What I've Been Up To

My first resolution for the New Year is to be a better blogger!

Ok, so what have I been up to? Let's see.... since August we have gone to all the UT football games, including the TX/OU game in Dallas with our friends Laurie and Paul and the UT/KU game in Kansas where we met my cousin Danielle and her boyfriend, Rich. We really enjoy going to the football games, there is so much energy and college football is something both Jason and I like!

A few trips to Houston for work - various training and a Christmas party. Busy at work with year-end close, our audit, annual plans and we're down one person so just generally keeping up!

We had a great Thanksgiving that was made better by a UT win over ATM! We enjoyed spending time with our family and seeing our nieces and nephews, they seem to be growing up so quickly.

Christmas was good as well. LOTS of family time but spread out enough so that we really enjoyed seeing everyone! Our nieces were both too cute in their Christmas outfits and of course our nephews looked very handsome as well. I wish we had more time to visit all of our friends and their kids during the holidays. I love seeing them and experiencing the joy of Christmas through their eyes!

Lastly...I've become a vegetarian or almost vegan as I say. I made the decision to try it after reading some articles and books and it's now been 4 weeks! I say almost vegan b/c most people think of vegetarians as eating dairy, eggs and sometimes fish and I am not eating those things. I don't feel like I can really say vegan b/c I'm still working on switching to soy butter and reading labels to cut out all animal products - they seem to sneak into a lot of dishes. Anyway, surprisingly it's been the easiest thing I've ever done when it comes to changing something about the way I eat. AND I feel great! I've always had a sensitive stomach and since going almost vegan :) my stomach has calmed down a lot.

Ok, so that's all that's been going on, I think anyway. As I said, one of my resolutions is to be a better blogger!

Later

8 Things about ME

I was tagged by Elizabeth and figured I needed to post something... :)

8 TV shows I watch:
1) The Office
2) Fringe
3) Brothers and Sisters
4) Grey's Anatomy
5) The Bachelor
6) What Not to Wear
7) Family Guy
8) Any chick flick on the movie channels!

8 Favorite Restaurants
1) El Mercado
2) Austin Java
3) Clay Pit
4) Hula Hut!
5) Mr. Natural
6) Maudie's
7) Thai Passion
8) Apple Annie's

8 Things that happened Today
1) woke up too early considering I'm off work
2) took my car in to get a new windshield
3) shopped at Academy and Best Buy
4) ate lunch at Twin Peaks - yes, it's like Hooters, not sure how I was convinced to do that
5) bagged up some old clothes to take to Goodwill
6) got bag ready for spa day tomorrow!
7) put up all the holiday wrapping paper and ribbon
8) made a fire

8 Things I look forward to
1) Day at Lake Austin Spa on Tuesday!
2) 2009
3) New episodes of The Office
4) The UT/Ohio State game on Jan 5th
5) the new Bachelor on Jan 5th - this will be dvr'd
6) ski trip in January
7) sleeping in for a few more days
8) our patio being finished!!!

8 Things I wish for
1) more patience at work
2) more appreciation for having a job with a good company
3) an end to the poor economy
4) to be able to run the Cap 10K
5) to be a better vegan
6) this next year to not go by so quickly
7) see out of town friends sooner than later!
8) positive ending of cancer for my friends that are going through treatments

8 People I tag!
1) Renee
2) Whitney
3) Joni
4) Suzanne D
Ok this is sad, I don't know if I really have anyone else to tag! ha ha!

Birthdays, games and the holidays

So now my birthday has come and gone. It was fun, small family party with a super yummy cake which I don't have a pic of but am trying to get one from someone that took a photo of it. I can't believe that I'm closer to 30. I remember when I was much younger and thought about what my life would be when I was out of high school for 10 years...probably married, with kids, not sure what else. Well guess what? My 10 yr reunion is this year - wow! I've been married for over 5 yrs and no kids at this point in time. And no I'm not going to my reunion because....it's the same night as Jason's 30th b-day party!!!!! I am so excited about that. My friend, Renee, is helping me make the coolest invites ever, seriously these things are awesome! They will be worthy of a picture post when I have one done, well one that is done right.

Other than that the only other thing going on besides the usual work and house work...college football has started!!!!!! Woohoo!!!!! The first UT game was this past weekend where they won against Florida Atlantic 52-10, go Horns! The game was fun, hot but not as bad as in years past. However, the traffic leaving the game was horrible! They have something like 8 events scheduled in downtown Austin this weekend and already had streeets closed for The Human Race on Sunday. It was bad. Seriously took us an hour to get out of that area. Ugh. Anyway, I'm excited, on to the next game. Hopefully they'll play better than they did tonight. The score may not reflect it but this team has a lot of needed improvement to make in the coming weeks. GO HORNS!!!

