Merry Christmas!

Sorry I'm so late but Merry Christmas to all!! We've had a wonderful, semi-lazy Christmas thus far and both of us are off until Jan. 2nd, a Christmas miracle, to be sure!

We left on Sun. morning to drive to Grandma IveLene's house (Michael's maternal grandma) down in the Hill Country. Since her house is only about an hour and a half from Austin, we stopped in our old hometown to eat the most delicious fajitas ever at Serranos, followed by pumpkin ice cream at Amy's in the Arboretum. We also made a brif stop into my old Williams-Sonoma, admired the wonderful and new renovation and expansion of that store and saw some old friends. We then continued onto Grandma's and arrived in the afternoon, just in time to make tapas, which I think is going t be a new Christmas tradition: each person/couple makes 2 tapas that we've never had before and then each person puts $5 into the pot. The tapas are rated based on taste, originality and presentation and the tapa with the highest score wins the pot! This year it was Cory and Sylisha, Michael's cousin and his wife--congrats! Christmas Eve dinner was the traditional fondue and Christmas Day dinner was delicious, as always! On Christmas Day, we all open our presents, one at a time, in order from oldest to youngest. I was the youngest this year and it's always so hard to wait! Plus, there were 7 of us, so it took about 3 1/2 - 4 hours. Usually there are somewhere between 9 - 13 of us so this was a short year! I received some absolutely wonderful gifts from everyone but my favorite gift would have to be my beautiful caramel colored hobo Coach purse with burnished gold hardware from my amazing husband. I might have to put a picture on here at some later date.

Currently we're in Houston and will be for the next couple of days. Michael is in a wedding on Sat. night (it's our best man that's getting married) and he's actually at the bachelor party right now. Mom, Dad and I are getting ready to eat dinner (veggie lasagna, yum!) and then who know what the night will bring? :) We'll be back in town on Sun. afternoon/evening, if anyone needs anything!

Hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful holiday season!!!

Countdown to T-Day!

So, I looked at my calendar today and realized that it's only 10 days (counting today) until Thanksgiving!! YAY! I love Thanksgiving, not just for the food (though it does play a big part!) but being with family and friends for a whole day is nice. I like helping Mom and Grandma in the kitchen, it's a wonderful, homey feeling just chatting and cooking. Thanksgiving makes me realize how blessed I am: I have my own wonderful family, full of dogs and our love for each other, lots of supportive, loving friends and a pantry full of food; I have no reason to complain about my life when there are others who are so much worse off. Michael's firm is having a food drive at work and he signed up to bring potatoes and rice--4-5lb. bags of potatoes and 4-2lb. bags of rice! At first, I was like, "WHY did you have to sign up for so much stuff?" But then when I was shopping today, I realized how much these items are going to help some families and I wished there was MORE I could buy for them! Every year, Christmas seems to creep up more and more (this year I saw decorations up before Halloween!) and I always feel like Thanksgiving is the forgotten holiday and I wish it wasn't: Thanksgiving isn't a day for families, it's a day for all humankind. It's a day where we count our blessings and thank God for the gift of life. I just wish we could help all the ones out there who need it...

Ok, enough rambling.

I can't believe I didn't even blog last month! I guess a lot has happened. For one thing, I'm not going to be Office Manager, which is fine with me. My other co-worker only temporarily stepped down from the OM position (which I didn't know at the time) and she's planning on stepping back up very soon. Plus, she has 5 kids, 4 dogs and other assorted animals so goodness knows she needs the money more than I do (not that I couldn't use it, but still)! We haven't sorted out if I'm going full-time or not, mostly because we hired another receptionist and payroll was tight before that, much less now. I don't say this to be mean but I really don't know how much longer the new girl is going to last. I was hoping things would work out but she's not really picking up some of the simplest tasks and it's been over a month now. I guess I'll have to wait and see. My boss, who hired me and whom I loved, decided to get back together with her ex-girlfriend and move to Kansas City, MO. It was a huge shock and hard for me to bear, at first, but I wish her luck and love and hope she's made the right decision. I'll stand by her if she ever chooses to come back, I really miss her.

