Amber's Alcove

Surgery and Babies

2010-04-28T16:33:00.001-05:00

It has been a while since I have posted an entry and a lot has happened. I have had my brain surgery and am now 16 weeks pregnant.

Let's talk about the brain surgery. Near the end of August, I finally got in to see the Neurosurgeon. He reviewed my charts and records from the other doctors and the MRI films of the tumor. His initial reaction was that he was not “convinced” that there was an issue. He said the MRI just showed a normal blood vessel. He instructed me to return in 3 months and get a new MRI on a more powerful 3 Tesla MRI machine. So during that 3 months, I started a new diet plan and basically just waited. I lost 25 pounds.

I have to say that the second MRI was much louder but more pleasant to be in because I had little mirrors that allowed me to see out of the machine. Also, the injection I was given was done via an auto-injector so they didn’t jostle my arm too much after starting the IV. They were all very nice and the funny part was being wanded down for metal before getting near the machine – it is that powerful.

I went to the follow-up appointment without Erik because we believed what the neurosurgeon had said and believed there was no problem. We learned that was a mistake. The neurosurgeon came into my appointment and started asking me a few questions. Then he said, “Well I owe your doctor an apology and I am now convinced there is a problem”. Turns out the “blood vessel” was hemorrhaging (bleeding) and the tumor had grown by about 50% of its original size. Luckily, the bleeding was being contained in my pituitary gland and had not spread into my brain.

Our initial goal before all of this was to try to have a baby. All of the doctors knew that this was also the ultimate goal after I was well. It turns out that the pituitary is very important during pregnancy and goes into hyperdrive hormone production. The prognosis was one of two things:

1) All of the MALE doctors said I could leave the tumor alone, get pregnant, and as long as I did not die or go blind during the first trimester, they could operate while I was pregnant or after the baby was born. My (and my OB’s) response are they f*ing nuts???
2) Get the tumor out and have a baby after it is healed.

We went with option 2.

The surgery went well. Recovery wasn’t too bad but it took my nose forever to heal!
This is where I get on a small soapbox. I DO NOT credit my successful surgery and recovery to some non-existent, higher, supernatural being. I was not saved by a god (of any religion). I was not carried through by any type of prayer or belief in the supernatural. In short, religion and deities had nothing to do with any part of this story. I was saved by modern science and highly skilled, trained professionals. All of the doctors did their jobs and saved my brain from a potentially life-threatening or catastrophic event. No higher power was there to pull me through and save me for some unknown purpose. Period, end of story.

I am happy to say that after the surgery and recovery, my massive headaches have vanished. The really horrible, months long sinus infections that I got have become pleasant. Not kidding – if these are what sinus infections should be, then I am overjoyed since I do not even feel sick. The 20 or so bathroom trips at night have become one. Well until I got pregnant it was one a night. I feel much better and am so happy this was corrected.

So, on to the baby. Not much to say. Almost 16 weeks. So far we have a healthy sized baby with a strong 160 beat per minute heartbeat. The little thing likes to kick the heart Doppler. In 3 weeks we should find out what the sex is if the baby is choosing to cooperate with the technician. Erik and I are both super excited to be parents and we are really starting to prepare. We have a huge list of stuff to do, but I am confident we will be as ready as you can be.

The baby is due October 15.

So for now we are all healthy, happy and content.

Brain Schmain

2009-08-02T21:04:00.004-05:00

So it has been a long time since I blogged but really nothing has happened lately.

That is until recently.

I found out yesterday that I have a benign brain tumor. It is sitting on my pituitary gland and left untreated would eventually cause me to have some vision problems as it grows. The next step will be surgery, I just have to go talk to a neurosurgeon sometime in the next week or so. I got lucky in several ways...

First, my doctor used to be an endocrinologist. Therefore, when he took an x-ray of my sinuses, he saw the little comma shaped thing in my brain and found it odd.

Second, because it is being caught early, I have only suffered some minor dizziness and no vision loss. This means it will also be easier to operate on and get it out.

Finally, at the moment it is not life threatening, so I wasn't rushed to the hospital for surgery. I have time to get things ready before they take it out.

The doctor said this kind of tumor is very rare and he has never seen one in his career and probably will never see another one. Figures :)

I am working to stay positive. Erik is upset at the thought of them operating on my brain but I have read that it is pretty easy as far as brain surgery goes. The doctor told us that if he were to have a brain tumor, he would want the kind that I have :)

I have pictures too! The common term for this type of tumor is a pituitary microadenoma.

Will "try" to keep the blog updated with progress towards surgery and recovery...For now it is a waiting game to get in to see the doctor.

Lots of Happenings

2009-06-04T20:50:00.003-05:00

Well, we made it back from Ireland and have been super busy since that time. One day I might get around to finishing the blog about the trip but don't hold your breath :)

I had an phone interview the day after we got back. The next day I had an in person interview and by the end of the week I had a job. I went out to Arizona the next week to visit everyone since I would not be able to do it in the summer due to the new job.

That Friday we got an offer on the house. Everything is going well with it and we are just waiting on the closing date, which is between now and 6/30. We don't know when the date is yet but it is a big burden off our shoulders.

I also got into the teaching program and two more job offers last week (after I had started the new job). The place I am working is called Selerix - we do online benefits enrollment software. I am really liking the job and for the first time in my career - I don't have a badge and can wear jeans to work every day. That alone is worth it :)

I am still getting used to having to go to bed early and get up early again but it isn't too bad. The location is also great because it is just 15 minutes up the road - in the opposite direction of all the traffic.

One of my co-workers showed me this website so I thought I would share. Debs - you should really appreciate it :)

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Amber

Still in Dublin

2009-04-28T22:23:00.003-05:00

It is about 4:30 am Wednesday morning and I can't go back to sleep. It is raining too.

Yesterday we had a pretty long day. We got up around 7 am, ate breakfast and rode the train into the city. First stop was Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. The exhibit before the book is actually more exciting because you only get to see 2 pages from the book itself. We also got to see a page from the Book of Armagh and a fragment piece of another work. Upstairs we saw a poster declaring Irish independence and the oldest harp surviving in Ireland. It is quite beautiful with intricate designs in the wood.

Next we had lunch - soup and sandwiches. I had a ham and cheese with some sort of barbecue sauce on it. It was very good but the cheese was shredded cheese so kind of messy to eat.

Then we went to the Museum of Archeology. Lots of cool things there but it is kind of morbid with human cremated remains and skulls. The twisted gold items were incredible. They had taken super flat gold and made these perfect twists in it to make a spiral. Quite delicate and beautiful. The only problem with the museum is that they have a LOT of the same thing over and over again. They did have some original Viking tablets for weaving. They were all very small and I am sure hard to work with when weaving.

We then walked over to Christ Church Cathedral and Dublinia. Dubinia is a touristy place that has a lot of information about the Vikings in Dublin. It also has these wax figures of people that start talking when a person is near. They are kind of creepy and I always expect them to start moving like normal people. It had a lot of cool information and a scale model of Dublin at the end of the 12th century. The cathedral was nice but again - they had the heart of St. Lawrence in a metal casing - so it was a little morbid.

By now our feet were killing us but we were not done yet. We walked up to the Museum of Decorative Arts. This museum had a whole lot of stuff in it, including the uniform and accoutrements of Michael Collins. We did a fast walk through of all the displays. They have a very large coin display and one of silver items. They also have a large room of stuff that the Museum has collected. It was all very beautiful.

Our final stop of the day was the Jameson Irish Whiskey Distillery. We took a very informative tour and then Erik was one of the people picked to do the whiskey tasting. They gave him Jameson, Scotch and Jack Daniels. Most of the tasters liked the Jameson best but a few liked the Scotch and one liked the Jack Daniels. The Scotch has a very smoky smell. I actually drank my Jameson with cranberry juice. It was good and did not taste of alcohol, however, it had a weird bit that you knew something was in there. It made my stomach warm. Erik then had his glass of Jameson and I think his feet hurt less :)

We got back on the train and headed for the hotel. First though, we had to find dental floss as I can't seem to find the one I packed. Funny thing - it took us 3 grocery stores before we found it. It was 4 euros which is pretty expensive. Apparently, the Irish don't use floss as much as those of us from 'the states' because when we asked in the second store - we were immediately asked if we were from 'the states'. It was very frustrating to find but we did so Erik is happy :)

We came back to the hotel, ate dinner and basically wound down and went to bed. Today we will be picking up the rental car and heading out of the city. I am going to try to get at least one more hour of sleep...

We are Here!

2009-04-27T17:18:00.002-05:00

We are here in Ireland. It was a very long day and we are exhausted. We did go to the Guinness factory and Erik had his free pint. Then we came back to the hotel and crashed. We have been up now for a few hours - had Indian food because that is the only restaurant open after 10 pm.

We are just catching up on email and getting ready to go back to bed. Talk to y'all later!

Who need toenails?

2009-04-09T14:38:00.003-05:00

I have one more day of therapy and then I am done!! I am so excited. I am walking mostly normally and I still have a little swelling but it is great that I am done with therapy.

About a week ago one of my toenails just fell off. Apparently it was loose for a while and it finally gave up. There is a bit of toenail that was growing under the old one and it was a little soft, but now it has hardened. I was holding my breath hoping that it will look mostly normal by the wedding.

Well, last night I stubbed my right pinky toe on a shoe in the closet. It hurt a little but I thought nothing of it because I am forever hitting my toes. Then I saw it - I ripped it off almost completely - Erik had to finish it. It was extremely painful 0 and still is. I don't think there is any way in the world that it will grow back in time, so now I have to see if I can find fake toenails at the store. I would be doing this just before the wedding and my shoes are open-toed. ARG!

Plans are being finalized and I am getting close to being able to relax - about the wedding at least. Other things have been really stressful. If we don't sell the other house soon, we may lose both of them and have to sleep in a tent by the creek. I am just hoping we can relax in Ireland, at least for the few weeks we are gone.

Back to Driving

2009-03-13T17:07:00.003-05:00

I'm back to driving again and I can walk almost completely without a limp. I still get tired really fast and my leg likes to turn purple but I am doing much better. I still await the day with no pain or uncomfortable aches but I am hopeful that it will be soon :)

I am also still awaiting the day I can walk up the stairs like normal but I can walk up them one step at a time. They are just a little higher than my knee can stand yet - I am only up to the 3" stairs.

It is really cold and wet here. I feel sad for all of the plants because they were lulled into a false sense of spring and then we get freezing weather and rain. Of course we usually get the last big freeze Easter weekend so we still have about a month of possibly cold weather. I just hope it can hold off from being too hot for the wedding.

Still looking for a job. Hopes are not too high right now.

Getting Better

2009-03-01T21:22:00.002-06:00

I am up and walking again. Not well, but I am walking. Right now, every time I stand up (or just put my leg down) gravity pulls fluid down into my calf and foot and they start aching. I can work it out a little but the minute I stop any motion, they start aching again. I have successfully walked a whole day without crutches and I am very proud of myself.

The funny thing is now that I am walking again - the bone spur is flaring up. I think the weird way that I am walking is putting undue pressure on it. I go back for the orthotics in a week or so, that should help the pain. I am desperately hoping that I won't have to get another shot of cortisone in that foot. Those are worse than the initial pain itself.

I am also banned from walking barefoot. Apparently my legs are formed funny and they rub on my knees when I don't wear foot and arch support. I now have to wear shoes to keep my arches supported. We got me some slip on athletic shoes that I can just slip on and slip off when I want to walk around or rest.

The biggest thing about my knee surgery is being banned from stairs. We scooted me up the stairs on my butt today but it took a long time and was very tiring. I won't be doing that again. I will just wait until I can walk up the stairs the normal way.

The weather here is crazy!!! One day we get 80 degrees and then the next day we get 40 degrees. It is no wonder that people are getting sniffly. I just hope that it is in a good mid range during the wedding - at least for the ceremony part while we are all outside.

Wedding planning is still ongoing. I have things that I would like to do, but they involve the printer and the stairs, so they will have to wait :)

No Real News

2009-02-18T19:47:00.002-06:00

Not much has been going on. I am still looking for a job but nothing has come along yet. At this point I will do just about any job that will give us money.

The fall I took on New Year's Eve turned out to be a little more serious than we thought. I am having knee surgery on my right knee on Friday. I have torn the medial meniscus and shots are not relieving the pain. I am on crutches until then and it really sucks lugging my big butt around on them :) I also found out the heel pain I was having is due to a bone spur - on my right foot! They have given me two shots of cortisone now and I am not sure what is worse, the pain from the spur or the pain from the shot. Either way, I was already on the crutches this week so at least I did not have to walk on the foot after the shot.

Wedding plans are in full swing. I got my bridal pictures done this week. As soon as they send me the shots, I will post a link. The photographer who is doing our wedding is married to a photographer as well and she is the one who did my pictures. She is very nice (as is Jim - our photographer) and it was lots of fun! The hair and makeup thing were a bit much since I don't usually do that stuff but I have to get used to it for the wedding.

Our friends, Scott and Nicole, welcomed their baby boy at 12:01 am. He is absolutely adorable and I can't wait to see him. Erik is going to take me tomorrow evening to see him :)

Other than that - we are still trying to sell the house. Hopefully the market picks up soon :)

Not Working Right Now - Really Just a Rant

2009-02-03T11:41:00.003-06:00

So, last Thursday I went to work and was doing my job when my boss started transitioning work away from me. I asked if my contract had not been extended and they said no. When I asked how long they had known, I was told a week. When I asked when they were going to tell me, he said that my contracting company, Commercial Programming Systems (CPS) was supposed to tell me. However they had no clue about it. Long story short, I no longer have a job.

Also, CPS was the worst contracting company I have ever had the dis-pleasure to work for in my career. They don't really care about you once they get you in the door and they did not even seem to care what happened to me in the end. Seriously, you can do better.

The Countrywide transition to Bank of America is in total chaos and I would not be surprised if it was delayed or implemented in a shoddy way. They just aren't ready and they keep trying to push it. They don't have enough resources to complete the job well, yet they treat the resources they do have poorly. In the three months that I was there, two people just walked out the door - even leaving personal effects. That says something about a company right there. Also, several of the good managers have moved on to greener pastures.

Countdown to the Big Day

2009-01-23T22:26:00.002-06:00

So it has literally been about 3 months since I have posted - YIKES! I can't say a lot hasn't happened because it really has, however, I will keep the updates short.

The business: We are still running the business. It was fairly slow for Christmas until we decided to buy a new house and move. The minute we started packing, we got 10-20 orders a day. Erik and I were going to work during the day and then packing baskets every night until 1 and 2 am. We were both really exhausted. The scary thing for us was that this year we had about 100 less baskets ordered than last year's owner had/ So if the economy picks up by next Christmas, we will need help!

On a side note about the business - First Monday was a bad idea for us. Either the economy just wasn't right or our idea sells better on the Internet. Either way, it was a big waste of time. Everyone loved our baskets and the idea, no one bought.

NEW HOUSE!!! I was eating lunch with a co-worker and he was telling me about all the great deals that the new home builders had out in the market. So I did some research and found a new home community just 2 miles from where we lived. I came to the community and they had just finished my dream home. Literally it was a week after it had been finished and the house was made for me. All the fixtures are brushed nickel instead of gold and we have LOTS of space. It is just short of 2800 square feet. We have 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. Not only that, we ended up getting $20,000 off the selling price plus all of our closing costs paid. We just could not pass up this deal.

We moved in starting December 23. On December 26, everything we had was moved into the garage and some stuff in the house. The next day Erik and I spent moving everything from the garage to the place in the house it needed to be. We spent several days unpacking. Of course we still have a list of stuff to do but we are basically moved in and living in our new house. I love it and like I said, this house was made for me. I can't wait for you all to see it - hopefully by April we will have everything done :)

As of this posting , our old house is still on the market but we remain hopeful that it will sell.

Crazy Weather: We have had the craziest weather this winter. One day it will be near 80 and the next a cold front blows through and the high is in the 30's or 40's (which happens to be the low from the day before). I have had a sinus infection since Christmas and it won't go away because every time the temperature changes so drastically it flares up again. The 70 degree days are nice though.)

Stepfather: My stepfather passed away earlier this month. I was not especially close to him (mom married him well after I had left home) however it has hit my mom pretty hard. I am hoping that she will sell her house way out in the country and move closer to the city. She can make a better living if she can work in the city. Anyway, Erik and I watched Max while everyone else was at the funeral.

Max: He is getting really big. His vocabulary is also big but the words are much less understandable now that he knows so many. He still LOVES Erik and we enjoy spending time with him. Time flies so fast, just yesterday it seems he couldn't even walk.

That's pretty much it. Sunday will be 90 days from our wedding and we have started full preparations. We are getting excited but I don't know how so much time has passed and I still have so much to do!!! I am going to be super busy until I can get caught back up.

That's all for now. I will do my best to stay more up to date :)

Updates and Happenings

2008-11-05T18:37:00.000-06:00

So a lot has happened in the past couple of weeks.

First, I finally got a new job. I am working at Countrywide for Bank of America’s transition. I am in the same building but a totally different group. I started this past Monday and they have kept me fairly busy. I think it will be good for me since they will keep me busy and the group is a great bunch of people. All my coworkers in my old team were surprised to see me and it was good to go to a place with familiar faces. I am sitting on the same row that I used to sit on, just closer to the windows. Still short walls here but it is much better than Vertex.

Next, because I am now a contractor, I lost my medical health coverage. Erik and I investigated all the options but unfortunately none of them were very good. All the companies wanted me to pay $400 a month for coverage with a $5,000 deductible and an additional $500 drug deductible. Basically that meant that the only benefit I would have gotten from those plans was continuation of coverage. Everything else was going to be out of pocket. Texas Instruments has great medical benefits and it is only an additional $100 per month to add me. The only problem is that they only covered same sex domestic partners. If you are opposite sex, you have to be married for coverage. So, Erik and I were legally married on October 31. My step-father is a minister so he signed our license for us.

What does that mean for April – really nothing. We are still having everything as planned, including a ceremony. We did not have any kind of formal ceremony last Friday and we are both looking forward to April. We feel it will still be the extra special day that we are planning. Unfortunately this route was really our only viable option so that is what we took. We plan on celebrating April 25 as our anniversary. Hmmm…or maybe we could celebrate both and have twice the fun ☺ Either way, we did not broadcast it because we really did not think it mattered. My name is changing early due to Texas state laws but little else is changing. We hope all our friends and family understand the reasoning for this and support us in our decisions ☺ We look forward to making it “official” in front of all of you.

Last but not least, we took some of our baskets down to First Monday (the giant flea market in Canton). We did ok, not as well as I was hoping, but I think we got a lot of attention for getting our name out. We are going back the weekend after Thanksgiving and I am hoping sales will be better. Last night I put up a column for referral source so I am hoping to be able to track how people are getting to our sight so that I can focus on certain areas for marketing. Yesterday we had an order for 8 baskets all going to the same place so that was promising ☺ Right now we have one Christmas order but hopefully they will start trickling in soon. I am nervous because I don’t know what inventory we need and I don’t want to end the year with too much but I also don’t want to run out of things we need. I was nervous about First Monday too so I am sure once we get in the swing of things, it will start getting better.

That’s all the news that is fit to print. Talk to you later everyone!

Fish Pedicures

2008-10-23T10:03:00.000-05:00

I think I am averaging about one post a month these days. Of course it is not for lack of thinking about posting, but mainly just because I think about it and say I will do it later and then forget.

Erik and I went to the Zen Spa in Frisco and had the fish pedicures done (several weeks later the Texas Cosmetology board banned them for what I believe are unfounded reasons, but hey - that's what happens in our regulated society). Anyway, it was an odd experience. I of course was trepiditious about sticking my feet in with the fish at first but after I did, it was kind of neat. They use two kinds of fish - garra rufa from Turkey (also called the doctor fish) and chin chin from China. The don't have any teeth so they are not biting your feet, basically just sucking them. It feels funny but not really ticklish. The sensation is actually as if your foot is falling asleep - that tingling that you get. I was amazed at how soft my feet were even weeks after the treatment. I would have definitely gone back if they had not outlawed the practice.

Our trip to the state fair was fun but we were exhausted by the end of the day. We had our corny dogs and our fried snickers - both of which were awesome. We got to visit the butterfly enclosure as well. They were all beautiful. There was also a 1200 pound pig at the fair. The thing was monstrous!!! I don't know how its legs support him. And of course the smell was not that great. We were at the fair from about 9:30 am until around 4:30 pm. Then of course we rode the train home. All in all it was fun but it was a little hot and our feet really hurt by the end.

The King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art rocked!!! It was amazing. The gold work on the wooden sarcophagus just blew me away. Also, I found out that there were 10 "layers" of the tomb before you could get to Tut's mummy...it was box within box within box. Really cool to watch the animation. Tut was really short! I was also amazed at the amount of objects they found on the mummy alone. All of the exhibit was fairly spectacular and of course my words on this blog cannot do it justice. Max was with us and for the most part I think he liked the exhibit - especially the gods that were animals. I was able to get a really cool Bastet sculpture as well.

This past weekend we went to the Maker Faire in Austin again. My favorite part was the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment. It is just so cool. I also picked up some little electronic projects but Erik is going to have to teach me to solder. There were tons of experiments and crafts. I think Erik really enjoyed the robogames (really just battlebots) and he was excited to find out that Texas Instruments has a flame throwing robot. Now he wants to work with that team. ArcAttack is a music group that makes music with Tesla coils and their best one was the Doctor Who theme song. I tried to record it on my camera but I am not sure if it came out yet. Austin was nice and the weather was great. The Longhorns won the game on Saturday night so it was kind of neat driving by the stadium as they got a touchdown - hearing that many people cheer was cool. It kind of sounded like an ocean wave :)

We are getting ready for First Monday and hopefully a good Christmas season with the basket company. Things have been kind of slow but I hope they pick up soon. I have confirmed a couple of larger orders but have not yet heard about the really big order I am hoping to land.

Anyway, things are good. Still on the job hunt and hopefully getting close to something good but I am being cautious about it. I miss all of you :)

OUCH!!

