MAVS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aren't we all just a little bit crazy excited that a professional team in Dallas won a championship other than Jerry Jones' Dallas Cowboys. Don't get me wrong I love the Cowboys but maybe the Rangers going to the World Series and now the Mavs winning the NBA Finals it is time for the Cowboys to win the Super Bowl again!!!!

I was out of town for Game 6 but I was in town for the parade. My friend, Marissa, and I took off work and went down to the madness and watched the parade. It was wild! It was fun! It was hot! It was amazing! It was DIRKish! It was Cuban crazy! I am glad I didn't miss it!!!!!!

Mar & I hanging out before the parade started...

DIRK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cuban and The Long Awaiting Trophy!!!
Mav Dancers and Mav Maniacs!!!!
Congratulations to the NBA Champions MAVS!!!

andi

More Roanoke Pics...

Shae and Trey Vinny posing...

Lex...

Lex posing now...

Trey

Roanoke for the weekend in pictures.....

The beginning of our "hike".....

Half way through... Well Lex made me think we were through when I posed for the pic!

Already a beautiful view....



Lex playing on the vines....

Doesn't it just get purdier....

The easy walk down.... Not sure why Lex didn't take me up the easy way but well it was better that way...

Andi

Roanoke for the weekend - Part 1

I went to Roanoke, Virginia in June for my longest and closest friend, Shae's, wedding reception. Shae and Steve got married in Florida in April and I was unable to go, but nothing was keeping me away from the reception. They are quite cute!!!!

Shae & Steve on their Wedding Day

Trey, Vinny, Steve, Shae, Lex and Emily (The New Brady Bunch)
I was there from Friday to Monday.

Thursday - Well I was so excited about going, that I went to the airport a whole day early and for some reason American wouldn't let me fly early???? Meanies.

Friday - Pool time with the kids and then went out with Steve and Shae for a night on the town in Roanoke. I couldn't help but laugh that the place we were out was named Corn Beef. Hmmm.... different name for a place to hang out at. I had a great time with people that I just met and good friends.


Saturday - Spent the day at the softball fields (kinda like when I was a kid). Lex plays and I was there to watch and give her tips. She did great!!!! Steve also has 2 kids, Emily and Vinny, and Emily played softball as well. They were great!!! Vinny and Trey played and ate everything they could buy at the concession stand.

Saturday night was the wedding reception. We had a great time! It was at Blue 5 or Blue Number 5 or something like that.... :) They rented out the bottom floor for the reception. Shae ensured there was plenty of chicken strips for me through the catering! Isn't she nice! They also had a variety of different foods and different cupcake flavors! The cupcakes were YUMMY!!!! They had a DJ that had a crush on me! So he got me dancing the entire night. I don't dance! I am hoping that Virginians do not think all Texans dance like me. It was scary! But I had a blast! The DJ made sure he used all the different Texan euphemisms. The girls (Lex and Emily) developed a special dance to get everyone involved and the boys (Trey & Vinny) well decided they needed to one up the girls by breaking dancing or some form of break dancing!!! :)

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Steve Buchannan!!!!!!

Sunday - Lex and I went hiking. Well we didn't get to hike the trail that I wanted to but that is OK. Lex decided that we were going to a different shorter hike but wanted to actually "climb" up the mountain straight up. I was breathing hard. My fav line of the day with Lex was "You aren't going to have a heart attack are you?" I have sense been to the gym 8 times since I have returned from this embarrassing statement with my hard breathing. :)

Sunday night! MAVS!!!! Enough said for right now.


Monday - Travel time......


It was a good trip! The area was absolutely beautiful and I would like to come back!!! Lex will no longer ask me if I am going to have a heart attack b/c I am determined to get my cardio worked up so I can climb straight up the mountain. :) Next time next time!!!


Andi

Find Waldo???

