A New Adventure

For anyone that knows me very well, I have been quite miserable for the past year (my god, thats a long time) due to my job. Well, in 2 weeks it will all be over!!! When I was on vacation (as it always happens) I got a lead on a new job at a rival resort by a hospitality recruiter. I had my 1st interview on Tuesday, my second on Thursday morning, and then they offered me the job before I left that day. On Friday I turned in my resignation letter at the Hyatt (right as my boss is trying to leave on vacation in 1 week, ha ha). I will start my new job on April 6th and am super excited!! Go check it out at www.dolce-lakeway-hotel.com

New TV

We finally got our new TV a few weeks ago, we had been looking for quite some time but it wasnt like we needed it, so we were waiting for a great deal and then we would buy one. Well, we finally found a good deal at Conn's (kinda like H.H.Gregg), and had Katherine & Rob help us out by meeting us with the SUV, and let me tell you, I never realized how little our old TV was. We had a 32" and we upgraded to a 46" inch, its freakin huge!! It seems like when you look at the wall all you see is TV, but I have to admit, it doesnt seem as bad anymore, now that I've had time to adjust. We thought about going with a 52", we are glad we didnt.

Anyway, I took a picture, really the only people who will really understand the scale is mom & lisa since they have seen our old one, but either way, here it is.



On another note, Ian and I will be taking a 8 day vacation to California in June, we are super excited. We are gonna go to San Diego, LA and San Fran (gotta love free hotel rooms!!) We are gonna do LegoLand, SeaWorld, the San Diego Zoo, Universal and then sight see in San Fran (so golden gate bridge, Alcatraz & the sea lions). I am super excited, it will be the 1st vacation we have ever taken together that lasted more than 1 weekend. So look forward to seeing all sorts of pictures come June!!

Vacation...

in just 9 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Busy Busy

Nothing great to post here, its just been super busy at work. I'm still trying to catch up from all the christmas & new years proposals and now valentines day is this weekend. I really don't know how I am going to keep up with it. I wish these guys would just find a random day to propose and not propose with the rest of the entire human population!!!

The great thing is that I will be visiting home in about 24 days or so, so I am very much looking forward to not only a week off work, but to see the family and do lots of wedding stuff with Lisa. You would think I wouldn't want to do any wedding related activities on my time off, but since its for Lisa I'll suffer through.

Anyway, I can't believe I am still awake, its been a very very long very very busy day. But tomorrow is my "day off" (I'll be doing work from home almost the entire day, but at least I'll have a break from the phone calls) and I am very much looking forward to it (and sleeping in).

Like I said, nothing interesting to report, but just wanted to check in anyway!! Happy Wednesday!!

Happy Birthday Lisa

So, I am sure a few people are thinking, has Mimi lost her mind?!?!?! No, I realize Lisa's birthday was over a month ago, HOWEVER, I just finished her present. I had it about 90% completed by Thanksgiving and was hoping to have it done so she could have taken it home with her but no such luck. The funny thing is that was over 2 months ago, so it took that long to finish that last 10%. Really, it just took about 6 hours of painting and watching my recorded episodes of Ellen to get it done. Anyway, I'll bring it home in March all framed and pretty for Lisa, but wanted everyone to see yet 1 more of my masterpieces :)

For Mom

Now you can all see my new glasses, and a little bit of my office too!! As always, I dont really like this picture, poor Katherine had to take like 4 pictures before I could even stand one.


I only need my glasses for night driving and for when I am going to be staring at a computer screen for long periods. I went to the eye doctor never expecting them to actually tell me there was anything wrong, and I still have 20/20 vision but my eyes get tired so this helps make things more clear and actually bigger, so then my vision is better than 20/20.

A Boring Day in the Life....

Just some random pictures to show parts of our boring lives :)


Annie and her sunbathing. She just loves to lay on the deck and sit in the sun, she is just so funny!!


Ian "de-furminated" Jaska today. Its just amazing how much hair that dog has on her. As you can see, there is quite a pile on the ground.


This time its Jaska's turn to be goofy, she is always laying like this, right in front of the dog bed. Oh, those dogs, they just always keep me laughing :)

Puppy Party

So we had Annie's big birthday party today. I didnt get any pictures when the other dogs were here because they were out running around in the backyard, but I did get some pictures of my awesome decor and of my puppies.


I got the doggie party supplies - pretty cool banner huh :)




I made special brownies for the dogs, with a birthday candle for annie of course


I also made brownies, that actually smelled and tasted good, for all the peeps


The Birthday Girl!!
Now I might be biased, but I think this is the cutest picture of anything ever, in all of time. I think this could be in a basset calendar for sure!!!!


Annie didnt really care about the hat, but Jaska really wasnt having it.


They really wanted the brownies, but were being good girls and waiting until we said they could have them.


Yummy Brownies!!!


Why thanks, I'll just serve myself.


