San Diego +Loving Connie +Howard Family

A few weeks ago, Dad and Momma Howard came for a visit so they could check on Connie. Adam and I headed down to San Diego for the day so we could spend time with the fam and so we could support Connie as well. We all met at Omar and Julie's house then tag teamed it (because we couldn't all fit in 1 car) down to the hospital.

Connie had major surgery but made a swift recovery and after a couple weeks was able to go back to her home of care in San Diego. I don't have any pics of Connie, but if you are a Facebook friend you can see some of the pics there.

After visiting Connie the family went out to dinner and walked around a little shopping area.

I was trying so hard to figure out what I wanted to order..

So Omar helped.. except not really.

Then I would get distracted by Adam's good looks...

She must have already known what she wanted to order..

After dinner I took a photo with this man.. I thought he was Adam for a second.. The guy behind us was clapping.. I thought it was for us but,

He was really clapping for Bob Hope.

Adam and I are never ones to pass up a good photo opportunity..

Brother's looking stoic..

Adam took this artsy shot for his Dad..

The parents..

The end.

posting less

so really i'm posting less for 2 reasons.

1. work is insanely busy. like crazy. i worked a lot of overtime last week and its not looking like it's gonna let up until mid-september.

2. i want to get my URL changed. i don't want to post as erin hann, i used to just ignore it, but now i don't want to draw any attention to that.. that chapter is closed.

Suzi was kind and sent me a link that would switch things over.. For lack of a better option I might just run with that.. I'll just lose my feeds off of other blogs and such..
We also discussed the whole 'Turn your blog into a book.' idea.. And then starting fresh..
Does anyone else have any other thoughts or ideas? Any helpful links?

or anything...

Wimberley Finale

From the glass place we proceeded on to the little town of Wimberley. There were lots of little shops. This was a shop in a house. Adam and I went inside and there was an older woman painting a canvas. We chatted with her a bit and she told us the heat was making her grumpy. There was a cat on a chair by her table. It was sweetie - looked like it had been around the block a time or two. We talked with the lady about how we noticed a pile of cat food on some steps at the park. She explained that she feeds 36 cats! Yowza! Guess Wimberley has a lot of cats...



We had lunch at a great little restaurant called Inoz. This picture makes me laugh because the guy on the TV looks like he is leaning in and smiling for the shot. The hamburger buns were homemade at the restaurant and delicious! The waitress - Faith - was super friendly and we got along with her great.

This is a shot on the way back to Adam's folks house. It's a BBQ in downtown Kyle.

This is Adam's folks sitting outside in the heat while Adam and I checked out a shoe store.

Adam's mom after we finished eating at Inoz. Doesn't the pole look like it has a face?

And me and Adam.. we're happy.

This is the Kyle tower. Adam snapped this shot as we were driving.

Wimberley Glass

As we left the Flea Market and headed towards Wimberley we stopped at glass shop. It's a privately owned shop full of custom, handmade, handblown glass items. PRICEY too!

We arrived just in time to sit in on the maker's making a lamp shade. We had to kill a few minutes, so we took pics.

That is the furnace and other heat chambers as well as a couple work stations.

There he goes... starting to blow the glass...

Putting more melted glass stuff on the end of the poll so he can continue to form it...

Reheating...

After a few more dips and a few more blows and a few more heats and some rolling in color.. this is what we have so far..

Passed off to the owner and master..

He appreciated Adam taking pictures and offered to make a face for the camera.. Check out the blowtorch.

They transferred the glass to another pole so there would be a hole in the end. They got it centered the swung it back and forth -- so that it flared out and scalloped.. Here the assistant is getting ready to take it to the over after the master detaches it..

And one more colorful shot inside the shop. The circles were like $1,000 each..

Dinner

Friends, tonight I cooked dinner at the apartment. Simple and tasty.

Chicken:
Chicken breast, cook in olive oil, pepper, salt, lots of lemon pepper and a clove of fresh garlic.
Veggie:
Fresh green beans, fresh zucchini, saute in olive oil, a clove of fresh garlic, salt and pepper and then at the end squeeze a wedge of lime over it and reduce it down a little more.

Easy and flavorful and Adam liked it a lot.

Saturday in Texas - Flea Market

Saturday - July 15 was our last full day in Texas. We had been planning on going to Wimberley on Friday, but with Connie's health concerns it was best that we stay home. So Saturday we combined the Flea Market and Wimberley.

This pic was taken while I was still asleep. Those birds were so funny because if their mouths were open their tails were down, and if their mouths closed then their tails went up. So it made Adam and I laugh pretty hard to see the tail/mouth rythm.

Adam took this picture as we pulled into the parking lot of the Flea Market. This guy had really large ears.

