Celebrating 30 Years... for both of us!

So I really had planned on making an epic Golden Birthday post. Umm... notsomuch. I didn't even *post* on our birthday.

*sigh*

We did have a great day though... baby or no baby. ;-) We decided to hit up Torchy's, which is one of our favorite places in Austin. I was so glad my bff, Camille (who flew in from Rhode Island!!) could be there too. She finally got to have some Tex-Mex, and it was her first taco on corn tortillas. Umm... yes. I would say she's a Tex-Mex virgin, for sure! ;-)

Then we went to Big Top, which we LOVE. Jeremy and I hadn't been there in quite a while, so it was great to go! Jeremy took this neat photo of the chocolate cases:

We didn't get candy though (shocking, I know!), but we mainly go there for the old-fashioned soda fountain. Camille got the most delicious limeade EVER (Sonic who? ;-) ), Jeremy got a cherry limeade, and I got a coconut Italian creme soda... all of which were amazing! :-) And I may or may not be having a serious love-affair with anything coconut right now. Just sayin. ;-)

Can't have a birthday without cupcakes, right?! I was stoked that we were able to stop by Delish, which has gluten-free cupcakes... just for me! Okay, not *just* for me. Tee hee. But wow, they are DELISH! (No pun intended.... okay, it was intended because I'm not one to actually *say* "delish," but they really were delicious! :-D )

Jeremy and I didn't even get a photo of us together on our 30th birthday on the 30th. LOL. We'll try to remedy that today... four days later. No worries. :-) But Camille and I *were* able to get a photo. Yay!

I did get one recent shot of Jeremy. Umm... I'm not sure what he'd say about me posting his bum (a very nice bum, mind you ;-) ) for all of the internet to see, but this photo is just too funny...

He doesn't *usually* climb in their carrier (our euphemism for "crate" ;-) ), but he did this to cuddle with Ruby... and it was too funny when he did this the other day. I had to take a photo. Amber is looking on, saying, "What the heck is going on around here?!?!" Tee hee. :-)

So... that was our birthday! Yay! I usually do a birthday post about how Jeremy and I were born on the same day. You can see last year's here. But this year, I just wanted to show pictures of what we did. Fun, yes? ;-)

And... no baby yet. I'm really not worried or stressed or anything. Don't worry. I mean, yes, I'm getting uncomfortable, but not miserable. I am feeling chubby and pregnant at this point. LOL. But it certainly doesn't feel unmanageable or "I'm ready to be done!" No, nothing like that. Just patiently waiting. :-) Yes, I can't WAIT to meet this sweet baby. He/she will arrive when he/she is ready! :-D

As for the Texas heat, and this summer being on its way to being our hottest ever... I can honestly say it's not fazing me. LOL. I LOOOOOVE the heat! Seriously, every day, I just spend time hanging out on our porch. I love it so much. :-) It doesn't feel any different to me... you know, having this extra 42 pounds or whatever. It still feels glorious. And I'm not all *that* strange. Camille feels the same way. At least we're in good company! ;-)

And since I haven't shown photos of the baby's room in its completion yet, I thought I'd share some art I made. :-) I know there are tons of these on the internet... usually done with hearts or butterflies, like this one here. But I thought doing it with Mickeys would be wicked cool. :-)

This is the "if it's a boy" version:

And the "if it's a girl" version:

It's actually the same piece of art, but the peach Mickeys are covered up with charcoal Mickeys. Tee hee. :-p These were just SUPER quick photos I snapped. I'll take better ones when I post photos of the room.

The room is *pretty* much done. The side table doesn't have knobs/pulls. And two of the containers in the closet don't have labels (*gasp*). And the mobile above the changing station isn't done. But really, that's it! I'm SOOOO excited to show you the room! I'm loving how it turned out.

Soon. Very soon. :-) I'll try to get hubby to take them tonight... providing I'm not like... you know, giving birth or something. ;-)

Scrapping!

I really haven't done a lot of scrapbooking posts in the past... umm... eight months?! After my miscarriage in September, I just didn't feel like doing *any*thing crafty. And it was really hard to get back into it. Ironically, this was the first project I decided to do:

It's a pregnancy journal, and I'm totally excited about it! I've already added photos to the first five months (okay, one photo is missing... :-p ), and I did take notes, so I just need to add those to the insides of the envelopes. I'm totally stoked to see it finished and have it to look back on. :-)

{It's made with Maya Road envelopes, the Bind It All, October Afternoon Mini Market stickers,

plus the SC Metropolitan kit.}

Then I did a layout with some old and new Jillibean Soup...
Those photos are actually from when we went to NYC in 2006!!! Crazy I'm finally scrapping them! ;-) That was our Christmas card photo that year (I just LOVE the colors... and my super-cute hubby ;-), and this photo of the puppies is one of my favorites EVER! They LOVED Central Park. LOVED it. We let them off the leashes a few times, so they could run and play, and they had a blast!

{Inspiration for that layout came from this pillow at LL Bean Home.}

And this is my newest layout. I just did this the other day...

My sweet Ruby. :-) She really is the cutest and sweetest dog ever. Truly. :-D I used this month's SC Singin in the Rain kit. I did use some white Mister Huey though to tone it down a bit. I like how soft it ended up being. :-)

Oh! And the inspiration for the design of the layout came from cards I saw at Tokketok.

