Birthday rewind, iPhone style

Another birthday has come and gone, and thanks to thoughtful family and friends, I felt celebrated all day long!  To avoid boring you too much with the details, here's a semi-brief recap of how I spent the day: 

1. A certain little someone who shall remain nameless (DAVIS) woke up earlier than usual.  He must have been super eager to wish me a happy birthday!  (He also managed to Houdini his way out of his sleep sack... pretty impressive.)

2. That certain little someone made up for it by getting his daddy to help him buy me a birthday frap.

3. Wade gave me a few super thoughtful gifts before he left for work: a framed picture from our photo shoot with Jenni for our gallery wall, a cute monogrammed strap for my camera, and a gift certificate for a pedicure.  Wade for the win!

4. Davis and I met up with Wade for birthday lunch at Blue Baker (yes, for the 4th time in 2 weeks).

 5. Wade made me a batch of puppy chow.  Because I wanted to tack on a few more pounds to the ones I already need to lose.

6 & 7. My thoughtful sister had Tiff's Treats delivered to my house since she knew I would be home alone (with Davis) most of the day.  Wish I hadn't overindulged on #5 so I could have enjoyed them more!

8, 9, & 10. After Wade got home from work, I was off to happy hour at Maudie's with some of my best gal pals.  I have known all of these girls since 8th or 9th grade, and I heart all of them, so it made me happy that I was able to celebrate with them.  (P.S. I promise I'm fully clothed in the bottom pic...)

If my birthday was any indication of how good 29 will be for me, then things are looking good!

HBD!

Happy 29th Birthday, Sissy!

{Feel free to go back and read my birthday post for her from 2008 where I gave a brief recap of our exciting entrance into the world in 1983!}

If anyone deserves a wonderful birthday this year, it's YOU.
Hope you see all your dreams come true this year!
LYLAS!

Things & stuff

Sometimes when Davis is fussing aimlessly in the backseat, I find an obnoxious song and turn up the volume to equal his - not enough to hurt anyone's ears, but enough to drown out the noise to lessen my desire to drive our car straight into a brick wall.  (Yes, I am working on my application for Mother of the Year; why do you ask?)

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I'm sad that we are already nearing the season in Texas I like to call Too Hot to do Anything Outdoors Ever.  And by "nearing", I mean we are pretty much already there.  I took Davis to the park at noon yesterday, and I immediately regretted my decision to shower that morning.

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I am also sad that school is out for summer!  We used to have the park mostly to ourselves in the middle of the day, or we were just sharing it with other moms and their little ones.  Now it is teeming with hormonal teenagers who lounge around on the equipment while talking loudly about stupid things that make my brain hurt, like how they are hot when they sit in the sun but cold when they sit in the shade but they don't want to move but OH MY WORD JUST GET UP AND MOVE SOMEWHERE ELSE.

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Last week I vowed not to leave the house on a Wednesday ever again, but in the interest of my sanity, we will definitely be leaving the house today.  Fingers crossed that I don't have any animal casualties to report tomorrow!

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If you are looking for a relaxing, inexpensive way to spend a summer holiday, might I suggest not making plans to re-landscape part of your front yard?  That's how we spent our Memorial Day, and despite the fact that my manly husband did all the manual labor, it was still exhausting for me.  And let's not discuss how much the whole thing cost... suffice it to say that our new holly bushes had better start sprouting caramel frappuccinos soon as repayment to us for giving them a home.

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Last night my playgroup friends and I got together for our monthly happy hour.  Of course I love getting to hang out with them and their little ones every Friday, but I love our happy hours even more - and this one did not disappoint!  They mentioned to the waiter that it was (almost) my birthday, so he was kind enough to bring out a birthday dessert.

Then my sweet, wonderful friends decided dessert was not enough, so they peer pressured me into taking a birthday shot.  For those of you keeping track at home, that would be 1 of only 2 shots I have ever taken in my entire life.  While I will not disclose the name of this particular drink, I will say that it tasted like dessert and thankfully did not make me feel even the slightest bit tipsy... and I promised them it would be documented on the blog, so here it is!  (Sorry for the crummy picture quality.)

Hope everyone has a lovely Wednesday!

Family pics

Last weekend, my friend and talented up-and-coming photographer, Jenni, met us at our neighborhood park one evening and spent some time taking pictures of our little family.  When she mentioned that the best time of day to get ideal lighting would be around 6:30/7:00pm, I have to admit I was a little skeptical that we were going to get any good shots, keeping in mind that Davis generally goes to bed at 7:15pm and the hour leading up to bedtime is not usually his finest.

But how thankful I am that we took a chance and followed her advice!  She managed to work her magic and got TONS of great shots.  After getting a couple of sneak peeks earlier in the week, I was pumped when she sent me the link yesterday (just 8 days after our photo shoot!) to see the rest.  We love them!  And that means a lot coming from someone like me, who typically hates any and all photos of myself.  In case you are lazy short on time, I have posted just a handful of my personal favorites below...

Thank you, Jenni, for being so easy to work with and doing such a wonderful job!

{For anyone in the Austin area who might be looking for a photographer, Jenni is doing family/kids/couples/senior photo shoots for only $100 as she is building her portfolio - that's a steal, so jump on the offer now if you can!}

Party animals

Because we are our mother's children, Amanda and I were raised to believe that our birthday should be celebrated for a minimum of 1 week.  Yes, I realize this makes us sound very self-absorbed and yes, I realize we probably should have given up on this idea as we got older... but alas, this year we found ourselves spending yet another Memorial Day weekend celebrating early.

