This is me

THURSDAY
Worst.Day.Ever
Something about eyelashes and glue
Don't ask.
Glad to finally go home and get to bed.
Set my alarm a little earlier -(babies to see at two different hospitals 30 minutes from one another in the am)
FRIDAY
Jumped out of bed at the first sound of the alarm
Showered
Make-up
Blow-dried hair
Packed a baggie of Swedish fish for lunch
Before backing my car out of the garage glanced at the clock on my dashboard:
12:37 am

Bayou Nature Park

Here are a few pictures of the nature park to entice the Funks to come visit so we can take them:

and if that doesn't entice you, this should:

cute little Atley, whom you've never seen!

anybody else want to come?

HAPPY 2011!

Ode to 2010 - the year of transitions - Our Top Ten

1. Shacking up at Bethy's house because I was homeless (thanks Bethy and Brandon)
   
2. Accepting two job offers
3. Being fired from the first job before I started, then dad being fired after 12 years of service in Mexico
   
4. Graduations of Shady (BYU, Spanish), Brandon (BYU, Geology and Engineering) and Shawn (UT Medical School)
5. One trip to Nashville
   
6. Two trips to Mexico City
7. Three trips to Utah
8. An "almost" trip to Amsterdam
9. Buying a home and closing on it the last business day of the year
   
10. The birth of Atley Kae Reed - Grandchild #9 - Best transition of the year (actually more of a transition for them than us)
    

Christmas 2010

Why do I love Christmas?

(sorry you weren't here, Funks)

This is why. What a great year!

Nutcracker

This year I decided to start a new tradition and take all of the "girls" to the Nutcracker matinee performance. I knew Mabel would love it, but was a little worried about whether Annie would be able to sit through it. Annie was enthralled and Mabel had never seen so many "princesses" at once in her life. She was hesitant to leave during intermission because she wanted to make sure she would be able to come back for the rest of the performance.

Shady probably enjoyed the art as much as the music.

Bethany and her beautiful girls

Mabel wanted to share her drink with her nutcracker doll.
We missed Carrie and Caroline and Brianna and Atley, and Violet. Maybe next year!

Dancing with the Stars

Anybody know Corky Ballas?
Yeah, me neither,
until last night.
He was at the Tomball Hospital Christmas Party.
They hired him to come perform.
As a side number he gave the group dancing lessons.
Then he and his partner roamed the room looking for "problem students,"
and guess who they found?
DTB danced with Natalia - his sexy, volumptuous and extremely talented partner,
and Corky took on me.
After a few short minutes of instruction we both looked pretty impressive -
until we got back together.
but that's where we're going to stay. In spite of the dance missteps -
he's still the one.

Poodle

Happy 30th Birthday Poodle!
We love you!

Thanksgiving

So grateful . . .






and so many more.

Nieto #9

Congratulations to Ryan and Brianna for making us grandparents again.
Little Atley is beautiful!
and Asher - well he's adjusting quite well.

Halloween

We encountered quite a few spooky creatures on Halloween:

the beautiful Peterson girls . . .

brother, Shady and company

the cutest little cowboy EVER . . .

Paul, the octopus (predictor of the World Cup)

(I guess she would have to be his ghost, since he passed away this week)

Princess sock hop

Lego my Eggo Annie

and, scariest of all - the lovely Yoda!

One last hoorah

So, I'm a little behind . . . but. . .
two weekends ago we returned to Mexico for one last goodbye party hosted by our good friends Oscar and Vanessa Roja.
While there, we visited a few of our favorite spots.

Tacos Chamisal - the best food in Mexico is on the street. (not the safest, mind you, but the best)
Now THIS is a taco!

our favorite bancas on Reforma . . .


other art on Reforma . . .

and wonderful friends!
We forgot to bring our camera to Oscar's party, so no photos of them. Thanks, Oscar and Vanessa for a wonderful evening!

Happy Birthday, Fernash!

Today you turn 28.
I can't believe how fast the years have gone.
You came into the world in a hurry
and have not slowed down yet.
Every time I think of you
I smile!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful daughter!

Super Saturday

an early morning run with a cool breeze +
hamburgers at Barnaby's with the Harpdogs +
splashpad at Discovery Green with Violet +
pomegranates from Kroger with Shady =
a Super Saturday!

The Nashville cats

Highlights from our trip to visit the Funks:

Loveless cafe - the food: school lunch fries, flavorless, but juicy chicken, and great biscuits. the experience: couldn't be better! (and that's saying a lot for taking three kids out to dinner)

Caroline's soccer game: the photos tell it all




I'm not sure they were aware that they "lost" the game.

Cheekwood - a beautiful place, the kids were even excited about going through the museum. I loved every minute of it.


Here's how we occupied ourselves during Devin's surgery:



Poor little post-op Devin: hungry. drugged. hurting, but not knowing why.
The only things he said: to me "I want more crackers (or donuts, or . . .)", to Caroline - "stop looking at me!" (she was very interested in why his eyes looked "different.") Poor baby!
We can't wait to visit again!

Ladrones!

I'm working in Spring, Texas, which is a very nice suburb in north Houston. I've found, though that even in nice suburbs there can be a little rifraf.

Yesterday when I arrived at the office the electricity was out. This time we couldn't blame a nasty hurricane or the power company. Apparently, the night before, a couple of thieves decided to steal some copper wiring behind the shopping center. The cut the large cable containing copper, hooked it up to their truck, and drove away, ripping the copper-filled cable out of the ground. And with it - all of the electric wiring. Although our office had power the next am, the power company shut off power to the entire shopping center due to the live wires.

So, for the small gain of about $50 worth of copper for the thieves, five businesses were shut down for several days, at a cost of thousands to each business. Our business was the only one that stayed open, thanks to Tad, my partner and the owner. Within a couple of hours he had a generator hooked up, fans throughout the office, lamps in every room, and sheets printed out to replace our computer system. Given the humidity from the tropical storm and lack of A/C, we looked pretty frizzed by the end of the day.

JERKS!

A Few Good Women

This weekend I ran the Provo River Half Marathon with some chilanga friends from Mexico City.
These ladies can take on anything
and still keep smiling.
I'm proud to call them my friends.

Fun with Poodle

Poodle was here last weekend and we had so much fun:

Yep, everybody loves Poodle! Thanks for coming!