Anniversary Weekend

My sister took the kids this weekend and Brando and I had the whole weekend to ourselves. Weird. But a blast. Wish I had pictures of taking breakfast to Brando and his coworker at his work Saturday morning decked out in my haute business suit in order to stick around and not look out of place. Or me helping his friend move in my cute wedge flip flops and big earrings on Saturday afternoon hence no fun day pictures : ( . We made up for it plenty both nights though.

Drumming on the table to the live music

How could I forget my favorites?

Our favorite restaurant. Ever. We always end up here somehow someway.

Watching Yes Man at The Alamo Drafthouse.

Funny as hell and the perfect drinking game movie.

Our serious faces as we rush to catch the sunset at the Oasis.

We made it!

Waiting for our table.

Yay! We got seated before the sun set.

Our pretty view.

More of our view.

Must get sunset pictures.

Soooo pretty. This was our first time eating here.

It's less than two miles from our house.

And I can't believe it took us three freakin' years to discover it.

 Coming here for the first time is perfect to celebrate our eight years of being together. Our anniversary was in November, but since everything else was also in November we didn't celebrate much and decided to let this make up for it a bit. We heard it didn't have the best food which is why it took us so long to get here, but with that view who cares?!

Plus the food was delicious! And the mango margaritas.

The grounds at the restaurant are almost as beautiful as the view and way more interesting to investigate.

See what I mean? A random space shuttle. I had a nice time in Mars. Learned a lot about men.

Walking SoCo.

The pretty grounds at Hotel San Jose.

Driving up South Congress towards the capitol which you can see at the end of the street.

Had to get coffee at Jo's on SoCo to stay awake.

NXNW. Again. Can't beat the live music. Need I say more?

Buh-bye weekend! Oh, except we went over to a friend's house and stayed up til' 3am.

The Going Out Look

This is my normal for going out, only this time I fluffed up my bangs and made sure to use all my styling products. You can see Brando at the door, impatiently waiting for us to catch the sunset at the Oasis.

I'll definitely post how to do a look if people ask, otherwise I won't take the time.

As for how to do the rockstar look and make sure it is smooth first make sure your hair is straightened. I use a Chi and lurve it. Then, you can use a teaser brush like this one,

or make do with a comb and roll brush like I do. With the brush part of the teaser brush or the fine side of the comb, tease the hair on the top of your head and a little bit to the sides in nine different even sections, three across and three back. You're going to look a bit like Lisa Kudrow in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion at this point.

Then, using the roller brush or the brush part of the teaser comb brush gently over just the top layer. Make sure you do not press the brush in or you will lose the volume. Usually two or three strokes is all you need. You'll want to brush it towards a point at the very top back of your head and let the height of the poofiness be just before where you secure it. Make sure all sides are smooth and use two bobby pins to secure it in a criss cross shape. I usually do the open ends of the boby pins pointing towards either cheek on the side of my face.

Finish by securing the rest of your hair in a ponytail at a height between the nape of your neck and the bobby pins. You can tease the top layer of the ponytail to add an extra rock star glam in there. Or, if you're really brave (I'm not), do a low side ponytail peeking out behind just one ear, making sure to tease the top layer. Finish with a solid layer of extra hold, not sticky or greasy hairspray (I like Dove), and smooth any flyaways. Good luck!

The Rock Star Look

Ah, you know what would be fun? You know how people are always posting pictures of themselves in their fashion getup? While I think that's fun, it also slightly depresses me because while I have one or two outfits that look that way, most of my outfits are the same thing mixed up. It's just makes me want to shop more and I really don't need to be doing that! So. I think posting hairstyles would be fun! Three or four products, a few hair clips and you can pretty much do anything (well, at least, what I know how to do). So whether or not anybody else jumps on board, I'm going to stick to my resolution and post pictures of different hairstyles I find that are fun, which will hopefully inspire me to learn more (I love asking my hairstylist to teach me!), and have something to fall back on when I don't feel inspired.

Introducing hairstyle #1, The Rock Star Look:

What are YOUR '09 New Year's Resolutions?

I was going to do '08 in Review with pictures but when I got to March and already had 80 pictures I changed my mind. So I'll do resolutions again instead. I love that I accomplished so many of the ones I made last year!

