The Big Three-Oh

Greg turned 30 on Saturday!!! It's been SO hard not to blog about this up to this point because I've been planning and scheming and flat-out lying for 6 months. Basically, his best friend flew out from California (they hadn't seen each other in 3 years) and he had NO idea. Then after a couple of days of hanging out and celebrating casually, I threw him a huge surprise party on Satuday night with like 30 friends--again, he had NO idea. Also, I painted and re-did our entire front room office so it would look good for the party, and, of course, Greg had NO idea why I was in such a mad rush to undertake and finish this project in one week. Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. Greg's the one with the sexy specs on.


I told Greg we were picking my dad up from the airport when lo and behold, Andy hops in the front seat of the car!


At the party on Saturday--Greg just walking in the back door...to see 30 faces staring at him...


The food at the party--the chafing pan had meatballs on one side and mashed potatoes on the other. Yes, we totally had a mashed potato bar and yes, we got so many compliments on it. Who doesn't like mashed potatoes? Also present: apples, pears, and cranberries with fruit dip, baguette slices with 3 dips, spiced pecans, mozzarella and cherry tomato skewers with basil, and cinnamon raisin biscotti. We also had a massive vat of homemade sangria.


When I went to pick up the cake I ordered, they had made the wrong kind. After I shed a few stress-related tears in the middle of Central Market (cut me some slack, it was like 2 hours until partytime and I had no cake, was unshowered, and was 30 minutes from home), they gave me these two chocolate mousse cakes for free. They were so good and saved me moolah. I stopped crying.


The entryway with all sorts of embarrassing photos of Greg growing up (including one of him smoking a cigar by a campfire wearing only undies, a poofy jacket, and a beanie), as well as some hot ones from college and recently. :)


There were about 30 guests total; here are about 20 of them. Greg is the one just to the right of the cake (not the one with the halo of glowing light standing over our bouquet of flowers).


And finally, the two fabulous ladies who helped me for weeks to plan and keep it all under wraps. A friend will help you with a party. A good friend will help you tell bold-faced lies to your husband for months in order to more adequately embarrass him in front of his friends on the day of his first old-age milestone. Thanks, girls, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY! You're still sexy after all these years...

P.S. There were several really cute pictures of me and Greg together that my friends took with their cameras and I didn't end up with any on mine. :(

Not in Highschool Anymore

Well, after a very busy past week, I am finally blogging again. In reponse to Sarah and Rachel's recent posts about highschool reunions, here's mine.

So I went to my 10 year reunion last weekend. Some people changed quite a bit and some look and act exactly the same; I like to think I'm one of the ones who has changed. See for yourself! The me in 1996 sported the poofy, swept-to-one-side, no-bangs look, whereas the me today is sporting the non-poofy, parted-to-one-side, no-bangs look. Totally different.

You've read in previous posts about my highschool group, the Beautifuls. Well, we all met up before each event so we could go together. We had a pact entitled "No Beautiful Left Behind" which basically meant that if any one of us was left alone at any of the homecoming or reunion events, the others would have to leave whomever they were with to come to the aid of said lonely Beautiful. Pretty much a failsafe so no one was left to feel like a loser. Thankfully, we didn't have to enact the plan at all because we had a great time talking to our old friends, and, um, people we never had a conversation with in 4 years of highschool. Here are the Beautifuls, then and now:



Finally, I tried to upload a photo of our class' "Favorites and Least Favorites" list, but with no luck (glare on the picture). In any case, here are some of the ones that best highlight the overall coolness level of my graduating class:

Favorite TV Show: Party of Five (embarrassed to say I was addicted)
Least Favorite Show: California Dreams (watched it every Saturday morning)

Favorite Male Vocalist: Chris Isaac (don't know any of his songs)
Least Favorite Male Vocalist: Michael Bolton (I know all the words to "When a Man Loves a Woman")

Favorite Clothing Store: Old Navy
Least Favorite Store: County Seat (what? I have no idea what this is)

Favorite Restaurant: TFI Friday's (totally the cool place to go back then)
Least Favorite Restaurant: Pancho's (Have to agree; they serve Monday's tacos on Friday)

So that's about it. We were nerds. I, apparently, was a bigger nerd. But at least now I have a hot husband and gorgeous son to show off. :)

The Great Pumpkin Caper

I have officially turned into that mom who takes her kid to the local Pumpkin Patch for photo opportunities. I went today with my friend Stacey, and her son Carson.

