Turks and Caicos 2010

So, I know there’s probably a lot of you that are wondering why I haven’t posted on our fab vacation yet!  Haha, I wonder that, too.  However, I can say that life has been craaaazy busy.  I’m sure I’ll catch you up on that. 

However, Turks and Caicos was WONDERFUL!  We both agree, however, that a 4 day stay is not enough.  You need at least 5…MINIMUM!  The most glorious part is, of course, the water.By far, my favorite part of the trip was laying on the beach reading a book (yes Mom, reading a book) or being in the water.  It was magnificent…even for a freshwater fan like myself.  I could never get tired of looking at Grace Bay.  Here’s a little look at our fabulous vacation, and here’s to wishing another exotic Caribbean Island getaway comes sooner rather than later.

Oh, and here’s a look at some true Aggies ;)

Illnesses are not welcome

What a day Wednesday was.  First off, I went to work on Tuesday feeling fine.  I mean, I thought the 2 fans that run in our bedroom might have affected me a tad, but it wasn’t anything that made me feel bad.  I started to cough a little while at work, and the ladies I work with were a little concerned.  I just thought it was my natural deep cough that sounded bad.  However, by 2:30pm, I started to feel tightness in my chest.  I thought it was a good idea to find a doc and go see them.  By 5:00pm, it was hard for me to talk.  Yep, it really did move that fast.

Wednesday night, I was absolutely miserable.  I slept that night but not without waking up practically every hour.  Wednesday morning, I still felt awful, but I thought I’d be ok enough to take care of myself for the day.  Not so much.  An hour after Henry left for work, my ears were pounding, and I actually felt like my equilibrium was off.  When I got out of bed, I was having trouble walking in a straight line.  Thus, driving myself somewhere didn’t sound wise.  I asked Henry to come home and take me to the doc.  By that time, I was sure whatever I had was either Strep or Flu.  I had not been sick to the point of being knocked off my feet since our honeymoon when I had some sort of stomach sickness for 2 1/2 days.  Rarely do I ever get THIS sick.  Well, at the doc, they determined I had a fever of 100.2.  Keep in mind, my normal temp is usually lower than 98.5.  It’s usually 97 something.  Thus, 100.2 for me is like 101 or so, I think.  Also, the last time I had a fever was elementary school…REALLY!  Anyway, the doc didn’t even swab me for anything, which I was surprised by, and she claims that I just have a “common cold.”  Um, yea, I’m not believing that, but whatever.  She drugged me up with stuff, and I’m doing what I can to get better.  I slept most of the afternoon and early evening.

What feels so awful though is that, literally, on my 5th day of work, I get sick and not just any kind of sick; I can’t come to work sick.  Ugh.  Awesome impression.  I’m just so mad about it.

Anyway, my sweet hubby and cute little pup were there for me to provide me the best medicine of all: laughter.  Check out these two playing.  Please excuse our mess.

Please pray that Henry doesn’t get what I have!!!

Houston Dog Show

Welcome to our 100th post!!!

Saturday July 24th, Kevin, Melissa, Henry and I all went to the Dog Show at Reliant.  Before I begin, guess who we saw there? :)  Hint: They’ve always had multiple dogs, and they are related to me.

Melanie and Steve (my aunt and uncle)!  While it was a surprise to see them, it was also not a surprise to see them :)  They use to show dogs, thus the reason it wasn’t so surprising to see them.

Anyway, Melissa and I could not stop oooohing and awwwwing all of the dogs.  I told Henry it was a good thing he got us a dog when he did because if we had gone to that show dog-less, I would have been in tears in less than 5 minutes easily.  Melissa and I kept wondering how we were going to walk out of that show with taking another dog home! 

All four of us got a really good kick out of the agility show dogs as well as obedience dogs.  The tennis ball relay races were absolutely amazing.  I only wish we would have done that with my Dad’s dog AC.  I have no doubt she would have been CHAMPION!  Even WITH no muscle in her back legs at her current age, she still manages to focus on a ball with every bit of energy she can muster.  She amazes me.  Anyway, I digress.

I was so excited to see that the Australian Shepards were stealing the show in the obedience shows :)  Every other dog that came out, it seemed, was an Aussie.  Then, as we watched the agility shows, those Australian Cattle Dogs were all about speed and bounce in getting to a tennis ball faster than the rest.  It was awesome! 

All four of us were highly impressed with the  tons of Golden Retrievers we saw all over the show.  If we would manage the hair, we were all talking about how great it would be to have one of those one day.  Melissa and Kevin got to watch the Poms in their judging, while Henry and watch the Australian Cattle Dogs with the German Short Haired Pointers right next to them in the next ring.  I was surprised to see myself get that excited about it even though I had no comprehension of what the judges were looking for. Ah well, at least it was fun to watch.

After the show, Henry and I introduced Kevin and Melissa to the Black Walnut :)  Another 2 people hooked.  Haha!  We are obsessed with that place, and I’m not sure why it’s so delicious to us.  It was a super fun day, and I’m sure Ember is glad it’s just her still; I don’t think she’d like us very much if we made her share the attention we dish out ;)  Haha!

