finally, a baby!

No, we're not pregnant. We're still not planning on having a baby ANY TIME in the near future. Let's stop that train before it starts. BUT, our friend Emily who I photographed here finally gave birth to a precious baby boy.

We're pretty dang excited. I'm pretty sure Emily is too, after 9 hours of labor - and 24 hours of 5-minute-apart contractions prior to that, she was ready to have that baby in her arms. I was blessed, along with our best friend Brooke, dear friend Betsy, and a majority of Em's immediate family (her parents, sister, and husband Charlie to get to witness the whole thing alongside the Doctor and nurses (which included on of Em's good friends, Kelly).

I'll spare you the gory details, but birth is a pretty amazing thing. I never thought I'd be willing to SEE that happen to ANYONE...but at the time, all modesty and preconceived notions totally fell away. It was unexplainable, but one of the coolest things I've ever seen that will stay in my mind forever. It is a beautiful process - painful, yes, but beautiful.

Emily gave birth to Najib Laith Rajeh on May 17th (awesome because his namesake - Charlie's father, Najib - had the same birthday) at 1:00AM. He weighed 8lb even, and was 21.5 inches long. His hair may account for half an inch or so - because it is LONG! (:

Charlie and Emily got to spend their first night at home with Laith last night, so I'm anxious to see how that went!

I'm sorry I'm just now posting about this - I felt like I already had, since I've been posting photos to Em's facebook account as well as a special page for her family. I've been tweeting about it, updating my facebook status...and making phone calls. I didn't mean to leave you guys out!

Without further adieu, I give you photos:

Here's Em, right after she got admitted. Her water hadn't broken yet, which you can tell because she's still smiling.



Seconds after Laith was born - literally. The nurse was handing Laith to Emily as this shot was taken.


Charlie, Emily and her Nurse and friend, Kelly - all admiring precious Laith in his first few minutes of life.


He wasn't too keen on being measured, poked, and prodded. Then again, who is?



Chance holding a day old Laith.


Look at that hair! Seriously!




Getting in his car seat for the first time. Not so sure what to think. (:

photoshoots and things...

I might have mentioned in the last blog that we stink at blogging. I might have also mentioned that we've been busy as heck. Chance has been working a lot, and I've been trying to catch up on work, as well as do about a billion other things.

One of the things I've been doing (well, at least attempting) is shooting some friends. Wait, that sounded bad. Photographing friends. Better?

I did a photoshoot with Candace Christiansen, our Realtor and friend, the last day of March. She needed some temporary headshots for business cards and such. I haven't shot portraits outdoors really (besides just playing around with Chance)...so it was definitely an experiment. But...it was fun for me, and free for her, so hey! It all worked out, I think.

We played around in the arboretum for a while,

And then we headed to Mayfield Park for some different (and better) scenery.




Finally, we stopped on Burnet Road for some of my favorite shots of the day.




All-in-all, it was a relatively good shoot. It made me realize my level of inexperience, and it solidified the fact that I couldn't ever be a professional photographer. It's way too much pressure for me (even though I was shooting in a totally pressure-free situation). I put too much pressure on myself to do well, and when I don't succeed (or meet my own standards) I get disappointed. Also, shoot- photography can get expensive! I shot with my Rebel XT, cheap-o 50mm f 1.8 lens, and the onboard flash - with a DIY diffuser I made from a film canister. If I had better equipment...more experience...anything, these might have turned out quite differently. Makes me respect the Hafners, as well as some of my other photographer friends like Stacy Reeves, Rachel Brooke Stricklin and Michael Cummings even more. But Candace sure is a perrrrrty gal. She was so much fun to photograph (and even more fun to grab a margarita with afterwards)!

