Falling in love with Fall

So this past weekend was a ton of fun – perfect weather and a bunch of fun activities make for one of those fall (well almost) weekends to remember!

Friday I went to the big rival high school volleyball game to see some of my YL girls (playing on both sides!) in action! It was a very intense game that came right down to the final set/match/whatever this one out of 5 is called?! My family was there as well as we have a family friend that plays, too, so it was a lot of fun to have YL there, the family there, and to float in between the two crowds.

Then we headed out as a family to go to dinner as Dad had just gotten back from an overseas trip that afternoon and he and Mom were turning around for Germany the next day, so that means… Marco’s! Whoop! For whatever reason Curt is still not over the moon about Marco’s, but me and the rest of my family totally are so oh well… it’s the enchiladas, though, they seriously are the BEST in the world!! A good family friend that has known my dad for years joined us as he’s in the process of moving his family back to town, so he had some funny stories from the old days that cracked us up!

Then Curt and I went home and I dropped him off, got on some warmer clothes (it was chilly!) and went to the local high school homecoming football game. It is also my alma mater which is doubly appropriate so killed two birds with one stone (going for YL and for me) and it was a lot of fun as well… gotta love football! We won which was great, and it was a great night!

The next day was Aggie football day, and we were playing Army! I remember from back when I was in school that when we played Army the last time they had parachuters jump from a helicopter and chute into the stadium, and I LOVED it, so I was REALLY hoping for a repeat performance, and I got it! First they did an amazing fly over with some very intimidating helicopters, and then they said to look higher into the sky and there was another helicopter poised very high up and I knew it was coming! Man, talk about those jumpers being the luckiest guys out there. Can you even imagine how *cool* it would be to jump out of a helicopter with a HUGE field as your target and land right smack dab on the center A&M logo (which they all did artfully, it was incredible!), I mean what a lifetime high!

Flyover... think Apocalypse Now song!

One of the 4 parachuters coming in (with an American flag!)

On the field after the drop

It was so cool… and it was a great game. We weren’t perfect, but thank goodness we won, and thank goodness they finally put Lane in – geez! The weather was so sunny, a little hot at times but sometimes breezy and we all reapplied sunscreen like 8 times each. I ended up with a perfect tan and no burn as a result which made me so excited, but by the end of the game we were so pooped that I took a deep nap on the way home (Kendyl drove this game) so I was refreshed when I woke up as we were pulling into home.

The First Lady of A&M at her second football game debut (she's such a cute puppy!)

The *enormous* American flag being unfurled in honor of Military Appreciation Day... there were goosebumps EVERYWHERE!

And my favorite... an old Ag that stayed til the end of the game and wheeled himself on out of there - the shirt on his seat says "Old Army Tailgate Permit," I mean can we be any cuter please? Note that this will be me in 60 years, I promise!!

That night for dinner I made my famous chicken casserole (made famous by my mom, originally) and Curt and I watched Netflix movies and had a low key evening.

Sunday I had to be outside… it was just so gorgeous. I went on a another long rollerblade, then when I got home I still wanted to be outside so Curt and I decided to take his motorcycle out for a ride which was a blast.

Then we did miscellaneous things until it was time for a YL leader’s meeting at our house, and then we watched some TV and another movie, then on to another week!

We had our first YL club of the year last night and it went so great… we had a lot of new kids there, the songs were fun, the games were hysterical (I love being a leader, it is a blast), so I’m looking forward to this year with everyone.

Should be great…

Hope everyone has a great day!

Much love,

Extreme Rollerblading

Ok, so since the hurricane rollerblading has been a bit hazardous and I decided to take a couple of pictures of my adventures on the bikepaths... the weather has been gorgeous lately in the low 80's and sunny with gorgeous sunsets, etc. so I haven't been able to resist enjoying it before the winter comes.

Here are a couple of my favorite points along the way...

This field is gorgeous, especially with the sun setting on it as it shines the grass a beautiful gold and the lake (which you can't see in this pic) is a nice gray blue.

Coming over the lake on the bridge... the best is when there are tons of shells and rowers (I so wish I knew how to do this!) with a few sail boats, kayaks, families at the park and people sitting at the picnic tables.

My favorite downhill - currently covered in trees, leaves, sticks, everything so I have to go precariously slow to avoid completely eating it (see the tree at the end?)!

More trees...

More leaves...

The tree where the mosquitoes attack!!! I climb over and under this one with amazing speed!

And finally I get to the lake!

The ducks were all sleeping in the shade before I got there!

Rollerblading is the best... just can't wait until it's all clear again but I'm fine with that being a very low priority considering everything that's out there at the moment. So I'll be improving my dodging skills until then!

Ike, yikes!

So I’m a little behind – mostly because of Hurricane Ike but I’ll do my best to catch up!

Things have actually been pretty good despite the hurricane – overall it’s the aftermath of Ike that is still a hassle but we were very lucky so I feel very blessed! I was at the house for the actual storm, along with Curt’s mom, stepdad, stepbrother, and stepbrother’s friend so we had a house full! We lost power the night of the hurricane, and we all tried to tough it out, but they all left for Ledbetter and I followed about a day and half later (Curt’s grandparents place is there).

By the time I got to Ledbetter Curt’s mom and fam had gone back to Clear Lake as they had power, so I spent the rest of the week there relaxing and hanging out with Nonnie, PaPa, and Heidi (Curt’s Aunt) and they are just awesome. We watched movies, I slept a LOT (I also happened to get sick soon after Ike which was another wrench) to recover, and we went antiquing and exploring, it was a ton of fun! Maverick and Kinsley had a great time, too – Kinsley is their beautiful chocolate cocker spaniel and he’s adorable. They were fast friends!

Through the actual storm, though, I was totally scared… I kept listening for the freight train sound (signal of oncoming tornado) as hurricanes spawn tornados, and the wind was whipping HUGE trees around like they were noodles. The house shook from the wind and although I did sleep, I woke up often to check on things in general. The transformer blew at around 4:30 a.m. on Friday night so then the fun began… Like I said though we didn’t have any damage, just an oleander bush that was flattened to the ground, which is now tied and staked upright again and looks like it will be fine, so far!

Curt is now back from China (on Monday night) and has yet to get on the roof to make sure we have all of our shingles, etc. but we were definitely lucky!

And yes, Curt was in China the entire time, and I was in Dallas for training right before Ike – the Houston participants all rushed home on Thursday/Friday and I was SUPPOSED to go to China on Saturday morning, which of course didn’t happen because Ike was a big ol’ monster… by the time the airlines could get me out (Tuesday was the earliest) I would have only had a few days before it would have been time to turn around and hop on a plane back with Curt, so China didn’t happen. I of course was bummed but it’s not the end of the world as I’ll probably get another chance sometime this fall (I hope?).

So in the aftermath of everything I’m thinking it will take quite awhile to restock the fridge/freezer as literally everything had to go unless it was soda or something, and what is crazier is a lot of Houston is still without power so it’s hard for us to get back to normal. Traffic is awful, and the mood in the air is definitely still in recovery mode… some of the pictures are just unbelievable! My heart goes out to the many who lost anything and everything – how devastating. Here's a link someone forwarded me via email that has a lot of pictures to give an idea at how much destruction there is: Click Here for pics.

Besides Ike, all is well and things are beginning to return to normal. I’ve been out trying to rollerblade since the hurricane which is comical as there is so much debris on the paths that it really is hazardous. I am pretty good at rollerblading (no tricks or anything crazy) but I can go fast and I don’t fall (knock on wood) but I had some pretty funny recoveries over the past few days when I couldn’t avoid every single twig! LOL! On my “route” there are currently 3 huge trees that block my way so I literally have to climb over them… last night I got attacked by mosquitoes so I was trying to go super fast, swat my entire body, avoid twigs so jumping and swerving, and trying not to fall… sigh! But it’s fine which is why I do it…

Other than that it’s great to have Curt home and to start Fall activities… Fall is my FAVORITE season so I’m looking forward to everything that comes with it. Football has already begun (yea), Young Life is starting, Renaissance Festival is set for October, and we also have our anniversary as well as a trip to NYC. It’s gonna be great!

