Stepan is in Dallas this week so it's just me and Homer at the house. It's hard being a single mom. It's incredible how much easier it is to deal with our little family when there are two of us sharing the responsiblities...twice a day feedings, dealing with the poop, early morning walks. Though the absolute worst part is watching Homer waiting by the front door every evening for Stepan to come home. As it gets later and later, he gets mopier and mopier. I pet him and I hug him and I try to tell him that Stepan will be home soon...but he just doesn't understand. Heartbreaking.
Mom and Kathleen have been toying with doing the AARP triathlon in Irving this weekend. While we were all together last weekend for the Splash Triathlon (blog entry pending), they had the brilliant idea of approaching Grandma to do a relay with them. Mom would swim, Kathleen would bike, and they would both do the walk with Grandma.
Grandma was sweet enough to tell them that she would consider it when they asked her on Monday and smart enough to tell them no when she called them back on Tuesday. Grandma quote (according to Mom), "I'm not going to travel 160 miles just so I can walk 3."
Yesterday, Stepan and I celebrated our one year anniversary. He got me a fabulous Swiss Army pocket watch. I got him a kick-a$$ camera case (which we have already exchanged for the next bigger size), a new wallet, and had his Swiss railroad watch fixed (new band and battery). It's fun having another day in the year to anticipate getting presents.
We didn't do anything fancy to celebrate though we did visit Father Cletus at Holy Cross. He sure likes to talk! Thank Goodness his sermons, though of mind-boggling duration, are always interesting. Yesterday's sermon was especially appropriate for us...it dealt with marriage and respect for your spouse.
After Holy Cross, we changed our clothes (they dress up for church at Holy Cross), grabbed the dog, and went to EZs for lunch. Then I got to take a nap while Stepan drove us out to Pace Bend where they allow you have your pets off-leash. After a nice 2-hour hike over faintly marked trails (we did get lost), we cooled off at Lake Travis before heading back home. Once home, we popped open a bottle of champagne and enjoyed our year-old wedding cake. It actually wasn't too bad (many thanks to the "wicked stepmother" for wrapping up so well for us). The icing was a little iffy, but the cake and raspberry filling were still fairly tasty. I don't think I know anybody else who successfully ate their top tier on their anniversary...do you?
We also spent some time (maybe 30 minutes) looking for letters we were suppose to open on our 1st anniversary. One was written by my mom (I think) at the shower hosted by my cousin. (Elizabeth actually still has this letter and others from the shower.) The other two we wrote to each other at the pre-marital retreat we attended. When we wrote the letters to each other, the church said they would mail them to us on our anniversary. We knew we were in trouble when we got them about 6 months ago....I wonder how many couples who attended "One With the Lord" actually kept track of their letters and opened them on their anniversaries...
Unbeknownst to us, The Arbor Theater, an art film venue, reopened last week at the old Great Hills Cinema location. Step and I saw Kill Bill there with the O'Reilly's yesterday. It's a great theater, with comfortable seats and seat arms that you can move out of the way if you go with a hot date...or your husband. Currently, in conjunction with the Austin Film Festival, they are showing Texas Ties (films shot in Texas) for $2.
Last month, I did some emergency AutoTurn simulations for one of our client, engineering firms. The project pushed aside some of my other deadlines and I worked the occassional late shift to answer the questions that needed to be answered. It ended well when we were able to come up with some solutions that were not going to be as costly as originally feared. Today, in a token of appreciation, the client engineering firm sent me 3 dozen, fresh baked cookies from Tiff's Treats :-) YUM! And when they were delivered, they were still warm :-) DOUBLE YUM!
It sure tastes good to be appreciated.
I helped WHM host a baby shower for a co-worker tonight. A great time was had by all. I just love thowing parties...especially parties that are financed by someone else!
The party was at Lynn Wright's house. She's got a fantastic setup for parties - open kitchen, plenty of seating, great circulation. We ordered the food from Central Market. It was fabulous and so easy and we had way more than enough...we'll be eating well at the office for the next several days. Lynn made an 1886 cake and I make a sour cream coffee cake that wasn't too hard and was very tasty...though next time I think I'll take time to make a glaze.
As the guests arrived, I was responsible for giving everybody instructions on the on-going Forbidden Word game. Everybody got one miniture clothes pin and was forbidden to say "baby" or "shower". If you got caught, you forfeited all the pins you had collected throughout the evening. The one with the most pins at the end of the evening, got a prize.
This was a couples shower, so Lynn had us play a doll dressing game. A couple had to work together to dress a doll in a jumper, socks, and hat in the shortest amount of time possible. Each person of the team was only allowed to use one hand. Stepan couldn't make it to the shower, so Lynn was my teammate. Technically we won this game (1m, 27s), but we gave the prize to the 2nd place holders (1m, 52s) since we were the hosts.
Our last game was the classic baby food game. Lynn was nice and got only vegetable or fruit and only one or two combination foods. This game is always interesting because most people don't want to play it when it starts, but everybody get totally and completely into it by the end. I was glad I was serving the food and didn't have to play.
Anita and Om (the soon-to-be-parents) had a good time. Anita's mother arrived from India on Monday and was able to attend as well. They got some adorable clothes (they are having a girl), lots of bath stuff, 3 baby bouncers, a swing, a diaper pale, a baby book, and tons of toys and playstuffs to keep the baby occupied. All in all a pretty good party.
Stepan and I had our annual Pumpkin Carving party yesterday. I had grand plans to pre-carve my pumpkin on Saturday, because if I don't I inevitably can only spend maybe 10 minutes on the design. Good intentions, good intentions. This is what I ended up with...and I wouldn't have had that if Stepan hadn't gutted it for me. I always forget that even quick carves can turn out well on a jack-o’-lanterns. Also, waiting to carve until the party meant that Jonathan was able to help. Henry was hanging with us as well...not necessarily helping, but definitely making it more fun :-)
There were many successes at the party. Stepan's bread was fabulous as was his potato soup. I made shrimp soup in pie pumpkins (many thanks to Luciana for sharing her recipe). Gutting pumpkins in the garage was a fantastic idea. We actually had kid's food this year, which I'm sure all the parents were relieved to see. And our furniture survived the night with nary a single tragedy. And of course, the pumpkins were just brilliant.
We have more and more kids every year. Next year, we'll have the new baby Churchett as well as Jack Hornaday (who was born on the 24th - just two day before the party). Also for next year, I'm thinking that I'll stuff some old clothes and set them out on our porch as Halloween decorations, but leave them headless and put our jack-o’-lanterns next to them on the table...I had to write that down here...hopefully I won't forget!