sam houston national forest

some folks down here in texas have a hard time believing how much steve and i like the weather.  true, it's hot, but when it comes to being outside, hot is my preference.

earlier today we sweat it out at the sam houston national forest, which is about an hour north of where we are in the city.  we've driven through it before but hadn't found a place to park and hike until today when we set out on the peaceful hiking trails through the enormous trees and along lake conroe.  the woods felt like a fairytale, we even found a troll hidden in the a tree!  after today a little stone cottage out in the woods seems like just what we need.

 {xoxo - b}

brief fupdates and evidence we still exist

bachelorette selfie with my sister, only semi relevant, but you need a picture right?  there will be more eventually.

let's be honest here folks, things are currently rather surreal.

my name is going to be different in less than 18 days and between trying to finagle a new job and tie off all the pre-nuptial loose ends it just doesn't feel like i have much to blog.  things are simply too vague or surprise-inducing to announce to the internet right now, so i've obviously found solace about my bloggers-block in the form of a 1028 page novel and 6 seasons of jersey shore.  rest assured there will be much more to be said, some hopefully sooner than later, but should you be knee deep in concern for my absence from this blog, you can expect to see more around maybe halloween-time, when hopefully things reach some semblance of normal.

in the meantime, here are some fleeting thoughts about our new home and current conditions:

1.  cost of living differences between houston and ann arbor are blowing my mind.  gas is so cheap (not really a shocker), groceries are basically free compared to michigan, also there are forms of gainful employment here that render people more upbeat than the metro-detroit attitude of "you have a job, you thus have no right to complain about anything ever.  genocide?  deal with it.  you have a job.  be thankful."

2.  on the topic of the upbeat people of houston the friendly-factor is probably the biggest culture shock here.  people are just so darn nice.  i feel like an ice queen for not striking up a conversation with the cockroach i found in my dishwasher.  midwesterners have a much more "you do you" (thnx jwoww) attitude about what constitutes politeness.  probably because it's so cold you can't really be expected to leave your house to talk to anyone 8 months out of the year.

3.  also yes i found a cockroach in my dishwasher.  just a small one.  he was not the first.  there also aren't 8 months out of the year here where everything freezes and dies.  thus bugs.  they happen.  i'm learning to deal with this.

4.  on the topic of cold: it is not.  unless you're indoors because, wisely, everything is air conditioned to the max.  i am essentially in heaven.  i hate the cold.  cold ranks somewhere below human trafficking and somewhere above the big bang theory in terms of things i do not appreciate.  if you read this blog often, i would guess about 80% of its contents refer to my hatred of the cold.  i'm so pleased and warm and tan in houston.

5.  on that note, the locals here tend to think it's way too hot and they can't believe i think the weather here is a plus.  this, to me, is like whining about your broken laptop to a starving child.  you do not understand the suicide-inducing misery of months below 0 degrees fahrenheit.  seriously.  i don't like cold.

also there are little lizards all over the place in our apartment complex and i love them.  hopefully i will get to posting the rest of the pictures from our bachelor/bachelorette weekend very soon (thank you to my 10/10 maid of honor sister for taking pictures and also crafting hard).

there: we still exist. ta for now.

san antonio - {grams}

we became hardcore road-trippers on sunday when we decided to take a day trip to san antonio in 100+ degree heat.  we still had an amazing time on the river walk and walking through the galleries and restaurants.  we opted to split queso and a dos-arita from rita's on the river and after a little bird-related mishap, and lots of sweat we still successfully enjoyed our afternoon in san antonio.

namely, we have a great weekend itinerary planned for a future overnight mini-vacation.  it's a long haul to do in one day though.  but look!  we went to the alamo!  it feels good to be checking out our new digs.

hope everybody has a great week!!

road-trip-to-texas instagrams

here are a few instagrams of the long haul south from ann arbor to houston.  it was a pretty spectacular time-- i just wish steve and i had been able to share a car so we could laugh at the same casino-nail-salon-gas-station-home-of-the-original-deep-fried-pie-on-a-stick and play lots of 20 questions with answer "nicholas cage."  still, we made our way down from michigan via champaign, IL - memphis, TN - shreveport, LA and voila home to houston! the apartment is almost clean enough to document and introduce to y'all!

yes, i say y'all now.  and even though i have more reason than i used to, i'm somehow more self conscious about it.  don't worry.  let's move on... y'all...

over the course of our road trip i have upped my "states visited" number from 39 to 42 (i had never previously been in arkansas, louisiana, or texas).  i'm comin' for you oklahoma, idaho, oregon, mississippi, north dakota, montana, alaska, and hawaii!!

settling in so far!  lots of fun ahead!

it's that time again

the time when i ignore blogging because my apartment looks like this, i'm officially unemployed, and we are leaving thursday to move ~1200 miles to houston, tx.  bert is already traumatized.

we're moving y'all

regular readers of this blog have probably seen more annoying ambiguous allusions to our future move than anyone should be expected to endure.  as we finally have 99% of our ducks in order, we're at last ready to make the announcement to anyone who doesn't yet know.

we're moving to texas!  more specifically, houston!  yeehaw!

i've visited 39 states in my life so far and texas is one of the 11 i've never seen before (though steve has already been there a number of times between boy scout stuff and his job).  we're both completely excited to head out on brand new exploits and we're slightly overwhelmed that it's happening only a month from now (yes, that's 2 months BEFORE we get married in michigan).

both steve and i have lived our entire lives in michigan, and it's hard to believe in just a few weeks we'll be packing everything up and setting up house in the bayou city.  i can barely sit still writing about it.

in honor of our future home here's a short list of some exciting things:

1.  i can officially cross "live in a place with palm trees" off my bucket list.

2.  last minute cruise parties from galveston.

3.  brasserie 19, underbelly, and whataburger, grits everywhere.  fish tacos.  normal tacos.  omg food.

4.  it probably doesn't get below -30 degrees all that often.  the same cannot be said for ann arbor.

5.  having a legitimate museum district and theater district

6.  access to new orleans (another place i've never been)

7.  the gerald d. hines waterwall + parks galore

but most exciting to me is simply being plunked in a completely new place, with completely new surroundings, completely new people, and completely new experiences to start exploring.  it's a big adventure we've got on our hands.  wish us luck and come for a visit; we can't wait!

too soon to talk

 but here's a peek at what we've got on our minds right now...