I'm grateful

On the way home from work the other day I was thinking about how truly blessed I am. This has been a year of highs and lows for us but overall I could not ask for anything more. So here goes, this year I'm grateful for...

My husband - he is the most wonderful person I know and he always makes me laugh, I'm so lucky to spend everyday of my life with him.

My parents and sisters - they have been so supportive in more ways than I can count. Together they have been there whenever we needed them and individually they have given us so much of their love and time.

The Rollers - we've had visits from all of Jason's immediate family and it's been so wonderful. We truly appreciate all the time they've spent visiting us in our new home and all the love they share.

My nephew Rett - I didn't know I could love someone (other than Jason!) so much. When he says my name I just melt. He's the most adorable, smart and loving little boy. I'm so lucky to be his Aunt!

Our health - We are both so lucky to be healthy! I had a bit of a health related issue this year and some sadness that came with it but in the end I was just so thankful to have my health.

Our church group - We joined a couples group through our church and it's been an amazing experience for me. It's brought Jason and I closer together and brought us both closer to the Lord.

Our new home - We are so very blessed to be in our own place that we can call home. I am a homebody so I enjoy just being in our house.

Our jobs - Jason and I both are lucky to work for such wonderful employers. It makes such a difference when you wake up in the morning and you feel good about going to work.

Wonderful friends - We have some amazing friends! We've met wonderful people in San Antonio and we also have great friends spread out across the country. My hope is in the new year we can visit more of our friends.

Our adorable Sadie - she's the best dog and gives us unconditional love. She's getting up there in age (she'll be 9 in March) but she's still the sweetest. She enjoys nothing more than cuddling up with us on the couch with her special blanket and watching a movie.

My hope for the new year is that I will take time to think of the things I'm grateful for more often and give thanks. Wishing everyone a wonderfully blessed 2010!

Mascara...yes, I'm blogging about mascara

I thought my next blog post would be about my recent trip to Canton, TX. I spent a great weekend there with my girlfriends and found some amazing deals...but I have not taken pictures of my purchases yet to post! So that will be the next post. Jason is probably not going to be too thrilled with my post on mascara but oh well!

Two weeks ago I ran out of my tried and true mascara - Kevyn Aucoin Volume Mascara. Since I can only purchase this at Neiman's or now Sephora, I just quickly ran to the grocery store and purchased some Loreal. Yikes! I will never go without my Kevyn Aucoin again!

Let me explain my obsession with mascara. I have worn mascara since 7th grade and wear it even when I don't have on any other makeup. I love it! In addition, I love my Kevyn Aucoin eyelash curler - there is no way I can do my lashes without it. The first mascara I wore was Maybelline's Dial-A-Lash because that was what my Mom wore. I remember being about 8 and my Mom putting Dial-A-Lash on me for my dance recital. I wore that mascara until they stopped making it when I was in college. Then I started a search for a new mascara. I've tried it all - Loreal, Maybelline, MAC, Lancome, Mary Kay, Mally, Cover Girl, Laura Mercier. The only other mascara I wear on occasion is Loreal Lash Out Waterproof and I only get that for summertime trips to the lake/beach because you always need to wear mascara, even in the water!

If you haven't tried this mascara before I strongly encourage you to give it a shot. But be sure to use an eyelash curler - it amazes me how many people don't use one. It's such a helpful tool! I will warn you that it's a bit pricey for mascara but in my opinion well worth it. It comes off in tubes, so no black stuff around your eyes and never any flaking! Several of my friends wear it as well as my sisters and we all swear by it.

The first time I tried this mascara was at Henri Bendel in New York (which is makeup heaven in my opinion). I'm so happy that you can now by it at most Sephora's and at sephora online.

So thank you for letting me discuss something so frivolous! And just so Jason doesn't feel left out, let me share a photo of his brand new truck! He's pretty excited as am I - bye bye CRV :)

Channeling Ina Garten

I'm a big fan of the Food Network, cooking and searching for great recipes or just creating my own. Luckily, I married someone that enjoys my cooking and all my "experiments". Some of the shows I enjoy watching are of course Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten), Paula Deen, Bobby Flay and Tyler Florence.

But back to Ina...one of the first Barefoot Contessa shows I watched totally had me mesmerized! She was preparing a dish and she needed to pull an appliance from her pantry and she walks into this huge amazing room that had tons of shelving for all her appliances/pantry items/etc. I remember thinking WOW that's awesome and also thinking someday I want a pantry/storage room like that!

One of the things that sold me on our house when we were shopping around was the pantry. Yes, the pantry! I remember walking into the pantry and thinking this is kind of like Ina's! I had dreamed of a pantry similar to this for so long. A place where we could put all of our appliances on shelves and actually see what we have versus digging for them a cabinet. Here's a picture of part of our pantry.

