Thanks to many of you for your concern about my parents' wellbeing during Hurricane Dolly. Thought I'd send a quick update so everyone has the latest.

My parents decided to evacuate to Mission, TX last week on Tuesday and stayed there as Dolly came ashore. They took my dad's boat, both of their cars, and their camper so that they could avoid any major damage to their valuable possessions. They got to Mission early enough to be able to enjoy the first day there, even spending some time by the pool at their hotel! On Wednesday, they stayed close to the TV to stay in touch with the latest with the storm, and when they were able to return to the island on Thursday after the storm, they returned to a sweltering hot island without power (this translates most importantly to air conditioning in July) although luckily they did have running water. Their condo, luckily, did not sustain any damage, although the rest of the island did not fare as well. All of the docks along the bay had been washed away by the storm, many of the power poles had been snapped in half, and many of the condos, restaurants, and homes had lost roofs and flooded. For some photos of the storm damage, click here.

We heard that the county parks were closed to the public and that since the surf was so dangerous, the police were arresting people who tried to go surfing!

My parents also experienced in the upper valley a desperate lack of gasoline, since most of the gas stations either didn't have power, or were sold out of gas. Basically, they were stuck in the valley for a day or two without any options of leaving! Finally, they were able to get gas and headed to Corpus to stay with family over the weekend in a more comfortable and air conditioned environment.

Finally this afternoon around 4:00pm, the power was restored to their condo so they have returned home. The docks at my dad's marina have almost already been completely re-built, so he may be able to start working again next week. They have cable, internet, and of course air conditioning. The county parks at the beaches have also been re-opened and my parents can make surf-checks, so all is well with their world, even though there is still quite a bit of construction and re-building to be done for many of the other residents on the island.

Run, Philip, Run!

Philip has decided to run his first marathon! He is registered to run the San Antonio Marathon on November 16th. This year, the theme is a Rock 'n' Roll marathon, which means that there will be live music every mile. Hopefully that will help him get through the 26 MILE run more easily.

He has already started training, and has a routine that he is settling into. This morning was his long run, which translated to 12.65 miles. The run took over 2 hours and he only walked 4 minutes of it; the rest was running!! He has been using his Polar heart rate monitor watch and it has a component that clips to his shoe to measure his stride and distance. This tool should really help him track his training between now and November.

I am so proud of him for doing this, since I am certainly not running right alongside him. I have no desire to mark this off my list of things to do before I die, so my plan is to make signs and hold them up during the marathon to show my support. I have been trying to think of some good running puns that also correspond to Rock 'n' Roll, so if you have any good suggestions for poster slogans, let me know!

Farewell, Awesome Blossom

Yesterday afternoon, Phil emailed me at work and offered to take me out to dinner that evening (after he got home from happy hour with his co-workers). He stated we could go to Chris Madrid's (abbreviated as CM's in his email), Chili's (with appetizer), or Mon's for Thai food. I told him that the appetizer really won me over and beginning at 3:30pm yesterday, my mouth started watering for an Awesome Blossom and the Molten Cake from Chili's. (I decided instead of having an appetizer and entree, I would just forego the entree and have appetizer and dessert!) So we finally arrived at Chili's last night around 6:30pm and of course there was a 30 minute wait. We decided not to wait and that we would go to Chris Madrid's instead. We drove across town to CM's, and the line there was wrapped all the way across the area where you order and around the entire dining room, so we didn't stay and eat there either. We ended up at Taco Cabana and both of us ate for $9.33, which we decided meant that we could go out to eat Saturday night too!

So all day we have been planning to eat at Chili's. We decide to go early so we won't have to wait to be seated and get there before 5:30pm. We sit down, flip open the menu, and...... no Awesome Blossom. What? This cannot be happening. The waitress walks up, "What can I get you to drink?" and we order our beverages. "Any appetizers?" she asks, to which I respond with a question of my own, "do you have the Awesome Blossom?"... here comes the devastating news. "We don't serve the Awesome Blossom anymore." This was the most disappointing news I've heard all day! What was I going to do without this 2,710 calorie fried appetizer I'd been craving for over 24 hours (203g fat for those of you who keep track of this sort of thing)? There was nothing I could do.... it is gone forever. So we decided to boycott appetizers altogether as a silent protest. And in the end, I forewent the dessert as well, for the principle of it all.