Hey mom, what are these big orange soccer balls and why don't they roll?



Noah and Carson, chillin' in the ole Radio Flyer. They were obviously the cutest babies there. They were also wondering why they'd been subjected to sitting in a wagon with pumpkins for 20 minutes while their moms took picture after picture until they both looked in the same direction.



Both hands MUST be occupied at ALL times. Notice his Junior Harley Rider shirt? He can thank his ultra hip grandparents for this outfit. It came with a wool-lined leather jacket that he had on earlier. They're pretty much his only winter clothes at the moment, and with our current brisk weather of 60 degrees, I thought I'd 'bundle' him up. Apparently this is what bundling looks like in Texas...



So on our way home from the pumpkin patch, I spotted this house in our neighborhood. It doesn't quite compare to the creepiness of Rachel's neighborhood halloween decor (because it is without bloody corpses and lawn gallows), but it was still fairly creepy. What an interesting season this is; I think of pumpkins and hay, and other people turn their front lawn into cemetaries. Ahhh, the diversity!

Fabulous Fall Weather

I got an email from my good friend in Colorado today in which she showed a great picture of what she woke up to yesterday. Ahhh, to be able to wear a sweater at the end of October.



As for those of us down in Texas? Well, it's supposed to rain today. It is currently 87 degrees, sunny, and there's not a cloud in the sky. I took a picture, but it's having trouble downloading so... Just imagine what a beautiful day in May should look like, and that's what we have here today. Great for May, a little frustrating for OCTOBER! I have 3 pumpkins on my porch and I'm afraid they're going to bake themselves.

Two Things of Note

Yes, two noteworthy, or rather blogworthy things happened recently.

1) Noah started walking! He took about 8 steps at the end of last week, but didn't do it again until yesterday when he took about 5 more. Today he walked all over and with much more confidence. I'll ask you to excuse my hideous double-chin in this one.



Mostly though, he just likes to be pulled around the house with his huge body stuffed into a toy wagon. Rachel, you can officially be jealous of his huge thigh-rolls I get to grab everyday.



And #2) I FINALLY got a haircut after six months of wearing ponytails.



How did we celebrate these wonderful occurances? Photo-ops and cuddling, of course! (SO posed.)

We're not in college anymore

Sorry I've been away for awhile; we went up to our college homecoming this past weekend and had a great time seeing friends, family, and showing off Noah for the first time (last year when we went up, I was 36 weeks pregnant and had him 3 weeks after we got home--I was enormous and swollen and was determined to go back this year looking skinny). So after a 5 hour drive in a car with my friend and both of our babies, we finally got to some other friends' home. I'm not really one for "small talk" with people I haven't really talked to in years (I'd rather just stand aside, hidden, and see what everyone looks like), so I mainly stick to my good friends and go to one or two of the main events.
Truth be told, homecoming has changed dramatically since we started going 6 years ago when we were younger, free of responsibility, and no one had kids. It was like the best of college all crammed into one weekend. Now, the days are filled with kids, kids, and more kids. It is definitely a time for everyone to bring all the kids they've had that we knew or didn't know about, out of the woodwork, and show them off (myself included). We walk around and see the familiar expressions and smiles of our old friends in these new, tiny little faces, and we realize they are seeing us in our son as well. When did all of this happen?
But as soon as the kids are in bed, out comes the pizza and the beers, the sweaters and the cold weather, and like 6 hours of re-hashing college stories of who dated whom, who streaked where, and who got caught doing what where (sadly, none of it is very scandalous, but is still funny to us). We don't go anywhere sketchy or do anything crazy, but we talk about the days we did. And then we go inside to get another beer but end up checking on someone else's baby because we heard them through a random monitor sitting on the counter. Things have transformed pretty significantly, and with or without spouses or kids, everyone seems to fall right in step with all of these changes, enjoying the continual realization that we have, in fact, grown up. Who'd have thought?
I didn't take any pictures of the 'debauchery' that took place after hours, but here's one of us at the soccer game:


And of course the highlight of the weekend, my son and his friend staring at two naked girls in the bathtub (mine's the blonde boy with the dimply butt). A picture of what's to come?