Texas Renaissance Festival!

Oh wow, this was quite an "interesting" event. First off, a piece of advice. DO NOT go on the last weekend and not expect horrendous traffic. It was terrible. We fought an additional 90 minutes of traffic, which left us with only 2 hours to play since we had to get back to Houston to watch the big OSU/OU game.

Back to the festival, it was really fun. It seemed like the boys had a good time and were quite captivated at how much effort people put into this. Having been once before and growing up as a self-proclaimed geek, I felt under-dressed in regular human clothes and wished I could have found those elf ears I saw others sporting. Heather and I got our faces painted, which brightened my mood. The food was good, with lot's of options. The crowds were manageable and the beer was OVERFLOWING.

My favorite part was spotting a centaur taking pictures. Heather and I gave him some money, walked up and took some shots. Then we said bye and he wouldn't let go. He kept hugging us and it was kinda funny, but a tad bit creepy. Maybe he has some kind of pregnancy fetish because if I was a half man/half horse, I would not be into prego chicks. Maybe minotaurs or tree nymphs....

Why hello there baby bump

I spent quite some time complaining to anyone listening that I was quite perturbed waiting to finally start showing. My sister has been showing for quite awhile, and me..not so much.

Then one day, maybe 2 weeks ago I awoke to a swelling in my stomach. Not your typically "I overindulged at Olive Garden food baby" but a real-life bump. It's been growing slowly and some days sticks out more than others, but yesterday I walked into my parents house and my mom ran straight for my belly and started rubbing it and couldn't believe I was showing. She pulled up my shirt and stared at it for a bit and smiled. Needless to say, I felt very proud....of what I do not really know, but housing a baby for 9 months does give you a chip on your shoulder. "Me woman! Me keep baby nice and warm in womb!"

So here I am - week 14 almost down.


Heading up to Houston today to see my sister. I can't wait to compare bellies. The only time in my life to be jealous that she is bigger than me. How times change.

Beat those Longhorns!

Aaaah, it was a great game Saturday night. Matt scored us free tickets for the OSU/UT game in town and we happily donned our best OSU gear and headed out in the cold to support our Cowboys!

Now that is a happy face, it was much bigger at the end of the game when we beat Texas!


Two of Matt's work vendors gave us a total of 8 tickets so we brought the crew along and had a great time. I have to say, it was really, really cold up in the top of the stadium.

And some more fun pics...

Hello there babeh!

Ahhhh, the joys of pregnancy. Let me tell you, it's been quite an interesting journey, so far. Happy to say I am almost out of the first trimester (Saturday I enter the glorious world of the second trimester.) Overall I should consider myself lucky. My morning sickness was pretty bad, but nothing too severe that needed medication or toilet hugging. No weight gain, no heartburn just bloat, gas and big ol boobies.

My energy has returned and for the first time in months I'm not getting up 3 times a night to go pee. I can't tell you what a relief it is to sleep throughout the night. I've finally got around to scanning in our 12 week pictures. See the fun below.

Nugget has grown quite a bit from our last ultrasound picture.

This one was taken at 9.5 weeks. See the big head? That's looks like a small version of my husband.

Overall I'm in a good mood and anxiously waiting for Christmas time to find out the sex. Until then I'll just secretly long for raw fish and wine. Consider yourself lucky my non-pregnant ladies and suck up as much booze as you can. It could be all over for you for 9 months and you'll never know what you had until it's gone. *SOB*

FINALLY!

Today is the day I am letting the cat outta the bag....


It's been a long and hard road keeping this secret, but Matt and I are expecting our first baby in May! There, I said it. Feels so good to get that off my chest :)

So expect this blog to take a sharp turn, babies and ultrasound pictures and belly pics and more. But don't worry, your favorite sassy geek will still remain true to herself. Famous last word eh?

Baby Update!!

Yesterday we had our first trimester scan. Blood work and scan results came back normal! Matt took some video of our Nugget dancing for us (yes that is the current nickname since we don't know the sex.)

I'm at 12 weeks and Mommy and baby are looking healthy. I wish I had a belly bump to show off but alas, it only looks like I've been partaking in doughnuts and beer. When this padding begins to protrude, I'll snap some pics.

Web Stats

I find it incredibly interesting going back and checking my stats that this page right here is my #1, most popular web page via my blog: click me

My top referral words are: kittens, and unicorns

Really? Really?

Halloween!

This year was unexpectedly tame for us. Usually I break out the big guns and go nuts, but finding the motivation was incredibly difficult. Not one to let a creative project go undone, I had to carve a really badass pumpkin. With no help from Matt, I scoured the interwebs for a suitable picture, resized it and got to work.

Word of advice - don't skimp on the carving kit. Mine did not have a stabber, and I had to use a really big knife, which had Matt terrified I would cut off a few digits. I did not, because I have the skills of a ninja.

The final product....

Yes, it was an Aqua Teen Hunger Force Halloween.

Friday night Jennifer, Justin, Emily and Doug met us at Zandunga Bistro for a Halloween dinner/party. The food was awesome, as usual. But my goodness, the tequila was in FULL FORCE. Let's just say things got a little bit out of hand that night (in a good way.) Being the designated driver of the night, I had a great time watching the debauchery unfold.

