San Antonio: Round Two

Saturday night we returned home from our short, but successful trip back to San Antonio.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from the trip because as I mentioned in my post from last weekend in San Antonio, the hard drive in my computer was replaced and I have yet to buy the device to transfer the info from the old hard drive to the new one.

Anyway, Friday afternoon K and I picked up E. J. from work and we headed to S. A. We had an easy trip there, rested a bit in our hotel room, and feasted on a tasty meal on the Riverwalk. It was hot but there was a pleasant breeze, so we took advantage of the evening and walked around for a while. Kathryn was pooped by the time we got back to the hotel room and she slept until 8:30 a.m. the next morning. Fabulous!

On Saturday morning we headed out to pick up E. J.'s truck, ate lunch, and headed home. Kathryn rode with E. J. and I followed in my car.

Ahh, a sweet sigh of relief. We were almost home without any hitches this time. But wait! Exactly two afters after leaving San Antonio, I get a call from E. J...

Remember how I mentioned we picked him up from work the day before? Well, he left his work gun in the safe in our hotel room. Thinking that it was the safest place to leave the gun, he mentioned to me Friday night to help remind him to get it before we left. It didn't even phase either of us before leaving.

Kathryn was already sleeping in E. J.'s truck and since my car gets better mileage, I volunteered to drive back. Plus, a Starbucks sounded really good after passing dozens of them along the way.

Fast-forward 6 hours later, and I was home, safely. Phew. E. J. knew it was a major pain for either of us to have to drive back, especially with our bad luck last week, and he was naturally super appreciative of me driving back. He and Kathryn stopped at the grocery store on their way home and picked up some groceries, along with some strawberries and chocolate to make me homemade chocolate covered strawberries. Yum!

Obviously, things still could have been much worse. It's just good to be home safe again and spend the entire day with this sweet little raspberry-mess-of-a-girl.

Raincoats

If you've been watching you the news, you may have heard that Texas is still in a severe and dangerous drought, and according to the weather forecast, there are no signs of real relief anytime soon.

However, yesterday morning I was awakened around 3:45 a.m. to the glorious and unfamiliar sound of rain and thunder. Not only did the rain mean a slight relief from the terribly hot and dry conditions, but it also meant it was finally time to break out Kathryn's adorable raincoat from my Aunt Barbara!

I may be biased, but a little rain looks adorable on this little girl...and it's pretty good for Texas, too.

A Trip to Remember?

Have you ever had the urge to test your patience? your spouse's patience? your marriage? your 13-month old's ability to withstand 104 degree heat with barely anything to entertain them? If so, I have a great experiment for you...re-live our Father's Day Weekend!

Our mini-trip started out smoothly. We made the 3.5 hour drive to San Antonio Saturday morning so E. J. could do a work-related thing and while we were there, we also took advantage of being close to an Apple Store to have my computer repaired. Things were working out smoothly. My warranty is two months from expiring and my hard-drive was on its way out, so they replaced it, free-of-charge!

We met up with some friends for lunch who we hadn't seen in a while and got to meet their adorable little boy. Kathryn enjoyed being motherly and pushed him around in his stroller. It also happens that these are the only pictures I took before things took a turn for the worse...

After lunch and walking around downtown San Antonio for a couple of hours, we headed by to our hotel to cool off for a bit. As you can imagine, it was nothing short of HOT!

Around 5:30 p.m. we headed out to the Riverwalk for dinner. E. J. was exhausted from working late the night before, so I volunteered to drive his truck. As I was pulling into the parking garage, I noticed it was really difficult to turn the steering wheel, but it quickly went back to normal. I turned the steering wheel again to go around the next corner and it was nearly impossible to turn.

E. J. and I quickly switched seats so he could determine the problem. Obviously, we both knew there was something wrong with the power steering. E. J. checked the gages and nothing seemed wrong, but we pulled into a parking spot quickly and he opened the hood of the truck only to find fluids spewing out everywhere along with some smoke. Great.

With engine coolant leaking, we couldn't drive the truck anywhere. Hence, time to call AAA. Also time to make tons of other phone calls, car-rental companies, Dodge, etc. I counted and ended up making 26 different phone calls that night.

