Spring is Here!

Can't believe Spring is already here. I was tired of the blahness of our patio, so decided to spruce it up with some color. Hopefully, these stay alive for a while. Annuals are pretty cheap to replace, so at least I have that to look forward to if these get dull.

Randall's, Kroger's, Barnes and Noble to name a few!

We've been published!!!

As a reminder of our fantabulous wedding, Destination Weddings & Honeymoons magazine published a 2-page special of our special day last year, October 26, 2008. It was super exciting to get the first copy of it before it makes the stores. Way to go to our awesome photographer and wedding planner for nominating our wedding to be featured. Check for it in bookstores near you! I won't lie, we checked Barnes & Noble last weekend, but the new issue won't really be out until the week of our anniversary. Just in time to celebrate!!! :-)

Catch Up

This post will catch you up on a few great months with a few trips and a whole lotta celebrations.

Girl's night out - Cindy & Millie
August 9, 2008 - We started out at Porch Swing, then watched Phelps swim, then headed out to Sherlock's for what seemed like a really long night.




Natalie's Arabian Nights Birthday Celebration
It was a fantastically decorated party, from food to desserts, everything was dressed to the 9's. Huge success!



Lee's Birthday over Margaritas at Cyclone's
Seriously, how many margaritas can you really have on a school night? :-) Always fun and 10009032840932840932x better than the blue margaritas at El Tiempo.



Wedding Time in Seattle for extended family
We had an amazing trip but it was pretty short! Beautiful wedding, a special congrats to the bride and groom. It was good to see everyone again!




San Francisco with the little one and my family
So good to see my little sister and where she lived, and what she did. I so have weather envy. The west coast weather is undeniably fantastic.

Our First Dynamo Game

Our first Dynamo game with friends. Nat had awesome VIP tickets for us to watch the game. I've never been that close to all of the soccer action! Pretty cool.

company luau

So it was Friday the 13th. Possibly nothing could go wrong. I have been helping out and planning our company's annual Summer Party. This year, a Hawaiian Luau, in the middle of downtown Houston. Pretty incredible pulling this off with unpredictable weather patterns, and making sure it is a great experience for all, I am just glad it is all over. We had fun, the event was a success, and I am glad that the weather cooperated.

Here are some pics. My best friend, bridesmaid Cindy, and my new planning partner in crime, Ashley.

Tammy's 30th!

It's been long over due, since Tammy's birthday was the 9th of this month. I've been so focused on organizing all of our doggie pics that I failed to remember to upload pics from a big celebration we got to join in on for one of my dearest friends I've known since I was probably 12.

Welcome to the 30 club!

Doggy Playdate

This weekend, we had a visitor while our contractor was coming to put in our new travertine floors. Out with the slate, in with the travertine! He brought Nikki, his 3lb pom to play with Skyybear....who is all 9lbs and then some. She looked like a beast compared to Nikki. Skyybear is not very social, so we are trying to socialize her more, but she ends up just growling at new dogs and being a terror to them. Not nice!

More pics to come of our new floor, a 30th birthday...but for now, just pics of more doggies.

Discovery Green Day

Back to Discovery Green for their grand opening!
If you haven't heard, there is a new park in the middle of Houston's downtown, right across from the George R Brown convention center. It's a 12 acre park that has a bunch of cool stuff. The dog run parks are smaller in comparison, but not too disappointing considering there wasn't one downtown before.

http://www.discoverygreen.com/

SkyyBear competed in her first costume contest...but we didn't really try too hard. Others just really went all out on their dogs. What torture! Maybe next time, mama will put a grass skirt, a coconut bikini, and make you hula for the judges. :-)

i <3 skyybear

i am convinced that my dog is the prettiest dog out there....although she can be a handful at times. i challenge - whose dog isn't? they are like children.

To China they go!

So, Doug and "Chip" are leaving for China. No job, just the expectations to start a new life, learn a new language, and hope for the best. Rent in China is cheap and cost of living is slightly better there given their savings. We got to go to their dinner, one last hurrah before they boarded a plane today.

