Ellie's First Birthday Bash

I can't believe my sweet little potato is officially a toddler now. They say time flies, and it really does. Next year she'll be TWO? Surely not. Ellie had a fantastic birthday and we were so lucky to have so many special family members and friends there to celebrate with us. We had sour cream chicken enchiladas, beef tacos, and chicken quesadillas from Maria's Catering. If you're looking for someone to cater an event in Dallas, I highly recommend them. Dessert was cupcakes. We had the party outside, so I had three tables set up in our driveway in back with bright pink tablecloths. For someone who is not a party planner, I think that everything came out really great. I haven't figure out if #2 (our yet-to-be-conceived second child we call "Dos") will get an equally as large party because this was a pretty big effort on my party to get it all together and an even bigger effort from Lee to get the yard together. Ellie, please do not expect another fiesta for Birthday #2. You will probably be celebrating in the side room of a McDonalds.

Ellie did really well with the cake and loved it when everyone sang to her and cheered for her. She had a pretty big cupcake as you can see from above and ate about 90% of it. It was impressive. She loved the frosting, but once she got past that, she started shoving handfuls of cake into her mouth. If you watched the video that I uploaded on Sunday, you might have seen that she ended the show by urinating on me. She was quite a mess with pink and purple frosting all over her face and in her hair.

Ellie was so tired by the end of the night that she almost fell asleep during a diaper change. Poor kiddo - too much excitement. Everyone left by about 7:45, but Bonnie and Brett hung out for a while and then Mike and Shanon closed the night down with us out in back with a bottle of wine. At about 10PM, the topic of shot gunning beer came up. I really wanted to see Lee shotgun a beer so I said, "Do you even know how to shotgun a beer?". Doubting my husband's ability to do anything is equivalent to the triple dog dare. Faster than you can say "cheap fraternity stunt", he had poked a hole in the bottom of a can and got 12 ounces down. It's like taking candy from a baby. Works every time.

For my first birthday, my parents gave me a rocking chair and a baby doll. Ellie already has a rocking chair, so we gave her a slide and I kept the baby doll tradition going. I think she was a little underwhelmed at first, but since she's had some more time to play with the baby doll (we've named her Emma), I think she really likes her. She gave her kisses on Sunday and it was so sweet. She likes to poke Emma in the eye but this may have taught her some bad behavior because on Monday, Ms. Rosa had to corral her for the last half of daycare due to the fact that she was poking the real babies in the eye. She really likes her new slide, and I'm glad I had it for the party on Saturday because the few kids that were there really enjoyed it. I have a feeling we're going to be spending a lot of time in the backyard this summer.

On Sunday we unwrapped the rest of Ellie's toys and gifts. I've got some video of that I'll try to share by Friday. I'm not going to say that Ellie needed anything, but she was actually lacking in age-appropriate toys and things to play with. It was starting to look a little like the Yearning for Zion FLDS ranch in her room, so the birthday came at just the right time. She got some really great books, a Dr. Elmo doctor kit, a ton of cute summer dresses, a piggy bank, some little People, and one of my personal favorites was Abby Cadabby. I play with this little doll more than Ellie does.

Ellie had her one year checkup on Monday. She's 20 pounds 10 ounces (50th percentile) and 30.25 inches long (85th percentile). I asked my mom to look up my statistics in my baby book and by comparison, I was 24 pounds 13 ounces and 31 inches long. I'm convinced that she was feeding me a human growth hormone. That's pretty big. I feel good that I was not as big as Ellie's classmate, Pork Chop. She's 11 months and 29 pounds. She's one big kid. Ellie had to get her one year shots, but now it's more traumatic because I have to hold her down and she's old enough to know I'm not helping her. She also had a vision test and a blood draw, which was more traumatic than the shots. The doctor called us today to tell us she's slightly anemic so she's on these vitamins now that look and smell like iodine. I mix it in applesauce and she doesn't know the difference. I can't imagine Ellie with more energy because she's already pretty energetic.

So that was Ellie's big birthday weekend. All of the pictures from the party are posted at our Shutterfly account, so enjoy. I think we're going to use this weekend to fully recover. It's a lot of work turning one!

Our First Video

We had such a GREAT time at Ellie's birthday party and I hope everyone else did too. I'll try to write all about it when I get a free minute this week. My dad helped me figure out how to get video from my video camera onto our computer and now I'm attempting to upload it to my blog.

My first video entry comes from the party on Saturday night when Ellie was eating her birthday cake. Take note of my face around 30 seconds into the video. You may have to watch it more than once. Drum roll, please - I now present to you "Ellie's Birthday Surprise"...

Multimedia message

There is a man outside my office window sitting on a swing. Awkward.

Mother's Day 2008

We started off our Mother's Day weekend with some sad news. Lee's grandmother, Adeline Likes - or Mammy to most, passed away on Friday. She lived in Tyler and was 90. Ellie was lucky enough to be born with three great-grandmothers, and while Ellie never met Mammy, I'm sure she would have enjoyed getting to know her. The picture of Mammy here is from the Tyler Rose Festival in 2002.