So here's to you, Awesome Blossom; you will be missed. You were indeed awesome, when dipped in ketchup.

Apparently the thing to do this summer is to hang out at Lake Livingston and partake in waterports like being pulled behind a boat on a tube. Question is, who do you think was going faster? I think we have the Bergers beat by a long shot- check out the wake in our pics vs. the (lack of) wake in theirs... but we're not competitive!

Here you can see the battle wounds on my elbows, caused by the intense tube riding earlier in the day. (Looks like Greg's only battle wound was a little sunburn... clearly that's not the same thing.)

The weekend at the lake was lots of fun and then........ the boat broke. On the Fourth of July after a fun morning on the boat, we came upon a big rain storm and all ran for cover inside the house. We waited out the storm and after the rain stopped, some of the guys decided to go out on the boat and do some wakeboarding/kneeboarding. They were gone for about 2 hours so we thought they were having tons of fun. Come to find out, the boat broke down 20 minutes into the fun, and the rest of the time was spent with 2 guys in the boat paddling with a paddle on one side and a water ski on the other side, and Phil on the front of the boat swimming/steering the boat. They pulled/paddled all the way out of the cove they were in and finally after about an hour of that, a jet ski graciously stopped and offered to tow them back to the lake house. Needless to say, we didn't expect to see them paddling back towards the house! After they got back, they continued to show their masculinity by taking apart the propellor to try to fix it, even though none of them knew what they were looking at or looking for. We even brought in the professional (Brad) and tried to draw from his Naval experience, but that wasn't fruitful either. So we had to find other ways to keep ourselves busy, like a long walk the following morning around the neighborhood, and swimming in the lake at the dock.

Another fun way to remain entertained, come to find out, is to take care of a newborn. We had fun figuring out how to keep him from crying while riding in the jogging stroller (we determined that one must simulate bumps even when bumps are not present), watching him sleep, and giving him a bath. Everyone stood around on Friday evening watching Felicity and I give Ethan a bath in the kichen sink; apparently we put on a pretty captivating show. Or maybe that is just Ethan- he likes to keep it interesting by shooting out a fun little stream when you least expect it! Luckily, his mom's reflexes are getting to be really good. ;)

Reason #43 why I do not bake

Note: There are only 20 cupcakes shown, and for those of you who are still allowed to bake, you know that a batch of cupcakes is 24. You would be correct if you deduce that the other 4 cupcakes were in such a sad state that they weren't even allowed to be in this sad, mangled photo. These are the beauties of the bunch, and as you can see, they are far from beautiful.














Okay fine, here are the others (the 24th didn't make it) . I didn't want to subject you to this, but I know you would be thinking the other 4 were probably beautiful and I was being modest. You can clearly see that is NOT the case. Notice how some of them didn't even remain in their paper cupcake holder home? I should have known better than to volunteer to bring a baked good to a party. Obviously these could not make their debut in public for people I'd never met before to see.

This evening, Cooper went on a blind date! I took him over to Katherine's apartment and he and her little Chihuahua, Martini, had a great time playing. At first, Cooper was playing it cool and dis-interested in her, but I think that was mostly related to him smelling the pizza we had ordered for dinner, and wanting to have a piece. But after dinner they really had a fun time chasing each other around the apartment. He was so glad to run on carpet again, since it offers so much more traction than our hard wood floors.
















