Dad's 60th Surprise Bday Party!

Last week Ryder and Courtney came in and we of course had a blast! Along with them Ashley and Dustin's Mom came too! They came in Tuesday afternoon, and we were putting some last minute details on Dad's surprise party. I took at least 500 pictures of Ryder cause he just looked so darn cute in his man pants! Wednesday we took a trip to Pearland to my sisters friends Celia's to do Ryder's first photo session. Oh my, he was so adorable. He was posing and laughing, he knew he was as cute as the poster baby for Pampers. You can go online and look at his pictures at www.celialewis.com, click on client proofing and the password is "ryder". We then did a little shopping, as girls with their Mom do! Thursday the grandparents came in to have lunch with Dad on his actual birthday. Saturday was the big day. About 3 o'clock we headed over to my parents to "watch the TSU vs. SFA game", aka set up for the party. Dad left with Mr. Collins to go look at a rifle and we got to work. All the guests came and we SURPRISED Bubba around 6pm. Thank you everyone so much for attending this special occasion he really enjoyed knowing how many people care about him! A special thanks to Ashley and Phyllis Clark for coming all the way from Lufkin! We really enjoyed ya'lls company! Below are some pictures from the week!

It has been awhile....

Sorry I have not updated in such a long time! We have had a lot of exciting changes going on and we need to share them with everyone. First Dustin and I signed the contract on a house in Katy today. They should start breaking ground by the end of November...IF everything goes as planned. We missed the Tech game yesterday to go and talk to the builder and get all of our ducks in a row. Before we went to talk to them we discussed with a lender how much we could afford to pay, including taxes. Yesterday we decided on our floor plan, and today signed all the papers to get the ball rolling. Thanks to Cynthia with Newmark Homes, and our relator Lori for putting up with my 8 billion questions on everything! I am really excited that we now do not have to throw our money away in rent every month. I am also excited that we are deciding every small detail with our house, so it will truly be our home. I am also extremely excited because, BABY RYDER COMES TO KATY THIS WEEK. My sister and Mr. Ryder will be arriving on Tuesday of this week and staying till Sunday. I am so excited to hold, kiss, and love on him! I will post pictures later in the week of how cute he is.

My First Dog Brady

My dog Brady, that I have had since elementary school, passed away on Thursday. My Dad called me at 10:30 Thursday night, and asked me to meet them at the animal hospital because Brady was very sick. She was vomiting blood and could not control any movement in her body. In a panic I got ready and woke Dustin up to take me, I was a emotional wreck and could not drive. By the time we got there she had already passed away. I gave her a final kiss on her little head, and said my good byes. She died in my Mom's arms on the way to the vet and let out 2 barks before she took her last breath. Friday we went and gave her a funeral in Weimar at our farm. Brady was 15 years old, so she lived a long happy life. She was the sweetest little dog, putting up with me dressing her up in doll clothes and pushing her in my red wagon around the neighborhood. It's gonna be hard to go to my parents house and not be greeted by the little black dog, crying to pick her up and love on her. Brady will be greatly missed, as she brought so much joy to our family. She was a very loyal, loving companion for all five of us. Here is a picture of Brady opening her last Christmas present. This was her favorite thing to do!

Getting Back to Normal

Since Ike came it has thrown our week all off. We both did not work much last week so this week we are just trying to get back to normal. It is hard, because Dustin still does not have power, so we are trying to make due with my TINY 600 square foot apartment. Along with the small space with 2 people and 2 dogs, I have a deep freeze in the middle of my living room. Yes thats right a freezer, sitting right next to the TV. Since power is a touch and go, I had to go to Amber and Chris's house to wash clothes. Amber and I made a slumber party out of it since the boys left Friday to prepare for the Aggie game. We ran errands, went shopping at the Galleria, and got Pei Wei to go so we could watch the NEW 90210. All went well till around 12am. I got up to take Trigger and Millie to the bathroom and when i walked out of their bedroom I found myself standing in 3 inches of water! Water was every where, all over the apartment, and not just a little it was ALOT of water. So in a panic Amber and I are trying to figure a way to clean up this huge mess. It turns out the washing machine never turned to run the cycle and just kept filling up, over flowing and drenching the floor with water. We started with filling 2 cups and dumping it into the sink, moved to bowls, and eventualy sweeping it out the door. Around 3:30am we finished. Right when we lay down the maintence man comes, GO FIGURE. He missed the clean up and came to bring a fan to dry the carpet. At the Aggie game the next day we both were exausted from only sleeping 3 hours. Hopefully this weekend will be alittle smoother! We also got to stop by Morgan and Justin's to see Mr. Weston. He is absolutly adorable and I will post pictures of the little man later on in the week.

