Baby it's cold outside, Boston style.

WOW!!! Is it cold and I mean C.O.L.D!

Today's weather was a high of 28 and a low of 8. I'm not used to this kind of cold. I think I'm glad I live in the South. We got in 30 minutes earlier than planned, which was nice.

We figured out how to use the subway and made it to our hotel. Once we checked in, we put our luggage down in our room, grabbed our coats and scarfs and headed out to dinner.

Here is how big our hotel room is....... I think our hotel in Paris was a little bigger but not by much. So it's probably a close tie but serves its purpose..... sleep. 

 Here is a view of the rest of the room and hallway.

The view from outside of our hotel room. 

We got snow. It actually snowed on us after we got off the plane. It was so cool to actually experience it. Being from the lower South, you don't get to see snow like it and it's been really neat to experience.

While we were eating dinner we noticed that the cars had these "bummer guards" hanging off the back. Apparently the traffic is so bad that they actually put these on and drive around with them so if a car gets so close they don't scrap the paint off their bumper. And I thought Houston traffic was bad.

Then we looked across the street from the restaurant and there was Paul Revers house. It was so cool to be able to see where he lived and the cobble stone road in front of his house helped transport you back to that time.

This building had nice architecture. There is so much history here and its wonderful to get to see it.

There was this Italian church across the street from Paul's house. They were the first to hear the bells ring when the Red Coats were coming.

Here are my parents outside Paul Reveres house.

On our way back to the hotel we got an awesome view the Boston skyline. 

Then there is Quincy Market. They entire length of the building was lined with shops. They had everything you could possibly want to eat. They had pizza, Greek food, Italian, Chinese, etc. There were even dessert shops as well. I wish we had a place like this around us.

Here is another view of the clock tower behind the South Market building. 

 This building is the Faneuil Hall. We started to go in around closing time, so we missed getting to really view it. We are hoping to view it tomorrow before we leave. Click here to read more about this building.

Well that's it for today. So far it has been great. We've really enjoyed getting to see the city and the history. I told the hubby that we will have to come do the New England states for one of our anniversary trips. Several friends recommend it and after getting to see this, I definitely want to come back.

'till tomorrow..... sleep warm :)

Winter Storm of 2014

Today we had a bad "winter storm". I used the quotes because in Texas we only have two season, summer and Sprall (that a cross between Spring and Fall). Since the weather was so bad and we are not used to this type of winter, they ended up closing schools and businesses. The roads were icy and most people in the area don't know how to drive in this type of weather.

The last time I really drove in snow/ winter weather, I ended up going off the road and into a ditch in the pan handle of Texas. It wasn't fun. I was one of the few lucky ones who didn't break an axil was able to be pulled out by emergency vehicles.

Since I was off of work today the hubby and I hung around the house and watched TV as well as slept in. It was nice. Then we had a late lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. After we got home, I thought it would be a good cool to take pictures of all the ice and sleet on my car. So here are some pictures of our cars and the signs in the neighborhood.

This is where the hubby punched the side of the car to crack the sleet. 

Here is where he did it on his truck. 

Here are the signs in the neighborhood from frosting over. 

Here is the back of the sign. It's kind of hard to see, but it has a pretty pattern. 

Here is the tire in the bed of the truck. 

We went to the mall today since we had some free time and when we came out, there was a car behind us in the parking lot that had their windshield wipers up. The hubby said that when he lived up North they used to do that to keep them from sticking to the windshield. So I figured since tomorrow looks to be as bad as today, that I'd try it out. Apparently though I already messed them up today. 

I covered the pipes with pillow cases the on Friday from our last Arctic blast. I called my father since I wasn't sure what I could use to cover them and he said anything would work. He said to use tape to hold it in place, preferably duck tape. I didn't have any at the house so I had to use painters tape.

Here is an ice cycle from the siding of our house. 

Here is the roof of our house. It's kind of pretty.

Stay warm!

Kitchen Makeover

Ever since we moved into our house a few years ago, I never decorated the top of the cabinets. It felt so plain and boring. I really didn't know where to begin on decorating. I wanted to paint the kitchen green like the rest of the house, but the hubby said no. He wanted to paint it an orange color.

So how do you narrow down a color? You pick out all the colors that you like, regardless of the color, then put them on the wall.  It looks something like this.

