Vote for Michael!

My good friend is a seriously talented singer and needs you to vote for him in the 2011 Taste of Dallas Taste of Talent contest! You will have to sign up to do so but it doesn't take long. They ask for you email address but you can opt out of receiving emails/offers at the bottom of the page before you submit. If he wins Michael is using the money to get his Master degree which I believe is a noble cause so do me a favor and please vote!!! Here's his video...

Contest details

Michael is easily the most talented entry. Easily. So if you have 2 minutes to quickly type in your info so you can vote (give a fake address and phone number for all I care) then please do so!!!

Adalyn's Baptism and Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago

So here's the deal. My computer had to be shipped off for repairs and our internet has been flakey so blogging has been a bit of challenge. Sure, I can get on blogger on another computer but I also have to upload and edit pictures which is not so easy on another computer. So all that to say, sorry I'm like three weeks behind on the blogging.

A few weekends ago, I was honored to attend my goddaughter's baptism. It was such a humbling experience and Adayln did perfect throughout the whole ceremony. One of the little boys wasn't so thrilled about getting water poured on his head. He was a little older in age, probably around two years old, and as soon as the parents leaned him over the water he panicked. It was great comic relief for the rest of us. Here are a couple pictures from my camera. I'll add more as soon as I get the pictures from Brittany's camera. I couldn't get them until my computer came back from the Apple hospital.

Anna Grace kissing Adalyn

 Memorial Day Weekend I went on a girls trip with my birth friends to Chicago. We have all known each other since birth and our moms take girls trips all the time so we decided it was our turn. I had never been to Chicago and despite the rainy weather the first two days, I thought it was a beautiful city and would love to go back some day.

How to be a true Chicagoan.

On Day 1 of our trip we started off the morning by heading to Willis (formally Sears) tower. Unfortunetly visibility that day was at 0% so we decided to come back when the weather had cleared and headed to the next destination of the day: our architecture boat tour. Along the way we stopped for pictures...

They had a parade on Saturday before Memorial Day and one of the veterans stopped to take our picture for us!

Represant! This is the Chicago Tribune tower. When it was built they held a competition to see who could design the best building and somebody won. Wikipedia it. The cool part is that in the lower levels of the biulding they have incorporated pieces of artifacts from historically significant structures from around the world and we searched until we found the one from Texas! Very cool building though and definetly worth seeing.

Annie went to OU. I put up the horns as a general representation of Texas but Annie is legally binded to never do such a thing.

I'm glad we did the architecture boat tour at the beginning of our weekend because we toured the city on the river and were able to identify the buildings throughout the city the rest of the trip. We also learned on our trip that most people are terrible photographers. We had an awesome view of the city behind us and asked a guy to take a picture for us. When I got my camera back he had taken the picture at an angle that showed the floor behind us. Come on!

So then we only trusted each other with the camera.

After our boat tour we went to lunch at Giordano's. We had heard that there are several great deep dish pizza places in town but this is the only one for which we had time.

I know everybody always says it but they're right. Best. Pizza. Ever. I had my doubts but boy is it good. Wish I had a piece right now. Just a word of advice. They allow you to pre-order your pizza and put your name on the list to be seated so that by the time you are seated your pizza will be ready (we waited for about an hour...worth it). Well we made the mistake of ordering "to go" instead of "pre ordering" and it was an ordeal when they handed us our pizza and told us we couldn't sit down. Annie and I are used to getting our way so we kindly spoke to a manager and he allowed us to sit on the condition that we would take care of our waiter (duh).

On our way to the Navy Pier for dinner we stopped by the famous Bean...

We went on a dinner boat cruise on Lake Michigan Saturday night. Katy totally called it that someone was going to get engaged on the boat. Sure enough right after dinner the DJ called a young couple onto the floor. We all ran over to the dance floor because to see if Katy's prediction was correct and next thing we know he's down on one knee! Good call Katy. :) 

 Fireworks over the Navy Pier after dinner on the boat.

Sunday was a very rainy day. We started off the morning at Orange, a brunch restaurant recommended by a friend. It was so good we made plans to go the next day too. Unfortunetly though, it wasn't just raining, it was thunderstorming. We had considered going to a few museums but weren't really up for it so instead paid a visit to Garrett's popcorn and Argo tea. Garrett's is a popular popcorn shop in Chicago that sells a cheese/caramel combo mix that is to die for. Argo is like a Starbucks for tea lovers and it was my favorite.  They had premade tea combos (like Starbucks does with coffee) that could be ordered either hot or cold or you could make your own combos.  If we had an Argo in Dallas I would go over Starbucks any day.

That night we went to Harry Carry's before going to Second City. I recommend both.

Harry Carry's is a steak/seafood restaurant named after THE Harry Carry (unfortuntely for the real Harry Carry, I'm always reminded of Will Ferrell). Second City is a comedy club in Chicago that is similar in comparison to Saturday Night Live. It is famous for its almni who have often gone on to be SNL cast members such as John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert and Tina Fey. It was hilarious. In fact, they did a skit in reference to how much you can find out about a person on the internet and I was thanking my lucky stars that Annie had set up our reservation because this blog is basically a tell all for my life.