And as a sidenote, I have a few new favorite songs that I can’t get enough of:

Forever – Chris Brown
Come on Get Higher – Matt Nathanson
Famous in a Small Town – Miranda Lambert
Love Story – Taylor Swift

Love them!

Tasha xx

Lately

So am a little tired tonight but thought I would give an update...

Curt's in China (he left last week) but am keeping busy while he's gone. I enjoyed the holiday weekend and got a lot of relaxing in...

On Saturday me, Mom, Kendyl, and Carrie (Mother in Law) went on a girl's shopping trip at the new outlet mall which was a lot of fun! Then we headed out to see the first Aggie game of the season which, while a lot of fun and made me excited for the "events" of Aggie football season, wasn't the best game ever so that was a bummer... sigh... hope they get their rears in gear for the rest of the season!

Sunday and Monday I just lounged around really... got good workouts in (a 4 mile run and 1.5 of rollerblading which was GREAT!), watched about 4 movies, swam in my pool and read 5 magazines, baked, had dinner with the fam, and just hung out here at the house with Mav. So it was a fun weekend!

Besides that will be up in Dallas for training next week, and then to China for vacation after that, so will have lots to write about - stay tuned!

Love,
Tasha xx

I'm an Ironbabe Triathlete!

So I did it yesterday – my first triathlon! WHOOP! I’m actually really excited – it was so great! I’ll start with my time: 1:28:26! Before I start recapping, keep in mind that while this is respectable for a tri time, I’m obviously not even close to some of the REALLY hardcore women that were out there… The tri was the Ironbabe (all women’s) triathlon, and there were 400+ women competing, and to quote Kendyl, for most of them, “this was not their first rodeo,” and man is she right.

Some of the ladies out there were amazing, like this is what they live for… it was cool to just be a spectator to witness. So back to me – not anywhere close to this level, but after training for the past 4ish weeks and a couple practice triathlons, I thought I could improve a little from my last practice time of 1:44:30 to have a goal of 1 hour and 40 minutes. I told Curt what my goal would be, and he encouraged me to go for 1.5 hours and I was skeptical. So I said I’d still go for 1:40, and if it looked like I could get to 1:30 then I’d kick it into a higher gear for the run at the end.

So here’s how the morning went… we woke up in the 4’s (hate doing this) and while Curt was loading I made my famous scrambled egg whites and cheese… usually when I’m nervous it’s hard for me to eat (especially so early in the morning) but I forced them down and we made our way out to pick Kendyl up at 5:20 a.m. Then we headed over to the race site (Duessen Park off of Lake Houston) which was about 45 minutes away. We got there in good time, I went and got marked up, got my chip, and started to stretch, etc. and hydrate up to get ready… saw my boss and we chatted, then I got my swim cap on and we lined up.

By this time I was pretty nervous… a lot of people had prepped me for the mass swim experience but seeing all of those people (even if we were in timed waves) was intimidating. Kendyl gave me great advice and told me to just play it safe and not worry about any times (as my overall goal was just to finish and not stop) and stay alive and away from the group on the outside. Good advice, I say, so I tried to do just that. I let the really hardcore swimmers pass me by, and tried to do some freestyle strokes initially, which I quickly figured out weren’t going to work for me as I was just hitting way too many people and it was weirding me out. Literally the scene in Lord of the Rings came to mind where Frodo and Smeagle are crossing the marshes and there are all these dead people looking up at them through the water – with every stroke one of my limbs would hit someone else’s even if it looked as if you weren’t close enough to someone to hit them (hence the thought of all of these limbs all over the place in the water) – weird, I know but just sharing my creepy thought.

So I just ended up doggie paddling most of the way, with some backstroke once in awhile to rest… I rationalized that swimming strongly exactly where I needed to be going, just slower in pace, was better than me attempting to keep my head in the water to go faster and getting off course. At least doggie paddling when I hit people I could quickly steer out of the way and keep my breathing steady. There were many women that were having trouble though – I think something about the open water provokes a different kind of anxiety in a way. There was a noodle lane, lifeguards, and kayakers with one boat to monitor everyone, and there were quite a few people that needed one of the above services.

As I was rounding the last buoy and getting close to the last 40ish meters a girl yelled for help from one of the lifeguards behind me. The lifeguard was just in front of me and got to her quickly but made me thankful for the fact that even though I might not be fast, I’m a strong swimmer and did fine in the swim. When I could see Kendyl and Curt I started waving at them which made Kendyl laugh – she was like “swim!” LOL – I was having a good time… So I finished my swim in less than 10 minutes (practice time in the lap pool was usually about 8.5 minutes so I didn’t do too bad considering?) and ran out of the water into the transition area. As fast as I could I got into my socks and bike shoes, threw on my helmet and race number (Kendyl was telling me to slow down as I was getting tangled in my belt – LOL!), ate a Goo, unracked my bike and was off!

Kendyl and Curt were right there to cheer me on which was so fun… I got on my way on the bike, and the route was really great and enjoyable! I was keeping a great pace – my only goal was to keep her above 15 mph and I ended up averaging over 17 so I was really thrilled! I passed a lot of people that had passed me in the swim, so I definitely made up a lot of time in this leg! What was amazing to me was how many women I saw on both ends of the spectrum, bike-wise. There were some women out there with mountain-bike types that I would think would be so difficult to cycle on for this kind of purpose, and there were women with the funky race helmets, arm resters and special water bottles with the super aero-dynamic bikes… everyone was encouraging one another (which I loved about the all-women’s feel about it all day) even if they were super hardcore and really competing for a top spot.

So the bike was great – when I rounded the corner to come in saw Kendyl and Curt again (Curt was the photographer for the day with the new camera) and they clapped for me all the way into transition. I got out of my shoes, threw on my running shoes… out of my helmet and threw on my hat, ate another Goo, chugged some Gatorade, and ran out again. The run was enjoyable, too. The course ran right up against the buffalo pen, so there was a lot to look at, and just kept going… was feeling pretty good throughout, and was pretty excited when I got to Mile 1 marker (almost there)! At Mile 1 and 2 there was a water station (same place – just turning at 1.5 mile to come around again) so passing through Mile 1 I grabbed a cup of water to drink on. It was SO cold which was nice to drink, though drinking while running is very difficult and hilarious! LOL… so I had a couple of sips, took one last gulp, and threw the rest on my head. What’s funny about this is that I wasn’t particularly hot, but thought that since runners do this just to cool off an extra bit, hey, why not, except it backfired on me… I had taken that last gulp and thrown it on my head, but the water was SO cold that it made me gasp a lungful of water, thus making me choke and cough on what was in my mouth! I opened my mouth and all the water tumbled out and I just laughed at myself… that’s what you get, I guess! :-)

When I got back to Mile 2 I checked my watch to see how I was doing, and noticed that I was going to be close to the 1.5 mark! I kept up my pace, and as I got into the last ½ mile I was really thinking I could make it… I saw Kendyl from far off (she wore a bright green shirt which was brilliant on her part though unplanned) so I started waving at her again… as I got closer I saw that she was on one side, and Curt was taking photos on the other, and as I passed her she told me to pick it up, so I did and jogged it home hard – man it was a great feeling to cross the finish line and hear my name! I did it! They gave me a SWEET medal, a cold wet towel, and I went to go meet Curt and Kendyl. She told me I did my run in 35 minutes, so I knew I would be close to the 1.5 hour mark… I went up to the tent (feeling good, no problems at all!) and checked for my name and I saw I had made it in under an hour and a half – 1.28! I couldn’t have been more excited! So then we waited around and chatted, took some pics, enjoyed the moment, and then packed up to leave at around 9:30 a.m. It was so fun… I’ll be looking for another one to do, I think!

