Du-na-na-na-na-na You Say It's Your Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Grant!!!!!!
The most wonderful, spectacular, and grooviest husband in the entire universe!!!!

I Love you, Dr. Grant Goodyear!!!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

It seems like years have gone by in the last week.

Lots of stuff has been happening this week....Almost all of it really good, or really, really bad.
However, tomorrow is Grant's birthday, and things are getting better....

Last week, our friend, John "kiwi" Flitcroft died from a heart attack. Leaving behind his wife, our dear friend Kristen, who is also one of my veterinary technicians. He was 33.
For some things, there just aren't enough tears.

So, after that horrible event, our transmission blowing in our pickup, pain in my knee, only getting to go to my conference for a short time, and having them give us the wrong pizza again, just doesn't seem that bad. We are very lucky. I am very, very lucky.

Now...on to the good news...

We went to San Antonio for the first 2 days of the Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society annual Symposium. Grant had taken a few days off to go with me.


San Antonio, even though we were only there 1 night, was awesome!!!
We stayed at the Marriot Riverwalk.
The lady that checked us in was so nice, and she gave us a room on the 24th floor with a balcony that looked out over the river walk and city.

Check out the view from our hotel room:

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Even though we were only there until the next afternoon, we got to....

meet up with our friend Chris (who is also a veterinarian)
Eat at various Mexican restaraunts (yummy queso)
walk along the river
Take a river cruise
Watch a serious lightning storm from our hotel room balcony
eat ice cream
and just have the most romantic time.

Oh...and check this out! Grant got to go jogging along the riverwalk early Monday morning!



I must say, there is nothing like a romantic getaway with your husband. Yes, this is good. We need to do this more often.

I can't believe that I just said that...

So, my cat, who is notorious for tearing up, laying on, and tossing around my scrapbook stuff....was just on top of my Navigator....I heard a ripping sound...Grant said "Oh no"...I turned, saw what the cat was doing and instantly yelled.....

"FIGARO! No Rusty Pickle!!!"

He had just stated to bite and tear at the packing envelope that housed one of my scrapbook kits that was made by Rusty Pickle. Hey, it worked! He jumped down and ran off to find mischief elsewhere.

We love Elsie!!

Ok....so we had just the best time on Monday! Cindy picked me up around 2PM, we headed down to Kemah, stopping at Novel Approach on the way...(my favorite stamping store)

Then, we met up with Toni, Laurel, and Gloria at Scrapbook Junkie, did some groovy shopping, and then all went out to dinner! Mmmmmm....I had snapper.....yummmmmm.

We got to meet Elsie, at the book signing.

She liked my trademark glitter eye makeup, and she also said "you're adorable!" And yes, she really is as cute as she seems....very expressive. She was so patient with everyone.


















The class was just too much fun! The project is adorable...called "Life is Swell" I just love that word....swell. I used to use it a lot when I was in college, never as much as groovy though.

Anyway, back to the book... It has pages of different photo sleeves of various sizes...so basically, lots of different separate pockets., which you could put patterned paper in, embellishments, stamps, photos....whatever you want! Also, leave some of them open to give you that see-through preview window effect. I just love it! No, I didn't get it done, but I will! It's so free and casual, you can just do anything! I've got lots of small pics that I've printed out for other projects and never used that I can use up.....and just have fun with it!

Also, every now and then, Elsie would just pipe up with an "I love you guys!". She is clearly a very talented and sweet young woman, for whom I wish a most wonderful life full of love and art.

Here's my cover page...

If you want to see Elsie's project, look here!