I was again not great about taking pictures (mostly because my dad was there to take pictures all weekend) so I'm going to use some from late April that never made it on the blog because I was too busy with Kyle's wedding, the trip to Austin, and Jenny's wedding in Cabo. I spent most of Saturday morning getting ready for Ellie's upcoming birthday party. This thing is taking on a life of its own. We are having it catered... which means I had to rent tables, chairs, linens, and a margarita machine. Lee has spent countless hours on our backyard (this includes tilling the entire backyard to plant new grass) and last night was busy until the wee hours making an "Ellie mix", which is basically a mix tape on his iPod for the party. Then there's the cups, napkins, CAKE, table toppers.... the list goes on. But I am SUPER excited about the party. I am so thankful we have so many friends and family members to celebrate Ellie's first birthday with us. It's going to be great!

We went to a beautiful wedding on Saturday night for a family friend, Catherine. Mom and Dad were able to babysit so I did not have to seek out Number Ten. At the end of the ceremony, a bagpipe player came down the aisle to lead them out. Very cool - I'd never been at a wedding with bagpipes before. Their reception was at the same place our was, the Dallas Petroleum Club. There were a ton of people in the lobby trying to get up to the reception so we were all crammed into the elevators together. As it worked out, we got onto the elevator with the bagpipe player, who was still wearing his bagpipes. I was standing directly in front of the guy with my back to him so when the elevator got quiet, I took the opportunity to ask the bagpipe player if that was his bagpipe or if he was just happy to see me. Ba-dum-ba! Thank you! You guys have been great. I'll be here all week.

Ellie got us up at 5:45 AM on Sunday morning to wish me a Happy Mother's Day. We tried to get her to go back to sleep, but it didn't work. Lee got up with her so I could sleep in a little... which means I slept until 7:20. We went for bagels and then had more fun at church with Ellie. She is totally uninterested in any books or toys that we bring to keep her busy. I really think she sees church as her time to entertain the people in the four surrounding pews by playing peek-a-boo or waving. This Sunday, her game was blowing kisses with a "Mmmuuuuuooooooaaahhhh!". I heard people behind us giggling. It's almost like she'll do anything for the thrill of a cheap laugh. I have no clue where she would learn that type of behavior, but on a hunch, I'm going to keep her away from bagpipe players.

After church, The Brights, Ben, Elizabeth, my parents, and the three of us were back at the Dallas Petroleum Club for lunch. Ellie was really good and sat there at the table with us eating the same food we were eating. Lee even gave her some cheesecake for dessert. I wish she liked vegetables as much as she likes dessert. While we were in the bathroom, Ellie met another little girl, Laura, who was about 10 months old. It was there that I had a really weird exchange with Laura's mother who looked to be in her early 40's.

"Oh look at Laura! She is so excited to see another little girl. Can she play with Ellie?", she asked. I put Ellie on the floor and told her to walk over there, which she did. She and Laura were laughing and just beside themselves. Laura's mother asked me if Ellie had other been around other children, and I told her that Ellie was in day care, so yes. She even has a boyfriend. Several, in fact, but I didn't think it was appropriate to brag since we just met. Then she told me that Laura was really excited because she'd never seen another child. Stop the bus. "Never?" No. "Ever?!!" No. I'm sure my bad poker face had "you're nuts" written all over it.

"You know you're raising a serial killer, right?", is what I wanted to say, but I toned it down and told her that she should enroll Laura in Mother's Day Out or find a play group. For the love of all things holy, find something for the kid. Seriously, if Ellie was stuck at home with me all day without ever seeing another child, she would have packed her tiny suitcase and bolted last week when she figured out how to walk. Poor Laura. She had "my mom is going to breastfeed me until I'm 10" written all over her face. When we walked off, I told Ellie she'd better thank her lucky stars that I don't keep her in a closet like Laura's mom does. I think it's good to scare some gratitude into children every once in a while.


In case you were wondering about the doves on our window ledge, Margo gave birth to twins right before we went to Cabo and when we came back, they were gone. I think she had actually given birth to them long before we actually saw them because after a while, we noticed she was sitting on them. We named the doves Walker and Texas Ranger. If they were sissy birds we would have named them Dr. Quinn and Medicine Woman.

The Crawl/Adventures in Babysitting

About 4 hours after I penned my last blog, I woke up in the middle of the night with the worst itching I've ever had. It was awful because my jellyfish stings had gone all hivey and they were spreading. The worst was that I had three stings on my chin so it looked like I had some weird lip herp. At 2AM, Lee told me to rub vinegar on my stings (this is what you're supposed to do when you're stung... not 6 days later). But I was desperate so I did. I didn't have any white vinegar so I used apple cider and wound up smelling like a rotten apple. For the record, it doesn't take the sting out 6 days later. Ice made it better. The doctor took me first thing in the morning and gave me Zyrtec and some steroids, which she warned me would give me extra energy. And they did because at Fancy's step class on Saturday morning I was using three risers and yelling things like "turn up the music!" while I made up additional "special" dance moves. For those of you wondering, the Dreamcatchers are still there, however I haven't seen them dress alike in a few months. But they do have a new cheer they yell when they like something. I can't make this stuff up.