We started on Saturday with lunch at Blue Baker, one of our favorite restaurants from College Station which recently opened in Austin.  To prove to you just how much I love it, let me point out that it opened on May 16th and I have already been THREE times since then (and I have plans to go on my actual birthday this week).  Sadly I didn't snap any pictures at lunch because I was busy tending to my son, the Venus Flytrap who inhales almost everything that comes within arm's reach.

After lunch it was time for pedicures!  

Amanda: "OMG I LOVE {FREE} PEDICURES!"
Allison: According to Amanda, I look like I'm in a hospital bed having blood drawn.  {That's what happens when you are trying to keep your arms and stomach from looking fat in pictures.}
Betsy: "Why do you keep taking pictures of me?!  Are you putting this on facebook?!"

The finished products... and apparently a prerequisite to being a member of our family is wearing gold sandals.

Pedicures were followed by a little birthday shopping and dinner, but again, I don't have pictures from that meal because of the aforementioned binge eating baby.

The fun continued on Sunday starting with lunch at Hula Hut.  Normally the mere thought of going to Hula Hut at any point during a weekend gives me hives, but Amanda has been wanting to go, so I sucked it up and agreed.  Thankfully we went early enough to miss the crowd and we were in and out of there within an hour.  That's my kind of meal!

After lunch, we did what most normal people would want to do after eating Mexican food: we got in our swimsuits and went swimming!  Wade and I got a little raft for Davis because we are lazy and didn't want to hold him the whole time wanted him to learn to be independent in the water, and it obviously went over really well at first.

He got over it after a few minutes and everyone was able to enjoy themselves.  (But can we talk about how it's stupid that there is sports paraphernalia all over the raft?  Seriously, just pick some solid colors and call it a day!  You are ugly-ing up my pictures with your stupid sports balls.)

Sunday came to an end with grilling out for dinner at my parents' house, but I was too busy inside keeping the Goldfish Monster happy to document the tasty dinner (are you sensing a trend yet?).

So there you have it.  I'd say it was a pretty perfect pre-birthday celebration weekend, wouldn't you?  Hope everyone else is enjoying their long weekend!

1 out of 30

Never one to procrastinate, I have already completed 1 item on my 30 Before 30 list!  Before you are too impressed, I will confess it was theoretically probably the easiest thing on my list.  I say "theoretically" because that would presume that I am the type of person who is ok with things not always being in their rightful place... and well, that's just false.

So here you go: proof that I left the bed unmade ALL DAY LONG (on Wednesday).  Please note the time on the clock, which is 6:54pm.  And I promise it stayed like that until I crawled into bed around 9:45pm.

(pats self on back)

Debbie Downer, at your service... again

Remember last Wednesday how I had the misfortune of walking into the vet behind a dead pet?  Seems like a new trend is occurring for me: Wednesdays + Allison = dead animals.  Brace yourself for another semi-depressing post...

Yesterday as we were running errands, I noticed something small moving in the road up ahead.  I had hoped it was a bird or squirrel, frolicking happily but stupidly in the street, just waiting to jump out of harm's way at the very last second.  (But if that were true, I wouldn't be writing another depressing blog post, would I?)

As I neared the small creature with my car, I realized it was a squirrel, and it was moving... but the movement would be better described as twitching or convulsing rather than frolicking.  It was just laying there, flailing helplessly in the street.  I guess the squirrel had just been hit by another car moments earlier, because now I was WATCHING IT DIE.  

I wanted to rip my eyeballs out of my face.  I just kept screaming OHMYGOSH OHMYGOSH OHMYGOSH over and over and over.  Davis was in the backseat moaning for more goldfish, clearly (and thankfully) totally oblivious to what we had just driven by, but I felt like I needed to talk to someone to help me move past what I just witnessed.  

So I called Wade, but he didn't answer.  Then I called Amanda; she didn't answer either.  Apparently work is more important than answering a phone call from your wife/sister who may or may not be calling for comfort as she mourns the life of a dying squirrel.  We arrived at our destination shortly thereafter, and I spent the entirety of our time at Target trying to will the image of the dying squirrel OUT OF MY BRAIN.  

Wade eventually called me back as we were leaving Target, and I relayed to him the horrific details.  Though I'm sure he was thinking, "This is why my wife called me at work?  Because she is upset about a dying squirrel?", he was kind enough to take pity on me.  

A: I need you to remind me that squirrels don't have souls.

W: They don't, honey...

A: BUT WHAT IF THEY DO?!

W: He's in a better place now!  

A: He was just laying there, twitching and flailing... he looked so sad... I can't handle anymore dead animals!  I'm never leaving the house again on a Wednesday. 

So, if you need me next Wednesday, I will be busy taking shelter in the safety of my own home.  With the blinds drawn.  And the t.v. off (God forbid one of those horrid Sarah McLachlan commercials comes on).  And perhaps I will use that time to reflect on why I became attached so quickly to a dying squirrel.

The end. 

Muffin

We give Davis a bath every single day.  Mundane though the task may seem, it is easily one of my favorite times of day.  Rather than try to explain why, I'll just show you...

(Please pardon the soccer ball tush.)

Yes, he is drinking the bath water like a dog.