Non-Adventure # 37 Everybody say Surprise!

My friend Ben's birthday is in August and his sweet wife and my good friend Leah decided she was going to throw a surprise birthday party for him at the marina in Grapevine on a party boat!! So she had us all meet at the marina 30-40 minutes before they were supposed to "arrive". We all gathered there on the boat waiting for them to show up. If you look close you can see them walking up the dock.
stepping on the boat after we yelled "SURPRISE!"
Me with Leah
Some of the girls
Everyone chatting as we headed out out onto the lake

Amy and her hubby Richey
I fully admit the pictures end here. Our party boat guys docked us out in the lake and one of them started cooking the hot dogs, yes they cooked and yes the boat had a grill as well as a slide! After everyone grabbed a hot dog and their favorite chips and beverage choice and chowed down most of us got off the boat. We grabbed some life vest and headed into the water to float our afternoon away. After the heat of the summer we had been experiencing the water felt great. We all sang Ben Happy Birthday from in the water. At some point most of us climbed back onto the boat to grab ourselves some cookie cake. Finally the party boat guys herded us back onto the boat and drove us back in. We all mostly sat on the upper deck getting some rays and drying off in the sun. It was soooo much fun, just hanging out and partying wih friends.

Happy Birthday Ben and welcome to 30!

Non-Adventure #36 Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving!

So this is THE year, the year I am now officially thirty, flirty, and thriving. I have a tradition of always celebrating my birthday and Stacie's (no I didn't step on your birthday hour) together with our high school best friend Erik (we celebrate his in December). So this year we decided our dinner out would be at Cheddar's in Keller. I love their vegetable plate as well as their chicken tenders so yummy! So here we are at dinner (Erik came to our side of the table for the picture)

Then we decided to head up the road and go see Despicable Me. Here we are with our 3D glasses waiting for the movie to start. It was super cute and really funny!
Then I thought it was appropriately fitting that the July Chick Flicks movie fit in and we had it the weekend before my actual birthday.

Our July movie was:

13 Going On 30

So a group of girls headed over dressed in their funnest pj's. I asked everyone to bring toppings. Toppings for their favorite pizza and what they would like to eat with ice cream. I provided dough, sauce, and cheese as well as fruit (you can see it towards the back of the picture). I set out all the toppings in bowls and gave everyone a rolled out slice of pizza dough. Then everyone went around the table and put on their favorite toppings. We cooked them in batches in the oven.
Tiffany and Leah hanging out in the kitchen
Leah and Amy made theirs into giant pizza pockets
Amy showing off their handiwork
some more pizza fun
I received this cute homemade apron from Amy and Leah (I also got a handmade apron from Baylee) to add to my apron collection. I promise one day I will take a picture of all my aprons.
We took a trivia quiz and this month everyone was a winner. Everyone received Razzles (candy that is also gum) and an 80's Jams cd that I mixed together. It has some great tunes that include Thriller, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Loveshack, Jesse's girl, etc.
A couple of pictures of everyone with their Razzles and cds.

We all watched the movie and took a brief pause to make our ice cream sundaes in edible waffle bowls. After the movie which brought back many memories from our childhood, we packed up all the leftover toppings and everyone headed home.

On my actual birthday I arrived at work to find that my boss Cyndi had decorated my desk with tons of thirty party stuff. She felt that I needed to see the actual number thirty all day long. So she put this big thirty on the door across from my desk.
She even climbed on my desk and stood on a step stool to put up the thirty things hanging from the ceiling and tied a balloon on my wires. The cards were from some of my co-workers and Chris gave me the bite-size cupcakes which were delicious.
Maxine gave me some new ring bling!
Stacie came and brought me this huge Happy Birthday balloon and...

my favorite banana pudding that her mom makes. It was sooooo yummy and delicious! Yes, I shared with my co-workers.
I met my good friend Leah and her son Casen at "our place" aka Chili's in Hickory Creek for lunch. We had a good time talking and remembering how much fun we had at the Eclipse party.
Here I am surrounded by all my birthday goodies
eating my cupcakes
That night I went to dinner at Babe's with my family. They spared me the humiliation of the chicken hat and being sung Happy Birthday by a bunch of waitresses. Sometimes I can't believe I am thirty but yes I am OFFICIALLY:

THIRTY, FLIRTY, & THRIVING!!!!!

Trivia Quiz

1. What was the original title of 13 Going On 30?

a. Sparkle

b. Sugar and Spice

c. Turn Back Time

2. What was the most popular girls name of the 70's and 80's?

3. In what country was the title changed to Suddenly 30 because the distributors thought audiences would misunderstand the original title?

4. In what year did Cosmopolitan magazine get its start?

a. 1886

b. 1946

c. 1966

5. What was Jennifer Garner's first major in college before switching to drama?

6. In what decade did Mattel introduce the first Barbie Dream House?

Rambling #26 Hap-py Birthday Char-he!

For as long as I can remember Stacie and I have said that to each other on or birthday's, it is from All Dogs Go To Heaven. Unfortunately for Stacie she had to get locked up at the jail on her birthday aka she had to work. So long ago she told me she wanted me to make her a coconut cake for her birthday and bring it up to her while she was at work, so I did. Here I am visiting her at the jail, on July 5th.
Here is her coconut cake I made from scratch, icing and everything. It was a Barefoot Contessa recipe found here.