Can anyone find my brother in this picture? He is there! Congratulations to Shane for graduating with his master's degree. We are super excited that we aren't graduating with our master's on the same day. We graduated with our undergraduate degrees on the same day within hours of each other. So today was all about Shane!!!!

He is starting his administrative certificate to be a principal and will also start the Ph.D program.... Ummmmm..... I think I will give him this one. He can be the smarter one. ;-)

Andi

Babysitting Lacey

Have I mentioned that I love my niece? Because I do. She loves her Aggie. I got to watch her for about an hour one Saturday and then again for a few hours during the week in May. My place is small and my living room was destroyed during our time together!!!! Weeks later I was still finding Cheerios in seat cushions and in Roxy's crate. Roxy was traumatized because Lacey was petting nicely then in a blink of an eye she started pulling her hair. Roxy decided to stay on the other side of the room that day, but the next time they were loving on each other. It was cute. Roxy would lick her and lick her and Lacey would giggle. BTW - My place is not child proof. She was cruising around the coffee table and probably got a few bumbs and bruises from falling and hitting herself on the table. Lacey also got to swing in a playground swing set at the park near my house for the first time! She loved it with her cute grin!

Even though I was stressed out I loved every minute! We had a blast!!!! Pretty soon, Lacey will be asking to spend the day or night with her Aggie.... O my! :)

Sheenius!

Tater and I went to see Charlie Sheen… Someone should have been present with us during a happy hour night when we decided to purchase the tickets before he even had his FIRST show. They could have talked us out of this!!! OMG! It was bad!!!! He was 40 minutes late and the crowd was getting mean! Tons of booooooooing and tons of potential for cat fighting. The crowd was not who I would normally hang around. I got the impression that the crowd would be similar to a crowd at a WWE wrestling match. I was also expecting that the show would have been sponsored by Ed Hardy. Just saying.

1. 40 minutes late – How rude! We paid for 2 hours, but he was probably only on the stage for about 30 minutes.

2. He got all of his words but not rationally! Duh!-Winning, Bi-Winning, Tiger Blood, Sheenius, Goddess, etc etc.

3. Poor Kidd Kraddick got booed off the stage!

4. The only thing good about the show was the 20/20 spoof video!

5. Charlie Sheen is not winning at anything

6. I want a Sheenius shirt but I don’t want my $$$ to go to his crack habit.

7. He got dumped by one goddess, lets hope the last one will leave him and get smart!

~ andi

Belmont Hotel

Last weekend, Marissa, Jorge, and I went to the Belmont Hotel Bar for a quiet, relaxing evening and had a few drinks as we enjoyed the skyline. It was really nice!!!! I stole the pic from Yelp below, but this is pretty much what it was like. There was no band playing when we were there, but the view was clear and breathtaking! Dallas has a pretty skyline!

I had an Ice Pick drink. It was Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka, lemoncello, and fresh mint. It was very good!!! Strong so I only had one. I had already had dinner, but there were a few things on the appetizer menu that I would have liked to try. Different types of appetizers, fancier than I am use to.... :)

Marissa and I started planning things as we walked around the hotel grounds. There was this really cute courtyard with bungalows around the courtyard. We thought about having a birthday party there and decorate the courtyard with lights, have music and rent out the bungalows for a weekend.

I am a little different than some of my friends and I usually do not dream about the perfect wedding nor do I have everything planned out in my head, but their pool overlooks a huge green yard that is on the edge of the cliff with the view of downtown. I could see having an outdoor wedding there or a reception there. Don't go off stealing my one and only idea though! ;-)

Also, if you want to have a romantic weekend there with your hubby or wifey then rent out a large bungalow and there is a private hot tub overlooking the city.

Who doesn't enjoy being outside and looking at a skyline??? The Dallas skyline just makes it that much better!!!

Since I posted on Facebook that I went I had multiple friends say that they have been wanting to try it out. I completely recommend a Friday night at the Belmont Bar. But there is also a restuarant there that is a smokehouse with BBQ. Have never tried it. There are also musicians there Tuesday and Friday nights!!!

