05.27.10 Dallas Traffic

My daily commute in Dallas always includes bumper to bumper traffic.  I only live 12 miles from my office, but it still takes me between 20-45 minutes to get home in the evenings.  There is no way that I could stay a longer commute.

05.26.10 Memorial Flags

The cemetary by our house has placed 4,503 flags in the ground to remember the 4,503 soldiers who have been killed in "Enduring Freedom" for Memorial Day this weekend.  It is a lovely display and touched me enough as I drove by to stop.

05.25.10 Dinner with Mom

This evening, after work, Mom came over to go with me shopping at JoAnns. Then we picked up Juan and headed to Macaroni Grill for dinner. It was a great evening and we plan to do this again very soon.

05.24.10 Juan's Watermelon Dinner

Anyone who knows Juan knows that he has a love for all types of fruit.  He will eat 1/2 a watermelon in one sitting.  He cuts it in half, salts it, and then eats it with a spoon.  The picture he made with his watermelon dinner was too hilarious not to use for my daily photo!  I love you Juan!

05.23.10 Ketchup Taste Test

Last time I was in Tulsa we stopped for corn dogs at Sonic and they forgot the ketchup.  I made Angie pull through the drive thru to ask for some.  She said that she had some at home, but I responded that I could tell a difference.  That led to a full blown ketchup taste test during this visit.  Angie gathered Heinz from a bottle, Heinz from Sonic and Heinz from Wendy's.  I did not pick the sonic version the first time, but did the second.  We laughed quite a lot!

05.22.10 Shannon's Birthday Cake

As part of this weekend's festivities in Tulsa, we celebrated Shannon's birthday.  Angie made her a fabulously delicious layered chocolate cake with homemade whipped cream and cherries on top.  We ate almost the entire cake this weekend.  I remembered Angie's mother making this cake for one of Angie's birthday parties when we were kids, wierd feeling of deja'vu.  Happy Birthday Shannon!

05.21.10 Aprons from Che'

Angie was supposed to make Shannon and I aprons, but this weekend she surprised us with the cutest cupcake aprons she found thru Avon.  They weren't homemade, but I can totally understand how irresistable they were.  Thanks Angie!

05.20.10 Shredding it!

I finally changed my name on my bank accounts, so I had to order all new checks.  I shredded the remaining unused checks.

05.19.10 Panna Cotta

Juan and I went to dinner at Macaroni Grill.  We are addicted to their make-your-own pasta meals.  They have also added the most amazing mini desserts to the menu, specifically the panna cotta with berries!  YUM!

05.18.10 Mini Donut

I stopped at Starbucks this morning for a chai latte and was surprised by the new line of sweets they have added.  I picked a little pink mini-donut and it hit the spot perfectly later in the afternoon.

05.17.10 Jakob Rock Climbing

Mom has a lot of problems with heel spurs and they have been bothering her severely lately.  After the amazing experience Juan and I had on vacation with our hiking shoes, I really wanted Mom to try them so we headed to REI after work.  Vanessa was at the doctor, so Jakob tagged along with us.  He was mesmerized by the rock climbing display setup to test hiking shoes.  Once he saw a couple other children climbing around on it he was determined test his rock climbing skills.  He has no fear of heights.  I was right there waiting to grab him if he fell and he actually slapped my hand away multiple times as if to say, "I can do it myself!"

05.16.10 Adam's Birthday Dinner

We took Adam to dinner this evening at Mi Cocina and gave him his belated birthday present.  It was nice to be able to spend a couple of hours with him and just chat.  Happy Birthday Adam!

05.15.10 Belated Mother's Day

Juan and I were not feeling well on Mother's Day and we were supposed to have a BBQ with her today, but ran into vehicle issues instead.  Mom came over to take me to pick up my car and we gave her the Mother's Day Album that I created from our recent trip to Fredricksberg.  Happy Mother's Day Mom!  We love you bunches!!!

05.14.10 Abby's Going Away

Abby decided to take a few years off from her career as an engineer to be a stay at home mom.  I'm not afraid to admit that I am quite jealous.  We had a happy hour after work today to send her off right.  Abby, we'll miss you terribly!

05.13.10 Scentsy Flavors

So I realized I went a bit crazy with the amount of scents that I purchased for my new scentsy candles.  I wonder if I'll ever use all of these.

05.12.10 Scentsy Plug-Ins

My friend, Miriam, recently started selling scentsy candle products.  I bought a couple of burners and plug-ins from her and finally had a chance to get them all set up.  I love this little plug-in with night light and have one in each of our bathrooms.  They are way better than the Bathand Body ones that I was forced to stopped purchasing because the oil leaked all over and ruined multiply items.  These are safe and so colorful!

05.11.10 Anniversary Wind Chimes

These are the beautiful wind chimes that Juan bought me for our 1st year wedding anniversary.  He hung them fo me in our front garden before vacation.  Now I can hear their tinkling sound every evening.  They are the perfect size for our little garden area.

