Dear Mama(s)

Did I just bust out a Tupac reference? YEAH I did.  I've been compiling some mama-related news/pictures and today in particular seems to be a mama-centric day, so here we go...

1.  MY Mama
Today is my dear Mother's birthday.  She's 18 again.  Difficult to believe, isn't it?  I know that everyone thinks they have the best Mom in the world, and that really is very cute.  However, I actually do.  Why, you ask?  Where do I even begin?  She is a lady who let my sister's friends start calling her Caddy in highschool (during the Mean Girls days)... and she just rolled with it.  Rolled with it so well that I don't think anyone, save my Grandfather, remembers her real name anymore (it's Kathe, btw).  She is also a lady that spent countless hours arguing with our bank the other day for me because they messed up my statements, I need them and I didn't have the time to do it.  She is a lady that sends us home with leftovers every single time I leave the house.  She is a lady who let my sister pants her while putting the Thanksgiving turkey in the oven a few years ago (granted she didn't have much choice- who wants to sacrifice 22 lbs of bird to swat my sister).  Nonetheless- stellar.  She is a lady who remembers my friends names (yes, all of you).  She is a lady who offered to call and wake me up before every single test in college (those of you familiar with my ability to wake up understand this).  I could go on for hours, but it can be best summed up by saying that she is THE lady who keeps my entire family running.  Not a one of us would be who we are without her and I can't thank her enough.  Happy Birthday Mamacita! 

My pretty Mom

2. Mama Melanie
Today our beautiful friend Melanie gave birth to a 7 lb, 3 oz chick magnet, Mr. Jake Thomas.  As you all know, I have been anxiously awaiting his arrival for quuuuuuite some time now.  I'm so happy that he's finally here and that he and his adorable madre are safe and sound.  Can't wait to officially meet him!  Congrats to Jonathan & Melanie.  The bundle of joy:

Baby Jake

3.  Mama Sara
A few weeks ago, on November 7th, specifically, I attended a shower for Sara and sweet little Savanna.  I was kiiiind of holding off on posting about it in hopes that she would post some pictures I could hijack borrow.   I was a tad frazzled and forgot to charge my camera battery beforehand.  Friend: fail.  The shower was hosted by 3 of Sara's fantastic friends and was absolutely flawless.  I learned a lot of things about childbirth that encouraged me to never attempt the endeavour myself.  In a related story, I'm now accepting applications for future surrogates.  I had such a great time and am so very excited to meet Miss Savanna.  Because I failed at doing this myself and because she's too cute not to be documented, here is Mrs. Lee:

Baby Savanna

4.  Mama Tiffy
I am fortunate enough to get to see Tiffany, Ryan E and Kylie Pie about 2 or 3 Sundays a month.  I have been stockpiling pictures of Miss K for a little while now and I figured this is a very appropriate post to share them in because Miss K happens to have a pretty incredible mama herself.  I love this little munchkin oh-so-very-much.

Haaaaaaappy Halloween

This face is priceless

So precious.

Ryan trying to teach Kylie to roll over.  And Kylie looking at him like he's lost his mind.  Get used to it, darlin'.

"Get out of my face, yo."

Proving Kylie rolling over > Ryan rolling over

I bet her Aunt is AWESOME.

Ladies Who Brunch

For the second round of Brunch Season, we took our inappropriate conversations and above 6 inches voices to Table Seven on Durham.  This week's participants were: Sara, Dena, Shawna, Jen, Rashell, Lori, Chelsea, Jamie, April and your's truly.  This week's location earned a few brownie points on last week's location for having bottomless mimosas.  The cranberry ones were particularly delicious.  I think we also decided that since creanberry juice is so good for you, it was basically like a health drink.  Foolproof logic.

Despite a few spills, one chicken fried chicken sacrified to the floor and some discussion at various volumes of feminine issues that made our waiter incredibly uncomfortable, I would classify this week as a great success.  Nothing gets a day started off right like discussing baby stealing, pregnancy, Six Sigma belts, and safety training.  I am sure Rashell would have me point out here that even though it says "crab cakeS," there is indeed only one singular crab cake. 

Overall, I had a wonderful time- I recommend Table Seven and I recommend engaging in conversation with any of the aforementioned ladies if you want a good laugh.  If you want to get in on this action, shoot me an email.

April & Jamie

Shawna, Dena, Sara & Savanna**

Chelsea, Lori, Rashell, Jen y Yo

** names subject to change... but hopefully not.  :c)

Mimosas and Motocross and Mayer - Oh my!

If you were just thinking to yourself, man I really miss in May and June when Amy was writing those blog posts that were 3 pages long in Word with like 36 pictures each - then today is your lucky day!  If you weren't thinking that, you might want to skip this post.  :c)  I should probably split up my Labor Day Weekend into multiple posts but I'm just going to jam it all into a super-post- you could use a break on your first day back to work after a holiday weekend anyway, right?  Prop up your feet and enjoy a tale of fast food establishments, changing in public garages and tire malfuctions.  Here we go...

Saturday
Saturday morning was the much-anticipated Brunch Season kick off.  We started the season off at Shade in the Heights.  In order to better relate to the football-obsessed men in our lives, we decided to particpate in a fantasy celebrity league.  We were scheduled to have a paper draft at our season kick off brunch... however, we forgot an integral part of that equation: the paper with the eligible draftees.  Whoops!  Instead we opted to let the league auto draft for us and just indulge in mimosas instead.  Unfortuantely for me, auto drafting led to a team that includes Jon Hamm.  I do not believe this will be a winning season for yours truly.

