Raybans to Rodeos: Sanantonio

Eek! Today marks M&I's four year anniversary together and I couldn't be happier to call this man my best friend.

In Four Years:

We've traveled to Canada, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, Michigan, Colorado, Wisconsin, and Ohio together.
We've seen 5 professional sports live, in-person.
We've moved across the country.
I've witnessed him win a gold and silver medal.
We've had 9 jobs.
We've lived in 5 places.
We've fallen in love over and over again!

Happy Anniversary, love! I am so excited for what the future brings for us together.

M&I suffered a rainy Superbowl weekend here in San An, but it didn't stop us from spending a lot of time in one of our neighborhood favorites, Halcyon. Based out of Austin, Halcyon brings to Southtown a coffee house during the day featuring beautifully crafted lattes and a bar at night. I absolutely love the definition of Halcyon: denoting a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy and peaceful.

Halcyon is widely known for their espresso cocktails including a Long Island Ice coffee, Mochalua, and their award-winning Chocolate Espresso Martini. I love that Halcyon adds some of these delicious afternoon treats on their happy hour menu.

When you visit Halcyon during the day, you will find people tucked away in each corner of the building utilizing their free wifi. I often visit Halcyon to round out my weeks, since I typically work from home. Halcyon is a great change of scenery and luckily just a few minute walk down the street.

The best bartender in San Antonio!

Once 4:00pm ticks on the clock, Halcyon is turned into your favorite local bar complete with Battleship, Scrabble, and table-side s'mores. M&I have become quite the regulars at Halcyon and have befriended the next best bartender in town, Casey Schwamb. Casey, like M&I, is a recent transplant to Spurstown. Hailing from Louisville, Kentucky, Casey has been bartending for years while rockin' the guitar and listening to his favorite band, Led Zeppelin. When you visit M&I next, we will most certainly bring you to meet Casey and the other amazing people at Halcyon.

Casey's signature beverage: the Old Mint Fashioned

What is your favorite local spot? Tell me about it!

Hello Hello!

I am the (in)famous M you’ve been reading about on occasion. This is my first guest blog post and in it I get to tell you a bit about the reason we moved to San Antonio.

I was extremely fortunate to accept a position as a Test Engineer with Cooper Tires at their Tire and Vehicle Test Center this past Fall. The facility is about 50 miles South of our home, so I have to deal with a bit of a commute. It's totally worth it to live in the city though, as anyone who's followed this blog should be able to deduce. The fact that I'm commuting to a fantastic job certainly helps too.

I got an opportunity to show Eryn and her Mom and Grandma around when they were here for a visit, so what follows are some of the highlights from that day.

To lead off the tour, here’s my office! I spend about half my time in here, so I'm slowly making it more and more my own. You can just barely catch a glimpse of my obviously grown-up collection of model cars in the picture below.

Welcome to my lair.

Naturally, there’s a lot of tires...

We test a wide range of tires on a wide range of vehicles.

We have pretty awesome off-road testing capabilities.

30 Degree Hill Climb. We normally run this wet. There are 3 different surfaces; brushed concrete, smooth concrete, and embedded rock.

Rock Crawl

The Rock Garden. Entered from the left, the driver goes through water before climbing and out.

I know the pictures are what everyone cares about, but I’m sure someone read above and wondered what exactly a Test Engineer does. Well, that changes from day to day, but my responsibilities generally include calibration, test support, some test driving, event support, and basically making sure our testing runs smoothly. If an issue pops up, I try to figure out why and fix it as quickly as possible to avoid downtime. I continuously look for improvements we could make to current test methods while also doing research on new tests to be developed as well. I have loved every minute of it so far and am extremely fortunate to get to spend my weekdays around cars with a great team of people.

That about covers it for a very basic introduction to my job. I look forward to providing more updates about cool happenings there in the future. Look out for another post from me, as I will be occasionally hijacking E's blog when it strikes my fancy.