I also volunteered to shoot my buddy Emily's maternity photos (I know, you hear a LOT about her, get over it - we spend a lot of time together). I had my concerns, especially since we were shooting so late in the game (she was a month away from her due date). I had even MORE concerns after our failed attempt at a shoot the previous day. We had gotten a very late start, Emily hadn't eaten and got sorta dehydrated/nauseous/terrible feeling, I got devoured by mosquitoes, and the light at the botanical gardens hadn't been what I thought it would be. We went out again that next day - hoping for better, and better we got. I've only edited a handful of these so far, but I'm sure one of us will post more of them on facebook (well, as soon as I give them to her). We shot for the better part of a day, but...I'm glad we did. We got plenty of good shots (although the ones of she and Charlie didn't turn out wonderfully because we ran out of light. Ohhhh well). We headed to Mayfield (one of my favorite new places), and shot a lot at her house, in her own territory. It definitely helped that she's absolutely freaking beautiful.














There have been plenty of other things going on...Em's baby shower (also late in the game, but fun, nonetheless), painting furniture for her nursery, my sister coming in town, re-planting our flowerbed and trying to fix our yard. And that's just the tip of the massive iceberg. Still haven't gotten around to going through the photos from our SXSW adventures back in March (but you SHOULD check out one of our new favorite bands that we heard during SXSW for the first time, Mumford and Sons).

Alritey. That's still all I've got for you. Pretty darn sure we've lost all our readership (and our credibility - well...maybe only from those of you who follow me on twitter). (:

Maybe we'll get better at this whole blogging thing. I think we're both just waiting for things to get less busy, or for something to change...but pretty soon we'll be giving up on that whole thing.

the pressure...

Well, looks like we got stuck NOT blogging again. Oops. I think somewhere along the line we started pressuring ourselves to post photos with every blog...and, well...there's a stockpile of them on my computer waiting to be sifted through. We haven't posted about SXSW yet simply because I haven't gone through the photos. I haven't even begun sifting through photos from March, and I think there may still be some from February that need posting. I mean...we didn't even really discuss Chance's birthday trip to College Station and how much fun we had. But here we are, in April, coming up on bigger events (like Emily's baby shower and the birth of her baby boy - in something like 5ish weeks?!?!) - and we're falling behind.

I don't know why we pressure ourselves to add photos to each blog. Probably because its more fun to tell a story visually, and probably because we TAKE so many photos, we think we should!

I also have a tendency to want things to get posted chronologically. I think that's my OCD kicking in. I have a hard time posting events out of order. Yuck. It gives me the heebies.

I'm planning on setting aside some time to write a few blogs (but then again, I always say that, don't I?). Hrm. It'll eventually get taken care of. But once again, we've been busy with concerts, friends, Brewster scratching his cornea, photoshoots...shoot. You name it.

And right now, I should be working, but I'm blogging instead. I need to get my priorities straight, eh? Back to work for now. Maybe we should ask YOU guys what you WANT to hear about. Let's try it! Here's a list of potential blog topics:

+ March 1st trip to College Station
+ SXSW
+ Bands we've recently discovered (and love!)
+ Robert Adam and Casey in town/Soldier Thread CD release show
+ My photoshoot with Candace
+ Future furniture projects (but hey, I guess I'll post about those in the future)
+ House project updates
+ Some new finds on television
+ Good movies we've seen

...okay. That's enough for now. So what do y'all want to hear about most?

i know, i know...

So, Brooke's been complaining that we don't blog enough - and frankly, I agree. I really enjoyed writing every single day in November - taking the time out to vent, or celebrate, or ramble, or whatever - it was healthy. Since then though, I keep posting and promising to you that we'll write more. My intentions really are good, but I just can't actually make it happen.

You might wonder what exactly it is that keeps us so busy, and in reality, I'm not entirely certain. I keep WANTING to blog - but things keep distracting me. There are so many things I could write about - but I feel like other things keep happening that keep me from it. Same goes for Chance - he keeps telling me he's going to blog about things, but he has way less time than I do. And...because I'm slightly anal about writing events down in order, chronologically, I don't post until after he's posted about such-and-such event...etc. Basically...we just suck at this whole blogging thing. But, we're gonna try until we get it right.