2008-09-25T21:22:00.000-05:00

I decided that I wanted to try the Justringz booth in the mall. Basically, they do this Indian way of 'plucking' your eyebrows. They use this string to roll the hair out of the follicle and it purports to be better than waxing or tweezing.

My eyebrows look great but after almost an hour since the end of the treatment they still hurt!!! That was one of the most painful procedures I have ever gone through with my eyebrows. I am definitely sticking with waxing. At least that is 4 quick pulls instead of 15 minutes of constant pain. My eyes were watering so bad I couldn't see the beautiful work the girl had done.

All I can say is OUCH!

Ike Schmike

2008-09-23T13:16:00.000-05:00

First off, the kittens all found new homes much to both mine and Erik's chagrin. We got a little more attached to them than we should have and I cried for about 2 hours before they went to their new home. We really did not need another pet but they were just so darn cute!

We prepared for the worst wind from Ike and we got - nothing! It rained but that was about it. Of course, with my luck, if we hadn't taken precautions we would have had a chair through our sliding glass door. My motto is better safe than sorry.

Work is still the epitome of awful but I am no longer letting it stress me out. I am just taking one day at a time and scouring the job lists as much as possible. I have had some nibbles but nothing solid yet. I am not getting any hopes up until I have a signed offer letter in my hand.

Nothing major has been happening with us lately. We have been taking it easy. We have done some cleaning and wedding prep things but nothing to write home about. We started back on weight watchers along with trying to get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day. We biked one evening over to the DART station at Parker road. It was about an hour round trip and I found out that I needed a) a softer bike seat and b) some gloves. We got those but my bottom is still bruised from the first seat.

The mosquitoes are out in full force so I have a hard time going outside even for a minute when it is around dusk. We sprayed our yard but I think we have some commuters.

Starting this weekend we are going to have some busy times. We are going to a family reunion on Saturday and then to the State Fair on Sunday. I can't wait for my fried snickers and I am saving up my points for that! The first weekend is the best to get the fried stuff because the oil is fresh. The next Saturday we are going to the King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art. I am super excited about that and have been waiting for it to open for a year!

The next weekend we are going to the fair again - one day just isn't enough to see everything. The weekend after that we are going to Austin for the Maker Faire. Erik and I had a great time last year and decided to go again this year. It is going to be a busy couple of weeks and then we get a small respite before the Christmas season and hopefully LOTS of orders for the basket business. At least it will help move time along because I am so excited about the wedding and want it to get here soon.

Funny side note - the train system in Dublin is also called the DART so we will feel right at home.

Kittens!

2008-09-07T20:01:00.000-05:00

We have kittens. Well, actually we aren't keeping them but for a few shiny days they are mine.

Last weekend we went down to my mom's house to stay the night. We wanted to visit with Max and we were going to First Monday the next day. We were investigating to see if we wanted to set up a booth down there. We think we are going to try for the November and December weekends and see if we can make any money.

Anyway, there was a neighbor's cat who had kittens in mom's yard. We played with them and they are all very cute and adorable. It was all we could do not to come home with a kitten that weekend. This Saturday, we went to see G.M. Kaye. I was talking to Lindsay to see if she and JR wanted to go as well. I also talked to my mom and found out that the kittens' mother had been run over by a car three days prior to Saturday. Now mom had 5 eight week old kittens with no mother to bring them food. Mom was feeding them but she was having trouble keeping up with all of them. We agreed to take three of them to find homes.

We had to give them baths and de-flea them which was a very long process. Unfortunately you can't put the flea bath near their eyes so all the fleas were congregating on their faces. It made it easier to pick them off but I felt sorry for the kittens. After that we gave them food with de-wormer in it. It definitely worked and got rid of their worms. Now they are eating machines. After baths and some food we had to blow dry them because they were freezing. We also put towels in the dryer and warmed them up and then put the towels in their sleeping area so that they could lay on it and sleep.

We have posted the kittens on craigslist and had some interest but no one has come to get them yet. This evening I trimmed all their tiny, razor sharp claws. My left arm looks like I got into a fight and lost because they used it as an anchor during the baths. Our adult four have all taken turns hissing at them when we let them see the kittens but Bella and Starski are the most interested and they are more afraid than mean. Both of them will run when they see a kitten.

We are keeping them in our spare bath at the moment and they are good little guys. No mewing at the door or scratching. They seem to like to eat when we are sitting with them though. We are trying not to get attached but unfortunately they all have names now - Remy, Clyde and Rosemary. They are very adorable and I will miss them when they go to their new homes.

GM Kaye is doing well. She is a bit more unsteady on her feet but she is getting up and around. Her birthday is next weekend but since we are booked solid starting a week from Monday until after the first weekend in November, we decided to go see her yesterday. We took her a card and some flowers and took her out to dinner.

Work still sucks and if it weren't for the fact that I get a paycheck, I would be gone from there. The job market is sucking right now so I am stuck for a while. It is really stressing me out and I am going to have to find some way to just handle it while I am there and then forget about it when I come home. I think I should be a food stylist! You get to make food look yummy but it is all non-edible so I couldn't eat the results :)

We are still making wedding plans and getting things done. I feel like I have a million things to do with the wedding and the business. I am slowly but surely getting stuff off my checklist and then I think of more :) Never done :)

Not much else exciting has happened. The people that we wanted to do our videography for the wedding went out of business. I pinged our photographer and he recommended another company which is actually going to be cheaper for more product so we are happy about that. Also, Mr. Certain, my previous violin teacher has offered to do our ceremony and for free so that will help. Finally, the place where we had chosen for our rehearsal dinner completely shut down but Erik's mom found out that they are opening a new location in November so that was a relief. Just a few hiccups here and there but we made it through.

Quick Updates

2008-08-15T15:27:00.000-05:00

I am going to try to play catch-up with quick one or two sentences so that this isn't a majorly long email.

1) Tonsillectomy went well. It was extremely painful during recovery but I got through it and have started to feel some sense of normalcy returning (at least as much as I had before :)

2) Despite said surgery that was going to make me feel all better, I came down with Bronchitis this week. A shot in the butt and daily antibiotics are helping but I can't wait for tomorrow and a day of nothing.

3) The business is doing well. We redid the website and it is much nicer and much more nifty. Check it out at http://www.lonestargiftbaskets.com/ for all your gift needs. I can do custom orders as well.

4) Wedding plans are progressing. Unfortunately one of our bridesmaids (Nicole) had to drop out but my sister-in-law, Lindsay, has agreed to take her place. I am sure we will find something else that Nicole can do (insert evil laugh here - jk!) :)

5) I have had it on my list to call all of you in Arizona but the 2 hour time difference has not been my friend. I am sure none of you would appreciate a call at 3 am :) I promise to reach out to all of you within the next week or two.

6) Our air conditioner system was put to death. We got a new heat pump installed and it is working wonders. It is amazing how quiet the house is when the air conditioner shuts off. Not a lack of sound we have heard all summer. We have also found that we like it much warmer now that the air actually works. Hopefully this will be reflected on our power bill.

7) Everyone is good despite this week's ailments (Erik also has a nasty ear infection and sore throat). The cats are all doing well. Bella is fascinated with the geckos that have taken up residence on our bathroom window (they are outside so we only see their bellies). She will sit there staring at them for hours. It is quite funny to watch.

8) We have booked our honeymoon!! 13 days in Ireland. We will be staying in Dublin the first two and last two nights. The last two are in a castle. The rest of the time we plan on driving around the island and seeing all the sites. We will be staying in B&B's for that portion. I have been busy planning all of that out so that we will be prepared. I have finished two books and am on the third. I will still have to organize all the information but I think it is going to be an awesome trip.

9) I finally got to update the window coverings in our living room. The had the nasty bland brown curtains with gold rods from the 80's. We put in a vertical blinds over the sliding glass door (much nicer since it is easier for the cats to look out). Then we put cellular blinds on the two windows and I hung these really pretty red and gold striped curtains that have small green strips in them as well. The stripes are vertical and we have the curtains tied back with green cord. The effect is much nicer than what we had before.

10) Since the new heat pump was put in we also got a new thermostat and the old chunky ones (we had two) were removed. Erik has puttied up the holes so I need to paint over them. Lowe's was able to match a chip from our current wall. I am probably going to tackle that this evening while I am waiting for Erik to get home.

That is pretty much the summary of what's happening here. The biggest thing is that we are staying busy. I miss all of you and think about you all the time :)

Exciting New Things

2008-07-15T23:57:00.000-05:00

So it has been almost two months since I posted. Luckily there is only a small amount of anything important happening...

First, I am now the proud owner of an online gift basket store - www.lonestargiftbaskets.com

We specialize in gift baskets containing items actually made in Texas - including the baskets. The baskets are also Texas shaped so they are a fun keepsake. The baskets contain large items, like 16 oz salsas and soup mixes that will feed 4-6. So you actually get quantity and quality in the basket. We took over the business on July 9 and we have already sold several baskets. I plan on doing some advertising and marketing soon.

Second, We went on our trip to Grand Cayman. The trip was lovely but we had lots of problems. When we landed in Miami, they had shut down the airport for a storm so we ended up sitting on the tarmac in the plane for over an hour. Then we had to wait another hour for the Hotel shuttle to pick us up. The next day when we got to Grand Cayman, there had been a communication mix up and no one was there to take us to the hotel so we waited another hour for that. After we got checked in, we did not have our prize packs so we had t call the tourism board. A lady brought half of it over and promised to bring the other half the next day but she never showed up again.

During the vacation things were nice. Nicole and I went shopping one day and the next just sat by the pool while Erik and Scott went diving. I only got a tiny bit of sunburn on my lower back where I had not put sunscreen. We also took a trip to Stingray City sandbar and it was quite interesting. The stingrays feel like velvet, or as Nicole said, like mushrooms. They are very unique. Unfortunately I did not get to feed them because their food was calamari and I can't touch it. I am kinding of breezing through the vacation part, my brain is fuzzy. Anyway, our flight back to Miami was late, we waited another hour for the hotel bus, we waited an hour and a half for pizza that they forgot to charge to the credit card. Our flight home was also late and when we got home our power was off and the cats had been bad.

Finally, the reason why my brain is so fuzzy is that I had my tonsils removed this past Friday. I have been on pain meds ever since and it is excruciating pain that I am feeling. The pain in my ears is almost worse than the pain in my throat. It is like a burning, stinging, throbbing pain all in one. Swallowing hurts too and I have not had any solid food since Thursday. I am supposed to feel better in 7-10 days but I am only on day 4 now so I have a way to go. Apparently, I will feel better and then the scabs will fall off and I will feel bad again for about 24 hours. All of this is supposed to make me feel good in the long run and be less sick all of the time. Let's just hope it works :)

I'll try to post again when I am feeling better.

The Last Month - fairly long

2008-05-21T09:23:00.001-05:00

A lot has happened since my last post. I have just been so busy with everything that I have barely had time to sleep, much less post to my blog. I will try to remember what I have been up to the past month :)

The weekend after our engagement, we went to Scarborough Faire. It was a very nice day but a little chilly. I got my hair braided first thing and it was awesome! I have never really had hair long enough to get braided. We also bought some Faire clothes. I had mine pretty much before noon but it took Erik a couple of more hours to be convinced to get anything. He looked awesome though and I admired the fact that he got them and wore them around even when it was slightly awkward for him.

We have now asked everyone we wanted to be in our wedding and everyone has said yes. We are going to have four attendants each in addition to a flower girl and a ring bearer. Frances, our flower girl, is already asking what shoes she can wear, LOL. She is very excited and cute about it. Max will be the ring bearer and we are just hoping that is affinity for his Uncle to be will stay around until at least after the ceremony. Right now, whenever he sees Erik he runs to him. Michele will be the matron of honor (of course I hate the word matron so I am still using the word bridesmaids for the others); Debs, Jaime and Nicole will be the bridesmaids. Scott will be the best man and the groomsmen are Keith, Justin and Adam. Anyway, plans are coming along and we are working on the website so that we can send out our “Save the Date” magnets.

We went and saw Iron Man and I have to say that it was a pretty good movie. I did not know much about the comic books but from what I gathered from Erik and Scott, the movie did a good job at portraying the superhero. I believe they did take some liberties with the story timeline, but just about every movie does that.

On Mother’s day, the family went to Breadwinner’s. It was an hour and a half wait but well worth it and the food was awesome. We also took mom to get Bubble Tea because she had never had any. It was a new experience for her but she seems to like to try new things. We also went out to visit Grandmother Kaye and took her to the Cracker Barrel for dinner. My uncle is in Europe for vacation so I did not want to make her feel left out and she has to stay near home so the Nurses can give her medications. I think she enjoyed the dinner.

The next day we went to the Apocalyptica concert at the House of Blues. We ate dinner there as well and I was duly impressed. The food was delicious and we got to get into the concert ahead of everyone else because we had eaten dinner. The concert was very good. The group is a Cello quartet with one drummer. They started out doing Metallica covers and now they do the covers as well as original music. It was a pretty cool concert and loud but not too loud. My ears were ringing after the concert but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

So, this brings me my foray into the Dallas Stars post season performance. Quite frankly, I think they did a good job. I always had the feeling that if they went up against Detroit, they would lose. Detroit had a phenomenal season and deserves to win the Stanley Cup. I am proud of the Stars; it took Detroit 6 games to beat them instead of sweeping in 4. The Stars just did not play consistently enough to beat a team like Detroit this season but they went a long way and like Erik said, “There is always next season”.

Last week I had a “boot camp” at work. Basically two days of intense training on where I work. The first day was kind of boring since it was geared to new hires and I knew most of the stuff. The second day was neat because we got to go to the Call Center and take a tour and listen to customer service calls. It was very interesting and gave me an insight into the daily workings of a call center. I took the day off Friday – mainly as a personal sanity day but I also wanted the day before my birthday off.

Last Friday, Erik took me shopping at Torrid for my birthday and I got some really cute clothes. It was fun having the day with him. We also had to go to the doctor but that was only a part of our day. We rented the first Narnia video so that Erik could see it before we went to see Prince Caspian on Saturday.

Saturday was my birthday and it was wonderful! Erik made me breakfast in bed, then I got up and we went to get a couples massage. After the massage we had lunch at Campisi’s. The food was delicious. The garlic bread with cheese is very good and the lasagna was flavorful. After lunch, we went back home to take showers. I can’t stand having the residual oils on my skin after a massage, it makes me feel greasy.

After the showers, we headed to Northpark mall. We got our tea from Teavana and then went to the Apple Store. I bought a Macbook Air for myself. Yes, I am a nerd but I also got an envelope to see if it fits like in the commercials. The answer is yes it does. The Macbook Air is awesome. It will take me a little while to get used to the Mac applications but I am starting to adapt. I have converted my entire old PC to the Mac. The excel application is not very different but the Quicken application is very different. I will have to learn to be quick in that application as well but it will take a longer ramp up time. However, I love the Mac so far and it is very easy to use. Erik said I would have to map the network, but it found the network drives I use on its own and I just had to give it a password. It also found the printer and installed the drivers for that all on its own. I am very impressed with it and I think it will be a good investment.

My mom came over and brought me a Strawberry whipped cream cake, macaroni and cheese, flowers and cards. She also got me a Paula Deen cookbook with some recipes that I would love to try. On our way to dinner, we stopped by where JR and Lindsay live and took them some of the cake and mac and cheese. Erik played with Max for a little while and then we went to the Melting Pot, of course. Erik got them to give me two roses and they were lovely. We had a nice dinner and then we went to see Prince Caspian.

Prince Caspian is a good movie and probably better than the first movie. There was a lot less grand standing in this movie. It was also a little darker and not so bubbly. I think the actors have grown a lot as well and are more well rounded, less one dimensional. I did miss the presence of Aslan in this one as I love the big cats and how the animators draw them as well as the voice of Liam Neeson. He was in it, just not enough. Anyway, I don’t want to give it all away, so you will have to go see it for yourselves.

Sunday we had our lunch with our friends and it was Frances’ 7th birthday. I made her a horse cake because she is really into horses right now. It was fun for us. Erik left for Washington that afternoon to go to a Microsoft conference :( He does not get back until Thursday evening. Until then, I have mad a list of things to do and have been steadily accomplishing them. But I still miss him and am ready for him to come home.

So that is everything that has been happening with us. Just steadily chugging along and getting things done.

I'm Getting Married!!

2008-04-27T14:08:00.000-05:00

Erik asked me to marry him last night and I said yes! We are both really excited. It was very sweet and romantic. We went to my favorite restaurant for dinner - The Melting Pot. When we got home we put on an Ella Fitzgerald CD and danced in our living room. Then we sat and talked and a few minutes before midnight he got down on one knee and proposed.

I got a beautiful ring - here is a pic: http://blog.erik.rainey.name/articles/2008/04/27/she-said-yes - just click on the pic for a bigger view.

We plan on having a ceremony at the Bingham House in McKinney, TX on April 25, 2009. We are putting together a wedding website that will be published soon :) Until then, I am totally happy and content. I am going to get to spend my life with a wonderful person!!

More Bad Luck and Some Good Luck

2008-04-24T22:36:00.001-05:00

Last week, after a mostly uneventful weekend, we had a bit more bad luck. First, I came back to a big cluster at work where they are changing all of the development work from a waterfall methodology to Agile development. I have spent the past two weeks in a conference room with 10 other people. At times it is very distracting. I am a little bit more satisfied with my work in the past two days as I was able to accomplish some things, but it still really sucks. Not to mention the horrible ergonomics of the situation. Supposedly we are moving to a 'bullpen' sometime soon so at least we will be able to have a 'permanent' home and the ergonomics improve but we will still have no privacy.

So, the whole weekend after the ladder incident I kept feeling a bit nauseous. On Monday evening around midnight I woke up with a horrible head and stomach ache. So Tuesday morning I woke up still with the headache and nauseous but no fever. I went to work. At this point I was starting think maybe I was pregnant so at lunch I got a test - it was negative. I still had no fever at this point. I then had to sit through a long drawn out meeting of which I was the Subject Matter Expert - so no leaving early. Half way through the conference I started feeling really sick and feverish. During a break, I got a wet paper towel to wipe my face and arms down. Finally around 3 the conference was over and I headed home as fast as possible. When I arrived home, I barely had the presence of mind to take my work computer out of my car. I just dumped everything inside the front door and ran for the bathroom. I had the stomach flu that Max had the week before (he is so nice to his Aunt - he shares everything!) My fever was at 100.7 and I was really sick. Erik came home after work and took care of me - he was really sweet and went back out to the store to get me Ginger Ale and crackers.

Wednesday I was still feeling pretty ill so I stayed home from work. Several days a week we pick up Max from daycare because Lindsay works later to get overtime. Wednesday was one of those days, so Erik came home early to pick him up since I did not feel like it. We only have one car seat for him and it is in my truck so Erik had to come by the house to get my truck so he could pick up Max. Now normally we park my truck out back in the driveway behind the garage. However, we still had tree limbs and trunks waiting to be picked up by the city. So it was difficult for both cars to use the driveway. That meant we parked my truck in front of the house. Well, when Erik went to use my truck, he discovered that someone had busted out my passenger window and stolen the Mio GPS that he gave me. (His new car has GPS built into it so he did not need it anymore). The GPS was worth less than the window! If I find the guy, he better run because he is in for a lot of pain!! Anyway, we had to call the police and they called CSI. They didn't get any good prints but I didn't think they would. So now the window is fixed - I just need to get it tinted again.

Now for the good news - I was checking my email that same evening and found out that I won a sweepstakes I entered. This is also a legitimate sweepstakes from a legitimate company. So Erik and I will be heading to Grand Cayman for 5 days/4 nights sometime this summer - probably in July. We are very excited and I am happy for him since he will get another chance to do the wall dive in Cayman (last time his ears would not equalize.)

After that, things have been fairly quiet. The city of Plano has been overwhelmed with tree debris from the storm so it took them until yesterday to pick up all the remains of our tree. Last weekend we tried to start the process of removing the stump and got a good dent in it. It will probably take a couple of months before it will be totally gone. We also planted grass up front and it is starting to come up, so we made some progress in that area :) Maybe by next year the whole area will have grass (this year some of it was washed away during watering and the birds also ate some of the seeds.)

This past week has been pretty uneventful. Erik is in Monterrey, Mexico for work and it has been too quiet and lonely without him. I have tried to get caught up with some things - such as ironing and am pretty much ready for him to come home! We had more storms last night and some small tree limbs did not make it but nothing was damaged. I was a little scared to be at home alone during the storms, but nothing bad happened so I was ok.

So that was our recent adventures. Monday is the one year anniversary of our first date so we will probably go out and have dinner somewhere - maybe even The Melting Pot! I just want Erik to come home :)

Correction - We are mostly ok

2008-04-14T12:59:00.000-05:00

So the storm took down a good 60-70% of a Bradford Pear tree in our backyard. The branches were in a fence between our house and our neighbor's who moved to Allen last month. We were preparing to go out and get some cash to pay the people who would be removing the branches when we got a knock on the door. It was the neighbor's who had moved asking us about the tree. We told them we were taking care of it and would notify them about the status of the fence once we could see it.

Pictures of the tree are here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/emrainey/sets/72157604466568158/

Sadly for them, their new house in Allen was completely destroyed and they were only saved because the warning sirens gave them enough time to get into a closet. In fact, they called their sales agent and the sales agent told them their house was being shown on the news. The firefighters would not let them into their house because of stability issues. I felt really bad for them and asked if they had children. The wife said no but their house protected a house behind them with two small children and she was glad the children were not hurt. See - people can be good at heart :)

Anyway, we were heftily price gouged for the tree limb removal and at this point Erik did not want them to remove the rest of the tree. However, after extensive research, I found out that there was no saving the tree and that it should come down - sooner rather than later as we often have 40 mph winds when it is sunny outside. So after Erik returned home from work, we went and got some supplies from Lowe's. I really thought we should hire someone to do this but Erik was stressing over the cost and it was decided that we are smart people and could do it ourselves.