But it's not all fun and games for Cooper lately. This weekend we noticed that his front right paw was swolen and he continuously licked it all day Saturday. We began to get concerned because it got more and more red as he licked it. Overnight, it went down in size and color since he was not licking it but on Sunday he proceeded with the licking and it got worse again. On Monday evening I took him to PetSmart to get his nails clipped and have a vet take a look. There were not any doctors available so the next morning I called our vet and made an appointment for that afternoon. The vet was not able to diagnose the exact problem but gave us an ointment and a pill to give him which should help it heal in the next week or so. Because of all the licking, I was really hoping that we would not have to put one of those cone collars on him because I've always thought those were so cruel and just looking at them makes me sad. But as it turns out, that was exactly what the doctor ordered. So here is a photo of our little guy, sad as can be, with the cone around his neck. Of course, we had to buy him a toy to help ease the pain, and Phil fed him some potato chips.





















In other Chihuahua news, Cooper's new friend Martini got a new polka dot dress while we were at PetSmart today that is ADORABLE!

This evening I found my new favorite website. Seriously, people are hilarious. http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com

I found this link while browsing another great website: http://shine.yahoo.com.

Enjoy!

Tag- You're it!

Yesterday we were tagged. And because this serves as an easy blog post, and I feel obligated since I was tagged after all, I'm participating.

Rules: Answer the following questions about yourself. At the end of the post you pass on the questions to 6 other people. Write them a comment telling them that they've been tagged and ask them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know that you've accepted the challenge and refer to your post. Here it goes:

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?

Ten years ago, I was 15 years old and it was summer. I couldn't drive yet and couldn't have a job. Most of my days were spent hanging out with Dana; summer band hadn't started yet (go ahead, laugh- get it out of your system). I had started "liking" Philip and we had become friends at school. Since I didn't have a car yet, I had lots of things I wanted to do but really no means to do them. I remember one day that summer I even convinced Phil to drive to Dairy Queen and drive all the way to my house and bring it to me; we didn't start dating until months later in October. I guess I should have known from that moment when the Blizzard was placed into my 15-year old hand what a sweetie he was and that it was TLA (true love always, for those who aren't fluent in the linguistics of a 15-year old).

2. Five items on today's "to do" list:

Dead-head the roses (done)
Water the flowers (done)
Take Cooper to get his nails clipped (done)
Call the vet about the bump on Cooper's paw (tomorrow morning, first thing)
Return dress to Banana Republic to get $109 refund (this week, for sure)

3. What snacks do you enjoy?

Food is the way to my heart. Yes, usually that is the old antic known for how to make a man fall in love with you, but it's also the way to make me love you. Phil knows to cheer me up is to get delicious food in my belly. So, the list will be long but I will do my best. Also, I am changing it to FOOD I enjoy rather than just snacks. I don't want to discriminate against non-snack foods as they bring me plenty of joy.

Home-made baked goods such as cupcakes, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, black cherry cobbler with chocolate chip ice cream on top; Multi-grain tortilla chips & guacamole; Geneva cookies; Chris Madrids' cheeseburger & fries; Which Wich's muffaletta; salt & vinegar chips; S'mores; S'mores flavored Chewy bars; Neopolitan ice cream (current flavor of choice but this changes periodically); Cherry Cordial ice cream (absolute favorite flavor but only available at Kroger which we don't have in SA); Hershey's Cookies N Cream candy bars; Corn Pops & Lucky Charms; artichokes......... the list could go on and on but I'll move on for your sake.

4. What would you do if you were a billionaire?

I would move to a beautiful house on the beach somewhere tropical but also have a jet that could take me to other more populated places (like a good mall) whenever my little heart desires. I would enjoy all my days with Phil & Cooper, and I would pay for my family and close friends to visit a few times a year at least, for those who don't move there with us. I would donate some of my millions to causes I support, and finally I would be the best gift giver, the one I've always wanted to be but haven't been!

Oh, and most importantly I would fly the taco stand lady from Belize to my new home on the beach and build her and her family a house on my property so she could make me those delicious tacos anytime I wanted. Served with Coke from a bottle, of course.

5. Where would you live?

Oops apparently I was supposed to save the tropical thing for this question. But it is part of my happy billionare life. And, I would travel often to other beautiful places in the world and do all the fun things on vacation since I can afford them!