And, the holidays are coming up. Do you realize it is less than 4 months until Christmas? Yep, it is. I have already had family party planning convos regarding Christmas. On one hand I'm super excited, on the other, well, geez, how is it that time already???? Time seems to be flying by these days. Anyway, I am convinced that this year will be the year that I have a lot of shopping done WAY ahead of time. That is my goal and I'm going to work really hard to achieve it. I'm thinking it will help with the stress level and plus I'll be able to put pretty gifts under my tree sooner and enjoy the deco they'll provide! Halloween is first though, I hope we have some great trick-or-treates this year!

Catching Up

Yes I have a lot of catching up to do... In a nutshell I have been working, working, working over the last few months!
In June I went to Denver once and Houston twice, in July, Denver twice and Houston once. I think I have a clear schedule for the next month.

Other than that we're not up to a whole lot. We're getting close to starting construction on our new covered patio in the back, getting a sprinkler system and stone planters! Yeah, I can't wait!!! Oh and we have a new addition to our extended family...a new neice who is absolutely adorable! We are looking forward to seeing her grow up and develop her own little personality.

Not much else, my b-day is coming up next week and I'm excited!!! I ordered the yummiest cake ever for my party, mexican vanilla cake with buttercream icing. I had this cake before for Whitney's baby shower and it was soooo good! I can't wait to eat a piece this Saturday when I celebrate with a small group of family and friends.

The other BIG thing coming up...UT Season Tickets!!! They should arrive any day now in the mail!!!!! Best part of the year made even better since they always come around my b-day!!!! I am so excited for college football to start. It's the only time of year that I am 100% willing to clear my entire weekend schedule to be sure I don't miss a game! GO HORNS!!!

I'll make it a goal to update my blog soon after my b-day, more yummy cake reporting to come....

Later

Worst Blogger Ever?

So I've decided that although I'm pretty bad at blogging I'm not the worst one ever. After some random searches I found blogs that haven't posted in a much longer time than me! Um, for example...Chez D. She hasn't posted since last August and I think the post was actually done by her friends!

Ok, so on to what's been going on.... First, here's a couple of pics from Paris. There are too many to post so I've picked a couple and once we get through them I'll post one of those slideshow things.

So the pics I've posted...Eiffel Tower of course, the weather wasn't too great the whole time we were there and you can see how overcast it was. The second is Jason and I in front of Notre Dame...gorgeous church. I'm not one for touring a bunch of churches but this one was amazing. We were in awe and to think it was built so many years ago and it's still standing. Wow. And finally the Louvre, we looked for things from the Da Vinci Code book. :)

Ok, next...once we got back home almost right away demolition started in our house in the form of replacing flooring. We had wood floors put in the majority of the house. Basically everywhere but the kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms. I love it, although I have to clean more often because you see Sadie's hair easily! Pics below....

Speaking of Sadie, she did really well while we were on vacation and then when men invaded her house for two weeks to do the floors. :)

Aw, isn't she so sweet? :)

Other than that I've been working like crazy! This past weekend we did get to make a trip to DFW to visit friends. First we visited with our friends Laurie and Paul. We went out to eat at Mi Cocina - tasty! Then we tried to go to this cute bar called Martini Park (or something like that) but Jason still had his sneakers on and they weren't allowed. So we went somewhere else and then stayed up late at their house chatting. Saturday we all slept in, ate at Mooyah for lunch - very yummy burgers! I think they are opening up in Austin soon. I swear I saw a sign somewhere up north maybe in the Anderson Lane area? Anyway, then we headed over to Whitney and Shane's house to visit them and of course baby Austin!!! He was adorable and we had a good time catching up with them and playing with Austin. We were able to eat out that night at this BBQ place that had Tennessee style BBQ and it was pretty good. I liked the variety of sauces they had and they also had a yummy cobbler that we all got! Sunday we left late morning to head back to Austin. I wish we still lived closer to both Laurie/Paul and Whitney/Shane. I just never feel like I get to see my out of town friends enough!

That's it for now. Memorial Day is this weekend and I'm excited to have the long weekend!!! In the next couple of weeks we have a lot happening again....our 2nd niece should be arriving soon, maybe next week! One of my younger brothers is graduating high school, as are 3 of my cousins so lots going on there.

