Life Lately

First things first, let me start this post by saying that I just found mold in the bottom of the cup I've been drinking out of since 8:00 am. Awesome!

OK, well I thought about naming this post "two weekend wrap ups," but that sounded a little funny so I went with "Life Lately."

I do have two weekends worth of O'Donnell adventures to update you on...so just get ready! It'll be a long post. AND...this post includes an update on my birthday celebration--which makes it even better!! (I'd better hurry up before the next weekend gets here!)

OK, so let's start with my BIRTHDAY!

Friday, July 10 (My BIRTHDAY!)

After tossing and turning all night because I was too excited to sleep, I woke Friday morning ready for a great day!!

When I got to the office I found this waiting for me...

(A few of my other co-workers stayed up late/came in early to decorate my wall with cute pictures and sayings, put up balloons and hand made flowers on the ceiling, and lather me with cakes, cookies, cards, and presents!)

And all of these...

And this too!

I had about the same reaction I did when I got engaged--including jumping up and down and screaming!

They made me TWO Upside Down German Chocolate Cakes, thank you very much!

(I was nice and shared them with everyone :))

But the FUN didn't stop there. I was a little sad that I hadn't heard from my old group at all (seeing as how I'd been dropping hints all week--I've been know to do that!), but little did I know they were up to no good! One of my friends, Robin, planned a huge surprise birthday lunch for me at Coal Vines (a pizza, excuse me, a pie place in Uptown.) She intimated that lunch was going to be just the two of us, but once we arrived at the restaurant, the whole gang was there! (Again, insert jumping and screaming!) If you know me at all, you know how much I love surprises--so I was in heaven! We stuffed ourselves to the brim and headed back to the office for some delicious Upside Down German Chocolate Cake. YUM! What a wonderful start to my birthday celebration!

After a long, very unproductive, day at work, I headed home to celebrate with my hubby. I wanted to do something a little different this year so we headed to the Gaylord Texan to check out all the hype.

Beautiful hotel!

We ate at the Riverwalk Cafe and had some of the most amazing food. Best thing about it--BUFFET! I could eat as many desserts as I wanted! Not that I was hungry or anything...

Stopping for a quick pose by the Riverwalk...

See, it really does look like San Antonio (minus the humidity, mosquitoes, trash, and green-ish/brown-ish water)...

Walking around soaking in the scenery...

Ricco Suave found a post to lean on :)

Close up!

Another quick pose...

Look at the beautiful water fountain...

Isn't it just gorgeous?

After we were done walking around we headed home only to find yet another surprise on our front porch. Our friends, the Smith's, dropped off a styrofoam cooler filled with more of my favorite goodies--Blue Bell Rocky Road ice cream, whipped cream, hot fudge, and cherries! Even after eating all the yummy food earlier in the day, I still had to sneak a bite. I was stuffed and tired from a wonderful day, but the celebrating didn't stop there.

Saturday, July 11

Kelly and I got to sleep in on Saturday and it was glorious! We had the best of intentions to head to the gym and the layout by the pool for a relaxing weekend, but those plans quickly changed once our computer crashed Saturday morning. And we're not just talking crashed. We're talking blue screen-lost-it-all-I-got-nothin' crashed. My poor little Dell had a great life of 5 years to the day (I got him for my 21st birthday!) But the even sadder part about that is I lost every paper, every memo, every cover letter, every resume, every note I ever saved (and if you know me, you know that's a ton of stuff.) So, it was off to the store we went.

We were already planning to get Kelly one of these:

So while we were there we checked out one of these (another huge item on our want list):

Needless to say, we walked home with both of them! Looks like we know what we got for brithdays and Christmas this year! I think I was still in a stage of denial for a little while because I was holding out hope that the Dell would magically work when we got home, but alas, it did not, so now we've had a blast playing with our new toy!

While we were out running errands we went into Pottery Barn to look at some bedding I'd been eye-balling for awhile. I got tons of gift cards to PB for my birthday from my friends at work, and was able to get this bedding with it!

Here's a pic of our old bedding:

You know you're a southern bride when you have your 16x20 bridal portrait hanging on the wall!

And the NEW bedding!

