Earning His Keep

 

So I know I just blogged yesterday – but I have to share this story.  I also know that I probably should not be telling this story because some of my readers are going to freak out like Megan (I can hear her gasping now), Joe (will tell me to move to Houston as he always does) and I am sure my dad is not going to be very excited, but I am telling it anyways…..

            I have had Biscuit for over 5 years now and he has had all kinds of health problems – that could be worse, I am not complaining!  Over the years I have spent a LOT of money on that dog and he is part of the reason I have debt….but he totally earned his keep the other night.  I am fairly certain that he may have saved my life, or at least saved me from trouble.

            I got home from work about 7:00 pm and opened the back door with the screen door shut and the bedroom window to let some of the nice cool fall air inside.  I was in the back of my house in the office on the computer.  About 5 minutes after I was back there Biscuit started barking like crazy.  This was not your normal bark; he was letting me know something was wrong.  I came running from the back of the house…he was standing on the couch barking at the back door.  When I look at the door the screen door was cracked and the door was only open about 4 in wide.  (I KNOW I had opened the door about half way so that the air could get in.)  I immediately closed and locked the door and the window.  When I came back to the front of the house he was standing on the back of the couch looking out the front window barking towards the gate.  I looked out the window but it was too dark to see anything.

At that point I was pretty freaked out that someone was in the house and called my cousin Dylan to talk to me while I looked in all the closets in the house.  I did not find anyone hiding.  Dylan, Christi and Val all convinced me that it was nothing….but the more I got to thinking about it the more I really, really think that someone was trying to get into my place that night and B chased them off.

If it were someone that really wanted to rob me or harm me they would have done it regardless of the dog or not, so I don’t think I am in any further danger.  I did buy a lock for back gate and feel better.  My dog may be a small dog but he has a big bark and I am so thankful for that little guy!

Moral of the story?  You should get a dog too….well not really, but I am sure glad I have mine and that he can make a lot of noise.  Here is to my favorite little man! 

The best dog....

The best dog....

Published in: on October 29, 2008 at 7:30 pm Comments (3)

4th Annual BYOP

 

My sister and I started a tradition amongst our cousins a few years ago that has since become one of my favorite events of the year!  BYOP – AKA Bring Your Own Pumpkin.  It is a nice little gathering where we carve pumpkins and eat Frito pie!  What is not to love about that!  I think the coolest part about it is that this is something WE started!  You know – our generation of cousins!  Most of us have been really good about attending and making it a big deal.  We are still working on the ones that have not yet attended – there are only a few though.  As you all know – I kind of like my family and the more time we spend together the happier I am.  My cousins are honestly some of the funniest people I know.  We ALWAYS have a good time together no matter what we do!  And then when you add some of your favorite friends it makes it just that much more fun.

Even though we were missing our carving expert (Alex) this year; I think we had a pretty good year as far as pumpkin carvings go.  Here are the photos from this year.  Enjoy! 

 

 

PS – Word on the street is that my blog is ‘interesting’ and people are being encouraged to read it.  NICE!  My readership has gotten up to about 35 readers – or maybe that is just Dylan and Grace clicking on it a million times a day.  Well hope you are enjoying it and finding it “interesting.”

Published in: on October 28, 2008 at 3:51 pm Comments (3)

Oh Austin!

Here is one of the many reasons I love this city so freaking much!  800 and some odd people gathered at the Long Center for this!  I LOVE IT!

 

 

I will have a real blog post tomorrow – but this is awesome and I had to share it.

Published in: on October 27, 2008 at 9:28 pm Comments (1)

Brooklyn Update – revisited

Thanks for the concern and prayers for baby Brooklyn.  She went home on Monday night.  They were able to get her the right antibiotic she needed.  There is still one more test they need to run on her before they can figure out what kind of surgery she is going to need.  They will not be able to do that test until her infection is all cleared up – which means 2 or 3 weeks.  So we are hoping that she can stay infection free during that time.  Keep thinking about her and my brother and sister-in-law, this is obviously hard on them. 

 

In case you were wondering – the Weezer concert was awesome!  Cannot believe I have waited this long to see them!  We had a great time.  You did not have to be a huge fan and would still have had a great time at the show.  Dylan, Grace and I are dorks and totally spent $35 on matching freaking shirts, but they glow in the dark – how rocking is that!  For the record- I bought and picked mine out first and they just copied me!  Here are some of the photos Grace took.

Published in: on October 23, 2008 at 4:41 pm Leave a Comment

Baby Brooklyn Update

This is a quick blog to ask you all for your prayers.  Baby Brooklyn (my niece) is back in the hospital for the 2nd time in 3 weeks.  She is probably going to have to have some sort of surgery in the near future.  It is a long story and too much to type – give me a call if you want to know the whole story. 

My sister, my parents and I drove down to Houston yesterday to see her, my brother and sister in law in the hospital.  She is such a doll!  It has been about 4 weeks since I have seen her and she is soooo different already.  She smiles and makes more defined noises and holds her head up.  She is a happy baby – you really would not know she was sick except for the IV in her arm.  Below are some photos from this weekend. 

Please pray that they can find out what is wrong soon and fix the problem without too much invasion on her little body!  Thanks for the prayers!

 

 

PS – for my CHS’ers, my cousin was somehow able to get is $10 tickets for the Weezer show tonight!  YEAH!  I don’t think I have ever seen Weezer live.  Looking forward to it!  Wish you were all here to come with me.

Published in: on October 20, 2008 at 7:51 pm Comments (2)

For the record…..

 

I showed Dylan and Val the video clip of my interview last night and they laughed their asses off.  So, as suspected – it was awful.  I was laughing too because I look like a freak with bad hair and weird posture.  Still NO volunteers from that one!

