Tis the Season

I'm not really sure where December went. I still haven't really even started my Christmas shopping, there's nothing like waiting until the last minute!

We did put our tree up right after Thanksgiving. I was really proud of it until we were at my future in-laws this past weekend and saw their magnificent tree. It looked professionally decorated. There was a theme and everything!

I guess I should make a New Year's resolution to blog more.

With Thanksgiving

Well, it's been awhile.... and of course, I'm writing a post about Thanksgiving in December, so I'm obviously behind. November wasn't the easiest of months, so I'm thankful that it's over! There's so much to be thankful for this year!

I'll start off on a bit of a sad note, and the biggest reason why November wasn't easy. It's been a month since one of my best friends and mentors, Travis, died very suddenly of an aortic dissection. He was 32. I first met Travis when I started working at the Capitol. I'm not really sure when our first introduction was, he was just a guy I always knew. During the 2007 Legislative Session we worked some together as my boss was on the committee he was the Committee Clerk for and I was the staff member assigned to follow that committee. Then in the 2009 Session we worked together on the Corrections Committee. We were quite a team! Travis was a pretty passionate guy and we were always baffled as to how we made it through six months of working in such a small space together for such long hours without ever once getting into an argument or disagreement. He taught me so much during that time and I will never be able to thank him enough. Today, and every day, I am thankful for the friend and mentor he was to me. He was my very best friend in the Capitol and I miss him dearly. It's still hard to believe that I won't ever hear him yelling after me in the hallway or enjoy a lunch at Cisco's with him or see his smiling face. I'm thankful for his friendship, one that I will forever cherish. I am also thankful for the friends who were there and have helped me cope with this sudden loss.

I'm thankful for my wonderful fiance. I'm so lucky to have him in my life! It is such a wonderful feeling to know that you have a partner in life: someone to celebrate the triumphs with and to bear the hardships with as well.

I'm thankful for my wonderful family, both current and soon-to-be. We are so blessed to have loving and supportive parents and siblings and some of the cutest nieces and nephew around! Thanksgiving was so much fun because we got to spend time with each of the 8 kiddos that are in our wedding party. I played some quality "Just Dance" on the wii with Brooke, walked sweet Paige around the living room, we took Ella and Eric to see the Muppet Movie, and enjoyed fun time at the lake with Madelyn, Jace, Will (who can say my name now!) and Braxton.

On the wedding planning front: Save the dates have been mailed out! Bridesmaids dresses and flower girl dresses have been picked! We had a successful meet the family fish fry at the lake over Thanksgiving (minus the rain), so Steven's parents and sister's family could meet all of my aunts and uncles and their families. Came home from Thanksgiving to the invitation to our engagement party later this month in Lufkin, so exciting! We're less than 5 months out, people!

Random Observation

I've noticed something recently, and I just wanted to share. Hopefully this doesn't turn into a glass crashing situation for all of you How I Met Your Mother fans.

I'm guessing you've noticed that whenever you see someone and ask "How are you doing", they usually respond with "well" or "good"? Most common answers ever. So no, that's not my observation. My observation is your response. If the person answers "well", you respond with the ever so not grammatically correct "good" when they ask how you are. And if the person answers "good", you respond with "well" when they ask how you are.

You might be asking how in the world I would care to make this observation. It's simple, in my line of work you see lots of people in passing in the halls on a daily basis. People are friendly, so they ask the simple question of "How are you?" Also, whenever my boss' legal assistant calls, we have the exact same exchange every single time. And it never fails, one of us says "good", the other says "well", no matter which the other person says first.

So, there's my random observation. I know it's lame, but thought you might enjoy a non wedding-related post. Though speaking of weddings, I'm going to have to share about my experience at a wedding this past weekend the next time I get around to posting. Oh, the suspense.

THE dress...

Well, I finally did it. After contemplating for two weeks, and trying on many, many dresses... I bit the bullet and ordered my wedding dress! While I'm not going to share the details of the dress here (and I should probably start refraining from showing anyone and everyone who even mentions the words "wedding" and "dress" around me), I will share with you some of my favorites that were under consideration while shopping.

What we found amusing while dress shopping was that I didn't have a particular style of dress that I went for. I definitely needed an a-line skirt (love those hips of mine), we figured out that a sash was the perfect accessory to accentuate my waste, and we discussed sleeve options for every dress that didn't already have them (Ganny always said I shouldn't get married in a church in a sleeveless dress)... but other than that, the similarities stopped there. The top 3 contenders were absolutely nothing alike other than they were white dresses.


Prior to shopping, this Monique Llhullier Bliss dress was my absolute favorite. I'm a little bummed that I didn't get a chance to try it on. The one bridal shoppe in Austin that carries the line didn't have this sample (or really any samples for this line because they're in the midst of a huge rennovation), but after looking at the lace detail for another MLB dress and going by what I learned from trying on other dresses, the lace and the cap sleeves might have been a little too much for me on top.

I was really surprised that I loved this Jim Hjelm beauty as much as I did. Kathryn wanted me to try it on. Loved how preppy chic it is, but it's a bit more of a fashion statement than I want to make on my wedding day. I may not love this dress in 50 years as much as I do now.

Had never fancied myself as an all-over lace dress kind of a gal, but my shopping posse all said this was the kind of dress they had envisioned me in. It even looked nice when we added little cap sleeves to it. This Wtoo dress was #2 for me, but I wasn't as wowed with the style when I tried it on a second time.