Kelly was never a huge fan of our "wedding bedding," and I've been wanting a new, fresh look for awhile now so we decided to go with this one. I've already got it on our bed and it looks fantastic! I just haven't take a picture yet. Be looking for some fun new changes to this room!

After a long, expensive day, Kelly and I headed over to my parents house for some YUMMY food and AMAZING chocolate cake! Mom made King Ranch Chicken (one of my faves!) and the family recipe chocolate cake. It was so fun opening presents and cards with them, and getting to celebrate yet ANOTHER time with cake and ice cream.

Later that night Kelly and I headed to the movies to the The Proposal. I'd been wanting to see it and since it was my b-day, I got to pick the movie! He's a great sport!!

All in all it was a great day celebrating with family!!

Sunday, July 12

We were up and at 'em and had plenty to do to keep us busy. Kelly worked on the computer while I worked on the bedroom! Later that night we went to bid our friends, the Farmers, farewell as they headed to Australia for four years! We will miss them (and will be totally jealous of all their experiences!)

We were pooped after a long and busy weekend, so we headed home to crash!

The next week was a busy week for me at work. I'm sure you've all seen the coverage on the "football size" hole in one of our aircraft, so our office was swamped--but you better believe I still found ways to celebrate my birthday!

Thursday, July 16

After the long week at work I as so excited to get to celebrate with my college roomies at one of my all time favorite restaurants--Chuy's! Emily was in town from Houston (escaping the study hall at her house as her husband prepares for the Bar Exam,) so Jen and I met up with her for some much needed girl time! We ate, laughed, ate, talked, and ate some more! It was so much fun catching up and we can't wait to do it again!

Friday, July 17

I headed into the office for a bit, but had the afternoon off to run errands and get ready for the weekend. Before I headed out for the afternoon, my boss took me to get a mani/pedi to celebrate my bday! She was here on my birthday but wasn't able to join us for lunch, so she wanted to do something extra special to make up for it! WOW! Was I totally surprised, or what! That evening our friends, Michael and Virgina (and their pup, Major,) came in town for a quick visit and they stayed the night with us. We went to eat at Anamia's and stayed up way past our bedtime catching up!

Saturday, July 18

Saturday turned out to be a very restful day. I had some errands to run, and Kelly worked on the computer a little more (trying to salvage the stuff we stored on the external hard drive.) We went to church that night and then headed to dinner at another fave restaurant of mine, Red Robin. I love their onion rings and hamburgers! Delish!!

Side Note: As we were getting ready to head to church I got the phone call that my cousin, Lauren, got engaged!! We are so happy for Lauren and Chase and can't wait for their special day!

Sunday, July 19

I headed to the gym to work off some of the calories I'd been consuming and then I had a wedding shower to go to for my girlfriend, Jill. Kelly spent the afternoon vegging while he played NCAA 2010! Once I got home it was time to get ready for the week--laundry, dishes, cleaning. YUCK!

Monday, July 20

After work I got together with Jill at this delicious sushi place, Oishii, and we had a great time catching up and hearing all about her upcoming wedding plans! Hard to believe its less than a month and a half away!! Then it was off to the gym to burn more calories!

As much as I hate to say it, I think the weeks of celebrating my birthday have finally come to an end! It was marvelous while it lasted!! Thanks to you ALL who made it a great day!

This weekend we're looking forward to welcoming a precious baby into this world! Our dear friends, Wes and Brandye, are at the hospital this very minute anxiously waiting for their little one to arrive! We're going to the hospital tonight and will be hosting Thad all weekend long as we make many trips to see Baby Brayden!

Hopefully I'll have pics to post soon!

Weekend Wrap-Up

This past weekend was a busy one! I hope everyone had a fabulous 4th and was able to enjoy the time off. I know Kelly and I sure did! Before you get started with this post, you might want to grab a cup of coffee--it's a long one.

Thursday My weekend technically started on Thursday night since our office was closed on Friday for the holiday. And what better way to start the holiday than with a little sand volleyball?? Kelly and some of the guys from his office met up to play a game of sand volleyball so Cooper and I tagged along for the fun. We met up with the Smiths and their pup Sidney, and Shiner and Gracie, two of Cooper's litter mates, were there as well. The evening more or less turned into a play date for the pups, but Amanda and I didn't mind one bit. After the game was over we all grabbed a quick bit to eat at Chick-Fil-A (YUMMY milk shakes!) and then headed home.