This is my second year to do New Year's Resolutions. Last year's resolutions proved to keep me so focused and remembering my goals that they became a subconscious effort and when the end of the year came faster than ever I was shocked to see I accomplished so many of them!! I'm looking forward to making an effort at my additional resolutions this year until they become a subconscious effort as well!!

Personal

On girl time
Keep up the girl time I started two years ago. Specifically visit my cousin in California again, take that girls' road trip I didn't get to last year, visit Napa with my sisters and cousins, enjoy my Monday nights with Li and girls, spend my birthday weekend away possibly in Mexico, and take every opportunity I can to go out with and spend time with and enjoy the girls. As last year the same rewards hold true, the personal satisfaction of continuing to discover who I am apart from mommy and wife.

and adding to this one this year...

On time with my man
Make more effort to plan special time alone with my man to rediscover and relearn to enjoy who we are as individuals and who we are in our relationship. Specifically, continue to take dates once a week as often as possible and plan our "practice" vacation to Hawaii!!!! And actually take it!! This has proved to be much more difficult than I first imagined, what with juggling six schedules and all, but by golly I intend to work through it all and do it!! Brando and I have not taken a vacation in our eight years of marriage EVER, not even our honeymoon, unless you count two nights in podunk Texas as a honeymoon. I don't. We NEED a vacation and I am bent on doing it since I thought of the idea. I call it our practice vacation because, heck, we need the practice before we can do it as a family!! Most couples get their vacationing together kinks out of the way before they start popping out the kids. Well now our kids are older and we have that opportunity I want to take advantage of it in every way I can! Specifically, be okay with the time frame being less than perfect and the kids maybe not getting to have as much fun as if they were hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa in California if the timing doesn't work, or with Brando's Mom having to come out here and take them to school and bring them home while she's here. Also, being okay if the pricing is a little more than I would like to pay for, and understanding there's a price to pay for practice and eventually we will have it down to where we will be able to get the best timing at the best price. The reward, being able to be a friend, have fun and enjoy who I am with when the kids are not around, now and when they are grown up. More tangibly, the reward of taking another more stress free trip next year because we will have had our practice run!!

Adding another one...

On enjoying the beauty of nature
Put a renewed effort into going out and enjoying our town. I'm not sure if it was the kids' school schedule, our jobs, or the pressure of the economy, but we've slacked off on our enjoyment of the local entertainment, nature, and beauty in the past few months and I'd like to get back into it as much or more so than we did before, as we have been having such a wonderful time doing over this Christmas break and had such a wonderful time doing this summer. Specifically, check out every new fun place we hear of in Austin, and every free new event that sounds interesting, including some of our favorites including Ballet Under the Stars, Shakespeare in the Park, South Asia New Year, Musicals in the Park, Barton Springs Pool, Mt. Bonnell, kayaking Town Lake, Laguna Gloria, Mayfield Park, watching the bats on South Congress, Whole Foods headquarters, and hopefully many new places this year!! The reward, knowing that I have enjoyed the beauty of my town to it's fullest and knowing that if I ever move away from here I will not be sad that I did not enjoy the time while I was here. Also, the satisfaction of having so many wonderful unique memories that can not be created any other time or place.

On taking care of my body
Put more effort into my hair. This time it's my hair! Specifically, fluff up my bangs so they're not so freaking flat, get three haircuts this year instead of two, and put more effort into styling my hair even when I go out for simple things, but even more so for girls' nights out, dates with Brando, etc. By the way, this next part might be too much information for some of you! Specifically also to keep my eyebrows consistently groomed by shaping them at least once a month, plucking them at least once a week, and going into have them professionally shaped at least twice a year!! Oh man the way I look when I neglect them or forget to reshape them for even a week or two!! The reward, the personal satisfaction of having pictures where I put my effort in to look my best and can look back at and not nit pick at myself for not doing this or that with my hair and face!

On my thought life
Get into the mind-frame that college is not an option. It's a must. Specifically, figure out what my end is and use college as a means to that end. Figure out if I want to work towards being a teacher so I can be on the same schedule as the kids and continue doing something I enjoy after they're grown. Or if I want to work on being an engineer and end up spending 60+ hours in the field if I want to do something I really enjoy. Or if I want to force myself to get over my faint heart and do something in the medical field. Figure out where I want to be in 10 years and start making a plan to get there. The reward, having a solid goal to work towards and not some vague aspirations that I give up on easily because it's not solid enough to grasp any way. Also, knowing and being able to appreciate all the work that I will have put into it when I reach that goal.

