Put Your Feet Up!

Back in May, I posted about the annual conference that our company puts on each year and I was on the conference committee this year. For "thank you" gifts, Tiffany (the main lead person on the conference) decided to split up the girls and guys from the committee. The girls got a spa day and the guys got a golf day.

She made appointments for all of us girls to get premium pedicures at 4:30 one day last week and then she also bought a bunch of wine and food to bring as well!

Here's Erin and I partaking of the wine.......

Every girl's gotta have 2 bottles, right?!

Here's Tiffany (the conference lead) - digging into the wine! This is right after she had bubbly wine 'go down the wrong tube' - she was choking on the wine. Drink much?!

Here's our little 'spread'....it was fantastic!

And here's Miss Mayce getting pampered.....

Maggie (left) and Millicent (right) were rockin' out in their massage chairs....

Tiffany recovered from the choking incident and was drinking normally now.... :)

Finished product - it was SO MUCH FUN and there was a LOT of LAUGHING!

Postal Adventures

Some would call it weird, I call it creative. The problem: how to entertain your dog in the Texas summer without going out in 500 degree heat!

One option: driving to Dallas to go to the big indoor dog park (it's called "Unleashed" and I do intend to do this!)........OR.........Option 2: taking Maggie to the 24-hour section of our post office at night and letting her run around! It's air conditioned, there's nothing bad for her to get into, and if someone else walks in, they are usually wanting to pet or meet her!

Here she is in all her postal glory:

I'm sure there are security cameras, so hopefully I'm giving the security people a good laugh! And I'm probably WANTED by the Feds for my deviant doggy behavior. Oh well - I don't care.....I just run up and down the aisles of PO Boxes and chase her - she loves it!

There are all kinds of smells to check out and she has the whole place to herself!

Oh, and here's Miss Maggie being a rebel - playing on the table that explicitly says NOT to sit or play on it.

Desperate times require desperate measures in this crazy heat!

Regrets

Regret is the worst thing! I was thinking about regrets yesterday on Father's Day. There are so many things that I wished that I would've asked my Dad when he was alive and now I will never be able to - DANG!!! I even made a list.........


Things I wish I had asked Dad:

1. More about his childhood
2. Asked him to teach me how to do home improvement projects
3. Watched him fix things
4. Advice on "life"
5. What HIS Dad was like - Grandpa Larsen died before I was born, so I never knew him
6. What Grandma was like when she was younger
7. What Dad was like when he was my age
8. His memories about when I was born

9. Dating my Mom
10. What I should look for in a guy

Wow - I just got more and more sad thinking about how long this list is.....so many things I wish I could ask, but won't get the chance. Lately I have been dreaming about Dad a lot and I don't know why. Why would I be thinking about him so much just in the last few months??

He has been in Heaven for 7.5 years, but in the last few months, I have been almost preoccupied with thinking about him. Not in a bad way, but just thinking about memories, dreaming that he fixed my lawn mower blade, etc. What's up with that?? Maybe he's trying to send me a message about something.......


At any rate, the moral of the story (and my list) is that if you are reading this and your Dad is still walking this earth, ASK HIM these things! Ask him anything and everything because you don't know how long you have with him (or anyone in your life, really)! Do it for those of us that cannot do it and wish we had.

Outdated Words of Wisdom

Recently, a friend of mine posted these OLD advertisements on her Facebook page and I thought they were WAY too funny not to pass along........

Ahhh, I beg to differ!

WOW.....

A dentist's dream!

Holy crap!!!

Another dentist's dream....

Even Santa??

Sick and wrong!

Ummmm......no comment!

Thankful Thursday

1. Keeping in touch with people who knew you when you were young.

Recently, my former neighbor, Marcia, from when I was growing up, posted a picture of my childhood house on my Facebook page. WOW - what a treat! It was great to have my childhood friends comment on it with their favorite memories of those days - and also of my Dad. I forgot how good it feels to hear stories of him from people who knew him.

2. Memories of childhood that make you smile just thinking about them

I suppose this kind of relates to #1, but who cares. I have wonderful memories of my childhood - games, toys, camping, swimming, summer vacation, neighborhood games, etc. I really did have a pretty ideal childhood and I am very grateful to my parents for that. I loved being a kid and I find myself smiling and laughing while looking through pictures or a photo album of those days. The feeling is absolutely priceless.

3. Good TV shows that start their season when the other shows end theirs

Isn't is a sad time when all of your favorite shows are done for the season and they start playing reruns every week? Well, I have several shows that start their seasons at the opposite time of regular shows and that makes for new and fun summer TV watching! Examples: Ice Road Truckers, Kathy Griffin's 'My Life On The D-List', Deadliest Catch (not totally a summer show, but it's still going and it's mid-June!), etc.

