Austin Girl's Weekend

Oh my! It sure is hard to blog with a full time job :-P I have been trying to find the time to sit down and write about my last weekend spent in Austin, but between work and overbooking my week, I have barely had time to check Facebook, let alone blog!

Since going to Galveston last week, my life has been gogogo and I have definitely broken in my new car. Last Friday, I went straight from work to Lindsay's house right outside of Austin. She is near and dear to my heart. In the past year, she has moved from the Heights to Austin, gotten pregnant, and now has a 2 month old son named Jack!

 Baby Jack is just so "chill"and was such a good boy! He rarely cries and mostly just smiles, sleeps, and looks around the room with his big baby blues.

 I had found this beer at Specs that I LOVED in Amsterdam called Choffee. I brought some for Lindsay to try, and we ended up having her husband, Andrew, take dorky pictures of us consuming it. I really just wanted to spend time with Lindsay and not do anything too crazy, and that we did! A little poker, some good food, a swing on the hammock, walk to the pool, and of course copious amounts of wine made for an awesome 24 hours together.

I left Lindsay's around 2 to head off to one of my other BFF's, Anneke's house. We were going to be each other's date to our friend Lauren's wedding, because let's face it, we knew we would have more fun with each other than our husbands at a wedding!

 It was SO nice getting to see so many old faces at Lauren's wedding. Cannot believe that it has been  nearly 6 years since we graduated! It made my heart so full to see how great everyone seems to be doing and getting to catch up.

Anneke and I had talked about going out after the wedding, but I really just wanted to sit in her house and talk in our PJs! I really wasn't up for doing anything Austin-y while in Austin. I just wanted to talk to two friends I hadn't seen in a long time. You don't realize how important it is to have people that really, truly know you until you are an ocean away and don't really have that at your fingertips.

 Before heading back to Houston on Sunday, Anneke and I went to "Sandy's" aka Sandra Bullocks little bistro and had the BEST french toast in the history of all breakfasty foods. Then Anneke showed me her office- it is in the heart of Austin and has panoramic views of the whole city. Very Fancy. 

It was hard leaving Austin, but I am thankful that seeing some of my bffs is only a 3 hour car ride away! Love you girls! 

Lately...

Happy Summer to most of my teacher friends! Here, there are a lot of breaks during the school year, so summer is only from July 18- Sept 1 for kids. I think I prefer the longer summer and less breaks. There is something so nice about knowing you have a solid 2.5 months of watching Live with Kelly, drinking margaritas at 4 pm, and reading the day away.

I have been keeping myself very busy, and I've been bad at documenting everything with photos. These past several days, I...

--Saw 1984. I loved it. My pal Erica slept through all of it. Literally, all of it.

-Ate delicious tapas with the other Xtina and complained about terrible landlords in London.

-Ironically enough, the next day, I had a call from the realtor showing our flat. Side note, it sucks living in a rental property and having to leave for the flat to be shown to other potential renters. Daniel likes scattering ear plus around the flat in an attempt to warn them all, but I want everything to look perfect so that new tenants can be quickly found and I can stop worrying about leaving the flat at random hours for it to be shown. So, anyway, realtor calls and says, "We have found someone who is interested in moving in! I just want to make sure that you are moving out June 21st. That is what the owners listed as your moving date."

I could feel my blood boiling at this point. We have our flat until July 21, not June, although I move out a few days before then. NOT ONLY is this in our written contract, but I verbally told our landlords AND our relocation agent sent them an email reminding them of this a few weeks ago. Especially because we have a rental property, I just cannot believe their stupidity in making a pretty big mistake. So, these past couple of weeks, I have been leaving the flat for absolutely no reason, since the people seeing the flat wanted a June move in date. And if the realtor wouldn't have double checked with us, there would have been new renters trying to move in while we were out of town with Daniel's family.

We have had so many issues with our landlords this past year, and I cannot wait to be in my house again. Did I tell y'all about the time, after 4 crazy days in Madrid, we came home so excited to sleep...we walked in to our flat, and ALL of our stuff was out of our laundry room, scattered through out the flat (including my lacy underwear!) and there was a strange man painting the inside of the laundry room (because of all of the repairs that need to be done, I suppose they thought the color of a closet was the most important thing)?!? When I called the landlords, they apologized, saying that they figured we'd be gone longer, totally missing the point that it is the coming-in-to-our-flat-while-we-aren't-home-without-telling-us-and-then-moving-all-of-our-crapthat was not okay! Ok, moving on!

