How many adults does it take to take a 3-year-old to Chuck E. Cheese's?

The answer last night was about 6. My parents, Lee and Cheryl, and Ryan and I all took Aimee to Chuck E. Cheese's! It was...well...interesting. The first location had a line out the door! Can you believe that? The oddest part was that none of the people I saw in line looked like they were young enough to enjoy Chuck E. Cheese but not old enough to have children that would enjoy it. Weirdness. So we drove across town to the other location that we knew about. In the meantime, Aimee was extremely upset that we actually left the first location. She didn't realize that we couldn't really stay at the first one and let's face it, there's not really much reasoning with a 3-year-old. Good thing she cheers up just as quickly as she gets upset. She was absolutely extatic to see the sign at the next location and all was well. We "enjoyed" the classic Chuck E. Cheese pizza and all took turns taking Aimee to different rides and games. We had a pretty good time and it was surprisingly exhausting for all of us! We rounded out the evening with some homemade chex mix and great conversation without small children running around everywhere :). If Ryan and I can find out how to work the software that came with our new video camera, we will post the footage we got!

Bad News...

So the bad news is that our laundry dryer is finally dead. The poor thing has had a rough life including about 5 moves (including to and from Austin...) and goodness knows what else we have put it through. We wash the dog beds weekly, the bed sheets every 2 weeks, and I know for sure that we have attempted to fit a king-size comforter in it many times. It started squeaking in Austin, but once it got warmed up, the squeaking pretty much stopped. After the move back here, the squeaking was a little more persistent. Then we tried to oil it, balance it, anything to make the squeaking stop. It didn't like that at all and actually got more squeaky-to the point where it squeaked all the time and never really stopped. Talk about annoying...so we thought. Then, apparently, it learned how to SCREAM. So now we can hear our dryer (with all doors closed) from the parking lot. Mind you-we live on the 3rd floor. We now know what annoying really is. We tried hanging our clothes to dry, but we ran out of room in the apartment, and it really bothered me that there were always clothes everywhere, even though they were all clean. We are now "borrowing" our parents' washers and dryers on the weekends until we get our new washer and dryer. Thanks mom and dad!

Holiday Season is Here!

Well, it's official...the holiday season is here!
We had my work party on Friday at the Dallas World Aquarium, which was pretty nice. The party in general was slightly lack-luster, but it was still nice to get dressed up and get to hang out with work people outside of a work scenario. The aquarium was pretty cool, too! Surprisingly, we had never been there. I still am wondering why we had a holiday party even before Thanksgiving, but I guess it's not really mine to worry about anyways and I need to just be grateful for that opportunity and that my bosses cared so much to throw us a party at all. :)
Then, we had a family Thanksgiving get-together on Saturday. My mom's side of the family usually does Thanksgiving on the Saturday before so that more people are able to come and it's not a stretch for families to go to multiple places on Thanksgiving Day. It was great to see everyone, but my Ashley and Belle weren't there, so it just was not the same. In addition, we also have a tradition of going out to Hibachi on Saturday night (yes, after we over-stuff ourselves with Thanksgiving food) which we decided not to do this year. It was needless to say...different this year. Like I said, I really enjoyed getting to see the people that were there...but I have some ideas up my sleeve for next year :) Everyone get prepared now! Lauren's taking over Thanksgiving!! Muah hah hah
Thank goodness this work-week is only 3 days, that makes me very happy! Then we get to share Thanksgiving with Ryan's family and my dad's side of the family.
We wish everyone a very safe and happy Thanksgiving this week! It's great to have this opportunity to reflect on the blessings in our life, which I'm sure we could all do a little more often.