Well, the first branch came down and lightly hit Erik in the chest. Some mild surprise but everything was ok. The next couple of branches came down fairly smoothly and without incident. The next branch came down, hit the bottom of the ladder and knocked it down along with Erik who tumbled through the air and landed on the railroad ties surrounding the tree. He was pretty scraped up and he had abrasions on his head. I did all the initial neurological checking and then got him into our bathroom to clean up his cuts and scrapes.

I started out with peroxide on cotton balls but the cotton balls were sticking to his cuts and hair on his arms. The only other thing I had was alcohol on wipes and of course that was hurting him and causing some lightheadedness, so I got him to sit in the floor while we got everything cleaned and bandaged. He started getting very pail and I decided to call my Grandmother to see if she thought he should go to the ER. She said yes and by this time he was clammy and green so we got him in the truck and to the ER. The ER did a cat scan and looked at him and determined that while his brain looked ok, I still needed to watch him.

Anyway, he is ok now and has only experienced some minor stiffness and soreness. I told him he was not allowed to touch the tree again and I had a guy out on Friday who cut down the rest of the tree.

This past weekend we reseeded the front lawn to see if we can get some grass to grow in the dead area, trimmed the hedges, cleaned the gutters and I cleaned out the front flower bed and planted some flowers.

So while the aftermath of the storm did not leave us totally unscathed, it could have been worse.

We are ok

2008-04-10T11:02:00.000-05:00

The storms that came through our neighborhood last night were very intense but we are ok. We have some downed trees on our fence but other than that we survived this one pretty well. Several houses around us are damaged, trees and light poles are down all around us and a major intersection about 2 miles away was hit very hard.

The joys of living in a tornado and severe storm alley :) The winds reported in our area were around 80 mph and they are still determining if it was a tornado or not. It sounded like one to me but I am no expert :) Anyway, just wanted to assure everyone that we came out of it better off than a lot of people.

Pictures are up!

2008-04-07T20:17:00.001-05:00

All the vacation photos are up. Rather than make links to all of them, I am just going to tell you the sets to look at...(also because I uploaded my backlog as well)

Cake - I added a set for the Cakes that I have made in classes.
Texas - has pics related more to Texas. Includes the snow we had and some beautiful bluebonnets.
Erik and Amber - pics of us taken during the vacation. Check out our car dealership photos :)
Vacation March/April 2008 - includes vacation specific pictures.
Erik- includes wacky pictures that Erik has made of himself.

My flickr site is http://flickr.com/photos/8748591@N05/

Enjoy!

Vacation

2008-04-07T10:43:00.000-05:00

I could not wait for this vacation to come around. I really needed it. This was the first vacation that I have had with just Erik and no one else. I don't mind going on vacation with my family, but they do stress me out a little because even though I am experienced at vacations, they question every single thing I say. I also don't mind going with friends, but it is nice to just be the two of us and only have to coordinate what 2 people want to do and not have to think about including others. It is difficult to explain but it is much easier with just 2 people. Plus, Erik and I have many of the same tastes and ideas of what we want to do so it is not hard to pick activities.

Anyway, Saturday morning came around and we got up around 7:30. I had planned on sleeping in but we decided to eat breakfast out and go by the Kohl's sale to find some glass containers for my icing. We lucked out. I had a $25 coupon and then the containers were 50% off. I got 8 Pyrex glass containers with lids for only $6. We ended up having breakfast at McDonald's. I personally like to eat there so it was fine with me. We were meeting a lady from Midlothian (a city towards Waco on I-35). She met us in Ennis since we were going to Galveston on I-45. She had agreed to buy all of my Pfaltzgraff dinnerware for a great amount and we were delivering it. She bought all of it for one price which help us offset the cost of the new dishes we bought. I forgot to talk about that in my last post. We bought all new dishes. They are called "Low County" and are branded as Paula Deen. They are beautiful and since they are square, fit much better in the cabinets. A really great picture of the whole pattern set is on the Dillard's web site here : http://www.dillards.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=301&langId=-1&storeId=301&productId=501463755&Ntk=all&Nty=1&N=1000301&Ntt=paula+deen&searchUrl=%2Fendeca%2FEndecaStartServlet%3FNtk%3Dall%26Nty%3D1%26N%3D1000301%26Ntt%3Dpaula%2Bdeen&R=02621361&IN_MERCH=true

Anyway, we got to Ennis a little early and so we stopped st Starbucks and then at the Kolache Depot. For those who don't know, a Kolache is a Czech type bread/pastry. They can have sausage or fruit or a myriad of other things like cream in them. We got a box of a dozen 1-day old kolaches and then I got a few sausage and cheese ones. They are really good. The chocolate cream is a little weird but it is still yummy. Anyway, we finally met the lady for the dishes and it was a really smooth hand over. She was getting married and needed to expand her set and I just wanted to recoup some of the cost of the new dishes so things worked out great. After the hand off, we were on vacation for real and headed towards Galveston.

First off we stopped in Corsicana at the satellite location of Collin Street Bakery. This is the bakery that makes the world famous fruitcakes. Everyone always turns their noses up at fruitcake but this company makes a delicious one. They also have various other takes on the cake. They had scrumptious samples of their apple pecan cake and Erik and I bought a mini one of those to bring home. We also bought some cookies. Their butterwafers will melt in your mouth and the cherry icebox cookies are awesome. We ate them while we were driving and I wished that we had bought more. It is a good thing I don't live in Corsicana because I would be about 400 pounds if I did so. We ended up eating lunch at Sonic in Huntsville. We took a little scenic drive through the town and then got back on the freeway about a mile or so before the gigantic statue of Sam Houston. This is a new roadside attraction (well since 1994) and I had never seen it before. It is 67 feet tall. An impressive site but it is a little hard to get to. We didn't stop and I was asleep on the way back, so no pictures.

We finally made it to Galveston and our Bed and Breakfast. We stayed at the Coppersmith Inn. It was one of the houses that survived the 1900 hurricane. It is a really nice little house and each room now has its own bathroom. The house down the street was found floating in front of the one we stayed in. They just dragged it back down the street and put it back on its foundation. There are lots of impressive houses in this part of Galveston but also some that have been sorely neglected. The hurricane did a lot of damage and they ended up "lifting" Galveston up to 11 feet in some areas to try and prevent a disaster like the one in 1900. Our bed was an old bed and it did not seem very stable. I had a really hard time sleeping in it but Erik slept really well. The next morning we got to smell bacon cooking for about an hour before we got ready to leave and head down for breakfast. The breakfast was delicious. Bacon, sausage, fruit, fried potatoes and strawberry stuffed french toast. Well worth the money. The stay also included parking for the week which would have been expensive to pay for at $10 a day.

After breakfast we headed over to the cruise ship. Checking in went pretty smoothly and we were on the ship by noon. We ate lunch and then took our carry-ons to our room. My bag was already there so after unpacking I took Erik on a tour of the ship. We went on the Voyager of the Seas - the first ship I ever sailed on. So i was pretty familiar with everything. Our dinner started at 5:30 each night. We sat with a couple from Little Rock, Arkansas. John is a police officer and Barbara works at a dental office. We also sat with a couple who both work at UT Medical Center in Galveston. They were very nice and we enjoyed their company each evening.

The first sea day, we did the "walk a mile" activity. The wind was blowing so hard that I could barely walk on the part that faced into the wind. On the part where the wind was at your back, it was hard not to be blown over on your face. We got through it but my legs were killing me when we were done. Erik and I also got some massages. These were not full body - they did scalp, neck, shoulders, hands, feet and ankles. It really worked some kinks out but i still have a lot more :) We also played mini golf but again the wind made it very difficult. I beat Erik by a point but I don't know if it counts because I had to do Hole 1 over since the wind had blown my ball away and people were waiting behind us. I want to go and play again - at a land "course" so that it is more fair.

That first evening was our first formal night. I had my hair done in the salon and we dressed up in our "Black and White" outfits. My dress was a little snug and I actually think it was from the strength training I have been doing instead of gaining weight. Anyway, I was able to get in it and we went down and took lots of photos. Several of them came out really well and I will post them along with all of the other pics on my flickr site this evening.

We did not do much the second sea day, just relaxed and attended an astronomy lecture. We got Ben and Jerry's ice cream and just kind vegetated. Honestly, I am not writing much about that day because I really can't remember what we did - that was almost a week ago! :)

The first port was Montego Bay, Jamaica. I am not impressed. In fact, Ocho Rios seems better to me. We took a really horrible tour. So horrible that I wrote a two page complaint on the form that Royal Caribbean had and they refunded our money. I did get some pretty pictures but other than that, it was kind of a waste. We did buy some coffee and rum cakes as well as a Jamaican Spongebob t-shirt for Max.

The second port was Georgetown, Grand Cayman. Erik went scuba diving and since I had been here before, I just stayed on the ship. I slept until about 10:30, got up and had lunch and then went back to bed. It was nice to not have to do anything at all. Erik got back about 2:30 and then he took a shower and crashed on the bed. We slept until about 4. I started trying to fix my hair for formal night but ended up just putting it in a braided bun because it was not cooperating. Hence - no photos from that night. Erik did not get to dive on his first dive because his ears would not equalize. On his second dive they went to a wreck that used to be 85 feet down but is now only 30 feet because of being moved by hurricanes. He said he enjoyed it but was not as impressed as others said he would be. I took some photos from the ship and there were 3 other cruise ships in the bay so I took pictures of them as well.

Our final port was Cozumel. We did not schedule a tour since we have both been there. We just took a Taxi to one end of the main shopping strip and then started looking in stores. Erik bought me a beautiful opal ring. I got to pick out the opal and the setting and in 20 minutes it was a complete ring. It is an early birthday present and it is gorgeous. I am really happy with it. I did not even know that I like opals but I found out that they shimmer green and I really think they are unique and pretty. I also bought a necklace and earring set of opals in silver that are really pretty but my ring is special. We bought some various other souvenirs for people. I was excited to find clear Mexican vanilla and now I will be able to use it in my buttercream icing. We also bought an oil painting on feathers. It has a male and female tiger along with a cub. It is really impressive and unique. It was pretty humid that day and in the 80's so I got a little exhausted. We headed back to the ship around 2:30 and got back on board.

We had two bags that we took on the ship and I packed up one in Grand Cayman since we were more than halfway through the trip. We started packing back up on Friday evening so that we did not have much to do on Saturday. Saturday was another sea day and Erik went to another astronomy lecture. Then we went to a special lunch for platinum and diamond members. The filet mignon was really nice and the chocolate cake was extremely rich but good. We sort of just walked around until dinner and then after dinner we went to the show. They had this group called Las Pampas Gauchos and they were funny and really good at dancing and drums. They also did this show called fluorescence that was odd and indescribable. You would have to see it to understand. We finished yup most of our packing and went to bed.

Sunday we got off with the first group as we carried our own luggage off the ship. It was kind of chaotic and our immigration line took forever but we were off and at McDonald's for breakfast by 8:15. We then headed home. I slept from just after Houston to just before Corsicana. We stopped at Collin Street Bakery again and had lunch. I had a baked potato and a roast beef sandwich on pecan bread. It was pretty good but the best part was the cookies. We munched on them on the way home. We stopped for gas in Ennis and got some more Starbucks and then made the last hour drive to our house. Pretty much the rest of the day was spent on unpacking, laundry and various other "administrative" things like getting caught up on emails and such. We went out to dinner with Keith and Denise to thank them for watching the cats.

It was a great trip and I did not want to come back but alas, until I win the lottery I must work. Getting up this morning was really hard and I did not sleep well because I was not used to all the noises and walking around the cats do, plus Erik was tossing and turning. At least I will be really tired tonight and will probably rest better. It was nice to be on vacation but it was also nice to be back home in our bed and with our cats. They really missed us and at one point three of them were sitting on the bed with me. Anyway, pictures will be posted on flickr later tonight and I will try to remember to come back and put a link to them on this post.

Yikes!

2008-04-07T10:21:00.000-05:00

Time flies when you are having fun. I really need to set a reminder on my calendar for once a week to remind me to post on my blog.

Ok, so March has passed and I finished the first cake decorating class. I have to admit that my buttercream roses did not come out as expected. My icing was way to soft and my roses kind of wilted. Part of the problem was the warmth of my hands. Suffice it to say, I can do the roses and they will look better next time with stiffer icing. I actually liked the character cakes and the star pattern but it is very labor intensive. I bought the tip that does three stars at once so that should make it easier next time. I start the intermediate decorating class on Wednesday. This class uses mostly royal icing which is supposed to be easier to work with. I bought glass containers for my icing at Kohl's during a 50% off sale, so hopefully my icing will stay the correct consistency now. Erik hung up all my character pans in the kitchen so now they are easy to store. He also brought in a wire rack that is serving as a bakers rack and I have been able to organize all my supplies. It is a really nice setup and we bought these canvas baskets from Wal-mart that were on a really good clearance price. They work great for holding tools and supplies. I have had a really good time with the cake decorating.

On St. Patrick's Day Erik had jury duty. He ended up on a probate court case with a family disputing a will. It was going to be a week long case but luckily they ended up settling the case right at the end of the day. He enjoyed the process though. We went out to Spaghetti Warehouse because they had the 3 course meal for one price. Not very Irish but we did have fun. I wore a green shirt to work and I had black socks with green shamrocks. They gave us donuts as we got of the elevator. They were Dunkin Donuts with white and green sprinkles. It was a nice little touch.

That week we watched Max a few times. He is really starting to talk more and more clear. He still has lots of words that you have no clue what he is saying but he is getting better. When Lindsay is at our house and she walks out of the room, he yells, Momma, Momma. He can mostly say mine and Erik's names, but when we are out of the room he can't yell our names. It sounds more like "Arra". It is really funny. The best thing though is that he is finally ok with us being out of a room. He used to cry when he could not see you. Now he just yells your name to find you. I always yell back, "What?" and he yells my "name" until he finds me. He is so funny. I tried to teach him to kick a ball but he puts his foot up in the air way before he is next to the ball so it usually does not go anywhere. He will also through the ball in the opposite direction from you and say "Get it".

The family was over on Easter and we hid eggs for Max in the yard. We "hid" a lot in plain view in the yard and then some at his level in the shrubs and trees. We filled plastic eggs with candy. He ran outside and then got really excited and saying, "Yummy" over and over. He figured out real quick that there was candy in the eggs and then he would open the egg, take the candy and throw the egg on the ground. This became a problem when both hands were full because he did not want to relinquish the candy in his hand but he wanted the new egg. He put a few in the Spongebob basket we had bought him but JR had to follow him most of the time and put the egg in the basket for him. Max seemed to favor the green eggs - a kid after my own heart! There was no pattern to how he picked up the eggs and he would pass one for another. I think he really enjoyed it and he definitely enjoyed the candy.

The week after Easter was spent getting ready for vacation. I had some hectic schedules at work and we also watched Max several days so it was pretty stressed. JR and Lindsay's anniversary was on that Wednesday so I made their anniversary cake in my class. I think they really enjoyed it. We did not pack for our vacation until Thursday of that week (we left on Saturday) so it was pretty strained for me. At one point I was going to take a whole suitcase full of shoes, which made me feel weird because I am usually not a "shoe" person. I just needed different shoes for different outfits. I ended up repacking and getting rid of the dedicated beauty suitcase. Erik was laughing at me but it all worked out. I'll talk about vacation in the next post so that there is some break in between :)

Just call me slacker

2008-03-13T09:55:00.000-05:00

Despite my best intentions, it has been over a month since I last posted. I did make good on my promise to email everyone and I have heard back from everyone but Debs. Debs - i do intend on calling you, I just have to actually remember to do it :)

Ok, so what has been going on lately? Actually not a whole lot :)

We went out and bought Erik some new suits. He has lost enough weight that his old suit was a little big. We are going on a cruise in 2 weeks (can't wait!) and he needed a suit for formal nights.

We have still been painting and Erik will probably finish Raphael tonight and he has already started on Michelangelo. I have another 1-2 nights before I finish my next piece but I think it will be gorgeous. We have decided to stop going to the art studio and paint at home. Erik is not getting the right vibes from our instructor since she is more into abstract art. So we will see what we can do on our own. I think I have a good foundation now and should be able to create some beautiful things.

I started cake decorating classes and already I have learned a lot. Everyone's birthday cakes will look much nicer this year. Last night we did pattern transfers, which are really simple. I am enjoying the class but Erik and I will have to stop sampling the cakes when they are done :) Not good for weight loss.

I started my new job and I am really liking it. It is very diverse and challenging and the day flies by so it is great for me. I also started working out with a strength trainer 3 days a week. I am always extremely sore in the muscles that she has worked but I am feeling good and I think it will be a good pay off in the end. It just sucks in the beginning :) And of course, as soon as my muscles start developing, she changes the routine and they get sore all over :) The things we have to do to be healthy :)

Erik and I attended the North Texas Irish Festival. It was lots of great music and vendors. A great many of the vendors were definitely SCA. They also served a really good Irish stew in a bread bowl. I probably could have eaten several of those. They had some Scottish stuff there as well and we bought a gigantic shortbread that was really tasty. The soap vendor from Scarborough Faire was there and we were able to stock up on the soap that we like. It is called "Love Spell" and it smells heavenly. All in all it was fun but my feet were extremely tired.

After the festival we went to see "The Other Boleyn Girl". It was an interesting movie and very entertaining. Of course I loved the green dress that "Anne" wears in the movie. A beautiful shade of emerald. After the movie we went to a churrascaria we had seen in the pre-movie advertising. It was good but not as good as Rafain. The only thing that was really awesome was the Cinnamon spiced pineapple. I could have eaten my entire meal just in pineapple. I am not sure how they got the cinnamon to penetrate the entire pineapple, but it was heavenly.

Erik watched Max last week while I was at Cake class and I think he had fun. There was a little bit of crying when he gave Max a bath and I think it was a bit hard for him to get clothes on Max while he was squirming around but they seemed to work through it and Erik is still the favorite in the house :) Max is learning more and more words and getting very good at them. In no time he will make sense in whole sentences. For now he just jabbers away and every now and then I can understand a word. He love stalking to his stuffed animals and reading books.

So really not much else going on. We got our girl scout cookies on Sunday and sadly we are almost done with the second box of Samoas. Those things are just so dangerous for me to have near me because of their crunchy/gooey goodness. I am trying to limit myself but hey - it's girl scout cookies!!

Dexter has had a nasty cold and has not been feeling well. Lots of sneezing and wheezing. It is kind of funny though with the wheezing. Because of his nails he clicks when he walks around on the floors. Now add the wheezing and it is like a horror movie monster coming down the hall. Either that or Darth Vader with a cold. I feel really bad for him but Erik has been shutting him in the bathroom each morning and taking a hot shower to see if the steam helps him breathe a little better. I think he is getting better and he is much more active than in the first few days of the onset. Bella has been sneezing too but she did not get as sick as Dexter. I am not sure where this all came from but hopefully it doesn't happen too often. Nothing like a sick cat sneezing on you all night long.

The weather here has been CRAZY with a capital C. Last Sunday it was perfect and in the 80s. On Monday it snowed several inches (I have pics that will eventually make it onto Flickr). Then it was a little warmer for two days and then it snowed another couple of inches on Thursday. This week we are supposed to hit 90. It has been the weirdest time I have seen in a long while. I am still not used to the weather here and I still think I like Arizona weather the best, but I am adjusting.

So everything is good on our side of the world. I promise to call you soon Debs :) As for everyone else, stay well and happy and just in case I forget to post...

HAPPY St. Patrick's Day - May the luck of the Irish be with you all!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T16:12:00.000-06:00

Wow! Time really does fly when you are busy. Erik poignantly reminded me that I had not updated my blog since January (never mind that it has been since the beginning of January since his last update :) so I figured I should get cracking.

First of all, for those who don't know or didn't remember, I am no longer a Countrywide employee. I am free of that nightmare. I have happily moved into a new position at Alliance Data Systems in the Utility Services Division. I am still a Business Analyst but I actually have some work to do. I just started yesterday and I have already been assigned some work. I have finished most of my new hire stuff - the rest will be finished tomorrow and I have my orientation on Monday morning and then I will be good to go. I have a gigantic cubicle with actual walls. I am really excited about the job and the only drawback is the 8 am start time.

I finished the His Dark Materials trilogy from Phillip Pullman. I have to say that it was a real page turner until the end, which I thought was rushed and unsatisfying. I hear he is writing another book in the series but there is no release date. I liked the story for the most part and did not try to over analyze it too much but the ending left such a sour taste in my mouth and I was disappointed.

The last two weeks at Countrywide were uneventful. I was basically allowed to do whatever I wanted the last week as long as I was in the office. I signed up for Cake Decorating classes - they start in March. They have the basic first three courses and then they go into more involved courses with a wedding cake/groom's cake class that I am interested in taking as well. It is at a cake place called Cakes Amore that is right down the street from our house. We also started art up again and I am having a good time with my newest piece. Erik has started the second in the Ninja Turtles series and is doing a great job. He is hesitant about it but his paintings always turn out amazing so I am not worried. I have stopped the Violin for a little while. I need to find a new instructor that does not move my lessons around so much. I will probably wait until after the Cake classes are done.

Erik and I have watched several movies lately. He got a PS3 so we bought "Curse of the Golden Flower" on Blu-Ray. I was impressed with the colors and stuff but the movie was quite sad. I watched "House of Flying Daggers" on my own and again the ending was sad. This director seems to like hopeless situations and bloody endings. The colors are beautiful though. We watched "Knocked Up" but I did not see a lot of the humor. It was ok but not great in my book and definitely not worth the awesome reviews it got. We also went to the theater and watched "27 Dresses". Now I thought that movie was really good and I loved Katherine Heigl's performance. I had kind of soured on her while watching her whiny performance on Grey's Anatomy but she definitely changed my opinion in this movie. I liked the approach and it was relaxing and entertaining.