What else? I got over my sinus infection and then got a cold a week ago. I've been trying to lay low and get lots of rest and drink my liquids since then and I'm happy to say that my cold is almost gone now! I also started physical therapy on my back today. Ever since I randomly hurt it waaaay back in April, it's been bothering me off and on and more so these past few days. So, I'm supposed to do therapy twice a week, for now, and my back exercises twice a day. Keep your fingers crossed!

Sam and Max are great and are making the journey to St. Louis with us next week! Sam's been to StL once (and my Grandma LOVES him!!) but Max has never been--it'll be his first road trip with us (and I'll have the Benadryl on hand, believe me!)! Hopefully all will go well!

This past weekend my Banfield participated in the 2nd annual City Wide Pet Day and it was a HUGE success! We did microchipping for only $15 (normally $29.95) and it made me feel good to see how many people were willing to pay to keep their pets safe--what good pet owners! Stephanie got Oliver chipped and he was SUCH a good boy!! It always nice to see a friendly face at these kinds of functions!

Hope everyone out there is doing well. Love to all and have a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving!!!

Updates

Here are some updates in my life!

1. I talked to my grandma last week. She had been to see both the Pacemaker expert as well as her cardiologist and both gave her a clean bill of health! Hooray! She said she was going to move back to her own apt. this past weekend--I'll have to talk to my mom tonight to see how that went.

2. I'm sick. :( At first, I thought it was just my allergies acting up (which it probably was) but now I think it's developed into a sinus infection/cold. Michael also had a cold last week and I'm hoping I didn't catch what he had--it was a really bad chest cold that didn't sound like any fun at all!

3. Say some prayers for Max, please: I saw some bright red blood in his stool this morning. I called my Banfield and talked to one of the nurses and it could just be some constipation (since he's acting fine, eating and drinking normally and doesn't have any vomiting or diarrhea) but it's still really scary to see blood on the carpet, especially when I'm already not feeling well anyway.

4. My boss wants me to become the Office Manager at my Banfield! It's a really big honor just to be asked (since I've only been working there for about 2 months) and both my boss and Dr. P want me to take the job! I'd get another $1.50/hour plus benefits, vacation time and sick time and I'd only have to work 1 extra day. The only thing that's holding me back (which is quite selfish, I know!) is that I like having my 4 day weekends. I'll probably take the position but first I need to find out what all it entails!

Ok, my tea's ready so I'm going to go enjoy that--here's hoping I can taste it!

Going Home!

Well, I'm leaving for home in about 45 min.! It's always bittersweet leaving but knowing that I get to see Michael and the boys this afternoon makes me so very, very happy. Grandma seems to be doing well: she had her first in-house physical therapy session yesterday where she had to walk and the caregiver also checked how strong her resistance is (i.e. having Gma push and pull on her, etc.); when she found out Gma's age, she was very pleased with the results! Grandma has to remember to walk every hour, at least for a little bit, so I'm going to try and call her to remind her to do that when I can. Like I said before, I'm SO glad that I came here. What with everyone else's lives going crazy, sometimes I was the only one who was free to spend time with her and I'd much rather her have someone to talk to instead of watching tv all day. Everyone keeps thanking me for coming and, honestly, it's a little embarassing. I mean, who wouldn't come knowing that their grandma was sick? I'm just fortunate that I had the employment and financial abilities to do so. So anyway, I'll try to keep blogging about how Grandma is doing but it might be a little while. Just say some prayers that she gets stronger and stronger each day, without overdoing it. Love to all and many, many thanks.

More Grandma Stuff

Grandma's home!!! Grandma was discharged today from St. John's and she'll be staying with my parents for probably a month or so. The stent surgery and recovery went well and she'll be having physical therapy 3 times a week for her to get stronger. We met a whole slew of people today (I was there for about 7 hours today) and got tons of information, it's just going take a while to process. The home health caregiver (i.e. physical therapist) will be coming for the first time on Sat., so I'm going to stay at least until then to help out wherever I can. I still don't have a place to sleep right now--hopefully we'll figure out something pretty soon! Later taters!