------FITNESS FRIDAY UPDATE------
E: Ok, so it turns out, not too many people wanted to join me on my Fitness Friday endeavor. I haven't given up and in fact, I am about to ramp it up! Starting in February, M&I will be killing it with 5 days a week workouts that consist of agility, speed & quickness, and weight training gearing up for tryouts and Worlds in London. #fitnessfriday

M&I had some serious FOMO this weekend. Back in Florida, our college frisbee teams were playing in home field tournaments that we totally would have been at, one of my college girlfriends and roommates got engaged, and M's 2012 Team USA had a reunion beach ultimate team that they put together for a tournament in California. So, instead of wallowing in our sorrows, we decided to get out in the crowd with some of our friends!

SNAPSHOTS:
1. Layout Practice. This past week brought us some cold nights; the weather was much colder than I have experienced in the past. Oh yeah! In addition to bone chilling temperatures, it brought us spitting rain. With this week being Trinity's first week back to school, we decided to have layout practice! My girls absolutely killed it - my lil' nugget, Annie soared through the air in this shot!

2. Branchline Brewing Company. On Saturday, M&I attended the second anniversary party at Branchline Brewing Company. For $20 at the door, they gave you an anniversary pint glass and 4 beers to fill it up! They had over 10+ to choose from including a Coconut Cream Ale, a chocolate and espresso brew, a Reese's Pieces brew, and my personal favorite the Honey Blonde Ale. It was so neat to try out all of the different brews.

3. A new HEB! You know you are getting old when you get pumped for a new HEB down the street from your house. This location on Nogalitos is actually the oldest HEB in San An. They demolished everything expect the courtyard store front and built a brand spankin' new two-story grocery mart with a travelator. What is a travelator, you may ask? You and your cart hook up to a conveyor belt and it takes you up to the store or down to your cars! Pretty neat.

4. Tuk Tuk Taproom. This pho-fusion restaurant is right up in the Pearl area, so ten minutes from our house. Tuk Tuk is known for its collision of Asian street fare and a craft beer bar. M&I chowed down on some Thai style fried chicken that included lemongrass, garlic, chili, cilantro & jasmine rice. YUM!

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
1. How Fascination Street stole my heart.
2. Did your "get in shape" resolution fall by the wayside?
3. The one time I tried to be a fashion blogger.

GREAT FINDS:
1. Customizable Jewelry
2. Lent Bible Study
3.Things to do in... LONDON! (getting excited for my trip!)

How did you spend your weekend?

Okay, so there weren't polar bears in San Antonio. Sorry for pulling the white over your eyes! (So, I am cheesy.) Our weekend was pretty uneventful because the temperatures dropped to the low 20's with sleet and freezing rain. Floridians and even Southern Texans do not handle this well. This place was a ghost town. So what does a sleet day mean to the Ogre/Fiona household? Cleaning Day.

SNAPSHOTS:
1. Our new space heater. The temperatures during the week got colder and come Friday, M was begging to get a space heater. Luckily, I had been hoarding a Bed Bath & beyond coupon and one of their 20% off mail offers. So, right after work on Friday, M&I went out and purchased our first space heater. That frown was turned upside down! :) Not to mention, Old Navy was having a buy two clearance items, get one free! M was in desperate need of warmer clothing that is appropriate for work, so we got some sweaters for him and myself.

2. Our massive overhaul. I recently discovered un-fancy, a Texas based fashion blog. Un-fancy decided to do a capsule wardrobe where she only wears 37 pieces for a three month season to allow longer life in her clothes and creativity in the pieces she owns! During that season, she stores her other clothing for another capsule. I was totally inspired and decided to try my variation. In doing so, M&I cleaned out our entire closet, dressers, and storage. Together, we rid our closest of 8 (E-I-G-H-T) garbage bags of clothing, shoes, and accessories. I would say that 75% of it was mine.

3. Northrock Church. We are in the process of becoming proud members of Northrock church. After a few months of trying to find our new San Antonio church home, we have found a place that we feel God is calling us to serve. Yesterday, we attended the second session of Growth Track learning about our spiritual gifts and how they can benefit his Kingdom! So exciting!