Subtract the huge black bow (because I certainly didn't try it on with this bow), and you get a dress that is very similar to the Monique Llhullier dress that I adored prior to shopping. I was definitely intrigued by this Tara Keely dress, but to be honest, the sales girl at this shoppe just wasn't rockin' it. Kathryn stepped up when it came to accessorizing and really trying to pull together the whole bridal look. The lace was also kind of see-through, it definitely would have had to have an additional layer of lining up top.

I hadn't even considered the possibility of a one-shoulder dress, though I've been obsessed with one-shoulder dresses for the bridesmaids. We tried this Jasmine dress with another sash and were quite smitten with it. The price tag was also pretty dang exciting (under $1000). Lindsey sent a picture of me in this dress to her mom so Madelyn could see and she said "Wow!". May have considered this dress more if it hadn't been the first stop of the day and if the service at the salon had been better.

This Vineyard gown was listed as my #2 choice from the first shoppe. Too be honest, I really don't remember what it looked like on me. I think we liked the sweet-heart neckline and the big bow on the front.

This Venus dress was ranked as the #3 choice overall. It was at the last store we went to, and everyone else loved it way more than I did. It was by far the best bargain of the day, and I'm not sure if that's what made it everyone's favorite or if they were just drunk on toile at that point. I liked the dress, but the style of rouching is very popular and I wanted more of a less popular look for my wedding dress.

So, there you have it... all of the almost "THE" dresses. I'm really excited about the dress that I chose. It was one that I had liked while doing research (pretty sure I've looked at every wedding dress there is on the internet). Now you'll just have to wait until April 28 to see THE dress : )

7 months!

That's right, it's just 7 months until the BIG day!

I feel really good about where we are in the planning process, and will feel even better in the next few weeks as more details are hammered down. For those of you interested, here's a run down of the dones and the to dos:

DONE:

• Church booked.
• Minister booked. (My high school youth minister, Martin will be performing the ceremony, so this was separate from the church booking)
• Organist and soloists booked.
• Reception booked.
• Caterer booked.
• Florist booked.

ALMOST DONE:

• Dress. Went shopping this past weekend with my MOHs Kathryn and Andrea and sister-in-law Lindsey. Narrowed the search down to three finalists. Plan to try on at least once more before making the final decision.
• Guest List. Collecting addresses and trying to finalize a list (which is ever so difficult when it's so LONG).
• Invitations. Visiting with my cousins who own a printing company about those this weekend.
• Engagement pictures. Hoping to get a few snapshots taken while in Lufkin this weekend.

TO DO:

• Bridal Party attire
• Photographer
• DJ
• Cake
• Rental Items. Once the other items are nailed down, we will go through the list of must haves and would like to haves based on what we've got to spend.
• All of the little things...

I'm sure these next 7 months are going to FLY BY!

It's a small, small world.

It's either a really small world or I know too many people. Or maybe a combination of the two.

Situation #1: Steven and I went to San Francisco last weekend for my dear friend Lauren's wedding. Such. a. fun. trip! We were touristy and saw the sites of San Fran, hung out with our engagement twinkies (Jerry and Adair got engaged the same day as us), enjoyed a private wine tour of the Russian River Valley and had tons of fun at the wedding. So anyways, our flight was at like 8 am on that Friday morning so we arrived at the airport a little before 6:30. Want to know how many people I knew in the airport security checkpoint line? Three! And two were on our flight! Quite the combo of people, too: one former Capitol staffer, one lobbyist and then a lady from my DAR chapter.

Situation #2: We went to the A&M game this last weekend. Prior to the game I attended a DAR luncheon for Constitution Day. Our speaker was my friend Lynn and she mentioned her daughter Lindsey and husband Brett were attending the game that day, too (they met while at school at A&M). We arrive at the stadium and get to our assigned parking lot and are going to cross the street and guess who we see waiting to cross the street at the same crosswalk? That's right, Lindsey and Brett! After we made a short trip to Northgate for some drinks and tshirts we ran into another DAR friend of mine when walking up to the stadium and not even a minute later saw a lady from Lufkin who I used to babysit for. There was only 80,000 people there. Couldn't make this stuff up if I wanted to.

Still settling into the house. Unpacking is a nightmare when it involves the merging of things. Looking forward to not doing this again for a very long time!

A farewell...

I said goodbye today to my home for the last two years. It was a little sad to walk out of my apartment for one final time. I'm a bit overwhelmed with making the big move into big girl life with the fiance. It's going to be quite an adjustment to be living with a BOY. Not to mention quite the adjustment to be a pseudo-homeowner for the first time in my life. I say psuedo since Steven first bought the house almost two years ago, it's going to take some time to get used to it being "ours".

Life has been hectic. Spent the last few weeks slowly moving everything one trip at a time. Was in Vegas last weekend for Labor Day. Didn't win a thing on my own, but did have some luck on a few football games for the fiance. Heading to San Francisco tomorrow for dear Lulu's wedding this weekend in Santa Rosa. Looking forward to seeing some of my favorite people and enjoying the pleasant temperatures of California. It's been almost 10 years since I was last there! Upon my return I shall get back to our regularly scheduled wedding planning (haven't done a thing for weeks!). I guess if life was to slow down I'd be bored!

One last look at the apartment. Tilt your head because blogger is being stupid.

Read-aholic

Hi, my name is Jamie, and I'm a read-aholic.

