Compromise

I am a shopaholic. It's not something I try to hide. I'm constantly browsing online to find my next must-have. As I've gotten older, I've become quite the bargain shopper.... I'm constantly browsing sales (my Mom is so proud). For instance, I really want this dress from Anthropologie:

Catmint Dress

$148

It's super cute, but I'm trying to be thrify with my spending with the many weddings I have to attend this month and all of my travels. I just can't justify picking up this dress at $148 for just no particular reason at all (especially since I'm eyeing a dress at J.Crew for a wedding later this month). Imagine my delight when I came across this fabulous compromise at Target for much, much less.

Merona Blue Paisley Print Dress

$18

Of course, this doesn't mean that I won't pick up the Catmint dress when it eventually goes on sale at Anthropologie...

Mystery: SOLVED!

While at C.A.R. National Convention a few weekends ago, one of the greatest mysteries of all-time was solved. Okay, so maybe it's not one of the greatest mysteries... but it has been something that has annoyed my friend Sarah and I for many years.

About 4 years ago my friend Cal got married outside of Baltimore. Several C.A.R.s made the trip to celebrate his nuptials. It should go without saying, but C.A.R.s + open bar + dance floor = one helluva time. The only problem? The lack of memories. It's a good thing we have our cameras to take so many pictures!

The morning after the wedding, Sarah and I awake in our hotel room to find this:



We were completely baffled to find the ironing board in our room mangled and on the floor. While our memories were a bit fuzzy from the previous night's events, we were pretty certain that this was not our doing. For starters, I had no bruise to show for it... and there's no way I could have done that to an ironing board without getting a bruise, since my skin is very peach-like. We asked Sarah's brother Andy about it, and he didn't do it... so we weren't sure how this happened. We have often discussed this ironing board, but have never been able to figure out how in the heck it broke.

Fast forward to C.A.R. National Convention a few weeks ago. All of the old kids were hanging out in the guys' room on Saturday evening. Somehow, we begin discussing Cal's wedding. Sarah and I decide to bring up the fact that we found our ironing board broken on our floor and we had NO IDEA how it happened. Immediately our friend Jerry says, "I did it!".

What? What do you mean? You did it? How have you not told us this before? How did you even get into our hotel room? It turns out that Jerry ventured to our room during the search for my missing camera (it had been left on the shuttle from the reception to the hotel). While looking for my camera Jerry decided he was going to surf on our ironing board (at the very mature age of 25ish). Of course, the ironing board buckled under pressure and collapsed on our floor. This also explains why all of my clothes were thrown about the hotel room. I didn't think I had made such a mess while searching for my camera, but once again... fuzzy memories...

So, the great mystery of the broken ironing board has been SOLVED! This pretty much made mine and Sarah's weekend, so I couldn't help but share this bit of information with you all. I know you will all sleep a little easier tonight knowing that it was Jerry who broke our ironing board four years ago.

My stalker...

Well, dear blog-reader friends, it seems I may have a stalker on my hands. It started out as a very casual relationship. We'd see each other a couple of times a year, no biggee. Over the last year or two though, it seems that we're running into each other a bit more frequently. I wasn't too alarmed... it all seemed very natural. However, I have recently begun to realize that I am being stalked.

I didn't pay much attention at first, and hardly realized that their appearance was becoming more and more frequent. But over the last few months, it's been hard not to notice their presence in my life. It seems I can't escape them! Every aspect of my life is being infiltrated... it seems I have a full-blown obsessor on my hands.

And just who might my stalker be? WEDDINGS! I can't escape them! Just to prove my point... this past Saturday I attended a bachelorette party for my dear friend, and former BBW manager Andrea (Dre), who is eloping to Vegas this week. On Sunday I received a phone call from my biffle (that's best friend for life for those of you not in the know), informing me of her weekend betrothal. And then last night I was channel surfing and stumbled upon "Girl Meets Dress" on WE tv, and decided to pause there while I continued to look for something else to watch. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw a friend from HS on my television talking about getting her bridesmaids fitted for her wedding. This brought me to the conclusion that I have a full-blown stalker on my hands.

This week will once again be filled with bridal events as I am a bridesmaid this weekend. I can only imagine what my life will be like if I am (un)fortunate enough to catch the bouquet...

All dogs go to heaven... (I hope)

Our family dog Baron died on Monday. He was hit by a car and died during surgery from the extensive trauma he received. It has surprised me just how hard I have been taking this. Jay got Baron shortly after he and Lindsey started dating (she drove up to Dallas with him to help him pick out the puppy)... so we had him for almost five years, for all of which I have lived in Austin. He's ginormous, comparable to a horse, so I've never been one to cuddle with him. But I have been crying all week about it! I don't remember the last time I was this upset over a pet's death. When you grow up in the country always having at least 3 or 4 pets at a time, you get used to pet deaths.

Perhaps it's the circumstances of this death. Baron was not prone to wandering near the road unless there was something going on that shouldn't be. Also, he's HUGE (tall and probably close to 170 lbs), so it's hard to believe that someone would not see him in the road. And, that someone didn't even bother to stop and help the poor dog! I really hope some major damage was done to the car. From the extensive amount of wounds, the vet was pretty confident in saying that he was hit dead center and at excessive speed (the speed limit is 40 mph on unmarked county roads). Poor, poor guy.

I don't think I had realized how much I depended on Baron as my protector. Our house can be a pretty scary place when you're there by yourself. Baron was always good at greeting my car whenever I pulled into the driveway and walking me to the house. He would sleep outside the door, and I always felt good about hearing him bark at unknowns in the middle of the night. I'm so glad that when I was walking out to leave home last weekend I stopped to pet Baron and tell him what a good boy he was, that's not something I usually do.

Here are two pictures of Baron. One from when he was a puppy, and the other from a few months ago when we had snow in Lufkin. We're going to miss you, Baron!

I'm headed to Houston tonight to stay with cousin Kathryn, Noel, and baby Will before I fly out to D.C. bright and early tomorrow morning for C.A.R. National Convention. I have a lot going on that I want to blog about, so hopefully you will see a lot more of me when I return... but no promises...

Easter

I went home this past weekend for Easter, and had so much fun! The weather was perfect for the most part and I got to spend lots of quality time with the fam. On Saturday evening we had a fish fry at the lakehouse to celebrate Easter and the many March/April birthdays in our fam. There were 5 kiddos there... Ella (4 almost 5), Eric (almost 3), Madelyn (almost 3), Braxton (10 months) and Will (6 months), and they had a blast.

The babies got to hang out and get lots of attention from their cousins and aunts and uncles and great-aunts and great-uncles and grandparents. The kiddos got to play in the yard, dye Easter Eggs and then hunt them.

Here are some pictures from our fun fish fry.

Mady loves making silly faces

Throwing sticks into the water

Eric dying Easter eggs

Me and Baby Will

Braxton and Blake hunting eggs

Madelyn getting an egg

My precious niece

Ella and Mady and their loot

Happy Birthday!

Me and Baby Braxton