A lot has changed...

...Well, not really, but I figured I needed a dramatic post title, since it's been QUITE some time, since I've updated you all (that's right, all 4 of you)!

Let's recap what has happened since we last spoke:

1. I am no longer blonde(ish). My brunette roots were calling to me and I had to go back. Good to be home.



2. Heather left me. My beloved Jayhawk (cough, gag) moved back to stupid smelly Kansas. WHY Heather?! WHY?!



3. Due to the above mentioned point, I now live with a BOY! And not just any boy, sweet sweet Landouche. So far, he's not so bad. He cooks, he cleans and he brought his massive flat screen. However, I am no longer allowed to watch Gossip Girl, 90210 or Glee until "after hours". Lame- I know he secretly loves it! He calls this my "wife-in-training" program, but so far, he's a crappy trainer.



4. I discovered the crock pot! As a build to point #3, Lando came equipped with a kickass crock pot and my life has forever been changed. I mean, it's SO EASY! You put the stuff in and it cooks. Wow. Thanks Ali Moore, I made your tortilla soup yesterday and am eating it for lunch as I type this post. Delicioso!

5. Osa has gained 20 pounds. Yep, our little 44 pound mutt, is now a big 65 pound lady. She may be the best thing that ever came into my life. Gosh I love her.



6. CATS are ranked in both Football and Basketball, but after this weekend's horrible display of ball-playing, that may no longer be- however, for that one week, it was pretty exciting! CAAAAATS!

7. I promised myself I would blog at least once a week. Maybe now that I'm writing this, I will have to be held accountable. Stay tuned...

Yes Dog

Welp, it appears that I may need to change the title of my blog....

Now before you get ahead of yourselves, I still have no husband and I still have no house, however, drumroll please... we are getting a dog! Well let me clarify, Josh is getting a dog. However, I obviously helped pick her out, and I will be her sole doggy mommy, I just won't be living with her every day, sadly.

We have been searching for months for the perfect rescue pup. We both had different things we were looking for in our future pup. Josh wanted an active little girl who he could take to the lake and fetch with in the backyard. I, of course, wanted a snuggle bear who likes to kiss and cuddle. We both wanted a medium-big size dog and neither of us will tolerate aggressive behavior, so she had to be submissive.

All that into account, we finally found our little girl. Osa (who we will be calling Osa Bear) is coming home with us on Saturday afternoon. We have met with her twice now, and we are just in love. We even took her to the dog park on Tuesday, and although she loves playing with other dogs, she loved hanging out near Josh and me more. She is a 10-month old Australian Shepherd mix (or so we hear), but we think she's a mix of all kinds of fun stuff. She is house-trained (almost), and eager to learn more.

Here are some pics of her. Keep in mind, she was recently shaved, so we think she will have longer hair, and she still needs to pack on about 10 pounds. Regardless, she is still the loveliest, most precious pup in the world. Welcome home Osa Bear!

I love my Little Monsters

So Lady Gaga is in town this weekend, and to celebrate, my three closest lifelong friends are jumping on planes and flying down to Dallas from KC to join in the Monster Ball madness! Oh and obviously, the only reason I'm able to go is because of my dearest HL. Apparently one of her clients felt Gaga was "too obscure"- their loss is our GAIN!

Regardless, Sarah Berghaus, Lydia Scribner and Krystle Trammell (aka Heather's cousin) are all coming down here and I couldn't be more thrilled. These ladies have been best friends of mine since flare jeans and bangs (the first time) were cool. When a good time was video taping ourselves lip synching to "I'm a genie in a bottle" and replaying it over and over again. When partying meant drinking 1 sip of peach schnapps and jumping on the trampoline. Yes, they've been there through all the ups and downs, and now as adult women, I have more gratitude and love for them than ever before.

Thanks Lady Gaga, for bringing my little monsters to Dallas!

I have SO many friends!

Wow, what a gloating title to a blog, right?

Well, let me re-phrase by saying, "I feel so blessed and lucky to have so many amazing friends that I know I can count on for just about anything in the entire world". Yeah, that's pretty incredible, isn't it? And the thing is, I know that each and every one of you who actually read my blog, feel the exact same way about the friends you have in your life.

Heather and I were driving home from a little group dinner last night, and we looked at each other and said, "wow, we have so many GREAT friends". Usually, I would smile and shrug this off, because it's pretty OBVIOUS, but for some reason last night it stuck with me.