Thanks Ike!

As all of you know Ike came blowing through Houston on Friday night! We hunkered down and rode out the storm. Me and Millie stayed at Dustin's were it was safe and boarded up. It was a rough night, but we lived through it. Houston is in bad shape, and Galveston is in even worst shape. The other rep in Houston lived on the Bay and her house is in 7ft of water. So if everyone could pray for Ling and her family, she lost everything. To make matters better my apartment got power back!!! YEAH! I am on the same grid as the med center, so I got power back Saturday. On a bad note FEMA is head quartered right across the street from my apartment, sooo I have the slum of Houston hanging out! Dustin also is still without power, and don't know when it might be restored. Here are some pictures from after the storm.





I left Houston to get away from he craziness Monday, and headed to Kyle to visit my sister and Ryder. He is getting so big! He also is just starting to get expressions about things, and definitely has a great pair of lungs! He is the most adorable baby! He definitely is a Boeer cause he LOVES to talk to you. Here are some pictures I took of him today.

Best Birthday Ever

WOW what a weekend! Friday morning my sister's best friend Page calls me and asks if Courtney is in labor. In a panic I call my Mom, and YES she went into the hospital at 2am that morning. After talking to Courtney, she said that it was going to be awhile so there was no rush to get up to San Marcus. Around 2pm Dustin and I left Houston to head to San Marcus, to welcome Ryder into this world. At 8:22pm he was here, only 3 1/2 hours before my birthday. He weighed 8.86 lbs and was 21 inches long! Courtney was starving so Dustin and I went and got her Whataburger, and rushed back to see our new born nephew. He was beautiful! Perfect in every possible way a new baby can be. Around 11pm we left the hospital to head back to Courtney and Charlie's house to tend to their crazy min pin.



The next morning we got up and headed back to the hospital to see the adorable baby boy. He was still as precious as can be, and Courtney looking a lot better after a couple hours of sleep. We held, and kissed all over him for about 3 hours. Dustin then told me it was time to head back to Houston for my birthday festivities. I was sad to leave my new nephew, but excited to start the party. When we got back to Houston we went over to our friends Nathan and Lyndsay's house for BBQ and Aggie football. After watching the Aggies BTHO New Mexico we decided to go bowling. It was a great birthday weekend, and I don't think it could ever be topped!

Trigon Tubular's Annual Dove Hunt

Every Labor Day weekend my Dad's company host's a dove hunt in San Antonio. As you all know we had our football game on Saturday, and we got up Sunday and left for San Antonio. We got to San Antonio around 5, and headed to Welfare to a little German cafe with GREAT food. We drank wine and stuffed ourselves silly, then headed back to the Westin in San Antonio to prepare for our big day to come. Monday morning we woke up, worked out in the weight room at the hotel, and met everyone for breakfast. The only reason we stay at the Westin is because my Dad LOVES the Westin's breakfast. Love may not even be the word to describe the way he feels about the breakfast. After we ate Dustin and I decided that we would do some sight seeing. We walked down to the Alamo to poke around in a couple shops, and to take our picture in front of the Alamo. We found some really great buys, and I found my stuffed armadillo I have always wanted....and to make it even better it was holding a Lone Star Beer bottle! How perfect is that! Dustin vetoed my new little friend real fast when he saw the $165.00 price tag. So we moved on to our next location....the Mexican Market. Now if any one knows San Antonio the Alamo and the market are REALLY far from each other! So there we went trotting through downtown San Antonio to the Mexican Market. We had fun shopping at all the little gift shops....or I did, and did a lot of browsing not really buying. I am very proud of myself for not buying every little thing I wanted. When Dustin and I got back to the hotel it was time to get ready for the hunt. We got dressed, checked out our guns, and headed to the field. It was a good hunt. We had plenty of people and more than plenty of birds. Then the drama started...to start it off the game warden came out to the field and started writing tickets. Dustin had shot a turtle dove, which we thought was just a baby white wing. Apparently these are illegal to shoot, and the game warden thinks that when a bird is flying 70 feet in the air you can tell the difference. Below are pictures of the 2 doves, please tell me if you were hunting and one flew 100 feet from you if you could tell the difference?





Well anyways, Dustin got a ticket, along with 8 other guys hunting with us, for VERY stupid reasons! Then hear come the cops. Apparently one of the Mexican neighbors called us in for "shooting" at their house. They questioned us, my Dad got angry with them, and they left. After we finished and killed our birds we headed back to town to shower and get ready for dinner. We ate at Pico de Gallo, had our Margaritas, and went to bed. Our weekend was a blast, and we are exhausted...now we have to get ready for our 3 day work week.