Update on Grandma

Well, after I got done with work last night (at the lovely hour of 8pm, nothing to do with my amazing coworkers, don't worry!), I talked to my mom who told me that grandma was going to be getting a cardiac cath done today (which is where they put something up through the leg, to the heart to see how much blockage there is). If there was only a little blockage, there were going to do either an angioplasty (balloon) or stent (to hold the vein/artery open and widen it, from what I understand) (I think I blogged about this before--and if I did, sorry for repeating myself) and if there was too much blockage, they wouldn't be able to do anything and grandma would basically be a walking time bomb b/c they wouldn't be able to do another bypass due to her age. So, after I cried (again), I bought a ticket and wonderful Michael and I left for the airport at 4:50am. I got in around 8am, dad picked me up, and we were in the hospital room by about 8:45am.

Grandma was SO surprised to see me (they didn't tell her I was coming in so she worry about that--she always worries when I fly) and she actually said, and I quote, "If I had known you were coming I would have baked a cake!" That's my grandma for you!!! I laughed so hard and it was nice to be happy again. I'm really glad I came up here, it's been good for my heart and soul just to be with everybody and not worry (so much that I wasn't eating) about the phone ringing with bad news and to be able to see grandma face to face has really put my mind at ease, at least a little. Grandma and I got to talk for a while (about 2 hours) before they took her to get her cardiac cath done and when she came back, they said they had put 2 stents in already too (vein and main artery)! We were so happy b/c if something had to be done, we had been hoping that it would be a stent and not an angioplasty, since that's supposed to be better.

Now grandma has to rest for a while and needs peace and quiet while she's recovering. This is a critical time for her so most of us left the hospital, except for Mom and Uncle John. We'll probably go up again tonight to see her. I still don't know how long I'm going to be here--I bought a one way ticket since I was (and still am) unsure of the prognosis. Grandma will be staying at my parents' house when she's released which means I should leave shortly after that since we're running out of beds! (This is also due to the fact that both Joe and his girlfriend, Rose, are here right now--she's sweet, I've never met her before--taking up 2 of the 5 beds available). That's where I am right now. Please say some more prayers that grandma stays healthy and recovers well--prayers really do work! Later!

Say Some Prayers

My grandma (mom's mom) was taken to the cardiac ICU last night: she'd been feeling very, very weak and no wonder, her pulse was at 38! (I don't know what a normal pulse is supposed to be but I'm sure it's higher than that!!) Apparently, her atrium and her ventricles weren't "talking" to each other so her heart was beating all out of whack. She had surgery this morning and they put a pacemaker in her--so far, so good. The scary part is in the next day or so: tomorrow they're going to do a chemical stress test where they'll see if anything in her heart is blocked. If it is, she'll probably have to go through another bypass (like she did about 15 years ago) or angioplasty or they'll have to insert a stint. None of these are good options because her body probably won't be able to handle it (she is turning 90 this year!) and there's a good chance she won't make it. And if one of these options has to happen, we'll probably fly to StL immediately to be with my family. So please say some prayers that tomorrow will go well and she'll be able to go home soon. My grandma's had a good, long life but I'd hate to lose her in a hospital room. Grandma, you're an amazing, good woman and I love you. We all love you.

On another note, today's our 1 year anniversary of living in Dallas--I can't believe it, this year has flown by and we love Dallas (so much better than Austin!). Whoopee.

Dog Park Time!

Well, the dog park finally dried out enough for us to take the boys! I was a bit apprehensive since Max is a little unpredictable sometimes but we were that at 9am before a whole lot of people got there (and before it got too hot though I was sweating after about 45 min. in the sun) and we walked him around on his leash for a few minutes before we released the hounds! Max LOVED it!!! He was whining and yipping when we first got there but I think as soon as he saw that Sam was fine then he was fine too! It was actually pretty sweet because he followed Sam around for about 10 min. or so and then he realized he could play on his own with the other dogs!! He ran around and then bounded back to us, all the while being very sweet to the other dogs. What a good boy!!! We did have to leave because the boys were getting overheated (thank goodness they're getting groomed next week!) but we'll be back!

God is Good

So, I just got this email a few minutes ago from my younger brother, Joe. Praise God, He is truly good! Calls can't get through right now but hopefully I'll be able to make contact sometime tonight.