I will try to be better about blogging and not wait as long. :)

Later!

We're back!

Yes, we made it back! We got in last Saturday but this has been a crazy week at work and we're still working on loading our pics...we have close to 1000!!!! I'm hoping to have that done later today and will post the details then. Although we had a great time there are so many things I appreciate about being home. :) And I know that Sadie was glad to have us back as well - poor kitty, she missed us a lot and I sure missed her!

Ok, back later, hopefully with pics!

Au revoir!

Happy Anniversary Across an Ocean!

So we're getting ready for our trip to Paris and of course have somewhat procrastinated. Ahhh, oh well. :) I have a couple of last minute errands to run tomorrow before we fly out on Friday. I am so excited I can hardly stand it! The weather will be chilly there but otherwise clear for the most part. I'm hoping that some of the plants are starting to come out, I mean here it's 80 and full blown spring, why wouldn't it be everywhere else in world? ha ha!

Now the one thing I am really worried about...my cat. Poor Sadie she is going to be so sad while we're gone. Jennifer, Jason's sister, will be coming by to take care of her but I'm really worried that after a couple of days she might start to get mad. We've never had to leave her alone quite this long.

Oh something else, I'm a little worried about that long of a flight. I tend to get motion sick and always take dramamine on any flight longer than 1 hr but hopefully I can sleep the majority of the time and the meds don't wear off too quickly!

Alright, that's it for me now! My next post will be soon after we get back (I promise!!!!) and will have pictures!

And the reason we're going to Paris...our 5 yr anniversary is on April 5th. Wow, 5 yrs, it doesn't seem like that long ago or maybe longer than that. Anyway, happy anniversary to us!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!
Each year we switch off this holiday with mine and Jason's families. This year it was my family and instead of going to my parents we hosted Easter at our house! I love hosting any sort of get-together, especially holidays with family. So I've been planning the menu, bought some cute spring napkins and got my egg dying kit! Here was my menu...
Pear and parsnip soup - recipe from a friend's chef husband
Salad w/ great veggie toppings and homemade balsamic vinagrette
Roast
Roasted potatoes with garlic, shallot and rosemary seasoning
Corn
Flaky rolls
Lemon Icebox pie for dessert!

Everything turned out really good. Of course my soup wasn't quite as good as the the one made by the pro, but not bad for my first try! I even got my brothers to try some. :) After dinner we played the Wii that they just bought, it was pretty fun! I'm not too good at tennis, bowling...uh, who am I kidding, I wasn't good at any of them! But it was funny to watch everyone.

Not much else going on...I have a day trip to Houston for some training tomorrow and am excited to have booked Southwest business class and get extra Reward points! I know, dorky that I'm excited about that!

OHHHH - 2 things I forgot! I went to Lake Austin Spa with some friends on my day off last Friday and it was so nice and relaxing!!! I wish I could afford to go once a month, you completely de-stress when you are there. It motivated me to do some more planting in my yard so that I can be surrounded by beautiful plants and get a little bit of the resort feel in my own backyard. AND - I bought a converter for the outlets in France at the mall, we leave in less than 2 weeks!!!! I can't believe it's that soon! I need to work on my Coffee Break French a little more between now and then. Oh and I went to DSW to look for some cute shoes and was very disappointed, my goal this week is to find a new outfit and shoes to take to Paris!

Ok, so that's it for now - have a great week!

Later!

Catching up

Catching up...the title of my blog and recent story of my life. So yes I know that I do not have the excuse of going into labor or having a newborn as to why I have not posted but I have been busy!

Weekend of Feb 23rd...co-hosted a shower for my friend Whitney. Everything went great and so much thanks to the other hostesses for all the work that everyone did!

Hostesses - Christy, Amy, Lisa, me, Whitney (mom-to-be), Anya, Briana and Myra

Beautiful table set up of all the goodies!!!

Awesome cake and gorgeous flowers! Ok, seriously, this cake was sooooo good! The icing was especially tasty, very rich buttercream and a thick layer of it!!! YUMM-O!

Ok, so let's see...moving on the the first weekend of March....

Friday, February 29th - official D day for a friend of mine! She have been dealing with finalizing her divorce for quite sometime and instead of it being a sad day a bunch of us got together to hang out and remind her of her friends that are always there to support her! We had a blast! And I think she enjoyed hanging out with the girls to kick off this new phase. Oh and I love her new last name, she decided to change it from her married name.