I still have not finished posting all the pics to flickr...it will probably be a few more weeks before I get to all of it. I had a relapse of this Sinus stuff that I have been having problems with and it really knocked me out last weekend. I started taking Zyrtec and Nasonex and that seems to be helping so part of my problem might be the things growing here in Texas that I am no longer used to breathing. I plan on seeing an allergist after my new health insurance kicks in. Beyond that, Erik and I have been de-packratting the house and getting rid of stuff that is not needed and should be donated to charity or the trash. We did a great job and everything is clean and organized now. I can actually walk through the garage.

We also broke down and finally got a new range and dishwasher. The range is awesome and I was excited to be able to bake something without burning it. The dishwasher was just installed this past week and we have not run it yet, but it is much nicer to put dishes in it and not have to play tetris with them. I am pleased with both of them and they will make the kitchen easier to use.

We finally went to a Stars game where they won - in a shootout after 6 players shot for both sides. It was a nail biter. I am positive that one of the goals for the Canucks should not have been given to them as the replays really look like the puck hit the post and bounced out, but I didn't get to make the call so the goal stood. It was an exciting and fun game and I think Erik is really becoming a fan. We have enjoyed the past few games together and I have enjoyed having someone who will actually watch the game with me and get into it.

This past Monday we did our Valentine's Day dinner at The Melting Pot. It was delicious as usual. I was tempted to order a second helping of the Flaming Turtle chocolate. We also tried the Zesty Cheddar Cheese - it has sour cream, horseradish, bacon and garlic and was a great combination of flavor. We did the Mojo style cooking that has a Caribbean flare and after a brief mix-up with a plate of shrimp, we got the right order with huge chunks of delicious filet mignon. As always the experience was scrumptious. Tonight we plan on making chocolate chip waffles with strawberries and whipped cream and bacon. I think we will have lots of fun and I am looking forward to it.

Erik sent me beautiful tulips in red, white and pink in a red vase along with a little teddy bear and a very touching card. The card had me in tears and I was really pleased with the gesture. They had a Valentine's Day quiz that they handed out on our floor as well. I filled it out and although I did not win with the most points, I won a $25 AMC gift card in the drawing they had. It has been a great day.

I keep meaning to email everyone and see how you are doing, but I know that most of you are caught up in Estrella this weekend, so look to hear from me next week. Other than that, Happy Valentine's Day to everyone.

Lots to catch up on

2008-01-28T20:59:00.000-06:00

I promised I would blog after the Phoenix trip and then I said I would do it this past weekend. Well I lied. Time just tends to get away from me sometimes so I just don’t get around to it.

Ok, so we will start with Phoenix. The trip was awesome and way too short. Lorna is adorable and Anwen is getting really big. Erik and I flew out Friday evening after work. Everything went smoothly and by the time we made it in, picked up the rental car and made it to Michele and Ryan’s, it was approaching midnight. We stayed up and talked a little while and then I was ready to crash.

Saturday morning we got up and after having breakfast at Chick-fil-a we headed over to Debs’ house. We had gotten Anwen a doll and the baby some valentine duds. Anwen was acting shy, as usual, and hid her face in a chair. We got some talking time in with Debs and we both got to hold Lorna for a while. She is quite tiny compared to Erik’s hands. As I said, she is adorable. That afternoon we met back up with Michele and Ryan and had lunch at Chino Bandido’s. I can not say enough good stuff about the place and sadly they are strictly in Arizona, with only two locations – one in Phoenix and one in Mesa (or Tempe). After lunch we headed back to the house and got ready to go rock climbing. On the way we saw a car using a screwdriver as a radio antenna. Check out my Flickr page for a pic.

We went to the climbing gym and did a couple of runs up the walls. I was not as bad as I thought I might be and it is much better for me when I wear gloves, so next time I will have to wear some again. After climbing we went by Fry’s and looked around, Michele and Ryan wanted to get a video. We got back to their house and cleaned up and went to North, a restaurant on 67th avenue and the 101. It has these awesome zucchini chips that melt in your mouth. I am not a big fan of zucchini bit these are great. We ate dinner and then went back to the house again and watched Hot Fuzz. Funny movie but a little gory in places. We talked some more and then went to bed after saying our goodbyes to Michele and Ryan (they had other things to do on Sunday).

Sunday morning we got up and headed back over to Debs. Erik was starting to get a sore throat but not feeling sick. We all decided to check out World Wildlife Zoo near Surprise, Arizona. It was fantastic. You can get very close to the animals and they have a small mammal exhibit with several species of tiny monkeys. They also had baby tigers, both white and yellow types, which were barely a month old. The larger exhibits had a pair of tigers that were only a year old and they were playing and chasing each other. At one point the 1 year old white tiger decided that Anwen might be a tasty snack and was stalking her through the cage. The tiger would follow her and get confused when she went farther down the fence to a place it could not see her. I just know the tiger was thinking, “I can take that one, it’s little”. Anwen liked it when they were splashing around and chasing each other. The zoo has had a cool exhibit where you could walk right up next to a kangaroo and another one you could walk through the prairie dog exhibit. All in all it is a nice zoo to visit. After the zoo we went to Red Robin for a lunch. Sadly by this time we had to pack it in and head to the airport. I was sad to go so soon and by this time Erik was feeling worse. The flight home was uneventful.

The next few days were spent preparing for the Breckenridge trip. Erik started feeling better but Max got sick. Lindsay had to pick him up from daycare on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Erik took the first shift with Max because I had a doctor’s appt for an infection. After I got back from the Doctor, I cooked us some lunch and then Erik went to the office. I worked from home while Max slept. Later I gave him a bath and fed him and then Lindsay came to get him and give him to Mom so that she could watch him Thursday. It was a family effort so that it didn’t cause any one person a loss of work hours. Thursday we went to work and then we picked up our bags and headed to the airport.

Again the trip was uneventful until we got to Denver. In Denver, we picked up our bags and then we waited for three buses before we were able to get one to the rental car place. It was really cold out there and the waiting and tiredness were making us cranky. We finally got to the rental counter and got the car. Imagine our surprise on learning our “mid-size” car was actually a Mercury Sable. A granny car is what I call it because I just did not expect to get that kind of car for driving in the snow. Anyway, we headed towards Breckenridge. Half of the trip was uneventful and the roads were clear. However, we got to the part where there was ice and snow and it slowed us down a bit. We finally got to the condo at about 2 am. Unfortunately we had a room with two twin beds and had to sleep separately. It was kind of miserable for us to sleep apart and I had trouble sleeping without Erik but next time we will do extra research to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.

On Friday we slept in a little and then started getting up and ready to do things. We went into town and had breakfast at this wonderful place called The Blue Moose. We ate there almost every day and the last day I had this really awesome sweet potato pancake with cheese and egg. I want that recipe because it was amazing. All of their food was good and they were always packed. After that we headed back up to the condo to get ready to ski. Our condo was right on a ski run so Erik took me over to the run to get me started.

First of all, I have learned that skiing is not my thing. At least for now I am very bad at it and it kills my knees. Second, never start a complete beginner on a green run. The little part we started out on was not so bad but the part at the top of the lift was terrifying and I ended up walking most of the way down that run. Erik had infinite patience with me and he was very sympathetic but I think I need to take a ski school class on the bunny slopes to build up my confidence. Finally, try not to fall on the same spot more than once. I did so and have a nasty black bruise to prove it. It was definitely an experience and I am not averse to trying it again but maybe I should take a different approach. After we got back down the run to the condo, I headed in and Erik went to find Scott and Nicole. After they all got back, we cleaned up and got some dinner and then crashed.

Saturday morning, Erik and I again got up leisurely and attempted to go to Peak 8 to start me on some bunny slopes. I must have twisted my right knee on the first day because it was very painful. I tried a little bit to ski on the lesser slopes but my knee was really hurting. We went in to get lunch and decided that it was probably best for me not to ski any more. Erik headed out to find Scott and Nicole and I took the bus back to the condo. I cleaned up and then rested while Erik skied some more. He came back and we went in the hot tub to try and loosen up our muscles. There were some teenagers in the other hot tub that kept jumping in the snow and then the hot tub and filling the room with steam. It didn’t seam like a smart thing to do, but hey, they are young. Everyone came back to the room and after getting cleaned up we sat around waiting for a dinner reservation we had made. After a few hours, we decided to change the reservation to Sunday and then we went out and got pizza. We brought it back to the condo and ate there. Then we all went to bed again.

On Sunday morning I was feeling crappy with stomach type flu. I had luckily already decided not to ski and so Erik went out with Scott and Nicole to the harder runs. Around lunch time I got out of bed and got ready to go down to the town to get some lunch. I walked around taking pictures and exploring a little bit. I got some lunch and felt tired so I headed back up to the condo and took a nap. Everyone came home and after a dip in the hot tub, we got ready and waited again for our dinner reservation. We headed to the Hearthstone Restaurant. It was well worth the wait. Erik and I shared a Sweet Potato Gnocchi which was phenomenal. He had a filet mignon and I had a Wild Mushroom Strudel. Both were delicious. For dessert we shared a Bourbon Pecan Crème Brulee. I am not usually a fan of crème brulee but this one was fantastic. The dinner was nice and the service excellent. Definitely a recommended restaurant. After dinner we headed home and started the packing process. We want to be ready to put as much in the car as we could.

We got up Monday morning and finished the packing. After breakfast we took the gang back up to the condo to wait for their airport shuttle. We went back down to the town and did some shopping. It started to snow pretty hard at times but the shops were nice and warm. Most of the time we were in Breckenridge, the wind chill was below 0 F. It was fairly cold. We ate lunch there and then headed to Denver. We had a little bit of slow going before the first tunnel because of lane merges but the drive was fairy uneventful. Denver was cold too and it was snowing there. After checking into our hotel room, we drove downtown to a quaint little Moroccan restaurant. The food was good and it was a nice place to relax and talk. By the time we were done and back at the hotel, we were exhausted. I was looking forward to sleeping in on Tuesday and I was happy that we were finally able to have a big bed again. I think we both slept really well and I woke up refreshed.

We got up and checked out of the hotel, had a nice breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then headed to the airport. The flight home was fairly easy but getting our bags back at DFW was a little hard. We got our first bag quickly, then waited about 20 minutes for our second bag. We then waited another 30 minutes for our final bag to come out of the oversized bag area. We only got it then because I recognized the colored string I had put on it from the distance we were standing.

We got back to the car with all the bags and then got home and started putting everything up. The house was very dry, due to us having turned off the humidifiers before we left and we are still trying to get back that level of humidity. I was petting Starski in the dark and you could see the blue crackling static electricity. Hopefully a few more days and we will be back to the correct level.

This past week has been pretty normal. We have been working and I had several job interviews. I am happy to say that I only have two more weeks at Countrywide. I have accepted a new position with Alliance Data Systems in the Deregulated Utilities Division. It is better pay, a bonus program and way better vacation time. I am excited about it. I start on February 13 so that will give me two days off to get caught up on some other things.

This past Saturday we visited a little Scandinavian shop in Plano called The Wooden Spoon. We got a heart shaped waffle maker and an electric krumkage iron. We also went to a great little burger place in downtown Plano that had a banana pudding like Nonnie used to make. The waitress had only been gone two minutes after she had delivered it and Erik and I had finished it off. JR, Lindsay and Max came over that afternoon. Erik helped JR with some computer issues and Lindsay, Max and I hung out.

Sunday was just a normal day with lunch and errands. I finished up the second book in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman. Kind of a sad ending but this guy is not known for his happy upbeat endings. The books are great and I will start on the third and final one probably tonight. No more vacations coming up until around the first week of April so things are probably going to be quiet until then.

I’m just looking forward to the new job and sticking it out for the next two weeks at Countrywide.

I am attempting to get all of my pictures (both the newer ones and the old ones) up on my Flickr site. The link to it is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8748591@N05/

For the World Wildlife Zoo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8748591@N05/sets/72157603793604720/

For the Breckenridge trip:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8748591@N05/sets/72157603794140452/

If you search in the sets you can also see pictures of Lorna, Anwen and the screwdriver antenna car. The newest pictures are all up so now I am working on the older ones which I hope to have finished by the end of the week, but things happen and I get distracted, so don’t count on it. I am also not going back and re-describing all of them right now, so if you want to know about one, you will have to ask me about it.

Yippeee!! The cold is gone

2008-01-10T18:30:00.000-06:00

I am finally over the cold from last week. Well I still have a little residual stuffiness when I wake up but for the most part i am sneeze, cough and stuffiness free! All in time to visit the baby this weekend and not give her any bad germs :)

I have to tell you I have found the most awesome item and anyone with any kind of nasal congestion should use it. It is Puffs plus Lotion and Vicks. They are like heaven in a tissue. I was so stuffed I could not breathe at all through my nose. Just opening the package allowed me to breathe a little through it. One good long inhale with the tissue next to my nose and I was able to breathe through the stuffy nostril. Erik said it was like watching a crack addict. I have to tell you that to a person with a cold, this is the greatest invention ever!!!

Ok, so we had dinner with Scott and Nicole and then just came home and vegged since I was not feeling well. I took some NyQuil and fell asleep on the couch. I know - real exciting.

Not much happened Saturday. We did some final shopping for the ski trip plus our normal grocery run. On Sunday we had lunch at Twin Peaks with the usual Sunday gang. Now for those of you not familiar with the restaurant - it is basically the same concept as Hooter's except the girls wear ugg type boots and flannel tops. They still have the babies pushed high together and barely covered. The big difference here is that their food is actually good and they have a phenomenal peach cobbler that is small so Erik and I can share it and not blow our WW points.

Sunday afternoon we worked out and then we went out and saw PS I Love You. It is a great movie but a total tear-jearker and not good for someone with a cold. I could not breathe for hours after that movie.

This past week we have really not done much at all. Just kind of hanging out at the house. We finally watched Pirates 3 on Monday night. It was a good movie but very weird and corny at times. We initially missed the last scene after the credits so we looked at that and the special features last night.

So tomorrow evening we head to Phoenix to visit Debs and the new little one and Michele and Ryan. I am so excited and I am sure that work will be torture tomorrow.

Ah the Holidays...

2008-01-04T17:21:00.001-06:00

We can't wait for the season to come but then we (at least I am) glad when it is over. The undecorating has commenced and the only thing we have left up is the lights on the house, which I assume will be taken down this weekend. So that leaves the recap from all the events of the past few weeks...

So the cleaners came. They did a decent job and the house was clean but they did not do everything they said they would. I will have to try a different company next time. It was worth it though and I am glad it was done. I also had an eye exam that day and found out that some of my headaches are because my right eye has the wrong prescription. I am eagerly awaiting my replacement glasses. Hopefully they will be in next week. We watched Max the Wednesday night before we left for Atlanta. That was an adventure.

First, he and I went and visited GM Kaye and took her some things she had requested. Then we ate dinner at Red, Hot and Blue - a BBQ place near the place she is staying. Erik met us there and it was pretty easy to get Max to eat the Mac n' Cheese, although he also wanted to eat Erik's green beans. Despite all my efforts, he fell asleep at the exit to our road so he had a brief nap. When we got home I gave him a bath and got him ready for bed. And as soon as he was about to go to bed, he decided to dirty his diaper. So I took him to our bedroom to change him. Let me just say - big mistake. He has gotten into wriggling away from you and crawling around without a diaper. The only problem is, he wasn't done with his old diaper. IT was all over my bed and him. So off to bath 2. However, he was not as excited to be in this bath and started crying. I got him calmed down, poured his soap on his Curious George bath mitt and was setting the mitt down to put the lid on the soap. In the mean time, he grabbed the soap bottle and had it to his lips right as I went to pick it up. I yelled No! and he started screaming and crying. I shouldn't have reacted so loudly but it scared me and I really did not want to have to take him to the emergency room. Luckily Erik was home and was able to get him calmed down.

After those events, we got him ready for bed again but he wouldn't go to sleep. So I got him up again and he ran away from me and wrapped his arms around Erik's legs. He basically snubbed me the rest of the night and into the next morning. Ah well, I am always the bad guy anyway - at least he doesn't have soap poisoning.

So Thursday we went to work and then we got ready at home and headed to the airport. The flight out there was pretty uneventful except for being late - which put us in Atlanta at 1 am. Needless to say we were beat. We didn't do much in Atlanta - shopped some, met up with Erik's friend Justin and ate at a couple of restaurants. We also saw "I am Legend" which was a decent movie. Basically just sat around and talked and played games and stuff. Christmas dinner was a bit odd for me - just because I am used to the same stuff you have on Thanksgiving, but it was good. The biggest thing that was different for me was the TV. Erik and I rarely have it on because we just don't have time to watch it. It is always on when people are awake at his parent's house. It was different but I got to see some cool shows and things that I would not normally know are on TV. We had no issues getting back home on our return trip.

On the Wednesday we returned home, we did a little shopping. Erik got me hooked on PuzzleQuest for DS Lite so I bought a DS Lite and that game and several others. We also got some needed Christmas decorations so that we will have better stuff next year. We should be prepared - except for the blue lights that I want and that I will have to buy next year.

Last Thursday was uneventful and Friday we went to Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Ice! at the Gaylord Texan. I enjoyed TSO but Erik didn't really so I am not sure if we will go again. Ice! was amazing and lots of fun. It was very, very cold but well worth it. They have all of the sculptures made purely from clear and colored ice. They also have a gigantic ice slide that makes your butt extremely cold. It was lots of fun and afterwards we got coffee, hot chocolate and pastries an date them in the atrium at the hotel. It is a really nice place and I had lots of fun.

We spent most of the weekend doing things around the house and errands. We were going to try to install a whole house humidifier but we think our furnace is too old, so we are trying small humidifiers in the kitchen and bedroom. It has helped some, but there is room for improvement.

Monday I worked and Erik had the day off. After work, we visited GM Kaye and then we went to American Airlines Center. We had dinner in the Platinum Club and it was really good. They had a nice selection of dishes and I was pleasantly satisfied. We were also on that level to watch the Dallas Stars play the Nashville Predators. Unfortunately we lost the game but the seats were great and it was lots of fun. We headed home because it was really cold (around 25 degrees) and windy. We watched the New York ball drop and then watched until midnight Dallas time. I could barely stay awake until then...After that we had our little toast and went to bed.

New Year's day my family came over and we socialized and ate with them. Erik and JR played a game and Max took a nap. Unfortunately, JR, Lindsay and Max all had colds. You guessed it - as of yesterday I am getting a cold. At least this one is just a cold and not yet a sinus infection. Lindsay is already feeling better, so I hope with proper care, mine will go away before next weekend. Wednesday I felt ill and did not go to work. I was up all night the night before with stomach cramps and nausea. Erik and I worked out that evening because we said we would. I was fine until swimming and then i felt light-headed but I am hoping that improves over time. Yesterday we just stayed in and watched a little bit of TV. I went to bed really early because of the cold.

So that brings everyone up to date. We are looking forward to our Phoenix trip next weekend and then the ski trip the next week. Our only concern right now is that I-70 stays open from Denver to Breckenridge. Last weekend it was closed!

Christmas is Coming

2007-12-17T21:02:00.001-06:00

It seems that every time I say I want to have a nice, relaxing week...life has other plans. The weekend of the 8th, Erik and I went to have Christmas with my mom. We went out to the tree farm and picked out a tree and then cut it down. We set it up in Mom's house and got the lights on. There was an interesting thing with a chain saw and my mom's crazy husband but thankfully Erik did not lose an eye. I don't like to think about it. We also went and saw the Canton Christmas parade. It has gotten a lot bigger since the last time I saw it in 1995.

On Sunday we went and had lunch with my grandfather. It was a nice lunch but the weather was really cold. I am really missing Arizona right now. This morning it was 25 degrees!! The funny thing is one day it is 70, the next in the 30's and the next back up to 70. Max also deemed it necessary to give me yet another sinus infection which meant yet another shot in the butt! But at least it worked this time and I am feeling mostly better. Still have some stuffiness but I think half of that is our freaky weather.

Sunday evening we saw "The Golden Compass". It was a pretty good movie and now Erik and I are reading the books. We got 2 copies of each book in the series and are reading it together. Although Erik has jumped ahead because one night I couldn't get my eyes focused enough to read, but I should be able to catch up with him since I read faster. The book is pretty good but a very easy read.

Last week was fairly calm. On Thursday we went to the Countrywide Christmas party at Main Event. They have laser tag, bowling and other games. We did the laser tag and it was a team thing instead of an individual thing. It was fun but I prefer the laser tag that has unlimited fire power instead of having to go by a recharging station. Erik did quite well and was #1 on our team. We also played lots of video games and generally had a great time.

Friday was a not so good day. I got a call at 7:30 am saying that my grandmother was going back to the ICU. On top of that, my uncle, who is in charge of her medical stuff, was going on vacation. That meant that it was up to me to take care of everything. Well, she was pretty bad on Friday. She had a bladder infection that started shutting down all her organs. Since she has had a stroke, the infection started attacking that part of her brain too, so she did not know anything and was really confused. Luckily they caught this one early and she was moved to a normal room yesterday. She should be going back to the therapy center later this week. I just wish they could figure out what is going on and make this stop!

Also on Friday, we went out with the Hughes gang and saw a great movie called Juno. It was very funny. We also got our Christmas gifts from them. I got some great measuring cups and spoons that collapse. Erik and I went to Ikea (spent way too much money - which is hard not to do) and he got me a rack that has hooks on it to hang my cups from. It is awesome and will be much nicer when I am cooking. They also gave me these really cute baking cups that have feet on them. I am going to have to make cupcake Beatles or something (there are 4 of them). I'll have to practice icing them! Finally, they gave me a cute ornament with two little mice that say "Our first Christmas together" and they have popcorn and a drink. The gifts were all very thoughtful and I will enjoy using them.

Saturday we mainly did some errand and then went out to our Christmas dinner at...you guessed it...The Melting Pot. I think Erik is as much an addict of the place as I am, which is good considering how much I love it. It was awesome as usual. On Sunday we went out to lunch with the usual gang. We chipped in to get Francis her wish list from Build a Bear and the enjoyment she had from it was well worth it. She could barely finish her lunch and her "horse" Vanilla had to come visit me for a little while. After a visit to the hospital we made the infamous trip to Ikea and then a few more errands. We also tried out the Tin Star restaurant near Central Market and it was very tasty...definitely good for a quick taco fix.

