Time for Change

Yesterday afternoon I had the first appointment with my new interior decorator. I had never even considered hiring a decorator because I've always felt that I should just be able to figure out the decorating thing myself....seems like a girly thing that I should be good at. But after much debate with Bobby about the color of our kitchen, he came up with the idea of bringing in a professional. I was surprised by this, and maybe even a bit humiliated. But I got over that pretty quickly because the idea of an interior decorator advising me on our house seemed just too cool.

side note: The funny thing is that my Mom came to me for advice about colors and decor for her new house that we have been completely transforming since last February. I picked most all the colors for her new house it all turned out great. So I have decided that I am not completely inept at house decor...I just can't seem to think outside the box in regard to my own house.

The meeting with the designer started out a little questionable because she was so focused on her design/color "bible"...I guess that was her way of getting a feel for what we like/want. But it ended up being great. She advised us on new paint colors for our kitchen, stairway, hallway, and master bedroom and bathroom. She gave us some tips to spruce up our dining room: take down the wood blinds & add curtain panels to frame the window, nix the hanging plants, paint a darker shade below the chair rail, and change around some of the pictures.
The thing that really blew me away was what she had to say about the kitchen. I already knew I wanted to paint the walls a different color, so she helped pick a couple to try out. However, what I didn't know is that my kitchen decor was "over" 5 years ago. Apparently, the wine and grapevine theme went out years ago and I never got the memo.
Ladies.....you have all been to my house.....where were you at on that one?!?!?!?!
When she said I should get rid of all the wine stuff you could have knocked me over with a feather. I asked her what I would replace it with...she said we will have to wait and see what the kitchen looks like after we paint it, but maybe nothing. Huh?
And get this... when Bobby and I had our follow up discussion after she left, he told me he was not at all surprised about the wine decor thing. oh really?!?

Other than that, we discussed options for the kitchen area, a built-in desk, accent pieces. All that fun stuff comes later....after we get the painting done. Next on my list is to schedule a few painters to give us quotes for the work.
Even though I was totally caught off-guard on the kitchen decor thing, I am completely thrilled about the process of making these changes to the place we call home.
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letters from the jolly one

For all you Moms out there......
Check this site out: http://www.igco.com/letters_from_santa.asp?id=

A co-worker of mine told me she did this for her little girls last year and they just LOVED it!
Such a cool thing to get a letter from the man himself!!!!

Who thinks of this stuff???
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Where did the Weekend go???

I had a really awesome weekend! It was over way too fast!

Friday night Bobby & I had our usual debate about dinner. We eat out often (too often - we know) and we get tired of the places around the corner from our house. If he lets me pick, 90% of the time it will be Mexican food. So Friday night we were headed to Chuy's until I mentioned Hooters shrimp....Bobby jumped on that idea since it was something besides Mexican.
Driving north on Mopac I realized just how glad I was that we had ventured outside of our little area. THE MOON WAS MAGNIFICENT! It was dark orange, low, and huge...just over the skyline of Austin. It was one of those moments you know will not happen very often. I only took my eyes off of it long enough to text a few people to tell them to check it out. It was absolutely beautiful.
Hooters was not great. I used to always love to go & get the buffalo shrimp. This time, not nearly as good as I remember. I only make it there once every few years....it will probably take a few more years until I'll try it again.

Saturday afternoon I met up with some friends at the Hill Country Galleria for lunch, girl time, and some serious shopping. We all found a few good deals and spent too much money on Christmas decor. :-) Some of the husbands met up at a bar in Austin for some live music.
While the rest of us were out shopping and listening to live music, Bobby was home slaving away in the kitchen. Don't feel too bad for him....he really enjoyed his afternoon cooking for friends. He cooked a "practice turkey" along with some sides in prep for next week when he will be cooking the turkey for my family's Thanksgiving meal. The food was all (of course) delicious.

After dinner we all rocked out to Guitar Hero World Tour. Most in the group were newbies, so it took us several tries to make it through a song and not get booed off stage. But once we all found our niche, we jammed through lots of songs we knew and even some we had never heard before.
Surprisingly Madison was the Rock Star of the night on the drums. She rocked those drums for over 5 hours straight! Very Impressive!
We were all wiped by 1 am...Madison and N even stayed over. I am pretty sure Madison's hubby did not believe her when she told him she was staying over due to too much GHWT.