The Crawl for Cancer was this weekend, and we almost didn't get to go because on Wednesday morning my babysitter dislocated her knee and didn't think she could watch Ellie while on crutches. This sent me into a babysitter tailspin. I called nine people and by Friday night at 7PM had heard "no" from all but one. All of my eggs were in Number Nine's basket. She was the co-worker of my co-worker's friend, but since I was all out of babysitting options, that practically made her family.

This poor girl probably thought I was nuts because I had e-mailed, voice mailed and then texted her. Number Nine finally called me while Elizabeth and I were on our way to Chelsea Handler's book signing for Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea. "Hi Tiffany - it's Number Nine. I'm so sorry I didn't get back to you earlier. I was traveling for work and then last night I was at the Kayne West concert." We talked for a bit about Ellie, where we lived, when I needed her, etc. At the end of the conversation, she asked me I wanted to know anything about her. Oh God - I should be asking her some really tricky babysitting interview question. Ask her if she knows the number for 911 - no, that's a gimme... ask her if she's ever been convicted of a felony - no, that's weird... "Uh... so you've babysit before, right?". She replied a confident "Yes". Yes! "Well, Number Nine, I think this is going to work out great. We'll see you tomorrow at 12:30."

Nine showed up right on time, and she was actually a really sweet girl, about 26, UT graduate, lots of experience with kids, and most importantly she and Ellie hit it off. Ellie was eating when she got there, so when she was finished, I took her back to her room to change her diaper and show Nine where everything was. I asked Lee to clean her high chair tray. About two minutes later in the middle of my instructions, Lee came into Ellie's room, showed me and Nine a spotless tray and said, "Look at how clean I got Ellie's tray!". This is odd. "That looks great, honey. Thank you". Then Lee blurted out, "I just gave it to the dogs and they licked it that clean". No. You. Didn't. But I knew he probably had. I tried to ignored him and continued my nursery tour. Thankfully, Nine did not run from the house screaming.

We made it to the pub crawl right on time and had a lot of fun. Team "Nun too Drunk" (Catholic school reference - my idea, but was a little slanderous so I didn't think Katy would honestly sign us up as that) consisted of me and Lee, Katy and Joe, Veronica and Chris, Sandy and Jason, and Kennemer. Maunder bailed on us so there was just nine on our team. The event was held on lower Greenville and it was pretty big - there were 250 teams with 10-12 on each team. Every team got to pick their shirt color, and we were in gray tees. From what I understand, the event sold out in only two days, so if you missed out, register early next year. The idea was to go to 5 bars in 5 hours, but we only made it to 4. Lee and I are lightweights. We made it home around 6PM, and Ellie and Nine were playing. I will definitely use her again (if she will come back).

Every day, Ellie gets more skilled at walking. This means that she wants to practice all the time including while we're at church. This Sunday was by far the most challenging day we've had at church so far. We really can't let her crawl/walk all over the place, but holding her angers her inner beast. Lee and I took turns taking her to the back of the church so she wouldn't squeal. It was a full time job trying to wrangle her. Her other favorite thing to do now is slam doors, cabinets, drawers, etc. She hasn't gotten a finger caught yet, but that day is coming, I'm sure.

Later that day, we all went to Cooper's first birthday party at The Little Gym. You would think that with the word "gym" in the title, I would have gotten out of the little black dress I wore to church, but I didn't so I was Stephanie's inappropriately dressed friend in the low-cut black dress who was still crawling around on the floor. And I had no tissue paper for Cooper's gift so he got the tissue that the dry cleaners had shoved into the sleeves of one of my shirts. Class act.

Ellie had such a good time at the party. At first, she sat there taking in the rainbow-colored walls, padded floors, and jumping children, but after 2-3 minutes, she was up walking around and trying to climb on everything. The thing she liked the best was the parachute. Loved it and was hysterically laughing the whole time they had it out. They also had this thing that was like a bounce house minus the top. There were about eight to ten 2-4 year olds there running and jumping on top of it so I thought Ellie would be scared, but she wasn't. She wanted to walk and jump on it just like everyone else. I was trying to keep her close to me so she wouldn't get creamed, but little Miss Independent would have none of it. In between activities, they would play music while the kids ran around and Ellie would shake her little butt to the beat of the music. She even sat in a little chair at the table with the other kids and had cake. Halfway through the snacks, she took her plate and dumped everything on the table. We haven't worked on manners yet.

We had my parents over on Sunday night to thank them for keeping Ellie last weekend and to celebrate my dad's promotion. I grilled a steak and some chicken kabobs and made a salad and mom brought an appetizer and pie for dessert. Ellie was pretty worn out by the end of her big weekend. We were too. I think between party planning for Ellie's birthday, buying gifts, Mother's Day, and the wedding on Saturday night, next weekend will be more of the same. By the way - we still need a sitter for Saturday night... Number Ten, are you out there?

Jenny's Cabo Wedding

I don't know how coherent this blog is going to be because I'm all hopped up on Benadryl right now for the jellyfish stings, but I'll give it a shot.

