U Haul is returned.

Whew! What a fast week.  Last Thursday I hopped on a flight to Raleigh  to help move Louise to Texas and    today we  turned  in our U Haul here in  Dallas. I am relieved, relaxed, and thankful it all went so smoothly.  Louise had packed so much before I arrived in NC, that the whole process of moving her here to Texas was a piece of cake.  We picked up the U Haul on Saturday morning and the hired "movers" loaded it up on Saturday afternoon.  We drove to Charlotte after Louise finished her last day of work at Palm Avenue.  On Sunday we drove to Meridian, Mississippi, and on Monday afternoon we pulled into the driveway. We spent a couple of days going through what needed to go to storage and what needed to stay here at the house. Today we moved the excess "stuff" into storage.  Now we are DONE!  We have proved, once again, that Schelhammer women are independent, "can do", kind of women.  Let the fun begin.

Ho Hum!

I was just reading  one of Christine's friends' blogs and I can completely relate.  (If I knew how to link you to it I would, but that's another matter entirely.)  She was talking about how January is just not a very exciting month.  All the resolution "stuff" is hard to get excited about.  Who wants to worry about a few extra pounds when all the "comfort" food is what we crave in these cold months.  I think she got it right when she talked about small shifts in our thoughts and behaviors.  Maybe just eating a few healthier things more often is a good enough start.  I wonder how many people actually are successful long term with their resolutions.  I have become more of a fan of realistic goals and ambitions.  And, I have determined that giving up 1/2 and 1/2 for my morning cup of coffee is NOT going to happen anytime soon.

Christmas in Boulder

We have just returned home from one of the best Christmas holidays ever.  We were hosted by Christine at her home in Boulder and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We went to Christmas Eve services together and then put a beef tenderloin on the Weber.  The next few days we spent skiing Vail and Keystone, as well as hiking some incredible trails within walking distance of Christine's house.  There may have been some hula hooping and frisbee throwing going on as well. (Pictures to follow in another blog post.) We ate at The Buff restaurant for breakfast one morning and at the Walnut Brewery for dinner one evening.  We saw True Grit and loved it.

It is quite likely that this will be on next year's Christmas card since we seem to have a difficult time getting together in one place with everyone's schedules, but we'll see. Thought you would enjoy seeing what we looked like when our ski trips first began.  Steve still has those RayBans tucked away somewhere.  I wish I had kept those Adidas jackets.  They would probably still fit C and L.  We thought we would try to recreate this photo after lunch at Keystone and completely forgot to.  So here are the alternative pictures. 

The
      Boys
              and
                    the
                         Girls!
 

Louise's Graduation from NC State

What a great weekend we had in North Carolina.  I just cannot wrap my mind around the fact that our youngest has graduated from college.  The ceremony was held in one of the buildings that Louise had a number of her classes in which really made it special.  As you can imagine, not as many students graduate in December, so it was a smaller but more intimate ceremony.  Lovely.
We went to one of our favorite restaurants on Friday night. ( Firebirds ; where Christine spent many hours seating customers.) Since Steve's folks are so close to Raleigh, we spent the night with them and woke up to a great home made breakfast that Marcella whipped up and then it was back to Louise's apartment to take some pictures before the ceremony.

This one Steve took as she was walking out.  One happy girl!
We celebrated with a late lunch.  The grandparents were able to join us for the day and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
And today Louise arrives in Texas.  We will have a couple of days hanging out here before we hit the road for Colorado.

Hope y'all have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Phytel Party

On Saturday night we hosted the Phytel Christmas Party.  It was a new experience for me, not because we hosted a party, as we have done that scores of times.  This was unique because we had it catered and had an event planner come and place furniture and bring LOVELY floral arrangements. Oh my word.  I am now spoiled.  The only thing I had responsibility for was making sure my house was in order and decorated for Christmas which I had done the weekend after Thanksgiving.
So on Saturday morning Steve and I went on a long bike ride and then went out to lunch at a great little Tex Mex restaurant. On the day of the party!  Never have I been able to do that before.
All this blissful anticipation of entertaining in such grand style is a credit to the one and only Marilyn!  She is a dream and an organizational genius.  I am her biggest fan.

I know I can't get used to this kind of entertaining, but I sure am thankful for the experience.  It was a blast.

Thanksgiving recap and weekend activities.

It been a fun week.  Christine was here for a really relaxing and fun visit last week.  She and I did venture out to the Galleria to hit Zara's, which is pretty much a must for anyone in their 20's and 30's.  I can see why my girls love it so much. Other than that, we kept it pretty low key.  Christine and I did take lots of pictures for a blog post on Runza's, but I can't get them off of the camera.  Hmmmmmm.  Need to figure that out. Still working on it.
On Wednesday, Louise flew in and we jumped into full Thanksgiving mode, making  a pecan pie.  We were up early for a quick breakfast and then the big food prep.  Even though there were only 3 of us here to eat it, we went ahead and made all the favorites, just in smaller portions.  Yum!  We ate early enough that we were able to heat up some leftovers by late in the evening.  Thursday, Friday, and most of today (Saturday) will be taken up with football games.  Louise and I do plan to sneak out to a movie this afternoon.  It is time to get out of the house! And if we see an open parking spot at the mall, we may even brave that for a bit.  Somewhere in the mix, Louise needs to finish reading a book on Shakespeare and write a paper.  Ugh!
Oh, and we did start decorating for Christmas.  I enjoy Thanksgiving so much  that I wouldn't want to decorate for Christmas until that day is complete, but now I am in the mood.  It is even cold here in Texas, which makes it that much better.  Hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are looking forward to all the preparations for Christmas.
As a side note, Cookie and Pepper are officially SPOILED.  Two weeks with Christine and Louise and they are convinced they are royalty and our couches are their thrones.

Friday = Christine's Arrival

It is hard being so far away from all of children. If we want to see them, we have to fly to where they are of have them fly to us. The good thing is that all of them can get here direct without having to worry about missing connections etc. DFW is about the best airport in the country.
So, tomorrow Christine will use a "freebie" ticket and come for a long weekend. Since she has taken care of the ticket, I think I will have to treat her to a trip to Zara and the sale racks of Anthropologie. We are also on a mission to buy a couple of baby gifts for two of Dean's friends who just had baby boys. (When my boys were little the clothes for them were not nearly as adorable as they are now.)
We will spend Saturday night watching the Huskers football game and eating homemade Runza's. Google that. We were introduced to them when we lived in Nebraska and they are about the best comfort food ever. Maybe I will get Christine to help me photograph the preparation and finally put together my first food blog. (Lindsay Widdle, you are my inspiration.)
Then, next week, our baby will fly in for Thanksgiving. First Thanksgiving EVER that all the Schelhammer's won't be together. Louise will be an only child for this one. I think we'll put her to work making pecan pies!