Enjoy!!!

Andi

Does Life Revolve Around Food?

Wow! I feel that life has been revolving around places I am going to eat.... For lunch the other day, I stopped by Eno's Pizzeria Tavern in Bishop Arts District. Yum!!! I really enjoyed the pizza as the crust was super duper thin. I don't like eating a lot of bread because I just get filled up that... I had pepparoni and hamburger meat with basil on top. The atmosphere was very quaint and nice. I would like to go back on a Friday or Saturday night as they have music.

Some friends and I went to Joe T. Garcia's for dinner on Wednesday night! I like their food OK, but I love their drinks better! I don't drink margaritas because of the tequila, but I love daiquiris as rum is yummy! Their daiquiries are greatness!!!

I tried to go to Hunky's in Bishop Arts today with my mom, but it didn't work out. Another time. But I might have other options by then.

Also, the original Gloria's closed in Bishop Arts! :( BUT they built a HUGE one down the street. AWESOME patio!!! Drove past it so now I need to go by there again.

Until next time!!!

Andi

BEE (Best Enchiladas Ever)!!!

Yesterday, I tried out the new BEE restaurant in the Bishop Arts District. I am not a BIG fan of enchiladas, but some work people wanted to try it out. I really enjoyed it and the enchiladas were BEE delicious! You pick a tortilla, filling and a topping. There are four tortilla choices, 6 filling choices, and 11 topping choices. Then you get to pick all other toppings like onions, cilantro, sour cream, cheese, etc etc. It was a cheap place. I got one enchilada and a drink for about 7 bucks! There are also salad choices and one person in front of me got one. I think I might try their salads sometime! They had spinach which is rare and that is the kind of "lettuce" I like in my salads. Their logo is cute as it has bees zooming around.... The place is owned and operated by Monica Greene! If you don't know who this is think of Monica's in Deep Elum. The BEE also kinda represents Monica being the Queen Bee! There are a ton of places that I want to try in the Bishop Arts District! Who's joining me?!?!? Next choices: Tillman's Roadhouse, Gonzalez' Restaurant, Luckie's Smokehouse, Lockhart Smokehouse, Vera's Bakery, Dude, Sweet Chocolate, The Soda Gallery, Eno's Pizza Tavern, and all the cute shops around there. ~andi

Dirty Car of the Year

Well what do I say... I almost went to Party City to get a 1st place ribbon and made a sign that said Dirty Car of the Year! Congratulations! The only spot left without trash was the drivers seat. There were about 366 McD's coffee cups!

~andi

Meyerson Symphony

March 23, 2011

I had a date on Thursday night and he took me to the Meyerson Symphony because I had never actually gone before. He told me that the FREE symphony performances in parks in the summer doesn't count. He was right!

Random thoughts throughout the night....

• There was only ONE piccolo - I love the look and the name of the PICCOLO
• The conductor was cracking me up - He gets very into it!!!!
• NO clapping allowed until the end... I asked my date if I could hoot and hollar like Julia Roberts did in Pretty Woman while they were at the polo match. I was told no.
• The percussion guys kept leaving throughout the performance. I said that they must needed to go to the bathroom alot. I was informed that was probably not the case, but rather they were playing instruments off the stage. I am still thinking that they went to the bathroom.... Jus saying.
• One of the percussion guys used a large mallet to make a big gong sound. It made me think of going to the carnival and getting the mallet and slamming on the bell to see how strong I am.
• There were a lot of stairs and I am a clutz. I was being extra careful b/c I stupidly thought I should wear my 4 inch awesome gray heals, but I hated them going down the stairs after the performance.
• There were a lot of people that attend the symphony.
• I could see myself attending the symphony more. I really enjoyed it.

It was a Gustav Mahler performance, Symphony No. 6 in A minor ("Tragic")

Andi

Lacey is as cute as her aunt....

