We're Cookin Up a Good Time at The Lenz's

Friday night JJ and I hit the new fab-u-lous HEB on I-10! I have been craving shrimp since July 4th weekend, but since JJ isn't a huge shrimp guy we haven't had any yet. So I come home and he says let's go get some shrimp to grill for dinner. I am stoked! We head on over and buy shrimp, veggies and a few other items. So we get back the house and the hubster fires up our little Webber grill. We marinade the shrimp and the season up the veggies. 40 minutes later we are grilling our bacon wrapped shrimp and veggies. It was delicious! JJ outdid himself. Here are some pics of what our food looked like..via google.

So our recipe for the bacon wrapped shrimp is as follows:

Chipotle Lime Bacon-Wrapped Grilled Shrimp Recipe

Ingredients
12 large, raw, peeled and deveined shrimp
2 Tbsp olive oil
Zest from 1 lime
Juice from one lime (about 2 Tbsp)
1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder (or more to taste)
6 strips thin bacon, cut in half (12 pieces)
Skewers (for grilling) or toothpicks (for oven)

Method
1 Mix together in a small bowl the lime zest, lime juice, olive oil, and chipotle powder. Put the shrimp in the lime chipotle mixture; make sure each piece is well coated.
2 Spread the bacon pieces out over several layers of paper towels on a microwave-safe plate. Cover with another layer of paper towel. Microwave on high until the bacon fat begins to melt but the bacon is still pliable, about 1 1/2 minutes.
3 Prepare grill on high, direct heat (if grilling) or preheat the oven to 450°F.
4 Working one at a time, wrap a half piece of microwaved bacon around each piece of shrimp. If you are grilling, thread the shrimp onto long, flat skewers (flat skewers make turning the shrimp on the grill easier). If you don't have flat skewers, I've used two thin bamboo skewers (soaked in water for 30 minutes beforehand) to the same effect. If you are using the oven, secure each the bacon onto the shrimp with toothpicks. Place the bacon-wrapped shrimp on a slotted baking pan (lined with foil inside for easy cleaning). Brush remaining lime chipotle mixture on the outside of the bacon-wrapped shrimp.

We also grilled up some veggies. Pretty easy. Pick your favorite spices and slice up the squash and zuccini. Then throw them on the grill and cook for about 5 minutes.

Serve it up with your favorite wine and enjoy!

Two Months Already?!?!

Thursday was my last therapy session at UH. Man did it feel good. I am so close to being done I can taste it. Well while I was at school trying to get everything ready for check-out and final grading conferences..it started to pour! Then the next thing I know the power has gone out. Oh awesome since I am mid-typing up my soap note from the session. Well 30 minutes later it is done raining, but has flooded everywhere. It took me a solid hour and 15 minutes to get home..needless to say I was not a happy camper. I was supposed to go to Galveston for the night with my school girls, but was exhausted once I got home. So we made dinner and lounged for a bit. Then JJ said..let's go see a movie. So we headed to the Cinemark to see Transformers. I was a bit excited because Josh Duhamel is in it..and I am a bit obsessed. Well the movie is PURE action with NO plot! But I was not complaining since we were doing a spontaneous date night. Gotta love it.

So the next morning I am getting ready for work and it dawns on me that today Jonathan and I have been married two months! It seemed impossible! I feel like it was just yesterday that we exchanged our wedding vows and here we are two months later still adjusting to married life. We have adjusted to almost everything that newlyweds face in the first few months. We have slowly started to grill more and prepare dinners. Another post to come with a new exciting recipe! We have switched the bank accounts and I have started to help more in the bill paying department..but not substantially. We have about one month and then we should be on easy street. We have some exciting events to look forward to in the next few months..house hunting, going to Mexico and then the holidays. JJ is really pushing a Vegas trip at the end of the year..darn free flights!

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

Saying Goodbye to Suga Duga.....