I want more, dont you dare take them away!!!!


Jaska really liked the brownies!!

The Big 7!!!

My precious little annie girl turned 7 yesterday!! We are going to have a doggie birhtday party on Sunday, so I'll be sure to post after that so everyone can see the pics. I sang her happy birthday as she was falling asleep and she got to eat a yummy treat when we got home. I think it was a good day in basset hound land.

Holiday Crafts

I am trying to get into the holiday spirit (which is hard when its not cold or snowy) so I have been doing some crafts to try and help. Enjoy!!! (now, I know I normally post a picture and then the description, but I flipped it this time, just FYI)

Ian and I built a gingergbread house. Now before you get too excited, it was a kit, we just had to assemble it, but Ian assembled it and I decorated it. I think it turned out pretty good for our 1st one ever. Next year we decided we would try and make a more complicated, or at least, a prettier one.



As I was sitting in the waiting room at the doctors office on wednesday before my physical therapy appointment, I was glancing through one of the family magazines and saw the coolest super easy craft project ever. It was making bookmarks out of ribbons and buttons, that you would lay in the book and each end with the button would hang over the end. So I decided I wanted to make some for family & friends. I am still searching for individual buttons but found some packs at Michaels that I thought would be great to send to all my little cousins in Chicago to go along with their christmas gifts from Lisa. It was so easy and fun and I am looking forward to making more. Everyone should try this craft, all you need is a hot glue gun, ribbons & buttons, so easy and cheap!!!

Lots of Info!!

This is my 3rd post today, so be sure to scroll down and check everything out. This last post is gonna be some random stuff that didnt really fit but I wanted to let everyone know.

1st Thing:
I know you all know Im crazy and like stuffed animals and toys, but I have some super cool animals right now. They are about 2 feet tall and have a metal frame so litle kids can ride them. Last year I got Mr. Elephant at Sams Club (I had seen him a few years back but wasnt able to buy him because he was gone, so last year I saw him and HAD to have him). So this year Sams Club now has a lion, triceratops, bear and horse. (I really wanted Mr. Giraffe but missed him too, darn it) Anyway, I just got the triceratops but really wanted to call her Cera (Sara) the triceratops, not Ms. Triceratops. So that meant I need to rename Mr. Elephant, plus I still want the lion and bear, so I decided on the following names. Cera the Triceratops, Lionel the Lion, Bob the Bear and Ernie the Elephant. How do those names sound???? Any additional suggestions I am willing to listen too.



2nd Thing:
We had some crazy weather yesterday in Austin. Its been kinda chilly recently (in the 40s and 50s, maybe a high in the 70s). Anyway, yesterday it was beautiful, I had a dr appt in the morning so I didnt go into work until like noon or so. That morning I didnt even need to take a jacket, by the time I got to work it was 82 degrees. So we were sitting in the office and it just kept getting colder and colder inside and we couldnt figure out why. We found out that it had dropped about 40 degrees in 5 hours. So we all ran out to our cars in short sleeves and getting pushed across the road by the heavy wind.

When I got home we just kept hearing the wind hitting the windows and swirling outside, and the temps just kept dropping. So I was upstairs in bed reading a book and it sounded like hail hitting the windows. I knew it was raining but I didnt hear thunder or see lightning so I really didnt think it would be hailing. So I got out of my warm bed only to discover it wasnt hail, it was sleet. Turns out it was actually hailing in bastrop (where I work) and later in the night we had thunder and lightning, but more sleet than anything. There was a cover on the ground, the deck and on the roofs of the houses (even the next morning) and on my car (which was no fun because we dont have any car scrapers anymore).





The bottom line, we had a record high and a record low for the day in austin yesterday. Gotta love crazy weather!!!

Thanksgiving with the Family

Lisa, Mom and Eric were able to come down and spend Thanksgiving with us and the puppies. It was so much fun and went too quickly. We had big plans on taking picture but didnt get any before Lisa left, and the night before Mom & Eric left we hurried up to take some pictures.

Mom got some pictures from Thanksgiving day, but I dont have those so you cant see them (hey, I havent seen them yet either so dont pout).








i really wanted to get a good picture of the 4 of us to try and send in our christmas cards, but after 4 or 5 attempts this was the best we got, so no pictures will be going out in our cards unless ashley comes over and tries and can make ian smile and jaska care


I know my eyes are closed, but it was a good picture of everyone else, especially annie girl

Anyway, we had tons of fun, we put up all my christmas stuff, went shopping (left at 4:30am on Friday and didnt get home until 7pm, it was a long day). We had tons of Thanksgiving food, Ian's friend Marty come over for Thanksgiving, so amazingly enough there were 3 women and 3 men, I dont think its ever been even.

After they left I continued with my holiday decor, and took some extra ornaments and filled my pretty snowflake bowl with some extras. I think it turned out nice.



