lake bryan

Last weekend i finally had a much needed sunday off and we decided to treat ourselves to some sun and fun! Ryan and I and a few other buddies loaded up the car and headed out to the local lake, lake bryan. It is small but it serves the purpose of lounging around and soaking up the rays for a nice tan while it is still warm and sunny.
Once we got to the lake we unloaded the lounge chairs, cooler and radio and jumped in! It was perfect weather! Clear blue sky and the bright sun shining down on us, it was so nice to just hang out.
I also got to bring Sawyer with us! Sawyer LOVES the water and LOVES to play all the time so I asked Ryan if he wouldn't mind if I brought Sawyer along as well and he said YES!! We don't take him out to public beaches/places too often just because we weren't too sure of how he would react. Much to our surprise he was a perfect little angel! Of course we brought his toys and that

usually keeps him pretty occupied no matter who/what is around. So we wore him out by making him swim out to retrieve his toy and making him run around the beach. He loved it.

As we were getting ready to pack up we were folding up the chairs and we looked over to see Sawyer "rescueing" one of the chairs by dragging it to shore! Haha, it was the cutest thing ever and I actually got a video of it! I now feel safer taking him out to the beach with us because he could now rescue us if we were in need! What a sweet little pup!

Once we were all done and packed up we went to "The Hook" which is one of our fave hangouts because they have live music, it is right on the water and we can watch the sunset! Dogs are allowed and so we were able to bring Sawyer in with us while we ate dinner. This was what my main worry was because it was a more closed off area, tons of strangers, and LOTS of food! Again, he was a perfect puppy! He walked in sniffed out the couple dogs at the table next to us and then laid out on the patio right next to my feet!

It was a great weekend and I was so pleased to find out that my Sawyer really is the good dog I always say he is! Now we will be able to take him out more with us! I am so excited!

harley

this is just a funny picture of harley. he LOVEs his milkbone treats that we give them only when they are good, so of course they always go crazy for them! this time he was jumping all over the couches and chairs so excited and just wanted to chow down on that milkbone goodness! haha. but i actually caught him in mid air, ears-a-flopping and paws spread out like flippers! haha. just thought you all would enjoy one of our "kid" pictures.

all work and SOME PlaY

Well, it has been a while since we have posted anything here on our blog so I thought, for those of you who care, I would fill ya in on what I have been up too....

I (danielle) have been busy with work for the last two weeks. As most of you know tax free weekend is a big deal here in Tejas so guess where i was.......that's right! Working! Tax free weekend is exactly what it says, a weekend where you can purchase just about anything without tax being added to the total. So of course, all the parents who are clothes & school shopping for their kiddos come out of the woodwork for this weekend to save that every penny on their purchases. I was actually suprised we didn't have more of a mess on our hands this year....maybe we were just more prepared for the weekend than usual. However, I did have the pleasure of closing the store Saturday evening at midnight so I was there until 1:30 in the AM and then was able to turn around and work another full day sunday. Ahhhh, the joys of retail!

Then the next weekend I had planned a HUGE cosmetic event. My regional manager and I had been planning this event for about 2 1/2 months. What I was tryin to do was pick up some extra dollars to make up for a lousy spring season but to also jumpstart my fall season. My hope/goal was to pick up an additional $6,000 over last years numbers. We had each counter book appointments and call all of their best customers to come in and see our "regional makeup artists." I networked with some of the sororities in town (it was rush week here.) and Ryan was nice enough to help me plaster the town with flyers about the event. How did it turn out? We ended up doing $30,000 in two days, which is an additional $18,000 over last years numbers. I was pleased and Very happy that all the stress, headache and breakouts were well worth it. I even got kuddos from my regional vice president, which is always nice. haha. Here are just a few pictures from the event.

took me 3 hours to drape this thing!!

one of our facialists

the origins shop was busy ALL day!

and a little cupid shuffle to end the day!

Go Michael Go!!

