thursday letters.

     

Hubs. Last night you diced, caramelized, and simmered all of the onion goodness for me. Thanks for making me not cry and taking the tears from the onions for me. Pink and Turqoise Wonder. I've missed you and am pretty excited to live life in the bike lane. Get ready for many more trips to coffee shops, the grocery store, and strolls around town. Dearest HEB. We miss you very much. We miss your prices and your huge selection of all things coffee, all things seafood, and all things...well...everything. Alas, California grocers will do for now. Hey Handsome. I love you. I don't say that enough. 

I hope everyone else is having a great Thursday! I enjoyed a run in the rain this morning and am just about to start a day filled with crafty goodness. So excited!

Lessons Learned

Yesterday, I learned that biking in the Bay is much different than biking in flat land Texas.

I took the bike out of the storage, put the wheels on, and decided to bike over to a coffee shop to read and the local grocery to pick up some last minute things. It was a climb, but at least the hills were good for burning the calories from my chocolate-chip pumpkin pancake breakfast.

Yesterday, I also learned how to break into our home when and if I lock the keys inside...hopefully that won't happen again...and hopefully, if it does, a window will be left cracked open for me to climb through.

1) take screen off.

2) open up really thin window.

3) pray this pumpkin pancake eating body will fit thorugh said window.

4) attempt to climb up.

5) realize i haven't gone climbing in a while and it would be much easier to have some help.

6) grab stool.

7) laugh at self and get laughed at from school students passing by

8) SUCCESS!

<fast forward to now>

This morning I just finished making myself a chai latte.

and some more pumpkin pancakes...

I'll probably jump on the bike again to run errands and attempt mastering the hills...but let's hope I don't relearn the task of climbing through a window again.

Any lessons you've learned lately that you wish you hadn't?!

WE ARE HOME!

It's raining outside...and while I wish it was Texas because rain is oh so valuable there right now...

it's not.

It's not Texas because our home is now in California! 

via

The life update saga begins now.

After relentless hours of packing, last week, Mark and I began the trek to California. Thankfully we didn't have to haul everything ourselves. A moving company picked up our packed boxes and drove them the 30 hours for us. So wonderful.

We still had to make the drive though. After much thought we decided that we could try and life off of one car while living out here in the West Coast. So, we sold Mark's legendary Acura Legend and in result, only had one car to drive to California. 

That would've been a huge blessing....but because Mark was a bit sad about having his car taken away from him he decided to do this the whole drive...

Joking :) 

We went halfsies and I definitely slept a bit as well.

After making the 2 1/12 hour day car trip through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and then along the 101 of California...we finally made it to our new home in the Bay. 

Fast forward to this past Friday and the aforementioned moving van met us at our home. 

That's right. We went one week without furniture. No worries. Mark's company put us up in a swanky hotel and we got one whole week to splash some paint on our walls without our belongings taking up space. It was a blessing in disguise. 

The house is pretty much all taken care of, despite one room that has all of our "i need to sew this/hang this/build this" stuff. We are trying to remind ourselves that we can take a breather, sleep at night, save up money, and gradually do these projects. As for now, our home is feeling like home.

Our furniture, our books, our pictures are now filling these once empty spaces. We installed shelves, painted the walls, and even picked tomatoes off our tomato plant. We cooked. We baked. We lit candles. It's funny how familiar scents can make a home feel like home. I grew up all over the place and moved year after year with my family...but the moment I felt that I could call a place home was the moment that familiar smell began to circulate throughout the home. 

(sidenote - mom, i want one of those scentsy things you have. christmas list?)

The current homey smell...

that picture would have the following words written in chalk..

(the chalk is still missing. we've opened every box, so i may just have to go buy more)

pumpkin chocolate chip muffins

aka deliciousness in every single bite. 

I got the recipe at joy of baking and i insist that you try it out. i may even bake another batch tomorrow...partly because i love how they taste and partly because i love the aroma that fills up the home as they bake. 

Off to play a game of Settlers with the hubby. Yes. We play with just the two of us.

Letters on a Thursday.

Husband, this time next week we will begin a road trip to the west coast. prepare to be dominated in all car trip games known to man. Upset Tum, because of you mark and i will be getting our soup on tonight. please feel better soon. Dearest Reader, mark and i do not wear adult diapers nor do we have a little on the way (see picture). we do have great friends who give us free boxes...and who have littles. you are wonderful, steinbachs. U-Haul, why are your boxes so expensive?! thank you mark's company for reimbursing us for said moving expenses. And other half..even though you can't climb in the gym tomorrow night...i know you're still the strongest, most hard-core, climber there. Please heal fast finger pulley. Midnight Lightning is waiting for you to conquer it.

