Updates! Writing During a Power Outage, We'll See How Long My Battery Lasts

I'm back on my travels again. After two rounds up and back to Houston over 3 days 3 weeks ago, I spent part of last week in Austin and this week in Chicago. It's occurred to me that this is the exactly path my adult life took after high school: Houston, Austin, Chicago (and then back to Austin again). I met James in Austin at 18, graduated from UT early at 21, moved to Houston to live with him for my semester between undergrad and law school, got married in Houston at 22, moved to Chicago 3 days after the wedding, moved back to Austin at 25 (now with a bonus Landon!) so James could get his MBA at UT, and then moved to Fort Worth (now also with Claire!) to join the SEC. It's been fun going back to all the places we've lived.

And I'll be in DC next week- flying out Monday and then flying straight to Houston on Wednesday before coming back to Dallas on Thursday night, and DC is where James was born and grew up and is the first place we flew to together when I met his family after my freshman year, so the theme continues.

We're driving to Boulder to see my sister and her family for Thanksgiving (our first state-side Thanksgiving in some time!) and then I fly back to DC the following Monday for a few more days and THEN I think I'm going to live in my house for a bit. Which is good, because this house is the only place I want to be. It's still very much a work in progress and we're still missing more than half of the furniture we've ordered, but it is HOME and I love every inch of it with my whole heart.

In home updates, I continue to unpack, organize, and give people projects every spare minute I'm home.

James does not love my love of the Container Store, but our garage is looking great! He's also switched out four sets of bathroom or wall sconces, hung art and mirrors, and assembled Cora's new desk.

The girls are taking advantage of their current lack of furniture by making a megabed with their two queen mattresses pushed together. Landon's bed was delivered early last week and ours was delivered last Friday and it was so weird on Saturday morning to wake up and not feel the floor right next to me. It's all slowly coming together.

My mom was also here last Friday and we did a little shopping- she bought crazy gaucho-like pants that she immediately wore to a luncheon with rave reviews.

And she somehow convinced me I needed these flannel formal winter shorts, which I'm not even sure are a thing, but I must admit I LOVE them. I also got a $500 Tahari velver blazer for $150 (you know it's nice when it's $150 at Marshall's) and beautiful wool plaid pants for $60.

My beloved Bonnie was here on Saturday and put together some new outfits for me for fall and winter and as always her genius blows me away. These are all items I already owned (with the additions of my new shorts, velvet blazer, and plaid pants; all of which she used in my looks) and she just makes me look at and appreciate my wardrobe so much more. And when I travel I just pull up her album and pick which looks to pick- or get inspired to make versions of them. She is so amazing.

On Wednesday of this week I got to have brunch with a friend in Chicago and walk a few miles along the coast of Lake Michigan with her. Then when I got home I got to walk along the coast of my little lake here in Dallas with another of my favorite girls.

In pet updates, Maggie is delighted by Dallas, all the exercise she's getting riding in her carriage for miles around the lake each day, and the fact that her family seems so happy.

Milo is DISPLEASED because he went to the vet last week and received a vigorous ear cleaning to treat an infection and was told he needed to lose 4 lbs which is a good chunk (literally) of his bodyweight and he's now on a diet and believes he's dying. He is ALWAYS out and about and he spent the whole evening alternating between sulking under the couch and yelling loudly at us.

That night he broke into the pantry, ate through a plastic bag to get at a piece of bread and ate through my bag of sour straws and distributed them throughout the downstairs. So the diet is going well. He's decided to rejoin our laps, but he's still mad about it. (Moose on the other hand is delighted by the closely monitoring feedings and is now eating more than ever because Milo isn't allowed to take all the food. He will gain all the pounds Milo loses and everyone will be their ideal weight!)

Last night (Thursday, who knows when I'll actually publish this, for reasons I'll get to below), James and I attended a V&E BBQ taste-off client event. We got branded hats, said hello to a steer with very big horns, tasted three of the best BBQ restaurants in Dallas and voted for our favorite, listened to a fabulous live band, and chatted with clients and colleagues. My main takeaway is that James looks great in a cowboy hat and should wear one more often.

Today (Friday), the dig was supposed to begin for our pool. And it did! And then a massive storm rolled in and the large digger and cat were abandoned in my mud pit of a backyard by 9 am which is also when our power went out and at 5 pm it is still not back on. I'm typing this on a hope that it will just stay on my screen until the power comes back. To make matters more exciting, my parents are due to arrive within the hour to stay for the weekend, we had a great dinner planned to cook at home, it's Cora's birthday tomorrow and her ice cream cake ingredients are melting in my freezer, and I have done 0 minutes of work today because of the power situation and my absolute state of denial that it would really stay off all day. Estimates for its restoration have been 12 pm, 3 pm, 5 pm, 6 pm, and now 10 pm. I am not optimistic and that is making me very sad. I suppose I should at least go try to locate the camping lanterns we bought many years ago so we can play games by lantern light when it gets dark at 4:30 pm.

Saturday morning update! We ate dinner with my parents by LED lantern light in our very very dark kitchen. We had everyone snuggled up under blankets at an early bedtime (turns out there's not a ton to do when it gets dark at 4:30 and you've been in the dark for several hours by 8:30 pm). The power came on at 10:30 pm and it was very exciting - especially since we had apparently flipped every switch in the house on throughout the day so we glowed like a supernova. I ran around turning everything off, checking on the thermostats, and then snuggled back in bed absolutely delighted to know that after 14 hours off we would wake up with power in the morning.

Today is Cora's birthday! We'll have donut and pumpkin bread, go on a walk by the lake, open presents, go to her soccer game, make a dinner of all her favorite things, and generally revel in the fact that our sweet third baby- the delightful mascot of our family for all those early years- is 9!

Happy Saturday to you all!