when it rains...

...my hair goes nuts. Seriously. It's only rained about 3 times here in the past 6 months, and I'd forgotten how out of control my hair can get in the humidity. I remembered because Chance decided tonight would be a good time to dine outdoors. And, well, it was - but my hair doesn't thank him.

This weekend was exceptionally good for some reason. It was just your average weekend - no super exciting events or anything, but it was fun. Sunday Funday at the boys' yesterday was pretty enjoyable - despite having to choke down about 40 minutes worth of Meet the Browns (ugh, really?) - it was good company.

I was in a pretty strange mood last night - I was hyper when we rolled in at 12:30AM or so...but unfortunately Chance had taken benadryl for his allergies and just crashed. I stayed up reading til about 5am...just started reading Baby Proof by Emily Giffin last night and couldn't put it down. Brooke introduced me to her books Something Borrowed and Something Blue and I practically swallowed them whole. I often read relatively heavy or deep books, so it's refreshing to read something so light and girly. (Shoot, I never thought I'd say that).

We slept in until around 11:30 today - which we haven't done in a long time! We finished cleaning the house and kinda vegged, really, for part of the day. Got a few things knocked off our to do lists, at least.

Mid-afternoon I did something I'm quite proud of...I fixed my iPod by myself! Okay, I had a little help from a website...but still. I popped it open, unplugged the battery and the hard drive - well, and a few other things before I realized what I was doing - then plugged it all back in and restarted it - and it worked. It's totally back to normal now - I'm pretty excited about it and fairly proud of my relatively non-technical self for the repair. (:

Another interesting tidbit about this afternoon: Brewster escaped. (Mom, don't freak out - just keep reading). He's been having a digging problem lately - but I didn't think it was that bad. Chance went outside to get something from the car while I was finishing up the chores. By his account, he heard a dog barking coming toward him and thought "Great - another stray. Claire's gonna want to take him in". Then he saw the dog - a dachshund...and still wasn't too pleased. Then he noticed the green nametag - you know - the one that says Brewster. He was floored. Brewster came running up to him and Chance brought him inside - I was in shock when I saw them walk in. I'm glad Chance happened to go outside when he did. He cramed a bunch of rocks under the fence which should hold him in for a little while longer til we can either fill the hole or...correct his behavior. Geez. Scary, but slightly funny at the same time. Maybe you had to be here.

This blog wasn't supposed to be this long, really. What I REALLY wanted to tell you about was tonight - kinda the 'cherry on top', if you will. We had dinner plans with my super-amazing-great friend Natalie. Gah, I love her - we've been friends about 4 and a half years I guess (correct me if I'm wrong). (: She's a cutie. Anyway...we went over to her house to meet her (her house is super cute) and got to meet her roommate/best friend Camden and their precious dogs. She'd told me about a Mexican food place she loves (back when we wrote the top 20 Mexican restaurants blog)...and she wanted to take us there (for a late birthday dinner for me)! (: So she drove us down to a place called Sazon on South Lamar - interior Mexican (you know, only the BEST kind). She treated us to dinner (Chance and I shared a Chile en Nogado - one of my favorite dishes), she fed us some of her tasty grilled shrimp, and she bought us mojitos to top it off. Scrumptious. She also gave me my birthday present. I think I offended Chance a little on the way home when I told him that she has given me some of my favorite presents. (: But she has - she always makes me the most special things (like the rose painting/drawing and the dinosaur friends tshirt she gave me)...but this time she really outdid herself.

What amazes me is how much she cares - how well she knows me even though we don't get to hang out as often as I'd like, even though we missed AT LEAST a year of each other's lives since we've known one another. She somehow knows me.

I'll preface it with this: the other day...I'd found some jewelry on etsy I wanted to post a blog about (but, that never happened). For those of you who don't know what etsy is, it's a site where you can sell and purchase handmade items (from clothes, to artwork, to furnture, to jewelry...you name it). I had stumbled upon some sellers who crafted some pretty cool items - and I thought I'd share them with my readers. Luxe Deluxe, Just Be Designs, and Old But New - just to name a few (feel free to check them out).

Anyway, when I opened my gift tonight (it came in this cute little package):


...I was FLOORED.

She'd done it again. Natalie had gone to a place in town called Bead It and handcrafted a necklace for me. It looks like an antique - something passed down for generations. I love antique-y things. I can't even really describe it, it's so pretty - I'll just have to let you see for yourselves! I just can't believe she made it (well, I can, she's so dang creative, but still)...


Natalie, I really can't thank you enough! Now, I don't want to devalue all the other wonderful birthday gifts I got - which I love - I really do.... but Natalie - this gift means so much to me. It's such a work of art - I want to find a way to display it when I'm not wearing it!

...what a great day. What great friends I have (I could write 5,000 blogs about this). I hope I can be the friend to you guys that you all are to me. But like I said - that's a novel for another time. (:

For now, I'm off to watch Heroes with Chance - and to drink the coffee with the 'homemade creamer' he just created! (: Yum yum.