Saturday morning we got up early and kicked the girls out about 6:30am. Bobby & I headed to San Antonio to watch my sister run a half-marathon. Not exactly something we were all fired up to do after a late night of drinkin' & rockin'.
We cheered for my sister at the 8 mile mark and again at the finish line. Then we waited for her to get through all the post-race stuff. We all had lunch on the riverwalk then split our separate ways. Sister headed home to re-coop. Bobby & I headed to the mexican market and browsed around for while before heading back home.
On the way home I thanked Bobby for pushing us to make it to the marathon. It was really cool to see my sister complete a goal she has been working toward for a while. It really made me wish I had not given up running & training with her.
This made me think back to when she and I first started running. It was about 2 years ago when I found a beginner runner training group to train for 5Ks and 10Ks. I forwarded the information to her and asked her to go with me to the information session. She was pretty hesitant, but I finally did talk her into just going and listening to the spill. While there they handed out separate sign up sheets for the 5K & 10K training groups. I told her I wanted us to sign up for the 10K...she was like NO WAY! I finally convinced her to just sign up for the 10K, with a promise that we didn't have to actually run the 10K, we could always just do the 5Ks. We training together for about 7 months and then ran the Cap10. I remember what a huge accomplishment we both felt afterwards. I am sure she felt that x 10 yesterday.

I am so proud of you sis!

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Post Wedding Trauma

I am so frustrated with our wedding photographer.
Yes, you read that correctly....WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER!

Some background since most of you probably do not know the story of our wedding....

There was a spark the first time Bobby & I met. From the beginning we both knew that we wanted to be together forever. We dated for just a few short months before he proposed to me....of course I said YES! Our logic was simple...why wait? We KNEW this was it for us. We were both older and ready to begin our lives together. He was so cute (I was totally flattered) ....he couldn't wait to tell his best friends and his Mom...all several states away. He called them all early the next morning (about 5am) to tell them the big news. They were all blown away...they had no idea he was so serious about his current girlfriend. We immediately planned trips to go meet the family and friends on both sides.

During the next few months we had much debate over wedding plans. What we both really wanted to do was elope and get married on a beautiful sandy beach. But the more we talked about it the more we felt that our families should be a part of the celebration....especially his family since this was his first rodeo ;-)
We talked to both sides about a big family trip for our wedding. But we could not make it work for his sister to be there since she lived in The Netherlands, and had two 4-year olds to consider.
One day he was on the phone with his Mom discussing our options, and she offered a proposal.....he immediately handed me the phone and made her ask me. She said that if we would have the wedding there where she and the rest of his family lived, she would do all the work....other than some final decisions she would want me to make. I repeated what she said back to her just to clarify...and then agreed to the plan. I had already done the bridezilla bit a couple of times, and I just really wanted this one to be relaxing and fun for everyone. Bobby's Mom has worked in the food services industry for many years so she has several connections there, and she thought it would be fun. PLUS...it was for her son who she had all but given up on him ever getting married.
This plan worked out perfect for his sister as well...she took a yearly 2-week trip back to the states for the girls medical checkups. She just planned those appointments around the wedding date. My family was completely fine with the plan for 2 reasons.... 1st) they had already seen me get married a couple of times before so they were ok with whatever. 2nd) this gave them a great reason to take a trip to an area that they would not normally plan a vacation to.

Before the planning got too far along, Bobby and I discussed what was most important to us about the wedding. We decided we would each pick one thing that we would spend the money on and leave everything else to his mom to get a good deals on.
Bobby chose to have a quartet play at the wedding. Above all else that was the most important thing to him...and I never questioned why.
I chose to focus on the wedding pictures/album so that we could have amazing pictures to keep forever.
Those are the only two things that I did most the leg-work on. I found an available quartet easier and quicker than expected.
One of Bobby's best friends is a videographer in the area so he planned to take care of the video portion. He gave us names of a few of his favorite photographers to call...unfortunately they were all already booked. He gave us a few more names of photographers that he had worked with in the past, but was less familiar with their work. One of them was available for our wedding date. I looked at her website and fell absolutely in love with her work. We immediately booked her (big $ deposit) and felt great about the choice.
She and I stayed in constant contact the weeks leading up to the big day. I gave her lots of details about pictures and poses that I wanted to make sure and get. I gave her the full run down on the family so she would be familiar with who everyone was on the big day.

The wedding day finally arrived!
I spent the morning at the spa with my sister, my mom, my future sister-in-law, and my future nieces. We all had a great time getting our hair and makeup done to get beautiful for the big day.
When Bobby saw me in my dress in the lobby of the hotel --- the look on his face was priceless. Now that was a guy with love in his eyes, and he did not take his eyes off of me for the rest of the day and into the honeymoon. ;-)

Bobby & I met with the photographer a few hours before the wedding for some outdoor shots on the river front of the Mississippi River. After about an hour of bride and groom shots, the family and wedding party arrived for group shots. I LOVED the photographer that day. I was impressed with her ability to pull everyone together and get some really great shots. I remember thinking that day that I already couldn't wait to see the pictures.

