Showered with love in Austin

My friend Amy and I hosted a baby shower for my sister the day before we left for our trip to Jamaica and St. Thomas. Yes, you read that correctly...the day before. See, I just don't know what to do with myself if I'm not juggling forty things at once. And this IS my sister we're talking about, so there's nothing I wouldn't do for her! My mom very graciously offered up her house for the shower and it was a good thing because we had 32 people in attendance. We would have been busting at the seams at my house! But we were so glad that so many people that have been a huge part of Sarah's life could make it! From high school and drill team to old neighbors to friends from church to friends from college to the lady that has cut my mom's hair since we moved here, it was a big reunion! I borrowed a lot of decorations from Allison's "box of crap" (yes, that is a techincal decorating term) and pretended to be as creative as Melissa. I think it turned out well and I'm proud to say I only said a few choice words out loud while trying to arrange the flowers for the table centerpieces .

A shower isn't complete without the cake me, Sarah, and Amy My godmother, Nancy, made this gorgeous blanket for Savannah in the colors of her room. I wish the picture was closer up to show the details of the different fabrics. Nancy made a blanket for Sheridan and it's her absolute favorite, she sleeps with it every night. The ladies of Brimstone (our old neighborhood): Karen, my mom, Lori, Jeanette, me, Sarah, and AngelicaLeah, Sarah, and Brooke The drill team girls with Mrs. Cochran: Laurel, Jennifer, Sarah, Mrs. Cochran, Logan, and Bethany
Sarah and Kristin

Sarah's Dallas Baby Shower

Since my niece is due to enter this world ANY DAY now, I figured I should probably post the pictures from my sister's baby showers! The weekend of May 17th I helped host a baby shower for my sister in Dallas with several of her friends. We had the shower at Melissa's house and let me just tell you, Martha Stewart has NOTHING on her! Everything she touches/creates/decorates/thinks of turns to gold. Needless to say, she was in charge of decorations and you can see for yourself, they were incredible.....

The hostesses: Whitney, me, Kallie, our guest of honor: Sarah, Melissa, and Ashley

Sarah and her moms: our mom (left) and Rebel (her mother-in-law)

The Gillespie girls

The Preggos: Melissa's due date was just a few days before Sarah's me, my mom, and Janey (my mom's best friend from CA)
The women Martha (Stewart that is) should be very afraid of: Melissa with her mom, Becky
Rebel gave Sarah (Savannah really) a very sentimental gift. She shared the story of how her mother would pay Cal and his brother 50 cents a bag for picking up walnuts before they mowed the grass. So she had this rocking horse made from that walnut tree. While we were busy showering Sarah and Savannah with goodies, the guys rented a pontoon boat and did a little fishing. Sheridan got to tag along with them and Cameron said she had the best time. Unfortunately, Cameron used an ancient film camera to capture those memories so they probably won't be posted since that requires me to scan them and I obviously have a hard enough time posting within a reasonable timeframe when the images are already in digital format!

After we were all back from our activities, we had dinner at Snuffer's in Town Square by Sarah and Cal's house. Town Square is just like the Arboretum and the Domain with lots of shopping and restaurants. Since it was a very nice evening we walked around for a little bit and found ourselves at the waterfountain. And Sheridan could NOT resist getting closer.

This is good but...

I. Must. Touch. The. Water.And taste it!And get my feet wet

Sooo much better!

To view all of the pictures from the shower and our weekend in Dallas, click here.

First day in another paradise

Our first night in St. Thomas started off with a welcome happy hour. Only thanks to American Airlines, Cameron and I finally got there by the sixth round of drinks. And we had a lot of catching up to do because this group had been partying for several days!

Our happy couple, Heath and Shaunna

Yes, I realize I'm wearing the same outfit I wore in Jamaica. I had to duplicate a few things and not just because I took one suitcase full of SHOES! Stop judging me. It was a small suitcase, like the kind you can carry on. AND I am my mother's daughter, it's genetic.Frank, Kenny, & Cameronme, Ashley, PD, and Shelly
Double Trouble Duo
Shelly, Shaunna, me, Sara, and Ashley

Kenny and Sara

Ashley and Jamie

Cameron is well on his way to catching up

And he's there...

Turns out we were a thirsty group

After the happy hour most of us went to the sports bar and Shelly, Ashley and Sara danced the night away and entertained us all

Not only was this an incredibly fun trip but we also learned a few things on it. Since it's going to take several posts to get through this part of our vacation, I'll sprinkle these little tidbits of knowledge throughout the posts. You're welcome. Let's get on with it......the first things we learned on our trip to St. Thomas:

1. Sara missed her calling as a sex therapist. That's all I can divulge. The rest surely falls under patient/doctor confidentiality.

2. The rest of the group that arrived a few days prior to us discovered that it is not a good idea to mix champagne, bloody marys, wine, cosmos, beer, pina coladas and any other type of alcohol within arms reach all in the same day. I think I learned this very important lesson in college: beer before liquor, never sicker. Liquor before beer, you're in the clear.

Tag O' Three

My friend Kelly tagged me awhile back and I'm just now getting around to thinking about some new and incredibly interesting facts about me......

3 Joys:
- Watching Sheridan do just about anything, temper tantrums not included.
- CARBS!!! I'm making up for lost time and enjoying the hell out of them.
- Hanging out with Cameron on the deck after Sheridan has gone to bed and playing dominos and/or cards. No, we don't get out much.