When we got home I felt good still, but we decided to take a nap as we had woken up so early… after we woke up I unpacked from Connecticut, did laundry, cleaned the house, and went to a movie with Kendyl (Vicky Cristina Barcelona – good overall though different). Then Curt and I got ready for a dinner with Carrie, Don, Courtney, Adam, Greg, and Greg’s friend Frankie. They came in and we went to dinner at Babin’s, and then headed over to Market Street for dessert. Was great to hang out with them! When we got home Curt and I got ready for bed and watched the Olympics and then hit the hay… what a day!

Enjoy the slideshow!

Love,
Tasha xx

Connecticut...A nice week away

So last week I spent my days in Stamford, Connecticut. Apologies for a delay in posting but I HAD written a nice post for the week that got erased when my hotel internet connection expired – ugh! I just gave up and went to sleep so am now going to attempt to rewrite the post.

I have to say I had some pretty high expectations for Connecticut, though, and in some places they were met but in others not so much. I mean, to start I have always loved Gilmore Girls and love the idea of a "Stars Hollow" existing somewhere - I realize this is a made for TV kind of place, but I was hoping the colonialism would really seep through aspects of the culture here. In some ways it does - I mean I can walk down the street and see a house that was built in 1699, and that is amazing, but there's a lot more industrial influences as well. I mean you pass amazing houses like the below, and then a block away is an apartment that looks like project housing? Downtown is small and semi-sweet, but I just would have thought it would be sweeter somehow?

It was a long journey to get there (fly to Newark, layover, and then a 2 hour train ride) and the train ride allowed me to see some of the “country” along the way. Well scratch country – it was actually pretty industrial looking the whole way there which I didn’t expect, but ok. Connecticut is one of the few states left that I had not been to and even though I realize the picture in my head wasn’t going to be completely accurate, I still couldn't help the image of what towns in Connecticut should look like. I mean for goodness sakes – it’s expensive and people from the city commute back and forth JUST to live there, so surely it would have to knock your socks off to go through that kind of trouble?

Overall the trip was great, and I have resolved myself to keep my eyes open for the Stars Hollow equivalent as in the areas that are less populated I can see the beauty so easily in the landscape and the hills - for instance the corporate campus I was on is just a few miles from my hotel and has a *fantastic* view of the mountains and forests in the distance, so I know if I had the time I could find those gems of places... Their gardens are admirable for sure... plants that don't have a fighting chance in Texas grow that are so beautiful! I was planning on going to the arboretem on Friday but of course it's been pouring rain since 3 p.m. so my plans for this evening were sunk, but oh well! I did have a GREAT time exploring everything within walking distance to my hotel over the week, though... caught a movie (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 - loved it), and watched the Olympics every night - sometimes until far too late but gotta love them! So it was good, though was excited to get home!

And my triathlon was on the Sunday! It was a bummer that I had to be flying and traveling up until late on Saturday and I wasn't able to stick as closely to my training schedule (improvising with elliptical and the small free weights at my hotel gym) but was hoping it would be ok. Hilarious story - I specifically chose this hotel because it had a pool, so brought my swimsuit ready to train - I go down to the fitness center/pool area just to see exactly what I had to work with, and LITERALLY the pool is like 15 feet by 10 feet - might as well be a baby pool because I think I could maybe fit 2.5 strokes in before my head hit (or toes in the 4 foot water). So that was out - bogus!

Anyway, I’ll be going to NYC later this year for my uncle’s wedding, so hopefully will have more fun around the area (and this time with Curt and the fam!) and get a chance to go out more as we’ll have a car!

Below are some pictures from my trip!

A beautiful Victorian home on the way to downtown from my hotel.

A beautiful home and garden close to downtown (the pic doesn't do it justice).

Some cute giraffe sculptures positioned to be "eating" from a "snowball" bush on the side of an amazing English style house. Not sure of the real name of a Snowball bush but LOVE the look of it and thought it was just so cute with the giraffes!

The beautiful stained glass of the Fish Church - a local site to behold. Talk about amazing... I was in the church alone and it was pitch black save the dim light coming from a rainy outside - was really amazing.

Love,
Tasha xx

John Mayer Concert

Favorite Photos with the new camera

More photos

Rockport Weekend

Photos!

So here they are - photos we've taken since my birthday party!

Enjoy the slideshows - tried to break them up so it wouldn't be too long.

Did well training this week and was relatively uneventful overall (in a good way - yea!) and had a great weekend! Enjoyed a wonderful day yesterday with a good workout, a hike to take photos (some featured) but it was SO hot so enjoyed sme time in the pool before we had to get ready for a GREAT concert and picnic evening at Town Green Park. Vicki joined us which was so fun as she is a fan of John Mayer (more than Curt) and it was a perfect summer evening... good food, no crowds, and a relaxing and wonderful evening in the park! See below posts for pics (couldn't put all in one - was having difficulties)!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Love,
Tasha xx

Birthdays & Friends

Going to the Chapel....

Thought this one deserved a *separate* post, but just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS to my great friends Sylvia & Patrick who are officially engaged!

I'm so excited for the obvious reasons, but in Curt's words, this means our wedding was a "love machine" (say ma-cheen, not mash-een)! Meaning basically that although our wedding was not where Sylvia & Patrick met (as they knew each other in high school), our wedding is *definitely* where they kind of "re-met" with an interest, some raised eyebrows, strategic dancing, etc. if you catch my drift! Yea! LOL!

They just closed on a house as well in Dallas, so big news all around for them, and I'm looking forward to being a bridesmaid next July/August (whatever the date turns out to be)!

Couldn't be happier for them - and I have to tell you I'm a huge sucker for weddings... they make me so happy!

Love,
Tasha xx

Did you know that fish are capable of mocking?

Had another fun weekend – man, I love summer!

Friday we went to an early dinner with Heidi, Bill, Mikey, Anders, Heather, Danny & Sonora (YL friends) and had yummy fajitas, margaritas, and many laughs as well! Then I went home for a bit so I could be SURE to get my training in for that day so it was definitely interesting running on a full stomach with tequila in my system. Learned that lesson well, and that’s all I’m going to say. LOL! Seriously, it was slightly painful and after my second mile running I had to stop and walk b/c I thought I was going to puke, but at least I ran 2 miles and walked the 2 home, right? Probably burned as many cals as consumed in my margaritas at least? Then I got showered up and ready to meet the same group (minus the boys except Bill) to go see Mamma Mia. Bill happens to be a huge Abba fan, so we had a GREAT time singing to the movie and having a good time. What is interesting about Abba/Mamma Mia is that before I saw the show in London, the ONLY Abba song I liked was “Dancing Queen” – a personal theme song when I was 17… surprise, right? But after I saw the show in London, I was an instant Abba fan… Jo even got me the Gold album which I love to listen to, so was really excited about the movie!

Curt was still up when I got home so we went ahead and packed a little for our weekend getaway to Rockport! The next morning we slept in some (thank goodness) and then quickly got on the road to go to Courtney’s boyfriend’s parent’s beach house there. And we had such a great time on Saturday/Sunday! We went fishing out on their boat (with Courtney, Adam, and 5 of their other friends) on Saturday after we got there, and there were no fish… probably b/c they all went deep for the hurricane, but the ones that were left were *jumping* out of the water like crazy all around our 9 fishing poles… it was pretty funny, actually as it seemed pretty deliberate to me? I gave up after a bit and just laid out on the fishing pier tower thingy and chatted with the girls, so it was really relaxing and fun. Then when we all got cleaned up we enjoyed a delicious seafood dinner and then played “Partini” late into the night. Fun game – very similar to Cranium so lots of belly laughing and tears and it was girls against boys so VERY competitive! Adam and Courtney are considering getting their scuba certification which would be GREAT as Curt and I have been wanting some dive buddies for so long now, so we’re crossing our fingers that they’ll get it done soon!