Anyway - I guess we have been pretty darn busy. Since the end of February, we've purchased a new car ('09 Mazda 3) - which I KNOW Chance wants to blog about (and show you pretty pictures of our new baby)!!! We took a road trip to College Station for Chance's birthday - hung out with friends there, and celebrated his 25th. We've also had several friends turn a year older - in fact, Emily's b-day is coming up on Sunday. Let's see - what else...our AC went out at our house (had that fixed). My computer keeps overheating, but I keep putting off trying to start the whole repair process. We started digging up our overgrown flowerbed in the backyard and had a slight accident involving a pickaxe and some pvc pipe - causing a geyser in our yard and no water for 20 hours or so. I helped Emily paint her baby's room, and hung out with her parents, sister, brother, and his girlfriend last weekend. Chance has been pretty busy with work (adding an additional 2-3 hours a week on to his already 50something hour work week). Oh - and SXSW is coming up next week, so we're trying to get ready for that (planning a schedule, and getting ready to have people crashing at our house). Oh yeah - and right now I'm sick (yes, again) with some fever and some major aches (similar to what happened in July '07 that made me feel fatigued for 4 months after that).

So yeah, I guess we HAVE been pretty busy. I'm just overwhelmed. So I'm sorry we haven't kept up with our blog very well. We really are working on it - or we will, when I stop being sick and things stop blowing up in our faces. Yup.

aaah, the dreaded 25...

Honestly, we only have like ONE blog reader (RA, ahem, ahem) who doesn't have facebook (that I know of, well, excluding family)...

...but this "25 random things" thing has been spreading around my friends on facebook like wildfire. You've seen these before, I'm sure...where you get 'tagged' and are required to share some number of random things about yourself and then 'tag' other people, or forward it on, or whatnot. It's all just a time-waster really...but since I wasted so much time writing one I thought I'd at least get two posts out of it, and put it up here too. Hey - maybe you'll learn something about me you didn't already know. Chance did! (:

So, here it is:

Since I've been tagged by 9 people, I figure it's time to give this a go. I thought about waiting 'til that number hit 10, but I'm in procrastination mode and figured..might as well.

1. I love food, so what better way to start this? - Donuts and Ice Cream are probably my two favorite edible things in the entire world. If only one could exist, and I were forced to choose, I might throw myself from a building.

2. Toffee is my favorite candy-type substance. Tied for second: Cadburry Eggs and Brach's Mellowcreme Pumpkins. Mmm, seasonal candy. (Okay. Enough about food for now).

3. When my house is clean and things are organized, I feel like a completely different person than dirty-house-Claire.

4. I love lists. To-do lists, wish lists, lists of restaurants I want to try, lists - lists - lists! But sometimes I get irritated when I can't get through them. Once I set my mind to doing something, I have to finish before I can really rest.

5. I often daydream of having a 'real job' where I get to go to happy hour with my coworkers, instead of sitting around the house smelling dog farts all day. But if I had a real job, I'd miss those farts, I think.

6. I almost always refuse to spend more than $20 on a piece of clothing, yet I'll spend much more than that on things for my home. Guess I'm only half-cheap.

7. I have a difficult time listening to music while I'm working - I start listening too hard and forget to work.

8. I really can't multitask at all, although I've been told that no one can ACTUALLY multitask - but I feel I'm worse than others at faking it.

9. I herniated a disc in my back about 4 years ago. It was a 3 step process that involved trying to learn to booty dance, a major tumble on snowskiis, and rearranging the furniture in my room single-handedly. Lately, it's been hurting again.

10. I was tall for my age, until 6th grade when I stopped growing and everyone else shot above my measly 5'2".

11. Ross Sudderth called me fat in first grade...but I didn't get fat until 3rd or 4th grade (and then I was a REAL tubbo). Maybe he was a psychic, but that scarred me for a long time. He also sang Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire accompanied by vulgar movements at Christmastime that year. Perhaps I shouldn't have taken him seriously.

12. I used to have imaginary friends that were mice named Michael and Jennifer. I think they were somehow inspired by David the Gnome. They kept me company when I got in trouble and had to go to time out.

13. Speaking of time out, for quite some time when I was little, I had to sit in the time out chair in the hallway EVERY Sunday. I'm not sure why I misbehaved every Sunday, but I did. At least I had company...