Monday, Memorial Day, was a typical Memorial Day for me as far as weather is concerned. 

Please take notice of our attire in the previous few pictures and our attire on this day. The weather went from rainy and 50 degrees to sunny and 90 degrees in a matter of 24 hours. In fact, we were so hot this day I kept wishing I had brought shorts. This picture is cool because it shows Buckingham Fountain and our hotel in the background. (Annie's hand is sticking up right in front of our hotel.) We stayed at the Congress Plaza Hotel which is similar to the Plaza Hotel in New York. Annie got a great deal and didn't figure out why until she arrived. Apparently the hotel staff is on strike and has been for that past eight years. Yes, eight years. They stand outside the hotel everyday with their signs and sit and read the newspaper while drinking their coffee. I guess they're getting paid by the labor union? I don't know. We didn't notice a lack of service throughout our stay so we just thought it was quite amusing.

We headed out to Navy Pier to see what it looks like when the sun is shining. Glad we did. It was gorgeous.

We had lunch at Clark Street Dog. I'm not a huge hot dog fan but these were the best hot dogs I've ever had in my life. We bought every kind on the menu and shared. YUM.

Walking along Lake Michigan

The Cubs played the Astros while we were there. I just noticed that the Astros were already up a run when we took this picture. This was a great stadium. We had the best seats in the house because we were at the very top of the second level so our backs were against the fence which ended up being heavenly with the breeze. Astros ended up beating the Cubs but we left before the game was over because we had to catch our flight.

My next two posts will be about Preston's birthday and of course, the National NBA Champions...THE MAVS!!! I am going on vacation Saturday but in the meantime need to pack, paint and move into the main house on our property so it's going to be a crazy week. (Translation: don't expect a post soon.)

Happy 26th Birthday Preston!

Happy (belated) birthday to the most wonderful, amazing, kind, handsome and helpful husband ever. I intended to post this on Preston's birthday yesterday, but our Macbook and our internet broke this week so today I present to you a list of 26 things you may or may not know about Preston:

1. Preston has more Acappella cd's/music on his ipod than anyone you will ever meet...possible even more than the members of Acappella. He knows every Acappella, AVB, Keith Lancaster, Vocal Union and general acapella song ever sung and has seen every acapella youtube video ever uploaded. He loved Acappella (the group) before acappella (the genre) was cool. I didn't believe him when we first met until he showed me his 100+ cd case and EVERY single cd was acappella. He's branched out a bit to include a little Glee...and Usher.

2. Preston likes to do a little jig every once in a while, mostly when he's standing and eating something he really likes. It involves him putting one foot in front of the other and rocking back and forth, swinging his hips a little. He says he doesn't do this but he's a liar.

3. He clears his throat a lot before he is going to speak, especially when he answers his phone.

4. Preston harmonizes to tv commercials, radio commercials and basically anything that involves a diddy. He does it without even realizing it most of the time.On the contrary, getting him to sing on command is impossible.

5. Many of you know he directed his Senior year sing song act but did you know that he also choreographed GSP's sing song act Junior and Senior year? It's fun to go back to Sing Song and see other shows that have adapted his choreography.

6. He snores.

7. He never complains about going to see a chick flick with me and I know he hates them. He doesn't even secretly like them. I didn't really know how big of a deal that was until my friends started asking, "Preston went to see that with you!?"

8. He thinks the scariest animal on earth is the octopus, and has an irrational fear that he is going to be attacked by one someday.

9. He and I nearly have the same size feet. (My feet are huge.)

10. He has naturally curly/wavy hair but he hates to grow it out. I had to beg him to grow it out the last couple years.

11. He sold his Xbox because it was distracting him from his real dream: to own his own company.

12. He re-bought an Xbox six months after he sold it.

13. He hates fiction books. Most of the material he reads are non-fiction, biographies and text books.

14. Even though I did better in school than he, he is much smarter than me in the real world. I guess I just knew how to work the system.

15. Despite the fact that he eats fruits and vegetables about once a month, I gurantee you he will outlive me.

16. Preston is allergic to most fruits and some vegetables (like avocados).

17. He types all his letters to me and then signs them. Most are printed on plain white paper and folded in half to make a card. He rarely dates them. I found one from college the other day. On the front it said "I love you" and inside was his typed letter. I handed it to him to see if he could remember the date (so we could date it) but all he could focus on was how "I Love You" was off center.

18. When we got our puppies, he insisted they have night light.

19. Preston's favorite shampoo is Suave Green Apple. It costs maybe a dollar.

20. If you know Preston at all, you know he gets the same meal at Chuy's every time: Chicken Sopapilla no beans with queso on top. I'd be willing to bet he has introduced literally hundreds of people to it. And if you are wondering, although it is no longer on the menu you can still order it.

21. He loves reality tv.

22. He also loves Charlie Rose, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

23. He actually lets me dress him. He is fully aware that I have much better fashion sense. With that said, you will not see him wearing a popped collar, a scarf or a graphic tee no matter how hot I tell him he looks in it.

24. If Preston could be any type of ice cream, he would be vanilla. (I'm sorry, that's an inside joke.)

25. If Preston could go anywhere in the world, he would stay here.

26. May this represent all the things I know about him that he'd kill me if I told you.