Celebrating Logan

Logan's first birthday party was hilarious! Little kids crack me up. Plus there were a few people there that I hadn't seen in a while. David and Stephanie brought Wednesday over for the food and presents. Oh and of course the cake!

Logan was strangely careful eating the cake. No explanation for that one. In this photo he's getting a taste of the icing. Once they gave him a slice he just sat there with his hand on it. Eventually he made sure to rub some red icing in his hair and on the chair. After the cake, he opened up his presents. Boy did he make out good!

Watching Logan open his presents...

We got very lucky and the weather was great. We had a little sprinkle when JR was cooking the burgers, but that went away quickly. I managed to get a little sun without burning!

I gave Logan his very own chair. He may not get much use out of it though because I'm pretty sure he thinks he's a race car. He spends most his time running around. They have a great big yard to accomodate this activity.

This is totally an action shot, but it's hilarious. JR's brother brought confetti eggs and everyone kept getting each other. Travis made the mistake of getting Sara in this shot. She got him right back with a little beer down his back. Poor Davin had the wits scared right out of him!

It felt like we were circled around a campfire, instead we sat around a bush. I love the outdoors!!

And look who I found boozin it up at the end of the night... I don't think mommy saw... oops!

Untooned Toons

OH. MY. GOSH. Look at this picture of what Homer Simpson would look like if he weren't a cartoon.

I came across this new crazy blog that depicts what cartoons would look like in real life, through the wonders of Photoshop. Check it out. Freakin creepy. I used to work with Photoshop when I did graphic design for the US Corps of Engineers in Illinois. I cannot wait to get a computer at home so I will be able to use it again, though my skills are not as amazing as this guy's (or girl's).

Rachel and I have been doing some graphic work of our own. Check out the morphed faces of people you may or may not know (using MorphThing):

Travis and I

And of course:

Travis and Callaway
Sagira and I

Well, I'm off to Logan's first birthday party. It better not rain!

A Wednesday Surprise on Thursday

Travis and I had a great surprise yesterday when we got off work - David and Stephanie were a day early coming into town!! We met them for dinner and margaritas at Pappasito's and then went back to their hotel room for an hour to coo over the baby. They decided to stay in the company-paid hotel room last night because they didn't want to inconvenience us with a crying baby on a work night. I told them that's silly and that I don't mind, but I'll see them today for lunch so I let it go. =) They said that David is going to ask work for a transfer to Houston, so we may be seeing more of them in a few months! Little Wednesday is still tiny at 10 weeks old, but she has gained weight since we saw her last.

So cute I can't stand it!!

The happy family

Two men and a baby. teehee.

I've got a short and busy work day today, so I better get going!

A Trilogy

I just finished reading the Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. My mom sucked me into it when she left the first book here after she finished reading it at Christmas. Alexa was nice enough to loan the rest of the books to me (the Omnibus) so I could finish the trilogy. The first book, The Golden Compass, just had a movie made about it and it was fairly light-hearted. I did not realize how dark the rest of the books would be, albeit the title should have given that away. I was told it is a very controversial tale of a young girl and boy who head off to kill God. Woh. It turned out not to be so insane. The "killing" itself was unintentional and the idea of God is different within the book than what it is in the Bible. Everything about it is supernatural and fantastical. I look forward to seeing how they plan to portray the characters' enemies and the different worlds they enter in the movies. I do recommend the books. Although, I spent the last chapter crying my eyes out! I used to read all the time when I was young, but I got out of that habit once I had to spend my time studying for school. I'm trying to get back into it so if anyone has any recommendations, comment me.

Last night Travis and I tried some roasted deer backstrap that my boss gave me. I'm not sure how I feel about it. The first couple bites were good, but I think I have trouble getting over the fact that it is deer. Either that, or the 30 pounds of deer in my freezer has caused me to OD.

Totally unrelated, but just as important - I seem to have developed a habit of waking up in the middle of the night, around 2 or 3 am, to go to the bathroom. This is partially set off by Callaway's random barking in the middle of the night, but it is a horrible habit that I wish I could break nonetheless. My problem is that I just CANNOT stop drinking water before bed. Especially, after I brush my teeth. As it is, I already pee every hour or so during the day. It's going to be hell whenever I get pregnant!

Colorful Room

At long last! The bedroom is finished! Travis really likes it, but I am still undecided. Do you know what I do love? My bed. I really take it for granted. It was wonderful last night getting to sleep in my own sweet bed again. Well, here are the before and afters I promised. What do you think?

Before

After

Boring

Exciting?

Hospital room

Awesome room?

Afterwards, Callaway helped me clean the sheets on the guest bed.

