And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

For the past two weeks, I've watched the Olympics pretty much every. single. night. I've gotten into more than just my usual swimming and gymnastics and this time around I watched everything from trampoline, basketball and volleyball to fencing, track and field and rhythmic gymnastics.

I'm sad to see them end. Gus joins me in the sadness, as is apparent in this photo, which is so grainy because I took it with my laptop camera with the lights dimmed. I knew he would jump up if I tried to get my camera.

xoxo

Oh Amazon.com, how I love thee. My newest purchase? Season One of Gossip Girl, pre-ordered a month ago, just arrived in my mailbox today. I have never seen a single episode of this show, until just now. I am loving it already. Oh high school.

I find it humorous that the boys ride the city bus to school. Shouldn't they have drivers or something? Jags? and OMG Serena didn't get invited to the Kiss and Tell Party, or whatever its called. I can tell that this is going to be good. I vow to be all caught up by the time season 2 rolls around in September.

Birthday Girls

Maggie and Jordan's Birthday from Amanda on Vimeo.

Maggie and Jordan turn seven today! Here they are eating their birthday cupcakes last night.. and showing off their excellent "stay" skills!

Upgrading

In with the new, out with the old!

Listy

What I'm doing:

- Baking cupcakes for Maggie and Jordan's birthday.  They are Mark's two labs and they are turning seven.  Last year I made them sugar cookies shaped like dog bones.  This year, they get carrot cake cupcakes - totally safe for doggies to eat.

- Watching the Olympics.  I love the Olympics!  I'm watching swimming and hoping to stay awake for all of the girls gymnastics finals.  The time difference makes for some late start times!

- Laundry.  woo hoo.

What I've been doing:

- I cleaned out my closet this weekend and took some stuff to Plato's Closet, a resale shop that buys your old clothes and resells it.  I was hoping to make a bit of cash and then go shopping, as I want to get some new work clothes before school starts.  They gave me a whopping $7 for a mere 3 things that I brought in.  Well.  That bought me lunch at the mall food court.  Awesome.

- I hit up the Outlet Mall anyway and came away with some good buys.  I did best at Gap and Banana Republic (although I wish I had a discount and tax free like Sadie!)

- Being swanky celebrating birthdays at Sambuca

- Spending some quality time at the car dealership while Mark traded in his old Accord for the 2008 model.  It's nice. 

What I will be doing:

- Working on Friday, for the first time since May. Oh Boo.  But, they are feeding us breakfast and lunch that day, so I guess I'll survive.

- Babysitting this Saturday, to earn a little more cash, since Plato's Closet was such a disappointment.  

- Hitting up the first DG Dallas Alumni happy hour of they year.  Now that I'm not an officer in the group and forced to attend every event, I'm actually looking forward to it much more than last year.

Northwest

The fam took a trip to Oregon last week, to visit my brother up in Portland.  We made it all the way to the Pacific Ocean and took this windblown pic, which is a Christmas Card 2008 Hopeful.

We saw a lot of really pretty sites, like this beautiful waterfall up on the Oregon/Washington border.  My sister and I wandered away from the group to take in the scenery.  Her she is, drinking from the falls.

I decided to give it a try too...

Kelly decided to take a moment to wash her hair in the falls.

In Astoria, home of the Goonies, we realized she could also hold up boats as if they were sub sandwiches.  

It was a nice trip.  And it was a good 50 degrees cooler there than it is in Dallas.  Hello high of 106.