4. When a friend stretches you out of your comfort zone......and you actually thank them for it!

You may hate them for it at the time, but most times, you will thank them later. This past weekend, my friend April convinced me to go to a Greek restaurant with her friends. I have tried Greek food twice before and didn't like it, so I obviously was skeptical about going again.....but I had the lamb cheeseburger (on pita bread) and it was fantastic! I know, I know - it was the LEAST Greek thing on the menu, but still. I have never had a lamb cheeseburger and I also tried some hummus and it was actually good (I have tried it before and didn't like it). Kudos to April for pushing me to give it one more try!

5. Cologne

I don't even know if this requires explanation! What woman DOESN'T like cologne?! It's just such an awesome smell and I think it chemically somehow makes a guy more attractive! I actually just bought some body wash from Bath & Body Works that is made for men because it smells like amazing cologne. I might smell like a guy now, but it is just too awesome not to enjoy!!

Acronyms Can Do Wonders

I saw this story in an email that I received....I do NOT know if it's really true, but it's an interesting way to deal with a problem! Way to go, Texas!

Fighting litter in Dallas.....

According to Wallace there are six very large, luxurious new houses being built right next to their community. Trash was coming from the Mexican laborers working at the construction sites and included bags from McDonald's, Burger King and 7-11, plus coffee cups, napkins, cigarette butts, coke cans, empty bottles, etc.

He went to see the site supervisor and even the general contractor, politely urging them to get their workers not to litter the neighborhood, but to no avail.

He called the city, county, and police and got no help there either. So here's what his community did. They organized about twenty folks, named themselves The "Inner Neighborhood Services" group, and arranged to go out at lunch time and "police" the trash themselves. It is what they did while picking up the trash that is so hilarious.They bought navy blue baseball caps and had the initials "INS" embroidered in gold on the caps. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand what they hoped people might mistakenly think the letters really stand for.

After the Inner Neighborhood Services group's first lunch time pickup detail, with all of them wearing their caps and some carrying cameras, 46 out of the total of 68 construction workers did not show up for work the next morning -- and haven't come back yet.

It has been ten days now. The General Contractor, I'm told, is madder than hell, but can't say anything publicly because he could be busted for hiring illegal aliens. Wallace and his bunch can't be accused of
impersonating federal personnel, because they have the official name of the group recorded in their homeowner association minutes along with a notation about the vote to approve formation of the new subcommittee -- and besides, they informed the INS in advance of their plans and according to Wallace, the INS said basically, "Have at it!"

SO, FOLKS, I THINK YOU COULD SAY THAT TEXAS INGENUITY TRIUMPHS AGAIN!

Reminder: Don't forget to pay your taxes....... 32 million illegal aliens are depending on you.

Men At Any Age

I found this in an email recently and I thought it was so interesting how our priorities, values and desires change over time. This list is comprised of the things that women want in a man - at different ages in her life.....Enjoy!

At 18:

He should be compassionate, at least. There have to be some teenage boys with compassion!

He should be good with the parents.

He should have a goal.

He should know how to whittle wood.

We don't expect very much, to be honest.

At 27:

He should be reliable.

He shouldn't rely on text messaging as a tool of courtship.

He should have a "way" about him.

He should have traveled the world.

He should know how to cook one thing really well.

He should have a political affiliation.

He should, every now and then, substitute a light beer with Scotch on the rocks.

He should behave as if his mother raised him correctly — even if she didn't.

At 35:

He should not have a belly.

He should have decided on a sexual preference.

He should possess the thoughtfulness required to help a mom with a stroller and two kids up the stairs.

He should not have mommy issues.

He should have moved on from pickup lines to conversation starters.

He should want the party to end at some point.

At 44:

He should be a real partner.

He should still be eager to learn.

He should be able to sing along to all the songs on Boston's first album.

He should be financially secure.

He should understand the importance of jewelry in a woman's life.

He should take out the garbage without being asked.

He should be sexy.

He should be a gentleman.

At 53:

He should work out.

He should smell like something: aftershave or cologne.

He should know politics.

He should be faithful.

He should like Bob Dylan.

He should dance.

He should not be addicted to his work.

He should admit his mistakes.

Ladies - anything to add to the list??? I bet I could come up with some....maybe I'll do this post at a later date with my own list!

Toilet Surgery

OK, so I'm not mechanically inclined. It's just not something that comes naturally to me....but since I bought my house, I have forced myself to learn to do some of these 'scary' things (especially since hiring people to do these jobs gets expensive!).

