Life in Austin Texas

Hello and Happy New Year! Once again, I am behind on my blogging! Every year I seem to get better and better though...again I find myself thinking...perhaps this is the year! Thanks for those that stick around to read this blog that I'm always behind writing!

I never got around to blogging about our move to Texas because the holidays seemed to come so quickly after our move...therefore I will quickly catch everyone up to speed and tie in some holiday cheer as well! :)

Noah and I were feeling very blessed when the opportunity to get back to the warmth of Texas came knocking on our door! While we absolutely love spending time with our family, nieces, nephews and friends in Minnesota...we realized we were not quite ready for the grey skies, cold temperatures and couldn't get ourselves to settle back there. We missed Texas...it somehow stole our hearts when we found it, like Noah stole mine back in the day :), so we are beyond excited to be back!
Noah was able to get back to work with the company that he enjoyed working with before we left, and then I decided to take my time finding a job in sales down here because we had a house to make a home, and I didn't want to rush into just anything! Although I did get very lucky to find something I really enjoy fairly quickly upon returning- more on that later. :)

SO how did we find a place so quickly you might ask? We knew we wanted to live out in Lakeway because that is always where we loved to go when we lived in Texas prior to moving to MN. We have always loved it for the rolling hills, views of the water, and the quaint feel of the city itself. There is something about the lake that Noah and I can't get enough of! That is the one thing we absolutely love and miss about MN! With the help of our awesome realtor, Jamie Yule,  we found a home in Lakeway where we can enjoy the lake 12 months out of the year...hey we will take it! While we are not located on a lake, we are not far from the views of a lake and as all of you know, we will find a place to drop our tubes with a cooler of nice cold drinks no matter how far from the lake we live! So, while some would call us crazy for flying here in one weekend, looking at a lot of homes, and deciding on one, we call it PERFECT! We knew what we wanted, were able to find something very close, and neither one of us likes to waste time, so it was a done deal!
Top 3 Things the house had to have:
Big Kitchen ( we love to cook together)-CHECK
One LEVEL (we hate stairs...did anyone see our rental in MN? enough said!) -CHECK
Big Garage (sales reps have way too much stuff!)-CHECK
Yard big enough for Pool(we moved to TX for more outdoor living-this was important!)-CHECK
3 Bedrooms(room for guests and additions to the Vennes family!) -CHECK

We love our new home, and are so excited to have a place of our own in a place we always envisioned ourselves, and close to many of our dear friends! And we welcome guests because we love to share the warmth of Texas with all of our MN family and Friends...the door is always open!

To tell the whole story: We packed our stuff in UHAUL pods, and it was shipped down to Texas prior to us arriving.  Noah and I drove down to Texas, each driving separate cars. We stayed overnight in Oklahoma City and then continued down on our way. We were unable to close on our home right away, so we had about a little over a week before we could move in. We had many dear friends that opened their homes to let us stay with them, which we sincerely appreicated so much! We stayed a little bit at each place, so we didn't overstay our welcome at one home. :) We started with the Sylestines, went to the Gristy's and then The Houghton's let us stay at their place for almost a week-they were out of town, so it was like our own little "home-away"! Once we closed, Noah and I couldn't wait to get in our house, so we slept on a blow-up mattress on the floor in our room for a few days before our stuff arrived! It was absolutely perfect!
So here our some pictures of our moving adventure:

Celabratory Dinner- Jersey Mikes and Shiner- CHEERS!

Our Air Mattress for the first few nights...Bailey loved it too!

Sealing the tile in our bathroom



We couldn't wait for home projects- here we go! :)

Our New Place!

The Water tower!

Ok, so I have to take a break to explain this water tower story! The VERY FIRST time I ever came to Texas, prior to living here, Noah took me on a little drive to Fall Creek Vineyard. We went through Lakeway on our way there, and I saw this water tower. I said, "that is the coolest water tower..a tee with a golf ball on top!" Noah never realized until that day, that it was a golf ball with a tee, and also realized I have a thing for finding cool water towers. Anyway- I have a picture of it from when I was visiting Noah that first time and whenever we drove past it in the past we always said there's the "water tower"-kind of our own little joke that I was so excited about a water tower :) What we didnt realize until after we bought the house, was that you can see this very water tower from our DRIVEWAY! Thats where this shot is taken from...coincidence?...maybe...I like to think something more...nonetheless- I think its neat and had to share! :)

Here comes our Stuff!

