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! :)