I think the saddest thing about going on vacation is waiting and waiting and waiting for the vacation to get here and then it's over in an instant. Last Thursday, we left for four days and three nights of fun to celebrate Jenny and Brant's wedding. I took a ton of pictures and now I just have to organize them. I had never been to Cabo before, and I was not disappointed. It is so nice there and I would recommend it to anyone considering a beach vacation. It's not tropical and humid like so many other Mexican cities - it's very arid so most of the area is covered with desert-type plants except in the resorts where there is a lot of landscaping. We stayed at the Sheraton Hacienda Del Mar and really enjoyed it.

Bonnie and Brett were on our flight and sat in our same row on the airplane. As soon as we got there, we put on our swim suits and were out by the pool with margaritas in hand by 2PM. If only I could be out by the pool every day with drink in hand. Ruben, Meg, Tim, and Chrissy arrived a little later and we got ourselves ready for the shuttle to take us to the welcome party at a beachfront restaurant called Sunset da Mona Lisa. We had cocktails, hand-rolled cigars, pasta and took pictures during sunset. Following that, we all decided to go to a bar in downtown called "Squid Row" where the music was seriously bad. It was in the "what Mexicans think drunk American tourists like to line dance to" genre. They seriously played "Baby Likes to Rock It" but the Tractors. I think I insulted the DJ because he told me to stay out of his booth. We decided to pack it up and headed to Cabo Wabo, which is Sammy Hagar's bar, but left shorty after we got there because it was totally seedy and Bonnie needed to go home. Coincidentally, Bonnie was #1 that night.

We got up on Friday morning and decided to make it our day by the ocean and the pool. Ruben and Meg tipped us off that there was a giant squid on the beach so Lee and I had to find it and of course Lee had to poke it. The eyeball on the thing was the size of a golf ball. So gross. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was about 2-3 feet long. We walked down to a rocky part of the beach and there were crabs all over the place. I like to eat crabs, but they're a little freaky live. They look like cockroaches that can move sideways. We had a great time relaxing and even played a little sand volleyball.

Saturday night was the rehearsal dinner at Cabo del Sol Golf Club. We had cocktails on the patio followed by dinner and the toasts. There were a lot of speeches. Since we were going snorkeling the next day, we called it a night after dinner because we had to in downtown by 7:45 to catch our boat at the marina.

The whole marina area really surprised me because there is high-end shopping there. It's all new and very nice. Total 180 from the Bahamas, if you've ever been there. We had a private sailboat take the eight of us out to snorkel. Occasionally, I will have motion sickness on a boat, and I did on our little boat, but I never ralphed. After 2 hours of almost loosing my breakfast, we got in the water to snorkel. We had only been in a few minutes when Meg started screaming that something was biting her. I looked under the water and there was nothing around her. Totally confused by her freak out, I continued to swim, but then it started to happen to me too. I looked in the water again to see nothing, but eventually figure out that there were all of these floating worm-like things in the water. Jellyfish (or water fleas as our tour guides called them). It felt like fire ants biting. Instead of just swimming through them, I grabbed my arms and legs and started rubbing them thus rubbing more flesh-eating acid into my skin. Five days later, I am STILL all red and bumpy so I may go to the doctor tomorrow. Afterwards, we shopped with Meg and Ruben and then grabbed a bite to eat before heading back to the hotel.

Jenny got married on the beach at the One and Only Palmilla. This place really was the one and only. It so fancy that when staff walked by you, they placed their hand on their heart and bowed. Seriously. I mean one or the other would have been sufficient. I'm going to start making Lee do that. Jenny and Brant were married outside overlooking the ocean and then we had drinks and appetizers adjacent to the ceremony site after the wedding while the wedding party was taking photos. Her reception was a seated dinner and then there was a dancing with a band inside an adjacent building. Everything was so gorgeous and there were so many flowers. The whole weekend was absolutely perfect and I'm so glad we were able to attend. I think destination weddings are the way to go!

My parents were nice enough to watch Ellie while we were gone. We were so glad to see her when we returned. I missed her a lot, but I think Lee really missed her. Daddy's girl. She was taking 2-3 steps at a time before we left and now she's walking about 20 feet at a time. I'm going to try to get a video of it this weekend and post it.

Congratulations and best wishes to Jenny and Brant!

We're still here...

I know I've fallen down on my blogging duties lately, but I have a really good excuse - we went to Cabo San Lucas for my friend Jenny's wedding this weekend. I was going to have to go to Austin tomorrow, but that got changed and I'm so glad because I'm so tired. I took about 140 pictures this weekend and I can't wait to get those posted so everyone can see them.

My mom and dad kept Ellie and... she's walking now. She was taking 2-3 steps before we left, but she can do 5-7 now. We were so excited to see her when we got in last night.

I'm going to try to get a posting up by Wednesday, but no promises. Back to work... they switched my computer to Office 2007 while I was gone and it's made me grumpy. Change bad.

I can save you money.

On Wednesday, I attended a sustainability conference put on by the North Texas Association of Environmental Professionals, and it was fascinating. This whole post is a little nerdy so hold onto your pocket protectors. The topic of sustainability is like nerd crack for me. But I did want to share one thing that I learned at the conference.