Published in: on October 16, 2008 at 1:59 pm Leave a Comment

Utterly Horrifying!!!!

 

I came back from lunch yesterday with an e-mail from my boss that was about 40 min old, the e-mail was informing me that the media would be here to interview me at 1:30, it was 1:00.  (They invented cell phones for a reason folks!  I was totally at my house and could have prepared a little more – read on.)  I literally had a panic attack.  I speak in front of people all the time – all the time – and I am 100% comfortable with it.  Put me up in front of a room full of 5000 folks and I am good to go.  I am a pretty good public speaker, but you put a camera in my face and I freak.

            So here is the deal – not only do I have to deal with the camera in my face, but I totally dressed like a slouch yesterday because it is like a Monday for me and whatever I had not appointments.  ALSO – I have a freaking afro because of the humidity.  I was freaking out.  I had one coworker tell me I looked fine except I needed to brush my hair and another tells me to put lotion on my hair so it would not be so frizzy.  Ugh.

            I normally try and avoid TV interviews as much as possible, but I had to do this one.  So I go – I stand in front of the camera and I talk.  I am trying so hard to not look at the camera I am getting the sweats.  I was so nervous I actually used the phrase “nitty gritty” – WTF?!  I do not use that phrase in my normal vocabulary – why then?!

            So the story aired on News 8 yesterday and for those of you that do not know News 8 it is news on the 8’s – meaning this story ran over and over and over every 8 minutes!  NICE!  I saw it last night and almost died!  They only used about 4 seconds of me talking (luckily they cut out nitty gritty) but I look like a flipping freak with stringy hair and bad skin.  Not to mention you can totally tell that I am trying very hard not to look at the camera.  I used completely unnecessary emphasis on words – boo!  The worst part about it is they got ALL the information wrong in their story.  Called us the Tax Community Centers we are the Community Tax Centers and it clearly says that on all material!

            Ok I am done bitching – but this will certainly keep me from ever doing an on camera interview again!  I really hope that is not what I look like in real life.  Oh and don’t bother trying to find it online – it is not there.  I tried to find it for you people who I am sure are dying to laugh at my misery – but it is not online.  UGH!  Probably won’t get many volunteers from that one. 

            On a lighter note – the Longhorns had a huge win this weekend!  But now we are ranked #1 – I don’t like that – makes people hate us.  But whatever – they are awesome!  So after the game me and a couple friends went to the pumpkin patch and this is what we did – freaks!

Published in: on October 15, 2008 at 2:25 pm Comments (6)

This one is for you Joe

Before we get to the bad non-date story…..Last night around 2:00 am I woke up to this horrifying sound.  It sounded like someone was really trying to open my front door and pulling on the handle.  I knew I was nuts and just stayed in bed.  “The sound” started happening more frequently and was getting louder.  I kind of started to freak out because I had no clue what it was.  After about 10 min of lying awake in my bed about to die from fear I realized what “the sound” was….it was thunder.  What did we learn from this?

  1. I probably should not read my book club book right before I go to sleep anymore
  2. We have had SOOOO little rain here in central Texas that I have literally completely forgotten what thunder sounds like – sad.
  3. I am a Freak!

Worst Non-Date EVER!!!!

Next time Uncle Joe tells me I can have free tickets to a football game as long as I pick them up from his coworker – I will think twice!  The IT guy that works with my uncle in Houston somehow got the idea from our 2 second meeting (where I was literally picking up tickets and left) that I was interested in him.  Not so much!  The guy comes out to the car with this tea cup poodle – that is just weird right there.  After that he decides to send me random e-mails every 6 months or so – literally every 6 months – asking me how the weather is, is he trying to court me by sending me e-mails once every 6 months?  One time he sent me a virtual poke.  Did you know that if you put an asterisk before and after the word poke it will bold it for you – like so…. *poke* this is what I got from him.  I mostly did not respond to his messages but that did not work.  He was at my uncle’s 50th b-day party where my uncle put him to work.  (Not really – he was the DJ and I think he enjoyed it.)  I was in the food line and next thing I know he is right behind me – it was just creepy.  Basically that is the end of it – so I thought…..Joe sends me an e-mail just TODAY – telling me that creepy was asking about me!  BOO!  It has been 2 years and I honestly do not think I have said more than 20 words to the guy outside of “Can you give me directions to your place so I can pick up my free football tickets?”  This is my life.  But really Joe – I think it is all a matter of the fact that he wants to be you and by pursuing me I think he might think he has a better chance of getting closer to you.  Love ya!  Don’t laugh at my sad dating record!

 

Here is a picture of me and Joe!

Published in: on October 7, 2008 at 3:58 pm Comments (1)

Change in BooBlog concept?!

I seem to have created a firestorm of controversy with my “Single Friend Etiquette 101” post.  I have never received so many comments or had this many hits.  Apparently you guys are only really interested in stories about my single life…..well maybe I will throw in some of the horrible date stories from the last 5 years of my life.  That should keep you entertained! 

Thanks for all the comments and concern

Bad date #1:

Met a very nice attractive guy at church about 3 years ago (this makes me 26.)  He invited me to lunch.  I went – we have good conversation – ish – something just felt a little off.  After a while the whole “age” question came up.  Turns out it was 46 – I almost spit enchilada all over him when he said that.  This was his actual response “I am just able to connect with women your age better than I am with women my own age.”  Yes and that makes you creepy!  No date 2……

I have a LOT of these – stay tuned if you want to read about more…….

Published in: on October 1, 2008 at 5:26 pm Comments (2)