-Saw Fatal Attraction with Sadia. Fun sitting up close and seeing Charlotte from SATC and Karen from Californication!

I'm going to miss pubs

- Met Daniel at a pub. Also ate dim sum at Yauatcha until we felt sick.

-Went on lots of runs to calm my moving anxiety and renter rage. Plus, it has been sunny and 70 degrees. Love it!

Ok, I think that covers all of what's been going in. Have a great week, everyone!

The Most Breathtaking English Countryside

Hi, friends! I am feeling so much better today, after nearly sleeping for 20 hours yesterday alone. I'm still pretty tired, but I think once I get moving, I'll feel more awake.

I'm really excited to share our day trip to the Cotswolds with you. The Cotswolds are near Oxford, starting about 70 miles north of London and a 100 mile trail of little picturesque, thatch-roofed villages. It's somewhere that I really wanted to see, but it always seemed like so much trouble, because you need a car to get around. I refuse to drive here, and Daniel has once before and said he'll never do it again. SO, when our friends Bailey and Tristan told us that they wanted to take a daytrip and didn't mind driving, we jumped on the opportunity tag along!

We rented a car through zipzar- you can either pay an hourly or daily rate, and it really wasn't too shabby when being split amongst two couples.

They picked us up around 8:45 and we were off! First stop was Bibury, about an hour and a half from our flat. Bailey and I had both read great things about the village, but it was SO small and we couldn't find any shops or pubs. I think we just didn't look hard enough? The houses were cute, though!

Next stop was unplanned- it just looked like a cute town, so we decided to have a look! Bourton-on-the-Water, also known as the Venice of the Cotswolds. It didn't even look real, and I think it was really built up to look old. Everything was a bit too perfect. 

   

The next town was all of our favorites- Chipping Campden. We spent a lot of time there, and if you are going to the Cotswolds, I highly recommend this town. It was just touristy enough, but mostly full of people that actually live there. There were a handful of pubs, ice cream shops, and little antique stores. 

We went to two pubs- The Red Lion....and I can't remember the other one. We had a cider at each, and lunch at the second one. It was actually pretty good, for being pub food! And cider is always the perfect compliment to a warm day (the hottest of the year in the UK!). 

A Market Hall from the early 1600's

   

The NEATEST church was in Chipping Campden that we truly enjoyed exploring. There was a wedding going on, and it seemed like the whole town was there! As we walked to the church, it seemed like every little cottage's door was opening, with a little old lady hobbling out, shouting at her neighbor to come along so they don't miss the ceremony. 

There's something about old English churches and cemeteries that I just love. There's such a feeling of peace and you feel so small when reading the tombstones of people that have died 500 years ago. 

Next, we were able to find a walking map and took a 5 mile hike into the countryside. First, we got to pass some old cottages. They don't ever get old to me! I really want to stay in one, one day.

The hike was incredible. Gorgeous views, wild flowers, and LOTS of sheep. Plus, it was so sunny and warm out. 

   

   

Our sheep story:
We were sitting down, watching the view, and there was a sheep next to us chowing down on some grass. There was another sheep baaing in the distance, and every time the sheep next to us kept baaing back to it. She started to sound angry, and then we turn around and see it was her baby she was baaing to! The baby runs full force to her momma, baaing hysterically. Bailey goes "AWWWW, we are about to see a tender moment!" And then the baby sheep head butts the momma in the groin, making her stumble, and then starts going to town on her nipples for some milk. It looked painful! And then after baby got her fill, she started rolling around happily in the grass. It was really freaking cute.

After our hike, we got some ice cream and asked the shop owner for another good town we should see. He suggested Broadway, and we went, but I think we were too tired at this point to enjoy any more sights. We had heard of a pub called Falkland Arms, deemed to be the "best pub in the UK" and decided to drive there, before heading home for the night. 

The pub was really old and in the middle of nowhere. I think there were more dogs than people there. We were so, so tired that we just stayed for a bit before going back to London.

Fun, fun times. I'm so thankful we got to go with Bailey and Tristan!