Planes, Trains and, oh wait, just Automobiles

When we made the move to Texas, Ricky sold his beloved Audi A4 as it had major engine malfunction and we didn't want to move a broken car. Since we arrived in San Antonio, I have been searching desperately for a car for him. We inititally thought we would get a silver A4 but after dealing with a very shady seller, we ended up not buying the car. I found a nice red Audi for sale on Craigslist during my first week of work. When I called the sellers, they were going on vacation for ten days but promised to call when they returned. Weeks passed and I thought they had forgotten about us but then they called last week! Their son bought the car while he was in the military and then was deployed for service. The car didn't get much use and for the past few years, it's just been sitting in his parents' driveway. After waiting patiently for the power of attorney to be transferred to his parents, we were able to pick up the car on Sunday. Ricky was, of course, excited to have his own wheels (FINALLY!) and I was glad that we found such a good deal. (You know how I love a bargain.) Oh, and the picture above is of an identical twin to the one we bought. I took a picture this morning but in my sleepy haze, I accidentally deleted it. I'll post more later on.

The Audi, sporty and fun as it may be, is also a "stick." Ricky has always owned manual vehicles and I have been asking to learn how to drive them but my words fell on deaf ears. Now that we're married and JOINTLY own the Audi, I'm demanding my first driving lesson this week. I have a feeling it's not going to be pretty and I've asked Ricky to post his own blog about his experience teaching me to drive. Look for updates soon.

Life is good. We officially hit our one month Texas citizen mark and our 3 month wedding anniversary. Ricky is still searching for a job while I am getting into a good routine with mine. I am considering changing our schedule from a 4.5 day work week to a 4 day week starting in January. My third dental assistant returns from maternity leave in September and I'm eager to get to know her. Many patients have already asked why some of the things I do are so much better than the previous dentist. I guess I should call UK and thank them for their awesome education.

Williams Family DIY

Although we don't own our current residence, we've been able to put to work some HGTV skills in re-purposing some household items that I originally was going to sell or give away. I bought some paint and re-did a lamp just before we moved by painting the shade a nice bold color and brightening up the base with some white paint. Our guest bathroom is decorated in blue and green and when we have a bathroom we can paint, I want to paint it a nice yellow. For the time being it's a neutral shade of beige:( I painted one shelf (that I forgot to take a picture of) sage green and Ricky took on the task of painting the face of the drawer on a small (cheap) bathroom cabinet. By deciding just to accent a small part of the cabinet it was totally revitalized! I was very impressed when I came home to Ricky's handi-work. I can't wait to see how dangerous we'll be with walls to paint and home construction at our fingertips.

Last Saturday we were planning to attend the New Wine Food Festival rose wine tasting at Becker Vineyards. We got the address from the website where it was advertised and I confirmed it when calling to order tickets. Well, to our surprise our San Antonio address was actually for the ticket office only and the wine tasting was over an hour away in Fredricksburg! Unfortunately, we didn't have the time or the energy for that drive so we decided to make the best of our Saturday. iPhone came to the rescue (I'm getting one next month. YAY.) and suggested a restaurant called "Paloma Blanca" in Alamo Heights (note: You will here more about Alamo Heights later on as we would LOVE to purchase a home there!). It is a very quaint family owned Mexican restaurant. Nestled in a quiet corner there is beautiful outdoor seating on their patio as well as a very well decorated inner dining room equipped with lounge couches and chairs. We both had chicken enchiladas that were excellent along with their homeade chips and salsa. We highly recommend it and will probably take visitors there this winter as we generally avoid chain restaurants!

Dr. Lauren and the Health Fair

Monday I started my third week as Dr. Lauren at Wilson Community Dental. We had our first annual health fair today which was a big success! Our entire center participated (medical, mental health and dental) and we saw about 100 members of the community. Everyone was excited to get some dental freeness (toothbrushes, of course!) and fill out new patient applications. Medical offered blood pressure screenings and blood sugar testing. There was also a fun raffle equipped with items donated from local businesses. I won a fragrance diffuser which is now gracing our guest bathroom. My other dental assistant, Halie, also stopped by to say hello as she is out on maternity leave with her new baby boy, Lawson. You can see my other two assistants, Angie and Pedro below. I forgot to get a picture of Justine, our practice manager, who is expecting a baby in April. We will also be adding a dental hygienist to our little practice in December after the two additional operatories are completed. Right now, I get to do my own hygiene work which I secretly enjoy:)

My office renovations are still in process. I have to order some sort of table/entertainment center to hold my microwave, stereo and small fridge. It's set up in a hilariously ghetto arrangement right now with my stereo and refrigerator on the floor and my microwave on a chair. I was too embarrassed to take a picture of that.

My desk and comfy office chair. In person it looks a lot less cluttered.

Angie and Pedro. Awesome Assistants!

Pedro's 2 year old brother, Noah, visited us at the health fair. Isn't he so cute?!

Halie came to visit, minus adorable baby Lawson.

Our Trip to IKEA

There are few things I love more than home decor. I was so excited about our trip to IKEA in Austin. If you have never been before, it's basically a giant warehouse full of home furnishings. In one section of the warehouse there are full sized rooms set up with the various products they offer. If you want, IKEA can install the exact room in your home. I didn't realize how vast their inventory is--you can even order granite in bulk for counter tops. We really needed items to help "flesh out" our living room and add accents to our walls. In the end, we decided against two much needed bookshelves and TV cabinet as Ricky thought they would clash with our contemporary theme (I disagree, but oh well). We did, however, bring home a very cool large ottoman for the living room, shelves for the cookbooks in our kitchen, a bathroom wall storage unit and picture frames.

IKEA's version of how they would decorate the White House.

I still love IKEA but if you're looking for long lasting, high quality furniture, you won't find it there. Most, if not all of their furniture is made of fiberboard and painted, dyed and glossed to look like hardwood. I really want cherry or mahogany bedroom furniture and they don't offer anything along those lines. IKEA sells a wide variety of home accessories that can be used to decorate any home--modern or traditional. I hope to make other trips to IKEA to continue the makeover of our apartment.

At home, we now have a functional guest room. It took a few hours on Sunday but I was able to get the bed in order and remove more boxes. The next step is to transfer all the books now packed in boxes in that room to new bookshelves that I hope to find this weekend. I also need a cute chair for the desk turned vanity that's in that room. If you want to help, I'm looking for something in a pastel color scheme (pinks, yellow, green, blue). The whole apartment still needs curtains so that's on the list as well.

Back to our weekend, we also saw Paul Mooney's stand up performance in Austin. He was hilarious and we really loved it. If you have never seen or heard him, Paul Mooney used to be the head writer for the Richard Pryor show and he was 'Negrodamus" (the Black Nostradamus) on the Dave Chapelle show. As a result, most of his jokes are race related. One woman who was hastily offended by a comment he made about Cubans (note: She was not Cuban and Cubans in the audience thought the joke was funny!) and was escorted out. I think Paul was even caught off guard by that one. But, if you like to laugh and aren't easily offended, I highly recommend!