#60 - Mama Mia!

I have a confession...I love musicals.

I just recently realized it though. It's not something I go around saying but I realized that some of my favorite movies are musicals. I feel bad for Chris that I must subject him to this type of very girly material but I guess that's what he gets for making me watch James Bond movies.

For example: Across the Universe - favorite movie of all time (well besides Steel Magnolias...). Chicago, Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz (which was on TV last night), Hairspray (the original), Grease, West Side Story, Moulin Rouge, High School Musical 1 & 2 (yes you can start making fun of me now) to name a few.


And now...add Mama Mia! to the list of musicals I love. It started out slow for me - I didn't like the beginning but it quickly got better and better (especially the closing credits - oh my!). The movie doesn't surpass Across the Universe but it was still really good and I'll definitely buy it when it comes out on DVD. Plus, how can you go wrong with ABBA songs anyway??? I had a hard time not just standing up in the theater and dancing around and singing "If you change your mind, I'm the first in line. Honey I'm still free...take a chance on me..." - but the grandma next to me probably wouldn't have appreciated that.

Oh and I wasn't expecting a movie theater full of senior citizens. Seriously. And thanks to Desma and Noaillese for going with me (my husband thanks you too!).

p.s. - Dear James Bond (aka Pierce Brosnan), seeing you sing in a musical is just weird. Please stick to your day job - drinking martinis - shaken, not stirred.
p.p.s. - Dear Mark Darcy (aka Colin Firth/Mr. Darcy), you are still hot!

Related to #93

Ever since I was a little kid my mom has always said to me "Katy, be positive!" That's because I am the queen of complaining. And it's not that I'm always upset or in a terrible mood - I just love to talk and talking about bad things is usually easier. Funny part about the "be positive" comment is that later in life I found out that my blood type was....B+! Isn't it ironic? Don't you think?

So anyway...while I haven't started the #93 goal (only positive comments), last week I came to the reality of how important this goal is. Last year I just happened to be at home watching Oprah when Randy Pausch was on and gave his "last lecture." Last week he passed away from cancer - leaving behind a wife and three young children. But he wasn't mad about his situation - he lived his life as best as he could for the time he had left. And he just wanted to make sure his kids had something to remember him by.

So I guess my point is that even before I start #93, I still need to practice the positive thoughts and remember that things could be so much worse and the stupid complaining isn't really worth it.

Here is the Oprah version I originally saw:

Cutest nephew E-V-E-R!

Dear Lord, please don't let him lose those beautiful big blue eyes. Thanks. Amen.

My handsome nephew, Gavin, turned 6 months old. We went to visit this past weekend to celebrate with him. He's so much more fun now that he's sitting up and playing more. He's sooooo close to being able to turn over. He already has two teeth and weighs 20 lbs! His fat rolls are freakin adorable (much more adorable on a baby than on me, I might add...). And I just LOVE when he smiles and giggles and drools and sleeps and cries and cuddles with me.

My brother and sister-in-law asked me to be Gavin's godmother this weekend and I was so honored. I can't wait for him to get baptized and be there for him as he grows up and closer to God. It really is a huge honor for me and I got a lil teary-eyed when they asked (and I swear that wasn't just because it was 1 a.m. and I was tired).

Here are some recent photos of him and his adorable face and beautiful blue eyes:

I love this photo because it proves that we're related - he has the "Katy face"

Over the 4th of July Gavin got to play on his daddy's catamaran (on land of course)

Oh my gosh - there is a big bear behind me!

Making Gavin laugh (p.s. - I don't normally crop people out of photos but my cousin LB was not looking like her normal hot self so I did her a favor by cropping her out. I swear!)

"Um guys...where did you go?"

#41 - Road Trip!

"Are we there yet?"

Went on a random road trip earlier this month. It was random because it wasn't really planned. Which is so unlike me in these situations. I had to pat myself on the back for letting it just go how it would go. I had thought about the trip a couple months ago when my friend Amanda said she'd be back from China (where she's teaching English for 3 years). She'd be in home for a couple weeks in Albuquerque. I honestly hadn't put much thought into it since then thanks to my damn busy life. Well the week before the supposed trip I said "screw it!" and decided to go. So I packed up my car and drove to Albuquerque by myself for the first time in 7 years.

NOTE: this wasn't a tourist road trip so I have random photos of the trip - not your usual touristy stuff. Sorry.