14. I dream a LOT, but my dreams are rarely good. I only remember ONE good dream, and I had it when I was probably 5. Batman (Adam West) and Robin came to my grandparents' house and they were sick and I had to nurse them back to health. I loved that dream. Most of my dreams are fairly pertinent and realistic, and I have a hard time not getting them mixed up with my real life and letting them affect my mood.

15. I have kids' names picked out even though I'm not even sure I want them. In fact, at this stage in life I'm 80% sure I don't. But I do love the names. Maybe we'll use them for future pets.

16. I've only walked out of a movie theater once that I recall. If I remember correctly, my dad had taken me to see the animated movie Cool World when I was 8, and it ended up being WAY too 'grown up' for me to watch, so we walked out. I still haven't seen the movie.

17. I have hundreds of stuffed animals that I've collected over the years. They're currently in my garage and I'm giving 3/4 of them (at least) away. It's heartbreaking to let go of them - they all have names and memories. Luckily (in this instance), in the past two years my memory has gotten bad, which makes this process slightly easier.

18. I HATE the movie Home Alone, and I'm just now getting over my hatred of Macaulay Culkin. I watched that movie the night my parents told me they were getting separated...and have hated it/him ever since. He was pretty funny in Saved though, and that redeemed him a little.

19. I think some numbers are just UGLY. Like 19, which also happens to be my birthday. Appropriate?

20. Last month, I got homesick for what was possibly the first time EVER, and I actually entertained the idea of eventually moving back to Tyler. Yikes. I honestly can't see myself ever leaving Austin. Love this town.

21. I'm passionate about music, houses/architecture, and interior design. I'm hoping to eventually develop at least one of these into a career.

22. I've always been one of those people who was well-rounded, GOOD at a lot of things, but not exceptionally great at any one particular thing. I've always been jealous of people who are just 'gifted' and 'know' their calling because it's so obvious. I shouldn't complain, but I've always wanted to be exceptionally great at ONE thing, rather than good at several.

23. I love my close friends so passionately that my friendships often feel like 'relationships', and if one ends, it hurts like a breakup.

24. I think some numbers are just beautiful, and this is my favorite. I really SHOULD just stop here...

25. 99.9% of the time I get in bed at least 10 minutes after Chance at night - and I always warm my freezing appendages with his body. He doesn't appreciate it, and he always squirms. I'm not sure if I do it more for warmth or for the pleasure of watching him wiggle and protest.

january's been a whirlwind

The past few weeks have been quite busy, and maybe even slightly more fun than the 'norm' (as you can probably tell from our lack of blogging - we really need to work on that). I feel like we've been quite a bit more social than normal...which feels really good to me...but it makes work that much harder. Lol. Oh well.

When we got back from our holiday adventures, Brooke was in town, and then she came back the following weekend with her friend Emily from nursing school. It was SO good to spend some time with those ladies (and the rest of our friends we met up with while they were here). It was a real treat to get to see Brooke two weekends in a row (although I can't believe she made two trips down here)! I'm sorry she got in a wreck and had to get her car fixed up...but I'm certainly glad it took them a little too long to fix it so she graced us with her presence again! (:

In the past couple of weeks, we've also been blessed to have Monday-sushi-night with Charlie and Emily two weeks in a row! The first week we tried Maki (a create-your-own style sushi place) - you can read Chance's food blog for a full review.


This past Monday we enjoyed Austin's first conveyor belt sushi place...K.G. Sushi Train...they were having a special for $1.50 per plate...Chance and I totally loaded up on sushi - we all ate way too much!


The Monday we went to Maki (2 weeks ago) we also headed to my cousin Howie's to play wii with him...and we had a blast. Lol. He got some weird game pack that was pretty complicated, I must say. Check out the old man in the corner...lol...


Chance got pretty good at a few of the games...and Howie and I showed him up in basketball. The wii world is the only place where us shorties can beat giants like Chance. (:


...more fun ensued on Wednesday. We went to Liz and James' place for Elizabeth's 28th birthday party - and there were crepes and coffee for everyone to enjoy! It was a blast talking to friends from church and hearing some snippits of future Jets Under Fire songs, courtesy of Corbin. It was super chill....the cream puffs were tasty (even frozen), and the company was even better.

