Vacation

Well more of a “staycation”…

For awhile now, I have known that Aedan’s sitter was going to be on out of town for the first week of August. I made sure not to plan on seeing clients for the week since I would need to be home with Aedan.

As the time came closer, I decided I should just take the week off for a staycation of sorts. It has been a busy summer and a very busy last month when it comes to work. I thought this would be a good chance to take a break before the school year starts up again.

Once I decided to take the week off, Jon decided he could take the week off also. He has lots of vacation time this year and has not touched it at all.

We are both excited to have the time off! We went out to breakfast this morning and were talking about how nice it is that we don’t have to work tomorrow.

We have some fun things planned for the week, including heading down to New Braunfels for a few days to hang out with Jon’s parents and spending some time with my sister and parents later in the week.

I know this week off is going to fly by but for now I am going to relax and enjoy the fact that we are on vacation staycation.

-Lauren-

Quick Update

Yeesh, where did the week, er and weekend go? How has it already been a week since my last post!
When we got back from our weekend in Plano last Monday, my throat started hurting. I figured it was just allergies or the cold that Jon and Aedan have had over the last week.
Then when I woke up Tuesday morning and still had a score throat I was a little bummed. It is never fun to be sick, but being sick when it is over 100 degrees outside just seems wrong.
As I was cleaning up breakfast I noticed a small red blister on my palm. Then about and hour later, I noticed a couple more. Ugh. Stupid hand food mouth disease.
Tuesday afternoon, Aedan had his 15 month check up (he is 24 lbs. (50%) and 32 in. tall (95%)). I asked the Dr. to confirm my suspicion about what I had. She did and when she looked in my throat she said it looked like it had turned into strep. Awesome. She was nice enough to give me a prescription.
Needless to day, all last week Aedan and I pretty much chilled at home. I have no idea where I caught it. Aedan never got it and none of the kids at the sitter’s house have had it. None of my clients have had it either, that I know of. Sigh.
By Thursday my throat felt much better but I still had blisters on my hands and feet. Jon was a little freaked out and wouldn’t even let me unload the dishwasher. He also kept saying I had the hoof mouth disease. Lame.
Thankfully, by the weekend I was pretty much all better and Jon and Aedan never got sick. We still took it easy this weekend and pretty much hung around the house or ran errands.
Oh and we finished Son’s of Anarchy – loved the season 3 finally!! We have to wait until November for season 4, but not to worry, I have a new obsession – Prison Break. Love it!
-Lauren-

Happy 4th of July!

I hope you all had a great long weekend! We definitely did!

Friday morning we loaded up the car and headed to my parents house in Plano. Aedan did so great in the car. He slept for about 45 minutes but he has had a bad cough for the last few days so that woke him up. But he was in a great mood and had fun reading books, eating snacks and pointing out the window.

We made it just in time for lunch and soon after Aedan crashed for his afternoon nap. Jon had to get some work done so while he worked (so great that he works from home and thus can work from anywhere), my mom and I went grocery shopping. Her grocery store has a Starbucks inside and I told her I would be in trouble if I shopped there every week. I am obsessed with their iced white chocolate mochas. When we got home, Aedan was up so we took him to Costco, which he loved. :)

Friday night Jon and I made Indian food for dinner. It was a big hit! We just hung out and watched a movie for the rest of the night.

Saturday after Aedan’s morning nap, we all (Jon, Aedan, my sister and parents and I) headed to the pool. It is the pool my sister an I both worked at through high school/college. My sister still works there a few days a week and still knows everyone on staff, which means we all got in for free. Love it!

Aedan wasn’t such a fan of the baby pool because it was super crowed and there was lots of splashing. As soon as the main pool opened up, we headed over there and he had a much better time. We all had a blast going down the slide and playing water volleyball.

That afternoon while Aedan and Jon took long naps, my mom and sister and I did a little shopping. I sometimes forget how much better the shopping in the Dallas area is compared to Austin. Sigh.

Saturday night we had delicious homemade fish tacos and mango salsa. After dinner we went out for some frozen yogurt (another thing I am obsessed with right now). We were out past Aedan’s bedtime and it was getting late so my Dad and Jon were supposed to take Aedan back home while my mom and sister and I did a little more shopping. BUT I got this picture in a text while we were headed home. Apparently they made a detour at Cabela’s and Aedan did a little shopping of his own. I’m not sure why, but that ore made it home with him. Sheesh.