So this is just a little homage to all the people in my life (you know who you are) who entertain me, quote movies with me, shop with me, IM me, dance with me, drink with me, layout with me, make fun of me, eat with me, but most importantly love me.

I love you all too!

Finally, a REAL vacation

So I love my friends (DEARLY), but I don't remember the last time I went on a vacation that didn't revolve around a wedding, wedding shower, bachelorette party, etc. Over the last 3 years, I've used all my vacation time for these wonderful events, but finally, FINALLY, I am using it to go on a real vacation, well kind of...

July 30-August 4, Josh and I will be traveling the coast of California. We fly into LA Friday am and are staying with my bro and sister-in-law in their brand new condo in the hills! The weekend will be filled with lots of laughing, beach-going and wine drinking.

We will then get up early Monday morning, and drive up the coast 4 hours to the quaint town of Cayucos, CA. Cayucos is a California gem, and is VERY popular among the Cali locals. It sits right between LA and Napa and is renown for their coastal wine tasting. We have a hotel RIGHT on the beach for 2 nights! The green hotel in the below image is ours...



The best part is that we used reward points for our plane tickets and my brother's place is free, so we are doing this trip fairly cost-efficiently!

This little vacation of ours is the only thing getting me through the next couple months (well that and E's wedding next weekend which I am SO pumped for)! I am daydreaming about Josh and me sitting on the beach at sunset with a big glass of local wine in our relaxed little hands. Ah....

My Weekend

Apologies for my vague blog post last week regarding my "Big Weekend" plans. For those of you who don't know, I auditioned for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders on Saturday! I made it through preliminaries (on Saturday) to semi-finals (on Sunday). It was a LONG and crazy weekend filled with gallons and gallons of hairspray and more lipstick and lycra then I knew what do with.

Day 1, over 600 girls arrived for prelims. The "DJ" spun some techno form of a random Top 40 song and we had to freestyle dance for 2 minutes. I, of course, had a mini combination I was going to do, but when I got out there to perform, my mind went completely blank. Literally. NOTHING was coming to mind. I had ZERO brain activity. All I could hear was my brain telling my body to just do SOMETHING! I busted out some kicks and some pirouettes, and by the grace of God made it to Day 2. I honestly could not even tell you what song I danced to. After 12 LONG hours, they cut the group down from 600 to 93.

Day 2, you learn choreography and a kick line. We got to learn the dance on the field, which was an awesome experience. Apparently none of the other girls at the auditions sweat, because I was by far the sweatiest person there! Oh by the way, if you ever decide to audition for DCC make sure you choose the brightest color lycra hot shorts and bra you can find and make sure you bedazzle them until you can't bedazzle them anymore. I was in a black and white sports bra and black hot shorts, and stuck out like a sore thumb. I did have some big hair though- you know what they say..."The bigger the hair, the closer to God" :)

After another 12 hour day, I, unfortunately, did not make it to Finals. The judges clearly have something VERY specific they were looking for and I didn't fit the bill. However, I had a GREAT time and scratched the itch to try-out I've had for the last few years. All in all, it was a very unique and fun experience. NOW, I REALLY hope I don't show up as the 'reject' in the show. Yes, that's right, they are filming season 5 of "Making the Team". Great.

A Big Weekend...

Some of you know what's happening this weekend. I'm not going to post what is happening this weekend here, as I'm not revealing what is happening this weekend, until it happens (sorry for those of you who don't know what is happening). Anyway, I'm nervous/excited about what is happening this weekend. I will update next week regarding what happened during the weekend. All you need to do is wish me luck :)

The Land of Wine and Plenty

Last weekend, my good friend Hanna and I traveled to the quaint little town of Fredericksburg, TX to visit the one and only Emily Mickelson. What might you ask is in Fredericksburg, TX (aside from Emily of course)? The answer...WINE and LOTS of it.

You see, flanking the outer perimeter of this adorable little town are wineries. Life consists of sitting outside, sniffing lilacs, drinking wine and listening to some good 'ol Texas country live music. Emily's parents have a beautiful home on 5 acres with a fire pit on the patio and all. Check out her neighbor below. We chased this guy around with cheez-its for a while, but he couldn't be LESS interested in our antics.



