Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Me in pictures

My sisters did this on their blogs and I thought it was really fun to see them. I would love to see all of my friends do this on their blogs as well - so consider yourself challenged if you are reading this!!

So here I go:

"Go to Google and search images for the following topics, then pick your favorite image."

My age (look closely):
My favorite object:
My favorite food:
What I did today:
A bad habit of mine:

My maiden name:
My first job:

My college education:

My name:

A place I would like to live:

The place I was born:

The place I live now:

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Old friends... not friends that are old

This weekend, Matt, the kids and I all took a road trip down to College Station, TX to see our college friends Adam and Stephanie. They just moved back to Texas from North Carolina this summer and we are so glad to be in the same state as them for the first time since we graduated from college! They have a beautiful home on the south side of College Station. They moved there because Stephanie just got hired as an Economics professor at Texas A&M. We enjoyed relaxing at their house, eating at Chicken Oil (a College Station tradition), walking around the campus, and playing lots of games (Wii, Settlers, Puerto Rico, Set). It's so fun to hang with friends you can just pick right back up with so easily even though you haven't seen each other for a while. A moment that brought it all home for me was seeing their wedding pictures framed throughout the house... and knowing we were there! Most of the friends I have now are "new" friends that we've made since moving to Dallas. When I see their wedding pictures I think, wow - I wish I could have been there. While I love them so dearly, there's just something special about "old" friends... people who've known you for a long time and have been through so many experiences with you. So thank you for an awesome weekend Adam and Steph. I enjoyed it on so many levels.

Here are some pics from the weekend. Click here to see more!

Adam and Stephanie at Kyle Field


Three Dillards sitting under the Century Tree


Gabriella enjoying her first chocolate chip granola bar on the way to their neighborhood park


Wednesday, September 17, 2008

There's a first time for everything

What's that smell
So even at my ripe old age, I am still experiencing some firsts in my life. I thought I would share two of them with you. The first happened a few nights ago. My family was still in town and when they're in town, we stay up late. So it was nearing midnight, I am completely wiped out and am finally listening to my tired body screaming at me and heading for bed. I decided to come out of my room one last time to make sure everyone had the blankets and pillows they needed for the night... and I smell something. It kind of smelled like coffee at my end of the house. But as I neared the kitchen and the dogs yard it started to smell like coffee mixed with sulfur. I asked my family if they smelled anything just to make sure I wasn't crazy and they were smelling it as well. There were suggestions that is smelled like skunk but I thought that was preposterous. Skunks don't live in the city, right. Wrong! We had a skunk visit our home in Plano, TX and leave us a lovely parting gift. Well, leave our dog Nala a parting gift right on her face. We bring the dogs in to check, and Matt just about passes out when he gets close to Nala to give her a smell! The dogs go immediately back outside, but not before our house gets a big cloud full of the lovely smell (which is finally starting to dissipate). We look outside to see Nala rolling around in the grass trying to get the stink off of her. Poor puppy. So at 12am, we are dressing in old clothes to go outside to give our dog a bath. We washed her face 3 or 4 times and call it good. Well, it wasn't quite good as the smell was still lingering the next day. So I scheduled a professional grooming session and threw away the dog collar. With those 2 things, I am happy to say, the smell is almost gone. But you can still get a whiff every once in a while. I used to LOVE the smell of coffee. But unfortunately, when I was at Starbucks this morning to get a yummy Vivanni, smelling the coffee smell immediately made me think of skunk! Boo!

A Mommy moment

Okay, my second "first" came when watching the movie Dumbo with my elephant-loving boy Oliver yesterday. This was my first time watching the movie Dumbo since I became a mom. I'm sure you all remember the scene where Dumbo's mom Mrs. Jumbo is locked up and labeled a "Mad Elephant" because she tried to protect Dumbo from being teased. Well Dumbo misses her so his friend Timothy the mouse takes him to see her. She reaches as far as she can to get to Dumbo at the window, but the chains around her ankles keep her too far. All that can reach is her trunk. So she cuddles her baby and the song "Baby of Mine" plays. This part of the movie always made me cry as a child. So I grab my baby boy, who is getting bigger everyday (not really much of a baby anymore) and cuddle him up. And yes, I was crying! Through my tears we talk about all of the mommy animals and baby animals they are showing. I am processing deep thoughts like how much the phrase "Baby of Mine" means to me. How there was no other place in the world I wanted to be right at that moment but sitting in our playroom holding and cuddling him. Reflecting on how this scene touched me so much even as a child, but how it touches me even more seeing it as a mom. Feeling like I can't be old enough to be someone's mom, but knowing that these deep feelings I have for my kids are some of the most amazing feelings I have ever felt. All kinds of deep stuff. So I turn to Oliver (who's squirming to get out of my grasp) and say "Don't you want to cuddle with mommy some more?" He finally breaks free and looks at me and in a sad voice says "No, Daddy!" I had to laugh considering all of the sweet mother-son thoughts I'd been having. So much for my sweet moment! What a goof-ball. He does love his Daddy though. :)

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

My Favorite Refugees

Hurricane Ike scared my mom and sister and her boyfriend Basilio all the way up to Dallas. But we were happy to have them! Fortunately, their homes were not damaged... just without power and water until last night. So now that things are restored at their homes, they will be heading back to Houston today. But we had a fun few days together!

Aunt Emily holding Gabriella before dinner




Meme reading to Oliver - one of his favorite past times


Gabriella cuddling with Basilio



Mommy and Gabriella at a park where we went to enjoy our AWESOME weather

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Oli's First Day of Pre-School

My sweet little boy started preschool this morning. I have been very nervous about it as he often has a hard time with new situations - especially when mommy is not there. But his preschool is at our church which he is used to, it was only 9am-12pm, and one of his teachers is one of my friends that he already knows. So I figured with all of those things going for us, we just might be ok. We went up to the school yesterday for Open House to see his room and meet his teachers. Low and behold, the first theme for the school year is the rainforest... complete with all of Oliver's favorite animals. Now if you know my boy, you know that he LOVES animals. Jungle animals the most. So with all of this going for us, how could we lose!

Well, our prayers were definitely answered - he had a great day today!! He sweetly took pictures with me before we left decked out in his new "Graham Cracker Express" t-shirt (that's the name of the preschool). He ran from the van to the door of the school when we got there and walked straight into his classroom and started playing. He didn't even blink when I left him. We are so proud of him! While he was at school, Gabby and I ran an errand then came home for her to nap. He got to talk to daddy on the cell phone during the car ride home and tell him all about his day. And then a few minutes after we got home, Daddy drove up and surprised us by spending lunchtime at home with us today. And to top it all off - the temperature has been hovering between 69-71 degrees all day. My favorite!! I've got all of the windows open and am loving it!

What a little model!


With his Elmo "pack-pack"


Check out those new shoes!


With his teacher Miss Darci


Reading a book on the fun Noah's Ark rug


A hug goodbye before I left
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