So today I have just been cleaning up the house and getting ready for our trip Thursday out to Atlanta for the holiday. Not much going on. I was delighted to see a package on the doorstep from Michele and Ryan who got me a really cool watercolor set and some do-it-yourself watercolor postcards. Can't wait to try them out but it will probably be after I get back from Atlanta. I am being lazy and having cleaners come do a thorough cleaning of the house tomorrow. Just don't want to do it and they can do a faster job. Kind of a Merry Christmas to me...

So in case I am lax about posting before then (come on - we all know i will be), I wanted to wish everyone a very happy holiday season and may you all find great joy in whatever way you choose to celebrate this time of year!!!

Turkey Day and stuff

2007-12-04T16:35:00.000-06:00

So Happy Thanksgiving! Yes it is a little late, but as usual I have been really busy. I made the above "appetizer" for Thanksgiving. Erik and I went to Atlanta and had a nice leisurely holiday with his family. We basically cooked on Wednesday and Thursday morning and ate that evening. On Friday we slept and then went out to some of the sales. I was very happy because I got a pair of skechers for $26 (they are usually $54). Erik got some nice clothes on sale as well. There weren't any horrible crowds because we waited until the afternoon to go. On Saturday we walked in this park for about 45 minutes and then went back and had lunch. We did some shopping at Kohl's because we saw the weather report for returning to Dallas and I only have my Arizona "winter" wardrobe. Lots of good deals there as well. Then we headed to the airport to try to get an earlier flight.

On Sunday we slept in. Then we did some Christmas shopping. We started our decorating and took our Christmas picture for our cards. Last week was kind of a blur for me. I don't remember everything we did. Wednesday we put the lights on the house and it looks very nice. Erik did a great job. Thursday I found out my grandmother had been in the ICU that week so I went to visit her. We also had to finish the lights as we did not buy enough strands. Friday I took my grandmother from the hospital, back to her therapy center. We were going to go to an ICE exhibit but we were just not feeling up for it so we went shopping at Kohl's sale.

On Saturday JR had a surprise birthday party and we went to that. First we grabbed my grandmother and she wanted me to fix her hair so I did that. Then we went to the party. JR was really surprised and everyone had a good time. That evening we took my grandmother back to where she is staying and then we went to the mall just to walk around. We were just killing time until we had to be at a baby shower. We went to that and socialized for a while and then came home and went to bed. Man this paragraph is sounding boring :)

On Sunday we went to Holiday in the Park at Six Flags. It was tons of fun. We had Wassail and hot baked cookies and went on several fun rides. It was a lot of fun for me. I also got to talk to a friend and it was nice to be able to do that. This week has been fairly quiet. Max has not been feeling well but other than that things are well. Erik and I opened some of our gifts to each other. I was elated to find a pair of diamond earrings and a diamond pendant. They are beautiful and I am super happy to have them! I even went through the trouble of putting my hair up today so that I could wear them and they would be seen. He is such a great guy!

So that is all that has been up lately...just busy from all of the holiday related stuff.

Arizona Sunset and Holiday Prep

2007-11-18T19:35:00.000-06:00

So about 2 months ago Erik and I were talking and I had an idea that I wanted to paint a piece that was a sunset with the foreground dark like we see it when watching a sunset. Lo and behold, the next day I was looking through pics that Rob had taken and he had an Arizona sunset with my idea in photo. After getting the necessary permissions and promising royalties if I ever make it big, I started painting. Here is how it came out:

I am happy with it. I am definitely progressing although if you asked me today I would tell you I suck. I did not have a good art class today, my mood and motivation were not there. (We took class today since we will be in Atlanta on Wednesday.)

So GM Kaye has been moved to a therapeutic place so they can try to get her walking again. Of course she hates it but I can't be too sympathetic. She is apparently not the best patient ever :) I think she is better off there and she is close so we can at least visit her. She is definitely getting more attention than she has gotten in a while which is good for her.

I know everyone gets tired of me being sick - but hey you get cancer and then have everyone known to man sneeze on you and see if you don't get something. Ok off the soap box now, I really was going somewhere with this (ha ha). Last Friday I ended up with a 101.4 fever and that was 30 minutes after Tylenol had been taken. I convinced Erik to let me wait to see a doctor until Saturday, since my normal one is open on Saturday and they know the history of these infections I have been getting. Well they confirmed that my tonsils were infected and gave me yet another antibiotic (number 6 for those counting). I was also instructed to rest and do nothing all weekend, which Erik heard so I had no choice. On the plus side, we got caught up with some TV shows. Also, the antibiotic they gave me worked. I feel great now and apart from a little dryness in my throat and a little nose bleeding, I am doing awesome. The other symptoms are partially blamed on the fact that one day it is 80 and we need AC and the next it is 56 and we need the heater. Plays havoc on the system. So long story short - I think I am over the latest bout of illness. We are going to get some "Airborne" and see if that prevents an illness from flying.

Last week luckily was not as exciting as the week before. We just painted (which is when I finished the above piece) and basically stayed at home in the evenings. It was nice to have some quiet. I had a goal of walking at least 30 minutes 3 nights this past week, but we were only able to get that done one night this week. I guess you have to start somewhere. We are going to try to walk some in Georgia since we won't have reasons not to do so.

This past weekend we went shopping for my skiing gear. I wanted to get boots that were fitted specifically for me so that they would not be so uncomfortable and also so I would not have to wear boots that other people have worn. We also went and saw Beowulf. It was pretty cool and looked real in some parts but they did not get the horses right at all.

We are getting packed and ready to go for Atlanta for Thanksgiving. We leave Tuesday so we have to get everything done today since I have to work Monday and Tuesday. Erik is off though so that helps. Anyway, gotta run and finish my chores :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Tis the Season

2007-11-06T16:43:00.000-06:00

Wow, a LOT has happened since last post and that was just last week. First things first...Max was adorable in his Halloween costume. Here is what he looked like:

It was even cuter in person because every time he walked, he "waddled" and the little tail moved back and forth. He loved the costume and did not want to take it off (he wouldn't fit in the car seat with it on.

On Thursday we went out to Greenville, to help GM Kaye with some things. I think she mostly just wanted to see us, but it was not too much trouble for us.

Friday we went to the Dallas Stars vs Phoenix Coyotes hockey game. Unbelievably we lost 5-0. Phoenix was playing like Dallas normally does and vice versa. It was horrible. I thought I was going to actually get to see my team win and then they were creamed! It was Erik's first professional game too. Oh well, we are going to go to another game later if we get a chance. On a good note, the arena is awesome and the seats were not bad at all. Definitely a good venue.

Saturday, Erik and I braved First Monday Trade Days in Canton (where I grew up). It was VERY crowded. It took us about an hour to get from the exit to a parking spot. We ate lunch at the tea room downtown, always great food, such as, a baked potato - fully loaded and then topped with taco soup. The chocolate pie was great too. We met mom and Max there (we were watching Max the rest of the weekend because his parents were making a weekend out of the NASCAR races at Texas Motor Speedway). We bought a wagon for Max to ride in (and anything we bought). He liked the wagon and it was good because at one point he was able to take a nap as we pulled him along. As I said, there were tons of people there. The weather was great and it is the next to last flea market weekend before Christmas. We were able to peruse a lot of things and Erik, Max and I got our picture made with a baby kangaroo. We got a few snacks - a great little pecan tart and some really good cookies. We left First Monday around 6:30 and got out of town around 7:00 since we were smart and parked at the parking spots closest to the interstate. Also, since I grew up there, we were able to take a different route than everyone else. After eating dinner and getting home, we took showers, gave Max a bath and then went to bed.

Sunday was a relaxing day. We had our normal lunch with friends, then did some grocery shopping. Max is suffering from the same sinus infection that I have had so he was pretty tired and icky feeling. Basically I fed him dinner and put him to bed around 5:30 pm. He did not wake up until 7:30 am the next morning but he was feeling much better after that.

Yesterday, all hell broke loose! Work was horrible because I am dealing with two guys who have such big egos that they can not compromise on anything. I was really tired and kept telling myself that everything would be better at 4 because I could go home and take a nap before cooking dinner. Then Lindsay called. She needed me to watch Max because she had to return to work to help them close. No problem. I fed Max his dinner and no one told me it was a bad idea to let a toddler eat ravioli by themselves. After bathing Max, I was just finishing cleaning up the kitchen when JR said he was on his way to get the little guy. About 10 seconds after JR called, GM Kaye called and said she needed me to come get her and bring her to Baylor Medical in Plano. So I called Erik to see if he could come home and stay with Max so I could go get her. Erik got home just as JR got here and so Erik went to Greenville with me for GM Kaye.

We drove the 2 hour round trip and took her to the ER. We got there about 8:30 pm. Luckily since I know about waiting in the ER, both Erik and I brought things to do. It was finally determined that she has broken her pelvis in a fall. However, this was not told to us until 3:30 am. We were able to come home and go to bed around 4:00 am. I slept soundly until JR rang the doorbell with Max. I gave Max his breakfast and then took him to daycare. As I was just about to leave, Max tripped over a pillow and hit his head. He is fine but has a little bump on his head. I dealt with that and then came back home to bed.

I have been dragging all day but everything seems to have settled down, so hopefully tonight I can go to bed early and start a new day tomorrow. What a time!!

Parental Visit

2007-11-01T16:54:00.000-05:00

So I am almost over the infections I have been dealing with as of late. It has only taken 3 weeks of antibiotics, a week of steroids, a shot of Rocephin, 2 shots of penicillin and a shot of steroid. I am still a tiny bit stuffy and a small scratchy throat, but it is getting better by the day. Apparently I am one of the lucky ones to catch this new infection that is creating an epidemic in the Dallas area. Yay me!

So this past weekend Erik's parents visited. They came in on Friday and we went out to dinner with Scott, Nicole, Clayton and my mom. Everyone had a pretty good time. On Saturday we went to the Dallas Arboretum for the pumpkin festival. The grounds were lovely and we also went to the special Chocolate Tea. It was really good. We started with a butternut squash soup. Then we had typical tea sandwiches, my favorite being the turkey on cranberry bread with orange butter. Finally there were the chocolate desserts. For tea, we drank the boysenberry. It was really good and a nice experience. We also saw a guy carving a 720 pound pumpkin. It was a good day but I was feeling pretty sick most of the time :(

Saturday evening we had dinner with JR, Lindsay and Max. Max was being a little cranky but he was pretty good most of the time. We also watched Hero that evening. Sunday we went to PF Chang's with our normal Sunday crowd. I had their new chicken flatbread and it was very tasty. Unfortunately I was not feeling well at all so when we got back home, I went to bed. Erik's dad watched Nascar and Erik and his mom went to Sam's club to do our shopping. I felt bad that I could not go with Erik but I am glad that his mom was there for him. I got up and we had dinner. Then we watched Secondhand Lions and The Count of Monte Cristo.

Monday morning I was still feeling horrible and Erik had to take Max to day-care for me. Erik's parents left for Atlanta when he went to work and I slept all day. That afternoon is when I got the 2 shots of penicillin and the one shot of steroid. Needless to say that my backside was not feeling well after that. Erik brought home dinner and I basically stayed in bed and watched (and slept) through television.

Yesterday I was feeling better. We went and saw the new Elizabeth movie last night. I liked it but there were some things that were lacking. Some of it was a little too artistic and the ending was a bit anticlimactic. I guess they did that because of the idea for a third movie but it just seemed different from the impact the first movie's ending had. We are going to see Max this evening and then go to our regular painting class. Max is supposed to be Nemo and I will take pictures.

Here is my latest painting

2007-10-26T09:12:00.000-05:00

I used a wash technique with lots of layers...I was thinking of giving it as a Christmas gift but I like it so much that I may not be able to part with it...

This one is Erik's latest. I love how he captured the sun peaking through the clouds.

Latest News

2007-10-25T08:23:00.001-05:00

Time for another update before I forget everything that has happened in the past few weeks.

So when we last left off…ha ha just kidding. Again we have been keeping busy as usual. A couple of weekends ago Erik and I went to Hillsboro, TX and Lake Whitney. Erik was taking a PADI rescue diver course and it was time for him to do his checkout dives. We went down on Friday and stayed at the Hilton down there (actually a Springhill Suites). We met at the section of the lake where the others were camping. Everyone knows that I will do anything in my power not to have to camp and Erik said he got enough of camping when he was a Boy Scout.

Anyway, the camping area was covered, and I mean literally covered with spiders and spiderwebs. I couldn’t even get out of the car. Erik thought it was cool and took some pictures. Luckily the camping area is not where the divers were to take place. I was petrified of all those spiders. Just think of the number of legs – ick!! We went over to the part of the lake where they were diving. The water was pretty murky and Erik said it was really dark but he did all of his dives for the day. He had some trouble with equalizing his ears though. I basically sat around and read, did some embroidery and some Sudoku. That afternoon we walked around the outlet mall in Hillsboro and then we just had dinner and went to bed. The next day was very windy and colder, a cold front was blowing in…little did we know what would be coming from that cold front. Erik did all his dives and got his certification. We then headed home and I was starting to feel like I was getting an ear infection. We did our grocery shopping and then went home.

Max has started going to a daycare near my work. Both JR and Lindsay have to be at work before the daycare opens, so they bring him to my house and I take him over to the center on my way to work. It has been a pretty easy arrangement except on the rainy days. On those days I have to try to maneuver him, the diaper bag and an umbrella without getting us all wet. Anyway, the Monday after the dive trip was Max’s first day at the center. Lindsay had to bring him at 6:30 am that day and the next because JR was training out of town. Usually JR brings him at 7:30 which is a little more decent. It had started raining that morning and had gotten a little cooler. By the time he and I were ready to leave the house (at around 8:00) the rain had gotten worse. It was pouring. Our driveway was flooding completely to the back of my truck and almost to the alley. Erik had to roll his pants up to his knees and go out to the truck. The idea was to take it to the front so we could get in the truck without getting soaked. Well that was both a good and bad idea…the front curb had a 3 inch roaring river rapid beside it. The sidewalk to the curb was flooded with a couple inches of water. I had to kind of jump over that and into the street. Then the wind blew the umbrella aside and we both got a little wet. I finally got Max into his seat and I got into the truck. The drive to the daycare was just as bad and one of the streets was flooded up to the door of my truck. It took us about 45 minutes to drive to a location that is usually 5-10 minutes away.

The first two days of daycare were ok for Max. He got down, played with a toy and was generally happy. By the third day he realized what was going on. I set him down and he clung to me and tried to climb up my legs. I tried to comfort him but he started crying and eventually I had to sneak out with him crying. The next day Erik took him and Erik said he was screaming and crying. That Friday I took him again and he started crying before we even got to the door. Apparently he was always ok the rest of the day but he really was not happy about it. This week he has been ok. I get the pouty face look but no crying.

Last week I also got pretty sick. Coughing, earaches, fever and stuffiness. I am on my second round of antibiotics and the doctor thinks I have a form of “walking” pneumonia because my lungs sound a little clouded. The biggest thing is the coughing and headache from that but I am able to work – albeit a little slower. The cough medicine makes me a little sleepy and I can’t wait to go home and sleep J Other than that I am ok.

This past weekend, Erik and I went to San Antonio and Austin. We went down on Friday night and it was a pleasant drive. We went to Outback and I got my celebration cheese fries. They were as good as I remember them. Erik and I have kind of fallen off the wagon for Weight Watchers. We are going right back on it this next week after Erik’s parents have returned home. We are still trying to be good but are being really lax about it. Anyway, Saturday we went to the Maker Faire in Austin. It was really cool. Lots of robotics and crafts. The coolest thing was the Pleo. It is this cute little interactive dinosaur that learns things and plays with you. I really want one but it is a little expensive. It was just a really neat place to go and we had lots of fun.

On Sunday we drove down to San Antonio. Erik has now seen the Alamo and the riverwalk. We also walked over to the Mi Tierra Café and Bakery. It was really good food and the bakery items were phenomenal. We got cookies and a pumpkin empanada. They were all delicious. We headed back home and stopped by the San Marcos Outlet mall but didn’t really find anything we wanted to buy.

Once we got back to the Dallas area, we made a stop at Baylor Plano. GM Kaye has not been feeling good and she is in the hospital there. So far they have no clue what is wrong with her so they are running lots of tests. She is in pretty good spirits though and I visit or call or both everyday.

Erik’s parents will be here Friday and we are looking forward to their visit. I still have some house cleaning to do and some picking up but things are getting there. We are all going to the Dallas Arboretum on Saturday and I will write about that visit later. Until then, we are all good and happy. Colder weather has set in and it is looking like fall around here. Something I have not really seen for the 4 years since I moved to Arizona. It is pretty out here and I didn’t realize I missed the fall “smells” of people burning wood and leaves.

Hope everyone has a great Halloween.

Time Flies

2007-10-03T13:41:00.000-05:00

Wow, it is already October. I just can't believe it. It has been almost 6 months since I moved to Texas and it seemed like just yesterday to me.

Great news came this week. My final CT scan has come back normal and I have been officially declared in remission. Cheese fries here I come! Ha ha...for those that don't know, Erik said we could get Outback Cheese Fries if my scans came back clear. It is not exactly weight watchers friendly at 78 points....But I don't care - I deserve them for all the medical crap :) I am so glad that I won't be seeing a doctor every month now....I am still having allergy problems though, the rains we had through the summer really caused everything to grow bigger this year.

So hmm...I can't really remember everything that has been going on, so I will do my best.

A couple of weekends ago there was a hot air balloon festival in Plano. Erik and I took Max over to the festival and we all had a pretty good time. Max loved the giant Energizer bunny. The glow was really awesome. I had always wanted to go to Glendale's festival but never got the chance. Max is walking pretty good now and we had him in one of those backpack leashes. The backpack was a monkey and he kept holding the nose in his hands. The leash was ok but even the slightest tension on it would cause Max to fall over. He is just getting used to shoes so the logistics are still fuzzy with him. We ended up carrying him most of the time. He also loved the grass and got a lot of enjoyment of stomping his feet in it.

That Saturday we went to a really great restaurant called Amici in downtown Carollton. It was pretty good and the dessert was awesome.

Erik started a PADI Rescue diver course. So he has been busy with that. His check out dive is weekend after next and then he will be done with it. He is also taking First Aid as part of the course and the video he had to watch was just hilarious. You would have to see it to know what I am talking about but it was pretty stupid. I guess all instructional videos have some lameness to them.

We also went to a Mixed Media art night at our art studio. It was ok but not as much fun as the monotype night last month. Erik did an awesome job at carving for the printmaking. He is my new official stamp carver for the letterboxing. I think he really enjoyed that part and it was pretty impressive.

This past Saturday we had the Lester Family reunion for my dad's side of the family. I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in years and of course the food was good. It was pretty nice to be there and see everyone, but also a little awkward after at least 8 years of not being around. I was glad that Erik was there and JR, Lindsay and Max came along with us too.

For dinner Saturday we went back to Rafain, a Brazilian churrascaria, for Scott's birthday. That place is really good and the bacon wrapped filet mignon is to die for. We came to our house and had German Chocolate Cake that I had made for Scott and waited for our Midnight activity to start.

Saturday night we went to the Buffy Music Sing-Along at Inwood theater, which started at midnight. It was a really cool event where they took the Buffy musical episode "Once More With Feeling" and showed the subtitles so everyone could sing along, a la Rocky Horror. They gave us props to use at certain times and it was loads of fun. Our friend Scott came with us and he is a big Buffy fan too so it was a really great night. I would totally do it again. Before the sing along part they had Buffy trivia and Buffy-Oke where people got on stage and had to re-enact a scene from the show. The scene was the morning after Angel and Buffy's first time and it was funny with the contestants doing it. One set of contestants, those that one the contest, had the male be Buffy and the female be Angel. The guy was really funny as Buffy and the girl was great as Angel.

We got home at about 2:30 and in bed at 3 am Sunday morning. We were meeting up with some friends to go to the State Fair of Texas at 8:30 on Sunday, so we did not get much sleep. We rode DART (the train) down to the Fair. I have not been to the fair in ages so I was excited about going, after I was awake of course. The fair was AWESOME! I had lots of fun. We got a corny dog from Fletchers. They are the actual original inventors of the corny dog. The people who own it now are the sons of the original owners. Their fathers invented the corny dog in 1942 and sold their first ones at the State Fair of Texas. It was yummy.

We looked at one exhibition hall where they had different vendors of things. We also looked at the new cars and some of the concept cars. The concept jeep is a pretty color but the back seat is basically non-existent. It looks like a jeep with a truck bed on it. After that we went to the Food and Fiber pavilion and tasted lots of different foods made here in Texas. Erik and I did a little shopping in the store and picked up some BBQ sauce, a chicken enchilada soup mix and some cinnamon whipped honey. After that we went to the Dog Dancing show which was really cute. The little dogs were the best at the show.

After the dog show, Erik got the new Fried Latte. He thought it was really good. I didn't try it because I don't like the taste of coffee. They basically take the latte (after it had been frozen), fry it, then top it with coffee ice cream and whipped cream. The State Fair of Texas is considered the Fried Capital of the world and they have competitions every year for new fried foods ideas. We headed down to Marine Corps Square and watched a performance of the Marine Corps Drum and Bugle Corps. They are really good but the poor guys have to be dying in those uniforms. You could see their backs soaked in sweat.

We went into the Women's museum and saw some costumes from movies and then the second floor has some women's history stuff that was really neat. It is kind of hard to describe but I enjoyed it. We then sat in on the tail end of a little science show.

