ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

Blake's last day at his daycare was Friday (he'll do summer camps for the rest of the summer). He's been with Ms. Carol every weekday morning since October (and some days all day when school was out). She's one of the nicest people I've ever met. She had a tear in her eye as she talked about how she'll miss Blake and how much fun they had together and how he always made her laugh. She thanked us again for the restaurant gift cards we've gotten her (with so many teachers in the family, we've learned well!) and mentioned that her husband was currently unemployed so eating out is a luxury. Such a sweet, sweet lady.

Saw a recipe for chimichangas posted on Marcy's refrigerator and decided to try them out at home. Took this recipe and made some healthy alterations which included using very lean ground beef, fat free refried beans, whole wheat tortillas, low fat cheese and healthy butter.

Made the ground beef mixture in a wok skillet because it was too much for a regular skillet...


Load all the stuff into the tortilla...


Roll them up, brush with melted butter and bake...


Add shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, baked tortilla chips and salsa...yum!

Kami and I were up at 6 to run with her friend Amy. I was a bit nervous about running with Kam because she's been running for years, can go long distances and she's much faster than I am. However, she knows my pace and that I can run 3 miles right now so that's what we did and it wasn't bad at all except for the humidity. Run with Kam.

Quick shower and packed up and Payton and I were headed home. We arrived at 10:30, just in time for the A/C repair person to arrive. We've been without A/C and looking forward to getting it fixed. Got 1 unit fixed but the other is still not working.

Did some laundry, took a nap, bought some groceries and then picked up Blake. He had big plans for a party for us so we did that once we were all home.

Blake's Welcome Home party was kind of a combination of a Field Day and a birthday party.

Blake explaining all of the events we needed to do. The events included jumping jacks, jogging in place, and stretching.


Balloons decorated the room...


He even had some silly string...right at dad's face.


And finally, our parting gift bags that contained trinkets and thank you notes that thanked us for coming.


I'm always trying to figure out the next new place we can visit but I'm so, so glad that we took this time to see friends and visit. It was good for us and everyone promised to come and see us within the next few months as well. We'll look forward to that!

Payton and I were up pretty early to get ready, pack and head out of town. Had to stop by the store regarding the watch part that was missing and they found the piece in the glass case so it was easily remedied.

Hit some traffic and major thunderstorms on our way to Kami's house but finally arrived around 3:00.

Reaghan had really been looking forward to Payton coming because she's crazy about Payton. The 4 of us headed out to the mall to go to a salon for manicures and pedicures.



The people who worked at the salon got a kick out of Reaghan but she's kind of an old pro and knew exactly what she wanted.


Reaghan and I were done first so I took her out while the other two finished up. I got her a cinnamon roll and an Icee while we waited. She was very nervous about having it and kept asking if it was ok and wondered if her mom would be mad. I assured her that it was fine. (Kami likes to try to eat healthy but she's not overly strict about food - in fact, they had cinnamon rolls at their house while we were there.)

Back to Kami's house and the girls headed outside to play while Kami made pepper steak for dinner.


Frogs on the head!



Girls were headed back outside after dinner. Matt likes to talk politics with me so we did that for a bit and Kami showed me how to use my new watch a little bit. Had to get to bed for another early morning run and to get packed and head home!

Got up the next morning at 7 very tired and a wee bit hungover. Wanted to try out my new watch and was really frustrated trying to figure it out. Managed to get it to work but just went on a 2 mile run instead of 3 due to the heat and being so tired.

Came back for a shower and nap and then headed out to meet a friend for lunch at Ocean Rock. Payton called and wanted to join us. We pick her up, head to lunch and Suzanne doesn't show up. Called a couple of times, left messages, etc., but just figured she wasn't able to make it since she'd just returned from Hawaii the day before and may have gotten busy. Found out later that she had slept through lunch due to the time zone change. The 3 of us still had a good lunch especially since Amanda and I were wearing the exact same shirt and ordered the same lunch and drink which the waiter (and Payton) had fun teasing us about.

Next destination was Target for a little bit of shopping and groceries to make dinner. Got back and Amanda and I start putting together the turkey burger recipe that I'd made previously. We broke out the Pomagranate frozen drinks and had a fantastic dinner.

I'd spent the day searching all over for a piece that was missing from my watch. At this point, I'd decided that I'd just have to head back to the store on our way out of town but was very bummed that it wasn't all working.

This was our last night in Texas and we were headed to Oklahoma the next morning for a day spent with Kami and Reaghan.

Sunday morning we got up and Marcy made us breakfast. Thanks to Marcy, I now love turkey bacon and coffee with Vanilla Caramel creamer. Yum.

Payton had a bit more Rock Band playing to do and around noon, we were headed out to our next stops.

One last pic before we left...