Hi everyone, I don't know if you have heard yet, but one of the major bridges that crossesthe Mississippi in Minneapolis collapsed into the river earlier this evening. This bridge is the route which connects the University of Minnesota to downtownMinneapolis. For the summer, I have been living in an apartment at theUniversity, and I take this bridge to and from work every single day. I amjust writing to let you know, that I am ok and all my friends and co-workers(thus far) are ok too. Coincidentally, I was pretty tired at work today anddecided to leave a little early. I crossed the bridge about 45 minutes beforethe accident. If I had left when I usually call it a day I would have been onthe bridge right around the time of the accident. God truly works inmysterious ways. I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying the summer months. Please keepthe people of Minneapolis and their families in your thoughts and prayers. with love,Joe

P.S.

Max and/or Sam ate 3/4 of a bag of tear 'n share plain M&M's while we were at Wal Mart for 15 min.. Sounds like a fun night (and possibly day tomorrow) for us, huh? My little scamps...

Update: the boys were fine, nothing bad came out of either end (though I decided to bring them both to work with me, just to keep an eye on them...and I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon--they were whining and howling anytime they saw someone, which was often, since they were near the fridge! And, it turns out, Max is the howler. Weird.). Crazy boys but I love them!

Just Piddlin' Around

First of all, the new job is GREAT!! I love all the people I work with (at least, the ones I've met so far in my first 2 days) and the customers have been great too. I'm learning, slowly but surely, and everyone has assured me that they won't leave me at any task until I'm absolutely comfortable with it (i.e. all the closing stuff at night, doing the deposits, making sure all the money has been squared away, etc.). I've already had to deal with one puppy death on my Observation Day (which is not to be confused with my first official start day) that was very unexpected and I've also had people offer me: a) a gentle Rottweiler (no, thank you! where would I put it??!) and b) a kitty that was left in a crate by the Petsmart doors and was found when they were opening the store last Wed. (again, no thank you--I'm allergic!). It makes me wonder if I'm going to be tempted down the line to take some poor soul of a puppy home, knowing my penchant for rescue dogs.

I also love that I get to wear scrubs and tennis shoes to work! The scrubs are so comfy I could actually see myself sleeping in them (but I wouldn't, really) and the tennis shoes, while less than comfortable right now since they aren't quite broken in yet, will conform in a couple of months and I'll be better than ever (and, in the meantime, I get to buy a foot massager--not a bad thing to have around the apt. anyway!)

Max just peed in the house (hence the title of this entry) and I'm so tired of the smell!! If anyone knows how to get rid of doggie pee smells, PLEASE let me know!!! I want to actually get rid of the smell, not just cover it up, but the problem is that I think he pees on the floor when I'm gone and then by the time I come home, it's already dried up. And smelly. I never had to deal with this with Sam and I'm starting to run of of products to try!! HELP!!!

That's it for now. Time to make some chili.

I Got (Another) Job!

I had my interview with Banfield in Richardson yesterday and they offered me a job! It looks like I'm going to be working Tues.-Thurs., 10-7, possibly with some rotating Fri., so that I can keep a couple of days open for WS work. They're also closed on Sun. and holidays, which is nice, and I asked for Sat. off so I can spend some time with Michael!! I have my observation day this Fri. so wish me luck!!

SIlver Lining?

After the debacle of yesterday, I decided to update/post my resume on Monster.com. I did this a while ago and got some responses but I really wanted to start looking again. So, I did that and applied for a couple of jobs and I've already got 2 responses! Last night, a vet doc asked me to come in and fill out an app and just a little while ago another Banfield (about the same disctance as my current one) emailed me and asked me to call to set up an interview (and she said she looked at my resume and she thinks I'd be a great fit)!!! Things are looking up!

In more exciting news, Chris DeYoung is engaged!!! For those of you who don't know Chris, he was our best man in our wedding and he's one of Michael's best (and oldest) friends. We love Chris and couldn't be happier for him!

This Day Sucks

So if life wasn't hard enough right now, I also just found out that I am NOT, in fact, going to work at Banfield. I called to talk to my guy, the one who encouraged me to apply, and the district person answered so I just asked if the position had been filled and she said yes but that she would keep my resume on file for 6 months. Blah blah blah. It's not fair b/c it's like I'm being penalized for going out of town on a trip that I had planned for a while to see my family. But since I couldn't interview with her when she wanted, that apparently throws me out of the job pool. It's not like I could do anything about it, you know? If I could have done anything to go to the interview, I would have, I really wanted the job. And if you're going to penalize me for that, then just tell me. Don't say you'll call when I get back, then not call at all. That's just rude. This day sucks.