According to the rules, I'm supposed to make six other people be "it" now. Here goes. Jennelle & Greg have already been tagged but they are one of our most bloggers of friends so they're getting tagged again. I am also tagging Jane, Felicity & Karthik, Brad & Stacy, and Amity & Randy. I know the last two haven't updated their blogs in over a year but what better time to start? Also, I know Brad has a great blog entry to post showing the photos of our house getting TP'ed. So now he has two.

Happy Birthday, Jack!

Schlitter-boy we had a great Saturday!

On Saturday we spent the day at Schlitterbahn with Katherine and Jack. We got our tickets at HEB on the way to New Braunfels and got to the park just as they opened at 10am. We rode all the best rides, including the new Dragon's Revenge ride (although it was not as cool as the commercials made it seem). We ended our visit with a drink at the swim-up hot tub bar, and then Jack had his funnel cake, and headed home around 4pm. We were completely beat. I think the one thing we will all remember from this day was the guy with the Speedo on in the Master Blaster line. He kind of looked like Jack Black but we don't think he was wearing the Speedo as a joke like you would expect from JB. Completely ridiculous, gross, and inappropriate. Poor children, and poor guy standing behind him in line for 2 hours.

After the water park, we decided so celebrate a successful day of bathing suit wearing by stuffing our faces with all things fried at Willie's for dinner. Phil and I had chicken strips and french fries (we got the kids size and neither of us could finish it... makes you really wonder) and a side of fried jalapenos and fried pickles. That's right, no bathing suits for us today, at least not in public. Phil also tried Pacifico beer for the first time and really liked it. He said it reminded him of Belikin, the beer we had in Belize. He still has that one Belikin in the fridge and he decided now is the time to open it since it's been over a year and he may not even remember correctly what a true Belekin tastes like. I think he's hoping as soon as he opens it we will be transported back to Belize and the delicious taco stands that come with it. Or maybe that's my hope. Let's crack it open!

Tony Barker?

It's that time again in San Antonio, when everyone wears Spurs attire on game days since we're in the Western conference finals. Cooper has been begging for weeks so we finally broke down and he used his allowance to buy a jersey for him. Here he is modeling and showing his Spurs pride:














Doesn't he look handsome in his officially licensed NBA jersey?














And here he is at half-time after sinking a huge 3-pointer right at the buzzer. You'd be tired too.

We spent the long holiday weekend visiting my parents and vacationing on South Padre Island. We left Thursday morning and headed to Edinburg so that I could go to a client meeting for work (this allowed me to count Thursday as a day at work and still make our drive to the valley for the weekend- pretty good deal, isn't it?). I did learn that it was not the best idea to wear a black top if I was planning on having our blonde puppy lay in my lap for the 4-hour drive, nor was it worth my while to painstakingly iron my skirt which would only become a wrinkled mess by the time I arrived at the meeting. Luckily Debbie had a lint roller in her car so that helped with the little white Chihuahua hairs. After the meeting, we made the last 1.5 hour-drive and arrived at SPI; my parents had a spaghetti dinner waiting for us which was very nice.

On Friday, Phil and my dad played golf early while my mom and I did what girls do best - shopped. The four of us took one vehicle to Brownsville to save gas money, so Mom and I dropped the guys off at River Bend and headed to the shops. Brownsville has really built up since we lived there- they have a brand new shopping area which spans both sides of the freeway, with shops like Kohl's, Petsmart, Mervyn's, Sam's, Academy, TJ Maxx, and a second, and much nicer, Target. They even got their first Taco Cabana! The stores were even clean (which for Brownsville is unusual!), but that might have been due to the fact that we were shopping before the busy weekend while kids were still in school. Either way, we had a nice time, and were not ready to pick up the guys when they called at noon for us to pick them up. Alas, we cut our shopping trip short and picked them up (although not soon enough if the guys were to tell the story- you should have heard Phil's response when I told him we had just stopped at a garage sale on the way- it wasn't joy in his voice that I heard!). We spent the rest of the day basking in the sun poolside, and had some delicious Reuben sandwiches for dinner.