Sunday we had a low key morning of playing at the park, taking naps and relaxing. That afternoon we headed over to my parent’s friends house for our annual get together. This group has been getting together every forth of July for 30 years! How fun is that! We had fun catching up and enjoying good food. Unfortunately it was another late night and Aedan was done around 8pm so we headed home. I heard we missed a great game of catch phrase and gestures. haha.

This morning we headed back home (Aedan did great on the trip this time too!) and all crashed as soon as we got here. We had such a great weekend, it was great to spend time with family and friends!

-Lauren-

We’re Back!

Well Aedan, Hiro and I are back home and Jon is on his way. He emailed me from Shanghai last night and told me that his flight to Chicago was delayed 6 hours. Since it would make him miss his connection to Austin, he got switched to a flight to LA. Hopefully he will get home tonight!

It is never fun when Jon has to travel for work, but I have to give a huge thank you to my mother-in-law who spend last weekend with us and to my parents who let Aedan, Hiro and I visit take over their house for a week. It made the week go by pretty fast.

We had a great time in Plano. I got to catch up with some good friends, spend time at a few pools and hang out with my family. Aedan was in heaven at my parent’s house. Their house basically has a circle type floor plan downstairs so he could run around and around with his favorite toy, Popper! They also have a fantastic backyard and a park just down the street. I think he wants to go back already. :)

My Dad had to come down to Austin for work on Tuesday so he took Hiro down a couple of days early and then yesterday my mom and I drove back into town. Tomorrow my parents and both of my grandmothers are having a big garage sale so Aedan and I are going up to Round Rock to help out. I know Jon is going to be exhausted and since Aedan’s favorite thing to do is run around with popper, I decided it would be best for us to spend the morning away from the house.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

-Lauren-

Traveling

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned Jon had just returned from Amsterdam? Well look where he is this week…

Yup he is spending the week in Malaysia and mere 5000+ miles away. He logged 22 hours in the air (not counting layovers) to get there. He is staying at a pretty nice resort like hotel.

He said I would really like the pool. Haha! I’m sure I would, but I will not be traveling that far away for any pool.

So while he is being a world traveler and getting lots of work done, Aedan and I are here…

We are visiting my parents and doing zero work. :) Today we went and hung out at the pool with my sister, my good friend Allison and her son Jackson. Aedan wasn’t too sure about all the kids running around the wadding pool, but he did pretty well. We all got some sun and came home for a relaxing afternoon.

Tonight I am going to meet my best friend, Amanda, for coffee. We have been best friends since 8th grade which means we are going on 14 years! We used to do everything together. She was pretty much part of my family and I was part of hers. Now that we are both married, working and living in different cities, we don’t get to spend as much time together. It is going to be nice to catch up tonight!

-Lauren-

Flip Video and South Padre

This weekend was pretty uneventful around our house. Jon and I ran errands on Saturday…are we they only ones that can not seem to stick to a list when we go to Costco?!? I mean there is so much we always want to buy!

I realllly want a flip video camcorder! They are at Costco right now, and I just need want one!! We have two at work, and we use them all the time to video tape therapy sessions. They are so easy to use and so small. I could be adding videos to my blog posts, how fun would that be?!?! Now I just have to talk Jon into letting me buy one. :)

Saturday night Jon headed down to New Braunfels for a job that was supposed to be from 9 pm to 1 pm. They ran into problems and he didn’t get to come home until 9 am! To make matters worse he had to go back Sunday night to finish up the job. Needless to say he slept pretty much all day on Sunday.

Sunday afternoon I went to one of my favorite client’s birthday party. It was at Pump It Up, which is a party place filled with inflatable playscapes. It was a blast…luckily I wasn’t the only adult who wanted to play so we all had a blast going down the slides and racing through the obstacle courses.

This morning I got to go to Vacation Bible School with one of my clients. So fun! Then this afternoon I had a great session with another client of mine. Usually Monday’s with him are pretty rough since he has had all weekend to do as he pleases (most Monday sessions involve lots of screaming and tantrums throughout the 3 hours I am there). It was nice to have a good Monday session to start off the week.