First Aggie Football Game

Well this weekend was the first Aggie Football game and the first tailgate of the season. All went well....except for the game! The boys went up to College Station on Friday, and us girls on Saturday. Dustin and the boys made a TON of great food, and had about 150 people show up. Amber and Chris's boss graciously gave us his extra 4 tickets, so our "tailgate groupies" that showed up got to go to the game as well. The game went well for the first quarter, and then in the second quarter...well I am sure you all know what happened! Can't wait for the Miami game in a couple weeks, hopefully the Aggie's will have improved their game somewhat. Next home game on the tailgate menu the boys plan on smoking chicken poppers and fajitas with all the fixings!

Preseason Fun, BBQ, and Poisin Ivy

This weekend we went out to Brittan and Jenny's land in Cypress and cooked on the pit for the first time since remodeling it! It was a success. The boys cooked tons of food, trying out their recipes for football season. We had drunk chickens, 2 different briskets, chicken breasts, fajitas, grilled corn, and squash. Being on weight watchers it was really hard for me to resist stuffing my self until I popped! The dogs went with us and poor Trigger chased butterflies from sun up to sun down. When he got tired with that he chased around the horses, and rolled in mud puddles. Today he is totally pooped out! Millie on the other hand laid under the tractor and begged for everyone to feed her their leftovers. Amber and I made the "tip jar" and painted some plastic wine glasses with festive A&M logos....what else would we do. It was a fun long day, thanks Brittan and Jenny for inviting us out. Also, thanks Dustin and Forrest for cooking the delicious food for all of us!




This morning when I woke up, I was itching ALL OVER! When I look in the mirror I see my face is broken out in a red rash, along with my legs and arms. Poison Ivy!!! That's right I have it from head to toe! Although its in random splotches, it still the most uncomfortable feeling. One thing I also cant figure out is why I have it on just one finger? Just one, not my hands, not my other 9 fingers, just one. When I call my mother and ask her what to do she freaked me out even more, telling me that my whole body is going to blister. That was real encouraging, so I head up to Walgreen's and buy $50.00 in over the counter drugs to try stop the spreading. When I ask the pharmacists where the poison ivy creams are, she looks up at me and says, "OH you poor girl, your face". Anyways, with 25 different products on my face and legs and the one finger, I now have things under control. Geez what a weekend! Next weekend we head off to College Station for the start of the Aggie football season, followed by my Dad's company annual dove hunt!!!

San Antonio Handy Hardware Show

This past Wednesday my Mom and I left and went up to San Antonio to run a booth for my company at the Handy Hardware Show. Thanks Mom and poor Courtney, who is 8 1/2 months pregnant and miserable, for coming and helping me. The show was a success, and I could not have done it with out them. Here are a couple pictures we took when we were board.

and....

On Sunday we got up at 5:30am got ready went to the convention center, tore down our booth,and drove back to Houston to do wedding stuff. Although Dustin fought me on going to Briscoe Manor's open house to try the food, I won! We picked out our dinner menu and tried cakes! That's one more thing I can check off the "wedding to do list"! The next thing to do is going to be getting our "Save the Date" cards made and mailed.

Stress and BBQ

Lately a lot has been going on....and has got me stressed out. Not only am I trying to plan a wedding, set up a new apartment, and work, I get another curve ball. One of my large work accounts, Handy Hardware, is having a show in San Antonio next week! So basically I found out about this ohhh last week! I have 2 weeks to plan and put on a booth at this show! Well this is almost impossible, but since I am stupid I think I can actually do this. So lately my time is consumed by of planning, calling and emailing everyone possible to try to pull this off. Not only that but I am dragging my poor newly retired mother and 8 month preggo sister into this (thanks ladies). Even though I am missing the river trip with all my friends, hopefully this will turn out to be a very successful show for me!

Mostly everyone knows, Dustin got his BBQ pit for football season. Here are a couple pictures of it, it is still a work in progress. It's going to be a really great football season! WHOOP!!

Engagement Pictures

So Dustin and I took our engagement pictures in College Station this weekend. Dustin has been sick all weekend, but it turned out to be ok. Putting the 100 degree heat, Dustin's random nose bleeds, and 2 crazy dogs who wouldn't behave aside, it went pretty well. Thank goodness our photographer (Celia) was so patient, and my Mom and brother Brent came to help with the crazy animals. We got there at 9:30, we were suppose to be there at 9 but we are never on time, and starting shooting and sweating. We took pictures all over campus, the "bird", and research park. I can't wait to see the finished product!!