That's right, Mr. Phelps is now the most ridiculously amazing athlete ever! Can you even imagine going to the Olympics once? Getting a medal, breaking an Olympic or world record? And can you even think about doing something in the world that no athlete has EVER done before in the history of the Olympics? Well, Michael has done all of the above. He not only has made it the Olympics once but has now made it 3 times, I believe. He has won not just one gold medal but 10, and a total of 25 career gold medals.And that 10 gold medals now makes him the only person EVER to have that many gold medals in the history of the olympics. What a title!! Don't forget about the world/Olympic records he has broken. Just in the 200 that he won his 10Th medal in....yea, that was his 7Th time to break just that one world record. Are You Kidding Me?!?! He is truly what the Olympics are about. He is just amazing and defiantly makes me proud to have him on our US team!
What makes me even more proud to have him on our team is his great sportsmanship. I too, hate those who walk around with big heads and don't greet/congratulate their competitors and don't lift up their team. I also cannot stand those athletes who use enhancement drugs to cheat. After all of the interviews and races Phelps finished he always said thank you to the reporters, always cheered his teammates on, and always shook hands with his competitors. He also volunteered himself to more intense drug testing than others to prove that he is a pure, clean athlete. He is one of the few athletes of today that actually sets a good example for the young aspiring athletes to come. I am proud to watch him and can't wait to see how many medals, gold silver and bronze he continues to rack up this year and the years to come. Go Michael GO!!!

Happy Anniversary!!!

Today, August 11, 2008 is our one year anniversary! So, HAppY AnNIverSARy RYAN!!! We have been togather for 3 years now and it has been a lot fun learning about each other and falling more and more in love each and every day! I am so glad that I have Ryan in my life and can't wait to see what life brings us in the future.

Too bad I have to work today :( So much for a nice night together to celebrate. I love you honey!!

8.8.08 Beijing Olympics!!!

YAY for the Olympics! I always love this time of year all of these amazing athletes competing to be the absolute best in the world! truly amazing! i remember working out at UH and seeing some of the track "hopefulls" working out for 8 hours a day, like a full-time job. That takes some drive to be out there in that Houston heat/humidity for 5 hours and THEN hit the weight room for another 3! crazy!!

Anyway, I always love to watch these athletes compete against the best of the best, however, Ryan and I just finished watching the fencing and if I may say I was not impressed at all. Granted, I have never watched fencing before in my life, didn't even know the rules, but it only took the girl 3 minutes to win a gold medal.....is that really a sport? and her component screeched every time she got poked, like bloody murder! seriously? Now that is just my opinion but I think this will go into my slot of "not so much an Olympic sport" of the summer Olympics. Kinda like trampoline or curling. ha ha. All I can say is that I can't wait for those women polevaulters to see who is going to go 16 feet and higher!!! Heck yea! And I also can't wait to see the gymnastics and diving!

sunny days

So, as stated before it was ryan's big 3-0 yesterday. I wanted to just give a shout-out to him (like he ever gets on here) on his bday so that is why the weekend was summed up in 2 short paragraphs. For those of you that care, here is the low-down on the 4 day birthday weekend we got to spend together.

(the crew laying out!)

Thursday, up at 6 am so that Danielle can FINALLY get to the beach (i had been on "vacation already for 2 days) and catch some rays before we have to go pick up Christa and Ian ( my bestest and her boyfriend who live in Nashville) from the airport at 9:45pm in houston. Leave the house by about 8 am. dogs and all and head to ryan's office to pick up that paycheck! $cha-ching$. Finally, we arrive to the beachouse at about noon after stopping by the grocery store to pick up the important junk food for the beach. We say our hello's to Shirley and jenny (ryan's mom and sister) and jenny's friend lauren, I tell them i am WAYYYYYY antsy to get out to the sun so we head to the pool and lay out! YAY! i love that Texas SUn! So, after an afternoon in the sun we came back to the house, got all showered up and went to "the spot" for dinner. It was so nice out so we decided to sit out on the patio overlooking the ocean to enjoy our fabulous burgers and shrimpies! yummmmmyyyy!!! And I gave ryan his bday present, a nice seiko watch. I gave it to him early because he had an important lunch date the next morning in which i thought the watch would make him look extra nice! :) Love ya hunny! So after dinner it was about time to pick up my friends from the airport, so we headed back in to town to good ole hobby airport. it is a much smaller, more convenient airport in houston. in case in of you plan on flying in anytime soon......and it is literally 20 minutes from downtown.

