Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Country Living!

Right now Michael is backing up and setting up my new iPhone!! YAY!! I am so excited :] I had been eligible since July but wanted to wait till the new version came out. We tried going to AT&T stores but they were all sold out of 32g all over Houston?! How was it possible that the day they came out they were sold out everywhere and back ordered!!? Oh well! I have mine now and I can not wait to start using it tomorrow!! So that being said I do not have access to my pictures to post on here :[ so I will use ones I have uploaded.

New phone! Phone case comes in tomorrow!

With this new life I live in the country I have done a 180 and man do I love it!! Maybe it is the constant view of multiple deer roaming through our yard, or the endless amounts of bunnies and birds, but I just love country living! I could have sworn I was going to love the deer, but that is not the case. They may be cute, but they sure love to eat my flowers, birdseed, along with all the corn we feed them. And for portions of the year they are really aggressive. Poor Bella has learned, or well found out since it happened a few times I do not think she learned, that they will protect their young by kicking and chasing her around the yard/house. Many stories to go along with this, but those are for another day.

Eating the Birdseed
Where to next?!
Sweet little fawns!
Day old fawn that was left in the yard!!!!!
SAW THIS BUCK IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD!!

I may not like the deer, but Bella does not like them nearly as much. She used to be taunted by squirels, but now she has moved on to bigger and better things. She makes me nervous after seeing her get kicked a few times but I think it fuels her "hate fire" (Pitch Perfect anyone!?!?). Her and Samson watch their yard everyday and would live out back if I let them. I used to think that they were going to be so sad moving from Bryan and Houston and not having Lake Bryan to go to all the time, but with the pond down the street they swim in and having so much land to wander I do not feel that way anymore.

Enjoying their yard
Making sure no deer come in the yard
Play time - poor Samson is about to get it from Bella
Look at Samson all the way in the back sun bathing

And how does country living exist without one of these??!


Michael got this new toy a few weekends ago and I do not think love is a strong enough word. He is able to get rid of so much and so fast without much effort. The weekend he got it, the burn ban was lifted so I remember cleaning the house and looking out back and seeing a huge fire of things he had cut during the ban and then lots of little fires he set with his propane torch and just laughing knowing how happy he was!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Heaven in a bite - Oreo Peanut Butter Brownies

Yes, we are alive!
Sadly I just have not had the inspiration to blog lately. I have been trying to think of something to blog about, but was not sure what would be a first post after being MIA. Then I made a dessert and figured why not now!

Thank you again to Pinterest for finding yet another favorite dessert in our house!

When I started pulling out the ingredients I pulled out the peanut butter and this is what happened. Who can say no to this sweet face?! Not me! So she got a treat while I started baking!


Who doesn't love oreos?! I do not know anyone, so this dessert will be a hit when you make them! They are quick, simple, and yet have so much to offer!




Ingredients:
  • Package of Oreos
  • Creamy Peanut Butter
  • Brownie Mix (prepared)
  • Muffin Cups (foil)
Directions:
  • Preheat over to 350 degrees
  • Prepare the brownie batter as the box says
  • Place muffin cups into the muffin pan
  • Put a little batter on the bottom of the muffin cup
  • Spread about 1 tsp peanut butter on top of an oreo and then stack an oreo on top of the stack and then top with another tsp of peanut butter (oreo, pb, oreo, pb)
  • Place the stack into the muffin cup 
  • Put a full scoop of batter over the oreo and peanut butter stack
  • Repeat until all the muffin cups are filled
  • Bake for about 18 minutes
  • Cool and then enjoy!!!

Friday, April 19, 2013

Home Sweet Home!! The Backyard!!

And the Neisch's are back to normalcy!

Perfect!

We have been living in our little piece of paradise for a month! It is crazy how long a month seemed two months ago and how fast a month goes by now.

Home Sweet Home!

During this past month we have been BUSY! Busy mostly in our yard and sadly it does not look like there has been much going out there, but there has! We are living on an acre and a quarter that had been COVERED in trees before we built our house, so needless to say there is a lot to do to turn a forest into a yard. But slowly it will happen.