By this time Erik and I were losing steam so we decided to head home. We stopped and got me a Fried Snickers on the way out. If there was a heaven, Fried Snickers would be it. I water at the mouth just thinking about how awesome it was. It was just the right temperature and flavor and everything. If I did not care about my weight, I could eat a million of those things! Anyway, we got back on the very full DART train and came home. We ate dinner at Souper Salad - mostly because Erik said we should eat some broccoli or something to set off the fried fair food :) We came home and showered and it was only 9:30. Erik didn't want to go to bed too early and mess up our schedule. I suggested that we do something relaxing for 30 minutes and then go to bed at 10 and he agreed. SO I was doing a Sudoku puzzle and he got his laptop to read the news. He probably had the laptop open for a minute before he was asleep. So much for staying up! We went to sleep and he did not move all night long. We were exhausted!

This week has been pretty tame. We were going to see a couple of movies but I felt content just to stay home Monday night so we did not go out. We did make a run to the grocery store to get supplies for the week but just chilled after that.

Tonight I am watching Max and we are going to have dinner with my Mom. This weekend we have a full plate again - going to the Fair again on Saturday to see the things we missed this past weekend, Blue Man group is Saturday night and Sunday we are going to see the Pompeii/Vesuvius exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art. October is a busy month for us.

I am a total slacker

2007-09-17T17:47:00.000-05:00

So there is no excuse for my slacker ways. I could say that we have been really busy, which is true but it still sounds like I am making excuses. So I will just say that I have not had the motivation to update the blog lately. I think about it and then I think I would rather be doing something else so I go do that. Anyway, this happens enough times in a row and poof, several weeks have gone by with no update :)

I guess you could look at it two ways – one is that you only have to read one long update every couple of weeks so it is easier to keep up with what is happening with me. The other way to look at it is that you don’t get up to the minute news and then that probably sucks if you want the news. Oh well…

Ok, so where to begin….

First, we *finally* finished all of our renovations to the house. The carpet is really nice and it is especially appreciated in our closets. The guys did not show up to install the carpet until about 4:30 in the afternoon and GM Kaye was going to sleep in the room getting carpet that night, so it was a bit of a jumble but it got done. After they left we started putting the room together and she kept telling us that we didn’t have to do it. I don’t think she understood that we really wanted to be finished with everything.

That weekend, Labor Day weekend, we went to Washington, DC. The weather was phenomenal. It really wasn’t too hot at all and the humidity levels were nice. It was a bit warm at one point when we were in direct sunlight, but overall I was greatly impressed with how nice it was. Much better than the rain I had the time before or the 13 inches of snow the time before that. Basically we took a tour of all the monuments on Saturday. They had not completed the WWII monument the last time I had been so I got to see it. I also got see some of the other monuments up close where I had only seen the facades in prior visits. We rode on this little hop on/off tour bus so the most walking we did was from the Lincoln memorial all the way to the Washington monument and a little beyond to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. We were going to go on the tour but didn’t make it. Funny enough, while we were waiting on the bus to take us to the Jefferson Memorial, we found out that you can tour the Printing and Engraving Bureau located right here in Fort Worth. So we weren’t too disappointed.

On Sunday we made our way to an outside “tour” of the Capitol, Supreme Court and Library of Congress. We then walked back to the National Air and Space museum. It was great as usual and because the American History museum is closed for renovations, they had a special exhibit of 150 items from that museum which was really cool. They had a very small portion of the ENIAC, Some Star Wars items – R2D2 and C3PO, and lots of other things. It was really neat. That afternoon we went to the Native American Museum and it was pretty cool. By this time all of our feet are killing us and GM Kaye had a knee that was really bothering her, so we got her a wheelchair. The Native American museum had an exhibit of dresses from lots of different tribes and they were just gorgeous. That was my favorite part of the museum along with some backstrap loom exhibits they had.

On Monday we were going to see the Natural History museum but they were not going to open until late so we went to the National Zoo. Again we got GM Kaye a wheelchair and we were set. I got to see the cats – cheetahs, tigers and lions – as well as the pandas including the 2 year old panda Tian Shan. He was really cute. We also got to see a baby Orangutan cross the “o” line. They basically have two houses where the Orangutans can stay and they have these towers that are about 20 feet tall and connected with ropes. The orangutans walk across the ropes between the pens. It is probably about ¼ mile between the pens. Of course I am guessing the distance because I am not very good at distances :) After that we ate at a good little European bakery and then went to the Air and Space extension Museum by Dulles Airport. This museum is a huge hangar and they have about 200 planes of all sizes there – including helicopters and gliders. They have a concord which is almost too big for the hangar. They also have the Enola Gay, the shuttle Enterprise and an SR71 Blackbird – which is Erik’s favorite. It was a really cool museum and definitely worth the visit.

All in all it was a great trip. I forgot to mention the visit to Arlington Cemetery. It was very nice and we left flowers on Dad’s marker and visited the highlights of the Cemetery. It was a nice morning for the visit. Erik was also really great on the trip. I know at times it was trying for me and he never complained and was perfect the whole time. I love him so much ;) I can’t wait until we can go on a trip with just the two of us. I am sure it would be a lot less stressful for both of us :)

So, that was the big event for us recently. The next week Erik had to go to Redmond for work and I ended up getting really sick. Not sure what it was but I felt like crawling under the bed and never coming out. The worst part was that because I was so sick, I didn’t eat which caused even more problems. I think if Erik had been home he would have made me eat. He did bring me a happy meal when he got home so that was very sweet of him :) Basically that weekend was fairly routine and boring, we just did errands. I took Erik to get his first massage and he really liked it. It was a couple’s massage so we were in the same room. When it was over he looked at me and said – “Can you pour me out of the bed?” It was really cute.

A week ago yesterday Erik bought a new car. It is a very nice 2008 Nissan Altima. He had a 1999 Nissan Altima before and it was starting to die. The new car is really awesome and has all of the toys. Basically you don’t have to use a key, you just keep the remote in your pocket and push a button and the car will start. Really cool. It has navigation and hands-free Bluetooth technology as well as XM radio and a 6 disc changer. It has the dual climate zone too  It is a really sweet car.

This past weekend we went and saw 3:10 to Yuma. It was a good movie but kind of sad. It was less of a guy movie than I initially thought. It was funny though because they were supposed to be near Bisbee and there was snow on the ground in some of the scenes. Apparently they filmed it in New Mexico around the same time when Arizona and New Mexico got all that freaky snow. It was just hilarious to me.

Yesterday I got to see where Erik works. It was kind of cool to see what he is working on. I think he said the technology he is working on will be in phones in a couple of years, the technology in my phone is something he worked on 2 years ago. So he knows what is coming up for the phones with TI chips in them which is really cool. He also has this cool board with the chip on it and he can see a screen of what the cellphone screen looks like. It is neat. The chip is so tiny...

So that gets us up to date with everything. Violin and art are both coming along. Things with Erik are phenomenal and I love him more everyday. He is great!! The cats are good, Figaro and Dexter are still not getting along well, but we are working on it. Dexter’s other eye is starting to get bad so we aren’t sure how long he has left. He is being a lot more cautious about jumping up on things and even missed the sink this morning. Of course, he still has the attitude. Last night I had to take him off the bed because he would growl at us every time we moved and then tried to bite my toes through the covers. He was back in the morning with a better attitude.

We have booked a lot of trips lately. We are going to Atlanta to be with Erik’s family for Christmas and Thanksgiving. We are having Christmas with my family early in December. In January we are going on a skiing trip in Winter Park, CO. I am a little nervous about it but hopefully it will be better for me this time. Erik is going to have me wear a helmet so no ski lift incidents and he is going to help me try ski blades which he says are easier than skis. I am worried about going on a trip with 3 experienced skiers but Scott’s son Clayton is also going and is new to the sport so maybe he and I can take a rest together while the others go to the hard courses. I am sure I will need more breaks than they do as I am sure my butt will be in snow a lot more than theirs.

Erik and I are going on a cruise at the end of March. It leaves out of Galveston so we will just have to drive down. It will be fun having him on a cruise. Frankly I just can’t wait for a vacation where I don’t have to take care of someone else the whole time. I know he will be able to keep up with me and not question every single thing I say like my family did. I think it was a little more stressful than vacation last time. Plus, we will get to go to a place in Jamaica that I have never been to before and he will get to scuba in Grand Cayman. It is going to be lots of fun.

OK, so I think I am out of updates for now. Hope everyone is doing well. More to come – someday

"Dexter" is finished

2007-08-23T22:55:00.000-05:00

So this is the finished painting of the photograph I had of Dexter. This is before he went blind in his eye. It turns out that whiskers are REALLY hard to do but I think they came out pretty good.

My First Painting

2007-08-21T18:07:00.000-05:00

I finished my first painting about a month ago but I have been lazy and not taken any pictures of it. Well here it is...It is an oil painting. For our first painting, we chose a picture of another painting we liked and used it as a reference. I used one by Henri Martin called "Maison au bord du ruisseau" It is the little picture at the top right (that was the biggest one I could find on the net).

Anyway, we also had a special art night at the studio where we take our lessons. I learned how to do monotypes. Basically you take a piece of plexiglass, paint it with watercolors, acrylics, oils or any combination of those. Then you press paper to the design and what you get is the monotype. After it dries you can go back and add to it with paint brushes or chalks or pastels. You can even add leaves, fabric, etc to it. I am not usually one for abstract art, but the process was fun and quite liberating. You can see my monotypes here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8748591@N05/sets/72157601607128545/

The lighting on the pictures isn't the best, but you get the idea.

About to run to the next painting class now. I am very close to finishing my portrait of Dexter and I will post a pic when I am done.

I Suck :)

2007-08-20T22:32:00.000-05:00

Ok, so my blog updates have been very few and far between. I am really running out of excuses. It has been quite a busy summer and there has just not been enough time for everything.

So - hmm...I am still doing Violin. I am slowly getting better and I can almost run through the G major scale and hit each note on the first try. I am working on "Danny Boy" for my recital piece. It is just hard enough that it is challenging for me but not too hard that I won't have it learned before recital. My teacher is really pushing me at a fast clip.

Max is pretty easy to keep except when it is bed time. I have to put him in his bed and let him cry which is really hard for me. He sounds so pitiful and I feel like a mean old Aunt. His affection for Erik is still unmatched. I had to tell him 'no' about something and he burst into tears, walked over to Erik and put his arms up to be picked up. Also, anytime we see him, I start talking to him but as soon as he sees Erik he is very uninterested in his poor aunt Am. I am glad he likes Erik though and Erik is really good with him.

We saw Stardust at the Studio Movie Grill. They have movies and dinner. I had a wrap that was pretty good and their sweet potato fries were amazing. The movie was great too. I really enjoyed it.

We also played a game called Taboo with some friends. That game is really good but also very hard. I have a hard time breaking long words down into their short words - i.e. sunglasses into sun and glasses, neither of which you can say if it is listed as a word on the card. The basic idea is that you have to get your partner to say a word without mention five other words listed on the card- and those words are usually the most common words associated with the main one. It is fun and challenging at the same time.

I had a kidney infection most of that week which was not very much fun. On Sunday, Nicole and I got our nails done and then Erik and I went to Ikea to get Nicole's birthday present. We also ate ad Fuddrucker's which was a great treat since Weight Watcher's does not really allow for a burger on a big buttered bun.

This past week was pretty normal stuff. We had art class on Wednesday and then we baked a cheesecake on Thursday for Nicole's birthday. Erik is still learning the finer arts of cooking and he burnt the chocolate chips on the first attempt at melting them. He picked out the burnt parts and was being totally bad and eating spoonfuls of it so we had to wash it down the drain. It was very hard for Erik to do that since we are both really addicted to chocolate. Anyway, the cheesecake came out well.

On Friday we left work early and took the new curio cabinet to Scott and Nicole's to set it up for her birthday before she got home. We were about 10 minutes from being done when she walked in the door so she got to see me put the bow on it. It was a big surprise though and she really liked it. We went to an Italian restaurant for her dinner and then back to their house for cheesecake and a little Karaoke revolution.

On Saturday we went to Six Flags Hurricane Harbor. It was lots of fun. IT wasn't too hot because we had some rain blowing through but it only shut down the rides for about 1 hour in the middle of the day. Other than that it was fairly clear. We all had fun but my feet were exhausted at the end of the day. We all came home, cleaned up and went out to dinner. After that, Erik and I came home and then went to bed at 10:30. We slept until 9:30 Sunday morning.

Sunday we went to our usual lunch with friends and then did some shopping. Texas had a tax free weekend on clothes and shoes. Erik has lost enough weight that he needed smaller clothes, so we went and got him some. We also went to the Apple store to get an accessory for his new iPhone. We had a chocolate covered strawberry and banana kabob from Godiva that was really good but also way too expensive. We were still tired from Saturday - probably because we slept too long so we had a leisurely evening.

Tonight Erik went to Cello lesson and I took a special class at the art studio where we take oil painting class. It was a monotyping class. Basically you take watercolors, acrylics, oils or a mixture of the different mediums and apply them to a plexiglass. Then you take a sheet of paper and press it to the glass. Your art is what transfers to the paper. After the paper dries, you can leave it as is or you can draw over it with chalks, pastels, etc. It was really fun and very relaxing since there is no defined structure of what has to be done. I like the oil painting but this was a much needed release after a stressful day.

Anyway, it is close to bed time. Hope all my friends in all corners of the earth are doing well.

Update

2007-08-06T17:37:00.000-05:00

It has been several weeks since I updated this blog. The main reason being that I have been so busy since my last update that I have had absolutely no time to type an update. So this update is going to cover all of that lost time. Be prepared for a long winded post.

Everyone have their sodas and snacks? Ok, here we go…

So the day before we went to Atlanta, I woke up feeling like I was going to die. My head was exploding and I felt like I had a stomach bug. I think that part of the problem was a lack of enough sleep and the other part was anxiety from the pending trip. I had not gotten a lot of sleep as I had completed moving in with Erik and transferring everything over to his house. I pushed myself too hard and getting sick was the end result. Of course, I was feeling awful and hoping that it would quickly go away so I would not be sick on the trip.

Luckily, that Friday morning, I woke up still a little ill but much improved. Erik and I worked at home in the morning and then went to the airport. Except for a small delay in our flight, it was mostly uneventful. We arrived, went to the hotel, got some dinner and went to bed. I do have to say that driving through Atlanta again was really weird and I am amazed at all the changes they have made and all the new buildings and bridges right next to 75/85. It is very different now!

On Saturday morning, I met Erik’s family for the first time. They are all very nice and very welcoming. Erik’s mom made a French toast casserole that was pretty good and we just sat around and ate and talked until time to go to the Georgia Aquarium. The aquarium was pretty cool. They have one section where you walk through a tunnel but it made me dizzy so I was glad to be out of that part. The whale sharks are ginormous but the scary part was the gigantic grouper. They have this one window that is 66 feet long and these huge 6 feet long grouper sit in front of it and stare at you like they are waiting to pick you out for their next dinner. They are very freaky. The river section is kind of neat. The prettiest section was the tropical reef section with all of the tropical fish. I also liked the polar section because it had seals and beluga whales. Erik’s parents were in the whale section when two of them started getting frisky but they were being good when Erik and I went through that section. We ate lunch at the aquarium and then finished up the sections we had not seen.

After the aquarium we went to the New World of Coca-Cola. It is pretty much the same as the old one with a bigger building and more Coca-Cola advertising. The tasting section is not as cool as now it does not have the shooting soda it is just a normal drink fountain like you would find in any fast food restaurant. Erik tried the Beverly from Italy even though I had pre-warned him about it’s nastiness. Most of the drinks from Africa were way too bitter. There were several drinks from Asia that were apple based that were very good and I would love to have them again. The South American drinks were kind of sweet but then after trying all the drinks, your taste buds start revolting anyway, so maybe next time I should start with those. It also doesn’t help that I am used to having diet sodas now for my weight loss program and I am not used to all that sugar.

By the time we had finished the tasting section, our feet were killing us and we looked around in the retail shop while the rest of his family finished up. Then we went back to his parents house and sat around and talked some more. He and his brother are very funny together and crack jokes and are silly together. Adam’s girlfriend is very nice and she has the same type of silliness that Adam and Erik have so I kind of felt out of place because I am not like them. They were having fun though so I just read a magazine. We all went out to Mexican food for dinner and Erik had a few margaritas. He got a little tipsy so after dinner we hung out a little longer then went back to the hotel. After a short foot rub, we went to bed.

On Sunday morning, Erik’s family came over to the hotel and we had Sunday brunch. It was amazing!!! I am probably a little biased because I was eating a lot of foods that I don’t normally eat on Weight Watchers, but it was so good! I had real bacon and biscuits and gravy. I also had all the cheese I wanted, plus potatoes and chocolate covered strawberries. It was all so yummy. After lunch we went back to Erik’s parents and then we went back out and met some of his friends. Everyone was super nice. We then went back and said our farewells to his parents and headed to the airport. Again, fairly uneventful but I was really glad to be home.

We got home a little late and finally got into bed around 1:30. I had to be up and ready for Super Shuttle at 6:00 so I did not get much sleep. I had to go on a work trip to California. I really didn’t want to go but I got up and was ready in time. The ride on Super Shuttle was long but I finally got to the airport. I was able to sleep on the plane but still felt tired. Scott from work took me by this breakfast place and they had the biggest omelets I have ever seen in my life. It was really good. I got to meet the people that I work with in California but most of the trip was extremely boring. I was without a computer the whole time so those who know me can imagine my frustration! I have never been paid to sit around and read and do embroidery before but that is exactly what I did most of the time since the only purpose of the trip for me was to meet the team members at that location. We left California at 3:30 in the afternoon and my flight landed around 8:30. Mandar and I got back on Super Shuttle but they were really busy and we ended up circling the airport until 9:30. By the time everyone else had been dropped off, it was 10:30 when I got home. It was a really long day but I was glad to be back home!

I worked on that Thursday and Erik and I went to pick out flooring for our new office and the guest bedroom. We both took off work on Friday. That weekend we tore up the carpet in the room, put down the new laminate flooring and painted the room. All of that sounds rather easy but it really wasn’t. We spent the whole weekend and week doing it all and moving furniture and dropping Ethernet cable into the room to prepare it as an office. It looks beautiful but it took a lot of time. Erik still has some of his computer and desk stuff to set up but the room is coming along nicely and should be done shortly.

Last Monday I converted to a full time, permanent employee of Countrywide. I do not even want to talk about the nightmare of converting from a contractor to permanent status. Suffice it to say that it was not a seamless transition and I am still working on getting all of the same application access that I had before the process began.

This past Thursday we went and saw the new Harry Potter movie. It was pretty good but it got out really late. On Friday, I worked from home and just did chores around the house. We also went to dinner with Scott, Nicole and Clayton and then went back home and did some more work on the office.

Saturday we did a lot of painting. Our bedroom was a really nasty lime color so we painted over that and it looks so much better. We painted the guest bedroom as well. We wanted to get it painted before the new carpet is put in so that we did not have to worry about getting paint on the carpet. We still have to finish the trim in that room but it is almost finished. Nicole came and helped us paint and she was a great asset! I don’t think we would have made the progress we did without her help. I for one owe her big time!! Plus she is a better painter than Erik and I. Both rooms look really nice and I am excited about how they will look when we are completely finished. As soon as the carpet is installed we are going to move Erik’s old dresser and TV stand into that room and turn it into a guest room. Then we are going to put the other two pieces of furniture that we purchased that match my bedroom set in our bedroom. We bough the armoire and the 5 drawer chest that I did not have room for when I lived in an apartment. After that, the house will be somewhat back to normal and I can’t wait. My “work first, play later” ethic has been a little hard on Erik and I am ready for him to have a break and some down time. Luckily the only pressing thing before the carpet is installed is painting that trim in the guest bedroom, which is something that I could finish on my own. It is to a point now where I can relax about it so I think it will be a quieter week for us.

Saturday night we had Max and then Sunday we went out to visit mom. She is doing well and I think she enjoyed the visit. Last night we went to see Bourne Ultimatum and it was an ok movie for an action movie. There was a little lack of actual content; most of it was just beating people up and action sequences. It wasn’t horrible though.

So, that was the last two weeks in a very long update. Hopefully I will be better about keeping this up to date and I am sure that I have missed something, but this is the gist of the past few weeks. Hope everyone is doing well.

Weird Al and The Cure

2007-07-17T16:11:00.001-05:00

So last Saturday, Erik, Scott, Nicole, Clayton and I went to see Weird Al in concert. Despite the initial troubles with getting into the venue (they had moved it from an outdoor venue to an indoor one in case it rained), the concert was quite fun. The seats we ended up in were great and we had a very good view. The concert itself was great and the costume changes he does during the show makes it that much more enjoyable. I found myself thoroughly enjoying the concert and Erik *really* enjoyed it.

The biggest thing about the Weird Al concert was the extreme nerdiness of the attendees. It struck me as highly funny that instead of cigarette lighters, just about everyone there was holding up their cell phones with the backlight on. Of course I am a nerd too, but I did not get my cell phone out and wave it around. Weird Al did a lot of the old stuff mixed in with the new stuff so it was like I never missed a concert. All in all it was a really great night and I got to eat in a Sushi place without dying! I didn't eat any sushi, just some chicken so I am pretty sure I was safe.

Yesterday as I was driving to work I heard that "The Cure" is coming in concert on October 17. For those who are clueless, they are like my favorite band EVER!!! I even flew to Maryland to see them once. You can imagine my total excitement. The pre-sale begins on Thursday to those registered on the Cure website and of course I am registered. I am just hoping I can get tickets. One of the radio stations that I listen to is giving them away 3 times a day. This morning I was lucky enough to be in the car when they made the announcement to call. They are giving two tickets to the 20th caller. I was the 19th caller!!! All I could say was "damn" when they told me. I want those tickets!!! Hopefully I can get some tickets on Thursday if I can't win them before that time.

Tomorrow is Erik's 30th birthday and I have been doing my best to think of way's to make it special for him. He is not making it easy because he is a little complacent about being his birthday. I always milk mine for all its worth. They don't come around every day. It is a day to be pampered. We have decided that he is getting pancakes for breakfast. Luckily our Weight Watchers recipe book has one in there for fairly low points for 3 pancakes. Of course, I won't be with him for lunch but I am sure the people at work will be able to take care of him for that. Then for dinner we are going to Rafain and I have heard a lot about their dessert buffet from several people. Hopefully it will be a fun day for him.

