Memory Lane

I went to Dallas this past weekend to help celebrate Sarah’s 30^th birthday.  She is the first of my girlfriends from high school to turn 30 and I still don’t believe it!  We are only like 26 right?!   

            Because I was in Dallas and helping to celebrate a milestone, it felt like a weekend for a walk down memory lane.  I have only been to Coppell a couple times since I moved to Austin and wanted to go back to visit my old church.  My parents were in town a couple weeks ago and they went to Mass at St. Ann’s and told me how great it was, so I will feeling the need to make a visit myself.

            Mass was awesome as usual.  (It is weird though, seeing a lot of the same families there, but their kids are grown now.)  St. Ann’s is such an active parish it is amazing to go there and “feel the love.”  I love going there and seeing all the seats full in such a large church!  People actually participate in Mass.  Don’t get my wrong – I really do like my church that I go to now – but nothing will ever beat St. Ann’s in Coppell! (Although there were a LOT of screaming kids and babies in Mass – not cool!)

            After church I drove by our old house.  I was amazed by how much taller the trees were!  When we moved in they were just sticks!  It is weird to drive by your old house and see other people living in it.  I had to drive around the block twice because the first time I drove by there were people out front and I did not want to look like a stalker taking photos of them as I drove by.

            After that I did the unthinkable!  I drove to the high school!  I have not been up there since my brother was in school and I used to go to his football games.  I had a long conversation with a girl from CHS at the party on Saturday and she was telling me how much it has changed.  (She graduated in 2002 and is living there now.)  So I was expecting it to be totally different.  It was not – it looked the same.  I did find out though that seniors now get reserved parking spaces!  And they decorate them!  It was weird.  There were all these people out there with tents and paint.  I am thinking “dude kids this is your last day before you go back to school – don’t hang out here.” 

            So I just drove around the school for a min to see what was different.  I am not going to lie – I desperately wanted to go inside!  I even parked my car and tried to open the door.  No luck – they were locked.  Maybe some other time!

            So it was fun.  I have not done that in a long time and it was nice to go and check it all out.  Nothing changes in Coppell!  Ever!    They just build more houses.  I am told that the current junior class has 1,000 kids in it!  That is so insane!  There were 300 of us when I graduated! 

            Conclusion of the weekend – the more things change the more they stay the same!

Enjoy the photos of beautiful Coppell!

Best church eva!

When did Sandy Lake become drivable?!!!!!!!!!!!!

Creek Crossing – check out the trees!

940 Creek Crossing – our old house

Some things never change

parking space painting????

Sample for you – uh boo!

Red black and white – fight fight fight!

Brooklyn Marie is here!

She finally made it!  I got the call from my sister-in-law, Natalie, on Thursday at about 3:00pm that she was going to the hospital.  I packed up the car and made my way towards Huntsville, yes this child was born in Huntsville.  My mom, dad and I arrived at the hospital about 7:00 pm.  We, along with Natalie’s mom and dad, waited and waited – watched Natalie’s contraction monitor and listened to the baby’s heartbeat.  At about 1:00 am we finally asked the nurse what her best guess was on when the baby would get there.  She said “well if I were guessing I would say she would be here around 6:00 am.”  ?????  WHAT?!  That was still 5 hours away!  So we decided to go back to the hotel and try to get a couple hours of sleep. 

My brother notified us at 4:45 that is was time to come back.  We jumped out of bed and rushed back to the hospital.  We were able to stand outside in the hallway and hear bits and pieces of what was going on, it was a really cool experience – Brian was in coach mode.

On Friday Aug 15th at 6:12 am (the nurse was dead on!) we heard Brooklyn’s first cries.  Shortly after that we were able to go in the room and see her for the first time.  She is pretty much the cutest baby I have ever seen – but I may be a little bias.  She weighed in at 7lbs 4oz and is 21in long.  She is the perfect size.  Mom and baby are both doing great – they got to go home yesterday. 

It was really neat to watch my brother throughout this whole process.  He has always been really good with kids, but watching him with Natalie was the best part.  He played the perfect husband and dad role.  Natalie is going to be a great mom.  I look forward to watching them grow as a family.

I am so excited to be an aunt.  I cannot wait to watch this child grow up – although I hope she does not grow too fast.  I told my parents in the hospital hallway that our lives were about to change forever.  This is the best kind of change we can have.  Here are some of the photos from this past weekend.  She is such a pretty girl.

Flipping BOO!!

            I should not write this blog while I am so pissed – but screw it!  So had car trouble again today.  (Car was in the shop about 5 weeks ago because the window fell down in the door – neat!) My check engine light came on a couple of days ago.  I am a person that likes to drive a happy car – so I took it to flipping Maxwell Ford – keep in mind I was JUST there 5 weeks ago.

I am pretty sure that the dealership people see me coming and know that I don’t know jack shit about cars.  So they tell me it will cost $340 to fix some freaking sensor.  Uncle Joe says, “No they should at least be able to apply your diagnostics fee to the labor costs since you are getting it fixed there.”  So they tell me no of course.  As usual my uncle has to get some GUY to call and tell them that they suck and should not be charging me so much!  (Which is exactly what happened last time.  They told me $500 to fix it – someone from Ford dealership in Houston calls and oh like magic – it’s only $350!)

Well I had to talk to stupid service manager about it today.  He basically told me that my uncle’s Ford Dealership is a bunch of crooks and laughed in my face.  That made me feel wonderful!!!!  I really felt like a million bucks when I left – can’t wait to go back.  He was such a jerk – I can’t believe they have someone like that managing their “service” department!

You know I consider myself an independent person – I pay my own bills, do my own laundry, buy my own groceries, have my own car, have my own house, have a good job – but every time I have something wrong with my car I feel like I am getting the flipping shaft and jerked around because I am not sending a man to take care of it!  It pisses me off! 

Unless Maxwell Ford does something really nice to make up for this I will NOT be going back there – they have officially lost my business – jerks!  Guess they don’t care too much about someone who would have been a regular customer.  F in jerk faces boo!  Now you see why I am constantly considering getting a newer car – because I hate dealing with crap like this – boo.  Anyone in south Austin that has a Ford – do not go to Maxwell Ford.  Ok done – sorry for the rant.

 

PS – I hate Maxwell Ford jerk faces.

The same ol same ol

So back from vaca – we had a good time.  We were in the car a LOT and had a couple longs days.  But we all survived and had no cat fights (I know that as adults I should not have to write this – but if you don’t know about last year’s vacation this is still possible.  Maybe that is for another blog.)

 

Monument Valley is a MUST!  Everyone should go there – I was just in awe of it.  Not exactly sure what it is about the place.  They are random rock formations in the middle of the desert.  Even though Nicole read the brochure to me I am still amazed by how they were formed and honestly – don’t really understand it.

As you probably know – I LOVE to take photos.  So if you would like to see the un-facebook-abbreviated version click the photo below for the slide show – with comments!!!  Ooooh

Arizona Trip Photos

PS – yes I took this photo!

 

So now it is back to normal life – 5 day weeks and crap!  Boo!  I am not a fan of the 5 day work week.  But getting back in the routine of things – eating my boring food and going to the gym blah blah.  Biscuit stayed with his grandma while I was gone.  He was excited to be home at first and now I think he is a little bored and wishes he could go back there and not be at the house where he has to stay home all day by himself.  So sad.

Next on the blog will probably be the arrival of Brooklyn Marie!  Any day now – I am thinking this week – my money is on Friday!