Austin, TX

I decided to surprise Nicole by showing up at her house for her birthday!  The look on her face was priceless - from annoyance (I had my fat thumb covering the peephole, lol) to sheer delight!  She says it was the best present possible.  The decision to go was a bit last minute, so I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked to have been.  I think we made do with what we had though! 

We took some time to explore the city (so much better than Kansas City - oh, wait.  Any city is better than KC!) and I tried to remember to snap pics for the blog.  First stop - Goodwill.  I know.  Goodwill. 

I have to admit something.  This is the first time I have really "thrifted" since I was a teenager (which I'd like to think wasn't that long ago.)  Stop thinking it's because I'm too snooty to shop there.  The reason I don't do it?  I may be a bit ADD - it is super hard for me to push through looking at every single piece of clothing they have on those endless rows that seem to span the entire twenty miles of store.  Forever21 is almost as bad, except that I would like to think that each rack contains at least 5 of the same item, rather than 200 extremely random items.  But I did it.  Maybe it was because I didn't have any children with me.  No wait.  I did.  I babysat while Nicole and Her Mr. went to dinner.  I'm still offended that they were worried about me being able to dominate love their children ;)  Just kidding - we totally survived (um, that's right, I am a mother!) 

Back to the story - here is a sampling of some of my finds:

Yes, you may or may not have noticed the bottle of Resolve.  I love couture, but the reality of motherhood is slightly less glamorous ;)

Next we hit Buffalo Exchange (after a few wrong turns.)  How have I never heard of this store??  Oh, right.  I live in Kansas City.  Again - racks and racks of endless clothing, tightly packed with hangers that broke at your mere touch:

We needed some sustenance after those long hours of rifling through racks of clothing (I really wanted to try on this ridiculous Elvis costume, be we just didn't have the energy, haha!)  I was introduced to another local trend:

Torchy's Tacos.  You. must. eat. here.

 

I had the Fried Avocado Taco, a fantastically superb taco I hope to be able to recreate in my own home.

I can't end this post without mentioning my stop in Dallas - to see my Grandmother.  I could hardly believe my eyes when I arrived in Dallas.  Hail.  Lots of it.  Ice?  In my beloved and warm Dallas?  Say it wasn't so!  I had to snap this picture of the doll that has greeted me every time I have been to my Grandmothers house since before I could even remember:

It was hard to leave.....