The Stars Must Align

We are in the very beginning stages of purchasing our first home together.  I'm so excited, and I'm even hesitant to even be writing this down in fear of jinxing any good luck we may have on this journey.  However, at this point there could not be a better opportunity for us to become homeowners.   We qualify for a bunch of cool stuff because we are first time home buyers, and newlyweds, and looking at homes outside of the Austin city limits. 

I'm soooo tired of moving around, and for the last 24 years I have been blessed to see and experience so much, that I am finally ready to lay down some roots! Particularly, that last 6 years here in Central Texas, I have moved at least once a year into a new dorm, new apartment or new house. I look forward to living in one place for more than a year without a move. Most importantly, I'm looking forward to building a home with my husband.

Dave steered me in the direction of the absolutely cutest little town, Leander.  Leander is about 18 miles northwest of Austin and seems like a really nice area. At first, and even now, I was hesitant because it seems so far from work, but it's really only about 4 more miles further for us than we are now.  It's right smack in the hill country and there are so many trails and nature things about Leander that I love so far.  Leander is also a great school district, which normally speaks volumes for the surrounding communities.  Lots of things to think about when buying a home, and trying to decide on a community where we can potentially raise our children in for years to come.   This is the area that we are focusing on right now, but are open to anywhere else that may seem like a good fit for us. 

Hopefully in the next couple of months things will work out the way they are suppose to and we will be on our way to another move! The stars must align.  One thing I am being particularly picky about is the size of the yard, must be big enough for my big dog! And, I don't want to be able to breathe on our neighbor!

We are out of the house that we are currently renting in July, and we will need to close on a home by June!  Last week we looked at about 15 houses that we found on our own that we were interested in.  This week Dave has been in contact with a real estate agent, who has found about 25 homes for us to look at, 14 of which we actually would like to see.   So we will be at it again all day Saturday!  This time I will take my camera because we are slowly getting a little more serious each time we look.

A manly dessert!

Dave and I went back and forth about what dessert I was "allowed" to bring to Superbowl Party!  I wanted to bring cupcakes because I have been wanting to make some in my brand new cupcake pans that we got a a gift for our wedding.  Dave, however, informed me that that is not an appropriate dessert to bring to a Superbowl Party.  This information was also followed up with what was appropriate food to eat at a Superbowl Party: wings, chips, pizza, beer, pigs in a blanket, ect.  Wow...have I got a lot to learn.  So Dave got a recipe of a "manly" (ie FATTENING) dessert from a co-worker, and I figured I would give it a shot!

All the ingrediants needed for Bill Nicholson's *Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding

*We used the world famous Round Rock Donuts instead of KK.

2 dozen donuts (minus the two donuts that we ate) cubed

Adding the liquids and other ingrediants

Put into a casserole dish

Butter Rum sauce (butter, powered sugar, and rum)

Baked for an hour and glazed with the Butter Rum Sauce.

This is somewhat feastive because bread pudding is a real New Orleans treat!  Dave had to help me out with the rum sauce because that was a little bit tricky. This is definately a dessert we will make again! Let me know if you would like the recipe!
Here are some fun pictures of my guys on Super Bowl Sunday before we headed over to JonO and Lexi's.

On Saturday we went up to Harker Heights to visit with my parents and see Sarah sing in the Region Choir.  Thor took the trip with us and spending the day and night at his granparent's house really wears him out!

We had such a good time a the party and I'm so glad that the Saints won. Dave's team is the Titans, so by default that who I usually route for, however, Dave also has ties with New Orleans, so we were definately routing for the Saints.  And they won.