WOOHOO!

Bailey loved watching us move while basking in the sun.



Last box!

Noah and I don't mess around and had it all moved into the garage and rooms in 4 hours-not unpacked- just the boxes moved in! We spent the rest of the day/night unpacking and organizing. With some pizza and wine of course. It was alot of fun and we still are enjoying settling into our new place!



As I said, we love cooking together. So, since we moved in a few days before Thanksgiving, we decided to make thanksgiving dinner in our new place and eat on it for the whole weekend! HA! It was alot of fun to cook together, continue to un-pack/get settled that nice long weekend, and just enjoy our new place.

Noah smoked the turkey!! SO GOOD!

All this food for just us...did we eat it all by the end of the weekend you ask? YES WE DID! :)

Absolutely DELICIOUS!

I hope I have gotten everyone up to speed on our new life in Texas! :) Since I have typed much more than I thought I would on the move, we will do the Holiday Cheer in another blog post.

A time of Thanksgiving...Memories of "Pa Vennes"

Dear friends and family, before I write this post I have to tell all of you that I apologize I have not posted in a long time! I honestly have been taking pictures this past year with the intent of using them in my blog, and it has been so hard to put my blogs into words. How does that happen you ask...me speechless?! It started out that I didn't want to write about Bill being sick, I wanted to believe he would be better, it would be OK, and as time passed I didn't want to have to write about the passing of someone who became a second father to me.  I would like to refer to Bill in this post as"Pa Vennes" because that is always how he and Karen signed my cards.:)  He was more than just a "Pa Vennes" he was definitely like a second father to me, and I feel so truly grateful and blessed to have known him for the short time that I did. So, I want to use this post to share memories of Bill that I have, things I want all of my family and friends to know about him, reflect on what happened this past year and what it has taught me so far in this journey through life! I apologize it has taken me this long to actually feel like I can write about him in the past tense, its hard, its a season in our life, and I know that God is with us through all of this. And, as we are in the season of Thankfulness, I would like to say that I am thankful to be a Vennes, thankful to be married to a Vennes, and I am thankful to have known Bill Vennes, a wonderful man whose legacy lives on in the wonderful memmories he left behind.

A Cup of Coffee...
As I think about Bill and my time with him, I remember the first time I ever met him and Karen at their house. He made a pot of coffee and we had coffee at the kitchen table and just talked about how Noah and I met at Margi's wedding, from the very beginning he was so easy to talk to! And, from that moment on I will always remember Bill when I drink coffee because he always made a pot of coffee after dinner and we would all just sit at the table, slowly let our food digest, and drink a cup of coffee with dessert, usually cookies or the favorite Gingersnaps!  Usually these "after dinner coffee sessions" were full of belly laughs from something Noah or Bill or Ben would bring up- I used to love watching Noah and Bill laugh together really hard, and now when Noah laughs really hard like that, I still think of Bill, because he looks just like his dad when he does that! Bill had such a genuinely caring soul, and he loved to talk you through things!  One thing I always admired about him was that he was always so interested in talking about how my job was going, and if I was struggling at all with my sales, etc. He could relate so well to me with everything because he sold for Design Line for so many years. And, it was so refreshing to visit with him and Karen as a couple because they had a very loving marriage, and we always enjoyed our time visiting with them about marriage, life, jobs, frustrations, anything!!

One morning when Bill & Karen came to TX, we had breakfast and I wanted to take a picture of Bill with his coffee so I could remember it. So glad I have this picture- as crazy as it sounds I can hear Bill talking when I see this picture of his hands with his coffee cup!

"Pa Vennes" the Chef...

