Eshe & Nia go to... NEW YOOOOOORK!!! CONCRETE JUNGLE... you get the idea.

12/17 - This was a sad night.  But not like, weepy, cry me a river sad, just... sad.  It started out okay enough.  I was dogsitting this weekend for Lisa and Mike and sat around for much of the day.  Eshe's party wasn't until later that night... so I had a few hours in which I needed to figure out what I was going to do...

I remembered there were signs and talk of a teacher get-together at Dart Bowl on the 17th... accompanied with a message saying, "HOPE YOU CAN MAKE IT!"  Of course, this was on the white board in the faculty lounge and... long story short, after much debate I decided to go.  At first it was super awk... because I only kind of knew some of the people... but eventually we talked some more, and now I feel like I have a slightly better relationship with my fellow teachers!  It was nice :)

I was slightly more dressed up than one would normally be at a bowling alley (due to plans to go downtown with Hannah after Eshe's)... so it was a little awkward bowling in a short black dress... with an assistant principal showing up, but whatever, I had a good time :)

Then I went over to Buddy's and we headed to Eshe's.  When we got there, there was a lot of dancing... mostly done by all the kiddos, who are SUPER ADORBS!  Nia is one lil dancing queen!

So cute!

Most of the rest of the night was spent with Buddy, Kristi, and me hovering around Kristi's buffalo chicken wing dip (if you haven't had it, it's to freakin' DIE FOR).  We talked about all sorts of things... you know, the usual with us.  Eshe and some of her anthropology classmates came and joined us, but for the most part... instead of focusing on how much we'd miss her, we basically spent a lot of time talking about... the same ol' shit... and reminiscing on... the same ol' shit.  :)  We all love her and we'll miss her and her baby girl oh so very much!

And now for a photo montage of moments I've had with Eshe in the past 7.5 years in no particular order :)

Me, Eshe, Nia, Kristi & Buddy 

@ her going away

Eshe & Me 

@ her going away party

Nia, Eshe, Kristi, me & Kayla (aka the Sisterhood) 

@ our very first excursion to Cafe Monet (2010)

The Sisterhood 

@ El Arroyo for Kayla's engagement! (early 2011)

Maggie, Kristi, Eshe, Hannah, Johnny, Buddy, Bryan, me, Luis & Schutte 

@ Hill House's housewarming (late 2011)

Maranda, me, Eshe, Kayla, Kristi & Maggie

@ Nia's Baby Shower (mid 2009)

Jackie, Eshe, me

@ LHS Wine & Cheese (Fall 2006)

Stephen, Kayla, Mr., Oro, Kyle, Eshe, Johnny, Buddy, me

@ Stephen's Lake House in Waco (Fall 2007)

Buddy, Sinae, Johnny, me, Kyle, Byron, Kayla, Mr., Eshe (aka The Seniors!)

@ La Palapa after singing "We Go Together" (Fall 2007)

The Senior Ladies

@ Backstage for the "We Are Family" show before singing Lady Marmalade (Spring 2008)

Eshe, Mr., Kyle, Kayla, Oro, and me (aka Fall '04!)

@ Ken Capps for OU Weekend (Fall 2007)

Eshe, Johnny, Buddy, me, Mr. & Kayla

@ Commencement!  (Spring 2008)

Maggie, me, Eshe, Kristi & Kayla

@ Amy's Ice Cream feeling up Nia (Spring 2009)

Where it all began :)

LHS NUGI Class Fall 2004

This kind of makes it looked like she died.  But no!  She is very much alive!  And in NEW YORK (lucky bitch!)  :)  We can't wait for her to come back but we're so proud of what she's doing!

Office (CPI) Christmas Party 2011

12/16 - DS and Kim hosted the office party at their house.  They catered some AMAZING food and of course had a bartender tending to their wet bar.  Bobby was awkward as ever... Abby was adorable and so was Trevin.  Megan brought her baby!  I had a lovely chat with Randi and her husband Neil!  Johnny came with me and apparently fell in love with Lyndsey's boyfriend, Chris.

Best part of the night?  When Kim's cousin mentioned that they just HAPPENED to bring GLEE KARAOKE (season 1, too!)  I was basically that one Kristen Wiig's SNL character.

"Don't make me sing!"

