Family Time

Last weekend my Mom and Jack were in town to help Chris take care of Lucie and Audrey while Missy was away on a girls weekend (in Vegas! hard to believe that it was a year ago that I was there for Haley's bachelorette party!)

As always it was great to see them and I'm glad she got to spend some more time with Carl and get to know him better.

We had everyone over to our house for brunch on Saturday. With two little girls, who aren't on the same nap schedule, there's about a 2 hour window (during normal hours) where they can leave the house together.

Carl did most of the cooking and the meal turned out great - eggs benedict, hasbrowns, fruit, cinnamon rolls and mimosas.

Lucie and Audrey made themselves at home - Lucie climbing into chairs and drawing pictures and Audrey crawling all over the place, including getting herself stuck in the coffee table.

I'm reminded how lucky I am to live near them and get to see them so often. They are wonderful, adorable little girls and I can't imagine not enjoying the kisses and snuggles they (luckily) are so willing to give.

The rest of the weekend was great, too, with a clothing swap, trip to the park and more food!

Irish Roots (literally)

This past week was the annual community service day for LIVESTRONG. For the past few years, we've spent half of a day doing volunteer work in the Austin community the rest of the day at our annual picnic. Both are nice events, and a good break from work and our normal routines.

This year we decided to only volunteer at East Austin based organizations as a way to show our support of our local community and neighbors. As the head of our Sustainability Committee at work (note: Sustainability in the green/eco/environmental sense) I was asked to organize one of the activities and contacted our local farmers at Johnson's Backyard Garden (JBG).

They deliver our CSA (community supported agriculture) to work each week and it felt like a great place to give back to. After organizing 20 of my colleagues, we hit the road to JBG on Thursday morning for some potato harvesting. Yep, potatoes.

In true Texas style, we had some crazy weather for a few hours that managed to impact our work; but not our spirit (yes, that's cheesy - but true!)

After about an hour of potato harvesting, which includes shoving your hand (nope, I didn't bring gloves) into some dirt, scooping out a potato plant, pulling off the viable potatoes and tossing the greens, the weather started to change.

The sky was getting very dark, the temperature dropped at least 20 degrees and lightning could be seen in the distance.

The rain began - light and refreshing at first. Within an hour it turned into torrential downpours and hail. We quickly took to shelter and realized our farming was going to be cut short.

Despite my extremely muddy shoes, soaked clothes and dirty hands and nails, I had a great time. I learned something new and felt proud to work side by side with my colleagues who never complained about the hard (and dirty) work.

Updates

I'm sorry that I've been remiss lately in providing updates. I've spent more of my time lately out of town then in town. New York, Boston and St. Louis for work. One more work trip this month and then Carl and I are going on vacation for a week - a road trip to Taos, with stops on the way back across New Mexico and West Texas.

Taos has been on my short list of places to visit for years and since I'm not much of a skiier I'm psyched to go in the summer. Thanks to Kelsey and her parents (who are providing us a place to stay) for all of the great recommendations. I'll definitely blog about our trip when we get back.

I've actually got quite a few vacations lined up this year - more than I've had in many years past, cumulatively.

After New Mexico, we head to Puerto Rico for a wedding and we're spending almost a week there. In September I'm going to the Outer Banks of North Carolina with my family for a week at the beach and then Jess and I are taking our much awaited birthday trip together. In our 7 years of friendship we've never traveled together, which is crazy to me because traveling is so much a part of my life.

So we're heading to Sonoma for a few days to relax, drink wine and explore. Another place that's been on my short list to visit for awhile.

In the meantime, the housing projects are coming along. The shed is so close to being done - only doors are left. I helped Carl some this past weekend to put up the siding. I'm also in charge of painting it. Any takers to help me? Thoughts on color?

The garden is coming along - slowly but surely. After two tomatoes were sadly attacked by some unknown animals we've learned our lesson to pick them a little sooner. We have our first jalapeno as well as tons of herbs and swiss chard sprouting.

So while we can't quite live off our land yet, I'm still pretty excited!