Friday I woke up super early for a day off (7:00 am) and got started on our upstairs bathroom remodel. **SIDE NOTE--The rest of this post will be filled with updates on the bathroom remodel, and it took ALL of our four day weekend to get this task accomplished.** I couldn't do too much by myself, but I did manage to take down the mirror, shower curtain, light switch plates, and hand towel rack. I removed everything from under neath the vanity and got the room ready for demo!



After that I met up with Jen and we headed to Downtown McKinney for a day-o-shopping! She'd been telling me about how cute the stores were in the town square and I decided I'd better make a trip out there to see for myself. We didn't do too much damage and we had a blast hanging out and catching up. We don't get to see each other as much as we'd like, so it was nice to have a day together.

Once Kelly got home Friday afternoon, we got to work on demoing the bathroom. We removed the sink top (1980s seashell sink,) wood cabinet, and yellow linoleum flooring. Then it was off to Lowe's for all our remodeling supplies. We picked up tile, grout (and all the crap that comes with laying your own tile,) sink fixtures, sand paper, primer, and anything else you could image we would need. AND, we did this all in time to catch a 9:30 movie. We were definitely on a mission!! Here are a few post-demo pics...

Saturday We woke up in excitement to get started on the bathroom! I was in charge of hand scraping all the linoleum adhesive (from 1987) off the floor and Kelly tackled sanding the walls (the previous owner left a TERRIBLE texture job for us to fix.) After hours of hand cramping and sawdust flying, we were finally ready to prime the walls and lay the tile. Just in time for the Smith's to show up to help! They were so eager to help us with our demo. Taylor helped Kelly cut the tiles for the floor and Amanda and I primed the walls. It was definitely a group effort and much more fun when you have the extra hands to help out. We were finally done laying all the tile about 4:30 and it was time to call it quits and enjoy the rest of our 4th!

After a quick shower, Kel and I headed to Wes and Brandye's for a dinner off the grill. Wes and Kelly cooked some delicious pork ribs while Brandye and I ran to Tom Thumb to buy dessert. There would be no cooking on her part...she's about to pop with the baby coming any day now! The oven makes her house too hot, and with the crazy weather we've been having lately, she can't take any additional heat! We wrapped up the evening with a few round of Guitar Hero, and then it was time to crash!!

Sunday Kelly and I headed to church as we anxiously waited for the tile to finish setting. We grabbed lunch from Chicken Express (YUM) and headed home to get to work! I painted the walls while Kelly...well, I don't really know what Kelly did. But by the time I was done painting he was ready to finish grouting the floor. That is...until we had a minor mishap.

I was downstairs cleaning out my paint roller when all of the sudden I heard a steady stream of water spewing in the upstairs bath. I frantically ran up there to see what happened and found Kelly in a panic trying to contain the spewing water from the wall. Spewing really is the only word to describe this incident. In his eagerness to test his new pipe cutter, Kel forgot to turn off the water to the house. Well, he didn't technically forget, but he turned off the water to the outside of the house rather than the inside. Minor oversight.

That's when the panic set in. We were helpless and had no idea what to do. I called my Dad immediately and tried to explain the situation--in a hurry because our floor was now flooding with water. I ran downstairs to try to turn off the water myself and couldn't get to the knob. So I ran back inside to get Kelly a towel when I found ANOTHER problem brewing. The water was now leaking into our closet and ON TO MY SHOES! HELP! I didn't know whether to leave my shoes and take Kelly the towel, or save my shoes and let the water keep spewing. I think the next picture speaks for itself...

After throwing all the shoes I could grab into the vicinity of bathtub, I ran upstairs to give Kelly the towel. He went back downstairs and outside to try to turn off the water and FINALLY was able to stop all the madness. My dad and brother showed up a few minutes later to help us "repair" the damage. Fortunately for us, we dodged a MAJOR bullet and didn't have any damage to our ceiling, floor, or tile that we had just installed. After a lot of cleaning up and drying out, we were able to finally grout the bathroom floor and call it a night.

