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!