this is ryan and i at "the spot" and he is wearing his new spiffy watch! :)

ANYWAY, we get to the airport, pick up christa and ian and talk all the way back to galveston. It was soooo good to catch up with her. Don't you just love those long talks with your bestests? So we drop them off at their hotel and then ryan and I got to bed back at the house.

(ryan and cake #1) Friday, we get up pretty early, pick up christa and ian and head straight to the beach. Have i mentioned how much i love the texas sun? So really all we did was set up camp, cooler, snacks, chairs, tent horseshoes, boogie boards, footballs and dogs and we just played in the sun all day. Like i said previously sawyer LOVED the beach. We had to make him stop in fear of him having a heat stroke, but he just didn't want to stop playing. How cute! Once Ryan got back from his lunch date more of the family showed up at the house. Ryan's aunt, and cousins came out to hang with all of us. They are so much fun! After we all went in and got rinsed off the girls and I made a cake for ryan. This was cake #1. It was just a cake made from the box but I think those are the best kind. So we sang happy birthday to ryan for the first time. After all the cake we really just hung around talked all night and then went to bed.

Saturday, pretty much the same as friday. expcept that this time john, ryan's dad made it out to join us in all the sun and fun. Once the sun was down we took all the kiddos to the beach to go hunt for crabs.....we saw quite a few! but of course none of the kind you can eat. :( haha. i don't know that i would eat anything out of the gulf anyway. haha. Oh, and we saw a dead jellyfish. it looked like a clear pile of snot. but i have never seen one in real life so that was new for me. Then we really just went in and went to bed.

(above: the picture is of harley with a special doggy hat. too cute right!!!)

(below: me and the girls being silly.)

Sunday, was the day we were really supposed to celebrate ryan's bday considering it was on monday. So we had a few others join us out at the house and this time we sang happy birthday twice to ryan. one cake was just tiny one that christa bought for ryan and the other was an icecream sandwich cake that squirly (shirley) thought up of. it was a cute idea and sooo easy! So sunday we just played in the sun and ate cake and went then went to bed since we had to leave early monday morning. back to work!

(~~make a wish~~cake #3)

(from left to right: robert, deborah, ryan, me, ian and christa. some of our closest friends. thanks for joining us guys!)

HApPy BiRthDay RyAN!!!

As of this morning Ryan is now officially 30 years old. Happy Birthday Honey! To celebrate, ryan's mother rented a house in galveston for the week. So we gathered up some family an friends and headed down south to the beach! YAY! We didn't really do a whole lot but lay out on the beach and enjoy the bright texas sun but it was so nice to just hang out and relax. I love ryan more than anything and am glad we had that time to enjoy each others' company. There were also a few others that were there to help ryan celebrate. We had lots of fun and ryan had 3 different birthday cakes.....I hope all his wishes come true.

The puppies were also excited that they were able to join us on our trip. We brought both harley and sawyer and hoped that sawyer liked the ocean. This was sawyers first trip to the open waters. Harley has been several times down to galveston and really loves it, so we were pretty sure sawyer would like it as well, which he did! All he wanted to do was play in that water. But they weren't the only dogs there! Jenny, Ryan's sister brought her two dogs, emma and austin, and john, ryan's dad brought his boxer, penny. Good thing we like animals! They all loved to see each other again and play with each other. The trip was really fun and I miss laying out on the beach already!