All caught up!

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful day celebrating our Lord's resurrection and thanking him for his sacrifice on the cross! Kelly and I went to the early service at church (8:00 am!!) and then headed over to my parent's house for the traditional Easter lunch. I always enjoy eating my Mom's home cooked meals!! This time, I made the mashed potatoes and they turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. But, then again, it's pretty hard to mess up mashed potatoes...

Boy does it feel good to get all caught up! This weekend has been a productive weekend in the O'Donnell household. I had Friday off (WOO HOO!!) and I spent most of the day getting our house back in order after our trip to San Diego (more on that in a minute.) I did the laundry and the dishes, swept the kitchen, vacuumed the living room, made the bed, unpacked the rest of Kelly's suitcase, and reorganized my suitcase for my next trip (also more on that in a minute.)

After my busy morning I took Cooper for a long run/walk. He's still getting the hang of walking/running with someone and not in front of someone but he always LOVES to go for a walk around the neighborhood. We headed to the park that was close by and even went a little further, almost making it to Bahama Bucks before turning around to head home. On our way back I decided to cut through the park and let Cooper off his leash to run around. Just as I unclasped his leash he sat down to scratch his ear and then sprawled out on the concrete, looking up at me like, "What Mom, I'm tired?!" I finally got him home and then he crashed out for the rest of the afternoon. I didn't want to wake him by opening the door, so here's a pic of him through the window. Such a sweet little love!

Friday afternoon I met up with my Mom and we did a little girl shopping and grocery shopping before heading home to have dinner with my family. Friday night, Kelly and I attended a "Service of Darkness" with my parents and brother at their church and then went back to their house for dessert. My Aunt Beth and Uncle Steve came over for a visit and they got to see Mr. Cooper!

Saturday Kel and I hit the gym (which was MUCH needed after skipping out for almost two weeks!) and then headed to the pool to take advantage of the beautiful weather. That afternoon we went to the mall to look around and then stopped in at On The Border for a yummy dinner. We rented The Boy in the Striped Pajamas from On Demand and snuggled up on the couch after a long day. For the first time in a LONG time, I stayed up to watch the whole thing and Kelly feel asleep. I don't know if that's EVER happened before.

And that brings us to today! After lunch with my family, Kel and I came home to catch up on our sleep (yeah for Sunday afternoon naps!) And now I'm wide awake and have caught up on downloading and uploading pictures and reading everyone's blogs (and I'm getting caught up on my blog, too!) One thing I do know, is the longer I wait to blog, the harder it is to get caught up.

One more thing I do hope we get to do today is follow through with this tradition!

Next Post: San Diego, CA!

Have you ever...

Preordered a book? I haven't, and I have to say, I was a little nervous to do so.

"What book," you ask? "I thought you were reading the Twilight series. "

Well, that's true...I am still reading the Twilight series (it's just taking me a LONG time to get through Book 2.) But when I read about this new book I jumped at the chance of getting my hands on a copy! I can't wait til it comes in!!

Until then, I'll be finishing the saga between Bella, Edward, and Jacob.

So Excited!!

Have no fear...

...I'm still here!

I've been a little MIA the last half of March. Partly because I've been a little "under the weather" and partly because life flies by faster and faster!

But I'm back with a vengeance. (Not really, but I am back.)

First things first--I'm sorry if this post is all over the place. I have a thousand things I want to share and I think I have a mild case of ADD this morning.

Well where do I begin?

I guess I could start with my horrible day yesterday.

I didn’t get a very good night’s sleep because I’ve been fighting head congestion/sore throat/runny nose since Sunday morning. So I haven’t slept through the night in about 4 days and I woke up with a headache and stuffy nose. Then I realized that my mouth was in a lot of pain. After closer examination, I discovered a bump on my tongue, a bite in my lip, a cut in my cheek, and a bruise on my gum. (I do have good dental hygiene, I promise!) I have no idea how all of that happened at once, but it sure did hurt. (The bump is now gone from my tongue and my gum is feeling a lot better!)

So, I started to get ready for the day and I thought I would try something different with my hair. (Bad idea.) Instead of going straight, I opted to do my “summer curl” look. After applying the mouse, Aqua Net hairspray (yes, they still make that stuff), and some curling gel I set out to diffuse my hair. And diffuse I did! When my hair was completely dry I flipped my head over and WHOA! I looked like a lion! I had Kelly look at it and he said, “You might want to start over.” YIKES! So I hopped back in the shower at 7:00 am (when I was suppose to be heading out the door for work) to start my morning routine over.