Remember: It's about 6 p.m. on a Saturday night and we aren't home, therefore, unfamiliar with most things around us, plus no place would be open on a Sunday to repair the truck. Even better.

It was 104 degrees outside and Kathryn was a little tired and getting hungry. She stayed in her car seat for a bit while I gave her some dinner as E. J. made tons of phone calls.

Kathryn's face sums up the mood at this point

About an hour later, the tow-truck came to the garage...not without hassle, of course. The lady in the garage ticket booth gave him a hard time about getting into the garage without paying. We had the car unpacked and were just ready to get out of there.

Time to get a cab... not without a little more stress though. After loading all our junk in the cab, we get a call from the tow truck guy...he couldn't get out of the garage. Amongst all the stress, we forgot about paying the 10 freakin' dollars to get the truck out of the garage.

We hailed a cab and got another call from the tow truck guy...he needed the keys to the truck and insisted he gave them to me. So we start frantically rummaging through EVERYTHING, as the cab meter is ticking away. Suddenly, the tow truck driver realized he never gave the keys to me and they were actually on the dash of his truck. 10 years off my life!

Fifty dollars later and we were back at the hotel and had enough with trying to figure out a rental car scenario that didn't cost a fortune. We just wanted to eat something and go to bed. E. J. ordered a pizza and had it delivered to our room. After showering, the three of us sat and bed and ate pizza. Pathetic. (Okay, so we don't give Kathryn lots of junk food, but she enjoyed a few bites of pizza. At this point, I really didn't care)

Kathryn was super sweet and understanding and allowed us to sleep in until 8 a.m. the next morning! Right after waking up, it was time to start making phone calls again. E. J. found a great deal on a one-way rental, so we showered quickly and caught the next FREE hotel shuttle to the airport to get our car.

E. J.'s face gives you an idea of how we were feeling

Poor Kathryn. Every time we got in the car she feel asleep and then

suddenly it was time to get out again

Only a 13-month old could pull off this ladylike position in a skirt while waiting for our rental

There she is, our beauty of a vehicle. Really, it just looks like we were going to pull out of Hertz and head to the nearest retirement home

Finally, things were looking up. We got a big car for less than the normal rate on their economy cars and we weren't running into any more problems.

Part of the appeal of going to San Antonio last weekend was also a good excuse to have a fun mini-trip for Father's Day. As a Father's Day treat, E. J. wanted to go to Mi Tierra, one of the most popular (possibly, the most popular) Mexican restaurant in San Antonio. It's huge and of course the food is wonderful.

So we pulled out of Hertz and 10 minutes later....

Yup! We were rear-ended. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt (both of our backs were bothering us for a while, but then again, both of us don't exactly have the best backs in the world). Kathryn didn't even realize we were in a car accident, and the lady who hit us was insured and admitted it was her fault.

Although the damage doesn't look too terrible, it's estimated she did a few thousand in damage because the trunk of the car no longer works correctly and who knows about getting the bumper etc. fixed.

Initially, the police officer didn't want to write up a report because there weren't any injuries, but E. J. knew exactly what to ask for. Cops seem to usually help other cops out, which was very helpful so we had proof of everything and wouldn't have to worry about any issues with the rental car company.

At this point, I can even begin to explain our emotions. We really couldn't help but laugh at everything because we truly felt like we had no control. Although, we were a little worried that we wouldn't make it home alive.

We did get to enjoy a yummy Father's Day meal at Mi Tierra.

We got some treats at their bakery. Sprinkles make everything better.

And so does an afternoon margarita. The light around the straw makes it looks like it was delivered straight from Heaven. It's possible after our day, it had been.

We were are pooped, but Kathryn was the one able to take a nap

We eventually did make it home alive, much later than we initially anticipated, but we were alive and well. Things always could be worse, but thankfully they weren't.

We actually did get some great news yesterday that the problems with E. J.'s truck are covered under the warranty. Phew! Only a couple hundred rather than a couple thousand.

Now, I just need ask San Antonio to treat us a little better this weekend as we head back to pick up the truck.

It's good to be home.

One Step at a Time

Although Kathryn would mostly prefer crawling around or walking sideways while holding on to some sort of support, she's really been more adventurous lately and taking a few steps on her own here and there.

A few nights ago, she was all about showing off. Normally, she won't just take off on her own.