Friday we fly to Atlanta for the weekend with his family. Still nervous about meeting new people, but I think I am a little more relaxed about them being his parents because everyone says they are nice. There is a difference in your parents meeting your friends versus your girlfriend though. Your friends are not necessarily people you will interact with a lot but your girlfriend/boyfriend is someone who might interact a lot more with your parents. Anyway, I am sure it will be fine and we will have fun. Looking forward to seeing the aquarium since it wasn't finished before I left Georgia. I think we are also going to the new World of Coca-Cola which should be fun. I am kind of glad that the planning is out of my hands because we get back from Atlanta Sunday night and I have to go to California for work on Monday morning for 3 days.

Well, off to bake a birthday cake...

Busy, Busy, Busy

2007-07-11T14:02:00.000-05:00

So the decision has been made and the plans are being implemented...and still planned...logistics! I am officially beginning the process of moving in with Erik. My boys, Starski and Dexter, will be moved over to the house this Saturday. I am going to move as much of the little things and smaller furniture as much as I can on my own without getting an asthma attack. So far we have come up with a plan for everything except my living room furniture.

Cool thing is I had some furniture that we decided to sell/donate. I was not confident I would be able to get any money for the pieces. But there was a person on craigslist who is a massage therapist who is going to trade massages for the furniture. Right now two massages at a store is running in excess of $150 so this is a great deal! She even comes to you. I will let everyone know how she did after Sunday.

I think everything will work out just fine. I haven't decided if I am going to use movers for the furniture that needs to be moved, or just see if my brother and maybe one of his friends can help me out. I am leaning more towards that than the movers but we have to figure out where the stuff is going first anyway...

We have already started planning how to integrate my boys with Figaro and Bella but it is probably going to take 3-4 weeks before they can all happily coexist in the whole house. I am not too worried about Starski but am a little worried about Dexter's attitude. Hopefully it won't return because he has been such a good cat lately.

Next week is Erik's 30th so the massage should be a nice little gift. We are going to a Churrascaria for dinner called Rafain. I have never been to one so it will be different. Then we have our big trip to Atlanta the next Saturday.

I am starting a new painting tonight. I have several pictures of Dexter that I want to turn into a painting of him so that if his cancer continues to spread, I will have a reminder of him. Plus, his pictures are just too cute. Erik wanted me to do an "art" piece and put a smoking jacket and such on him, but a) I don't think I have that skill level yet and b) I would have to have a drawing of it to work from so that I could get the perspective right.

Caleb at work has a nice button down shirt on. He just unbuttoned the shirt and pulled it open to reveal a t-shirt underneath it that has a superman style logo on it with C# in the middle. What a geek!!! (For my non-IT friends, C# is a development language on computers). He even did it with a little theme song to go along with it. Friday is a casual dress day at work and our theme is "Embrace your Geekness Day" so I have to come up with something to wear. Caleb should have waited until Friday to wear that shirt.

Ok, so now I am babbling and I need to get back to work....Ta ta....

This Past Week

2007-07-06T11:46:00.000-05:00

So this past week has been very busy. Last Friday we went with Scott, Nicole and Clayton to dinner and a movie. The dinner kind of sucked, except for the Kafta with Tahini which was quite good. The movie was awesome. We saw Ratatouille and I think it was well worth it. On Saturday we weighed in and surprisingly I was down a little. Although I know this week that I am up a little but that is expected. Also on Saturday, my kitchen stuff found it's way to Erik's house. I can now properly cook dinners and not be missing some essential piece of equipment. We also set up the dining table and it looks really nice.

On Sunday we went to Spamalot and it was very funny. I was a little skeptical about it at first but I really enjoyed it. We went out for BBQ afterwards that was also enjoyable. Then came the evening from hell...We were supposed to fly from DFW to Phoenix on a flight leaving at 9:30 pm. When we arrived at the airport around 6:30, we saw that the 6:30 flight was now scheduled to leave at 8:30 and just about every other flight was delayed at least 2 hours. Also, the 7:30 flight had been cancelled. We asked if it was possible to get us on the 6:30 flight. We were put on the standby list and we proceeded to the gate for that flight. Little did we know that there was a major problem with the Philadelphia flight scheduled out of that gate. Basically the plane was there but they were missing a crew member. That flight was supposed to have left at 3. In the meantime, the Phoenix crew was standing around the gate waiting for a plane. Each time the original departure time for the Philadelphia flight would come and go, they would move it back another 30 minutes. Also, by this time, the gate is scheduled for 4 flights to leave from the same gate. While waiting on the 6:30 flight o Phoenix, our original 9:30 flight was moved to 11:37 pm, so we continued to wait around for the earlier flight.

By 9:00 pm, they have finally moved the San Antonio flight to a different gate, but the Philadelphia, Phoenix and Newark flights are all scheduled to leave from the same gate at 10 pm. Obviously a computer has really messed up the schedule. Around 10:00 pm, the gate agent comes on air to say that the Phoenix flight has been moved to another gate in a different terminal. Erik and I proceed to the new gate only to discover that the flight is now scheduled to depart at 8 am the next day. After finding out this information, we locate the gate for our original flight, now scheduled for 11:37 pm. We proceed to that gate and wait. When we arrive, there is another flight waiting there that takes forever to board and leave. Wouldn't you know that this is the same gate that was replaced as the gate for the San Antonio flight. Both the Phoenix flight and the San Antonio flight are scheduled to depart from this gate at the same time. By now it is abundantly clear that the computer systems need some human intervention. Perhaps a sledgehammer would work...

Anyway, after waiting around wondering what is going to happen, they finally come on air and say our gate has been changed yet again. We proceed to the new gate and wait some more. The gate agent comes on air and says that we will be boarding shortly at 11 pm. Funny thing is that the time is already 11:05 pm. We sit around and wait and *finally* they start boarding the plane at 11:50 pm (yes, we were already supposed to be in the air). You would think this would be the end of our troubles, but sadly you would be wrong.

After everyone has boarded, the captain comes on the air and tells us that we are waiting on catering. Now at this point I could really care less about catering, but I guess we have to have it. So we wait for that. Then the captain comes on and says that we are waiting on connecting baggage. Ok, my thoughts are this - where the hell was this baggage 2 hours ago when our original flight was supposed to take off? Are they just giving us extra baggage? I mean they had over 2 hours to get it to our plane....So we wait. Then the captain comes on and says that the cargo net is broken and basically we can't fly with it broken so we have to wait on maintenance to bring the part to fix it. So we wait.

Finally it is about 1:15 am. We have been on the plane for over an hour. We start pushing back from the gate. This is when we hear a horrible crashing noise and the plane goes dark. The captain comes on air to tell us that the APU has failed and they have to go back to the gate to start up the plane because the APU is what starts the engines, but don't worry, we don't need it in the air. So we go back to the gate and they start up the engines. But wait, the navigation system was crashed during the power failure so they have to reprogram it so we have navigation. Finally we push back and taxi to the runway. However, the pilot went extremely fast around that last curve while revving the engines up and I think the plane was on one set of wheels around the corner.

Basically I ended up sleeping the whole time to Phoenix. We finally land in Phoenix around 1:30 am and proceed to wait for the shuttle to take us to the car rental place. That took about 30 minutes. We got to Debs house around 2:15 am and promptly went to bed. It was a very long night.

The trip itself was great. I introduced Erik to all my friends as well as Sweet Tomatoes, Sweet O's and Chino Bandido. I got to hang out with everyone and just catch up on the past few months. Jaime and Rob are looking forward to England. Debs is doing well with the baby and Anwen has more words and can finally say Amber. She also said Erik right as we were leaving - prior to that she just laughed when we told her his name or said "no". Michele and Ryan are doing well too. I miss all of them but I also enjoy all the new people Erik has introduced me to. Plus, I love being here with him.

The flight back was pleasant. It was a breeze to get through security and there was only about 20 people on the entire flight (if that many), so we were boarded fairly quickly and got on our way on time. It was a little bumpy but not too bad and I only got minor air sickness. As we neared DFW we were able to start seeing fireworks all over. At first they were just burst of light from the ground but as we descended we could see the full effects. There were tons of fireworks the whole way down and we could see several of the professional city celebrations going on. It was a really awesome sight and quite indescribable. There was a small mishap with the GPS routing on our way home but we worked through it and got home just fine.

All in all the trip was not so bad once we actually got there. The heat and dryness was quite different but it wasn't too bad until we left to return to the airport. It was great seeing everyone and even better because Erik was with me :) Yay! I am no longer a 5th wheel :)

I am pleased that we got to go. Now I get to look forward to the trip to Atlanta to meet Erik's parents and his brother. I am getting excited about it but we still have two weeks to go. This weekend we are going to visit GM Kaye and next weekend we have Weird Al tickets, so there is lots to do between now and the Atlanta trip.

I just don't understand...

2007-06-29T13:37:00.000-05:00

These people who are standing in line for days just to get an iPhone as soon as it is released. For one, why is getting the phone that important?? Also, why be one of the first people to get a new product that has not yet been tested. I can understand that the product has probably undergone significant tests for usability and reliability. However, this thing could have any number of problems and I can not imagine that the sign up process is going to be very smooth on a super busy day like this. It is not like these people are just going to buy a new product, they also have to deal with the phone service agreement stuff that will go along with buying the iPhone. And I really pity any ATT customer who needs help with something other than the iPhone today. I wonder how much business will be lost this evening when the iPhone launches from people who are not interested in that phone. It is all very interesting.

Yay! Another Friday is here and this time it precedes a 5 day weekend. I am still super excited about the Phoenix trip. It is going to be lots of fun and the fact that it is pretty much guaranteed that there will not be 3 days straight of rain is super appealing. But first the weekend is going to be great as well. Tonight, hopefully, we are going to see Ratatouille. JR saw a sneak preview several weeks ago and said it was great so I am excited about going to the show. Events of the past few weeks have prevented us from seeing any movies so it will be nice to see this one. On Sunday we are going to see Spamalot. I think it will be interesting and fun. I have not seen anything at Music Hall in Fair Park since I was a teenager so that is an interesting blast to the past.

I am not looking forward to the weigh-in tomorrow. I am not super upset about it but I have not been as diligent and good as I should have been this week, so I am expecting a weight gain. Couple that with the weight gain I expect the next week because of vacation and hormones and I am going to have to be really good when we get back. Also, my triglycerides came back high again, which is not a surprise to me. I will have to watch what I eat even more carefully if I want to stay away from medications for the problem. Weight Watchers has helped me start eating better, but I am going to have to refine that a little more. Now that I am basically free from the sugar addiction I need to work on my cheese addiction. Cheese just makes everything taste better, but it is really bad both points wise and triglycerides wise. I am sure I can do it, I just need to work on it. I need to start expanding my taste buds and trying new ways of adding flavor to food to make it desirable.

So basically I just have to get through the next couple of hours and then FREEDOM!!!! LOL, i love Fridays.

No more shots!

2007-06-27T15:30:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I went to the doctor for a physical/introduction appt. I figured it would be best to get established with a doctor before I actually need one, because finding a doctor when you are sick kind of sucks. Anyway, I also needed and Epipen prescription so that I can eat out with Erik without him worrying that I am going to die from shellfish cross-contamination.

Anyway, in the process, I talked to the doc about cutting open my finger and not having a tetanus shot in at least 12 years. He decided that yes, it would be best if I had a shot. The nurse gave me a DTap shot which involves a vaccination for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. Then I got to get blood drawn for labs, from the same arm!! I then left and went to work. About 30 minutes after the vaccination (well probably more like 20) I started getting a mind splitting headache. I also felt like I had been hit by a truck and was super sleepy and nauseous. Since I have the allergy to iodized salt, I immediately recognized this as an allergic reaction. I knew it was not an anaphylactic shock reaction but it was bad enough to send me home and to bed.

I had to go by Target first to get the Epipen prescription filled. I especially wanted it filled in case the initial allergic reaction to the DTap became more serious. After some really crappy insurance problems, the guy told me the price and then said, "Do you still want it?" As if I really have a choice. Why would someone not fill a prescription like that if they took the time to bring it in and wait around for it. I know the price was a little high, but it is worth the security it provides in case shellfish decides to find its way in my food somehow. Can't trust those bottom-feeders :)

About 45 minutes after I left work, i was finally able to fall into bed. By this time I was running a mild fever, probably around 100. I was exhausted and I slept in a tshirt and pants. I usually can not sleep in pants but I had no trouble falling asleep this time. I slept solid from about 12:30 until 5:30 when Mom called to talk to me. I talked to her for a little while and then moved my tired self to the couch where I watched Dr. Who and Blood Ties until Erik came home. By this time, the headache was still severe enough to completely knock out my vision in my right eye and all I could see out of it were moving blobs.

Anyway, long story short, even though I was experiencing what is determined to be "mild-moderate" symptoms, I am really going to think twice the next time they want to give me a vaccination. The headache and nausea alone are bad enough, but I don't need to feel like I have not slept in 10 years. Basically I got about 5 of the 8 side effects from the vaccination - headache, fever, nausea, tiredness and arm swelling. Teh headache being the worst of it all. I still have part of that headache today.

On the upside, I am really looking forward to the Phoenix visit. The highs are going to be from 110-115 but that will be better than the floods we are experiencing here in Texas. Plus IO can't wait to see everyone! Only a few more days before we get to go. Yay!!

New Clothes

2007-06-24T23:01:00.000-05:00

Erik and I went clothes shopping today and yesterday. Yesterday I actually fit into a size 16 jeans and they looked good and fit well. I was also able to buy a size 14 dress that fit rather nicely. (The dress and top sizes are always smaller because I am that pear shape...) I was amazed at it all and it made me feel really good. I am officially down over 5 pounds and excited about it all.

Today I was able to buy pajama shorts that were only an XL and a top that was a Large. I am definitely proud of myself. It is also a good motivator to keep going. I will miss shopping at Torrid once I am out of their size range but being a smaller size will open up all of the other stores to me and those stores are the ones that Torrid tries to emulate anyway. Plus, since Hot Topic is who owns Torrid, I can just shop there if I miss my old store too much. The other plus is that even though I like Torrid, they only have one store in the Dallas area and it isn't exactly right down the street for us.

Hooray, It's Friday!!

2007-06-22T15:51:00.000-05:00

There is nothing better than 4 PM on a Friday. Ok, so maybe 5 or 6 when I actually get to go home, but at least I know the end is near. Don't get me wrong, I like my job, but Friday's are still nice :) Of course, today I have to go home and clean, but at least I can do that on my own schedule and in my pajamas if I want to do so. Also, today was bagel day at work. Luckily they were out of the Honey Almond cream cheese so I was able to control my cream cheese portion fairly well.

After the dramatic differences in the past few weigh-ins at Weight Watchers, I have a little trepidation about tomorrow's result. I am just hoping it is at least marginally good. I haven't been bad about stuff all week, but of course, I was really good that one week and I got screwed on that weight :) Ah the joys of actually trying to become healthy. It is funny because Erik has been getting upset because he has to buy new clothes. Of course, they don't really differentiate in the guy's clothing world between clothes for bigger guys and clothes for really skinny guys. One just uses more material but the styles are pretty much the same. BUT, if you are a woman, there is a big difference in clothing and I am just not into wearing what Mom wears. I want to look cute too, big hips and all!! The women's clothing industry sucks and all of those *super* models should be force fed until they fit into at least a size 6! Ah well, off the soap box.

For a really cute laugh, check out this link:

Chocolate Bunnies

See, I told you it was cute!

This weekend we are going to visit GM Kaye. I asked her if she wanted to see a movie and she said Brokeback Mountain. Now don't get me wrong, it was a great movie. It is just funny that she wants to see it. She is pretty open-minded though so I don't know why that strikes me as funny. I think I am just going to take her to Blockbuster and let her pick out a movie or two. That way she can see something she wants to see and I don't have to pick :) I am so lazy that way. As long as it isn't going to kill me, I usually don't care one way or the other. I guess I might pose some questions if she picks out a super horror flick or something, but luckily she and I like the same kind of movies so I really have no worries in that department.

So I really have nothing to talk about, just rambling on about nothing and trying to pass the last bit of time before I go home. Congratulations to those of you have read this far, maybe I helped you waste a few minutes as well.

Gotta love Fridays.

Wow, Where do I start?

2007-06-20T12:21:00.000-05:00

OK, so I have not posted for a week but I have really good excuses - honestly....Some people may have already heard this and it will be very boring (ok, so only Erik reads it in Texas - so for him it will be boring - but everyone in AZ - this should be new)...

So we started painting class last week and I am really enjoying it. I am learning some technique and how to get started and I hope that I learn a whole lot more. I had a lot of fun and it was great to see what everyone else has done. Erik's is looking really good and I think he will do well - he has that advantage of being able to draw extremely well. He chose a beautiful red clown fish in an anemone (Debs - Anwen would swear it was 'Mo :) I chose an impressionist piece of a cottage by a river (of course! anyone who knows me knows my love of impressionism :) We had to chose a picture to work from as our first piece.

So that was Wednesday. Thursday we watched Max while JR and Lindsay went to see Ratatouille. In the process of playing with Max, Erik got his eye scratched. So on Friday I took him to the Optometrist to get it checked out. They gave him a steroid drop to put in his eye to reduce the swelling. As of today he is able to see well again. Around the same time, Erik was getting a stomach bug that was making him feel crappy, especially after eating. So Friday, we ended up having dinner and then just going back home instead of seeing the planned movie (which was good because severe cramps were bringing me down).

Continuing to Saturday, Erik woke up not really feeling well and it was really raining. Erik's house has "Lake Rainey" near the garage when it rains because of the slope of the driveway. We went to Weight Watchers and weighed in - which was a much better result for me this week as opposed to last week. We then went to lunch and then back to Erik's house. We both took a small nap until Erik's friend Scott needed to borrow a drill. So then we started cleaning up the garage. Erik had an old desk that we were going to throw away. It is one of those desks from Ikea that have the locking bolts. (Anyone who has stuff from Ikea knows what I am talking about). We decided to save the screws and bolts and I was in the process of removing them from the boards. For the screws I just used the screwdriver but the bolts had to be removed by pushing it slightly out with the screwdriver and then wedging something between the board and the small slot created to pop the bolt out. I was using a chisel to wedge it out...

Yes, a chisel. I got about 6 of them done before I succeeded in slicing open my thumb. For those who know my queasiness around bodily fluids, you can imagine the feeling my stomach got with seeing all that blood. I immediately dropped what I was doing and headed to the bathroom sink. Erik jumped into action and got the wound cleaning implements and band-aids. I was calm enough to tourniquet my bleeding thumb with my other hand so that the bleeding could be staunched. At this point I was getting fairly nauseous at the site of the blood. Then came the hydrogen peroxide. Man that burns. At first inspection, Erik stated that I might need stitches - at which point I paled considerably and was on the verge of passing out - but I held it together. He looked a little more and then told me to let go of the pressure I was placing on the thumb. As soon as I let go, blood started rushing out again, but then stopped, so Erik concluded that I probably didn't need stitches.

So, then we had to apply a band-aid and Erik nicely decided that I did not need any more peroxide. He applied some Neosporin with pain relief and the band-aid. We then went back out to the garage and the chisel was taken away from me :) The biggest problem in returning to the garage was seeing drops of my blood all over the place. I had to put things over the biggest concentrations until my queasiness had gone. Later, Erik was dragging something that made chalk marks and I thought it was funny since we could outline my blood with chalk marks and make a crime scene...Since he was not feeling well, he did not see the humour :) Oh well.

We finished cleaning up and then took everything to the trash or Goodwill. We ate dinner - well I ate and Erik snacked very little - looked at some really cute puppies and other animals at the pet store, then returned back to his house. Then we proceeded to clean up his office and file away all his stacked up to file items. I also shredded a very large stack of outdated items. Of course, in the middle of all this, I managed to jam my very sore thumb against some file folders and renew the pain in it.

After that, Erik started getting very sick and had a pretty bad fever so after getting him somewhat warmed up with blankets and hot tea, we went to bed. So Sunday, we prepared to go out to lunch and found out that Erik's car would not start. We went to lunch and then some shopping. We then came back and used my truck to jump Erik's car. We took his car to get a new battery, which is what we think was the problem - at least the car seems to be working now. We finished up grocery shopping and other stuff.

During the midst of all this, I picked something up that made me feel pretty bad Monday night, but I am feeling better now. The only thing now is that I am having problems practicing my violin due to the gash in my thumb and the soreness that goes along with pressure against my thumb. It is getting better every day though.

Another positive is that I get to return to Phoenix soon and see everyone that I am missing. I can't wait to see everyone again and I am excited that I get to see Jaime and Rob before they leave for England. It will be great to be back again, even if it will be in the 110's...I am just hoping that Erik doesn't melt in the heat and we have to scrape him off the sidewalk :)

So, the lesson learned here is don't use chisels to pry out things. Chisels are sharp :) Oh and one more incident and I am not allowed scissors at work anymore :) LOL

Max is Walking

2007-06-15T12:54:00.000-05:00

So my goal of posting to this blog daily has been completely thrown out the window. Kind of like last time I was writing in my journal. The thing about the journal is that it is easier to throw it away. I have no idea why I have the habit of writing and then getting embarrassed about my writing and then just throwing the evidence of writing away. I should feel more confident in my thoughts and my right to have them. I have probably started writing at least a dozen novels, gotten half way through them and then thrown them away. I wonder if I would have more money from all my unfinished works if I had actually finished them. I could be the next Rowling...or not.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. It is completely amazing to me how much strides a toddler makes in just one week. Last week Max was crawling more than walking. This week he walks - granted with some balance issues and some falling - but he prefers to walk instead of crawl. After each fall he gets right back up and starts again. The only funny thing is that he looks like a 90 year old drunk man. He has this kind of hunched thing - i guess to help with the balance issue. He also walks a little side ways like that will push him forward. It is one of the cutest things I have ever seen. And the grin he got last night when he saw Erik had come home was priceless. Of course it took him several minutes to get to down the hall to him and that was with Erik covering half the distance for him.