So, to sum up...shopping with Cindy is always an adventure, I love love love going out with these girls, road trips rock, scrapbooking is just the grooviest hobby, Elsie's cute, and I'm adorable (according to Elsie!) : )

September 11th

So here it is, the 5 year anniversary of September 11th, and the world is once again in mourning. I refuse. There is just so much sadness in the world; I will not let this keep bringing me so far down. Otherwise, I might as well give the terrorists another point! I feel so much for the people in which this brings sorrow to their lives everyday....and I know that there are many. But I feel that since I am capable of it, I am going to live! I am going to celebrate my freedoms tomorrow, even if some of them have been taken away since September 11th. Not all of them are gone, and I refuse to let the terrorists and all of their supporters get the pleasure of bringing me down every year on this anniversary.

Carpe Diem.

Tomorrow...... even though I have to be at work at the crack of dawn (aka 7AM) to do my surgery shift, I will celebrate that not only am I a veterinarian, but a woman, with a career, and respect.

Tomorrow..... I will have fun with my friends, take a road trip, make art, and just play!

Life is here. Life is now.

Even though I get scared by many things that are happening in the world and within our politics, this at least is something that I do have a bit of power over. So, it most likely isn't what other people will be doing tomorrow, and believe me, I do not mean it to be disrespectful in any way...everyone should do what they feel is best for them on this day (that's freedom), but I will be having fun, I will be enjoying my life....because luckily, I did not die 5 years ago. I was lucky...and since I was lucky, I think that instead of sulking...I will live.

Take that, anti-americans....

Tomorrow is Elsie Flannigan day!

Tomorrow, Cindy and I will be heading on down to Kemah for a really groovy scrapbook class that Elsie Flannigan will be teaching! She's a guest teacher down at The Scrapbook Junkie since she's in town for CKU this week anyway! We'll be meeting some of our groovy friends, Laurel and Gloria for lunch, and of course we're gonna do some shopping on the way down there! (Hey, I'm going with Cindy...what'd ya expect??)

Lots of my other scrapbooking buddies will be there, and we'll be meeting up with them for the class! So, it's just gonna be one big creative party.

I'm very excited about gleaning inspiration from Elsie...she's just got the neatest outlook on life and art, and I just really like her work. Can't wait! Can't wait!!!!

I'll post my project results after the class!

Riding, head injuries, and scrapbooking or what I did this labor day weekend

Well...It sure was nice to have 4 days off!

We did some of this....



and I did lots of this...


Stormy did lots of this..



Ophelia and Hermione got to spend the weekend doing this...




and Grant RAN 9 MILES on SATURDAY !!!!

By the end of it all on Tuesday, I looked like this.... Thanks to Poker hitting me on the head while jumping on Tuesday AM.He threw his head and neck way up and just whacked me in the face. Broke the brim off of my helmet and everything! Luckily, I did not break my nose, and had minimal swelling. Not even black and blue...which is amazing since my nose, mouth and jaw still hurt like hell...not to mention the whip lash. So all that is obviously visible is a split lip No one can tell that my nose bled like I'd been in a bar brawl. I swear that I'm gonna give Ruth a heart attack one day! Hey, but I cleaned myself up and finished my lesson while my head and face were still numb, and had a pretty decent ride!
Poker, Poker, Poker....




I kicked it off with scrapbooking Friday night with Cindy at the Lone Star Scrapbook Co. ...worked on my Personal Treasuryalbum...(surprise, surprise)...had a blast.

Did I mention that Grant ran 9 MILES!!!!

Sat :
- I rode Poker with Mom...(she's getting better all of the time! Grant ran 9 MILES!!!!
Then I came home and took a nap. Poker's shoe was loose, so I called the farrier. Grant and I went to Target...then had dinner at Los Cucos! mmmmm. Queso del rio (aka shrimp fundido)

Sun:
-We slept in! Amazing! Poker got the day off because of the shoe thing.... Then we went to brunch at Landry's. They changed it all up. We hadn't been in quite a while. It used to be that they had the omlette/waffle station, and then variouos fish and chicken dishes, peel-n-eat jumbo shrimp (mmmm), eggs benedict (for Grant) and various other brunchy items. Now, they have a "brunch" menu, or you can get the waffle/omlette station, which also includes some cottage fries, sausage, bacon, fruit, etc...all breakfast stuff....not really brunch. I hate it when things change. I got the waffle buffet thingy, which was very good, and I got the omlette man to fix me the shrimp and crawfish tails without any egg....so basically just the sauteed stuff that you put inside the omlette. Did I happen to mention that I HATE EGGS! That's why I like brunch, because there is usually a lunch type selection as well, so not everything is focused on the eggs!