It's Like Missing A Limb

So it seems as if I have lost my cell phone, *sigh*. I've never lost a cell in the 10 or so years that I've had one and, I have to say, it's not very nice. I lost it on Sun. night and I think it's officially gone now. I checked my Cingular account yesterday after work and someone had found it and made calls all through the night and morning and most of yesterday as well. Oh well, at least they were local calls! They even listened to the cell phone message that I left (where I gave our home phone number 3 times and asked the person to please call it if they found my phone) but decided not to turn it in for whatever reason. So, my service is suspended and I'm waiting to hear if I'm up for an upgrade now (which I think I am). And I've got the manager of The Porch (where we ate on Sun. night w/ friends) helping me out as well since I think it was probably a busboy or valet guy who took it. He had me fax over the phone numbers list to see if he could track down someone and he was going to talk to the supervisor of the valets. All in all, I think I've done all I can. Oh, and I'm going to file a police report--not b/c I want anything done, just to have on file. This stinks.

Anniversary Pics

My Gorgeous Anniversary Earrings

(not to scale, lol)

My Beautiful Surprise Flowers

Mini-Vacay, Part Deux

So, overall our mini-vacay was great! We went to a Trivia Night on Sat. to help fund an inner-city school (which, btw, they were hoping to raise $8,000 and they made $13,000--pretty good for their first Trivia Night ever!). This was not the kind of trivia we were used to. First of all, there were TONS of questions about StL that I would have had to have been born 40+ years ago to even consider knowing. Plus, they had a Jelly Belly round where you had to taste aforementioned Jelly Bellies and pick which flavor they were from a supplied list. Jelly beans aren't my favorite anyway, so this was hard. But the money was for such a good cause (sidebar: my parent's really good friends' son teaches there) that you couldn't really get help but feel good!

Let's see..what else? Oh, Sun. was Father's Day so we hung out around the house and played Bags (which I'm not going to explain here but it's kind of like Tic Tac Do (the kind where you throw beanbags) or washers, if you've ever played either of those), while listening to some music and being happy for Shiner on a hot day. AND we met John's new girlfriend, Angie, who I really like! She's the kind of girl who seems like she'd be up for anything and she's really, really nice. She's a dance teacher and super skinny and cute. We'll see how it goes... And yes, we ate the ubiquitous Father's Day bbq.

On Mon. we played some Scrabble with John and Dad (I got my butt kicked) and left around 4:30pm to make a 6:50pm flight. We almost didn't make it. Even though it's never taken me longer than 45 min., max, to get to the airport, traffic was backed up as soon as we got on the highway and didn't stop until we got the rental car place, 90 min. later. Thankfully, our shuttle driver flew to the airport, we ran through the terminal (which I absolutely hate) and made it with about 5 min. to spare. Well, 5 min. if our flight had left on time, that is. God must have been looking out for us b/c the incoming flight didn't show up until about 7:15pm so we didn't start boarding until 7:30pm-ish. So, we were made it after all. I'm just glad I had the foresight to ask Steph to pick up Sam and Max on her way home since our flight didn't even get in until 8:45pm and there was no way in the world we could have made it by 9pm. Thanks, Stephsie, we love you!!!!

That's our trip in a nutshell. We had a good time and my parents will be here to visit in 17 days (hooray for great StL to DAL fares!) and I think fake mom will be here too, right about the same time. :D Max is getting some private training lessons for socialization, as well as learning basic commands, and he already knows Sit and Down, such a smart boy! In late Aug./early Sept. we'll be taking our real vacation (i.e. longer than 4 days) to San Francisco, Carmel and Monterey and if anyone knows of a good (and safe) hotel to stay in in SF, please let me know. Thanks for reading!

Mini-Vacay

So, we're in St. Louis now! We arrived yesterday morning at the godforsaken time of 8am. I say godforsaken because do you know what it means when you've arrived in StL after a 90 min. flight? That's right, it means you've had to get up at 3:30am so that you could leave by 4:30am so that you could get to the airport by 5am to make a 6:30am flight. Ugh. Thank goodness for free doughnuts provided by Southwest since McD's didn't open until 6am and we were already boarded by then.