DS & Scott singing "Sweet Caroline"

Some Spectators: Steph, Andrew, Jess, Bobby

Jen & Kim getting down on "Push It"

Andrew singing "Gold Digger" and Megan is getting down... going ahead and getting down

Weekend of Projects!

12/11 - This weekend we had my sister Chi Thu and Javier come into town.  Javier helped Mike (and Thomas did too!) redo their shed in their back yard.  I, on the other hand, had my own project to work on:

I had been wanting to do one of these crayon melty art things ever since I first saw one of my Anthro girlfriends do it over the summer.  I figured, it'd be simple enough!  The one she did was just colors on a blank white canvas.  I decided I wanted to add a little flavor to mine.

I picked some of my favorite lyrics... that somehow symbolically would work well with the crayons.  I chose lyrics from the song, "Rain" by Patty Griffin:  "Strange how it rains now"  I put some foam cut-out letters onto the canvas and then painted black over it.  Once dried, I peeled off the letters to get the white letters you see below!

Then I put the colors in the color order desired.  I chose not to start with the traditional red to indigo scale... I wanted to go from warm colors, to cool, and back to warm.  :)  I think my colors worked well!  Hot glue gunning each crayon onto the canvas was a bit tedious, but you got the hang of it after awhile.  Then after making sure the crayons were nice and glued... I took my blow dryer and blow dried the crap outta these crayons.  I did it in waves... mostly because I got tired... but I think it gave it a really nice pattern.  You can tell where I stopped and started again because there's a significant break in color blobs!  I feel like it well represents the "when it rains it pours" idea... once you think it's over... here's another wave of crap.

Other favorite lyric from this song: 

"I'm not looking for the rest of your life

I just want another chance to live..."

Soon you'll probably see one that Amber and I made together!

VOTE Johnny Pham 2012!

12/10 - We had Johnny's birthday party at Hill House (like how I just did that?) and we had a pretty good time!  A good number of people showed up and even better--no cops showed up!  Woot woot!  :)

I think he had a good time.  We even got to meet a couple of our neighbors (which is about time, considering we'd been living next to them for... 3 months now?)  Danielle was at the party for part of it... but whether or not she remembers much of anything is a toss up.

Not sure if you have to be friends with Luis on facebook or not in order to see this, but here's a video... Johnny was giving us advice on how we should vote.

Happy 26th birthday to my best friend Johnny!

Christmas Party with the Regs

12/9 - Our Fourth Annual Christmas party was held at Hill House.  Yeah.  I've named it.  It's on a giant hill, it's a house... and Hill House is the name of the house that the Clue people went to... so... I have self-imposed a name on our house to make it easier.  Ok.

We did a fun lil potluck... and had lots to drink.  Eventually it was time to open gifts... Johnny passed out at 10:30... or something ridiculous like that :)

A view of everyone from the "DJ Booth" in our house!

One of our Christmas trees with the presents under it!

Us with some of our gifts.

Amy, me, Eshe, Johnny, Danielle, Thomas, Maggie, Kristi, Hannah, Luis & Buddy

Dinner #6 - The Devil Wears Prada

12/5 - Johnny's birthday!  :)  We had a potluck...  I don't remember much of dinner, but here's what I do remember.  Lasagna, salad, asparagus, green beans (?), those little snow people Hannah made?  I'm possibly mixing up my dinners...?

- Me
- Thomas
- Johnny
- Danielle
- Amy
- Hannah
- Maggie
- Luis
...?

Of course, since it was Johnny's birthday, we had to watch his favorite movie:

California Comes to Texas!

12/1-12/4 - My sister Rachel and her 2 kids, Paulina & Nicolae came into town!  She had a few more vacation days to spend (but unfortunately not her husband Adrian) and she decided to bring the kids to see the fam in Texas!  Here's some snapshots of some things we did while they were in town:

Angelina as Clara in the Nutcracker

Front Row Seats, baby!

Friday morning we all went to go see Angelina perform as Clara in the Bay Area Ballet performance in Clear Lake... it was beautiful!  MAGICAL!  She's AMAZING!  :)  I think it was really great that Nic & Paulina got to see her perform!

The California Gang and our dancing queen after the show

Mama & Her Girls :)

Eventually we headed up to the north side of town (i.e., Conroe) to hang out and stay at our other sister, Chi Trang's.  We all met up at the Golden Corral (brand new and stinkin' HUGE) to eat... I think some of the kids may have been a little wired that night... I wonder why...