I've always known that I've had a slight addiction to reading, ever since I was a child. I never had any problem completing the required reading lists (and enjoyed it). I rocked at Accelerated Reader. True story: the Librarian in elementary school gave me a special award at the end of 6th grade for how much I read. Yes, I fully embrace my nerd status.

I started out on the good stuff, the stuff it was okay to read all of the time... the classics. As an adult, I've slipped into the stronger, not so good for you stuff: chick lit. It's not something I'm necessarily proud of, but I guess that's the way addiction is.

It wasn't until this summer that I really noticed that the problem might be getting out of hand. Like when I read all 7 Harry Potter books in less than three weeks. And then last night when I finished The Help in less than 24 hours. I read some at work (it's really, really slow right now), then I started reading when I got home from work and only stopped to talk to the fiance on the phone for half an hour, and finished around midnight. I couldn't put it down! I was hoping to spread the book out over a few days... maybe even through the weekend, but no such luck.

I wonder if there's a cure for this? Or maybe I should embrace this addiction and use it for good?

Chocolate Cupcake Martini

I spent this past weekend in Bastrop at the Lowe-asis (my friend Zia's house) for our DAR Texas Junior Membership Committee planning weekend. It was such a fun and productive weekend with some of my favorite ladies! Everyone came with their great ideas for Junior Membership and their recipes for cupcake martinis. The cupcake is the symbol for the National committee since we are celebrating 75 years of Junior Membership this year... so cupcake martinis were of course, the drink of choice.

Here's how you make a cupcake martini:

2 oz. cake flavored vodka
2 oz. chocolate liqueur
.5 oz. Bailey's

Combine in a shaker, shake and pour. Top with alcohol-infused chocolate whipped cream. We also dipped the martini glass rims in frosting and pink sprinkles.

It's very sweet and you could definitely drink your dessert with this creation!

What a weekend...

This past weekend I did a very brave thing. My precious niece Madelyn came to visit for the weekend! This was the first time for me to have her 1) overnight and 2) for three days. I'm still recovering from her visit!

On Friday afternoon, I drove to Waco to meet Lindsey, Madelyn and Jace since that's about the half-way point between Austin and Dallas. From Waco, Mady and I went to Navasota for the C.A.R. State Workshop. This was her third trip to C.A.R. Workshop, and she always has a blast, but it was the first time for us to stay overnight. I'm pretty sure she didn't stop talking from the moment we got in the car at 3 until she finally fell asleep at 11:30. We went to McDonald's for dinner, played on the playground, swam at the hotel pool, and played with her friends while the big kids had skit practice that night.

The next morning we headed to Washington-on-the-Brazos state park for the actual Workshop. I was the Workshop chairman, so I had actual work to do besides watching a rambunctious 4 year old. Madelyn is always sweet to help out and she passed out stickers to everyone who registered and then helped with handing out the boxed lunches. Besides that, she did a whole lot of running and playing. One of these days she'll actually pay attention to the meeting...

After the workshop we headed back to Austin to Uncle Steven's for a slumber party. I figured it would be best to give my cats some peace and quiet the weekend before their big de-claw surgery on Monday. For dinner we headed to Dave and Buster's. It's amazing how much you can get the girl to eat when you're bribing her with video games afterwards! After lots of video game playing we left and stopped for ice cream on the way home. Uncle Steven is a huge sucker and not only let Mady have a blizzard, but bought her a second round of ice cream before we left.

Madelyn had said all day that she wanted to stay up all night long. She made quite a valiant effort in doing this, we watched Shrek and Shrek Ever After and she finally dozed off around midnight. I had to be sneaky with my sleeping on the couch because anytime she noticed my eyes were closed she'd wake me up! We enjoyed donuts for breakfast and a nice bubble bath (Steven has a huge garden tub with jacuzzi jets) before heading back to Waco to meet Lindsey and Jace for lunch and give back sweet Mady.

It was a wonderful but exhausting weekend with sweet Madelyn, and I look forward to many more visits with her... I'll just make sure to get plenty of rest in the few days prior to her coming.

The CAts had their declaw surgery on Monday. All went well, minus Smokey biting a technician. She had quite the reputation at the vet, when I went to pick them up I had to get her out of their cage and into her cat carrier... she had scared everyone else with her hissing! They seem to be doing okay with the recovery, very much like their normal selves, just a little slower and a little lazier. And let me tell you, I'm very glad that they don't have claws, otherwise there's no way I'd get them to take their pain medications without some serious damage to myself.

A very special birthday...

Just thought I'd give a quick shout-out to two very special birthday gals. See, I'm not quite sure when their birthday is, but I know it's about this time of year. And this year they turn 5. That's right, Happy Birthday Smokey and Giada!

For their birthday, I'm getting them declawed on Monday (don't judge me). I think Smokey knows she's about to lose them because she's been using them quite a bit the last few days. I have cuts on my finger and wrist to show for it. I'm hoping that the lack of claws will not only save my furniture (and Steven's once we move in), but will also keep Smokey from wanting to knock everything over all of the time. She either really hates the sight of my family or feels the need to try to sharpen her claws on picture frames. I'm not completely convinced it's the second one.

One month

I promise not to become one of those wedding-obsessed people, but I just have to relish, if only for a moment.

One month ago today I said YES! One month ago my life took THAT step to forever. Everything changed while staying the same. I'm so excited for the journey I am on and so fortunate to be blessed with this journey.