Aspirations

On school
Get creative with financing for school and my time frame. Specifically, check into loans for school and what the specifics for paying them back are. Calculate what my income will be when I graduate and figure out how long it will take to pay them back. Then calculate the amount we will end up losing in twenty years if I don't end up getting a degree to where I can earn a decent income and having to settle for a job where I work my ass off and make less than $24k a year. As far as time frame, specifically, ask around and see what courses would be best to take online to get out of the way when there are times that I can be flexible with my hours in my home, but not out of the home i.e. in the summer. The reward, being able to accomplish my goals without being a burden on my family, and instead actually being able to help our future.

On my home front
Keep my home maintained and decluttered and invite more people into my home. Specifically, set aside a time every month to declutter each room and throw out items that are no longer needed. Also, maintain our daily habits and routines by cleaning up after ourselves and teaching the boys that in our family we clean up after ourselves. Teach them that we work before we play, so that once we're done working hard we can play even more than we would've been able to before. Invite each of the couples we know over, and make a point of having a new couple over once a month for dinner and a movie or margaritas and chips and a game night. The reward, giving myself permission to buy one new kitchen, decorating or entertaining for my home each month as I succeed.

On my family front
Continue to take pictures that are actually a happy moment this year. Also, to take more fun and goofy pictures rather than smiley ones where you say 1-2-3 cheese all the time! Aw, it makes my heart smile thinking how many happy pictures we took last year. Specifically, making sure that I continue to capitalize on those happy moments before or after the fact and remind them how happy they will be to have those pictures later. Also, specifically, find and pay attention to interesting and fun set ups and faces in magazines, other pictures, etc. that will make our own pictures more interesting and fun.  I am so camera happy that people get irritated with me for it sometimes! Thanks to people like KT for encouraging me by telling me how good I am at snagging other people to take pictures for group photos. Most of the time I feel like I embarrass everyone I'm with when I do that. Good thing I don't care either way! The reward, having those memories captured on film to enjoy that time over and over again, and having more than just smiling faces, more of the personality of each individual!

End of Year Resolution Update

So this was the very first year I ever did New Year's Resolutions. I meant to update them once a month, but as that wasn't a resolution I don't feel badly that I didn't. I almost feel better knowing it became a subconcious thing to work on them. I haven't gone thru them yet, but I have a really good feeling that I've covered a majority of them! We'll know by the end of this post!

Personal

On girl time

Keep up the girl time I started last year. So did awesome at this! Visited my cousin again - yay!, had SO many girls' nights not even including my weekly nights with my girls Li, M, and Ambr, took a cousins trip to Phoenix with my sisters and cousins. Not only did I have a lot of girl time, I had a lot of special guy time with my man, too. That came later in the year, and as a by product, but this year we went to our first vineyard and had our first wine tasting, had a date almost every week, sailed on our first boat together, ice skated alone for the first time together, and had date upon wonderful date doing something fun and new each time including watching Ballet Under the Stars at the Zilker Hillside Theatre, floating in Barton Springs, and climbing Mt. Bonnell.

Yup

On taking care of my body

Leave my freakin' face alone! Hmmm, not sure how I've done on this one. It's definitely not AS bad as it was at the beginning of this year. Part of that was discovering I needed to use separate wash cloths for my face than the ones I use for everything else. So mine are a special color now and used for my face alone. That helped a lot. I still irritate my face when I'm nervous but usually I'll catch myself and go do something more productive.

Yup

On my thought life

Be easier on myself. I'm working on it. I'm okay with who I am and seriously want to give myself a kick in the rear to be all I can be. Maybe that will be NEXT year's resolutions. In the meantime I don't apologize for who I am or lay blame. What happened in my life up until I could make my own decisions happened and all I can do is change what I do now and change what I do for my kids.

Working on it

Aspirations

On school

Finish another three semesters of classes. Eek! Well, finances kind of put an end to that for the moment as we barely scraped by this summer and fall. I am signed up for a class this spring though and am crossing my fingers I can once again handle work, kids, and school (how do you do it again, GFF?).

