Paw-ty time!

Last week was pretty busy with wedding planning. I think we've decided on a band. I also designed and ordered the Save the Dates. Here's a sneak preview (no details are on it though...have to save something for a surprise!):

On Saturday, I made cute little informational cards for my bridesmaids. I started with this:

And ended up with these:

I am starting to incorporate Kraft paper into things - I used Kraft paper envelopes to tie it all together.

After that, Robert and I took Jack to PetsMart to pick out a birthday present for his friend Lincoln. Jack also ended up picking out a toy for himself as well. He was really fond of this brown duck and it rarely leaves his side now. It's like it is his new "baby."

Lincoln, a boxer, turned eight on Saturday and we celebrated with margaritas, carnitas, homemade tortillas and skewered veggies at Kevin and Elisha's. Yum. There was also a little birthday cake at the "paw-ty" and homemade dog biscuits. To make things even more cute, each dog got a doggie bag to take home - and it was filled with toys!

On Sunday, I met Stacey and Ashleigh for brunch at Yogis and had fabulous French Toast with strawberries and bananas. I want to start a brunch tradition.

I also did more gardening and spring planting and reseeded the lawn. I put in sweet potato vine, bouganvillea, stone crop, green leaved Euryops and begonias. I'm still holding off on planting the seeds for the flowers in the front because we had another cold snap this weekend. The seeds I planted inside for the back yard are getting stronger every day. Last night, it hailed but luckily, my begonias were spared this year!

There's no crying in baseball...

I've missed spring break. The beach vacations to exotic locales, sleeping in, getting a tan....this year I tried to have a mini spring break. I started my week in Austin for work hosting a high school student who wants to be a lobbyist. I was so totally impressed that this junior in high school wants to be a lobbyist (who dreams of that?!) that I had to take her down for two days. We had too much fun in the capitol and dined at the Austin Club with the who's who in town. I managed to squeeze in a little time with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins and ate at Salt Lick in Driftwood. When Guy Kawasaki tweets "Had BBQ at Salt Lick. Now I can leave Austin in peace," you know it has to be good - and it was. I had a quick turn-around Wednesday night. Packing in two hours and getting a little sleep before my 7 a.m. flight to Phoenix.

For Christmas, I got my sister a dream trip to spring training in Arizona. It's the baseball fan mecca. A place where you fly into Sky Harbor and you're surrounded by your own kind wearing their team's gear. Two Mariner's fans told us the best stadiums to visit in the car rental line. Two fantasy baseball fans from California waxed poetic about their first visit to spring training in '69.

My mom being the awesome mom she is got us upgraded to first. The flight was fabulous until the end. I'll spare the details but there was a lot of praying going on. Phoenix is not an easy airport to fly into apparently. We arrived, got our car (a tempermental Ford Edge), checked into our hotel in Surprise and drove to the stadium for the 1 p.m. game vs. the A's. Surprise Stadium is wonderful and our seats were two rows from home plate. The game was pretty slow but the Rangers won.

That night we drove into Glendale to visit Westgate. It's this amazing shopping and dining village surrounding the football stadium and the hockey/basketball arena. We found Margaritaville, my mom's mecca, and my sister commenced rolling her eyes. My mom and I bought our gear for the JB concert in April.

The next day we drove to Sedona to see the red rock formations and visit the art galleries. Arizona is not my kind of beautiful. I would never be satisfied with the brown landscape and gravel for a front yard. However, by the end of the trip, I found the sage bushes and mountains growing on me a little. Sedona is a different kind of Arizona and it's amazing that our country can be beautiful in so many ways. We really enjoyed the shops at Tlaquepaque and my sister bought some handmade jewelry. We tried really hard to buy into the new age energy of the town and find the "vortexes." I've decided that I want to go back and spend a couple of days there hiking, taking in some spa services and eating at D'Lish.

That night we made it back through the mountains to watch the Royals vs. 

Dodgers. Once again we had fabulous seats and Muhammad Ali (a Royals fan!) was a stone's throw away from us. Spring training is a great place to go celebrity watching. The weather was perfect and the fireworks were beautiful. (Nothing compares to the fireworks at the Ballpark, which are coreographed to music).

