Ready or not...it's April!

Ready or not...April is here! I've honestly been dreading this month since the Fall and here we are! It's my busiest month at work, my busiest month with school, and sometime here in the next 4 or 5 weeks Sim leaves for his deployment. We were just talking to each other and mentioning how we feel like we're just waiting for him to leave. It's awful to say that but when you know someone is going to be gone you begin to mentally prepare and then when you have go about life the same, while you wait for them to leave you almost wish they could just leave now....so that their return home will be quicker!

In the meantime...here is the rest of my Feb/March update!

The last weekend in February we snuck away to our "favorite state" Florida for a quick weekend getaway!

It was actually the five year anniversary of our first date and although it just happened to fall on that weekend, it was pretty cool that we were able to do something special together to commemorate it!

We were also fortunate enough to randomly be in the same area of the state as the same time as our old friends from Fort Lauderdale. Kim and Anthony Brick now live in Palm Springs, California. Anthony was my old boss when I used to work for Marriott in Fort Lauderdale. Kim and I grew close as we tried to plan our weddings during the same time back in 2007. We were both far away from our family and friends and dealing with all of the wedding stress so we really were there for each other during that time! Well that and a few nights out at the Elbo Room and on the Riverfront welded our friendship solid! Kim and Anthony now have a beautiful daughter Avery who we were also able to see during our visit.

It was really wonderful that they were able to drive up to Clearwater to see us while they were visiting family in Fort Myers. The following day we were able to meet up with an old friend from Woodbridge, Jenn Ruecker who now lives in Largo with her fiance. We enjoyed an amazing dinner with them and it was really nice to get to catch up with Jenn. She was the one who set me and Sim up! :)

Our time in Florida was amazing but short!

March 11th we headed back to the Houston rodeo...the best part of living near Houston! This year we took some friends with us on the bus trip.

We had such a good time last year on the all-inclusive rodeo trip (starts at Hooters with all you can eat wings and all you can drink beer, includes a charter bus trip to the rodeo with games, raffle prizes, and more drinks, and tickets to see the rodeo and the concert) that we just had to do it again! This year we saw Brad Paisley who was an awesome performer. He is no Keith Urban of course....but he held his own!

So that is what we've been up to! Well besides work and school of course! Sim is finishing up his last science requirement and I'm doing my last Economics class and my last Human Resources class! There is a light at the end of the tunnel!!

Mardi Gras 2010

Well Mardi Gras has come and passed but I have been meaning to post some pictures from our fabulous evening so I'm going to do that....even if I am a month late!

We were invited through my work to attend the San Luis Salute Mardi Gras Ball in Galveston again this year. It's a truly spectacular event put on to help raise money for The University of Texas Medical Branch and each year they designate a special department that will be the recipient of the donated funds. This year money was raised to support the hospital and surgical tower, which is still recovering from Hurricane Ike. The event is hosted by one of the Houston area's largest philanthropists, Tillman Fertitta. In addition to being a huge supporter of various charities and community activities, Mr. Fertitta is also the owner of the Landry's chain of restaurants which includes The Chart House, Joe's Crab Shack, and Charley's Crab among others. So of course the food was wonderful!! He also brought in performers from the resort he owns in Las Vegas, so while we dined we had Cirque style dancers spinning from ribbons and ropes suspended from the roof! It was a wonderful way to support UTMB and celebrate Mardi Gras...Galveston style!

Oh and we made the paper! http://www.chron.com/disp/photo.mpl/photos/20425876/sim-and-sara-zuger.html

More photos below:

This is Tom Koch the Channel 7 morning newsman. I was SO excited to meet him!

Tourist Saturday

This past Saturday, as our family and friends back in Virginia were being blasted with the "storm of the century", we were actually blessed with a beautiful day in Houston. After days of rain and dreary weather we were just itching to get out and enjoy the sunshine. So I jumped on the internet and found some fun touristy things for us to do with our day. Since we've lived in Texas we've taken quite a few trips out to our favorite part of Texas, the hill country, but we have really not taken the opportunity to explore our home city of Houston except for an occasional baseball game or visit to the HUGE mall downtown :)

So we started our day off with a quick run around the local go cart track down the street from our house and then hit the highway to head up to Houston. Our first stop was the famous "road-trip stop" The Beer Can House. The Beer Can House is referred to as visionary art but I think back in 1968 when John Milkovisch started siding his house with the aluminum from his favorite beer cans, he was just looking for something to do rather than actually make a statement. The story behind The Beer Can House can be found here http://www.beercanhouse.org/

After leaving The Beer Can House we headed over to the Downtown Aquarium where we saw a bunch of fish, reptiles, and owl, a white tiger, and rode the ferris wheel!

