Tickled Pink

I am so excited! Jill, my sister-in-law, FINALLY joined the blogging world. Her blog is called Tickled Pink and she plans to share the adventures of the Perez family all the way from Atlanta. In addition to our phone chats, this is another fun way to keep in touch and updated on everyone's lives. Check out Jill and Nic Perez at Tickled Pink. I am so blessed with such a great sister in law. Love you!

Try This

Since Adam has been home FULL TIME I have really been enjoying cooking every night and trying new recipes. I have been experimenting alot in the kitchen- some recipes have been keepers and some we decided to toss. This one is AWESOME! My good friend and co-worker, Kristin gave me this recipe for Salmon. Its probably the easiest, yet most delicious meal. Thanks Kristin!

INGREDIENTS (for two, adjust accordingly):
1. Lowry’s Herb & Garlic Marinade with Lemon Juice
2. 1 lb. Fresh Salmon from the Seafood Counter (has never been frozen, I bought the the "All Natural" kind from HEB)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Plan to eat it the day you purchase the fish or the next day
2. Place Salmon in a zip lock bag with at least half the bottle of marinade
3. Marinate in fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes or overnight
4. Place in baking dish with all the marinade from the bag
5. Add fresh lemons rings and chives on the Salmon (optional)
5. Cook for 45 mins at 375 degrees

I have already shared this with a couple friends and thought everyone needed this recipe:) It is the perfect and healthy summer meal and goes great with a side of fresh strawberries and brown rice. ENJOY!

P.S. If you have any favorites send them my way. I would love to try them out! Maybe we can add it into our Vyvial family "rotation" as we call it:)

I Dreamed a Dream

I may be behind on this, but if you haven't heard Susan Boyle you must check her out. She is the singer who famously won her way to stardom on 2009's Britain's Got Talent. I am obsessed with this clip. It gives me chills and brings tears to my eyes. My brother, Victor introduced me to her a while ago and just gave me her cd last night. I love her voice!



Rumor has it she is releasing a Christmas CD. I will definitely be adding that to our collection!

And by the way, it looks like I was unable to completely imbed the video. Click on the video and then the "Watch on YouTube" link to watch:)

One Last Project (for now)

I must say, decorating and filling our home is exhausting. So we have one last project we are working on and then we are taking a looooong break! It is great because we really don't have much else to do, but this one last project is important to us. Plus its a fun one! Currently, our TV hangs above our fireplace and there is a nook to the right of it where a TV can be placed. We filled the nook with a console and can't seem to find the right item to hang above it. Finally, we decided that shelving with family pictures would be perfect! I found these Holman Ledges from Pottery Barn.

Now we are going to frame old black and white photos of all different sizes from both my family and Adam's family to place on the ledges. This project is very near and dear to my heart. I cannot wait to have a wall filled with old pictures of our parents, grand parents, and so on. It brings me so much joy! Right now we are in the phase of collecting all of the pictures. So, it may be a while. Until our "masterpiece" is complete I wanted to share with you some of my family's photos. I am lucky enough that my graphic designer brother has retouched and made digital copies to many of our family's old photos. Thanks Nic!
Do I even need to explain who this is below? :)
The Perez family in Cuba, my Abuelo is the dapper young man seated in the suit.
The Perez family in Cuba (my dad is the blondie).
Young Victor Manuel Perez (Dad).

My mom, looking good!
My mom as a tot, no wonder she is such a horse lover!
My maternal grandmother, Julia. Just glam!
My maternal grandfather, Fran.
Three cuties! Mom, Aunt Marcia, Uncle Jay.