On Saturday we got up early and went back to Surprise Stadium. The awesome thing about spring training is that the players are so friendly and accesible. We walked among the entire Royals roster and minor leaguers at their practice fields, the players readily sign autographs and will talk to you during batting practice (just watch out for those fast-moving homeruns). This game was my favorite because we sat by the two fantasy baseball fans and a couple from Fort Worth who have held season tickets since they moved to Fort Worth. Between all seven us, we had baseball trivia flying (what's your favorite baseball movie? Who's the player who was sent to Japan?). Owen Wilson made an appearance at this game - he was researching a role for an upcoming movie and he is a Rangers fan.

After the game we headed over to Scottsdale to explore the fashion district, dining district and arts district. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to Sprinkles before they closed. I did shut down JCrew though!

Sunday was bittersweet - time to come back. We had a late flight out and with the time change I didn't get to my house until 11. So this week is my recovery week. I also have to catch up with my trainer!

What did Robert do while I was gone? Had fun with the guys and worked on a surprise for me. He organized the garage Kelly-style with fancy hooks for my wreaths, shelving and more. All of my gardening stuff is organized and easy to access. He is so awesome.

I also walked out back after work to find my Shantung Maples blooming with yellow flowers. They didn't do that last year and I think they are starting to thrive. I have to be patient because they are slow growers but worth the wait. The ground cover I planted last year has triple the blooms this year. So many good signs in the garden. My seeds have sprouted inside and in a week or two they will be ready to transition into the garden. I'm hoping the survive!

groovin' (on a Sunday afternoon...)

It seems like I've started a Sunday posting trend. I'll try to keep it up. It's nice to review the past week and think about the week ahead.

This week was full of rain. I'm not loving our soil because it's full of sand, clay, rocks and all kinds of stuff that isn't great for absorbing the wet stuff. I'll get over it though because my plants are starting to thrive. Jack, on the other hand, has turned into a diva when it is raining. He doesn't like to get his little paws wet. That's pretty unusual considering he loves to jump into a nice pool of water. 

I spent most of the week on the road visiting my cities and next week is not going to slow down. Tomorrow is my only "office" day. Tuesday and Wednesday I'll be in Austin and Thursday through Sunday will be spent in Surprise, AZ soaking up the sun. (and taking my little sister to a little thing called Spring Training)

My little sister is a huge baseball fan. She can tell you any stat on MLB players and her favorite team is the Rangers (second favorite is the Devil Rays - because Tampa is our second home - and the Astros also make the top of her list). For Christmas I decided to get her a trip to spring training. In January, my mom lost a close friend and decided to join us. Life is too short to miss out on time with your daughters!

So I've bought the best tickets to four different games, reserved a hotel room and rental car and we'll be on our way to a lot of fun early Thursday morning. So excited.

Robert is on spring break this week, which means he'll be working ahead on school stuff and then working on a few non-work/school related projects - buying his new Camry and hanging out with his brother Greg who is in town from Tennessee.

Wow - I really jumped ahead there! I need to reverse back to Friday. 

My baby brother turned 25 yesterday! We celebrated with dinner at Mac's on Friday. You have to love dinner at Mac's.

On Saturday, my mom, sister, Ashleigh and I went wedding dress shopping at Patsy's in Dallas. My mom found her dress there 10 years ago when she married my step-dad and we knew it would be a great place to look. I tried on six different dresses and I found the one! It's not what I expected but it's definitely beautiful. We're going to order it in a few weeks and it will take about four months to arrive. It's by La Sposa - a designer I really like. My second favorite dress was by them as well. After that, we headed over to CPK for lunch and picked up Sprinkles for dessert. Can't miss Sprinkles when we're in Dallas.

Yesterday evening my sister and I went to see Race to Witch Mountain. Really cute movie. I'm so happy that I have a good excuse to see movies aimed at kids/young adults/families and a good excuse to spend more time with Caitlin.

Today was family picture day with Robert's family. It was fun to see three grown brothers posing for a picture together. I'll post when we get them in.

Speaking of family pictures....here are a few from our last Sprinkles night.

Ashleigh and I enjoying mango/strawberry margaritas and our "family" picture. Jack immediately jumped onto the couch when we sat down for this one. Molly followed when Stacey sat down. My dogs are too photo-trained.

Perfection...