Some people think I'm crazy for driving 11 1/2 hours by myself but that's how I roll....my family has done that drive for 20 years now and so I know it like the back of my hand (not that there's much to really know in the middle of BFE west Texas...but still!).

On the way out there I stopped in El Paso to hang out with Celia. We ate, talked, ate some more (the quiche was just that good), watched SATC and ate some cookies. Thank goodness she had Wii Fit for me to pretend like I exercised for a good 30 minutes to get rid of all those cookie calories. And thank goodness again that she let me use her Wii Mii so I didn't have to weigh myself to play the games. I think if I'd had to weigh myself I would have just turned the game off and ate another cookie...or quiche...or both...

A couple of days later I headed to Albuquerque where I got to hang out with my best friend since childhood, Joni. I would have to say it's the best quality time we've spent together since I moved away 9 years ago. I can't describe why or give examples of how - it just was a feeling I had. We spent most of our time shopping, driving around town, doing a drive by (viewing not shooting...sometimes you have to clarify these things in ABQ) of our old cul-de-sac where Joni and I had many great memories, remembering how stupid we were in high school, playing trivia at the bar, babysitting her adorable nephew (who - by the way - is exactly one month older than my nephew), buying green chile to take home, sitting around talking about life and of course drinking beer (and martinis and bloody marry shots)! It was so nice and relaxing.

Joni's adorable nephew at ~6 months old

During the week I got to eat at some of my favorite restaurants. Like:

and

and of course

A bonus to eating at Dion's was that I got to do it with Coeli and Kristen (two fabulous friends from high school). We had so much fun just sitting there talking and scarfing down the best greek salad and pineapple pizza that you can buy. Sorry I didn't get a photo of them. And even more sorry that I only bought one slice of pineapple pizza instead of the whole damn pie.

My favorite day of the trip though was when I got together with my girl scout girls (I call them that because the four of us were a girl scout troop for many years back in the day) and headed to the mountains. Oh how I miss the mountains.

Clockwise from the top left: me, Ruth, Kathy and Amanda (aka - the girl scout girls)

Confession time: There is this row of pine trees on the Christmas tree farm. Sometimes I stand in the middle of the trees and close my mind and imagine that I'm back in the mountains. The smell of the pines, the sound of the wind blowing through them - it's heaven.

Anyway, back to the day trip to the mountains...on our way out of town we heard on the radio that they were giving away from ice cream - so of course we stopped!

Girl Scout girls (plus Emily - second from right) eating free ice cream at 10 a.m. Please don't judge me for having an empty ice cream dish sitting there while everyone else is still chowing down...the ice cream was good, okay?

First we drove to camp - Rancho del Chaparral - where I spent years and years of my childhood, teens and young adult life. I love that place. It was amazing how little had changed in the 7 years since I'd been there - but it was so comforting. I did several happy dances/jigs. I was just that happy (and dorky). The best part about the mountains (to me) in the summer is the awesome storms that the monsoon season brings. And how sad is it that I had to drive to the effin desert to see rain??? It was greener in the desert than it is in Central Texas!

In the mountains we drove through a hail storm for a good 15 minutes, had awesome lightning/thunder and then later in the day saw a great view of mammatus clouds (some of my favorite clouds ever that I rarely get to see in Texas). It's moments like this that it's hard being a weather geek because you can't really explain the way your stomach turns when you see such fun weather happening.

I love random mountain hail storms (but only when we aren't driving in my car...however, no cars were damaged in the making of this exciting moment).

When asked why I loved mammatus clouds so much I replied "DUH...because they mean 'DANGER! Watch yourself!'" (said to the tune of the Mystikal song)

While we were at camp we pulled a classic camp prank, saw the new (to me) art building, walked around the camp sites, visited the new burros (or as Amanda calls them "burritos") and did more happy dances. The only sad part was that it was pretty empty since it was the day before the 4th of July. Oh well....hopefully I'll get to go back again next summer and not wait another 7 years.

Three of the new "burritos" and a random horse.

Isn't the heart on that ass' ass adorable??? To clarify...I meant the burro...not Ruth!

Once we left camp we drove the long way home, through the Jemez mountains, past Bandelier, into Los Alamos and through Santa Fe (where we had dinner) down to Albuquerque. As we were driving we came upon a national preserve. I screamed "STOP THE CAR! I have to visit this preserve so I can add it to my 101 blog" to which they all said "Katy are you on crack again? What are you talking about?" to which I had to explain this silly lil blog to which they gave me funny looks, laughed but at least stopped the car.