Here is the birthday girl cutting into her cake! Doesn't she look happy cutting into her cake!
She said she had a wonderful birthday and she loved the cake!

Rambling #25 Summer of Babies!!!!!

So this spring I had several people close to me that were pregnant. Most of these babies were all due at some point this summer or late this summer. Starting with my friend Adorah. She had her little girl Saida on July 8. Here are some pictures of Saida:

this was Saida a couple of weeks ago. I'm holding her. I think she looks like her daddy, Chris.
Next up was my cousin-in-law Jessica. We were all waiting to see if she would have a baby girl Brown or baby boy Brown. Well She had a little girl named Margo on August 16 at like 11:20pm. My dad, sister and I went to see Jessica and Margo at the hospital the next day. Here we are with Margo:





The last baby born was my friend Chrissie's. We knew we were waiting for a baby boy to be named Austin Hoyt Russell and I got the news that he was born on September 4th at 7:45 in the morning. Here is sweet Austin:

Some newer pics Chrissie sent me just today!

So CONGRATULATIONS!!!! to all the newly formed families and HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABIES!

Non-Adventure #12 Cel-e-brate Good Times Come On!

So I feel I should apologize for my lack of posts over the last couple of weeks so here is a brief and quick update as to what has been going on. I have been busy most of the time with work, water aerobics, friends, Bible study, and my dog Sookie. I took a quick trip to Cypress where I dropped my friend Leah and her son Casen off at her parents house and then went down and visited my mom near Galveston as she had been sent there to do some work for her job. There were some tough storms going on but all in all we had a fun and quick girls weekend. I then met up with my friends Rob and Robin and headed back to the DFW area.

I also went to a fashion sale in Dallas with Robin where she found some great deals on some sample clothes. I found a purse that I really liked by this Europe based designer named Luella.

I didn't get it because when we first looked she quoted me one price. When we were finished with our other shopping we went back to purchase the purse and she changed the price to higher than her earlier quoted price. She also acted like she thought we were the crazy ones. So we told her to forget it and we left.

Labor day weekend my college friend April got married to a man named Dan Griswold in Dallas. She was a beautiful bride. The church, the reception, everything was amazing. Here are the only two pictures I got of the ceremony. Sorry they are blurry but the camera kept focusing on the persons head in front of me and so the are blurred. I think the blur kind of works for the kiss picture, makes it a little more romantic.

Here I am with the gorgeous bride! Her dress was so beautiful.
I was also lucky to run into more college (and camp) friends. Here is me and my friend Annalee. She is pregnant and due in December.
This is April, Melanie, Felicia (and Eli, he has since arrived healthy and happy), and me.
Dan and April leaving the reception and on their way to Hawaii!
I should have taken a picture of their gifts it was a silver box with a sticker that read "Two of our favorites for our favorites." Inside was a Dublin Dr. Pepper and thumbprint cookies! I had a great time and ran into other friends but I was not as camera ready as I should have been to get pictures with them.

Friday was Rob's (my friend Robin's husband) birthday. We all went to Babe's
If you have never been to Babe's you are missing out. It is the best! There are several locations in the metroplex. You have to be a little careful cause they don't all have the same menu or the same hours. We went to the one in Roanoke. This location only serves fried chicken and chicken fried steak. Everything is served family style so you pick your meat and drink and then the waitress brings salad and biscuits. Shortly after that she brings your meat, all piled on a big platter. Then she will bring bowls of mashed potatoes, creamed corn, and the best gravy. The veggies and biscuits are all you can eat. So my strategy is to eat as many of the sides and take the chicken home (in the little plastic bags they provide). We ate and the waitress put a hat and beak on Rob while we all sang Happy Birthday! The after dinner plan was to go to this outdoor festival and see George Clinton but about 5 minutes after we sat down the sky opened up and continued to dump massive amounts of rain on us. When we finished the meal we all headed to Rob's parents house in Westlake (they live across the street from the Jonus Brothers here is their house)

So like I said we were across the street at the Keller's where we went for cake and presents. Robin made the most amazing cake. She made a giant chocolate cake in the shape of a donut and put a drunk passed out Homer on it.

Here she is holding the cake:

The guy to the right of Robin in the burnt red shirt is her husband and birthday boy Rob. This is also highlighting my poor picture taking abilities in that this is the ONLY picture I have of the birthday boy and he isn't even the focus of the picture.

Here is another picture of me and Robin:
We all stayed up late singing Karaoke. After all that I drove home in the rain. The rest of the weekend was relatively boring. Went to see Whiteout (rent it), went to Walmart (to get new windshield wipers, which they only had the drivers side I still need a passenger side), and watched a lot of US Open tennis. Saw Serena scare that little Asian lady to death and basially get slapped on the wrist with a $10,000 fine. And saw Nadal go home! (beat in straight sets 6-2, 6-2, 6-2!) And watched Roger advance to the finals (which he will play tomorrow). Tomorrow Bible Study Fellowhip starts and I'm ready to meet my group and get started in the study of John. Later this week I'll head to McKinney to hang out with Hope and Landon!