I reminded the fiancé today about what he was doing one month ago. He said it was the best day of his life to date. I can't wait to spend and discover the ever after together. Cheesiness done.

Wedding Funnies

I went home this past weekend in order to see my fam and to do a little ever so important wedding research. The research kept me very busy!

I just had to share two quick little stories that made me giggle while I was at home.

While visiting with two of my favorites, Ella and Eric, I decided I would go ahead and ask them if they would be a flower girl and ring bearer in the wedding. I asked Ella first, and she immediately said yes. Then I asked Eric, and he shook his head no. Ella informed me that he was nervous. So I told Eric that he didn't need to be nervous and we wouldn't make him do anything he didn't want to. He thought about it for a few minutes and then said "Okay, I'll do it. But I want to be a Panda." His mom and I were perplexed for a few seconds until Brook realized that he thought I had said "bear" instead of "bearer". So we're going to have a Ring Panda.

It also made me giggle with how involved and interested Ella and Eric are in the whole planning a wedding process. Ella wanted to know what I was going to wear, and what she was going to wear, and how I was going to do my hair. She even offered to let me borrow her pink flower clips for my hair! Eric wasn't so sure about having to dress fancy, but he does want a pair of dancing shoes! Never expected so much interest from a 6 and 4 year old!

The other thing that made me giggle was my Dad.

In talking with my parents about some of the various wedding festivities, I mentioned that I would like to do the Bridal Brunch at our house and have it be a very similar event to our annual Christmas Morning brunch, since it's by far the best meal of the year in the Durham household. The next morning I see my Dad walking into the house and he's holding two packages of bacon. This would probably not seem so bizarre if you weren't aware of the fact that my parents don't actually live at our house and there is hardly any edible food on the premesis. I asked my Dad about the bacon and he said that it was on sale and he had to get it for the brunch. The bridal brunch. In April. (nevermind that Christmas will come before then) He's going to freeze it.
It reminded me of how my Mom says that my Dad immediately went out and planted a vegetable garden upon learning that my Mom was pregnant with twins. Guess that goes along with what my co-worker Tony always says, "There's no substitution for thorough prepwork?"

The proposal

I actually sat down to write this post weeks ago, but never got around to finishing it.


Hopefully if you're reading this blog, you're aware by now that I'm engaged! Steven surprised me in Washington, DC on July 1 with a proposal. And, you've probably already read about how he did it by reading the President General of DAR's blog (http://blog.dar.org/2011/07/02/a-surprise-marriage-proposal-at-continental-congress/).... but I figured I should probably tell everyone (and put down in writing) my side of the story... so here goes...

I left for Washington, DC for DAR Continental Congress (our annual national meeting) on Friday, June 24 with plans to return back to Texas on Sunday, July 3. Because of the current position I hold on the National level (National Vice Chairman of the Junior Shoppe), I have to be in DC for that long. Set-up for the Shoppe began on Saturday morning and continued through Sunday and then the Shoppe was open for business from Monday-Saturday from 8 am-4 pm. In the Shoppe we sell various DAR products (think embroidered bath robes, patriotic jewelry, notepads, etc.) to raise money for the Helen Pouch Memorial Fund which supports the DAR Schools (there are 6 schools across the country which DAR supports). This summer we did a little over 54,000 in sells in 6 days.

As you can see, I was a busy girl. Managing the Shoppe required me to be at the hall no later than 7:45 am and to leave sometimes not until 6 pm. Talk about long days on vacation! My evenings were full, too. I either attended meetings or made plans with friends who live in the DC area, or DAR friends whom I don't get to see very often. I tell you all of this so you can understand just how surprised I was to see Steven when I walked into the President General's Reception Room.

Friday was no exception to the busy days at DAR. I spent the morning working at the Shoppe and then we had the official Congress Page picture with the President General. Following the Congress Page picture, I went to lunch with the Texas girls at Cosi up the street. We always plan this lunch on Friday because there are quite a few of us, and we've all got various duties and positions, so this is a time we can all meet and socialize. After our lunch, I returned to the Shoppe to work for a bit before the Junior Membership committee report. When a National Chairman gives her report, the Vice Chairmen of the committee are invited to be seated in the President General's box in the auditorium, so they can be recognized at the end of the report. They run that box like clockwork! You are escorted in at the beginning for your Chairman's report, you listen for the two minutes, stand at the end, and then are escorted out of the box.

As I exited the Hall after leaving the box, my friend Lindsey grabbed my arm and said that Zia needed to see me in the President General's Reception Room. Zia is a page in the Reception Room, so that's where you would normally find her. She had been "sick" all day, so I immediately thought something horrible had happened. Little did I know that she had just been pretending to be "sick" all day just to have a reason to get me into the room!

I come into the Reception Room and I see Zia, standing in a line with a number of other Texas DAR ladies. She looks perfectly fine, and the professional photographer Marshall is there, so I think that we must be taking some kind of picture that I wasn't aware of. After many years of picture taking, I take my cue and go to the end of the line to be in the picture.

At this point, my DAR mother Pamela, looks at me and asks if I'm okay. I tell her yes, I'm great; I've just been in the PG's box for Morgan's report and now I'm here (I was a little perplexed because I was supposed to be meeting her at Hamilton to look at pins at 2, which was right then). At that point, the waters parted and the ladies revealed a handsome fella in a suit sitting in a chair. After a second, I realized that it was my handsome fella!