Nic

Paula & Madison

Luke

Adam, Aaron, Nic, Paula & Madison... each with their very own cotton candy...

Afterwards, the gang above (the 5 kids) a couple of my sisters, Thomas, Austin & I went to Chuck E. Cheese.  I'm not sure who had more fun...  Unfortunately we were too busy playing games to take any pictures.

That night we made some snowglobes with the kids.  You can refer to my sister Rachel's blog to see one of the finished products :).  Most of the night was spent with my four sisters and I chit chatting... mostly about people... which is slightly better than the next morning, where we spent most of our time facebook stalking.

The next day was spent pretty chill... some shopping and more eating.  Saturday night (the 3rd) my sisters and I had been planning to have a girl's night out.  So all of us (minus Chi Giao, which we were all pretty bummed about) got together for dinner.  Then we went back to Chi Hong's where we hung out some more and talked some more.  Eventually we played a game called "Truth Be Told" which was a pretty fun game.  It's similar to Balderdash... except about real things... for example, my sister Thu got the card that said, "Truth be told, I'll watch any movie with..."  The answers she got from us were:

- Viggo Mortensen

- Daniel Craig

- Daniel Craig

- Daniel Craig

- Viggo Mortensen

- The James Bond guy

Her answer?  Daniel Craig... (although she did say she TOTALLY forgot about Viggo and that had she remembered, that would have TOTALLY been her REAL answer... go me and Lisa!)  It was pretty fun and we had some laughs!  It was a great night!

Back: Me, Chi Thu, Chi Hong, Chi Trang

Front: Chi Tram (Rachel), Chi La, & Lisa (or Chi Thoa... but you'll probably never hear me say that unless you're my mom)

We'll miss these kiddos a lot!

Dinner #5 - Love Actually

11/28 - We hadn't been able to have dinner the last couple of weeks thanks to Johnny's rehearsals for the parent/faculty choir.  So finally we decided to have one and I was going to help cook.  Really... I just wanted stuffing.  So for dinner we had...

- Stuffing, Salad & Corn... Johnny came home with rotisserie chicken.  I can't remember exactly EVERYONE that came, so forgive me if I forget to include you... :)

- Me
- Thomas
- Johnny
- Danielle
- Amy
- LC
- JJ
- Hannah
- Luis?

Am I missing anyone?

<3

Thanksgiving 2011!

11/24 - Thanksgiving was a pretty good night.  Most of the family was able to get together (minus the obvs--Chi Tram and David).  No Thomas, though.  Anyway, lots of food and lots of football--so, you know, the regs for Thanksgiving.

Sitting around watching UT beat A&M

Keepin' it classy, Longhorn Band!

27-25 in favor of the Longhorns

All-Time Record for Texas vs. Texas A&M: 76-37-5

We rule.

Keeping Austin Weird... and in Austin

**yes I realize I'm OVER a month behind on updates... but I WILL catch you up before the new year!

11/21 - Probably my FAVORITE thing about Austin being in town?  Getting to take him to the Hex Rally!  And not only was it a Hex Rally... it's the LAST HEX RALLY that we'll have for quite some time... now that those A&M losers moved to the SEC (yeah, have fun there!)

Guess what aunt bought him a sweet tshirt too?

Us with Hook'Em!

Here's a fun video I shot of good ol' grandpa Mack!

HOOK 'EM HORNS!  TEXAS FIGHT!

Wilder Weekend!

11/18 - 11/20:  Thomas's family came into town... mostly because Derek was home for the Thanksgiving holiday!  Since it was the same weekend as Warrior Dash, we didn't get to spend as much time as we normally would.  That being said, we did also get to spend a bunch of time with Austin!

I talked him into coming up to Austin during his Thanksgiving break!  ESPECIALLY since we just found out that he got accepted into UT!  :)  Woot woot!

Anyway, we went out to eat a couple times (Friday night was Los Cucos?) with the fam... we went to a Texas State football game... then we did a lot of hanging out at our hotel in San Marcos.  And we stayed up (kind of?  I was in and out of sleep all night) watching tv.