Seriously - we've had a ton going on...so much it's hard for me to remember it all! This past weekend was incredibly fun. Michael, Julia, and Sherrice all came in town on Saturday for the Wideawake CD release show. They came in a little early so we could play some games...we ended up playing Gemblo (which is similar to Blokus), Wasabi (which was just awesome), and Tsuro (which we love). The show was early, so we headed out for an early dinner and stopped along the way at Dragon's Lair (a comics/gaming store). We went about 6 months ago, and I had totally felt out of place...but this time, I felt like I fit right in. Hahah. I think I'm embracing my inner nerd more than I have been. After some shopping (and purchasing by Michael and Julia),


we went down the road to Phil's Icehouse (mmm, love me some sweet potato fries), which everyone seemed to love. After stuffing our faces, we headed to the show - where Sherrice and Michael stood in line and Julia and I sat in the car and stayed warm til the doors opened. It was good to see Wideawake again,


and I've got a billion opinions on the show...but I'm just hoping someone else (ahem, Sherrice) will review it for me. The best part of the show was my cousin Ashley appearing out of nowhere - shoot, I hadn't seen that girl in like 2 years. It was great to get to hug her!!!


After the show, we played a new game that Michael and Julia had just bought - and Chance joined us...he got home from work about the same time we got home from the show. Then - we headed to Whataburger to re-fuel, and followed up our grubbin' with some Killer Bunnies (which my pal Philip had given us for Christmas). It was a long, busy, fun day - I haven't had that much fun in quite some time.

...but we did have quite a fun time this past Sunday. After church we went to Lunch with Sherrice (who'd spent the night), Stephanie, Trey, Corbin, and Chad (Corb's brother) at Magnolia cafe. Mmmmm...good food. Then - Stephanie and Trey came over with their precious Yorkie, Becsar, and we introduced him to Freddie and Brewster. We played Killer Bunnies with them before they had to head off to dinner with some folks. Sunday evening we went to help Blaine and Elizabeth Crockett move their dining table into their new house, but it was already done once we'd arrived. We decided to help them out instead by going out to eat with them. Hahaha. We went to Firehouse Subs, which was actually REALLY good (not nearly as good as Obee's, but it certainly beats Jimmy John's, Subway, Jersey Mike's (which I really like) and POSSIBLY even Which Wich). They have a huge variety of hot sauces you can add to your sandwich (my personal favorite being Pappy's White Lightning)...mmm. Tasty.

In the midst of all of this 'being social'...we've also gotten a good deal of work done. Okay, okay...it's not as much as I'd like. But we've at least gotten the ball rolling on the garage organization project (which is huge). I forgot to take a 'before' photo...but I guess I should take one now so that you can see at least a portion of what we've come from. So far I've gone through about 3/4 of my stuffed animals and several other boxes, while Chance has hung a shelf and started putting things in the attic (where he had to first lay wood across the rafters).


It's going to be quite a process, but at least we're moving on it. Yesterday we painted one wall so we can start getting things set up at least along that wall. I'm really hoping we can finish it by March - that's my goal...because I'll have a lot of other projects to complete after that!

And now...I'm sick - with some kind of severe sore throat (maybe strep?)...I'm going to the doctor this afternoon. Fun fun fun.

So...in case you've wondered WHY we've been slackers....we really haven't - just in the blogging arena. I'm hoping we'll get around to posting more blogs (shorter ones)...as our schedule starts to clear. 2009 has certainly started out as a busy year for the Patricks!

good times in tyler (aka: holiday blog #2)

Let's pick up where we left off, shall we?

Here's where my memory probably won't function like it should - which really frustrates me. Oh well - it's better for you guys - it'll mean a shorter blog to read (yes, short by MY terms, or shorter than it COULD have been).