#50 - visit 5 state/national parks
There wasn't much there - but I did read the sign and took a picture of me there to prove I went. National preserve is close enough to a park for me! So I was happy for the random 101 goal.

Yippee for random 101 goal marked off!

Proof that I was at the national preserve (and proof that I'm a TOTAL dork - like we needed any more proof on that...).

The next day was the 4th of July. I headed over to Kathy's house for a BBQ and some fireworks. It was like a blast from the past getting to see so many people I hadn't seen in at least 5 years. Made me happy.

I drove home on Saturday - all the way - 11 1/2 hours straight - by myself. It's amazing how fast the time really does go. The first hour is always the worst and then before you know it you're home!

#97 - Update my MP3 Player
All I have to say is THANK GOODNESS FOR MY MP3 PLAYER! yup - cross #97 off the list. Thanks to my wonderful husband, my mp3 player was organized and updated with new songs before the trip so I was able to listen to it during my long drive in the middle of nowhere.

In closing - it was a great trip. I really really missed my husband and animals while I was gone though (my husband just a lil more than the animals...). The week brought back a lot of great memories and I hope that one day I can take Chris there during the Balloon Fiesta.

Major updates

I've been bad about updating this blog because our computer was running sooooooo slow. But this weekend we (my wonderful dad) installed more memory and now it runs like a champ. So all the photos I've been saving up to work with are now easily accessible and don't make me want to shoot my brains out whenever I have to even open a photo to edit.

So here are some long over due updates and then I'll do some more recent updates on their own posts...

#11 - Have fresh flowers in the house each month.

I did miss a month of no fresh flowers (crazy month of June) and I also missed taking photos of some pretty roses (April) I had in the house but here are two photos of some of the beautiful fresh flowers I've had in the house.

Sunflowers in May

Hydrangeas in July

Tips: HEB has amazing flowers for great prices - plus a 7 day guarantee! Tell your husbands!!! Once mine found out he didn't have to spend $50+ on flowers, I started getting them a lot more often. And if you haven't been to the new HEB in Westlake - I highly recommend it. Besides all the other fabulous departments, their flower section is awesome. They carry so much more than the typical roses and carnations mixed bouquet. It's great. And some of the flowers (if not all of them - I don't know) come from a grower outside Blanco called Texas Specialty Cut Flowers - so you're supporting a Central Texas business as well. Did I mention how great it was???

#36 - Go to a Concert

Back in April Chris and I went with our friend Erika to the Lone Star State Jam in Waterloo Park (downtown Austin). The all-day concert included the majority of my favorite Texas Country singers like Kevin Fowler, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Roger Creager, Cory Morrow, Eli Young Band, Bleu Edmondson and more! Not only was the music great (Creager was my favorite of the day) but it was amazing people watching. It brought me back to the good old days of Chilifest in college where we'd get wasted and watch these same bands....only this time I was sober and hot and annoyed by the drunk college kids getting into my space and sitting on my blanket. :) Sometimes it sucks being the old fuddy duddy (as my mom would say).

Roger Creager (see the drummer there on the left - he went to high school with Chris!)

Erika with Kevin Fowler

#60 - watch 101 movies

I need to get rolling on this one, don't I??? I've watched plenty of movies, I just don't think Lifetime movies should count for this, do you? :) So I'm going to only include major released movies - which means I really need to get watching!

I did however go to the actual movie theater to watch a real movie recently (can you tell I rarely make it to the movie theater). I, along with the majority of women in America, went to see the Sex and the City Movie. sweetness! I loved it. I wasn't able to watch it for several weeks because of my busy schedule so once I had time I had a hard time finding someone to go with that #1. wanted to see it and #2 hadn't already seen it. Luckily my dear friend Celia fit the bill.


The best part about the experience was the couple that brought their two kids (one an infant the other about 3 years old) to see this rated R movie. Note to parents: if the word SEX is in the title of the movie - it's probably not kid friendly! Get a clue here people! I was really annoyed by the kids being there since they were sitting behind us and not quiet - until there was a sex scene on the big screen and I looked over at the 3 year old walking up and down the stairs and I see her holding her hands over her face, covering her eyes. I had to laugh - it was cute. And thank goodness the baby started crying soon after that (can you blame him?) and the family left.