Move Over, Martha!

A couple of years ago, I decided to make a scrapbook for my parents’ anniversary. Having never delved into the uber crafty world of scrapbooking, I immediately took lessons from my good friend Tara…a master of the art. She taught me the tricks of the trade, let me borrow her supplies and even took many trips with me to Michael’s to get fun material.

The book seriously took me months and it was a great hit. Since then I haven’t scrapbooked but I have used scrapbooking materials to personalize gifts and cards. All thanks to Tara, I am an even more amazing gift giver!

For one of my gifts to my sister, I decided I wanted to make her a personalized guestbook for her wedding. Since her colors were blue, black and white, I made sure that was the only theme I went with…the hardest part about making the book was having my sister take pictures of her and Jimmy. It is amazing how different we are…

Anyway, here are some shots from the finished product!

Cover (FYI – The bridesmaids held bouquets of hydrangea)…

From Guestbook

First page. Her and Jimmy met on an online game…here are their avatars sitting by the fire…

From Guestbook

First time using fun stamps!

From Guestbook

I love the flowers that they have come out with…

From Guestbook

Heart Cut Outs…these sucked to glue…

From Guestbook

More game pics…

From Guestbook

Fun paisley thingies… yes, that is the technical term for the blue things

From Guestbook

To see all the pages, feel free to click on a picture.

It was so much fun to make…and I finished it all in two nights! Yay me. :D

Viva la Whitey!

Not two days after I got home from New Orleans, Ben and I hopped on a plane to Las Vegas to help my friend Whitey bring in his 30s with a bang. Our Vegas fun started at 8 AM in Vegas. So Ben and I got some breakfast and walked around until everyone else showed up. That is when the gambling began…as many times as I have been to Vegas, I don’t think I have gambled this much.

Our first night we gambled and we let Adam make the worst decision for us. He convinced us all that we needed to drink those awful frozen drinks out of the yard glasses. NEVER AGAIN. He then redeemed himself by introducing us to Slots A Fun. Awesome and cheap gambling. And I won! Only to then walk across the street to Riviera and give them my winnings. So first night… gambling and awful drinks.

Ugh, worst drink container ever…

From Vegas - Whitey's Bday

The next day we gambled some more. I think I took a much needed nap in the afternoon, just to wake up and gamble some more. Ooh, I also rode the roller coaster with Whitey at New York, New York. So much fun! Then it was off to the Whitey’s birthday celebration at the Spearmint Rhino. Yeah, not much to report on there. A couple of us, left early and passed out.

Limo fun on the way to the Rhino:

From Vegas - Whitey's Bday

Then it was gambling AGAIN. Walking more, eating some and of course more gambling. On the last night we decided to hit up Studio 54 at the MGM. FUN!!! I showed awesome dance moves and made random friends for the boys. Mostly though, I danced. Then after getting all liquored up…we gambled some more! Finally passing out around 3ish.

Pre party before Studio 54:

From Vegas - Whitey's Bday

Maybe it is an angry dance move?

From Vegas - Whitey's Bday

Still at Studio 54..

From Vegas - Whitey's Bday

Finally leaving the dance floor…

From Vegas - Whitey's Bday

The next day we took it easy. I gambled a little bit more (what? Vegas is struggling…I am just trying to help.) We screened a new show – Inside Nascar. Worst 90 minutes of television watching ever. Walked around some more and finally went to the airport. All in all it was a great trip. I love that people are going all out of their 30th birthdays….and just so you know, mine will be in Aruba. Start saving now….

Huh? I live in Texas?

Ooh man, it has been a crazy last two weeks. Rather than bore you with details, I will bore you with highlights and a few pictures.

I went to New Orleans again for work. I went for an entire week, Sunday to Sunday. It was a much busier, more painful (3 inch blister on the side of my foot), a lot more educational and interesting trip. I worked hard (one 13 hour shift walking constantly) and played hard (Oh Bourbon, I judged you the entire trip til I was forced to participate in your drinks.)

A few highlights:

We took a Ghost Tour through the French Quarter….tons of fun!

From NOLA...again

My first official Hurricane:

From NOLA...again

My coworkers and I unwinding after a long day on Show Floor…

From NOLA...again

Firemen! Yum!

From NOLA...again

The THREE phones I HAD to sport on the floor. All for work…

From NOLA...again

One of many…

From NOLA...again

I was home for TWO days until I headed off to Vegas…stay tuned! Just let me say, two huge party cities in two weeks…I think my liver is non existent at this point.

The Day After..

So I threw my sister and Jimmy a Couples shower the day after the bachelorette party. It was fun, laid back and a perfect remedy to a night of drinking. I didn’t get any pictures, but I do have one of the cake that I had made. Once again, my friend Jon made the perfect chocolate/raspberry cake.

If you couldn’t guess, Laura and Jimmy met online…..

From Blogger Pictures

Laura's Getting Married!

Two weekends ago, I threw my sister’s bachelorette party. We had soooo much fun. First we started the night off with a Lingerie/Dirty Bird Fun Shower and drinks. We then all piled in some cars and made our way to Highball in Austin. Miraculously and without a reservation, we were able to bowl in one of the lanes for an hour. It was a lot of fun and I definitely want to go back for some karaoke fun.

Then we had a limo (thanks, Mom!) pick us up and parade us all around downtown Austin. We drank, we danced, we were obnoxious and we danced some more. I am hoping everyone had as much fun as me.

Here are some fun pics:

The Girls!