A Weekend Away

This weekend was the first in a while that we've actually been able to head out of town to relax, and it was great! Here's the thing...when we lived in Austin, we came back to the DFW area once or twice every month, so we were really used to traveling all the time. Once we moved up here, we got so caught up with everything (new jobs, a new home, birthdays and other family events, a scary biopsy situation, Ryan's competitive golf, etc.) that it never occured to us that we never really took any time for ourselves and hadn't since the wedding in March. With the holidays right around the corner, a weekend away was definitely necessary, and this week being our friend Kelly's birthday gave us the perfect opportunity to head out of town for a great time.
Kelly and her fiance Andrew live in Austin, so we left the dogs with Ryan's parents (thank you SO much!) and headed to Austin on Saturday.
The drive was nice and relaxing (compared to our attempts at land speed records in the past...) and we even got to stop at my bird bath place on the way! Quick tangent here...there's this place right off the highway that sells all sorts of tacky outdoor stuff and they have a pretty catchy billboard that says "Got dirty birds? We've got birdbaths!". After 3 years of living in Austin and seeing that stupid billboard multiple times every month, I'd never taken the time to stop, so we decided that this weekend would change that. Back to the real story...We got into town and got to take a nap! I know I sound like an old fogie, but I do love my naps. We all went out to dinner on the lake that evening and had a great time! Ryan and I even got Sprinkles Cupcakes (the best cupcakes in the world!) for dessert as a surprise. Andrew couldn't drive Kelly's car (at least not to Kelly's approval), Kelly was a clepto for having a broom, desk chair, water pitcher, and other random objects in her car, Ryan got beat up by Kelly's car as he was being over-dramatic with Andrew's bad driving, and I of course made terrible, dry jokes the whole way there and back and sang very poorly to all the songs on the radio. Needless to say, we love our friends (one of the many reasons...) because they allow us to show our true colors and we love them for showing theirs, too!
The next morning, we went to our favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Juan In A Million. It's totally in the ghetto, but the food is fantastic (and by fantastic, I mean greasy, covered in cheese, and terrible for us to eat) and all four of us can usually eat and be completely full for about $20! It's kind-of a tradition for all of us to go to breakfast there on Sunday mornings when we're in town. The boys always eat way too much and are miserable for hours, but they say it's worth it. The food seriously keeps you full from breakfast until dinner...it's really surprising. Sadly, our trip was short and we had to head back home after breakfast (and a brutal trip to Golfsmith that bored me and Kelly to tears).
We love being at home with our "fuzzy kids," but it sure is nice to get away for a little while. Thanks Kelly and Andrew for a fantastic weekend, as usual! We really enjoyed getting to see you, Charlie and Sammy (their adorable Cavalier King Charles Spaniels), and Bugsy Bunny. We had a great time, and it sure is nice to be back home tonight.

Our Latest Adventure

Sadly, yes, this is now considered an adventure...We got iPhones last week! It has definitely been an adventure because this whole Apple/iTunes thing is completely new to me anyways, so having a phone that functions based on that whole concept makes it even more interesting! Ryan has had iTunes and an iPod for a while, so he's pretty comfortable with it. We really like the phones and are very happy with them so far. They can do so much! The only down side so far is that you can't purchase insurance for them, so if you break it...game's over. I have been known to send my phones on accidental water adventures and Ryan has a nice habit of dropping his phones repeatedly, so we will see how this goes! So far so good, but then again, it's only been like 4 days...
Hope everyone has a great week!

Aimee goes Trick-or-Treating for the first time and turns 3!

So last weekend Aimee turned 3! She's just growing so fast. Of course, Mom and Dad went all out and threw a Barney birthday party for some of her friends, which Lee and Ryan especially loved (they really dislike Barney and his continuous singing and giggling...). We cooked some hot dogs, had some Barney cake, and Aimee played with the presents that everyone got her. She had a blast and was so beyond exhaustion by the end of it all that she could barely tell everyone good bye! When she woke up the next morning, she said, "Mom, can we do that again today?" HAH! Good to know that she, along with everyone else, had a great time.
Check out our photo gallery for some pictures of the festivities. There are also some pictures of her first Halloween Trick-or-Treating excursion...which went surprisingly well!
She wasn't a fan of the first house, probably because the whole idea was just so new. It was just a nice couple (not in costume) with their baby sitting on a very well-lit porch with their Dauschaund dressed as a crab-not intimidating at all, right? Well Aimee was totally not a fan. Instead, she wanted to go next door where there were lots of people sitting outside, all dressed up. The lights were off and they had a bubble machine, a smoke machine, strobe lights, and a GIANT inflatable Frankenstein. Who could imagine that she'd be so afraid of the first house, but be so eager to go to the scary house? Once she figured out that the people at the doors had candy, there was no keeping her (in her adorable bumble bee costume) away from any house with a porch light on! I'd say that it was pretty successful and we definitely look forward to next year.