As for the costumes....

OMG Double Rainbow! Those eyelashes were too intense to wear for long.

Brett Favre taking pics of his package. Matt printed out a few of the "authentic" pictures floated around the internet, photo shopped and signed them for any who were interested. Those pictures were hilarious! And sorry I can not post them.

Justin went as Keith Stone. It was pretty authentic. Doug looked strangely like Edward and I have no idea what Matt is trying to take a picture of. Wait, actually I do.

So that was my weekend. Saturday was a day of football at the Hunt's. Sunday was our day of rest. We had a handful of kids, some punks that took too much candy. Note to self: no more self serve bowls. Kids these days...sheesh.

My goodness where have I been?

I have no good excuses. I'm in a blog hole. Nothing exciting to write about makes Dawnita's blog a boring read.

Lo and behold my 7 readers, soon there will be content to make you smile. It's coming....not sure when. As soon as I climb out of this blog hole.

Fancy nails coming right up!

Zandunga!

Zandunga x 2

Ok, it's obvious I kinda have a big crush on Zandunga. Yesterday was my birthday, and my parents offered to take me out for lunch. After my previous fantastic brunch experience, I had this urge to try lunch and dinner. Not really an urge, but more like an intense desire. Lo and behold, that craving was satisfied tremendously.

Arugula salad with candied walnuts, apricots, carrots and shaved manchego cheese


Tortilla soup

Soup of the Day - Shitake mushrooms and shrimp

Garlic talapia with roasted papas


Oh the best birthday treat a girl could ask for - crepes with cajeta




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Mmmmmmm brought to you by the fabulous owners of Mi Madres - Zandunga is now located in the old Primizie Osteria location, off E. 11th. I've only had the pleasure of trying brunch, but plan on coming here many, many times for dinner and happy hour. Enjoy!

What a way to end a perfect meal! Pan dulce!

Mexican Chocolate Waffle was aaaaaaamazing. No really, say it again - aaaaaaamazing!

Sopas de Almuerzo. *sigh* so good.

Everyone loves booze and I love it more than most. Try the Guava margarita and you will be in a tropical heaven!

Work is Not Life People! Right?

Well, this has been an interesting year, in regards to my work career. To let you guys in on what's been going on, I recently had the opportunity to move up with my current job and accept a sales management position. At the same time I was interviewing, a previous coworker from my Zanzibar days contacted me about coming to work for her company. Luckily, she kept the position open for me until I heard back from Hyatt. Sadly, I did not get the position. That, of course, left me with the opportunity to look into my friends company and see if it was a right fit for me. I have accepted the position with Austin All Maids and plan to start at the end of this month. My last day with Hyatt is Friday, July 9th. I'm very sad to go, as the people in the hotel have become a second family to me. They will be greatly missed.

I will be in charge of Marketing/PR/Social Media/Sales and running the office...right up my alley. I'm thrilled to be, once again, working with a small Austin business and implementing my ideas! You can follow me on their Twitter account - @AustinAllMaids. Also in the works - a blog. You know how much I love blogs. Keep your eyes peeled for the link soon. Now, let's get down to business - who needs their house cleaned? I think I know of a great company :)

I'm Crafty!

In my quest to find the perfect 80's costume for a skating party in a few weeks, I stumbled across this website: Cut out and Keep
I checked it out, and thought to myself, "Self - you have a lot of tshirts." Why yes I do. But I despise the crewneck collar. I have so many interesting shirts and I refuse to wear them. Not a fan of anything tight around my neck. There was one particular how-to that caught my eye - a no-sew halter top from a tshirt. Now that looks super easy right?

Last night I searched Google for the how-to and it brought up a few other tutorials, including a youtube video that totally rocks: YouTube link
Busting out with a test shirt, I was able to pull off the halter with no problems. I don't own a sewing machine so I hand stitched the collar part. Didn't take long at all. Just make sure your stitches are nice and even. The bigger the shirt - the bigger the tank. Honestly the practice shirt was gigantic and I'll probably try another idea with them. I did successfully transform 2 shirts to halter tops. It took under an hour and looks pretty damn good. The best part? It was free and now I have new tops.

I took a few snaps of the before and after product. Just follow the instructions and you won't have any problems!

What the heck am I doing?

I've taken on a new challenge. What are you doing now? ... you may wonder. Well, let me tell you. I've recently started tracking my eating habits on Shape.com They have this wonderful program called the Virtual Trainer. So I've been playing with that for 3 weeks. It has greatly helped tracking and logging every single thing you eat. The weekends are hard though. Especially when you do such great progress for 5 days and then mess it all up by drinking 6 Bud 55's and eating a block of cheese.

Luckily, I am able to squeeze in a trip to the coast with my sister and her husband. The only bad part is it's coming up in 2 weeks and I do not have a bikini ready body. Normally my first reaction would be to reach for the lemons, maple syrup and cayenne pepper but no! I will not resort to quick, temporary solutions to lose a few pounds. Hence the dreaded two-a-days. Starting Monday, I will work out twice a day - preferably using my favorite method - The 30 Day Shred. Right now I'm attempting the high-impact (Natalie version) exercises on level 1. I still can't do real push-ups, and resort to girl push-ups - but I can do all of them instead of laying there panting.