Bill really enjoyed cooking, and talking about different recipes that he had tried, or read about. When Bill & Karen would come to Austin to visit us, he always wanted to go to Whole Foods and look at all the fresh produce. He was always amazed at all the different peppers Whole Foods offered, as well as their fresh fish selections. He always told us that when he retired some day he would like to work in a grocery store and visit with shoppers about how to prepare different meals, etc. Along with loving to tour the Whole Foods, Bill was an excellent cook. And, he always amazed me at how NEAT  he was while he was preparing the food! I've got food everywhere as I make things, "multitasking" as I like to call it, but Bill was very neat, chopped things up at a good pace, and the kitchen never looked in disarray! He was always the chef in the kitchen when we would come over for holidays. He would have his Holiday Grog(apple cider/wine mix) on the stove ready to sip, cheese and crackers with lil' smokies were always ready for a light lunch before the main course for dinner! Thanksgiving we could always count on his Turkey and Famous Sausage and Apricot Stuffing, and then at Christmas his Prime Rib was always so good!
Whenever Bill & Karen came to visit in Austin,  Bill always loved to go out to eat with us, and he would always discuss the different flavors of his meal. Noah and I love to cook together, and we love to eat out at restaurants and try new things, so we always enjoyed seeing Bill's reaction to his meal at our favorite restaurants we took him, and we loved exploring restaurants in Austin with him. One of his favorite things he would order at breakfast with us were the "Papas Fritas" - I can hear him in my head ordering this dish. :) Here are some pictures of some of our favorites:

 

Whole Foods cupcake Selections

 

Noah made Burgers from this Whole Foods Stop

Like Father Like Son

 

Grilling up the burgers

 

On the Patio at our old Apartment in Austin

 

"Pa Vennes" Growing Grapes & Wine...



Bill had a hobby of growing grapes, and I feel lucky that we got to be apart of learning how to "train his grapes" when he came to visit us one time in Austin. We knew that Bill enjoyed growing his grapes, and we enjoy wine too, so we decided to take Bill & Karen to Fredericksburg, TX, and go to one of the vineyards that Noah & I always enjoyed going to on the weekends. It was so fun because Bill, being the very friendly and inquisitive man that he was, asked if he could see the grapes and how they train them. They gave us a tour and answered all of the questions that Bill had about training the grapes, etc. This year Bill's' grapes were doing the best they ever have!! Below are some pictures of our winery tour that weekend.

 

 

our wine tasting with cheese and crackers, I can hear Bill explaining the wine to us here!



Bill took this picture of us.

Heading out to the grapes

 

The lesson on training grapes

 

 
"PA Vennes" "The most Interesting Man in the World"
Bill Loved these commercials and would have a good Laugh to tears at times reciting them.
I heard him repeat and laugh at most of the ones in this video clip below. Just hearing this video clip I can picture Bill laughing his famous Belly Laugh that his sons inherited and I absolutely LOVE.
CLICK HERE: MOST INTERESTING MAN IN THE WORLD


When I remember Bill, these are the things I think of. Although there are so many other things he enjoyed doing, like riding Harley, hanging with the guys in his clubhouse, painting, travel, these are the memories I actually shared with Bill. And as I talk about him with other family members or friends, I realize that we all saw Bill differently. One thing we all saw the same was that he loved everyone equally, always saw the good in people and situations, and he was a man of very strong Faith, which is something I always admired about him. He was never afraid to profess his faith and always talked about how God would carry him through his illness, and carry each of us through it as well. I can remember one very special moment with Bill on the last visit that Bill & Karen made to Austin. We went to a Tapas restaurant because Bill enjoyed Tapas, and when we were eating Bill shared something very special with us. At this point Bill never talked about his cancer at all, but for some reason at that moment he stopped our lunch and said  " I want you to know if God takes me today, I will be OK and YOU will be OK" - I remember it hurt to hear him say those words, but it was just another way that Bill professed his trust throughout his whole illness. He never felt sorry for himself, or even let on that he was in pain because he never wanted anyone of us to feel bad or worry for him. In that way alone, I admired him so much! Although if he would have cried, or been upset, we would have completely understood, he just never allowed us to see that. He was such a strong soul, and his unwavering faith through it all really amazed me! He had every right to be angry, and upset, and sad, and maybe he did feel all of these things, but he always told us that it would be OK.
 

SO THANKFUL for this picture!