Saturday was another day of relaxation by the pool and on the beach. We met Dad at the dock at noon after his fishing charter and Mom cleaned his boat so that we could all go out to lunch afterward! This has been the deal ever since I was a young "Boat Girl"-- although back then I used to get $5 in addition to free lunch for washing his boat. These days, getting fish guts on my hands just isn't worth the $5 to me. But hey, I can't knock the job where I earned enough money to buy my first pair of rollerblades, and many many many rides on the Bungee Trampoline.

Saturday evening we attended the wedding of our high school friend, Molly, to her fiancee Jerry. They actually live in San Antonio since Molly just finished up law school at STMU so we hope to be able to have them over for dinner soon. Although come to think of it, we know they got lots of cool wedding presents (like that food processor we got them) and probably want to try them out, so maybe they should cook for us! Haha, okay maybe I am just trying to get out of one of my least favorite tasks, cooking. I guess we could just barbeque for them, since then Phil would be the one to cook.

Their wedding was really wonderful. The setting was very whimsical- outdoors on the resaca of The Inn of Chachalaca Bend. They had lanterns strung from the trees, and the ceremony was on the dock at the water's edge. They had really cute touches like polaroid cameras for the guest book and really personalized programs with history and personal notes about the guests, family, wedding party, and bride and groom. The groom's cake was even 3D and shaped like an airplane since Jerry will be a pilot "when he grows up". Debbie who made the cakes is the same person who made my Barbie cake as a child, so I knew she would do a great job (this was before they sold them at HEB! At the time it was a huge deal and I was so so so excited about it).

My parents and Phil and I got dressed up in "elegant garden party" attire and we really enjoyed ourselves. We got to see some of our high school friends that we haven't seen in almost 10 years (yes, our 10 year reunions are quickly approaching!) so that was really fun. Freddy was there as well and he is fun to see as always; he was running late getting to the valley as he had driven from Austin that afternoon, stopping in Laguna Vista to change into his suit for the wedding. The ceremony was scheduled to begin at 6:00 and luckily for Freddy the ceremony did not actually start until almost 6:45. He showed up just as the ceremony was starting... actually, he walked down the aisle to be seated after all the wedding party had walked to their spots at the altar to the tune of the stringed quartet, and just before Molly was to make her entrance on her father's arm. Actually, everyone was already standing to see the bride for the first time, and here came Freddy running down the aisle, trying to be inconspicuous but of course not able to since everyone was looking that direction! Anyway, Molly was very excited to see him so she didn't mind one bit (lucky for him)!

My parents left the wedding around 10:00 but Phil and I stayed until almost midnight, since Freddy had offered to drive us back to the island afterward. While driving down Padre Blvd. on the island, Freddy and Philip decided on a whim to stop at Recoil which is the bungee tower where he worked all through college. While Phil caught up with his old co-workers, Freddy and I decided to ride the Reverse Bungee. It was so much fun, even though I had ridden before. I didn't remember it doing so many turns and lasting so long, so that was a great surprise. And actually, we watched the next few people ride, and theirs didn't seem to flip as much as ours. But I think our screaming as we were propelled up into the sky was good for business, because the line got pretty long shortly thereafter. Then, Phil decided to bungee jump! He has jumped hundreds of times before, but it has been almost 5 years since he worked there when he used to jump so frequently. I think they tested him by having him hook up his own harness just to see if he remembered how. Hopefully they double checked his work!

I tried to get some photos but I clearly have some work to do in learning how to take good night-time photos, especially at a distance where the flash doesn't work. If anyone has tips (other than buying a new camera), please share.