Monday was really tough. I never realized how much harder it is to do Natalie workouts and not Anita. After work I ran out to Academy to get a heart rate monitor. I'm dying to know how many calories I burn on the different levels and different impacts. Per my night session, I burned 181 calories. Not bad, I expected to do more. But I was dying. My thighs are on fire. The high-impact version is a world of difference on your thighs. Getting deep into the squats is a serious work-out.

This morning I woke up at 5am with Matt and rode my bike, hoping to get rid of the lactic build-up in my thighs. Right now - I can't walk down stairs. I've been using the escalator to help me today. Seriously, I'm in pain. But that's good right? RIGHT? Tonight is low impact level 2. Wish me luck, I hate level 2.

Don't throw that away!

Last Sunday afternoon turned into a craft restoration day. We have these interesting outdoor garden vase pots we bought years ago - we fill them with tiki torch oil and place them in the garden or around the retaining wall. They do a great job of keeping mosquitoes away. Sadly, the elements have weathered them away to very ugly, peeling pots. I've been on the fence about throwing them out and replacing them until we thought about restoring them with some new color.


Here is the old vase - see, it's ugly.



I sanded off the old color (which was not an easy task on a humid Sunday afternoon, mind you) and ended up with this.



Then we spray painted them with a white primer. Matt came up with this great idea to use wire coat hangers in the tree to keep the paint on the item and not on the grass.



Don't they look like apples?



TADAA! And here is the finished product. They look like new, and all it took was a few hours, some sand paper and spray paint.

Angry Birds

Hello crack.

Hello my name is Dawn and I am addicted to the iPhone app Angry Birds. Please help me through this addiction.

Find the Zoolander reference....

I have to say, one of the fun things about my job is watching the daily eye candy of large groups that stay with us. Every day brings a new group of individuals, new outfits, hair styles and smells.

I try and refrain from stereotyping a large group of people, but most of the time I can spot the type of conference going on in the hotel just by checking out the ladies in the bathroom. Sometimes I want to giggle, other times I want to offer up tips. Today is one of those days. The amount of sadly dressed, frumpy girls in the lobby makes me sad. I'm almost positive slipping them a printed out TV schedule of What Not To Wear under the stall might get me fired, but the desire to help remains. All I can do is smile and hope these clothing-challenged individuals are making more money than I could ever make with their Jaclyn Smith collection from K-Mart.

I had to share this one with you guys...

Limbo

Ahhh, limbo...be it in your relationships, your job, or any aspect in life, limbo is a hard state to maintain with grace. For instance, yours truly has been experiencing a severe case of limbo recently. I believe it has been close to 2 weeks tomorrow.

I have to say, it has given me a new life lesson. Dealing with the sense of the unknown with little emotional outbreaks. Typically I would be worrying, making myself sick with anticipation, unable to do the normals things in a day without dwelling. But no more! I'm trying my best to keep my feelings and emotions under control and professional. Let me tell you this, it's freaking hard. Every day I wake up wondering if this is the day, but alas, it's not. And that, my friends, is a mood killer.

So here I am, venting away on my blog, keeping the situation thinly disguised as possible. Blogs are a great place to vent, as I'm sure my close friends and coworkers are pretty tired of listening to me complain and eye roll my day away. Even now I feel much better getting it off my chest. Hopefully in the coming days I can create a happy blog post revealing more, but until then, my 6 readers, this is what you get.

No he DIDUNT!

Every day for lunch, I get the joyous opportunity to eat lunch in our employee cafeteria. It's a fun time, surrounded by fellow employees you don't get to see all the time. Recently the eating habits of a coworker has been brought to my attention. I believe it was a few weeks ago, maybe on pasta day. Anna pointed out his plate and all our jaws dropped. He had 4-6 pieces of garlic toast on his plate. If I eat one I am filled with guilt and shame, even though I have to admit, those suckers are greasy, buttery and delicious. Ever since that episode, we like to keep our eyes open to see what he eats next. Recently his sandwich creation was 3 layers of bread, ridiculously stuffed with meat. I have no idea how he put that into his mouth.

Today's creation was 2 layers of flour tortillas smothered with gobs of shredded cheese, another layer of ground meat and cheese added and nuked in the microwave. After this had melted, he added ANOTHER fistful of cheese and made a burrito concoction out of it. Besides this enormous meat and cheese surprise, a large bowl of vanilla pudding...completely filled to the top. We just stared at him with our big eyes and watched him prepare his lunch. I felt the pounds increase on my ass just watching this incredible feat. Never in a million years could I bring myself to gorge like that.

I'm so jealous. I want his tapeworm.

Hmmmm

Interesting thought I just had - what do you do when all your social media outlets are tied into your personal/professional life? Where do you go to vent about things when you are "too connected?"

Let me know the answer because I've begun to realize the hole I'm in, and I need to dig my way out.