at the end of the year in banking, we are required to take a lot of compliance courses and testing. i just finished a course called:
Basic Precautions: Bird Flu in the Workplace
people, i can't make this stuff up. and yes, the picture to the right WAS an actual illustration on the test. i have been giggling for at least ten minutes. oh, and just so you know, i got a 100 on the test, so if you ever need any tips on avoiding bird flu, call me. ; )
christmas and the days surrounding it are always such a fun time for me. this week, in no particular order:
1. my macbook has a photobooth feature, that allows you to take funny pictures from your computer's camera...when my nephews and nieces discovered this, we had hours of fun...
2. watching kids open gifts is the most hilarious and wonderful thing ever...my nephews and nieces woke up at 6:30am ready to see what santa had brought...
3. the fam came into town early and we had a b-day party for my mom and bro at my house. we also took the kiddos to the fort worth bowl and had such a fun time.
4. jay and i spent our first christmas with each other and had a blast! we were able to spend some quality time with both our families.
5. this is not really a top five moment, but it was a hilarious one...apparently in our family, our old cell phones go to the grandkids' play area. i found my originial zack morris phone, the one i got when i turned 16. i think i had like 30 minutes of free talk time, only on nights and weekends, and any other talking cost about $5 a minute...we all had a good laugh.
it's a quiet christmas morn...the fire roars, you wrap your gifts, the smell of cider fills the air...then the tv turns into a monster, oh no, wait, it's 'the view/the new rosie o'donnel show'! geez, i don't know if you watch or have heard about 'the view' since she joined, but man, she is stirring up some hate! that woman has a serious mouth on her. looks like she's met her match...
this morning on 'the view' rosie attacked trump calling him a bankrupt snake-oil salesman for this whole issue over the miss usa pageant (p.s. do people know it's ms america that is the big deal, not miss usa...just curious?!?). trump has words for rosie...giggle. i love the drama, i cannot lie.
keeping with tradition, i give you this week/weekend top 5:
1. the griswold famiy christmas party was a huge success. we ended up having about 50 people over the course of the evening and into the early morning. there was plenty of great food, wonderful friends, and good times. jay even dressed up as cousin eddie and we had a few HIDEOUS griswold-style sweaters, thanks to meg and chris.
2. mary is back from chicago, so she joined a few of us to go see a very guilty pleasure of mine, pat green, in concert. we went to joe t's, the concert, and just had a blast!!
3. anytime jay and i throw a party, we always clean up as quickly as possible and reward ourselves with a fun, relaxing day. we went downtown and had burgers, a few brews at the flying saucer, and then went to see "the pursuit of happYness," which is excellent, by the way!
4. i know this one may sound silly, but i have wanted a new living room rug for a long time, and this weekend, i got it! we bought some other furniture, too, which i am very excited about, but i'll stop here before i start sounding like my mom...who gets excited about this stuff? i guess i really am getting old.
5. my mom and i bought my wedding dress!!! whoa...it's really official now and the dress is gorgeous! oh, and i'm not posting a picture of this one...you'll have to wait and see!!
i hope our cowboys can pull this game off this weekend. it's exciting to cheer them on and look forward to their games again.
i just took my first virtual tour of the new stadium, and let me tell you, it is impressive. kind of like an upgraded-football-version of the AA center. while i can't wait to see my first cowboy game there, i'm equally excited for U2 to roll through town again because you know bono will book that awesome place...and if they move the OU v tx game there, i just might get over the sentimental sadness of leaving the cotton bowl. i'm obviously getting a little ahead of myself. i'll chill out a bit and get on this in 2008 or so. then i can work on getting a suite in this place...hahahaha.
the christmas season really is fun...i feel like i need to keep encouraging my weekends, keeping up their spirits, because i am having a blast and hope they all continue to be this wonderful! i am so thankful for this time of year to spend with so many of our friends and family.
so i have decided to continue to release a top 5 each week through the new year (once again, #1 takes the cake):
1. mollie and kevin announced that they are having a little burpo! mols is due in july and we are all soooooooooooooooooooo excited to see him/her...i can't WAIT until they found out what this little one is so we can all start shopping. this is going to be one well-dressed kiddo!
2. jay's company took us on an amazing holiday party-journey to southlake town center, where we all were given a $500 shopping spree (and told we were only allowed to buy for ourselves)!!! woo-hoo!! i actually had a really hard time doing this in our allotted time, but trust me, i got it done! i spent the wad at my two favorite stores...
3. we booked our annual ski trip, which of course will be to breckenridge...where we can do a little wedding planning and a LOT of skiing...can't wait for february!
4. we supported a great cause by going to "cocktails for a cure," benefitting the cystic fibrosis foundation. our support was rewarded, when i won my first ever raffle!! again, woo-hoo! we won the "family fun pack"...tickets and memberships to museums, zoos, amusement parks, sporting events, etc. all sorts of fun stuff! seaworld, here we come...giggle.
