Friday, April 29, 2011

Royal Madness

The Royal Wedding Madness is almost over.
WHEW!
I admit, I originally thought about taking the day off and throwing a party but none of my friends here in town were down with taking vacation time for such a thing.
I did set my alarm to watch but when I woke up I was so tired that I couldn't find the remote control so I went back to bed. That's no lie.

I did watch it while getting ready for work this morning though and saw them riding in their carriages. 
Totally cool. 
I think her dress was elegant and classy and from what I've watched throughout the day(I have a TV at my desk at work), the whole event went down beautifully.

As I sit here and type this post -- the real bash is underway with Kate and Will's friends sipping on cocktails and dancing the night away.
How cool would it be to get an invite to that?
Funny story.
I posted this link on Facebook last night. It's a blog post about a local Charlottean who is personal friends with Will and Kate and traveled to London.
It wasn't 5-minutes later that I got a text message from my friend Amanda who told me that a guy we both know dates her.
Of course, I'm not personal friends with the guy but I have friends who are so I texted one of them to ask if he was going to the wedding.
They said.. YES!
Can't wait to hear the stories.
Go read that blog post. Pretty interesting. I truly think Will and Kate try and be as normal as they can be.

Also, you have to go check out I Do Declare's blog!
She had a royal watching party and ABC news came and did a story.  She and friends were live on the West Coast version of GMA and I'm told she'll be on Nightly News tonight.
Cool or what? I'm sure we'll get all the deets this next week.

Now for the weekend.
Tonight we have dinner plans with Annie and her boyfriend and another blogger. Should be fun!
Tomorrow we might check out a little grill action and have some friends over.
Have a good one!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Buddy Update

Are you all so OVER seeing pictures of our dog on this blog?
Probably.
Oh wells.
Here's a few more for your viewing pleasure.

Easter Sunday -- compliments of his GiGi aka my Mom.
This was before the pooch pulled his back out.
 We're on day 4 of doggy painkillers, muscle relaxers and carrying the fur ball from floor to floor in our 3-story townhouse.
I'm sorta over it --and I think he is too.
He doesn't understand why we're blocking him in the basement without full reign to go upstairs or on furniture.
I'm pretty sure he thinks he's better. To be honest -- I think he might be too.  BUT.. the doctor said we should do this for 2-weeks to be sure so he doesn't injure his back anymore and end up in surgery.
Last night when I took him out to use the potty he took off sprinting.  Buddy is no lazy dog and likes to exercise so I'm sure all this laying around is getting to him even though he's drugged up.

I'm thinking we will continue the meds and carrying throughout the weekend and then start weaning him off and see what happens?

Does anyone else have experience with this? I have several friends with beagles and/or bassets and this is pretty common.  They say they get better in a few days.

On another topic -- prayers sent out to everyone affected by this week's tornadoes.  Truly terrible.  One of my business partners here at work told me that her Dad's house was destroyed last night.  He and his wife got into the bathroom in the nick of time before their roof came off and they were staring at the sky.
I grew up in tornado alley so I know just how scary they are.
That's it for this Thursday.
I can't wait for this weekend to get here.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Easter Sunday

Since we had our Easter dinner on Saturday night -- giving that everyone lives a distance away and has to drive.  Easter Sunday was a bit more low-key.
I know -- we are heathens --but we didn't go to church since Easter and Christmas tend to be a madhouse.

Instead we enjoyed a nice breakfast with my parents before they left to drive their 3-hours home. The weather was lovely! 86-degrees and sunny!
 Since the weather was so nice we decided to go to the lake for a boat ride! Buddy was stoked!
 Pooch loves being on the water - just not in it! HA! He's come a long way though.  His first summer at the lake he wouldn't even get on the dock without us dragging him.  Now he runs down the dock and jumps on the boat!
As for getting into the water? Not so much.  I'm really tempted to get him a life jacket and test it this summer.  It seems he's still traumatized by me throwing him into a pool as a puppy to see if he could swim. Yes, bad Mommy.  I seriously, didn't know better.

 BTW - I got sunburned! I guess I don't have a base tan like I did last summer.