The thing I remember MOST about the day after Christmas is the yoga. That's right...Luci talked me into doing yoga with her at her gym (instead of spending the morning working, like I fully intended). I've NEVER done yoga before - and only thought about it once or twice - promptly changing my mind when I remembered how clumsy I am and how badly I'd probably hurt myself. Somehow, the day after Christmas I decided it'd be a good thing to do - mainly because I was feeling like a tubbo from the mounds of food the day before. Anyway...I went....and according to my sister, Tonya - the instructor - went easy on us. Whatever. The class was small, thankfully; it was my sister, myself, Tonya, and two other people. According to Tonya I did fairly well - she gave me a few suggestions to correct my lines or whatever you call them...but I've NEVER seen my muscles twitch like that. I don't think I've ever done anything so strenuous in my life. Toward the end of the class Tonya said something about doing headstands, and I assumed she was joking and nearly started laughing. She wasn't joking. Everyone else aroumd me got on their heads like it was old hat. HA! I'm still on the fence about the possibility of starting to go in for yoga classes at Gold's ....or never doing yoga again, ever. Ha. It was amazingly hard - I was sore for days afterward, but I was proud of myself for doing it.

I don't have any photos from the 26th at all, so I'm going from memory here. I know the 26th started my latte kick - I had coffee with dad in the morning, and then again that evening with Zach Matson (a friend I hadn't seen in YEARS!). I was able to go to lunch at Carretas with Daniel Elbert (one of my absolute best, and longest friends) and hit up Target for some after-Christmas sale goodies (what a great friend, he was carrying crap around Target for me). I also had the pleasure of hanging out with the Becker family and eating some of Charlie's good cooking for dinner (yay for hanging out with Charlie and Em *and Maan and Sarah* in Tyler!)...but I had to turn down several plans for lack of better time-slot-planning (sorry Mark and Amanda). It was a pretty busy day, now that I think about it.

...and since my memory is apparently returning, you can all probably forget about this being a short blog...at this point, I'm writing for the sake of preserving what memories I do have...lol...

The 27th was 'Logan's Christmas'. It's the first year for Logan (my nephew) to have separate Christmases, but he celebrated with my family on the 27th - since we didn't get to see him on Christmas day. It was a pretty big celebration - we had pizza for lunch at his request...and watched him open a zillion presents (and opened our presents from he and Luci). Chance and I got him some webkinz - which I was pumped about playing with...but we never DID get around to it. He got some awesome stuff though...a new bike, a bike ramp, an iPod shuffle.


Man, he's spoiled. But we did have fun playing with his toys! My mom, Luci and I went shoe shopping briefly after that...and then I met up with Elbert for another latte and some wandering around Tyler (checking out some apartments and going to furniture stores and Bed Bath and Beyond). That night I was supposed to go to Megan Carr's wedding...but it also happened to be Tiffany Taff's b-day celebration day...so I opted to hang out with miss Tiffany and the gang instead...and Elbert opted out of the fun, so we went our separate ways. I headed to El Charro (one of the old childhood haunts) to have dinner with some fun folks (including, but not limited to: Trevor, Jonathan, Jennifer, Nathan, and Laura) to celebrate miss Taff being a quarter of a century old. We laughed a lot - then proceeded to her dad's house to play wii. That night - I moved my stuff from my sister's to my mom's so I could stay with her for a couple of days. That's right - not only is my Christmas a mobile one, but every time I stay in Tyler I generally move from place to place so I get to spend a little time with everyone. It'd be so much easier if my whole family just lived in one big house. On second thought, not really.

The 28th...Sunday...I went to Elbert's church which was pretty cool - the service was over 2 hours, which I'm not used to, but the worship was cool and the preaching was great too. Afterwards, I met up with mom, Luci and Logan for lunch at Chili's, then we headed over to my dad's house for Logan's Christmas with him. It was fun to hang out there for a little while...til I had to go work. Working in Tyler was interesting - I didn't get ALL my hours in, but it was fun to venture out to the various coffee shops. That day, I opted to go to Java Jams - the coffee shop in the grocery store (which, at that point, was the only one I knew had free wifi). There were quite a few interesting characters there - like the hobo who was sleeping across from me. My friend (and 'co-worker') Trevor showed up for a little bit with his brother Sam...and talked to me. When I finished working, I headed back up to Elbert's church (where he was setting up computers for them)...and we met his brother Scott for dinner at Little Italy (Lililly - for those of you who knew me in high school). I had probably the most fattening thing on the menu - eggplant parmesan with alfredo sauce. GOSH it was GOOD. I haven't eaten Italian food at a restaurant in at least a year (Chance doesn't believe in it)...so it was kinda nice. Afterwards, we pulled a typical Tyler move and went to walk around WalMart. Yup. That's what you do at night in Tyler. The boys got tired, and...I went home - intending to work - but passed out as soon as I hit the bed.