From Laura's Bachelorette

Jessica and Laura

From Laura's Bachelorette

Morgan and I are obsessed with the star glasses. As you can see, we make sure we are wearing them when no one else is…

From Laura's Bachelorette

Yay, we took them off our face! Morgan, my sister and me!

From Laura's Bachelorette

Theresa in full on dance mode…

From Laura's Bachelorette

She hates the paparazzi.

From Laura's Bachelorette

I kept forgetting the night wasn’t about me…

From Laura's Bachelorette

Someone is getting drunky…

From Laura's Bachelorette

5 minutes later the camera died…which is probably good for all of us.



Random drunk tale from the night:

At the end of the night we were at some club and while we were making our way out, I heard a salsa/samba/fantastic Spanish beat start playing. It just so happen that I was walking across the open dance floor at this point. So I looked around the crowd and grabbed the first (what I believed to be) hot Latino man and started to show off my awesome (I am always the best dancer when I have been drinking) dance skills. While dancing I couldn’t help but notice I was the far more superior dancer and almost felt as if I was teaching… Oh well, I rocked.

At the end of the song, I leaned over to my partner and told him thank you for the dance and something else….all in Spanish (Yes, yes….we all know I have been drinking quite a bit if the first language I choose to speak in is Spanish.) At which point, my buddy said to me “I’m sorry. I don’t speak Spanish…”

All I could think was… “Man, my Spanish is so good right now! I totally understood what he just said!” To which I respond, in Spanish, “Thank you again. You are a great dancer.” To which he says, “I don’t understand Spanish.” FINALLY it clicks in my vodka drowned brain. I then ask him what he does speak (in English this time!) and he says English (really? Is that why I understood you?) and Arabic (I think.) So I said thanks in English and pushed him away.

So my lesson of the night was just because he looks tan does not mean that he is Hispanic.

Worst. Lunch. Ever.

So I go into the kitchen to grab my carefully measured out 8 oz of milk from one of Ben's shake container things. Upon grabbing said container, I notice it didn't look quite as full as when I put it in the fridge this morning. Upon further inspections, I see some asshole decided that he needed to use 3 fucking ounces of my milk! Really? You did't see the coffee creamer on the side or some other shit you could put in your coffee. You had to use MY LUNCH! WTF!!!

After cursing this unknown milk stealer, I added my shake mix and began to violently shake my drink (I was imagining the person's neck.) Little did I know that you have to keep your finger over that damn spout/sippy thing on the top. Sooooo yes, my not-enough-milk-shake exploded all over the kitchen. It is in my hair, on my clothes, on the coffee maker, microwave and even on the fucking floor. Now I just want to find the milk stealer and pour the rest of the 3 oz all over their face. Needless to say, I am having the worst lunch ever.

Juror # 461

So three weeks ago, I received my first jury summons since college. I’m not going to lie… I was excited. I have always wanted to sit on a jury. Maybe it is my obsession with Law and Order, CSI, Criminal Minds or any other crime drama out there…but I wanted to see the action in real life.

So I woke up this morning and picked out my respectable jury outfit with a little cleave showing (how else was I going to win the position of Jury Foreperson!). I caked on less whore makeup and grabbed my jury sheet. Only then did I realize I was supposed to fill something out online prior to arrival. The day was not going as planned…

Having no time to spare, I zoomed out to the waiting traffic on the highway. Really? Shouldn’t these people be at work? It was 8 o clock! I was barely going to have enough time to get there and make friends will all of my new jury buddies. So I weaved in and out and took some side roads, dropped my car off at the Court Valet parking lot (man, I love Dallas. We valet EVERYWHERE!) and ran into the building at 8:23. I had to be there at 8:30.

I went through the metal detector (exciting…criminals!) and found the area of the building. Lucky for me, there were quite a few people that forgot to send in their info online. I joined the crowd and entered everything in. I had my badge scanned and walked into what looked like a Texas A&M classroom and waited to be called to duty.

Lucky me, I was just in time for the informational video that was probably filmed 20 years ago. I chuckled at the awesome outfits everyone was wearing, giggled at the even better haircuts and laughed every time jur-OR was said…I also realized I was the only one even watching it.

While waiting for the real action to happen, I took out my book and began to read. Then out of nowhere I heard “ALL RISE.’ Oh man, this is it! The judge was here!!! Yippeee! I was finally going to sit on a jury! We swore to something (I am all about the details) and then the judge began to give his speech. He asked the group, “Who all was excited when they received their jury summons in the mail about 3 weeks ago?” Right away, I raised my hand. Better believe it, Mr. Judge Sir! In mid raise, I also realized I was the only one so my hand kind of hovered near my face…and quickly disappeared when I thought I heard a camera zooming in on me. The judge then told the crowd how inconvenient it is for him to be summoned and all the juggling he has to do just to show up and sit around, but how it is a wonderful thing and that juries are always right. Ha! Anyway, he spoke some more about it, I tuned out and once he left I went back to reading.

About an hour, they called a group of jurors to go to the courts. Yes! Except my number wasn’t a part of the cool crowd. So I go to sit some more…

The lady finally came back after about 30 minutes. At this point I am squirming with excitement. That is when she announces that none of the courts will need any more jurors for the day and that we are all dismissed. Ummm… excuse me? No, no, no NO! This was my jury day. A day away from work so that I could be a Law and Order Girl! How am I not needed!?! Did you not notice my perfect jury outfit?

Oh well, so I packed up my bag and headed out to lunch and then work. I think next time, I will go for the aggravated-to-be-here approach and maybe I will get chosen. I still better get my $6 for showing up, though…