It's not just her kitchen storage that I love about Ina - it's her wonderful recipes and her simple but elegant approach. Her cookbooks are wonderful! I guess I should mention that I also collect cookbooks. When we travel I usually try to get a cookbook from the area. Last year when we visited Charleston, SC for our anniversary I drug Jason around town tracking down the Charleston Receipts cookbook - it's the oldest Junior League cookbook still in print in the country. Yes, we found it!

Back to Ina again...early in our relationship Jason mentioned to me that one of his favorite desserts was one he had in his elementary cafeteria - chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. I searched all over for a good peanut butter icing recipe, even trying to create my own with no success. In the first Ina cookbook I purchased, Barefoot Contessa at Home, I found the perfect peanut butter icing recipe! Thanks Ina! Below is the recipe for her wonderful peanut butter icing.

Peanut Butter Icing


1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter (she uses Skippy)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

Place the confectioners sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (OK, not outside but in our house!)

I LOVE Christmas time! I am so excited this year because it's our first Christmas in our new house. I am constantly looking/shopping for Christmas decorations that will fit well in our new home. This year I was finally able to put all my Christmas china out on display. Did I mention I love china? Yeah, it's an addiction...especially Spode. I mentioned in the previous post how I am starting to collect Spode Woodland china....well I already have tons of Spode Christmas Tree china and it's beautiful! This year I set some of the place settings out on our dining room table. Here's a picture of one of the place settings.

Can you tell I like red and gold? Here's another photo of our dining room table. I'm still working on this...I think maybe I need a couple more things down the center of the table.

When we bought our house our dining room was set up to be used as a dining room and sitting room so the light was at the front of the room instead of centered in the room. Given my love of china I knew we needed to use the room just as a dining room so I could fit a china cabinet (or two or three), buffet, extra chairs, etc. But this meant getting the light moved to the center of the room so while we were at it I thought we would replace the original light fixture with a chandelier. I was on a mission to find one! Luckily at Canton (will do a whole post on the awesomeness of Canton later) I found this chandelier for an amazing deal! My wonderful husband was really understanding of all this and hired an electrician to move the light and hang the chandelier.

I have been on a search for Christmas garland too but was not about to pay $250 for the garland I saw at the Nutcracker Market in Houston with my mom a couple weeks ago. It was AMAZING but really, $250? So I bought some $15 garland with gold glittered pine cones from Garden Ridge Pottery and then bought some glittered poinsettias for $1.50 and added them into the garland to wrap around our banister. It's not nearly as pretty as what I saw at the Nutrcracker market but it looks pretty in our house with just the light from the dining room chandelier. I might add some glittery red/gold bows. Here's a photo.

Although we might not get snow in San Antonio it's definitely going to look like Christmas inside the Roller house! Next project...the Christmas tree!

Hunting in South Texas

I grew up hunting, in fact I was hunting before I was even born. My grandparents hunted, my parents hunted thus my mom was hunting even while pregnant. It's something our whole family has enjoyed and been quite successful with. My grandparents were avid hunters traveling to Africa, Canada, Alaska and Argentina to hunt. My dad is an excellent hunter, the best I know. He is the most accurate shot. The deer he shot in Canada scored a 171 Boone & Crockett. Jason was quickly introduced to hunting when we started dating. I was so glad he enjoyed hunting and he has definitely gotten very good at it! Recently while bird hunting he killed two doves with one shot (he's pretty proud of that)!

We hunt on a ranch in Pearsall, TX. It's a beautiful place that has tons of bird hunting - doves, quail, turkeys, ducks. My favorite are quail. What a beautiful bird! I have become completely obsessed with quail - I have started to collect Spode Woodland china with quail on the center of the plate and I love anything that has quail feathers! We get to hunt pretty frequently now that we live about an hour from Pearsall. I thought I would post some pictures I took with my iPhone (forgot the camera) when we were hunting recently. I think it's beautiful but some probably don't think cactus and mesquite trees are too lovely - it's all in your perspective I guess.

Kelly and Brendan come to visit!

This past weekend we had Jason's sister and her husband in town for their first trip to San Antonio. We were so happy to have them come visit and it gave us an opportunity to visit some of our favorite places in San Antonio. Luckily the weather was perfect! We had a great time visiting the Riverwalk, eating some great bbq & mexican food, seeing the Alamo, watching football, playing cards and hitting the Market Square. Kelly and I even managed to get some shopping time at one of my favorite accessory shops - Charming Charlie. Here's a picture of us hanging out on Friday afternoon at the Riverwalk enjoying some margaritas!

A Trip to College Station

I just had to post some pictures of my cute nephew! So I am posting about our fun weekend and will go back to my San Antonio posts later this week! This past weekend Jason and I went to visit my sister, her husband and our nephew in College Station. It was Halloween weekend and my sister said Rett would really like his Aunt Ninny (that's what he calls me...my nickname is Keni) and his Uncle Jason to come visit, so how do you say no to that? I love College Station anyway and really wish I could get there more often. I did my undergrad at A&M so naturally I love the place! We also figured we should see an A&M game while we were in town (they were playing Iowa State) and got some great tickets and enjoyed seeing A&M win! My youngest sister Blair and one of her friends were able to come in from Houston and join us for the weekend too. After the game we took Rett around his neighborhood for some trick or treating. Here's Rett dressed up in his sweet little lamb costume! Next year his dad says he's going to be something a little less cute and more masculine like G.I. Joe.

