The bathroom is almost done!

So, Nate and I have been doing home improvements for awhile now and yesterday Nate worked his magic to pull together our bathroom. The only thing not done in there is the towel rod, but it is basically finished! One thing we did yesterday was hang the mirrors we bought. Now, we haven't had a mirror up in our bathroom since we painted the condo.... which was before I moved in. It took me several times yesterday to get used to the fact that I didn't have to open the closet door to use the mirror back there.

At first I was all excited about the mirrors, but now I've decided that I am not entirely happy about having the mirrors. I made this decision when I woke up this morning and accidentally looked at myself at 5:25 in the morning. I decided that nobody should have to look at themselves that early in the morning.... it just ain't pretty. So follow my lead and take a 4 month reprieve from looking at yourself the second after you wake up... it really is a self esteem booster :)

Disclaimer (mostly for Nate)- The mirrors look fantastic and I am happy about them being up... they were just a little mean to me this morning :P

Unusual

Confession~ I want a minivan..... real bad :)

p.s.- I'm totally not kidding

Imitation is the sincerest form...

A few days ago I raised the total of people who attended our wedding and have now decided to get married at the same location to 2 couples. So far Rick and Abby have booked Ashton along with Liz and Branden. I have decided to make a list of reasons why I am happy about this :)

~This shows me that other people really like the location too. Sooooo, it really was pretty and we weren't just imagining it
~ I already know how to get there.
~ We are looking forward to trying the food :) (Other couples beware, the to go basket we were supposed to get never made it into the car. Make sure it does before you pass on food at the reception :P )

Sicky VonSickster

So, I am actually feeling back to almost 100% (minus some lingering congestion) but apparently I was not alone in my illness. A good 50% of my friends/ office are sick, were just sick, or are getting sick. As for me, I have refused to shake hands with anyone for the past week in the hopes of doing something to contain the spread. Which reminds me, I made it to sunday school last week (barely) and tried to isolate myself as much as possible so that I didn't get everyone sick. Our class is NWC- Newlywed or close, meaning engaged couples are welcome.

Anytime there is a wedding, they bring the couple getting married up in front of the class a week before their wedding and pray for them as a future husband and wife. It's pretty stinkin cool actually. Wellllllll, this last week there were three engaged couples all getting married the 28th. They called them up and I realized that I had an engaged girl sitting directly in front of me and directly beside me. I have been super paranoid all week that I got one of them sick. I never touched them or coughed on them or anything, but I just hope they are healthy because I have way too much of a guilt complex to deal with that :P

p.s.- I would love to get back to fun, random posts but I am waiting for inspiration to hit. It seems to go on vacation with you and then take it's sweet time returning. So if you see my inspiration, tell it my blog is suffering and it needs to come back.

Never Trust a Paper Doll

One of Jen Cates' kids sent a Flat Stanley with us on our trip to Holland. We were all excited about bringing him... we thought he'd be a fun, wholesome companion. Boy were we wrong. Above is a picture of Flat Stanley where we found him in the red light district in Madurodam. Madurodam is a park of sorts full of miniature versions of all the important buildings in the Netherland. It's meant for kids. (Yes, they put a miniature red light district in a theme park meant mostly for kids... welcome to Holland) We had adjusted to Stanley's pervy ways, but thought that he'd be ok at Madurodam.... once again, we were sooooo wrong.

Moral of the story is, always run background checks on paper dolls before you bring them to ultra liberal countries :)

Can you speak up?

So full blown day five of my cold and I woke up with a new fun addition.... I lost my voice. Fantastic. I have enough right now for a really quiet whisper with the occasional word that is a little louder, but all in all it's MIA. Losing your voice isn't terrible, but it does make people think you are really rude. The guy in the elevator with me thought that I lacked all manners when I didn't respond to his good morning and didn't offer the appropriate thank you's. Anyhoo, I'm hoping this is the last phase cause it's been a week since the first minor symptoms and it's just kinda getting old. So if you see me today and I seem to blow you off, just remember... I'm a mute, and you can't be mad at a mute :P

Confusion

Last night I woke up around 11:30 thinking it was time to go to work. I got up, went to the bathroom and started my routine. The only thing that tipped me off that it wasn't the morning yet? My hair was too wet. So sad. So now I sit at my desk with dry hair and mourn the sleep that my cold took from me last night. If only I had been raised differently where I wasn't so afraid to take sick days, maybe I'd be home right now in my comfy bed surrounded by tissues and saltine crackers instead of being here counting down the hours. I enjoy being melodramatic when I am sick, it seems to pass the time :)

Hmmmmm

I'm feeling a bit tapped out as far as blog material goes. I'm cautious about skipping a day right now though because I don't want mine to turn into one of those dead blogs where there is a post every4 months but you don't really notice because you've basically stopped checking. So here we are. I think it's time for a thought dump... here's what's going on in my head right now~

- I find out in 4 weeks the sex of Ben and Amy's second baby :)
- I hung out with Jen last night, and that makes me happy
- My head is swimming and my throat hurts, fun stuff
- The list of things I need to do at home is growing with no end in sight and I have been pitifully slow about marking things off the list
- Ummmm, I think I'm out... sorry you had to read this :P The head swimming part made it hard to think.

