PawPaw & Max

This past weekend was busy like usual. PawPaw came in for a visit & Ally (family friend) had her engagement shower. My cousin Max came to lunch to see Pawpaw; he is cute (and big) baby.

Have a great week! I have a lot going on this week, so I probably won't be able over the next few days. I'll have some good updates come Monday!

Laramie Project & LOIS!

It's been so long since I've updated, but I have a lot to show and tell you. I went to the Holocaust Museum- almost a month ago- to see The Laramie Project (a play about the Matthew Shepard story). The Mayor of Houston introduced Judy Shepard (Matt's mom), and she gave a nice introduction to the play. It was a very interesting play that Judy explained most accurately portrays the events that happened to her son. Below is a photo of our Mayor & Judy.




4 Letters- LOIS! I went to see the corpse flower, Lois, at the Museum of Natural Science. We bought our tickets during the day that we were planning to go. We bought tickets to see her at 10pm (as the museum was open 24 hours a day to see Lois), we arrived at 9:45pm, and we waited an hour to see her. She wasn't half as stinky as I thought that she was going to be!

Have a great weekend!

Judy Shepard

Last night I went to Judy Shepard's book signing and talk. She is remarkable. If you don't recoginze her name, you might recognize her son's name: Matthew Shepard. He was "the gay twenty-one-year-old University of Wyoming college student" who was beaten and left hanging on a fence in 1998. It is such a tragic story. Since his death, she has created a foundation to help educate people on diversity and acceptance. Most impressive, she's working on a couple more books right now- one of letters that she has received and a childrens book. She explained that she has received over 100,000 emails and over 10,000 letters about her son. She gave a fascinating talk about Matt, her foundation, and her personal feelings on forgiveness.

I started to read her book last night, and it's really great. I highly recommend it.

I'm going to see her talk again this weekend at the Holocaust Museum, as she will speak before the showing of the Laramie Project (an HBO movie that was made to show the Matthew Shepard story).

Eric

The past couple of weeks have been very scary for my cousin Eric and the family. After having ACL surgery, he came home for recovery. Less than a week into his recovery, he was hospitalized for chest pain (which we found out was a blood clot). After being put on blood thinners for a few days, he was hospitalized again (which we found out was internal bleeding). He's had a couple of surgeries and blood transfusions, and he is now out of ICU. It seems as though he's starting his recovery (finally). Please keep your prayers with him, as he's going to have a long road ahead of him.

Scary Weekend

Saturday morning, I look Jeepers to the dog park to play with her friend, Bella. As we were driving home (after the play date), I was stopped at a light and saw a pedestrian get hit by a car. I immediately called 911 & waited for the ambulance to get there. It was by far one of the scariest things that I have ever seen. The girl who was hit, appeared to be ok, but she was taken to the hospital to get checked out! I hope she just had some bad cuts and bruises!!

I took Jeepers back to the park on Sunday morning. After the park, I did a MASSIVE cleaning at home. I moved all of the furniture to clean my floors (LOVE the Swiffer WetJet), and I cleaned my couches from Dexter & Jeepers' hair! We ended the weekend with a family dinner with some cousins. By the end of the night this is what Jeepers looked like:

Have a great week!

Wood Floors & Adam's Graduation

I took off work on Friday to have wood (well vinyl wood) floors put in throughout my whole apartment (entry, kitchen, living room, dining room, and bedroom). What a mess!!! Ripping out the tile was ridiculously dusty, so I am STILL cleaning. I have a feeling that I'll be dusting every other day for at least a month (what a pain!).

Living room carpet ripped up

Entry tile ripped out

Kitchen tile ripped out

Leveling the concrete before they can put down the new floors

Glue...

Wood FINALLY going in!



Dexty peeking out while they were ripping out tile/carpet in the other rooms

After a long day... Everything came together. I'm happy with the color and the look of the floor. Dexter & Jeepers seem happy with it as well.

Living room/dining room!

Bedroom!

After a long day full of loud noises (from tile being ripped out), dust, and cleaning, I headed over to my Grandma's house for dinner with the family. My Aunt Ricki was intown, so it was great seeing her. Didn't get any photos Friday night. Sunday was my cousin, Adam's, high school graduation. I'm so excited for him as he gets ready to head up to Boston for college, and I'm looking forward to seeing him this Fall when I visit!


Adam's high school class

Adam getting his diploma!

The GRADUATE!!!

After graduation, we headed over to Kata Robata for a fantastic sushi lunch. Kata Robata is one of my favorite sushi restaurants in Houston; it has a great atmosphere & fantastic food. Yay, Adam! So excited for you to head off to college!!! Congrats again!

Family conversation before we got our delicious food

David, Adam & Heidi

The whole family after lunch! Ria & Tracy- Sorry you weren't here to celebrate with us!

Adam & me

NYC

I had a great weekend in NYC this weekend! I went up on Saturday, and I got home late last night. Saturday, late afternoon, I hit up Soho for some good shopping, then dinner at Ristorante Scalini Fedeli in Tribeca. The food was good, but I think it was over priced for what it was. After dinner we met up with Brittany's friend Rachel & her boyfriend at a Cuban restaurant/bar in Chelsea:

Me, Brittany & Rachel

Kevin & Me

I walked 8-10 miles on Sunday (and as you can imagine, I'm still sore!). Up the river, through West Village (managed to pass on a cupcake from Magnolia's bakery), through the meat packing district (for brunch at Pastis- AMAZING), to Fifth Avenue to meet up with Brittany for shopping. We shopped for 4 hours, hitting up all of the big department stores. While we were talking around, we saw the Smurf's movie being filmed:

After shopping, Kevin took me to Central Park (not for long though, as I was sore & exhausted & hungry). Then we headed over to a fantastic Indian food restaurant for dinner.

Central Park!

Unfortunately, I woke up at the crack of dawn on Monday, so the walking started at 7:45 a.m. ...Down the river, through Battery Park City, through the Financial District/Wall Street, to Chinatown, through Little Italy, and winding up in Soho at the big Dean & Deluca.

Battery Park

Me in Battery Park City... The Statue of Liberty is behind me, but for some reason it's not showing up in the pic.

We had a ridiculously early lunch at Sunshine 27 in Chinatown. It's a dim sun restaurant, and it was INCREDIBLE. The restaurant has lots of large tables, where they seat you based on space at the table. So there were 2 of us, and we were seated at a table that had 5 other people already there. The waiter gives you a ticket, and servers come around to your table with carts where you point and choose what you want to eat (and they stamp your ticket). It was the best meal that I had in NYC.

Kevin & Me at Sunshine 27


A food cart at Sunshine 27 (I can't get the photo to rotate- sorry!)

It was great to get home and see my babies (Jeepers & Dexter), but I can't wait to go back! I miss that city already!