At this point, I was taking Payton to her friend Kristen's house to stay the night and then I'd be headed to Amanda's. Kristen lives in our old neighborhood so we drove by our old house...


I was pleased to see it looking nice and glad they removed the Crepe Myrtle that had gotten too big for the area it was in.

Then it was time to go to Kristen's house...


More hugging and "omg, you're so tall" comments. Kristen demonstrated her percussion talents for all of us. Her parents said they'd be coming to visit us sometime this summer hopefully.

It was time for me to head to Amanda's house. Once I got there, I brought my stuff in (Amanda's guest room is always setup like a customized hotel room - I should have taken a picture of it. Books and magazines that I like, an eye mask, etc.) and then we were headed out for lunch at an organic deli type of place. It was really good and I got Payton a shirt to add to her collection of shirts w/messages on them.

Amanda and I then proceeded to go on a shopping spree with purchases at Ann Taylor Loft (mega sales!), Bare Escentuals (I got a whole line of makeup there after they put it all on me. We don't have BE stores in Kansas so I knew I wanted to get it while I was in Texas), got my Garmin 405 watch (had called Andy right beforehand to tell him that I'd be getting one soon but figured I'd have to order it online since I'd never seen them in stock in a store) and then finished off with TCBY (which I'd told Amanda I wanted to get since we also don't have those in Kansas). Perfect day of shopping!

After we got home, we headed back out for our reservation at Pirahna's. We ran into somebody we used to work with (for my former co-workers, it was Julia), had good sushi and martinis and then were headed out. Amanda got a text from her husband that he was at a dive bar with a friend who is a roller derby girl and we could meet up with him there.

We go there, have some drinks and notice a photo shoot is taking place in front of us with scantily clad girls. It was very strange. Here's one of the tame pictures...


We head home and I'm off to bed soon because 6 a.m. comes quickly when you're slightly hungover and super tired.

Saturday morning was an early one with Marcy and I getting up at 6 to go on a 3 mile run. I wanted to keep up w/my running schedule and knew it would have to be early if I was going to do it in Texas. We finally got started at 6:40 and the humidity was so high that I was covered in sweat from head to toe by the time we finished. Marcy wore her Garmin 405 and the data from our run is here.

After breakfast, showers and a brief nap (for me anyway), she and I headed out to get Aubry's birthday cake and pickup another friend for Aubry's birthday party that evening.

Around 3:30, it was time to head out for the birthday party.

The girls (and a boy or two) opted to swim inside rather than outside.


The smell of chlorine was so strong that it hurt our eyes just sitting next to the water.

After a couple of hours of swimming, we all headed into an adjoining party room for pizza, cake and presents.


Payton was having a hard time because her eyes were really red and burning plus her nose wouldn't stop running.

Tissue on the nose the whole time...


Cute cake with Teddy Grahams going down the waterslide...



Present time!


Her reaction at getting an iPod Nano from her parents...


We wrapped up early and headed back to their house where a couple of girls were staying the night. At this point, Payton was crying because she was in so much pain. I suspected she was having an allergic reaction to the strong chlorine but was confused by that since she's been swimming since she was very young and had just recently been swimming at our YMCA. I told her to take an antihistamine and get in the shower and while she did that, I researched.

Turns out that indoor swimming pools with elevated chlorine levels and improper ventilation can lead to sinusitis type reactions particularly in asthmatics. That all made sense to me and the advice I'd given Payton happened to be correct. After her shower, she hung out in the bedroom with me, took some eyedrops and kept a cool cloth on her eyes. In the meantime, Marcy took all of the towels and swimsuits and washed them and all of the girls took showers. At that point, Payton was better and was able to come out of the room. Whew!

I checked on her periodically while the girls played Rock Band...


She was doing well so Marcy and I headed out for a drink and a more sushi. We had a long day so we got home early and were in bed around midnight.

Payton and I are back from our 5 day road trip to visit friends. We had a good time, remembered how hot Texas really is and now we're back home.

First stop, Marcy and Aubry's house. We arrived on Friday afternoon and Aubry came out and the girls SHRIEKED and hugged when they saw each other. After a little bit of time hanging out and chatting, the 4 of us headed out to Southlake Town Square for some shopping and dinner.

It was oddly quiet on the way to Southlake while the two bookworms read in the backseat...


At Anthropologie, the store that I think Payton will shop at a lot when she's making the big bucks...


At The Container Store, my favoritest store in the world (and we don't have any in Kansas!)...


Marcy and I found Cereal to Go containers on clearance and I've used mine already and love it.


At this point, it was 8:00 and time to eat. We went to a Japanese hibachi and sushi restaurant and Payton was, of course, happy to have her picture taken...


We had to get back home because it was going to be an early morning for Marcy and I to go on a 3 mile run. It would prove to be a very long and somewhat eventful day...