I'm sure the last time one of your bulbs burned out, you went to the store and saw all of the incandescent light bulbs right next to the compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. They're the ones that look like cork screws. And maybe you even thought "hey - I'll do something great for the environment and buy one of the CFL bulbs", but then you looked at the price and saw that the incandescent light bulb cost $0.50 and the CFL bulb cost $4.00. What you may not know is that over the lifetime of the incandescent bulb, it will cost about $80 for the electricity to light the bulb and cool the room because of the additional heat it puts out. The CFL bulb? About $16 over the life of the bulb. Now multiply that by every bulb in your house. And the CFL bulbs last twice as long.

So if I told you that if you gave me $4 today, I'd give you $60 in two years, you'd do it right? This is the same thing. AND as an added bonus, you're doing something good for the environment. I'm not saying that you need to go out and replace all of your bulbs, but next time one of your incandescent bulbs burns out, consider buying a CFL bulb. Make sure it says Energy Star on it or else the same savings may not apply. They're sold at Wal-Mart, Target, and Home Depot. If everyone in the Dallas-Fort Worth area switched out just one of their light bulbs for a CFL bulb, that would reduce the need to build one additional coal-fired power plant. And trust me - we don't need more of those.

The rest of the conference was pretty good. This one architect talked about building green homes, which was really cool. The second presentation I went to was about future energy sources and this guy from the EPA spoke. I'm not kidding - he had Tourette's Syndrome. Added to this problem was the fact that he could not pronounce the letter "r". I was actually quite impressed that he was publicly speaking. Then at lunch we had the former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller speak to the group. At the end of her presentation, she asked if anyone had any questions and I wanted to raise my hand and scream "I have a question!! WHY DID YOU LET TO COWBOYS GO TO ARLINGTON?!!!". But I didn't want to be drug out of the luncheon screaming "Dude, don't taze me", so I kept it shut.

Going on the the background of all of this was me trying to figure out if the person sitting next to me was a man or a woman. You're going to think I'm making this up, but their name was Pat. I swear on a Bible. Actually, the name tag said "Patricia", but I think it was a man who added a "ricia" on the last part of his name. Pat was also carrying a purse, but that doesn't really mean anything these days since there's a man in Oregon having a baby.

That is the summary from my nerd conference. Have a good weekend.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update: I had a comment/question from Andy on mercury and CFL bulbs. Answer can be found here.

Multimedia message

Mullets. They're even at 20,000 feet.

Kyle's Wedding

I think I'm going to be doing pretty well if I squeak out another 2 blogs in April because we're so busy. I may have to resort to the newly-discovered cell phone blog to communicate. We have had a huge whirlwind of 5 days - Ellie came down with a weird virus, we drove to Memphis, Kyle got married, Audrey got baptized, and on Thursday morning Lee was a total dumb ass and drove off with the his keys on the roof of his car so I had to spend an hour and a half driving around Dallas to try to get him where he needed to go. Lee has a keyless ignition so the key only needs to be within a few feet of the car to start it. He threw the keys on the roof of his car and took off. When he got to where he was going, he could neither restart his car nor could he lock his doors. That meany I had to leave work and go home to pick up his keys (10 miles and two school zones), drive to him (35 miles), and back to work (20 miles). He's pretty sure that the keys fell off the roof somewhere along the highway because he heard a thud. I guess we will be sure if our house doesn't get burglarized.

I picked up Ellie on Thursday afternoon from day care, and she felt warm. She really didn't want to eat much at dinner so I went to get her ready for a bath and decided to take her temp. 103.2. I immediately called the doctor and told him that we were leaving in the morning for a wedding (of course) and he told us to come in. He told us that if she had a good night and was okay in the morning to go ahead, but if she had a bad night and woke up sick to stay home... so we almost missed the wedding festivities entirely. For the record, she was 19 pounds and 15 ounces fully clothed. She woke up like she was totally fine (and she actually was) so we went drove on Friday morning to Memphis.

Ellie was really great in the car and slept pretty much from Dallas to about 30 minutes on the other side of Texarkana. We had lunch and shortly after we got on our way, the person driving in front of us kicked up a retread and knocked it into our car. It made a loud thud but it was only after we got to Memphis that we realized the bumper to my car was dragging on the ground and the plastic part covering the undercarriage was hanging on the ground. We looked like the Grizwolds driving into town. I've called the insurance company and the car is going to have to go into the shop. Damn 18 wheelers.

It was there at the hotel that Ellie met her new bff for life, Audrey. I looked after Audrey and Ellie while Nicole got some things out of the car and Ellie tried desperately to see her new cousin. A short time later, Ellie was able to meet Miles too. Miles knew exactly who she was and was so excited to meet her.

Nicole and Wayne took advantage of all of the family being together and had Audrey baptized before the rehearsal. Ellie was at the baptism and the entire time, she tried to climb into the baptismal font. I think she thought it was a swimming pool. Afterwards, we took her back to the hotel so my second cousin, Katherine, could babysit for her. Katherine is so great and is a special ed teacher so she loves kids, but likes to march to the beat of her own drummer. I hadn't told Lee this. "Um, listen... about Katherine. I don't know how many tattoos are going to be visible so just be cool". Wrong thing to say to hypie the hypo. As it turned out, only two tats were visible so in my opinion, he sort of overreacted.

