Easter, a Birthday, and a Wedding

Whew. What a month. Justin and I went to Boerne for Easter weekend so we could hunt Easter eggs. I told my mom in an email that we would only come down there if we had an Easter Egg hunt, and she immediately agreed. The Easter bunny has failed to visit our house for the past few years, and I know my mom missed all that fun. But for the first time ever, the Easter bunny decided to add some money in the mix. Instead of just candy in the eggs, there was around $80 in cash and coins to be collected! Unfortunately, my youngest brother had to go to work, but my sister and her boyfriend and Justin and I all raced around collecting eggs. I think Justin and I made off with almost $50 in loot. Justin ate all of our candy (he who doesn't like sweets, uh-huh). Too bad we forgot to take our camera.

Then Taylor had his birthday last Friday; he's now the big 1-8! Crazy to think I've known him since he was 12 (and still smaller than me). We had dinner at our house Sunday evening to celebrate.

And lastly, Justin and I went down to Galveston a few weekends ago for a friend's wedding. We had a lot of fun seeing several of my Dallas friends and catching up. And I like how you can see the flush of the wine on my cheeks too.

Astros!

Through work, I can get really good tickets to sports games, theater performances, etc. So when an email went out Friday that there were still plenty of tickets left for the Astros game on Saturday, I called Justin to see if he wanted to go see the game. Of course he said yes and got all excited. So I bought the tickets, which are for section 112, row 11, and we got seats 5 & 6. They were in the "dugout" level right on the 3rd base line. It was actually the last pre-season game, considered an "exhibition game". They played the Cleveland Indians. Everything was going good until the last inning when the Indians scored 4 runs, making it 5 to 3. We were last to bat, but it did no good. We lost. But we had a good time eating sausage hotdogs and drinking soda from our souvenir cups. It was pretty nice weather too. At one point it sprinkled on us for a couple of minutes, but the rest of the time it was sunny with a nice breeze.

Animal Updates

Buddy looking pitiful - he was in the backyard while we were working in the front.

This was a basket of clean towels before Doo-Dah made himself comfortable.

And a short video of the 2 kitties...

New Furniture

Thanks to Mr. Obama, we were able to do our part in stimulating the economy by furnishing our home. We got a new couch and loveseat, a 47 inch flatscreen TV, king size mattress and sleigh bed, 2 nightstands, a dresser, and an armoire. Next up are some coffee tables in the living room and to do a cable drop and actually mount the TV. Justin's circa 1970 dresser will not be staying in my living room.

Red Room

I have always wanted a red kitchen and I finally got it! 1 coat of primer and 4 coats of paint = the lovely shade of red below. (Ralph Lauren - Red Relay). Hannah was here over spring break, so she helped some.

The joints where my walls meet are all curved - there are no hard edges to paint to, so I had to meticulously paint by hand with a small brush to get a fairly straight line down the center of the curve.

It matches my Red Kitchen Aid appliances!

Hard at work with the first coat of primer. Yes, there is a warning on the ladder that says not to use the top as a seat (darn you 10 foot ceilings!). I ignored it. By the way, Hannah and I went to Home Depot to buy everything by ourselves. I even picked out this ladder and had Hannah carry it out to my car.

Smiling for the camera and looking forward to the end result!

Zoo Trip

Justin, Taylor, and I went to the Houston Zoo yesterday afternoon and then went and ate mud bugs (crawfish) at Ragin' Cajun'. To be honest, the zoo is not that impressive, but it was perfect weather to be outside.

We saw lions:

and a grizzly bear:

and elephants:

and orangutans:

Yard Work

Well, Justin and I felt very much like suburbanite homeowners this past Saturday. We pulled a few weeds and added mulch to the front flower beds. There was also a low spot in part of our yard that we had to fill with dirt and grass (from one of our neighbors, Mike, who just put in a back patio so he had plenty of grass to spare). It looks so pretty now! We replaced the black mulch that the previous homeowner put in with a smaller red variety. I think it looks so much better. And yes, we were both out there working, I didn't just take pictures and go back in the house. My back still hurts. (Haha! I just figured out how to put text first, then pictures!)

My cutie!

Before (above)
After (below)

Ta-Dah!