Archive for July, 2009

After a busy week of kickball, work, and the usual craziness that is our lives, it was a relief to have a nice relaxing weekend. Don’t get me wrong, I do love our kickball nights, but it does skew our sleep schedule just a little bit. I am proud, however, to announce that we tied our game last week. Two tied games is just like one win, right?

Just another fantastic Tuesday night after kickball!

During our weekend of rest, a lot of chores and household things were taken care of. Plus, it was nice to spend a little extra time with our furry animals.

Attila supervising all the chores from her royal throne.

Jabber trying to locate her furry friend Attila...

For a touch of excitement in our otherwise uneventful weekend, I spent my Friday putting together a mini-wedding reception for our friend Amber’s cousin. They came to DFW to go to the Justice of Peace for their marriage ceremony. Since they did not have a party planned, Amber and I quickly threw together a surprise wedding reception. After all, everybody deserves something special to remember their wedding day! While they were busy getting married, Brittany and I set everything up in Amber’s apartment. This is what we managed to put together in the short amount of time available…

The template for this lovely banner can be found at Marthastewartweddings.com! Gotta love Martha!

The main table, complete with wedding cake (in italian cream flavor) and roses.

Brittany expertly tied the pretty ribbons on the backs of all the chairs. I love the detailed effect.

The favor table, all set to go with a giant bowl of hydrangeas with gerbera daisies and tiny handmade (by yours truly) favors filled with lavendar and silver covered chocolates.

I’m actually rather proud of what we managed to accomplish in approximately a week! I did stay up really late tying ribbon and cutting letters, but I think it was worth it. Angela, future wedding planner at your service! Click here for a few more pictures that I took of the decorations.

As I’ve complained about before, it has gotten MUCH too hot to tolerate recently. Thankfully, most of our activities are indoors…all except for kickball and walking into buildings. My gut instinct tells me that the latter probably can’t be helped. (yes, my instincts are very clever indeed ^-^) Unless…I started traveling between my car/buildings in an air conditioned bubble! Something to ponder…I suppose that’s besides the point. Anyhow, last Friday night was the mid-season kickball party. Which was, thank the Lord, inside at the newly established and air conditioned Fat Daddy’s in downtown Fort Worth.

Since I had Friday off, Brittany and I met for lunch and a thorough shopping trip in search for something fantastic to wear that evening. Why is it that the more desperate you are to find something, the more elusive that item tends to be? We looked EVERYWHERE…well, everywhere in our meager price budgets, and was having absolutely no luck! Fortunately, we did manage to find a pretty little party dress for Brittany at the very end of the afternoon. (I had brought a back up outfit, in case of shopping failure. Again, check out my finely tuned instincts!)

With a package of peanut butter M&M’s and a glass of Arnold Palmer (Yes, he was a golfer back in the 50′s. But clearly I was not carrying around a glass of golfer! I was describing a different Arnold Palmer, as in my new favorite drink, 1/2 iced tea + 1/2 lemonade), we dolled up for our evening downtown. The boys were less than thrilled with the amount of time it takes for girls to get ready…but that’s the price they pay for having such lovely ladies in their lives. Not to mention, we simply HAD to try out Brittany’s newly purchased Bumpits! (And no, it’s a bump-it, not a bum-pit. I keep seeing the word and thinking the second option) Let’s just say, there’s a LOT of volume to be had…

We had an awesome time at the party. I certainly wished there were a few more Chick-Fil-A nuggets to go around, but it was nice to see everybody out on the town without the sweaty gym clothes.

Syndi, me, and Brittany about to hit the dance floor...where we remained for most of the night.

Saturday was spent doing chores and playing with the animals. Attila and Jabber absolutely love each other, which still amazes me on a daily basis. They nap together, bop noses, and check up on each other constantly. It’s cute and utterly bizarre at the same time. In the evening, we were invited to a fun BBQ at Donald, Lacretia, and Ethan’s apartment. We had delicious burgers and brats, salads of all sorts, cookies galore, and a wide assortment of chips. Yum!! After the food coma had passed, we chatted into the wee hours of the morning.

The girls doing their cute thing...and those are actually not my sunglasses now that I'm taking a closer look. I think they're Brittany's? I haven't a clue why I would be wearing Brittany's sunglasses in the middle of the night inside an apartment! Stranger things have happened I suppose...

And this is what happens to you if you fall asleep at a party! People like to get their pictures taken with you...though I vetoed the permanant marker idea. Poor Andy was so exhausted he never even stirred from his nap.

That about sums up our weekend. Lots of things accomplished, lots of fun that was had, and lots more tasks that still need to be done. Check back later this week/next week for pictures of my newly completed kickball t-shirt redesigns!