My master bathroom toilet has been 'running' for a while now and I decided to finally attack it. I researched what to do online and then went to my favorite Lowe's to get the parts (a new flapper).

I came home and got everything situated and had my laptop handy for instructions. It was scary to do plumbing since I know nothing about it, but I did feel better that I could shut off the water to the toilet while I worked - no flooding or anything!

I removed the old part and successfully installed the new part - in just a matter of minutes - AMAZING!

Here's the 'pretty' new flapper. WOW - am I old and geeky or what? I'm excited about a new toilet flapper!

And for the whole rest of the day, my toilet didn't run ONCE! Aaaaah - music to my ears!

.............However, after that magical first day, it started running again.........so now I am trying to figure out what else is wrong with it. It totally burst my bubble after thinking that I had saved the world - errrr......fixed my toilet!

Any ideas?????

Out To Lunch

My team at work (the Finance team - there's 4 of us and then our boss, the CFO) goes out to lunch every quarter and then on all of our birthdays. Well, this past Friday was our quarterly lunch and we went to Pappadeaux's. It was fun, but relatively uneventful.

On our way back from Dallas (my boss always drives, so all 5 of us were in one car), my boss suddenly swerves into a parking lot and we were confused. It was Big Daddy's liquor store! Now, in DFW there are 'dry' cities and areas, so you can't just get liquor on every street corner or gas station here. You have to go to specific places to get it (you can get beer and wine almost anywhere, though).

Anyway, he said that he wanted to make margaritas over the weekend, so he decided to whip in there and get some tequila. FUNNY! Team lunch = liquor store run. I've never experienced that before!

Here they are, posing for the camera!

And here's my boss, Allen - doublefisting bottles of tequila. Gotta love that!

And I just couldn't NOT take a picture of this sign......"Red Mullet" wine! WHAT?!

And some more weekday lunch randomness: my friend April got a new car last week and it was pretty cool!

I can't remember what it's called, but it looks like a mini hummer and it's a Toyota. Here she is in the driver's seat!

It's very nice inside and it's a souped up version. They are going to be putting in leather seats and it has a "back up" camera and it shows the screen in your rearview mirror!

Oh - and the freaking best part is that she has a factory SUB-WOOFER in the back! WHAT?! I'm bringing my Sir Mix-A-Lot "Mack Daddy" CD on our next roadtrip so we can be pimpin'!! WORD.

And I really really liked her gear shifter - super cool design and shape!

Awesome dash - nice job, April - can't wait for our next roadtrip to Waco!!

Thankful Thursday

1. The feeling you get when you clean out a closet and purge a bunch of stuff.

I just got a notice that ARC is going to be doing a drive-by pickup of donation items, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to clean out the closets and drawers in my house and purge a bunch of stuff that I wasn't using....and it goes to a great cause.

Well, not only do I love the extra space in my closets and drawers, it just gives me such a great feeling to get rid of stuff and also help people at the same time. Hurray for cleaning!

2. Doing something I know my Dad is watching from Heaven, and knowing he is proud of me.

My Dad could fix anything, so growing up I never had to fix a thing. That was both a blessing and a curse. I had a great resource in my Dad and all of his mechanical knowledge.......but now that I have a house of my own and I'm an adult, he's not here to fix it for me and I also don't know how to do it for myself. Ugh.

So when I conquer a mechanical problem or "opportunity," I find that when I succeed, it is a HUGE MASSIVE victory for me and that my Dad is smiling from Heaven and patting my back and saying "Job well done, Laur." That feeling is priceless.

3. The resiliance of petunias.

Like I have mentioned in many other posts, I do not have a green thumb naturally. I happen to have found the perfect flower for those of us that have to work at keeping things alive. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the WAVE PETUNIA! I love mine and it's the second year in a row that I have successfully kept one alive. They grow very easily, they come in very bold pretty colors, and they can take the abuse of strong Texas winds, extreme heat and sun and sporatic waterings. They are fantastic and beautiful!!

4. Being totally enthralled in a book.

I haven't done much pleasure reading in the last couple years, but I have a bunch of books piling up and I am engrossed in the first of many. It's called Ransom and it's by Danielle Steele - I'm hooked already! I forgot how much I love to read. It is looking like I'm going to have lots of reading material for the pool this summer. YAY!

5. Traffic being lighter in the summer now that schools are letting out!

I drive 20 miles each way to work every day and so traffic has become a regular part of my life in Texas. I wanted to live in a big city, well then I have to deal with big city traffic, right? Well, I think God wanted to give me a little break (to make up for the insane summer heat), so he made traffic a lot lighter in the summer when schools are shut down. YES!