Week 21

May 22, 2011 - Today we spent the day at the karate school hanging ceiling fans, and since we were going to be gone so long, we decided to take Maggie along with us. She had a GRAND time running around, exploring, and smelling many new smells. And she really behaved herself too!


May 23, 2011 - We got new cameras today at work! So I tried my hand at making a camera strap cover for mine. It's okay, but I'll probably try again to get it just right.


May 24, 2011 - Tonight we had ridiculous tornadoes in the area, so I spent some time in the laundry room with Maggie and our guest room's pull-out mattress... no tornadoes hit our house, but at least I made a big mess in the laundry room with all the "just in case" gear!


May 25, 2011 - Today I made this camera strap cover for my friend Brenda. It turned out much better than the last one I made!


May 26, 2011 - And tonight was this camera strap cover for my buddy Sara. This one is by far my favorite, which is fitting, because Sara is definitely one of my favorite people!


May 27, 2011 - Today we headed to Nacogdoches for the holiday weekend to visit with Jack's family. We had a fun time visiting with them.


May 28, 2011 - Today was our last day in Nacogdoches, and we spent the day visiting family members and shopping in town. It was a nice day!

Week 20

May 15, 2011 - Today I took Maggie out to the backyard to go to the bathroom, and while I was waiting I saw her eating something. I thought it was poop (see also: dogs are gross), so I yelled at her, and she dropped it and looked at me. All of the sudden two baby bunnies ran in different directions, and I realized that she wasn't trying to eat poop; she was trying to eat baby bunnies. Poor little things. This one stayed there frozen for so long that I thought she had killed it, but when we went out to check later it had finally moved. I thought they were super-cute. And yes, I did bring carrots out for the bunnies.


May 16, 2011 - This morning I got up and put a pot roast in the crock pot covered in crushed tomatoes and taco seasoning for pot roast tacos. It cooked on low for 10 hours, and when I got home our house smelled AMAZING. Unfortunately, then I had to wait until Jack get home to be able to eat it. Hazard of our opposite schedule, I guess! It ended up being a really good (easy!) meal though, when we finally got to eat it!


May 17, 2011 - I like having a pillow behind me at work, but I like it in the middle and every time I move, it slips down. Bummer pants. So today I engineered this little pillow-holder for my chair - I just took a long scarf/table runner thing that Eric brought back from Ethiopia and wrapped it around my pillow and chair and tied it in the back. No more moving pillow!


May 18, 2011 - I had to document this, because my guest bathroom (and the rest of my house) is actually clean. I mean, sure, I had to panic-clean because Jack's uncle is coming into town tomorrow, but it totally counts.


May 19, 2011 - Jack's uncle Jack and Chrissy came into town tonight just to see us, and they even took us out to dinner to Ricks (my FAVORITE restaurant!). We're so completely spoiled. And we had such a great time with them!!


May 20, 2011 - Today, I discovered Pinterest. Ut oh. It's like crack for crafters. And of course, I found about 3,000 projects that I MUST START RIGHT NOW! When Jack got home, I was sneaking into the garage to try to cut wood for a wall hanging. He was not a fan of that idea (since there was a high probability I would cut off an appendage), so he went ahead and cut the wood for me.


May 21, 2011 - It's done! I stained the wood, attached the boards together, then cut out the letters with my Silhouette machine and stuck them to the whole thing! I really like the way it turned out. The quote is from one of our favorite songs from one of our favorite bands, "Rhythm of Love" by The Plain White T's.

Week 19

May 8, 2011 - Happy Mother's Day! We spent most of the day doing yard work, but tonight we took my mom to BJ's for dinner. One of my favorite restaurants and one of my favorite people!


May 9, 2011 - This picture is from yesterday, but it kind of represented my day today too. Because 1) Our yards look AWESOME today after we pulled weeds, edged, mowed, and swept up for three hours. But 2) I am SO SORE after we pulled weeds, edged, mowed, and swept up for three hours.


May 10, 2011 - Tonight we opened a bottle of wine that we bought in Wimberly about five years ago. We kept trying to wait until a really special occasion to open it since it was more than we would normally spend on wine and you can only get it in Texas, but after we picked up a bunch more bottles different Texas wines during our last trip to Wimberly, we figured we might as well finally drink this one. Unfortunately, it was a little vinegary, but I'm glad we finally opened it!