We have brought in a bunch of new dirt to help get the grass to grow. Talk about country living, we used a friends tractor and brought in 3 loads of dirt on Easter weekend. We then brought in a pallet and a half of grass and put that along the back patio. We needed this fast because the dirt was making its way from the outside, to the dogs feet, into our house. I was sweeping 3 times a day and I could still feel the dirt on my feet. And there is nothing worse than that feeling when you are walking through the house. We also decided to seed in the back and front yard and we are finally seeing some pop up! YAY!! We bought a bunch of herbs, vegetables, and flowers and went to work! I saw this idea on Pinterest to do with the herbs and couldn't wait to do it when we got home.




We made 2 of these!

Michael also built a raised garden that we just planted the vegetables in this week! We had to wait to plant until we decided what we would put around it to keep the deer out. We really did not want a fence and found the perfect thing! It has been tested on both of us and the dogs multiple times. It is a sensor water sprayer. The sprayer works great. If something comes in the vicinity of the garden, it turns on and and will spook the deer. It will continue to go off in 10 second intervals if they come back. Thank you Amazon! Now if the summer can get here, we will have a yummy vegetable garden to eat from! We have tomato plants (6 different varieties), bell peppers (red, orange, yellow and green), serrano pepper, jalapeno, banana pepper, zucchini and cucumber.

1 more tomato plant to add!

Way better than a fence!

We, really I mean Michael, have been cutting down yaupon and vines and dead trees and adding them to multiple burn piles in the back yard. Everytime we want to burn, it is a little too wet and we are not able to. We are hoping this is not the case this weekend so we can get some of the piles burned.

Normal, right?!

One of my favorite things right now is the bird feeder. Since moving into the house my routine in the morning has changed, and I LOVE it! Michael wakes up, gets ready and heads into work early. Once he leaves, I go back to bed (or try to) till about 6:57 when the birds on schedule start chirping! So no, I do not wake up to an alarm, I wake up to birds chirping, loudly. This sounds like a beautiful thing, and it should be, but it was getting frustrating so we found one of the bird feeders and put it up. Now the birds are not nearly as loud and not as early which makes waking up at 7:20 on my own and opening up the blinds and looking at the beautiful cardinals and blue jays so much more peaceful!


Our first big purchase for the house was a patio set. We are loving sitting outside in the evenings, eating dinner and letting the dogs wander. It is so peaceful to sit out back and only hear the wind in the trees and the birds chirping. We have seen lots of deer in the front and back yard when we are inside but nothing while we are both outside. There is not much grass (only by the back patio) so there is not much to interest them in our yard yet. 


 Where we seeded the grass it is starting to come up!! I can not tell you my excitement!!


And one of the red bud trees we planted in the front yard! Can we fast forward about 8 years to see how beautiful it will look in the front of our house please?!



Thursday, January 10, 2013

House Update!

I can not believe how much has happened in the past month! Every time we go out to the house we get more and more excited as the move in day gets closer!

Let's do a recap from the last post!

Michael and I did a walk through with the electrician one morning that turned into a lot more work than I expected. We went room by room deciding where to put the outlets, what switches go on the plates, what type of lights we wanted and where, and like a trillion other things that I didn't realize take so much thought. About a week after this meeting, all the electrical was run through the house. At the same time the AC and water were run through the house. It looked like a giant octopus in the ceiling!





At the beginning of the next week, insulation was run through the house.




We then had a stained concrete meeting that did not go as planned. Michael and I really wanted stained concrete, but with some errors to our floors, this was not what I wanted anymore. Since this was the week before Christmas and we were trying to make a decision on what to do next, we were at a stand still through the holidays.

When the holidays were over and the new flooring decision was made it was time for drywall! We went out on Sunday after church and were so excited to see the house! Everyone was right, it does look a lot better once the drywall goes up!











Today I had a meeting with our construction manager at the house and loved seeing the next step in the drywall! Everything was taped and floated, so much cleaner looking. Sadly we have had a TON of rain the past few days so it is really humid here so the drywall is taking a little longer than normal to dry. Today I picked the locations and set up of the shelves and beams in the closets, pantry, and utility room.










The next week should include texturing the drywall, trim, stone work, paint, and cabinets being installed!! YAY!! So so so excited!!

Updates of the outside of the house! The pillars in the front and back will be wrapped up to waist height with white limestone.