Grant and I did some shopping..... Michaels (both of them, hey..I had a 50% off coupon!!), The Apple store, and checked to see if the new Disney store in the mall was open...It wasn't...bummer. Dad came by and picked up Hermione on the way home from Dallas. We hung out at home together while I did some scrapbooking...

Monday:
Went out to the farm with Grant and Mom...rode Poker, who was great again!! and now had a shoe! Grant and I stopped at various Hobby Lobbys on the way home (coupons again) and went back to Michaels to use the 50% off coupon since my mom had given me hers that morning...

Dad and Hermione came back over and we set up a motion sensor for our outside light. Should have been easy....like all things....took forever!































Grant and I went to Red Robin!!! then hung out at home some more.

Tuesday AM...
That's when Poker whacked me...
I was supposed to scrapbook with my friends, but everyone had something unexpected come up, which was probably good because then I went home and took mega doses of ibuprofen and went to bed for like, 5+hours.
Tuesday ended up being pretty much a wash...except that my wonderful husband got me Pasta Davinci from cheesecake factory, along with their fried macaroni and cheese....yummmmm.
He takes such good care of me!

So...in general, it was very relaxing up until the head trauma part...but, hey that wasn't until the last day anyway! I got to spend a ton of time with Grant, I worked a lot on my album, and Poker got ridden 3 times! Not too shabby, huh?
Oh, and of course, Stormy loved having us home so much! See her smiling???

Crazy kitty

So, I just wanted to share a few pictures that make me smile....

Today, Grant and I were headed off to brunch...(yes, Poker threw a shoe again...hence why I was home to go to brunch on a Sunday....but he already has it back on so he'll be ready for tomorrow..) and Figaro always sits in waiting when he knows that we're going to leave. He's ready to pounce and play with his favorite toy "pound puppy". However, he hates for us to see him play with it. If we throw it, he'll run after him with a sound of glee, but when he gets to him, sniffs, and acts like..."no..I'm cool...nothing to see here" He acts the same way if we walk in on him while he's playing. He just drops him, and looks away. But, he's more than happy to play with him while we're gone, or upstairs or in bed, etc. He caries him around in his mouth and does these weird vocalizations, quite loudly...I swear he's talking to him, because they're all different. He carries him all over the house. When I return home or get up in the AM, pound puppy will have been relocated.

So, one of Grant's favorite things to do, is throw pound puppy just as he's walking out the door. Figaro will crouch and stare at him...just waiting for him to throw it and leave....

He throws it, and then Figaro immediately runs off after him, and if we've closed the door by then, he'll start to play.

A Laborless labor day...what a novel idea!

Wow...starting at 4PM, I'm actually off through Tuesday. That's right...4 DAYS IN A ROW!!!
Poker isn't gonna know what's hit him! Besides riding...I plan to scrapbook and work on my Personal Treasury Album from CKU.
I have been steadily working on it, but I'm nowhere close to being done yet...but maybe after this weekend...yeah, right. But the good news is that it is coming out gorgeous! I am so happy with this project!

We'll be having Miss Hermione Robertson staying with us again this weekend. Ophelia and Halfpipe will be thrilled. Figaro....not so much...but it does mean that he gets more Aquari-yums, which are currently his favorite treat.

So, basically, it seems just like your everyday American's labor day weekend...which is just something radical for us. Maybe, I'll go check out that Pirate movie again...(for the 3rd time) or how about The Illusionist....Hmmm. I just love movies.