On Sunday, we spent the day again taking long walks on the beach (one with and one without Cooper- he would start sprinting as soon as he hit the sand and tire out so quickly that we would have to pick him up about half way through and carry him, so during our second walk that afternoon, we left him at the condo with my parents where he could rest). We got plenty of sun, but neither of us came back sunburnt! I think we are learning how to do this whole tanning thing. We decided to head back to SA after dinner yesterday evening so that Phil could work on a big presentation he has to make on tomorrow at work. He was thinking about it all weekend so we wanted to be sure he had time to tweak and prepare it before Tuesday. We left the island around 8:00pm and had no idea that the traffic would be as bad as it was! We sat in traffic all the way down Padre Blvd. and then all the way across the causeway! Luckily, we had a delicious treat to help soothe our frustrations. Cooper even had a few bites, but it turned out when the ice cream got drippy and I accidentally dropped a pretty large spoonfull down his back, he wasn't too thrilled. He didn't even let me try to lick it off. And since it was Blue Bell, I might have tried. This brand of ice cream alone may keep me in Texas for all my life. YUM!

It's a Boy!

We love this photo. So cute! But shouldn't Felicity be the one yawning, not the little squirt who sleeps all day and night (well except for waking up to eat every 2-4 hours)? But you just can't fault someone that cute for anything! (Side note: the cool mohawk we created is still visible in this picture. I really think this is the start of him being really cool.)

We had such a fun time getting to spend time with little Ethan last weekend. And to think that his due date is still over a week and a half away!

I don't want to steal the thunder from the new parents by telling the funny stories of Ethan's first weekend out of the womb, but let's just say watching Karthik change Ethan's diaper while Ethan started peeing straight up in the air was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time.

We look forward to seeing all of you again next weekend. Do you have swim trunks for him yet? Or do you think that teaching him to swim before his due date even comes around is a bit too soon?

We are so happy for y'all and look forward to getting to watch another adorable nephew develop into a handsome young man. I'm glad I married into this family with such great "cute kids" genes.

One day Uncle Philip and I will have the custest kids of all. But not just yet- don't get too excited. For now we're happy to play with our four adorable nephews and nieces.

Plus, Cooper got kind of jealous when we held Ethan and did not pay attention to him, so I don't think he's ready for us to have kids yet. So we're going to wait a few years... for Cooper's sake.

Dune Dog

Just like us, Cooper LOVES the beach. When we were in South Padre earlier this month, my parents drove us up the beach one morning and were able to let Cooper off his leash to fully enjoy his sandy surroundings. You can see he took full advantage and ran like a cheetah back and forth along the shore!

Big Day - Celebration Required!

Today, April 22nd, is National Jelly Bean Day. And Earth Day. And the birthday of our new nephew, Ethan!!

What do you think his favorite jelly bean flavor will be?

Sorority Reunion

Last weekend, a bunch of the girls in my sorority pledge class met up in Austin for a mini-reunion. Not all of the girls could make it, of course, since we have some international members now! But it was a nice showing and good to see everyone and catch up.

On that Friday, I had to travel to Dallas for work to go to one of our customers' offices for a software training session. This was my first time to travel alone for work where I had to be the only representative for our company, although luckily I had met the key people at this company before, so it was not as intimidating as it could have been! Not only that, but since I just turned 25, this was my first time renting a car on my own! So I flew into Dallas and checked in for my rental car and was told I'd be getting a small Dodge compact car like I had reserved. But when the shuttle dropped me off at my assigned space, there was a mini van parked there! I double checked and it turned out they had run out of compact cars so they gave me the mini van. So on this day I learned once and for all that there is no way to look cool in a mini van. Luckily, the parking lot at this customer is pretty big so nobody assocaited me with the mini van.

After the training session, I had to fly into Austin instead of San Antonio since that was the weekend of the Final Four and all flights into San Antonio were full. So I got in around 6:30 and we all met up at the hotel and then went to Trudy's for dinner. Since we had a party of 9 plus a baby, we knew we would have a wait. We all headed to the bar, as you would expect from a group of young ex-sorority girls, right?! I ended up ordering a Mexican Martini. They not only give you the martini glass full but also give you the shaker so it's a pretty good deal. After they finally seated us 2 hours later, I ordered another of these drinks with dinner. I learned this night that when the menu says limit 2 Mexican Martinis, Lauren should not order and consume 2, especially if she plans to continue drinking downtown at bars later that night.