When I got home, Jon and I jumped on our bikes and went to check out a public pool about a mile away. Um..basically we concluded that we need to find a pool a little farther away from where we live. We live about 5 miles from downtown, and our neighborhood is pretty nice, but the area around our neighborhood is definitely up and coming. There is a lot of new construction, but there are still some sketchy parts. I talked with the lifeguard and found out there is a pretty new pool about 5 miles away. I looked it up and it looks pretty nice, I think I may go check it out tomorrow.

I have Tuesday’s off ,so here is my optimistic to-do-list for tomorrow:

• go to the bank to deposits checks and get a form notarized…did I mention I am taking defensive driving…ugh! I got a ticket a couple of weeks ago…50 in a 40…in my defense the speed limit went from 55 to 40 in a matter of feet. I happened to get the ticket literally 5 feet after the 40 mile and hour speed limit sign.
• go to my doctors appointment…looks like clomid is in our near future.
• get my rings cleaned…our jeweler (when I say “our jeweler”, keep in mind that we have only purchased our rings from here…not like I have tons of jewelry). Jon picked a great place to buy my rings, its a local jeweler and they recognize us every time we go in. The only downside is it’s in north Austin, so I don’t get my rings cleaned very often.
• get my car’s oil changed…ugh.
• maybe go to Old Navy to check out what’s new…is it sad that this is on my to-do-list?
• laundry and cleaning up the house…why does it seem like every time I do laundry, the baskets seem to be just as full in a matter of days?!

On a random whim, Jon and I are thinking about taking a quick vacation to South Padre! I was looking through some friends pictures on facebook this afternoon while drinking coffee during my break. She just got back from Playa de Carmen…I immediately got on Google Talk and told Jon I wanted to take a beach vacation. We are thinking South Padre, because we can enjoy the beach and save some money by driving there (Jon has enough points to rent a car). Anyone have any recommendations on places to stay?

-Lauren-

What we did this weekend

Friday night I went to happy hour with some girlfriends. We enjoyed some margaritas and appetizers at Z-Tajas. When I got home Jon took me to Barnes and Noble to get a new book. I picked up The Help by Kathleen Stockett. I just started reading yesterday, but so far I like it. When we got home from Barnes and Noble I went to bed pretty early…2 margaritas from Z-Tajas will do that to you…next time just 1 for me. :)

Saturday morning Jon and I took our time getting ready. Once we got everything packed we took Hiro over to his friend Woodrow’s house and headed to San Antonio. We stopped by Home Goods on our way into town. We don’t have one in Austin and I have been wanting to check it out for awhile. It was supposed to be right on our way in, but unfortunately Google maps was wrong and it took us a while to find it. We finally made it and I picked up a few new bathroom accessories. I’ll save pictures for when Kelly features bathrooms on Show Us Where You Live Fridays.

After Home Goods we headed to our hotel on the Riverwalk. Jon had a job downtown Saturday night (which is why we went to San Antonio). We spent a couple of hours laying out by the pool and reading before heading down to the Riverwalk.

We enjoyed dinner and dessert on the Riverwalk along with a nice walk. Since it was Saturday night it was pretty crowded, but it was fun to people watch.

Jon had to work from 12 pm to about 3 am so I just hung out in the hotel and enjoyed the king size bed to myself. :)

We headed home this morning and Jon went straight to his soccer game (he is sleeping right now to make up for only getting a few hours of sleep last night). I picked up Hiro and did some cleaning around the house since my sister comes tomorrow! Then I headed to Barton Springs. Sometimes I wish we had a neighborhood pool, but having Barton Springs less than 10 minutes away is pretty great!

I hung out there for a couple of hours with some friends. We got hot enough to brave the 68 degree water a couple of times but mostly we just soaked up the sun.

Now I am home relaxing and waiting for Jon to wake up. All and all it was a great weekend!

-Lauren-

Its almost over

My 2 week vacation is coming to an end very soon. :(

It has been a great 2 weeks. Jon and I had a great time in South Lake Tahoe and seeing all our family this week. It has been nice having him home for 2 straight weeks and not having to worry about school or work. I have been scrapbooking and catching up on some TV watching. We have a cool program called Hulu. You can watch a bunch of shows and movies on your computer for free (check it out here). Jon has it hooked up to his Xbox which lets us watch it on the TV as well. I started watching Friday Night Lights on Thursday and I am totally addicted! I am about to go watch another episode (I am on #19 already). I'm sure I will finish up the seasons by tomorrow. It is a good show and it is filmed all around Austin.

