Happy Fourth!

I have had a long, but good weekend.

I went to Dallas on Friday to go see my sister and her husband and my oh so beautiful niece, Ida Pearl. We took Ida to the Dallas Aquarium.. I was really surprised by how pretty the aquarium was... it's modeled as a rain forest and it doesn't have just fish, it also has an array of animals... otters, monkeys, penguins... just a really pretty, relaxing jaunt through the rain forest.

On my way to Dallas I had some friend drama that I had to deal with, so it was really nice to spend the evening with my sister and Greg and Ida. They are really good therapy. :) I was still in a bit of a crappy mood but they helped me to get over it a little faster at least. But of course, I'm already irritated and we go to dinner and the damn queso at the restaurant isn't gluten free. Come on, people. There are a number of things that I have to do without in this life now... QUESO? Not okay. Oh well.


The next day I went to my friend Priscilla's baby shower. I have known Priscilla since we were 13 years old so it's really fun for me to get to help throw a baby shower for someone like her. The girl looks amazing. She's 36 weeks pregant and is all baby. The woman is STILL going to the gym. Really? She's a nut. I threw the shower with two of her friends, Valerie and Sooh. We looked at a few options for throwing the shower and decided to use a caterer eventually to do all the food. Omigosh, best decision ever, thank you Sooh. If you are in Dallas and need a caterer for a party, I highly recommend this caterer... I'm too lazy to get the card so the name will have to come soon. :) She was awesome not only because the food was excellent, but also because she was able to clearly articulate what was in each and every dish she made. A good percentage was gluten free so I was not starving at the shower. (SCORE). People hung out, but I was the only one who ended up staying with Priscilla and Simon for the night. I had the chance to catch up with the both of them, which I don't get to do all that often and I love each time I get the chance. We ended up staying up late flipping through channels, and I kid you not, we found a movie called Ticked Off Trannies with Knives. AWESOME. Needless to say the little pregnant lady didn't want to watch that for very long and we turned it off about twenty minutes in. It was horrible but dammit, I can say I watched part of it!

Came home on Sunday and went to a BBQ that Sheila and Justin had... Betsy brought Tom and Kate over and JJ and Gwen came as well. I made some kick arse Burgers with Bleu cheese and red onions... hey, I just realized that this was quite patriotic of me... (didn't have the bun, but the burger itself was quite tantalizing). We hung out, had tasty beverages, hung out with the kiddos ranging from 2 months to 19 years and had a really good time. It was definitely quality time, which was the most important thing. We left there and this morning had round two with Sheila and Justin as we went to Blue Hole in Wimberly. We had brittany and her boyfriend, plus Lauren and her boyfriend and his cousins... then we had Justin and SHeila, and we met Lindsay and Travis and he had his stepdaughters with him... so a big group. We brought a nice sized picnic and laid out in the sun half the time and hung out in the ice cold water just relaxing. A great way to spend a fourth of July. I may make a new tradition out of this. We packed up camp about 4:30 and headed back to town so we could get up to Georgetown, one of the only local areas with fireworks since the drought is so horrible out here. I'm so happy I saw my fireworks, the fourth just wouldn't have been the same without them!

I'm now sitting on the couch with the dogs... the boys are playing a video games, Brittany is passed out on the couch and Lauren is doing laundry because she leaves tomorrow. :( I always miss her when she leaves, she's good people. I guess I should retire for the evening, I'm exhausted. Been a long weekend for a number of reasons but it ended up being really good.