So this post is dedicated to our beloved family dog...Sugar. Sugar is/was quite the dog. From the instant we laid eyes on her we knew she was our dog. She is the perfect dog..loved by everyone. It is really hard for me to write this post tonight..I'm already crying and I am 3 lines in, so bear with me on this one. She stole our hearts from Day 1 and before we knew she was apart of our family..sleeping on the couch, sneaking treats whenever she could and eventually sleeping in the bed. I will never forget the time I took Sugar for a "Walk". It sadly didn't last long because I was rollerblading and she was running on a short leash..wasn't a good plan on my part. Nine years later Sugar was moving a bit slower but still as lovable and personable as ever. At Christmas we found that Sugar had cancer and decided we were not ready to say goodbye. So we decided to go forward with the surgery and have it removed. Everything came back great and Sugar recovered amazingly. We were told to watch for any signs of difficulty, but everything seemed fine. I was spending a lot of time at my parents house with the wedding planning and just loved having her waiting at the door for me. She was wagging her tail and ready to give me a big kiss.

Sadly after the wedding she really started to have trouble with her hips and going to restroom. So we took her back to the vet to have her checked out. Well the vet found another tumor that was pressing on her colon and preventing her from going to the bathroom regularly. The vet advised us that surgery would not help her quality of life and just to make the most of the next few weeks. Well the weeks turned into about 8 weeks..after my last visit out to my parents house on Friday we decided to put Sugar to sleep. I know it was the right decision as she was unable to get up off the floor. So Saturday morning my parents took Sugar to the vet to ease her pain. It was time for her I know, but every time I think about her I start to cry. I know she is in doggie heaven sniffing everything she can, but the thought of that precious face not greeting me at my parents door breaks my heart...

Sweet Sugar trying to lick Emily.

Sugar laying low at the house..

Love you Sugar. The Odom house will not be the same without you.

What did you say???

This past weekend was eventful to the say the least. I have a lot to write about, but will do it in several posts. Friday I headed out to Rosenberg for my weekly spray tan..can't be pale in the summer time! Afterwards I headed back to my parents. It is our weekly routine for me to come out once a week and eat dinner and chat about what's going on. Well this week was a bit different. A separate post for that to come.

Saturday morning Danielle and Chris picked me up and we headed to H-Town Showdown to support Jenn and Brian in the wake board competition. We had a great time outside and laughing. It was quite a hot day that day..so a water gun fight broke out between Morty and I. Here is the sequence...NOT in order of course!!! Morty shoots Megan, Megan retaliates, Morty's gun works better...Megan dumps water on Morty..Morty follows..Megan tries to push Morty in the water and is NOT successful.

Look at our faces..we are having way too much fun playing around!

After the competition we headed down to Jenn's river house..I LOVE IT there..so relaxing! We lounged for a little bit and then headed to dinner..we were starved! We ate on the river and listened to some music. We headed back to the house and relaxed..we were exhausted! We woke up Sunday morning..Chris and Danielle headed back to Katy and I hung back with Jenn and Brian and waited for Morty to arrive..since we have a "text war" the night before about who was more cool..I know so mature! I have decided that Morty is one of those guys that you will always have a good time with no matter what the circumstances are. Morty gets to the house and we load up and head out onto the river..what started out as a great morning on the river did not end up that way. Brian rode first and did a great job...then Morty decided he wanted a try..he got up a few times and then fell pretty hard. Next thing I know we are calling 911 to have them meet us at the house. Morty broke his leg in 3 places, but the surgery went well and he will have a long road to recovery ahead of him, but he's a trooper and can make the best out of it. Needless to say the weekend was full of expected events.

This is my last week of therapy at the UH clinic. It is bittersweet, but soo exciting! Next week we have grading conferences and "check-out" and I can't wait to start the next chapter of my life..being gainfully employed!!

Off to dinner for Lauren's birthday!