5. all of our holiday parties included eating, which is always fun, and some great wine. my favorites: the white truffle mac and cheese friday, the steak saturday, and the salmon sunday. YUM! of course we both had to run a little extra yesterday, but it was worth it...
the big 12 championshipis upon us, and thanks to my wonderful friend, corby, jay and i are going! our crew is headed out for kansas city friday for the big game saturday.
the ou vs. nebraska rivalry is a rich, old tradition and i can't wait to watch stoops and the boys take this on...pictures to come next week!
I'd like to say before I make this post that I support our troops 100% and thank God for each of them. I am proud of them and love their loyalty to our freedom.
The war in Iraq has now lasted longer than the U.S. involvement in the war that President Bush's father fought in, World War II.
As of Sunday, the conflict in Iraq has raged for three years and just over eight months.
so you've probably heard, U2 released a new album, U218 singles. amazing, of course. one of their new songs, 'the saints are coming' has a fabulous video with quite a moving message, which i have posted below for your viewing pleasure.
in addition to the video, i watched a new show on hbo this week, 'off the record' in which bono and the edge were the guests of honor. i learned a lot, but quite possibly the most interesting was the history behind one of my favorite U2 songs, "bullet the blue sky". i won't go into too much depth, but bono was on a tour of a country that the band was helping financially along with his young wife...there were small villages being bombed, apparently it was a pretty horrific experience that he was not expecting. he felt he had put them both in grave danger, which made him angry. bono eventually learned that the bombing was coming from the U.S., and out of this experience, "bullet the blue sky" came into existance. if you recall bono's rant in the song:
"This guy comes up to me His face red like a rose on a thorn bush Like all the colors of a royal flush And he's peeling off those dollar bills Slapping them down One hundred, two hundred And I can see those fighter planes And I can see those fighter planes Across the mud huts where the children sleep Through the alleys of a quiet city street You take the staircase to the first floor Turn the key and slowly unlock the door As a man breathes into a saxophone And through the walls you hear the city groan Outside is America Outside is America"
bono revealed the face (red like a rose bush) he was discussing in the song was that of ronald reagan.
discovering new cities is always fun, so jay and i have made a vow not to visit the same place twice for the first few months in fort worth. all that came to a screeching halt last night, when we visited my new favorite place, fred's.
i stumbled upon fred's a few days ago and knew that a visit was VERY near. last night our friends, chris and courtney came over to visit. they also love a good dive, so we decided to try it out. we were NOT disappointed.
for those of you from the metroplex, this place is lee harvey's meets a 50's diner meets george's. they have big O's, a great outdoor area, an amazing staff, and GREAT food. this was definitely a great warm up for my attendance at george's on saturday. i'm looking forward to making this place one of my frequent haunts...love it!
jay and i have finally started the wedding website and spent the evening starting to get into the detail planning for our big day. we are excited to have all the business of new jobs and moving behind us so we can start planning the party! please visit the wedding webiste often to keep up with details...i'll try not to bore everyone here on my useless-information-blog, but for the purposes of planning, we will try to make the wedding website truly helpful. : )
if you are an OU fan, you undoubtedly have walked around the last two days with a big smile on your face. after all the trials we have faced this season, waking up this morning and reading THIS ARTICLE made me the happiest little girl on earth. if the season had to start the way it did, this is sure a great way to see it starting to wrap up! bob stoops is amazing.
i am excited to say (for the first time in a long while) that election day went well overall. even some of the repubs in texas got booted out of office, which is AMAZING (although somehow perry got re-elected). i woke up with a smile on my face and a feeling of confidence that we are moving in the right direction, or if anything, at least a fair and balanced one.
i'm proud of america, and love the below numbers, courtesy of time mag.
President Bush Job Approval RCP Average Approve 39.0% Disapprove 55.4% Spread 16.4%
i swear, buying a house really is all the trouble that people say. i've just gone through my first purchase, and it is a full-time job! that said, being in the home and making it yours is actually pretty spectacular.
making the actual move from dallas to fort worth was less difficult for me than moving last year from uptown to the m-streets...a 3 mile move! i was emotional and crazed about it...and this, well, it just felt right. no tears, just excitement.
i think i spent my life savings on closing costs and home depot purchases, but it's an investment, correct?!?!?
looking forward to all that is in store...now, on to planning a wedding!
i took this little quiz (click on the link below), i thought i'd share the link for all. it might be helpful in educating yourself on who to vote for, and it's interesting reading the other points of view.
reading the article (pasted below) on cnn this morning made me think of that alanis morisette song, 'ironic'...talk about a freak accident! http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/19/stingray.reut/index.html
i think the stingrays are out to get us, people, so watch out! it's like a crossbreed of jaws and a stingray all in one!
dogs are the greatest creatures on earth. anyone that knows me knows i believe this wholeheartedly, greatly in part to my own mckenzie (yorkie) and norman (golden retriever).
i'm sad to leave dallas and all of the wonderful friends i have here. however, i think fort worth will be a fun change, and only a short drive away! i found this today and it made me even happier...a first moment of pride shared with my new-found community!
i don't want to talk about it, so don't bring it up...the game is over and the wrong team won. thanks to our whopping five turnovers, we lost the game for ourselves. the numbers clearly show us as the winners, and we lost because of sloppy play.