Sunday we all slept in, I enjoyed pancakes and bacon (didn’t help cook at all this trip except for brownies, but I did help with dishes!), we hung out playing Guitar Hero and watching “Big,” Curt helped Adam with putting away the boats, etc. and we got on the road a little after lunch and had fun talking about the future for the 4ish hour drive home.

Then as SOON as I got home I got an hour run in as I didn’t do a thing on Saturday (ouch) and then did a swim directly following. I can tell I’ve improved in the short time I’ve been officially training, too, as I wasn’t really tired at all and I was able to keep my heart rate relatively low the whole time! Then Curt and I took Maverick to the park to listen to a concert on the lake as he’d been alone for the weekend, and had a great time taking pictures, enjoying the music and evening, and being so proud of Mav for being such a well behaved boy with all of the kids and such that gravitate towards him due to his size, etc. Then back home for a very late dinner (after 9 p.m.) and movie to finish off the weekend.

Sigh… am sad that summer is winding down… and p.s. I still haven’t learned how to download pics from my new snazzy camera (or rather haven’t taken the time to even try) BUT I bought an external hard drive as they are massive files, so have this on my to do list for the week!

Love,
Tasha xx

Crazy Cousins and Crazy Signs...

Gotta love those crazy cousins… everyone has one but maybe not this crazy... keep reading!

This weekend was great, but pretty busy!

On Friday I got home and had to do a long run for tri training, and that went well… it was pretty hot out though)! When I finished Curt and I hung out (I think we did... gosh, I can’t even remember, how sad is that... oh well)?

Saturday we had to wake up early and get on the road to Pearland for Carrie’s 50th Birthday party celebration. It was so fun! Courtney did a great job hosting the party – it was at Adam’s house and we were so happy to see everyone, including Adam’s roommate’s basset hound puppy, Oscar. What a cutie! PaPa made homemade ice cream, Adam made *delicious* fajitas, and we all watched the slideshow that Heidi had made for Carrie. I loved looking at all of the old pics with Curt and Courtney as a baby as for whatever reason I’ve never seen a ton of these before? It was precious…really touching, as well :-)

Unfortunately we had to leave early as that day was also Paige & Keith’s wedding day back up north in The Woodlands. Kendyl was a bridesmaid and by the time we got there we were only 45 minutes early so I tried to help some in the bridal room but I tried to stay out of the way mostly as Paige's zipper busted. BRIDE'S WORST NIGHTMARE! She was trying really hard to hold it (emotionally) together but the thought of walking down the aisle in no dress or a busted one is no dream as you can imagine so she (as you can imagine) was not doing so well. I got the needle threaded with every strand of white thread we had available and her aunt started to sew her in... she and the maids went into the bathroom (for whatever reason she was calmer in there) and I tried to comfort Kim (her mommy) and coach her as well to hold it together and that all would be well... and it was! Paige was sewed in, the wedding was beautiful, Keith cried like a baby which I personally always love to see at weddings, and on to a WAY fun reception!!! By the way, we don't know what happened with Paige's dress. One of those wedding day mysteries where she had actually lost weight that last week, so who knows...? And she looked amazing... sigh... and so did Kendyl! They both clean up to be beautiful women :-)!

So the reception was a blast... the M & J families (and friends) know how to party! We all danced almost every song, and then Keith's crazy cousin Blaine kept entertaining the group with his crazy, and quite suggestive dance moves... and not just in the corner but on purpose as the reception-clown that loves loves loves the attention! LOL - I was cracking up b/c this guy was unlike any I have seen at a wedding... I mean, his shirt came off, his boxers were showing, and you can imagine the rest yourself - hysterical. I also bawled like a baby when Keith danced with his younger sister Kayanna (sp?). She is probably 19-20 now, but a couple of years ago was in a devastating car accident and sustained brain injuries, was in a coma for weeks, and the doctors said IF she survived she'd be a vegetable forever... well not so (thanks be to God), she is alive and she can communicate, and man she loves her "bubba." She's confined to a wheelchair mostly, but she can text and share her emotions and needs. She was a bridesmaid and looking amazing, and Keith went and got her, picked her up to a standing position, and danced with her to "Texas Angel," and the tears (for all) just flowed. I have always LOVED that song, but I think forever now when I hear it I will think of that dance... even the DJ, who I don't think even knows them, was bawling. What a special moment... I'm so choked up just remembering! So anyway, it was gorgeous... the whole thing... and I'm lucky enough to have a beautiful hydrangea centerpiece that I got to take home that I wish would last forever...

Sunday I did a practice run tri with the full lengths all back to back and did *great* so that was exciting. Curt and I rode our bikes to the Y (I had my swimsuit on already) which was 5 miles, he watched me while I did my laps, then we finished the 6 miles to make 11 total, and then I changed shoes and went on my run. I definitely need to invest in proper gear though as biking and running in my swimsuit isn’t going to work, but other than that I felt great when I finished. Also to note because I had decided to sleep in (due to late night wedding night before), I started the tri around lunchtime and was running in the full heat of the day by the time I was done - not bright, I know, but I really needed the rest so I was willing to pay the price with my sweat... :-)

This week so far I've been super swamped with work, but all is well... I did feel a moment yesterday that I had failed God, though, so I was a little emotional about that. Story in the smallest nutshell I can (but still not going to be small) is not even a week ago Curt and I were talking about how sad it makes me to see dead animals on the side of the road, and how I *never* see any still alive to try and save them and how much better I would feel if I had the opportunity, etc. Curt knows I'm a huge cry baby about this... I mean we pass a dead skunk and I can totally start the waterworks in a second. So Tuesday morning, rushing into work because I'm the only one with a room key, HAVE to be there by 7:30 a.m. to let guests into our room for a huge presentation, and basically it was my thing to plan and everyone was counting on me to do my part, etc. So I was in a time crunch and every second counted that morning to get out of here, etc. I go over the huge flyover, in the left lane, and see an injured pigeon on the left shoulder flapping around. I thought about pulling over, but wasn't really sure where I could safely as it was on a huge flyover, no shoulder, huge curve so would get hit, etc. and then when I looked at the time I knew there would be no way I could save a pigeon and not make a huge career limiting move... and I made the wrong choice... :-( I just felt like God gave me the opportunity and I failed Him... I tried to call Animal Control, but it was so early (6:45 a.m.) that no dispatchers were there yet, tried to call Curt and no answer as he was in the shower, and I was a huge disappointment to myself. I know that many would not care about a pigeon, but it was more "life" to me and it upset me so I prayed about it... So I do my deal at work all day, recap it for Curt on my way home and though he was trying to understand he didn't really and then I got MORE upset b/c he was talking about he would have been so mad at me if I had sacrificed my safety for a pigeon, etc. so it just didn't go over well (rational reasoning maybe, but I was emotional, people)!

Came home and it was a long run night so got on my way... I had planned to go 2 miles in, 2 miles back but when I got there I decided to run another 1/2 mile in to get to a water fountain. My last minute decision put me in the spot... as I was rounding a corner there was a turtle in the bikepath... a box turtle just like the one I used to have and I knew it was a sign. Background info, I don't ASK for signs, but when they appear I recognize them for what I feel they are... and my family knows me well for saving turtles, most of the time when they have embarked on the precarious journey of crossing the road. They just don't have a chance, you have to stop and help them! I've done this for as long as I can remember, and Curt has even told me before I need a bumper sticker that says "I stop for Turtles," because I always stop - even if I'm not driving I make a huge fuss that we need to stop, and my family has learned to humor me in this. So I picked up my new friend (he wasn't in huge danger as it was a bikepath vs. a road) and walked him deep into the woods, and was happy again... one of those swelling heart moments, I just love those :-).

Tonight enjoyed some hurricane rain while biking on the trainer in the backyard under the porch, and "So You Think You Can Dance, my new favorite show...

Exhausted so off to bed... here's to crazy cousins and those crazy signs...

Love,
Tasha xx

The Greatest Show on Earth!

