Sunday, September 26, 2010

Good friends...

What a fun weekend this was... having my best friends from high school come to visit for the weekend, having lunch with my college roommate (see pic below), spending the weekend with my sweet daughter and having a few hours with "my guy." Then, on top of that... absolutely beautiful weather.

Wow... what more could I ask for? :)

Friday, September 24, 2010

Friends!!

It's a great week for old wonderful friends...

First, I found my childhood "bestest" friend on Facebook! It was wonderful to see how much she looks the same. I heart FB for just this reason!!!

Then, on Saturday, my college roommate is coming to town to see my house and to share lunch with Jen and me. Right after that, my best friend from high school and her husband (who was also my very first date) are coming to visit for the weekend and to meet Steve.

Yay for old and wonderful friends!!!!!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Birthday... Roses and MORE...

Today I was blessed with a humongous bouquet of long stemmed red roses and lilies. It was absolutely stunning... What a lucky girl I am!!



Then, on the way to dinner, we were blessed with this gorgeous sunset. Such a special weekend and birthday. Thanks to all my very special friends and family for helping make it such an awesome day.

Grand Old Tree



I just loved how majestic this tree is...

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Saturday Fun...!!!

I think today was one of the best days I have had in a LONG time and it was all orchestrated by my sweet boyfriend!! :) I woke up early and Steve came over about 7:30 a.m. to pick me up to go to Julie's (his daughter) first volleyball tournament as a 7th grade coach. Before we left the house, he gave me a beautiful birthday card (from a favorite store, Papyrus) with a wonderful birthday note and a gift certificate for a spa experience, which was to start at 10 a.m. that morning!

Well, we watched the first round of the tournament, which her girls won (YAY!). Then, we scooted out about 9:30 to go back to McKinney and he took me to the salon. I walked in and the royal treatment began. I was given a spa wrap and robe and led to the sauna. Mmmm... it was so relaxing to sit and read a magazine, sip on iced lemon water and just simply chill for about 10 minutes. Then, the massage therapist led me to her table and an hour-long massage began. It was heavenly. It was my first massage ever and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't realize I hung on to stress in my shoulders and lower back, but could really feel it as she was working on me. After that amazing experience was complete, she guided me to the next room where I had a relaxing facial. She wrapped me up in a thick goose down comforter (the room was really chilly) and proceeded to apply layer upon layer of soft relaxing treatments on my face, neck and arms while soft music was playing. I even found myself falling asleep during parts of it. Wow... so relaxing. Steve was waiting on me to finish and then we went back to my house so I could re-apply make up and re-fix my hair. We were going to go back to the volleyball tournament, but got a call that her team was out, so we proceeded to McAllister's to celebrate our 3-month anniversary. It had been exactly 12 weeks since our first lunch date there and we sat at our same table. :) So sweet!

We went to run a couple of brief errands and then headed back to the house so Steve could start his preparations for the evening. He and Jennifer had invited some of the family over for dinner and it was wonderful. Steve knows how much I love (LOVE) coconut shrimp, so he had researched and found a recipe for baked (instead of fried) coconut shrimp. He made some with and some without coconut and it was absolutely yummy. We also had ordered pizza, so we also enjoyed that along with the appetizers that Jen and Ryan had brought. We all enjoyed visiting and watching the Texas vs. Tech football game. The pièce de résistance was the chocolate cake he baked with the fluffy white icing with coconut. It was amazing. How on earth did I luck out to get such a great guy?? He's been described as being Emeril, Martha Stewart and Mary Poppins, rolled up into one!! :)

Here's a picture of us with the wonderful cake.


He drove all the way to Plano in the middle of the Plano Balloon Festival traffic to pick up these fun balloons for the party. Aren't they great??


We tried 3-4 times to get a picture of me actually blowing out the candles.


I got so many fun presents. I can't wait to start using/wearing them all.

The most priceless comment was made while I was opening a gift card from Jeri... when Christen remarked that "it's the gift that keeps on giving." Ok, I'll just say that you had to be there to appreciate how funny/awkward that was. (Just wanted to include a little tidbit here so I'll remember it!!) The women below in this picture are priceless to me!!!!!!


My precious daughter! (Wish Jon had been here, too!)


Sweet SIL and daughter... Ryan and Jen. :)

Steve and me :)

Can't believe Jen captured this pic. Such a funny shot. :)


Wow... what a great day Saturday was!!!

Friday Night Glow...

On Friday night, the birthday festivities began... Steve and I went to the Plano Balloon Festival for the "glow" and it was so much fun to see the huge balloons being lit up. I think I got a few good pictures... (but it was a bit of a challenge to capture the photos on my little iPhone)

It all started with a really gorgeous sunset...





Then, came the balloons...











As we were walking out of the park area, they had a countdown for a "full glow" where all the balloons were lit up. It was so much prettier in person, but I think you can get an idea.



Then, we headed to the NYLO to join in an engagement party for Steve's daughter and her fiance', Jamie and Jason, that was given by his other daughter Julie and their colleagues at Enterprise (where Jamie and Jason work). It was really fun and I am sooo glad we went. It was a great Friday night!! Below is a cute picture of Julie and Jamie. :)

Catching up!!

Everything in my yard that Steve touches begins to look beautiful! Aren't these gorgeous??





And then, I had this cute little bumblebee just full of pollen visiting my Texas Sage. When his wings were out, his entire body was covered in yellow pollen. Since the sage was blooming, you can tell it was going to rain soon. (Learned this from my favorite horticulturist!)



And... this cute little frog has adopted my front porch. I think there must be a ton of insects that make for a nice meal for him every evening!! I've named him "Frogger" (creative, huh?).

Back to Normal...

So glad the pool guy was able to get my pool back to normal!!

Friday, September 10, 2010

What Hurricane Rains Did to My Pool...

I know it's NOTHING compared to the damage done in parts of the Gulf Coast region, but thought you might like to see the effects of Hurricane Hermine's rains on my pretty pool... ICK!! (So glad the pool guy comes today!)





Wednesday, September 8, 2010

September Update

Wow... it's been a busy couple of weeks. I can't believe I haven't updated the blog since mid-August. So here goes...

We had our big back-to-school event and welcomed a large group of new faculty to help us kick off the new year. It was a great day and have over 2,000 new students this fall semester. It's busy but so much fun. Our Welcome Week theme was "Peace Love Cougars" and we had some great tshirts to help celebrate the new year...












Steve has also been busy on the yard, making some beautiful changes. He removed the old bushes that were along the south edge of the pool and moved some other plants. As soon as the pansies are available, we'll buy some to add some pretty color to the beds. It all looks soooo much better. He's definitely got an "eye" for making things look good and a definite "green" thumb. My plants have never looked more lush and beautiful.









We also celebrated Jen's and Christen's birthdays over the last couple of weeks. Great times with our family. We went to a fun restaurant in downtown McKinney called Sauce for Jen's b-day. Almost everyone in the family was there and we had a wonderful time catching up and introducing Steve to everyone. One of the fun highlights of Christen's b-day party at Jeri and Chris' house is when Mike offered Christen $200 to cannonball into the pool with all her clothes on. The picture below is of the family that gathered around after she jumped in. They came out to see what all the commotion was about. It was such a fun moment in time and a great memory for all of us who were there and egging Christen on. Awesome evening. :)











On a little different note, it was six years ago today that my precious mom passed away. She's in my heart forever... Below is a picture of Mom and Dad... one of dad's favorite pictures of them together on a really good and happy day.