Here’s a few videos of some of the AWESOME dogs at the show :)

I wish I could own a dog like this first one!  It was gorgeous!

The human in this next video seems to think it’s about him and not about the dog :/

Pretty awesome dog in this next one!

Again, another super awesome dog.  Sorry for my not so awesome videography skills.  You can Henry in the beginning pretending he’s the dog ;)

Some tricks, more later (hopefully)

Here’s a quick look at some of the commands/tricks we’ve been able to teach Ember.  Some of them aren’t so sharp at this time, but they’ll get better with practice.  In fact, they already have since this video was captured!  We are working on others with her, so we are hoping (keeping fingers crossed) that she can learn more :)

Ellie Benkendorfer

Our dear sweet friends, Brian and Lisa Benkendorfer, welcomed their first child into the world today.  Sweet Ellie Ann was born at 32 1/2 weeks and is 3lbs. 7oz.  She will be in the NICU for quite some time and is definitely in need of some prayers, though she has some terrific and loving parents.  Please also join Henry and I in praying for Ellie’s magnificent mother, Lisa, in her healing.

Above all, I know Brian and Lisa are truly thankful to the Lord above for the support they receive, mostly from their family and also that they have wonderful baby girl! 

Again, please send up prayer(s) for this new family of 3 (4 if you want to count Sarge :)  )!

Watch Ember Anytime

So, as you may have noticed, I’ve been posting quite a few videos of Ember on YouTube that I then share here on our blog.  Well, I won’t be posting every single video here, but I did want to share our YouTube channel with you so that you can see the latest of our videos at any time!

http://www.youtube.com/user/kbtoreador

Most of the videos are of Ember, but there are other videos in there as well.  Here’s a quick one to share with you just for kicks :)

Addison Joy’s Sip N’ See

FINALLY!  The post that lets me know I’m mostly caught up!  Whoop!  I am so excited to share details from our trip to Mississippi!

It’s been a long time since I’ve been there, but it was actually kind of…uh, home-like?…to be able to drive there.  I’m pretty sure I drove there twice in high-school/college.  I’m not positive, but I think that’s right.  It’s much nicer to be able to make that drive with Henry now :)  After leaving Madisonville, LA, we headed for Taylorsville which is where the Gambrell Manor (as Kelly would call it) sits.  On our way, I had Henry exit Hardy St off of 59 so that I could show him a little bit of University of Southern Mississippi.  He’s met so many of Kelly and Matthew’s friends from college after marrying me that I thought he should know where all these peeps came from…sort of.  He really liked it!  Plus, as Sally and I discussed, it was cool for me to be able to see how much it’s CHANGED since I saw it last.  A&M and USM definitely have that in common right now; LOTS O’ CHANGE.

Anyway, we got to the Gambrell’s around 2:30, and Henry was able to meet sweet Addison :)  We had a great time with family that evening and Laurie (Kelly’s Mom) and Kelly had prepared an amazing dinner for everyone that night!  So delicious!

The next day was sweet Addison’s Sip N’ See!Sally, Laurie and I were soooo excited!  Laurie did so much for this amazing little party, and you’ll see it all in the video and the photos.  She did an absolutely incredible job.  She made table runners with painted polka dots on them, painted polka dots on brown pots, put pretty purple flowers in the pots with fun lavender and brown crinkle paper at the base, made cute brown, lavender and light green bows to stand up in the plants, prepared some AMAZING food (more in a second), and ordered delicious cupcakes from Teresa’s bakery!

Sally made super cute life saver pacifiers, which I forgot to take a picture of, but they look like the ones I posted a picture on for Carissa’s shower.  She also made a gorgeous diaper cake, which you will also see later.  I made the invitations that you see above, but Laurie and Sally really helped me in getting the wording and fonts right :)  They also selected the perfect invitations!  I also made some cookies, which, again, you’ll see later.

So, here’s the awesome menu that Laurie put together for the Sip N’ See.  It was all delicious!

Pulled Pork Sliders with Pickled Red Onions
Tequila-Lime Chicken Wings
Italian Pasta Salad
Cheesy Potatoes
Watermelon Salad
Crunchy Chinese Coleslaw

Almond Sugar Cookies
Raspberry Mint Iced Tea
Sugar-Free Lemonade

And at the Sip Station:

Assorted Hot Teas (I think had about 1.2 million different choices, hahah!)

Regular Coffee

Decaf Coffee

Hazelnut Coffee

One other specialty kind that I’ve already forgotten :/

Have a look at the setup of the food!

Here’s just a couple of my favorite pics from the Sip N’ See. Fun video Henry took…kinda.

Also, I loooooooove this video of me and Addison talking.  Check out what word I got her to mimic :)  Aggie?  I think sooooooo!

Also, one of Kelly and Matthew’s friends made super cute shirts for 3 sweet little girls.  Check it out!