I have to say being back home in Texas is great. I am loving the time I get to spend with Max and I am really loving the atmosphere back here. I guess there really is no place like home. It seems that all the troubles I have been through were all worth it now that I am back in familiar territory and around people that love me and whom I love. Nothing like family, Erik included, to make things just seem right. No matter what goes awry, I know that I can get through it with them around.

Ok, enough of the mushy stuff- back to your regularly scheduled day...

Random Thoughts

2007-06-13T16:45:00.000-05:00

Ever have one of those days where you can't focus on any one thing for too long? I am totally having that day. It isn't for lack of work and I don't hate my job, I just can't focus on what I am supposed to be doing. I think part of the problem is hormonal and part is the midweek doldrums....I am supposed to be writing a proof of concept requirements document and OMG could it be any more boring to me today. I mean normally this stuff is cool and learning about a new process excites me but today it is just really boring.

I get started on the doc and then someone asks me a question or i think of something i want to look up on the Internet or I think of what I could be doing if I were at home. Or I am hungry...unfortunately I ran out of snacks at work and everything in the vending machine is like 5 million points. It doesn't help that Caleb revels in teasing me. Our new Project Manager, Craig, brought in a trifle bowl that he keeps stocked with all kinds of yummy goodies that I should not be eating...I am talking kit kat bars, almond joys, peanut butter cups...you get the picture. Caleb, one of the developers and my immediate cube mate (we have half cubicles that come up to about mid-arm length), loves to set one of those coveted pieces of candy on the wall between our cubicles. It is complete torture! He thinks it is funny and it sort of is but I only have so much will power. Plus he does this two to three times a day. He is a nice guy but seriously, why did they seat me next to a little brother? I already have one of those and thank the stars I don't work with him....The guys here treat me like I am their sister and need to be looked after all the time. It is nice that they care but sometimes more professionalism would be better.

I am about two more times of that candy being on the wall before I either a) totally give in and eat half the bowl or b) leave work for the day and seriously contemplate crawling into bed and hiding under the covers for the rest of my life. Problem is, I don't feel comfortable asking him to stop and if i did it would probably just make it more fun for him or make him upset with my sensitivity, I still have to work with him. I keep telling him he needs his cubicle filled with golf balls, but he thinks that would be awesome, so I would have to come up with something that is way less awesome in order for it to be effective.

Anyway, enough of my moaning. Actually I can't really remember what I was going to post about anyway...

This is hilarious!

2007-06-11T16:08:00.000-05:00

I work with a guy named Caleb and I have no clue how he finds all of these things, but I really needed this one on Saturday....

Ok, for all you frustrated dieters - someone has finally put my thoughts into words, much more eloquently than I could ever hope to do so....

Do Not Try This Diet at Home

I have to totally agree with him on the drinking water part. I think if I drank even half as much water as I am *supposed* to each day, most of my time would be spent going back and forth between my desk and the bathroom. Ah dieting is so much fun - NOT!!!!

Where has customer service gone?

2007-06-08T18:55:00.000-05:00

So I have been totally remiss in posting the last few days. Sure, I can sit around and make excuses, but everyone knows the real reason is that I am just lazy sometimes. Well, that and I have been kind of busy....I have had catching up to do with Erik, Violin practice (which has been increased and I still suck :), watching a movie, making truffles, we had Max last night, etc. etc....

But back to the topic at hand...how is it that we as a society can allow the type of crappy customer service that exists these days? Why do we continue to deal with companies who hire sub-standard employees who could care less about me and the things I need from the company for which they work? For instance, why should I sit on hold for over 30 minutes just waiting to talk to a person? I mean come on people, that is ridiculous. Yes, the voice recognition stuff is nice but sometimes there is no substitute for talking to an actual living, breathing human being. Especially because when I need to talk to an actual human, I am most likely having a problem that no computer in it's right mind can fix. I hate talking to customer service so you can bet that if I am calling them, there is a big problem.

Second, how stupid can you get? Wait, don't answer that, I probably don't want to know the answer. I recently (meaning this past week) had an encounter with Company X...yes, I am going to go the anonymous route because a) i don't want to get sued in this sue happy world and b) they aren't all that bad and maybe my experience was just a one off thing (have to throw optimism in there!). Anyway, I had ordered a service from Company X and was expected to get the service in 10 business days. So my happy ass waits 9 days for the service. On that 9th day, I receive an email saying that my service has been cancelled. I call Company X and wait 5 minutes to talk to someone. As it would happen, this someone is not the "right person" to fix my problem - of course! So I get transferred. I wait another 25 minutes to talk to the "right person". I explain my problem - yet again - and then get asked if I can be placed on hold. Why not, I have already spent almost an hour talking to you people - you think I am going to hang up now? (Of course - being Southern - that is just my inner thoughts and I am completely cordial to this person on the phone).

After waiting on hold for another 6 minutes. I get my answer. It appears that my order did not have my apartment number or phone number on it. Wait a minute!! I ordered online and I know that the information was included. SO I go look up my order and sure enough it is all there. Then this person tells me that all the online orders are transposed by a human and maybe they missed that information. What!?! All that money on computers and they pay someone to take my perfectly entered info and transpose it into another system? People please...I could recommend a good analyst to solve your problems, for say $300 an hour???

So, we determine that ok, some idiot missed my info...but wait, you guys have my email (obviously since you sent me the cancellation through email). Can't you just email me and say I need to contact you...i quote "No ma'am, we do not operate that way". Needless to say, the southern charm is getting very close to being thrown out the window at this moment....Ok, well now that we know that there was a problem and the problem is corrected, can you still hook up my service tomorrow? "No ma'am, it takes 10 days to process". Well what the heck have you been doing the last 10 days since the service was just cancelled today??? By this time I am totally fed up and deciding maybe I don't want to give this company my money. Those of you skeptics can probably guess what comes next..."BTW, we have a better package than the one you chose with more features and it only has a $40 activation fee...." You can now picture nuclear bombs going off in that southern charm area of my brain. I very nicely, but somewhat tersely told the customer service person that I was not interested in any other packages and would find a different provider for my needs. Thank you, click.

And this was just one incident this past week. There was another one that wasn't quite as bad but the customer service rep was just as clueless....Where have all the smart people gone?

That was pretty much the low point of the week! Things are all better now and will work out, but you can bet I hope I NEVER have to call that customer service number again.

Violin

2007-06-05T14:49:00.000-05:00

I absolutely love learning to play the violin. Unfortunately I do not love how much I suck. I can hear the notes out of tune and yet seem powerless to hit them in tune on the first try. I know I am still developing muscle memory but it is frustrating all the same. Plus, the fact that I am using muscles not used to these positions is an added pain in the ass.

I hope to one day play at least as half as good as my teacher and those I admire. This is one instance where perfectionism is a great hindrance. I have a feeling that painting is going to be the same way for me. I have this romanticized notion of what I want to see on canvas, but I doubt my initial execution will be anything close to what I envision. Although hand position in the painting may help my bow arm or may harm it - we will have to see. Erik is going to be a natural at the painting since all of his drawings are awesome. One plus is that I seem good at the color stuff so maybe I will be close to pretty. I can start a whole new movement - extreme impressionism, hey guess what that is, you probably won't be wrong.

All this art stuff is extremely fun to me though and I feel happy that I am expanding my knowledge and applying myself instead of just letting my brain waste away...

Apple iPhone Coming Soon

2007-06-04T09:18:00.000-05:00

The official launch date of the iPhone is June 29. It is going to sell for $499 to $599. Of course, that is the "official" price, but if cell phone companies have done anything - it is to set a precedent for giving you better prices as long as you sell your soul to them for a "minimum" of 2 years. That 2 years is only a minimum because if you do anything - like change your plan or your phone or anything, your contract renews for another 2 years. Next they will want blood samples and your first born child. Oh - and it is only available to Cingular (the new AT&T) customers. Lucky for someone like me with Cingular service. Unlucky for all the other people out there who have already sold their souls to another service company.

The other thing about this phone is that it has a touchscreen instead of a keypad. Don't get me wrong, the touch screen technology is really cool. It does have it's downside though. I find that sometimes the touch sensitivity of my iPod is too sensitive. It will change things by a mere brush against it and it loves to turn itself on. So I am wondering how that technology would fare in a cell phone situation. I put my cell phone in my purse or pocket and it would get rubbed against all the time. It probably has a key lock, but that is one feature I have always detested. It probably also has a carrying case - but that is generally only useful for people who wear belts - which I don't.

I guess I will just have to wait for it to come out and then check it out in person. In the meantime, everything is just speculation on my part. I am not usually a first adapter anyway. I want someone else to work out some of the bugs before I adapt to new technology. At least see a few reviews of actual users instead of the people who get the stuff to try out for free. Anyway, we will see...

Note: Erik comes home today...YIPPPEEEEE....I am sure he will have a better, more informed opinion of the phone since he loves all things Apple :)

Max is Officially 1

2007-06-03T22:38:00.000-05:00

Max's birthday party was great today! He is officially 1 and he took a whole 8 steps by himself before deciding that crawling was safer. Lindsay made some adorable cakes and she made one just for him. Needless to say he had icing all over himself and in his hair. He loved it! He is very generous and was trying to share with everyone else, but since he has fuzz for hair, and mine is long, I opted for just acting like i ate some of the icing he offered me.

He got a lot of great gifts and I got some good pictures. As soon as I get a chance, I will upload some of the birthday boy in all of his icinged goodness. We all had a good time but I was really tired on the way home. I dropped GM Kaye back off at her house but I had to fight some exhaustion on the way back to Plano. I thought I was going to have to stop somewhere and get out of the car and walk around... I am still missing Erik and the sleeplessness I used to have seems to have returned without him. Although he did call me today which was a big highlight of the day :) When he called I was holding Max and I let him hear Erik on the phone and he got the biggest grin. Max is a big fan of Erik :) Good for me because my two favorite boys like each other :) Well, Erik is a man, but you know what I mean...

I did promise I would *try* to get some sleep tonight, so I guess I will sign off for now. All I can think is wow, where did that last year go? It was just yesterday that we were awaiting Max's arrival, and now he is already a one year old. Man that makes me feel old ;)

Today

2007-06-02T23:46:00.000-05:00

So it is Day 2 without Erik and I really miss him :( He sounds like he is having a good time but it sounds exhausting as well. Sports related fun things always are :)

Last night we had a horrific storm. Just as I turned out the lights to go to bed there was a blinding flash of light followed closely by the loudest thunderclap I have ever heard in my life. It scared the pants off me. We had monsoons in Arizona and some good lightning shows, but the thunder there just does not compare to the thunder here. It took my heart a while to stop beating so fast from the shock, then the wind picked up and I thought the top of the tree next to my balcony was going to jump in bed with me. I guess it thought I was too lonely without Erik and needed the company.

Speaking of my bed - I have a Select Comfort. Another one of those commercial items with a lot of hype that is actually warranted. I mean this thing has a 20 year warranty and for the first 2 years, anything you need fixed is done completely free. I was really careful with it during the move, but somehow one of the chambers sprung a leak. It makes my bed look like it has a huge ravine on one side. Anyway, I did not get much sleep between the storm and trying to keep myself from rolling into the ravine. It didn't help that Starski wanted half of the good side and kept me pretty close to the edge of the cliff.

I got to hang out with Shelly today. For those who don't know, Shelly is my stepmother's daughter, but I just think of her as a half sister. She has grown into an exceptional young woman. I look forward to seeing what the future brings for her and I think she will be a great asset to the world. I really enjoyed the time we spent talking and can't wait to do it again. She is going to Brazil for 3 weeks and I have to admit I am a little jealous :) I am also extremely happy for her.

I also got some quality time with Max so that JR and Lindsay could finish party shopping. He is such a joy to watch and always makes me smile. He is definitely going to be a lady killer of the first magnitude with those blue eyes and those dimples. Kind of reminds me of how Erik looks now, so maybe that is a preview. I know Erik could knock em dead with those eyes and dimples, so maybe I need to start thinking about buying Lindsay a really big stick to keep all the girls away :) Seriously though, I adore Max and hope that if I am ever a mom, my kids will be just as great as he is. He is such a cutie with lots of personality. I can't believe that he will be 1 tomorrow.

My final destination of the day was out to Greenville to spend some quality time with GM Kaye. We watched "The Queen" which was a very good movie. She also showed me a movie called "The Last of the Dogmen". It was a pretty cool movie, even if it was on VHS...yes, she still has VHS. So I have had a pretty eventful day, but it still did not keep me from missing Erik :) Only one more day before he flies home - yay!!!

When will the world learn

2007-06-01T16:41:00.000-05:00

It is a sad state of the world that people can still do these things to women...Not only is it horrible that such racism still exists, but that people are not free to love whom they wish, no matter their race, religion, etc...

It just goes to show what religion can push the "faithful" to do...If your own family won't protect you, what hope do you have? Everyone connected with that poor girls death should receive proper punishment for their actions.

Woman Stoned to Death

It is even more sad that police watched it happen and were not responsible because the "mob" was too big, despite the fact the "mob" had only rocks and the police had automatic rifles.

The women of the world need to stand up together and say, "We will no longer allow these things to happen". The apathy that exists today in regards to being compassionate towards others is pathetic. Yes, you are just one voice, but as the Jewish saying goes, "He who saves one life, saves the world entire". We are all important in our way. One voice is just one voice, but together we can be a roar that can not be denied.

Weight Watchers

2007-06-01T14:44:00.000-05:00

Well, Erik inspired me to start losing weight again. I had already lost 13 lbs before my surgery just by eating better and working out with Susan White of Self Personal Training in Phoenix. Anyone who wants an honest, dedicated, positive experience should contact her for a consultation at selfpt@hotmail.com. Her prices are great and she comes to you!

Anyway, I needed to get back into a routine after recovering from the surgery and moving. I joined Weight Watchers last weekend. Erik has already been doing it with awesome results. Since I am with him a lot and tend to already eat the same things anyway, I decided it would not hurt to give it a good college try. It was easier than I thought with only some minor adjustment issues this first week. One of them is the headaches I am getting from withdrawal from sugar. Yes, I am an addict. The other was that one day I had used all my points but I was incredibly hungry, but it didn't kill me :)

At my first weigh in I had about 40 lbs to lose. I weighed in today and had lost 2.6 lbs so I am proud of myself. It is going to be hard this weekend with Erik gone to Cozumel on a diving trip (he is a really good support person) and Max's birthday party on Sunday, but I am going to do my best to keep up with the system so that next Saturday's weigh-in is just as positive for me as it was today. I don't expect phenomenal results too fast but I do want to keep myself motivated and on target.

All IT people - this Conference is a Must

2007-05-31T13:49:00.000-05:00

I'm no fan of the Waterfall method of development but I sure want to attend this conference. I can't wait until the 2007 one!

They have such helpful tutorials as:

- User Interaction: It Was Hard to Build, It Should Be Hard to Use by Jeff Patton
- Slash and Burn: Rewrite Your Enterprise Applications Twice a Year by Michael Feathers
and
- User Stories and Other Lies Users Tell Us by Mike Cohn

You can see the full sight here...
Waterfall 2006

My favorite is Dead Fish Can't Swim But They Can Float Down a Waterfall by Tim Lister.

Wow, What an exciting few months!

2007-05-31T10:27:00.001-05:00

Ok, so my first post is probably going to be long-winded since I *must* get everyone caught up on the drama that is my life.

Moving
Well, at the end of April I moved from Arizona to Texas. For those who don't already know, I am a native Texan. My entire family lives here. I moved back for 2 reasons - 1) I had to have external radiation treatment for Vulvar Cancer. 2) I wanted to be closer to my family and my nephew (who will be 1 on June 3).

Michele, Ryan and I made the 21 hour trip in my truck pulling a small open-top trailer. We left Glendale (a suburb of Phoenix) at around 6 AM on Saturday. I woke up that morning at around 4:00 AM - I have a hard time sleeping right before big trips. It started raining around 4:30AM and I was sure we were in for a wet ride. I mean, come on, this is Arizona and we did not get a bunch of rain but it would be my luck to have the driest state in the country send rain on me the whole way. Luckily it only rained a little and then the rest of the way was dry. It was a fairly smooth trip but the wind was horrendous! The tarps covering the bed of my truck and the trailer were literally shredded by the time I finally got to my grandmother's house and unloaded my stuff. She lives in Greenville and we went I-10 to I-30 to get there. Since Michele and Ryan wanted to get home, I dropped them off at Love Field for the flight home at about 4:30 AM on Sunday morning. I had to stop by the storage unit to leave some stuff and made it to my final destination around 6:00 AM. I can honestly say that it is very weird watching the sun rise twice before going to bed.

The House is a No Go
The plan was that I was going to buy a house in Fate, TX. It was a beautiful house and would have been great. Unfortunately, the bills from my medical expenses, my rent vs. buy estimate, and the 80 mile round trip per day to work made an opposite decision for me. I now have a cute little apartment on the 3rd floor of an apartment community in Plano. It is only an 18 mile round trip to work and is fairly quick. We (Erik and I - more on him in a minute :) got all my stuff moved in, unpacked and the walls decorated appropriately. It was a quick process with help and I could not have done it so efficiently without him. The only issues are that there is *definitely not* enough storage space and there is no good place for the litter boxes for Starski and Dexter.

Cancer Treatments
Before anyone freaks out, I would like to say that as of the end of May the prognosis is definitely good. Scans show no signs of any additional tumors and I feel great. I do have to say that I am very exhausted from doctors and I do not plan on having to see them every day again for a very, very long time. After my surgery in February, I was still feeling really tired and just not well. The area was sore from the surgery but the main symptom was exhaustion. I could sleep for 12 hours and still be barely able to move. I went in for blood tests and scans which is what tipped off my doctors to two small tumors in the remaining tissue. (They had to leave some tissue during the surgery because of sensitivity in the area.) It was determined that these tumors could most likely be eradicated using external radiation treatments. These treatments are basically a very focused x-ray type thing and are very easy to undergo. The only downside is that you have to go every day of the week Monday-Friday. As luck would have it, my new job is directly across the street from North Texas Cancer Center. It was fairly easy for me to go for the treatments without too much interruption in my day.

The plan for now is that I will undergo a scan once a month for 6 months and then if they are all clear, I will be declared in remission with checkups required periodically.

Erik
I will obviously try not to get too mushy here as I am sure he will read it, lol - Hi Erik!! I can not say enough about how awesome he is and has been. As Debs put it, he is "some guy". We met on eHarmony (yes, sometimes those things work - we should be a commercial!) while I was still in Arizona. After I moved out here, we met up in person and went to Scarborough Faire. All I could think the whole day was "Wow, how lucky am I?" It was great and there was instant chemistry. It was just like something clicked on and everything was wonderful. I know, i know, I am starting to sound like a romance novel, but hey it's the truth! I have never felt more like I belonged with anyone in my life. Two halves of one whole. I am sleeping like never before too which is great! (Michele - I finally found something that works - sleep studies be damned :)

Erik has been extremely supportive and understanding of everything. Unfortunately one of the first few weeks I was here in Texas I developed a nasty cold. I guess my body was just not used to the humidity and temperature difference...it has acted the same with my asthma and caused several concerned times with that affliction. Erik felt more sorry for me than repulsed and even found me a whole box of tissues to use.

The cold, combined with the cancer treatments and some stress....and probably too much sun caused and even worse thing to happen. I got cold sores. I am not talking one or two little baby cold sores. I am talking honkingly huge cold sores and there were 5 of them! If that is not enough for someone in a newer relationship to run screaming for the hills, I don't know what it is. I mean I looked like an extra in a horror film. Hollywood could have definitely used me without the added expense of special effects makeup. However, he is one of the most compassionate people I know. He stuck with me through the whole ordeal and helped me through the painful process of medicating them. He also gave me major encouragement on how I still looked good, even when I know I looked horrible. All the girls reading this can now sigh and say "ahhh".

All I can say is that I feel like the luckiest person in the entire world. I am truly happy and completely in love. I love him like I have never loved anyone outside of my family. He is everything to me. I truly miss his smile and his laugh when he is not around...

The Birthday
So I am now officially in my 30's. It was much worse to contemplate this pre-Erik. However, he really helped me to put it into perspective. (Although I still think you will feel some of the twinges of regret in a few more weeks Erik!!) I went on a cruise to celebrate because I was of the opinion that if I had to turn 30, I was going to do it on a beach. Technically I was at a butterfly farm in Grand Cayman that day, but I was on the beach earlier in the week. The cruise was great but I can only imagine what my phone bill is going to look like because I called Erik a lot because I missed him so much and I wanted to tell him everything.

When I got back from the cruise, Erik took me to my favorite restaurant - The Melting Pot. He also had roses on the table for me which was very sweet and romantic. It was a great time and I really enjoyed it with him. All I can say is - Hazelnut Milk Chocolate and cheesecake!

Countrywide
So, my new employer is Countrywide financial. Those who have mortgages with other companies should immediately drop them and switch to Countrywide mortgages. We are the best :) Of course, it doesn't hurt to plug them because that means paycheck security for me :) I really have no clue about how the actual mortgage stuff works because I am employed in the IT center and the architecture group. So I only deal with the back-end technology stuff. SO if you have a question about your mortgage, feel free not to call me as I will be clueless.

Conclusion
Ok, now that I have typed everyone's eyes off, I just have to say that life has indeed been exciting these past few months. I look forward to what the coming months bring and am ready to face them head on. I always think optimism is the best policy and remembering that, "The race is long and in the end it is only with yourself" (Baz Luhrman *song*). I have just been taking everything in stride and realizing that things work out. Maybe not always the way we want them to, but they do work out. I mean, if it weren't for my medical diagnosis, I may have never made the final decision to move to Texas and then I would have missed out on Erik. So, I am quite happy for my life experiences...ok, enough of my soapbox on positivity...

I promise my next post will be shorter....maybe :)