Art

I love to paint...although my inspiration comes in waves. There are days when I can paint forever...and then there are days when I think that nothing I paint is much of anything. Acrylics.

Another Birthday Twinkie

I usually share my birthday with a very dear friend, Mimi...but this year, we did two separate weekends because it was my monumental 3-0! Here we are at dinner the weekend before my birthday at El Tiempo, where the food is good, and the blue margaritas are potent!

Joining the 30+club

I had a fantastic time out after suffering from cold like symptoms that kicked my butt all week. It was a fun celebration with our friends and family. I am thankful and grateful for all the birthday wishes. I am also super excited about the cookbook that my mother-in-law bought for me. I can't wait to try out new recipes!

Rodeo Fever

Friday Night, March 1, 2008

Our friends had access to their company tent and was gracious enough to invite us. Their tent actually won 3rd place in “Best Chicken” contest last year. Chicken was okieeee this year, but free bbq, can’t complain. We were lucky to also get into a couple of other tents as well where there was more food/drinks to kill. My feet ended up hurting so much that I went home earlier than the crew, but it was fun while it lasted.




Saturday Night

So much fun that Eric and I went on Saturday. He went to the Rockets game on Friday where we got our 14th win. So on Saturday, we took his friends to the cook-off. We went late, so the food wasn’t as “great”…but again, free bbq and the experience of riding on the new rail system that Houston has

Roadtrip to Austin

So, it was roadtrip weekend for us. We went to visit Daniel for his 31st birthday, met up with some old friends, and met his new nephew, Louis.

The weather kind of sucked the Friday we went up there. Total rain and coldness. I was expecting weather to be better, around 70s, but it never got to that point. I think it was like a wintery wet 50s during the day. We ended up going to the museum which was pretty cool. I took this one pic of Daniel by a huge piece outside of the museum that closed off Jester. Oh the good ole days.

We went to a few places to listen to live music and hang out with friends.

Ended the trip with dimsum at this new place in Austin...or actually not a new place but an old place that now serves dimsum. It was fantastic! I can't wait to go back. It rivals Houston's dimsum for sure and the variety was pretty good.

Musashino Sushi Dokoro - Highly recommended!


We didn't get to sample Ryan's pizza again because there was no time to visit on this trip...but they're opening up another location. Sweet!

Check them out - Brooklyn Pie Co.

Wedding Planning

I am suffering from wedding planning withdrawal. I knew I would miss planning in talking to other brides that had gone through the process. I've been going through my old files and realized that I did keep my ideas kind of organized. I never posted any of the planning ideas, so I thought I this would be a good time to share that.

Here are the collages I did to kind of capture my thoughts on what I wanted our wedding to look like. Unfortunately, I did not keep a list of where I got these images from, probably mostly off of The Knot and forums here and there. This was a collection of ideas and images from researching, from venue and decor to flowers. In retrospect, I really do think that our wedding came out very close to what took over a year to come to fruition. Our pictures really captured the same essence of what was in my head at the time.

New Year, New Beginnings

So, new year, new resolutions. One of which is to continue the habit of updating this blog. To keep those of you who read this blog entertained. At least to keep you up to date with us. Our wedding website has been decommissioned, so now I will have to resort to this.

We spent time with family this weekend. I apparently have what I'll call cousins but it's too hard to explain the long line of lineage...but yes, cousins who live in Germany. They have an almost 7yr old daughter who is too cute for words. She speaks only Vietnamese and/or German. It was fun trying to get her to talk. It is the first year for us as a married couple, so we got a chance to hand out li xi or lucky money to the kiddos.

I am truly optimistic, but as far as chinese astrology goes, what I do know is that it is a year that Dragons should not partake in too many risks, and Horses definitely don't fare well throughout the year either. Actually, Horses and Rats are mortal enemies. I'm not sure I know any Rats...Cross your fingers for us and let us know if there is anything we can do to turn our luck around. Again, the optimist, maybe we should stick with the Western Astrology this year.