Lastly, here’s a look at a video of pics from the Sip N’ See :)  This is one of my favorite Animoto videos yet :)

Please also check out Sally’s blog for some great details about the Sip N’ See.

Visiting Nick, Stori and Isla in Madisonville, LA

Ok, I promised stuff about Mississippi today, but it’s going to have to wait.  There’s too much between seeing Nick, Stori and Isla as well as everything is Mississippi; they need their own posts :)

On our trek to Mississippi, we decided that it would be super awesome if we could stop in on Nick and Stori to not only see their house that we hadn’t seen in 2 whole years, but we could also meet sweet Isla!  Pictures and videos just weren’t cutting it for us anymore :)  We very much enjoyed getting to catch up with both Nick and Stori, too.  It’s been since Christmas, I think, since we’ve been able to really see and talk with both of them.  They were able to show us Madisonville, which is very cute by the way, and take us to one of their favorite restaurant, Friends.  Loved it!

But, I’m sure they would agree, the best part of our stay there was meeting Isla! I know everyone knows this, but check out how natural my hubby is :)

Check out Isla’s outfit for dinner :)

Henry got his last few oooohs and ahhhhs in the next morning, too. Sadly, we forgot to get pics with Nick and Stori :(

We had so much fun though, and Isla is so much fun to be around!

Corpus Family Vacation and Borchard Family Pictures

Ok, I’m really getting caught up now!!!  The first full week of July, Henry and I took 2 different trips; one to Corpus and one to New Orleans/Mississippi.  Well, this post is on the Corpus part of that trip; NO/MS is to come on Thursday.

So, July 2nd, we loaded up the car, including Ember, and we headed down to Corpus.  This was Ember’s first REALLY long car ride.  Henry and I were both really surprised at how well she did.  Were were planning to make 3 stops, but ended up only having to make 2 because she slept sooooooo hard on the first part of the trip.  She even ate her lunch in the moving car :)It’s quite odd looking at these pictures as I share these with you because she’s grown so much more since I took these pictures!

Anyway, when we arrived in Corpus on Friday, the first order of business was family pictures!  Bellezza Photography took the photos, and Kateri did a great job!  See, Hurricane Alex had made landfall the day before, so she was fighting some pretty tough winds to get good pictures of us.  You can check out the results by clicking here.  Here’s one teaser picture, but you have to go to the link above or the picture below to see more :)

Kateri did a great job, and I’m so glad that we have family pictures now!  Apparently no professional pics have been taken since Justine was a baby or earlier.  Glad that there’s record of her being here now :)  Hehe!

Moving on, we were also impressed with how well Ember did in Corpus with her daily routine.  She had nooooo problem at all with the new surroundings and getting some good sleep.     Most of all, she had lots of fun playing with Eddie and Velma’s dog Boomer!  He’s a Lab/Weimer mix and so so sweet!

So what did WE do in Corpus?  Well, ummmm, I have absolutely 0 pictures of that :/  Sorry.  Mostly it was hanging out with family, swimming in the pool, and cooking meals.  Nothing specifically planned or any outings.  It was a good time though.  Ember and I did sleep through the July 4th fireworks though :)  I feel bad that I have no pics, but I just never had my camera around me during our stay.  Most of the pics above are from my phone anyways.

Anyway, we had a good time, and Ember was super cute on the car ride home! She loves her Daddy lots! Ok, well this ended up being all about Ember, sorry!  We had a great time in Corpus though!

My 26th birthday

Again…lateness.  I’m getting caught up, I promise.

Sunday June 27th was my 26th birthday.  Yep, that means next year is my golden birthday!  27 on the 27th!  I’m excited about that one!  Anyway, after trying out Ouisie’s Table for Katie and David’s rehearsal dinner, I was looking for a good reason to go back there.  Their food is terrific!  So, for dinner, my parents, Melanie & Steve, Ashlee & Phil, Alicia & Ralph, Justine, and 2 of the Borchards friends joined Henry and I for dinner.  Everything was so delicious!  If you haven’t tried this delicious restaurant, you totally should :)The soon-to-be-wed peeps :)   So, if you haven’t seen Justine lately, this picture should be the most shocking thing in this entire post.  Seriously, how did she get to be that grown up?!   To be able to celebrate with friends, Henry and I planned dinner at Amazon Grill that following Tuesday. Again, if you haven’t tried this place either, you totally should!  Henry and I love that place!  It’s an order-at –the-counter style restaurant.  Anyway, Kevin & Melissa, Kristen & Matt, Desirae & Jeremy, and Anne & Scott joined us for dinner :)  Yes, I did say Anne and Scott!  They are in town through November on a special assignment for Anne for work.  So awesome to be able to do things with them so EASILY!  Sorry, no pics from this dinner :/

Thanks to all who sent cards and joined me for dinner for my birthday!  I had a blast celebrating my 26th :)

Now we get to look forward to celebrating Henry’s 28th on October 7th :)