The rehearsal dinner was at a really lovely place on the Mississippi river called Currents at the River Inn. As we have sat for many years, all of the cousins dined at the "kids" table where many an inappropriate joke was told. My cousin Shannon, who is ten years younger than me, told me that when I was 21, she was too young to hang with me and Nicole, but now that she's 21, I'm just old. That's the thing about family - they'll give it to you straight. My uncle Gus was nice enough to drive all of us back to the hotel.

The big day was on Saturday and we started off the day with breakfast with the Erwins and then lunch with my grandmother and aunt. The wedding was really beautiful and Kyle and Megan were nice enough to ask me to read. The priest (who because we're Catholic is somehow related to me) was moderately irritated because I was a little tardy. Fr. Val, YOU try dressing an 11 month old. Because I was a reader, I had to sit away from Lee and Ellie. Ellie was pretty well behaved and waved at me during the wedding. So cute. I have some funny pictures of the reception, but I'm going to save those for another blog because this one is WAY long. Since Kyle got married during prom season and limos were in high demand, his and Megan were whisked away in a bright yellow stretch Hummer. Awesome. Because every girl dreams that she will be carried away from her wedding in something that looks like a banana on steroids. Kyle, I'd like to take this time to public apologize for Lee crawling into the Bananamobile and waiting for you and Megan. Inappropriate.

We left Memphis around 9:30 on Sunday morning for the long drive home. Along the way, Lee and I got into the conversation about how we are going to celebrate Ellie's first birthday. I want to do a party in the backyard for close friends and family. Lee told me he has another idea. He wants to do a combination First Birthday Party and wait for it... Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament. Not kidding. He wants to commemorate sweet Ellie's first year of life with a POKER TOURNY. I can just see the invitation - some cute little cartoon forest creatures sitting around a table smoking cigars. I told him "no" and now he's calling me "Buzz Kill" and "Power Down Tiffany" (he calls me that and then makes this noise like the nuclear power plant is shutting down). We're still in talks about the "theme" of the party, but if I have my way, it's not going to be Clowns and Casinos.

Ellie was really good the whole way home, but started to loose it about an hour outside of Dallas. She would be okay for a few minutes and then started squirming and whining. She was so glad to get out of that car seat and be back at her house. Lee picked up the dogs from the kennel and when Ellie saw them, she started squealing. We had them behind a gate in the kitchen and she stood there for a long time reaching out for them, laughing, and petting them. The "petting" mostly involves grabbing their ears and ripping their hair out. Lucy and Morgan are nice enough to stand there and take the abuse. She loves her dogs.

So that was it. What a whirlwind - it was fun.

Multimedia message

I just found out i can blog from my phone!

Jenny's Bachelorette Party

This weekend, I spent my first night away from Ellie. I traveled to Austin to celebrate one of Jenny's last weekends as a free woman. There's nothing like a full weekend of debauchery to help your body remind you that you're over 30. Also reminding me I'm over 30 - road tripping in my friend Kristine's car and sitting in the back seat next to her two and a half year old daughter, Mary Margaret, while she shows me how her lambie can poo-poo and tee-tee in the play toilet and watching Elmo and Dora. Back in college, we didn't take toddlers on road trips with us. And if we did, there's a good chance we would have been arrested for taking them to Mexico and selling them in exchange for beer money. But don't worry - MM wasn't sold for cerveza. She was dropped off at her grandparents house in Austin.

As soon as we left Dallas, I realized that I left my breast pump. I'm still nursing Ellie at morning and at night, so I sort of needed it. I told myself I could deal - I would just have to be uncomfortable. Then about halfway to Austin, I remembered that I had left my outfit for Saturday night hanging on my closet door. Awesome. So after dropping MM off, we stopped at Target so I would have something to wear. I'm sure Jenny and Kristine wanted to kick me because they just wanted to get there, but they were actually very patient. Jenny is good at putting outfits together so she grabbed some stuff and brought it to me in a dressing room. I sort of felt like I had my own personal stylist... but I don't think stylists usually shop in stores where you have to take a number for the articles of clothes you take back to the dressing room. I made it out of there with a black top, jeans, and a metallic belt.

We finally made it there around 9:00. We stayed on the south shore of Lake Travis in a house called Waterstone Lodge. When I grow up, I want to live there. It was right on the water and so beautiful. In all, I think that there were 18 girls there so it was a pretty big party. After dinner, Meg, Bonnie, Debbie, Jennifer, Kristine and I sat by the fire on the patio to drink wine and laughed hysterically at some college photo albums I brought. We really knew how to rock a jean jumper. The party continued onto the hot tub where we stayed until 3AM. There was one awkward moment where Meg asked us all who we were voting for. A headed debate ensued. After about 15 minutes, we finally had to switch the subject, and I told her that next time she's at a party she should stick to a less divisive topic like abortion or religion.

