One Lucky Chick!!!

Almost all of the ladies that mean the most in the world to me will be gathered in one place tomorrow….and I could not be more thrilled!!!
My best girlfriends are throwing me a baby shower tomorrow, and somehow they managed to pick a day when most of my closest friends will be able to attend. There are a few that will be missed, but unfortunately that is almost always the case. Honestly, I am amazed at the amount of my friends that plan to attend. Not because they wouldn’t want to attend my baby shower, but because the location is about 30-45 minutes from most of their homes in Austin…not so convenient.

My girlfriends have basically been working on the details of this party since I told them I was pregnant….at 5 weeks along. Now I am 32 weeks along and the party is finally here!!! I know they love me and are having a blast planning this thing, but the fact that every part of it is a secret from me is driving me crazy…

· They had an initial planning session Happy Hour that I didn’t get to attend.

· I am sure there have been numerous email chains I’ve been left out of.

· Tonight they are all getting together to decorate, and of course eat and drink.

Not that I don’t appreciate all that they are doing for me, but I hate being left out of these special girl times with my best friends. I am so glad all the secrets will be over after tomorrow!!!

Honestly though, the fact that they have all done such a remarkable job of keeping details from me has me completely intrigued. I absolutely cannot wait until tomorrow!!! My week WAS going by fast…until this afternoon. Now it feels like the day is just dragging by just to torture me.

My big day tomorrow starts with a mani with my sister, then we’ll get ready for baby shower. On our way out of town we’ll grab some lunch so I won’t be devouring everything in sight as soon as I walk in the door. :-) The girls are letting me get to the shower early so we can take some pictures and chill before the festivities start. And then the mayhem will begin. I am sure they have some crazy, silly games planned that will have everyone laughing and having a good time. After the shower a few of us will crash another party where we’ll find our husbands having their own “good” time.

So yes, I am truly looking forward to a fun filled day with people I love!

*** I genuinely do have the most amazing girlfriends in the world. How did we get so Lucky to come together like we did? Now that we’ve come to this point, I know our friendship will never fade. We have so many years ahead of us to look forward to with big, little, happy, and even sad events. I feel so good knowing I have such an awesome circle of girlfriends to go through life with.

I Love You All So Much!

Thank you for Everything!

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Hallmark Conspiracy ?

So next week my girls group we will be doing our 2^nd annual Valentines Party.

We decided to do this for a few reasons:

1) A few of my girlfriends are strong, independent, single ladies.

2) Some of our husbands just conveniently forget about V-day.

3) Some of our husbands just despise Valentines Day and don’t understand why it’s an important day to us chicks. Some of them even like to use the cop-out theory that Valentines Day is a Hallmark conspiracy. Well, maybe it is….but I think for the majority of girls, it is still an important day.

I for one, cannot help but get sucked in every year. The red and pink slap you in the face every time you walk into any store…including the grocery store. Hell, I think the grocery store is the worst….they have the pink and red out when the Christmas stuff goes on clearance. If you try to play it off and tell your guy that it isn't a big deal to you, you'll just end up with hurt feelings on Valentines day...and that doesn't do anyone any good.

Regardless of the alleged Hallmark Conspiracy, it is an important chick day…always has been, always will be. For me it started really early in life. Before boyfriends, my dad always got my sister and I flowers, or candy, or both. As we grew up and started getting flowers from boys, he started giving us each a box of Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies…we liked those more than any heart shaped box of candy.

Side Note: I remember one year my dad gave us each a box of chocolate covered cherries. (Well that is just gross.) So my sister left her box on top of her stereo speaker which was on the floor. Our Sheltie dog Tippy got a hold of that box, chewed through the plastic wrapper, and ate ALL the chocolate covered cherries. When my sister got home and realized Tippy had eaten the entire box, we all freaked out and knew we were going to have a dead dog on our hands soon. Surprisingly not, a few hours later Tippy had a very upset stomach and gave my sister her chocolate covered cherries back.

Back to the Girls Valentines Party....

We had so much fun with our party last year that we decided to do it again this year. Instead of at a loud happy hour spot downtown, we will have our party at one of the girl's houses. (We've been doing this more often lately because it's a little more intimate in that we don't have to yell over the music and the happy hour crowd.)