Due to popular demand, I’m posting the following video that was taken by our local DFW Fox 4 News of our kickball league, the Texas Storm. The Bucky Ballers are the royal blue team pictured in the video. Yes, I’m in it, and I’m not at all thrilled to be in it. I have absolutely no aspirations to be on television. Especially when I have no makeup on, am clothed in gym shorts, and it’s 103 degrees outside. No matter I suppose, the news waits for no one! (Andy’s in the video as well, can you find him?)

Okay, I did it again. I waited too long before posting. I kept putting it off until several things have now piled up that I wanted to write about. So, settle down and get comfortable, it’s going to be a hefty post…

Last week marked another year in the life of one, Mr. Andrew Trommer. Since I am a strong believer in celebrating birthdays, we decided to do it up right by kicking things off with a fabulously fancy dinner at Eddie V’s. Though we had a huge array of choices, we decided to stick with their famous seafood menu. I dined on the swordfish with crab and Andy nibbled on some seared tuna with wasabi mashed potatoes. Yum! Then for dessert, the Birthday Boy got the best bananas foster I think I’ve ever had. (Yes, he was sweet enough to share his flaming dessert with me)

Actually, I'm not entirely certain I've ever had bananas foster, to tell you the truth. But so far, I'm a fan!

We were slightly concerned that there was nothing besides butter, brown sugar, and rum in the cake…but we concluded that every once in awhile (i.e. for a birthday), it was worth it.

Andy and his amazing birthday bananas foster!

After dinner, we met up with some friends for a birthday drink. The weather, for once, was absolutely gorgeous! So, we sat outside the Ginger Man and enjoyed Andy’s birthday evening together.

Friends make the world go round, or so I like to say.

Tuesday night, incidentally happened to be our friend Rick’s birthday! So, after a thoroughly depressing game of kickball in which we lost 0-7, we headed for Dino‘s to buy Rick a birthday drink of his own. It was an awesome evening, despite our loss. We listened to karoke, dominated at flip cup, and plotted our inevitable comeback in the kickball league.

Our rivals, the red flip cup team...we let them win since both birthday boys were on the opposing side

Presenting the amazing Blue Flip Cup Team!

The next few days went by without any fuss, but soon enough we found ourselves packing our suitcases. Why, you ask? Well, for Andy’s birthday present this year, I booked a weekend at a lake house in Canyon Lake, Texas for us and several friends. So, we drove down to Austin on Thursday night to spend some time with the Trommer parents and grandparents. Friday afternoon, we picked up Cathy at her apartment and headed for the cabin. (We decided that calling it a lake house sounded like some terrible Keanu Reeves movie in which everyone gets murdered, so cabin was the appropriate term)

The location was absolutely gorgeous! Though the water level was fairly low, we still had a beautiful view of the lake. The house had four bedrooms, three bathrooms, two levels of wraparound deck, a herd of deer that patiently waited for our leftovers, a spacious game room, and a comfy lounge happy living room. Friends started showing up just in time for some grilled hot dogs, grilled pineapple, and french fries.

Carrie and I marveling at our view of the lake.

Some of our deer friends, Montague, Beauford, Dartanion, and Bambi. (not pictured Prince Richard, Doe, and Noodle)

Of course we had to make a trek down to the lake, just to see what was there. This soon resulted in a rock skipping contest, that soon turned into a “who can hit that dead tree stump in the lake” contest, which led to the “girls heading back to the cabin without the boys and getting a little lost” problem. Thank goodness for Cathy’s somewhat keener sense of direction, we made it back to the house tick-free and in one piece.

See the tree with the split that Andy's aiming for? That's the one they're trying desperately to hit...what it did to them, I'm not sure...

The girls chose a much closer tree stump as their target, but still didn't have much luck.

We finished off our evening with a round of delicious smores! Yum! I do love a nicely toasted marshmellow. The deer happily munched on our crumbs and leftover french fries. Our deer friends must LOVE tourists.

My favorite part of a smores would definitely be the toasted marshmellows. Rick, Andy, and Kat did an excellent job!

After a quick and easy breakfast of egg, bacon, and cheese sandwiches, we were off to Schlitterbahn, the famed “best” waterpark in America. We all readily agreed to no pictures during this part of the trip. #1. Who really wants to carry a waterproof camera all day long in a waterpark? #2. It was ridiculously hot out and sunscreen was much more important than hair and makeup. So, this part of the mini-holiday will just have to live in our memories. Even though the park was very crowded and the lines long, I still had a fantastic time! We toobed down part of the Comal River, zipped down several rides, and enjoyed the wave pool like a bunch of carefree 12 year olds.