New Eateries

So yesterday Jonathan was on slickdeals..if you haven't visited the site you need to! It is a great place to find the ultimate deals on a variety of items from cellphone covers to shoes to laptops..you can find yourself a pretty nice deal. So as he is scouring the website..we start talking the website restaurant.com and how we should check it out more often. So we head over to that site..and start the search for some good deals on restaurants. Well needless to say you can buy gift cards to nice restaurants for half the price or less!! So we scour the pages and buy 3 gift cards for 100 bucks worth of food for only 15 bucks! Sounds too good to be true..well you have to spend x amount of dollars and it can't be for happy hour..still i have to spend 15 bucks total to get 40 bucks worth of food??? SOLD!! So we printed them out and chose the closest place to us since it was 6:30 already. We ate at this GREAT sushi place..Shimaku. The prices were very reasonable and they have happy hour from 4-7 everyday! Needless to say we left there very pleased and full!

So thanks to my new hubby...we are trying some new restaurants. First one was a success. Hopefully the next two are as well.

Tonight we watched our wedding video with Jonathan's parents. I have already watched it of course! And still tear up every time..especially when my dear friend Molly sings "The Prayer" it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. Now of course I get to pick at different things during the wedding..and Jonathan finally said.."it could have been much worse than a baby crying during the ceremony..it could have rained or been sweltering hot!" And I looked at him and said you're right. It was a beautiful wedding..gorgeous location and the weather was perfect.

Tomorrow is Thursday..one day closer to being at the river with some of my favs.

Without Further Adue....

Now that the wedding is officially behind us..the last of the thank you cards went out in the mail today..I have decided that this blog needs a new direction. As much as I loved wedding planning and secretly miss it because it meant shopping days with my mom or Meredith, I have decided that this blog will be dedicated to all things newlywed. From recipes to house hunting to new married friends..this blog will be used to capture our journey as newlyweds. I am quite excited about the variety of different posts with a new twist. I hope that this will be equally as exciting as wedding was..well it will of course since married life has proven to bring all sorts of new thoughts and situations to our life already.

Here is my first tip for ladies who are getting married in Houston and will be changing their name. There is a social security office close to Reliant Stadium..who knew?? I certainly didn't until I searched for one other than the downtown location. I have heard many a horror stories from that location. So I jotted down the address and the hours the location was open. I figured since it was 3:15 and I was heading that way that there was NO way I would get in. I was in and out in about 20 minutes give er take...seriously 20 minutes in the Social Security Office?!?! I didn't seem possible. So for those ladies in need of a location with no wait..here it is:

8989 Lakes at 610 Drive

Houston, TX 77054

In other exciting news I will be starting my real job on August 18th!! I can't wait to be Megan Lenz, MA CCC-CFY!!! So ready to be a contributing part of society..and JJ even promised I could spend my first paycheck on whatever I want..could be dangerous! I will probably be good and save it for when we buy our first home in the next few months..a post to about that come.

Hope everyone is enjoying their week so far. Tomorrow is Hump Day!

Love love.

Penetration

You may be asking yourself what is with the title of this post?? Well last weekend Jonathan and I joined some friends at my sweet sweet friend Jenn's river house. This was our 2nd annual trip to her house on the San Bernard River. We had a great time..we wakeboarded, tubed and did our own little fireworks show. Mike C. randomly said "penetration" on Friday night..so I said it was the word of the weekend and whoever used it the best would get a prize. Well I used it the best and will not share.. Thanks to Jenn's parents we ate like kings all weekend..they cooked every meal! We would starve without them.. we had a wonderful weekend and can't wait to go back.

This weekend is Molly and Trey's wedding!! I am so excited and can't wait to see the beautiful bride. It will be beautiful and one of the best weddings...if you know her family you know they like have to a good time. I will post pictures next week.

In other news, I only have 2 weeks left of graduate school!! I think that calls for a celebration! I am sure there will be a party of some sort to commemorate this exciting accomplishment.

I have slowly started buying items for my future office..I have some super cute file folders, a silver "m" and "L" for bookends and I am about to order a cute sign off of etsy. If anyone knows of some good places to find cute office decor feel free to let me know.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!