Thanks for stopping by to see my new projects!

Missing Bailey.

Just realized I never did a post about Bailey, my dad's dog.

My sister got her for Christmas in 1998. But she really latched on to my dad. She was *his*, and they did EVERYTHING together.

She died suddenly on July 31st, and we still aren't sure what caused it. She was only 11... she had a good few years left! The doctor thinks it could have been something inside her that burst. Or she could have eaten something poisonous. We all miss her, but especially Dad. :-(

Here is an adorable photo of Bailey (center) with my pups, Amber (left) and Ruby (right). Bailey liked to keep to herself, but she would share my dad occasionally. ;-)

And this was the when she was here visiting in May. I think they had a fun time. :-)

And the last photo of her with my parents. She was a good dog. I'm hoping to make a mini album for my Dad... full of wonderful photos (read: most are blurry because they were taken before digi cameras... LOL.) But... I know he'll love it. :-)

We love you, Bailey! And you are missed. Dad *still* cries over you and thinks about you every single day. :-)

Loving Austinites. :-)

I was out walking the dogs today and a woman stopped me and said, "You can just leave your dog poop bag on our lawn! I'll pick it up when I get home tonight!" LOL.

People in Texas are WAAAAY too nice... or at least, these people are! ;-) I politely declined... thought I may need it again before I reached home. :-)

Love that these people are my neighbors. :-D

Sharing news today!

*Cartoon credit: Joseph DeLeon

I'm not sure what to share first! LOL.


News #1: Today, Ruby and Amber are featured over at Coffee with a Canine! I had so much fun with that interview, and I just loved going through super-cute photos and stories of them. :-D Marshal, who runs the site, is so wonderful! He even linked a photo to Kissa (our kitty). How sweet is that? Thank you, Marshal, for loving animals so much!

News #2: I've been asked to join the Creative Team over at the Journal Challenges blog. SO exciting! This is SO up my alley. I can't wait to get started! :-D Christa, is also a fellow-SCer, so that's cool! And I think Tracy is one too! (...as I spy kit wonderfulness in her layouts! ;-) )

News #3: I had SUCH an awesome last two days at work. Monday was the last day of the elfa sale at The Container Store, and it was CRAZINESS! I ended up working nine hours (when only scheduled for 5.5), and I was Elfa Sales Manager (my favorite position at the store) for most of that time, so it was an awesome day. (I also designed three spaces when we were short on designers... WOO! Go me!)

I did my best to keep the employees and designers calm, cool, collected... and most importantly, smiley. :-D LOL. My General Manager and General Area Director (who was visiting our store from Dallas) said on two different occasions how impressed they were with my demeanor (and smiles! :-D ) during stressful times. That made me feel SO good... like a million dollars. :-D

And then they celebrated us...


They put an ad in the New York Times (Sunday) with a list of all the employees (for the whole company), and you can see MY name just above the "The" in the ad! WOOHOO! *My* name was in the New York Times! LOL.

News #4: Jeremy got a raise! I can't begin to tell you all how proud I am of my husband. He works SO hard for his company... above and beyond what they ask, and every week, using his free time to better their business (while still making time for "us"). This photo shows it. HA HA! Caught you with a programming book... AGAIN! LOL.

News #5: Okay, this really isn't *news*, per se, but it's nice to share anyway! I had the BEST Valentine's Day EVER! We did EVERY.SINGLE.THING. we said we were going to do! WOOHOO! I'll post tomorrow what we did. Super fun. :-)

News #6: My Blog-iversary is coming up on March 5th. Yes, kids, it's my EIGHTH Blogging Anniversary! WOOHOO! That's only 16 days away, and I have a BIG giveaway! Scrappy stuff, Container Store stuff, some vintage goodies, and much more too! ONE lucky winner will win it all! :-D You won't want to miss this. Promise.

Umm... and here's a card I made...

Papers/Thickers: American Crafts (patterned paper by the fabulous Paige), Stamps: StampCraft,
Border Punch: Fiskars, Pen: Uniball Signo, Ink: ColorBox

I have a BUNCH of friends having babies right now, so I thought I'd get started on the cards. Not sure who this is going to yet. :-)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a fabulous Wednesday!

Implosions.

Today in Rhode Island, something very exciting happened. Well, very exciting to Rhode Islanders anyway. The news channels were there. Radio stations were there. Government officials were there. I was there too... well, sort of. I was on my street (five houses down from my house... at a safe distance) looking out over the water. You'd think something was getting blown up or something. ;-) Tee hee.

Crazy people on my street... thirsty for things getting blown up... (and my friend Laura [in the pink shirt] waving from her car). My puppy, Ruby, also makes a cameo in this picture.

They blew up the OLD Jamestown Bridge today. When you look at this photo, it kinda looks like one bridge, but it's actually two. The tall one... that's the one they blew up. It all happened within about five seconds. Here are before, during and after pics of the implosion. Enjoy! :)

The coolest thing was that we could SEE the implosion about 5-10 seconds before we heard it. Isn't the speed of sound fascinating?!?!?

Fun times in Rhode Island today alright. ;-)