Working on it

On my home front

Get my  house back to where I need it to be. Somehow along the year I learned to accept my house for what it was and where we are in our stage in life with where it is. Along the way something amazing happened, and only in the last few weeks, I threw a wine tasting party for 25 people! I did not want to stress out the week leading up to it so I just busied myself decluttering and throwing out the junk that had accumulated that I hadn't bothered to toss. Shawners and I ended up clearing out 150 toys out of their closet alone. That doesn't count the two garages Brando and I compacted into one by putting up shelves and clearing an entire trunk and carload worth of things to go to Goodwill. Somehow my house has happily maintained itself since the grand decluttering and we are quite enjoying it.

Yup

On my family front

Enjoy life! In the moment. Oh my gosh, this has probably been the most fabulous success in my resolutions. I have so enjoyed every. moment. of this year. Doing what I want, when I want, and how I want. And not blaming others for myself not having a good time if I didn't open my own damn mouth and make what I want to happen happen. Specifically, I had a blast tubing the Guadalupe with my girlfriends and one of their boyfriends. Brando? He stayed home with the kids and I didn't apologize for it. The trip out to see my cousin, the trip to meet up with my sisters and cousins, the countless dates with Brando where I said where I wanted to go and stuck with it (Ballet Under the Stars was a major feat and he LOVEd it : ), the many many moments with the kids where I didn't apologize for doing what I wanted to do, regardless of what they thought we should do. And the pictures I took? Every single one I look at I can tell you the specific happy moment surrounding that picture. No ugliness at all. That doesn't mean there weren't fights, I just didn't force them into making a happy moment out of it. I just let them be and fall by the wayside. The happy moments take the stage and shine in every picture. And there are so. very. many.

Absolutely yup!

Four out of six ain't bad. That means I kept two thirds of my resolutions and am still working on the final third! Whoohoo! How did you do on your resolutions this year?

Dance Party

I never used to understand how people had dance parties at home. When GFF would mention them or Laura, or any other blogger I can't think of right now, my mind would turn into a great big WTF? Then my neighbor taught me to sing even if I don't know the words, my best girl Kel Bel taught me sing from my gut and stay on key (most of the time), my girl Li taught me to keep the beat while letting loose and not giving a crap who cares if I dance, just dance, like a record baby ; ) .

Now? My boys and I have dance parties all around the house to Disturbia, Love Lockdown, Dangerous, and Don't Stop the Music, Shawners teaches me foot moves from happy feet, and when the boys take off with Brando for a game night at a friends' house? I get a work out to Just Dance by Lady Gaga. Now I understand, when you have an idea of how to stay on beat, sing sort of on key to the music and just enjoy yourself you can't help but have a dance party when the music plays.

Family and Friends

Christmas Eve we spent with my sister and her family at their house. We had pizza, salad, english toffee, and spiced wine. Yummy and easy. We exchanged gifts and it was so sweet to see Justinbustin's presents for them. He had a budget of $50 for his two cousins, and the three of us and he bought the sweetest presents! A kitchen knife for my chef nephew - his cousin, a car magazine for his car enthusiast cousin, a video game magazine and a ornament coke bottle for Brando, two Pokemon toys for Shawners, and a pyramid of Ferrero Rochers for me. I think he even had money left over! My middle nephew's sweet gift to us was a special time with him going wherever they want, and a few nights of babysitting for us! It was a special time spending Christmas Eve with my sis and her family, and a special new tradition we've begun for the last two years.

Christmas day the boys woke up and we all opened our stockings on Brando's and my bed. Then they brought the gifts from under the tree two by two and we spent the next hour and a half opening all our gifts on our bed, starting with Santa gifts. Shawners got a plethora of Pokemon toys, cards, and movies - exactly what he asked for. And Justinbustin got a huge Star Wars lego set that he has spent eight hours working on putting together since. He's almost done! He actually asked for a PSP or an iTouch but was reminded Santa doesn't do that expensive of gifts. Star Wars lego set was stretching it as it was!! My mom bought the boys remote control trucks which reminds me of Christmas mornings in SC, driving around and seeing all the remote control cars out on the streets from being opened that morning for Christmas. Santa did good this year, and all the gifts from our family were so sweet and thoughtful.