I tried to sleep in on Saturday, but only made it to about 8:30. I think I'm so used to getting up early every morning now that it's impossible for me to sleep late. We all laid out by the pool for most of the day and relaxed. I read my book by Chelsea Handler which kept on making me laugh out loud. After we all got ready, we had a lingerie shower for Jenny. Her sisters made this cute video of her future husband where they'd ask him a question and then pause it to see if she could guess what he would say.

Since we were pretty far away from downtown, we had a party bus take us to dinner at a fabulous restaurant in Austin called Kenichi. For some reason, we thought it would be fun for us to take some serious "modeling pictures" after we ate. I don't know where we come up with these weird ideas. After dinner, we started off on the patio of The Belmont, but it was a little lower key than what we were hoping for, so we moved onto Cedar Street Courtyard, a place with a live band and dancing. Since we had four pregnant girls with us, the bus got us around 12:15 and took us back to the house. I was in the back of the bus so I could see the road in front of us. I thought the driver was going to wreck trying to avoid the deer. Better him in the bus than us in one of our cars.

By the end of the weekend, I was EXHAUSTED. We headed back to Big D on Sunday morning. For all photos, you can look at my shutterfly account. Very sad to say goodbye to everyone, but we'll be together in two more weeks for the wedding. So where were Ellie and Lee during all of this? They drove to Tyler on Saturday morning to visit B.B. and Doc. According to Lee, Ellie got adventurous and tried some some bacon. I was so glad to see both of them when I got home. He was exhausted on Sunday night and went to bed at 9:00. Taking care of the little one is hard work (and acting like your 18 again is equally hard). We have another very jam-packed weekend coming up... Kyle's wedding. Can't wait to see the fam!

I'm Still Standing

Again, I was not a great photographer so I'm posting more photos from Easter weekend.


Ellie is one step closer to walking because she can briefly stand by herself now. I've only see her do it once and that was on Friday night, but the ladies at day care tell me she's doing it more often. When I saw her do it, she was squatting down and then slowly stood up - stayed there for a few seconds and then grabbed the sofa. Quite daring. It's hard enough for me to keep track of her now... I can't imagine what it will be like when she starts running through the house.


I took Trudie to the vet on Saturday morning because she was having some eye troubles (as if being blind wasn't problematic enough). I've wondered about her quality of life lately, so I discussed euthanasia with the vet. The doctor said she probably still has a few good months left unless the tumor on her tummy, which is likely cancerous, spreads to other areas of her body. They're not going to do a bunch of blood work or biopsy the spot because they don't want to upset her. She's not in pain right now, she's still spunky, she's got a good appetite, and can find me wherever I am. She's dropped from 10.5 pounds to 9 pounds in the last 6 months, so I'm just going to try to keep her as comfortable as possible and enjoy my friend while I can.

After Trudie's trip to the vet, Ellie had another swim lesson. She's starting to be able to associate a name with an action so she waves and blows kisses on demand and will actually kick when I tell her to kick now. It's not a swimmers kick though - it's more like a frog kick. She brings both heels up toward her and then kicks them out. I'm expecting a full scholarship to Stanford one day from those frog kicks so she'd better step up her game.

Ellie has been trying to venture into our cabinets lately so Lee installed some child locks on them Saturday. I cannot get my fat little finger between the cabinet door and the lock so now I have to use a knife to break into my own cabinets. I keep forgetting the locks are on there, so I almost rip the hardware off the cabinets every time I try to open them. I'm sure that one day... in a month or so... I will remember to use the knife.

The rest of the weekend, Lee tilled up our backyard because he's going to plan all new grass. It's a big job... we're hoping it will look for the big first birthday party. We also watched The Kite Runner on DVD. If you haven't seen this movie, it's definitely one to rent. We really liked it - it was probably one of the best movies I've seen in a while. We also opened some of the wine that Lee made last year. It had the aroma of cherries with a subtle hint of earthiness followed by an overwhelming taste of Robitussin. Sorry, honey. We only had a few sips and then threw the rest of the bottle out. So if we gave you a bottle for Christmas - let this be your warning. On Sunday, my mom came over to visit Ellie and stayed with her while I ran some errands. Ellie was so tired that she went to bed at thirty minutes earlier at 7:30 that night. I thought that was great until she woke up thirty minutes earlier the next morning.


I wish Ellie was a little older so she could enjoy what is going on outside of our window - we have a pair of doves nesting. Lee and I decided to name them Todd and Margo after our favorite couple from Christmas Vacation. Margo has been staying in the nest lately so we can't tell if she's already laid her eggs or not. Todd usually stays in the tree out front. I can't wait to see all of the baby birdies! We'll give you updates as Margo and Todd's family grows.

Springtime Swingtime

I got this picture of Ellie on my phone when I visited her at day care during lunch this afternoon. We had the whole playground to ourselves because all of the toddlers were taking their naps. It was her first time in a swing, and she loved it. I pushed her from the front so she could keep an eye on me. When she would swing toward me, I'd give her a funny face and a sound effect to make her laugh.

This weekend, we taught her to blow a kiss and now she is pretty proficient at it. When I left, she waved bye-bye and then blew me two kisses. So sweet.