I think it took a few seconds for me to process that Steven was sitting there because he was supposed to be in Houston visiting his parents for his Dad's birthday. I had been too busy that day to even think about calling him, so I had no idea he had actually spent the morning on a plane to surprise me in DC!

He says I immediately started crying when I saw him, and I believe him, though I can't really remember. Figuring he shouldn't waste any time before he loses his nerve, he grabs my hand and drops to one knee and proposed, though neither of us can really remember what was said. I know that he said "Jamie Perry Durham, this has been the best year of my life..." but that's all I've got.

It was a beautiful proposal, and quite a surprise(which was what Steven wanted most for our marriage proposal)! Afterwards, I found out just how many people had been in on the secret and how long they had kept it from me. Let's just say I won't be playing poker with any of these DAR ladies anytime soon.

I walked out of the Reception Room with a look of shock on my face and word began to spread that I had been proposed to at DAR. Our afternoon was filled with lots of phone calls to family and friends, lots of introductions to various DAR ladies, and then a fun evening of celebrating with some dear friends. Couldn't have been more perfect if I'd planned it myself!

And there you have it, our proposal : )

Assault at a Mall.

I was assaulted today while shopping on my lunch break at a local mall in Austin.

I had just walked out of a store and was looking at a window in the next store when BAM! The Italian hair straightening woman came after me. She asked a few questions and before I knew it, she had taken a piece of my curly hair and straightened it.

Now I would have looked silly walking around with one piece of hair straightened and the rest curly, so when she offered to do all of my hair, I had to agree. All of this was to pitch me this super amazing straightener for the low, low price of $200. Of course, I passed. And then I fled the mall as quickly as possible.

This is what I get for trying to avoid eye contact with the sea salt people. I walked right into the Italian ladies hands. I'd much rather have super soft hands than super straight hair right now.

You're welcome?

I got a text on Thursday evening from two of Jay's friends, Jesse and Kevin (okay, so they're also my friends, too). They planned on coming to Austin for the weekend with their girlfriends Jessica and Jenn to go skydiving for their 28th birthdays. I guess they figured 28 was enough birthdays? Anyways, they wanted to stay at Hotel de Jamie, so of course I said yes.

They managed to wake me up at 3 am on both Friday and Saturday nights. The first night, they were having problems with my key. That's because they were at the wrong apartment. My complex splits the street, so there's a 922 on both sides of the street. Luckily, they didn't wake anyone up in the wrong apartment. The second night, they were having problems getting my gate to function. Fortunately, they were able to follow another car in. For my troubles, they left me a nice little gift card to Target and this completely awesome and random thank you note...

And... done!

This picture pretty much describes my week:

Session ended on Monday! And we went back into Special Session on Tuesday! Talk about annoying. Luckily for me, the hours aren't long in this special session as my boss and my committee have nothing to do with what's on the Governor's call. Woohoo!

I've enjoyed being able to return to "normal" life. I went grocery shopping for the first time in MONTHS on Tuesday. I've gotten to work out every day. I've done some cleaning around my apartment (though there's still TONS to do more). I've gotten to hang out with friends. It's the small stuff you appreciate after months of craziness.

Headed to Ltown this weekend for a big family reunion (I mean even bigger than our regular get togethers). Looking forward to hugging and kissing on all of the sweet kids in my life that I haven't seen in AGES. There are 6th and 4th and 2nd birthdays to celebrate! I'm making the trip sans one boyfriend because he must stay behind to attend a funeral. I'm sad he won't be making the trip, especially considering the circumstances, but it will be just a little nice to soak up all of my family time by myself. I just wonder how many times my niece will ask where he is...

The light at the end of the tunnel...

It's almost here. I can see that little glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel as we race towards the end of Session. And, with every passing day it seems more and more possible that we may not have to spend the summer in Special Session, too! It's so exciting to know that my life is almost mine again!

My work is winding down. We held our last hearing this past Monday and last meeting on Wednesday and I turned in my final Committee Reports yesterday. We celebrated the end of our meetings with a lovely committee dinner on Wednesday night. I'm going to kind of miss seeing all of our members on a weekly basis, but not enough to wish us back into Session.

It's almost 10 am on a Saturday morning and I'm at work. I was here late last night, too. It's exhausting, but I find the floor debate fascinating (because we all know I'm a giant nerd), so I don't mind it. Just 9 more days, friends. 9. more. days!

Unplugged.

I'm house sitting for my Great Aunt this week. She's vacationing in Destin with her travel friends. The ladies have been taking trips all over the world for the last 30 years. So fun!

It just so happens that a few months ago one of my friends from Jr. League moved in two doors down from my Great Aunt. I let her know that we would be neighbors for the week and we planned to get together upon my arrival. Well, then I hurt my hip. And then I ended up working late the last few nights.

The House concluded their business around 5:30 last night so I was excited to get away from the Capitol at a decent hour. On top of that, the anti-inflammatories I'm taking actually started working and my hip is no longer hurting. I took that opportunity to got visit my Liz and her husband and sit out by their pool and just relax for an evening.

And now we get to where the title of this blog comes from, "unplugged". I needed to charge my phone, so I left my phone at home, along with my watch when I went to visit my friends. I can't think of the last time I ever ventured to do something so bold. No cell phone? No watch? Just an evening of enjoying good conversation with no worries as to how late it is and if someone's trying to reach me. And it was wonderful. Of course, I probably wouldn't have stayed out until 11 pm if I'd had my watch on (I'm old, I need my sleep), but I highly recommend that everyone unplugs every now and then. It's refreshing.