The 29th was my day of 'adventure' - Claire style. As I'd mentioned briefly before, Elbert was apartment shopping (he's been living with the 'rents and is ready to move the heck out)...but he couldn't do a whole lot while he was at work. I volunteered to check a few places out for him (get pamphlets, prices, info, etc) - so that's what I spent most of Monday doing. I went by 7 or so apartments before picking up some Chick-Fil-A for myself and Golly and taking it to her house to eat and spend some time with her. After lunch, I headed to these AWESOME new lofts downtown (the Moore Grocery Lofts)...and then worked a little at my dad's. Elbert met up with me around 4 at this really awesome 4-plex I'd found to check out on Craigslist - then we went to another amazing house that had 7 or so different units in it. These places were AWESOME...old...ahh...I can't describe them. The loft + those last two places were seriously amazing. If I HAD to move back to Tyler, I'd probably opt to rent out one of them. Loved them. I think I had soup for dinner at dad's that night - not that you care - lol...and then went to Elbert's to hang out. We played the Office game (one of his Christmas presents) - which he kicked butt at - me, not so much.


Although - I ALMOST won - I kept getting the easy questions. But he beat me. I let him. Not really.

The 30th was another adventure-filled day. I worked that morning at Cafe Tazza (best frozen Chai EVER). Then I went to lunch with Golly (who had been nice enough to loan me her caddy for the duration of my trip - so I was picking her up from her hair appt), mom, Luci and Logan at McAlister's. After lunch, I ran an errand or two, which included moving my stuff to dad's house (where I'd stay the rest of my time in Tyler). Then Luci, Logan and I went out to my aunt Julia's place. She and Jan (her friend who she lives with) have a TON of animals - so we thought it'd be fun to put on our grubbies and go play. There were so many precious pups (this one's Denim),


a cage full of beautiful doves, plenty of roosters...you name it.


There was a male goose that was in love with a male Great Pyrenees (and very protective of him),


some really funny goats,


and a PRECIOUS horse who followed us around and constantly put her face right in mine the whole time we were there.


Logan even got to ride a horse for his first time.


Afterwards we grabbed some gas station snacks, went shopping for dad's bday present...and then I went home to work a little more. We had leftover soup for dinner (if my memory serves me correctly)...and then I went to Elbert's again to close out the night. This time, we went to Dairy Queen donning free sundae coupons (courtesy of a client of Elbert's), I showed him photos of my day at the farm, he discovered Google Maps Street View for the first time ever and was overwhelmed,


and we watched Peanut (his sweet cat) be mischevious.


I'm a little foggy on the goings-on of New Year's Eve. I know I worked for a while that morning and I'm pretty sure I had lunch at some point, but I have no clue what or with whom. That afternoon I went over to my cousin Allison's house to visit with her and Nana (my dad's mom). It was nice to spend some time with them (even though Allison's bird Tweety was on my head half the time - haha)!


Late that afternoon I drove to the line to purchase some alcohol for NYE beverages. Ohhh - the line. Tyler is in a dry county, so you've gotta drive out to lake Palestine (or Kilgore) to buy any alcohol. Let me tell you - I have NEVER seen liquor stores look like this. It was like black friday all over again. Insane - I tell you.


Elbert came over that evening to celebrate with me. We began the festivities by watching a dvd he'd brought of all the Pixar shorts. It was a good start to the night - watching Jack Jack float around...and the snowman in his snowglobe...and those fat little birds on a wire. We then proceeded in our attempt to make mudslides (one of the only drinks Elbert will drink which is why I bought the alcohol)...only to find out that the blender was leaking. I guess that happens when you've got a blender from the 1970s. Hahah. I was determined to make them though since I'd driven 30 minutes to buy the mixins. Lol. I put some ice in a ziplock and Elbert pounded it with a potato masher while I hand mixed the alcohol with ice cream...then added in ice. We eventually put it back in the blender - just long enough to give it a good stir...then voila! Mudslides! They weren't actually too bad for my first time - especially considering the circumstances.