Anyway, it's Meli and means "Honey", it just sounds so fun! I'm jealous b/c I have a fascination with fun last names and always joke with Jason about changing my name to something that sounds great when a sports announcer says it! This past Longhorn football season it was Bobino and Muckelroy that were my favorite names, ha ha!

Saturday, March 1st I was supposed to go up to Keller for Whitney's other shower and just to visit and see the nursery before Austin arrives. Well, that didn't happen. Instead I was sick to my stomach on my way there, I didn't even make it out of Austin. I came home and dealt with a stomach bug the rest of the day. And YES, it was a stomach bug, no morning sickness in this household. :)

Ok, geez, I haven't updated in awhile. Other things going on...again super busy at work

:( Babysat my niece a couple of weekends ago, she's 2 and she likes saying my name! Of course I like that too! Then this past weekend was her 2nd bday party and we did some yard work. I think that's got me caught up.

OH YEAH...and Whitney had baby Austin on Friday, March 14th! They are both doing great and are on their way home. Here's their first family picture - he's adorable!!!!

Shane, Whitney and Austin Cole Lumpkins! Congrats to both of you, I can't wait to come visit!!!

Coming up for the Ward's..... Easter, somewhat of a weekend off and then....our 5 yr anniversary trip to Paris, France!!!!!!! Can't wait!

Later! :)

What a week!

Yes, I realize it's only Tuesday night but this week has already been crazy, actually the past week and a half!

Let's rewind to the first weekend of February... We drove to Dallas for the weekend to visit some friends, had a great time but unfortunately we were in a car accident (no injuries) but lots of damage to the back end of my friend's 3 months old car! :( Then our friends were coming down with the flu so everyone just wasn't feeling as good as usual. Fortunately neither of us got sick but both of them ended up with the flu all of last week and of course still trying to get back to normal!

This past weekend was nothing exciting. We did a bunch of stuff around the house, clean up, you know, boring things. Filed our taxes, more fun and went the grocery store - what an exciting weekend huh?

Now the time during last week and this week. I have so much going on at work and although it will be better sometime soon, it's crazy right now! I have a new employee, which I am very excited about, but it means that while still doing my job I'm also training him on his. I'm really not complaining b/c I am truly grateful for the additional help but you know, just adds to the chaos. Anyway, that would be part of the reason I haven't updated my blog - no time! When I get home I'm exhausted or like tonight got online for a little bit to get a bit more work done - sad huh? It's funny though, this is the first time in my life that I have been this stressed but absolutely love my job and company! I enjoy working with all of the people I do and overall look forward to work.

Ok, enough of my complaining about my past week or so. Oh, a really bright side of my Dallas trip... Laurie and I made a trip to Sam Moon and I bought 2 purses, a necklace, a super cute business card holder and a cute passport holder! Of course all for a good price as well! A woman even stopped me in the restroom the other day to comment on my new necklace!

That's it for now! I hope to update again soon, well at least more quickly than this last one.

All About Me!

I decided this would be a good way to introduce myself and who knows, maybe you'll learn something about me that you didn't know before!

My 100

1. My name is Beth, it's not short for Bethany or Elizabeth.
2. My mom didn't name me Elizabeth because my initials would've been EZ and she didn't think that would be nice!
3. I am the oldest of 4 kids w/1 sister and 2 brothers
4. My youngest brother is 12 1/2 years younger than me
5. I will have been married for 5 yrs this April!
6. My youngest brother has little to no memory of my husband not being in our family.
7. He was 4 yrs old when we started dating!
8. Jason and I are going to Paris, France for our anniversary
9. Almost 5 yrs after getting married I finally sent in my passport to get my last name changed
10. It came back less than a week later!!!!
11. I have no kids
12. I am not pregnant or trying to get pregnant
13. Almost all of my friends are pregnant or recently had a baby
14. I have hosted an average of 2 baby showers each year for the past 3 years
15. I will host/co-host 2 this spring
16. One is for my close friend, Whitney and the other for my sister in law, Crystal
17. Jason's family is huge, 6 kids - 3 boys, 3 girls
18. We have a lot to do at the holidays and throughout the year with birthdays and other holidays
19. I have known Jason's youngest brother since he was 10 yrs old
20. He is now engaged to be married
21. That makes me feel old
22. In 2 1/2 years I will be 30 yrs old on Friday the 13th!
23. I celebrate my half-birthday every year on February 13
24. Yes, I even get a little gift from my husband
25. Last year it was the movie Old School - I think he was trying to tell me I'm getting old
26. I love Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn movies!
27. The Office is one of my favorite tv shows
28. I am ready for the writer's strike to be over with and new shows to be on!
29. I also like watching Grey's Anatomy and the same movies over and over on the movie channels
30. I've seen The Holiday about a million times since we switched to DirecTV
31. I cry almost every time at the end :)
32. I don't cry often but about strange things
33. Like when I forget to buy more food for my cat and she meow'd so sadly after having to eat treats for dinner!
34. I love my cat Sadie, she is my child