After dinner, we regrouped at the hotel and decided to go to 4th street. We were looking for a bar where we would not have to pay cover, so we decided on the new bar Qua. It is cool because the dance floor is an aquarium underneath so when you are dancing, you look down to see sharks and sting rays swimming beneath. Pretty cool concept. Might inspire one, were they inebriated, to pose for photos like they themselves were a shark...

We stayed at this bar until it closed at 2am, then headed back to the hotel. I proceeded to fall right asleep, but apparently only after blaming everyone else for getting me drunk.

The next morning I was in no shape to do anything productive, so I accompanied the girls to lunch but then headed back to the hotel for an all-afternoon nap. It was no fun and makes me realize why I drink so infrequently!

By dinner time I was feeling better and we went to Carlos N Charlies on Lake Travis. The view of the lake was pretty, especially with the sun setting in the horizon. Since I was in no shape to party again Saturday night, Phil came to pick me up that night from the hotel after dinner. We got back to SA by around 11pm so we were able to spend Sunday together and actually laid by the pool at Robin & Jack's all afternoon, and enjoyed a delicious pot roast for lunch. Yum- what a great weekend!

Happy Birthday to Me!

As I am sure you all know, Friday was my birthday! Actually, I got an early start celebrating this week. On Thursday, my salesperson Debbie came to town to celebrate with me. A big group of us all went to lunch at Chris Madrid's, which was delicious as always! Then the new Team Debbie (consisting of Katherine, Debbie, and me) spent most of the afternoon getting Deluxe pedicures (this involves getting your foot dipped in hot wax which was a new thing for me, but felt pretty good) and then going shoe shopping! Of course I had to get open-toed shoes so I could show off my newly painted toes! It was such a wonderful day, although it did involve staying a few hours late to make up for the hours I was out of the office in the middle of the afternoon...

The next morning on my actual birthday, I got to work and Amanda had cinnamon rolls cooking in the toaster oven for me. (Okay yes, everyone in my life knows the way to my heart is through my stomach... and new shoes.) So that was a delicious way to start my birthday! Then a little while later, I got a flower delivery and to my surprise it was from my parents! I got a beautiful bouquet of multi-colored roses and they smelled wonderful!

And my desk had been decorated by my wonderful co-workers in all pink!

As if that wasn't enough celebration, I got another floral delivery that morning from Debbie and Katherine! These were flowers that can later be planted in the yard too. Very pretty and of course pink!

Since my birthday fell at Easter-time this year, we had my favorite work event of the year on my birthday - the Easter Egg hunt!!! I was the reigning champ since I found the most eggs last year and I founded the Easter Egg hunt in our office my first year there, so it's a tradition that I get very excited about (this is why Debbie came to town on Thursday instead of my actual birthday, so as not to interfere.) So we also got festive this year and all wore bunny ears all day (there was also a handicap during the egg hunt that if you didn't wear your ears you had to subtract 5 eggs from the total number you found).

My original lunch buddy, Melissa, and I wear our ears proudly!

Katherine and I have lots of fun together in our shared office. Here we are with our ears on. Yes, I did hop around the office part of the day, when I remembered to.

So we all had boxed lunches brought in to fortify ourselves for the big event. Trisha hid all the eggs this year and about 10 minutes prior to starting, I started standing by the door so I could be first out the door. Competitive advantage, yes. Amanda was right behind me and then followed the rest of the girls. We got a running start and hunted for eggs outside by cars, sign crates, filing cabinets, boxes of files, and in the end as a group we found 161 out of the 162 eggs. Good thing they didn't put chocolate candy in them!! I had to turn over my champion status to Amanda who found 25 eggs, and I tied for second with 22. There was a cheater in the bunch (isn't there always?) who brought eggs from home and added them to his bag of eggs so that during the count it seemed like he had more than he really did. Too bad he brought cascarones which we knew were not included in the ones Trisha hid, so he was caught in the act and his plan back-fired when we cracked his cascarones on his own head.