05.10.10 Plane Ride Home

Juan had to fly to Kansas City, MO today for a meeting at Overland Park.  There was bad weather on his return flight, but he managed to snap this amazing shot.

05.09.10 Chicken Noodle Soup

Juan has been sick since we returned from Utah.  He slept almost the entire day.  I got him some Chicken Noodle Soup from Boston Market.  It make him feel oodles better.

05.08.10 Kevin & Emily's Wedding

Tonight was my coworker Kevin and Emily's Wedding.  It was a beautiful affair and we were so happy to be able to join their celebration!  The wedding was at Highland Park Presbyterian Church.

05.07.10 40 Under 40 Plaque

I was so excited to receive this package at work today.  It was a plaque in my name for the 40 under 40 award.  The magazine was sold in April and the award article was set to run in May.  I assumed with the magazine closing that we would not receive plaques this year and was very sad.  To my lovely surprise, it arrived today.  I have already found a place on my office wall adjacent to my PE certificate and College diplomas. 

05.06.10 Butterflies

We went to the Arboretum before vacation and bought about 7 of these super cool butterflies.  I hung them on our house in the front garden with glue dots, but that didn't keep them up for very long.  I'll have to find a better adhesive.  They sure help give more color to our garden.  I've also seen at least 3 real butterflies over the past couple of days in our garden.

05.05.10 Garden Survived

I was so excited to see our garden is still thriving.  It is all thanks to Juan's parents who came over everyday to water it and make sure it was doing well.  I only hope it makes it through the summer.

05.04.10 Vacation Day 8 - Return Home

We spent a ton of hours in the car viewing this little yellow line.  Today was no different.  We drove about 4-1/2 hours back to Salt Lake.  I am very sorry to see the end of this road and our Utah Vacation.  We had an amazing time!

05.03.10 Vacation Day 7 - Canyonlands & Dead Horse Point

We spent the day hiking the Canyonlands, but the B&B folks highly recommended Dead Horse Point, so we went to check that out as well.  We really wished it wasn't quite so sunny as the lighting was pretty harsh, but it was still an amazing view.  Juan couldn't stand to be in the pedestrian way and immediately started climbing out on every rock possible to get a better photo.  This one is still my favorite.

05.02.10 Vacation Day 6 - Arches & BBQ

We spent most of the morning trying to get this photograph of Turret Arch through the North Window.  We climbed some crazy dangerous rocks to get there and it was definitely NOT on the path, but totally worth it.  If only all of the tourists would have left for us!

05.01.10 Vacation Day 5 - Arches

Our first day at Arches National Park, we headed to the farthest part of the park and started with the longest hike, the 8 mile hike though Devils Garden.  A lot of the hike was up the sandstone rock and along the sandstone rim, very scary in parts.  This photo is Landscape Arch, the longest arch in the world.  We continued on to Double O Arch, Partition Arch, Navajo Arch, Dark Angel and a couple of others.  We were definitely exhausted.

04.30.10 Vacation Day 4 - Sunrise & Capitol Reef

We decided to get up with the sun to watch sunrise over sunset point.  After all of the snow, we didn't know if the clouds would clear enough to see the sunrise, but we thought we would try.  We were shocked when we got in the car and learned it was only 25 degrees outside.  Even with our hastily purchased gloves and hats and long sleeve shirts a couple of days before, we still froze.  We almost didn't make it until sunrise.  This was one of the great shots we got over Bryce Canyon.  Afterwards we headed towards Moab and stopped at Capitol Reef, Freemont State Park, the Big Rock Candy Mountain, and Butch Cassidy's boyhood home.

04.29.10 Vacation Day 3 - Escalante

We headed out today for Escalante, the Grand Staircase.  It was my bright idea to drive the 46 miles along a dirt, high alterain vehicle trail.  They told us there was no way we could attempt the drive in our rental car, a Chevy Impala, but that only made me want to try it more.  Juan did a great job at 20 mph although I was white knuckled terrified the entire drive.  The highlight of the drive was this arch/rock formation, Grosvenor's Arch.

04.28.10 Vacation Day 2 - Bryce Canyon

Up at dawn, we missed sunrise by about 15 minutes this morning.  We were on the trail by 6:25am.  It took us about 6 hours to hike the 3 miles along Queen's Garden and Navajo Trail.  Beautiful, amazing, enormous rock formations.  Brilliantly red in the morning sun.  It was a little chilly and very windy, but the sun was shining all day.  This photo is the famous Thor's Hammer.

04.27.10 Vacation Day 1 - Travel

Juan and I traveled all day today to get to Bryce Canyon, Utah.  Our flight was about 4 hours of airport time and then a 5 hour drive to our final destination.  We knew it was worth it as we drove though the Dixie National Forest on the way to Bryce.  We were a little bit concerned when the car rental dealership said snow was predicted all week....uhh it is supposed to be 60-80 degrees average this time of year and we brought all shorts and short sleeved shirts.  Whoops.

04.26.10 New Garden

I am so excited about my garden this year.  Mom helped Juan and I plant everything this past weekend and it looks so beautiful and colorful.  I only hope it live while we are away on vacation.