Tonight we went to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was a very cool story and a good movie, but is it super long! We left Hiro out side thinking we would only be gone a little while. He was pretty upset when we got back.

Tomorrow night Jon has to head down to Corpus for a job (hopefully it will go fast and he will be able to come home Monday night). I don't have to go back to work until Tuesday and even then I only have 1 session. It's going to be a nice slow week since most of my kids are still out of town. Such a great way to step back into the read world.

Wednesday my best friend Amanda is coming down to celebrate New Years Eve with us. I think we are going to go see one of Jon's friend perform and then watch fire works from our roof. Jon and I did it last year and it was so fun! We climbed up on the roof (Jon better than me since I am scared of heights). We wrapped up in blankets and enjoyed the show together. Then on Friday I am going to drive back to Plano with Amanda. Unfortunately Jon has to work, but it will be nice for me to see everyone back in Plano for a weekend. Then January 5th work officially starts back in full swing. Luckily I don't start classes until January 20th so I still have a few weeks to relax before the projects start up again.

A few pictures from our trip

We're back

We got back in town last night. We had a great vacation but it is always nice to come home. I am going through our pictures right now and I will post some of my favorites later today.

I am so excited that I still have a week off of work! We have tons going on this week. In fact Jon's parents and nephew meet us at the airport last night and followed us home. They stayed with us last night (even though we had no food since we had been gone all week). This morning I woke up early and managed to stock up on food for the week. I am planning on making some sugar cookies today and chili on Christmas Eve when my parents come stay with us.

Tonight we have Jon's family Christmas at his grandparents house, then tomorrow night we have my family Christmas at my grandparents house. Then we are going to have a small Christmas at our house with my parents and sister. We are so lucky that everyone decided to come to Austin this year. I think both Jon and I are done traveling for a little while. Although I am going to Plano the weekend after New Years to see my other grandparents and great aunt. I am also going to see Steven and Ally and their new baby! I haven't seen them since their wedding (which was at least 3 years ago) so it will be a great visit.

Oh...listen to my new Christmas time track...this is my favorite Christmas CD. My mom has been playing it every Christmas since I can remember. We would always listen to it on our drive from Plano to Austin every Christmas. It always felt like it was really Christmas when my mom would play this CD. I hope to carry on the tradition!

Vacation pictures so far

Check out our vacation pictures so far...http://picasaweb.google.com/laurenelissa/TahoeVacation2008?feat=directlink

We are having a great time! So far we have enjoyed 2 days of down hill skiing, a day of cross country skiing and a day of snow shoeing (my favorite). Tomorrow we have opted to do something less active (ok I decided we should do something less active). We are going to drive into Sacramento and check out some museums and shopping!

Vacation days 1 and 2

I just wanted to send an update about our vacation so far. We landed yesterday afternoon in Reno and after picking up some water and other much needed winter wear we began the 1 hour drive to South Lake Tahoe. It began to snow about 10 minutes into our drive, and there were even parts where we couldn't see the cars in front of us. Thankfully we made it here safely and enjoyed dinner at a local pub.

Today was our first day of down hill skiing. It snowed all night (and all day, in fact it has not stopped snowing yet). When we started skiing this morning it was only 10 degrees at the top of the mountain. It warmed up to a cozy 14 degrees before we rode the Gondola back down to the base of the mountain this afternoon.

Tomorrow our plan is to do some cross country skiing by the lake. Hopefully I will be able to take some great pictures.

I started a web album with some pictures from today, check it out here.

We're off

Jon and I are about to head to the airport. By 4:00 today we will be in South Lake Tahoe!! Hopefully I will manage to take some good pictures this week and post them.