4. PBB&J Roll-up. I made a fun delicious and super healthful snack over the weekend! I'll be sharing a more detailed post soon.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
I recently have joined some new online communities. So, here are part one and two of my short story:
1. From Raybans...
2. ...To Rodeos.
3. Our Apartment Tour

GREAT FINDS:
1. This. I made this yummy crock pot concoction filled with quinoa, cheese, taco seasoning, onion, tomatoes, and jalapeños! It was super easy, super filling, and super delicious!
2. For My Valentine. Valentines Day, M's Birthday, and our Anniversary is right around the corner. Check out my Pinterest board and let me know if you have any ideas.
3. Local 5k. M&I will participating in a local 5k to support Kinetic Kids. Kinetic Kids provides opportunities for children with disabilities to participate in sports and other recreational activities. Healthy living and youth in sports is super important to M&I.

Cold weather swept across this entire country over the weekend.

How did you spend your days in the chilly weather?!

This was the fourth or fifth take, the only not blurry one. :(

During my Mom and Gramma's trip to San Antonio, we took a trip to Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch's African Safari. The Wildlife Ranch is must see when you visit San Antonio.

How it works:

The Ranch is a drive-through safari where you take your own vehicle through the acres up acres of land filled with African animals!
Admission is around $19 per person. There are discounts for seniors and children.
Included in admission is a bag of feed. It doesn't feel like a lot, but it is plenty to get you through the entire trip.
After the drive-through, there is a petting zoo and walk-about.

No, Grandpa, you can't poach here.

NO ZOOM!

It is absolutely amazing how the animals just walk right up to your window. You are expected to drop the feed on the ground to feed the animals. However, like most people, we let many of the animals eat right out of our hands! The first set of animals were Aoudad or Kudu, antelope species native to Africa.

The weather was gorgeous

It was intimidating at first, as animals would just walk up to your window and stick their heads right in your car! So, being the scaredy cat that I was, I was throwing the food outside to keep the animals at arm's length. M decided to be the brave one to start and let a baby antelope eat out of his hand. It was the cutest thing ever.

It doesn't look like it, but I definitely fed some of the animals out of my hand too! I was just the photographer, while M decided to be our tour guide behind the wheel. My car has a sunroof, so it was fun to open it up and take pictures from above.

The ostrich's were super cool. We did see one of them doing the rare mating dance with it's wings spread open. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a photo but dang, these birds are huge. SO scary. Did you see my post from last week where I showed how close I was to one of them?

These animals were so beautiful. Imagine seeing them in snow or something like that!

Then there were the zebras. Second to giraffes, I was most excited to see these up close until we got up to them and saw the size of their teeth. HOLY CRAP! Those animals have some chompers.

No zoom.

One of the zebras was particularly friendly. M&I were looking left at some of the zebras on that side of the car when my Mom started dying laughing and I felt something very large on my lap. I scream and turn around and the zebra's head was digging into the bag of food in my lap. We are talking a full horse head inside my car in my lap. It was so surreal. That photo above is what I was able to take when it was in my lap.

Do you know how Zebra stripes are formed? I always thought they were white animals with black stripes. However, I stand corrected. Zebras are in-fact believed to be black animals with white additions. They are believed to have stripes to cause an optical illusion when in packs so lions can not hone in on one target.

My coworker, Ryan Kruse.

There was a Walk-about area of the Ranch that features Macaws, Lemurs, Orangutans, and other animals to look at. I wish I could pet the monkeys, but I assume they are too unpredictable. The petting zoo was just goats, but it was still fun to pet all the babies. One of them thought he was mighty and rammed right into M's shin. M didn't appreciate that too much, but it was hilarious!

It's tongue was wrapped around M's finger!

Fun fact about Eryn: Giraffe's are my favorite animal! The giraffe featured in the photo above is Nakato, or better known as Buddy. Buddy and his sister Wasswa are the second set of Reticulated Twin giraffe's ever born in the US and the ninth pair living in the world! Buddy is the crowd pleaser at the Wildlife Ranch. He will run along his railing as children run by. He will mirror your actions and even lick your fingers to show you how much he likes you. Buddy and his sister, Wasswa, are 2.5 years old. M&I could have spent all day in their area to play and run with the twins.