Lacey's aunt is me.... I can say she is cuter than me... ;-) Lacey loves her Aggie... But she hasn't learned to say it yet, but we practice... :)

Andi

Dallas Blooms 2011

March 20, 2011

It was a girls only day! Me, Kristin, Lacey and my mom went to Dallas Blooms at the Dallas Arborteum. We had a good time trying to get Lacey to sit angelic like by the tulips to get perfect pictures, but instead we got Lacey pulling the flowers and giving us the stink eye! It was the first day of Spring and the weather was PERFECT! I even got a slight sunburn from the beautiful day!

More pics are on FB....

Andi

New York New York!!!!

NYC Trip 2011

I went up to NYC to surprise my friend, Michelle, for her birthday. For those that know me well, you know that I am not good at surprises or keeping secrets. I did well considering we started planning the trip in December and arrived in March! Michelle was very surprised!!!

Things that we did:

• Sex and the City Tour
• Drinks at Hotel Jane in the Meat Packing District
• Random ride in a limo from Hotel Jane to our dinner location
• Buddakan for dinner (place of the last single kiss in Sex and the City)
• Yummy brunch on Saturday
• Toured this beautiful catholic church that we just found while we were walking
• Dinner at Otto which is a Mario Battali restaurant
• Billy Elliot on Broadway!!! Really enjoyed!!! Was surprised that I liked it so much!
• Became the papparazzi with Chris Noth, Keifer Sutherland, James Earl Jones and Christopher McDonald. Bummed that I did not get to talk to Keifer and propose marriage to him… Well not really Keifer but JACK BAUER!!!!
• High Noon Tea on Sunday
• Brooklyn Flea Market
• Church
• Walking food tour in Greenwich Villlage
• Bachelor Finale Watching Party with yummy mini cupcakes
• Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Tour

My ultimate favorite things we did:

• Hanging out with the girls, Susan, Jennifer and Michelle!!! We had a great time together!!!
• Walking food tour in Greenwich Village
• Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Tour
• Trying new foods!!!

I really do enjoy the city!! I need to start seriously considering if I want to move to a different city to experience something different than Dallas.

I have all my pics on Facebook if you want to browse….

Andi

Happy Belated New Years!!!

This happened a long time ago, but I know that you will love these pictures. I had a party at my place and we played Twister! My New Year's Resolution after that night was to become more flexible! :)

Jorge & Kight looking at the Twister dots like "Really, Is this what I signed up for on New Years?"

All of us minus Marissa!

I think this is Jorge taking an action shot! I am pretty sure I fell after this picture!

Kight thinking he is going to win against the Rock Star Marissa!

Marissa is the winner!!! Pilates does a body good!

Roxy of course was part of the festivities!!! She didn't play Twister tho....

~andi

Partied All Night Long - Part Deux

Tater, Maritza, and Bandi

Maritza & Tut

Aren't they just cute

Not quite sure, what was so funny???
Bandi & Kight

4:00 AM Breakfast

Exhausted, but still beautiful!!!

Drew, Tut (AKA Jorge), Maritza, Tater, Bandi & Kight

Some of the names have been changed to protect the innocent....

~andi

Party All Night Long!!!

Tater and Maritza wanted to take me out for my birthday so of course I let them!!! We partied ALL night long, literally! We went to Louie’s for some pizza for dinner and girl talk. We love our girl talk! Then the boys started arriving. Danny drove all the way from Whitesboro. Danny is hilarious!!! He was one of my first friends at work when I started almost 10 years ago. He could only handle Dallas for so long so he left around 11ish. Just an FYI – Louie’s is cash only. We didn’t know that so we didn’t leave the waitress a good tip since we were paying our bill with coins… Haha!