But every single one of us did manage to flip over at least once, some of us more than others. And another one of us managed to flip over her floatation device in six inches of water and ended up with a bloody elbow…nope, that doesn’t sound like me at all! We did decide that the park was an extensive gallery and reference for tattoos NOT to get. Good grief! We saw some absolutely hideous tattoos! Another lesson learned, be sure to research your tattoo artist! If it’s going to last forever, ask the artist for a portfolio showcasing some previous work! Oh, and please make sure it’s spelled correctly, no matter what the language.

I am proud to say, there was very minimal amounts of sunburning that day due to diligent sunscreen application. By the end of the afternoon, we were all drained, hungry, and ready to go back to the cabin. While we took turns showering, the rest of us started getting dinner on the table. As the main feast of the weekend, I had long ago decided to prepare a shrimp boil. I still believe that if we hadn’t run out of propane in the grill, the meal would have turned out perfect. Alas, since we had to move the dish inside to the stove, the shrimp got a little overdone, but still delicious.

Brittany, Cathy, and I enjoying the deck while the boil boils. The deck was one the favorite spots at the cabin

Shrimp, corn, kielbasa, potatoes, and onions = a veritable smorgasbord of deliciousness!

Rick helped cut and stack the bread into a bread fort!

A nice light berry salad, which coincidentally, deer LOVE berries too!

Just a bunch of friends enjoying a summer meal together, what could be nicer?

After we stuffed ourselves silly, we spent the evening playing board games. Then we proceeded to stuff ourselves further with a delicious chocolate birthday cake that I purchased for both Andy and Rick. And of course, sparklers had to be lit…which the deer didn’t like quite so much.

Dancing with fire, what could possibly be more entertaining?

Not sure who's behind the fire swirls, but it looks neat!

By the end of the night, most of us were incredibly exhausted and ready to sleep soundly and happily. However, a handful of us decided to embark upon a late night poker marathon. Andy and I were most definitely in the first group, we simply couldn’t keep our eyes open! However, I’m just glad everyone had a good time, regardless of bedtimes.

In the morning, we went on a whirlwind mission to clean up the cabin for check-out. We were by no means messy, but getting my security deposit back would be a definite plus. Towels were gathered, suitcases repacked, and all the uneaten food was tossed over the porch for our deer friends. They were significantly plumper after we left, and I like to think happier too. It was a little sad as cars started getting packed up for our inevitable departure. But I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, I know I certainly couldn’t ask for anything more.

Cars have been packed and we're all ready to go our separate ways. I'm thankful for our friends and for the fun memories we shared in Canyon Lake last weekend.

There you go, that would be a birthday week in the life of a Trommer. Like I’ve said before, birthdays should always be celebrated. Though Andy would probably prefer it if I would just let it pass quietly. But it’s the one day of the year that I get to make sure he knows he’s loved. (and yes, of course he’s always loved, birthdays are just a handy day for reminders) With everything said, I think we can chalk this year up in the success column!

Happy 27th Birthday Andy!

You can click here for more photos from Andy’s birthday week…I simply couldn’t post everything. There are a few more pictures of the cabin that are worth checking out. I promise a less lengthy post next week!

This fourth of July was a magnificent pool hopping spree! In one day, we ventured to three beautiful pools. All of them were fabulous and amazingly fun, made more so by the awesome people we were surrounded by.

We started the day by picking up Rick and Brittany who had already kickstarted their holiday by lounging at Rick’s pool. While packing stuff up, we met a couple of new friends whom incidentally also go to the university. Since we figured the more the merrier, we took Kim and Brad with us to our next party spot.

Kim and Brad, our new found friends

Destination #2 was our friend and fellow kickballer, Kat’s, pool. Andy and I have been there a couple times previously, and have always had a lovely time. We played water volleyball, ate grilled hot dogs, devoured an entire veggie tray, and just soaked in some of that bright Texas sun. Thankfully, most (and yes, I say MOST) of us were smart enough to apply/reapply sunscreen throughout the day.

Everybody enjoying the chlorine?

And of course some of the guys, shown in varying shades of tan/pale...

There was even a few pretty serious card games going on!

Then after sunset, we headed for Ethan, Donald and Lacretia’s pool for a little goofy competitiveness. I believe there was a belly flop competition, a swimming competition, which led to a who can run underwater the fastest competition, to a dunking competition. Let’s just say the dunking part was my least favorite.

The thing to realize about Texas pools is that the water tends to be ridiculously warm from the crazy hot days. It’s like soaking in a luke warm bath! While for a few hours this is okay, I tend to get a little nauseous and develop a headache after too long. I haven’t had to test this issue for a long time. I believe the last time would be a snorkeling adventure off the coast of Taiwan. But true to form, by the end of the day I was very ready to go home for a hot shower and my comfy bed. I hope everyone had a nice holiday and is now ready to tackle the coming week!