For fun we do a Valentines version of the secret Santa thing. We draw names and buy a small gift for the person we drew. Last year we did $15 max dollar limit, and this year we are doing $10 max dollar limit.

(Because we are all saving for our 1st annual Girls Birthday Celebration Trip.) :-)

So for the next week I will be on the hunt for the perfect $10 Valentine. I don't want to do the boring bath soaps gift, and surely I can do better than a gift card....this is for someone I call one of my closest friends.

I am positive that I will find something completely cute and unique while I am out searching... but if you do have any suggestions, by all means, send them my way!

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Uber-Awesome Wife

Finally...... I won the UBER-AWESOME WIFE Award....at least my husband says so.

I always fret about what to do or get my hubby for birthdays and holidays because he is so hard to buy for. Seriously. If there is something that he wants, he just goes and gets it. He doesn't really have many hobbies; for the few hobbies that he does have, he already has all the gear he needs or wants.
So this year I went out on a limb and created a day for him to do something that he had mentioned on occasion that he thought would be fun, but never took the time to do anything about it.

Before we headed out for Bobby's birthday dinner on Friday night, I gave him his gift. He unwrapped the box with intense curiousity. Inside the box was a jersey, goggles, and a pair of gloves.... He looked strangly at the items and said, "this is stuff for a dirt bike right?"
I just smiled.
With a confused expression he asked, "Did you get me a motorcycle?"
I replied, "Now that would be a silly thing for me to do, wouldn't it?"
He quickly agreed.
So as I explained to him that I had rented him a dirt bike at a trail park near Marble Falls, his eyes lit up and he was smiling from ear to ear.
He exclaimed, "So that's what I'm doing all day tomorrow!!!"
I went on to tell him the best part was that a few of his friends would be going with him. Two guys who already have dirt bikes, and two more who had rented as well. He was just like a little boy on Christmas morning who had just got exactly what he wanted. He then opened up the big box that I had hidden. He pulled out the full set of dirt bike gear and could not make himself stop smiling.
That smile lasted through dinner and for the rest of the evening......

For his birthday dinner Bobby chose a French place in downtown Austin that has been around for many years, but neither of us had ever tried. Chez Nous is very cute and cozy (read small) so if you want to try it for dinner, get there by 7:00. We did and got right in, but it is known to have a wait most nights. Oddly enough, it is very popular with the grey-headed crowd. First of all, I can't believe that many older people put up with the ridiculous, non-existent parking in that area. Second, this restaurant is located next door to a sex shop, and across the street from the infamous Coyote Ugly. Just one of those factors alone would be enough to deter any grandparents I know from frequenting that restaurant on Friday and Saturday nights, no matter how magnificent the food.
The food does deserve to be mentioned. For apps we had a salad and some salmon pate, both tasty. I had the delicious salmon special....I gobbled down the large serving with no problem. Bobby had a tenderloin steak, and even though he said it was a bit overcooked for his taste, he cleaned his plate. For dessert we shared a chocolate mouse....YUM!

After dinner, we stopped at the Thirsty Nickel for a drink and reminisced about his big milestone birthday party just one year before.... (good times!)
Then we headed home. Honestly, I think Bobby was just excited to get home and try on all his dirt bike gear. :-)

Saturday morning Bobby bounced out of bed and jumped in the shower. I was nearby brushing my teeth and I heard him giggle. I looked at him and asked, "Did you just giggle?"
He smiled and said, "I'm going dirt bike riding today."
I replied, "So that was a giggle."
He just kept smiling.

One of his friends came to pick him up and drive him out to meet the group. They had venison breakfast tacos and headed out for their day of adventure. About 8 hours later they made it back to our friends house where all the wives had been happily hanging out for the day.
We heard all their stories about the cold, the wrecks, the races...they laughed at each other all night. Bobby's smile had apparently been contagious because they all had grins from ear to ear all evening.
We had a feast of wild game, all kinds of dips, and birthday cake. We got competitive playing couple games and ended the night with missing drunk husband (thankfully not mine). The husband was eventually found and we all headed home to crash after a long day.

Sunday morning Bobby got up at 5:00am and headed out to go hog hunting with another group of friends. For which he caught no crap from me, because I met some friends for brunch to celebrate one of our girls completing her first 1/2 marathon. Then we spent some girl time at the mall, and somehow I managed to leave with just one item: the Twilight soundtrack :-)

When Bobby got home from his Sunday adventure he told me that I win the Uber-Awesome Wife award. I am so happy I was able to both surprise him and make him so utterly happy.