Of course, the ducks were out in full force.  The names my MIL has given these two? Fred and Ethel.
 Nice for the weather to be warm and not storming! There has been some crazy storms here in the SE and in other parts of the country!
 Buddy was so funny.  I've never seen him chase the ducks before but he was chasing them on Sunday.  I guess it was because the squirrels weren't out for the day yet.
  A few weeks ago we noticed that in one of my in-laws pampas grass bushes there was a duck egg.  Then a couple of days later there were 2 more.  Well, now we actually got to see the duck sitting on the eggs.
If you look close you can see her.  She hides herself but she's a dark duck and you can even see her eye.  This as close as we could get.
Cool or what?
This actually happened last summer then there were a lot of little ducks running around!
Great Easter weekend indeed!
Update since the weekend: Buddy injured his back while home alone yesterday. The vet thinks he jumped off a piece of furniture.  When I got home he was shaking, crying and wouldn't eat or go up the stairs. I immediatley took him to the vet.  I know a lot of you gals saw this on Facebook last night but I thought I would update everyone else.  He's now on pain meds and muscle relaxers and they're telling us he has to avoid stairs for 2-weeks.  That would be okay if we didn't live in a 3-story townhome.  I've already done my share of carrying the 33-pound furball up and down.  Today he's isolated to the basement and we've put stuff on the couch and chairs. Say a prayer he gets better soon and doesn't injure himself worse!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter Dinner Party 2011

Get ready for picture OVERLOAD!
Our Easter family dinner party went fantabulously!
In all we had 8 adults and 2 children.

Easter means spring and that means flowers.  My MIL brought us this gorgeous pot. 
 Brad and I hit the Farmer's Market that morning and picked up some blue iris.  My Mom later brought the yellow flowers that we put with them.  Sorry for the sideways picture.
 I also spent the morning making the butterscoth haystacks/nest cookies that MCW suggested that I use as my place card holders. 
 More flowers on our kitchen table.

 Our cheese buffet. Love me some cheese!

Strawberries and brown sugar.  A must in South Louisiana! 
 Beautiful Mother.
 Knowing that the kiddos would be over later and Buddy would feel left out -- my parents picked him up an Easter basket/gift too.  Blurry, but I love his ears flying in the air!
 The cocktail of the day was champagne with lavender simple syrup.  I got this idea from A Liz and it was awesome!
Click here for the recipe.  I made the simple syrup on Thursday night and let it sit until Saturday in the fridge, then strained it.  This was so refreshing and perfect for Spring!
We had Easter baskets for the niece and nephew.  Just a few things..
And..of course, my Mom never comes empty handed when there are kids around.  She bought them Easter books, DVDs and book lights -- which were a REAL hit.
With their Mommy --SIL, Robyn.
We got our share of Easter gifts too.
Mom gave us this gorgeous White House Christmas ornament in the shape of an egg.
SIL Robyn brought us these beautiful tulips.
And, Brad got a Masters hat from his brother who was lucky enough to go to Augusta National this year.
Now for my Easter tablescape.  I decided to go simple and I think it turned out perfect.  I would have liked a bigger bouquet but opted out of it because sometimes it overpowers and then your guests can't see past it at dinner.
What do you think?
I should have gotten a better picture of those napkins there on the end.  Those were the niece and nephew's seats and of course they don't eat off china quite yet.  So, instead I folded their napkins to look like bunny rabbits.  I got this idea from a blog too.
During cocktail hour we enjoyed family time which included reading some of the books my Mom brought the kids. One of the books was the real story of Easter. NICE touch! :)
Paigee loves Buddy! He gets a bit nervous sometimes though. We discovered the next morning he had tinkled in the basement.  We're not sure when that happened.
Then it was time for dinner.  Brad made his prime rib that he loves so much.
What would Easter be without deviled eggs?  I truly think this is a Southern thing.
I made this AWESOME green bean and artichoke salad that I got off the Internet. It called for asparagus but I used green beans instead.
MIL made yummy herb potatoes.
The kids were so cute.  They wanted to get into their pjs before dinner and changed right out in the living room in front of everyone.  They enjoyed looking out of the windows at the planes taking off.  Yes, we live in the flight path. Awesome eh? NOT! haha!
I was trying to get a good picture of Paigee and her Daddy but she doesn't like to smile on cue.
But then Daddy gave her a tickle! There it is!
The kiddos love snuggling with Uncle Brad.
The best part of the night?
When it was time for cake!
The kids closed their eyes until I took the top off and then they cheered, clapped and jumped up and down!
Adorable!
SIL, makes the best coconut cake ever!
That is our Easter dinner party for 2011.
As for Easter day? Well, there are so many pictures so I'll post about it tomorrow.
How was your Easter?