Making a House a Home- Decorating Ideas

In between all the fun with family and friends, Adam and I have been working on making our house feel like home. Of course, with this comes a lot of projects. PAINT: As soon as we moved in we painted a few rooms in the house and thought this would allow us to stick to the builder's paint in the other areas for a while. Needless to say, it didn't take long before grew to hate our builder's paint. It was in all major, common areas of the house. It just seemed cold and was too flat. Our walls were getting marked up too easily! We decided to throw in the towel and paint the ENTIRE house. As much as we wanted to paint it ourselves, it was a huge job! So we decided to call on Andy Keister with Grace Painting. He is a fabulous painter, very trustworthy, and inexpensive. I highly recommend him, if anyone needs his digits. In the entryway, kitchen, breakfast room, family room, laundry room, and hallways he painted SW Latte. Which I LOVE!! In every bedroom (except the master which we already painted) he painted SW Nomadic Dessert. This is one shade lighter than Latte. I need to post pictures of the house soon. I am so happy with the finished product. Here is an example below of SW Latte in another home. I absolutely love the warmth in this color!
Currently we are working on furnishing the formal living area at the front of the house. This is the last room that really needs work. It is a very small space off of the formal dining room that I intend to keep open for entertaining, so I am working to create a nice sitting area for guests. My idea was to have two ivory arm chairs around an end table. Anytime I look at decorating magazines and books, I am always drawn to Ivory upholstered seating. Check out the picture below I found online that gave me this idea. I just love these Ivory chairs. Also, I know that I need a rug to warm up the space- visually and literally (its all tile). I am always drawn to cowhide rugs. I just love them in a non-western setting! I think it adds a nice surprise to the room. Plus, my country boy of a husband was all over that! See these examples below I used for inspiration.


So of course, I naturally turn to my usual furniture/decorating "go-to" spots for the chairs I envisioned. Nothing just right for the price! Reluctantly I visited Overstock.com. Much to my surprise I found EXACTLY what I was looking for at half the price of what I fell in love with at Ballard Designs and Pottery Barn. I ordered two of these Ivory Manchester Club chairs. I cannot wait for them to arrive. Oh and did I mention that shipping was $2.95??
Last, but certainly not least I found the perfect pedestal end table at Ballard Designs and ordered a beautiful black and brown cowhide rug from Ebay. Now, the only thing I need are some snazzy throw pillows on those chairs and my "sitting area" is complete!

This month!!

As I mentioned we have been extremely busy over this past month. Since Emily's engagement party, here is what we have been up to!

The weekend after the engagement party we headed out to Ft. Worth for a family get together with my mom's side. It was a blast! We were there to celebrate my Uncle Jay's life as it was the one year anniversary of his passing. It was a great time spent with loved ones. Here are some pictures of all the good times we had:

The following week my amazing brother who is now a transitional deacon and less than a year away from becoming a Catholic priest- came to bless our new home. It was Tuesday- his day off. So I took full advantage! It is so rare these days that I get my bubby to ourselves so it was definitely nice. I made some yummy jambalaya with French bread and Adam and I enjoyed having him. After dinner, Victor blessed our new home. While he was at it, I half-jokingly asked if he would bless Ruby. He turned the page of his book to the page that said "Blessings for Animals" and sure enough our litte Ruby was blessed as well. Check out Deacon Victor in action!

Now we are almost all up to date!! Most recently, this past weekend we headed down south to Surfside. We rented a big beach house with some dear friends. There were about 16 adults and 6 kids. We all had a blast and the kids definitely kept us entertained! Here are some pictures from this past weekend. Adam and I had such a good time.

The guys:
Missy and me:
Adam and Matt:

Missy and Luke (Luke kept us in laughs all weekend long!):

With sweet Gracie:

Me, Jess, Missy:

That is all for now! I apologize again that it has been so long. We are all caught up now and will be updating the blog regularly again. Much love to you all! xoxo

Engagement Party

First of all, I am so sorry I have been such a bad blogger this month. We have been out of town a bunch and very busy. And I thought this summer was going to be relaxing! I am back to it now and will be much better with posts:) That being said I have tons to update you on!

As many of you know, my sister-in-law Emily is engaged to be married this year on December 18th to Ruty Aki. The Vyvial's threw them a wonderful engagement party Saturday, July 3rd in Schulenburg. It was held at the family's country house where Adam and Emily grew up spending weekend trips. It was perfect! It was the perfect mix of country and Hawaiian! Rusty is part Hawaiian, and his family provided some native Hawaiian foods. It was so neat. Unfortunately- my camera battery died! I was so mad about it. This something so rare! So stay tuned for pictures, my mother-in-law has a ton. I will post once I get them. The party took place outside and everyone dressed up in Hawaiian gear. It was great!

Adam and I spent that night out in Schulenburg with the fam. It was so great to spend this time with family. The next day we went to the annual St. John's Fourth of July Picnic right down the street from the country house. Adam has grown up attending this picnic each year his whole life, so this is something we never miss. This is a tradition I look forward to carrying on for our children one day. It was a blast as always- but soooo hot! The Shiner Hobo band was there playing some Czech favorites and the food was delish! Can't wait until next year!