Wasswa, the female twin and oldest

Nakato means second born twin and Wasswa is means first born twin in Luganda. I didn't know they were twins at the time, but while doing research on their website I discovered their adorable videos they have been keeping of the animals as they grow up at the Ranch.

The Wildlife Ranch is sharing a lot of information about these rare giraffes as they grow - I learned a lot just by reading the bullet points!

While $80 seemed a bit steep for four people to enjoy the ranch, it was was definitely worth every single penny! I would highly suggest you visit the Ranch and it's partner location (right across the street), the Natural Caverns. This will definitely be M&I's next stop!

My Grandma, Mom, and I have one hobby that we all share quite equally: shopping. The first day of Three Generations Tackle SA was a trip around La Villita. La Villita was one of the first neighborhoods created in San Antonio and since has kept its form.

La Villita is full of little shops and art galleries, but a particular shop stood out to us: Scentchips!

Many of us have heard of brands like Scentsy and have bought warmers at Target, but Scentchips was the original! Beginning in 1979, Scentchips began making their chips right here at their small factory in San Antonio. Let me tell you, walking into the store is heavenly!

I am pretty sensitive to strong aromas and can only last in places like Yankee Candle for no more than 5 minutes. However, Scentchips is different. They use high quality products sourced in the US like paraffin and soy wax that keep the chips good for a long time. The oils they use must be special because I could have stayed in that little shop all day!

You would think for the amount of chips they sell worldwide (!!!) that their factory would be pretty sizeable, but instead, it is about the size of my living room.

Also, the prices are totally affordable and would make great gifts. One of my coworkers already has one coming her way! (Merry Christmas, KP!) While many of you will be shopping online, Scentchips has over 25 locations. The original San Antonio store is absolutely adorable. I may just make a second visit this weekend during the La Villita Coffee Festival!

You can even create your own scent!!

Don't forget to like Scentchips on Facebook to hear about their new scents and specials - I know I did!

For the Christmas Holiday, they are offering FREE SHIPPING on all orders!

Which scents are you going to make?

**This is not a sponsored post. I just really loved their store!**

I have recently discovered a new blog that I am a big fan of: Oak & Oats. Beth, the author, is a beautiful Christ-loving young woman and I've taken quite a liking to some of her post compositions - particularly her "Week's End" recaps. Tell me what you think!

Snapshots:
1. I call this shot, "The Gargoyles." There was a lovely series of photos where my Mom touted her absolute best America's Next Top Model faces. My Grams quickly caught on and decided to join in the fun. Needless to say, a lot of laughter ensued.

2. One of M&I's favorite weekend activities is perusing the Pearl Farmer's Market with our favorite cup of Local Coffee and this past weekend was no different. However, in conjunction with the Farmer's Market was the Annual Tamale Festival! The lines were crazy, but we did try a small bite of tamale that faired up to be delish.

3. This my good friends is an ostrich. I did not use zoom in this photo. Yes, I was that close to the most terrifying bird of all time. The Wild Adventures Drive-Thorugh Safari has been highly acclaimed since we moved here and couldn't pass up the opportunity with my Grams and momma are in town. It did not disappoint and a full post will follow shortly.

4. You can't visit San Antonio and pass up a chance to view the Alamo. On the last day of my Mom and Grams visit, we toured the grounds of my Great x10 Uncle Davy Crockett's death place.

You May Have Missed:
Fitness Fridays
How Much Can You Give This Season?
What Advent Means To Me

Great Finds:
This Print!
Personalized 2015 Planner
My Future Camera

Thanksgiving has passed! We are officially into December, but I can't move forward without sharing photos of the Ogrens' first trip to San Antonio.

Aside from Thanksgiving comas, the Ogrens' and I went to the Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony and Boat Parade at the SA Riverwalk.