As the days drew nearer and Bill became much more sick, I really had a hard time trying to understand why this wonderful man, so loving, so young, so faithful had to go through this pain, and why did my husband have to lose his dad so young! I remember asking Noah this on one occasion, and Noah said, "I know, but why am I any more deserving of my dad, than somebody else, its not in our control and it will be OK"- and to hear Noah say that I thought, wow, that is something Bill would have said. That is something that Bill taught my husband- to be so SELFLESS! And, they are right, and I'm so glad that even though Bill is gone, I know that a piece of Bill is in each one of his kids. I know I see it in all of them, especially in Noah because he is my husband, and I'm so thankful for that little bit of Bill I have in Noah.

Which brings me to what I learned through all of this pain:

First:
Whenever I am frustrated because someone is driving too fast, or tailgating, I take a moment to pray for that person because you don't know where the person is going, maybe they are in a hurry to reach a family member that may not make for  them to say goodbye, or maybe they are just crazy fast drivers :)- but this happened to us when Noah left to "go to work-which he really didnt want to do but felt he should" in the last week of Bill's life- I rode with him to try to tell him not to :)- On our drive Margi called us and said that Bill was going down hill fast and we were about 45 minutes away- Our world stopped, life stood still, and all we wanted at that moment was to get home to be there with Bill- We sped past many cars, our hearts racing because at that moment NOTHING else mattered- we made it home and Bill was ok for a few more days, but as I reflected back on that day, God taught me never to JUDGE the reckless driver tailgating me- while they may be just driving reckless, they may also be at a moment like Noah and I found ourselves in- while we were not driving wreckless,  but we were driving fast and passing many peoplewho may have felt we were "reckless". SO, now when someone speeds up behind us, (which has happened alot ironically- maybe we are more sensitive to it now and notice it because it brings back memories) but we take a moment to honestly pray for that person, as they may be in a hurry for reasons we were, or they may not, but regardless, we have more Grace for them and it serioulsy always reminds us of how we felt that day.

Secondly:
God taught me that he gave each sibling unique gifts and roles within a family for a reason- because it takes so many different personal gifts to make a family work. And, I saw this in Noah's family when we were in the hurt and pain of the last week. When Bill got so sick that he couldn't be as independent as he wanted to, their family really came together in such a unique way. Each day that week I would ask God to be present in my day, so I could really see HIM through this terrible time, and I feel very blessed to what God shared with me the last few weeks. I saw my husband in a completely different way then I had ever seen before. Bill was not able to do very much independently although he still wanted to physically walk to and from the places he needed to go, and Noah really became a caretaker to his dad. He slept by his dads side on the couch and helped his dad feel as independent as his dad wanted to in his last few days. The last week was intense, it was sad, it was physically draining, but Noah did not want his dad to feel alone, or too weak or helpless at all. It was not "his dad" to be helpless and whether it was being able to sit in the chair or on the couch, or go to the bathroom, Noah wanted to help his dad feel as independent as he ALWAYS was until it was no longer possible. These times Noah spent in the middle of the night with his dad are some truly wonderful memories he made too- although it was hard, and near the end of Bill's time with him, Noah still was making memories with his dad. I saw Margi in the same way, she was like a nurse, wanting to care for her dad as much as she could do, and she also was a  "do-er"- constantly keeping the laundry done, the food made, and she just wanted her dad to eat a healthy home-cooked meal up until he couldn't eat food anymore- she was the chef of the family. Ben's gifts were just as important and early on he said "I like to do tasks" so Ben cleaned the entire garage and club house the whole week and he put the hospital bed together, he moved chairs, he made an amazing memorial video of pictures of his dads life, etc. Ben also did a good job of keeping things on the lighter side at times, which was  very much needed! :)  And, although each siblings role was not the same, each one of them respected the other persons role and it was amazing how well everything went. I know with all my heart that Bill felt so loved, so thankful for his family, his wife, so proud of his children and so cared for by all of them, that when he finally did go home, he did so very peacefully. What I once thought would be a scary and very traumatic thing to watch, became a very peaceful and comforting time. Although we all had great sadness and continue to deal with it daily, I'm so blessed to be apart of such a wonderful family.


I would like to share some of the pictures of the past few months with you to tell the rest of the story of why I know Bill felt so loved in his last few months of his life:

 

In March it had just snowed a ton, and it was really nice out so Noah, Ben, Jaiden, Gracie and I built a HUGE snowman! it was taller than Noah!

 

 

 
 


I love this picture! Shows the love "in sickness and in health"

 

Ben won this 4 wheeler at a fishing contest! Everyone outside at Easter.