Easter 2008

What a beautiful weekend! The weather was absolutely perfect on Saturday, so Lee and I met our friends, the Hardemans, at the Dallas Arboretum for Dallas Blooms. I guess I didn't give it much thought because spectacular weather + the day before Easter + everyone on Spring Break = the perfect storm of arboretum overload. The arboretum had chartered buses and was literally bringing in people by the busload. One of the main reasons I wanted to go on Saturday was because one of the local photographers was taking Easter pictures with a live bunny. The bunny may as well have been stuffed (or tranquilized) because he didn't move the whole time - even when Ellie tugged on his neck. We dressed Ellie up in her Easter outfit, bonnet, and the locket I wore as a little girl for photos with the bunny. She did really well.

After the bunny pic, we walked around the arboretum with the Hardemans and got some great pictures of Ellie in the tulips. If you want to see all of the photos, they're on our Shutterfly collection. I also finally uploaded all of the ones from January and February. That night, Lee went to his friend Kevin's church because Lee was Kevin's RCIA sponsor. This means I got to have a movie night so I chose to watch Enchanted. So cute. I can't wait until Ellie likes princess movies. I may have to buy Enchanted for Ellie. She may not be into it now... but I am!

Lee got home pretty late from the Saturday evening and then we got up and went as a family to 11AM Easter service. Poor Lee - he had enough church for a whole year this weekend. We met my parents, Beth, and Ben at church and then had lunch at the Petroleum Club. We had to get there 30 minutes early for a seat and I'm glad we did because halfway through church, I got up to change Ellie's diaper and people were standing out he sidewalk outside because it was so packed. Sadly, Lee's dad could not join us because he was visiting his mother in Chattanooga who has been sick with pneumonia lately. She fell ill during her trip to Dallas for Christmas and never fully recovered. Elizabeth was on a girl's trip to Brazil with her friend Mimi.

I swear Ellie spoke her first word on Monday morning. She already says mama a lot, but she said it indiscriminately before she knew what it meant, so I don't know that that counts. I dropped her off at day care and as I was leaving, I waved at her and said "bye-bye". She looked up at me, waved, and said "bye-bye" back. I stood there and looked at her for a second to see if she would say it again, but she didn't. I'm going to wait until I officially claim that this was her first word just in case she was actually sounding off some really intelligent sounding babble.

If you're in the Dallas area, you should take a trip to the Arboretum... it's absolutely gorgeous right now!

Who Wore It Better?

I love celebrity gossip magazines. They are so fabulously smutty, and I don't even care. I'm going to play off a popular column that some magazines have called "Who Wore It Better?" where they show the readers one item of clothes worn by two different stars and the readers decide who wore it better. Example:

The same Herve Leger blue dress is worn by both Amanda Bynes and Kim Kardashian's sasquatch sister (who in all odds is probably shorter than me). Who wore it better? Clearly Ms. Bynes. So let's play "Who Wore It Better?" Bright Spot style.

Who wore this white Janie and Jack Easter bonnet better? Ellie?

Or her Daddy?

You decide.

The Worst Name Ever

I had to go to Office Depot yesterday to pick up some binders for one of my projects. I got into like behind a guy paying by credit card. The cashier took the credit card, asked for ID, and then took a long look the ID and credit card. "Is this your real name?", the cashier asked. The man said that it was.

So now I have to make the decision - do I mind my own business or do I ask this guy what his name is? I knew that I would forever wonder if his name was Dwayne Pipe, Bill Ding, Chris P. Cream, Noah Ho, or Chris Anthemun so I asked. It was Rocky Rhodes. I'm sure he got the "are you kidding me?" face from me. "You'll never forget my name, will you?", he said. You're right about that, Rocky. Seriously, what parent thinks that's a good idea? For 45 years, this guy has gotten the "are you kidding me?" face from everyone he's introduced himself to or who's looked at his ID. That would be like us naming our kid Rainbow.

UPDATE: Check out the second comment I received... they are not playing around.

Kibble and Bits

Every morning, Lee's job is to take care of the dogs. This consists of letting them out to go to the bathroom and feeding Trudie. Because it's easier, he fills Trudie's bowls first and then takes all of the dogs out. Ellie was with me in the bedroom while he was taking the dogs out, but I turned around for a second and she was gone. I heard her in the bathroom messing around with Trudie's bowls and ran in there to find her digging around in the dog food. "Ellie! No!", I said and pryed the dog food from her hands to wash them.

I noticed that she needed her diaper changed so I took her into her bedroom, partially undressed her and changed her diaper. Then I sat her down to put her socks on to go... so now it's been about 2-3 minutes since she got into the dog food. Lee came in her room and I told him we needed to keep it off the floor or close the door. He looked at Ellie and said, "She's got something in her mouth". Somehow, I had missed the fact that my beautiful little girl had shoved a handful of kibble into her mouth and had been chewing it while I was diaper changing. I stuck my finger in her mouth and scooped it out which made her mad that I was taking her food away so she started screaming. Let me get this straight... She won't eat peas anymore, but dog food is okay? So gross. I'm just glad we don't give Trudie canned food. When she turns 30 and starts dating, I'm going to tell boys this story so they won't want to kiss her.

Meg sent me this link this morning. It made me laugh.