Not. my. month.

Wow, it's been awhile. April has not been my month, dear friends, which is why I've been so absent.

For starters, it's that crazy time of year at work... longer days on top of longer days. I've got my eye on the prize though, and very much looking forward to May 30! The four days off for Easter was exactly what I needed to rejuvenate me for this last little stretch. Because to be honest with you, I was hanging by a thread all last week. Such is life, though.

Since my last post, I've had a small banking crisis when a personal check was stolen from my account. It's a pretty long story and I won't bore you with the details but after 22 days, I think we've got everything wrapped up... minus one police report that has yet to be filed. I've been debit card and checkless for the better part of this month, which has been super annoying. I've now got my handy new debit card and am just itching to use it, ha!

Right around the same time I came down with tonsillitis. That was so not fun. It's the second time I've had tonsillitis in my life, the first time I wasn't even 2. I was miserable for about a week and on antibiotics for almost 2 weeks. I think the boyfriend is the most happiest that I am well, apparently I'm not the most pleasant to be around when I'm sick.

Made a trip to Lufkin to see the fam. We put together some pretty adorable Easter baskets for all of the kiddos. The most popular item were the bunny ears that I got for $1. Ella was the only one who didn't want to have anything to do with them. I was shocked when even Eric put them on and wore them for our egg hunt! My nephew is smiling these days, and it's the cutest thing.

Attended C.A.R. National Convention. I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more had there not been so much going on at work. It was great to see old friends, though. And the kiddos did a great job with their paging and aiding.

There have been multiple crisis involving various members of my fam. Once again, I'll spare you the details, but some illness and some sad circumstances have occupied the last few weeks.

And then apparently I'm getting old. I'd like to say that I injured myself doing something dangerous or somewhat exciting, but alas I can not. On Sunday evening I went for a walk in the boyfriend's neighborhood while he did some work in the yard. And now I can barely walk. I've hurt my hip. Walking. This was after I went for a run on Friday and was FINE! I was looking forward to turning 30 in a few months, but if this is what comes along with it.... I may have to reconsider.

Madelyn's First State Conference

A few weeks ago I took my precious Madelyn to her very first C.A.R. State Conference (if you don't know what that is, then you obvs don't know me very well and should probably stop reading). One of my all time favorite mamas, Mama G, was kind of enough to ask Madelyn to be one of her personal pages for the Conference. Usually this entails walking in front of the officer you're a page for, standing whenever they stand, and delivering notes and running errands as needed. Since Madelyn is all of 3 1/2, we decided it was probably best not to test her attention span with having her sit on the platform, so all she did was walk in... and she did it beautifully! And I got to buy her the most adorable white dress for the occasion.

She had a blast at C.A.R. and especially enjoyed all of the presents. Home girl racked up in loot. She was presented with a gift from Mama G for paging, won a door prize (which entitled you to pick out two things), and I presented her with two pins in honor of her first State Conference. I fear she may have a skewed perception as to what actually goes on at C.A.R. events, but she has fun with her friends and I love being able to pass on something that I love to her.

Here are a couple of cute pictures from the event... yes, I know they're sideways. I've tried to upload them like 5 times over the last two days and I officially give in, just turn your head. Can't believe how big sweet Mady is getting!

Madelyn and William waiting to walk in.

Sweet Mady!

The mystery of the check engine light.

I'm just going to go ahead and start out this post by admitting that I am not the most attentive car owner. You're probably shocked because of the family of mechanics I come from, right? Well, I didn't inherit any of those genes. So now that little fact is established, onto my tale...

The check engine light in my car has been on for awhile. About a month and a half, awhile. For the most part, my car has been running fine, with the slight exception of when I'm idle at a stoplight. After a few seconds, the car starts to shake a little and then the check engine light starts flashing. After I accelerate from the stop light, the car stops shaking and the check engine light stops flashing.

The boyfriend doesn't know much about cars, but he thought that perhaps my oil needed to be changed, along with the filter. Not so sure when that last happened, so I agreed. Had that done last week, and there wasn't a change.

On Saturday, he needed to get a new tire for his truck, so I followed him to the store. While we were out running errands I suggested a stop by Auto Zone so they could run the diagnostics test on my car to see what the problem is since I have to drive to Dallas this weekend. The guy ran the test and I almost kissed him when he informed me that it was a misfire in cylinder 3 which just equated to the spark plugs needing to be replaced. How easy is that! And, I have a wonderful twin brother who knows how to do such a thing and lives in the same city I will be visiting very soon! I was absolutely giddy with this news.

On Sunday I noticed that my car was driving much smoother. The check engine light was still on, but the car wasn't shaking at stop lights and the light wasn't flashing. When I left work on Monday I stopped by the grocery store. When I arrived at the grocery store, my check engine light was on. When I left the grocery store, the check engine light was no longer on and hasn't made an appearance since. How strange is that?

I called the boyfriend to see if he somehow had managed to fix my car without me knowing, but he hadn't. I like to believe that the spark plug fairy paid me a visit and made my car problems go away : ) Here's hoping for safe travels tomorrow as I venture to Dallas for DAR State Conference!

A Final Farewell

Well, it finally happened. I wasn't sure it ever would. I have officially and fully resigned from Bath and Body Works after 10 1/2 years of service. Back in October (or was it November?), I went from being a sales floor associate to only working floorsets. I guess I needed to ease myself into the idea of no longer pushing bath products.