The day was perfectly amazing. I was the most relaxed bride you have ever seen. Bobby was completely zoned in on me and our wedding day. He was totally focused on me...he could not hardly keep his eyes or his hands off me. I remember feeling like the most special person in the world that entire day. It was a feeling I will never, ever forget.
For those of you who know my husband, he typically has his brain going 90 miles a minute thinking of a million different things. Not that day...he was completely focused on me and I could not have been happier. Nothing could have taken me down off that cloud I was on. It was undoubtedly the best day of my life!

My mother-in-law did the most amazing job on the entire production....everything was exactly perfect. The wedding and reception were at a downtown hotel. The wedding was short and sweet...the reception was long and fun! We had dinner and dancing and got to spend lots of time with friends and family. After the reception some of us hit the downtown bars....yes me in my wedding dress. So Much Fun! Problem was...I had been on my feet all day and dancing all night in a pair of 3-inch heels. When I finally sat down at the bar I realized just how tired I was and how bad my feet hurt....Bobby could tell immediately. We stayed for a few rounds then headed back to our hotel. Since it was only a few blocks away, and my feel were killing me....Bobby gave me a piggy back ride the whole way. (Wish I had a picture of that!)

The next morning we borrowed his cousin's huge Harley and spent the day on a road trip with friends. We saw beautiful country side in the northern mid-west. We left on our honeymoon the next morning. We spent an amazing week at a gorgeous resort in St. Lucia.

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Back to present day:

19 months later... I still don't have a photo album to reminisce and share with my friends that were not there.

So lately I have really been harping on the wedding photographer to finish our wedding album. Wednesday she sent me the link to view it online and told me that once I approve it they will place the order. I replied and said that I was not approving it and there are lots of changes that need to be made. I told her I would spend the next few days going over it.

I am so frustrated, upset, and pissed about this album. When I went through it with Bobby on Wednesday night, I literally got sick to my stomach about it. It is ridiculous that this album is the quality of work that we get back after a year and a half.

Some things I really want to say to her:
Did I rush you on this album? That is what it seems like to me. It looks to me as though you threw something together in one evening...enough to give me something so I would quit asking when it will be ready. I feel as though I have been more than patient with this process since my wedding was over a year and a half ago....

I understand that you are busy and have a full schedule, but apparently you are taking on more than you and your staff can handle.

What I really want to tell you is to start completely over on our wedding album....and put the effort into ours that I have seen in the other wedding albums you have done.

In my attempt to fix this weak attempt at an wedding album, something I should not have to do, I will give you my long list of changes that must be made.

Problem is, I don't think I can tell her how I really feel....it would most likely upset her...and the album would just turn out worse....if that is possible. OR worse, it will take another 2 years to get it completed.

For those of you who know me....email me if you want to see this thing for yourself. I will share the link with you so you can look at it and tell me what you think. I would appreciate any suggestions for changes to make it better. It really sux as is....I could have done better on Shutterfly.
Thanks for letting me vent.

***BTW - When I do get this album in my hands, I am throwing a party!!!
~~~

Bachelorette Parties - too much fun...

This Bachelorette Party video made me laugh...



AND...it reminded me of a similar game we played at our Pure Romance Party ;-)

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My Favorite Songs

My husband recently asked me if I could only name ONE favorite song, what would it be?
A million different songs started flying through my head and I knew immediately that I could never pick just one favorite song. But maybe I can try to pick one favorite for all my different moods. So this is just the start...

In my car: Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice

Feeling Feisty: She Ain't Got The Boom Like I Do - Blaque

Happy: Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani

Pissed Off: Break Stuff - Limp Bizkit

Sappy & In Love: At Last - Etta James

Sexy: No Ordinary Love, Sweetest Taboo - Sade

Girl Time: Good Friend & A Glass of Wine - LeAnn Rimes / Lady Marmalade - Christina Aguilera, Pink, Mya, Lil Kim

80's Chick: Anything Madonna, but especially: Material Girl, Lucky Star, Borderline, Express Yourself, Into the Groove, Like A Prayer, Dress You Up

70's: Dancing Queen - ABBA (the newest addition to my favs)

Rap: Shoop & None of Your Business - Salt 'n Pepa

Country: Anything Dixie Chicks

Dance Song: Sky, Feels So Good - Sonique / Sexy Back - JT

Band to see at a concert: The Killers!

Hey Girls - In the comments section share some of your favorite songs with me...
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T - G - I - F / Crazy Cats!

I am so glad it's FRIDAY! It's been one helluva week.
Good News is...our big dog does not have bone cancer...there is a lump that has formed due to torn ligaments.
Bad News is...he does have bone spurs and arthritis pretty much everywhere, and the specialist said his daily pain level is really high. That is crazy to us because he seems so happy. Poor Thing.

In honor of all of our beloved pets, and because its FRIDAY....I am sharing some funny pics of some CrAzY CaTs!!! Enjoy!