I made a baked frittata and raspberry crepes for breakfast and our neighbors, aka Justinbustin's substitute teacher and her hubby and two boys, came over for breakfast. They stayed for about three hours drinking mimosa's and coffee and visiting while the four boys played together. We've never had people over for Christmas before and it was a total blast. I can't wait to do it again!

We spent the afternoon brushing Brownie with her new furminator. We ended up with a pile of fur about a foot by a foot big!! It was AMAZING! I can actually pet her now without her fur flying all over the place or walking away with fur all over my clothing.

For dinner I made garlic and thyme crusted prime rib, mashed potatoes with au jus gravy, cranberry & feta salad, while KT joined us for Christmas dinner and brought an Alabama specialty - turnips and macaroni and cheese (she made it healthy by making it whole wheat). She also brought a DELICIOUS super soft bread from Whole Foods - yum!! I gave her the new Brittney Spears CD, Circus, a few days ago when we went shopping for Christmas because she mentioned she had wanted it a few months ago. I was so glad she hadn't got it for herself yet!! I told her she better not buy me anything in return, but she did - gorgeous silver etched earrings from Macy's that I absolutely LOVE. We had more mimosas for dinner, because she'd never had one and she hung out for about four hours. Another fun time with friends we've never experienced on Christmas before!! The kids LOVEd having their former babysitter over, and her and I sat at the table long after everyone was gone and cracked ourselves up until we were holding our stomachs and our faces were bright red from laughing too hard.

She left to go spend time with her little sister, and Brando and the boys and I settled in to watch Elf and laugh our heads off. I can't believe I hated that movie the first time I watched it!! It must've been my aversion to Will Ferrell that kept me from actually seeing the movie. Now with the boys doubting Santa's existence this year, and Santa having to write a detailed letter to Shawners explaining how he can live in the freezing Antarctic, how his reindeer can fly, how he can make it to all the houses in one night, and why he can't wake him up when he drops off the presents (last time he did that he didn't make all his deliveries and the elves made him promise not to do it again!!), I totally got into the spirit of Elf and believing in the Christmas spirit to make Santa's sleigh fly! I even sang along with Zooey Deschanel aka Emily to Santa Claus is Coming to Town!!

What a perfect way to end the evening as we finished up our movie and tucked the boys in bed. Shawners cuddling with his teddy bear in a sweater that Gma gave him, dressed in his moose pajama pants that I gave him to match the ones I gave Brando and Justinbustin (mine are pink with owls in scarves and hats and white pine trees - so cute!!), and Justinbustin big man stretched all over his bed that he is almost as big as.

Brando and I fell asleep to Fred Clause, and I savored the thing that I enjoyed most about Christmas this year. The fact that we are together, and happy. After hearing about my friend's husband moving out last week, it struck me how shallow I had been with gifts and realized I could have returned them all and been happy just having my family with me and being happy together with having friends there as a sweet added bonus.

A broken economy

makes for very last minute Christmas shopping. KT and I did our mall thing Monday, but didn't come up with much. Yesterday Li and I made round two. First stop at Walmart, second stop at the mall where I FINALLY found Brando something and Li helped me put the finishing touch on it. Yay! The boys played their DSs again, and didn't say a peep. Afterwards we stopped by Chilis for afternoon margaritas, southwestern egg rolls, spinach dip, and buffalo chicken. Mmmm.

Last night I started some of the grocery shopping for tomorrow's meal, and Justinbustin did his Christmas shopping with Daddy.

WARNING!! This next part gets deep!!

I also heard the news last night that my BFF is getting a divorce. Her husband moved out a week ago. They have been working alternate schedules for the last year and a friend of hers has been coming over and helping out with the kids while she is working. It got to be a little more than helping out, and now they are done.

My heart breaks and I am so very, very humbled thinking about how I have been stressing over gifts here and gifts there when the very most precious thing to me is that Brando and I are together and on speaking terms this Christmas. More than that. We haven't spoken about money lately so we are on pretty darn good terms. Not that we don't need to speak of money and won't, but not speaking of it allows us a breather amidst the stress. Then we have to take in a big gulp of air again because we'll realize while we thought we were breathing, we were actually just holding our breaths.

My heart is so broken right now for my good friend. She is not on good terms with her mother and sister either, and it sounds like she will spend Christmas alone. I am so very grateful for my family right now, and wish her the deepest peace in her heart over any gift this Christmas.