We went to the Art Museum yesterday which was great (and free!). I thought we were going to be able to see this cool Napolean exhibit for free (free on Fri.'s) but, yeah, it doesn't open until tomorrow. Bummer. We were also going to go to the Zoo (also free!) but it closed at 2pm (we think for a private party) and since we had just arrived at Forest Park at noon (after making a lovely detour to Mom's Deli, hooray!!) and still had to eat said sandwiches a la picnic style AND since it was 93 degrees out, we had to forego the Zoo. But that's ok, since we went today! We were there at 9:15am (though it opened at 8am) and didn't leave until 1:45! It was great! We always see things that we've never seen before. This time, apparently, the mating scene was upon us (i.e. wild asses, tortoises and dwarf mongooses--mongeese? I don't know). It was very...interesting...to see all this frolicking. Anyway, we had a good time. I think I got some sun on my shoulders. It's all good. Now we're just waiting for my parents to get home so we can go to Trivia Night and you KNOW we love our trivia!! More StL trip blogging to come later, I'm sure.

Oh also, we had our 4th wedding anniversary on Thurs.!!! It's hard to believe it's been 4 years already but there you go! I'll post pics later of the earrings and flowers Michael got me. They're all gorgeous. I still have the most wonderful guy in the world!

And I adopted a warthog in his name from the Dallas Zoo as my present to him. I'm so thoughtful.

Maxwell Seymour Emerson

Well, Max finally got groomed today (BIG hooray)!!! He was supposed to go last Fri. but circumstances were tricky. Firstly, the groomers required Max to have a rabies shot. This was no big deal since he was supposed to get his rabies shot that Tues. before. Instead of his rabies shot, though, he got an upper respiratory infection. And a mild ear infection. And he was licking his neutering area which meant no rabies shot for Max (really, the cold was the main culprit), only antibiotics and another check-up appt. for this past Mon, 5/14. So, he went and saw Dr. Pedone (LOVE her!) this Mon. and even though he's not completely well, he was well enough to get both his distemper and rabies shots! I wanted to get him groomed yesterday but the groomers said they were required to wait 48 hours after the shot was given. So I dropped him off before work and then picked him up when I was done--he looks like a completely different puppy--and who knew he had so many spots?! Anyway, he's still got the sniffles and is sneezing a bit but his ear infection is all gone and his neuter site is almost completely healed. Both puppies are on antibiotics until next Mon., just to be safe (and b/c Sam was starting to wheeze).

Oh, I also wanted to explain Max's middle name, Seymour. In the tv show Futurama, the main character, Fry, gets accidentally sent 1,000 years into the future, leaving all of his friends and family, including his beloved dog, Seymour, behind. Seymour sits outside the pizza parlour where Fry worked and waits and waits and waits for Fry to return but he never does and Seymour dies without ever seeing him again. A faithful friend to the end. It seemed appropriate.

I'm going to enjoy the beautiful, cool weather now. Later!

Meet Max!

Max Emerson

This is our new puppy, Max! (I use the term "puppy" loosely, he's actually just over a year old.) We're getting him from Operation Kindness later this week (he has to be fixed first--yikes) and he's just as sweet as can be! Sam and Max had an hour long meet & greet yesterday and everything went VERY well! There was much "doggy handshaking" as the woman called it and Sam wasn't a bit aggressive. Max is an incredibly shy dog, which makes me think that he wasn't given much love at his previous owner's house. He was an owner surrender and the reasoning was, "too many pets". Poor thing! Well, I have the time, love and TLC to give him so he should be good with us! The OK worker noticed how calm Sam was and said that he, more than the 2 of us, would really bring Max out of his shell because he'll imitate Sam. Good thing Sam's such a good dog!

Strangely enough, while we were at the meet and greet, some professional photographers came over and asked me if they were brothers/siblings (no checking of the undercarriage was involved, obviously). They were they taking pictures of shelter dogs for a book they're writing--what a great idea! Sam and Max were both quite photogenic and I had to sign a waiver for Sam, SO funny!!

Anyway, so this is Max and I'm sure I'll have many more pictures to come soon! Have a good day!