Looks like she'll be perfecting the art of walking before we know it!

June Madness

My lack of posts this month is simply due to a lack of time. I've been bummed that I haven't been in the loop with my blog, but that should be changing soon.

Summer is the busiest time at my job because of the influx of new students preparing for college. Summer also starts the extended summer work schedule. Rather than 8-5 with an hour lunch, our summer hours are 7:30-5 with a 30 minute lunch. To me, the shortened lunch is the worst part because I'm all about running errands and getting things done during that time, especially with us living outside of town and no where near a decent grocery store or a Target (who doesn't love Target?!). Thirty minutes for lunch just simply doesn't allow me to leave to get anything done.

However, there is a really valuable benefit to the extended hours...flex days! Meaning, I get one day off during the week and this year, many of my days off are Fridays! Everyone loves a long weekend!

I definitely need the flex day to recover not only from work, but I'm also teaching an English class at night (5:15 - 7:45 p.m.). Needless to say, the 12-hour day and 40ish minute drive to and from work is waring on me.

The summer class is only a month long, thankfully. The extra money and experience are great, but the time away is rough. To say that I live for the weekends (especially now) is an understatement.

This is a scene from our house this weekend. K can now open doors and thought the pantry needed some rearranging. Love these moments.

Thankfully, E. J.'s hours this month allow him to be home a little earlier than normal so he can spend a little more time with K. I get to see sweet K in the morning and get her ready for the day and then she's normally sleeping by the time I get home, so I sneak into her room and watch her for a bit as she clutches on to her beloved stuffed kitty as she peacefully sleeps.

When I get home, it's time to get ready for the next class with do some grading, prep for my lecture and of course simple housekeeping things like getting my outfit for the next day. So yeah, I'm a little tired!

It's not the most ideal situation, but then again, it's only for a month and there are many benefits to getting some more experience, so I can't really complain.

Plus, this smile is a nice motivation

Other than that, things are good here! I'm desperately behind on writing thank you notes and e-mails, but I promise, I will get all those out soon.

Until then, it's time for me to wrap up and take advantage of being able to head to bed a little earlier than normal. Sweetdreams!

Celebrating

Today we did a little bit of celebrating for my birthday. It was a simple and sweet celebration, and just perfect.

We went out for a lovely lunch and had some of the most delicious pizza (and it made for excellent leftovers, too)!

After lunch we headed over to A&M to continue our yearly Aggie Ring picture with Kathryn.

6/2/10

What a difference a year makes....

6/5/11

Now that it's past Memorial Day, Kathryn decided to whip out the white jeans from her closet and thought my b'day was the perfect day to model them. I agree.

The "I'm-too-good-to-look-at-the-camera model pose, with freezy teether thing" look

This weekend I experimented with a new cupcake recipe and made these

from scratch: delish vanilla bean with strawberry frosting cupcakes.

E. J. wanted to get me sort sort of birthday dessert, and I'm sure there's some rule about not making your own birthday dessert, but I could care less. I had so much fun baking these!

My birthday was filled with many phone calls, texts, e-mails, Facebook messages, and spent with my loves. It was a great day and I'm looking forward to a great year ahead.

13 Months

A full month into being a big one-year-old and the changes seems to be non-stop. She is a sweet and happy little girl who definitely knows what she wants. She knows what "no" means and uses it quite well...and often, including the head shake to accompany the "no".

She's still a lover of a things animal

Just this past week she really started flirting with walking

Although she still would prefer crawling right now

And her comprehension has really taken off recently! It seems as though she understands a lot of what we say to her. Amazing.

But mostly, she's perfect in every way possible.

Snip Snip

Trimming Kathryn's bangs was long overdue, but today I went for the plunge. I only attempted her bangs and that was plenty, for now.

Before (as you can tell, a trim was much needed

because the business in the front is now catching up to the party in the back)

Prepping...

Here we go

Even before I started, I knew I wasn't cutting her hair correctly,

but I just had to get it over with in any way possible because she wasn't really having it

What have you done, Mom? What. Have. You. Done.

Wow, mom. Thanks for making me look like Justin Bieber

Trying to primp herself and get used to the new 'do

First haircut is now complete and for sentimental reasons I put the pieces of hair I could gather into a Ziploc bag - another item to put in her baby book! Sigh.