royal makeover

well we have been fully inundated with the royal wedding all day long around here. didn't wake up at 4am, but i did DVR it so we could watch it at 8. then we watched the today show that was all about it. then we watched a royal wedding special. then we watched royal-themed oprah. faj is the one who's the most into it. but wasn't her dress beautiful? such a princess dress. 

..andd can you tell what this is? a carpet sample? a rabbit pelt?

a close-up of ripley's new hair cut!

 no one can look at her without laughing.

she keeps scratching her bows off which is unfortunate since they're the cutest part. i got a hair cut too, but she shows me up. 

she's like a mere shadow of her former self..

summertime

it's funny/kind of sad how i've gotten used to such a relaxed schedule that when i have more than 2 things to do on any given day, it feels like a million. tomorrow i have to run an errand in the morning, go to yoga (yes i have to. haven't been since monday), and go to preschool early. so since tomorrow will be busy, i need to finish grading assignments tonight, which means i don't have time to write a blog.

so i leave you with this email from my aunt pam who lives off the grid in a house she built near a frozen pond somewhere in upstate new york:
I read your blog tonight and it wouldn't let me post, so you have the honor of an email instead.  Aunt Margi has always called it sewing machine leg from the analogy of having you're foot on the treadle of the machine and having it bounce up and down.  We have both experienced it after scary car situations-not always cop related.  Now it has a name for you-sewing machine leg!  Embrace it!  AP

it matters to me

went to stacy's today to play with drew, who can now walk 50 feet without falling down. he is very excited about it, as are we. 

i was pulled over by a cop for the first time ever in my lifeeee on my way to her house. he was following me really closely, and when he turned on his lights i was so upset because i've tried really hard this week not to spend any money, and i was anticipating a ticket. 

so he comes to my passenger window and asks if i know why i was pulled over. i say no. he says my registration is a month expired. now to fully appreciate this.. the state of texas got tricky a few years ago and blacked out the back of your registration sticker so you can't see the date from inside your vehicle. ironically, the sticker says 'check the date, love your state.'

[photo from here.]

i look at that thing probably 50 times a year while sitting in traffic, at a light, at a stop sign, or just driving and think to myself 'that is really not fair, texas.' and then BAM! it gets me!

he ended up letting me go without a ticket, but my leg was so shaky when i got back on the road that it was almost hard to drive. never want that to happen again.

who your friends are

random assortment of easter pictures. MMMEAATTTT!

we smoked 2 chickens, a turkey breast, a pork butt and 2 sets of pork ribs from noon to 7.

matt's roommates come to all of our holiday dinners now. david and johnny. they are so much fun.

ripley wanted to get in on the easter action so we dyed her paws pink, blue, purple and orange. only the pink and blue really showed up well.

 

it was delicious.

easter weekend

what a difference a month makes!

i think i mentioned that we tried to dye easter eggs at preschool last week, but we didn't have any vinegar so the only colors that took were pink and purple. so today we're going to do that again as a fam. i love dying eggs.

and last night i went to fogo de chao for a friend's birthday party. a meat extravaganza. and today our fam is also having a meat extravaganza.

happy easter!

on top of the world

..i usually write the blog at night, but i'm just too excited to wait. look who got a package in the mail today!

a couple of weeks ago, i posted something on facebook asking if anyone knew where i could find a cute fabric yoga bag. after scouring the internet for several days, i could only find one that i was in love with, and it was pretty expensive. but i have several crafty friends, and one of them offered to make me a yoga bag!

caroline was a yearbook editor when i worked on the yearbook and newspaper staffs in high school, and we have lots of mutual friends. it was so gracious of her to offer to spend time making me the bag. i could never have pulled something like that off and have it look so professional. check out her esty shop. really cute dresses for baby girls. 

i turned it inside out so you could see how pretty the lining fabric is, but it could work like that too. 

don't you looove it? i can hardly wait to go to yoga tomorrow.

this is where i found the fabric. it's really soft.

ready to run

this was week 2..

and this is 3 weeks (or so) later! yellow squash is against the back wall, tomatoes in the back corner, cucumbers along the fence, herbs in front of that and a tomato plant right by where i was standing. everything is doing well and i've only seen and destroyed oneee caterpillar!

we've been trying to use more herbs out of the garden, so tonight jeff and i tackled ina garten's pesto (more or less). we did as much as we could fit in the mini chopper since someoneeee (it may or may not have been me) talked maj into getting rid of the food processor. whoops. that was before i knew about ina.

we eat salmon during the week while faj is gone because he isn't a big sammy fan.. and it was deeeelicious. so yummy. usually we just do olive oil, salt and pepper, but we decided this is even better. you really need to cook it a little bit though because the garlic is reaaaally intense. we used 3 cloves and you could barely eat it before we added a whole bunch of romano and then let it mellow out on the fish while it was still grilling.

and p.s. congratulations to the o'sullivans on their pregnancy! they started a baby blog if you'd like to follow along. they're still in taiwan.