Easter Photos

OK. I'm feeling a pinch better today. Any improvement is very exciting in my book. That means I'm that much closer to visiting Blair. Alexa and Chris brought him home from the hospital yesterday afternoon. I'm sure they are getting into the feeding routine pretty quickly. Luckily, Alexa's parents are staying with them right now to help around the house and with the baby when needed.

This bedroom is taking much longer than I had expected. I suppose it would have been quicker if we had worked on it all day Sunday too. I painted the doors last night. Travis put up the remaining trim (we ended up having enough despite losing some on our trip home from the store), then went to his softball game. It's cool because he carpooled with JR, which should help all of us with gas in the future. They won their game, so Travis was in high spirits when he came home to caulk the crown molding. Tonight I will put one more coat of paint on the doors and Travis will touch up a few spots on the wall that got banged up while putting up the trim. Tonight. I'm hoping tonight we'll be sleeping in our bed again. Ugh. We need to get it finished soon because our friends David and Stephanie are coming to visit this weekend and I need to get everything back in order before they arrive!

Since I left my camera at Shannon's the other night, I was unable to put up Easter photos yesterday. Here they are!

Rock Band. Again.Chillin' on the deckMy husbandHostess and Host

Not done painting yet...

Do you know that sensation when you feel like someone has been holding ear muffs over your ears and then suddenly sweet relief comes when they are removed? I experienced that this morning. I didn't realize I couldn't hear until BAM! my ears unplugged. I wondered why everyone flinched this morning when I spoke to them. Probably because I was screaming at them. This is the never ending cold. I was teased last week when I thought I was well, although I was extrememly tired the whole time. I am so sad that we don't get to visit Blair. Alexa did send me a few photos, so I thought I would share one of the new family.

Easter was very nice for Travis and I. Shannon and Chris invited us over to their house to visit with her family. I've met them before, but never had a chance to talk with them. We had an early dinner (and dessert) and it was delicious. After Shannon's family left we sat outside on their back deck while the guys smoked cigars. It was a delightful and relaxing evening sitting by their chimenea.

Yesterday morning Travis finished putting up the chair rail. He plans to finish the crown molding tonight, while I paint all the doors. Hopefully we'll be able to sleep in our own bed tonight. We have been sleeping in the guest bedroom and we're not used to the smaller bed in there. It's funny because they say Bengals like to climb - here's our Sagira helping us paint:

Merry Breezy Easter!

Yup, it's another windy day in Galveston County. Can you believe it? Thankfully we had a wonderfully pleasant day yesterday. Travis and I got up bright and early to start helping JR and Sara move their apartment into the U-haul. I think we got there at about 8:30am and were heading home by 10:30am to start painting our bedroom. We had enough time to finish taping and then paint the ceiling and above the chair rail before Sara and JR got to the house after their lunch. We switched over again to helping them move everything out of the U-haul and give our paint a chance to dry before we accidentally leaned into it. They asked another couple-friends of theirs to help move so we visited with them on Sara's porch (with two ceiling fans, might I add) and drank a few beers before heading back to our bedroom. We finished the lower portion before we sat down for dinner, but were quick to get back up and do the trim. Unfortunately we only have one paintbrush, so Travis got stuck finishing the trim last night. While I'm here slaving away at work, he's back home putting up the chair rail and crown molding. I hope to have some before and after pics for you soon.

Here's Travis' are-you-joking?-I-can't-smile-while-painting face

And here's my I-never-look-good-while-doing-housework face

Friday night was a blast. We went over to Ariel and Robert's for a crawfish boil. It's always a real experience because their roommate Mike is actually from south of New Orleans. South. As in below New Orleans on the map. You should look that up. Actually, here let me do that for you - click here. You may notice that there's NOTHING south of New Orleans. Just swamp. He's from there and so is his family, obviously. Their house survived Katrina, which is absolutely amazing to me. Because I'm pretty sure everything south of New Orleans is BELOW sea level. Not sure how that's really possible, but I'm pretty sure about it. Back to my story... Mike's parents (very nice people with an unmistakable Louisianan accent) came over to Galveston and brought two 40 pound sacks of crawfish with them. Keep in mind that like lobster, these little critters have to be kept alive before eating otherwise they go bad. The cooking process is fairly quick, but it sounds like a freaking jet plane because of the heat source. The crawfish are boiled along with lemons to help rid of any fishy flavor, potatoes, onions, corn, sausage and garlic. Plus the delicious spicy, Cajun seasoning. To do it right, once it's done cooking everything is thrown onto a plastic covered table and the feeding begins. There's a secret to peeling the tail properly and you are supposed to finish by sucking the juice out of the head, but I usually bypass that part. Here are some photos from the feast.

Crawfish MountainYummy. There's the jet engine boiling pot

Getting ready to suck the juice out of crawfish's head

King and Queen of Crawfish MountainRawr. Catastrophe
Post-feast funSleepy time

I wish I had more pictures to put up of Blair, but since Travis and I are still sick (I finally developed that cough + congestion + sore throat) we are unable to visit a newborn. Hope you guys have a great Easter!