Here's Rett again in his pj's playing with some of his toys. He thought since his Aunts were in town that he wouldn't have a bedtime! Isn't he adorable? I happen to think he's the cutest boy in the world but I am biased. Especially when he would come in the room Jason and I were staying in early in the mornings and say, "Morning Ninny!" and then proceed to crawl in bed and play with my hair.

And since we enjoyed such a GREAT A&M football game this weekend I thought I would post this picture I took of Kyle Field. I'm no photographer but it was such a pretty day and I'm feeling pretty proud of the Aggies this week - we'll see what happens this weekend!

And a picture of me with my sisters - Brook on the left and Blair in the middle.

I LOVE the Market Square!

In downtown San Antonio is a section called Market Square with several shops, restaurants, and street vendors. We love going to the square on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. It's such a festive place! All the vendors are set up with food, jewelry, crafts, etc. and of course there's music - mostly mariachis. One of the most famous mexican restaurants in the area is on the square, Mi Tierra. It's wonderful but my favorite is La Margarita (for obvious reasons) they have many different kinds of margaritas (love the prickly pear) and the best shrimp cocktail I've ever had in my life. It's great to sit outside enjoy some margaritas, listen to music and people watch. To me it just feels like you've been transported to another place....to me that place just feels like vacation. If you are in San Antonio you definitely have to hit market square and go through all the shops, have a margarita and enjoy some great mexican food! Our good friends Matt and Elizabeth Shreckhise visited us from Staunton, VA over Labor Day weekend and we enjoyed a great afternoon at the square.

The Riverwalk

We always take visitors to see the riverwalk, it's usually after we've waited in a long line to see the Alamo so some much needed margaritas are definitely in order! The riverwalk is a great place to relax and have some drinks with friends. It's a wonderful atmosphere with lots to do! There are tons of restaurants, although most restaurants on the riverwalk don't have the best reputation. In our experience these restaurants are definitely among the best on the riverwalk: Boudreaux's, Paesano's, Acenar, Landry's and County Line BBQ. If you stick to those restaurants you won't go wrong! However, there are tons of mexican food restaurants that still serve some great margaritas and micheladas and have seating right along the river. You can hear all kinds of music as you walk along the river and see all types of bars and restaurants. There are a few irish bars, sports bars, places to hear jazz, dance clubs and of course the mariachis. During one of our first visits to the riverwalk, Jason was serenaded by a mariachi

band...I think this picture is hilarious!

Jason's brother Jon was kind enough to come visit us this summer all the way from Richmond, VA. One night while hanging out on the riverwalk we enjoyed listening to a jazz band in one of the restaurant bars....who knew Jon liked jazz so much?!

The riverwalk is definitely a great place to have a good time in San Antonio...pretty much whatever kind of restaurant/bar you're looking for you'll find there! We're looking forward to going back again when it's all decorated for the holidays!

John T. Floore Country Store

I hope to post some of the wonderful things we have enjoyed doing since moving to San Antonio over the next couple of weeks. So definitely at the top of the list (other than seeing family) would be hearing some live music at John T. Floore's Country Store! We love listening to live music and we are so lucky that we now live about 10 minutes away! Floore's Country Store is one of the best venues to hear live music in Texas (in our opinion). One of my first times to visit Floore's was the Jack Ingram festival in 2003 (back before he went mainstream). Floore's is set up with a huge outdoor stage, lots of picnic tables and a smaller indoor stage with a kitchen and a bar. Floore's has been around for 60 years and has hosted legendary performers like Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, Elvis Presley and George Jones. We have seen some great concerts here - Robert Earl Keen and Randy Rogers Band to name a couple. There's live music every night of the week and we like to go by on occasion to hear some music, sit outside and enjoy some good bbq. We're looking forward to seeing Reckless Kelly, Charlie Robison and REK (again) in the upcoming months!

San Antonio, TX: Our Home

Welcome to our blog! This is definitely new to us so please be patient but we plan to post updates on what we are doing and life here in San Antonio. We moved to San Antonio at the end of January 2009. Jason accepted a new position as a Commodity Development Manager with HEB here at their corporate headquarters in San Antonio. This was definitely a BIG move for us. We had been living in Hamilton, VA but we decided to make the move and start a new adventure! We were very lucky to find a wonderful new home not long after we moved to the area and moved in around the end of March. We have been enjoying all the wonderful things San Antonio has to offer - the riverwalk, alamo, shopping, great food and wonderful people. I plan to post some of those good times and pictures in the next few weeks. For now here's a picture of our home just before we moved in. If you want to see San Antonio come and visit us!