The next day we went to church and to... Grin's?  It was GOOD eating :)

The fam came over and saw the house and then eventually they all left leaving just me and Austin... sigh :)

Dan, me, Amy, Dana, Brian, Derek, Thomas, Austin & Laurie

Warrior Dash 2011!

11/19 - A couple of months ago my cousins and some of our friends (i.e., David's friends) started talking about doing the Central Texas (read: right outside of Austin) Warrior Dash.  If you're not sure what that is, click here.

The guys took it (just slightly) more seriously than the girls (i.e., Melynda and myself).  She and I (for the most part) took the entire thing at a pretty leisurely pace.  Definitely post-any mud in our shoes (read like: "mud in your tires") we were NOT planning on picking up the pace... the squishy feeling between my toes still makes me exhausted just to think about it.

Anyway, here's some before & after shots:

Thomas, Donson, Thu, Jon, Jimmy, me & Melynda pre-race

Donson, Melynda, Jon, Thu, me, Thomas & Jimmy... post (obvs) race

When I see this picture, all I can think is that LMFAO song, "I'm Sexy and I Know It"

We also ran into a few other people, like Anh Van, for one.  I also saw my roommate Danielle and some of her friends.  One of my favorite parts of the day?  When we all went to get hosed down... and the guys (who obviously couldn't resist after seeing it) wrestled each other in the mud pit that resulted in hundreds (thousands?) of people being hosed down.

Wurstfest 2011

11/12 - Wurstfest!  Matt McEvoy came into town for some Bastrop fire-brush-clearing, and afterwards, he met me, Thomas & Johnny up in New Braunfels for Wurstfest!  :)  We also met up with Brian & Amy!  I had a good time--who wouldn't with beer and brats?  It was one of the first times I got to really sit and chat with Matt!  We talked school and... girls.  What else is there to talk about, really?  We also talked about how we were DYING to see someone fall into the river...

It wasn't until the guys went to the bathroom that I saw a dude all into the river... and he was NOT happy about it.  Which... makes sense because why would he be?  Anyway... Amy was drunk, and was talking a mile a minute, but she's sweet so it was cute :)  Johnny and I also sat and cheered on (quietly/secretly) a couple who was probably on a 3rd date... that or a 50th date, but it was hard to tell.

Overall, good day :)

SOFTBALL FTW!

11/11 - JJ called me and asked me if I could fill in and play some softball for her.  I obliged.  :)  ALL thanks to me (and... umm... maybe some stellar plays by JJ, Adam, Blake & Jess...) we WON!  It was a comeback for the ages! (Is that a saying?)  We came back from like.. 5-9 to win... in the last inning... or something like that.  It was pretty sick!

Yes, that's me... on first base!

Rachel & I Go To Barcelona!

11/5 - Rachel and some of her classmates came down from Lubbock to... not be in Lubbock :)  I mean, to party.  I got to hang out with her Saturday afternoon and night.  I picked her up from Pluckers, and... I don't really remember what we did that afternoon.  Did we take a nap?  Or did we just sit around... I feel like there was more to it... but... regardless, at some point, Rachel and I left the house (after sitting around talking with Thomas and Johnny for awhile) and went to go get some sushi at Sushi Zushi (YUM!)  Then we went home for a bit and then headed out downtown to meet her friends.

We met them up at Maggie Mae's (because that is where people who are not from Austin choose to go to catch the Alabama/LSU game--the first one).  Then we wandered around wondering where to go.  I kept saying Barcelona, but she kept ignoring me.  We went to West 6th where we met up her friend Frank (aka Frank the Tank... aka El Elegante) and his friends.  We also ran into Bobby and those guys... and Darcy... and Darcy told me how Bobby called her a grandma (due to the fact that she's only 29) and I smacked Bobby and asked him if he was seriously wondering why he was still single.  For the record, the exact quote was, "Holy cow!  You're a GRANDMA!"

Anyway, most of the rest of the night was spent with just Rachel & Frank and lots of dubstep at--you guessed-it... Barcelona.  So wonderful.  Hopefully I'll get a pic up soon, for now... you can have this one:

See how sad we get when we're not together?

Dinner #3 & #4 - Easy A and Harold and Kumar

11/2 & 11/7 - I can't remember what happened on what days.  Herb roasted chicken and...?  Another day was Spring rolls...?

I swear I'll do a better job starting NOW.