Following Sadie's lead, here are some things to celebrate on this Monday morning, when I for one would love to be in my bed, under the covers

* Getting to see so many of my DG girls in Austin this weekend. It was a reunion weekend in true PC '01 style with a large Mexican dinner, tailgate hopping, walking 20 blocks to the stadium, a Longhorn victory, a night out downtown and brunch at Trudy's Sunday morning, sans showers
* Cats who sit on shoulders and hang upside down
* Pedi-cab rides when an actual taxi cab is no where to be found and the call center is experiencing an "unusual amount of call activity"
* Longhorn football games!
* My Texas Tech born and bred brother doing the Hook Em and singing the Eyes of Texas
* Super BF being a great sport about his 8th year in a row of watching his Cowboys be defeated by the Horns
* New puppies named Maggie Mae
* One week until my birthday!
* One month until Thanksgiving!
* Two months until Christmas!
* A trip to South Bend this weekend to attend my first ever Notre Dame football game
* Homecooked dinners in Muenster with Halloween goodie bags for all
* Halloween costumes! What do you wear when the highs are in the 40's??
* Wedding Weekends with old friends and fun

What reasons to you have to smile this Monday?

Whew

During the past 6 weeks at work, my office put on 15 events. I worked every weekend in September and a handful of Tuesday and Thursday nights as well. This week I am celebrating surviving with a 3 day work week. Hello long weekend!

How bout them Longhorns! I love beating OU! Just as soon as the game was over, this guy quickly stripped off his burnt orange to show his true colors. I can't complain. This is only the second time ever that I've gotten him to wear a Texas shirt. We're excited to head to Austin in two weeks when our schools play each other. We should both still be undefeated, which always makes for a fun match-up!

Raise Your Glasses

In two short weeks, one of my very best friends will be getting married. In case you’ve been following along, I still have not received the 30 Day Shred in the mail. WTF Amazon?! I only have 15 days left now, so there goes that plan. But anyways, I’ve known Stephanie since we were five years old so, do the math, that’s 20 years that we’ve been friends. That not only amazes me, but also makes me feel very old.

Last night I was at the gym for a spinning class and it suddenly occurs to me that I have to give a toast at the wedding. In front of 198 people (latest guest list tally). OMG. What am I going to say? Luckily it will be a co-toast with Mary Beth, but still. As I pedaled along, I started to think back on moments I could mention in my speech. Moments that would be both touching and funny. I want laughter and tears during my toast. I remembered the day I met Stephanie, when she knocked on my front door the morning my family moved to Dallas from Tulsa. I remember roller skating around the neighborhood with her, spending hours playing dolls, Barbies, school, house, office, and countless other pretend games. I remember how every year for Christmas, we’d always get several of the same things, something we knew Santa had worked out for us. In Middle School we made up dances in our living rooms and filmed hours of goofy movies on my parents’ video camera. My mom would drop us off at the mall, where we’d spend the twenty bucks we made babysitting on Sun Ripened Raspberry body lotion at Bath and Body Works. We went through my brother’s Jesuit yearbook to pick out all the boys we had crushes on when we started high school and studied together for exams before Christmas Break. In college, we went to school several states away but still stayed in touch. I remember on my 22nd birthday she left me a voicemail saying that I only had one year left to find a husband if I wanted to fulfill our childhood dream of getting married at 23. Then just after we graduated from college, I called her up to talk and she told me she had met a boy that she was going to marry. And now here she is, getting ready to walk down a real aisle and really marry this boy - not for pretend like when we were kids and I always ended up playing the role of priest.

I grew up with Stephanie and I am beyond excited for her big day in a few weeks. I can’t believe the moment we’ve dreamed of since we were in kindergarten is really here for her. I hope my toast does it justice. Waiter, bring on the champagne. Better keep it coming before I have to get up in front of the microphone!

Fell Off Already

Note: I just went to the snack drawer. The 30 Day Shred still hasn't arrived and I'm down to 29 days until the wedding. My plans are slowly falling apart. I did try on the bridesmaid dress last night and it's so pretty that it inspired me a little. I hung it on my closet door to stare at me every day as a reminder when I go for the ice cream in the freezer or opt to take a nap instead of go to the gym.

Bah.

Update:

Not ten minutes after I posted this, our printer delivered Sprinkles cupcakes to our office. I just inhaled a strawberry one with cream cheese frosting, so add another 800 calories to my total intake this morning. I am officially skipping lunch.

T-Minus

My next stint as a bridesmaid - excuse me, maid of honor - is exactly one month from tomorrow. the bride has been my best friend since i was five and her wedding is going to be high school reunion 2K8. I'll see people I haven't seen in years and would really like to WOW them with my stunning good looks (kidding..). i have a beautiful dress to wear and a hair appointment with THE up-do girl booked. all that's left to do is lose 5 pounds and tone my arms and shoulders. hmm. better get on that.

a few days ago i ordered the 30 Day Shred and it should arrive tomorrow. I've been reading a lot about it online and apparently it kicks your butt and you start to see results pretty quickly. If I can stick with it and stop eating the Cheeze Its, animal crackers and M&M's at work every day, I think I might be in decent shape. Hold me accountable friends. Call me around 2:00 every afternoon when I start to head towards the snack drawer and tell me to BACK AWAY.

I'll let you know how things are going after Day 5 or so on the Shred. Stay tuned.

OMG

Mark's parents called this weekend with some big news for us. They wanted to discuss Christmas.. more specefically their Christmas gift to him and me. They want to give us.... plane tickets to China! They are planning a trip to visit his brother in Beijing next year.

So, to all my international friends out there - how does one go about getting a passport?

Ike

Word on the street is that Ike might hit Texas and if it hits just right, it will move directly up to Dallas. On the news, they are worried about flooding and massive amounts of rain but really, that sounds fantastic! I am keeping my fingers crossed that Ike moves right into Corpus Christi, in which case the "computer models" they keep speaking of say that DFW will get slammed with rain this weekend. Bring it on Ike! It will probably put a damper on our Grapefest plans, but oh well! We got some rain yesterday and today and it was fabulous. I am loving these 83 degree highs.

In other news, who thought that the VMA's were totally rigged to help Britney's comeback? I can't believe she won video of the year. LAME!