So today is my mom’s birthday – HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM! And to celebrate we took her to the circus last night and it was *great!* By the way, I feel pretty confident in saying I have one of the best mom's in the world. She's great and I really love her... so happy that she's mine.

So this year’s theme is “Bello-bration” and apparently the clown/man, Bello, is a 7th generation circus performer… think about that guys, 7 generations! AND his daughter is planning on being in the circus (she’s a teenager) so she will be the 8th – crazy! I mean Barnum & Bailey is one of the oldest circuses, with this year being it’s 137th and if you average 20 years per generation that puts this family at 140! Makes me think about the book “Water for Elephants,” GREAT read by the way, and what it must have been like in the old days...

They had a ton of animals in the show this year… 10 elephants, 10 tigers (one’s name was Tasha and she was a *star!*), a ton of dogs including a great dane, and of course the performers were amazing, too! They had a lot of new stuff and I feel like a lot of Cirque de Soleil type acts, which of course are always impressive! Very funny show, too – all in all just so fun! I love the circus!

Beforehand we had gone to Pappa’s BBQ downtown to eat dinner and give Mom her gifts – we were pretty excited as we surprised her with probably the most expensive and rare book any of us have ever had our hands on – “A Girl and Five Brave Horses,” by Sonora Carver. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Wild Hearts Can’t be Broken,” a childhood favorite of Kendyl’s and mine, then you know the story… apparently Sonora Carver’s book has been out of print since the 1960's, thus there are very few available for purchase online which therefore makes them very expensive. But Mom wanted it as she fell in love with the story, movie, etc. so Dad, Kendyl and I strategized and Dad made it happen! So we gave her a bike rack (for her bike/saddle bags), the movie, and the book. She was so surprised! It was really cool – and *perfect* theme night as we were on our way to the circus!

In other news that I have been forgetting to blog about, I am training for a triathlon! So far so good... It’s been on my life goal list for awhile and with my birthday and upcoming stuff I decided no time like the present. Considering I can do all 3 things separately, I thought I should try and see how I would be at putting them together… This one is just a sprint, but it’s a 300 meter swim, 11 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run.

My hardest leg of the three will be the swim as although I’m a good swimmer, I’m not a good free-styler. With all of my many swim lessons, girl scout camps, water certifications, lifeguarding, etc. I’ve never been able to freestyle for long without sucking down a lung full of water! I do a lifeguard freestyle really well, but it is extra tiring to keep your head out of the water as your body is not in a supine position in the water, thus making it more difficult. Good news is that apparently at the actual event hardly anyone does real freestyle anyway as you’re in open water and have a million people around you, so should be fine for me I guess? Haha! So I’m busy training and trying to consolidate the activities and going one to the other… tonight is bike to run night, which sounds reasonable though they say your bike legs making the transition to your running legs can be a little interesting so we’ll see! I’m going to try and do a dry run Saturday or Sunday just to see how it goes as it’s not too far away! My biggest fears about it (which Kendyl said should be the last thing I’m worried about) are the transitions, so am trying to get more educated on these so I have a better idea about how all of this will work! So far though I think I’m really liking it!

Also got to see Ash and the boys tonight again, with Pam and Chandler, too. Ashley's mom had knee surgery this week so she's in town briefly to assist, so we had dinner and watched the boys play in the fountains. It was adorable and I hate that I don't get to see her/them very often. We also took the new camera so as soon as I figure out how to download the pictures I'll post some!

So glad it's Friday tomorrow!

Love,

Tasha xx

Happy Birthday to me!

What an amazing weekend!

It’s no secret that I’m into birthdays (of course and obviously my own, but I love other people’s, too!) but this one I think will end up in the top of the list!

Here’s a recap of the rest of the week from where I left off:

Thursday was relaxing – had lunch with a work colleague (she took me out for my birthday, so nice!) and then that evening Curt and I cleaned the pool (doesn’t sound fun but it kind of was watching Curt bob up and down while he was vacuuming the hot tub while I was working in the main pool). So we were just chatting out there and working away, though keep in mind it wasn’t too hard of work – I find that keeping up the pool isn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. This is literally the first time I’ve ever “cleaned” the pool. Granted it’s mostly Curt’s job to keep up with the chemicals, emptying the buckets, which I appreciate very much, but as long as you keep up with that stuff it’s pretty low maintenance? It just so happened that the whole week before we had a ton of storms that had blown things in and wanted to have it sparkling clean! So we were done with that way before dark, I made some yummy dinner, and then we decided to go upstairs and watch my Monday Birthday week gift – “10,000 BC.” Love those kinds of nights!

Then of course Friday was *my birthday!* Started off great with a quick commute in, had a great day at work, colleagues took me out for an amazing lunch at my favorite place – it was so fun! And then we had a long meeting in the afternoon that took us until the end of the day. I had a little more work to do, so took off around 5:30 p.m. and headed straight to the Goose’s Acre for a family dinner on the patio, with tres leches at Americas to follow… That was all so fun (weather was *perfect* in my book) and then we headed back to the house for some presents! Whoop! (no secret that I love those, too). So Curt had been really nervous about my present, which I thought was sweet as it implies he put some thought into it (for him, anyway). So I opened them and got so much great stuff! Everything from an iPod car plug in (from Kendyl, and on my b-day list for months – yea!), Vera Bradley pink elephant bags (from Mom & Dad as apparently she’s retiring this pattern), Kinoki foot pads (Mom, Kendyl, and I have talked about how fun these would be to try for awhile, so Mom got some at BB&B!), and… drumroll please…. My Nikon SLR D80! Holy smokes I was totally surprised! This was Curt’s gift to me, along with a super power additional 200x zoom lense, photography classes (like 15 or something?), a DVD, car battery charger, and the bag/kit with memory cards, cords, etc, etc, etc. Wow… I was so amazed. So this was from Curt and a few others chipped in as well (my parents, Carrie & Don, and Courtney). So I am SO excited to become a photography guru! I mean, I think I have some natural raw talent considering I have taken some pretty amazing shots with just a 35 mm camera (see Italy pics in your mind here), so we’ll see how good I can be with the proper equipment along with some coaching! Then we had some fun with “So you think you can dance” and I showed my fam the Bollywood dance as Mom hadn’t deleted it yet… lol!

Saturday we slept in some, then started to get to work to get to the store for party supplies/food, and getting the house ready for the big day. It ended up being so great – we started at 3 p.m. and I think we had 21 people there plus my family so it was probably the upper limit of what our house can support party wise as it was packed when everyone came inside to sing to me... But it was GREAT having so many family members and friends there, and a lot of us got into the pool after awhile, too! I was so relaxed and it was the perfect birthday celebration… our last guests left at about 9:45 p.m. (thanks Vicki, CP & Judy for helping us clean up)! Then we decided to watch the “Bucket list” to cap off the day… Sunday we did it all again, this time on a much smaller scale for my mom but at my house again as HER birthday is only 6 days away from mine. So the fam came over at around 1 p.m., we got the food ready, had a few different guests over, and when they left a few hours later we had family time in the pool which was way fun, and again very relaxing (Kendyl and Curt kept pushing me back and forth across the pool on my float – best game ever)! Then half of them left, and Mom stayed with me and we watched Quest for Fire.

So all in all it was an incredible birthday weekend full of good times, just enough R&R, fun in the sun, movies, *cake,* presents, etc. – all my ideal and favorite things! YEA!

So back to real life again and this week is going well, too… am trying to figure out when I can start diving into my photography stuff in between other things I have planned… this weekend we have Carrie’s 50th birthday to celebrate as well as Paige & Keith’s wedding. Should be a lot of fun… I’m also looking forward to the wedding b/c Fred will be marrying them (he’s who married Curt and me!) and it will be attended by a ton of people that we’ve known forever. Then maybe on Sunday we’ll get the boat out as it seems like centuries since we’ve had the chance to get up there!

