, but quite the contrary! The shrimp was the best shrimp I've ever had! Richard ordered some sort of veal wrap and I had a bite of that too! So I tried Duck and Veal! Go me!!

(Dirty Rice)

Chicken & Mushroom Ravioli

Duck & Sausage Gumbo

(See Susan, you're not the only one who takes photos of their food!)

After dinner Jessica & Richard took us to Bourbon Street (which smelled like puke). I thought I was a cultured person, well after seeing Bourbon Street I'd like to think not. Bourbon Street is one l-o-n-g street and the setup goes like this: bar, bar, bar, strip club, strip club, gay bar, gay bar, tobacco shop, bar, bar, bar, strip club, strip club, etc.. I saw plenty of drunk people and girls with barely anything on to last a lifetime. We were walking by what we thought was just a regular bar, however it was a gay bar! The bartender was wearing, get this, a bow tie around his neck and a g-string and I'm not talking the kind of thong(s) you can wear on your feet! I wanted to throw up my expensive dinner!!

Over all the trip was awesome. We loved New Orleans! When we got home we took another 5hr nap to catch up on some sleep that we definitely lost while we were there! But the lost sleep was well worth all the fun!!