Needless to say it was a wonderful way to spend my birthday at the office. Thanks to all who made it special, and also to those who left voice messages, text messages, and emails as well. I will try to find time this week to get back to everyone, but since it was Easter weekend there hasn't been a dull moment since Friday!

We Support Obama

Although we don't yet have a sign in our yard, we proudly proclaim our support for Barack Obama. We both admired that amazing speech he gave at the 2004 DNC and voiced our wish that someone that innovative would run for President. Four years later, our wish is coming true! Obama embodies the change we feel our country needs and we hope that he becomes the next President of the United States!
Earlier this year we attended a rally in support of Obama with some friends. It was exciting to hear his speech in person (although it was similar to the ones we hear highlights of on MSNBC every night) and despite the cold weather that evening, we stayed for the whole thing. We both voted in the Texas primary for him, of course. Then came that incredible speech last week about his views on race which solidified our support. Can't wait to watch his continued success, hopefully all the way to the White House!

Dog-Sitting

For 5 weeks, we are dog-sitting for Felicity & Karthik as they travel to India. We are one week in and we've learned a few things about these big (compared to Cooper) doggies. Sam is a standard Schnauzer and Henna is a beagle.

1) These puppies are not very independent. They like to always be at our heels, following us around the house, every step we take. Cooper is not this way at all, so we are not used to having to watch out for running into or stepping on doggies. So when we accidentally step on Henna or Sam because they follow us around, do we feel bad about it? We'll get back to you on that one...

2) These puppies are smelly. Granted, we haven't given them a bath yet in the week they've been here but they do have one scheduled for tomorrow. We only usually have to bathe Cooper every month, if that, because he has so little fur, and so little body mass, that he never really smells like a dog. But these doggies retain that smell. We like to spray them with Febreeze to help the situation. They don't so much like being sprayed with Febreeze.

3) Henna has a very sensitive stomach. She cannot be fed "people food" so this means Sam and especially Cooper have to suffer and eat dog food 100% of the time. When Felicity and Karthik brought the dogs, we fed Henna some sugar cookie and the next morning she got sick. So we were forewarned. But the other night while Phil was eating soup, he figured giving the puppies a few stewed carrots couldn't hurt anything (Cooper loves them and eats them all the time). Well we found out the next evening that hadn't been such a good idea when she got sick. So now we know we can't test the theory on her anymore.

4) Henna and Sam love pecans. They like to go outside, and especially Sam can stay out there for hours on end cracking the pecans in our yard and eating them. Cooper likes them too, but prefers when we crack/shell them for him.

5) The first night they were with us after F&K had left, we tried to let them sleep on their doggy bed on the floor in our bedroom. We figured they'd want a little freedom and prefer not to sleep in their crate, but knew we would not allow them to sleep in our bed. By midnight, when they had not laid down yet, after pacing back and forth in the house, with toenails clicking on our wood floors with every step they took, we got frustrated and led them into their crate. Immediately they went inside and laid down, and went right to sleep. I still think it's weird that they'd rather stay inside there than have freedom.

6) Henna loves the heating pad. We try to remind her that her mommy did not bring the heating pad for her and it belongs to Cooper, but she doesn't seem to care. Actually, she is kind of a bully and pushes Cooper off of it at every opportunity. And Cooper lets her.

7) BIG POOP! In our backyard. Cooper never poops back there. These dogs do, and very often. By the amount we picked up today, you'd think they'd been here the full 5 weeks. But nope, just one.

I am sure there will be more discoveries as the weeks progress, so I'll stop here for now. Either way, we love having them here as they truly are great company and wonderful at showing their love!! They make great cuddling partners in the cold weather!!

Here are a few photos of the puppies for the enjoyment of F&K who miss them like crazy. They are doing really well and have not damaged any of our electronics yet!

Happy New Year!

We wish each of you a wonderful 2008 filled with happiness, success, love, and everything else you wish for. Good luck sticking to your resolutions for the new year!