Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Procrastination....

Putting off until tomorrow what should have been done day before yesterday.

Welcome to my world.

There are pictures of my Christmas tree on my last post. Awesome.

You know what else I noticed as I hopped on the internet this morning? The last search in my Google toolbar is "how to remove waterproof mascara from carpet." I think that gives you pretty good insight to how our weekend went. We have Stella to thank for that one. And to add insult to injury, after a good two hours of scrubbing, blotting, soaking, and vacuuming I soon realized my search should have been "will waterproof mascara make my dog sick?" because the answer is "yes." Black mascara dog vomit...also not fun or easy to clean up.

But I forgive her because she does this...

If Brad and I are on separate floors, she will drag her bed to the middle...blanket and shredded stuffed animal in tow

Watching kiddos walk home from school

Nappin' on Daddy's Jeans

Presh.

She likes to fold the corner of her bed like a pillow.

But not ten minutes after taking a picture like this I will come downstairs to this...

A shredded loofah...typical. Look at that face. Rotten.

Now I'm sure you're all thinking "if she takes this many photos of her dog, she's going to be out of control when she has a child." Valid point. However, Stella is my child. And that's all I need, want and can handle at this point. She's built in birth control. Or as my German doctors called it - anti-baby medicine.

Anyway, so what else has happened lately? Well Super Bowl XLV pretty much took over my life (as well as the DFW Metroplex) for quite awhile there. I "moved in" to the Sheraton Dallas Hotel the Monday prior to the game and had one of the craziest, most exhausting yet exhilarating weeks of my life. Weird, I know but I actually loved being onsite. I rarely left our office on the 37th floor but from what I hear, the lobby of our hotel was THE place to see and be seen. Everyone from Cameron Diaz to The Situation.

We had our up's and down's throughout the week but overall the program went extremely well. The weather tried it's hardest to ruin everything with layer upon layer of ice but we fought through it. I think my favorite part of the entire week was our Super Bowling Party that was held at 300 Dallas. Coach Sean Payton along with about 15 other athletes were brought in to bowl with the group. It went off without a hitch, despite the weather, and I was beyond pleased with how our decor turned out...






Another great event was the Pre-Game Chalk Talk that was held the morning of the Super Bowl. Our guests had the opportunity to hear the one and only Drew Brees discuss his experience in the Super Bowl. However about halfway through his talk, he spotted me from across the room....

And he's all "how you doin?"

And I'm like "Drew, how many times do I have to tell you? I'm a happily married woman."

And he's all "I don't understand why we can't be together."

Then Babe Laufenberg interjects and is all "can we finish with the interview?"

And Drew is all "Jennifer, please don't go. Will you at least take a picture with me."

And who can turn down a face like that?

You're welcome, Drew.

So a few hours after that as we're putting our guests on the bus to head to the game, the whole Genesco crew is surprised with tickets of our own! That's right, I had an actual seat at the actual Super Bowl. Granted it was in a section that SHOULD have been deemed unsafe as the hand rails on the way up literally fell off, but hey, beggars can't be choosers.

Just after halftime I found myself dozing off. Cut me some slack. I was going off very little sleep and I could hardly even see the game...so I did what any girl would do in that situation - I pretended like I knew what I was doing and where I was going and marched my happy little booty to a suite where my friend was sitting. Worked like a charm.

So that was my Super Bowl experience. And even after all the craziness and drama (that will go unmentioned for legal reasons) and lack of sleep...I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

But that wasn't my only exciting "adventure" over the past month - our dear pal, Jim, came for a visit from Germany. While Jim has spent nearly the last decade abroad, he claims Wisconsin as home. But he "payked his bayg" (in my best Northern accent) for his first real adventure in Texas...which will soon be his new home. What better way to get a taste of Texas than the Professional Bull Riders Rodeo at Cowboys Stadium AND a Toby Keith concert?
Fits right in, wouldn't ya say?

Micah, Jen and Amy...any excuse to wear our boots

He put on a surprisingly good show!

So did this guy

This mullet was rather entertaining, as well. Although Jim pointing at it was probably not a good idea....that was a big man!

The week flew by but we all had a blast. We ventured down to Austin for a few days, we visited my grandparents in Bridgeport, dinner with my mom and Riley, showed Jim what real Mexican food is supposed to taste like, and did a little shopping. Overall, it was a successful trip and Texas is ready to have him back...for good.

And there you have it. We're all caught up, for the most part. I have one mini-adventure to OKC to fill you in on....but I'm tired so it'll have to wait.

Until next time...

Sunday, January 16, 2011

The Best Laid Plans...

...of mice and men often go awry.

I love to blog. Even more so, I love hearing from friends and family that they follow my blog. So why is it that the past few months I've posted all of what? Two times? Fail.

I make plans to post....just hasn't happened much lately.

So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and Happy Birthday to Brad and Happy Birthday to my mom. Bam! We're caught up.

Even if it was almost an entire month ago, I can't not post pictures of Christmas. It was our first Christmas in our new house...

And it was my mom and Riley's first year to have Christmas at their new house. A long time dream come true for my mom. She turned her house into something that belongs in a magazine. (I say "she" but Riley certainly did his fair share, too.)

My mom's Christmas village
The little fishing village...how cool is this?
And the cherry on top was that we were all there.

Hailey, Cody, and Liam drove down from Oklahoma...

Lori, Mike, and Shiner flew in from Florida...

Aunt Kelli and Joel joined us, too...

And of course, us and the pup...

We even got in a little time with the Gonzales clan...

It was a fantastic Christmas with family...

The boys did the dishes...Merry Christmas to me!
Aren't they adorable? A little impromptu dancing...
An "A" for effort on the bow, honey
Brad brought his favorite pjs
This face just kills me...so stinkin cute!
A little smooch for Stella
Cousins
I was so grateful that things worked out the way they did this year. It's always hard to get to see everyone around the holidays but we got pretty lucky. We spent the weekend before Christmas visiting Grandma and Grandpa Beneke then Ma Ma Bingham. My dad and Carmen drove down the Monday before just so we could have dinner together and enjoy a mini Christmas. We spent Christmas weekend at my Mom and Riley's house. Then Debby, Dennis, and Stephanie stopped by on their way through town and we were able to enjoy dinner and another mini Christmas with them. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of any of this which I'm kicking myself for...but we'll always have the memories.

It was nice reminiscing about where we were just one year before...

We celebrated Brad's birthday with a bunch of friends on the 30th and had them all over to our place again the following night to ring in the New Year. I have no pictures to show of this. But believe me, it happened.

And I woke up New Year's Day with a viral sinus infection which knocked me on my butt for almost two weeks. But that's not an exciting story.

What is an exciting story is that I'm working again. I started the middle of December and I'm only contracted through the Super Bowl but so far I'm loving it. It's with a sports marketing consulting agency and I'm working on a program for Verizon. It's Verizon's first year as an official Super Bowl sponsor and I'm working with a small team to plan their events leading up to the big game. The parties and dinners, the athlete appearances, the schnazzy give-aways...it's old hat for some people but I still find it thrilling to be a part of. We'll see what the future holds.

With that said, life is about to get crazy busy until after Super Bowl Sunday. Who know's if there will be another post until after February 6th. But at least I'm telling you now, right? Who knows, maybe Bradley will grace us with his "presence" and do a little posting on our behalf. I wouldn't hold my breath though.

Until next time...