I didn't even notice this guy until Adam pulled out the camera to take a pic. Pretty random? Made us laugh for sure.

I found this arm and was trying to make it look completely like mine. I didn't realize my arm wasn't hidden completely under it. Then Adam and I got into a fistfight. Ok not really.

We took this picture because of the yellow vinyl chair. It was the little sister to the chairs that are in the guys apartment. I kinda wish we could've bought it. There were a few awesome furniture pieces I wish we could have bought. Unfortunately, Southwest only allows carryons to be 10x16x24.

This was just irony at it's finest. Church pews next to cigarette trash cans.

I liked the colors of these books. And I felt like we had some similar books to these (in appearance) when I was growing up. I seem to recall them being on our bookshelf.

An artsy shot by Adam.

It seemed to me that this clock had stories to tell. I sat down with it. Offered to eat ice cream with it and even found a box of tissues in case the conversation was a sad story. But the clock wouldn't speak up. Maybe the next person will find out it's story.

Hey Gringo!! Hilarious. I wish I could remember the price tag on this item so I would feel better about not buying it.

Dr. Pepper. Yes. Please.

The happy face white flag. So tattered. So happy. Aren't those spools awesome? I wouldn't mind having a few of those around. Not one bit.

The train passed through downtown Kyle right as we pulled up to the light. (Tradition for Erin and her Dad - Pull up. Turn off the radio. Roll the windows down. Listen. Smile.)

Wimberley pics to follow.

Wedding

WEDDING!!

Yay! Adam and I are officially thinking, idea-ing, and planning. It's so fun! I LOVE having him involved.

Things are so kicked back right now. We are just so content to be engaged and while we are talking wedding talk there is nothing stressful or overwhelming about it.

Lots of things to consider though. Lots to think through. Nothing is nailed down or confirmed whatsoever. So it's really just in the beginning stages for now.

OK - I just got an idea.. gotta go email Adam.

This is so fun!

Flights Home

I haven't posted about being home yet because there is still one more vacation post I'd like to do, but Adam has the pics on his computer and I haven't had a chance to steal them for a post. Hopefully tonight he will bring his laptop over and I can steal the pics I want for our last full day in Texas.

Our flights home ran on time. It was great. When we left Texas last year to come home we sat on the plane for 2 hours. And when we headed to Texas this time our plane was delayed an hour and a half. So it was nice to just be on time. The flights were pretty good. Seems there is generally turbulance departing from Austin. I had the pleasure of sitting by someone with stinky armpits. I however was not friends with my armpits the entire week so I felt free to raise my sweaty armpits to adjust my light and air conditioner (and Adam's) as much as I wanted. =)

We had a flight from Dallas to Albuquerque to LAX. When we were en route from Albequerque to LAX the flight attendant came over to us and said, "So, Hey. What is your guys deal? You've been on this flight for a while. Are you dating? Or are you just friends? Or..." Adam raised my hand and said we had just gotten engaged. The guy said, "Wow. You guys really make an awesome couple. You just go together. How about a drink on the house from me?" Adam said, "No thanks, man, we don't drink." And the flight guy said, "Hey. You're better people than I am." Adam was able to say, "It's all because of Jesus." It was such a random and interesting little conversation. I should have asked for another Dr. Pepper.

Zilker Botanical Gardens

This afternoon we checked out Zilker Botanical Gardens. It's in Austin so we had a little bit of a drive. It was trafficy since we got going later this afternoon but we got there just fine and it was actually better that we went later on because the temps weren't as sky high as they are earlier in the day. Even still it was over 100 degrees when we got there at 5pm-ish.

This plant was hanging from a giant oak tree. Isn't it cool? I really like it.

I get to call Adam's Dad "Dad" now, so I will say Dad took this pic of the 4 of us when we arrived. Don't we look happy?

Ring pic. Y'all will probably be seeing lots of these. We are proud of this ring.

There was a koi pond in the Oriental Garden. The koi were ginormous.

See? Adam is showing you.

Lily pads. I like lilypads. There were dragon flies. and I looked down in the pond and saw a head and asked Adam to come and look at the frog. But then it disappeared under the lilies and swam away and it was a turtle. I apologized for not knowing animal heads better.

Pretty flowers. They look so cool instead of 103 degrees. It's all a mind game.


Adam needed to jump.


The walk of friends.

Ok this was fun. There were butterfly seats in the butterfly gardens. Marco matched the blue and black butterfly so he got to take pics in that seat.

I was the monarch. Because I like color and polka dots and because this one looked the most girly. Anyway my seat was magical and actually turned me in to a real butterfly for a while. Check out the progression...

Adam had to subdue his butterfly. But he conquered. I was so proud.

One to close with... =)