Elementary School

I went back over to my parents' house this weekend to go through more of my stuff.  I went through my box of elementary school stuff page by page to sort out the "junk" from the "treasure", and here are a just a few of the things that I found that made me laugh/smile {click on the pictures to make them bigger}...

Does anyone else remember the days of drawing huge hearts over your mistakes?

In Kindergarten, I checked out the book "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" from the library and copied it so that we would have one at home.

The entire story, word for word...

"Written by Lindsay.  Read by G and Liz."

I remember thinking that this looked just like me.

"If someone gave me a million dollars, I would say thank you very, very, very, very, very, very, very much.  Then I would put it in my piggy bank."  Apparently, I was a saver even back then.

"Twenty years from now I will be twenty eight.  I would be married, have a white converdible, and live in a white manchon.  I would be a teacher and live in California."  Only one year till I'm 28, and all that I have is the husband.  Granted, my house is white, but I'm pretty sure it's not the "manchon" I was dreaming of.

I also found a paper about "My Special Friendship".  "I have a very special friendship with Abby Fredrickson.  I have known her since I was four.  She is nice because almost three times a month she invites me over.  She is helpful because when ever I spill my glass she would always help me clean up."

"Abby Fredrickson is so caring because when I get hurt she goes and tells her mom that I got hurt.  Her mother puts medicine on it.  We danced together since we were three.  We go to the same church and the ballet.  The name at the dance studio is Barber Lynn's Dance Studio.  She is my very, very best friend."  Again, some things never change.

In fifth grade, I created "My Very Own Poster About the Holiday Season".

At the bottom of the worksheet, it says, "I can make next year a better year by setting these goals...", and I filled in, "#1. Get a kitten. #2. Picking up my room. #3. Being able to shave my legs!".  Apparently, #3 was my most important "goal" because I not only used an exclamation point for this one, but I circled it, too.  I also sat on Santa's lap that year and asked him for an electric razor.  His response was, "What do you need a razor for, little girl?  Your beard isn't nearly as thick as Santa's."  It was embarrassing to say the least, but guess what was under the tree on Christmas morning.

I'm still not done packing up my room, but I'm close.  I'll admit that it would go a lot faster if I didn't read every single thing that I came across, but then again, what would be the fun in that???

The Queen of Mount Dover

We stopped by Ben's office today so that he could show me "Mount Dover" {a.k.a. the huge pile of trap rock that's being used on one of his sealcoat jobs}. 

The rock was delivered all the way from Knippa, Texas, and because Ben couldn't find any other place to store it, he had it delivered to the yard and dumped in the middle of their parking lot.  Mount Dover is growing smaller and smaller everyday, but needless to say, it's still quite a bit of rock, and you can still see it from IH-35.  Just to give you a sense of scale, that tiny speck on the top is me! 

A Closet Full of Memories

I spent most of this weekend cleaning out my childhood bedroom.  My parents have decided to sell their house after all, which means that I now have to go through everything in my bedroom to decide what I want to take, what I want to garage sale, and what needs to be thrown out.  Ugh.  My dad built this house when I was in 4th grade, so needless to say, I have a lot to go through.  I now realize why most people don't build houses that have a walk-in closet in every room.  It's just too easy to keep everything that way.  And trust me, I did.  Unfortunately, I didn't quite finish going through it all, but I did get a lot accomplished and did a lot of reminiscing.  Here's just a few of the things that I found...

A baby album that G made me and some sweet pictures.

My favorite baby dolls -- Peanut, Sherry, Samantha, and Tiffany.

 

A fossil that I found on a field trip to Shoal Creek.

My very first pair of glasses that I got in 5th grade.

 

My Mickey Mouse ears that I got in Disney World.

All of my dance trophies.

Part of my Hi-Stepper uniform.

What I wore the weekend I found out pageants are not my thing.

 

A few boxes of cocktail napkins left over from the wedding. 

 

My beautiful wedding dress, which has yet to be dry cleaned.

 

In addition to sorting through 2 decades of memories, we also celebrated this sweet girl's 5th birthday this weekend.

There's never a dull moment with Livi, Sophie, and Jack.

 

My mom and G also came by to give Bubbs a belated birthday gift.

 

Have you ever seen a more spoiled dog?  I mean, seriously.

Miles came over to play, too, and he was a big fan of the water.

He is all over the place these days and is pulling up on everything.

Thanks again for the pool, Mom.  I'd say that it was definitely a hit!

Taking It Easy...

This weekend we decided to take it easy.  So easy that I didn't take a single picture.  So hopefully you like text. ;)

After work on Friday, I went to the dermatologist to have a mole removed.  At this point, I've lost track of how many I've had removed, but I'm pretty sure this was #10.  The first comment that the doctor made after looking at my back was that my skin is very elastic.  She said that the good news is that I'll look young forever {that is good news...} but that the bad news is that I don't scar very well.  She told me to take it easy over the next few days in hopes that this scar would heal better than the others {the ones that my parents paid extra to have taken out by a plastic surgeon}, and when I asked how long I should wait to run, she said at least 2 weeks.  2 weeks?!?!  I realize that I'm not a doctor, but that seems a little excessive in my opinion.  11 stitches {4 on the inside and 7 on the outside} later, she sent me on my way.