A Bad Day at Work

So you know how just about everyone has good days, bad days, and "normal" days at work? Well...this was one of those bad days, but the thing is, it had absolutely nothing to do with work! I was just in the wrong place at the very wrong time, that place happened to be at work, and that time happened to be during work hours. Here's what happened in short: I got trapped in our elevator for like 30 minutes by myself! Here's the longer version: I work at UT Southwestern in Dallas, which is an absolutely huge complex. It is really an everyday, many times per day occurrence to ride in an elevator because there are so many buildings that I go to daily and each building has like a billion floors. I had already been in an elevator about 5 times today before lunch, just to give you an idea. So, I was up on the 10th floor talking to our Admin department, and got in the elevator to go back to my lab on the 2nd floor. The elevator did not stop at the 2nd floor, but went straight down to the 1st floor. I was like...this is odd...so I just pushed my button again and thought that it would just go up to the 2nd floor. It did not. Nor did the doors proceed to open on the 1st floor. So I pushed the "open doors" button. Still no open doors. Now I'm totally freaking out and pushing all of the buttons! Still no open doors. Of course, I'm crying like a little baby by now, pushing all of the buttons, banging on the walls, and screaming for someone, anyone. Oh, by the way, it's just about impossible to use my own brute force to pry the elevator doors open from the inside, but I can honestly say that I tried! Then I found the alarm button and was truly annoying to any innocent by-standers who hadn't heard me previously. Amazingly, nobody ever stopped...how RUDE. So I melted to the ground to sob in my extreme fear of closed spaces, and managed to find the elevator phone and I called the police. The person on the line asked if I was ok...I was like NO! I'm trapped in an elevator all by my lonesome, nobody knows I'm here except you, I hate tight spaces, and I'm having a lovely panic attack. Did I mention that I don't have my asthma inhaler with me mainly because I never expected to need it in this particular elevator? He says to calm down...easy for him to say! He's not the trapped one! Get the doors open, man! So I guess the police and maintenance people came as quickly as the could, and I give them credit for that, but I'm a firm believer now that we need a system that will allow for a more promt response in these situations. The maintenace people arrive and start making lots of noise, which makes me thing that even they are having trouble opening the doors. Here comes some more of that panic attack...then I hear one of them ON TOP of the elevator...fantastic! When they finally pry the doors open, I'm still a sobbing mess on the floor thinking that I'm never going to get out. The maintenance man who opened the doors for me is my new hero!
After my traumatic experience, I had to immediately use my asthma inhaler (which speeds up my heartrate and makes me shaky) and even had to go home to use my nebulizer, which makes me an even more shaky, grumpy mess on top of the great mood I'm already in. As if that wasn't enough...I parked in a different place when I got back to work (in order to avoid having to use the elevators in the parking garage) and managed to get a parking ticket. That was the lovely cherry atop my day.
Needless to say, I'm very happy to be safe and sound at home with my husband and my fuzzy kids tonight. Work's not looking so good for tomorrow...:)

Boo at the Zoo

Ryan and I took my little sister, Aimee, to Boo at the Fort Worth Zoo! She was much more intrigued with the "Zoo" part rather than the "Boo" part and did not want to wear her costume. When we finally got into the zoo, we discovered that they put the animals away when it starts to get dark...about 45 minutes after "Boo at the Zoo" started and about 30 minutes before we got in. What a bummer! That totally takes the "Zoo" part out of the equation! After that, it was basically a fall festival with prizes and candy, which was still pretty enjoyable. But...have you ever tried to explain to a 2-year-old that eventhough we're at the zoo, there are no animals? The saving grace to that argument was an animal show with live animals: an opossum, hawks, and some penguins. Once we saw the show and got her all hopped up on candy, all was well. Then we took her back to my parents, haha! We had a great time and next year, we will get there early so we can see the animals...lesson learned.

This was Aimee showing off her chocolate face!

This Blog Thing...

Ok, so it seems like everyone has a blog these days, and I just love it! I never really wanted a blog before because it seemed like quite a bit of work, but I've found that this blogging thing is actually really addictive...kind of like Facebook (Kelly, thanks again for that one!).

So here goes...for those of you who have missed a few years, let me catch you up. Ryan and I met in January 2004 and dated for about 2 years before we got engaged. We were engaged for about 2 years and were recently married on March 1, 2008. In the meantime, I had been going to school to get my Bachelor's of Science degree at Concordia University in Austin, TX and Ryan has been doing operations management for Gold's Gyms. He also is an avid golfer, and eventhough he probably won't admit it, he's very good!

We recently moved back to the DFW area because we really wanted to be closer to our family and friends. Family is a huge part of our lives and it was difficult to be as involved as we would like when we lived in Austin. Needless to say, we're so excited to be back! At home, we have our own little family...a German Shepherd mix named Maverick, a Siberian Husky named Goose, and a fat orange tabby cat named Tigger.

All right...there's our first posting! Yay!
Hopefully there will be many more postings to come!