Fortunately I was only 45 minutes late to work. “FORTY FIVE minutes you say”…Well, I’m suppose to get to work at 7:30. But that rarely ever happens. I usually get there by 8:00 and yesterday I arrived at 8:15. So, you look at it however you want to.

Nonetheless, I was frazzled when I arrived.

Wait, let’s back up – wouldn’t want to forget running into the door on my way into the office.

OK, so I had a 10:30 meeting on Budget (boring!) and when I got out, I had an email from Kelly (which I opened right away.) I’ve inserted it below (with names and location deleted for security reason), but let me set the ground work first. We’ve been planning a trip to San Diego for our two year wedding anniversary for over a month and a half now and we’re scheduled to leave this weekend! I have been planning our every move, with maps, phone numbers, reservations numbers, and everything else you could possibly think of.

Here’s his email:

Natalie,

Please see email below from Yvette. I’ve already tried to talk to here about it and tell her that we have made reservations and car rentals, but she still won’t approve my time off. I’ll call you later to talk to you about it once I have “cooled off”. Just trying to be optimistic, but maybe we can still go for Saturday and Sunday.

From:Yvette
Sent: Wednesday, April 1, 2009 10:03 AM
To: O'donnell, Kelly

Subject: RE:

Kelly,

I hate to do this because I know that you have a trip planned this weekend, but we are going to need all hands on deck with the HELOC loans transfer to MetLife. I’m going to need you to be here on Monday and Tuesday of next week to assist with the volume that we will receive. As you know, flexibility is a big part to working in our department and we need you to be here. Again I’m sorry to do this, but it is necessary.

Yvette


So immediately I hit the roof. I didn’t know what to do, so I emailed him back letting him know I was extremely upset, disappointed, etc. offering back-up plans and everything. Oh, and I was crying at this point. Once he got my e-mail, he called me at the office. After a few minutes he says, “Are you crying?” I said, “Of course I am! I was so looking forward to this trip.” And then he says, “What day is it?” I said, “Wednesday.” And he said, “No, what day is it?” And I said, “April 1st.” And that’s when it hit me. I was filled with fury knowing he had just punked me at work and I hung up on him. My boss came out of her office and closed my door because she was afraid something terrible had happened. Kelly called back and told me the whole thing was an April Fools Joke. (Did I mention I HATE April Fools?)

I had a headache the rest of the day because of my ride on the emotional rollercoaster.

After that, my day seemed to get better. I still wasn’t feeling 100% when I left the office so when I got home we grabbed a bite to eat at Chicken Express (YUM!) and then went to Walgreens to get some Musinex D (which is now my BFF) and some Excedrin Tension Headache. I could feel the effects almost immediately. I mean to tell you, that stuff is amazing! I took 2 pills last night at 7:00 am and I woke up at 5:00 am bright eyed and bushy tailed! I felt like I was on speed! For the first time in days I’d actually slept through the night and it felt amazing!

OK, well I’m going to have to wrap this up but stay tuned for more updates on:

• Cooper
• My newest book purchase
• Our San Diego Trip
• Chicago Roomie Trip

April’s a busy month!

A Little Irish Luck Heading Your Way...

Love, The O'Donnells

Annual Roomie Reunion!

Every March (during Spring Break) my college roomies and I get together and catch up! We didn't really set out to make it a tradition--it just turned out that way! Last year, Jen and I headed to Houston to visit Em. And this year, Em came to us!

Jen and I still live in Dallas, but shortly after we graduated from College, Em made the trek to Houston! And I think we've lost her forever!!



I miss having her so close. I mean come on, I lived with her for 3 years of my life! What do you expect? And just recently, we discovered our roots go back a lot farther than we could have ever imagined. Turns out, her maternal grandparents lived in the same small, east Texas town as my maternal grandparents, and are buried next to one another! (Kind of sad/creepy, I know--but seriously, it is such a small world!)

So back to our mini-reunion...This year, we decided to do an afternoon of pampering, so we treated ourselves to manis and pedis and then headed to Cyclone Anayas for drinks. It was so nice to sit back and have your feet and hands (and necks) massaged while we caught up on life! We love re-living those special memories we've shared over the years and enjoy looking forward to making new ones.

Here's to many more reunions throughout the years!

Love you girls!