Every so often we would take down colors that we didn't like, until we got it down to around 3 or 4. One of the colors just so happened to be the orange that we painted it.

As you can tell the background is white with a yellow haze. That's from the wall paper that we took down. Then I bought texture in a can and sprayed the walls. There are 4 walls that we took down the wall paper.

After we got some of the paint up, my parents and grandma came over for thanksgiving. We celebrated it on Friday with them and mom said they would help us decorate the kitchen. I was so excited. I waited several weeks for them to come over and help decorate. Here is what the final look. I need to finish painting but other than that, I think it looks pretty good.

Check it out!!

This is one side of the kitchen. The other cabinets are to the left, just out of the picture.

Here is the other wall of cabinets. I really love how it all came together.

Here is a more detailed look at what's on top.


This is actually a candle holder that I put ivy in and there is still a candle in it. I got that from a lady's Christmas exchange party a few years ago. My mother-in-law bought the home sign for us a year ago. (It says: Home is where your story begins).

I bought the cake plate in East Texas at a Flea Market. The sphere came from TJ Maxx.

I bought the lantern from Big Lots a few years ago. This wall color will be a light tan to match the rest of the house.

Here is the other wall. Again, I need to finish painting.

I got the basket from my mother (which is on loan) and the pears came from TJ Maxx. The greenery came from Hobby Lobby and the owl came from a friend. I was going to make a wreath out of the greenery but I think it looks better here.

This is an old coffee grinder that my mother-in-law gave me when she was cleaning out her house. I love it. It's got some character. 

I don't remember where the square plate came from, but I bought it a few years ago right after getting married. The other plate I bought this week at a resale shop. It came with a cake stand and a larger plate. I gave the stand to my mom as an early Christmas gift.

The bottle came from a friend as a Christmas gift. The white owl came from my mom (it's an early Christmas gift) but she got it at TJ Maxx.

The S came from TJ Maxx as well, but a year ago. I'm going to paint the tray a yellow and then paint a pear on it. The orange owl came from the same friend who got the turquoise owl.

It might be hard to get the whole picture and maybe the unpainted walls don't help, but in person I think it looks good. It certainly looks better than before, with nothing up there. I can't stop staring at it.

Now to finish painting the walls. :)

Monday: Themed Dinner

Over the weekend the Hubby and I went grocery shopping. While we were perusing the meat department, we bought three different types of sausages. One was a kielbasa, bratwurst, and a knackwurst. We cooked four of each along with German potato salad and red cabbage (that was store bought).

It turned out great. I really like that potato salad. It's a warm salad and has bacon in it. You can't beat anything with bacon in it. Bacon just makes everything so much better. I took left overs for lunch and they were still delicious.

Well, this got me thinking. We should have a themed dinner every night this week. What way to spice up dinner than to make each night a different theme of food. So I texted the Hubby to see if he had anything in mind for dinner tonight and he replied back, stir-fry. So tonight I guess is going to be Chinese night.

Here is a picture of the plate. It was as good as it looked.

 

Then it got me thinking again about eating healthy. Not sure where that came from, but it popped in my head. So then I decided that while I was going to eat healthy that I wanted to run a 5K. So now, I'm going to try to eat healthy and get in shape for a 5K.

I know what you are thinking. We're getting close to the holidays. How are you going to make it. Well, here's how. When I think about the holidays I don't eat a lot of sweets. I might have a cookie or two a day, or maybe a slice of pie, but that's about it. I've stopped being a huge sweets person. Don't get me wrong, I love my sweets, but I don't gorge myself on them like I used to. Then when you look at the actual holiday day itself, I don't gorge myself then either. I eat whatever meat we are having, some mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and a role. THEN if I have any room left, I eat a slice of pie. I've really learned the key to moderation.

I also figured that if I do really good, then on those days I can afford to eat an extra slice of pie or cookie.

So, I've decided in order to get into shape for the 5K (whenever I sign up), I will eat healthier (more fruits and veggies than I am now) and start to exercise more. Last year I had an iPhone and downloaded the Couch to 5K app. Then I went to an Android phone. Well, now I'm back to an iPhone and I still have that app. So I reinstalled it on my phone. So I thought I would use that as a starting point to get into shape.