May 11, 2011 - I have been trying to figure out how to use a piping bag and tips for the last few weeks, and tonight I think I finally figured out how to hold it! I made these strawberry cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese/vanilla icing tonight, and I'm kind of proud about how they turned out!


May 12, 2011 - Today we had a video shoot for work after lunch. As you can tell by my pose here, I am incredibly important.


May 13, 2011 - I love Fridays off. Today Jack had to meet with his business partner, who just so happens to also own a little floating restaurant out on the lake. I went with him and spent the time outside siting on the dock with my feet splashing in the lake, listening to my book until my (amazing, delicious) burger was ready. Beautiful day.


May 14, 2011 - Today was another beautiful day, and we spent the day at Six Flags with a bunch of people from the karate school. It was really fun, although the crowds were CRAZY because the weather was so nice. The new Texas Giant is SO cool!

Week 18

May 1, 2011 - Today was supposed to be Day 2 of BikeMS, but it got very, very rained out. I spent the morning answering calls from the MS Society, updating our Twitter and Facebook page, and returning calls to people on my team, then went back to bed. We got back up around 8 and headed home. The MS Society handled this change beautifully and I didn't mind not riding on day two - My only goal is to raise money to help cure my mom!



May 2, 2011 - I ended up with some weird tan/burn lines. As it turns out, you should apply sunscreen more than once if you're going to be out for 10 hours. Lesson learned.



May 3, 2011 - About a week ago, I really wanted some dill pickles, so I splurged and bought a jar at the store. When I got it home, I realized I had accidentally picked up jalapeño dill. Which was fine, but not what I was craving at all. So today, Jack walked in with not one, but two jars of dill pickles - the good kind!! I was so excited that I opened one of the jars right then and there... and proceeded to spill the juice ALL OVER MYSELF. Smooth.



May 4, 2011 - Today is my mom's birthday!! We went to PF Chang's after work and then I brought over Angel Food cake and fresh strawberries. It was fun!



May 5, 2011 - Happy Cinco de Mayo! For lunch today, we went to a little Mexican grocery store/meat market that has the BEST authentic Mexican tacos and brought back four pounds of it (and plenty of cilantro and lime!) It was a fantastic meal. Viva la Puerto Rico!



May 6, 2011 - My husband cracks me up.



May 7, 2011 - I walked outside today and was literally startled by the state of our backyard. The weeds have totally taken over. This picture doesn't even do it justice. It was wild!

Week 17

April 24, 2011 - Tonight we had a HUGE storm - thunder, lightening, crazy rain, hail, you name it. Maggie, as we all know, does not do well in storms. So what do we do? We take her with us to get coffee so she won't be alone in the house during the storm. Nothing like being trapped in a glass prison in the middle of the storm to calm the neurotic dog down.


April 25, 2011 - And the storms keep coming! Tonight we got out all our lanterns and flashlights, just in case the power went out, and watched a movie together. It turned out to be a pretty good evening.


April 26, 2011 - I love starting my days like this.


April 27, 2011 - I bought this. At a thrift store. But don't worry, this is supposed to be my "before" picture, a la newdressaday.com. This is the goal for what it's supposed to end up like. I might mess it up, but messing up a thrift store dress is cheaper than messing up fabric, so one way or another, I'm going to learn how to sew!


April 28, 2011 - Tonight I was so tired that Maggie and I fell asleep on the couch together. I was still in my work clothes and everything. Usually, Jack wakes me up and takes me to bed a few hours later, but instead...


April 29, 2011 - ...I woke up at 4:30 a.m., still on the couch, this on TV. And Jack was still awake. He had stayed up all night (presumably playing computer games or something). I was really annoyed at the time, but we watched the whole Royal Wedding live and it turned out to be incredibly riveting. We went to bed at 6:30 a.m., and slept until about noon. In retrospect, I'm glad we saw it live.


April 30, 2011 - It's finally BikeMS day!! I got up at 5 this morning (I'm not really liking this new trend!) and headed to Frisco with my parents and the Bedenbaughs, and like every year, we headed out for the 86-mile ride (and that's just day one!) I've never actually made it the whole way before, but this time, I did! I rode every single mile! This is my awesome team outside our team tent. I couldn't believe how great they were this year.