Another Monday come and gone

Whenever Jon goes out of town Hiro gets the special treat of sleeping on the bed with me. Jon would totally let Hiro sleep in the bed with us every night, but an 85 pound dog is just too much for us in our queen size bed. Anyway, Hiro loved it and I think it makes us both feel more safe and comfortable when Jon is out of town. Unfortunately Jon didn't get to come home tonight, and now it is looking like he may not even be able to come home tomorrow night. :(

Jon has been traveling a lot lately, but we are both looking forward to a week long vacation next week in Tahoe. We are even planning on taking a day to drive up to Napa. We may even get to stay at the Napa Valley Lodge for a night. We stayed there during our honeymoon and it was amazing. Here is the view from our room. Can you imagine living somewhere like this? I remember driving from a winery one day and we pasted a school where kids were outside practicing soccer with the mountains in the background. Amazing! I am looking forward to our second vacation as a married couple. :)


I had my last night of class tonight. In my first class we had our final. It was fairly easy but I didn't agree with all my professors questions/answers. Luckily she is always willing to hear our opinions and she even changed 2 of her answers. In my second class we turned in our huge FBA group project...I am so glad it is over! My teacher's assistant came and told us my professor had jury duty today and will be at least an hour late, maybe more. Ugh...seriously, just cancel class. My friend and I decided to turn in our project to her mail box and skip out on class. All I have left is to take my last final on Thursday! I am so ready to be done with this semester.

This week I have to finish my Christmas shopping, wrap all the gifts, study for my final and make sure we have everything we need for our trip. I am thinking it is going to be a busy week...

Finally a lazy Sunday

Last night Jon asked me what we needed to get done today (Sunday). I stopped for a second and thought about it...then I realized we don't really have anything we have to get done today. I have a paper I need to edit, but I don't need to turn that in until Dec 1st. We don't even need to go to the grocery store. Its nice to finally have a day to just be lazy.

Since we don't have anything going on I am getting our good friend Aaron to take some family pictures this afternoon. I need to order our Christmas cards soon! Aaron and his friend are in the process of starting up a photography business and have been asking to take our pictures as practice for awhile. This seemed like the perfect opportunity. I am hoping to get some candid shots with Hiro too. I'll post some as soon as I get them. :)

Jon took me to see Twilight last night...he is such a good husband. I give the movie a C+. There were parts that seemed very cheesy and the effects are very poor. It was more like a made for TV movie in my opinion. Regardless I am glad I saw it and I still love the books (they get an A+).

Ok I am off to make some my great grandmothers French Toast...yum!

Happy Labor Day Weekend

Jon and I had a great 3 day weekend together. It was nice because we did not have anything scheduled or anything that we "had" to get done.

Friday night Jon had to work (and he doesn't have to work again until next Friday!) so I had coffee with a good friend. When I got home I decided to watch a chic flick since I rarely get to do that these days. I watched Made of Honor. I give it a C+, it was a cute movie but slightly boring and slow.

On Saturday we slept in and then enjoyed a big breakfast. After getting ready, we took a day trip to Fredericksburg. We had a great time checking out all the shops, doing some wine tasting and enjoying a great German dinner with some good beer at a local brewery. Here is where we went for wine tasting. The guy was very cool and let us try more wines than we were supposed to. I was able to try some sweet wine. I really liked this grapefruit wine. It was so good that we bought a bottle. Jon liked the heaver reserved red wines. From the winery we went to this brewery for dinner. It was pretty cool. We were able to taste the 4 beers that they brew (you can actually see the huge barrels they use to brew the beer from were you sit in the restaurant. All in all we had a great day together and were exhausted by the time we made it home.

Sunday we did our typical errand running and relaxing. Jon spent most of the day on the computer and I spent most of the day reading. Currently I am reading two books. For school I am reading The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon. It is an interesting book written from the perspective of a man with high functioning autism. I started my second book yesterday, it is The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff. I just started it last night so once I get more into it I will give more of a review.


Today we took Hiro down to our favorite spot on at the greenbelt. There hasn't been much rain here so the water was pretty low, but there was enough to swim in and for Jon to go off the rope swing a dozen times. Hiro had a blast swimming with his buddy Woodrow and I had fun laying out and reading.

Well that was our weekend. We had a great 3 days...now it is back to work and school for me.

Here we go...

Okay, so I am going to try out this whole blog thing. Hopefully I will keep up and have enough to write about to make it interesting enough to read.

Where I'm at right now...
I have been married for a little over a year and my husband and I are loving living in Austin with our puppy, Hiro. I am in my second semester of grad school at Texas State. I am getting my masters in special education with a specialization in autism. Someday I hope to be a board certified behavior analyst and autism specialist. For now, I am in school and working as a private ABA therapist with two wonderful families! I truly love the kids I get to work with.