3 fears:
- Dying
- Something bad happening to Sheridan, my family and friends. Notice a theme here?
- I'm also equally as afraid of Sheridan taking after her mother and father's rebellious ways. I don't think there is enough wine or beer to get me through her teenage and college years when this becomes a reality.

3 goals:
- Actually go on the once a month date nights that Cameron and I were supposed to start doing back in February. See for V-day I gave him a "date bag" that had tags with different date ideas and gift cards related to them (ie. Alamo draft house, different restaurants, Amy's ice cream. etc.) and he was supposed to pick one a month. The first one he wanted to take Sheridan with us, which I had to explain to him totally defeats the purpose of DATE NIGHT WITH YOUR WIFE. We finally got that clarified and went on our date to "the fast food restaurant of your choice" and Cameron picked Taco Bell. We haven't been on one since. It's very sad.
- Finish the baseboards that were started over a year ago with the tile project. Oh wait, this should be one of Cameron's goals.
- Sort/put away the out of season and clothes that don't fit anymore that have been piled up on the chair in our room for months that Cameron has been nagging me about. Maybe I'll get around to it when he gets around to finishing the baseboards. Sounds fair to me.

3 current obsessions/collections:
- Scrapbooking. Although, this is not a "current" obsession, it's always an obsession.
- This one totally contradicts my ghetto fabulous taste in rap music but I'm completely obsessed right now about going to the Carrie Underwood concert. Don't judge me. I've got a country side, too and I love her! Always have since she won American Idol. I voted five times during the Finale. She's beautiful and has an incredible voice. And I'm pretty sure when I'm alone in the car I sound just like her!
- Since our trip to Jamaica, I cannot eat enough mangos. And it works out very well for me that they are three for a dollar at HEB right now.

3 surprises about me:
- I'm ready to have another child. Go ahead, pick your jaw up off the floor. But don't start doing back flips just yet. Or asking me when or if we're trying, etc. because I'm not sure Cameron is ready. And I sort of need him to be.
- When I was young I wanted to be a veterinarian until I learned how much school was required. My grandmother thought I should be a lawyer since I like to argue. But again, the years of school got in the way.

And I don't have time to think of a third surprise about me becaue I have to go see why my child is not taking a nap.....

A new look

I am too young for a facelift but my blog was not. Thanks to The Cutest Blog on the Block, I've updated the look of things and it was a lot cheaper than plastic surgery. What do you think?

And I can't even mix Khalua in it.....

I think we all know by now that I tend to get a little "obsessive" when I become fixated on something that my daughter MUST HAVE. Perhaps the word 'sprinkles' is flashing in a big neon sign right now as you remember this story. So this morning I dropped Sheridan off at my parent's house (because my mom keeps her on Wednesdays) to find an assortment of new toys waiting for her to play with in the living room. This is nothing new because my mom is always buying stuff for her, which I love because it usually means it's less that I actually have to buy for her. But that turned out not to be the case today. Today there was a new set of play food from Target that included hot chocolate with marshmallows, cookies on a plate, milk and a canister of hot cocoa that I had been eyeballing since I saw it months ago and now it was ON SALE. And I could not let her have all the "cool" things at my parent's house and not ours. It matches her play kitchen at our house perfectly. Same brand. HAD. TO. HAVE. IT. So let the madness begin as I drive ALL OVER the greater north Austin area trying to find said play food. God bless the Lakeline Mall Target for ending my search on the third try and not making me drive to Georgetown. Because yes, I would have. Now considering what I spent in gas driving all over creation, I should have just bought the damn play food when it was full price. I think this just reinforces why I should stop trying to be like Tara, who buys everything when it goes on sale. And she inevitably will have a coupon. And a gift card. And then the store is practically paying her to take the merchandise. Things do not work out that way for me and it is simply cheaper for me to pay full price and not act like a crazy person. All I can say is, it's a good thing beanie babies aren't all the rage anymore or I'd really be screwed. Can you imagine? The only positive side to this behavior, which I will refer to as "determination" moving forward, is that it might come in handy when Sheridan requests some off-the-wall or incredibly popular toy from Santa and I have to help him find it. I'm sure I'll do a dozen things that will land Sheridan in therapy for the better part of her young adult life but I'll be damned if failing as "Santa's helper" will be one of them! I'm determined....

And come on, look how cute!

The card says it all....

Yesterday I turned thirty-two, another year into my thirties. The age I thought was so grown up, mature, and responsible when I was twenty-three and right out of college. Only, that can't possibly be me. I can't possibly have reached that stage of my life already. Clearly, I haven't made much progress since last year. But then I received the following card from my husband and I realized, that's exactly where I am and I couldn't be happier.

Once there was this guy.
A nice guy, really.
And he met this girl.
An incredible girl - truly amazing.
So naturally the guy falls
head over heels in love with her,
and pretty soon they're picking out
china patterns and rings
and there's a wedding
and the starry-eyed couple
rides off into what will surely
be a rosy future.

Okay, so now some time has passed
and the guy is living in that future.
He's still married to this girl,
but now their life includes a lot of stuff-
appliances and bills and loads of laundry
and home repairs projects.
But between all the to-dos and have-tos,
there are these moments
when the guy stops for a minute
and looks around him.

He looks at his wife,
who is still truly amazing,
he looks at their life together,
all the ways and different directions it's grown,
he looks at all the responsibilities he's got,
and he thinks to himself,
so this is my life.

And then he thinks,
I am one helluva lucky guy.

Happy Birthday!

I love you!
Cameron
(I think the cards says it all)

Not only am I married to the sweetest man ever, but he's pretty damn smart, too!