Christine heads home to St. Louie

I seem to be traveling a lot for work lately and this week I had the good luck of being sent to St. Louis. Ironically, I had meetings 5 minutes from where I grew up! The meetings went great and I was able to spend some really wonderful quality time with my mother and grandfather. The highlights of my brief trip were 1) discovering that one of the people I was meeting with was the younger sister of one of my dear highschool friends (Jody Meyers) 2) meeting my grandfather's friend at the lavish retirement home he now lives in and finding out she's the spunky mother-in-law of a previous Pepsi CEO (we work for Pepsico) and 3) discovering that my sweet, sweet 93 yr. old grandfather has a secret subscription to Playboy. Astounding really. I'm not sure if I was more shocked because it seems so completely out of character for him or because he's 93 - but I thought it was pretty hilarious.

iPhone Bliss

So much has happened in the last week that it's hard to believe that the whole Austin/Trapeze experience was just last weekend!

This past week Christine was in Chicago for a work photo shoot. She had a chance to catch up with Hillary, Rachel Fiely, LMJ-A and Jenny Young. Such fun! She also had an amazing dinner at this place called Moto that Dana had been to the week before when he was in Chicago for a different photo shoot. Moto is CRAZY! A food experience like no other... They call it molecular gastronomy and the chef uses lasers, liquid nitrogen and eclectic (a.k.a sometimes scary) ingredients to really wow you.

This weekend we've laid low and spent most of our time trying to figure out our new iphones. Today we had over the Hottingers, Scurlocks and Cavins for Dana's yummy brunch (homemade orange cinnamon rolls, pumpkin muffins, honey ginger fruit and egg casserole).

The weather was so beautiful this weekend (70s/80s and sunny) so it was hard to tear ourselves away to go see a movie tonight. We saw "Fireproof", a Christian movie with cheesy acting but a GREAT message about the importance of pursuing your spouse throughout your marriage. Christine basically balled her eyes out through the whole thing (which is common - even in Disney movies). The film was very inspiring!

Janelle's baby is due in 2 weeks and we can't wait!

Celebrating Janelle's Birthday

A fun dinner with Kate, Kelley, Janelle & Michael at Breadwinners in honor of Janelle's birthday. It was free dessert night and we went a little nuts!

Flying High

This was definitely one of the coolest experiences of my entire life!

Trapeze Rocked!

Trapeze lessons rocked! They were everything I dreamed they'd be and more. I can't wait to post pictures.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day (clear blue skies, perfect temperature) to be flying around. It was honestly the scariest thing I've ever done (even more so than skydiving and bungee jumping - both of which people can just push you and you fall so no thinking is required). Lauren, Cayce, Sara and I took the lesson while our other 8 friends watched and cheered us on. Sara was a natural! They even offered her a job. I seriously think she could do it for a living.

By the end of the lesson we were flying through the air, doing flips, hanging upside down and getting caught by a guy on another swing. Incredible! It was totally worth it and I'm thrilled to check it off my "life list".

It's finally time for Trapeze...

After months of waiting, our "trapeze lessons" weekend has arrived! This is part of a belated b-day celebration (yes I know my birthday was 7 weeks ago). We are in Austin this gorgeous weekend with 10 dear friends.

We're staying with Sara & James and last night we went to hear a live band play. Austin has incredible music, so it was fun to experience that. Today's the big day! Trapeze is this afternoon after lunch at the Oasis. More pictures to come soon..

An unexpected snow day

Today our company went through some layoffs. A lot of it had to do inflation and the enormous impact it's had on our raw materials. As you know, food prices are skyrocketing!
The good news is that Dana and I were not impacted. You always get a little nervous even if you think that you're going to be okay, so it's a relief it's over. They closed our office for the day to allow those who were impacted time to clean out their offices, so we had a "snow day" essentially. I got a pedicure and a massage (it's "spa week" in Dallas so lots of good deals around....) and took an interior decorating class (with the b-day gift $ that Ron & Judy had given me)! The stress aside, it was a really fun day.

So You Think You Can Dance

Last night we went to see the top 10 dancers from the TV show "So You Think You Can Dance" perform as they traveled through Dallas. They were truly incredible. I wanted to sign up for dance classes on the spot!

Today I was totally immersed in Book 4 of this "Twilight" series. It really is vampire crack. I can't put these books down! The only productive part of my day was getting to the gym to run 10K. I now am in this strange trend of not making it to the gym all week long and then punishing myself with a 10K every weekend.

Tonight we went out for a fun sushi dinner with Janelle and Michael. Their baby could come in just 3 weeks, so we needed to get in some quality adult time while we still could.

Tomorrow we are really excited to see the King Tut exhibit that is traveling through the country! Moorea and Samui gave Dana tickets for his birthday (since King Tut loved worshiped cats of course). I'm sure we'll learn a lot!

Pizza Making Party

Pizza making with our nieces!

Visiting Family in San Francisco

What a weekend! After too much time apart, we finally made it out to California to see family. We hadn't seen our nieces since Christmas (which is crazy), so it was such a treat to reconnect with them, see my sister & brother-in-law and catch up with Dana's parents.

We celebrated 3 birthdays and 2 wedding anniversaries! Lots of blessings to be thankful for - and lots of time playing with the princesses : )