If you didn't make it out, we missed you.  If you want to be included, let me know.  :c) 

Noah finds fantasy celebrity drafts exhausting

Dena & April

Noah, Jenn & Jamie

Shawna & Caitlin

Sara & I

Alex & Sarah

Jenn, Caitlin, Dena, April, Alex, Sarah, Sara, Me, Jen & Shawna

Kick-off Crew

Sunday

My Labor Day weekend Sunday brought a whole new meaning to the term "Sunday Funday."  I had a motocross event to attend, a bridal shower and the John Mayer concert.  I started the day out in Conroe at 9:30 am and didn't return until about 11:30 pm with 3 costume changes and about 150 miles in between.  I had waaay too much fun.

Motocross

Ryan's Dad has been riding dirtbikes for years and years.  This past Sunday he invited the Martins, Eastmans, my family and I to watch him race at Three Palms Extreme Sports up near Conroe.  At about 9:45 am we piled into cars and set out.  Thanks to a stop for gas and a stop at McDonalds (in order to immerse ourselves in the motocross culture), we arrived just in time to watch Mr. Martin compete in his first race at about 11:15.  He placed third.  What a stud, right?

I had to leave at about 12:45 to drive about an hour south and make it to a bridal shower that started at 2:00.  So, unfortunately I missed Mr. Martin's second race, but luckily my family stuck around and my Dad got some awesome pics.  I'm going to post a ton of pictures below, but I can't help it- I am amazed that my future Father in Law does this.  Also, my Dad took some amazing pics and I'm having a hard time picking favs. 

I had such a great time and am already looking forward to the next one. 

My new fav motocrosser

Excited supporters- Mamacita & Daddio

This is Matt's "I'm Excited!" face

Go #14

"Mike, do you think next year they will have a Harley division?"

Caddy & Julie

Mom & I - between race bonding

Scoping out the best place to get pics for the next race.  Which is apparently right in the middle of the course.

Ashley's Bridal Shower
So I left the motocross race at about 12:45 and headed south to go to my friend Ashley's bridal shower.  Ashley and I went to college together, joined the same sorority and were both in the b-school.  She's all-around fabulous and I'm so happy for her to have found the love of her life.  I can't wait for she and Travis' wedding in October.

As you might imagine, I was in no state, either fashion-wise or aroma-wise, to head straight to a bridal shower, or really any social setting, after the events pictured above.  I didn't think the porta potties at Three Palms were viable options for changing into a dress... so I set out with no real place for where I was going to change.  About 5 minutes into my journey, I pulled over in the Woodlands and stopped at the first place I came to that I knew would have a restroom.  The winner was - Popeyes.  Don't believe me?

Thank you, Popeyes

The creative maneveuring neccessary to change in a public restroom without letting any part of your body touch the unsanitary floors or walls (throw new shoe on the floor, balance like a flamingo, remove old shoe, gingerly step into new shoe without falling... ladies, you know what I mean) ate into my travel time a little more than I expected.  I set back out and was making pretty good time.  I turned onto South Post Oak with about 8 minutes to spare.  And then.....

...this happened.

Yes, that is a flat tire.  Since every member of my family was surrounded by motocross and there was no chance they would hear my phone calls- I searched through my glove compartment and found an Audi Roadside Assistance number.  A kind gentleman showed up 30 minutes later.  I suspect that it might have been his first tire change based on the fact that multiple times during the process he would touch a lug nut and sit back and assess the situation for 30 seconds, pick up a tool, set it down and then repeat the process.  About 25 minutes later, the new tire was on and I was off again.  I arrived to the shower about an hour late and about 10 times more disshevelled than when I originally set out on my journey.  Luckily Ashley's family was kind and pretended not to notice that I looked like swamp thing.  It was so good to see her and her future sister in law did such a great job with the shower.

Adorable desserts with candy Scrabble pieces.  They played Scrabble on one of their first dates.

How cute are those high heels cookies in the top left hand corner?

Ashley and I.  Can you tell who spent 45 minutes in a Whataburger parking lot in the Houston heat?

John Mayer Concert

After the shower, I hoped in the car and headed back up North to Cynthia Woods for the John Mayer concert.  Based on how far I was from home and the time the shower ended, I didn't have enough time to run by home in Conroe but I also was going to get to Cynthia Woods really early.  My phone was about to die thanks to the flat tire mishap and I was charger-less.  I stopped at Best Buy to get a car charger and a bag of pretzels because I hadn't eaten since breakfast at McD's and I had a feeling some drinking was in my future.

I talked Shawna and Caitlin into heading to the concert early to meet me at Baker's Street for a drink pre-concert.  The next costume change took place in my car in a parking garage on Water Way Square near Baker's Street.  After 3 fast food establishments across greater Houston in one day, I decided to mix it up some.

Caitlin & Kelcee at Baker's Street

After Baker's Street we headed over to John Mayer and met up with Jen.  I know that not everyone is a John Mayer fan, but I love that guy.  He's easily the most entertaining live performer I've ever seen.  Thank you so much for organizing and getting us tickets, Jen! 

Jen loves JM enough to drink beer

Probably tweeting JM.

Ballet?

"Do you want a single or a double?"

"Yeah, I'm single."

"Good to know... but did you want a single or double?"

Telling us he threw his back out.  Playing wiffle ball.

Caitlin <3s jumpers

Kelcee, Caitlin, Shawna & Jen

"Gravity" brings out some deep emotions

I just like this picture.

The end.

Monday

After Sunday's festivities, I relaxed in Conroe with the fam and Ryan.  Thanks to some inclimate weather:

we were forced to spend much of the day inside.  We hung out and played Euchre (now called "Euchkle" thanks to Ryan) and Skip Bo.  We also discussed tennis etiquette, taught Caddy what a "dome" is, the importance of the use of helmets and all learned a thing or two about Twitter.  It was a perfectly relaxing day and exactly what I needed.  Fantastic ending to a fantastic weekend.  :c)