Kelly's re-cap of the night: "That's the most stubborn thing I've ever done. I've never felt so helpless in all my life."

Monday I woke up and immediately sealed the grout and touched up the paint that had run down the walls the night before. We let the grout seal and headed to the gym for a workout and some pool time! Once we were home, we installed the base boards and waited for my Dad to come back over to install the vanity and toilet. A mere 3 hours later, we were looking at our final product!! What a relief to be completely finished with this project we've been meaning to do since November. We didn't have long to stand around and admire our work--we had to be at the softball fields for Kelly's double header by 7:45! Fortunately, they won both games! After an exhausting weekend, we were ready to climb in bed and crash!!

On the left is the look we were going for. I think we accomplished it, don't you?

Weekend Wrap-Up

This past weekend Kelly and I both had places to be so we decided to divide and conquer.

Friday Kelly headed out of town after work with Thad, Wes, and Ryan to go to their college roommate, Neill's, wedding in San Antonio. They stopped in Austin on the way down to spend the night with Thad and Wes' uncle. From what I could get out of Kelly, they had a great time together and enjoyed the wedding. I had Friday afternoon off so I made a quick stop at Hobby Lobby to load up on crafting supplies (1/2 off! Woo Hoo!) and then headed to my parents house to spend the afternoon with my Mom and brother, and then my Dad (and Cooper) joined us for dinner.

Saturday I was so excited about my trip to New York that I woke up at 7:00 am and got busy cleaning the house and packing. I managed to sweep, vacuum, do the dishes, take Cooper on a walk, shower, and pack all by 10:00 am!

Our flight to NYC left at noon and was definitely one of the most exciting SWA flights I've ever been on. Since it was a ferry flight, there were no paying passengers on our aircraft. It was all SWA Employees heading to the Big Apple to help kick off our service at LaGuardia International Airport (LGA.)

Michelle and I as we talk across the aisles...

Monica and I after we'd changed into our LGA opening shirts for the photo op as we exited the plane...

A view from the cockpit... (They left the cockpit door open the entire flight so we could go up and look at all those controls!!)

Finally above NYC...

Getting closer...

And closer...

We FINALLY landed! Southwest is now in New York City!

As we taxied to the gate, the NYC FD welcomed us with a water arch...

Here's a view from inside the plane...

What a wet welcome...

All the Employees welcoming the ferry flight...(don't you LUV their yellow shirts?!)

Once we landed we grabbed our bags and headed to our hotel (which was in a great location at 39th and 6th.) Before we all headed to dinner, we stopped by to see the famous Southwest Porch at Bryant Park (just a stones throw from our hotel.) The last time I was in Bryant Park was when I was in high school and we were in NYC for a choir mission trip. It was such a crazy feeling being back there almost 10 years later on a work trip.

The Southwest Porch was one of the many ways we celebrated our entrance into the New York market. Fitted with tons of Southwest decor, the porch provided sandwiches from 'wichcraft and even had a special ale brewed specifically for Southwest Airlines.

Here's a quick pic of Times Square. No matter where you turned, Michael Jackson was sure to be seen or heard.

Sunday Morning was our official kick off for service in the city. I had to be at the airport by 5:30 AM! Yikes. The morning was busy passing out Customer give aways, stuffing bags, putting up signage, and welcoming our Customers to our first flight out of LGA. About mid-morning, I put on our Spirit Jr. costume to break up the hard work... (I only got to wear it for a brief moment, but it was fun just the same.)

After we got two flights off the ground and in the air, it was time for our press conference at the ticket counter. Doesn't the new "pass through" concept look amazing??





And of course, it wouldn't have been an official Southwest event if our Rapping Flight Attendant didn't make an appearance. Here is David with his back-up dancers, the Spirit Jrs.

Monday as we headed out of town, Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty were on our flight. We are celebrating Freedom Week at Southwest Airlines and what better way to share our freedom than to pass out FREE goodies to our Customers.

All in all it was a great weekend, but I was definitely glad to be back home. There's just no place like home...but New York City comes in a close second!