Well Crap.....now how the heck am I ever going to top that?!?!?!
~~~

Saloon Girls??? WHERE???

Weekend in Review...

Friday night our girls group split in a few different directions. 2 went to the Jason Mraz concert, 2 went to the Brad Paisley charity event, 1 was moving from north to south Austin (about time!) and the rest of us hung with our honeys.

Bobby and I went to dinner with the couple that sealed the deal for our Costa Rica trip. We meet them a couple of months ago at a party and talked to them for hours about having kids, scuba diving, traveling, and their wedding-moon in Costa Rica 1 year ago. After talking to them we decided if we wanted to do an eco-adventure trip like Costa Rica, we should do it before we have have kids. Apparently everything changes when you have kids to drag along, and you start taking your vacations to Six Flags and Disney World.

Saturday was all about Halloween Party! We headed out to Spicewood early to prep for the party and for a pre-party. :-) We spent hours getting all dolled up with lots of dark makeup, faux lashes, lace, feathers, and fishnets. The time we spent getting ready was almost as much fun as the party itself!

One of my girlfriends summed up the party best in an email to the rest of us this morning:
Good times on Saturday night, not wild and crazy like last year (I personally think it's because Anna Nicole didn't make an appearance!!!), but still lots of fun and made some good memories! All you saloon girls ;) looked super hot (yeah, I was jealous!), T's cape rocked, and L worked that witch costume!!!! Props to the boys and their costumes too...watch out for those gold running shorts to make an appearance at Town Lake someday, hehe.

Ummm.....BTW K, we were NOT Saloon Girls! Geeezzz! There weren't any saloon girls at that party at all, I checked!!! We were Moulin Rouge Hotties -- get it straight!
just kidding K, I know you were not the one that had it sooo wrong! ;-)
There were lots of great costumes, but Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf took home the prize! Even with some minor drama, the party was a huge success! Our hosts did a fantastic job!

Sunday morning most of us made it out for breakfast at the lake. It was great to reconvene and laugh about the previous nights events. After breakfast I am sure that most did as I did....camped out on the couch for the rest of the day. Of course there are the troopers who made the most of the beautiful day for shopping, hiking, unpacking....

Overall it was an awesome weekend and some of us are already planning our costumes for next year's bash!
~~~

Halloween Party Weekend!

--- TGIF! ---
I am so glad it's finally FRIDAY! I am especially excited because this is the weekend of our big Halloween party! This is the 3rd annual and it has really become our group's big event of the year. It's one of the few events that everyone shows up for because no one wants to miss it. Something good always happens, and someone....or several someones get completely obliterated. Last year I happened to be one of those someones...so that made for a short night for those who rode out there with me. Not This Year! I have a plan this time so I will be the one laughing at the drunk people....not one of them! ;-) oh well, it happens to all of us!
This year a few of the girls and I are dressing in Moulin Rouge costumes. A couple of weeks ago we had a little costume party of our own...we all tried on our costumes and helped each other with final touches. We all had so much fun that night...kinda felt like I was in high school again! We intrigued our men by telling them that it was the kinda party guys fantasize about: lots of wine & bubbly, sexy costumes, naked chicks, hot tub...more bubbly. We didn't even have to mention the pillow fight! ;-) Just kidding, we are saving that one for next time! And now that I've seen the other girls costumes, there is no doubt that we are all gonna be some hot-ass chicks! Or maybe we'll be the cold-ass ones since there really isn't much to our outfits. ;-)

I have been studying the Lady Marmalade video with Christina Aguilera, Pink, Lil' Kim, & Mya.....for make-up tips and tricks. Doing makeup on others is one of my little-known passions. I love to play with shadow colors on eyes. Of course I don't do it daily, or even weekly....just usually for special occasions, but I do love it! In fact, my most favorite job in my life was working for Lancome as a "Beauty Advisor." I also did a stint for a while as a "Featured Make-Up Artist" at other Lancome counters in Texas. Those were my good 'ol days.

Since some of us girls decided to do our own theme, that left the guys to their own devices....I am interested to see what they come up with!

CHEERS to the Party of the Year!


Enjoy the Lady Marmalade video for yourself. It's a classic! :-)



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