Frame It!

And the countdown continues...8 days.

Wow.

We are in the midst of moving hysteria here at the Felder house. It isn't too hectic seeing as we don't have many things...but I have definitely had my fair share of taping boxes today. While boxing up our belongings we noticed that some things are just too tough to move.

Example.

My bouquet from the wedding day. 

It has served it's purpose as a cute decoration in the dining room, but moving that thing will result in dried out flower petals everywhere. 

Mark was a bit more disappointed that it had to go than I was. It's easier for me to get rid of things because of moving so much as a kid. So, to appease Mark (and myself...I definitely like the idea of keeping things from our wedding day!) I did a little project to keep bits of the bouquet with us forever. 

Did anyone else say FOOOOR-EEEVVV-ER? Oh Sandlot, how I love you. When I was a kid I may or may not have had a crush on Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez. 

Back to what I did today (besides packing boxes).

Now we can take it with us to California.

Or at least part of it :) 

I used the same burlap that was wrapped around the bouquet as the background, and then chose 3 of the flowers to put in the frame. 

This would have been much easier if the flowers weren't completely dried out. Regardless, it was still super easy and required zero tools except some hardback books to press the flowers in. 

If you like the idea of pressing flowers and framing them, I love this idea found on DesignSponge!

{via}

Back to packing up this apartment...

a place to call home

This last week Mark and I got to take a trip, all expenses paid by his company, to our soon to be "hometown" to look for a place to live.

While we were there we made a little day trip to San Francisco, which is about a 30 minute drive away.

Mark's sister, Amanda, took us on a full out hike around the city. Little Italy, Chinatown, Ghirardelli Square, and many other places... My calves are still aching from the pain of all those hills. Despite the pain, it was definitely worth it. We even got to have some amazing dim sum at this joint called Hang Ah. 

Result: We'll be back soon.

That same day we went into Berkeley. I decided this is the only place Mark is allowed to ride his fixed gear bike at for the next 2 years due to it not having as many hills as Benicia...

Just joking, babe. You can ride it in Benicia. 

Just not in San Francisco.

While in Berkeley we went to another amazing restaurant and had some of the best pizza I have ever eaten. If you're ever in the area, check out the award winning restaurant called Zachary's. There were hundreds of awards on the wall declaring they had the best pizza...and I would have to agree with each and every one of them. 

Zachary's has proven that cheese on the bottom and sauce on the top is definitely the way to go with deep dish pizza.

We (of course) had to stop by the infamous In-N-Out Burger as well. I know Fort Worth/Dallas folks have this place within driving distance now, but Houston is being a bit slow on this one...

And the whole reason we made this little trip out to the Bay Area...

our new home!

Mark and I were so blessed to find this great 2 bedroom/1bath bungalow to rent with a pretty awesome gal as the landlady. It has an incredible backyard with tomatoes already ripe for pickin', room to put more plants, a perfect concrete slab for a fire pit, and loads of space for back yard get togethers! And the inside is just as great...

 

In only 9 days {insert ashlee's freak out mode because she just realized she has so much to do} the moving van will come to our little, yet great, apartment and we will begin the trek to California!

I can't wait to share more pictures with ya'll...just one issue.

i need to get in the habit of taking more pictures.

it'll happen. promise.

Letters on a Thursday.

 

Groom, this week after i was lovingly being your helpmate by being a back seat driver, you decided to let me know that you were a professional drive.  my response? you aren't in nascar....and then you made known that indeed, you are not one who only knows how to turn left, but you are a true professional who can turn left, right, reverse, u-turn, brake at the right time, and take care of me. thank you for your wit, charm, and keeping me safe in the car. i think this means you should be the driver all the way to california. agreed?

Dear Amazon, the other half and i are oh so thankful that after 4 months of patiently waiting, you finally sent the first issue of bon appetit to us. thanks to you we have a handful or restaurants to hit in the next several months!

three day weekend, i am so excited for you to get here. first friday, maddens brunch, lake cabin, new life, and seeing good people will make this weekend one to remember. please come soon.

Sweet Husband of Mine, thank you for loving me despite my inability to love you back at times. those times i do love you are only evidences of God's grace in my life... oh, how great is He, to save a sinner such as me!

I hope everyone else has a great three day weekend...or regular ol' two day weekend! 

Check out this rad blog  for the inspiration behind Thursday's letters...