A few weeks ago I received a nice little promotion and pay raise at my real job. This was something that I've been working toward for the last two years, so I've been rather pleased. Of course, with great power comes great responsibility, so I needed to not have to worry about my "for fun" job getting in the way of my "real" job.

I have to say, my departure was rather anti-climatic. There was no cake, no present, no real celebration of all of my time served, even though you could probably add up the years of service of ALL of the other staff at our store and not equal my individual service. Instead, I just quietly worked through my assignments and then departed with a few hugs and well wishes (and early because I'm kind of a rock star at completing tasks in less than the scheduled time). Peace out, BBW.

Kids play

The boyfriend and I went to dinner last night at a neighborhood Italian place he likes. I'd never been, but it was definitely tasty. Of course, my opinion could be a little biased as I unintentionally skipped lunch yesterday, so I was starv-ing. The place had a few arcade games and after we ate he wanted to play Golden Tee.

As I waited for him to get change, I became intrigued by the Toy Chest game. What kid didn't love that game growing up? I mean you could win an actual toy! I think as a kid I won maybe 2. Well, now I have 3! After about 5, maybe 6 tries I walked away with this:

Southpark came out when I was in high school. At the time, Lufkin didn't get Comedy Central. One of my friend's Aunt would tape a bunch of the shows and then mail them to him and we would all get together and watch. We all adopted characters and had their stickers on our cars, because that's the sort of cool thing we did. It just so happens that mine was Stan, so my new toy is especially appropriate. Plus, the boyfriend liked this option much more than the Longhorn I originally sought.

Hopefully this means I'll have plenty of good luck this week! I could use it, that's for sure.

The Great Apartment Flood of 2011.

Texas experienced some really cold temperatures last week. I believe there were 4 days in a row where Austin didn't get above freezing. Because of this, my apartment complex warned everyone to drip their faucets and keep their apartments at 65 degrees and above. Of course, my stupid upstairs neighbors who I didn't like in the first place, did not do this.

I pull up to my apartment on Thursday evening after work and notice some vans outside of my building. I think oh goodness, someone's pipes have burst. I grab my phone as I go to get out of my car and realize that I've missed a phone call because I had my phone on silent. The phone call was from my apartment complex. This can't be good. I listen to the voicemail and I'm informed that my apartment has taken on some water damage. I call back to talk to the manager but no one answered. I decide to go see for myself.

I walk into my apartment and most of my living room furniture is shoved into my laundry room and my entry way. There are two guys with a machine that is extracting water from my floor. I walk into my kitchen to see three giant holes in my ceiling. Oh, boy.

The fans have been going to dry out my carpet since Thursday night. They are hoping that the carpet will be dry today and that the pipes in the ceiling will also be dry. From there they will have to repair the dry wall and then repaint. It will be most likely Wednesday, at the earliest, before I can get back in my apartment.

Thankfully, my apartment requires renters' insurance. There are three pieces of furniture (all my Ganny's antiques) that took on a LOT of water. Fortunately, they're antiques, so they may survive. I have to wait for them to dry before those assessments can be made. I'm hoping my television was damaged because it's really old, I'd like a new one.

The boyfriend has been nice enough to let me and the CAts crash at his place. He also cooked dinner for me the night of the flood AND got me a present (both of these were planned before the flood). Too bad the present makes me think we should break up. Just kidding...

My "holey" kitchen 

Dining room/living room water damage



Side wall damage

 My yummy post-flood dinner!

And my present: a Snuggie. Obvs the boyfriend didn't realize I was serious with my anti-snuggie rants. After all, it's just a backwards robe! And to top it off, it's not even that soft. Present fail.

Resolutions, Month 2

January's resolution was to run at least once a week. I'm happy to report that this goal was met! Sometimes I even ran more than once a week. I plan to keep this one up. It's a Session must.

February's resolution: no fast food.

This is a two-parter:
1) No fast food will lead to (hopefully) healthier eating choices.
2) No fast food will lead to spending less money on meals.

I'm super jealous of everyone who has gotten snow days this week. We've had the bitter cold, but absolutely zero precipitation. I'm tempted to get a few buckets of water and ice the roads myself.

That's how I roll...

Did you know that my nephew is a baby genius? Of course you did, because he's related to me, right? Check out his new trick:

Yep, my 1 month old nephew rolled over last night. Not once, but twice. So that means it's for real. And that he's super smart. And don't you love his rockstar hair? It's all natural, with no product. Ryan Cabrera is super jealous.

What's for dinner?

I cooked dinner last night. That's the second time this year! I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of impressed with myself. Plus, it was very tasty. I made southwestern chicken in the slow-cooker (love, love, love the slow- cooker), a salad, rolls, and picked up angel food cake and mixed berries for dessert.

There was improvement from the last meal because I didn't have to consult with anyone on how to do anything this time. That might have something to do with the level of difficulty of this meal (it wasn't), but improvement is improvement. Who knows, next month I might cook 3 times and may even venture out of the slow-cooker realm! Baby steps....

Six degrees of Lufkin.

I have long known that Lufkin is everywhere. For a small town, it gets around. It's very rare to meet anyone (at least in Texas) that doesn't know of the place or know someone from there. And you'd never believe how many people I've run into OUT of state that have some tie to Lufkin.