OH! And how could I forget, tomorrow evening we’ll be attending the CIRCUS! Always a family favorite for us and it’s to celebrate Mom’s birthday (which is really on Thursday) so I’m *very* excited about that! My dad loves to tell the story of how special the circus is to our family… I guess when I was just 9 days old my mom was tired of being cooped up in the house and decided to take me on one of my first outings to see the world. As the circus was in town (they always are in July) she decided to take me to see the elephants being unloaded from the train (I think the train?) and then they would be walking them down the street in a mini-parade. Well I guess as I was obviously the youngest bystander so the news crews and reporters that were there decided to interview my mom so she and I were on TV later that night – it was my debut to the world (lol)! I guess she was so excited because it was still a very new city, I was the new and first addition to the family, and with all of the excitement/elephants, etc. I guess it’s just one of those really happy memories that carries over forever into loving the circus, thus, Kendyl and I have also always loved the circus as well! Just one of those magical things (similar and right up there with me and my love affair with the Renaissance Festival).

Anyway, so all is well and I’ll just be snapping a million pics away on my new cam until next time! July is always so busy so should have plenty more to write about soon… and will include pics next time!

Love,
Tasha xx

Birthday Week Fun!

It’s my Birthday Week! YEA! And so far so good…

Monday was a little out of the ordinary… I worked from home so we could have some workers come and pressure wash the house, as well as do the windows (inside and out) and wow was it an ordeal! They were supposed to arrive at 9 a.m. but were running late so arrived at 10:30 a.m. The guy kind of showed up with some attitude as in his opinion our house was bigger than what he was expecting square feet-wise (I guess by the looks of it), so was ticked about the quote I was given by the owner/main guy over the phone. I was really offended by what he could be implying and suggesting I would have to pay $100 more than what I was quoted so I simply told him the quote is what I would be paying, and that I told the main guy our house was the correct sq feet (it is actually even slightly lower than what I told them and even rounded up), two stories, and a combo of brick and siding so what else could I say about it? I also offered for him to come see for himself on HAR (one of my personal favorite websites – why can’t every city have this?) and told him I didn’t appreciate his attitude when I had taken off time from work to be here and had done what was asked of me on my part to prepare for their visit. I was so mad!

Then they apparently needed more supplies so left and came back. Then a nozzle was broken so Adam (Attitude Adam) went to buy another one while Daniel (no attitude but still buddies with Adam) starting on the inside of the windows. What was hilarious (not in a mean way) about Daniel is that he was a big guy, probably in his mid thirties, and he was scared of Maverick. At one point he said, “that dog’s bigger than me,” and I couldn't even fake agree - there's no way… I mean Maverick is big, but this guy was a big guy, way bigger than 140 pounds... So I spent the day making sure Maverick was gated safely away with me and plenty away from him. He would just call my name whenever he was ready to move around – just made me giggle. Maverick was fairly annoying throughout the day, however, as they were at our house for 7 hours – constantly banging on the house and making noises that don’t belong, suddenly appearing in the backyard, back door, front door – you get the picture. Maverick was having a tough time guarding me and it was a lot of work for him when normally he sleeps all day while we’re gone!

Then Monday night was the much awaited finale of The Bachelorette! I can’t tell you how excited I was for that moment to arrive… Vicki and Mom came over to enjoy it on the big screen, and we decided to make it like old times and order Domino’s (thin crust cheese and cinnastix +Bachelor night = Tasha’s personal heaven). Not only did we have the finale though (I won’t say who she chose until next post JUST in case someone has been in a hole and hasn’t watched their DVR yet), but we also had an After the Final Rose… 3 hours solid… love it. I tell those close to me that it doesn’t matter if I’m 90 and this show is still on, I will still love it so much.

Tonight was fun, too in a weird-ish sort of way, but I got home and Curt gave me the second and third presents to celebrate my birthday week (he’s so sweet). My first present (on Monday) was 10,000 BC. Note we haven’t seen this movie yet, but as Curt knows that I love Clan of the Cave Bear (movie and Earth's Children series), he figured I would like this movie as well, and he’s probably right. :-) I didn’t get a present on Tuesday – I don’t know if by plan or not but I was in a really bad mood and didn’t really deserve one anyway.

Tonight, however, I got 2! One is a small coin-ish looking token that is silver and says “good for one birthday wish.” I haven’t decided what my wish will be yet but I’ll let you know what I decide! And my third was this absolutely precious oversize wine-type glass that is painted with candles and says “Happy Birthday!” and I love it! What’s more is that when Curt was asking me if I liked it, I of course said yes, and he’s like, “can you tell where it’s from?” and I paused and studied it, he gave me a couple more hints and I finally figured out it’s from Swoozies, which is one of my guilty pleasure, favorite stores (later this evening Curt called it "Smoothies," God bless him. I hardly ever go in there though b/c I love their stuff, but usually can’t justify spending that kind of money on the wonderful stuff they offer (which I don't ever really NEED), so I was SO happy that he remembered how much I love that place. What a cutie.

Then, we had to weed the yard, which usually is not that fun but for whatever reason tonight it was (maybe because I got a present beforehand)? After we finished Curt decided to mow while I went and got washed up to make dinner… WHILE I was making dinner I flipped on the TV and got sucked into a NEW show – “so you think you can dance?” sigh… another show, it happened – geez! So watching the dancers, enjoying it, etc. finish dinner, blah blah blah, and THEN the last couple to go does this *AMAZING* Bollywood dance that I watched about 12 times before I decided to go put dance appropriate clothes on and attempt to jump around and learn the dance myself. What a blast – Curt laughing in the other room as he would peek over from time to time, Maverick jumping and dancing (and getting kicked in the head, don’t worry, not hard) and finally I pretty much got it. I’m just bummed b/c I wasn’t recording it on my DVR so I can’t go back and enjoy it… maybe it’ll be on YouTube (you'll never believe it - someone has already posted it and it already has hundreds of views! I guess there were others like me... click here to see).

So anyway, off to begin another day in the Birthday Week – woohoo!

Love,
Tasha xx

Birthday Week presents


P.S.
Here’s a snippet of a post that I’d forgotten from BEFORE Wilderness (sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but thought I would include rather than delete):

This last weekend was AMAZING! I left it pretty much open so we could relax as during the weeks we’ve been running all over the place. So Friday Claire called and wanted to see if we wanted to go out to eat that night, so Curt and I met her and Adam out at this Japanese restaurant where we had a lovely meal and great time with friends! We had Mochi Ice cream at the end, and MAN that stuff is GOOD! The rice dough around the ice cream is like heaven – almost like a cookie dough consistency but a lighter, sweet taste. It was delicious. We got home later so we started a Netflix but quickly abandoned for bed! The next morning we slept in a bit – I actually woke up earlier than Curt which *never* happens so finished the movie (he didn’t care) and then woke him up so we could take Maverick to the Spring Bark at Northshore Park!

We met Chelsea there (who had Nina) and though I was a little nervous for Maverick and his current ailments, he did GREAT! There were *tons* of dogs there, and vendors, etc. so we had a lot of fun just walking around and looking at everything. I brought Savannah’s old leashes/collars (the 3 sets that I bought her and she never wore) and donated them to the Humane Society, and they were appreciative so that made me feel good and a little sad at the same time. But Maverick made lots of new friends, and only had one moment where his back legs started to bother him, so we made our way home soon after and he seemed fine for the rest of the day.

Then Curt and I got into our hiking boots and started walking over to the Darling Showcase of Homes and brought a pitcher along the way to pick dewberries! I wanted to get enough to make a pie later that afternoon, so we had fun hiking and such. Picking dewberries is an art, though – we were so intense about strategy to avoid getting scratched up with thorns – it was hysterical! We ended up getting the entire pitcher full so we made TWO homemade pies (Curt insisted on homemade pie crust even) that we are still working to get through… so yummy!

The showcase was nice, too… I always love to get good ideas for decorating and wish I had enough money to just start over or something!

4th of July Weekend

Gotta love holiday weekends!

This weekend was totally great...