35. I've had her for almost 5 yrs and she only belongs to me, Jason does not claim her
36. She loves him though!
37. He tries to give her away everytime we have guests...as some sort of party favor or something
38. I love hosting parties
39. I've hosted more than one party that involved a cupcake tree!
40. For one of my birthdays we had a "cupcake bar" where everyone could pick the flavor and icing!!!
41. I had something like 72 cupcakes
42. We ate cupcakes for days...
43. My friend Paul ate 6 in one night!
44. Ok, he says 2, but everyone else swears it was 6
45. Paul is married to one of my closest friends, Laurie
46. I've known Laurie since I was 6 yrs old, we met at daycare
47. I think they will have kids before us
48. I am an accountant
49. I have my CPA, it took me a few tries to pass the Audit section
50. I am not an auditor
51. Some of my friends are though
52. Those girls are part of my close group of friends from Grad school
53. We call ourselves the Good Time Girls
54. I think it started as a joke because we always had "good times" when we got together
55. We email regulary, we can have 80 emails as a result of just one being sent
56. My friend, Suzanne, responds to each and every email and I love that about her!
57. When I hear the word focus groups I think of the GTG - we had one interesting summer semester together where words like focus and perception became hilarious to us
58. I am so glad to be done with school
59. I love fall and the school year beginning, I think it's because of school supplies
60. I like to use fun supplies at work - fun would be colored post it notes, flags, pens, highlighters!
61. Yes, I like trips to Office Depot
62. I love shopping for house decor!
63. We bought a house about 2 1/2 years ago
64. I have loved decorating our house but hate cleaning it
65. I cleaned houses to earn money when I was 12
66. I was not very good at it
67. I played volleyball from 5th grade through my junior year in high school
68. I got tired of it and decided not to play my senior year
69. I was in our high school plays
70. I won awards!
71. I auditioned for the theatre school at NYU
72. I didn't go there but I LOVE NYC!
73. I love to travel and can't wait to do more of it!
74. I have better vacation at my job now so I should get to travel a little more
75. In 2008 I'm going to Paris, Tennessee and on a cruise to Cozumel
76. I want to go to Florida more often to visit my Gramma
77. I have one remaining grandparent
78. I was fortunate to have 5 grandparents!
79. I am not biologically related to my dad and sister
80. Some times people tell my sister and I that we look alike...we do not...AT ALL
81. That makes both of us laugh!
82. I cannot believe I made it to # 82...only 18 to go
83. My favorite stores are Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Ann Taylor
84. I love reading health magazines like Self and Shape
85. I like going to classes at the gym, like kickboxing and pilates
86. I don't go as often as I'd like
87. For two months I did Bikram Yoga
88. That's yoga in a room that's around 100 degrees!
89. Whitney called it stinky yoga b/c everyone sweats so much
90. The room did have a BO smell
91. Every morning I listen to the Bobby Bones show
92. You may think it's cheesy but it just cracks me up
93. I love listening to the 90s station on XM radio
94. I always hope that New Kids on the Block will come on!
95. NKOTB was my first concert at the age of 9
96. My 2nd one was Tool...this past November
97. I love watching college football, especially the Longhorns!
98. We have season tickets
99. I can't wait for the fall and going to games again
100. I love icing, I have received a can or jar of icing more than once for a birthday present!

My First Blog

So it begins...my friend Whitney posted on her blog that she would read my blog IF I had one. Well, I took that as a challenge and created my very own blog. I must say it seems kind of weird because most people I know with blogs also have kids. I'm not sure what I'll write about but surely I have something interesting going on!

Oh and as for the name of my blog, well I wanted something fun and those that know me know how fitting a title with the word "icing" in it is!

More to come later...I know everyone is anxiously awaiting my first real post! Ok, maybe just Whitney, ha ha!