Afterwards, I met up with Chris for lunch at Portabla on West 6th Street.  Unfortunately, there wasn't any seating inside, so our only option was to sit out on the front porch in the 100 degree heat.  It really wasn't too bad in the shade though {although I'm not sure how much my new incision appreciated the sweat}, and we had a great time catching up.  Before we knew it, two hours had passed, and it was time for him to get back to work.

That night, we went to see the Wheeler Brothers play at Angel's Icehouse out in Spicewood.  Originally, I wasn't really sure if I should spend anymore time outside in the Texas heat, but I also didn't want to miss out on any of the fun either {especially since this was their last concert before they go on tour}.  I ended up going under the condition that we would leave if I started feeling bad, and I'm so glad that I did.  The guys sounded great, the temperature was pretty perfect {for July in Texas anyway...}, and I had  a lot of fun seeing everybody.  Plus, I ran into Matt Scarborough {a friend from high school that I hadn't seen since graduation} and his fiancee, and I also met and got to know the C.O.O. for another engineering firm here in town, so that was pretty cool.

On Saturday, we woke up around noon and finally woke the dogs up a couple of hours later.  What can I say?  My family is just that talented.  As for the rest of the weekend, we pretty much just laid around the house.  We watched 5 movies, snacked all day, and drank way too much Dr. Pepper.  Our big outing for the weekend consisted of us driving to Chuy's at about 9 o'clock on Saturday night for dinner to use a "dinner for two" gift card that I had won at the WTS gala a few months back.  Apparently, "dinner for two" consists of an appetizer, two entrees, and a dessert, so we had the appetizer plate {which includes of quesadillas, nachos, flautas, queso, and guacamole}, fajitas for two, and sopapillas, and we only had to pay for the gratuity.  Pretty good if you ask me.  Another highlight was getting to ride in our neighbor Dylan's new Lotus Elise.  0 to 60 in 4.9 seconds.  Talk about an adrenaline rush.  It was awesome!

We weren't completely worthless this weekend though.  We did vacuum, do two loads of a laundry, pull weeds, mow and weed eat the yard, and bathe the dogs.  All in all, it was a pretty good weekend though.  I followed my doctor's orders to take it easy, and I'm hoping that when she takes the stitches out this Friday that I will have a nice clean scar in the center of my back to prove it.

Happy Birthday to 3 Very Special People...

The world's greatest father-in-law, Steve...

And my very favorite grad school friend, Fan...

 

I feel so blessed to have both of you in my life, and I hope that your day was as special as you are!

And last, but certainly not least, Happy Belated Birthday to superwoman herself, Cheryl...

I'm sorry that I didn't get your birthday post up a couple of days ago when it was your actual birthday, but considering you work 2 jobs, cook meals from scratch, and take wonderful care of you family, you probably haven't had a chance to check my blog anyways.  Can't wait to celebrate with you. :)

My 4th of July Weekend...in Pictures

It's hard to believe that our July 4th weekend is already over.  Where did the time go?  All four days that I had off just literally flew by.  I did get a few pictures {although I'll be the first to admit that they're not really that great}, so here's a glimpse at what we did this weekend.

On Thursday, we went to Holly's apartment for dinner.  She made lemon-garlic chicken with bell peppers and served Delish Cupcakes for dessert.  Everything was delicious, and we had a great time hanging out and playing around with my iPad.  Side note: my mom, G, and Ben were also there, but either (a) they didn't take a picture or (b) I was nice enough not to post it.

On Friday, I woke up early to meet the running group for a run and for breakfast at Mozart's.  I hadn't run with quite a few of these ladies in quite awhile, so it was fun catching up.  We had a great run, and the breakfast taco and frappucino that I had afterwards tasted amazing.

After breakfast, I headed over to Aunt Lisa's house and spent the day helping her pack and get everything ready for the realtor to take pictures of their house this week.  Here's a picture of Aunt Lisa with her favorites -- me and Aunt Kim.  A little blurry and definitely not our best picture ever but cute nonetheless.

On Saturday, we helped Garrett move into his new apartment {he now lives only 4 miles from our house!}, and that night, we went to dinner with him and his girlfriend Jackie.  Garrett talked us into going to Port A Cafe {the new seafood restaurant in Southpark Meadows}, and surprisingly, it is really good.  Unfortunately, we forgot to take a picture at dinner, but luckily, I was able to talk Ben into taking one with me when we got home.

On Sunday, I met my mom and Holly over at my parents' house and spent the entire day packing up our game room.  Barbie dolls, baby dolls, stuffed animals, games, puzzles, books... you name it, we went through it and packed it up.  It really was a huge task, and we really weren't looking forward to it, but we did have fun reminiscing and re-discovering so many "treasures".

On Monday, we met John and Arian for brunch at La Madeleine.  We found out that John was in town the night before, so our plans were a little last minute, but I'm so glad that we were able to make it work.  It was so good to see both of them and catch up.

After brunch, we headed over to Uncle Pat and Aunt Beth's house for a barbeque.  Although I was still pretty full from brunch, the food was just too good to pass up.  Hamburgers, chicken, potato salad, veggies, fruit salad, and eclair cake.  Everything was so delicious, and now I have lots of running to do.

Happy {belated} Independence Day!  I hope your weekend was filled with lots of family, friends, fellowship, and food, too. :)