On Thursday afternoon Curt went riding with Danny, and while we were waiting on him to get home, Kendyl and I went to Luby's - one of our faves! Then we got Curt and proceeded over to a local park to help build our Village float! It was fun and got me excited for the parade the following morning... when we finished float building we went to our house for a second to pick up some FIREWORKS! Since we can't set them off anywhere near where we live, we went over to Kendyl's area to set off fireworks that we have had since the wedding (Kendyl had bought them for us to drive off to but it was a dry time of year so we couldn't back then). We made it into like a spy mission with our night vision headlamps, etc. We found a lake to shoot them over away from any civilization and had a great time enjoying shooting them off and me yelling at the 2 of them to be safe every 30 seconds. LOL! It was GREAT, and now Curt and I have extra space in the bottom of our pantry!

Friday we woke up early to go and meet some folks from work to enjoy the July 4th parade - it was a lot of fun... I love parades! I also learned that Curt isn't really a fan, which I thought was interesting, but he humored me and we had a good time.

Our village float was great, there were lots of high school bands and little kids, some pretty professional looking floats, a ton of classic cars, some horses, scouts, etc. It lasted a couple of hours and then we went to the grocery store to pick up Mam's Tinkerbell cake (as it was her birthday and we were celebrating later) and do some shopping as Danny, Heather, and Sonora were coming over for hot dogs at our house a little later.

When they came over we all jumped in the pool and had a great time swimming around and carrying Sonora around the pool. She was hysterical as she would fuss to get out, and then squat and pee on the concrete, repeatedly saying "Uh-Oh" - it was hilarious. Maverick was also outside so he was lying on the concrete watching us swim and she would go over and sit right in the middle of his two front paws like it was nothing. They have a lab and maltese at home, but Maverick is still twice the size of their lab, and still Sonora had no fear (and she's so small - she's maybe 20-25ish pounds and is almost a year and a half old). We had a ton of fun until it was time for dinner which is when we had to run to meet the family for Mam's birthday celebration.

When we got to the house we met Gerald, who is Mam's beau, and he seems to be polite, and she enjoys his company. We gave her her presents (a gift card bouquet and a small flat screen TV to mount in her bedroom), sang "Happy Birthday" to her, had some cake, and then we got on our way to head to the park for a concert and fireworks.

When we got to the park we set up our lawn chairs, played some frisbee and enjoyed the music (and the lovely weather and being outside) and waited for it to get dark. It was perfectly relaxing and so nice - we had fun taking some sunset pictures and laughed a lot, and then at 9:30 p.m. we saw an *amazing* firework show set to music over the lake! It was FANTASTIC!!

Yesterday I slept in and Curt and I piddled around the house all day - watching movies, catching up on shows, etc. Then we got ready late in the afternoon and headed over to Mam's for a turkey dinner. Gerald was there, too, so we got to know him a little better, and had a nice family dinner complete with Mam's GREAT mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc. It's been great hanging out with the family this weekend as it's been awhile as Dad was out of the country for the last 4-5 weeks, and Mom joined him a couple weeks ago... So after dinner, we all watched a Netflix that I had brought, chilled out, and came home, and then Curt and I watched another movie, and now it's Sunday!

Today we're going for a bike ride and getting ready for the pressure washers/window cleaners who will come tomorrow. Other than that, we're just hanging out which I'm loving - we're doing great at the "summer slow life" that we always try to implement as I run us ragged during the year. I may choose a book from my "to read" pile, and go lay out after our bike ride if it doesn't rain!

Hope everyone else is having as fun of a weekend as we are!

Love,

Tasha xx

See how great I'm doing already??

So last night I went in for a haircut… I LOVE my stylist – he’s wonderful and does such a great job, but I was a little annoyed! I had made Curt and I’s appointments back to back for 6 and 7 p.m. – mine for later as I don’t get home until later from work/driving, etc. So I was pushing it to get home on time, quickly changed clothes and as I was headed out the door Curt called to see where I was because our stylist was going to cut another guy’s hair in between us. I told him I was 5 minutes away, and whatever, as long as it was quick that would be fine. So I got to the haircut place at like 6:45 p.m. before my appointment and the stylist was cutting this guy’s hair so I chatted with Ash while I was waiting. So 7 p.m. comes, and he’s chatting away with his “friend” in the next chair, while cutting the other guy’s hair, and he didn’t finish until like 7:15 p.m. – ugh! I was trying really hard to not be visibly annoyed but geez – I had things to do still for the evening! And what’s the point of making back to back appointments?! THEN as he was cutting my hair he was still chatting with his “friend” in the next chair and I was so worried that in his obviously non-focused state that he would chop too much off or something! I wanted to shake him and point out that if he could just focus on my head that he could be done in like 10 minutes and free to chat up his friend after, versus my 40 minute hair cut/trim! It didn’t help at all that I was completely starving (read grumpy) with no dinner in sight as I was going to Kendyl’s after for a workout video session and only THEN were we eating dinner. It was actually more of an inconvenience for Kendyl to wait for me though, b/c she goes to bed at like 9 p.m. (because she wakes up in the 4’s – she’s nuts!), so by the time I got to her place, we did the workout, and then ate dinner it was totally 9 p.m. – sigh!

The workout video was GREAT though – we were totally panting but had a good time. I like doing workout videos at her house b/c when I do them at mine Maverick is all over me. He loves that I’m on the floor and thinks it’s cuddle time, but goes CRAZY when I’m jumping around so barks b/c he thinks it’s some sort of game or something! When I do my pilates video I have a hard time not laughing b/c I’ll make him go lay down on his bed and he does his inching scoot forward until he’s right next to me and I’m rolling all over him, or a leg hits him in the head or something – cracks me up, but probably not an efficient break in the workout…

Anyway, so got home around 9:25 p.m. and Curt told me I had just missed the coolest thing – ugh! Apparently 2 minutes before I pulled in the driveway, he looked outside and near our pool is what he thought was a cat (background info, Curt installed landscape lighting and blue pool lights that look GREAT in the backyard, so we have them on a timer and the backyard is kind of lit up til around 10 p.m.) by the edge of the pool. Well as we do not like cats in our backyard (we are not cat *haters* but for every blue jay I find dead in my yard I go a little more crazy) he was about to go back and shoo it away. At a closer look, it was a *RACCOON* who had come into our backyard and was pawing at the pool water to make the june bugs come closer through the ripples and eat them! How adorable is that? Curt said the raccoon was a pretty big one – Maverick saw it as soon as Curt had started to process what was going on and quickly sounded the alarm. Instead of running away Curt said the june bug bandit turned to look (oh so nonchalantly) and just trotted away, with a last look over the shoulder before he disappeared in the night. I can’t believe I missed it, but you can bet I will be watching for the clever raccoon!

After that excitement decided to watch Part I of the Bachelorette – WOW what a great episode – 2 great ones in a row! I have no idea who she’ll pick as both have laid it out on the line, so next week will be GREAT!!! Then, as Curt was still working on his laptop next to me I decided to watch John and Kate + 8 (my other fave show) which is *usually* 30 minutes but I realized only halfway through it was an hour show, so ended up staying up much later than I wanted…

Tonight was pretty low key and fun - came home and changed and went back out again to meet Pam for dinner at Market Street. Was really fun to catch up and just sit outside (it was so nice out today!) and talk shop... we don't do that often enough which is silly as we live so close, so will hopefully be doing that more often! We chatted about everything really, but I especially loved sharing Wilderness experiences with her (as she went as well on my trip in high school) from a few weeks ago! What is so funny is how well we both remember that trip, but how we remember different things from it! We both brought up a ton of stuff that the other had forgotten about until tonight again... so fun!

Oh and random thought - to make up for me missing the raccoon last night, TODAY I saw deer (pretty common but always love it nonetheless!), a bunny (NOT as common) and a SKUNK (*rarely* ever see!) so I felt like Discovery Channel girl again - whew!