It's definitely spring and we're ready to tackle our new hobby - or really my hobby and Robert's by proxy - gardening. We discovered a new tool at Home Depot that makes pulling weeds really easy. One of our neighbors was amazed. We also planted purple fountain grass and started our seeds for our flowers. We're trying seeds this year to see how they work. Hit & miss...

On Monday we went with Robert's parents to a wedding open house at the Fort Worth Club where we've booked our wedding. We were wined and dined and checked out all of the different vendors in town and stole a few ideas. Things are definitely starting to come together for the wedding. Yesterday, Robert and I went and picked out our save the date and invitation design. We're making them by hand - I have to include something crafty!

The biggest challenge is culling our guestlist to a reasonable number. The chapel we've chosen only holds 180 - and that's not comfortably. We'll get there though.

One of the highlights of the week was the discovery of puppy playcare. Our dogs go to The Grand Pet Resort to get groomed and they have two big rooms with puppy playcare - daycare for dogs. The best part is that I can check up on Jack from work via the webcam and he's exhausted when I pick him up. They also send a "report card" home each day that tells us his temperment and includes pictures from the day. Jack was "playful" and the "star of the webcam."

It's worked really well since Robert has class three nights a week and I am attending council meetings all over the place or doing my personal training in the evenings. He'll be going three days this week. And Molly gets some much needed alone time :)

With the nice weather, we also took the pups to the dog park today. And grilled steaks with Justin. Perfection.

Working for the weekend...

It's been a while. As always, things have been a little crazy. Last Friday Stacey, Russ, Ashleigh, Bill, Robert and I went to La Familia for dinner for my birthday. Flaming margaritas AND fajitas? I'm in. They even made me wear a sombrero and I got a birthday song. Good times.

Saturday night was Sprinkles night. It's a tradition that Stacey, Ashleigh and I have. This time it was at my house so I made jerk pork tenderloin, coconut rice and stir fried veggies. You have to go with something healthy if you're going to indulge in Sprinkles cupcakes!

They put together the most awesome birthday present - 26 different things. Now I have a ton of stuff to have fun with. I have something new to play with every day. Genius.

I also took the opportunity to ask them BOTH to be my maid of honor (or matron of honor in Stacey's case). I wanted to ask them in a semi-creative way so I handmade cards and got them both bouquets. It was hilarious when they opened the cards at the same time - I think there was a brief moment of panic in both of their faces wondering "oh no...did she get the same thing or did she get guestbook attendant???" Needless to say, they both said "yes!" Stacey has a cute "family picture" of us that I'll post another time.

On Sunday Elisha, Courtney and I went to see He's Just Not That into You downtown and met the guys for sushi at Pirhana's. Yum again. We had more late night Sprinkles and black and white cookies.

Now on to this weekend....

(I love weekends!!)

On Friday my mom, sister and I went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic at the Movie Tavern. My mom gave me my birthday present - tickets to Jimmy Buffett! Fins to the left, fins to the right...

My little sister came home with me and spent the night. She loves our Lego Indiana Jones game and playing with Jack. I got a new Chanel nail color and painted her nails blue satin. She's so trendy and fun to hang with.

Last night was dinner (party!) at the Burys. Elisha mad e grown-up grilled cheese and La Madeline's tomato soup. She also made these amazing peanut butter cup cookies...to die for. Again, I took the opportunity to ask her to be a bridesmaid with a handmade card and bouquet and of course she said yes! The Burys are so special to us and Kevin is going to be one of Robert's best men.

Becky brought baby Andrew and everyone had a turn holding him. He slept through nearly the entire night, including a rousing game of Last Word. And when I say rousing, I mean loud.

Robert and I don't believe the groundhog. It's spring in Texas. Sure, it might be 55 degrees today but we enjoyed an entire week of 85+ temps. The trees are budding, the flowers are blooming...now all we need are a few days of severe weather and we're there. Our experiment with tulips in our yard was a success. Because of our very rocky soil, it's hard to grow much of anything but the bulbs bloomed perfectly. I can't wait until next year, I'm planning to put in nearly a hundred bulbs in the bed. Red tulips have a special place in my heart because they are a fond memory. My mom used to plant them when we lived in Tulsa. I can remember them poking out of the snow and just being beautiful. Spring gardening is just a few weeks away!