Our tourist day wrapped up with dinner at the ultimate touristy restaurant....The Houston Hard Rock Cafe! :)

It's Christmas time!

It's officially Christmas time in the Zuger household. We pulled out our decorations this weekend and put them up. It's kind of overwhelming to realize that they are going to be coming down again in less than three weeks since we'll be leaving for Virginia until after the New Year and I hate the idea of everything sitting out and getting dusty while we're gone. Regardless we're going to enjoy the decorations while they are up!!

Here is our tree

Is this not the cutest little ornament ever!?!

Christmas '09!

We got a new (to us) vehicle!

Finally!! Anyone who knows us well...wasn't that surprised when we announced that Sim's car had died. Sim had graciously been driving his 91 Accord through two Texas summers without air conditioning as well as over two years of not having a working spedometer (with no tickets....surprisingly). So when his bucket...finally kicked the bucket we were a little scared of the big decision that lay ahead. Luckily after just two weeks of searching we found our newest family member! :) Here she is!

We feel truly blessed for Sim to now be able to drive a vehicle that actually fits him! He has wanted a Tahoe since he was in high school working at Lindsay Chevrolet in Woodbridge so this is really a dream come true! :)

Zoofari with the Coast Guard Wives

Last weekend I was invited to go to the Bayou Wildlife Park with the wives from the Coast Guard Cutter Dauntless. The wildlife park is literally just a few minutes down the street from our house but I had never been. It was seriously the best time ever and I can't wait to go back!

As soon as we pulled up to the gate Sabrina's car was surrounded by an ostrich and llamas hungry for food! In fact it was almost difficult to drive into the park as the animals swarmed her van.

We all gathered and had a picnic lunch while the kids ran around and eventually discovered the petting zoo. This place just kept getting better!

It wasn't long before we boarded the tram to take us through the rest of the park to see all of the animals. I could not get over how cool it was to be able to pet the animals as they came up to the tram to eat right out of the buckets with food that we had been given. There were all different kinds of animals and the tram weaved through the entire 80 acres.

As our ride was wrapping up we all heard the sound of a helicopter overhead and looked up to see the Coast Guard helicopter heading out of Ellington Air Field. Yay Coast Guard!

Honoring our Veterans

Last week we celebrated Veterans Day with a day off! Well sort of...we were both off work which was welcomed with as busy as Sim has been at work! We were blessed with a GORGEOUS day with temperatures in the 70's. We started off the afternoon by checking out a local vineyard not far from our house that we have been wanting to try. Now you have to remember that we live in TEXAS and more importantly Southeast Texas, where it is hot and humid most of the year. Not really the best grape growing weather but we were excited to check this places out and see what it was all about. Haak vineyard is a family owned and operating winery and small vineyard. We arrived on a day they were bottling wine so unfortunately we were unable to go in the back for a tour of their wine cellar but on a postive note we were able to watch the bottling process through a window in the wine shop into the bottling room. After that we did a tasting of some of the wine that they make. The only grapes they are able to grow in their vineyard are the Blanc du Bois wine grape so we decided to get the full experience we would get a bottle of the Blanc du Bois (semi-sweet) and sit outside in the vineyard that the very grapes we were drinking had grown in!

As our afternoon wrapped up we realized it was time to head up to Houston for our dinner plans with Sim's coworker and his wife. We had made reservations to take advantage of a special deal the Melting Pot was offering for military families in honor of Veterans Day. They had never been to a Melting Pot before so we had a good time watching them figure out how the whole fondue thing works and we all ate and drank entirely too much! It was a really wonderful day, celebrated in honor of all of those who have served our country in the military. I am very thankful for the sacrifices made by everyone in the service and most importantly proud of my Coastie!