I’m really looking forward to this weekend, too, by the way! Curt and I are going to decorate a float Thursday night for the Friday parade, we’re going to celebrate Mam’s birthday on Friday, then on Saturday she’s making a turkey dinner where we’ll get to meet her beau, Gerald (should be interesting, but from what she’s said he’s a nice guy so stay tuned there!), and then just try and relax and start getting things prepped for the following week’s birthday celebrations! We’re doing my stuff on Friday/Saturday, and mom’s on Sunday as we have a wedding the following weekend so it will be all our birthdays together! YEA!

Hope everyone has had a great day! Off to spend time with the hubby and go to bed - and laugh at Maverick... As it's July 1st I just gave him his heart worm pills with peanut butter, which he *loves* but always does this adorable head rubbing thing afterwards as if rubbing the outside of his ears/face with his paws will affect the amount of peanut butter stuck on the roof of his mouth! He cracks me up!

Love,

Tasha xx

No excuses!

Ok - I know how lame I am for trying to do better with the blog and failing miserably - sorry!

We have a lot to catch up on...

A week or so after I left off Maverick got sick - we have no idea what is was which is a little scary, but basically he would cry inconsolably when he tried to get up - lose his bladder sometimes, and just cry like mad. It was AWFUL to watch so we got him into the vet asap. They did a hip dysplasia test which was clear, it's not wobbler's (which is GREAT and what I was worried about), not arthritis or anything age related, so they gave us some meds (anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, pain med) for him to be on for the next 2 weeks, and graduatlly it cleared up and got better, until there was nothing? And there hasn't been any sign since - so crazy??

Maverick catching some rays by the pool

So we switched his food back to what he was on when he was younger (higher protein) and have worked on getting some weight off of him to relieve any stress his back/legs may have had, and all has been well! Hallelujah! I can't tell you how worried we were... A couple weeks later, we decided Maverick was up for going to the Spring Bark which is a yearly event - this year it was at the lake and we all had a great time watching Maverick make lots of new doggie friends!

Maverick and a bull mastiff - new giant best buddies!

As summer has begun we have also enjoyed the boat again this year - still enjoying wakeskating, etc. and our days out on the lake have been a blast! This makes summer so wonderful! We also got some great new patio furniture which has made summer evenings (and mornings) so nice - we just chill out there and eat or talk, and enjoy the R&R!

We also were very fortunate to attend an Astros game in AMAZING seats thanks to some good friends through YL who have some connections - whoop! It was such a great game - we won, the fireworks show was out of this world, and it was such a great night overall... sigh!

Then came Memorial Day which was the perfect combination of activities and relaxing! Me, Ma'am, Mom, and Kendyl had a girls day at the zoo one day, and on Monday we took the boat out and invited some friends to hang out with us as well... it was so fun! Heather and Danny have a little girl, Sonora, who just turned 1, and she was out there with us the whole time - she was perfect and we all had fun wakeskating!

Then of course, as it was late May, we had many high school graduations/parties to attend which was really fun, too. Kind of sad b/c we have a lot of great YL seniors that will be leaving us, and Greg (Curt's stepbrother) has also graduated, so we know quite a crowd of special young adults who will be setting out to make a mark on the world! Congrats to everyone and best wishes!

And THEN came Wilderness - Curt and I took 6 YL kids on a trip into the Wilderness, into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado for a 6 day backpacking trip... and yes, it was hard! We knew it would be as this was the same trip I did in high school (with Pam!) when we graduated high school and it changed my life, so Curt and I were so excited to have the opportunity to lead on this trip. And by lead I do not mean guide - we had 2 guides assigned to us that work at the base camp over the summer so we didn't have to worry about the survival/trail stuff, so that was nice. But our friends were so fun, the scenery was gorgeous, and once again it was such a life changing, once in a lifetime (and lucky enough to be twice for me!) experience. Of course on Wilderness there is always that one day that you think you're going to die, and for this trail it was on Day 4. Day 3 was really tough, don't get me wrong, but Day 4 we had to wake up at 3:30 a.m. to try to ensure we would be able to pass over the Divide (yes, the Continental Divide at 13,500 feet altitude - try breathing up there with a 60 pound pack on your back, falling through the snow), and we hiked that day from 4 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. We had to scale a mountain in snow and loose rock, and it was just crazy. But wonderful - by the time we hiked to our pick up point on Day 6, and had to get on the bus to go home, everyone was devastated to leave... we had a picture party though with our new YL friends a couple Fridays ago, though, to have fun and relive the memories, and it was fun! We had them over to our house, fed them dinner, watched a movie in the media room, and spent some time in the hot tub after - too cool.

Right as we got back was Father's Day, so as my Dad was out of the country, we went up to College Station to meet CP for dinner and margaritas, and it was great! Courtney came up as well, so it was a fun family get together...

And this weekend was pretty laid back - we had Greg's Graduation party today so we went down and had a nice, late lunch and fun in their pool.

Anyway, that's a very high level past couple months in a nutshell. In the next couple of months we have a maybe trip to China (well Curt will go for sure, but I will hopefully be attending with him for a couple of weeks vacation)!

Otherwise all is great, and I will make a harder effort to post more often so I can stop giving the nutshell versions of what's going on!

Love,

Tasha xx

Doing better...

Well the weekend is winding down, but it was a great one!

Friday, Carrie came over for dinner, Saturday we hit to get Curt some hiking boots at REI to shop, then enjoyed watching little Dylan later in the evening for our friends Rachel and Mike – it’s their wedding anniversary so we offered to babysit so they could go on a date! So we had fun and went to the park, fed him dinner, and just entertained him in general. He's pretty laid back so it was a lot of fun! Helps to that Dylan loves Curt (and he likes me too, but it’s ridiculous how much he LOVES Curt!)… we went on a picnic with them a couple weekends ago and he had such a great time just walking circles around us as he ate! At one point, he had a string cheese in his hand (he’s 1.5 years old, by the way) and he tripped over a stick and fell, so the cheese got really dirty, but it was like he wanted to “save” the cheese because as soon as he fell, the cheese (and dirt) went in the mouth! It was hysterical… Rachel had to fish it out. I mean a little dirt is ok but it was *covered* - I was laughing for like 5 minutes from his facial expressions… haha!

So anyway, that’s Saturday, and then today I went to a flower arranging class at Pottery Barn with Heather, learned some great stuff, and and then we did some things around the house! Curt did a TON on the garage, so I am happy, and then had the rest of the day free so we went to see "Made of Honor" which was too cute – I LOVE having free time!! Very unused to the whole idea in general, but man it's great!

Monday will also be a great time as we have our YL Crawfish Boil which is always a very big bash! And speaking of, I’m also really excited because earlier this week I found out that Curt and I are taking some YL kids to Wilderness! Yes, Wilderness – the very same trip I took 9 years ago as a Young Lifer in school… I’m SO excited to share this experience with Curt and to be on the other side this time… it’s going to be AMAZING!! And insanely hard, as well… I keep thinking to myself that back in high school I was the epitome of in shape, and even then it was ridiculously hard, so Curt and I will need to get our rears in gear and hit the gym to start preparing! And that’s why we went to REI – so Curt could start breaking some boots in!

Our garden is coming along so far now that we’re in the heart of spring… I *love* our backyard! We also got new patio furniture that we picked out last weekend… very excited, it's great and we spent this evening with my whole family enjoying it outside with a lovely dinner and dessert! I think this set will be more conducive to us using it more so we’ll be able to spend more time outside. I already sold our old patio furniture – on Craigs List – and got a great price for it (in fact, got the same amount that we paid for it 1.5 years ago, but of course it was in better condition than what we got it in as we painted it, reinforced legs, etc.) so I was very happy!

AND this next week is going to continue to be great b/c Ashley is coming into town! I get to see the boys AGAIN and I’m thrilled to see how her belly is growing!! We’re also going to see Chandler in High School Musical so that should be so fun!

Anyway, that’s the latest and just trying to update more regularly!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Tasha xx