OU v tx weekend is finally upon us, and i am so fired up! i can't concentrate and i can hardly sit still because of all the anticipation.
sam moon is probably already at 110% capacity with large women dressed in crimson and burnt orange fighting over purses and cheap jewelry. i'm planning to cut out early and drive by just to giggle and take pictures.
tonight i am participating in creating extra insanity by meeting a large group at mi cocina in hp village (can you possibly think of a place with a more insane crowd of people). i think i might wear an OU jersey or "stoops for president" just to shake things up...giggle.
tomorrow morning at 10am, the official OU bandwagon crew is meeting at my house. we will do the fair: a corn dog, dog show, jack's fries, and then...THE GAME! i don't like to make predictions, so i'll just say BOOMER SOONER.
after the game half the city will be elated, half deflated. but either way, there will be massive amounts of partying, craziness and crowds. and i love all of it. the red river shoot out is the greatest weekend all year in dallas, and i couldn't be more excited. let the games begin...GO SOONERS!
the official wedding day has been reserved, july 29th, 2007. we are getting married in breckenridge, colorado at the top of the mountain, and we could not be more excited!!! the above picture is of our wedding site, at ten mile station.
well that went well (see below post). now i just have to start a new job (tuesday), move to fort worth (by the end of the month, lease is up), buy a house (pretty sure we're making an offer tomorrow), and plan a wedding (for next summer).
no biggie...
it's such a strange feeling sitting in an office, waiting to resign a job. especially one that you hate, but with a manager that you just love working for...that's what i'm doing right now.
jay, the dogs and i just got back from a wonderful trip to santa fe. we hiked everyday; in chimayo, all around the ski basin, and at santa cruz lake. we visited art galleries, ate at all our favorite restaurants (shout out to rancho de chimayo, the pink adobe, and a new favorite, senor lucky's), went to taos, met val kilmer, went to ray's wedding, and scoped out spots for ours.
it was relaxing, refreshing, and renewing. i fall deeper and deeper in love with that town with every trip...it has such rich history and beauty.
mollie: "did you ever watch the show 'kids incorporated' in the 80s?"
katy: "hells yeah. loved it. almost as much as i loved "you can't do that on television" but not quite."
she then proceeded to tell me that fergie from the blackeyed peas used to be on kid's incorporated. i felt like i needed to do a little reconnaissance work and find out what my YCDTOTV peeps were up to now...i mean, that show was greatness, someone had to be famous now.
after doing a little research, i found a website and a section on "where they are now." as i scrolled through the list of names, i noticed one in particular that stuck out...
my labor day weekend, in a nutshell, was a blast! i am exhausted. here's how it went down: departed dallas thursday afternoon for tulsa, spent thursday and friday with family. norman discovered swimming and let me tell you, he loves it. he even participated in the "sharks" game with my nephews and nieces.
saturday was opening day for the oklahoma sooners, and jay and i were in norman to see all the action live. we have great season tickets and can't wait to see many more victories this season!!
sunday morning we got in the car and headed for waco to see baylor take on tcu. although they did not win, we had an excellent time at the george's tent and i got to see so many people i had not seen in a long time. it was great!
after multiple tanks of gas and a few bucks, i am back in dallas and sad it's over. what a fun time!!! love me some labor day weekend!!!
i started this blog as a single working-girl in dallas. i used it to chronicle the stories of life post-college: travels with my friends and boyfriend, "tales" of my puppy-dogs (i'm so punny), an enormous amount of college football commentary (boomer sooner!), and to brag with pictures of my adorable nephews and nieces.
a lot has changed. i have since married that boyfriend. we kept traveling as much as we could. we bought a house in dallas, just in that perfect spot where the neighbors are nice and we don't have to venture far for the things we love about our city.
september of 2009, our lives changed forever. we had our son, link. and in october 2012, our sweet daughter, reese was born. i can honestly say that every day with our littles is pure joy. and this blog has, for the most part, evolved into a memory book for our little family.
enjoy, and if you are a friend (or a new blog friend!) that has stopped by to check in, please leave a comment to say hello! it's nice to hear from friends and i know it will be fun for us to look back on your notes later on.
at the end of the year in banking, we are required to take a lot of compliance courses and testing. i just finished a course called: 
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