After Louie’s we walked down the street to Barcadia. Tut AKA Jorge, Kight and Drew met up with us around 11:00. We had a good time having some drinks and playing arcade games. Kight kicked my butt each game of Centipede…. Obviously, I had some drinks so it was interesting to see me driving Sky Hunter arcade game. I kept crashing pretty quickly. So ladies and gentleman… Do not drink and drive! Bad for you! The girls played it out with Skee Ball while the boys played Street Fighter! We stayed until the bar closed…

It was after 2:00 AM and we were all hungry. The boys decided we should drive to the HOOD to get some tacos. There were probably 50 people or so in this line outside getting tacos from this gas station stand and it was like 20 degrees outside. The gas station was the happening place at 3:00 AM on a Saturday night. It was so crowded that there were police directing traffic. Just a side note, I believe some of the women in line with us were legitimate prostitutes! They were wearing some interesting clothing that would put Julia Roberts to shame from Pretty Women. Well the taco joint was cash only so we didn’t have any coins left to pay. I wasn’t really wanting the tacos either so we all went to Metro Dinner off of Gaston. Let me just say, that place was packed considering it was 3:30 AM!!! We stayed till around 5:00 AM!!! Partied all night long!

I hate trying to figure out posting pictures in the same post with my text so I am doing Partied All Night Long Part Deux!

~andi

Happy 32nd to Me!!!

Birthday Dinner!!!


My family took me to a nice steak dinner at the Butcher Shop in the West End. My brother and sister in law have raved and raved about this place. So I wanted to give this place a try. I don’t eat a lot of beef but who doesn’t like a good steak every so often??? I really loved this steak!! Very good!

My mom was so cute and even brought a birthday cake for us to eat after dinner. Too bad it was whipped icing instead of butter cream… My question is who actually likes whipped icing? Seriously!

The other great thing was that I got some serious Lacey loving!

~andi

10 Things that I learnd from the Tom Landry Exhibit

I really wanted to see this exhibit during the Fair, but the line was always so long. But the Dallas Historical Society reopened the exhibit in November and it goes until the Super Bowl. I went with my friend David who is a HUGE football fan. I would say he loves the Baylor Bears more than the Cowboys, but still a big Cowboy fan! He went but I wasn't so sure he was as excited about it as I was. He enjoyed it! I warned him when we got there that people don’t normally like going to historical things with me because I read everything! But he read just as much as I did so it worked out good.

I watched the Cowboys growing up with my brothers and dad and always loved Tom Landry.

1. He is from Mission, Texas. Never thought about him being raised in the Valley.

2. He was a Longhorn. :( Ssssssssss!!!! Gig’Em Aggies!

3. He was an assistant with the New York Giants. The team emblem was the NY Yankee emblem with the N and the Y.

4. He was such an innovative coach!

5. The baby blue jacket he wore on occasion was a gift from Billy Graham. I knew that he was a Christian, but I didn’t know that he was heavily involved with the Billy Graham Crusades and FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes).

6. His daughter died after a liver transplant. I knew that he was a supporter of organ donation, but now I realize why. She was pregnant and found out she had liver cancer or something like that and the doctors told her to get an abortion and start treatment. She refused and afterwards received a transplant in 1991, but eventually died due to complications in 1995.

7. Mike Ditka (Da Bears) was a coach for the Cowboys! Who knew? I did know that he was a player for the Cowboys, but didn’t know the coach part.

8. His first Super Bowl ring cost $1000! Crazy huh?

9. The large public funeral that took place at the Meyerson was on February 17, 2000. I was a junior in college and my parents threw me a surprise party in College Station on that day.

10. His wife is still deeply in love with him. Their first date was a blind date. He proposed to her on her birthday and they were married 14 days later. They were married for 51 years when he passed away.

I kinda want to buy a fedora now. They are in again! Just another factoid – did you know that Texas Stadium cost $35 million to build compared to 1.15 billion for the new Cowboy Stadium??? Go if you can! Pretty cool artifacts and just happy memories of such a class act kinda guy! The tickets are only 2 bucks!

Andi