PS - I have posted another link for you to check out. It's another person that I will be stalking through their blog - my co-worker Rachel. She plans to document the daily life of her animated dogs.

PPS - Happy 1st birthday, Logan!

Go Fug Yourself

******************News Flash******************

If you know them already, you'd be interested to know that Chris and Alexa have a baby boy! Alexa's water broke at 1AM and they brought her straight to the hospital. Since she was not in any pain they decided to wait until 7:30AM to begin the emergency c-section. She gave birth to a healthy Blair Christopher at 7:39AM. He weighs 6 pounds, 12 ounces and is 19 inches long. Congratulations, you two!!

************************************************

Travis and I didn't do anything too exhilarating last night. Travis grabbed a couple Rubbermaid garage organizers from the stuff that was being thrown out from the neighbor's house. He ended up completely rearranging everything in the garage because of this. We have to move things around a little anyways because the new SUV won't fit with the shelves in the back. He also took a bunch of metal we've been saving up for bringing to the scrap metal yard to work with him today. I made dinner (meatloaf and mashed potatoes) and then we went over to see how Sara was coming along with the painting. I think they are probably done now since all they had left were a few kitchen cabinet doors. The wood floors have been refinished and the new linoleum was put in. It looks like a totally different house! I wish we would have taken before and after photos. I'm pretty sure nothing had changed in that decor since it was done in the 70's. Sara even painted the brown oven black. It's official - they're moving in this Saturday.

Since this probably isn't enough to keep you entertained on your oh-so-slow work day, here are a couple more blogs I'm adding to my list. This one is a good blog. If you like fashion and a little b!tching. I'm turning into a blog-addict!!

Go Fug Yourself

And here's another website with photos of mean notes that people write to each other. Pure entertainment.

Passive-Aggressive Notes

1st Day of Spring

Happy Vernal Equinox! I'm ecstatic about the greater chances of awesome weather. Lately it's been very nice during the day, but then it's freezing at night (actually it's only about 50 degrees). Which means that since I leave my windows open all the time, I do not want to get out of my warm and cozy bed in the morning... when it's still dark out. Another exciting thing about spring is crawfish season! Travis wants to invest in a boiling pot so we can have crawfish boils. I'm not a huge fan of these little crustaceans, but I love the seasoning which evens it out for me. And there's always good times at a crawfish boil - whether you're eating or not!

Last night I went over to Shannon's for our walk and then we stayed after for dinner. She bought BBQ sandwiches and potato salad. Delicious. We stuck around afterward for beer and Rock Band. They got this game for their Xbox 360 whenever they purchased their flat screen TV, so they invited us over to give it a try. It was a little distracting at first. I'm used to playing the guitars, so that wasn't difficult. The hard part was figuring out which part of the screen was yours and keeping your beat over the banging of the drums and the sometimes-off-count singing. Ha! So much fun though! Check it:

Caty singing, Trinity on the drums, Travis on lead and me on the bass
Shannon likes the new guitar because it has a set of frets that are
smaller and closer together for her small hands. =)

5 Years

I know this is a serious one but I think it is appropriate considering the affect it has had on America. It has been five years since the war on Iraq began.

Timeline

• September 11, 2001 – terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers
• March 19, 2003 – Operation Iraqi Freedom began when US B-52 bombers attacked Baghdad
• December 13, 2003 – Saddam Hussein captured and given to the Interim Iraqi Government for trial
• May 20, 2006 – the Iraqi National Assembly approved the current government of Iraq
• December 20, 2006 – Saddam Hussein executed
• January 10, 2007 – Bush announced a US troop surge

War stats

Direct cost to US: $845 million
Taxpayer cost: $1.9 trillion

3,990 dead in US armed forces
8,904 wounded requiring medical air transport
20,416 wounded did not require medical air transport
8,273 non-hostile injuries
23,052 required medical air transport for diseases or other medical conditions
112 journalists, 40 media support workers, and 95 aid workers have been killed

An estimated 151,000 Iraqi deaths

Just something to think about...

It's a Celebration!!

Somehow I managed to get all my friends together on the same night with only a day's notice! I still can't believe it. We celebrated St. Patty's Day with some green beer while we watched Travis and JR win their softball game (even with a punk-a$$ ump). Here are some snapshots of the evening (not pictured: Travis & Chris W - sorry guys, the photographer was drinking).

Phage in a green garter

Callaway in green beads

Ariel and Robert
Sara & Logan

Seth & Chris
Jenna, Brian & Jandi
Shannon & Caty

Me in green


JR & Logan laughing a Beano

Good times!