We dont have any outdoor lights or decor yet, but after Christmas we are going to get them on clearance and next year we will decorate the outside. A lot of homes in our community really went crazy so I dont want to look like a christmas poop next year again. I have big plans for day after christmas shopping, now that we have the house I want things to be pretty and match since I actually have places to display things now!!!

San Antonio #2

So back in October we took a long weekend to San Antonio (which I discussed before with the Sea World pictures). Anyway, we went and visited the Alamo and got some pictures. Its funny how we are in the middle of downtown San Antonio and right in the middle is this historic building that you see in so many paintings in the middle of nowhere. How the times have changed.




These two pictures were actually taken by our friend Pete Jones, who is now the assistant food & beverage director at the San Antonio Riverwalk Property. We worked together at Coconut Point (he was our banquet manager) and not long after we moved to Texas he did too. Anyway, the Hyatt has a VIP suite with a deck that overlooks the alamo, thats where we were standing. What a great view for a party.




Is this not the hugest cactus you have ever seen!! There were tons of these at the Alamo.

The Countdown Continues!!

ONLY 8 MORE DAYS - I CANT WAIT!!!

Sea World San Antonio

Ian and I took a 3 day weekend down to San Antonio probably 2 or 3 weeks ago and I am just now getting around to posting some pictures. I still have some to post from our visit to The Alamo, but that is for another day. Let me just say, I love Sea World and all the animals, so I hope you enjoy the pics!!


it was penguin mating season, this couple must have started early because they already had the baby penguin, and it was quite large as you can see.


this middle penguin was ian's favorite, it just kept waddling around and just has a funny look on its face, doesnt it?


nothing special here, just some pretty penguins


I FREAKIN LOVE THIS OTTER. I wanted to just steal him, he really wasnt much bigger than a ferret, I WANT HIM!!!


we spent quite some time with the sea lions because I love them too. They make me think of Annie and I just want to steal them, but they are a little too large for me to bring home :) We took some really great video of us feeding them and them making their super cute noises, but something happened to the video and I dont have it anymore, which makes me very sad


this sea lion caught the fish I threw down to him (or her, no clue)


this guy was begging for fish, if Annie were a sea lion, this is what she would be doing all day long :)


ITS SHAMU!!!!


this was during the Shamu "Belive" show, this is the part where 2 of the trainers ride on shamu and then shamu jumps in the air (with them still standing on his nose) and then they jump off and all 4 land in the water, I WANT THAT JOB!!!


this is from when we were feeding the dolphins, since it was a sunday in October the park really wasnt busy so we were able to get really close. Ian got this great picture when it was my feeding time (so thats my arm you see).

we got a video of us feeding the dolphin but i dont know how to post it, the file size is too long and my computer genius of a husband tells me he doesnt know how, and doesnt want to try either - so if you want the video you need to bug him about it!!

The Countdown Continues

THE COUNTDOWN JUST GOT EVEN BETTER - IN 40 DAYS I WILL SEE NOT ONLY LISA, BUT MOM & ERIC TOO!! THE RICHARDSON CLAN (INCLUDING THE PUPPIES) JUST CANT WAIT!!!

The Countdown Begins

I WILL SEE LISA IN 43 DAYS!!!!
HOPEFULLY I CAN SEE MOM & ERIC THEN TOO!!!!

One More Masterpiece...

here is my newest paint by numbers, i really like this one, but i do think it looks much better in person, the picture doesnt do it justice.



instead of a new paint by number, i got a basset hound puzzle, so that will be my next project, then who knows what will be next!!!

My Hobbies

Here are some pictures of 2 of my favorite hobbies - my annie girl and my paint by numbers.




my annie girl loves to sit in the sun - sorry for the not so clear picture, i didnt want her to see me through the windows so i was hiding behind the couch holding the camera in front of the mini blinds, the screen and the closed window - but you can see how she loves that deck and the texas sun - thank goodness its been cooling off, its only been in the high 80s low 90s which has been such a refreshing change from the past 4 or 5 months


i finished another paint by numbers on friday, i went out yesterday on my way home from work and got a new one, an underwater scene with 4 dolphins and some fishes - ill post a picture when im done - i know you all cant wait

Hurricane Ike

I know I got quite a few phone calls on Saturday asking about the Hurricane and Austin, well, we are fine. I believe the eye was still somewhat close to Austin (maybe 60 miles away), but luckily we were on the west side of the hurricane which is always the weakest, plus there was a pressure system (low or high, I dont remember) that was pushing it even more east. We were prepared for power outages and high wind, we had water, flashlights, candles, and pulled in both cars and the grill, but of course, we didnt get anything. No rain, 15 mph winds, yup, thats all :)

Because of Ike we actually have a cold front this week, it was 68 on my way to work today and the highs are supposed to be in the high 80s, so I am very excited about that. It is supposed to last all week, but Im not holding my breath, but will enjoy it as long as its around!!