The new man in my life

Meet Buster Brown, the newest and cutest member of our little family. Mikey and I had been talking about getting a puppy for months, and we finally picked out the little rascal yesterday morning. Buster is an eight-week-old Brittany Spaniel who was born in Brenham, TX. He had a very busy day yesterday. He was in my arms on the way back to Houston by 11:30, then we showed the grandpuppy off to both sets of parents on our way in. He held his own with Roscoe, my parents' 80+ pound black lab, and then met Mister, Baron and Megan's sweet Australian Shepherd. After stealing some more hearts at Petsmart, Buster was ready to go home to Mikey's. There he got to meet his new roommate, Daisy, a laid-back Bassett Hound. Needless to say, he was one tired pup after all this excitement...that is, until bedtime. Naturally, he was wide awake then! After what seemed like an hour of whining, crying, making truly unbelievable amounts of noise for such a little guy, he finally settled down. Thank goodness for the extra hour we gained last night!

We couldn't be more excited to have Buster in our lives. It's amazing to watch him watch the world. He is so curious about every sight, sound, and smell. I think it's easy to take your surroundings for granted, but having a puppy is a great excuse to take it all in and appreciate the little things.

I love this game!

I just don't even know what to say. I cannot believe the Astros clinched a World Series berth tonight. Nothing has been easy this season, but somehow the guys have managed to get the job done when they needed to, and they did it in a big way tonight.

I have been going to Astros games since I was a little girl, but I became extremely familiar with the 'stros during the summer my mom was pregnant with Michael. She was stuck at home in bed, and there wasn't much for us to do but watch a LOT of baseball. At the time I was annoyed that we couldn't really go anywhere, but now I couldn't be happier about that summer because that and every year that has followed make tonight's victory so much sweeter to me.

I honestly thought we had it made in the shade on Monday night. Boy was I wrong. That loss was truly devastating. My mom described it best as "postseason traumatic stress disorder." I really didn't feel like myself the next day.

I'll admit that I was very nervous about tonight's game. I knew that if Roy O. had his best stuff, we would have an excellent chance. Alas, he pitched an unbelievable game. I watched it at a local bar on Shepherd called Roeder's with Shane, Megan, Baron, and Shawna. I had great fun with them, and they were kind enough to tolerate all of the noise I make during Astros games. It was such an amazing feeling when the bar turned on "We are the Champions," and everyone was drinking champagne and cheering with everything they had left in them after such an exhausting week.

We know that the White Sox present an enormous hurdle, but tonight is time for celebration, time to live in the moment.

Exciting development

This may not be so exciting to everyone else, but hey, it's my blog! I've never been more pleased to make a very large charge on my Visa than I was this morning, when I put down a deposit on Rockefeller Hall, where we are going to have our wedding reception. Our friends Anne and Doug had their reception there almost five years ago, and I remember having a fabulous time. I'm sure it had lots to do with the excitement that Anne and Doug were married, as well as the fact that we went to the wedding with a great group of friends. But I do recall thinking the place was gorgeous and very unique, which is precisely what Mikey and I were going for. Rockefeller Hall was once a bank (that was supposedly robbed by Bonnie and Clyde), and then a concert venue, and it's now an event site. Mikey and I went to Senior Men's (traditionally a formal, but this time it was a camo party) in April of 1998 at Rockefeller Hall. That was probably the wildest high school event we had, and it cracks me up that we are going to be celebrating our marriage at the very same place. Hopefully this time I won't depart in a Suburban filled with 18 people, driven by David or Andrew. Though maybe we should hire one of them to drive our getaway car, just for old time's sake. That would mean I'd have to learn how to tell them apart, which didn't happen in four years of high school. And no, they are not twins.

I am breathing much easier now that we have made some major decisions. We have booked the rehearsal dinner restaurant, the church, and the reception site. There are still an infinite number of details to iron out, but we can't do anything if we don't have a roof over our guests' heads all weekend, and that has been taken care of. Whew!

Switching subjects, Mikey, JP and I took a trip to Helena, Arkansas, this weekend to visit Tim and Abbey. I will write a trip report once all my pictures have been uploaded.