I'm Back :)

I got back on Sunday night from a trip to Holland, Belgium and France. It was GREAT!! Holland was beautiful! This first pic is a in a place called Kinderdijk that has the largest grouping of old windmills in Holland.... they were everywhere!

Our second day we went to Keukenhof, the world's biggest and best garden. They certainly proved to us that this was true. The grounds were busting with tulips, daffodils, hycinth, cherry trees and more tulips (I had no idea there were so many varieties... I took 80ish pictures there :)

We went to a place called Zuiderzee Museum which is a park of sorts where they have moved historic Dutch houses and buildings from all over Holland. They dress the little kids up in traditional wear... adorable :)

Drempel is their word for speedbump :)

This was taken in a bulb field that we saw from the road. We were there at the height of tulip season and so patches of color exploded from the countryside everywhere we went.

Eiffel Tower... no explination needed.

Notre Dame

Bruges, Belgium.

Bruges is beautiful. I mean the entire place is beautiful... you can't take a bad picture.
Bruges at night

Holland and Belgium and France... oh my!

(A pic my dad took in Holland this time last year)

Tonight, after work, Nate and I are leaving on a jet plane for Paris. I am soooooo excited! We will have 3 days in Holland, 1 in Belgium, 1 in Normandy and 2.5 in Paris. As I sit at my desk contemplating how much will power it will take for me to get any work done today, I have a few things going through my head....

1) It's annoying to me that Holland is just as frequently known as the Netherlands and their language is Dutch. I mean, pick a name and stick with it folks.

2) One of my favorite things about travelling is eating in the airport. The international terminal at IAH has a Pappadeaux in it for crying out loud! I have been looking forward to having my Terminal E meal ever since we got the tickets :)

3) Wicked is awesome! Nothing to do with our trip, but we saw it yesterday and I couldn't not mention it.

4) There is nothing like a low maintenance guy to make a low maintenance girl feel high maintenance. Nate was able to pack for our entire trip in a backpack. All I am packing for him are toiletries and 1 pair of shoes. I can't beat that, and I'm usually a light packer.

5) I haven't gotten a ton of sleep this week between games and plays and whatnot and I have difficulty sleeping on planes, so I have basically accepted the fact that I will be up for at least the next 24 hours and I am already dragging. Oh well, I've done it before :)

6) My parents rock :)

Picture

I was doing a site visit for a project yesterday and I spotted this Japanese Maple. I took a picture cause I had the camera, I really like these trees and so do my parents..... and because blog fodder can run low sometimes :) Enjoy :P

Stros Surprise

Soooo, my boss came up to me yesterday and asked me if I wanted 4 tickets to last night's Astros game. Sure! I said. He went and got the tickets that one of our subconsultants sent over and guess what?? They were in the dugout section!! $50 seats! Anyhoo, that was a nice little surprise even if the Astros themselves played a little less than impressively.

Our view!

The new foul poles :)

Bad picture of us... what can you expect?

Confession ~ I blog for my parents

Sure, I'm happy that other people read my blog and that perhaps it occasionally breaks up a boring work day or a mind-numbing class. When it comes down to it though, I blog for my parents. When I write something, I will usually throw stuff in that I know only they would get or at least, only they would appreciate :) From revelations about my neurotic tendencies to the excitement I get over stupid things like nice paper, they get it. Plus they already know how weird I am so there is no chance of shocking them into not liking me :P So anyhoo, mom and dad, this is a shout out to you. I can't wait to see you in a few days!

Plans for Friday? Thursday?

This is one of those times that blogging makes my life easier, and that's a happy thing :) I am sending out a general cry to anyone who might be off of work on Friday or at least off early. Nate and I need a ride to IAH that can pick us up at 3:30 sharp at Bayou woods. We have a maybe already, but were hoping to find someone who is available to bite the bullet. We will provide cash for the Hardy Toll road to ensure no stressful 45 North-bound experiences and plenty of witty banter for the entirety of the ride. Let me know if this sounds like the way you roll :)

On the other hand, some friends and I have tickets to Wicked this Thursday and one girl has an extra tic ($40). Trust me, this is one of the best musicals you will ever see. If you are interested, let me know and I will see if the ticket is still up for grabs at that moment.