Last night I attended a happy hour for Junior League provisional members. I am a member of the largest provisional class the Junior League of Austin has ever had, there's more than 200 of us. So needless to say, I don't know everyone.

I sit down at the table and start talking to the girl that's sitting next to me. We are having the standard "get to know you" conversation, as we haven't crossed paths thus far in our provisional year. She's telling me about how she actually works in College Station at Texas A&M and her husband is enrolled in the MBA program at UT. Right now she stays with one of her best friend's in College Station three nights a week and is back home in Austin for the weekend. She asks me what I do for a living and I tell her I work at the Capitol. She then asked the question which almost always immediately follows, "Did you go to UT?" I tell her no, I went to SFA and that I'm originally from Lufkin. She then tells me that the best friend she stays with in College Station is marrying a guy from Lufkin, and maybe I know him? It is at that point that we discover that not only do I know the guy, but my twin brother is a groomsman in the wedding (and she's a bridesmaid)!

Talk about a small world. We go on to discuss this for a bit. I warn her about one of the other groomsmen (Jesse), and she tells me oh, yeah, she's heard. It's her responsibility to keep said groomsman away from the microphone because at the last wedding he gave a toast that was just senseless rambling. Yep, that was at my twin brother's wedding. And to tell another quick funny story, the bride and groom numbered their response cards so it would be easier to match up the responses. Jesse's card was #14. On his reply card, he listed the top ten reasons why he should be in the top ten. I would LOVE to see that.

My fortune.

We had chinese for lunch today and I just couldn't resist sharing my fortune. My apologies for the cheese factor.

Resolutions.

Looking back at the resolutions I made last year and looking forward to making any resolutions this year, it occurred to me that I'm not really cut out for this year-long resolution thing. I'm a procrastinator. Giving me a whole year to complete a task is just simply asking for it not to get done.

Therefore, I'm going to take a new approach to making resolutions this year. Instead of listing a bunch of goals that won't be achieved over the course of a year, I'm going to make monthly resolutions. Just one resolution per month that pertains to some sort of my well-being whether it's physical, financial, spiritual, or just general. Surely I can stick with one resolution for one month, right? And hopefully some of these resolutions will become healthy habits that stick.

So my January resolution is to run one time a week. That's it. Just one simple run, whether it's 20 minutes or 2 miles. I'm doing other work-outs through out the week, but I've been slacking on the runs. It's something that I miss and something that will be pretty important once Session starts and the free food just starts rollin' into the office. Oh Session, I can't believe it's really here.

VICTORY!

Last night I finally succeeded in world domination. Or at least, in the world of RISK (the most awesome board game there is).

Some time ago, in a discussion of all things totally awesome (or something along those lines), it came out that both the boyfriend and I think RISK is just the best board game ever created. We've discussed this several times since, but had never gotten around to playing. He didn't have the board game in his possession and mine is at my parent's house in Lufkin.

After our many Christmas travels, it was decided that we should spend New Year's Eve very low key. Or "very old couple" as my favorite cousins have said. He decided to make lasagna and I decided to pick up RISK at the local Target. This actually required two stops at two different Targets because RISK was apparently a popular New Year's Eve game and the guy in front of me got the last one at the first top. I must also make mention here that they have these cool collector's editions of classic board games out right now that are in wooden cases that make them look like books. Pretty nifty.

So we rang in the new year with dinner, champagne, and a couple of games of RISK. All of which the boyfriend beat me. Since then, most evenings have been filled with games of RISK, as well. And they've all ended with me losing. I was doing quite well when a few friends joined us on Saturday night until everyone started ganging up on me.

Finally, last night, I won a game. And I have to give the boyfriend credit, he didn't concede like I usually do. He played until his last army was lost. Maybe my winning will deter his want to play a bit. Probably not. At least I will get a break from plotting world domination while he's out of town the next few days.

Happy 2011!

I'm still finding it difficult to adjust to saying "2011". Of course, this is nothing new, it happens every year. Perhaps I will adjust to 2011 when I adjust to pushing the correct floor in the elevator. I still seem to think I work on the 4th floor, and not the 3rd, and have to make a conscious effort to press the correct button every time...

Life has been busy, to say the least, since I last posted! Our Christmas travels ended up totally six days and over 1100 miles traveled. Some might say it's a Christmas miracle that we both survived the quality time in the car together AND are still talking, let alone dating. All of the travel was worth it and it was wonderful to spend quality time with our families and friends.

I am pleased to report that since my last post, I've gained a new baby nephew! David Jace was born on December 28 at 10:07 am, weighin in at 8.5 oz and 19 3/4 inches long! And man, he's got a lot of hair! When Jay first called me with the news I asked if Jace looked like him and he said "He's got a lot of hair." Me being the loving sister that I am who enjoys teasing Jay about his hair loss, replied "So you're saying he doesn't look like you." Bahaha. I got to hold that sweet baby in my arms that afternoon and spend some time with world's bestest big sister, Madelyn. She loves to hold her baby brother and give him kisses. I'm actually impressed with how well she is adjusting, so far. She wasn't a big fan of becoming a big sister.

It was very nice to have a few days off from work. I enjoyed doing as little as possible for a few days after our whirlwind travels. I did start off the New Year with something I don't ever do: I cooked dinner! And it was pretty dang tasty, too! I shall try to post more about that later.

So here's to 2011, please be kind. 2010 definitely had it's ups and downs, but overall, I can't really complain about the many blessings the year brought to my life. : )