Somehow, Bert's was quite a bit stronger than mine, lol - oops. Oh well. I'll give the mudslide the credit for getting him to play Perfect Match with me (one of my favorite games when I was a little girl). It was hilarious. I'll give you a peek:


Oh man. I can't even begin to tell you. We kept trying to find Dick Clark on TV but it wasn't on until the very end for some reason - we pretty much ignored the whole New Year's thing happening. I mean - we argued about whether the ball would drop at 11 or midnight - and we said Happy New Year...but that was about it. We were too involved in our game of scrabble (which we both kinda suck at - so we made up ridiculous rules) to care.


Man - it was a relaxing, fun evening though - I love spending time with Bert. Missed Chance of course - and the fun he was having back in Austin...but I had a good time for sure.


New Year's Day I worked some, then met up with Elbert for lunch at Chick-Fil-A. He was pretty worn out from the night before - it seems his parents woke him up earrrrrly...but he still wanted to hang out. So...we chowed down and then headed to the mall and wandered around there for an hour or so. He bought some pretty nice things on sale (this guy's got more style than I'll ever have)...but I think the walking around the mall did him in. He headed hom to take a nap while I went over to Philip Newman's house for his family's annual New Year's Day get together. I was just in time for some dang good food - a LOAD of various potluck appetizer-type things...man...it was good. I got to play Settlers of Catan, Flux, and some other funny game with shapes with he and Michelle (love her) - and they gave Chance and I Killer Bunnies for Christmas - AWESOME! Without knowing that I'd ever wanted the game, Philip and Michelle prevailed and got it for us. Sweet action.


After getting KILLED in both games (I don't think I'll ever beat those two at anything) ...I went over to Elbert's where we played with Peanut, TRIED to play Killer Bunnies (but failed), and watched True Romance - which was a pretty good, *although pretty rough* movie.

On to the 2nd...my daddy's 60th birthday, and my last day in Tyler...Chance got in town around noon and we once again unloaded the dogs at my sister's house. We headed to petsmart to pick up some food for the boys and some things for Golly, then we met Elbert at Ken's Pizza. Mmmm...pizza buffet. Lol. Greasy, but good - and still one of the best salad bars! Hahaha. Ohman. After Ken's, we went with Elbert to the Mansions, an apartment complex out by the country club Elbert's parents are members at...just to check it out! And...THAT's where Elbert ended up signing a lease. Yaaaay - he found a place he really likes. I'm happy for him. It might not have been MY first pick, but it has most of the things he was looking for in an apartment! So...that's exciting! I'm happy for him. After that, Chance and I went and hung out with Golly - we did three crosswords with her (can I just say I LOVE doing crosswords with Golly?!?!)! Then, we headed to dad's house to meet he and Karen so we could head to Villa Montez (my favorite Tyler restaurant) for his 60th birthday dinner. The meal was delicious and the company was fun. I had a cucumber mojito (excellent) and a pomegranite mojito (not so great) while Chance sampled some imported beer from Argentina (?) and Puerto Rico (?) Lol.


We had family-style appetizers (mmmm, Chino Latino rolls!), followed by sea bass (for me),


surf and turf (for him),


and a massive plate full of dessert (also served family-style). It was a great night and a fun celebration for dad (I think!). It was pretty entertaining for Chance and I...Luci and Logan were there for the first part of it, and toward the end we were entertained by the 55-60 year olds all pulling out their iPhones and showing each other youtube videos. Man. THAT's entertainment. (: Hahaha. They're higher-tech than we are!


Well - that's pretty much the end of our time in Tyler. We hit the road the next day - I'll let Chance cover our time in Amarillo - since that was HIS official vacation.

I'm pretty sure no one will actually read this whole thing, and if you did, I'm sure you were bored to tears. I'm sorry. Lol. I just wanted to have memories recorded for when my memory fails (which seems like it could be any day now)!!!

...the end...(for me, at least).