Why Sometimes I Really Hate Being A Responsible Adult

First there was the house thing and now there's the car thing. So, in order for you to understand the forthcoming information, you must understand that my brakes squeak really badly. Not just kind of badly, REALLY badly. It's this horrible, high-pitched squealing noise and people are always looking whenever I'm stopping or slowing down. At least, I think they are. It could just be my hotness. Or something. Anyway, so this problem has been bugging me for about a month or so and I finally decided to do something about it today: I went to Just Brakes and got them partially fixed. I saw partially because $300+ dollars was all I was willing to part with today. I got the major stuff (brake pads and shoes, leaking braking fluid) fixed, I'll go back another day and get the rest done. When it's not such a major blow to my wallet.

On a better note, Sylisha (Michael's cousin's wife) graduated from culinary school on Monday--hooray, Sylisha!!! We're all SO proud of her (plus, now I know we'll have amazingly good food at all family holidays), she's worked very hard for 2 years and she graduated with honors! PLUS, she's opening her own business--that takes a lot of guts and determination but I know she can do it! Congrats again to her!

Oh, I also found out that my friend Kristin in Kansas is having a baby girl! I swear, everyone's having baby girls these days--we'll see what my time brings at some unknown point in the future! :D Later!

Sad News

You may have noticed the post about the house and all the pics are gone. There's a reason for this: we decided not to buy a house at this time. It wasn't financially responsible of us to do so right now. And even though we could have afforded it, we wouldn't have been able to enjoy it what with all the subsequent scrimping and saving rather than the fun decorating and furnishing. So, we'll see where we are in a year or so. We're both very sad about this major decision that we've had to make but we're happy that we're responsible enough to see past the emotional ties and we'll get through it together and with our friends and family. Thank you for all of your wonderful support and maybe our dreams will come true someday. C'est la vie.

It's Been A Long Time

I didn't realize how long it's been since I've lasted posted! Not that much has happened in my life, mind you. Here's a quick rundown: birthday was great & Cheesecake Factory was muy delicioso, Valentine's Day was lovely (I got pajamas--and if you know my obsession, that's a good thing) and Michael took me to this FABulous little Italian place called Adelmo's in downtown Dallas--I think you could blink and miss it.

D.C. was GREAT! My feet and knee didn't hurt as much this time (thank goodness!) and we got to spend a lot more time doing what we wanted to do instead of whisking through all of it (though that was kind of fun too). The weather went from cold and windy to cold and windy and SNOWY (we're talking approx. 3-4 inches in about 2 and 1/2 hours and it was the good kind too, perfect for snowmen, big flakes, wet and heavy) and, as a result, we got stranded in good ol' D.C. a day longer than planned. Thank goodness I always bring extra clothes! I'll upload pics later since my computer is being cranky right now.

This weekend I'm St. Louis bound! I'm excited since I haven't seen my mom since Christmas and I haven't seen dad and John since mid-Jan. The roundtrip airfare was less than $100, so I couldn't very well pass that up! Our friend Tyler is taking me to the airport (my hero!) since Michael's also leaving on Fri. (from a different airport, of course!) to go to a bachelor party in Vegas. I figure the timing's good too since he'll be gone all weekend anyway (and I'll be gone until Tues.), plus it's my dad's 60th bday on the 14th so I'm a early present! I feel badly for leaving Sam again since we just picked him up on Mon. but he'll be staying with his girlfriend and BFF this weekend (thanks again, Stephanie!!!).

That's all for now--loving this warm, sunny weather!

Of Birthdays and Quality Time

So, today's my birthday! Actually, it's not that big of a deal. 27 isn't a big milestone, it's just another reminder that 30 is creeping closer and closer. Not that I mind 30, mind you. It doesn't make me feel old or anything like that...my point is, it's a milestone birthday and 27 is not. That's it. The end. Anyway, it's my birthday. Michael's present to me was taking the day off!!! Well, that and giving me a GORGEOUS bouquet of flowers!!! AND I got flowers from my friends Brooke and Jen. It's a very floral kind of day. We ate copious amounts of Indian food for lunch. Gosh, I love chicken tikka masala!! And now we're getting sushi to balance out said copious amounts of Indian food and all will be well in my world. So that's it. I'm 27. TA-DA!

Happy New Year!

We hope all of our friends and family have a safe, happy and blessed new year and for years to come!! Stay in touch!