After a homemade breakfast featuring Mr. Mick's bfast tacos and visiting some antique shops in town, we plopped down at 2 of the Mickelson family's fave wineries in town, Becker and Tori. We even got to take some pics with the infamous Texas Bluebonnet flower. Did you know that if you run over one of these beloved flowers, you will be charged $250 and be declared a hater of all things Texas?! Well the second part may be an exaggeration, but the fine is true!





Once we got back to the house, Emily showed off her domestic skills and cooked Hanna and I a delicious homemade dinner. This is what we did while she was cooking...



But then she decided to join us and for some reason, sunglasses became a mandatory for the remainder of the evening...



All in all, it couldn't have been a better weekend, oh minus Hanna and I getting lost on the TX Chainsaw Massacre highway in the pitch black with pouring down rain. Great wine, delicious food, and undeniably fabulous girlfriends. What more could a gal ask for?

Bad Blogger

Welp, it's official, I am now one of "those" people who has a blog that they never update. I wish I had all kinds of excuses about why I haven't been blogging, but really I've just been lazy, and haven't wanted to do any additional thinking outside what I'm forced to do all day long at work. Lame, I'm aware.

I honestly have nothing more to say, but just wanted to make you all (all 3 of you) aware, that I know I'm a bad blogger. I'm hoping that one day soon I get inspired to post about something. Maybe this is why I need a husband, a house or a dog... That way I would never tire of things to discuss. Ah well, one thing at a time.

Great weekend team, Great weekend!

Each Monday when I get into the office, everyone is always asking how the weekend was, and my response is typically "It was fine, relaxing, etc", but this weekend- this weekend was beyond just "fine", it was GREAT! I'm not sure which point exactly in the weekend made it so good, but all of the excursions combined together made for one heck of a productive/relaxing (if that's even possible) weekend experience.

I warn you ahead of time, I'm not typically one for long blog posts (I tend to keep them short and sweet), but there was just so much awesomeness packed into this weekend, that this one may be a little long. You don't have to read this post all at once. In fact, you don't have to read it at all. I just thought I'd preface the post with a warning to be kind. Do with it what you want.

So it all started Friday night with a delicious homemade pasta dinner. My running buddy, Carlye, and myself were carbing up for the Fort Worth Cowtown 10K race on Saturday morning. We made wheat pasta with turkey marinara sauce, spinach salad and italian bread with oil and vinegar. Sidenote: my favorite part about running is that I get to eat all these carbs and not feel bad about it. YUM! After dinner I headed home, where I took a hot bath and layed in bed reading gossip magazines and watching FRIENDS until I fell asleep. Honestly, laying in bed with FRIENDS is my idea of a great night. FRIENDS the DVD's you pervs, come on!

So Saturday morning, Carlye picked me up at 5:15 am and we were on our way to boot knockin' Fort Worth, TX, where over 20,000 people showed up for the Cowtown. Lucky for us, we got a great parking spot up front, so we were able to get right in and right out with no angst or anxiety. We ate bananas, got our bib numbers and we were off. We ran 6.3 miles in 62 minutes, and it was a beautiful clear, crisp, sunny morning. We couldn't ask for better weather. After the race, we were off to eat breakfast at Dream Cafe, an adorable little cafe in Uptown Dallas, and we were home by 11am- where I preceded to take a 3 hour snooze. The snooze was followed by a spa mani/pedi (hey, my feet needed a treat) and a night out on the town with good friends and even better cocktails!

Sunday, I decided it was time to hit the Nike outlet for some sweet running gear. I have yet to invest in any aside from a pair of shoes, so I felt it was time. I called Erica as I was driving out to the Allen Premium Outlets (a good little 30 minute jaunt), where she informed me she was laying on her couch watching Grey's Anatomy re-runs (lame). As soon as I mentioned the word outlet mall, she asked if I would come pick her up. We hit up a few stores, did some damage to the bank account and then finished off the excursion with a meal at Olive Garden. To which our tab only cost $6.96 each! Don't ya just love splitting meals? I, of course, inhaled my food and was done before Erica had even taken 2 bites. Typical. So I sat there and stared at her whilst she finished her meal. Sunday evening consisted of 5 of us Dallas girls discussing our new business plan. Yes, we are starting a business (more to come on that later). After a riveting discussion on positioning, communication strategy and immediate next steps, we hit up Goodcents for dinner. What a perfect way to end a GREAT weekend!

Now it's Monday, oy.