 

Time to find the Easter Baskets

 

That crazy bunny hid Gracies under the tree house!

 

 

Kites from Grandma & Grandpa!

 

 

I don't have any before and after pictures but this is the super clean garage at Easter that Ben had spotless!

 

To end this I would like to say that there is not a day that goes by that I don't think of Bill. He was a very special man and touched the lives of so many people. I thank God for having the chance to meet him and get to know him as much as I did! He taught me to truly enjoy all the small things, never take anything for granted, always enjoy a good laugh, and praise God for everything in life! On this wonderful week of Thanksgiving, I can't think of a better way to celebrate than to thank you for all the memories Bill, I love you and miss you very much!

 

"IT IS WELL, WITH MY SOUL"

Thanksgiving

 

Thanksgiving is a time to spend with family and really enjoy all the gifts that god has blessed us with this year. This year at Thanksgiving we had so much to be thankful for, although it was also a tough time because Bill was not feeling the best. We just wanted to get together as a family and be there for each other, praying together, laughing together, and making good memories. Throughout the weekend, I really felt more connected to the Vennes family. Bill was always the one that really enjoyed preparing the thanksgiving feast for all of us, and I always enjoy watching him prepare everything perfectly! This year, he was not feeling the best, so Margi pulled through and decided to give making the Thanksgiving feast a try, and she did an absolute wonderful job!!! Bill was very proud of her, and we all were too! I praise god for the gift of family, and I am so thankful to have such a wonderful family to spend the holiday with. Noah and I have not been home for a thanksgiving with family together, so this was a very special Thanksgiving and I was thankful for every second of our time with Bill,  and the family. Here are some pictures to show what our Thanksgiving weekend looked like. And, yes, we had some white stuff to greet us on Thanksgiving- something I wasn't exactly sure I was thankful for, but it did look nice. :) And the kids and Bailey enjoyed playing in it :)

 

 

 

 

Sisters- together forever!

Making snow angels!

and snowballs!

 A Thanksgiving tradition that I have not yet been a part of with the Vennes side is putting up the Christmas Tree on Thanksgiving. I was thankful to be a part of the tradition this year because I have always loved puting the tree up with my own family, and it was so neat to watch the Vennes family put there's up. the girls started putting it up, slowly but surely...

 They have an aritificial tree, and it reminded me of the tree my parents have too! Each section of branches has a letter, and you have to organize all the letters in piles before you start assembling them on the tree...needless to say it is confusing, and although the girls gave it a good start...

Ben ended up finishing up putting the branches on with Jaiden! :) They were a good team and Uncle B saved the day again this year! :)

Margi did such a good job cooking the Thanksgiving meal! I had to take a picture of her AWESOME and very juicy Turkey!! Good job Margi! Bill still did the turkey carving this year, and we had such a great meal together. Homemade mashed potoatoes, grandpa Bills famous stuffing (that we can never have enough of!), grandpa bill's grog, and Noah's homemade cranberries! All of it was delicious and we were so thankful for Margi's great cooking skills! :)

 

Jaiden even made homemade whipping cream for the pies! :)

Uncle Noah and Gracie just hanging out

Once they spotted the Paparazz they got all camera shy!

Friday after Thanksgiving it was time to decorate the tree. It was fun to see all the ornaments that the Vennes family put on their tree, and get the explanations of each ornament from Karen and Bill. This is something I love about Christmas, so I enjoyed being a part of it with the Vennes family this year and hearing all the ornament stories. Gracie really go into putting the ornaments on the tree, so I had fun capturing her finding the perfect spot! :)

Jaiden picking the perfect spot- Bill thought so too! :)

 Each year Karen and Bill get the girls an ornament, this year's ornaments:

Gracie got a cute lion.

Jaiden got a beautiful glass ornament.

picking from the ornament box

Gracie carefully placing them on the tree

Final one. Tree looks perfect! :)

Family traditions are so much fun! Watching the Vennes Family traditions with Thanksgiving and putting up the tree was so much fun for me ! I felt like I got to learn a little bit more about my family through this weekend! Thank you god for a my health, my wonderful family, great nieces, time with Bill,my wonderful husband Noah, and the time that we are all able to spend together.